"Sam, what are we doing here? We're not supposed to be here...alone...together" glancing up, Quinn realized that Sam was standing only a few inches away, gazing now eye to eye.

"My dear, if you didn't want to be here" Sam's hand gently brushed the side of Quinn's face "you wouldn't be. There is not a person on this planet that could make you do something you don't want to do. So" Sam placed both hands on Quinn's face "if you want me to stop" Sam slowly moved closer and closer to Quinn's face "all you have to do" with their lips a hair's breadth away Sam whispered "is say so."

"Stop" Quinn said with the smallest voice that could still be heard, pain etched so deeply, it couldn't not be heard. On the edge of tears, Quinn continued "You know how much I do want to be here" Quinn turned away, heart tearing as Sam's hands were pulled away."Being here.....is wrong. Being here...with you...is..." Quinn couldn't force the words out, they hurt too much.

Sam placed both hands on Quinn's shoulders. "I understand, this hurts. If you want me" Sam placed the gentlest of kisses on Quinn's cheek "you know where to find me." Without turning around, Quinn felt Sam leave like a fire going out and leaving someone in the cold. And at that moment Quinn would do almost anything to be warm, even to the one person that had tried so hard to be warm and had yet to succeed.

"Jo, I'm home." An acknowledging grunt came from the living room. "Well, at least I pretty much always know where to find you." Quinn muttered

"You say something?" Jo called "No, I'm not talking to you guys. Quinn is back" Jo continued to talk to people hundreds of miles away over a headset that was rarely ever off, while all but completely ignoring the person they were married to, in the same room. Jo continued playing whatever game the group had decided to play at that moment.

Tired of being ignored yet again, Quinn sighed and headed past Jo and into the kitchen "I'm going to get something to eat and then go to bed." Suddenly perking up, Jo followed, got right up behind Quinn, and whispered into Quinn's ear while slithering arms went around Quinn's waist "Should I join you, my little plaything. Maybe we can have a little fun." Quinn suddenly lost the desire to eat "You know what, I don't feel very well. I think I'm just going to bed and hope I feel better tomorrow. I have to work."

Jo huffed and backed away. "Of course you do. You always do. You never have time for me anymore."

"Well, one of us has to work, and we both know it's not gonna be you." Quinn muttered as the last of Sam's warmth seeped from Quinn's heart. And while Quinn did go to bed, sleep was just as elusive as the warmth that was nearly impossible to find let alone hold onto, but sleep did come...eventually.

As much as Quinn tried to keep Sam at arm's length in the realms of reality, the realm of dreams is much harder to control...especially when you don't want to. One minute Quinn has alone in bed desperately trying to hold back tears, and not quite succeeding. The next minute, Quinn was headed into the one place that always called, like a siren's song, Sam's arms.

Quinn was suddenly back in the same kitchen as about an hour ago, but this time the arms around them were warm and gentle instead of cold and demanding. Quinn couldn't help the smile that came from Sam's touch. Quinn felt warm soft lips place a kiss on the back of their neck and that warmth spread throughout the rest of their body all the way down to their toes. They turned around in Sam's arms, and wrapped their arms around Sam's shoulders, and placed their lips as close to Sam's as possible without actually touching "Hey you"

"Hello, darling" Sam's breath brushed across Quinn's face, and it nearly took their breath away. Sam then closed the distance and kissed with more passion and love than Jo could ever muster. Sam's hands moved from Quinn's back and onto their face, pulling the kiss in even tighter, and once they were as close as two separate bodies could be a spark clicked into place. Quinn pulled away from the kiss just long enough to say "come with me."

On the way up the stairs to Quinn's room, the lovers never broke contact, touching, kissing, arms around each other. Once in the room, they resumed their passionate kiss, only this time it didn't stop there.

Quinn's hand slid up Sam's chest and to the button's on their shirt practically ripping them off, as Sam did the same to Quinn's jeans. Sam shrugged off their shirt and used Quinn's to pull them onto the bed and then pulled it up over Quinn's head. While they both wriggled off their jeans, Quinn used one hand to prop themself up and continued to kiss Sam's neck. Sam's hands were on Quinn's waist. One of Quinn's hands was still propping them up, while the other was slowly working its way down Sam's body.

Just as Quinn's wandering fingers found their way under the band of Sam's underwear, they heard thumping coming up the stairs. The door flew open and before Quinn or Sam had time to react, or even think there was a hand on each of their shoulders ripping the two apart.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Jo demanded as they pinned Quinn against the wall, Sam was so shocked that they remained where they were on the bed. "I could kill you for this!" the second Jo's hand went from Quinn's shoulder to their throat Sam's stupor was broken and they started to move toward Quinn and Jo.

"Get your hands off of-" Sam was interrupted by the cocking of a gun. Jo had one hand on Quinn's throat but not yet squeezing, and the other pointing a gun at Sam.

"And you" Jo's gaze turning for the first time from Quinn to Sam "you, I would kill with pleasure."

"No, please" Quinn begged. When did this perfect dream turn into a nightmare? "It will never happen again. I'll never see Sam again, just let them go. I swear."

"But how can I believe you?" Jo turned back to Quinn, but the gun stayed trained on Sam "didn't you swear to be with me and only me when we got married in the first place?"

"But how could you expect Quinn to stay with you when you treat them like this?" Sam tried to move closer slowly enough that Jo wouldn't notice.

"The only thing keeping me from shooting you right now is not wanting your blood on my bed, so don't push it or I may just do it and get a new mattress."

"You're right" this got both Jo and Sam's attention as they both snapped their eyes to Quinn, who now had tears rolling down their face. Quinn glanced at Sam for a split second and then locked eyes with Jo. Slowly Quinn lifted a hand to Jo's face, Jo flinched a little at the touch but then leaned into it. Jo's grip loosened on Quinn's throat until it was no longer holding them in place, but simply resting on their neck, without thinking, their gun hand also began to lower a little. "I haven't been as faithful to you as I should have been" Quinn raised their other hand to Jo's face "I have strayed from you, and I let someone else catch my attention. But you are the one that I married, the one I swore to love." In the corner of their eye, Quinn could see that Sam had understood what was happening, and was edging ever so slowly closer to the gun. "I am sorry that this happened, and I will never let it happen again." Quinn could see that Sam was almost close enough to grab the gun, but they were losing Jo. So before Jo could look at Sam to see what was happening, Quinn pulled them into a kiss. It tasted sour against Quinn's lips, but it had done the trick, it distracted Jo long enough for Sam to grab for the gun. Unfortunately, Sam's grip on the gun was not as strong as Jo's, and they quickly lost hold completely and fell to the floor. Jo turned back to Quinn and slapped them down onto the bed so hard that their vision flickered. "You have now only succeeded in one thing" Jo turned back to Sam and aimed "I may have not wanted blood on the bed, but I've always hated this carpet!"

The shot still rang through Quinn's ears as they shot up in bed. "NO!" Quinn screamed before they realized that it was all a dream. The fact that they were in the same room that the dream had occurred, in almost the same spot even, made it even more disorienting. Jo, the real Jo, quickly rolled over to try to figure out what was going on.

"What's wrong?" Jo tried to put a hand on Quinn's shoulder to calm them, but instead gave them Deja Vu of being pinned to the wall and slapped so Quinn flinched away and even threw hands up to protect themself. Suddenly very concerned Jo also sat up "hey, it's just me. What happened?"

Quinn knew that they could never tell Jo the truth without revealing their feelings for Sam and putting them in the same danger as in the dream. "It was nothing" Quinn was still trying to catch their breath, but each one almost hurt, they were so scared "it was just a nightmare."

"Do you want to talk about it? It might help."

"No!" Quinn answered, a little more bitingly than they intended so they said it again, much gentler this time "no. I just want to forget about it and go back to sleep." But Quinn couldn't close their eyes without seeing the fear on Sam's face. "I'm going to go get some water and maybe some air. Go back to sleep, I'll be back in a few minutes." As Quinn turned to get up Jo caught their arm, and it took all their strength not to tear it away.

"Alright" Jo kissed Quinn's forehead, Quinn had to fight back a sob at the touch. "Just let me know if you need anything." Not trusting their voice, Quinn nodded and got up, leaving as quickly as possible without raising Jo's suspicion.

The second Quinn was out the back door and out of earshot, they pulled out their phone and called the one voice they desperately needed to hear at that moment.

"Hello," a groggy-sounding Sam answered on the other end.

"Oh thank god" Quinn knew it had been a dream but was still relieved to hear that Sam was ok.

At the sound of panic in Quinn's voice, all signs of sleepiness left Sam's. "What's wrong? What happened?"

"Nothing, I just had the most awful nightmare and needed proof that it wasn't real. I needed to know that you were ok."

"What happened?" Sam repeated.

"Jo found us... together" Quinn paused to let all of the implications of the word sink in but was also momentarily distracted by remembering the way it felt.

"Oh" Sam clearly understood but still let Quinn continue.

"Jo threw me against the wall and pointed a gun at you. I tried to stop them, but it wasn't enough, and they sho-..." Quinn lost it and crumpled to the ground in tears, reliving the moment was too painful to say out loud. Having dropped the phone to catch themself when they fell, they picked up the phone again only to hear stunned silence on the other end.

"you...dreamt of us together?"

This was not the response that Quinn was expecting, they were so caught off guard that not only did they stop crying they couldn't help but let out a chuckle "really? That's what you latch on to from what I just told you? That I dreamt of us together."

"Well, we've never actually been together. So yeah, it caught my attention. But also I was hoping to make you smile. Did it work?"

Though they were still upset, they couldn't help it and couldn't lie. "Yeah, a little."

"Good" Quinn could hear the slight smile and relief in Sam's voice. "Now onto the other half of the dream" and then the smile was gone just as quickly as it had come. "You don't really think Jo would hurt you would they?"

"Me? What about you?" Quinn's panic was starting to build again.

And Sam could clearly hear it "hey, calm down. It was just a dream, I'm ok. It's not like Jo actually has a gun, right?" The silence that followed made neither of them more comfortable.

"They have one, but I don't know if they have bullets for it, or if it even fires. It's an antique they got from a friend a long time ago. And before you ask, yes, it is the gun I saw in my dream."

"Oh" Sam was sounding less confident now "well..."

"I don't know what to do. The last thing that I want is for you to get hurt. I lo-" Quinn stopped, neither of them had said the L-word yet, but Quinn could no longer deny that that is what they felt. "I love you, Sam".

Quinn could hear nothing but their own heartbeat in their ears. And they counted several before having the courage to speak again. "Sam?"

"Y-you lov..." Sam trailed off.

Quinn could feel the cracks spreading through their heart "I'm sorry, I know this is a lot to throw at you all at once. Clearly this is going too fast, I jus-"

"I love you too, Quinn"

Just as if they'd never been there, the cracks on Quinn's heart sealed up and it began to race. New tears filled Quinn's eyes, very different than the ones before. "Y-you do?"

"Of course I do. Would I take a call at 3 am from you if I didn't?" Sam was obviously trying to lighten the mood, but the words were no less sincere.

"I just.....I don't know what to do now." Knowing Sam felt the same way was one thing, but it didn't solve the biggest problem Quinn still had, Jo.