It took me a while to write this chapter up since I've been busy with work. So I'm sorry that it took so long.
Once again, thank you for giving me feedback on my work. It helps me sooooo much! Thank you! Enjoy :)
Sam woke up to the sun seeping through the curtains of the dark bedroom. Lazily, he opened his eyes and crawled out of bed. Failing to measure the height between the floor and the bed, he falls hard on to the wooden floor. He groans in pain and the sound echoed throughout the room. What a night.
Once he had recovered, he stood from his sleepy daze and opened the curtains wide. The sun immediately entered the room and blinded him for what felt like an eternity. His appearance had changed, once again, since Alice's death. It has been 6 months since she had passed on – after just a year of marriage. It was all but a memory now – light-years away from where he stood.
As he looked at his reflection in the bathroom mirror he hardly recognized himself. His eyes were bloodshot red from the heavy drinking he had done the night before at a bar nearby. His once cleanly shaved mug was now scruffy, which added more to his age than it should. The usual smile on his face every morning was nowhere to be found. There's no reason for me to smile anymore, he told himself. Not when everyone he ever loved, who kindly offered to help him upon his wife's death, was completely pushed out of his life.
Miles away from Sam, in New York City, was Quinn. For about a year now, Quinn's career made a turn for the better. She had less responsibilities at work after proving herself to be a valuable asset to the company and was given more time to relax. Those extra days and hours were spent taking little journeys around the city. To finally explore the world around her. For once in her life, she was doing things for herself that truly made her happy. She had finally found herself amidst the hustle and bustle around her. She felt free.
"Why don't you take a vacation, Fabray?" her manager suggested, "You've met up with all your immediate clients. You're set for, oh I don't know, maybe a two week vacation?" Quinn could not help but smile. She knew exactly where she should go. There's no place like home.
Upon arriving at the airport, Quinn was met by Puck who held hands with a now pregnant Rachel. "Look at you," Quinn exclaimed, "You look beautiful!"
"I tell her that everyday and she doesn't believe me," Puck interjected.
"Well that's because you're my husband, and as any dotting husband should be, he must shower his wife with flattery everyday," she reminded her husband with an air of sarcasm.
"Oh I missed you two," Quinn told the couple as she hugged them as tightly as she could. "How's Sam?" she then asked them immediately. The sole reason for her two-week visit to Ohio was to visit her recently widowed friend. Unfortunately, the saddened look on both Rachel and Puck's face did not reassure her the way she had hoped. Something was wrong.
"He's been inside that house for 6 months," Puck told Quinn as they stood in the front lawn of Sam's house with Rachel. "The only time he ever comes out is late at night. Like a bat. I've heard stories from the guys at work. They see him there just sitting at a corner and drinking until the bar closes. Sometimes he'd pick fights with random people and come out with a few bruises of his own."
"Haven't any of you tried reaching out to him?" Quinn asked the couple with a slightly frustrated tone to her voice, "Help him out in some way?"
"We tried, Q," Rachel told her regrettably, "But he's pushed every single one of us away. There's no getting through to him. So, instead, we've just been keeping a close eye on him from afar. That's all we can really do now."
"That's right," Puck agreed with his wife. He then looked at Quinn, brows furrowed, "Hold on a second... Why haven't you tried helping him?" he asked Quinn.
"I... Well, I called when I found out that Alice passed away. But I got no reply back from him. So I thought he had changed his number or - I don't know."
The house was quiet as though no one inhabited it. The grass on the front lawn was brown and dry, which caused the flower beds to completely disappear. It was a wreck. Ironically, the image of the house itself spoke volumes to the type of man Sam Evans had become.
"I'm going in," Quinn declared, which was quickly followed by a resounding 'no' from both Rachel and Puck. Rachel grabbed hold of her's friend's arm as to stop her from going inside the house.
"He's not the same," Rachel warned her, "It's as if an animal had been let out of its cage. It's dreadful. You do not want to go in there on your own."
"Then, Puck, come inside with me," Quinn insisted. She slowly moved away from Rachel and grabbed Puck's arm. However, he immediately pulled away from Quinn's hold and shook his head. "Do not tell me that you don't want to go in there either."
"Yepp. You're right. I'm not going in there," he told her with a hefty amount of fear in his voice. "I've tried that already. I'm not going in there again. Last time I went in there with Mike and he managed to toss the two of us back outside before we could have gotten in. So, I don't know about you, but I don't want to die just yet."
With an angry huff, Quinn walked towards the house much to both Puck and Rachel's mortification. Once she had reached the doorstep, she rang the doorbell and waited.
No reply.
Waiting a few seconds, tapping her heels on the pavement, she tried again with no success. "I know you're in there, Evans!" Quinn shouted as loudly as she could, "Open the door!"
Still no reply from within.
"Sam, I swear to you, I'll break this door open! If I can break into your locker all those years ago, I can damn well break into your house! So open the damn door!"
Violently, the door swung open. She was met by a complete stranger.
"What do you want?" Sam asked with anger in his voice. Quinn was taken aback by the tone of Sam's voice. All the confidence and strength she had gathered prior to knocking on his door had gone away. Her heart began to beat wildly as she nervously stood in front of him without saying a single word. Who is this man?
As Sam was about to close the door on Quinn, she held her right arm out and stopped him. "R-Rachel, Puck and I wanted to talk to you," she finally told him with a low voice.
He scanned his lawn and found no one in sight. "No one's with you," he told her. As Quinn turned around, she was caught surprised and disappointed to see that both Rachel and Puck had fled. She cursed at the couple under her breath before turning back to face Sam and realized that he had gone back inside his house. The front door was left open.
Hesitantly, she entered the house in a rather slow pace. The whole house was dark and poorly lit. There was a pungent smell coming from down the hall that she dared not walk towards. Instead, she made her way to the living room.
The once organized, kept and bright living room was a disaster. Litter were scattered everywhere and the smell that had welcomed her in earlier seemed to be following her. As she slowly made her way towards the couch, Quinn noticed a familiar image lying on the living room carpet. One that had been placed in a picture frame for safe keeping. Picking it up, she realized that it was Sam and Alice's wedding photo. The glass frame was cracked as if someone had thrown it across the room. She knew then that her friend has sunk in to his depression more than she could have ever imagined.
"Throw that away," the familiar voice told Quinn from behind.
Turning to face Sam, she nervously placed the picture frame down on the centre table and walked towards him. She didn't know what he was capable of in the mental state he was in but she knew that he would never harm her in any way. "That picture," Quinn started, "Is a part of your past, Sam. You can't just throw it away."
"I don't want anything from the past."
A growing frustration bubbled deep within her. She wanted to slap some sense in to him. "You don't want to keep any memory of your own wife? What's wrong with you?" Sam, looking down on the carpeted floor, then said something inaudible to her. "I can't hear you," she told him, "Look me in the eyes and tell me what the hell's your problem."
It took all the strength inside of him to look her in the eyes. Sam knew that Quinn wasn't going to back down. She's not one to give up so quickly. If he pushes her away, she will only persist. Slowly, he looked her right in the eyes, tears beginning to well up around his eyes. "I-I'm scared," he confessed.
It boggled her mind that a man of his demeanour could have been scared. But, seeing as he had just lost the woman he was supposed to be with until the end, it made perfect sense to Quinn. "I know you are," she empathized with him, "If I were in your position, I would be too. But, look... I'm here for two weeks and I really wanted to spend some time with you."
"Why?"
"Because even though you're acting like a complete jerk, the Sam Evans I know and love still lives inside of you. And I'm here because I made a promise to your wife to look after you when she had passed. Now, let's get you out of this house."
"Where are we going?"
"You're taking me out for lunch."
Sitting across Sam at the diner was a surreal experience for Quinn. Not too long ago, he had told her of his true feelings for her before they had found out about Alice's illness. Needless to say, those feelings remained the same.
His marriage to Alice became conflicted when her illness worsened. Besides the effect it had on them financially, her attitude towards people had also changed. The once welcoming and understanding woman he had married, questioned his loyalty towards her. In the back of her mind, Sam picked her out of sympathy and nothing more. Though he tried to make his relationship work with her, Alice never really acknowledged all of the hard work that he had brought forth until her dying breath. "Go back to her," she told Sam before her death, "I'm sure you've been waiting to. You're free."
Sam and Quinn sat quietly as they ate their lunch and shared stolen glances once in a while. Ultimately, one of them had to crack. Quinn cleared her throat and said, "So how are -"
"She left a letter for you," he told Quinn directly. She looked at him with a puzzled look on her face. "Alice," Sam explained, "She left a letter for you."
"Did you read it?" she asked.
"No. She told me to guard it with my life and made me swear not to read it. It's only for you."
"Did she write one for you?"
"No," he said with a hurt look on his face. Though their feelings towards each other wasn't mutual, Sam thought that Alice would have remembered all the times they shared before conflict within the two of them had poisoned their relationship.
After lunch, Sam brought Quinn back to his house and decided to open the curtains in the living room for the very first time. "Alice probably rolls around in her grave knowing that I've fucked up our house," he admitted to Quinn with a slight laugh – the first laugh he had let out in about a year and a half now.
"Why is this place such a dump anyway?" she asked her friend as she placed her hands over the mess on top of the centre table. "What happened, Sam? Why are you living like this?"
"Honestly?"
"Yes."
"I have no clue," he told her without any hesitation. "I just... Feel alone, I guess?"
Quinn walked over to Sam and held his hand tightly. "You're not alone," she told him whole-heartedly, "You told me the same thing not too long ago." He looked her in the eyes with a confused look on his face. She smiled at him. "I'm right here. I'm holding your hand. I'm standing right in front of you. You're not alone."
Then, as if something was pulling him, he leaned closer to Quinn. His face only inches away from her's. As much as she tried to back away from him, she felt his hand on her cheek. Sam closed his eyes and placed his lips on her lips. She held his face with her hands and kissed him back. Alone no more.
