Morning couldn't have come faster for Mercedes. She had been having this stressful dream that Sam had gone crazy and hitchhiked his way to LA to find her. Feeling a shift in her bed she stiffened. A tanned arm slung over her griping her body close to theirs. She shifted her position to face the person next to her.

Sam!

'It was real?' she thought to herself. His blonde blocks were sticking up every way possible as he lightly snored. She reached her hand up slowly and brushed some strands of his hair out of his face. Sam started to smile as he cracked one eye open to look at her.

"Morning beautiful," he whispered before sitting up in bed.

Mercedes eyes traveled down his body. "Sam…why are you naked?" she asked looking quickly back up.

He scratched his head, "I always sleep naked babe, you know this," he yawned.

"Yeah but… it's been awhile…and…"

"And what?" he asked arching an eyebrow, "It's not like you've never seen my piece before. After all it's what got you pregnant," he smirked.

She rolled her eyes at him, "You're such a mess."

"So what are your plans for today? Are you hungry? I'll make you something to eat."

"Well I have a class this afternoon today."

"Sweet, in what?"

"Theater Lit. It's just the studies of theater, acting and scripts. It's really boring."

"Sounds fascinating to me… why don't you go take a shower and I'll get breakfast ready."

Mercedes lightly nodded as she slowly got up from the bed. She stretched her back before rubbing her swollen stomach. Sam watched her careful admiring her exposed belly. For some strange reason seeing her in a pregnant state were both fascinating and a turn on for him. He watched her walk off towards the bathroom. He could have sworn she had a slight waddle to her walk as well. Smiling to himself he got up to go make breakfast.

Once her shower had been over with she quickly wrapped a towel around her hair and put on her rob. Stepping out of the bathroom she smelled something smoky. Her eyes immediately darted towards her small kitchen. There Sam stood in all his naked glory with nothing but a shameful apron on was attempting to make her 'breakfast'.

"What the hell are you doing?" she yelled

He turned around a looked at her sheepishly, "Well… I was trying to make toast in the oven because I didn't see a toaster and well long story short, I burnt it," he said showing off his handy work, "BUT! It's not completely ruined because if I scrape these parts off here it's still edible."

"Sam…" she laughed, "Thanks for trying."

He smiled and kissed her forehead, "Thanks babe"

"Sam?"

"Yeah?"

"Put some clothes on!"

He chuckled as he placed his scraped toast on a plate. Mercedes walked off towards her dresser forgetting about Sam in the kitchen. She slipped off her robe and went to go search for underwear. Sam had stopped fumbling in the kitchen long enough to take in her naked body. Not being able to resist himself he quietly walked over to her slipping his arms around her. She tensed at him but it quickly went away as he planted kisses on her shoulder and neck.

"Sam…" she breathed

"Mmm… you look so good. I can't believe how long it's been since I've seen you naked. You're so beautiful," he whispered in her ear cupping her sensitive breast.

"Sam… we can't…"

"Why not?"

"We're not even together"

"Yes we are," he whispered

"Sam…"

"Nope, from now on until I die I'm always going to be yours," he said more sternly grinding up against her backside.

Mercedes let out a soft moan as she felt the tension grow in between her legs. She turned herself around slowly as Sam's lips caught hers. He gently pushed her up against the wall rubbing his length against her stomach. Reaching down he started to stroke her heat. She gripped the back of his head as he slid his fingers inside of her. Letting out a gasp she threw her head back as his fingers started to quicken their pace. With her body being so sensitive she was already on the verge of coming. He could feel her tense around him so he quickly pulled his fingers out. Moving his lips from her mouth he kissed a trail to her dark nipples. He gently sucked on them as Mercedes started moaning his name. Not being able to take the ache she started to stroke herself until Sam grabbed her hand.

"Don't…"

Obeying him she let him guide her over to the bed. He quickly undid the apron and tossed it on the floor; laying her down he positioned himself over her. Sam had softly grinded the head against her hot opening, dipping the tip in and out. Mercedes legs clenched at the sensual torture he was putting her through.

"Mmm… we need to get a condom…" she said

He lifted his head to stare into her eyes, "What for? The deeds already been done"

Without waiting for her response he slid into her. Pressing his abdomen against her pelvis he made sure to not put a lot of pressure against her stomach. At first his thrust were long and soft until she had started to dig her nails into his back. Leaning over carefully he gently bit one of her sensitive nipples as he quickened his pace. He could feel her walls start to pull on him as he pushed deeper inside of her. "Sam!" she cried wrapping her legs around him. Mercedes threw her head back as he continued to pleasure her. The fullness she felt as he continued to pump in and out of her was putting her over the edge. Her stomach started to tighten as she was preparing herself to orgasm. Gripping his hair with force she screamed loudly as she came. The feel of her becoming wetter was enough to trigger Sam's own orgasm. Burying his head into her shoulder he shoved himself deep and hard inside of her filling her with his hot semen. After being still for a few minutes, panting and shaking, he lifted himself up to brush some her wet hair from her face. He kissed her gently smiling at the sight of her.

"I love you so much," he said

"…I…I love you too," she replied

He started to feel tears form in his eyes, "I've missed you so much like crazy, you don't even have a clue. My heart ached for you since the day you left. I knew somehow someway that we would end back up in each others arms. That day couldn't come soon enough."

"Oh Sam…"

"Let me finish. I can't promise you billions of dollars or everything materialistic you could ever want. But I can promise to love and honor you forever. Will you let me Mercedes? Will you let me love and honor you for the rest of our lives?"

She stared into his wide green orbs. She loved this man with all her heart and the last thing she wanted was to throw what they had away. In her heart she knew that his words were true.

"Yes…"

He leaned down to kiss her, "Well then… until we can do things the proper way think of me as your husband, please?"

"Sam…" she said looking at him, "That's a really serious commitment."

"And a baby's not? We're not exactly doing things traditionally or by the book at the moment."

"A baby is one thing. You can have a child without commitment."

"You don't want to marry me?" he asked, his voice filled with hurt.

"It's not that I don't. I just don't want us rushing into things."

"You said you wanted a stable home. Well this is the first step to stability. You know I would never hurt you and that I would never cheat on you."

"I'll have to think about it…"

He sighed, "Fine but in the mean time I'll disregard your indecisiveness. Therefore everyone and everything will know they can't mess with this family. No matter how insecure, indecisive, untraditionally and unconventional it is, in the end we will be a family; first by blood and then legally. If you don't want to marry me right away, fine. But I will hold onto my title regardless."

"You're being pushy Sam," she said propping herself up on her elbows.

He shook his head, "Oh I think not. The problem with me was yes I was assertive but I still let you have complete control over the situation and look where that got us," she averted her eyes, "You ran away from me, pregnant none the less, and expected me to skip through a field of roses over it! Had I actually stood my ground, fought harder and kept making my intentions clearer you wouldn't have run scarred. That was my first mistake. However I don't like making them more than once so from here on out you don't get to decided 100% what goes on between us. Especially because there's an Evan's in there," he brushed his hand against her stomach, "Which means I need to be a stronger better man for our kid. If I can't do it then what example are they ever going to have a strong male in their life? I don't mean to be pushy or make you feel like I'm manipulating you in any way possible, I just want you to feel secure. This thing that has been going on between us has went on too long and I will be damned if you push me away again."

Mercedes was speechless. She had nothing to follow up with his rant. She just stared at him as he stared at her, never breaking his gaze. All she could do was nod her head slowly. He smiled and kissed her. She had never seen him in this light before. Maybe it was because of their baby that he matured himself? Maybe it was just part of his underlining persona after all he had been through in the past year. Either way gone was the goofy and immature Sam that would awkwardly and passively assert his feelings. She watched him as he lovingly caressed her stomach.

Even though his rant seemed like it went on forever he felt like the weight of the world was lifted off his shoulders. He knew he came off mean but he couldn't help it. He was so scarred to lose them again. If he had to play a little dirty he was fully prepared to wash his clothes later. All of his focus right now was on her belly. When he last saw her didn't look as pregnant as she had now, then again she wasn't also naked. It filled his heart with pride to know that a piece of him was growing inside her. Silently Sam was making vows and promises to always love and protect that little person. This was going on his top ten list of things that he loved more than anything; Mercedes being number one, music being pushed to number three and their baby rightfully taking number two.

"Sam, I have to get ready for class," she said breaking him out his thoughts.

"Oh right, ok," he replied peeling himself away from her.

She stood up to resume getting dressed, "What are you going to do today?"

"Hang out with Puck for a bit and go job searching," he said nonchalantly.

"Job searching? We talked about this!"

"And we didn't come to a decision. I gave you two choices, either we stay here in LA or we're moving back to Lima. There's no in between. So in the meantime until you can decide where we're going to live I'm going to get a job here."

She was angry but she couldn't really be angry at him for wanting to help. Sam wasn't the type of person to just freeload and think everything was going to be ok. He had to make sure that his family was taken care of. The words had sounded surreal in his head.

He and Mercedes were starting a family

That meant a lifetime of responsibility. The old Sam would have frowned upon having to put so much effort into things. The new Sam who had to go through being homeless, stripping to help his family pay bills, internally age from 17 to 27, that now was facing parenthood head on, knew that in order for things to work out between them he had to pull as much of his weight as he could. He was painfully aware that Mercedes had a one up on him. She came from a very well educated background and succeeded at graduating high school and was now in college. Meanwhile he had struggled to maintain a C or B average due to his dyslexia. His family wasn't millionaires and now with the baby on the way, the idea of him seeing his high school diploma anytime soon was a slim to none. In his mind she was settling for him, not the other way around. But he didn't dwell on it or let his disadvantages bring him down. Instead he would focus on what he was good at and what he could offer her. His next thoughts were on looking for a job. What job could he actually get that was enough, for now, to keep them afloat? Things were going smoothly now but he was aware that they were going to get harder.

Sam had taken the bus to Puck's apartment but to his dismay Puck was out working. He quickly jotted down a note and left it on Puck's fridge as he retrieved his bags. His next steps were to hit the pavement in search of work. He knew this was going to be a long process.

Lima's hot days were nothing compared to the sun that was beating down on him. He had so far in the past 5 days stopped at 30 different locations, most turning him down because of his lack of experience and some for his age. Taking a break from his mission he stopped in a store to buy himself something to drink. Quickly paying for his purchase he walked out and over to a park across the street. He was taking in the sight of pedestrians in LA. His eyes had wandered over to the construction that was going on in the park. Curious Sam got up to get a closer look at the action. He noticed that some of the people were wearing 'Crew' shirts on. He wondered if this was for a movie or a concert.

"Hey you!" he heard someone yell

Sam whipped around quickly, "Me?" he asked

A scuffy looking man was staring at him, "Yeah you. What are you doing?"

"Oh… I was just seeing what kind of work you were doing," he replied nervously.

The man had been sizing him up, "How much can you lift?"

He thought for a moment, "A lot… I'm in very good shape."

"I see… we could use another pair of hands if you want it"

"Are you offering me a job?"

"I'm offering you a start"

Sam smiled, "I'll take it"

It was already almost 11 at night and Mercedes hadn't heard from Sam. Once it had started to get dark out she started calling him constantly, only to receive no answer. Now she laid worried on her bed thinking about the worse things that could happen to him, "What if he was mugged and is lying in an alley beaten somewhere?" she asked aloud. She had been scanning the internet on her laptop to see if there were any death reports for the day. When she found none that fit Sam's description she had tried for the next thing. Call after call all the local hospitals had not received an unidentified young blonde male. The sound of keys jiggling had caught her off guard as she tossed her laptop onto the bed and stood up making her way to the door. A very tired and sweaty Sam had stepped in with his duffle bag and guitar case. He gave her a weak smile as she gave him deathly stares. His eyes softened at her state. She looked like he had been crying and out of her mind. He was afraid to ask her what was wrong so decided to ponder. When she said nothing to him he figured he'd break the silence.

"You would not believe the day I had…" he started

"Really?" she snapped, "And how would I know? It's not like you bothered to call me."

Now he knew why she was mad, "Aw…baby I'm so sorry. Time kind of flew by and then my phone died. I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to worry you."

"Worry me? Me worrying was an understatement. I thought something bad happened to you! I thought you were dead! Seeing as no one really knows you're here I was calling every hospital I could find to see if they had found your body. Do you know what kind of panic I was in when you didn't come home or return my calls?"

He set his things down by the door and stepped over to her. Her lip started to quiver as she looked away from him. He wrapped his arms around her neck and kissed the side of her face. Sam pressed his forehead against hers as she continued to hold her protest.

"I didn't know I had worried you that badly baby. Are you ok?"

"…I'm ok… just don't scare me like that! I hate the feeling that I was put in. I don't know what I would do if something had really happened to you."

"I promise to check my phone every hour when I'm out late, ok?"

"Ok… so why were you out so late?"

He smiled, "I got a job…"

"You got a what? REALLY!"

"Yeah really"

"What are you doing? It's not a scam job is it where you're selling things door to door."

"No it's an honest job. I got offered as hired help on a film crew."

"Get out! Seriously? What do you have to do?"

"The usual, handy stuff like fixing things and constructing things. They're for movie and TV sets. I guess I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time."

"I'll say… so is that what you were doing all night?"

"Yeah… I get my first paycheck at the end of the week. The pays pretty decent, especially for me. Last time I had seen money that good was when I was stripping."

"I'm really happy for you."

"See I told you baby, I'm gonna take care of you."

She leaned up to kiss him, "Well Mr. Employed, you need to take shower because you smell very bad and it's offensive in here. I made dinner awhile ago so your plates in the fridge."

He laughed, "Thanks love"