Right Before My Eyes

"Oh, look at that, Mercy! We've gotta get a picture of that one! We'll put it in the scrapbook," Sam Evans cheered, excitedly. As he aged, his control over his limbs was less than agreeable, so his dear wife had to help him steady the camera so that he could take a photo of two children, at the park.

The young boy, their great grandson, was giving the girl flowers and she was quite delighted to receive them from him. "He's getting to be just like his great granddaddy!" Sam said, as he excitedly snapped photos of the boy.

"I always knew that charm of yours would press on, forever," Mercedes said, with a wide grin as she released his camera and let it fall around his neck again.

"Grandpa, you need help snapping photos?" A golden woman with thick, long dreads asked him, concerned.

"Of course not. Between the two of us, we've got it," he said. The woman sighed and collected her grandfather on the opposite side of Mercy, careful not to disturb their contact, and she led him to a bench. "You know, your kid's just like me. He's wooing that girl with a handful of flowers that he picked from the other side of the tree that they're standing under. I did that, too. I never even told him. Just came natural to him." Sam smiled at the children with twinkling green eyes as he recalled another time. "Remember that, Mercy?" He asked his wife as she sat down.

"Of course, I do. My memory is better than yours," she said.

He chuckled and shut his eyes softly to see it more clearly.

Mercedes wore a purple sundress and had her hair scooped over to one side for some photos. She had begun doing demos and with each homemade CD that she and Sam pushed out for her, she did another photo shoot. Soon, she would be changing her clothes again in the trailer and having more photos taken. Sam rushed onto the scene, on his bike, worried about the fact that his appointment had run late and he might have missed his girlfriend being all adorable and sensual at the same time. But, when he got there, she was just wrapping up her poses in the purple dress, under a tree that she and Sam claimed as theirs, despite the fcat that it was in a public park.

They frequently had picnics and lunch dates there and Mercedes had used it twice for photo shots. Sam parked his bike by the trailer and rushed to the opposite side of the tree, putting a finger over his lips, so the camera man would not blow his cover. Then, he glanced around, picked some flowers, tapped her on one shoulder, then moved around the tree to the other side to give her the flowers. Mercedes gasped, like these handpicked wildflowers were the best gift that she had ever received and smiled brightly as she hugged and kissed him hello.

"Those shots were perfect!" Wade, her official cameraman cheered. "You'll have to use the reaction shot for a cover. My suggestion – Things You Do For Love."

Presently, Sam smiled and opened his eyes to see the beautiful, petite, and wrinkled brown skinned prize with silver hair flowing past her shoulders in soft curls smiling at him with a crinkly nose, from behind a fashionable pair of purple glasses. She reached over to tuck his snow-white hair behind his ears and leaned forward to nuzzle his nose. The two of them held hands and watched their great-grandson affectionately sing to the lucky young lady that had gotten his attention. "He's singing one of Meemaw's old songs," their granddaughter said. "I listen to her music all the time at the house."

Sam barely heard a word his granddaughter said. He was at an age where he sometimes drifted off and had developed a condition where he sometimes went to sleep. He felt around for Mercy's wrinkled little hand and squeezed it tightly as he drifted into sleep…

Mercedes and Kurt met up before the graduation to make sure that they were seated next to each other. It had taken them great lengths to be sure to be present for the graduation of Sam Evans and Blaine Anderson, their respective boyfriends. Kurt said, "I know that the distance has been killing me, and Blaine visits New York all of the time. How are things between you and Sam?"

"Sam is hardly the type to let something like distance deter him from loving somebody. He sends me love letters, in the mail, also daily texts, tweets, posts on my facebook wall, and he's dedicated a tumblr blog to us. We talk every night and Skype on the weekends," Mercedes said.

"And, after this graduation?" Kurt asked. "I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but he still wants the two of you to be together, right?"

"We're still in love. Real life just sometimes gets in the way, and as you know – not everyone has the opportunities that you and Rachel do. My dad flipped when I decided to move to California and insisted that I go to college for a real degree, otherwise, he would cut me off. So, I have to try to promote myself in between classes and exams, if I want to be able to afford my rent, because I can only work part time, if I want to try to make a name for myself in the industry."

Kurt looked dismayed as he touched his chest, "I thought you loved California!"

"I do love California!" She said. "I'm not complaining. Just stating the facts. It's just as hard to make my dream a reality as I thought it would be and even harder to deal with how my dad treats it."

Sam searched the crowd from behind the curtain, excitedly. It had been months since he saw his girl face to face and he just needed to see her, just once. Just knowing that she was here made his heart jump out of his chest. In fact, he doodled a sketch of himself, seeing her and his heart exploding from his chest, like in the old cartoons. He would show it to her later and he anticipated the laugh that it would draw out of her. "I don't see them," he complained to Blaine.

"Did they wait for Mike?" Tina Cohen-Chang asked, Blaine, over her shoulder, as she leaned on Sam's shoulder.

Blaine looked at his response text and answered his friends, "To Sam, they are in the A section. To Tina, no, they didn't, but Mercedes says that Mike and Santana found each other and are going to sit together."

"Sit together where?" Tina asked, testily. She was set to perform a song with the two males, as well as be the valedictorian. The least that she should be able to do was to look into the crowd and see her beloved smiling proudly.

Blaine sighed and began sending another text. He could hardly wait until this graduation was over so that he could stop being the one to appease everybody else. He was excited to see Kurt at his graduation, but he could barely enjoy it for the fact that his friends had been separated from their loves more frequently and regularly than he had. Finally he answered, "They are in the P section with Brittany's family." Tina's eyes darted to the place and she was glad to see her handsome dancer, seated with their old friend from Glee. Relieved, she got off of Sam's back and went to call Mike to tell him that she saw him.

Pissed off that he still didn't see Mercedes, Sam pulled out his own phone and called her, "My eyes are diligently scanning A section, but they have yet to behold my sunshine. Wave at the stage." Mercedes laughed and made a confused face.

"Is that one of those 'work from home' programs? I don't know how they get people's numbers. Just hang up," he suggested, seriously. She laughed even harder.

"It's Sam. He wants me to wave at the stage," she said.

Sam told her, "Or stand up, or you and Kurt do something to let me know that you're really here ."

"You wave first," she said.

Sam pushed the curtain out of the way, revealing himself, awkwardly to the entire group waiting for the ceremony to begin and waved into the crowd. He heard Mercedes laugh and Kurt yelp, over the phone, then he saw it. A small hand waving at him, attached to the arm of the most beautiful person that he knew.

Coach Roz quickly moved him behind the curtain and Mercedes could hear the woman tearing into her poor baby about doing drugs before this special night. He apologized, heard out her tangent of expressions, and when she left him, he got back onto the phone, "It's so good to see you, Mercy."

Sam's granddaughter, Samara, who they called "Sammie," smiled when she saw her cousin approaching. Kelsey, Stacey's granddaughter and she were close. The entire family was very loving and loved to try to keep in touch and get together, but of their particular generation, Sammie and Kelsey were the two that kept the most regular contact. "How's Uncle Sam? Is he asleep?" The model thin blond woman asked as she hugged the light brown woman with the long, black dreads.

They went to sit next to him, but Sammie stopped Kelsey. "Don't sit there. He thinks Grandma's there," she said, sadly. "He talks to her, fully. He even reaches out for her hand. He gets so frustrated with me when I don't hug her or kiss her. He thinks that I blame her for him hitting his head a while back."

"Auntie Mercedes has only been gone for like half a year. I can't imagine that it's been easy for him to deal with that after being together for so long."

"I know. That's why I don't correct him. But, what if he realizes? What if he finds out that for the past few weeks, he's been living in his own imagination?" Sammie asked.

"The way he looked when she wouldn't wake up that morning. Kel… I never wanna see my grandpa like that again. He has been happy this entire month. He even took photos of Avery today." She smiled sadly, through damp green eyes, "He thinks that she helped him to steady the camera."

"Bless him," Kelsey whispered and looked at her great uncle. "Well, we can't tell him, Samara. If he does realize, we can deal with it, then. But in the meantime – he's about to be eighty, and as much as it's gonna hurt us, Uncle Sam probably won't be with us much longer. Let's let him enjoy it as much as he can." He began to stir and opened his eyes to see the two ladies. His granddaughter sat next to him and his… niece? Niece. She sat across from him.

"Well, well. Look at that!" He cheered.

She got up and reached over the bench to hug him, "Hey Unc!" Then, she quickly reached next to him and said, "And Auntie!"

"What are you trying to do, smother her?" Sam asked, his eyes lighting up, simply at the fcat that finally, after that unfortunate accident a few weeks ago; finally someone in the family was acknowledging his lovely wife!