Sweetiedee, belladuke97, and jacquelinehogan922 - Thank y'all so much for the reviews each chapter. I used to be able to chit chat back and forth with readers and stuff to know how well the story was sitting with folk and such, but I rarely get a chance to sleep these days, much less reply! But, I always see your names in the reviews and I feel loved that I got some regulars here for me! :* I also appreciate the guests who take the time to review as well. :)

I feel REALLY bad that I am going to hurt some of y'all a little bit (or a lotta bit) with some of the upcoming arcs that I have been sitting on for a while. Hopefully, I don't lose you though! I don't know how not to angst.

The Reviews

Sam, Stacie and Joe were there to get Stevie when he was released from the hospital. They went back to the hotel and he was happy to get some rest in a bed that wasn't a hospital bed, even if it wasn't in his bed. Whenever they arrived in the suite, Cowboy was with Dwight and Cheri and Jake were in the kitchen, finishing up the food.

Dwight commented, "Apparently Jake stress bakes, so - lucky you!"

Stevie peeked into the kitchen to see Jake and Cheri laughing hard at something, standing really close together, and he cleared his throat. "Cornflake!" Cheri cheered and rushed over to give him a hug and a kiss. "Should you be walking around?"

"I'm going to go lie down. How long are you gonna be?"

Jake said, "I can finish up by myself. She's not even really a help, if we're being honest. Her baking sucks."

"Well, damn. You just gonna do me like that, right?" She asked, mock offended, then picked up a handful of flour and threw it right in his face.

"The disrespect," he said, shaking his head as she left the kitchen with Stevie.

Stevie started searching his bags. "What are you looking for?"

"My glasses. These contacts have been irritating my eyes."

She went to a certain bag and pulled out the glasses case to hand to him, along with his contact supplies. "I've just been rinsing my eyes out and sleeping with them. Guess I could've asked you or Jake to bring my stuff to the hospital." He snatched it away from her, even though he said, "Thank you," and she frowned, but went to wash her hands in the kitchen while he was taking out his contacts in the bathroom.

When she came back in with a dessert tray and a smile, he tried to force one too. "I always forget how cute you are with your glasses since you hardly ever wear them."

"I don't need them that much," he said and sat on the bed.

"Needing them any percentage is needing them," she said. "I wonder if Cowboy will need some. Does it run in your family?"

"You know my entire family. There are no glasses except for mine."

"I know your immediate family," she corrected, then sighed and threw her hands up before setting the tray down. "You recently got shot. I don't want to fight with you, but it feels like you're picking a fight. I told him that you weren't done with this."

"You told who that I'm not done with what?" He asked.

"I told Jake that you weren't done with this pissing contest that you issued to him the night before the premiere. You know - when you told him to stay away from our baby, that he watches for us, without speaking to me about it first?"

"And you defined that as a pissing contest?"

"You only did it because for whatever reason, you're jealous of him."

"For whatever reason," he repeated, then laughed and moved to lie down on the bed. "I'm not picking any fights. I'm going to sleep."

"So, we're resuming this tomorrow, or are you going to just silently pout every time Jake and I interact?"

"Now who's picking fights?"

She clenched her fists and stomped out of the room. Stevie sighed, but didn't get up to go after her. Hell, he had been shot. He wasn't about to do this with her.

.

Sam couldn't stop himself from reading reviews. There were some that were unnecessarily gracious, he presumed due to the mass shooting now called the R Word Premiere Massacre, or R Word Massacre. In Sam's head, it was the Red Carpet Massacre, but that was a Duran Duran album. An album that Sam would now not be able to even think about without seeing his friends shot.

Sam couldn't help but to hear Missy's voice chiming about how this could be the start of a beautiful new campaign. Her firm reached out to him immediately, which was unsurprising, to see if he was ready or willing to look over other publicists to represent him. They thought that they should "get ahead of this," before the shooting hurt movie sales.

He'd granted them permission to do whatever they thought was best, but to exclude him from it all as his family had suffered greatly. He would contact them again after he had the opportunity to deal with the death and injuries that were in his family. That alone was enough to skyrocket ticket sales.

Some people were starting to rally online for the theater to become a tourists' stop. Some boycotted the movie, because they felt like it glorified Nazis and stated that it was because of movies like this and people like him that the theater was even shot up in the first place. Some were angry that Max Giardi wasn't being considered a national terrorist. Some wanted to show support, because since Max was a Neo Nazi, they associated the movie with the opposite of that. At any rate, whether it received good or bad publicity, it was doing extremely well in the box office.

The show's producers were speaking in terms of possibly extending their three season contracts to six seasons, or at least planning for it to last as long as such.

Networks were interested in reality series featuring some or any of the survivors in Sam's circle, focusing heavily on possibly Stevie, but also considering Tina, as Sam had already been extremely vocal and clear that he would never bring reality television production into his home. Tina was not interested in anything but focusing on recovering so that she could get back to work. That premiere was supposed to finally put some focus on her talents instead of her pained experiences. But, she was leaving the thought open in case she needed that show deal to get her foot back into the fashion door deal.

And Stevie? He was more focused on whether or not he was witnessing himself lose Cheri to another guy. That would be embarrassing as hell to go through in front of an audience… He heard a knock on the bedroom door. "S'open!"

Jake came in and grabbed the diaper bag, quietly. "Sorry. I was sent." Stevie didn't respond. "Hey, when you're feeling up to it, we oughtta take a group photo that I can post with a Welcome Home Stevie hashtag or something." Now, Stevie turned over. "We don't have any representation right now. The firm said that we could search for someone, if we were interested, but they didn't seem excited to keep us on. I think that maybe Missy had some type of vision for us, but since she didn't get around to making it a reality, we're kind of out on our own right now."

"What did you tell her that I said?" Stevie asked, ignoring everything Jake had mentioned about their publicity.

"I replayed your words practically verbatim."

"Why?"

"Well, I was a little bit excited that you went from telling me to stay away from my godson, to asking me to stick around at the hospital in a day's time. She told me that it was probably a moment of weakness on your part, but I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt."

"You're mistaken," Stevie said and sat up. "When it comes to Cheri, it don't matter what else is happening or going on. I will always be ready to fight for her."

"Nobody's trying to fight you, Dude. I came to get diapers and try to hit you up for a post on the Gram."

Stevie's eyes teared up, "I'm on pain meds, feeling extremely fucked up that I got shot, and I feel her slipping away. I need to know, man to man… Is that what you're trying to do?"

Jake's eyes widened and he came into the room and shut the door. "Stevie, I don't know how to say this any clearer. Even if I was the type of guy to try to steal someone's lover, Cheri would never do that to you. She tries to play it off, because you spent so much time telling her that you wouldn't be together, but she has always been - and we have always considered her and referred to her as - Stevie's girl. Mr. Evans says it. Stacie says it. Sam says it. Mercy says it. Everybody knows that Cheri is yours and not ever going to be anybody else's. I consider Cheri to be my best friend, but she considers you to be her best friend, in addition to everything else. You're her everything, Dude. Chill out. Have some cookies," He pointed his hand at the untouched dessert platter on the nightstand. "Meet me when you want to post that photo."

.

Whenever Stevie finally did get up, he realized how hungry he was. He ate pretty much everything on that dessert tray, then wandered into the kitchen to see what was left. Mostly everyone had retired to their rooms, but Mrs. Puckerman was in front of the TV with an abnormally large glass of wine.

"Jake?" She called softly.

"No, it's Stevie," he said, opening the fridge.

"Stevie," she repeated, then he heard her moving around and hoped that she wasn't coming in. She was. "There's some stuff wrapped up for you in the oven. You could just turn it on for a few then get the mits to take it out," she told him.

"Oh. Ok, thanks." She looked extremely tired as she smiled a little bit and raised her glass of wine. "Are you okay?" he asked.

She laughed and shook her head, "I am ready to go home. I've been stuck here for longer than my days off that were approved and with Jake moving out soon, I need my job. Not to mention the going to safe houses thing and literally a national news worthy shooting that touched the lives of people my son is about to be living with."

"Your job would fire you for getting stranded somewhere after a situation that made national news?"

"I'm a waitress. We're almost literally a dime a dozen. That's how they pay us, anyway. And I'm not young. I'm black. A woman. Not formally educated. I can't just walk in some place and expect a job with good pay."

"Maybe Sam could help you get something set up when we get back. I think that they were just waiting on me to be released, anyway."

"Yeah, we were. I honestly wanted to get on the road as soon as you got out."

"We should have. I'm sick of California. It's got a lot of pretty areas or whatever, but it's not my speed."

"I heard that. It has had my skin looking fresh, though. The air in Ohio has never done me any favors," she chuckled and took a sip of wine.

"I, for one, think that you look just as hot right now as you did when we left. Honestly amazing for somebody with a kid my age. Cheri's mom is really nioce too. I swear, black women are so gifted in the looks department."

"They say 'Black don't crack,'" she said, jokingly.

"Oh, also 'the blacker the berry…"

"No, no. Not that one," she said shaking her head.

He nodded his head, "That is completely fair." After a bit of talking lightly and trying to laugh at a low volume, Stevie wondered, "Why can't Jake be as cool as you?"

Tanisha didn't look amused by that question, but she answered it anyway, "I happen to think that he is extremely cool. He's respectable. He's a perfect gentleman, a hard worker, and a model student. When he was little, do you know what he wanted to be? A dancer!" Stevie busted out laughing. "Hey, don't laugh. You couldn't tell him that he wasn't going to be the next Michael Jackson type of r & b. Usher was his idol. He was so jealous of Justin Beiber for being his protege." Stevie just laughed harder, like, had to take off his glasses and wipe his eyes laughing.

"Oh God! Ok…" He caught himself, "Well, what changed? When did he get so serious?"

She fiddled with the now empty wine glass. "When his brother died." Stevie's laughter was completely gone now. "He'd always tried to take care of me. I would try so hard to get him to just enjoy being a kid and he would hardly do it because he thought he had to be the man of the house. I told him that was for TV. I told him that single mothers all over the country were the woman and the man of the house and they let their kids be kids. He would just say, 'But, Mom - you're not a single mother all over the country. You're my single mother. You don't have to be the woman and the man of the house,' and the only way that I could get him to back off and stop trying to help me with everything and to just enjoy his childhood was to turn on music videos for him and let him become preoccupied with learning the choreography. But after his older brother died, it was like something snapped in him. He got even more serious, even more helpful, even less childlike."

Stevie reached for the wine glass and she handed it over with a grateful smile. "But, he didn't know his brother that well…"

"No, but he knew his father well enough. I think he became fearful. His father is a rolling stone. His brother died in rehab, leaving a young daughter behind. Jake was in his first year of high school when he met Noah, and Noah had given him this hope that their father being out of their lives and unfit didn't mean that the cycle would repeat. Then, Noah died and it was like Jake seemed to think that he was destined to be some misogynistic deadbeat. Of course, you and I both know that in no universe would that ever happen, but he was a young teenage boy with no real male role models in his life and the two that he was related to were outside of his reach."

"I guess that's why it was so important to him to prove his brother's innocence. He wanted to believe that his brother was better than that. That he was good…" Stevie handed her back her now full wine glass.

She nodded her head, "I think that was part of it. A lot of his decisions can be traced back to me, though." She set her glass down. "I wasn't the best mother. Not for not trying. I just couldn't give him everything that he needed. I couldn't give him most of what he wanted. I would try to tell him that he deserved to be a kid and enjoy his childhood, but I only had so much to work with to make it possible. I didn't get rid of his dad and every time he left again, he wasn't just leaving me again, he was leaving Jake again. I wanted to let go of him, but you know - there's a bond when you have a baby for a man, especially when you're young and in love."

"This explains why he befriended Cheri," Stevie said. She lifted the glass in agreement and took a sip. "And why he cares about her so much."

"He cares about her so much because he is a very caring young man and she's his best friend. But, I know for a fact that he was drawn to her because she was a teen mom with an absent father…" Her eyes widened and she shook her head, "I didn't mean…"

"No, I get it. I was locked up. I was absent. Cowboy goes to Jake quicker than he ever reaches for me." He furrowed his eyebrows, "I guess that's part of the discomfort."

"The discomfort that you have around my son, even though he is seriously one of the best people that you'll ever meet?"

Stevie folded his arms and leaned back against the island, "You know… Maybe. It's what you just said. I mean, if you met somebody like Jake, when you were young and he was a baby or even a little later, wouldn't you have been… moved?"

She laughed, feeling the wine course. "I wish! I wish that I had been that smart. But, like I said - Jake's dad was the man for me. He was never even mine, and he still was the man for me."

"That don't fill me with confidence. Basically, whether or not I'm any good for her, she'd choose me over somebody that might be really good for her and for Cowboy?"

"Hell, I don't know, Child. I was speaking just for myself. For all I know, Cheri is cut from a different cloth. Anyway… It isn't like you're a bad catch or a bad apple like Jake's dad. You actually want to work on being a family and being a partner, and a good man would never try to get in the way of something like that. I happen to believe that Jake is a great man."

"You did really good with him," Stevie said. "I hope that Cowboy's as good a guy…"

Jake and Cheri came into the kitchen and she looked confused. "You're up?" She asked.

"Yeah… Where were you? I thought everybody was asleep," Stevie said.

She folded her arms, "You thought that I was going to be able to sleep after how you treated me earlier?"

Tanisha gulped down the last of her wine, interlocked her arm with Jake's and announced, "We'll see you kids in the morning. Glad to be going home." Jake nodded his head and they both went away pretty quickly, not in step but at least in the same direction.

"I'm stupid," Stevie said and shrugged his shoulders, "You gotta admit that I always have been, when it comes to you."

"That doesn't make it right," she said, trying not to cry.

"It never was," he said.

"Why can't you just apologize to me and promise not to do it again?" She squealed.

"Because I'm always gonna be stupid over you and I am sorry, but if I say that and then do it again tomorrow, you're not gonna believe that I was ever sorry, so I figured it was better to not do it than to make myself look like a liar."

"This is giving me a headache. I'm going to bed."

"Cheri…" She turned suddenly. There was something about the way he'd said her name. It was low, serious and sounded a little bit desperate. "When I got shot, I didn't know if I'd be okay. It hurt so much that I was sure that I was gonna die. And the first thought that I had was that I didn't want you to have to see somebody die, especially not in your arms. I know how that feels and I did not want that to happen to you. I was afraid that it might make you more like me.. Ruined like I am…"

"You aren't ruined, Stevie. You're amazing. I love you. And I love you, just like you are. You could be a little nicer, but I took that with the rest of you." She came closer to him. He wasn't done.

"Well, I thought I was a goner. Then, I was fine and I see you with Jake and I can't help but wonder if it might have been better for you if my shooting was fatal. That I'd be out of the picture and you and Cowboy could have something better than me…" He bit his lip, forgot that he'd gotten it pierced and winced when the hoop caught his tooth.

"Stevie, let me tell you something right now… If I had wanted to be with Jake, I would have gotten with Jake when you were telling me that there was no chance for us. But, I didn't want to be with Jake. To be honest, I'm a lot like you already. Because I just knew that if he and I had ever went in that direction, then I might ruin him."

"You're better than that," he said.

"I'm not meant for him," she said. "I'm meant for you! You… idiot! So, stop being mean to me and stop being jealous. That was cute a couple of years ago, but now, it's just a hassle." He chuckled and she moved in to kiss him.

.

Sam helped them back into the RV, and let them know that he and Mercedes would be heading along back to Ohio after he had some meetings with his publicism firm. The Evans and Puckermans rode off early in the morning and Sam went to check on Mercedes. She had been going about her day in yoga pants, sunglasses and ponytails. Marley was simply following her around and staying out of her way while she went about her day of thinking about everything that had taken place and how much she just wanted to go home. She wasn't even taking calls unless it was one of her inner circle of friends.

Marley looked at Sam as he came inside and just held her hand out to Mercedes, seated on the patio in her day bed listening to music and hugging her babydoll that Sam bought her when he proposed. "Has she eaten?"

"She has done nothing but this. Listening to Fleetwood Mac and The Eagles."

"Emma's favorites."

"That is unfortunate," Marley quickly replied. "I tried to give her food, but seagulls ended up on the patio and she barely even reacted to them, even though they were right next to her. I think this might be because of the medication switches. She was just getting used to her new regimen and after the Emma thing, she has had to make more changes."

"Well… Just keep her as comfortable as we can make her for right now."

"We can't make her comfortable, and I have taken her meds, because I am certain that she has taken more valium than is wise."

"Well… Just keep an eye on her." She nodded her head once. "See if she wants to take the trip with me to the office."

"She has made it extremely clear that not only does she not want to do that, but she never wants to go to another event that is dealing with the fame aspect of your life again."

"How did she say it?" He wondered. Marley tightly held her lips together. "Does she feel like this is my fault?"

"I don't think so. I think that she's simply grieving."

"But she suggested that it's my fault?"

"No, not really."

"It's more helpful if you just repeat what she said."

"She said not to bother her about anymore of your mother killing publicity gigs." She frowned, sadly. Sam just nodded.

"Well, I will go and let her know that I'm headed out." Now, Marley nodded.

Sam stepped out onto the patio and Mercedes said, "The last song Emma listened to was Hotel California, fun fact. She said it was appropriate for the trip, even though the song itself isn't a vacation at all.."

"I think I heard it was about lavish consumption. So, maybe? Emma was a lot smarter than we gave her credit for in the end."

"Not me. I did go from treating her like my guide to treating her like my peer, but never like she didn't know. The real torture for her was that people changed. People thought she changed but they changed because of it. She didn't realize that a lot of common courtesy she'd gotten used to wasn't accessible to people who were too different."

"I came to see if you'd be up to heading to the office with me."

"No thanks."

"They want to go over some numbers and projections and let me know their intentions for when I'm back in Ohio."

"Keep me posted on when we get to leave."

.

Sam sat through hours of numbers, holding on to his journal and biting the cap of his pen. Without Missy there to ask the right questions and to give him paraphrased descriptions, the meeting was harder than they usually seemed. "Do y'all have one of those PowerPoints for this?"

After a brief pause, I the woman said, "We can get you something."

"Ok. So, I will talk to my team over the PowerPoint and be able to have better feedback."

Confused, she said, "We're your team?"

"I meant like my trusted friends with business savvy. You're Missy's team, which I know you're capable. It's just Missy and I were going in a different direction…"

Still, he couldn't stop reading the reviews.

"Sam Evans was right when he said this wasn't revolutionary. It is what it is, though. Can't expect a story about a Nazi turning into a regular "I have no problem with you people" white person to be Oscar worthy."

"I'm a little salty, to be honest. As much as he talks about how Mercedes is his love and his rock and in the movie, she's more like this Mammy putting her friends in danger for some strange new new. I hope that was just for the movie. She seems really smart on social media. Also… why is the character so small? Like… Mercedes is a full bodied woman!"

"People are missing the point of the movie. It's a redemption story. It's not about the other people. It's about how Sam grew and while he's fighting for the freedom from his old life, he meets his new family. It was cute."

Somebody tagged him specifically to a video titled, "Matt Rutherford Destroys the R Word!" He sighed and played it. "So, there were some people who asked me why I hadn't committed energy to the recent shooting and I did. I retweeted a few articles from black content creators, and I'm not going to devote much more time to it for one simple reason.

I never got involved with that story. It was always lies. It was always propaganda. It was always going to be a disaster. This shooting simply made it a tragedy. A tragedy that I don't consider any more important than the tragedies I do devote time to everyday. If I'm going to focus on a mass shooting, it will be the one in which children, around the age of my youngest sister when she was murdered, shot by yet another white man. I have some links into that tragedy included.

Until society wants to handle the issue of white man aggression and irresponsible gun control laws, these shootings are bound to happen. In the meantime, I have black lives to be a part of and R Word associated ventures to boycott."

Sam frowned, but went to a link of a school shooting and saw associated links about how mass shooting was affecting the country and how shooters felt glorified by the media attention to their heinous crimes…

"Hey…" he said, peeking back into the meeting room, " Any way we can make sizable donations to victims of mass shootings?"

"We'll get on it, Mr. Evans."