Chapter 39

"Sam calm down."

Mike grabbed his arm, trying to slow down his push through the crowd. Guests parted like the Red Sea as he plowed through the room looking for Quinn. With increased force Mike yanked Sam's arm again, this time stopping him.

"Calm down?" Sam said loudly as he finally faced Mike. He had tried to his best to ignore his brother as he followed closely on his heels. "You tell me you were fucking my girl and you want me to calm down?"

"Quinn and I were a couple and she wasn't your girl then," Mike said calmly in sharp contrast to Sam's rising agitation.

"Quinn has always been my girl." She was his first love, forever a part of him, nothing could change that.

"Except you seem to be forgetting she wasn't." Mike stepped closer, lowering his voice so that only the two of them could hear. "She was with Puck and then me and then back to Puck again. She almost married him. The two of us can lay a bigger claim on her than you can."

It was almost inconceivable that two other men had gained such intimate knowledge of Quinn over the years, not that he had been saving himself either. He had been married twice, and apparently had a string of relationships, but in his heart he always knew Quinn held a special place that no other woman could touch. Sam had to believe Quinn felt the same, she had admitted as much tonight in the nursery. Their love might have started when they were just kids, but it had endured far beyond that. Other relationships had no bearing on what was between them.

"You couldn't possibly understand what Quinn and I share."

"You're right I don't. I think Quinn is a selfish bitch." Mike made a sound somewhere between a snort and snicker, mocking in tone and disparaging in gesture. Sam burned at Mike's attitude as he continued to make light of something so precious. Sam clenched his fists itching to wipe that look off his brother's face. "Don't even think about taking a swing at me Sam. I won't hesitate in embarrassing you in front of all these people," said Mike looking Sam straight in the eyes.

Sam thought better of his need for violence and unclenched his hands, releasing most of the tension in his body. He was no match for Mike in his present state.

"Why are you doing this Mike? Are you lying to make Quinn look bad? Do you want to ruin my birthday?"

"I'm the man that almost ruined your wedding. I didn't let you hide from the truth about Cede possibly still wanting Shane and I'm not letting you hide from this either, you knew I was telling the truth about her from the moment I said it." Mike rested his hand on Sam's shoulder. "No backtracking now. Take this like a man."

"Tell me what happened between you two," said Sam shaking his brother off.

Mike pointed to a set of chairs in a secluded corner where they could talk with more privacy. Sam reluctantly followed Mike, instead of continuing on his quest to find Quinn.

"Quinn and I got together around the time you were dating that college girl Penny."

"Quinn said I chose to be with Penny over her." Sam remembered his conversation with Quinn the night before. She had told him about Penny and the insane fact that he had been seeing them both at the same time.

"In a way you did. I'm not sure what exactly went down with you and Quinn, she cried on my shoulder a lot but she never got specific, even after we were more serious, and I never pressed her about it."

"Didn't you think that her silence on the topic of me was strange? Didn't you take that as a hint she wasn't over me?" Quinn kept her emotions close, especially when they were important. If she wasn't confiding in Mike about him that was a clear sign that she was truly hurt.

"Quinn's not the most forthcoming person. Remember all that mystery when she came back to town and no one knew where Puck was? How come she couldn't speak up about him being in rehab?"

"Probably was painful for her to talk about," he speculated. He vaguely remembered the limo crash and Quinn saying very little about Puck.

"I was thinking it was more likely that she didn't want to make herself look bad. She didn't want everyone to see that she wasn't sweet little Quinn anymore that the music business had changed her into a lying cheating wh –"

"Don't say another word Mike or I swear to God…" said Sam angrily. He had enough of Mike shooting his mouth off about Quinn.

"You think I'm lying about her? You can ask anyone here, they'll all tell you. Quinn turned to me when you didn't want her because she couldn't stand to be alone." Mike's facade of calm was crumbling. He cared more about this subject than he was willing to show. "Why do you think she took up with you in the first place so soon after her break up with Puck? Quinn didn't even let the dust settle before you two were all entangled. She can't live without a man in her bed."

Sam shook his head not believing any of that description of Quinn, clearly Mike didn't really know her despite their relationship.

"Quinn and I have history. When we were in that crash, we reconnected, that's why she turned to me. It couldn't have been just about sex."

Even when Quinn said the same the previous night, he found it hard to swallow. After their time in that crash, there would never be anything casual between them.

"I think you're right, it was about more than sex for her. Probably was a mix of comfort, companionship, an insatiable need for affection to validate her self-worth. I'm sure Quinn would've been fully committed to you, for a time."

Every word from Mike's mouth sounded wrong like he was describing a different person like Santana or his ex-wife Tina, but not Quinn. Quinn had always been nurturing and caring, a supportive presence. She wasn't the type to tear a man down. Sam flashed back to high school when Quinn had told him about her feelings for Puck. She could have taken out a gun and shot him, it would have hurt him less. The confirmation of all he suspected, of all he had fought to prevent, battling his cousin just to keep his girlfriend by his side, only to have it all end on her lips. She wanted to be with someone else.

Sam felt truly lost after that, drifting in his own skin, no purpose, he'd put it all into loving her and fighting for her, then he was ultimately left with nothing. What Mike had described was indeed possible, in fact he had been there squarely in the same shoes. Sam looked at his brother, a hint of anger of and hurt passing through his dark eyes. No it couldn't be true, not again. He just wasn't willing to accept any of it until he had spoken to Quinn.

"Just because things didn't work out for the two of you, doesn't mean that would've happened if I were with her. We've cared about each other for a long time."

"I don't doubt that Quinn cares. It's the way she cares that worries me. She will suck you dry Sam and there will be nothing left. She had me staring down the barrel of a loaded weapon, any will I had was sapped after her. I can't blame Quinn for my addiction, alcohol is my demon, but dealing with her made it so easy to fall off the wagon."

"I don't want to hear any more of this." Sam jumped up from his chair. "You're making things up because she hurt you. I need to talk to Quinn. Quinn!" He yelled her name as he advanced back into the crowd of guests.

He had to find her, to end all the accusations, to shut Mike up once and for all. Sam's mind slammed shut, desperately trying to block Mike's words. None of what he was saying could be true. Quinn would have told him about this. Yet it wasn't like his brother to lie, in fact Mike tended to be honest to a fault, especially when it came to him. He was the first to tell him when his hair looked bad, his work was shoddy, or if his girlfriend wasn't up to snuff, so why would he suddenly start lying to him now?

"Yes let's find Quinn so I can watch her squirm while she tries to find another way to lie to your face," said Mike from close behind, following Sam again.

"Quinn and I don't lie to each other." Sam shot over his shoulder.

That was one of the best parts of them, their complete honesty with each other. Although Quinn had been slightly less open about her PPD and the events that led to her losing Beth, ultimately she had shared that as well, letting him in completely. She had looked him in the eyes and promised there were no more secrets between them. Sam trusted her word, more than anything else in his life.

"Wake the fuck up Sam, she didn't tell you about me, don't you think she has more secrets she's keeping?"

Sam stopped suddenly, realization washing over him as he pivoted to face his brother. "Now I get all that tension in the car yesterday. You're out to get Quinn. You have some sort of vendetta against her or something, you want her to look bad to me." Mike was nothing but a jilted lover, angry and bitter. No wonder he was so quick to bash Quinn, he couldn't help himself.

"I don't give a damn about Quinn anymore. After what she did to me, I walked away and never looked back. It's you I'm worried about. I don't want her to hurt you the same way. She will trash your life Sam."

Mike sounded like his parents, blaming Quinn for his choices. She didn't force him to go crazy trying to win her back, she didn't push him to enlist, and Sam was pretty sure Quinn didn't force Mike to start drinking again. For some reason people liked to use Quinn as an easy scapegoat, blaming her for all sorts of ills that plagued their lives. It started in high school with the endless teasing, and now all these years later it seemed to still be continuing.

"So your relationship didn't work out, how is that all Quinn's fault? Maybe you shouldn't have hooked up with a woman on the rebound. Clearly Quinn wasn't over me."

Though it didn't seem like Quinn to take things so lightly. He couldn't imagine her being with a man just because she was lonely or bored. Quinn always dreamed about lasting love and the beauty of enduring commitment, comparing longstanding couples to the moon and the tides, existing in perfect sync for the duration. Quinn wrapped herself in her beliefs, proudly displaying them even when they were unpopular. What happened to that girl that had such passionate convictions? The way Mike was talking she had disappeared into the ether and was replaced by a mindless bimbo that based all her choices on her current sexual partner. There was no way that Quinn would ever become a person like that.

"It was my own stupid fault for being with her knowing what I did. But you got it all wrong, brother. You weren't the problem."

"What are you talking about?" Sam knitted his brows in confusion. Quinn was the one on the rebound and heartbroken over him, of course he was the problem.

"Our relationship ended because of another man."

"Are you saying Quinn cheated on you? No way. She's not that type of person." Disbelief, shock, and a whole lot of what the fuck, there's no way any of this could be real.

"So Beth was an immaculate conception?" asked Mike with a snarky smile.

"That was different and you know it. I was told all about that, I was in a bad place and she was just being a good friend to me. One thing led to another and we slept together."

That too had been hard for him to believe, that either one of them could cheat even under such duress, but Quinn had confirmed what everyone else had said, they indeed had comforted each other sexually for one night. Sam couldn't quite let go of the idea that there was something more than pain at play that night. They had to have turned to each other because of unspoken feelings, even if they weren't free. It could never be just sex between them.

"Blah blah blah, how many people have walked in your shoes and never had sex with someone else to cope? You were drunk and she's a slut. Case closed." Sam reared back, the muscles in his arms flexing as he lunged toward Mike. Before his fist could connect with its intended target, somewhere in the vicinity of his brother's nose, he was halted by a solid mass. Mike had stopped his punch mid swing, blocking his fist with his own hand. "I told you not to do that," said Mike.

Twisting Sam's arm behind his back, wrenching it painfully, forcing him to submit, he was twelve again getting his ass kicked by his big brother, only this time he hadn't stolen his dirty magazines.

"Get off me," Sam said trying futilely to escape Mike's grasp. His brother was far too strong for him at the moment, and he didn't stand a chance, he was essentially trapped until Mike decided to let him go. Finally Mike released him, as a small crowd started to gather around the two of them.

"Just playing around," Mike said loudly, laughing it up. "I missed my little brother so much, had to give him a welcome back hug. Are you happy now?" Mike asked at a volume only Sam could hear. "People are all rubbernecking, probably taking video."

"I don't give a damn. I'm not going to let you talk about Quinn like that."

Sam stretched his neck up to look over the heads of the people milling about the room, hoping to catch a glimpse of Quinn. Still she seemed to be nowhere. Maybe she had decided to leave the party after all, since they had decided he was going to spend the bulk of his time with Mercedes. As if he conjured her he spotted her across the room, not the woman he wanted, Quinn still was MIA, but Mercedes, her dark hair brilliant under the colored lights and she wasn't alone.

"What?" Mike followed Sam's line of vision through the crowd. "Oh isn't that rich? You're throwing punches over Quinn one minute and now giving evil eyes to Finn Hudson? Sam, you are one screwed up bastard."

"I wasn't giving evil eyes, I don't do that. Please." He scoffed. Sam didn't give a crap about that little punk. He just wondered what Finn was doing at his party and even more wondering what he was doing hugging all over his wife? Reasonable questions under the circumstances, since Mercedes was supposed to be his date for the evening. "I was looking for Quinn, I can't believe she hasn't turned up by now."

"If she's smart she's long gone, nobody wants her here anyway." Mike mumbled under her breath.

"You know what? I want her here. She's the mother of my daughter, my oldest friend, and I love her."

"Can you say that a little louder? I don't think they heard you in Cleveland. I wonder if I break your jaw, you'd come to your senses and stop being such a jackass, because right now I'd really love to beat your memory back into place."

"Go ahead. Do it!" Sam squared off in front of Mike, hoping that his height advantage would somehow save him from the damage he knew his brother could inflict.

"Mom might kill me for this, but I think I will," said Mike, his face more serious than Sam had seen it all night.

Sam took a deep breath, balling his hands into fists and steeled himself for the blow.
-

"Everything okay here?" asked Will, walking up behind them putting an arm around both Mike and Sam. "People are starting to stare."

Mike hadn't actually thrown any punches instead he opted to put him in a vice grip, clamping down on his shoulder with so much pressure Sam was sure there would be marks. Mike let Sam go once Will appeared, but his anger was still discernible in his brown eyes. His brother's visible anger annoyed Sam, the only person that had the right to be angry in all this was him. He was the one that had been lied to and kept in the dark about this supposed marriage.

"Everything's fine Will," Sam assured his brother with a forced smile. Maybe if he faked it well enough, Will would leave and he could get back to dealing with Mike. "As soon as I find Quinn."

"Sam just found out that Quinn and I were together," Mike explained.

Will's eyes widened, but he quickly covered. "Oh. Well Sam I am sure that was surprising but don't you think this anger is a bit much?"

"No I don't. Mike is telling lies about the woman I…" He stopped himself not wanting to reveal that much in front of Will. He'd been judged enough for his feelings for Quinn, he didn't want to risk yet another lecture. "About my daughter's mother and I'm not going to take that. Quinn's not even here to defend herself."

"All of this happened years ago," said Will.

Years ago to everyone else, but this was all very new to him. He felt slammed by this latest information and the secrecy that shrouded it made it all the more worse. Why couldn't he be told about this sooner? Suspicions grew in his mind as he considered the possibility that his own brother had been deliberately deceiving him.

"Will's right. All of this is ancient history. You were past it man, and to be honest you weren't too bothered by the news the first time around."

"I don't believe that, I never would have wanted Quinn with you."

"Do the math. You were three women removed from Quinn." Mike held up three fingers to emphasize his point. "You moved on from her in a big way and she had done the same."

"If all you're saying is true it means Quinn lied to me, after promising she wouldn't."

"Far be it from me to take Quinn's side on anything," said Mike. "But I think in this case it wasn't really a lie, more like she didn't want to overwhelm you."

Mike's reasoning still didn't make sense. Their conversation about Beth and her depression was much harder than something like this. So she had dated his brother, it hurt that they didn't seem to be able to achieve that level of commitment when she had been able to with his cousin and brother, but it wasn't nearly as painful as knowing that Quinn was depressed and desperate while he was in a coma. That's why the only logical answer was that Mike was making all of this up to stick it to Quinn somehow. Quinn didn't lie to him, and if she had decided to start why would it be about this and not something more important?

"That doesn't fly because we just talked about some big stuff, about Beth and her PPD. If that didn't overload me, nothing will."

"You passed out."

"Not because of that. Kali said it was the beer. I am more than capable of handling the truth about my own life. I wish everyone would stop sugarcoating and just be honest with me."

Beer wasn't to blame, Sam was well aware of that, even if he refrained from sharing that fact with his family. Before he had collapsed earlier he had heard voices and saw blood red behind his eyes. The conversation about Beth most certainly had something to do with his physical reaction, but he couldn't let worries about fainting spells prevent the truth from coming out. He had been kept in the dark long enough.

"Sam, why don't we take a walk?" asked Will with his hand on Sam's back attempting to subtly shepherd him toward the door. "Get some air?"

"I'm not leaving until I talk to Quinn."

"I think that would be a really bad idea," said Kali Hill as she appeared before him with a drink in her hand.

"Great Dr. Nosy has arrived," Sam groaned. The last thing he wanted was to hear Kali once again chiming in about his life. Being fired hadn't stopped her from giving unsolicited advice.

"Quinn has been through too much today for yet another stressful conversation. You need to let this go for now Sam."

"Kali you might as well stop talking, because I don't give a damn what you say. I'm talking to Quinn whether you like it or not."

"As her doctor…" she began.

"You're her doctor not her warden," Sam said brusquely not letting the woman finish her sentence. "Quinn is a free woman and she can do what she likes, so back the hell off."

"Mike, I told you to check on him, not send him over the edge," snapped Kali as she pulled Mike away.

"It slipped, what can I say?" he asked giving Kali a sheepish grin.

Sam rolled his eyes at his brother's obvious infatuation with the doctor.

"Sam, why don't you relax?" suggested Will. Ever the peacemaker, he really should wear a collar instead of a badge. "We'll find Quinn and talk this out. Let's go out here." He led Sam toward the door and out into the brightly lit foyer, leaving the loud music and prying eyes behind. "This is better. Didn't much like putting on a show."

"I'm so confused Will," Sam ran his hand through his hair, feeling near the end of his rope. So much information and none of it made sense. "Mike said he was with Quinn after I rejected her and then accused her of cheating on him and messing up his life. That's not Quinn. I don't know that person."

"Maybe you don't. We all have different sides. The way Quinn treated Mike may not be how she would have treated you."

"Are you saying it's true, she cheated on Mike?"

His brother stared back at him a moment, as if debating his response. "I don't think I should…" Will said hesitantly.

"Don't hold out on me Will. I need to know what's going on." His big brother Will, always the cop, even now in jeans and a blazer at a party, would never let him down when it came to the truth. Will had no bias against Quinn, no stake in this argument. If anyone would be direct it should be him. "This sounds crazy to me. Give it to me straight."

"You were better without her." Direct and to the point typical Will, only the words he never expected to hear coming from him.

Quinn was the best thing that ever happened to him. He was more focused when he was with her, did better in school, started to think about a future beyond Lima, granted that future exclusively revolved around Quinn and her dreams, but at least he started to have goals. Losing her to Puck had thrown him off course for a time, but he had pulled himself together, reined in all his negative energy and did something positive, joined the Army. Will never had a problem with that choice, in fact he was one of the few members of his family that openly applauded his decision, so why was Will now acting like Quinn had somehow ruined his life?

"No. That's not true."

It was starting to become clear that no one was going to support his relationship with Quinn, and that was fine, he'd stood up to disapproval before. When he married Brittany, not many were pleased with that relationship either, citing Santana was the real owner of her heart. In the end, everyone was right about Brittany, but things weren't all bad in their marriage, there was love and respect. They managed to share something special for a time, despite being in the shadow of Santana and her unending love for her. Sam was fully prepared to love Quinn, ignoring the naysayers as long as he had her by his side. That's where she had seemed to be just a few hours ago, in Beth's nursery, filling him with immeasurable joy as she told him that she wanted to be with him for a lifetime. Downstairs in the hard light of the foyer, things were starting to feel decidedly different, the Quinn from before was fading like a mirage. All that he believed about her was being called into question, and while he usually could shake off doubts with ease, this time they were clinging to him like an extra layer of skin.

"When you started dating my Rachel, I didn't like it. Not after everything with Brittany. It was too soon. I thought you'd ultimately hurt her, and you did. So when you told me you wanted to pursue Mercedes right on the heels of your break up with Rachel I was once again concerned. Mercedes was so young."

Will had judged him for his dating choices, not much of a shock, everyone had an opinion in his life. Will tended to be less vocal than most, but when he became involved with Brittany, his older brother joined the crowd of dissenting voices. After he came back from Afghanistan with a mutilated leg only to discover his wife had migrated over to Santana, he had become irrational and his jealous tendencies and his temper flared, so he could hardly blame Will for his concerns. That had been a low point in Sam's life but by the time they were in that crash, he had regained control and was willing to let Brittany go and Will knew that. So why bring that up now?

"What does any of this have to do with Quinn and her relationship with Mike?"

"Nothing. It has to do with you. Your dramatic love life sort of shaped who you are. I could follow the women in your life like a map to navigate the changes in your personality. All these ups and downs helped you grow, even your interaction with Quinn. You and Quinn had gone through a lot and made it out the other side with your friendship intact."

"That's a beautiful thing."

"I agree," Will smiled. "It is, not many relationships could have survived the way yours has with Quinn."

"Okay so how does any of this prove I'm better without Quinn? If anything you are showing me that Quinn and I are meant to be."

"Ever think that maybe you guys remained close because you weren't romantically involved?"

"No, I think our timing was always off and that our friendship was just a holding pattern for more. She's the woman I've been waiting for, deep down I knew that."

Will walked over to a little table in the foyer, picking up a frame and looking at it. "I still remember the day you invited me over here and asked me to be in your wedding." He turned the frame toward Sam to show him the photograph. It was a picture from his wedding to Mercedes. "You said Mike was going to be the best man and you wanted me there too welcoming Mercedes into our family."

"Why are you bringing Mercedes into this?"

Sam hadn't even known Mercedes during the time Quinn and Mike supposedly got together. He had dated Penny and then Rachel apparently. For once this was a part of his history that didn't pertain to his wife at all. Yet here she was somehow barging her way into things.

"I guess I wanted you to know that we kept our promise, me, Mike, Kurt, Puck even Dwight, we made her a part of the family and looked out for her when you couldn't. That was important to you. You asked me to be straight with you and I am doing that. You didn't care that Mike and Quinn got together, not in the grand scheme of things."

Loving Mercedes then had nothing to do with now. He wasn't trying to deny his past feelings anymore, not that he could, no one in his life was willing to let him forget. It was nice to know she was well cared for though, and that she had his family's support, especially since he seemed to be the one that was continuously letting her down. He was grateful to Will for keeping a promise that he didn't remember asking him to make. At least Mercedes would be left with something after all this was done. His family would never turn on her, he felt confident in that, and it helped him feel less guilty about the choices he was forced to make.

Mercedes probably wouldn't see things that way. Sam definitely ran the risk of her hating him for life, a thought that bothered him more than he thought possible. It was weird how a virtual stranger had managed to make him feel so much in such a short time. At the hospital, she had been the one bright spot in his days, the only sunshine while confined to his bed in a room flooded with artificial light. Quinn had been the same once, when they were kids. One smile from her and all his problems would disappear. Waking up to the vision of Quinn's smiling face only to find her not there had been disconcerting and disappointing, but those feelings had lessened the more time he spent with his nurse Mercedes.

He could almost imagine what it felt like to love Mercedes, when she graced him with a rare genuine smile, or when she rambled incessantly about the most mundane topics. She had a way of making him feel lighter, bringing smiles to his face, getting him to forget all of his stress. That is until the guilt crept in, along with the inescapable knowledge that he wasn't doing the same for her, that he was the persistent source of her pain. Unintentionally he had let her down, breaking the promise she said he made in the accident, to return to her at any cost. He was back in the land of the living, but he was no longer hers, and those sad brown eyes reminded him of that fact each time she looked at him.

He looked away from the wedding picture so prominently displayed on the table and forced his thoughts back to what was real – Quinn. "You're not going to convince me that I didn't care about Quinn."

"I know you care about Quinn, that is very clear given your current actions. At the car crash site when things weren't looking so good, you asked me to look out for Quinn and I did that too, tried to at least, but I couldn't save Quinn from herself. You can't save someone that doesn't want to be saved," said Will choking up a little.

He knew Will had done his best by Quinn. If he said he would, then he did, Will was a man of his word. Now that he knew more about what Quinn had been through, Sam could understand his brother's emotional display. It must have been hard to watch Quinn spiraling lower with each passing day.

"I'm not trying to save her Will. I only want to help her get back on her feet, get back to our child. I don't see the problem with that." Quinn needed him and he couldn't let her down, not like he had while in a coma.

"Helping a friend is not a problem. You have always been a good friend to Quinn, have been for years, but Sam that's all you were. You and Quinn haven't had a real relationship since high school. And I am concerned that this need to help your friend Quinn is going to jeopardize your marriage. That's the problem we all see."

The only reason he still had a marriage was because he wanted to help Quinn. Sam couldn't help but wonder if Will would change his assessment of all this if he were let in on that fact.

"This stuff with Mike and Quinn has nothing to do with Mercedes or my marriage," said Sam growing weary of the tangent Will had taken them on. All Sam wanted to know was what really went down between Mike and Quinn, nothing else mattered to him at the moment.

"It has nothing to do with you either. Think about how this looks. You were going nuts in the middle of your birthday party over a woman that isn't your wife. Why do you care what Mike and Quinn did almost 3 years ago? You have your own issues to deal with, right here, right now. You keep demanding answers about your past, wanting everyone to be straight with you, well here it is man, hardcore honesty. You are about to lose everything you wanted because of a relationship that never really existed. You have not been serious about Quinn since you were a teenager. Think about that."

Will did have a point. What Quinn and Mike did years ago really didn't matter now and the fact that they were possibly a couple didn't even bother him that much, it was the fact that they chose to hide it from him that was disturbing. A dull ache began at the base of his skull as his mind resisted Will's words. He tried to hold fast to his belief that Quinn would never lie to him, especially not after their earlier conversation, but his faith was slipping fast, Will of all people had no reason to lie.

Sam rubbed his neck, staring at the floor, praying it would swallow him whole for the second time that night. Things had been so much clearer when it was just him and Quinn planning their future, working out ways to thwart his father. That was child's play compared to all of this. The woman he thought was his partner, his trusted friend, was starting to appear to be anything but that.

"I can't accept this because if I do then that means everything she's said could've been a lie."

"Hi. Hey Will."

Sam turned to see Quinn standing behind him, looking beautiful in her red dress.

"Hi there Quinn," Will said. "That's my cue to head back in. I'm sure Emma is looking for me."

Sam didn't bother to respond to his older brother's perfectly timed exit, he was too busy taking her in. Her shy smile transported him back to high school and to all those feelings when he was first falling for her. Anxious and overwhelmed, every cell on fire when she was near, Sam had never felt so physically attracted to anyone in his life, and once he got to know her the attraction only grew.

"Quinn, I'm so glad you're here," he said sighing in relief as he hugged her tightly.

Seeing her again and everything fell back into place. The shift in his axis, must have been temporary, because in her face the truth was clear, and the tension in his body eased. Quinn would never go back on her word or deceive him.

"I heard you calling my name," she said against his shoulder.

"Yes," Sam released her from his arms, clearing his throat. "I just...I needed to talk to you," he stammered. Now that she was here he didn't know how to begin. This all seemed too preposterous to even discuss, and yet he couldn't shake the feeling it was somehow all true. If only she'd look him in the eyes. "Mike told me something and I need to hear the truth from you."

"What did Mike say?" she asked still not meeting his eyes.

"He said you were in a relationship with him."

Finally she looked up. "I was. Briefly."

Sam had to take a step back, thrown by her response. If that were true, then things were as he feared. "But you didn't say a word."

"I didn't know how you would take it," She tucked the hair behind her ears as she spoke. "I didn't want to upset you, so I held back hoping for a better time to talk."

"Guess what, I'm upset." The relative calm he had achieved with Will, quickly dissipated in her presence. He crossed his arms across his chest attempting to physically hold himself together. The pounding in his head increased as his anger started to build.

"I see that. I can explain…" Her voice was shaky and her eyes filled with tears.

Sam ignored her obvious signs of distress and pushed forward. He had made it this far without falling apart, no need to stop himself now. "In the nursery, I asked you to look me in the eyes and tell me if there was anything else I needed to know, and you lied to my face. Didn't you?"

The words came out harsh and cold, revealing a level of anger he didn't know he had been feeling. Sam didn't know what he would do if she evaded his question. It was beyond surreal that he was even going here with her.

"Yes," she responded softly her voice barely audible above the muffled noise of the party coming through the closed door. "But I had no choice. Let me explain to you…" She stopped mid-sentence when he stepped closer raising her head by the chin.

Sam searched her face looking for some aspect of the woman he loved, she looked the same, but things felt so different. All that he knew seemed called into question. If he had been wrong about her, what else had he misconstrued?

"Quinn," he said almost choking out the word, her name getting caught in his throat. "What's happened to us?" he asked with the threatening sting of tears behind his eyes. He let his fingers slide through her hair, trying to hold on to something real with her. "How did you become someone I couldn't trust?"