A/N: Wow. I mean, wow. Your responses were inspired. LOL. I expected yelling, but damn y'all. Someone called me Ryan Murphy. LOL. Anyway, I hope you like this bit and it will soothe some of the hurt. I really do love y'all and thank you for reading, no matter what reaction it inspires.

Mercedes approached him with trepidation. As determined as she'd been moments ago with Kurt and Tina's hands to hold, she felt a bit helpless and uncertain as she moved toward him alone now, as her friends had been asked to stay back. Her feet propelled her forward, almost of their own accord, and her apprehension grew with every heavy step.

Crossing the short distance from the door was all too brief a journey. Soon, she found herself face to face with him, no longer able to put off the inevitable. He laid there, his features almost translucent, giving his skin a slightly bluish hue, and Mercedes couldn't stop the tears from building in her eyes.

He'd been through so much in such a short time and it wasn't fair. Reaching out a gentle hand to the cool skin of his cheek, she played Kurt and Tina's words over in her head, releasing a shuddering breath as she studied his pale features.

"And Sam?"

Tina's question hung, pregnant with emotion, in the tense air.

Sam and Mercedes. They were an entity, a phenomenal unit that just fit and worked with one another. They functioned with each other in a way that made it seem fated—like destiny—for them to be together. Neither Tina nor Kurt was prepared to consider alternatives.

They both watched the nurse intently as she cleared her throat, looking back to Mercedes' figure on the bed, before turning to them and speaking again.

"You didn't hear it from me," the nurse started. "I'm not supposed to know. This job, we're not supposed to get attached, but I got invested with these two—watching them day in and out."

Tina nodded and Kurt swallowed thickly, waiting for the answer.

"He's a fighter," she told them, tears filling her eyes. "They were able to bring him back in the room. His heart started beating again after two minutes. Nearly three," the nurse informed them with a soft, watery smile.

Tina made a strangled noise reaching for Kurt before burying her face in his neck. The two softly cried their relief, clinging to each other, as the nurse continued. "I checked his file in the database earlier. They discovered some internal bleeding—probably a hemorrhaged vessel that hadn't shown in the initial operations. They rushed him straight to the OR to fix it. She'd already been sedated by the time any of it happened—but, her state of panic was understandable under the circumstances."

"Is he okay?" Kurt asked. He'd pulled away from Tina while the nurse was speaking and now stood with his hand to his heart. "I mean, do you know? Is he going to be alright?"

"It's not my place to say. You should probably speak to his doctors—but, off the record, I've been checking all day. His vitals have been improving. He's still in recovery right now just in case something pops up, but they've already put in a request for a room in the ICU unit. That's positive," she assured them, looking back to Mercedes and adjusting the pillow under the worn woman's head. "She'll have a better reality to wake up to than when she went to sleep, that's for sure. I'm pulling for them."

With that, she made to leave the room, shooting Tina and Kurt another smile as she left. "I have to get back. Break's over," she told them and then she was gone, leaving the two friends to console each other and make some calls.

Mercedes' breath hitched, effectively putting her thoughts on hold, as Sam's face moved into her touch, his eyes fluttering open at the contact from her warm hand. It was more than she could take. "Oh my God," she said, relieved, as more tears spilled over. She blew out a breath and immediately lowered herself toward him, hugging him as tightly as she could while she sobbed out her relief into his neck.

She hadn't believed it when Tina and Kurt had spoken the words, her memories focused on that horrible moment when she'd been certain she'd lost him. She could still hear that flatline echoing, but that terrible sound that'd been haunting her grew fainter and fainter with every new steady beat of Sam's heart monitor. He was alive!

It was a while before she could pull away again. She'd have been content to lie with him there, listening to the beat of his heart for the rest of her life, but his voice grabbed her attention and she moved to look at his face, her wonder and relief still battling for dominance on her countenance.

"Where were you?" His voice was small and weak from disuse, but every word settled like balm on Mercedes' heart. "I looked for you after…" After he died? After he was revived? After his surgery? His statement trailed and Mercedes didn't ask him to clarify. It wasn't important. They'd found each other now.

"I thought I lost you," Mercedes replied—the simple truth—as her tears continued to spill over. She laid her head back over his heart, listening to its steady beat.

"I'm right here," Sam answered as a matter of fact, brushing his fingers soothingly against her back, as if that covered everything. Mercedes let out a watery giggle at the answer. Maybe it did cover everything. It was certainly the most important.

"Yes, you are," she said on a sigh, turning her face to kiss him just over his heart, before settling against him again.

"Sam, put me down. You're causing a scene," Mercedes said in a hushed tone as an undaunted Sam twirled her around the airport terminal—indeed causing a scene, as passengers and the people waiting on them looked on.

"You're here," he said, moments later when he finally set her down again. "Aw, baby, you're really here." He resembled a sugared up kid in a candy store, but the tears building in his eyes definitely took it up a notch.

"I'm here. I promised I would be," Mercedes softly replied with a smile, shaking her head at him, before reaching up to dry his tears with her thumb. "Hi."

"Hi." His smile was ridiculous and Mercedes would have laughed, but he'd chosen that precise moment to lower his lips onto hers, kissing the breath out of her, and probably causing a bigger scene than before.

It was a moment before they both moved, Mercedes leading the action. She'd taken about two steps toward baggage claim before he stopped her again, swooping in and wrapping his arms around her middle from behind her.

"Baby, the goal is to leave this airport tonight," she informed him, even as she giggled at his antics.

"I know," he informed her before kissing her cheek. "I can't help it. I haven't seen you in a month. And it's still kind of blowing my mind that you're here to stay," he told her. "You're going to have to bear with me for the next few weeks." Or months—he'd added silently to himself.

He'd let her go a moment later, compromising with just holding her hand as they walked to get her bags, but as soon as they stood in place by the conveyor belt, waiting for the bags to roll out, he was back to work, kissing her neck, her cheek, her hair—even her lips for the brief moments she'd allow it. She had no interest in being that couple, no matter how long she hadn't seen him.

She had to physically stop his body roll at the sight of her copious luggage. She stilled his hips with her hands and refocused his attention with a plea for help before the bags went back to the other side.

"I don't know what you're so happy about," she told him as they loaded the bags into the car a little bit later. "I just had to pay like an entire paycheck to that airline to travel with all of this stuff." Her dad just had to be away at a dental conference this week so he couldn't drive her over. Her mother couldn't be trusted on local roads, let alone interstate highways and Mercedes wasn't much better. She would still get all of her stuff when her parents shipped it in the coming weeks, but she couldn't leave without the essentials—four large suitcases of them. A diva never knew what she'd need, and this was New York. She couldn't be caught out in any old thing. Kurt would have a fit.

Sam put the last of the bags in the trunk then led her over to her side, opening the door so she could get in. He couldn't stop himself from giving her one last peck on the lips before closing the door and jogging over to his side. He grabbed her hand over the console as soon as they were moving, running his thumb over her knuckles as he merged into the traffic for the main exit.

"Every time you came to visit, you always had these little weekend bags," Sam explained."I don't know, they always made me sad."

"Why?" Mercedes asked with a giggle. "You didn't like them?"

"It wasn't like appearance or anything. I don't know about that stuff anyway. It's just, they were always a reminder that you weren't stayin' long. Like, I had you, but it was temporary," he said. His hand squeezed hers a little tighter.

Mercedes only smiled as she squeezed back. "But not this time," she said after a moment.

"Nope," Sam said loudly, almost startling her with his cheer. "This time you have four big ol' bags and I don't even care that I'm going to have to carry them up three flights of steps to our apartment. You're right here and you're going to be right here every time I look over for a long time. I'm just fucking happy, baby. Finally!"

With that outburst, he pulled up to a red light and grabbed her for a kiss—which she ruined because she couldn't stop laughing. He was such a fool—and she fucking loved him.

That night she lay next to him staring at the ceiling, her thoughts refusing to quiet enough for sleep. Sam had succumbed a while before, his giddiness and a few rounds of amazing sex with his girlfriend draining him of all his energy. She listened to the sounds of cars, sirens, people talking—all the signature noise of the new city she'd chosen to call home.

This was the very beginning of the life she'd chosen to build with Sam. She should have been nervous, should have been shaking in her boots at the prospect of making it away from home for the first time—but she wasn't. She was excited, set on making each new memory, and convinced that'd she'd be okay—safe, loved, and happy—because he'd be right there.

"Back to the ICU," Mercedes said with a smile shortly after Sam was transferred into his new bed. It'd been a few days since his last operation and they'd finally deemed him well enough to be moved.

"How do you feel?" She brushed her fingers across his forehead as he looked at her. She bit her lip to quell her tears at the sight of the pinkish tint returning to his lips. Even the color in his cheeks was rosier today—that familiar ruddy tone returning.

"The amount of stuff they have me on," Sam started and Mercedes snorted. "I don't feel a thing."

"I guess that's good then," she told him, leaning forward to kiss his cheek.

"It is good," he said with a laugh, reaching for her hand.

It was quiet for a moment after that, the two of them simply looking at each other as their thoughts swirled through their heads. Sam idly played with her fingers and Mercedes lowered the railing on the bed, leaning herself into the space on his least damaged side.

"I can't wait to get out of here," Sam said on a sigh. They both knew his recovery period would be a long journey, but his doctors' positive words had allowed many new seedlings of hope to sprout.

Mercedes only smiled at his words, looking down at their joined hands. She couldn't wait either.

"Honestly," Sam said tugging on her fingers to bring her attention to his face. "I'm wasting time in here. We could be home right now, cuddling—making babies," he said—though clearly no baby making would be happening for a long time in his condition. A boy could dream, Sam thought. Oh, the irony, Mercedes thought.

A flash of emotion flitted through Mercedes' eyes at his words. Sam had been watching her intently and immediately perked at the sight of it.

"What?" he asked her and Mercedes took a deep breath, staring hard at his features for a moment, before looking away again—battling with her thoughts. Was now the time? He'd just been transferred back to his room. Could he take it?

"Talk to me. What's up?" Sam said, growing alarmed at the sight of tears in her eyes again. The emotion in his eyes was intent as he stared at her and his grip grew firm and insistent on her hand—strong. He'd been fighting for his life all this time. Telling him something this life-changing would affect him in a big way.

"Babe—?" he asked, still calling for her attention.

Looking back up at him, Mercedes made a decision. This would give him something else to fight for.

"There's something I need to tell you," she said and took in another deep breath as he nodded.

A/N: Still mad? Please review! I would LOVE to hear from you.