Author's Note: It has been a while since I updated this one, I think I will concluded it in the next chapter. I hope you enjoy the read and that you will review and let me know what you think.
Sam couldn't stop the smile on his face as he reclined in his make-shift bed in the Jones' den, as he watched Mercedes while she moved about fretting over him.
"How are you feeling...are you comfortable." Mercedes asked again as she fidgeted nervously from where she stood, just across the room from him. Before Sam could reply she started to speak again. "Do you need another pillow?" She added and then hurriedly moved to the chair across the way and picked up another pillow.
"No, Mercy I don't need another pillow." Sam replied silently chuckling over the fact that he was already sitting up erect due to the 7 pillows currently behind him. Mercedes settled the pillow back in it's place and again turned to face Sam.
"Oh!" Mercedes suddenly exclaimed as if she had forgotten something. "Are you hungry...you must be hungry, I can fix you anything you'd like. You are after all a guess in the Jones home. So what would you like?" She asked as she clapped her hands together in anticipation to his reply.
"I really just want some sugar," Sam said and Mercedes' brow bunched up over the strange request.
"Sugar?" She repeated, baffled and Sam nodded his head, tapped his left pointer finger to his lips, and then curled it at her, beckoning her to him. With a coy smile and a quick look over her shoulder to see if one of her parents were about, Mercedes moved to the couch that had been converted to Sam's bed, leaned down, and captured his lips in a sweet kiss. Mercedes had been so frantic when she had heard of Sam's accident that when she asked her parents if he could stay until he fully recovered, her parents didn't have the heart to tell her no. They also knew that if they had said no, Mercedes would have most likely moved in with Sam at the Hummel household.
"Mmmmm," Sam moaned out in pleasure as he reluctantly released Mercedes lips. "Yeah, that's just what the doctor ordered, I feel better already."
"I don't recall kissing on the list of things the doctor ordered." Mercedes teased around a smile as she stood back upright and placed her hands on her hips.
"Well he should have because that is definitely something every sick man needs. It's guaranteed to cure whatever is ailing him." Sam stated as he lifted his left arm and folded it comfortably behind his head.
"Really...a kiss from me can cure any ailing man?" She continued their teasing as Sam threw are a playful scowl. "Think they should put me in the medical books?"
"No because your luscious lips...no scratch that, your luscious 'everything' have been prescribed for me 'only'. No sharing with others and no takesies backies." Mercedes giggled, she tried to hide it but the truth was she loved Sam's possessiveness when it came to her. It made her feel cherished and desired.
"Fine, I'm yours and only yours forever and always, now what would you like to eat...and I am talking about food, Sam." Mercedes said around a huge smile as she pointed a warning finger at Sam, who had his mouth opened to say something, but then quickly clamped it shut as he had to rethink his answer.
"I'm good with a bologna sandwich with some Kool-aid, orange if you got it." He answered and Mercedes heart clinched a little bit as she recalled Sam telling her once that that was all he and his family lived off of for an entire month, after his parents both lost their jobs.
"Well, I don't think we have bologna," She lied. "But we have some salami, ham, and some other stuff that would be very good on an Italian sub," She stated with a smile, one Sam duplicated because he knew what she was doing, but he didn't call her out on it like he normally would have. After the fright he knew he had caused her with his accident he was determined not to stress her further in any way. "And no kool-aid but we have orange Sunkist soda, which I bought especially for you for when you come over.
"That sounds good, thank you Mercy."
"You are welcome, anything to help get you better," She then turned to head out to make his food but paused just in the doorway, where she braced her hand against the door jamb and kept her back to him. "Just promise me..." She paused a second and then continued. "Don't ever scare me like that again, ok." She spoke in a softer tone but he could hear her perfectly.
"OK," Sam concurred and watched as Mercedes took a deep breath, pushed her shoulders back a bit, wiped the unseen tears from her eyes and then gave a curt nod before she rounded the corner. Sam reclined back more comfortably as he stared at the ceiling contemplating how he would keep that promise.
(Later that night)
It had been hours since the house had quieted down and everyone had said their goodnights and settled into their beds. Sam lay awake, restless due to the throbbing ache in his hand. He had turned down the pain medicine the doctor had given him. Mercedes had fuss with him a bit over it until he told her that when he was a kid he had been put on Ritalin. He explained that the experience of that time, and the way he had felt zombified had turned him off to medications. He didn't mind the pain because feeling something, even pain was much preferable to him than feeling drugged.
"Hey," Mercedes soft whisper of a voice tapped Sam's ears and he quickly snapped his eyes to where she stood in the doorway. The night light from down the hallway, which stayed on all night, cast a silhouette behind Mercedes and Sam became instantly aroused. "You're in pain aren't you?" She continued whispering as she moved closer to him.
"Yeah," Sam answered as he sat upright a bit. He knew it was no use lying to her. "But I'll manage without the painkillers." He could see Mercedes nod her head as she now kneeled at his bedside.
"I understand but I wish there was something I could do to help you through the pain." She said with a frown on her face and Sam could see the wetness in her eyes of the tears that were on the verge of spilling out. "I don't ever want to see you in pain, Sammy...not like this and definitely not how I saw in you earlier today during our fight. I'm so sorry that I hurt you, that I caused you pain."
"Shhhh," Sam shushed her as he shot his left hand out in time to capture the tears and wipe them away before they completed their journey down her cheeks. "I'm the one who should be apologizing, I was an idiot." Mercedes began to shake her head readying to protest when Sam moved his fingers from her cheek to her lips to silence her. "I let my insecurities get the best of me 'again'. I just love you so much and I don't want to lose you. I totally get what you were saying about not being ready to have a baby, but somehow I heard it as you saying you didn't want to have a life with me."
"Sam you are my life," Mercedes proclaimed and Sam had to swallow down his emotions or he knew he would cry, and that was something he felt foolish about doing in front of Mercedes. "Marry me."
"What!" Sam said louder than he had intended, shocked and elated by the words that Mercedes had just spoken, but also scared that she didn't really mean them.
"After today...your accident...I..."
"No," Sam said sharply as he removed his hand from her face and lied back against his pillows and let his head fall back as he stared up at the ceiling. Mercedes could sense the immediate change in him and she could tell that he was upset with her but she didn't know why.
"Sam?" She called out to him delicately. "You don't want to marry me, but I thought..."
"No Mercedes, I don't want to marry you." Sam stated. "Not if you're asking out of some damn pity you're feeling for me?" He said no longer whispering, his newfound hurt and anger made him not care that Mercedes' parents were just the upstairs.
"Sam I didn't ask you to marry me because I pity you. I asked because I love you." Mercedes defended as she stood up and out of the way as Sam swung his legs over the side of the couch, to stand.
"Right and it has absolutely nothing to do with my accident and feeling a bit guilty about it?" Sam asked as he now stood before Mercedes which caused her to have to bend her head back and stare up at his face. Her anger was now at full force as she placed her hands on her hips and glared up at Sam as he glared back down at her. Both were so lost in the moment that neither had noticed that the den was now illuminated with light or that Mercedes' parents stood in the entrance way wondering what all the fussing was about.
"Of course it had to do with your accident, but not because I feel pity or guilt about it." Mercedes hissed out through clenched teeth. Mr and Mrs Jones looked from Mercedes to Sam and then from Sam to Mercedes as the two held their stared down. "For a moment there I thought I had lost you, I thought you had died Sam," Her words and the way her voice hitched as she spoke them made Sam's demeanor soften. His anger instantly faded as fresh tears fell from Mercedes' eyes. "And I wanted to die too. Then it hit me the I couldn't...I can't live without you because you are my everything Sam...you're my life. I love you," Mercedes spoke those three little words in a slight whisper and around trembling lips. Mrs Jones moved her right hand from her chest to her mouth, and grasped Mr Jones' hand with her left, as she began to cry soft tears as she watched the love being displayed by the two teenagers before them. "I want to marry you Sam Evans and I want to have your babies and I want to grow very old with you. So will you marry me?"
"Oh My," Mrs Jones gasped out in surprised, as she instantly began formulating how she would plan the perfect wedding for her daughter.
"...Lord," Mr Jones added as he thought about the dread over having to give his little girl away to another man.
"What about getting your Grammy first?" Sam asked as he stepped to Mercedes and pulled her flush against his body.
"A Grammy is a mediocre prize compared to having you, besides I can still win a Grammy. Or if I never win a Grammy I don't care so long as I have you."
"And you really want to have children with me?" He continued to question to erase his doubts and fears.
"We can start right now if you want." Mercedes stated firmly.
"Say what?" Mr Jones' voice boomed within the room and caused both Sam and Mercedes to finally take note that they had an audience.
"O...Or we can wait...yeah...totally wait...until we're ready," Sam replied to Mercedes while casting fright-filled eyes at Mr Jones. "You know when we're more mature...an...and financially stable. Years...years from now...yeah."
"Yes we can wait for babies," Mercedes concurred. "But I don't want to wait that long to marry you. I want to marry you right now, today." Mercedes proclaimed as her face beamed up at Sam's adoringly, a look he easily returned.
"NO!" Both Mr and Mrs Jones exclaimed in unison.
"Baby girl you two are still so young..." Mr Jones said as Mrs Jones interjected.
"Sweetie we need time to plan a wedding, at least a month..." Mr Jones groaned at his wife's word because he knew what it meant, it meant she approved whole-heartedly of the wedding which meant that there was going to be a wedding.
"Will you help me plan it mommy?" Mercedes asked in the voice she always used to butter up her parents.
"Of course baby, and in a month's time Sam you'll be a high school graduate, so it would be perfect timing for you two to get married and start your new life together.
"Yes ma'am and I'll be moving to California to attend UCLA." Sam announced the news he had been waiting to tell Mercedes. She shot shocked eyes at him.
"What?" Mercedes spoke around a stunned smile.
"Yup, I was accepted on a 'full' scholarship to their art program. I had planned to surprise you by just showing up on your doorstep in California and professing my undying love for you and then begging you to take me back." Sam said around his trademark crooked smile. "This turned out way better though, you coming back here and professing your undying love to me instead." Mercedes squealed as she leaped up into Sam arms, who welcomed her against his body. He captured her lips in a sensual kiss, and after just a couple of seconds the two lovebirds had completely forgotten their audience.
"Uhm...hmmm," Mr. Jones cleared his throat and the joined couple quickly pulled apart.
"Sorry...Mr Jones."
"Yeah, sorry daddy," Mercedes said coyly as Sam settled her back onto the floor. But he kept a firm hold on her, turning her a bit until her back was flush against his front side, and then he wrapped his arms possessively around her.
"It's all right but it's time for bed." Mr Jones stated but neither Mercedes or Sam made any move to let go of one another.
"Your father is right, we have a big day tomorrow, we have to start making the preparations for your wedding." Mrs Jones said giddily as Mercedes giggled along at the thought of it. In a month's time she would be Mrs Sam Evans, and she truly could not wait.
"Right," Mr Jones threw out as he locked his eyes onto Sam's which caused the younger man to gulp and tighten his hold on Mercedes. "Mercedes why don't you go up and stay in our room with your mother. You two will are probably too excited to sleep anyway and that way you can get a head start on those preparations. I'll just stay down here and sleep on the other sofa here in the den, with Sam." Sam's eyes bulged a bit and his grip on Mercedes tightened to the point it caused her some discomfort.
"Sammy you're holding on a bit too tight." Mercedes said softly to him and he immediately released her.
"Sorry Mercy," He apologized as he gazed down at her with concern in his eyes.
"It's ok," She said as she lifted up on the tips of her toes and placed a quick peck upon Sam's lips. "Don't worry my dad's bark is way worse than his bite." She whispered to him and then threw a wink before she moved to where her mother stood.
"Goodnight you two," Mrs Jones spoke out as she gave her husband a 'be nice' look before she and Mercedes exited the den.
Sam stood nervously staring after Mercedes as Mr Jones moved to the other sofa and began spreading out the afghan that was thrown across it. Sam continued to stand watching Mr Jones until the older man finally settled down on the sofa.
"Please turn off that light son, before you get back into bed." With a nod Sam did as instructed and when he finally settled back down he was too nervous to sleep, his earlier pain long forgotten.
"Mr Jones...I just want you to know...sir, that I plan to take great care of your daughter. So you don't ever have to worry."
"Son, that's my baby girl, so I'm always gonna worry about her, but I know that you are a nice young man and a good person. I can see the love you have for Mercedes as well as the love she has for you. I won't lie and tell you that I don't wish you guys would wait a little, until you're older, but you're about the same age as Mercedes' mother and I were when we got married. I will fully support your decision and you marriage."
"Sooo...you aren't sleeping down here to talk me out of marrying Mercedes?" Sam asked genuinely surprised that that apparently wasn't the reason for Mr Jones bunking with him.
"No son, I'm down here because as much as I welcome you as my future son-in-law I am 'not' ready to be a grandfather. Understand me?" Sam had to bite back the laugh that wanted out, he took a few seconds to compose himself before he replied.
"Yes sir I understand. I get that Mercy and I are too young for that kind of responsibility, besides we've already discussed about being more careful after..." Sam quickly clamped him mouth shut and held his breath as he cut his eyes into the darkened corner where Mr. Jones lay, and Sam could feel Mr Jones' eyes on him. After a moment of silence. Mr Jones spoke.
"Thank you for not continuing that sentence. Goodnight son."
"Goodnight Mr Jones." Sam said around a smile.
"I think we're pass the formal name calling stage now son, you can just call me James or dad if you'd like."
"Thanks...dad." Sam cheeks began to hurt due to the huge smile that was plastered on his face. When he finally closed his eyes and sleep took him, he dreamed of the life he would have with Mercedes.