Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own Warehouse 13

AN: Holy back story, Batman! (A short filler chapter to give a little insight to two of our students between the cutlass and the next artifact. And that's the only reason you are getting two updates in one day)

Chapter Thirteen: Sam

The drive from Monterey to Tamplis University for their second ping wasn't the same as the drive to Monterey. Everything felt a bit forced, the conversations, the jokes, even the silences.

They were all a bit exhausted from the night before, and they still had yet to recover from a certain kiss. It didn't help that the seventy mile drive was stretched into four hours because of detours, construction and traffic.

But the more time they spent together, the more quirks they noticed about their companions.

Myka ended up alone on the bed in the girls' room since HG and Claudia both decided there were far better things to do than sleep the night away. She mumbled in her sleep, which HG found adorable and Claudia found infuriatingly distracting. Steve, who thought after two years of sharing an apartment with Pete made him know almost everything about his friend, realized that Pete snored loud enough to rival a chainsaw when he slept on his back. They found out quickly in the morning that Claudia could not function properly in the morning without coffee. HG had to take a shower before she could properly communicate with anyone, and Pete could shove seven croissants in his mouth at once, which was mildly impressive.

These things went mostly unnoticed, filed away under random facts they knew about one another. But there was one thing in particular that struck Claudia as odd. It wasn't even that big of a deal, really, but it seemed to be nagging at her as they sat in the car.

The radio was playing softly in the background, some mix Claudia had thrown together and put on when she got to ride shotgun and Pete drove. She had been asking them all random questions, getting mostly honest answers, and as the quite descended once more, she found her next question. And as she turned to look at Pete's profile, she couldn't stand it any longer, and the question spilled over her lips.

"Hey Pete?" She began, turning in the passenger seat to face him, "How come you don't ever drink? I mean, we're in college right? That's all part of the college experience, get hammered, wake up in a toga duct taped to the side of the English department. But you never drink with us, why is that?"

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Steve stiffen. He knew the story, and his face paled slightly as he dropped his head back on to the headrest in preparation to hear it once more. Myka went still. Not that she was moving much before, drumming her fingers ever now and then, head tilting this way and that, foot tapping absently to the song… but pressed as tightly to HG as she was, the raven haired Brit noticed the change. She lifted her head and focused on the conversation she had been tuning out before.

Claudia noticed all of these reactions, and the hardening in Pete's normally warm eyes. Gone was the boyish smile and replaced with a grim frown. The redhead regretted asking the question now. She was still insanely curious, but now she thought maybe she didn't want to know some things about her new friends.

Pete was quiet for a moment, but just when Claudia thought he wasn't going to answer, he spoke, softly at first, "My, uh, my best friend, Sam, was killed our senior year," he swallowed, blocking the emotions, allowing only the memories, "Drunk driver."

HG felt Myka's breathing hitch at the sound of the name as she turned her face away to look out the window.

"We were at a party," Pete began to explain, though no one asked him to, "I was supposed to be the sober driver that night, but we had just won a big game, and our teammates convinced me to let loose for a bit… I wasn't coherent enough to stop Sam from getting in the car with another drunk kid, and he was just worried about getting home before curfew. Daniel ran a stop light, his car got t-boned by a mac truck. Daniel walked away from it with a minor concussion, but the impact was on the passenger side and Sam wasn't so lucky." Pete shrugged, "I guess I lost my taste for it."

"It wasn't your fault, Pete." Myka's voice was thick with unshed tears.

She thought she had gotten over this. The nightmares had stopped, she no longer cried out for him in her sleep. Sometimes, she could go a whole day without thinking about him, now… but the emotions from that night rolled over her in a wave, threatening to pull her under and drown her once more.

"It wasn't yours either, Mykes." Pete looked at her in the rear view mirror.

"If I had been there," she began, turning to reveal her tear stained face, "If I hadn't… I could have stopped him. He only drank as much as he did because of our fight."

There were questions that Helena wanted to ask that she didn't want to know the answers to. She wanted to know who Sam was, to Myka to Pete, put the pain on Myka's face, the strangled sound in Pete's voice stilled her tongue.

HG intertwined her fingers with Myka's, rubbing soothing circles with her thumb on the back of her hand. Myka squeezed her hand, but still didn't look at Helena, but she also didn't let go. They stayed joined like that for the remainder of the trip, even when the conversation turned lighter, and Claudia even had them both laughing once more.

It was when they arrived at the hotel that HG got a moment alone with Steve. Claudia was doing last minute research on their next target, focused completely on the laptop. Pete and Myka went to get them Pizza.

"I know it's not your place to tell me," she began as they stood side by side in the mini kitchen, "But I can't ask Myka, I couldn't stand to see the pain in her eyes…"

"But you wanna know about Sam, right?" Steve tilted his head.

HG nodded, biting her thumb nail.

"Myka met Sam through Pete." Steve began, "Myka and Pete had been best friend since the third grade, but Pete and Sam were in boy scouts together, football, wrestling… Pete and Sam were popular, Myka was the tutor in most of the jocks eyes. But Pete played match maker and Myka and Sam started dating in high school. Pete says he thought they were the couple, ya know? The ones that are destined to get married and have kids and be disgustingly adorable? I don't know what Myka and Sam fought about that night, because I have only heard the story from Pete, all I know is they broke up. Myka left the party early, Sam started drinking. And I guess you know what happened after that."

Helena could just see how Myka would take that on herself. Myka believed if it weren't for her, he never could have been put in that situation in the first place.

Helena clutched at her locket, thinking of Myka's pain stirred some of her own. She wished the girl were back so she could hug her and tell her Helena's own story.

But when Pete and Myka returned all smiles with two pizza's, laughing at an unheard joke, HG held her tongue. That was a story for another time.

AN: 1st off, sorry about the sad chapter, but I needed to do this eventually. We'll see Steve's back story and Claudia's back story soon. Since a few of my loyal reviewers have mentioned it, yes I do update a lot. IDK what the norm is for updates, but I try to put up a chapter every day, and so far I've been pretty good about it. This is because I want to know where the story is going just as badly as you do. So it gets posted at 10 in the morning my time every day because I write it at three in the morning and that's when it's done.