Folle Sagesse

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

*****PLEASE NOTE: Thanks for this story's title goes to MsLadyThankYouVeryMuch. The Title translates into Foolish Wisdom.*****

****THANKS to everyone who has taken the time to review! Your encouragement helps more than you know!****
Thank all of you for being avid readers & reviewers of my stories:
I appreciate all of you.

Boredom Busting Fic Reread Rec
Queen of Heartz by LudaNeet

Isis Aurora Tomoe, you are the most awesome Beta ever. Thank you for being such a help in my time of need!

Stressed Out (Twenty-One Pilots)
Mercedes PoV

The rest of the time that afternoon spent with Ms. Shirling was mainly discussing her health and the plans we'd made for Nikolette's future. There was a pretty fierce debate as to which was better for Nikki; staying with her mother basically until the end, or coming with us earlier. It took some time, but Sam finally pointed out that taking Nikki from the only home she had ever known, and from her mother in her final days might seem like it while it might make things easier on the eight-year-old but it could be really not good for her long term. With that decision reached and agreed upon by all of us, we assured the worried mother that Nikki would be well taken care of and raised in their faith. She would attend Hebrew school after school when the time came and have a Bat Mitzvah. We talked over the trust accounts we'd already set up so that she would be able to attend any college she wanted all the way through advanced degrees. It was the same system in place for Beth and our younger siblings. Ms. Shirling seemed soothed by all of that. "I've had one of the lawyers in our Temple draw up the paper work to leave everything to Nikki. I have some savings, mostly Nikki's college fund. I prepaid for my, well, my expenses. I've already made the arrangements, I stuck with the traditions. I remember color coded notes and perfectly arranged and alphabetized folders, I'm sure that you are the right one to keep track of this for me." She handed me a packet of information, I only barely thumbed through it and saw Goldman Funeral Chapel and Beth El Cemetery. Before I could think of anything to say, Ms. Shirling continued. "The house is really all I have, well it and my car. Both are paid off and you can sell the car and add the proceeds to her trust fund, or savings account. I would like to ask that you don't sell the house. Maybe you could fix it up and rent it out until she is old enough to decide for herself." She asked us quietly. "I still remember how hard my mother and father worked to own a home. Their parents emigrated from Eastern Europe to Britain as children on the Kindertransport. My parents came to America from there in the sixties and they worked hard and saved until they could buy this house."

I nodded. "I don't see why we can't renovate it and rent it out to a nice family. In fact, I think my friend Kurt and our manager Haja might love the challenge of doing a residential home."

"Thank you." She whispered so low I almost couldn't hear her. "I've asked him to see if there is a way that legally Nikolette can belong to all three of you. I see the love there and I am so glad that Noah found the two of you to love him. He really is a good boy. His father scared the shit out of me…but Noah has an incredible heart."

"I didn't realize you'd had the dubious pleasure of meeting Paul Puckerman," Rebecah said as she joined our conversation.

Ms. Shirling nodded. "It was fairly early in the school year. Noah was very happy that his father was actually in town and he was to pick him up afterschool to do something, just the two of them. When I was heading to my car after school, I saw Noah sitting, waiting. It was after four and the lot was almost deserted. I waited with him until after five before Mr. Puckerman arrived. He was angrily yelling at Noah for…well it didn't make any sense at all that he was yelling at him for not having called him or reminded him or something. It stuck out in my mind, that while it wasn't the first a parent had arrived very late to pick up a child, that was the strangest reaction to their tardiness I'd ever seen. Mr. Puckerman wasn't apologetic. He took no responsibility for his lateness at all. I'm not sure why, but I pulled Noah behind me and that was when Mr. Puckerman started yelling and screaming at me. His breath reeked of alcohol, but he wasn't slurring his words or any of the other common symptoms of inebriation, so I had no choice but to let Noah get into his truck. When Noah got to school that next Monday, I paid rather careful attention to him…but he didn't seem to be hurt at all and I saw no bruises. Still, that man frightened the dreck out of me."

"Paul was never one to take responsibility or his own actions. He firmly believes that the world owes him far more than it ever delivered. He can be very charming. But he can also be a horrible bully." Becah told the other woman. "I'm sorry that he frightened you…but it was pretty rare for him to dissolve into physical violence. He is not a good person, but he isn't truly stupid either."

Hudson entered the room with her tablet out. "I'm sorry to interrupt. But the RIAA just released the new certifications for the third quarter. Thanks to a major bump in sales after all of this broke on the Insider, Necessity 4 Existence is now certified five times platinum. You guys could, conceivably, hit diamond status with your debut album within the next six months."

I stood there with my mouth wide open. That was almost unheard of, "The last debut album to sell that big was Norah Jones…but it took 'Come Away With Me' almost three years, and a Grammy win, to make that record." I babbled.

"According to Billboard, it took 'Hybrid Theory', Linkin Park's debut album that went diamond in two-thousand and five, well it took it five years. That was the previous debut album to hold the distinction before Norah Jones." Hudson summarized the research she'd happily done as soon as she'd read the news. "I just, I wanted to tell you guys. Congratulations. Oh, and Daniel and Darcy are handling the statements in case the press want your reactions. I've placed the pizza order. They should be here in about forty-five minutes."

Noah and Sam were pretty well still speechless from the news. "Thanks Hudson," Sam finally managed. "You and the guys should join us for lunch."

She left the room still smiling. Ms. Shirling congratulated us though her coughing fit afterwards left her even weaker than the earlier ones. When she could speak again, she asked us for the names of the gentlemen who had come to the house as soon as the test came back. "They were accompanied by your lawyer and they said that they were to assure Nikki's safety."

We explained that with all the media attention we'd felt that it was in Nikki's best interest to have some protection from individuals who may have had less than pure intentions. We had no sooner finished calming her nerves from the discussion of the safety measures that we were going to put into place when Nikki came to live with us, then the back door opened and an adorable, tiny little girl with a thick dark brown braid over her shoulder and a cute little Despicable Me backpack and matching sleeping bag came in. She wasn't even four feet tall and she was really thin, but in the healthy, slightly fluffy way children often were. She was wearing a cute little Fairly OddParents tee shirt, a pair of denim capris and bright blue sketchers. Her clothes and shoes were all neat and clean. I knew that the white gold ID bracelet on her wrist, the matching Star of David necklace at her slender throat and the two cute lady bug earrings in her ears all contained trackers that were being monitored by Rangeman's Trenton office. I had sat in Ricki's chair and scrolled through a million sites until I found children's jewelry in white gold that were thick enough for Grunt to be able to add the tracking microchips. Her big blue eyes sparkled as she happily crowed. "Mommy, I'm home…did you miss me?"

"Oh my Darling little Bubbala…I always miss you when you aren't with me. But this time, I had some new friends here to keep me company. Come and meet them." Ms. Shirling said with happiness strengthening her voice.

It was funny that even as she dropped everything and ran to her Mom's chair, the effervescence she'd showed just seconds before were replace by the shyness even the most outgoing children often displayed whenever they met new adults. We let Ms. Shirling handle the introductions. Nikki had already met Bubbie Ruth, and she seemed to understand all of the relationships of the other five people she met and how we related to her. but she did keep coming back to one sticking point. "So, okay, You're my father." She pointed at Noah and he nodded giving her a reassuring smile. "You're basically my stepmother." She said pointing at me. It was my turn to give her a gentle smile. Then she turned to Sam, "and you're my stepfather."

"Yeah," he said calmly.

"I really love your album, Mommy got me the CD before she got sick. We saw SongBird in the movie theater the night it opened and she told me that she had taught Mercedes Jones…when The Fighter's video came out, she showed me all of the kids she used to teach before she had me. She said she didn't know you from back then, but she showed me Puck and told me that he was Jewish like us. Mommy always told me that my daddy's name was Noah, that I looked a lot like his little sister and that he would have loved me if he knew about me. I had a crush on you until Mommy told me that Puck was my dad." She blurted out with a fierce blush.

Sam just chuckled. "Sorry, Lil Darlin' but my heart belongs to your daddy and our Mercy. But you're one of my daughters now…so I'll love you just as strong and deep as I love your little sister Bethany. Is that okay Lil Darlin'?"

She looked thoughtful. "I guess. I mean, Lizabeth Keaton, I was at her house last night for a sleepover and she has a crush on Puck, or Noah or Daddy…not sure what I'm supposed to call him…at least I get your love even if it is a daddy kind of love…she gets bupkes because Puck loves the two of you."

"And he loves you Lil Darlin'. He has since the second he found out about you." Sam assured her. Noah looked like he wanted to go to her with every fiber of his being, but he knew from Sarah and Stacey…if he tried that and she wasn't ready, she'd shut down on us. That wouldn't be good for building the relationship at all.

Another thoughtful look crossed her face. "Do a lot of people do that…I mean have three people in a couple rather than just two? Because the only other people I know with four parents have four because their parents divorced and got remarried. Like Nala Jeffries. Her dad has been married three times. But she only has to call his current wife her stepmother."

"Well, you know what…" Ms. Shirling said quietly. "I think that our Lord knows that He is giving you so much heartache taking me from you, that He decided to give you a nice large family to take care of you after I'm gone."

Nikki looked crestfallen. It was very easy to see that she hated the thought of not having her mother present physically in her life any longer. I just wanted to go to her and take her in my arms and hug her pain away. Though I knew that as much as I wanted to save her from the unimaginable pain, there wasn't a single damn thing I could do. Her mother comforted her until the tears tapered off. "Why can't He leave you here and then I could have all of you?"

"Oh Bubbela…you know that we all have our time. Only our Lord knows when or where. He has just decided that my time will be sooner than some others." Ms. Shirling told our daughter gently. "Now, you've said hello to Sam, can you say hello to Mercedes?"

"My mommy said that you're really smart and I really like your voice…and you were really funny when you were giving the man who played your dad in the movie those side eye looks." She said by way of greeting. "I overheard Mr. Jackson and Mr. Hoffman at school say that you were only barely not jailbait…but you would totally have been worth doing time for. I don't know what it meant, but they were talking about how pretty you are before."

"Thank you…you are very pretty too. Mr. Jackson and Mr. Hoffman need to watch what they say in an elementary school. Little pitchers have big ears." I grumbled. "When I was your age, I was really into PowerPuff Girls…what is your favorite cartoon?"

She looked at me and grinned. In the next five minutes I learned more about Atomic Betty. Good Luck Charlie, Gravity Falls and SpongeBob, than I ever thought possible. So I directed her into talking about shows I knew something about like Johnny Test, Phineas and Ferb, Winx Club, and Teen Titans. Sam entered our little conversation to tell her about The Legend of Korra and its predecessor Avatar. We were finally able to help her and Puck connect when she admitted, "I know it's a baby show, but I still watch Sesame Street."

Puck laughed, picked her up and hugged her close. "Oh you are so my kid. I still love Sesame Street. When your Aunt Sarah was little I made her dress up as Abby Cadabby three Halloweens in a row."

"I love Abby Cadabby…but my favorite are Baby and Curly Bear." She said happily. After that, all shyness was gone. She spent the next hour eating pizza and talking with Puck, soaking up the attention that only a father could give. Seeing them sitting together, her on his lap, his strong hands carefully keeping her seated when her exuberance would have seen her fall…I knew that I could not love that man any more than I did in that moment. When Ms. Shirling needed to nap, she asked us to stay and spend time with Nikki. I was very glad she made the overture, because not a single one of us made any attempt to leave. In fact Manny, Nikki's assigned Rangeman for the day, Binkie, Junior and Hudson joined us.

Hudson had been nice enough to go out to the car and bring in the bag of gifts we'd brought for Nikki. She absolutely loved the Amazon Fire HD Kids edition with a seven inch screen and a green 'kid proof' case we'd gotten her. It also came with free replacement any time the tablet got broken for the next two years. We also prepaid the sixty bucks for her to have the Freetime unlimited membership extended for the full two years of the warranty. Artie had talked us into installing a 128GB microSD card that was preloaded with pictures of the family and all of our favorite kids' books and movies and letters from Noah, Sam and me and pictures that Shelby had sent us that Beth had drawn. Basically anything that we could think of that might make her smile, we'd included. We'd also gotten her a cute little Kurio phone…which was basically a smartphone with tons of parental controls and GPS tracking that we could access on our phones. We'd set up a contact list full of our friends and family complete with pictures and showed her how to add her own friends' contact information. We left the camera option off and we ultimately decided to set up the Wi-Fi, though we did set pretty strict limitations on which sites she could visit.

Then there were the gifts from her honorary aunts and uncles. Mainly books and toys from our friends in Cali and Ohio. Tina sent her a gift card for Bergdorf Goodman, Kurt gave her a gift card for Macys and the promise of a shopping trip. Brittany had gotten her so many hair dealies that Nikki could, conceivably, never need another scrunchie in her life. Santana and Blaine had gone in together and they had gone a different route. Starting in January, Nikki would be taking a mixed martial arts for kids' class at a gym on NYU's campus. Artie's gift was researching all the tech gifts and helping us set up them all up. He'd added a few math programs that he'd found as well, including this unlimited Sudoku software, because "Nikki's mom is an advanced math teacher and her dad is Puck, math is in her blood, people."

Yet even with all the wonderful gifts from our friends, the honorary aunts and uncles had nothing on the real ones. Saul and Mills were already in the process of adding a big ass play structure to their back yard. Devon, Kevon, Patrice and Tonya had pretty much gotten her memberships in every kids' book club they could find. Tessa, Triple S and Jake had gotten her an iPod touch with 32GB of memory and several pairs of really cool headphones, not earbuds, but the external headphones that would be best for a girl her age. They had asked us to go ahead and load it with tons of music and pictures of them. I had done as they asked and I'd gotten a 'kidorable' lady bug backpack from Macy's that she could keep all her new electronics in when she was going back and forth to different places.

I loved our family. My parents had gotten her a doll that looked incredibly like her from the Journey line at Toys R Us. It was really wicked since when they bought it they were just going on Bubbie's description. They were also determined that they were going to pay for the new furniture we were getting to turn the guest room next to Kurt and Blaine into a room perfect for a little girl. But Momma swore I could pick whatever it was I wanted for the room. Gabby had already sent her a gorgeous pink jewelry dresser with a set of little girl pearls. I didn't see Becah and George's gift until that afternoon. It was a stuffed teddy bear in a shirt that read, "My Mommy Loves Me Forever & Ever." The ivory colored bear had big fluffy white wings coming out the back. Nikki's eyes when she looked at it almost broke my heart, as did knowing that Becah had searched for something to remind Nikki of her mother's love, even when she hated Nikki's mother with a passion few could understand. My mother-in-law was an awesome woman.

Nikki stood up and went and threw her arms around Becah. "I know she does. I'm gonna miss her so much." Before I really knew it, I'd crossed to them and joined the hug, Bubbie Ruth was only seconds behind me. All we could do was croon that we knew and it would be okay and that we loved her and that even once she was gone her Mommy would watch over her. I was a mess after that…and so glad that hadn't worn any eye makeup.

Once Nikki was calmed down again, Bubbie showed her pictures of what would be her new room at Ruth's brownstone. Francesca and Mills were helping Bubbie with the room at her house, but I was determined to handle all that needed to be done for Nikki's room at our house. I was already looking at furniture and décor. The bones of the room would stay the same. Just the furniture and décor would have to change. I wanted it all set up before we got the call, because then everything would be rushed and crazy. We'd managed to find out that Nikki's favorite things in the world were ladybugs and butterflies, she loved gray, purple, aqua and teal. She really liked things that were feminine…but not girlie. She already understood a distinction that Rachel Berry hadn't grasped until after our falling out. I made special note of all of her preferences. And decided that we'd just take the furniture and stuff from the guestroom back to Lima and hold it in storage for Tessa's college apartment. It would be up to her if she wanted to use it or not.

There had been some talk on the way over of seeing if Ms. Shirling felt like going to temple. That got tabled when she went to nap after lunch. But she was back up around four. Bubbie hadn't said anything, but I knew that she would definitely want to go since it was Yom Kippur. "Ms. Shirling, do you think that you'd feel up to going to Temple…We'll drive and take care of everything." I offered.

Her face lit up. "Really? Oy, I haven't been to Temple in almost two months. Its Yom Kippur tonight." She said happily. "Even just going to Minchah will be wonderful."

So that was what we did. Unfortunately there was no time for anyone to go back to the hotel and change but Nikki was able to take a bath and put on a cute little teal dress. We emailed the crew at the hotel and they all wanted to join us for the service. Then, if Ms. Shirling was feeling well enough, we'd have dinner out before bringing them home. Luckily everything went off without a problem. Everyone at their temple was so happy to see them and, I think they were really relieved that Nikki's family would be kind enough to take care of Ms. Shirling as well. The service was different from Bubbie's Temple and different from Noah's Temple in Lima. He later told me that the Temple the Shirlings attended was very conservative. After dinner we took them back to their home and it was so hard to leave Nikki there. But everyone, including Becah knew that it would be best for her to stay with her mother until she just couldn't any longer. We spoke with Manny and Chet and they quickly agreed to step in where necessary in getting Nikki back and forth to school and to her lessons. She'd had to stop taking several of them after Ms. Shirling could no longer drive. I was so happy that we could do something to help them immediately, I hugged both guys, a lot.

Sunday morning, we went to the Allendale house and picked up Nikki, Ms. Shirling and Ms. Roloff and took them back to our hotel to have another meal with the entire huge group of us. Ms. Shirling loved it because while Quinn, Tina and Rachel had been on the other team that year, almost all the original New Directions had been her students. We told her all about her old students and it made her very happy to hear that so many of us had gone on to college. Santana had dirt on everyone and she didn't mind sharing. It was a really nice visit. She was able to help Artie with a mathematical problem that had come up in his science class. But she tired quickly, so we took them home and said our goodbyes. Before we left we arranged to for Noah and Sam to come and visit Nikki again the weekend after we filmed the holiday videos. I wanted to be there too, but Haja had scheduled me an interview and photo shoot with a fashion magazine so I was stuck in the city. We offered to come back the next week, but when Hudson pointed out that we'd emailed her to arrange for us to spend that weekend in Chicago. Once they heard that, the parents, even Ms. Shirling, thought that we should keep the 'appointment'. Especially since the plane tickets and hotel rooms for the Rangemen had already been booked.

We went home and found that there were plenty of substance-less reports on our trip to Billerica. They talked about the fact that we'd gone and had 'experts' explain what was probably being discussed and how we probably felt. But no one had any specifics. The paps managed to get a picture of all of us going into the hotel for brunch, but thankfully Noah was carrying Nikki, so they weren't able to show her face. We actually did our homework in the car on the way back to the city. There had been little choice, we were scheduled to meet the band at our rehearsal space at four. There was a little bit of a hold up, so Binkie dropped the three of us and Junior off at the Chelsea commercial loft space we were renting for our practices and took the rest of our car full of people home for us. We practiced our Halloween set for a couple of hours, reworking the set list three times. Forty-five minutes broke down to ten to twelve songs. There were a couple of covers that we practiced…some songs just screamed Halloween. Then Between Necessity and the SongBird soundtrack, we had twenty-one songs we could do. We knew that we needed to do the four singles that we had out, but that still left us four to six songs to choose from the remaining sixteen.

We hammered that out after some serious discussion. Then we finally practiced our final song selections. Once we were kind of sick of playing the same twelve songs over and over, and Rainbow and Brittany were happy with the choreography they had worked out for each of them, we went to work hammering out a few chord progression problems we'd been having with a couple of the new songs. We practiced three times that week, spending pretty much equal time working on the set list for Leviticus and the songs we'd written over the summer in preparation for our next studio album. the other two days we met up and worked on the choreography for the video shoots that were coming up the weekend after that one. After practice in the evenings, we were rereading and going over all our assignments and working on our midterm papers. We even took our books and laptops with us to Chicago.

As soon as we landed, we picked up just enough groceries to last us until Sunday evening, picked up the box Brandon had sent us from the mail center and locked ourselves in our apartment for the whole weekend. Thankfully, the mailman had put our big box in one of the package lockers and locked the key for it in our mailbox. For the rest of the weekend, all we did was eat, sleep, fuck, bone, make love and study. Friday night was spent almost entirely in the shower testing out a line of water proof toys Brandon sent us, including a dildo that Sammy and Noah made me use for their viewing pleasure. I never thought that I would cum as hard as I did. But having them watching me, their eyes hooded and their hands slowly stroking their hard cocks…oh my damn that was the best solo orgasm I'd had in my entire life. I spent five hours Saturday afternoon in my new collar, a gorgeous purple and black leather and black lace bit of sexiness with Baby tooled into the leather on one side of the front O ring and Babygirl tooled into the leather on the other. Sam took me from behind, spanking me with his new nubby glove with every stroke. Through delicious domination and sheer force of will he managed to pause every time I almost came. He kept me hanging on the edge by my fingernails for over an hour. When Messire finally allowed me to cum, it hit me so hard that I grayed out. God, I loved every moment.

After a loving massage and a nice hot shower where Sam bathed me with my favorite body wash, he and I teamed up on Puck. Probably the only reason Seigneur hadn't been involved in Messire's exquisite torment of my body was that he was strapped down to the bed under us, completely unable to move. According to Noah, he'd have cum all over himself just watching if not for the cock ring that matched his new slim, black leather collar. I firmly believed it considering the sheer quantities of jizz that covered my face, neck and breasts when Sam finally told me to unfasten the ring. I'd had a moment of doubt when Sam had been fucking Noah's ass in a modified missionary position and he gave me what seemed to be an undoable command. "Baby, I want you to straddle our man's chest and use your beautiful titties and that gorgeous mouth of yours to make him feel so good he loses his damn mind." But it had worked out amazingly. And my moment of hesitation allowed Messire to try out his new black ironwood paddle. He allowed Seigneur to help him by filling me with his long, thick cock while Messire delivered the five licks. That was one of the best weekends of my entire life.

The weekend allowed us to recharge. We talked to Nikki and then Beth for a while Saturday morning, but other than that we just relaxed and/or studied. In the midst of everything, we'd been so busy that we completely forgot about an awards show whose nominations were fast approaching. There was no massive text barrage on our way to the airport…we weren't even given the paparazzi treatment at O'Hara or LaGuardia. But by lunch time Monday, that all changed. The quiet was gone. Haja, Brantley and Darcy were pretty much all blowing up our phones. The American Music Awards nominations were released. Haja had already set us up to perform. But on top of that, KAMA had gotten four nominations. We might have gotten more, but we were really hard to categorize. 'The Fighter' ended up getting nominated for Single of the Year, KAMA was nominated for Artist and New Artist of the Year and Necessity 4 Existence was up for Favorite Pop/Rock Album. Technically we might be able to have claimed five noms, since the SongBird soundtrack was up for Favorite Soundtrack also, but we didn't count that on our list.

It was wildly exciting and such a big honor. I was happy and I was thrilled, but I also knew that the nominations added a lot to our list of things to do. That was all shunted to the side when we got a call from Dad. "The Berry Triplets have arrived. Two bouncing baby boys and a beautiful baby girl. Hiram is going to email everyone the details, but I knew that you'd be dying to know."

"That is so awesome…We got AMA nominations…four of them. Daddy…how would you and Momma like to walk a real red carpet?" I blurted. It wasn't something that we'd talked about, but I was pretty sure that we could pull it off.

"You want your mother and me with you on the red carpet for the AMAs?" he asked as if I had spoken a foreign language.

I nodded then answered realizing that he couldn't actually see me. "Yeah, why not? Justin Timberlake took his mom to the Oscars. This is the biggest award we've been up for so far. I think having our parents walk the carpet with us will be awesome. Besides, it would be fun."

"Look, if it can be done then hell yes we'd all love to do it. But check with Johnston and see if you have two seats each or if you can get a third. Once we know for sure…then we'll tell your mother." He advised.

I understood his reasoning. Otherwise, Momma might end up with a dress and shoes and everything else with nowhere to wear them. "Alright. We have to go to the office this afternoon to meet the two finalists for the housekeeper position so I'll talk to him then."

"MeDe, you might want to make sure that Sam and Noah like the idea too." He said pointedly.

I shrugged. That was a valid point. I was sure they would love it, but we were a unit. I couldn't make unilateral decisions for all of us. At least I couldn't do it very often. Classes were ridiculous that afternoon. Everyone was supposed to be prepping pieces for our midterms, but it seemed like every time I got going good on the aria I'd been assigned, someone wanted to stop me to assure me that they were or had voted for us for all the categories we were up for. What could I do but thank them and sign an autograph? So I didn't get a lot of practice done. We made it to the offices and we greeted Mr. Zizes happily. He had done an amazing job in the last couple of weeks. The Fanmail Response Team was fully staffed. Uncle Ethan was over the moon about his legal secretary, a six foot tall Nubian dude named Cleotha of all things. Haja, Brantley and Darcy were in the process of deciding between four finalists for their admin position. One of the two receptionist positions had been filled. The decision had been made to hold off on the other one until Uncle Ethan and Daniel had more clients and we therefore had more calls and people coming into the offices.

That afternoon, after a short conference with our team to discuss the nominations and how to get our fans to vote for us early and often. I broached the subject of the parents and the red carpet. I had actually spoken of it to Sam and Noah on our way over and they were both good with it. "It's been done before. Remember a few years back when Lucious walked the carpet with all three of his sons. They want you guys to perform, I see no reason they can't fork over one extra ticket for each of you. While you're in with Ben and the housekeepers, I'll make some calls."

"Okay, we're good for the performance. I'd prefer to do Rub…rather than any of the ones we've done before." I stated decisively. Puck was the first to back me up. It might just be a coincidence, but it seemed like the performers always won at least once. Sam agreed when Puck explained our reasoning. "We'll talk it over with Rainbow and find out what direction we want to go in for the performance concept."

"Alright, I will let them know which song. You'll need to move on that a-sap, Ruth and Kurt will need time to get everything in and altered and the filming in in LA the Sunday before Thanksgiving." He reminded us.

Darcy had news for us too. "Your KAMAleons are already going in hard already on the voting. I put the links up this morning as soon as the news broke. You'd have thought they said 'click here to become rich and famous yourselves'. In just the last six hours, we've had over two hundred thousand click the links to go vote. Over the next couple of weeks, I'll be going in hard on Social Media, anything you want me to focus on?"

"I want you to hit back at those crazy people that are claiming that Mercy should be ashamed of the Rub video. She looked amazing, women do actually have orgasms if the guy knows what he is doing, being with the two guys you are going to be with for the rest of your life is by definition NOT promiscuity. Her breasts and ass are real and they are spectacular…oh and can you please ask people to stop speculating as to the size of my junk…that's just wrong." Sam blurted out in a rush.

Darcy laughed and patted his very flushed cheek. "Don't worry…from what I've seen as to the nature of the speculation…you've got nothing to be ashamed of."

"Oh, we know he has nothing to be ashamed of. He just tends to be a lot more modest than most guys." Puck shot back.

Darcy's answer was to walk away shaking her head and laughing. Brantley was heading back to his office as well. "Oh by the way. I've got the East Coast booked. I'm working on Middle America now. So quick question, Cincinnati or Cleveland, got Columbus already taken care of?"

"Whichever one works better for mapping the trip. As long as we do a stop in Columbus I'm good." I answered honestly.

"Don't know as I've ever been to either." Sam shrugged.

Puck shook his head. "I'd rather go Cleveland. Had a bad experience in Cincinnati once. Paul Puckerman is like the official worst." He didn't elaborate, so we didn't ask.

"Cleveland it is then." Brantley grinned. "Cleveland works better than Cincinnati for the mapping anyway. Oh and keep your spring break clear. If I can get the Coachella people up to my number, you're booked for at least a few days."

We agreed to that. Even just the idea of being at Coachella was not one we'd turn down. As we headed into the larger of the two 'Standby' offices, I wondered how our friend's spring breaks would line up with ours. Of course, I pushed that thought to the side as I took the seat Puck held out for me. Ben, or someone, had brought in the two slipper chairs from the other standby office. Ben took the office's rolling chair and came around the desk to be with us. "I had it narrowed down to five, but with you three having partial custody of Puck's daughter, we eliminated three of them based on Rangeman's background checks. There were a few flags that were green when they would only be around adults who can protect themselves, that I just wasn't comfortable having around an eight year old little girl."

"Like what?" I asked him.

"A juvie record that was miraculously unsealed to find a molestation of a fellow minor child…he was nine and the other kid was six. One was stupidly vegan…She'd been arrested at a protest where they were trying to have the killing of any animal for consumption made as illegal as killing another human. Personal choice veganism can be dealt with; militant veganism is quite another story. At eight, your daughter needs a balanced diet. Not some crazy chick who won't let the baby have a damn hot dog. The last one…the flag came from Ms. Plum. Apparently she was related to Ms. Plum's ex-husband and during the divorce she claimed to have been in an illicit relationship with the former husband, her own cousin. There is a very good chance she wouldn't have made it through the preliminary interviews, but I only had the Rangeman searches done on the top ten." He explained.

We each nodded. None of us wanted someone who would boast about being with a married man, much less one who was their cousin. "So what do we need to know about these two remaining finalists?" Puck asked.

Ben Zizes shook his head. "Nope, not going to tell you. I want a fresh cold read for them. They are each eminently qualified. They both passed the background screenings with flying colors and they have each signed the nondisclosure agreement. So I'm going to bring in the first and I'm not even telling you their name until I do." He stood and walked out of the room.

"I wonder where he has them waiting, I peeped into the admin waiting area and there wasn't anyone there." Sam wondered aloud.

I shrugged. "Probably in the other standby office." I said smoothing my hands down the skirt of my maxi dress. "I just hope they can cook. After Cooper and now Blaine…I mean, I'm grateful for them helping us out…but man, those Anderson boys have no clue how to cook."

Before Puck or Sam could agree or disagree, Ben knocked on the door and let himself back in. He was accompanied by a petite, slender gentleman of indeterminate years. "Mercedes, Sam and Noah, I'd like you to meet Felix Nabor. Mr. Nabor has an Associate degree in Nutritional Sciences from CUNY." Ben gestured for the man to take the seat across from us and settled himself back in his desk chair.

"Hello Mr. Nabor." Sam said affably. He led the questioning through the background information, such as how long Mr. Nabor had been cleaning houses, and how many he's been responsible for cleaning. Nabor had been cleaning for eight years and he had worked through several service agencies. He was just beginning to step out on his own.

Noah took over next. "How did you get into house cleaning?" Nabor gave a well-rehearsed sphiel about how he'd started working for Merry Maids after high school to pay for college and when he'd realized that he was not the academic type he'd left formal education with an AA and stuck with what he knew and what he was good at. Puck didn't say anything about what Nabor had said, instead he just cruised into the next question. "What kind of products do you like to use?"

"I prefer to utilize organic cleansers rather than harsh chemicals." He said with another weird smile. It took everything in me not to roll my eyes. Organic cleaners were all well and good and I loved using them on my lingerie…but for a bathroom I needed some bleach used so I knew that the germs were all dead.

Sam must have realized how well that answer went over for me, because he moved the interview forward a few steps. "Why don't we start by telling you more about the specifics of the position."

He smiled and I noticed immediately that it didn't seem to reach his eyes not even a little bit. "Thank you. I'd appreciate hearing what will be expected of me."

I didn't quite like the way he said that for some reason. But I went ahead and laid out our expectations. After giving him the basic rundown of the house specifications, I explained what I needed to see as far as cleaning went. "The kitchens and bathrooms must be superficially cleaned every day and deep cleaned once a week. Every roommate and person will take care of keeping our own beds made on a day to day basis, but we'd really like it if you could strip them and replace the bedding from the sheet to the duvet once a week in each bedroom…other than that we will pick up after ourselves. However, the common areas will need to be straightened up and dusted at least twice a week." I told him with a nice smile.

Noah continued from there. "You'll be responsible for doing the grocery shopping and we'll need you to cook at least one meal a day, preferably dinner. It would be awesome if you could also make something that we can eat for breakfast…like some breakfast bar type of thingies. Something that you can do and leave for us to eat the next morning. We have so much going on that trying to get up early enough to make breakfast plus work out and get the class…yeah, it's so much harder than you'd think."

Mr. Nabor looked at me, it was a look that really bothered me. "I can certainly create a dietary plan that will allow you to manage your schedule and accomplish your fitness goals. And make meals that ascribe to the plan."

Sam gave him a look at that. It was like he heard the strange inflection in the guy's voice too. "Well, thank you very much for meeting with us at this late hour. Mr. Zizes will be in contact with you tomorrow with our final decision."

As soon as the goodbyes were said, and the door closed behind Mr. Nabor, Noah shook his head. "Going on the record right now to say hell no. That sonofabitch just stared at Cede's tits whenever he could and then had the nerve to say that fitness goals bullshit while looking at her like she isn't the most beautiful woman ever. You just know that if we hired his ass Sexy Mama's panties would start to disappear quick fast and in a hurry."

"I didn't see any looks, but I need my bathrooms cleaned with bleach. I don't think I could even pee in a bathroom where the germs were allowed to run amuck." I said with conviction.

Before they could laugh at me, which I knew they were about to do, Mr. Zizes came back in with the next candidate. The next person to walk in was a gorgeous woman. She was at least six feet tall and she was still rocking four inch stilettos. Her hips were slim, but she had nice curves up top though, admittedly, hers were a lot less pronounced than mine. Her hair was pretty, a lovely wealth of dark magenta and brown, shoulder length waves. Her makeup was flawless and she wore a pretty black sheath under a peplum blazer that made her hips look somewhat fuller. "Hello, I am Violine Bautista, but usually people call me Bautista or Vi. I have to say that Mercedes, Lady, you were fierce in SongBird."

"Well, your dress is pretty fierce too." I said with a wicked grin. From there we found out that Vi had degrees in culinary arts, nutrition, and hospitality management. We chatted for quite a long while before we even got to the interview questions. We asked her why given all her qualifications she had such a spotty job history.

"I'll just level with you. I'm a woman now, but I was born well, I was born both male and female. There was some gender confusion in the delivery room. The doctors couldn't tell if I was male or female or a hermaphrodite. My mother was kind of pressed on the idea of giving her boyfriend a son. Had she let the doctors make the determination, probably they would have figured out that I technically most closely fit the definition of a hermaphrodite. But instead she gave me the name Juan Carlos and she had them basically say that what was, in reality, a pretty large clitoris was actually a small penis. I was ten when I started to develop these." She gestured to her breasts. So my aunt, she raised me from when I was six on up…neither of my parents were worth shit…anyway she helped me to understand what was wrong. She helped me start what basically amounts to the transition process when I was fifteen. There was some nonfunctional male genital tissue that had to be removed and my external female genitals weren't fully developed, though I have fully functioning internal female sexual organs. So while I'm not exactly transgender, in a way I am, and I do admit that I have facial and body structure that makes most people assume that. If you consider me transgender then I am post-operative, and a lot of people won't hire me, but if I lie and they find out…then they fire me." The truth of her words rang true. "I know that you guys tend towards not caring about your people's sexuality, so I'm hoping that you feel the same way about gender."

We all shrugged. "No…I care about your ability to cook and clean. What do you use in the bathroom?" Sam asked her. I knew that he didn't really care as much about the products that were used as I did. He was just saving me the trouble and setting Viola at ease.

"Bleach, first last and always. Gotta make sure that those nasty germs die. Now, I also like this new thing from the Lysol line that pairs their usual cleaners with hydrogen peroxide…that thing can go to work on soap scum." She answered. "Oh, but please tell me that you don't like those ridiculous 'clean by staining' blue drop ins?"

I shook my head happily. I was definitely not a fan of those stupid things. They hid the dirt until they ran out then you were left with gross ring of stain at the water line. Vi and I shared a moment of true understanding, after which, I ran back through all of the same details that we'd laid out for the Nabor guy. "How would you augment our requirements?"

"Well, just from what Puck has said in interviews about your lives, I'd probably increase the total bed remakes to twice a week, staggered so that I don't spend all day just on the beds. By the way, I know a guy who is amazing at getting out stains. His name is Patrick Fitzgerald and he has all these tricks he learned from his grandmother. I've never seen creases as good as his. He did the curtains in one of the first houses I cleaned…they had gorgeous knife edge pleats and he made them look like they really could cut. He and I have been friends since I moved to Manhattan three years ago. I can get you his information and references."

"That would be awesome. Because I think that all we've really washed in the last month is underwear." Noah tossed in. "If he passes the background check and doesn't mind signing the non-disclosure agreement, he's got the job. Four hundred bucks a week… and he washes the clothes at the house, we'll supply all the materials, if he has special things he uses for stains we'll need to know and make sure that no one is allergic."

Vi looked really happy. "I will have him here tomorrow. He is barely making ends meet right now. Not a lot of people want to hire someone just for laundry…right now he works part time at a laundromat, but that job doesn't pay him near enough to live on. I've been feeding him for the last month just to make sure that he eats."

I liked that she was a good friend. "Any other changes you'd stipulate?"

"Not really, I would like to understand the grocery shopping situation though? Because usually I would shop based off menus but if I'm only responsible for five meals a week…" she trailed off.

"We would combine the list you generate with your menus with the common, household needs and desires…oh one thing. No peanuts or peanut based anything. Our newest-slash-eldest daughter has a peanut allergy. Any of the tree nuts are fine. But we've already gotten rid of everything we knew has peanuts in it, but just know that not even a little bit can be around the house." I told her sternly. "Other than that, our PA has us set up to receive certain things like toilet paper, paper towels and our favorite cleaning and laundry products by subscription from Amazon Prime. If you get Hudson a list of other things you need, she will make sure that they are in place for you. So for the most part when we say grocery shopping, it really does only mean food and the elements that go into making food."

Violine looked up at us hopefully. "Does this mean I have the job?"

I smiled. "You'll need to come in tomorrow evening and do a test deep cleaning of the guest bathroom and the half bath on the first floor…but if your definition of deep cleaned matches ours, then yeah. Oh and bring in your friend, Patrick, to the office for the paperwork in the morning. We'll let you know if he should come with you to the test. I'll get him a small load or two to do to test his skills. After your audition, we will have to give you the security information for the house. The nondisclosure agreement is still fully binding. We'll have your employment contract for you to sign and we'll run down your benefits package then as well. Your hours will be flexible. You can come in later and leave a little later if you'd like to eat the dinner that you cook rather than having to go home and cook all over again. Do you have any other questions?"

"Just wondering if I am dreaming?" she smiled.

"Nope…but you may think it's a nightmare after Mercedes finishes going over your work on the bathroom tomorrow. She really is kind of crazy about her bathrooms being clean." Noah teased us both in the same comment.

We all shook her hand and finalized the arrangements for the test. Once she left, Ben came back in and smiled. "I'll have all the paperwork drawn up by five tomorrow. Let me make sure that I have it all right…sixty-five a year, not including a holiday bonus of three two-fifty and a matching spring cleaning bonus after your spring break. All the same benefits as everyone else, and the contract for her to be added to the account you created for household expenses."

"That sounds right. I know that the laundry guy will only be part time…but let's hook him up with the benefits package too. Because you know that with two part time jobs he might be able to make ends meet, but things like health insurance…let alone dental or vision are above and beyond what he can probably afford." Sam added in.

Puck looked thoughtful. "I'd say he should have twenty hours a week. He can either do four hours five times each week or six and half three times a week. Twenty thousand eight hundred a year, one thousand and thirty two bucks for the holiday bonus. Two grand for the spring cleaning bonus, because he's gonna end up washing every curtain and towel and sheet in the house that week."

Ben took the changes down and as we were talking, he got a thank you email from Violine, which included everything he would need for Rangeman to do the background check on Patrick Fitzgerald, including his go ahead. Binkie forwarded the information to Ms. Plum and we headed home. Our evening was full of mid-terms and love making. I had a paper due the next day in my French Lit class, so after the boys were asleep, I snuck down to the study to go back over it and make sure that everything was perfect. I couldn't shake the feeling that there was something wrong with my paper on Rousseau's Rêveries du Promeneur Solitaire. I had written it in French rather than trying to write it in English and translate it, so the idiomatic phrases were correct. My grammar, spelling and punctuation were all spot on. Finally after an hour, I decided that I was obsessing. I saved it to a PDF and emailed it to Professor Force before I could change my mind. Unfortunately, my professor for my European philosophers class had assigned me Hobbs Leviathan for my mid-term paper, so there was no way to do one paper for both. I was almost done with the Hobbs paper, just needed to check over the final draft. But I needed to do so with fresher than midnight eyes. So I shot it to Blaine in an email for him to check for me. I had edited his paper on Paul Cézanne for his Parisian artist humanities class…so he owed me one. Plus, we always had each other's back on the proofing thing. With those two off my plate, I just had to deal with my political theory and computer programming mid-term actual tests on Thursday and my performance for my vocal performance class.

The next day of classes flew by, mainly because my intro to marketing teacher, Professor Harrison, decided to spring a pop mid-term exam on us to really see what we'd learned. I did have to admit. It was nice to have a test that I didn't freak out over for days before hand…but I definitely freaked out afterwards because I hadn't had any prep time. She must have been related to Madame Bimbaum, because Madame decided that we should get our midterm out of the way…never mind that she hadn't told us that we were even having a mid-term at all. She handed us our monologues and basically I had to have the Clytemnestra monologue from Racine's Iphigenia memorized and ready to go on Thursday. Best of all it was worth a full third of my final grade. Oh joy.

Over lunch, Sam, Noah and I had skyped with Rainbow and hashed out concepts for the performance. We knew that it would need to be sexy as hell to stand up to the hype of the video. But there was no way Sam and I were comfortable being totally intimate on the stage like that. Puck was cool with it. He figured that people would just be jealous. I asked him if he thought he was married to Mae West. And the concept snowballed from there. Rainbow was pretty excited to start the special stage choreography. I was on the fence about the concept, but Sam, Noah and Rainbow totally out voted me. I grumbled about it internally for the rest of the day. Still when we got home, it was to find that Kurt and Brittany had made dinner, a simple skinny Mexican chicken casserole they found off line, but it was really good. So I definitely counted the day as a good one.

Ben Zizes had dinner with us and we looked over the information from Rangeman. Patrick's background check did have a small red flag. He'd been arrested as part of the Occupy Wall Street protest…which was something that was actually something of a strength as far as Sam was concerned. So he was scheduled to come for a test. Kurt was ready for him he had a shirt, bold aqua linen with an oil based stain. Plus there was a regular load of the workout room towels…we wanted to see if he could chase away the dinginess they had picked up over the last year. Bautista and Fitzgerald showed up a few minutes before six. Right on time. We introduced them to the household…both parts and gave them a quick tour.

Once they were pretty comfortable with where they would be working, we let them go. Patrick got the towels going pretty quickly after asking us if we had any lemons or white vinegar and a measuring cup. We had the lemons, not the vinegar. I was kind of shocked when he put four lemons in the microwave for fifteen seconds, then rolled and juiced them getting a little over a half cup pf juice. You could have knocked me over with a feather when he added that to the hot water of he was running for the load of white towels. Then he tackled Kurt's shirt. He used cornstarch to absorb the oil from the fabric. After letting it absorb for a couple of minutes, he removed that, making sure that none of it got on the shirt anywhere else. He used a little bit of Dawn and water, working that in with his thumb, then with a toothbrush to each side. Then he hand washed it in the laundry room sink with the organic washing soap we usually only used on delicates. When that was done he hung it on the air drying rack. He moved the towels from washer to dryer. When everything was done, the stain was gone and the towels looked like they had just been bought. We sat him at the table to go over everything with Ben. He sure as hell had the job.

While Patrick had been working his magic, Violine Bautista had gone over the guest bathroom like a boss. She sprayed everything down with cleaning products in both bathrooms first, starting on the second floor then putting the first floor bathroom 'in soak'. I loved that she used a vinegar solution for the mirrors. She then went back up to the second floor and had the sink and shower both gleaming. She used the Amish oil soap on the vanity's wood parts, the sealed hardwood floor and the railing. The toilet was so clean it sparkled, there was a faint aroma of bleach underlying the other products and I was happy because it looked as good as it had when I'd gone on that rage fueled cleaning binge months before. She had even taken an old toothbrush to the grout. The first floor half bath was treated to the very same beautiful, wonderful cleanliness. Sam took one look at my face, internally almost roared with happiness, and took Violine's hand and led her into the kitchen where Ben was talking to Patrick about his pay scale and contract.

"So wait, I have benefits?" he said quietly. From the way Ben said yes, I kind of think that he had answered that more than one time. "But I'm part time."

"That's okay. You still have the same benefits package as the rest of KAMA's employees." Mr. Zizes said patiently. "In fact, since Mercedes is looking happy with Ms. Bautista's performance on the bathrooms, why don't we go over the benefits package together?" The duo would leave that night with jobs, benefits and a hundred dollars each for their time that evening.

We knew that Mr. Zizes had that all handled, so we headed up to the guest room so I could show them what I had planned to make the room more eight year old girl oriented. "Since Blaine has no classes or exams on Friday, he already said that he would be here for the painters. I've already arranged the movers to come on Thursday evening and move the furniture and everything from here to Lima. Momma is going to meet the movers and have them store it in the attic until its needed. The painters are going to come in and three of the four walls will be painted Behr's Lovers Knot, a pinkish purple…and the feature will get painted a taupeish gray called Shittake. I'm going to have them paint the base boards and crown molding a very light gray with just a hint of pink to it called Chicago Fog." I showed them the swatches. Then I showed them the rug and bedding I'd found.

"What kind of furniture did you finally go with?" Puck asked me as he gave me a big hug and a deep kiss. I knew that he appreciated that I'd done all this myself even though I had no time to breathe really. But it wasn't something I wanted anyone else to do. It was my way of easing our daughter into our life. My gift to her.

"When I was on the Pottery Barn site looking for the bedding, I saw this bed I loved. It has a stair loft, bunk bed kind of deal. The loft is a twin, but the lower bed is a full. I figure that we can buy each set of bedding in both sizes and make the beds to match. When she wants the twin, she can climb up and sleep up there. If she doesn't she can sleep in the full. Plus too, its stairs not a ladder so it's safer while she is still so little. Or if Shelby lets Beth stay with us sometimes."

Puck's smile was beautiful and lacked even a hint of its current, slight melancholy. "Having both my little girls under the same roof…our roof. That would be freaking awesome."

"Oooh, brainstorm." Sam breathed. "McKinley's spring break is the week after ours and Quinn's is the week before it. If we gave Shelby and Dave a honeymoon as a belated wedding gift…for that week, I bet you money that we can talk them into letting Beth stay with us."

"Oh my God." I breathed. "We should so do that. I mean, we can easily get Jake or Tessa here too to spend time with Beth and Nikki while we are in classes and it will still give them tons of time to have fun on their own."

"Especially if we come home during the breaks we usually just stay on campus for." Noah agreed. We decided to run with it, though, much to our shame we farmed out the actual planning of that trip to Hudson.

Then we turned our attention back to the room. I showed them all the furniture and décor that I had picked out. "Everything is scheduled to be here and hopefully in place before next Friday. I had everything rushed, because we don't know how long Ms. Shirling has." I admitted.

"Yeah, I gave Bubbie the money to trick out her bed and bath rooms over there. I swear that woman is psychic. Remember when she showed us the design and we couldn't figure out why she hadn't just done the whole second floor for her master suite like we did with this one." We nodded. It had struck us all as weird that rather than having a sitting room and a massive bathroom. She'd opted to do a really good sized guest room and bath across the hall from her bedroom. "Well, that is the room she is converting for Nikki. It puts them on the same floor, just in case." We all smiled. Maybe Bubbie was psychic, I was starting to believe that Lord Tubbington was both psychic and telepathic, why not Bubbie.

"Bubbie was nice enough to show me and Momma her furniture choices, so I went with grey rather than white, so the rooms would have some clear differences." I explained as we left Nikki's room and headed up to our room. After I put my hair up, I showered and got comfortable, I concentrated on learning as much of Madame Birbaum's Iphigenia monologue as I could. Puck and Sam were out in their play room, quizzing each other for their psychology mid-term. It was a quiet night at home, just being college students. It was actually fairly restful…and wonderful.

So...whaddya think?

No for reals...feed the plot bunnies now while there is still time for them to grow.

Let me know what you think of the chapter. Also weigh in with your opinion on whether I should do another pull out Christmas/Hanukkah/Winter Holidays type story again for this school year.

So This Is Christmas Part II if you will.

In other words help me entertain you...LOL.

Thanks for all the words of encouragement after last chapter.

OBTW-Lets give a round of applause to the House Dems. Yeah, people are mad at them, but I'm sure as hell not. They have been trying to work through the system since Gabby Giffords was shot...the system is broken, so now they are taking things old school to express their vehement desire for change. I, for one salute them.

TTFN,
Anni