AN: This drabble was supposed to have been posted last year BEFORE Christmas Day but look how well that turned out. I suck at planning :) Anyways, I hope you enjoy it!

It seemed like forever. Months, years, decades...As if the world had changed so much, so quickly that she couldn't keep up. Friends got older, got married, had children. She remained the same, sitting on the sidelines of everyone of her friends romantic lives... Just watching, waiting for it to be her turn. But it never was. She always thought that she would just be alone, the rest of her life. Smiling and laughing at jokes she didn't find funny, picking up her Godchildren from daycare when her friends were too wrapped up in their successful jobs to do it themselves.

She never expected much out of life, she preferred for everything to be simple. A clean slate for her to expand upon, without any difficulties in her way. Little did she know...

It was an incredibly cold winter night, the snow had just finished falling from the skies. The lamps outside on the sidewalks flickered to life as night overpowered day. Inside, the Christmas tree was decorated, shining brightly with cracked ornaments and old withered lights strung haphazardly over its branches. Mercedes sat alone on her couch, elbow deep in a soft pink and green blanket, with a bowl of graham crackers in her lap. It was a routine of hers to watch the late night Christmas Romances on ABC's 25 Days til Christmas count down. She enjoyed a good romance, some made her laugh, others made her cry... It was all good.

As a matter of fact, it was even better because her bossy mother had gotten home safely and was no longer there to pester her about getting married. Mercedes hated that. She didn't plan on marrying, not anytime soon anyway. Especially not to the man that her mother had picked out for her. He was sweet but his mind was more focused on food than anything else. Besides he wanted her to be a stay at home wife, and she wasn't gonna go for that, not for any man. Mercedes sighed and fished a hand back into her bowl, kicking off her bunny slippers and sliding her feet underneath her. She sniffed in the scent of peppermint air freshener, just like home. Her mother always used to make peppermint brownies for Christmas, so the house always smelled like them during December. She missed being young, a little girl with bouncing pigtails and a cheeky smile. Life was so easy, her father was alive, her parents were in love and she didn't have to worry about all the wondering that fills up her adult life. She didn't have to wonder if anyone loved her, or if anyone even wanted her around. Back then it was easy, if only it were like that now...

A solid knock came at her door and she nearly squeaked. Cursing whomever was pounding on her front door, Mercedes climbed off the couch, scattering crumbs all over the place in the process. She padded barefoot against the frosty wood floors, tucking her hands into her pajama pockets to keep them from freezing. No heater could keep her house warm long enough during the winter months.

She peeked out the peephole and quietly slipped a hand out of her pocket to unclick the locks and slide the door open. A cool breeze slithered in as the door slammed open and Mercedes yelped in surprise. She squinted at the two figures hunched together underneath her broken porch light.

"Thank goodness you're home!" Ms. Panabaker, the only other single resident in the community smiled kindly at Mercedes. "Hello Ms. Panabaker, please come inside" Mercedes gestured through the doorway and the old woman shook her head, her glossy gray curls springing out in all directions as the wind pulled them out from underneath her hat.

"I can't come inside but this young man came here looking for you" Ms. Panabaker shoved the tall muscular man towards Mercedes and the young woman flinched as his hands made contact with her shoulder.

"Sorry" he murmured halfheartedly, his eyes closed, a crooked smile playing on his face. Mercedes sucked in a breath as she took in his curly head of brown hair. "Jesse?" she questioned, taking a step back, making him stagger in the process.

"He came to my house" Ms. Panabaker patted down her hair, "He's blind dear"

Mercedes looked between the two of them in surprise. Jesse... is blind?

...

"Her house was closest to the taxi" Jesse explained after Mercedes guided the kind old woman back home. She was sitting across from him at her dining table, her hands folded in her lap. Jesse looked off elsewhere, his blind eyes gazing at nothing and everything all at once. "I used my hearing to guide me up to her house, so I could knock on the door. Its fucking freezing out there" Jesse joked and shook his head, knocking on the wood.

"You're still here" he smiled slowly, "I can feel the hollowness of the table underneath your hands"

Mercedes removed her hands from the table for a moment in surprise. She supposed that all his other senses must be heightened due to his vision impairment, it still struck her as odd though. After almost eight years this man decided to magically appear? Looking less sinister and more like a normal human being? She cleared her throat and sighed, "How did this happen?"

Jesse turned his head in her direction, his gaze coming to rest just at her chin as he shook his head. His hands tapped against the table and he shuffled his feet almost uncomfortably. His wool coat shifted on his shoulders as he shrugged, a slow confused look spreading across his face. "I was in a car accident" he stated simply, as if that alone could explain everything. His face contorted with what appeared to be pain. A spark of relief pooled into his eyes as if he hadn't told anyone about this particular topic in a long while. Jesse sighed, picking at the skin around his finger nails.

"Why did you come looking for me?" Mercedes asked but she grimaced sensing the irony in the word "looking" since he couldn't really see her in the physical sense, she pressed a hand absently to her throbbing temples, a habit she'd picked up from seeing Blaine do it so many times before. She hadn't spoken to him nor Kurt since New Years and yet their motions remained imprinted into her mind, as often found herself mimicking their movements even when they weren't there. Jesse glanced down at the table, smoothing a hand over its surface as if to figure out what exactly it was made of. His eyebrows were furrowed, a thin line slicing through his forehead as he concentrated. "You're the only one who didn't live in the city" he remarked, "which I found to be odd... didn't you always plan on living in the Momen City?"

"Things change" she stated, trying to close off that particular topic. She hadn't moved because her father fell ill with cancer the day she graduated. She spent her entire youth going to the community college, so that she could care for him. But Jesse didn't need to know that.

"But not for you" Jesse remarked, "You always had such big dreams"

He glanced over at her and for a moment, Mercedes could have sworn he saw her. Something in his pale brown eyes flickered, a sense of recognition. She could almost feel the heat of his gaze upon her face.

"Big dreams shrink the more you realize how impossible they are to reach" Mercedes quoted. Her mother always told her that, ever since her fathers funeral.

Jesse let her comment float in the air, not speaking. He turned his head and the intensity of his gaze was lifted from her face. He shrugged after a moment as if he were in mutual agreement with her statement, maybe his mother was the same way. Nothing but a negative role model towards him.

Jesse sighed, Mercedes stood from the table and gently took his hand. "Do you mind if I crash here? I'm not exactly wanted back at Finn's place" Jesse took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze making her heart sputter in surprise. She never knew he was capable of being gentle with anything, but here he was, holding her hand in his as if it was the most fragile thing in the world. As if she were the most fragile thing, not the other way around.

"You're always welcome here Jesse. Everyone from my old Glee posse is always welcome" Mercedes led him down the hall, towards where he'd be spending the night.

AN: I was thinking about making a part two to this? To make or not to make? That's the question! Reviews are the chocolate to my chocolate chip cookies! REVIEW!

Hate it?

Love it?

Review!

:)