Chapter 10

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

Thank you everyone for all of your comments and alerts. It really means the world to me every time I get an email notification. I hope you enjoy this chapter!

RS/Samcedes girls: You girls make me so gushy and lovey with your support. Xoxoxoxo.

Mercedes was having an extremely stressful dream where she was driving fast trying to get someplace urgently that she knew was important. She was trying to get there but she just kept passing the same houses and parked cars. She was going in circles and no matter which way she turned, it was the same. Her heart was beating fast and she was starting to panic. She needed to get there, but where was she going?

She was tossing and turning when she woke with a start to a warm hand on her bare shoulder.

"Mercedes," Sam's voice was like a calming wave that washed over her tension filled body. She unclenched both of her hands that had been balled up in tight fists, her nails digging into her palm. She blinked a few times up at Sam who was sitting next to her on the bed, looking at her with concern written all over his face. She knew she was still breathing fast, but as she looked back at him, her breath started to slow.

"It's okay," he brought the hand that was on her shoulder up to her hair and brushed it away from her face, then he placed the hand to her cheek.

"What were you dreaming?"

"I was trying to get somewhere important. I felt like I had to get there or something horrible would happen. But I kept driving in circles. I couldn't get out of the same street. I was panicking." She still had the lingering tug of the tension filled dream, but it was subsiding.

"I'm sorry," Sam said and he moved his hand back to her shoulder and began to rub it soothingly. She closed her eyes and she listened to his breathing that began to get heavier with each rub from his hand. It was just a touch, but she could feel the longing they both felt for one another in the darkened room with only the moonlight spilling through the windows.

She opened her eyes and sat up silently. Sam moved his hand from her shoulder to the back of her neck, never breaking the massaging motion. Mercedes leaned her head forward so she was looking down at her lap, her hair falling around her like a curtain on either side of her face. The bed shifted as Sam stood up and swiftly moved behind her, putting both of his legs on either side of her so she was now in his lap. The only time he broke physical contact with her was to switch the hand that was massaging her neck when he got behind her. Now he was using both hands on her neck that had released the tension the minute he touched her and he slowly moved them down to her shoulders, moving the thin straps of her tank top down so they fell and came to a rest just above her elbows.

She let out a small whimper when she felt his full lips make contact with the back of her neck. He began giving her slow, long kisses all along her neck and shoulders while his hands were rubbing sensually up and down her arms. Mercedes was so overwhelmed with want for him, that she started to move her hips to the rhythm of his hands massaging her. Sam let out a groan from deep inside when she felt her hip motion was rubbing against his ample hardness. His lips broke away from her neck and she looked up and saw their distant reflection from the mirror on the other side of the room. Mercedes watched with hitched breath as he pulled down the rest of her top and exposed her breasts. She could see his open mouthed expression behind her while feeling his breath come hot and fast against her back.

He started to run the backs of his fingers against the sides of her breasts and was tracing light circles around them, slowly making smaller and smaller circles until he was almost touching her nipples. She was at the edge of her sexual sanity and they hadn't even gotten completely undressed. When he reached her nipples and squeezed them both at the same time, she couldn't stop the cry from escaping her lips. He began to twist them gently and she wanted to keep watching in the mirror, but she threw her head back and leaned back into his body. Her head was on his chest and he hadn't let up on driving her crazy with the rolling of her nipples around between both of his thumbs and middle fingers.

She looked back and up at him and he immediately brought his full lips to hers. Her mouth was open so his tongue instantly found its way into her mouth and began rolling around hers. They were both groaning quietly as he continued his dedicated attention to her nipples. He had cupped both of her breasts into his large hands and was pulling and massaging them. They broke away from their kiss and Mercedes took that moment to turn around and face Sam.

His legs were still spread from where she had been sitting and she moved into them again and pulled off his shirt. His hair fell back into place after she had pulled it over his head except for that one piece that always fell forward. She pushed it back while looking him in the eyes, then she went in to kiss him again while rubbing her hands down his torso. She took her lips away from his and began to kiss and lick down his neck, chest and stomach. She made sure to brush her nipples against him the whole way down, sending shivers down both of their bodies. When she got to the top of his pants, she took her mouth away and unbuttoned them and slowly unzipped. She pulled down on them and he helped her by lifting his hips so she could slide them off. Now he was down to only his boxer briefs and it was his turn to undress her.

Sam sat up from leaning against the pillows and pulled her top over her breasts, her head and raised arms. The minute the tank was off, his lips were attached to her nipple. Mercedes groaned feeling his tongue and teeth gently moving back and forth on them. He moved from one to the other, sucking on them, before breaking away and gently pushing her back to a lying down position so her head was pointed towards the foot of the bed. He pulled her boy shorts down in one smooth motion and she was completely naked with the light of the moon shining down onto her body.

Sam spoke for the first time since they started, "Mercedes, you are so beautiful." She watched him as his eyes travelled from her face, all the way down her naked body and back to her eyes. She felt tingling all through her body as he took her in silently. He brought his finger to the scar that ran down her hip from where she had fallen on a fence when she was a child, and traced it back and forth. He gently turned her to her to her side so he could find the tiny mole that resided just above her right butt cheek and drew a circle around it with his finger. Then he brought her back down so she was on her back again and looked for the small dark birth mark she had on her inner thigh and brought his mouth down to it. Her thoughts of how he knew her body so well were interrupted by the sensation of electricity running up her leg from where he was kissing her inner thigh and slowly making his way up to the wet and hot area between her legs.

He began with tender licks that quickly turned to full mouthed envelopment in reaction to her moans and grinding. He took her swollen clit into his mouth and sucked with silent determination. Mercedes was trying not to crush his head with her thighs, but quickly forgot about that when he began to suck on her clit harder. She was squeezing his head between her legs and at the moment, she didn't care if it felt like she had boxed his ears. She was squirming and moving all around, and Sam kept right on with her. He didn't let go with his mouth, he knew how to hold on to her after all of their years together.

Finally, just as she was on the edge of falling into her orgasm, he let go of her and sat up.

"Sam," she was able to say throatily, "You need to get in me right now."

Sam stood up right on the bed, towering over her while he slowly began to bring down his boxer briefs. Mercedes sat up and grabbed them and pulled them all the way down quickly, not having any more patience waiting for him to be inside of her. Sam let out a small chuckle that died in his throat when she took him in her mouth and began to suck knowing exactly what he liked. He almost staggered backwards, but regained is balance grabbing onto the headboard while she went down on him. She pointed behind her to the mirror that she had been watching them in earlier and he let out a loud moan when she took him in deeper to her mouth at the same time that he saw their reflection. She went on a little longer before breaking away and lying back down onto the bed.

Sam let go of the headboard and came down to lay on top of her. He brought both of his hands to the top of her head and gently stroked her hair while face to face. He looked down at her lips and they began to kiss, gently at first, then passionately. They were in the middle of kissing when he slid inside of her. Their mutual moan vibrated each other's lips and he slowly started to move in and out of her. Mercedes broke away from the kiss to breathe and also because she was about to cum. His rhythmic pumping was bringing them both to the brink and Mercedes felt the tremor as her orgasm rolled through her entire body. Sam followed right behind with his own full body shudder before he collapsed on top of her.

They were both still breathing hard and Sam was still having the after effect trembles when Mercedes came to a shocked realization.

"Sam! You came in me and I'm not on birth control pills anymore! I don't take anything." She could barely take care of two, there was no way she could take care of three.

Sam started to laugh.

"What are you laughing at? This is serious. Oh my God," She said trying to control her panic.

"There's no possibility for you to get pregnant, Cedes. I got a vasectomy three years ago when we decided two was enough."

Mercedes was shocked.

"YOU got a vasectomy? You always said you would never let anyone snip you! You would actually feel pain for dogs that walked by that didn't have balls hanging down!"

Sam laughed again and rolled off and out of her.

"I did, didn't I?"

"Yeah, you did. I would cringe when we walked by dogs because I knew you would turn around to look and see if they had a hanging sack. And if not, I knew I would hear about it for at least ten minutes."

"Well, things change I guess. It actually wasn't that bad. The worst part was leading up to it. You kept finding more and more articles for me to read that you thought helped, but it really terrified me more. But you did take really good care of me after. You ordered my favorite foods, you made sure I always had a new bag of frozen peas to keep on my swollen balls. You were good to me." He said as he reflected on his ordeal.

In Mercedes' mind, she had moved on from the shock of this new information to the hilarity that would have ensued if Gwen really had gone through with her plan to pretend she was pregnant with his baby. Thinking about that made Mercedes laugh out loud. What a stupid bitch, she thought.

"What are you laughing at?" he asked her with his own smile playing at his lips.

"I'm just still shocked, that's all," she fibbed.

Her laughter died down and she turned to her side to look at him. He was on his back, but turned his head to look at her too.

"Thank you, Sam. I know this doesn't mean that everything is back to normal, well, normal for me, but thank you for being such a good man. I am so in awe watching you as a father. You are such a natural. I'm just really really happy, and it's because of you. And those sweet kids. I can't get over them. They entertain me every single day and I fall in love with them more all the time."

He smiled back at her and kissed her in response. Then he took her into his arms and they were pressed up against each other, still completely naked. He brought them both up to sitting position and they fell back down again to the other side with their heads on the pillows. He pulled the sheet and blanket up around them and before they knew it, they were both sound asleep.

The next morning, they were still wrapped in each other's arms sleeping soundly when Mercedes woke to hear Laila singing at the top of her lungs and her little footsteps skipping towards their closed bedroom doors. She didn't have time to explain anything to Sam, she just shook him awake, mouthed "sorry" and rolled him off of the bed just as the double doors swung open and Laila came bounding in. Mercedes pulled the blankets up around her shoulders to cover the fact that she lacked clothing.

"Good morning mommy! It's Monday!"

"Morning Laila," Mercedes was trying to calm her racing heart at how close it had been to her daughter seeing her father in the bed where he didn't usually stay anymore.

"Okay, you are awake. Going to wake up Trey and race him downstairs!"

"Sounds good, honey. I'll meet you down there in a little bit. Could you just close the doors for mommy?"

"Sure!" And Laila turned around to skip out and made a big deal about closing the doors with flair.

Mercedes scrambled to the other side of the bed to check on Sam. She was laughing, but he was lying on his back with alarm in his eyes.

"Oh shit, that was close, Cedes."

"I know. I'm sorry I shoved you off."

"You had to. Thank God you woke up before she came in. Oh my God," he was running his hands through his hair.

Mercedes could see it was a close call, but he seemed much more stressed about it than she did. He actually looked upset.

"Sam, it's okay. She didn't see anything."

"I know. It's just been really delicate line for us trying to explain things to them and if they saw me here, it would just throw a whole new level of confusion at them. I should have left last night."

Mercedes tried not to be hurt by his words, but it was hard. Even though she was getting more and more accustomed to being a mother, she was still used to it being just her and Sam. Their heads were in different spots right now.

"Sam I –"

He cut her off with another quiet outburst, "My car is still parked out front! You know what, just tell them that it wasn't working and I had to call a cab to get home."

He got up and started to get dressed. Mercedes was still sitting on her knees on the bed, pretty shocked by the difference in their intimacy from last night to this morning. She slowly got up and walked into their closet to get dressed. She put on her clothes and went into the bathroom to wash her face. While she was waiting for the water to get warm, she looked in the mirror and into the bedroom and saw Sam sitting on the edge of the bed. He was doing his nervous leg bouncing while his elbows were resting on them and he was looking out of the window. She felt the water and it was hot so she turned on the cold to balance it out and washed her face. He was still sitting in the same spot when she washed away the soap and she put on her makeup.

She walked out and up to him. He finally looked at her in the eyes.

"I'm sorry, Cedes. I am just really freaked out by how close that was. It would have been really confusing to her when we haven't really figured out what we are doing yet."

"Sam, I honestly think she would have been happy to see you here. Do you see how she lights up when we are all together?"

"It's not that simple."

"I think it is."

"Well, you've been a parent for just under two weeks. I've been doing this for ten years."

Ouch. She didn't want to fight with him, but she felt like that was a low blow. No matter how much truth there was to his comment.

"I need to go see that they are getting ready for school."

Sam nodded, "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, Mercedes."

"I know," she said back. She knew he didn't mean to, but he had.

"Will you be here when I get back?"

"I have to go into the studio this morning for a meeting with someone Steve wants me to meet. But I will call you later, okay?" He stood up and brought her in for a hug.

Mercedes couldn't help but feel all of the closeness and love that occurred last night didn't exist today. That same anxious feeling she had when she was in the hospital and he told her he had to go was back. Last night felt like it had been a new step in a positive direction for them, but she was starting to doubt herself and whether that had been true. She stepped out of the hug and looked up at him.

"Sam, just please don't withdrawal from me. I feel like we took some huge steps in a good direction last night and I hope you don't regret anything, okay?" She brought her hand to his face so he would look down at her. He did, and while she still saw the flicker of uneasiness in his eyes, she also saw his face relax.

"Cedes, I will never regret last night," he said and bent down to give her a forehead kiss.

Mercedes scrunched up her nose not being satisfied with such a chaste kiss, but she heard the kids start to argue downstairs and she had to go.

"I'll talk to you later. You'd better get down there before World War III breaks out."

"Okay, bye Sam," and she turned to go. At the door, she turned to him before opening it, "Remember what I said about Gwen, I don't trust her."

"I remember, and I think there's nothing to be worried about with her, but I've got my radar on, okay?"

"Okay, good. Bye, Sam."

She didn't end up hearing from him the rest of that day. And by the next day, she was so filled with anxiety, that after she got the kids to school, she drove home and called Quinn to see if she could come over for dinner that night since the kids were going to be with Sam. Quinn went off for about five minutes straight about the message she got from her about Gwen and then said she would be there. Then she called Kurt at his shop.

After three rings, "Klaine's where you'll always –"

"Kurt! It's Mercedes," she cut him off.

"Oh God, thank you for not letting me go through my whole spiel. Okay, first of all: loved your party, except for that whore, Gwen."

"I take it the shop is empty?" Mercedes laughed.

"No! There is a lovely couple here, but they are eating outside. Where was I? Okay, party was beautiful. Sam made me want to marry him with that song he sang to you. Secondly, what happened after we left? Have you hit it?"

"Kurt!"

"Oh shit, Mercedes, you HAVE! I can tell by the raised tone you used at the beginning of my name and the distinct "t" at the end! Hold on while I do a 'get it girl' dance."

"Kurt, you are a fool!" she yelled into the phone laughing when she heard the phone clattering against the counter and heard him snapping his fingers while probably doing a ridiculous dance behind the counter.

"Kurt," she yelled again, "Pick up the damn phone!"

He came back on the line, "There was my exercise for the day. Now third, why the hell didn't you come in to the shop this morning OR yesterday?"

Instead of answering him, she asked, "Can you come over for dinner tonight with me and Quinn?"

"Dinner with my two favorite ladies in Nashville? Did you have to ask? Of course I will be there. But only if you promise to tell me every single detail of your Sam sex."

"No way, that is my husband! I am not going to tell you the details about sex with him!"

Mercedes heard Kurt clicking his tongue, "Caught you, girl. I KNEW you had sex with him. I'm there. I'm coming tonight at 5 and I don't care if that's too early. Gotta go. Bye."

She took her phone away from her ear and looked at it shaking her head.

Now she had to figure out dinner. Pasta was easy. She found pasta and jarred sauce in the pantry. Dinner – done. She went down to the wine cellar and brought out three bottles of wine. Might as well have more than enough chilled and ready.

She had been fielding calls from Dr. St. James' office for the past week to schedule a follow up appointment to come in. She didn't know exactly why she was so scared to go in, but she told herself she would answer their next call; after the one that had come in today.

Mercedes spent the afternoon trying the opening doors thing again to see if it triggered anything. When she opened the laundry room door, the scent from the detergent seemed to remind her of something. There was a memory at the back of her mind trying to push its way forward, but the more she concentrated on it, the further it seemed to retreat. She could come back to that room later.

She tried calling her parents, but both of their cells went to voicemail. She decided to go for a walk around their property. She laced up her shoes and headed out of the back doors and down the patio steps. She decided to go around the perimeter and go further inside to the middle if she saw anything interesting. She had been walking for about five minutes when she saw a small tree hidden in the middle of a clump of larger ones with what looked to be a hundred or more strings tied to the branches. She walked up to it and saw many different colors and types of strings being softly lifted by the afternoon breeze.

"What is this?" she asked out loud to herself. She was walking all around the tree trying to find something, she didn't even know what, when she saw the corner of a plastic baggie with paper enclosed sticking out from under a rock at the base of the trunk. She lifted the rock, opened the ziplock bag, took out the piece of paper and unfolded it. Her hand went to her mouth as she read the child's writing:

This tree is for me, Trey, and my little sister Laila. We will come out here when we can sneak away and make a wish that our mom and dad will be in love again and dad will come back to live with us. Laila wanted me to write that she said we should tie a ribbon for each time we make a wish to make it come true. This is our wish tree.

And their two names were written by x's. Trey's tight and neat and Laila's huge with one "a" that was backwards.

Mercedes hugged the paper to her chest as she started to cry. She sat down on the ground and looked up at their children's beautiful wish tree. She made her own wish for her and Sam to be together again. The sunlight was shining down on the dancing strings and they looked brilliant against the blue sky. She didn't know how long she sat there, but eventually she got up and put the paper back into the baggie and under the rock then headed back up to the house to get ready for her friends to come over for dinner.