Episode 2

'So… You've probably guessed by now that my "parents"' Sam made little air quotes as he said the word 'parents', 'are not my actual parents.'

Mercedes nodded and he went on, 'But I should probably warn you that my godhood, man that feels weird to say, it's not inherited from where you'd expect…'

Mercedes bounced up and down on Sam's living room couch.

'Ooh! Can I guess?'

Sam shot her an incredulous look.

'You won't guess.'

That was probably the absolute worst thing to say to Mercedes, because she raised an eyebrow at him in a way that said 'challenge accepted' more effectively than that little stick figure on the internet and Sam knew that the girl was now going to try her damnedest to prove him wrong.

'Father or mother's side?'

Sam slid an arm over the back of the couch and leaned back against the armrest with one foot crossed over his knee.

'Mother's.'

Mercedes' eyes narrowed as she thought. She seemed to mentally dismiss a few options before she licked her lips and said.

'Athena?'

Sam smirked and shook his head.

'Nope.'

'Sif?'

'She was made up for the comic books.'

Mercedes chewed her lower lip as she considered some more. Sam leaned closer to her, enjoying the sport of watching her try to guess, but Mercedes looked up sharply at the movement and was still for a long moment as she regarded him. Sam had the weirdest sensation that Mercedes was seeing every single particle of him and he found himself praying that she would not find him wanting.

'Aphrodite.'

The smile fell away from Sam's lips as Mercedes kept talking.

'Or Freya? Maybe Venus? I know she has a lot of different names, but you know the one I mean right?'

Sam was inches away from Mercedes' face in less time than it took her to draw breath.

His eyes were so beautiful, Mercedes thought as she stared into them. Purple was her favourite colour, and Sam's eyes were so purple and glow-y. Sam's voice was barely a whisper, but he was so close that Mercedes could feel his breath on her lips as he spoke. Part of her was aware that something wasn't quite right about this situation, but she couldn't figure out what it was. All she could think about were Sam's eyes. She was falling into them, losing herself in his bottomless amethyst gaze. Mercedes was aware that she was responding to Sam's words, but she had no idea what she was saying.

'How did you know who my mother was, Mercy?' Sam's voice was low and seductive as his breath ghosted against her mouth.

'Pheromones.' The word came out on a moan as Mercedes arched towards him, but Sam made sure to maintain the distance between them.

'What about pheromones, Mercy?'

Sam worked to keep the eye contact with Mercedes in tact, if it was broken then he wouldn't be able to glamour the truth out of her. The fact of it was that, Sam already knew he was playing a dangerous game, he would never have done it if anything but his and his family's safety were at stake. Mercedes had guessed his lineage far too easily for it to sit comfortably with Sam, and he needed to be sure that she wasn't someone planted to cause them harm. He didn't think she was, not at all, actually, but he wasn't prepared to take risks either.

'I can see yours.' Mercedes ran a hand slowly down Sam's arm but he resisted the urge to shiver. He needed to stay focused.

'You can see my pheromones?' Sam clarified and Mercedes nodded.

'They're pretty.' she stroked the hand back up his arm, lingering on his collarbone and he swallowed harshly at her touch. 'Lots of pinks and purples, like your eyes.'

Mercedes hand went to his face and stroked his cheek without breaking eye contact with him.

'You have really pretty…' Her brow furrowed slightly and she shook her head as if something was bothering her, like she would for a fly or a small insect.

'Why do I feel so weird?'

It was Sam's turn to frown. Mercedes shouldn't have been saying anything unless she was answering his questions, and she certainly shouldn't have been able to pose any questions of her own. Her voice had changed too, it was less… sex kitten Mercedes, and more, regular girl Mercedes.

'Did anyone set you up to talk to me?' Sam asked hastily, worried that his time was about to run out, 'Are you working with anyone?'

He put a little extra push into those last two questions, because they were the important ones. Really all he needed was an answer and he'd know for sure if he'd made a terrible decision in trusting the small woman.

'I'm talking to you because you're my friend.' She was purring again, Sam noted, that was a good sign, 'And because you're dating Quinn. I don't want her to get hurt again.'

Sam nodded, a small smile playing on his lips as he leaned back and deliberately broke the eye contact with Mercedes. He was satisfied that Mercedes intentions weren't malicious, the girl clearly just had an uncanny knack for guessing. Really uncanny.

When Sam came out of his reverie Mercedes was giving him a stink eye so bad he actually wanted to crawl into a ball and cry.

'Did you just ju-ju me?' Sam could tell by her voice that Mercedes was teetering on the edge of a verbal smack down so he tried to choose his words very carefully.

'I'm really sorry, Mercedes.'

Mercedes usually full lips had disappeared into a straight line as she stared him down, her eyes practically shooting sparks.

'I…' Sam's rubbed the back of his neck and decided to just be straight with her. He didn't want to build another relationship on lies, regardless of the consequences the truth might bring.

'Yeah.'

Mercedes looked so mad Sam thought steam might shoot out of her ears.

'What did you do?' She demanded, pushing herself up from the couch to stand in front of him with her hands on her hips. 'What did you do?'

'I compelled you into telling me the truth.' Sam's hands were out in front of him defensively but his voice was apologetic. 'I know I shouldn't have done it, but you guessed my mom so easily… and you'd already guessed what I am…' he shook his head, his blond hair drifting into his eyes with the movement.

'I started to worry that you weren't guessing at all.'

Sam didn't think it was possible, but Mercedes looked even more upset with him than before.

'And you thought that that was something I would do?' she asked incredulously.

'You thought that I would want to hurt you?'

'Well I-'

Mercedes cut him off, 'And you didn't think to ask me about any of this, you just decided to work your powers on me, which, by the way, you still haven't explained, because of a lucky guess?'

Sam was fairly certain that attempting to reply would not be a good course of action, so he wisely decided to keep his mouth shut.

'I'm not working with anyone, Sam. I'm just a girl who's observant and good at educated guesses. I'm not dangerous, I'm just trying to be your friend, although you seem to be dead set against that.'

'I'm not!' Sam stood up to protest but Mercedes glared at him until he sat back down again.

'I was worried for my family.' he sighed, pleading with her to believe him.

'My heritage makes me pretty tough, but my family are all mortal… They may not be my birth parents but they still raised me, Mercedes.'

Sam looked away as he tried to find the right words to explain his actions. He knew he'd done wrong, he just wanted Mercedes to know why he'd done what he did.

'I have two younger siblings and they're both mortal.' Sam clasped his hands in front of him and stared at them. 'I'm sorry I compelled you, Mercedes. You're my friend and you have to believe that I really wanted to just trust you on your word… but when it comes to my family, I would do anything to keep them safe.'

Mercedes took a deep shaky breath and Sam could tell that she was still irritated with him, but he was also fairly sure that she understood why he'd acted the way he had too.

'And you're satisfied that I'm not a threat now?'

The words held more than a little venom, but Sam nodded, knowing that he deserved that anyway.

'Don't do it again.'

Mercedes perched on the arm of the couch, far away from Sam, and wouldn't look at him properly aside from the odd darted look.

'I promise.' Sam swore, holding out his pinkie in offering. Mercedes eyed it warily.

'You're not going to do more ju-ju with that thing are you?'

Sam shook his head, trying to exude as much solemnity and trustworthy-ness as possible.

'No. It's a peace offering. That's it. A promise that I won't ju-ju you again.'

He held his pinkie out for so long that he began to feel seriously self-conscious until Mercedes edged her hand out towards him and linked her pinky with his.

'Never again.' she told him pointedly and Sam was only too quick to agree.

'Never again.'

They unlinked fingers after a single, firm shake and Mercedes leaned back against the couch, still making sure to maintain her distance from Sam.

'Have you ever done that to Quinn?' she asked after an awkward moment of silence.

'Because demi-god or not, I'm totally prepared to kick your ass if you have.'

'No!' Sam almost fell over himself in his rush to assure Mercedes that he had never influenced Quinn. 'I've never actually compelled anyone before. Not on purpose anyway, I did it a couple of times accidentally when I first hit puberty. You know what that's like, though, you can't really control a lot of your body's reactions. It was like a mental erection, I couldn't help it. I can help it now of course.' Sam corrected himself, 'the compelling, I mean, not the erections. Although I can control those now too, sort of.'

Sam slapped both hands over his face and dropped his head back against the headrest. Why was he still talking? He was babbling. He was babbling and saying embarrassing things that Mercedes never needed to know.

Mercedes snickered next to him, 'Good to know.'

'So…' she ventured, 'asides from the glow-y eyed, pheromone secreting thing… what exactly can you do?'

Sam pulled his hands away from his face and turned his head to look at the curvy diva sitting next to him on the couch.

'Seriously?' he asked, 'You still wanna know? I would have thought you'd be leaving my ass high and dry after what I just did.'

'Well then, that just goes to show that you still don't know me very well.' Mercedes said primly. 'Look, I'm not happy about it, but I have your word that it won't happen again, and I understand your reasons.'

'And you believe me?' Sam's voice hitched up with surprise at Mercedes' words.

'I'm pretty good at spotting a liar, Sam.' she told him quietly, 'I knew you were lying about something. Why do you think I was watching you so closely?'

Sam supposed it made sense, Mercedes was pretty good at wheedling out the truth, being able to spot a liar probably went hand in hand with that.

'So what now?'

'Now…' Mercedes slid off the armrest, onto the seat of the couch next to Sam and turned her lamp-like eyes on him. 'now we make cocoa, sit down, and you tell me all about what you can do? Ok?'

Sam nodded and helped his friend off the couch as they went into the kitchen to make cocoa.

There were cookies in the kitchen, Sam's mom must have baked a batch the day before, and he and Mercedes helped themselves to a few, putting them on a plate and carrying them back into the living room with their steaming mugs.

Sam nibbled a cookie and waited for Mercedes to get settled before he began.

'I have water manipulation abilities.' he tipped a wink at her, 'Plus I'm a really awesome swimmer.'

Mercedes scrunched up her nose, 'I thought Poseidon was the water god.'

'He is,' Sam agreed, 'but my mom was born of the sea so there's some crossover.' he shrugged. 'Then there's the compulsion, which you obviously know about. And the pheromones would make me good with women… I guess, only I never use them for that.'

He took another bite of cookie as he thought about what other abilities he possessed. It was weird, but Sam had never really done an inventory of the things he could do before. His abilities were just a part of who he was, it would have been like counting all your senses or something, you didn't think to do it unless you had to.

'I'm good for fertility, too. Or at least, that's what my dad says.'

Mercedes started to smile but Sam stopped her before she could go too far with that thought.

'I rub tummies!' he laughed as Mercedes was forced to reevaluate her thought process. 'Get your mind out of the gutter!' he reached behind him for one of the couch pillows and hit her with it, not hard, but just enough to make her laugh.

'I'm sorry!' Mercedes protested, 'but you're the child of the goddess of love! You can't blame me for going there!'

'Mmhm' Sam chimed in a perfect imitation of her own 'sassy diva' voice so Mercedes smacked him with her own couch pillow in retaliation.

'Shut up!'

Sam poked his tongue out at her.

'Very mature.'

He shrugged, 'In god years I'm still a baby.'

Mercedes face told him she wasn't going to let him forget that one in a hurry but she didn't push it.

'So you're the fertility wizard?' Mercedes prompted to get him back on track.

'Yeah, I'm pretty much the reason Stacie and Stevie exist.' he grinned proudly.

She raised an eyebrow and Sam almost choked on the humungous bite of cookie he'd taken as he chuckled.

'Don't worry, I know I can't take all the credit.'

'You think?'

'But my mom was actually declared barren.' Sam admitted growing serious as he explained.

'That's how they came to have me. They signed up to foster and they got me not long after I was born, I used to curl up in my mom's arms and rub her tummy before I fell asleep. I did it every night for about a month before she got pregnant. Fifteen years of being told they couldn't have kids and they get twins after a month with me. I don't mean to brag but…' Sam pinched his shirt off his chest and let it fall looking proud of himself.

Mercedes shook her head at his shenanigans but even she had to admit that the twins' birth had seemed pretty miraculous.

'… And I'm friggin' awesome with plants.' Sam added, giving her a double thumbs-up and wiggling them. 'These thumbs are hella green.'

'Boy, I know you did not just say 'hella."

Mercedes tried stuffing cookie into her mouth to keep from laughing, but it just made her cough when she failed and giggled anyway.

'Hey, I can say 'hella'!' Sam protested, 'If you're gonna hang out with me then you're going to have to get used to my super-cool street slang.'

Mercedes only response was to snort so hard with laughter crumbs went up her nose.

'Yeah, ok.'

Sam shook his head like it was a mane and said 'Deal with it.' in the prissiest voice he could manage.

He kept it together for all of thirty seconds until the sound of Mercedes little gasps for air as she laughed until no sound came out got to him.

They'd almost finished their cocoa by the time their giggles had subsided so they sat in companionable silence finishing off the last of the cookies until Mercedes had a sudden thought.

'Hey, Sam?' she turned to see the blond boy contemplating a chocolate chip cookie like it held the answers to life's great questions, and shook her head affectionately. Only Sam. He dragged his attention away from the treat in his hand to look at her with interest as Mercedes swallowed a gulp of chocolate and asked.

'What about your dad?'

Sam groaned and looked even more intently at the baked goods in his hand.

'Oh, god.' he grumbled as he took a healthy bite. 'My dad. Now he brought a whole other stack of gifts to the party.'