Folle Sagesse

AnniKay

Sam/Mercedes/Puck

Disclaimer: I own Nothing…Murphy, Falchuk, and Brennen along with Fox and others own this fandom and all the characters there in…Anything you recognize obviously belongs to them

*****PLEASE NOTE: Thanks for this story's title goes to MsLadyThankYouVeryMuch. The Title translates into Foolish Wisdom.*****

****THANKS to everyone who has taken the time to review! Your encouragement helps more than you know!****
Thank all of you for being avid readers & reviewers of my stories:
I appreciate all of you.

Boredom Busting Fic Reread Rec
As I See It Trilogy by LadiJ

Isis Aurora Tomoe You are the most awesome Beta ever. Thank you for being such a help in my time of need! Princess 976 Welcome to the LF Beta Team!

***Jehovah blessed the world with Prince Rogers Nelson for 57 years. To all of us, his multitude of fans, it feels as if he was taken entirely too soon, but I imagine that Prince was needed to give the Holy Choir a new sound. Rest in Peace Prince. Thank you for creating the soundtrack to my life & my sexual maturation.***

Pardon Me (Incubus)
Mercedes PoV

We must have lost our freaking minds. That was really the only explanation for how the hell we thought we could go from the summer we'd just experienced straight into the school year without any break at all. And even more we were working full time and taking two full course loads. The first week back in New York, we had absolutely no time to breathe let alone to think. We got in Monday afternoon and immediately had a fairly long meeting with our new bodyguards. They laid out a whole new set of 'guidelines' that were actually pretty much our new way of life. Sam, Noah and I were each presented with bracelets that contained a tracker. Whoever had done the purchasing had gotten things really right. Mine was a cute Michael Kors silver and black toggle link bracelet, that was actually soldered on so that only Hector, Rangeman's tech guru or his New York counterpart 'Grunt'…I decided not to ask; only those two could remove it. Both of my men received silver and black David Yurman chevron bracelets…their clasps were soldered together as well.

"Is it really necessary to make them unremovable?" Sam asked quietly. Everyone knew that he was asking more about me than him or Puck since they barely wore jewelry, just their 'wedding' rings. "What about when we wash our hands or shower?"

Grunt simply grunted, Hector said something in rapid Spanish. It was Manny who explained. "Unfortunately yes. It helps to prevent against acts of rebellion, acts of malice and acts of God. Do not worry, the tracker chips are well insulated and completely water proof."

Ranger, via skype, and his men told us that we were no longer going to be able to take the subway to our classes…hardly at all. Instead, we'd be using the Tahoe or Rangeman's vehicles or the boys would use Puck's bike. "We've already placed trackers on both of your private vehicles; we have a third one for Sam if he decides to get his own during the course of the contract."

Puck scoffed. "I didn't decide to get my bike. Don't get me wrong, I love it and it is perfect…wouldn't trade it for the world, but my husband and wife got me that ride." He said proudly. Then he got that look in his eye. "Sexy Mama, we should totally get Sammy Boy a bike of his own."

Sam shook his head. "In case it slipped your mind, I don't actually know how to ride a motorcycle. I mean, yeah I've been on the back of yours, but I don't actually know how to ride one by myself."

"You can ride a horse, can't you?" Noah shot back. "Same thing."

"Well, that was an amazingly gross simplification…to the point of being actually wrong." Santana added her two cents from over by the menu drawer. "You do realize that you basically just said that since Trouty can ride a bicycle then he can automatically ride a motorcycle?"

Before Puck could launch a rejoinder, Binkie spoke quietly, "We can teach you."

"Okay, cool…thank you." Sam replied sensing that Binkie was like his grandpa had been, very quiet and not one to speak up. He was not going to do anything to make the older man clam up unnecessarily.

"Yeah, thank you." I agreed and then Puck cosigned. I didn't ask for any lessons myself. I'd have to get up the nerve to even be a passenger on one of those things before I could actually learn to ride one solo.

"We can get you something cool to learn on. Harley's are not beginner bikes." Puck added. "I learned on a Yamaha SR 400."

Sam shrugged. "I wouldn't want to have the same bike as you anyway…that seems too matchy…too cutesy. My grandpa had a Triumph Bonneville that he would take MeMaw out on sometimes when they were young. I saw the pictures in MeMaw's photo albums…I can get a Triumph."

Ranger spoke out from the iPad on the table. "I have a guy who can get you a good deal on a Bonneville T120…I'll put him in touch with Ms. Friedman. But we should return to the matter at hand."

"Wifey is working on getting us the clearance we need to canvas the campus while you guys are in class. As we alluded to earlier, we will need to escort you to and from campus for the next few weeks as well as to all of your appearances and events." Manny said with a calming grin.

With her trademark efficiency, Hudson quickly pulled out her iPad and shot off an email with several attachments of our class schedule and group calendar. Haja came over to the table. "I've got one more to add. With everything that has been going on, I don't know if you've heard that Joan Rivers is in a coma at Mount Sinai, something went wrong when she was having a procedure at a doctor's office."

"Oh My God." I gasped. "Hudson, please send…I think in her book she said that she loved orchids. Send a nice arrangement to Mrs. Rivers and if anyone can find out where her daughter and grandson are staying, send them a meal…with going back and forth…or even staying at the hospital, there is no way they feel like cooking or ordering anything at all."

Ranger said something to Hector in Spanish and in a few minutes, Hudson had all the information she needed. Puck and Sam pulled me back from a fully catered meal, pointing out that they probably didn't feel much like eating. So, instead, we sent edible arrangements for Melissa Rivers and her son. Once all those arrangements had been settled and the language of the cards decided upon, then we yielded the floor back to Haja. "Anyway, they didn't say who or why but The Daily Show had a cancellation for Wednesday night's taping. I was able to get the three of you in front of Jon Stewart. It's not a performance, so you will simply be acting as activists for your causes."

I was more than a little worried about going on a talk show with such little preparation time. When I stated as much, Bradley spoke up. "You have nothing to worry about. You three have the benefit of sincerity. You aren't talking about these issues because they are trending or because they are popular. You are discussing issues that have meaning and importance to you. You don't have to have all the answers, but you are not wrong that the questions need to be asked."

"I will get you current police brutality statistics and the current differences between American gun laws and the rest of the major superpower countries." Hudson assured us.

Suddenly a female voice drifted over the Skype connection. "Do these kids realize that there are only twenty-four hours in a day and seven days in a week? There is absolutely no time in these schedules for basic human upkeep…when are they going to clean their bathroom or do their laundry or eat a real meal? Ranger, they need an Ella."

"Babe, if they decide that they want or need a housekeeper, then they can hire a housekeeper." The usually taciturn man seemed to be almost about to smile.

"We'll run the background check on them right? I mean, Ranger that voice…we have to…they can hear me can't they?" Stephanie Plum came into view for just a second before squeaking and pulling back. "Ya coulda told me that you were skyping with your clients Ranger."

"Like you didn't adopt them when you heard her sing your favorite love song." Bones teased over the Skype connection with an almost familial smile.

Stephanie didn't come back into the camera, but she did shout a rebuttal, "She opened her mouth and Whitney in her prime came out…only better somehow, like her voice was purer or something. I defy anyone to hear her sing that song and not want to carry her around in their pocket to hear her sing whenever they can."

"They do, Babe…it's called an iPod." Ranger's voice was dead pan. "Did you need something other than to state that the music group who is trying to complete college while launching a seriously successful musical career have very busy schedules?"

I couldn't even see the woman he was talking to. I'd met her one time for a grand total of five minutes and yet I could almost, literally, hear her roll her eyes. "Yes, Mr. Manoso, I have gotten approval from the Deans of Students at both Julliard and Columbia for the Merry Men to carry on campus. However, Dr. Valentini would like two small…tiny…miniscule really, favors."

"Babe?" Ranger asked, don't know how I knew that it was a question but it felt like a question.

"He would like Manny…since he's a former prosecutor and Federal agent to speak to the criminal justice majors and he'd like one of the former military guys to speak to the ROTC." She answered.

Ranger's focus shifted back to the men in the dining room of our brownstone. He didn't say a word, just gave Manny and Caesar a look and both men expressed their agreement to the assignments. That turned everyone's attention back to us. "Stephanie may have been a little presumptuous, but I have to admit, she isn't wrong. Your schedule is rather full."

I shrugged and looked over the week in front of us. "Not every week is going to be as bad as this one." I tried to be positive. If only I had never said such a stupid thing. The next hour was spent with the Rangemen detailing the services they would provide us and their expectations of us. I kind of wondered why so much emphasis was put on not trying to lose our guards. We were paying them to be there…just in case. Wouldn't it have been a massive waste of money to ditch them for little to no reason?

Finally, Santana came in with enough delivery Chinese to feed a small nation…or apparently a bunch of Rangemen and all the rest of us. "The tenants are all here and good. Jamie said to let Kurt know that the NYADA people accepted his request for the classes he missed last week to be excused. She has a note for him from Ms. Tibideaux sent through her, but she said she will give it to him in the morning on their way to campus. Gotta say, Cooper is a decent houseboy even if he can't get the bathrooms as clean as you do Niecy Nash. Still, it wasn't too bad considering how much money he and Richie Bitch grew up with. If the overnight shift is staying here, I made sure that our guest rooms are good to go. Now, it's time to put away planning the Charge of the Light Brigade and eat dinner."

Ranger smiled…or as close to it as he had come when he'd been looking at Ms. Plum earlier. "Very well Ms. Lopez, all of you have a nice evening."

As he was signing off, I heard Ms. Plum's voice gasp, "You used good phone manners." Apparently, that was something of a running joke with the Rangemen. Several of our body guards had a very good laugh at her expense. We actually ended up with Binkie and Manny spending the night at the brownstone, though that was more just to finalize a few things and so that they would be available in the morning since our day would start before seven thirty. Despite the fact that it was barely eight in the evening, we said good night to our friends and headed to bed early. We headed up to our room and Sam and I changed our bedding since we hadn't really done so since we left in May. We also took twenty minutes to get our bags ready for classes which started the next morning.

We shared a nice relaxing bath, made love and were asleep by eleven. The next morning my alarm went off at six and by the time we left the house at seven thirty, I was starting to become far more comfortable with the thought of getting a housekeeper. Cooper had, per the rent free place to stay agreement, gotten up and made us breakfast, but other than the smoothie and bacon, he'd not successfully managed to make anything edible. In the Tahoe, it was kind of weird to hand to keys over to Binkie and the three of us were cuddled together in the back seat. But it was nice too, because we had twenty minutes to cuddle and talk in the backseat, getting ready for the first day of classes and Sam and Puck talking me down from my start of school high.

Looking at our schedule for the day though, I knew that there wouldn't be any time to dwell in those moments of quiet and love. My first class of the day started at ten after eight. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I had a hundred level political science course called Political Theory. I had a long break between that class and my eleven thirty Intro to Marketing class at least on Tuesday, Thursday, we had a seminar that combined two sections of the political theory class that started like fifteen minutes after the class itself ended. Sam was in the other section of the political theory class that my class shared the seminar with, so he and I made plans to sit together. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, my eight ten class was a European literature class that focused on the classics of philosophy and satisfied one of my core curricula requirements. Almost all of my classes that year were focused on the core requirements. It meant that my last two years of college could be focused on my business management classes. I had a computer science class right before lunch three days a week that I shared with Noah, and Sam had a morning psych class with him too. We had been able to get one, three day a week computer science class with all three of us together, so we were still quite happy with how we'd worked our schedules out.

My Juilliard classes didn't start until two-thirty three days a week and at a quarter to three for the other two. I was done by five every day thankfully. I was looking forward to my Acting for Singers and Text and the singer classes, but I was still trying to understand what on earth the 'Phonics' class was going to entail. I wasn't trying to be cocky, but I was pretty sure I was going ace my Intro to Vocal Performance class. Manny and Binkie had driven us to campus that morning and dropped us off at Columbia where Bones and Ramon met us to be a visible presence with us and keep the lookielus and autograph seekers. Manny and Binkie met us at Broadway and One Fourteenth and drove us to Juilliard. But after all our classes, it was Chet and Caeser, accompanied by Hudson, that picked us up and drove us to the Warner offices to meet with Michael Haussman who would be directing the last of the videos from our debut CD. Deborah and Anika had worked with Haja interviewing directors while we were on tour and selected Mr. Haussman. That evening we were meeting him to hear the concept for the video and find out where we had to be that Saturday morning.

Michael Haussman was a tall, thin, older white man who dressed like a hipster and kind of put me in the mind of Matthew McConaughey. As soon as we all got settled in our conference room, Mr. Haussman told us to call him Michael before he launched directly into his schpeal. "Mercedes, I have to say, your voice is one of the most beautiful I've heard in a very long time. Puck and Sam, let me tell you, you guys aren't even done with school yet and your guitar solos are almost Frampton-esque. I've made a study of your other videos and your TV performances and interviews and I am planning on going in an entirely different and unexpected direction for this video, much like the song is pretty different from the rest of your album."

"What do you have in mind?" Sam asked preening a little at the compliment.

"I have a rented a couple of suites at the Hotel Ganesvoort's Meatpacking location and their pool for all day Saturday. The shoot will just be the three of you in the pool and lounging or maybe dancing together in and around the suite. I want to show everyone the love and romance, and yes, the sensuality of your relationship…tastefully of course. It will be simple and elegant and yet erotic and loving." He explained with a wicked grin.

I looked over at Anika and saw that she looked a little worried. I took that to mean that she was thinking probably the same thing that I was, "I'm not sure that may be the best of ideas…" I started quietly.

But Michael was not to be denied. "No, it is exactly the best idea. You're worried about the reactions of your haters and your doubters. But that is exactly why you need to show them how wrong they are. I saw the comments under your videos on YouTube and on your social media pages. You have haters. You have people who swear that since you're a size sixteen or eighteen you can't be sexy, you can't be hot, you can't be sensual. Some of them even have the nerve to question the veracity of your relationship with Sam and Puck. But you know what I saw in your movements and your dancing. You are sexy, you are hot, you are sensual. You have a grace of movement and dance and an awareness of self that all combine to make you beautiful in a way that is hardly ever seen in girls your age. Your fiancés see it. It's time to show the world."

"Besides, we film Saturday…it's kind of too late to make any major changes." Deborah said gently. "Anika and I have already purchased your wardrobe. I promise that you will be comfortable and confident."

"I'm holding you too that." I grumbled knowing I had lost the fight. It was too late to make any changes so there was no point in complaining about what they had set up. All I could do was do the best I could and pray for the best possible results.

For some reason, everyone at the table, even the Rangemen, found my grumbled response hilarious. I wasn't joking though. Soon Hudson had Saturday's schedule integrated into our calendar, which wasn't hard, we'd blocked the whole day to film the video and left Sunday light in case we needed to reshoot anything. Once I agreed to the concept; I was the only hold out, Noah and Sam thought it was the best idea in the history of ideas; the meeting wrapped up quickly. There was a brief discussion of the things Lyor wanted us to focus on after our win the previous night, including increasing our activism as much as our schedule would allow. He wanted us to make our mark on the global scene; there were mentions of Bono and U2. An English newspaper that had just started tracking US police shootings had already reached out to Warner to find out how to contact us for an interview. "You have the full backing of Warner's legal and PR departments." Anika assured us.

The meeting wrapped up soon thereafter. Just before we left, I got a text from Uncle Ethan, 'Do not forget you guys are having dinner with us bring whoever you need to get Daniel up to speed.' I was so grateful for the text, because I had completely forgotten about the dinner we'd agreed to the night before when there had been no time to meet with Daniel because we were exhausted and had the meeting with Mr. Manoso and his men. I thought for a long hard minute. "Hudson, if I find something online to wear for The Daily Show tomorrow and arrange to have it available for pickup at whichever store, would you mind…very much…going and picking it up and bringing it to me so I can change for the taping?" I asked sweetly.

Hudson looked at me like I had grown a second head. "You do realize that that is literally part of my job description?" she asked me in return, her voice totally deadpan.

Sam, Puck and I looked at each other and ultimately shrugged. "No…we kind of thought it was one of those things we'd only ask in an emergency and then give you a bonus for." I answered her honestly.

"Yeah, I mean…it's one thing to ask you to manage our professional calendar and, well, life…but things like picking up our dry cleaning or doing our shopping that'd be kind of fucked up to ask you to do for us." Puck agreed.

Hudson shook her head. "Good thing I took it on myself to arrange for your nonfood household shopping to be done and delivered. I'd have already begun taking and retrieving your dry cleaning, but I don't actually know which cleaners you use. You know, Ms. Plum had a valid point last night. If I'm not going to be doing those things for you, they you will definitely need a housekeeper.

"Only rich people have housekeepers." Sam argued.

Chet, Caesar and Hudson all stopped and looked at us like we had truly lost our minds. "Man, I'm not trying to get all up in your business…and I know that the music industry has some issues with artists making money off their albums, but I thought you guys wrote your own songs?" Caesar finally asked quietly.

"We do." I said proudly. "We only had one song we didn't write on our entire first album."

Finally Hudson put things together. She realized that we had the money; we just didn't really make the connection to how well we were actually doing and what it really meant. "Okay, Sam…Mercedes…Noah, I hate to be the one to break it to you. I mean, I know that you do this to make great music not heaps of money…but guys…you are officially rich."

"Shut the front door." Sam breathed sarcastically. "I know that we have the money…I'm not a moron. But I mean…a housekeeper. Are we really 'Those People'?"

Hudson sighed. "Sam, you guys are in classes from around eight in the morning to five-five thirty in the evening. Even on the nights you don't have meetings after you do have homework and band practices and you are getting ready to start spending your Saturdays in the studio again next semester. This semester, you have two major magazine interviews and two video shoots scheduled…the second is scheduled as an all weekend thing because you are making videos to go along with like ten of twenty tracks from your Christmas album. When you aren't working weekends, I have got to schedule Mercedes' physical up keep like waxing and spa appointments and her hair appointments. Then there is the fact that you told Brantley and Haja that if you didn't have anything on your schedule they could book you a few local events. You guys, honestly, barely have time to breathe, yet alone try to keep up with your daily chores."

"Well damn…when do we sleep?" Sam joked.

"Forget sleep, you do have time to bone on that thing…right?" Puck shot back.

I don't believe that anyone will ever understand how happy I was that we'd gotten to Uncle Ethan's house in that moment. Hudson had gotten her feet under her with Puck and realized that the only way to live with him was to give as good as you got. The shy and kind of reclusive side of her personality had totally left the building in that relationship. I didn't want to know what she would have come back with. I texted Uncle Ethan to let him know we were there and before I knew it, Chet and Caesar had us out of the Tahoe and into the apartment. Haja and Darcy were already there waiting on us in the living room. I expected Darcy to beat us there; she only had to come up the stairs. They were already talking with Ethan and Daniel.

Daniel gave me a big hug. "Hey Ain't Got No Mercy."

I punched him in the arm. "Why do you call me that? I'm a very nice person." It never failed. The first time I saw Daniel after a minute, he calls me that ridiculous nickname.

My eldest Harris cousin just laughed. "Because, over the years, I could never tell who I was protecting when I redirected Hannah from bothering you…you from being bothered or her from your retaliation."

I opened my mouth to bat back at him when it was like suddenly I was seeing a montage of the different Harris Reunions over the years. The first one that was really clear was when I was six and Hannah had destroyed my sandcastle and walked away laughing at my pain. Daniel had been a teenager, a manly man of fifteen, but he took the time to dry my tears and help me rebuild it. But the next year, every time I saw him he was taking Hannah away. "Oh my God…I thought that you were going off with Hannah because you liked her better." I finally said honestly shocked that he had been doing it to help me.

He rolled his green eyes. "Hell no, before she met your cousin, that child was a total pain in my ass. I'd take her inside and sit her with one of the great-aunts who would correct her posture and manners until she was ready to run screaming for Aunt Arielle." He gave me a wicked grin. "I only stopped once you got old enough to fight back. But then I had to slip in and turn her away when you'd get your 'I wish a bitch would' look in your eye. That summer after you turned thirteen, I had five of the other cousins making sure that we kept Hannah from bothering you or going to the pool when you were down there, because that year I was sure if you could figure out how to get away with it…you'd have drowned her ass and claimed it was a tragic accident for sure."

I shrugged noncommittally. "I may have…I admit nothing." Everyone in the room laughed. "How is Riker?" I said to change the subject and because I wanted to know.

"She's good. Looking forward to coming to see you…trying not to get too excited until we know for sure if we really will be moving to this coast." He joked. "She and her partner are bigging y'all up all around the precinct. Thankfully since they are in Seattle…and you know how everyone out there tries to play like they are so much more enlightened than the rest of the plebs in this country, they aren't hearing too much bullshit from the other cops the work with. She called me this morning to say that during the shift meeting, the Lieutenant made a big deal about how when they were walking their beats they needed to be the kind of cops Puck said populated the Lima PD. But that doesn't really mean much since Riker knows that he knows that she is connected to you guys. For the last couple of months, whenever it's clean, Riker has been wearing her KAMA tee shirt that Dad sent us after your drop party."

Before we could delve any deeper into that subject, Adam came running in and climbed me like the little Monkey he was. "MeDe! Sing me a song." EJ or Adam…depending on which nickname you preferred…he answered to either, was my biggest fan. He looked up at me in total adoration and expectation, so I had to give him a song. Prince's 'Starfish and Coffee' later and the little man was happy and Amanda was calling us for dinner.

"Wow, Amanda…everything looks great." Sam complemented her as we took our seats around their big dining room table.

"Thanks Sam…but I can't take the credit. I only made it home about an hour ago. Ethan made dinner." She said giving my favorite Harris uncle a big smile.

Ethan deflected too. "Daniel helped. And he watched the baby while I went and picked Adam up from school."

"Well, whoever cooked, it is awesome." Puck finally said, thankfully after he swallowed his first mouthful of the cedar plank salmon. He wasn't wrong. The salmon was amazing. The roasted vegetable rice pilaf was even better and the steamed spinach was almost restaurant quality.

As we ate, we talked shop. "Haja told me about The Daily Show tomorrow." Daniel started with a grin. "That is great. Jon Stewart will be one of the best jumping off places for you guys. Now I have to ask are you determined to be activists as well as singers?"

I shrugged. "I don't think we have a choice. I mean, we are naturally opinionated people. We are naturally stubborn people. We watch the news and if we see something that bothers us, we'll probably decide that we should speak out again."

Darcy spoke up then. "If you come out as activists…which, not to be funny…but you've really been all along. Body shaming and positive body images and your beliefs on your faith have been a part of every interview you've done. Sam…you're building a shelter for homeless families. Puck, Mercedes…you've both helped your synagogue and church back in Lima. But straight up truth…we need to put all of that stuff you've been doing behind the scenes on front street. It will let people know that you aren't all talk. That you put your money where your mouths are."

Yeah…that led to a fifteen minute argument that Sam and I so lost. Puck didn't care one way or another. But Sam and I felt that the things we did to help others were our business and we didn't need everyone knowing about stuff like that. Finally, though, the logic was inescapable. If we wanted to be taken seriously…the world would have to know at least about the scholarships and the homeless shelter. That conversation led to another fight that thankfully Sam, Puck and I won.

"Have you guys thought about starting a foundation to do your giving through?" Uncle Ethan asked us with a happy little grin. He was so weird sometimes.

We all shook our heads vehemently. "No. There are more than enough real foundations out there doing real work…great work. The last thing we need to do is create our own and take away from one of those. Or one that is so limited and that I will eventually stagnate and disappear. No." Puck finally got them to understand our position.

"That's fine." Daniel finally capitulated. "Okay, so we know how we are moving forward. Now, I have to tell you, you will never hear me spouting that BS line that there is now such thing as bad publicity. There sure as hell is. So, I'm going to ask you…is there anything that could come back and bite us in the ass later?"

Puck shook his head. "Everybody already knows about my dirt. Did six weeks in Juvie and another six months of community service for trying to bust open an ATM. Knocked up my best friend's girl and had a baby out of wedlock before that. Was a bully and an asshole before that."

"Don't forget boffed your way through three quarters of the MILFs in Allen County." Sam pointed out.

I smirked, "and three quarters of their daughters too."

He made a face at me before smiling wickedly. "You know, you tease me about that a lot considering that you are the primary beneficiary of all the stuff I learned from those chicks."

Daniel took that to the total extreme. "Please, for the love of God, tell me there are no sex tapes out there?"

"Oh please, if you knew how long and hard we had to beg to get her to take a naughty picture…" Sam blurted. "Um. Um..um…not that she ever let us take one. Yeah, Mercy would never, ever do that. And if she did, she wouldn't keep it in an encrypted and password protected file on a special flash drive that she keeps hidden in her jewelry safe." He babbled. Puck and I both slapped our hands over his mouth to stop him from speaking. Not that there was anything else to tell, but better safe than sorry.

"Oh yeah, that in no way tells us all that you and Puck took sexy pictures or where we can find them." Darcy rolled her eyes.

Amanda just laughed. "Never believe that everyone doesn't do it. Every woman out there has a half-naked Polaroid or seminude selfie or something that she took for her man. Benz, at least, has hers under lock and key every way she can think of."

I looked at Darcy and she was blushing which said to me that she was one of the women Amanda was speaking about. Hudson looked about as noninvolved as she always did when people started to talk about sex. The subject just didn't interest her. Haja, however, had us all rolling when he put in his two cents. "It's not just women…there are three or four ex-boyfriends out there with incriminating pictures of me. Probably guys don't have to work too hard to convince other guys to do stuff like that."

"Any way back to the subject at hand." Daniel finally said when he could speak without dying in laughter. "So Sam…you're good?"

My blond husband nodded. "Yeah…I mean…actually I guess, my kin are kind of a train wreck, a bunch of racists and KKKers that I've never met on one side and the Puckett side…well, actually for the most part they are all pretty damn awesome, but they also have a pretty tenuous relationship with the legal system. Like two of my Momma's first cousins got out last spring from joint five year bids."

I looked thoughtful. "Um…speaking of interesting relationships with law enforcement. One of our background singers kind of used to be the muscle for a pimp back before they moved to New York. Never got busted and doesn't have a criminal record of any kind…but she was very up front with us, so I figured I should be just as up front with you. If it helps any, the pimp, in question is working on going legit and hasn't got a record himself…not for that."

The reactions around the table were vastly different. Hudson looked mildly interested as did Chet and Caesar who Amanda and Uncle Ethan had pretty much demanded join us too. Of course, Adam cared even less than those three. Haja already knew. Both Uncle Ethan and Amanda wanted to know what I meant about him working to go legit and Daniel only cared that Xena had no paper trail connecting her to the illicit business. "Actually, she filed taxes all three years she worked for him. He had a front that he paid her through and paid his taxes through." Puck said with a smirk. "Everybody with sense fears the IRS."

"Yeah, but the front, provides her and therefore you some protection…which is probably why he paid her through the front rather than more directly." Amanda pointed out. Unlike Daniel and most of the rest of the table, Amanda had no problem with prostitution. She had a firmly held belief that the reason most societies had elected to legislate against the business was simple misogyny. When prostitution was legal and properly regulated, women benefited from the practice in far greater numbers than men. No patriarchal society liked it when women had ways to attain wealth that they couldn't control and get a cut from…therefore it had to be marginalized and criminalized. She had done a dissertation on it in college. Momma had a copy…I'd read it one summer day in sixth grade when Kurt was visiting his mom's brother and I'd been so bored I would have watched paint dry. It had taken me most of the rest of time Kurt was out of town and every dictionary I could find in the house and online to understand it all…but it had served its purpose of keeping me from being completely bored, so I counted it as a win.

The entire group got in on the whole prostitution discussion. Caesar didn't come out and say it, but you could tell that he looked at the issue from an entirely personal prospective that spoke to his mother or some other primary care giver having been in the sex trade. Being in the music industry was really expanding my horizons. I'd never really realize how sheltered I'd been in Lima. For some reason that thought turned my attention to an important query that had been bothering me for the better part of the day. "Why hasn't One Police Plaza said anything yet? I expected them to have hit us with some more damnation. But other than their press release Monday morning, which wasn't as bad as it could have been; they have been fairly silent."

Daniel looked up with a wicked grin. "I'm so glad you asked that. It took me almost an hour this afternoon to find enough information to even formulate a theory. Do you guys know who Victor French is?"

Sam spoke up first, "His name sounds familiar…but these last six months I've met more people than live in my old hometown."

Puck, however, looked thoughtful. "He was the old Jewish dude that you said had to have been the real life basis for Magneto. His family escaped Poland ahead of the Germans and then had to do it again from France. Remember, Bubbie Ruth introduced us to him. Deborah had introduced her to him and he remembered Bubbie's Bubbie from Ellis Island or something equally cool."

"Oh yeah…he was awesome. But what about him?" Sam asked Daniel.

He and Darcy ended up kind of tag teaming the question. "He has his people all over the net supporting Puck's statements. The buzz is that if you are getting support from French's or any of his subsidiaries or foundations…don't expect that support to continue if they come at KAMA. You want to know why the Commish hasn't been truly attacking you guys, guess who was a big supporter of the Mayor De Blasio's campaign. Those two can't stand each other, but the Commissioner serves only at the will of the mayor."

"And Mr. French's office released a Pro-KAMA statement too." Daniel said with a grin. "He pointed out that we live in America in the twenty-first century and not Germany in the first half of the nineteenth. Governmental censuring of citizens for speaking out against wrongdoings of government agencies is rather un-American you know."

"Wow…that is really awesome of him." I blurted out. "But why? Because he feels connected to Puck's family? To pay forward some help his family received in escaping the Nazis? Because he fears that history could repeat itself?"

Daniel shrugged. But Darcy chuckled. "Maybe some of those might play into it…but last month Mr. French got engaged. It was all over social media among certain NYC circles, especially the Broadway and Arts sector. His bride to be is one Miss April Rhodes, originally of Lima, Ohio."

"I knew I liked that woman." I laughed uproariously.

"I like Mr. French. His statement was awesome. While the first three paragraphs read like pure Niemöller, the last paragraph was totally and completely the legalese version of 'Oh you mad, Boo'. If I ever get to meet him…I so want to shake his hand." Daniel crowed.

Sam smirked. "There was definitely both of those, but you forgot to add the 'don't complain, because hit dogs will holler."

Which, since Sam and MeMaw Rose had explained to us what that meant, made me die laughing. But my laughter was interrupted by a large yawn. A yawn that Adam soon followed along with ones from Sam and Noah, we needed to wrap things up. Amanda took my little cousin up for his bath after letting use each say good night to him. When they were gone I turned to my eldest cousin. "Daniel…get with Haja and Kurt and get your office tricked out…if Riker really is good with you guys moving here…we'd love to have you for our PR person. Don't worry…I remember the rant you threw at Aunt Arielle when she called you a publicist."

"Yeah, Dude…you're family…that means you have a vested interest in making sure that people don't put ill shit out about Cede. My aunt Mills can help you find a place here to live. Unfortunately, all our rentals are full. Real Estate goes quick here; ours especially since we made sure that all of our basement units are ACA compliant. We give twenty grand to our people for non local-relocation, but you have to agree to stick with us for six months. We know that ain't a problem for you though. If you're anything like Moms D and Ethan…then you're definitely the loyal sort."

Uncle Ethan nodded. "If we take a couple of minutes to hammer out the details, I can have the contracts available for signatures on Thursday when we all meet for the office walk through."

Daniel blushed. "I don't have a lot of details to hammer out…I may have told my friend Grant, who is an office manager that I would give him a job. His sister is Riker's partner's wife. Chris is planning to move and go with Rike to the FBI Academy if they can get in, which I'm pretty hopeful that they both will. They are great cops. But they are contractually bound to give a month's notice. I still technically work for Revolution…but I'm on vacation and my bosses have agreed that if I come back it was just a vacation, if I move then it was my notice. I did have to agree to do a little consulting work if they need me, but I'm golden."

Haja quickly jumped in. "Would your friend be willing to help out across the board until we get all the admin posts filled?"

"Knowing Grant, he will have the whole office running like clockwork even if I don't ask him to. He is quiet and shy…but he hates being idle. He's been out of work since he got laid off…Chris and Dominique's apartment has never been so clean."

I shrugged. "He's hired. I have no idea what to pay him. We decided on a lower pay scale plus a rent free place to live for Hudson and Darcy…which should, technically, apply to your dude, but not charging rent is way cheaper than paying someone's rent."

Hudson pulled out her trusty iPad. "Median yearly salary for an office manager her is a little under eight five to a little over eighty seven thousand a year. So why not offer him sixty-five a year as salary and twenty-two thousand a year as a housing stipend. Given what you are losing in rent from me and Darcy, that still puts the two of us ahead…but not significantly if he has a lot of experience."

I looked at Ethan, "Can we do it that way?"

He nodded. "Yes. That's actually how a lot of companies handle things when they have to move people overseas. Want me to write that up for his job offer?" I nodded.

Daniel spoke up. "Ummm…NYC PR managers make more than I'm willing to take from you guys right now. So why don't we do something similar for me; hundred grand a year plus a twenty-five thou housing stipend."

Hudson showed me what they make according to Salary-dot-com. Taking the device from her; I plugged in Daniel's qualifications. His suggestion would be undervaluing him greatly. "Yeah…how about we bump that up to one seventy-five plus the stipend?" I shot back showing Puck and Sam the reasoning for the extra seventy-five thousand a year. We'd still be getting a steal. Twenty minutes of arguing and negotiating and maybe a little bit of name calling followed. Finally, he accepted a hundred and twenty-five grand and a fifty-eight thousand a year housing stipend for the first year, and when he started pulling in other celebrity clients, then we'd roll the housing stipend back by ten thousand per client per year. Even better, we both walked away convinced that we had lost and the other was the most stubborn Harris ever born. Uncle Ethan laughed at us like the entire time. To be honest, it was really, really fun.

Darcy, Hudson, Haja and I spent a few minutes talking through the plans for the rest of the week. Daniel would be with us the next day for The Daily Show, Haja had cced him on the reply to the show's producers' information request, so he was prepped. Darcy and Haja would be at the office suite for the better part of the day handling the installation of the phone and internet systems. Other than that, she was taking the day to finalize her list of equipment that we would be purchasing for the office. Much of it had already been ordered, but there were some things that she wanted to take a more hands on approach to buying. Hudson would, unfortunately, be running errands that seemed to be her job but seemed a lot outside the purview of a personal assistant.

By the time, the separate conversations finished, I had no clue as to why the guys, minus Haja, were having a confab, but they seemed to be talking deeply about something. I looked at Sam conveying that I wanted to know what they were talking about so seriously. He responded with a small smile that either conveyed that he would tell me later or that he was humoring me and I would never find out…then he turned back to their conversation. We headed home soon thereafter. Rather than driving, Chet and Caesar walked us home; they didn't come in since Manny and Binkie were already there to be ready the next morning. It took me an hour to finish filling out all the different papers my professors and stated needed to be returned the next class meeting. Thankfully I'd already written my short papers on the three classical political theory books that I'd had to read over the summer. I'd really lucked out. Plato's 'Republic' was required reading for my European Literary Philosophy Masterpieces class too, so I'd killed two birds with that stone. I looked at Machiavelli's 'The Prince' as beneficial for my marketing class…and since we were becoming activists…the works of Locke and Hamilton were integral to our professional life.

Noah had had even more reading over the summer than I had. Though he hadn't needed to buy as many books. Since I'd had the same psych class freshman year with the same professor, I'd just let him and Sam borrow my e-copies. But they too had made sure that all of their summer reading assignments were done before we headed to LA. It had made the day much easier. By the time I finished getting everything ready for school the next day, Puck and Sam had spent some time in the gym and showered. I could always tell when they found something that bothered them a little less than a lot. They would head down to the in home gym, or the hotel gym the few times it had happened over the summer, and work out until they were too tired to toss and turn all night. Sometimes I wished that I could do that, but exercise before bed that wasn't lovemaking made me all wired. Granted, sometimes that made me pretty wired too, but it was a risk I gladly took. I took a quick shower and brought my lotion to the bed so we could talk with I moisturized.

"Tomorrow is going to be something." I started with a grin. "You're both covered. I have you each in simple black, with a white collared shirt for you, Sam-I-Am, and a light grey one for you Noah."

"Did you find yourself something to wear?" Sam asked as he reached for the bottle to start on my back.

I shook my head and Noah headed to the charging station in my closet and came back with my iPad. The three of us went through a couple of sites until I found a great black and silver macro floral jacquard knit dress from Neiman Marcus. After that things fell into place. I had a perfect pair of Stuart Weitzman black leather sandals already, so I ordered an adorable, dramatic sleeve, bolero since the dress was sleeveless and studios tended to run cold at least to me. The dress didn't need a necklace and I already owned a great pair of earrings that would look perfect with it. The look needed a pop of color so I tried to find a cute little, purple, patent leather skinny belt to set everything off…there were NONE. I pouted for a long minute, until Sam noticed that there was a perfect sized belt from Lafayette 148 New York that was turquoise with silver hardware and it was even on sale. I finished up the order and checked out, choosing to have it picked up in store the next day. I had the confirmation email sent to both me and Hudson and took the electronic device back to its charger.

When I got back Sam and Puck were waiting on me, barely awake, but not willing to fall asleep without me in their arms. I said my prayers, thanking God for not just creating them for me, but also for allowing me to find them, and be loved by them, and joined them, finding my way into 'my spot' and bathing in their love for me as we all fell into Morpheus's embrace. The next morning would begin early and the day would last very, very late. But we were living the life we'd chosen. So we couldn't complain.

Well, As promised...first chapter of the new story up before April showers gave way to May flowers.

I hope that each of my readers have had a great April.

Please Read, Enjoy & Review...feed the plot bunnies...feed them.

TTFN,
Anni