#screwattack reader insert

Inside there were people everywhere. Men drinking and gambling. Women in gorgeous dresses entertaining the room. People from all walks of life nearly passed out along the bar. However, you didn’t have time to stop and take in everything as you made your way over to the stairs. As your foot hit the bottom step you heard the door swing open, clattering against the wall.

Casting a glance over your shoulder, you spotted the two Pinkerton agents you’d been trying to escape for the last day or so. They’d come down on the last job your group tried to pull a few towns over and lost the trail on most everyone else, but they’d been a little more clever when it came to looking for you. You knew that they didn’t know for sure that you were here, so you had to think fast.

You scurried up the stairs to try and put as much distance between you and the Pinkertons.

At the end of the hall you happened upon an open room and threw yourself into it, slamming the door harshly behind yourself. You slumped against the door momentarily to try and catch your breath before you had to think of a plan. From across the room the sound of someone clearing their throat caught your attention.

Your head whipped to the side to see a man sitting on the bed in the room. He had wild straw colored hair and eyes that looked like a lake in the midday sun. A worn brown leather hat sat beside him, and his vest was unbuttoned, as well as the top few buttons of his white shirt. He slowly lifted a bottle to his lips and took a long swig as he stared at you.

“I-I’m so sorry, sir. I didn’t mean to intrude on you. I was just tryin’ to-”

Before you could finish your sentence, the sound of heavy footfalls and loud knocking out in the hall came floating through the door. You could hear the Pinkertons going from room to room and your heart sank.

The man stood up and adjusted his belt as he did so, “Get under the bed.”

At first you weren’t sure if you heard him correctly, but then there was a thunderous knock at the door and he fixed you with a look. Nodding, you quickly rounded the bed and slipped underneath, holding your breath as the strange man pulled open the door. From where you were lying you could see only the man’s boots and the door was cracked enough to just see the boots of at least one of the Pinkerton’s in the hall.

“Evenin’, sir. We’re here with the Pinkerton Detective Agency lookin’ for a criminal that goes by the name of Y/N. She’s incredibly dangerous and possibly armed. Would you mind lettin’ us have a look around for her?”

There was a long pause and for a brief moment you were sure that the man was going to turn you over. “Well, I just got into town from a long trip and was just about to retire for the evenin’. I got myself a drink and came up to my room, so unless this mysterious woman is hiding in my bottle here, I don’t see a reason for you to be distrubin’ me like this,” he drawled, chuckling softly to himself.

“Have yourself a good night. Good luck findin’ her,” he said, taking a step back and closing the door tightly.

You waited under the bed for a bit longer until you could hear the Pinkerton’s walk off down the hall again. Slowly, you slipped back out and got to your feet, dusting off your clothes as you did so. “Thank you,” you breathed, giving him an uneasy smile.

“Y/N,” he spoke slowly, walking back to the bed sit down, “You run with the gang that’s been hidin’ in that old abandoned shiner’s house, huh?”

You rolled your eyes, “So much for hidin’ if everybody knows we’re there.”

He chuckled and nodded, “I’m Sam, by the way.”

“Thank you, again, Sam,” you said, walking closer, “I’ve got t’ get goin’ though. If they’re still lookin’ here, it’ll give me some time to get goin’.”

Before Sam could say much else, you bent at the waist to press a quick, but firm, kiss to his lips, as your other hand reached for the bed. “Maybe we’ll see each other again and I can repay you properly,” you grinned as you stood up. As you headed to the door, you raised a hand and settled Sam’s hat on the top of your head.

The people in the control room had cleared out pretty quickly. You removed your headphones and bent down to get your belongings off of the floor. Before you could stand back up, the door to the recording booth opened up behind you. You glanced over your shoulder and couldn’t help but smile brightly when you saw that it was Chad coming into the room.

“Hey, babe,” you greeted, standing up with your things in your hands.

Chad, however, did not respond. He crossed the small space between you in two long strides. You looked at him curiously but before you were able to say anything Chad had one hand cradling the back of your neck and the other securely grabbing hold of your hip. He urged you backwards until your body came into contact with the padding along the wall. The sudden movement essentially caused you to drop everything you were holding, and Chad did not wait to step closer until his front was pressed firmly to yours.

The next thing you knew, he all but slammed his lips to yours nearly knocked all wind from your lungs.It felt as though your brain lit on fire and the warmth spread throughout your entire body. You hardly had a moment to react before he pressed his tongue to the seam of you lips and, at your grant of access, delved inside your mouth. Your arms reached up on their own accord and tangled around his neck. Anchoring him there. In an instant you pulled away and arched up into his chest, moaning softly in the contact of body heat against my your, before I drew back into his lips.

You weren’t entirely sure how long the two of you had been there, intertwined with one another, or when exactly Chad’s hands had moved. But you could feel one grabbing firmly at your backside, pulling you that much closer to him, and the other hand slipped underneath your shirt and now the skin of your back felt on fire under his touch.

Had you been in the right state of mind, you would have remembered that you were in a recording booth at the office and anyone could either come into the control room or open the door. Your mind, however, wasn’t worried about any of that. The only thing you were concerned with was the fact that it had been almost two weeks since you’d seen Chad, let alone kissed him.

You laughed as you made your way in front of the cameras and waved to them, as well as the people around the stage. Almost as soon as you were there, Chad made his way over and wrapped you up in a hug, pressing a kiss to your cheek.You smiled and hugged him back and rubbed his back as he pulled away from you. “It looks like y’all have already caused too much chaos,” you observed, eyes scanning the area.

“Well, we try,” he chuckled, stepping to the side but keeping an arm around you.

Turning your head to look back at the Wheel of Vengeance a certain item written down caught your attention. “Uh… Chad, my love, what the fuck does, uh, ‘Surprise for Y/N’ mean?” you questioned slowly, looking back at the man at your side.

Chad only laughed and pressed another kiss to your cheek, “Don’t worry about it.”

You narrowed your eyes at him but he only slipped away from you and went to rejoin the shenanigans going on. With a sigh, you slipped off to find yourself a drink. A drink turned into two, which mysteriously became three, and somehow transformed itself into a fourth. The wheel was spun a few times but it always managed to just miss the section with your surprise inscribed on it.

Eventually you found yourself curled up on one of the couches near the wheel when Chad made his way over to the wheel which caught your attention. He smiled at you as he grabbed hold of one of the prongs and gave it a harsh pull sending it spinning. You watched through heavy and slightly bleary eyes. The wheel click-click-clicked until it slowed to a stop.

“Surprise for Y/N!” Chad shouted.

Your head perked up and you looked around for a moment, mildly confused. “What… what does that mean?” you asked softly, glancing back up at Chad. He smiled slightly though he suddenly looked a little nervous. Without a word, he hurried off towards the Off Topic set and promptly returned with a stool.

“Come sit,” he said, patting the cushion.

Quirking an eyebrow, you slowly pushed yourself up from your seat and slowly made your way over. Chad grabbed hold of your arm and helped you up onto the stool. He looked at you for a moment before he reached back over your head to grab the hood of the sweatshirt you were wearing to pull it up over your head and cover your face.

“Is this necessary?” you asked with a laugh.

Chad gave your head a gentle pat, “Absolutely. Now… no one say a fucking word.”

Very quickly it felt as though you were left completely alone, even though you knew that you were surrounded by people. You let out a sigh and began to tap a little impatiently at your legs. “I fucking hate this, by the way,” you said loudly, shifting anxiously on the spot. Around you, you could hear a sudden rush of whispers that for some reason set your anxiety on edge.

“Okay, Y/N, take your hood off,” Chad’s voice called from somewhere in front of you.

You raised your hands and grabbed hold of the hem of the hood, pushing it up just below your nose. “I don’t wanna,” you mumbled, letting out a nervous sort of laugh. Everyone around you chuckled and you heard Chad’s resigned sigh over all of it. You took a deep breath and very cautiously lifted the hood up, dropping it back behind your head. You looked around you but didn’t see Chad until you finally glanced down to see him just to your right.

Down on one knee.

Almost immediately, you felt your eyes fill with tear and your hands raised up to cover your mouth. The two of you had talked in the previous months about marriage and family, but suddenly being confronted with the prospect was more overwhelming than you had expected it to be. From out of nowhere, someone was holding a microphone in front of you as well as someone holding one for Chad.

“I hate you,” you nearly whimpered from behind your hands.

“Y/N, two years ago I could never have imagined I would be in this place. A place where I look into the eyes of my best friend and love them everyday. You are the sweetest, most loving, caring and kind person I have ever known, and I have no doubt that you make me a better man. You believe in me and have shown me how to love with unconditional acceptance and every day you reaffirm that you are my soul mate. Together we are an unbreakable pair, bound by our love. I'm not sure that a lifetime is long enough for me to return all that you have given me but I want to spend the rest of my life trying. So, Will you marry me?”

There was a sudden hush around all of broadcast as you looked down at Chad to see him pulling a beautiful ring out of his pocket to present to you. You could feel a few tears slip down your cheeks and slowly, you lowered your hands as you nodded your head. “Yes,” you very nearly whispered, voice wavering. “Yeah… yes,” you said a little louder, nodding more fervently. All around you people started to clap and cheer but all that you could focus on was Chad as he got to his feet and walked closer. He very quickly slipped the ring onto your finger before he grabbed hold of your chin between his thumb and forefinger to hold your head still and pressed a firm kiss to your lips.

You inhaled sharply through your nose and reached out to grasp at the sides of Chad’s neck. Slowly, the two of you pulled away from each other and you stared into eyes. A smile languidly made its way across your lips and Chad’s did the same. For just a moment in time, it was easy to forget that you were sitting in the middle of a crowded broadcast and on stream for thousands and thousands of people to see.

You struggled to your feet and looked around the parking lot in front of the warehouse that FakeAttack had been calling home. The lot is empty except for two vehicles. The one that you had just gotten out of, and a familiar looking all black muscle car that now looked like it was beyond repair due to the freefall of debris.

“Sam,” you gasped, rushing towards the inferno.

Heat licked at your face with every step you took and billows of smoke filled the air as well as your lungs. The large steel door had been blown almost completely off its hinges. You pulled your shirt up to cover your mouth and nose before forcing your way into the building. “Sam!” you called, hardly hearing your own voice over the crackling of the flames.

Support beams had fallen to the ground around you and you tried to maneuver around them to make your way back to the makeshift office area where you assumed that Sam would have been. However, before making it there you spotted a slumped over figure along the far wall. A fiery bit of something came careening from above you and you had to very nearly roll out of the way to avoid being crushed underneath.

With a bit of speed and strength you weren’t aware that you had, you pushed your way through the mess until you found yourself crouching next to Sam’s body. “Sammy,” you said, shaking his shoulder. He appeared to be breathing and he definitely stirred slightly but he did not wake up. You let out a low groan and slipped an arm underneath his in order to haul him to his feet. If making your way into the building had seemed hard, it was nothing compared to trying to escape with an unconscious man slumped against your side.

As you neared the door heading outside, the sound of frantic shouts and distant sirens met your ears.

Outside the warehouse, you gasped for fresh air and hardly noticed someone taking Sam from you. You all but collapsed to your knees and coughed violently as your eyes watered and tears streamed down your cheeks. It took some time to regain your composure but once you had, you looked up to see Ben and Chad crouched down with Sam leaning back against Chad’s car. From where you were it appeared like Sam’s eyes were open.

You pushed yourself unsteadily to your feet and tried to run over to the three of them, tripping along the way but never falling. Chad saw you coming. Both he and Ben moved out of the way as you approached. Without much thought, you fell to your knees beside Sam and took his face in your hands. He was covered in soot and ash but appeared no worse for the wear. You let out a relieved breath as you leaned in to all but crash your lips against his own. You pulled away almost as quickly as you had gone in and he looked back at you with wide eyes, and a slight grin.

“I gotta be caught up in gang warfare more often.”

You rolled your eyes, “I’m going to wait to make sure you’re okay before I kill you.”

“Good thing all your cool guns were blown up,” Sam laughed softly, cutting it short as he coughed loudly.

You couldn’t take your eyes off of a certain red-headed host as he stood against the paintball wall to take a few shots in order to finish the last punishment he had been handed. Before the ping pong game, you had seen the fall he took through the table and it made you more than a little nervous; your anxiety only growing with the passing comments of pain and discomfort he would make as he moved around.

Wanting to stay out of the way, you stood at the doors and just watched as the spaghetti slide came to a close. As everyone the stream was sent to its break between segments and everyone began to head back inside you managed to grab Chad’s hand and gingerly pull him aside. He had a relaxed and easy smile on his face despite just taking one of the most painful paintball shots he had ever experienced right in the middle of his stomach.

“You okay?” you asked in a soft voice.

Chad nodded. “Yeah, I’m great.”

“How is your elbow?” you asked, reaching out to gently touch the bend in his arm. “That fall looked pretty brutal.”

For a moment his face flushed with color but he shook his head and gave you a mildly reassuring smile. “I’m fine, babe, really. I think I hurt my ego more than anything,” he said with an almost forced chuckle.

You raised both of your eyebrows in disbelief and shook your head as you looked back at his arm. You touched his elbow, careful to go around and avoid the inner part of his arm knowing how squeamish it made him to have people touch him there. Casting a quick glance to his face, you noticed the momentary wince as you moved his elbow in your grip.

“Chad,” you sighed softly. “Please let the medic look at it.”

He rolled his eyes at you. “I did.”

“No. You let them put a fucking bandaid in it. I’m really worried it’s broken,” you confessed as you eased his arm back into a relaxed position before taking your hand away.

“It’s not broken,” Chad scoffed.

Pursing your lips slightly, you cocked your head to the side and fixed Chad with a less than impressed look. “Take it from someone who broke their elbow at a party, stayed at the party, and woke up the next day with a friggin’ grapefruit sized elbow… you need to have someone look at it,” you stressed, your tone firm.

Chad was quiet for a moment longer than you expected him to before he let out a resigned sigh and hung his head slightly. You knew that he would more than likely be fine for the rest of the night and you were well aware of the fact that he wanted to keep going strong because it was his first year as an official host for the whole event, but you were genuinely worried about him. He must have realized it, because he looked back up at you and nodded his head.

“Yeah, okay… I-I’ll have them look at it, okay?”

From across the table, you watched as Sam bit down on lip lower lip while he absently ran his fingers over his rather sizable stack of chips. He had knocked Ryan out in the last hand and it was just down to the two of you, though he definitely had more chips to play with than you did. Finally, he grabbed a few chips and placed them down in the center of the table near Jack.

“Three hundred,” Sam said as he reclined slightly in his seat.

You raised an eyebrow as you watched him carefully, trying to read his face. Part of you knew it was ridiculous to try. After being friends with Sam for over a year you knew that if he didn’t want you to get a read on his thoughts, you wouldn’t. You let out a sigh and, for the show of it, took another unnecessary peek down at the two cards sitting in front of you. Based on the four cards already sitting in the middle of the table, you were fairly confident that you would win regardless of what Sam had.

You cleared your throat and sat up a little straighter. “Hey, Sammy… I have a proposition for you,” you said as a smirk tugged at the corner of your lips. That seemed to catch his attention and he lifted his eyes from the table to your own, an intrigued expression sliding into place across his features.

“Go on,” he said.

Grinning, you leaned on the edge of the table to look closer at him. “We still have a wheel spin, right? How about instead of one of those punishments… I go all in, and you go all in… and the, uh, loser of this hand… has to do three rapid fire shots and get tazed between each,” you suggested, raising both of your eyebrows at him.

From your left Ryan let out and incredulous sound, “Jesus christ.”

Sam stared intently back at you with unwavering eye contact for what felt like way too long before he finally softened and nodded his head. “Sure thing, dude. You better pick something strong to drink,” he quipped, motioning for you to go ahead.

You shrugged a shoulder and pushed your moderate size of chips into the middle of the table and watched with glee as Sam followed suit. Jack shook his head and prepared to deal the River as he looked between the two of you. “Good luck,” he said, sounding a little more genuine than he had on previous hands. He flipped over the final card and you had to restrain yourself from smiling.

Sam, very cockily, flipped over his hand to reveal his card, showing his final hand of a flush. You nodded and gave him an impressed look. “A flush, that’s a good hand, Sam… too bad I have a straight flush,” you said as you flipped your cards. Sam’s eyes widened and he looked over the cards to see your straight flush in hearts sitting right in front of him. His face reddened and his eyes narrowed as he looked back up at you.

Finally, you came upon a larger conference room and found Chad and Geoff nearly nose to nose with bright red faces. From beside Geoff, Jack cleared her throat and elbowed him in the side before nodding in your direction. Chad noticed the movement as well and when he made eye contact with you his whole demeanor softened.

“Jesus, Y/N, you’re okay,” he breathed a sigh of relief.

Chad turned away from both Geoff and Jack to walk over and grab you by the sides of the face. He gently turned your head from side to side, inspecting your condition, before looking down your front as well. “You are okay, right?” he asked cautiously. “When we lost communication the last thing we heard was an explosion and you yelling.”

You gave Chad a slight grin as you reached a hand up to pat him reassuringly on the shoulder. “I’m alright, promise. A few scrapes and bruises, but I’ll be fine. That explosion was one of Merryweather’s trucks that caught a very well timed grenade,” you explained with a light chuckle. However, Chad didn’t seem to be sharing in your amusement. The slight relief he had experience at your entrance was now gone and a mask of apprehension now sat in its place.

“Chad, what’s wrong?”

He cast a glance over his shoulder and for a moment Jack and Geoff looked almost remorseful. Your hands began to shake ever so slightly and Chad lowered his hands from your face to your shoulders, holding you steady. “We… We’re waiting for Sam, Torrian, and Michael to get back. Torrian called in just before you got here… they got ambushed,” he explained in a low voice, eyes locked on your own.

On any given day that wouldn’t be news enough to worry anyone; Sam and Torri were more than capable, especially with Michael on their side, but there was obviously something off. The uneasy edge to Chad’s voice and the almost anxious expressions on Jack and Geoff’s faces made it feel as though your heart sank into your stomach before your stomach plummeted off the side of a cliff.

“Did… is he?”

Before you were able to get the words out, the elevator down the hall jolted to life and began to heave itself back towards the surface. The four of you exchanged silent looks and, almost in unison, hurried out towards the main garage and entrance area. At the very top, you were just able to make out the dark night sky before the sounds of a car squealing to a stop and the elevator moving again drew your attention. The expansive doors closed with a resounding thud and the wait for the elevator itself was almost excruciating.

At the bottom, Michael was the first to come stumbling out of the car and he immediately began yelling into the bunker for Steffy, Larry… somebody. Torrian was quick to follow him but he promptly pulled open the back door and in that moment it felt as though your blood had run cold in your veins. The distant sound of running footsteps barely registered in your ears as you stared at the open car door and Torrian’s back.

As Torrian took a step back, you were able to see a tattooed arm slung over his shoulder and a limp head of blonde hair resting against his arm. Suddenly your mouth was dry and your stomach splattered at the bottom of the canyon it had tripped down earlier. You made a move to get closer but almost immediately Austin was in front of you, obscuring your vision and all but pushing you backwards away from the scene.

You attempted to side step him and in that moment you were able to catch a glance of Torrian and Ben carrying Sam off down the hall towards what you could only assume was a Medbay. “Austin, move,” you murmured, trying to get away from him. However, he only came nearer still and wrapped an arm around your middle to hold you closer to his body. The closeness paired with the sudden rapid pounding of your heart in your chest only set off your anxiety and you found yourself thrashing against Austin, only prompting him to hold you tighter.

“Let me go! Let me go, Austin,” you all but screeched, not at all caring how it looked to anyone else around you. “I need to see him! We were supposed to go together tonight and now he’s hurt! Austin!”

Austin grunted lowly and managed to pick you up despite your desperate attempts to get away from him. Your arms and legs swung and kicked almost uselessly as Austin carried you off in the opposite direction, the sounds of your shouts echoing off of the walls as he went. By the time that you gave up struggling, Austin unceremoniously dropped you in what appeared to be a bunk room before turning and exiting the room, the sound of the door closing ringing in your ears.

You scrambled to your feet and hurried to the door, attempting to pull it open but you found it to be secured shut. “Austin! You piece of shit! Let me out! I need to see him!” you screamed at the metal door. You lifted your hands and pounded at it repeatedly. You were unsure of how long you stood there beating uselessly at the door but you stepped away when your hands ached unpleasantly and your head began to throb painfully. Your eyes scanned the entire room for a way out. The image of Sam’s head hanging over Torrian’s arm while he rushed him off was burned into your head and all you wanted to do was see your best friend and make sure he was okay.

The room you were in had no windows and only one door but that didn’t deter you from circling in desperately in an attempt to find someway out of it. The rational portion of your brain knew that Austin did what he thought was right in removing you from the situation but now that you were alone in your thoughts all you could focus on was the nagging guilt in your stomach. The original plan had been for you to go with Sam and Michael on their portion of the mission but a last minute piece of information lead you to asking Chad if Torrian could take your place while you went a different way.

Maybe if you had stayed Sam would have been okay.

If you stayed, maybe things would have turned out better for the both of you.

Finally, giving up, you laid yourself down on one of the cots in the room and stared at the slate grey ceiling. The silence in the room was deafening, and you hadn’t noticed it until you were still. With a long sigh, you turned to your side and allowed your eyes to close. You knew that it wasn’t likely for you to fall asleep but you figured it would be the only thing you could do until someone came to let you out of your impromptu solitary confinement.

Suddenly, your head jolted upward along with your body, letting you know that you fell asleep. Your eyes grew wider than usual and took on a wild look as you scanned for new signs of danger. For a few seconds you felt confused, unsure of where you were, until the memories came flooding back. You let out a groan as you shifted on the cot to sit on the edge. Your body had grown stiff and the minor aches you had before were now edging towards nagging pains. There was no clock to be found and you didn’t have you phone with you so you were not entirely sure how long you had been there for.

The door gave a loud clunk and pushed open, which startled you and made you jump to your feet. Chad was standing in the doorway with Torrian right behind him, both of their expressions on readable. The three of you stood in a relative silence for what felt like hours until you finally snapped and charged at them. You shoved Chad backwards, knocking him into Torrian’s chest, and hauled your arm back to slap him across the face. The sound of skin against skin echoed down the barren corridor behind them.

You could see numerous expressions flood Chad’s face before he sighed as he righted himself, rubbing at his cheek. “I deserved that,” he mumbled, shaking his head. “But, Y/N, you have to understand why I had Austin take you away. You’re not the only one to be removed from situations,” he tried to explain.

“No, but I’m the only one who never got the warning. I’m the only one to be picked up and carried away with no goddamn idea what was doing on,” you countered, sticking a finger harshly into the center of Chad’s chest.

Torrian, sensing that both and and Chad were reaching your boiling points, stepped around Chad and into the room, placing a hand on your shoulder. “Look, Y/N… Sam is stable and in the medbay. Let me take you to him, okay?” he offered. You looked away from Chad and up at Torrian before you let out a soft sigh and nodded your head. Torrian returned your nod and lead you back of the room, laying a pat to Chad’s shoulder as he passed, before taking you up the hall.

“What happened, Torri?” you asked softly once away from Chad.

Torrian sighed and ran a hand over the back of his neck. “Man, I don’t know. There were so many dudes, more of them than we thought there would be, and after we got the stuff they just swarmed us. Michael and I ran for the car to get out but Sam wanted to clear us a path,” he explained.

A wave of nausea reared up in your stomach and for just a moment you were worried you would actually get sick on the cement floor. You swallowed down the rising bile in your throat and inhaled slowly through your nose in an attempt to quell the sickness inside of you. Vaguely you were aware of the fact that Torrian was continuing to talk but there was a part of you that was thankful that you weren’t picking up on it; you didn’t need to hear all the details of what had happened to Sam.

Finally, Torrian came to a stop and turned to face you. He looked more serious than you had ever seen him and that worried you more than anything else. “He’s okay,” he said, sighing softly. “He’s just hurt. Ben and Steffy got the bleeding to stop and he was just waking up when I came to get you… Just know he looks pretty roughed up.”

You nodded your head slightly and turned to face the door leading into the medbay. “Yeah, thanks, Torri,” you murmured softly. You took a few deep breaths and stared at the door in front of you as you tried to work up the courage to actually push it open. It seemed as though the door itself was mocking you, like behind it all the answers were laid out but you were just being too much of a chickenshit to even try to open it. With one last resigned sigh, you grasped the handle in your fingers and pushed the cumbersome door open with your shoulder.

The medbay itself was brighter than any other room in the facility that you had seen up until that point, and it wasn’t as quiet. There was a soft hum of monitoring equipment and a consistent beep coming from within the room. Not far from the entrance, you spotted Sam lying in one of the beds and you let go of the door in shock. The sound of the door closing firmly drew his attention and he lolled his head to the side to look at you.

A bandage was wrapped around Sam’s head, and a spot near his temple was already discolored with the blood from underneath, while his face was littered with bruises and lacerations. He gave a weak half smile at seeing you there.

“You look like you’ve never seen a guy who got shot six times and stabbed in the side,” he joked.

The lighthearted nature of his words coming from his busted lips instantly pushed you past your breaking point and suddenly your eyes filled with tears. An unexpected sob pushed its way up from your chest and you had to clamp a hand over your mouth to hold back the noise. Through your watery vision, you could see Sam scrambling and attempting to push himself to sit up.

“No!” you nearly shouted from behind your hand as you hurried over. “Lay down. Fuck, don’t get up. You need to rest.”

Sam slowly allowed himself to settle settle back down, “Y/N… are you okay? Why are you crying?”

“Because I’m angry, and scared, and relieved… and I fucking hate you,” you bemoaned, sitting yourself down on the bed beside Sam’s. You sniffled slightly and wiped at your face with you hands to get rid of the tears. Your eyes stung painfully so you used the heel of your hands to press into them, trying to get rid of the pain. “Fuck, you could have died, Sammy. You’re so fucking stupid. Why would you try and hold off a fucking ambush instead of just getting out? Do you know how scared I was when Chad told me? Austin had to carry me off kicking and screaming; I didn’t know if you were alive or dead.”

“Why did he do that?”

You groaned and lowered your hands do you could look over at Sam. For the first time in all the years that you’d known him there was suddenly a crack in the veneer of him. He didn’t seem like the untouchable kid you’d met when you first joined FakeAttack. Sure, over the years the both of you had seen your fair share of injuries from the job but nothing like what happened today, and you were almost always together when it happened. You always had each others backs.

Until now.

Now he was hurt and you weren’t there when it happened.

“Because… because he and Chad aren’t idiots,” you finally answered, sighing softly. “Because I’m in love with you and I didn’t even know it until I couldn’t save you tonight or even just be there to bring you back. I had to watch helplessly as Torrian slung you out of that car and dragged you off and my entire body was screaming at me to not leave you.”

An unfamiliar silence fell between the two of you and for a moment you had to struggle with yourself not to just up and leave the room all together. Sam blinked back at you as he processed your words until he carefully lifted a hand and held it out in your direction, his fingers slowly beckoning you closer. Slowly, you got to your feet and walked closer to his bed. Once you were close enough, Sam’s hand gingerly took hold of your own and your eyes focused on it as his fingers laced with yours.

“I’m sorry you were so scared,” he whispered, his voice uncharacteristically soft. “I… I never want you to feel like that.”

You smiled weakly and let out a low scoff, “Well, don’t be such a fucking idiot.”

Sam narrowed his eyes, “Hey! Don’t be such a bitch, I’m trying to spill by guts here.”

“I thought you did that when you got stabbed,” you shot back.

There was a brief moment of silence before Sam laughed loudly. Though the laugh was cut short as he let out a low groan and used his free hand to carefully rest against his stomach. You bit you lower lip softly and lowered yourself to sit on the edge of his bed. The two of you looked at one another for what could have been hours before Sam finally cleared his throat and nodded his head slightly.

“When I’m able… I wanna take you out.”

You raised a single brow at him, “I just told you I love you and you’re plotting to kill me?”

Sam let out a more pained groan than he had previously and allowed his head to drop back against the pillow and his eyes flutter shut. You bit at your lower lip again and waited for him to reopen his eyes and look back at you. When he did, all you could do was smile brightly back at him. All of the pain and anxiety you had been feeling had all but disappeared. You gave his hand a gentle squeeze before you slowly stood up and took a step back, dropping his hand.

“I should go apologize to Austin, for call him a piece of shit… and Chad for slapping him,” you murmured, taking a few more steps backward.

The afternoon was spent picking pumpkins to bring home and carve, playing games, and eating delicious fair food. As the day was coming to an end, the two of you decided to give the corn maze a go before heading back to the car and going home. However, you entered the maze the clouds overhead seemed to be closer and darker than ever.

“We’re going to get rained on,” you said with a light chuckle, taking Sam’s hand.

He glanced to the sky and shook his head, leading you down a path, “I should have worn different shoes.”

You rolled your eyes a little and followed behind him with a grin on your face, allowing him to pull the both of you along to try and find the exit. It seemed to you after a while that Sam was finding the task a little more difficult than he was putting on. “Do you have any idea which way to go?” you asked after he had been stopped at a fork in the path for a good thirty seconds.

“Left, duh. Adventurers go left.”

He set off to the left path and you dutifully followed behind him. “I feel much less like an adventurer and more like a person following their idiot boyfriend through a corn maze that children easily complete,” you teased. Sam stopped abruptly and turned to face you, but before he could even open his mouth, you felt a large, cold drop of rain land on your nose. Almost in sync, the both of you looked up towards the sky just in time for the clouds to open up and the rain to fall.

Without another word, Sam looked back at you and began to pull you along again. You couldn’t help but let out a slight laugh as you gripped his hand just a little tighter to avoid losing him. The longer it took for the two of you to make up your minds and pick a direction, the worse the ground under your feet became. At one point, you were sure your shoe was going to come off of your foot but Sam thankfully helped you over that particular patch of mud.

“Sam, I think we should go this way,” you said loudly over the rain, tugging his hand.

He shook his head and tried to pull you in the opposite direction, “Nah, it’s this way.”

Neither one of you really wanted to relent and go the way the other had chosen so you each pulled harder to try go your way. As Sam yanked on your hand, you could feel your feet slipping in the slick mud and before you were able to stop it, you felt yourself slip and run right into Sam, knocking him down in the process. You landed with a groan on top of him. For a few moments, the two of you laid there in the mud and rain, completely silent, until you finally broke and let out a loud bark of laughter. Sam stayed quiet for a beat longer before he too started to laugh.

“God dammit, Y/N…” he huffed, sitting up slightly.

You turned to look at him as you sat up as well and let out another loud laugh. When he landed, the mud must have flown up and splashed his face as now he had specks of mud running down his cheeks and glasses. “You look like shit,” you chuckled. Sam narrowed his eyes at you and made an attempt to stand up, only slipping a time or two before he was finally able to get to his feet. He allowed you to stay on the ground with your giggles before he reached down to haul you up as well.

Finally, your laughter died down and you smiled up at him as you reached out to push his soaking wet hair away from his face. “Let’s get the fuck out of here, yeah?” you grinned, using a thumb to brush some of the mud from his face. “Then we can go home and get in a nice, warm bath.”