So... I know it's been forever and a day since I have updated this story. I don't really have that good of an excuse. Rping has taken over my life and for awhile I had bad writer's block. Then I wanted to finish my other story TIOBI, but it was finished awhile ago and I guess I just didn't have the motivation to really pound out this chapter (although I did have some of it written and the rest outlined) or my other story. I promise you that both of them will be finished. I can't tell you when, but I will try my best to update them as soon as I can.

Disclaimer: I do not own the crap show Glee.

So without further ado...

Chapter 3: New Hope

"Why did I do that? Why the heck did I just do that?" She chided herself as she hung up the phone. She left Sam. All thoughts of him should be buried in the back of her mind never to be revisited again. She shouldn't have been calling him repeatedly and then finally tell him that she was carrying his baby from a pay phone on the road to her new town.

Something must be wrong with her. That was the conclusion she came to. If she had stayed, Sam would have hurt her eventually. She couldn't do that. No, nope. That's one of the reasons she left. Maybe it was the fact that she unknowingly took his unborn baby with her was the reason that she decided to stop at all of the payphones and call Sam. Maybe it was something else. She never could keep him off her mind for long. He was like a drug and he kept coming back. That was why she had to leave.

She got back into her car and drove off. Turning up the radio, Mercedes quietly sang along with the music as she drove. There was something about the road that she just loved. It called to her. When not a lot of other cars were around, there was a calming peacefulness about it. She could let her mind wander and it all felt so free.

She lost track of time when she was on the road and only came back to attention when her belly grumbled loudly. She rubbed her stomach gently and smiled while looking down briefly at her tummy. There was a baby in there. She couldn't believe that she was going to be a mother. She never really thought about the possibility of motherhood before. Her lifestyle didn't really fit it and she just never thought about becoming a mom.

She didn't know if she could change for a child. Abortion wasn't even an option personally for her. Maybe she could give the baby away to a loving home.

Could she keep this child though? Would she be able to raise it better than she was raised and try to keep it from harm? She didn't want anything like what happened to her to happen to this baby. She couldn't, wouldn't let that happen.

She had told Sam that she was going to keep it though so whatever fears she had would have to be squelched. She wanted to do right by this baby and by Sam even though she left.

She came upon a town called Hope and decided that she was going to stay for awhile. The title sounded befitting. She needed a little hope for her and this baby.

She knew that she needed to get food inside of her soon so she stopped at one of the few diners that the town had to offer. Once she was inside, she got inside a booth and waited to be served. After a few moments, a ditsy blonde came up to wait on her.

"What can I get you?" The girl whose name tag said Brittany asked as she brought out her order pad and a pen from her apron.

"A club sandwich with extra pickles, water and a job please." Mercedes asked as she rubbed her growling stomach.

"The club sandwich and water I can do. I'll see about the job though. Do you want me to send the boss over to talk to you once you're done with your meal?" Brittany asked as she bounced on her toes a little.

"Yes that would be lovely." Mercedes smiled at Brittany before she walked off to place her order. The brunette sat in silence as she waited on her food. She was absentmindedly caressing her stomach and thinking about Sam, when her waitress startled her with her meal. "Thank you." She grinned towards the blonde until she sauntered off.

She scarfed down her meal as quickly as she could chew.

Once she was done eating, the blonde came back to clean up her food and then said she would send her boss right over. Mercedes nodded her head up at her before the waitress walked away.

Caressing her full stomach in her hands, the brunette smiled down at her belly. She was still amazed that she was carrying a little life inside of her.

The sound of wheels on the clean tiled floor startled her a little bit as she looked across and saw a handsome brunette boy in a wheelchair. He had really beautiful blue eyes hidden behind glasses unlike the green eyes that she was used to.

"Damn, gurl. You are one smokin' lady. If I didn't have myself two fine ass lovers, I'd jump at a chance with you."

"I heard that." A feisty latina yelled across the restaurant.

"Calm down boo. You know I only have eyes for you and Britt." The man raised his voice back before turning his attention back towards Mercedes. "So I hear you are looking for a job."

"You heard correct." Mercedes nodded her head.

"Do you have any waitress experience?"

"Yes, I've been a waitress since I was sixteen. It's the only job I've known and I'm really good at it." She stated honestly.

"Well we have been looking for another waitress. How about this. I give you a trial run today and if I like you, you can stay." The man pushed up his glasses on his nose before holding out his hand. "Deal?"

"Deal." Mercedes shook his hand with a smile on her face.

"Alright. The name's Artie. I'm going to have my boo Santana hook you up with the uniform."

"I'm Mercedes. Thank you so much for this opportunity." She got up from her table and followed behind Artie.

"Santana, this is Mercedes. Can you get her fitted into a uniform?" Artie gestured to Mercedes and back to a leggy latina that was at the cash register just finishing up helping out a customer.

Santana looked the newbie up and down before admiring her lovely assets. "Now that I got a good look at her, are you into foursomes at all?"

"Umm... no." The curvy beauty let her down gently with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Damn." The latina sighed, but then gestured for the newbie to follow as she led her into the back. "Let me guess..." Santana picked out a uniform for her. "Did I get the right size?"

Mercedes checked out the tag before nodding her head in astonishment.

"You can change in here. I'll close the door on my way out." The leggy brunette left with a nod of her head.

The soon to be mother quickly changed before going back out to the restaurant. She saw that a customer was asking for coffee and she immediately jumped at the task, getting lost in the job that she was so good at.

After her shift finished later that day, Artie told her she got the job and she was thrilled. She sat in a booth after closing, thinking on what to do next. She needed to get an apartment first and then find a doctor as well so that she could get her first pregnancy checkup and check to make sure that everything is okay with her and the baby.

Mercedes searched through apartment listings in the town newspaper, circling a few that she liked here and there.

"You got a place to stay tonight?" Santana asked.

Looking up from her paper slowly, the newly hired waitress nodded her head no.

"You can stay with Artie, Britts and I. We have two spare bedrooms that you can choose from until you get on your feet." The latina offered.

"That's very kind of you, but I don't really want to impose."

"Nonsense. You're coming and that's final." Santana sassed as she held out her hand for the other girl to take.

"Okay." Mercedes placed her hand in hers before they were off.

A week passed by in a flash for Mercedes. She was still bunking with Santana, Brittany and Artie or the threesome as she liked to call them in their stylish apartment that was within walking distance to the diner. They had the whole top floor of the apartment building, having bought the other apartment on the floor and knocked out the walls for more space. After the first night and hearing the raucous lovemaking coming from the room the threesome shared, Mercedes elected to move as far away from them she could on the floor so she could hopefully get a peaceful night's rest. She did find a really nice apartment that she wanted to move into, but once Santana had tasted her food, the latina refused for her to move out. Once she had also braved to tell them that she might be pregnant, that was even more incentive for them to get her to stay. They convinced her that they would help her in whatever way she needed with her pregnancy and the baby's arrival, opting for the other spare bedroom closest to the potential mom to be the nursery, and Mercedes caved in, but only after she bargained with them for her to pay rent in cleaning and cooking because they wouldn't accept a penny of her money. Santana and Brittany even recommended a doctor for her to go to as well, saying that she was the best in town.

Mercedes got along with her new housemates really well she found out after some time with them. Artie and her shared a mutual love for R & B and soul music. They both loved video games and constantly tried to beat the other with every combination in the book. They both had a mutually hidden love of Sci Fi movies which Santana made fun of.

Santana and Mercedes ended up bonding over the town gossip and their love of fashion. That latina was amazed that the diva could hold her own when it came to a verbal match which surprised her greatly.

The diva found that Brittany was really easy to get along with. She had a brilliant light about her and her happiness and easygoing nature really brightened up a room. They bonded over their love of top 40 music and dancing. Mercedes was glad that she liked her new housemates so much and she was glad that she wouldn't have to be alone with this.

Her first doctor's appointment was today and she was off from work which made her only more nervous as she fluttered around their apartment cleaning everything in sight. Brittany had opted to go with her, but she had politely decline saying this was something she needed to do herself. She checked the time on her phone and her breath hitched when she saw the numbers. She must have lost track of time cleaning and if she didn't haul ass she was going to be late to her appointment.

Mercedes grabbed her purse and ran out the door. She had made it just in time because she had sped up a little. Her breaths were shortened as she stated her name at the check in area.

She had some paperwork to fill out and was directed to take a seat once she was finished. She clenched her hands in her lap so she wouldn't fiddle with them as her nerves grew more and more as she waited, staring at the bland walls. Patience wasn't her strong suit one bit, but somehow she had passed the time until a nurse called her name.

The brunette was directed into a room and asked to strip down to her birthday suit and put on the hospital gown that was laid on the exam table. Once the nurse had closed the door and left her alone, Mercedes slowly slipped off all of her items of clothing. A chill crawled up her spine when she was naked and she hurriedly put on the gown before sitting on the edge of the table, trying to cover herself and keep herself warm as best as she could.

It was a couple of minutes before there was a knock on the door and the doctor walked in. She was of medium stature with bright red hair and a banging body as Santana would say. She looked to be in her late twenties or early thirties and she had a very warm smile that Mercedes liked.

"Hello! I'm Dr. Palmer." The woman held out her hand towards Mercedes.

"Nice to meet you Dr. Palmer." Mercedes shook her hand. "I'm Mercedes."

"So from what I hear, you believe you are pregnant?" The doctor looked over the chart as she took a seat on the stool near the exam table.

"Yes. I took a couple of pregnancy tests and they all came out positive." She nodded her head.

"Okay so we will have to do a quick blood test to confirm and then if you want we can do a sonogram so you can see your baby."

The brunette eagerly nodded her head. "Yes that sounds great."

"Okay then. I will send the nurse back in to take your blood and then we will have to wait about five minutes for the results and then I will be back in. Does that sound good?" Dr. Palmer asked.

"Yes, it does. Thank you." Mercedes grinned at the doctor before she was left in the exam room alone again. Her eyes studied all of the posters in the room to pass the time. There was a poster about the spine and the proper stature for it to be aligned in. There was a poster of a pregnant belly that showed a kid inside and stated all the symptoms of pregnancy.

The nurse came back in shortly, interrupting her inventory of the room, and the brunette had to look away when the blood was taken from her because the sight of blood made her slightly queasy.

The nurse was done in a short amount of time. "I'll take this down to the lab and they will run it as soon as they can." The nurse said before leaving.

Mercedes wished that someone was there with her and she was started to regret her decision about not accepting Brittany's offer. She wanted someone to hold her hand and calm her uneasiness. With those thoughts, Sam automatically popped up into her head. She bit her lip as she thought about the blonde as the time ticked away.

Before she knew it the doctor was back in the room with her results as she tried to shake away all thoughts of Sam.

Dr. Palmer read over the results before a smile graced her face. "Congratulations are in order. You are pregnant."

A small smile fell on Mercedes face before it grew in depth until she was beaming. Her hand went to her stomach and she caressed it lovingly.

"So now, I'll do the sonogram and I'll have to do it vaginally due to the earliness of the pregnancy." The doctor stated as she started to get all the equipment ready.

The brunette was then instructed to scoot as close as she could to the end of the exam table and then put her feet up in stirrups before laying down. A monitor was pulled closer to the table before the doctor started up the sonogram machine. "Now you will feel some discomfort as the probe goes in, but then it should ease after a couple of moments."

Mercedes nodded her head. Once the doctor started, she winced as she felt the slight pain the doctor was talking about. She forgot all about it when she gazed at the monitor that came to live as it showed a little peanut on the screen.

"That's your baby." Dr. Palmer said excitedly before turning up the volume on the machine so they could hear the heartbeat.

"That's my baby." Mercedes stated back in awe, captivated by the little life on the screen that was growing inside her. Whatever doubts she had before all went away at the sight of her child.

"If you want I can print out a couple of photos for you." The doctor asked as she checked over everything.

"Yes, I'd like that very much."

"Okay well your baby seems to be healthy and from what I can see you are about four weeks along. I'm going to prescribe you some prenatal vitamins for you to take and a list of what you can and can't eat." Dr. Palmer finished the exam and then started to clean everything before putting the equipment back in it's place. "You can change back into your clothes and I'll be right back with the photos and the prescription."

It didn't take long for the doctor to come back and Mercedes barely even registered anything as she was still in awe about having a baby as she robotically dressed herself. She grabbed the items the doctor handed her before she was on her way, a huge smile on her face. Her hand rubbed her stomach gently. "My baby."

So what did you think? Thanks for this go to my beta Gen. Love you gurl.