Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 38th cycle. Now cycle 39!

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"First Test"
Sam/Mercedes
Samcedes Firsts (following 'First Fight')

She knew something was happening. He hadn't said it yet, but it couldn't be denied. She didn't know what it was, but she'd worked by process of elimination.

She didn't think he was cheating on her or planning to break up with her. Maybe it was wishful thinking, but she saw how he was with her. Nothing had changed. He was just as great with her, still lit up when he saw her…

He wasn't in trouble, he wasn't sick… Whatever it was, she was thinking he either wasn't ready to say it, or he couldn't… Maybe he had to be sure… It would turn out she was absolutely right.

One day he called and asked if he could come over, and she knew this was it, he was going to tell her. She didn't think she'd be nervous, but she was. It was one thing to think about what it would be, but now she would know… There would be no going back.

When he showed up, she knew she'd been right about what it wasn't, now as to what it was… He looked conflicted, like he was happy but had hesitations about it. "Hey…" he'd smiled when she opened the door, waited until she'd let him in and shut the door before leaning in to kiss her.

"Hey," she smiled. "Want to go upstairs?"

"Okay…" he gave a small nod, followed. When they got to her room, she could see he just wanted to get it out, so she didn't stand in his way.

"What's going on?"

"My father got a job," he started.

"He did?" she smiled. "Sam, that's great news!" She moved and hugged him. She knew how much his whole family had been hanging on the hope that this would happen.

"There's more. We get… a house, furnished…" She could see how much joy and relief this gave him, how it was even more than he could hope for.

"Wow…" she shook her head, practically tearing up for him.

"Yeah…" he was there, too, but then there was a pause to it. "It's in Kentucky." She blinked, taken aback.

"Oh…" she tried not to sound disappointed, but all of a sudden she could imagine him being… not there, not just somewhere else but away from here… from her. "When do you…"

"Couple of weeks… We weren't sure it was going to work out, and then we just wanted to find something in Lima… We could never get something like this though…" He shook his head.

"No, but… this is good news," she breathed.

"It did feel that way… until I got here…" he sighed, and she nodded as he moved to hug her. She didn't want to say the thing that was on her mind. The way he held on to her though… It was on his mind, too. "It's not like it's… California or something. We'll still see each other," his voice was at her ear and she squeezed once more before pulling back to look at him.

"So you're not… breaking up…" she shook her head… He laughed.

"They could move us to… another country or continent, I wouldn't break up with you." He paused. "Other planet though, then I might have to…" he joked, and now she laughed, despite herself. "We'll make this work somehow," he swore.

"Glad to hear it," she beamed.

"Upside of being homeless, we're not spending our last weeks in Lima packing up stuff," he shrugged. "So we can spend as much time as we can… together." This should have cheered her up, but instead it reminded her he was leaving.

"Can you just hug me again?" she begged, and he obliged.

"We'll get through this," he promised.

They had twelve days left before the Evans family drove off to Kentucky. Like they'd said, they would spend as much of that time together as possible.

One day they'd gone and seen three movies in a row. They'd taken Stevie and Stacey along, knowing they'd get a kick out of it. Once they were enthralled by the movie it left Sam and Mercedes the chance of either sit back and watch, or whisper, or kiss…

They'd gone to the karaoke bar, spending an evening putting on their favorite kind of performance: 'bad-on-purpose.' The best part of the game was always trying to one-up each other. Sam would usually end up winning…

They'd had dinner at Breadstix, reminiscing on the prelude to their first sort-of-date, with Jesse and Rachel before prom. This brought on the subject of Glee Club, and they paused.

"Have you told any of them?" she asked.

"Glee Club? Not yet… Guess I don't want to make a big deal out of it," he shrugged.

"We're your friends," she pointed out. "We'll miss you, all of us."

"Even Santana?" he joked.

"Yes," she laughed.

"Alright," he nodded. "Too bad we never got to do our duet like we wanted," he realized, and she frowned, remembering.

"Not like we ever made up our minds."

"Yeah… maybe that's a sign."

The days just went on disappearing so fast, before they could even realize. And then one morning there it was… The car was packed and they were driving off. Mercedes had gone out to the motel to say goodbye.

As suggested, Sam had revealed his departure to Will and the rest of Glee Club. This had led to another trip to the karaoke bar for a round of bad-on-purpose, only with all of Glee Club. They hadn't gone and revealed their romance, so Mercedes had played innocent, like they hadn't played this game before. The night had come down to Brittany (almost literally) killing a Celine Dion song and Kurt and Rachel duetting with Rachel on a misguided interpretation of a power ballad. The debate would carry on for weeks.

With the car packed, Stevie and Stacey already buckled in, and Mr. & Mrs. Evans checking out at the front desk, the moment was drawing near on them to have to part. Sam was holding on to her and she was holding right back.

"You'll call when you get there, right?"

"First thing I do," he promised.

"And I'll come visit in two weeks," she reminded him.

"Can't wait to see you." He was seeing his parents returning and he sighed, pulling back to kiss her.

"It's been the best summer," she looked like she'd cry. He shook his head.

"Summer's not over."

"Right…" she smiled. "So it's not goodbye…"

"It's 'see you in two weeks,'" he nodded.

THE END

A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!