Big Chapter! Will and Sam

Chapter 28

"So you took me for three laps around the wing, can we stop and talk now?" Sam asked looking up at his brother.

"Ok, how about here?" Will pushed him into a darkened conference room, flicking on the lights with his one hand while he pushed the wheelchair with the other. "Dwight said you needed to see me. What's up?"

"Well first off how ya been? I haven't seen you in a while."

"Yeah sorry about that little bro, been busy."

"Cop stuff?"

"Something like that." Will chuckled. "I have been keeping tabs on you. Looks like you are doing great. You look good."

Sam looked down at himself imagining what his appearance must seem like to others. His hair was unruly, Marcel hadn't used his magic gel this morning, his beard was scruffy, and he felt thin. His sweats were loose and his ARMY t-shirt was baggy where it used to fit tightly across his chest and arms.

"Thank you. I'm feeling pretty good. Except I hate this hair, hate this beard, hate being stuck inside in pajamas all day," said Sam gesturing to the offending areas with his hands. "And did you know they just started feeding me? If you can call it that, slop if you ask me."

"Good to have you back Sam," said Will with a smile as he pat Sam on the shoulder. "I've missed you. You had us all pretty scared there."

"That's me." He grinned. "Always keeping you on your toes."

"Yep, that you did. We weren't even sure you were going to make it. Your parents would have been devastated."

"They have other kids," Sam joked feeling a bit uncomfortable with all the talk about his near death.

Will sat on the edge of the conference room table, facing Sam in his wheelchair. "Well Beth doesn't have another father. Sure am glad you're going to be around for her now,"

"Me too. Talk about waking up to a surprise." Sam smiled. Best surprise ever. He didn't think he would ever come down from this high he was feeling knowing he had a daughter.

"Yeah you didn't do too shabby with that one. She's a big healthy girl. I see lots of sports in her future. Already started schooling her on the Titans. I hope you don't mind, but I figured you wouldn't stick to the girly stuff with your child."

"Nice. You did exactly right. I knew I could count on you."

Football was one of the few things he and Will shared. Sundays at Will's house in front of the TV, couple of beers, lots of armchair quarterbacking, one day Beth would be a part of that tradition.

"I would've stepped up in every way Sam, if you hadn't…" Will paused looking down at his lap, then back up at Sam again. "Well if you didn't make it back."

"I know you would've. I appreciate it."

"Beth and I bonded quite a bit. Some evenings while Mercedes was tending to you, Beth and I would hang out in the waiting area outside your room, our play time."

Life had gone on all around him while he was comatose. It seemed like they tried to keep him a part of things even though he wasn't conscious. Sam felt a bit uneasy with that knowledge. He couldn't help but imagine himself like the corpse in the room, propped up on display while everyone busily went on with their lives around him.

"That sounds great." Sam's smile faded. "Will can I ask you a question about Mercedes?"

"What's on your mind?" asked Will.

Sam had planned to approach Will guns blazing. He wanted Mercedes taken care of immediately, yet once Will was in his presence, Sam became hesitant, for some reason uncertainty was starting to seep in. Sam wasn't sure if he was actually doing the right thing anymore. He needed more answers to the hundreds of questions swimming in his head.

"Can you explain to me why she's not in jail?"

"Jail? What for?" Will laughed. "For marrying your sorry butt? Last I heard that's not a crime."

"Let's just cut to the chase. I'm sure our father has clued you in." Dwight would not have called Will over here with no explanation. Will was trying to throw him off.

Will sighed heavily. "He did mention you had some concerns about your accident."

"I think concerns is putting it lightly. What the hell happened Will? The woman that drove me into huge rock, and put me in a coma is sitting vigil by my bedside, in charge of my care no less." And no one seemed to give a damn but him.

"She's your wife," Will said quietly.

"I know that! I wish everyone would stop reminding me."

Will got up and checked the door, opening it and peeking out into the hallway before closing it again. "Maybe we should keep it down. This is a hospital."

"Why is everyone trying to keep me quiet about this girl? What is the deal?"

"There's no deal," said Will as he sat back on the edge of the table. "You married Mercedes she's family. I realize it must be difficult having no memories of her, but it is the truth. You guys were a couple."

"She sent me divorce papers the day of the accident. Did you know that?"

"I did."

"So didn't that make you suspicious at all? Like maybe she was trying to take me out, kill me off so she could bypass divorce court and just get my money."

"The thought never crossed my mind actually. I know she loves you." Will scooted back to sit more comfortably. He crossed his feet at the ankles, slowly swinging his scuffed black boots back and forth.

"Don't tell me she has you fooled too."

"Okay look, I am willing to admit that back when you first told me you wanted to marry Mercedes I was concerned. I thought maybe you were rushing into something, maybe it was rebound, and I definitely thought she was too young. But in the short time you were married before the accident, I watched you two. You were very happy."

"I cheated on her. We weren't even married six months. How happy could we have been?" Sam leaned on the arm of the wheelchair, propping his cheek on his palm, awaiting Will's response. His brother would need some pretty creative thinking to explain this. Happy people don't cheat, simple as that.

"There's more to it than that."

"Care to fill me in?" asked Sam raising his eyebrows.

"I don't think I'm the one who should do that. Talk to Mercedes."

"I will do that, once she's safely behind bars. So what do I have to do to make that happen?" Sam ran his hand along his chin, frowning as he felt his ever growing beard. He silently cursed Mercedes for yet another crime she had committed against him. Her stupid list of rules was hampering the progress of his life.

"It was an accident Sam."

Sam rolled his eyes. No one in his life understood the difference between an accident and negligence. What Mercedes did was a deliberate act of stupidity. "She took her hands off the wheel."

"I know. She probably was over the limit too."

"Drunk driving no less. I know Lima PD has been known to drop the ball on a few cases in the past, but this one seemed like a slam dunk. What went wrong?"

"No charges were filed Sam."

Sam ran his hands over his hair in frustration. "I know that. That's my point here. Why the hell not? The girl put me in a coma."

"Mercedes is not the blame for your coma. I am." Will looked at him with red rimmed green eyes.

"How are you to blame? You weren't driving." Sam felt compelled to comfort his brother in some way. Even without knowing all the facts, he knew his brother could never hurt him. It just wasn't in Will's nature.

"No but I was there. First on the scene. Call came through on the radio about an accident involving a car registered to Sam Evans. I found you guys on the side of highway, car smashed against a rock, tilted backwards down a cliff leading to the river."

"You were the one that rescued us?"

Will shook his head, covering his face with his hands. "No I didn't rescue you," he said, his voice muffled by his hands. "Everything just went so wrong."

Sam touched Will on his shoulder. His brother was always so in control, even when he was seething in anger, he never lost his composure. Before Sam's eyes Will was starting to lose it now. It was something Sam hadn't expected and wasn't quite sure how to deal with. "Tell me what happened Will."

"Your car was tilted like I said before, and was slipping slowly down that embankment, because of the rain loosening the sediment or something. All I could think is if we didn't get you guys up on solid ground, you were going to end up heading toward the river."

He could see it all hazy in his mind. Rainy and dark, they had to have been on the cliff road that circled the city limits.

"Mercedes said my leg was stuck in the door."

"Yeah your leg was all twisted up there, and part of the door frame was embedded into your leg too."

Sam rubbed his leg, just imagining the pain he must have been in. "Sounds painful."

"You claimed it was nothing. Didn't want to scare Mercedes, but I could tell it was bad. Wasn't just your leg though, there was so much blood."

"It's almost surreal to hear all this. It is like it happened to someone else." He closed his eyes trying to will his mind to cooperate, to make any of this click in his brain. How could something so vivid mean so little to him?

"Do you want me to stop?" Will asked touching Sam on the arm to get his attention.

"No I need to hear this," said Sam opening his eyes. "Where was Mercedes during all of this?" Sam imagined her on the sidelines watching him bleed, probably silently praying that the car would fall.

"She was right there with you. She wouldn't leave your side."

Sam shook his head. Will's account of Mercedes' actions didn't ring true for him. "I find that hard to believe."

"Why's that? Hasn't she been here at the hospital with you since you came out of the coma?"

"Well yeah but it is her job. She's my nurse."

"You've got some stilted thinking there brother. You mentioned that you know she was divorcing you, so that would make you think she would be long gone by now right?"

Will looked disappointed in him, as if he expected he would just accept all the stories about Mercedes as the truth.

"That's where you're wrong. Apparently I never signed the papers, so she was stuck with me. Either I had to die or wake up for her to be free."

His brother's jaw slacked slightly and Sam braced himself for the hard sell on Mercedes. At this point everyone was just wasting time. Sam had a clear picture of just what kind of woman Mercedes was. Nothing anyone said would change that.

"You're up now. Has she mentioned divorcing you?"

"Mercedes has an issue with the truth. She hasn't said much to me about anything real."

"Dwight told me you were upset that she didn't tell you that you were married right away."

Upset wasn't even a strong enough word. "I think that was a detail I needed to know sooner rather than later, especially after what happened between us."

Will looked up in surprise. "What happened?"

He didn't want to talk about that night ever again. Now if only he could just get his mind to stop going back to it and reliving it. He felt stupid for trusting her, and almost falling for her, he wished his mind just would let it go.

"I'm not getting into it with you Will. Basically Mercedes screwed me over. I don't trust her. I think she is only out for herself and getting all she can from me monetarily."

"Where is this coming from? I can't believe anything Mercedes did around you would lead you to believe that."

Sam let out a breath in disgust. "Believe it. My wife may have fooled all of you, but I can see through her."

"You got a lot of anger there."

"Hell yes I'm angry. She destroyed my life."

"If it weren't for your wife, you would be dead."

"So I hear." Sam leaned his head back to stare at the ceiling. He was tired of this endless loop of conversations about Mercedes. They all could sing her praises it they wanted, he wasn't joining in.

"You collapsed a lung, lacerated your liver, and ruptured your spleen."

"All thanks to Mercedes," said Sam lifting his arms above his head, stretching his spine.

"Yes Mercedes was reckless and took her hands off the wheel during an argument with you. You leaned in front of her grabbed the wheel and swerved to avoid hitting a tree but you lost control somehow, so you shielded Mercedes with your body and braced for impact."

That's a lot of detail. Sam looked over at Will. "How do you know all of this?"

"Between what you and Mercedes told me that night, and the investigation we did at the scene."

"So you are saying it was my fault we hit that rock?"

"I am saying that you put yourself in front of her, and thank God you did. Her airbag didn't deploy Sam. You told me when you came to after the crash, Mercedes was lodged up on the dashboard against the windshield. If you hadn't been in front of her I am certain she would have been through that windshield outside the car, dead."

"I saved her." The thought landed in his mind like a thud.

"Yes you risked yourself to save her. The reason there was so much blood was because your seatbelt was imbedded into your skin. The pressure from impact and the force you were thrown back into your seat caused that injury. All your injuries actually."

"I don't get it. You are telling me I sacrificed myself for her and she was divorcing me? Was I out of my mind?"

Will smiled as he moved from the top of the table to the chair directly across from Sam. "The majority of us call it being in love. You loved your wife, and you were willing to die for her that night."

"It all is so hard for me to make sense of, when I look at her, I don't feel any of that."

Except that wasn't exactly true. Sam did feel something since almost the first time he met Mercedes. He had felt an overwhelming sensation, a knowledge, that she was someone he was supposed to take care of and look out for. It must be some sort of psychological residue from the memories he lost. The feeling made no logical sense to him, it didn't connect with any emotions that were usually attributed to this level of concern, yet he felt it just the same. Ignoring it didn't make it fade, no matter how much he tried.

"You used to. Like I said, I was the biggest skeptic when it came to you two, and when it came out you cheated on her, I was livid. I hated that you hurt yet another woman."

"Are we talking about Brittany?"

Snapping and holding Brittany emotionally hostage was something he was never going to live down. He had tormented her and played mind games with her, all in a pitiful attempt to win back her love. If only he could've thought it through, maybe things would've turned out differently for all of them. Then it hit him, he really didn't want things to be different. Brittany was with Santana, where she wanted to be. It made sense, always had, Sam had just refused to acknowledge that. Like in a movie, along came Quinn just when he needed her most, and suddenly not having Brittany didn't mean so much. Nope, he wouldn't want to change a thing. Finally they all were going to end up where they were meant to be.

"Yes among others."

His interest was piqued. What had happened during his missing three years and did any of it happen with Quinn?

"Others? Such as."

"I'm not getting into your dating history right now Sam. I need you to hear me out."

"Go on." Sam let it drop for the time being. Soon he would know all anyway. He was determined to reclaim his life.

"I got this idea to hook the cables I had in my Land Rover to your car. I hooked it all up and pulled you guys up a bit. I couldn't get you far, but at least you were off the incline."

"I don't get how this led to me being in a coma. Was it just my injuries that took me out?"

"No I took you out." Will's voice shook with emotion.

A chill ran through Sam's body. His brother was visibly upset and Sam had no clue why. "What are you talking about Will?"

"There was a pile up, a bad accident, all the paramedics were on that scene so there was a delay getting help to you guys. I called Dwight and he had a private rescue squad sent, medivac. They finally arrived and they were trying to land and they got a little too close and the cables attached to my truck that were holding you up started to waver and you guys were sliding again. I can see it all clearly in my mind it was like a horror movie. I was standing there watching you slide back down the hill and I remember running trying to get you. I don't know what I would've done actually, not sure I could've held the car up with just my strength but I had to try. Then by some miracle you guys stopped. Some rocks underneath the car stopped you from slipping any further."

"Sounds like a hell of a night."

"Sam you just don't get it. I was scared out my mind. You don't know what it is like to watch someone so close to death and be almost powerless to stop it. You were trapped in that car, we couldn't get you out, and the paramedics in the medivac didn't have any tools to help in that regard so we had to wait for Lima FD."

Sam knew all too well what it was like to stand by and watch someone die. He lost many a fellow soldier in Afghanistan, and there was nothing he could do to help. Hell on earth is watching death consume, and have no defense against it.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that." Sam wanted to reach out and touch Will, but he resisted. He didn't want Will to take a gesture like that as a sign of weakness.

"I see stuff like that almost every day, being a cop I am trained to handle moments of extreme crisis."

"You're still human, man. All the training in the world won't stop you from caring."

Sam had been on both sides, ordered to kill, while charged to protect. Enemy is such an abstract term really, especially when you hold another man's life in your hands. Only a truly cold person wouldn't feel something. Sam had been trained by some of the best in the world, he had been a model soldier. But complete detachment? That was a skill he never mastered. He prayed he never would.

"I probably should have let someone else respond to the call. I just thought I could handle it. But seeing you like that, my baby brother, it really got to me. I've gone over it in my mind so many times, I lost all objectivity and just wasn't thinking right. I dealt with the whole situation badly."

Sam squirmed as he saw tears begin to well up in Will's eyes. He wasn't sure what he would do if Will actually broke down in front of him. "Don't say that. I'm here now aren't I?"

Will squeezed the bridge of his nose between his fingers. "But look at what I cost you. You were in a coma for months now you lost your memory. I keep hearing you blame Mercedes, but I'm the one you should be blaming. I am the one that destroyed your life."

"You were only trying to save me. How can you blame yourself? The cables just didn't hold."

He shook his head sadly. "No Sam there is more. You see I didn't wait for help, for reinforcements, I just rode right in like the cavalry. I wanted to save my little brother, I let my fears cloud my judgment."

"Nothing you've said indicates to me you did anything wrong. Sometimes bad things happen. If the car was meant to go down the cliff, it just was. You couldn't stop that."

"The car didn't go down the cliff, not on its own." Will stood up and walked across the room. He leaned his head against the wall, eyes closed as he spoke. "Mercedes was so upset. She kept asking me when help was coming. And you didn't want me to scare her with the truth that the paramedics were caught up and traffic was a mess. So I kept trying to stall her, make excuses to get her to hold on. But Mercedes," he shook his head and laughed. "Mercedes is a smart one. Nothing gets by her. I remember she asked me point blank that night if help really was on its way. I couldn't lie to her, not when she was looking up at me with those wide brown eyes of hers, I couldn't let her down."

"I think you put too much pressure on yourself Will."

"I was the only hope. I had to handle the pressure. If we had waited, you would've died, if not from the car falling then from your injuries. You were in bad shape Sam. You knew it."

"I knew I was dying." So many times Sam had faced down death, always narrowly escaping just in the nick of time. He must be blessed with nine lives, because he should have been dead a few times over by now.

"You pretended you were ready to be rescued, kept up appearances for Mercedes and me, but I knew you were starting to let go. You asked me to look out for Quinn."

"Quinn? I thought you said I was happily married to Mercedes. Why would I be asking about another woman?"

"Sam, it was Quinn."

"Yeah..." He really didn't even need to ask. If he were feeling so close to death, of course he would be thinking of Quinn. She had never failed to be on his mind all the other times his life was in peril.

"You and she always had that thing no matter what happened in your lives, and even though you both were going through a hard time since your affair came out, you still were friends and supported each other. I brought up Mercedes to you, asked you why shouldn't I look out for her too. You said Mercedes had friends and family, support, and that Quinn was all alone and needed to be looked in on. You ended up being so right about that. All that stuff with Beth," Will paused, stopping mid sentence. Sam looked over at him, struck by how once again Quinn being mentioned with Beth made people stop talking.

"I've heard Quinn had a hard time lately with her postpartum depression. I don't know all the specifics, but I do know she is in the hospital."

"I drove her up there myself, the morning you woke up. She was pretty upset about leaving you here."

"I was pretty upset about waking up and not finding her. I could feel her next to me while I was waking up, sense her somehow." He still felt her absence even now, a dull ache, like a subtle reminder that something important was missing from his life.

"Must've been confusing."

"It was." Sam slowly wheeled himself over to where Will was standing. "All I saw was Mercedes, her smiling face popped up whenever I expected to see Quinn."

"That should tell you something right there."

"It does. The wrong woman was by my side."

"You're just being stubborn about this. I don't believe that you don't see all Mercedes has been doing for you."

"I think she is trying to appease her guilt and probably trying to make herself look favorable in a divorce proceeding."

"Mercedes doesn't want to divorce you. Not anymore. We talked quite a bit while you were in a coma. I guess you can say we were partners in arms or something, we went through it together, losing you."

"But I wasn't lost."

"You were to us." Will's voice cracked with emotion. "After you finally convinced Mercedes to get out of the car, to let go of your hand, I got ready to set up my great rescue attempt. You called me over to the car where you were barely holding on, fighting for each breath, fading right before my eyes, and you made me promise to look out for her. I tried to calm you, assure you that everything would be all right, but you wouldn't listen. You made me swear to keep my word."

"Will, what went wrong with the rescue?"

"I hooked the car up to the medivac chopper I figured the helicopter could lift the car a few feet and move you away from the cliff. And it worked, for a bit. Mercedes and I were standing watching as the helicopter lifted the car, then all of sudden the car started shaking the chopper was struggling, the cord snapped and like some slow motion reenactment the car fell from the air down the cliff into the woods."

"Was I still in the car?" Sam's heart pounded in his chest.

"No, thankfully. The car burst into the flames a few minutes later."

"Where was I Will?" he asked in almost a whisper. The truth was about to be revealed and he almost felt afraid to hear it.

"You fell. We were watching, then it all was shaking and you just came out of the car door, in mid air. All I heard was the shrieking getting louder as I watched you hit the muddy ground. I just stood there paralyzed I was sure you were dead. I mean you fell from the sky. Then Mercedes took off like a flash, racing down that embankment to get to you. I watched her stumble a few times, actually roll a bit down that hill, but she just got back up and kept going, she never stopped until she got to you. I finally pulled myself together and ran after her. She rolled you over, and there was blood coming out of your head. Mercedes went into this mode, she was almost like a machine, demanding for my button down to wipe your wound, yelling at me to keep calling for help. She put her head to your chest, her eyes got wide, and I knew, you weren't breathing. It was like the wind got knocked out of me. I kept thinking you were dead and it was my fault. I just stood there and watched as Mercedes performed CPR on you for what seemed like forever, and nothing, you just wouldn't breathe. I was praying, making all sorts of deals with God, in that moment I was wishing it was me instead of you."

"Will..." Sam wanted to stop him, that sort of thinking would get him nowhere. Will had a wife and children, people that loved him. Sam's life was not worth more than that, no way should his brother have even thought it was.

"Look Sam I know we haven't been the closest of brothers in all these years, it is has been hard because I don't consider Dwight my real father, but I have always cared about you. There you were barely holding on, your whole life ahead of you, and it just wasn't fair that my stupid mistake would take all of that away."

Sam was floored. He had no idea his brother felt so strongly. Being brothers was just something Sam had thought Will dealt with because he had to, he was born into it, so he had to tolerate his little screwed up brother. Sam had always looked up to Will, enjoyed hanging out with him, but he never thought Will felt much on his end.

"Will, you were trying to save me. You didn't do anything wrong."

"Yes I did. Don't make excuses. Those cables weren't made for that sort of lifting, they were already compromised from when I had them attached to my car. I panicked and I made the wrong move, nearly cost you your life. If it weren't for Mercedes and the fact that she could keep a clear enough head to try to revive you, you would be dead. You pretty much were Sam. It took a lot to get you breathing again, and Mercedes just would not quit. It got to the point I wanted to pull her off you. It was like she was fighting a losing battle. She wouldn't hear me, she knew you were going to make it. She kept saying you promised you wouldn't go. Finally you took a breath, opened your eyes, that little girl of yours just smiled and looked at me and said 'I told you he wouldn't leave us'. She might be seem sort of small but her strength impressed the hell out of me that night."

"You're the reason Mercedes didn't get charged aren't you?"

"No Sam, don't you see? You are," said Will bending down to get to Sam's eye level. "You made me swear that Mercedes would never be blamed. That I would do whatever it took to make it all go away for her."

"And you did."

"Yes I did."

"You put your badge on the line for a person I wasn't even married to for a year? How did you even know we would last? I had cheated, she filed for divorce." Sam thought about how things ended badly with Quinn, with Brittany, yet Will for some reason trusted in his feelings for Mercedes. It still felt like a big piece of the puzzle was missing here.

"You told me with the last breath you had to protect her. You told me how much you loved her. I would never doubt you in that moment. You knew what was coming."

"A man knows when he is meeting his own end."

"Exactly. I could see it in your eyes, hear it in your voice, you knew you weren't going to be around for her."

He thought of being with Quinn during that limo crash, death could have been right around the corner for them, Sam could almost taste it. Yet he tried to reassure Quinn, and he held her close. He had known without hesitation, that if it came down to it, he would risk it all for her. He was willing to die for Quinn Fabray. Now it all came into focus, he had felt the same way about Mercedes. He had loved her then. Like figuring out who done it at the end of a mystery. This was his "aha" moment, all the pieces were revealed and snapped into place, the only thing missing were his memories of it, his connection to her.

"So you looked after Quinn and protected Mercedes?"

Sam was speechless. Will had come through for him in a big way. He had given him peace and he had taken care of his loved ones, his family, while he was sick. After all he had done in his life, all the trouble he caused, the people he hurt, Sam was shocked that Will would still do something like that for him.

"I did."

"Damn Will I don't even know what to say."

"How about thank you? Your brother risked his career for you. I hope you appreciate it," said Dwight as he appeared in the room.

"I do. It means so much to me that you would do that Will. Just now it feels like someone else's life. All I can see is that you saved Mercedes from jail but you didn't keep Quinn from the hospital." Sam cringed as he realized he had said his thoughts out loud.

"Sam, are you for real? You are actually going to blame Will for what that crazy bitch did?" asked Dwight.

"I'm not blaming anyone dad. I'm just saying how it feels to me now."

Dwight took a seat at the table. "You better snap out of it and fast. You are about to make some serious mistakes if you stay in this line of thinking. Quinn is nothing but trouble and she has done nothing but add misery to your life even while you were in a coma. You have a wife passed out cold upstairs that would give an organ for you, do anything for you, and here you are crying about some woman that has never done anything but bring you down."

"Dwight, take it easy," said Will. "He doesn't remember."

"That's bull. He knows what Quinn was like, even back then. Take off your rose-colored glasses son and wake the hell up. Quinn is in a mental hospital for good reason."

"Because you arranged to have her there. Right dad?" asked Sam as he wheeled himself closer.

"Quinn made her own bed." Dwight fanned his hand dismissively.

"And you just helped her get into it?" asked Sam, his anger starting to build. He had some doubts about his father's involvement, but it was becoming abundantly clear he was up to his eyeballs in Quinn's situation.

"Will can you leave us alone for a bit? I need to talk some sense into my son."

"Dwight I don't think I want to leave you two alone right now."

"It's okay Will, I can handle our father. Thank you for telling me what happened that night." Sam reached out for Will's hand, giving it a swift tight squeeze.

Will placed his hand on Sam's shoulder as he walked by him to make his way to the door. "I'll talk to you soon Sam."

"Oh and Will one more thing," said Sam just as Will's hand hit the door knob.

Will lingered by the door. "Yeah."

"Thank you for saving my life." Their eyes met and Sam gave him a small smile. He hoped Will understood all he was trying to say without words.

"But Sam…" Will bowed his head starting to dispute Sam's statement.

"Will, thank you." Sam interrupted. "I wouldn't be here today without you. You saved me."

Will looked to Sam and then to Dwight and quickly nodded before heading out of the room without saying another word.