A.N: In response to a prompt at the Glee Angst Meme:

PROMPT: Sam rapes Mercedes but not everyone believes her when she accuses him. Kurt/Finn/Tina/Brittany/Quinn definitely do, up to anon about the others.

Warnings: A.U.

Mercedes didn't know what she was doing here, in a library sitting across from Jesse St. James and Rachel Berry. She and Rachel had been on better terms lately, they could almost be considered best friends but she knew Rachel's personality and while of course she would care and sympathize nothing could get in the way of another win at Sectionals not even… Mercedes' predicament.

"So what is this about Mercedes?" Jesse asks politely.

"I just wanted to tell you Rachel… that… I…" Rachel looks inquiringly

"God I can't even say it." Mercedes breathes out dropping her head in her hands warily, Rachel reaches out to touch Mercedes, but Mercedes sees her hand and recoils, her hand drops limply to the table.

"Whatever you need to say Mercedes, you know you can, right?" she still looks unsure,

"How about you write it down instead?" Jesse suggest reaching into his bag and taking out a pen and paper, he slides it to Mercedes, and she just stares at it for a while, it shouldn't be this hard. Its three simple words, but these words will change everything, though she can't say it's a particularly bad thing.

Sam Evans, he was a new student who transferred from Tennessee, he joined football and soon Glee, he and she don't interact much, if at all. There was a short period in time when he was dating Quinn, who still lived at her house so he came around a little but now he was with Kurt, and they were happy. Her boy was ecstatic, sometimes she doesn't know if he's in love with Sam, or just the idea of Sam, the idea that he is gay and therefore must have a boyfriend. Sam walked around like he was the patron saint of innocence and virtue, going to Mercedes and Quinn's church with his family, taking the grief that went along with being in glee club, the abuse from the football team that went along with being Bisexual and he took it in stride and she admired his strength, that was until he…, and she shut up about IT. The event didn't figure into her plans for this year. ONE; Get a boyfriend, check, her and Puck decided to try again over the summer and it was one of the best decisions she ever made. TWO; rekindle friendship with original gleeks, well she was still working on that one, her and Kurt's friendship only strengthened, her and Tina became practically inseparable again, her and Rachel struck up a mutual understanding and bonded on another level and her and Artie, well he had a resentment against her that started a couple months ago, for what she didn't know, but she still tried with him. THREE; Cement her friendship with the new age gleeks. Her and Matt and Mike totally bonded and she had no issues there, she and Quinn obviously were close to the point where they told everyone they were sisters, boy did they get looks for that, Finn comes by her house and she by his house all the time, so they got really close, Santana and her though they still challenged each other on a regular were actually really close, but surprisingly other than Puck, Finn and Quinn the person she bonded with the most was Brittany. Brittany was an innocent, warm, kind soul and after the party where…, she clung to Brittany hoping the girls' light could at the very least keep Mercedes' glowing even if it was very dim. It was funny because Brittany has at the very least made out with every boy and half of the girls at school and went even further, yet Mercedes wanted, needed to be with people like Brittany and Finn, people who were naïve and saw the best in everyone and had not seen the horrors in the world yet.

"Mercedes," Rachel said snapping her from her thoughts,

"Please, I can see something's eating away at you, tell me." So she swallowed her pride she grabbed the paper and wrote

'Sam raped me'

She slid it across the table, and watched as both of their eyes widened in shock, they looked to each other having a silent conversation, and they seemed to have come to an understanding and looked to Mercedes,

"Mercedes," Jesse started

"Oh God, you don't believe me, I knew—",

"No Mercedes, Mercedes we believe you it's just…"

"Just what?"

"Rachel?" Jesse said looking to his girl; she reached across, cautiously holding Mercedes hand,

"Mercedes, I believe you, I do, we both do. I knew from the start, we didn't need a new glee member, least of all another jock. I swallowed my words because Kurt is so happy and that's part of the reason I'm gonna say what I'm gonna say. The thing is Sectionals is coming up and Quinn and Sam have the duet, and as much as I want nothing more than to show him what I do to people who hurt my friends, can't we wait to tell everyone after Sectionals?" She said, Mercedes slipped her hand from underneath Rachel's,

"You want me to suffer more just for some damned trophy."

"Not for us, think of this in a 'take one for the team' standpoint'. In the long run, do you really want us to lose Sectionals? Plus, we can at least give Kurt a little longer to be happy with Sam." Jesse said, Rachel didn't disagree, Mercedes wanted to be angry at them for guilt tripping her but she'd spent the last 4 months keeping her silence to protect others.

"Yeah, I guess it wouldn't make sense." She got up and left Jesse and Rachel sitting there, Jesse reassuring Rachel they made the right decision, Rachel still wasn't so sure.