AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thank you to each of you who has taken the time to review especially Zeejack, Carebearcaryn21, Jujubee58 and Isis. I also need to scream out a huge thanks to KayBee80 and Illiandyandraboth of whom are completely instrumental in me getting anything out of my head and posted in a sense-making fashion.

BTW: This story is pretty much an Angst-free zone. I hope that you'll enjoy. Please Read and Review!

CHAPTER 10

"Oh good Lord help us…Satan is here." Mercedes said turning to embrace her nemesis turned best friend.

"Your good Lord better help Satan, I don't see her dress anywhere." Kurt growled.

His husband unfolded himself up off the couch where he had been avidly watching the extremely hilarious interaction of family and old, dear friends. The six foot six tall, tow headed, quarterback approached his husband and laid a large, calming hand on his shoulder. "Kurt…I'm sure that Santana has her dresses, she probably dropped them off to have it steamed like we dropped off Mercy's dresses."

"Un wad the boxer briefs, Fabulicious. I have both my dresses. They have been altered to fit so perfectly that all I can imbibe is alcohol and air for the next seven days." Santana groaned good naturedly. "Wheezy, you are so lucky I love you. Here I am, stuck in God forsaken Lima for an entire week, and I cannot even have my Breadstix." She looked thoughtful. "Though, having just had nothing but authentic Italian food, at the best restaurants in Italy…I don't think I want to see another noodle until Hummel manages to wrangle another surrogate into having another baby for him and Sam and Finn's illicit love child over there. Hi Justin…when are you gonna set me up with one of your friends?"

Justin shook his head. "Santana…aren't you gay too?" he reminded her.

"So what, the cheerleaders aren't your friends too?" she laughed. Looking around the room, her eyes locked on Stevie and Stacey. "Oh my god the Children of the Corn grew up and got hot!" She looked at Sam accusingly. "You didn't tell me that those two got all hot and shit, Trouty."

"Ok first of all…knock off the Trouty…" he glared. "And second…my brother and sister are not hot…and even if they are…I sure as hell don't want to know it. We're from Tennessee, not Mississippi." He added. "And last of all…if you even think of hooking up with either of my siblings…and don't try that 'gay now' crap with me; I know you…I swear, I will, I will…I will have Ms. Edith give you a whuppin'." He finally finished.

Mercedes' mother looked up and shot Sam a look that clearly asked how her name got pulled into his threat. "Boy, I haven't given a whuppin' since the late nineties…I don't even know if I remember how."

Marcus rubbed his backside absentmindedly as he remembered his mother's inherent talent for distributing necessary punishments. "I'm sure it will all come back you." He challenged. "But hold up…I'm insulted. How come you're looking at the kiddies and drooling? Where's my look of appreciation?"

"I'd have to see your better half first." Santana shot back with a lecherous grin.

"So wait…you meant me and Stacey at the same damn time…EEEEEWWWWWW!" Stevie groaned in abject disgust.

"Right there with you twin of mine, right there with you." Stacey said turning visibly green.

Santana shrugged unapologetically. "What can I say? Marie and Dwayne Evans make some beautiful kids. I stand by it. So Homo…the original…not version 2.0, where is my file, or portfolio, or dossier, whatever you've prepared for me to enlighten me as to all the backbreaking labor you've got planned for me this week."

Kurt laughed. "You know me too well, Santana. But it is back at the hotel. I wasn't aware that you would be here already. Is your girlfriend here as well?"

"Naw…she's not coming in until Monday -Tuesday. I figured I'd be too busy acting as your pack mule for her to come out any earlier. Besides, I am not ready for her to run into Coach Sylvester yet."

"You're not ready…I hope you warned poor Madison…that's something you have to mentally prepare yourself for." Justin laughed. "She put me through the ringer and Kurt wasn't even a Cheerio all that long."

"Once you belong to Sue Sylvester…she owns you for LIFE!" All three of the former Cheerios in the room intoned mournfully.

"Joining the Cheerios is like joining a gang or the mob…there are only two ways out. Be ostracized by Sue herself, or death. And considering that just being ostracized could see her calling you back into her service, death is actually preferable. " Kurt pointed out.

"Yeah, just leaving makes her do ridiculous things to try to show you that you have to come back." Mercedes laughed.

"Wait, was that why she threw sticks and stuff at you that one time?" Sam asked.

Mercedes nodded. "Yup…she told me after graduation. I was supposed to see that I wanted popularity after all and return to the fold."

"Y'all do know that woman is nuttier than squirrel shit?" Dwayne Evans said quietly.

"Oh, Dad…she is so far beyond that." Sam laughed. "The first summer Mercedes and I started dating…she must have seen us out somewhere. She cornered my at the pizzeria one night and told me that if I derailed 'Aretha' from her Grammy winning future, she would gut me like the fish my lips made her think of. She sounded so serious, I've been scared of that woman ever since."

Everyone looked surprised, though no one more so than Mercedes Jones. "You never told me that!"

"I wasn't supposed to. I just said the woman scares me…only two women scare me more than her, my momma and yours…you're close on fourth. But I didn't want to know what she'd have done if I told you and you got all diva-y on her." Sam shook his head emphatically. "Besides, she was just looking out for you, and you needed someone to look out for you. I mean, come on, we dated that whole summer and the only people who figured it out were our parents, and Stevie and Stacey." He taunted Santana and Kurt.

Kurt had the grace and sense to blush. Santana, however, looked unabashedly unrepentant. 'Whatever, me and Diva Delight didn't get tight until senior year. By the time she and I became besties, your ass was old news and she was with the Cocoa Babies creeper."

"Shane wasn't a creeper…he was a nice young man." Heath defended.

Edith and Marcus exchanged looks. Neither of them had liked Shane at all, but Ms. Edith allowed Mercedes brother to be the one who spoke up. "Naw, Dad that Tinsley cat was a total creeper. I mean he dated Little Sister for less than two weeks before I met him, but do you know how he introduced himself to me.? He said, 'Hello Marcus, I'm the man your sister is going to marry.' Who the hell does that? If we hadn't been in church, I have straight up punched him dead in the face. That's some stalker shit right there."

"He had goals." Mercedes said defensively. Sam had long ago realized that when Mercedes defended Shane it wasn't really her defending him so much as it was her defending herself for having dated him.

"I calls bullshit on that one." Santana interjected. "Yeah he had goals…but mainly he was a controlling bastard. He went out of his way to try to isolate you. It didn't work because you are too awesome for that shit, and then Trouty over there came back and wrecked his game…but I've interviewed his ex-wife. He courted her the same way he did you. 'Commitment, future, cocoa babies, blah, blah, blah. Then he was all, 'stand up for yourself' and 'Don't let your 'so called' friends walk all over you'. It escalated to the point that by the time he divorced her because she couldn't have kids, she had no friends left and hadn't spoken to her family in four years." Santana said quietly. "She didn't say he was physically abusive or anything like that. But she had dreams of having a catering business and eventually a show on one of the cooking channels. At first he was all supportive, but once they were married, that shit changed with a quickness. And irony of ironies, I interviewed her eighteen months after he released her for her short comings, and she was big and pregnant. Served the douchebag right."

Heath and Mercedes exchanged looks. "Damn, I always thought I was such a good judge of character." Heath groaned. "I cannot believe that I let somebody like that anywhere near Mercy."

"He better be glad Sam came back and got my baby away from him." Edith said menacingly. "They would have had to put my Black ass under the jail house for what I'd have done to him for messing up my baby's life like that."

Sam wrapped his arms around his soon-to-be-wife from behind. "See, told you…your mom is scary." He said deadpan against her ear.

"You bets to be happy you finished that with the Momma's scary comment." Mercedes warned. "If you'd even fixed your mouth to say…"

"I keep telling you, I'm pretty…not stupid. I would never rub it in that I couldn't stand that fucker." Sam told her honestly. "You'll say it was just jealousy, and I'll have to say some of it was. He was trying to steal my woman…I had a right to be jealous. But other than getting you to stick up for yourself with Schue…he didn't do anything for you." Sam said simply.

Her earlier conversation with Sunshine fresh on her mind, Mercedes stopped for a moment and thought about Sam's words. Rather than defend Shane, as she usually did, she contemplated the facts as Santana and Sam and even Marcus put them forth against what she had allowed herself to see. "You were right." She finally acknowledged. "Even when I broke up with him, he somehow managed to convince me that it was because I was turning into someone who cheated. He never once accepted that I cheated because I truly loved you, and that my heart wouldn't let anything keep us apart. Even when I proposed the break, I think a small part of me felt like I deserved to have you leave me because I had hurt Shane like I did."

"Why the hell are we still talking about dead caterpillar face? He wasn't relevant in 2012; he sure as hell ain't relevant in 2024." Santana groused. "Other than still having a severe need to hold him down and shave that stupid Hitler 'stache off his face, he was barely a blip on our radar. He was nothing. He still isn't anything…though there is talk that he may go into the history books for having the single most trades in NFL history."

Kurt laughed. "Good serves him right for ever even thinking he was good enough for my Diva." He looked around the room and his eyes lit on Monica. "Dear Sweet Monica, I'm sure that Mercedes was going to be very gracious and offer me the wonders of your services this week. So can I please press upon you to, only if you are willing of course, to call the vendors and make sure that everything is ready according to the notes and contracts?"

"Of course, Mr. Hummel." Monica said with a small smile. They had kind of forgotten about her, but she was enjoying watching the familial interactions. "If you could arrange for me a ride back to the hotel."

With an unspoken conversation, Kurt directed Justin to return Mercedes' PA to the Wyndham. He then turned to his best friend. "This is me reminding you to arrange for Monica to have a car of her own for the rest of the week. In fact, you may want to have one as well."

Burt spoke up. "No need for that. Heath and I have her Tahoe all ready for her. You didn't think I'd keep your Navie running and forget about Lil Mercy's Tahoe…never did understand what you two needed with such big ass cars for, though."

Mercedes and Sam exchanged a long, heated look. Sam crooned deepening his voice and making his whisper go husky. "I know I was damn glad you had it. And with Kurt tryin' to be the chastity police this week, something tells me I'm gonna be damn glad they kept that bad boy up."

Edith and Marie saw that look and noticed Mercedes' deeply flushed cheeks. "Alright," Edith Jones began, "Justin, thank you for taking Monica back to the hotel; I'll call and have a rental car delivered there for her. Kurt, you and Santana can go in the kitchen and get dinner started for me. Marcus will help you. Santana, you'll just have to do some crunches or something 'cause, you're in my house, so you will be eating tonight. Stevie and Stacey, you two can head down to the game room and chill out 'cause I don't have any useful way to get rid of you right now. Sam, you and Lady Mercy head on into the family room…your parents all want to have a chat with you. Burt, you and Carol are welcome to join us. You two have acted as stand ins for Marie and Dwayne, and Burt, I think there were times when Mercy saw you more than she did us." It would seem that people didn't move quite fast enough for her. "What are you all waiting for, an engraved invitation? Hop to."

There was an actual scramble to do as they were told; The Evans family had seen too many angry Black mothers in the south, where you could still discipline your children in public, for Stevie and Stacey to hesitate past the first warning. Santana knew that her own Mami started throwing things by the third time she had to tell them to move, so she certainly wasn't going to risk it with Ms. Edith. Kurt, Marcus and Mercedes had all been on the receiving end of her ire too often not to hop to when she said to. When only the parents remained in the main living room of the Jones home, Edith turned to Marie and Carol, with a little grin she chuckled, "Momma's still got it."

Once the necessary parties were assembled in the tastefully decorated and amazing comfortable family room, Dwayne Evans started to speak. "I want to start this off by saying that as parents one of the hardest things you have to learn to do is to allow your children to make their own mistakes. That being said, you two have to be the hardest headed, most stubborn heathens to ever walk the damn earth. How the hell does it take you twelve damn years to find your way back to each other when you love each other as much as we all know you do and you share the same damn fourteen friends?" Dwayne's voice had been rising steadily from gentle and kind at the beginning, to an absolute roar at the end.

Marie put a calming hand on her husband's shoulder. "Your pressure, Dwayne." She reminded him calmly. Then she turned her attention back to Sam and Mercedes who seemed to be trying to sink into the couch. "I love you both very much, and I don't know that there is a soul on this earth that is happier about the two of you finally getting your shit straight than me. But truth be told, I think we're all a little worried that you two might be rushing things a little bit. We don't need this to be like that damn Kardashian girl's wedding from back in the day. You two held on to a lot of hurt and a lot of anger for over a decade, have you really resolved that in just two months?"

"We've talked about everything Mama." Sam said earnestly. "We really weren't holding on to anger that long…just pride. We've learned to put our pride aside when it comes to making our love last. We're committed to making this work."

"Oh really? So the next time Mercedes decides that you're too fine to be latched onto thick, bodacious woman like her?" Edith asked looking pointedly at her daughter.

"It won't happen." Mercedes said with a little grin. "I'm not gonna say that I don't still have my issues, but that insecurity is dead and gone." She sighed. "My new worry is what the biz will do to him…but I'm dealing."

Sam looked a little surprised. She hadn't shared that little tidbit with him. "Mercedes, if you two are going to get married and make it last forever," Burt advised gently. "You two need to learn to rely on each other. It looked like you had that part down at one point, but then the Evans had to move and that creeper boy happened, and even when Sam managed to get you back, you could tell he was waiting on you to decide he wasn't good enough anymore."

It was Sam's turn to surprise Mercedes. "I wasn't. I had worked as a stripper for four months. For four months, I let anyone who wanted to touch on what by rights belonged to Mercedes, all for the money they gave me. It took me a damn long time to feel clean again." He whispered.

"Sam…you did what you had to do to take care of Stevie and Stacey. In my eyes that made you even more special not less." Mercedes told him gently. "Do you hold it against Puck that he's been with half the married and most of the single women in this town? Do you judge him for that time when Sarah was sick and he slept with the pharmacist assistant because she was hot and offered to pay the co-pay for Sarah's medicine if he did? He didn't have to; he just liked getting something for nothing. And I know he told you, he told everybody. Do you hold against Brittany that she has the distinction of having slept with every single heterosexual male in the McKinley High class of 2012…she even slept with Jew-fro just to have the complete set."

"EEEWWWWW…I kissed a mouth that had kissed Jacob Ben Israel…oh God…I need to brush my teeth." Sam's disgust was not subtle, nor was it feigned. "The Puck thing doesn't bother me, we all know how cheap he is… but the JBI thing does. How the hell did no one tell me that Brittany had been with JBI…ugh." Everyone around him was fighting laughter. "Don't laugh at me. I told you it took me a long time to feel clean after stripping…now you tell me something to make me feel even more unclean than I did back then?" Everyone looked at him like he'd grown a second head. "Okay, so maybe not actually as dirty…I mean it was a metaphor…or hyperbole or something." He finally admitted. "What do you mean stripping made me more special?"

Mercedes gave him a gentle kiss. "Sam, you were willing to do whatever it took to take care of your younger siblings. To make sure that they had nice things, when your parents couldn't. You think I didn't notice that you were pretty much only eating leftover salads from your job before you moved? You gave the twins your share of everything else. When I would bring food to the motel room, I made sure there was enough for an army. You'd still eat only enough so that your stomach would stop growling, then you'd give the rest to your family. When'd we'd have Chinese, did you really think I believed that you ate those left overs? You took care of your family no matter what it cost you, and you were only seventeen. At an age when most people are notoriously selfish, you were more selfless than anyone I've ever known. If that doesn't make you special Sam, then what the hell does?"

"Being yours, loving and being loved by you." He said simply.

The couple started to kiss and at a certain point, their parents grew uncomfortable enough to call a halt to their intimacy. "All right, it does make me feel better to hear all of that. But I still have a concern." Heath Jones' deep, rumbling voice brought them around almost as it had when they were teens. "Mercedes, you have a very bad habit of not fighting for what you really need. Oh don't get me wrong, you'll fight to prove others wrong, and to achieve your goals…but you don't fight for your personal needs. There were times after Quinn left when you wanted nothing more than to call her up and ask her why she had left. But you never did. Or when Kurt disappeared for those two years, you just let him walk away… and you did the same damn thing with Sam. No, actually, Sam was even more important, so you decided you needed to actively push him away before he could leave on his own." He sighed. "I've always tried to raise you to be able to stand on your own two feet, but Baby Girl, the way you've done it isn't gonna make you strong, it's gonna leave you lonely. People have to know that you want them in your life as much as they want to be there. Maybe it was my fault. Goodness knows that when you and Marcus were little and fighting all the damn time, I said that in the end all you had was each other. But I really didn't mean that literally you know."

Mercedes got up and walked to her father. She gave him a huge hug. "Daddy, you're right…I did let Quinn and Kurt and Sam go when I should have fought hard and showed them what they meant to me. But at the time, I thought that if I meant to them what they meant to me, I shouldn't have had to force them to want to be with me. I even ascribed that same logic to Sam even though I knew that he didn't want to go, and that he had no choice. And Daddy, it hurt like hell to have them leave me. But it was never anything you said or did…it was just my nature. I can handle physical pain, no problem…but I don't like emotional hurts. Some people handle emotional wounds like their body handles physical ones…the hurt scabs over, and eventually that goes away and leaves just fresh, healed skin. But me, I had a very bad habit of building walls around my wounds to make sure that nothing could happen like that again. The worse the wound, the higher the wall…" she trailed off.

Taking a deep breath she continued. "Sam knocked a lot of those walls down when we were together before; finally allowing those wounds to get the air they needed to heal. He helped me see the wrong in what I was doing. But this time, he also forced me to do something I'd never done before. He made me break down a few walls myself. That's when I realized that all the walls I'd built to protect myself had become my prison instead. I'm not miraculously cured, but being back with him is helping me to see that I can't protect myself to the extent that I stop the healing process…if that made sense to anyone outside my own head."

"Darlin' that made sense to every one of us." Dwayne assured her. "I used to say that some of the things I did on my search for freedom became a cage I couldn't seem to break out of."

"Your Momma had so many damn obstacles, about half way through our first year together I started having reoccurring dreams that I was climbing Mount Everest in my underwear and she was standing above me with a huge pickax trying to knock me off the mountain." Heath said with a laugh. "Granted they were all completely your Grandfather Pritchard's fault; lying, cheating, deadbeat dad of an asshole…hope Beelzebub's having a hell of a lot of fun roasting his ass."

Edith patted her husband on his large hand. "Honey, just let it go…if I'm not allowed to let my hatred of my daddy send me to hell, then you aren't either. You know good and well you want to join me in heaven just to keep tabs on me."

Heath gave his wife a saucy grin. "Nope…the vows said 'til death do us part'…once we've shuffled off this mortal coil, I'm a free agent again."

Sam turned to Mercedes and laughingly told her, "We're leaving that out of our vows…even death won't be enough to separate us. So just know you're mine for all time." He said the last in a pseudo-Egyptian, slightly European accent.

"Its 'For all eternity'." Mercedes corrected in a posh almost British sounding accent. "Idiot."

"Oh God, it's the resurgence of the Movie Quote conversation thing. That is one part of your relationship that I didn't miss….at all." Carol groaned. "What movie was that even from?"

They couple told her that it was from the first Mummy movie with Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weiss. "Awesome movie…the second was pretty good to, but not sure what the hell they were thinking in that third one." Sam commented.

"I know, right…I mean no kid who's dad runs him through a freaking jungle just to get him inside a temple before he bites it…kills a bunch of guys for trying to hurt him…that kid has no doubts at all of his father's love…so why did they turn that amazing, cocky cute little Alex O'Connell from two into that neurotic, whiny annoying Alex O'Connell from the third?" Mercedes started.

Before those two could really get going or heaven forbid draw Heath and Dwayne into the conversation as well, Marie Evans spoke up once again. "We have talked this over, since you two are rushing to the finish line…though it feels weird to call it rushing when it has taken you twelve years to get here…we would like you to each make us a promise." She took a deep breath and continued cautiously. "We want you to promise us that if you start to have troubles, real serious problems or just everyday he or she is getting on my last natural nerve problems, in your marriage, that you will call us. We can get together like this and help you work through it."

Mercedes felt herself start to get a little attitude at the thought that she and Sam might have serious problems, but something made her take a moment. She and Sam might be deeply in love, but no marriage was perfect. Between the three couples in this room they had experienced five thirty plus years or 'til death us do part' marriages. That was an entire wealth of marital advice just there for the plucking. She looked over at Sam and could see that he had had reached the same conclusion. Together they agreed.

"Marie is very serious. It is tempting to listen to other people your age…your friends when you start to rant and rave about your problems…but for the most part they are either single or have only been married a few years." Edith kept her voice kind and non-confrontational. She knew her daughter well, and any comment that seemed like her intelligence was being insulted would be met with derision and stubbornness. "That is a mistake that a lot of people make…they listen to the wrong people when it comes to marriage advice. Single women have all these ideas of what marriage should be, and almost none of those are applicable in a real marriage. Since we refuse to let you divorce, because really do you know how unlikely it is that we would all like a different set of in-laws? I mean you know I love Georgie. She is almost as close to me as you are, Cedes…but her momma works my last damn nerves and she don't even know who her daddy is. Your daddy and I love Marie and Dwayne…so you two can never…ever…ever get divorced…ever."

Sam and Mercedes laughed. They understood what their parents meant. "Thank you." Sam said quietly. "It means a lot to both of us that y'all are so willing to help us. That you care and love us so much."

Mercedes just stood and enveloped as many of them as she could in a massive hug. The others surrounded her as Sam stood and joined the hug as well. Carol, Edith, Marie and Mercedes were all crying and babbling over each other so no one heard the door open. Kurt poked his head into the room. "I'm sorry to interrupt….but Mama E…you didn't tell us what you were planning to make for dinner."

Heath's booming laugh shook the room and all the people he was hugging. "Aw hell Kurt…fuck it. Let's just go out to eat. This is a week of celebration…nobody needs to have to cook."

"Oh you ain't said nothing but a thang." Edith Jones crowed. "I didn't feel like cooking any damn way."

They hustled out of the room to find that Stevie and Stacey had crept back upstairs. The two blondes were on the floor playing with Mercedes' ring bearer and flowergirls. Kurt whispered to Mercedes, "Finn and Sunshine are in the back garden having words about Finn's habitual defense of Rachel." He sighed. "I hope that Finn can learn to stop doing that. I mean, don't get me wrong…Rachel is my friend, and I even love her in a way…a way that makes no sense at all, but I like Finn as a person a lot better since Rachel finally removed her claws from him. He grew into a good man with Sunshine. I don't want the vestiges of Rachel's brainwashing to ruin that for them, especially not with another baby on the way."

Mercedes shook her head. "Maybe it isn't brainwashing…maybe he just has to admit to himself that the things he saw in her are not really who she is. I mean he was with her for a long time…even worse, he hurt a lot of people in his quest to be with her because of the things he thought he saw in her. If those weren't there then he wasted a lot of his youth and almost ruined some very good friendships for no reason at all."

"Do you really think that's what it is?" Kurt asked quietly.

She shrugged. "Maybe. I mean I just realized half an hour ago that I was still defending Shane because I didn't want to admit that it was a huge mistake to have dated him in the first place…and not for the reason I admitted to years ago." Kurt raised an eyebrow, in silent query. Mercedes rolled her eyes. "I admitted that I shouldn't have dated Shane because even though I grew to care about him…I was just using him to hide from my feelings for Sam and the hurt his leaving caused in me."

Kurt gave his best friend a hug, "and it certainly didn't help that your best friend had all but disappeared leaving you to the ravages of loneliness." He sighed.

"Water under the bridge, Keemosabe." Mercedes told him giving him a hug.

"You have officially seen every movie Johnny Depp has ever appeared in, haven't you?" he teased as he led her over to the rest of their family. The large extended family headed to the hotel allowing Santana to actually check-in as well giving Kurt an opportunity to grab the dossier containing of all her duties and assignments as Mercedes' maid of honor. In deference to Santana's having spent the last month gorging herself on the best Italian food Italy had to offer, they did not choose to have dinner at Breadstix, instead the clan invaded Longhorn Steakhouse. Once there, after waiting nicely while the staff put together a boat load of tables that would seat all of them, the topic of conversation automatically turned to the plans for the wedding.

"Okay, now the rest of the bridal party will all be here by Tuesday evening. The rest of the New Directions will be here by Monday evening." Kurt began only to be interrupted by Marie.

"Mercedes, I know that Santana is your Maid of Honor and Puck is your best man, Stacey is one of your bridesmaids…but who are the others?" she asked her soon to be daughter-in-law curiously.

"Well, both of my sisters-in-law, present and future, Tina and Quinn. Candice Glover and Jennie Runk are my other two." Mercedes answered. "Jennie was so amazing to me when my first album dropped and half the critics decided since my voice was above reproach, they would hit at my weight, she didn't even know me, but she had her agent get in touch with Freddie, and we met for lunch. We talked all afternoon and we've been friends ever since. Candice and I did a duet on her third album, we have the same label, but we didn't get close until her manager did her dirty and I introduced her to Freddie. I never really tried to make a lot of 'industry friends' they have a bad habit of turning on you whenever it benefits them. But those two…they aren't industry…they are just friends."

Edith Jones looked at the happy smile on her daughter's face. For the first time in a long time, the smile on her face enlivened her eyes. Mercedes was truly, completely and really happy. Marie Evans reached out and took Edith's hand in her own and gave it a squeeze. Sam's mother saw the same thing in him. No longer were their children simply content and existing. They were happy and they were finally starting to live, really live again.

Burt smirked and asked quietly, "Mercedes, did you even come up with a theme that you and Kurt could actually agree on?" He laughed and told the story of the huge argument Mercedes and Kurt had back when the duo were teenagers and discussing what they would do for Mercedes wedding when she grew up and found the man of her dreams. "I swear, it was so bad, I walked in and had to rescue Kurt from Mercedes' headlock. And she had that thing locked in so good I had to tickle her to finally get him free." He chortled.

Kurt blushed as the laughter rained down on the two best friends. "Oh please, I will have you know I could have released myself whenever I wanted…but Mercedes was soft and smelled nice. Besides, at the time I was trying to ascertain if there was any chance that I might be heterosexual…what better way was there to determine that than to be pressed against the largest pair of breasts in school?" He reasoned defensively. "When nothing awakened, I knew for sure."

Justin looked at his husband and smiled. "Kurt, I love you and you know that I am very, very happy that you are gay…but hon…And Sam please don't take any offense, But Kurt, baby, look at Mercedes now, I've seen the pictures of you two from your yearbooks and everything…if you didn't at least twitch, then you weren't just gay, you were having hormone issues."

Kurt pouted cutely, but then he looked thoughtful. It wasn't until a lot later that summer that he'd had his first non-spontaneous erection, so there may have been something to his husband's assertion. "Anyway," Kurt said dismissively, uncomfortable with the very private topic, "we agreed this time. The theme if the Samcedes wedding is 'Endless Love'." He sighed happily. "Her colors are eggplant, amethyst, blush, silver and mint with touches of orchid and emerald."

"I thought traditionally, there are two." Marcus's wife of seven years, Georgina…Georgie to her family spoke up with a hint of a smile.

Mercedes gave her sister in law a side eye and smirk. "When have you ever known me to be completely traditional?"

"Absolutely never." Georgie answered. "You are the only bridesmaid in the history of the world who refused to let the bride pick her own dress, let alone the bridesmaids dresses."

"That was not my fault. You were bound and determined to have me wear an A-line monstrosity of a dress and yours was even worse. Besides, don't act like you didn't like the dress I found for you."

Georgie had to grace to admit that. "I didn't say that it was a bad thing. You made me step out my comfort zone and into a gorgeous wedding. But you've gotta admit that was definitely not traditional either."

"Wouldn't want her any other way." Sam smiled. "I mean, she did ask me to prom in a three-way date…though they were sure to tell me it wasn't the dirty kind. Traditional can be boring…and one thing Mercedes Jones makes sure to never be is boring."

"Hell to the no…" every adult at the table chorused together.

Once the laughter died down, Heath posed a question. "So Sam, who did you pick as your groomsmen?"

"Well you know Blaine, Brittany, Marcus, Stevie and Mike too. I also asked two of my friends from Nashville. I figured that Santana's workup of the wedding for the NBC people will be a great time to come out of the closet when it comes to my own ties to the music biz. That will head off some of the talk about MercyMine marrying beneath her." Sam replied giving Mercedes' hand a little squeeze. He hadn't said anything to her about his concern that the industry might see him as a liability to her career. "My last two guys are dudes who pretty much between the two of them paid my way through art school and are paying Stevie and Stacey's way through college."

"What?" all four of the other Evans asked loudly.

"When I needed to go to school, Burt helped me to find my road…but it still cost a lot. Stevie and Stacey were still little and Mama, you and Dad had only been at your jobs for like a year…I had written a song, actually I wrote a whole ass load of songs, when we first moved to Kentucky. So I got up form one of the guys from boarding school whose dad was a country music exec. I sold him a few. The contracts are all written to keep my name out of the limelight, even though I get residuals and everything else a songwriter is entitled to. Anyway, the first song I sold was called 'She Was the One that Got Away'. Jake Owen's big hit. Somehow he talked Mr. Fulton into giving him my contact information. We bonded. He's had at least one of my songs on every album ever since. He and Luke…Luke Bryan are always trying to get me to let them thank me in their liner notes at least…I never have. But we worked out new contracts, so I guess everyone will know my secret now."

"Ok…so Jake Owen sang a song about our Angel of Mercy," Marie called Mercedes by the term she had coined for her during that long ago summer when the short little diva had come into their lives and brought light and laughter to that horrible hotel room and back to their lives. "What song did Luke Bryan sing that you wrote?"

Sam laughed, "Every broken heart love song that Luke had sang I've written…he swears he can only write party and happy songs. But the first one of mine he sang was 'I Don't Want This Night to End'. He followed it up with 'Drunk on You', that was another song about Mercedes." He looked over at his bride and they both were swept back to that night, the last one before his family had moved to Kentucky.

It hadn't been the first time they had made love that summer. Mercedes had been perpetually horny, in a way most females never understood until they reached their peak in their late twenties, early thirties. Sam was startled and amazed by his luck in falling in love with a girl who didn't just enjoy his attentions; she seemed to crave him as much as he craved her. No, it hadn't been their first time, but the thought that it would be their last had imbued them both with a desperation that made their love making more intense and more frantic than ever before. In a small, far flung, lakeside cabin, they made love for hours that night. Mercedes allowed Sam everything he asked for and he did the same for her. They only returned to their homes after the sun had risen. Their bodies covered in bites and scratches, hickies and bruises, but the smiles on their faces were shuttered only by the tears in their eyes.

Seeing the direction those two were heading mentally…Santana cut them off before they pushed all the plates to the floor and went at it on the table. "Hey, Trouty…before you and Mercedes make the beast with two backs right here for God and everyone to watch, your math sucks…either that or there is going to be a big problem Saturday. You only gave us seven names and Mercy had eight."

Sam thought through the list he had already given. "Oh yeah, I forgot about Andrew from work. Andrew Setter took me under his wing when I first got hired on at DC. We've been cool ever since."

Kurt nodded. "Yes, I have already made sure that they have an equal number of attendants. You will march in with Blaine, and Brittany will march in with Puck. Tina will walk with Mike, if they have everything resolved, with Luke if they are having issues. Jake will escort Candice, and if Mike does march with Tina, then Quinn will come in and out with Luke. It matters not to me which, they are both tall and lanky and dark and will offset her slender blondness well. Jennie will be escorted by Mr. Setter. Our Jake will be escorting in the mothers. They will walk down together, with Mr. Evans directly behind them escorted by Marley." At the strange looks from the traditionalists at the table, he shrugged. "She wanted to take part in the celebration. It may not be traditional…but after this wedding, it will become so." Kurt said determinedly.