"Congratulations Dr. Henry Jones, Lima Small Businessman of the Year."

Finn Hudson picked at his chicken salad and wished this luncheon over. Sure, the desk clerk could handle whatever business came in during lunch but he was expecting a big parts shipment this afternoon and Tracy wasn't very detail oriented. If she didn't inventory the parts right then and there it would be a hell of a mess to straighten out he was sure as he looked at his watch. Home stretch. At least he only had to devote one hour to this, thank god Dr. Jones insisted on a luncheon with the difference between that and the dinner/gala they usually held being donated to charity. As Finn watched Dr. Jones, he wondered if he's related to Kurt's friend Mercedes, wasn't her dad some kind of doctor or something, giving an acceptance speech. It was short, thank god! Dr. Jones got to the 'in conclusion' part in about five minutes. Finn wondered what kind of doctor he was while looking around for his coat, considering how to politely leave now.

"And finally," Close enough, Finn thought, slipping out the door. He left so quickly he missed the president of the Lima Chamber of Commerce saying, "We have one last presentation to make to Henry. Please welcome a very special guest, all the way from LA!"

Later that evening

Finn saw her at the grocery store. For some reason he always thought of her eating junk food, probably because of her weight, but now that he thinks of it he's never actually seen her eating. Yes, it must be the extra weight she carries. Correction, used to carry but Finn doesn't know her well enough to notice the difference. He does notice she's in the produce section looking at fruit and that her cart has fruit, vegetables and bottled water. He looks at his cart, tv dinners, soda, chips and salsa. Well, he does burn it off, or at least he did when he played football. Now Finn's starting to see the numbers on the scale creep up.

"Hey, I didn't know you were were in town." Finn said, walking up to the short black girl.

"Hey Finn." Mercedes smiled back. "How are you doing?"

"I'm fine. But why are you back in Lima? You live in LA, right?"

"Yes, I live in LA but I'm here to surprise my dad. He got an award and I did a surprise performance. " She smiled to herself, thinking how happy her dad was to see her. "He really liked it. But he had a surprise for me too, he and mom had tickets to see Alicia Keys in Toledo tonight. My mom wanted to stay home, said she can see Alicia anytime. She said it like Alicia Keys lives next door. I made them go, I figure they can see me anytime." She peered into his cart. "Oh, the good old days when I used to eat like that."

"Well, whatever you're doing seems to be working." He chanced a compliment. Actually he didn't see much difference because he's never really looked at her but girls like that kind of shit.

"Thank you." She giggled proudly. "I've been trying real hard since graduation. You know, it seemed like a good time to start over. Leaving town for college and all."

"Oh." College. Well, Finn wouldn't know anything about that.

"Well, I'm sure you have better things to do tonight than hang out at the supermarket. It was really nice talking to you." She started to push her cart away.

"Mercedes?" he called out.

"Yes?"

"You want to go out for dinner at Breadsticks?" He asked. "I'm just eating tv dinners and...wow, that didn't sound good. Starting over..."

"Dinner? I don't know, I thought I'd see if Sam was around and..."

"Sam? Sam Evans? Britt's been keeping him pretty busy."

"Britt?" Not that Finn noticed but her voice trembled, just a little. "He's dating Britt now?"

"Dating?" Finn laughed at the ridiculousness of it. "They're kinda married, at least that's how he described it when he asked if she could move in. Why he figured he had to go through all that trouble to get laid I don't know. All he had to do was ask the girl, that worked for half the football team. Anyway, my mom didn't buy that Mayan marriage shi...I mean stuff. One thing my mom can't stand is a player. That's why she always hated Puck, but she and Burt are out of town a lot so..."

"Yes Finn," the short black girl broke into his story. "I'd love to have dinner with you."

Dinner with Mercedes

It took two hours of rambling on his part before Finn realized that Mercedes doesn't talk much. Why did he think she'd be constantly running off at the mouth like every other girl he knows? "I've never spent time with a girl who listens the way you do. Or were you daydreaming the whole time?"

"No," She straightened the napkin in her lap. "I was just thinking it's a shame you're so down on yourself for being back in Lima. Like it makes you a failure. I don't think so."

"Easy to say living in LA." Finn muttered.

"I guess that's true, but starving to death in LA doesn't make me a success and you a failure."

"You're not starving in LA. I thought you were working as a backup singer." Hadn't she specifically said that at Thanksgiving?

"I'm not a backup singer. I didn't want to make a big deal of it since Sam was so proud of helping me get that job but the whole thing was kind of a scam. Luckily my dad looked at the contract they wanted me to sign. Anyway, I don't see what's so great about LA. UCLA isn't any better than Ohio State."

"Are you considering moving back?"

"Maybe." She said vaguely.

"Shane goes there, doesn't he?"

"Yes, but that's irrelevant. If I came back it would be mostly financial. It's so much more expensive than Ohio State would be cause I'm from out of state. The people who were so gung ho on my going to LA aren't footing the bills, are they?" She twirled the glass she was holding. "Probably just wanted me out of town."

"Out of town?" Finn was confused. "Why would Schuester want you out of town?"

"Schuester? He wouldn't recognize me if he saw me on the street. I meant Sam." She said it as if that would mean something to Finn. Nothing, he's getting nothing.

"Sam?"

"Sam. " she repeated. "We used to go out, you know."

"No, I didn't know that." Britt's over their house all the time, how could Sam have been dating Mercedes and she's only been in his house a couple of times, that he knows of. She was at the housewarming party his parents had and she stopped by to see Kurt on his birthday. So as far as Finn knows, that's it. Of course Britt moved in, fat cat and all, and Finn barely noticed so maybe she spent more time there than he thought.

"We went to the prom together, remember?" She said, interrupting his thoughts. "Twice."

"Yeah, but that was because he couldn't afford..." She put her glass down with a thud. Ok, Finn realized, now is not the time to ask why Sam never brought her around the house. "Oh, I didn't realize you guys were serious."

"I guess you're not the only one. Don't get me wrong, with the distance and all...yeah, it's not like we hadn't said that we'd never go out for coffee with people, but I would have thought he'd say something before he got serious with somebody. I thought that's what we agreed on, at least give each other a warning. Anyway, skinny white girl is probably what he always wanted anyway, somebody he can be seen in public with."

"What does that mean?" She didn't talk much but when she did Finn could barely follow her train of thought.

"Nothing. It means nothing." She twirled a strand of hair around her finger, a nervous habit Finn assumed. "None of it means anything. But anyway, about Ohio." She continued, mentally drop-kicking the box labelled Sam Evans. "They could never afford to live in New York, what with its golden tickets and prizes dropping at your feet like prom crowns, if it wasn't for people back in Lima paying the bills, right? I mean, the work you do at the garage is what enables Kurt to pay the tuition at NYADA. That's place is pricey and he doesn't have a job."

"There's his job at Vogue." Finn informed her.

"Vogue, huh? And he makes enough to pay the tuition at NYADA?"

"No, it's an unpaid internship he got a couple of days after he got there."

Mercedes rolled her eyes. "Of course he did. Take it from me, LA is nothing like that, at least for girls that look like me. Of course, if she was in LA I'm sure somebody would chase her down the street and knock her over the head with a golden statuette. She always gets what she wants."

Girls that look like me? Finn added that to the skinny white girls comment and decided to leave both remarks alone. Instead he followed up with "Always?"

"Always." She ticked off items on the list she kept in her head. "She had you for as long as she wanted you, she got Kurt, she got the school play, she got prom queen, she got NYADA, she got the golden ticket, she got the Winter fair. Always."

That was quite a long list so Finn settled on the most surprising item on it. "Kurt?"

"Kurt. " She drained her water glass. "She's got Kurt. I used to have him and now she's got him and they're living happily ever after in their spacious New York loft, all paid for by people in Ohio. People they like to call losers." She looked at her buzzing cellphone. "Do you mind if I answer this?"

Early the next morning

Sam Evans rolled over and sniffed the air. He smelled his new wife's perfume but nothing else. He looked at the clock, 9am. If Finn were home he'd be smelling coffee right now. For as long as he's lived with the Hudsons Finn has been up early making coffee. Old habit he said, he's been doing that, making breakfast for his mom, as long as he can remember. Except for the three months over the summer when Finn was gone Sam's awoken up to the smell of coffee. But not this morning. Oh well, Finn must have gotten lucky. He wrapped his arm around his wife's narrow waist and fell back asleep.

When he woke up again Britt was gone and Sam smelled coffee. God, it was nice having a hot wife and she made him breakfast. That was even better! Sam pulled on a pair of boxers and went upstairs to the kitchen.

"Hey honey!" Britt jumped up and ran over, planting a kiss on her new husband.

"Hey Britt." He squeezed her ass. "Finn." He acknowledge the other person in the room. "I was starting to worry about you."

"Right!" Finn was pissed at Sam for having Britt spend the night, especially after Carol made her view on the situation quite clear.

"So where were you?" Sam asked, piling pancakes on his plate.

"Got in late last night and had to leave early for Columbus. Just got back."

"Columbus? What were you doing in Columbus?"

"I ran into Mercedes and she had these friends..."

"Mercedes?" He stopped shoving pancakes in his mouth. "I didn't know she was in town."

"Baby," Britt answered, "I told you I saw her at the Mall."

"I thought you meant Wade." Sam answered, knowing his bride confused the two.

"Wade, Mercedes, Unique, all the same. Didn't I explain that to you, when he wears a dress..."

"Mercedes and Unique are two different people." Sam explained patiently. "Didn't we go over that several times? So Mercedes is in town?"

"She isn't anymore." Finn explained. "I just got back from dropping her off at the airport."

"So you're dating her now?"

"You're about the fifth guy to ask me that! As I started to say, we went to a party with some friends of hers and every other guy there was like, dude, you dating Mercedes? Schuester may not have liked it but there were no complaints about the way she was dancing last night, you can bank on that." Finn was a little irritated so he threw in a calculated lie or two. "They played the song, Sexual Healing? And she and Shane got to operating." Finn chuckled at the fake memory. In truth noted man-whore Anthony Rashaid was the man doing the attempted grinding, the song in question was Flo Rida's "Whistle" and Mercedes wasn't the only girl throwing punches at douchebags that night. "But, back to your question. No."

"Why not? What's wrong with her?" If Finn didn't know better he'd think Sam was angry. Very interesting.

"Cause she's fat." Britt said matter-of-factly. "And black." They both stared at the thin blond. "What! It's true. I know what guys like, white guys at least, and they like girls that look like me. If I hadn't given away all my money I'd get implants." She shoved her breasts towards Sam. "Then I'd be the perfect wife."

"Britt, was that nice?" Sam asked.

"I'm a truth-teller honey." His kinda-sorta wife reminded him. "And plus she's not here."

"But still, it's rude and you need to stop doing that."

"But honey." She whined. "It's true! If she was Beyonce's kind of black that would be one thing, but she's too dark. And the other thing which I won't say again but you know what I'm talking about."

"Last time, babe." Sam said and yes, he was angry. "Just drop it."

Britt stared at her husband, confused. Then she did what she always does in these situations. She started making out with Sam. Sam really wanted to know more about Finn and Mercedes but was distracted by the kissing and her fingers stroking his abs. He decided he wanted that more.

A week later

"What's new?" It was a simple enough question, Sam thought. Nothing much. That's what Finn has said every day sine Sam moved in but no, not today. Today, when Sam is in a hurry to get to school and find out why his hot wife has suddenly gone cold Finn is droning on about the garage. Sam doesn't give a damn about the garage so he lets the stream of blah, blah, blah wash over him until he hears a familiar name.

"Mercedes? You seem to be spending a lot of time on the phone with her lately. I noticed you even keep track of what time it is in LA."

"Hell yeah!" Finn laughed. "I made the mistake of calling her from the garage, right before we opened for the day? And she ripped me a new one for calling her at the ass crack of dawn." Sam totally did not like the smile that spread over Finn's face.

"Well look at you, a girlfriend on each coast." Sam snapped.

"Girlfriend? Nah, she's helping me with marketing."

"Marketing? What's that, shopping?"

Finn laughed. "It's got nothing to do with shopping, or if it does it's more like convincing people to buy stuff. That's her minor and Mercedes has been giving me all kinds of ideas. And she's good at it, business is up 15% and..."

"What does she know about garages?" He asked sullenly. Sam hadn't spoken to Mercedes in months, maybe twice since she's been gone and never for more than 5 minutes. Well, that didn't matter, he has Britt doesn't he? Well, maybe not right this minute but he was confident in his ability to get her back.

"Not much at first but she's learned a lot lately. And business is business. It doesn't matter that it's a garage. Not much anyway. She says..."

"That's fascinating, Finn, but can you tell me the rest while you drop me off at school?"

Just after Regionals, mid-January

Just like old times, Rachel thought, stepping on-stage at McKinley High. "I can't tell you," She address a breathless Marley Rose "how great it feels to stand here again. School plays, presentations, show choir. Enjoy it all, Marley. Those were the best days of my life."

"Really? Because didn't you win the NAYDA Winter Showcase? Like the first freshman ever?" The brown-eyed girl gushed.

Rachel nodded and smiled indulgently at the wide-eyed sophomore. "Yes, but here's where it all started. This very stage." She turned around and looked at the rest of the assembled glee club members. "I'm so proud of you, all of you. And Nationals!" Best to ignore the loophole they slipped in under and focus on the positive. "Defending Nationals Champions! I couldn't be prouder. And to show you how proud, Kurt, who unfortunately couldn't join me on this trip back," Blaine slouched in his seat. Wouldn't was more like it. "And I came up with a set list. Of course Finn as your director has the final say but..."

Finn sat in the last row of the auditorium, looking at the set list Rachel had given him. It was good, the kind of thing that New Directions always did. A ballad by Marley followed up by a group piece led by Marley and Ryder. This formula had worked, many times before but was it fair? What's fair anyway? Is Marley the best female singer or is she the one most like Rachel? Tina is a good singer, has always been a loyal team player, and this is her last opportunity. But is that fair to the team? What does fair mean anyway? Flip a coin. No, that's a cop-out. It's not like you don't have options. Make a decision and live with it, that's your job, Hudson.

This is going to be a short story, probably less than 5 chapters. I haven't seen any of season 4, just recaps from AVClub, so please forgive any mistakes I make.