Les Âmes Soeurs

AnniKay

Sam/Mercedes/Puck

Disclaimer: I own Nothing…Murphy, Falchuk, and Brennen along with Fox and others own this fandom and all the characters there in…Anything you recognize obviously belongs to them

****THANKS to everyone who has taken the time to review! Your encouragement helps more than you know!****

Even with the finale, they couldn't give us a real good ending for Mercedes, Rachel got married and a Tony…but they alluded to Mercy's world tour, but they said nothing about a Grammy or a love interest for Cedes. RIB and his writers can still each collectively and individually kiss my big black ass. SamCedes is EndGame. If they can't see that then they need new, not stupid, eyes.

Thank all of you for being avid readers & reviewers of my stories

Special thanks to KayBee80 & Illiandyanndra who have been Beta rock stars for all of my thirteen stories

Summary: The gang has moved to New York. College and career are on the horizon…Are the Original New Directions ready for what all the future holds?

AN: The Learning French Series is up to 1417 Reviews. WooHoo…1500 we're gunning for you!
MsLadyThankYouVeryMuch, since you are an amazing mind reader, (Seriously guys every time she reviews she picks up exactly what I'm laying down…it's a little scary.) I used one quote from one of your reviews. I hope that it is ok.


Chapter 9
Rockstar (NickelBack)
Kurt PoV

Well, the movie premiere was one of the best nights of my entire life, at that point. We got to go and see a red carpet event up close and personal. And where the last time I was pretty much on being Mercedes' people duty the night of the soundtrack release party, for the premiere, I could really just enjoy the hobnobbing. We got to dance the night away with the elite of black Hollywood…I met Tyler Perry for Gaga's sake. He said that he liked my waistcoat. I was more than a little insulted at the level of surprise on my friends' faces when I recognized him without any one's help. But C'est La Vie. Despite not getting home until after four, I was back up at nine. On top of the amazing amount of nervous energy I was feeling, I needed to get up early to have a chance to do my vocal and physical warmups at home. I would, of course, run through them again at the school later, but I felt far freer in the privacy of my own home. Once I completed my warmups, I turned my attention to hygiene. I took a long, hot shower and did my entire facial care and moisturizing regimen. Even after completing my major morning tasks, I still had time and I was filled with nervous energy, so I headed down to the kitchen. Cooking, often, could be counted upon to calm even my most frantic nerves.

As I prepared my favorite spinach, bacon and Swiss omelet I realized that the house was entirely too quiet. I turned on the small TV we had hidden in the cabinet nearest the refrigerator. "Up and coming music group KAMA is already becoming embroiled in conspiracy." The lead female anchor of the local NBC affiliate station said with a rather happy smirk.

"Oh my Gaga." I groaned. As I watched in horror, the same video, the sweet and caring triple proposal, I had on my phone. Rickie had taken the video as Mercedes, Sam and Puck had pledged that they would marry each other if only they legally could. It was so touching and so sweet. Rickie had only sent it to Mercedes' contact list. I knew it, it had come from Mercedes phone, and Rickie had said in the accompanying text that she'd used Cedes' phone to take the video. So I couldn't see how on earth they had gotten it. As she threw to another clip, which forced me to the horrific conclusion that it wasn't the affiliate that had gotten the video.

"The three members of the group have been open about the nature of their relationship. However until the release of this video late last night, there was a certain amount of disagreement as to whether or not it was true or just a publicity stunt. All those who felt their 'relationship' was simply a way to garner publicity and set themselves apart from the pack have now been silenced." The male anchor acknowledged with a blasé kind of impartiality. "Conservative pundits and family value proponents have already begun responding to the video."

Sean Hannity's ugly mug filled the screen. "So this band pops up out of nowhere and they are trying to further taint and destroy the institution of marriage. They are shoving this unnaturalness in our faces, asking us to just roll over and take it while they convince our children that it is okay to behave like this. That all love is good love. As I understand it, Miss Jones even spoke on the radio about God and the Bible. Lying about the nature of the love God means for us to share. Lying about the basic nature of human relationships. Telling us that it goes against God not to accept their 'relationship'…they call it. But let's just call it what it is…its depravity pure and simple. A whore, a modern day Mata Hari, who has led these two promising young men astray. This is a blatant attack on the sanctity of marriage. Marriage should only exist between one man and one woman. Anything else is an abomination."

Thankfully they cut from the Hannity clip back to shiny, way too happy crazy bitch. "There are already calls to boycott 'SongBird' the movie and the soundtrack, as well as any albums the group may be releasing."

I flicked off the television. I didn't want to hear anything more. Mercedes, Sam and Noah hadn't even gotten home yet and this shit storm was starting. Someone had taken something beautiful and touching and was trying to turn it into something cheap and tawdry. By the time Jamie had arrived and we made our way to NYADA, I realized that it was even worse than we thought. "Man, Kurt, Steve Harvey was going off. Since they had had Mercedes on the show, there were all these people were calling his show trying to talk shit about KAMA. There were a lot of brothers talking out the side of their necks about Mercy choosing to be with white boys, saying that she thought she was too good for brothers. So Carla asked them what color were all the women they had been with and that shut them up pretty damn quick. But then this other caller I think she was trying to defend Mercy. She tried to claim that Mercedes probably had seen her black father acting like most black baby daddies and figured a white guy would be faithful. But Nephew Tommy stopped that shit quick. He told everyone that they had met both of her parents and they were good church going people who had been married for years. He basically called them the Huxtables." I couldn't help but laugh. It was very much kind of true. "So then some guy called in talking smack about how Mercedes had been bullied and Sam and Noah had managed to create a weird kind of Stockholm syndrome and she was clinging to them, acting as their little chocolate fantasy to her own degradation."

"Wow, that person has definitely never met Mercedes Antoinette Jones."

"I know right." Jamie smiled. "I haven't even spent that much time with them and I know how much Puck and Sam are wrapped around her fingers."

"You have no idea." I laughed. "Sam and Noah were both, to all outside appearances, straight as your proverbial arrow. Then Mercedes asked them for some yaoi kisses. Next thing you know they go from both dating her to them all dating each other…even though it did take the two of them some time to understand the difference."

Jamie laughed heartily. "We'll just have to stand up for them whenever we get the opportunity. I'm sure that they took all this into consideration when they started on their wild ride, but we can all show them that we have their backs."

I nodded. We got to the performance theatre, and headed backstage to check out our costumes and make sure that everything was in readiness. There was a final run through of the night's lineup, warm ups, sound check; only then were we allowed to begin preparations for the night's performance. The way the program was structured; trios, quartets and larger group ensembles were up first in descending order of size. Once those were all finished, then the duets would grace the stage and finally the solo performances would happen. Every one invited could participate with as many or as few of the performances as they wanted. Several of the seniors were on stage four or five times. It gave the casting agents and directors who were attending the chance to see that they had not only the chops but could hold their own with a variety of other performers. Playing well with others was a trait in high demand on Broadway.

Around twelve thirty, I started getting inundated with texts from Santana and twitter and face book alerts. Apparently Danica Jones was not taking the bullshit being spewed about her baby laying down. Neither were Gabrielle Evans or Rebecah Puckerman, but the truth was that people were coming a lot harder for Mercedes than they were for either Sam or Puck. Someone had posted some BS slut shaming type of comment on the KAMA twitter feed…Mama Danica's response was priceless. 'So my baby is a slut for having slept w/ only 2 people in her entire life.' 'Wow your definition of slut differs greatly from everyone else's including Webster, MacMillian, Oxford, Chambers, Longman, hell even MacQuarie Dictionary down in Australia', 'they all know that you can't be a slut without sleeping with either a large amount of people, or using sex to generate some form of income.' Of course, there were a bunch more trolls, but Twitter was also where we really started to see some broad base support. Santana seemed determined to reply to each and every one of the trollers, but her language was so strong, I could barely read the words, let alone process the subtle threats they carried.

As Jamie and I were getting dressed in our duet costumes, we both got a news update letting us know that Lyor Cohen had had the PR department put out a statement. "The personal lives of our artists do not impact our professional relationships with them. Miss Jones, Mr. Evans and Mr. Puckerman have been honest and forthright as to the nature of their relationship since the night I discovered them singing as they danced in a Manhattan restaurant. KAMA is an extremely talented new group who will have a home at Warner Records for a long, long time. They have already shown an amazing ability to both perform and record. We are looking forward to helping them grow and mature as artists. As to assertions that the relationship between Miss Jones, Mr. Evans and Mr. Puckerman is an 'assault on the sanctity of marriage' the very words of the trio preclude that conclusion. They state that they are not able to legally marry. Having met these young people and brought them into the Warner family myself, the only abomination I see in this entire situation is the fact that their privacy was invaded and their happy, private moment forcibly shared with the world. I would like to remind those who chose to spout their personal opinions as to the relationship of the members of the group; these are young people who have barely entered adulthood. I should not have to also point out that as adults we need to remember that words have power and hate speech is not protected by the first amendment."

"Did you just get the 'and our lawyers stay down' threat that was left unsaid at the end there?" Jamie joked.

I nodded. "Wow. Now I'm almost hoping Rush Limbaugh will open his big fat mouth. I absolutely loathe that man. I would love to see him crumble under the pressure of the Warner legal team."

Jamie chuckled. "Oh yeah. I don't know which of his isms or crisies piss me off more. His racism, his sexism, his hypocrisy or his idiocrisy." She smiled evilly. "I have all the juniors and sophomores I know hitting their social media networks hitting back at the right wingers and or trolls with tons of support for Sam, Cedes and Puck."

"That's awesome." I told her happily. "I just read online that Hannity has been hit with a cease and desist letter…they aren't sure who it came from yet. Either Commune's camp or someone from Warner." Though to be honest my money is a certain favorite brother/uncle of the Harris side of the Jones family. "I still want to know where they got that video. I checked; it should have only gone to Cedes' contact list…unless someone else there was filming too and I cannot see Ms. Jergens letting that happen." Jamison just shrugged. She didn't know our friends well enough to know that none of them would betray Commune like that…and she wasn't gonna make things awkward by being the one to ask if they would.

The last thing I did before we both got into our costumes was to fix Jamison's hair. The long, jet black mane was pulled back and twisted up into a deceptively intricate bun. I affixed a large red rose to the left side above her ear. By then we were actually really close to curtain, so we went through our centering and a quick final run through of our dance while Carmen Tibideaux introduced the event and the first of the larger groups began. There was a six piece group and two quartets of seniors and juniors. The first group up was an all-girl line who did a rousing version of Cell Block Tango with some of the guys filling in as their 'faceless' victims. An angelic blonde Jamison called Marta even learned Hungarian to tackle the Hunyak part. Following them came the first quartet. Four guys reimagined 'Standing on The Corner' from the Most Happy Fella. Some more acts came and went and then I heard Aida's 'A Step Too Far' which was the song before us.

Taking our places across the large slightly elevated showcase stage, we launched into the 'spoken' intro before moving into the song's titular dance. Jamison looked amazing in the dress we'd found for her on Amazon. The dress was black, as was appropriate for the scene. It was a halter dress that had an asymmetrical ruffled hem that started high on her left thigh and ended about three inches below her right knee. The dresses halter top exposed a well of modest cleavage. Well, modest compared to the cleavage that I'm used to dressing. The silky dress left Jamison's back pretty much bare from where it tied behind her neck all the way down to the bottom of her back. We had added a thing strip of a comparable red material tying in the red of the flower in her hair and adding just a little pop of color. However the red served a more practical purpose too. It hid the strap of her bra. When we looked for her shoes, we'd stuck with mid height heels and decided to continue the red pops with them as well. The shoes were pretty, strappy pumps with a thin ankle strap and pointed toe.

The 'The Tango Maureen' was about seven minutes from start to finish and the dance itself started about three minutes in. I portrayed Mark and Jamison became Joanne. However we didn't limit ourselves to the exact same tango steps as the play or the movie, instead we blended an Argentine Tango with a Ballroom Tango and even added touches of the Tango Milonguero. By the end of those seven minutes we were both exhausted, but exhilarated. The applause that greeted our bows seemed deafening. It was wonderful.

We raced back stage to change into our solo performance costumes. Jamie was one of the very first soloists to hit the stage. So before I changed, I helped Jamison reconfigure her look. Her hair was taken down and pulled back into a severe chignon. Her face was changed from a very complex beauty makeup to a stage makeup look that made her look as if she were wearing nothing at all. Her beautiful tango dress was traded for a dowdy, almost shapeless, sleeveless surplice-neck faux-wrap dress in a pale shade of lime that did nothing for her at all. Her pretty heels switched out for a pair of flat Mary Janes and lace ankle socks. While it wasn't a good look for Jamie, it was perfect for the character she was portraying in her performance. Once she was dressed I turned my attention to myself.

Given the nature of my performance piece, my costume didn't need to be as elaborate as the tuxedo, sans jacket; I'd worn for 'The Tango Maureen' number. So I decided that since the character was something of an 'Everyman' type, I'd just wear a normal outfit…well, normal for me any way. A pair of deceptively comfortable skinny jeans, a lilac dress shirt, black waistcoat, and an ascot in gray and lavender. I topped it off with a pair of ridiculously gorgeous black Florsheim Duke Bike toe ankle boots. I was lucky to find that when I returned to the wings, Jamison was just beginning her performance.

Looking out I could see her standing just to the side of center stage. Marta was next to her in a pretty pink dress that looked perfectly preppy and pretty. Marta launched into a spoke version of Glinda's lines from 'Wicked's Popular'. "Whenever I see someone less fortunate than I and let's face it... who isn't, less fortunate than I? My tender heart tends to start to bleed and when someone needs a makeover, I simply have to takeover. I know I know exactly what they need and even in your case... though it's the toughest case I've yet to face! Don't worry! I'm determined to succeed; follow my lead and yes indeed you will be... Popular!"

However, Jamison's response was to roll her eyes and ask, "Why on earth would I ever want to be popular?" she chuckled darkly stepping away from Marta who froze in an expression of shock and horror at center stage. Jamie moved forward to the center spot of the proscenium before she launched into a great arrangement of Mika's 'Popular Song'. The way she sang the chorus, everyone could see how she had melded the alterna-pop song with the show tune. It was really well done. The backup band had done a great job following the sheet music Jamison had painstakingly created to support her mashup. During the energetic last chorus she danced around a still motionless Marta. It came across creepy and vindictive and just awesome. It was the way most of us had felt in high school and she did it in such a way that it became a totally Broadway moment.

Too many and yet too few performances later, I walked out onto the darkened stage and found my place at the piano that had been placed at center stage. I was very pleased to play the piano for the piece. Blaine and Mercedes had helped me perfect it in their little bit of free time. I was doing 'Moving Too Fast' from the play 'The Last Five Years'. Since the song talked about how his life had spiraled out of control, during the busiest part I jumped up from the piano as if there simply wasn't enough time in my day for it any longer. I moved forward with great confident strides and belted the last verse before launching into the final chorus. When I finished the final "I've got a singular impression life is moving too fast!" the audience gave me a very, very, very enthusiastic round of applause. My smile got huge as I realized that Finn, Carole and my dad were sitting very near the front. I knew that they said they were going to try to make it but I didn't realize they were actually able to get there. I guess they had wanted to surprise me. I even saw all of my roommates, the Mayzers and our tenants standing and clapping for me. The feeling of having all that adulation was indescribable. I raced through my cleanup and grabbed my costume bag before finding my way to the seat they had saved for me. My heart and head were full of absolute joy.

Ignorance (Paramore)
Artie PoV

Kurt and Jamison's performances were all awesome. But seeing the look on Kurt's face when he saw that his family had made it in to see it was freakin' epic. Burt, Carole and Finn had gotten to the house around lunchtime, not long after Commune had arrived still so sleepy and punch drunk that Santana and Britts had had to help them up to their room. Britts, Tana, me and our tenants were having a pow wow about the current situation with KAMA and the video controversy when the Hudson-Hummels arrived. Santana had called all of our friends and straight up asked if any of them had had the balls to sell the video to TMZ who, we quickly found out, was the first to break the story. None of them had. We knew Mercedes family members wouldn't do it. For the most part, their love of her was too solid. The same could be said for any of the Evans or Puckermans she had on her phone. Burt and Carol joined us while Finn took their stuff up to the guest rooms. Carole and Burt would be staying in the full bed guest room in Klaine & Commune's side, while Finn would take one of the bunk beds in the guest rooms of our side.

"This is some BS." Burt grumbled. "I mean, we all knew it was coming, we've been expecting it since the beginning, but to have it hit on something that should have been a proud and happy moment…that's just…it's Bullshit."

"It is, but Benton and Danica have already gotten with Mercedes uncle and Antwan and they are looking into stopping them through several various and confusing legal means." Carole told us all.

Ben nodded with a predatory grin. "Good. Slander and defamation lawsuits can bankrupt journalists. The conservative wing nuts have been getting away with murder for way too long."

Jon held up his tablet. "Some music stars have been weighin' in and for the most part coming down on the side of KAMA. Jill Scott, Anthony Hamilton, Rascall Flats, Martina McBride and TI have all put out statements saying that Mercedes, Sam and Puck have the right to have their relationship be whatever it is to them and the attacks by hypocrites and blow hards won't and shouldn't matter a bit to them. Of course, since they are almost all parents they are coming hard at Hannity for the way that he talked about them."

"You should check this statement from Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith." Ben's very recent girlfriend Rosa said in her thick Bronx accent. "I'll read it…Love is a blessing. Throughout human history romantic love has come in many different varieties and many different versions…but love is love. These brave young people have found a love that they feel will last, a love worth fighting for, worth working for. That is to be applauded and encouraged not vilified and denigrated. Jada and I both wish these young people the very best in both their relationship and in their career. Granted, we know that this may reopen the gossip about our relationship, but as adults and parents we felt very strongly that we needed to speak out in support of KAMA and their commitment at an age when most of their peers are living high risk lifestyles searching for what these three have already found and others would deny to them just because it doesn't look like what the world at this time believes they should look like. The Smith family welcomes KAMA to the fam…the musical family…and we hope that your career is long and prosperous."

"Whoa. That's legit." I laughed.

Ben smile faded as he read some more. "Not everyone is as cool. Charles Barkley released a statement too. He's on Hannity's side. He even pulled out 'God made Adam and Eve', though at least he was smart enough to modify it to fit the situation and added 'Not Adam, Eve and Steve'."

"That is the cliché-iest of all clichés." Blaine grumbled. "Stacey Dash is spouting the same kind of crap. I will never understand gay people, people of color, or women who identify as republican…don't they realize that the Repubs don't want us?"

No one had an answer for that. Brittany just looked up, from where I could have sworn she was watching TV on her tablet, and said, "Whoa…TMZ just caught Johnny Depp at LAX asked him what he thought about the controversy. He said that he hadn't really heard of them yet, but now he definitely wanted to know more."

"Well, at least that's one good point." Ryan grumbled. "Sandy wants everybody to know that he wants in if they plan on taking on the right wing hypocrites." Ryan's smile was devious and dangerous. "Sandy Cohen has been a liberal, hippy, Jew for a very long time. He hates everything about Fox News and Rush Limbaugh. He's been hoping for quite some time that not only would they finally do something that would hit the wrong people…and that he'd be able to get in on the action. He's willing to do it all pro bono."

The look on Ben's face was more than feral. It was predatory. "Think he'd need a legal aide?"

"Cedes' Uncle Ethan and Berry's dad Antwan will want in on this too." Santana's smirk was sexy as fuck. She was plotting something. "My Abuelo has an in with Mary Jo White. He knew her way back when she was in law school at Columbia. Don't know the story, but she still sends him cards at Easter and Christmas every year."

Burt and Carole looked thoughtful. "Santana…can you get her contact information from your grandfather and send it on to the Jones. Atwood, shoot your dad an email telling him about the lawyers we think we can bring to bear. I made a few contacts when I was considering running for state senate. I can see who I can bring in to help."

Finn came down having already showered and changed. Only then did we realize that it was already five. Santana ran up and woke up our friends sleeping the sleep that only those who are completely sated and satisfied can sleep. Everybody got dressed and raced over to get good seats. After taking the time to bring Cedes, Sam and Puck up to speed on the shit storm their precious moment had wrought, we made it in time to see the opening intro as well as some damn fine performances. We didn't even have to fight for decent seats, Mrs. Mayzer, and Puck's uncle and aunt had gotten there early enough to get good ones and hold them for the rest of us. Jamie and Kurt did the hell out of 'The Tango Maureen' and Kurt actually came across as not completely gay. I mean, at best, I was kind of expecting him to be a resurrection of the old Saturday Night Live skit, the Effeminate Homosexual…but he seemed pretty much like a regular guy. And the dance moves were fucking awesome. Brittany was looking like a very proud mama; something told me that she had had a bit of a hand in the choreography. Granted I already knew that. Watching her tangoing with Kurt had been easy…Jamison…not so much. Thankfully Jamison was so strickly dickly that the little green monster never got any real footholds in my or Santana's psyches.

The next time we saw one of our friends on stage it was Jamison and she looked dowdy and kind of anti-Jamison. It was quickly determined why. While she wasn't green, she was portraying Elspeth and her blonde friend, the one she left frozen in the shadows created by the pale green spot, was Glinda. The song was a little bit of a mashup, of the Mika song and the song 'Popular' from 'Wicked'. Mainly the cadence of chorus of the musical song with the words of the pop song. Her movements were very much classical ballet with some very smooth modern dance thrown in. The performance showcased her range and her ability to draw you into a world of her creation. The applause at the end was heartily deserved.

Some of the other performances were damn good. There was one guy, introduced as Brody Weston, who did an overtly sexualized, even more than the original, solo performance of 'Let It Go' from 'The Full Monty'. It was okay, but the man was damn in love with himself. I mean the narcissism in that guy was approaching Berry-ian levels of self-love. His singing and dancing were both on par with what you'd expect from a senior at a prestigious performing arts school, but I found him really off putting. Kurt was the third to last to perform. He had his shit together. His 'costume' was very 'everyman'. He showed off his piano skills and while he didn't have a lot of dancing to his performance, he showed his range from top to bottom. The moves he did exhibit were a lot smoother and more fluid than one usually considered Kurt to be. When he finished with his last big trill, the audience was in love. The look on his face as he realized that his family was there just made us all clap harder.

Nobody was surprised that it took Kurt less than no time at all before he slid into the seat we'd saved for him next to his dad. The rest of the final two were very good. You could tell that the guy and girl were each uber well trained and hella dedicated to their craft. The final ovation was a little protracted, but they really deserved it. As we were heading to the door, why the hell did muthafuckin' Rachel Berry pop up, holding hands with 'The Full Monty' guy. "Hello Mr. and Mrs. Hummel. Kurt, I wanted to congratulate you on a job well done. Your first performance showed a degree of heterosexuality that I didn't believe you to be capable of faking. I must admit that I was surprised that your song choices all kept with the very modern incarnation of the theatre."

"Well, Rachel, thank you." Kurt acknowledged politely, even as he and Mercedes exchanged side eyes at the rather back handed compliment Rachel had dealt him. "Brody, I don't think I realized that you knew our old classmate." He kept his tone light and calm, but I'd known him long enough to hear the suspicion and basic WTF in his voice.

The smile that dude smiled was kind of jank. I mean, sharks and lions smile at lesser predators that way as if they are just a step above prey. "Yes, we were introduced by a mutual friend and she is just so irresistible…what could I do but get to know her better." His answer was charming. But all I could think was that he was like Prince Charming from 'Into the Woods' he was meant to be charming…not sincere.

Rachel must have realized that none of us were buying the bullshit, so she pressed on quickly changing the subject. "Mercedes, Sam, Noah. Congratulations on your allegorical engagement. I was shocked that you included me on the list of those to receive the joyous news. The video was so touching; I simply had to share it."

"Son of a…" Puck started.

Mercedes put a calming hand on his arm. "You do realize that your father is a part of the legal team moving to stop the proliferation of that video. He is going to know soon that you were the one to sell us out. I'm not surprised that you'd do something like this. In fact, I feel kind of silly for not realizing that it almost had to be you from the beginning. I blame sleep deprivation."

"Well, you did have a big day yesterday. We had a lot to celebrate." Sam drawled sexily. "Besides, you looked so beautiful last night, basking in all your success…how could we not want to see you fall into your beautiful bliss in dawn's morning's light. It was too wonderful not to see. Especially when we all had our hands entwined and our rings were glinting in the soft morning sunshine."

While the rest of us showed various degrees of amusement and/or arousal at the thought of their lovemaking, Rachel looked like she has swallowed an unripe lemon. "I do want to apologize. I didn't realize that there would be such a negative reaction to you and your ersatz-engagement."

I felt the hackles rise on almost our entire party. But it shocked the hell out of me that it was Carole who spoke first. "You know Rachel…I'm so glad I don't have to fake being nice to you anymore. So much so that I thank God every day for bringing Lauren into Finn's life. The thought of my son tying his life to you scared the hell out of me and this is exactly why. You have no understanding of true, real, love. An emotion so strong and abiding that it is almost tangible. While Sam, Mercedes and Puck may never be able to legally marry in this country, there was nothing false or fake or contrived about the commitment that shined through in that beautiful moment in the video. We all get what you were trying to do by releasing a video that you should have known you were mistakenly sent. You were trying to sabotage their success. It won't work. They still have their contract. They still have to support of their family and friends. What do you have? Your 'boyfriend' over there who is so without real confidence that he uses his sexuality to cover for the fact that he completely aware that most men in every room he enters are better than him? Your fathers, they love you…but you don't seem to love anyone but yourself. They are both such wonderful men, but the last time I talked to Hiram, he said you barely call home once a month. At the very least get a text every day from both of my boys."

Rachel tossed her ombred hair. "The relationship between my fathers and I has nothing to do with you."

"Just like Puck, Mercedes and Sam's relationship has nothing to do with you." Burt pointed out.

"Oh please if it wasn't for me neither Sam the Stupid or Mercedes the Marginally Talented would have even attended the prom that year and they wouldn't be with Puck the Man Whore now." She scoffed.

"What you want? A cookie?" Puck grumbled. Probably he hadn't liked that man whore comment.

"Rachel please do not try and stand here and act like you've done all this, sabotaged the friendship I had for you…that we all had for you…until it was dead, embalmed and buried, because you felt slighted because we weren't appreciative enough of the fact that you helped us find our way together." Mercedes said her voice was bitterly cold.

"You attempted to rub my face in your fake engagement in my face to show that you were so happy and I wasn't…"

Mercedes growled. "First of all, I wasn't the one who sent the damn video. My hair stylist did, she sent it to my entire contact list not thinking for a second that I would have anyone in there that I didn't consider a friend."

"So why did you?" Rachel said smarmily.

"Because I don't trust you." Mercedes told her honestly. "If you choose to call and harass me, I want to know it's you so I don't answer it. So that I can log or record any conversation we do have. I don't trust you not to still act like a crazy bitch and try to fuck me and mine over…and I guess I was completely right. Notice that you got the video and immediately decided that my motives for sending it was to cause you pain…like I even consider you relevant to my life enough to even bother."

Rachel scoffed. "I don't believe that you aren't enjoying the fact that you have both Noah and Sam dancing attendance on you and treating you as if you hung the moon." She hissed. "You think you're so much better than me because you've got two hot boyfriends and your stupid contract and soundtrack and movie, but now the whole world knows that you're just a sad, fat little whore."

Santana's laughter rang out and echoed around the room. "Hobbit, you still don't realize that despite your exalted sense of self-importance, your opinion is no one's fact. My fact, all of our fact," her hand gesture encompassed the entire group that had come to see Kurt and Jamison perform, "is that Mercedes is monumentally better than you. She isn't insane. She isn't viciously vane and conceited. She has an amazing amount of talent. Her contract has given her Warner's legal department to deal with the shit storm you've caused." She began.

I saw her point and continued for her. "Her soundtrack and movie have made it so that while you're still humpin' trying to get all the class solos, she's already got the world clamoring to hear her voice and see her face. She hasn't got shit to be sad about. She has a freakin' awesome family, her completely devoted husbands, the best friends a girl could ask for and she just keeps getting more and more of those…real friends not people she uses or who are using her."

Blaine took over from me. Maybe we were all ganging up on Rachel, but we'd spent the whole afternoon worrying and freaking out about drama she had caused for no reason at all. "Is Mercedes the size zero or two that most women are killing themselves trying to get down to, no…but she is happy, beautiful, sexy and loved the way she is."

"As for the whore comment…" Finn chimed in. "I've known Mercedes forever…in fact, I knew Mercedes even before I really got to know her. She isn't a whore. You told me all about feminism and how being in control of her own body and sexuality is important for any mature woman. I thought that meant that just having two lovers that doesn't make her a whore. Cheezus, its Mercedes! She is like the most morally upright person I know. In fact in high school I started making good choices only when I started thinking 'what would Mercedes do' before I picked what to do. She could have had sixty lovers and as long as she and they were happy with the arrangement and not hurting anyone…who the hell gives you the right to stick your nose into business that isn't yours?" he asked.

"Now, Ratchet, why don't you please take your literal man whore…the women who have utilized his services all around this city laughed their asses off at you last month for trying to make a ho into a househubby, About fifteen of them told me all about it at the record release party…take him and go to hell." Santana's smirk was fucking cruel and hot as hell.

Rachel tried to look unfazed by my Devil's observation. But we could all see the truth in the eyes of both her and the dude Brody. "I don't know what you are talking about. Brody is an up and coming student and soon to be a big name on Broadway."

"Oh so you're the whore. Using him for a hand up the Broadway ladder." I said thoughtfully. "I know that you're coming to realize that Mr. Schuester wasn't right about you being the end all and be all of talent, but I didn't realize that you were that insecure in your abilities. I mean, hitching your star to a gigolo…that's just pathetic."

"Maybe he's trying to use her for a come up…he wants to move up the ranks from ho to pimp." Puck laughed.

"Well, we will leave them to that. We're going to take Kurt and Jamison out to celebrate their killin' their performances. We're going to stop letting negativity spoil what should be a time of triple celebration." Ruth said giving all of us one of her disarming smiles. "Since I really do like your fathers, I'm going to also point out that my grandson has a point about your little boyfriend. He's working you just as hard as you're working him. Now good night Rachel…hopefully this is the last time we will have to have a conversation like this one. Please learn to let go of whatever slights, real or imagined, that you blame on Mercedes, Sam or Noah." With that amazingly appropriate exit line we turned as one to make our way out the door.

On the way out, Brittany turned back and calmly spoke. "Rachel, you need to tell your black dad what you have done. Soon you're gonna burn down the bridge you think is unbreakable. Soon they are going to need to do what they have to do to bring the color back into their world just like we all did."

There was nothing more any of us could say. We headed out and had dinner at a really awesome Mexican place called Dos Caminos on Park Avenue. The food was so fucking good. That night the lovemaking was fierce, but both quick and quiet. The master suite was technically supposed to be pretty well sound proofed, but we didn't want to risk it with Finn down stairs. And both Tana and I had exams again that Thursday. Thankfully it was our last day of finals. The house would be clear except Commune by Friday evening and on lockdown Saturday morning. Lester said that while the house was empty and there would be no one in or out for two weeks, Rangeman would have the house on some special monitoring system that they did for their clients when they went on vacations. I loved our independence and our house…and I would miss sleeping with my dolls every night, but I was looking forward to spending some time with my parents.

It was hard for me to believe that we were done with our first semester of college. I couldn't even wrap my head around how busy we'd been the whole time. Every minute of the day from eight to six was scheduled down to the ten minute time span. We kept the nights for spontaneity. A lot of the time we had dinner at home and chilled out. I managed to get Santana addicted to Assassin's Creed and Brittany fell in love with the Sims 3 so we'd spend hours playing and talking and just getting our psychological and emotional groove on. Most nights we made love, some nights twice or more. Then on weekends we spent as little of our time as possible doing responsible, adult things, like cleaning, shopping, any school work or projects that we didn't get finished during the week. Of course, for about two months, our Saturdays were spent in the music studio with Cedes, Puck and Sam. That was some awesome shit. It was really and truly cool as hell. All three of their producers were kind of epic. They kind of took me under their wings and showed me a lot. I couldn't wait until I had a class in editing…some of the stuff they had showed me would step my game up to a whole new level.

I have to say that I was pretty confident that I had As, high ones, in all of my classes. I fucking loved college and while I'd enjoy the break I couldn't wait to see what the future would bring.

Good Enough (Jussie Smollett, Cast of Empire)
Antwan Berry PoV

I have always loved my daughter from the very first moment we knew that she existed. Hiram and I had worked hard her whole life to make sure that she had a good life, a happy life. We put her in dance classes, any that she wanted to take. Then when she proved to have talent, singing classes. There wasn't much that she wanted that we didn't make sure that she had. But by the time she was ten, the signs started to show that there was nothing in her life that she felt was good enough. She didn't appreciate that she had two fathers who loved her with all our hearts. She could only see that she didn't have the same type of family the children at her school had. After that it wasn't long before she started to regress in the way she dressed. She said that she just wasn't comfortable in the more body displaying clothes the other girls wore and for a time both Hiram and I didn't just respect her decision, we were grateful for it. Neither of us had been looking forward to our little girl hitting puberty…anything that delayed it for a while seemed not to be a bad thing.

By the time she entered high school, we'd dealt with the whole menstruation issue, with the help of my grandmother…the only one of our families still talking to us. My parents and siblings had never liked the fact that I was gay. Hiram's family hated the fact that I wasn't Jewish and had no plans to convert. And all of them, except my Mammaw, had chosen to stop talking to us all together when we decided to have Rachel. They felt that two gay men should never have children. Though they could never agree if our having a child would turn the poor thing gay or into a raving lunatic. I had always scoffed at their assertions that a child raised by two men was never going to be 'right in the head'. I never thought that they could be right.

Part of me; the rational, logical, educated part of me; knows that Rachel's diagnosis was primarily because she had both alleles for the psychological disorder. But the dad in me, the man who has loved her and felt responsible for her well-being and happiness since the moment the pregnancy was confirmed…I feel like I failed my baby girl. I had failed to teach her right from wrong. I had failed to impart wisdom, compassion and empathy to her. I had failed to teach her to temper her natural tendencies to selfishness and avarice with love and caring. These feelings of failure were only exacerbated by the fact that no matter what plans we undertake to help her, Rachel is just pulling further and further away.

Hiram had to have similar feelings of overall parental failure, but he seems to be completely focused on the guilt of having provided the faulty genetic material that gave her the NPD diagnosis. He really wants to find another surrogate and have another baby, a biracial one this time…he feels that we still have so much love to give. He does have a point; I just don't think that we can replace Rachel with another child. The discussion got to me so much that I brought it up during one of our sessions with Dr. Watson. "Did you always intend to have only one child?" she asked us as soon as I finished laying my feelings out for her.

Both Hiram and I were bashful about answering that one truthfully. "She hadn't. We thought that we'd have another after she started school." I finally blurted into the dejected silence filling the office.

"But she…Rachel never really learned to be happy around other kids. She would come home and be so relieved that she didn't have to share our attention with anyone else." Hiram finally admitted.

Dr. Watson made a note. "How did she react to sharing the two of you with each other?"

I sighed. Hiram thankfully took this one, "she was fine as long as she was included in the affection sharing. I could kiss Antwan and he could kiss me as long as she got a hug or peck on the cheek herself."

"And you allowed that…you allowed her to hold your affection hostage?" she seemed surprised.

This time I stepped up to the plate. "We didn't see it like that at first. We thought it was adorable. It wasn't until we made friends with other people with children that we understood it was another way she made everything about her. While it was adorable and to be expected when she was a small child, she should have grown out of it…but she never really had."

Again Dr. Watson made a note in her pad and asked another leading question. "Hiram how do you feel about Antwan's last statement? Is it an honest assessment?"

Hi nodded. "Yes. We didn't really have any close friendships with any straight parents, and none of our gay friends had children until fairly recently. It never discussed her specific behavior patterns in any of the parenting books we read. She wasn't trying to displace either of us when we shared our little PDAs, she just wanted to share in the love."

"She wanted to share in your love for each other but refused to share even an iota of the love you had for her." Dr. Watson summarized quietly. "Even now, you two are afraid of bringing another child into your home. Are you sure that you are not saying that you 'don't want to fail another child' because you still fear the reaction of Rachel when she discovers that you're finally having the other child you've wanted since before she was born?"

Hiram and I exchanged looks. We were shocked to realize that we'd allowed Rachel to stop us from living our lives the way we'd intended to. We were never going to be a stay home kind of family. There was supposed to have been summers learning Italian by living in Italy. Winter ski trips to Vale. LGBT family cruises. Slowly we thought through the decisions we'd made; vacation plans that had been changed because Rachel refused to go to where Hiram and I had chosen despite the fact that it was a kid's dream trip to Disney World, the way we'd needed to completely rearrange our lives to cater to her outrageous schedule, the pleading and tantrums that occurred when we'd tried to step down her activities, our entire household changed when she decided that she wanted to become first a vegetarian and then the even more restrictive vegan, even now we'd had to take out second mortgage, only three years after paying off our first one, to take care of her rent and living expenses because she had not even tried for a single scholarship or grant, completely refused to take out any loans and we'd saved enough for her tuition, but not for her to live off campus in a city like New York. "Doctor, in your honest opinion, have we been too permissive? Did we allow her too much control?" I couldn't refrain from asking.

"It isn't my place to answer that." She smiled gently. "What do you think? You've made friends with some other parents now. Do you see your behavior mirrored in their homes?"

We both shook our heads. All the kids whose parents we now hung out with, the parents who had accepted us despite our fear and the way our daughter had treated their children, had gone out of their way to find scholarships and grants and had needed to be talked out of taking out loans. The teens that Rachel had once called friends worked all summer to decrease the need for their parents to give them money throughout the year. We knew that even if Rachel hadn't needed to be hospitalized for most of the summer, there was no way that she would have been willing to take time from her busy summer schedule of dance and singing lessons, that she really could have taught, to get a job. She was still angry at us because she didn't like the location of the apartment we'd found for her.

"Then before our next appointment, I want both of you to make three lists. The first should contain the pros and cons of having another child or children. The second…write out all the ways you lost who you were as men and as parents as you allowed your lives revolved around your daughter, pay attention to things that you now know were far and away above the call of fatherhood. The final list, I want you two to write down the changes you would make between the way you behaved when Rachel was growing up and how you would raise any future children." Dr. Watson assigned us our homework.

As we made our way to the car, Hiram took my hand. We always held hands as we walked, but over the last several months, our bodies had begun to move closer and closer as our intimacy resurged. I stopped as I realized something. "We're finding our way back to each other. Is that why I'm afraid of having another child…because I'm scared we'll lose us again?"

"It is something we should consider." Hiram assured me. "We were twenty seven and twenty eight when we had Rachel. Finding and vetting a surrogate takes time. It could be two or three years before any other baby came. We'd be retirement age before this child graduated high school."

I shrugged. "That doesn't bother me. Even if we don't add anything further to our retirement accounts, we are set for a pretty decent retirement." That was true. We'd been able to save a lot before we'd ever had Rachel in the first place. It was how we'd been able to get a fifteen year mortgage and pay it off a bit ahead of time. "I'm more concerned that we'd just be creating another Rachel. What if it isn't the genetics that made her turn out this way. We let her have everything she wanted. Everything she even hinted that she wanted. That's no way to raise a well-adjusted child."

Hiram sighed. "You know what? I love our daughter, but I'm tired of talking about sad things. Tell me something good. Make me laugh."

I chuckled. The thing I had to tell him was spawned by the latest ill-advised, craptastic tantrum our daughter had thrown. "Well no matter what our beloved child was trying to accomplish…her actions may well lead to us taking down at the very least Limbaugh and Hannity…but Danica, Gabby and Becah want to try to get rid of Fox News altogether."

"Dani, Gabby and Becah…what about the guys?" Hiram smirked, well able to guess their reaction.

I shrugged. "They were more concerned with whether Harris, Cohen and I could get them all off if the abducted and beat the ever living shit out of the two talking heads, more than bringing down a corrupt quasi-journalism empire."

"I can understand that." He smirked. "Even if all you guys do is rub some more of the shine off those assholes, that'll is good, but if you all can run those hate mongers out of business…that would be perfect. You manage to do that and you're gonna end up famous. You'll be like a new, more handsome, gay Johnny Cochran."

My laughter traveled across the parking lot turning a few heads in our direction. "I'm not trying to be famous. I just want this world to be at least a little more tolerant. Besides, I don't think we'll manage to take Fox News all the way down. And if by some miracle we do, the Kochs or Rupert Murdoch will figure out a way to work around any injunctions. But I'm willing to settle for a few months or years of intelligence and peace again." I let us into our Audi and slid behind the wheel. "Danica said that car seats are even more of a pain in the ass than they used to be."

As always, my husband rolled with my non-sequitur. "Yeah, but Sandor said that there was a new one that goes from newborn all the way to like twelve." He smiled. He was winning this battle. I'd never have told him, but the choice we made not to have any more children had hurt like hell considering that the next child was to have been mine. We'd done the sperm race the first time…but had agreed that whoever didn't win that one would father the next baby. "This time we're only using your swimmers…and we find a white or Jewish egg donor."

I shook my head. "How many times do I have to tell you that Jewish is just another shade of white?"

"It is not. We were slaves in Egypt…the Jewish people come from Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization…the Middle East…we are not white." Hiram resurrected our age old argument, only to stop when he realized that I was trying to do. "Stop deflecting, what is it? You starting to realize that you're wavering on the whole no more babies discussion?"

"I'm still not…" I paused as the thought hit me that he was right. I was a whole lot more sure than I had been before our session. "I just don't want to fail another child like we did Rachel and I am scared that we won't survive it if we do."

Hiram shook his head. "We aren't stupid nor are we insane. We won't make the same mistakes again. And hey, we didn't totally bomb fatherhood 101. Rachel is strong and healthy and talented. If she weren't a complete and total narcissist, she'd be perfect."

I couldn't hold back my laughter, I didn't even try. "Yeah, she'd perfect…except for being 'bat shit crazy' as the littlest Puckerman likes to call her."

"Awnh, perfect is overrated and boring. Besides…if Rachel wasn't Rachel, you wouldn't be getting ready to over throw the current conservative news regime."

"And if she was perfect, we wouldn't be so close to the Jones, Lopezes, Abrams, Cohens, Andersons and all the others." I pointed out. "I guess everything happens for a reason, even you having a baby with your cousin."

He swatted at my arm. "Twan, it will never not be too soon for that joke."

"Sorry, Hi, but it has officially gotten to the funny stage." I sighed. "Is it wrong that I'm feeling less like a total and complete failure as a parent by thinking of all of the positives Rachel's mental illness has led to?" I asked a little ashamed of myself.

"We're simply human, 'Twan. If we didn't find some way to deal with these feelings of guilt and failure, we wouldn't be able to function. We'd smother or drown in the well of all those negative emotions. Rachel is our daughter. We love her…warts and faults and all. We did the best we knew how to do for her. We've done what we promised ourselves we'd do. We've always given her the unconditional love and support that our families wouldn't give to us. We tried to give her wings to fly and a safe place to land. We weren't failures as fathers. We just…we were dealing with an illness so far outside our frames of reference it was laughable. We were trying to recreate the Grand Canyon with a screwdriver and a spoon."

"If we do this…we should look for a surrogate who is good with having multiples. One of the first mistakes we made was not having another child when Rachel didn't make friends easily. Neither of us are only children, so we learned to play well with others. Rachel didn't have the benefits of cousins or daycare, or anything…at the same time; we'll be like sixty-six when a new baby graduates high school. Doing them one at a time isn't an option for us this time around."

Hiram sat in silent contemplation for a long moment. "Alright…but no more than four."

I rolled my eyes. "Great, you just jinxed us. Now we're gonna end up being the octodads." I knew that we'd still need to complete Dr. Watson's directives. We'd have to talk to Rachel about our decision, but the decision had been made; now we just had to reinforce our backbones and stick to what would make us happy, rather than just want Rachel wanted. We'd given her eighteen years of unfettered control of our lives. It was time to take our control back. We were the parents…it was past time we remembered that.

Irreplaceable (Beyoncé)
Emma Pillsbury PoV

Sue Sylvester had been hounding me for almost a month to find out what Will had done to 'send me to the sane side of the force'. I did not want to share the humiliating details. How could I tell her that I had supported William Schuester through some of the worst decisions a man could make. I had supported him, gently trying to show him the right way to behave, gently teaching him about pedagogy and fairness, but holding him down even when he didn't listen. I supported him when he went off to New York, even going with him and helping him to find and clean an apartment. I even supported him when he decided to make New York his new home…leaving me and what I thought we were building behind. Telling me that we'd make it work, he'd visit as often as he could. He loved me too much to force me to suffer through the hell that is flying on an airplane for anyone with even borderline OCD.

That's what he said anyway. From the end of May to the end of August, he'd made it back to Lima exactly two times. One of which he didn't even bother telling me about. I tried not to let that get to me. I tried to remember that he was working very hard and was having to play catch up with people who had been on Broadway since they were children. I made excuses for him until I could deal with the pain of it. No the straw that broke the camel's back happened during the first week of November, when he called to talk to me about his wonderful Broadway life. Will was nine minutes late for our appointed Wednesday call time. We talked and he told me all about his new role and his wonderful cast mates and city. He went on and on about how he'd seen Rachel and she was doing so well at Tisch. Of course when I asked if he'd seen any of the other New Directions who had settled in New York…he hadn't. He didn't even realize that Mercedes, Sam and Noah were already working on their first album. I didn't tell him how sad it was that he was still playing favorites even after having found that Rachel had been playing him for two years. Then I heard it. April freaking Rhodes' shrill voice. "Hmmmm, Will…are you coming back to bed?"

"Wow." I couldn't stop myself from saying. "While I appreciate you keeping to our calling schedule, I cannot believe that you had the nerve, the unmitigated gall, to call me with another woman in your bed. The same bed that I helped you buy, in the apartment that I cosigned the lease so you could lease it." I said my voice a lot calmer than I actually felt. "I hope that your wonderful Broadway show is paying you well William. You were supposed to repay me for helping you get set up in Manhattan. You were supposed to send a hundred a month until you'd paid me back the sixty-five hundred dollars I ended up shelling out to get you all ready to cheat on me behind my back on the bed I helped you pick out." I took a deep settling breath. Thank God that I'd had the wherewithal to insist that we put it all in writing. "It's been six months and you've not repaid me a single dime. I hope that your bed warmer is a lot more flush in the pocket than rumors are saying, because I'm now calling the entire principle of the loan due."

"Emma, it isn't what you're thinking. She just needed somewhere to sleep off a bender. She showed up here about seven thirty already three sheets to the wind and she was still drinking. I couldn't send her home in a cab when she wouldn't be able to give them her address." He whined.

"Schue, why don't you bring Li'l Willie back in here…still haven't shown you the trick that got me the second shit ton of money I was left." April's voice came through loud and clear. "Besides, Silly Willie, you've gotta work off the rest of your rent for the month."

I laughed humorlessly. "That really just happened." I said with a wry smile he couldn't see. "You have ninety days to get me my money Will…Oh and by the way. You're a moron. The fact that you still can't see that Rachel is probably going to be the least successful of all your kids not only because she is even more of a wackadoo than I am, but because she is a nightmare to work with. I hope that you catch something from that gold digger you're whoring yourself out to, and I hope that you get black listed from every avenue of employment you can get in New York other than waiting tables. And when you do, don't come crawling back to me. I should have married Dr. Carl. He was a real man." I hung up with the stupid bastard and ignored his calls. I didn't hear his voice again until I was listening to Sue give him what for. That had to be one of my favorite Sue Sylvester moments of all time.

I shook off those thoughts as I turned my attention back to records I was looking over for Figgins. The next set of New Direction seniors weren't quite as exemplary as the my crew, but as I cleaned up their transcripts to send out to their colleges of choice, I couldn't help but think that they were still damn fine kids. I was glad that they were learning so much under Shelby's tutelage. My mind wandered to the press release Figgins had asked me to compose to respond to all the calls the school was getting in reference to Commune's relationship. I wanted to tell them all to go hang and let the kids enjoy their happiness. While the thought of what they must be getting up to makes me have to take an extra-long shower…just the thought of exchanging bodily fluids like that made me wonder if I would ever overcome my affliction enough to have a normal relationship...because I found the idea of two person intercourse abhorrent. Adding even more sweat and other fluids to it was beyond what I could deal with.

I wrote a professional version of a statement that basically said we had no opinion on our former students' love lives other than to wish them happiness and success. Instead I pointed to their academic and extracurricular achievements. Then I did something I had begun doing every evening since Sue's conversation with Will…I checked the numbers on KAMA's single and the SongBird soundtrack. Both had almost doubled their sales since the scandal broke. I smirked and used Fandango to pre-order two tickets for SongBird. Even if I wasn't able to go…movie theaters are even more disgusting than airplanes…I would pick up those tickets and support Mercedes and make sure that her movie was a success. It felt much better supporting people who would actually appreciate it.


As always, I hope that you will enjoy and review.

Saw the Avengers this weekend, succumbed to a Darcy Lewis Fan Fic Addiction, posted a chapter...
Please let the last one prove as satisfying as the other two.

Oh and I am looking for someone interested in beta reading my story for the Out With A Bang Writing challenge. If you're interested, PM me.

So Read, Enjoy, Review, & go see the AVENGERS movie. It is so totally worth it.

TTFN,
Anni