Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or What Alice Forgot or any of its characters.

Thank you for reading and reviewing! You guys are honestly the best and I hope you enjoy.

My RS/Samcedes girls: Keep being fabulous! Xoxoxoxo.

The doorbell ring seemed to course through her entire body and she was overcome with the eerie sense that she had experienced this very situation before. It felt like déjà vu even though this was the first time she remembered seeing this woman from this angle outside of the closed front door. She grabbed onto the banister to steady herself as her mind played out a memory like a dream:

Mercedes was late. She hated being late. She was supposed to already be on the road heading downtown to meet Quinn for their lunch date to go over the guest list for her birthday party. She was rushing around her room and went to her jewelry box to get a pair of dangling earrings and glanced at the bouquet of flowers from Marcus; allowing herself a quick smile before turning to rush downstairs.

She was scrolling through her many emails on her phone while going down the steps when the doorbell rang. Surprised, because she was not expecting anyone, she looked through the door's frosted glass windows from where she was and saw Steve's assistant, Gwen, standing outside.

"What the hell does she want?" she said to herself while continuing down the stairs.

She grabbed her purse from the foyer table and opened the door.

"What could you possibly want, Gwen?"

"Well, it's good to see you too, Mercedes. Can I come in?"

"No. I'm on my way to a meeting. What can I do for you?"

Gwen looked at her with a haughty expression. Mercedes looked back with her own look that showed her she couldn't give a fuck what she was here to talk to her about.

"You need to divorce Sam."

Out of all the things she expected this bitch to say, this was not one of them.

"Excuse me?" She was so full of instant rage that this woman, who she had never liked, was here at her home, telling her what to do in her own life.

"Listen, Mercedes, you never deserved Sam. I have been there for him during this separation and I plan on being there for him on a whole new level soon. And because he will not move out of friendship zone with me while still technically married to you, I need you to file those divorce papers."

"You really thought, in your tiny little brain, that you could come here and demand something of me? You are nothing. You work at the company that has made Sam rich. You are trying to maneuver your way in on Sam, and try to build whatever dream you have of fame by getting together with him? I have news for you, he would NEVER go for someone like you. Now get off of my property before I call the cops and accuse you of being a crazy fan."

Gwen just smiled at her, "Okay, so you are going to play it this way. Well, I will let you in on a little secret. I'm going to seduce him by telling him wonderful things about himself and doing things to him that you never did. Then I am going to have sex with him and in a month or so, oops: a fake pregnancy. And he is a decent guy, so he will take care of me, probably marry me and I will get what I want: a rich husband." She paused relishing Mercedes' look of disdain, " And if you call him and try to warn him about me, I will deny everything. He sees me as an innocent and sweet friend who has been nothing but loyal. So try me." She looked back at Mercedes with a wicked gleam in her eye.

Mercedes leaned fully against the wall of the staircase, still gripping the banister. Her heart was pounding at a record pace and she had broken out in a sweat. This had been her first memory since her accident. She felt faint, and that, coupled with the hangover was not helping. This happened the morning of my accident, she thought to herself.

Gwen rang the doorbell again and it snapped Mercedes out of her dazed state.

"Get it together, Mercedes. Get it together." She shook her head and wiped the sheer film of perspiration off of her brow. She stood up straight and pushed her hair back to let it fall down her back. She squared her shoulders and marched down the rest of the stairs to open the door and face this conniving bitch of a woman.

Mercedes took a deep breath and opened. Gwen seemed startled when she swung open the door, but composed herself quickly. She must have been expecting Mercedes to say something, but when she only stared at Gwen, she started to stammer out what she had come to say.

"Mercedes, I just came to tell you that Sam and I are together and you need to step back from him because what we have is deep and I am in love with him."

Mercedes just looked back at this hag with the appearance of disinterest. "So this is the route she's going now," she thought to herself. She still refused to say anything yet. She was curious to hear more.

"Well, aren't you going to say anything? I just told you that the husband that you are now still in love with, is in love with me."

"You didn't say he was in love with you. You said you are in love with him."

"Well he IS in love with me. I'm sorry about your accident and that you don't remember anything, but Sam has moved on. And you should really think twice about coming between two people in a relationship."

"If you are in a relationship, why hasn't he mentioned you?"

"I'm sure it's because he doesn't want to hurt your feelings, being that you are in a tender state and everyone is fucking tip toeing around you right now."

Mercedes just nodded her head.

"So, it would be better for everyone involved if you just step back and let things go on as they have been for the last year."

Mercedes let the silence hang in the air for a few seconds before looking her dead in the eyes and speaking.

"You know, Gwen, it's really interesting; you standing here saying this to me right now. It's so funny to me, you ringing this doorbell at our house, just like you did a week and a half ago," she paused waiting her Gwen's reaction. She savored seeing her open and close her mouth in shock.

"Yeah, Gwen. I fucking remember you coming up to our door and talking about some brilliant fake pregnancy plan to get Sam to marry you so you can have your rich husband," Mercedes stepped closer to Gwen, invading her personal space as she continued, "So you'd better watch your back because even though you don't think I will do anything to you because I'm a mom, I will not hesitate to beat your wannabe home-wrecking ass down if you EVER come to our house again or try to manipulate Sam in ANY way. Do you understand me, bitch?" She said as she gave her a quick, but strong shove. Gwen staggered backwards down the few steps in astonishment.

"Get off of our property, NOW, before I give you that beat down right here and now in our driveway. Oh, and be quiet leaving, Sam's still sleeping upstairs."

Gwen was looking back at Mercedes in complete shock. Mercedes took a step towards her and Gwen turned around and practically ran to her car. She gave one more hasty glance her way and Mercedes gave her a double flip off in response. She opened her car door and got in quickly and sped off down their long driveway.

Mercedes was breathing hard and had adrenaline flowing through her body. She turned around to go back in the house and closed the door. Her hands were shaking, but it felt good telling that woman off.

Then her thoughts went to: she had remembered something. It felt strange, like she had been watching it happen to someone else. This was good that she remembered, but she also felt scared. Would more memories just come flowing back to her now that this one had made its way through? Would she tell Sam? No, she was keeping this to herself for now. And she knew that bitch, Gwen, would be keeping both conversations to herself as well.

She gave herself a high five for handing Gwen her own ass and went to the kitchen to make the coffee and toast.

Sam and Mercedes spent the rest of the afternoon trying to get the hangover out of their systems. They laughed and talked about their worst drinking experiences they had had together. He would never let her live down the time he held her hair while she puked in the toilet for a full night after accepting a dare to do 4 Kamikaze shots in a row their sophomore year.

Sam looked over at the floor at the foot of their bed and got a distant look in his eyes while side smiling.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked him.

"About four years ago, we decided to drop the kids off at my parent's so we could go out for a date night. We were going to go out to a fancy restaurant and then go see this blues band you liked. I went to take the kids and came home and I couldn't find you anywhere downstairs, so I came up here and you had set up the room just like that night we wrote 'Strumming Your Love'. There were candles everywhere and you had a blanket on the floor with pizza and beer and my guitar was leaning against that dresser," Sam was still looking at the spot where she must have set it all up. Then he looked back at her, "I was going through a dry period where I just couldn't write. I would try and nothing came to me. You were trying to jump start my creative side." He smiled and ran his hand through his hair.

"Did it work?"

"It did. After that night I couldn't get the words to paper fast enough. The album that came out a year later was the bestselling one."

Mercedes smiled, "That is such a wonderful story, Sam. It's actually good to hear I wasn't a complete asshole all the time."

"No, Cedes, you weren't. How are you feeling? Pounding head and upset stomach subsided? Mine have."

"Actually, yeah. Mine too."

"So I'm supposed to pick up the kids in," he looked at his watch, "30 minutes. Do you want to meet at Joe's for dinner?"

With her stomach feeling better and feeling suddenly very empty, that sounded like a great idea.

"Yes!"

"Is it okay if I shower here?"

Mercedes just nodded her head. She couldn't form words thinking of his naked and wet body.

"Thanks," he said and hopped out of bed and went into the bathroom. The shower started up and she heard him unzipping his pants and his clothes falling to the floor.

"This is torture," she said quietly. Then, "This is torture!" she yelled at the top of her lungs so he would hear her over the sound of streaming water. She could hear him laughing but received no invitation to join him.

"Ugh, tease!" she yelled.

After his long shower, he left to go get the kids and they decided to meet at the restaurant at 6:30. She had time to call Quinn and tell her all about her encounter with Gwen, but all she got was her voicemail. So she left a long message about the whole thing from remembering what happened with Gwen, to how she told her off today; until the voicemail cut her off saying her message was too long.

She got to the restaurant right at 6:30 and she saw Sam and the kids already there. There were two teenaged girls at their table hugging each other and jumping up and down while Sam signed an autograph for the two of them. Mercedes smiled and made her way over.

Laila saw her first and jumped up from the table to run up and give her trademark full body hug.

"Hi Laila! Did you have fun with Grandma and Grandpa?"

"Yes! Grandpa took us out to the yard and we dug for worms and I found more than Trey!"

"Wow, how many did you find?"

Laila thought it over a little bit.

"I found 127!"

Mercedes burst out laughing, "Really! You must have needed a really big bucket to put them all in."

Laila just nodded and grabbed her hand to bring her to the table. When they got there, Sam automatically stood up. Southern gentleman through and through, she thought.

Trey also got up and gave his mom a hug. Mercedes looked over at Sam quickly with happiness in her eyes. This was the first time since the accident he had initiated a hug with her.

"Hi Trey. I heard you went worm hunting with Grandpa."

"Did you know you could cut off one of their ends and it grows back?" He asked her with wide excited eyes.

"Ew, no." She said and made an exaggerated grossed out face. Both of the kids laughed and they all sat down.

"Alright, I have a plan of what we should order," Sam said to them.

Laila clapped and bounced up and down in her chair waiting for the big plan. Trey looked at his dad with a little more subdued excitement than his sister.

"Tell us!" Mercedes laughed after he made a big production of pausing to build anticipation.

"We are each going to order a different burger – no one can order the same thing. Then we will cut them in quarters and split them. Family style." He finished with a very satisfied and proud look.

"That's your big plan?" Mercedes teased him. "My proposal is: we order whichever one we want and whoever finishes their whole burger first gets to be the only one to order dessert and eat it all by themselves."

Sam looked back at her with mock shock that she would challenge him.

"Okay, kids, you guys pick which plan we should go with. If split –"

They both cut him off by yelling, "Dessert plan!"

"I can't believe this!" Sam was shaking his head, "Betrayed by not one, but both of my kids!"

"Just admit it, mine was a better plan."

"Okay, we will see how good it is when we all have indigestion from inhaling our burgers just to put some dessert down on top of it!"

"Speak for yourself. I can handle it. Laila, can you handle it?"

"YES!" she yelled.

"Trey?"

"Yes!" he said smiling.

"Sam? You in?"

"Of course I'm in! Bring it, woman."

At the end of the meal, everyone but Laila was shocked that she was the winner.

"How can someone so little gulp down a huge burger like that?" Mercedes was looking at her tiny daughter in amazement.

"I wanted dessert." Laila responded.

Sam and Mercedes locked eyes and he said, "Definitely her mother's daughter."

When dinner was over, Mercedes realized that Sam would probably not be staying over since the kids were there. They were all standing outside of the restaurant and about to say bye, when Trey asked,

"Dad, are you going to come back to the house?"

He had such hope in his eyes as he looked at Sam, that Mercedes felt like her heart was going to break. Sam must have thought the same thing, because he agreed to come over to tuck them into bed.

Mercedes and Laila followed Sam and Trey back to the house.

"Mommy, my belly hurts," she said from the backseat.

"Aw, Laila. I'm sorry, honey. I shouldn't have made up that eating contest."

"It was worth it," she said back. Mercedes looked in the rearview mirror at her sweet daughter looking out of her window. The lights were playing off of her face as they passed by cars and streetlights. She was such a beautiful little girl and Mercedes couldn't believe how much personality she had packed into her little six year old self. Laila must have felt her eyes on her because she looked from the window to the rearview mirror and locked eyes with her mom.

"I love you, mommy."

"I love you too, Laila."

Laila smiled big and went back to looking out of her window.

They got back to the house and they all decided to watch a half hour show that Laila loved and Trey pretended not to like, but she could tell he secretly did, called The Boompernaughts. Mercedes tried to follow the cartoon, but was lost with all of the characters and the kids plus Sam were trying to explain it all to her, but she was still lost. They had all given up on her after about five minutes and decided she could figure it out herself.

After that, it was the bedtime ritual. Sam took Laila into her bedroom to read her three books and Mercedes walked with Trey to his room and tucked him into bed, kissed him on the forehead and turned out the lights. This time, Mercedes wasn't tired. She must be getting used to this, she thought. She was downstairs looking through a magazine, then tidying up already neat things and started to watch TV when she realized it had been a long time since Sam went in with Laila.

She crept upstairs and looked into her room. Sam was lying on top of the covers with a book open and resting on his chest, while Laila was curled up into his side, both of them snoring away. It was the sweetest thing she had seen. She didn't want to disturb them, so she silently crept over to take the book off of him and turned out the light and closed the door behind her.

She leaned against the door with her eyes closed. Her family was beginning to come back together.