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"Mercedes Jones?"

The curvaceous teen looked up from the salt and pepper-designed carpet to make eye contact with the nurse who called her name. She stood up, taking one wary glance back at her mom. Mrs. Jones nodded encouragingly and asked, "Are you sure you don't want me to come back there with you?"

Mercedes nodded, "Yeah. I'll be back out." She faced the nurse who summoned her and wandered through the clinic doors. After having her blood pressure taken and her body weighed, she was shown to a private room and asked to change into the thin blue material folded on the vinyl and paper-lined bed.

"The doctor will be in with you shortly," informed the nurse before leaving.

Still feeling a bit unsteady from passing out, Mercedes took her time to change clothes and sat sideways on the bed. The lack of backside coverage provided by the gown made her uncomfortable but fortunately she didn't have long to wait before two knocks told her that her doctor was on the other side, ready to see her.

"Come in," Mercedes said.

Her doctor entered the room and after greeting her, she asked what seemed to be the problem.

"I'm not really sure. I've been fainting a lot lately. And…" Mercedes hesitated for a moment and then sighed, "Dr. Johnson, I don't wanna keep going home. I've started out this year at the top of my class and there's a lot I've got going for me right now. All the fainting I've been doing has got me worried that it's gonna mess up my senior year."

"What activities and classes are you involved in at school, Mercedes?"

"I'm taking six classes—four AP classes, plus Art 2 and Glee Club, and I'm in the school's production of Chicago."

"Wow—you're a busy girl. Four AP classes?"

She nodded, "Yeah, AP English, AP Bio, AP Government and AP U.S. History."

Her doctor nodded as well, "I'm impressed. And is there anything else that's been going on in your life lately? Family issues, relationship troubles, sick pet?"

Mercedes bit her lip out of nervous habit. She didn't want talk about the other events that have been occurring recently at school, so she lied. "No. Everything's fine. It's just the fainting."

Her doctor didn't seem to notice her hesitance so she went on. "So describe to me what you're feeling before you faint."

Taking a deep breath, Mercedes thought aloud, "Well…I start to feel sick, like I might throw up. Then my head starts to hurt like someone's squeezing my brain to the rhythm of my heart. Then the next thing I know, my legs turn into noodles and I'm on the ground."

"And this has been the case every time that you've passed out?"

She nodded.

"Does your stomach hurt when you feel sick?"

"Yes. It sort of feels like cramps."

Her doctor scribbled notes on her clipboard and after a few more inquiries, she looked back up at Mercedes. "Is it possible that you're pregnant?"

Mercedes' eyes bulged, "What? Nooo, no, no. Definitely not."

Dr. Johnson chuckled, "Alright. So you haven't been sexually active?"

"No." Her cheeks were burning as she tried to remain calm but was clearly unnerved.

"And when was the first day of your last menstrual cycle?"

Again Mercedes bit her lip, "Two days ago." She didn't know why but any discussions that revolved around her period always made her slightly uncomfortable.

Her doctor wrote a bit more and while taking out her flashlight to check Mercedes' pupils and ears, she told her, "So, based off of what you've told me, it sounds like you have what's known as a hormonal imbalance. It can be the result of a variety of things, but given your school schedule and extracurricular activities, I would presume that yours is stress-induced. I'm sure lightening your academic load is not an option you're willing to afford yourself?"

"No," she agreed, shaking her head.

Dr. Johnson pursed her lips, clicking the light off and freeing her hands for her stethoscope. "Very well. What I can do is prescribe a shot to help balance out your estrogen. You'll have to come back next week after your cycle has ended however."

Mercedes' brows furrowed, "Why?"

As her doctor prepared to check her heart rate, she answered, "Because we'll be injecting the shot directly into your uterus. While on your cycle, your body is likely to flush out the medicine. I'll make the appointment for next Friday—afternoon, so you won't have to miss school. Also, I'll give you a pamphlet with tips for stress relief that you can do at home; breathing exercises, meditating and things like that."

Relief washed over Mercedes. She took a deep breath and steeled herself for the frigid coolness of the stethoscope but inside she was grateful that her diagnosis was minor and easily treatable. She wasn't going to further jeopardize her position as Glee Club captain and she wasn't going to lose her role of Mama Morton. The day had taken a turn for the better and for that, she could smile through the remainder of her appointment.


"Thank you for your time Ms. Pepper," said Sam while extending his right hand.

The slender woman returned the hand shake and smiled sweetly to him before turning to leave. As soon as Sam closed the front door, Janelle let out an exaggerated sigh.

"Well she's definitely not the one."

"You didn't have to insult her, babe," muttered Sam.

Janelle shrugged, "Look I'm just thinking about our future child. If they're gonna have half of her DNA I don't want them to possibly end up having a pinched up, beady-eyed mouse face." As she stood up with her mug she added, "Besides, did you read her health record? Asthma trends in her family. Our kid could end up being that Wheezy child who gets made fun of for carrying an inhaler. And what kinda name is Susie Pepper anyway? Sounds sketch if you ask me."

As Sam took a seat on the couch again, he pushed a hand up his forehead and through his thin crop of hair. "No one's gonna be one hundred percent perfect, okay? I want someone healthy and with good genes too but I can at least accept that people have their flaws."

"Flaws that won't be passed on to our kid," retorted Janelle from the kitchen.

Sam rolled his eyes. "We still have one more person to see." He picked up the white folder and opened it, "

"This is ridiculous. Why don't we just ask one of our friends to carry our bastard?"

He narrowed his eyes; when it came to having kids he hated when Janelle referred to them as bastards. "Cut it out, Janelle. And I don't think asking our friends would be a good idea."

"Why not? I think it's perfect. We could trust our friends and most of them are okay-looking."

Sam arched a brow, "So you'd be okay letting someone like…say, Quinn carry our baby?"

Janelle's face soured—the exact reaction Sam expected. "Blech, no! You know I can't stand her prissy little Stepford Wife attitude, and besides, she looks like she could be your twin. That'd be weird for our baby to look like they could also be your niece."

At her words, Sam's face was nearly stuck on a bitter expression—lips parted, nose scrunched, brows drawn together. For one, he didn't see a problem with having a child that looked like they could also be his niece or nephew; it only further confirmed that they were related. And second, he liked Quinn and thought she was a great friend and neighbor. He shook his head and pursed his lips to swallow back the response he wanted to give which would have been, "You don't exactly look like you're far from my family tree." But he knew she would only find a way to throw it back in his face.

While grinding his teeth together the door bell rang and Sam stood up to answer it. After smoothing out his tousled hair again, he opened the door to reveal a short, dark-haired woman with tawny skin and large, almond-shaped eyes. Sam smiled at her and held his hand out while thinking to himself, "She looks really…really young."

"Hi, you must be Ms. Corazon?"

She returned the smile and shook his hand, "Yes—call me Sunshine though."

Sam stepped aside and welcomed her in. After following her into the living room, he gestured a hand out in front of him and said, "This is my girlfriend, Janelle."

Sunshine smiled a bit wider and held her hand out, to Janelle but Janelle merely feigned a quick smile and sat down on the couch with her mug of tea.

"Can I get you something to drink?" asked Sam, to which Sunshine shook her head.

He could feel more tension radiating from Janelle but he did his best to ignore her while he opened Sunshine's folder again. "So it says here that you're 25, and you give voice and clarinet lessons?"

Sunshine nodded with a nervous smile. "Yes, I mean I love to sing and I used to play clarinet so I give lessons but I'm actually waiting for another job to come through."

"Oh?" Sam relaxed against the back of the couch, "What's the job for?"

"It's a teaching position at my high school Alma matter—Carmel High School. They're looking for someone to head the arts, so I'll know next week whether I got the job or not."

"Carmel…you weren't in their glee club, Vocal Adrenaline, were you?"

Sunshine perked up, "I was!"

Sam chuckled, "No kidding? I was in New Directions at the time. Well...you're two years older than me but. Wow."

"That's really cool!"

His recollection seemed to put Sunshine at ease significantly. They went on with the interview while occasionally reminiscing on how their former glee club days differed from one another. To Sam's surprise, Janelle hadn't interjected once through their banter but he did notice that she looked about as entertained as watching paint dry.

As it seemed like things were wrapping up with the interview, Sam asked, "Did you have any questions for Janelle or I?"

Sunshine's smile faltered slightly, "Just two. If that's okay."

"He wouldn't have offered if it weren't," mumbled Janelle.

Sunshine blushed deeply but Sam ignored his girlfriend's remark for the time being and gave Sunshine an encouraging nod to proceed.

"Um…well first I was wondering why you two were looking for a surrogate? I mean, I read about your illness Mr. Evans—"

"Call me Sam."

"—and I am so sorry for what you went through. But that didn't affect your um…"

"Ability to reproduce?" he suggested with a faintly amused smirk. "We don't think so. It was a possibility for my cancer treatments to have an effect on my sperm but...that's not the issue for why we haven't been able to conceive on our own."

He made a deliberate point not to make any eye contact or head turning in his girlfriend's direction but somehow he figured Sunshine would put the pieces together.

"I see," she finally said, taking a look at Janelle, only to see the blonde girl seething in her seat. "I guess that kind of answered my second question…"

"Which was?" wondered Sam.

"I um…I wanted to know if this conception was going to even be possible with your sperm, given the possibility that you underwent chemotherapy. I did some reading before applying to be your surrogate and…I'd read that sperm can be affected by chemo treatment."

Sam nodded, "That's true." His green hues lowered to the floor and he smiled at nothing that was particularly humorous.

"I'm sorry if I'm asking too much," mumbled Sunshine.

"No, it's okay. You have the right to know if we choose you to be our surrogate. And it's true that that's a possibility. I'd been told before I started treatment that that was a potential side effect of the chemo. And for a long time I've known that I wanted kids so…before I started treatment I went to a clinic to have some of my sperm preserved."

"You what?!"

Sunshine and Sam both jumped when Janelle shrieked, rising to her feet.

Sam glared up at her, chagrinned by the outburst in front of Sunshine. "I froze some of my sp—"

"Yeah I heard you!" snapped Janelle. "I can't believe you never told me!"

"I didn't tell anybody, Janelle. The only other person who knew was my mom and that's only because it was her idea in the first place. Why are you so mad?"

"Um, I don't know—maybe because I'm your girlfriend and this whole time we'd been trying with your chemo sperm, you had perfectly fine sperm stashed away and never bothered to tell me!" She was fuming like a raging bull and Sam was her bright red target.

Sam tore his furious and embarrassed gaze from Janelle and forced an apologetic grimace on as he looked to Sunshine. "Thanks for your time today, Sunshine and I'm sorry for what's just happened. But I promise to give you a call once we've made a decision."

Taking the obvious hint, Sunshine stood up from the adjacent loveseat and made haste in front of Sam to the door.

"Thanks for the consideration, Sam," she answered politely and turned to leave.

Sam quietly closed the door behind her but the apologies he wore on his face for Sunshine vanished the moment he returned to the living room. "You think you could've exploded a little louder next time? I think she could've been the one."

"Don't you dare make this about me and what I did, Samuel Evans!"

"Why shouldn't I?" he spat back. "You could've waited until she was gone to bite my head off but nooo, you lay into me in front of a woman who could possibly give us our family—"

"Give you your family!" shouted Janelle. "You want the kids! You're the one who went into obsessive, gotta-be-a-daddy-now-because-I'm-still-alive mode, Sam! Not me!"

Sam stepped to her, "You're right! You're so fucking right because you're always right! And you know what? Yeah, going through the shit I went through and almost losing my life did make me want a family badly! Fucking sue me if I wanna make the most of my life while I have one, Janelle!"

She hissed, shaking her head at him, "Yeah and who gives a shit about me, right? I can't give you a goddamn kid but you'll take anyone who can. So long as Sammy gets what Sammy wants then it's too fucking bad for anyone else who gets in his way."

"What the hell's that supposed to mean? What'd I ever do to make you feel like you couldn't still have things you wanted? When did I not support you going to culinary school? I always did! When did I push you into marrying me when you said you didn't want to, hm? I didn't! When did I ever blame you for us not being able to have our own kid? NEVER! When did I not treat you like a fucking queen, your highness? So don't act like I'm some shitty-ass boyfriend who never treated you right."

His words cut deep into her; he was beyond livid, to the point where his head was pounding and he had to force his hands into fists to keep her from seeing them shake.

Janelle's eyes watered up as she and Sam faced off. She shook her head more and without another word, she stepped away, making quick strides to the kitchen. Sam watched her go from where his feet were rooted. She quickly returned with her purse stuff under her arm, chanting "I'm done," under her breath, and as she stomped her way to the front door she glared at him. After opened the front door, she pierced Sam's face with a burning gaze and spat, "Fuck you Sam Evans. Have fun starting this family without me because I'm done!"

The front door slammed hard enough rattle the frame. Sam closed his eyes, counting very slowly to ten in whispers. But no amount of counting could keep away the thoughts that came rushing to his head. What now?
Is she really gone?
Is this really it?
What am I gonna tell all those surrogate people?
Can I do this alone?
Fuck Janelle—I don't need her.
What now?
I can't do this alone.
I could be a single dad. It's been done before.
What now?
I should call my mom and dad.
All her shit's still here though. Dammit.
If I bring a kid in this world, they should have their mom.
What if I screw up by myself?
What now?


Please leave me reviews! Confused? Don't worry; as promised in chapter 1, all will come together in due time! Thanks so much for the overwhelming amount of love/intrigue/feedback that this fic's already gotten. Keep the reviews coming! They drive me to write more!