He had been sitting there for 3 days now. All alone at the head of the table in the conference room. Silent. Expressionless. Still. He just sat there, he sat there with his hands in his lap and his head facing forward. He sat there and let the days pass. He said nothing, did nothing. He was wasting away in front of us and we couldn't help him. We couldn't get through to him. Everyone had tried, me, Abby, Harrison, Olivia, even David. Still, nothing.

3 days turned into 4, 4 days turned into 5 and still, nothing. Today was the 6th.

I stayed after everyone had gone home for the night. Well, everyone except Huck. It was just us. I didn't want to just… leave him here, all alone. I couldn't give up on him, I wouldn't give up on him. Not yet. Not now. I went and made us both a cup of tea. I opened the door to the conference room to find him just as we found him 6 days ago. Silent. Expressionless. Still. I set the mug down in front of him, knowing he wouldn't take it, but I set it down anyway. I sat down next to him, watching the steam rise from his mug and disappear into the air. I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and tried again.

"Hey, Huck. I made you some tea, but I don't really know if you even like tea. I don't know, you just don't seem like the tea type of guy. Anyway, you can drink it or you can not drink it. Either way I just figured you might want something warm." I stopped myself from rambling any further and took another deep breath. "Six days. For six days I've watched you sit here, motionless, eerily stoic. I've watched as everyone tried to bring you back, you know, back from… whatever this is. For six days I watched them try and fail. And I think… I think you can hear us, but whatever is keeping you from finding your way back to us is gripping you so tight that you stopped trying to get away from it." I looked down at my hands, which were trembling in my lap. I balled them into fists and forced myself to continue. "Do you remember that day, my first day here? You found me crying in the bathroom. You told me things that I never had the courage to admit to myself. And the craziest part is that you were right. You were right about all of it, everything. I never told you this, but I was going to quit, I was going to leave and jump on the first flight back to California, back to my old life. Why? Because in my mind that was the easiest way out. That was the simplest way to escape, to physically remove myself from the insaneness. But I didn't. You didn't let me. You convinced me to stay and so that's what I did. I stayed, and now look where we are. You helped me become part of this amazing family. Broken, yes… but amazing. I had no past, no family to go back to, and as far as I was concerned, no future. I could have let that get to me, I could have let that eat me alive. You didn't let me. So… that's really all I'm doing now. I'm trying to stop you from letting whatever this is eat you alive. I'm trying to stop it from ruining you, from breaking you. Because despite popular belief, you are not broken. You're cracked, dented, bent, but not broken. And you can fix a dent, cement a crack. You can escape the grip of your past. It's not too late, it's never too late." I took his hand in mine and gripped it tight, needing to somehow get his attention. "Huck, I don't know what happened 6 days ago that suddenly triggered this, I don't know, I don't need to know. But I need you to come back to us. You have to come back to us. You have to come back to me. Please Huck." My eyes stung with salty tears that threatened to spill over, but at this point I didn't care. "Don't let it get to you, don't let it eat you alive. Don't let yourself slip into the abyss, because if you do, I don't know if I would ever be able to bring you back to me. I need you Huck. I need you to come back to me. You are my family, my soldier, my warrior, you are my gladiator. And I can't…" My voice broke and the tears spilled over as I blinked.

Suddenly, I felt his hand slowly wrap around mine tighter and tighter. I looked up at him to see that his eyes were brimmed with tears. He licked his pale, cracked lips, and blinked the tears away. His eyebrows were furrowed, then softened a bit as he slowly came back to life. He tore his eyes from the spot on the wall he had been staring blankly at for the last six days and met my gaze. He opened his mouth to say something, but his throat was so dry from not speaking for almost a week nothing came out.

"Hey." I whispered, hopeful. "The tea… the tea will help, you know, with your throat." Huck nodded and reached for the mug. He brought it up to his lips and took a cautious sip. As he swallowed, his eyes fluttered shut and he tilted his head back a bit, his throat relieved of it's dryness. He exhaled slowly.

"Quinn?" He whispered.

"Yeah, what's up?"

"Thank you."

I nodded, giving him a sheepish smile. He continued.

"No, I mean it. Thank you. I needed that. I don't know what happened I just… couldn't bring myself to do anything. Talk, eat, sleep, it all just didn't seem worth it anymore. So… thank you. For pulling me back. Thank you."

"Huck, you're the closest thing I have to family. I would do anything for you, you know that right?"

"Yeah, yeah I do. Family." The word rolled off his tongue leaving a melancholy taste in his mouth. Family: Amazing. Broken. And yet, it was all they could ever ask for.