As always,

THEMoDePo: Shit, sorry I made you cry again ;) Well, of course Sam and Puck weren't going to be at odds for long, you know I love their bromance! Let's see how Blaine is in this new chapter. No, please, you're the best! Thank you for being still interested in this! Thank you soooo much! :)

Darrinia: I know it was sad, but you know I live for the drama :) Oh, don't worry, I'm sure Blaine will have the chance to hear it some other time ;) Thank you for still being there, it means the world to me! :)

Mildlifecrissis: I know, I don't think Sam can stand that much longer... And yeah, I soooo love Sam taking care of injured Blaine, I can't help it, it's like my favorite thing in the world! It's not so much that Sam realized he loved Blaine as than he finally took the courage to admit it, and don't worry, he will compensate Blaine for everything! And Mike feels bad because he killed a man at cold blood when he was not even a danger anymore, but of course it's understandable after what that man provoked! Oh, no problem with the medicine, remember Blaine can swallow! About the shaving it really inspired me for thenext chapter :) And yes, don't worry, Puck and Sam are going to be friends forever! Thank you so mcuh, sweetie! Your support means the world to me!

A/N: As you might know, my PC died. I was able to confiscate my father's one to finish this, but it doesn't have a corrector so you might find even more mistakes than usual. Be warned!

CHAPTER 20

Sam abruptly awoke from a nap he hadn't intended to take, still sitting up against the wall with Blaine's head on his lap, and he needed a second to understand that the sound that had woken him up was that horrible hissing he knew so well. His heart in his throat even if he was half sure he had just been dreaming, he looked around the room –their new room, he remembered, as they were not in the prison anymore– and was horrified to see the half body of a walker sliding down the floor, one of its hands already on Blaine's foot as it tried to reach him to bite him.

"What the hell…?" Sam exclaimed as he extricated himself from under Blaine's upper body and ran to the foot of their makeshift bed to kick the walker's head with all his forces to get it away from the injured boy, and once he was far enough from Blaine, he reached into the waistband of his pants to get his gun and effectively shot the walker in the head.

Terrified that he had not been fast enough, Sam forgot about the dead walker and the weapon in his hands and looked at his friend's sleeping form, searching for any sign that he had been bitten.

"Oh my God, Blaine, tell me it didn't get you" Sam pleaded as he crouched down to check on Blaine's legs and make sure the walker hadn't had the chance to bite him, even if there wasn't any blood to indicate that it might have happened.

Rolling both of Blaine's pants legs up, he couldn't help a relieved sign when he saw they didn't have any wound on them, and he took a moment to caress his calves before he covered them again and the sound of running steps reached the office.

"What happened?" Puck asked in panic as he took a look at Sam's hands on Blaine's legs and at the walker at their feet.

"Is everyone okay?" Sam asked, trying to make sense of what the hell had just happened. "Did the walkers break in?"

"No, we were just chilling out on the living room, no one entered" Artie explained, his eyes showing the same terror than Puck's at the scene.

"Then what the fuck was a walker doing in the office?" Sam yelled out of the blue, his own panic surfacing in the form of anger at his careless friends.

"It's impossible that it entered, everything is completely sealed up" Jake explained in their defense.

"Then it must have already been here when we arrived!" Sam refuted him in a loud tone, standing up to make more of an impression, his eyes full of fury "Did someone have the brilliant idea to check every room before deciding it was safe for us to stay here? Fuck, haven't you learned anything at all?"

"Sam, calm down, maybe we…" Artie tried to appease his friend, but Sam's heart had yet to return to its normal pace after the fright he had just experienced, so he was not yet ready to be reasonable.

"I won't calm down! It almost got Blaine, it was already grabbing his foot when I noticed it!" Sam yelled for an explanation, his own body shaking at the reminder that it had been too close.

"Shit, is he okay?" Brittany asked.

"Yeah, though no thanks to you lot" Sam spat in response.

"I really don't know how that happened" Puck intervened in a reassuring tone as he approached Sam and rested a hand on his shoulder, hoping to calm his friend down. "But it's obvious we made a huge mistake somehow, and we're sorry. We'll check the house throughout immediately"

"I think I might know what happened" Mike intervened, and his voice sounded so broken and sad that all the hearts in the room went to him. "I opened the door to the basement at the end of the corridor to have a look there and… somehow I got distracted before going down and I must have left the door open. Maybe it was there and it took it so long to get here because of its missing its legs"

Sam's anger immediately vanished to be replaced by an immense pity towards his broken friend and more than a bit of guilt about his outburst, now that he knew it had been a honest mistake from someone who was clearly too upset to be thinking clearly. If he had known it had been Mike from the beginning he would have never reproached them for anything, much less yell at them like that.

"I'm sorry, Mike" Sam rushed to apologize. "It could have happened to anybody and…"

"Don't pity me, please" Mike didn't let him finish, as he obviously didn't want anybody's compassion. "It was the most irresponsible mistake and it could have cost us a lot… As if we hadn't lost enough as it is…"

"Don't beat yourself up over this, Mike, it's not that big a deal" Sam insisted as he tried to rest his hand on Mike's shoulder, but the latter moved away slightly to avoid it.

"Would you be so forgiving if it had been anybody else putting Blaine in danger?" Mike cut him off again, the sadness in his eyes now buried under a layer of annoyance. "You wouldn't, right? Then don't tell me it's okay and stop treating me as if I was made of glass"

Everybody remained silent for a second, too surprised at Mike's harsh words, but still understanding of what he was going through, so they didn't dare to say anything. But that was exactly what Mike wanted to avoid, he hated seeing the pity in their gazes, and he knew the only way to avoid it was to be left alone.

"I'll go check the basement immediately, in case there are more of them trying to make their way up" he said, and he was gone before anyone else had the time to answer.

"I'll go with him" Puck offered without hesitation, squeezing Sam's shoulder comfortingly for the last time. "Someone please take that thing out of here"

The others obeyed and got the walker outside, leaving Sam alone with his thoughts and with the still sleeping Blaine. Sam sighed –he felt as if that was the only thing he had been doing for weeks– as he again moved to sit against the wall, next to Blaine's head. He felt horrible about causing Mike more pain, even if involuntarily, but… he had panicked when he had seen that thing so close to Blaine. Maybe he had overreacted because of his own guilt about having fallen asleep instead of watching over the boy he had sworn to protect only hours ago. What a great way of looking after him, right?

Sam checked on Blaine's forehead, and was appalled to discover his fever had increased even higher. His cheeks were flushed, and he had started to shiver. Sam resisted the temptation to throw a blanket over him to keep him comfortable, because he knew what he really needed was to cool him down. Very carefully, and hating himself for causing his lover more discomfort, he took Blaine's hoodie off and resumed his task at cooling his warm chest with the water Sebastian had brought to them. He tried to ignore how Blaine's shivering increased with the cold water, and he thought he was going to go crazy when the smaller boy started whimpering in his suffering.

"I'm sorry, love" Sam whispered, comfortingly caressing the top of Blaine's head. "I know you feel cold, but we need to bring this fever down before it becomes too dangerous"

"Except that it's not going to happen" Sebastian suddenly interrupted him, noisily entering the room, and by the bright smile adorning his face, Sam knew he was bringing good news.

"Did you find something?" Sam asked in a rush, forgetting all about manners with his impatience, though Sebastian didn't seem to care.

"Yeah, we went to a drugstore that apparently hadn't been plundered yet. We brought all kind of supplies: alcohol, bandages… But what's more important: we found some antibiotics that are going to save Blaine's life" Sebastian happily explained as he kneeled at Blaine's other side to hand them to Sam.

"But… how do we know these are the right medicines in his situation?" Sam asked, not wanting to crush Sebastian's hopes but afraid of putting Blaine's already weak health at risk.

"I know we can't be totally sure, but these are broad-spectrum antibiotics, I read it on the leaflet" Sebastian explained, as the reason it had taken Trent and him so long to come back was how conscientious they had been in finding just the right thing. "They're supposed to work on avoiding infections like Blaine's, right?"

"I don't know…" Sam hesitated. Even if he had immediately agreed on getting Blaine some medicines when Sebastian suggested it, now that it was time to give them to him he wasn't so sure. "What if they don't work? What if there are secondary effects and he ends up worse than he is now?"

"Sam, if we don't do something he will…" Sebastian stopped himself before saying the word die, not being able to pronounce it. "He will not make it, and we both know that. Let's give him a chance"

"Alright" Sam finally relented, his stomach turning into knots at the risk they were taking, even if he knew there wasn't any other option. "Let's just hope we don't have to regret it"

Time went by without any real changes. Sebastian had gone to sleep hours ago, feeling completely exhausted, after trying unsuccessfully to convince Sam to have some shut-eye too, that nothing was going to happen, but the latter was more stubborn and totally refused to it –especially when he remembered what had happened the last time–. Some of the others, mainly Puck, Artie, Marley and Trent, had come and gone a few times during the long hours of the dawn to try and relief Sam from his watching duty, but he had gratefully refused one time after the other, saying he wasn't that tired and that he needed to be there when –and not if– Blaine woke up. Mike hadn't appeared again, of which Sam could really not blame him after what had happened as he was probably feeling too ashamed for his mistake and about Sam's involuntary outburst. Sam wished there was something he could do for Mike, knowing very well how he must be feeling after losing Tina in such a terrible way, but all his attention was focused on Blaine and he had to prioritize his recovery over everything else, as selfish as that might sound. And there wasn't anything Sam could do for Mike until the latter was ready to let him, anyway. And he suspected that, even if he obviously wanted for Blaine to recover, seeing him was hard for Mike, as it only reminded him that he had been given a chance that Tina hadn't.

In the end, of course, exhaustion took over and once again Sam fell asleep without him even noticing, even if he was just sitting up against the wall. He had been so anxious and worried that he had needed to take Blaine's upper body from the bed and hold it against his chest, so he could keep him close and feel every one of his lover's breaths, so he could be sure he was still alive at any time. And that position had calmed him down a bit, and Blaine's rhythmic breathing had dulled him to sleep in spite of himself, even if the grip on Blaine's body hadn't faltered a bit.

And it was like that, a couple of hours later, when Blaine started reagining consciousness.

The first thing Blaine felt as he came to was pain: there was a raging ache in his shoulder that almost made him scream as he tried to move his arm, even if he had no idea where it came from.

The second thing would be confusion: why was he in so much pain? Why did he feel so weak and fuzzy and had no recollection of how he had gotten to be in that situation?

The third thing was terror: where was Sam? Would he be alright? If he was in that state, how would Sam be?

Feeling tears coming to his eyes at everything he couldn't understand, he tried to open his eyes to investigate. That proved to be difficult, as there was a lot of light in the room coming through a large window. So he wasn't in the prison cell, that was for sure. He should have noticed that before, though, by the softness of the mattress under him. But wait, his upper body wasn't lying on said mattress. He was lying against someone's firm chest. In someone's familiar arms. Sam's arms.

Relieved to no avail that Sam was alright –and trying for his heart not to burst at the thought that Sam was keeping him in his embrace while apparently taking care of him– he decided to make his presence known. After all, he desperately needed some answers as to why had happened to him. And make sure Sam was really alright.

"Sam?" he tried to say, although his voice sounded so hoarse from lack of use that no more than a whisper came out of his throat.

"Mmm" Sam murmured, as apparently he had been sleeping too.

"Sam?" Blaine tried again, a little louder this time, and it was enough to make Sam wake up and sit up in a rush –to which Blaine winced, the slightest movement sending rivers of pain along his shoulder and chest– as if he had been waiting for that moment for ages.

"Oh my God, Blaine! You're awake!" Sam happily exclaimed, his voice filled with relief and excitement as he tenderly cupped Blaine's cheek –his other arm still holding him up against his own body.

"Sam…" Blaine weakly attempted to talk again, but apparently there was so much fear and pain in his eyes that Sam wouldn't let him finish.

"Schhh, don't try to talk, babe, it's okay" Sam kindly shushed him as his hand moved inevitably to the curls to remove some stray curls from Blaine's forehead. "You're okay. I've got you" Sam sounded so tender and reassuring as he carefully squeezed him more strongly to his chest that Blaine's eyes filled with tears. "Oh, B, I'm so glad you're back. Don't ever frighten me again like this, ok?"

"Sorry" Blaine whispered, even though he didn't exactly know what he was apologizing for. He just didn't like seeing Sam's eyes so filled with anguish as they were now.

"It's okay" Sam answered with a shaky chuckle as he started spreading desperate kisses all around Blaine's face, practically suffocating the still feverish boy.

"Sam…" Blaine protested, weakly lifting a hand to Sam's cheek to stop him.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm an idiot, but I'm so excited you're awake!" Sam immediately apologized after reluctantly stopping his loving –but annoying– ministrations. "You can't even imagine how I've missed you!"

"Me too" Blaine honestly answered because, even if he had been unconscious, he felt he had been kept apart from the man he loved for years, instead of a couple of days.

"No, but you don't understand" Sam contradicted him, his eyes filled of an intensity that would have scared Blaine if he hadn't been so tenderly held between Sam's arms. "I love you, B. I love you so much"

"You do?" Blaine asked, not daring to believe he was hearing the words he had been waiting for days even if they sounded so honest -maybe he was still dreaming?

"Yes, of course I do! More than anything!" Sam said with a shaky voice, hating the surprise in Blaine's eyes at his declaration of love –how he had made things in such a wrong way, he would never understand–. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, but you mean the world to me"

"That sounds nice" Blaine whispered with a tired smile, making Sam's heart ache with how he was still able to light the room with his smile even in his injured state –and with how he knew that, even after everything he had put him through, that smile was only for him.

"And it's completely true" Sam promised with a tender kiss to Blaine's forehead as the latter's eyes fluttered closed on their own accord. "So please, babe, you have to fight. I know it hurts, and it's hard, but you have to fight, B, for me, I'm begging you"

"Ok, Sammy" Blaine agreed with an exhausted but tender voice that brought tears to Sam's eyes, especially at hearing his nickname for him that he felt he hadn't heard for years after their fallout.

"I knew I could trust you" Sam joked, but the tears were so obvious in his voice that Blaine forced himself to open his eyes to look at the other boy.

"Don't cry, please" Blaine begged, even gathering enough strength to raise a hand to Sam's cheek to erase the offending presence of tears on his soft skin, his tender movements only achieving to make Sam cry harder. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing" Sam answered with a smile as he captured Blaine's hand and held it to his lips so he could kiss its knuckles.

"Why are you crying?" Blaine insisted, Sam's unusual tears keeping him from just letting go.

"Because I'm so happy right now" Sam honestly answered, squeezing Blaine's body to his chest more strongly to make him feel how happy he was to have him. "I was so afraid you were never going to open your eyes again"

"What happened to me, Sam?" Blaine asked, more and more alert at each passing minute. "Why does everything hurt?"

"Are you in a lot of pain?" Sam asked, immediately worried again.

"My shoulder feels like it's on fire" Blaine confessed with a wince, apparently still too sleepy and stunned by the fever to try and hide his pains, as he would surely do in other circumstances.

"You were shot" Sam bluntly explained, not knowing how to put it in a ligther way, wishing there was something he could do to make him feel better. "You have a nasty wound on your shoulder"

"I was shot?" Blaine asked, in complete astonishment. He had gotten a bullet? It seemed so surreal that he felt as if he was in a movie.

"Yeah. There was an attack on the prison and, as always, you had to save the day. And me" Sam explained with a fond smile, not forgetting for a second that Blaine had gotten injured while saving his life. "You don't remember?"

"Some of it" Blaine answered after a few seconds of trying to put his thoughts in order.

"Well, you shouldn't be thinking about that now" Sam gently admonished him, knowing the most important thing for Blaine right then was to recover his strength –they would have time to discuss everything that had happened some other time, when he was feeling better–. "You first need to recover your strength, you were very seriously hurt"

"I'm alright now" Blaine answered all too quickly, which of course made Sam snort in scepticism.

"I pretty much doubt that"

"Well, then I will be alright"

"That I believe" Sam replied with a chuckle that immediately turned into a tender smile as his eyes gazed more deeply into Blaine's golden orbs. "All this time and you still haven't stopped amazing me, you know? There is still nothing you can't do"

"What do you mean?"

"I asked you for a miracle and you did it"

"What miracle?" Blaine asked, wondering if he just hadn't really woken up yet because he was not following the conversation.

"You lived" Sam answered, his voice catching in his throat again as he remembered how he had begged Blaine to live when he still thought he had been bitten.

"I guess I didn't want to leave you alone" Blaine answered in a loving and honest tone that made Sam's melt in gratitude that he had recovered the most amazing human being he had ever met.

"I'll never leave you alone again either" he promised, intending to keep his promise until the end of time.

"That sounds so good…" Blaine added, not being able to hide how happy he felt at Sam's change of heart by the smile decorating his face, even if it was small due to his illness.

"And believe me, it's completely true" Sam answered, before deciding to change into a lighter tone before he got Blaine too emotional, which he clearly didn't need right then. "And what, aren't you going to say anything about our new quarters?"

"Where are we?" Blaine asked as he looked around them for the first time, and Sam was glad to see some curiosity in his eyes –which would help to keep his mind away from the pain he was feeling.

"In a beautiful house on the outskirts of Lima. I'll show you around in a few days, 'cause right now you don't seem able to hold your own head, let alone the rest of your body"

"Very funny. Try getting shot and tell me how it feels"

"I wish it had been me, Blaine" Sam replied before he could even stop himself –talk about not wanting to get too intense...– "I would have traded places with you without a second thought"

"I wouldn't have let you" Blaine honestly answered, as he still felt responsible for Sam's security, like he had done ever since his coma –and because there was no way he was going to let Sam suffer if he could help it.

"I know" Sam nodded in agreement, knowing how stubborn his friend was. "In fact, I would have been the one getting a bullet in the first place if you hadn't made an apparition. And no, I'm not going to say thanks when it's clear you were only looking for attention" he dared to joke, because he knew Blaine would understand how grateful he really was anyway.

"You ungrateful bastard…" Blaine joked.

"You hero wannabe" Sam retorted, and his heart had never felt lighter than how it did when Blaine chuckled at his poor atempt of humor.

"I'm so tired" Blaine confessed after a few seconds, though it was obvious he was trying to fight the need to close his eyes and let himself go.

"Then sleep" Sam tenderly ordered him, his hand moving to Blaine's hair, as usual, to let his fingers get lost into its soft wildeness.

"I'm not ready to separate from you just yet"

Sam's heart felt about to burst at the smaller's boy obvious love for him, even if he wasn't sure he deserved it, so he knew he had to reciprocate somehow and give him something in return: and that was taking care of him until he was 100%.

"I'll stay here with you, ok? I'll hold you" Sam promised, smiling as he noticed Blaine's face lightning up like a Christmas tree at the offer.

"You promise?" Blaine asked, hating to sound so vulnerable even if he knew Sam would understand and not judge him for it.

"Pinky promise" Sam answered with a chuckle that went directly to Blaine's heart.

"Ok" Blaine finally agreed as he nestled more comfortably against Sam's firm and familiar chest. "I love you, Sammy"

"I love you too, babe" Sam answered, surprising even himself at how easy saying those words was now that he had admitted them to himself.

"I like you calling me babe" Blaine said in a slurred voice, practically asleep already, and Sam couldn't help but to chuckle at his trademark sweetness.

"Just sleep already, you dork" he joked, though he rested a kiss on the top of Blaine's head that belied the true sentiment behind his words.

Blaine didn't answer anymore, but the smile on his lips told Sam he had heard and appreciated his comment before falling asleep again. Sam had thought it was impossible to love someone more than how he loved Blaine as he watched him sleep, praying for him to wake up, but he knew now that he had been wrong: their little exchange from only a second ago, the way Blaine had instantly forgiven him and told him he loved him, just made Sam fall for him all over again, even more strongly than before.

He had to make a big effort to remind himself that things were still looking pretty rough. He wasn't a fool: he didn't want to fall into the trap of false hopes, as the fact that Blaine had been awake didn't mean he was out of the woods yet by any means; his fever was still as high as before –though it was also true that it hadn't climbed any higher in the last few hours–. But it was surely a good sign, right?

And even if he was at the verge of infection –his fever was a clear indicator of that–, maybe they would avoid for it to become too serious thanks to the medicines that Sebastian and Trent had brought for him. And well, he was not delirious or anything, their conversation had been a good proof of that. The way he had been so surprised and moved when Sam told him he loved him... and how he had immediately answered that he loved him back...

Sam didn't deserve someone loving him like that, he knew that. Blaine had given him absolutely everything and he had gotten nothing in return, even when he had asked for so little from him. But Sam was going to make it better; he was going to make himself worthy of Blaine's love. And he was going to start immediately.

Making sure he was already deeply asleep, Sam kissed Blaine's forehead again and very carefully let go of him to let him rest on the mattress, tucking him up with his blankets all the way to his neck to make sure he wouldn't go cold in his absence. And then, for the first time since they arrived, Sam stood up and walked out of the office that had become their room to go meet everybody else in the living room.

To say his presence there was a surprise for the other youngsters would be an understatement, as absolutely none of them had been expecting him to leave his place at Blaine's side voluntarily -which instantly made them fear the worst.

"Sam!" Sebastian exclained, being the first to react. "Is Blaine okay?"

"Yeah, he's sleeping" Sam rushed to answer, understanding what was going in everybody's head at his presence there after the way he had refused to leave Blaine for even a second until then. "He's a little better, in fact; he woke up for a few minutes" he explained, smiling in gratitude as everyone started applauding and cheering in happiness at the good news. "I'll go back to him immediately, but I wanted to tell you guys something first"

"What is it, Sam?" Puck encouraged him, sensing it was something important to his friend.

"I… love Blaine" Sam simply said before he even tried to find the right words to make himself understood.

"We know that, Sam" Artie answered with a fond smile towards his kindhearted friend –they had been a direct witness to the closeness of the two friends a thousand times, after all, so it was no news for them.

"No, I mean… I'm in love with him" Sam corrected himself, knowing this time they would understand exactly what he meant.

"Oh" Artie exclaimed, not really knowing what to say. Okay, he hadn't been expecting that, obviously, but... he couldn't say he was all that surprised.

"Even if I hadn't admitted it to myself, we've… kind of been in a relationship for some time now. I just wanted you all to know that. I owe him that" Sam finished, aware of how much he was blushing about opening his heart like that in front of everyone, even if it hadn't been as difficult as he had expected. "I have to go back to him now, I promised him I would hold him while he slept, so..."

Sam didn't wait to see how his sudden confession fell upon his friends, not feeling yet ready to deal with any possible rejections or questions it might arise. But before he could completely leave the room, someone finally reacted and a voice stopped him in his tracks.

"So you two have been…?" Puck asked in his usual cocky voice, not needing to finish his question for everybody to know what he was asking.

"Yes, we've been" Sam answered with a smirk as he turned around to face his friend, grateful for the absolute normality which he had taken the new information, even daring to joke about it. "But I'm not going to give you more details"

"Ok, you go back to him now, but don't think for even one minute I'm going to let you get away with the fact that you had vodka in your room and I very well know you both got drunk the first night at the prison"

"I won't give you more details about that either, sorry"

"What a beautiful drunken mistake, though, right?" Puck said, for once getting a bit sentimental, and Sam could only smile dreamily as he remembered how he had kissed Blaine that night for the first time and how that had been the start of the most wonderful thing that had ever happened to him.

"The most beautiful one, yeah" he agreed with the brightest smile they had ever seen on him.

It was a good while later that Sebastian knocked on the closed door of the office before opening it, as silently as possible in case its occupants were asleep. The image he found inside –Blaine still deeply asleep with Sam completely wrapped around him as he spooned him, very awake and guarding the other's sleep with a firm grip around his waist.

"Am I interrupting something?" Sebastian whispered in a joking tone.

"Don't be silly" Sam answered as he sat up on the mattress, though Sebastian was glad to see it was out of respect for him and not because he was embarrassed to be caught like that. "He just… feels protected and rests easier this way. And it also makes me feel a whole lot better to have him in my arms, so…"

"You don't have to explain, Sam" Sebastian immediately cut him off as he also sat at Blaine's other side, just as the night before. "I'm just glad you both could make it work"

"Well, it was about time for me to stop being a coward" Sam replied, noticing how good it felt to be able to openly talk about his feelings.

"Well, it was very brave of you to do what you just did"

"It wasn't. I should have done that from the beginning"

"Even then, Blaine will be so proud of you…" Sebastian said, smiling so encouragingly at Sam that the latter could only reciprocate.

"I really hope so" Sam said with a hopeful smile.

"So how is he?" Sebastian said as he lightly rested his hand on Blaine's forehead, not wanting to wake him up. "I think his fever has gone down some"

"It has, right?" Sam excitedly answered. "And he doesn't look as far away now as he sleeps, you know? I mean, he is not unconscious anymore, he's just sleeping"

"Yeah, I know what you mean" Sebastian agreed with a lighter heart, now that he could see Blaine was doing so much better, and he couldn't help a chuckle when he noticed Sam was trying hard to hide a yawn. "Sam, you need some sleep too"

"I need to take care of him, in case he gets worse or something" Sam unsurprisingly refused, just as he had done all the other times.

"I will watch over him for you while you sleep" Sebastian suggested, but he knew he needed to be more convincing when he noticed Sam's hesitation. "I won't leave him alone for a second, I promise"

"No, Seb, thank you but…" Sam started to refuse again, but this time Sebastian wasn't taking no for an answer.

"Hey, you might be his boyfriend or whatever the hell you are to him, but I'm also his friend and I want to be there for him too, ok? You've monopolized him enough as it is" Sebastian said in a mockingly stern tone, only half jocking.

"Alright" Sam surrendered with a grateful smile –after all, he knew he would have to take some rest himself some time, and it was better to do it when Sebastian was there to take care of Blaine–. "I'll lie down for a bit. But I'm laying right there, don't think I'm going too far"

"I wasn't expecting you to" Sebastian replied as he watched Sam move to the other mattress a couple of feet away, which had been unused until then.

"And you're not allowed to lie with him like I was doing" Sam jockingly reminded his friend as he finally lay down.

"Damn it" Sebastian exclaimed, pretending to be bummed. "Can I sit next to him, though?"

"I guess that would be alright" Sam answered with a chuckle as he covered himself with a blanket and fell asleep almost instantly under the security that he was leaving Blaine in good hands –even if only for a little while.

Sebastian brought one of the hundreds of books he had found on the living room with him and sat down on the mattress in the office, right at Blaine's side. He felt more hopeful than he had done since the attack, and he had even managed to get Sam to rest. So with the book in his hands and a smile on his lips, he resolved to spend his morning looking after his friend.

It wasn't until more than a couple of hours later that Blaine started showing any signs of waking up. Sebastian put his book aside after the first grunt that escaped Blaine's lips, but waited for him to fully wake up on his own pace.

"Hey, Killer" he whispered with a smile as soon as Blaine opened his eyes, crouching slightly to get into his line of vision.

"Seb" Blaine said with a hoarse voice, making Sebastian very happy that he had recognized him immediately and he seemed perfectly coherent and alert.

"Oh my God, I've missed those huge eyes so much" Sebastian exclaimed as he happily took Blaine's hand in his. "How are you feeling?"

"Honestly? Like shit" Blaine answered with a smile, though Sebastian could easily see he was only half joking.

"Well, I'm not surprised" Sebastian answered as he once again checked for fever on Blaine's forehead. "At least your fever has gone down some. We brought some painkillers, if you need them"

"I can stand it, we don't want to waste them in case someone needs them more than me in the future" Blaine answered, not surprising his friend in the slightest.

"I don't want to sound cruel, Blaine, but I don't think there's much space to be worse than you were without dying"

"Still… I can deal with it"

"Ok, but you gotta promise to ask for them if it gets any worse, ok?" Sebastian said with a stern look that made Blaine smile.

"Ok" he replied.

"Who am I kidding, I so know you're not going to do it" Sebastian lamented, and the chuckle it elicited on Blaine sounded like celestial music to the taller boy.

"Where's Sam?" Blaine asked, trying to sound casual even if he was dying to know where the blond boy was –and why he wasn't at his side anymore.

"Right there, don't think he ever moves too far away from you" Sebastian answered, pointing with his head at the other mattress. "He just succumbed to exhaustion, finally, even if I had to force him to lie down"

"He's been very worried, right?" Blaine asked with a hint of sadness, hating that he had been the one to cause Sam any pain.

"He was not worried, Blaine, he was… totally crazy" Sebastian explained, more seriously this time. "If you hadn't lived… I don't think he would have either"

"Well, he… he's such a good friend" Blaine answered, not really knowing how to justify Sam's attittude without giving away their real situation.

"Blaine, I know he is in love with you and that you're in a relationship with him or whatever that is. We all know"

"You all know?" Blaine asked in astonishment. How the hell had they found out? And since when what they had could be called a relationship?

"Sam told us the truth" Sebastian explained, smiling at the utter surprise in Blaine's expression. "Not that he needed to say anything the way he desperately clung to you when you were ill, but… he still told us. He said he needed to come clean, for you"

"He did that?"

"You bet he did"

"But why?" Blaine asked, still not able to believe that not only Sam had admitted he loved him, but he had told everyone. Just as Blaine had always wished.

"Because I love you" Sam interrupted them, having awoken at the other's conversation and needing to explain himself. "And coming clean with my feelings and letting everybody know about them is the only thing you've ever asked of me, after everything you've done for me, and yet I let you down"

"I'm going to leave you two alone now" Sebastian said, knowing his friends needed some space for themselves to mend whatever it was that had come between them. "I'm happy you're feeling better, Killer" he said before bending down to kiss Blaine's cheek and leaving the room with a last encouraging smile towards Sam.

"So you really did it" Blaine said as he tried to sit up for their conversation, but when he failed due to his lack of strenght, Sam rushed to his side again and helped him.

"I did" Sam admitted as he once again let Blaine rest against his chest, knowing he was not strong enough to hold himself. "As I should have from the beginning"

"But I thought…" Blaine tried to say, still not understanding what had changed in so little time, but Sam didn't give him the chance to finish.

"I am in love with you, Blaine" Sam interrupted. "All this time I've been completely in love with you"

"Then why could you not admit it?" Blaine asked.

"I was afraid"

"Of… being with a boy?"

"No. I didn't care about that, Blaine" Sam immediately denied with a frown, as if that was the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard. "It was you, how was I going to be afraid of that?"

"Then?"

"It just… admitting I loved you or letting anyone else know about it… it just made it too real" Sam tried to make himself understood, even if his reasons seemed so ridiculous after everything that had happened. "And in a world like this, where is so easy to lose people… I was afraid of giving you my heart completely because if I lost you, I knew I would never survive"

"And what changed?" Blaine asked, beginning to understand Sam's reluctance to accept their love.

"I did lose you" Sam confessed, his eyes getting glassy with unshed tears even if he tried to avoid it. "And not just because how ill you've been, but for a good while we thought you'd been bitten. You can't even understand how it felt... You were doomed and… that's when I realized that not admitting I loved you hadn't changed a thing. I had given my heart to you anyway and I was going to die with you anyway"

Sam's voice broke and it was all Blaine could do not to start sobbing with him. Sam's sorrow was so real and honest that if he still had any doubt that his love for him was real, it vanished in an instant.

"And the only thing I could think about was how I had failed you, how I had been hurting you instead of making you happy as you deserved and it was all for nothing, because I wasn't protecting neither one of us anyway" Sam continued while furiously wiping the tears from his eyes.

"I'm here now, Sam" Blaine answered, catching one of those tears himself with a gentle thumb, hating to see the man he loved so broken.

"And I need to tell you, and I will tell you every day of our lives, no matter how long or short they are: I love you, B. I love you so much" Sam desperately said as he carefully embraced Blaine's body to his chest, hiding his own face on the crook of Blaine's neck as he tried to stop the sobs shaking his body.

"I love you too, you big dork" Blaine answered as he kissed the side of Sam's head in gratitude, all the resentment and anger from the previous days totally forgotten.

"I'm sorry, I didn't want you to see me like this, you need to focus on your recovery" Sam apologized as he broke the embrace to look at him, though he kept Blaine in his arms as he felt completely unable to let go of him.

"Don't be silly, Sam, you're so important to me, and I want to be here for you too" Blaine asnwered.

"As you've always been" Sam said with a grateful smile.

"And I will always be" Blaine promised.

"Come on, you should be resting" Sam jockingly amodnished him as he gently made him lay on the bed again.

"Lie here with me, please" Blaine begged, in a very serious need to continue in direct physical contact of the person he loved –and who know he could say loved him in return.

"You need your rest" Sam argued, though Blaine could see he wanted it as much as he did.

"So? Rest with me. I… I've so missed your arms around me" Blaine insisted, and he couldn't almost hide a triumphal smile when he heard Sam sigh and the rumble of sheets that indicated he was complying with his request.

"Well, you've had them around you a lot lately, you were just not conscious to appreciate it" Sam joked as he carefully positioned himself to spoon the shorter boy again, even if both knew it was a defence mechanism against the pain he had endured for the last hours.

"Well, I am now"

"Then I'll hold you until the end of time"

"I'm going to hold you to that"

"Good" Sam said with a promising kiss to the back of Blaine's head.