Episode 7.
'It wanted to know where my dad was.'
Sam and Mercedes were lying side by side on a blanket in the park where Sam had first told Mercedes who he was. He had whizzed home to get something to spread over the grass straight after Glee club, and they'd been lying there for a while, staring up at the sky without saying anything as they watched the clouds pass by overhead.
'Who did?'
Mercedes rolled her head to the side to look at him. She'd been so caught up in making shapes out of the clouds that it took her a moment to remember why they were there.
'Oh.'
Mercedes turned to face the sky again as she processed, and then abruptly sat up, panic written all over her face.
'Wait, what? They want Dwight? What did he do? Is he ok? We should get him somewhere saf…'
Sam's hand wrapped around her arm and tugged her gently to get her to lay down again.
'Dwight is fine.' He assured her, smiling at her eagerness to protect his family.
'He wasn't the dad they wanted.'
Sam moved his head so he could look at her, his hands resting loosely on his stomach rising softly up and down as he breathed.
Mercedes eyes widened into perfect circles as she heard the implication in his words.
'Oh.' she was silent for a moment. 'Oh.'
'Yeah.'
Sam's gaze returned to the clouds as the silence descended again.
'I guess it makes more sense that they'd want your vampire dad,' she accepted, 'Do you know why?' Mercedes asked curiously, rolling onto her stomach and plucking at a blade of grass, to run the greenery through her fingers as she spoke.
'I don't know.' Sam shrugged, reaching up to free a strand of Mercedes' hair that had gotten tangled in her earring during her change in position. 'It certainly seemed important to them that they find him though.'
'So… what? They think you know where he is?' Mercedes asked trying to fit all the pieces together as she spoke.
Sam shook his head.
'No. At least, not anymore. I told them that I didn't know where he was, but they didn't believe me at first.' he explained. 'That's why Demon-Dude got slash happy.'
Sam raised his arms to cradle his hands behind his head as he watched a few birds fly overhead, their silhouettes dark against the bright sky.
Mercedes shuddered, not enjoying the reminder of the emotional sucker punch of the day before.
'I don't understand.'
Sam sighed and rolled over so he was on his stomach too, his hand automatically coming up to rub the point where the demon's knife had punctured his flesh even though it was now nothing but an almost faded pink scar.
'Neither do I, exactly,' he admitted, 'but the demon said something about 'tasting the truth in my blood."
Mercedes' face screwed up in instant disgust, contorting into a grimace that Sam couldn't help but laugh at. The girl looked so completely grossed out.
'Ew.'
'It wasn't the most pleasant lunchtime experience I've ever had.' Sam agreed, a stray chuckle making its way out of his mouth.
They were quiet for a moment longer, 'So do you know where he is?' Mercedes asked, 'Your vampire dad I mean?'
'Uhn-uh.' Sam shook his head. 'I haven't seen or heard from that dad since I was twelve.'
Mercedes swayed to nudge his shoulder with her own as she tried to comfort away the sadness her friend's voice had betrayed.
'I'm sorry.'
Sam shrugged as he tried to seem unconcerned, his problems with his dad were an issue for another day, but his lips twitched into a grateful smile as he playfully nudged his friend back.
'Thanks.'
Sam flipped over and sat up, scooting his butt to the top of the blanket so he could lean back on his hands and still see Mercedes' expressions as she remained on her stomach.
'You know, honestly, I'm not sure it's such a bad thing.' He expanded thoughtfully, his eyes once again on the clouds above. 'Daddy dearest is a 600 year old vampire. To him, young kids must seem even younger and more annoying. It doesn't seem like such a good idea to put a creature with huge strength and wavering control in a room with annoying small I don't think he was all that paternal to start with.'
Mercedes laughed and Sam let out a little chuckle of his own, automatically feeling better for being able to talk about it.
'Besides,' Sam reached out and plucked a daisy from the grass, twirling the stem between his fingers. 'He was nobility back in Sweden even before he was turned so he has the tendency to be a little insufferable.'
Beside him Mercedes raised an eyebrow and waited for him to expand on the little piece of information he'd just thrown in super casually.
'What?'
'You want to go back and explain that 'my dad is nobility' thing a little better?' Mercedes prompted, 'because if you come here on that 'oh, by the way I'm secretly royalty' ish I'm going to smack you.'
Sam bit back a grin and attempted to look wounded.
'Why would you smack me for something that has no relevance to me, my upbringing or my life?' he questioned, 'Just because my dad used to be a king…'
'No.' Mercedes sat up shaking her head as she dusted off her top. 'Na-uh, no way. If you are a prince too then I am done.'
It was probably all of about 10 seconds before Sam collapsed into laughter on the blanket, his body bobbing with the force until he rolled onto his back so he could laugh unencumbered.
'Ahhh…' He let out a sigh as he reached up to wipe the tears away from his eyes, skillfully ignoring the glare Mercedes was shooting his way.
'I'm just messing with you, Cede.' He confessed as a few last giggles rose to the surface. 'My dad's just from some old, noble family in Sweden. I can't even remember what his title was, maybe a knight or a duke or something?' Sam shrugged. 'Anyway, it's long done with now, as far as most people are concerned my dad died a long time ago.'
'Hmm.' Mercedes hummed, one eyebrow raised to express her skepticism. After a moment she flopped back onto the blanket to lay on her back next to Sam.
'So, no guesses as to what the demon wanted him for?'
'Nope.' Sam drew out the word so his lips made a smacking noise on the 'p'. 'I tried to get some kind of a clue from the shadow demon, but it wouldn't tell me anything.'
'Well, that's freaky.'
'Tell me about it.' Sam agreed, 'but at least it's done with. They know I don't know anything so…'
Mercedes sat up, her expression grave as she watched Sam talk.
'Sam.' She interrupted. 'Sam!'
Sam's eyes had drifted shut as he'd talked, silently thankful that his run in with demons was short and unobtrusive, but at the sound of Mercedes' insistent voice his eyes flew open again.
'What?' he asked, slightly annoyed. 'Why are you yelling?'
Mercedes shifted her eyes away from Sam's face uncomfortably as he sat up, wishing that she didn't have to bring this up but knowing that it was in Sam's best interests that she did so.
'Do you think…' she began, and then shook her head in favour of a different opening. 'Have you considered,' she asked her blond friend quietly, 'that if you're the only connection they have to your father… that they might come back?'
Sam frowned at her, his lips pouted slightly as he thought about it.
'But I already told them that I don't know anything. They know that's true.'
'Yeah, but…' Mercedes fiddled with the top of her sneaker, as she avoided Sam's concerned eyes. 'you're his son. What if they try to use you as leverage? Or if they use your blood to locate his blood? Or…'
Sam's hand invaded her line of vision and stilled the fingers that had been worrying at the top fastening of her high top.
'Then we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.' he insisted, letting go of her hand once he was sure that she wouldn't start frantically pulling at her shoes again.
'I couldn't do anything the last time.' She complained, her voice low, 'If that demon had really hurt you, then I wouldn't have…'
'I wouldn't want you to.' Sam's voice was so authoritative that Mercedes' eyes snapped up to look at him.
'I don't want you to.' Sam continued in that same tone. 'Look, Mercedes, you're my friend, but you're also mortal and I don't want you to go getting yourself hurt or killed because you're trying to help me, ok? I can handle it.'
'But what if…'
'I. Can. Handle. It.' Sam repeated deliberately, cutting off any argument Mercedes might have been about to make. 'If you see a demon, or if one starts following you or anything like that, I need you to promise me that you won't do anything other than tell me, ok?'
Mercedes was giving him the look of death across from him on the blanket, but he pressed the issue anyway. This was one thing he would not be moved from.
'Promise me, Mercedes.'
Sam watched as his best friend tensed her jaw and knew that their discussion was not going to end well.
'No.'
'Mercedes…'
'No.'
'Why-'
'Can I ask you something?' Mercedes interrupted sharply, her arms folded determinedly across her chest. 'If it were the other way around, and I asked you to stay out of it, would you?'
Sam bit his lip, the conversation was about to turn against him, and for once he wished that Mercedes was the kind of girl who would just accept what he'd said without trying to argue about it.
'It's not the same, Mercedes and you know it.'
'I do not know it!' the girl argued, her eyebrows raised in challenge.
'Demons are dangerous!'
'Life is dangerous, Sam.' Mercedes shot back as she climbed to her feet. Once she was standing she whirled around to look at Sam, who stared at her with a look of open-mouthed frustration on his face for about two heartbeats before he was up on his own feet and facing her.
'Because you're mortal!' He pointed out, his annoyance getting the better of him. 'Life is dangerous for you because you are mortal… and fragile.'
Sam paced a few steps away from Mercedes and ran a hand through his hair, after a second he turned and came back, stopping closer to her than he had been before, his eyes blazing.
'Do you even realise that anything could kill you?' he demanded, 'At any second? You could drop dead right now, in front of me, and there wouldn't be a thing I could do about it. Even with all the abilities I have, I wouldn't be able to do a thing. Ok?'
Sam looked so distressed that Mercedes wondered briefly if the boy was going to cry. All his frustration seemed to be spilling out at once and his words tumbled out one after another like a tide that he had no way of stopping.
'Because that's life, Mercedes.' He went on, his green eyes intense as he looked down at her, begging her to understand.
'That's your life.' He pressed tenderly, his voice rasping as he spoke, 'and I can't change that. But what I can do is do my best to protect you from all the shit that you wouldn't have to deal with if you didn't know about me.'
Sam held Mercedes' gaze with his own for a brief moment, letting all of that sink in before he spoke again. 'That is the one thing I can do for you, so would you please just… let me do it.'
Sam's ragged breathing was the only sound that could be heard in the heated silence that stretched between them, and he looked away, refusing to meet Mercedes' eyes again as he got himself under control. Sam had never been able to voice his fears like that before, and he'd never felt so vulnerable as he did now with all his fears laid bare for Mercedes to see. He could feel her looking at him, see her blinking up at him in his periphery, but he still couldn't bring himself to look at her until she spoke.
'Ok.'
Sam had been expecting Mercedes to try to argue with him, or to kick up a fuss so when he heard her soft acquiescence his head snapped up to make sure that he'd heard her correctly.
Mercedes looked about as emotional as he felt, and her big, brown eyes glistened with unshed tears as she regarded him quietly, her straight, white teeth worrying at her lower lip.
'Ok?' he parroted and the dark-skinned girl nodded, her gaze sliding away from his as she focused her attention on collecting up the blanket and folding it neatly.
'You know,' Mercedes doubled the blanket lengthwise and then moved her hand to the end of the fabric to find the new corner. 'Yesterday, I was so angry that I couldn't help you. So frustrated that all I could do was watch you deal with that… thing.' She took a deep breath, blowing it out through pursed lips as she finished folding the blanket and draped it over her arm.
'But I never once considered that… that's how you feel about us… All the time.'
Mercedes clutched the blanket in both hands and held it out towards Sam like a peace offering, her attention seemingly caught up in examining the red piping against the midnight blue of the plaid design.
'I didn't think about how scary it must be for you… to be around people whose life spans are so much… shorter… than yours.'
Mercedes' voice came out sounding stilted as she wracked her brain for the right words to explain her thoughts and feelings. She knew that she could never hope to beat a demon on her own, Sam was right - she was mortal and no match for a supernatural creature built with more resilience than her- but Mercedes still hated having to admit it.
'It's kind of like watching toddlers on a construction site.' Sam admitted, a small smile playing on his face as he reached out to take the blanket from her, a hand braced on the top and bottom of the folded fabric.
'How do you stand it?' Mercedes inquired quietly into the wool still clutched between them as she had yet to let go.
'Mostly I just accept it… but that's harder to do with the people that I care about.'
Mercedes had become one of those people. Sam's words hung heavy in the air and whispered the implication into her Mercedes brain. In no time at all, she'd become one of the people Sam worried about and sought to protect. Mercedes nodded as it slowly dawned on her that Sam had become one of those people for her too. It had snuck up on her, but all of a sudden Mercedes was aware that she was thinking about Sam the same way she thought of Kurt, Quinn, or her brother, Carlos.
Maybe that was why she was trying to fight Sam so hard, Mercedes mused, because she didn't want to think about not being able to help those she considered her family if they needed it.
'Maybe not all demons are bad.' Mercedes suggested feebly, knowing that it was already clear to them both that she had surrendered the argument but not wanting to go down without at least a semblance of a fight.
'Do you really want to take that chance?' Sam posited just as quietly, his voice barely louder than a whisper.
Mercedes let go of the blanket and Sam took it from her, pinned the wadded fabric under his arm and shoving his hands deep into his pockets as he looked at his friend. He wasn't going to push her, but Sam's silence was telling as Mercedes stroked at her hair delicately before letting out a small sigh.
'Fine. I'll stay away from demons.' She agreed, letting out a surprised squeak as Sam wrapped his free arm around her shoulders to drag her closer for a relieved hug.
'Thank you.'
'Yeah, yeah.'
Mercedes lightly at his chest to get him to release her and Sam complied by dropping his arm. Lifting it a moment later to make sure the blanket was still secure as he and Mercedes began to make their way out of the park.
'So basically,' Sam said after a while, 'at the core of our friendship is a mutual fear of not being able to stop the other from getting hurt.'
Mercedes snorted, squinting as the setting sun reflected pink into her eyes, bouncing off a row of cars parked nearby.
'Yeah, probably.' She acknowledged with a slight nod. 'Among other things.'
'Wow.'
Sam looked straight ahead of him, as if he were focusing on something in the far distance and Mercedes followed his gaze curiously, only to accept that whatever the blond was seeing was too far away for her eyes.
'What was that?' Mercedes asked, turning her attention back to the tall boy beside her when she became aware that he was saying something to her.
'I said,' Sam's eyes glittered as he looked down at her, a small smirk on his lips. 'That I love you…' he crooned, 'and you love me, and we're a happy family…'
'You better stop.' Mercedes warned, her head wobbling slightly on her neck as she prepared to unleash the diva.
'With a great big hug…' Sam sang, dancing out of her way with an amused laugh when she made a grab for him.
'And a kiss from me to you…'
Mercedes made another grab at him, and Sam ran a few steps away from her, bouncing on the balls of his feet as he playfully taunted her.
'Boy, don't you dare finish singing that song.' The girl warned him pointedly, the threat echoing in her words.
'Won't you say…'
Mercedes took off after him and Sam sped off away from her, the sound of his laughter lingering behind him as he darted out of her grasp again.
'That's an unfair advantage!' Mercedes complained, pouting at Sam's use of super-speed as he slipped out of her grasp and disappeared from sight.
'You're right.' Sam sighed, appearing at her side in an instant and holding his hands up in front of him in surrender. 'It's just nice when there's no one around.' He shrugged and dropped a friendly arm around her shoulders as he walked her towards her car.
'I'll see you tomorrow.' Sam informed Mercedes as they cleared the trees, readjusting the blanket under his arm as he prepared to run home.
'Mmmhm.'
Sam grinned, knowing that she was still being salty because of the Barney thing.
'And if you see anything supernaturally suspicious…' Sam's tone became serious as he turned the short girl towards him by her shoulders, looking into her eyes to drive home the significance of what he was saying.
'I'll tell you.' Mercedes recited with an exaggerated roll of her eyes which Sam chose to ignore.
'Good.' He said, holding out his fist for her to bump before he turned to leave.
'Oh, and Mercedes?' he asked, one foot off the pavement as he swiveled the top part of his body around to look at her.
'Yes?'
'Don't be mad.'
Mercedes eyes narrowed as she ran over his words again in her head in an effort to figure out what he meant.
'Why would I be mad?' she asked curiously but Sam just cocked a half-smile at her and stepped down completely off the pavement in preparation for the run home.
'You'll know.' He assured her before he was gone, no doubt already half way to his house.
Mercedes shook her head as she turned back to her car and unlocked it. She'd climbed behind the wheel, shut the door and slid on her seatbelt before she noticed the slip of paper propped up against her dashboard.
You love me too.
'I do not.' Mercedes protested, picking up the torn sheet covered in Sam's telltale handwriting. She flipped it over and had to smile when she caught sight of where Sam had written,
'Yes you do. I'm your new best friend!' on the back, clearly preempting the fact that she would try to argue.
Mercedes fished her phone out of her pocket with a bemused shake of her head and tapped out a text message to her self-proclaimed 'New Best Friend', tossing her cell into the well between the seats as she headed off for home.
Sam was already home by the time his phone buzzed, and he allowed himself a self-satisfied grin when he saw that it was from Mercedes – she must have found his note.
I'm not mad, but you ARE a dork. And didn't I warn you not to finish that song? Don't think you got away with that, buddy. You gon' pay.
Sam smirked at the message, glad that the seriousness of the past few days seemed to have left them behind. It had taken an emotional toll on the both of them, and Sam only hoped that it would be a long time before either of them saw another demon.
He sent back a text message before he slid his phone into his pocket and settled down to do his homework. He was supposed to meet Quinn in a couple of hours, so Sam knew that he needed to get to work if he wanted to get done in time. He picked up his pen, a smile on his lips as he imagined Mercedes' face when she saw his reply.
Bring it on.
