Thanks for all the reviews and feedback! Keep 'em coming! Also, I kind of realized that chronicling the time throughout the chapters would probably make things easier to follow, in terms of how far along Mercedes is and when all this stuff is happened. To give a quick re-cap, she was given the A.I. in September. She told Sam about her pregnancy in November, making her 2 months along in November. What I'll do from here on is just put the name of the month at the start of the chapters. Enjoy!
December 2011
Mercedes sat at one of the desks, moving light strokes over the paper in front of her. November came and went in the blink of an eye and her amount of free time had quickly bottlenecked. Her first trimester was nearly over and while she wasn't showing yet and still capable of fitting into her regular winter clothes, she knew she was going to have to switch to a maternity wardrobe soon. On top of that, her finals were just days away. To her fortune, things had settled down in Glee club; they had planned to jump into Regionals preparation at the return of winter break, and with her time freeing up after finals she knew she would be able to help them more and also get more work hours in with Sam and Puck. Both men were understanding to her pregnancy situation and hadn't made her feel awkward following her confession of her pregnancy to them.
She remembered the Monday following the opening night of Chicago when she had told Puck at work.
"Aw when's the baby's due date?" he asked.
"Middle of June. My doctor said probably the 14th but you know, sometimes babies don't like to come when they're supposed to."
"Don't I know it. Abby got a little too cozy in her mom's tummy. Drove us both crazy!"
Mercedes laughed. She'd been perched on Sam's lap while the three were in the office. "Well hopefully this little boy or girl won't keep me waiting. Now that I've gotten comfortable telling people close to me, I'm actually feeling excited about things."
"Oh yeah?" asked Sam.
She nodded to him with a soft smile, "I'm still scared. Every day it blows my mind that this happened, but…it's really comforting to have a loving group of people around me—including you guys."
Sam's eyes went to Puck and Mercedes copied him, only to see Puck smirking at her. "Whatever you need, Ororo—we got your back."
She smiled at the memory while she sat in the office alone, finishing the final touches on a rough sketch of one of the Gladiator Girls. But she looked up when she heard footsteps approaching the room. Her lips spread into a flattered grin as Puck and Sam entered the room singing 'Happy Birthday'. Puck had an acoustic guitar strapped over his shoulder and Sam was carrying a plate of cupcakes—the center one, decorated with a lit candle.
"Happy birthday dear Ororoooo…" they sang, to which she giggled. "Happy birthday to youuuuu!"
Puck rapidly strummed an obnoxious chord to bring the song to a conclusion while Sam held the plate of gourmet cupcakes in front of Mercedes. "Happy birthday, Stormy," he murmured before kissing her cheek."
She closed her eyes, made a wish and blew out the candle. When her eyes opened again she looked up at Sam and Puck and asked, "How'd you guys know?"
"We have our sources," replied Puck.
"Better known as Kurt," chuckled Sam. "Actually…he kinda threatened us to do something for you. We would've anyway, had we already known, but he told us about your birthday."
Mercedes slid the papers out of the way to avoid messing them up before she chose a confetti-flavored cupcake off the plate. Before peeling back the paper, she cast a sweet smile at them, "Thanks you guys."
"Nah, thank you for having a birthday this time of year," corrected Puck. "Gave us an excuse to check out that new cupcake shop that opened up, Sweet Dreams." He grabbed a chocolate cupcake while Sam helped himself to a red velvet one.
"How come you didn't want us to knw about your birthday, Mercedes?" asked Sam, licking frosting off his finger.
She shrugged, "I've never made a big deal about my birthdays, ever since I started high school. My parents will take me to dinner and get me stuff but I don't try and make a spectacle about it anymore."
"Why?" Puck wondered in between bites of his cupcake. "You only get one birthday a year."
"I know, but…alright, my freshmen year I'd planned to have this huge party on the weekend, but my parents forgot about my birthday."
"What?"
"How?"
She shrugged, "I don't know. They're both busy people. My dad's a dentist. My mom's a real estate agent. They have crazy schedules and I guess it just slipped their mind. It sucked but I don't hold it against them; I just don't plan anything for my birthday anymore now."
Puck stared at her and Sam was frowning.
She shook her head at them, "Don't worry about it. These cupcakes are bomb and I really appreciate you guys doing this for me."
"Oh we're not done, Storm," said Puck.
Sam stood up again, "Yeah. We're ending work early today and celebrating with some movies and stuff downstairs. But wait here!"
She raised her brows, "What are you…" but before she could finish, they had disappeared from the room. Her eyes remained on the door while she took another bite of her cupcake, but she stopped chewing the moment she heard the rustling of cellophane.
"Ta-da!" said Sam.
Mercedes eyes bulged as Puck and Sam returned, carrying one large cellophane-wrapped basket, complete with a huge purple bow. One hand went to Mercedes jaw-dropped mouth as they set it down at her feet.
"You guys are insane!" she said when her hand went away. She was smiling but clearly still in shock by the gigantic basket, filled with goodies.
"Well, we had some help. It's kind of a group gift—from me, Puck, Lauren, and Quinn with lots of help from Kurt."
"But mostly, it's from Cap," said Puck.
Mercedes exchanged looked with them. Sam elbowed Puck and she giggled softly. "It looks too pretty to open."
Puck rolled his eyes, "Well you better open it. Some of that stuff has an expiration date."
Her eyes looked past the cellophane to see an assortment of items inside: favorite snacks of hers, a small white envelope with the Breadstix moniker printed on the front, a folded plum-colored shirt, and a collection bubble bath, bath salts and scented candles; a pack of pacifiers, multiple sets of baby onesies, towels, and blankets, and a set of bottles.
"Oh my God," she shook her head, completely awestruck by the content of the very full basket.
"I—well," stammered Sam. "I know it's your birthday but, we all just wanted to do something nice for you, and the baby. There's some more clothes and stuff in there for you; Kurt and Quinn did the shopping for you so…if it doesn't fit I think they left a gift receipt in there."
"Kurt knows my sizes," she told him before biting on her lip. She set down what remained of her cupcake and stood to make her way around the basket. She hugged Puck first and then gave Sam a huge hug. She didn't know if it was her hormones or just her, but the overwhelming feeling of gratitude brought mist to her eyes. How she lucked out with having these amazing people in her life, she didn't know but she felt beyond blessed. Truly.
"Thank you."
Sam smiled at her and she felt his full lips press to her forehead. "You're welcome. And happy birthday, Stormy."
She smiled at him and then looked over to Puck. He was mocking their moment with clasped hands, all the pretending to look like he was about to cry. "Well aren't you two just the cutest?"
Mercedes laughed and Sam rolled his eyes at him.
"You love us," muttered Sam.
His shamelessness at saying 'us' brought a smile to Mercedes' face. This was turning out o be the best birthday she'd had in a long time.
The evening following the last day of the semester, Mercedes dressed in a purple dress with a black bolero jacket. She twisted her hair in light curls and headed off to Breadstix with plans to pick up Kurt on the way. They thought they would be the first to arrive; Mercedes had been under the impression that her parents were meeting her there later, but when they arrived, her parents along with the Hummels and the Puckermans were already there with purple, red, green and white balloons tied around all the chairs.
"Congratulations!" They all called out in unison.
She grinned and blushed, "You guys, I don't know for sure if I'm done yet."
"Oh please," argued Kurt. "You probably aced all the finals. And even if you didn't, you're still graduating, so enjoy tonight. It's the last time we're going to Breadstix for a while."
"Amen to that," they heard from behind.
Mercedes and Kurt turned to see Sam standing directly behind her, dressed in a powder blue dress shirt and dark blue jeans. He smiled at Mercedes with a cubic box underarm and said, "Hey there."
All of Mercedes' face brightened and she leaned in to hug him. Sam returned ht ehug without hesitation and kissed her cheek.
"Sam my parents are here," she whispered in warning.
He pulled away but beamed a devilish grin at her, "Sorry. But I'm not."
"You're a mess," she replied with a playful swat at his chest.
Together, the three headed over to the table and sat down to enjoy the evening while celebrating Mercedes' graduation, as well as the holidays. She'd been given a gift from everyone—money and a spa day from her parents, gift cards from the Puckermans, and a couple early baby gifts. One was a car seat from Burt and Carole Hummel and the other was a teddy bear and set of screen tees and onesies with "Momma's sunshine" and such, all from Sam.
Flattered by the presents, Mercedes thanked everyone and momentarily left to put everything in her car. When she came back, they all had dessert; she and Sam split a brownie sundae, and she playfully poked some whipped cream on his nose and promptly kissed it away when her parents weren't looking.
Gradually, they all started to head home. Sam was the last to leave Mercedes again and he shared a tender kiss with her at the door.
"Congratulations again, Stormy. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"
"Yes you will," she sassed.
After watching him go, she turned back and waited for Kurt to come out of the bathroom but someone cleared their throat, gaining her attention.
"So, Mercedes…"
She turned around, confused as to who was talking to her. Her eyes locked on a skinny blond with blue-green eyes who was staring at her with an amused expression.
"That's your name, right?"
"Yeah?" Mercedes vaguely remembered her from hers and Kurt's trip to Breadstix not too long ago. Right away, she also recalled what Sam told her earlier that evening and presumed, "You're Sam's ex."
"Janelle, sweetie. And it seems he's robbing the cradle these days."
Mercedes narrowed her eyes while watching Janelle circle her.
"Hm, but from what I've heard, you're helping him put a baby back in that cradle."
Instinctively, Mercedes' hands went to her stomach but she didn't see what Sam had to do with her being pregnant. Letting out an exasperated sigh, she said, "Look I don't have time for your crazy ass." She grabbed her purse and started for the door.
"Crazy? Me?" she scoffed, "Honey, I'm not the one that's been obsessed with having a baby. I'm not the one manipulating someone else into getting me what I want."
She whirled around, "Okay you don't know anything about me—"
"Not you! I'm talking about your little beau. Sam."
Mercedes froze; she was still lost in Janelle's implications. She didn't know why she didn't continue out the door but her feet remained rooted as Janelle went on.
"You know he and I dated for four years? Four years, sweetie. And he spent most of that time talking about having kids and wanting to be a dad. I couldn't give it to him so he broke things off—went ahead and found himself a surrogate." Her expression was apathetic through all of this but she quickly pierced her blue-green eyes on Mercedes' face. "But a procedure gone wrong led to you getting pregnant, am I right?"
"How did you…?"
"Sam's been talking about it," lied Janelle. "I told you—he's obsessed."
Mercedes feet were rooted. She had no reason to recall that she had accidentally and inadvertently given that piece of information to Janelle.
Janelle stepped up to Mercedes, bearing down a vicious glare at the younger woman. "Why do you think he's staying so close to you? Why do you think he's been buying you baby stuff, hm? What guy do you know does that for some girl if it's not his baby? Did you really think he's been doing all these nice things for you because he's a nice guy?"
"H-he is," Mercedes feebly protested. But even she knew that didn't sound the least bit convincing.
Janelle mocked her with a laugh and said, "Please, Honey. Don't be dumb. He had his sperm frozen years ago. He'd found a surrogate. Obviously it didn't work. Do you honestly think he would really be okay and helpful with you and your baby if it wasn't his?" She was nearly nose-to-nose with Mercedes. "Can you seriously tell me you haven't been a little weirded out by him getting so close to you? Buying things for you and your baby?" She folded her arms and narrowed her eyes, "And what do you think's going to happen once the baby's born? Do you think he's going to care about you anymore? Do you think he's going keep this up?" She completely ignored Mercedes watering eyes and finished by telling her, "You're disposable, sweetie. Just look at what he did to me. If you don't believe me…" Janelle shrugged, "Ask him yourself. I'm sure he's told you I'm nuts. But I'm just the one would couldn't give him what he wanted."
Mercedes felt sick—far different from any type of morning sickness. She wanted badly to not believe anything Janelle had said to her; she wished she could have moved her feet just a few steps to get her out before Janelle could've filled her head with doubts, anger and hurt. In her mind, she was trying to refute everything Sam's ex had told her but she couldn't. The more she tried, the more upset she'd grown. Through blurred vision, she pushed the glass doors open and made her way to her car, but she knew it was too dangerous for her to drive right now.
"Mercedes?"
She looked up and although she couldn't see clearly, she could make out Kurt's svelte form as he rushed over to her. She hiccupped a sob and lowered her ashamed face.
"Mercedes, what's wrong?" he asked, panicked.
Uninterested in explaining right now, she just shook her head and sobbed, "P-please…just…t-take me h-home."
Please leave reviews! Sorry if there were any spelling/grammar errors! More is coming, of course! Unfortunately the repercussions of Janelle's actions are far from over.
