Folle Sagesse

by AnniKay

KAMA & Friends' sophomore year of college and their music career. PLEASE NOTE: Thanks for this story's title goes to MsLadyThankYouVeryMuch. The Title translates into Foolish Wisdom, which is the definition of the word sophomore.

34. Tough People Do, He's Mine & IWPYH

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
That Old Christmas Magic by JenRar
(Criminal Minds Fic)

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

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Tough People Do (Trace Adkins)
Sam PoV

There was a reason that I was starting to love Hudson like the technically older sister that I had never had. Our world was really f-ing crazy. Seriously, the whole family went out Monday night to celebrate Lil Darlin's official birthday. We had dinner, we even mentioned that we were all getting together the very next night at the Gotham Bar and Grill. The very next night. By the time I made it through classes that Tuesday, I'd completely forgotten all about it. Which anyone should have completely understood. I'd gotten my midterm assignments. I was supposed to take three of the despotic leaders we'd read about and go through their ascents to power and tell what their similarities and differences were and more importantly, what lessons we and future generations should learn from those climbs. I was pretty well freaked out. Then there was the analytical project for my chromatic harmony and analysis class. Between the two of those, I was so happy that I had exams in my other six classes. Still, when we headed home all I was thinking about was getting some sleep. You could have knocked me over with a feather when Hudson said that we were due at the restaurant at nine and Nikki would be staying in her room at our brownstone overnight since Bubbie Ruth would be home late and Kurt and Blaine could watch over her until we got home. She would still have everything she needed to go to school the next morning without a problem. Hopefully she wouldn't talk Blaine into doing her English homework for her again.

I couldn't even say anything. All I could do was lay my head back on the head rest and make sure I didn't actually cry. I shoved my headphones in and pulled up my go to 'just keep swimming' song. Trace Adkins had it right when he said 'Tough times don't last, tough people do'. I was damn tough. So, I sucked it up and went in the house and took a shower to get my head back in the game. My amazing wife, my Mercy must have seen the fatigue in me, because before she came in to wash away the day herself, she laid me out a nice blue Canali suit with a brilliant white shirt, no damn tie in sight. God, I loved that woman even if she was a total brand name thinker. I so had to trade out the lighter brown shoes of pain for the darker brown, more comfortable…if less important name brand, shoes. Noah ended up in a shiny grey suit with black shoes and shirt. He too was rocking the no tie look. Mercedes managed to get showered, her hair fixed and dressed in under an hour. That was like a total land speed record for our beautiful wife. But, then again, she was motivated.

Fuck, I remember seeing that merino and lace dress on the hanger and thinking that, other than being black, it looked like it should be for a four year old. But damn, there was definitely a reason that our husband called her Sexy Mama. Her dangerous curves turned a simple, long sleeved, lace and wool dress into a sight to be seen. Since the dress was really simple, I kind of expected her to wear a nice pair of pumps or something. But nope. Instead she pulled on a pair of thigh high stockings then donned a pair of suede over the knee boots that had four inch, thin heels and really pointy toes. Her jewelry even surprised me. Her earrings were blue opals and diamond dangle earrings set in yellow gold. The necklace was all blue opals and yellow gold. It drew attention to the small amount of cleavage she was treating us all to. She looked so very lovely. Her hair was pulled back and up and showed her beautiful face while displaying the curls she'd created off.

I knew that the main reason that Mercy had gotten everything together so quickly was because of what she intended to do with the extra time before we had to leave for the restaurant. The three of us spent an hour just talking to our elder daughter, listening to how annoyed she was by the fact that the rest of her school was still talking about her birthday party. How many people were trying to be her friend in hopes of being invited to the next one or something. "It's fine, though. Mume Sarah warned me that this was going to happen eventually. She said that I could make good friends or I could make a ton of friends. And Tana gave me a lot of hints on how to tell the difference. You don't have to worry." I wasn't sure that I could not worry about her. She was our little girl. "Will you bring me a dessert home to have after school tomorrow? But if you do, don't forget to put my name on it…otherwise Tana will think it's yours and eat it." She was such a smart little thing.

Still, right at eight, Bubbie Ruth came in looking good in a burgundy, sequined, sheath dress and patent leather black pumps. She hugged everybody and we all said good night to Lil Darlin'. When we got to the restaurant, it was probably only because we were Sam Evans and 'Puck' Puckerman that we got in without ties. The restaurant was exactly what you think of when you think of Manhattan fine dining restaurant. I almost laughed when I realized that Saul and Mills were the last ones to get there. We started dinner with a glass of champagne for everyone. The Champagne Brut "Carte d'Or" Drappier was bubbly. Yeah, that was all I had. I didn't know anything really about that stuff, I had just ordered the most expensive one on the menu and asked for enough for the table. We had a nice toast to congratulate the couple on their second anniversary. Then Saul stood and raised his glass again. "Today, is a very good day…not just because on this date two years ago, this beautiful young woman agreed to tie her future to mine, but also because today, I was promoted to Managing Director of the International Investment sector of Barclays Manhattan office."

Of course, we had to celebrate that too. But other than finishing the glasses of champagne we already had, we just celebrated it with dinner. The restaurant's dinner menu was surprisingly simple. There were three, non-caviar, options for the first course, so Mercy, Noah and I each got one and shared them between the three of us. The Yellowfin tuna tartare was good. But to be honest, the fish wasn't my favorite…I really loved the Japanese cucumber, shiso leaf salad drizzled with sweet miso and Asian ginger vinaigrette dressing that it was served with. The wild striped bass ceviche that I ordered also had a better salad than the fish. I guess I preferred my fish fully cooked. The Muscovy duck and foie gras terrine that Mercedes ordered was definitely my favorite. I even liked the black trumpet mushrooms, Chioggia beets, green peppercorns and brioche toast that it was served with.

The dinner itself was a very lively affair. The company was great. The three of us, Bubbie and her date, a beautiful older Iranian-American woman, Saul and Mills were joined by Francesca and Neal, Bryant and Nadia, and almost surprisingly Maddie St. Clair and Roman Manoso. I was having a very hard time not geeking out over Bubbie's companion for the evening. I knew her from X-Men the Last Stand. I couldn't remember the name of the character she played, just that she was one of the primary doctors who had found and distilled the 'cure'. I also remembered the way she died in that movie. I still wasn't sure that should have killed her. Puck recognized her too, sort of. "Man, her voice is so familiar." He kept saying all evening. It wasn't until halfway through the second course that he realized why that was. Now, by that point I had been internally geeking out for at least forty-five minutes. But my gorgeous husband just couldn't keep his freak out internal at all. "You know who you are…you're Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay…from Mass Effects. Dude, your voice gave me so many hard to explain boners."

I almost dropped my head into my very delicious escarole salad. It was only made worse by the fact that Ms. Aghdashloo silently reached into her purse and pull out a ten and handed it to Bubbie. She smiled and said "Given how well known Samuel's love of all things sci-fi, I was sure that he would recognize me first."

I blushed so hard I could feel my face get hot. "I did. I've been sitting here for the last half hour dying trying not to embarrass myself by screaming like a three-year-old because I'm sitting at a table with a woman who was in an X-Men movie," I admitted.

Bubbie smirked and held out her hand, only for the man of the hour to grumble good naturedly and hand her a twenty. "I knew that it would be Sam who recognized you first…but it would be Noah to say something first. Sam treats people like he wants to be treated. He doesn't particularly care for it when people bother him when he is eating…so he would never say anything over the meal. Noah…I love you my heart…but you have the self-control of a rampaging wildebeest in heat. I didn't think it would take you this long to figure out who Shohreh was, but I knew the second it clicked in your head, it would come right out your mouth."

Mercy chuckled. "So, do you win anything if I point out that I knew she played one of the terrorists in the fourth season of 24?"

Bubbie threw Mercy a dirty look and handed the ten back to her companion. Shohreh just smirked. "Told you that would be the one she remembered. Oh, and you owe me five anyway because no one mentioned Grimm," she teased. We all took that to mean the subject of her career was pretty well closed, though Neal did pay Bubbie's five buck bet because that was the one he was thinking of…he was just too tongue tied to say anything. Of course, that amused the entire table of people greatly.

We talked the whole dinner. It was interesting getting insights from someone who was globally famous and had been for a long time. I mean, yeah, she had only started making movies in America in my lifetime, but she had been a famous actress in Iran since the seventies. She really knew what Hollywood life was like. It was great. The food was pretty awesome too. Puck had ordered the Maine lobster, and I'd gotten the twenty-eight day dry aged New York steak and Mercedes got the Miso marinated black cod. We created an epic surf and turf. It was great. My steak came with a tower of hand battered Vidalia onion rings. They were as good as the ones I'd had when the family went on a road trip through Georgia to Disney and I had some in Vidalia. After our main course, we gave Saul and Mills their anniversary gifts. God bless Mercy. The need for a gift never even entered my mind.

With our schedule, Mercedes had, once again, shopped online and gotten Hudson to pick them up for us. Since there were three of us, we got them a three-part gift. And, since it was their second anniversary, the gifts were all cotton. I was glad that Mills was naturally curious and mercenary. The big ass bag our stuff was in was just too tempting. The first thing she opened was a four piece, six-hundred thread count, Egyptian cotton sheet set in a pretty light beige color for their king size bed. The second gift was matching monogramed sky blue bath sheets with matching hand towels and wash cloths. The third gift looked huge, but come to find out…they were just really fluffy. There were two big fluffy white bathrobes both monogrammed. The smaller had a hood and would easily reach Mills' ankles. Saul's bathrobe did have his initials, but it wasn't hooded nor was it as long. But it was fluffy and white and looked warm. "Man, MeDe…Boys, I love these." Mills chuckled. She turned to Saulie. "You're jealous of my hood." She teased.

The rest of their gifts were good. Bubbie Ruth hadn't gone with the traditional second anniversary gift of cotton. Instead she'd gone with the modern gift of china. She didn't give them the service there in the restaurant, they would have to go to her house and pick the dishes up. But considering that they usually had dinner over there once a week, that wasn't a hardship. Neal and Francesca gave them fine cotton table napkins and matching table cloths. Four matching sets with enough napkins for twenty people. Maddie and Roman gave them thirty days of his services. I was pretty sure that Mills thought that thirty times she could avoid cooking without feeling like she was eating out…was the best gift of the night. I couldn't blame her, the best decision we'd made that school term was hiring Bautista.

After dinner, we didn't even try to go for dessert with the rest of the family. We were all just plain tired. We had come to realize that we just couldn't do everything. One of the things we'd had to let fall to the wayside was the Oscars. We'd let them know as soon as we got the invitation that we would be unable to attend. The awards show was filming the same weekend of Lil Darlin's birthday party. We'd already known of her existence and when her birthday was. There was no way we were going to let her first birthday with us be shuttled to the side for anything, let alone some award we may or may not have won. Well, we actually didn't win it. We were set up to accept the skype call, but the award went to 'Glory' and we were happier for John and Common than we would have been if we won. The truth was that we could still say we were Oscar nominated songwriters, since we were nominated for best original song for a motion picture for 'The Fighter'. A fact that we were proud of, and that Darcy's rotating banner on our website's home page, proclaimed immediately after listing all the awards we'd won that year…in what she considered order of importance. Besides, we used the times we weren't with Lil Darlin' that weekend to put our second album to bed fully and completely. By Thursday morning our Warner team had signed off on the nineteen primary tracks, the bonus track that would be on all formats …the 'Dris remix of 'Rescue Me'… and the two bonus tracks that would be available depending on where the album was purchased. The store purchased albums would have a very fun, Mercedes led song called 'All About that Bass', a song which was all about her gorgeous curves. The people who bought the digital format got a song with shared leads called 'Holler'. That was a fun song too. I rather liked making the kind of sexy song.

We also weren't able to do the MTV Movie Awards Nomination show that Wednesday morning either. Actually, I kind of did wish we could have done that one. It would have been fun. But the three of us had classes, we had projects to work on. Mercedes, officially, had the worst luck of all three of us. She had projects in all of her Juilliard classes and group projects in her Religion in Black America and Introduction to Major Topics in the Civilizations of the Middle East & India classes. Group projects were hard as hell logistics wise. Finally, it was just decided that she would have to work with her groups at the library…having strangers, one of whom she didn't actually like in the first place, at our house was just not something that could work for us. One of the biggest reasons we didn't have to deal with papz on the daily was because they didn't know where we lived. All of us were very determined to keep it that way.

As tired as I was, making seriously satisfying love with Mercy and Noah every night and getting good nights' sleep every night that week helped a lot. It was the weirdest thing, on Tuesday I was so tired I'd kind of wished that we could skip a family event. But then by Thursday evening, I was ready for the next week to start so I would have the practices after classes again. My mind was a strange, strange place. Still the down time had given me time to think some things through and so Thursday night after we made it up to our room, having first spent time with Bubbie, Lil Darlin and the gang, I broached the subject that had been worrying my mind for the last several weeks.

"Noah, Mercy, there's something I need to talk to y'all about." I sighed.

Mercedes had been reclining on 'her' chair reading something for her environmental biology class when I started. She marked her place and came over to where I was sitting on the bed. "What's wrong?"

Noah, however, threw up the universal one second signal. He was working through a complicated theorem. It was easy to tell because he had a contentment that was only present when he was doing math. It was a trait he shared with his grandmother and Uncle, one he'd passed along to Lil Darlin'. When he finally finished, which was really only about a minute later, he set his stuff aside and joined our little puppy pile on the bed. "Nothing is wrong, Cede…he's barely apprehensive not tense. So, Sammy Boy, what's up?"

"I know that we've put a lot of money into the house in LA, but I don't think I can live there." I blurted out.

"Me neither." Both of my lovers said in relief at the exact same moment.

Noah ran a hand over his head. "It would be creepy as shit. I don't think I could relax."

"I know, right? I'd always feel like someone was watching me or worse like they had hidden cameras all over the place taping our every move to sell later," Mercy shivered.

"So, what do we do?" I asked quietly. "We've already sunk over seven-hundred thousand dollars into the place. Or we will have when it is finished. When is it supposed to be finished?"

"Originally it was to be finished by the end of March. With the basement added the time line was extended to the beginning of June," Mercedes sighed. I knew it bugged her that Noah and I never paid attention to the emails from Ms. Mann.

I thought about that time line. That was still four or five months away. "Could they finish the work and they do that thing Maddie said we should do when we sold the town houses in DC, Philly and Chicago…um, you know the whole dress them up with rented furniture so people can see them looking lived in and all so they pay more? They all sold really quickly and we made a lot more than we spent in all six cases."

Mercy smiled. "You mean staging it? Yeah, Kendra could definitely handle staging the house for us."

"Yeah, Ms. Mann stages it, we let Maddie sell it. Maybe she would finally feel like she has enough money to move coast. Mills is seriously wanting her here to deal with all the extra business having our testimonials on their site drums up." Noah pointed out. It was a stroke of marketing genius. When Artie, Darcy and Lauren had upgraded and updated their site, they had included testimonials from very satisfied renters and landlords and buyers and sellers that worked with Jarrard and Mills Property Brokerage firm. Including the three members of KAMA. The Insider and Entertainment Tonight had caught wind of it and the duo had so many clients that they almost couldn't keep up. It was so bad, Nadia had gotten her licenses for New York and New Jersey and she worked with them two or three times a week. They wanted to bring her in as a third partner, but she didn't want to work full time on real estate.

"So, we'll stage and sell the house. Get our money back and then what? We decided to buy the place because everyone said that there was a need for KAMA to have a showplace. That need still exists." I pointed out tiredly.

Noah sat up quickly. "I was thinking about that. We're WMG New York artists right. So, why would we have our showplace in LA. Why don't we look into getting a tricked out, Manhattan high rise apartment? We could come up like George and Wheezy," he laughed.

"You just want to be the Willises for real," I teased. "Um, not to be a wet blanket…but doesn't Manhattan real estate cost a lot more than it does in LA?"

Noah nodded. Mercy just shrugged. "Yeah, but the thing is that resale values in Manhattan almost never go down. So, when we're ready to make a change…we'll have no problem doing so."

"Okay, so the other problem, what about our peeps here?" Puck asked us. "I don't really want to move away from here. Nikki loves her room and she's so close to us and then to Ethan and Amanda and…I like it here."

"That's the beauty part. We can stay here at least until graduation…" Mercy's smile was evil. "It would give us a showcase place…and somewhere that, if we have a group project, we can meet there…exactly where people expect us to be. But we'll have our real home here where we belong."

"You devious little Slytherin you." I breathed even as Puck said she was brilliant.

Mercedes went and got her tablet and sent Maddie and Ms. Mann an email outlining our new plans for the Mar Vista house. Then she emailed Mills to ask her to start looking out for a showcase property on the Upper East Side or Central Park West. It wasn't an urgent thing. Maybe we were nerds for wanting to have our showcase place in one of those two sections of Manhattan just because of television shows. But it worked for us. Having dealt with all that, was such a weight off my shoulders, something that had been niggling at the back of my mind since Valentine's day. "Umm, did you guys notice that Arielle's date at Hannah's wedding kind of had Hannah's eyes?"

Mercy sat there and looked at me. Her mouth was hanging open and she literally just blinked slowly a couple of times. "How did I not notice that?"

I just shrugged. "Probably because you are too close to the situation," I hypothesized.

Noah just tilted his head as he thought about it for a while. "Arielle did look smug. I'm pretty sure she would do that shit just out of spite, too. Do you think he knows?"

None of us knew the answer to that though we could each make the case both ways. After all he was engaged to Arielle…who knew what his damage was. No way was he completely right in the head. Finally though, we realized that gossiping was fun and funny…but we had some homework to get done. It was a little hard to separate. As we'd been talking, my hands had made their way under Mercy's shirt, completely of their own volition of course. The way she arched into me and Puck as I…I mean my hands…massaged her lovely titties well…let's just say it was hard getting my focus back on the principles of physics.

Friday was not a bad day. After classes, we spent a few hours at Faina getting facials and waxing and massages. Man, one thing that really didn't suck about being who we were was that we were pretty much expected to get massages…and pedicures…all the time. It was great. I was almost addicted to the monthly foot paraffin treatments Hudson had arranged at Mercy's behest. My feet were almost as smooth as Sloane's. I was just happy that with that Macardo asshole caught and the world now knowing that we'd been victims not perpetrators in the whole sex tape scandal, we didn't have to go out just to be seen anymore. Instead we tried out a Diners, Drive-ins and Dives pizza joint called Don Antonio's. Their calzones were so good. Sometimes I wished I could just get a regular pepperoni pizza…but a pepperoni calzone was just about as good. I was a little surprised that they had pepperoni, because I didn't see it mentioned on their menu at all…but our waiter said that it was no problem.

After we made it home, Noah and I decided that we needed to do some cardio…so we made loud, athletic, raucous love to Mercy until she cried for mercy and pushed us away. It had been a long time since we'd played around during our sexy times. So after letting Mercy get herself back together, we took a nice long hot bath together, then Puck and I tied her to the bed spread eagle and licked and sucked her until she screamed so long and so loud and it was that special scream too… I was sure the whole neighborhood got pregnant that night. We did make it to bed at a somewhat reasonable time and got a good night's sleep. Which was a necessity since everyone in the house was due at Rain or Shine Studios in Brooklyn by eight. They needed extras and Warner was paying that part of the bill, so we had all our people from the tenants and the FRT members to Haja, Brantley and Ethan come and bring their families or friends. In fact, Ethan brought Adam's tux from Hannah's wedding and he was going to be our ring bearer in like all the different weddings.

Saturday was one of the longest days ever, we did both the PuckCedes and SamCedes the wedding. Half the space had been transformed to look like a really modern, edgy warehouse turned wedding venue, complete with exposed brick wall and a lighted sign that read LOVE for the alter. It was cool. I wasn't sure I loved watching Puck and Mercy get married while I was just the best man…but boy did she look amazing. She had huge hair in the promised faux-hawk. Her jewelry all SCREAMED Tina. So much so that we had to send her pics. The dress was beautiful. The whole scene was a total rocker wedding. The 'priest' definitely screamed ROCK STAR, since somehow Alek had gotten SLASH; I kid you not Slash of Guns-n-Roses and Velvet Revolver fame; to be the officiant for the 'rocker' wedding. I know Puck's tears were real during their scene. Then again so were mine and Artie's. He was really just cool people. Plus, he'd heard one of Puck's comments about his and Mercy's future genetic combos and thought Noah Puckerman was hilarious. Dave actually knew him and they had a deep conversation while the rest of us were getting changed. Thankfully, we didn't have to run through the whole ceremony or anything. In fact, once everything was all set up, we only filmed about thirty minutes to an hour.

After another two hours in costumes, hair and makeup for every single person there, then it was Puck's turn to feel the discomfort of watching me and Mercy get married without him. When Alek said that he would be making everything completely different for each scene, he wasn't kidding at all. Any of the non-KAMA or KAMA adjacent people were even switched out. Mercedes' hair was completely changed. Her makeup was lighter and looked more innocent. Her jewelry was smaller and more gemstone oriented. They even changed her nail polish. Then we did the whole wedding over in the second space which looked like a beautiful Catholic or Episcopal church complete with huge stain glass windows. The officiant for my and Mercy wedding was just as iconic as the previous scene, but from my favorite genre. I literally messed up a take when I stepped up to the altar and realized that the 'priest' was Troy, T-Roy, Gentry. I loved Montgomery Gentry. 'Some People Change' was, to me, one of those best country message songs of all times. Again, once all was said and done we filmed Mercy and me at the altar for about an hour total, then that was a wrap. Mr. Gentry was really nice about my geek-out. I told him to please tell Eddie Montgomery that I said hello…like an idiot. But I also got a selfie of he and I together that I could send my dad.

They released a lot of the extras after that, but me, Mercy and Noah had to stay as did a few other people, those playing family or like Santana and Xena who played Mercedes Maids of Honor in the two scenes so we could change back into the different looks twice while they shot it for the video. All in all, we got there at eight and we'd had breakfast, lunch and dinner there; hell, Bubbie and Nikki had come for a few hours in the middle of the day; we didn't leave there until eleven at night. I felt bad for Hudson and the Rangemen, all four of the Rangemen because they staggered the bodyguarding so we always had someone there with us, but none of them were stuck there all day. We were so done by the time we got all that makeup off and headed home that we didn't even have the energy to make love. Instead we just got each other off with two on one oral. It was quick and efficient and we were asleep in minutes after our final orgasm.

The next morning it was a repeat of the day before. We were at Shop Studios on West Thirty-Ninth Street. Again, we had a huge space turned into two different gorgeous wedding settings. The first one we filmed on Sunday was the 'Everman' scene. That one was actually done inside a green screen cube. The floor however, really had been covered with massive amounts of beach sand until it was an inch, inch and a half deep through-out the entire space. We were in very different linen looks. And we escorted each other to the altar…to find P!nk was the officiant for our gay wedding. It was the most awesome thing. She was definitely cool people. She joked that as much as she loved Corey, she had always wanted to marry two handsome men. That was so funny.

Since we were two guys, the wardrobe for the scene was way less involved. So, it hadn't taken very long for us to get ready. Mercedes as our best person-slash-witness, took longer…but nowhere near as long as she did when she was the bride. Her short purple dress was pretty. Her wedge sandals were cute and her hair and makeup looked beach wedding perfect. The only people who were in the audience of beach wedding were our people. After all destination weddings were usually a lot less attended. It took us about an extra fifteen to twenty minutes to film the scene because Pink had us laughing so much. The break after that was pretty long, mainly because it was a serious endeavor to get all of us fed, watered, 'walked'. Then there was the change time.

Mercedes' change took for-freaking-ever. I mean I got it. She had to change all the way from the skin out. She had to get new hair, new makeup, new nails…plus different clothes from the skin out. Puck and I were better off, we at least got to wear our boxers and socks and the shoes we'd brought with us. While we were waiting, we took a look at the extras and our crew. Everyone was dressed in really good, Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes. Alek had tapped Erika to be Mercedes' Maid of Honor, while Santana was in a black dress to be Puck's best person and Artie was all suited up to be mine. They got to go in far before us. Each of us was walking down the aisle separately. It took two takes to get each of us actually down the aisle. Because each of us tripped when we saw Sir Elton John standing there waiting on us. No lie…we watched the bloopers and it was almost at the exact same point coming down the white flower lined aisle that we noticed who he was and boom, I went down. Noah almost fell and if the 'Dr. Jones' looking extra dude didn't catch her, Mercy would have fallen over too.

We had the hardest time with that portion of the shoot. Mainly because all three of us were trying not to geek out. I mean, we all loved Pink, she had totally, kind of adopted us as her music industry, little brothers and sister, but Sir Elton John was…hell he was a straight up ICON. I mean, to us it was enough that he'd been kind enough to allow us to cover his song. The fact that he made time to come and appear in the video was an unexpected kindness. Still, we got our shoot done. It took us a little over an hour to get it in the can. Then after we all thanked him profusely and took pics with him, we had to go and do all the getting dressed pictures with our fake parents. Still, it didn't take anywhere near as long as the day before. We actually made it home by six, and that included traffic. Which was boss, because we had a chance to skype with our parents and time to talk with the siblings. Even after spending over an hour on skype, we still had the time to relax and get some work and studying done. When we were doing our school work, I realized once again that I was tired and I was bored at the same damn time. There was something really wrong with me. But even with that in my mind…I still could only look forward to the coming weeks.

He's Mine (Rodney Atkins)
Sander PoV

There are moments in every father's life when they are looking at or talking about or talking to their child and all the dad can think was that that person they had made was exactly like my father's son. As I talked to Sam that first Sunday in March, all I could do was listen and think that he was perfectly my child. The complaints about how busy and tired they were that were then interspersed with talk of boredom when they had the little bits of down time they managed to eek out was…it was all just me. Over the last two years, I'd found my way back to having a real job, a real way to take care of my family. It was an absolute blessing that within the same time span, my family had grown. Even if Sam hadn't taken it upon himself to pay off all the debt from time around the foreclosure and the repossession…we'd have still managed to take care of it within just another year or two. But Sam had taken care of it and, to be honest, it took my direction and my purpose away from me.

So, I had gotten together with Benton and George to look into what we thought could be a vision of a new purpose. That rather simple vision had morphed and grown until we and the rest of our Amicitiae Amore Corporation got together and created a new direction, a new purpose for all of us. The Monday after Gabby and I spoke with Sam after they finished filming the video for their Elton John cover, was the grand opening of Friendship Village Shopping Plaza. Those of us who had regular jobs took the morning off and we had a nice little ribbon cutting ceremony. The plaza was organized as three large buildings that shared a huge parking lot with alleys between them that allowed for ease of movement to the backs of the buildings and extra parking. We had ninety percent of our store fronts open and the few stores that didn't yet have occupants, would actually have them by the end of the month. We had all of our three levels of anchor stores filled. Sprouts, the farmers' market based grocery store, and Target Express held the two largest, twenty-five thousand square feet, spaces in the shopping center. The medium anchors were fifteen thousand square feet. The two spaces that size were filled by TJ Maxx and Bassett Furniture. We had four 'small' anchor spaces that were seventy-five hundred square feet each.

One of them went to Burt for Hummel International Car Repair and Service, and it had taken MONTHS to get him to understand that he was not going to be paying any rent for the space since he was one of the owners of the plaza. He seriously thought that he should still have to pay. It wasn't until William Anderson sat down with him and explained that it wasn't something that we were saying to make things easier on him. No one who owned a commercial property business paid for the use of property they owned. Finally, he'd decided that it was just the proper course of business and not charity. Thank God. It took longer to get him to understand the whole 'owners don't pay rent' thing than it did to retrofit the space and turn it into a four-bay mechanic's shop, medium sized office and nice sized waiting room.

The other three 'small anchors' were leased by Michael Symon for a restaurant he created named Lourdes that would serve farm to table internationally influenced American cuisine. Across the entire width of the parking lot from Lourdes…with a hell of a lot of stores between them was Bonefish Grill. In fact, both Hummel's and Pier 1, the other 'small' anchor, were between the two restaurants. Other than the anchors, the shop sizes ranged from twelve to twenty-four hundred square feet. We had a really good mix of stores and we'd actually made sure that the people who bought homes in our sub division would not have to go further than the shopping plaza next door to do any and all shopping. Starting in April, our little venture would be bringing in almost three hundred thousand dollars a month in revenue.

The sub-division was technically under way already, but it was the things people couldn't see and so they couldn't tell that we'd started making progress. The land survey was completed. The entire sixty-one acres had been plotted out, divided into blocks and lots. It had been carefully mapped out into the four phases. All the necessary permits, zoning, impact studies and everything else had been obtained. After looking at the cost analysis, George, Benton and I had decided that we would clear all the land and do all the utility work that would be necessary for all four phases at the same time. Water, gas and sewage pipes, electric, cable, telephone and internet lines…all of that would be started in June. Thankfully, both Allen County and the City of Lima was bending over backwards in the hopes that the development would bring young people and younger families to the area. Both of those were great for their bottom lines. Both entities were incentivizing the costs for us to lay the pipes we'd need. As such instead of it costing us a hundred to a hundred and fifty bucks per foot, we would pay the city and county about seventy-five dollars per foot of pipe. We'd also gotten very lucky in that one of Will's personal projects, a forty MW solar farm that he'd built right off State Road Sixty-five on a former cow pasture, would be operational starting July. He was opening a small power cooperative to handle the selling of all that low-cost energy. Our shopping plaza, and eventually our subdivision would all be members of the co-op. Best of all, it would greatly reduce the length of our power line runs. A true blessing since we were running the lines underground and underground lines were more expensive especially since we made the decision that the bundles of cables, the electric, cable, internet and phone ones, would be run through specially made red plastic ABS pipes to, in theory, cut down on digging mishaps. It was one of those things that a lot of people in construction had been thinking about for years. We just hoped that it would be beneficial enough to be worth the cost.

Once that was all done, we'd be held up for a while as the county created the roads, streets and alleys of the subdivision. Hopefully that would all be completed and we'd be able to break ground for real on Sparrow's Nest phase one…the forty townhomes. We'd mapped those out as four rows of ten, two sets facing each other with a green space between the two sets. When they were complete and all sold off we'd move onto the smaller single family homes on quarter acre lots. There would be eighty of those in eight ten house cul-de-sacs. A community center complete with pool and basketball courts would be centrally located to those homes. As soon as Sparrow's Nest phase two was fully sold out, then we'd move onto phase three. These would be the customizable houses. Well technically all phases would be customizable, but in phases one or two the buyers would have two, maybe four, floorplans to choose from, a few different finishings…but there would be some pretty severe limitations to how much choice they actually had. And that was only in those who pre-purchased. If they bought a house that was completed by us before the buyer even knew we existed, they would have to pay us to make changes after the fact.

Sparrow's Nest phase four would be the most customizable homes, the ones on the largest lots, they would come fenced in as standard with options for pools or decks. Those homes would sit on an acre each. The hope was that we'd open up pre-sales on phase one on March first, twenty-sixteen. George wanted to wait until we had the model completed and the shell of the first ten-block done before we opened sales, so it might turn into April or May before we were able to do that. Still I had direction for at least five to ten years with Athraichean Properties' first development. Benton and I also had an agreement that after the phase two we could both retire and devote our attentions only to the property development business. George was already doing what he loved. I couldn't wait until I could join him full time and no one could blame Benton for being sick of being a dentist…that had to be one of the grossest jobs ever, I'd rather be a funeral director. Okay, maybe it wasn't that bad, but still.

With all those thoughts in my mind, I looked over at my beautiful wife. We'd spent the night before the grand opening making love. It had been two weeks since we'd done so because my Valentine's gift to her, and myself when I was being honest, had been a vasectomy. I'd taken the afternoon of the thirteenth off and the procedure done at my doctor's office. Gabby had driven me to work that morning and she picked me up at lunch. "Are you sure about this?" she asked me for the hundred and fifty-third time.

"I'm sure Gabs. It's time. I love Sloane and I am so glad that he is here and wouldn't trade him for the world. But we're done having kids." I assured her. "If the pill or the shot isn't working for you anymore, then this is the next best alternative. It's easier and cheaper than you getting your tubes tied. We're just damned lucky that you didn't get pregnant when we were both out of work and living hand to mouth."

Gabby sighed. "Yeah, ummm…about that whole shot didn't work…I didn't exactly make it into Planned Parenthood that day I was supposed to get my next shot."

"What? Why not?"

"The pro-life people were protesting outside there that week. I was already embarrassed enough. There I was a grown damn woman having to use a service I hadn't needed since six weeks after Sam was born. I've never considered an abortion in all my days, but they were spitting and cussing at anyone going towards those doors. I couldn't do it. I walked by that place every day that week and it was the same every single time. One lady, Sand, she had to be sixty if she was a day…she was clearly there for some other kind of screening, and they were yelling and screaming at her. I just couldn't do it."

I reached over and took her hand. "Angel, I get it. I do. I wish you'd told me then. I could have gone with you."

She shrugged. "You had work that week. You'd gotten a job on a construction site for the week and you were so happy and so proud. I couldn't mess that up for you. So, I just practiced the rhythm method until we got insurance again. I went in as soon as the cards came in…and I got on the shot…but then I got that upper respiratory infection and the antibiotics kicked the shot's ass and boom, Sloane."

I smiled. "You know…all things considered, you didn't have to tell me about the non-visits to the clinic. You didn't get pregnant then."

"I know, but I could have. It was only God's grace that made sure it didn't happen. I've felt bad about it every since and I feel like if it hadn't been for me…you wouldn't feel the need to do this."

I shook my head. "Gabby-baby, this was always going to happen eventually. Did you want to take hormones until you're in your sixties? Did you want to have a separate surgery, with a long recovery? My recovery time is like a week. You'd be down for at least three. You want to continue pumping for Sloane for at least the rest of this year. That rules the shot out for you. Remember how it caused your milk to dry up before you were ready with Stevie and Stacey? I'm not martyring myself here. If I didn't want to do it, we'd just stick with condoms." I assured her.

The surgery itself had only taken thirty minutes once the local anesthetic was fully working. Then I'd had to lay there supine with cooling packs on my boys in fifteen minute rotations. Fifteen minutes of cold followed by fifteen minutes of room temperature. Other than the no sex on Valentine's Day problem, that was the perfect weekend to get it done. Stacey's cheerleading squad was having a sleepover at one of the other girls' home. Stevie and Ethan both were at a Boy Scout's camp out for the weekend. Benton, Danica and the twins were out of town at a wedding. No one but me and Gabby knew what I'd done. And by the time everyone got home I was past the biggest parts of the aftercare. Yeah, I was still popping Advil on the regular, when Stevie and Stacey got back…but it was a lot easier than it would have been for Gabby to get her tubes tied and as much as we loved our kids, four was enough.

I still had no choice but to continue using condoms until my doctor cleared me to cease them. Apparently, it would take anywhere from six to ten weeks before I could go without. My doctor had done a first check the last Friday of February at my two week after care visit and I still had a significant amount of viable sperm swimming around. The blood streaks in the white had scared the crap out of me only for my doctor to talk me down and let me know that it was normal and would stop when the tubes were completely clear, since I'd not used those particular tubes since the surgery. So, while I'd be waiting another two months before I could be with my wife the way the good Lord intended, at least I was cleared to resume regular sexual activities. Besides, I hadn't had sex without a condom since six weeks after Sloane was born, I could do another eight weeks easy. Moreover, I comforted myself with the fact that Saul had brought all of us stock in Church and Dwight so technically I was making some of the money back in dividends.

My recovery had been pretty much textbook. There hadn't been any complications so that Monday morning I was feeling pretty damn good. March second, the day of Friendship Village's grand opening was a cold, but sunny day so the turn out for the new shopping plaza's grand opening wasn't bad at all. We did the ribbon cutting at nine, and by ten the parking lot was positively brimming with Lima's housewives and homemakers. I took a walk around Sprouts and the women were in awe of the quality of the food and the relatively cheap prices they were selling it for. The fact that there was also a nearby café with specialty coffee and handmade pastries would see Friendship Village become the place for the stay at home moms and retirees to shop for the foreseeable future. That really made me proud. The stores were currently secured by a local security company, but we already planned to change over to Rangeman as soon as they opened their office in Columbus…the one that Emma had definitely not told us about. We were definitely not holding back an office suite for them in the Jones Dental building. Given the fact that that building would contain drugs and NO2 we thought that it would be the best place for the security firm's satellite office if they wanted it. Until they did, it would be overflow storage for the dental lab that would be on the second floor with them. Besides, that building was scheduled to be a complete wash on income…we would at least get the rental income for a quarter of it if Rangeman wanted the space.

I smiled to myself as I realized that we were a month out from having the office park grand opening. Almost all those spaces were already filled and to be honest, I couldn't wait to try out the escape room people. That seemed like it was going to be awesome. Jake and his boys had an office to run Puckerman Pool Service out of, and the plan was to actually hire an office manager who would run the office and appointments, someone who could keep things running while Jake was in college in a few years. Then when he had the training he needed it would move from just cleaning and pool maintenance to pool design and installation. It would just have the benefit of a reputation of ten years as a pool maintenance company to build upon by then. Puck may have been a man-whore before he found his hearts home, but he'd been good at running his little company. He had to have been…there were more than a few husbands who had known what was going on between Puck and their wives, but because he did such a good job and didn't charge as much as the big companies…they'd turned a blind eye for the most part. Hell, hearing the discussions of a few of them at the country club, several of them had felt they were getting the better end of the deal.

I smiled to myself. Things were going according to plan. In fact, George and Benton were trying to convince me that once we'd sold all the townhouses, we should start looking for more land near Anna or Troy and do all the craziness again. They had gotten Will on board even. He said that as much as he loved running the legacy of his family, creating a business that was his and was profitable was giving him a sense of fulfillment that he'd never known was missing. Not like I couldn't understand that idea. Once his solar farm in Allen County was up and running he wanted to look further into solar energy production and energy co-ops anyway, so having one that provided energy to a subdivision or two would not be a problem. The rest of the parents wanted to make sure that the shopping plaza and office park would be successful before we duplicated it again. Still, it couldn't hurt to begin looking to see if there was anywhere that would suit our purposes as well as the Commerce Parkway and McCain Road acreage had. Yeah, in fact, it would probably make designing that boring ass city center for Bellefontaine more interesting if I was taking a digital walk through the county auction sites while I drew. Poor Sam…he got it all honest. The need for constant activity…the need to whine about how tired the constant activity made us, even when we wouldn't trade it for the world. The crushing boredom that we experienced when the activity was completed or on hold. He got it all straight from me. Unfortunately, while Stevie didn't seem to have that tendency that I had always assumed I got from the centuries of farmers that were the Evans family, I was fairly sure that Stacey had. Though so far, she didn't whine about being tired nor did she complain about the boredom…she just found something to alleviate it. Yup, my kids were certainly a hell of a lot of me. I wouldn't have it any other way.

I Will Possess Your Heart (Death Cab for a Cutie)
Stalker PoV

The European fashion markets were always tricky devils. The simple truth was that as much as most European countries felt that their country was the fashion capital of the world…the whole world loved American culture and by extension our clothing. That made it quite lucrative to have small boutique stores in the best shopping districts of the European capital cities. So, while I was very much busy, I did manage to keep my eyes on my prize. KAMA really was quite busy after the Grammys. One of my managing shoppers was easily convinced to attend the dinner concert. She and her girlfriend were persuaded to take as many pictures as they could, and even record some of the performance if possible. They were under the impression that they were just sharing the experience with one of the VPs of that division who couldn't go but was a fan. However, once the pictures and video were sent to him at his work email address, they were mine.

Mercedes looked amazing in that red dress. It made her breasts look incredible. I could hardly wait until she was finally where she belonged…writhing in my bed under me. Then to hear her sing my favorite of all love songs…it was serendipitous that it happened to be the one video the manager got in full. 'Where the Wild Roses Grow' was an unexpected treat and caused me to abuse my own body most shamefully. I was, however, very distressed by the fact that there was such stringent security, provided by Rangeman Security, LLC. That told me that even my leaving the country had not caused them to lower their guard, even the smallest amount. That went counter to my plans. I had done some checking into Rangeman…it would certainly make it more challenging to get his prize from under their well-trained noses. They were considered to be some of the best trained in the business. They were loyal to a fault and completely unable to be bribed and unable to be blackmailed.

The one member of the Rangeman organization I'd been able to get any unsavory information on had let me know that his boss not only already knew, but that the worse I could do to him was cause him some small amount of shame. Ranger Manoso could and would kill him and leave, at best, an unsolved mystery as to what had ever happened to him. That action had undoubtedly made it back to Ranger and thus ensured that they were still looking at me far too closely. I could certainly respect a man with that much power over his employees. Perhaps had things been different and the former spec-ops officer hadn't been standing between me and what was already mine, even if she didn't know it yet, that small measure of respect could have translated into some business dealings. But that wasn't to be.

The next event in my prize's life occurred the very next night. Getting pictures from the event was ridiculously easy. When Mercedes Jones performs at her cousin's wedding, everyone there wanted to be the first to tell the world. There were a million pictures of her from both the wedding and the reception all over the attendees' social media feeds. The truth of the matter was that I'd been amazingly lucky. My good friend and former college roommate, a venture capitalist, had attended the wedding with her maternal aunt. He was a goldmine of information. "Nicholas, how are you? I take it your fiancée's family wedding went well?" I asked pretending that I knew nothing beyond what he had previously told me. I wasn't even sure why I was reticent about admitting that I knew more about the wedding…Nicholas was the only person in the world with whom I had shared even the most innocent parts of my obsession.

Nicholas Buchannon was not a man given to sighing, and yet he did just that. His sigh was full of consternation and even exasperation. "It went well. However, somethings that occurred were completely unexpected. The bride was Arielle's estranged daughter. They haven't spoken in over a year. The bride was beautiful…she was also achingly familiar. You remember my sister, Octavia?"

"Yes, of course…she died when we were at Harvard?" Nicholas' older sister had died the year after Nicholas and I graduated from our Ivy League alma mater. While I had met her less than a handful of times, her tale of woe was remarkable and had become something of a cautionary tale for young women of our social circle. Octavia Buchannon had had it all, Though African-American, her family's money could be traced back to the very early eighteen hundreds. Their ancestor had held one of the largest plantations in North Carolina and had owned slaves himself. Harvard educated herself, Octavia had been so beautiful that there were more than a few white men in our circle who were willing to overlook the color of her skin to have her for their wife. She had fallen in love with a new moneyed social climber from the west coast. He had been seeking entre into circles he never could have achieved on his own. He had also introduced her to recreational cocaine use.

Some people should never take drugs of any sort. Octavia and Nicholas both knew very well that their parents didn't even drink. Apparently, there was some family history of alcoholism or some such. Well, Octavia had been a very rebellious young woman. Within six months of trying the drug, she was addicted. She had lost her job and was reliant on her 'lover' for everything. Within six months after that, she had disappeared. Her family couldn't find her. Her friends had no way to contact her. She was just gone. About eighteen months after she'd disappeared, she arrived at her parents' house out of nowhere about seven months pregnant and ravaged by full blown AIDs. She was emaciated. Nicholas had rushed home and was barely in time to say his final goodbyes. Octavia had died and her child with her just days before what would have been her thirtieth birthday.

"Yes, she did. Arielle's daughter came down that aisle and for a moment I couldn't breathe. She looked so much like Octavia had before she got involved with Hunter Dale, it took my breath away." Nicholas told me quietly. That was the first time I'd heard Nicholas say that name since he'd managed to financially destroy not only Hunter Dale, but his parents and all three of his siblings.

"Are you saying that you think Arielle's daughter is your child?'

"The timing is right. Hannah, the daughter, is twenty-four…Arielle and I enjoyed a lot of time together that first year after we met. Her marriage was in trouble. My wife never cared about my dalliances as long as I came home to her every night and made at least a million dollars a year. When she fell pregnant, I assumed that it was her husband's. I guess I thought that if it was mine she'd have made that known to me." he paused in thought. "Though to be honest, I didn't bother with precautions as I should have. At the time, I'd have probably found it quite amusing to get another man's wife pregnant."

"And how do you feel about it now?"

"Corbin, if I knew that, would I be unloading all of this on you?" Nicholas shot back. He asked if he should press the issue of the bride's DNA.

I pointed out that were established as the father, some courts would likely rule that he owed the other man all the money he had paid out in child support over the years. "Really Nicholas, why the sudden interest…you've never been concerned with having children."

"I know…but now, my mother has passed away. You know my father is not long for this world. I had no siblings other than Octavia. I suppose I am facing my own mortality. While I have cousins, and the Buchannon name will live on, it has begun to bother me that my father's line will die with me." He confessed.

I spoke before thinking, which showed how comfortable I was with Nicholas. "Then marrying a woman Arielle's age is stupid. She doesn't want to sign the prenup anyway. Make that a deal breaker…find a younger woman and marry her. Then you can begat to your heart's content."

Nicholas scoffed. "There is just one problem with that. I do care about Arielle. I may even love her, if I believed in the emotion."

"I would never even try to tell you otherwise. What I will say is that Arielle Harris is not a trust worthy woman. She has no compunction about sleeping with you no matter what relationship you are in at the time. Didn't you say that the two of you engaged each other at Marla's funeral? While I completely understand the lure of a woman who shares all of your proclivities, I am certain that you can either find another one who does and is still in her childbearing years…or you can find a young, weak willed woman to train to be everything you've ever wanted in a woman."

"That could be intriguing." He said thoughtfully. "Arielle's brother is now engaged to a bi-sexual woman over a decade and a half younger than him. She hates her, but the brother is ridiculously happy."

I laughed. Yes, I'd heard about Bryant Harris and his fiancée. It was detailed in the report I'd commissioned on my prize's family. The couple apparently shared each other quite freely and were very much happy to do so. A wife like that would suit Nicholas' needs very well. "You know…if Arielle shared her soon to be sister-in-law's Sapphic desires, that could solve all your problems. You could have your cake and eat it too."

We shared a laugh and I steered the conversation to where I wanted it to go. Through Nicholas, I learned quite a bit about my quarry as her aunt had filled him in on all the family gossip. Beyond all that was available through the biography on the KAMA site. I learned that she had a jealous streak a mile wide. Mercedes Jones was not as comfortable in her skin as she would have the world believe. Her family was very worried about her relationship with Noah and Sam, sure that the two boys were only using her to create their own music careers. Though, I was taking that with a grain of salt since Nicholas pointed out that the aunt had said that they weren't riding on the coattails of Mercedes' impressive talent, just using the controversy of having a public triad. Enamored as he's been with Arielle Harris for quite some time, even he knew that she was simply showing her own jealousy at the fact that Mercedes had far more musical talent than her own daughter. I started to doubt some of the other baubles of information he'd gleaned from the aunt, but at the same time if they were true, it could certainly provide more avenues to come between the trio.

As I looked through the pictured and video from the wedding reception, after I got off the call with Nicholas, I had to say, I loved the fact that Mercedes was confident enough to wear real fur in a world that frowned upon doing so. I made sure to purchase her a full length, heirloom ermine coat. I wanted to take her wearing that and nothing else. In fact, I'd also look into a sable blanket. The possibilities were quite endless. I decided that as part of my courtship of my prize, I would begin to show her things that her little music career would never be able to afford her. While I was in the eastern European block, I was able to meet with a lingerie creator. The woman was ancient. She hand made the lace herself. She hand sewed the pieces together herself. Everything was made by hand. Best of all she was able to work from pictures and videos. Unfortunately, my other personal endeavor in at same region was not as fruitful. Eleven different hackers were unable to circumvent the security surrounding the KAMA computer servers. I had hoped that at least one of them would have been able to get me the travel information for their coming summer tour. It would have made the planning of getting away from her security and boyfriends so much easier. I knew that it would need to be the final stop of their tour, which, according to the tour website, would be in Toronto. That was a blessing. I would simply need to get the rest of the information another way.

I didn't build a world renowned, fashion retail company from the ground up by giving up when things got difficult. My father's modest investment of eighteen million had been turned into a personal net worth of just under eight billion. I was determined to have Mercedes Jones to continue my family name. She would be mine. Her 'husbands' would, if they all played their cards right, get to visit and enjoy her from time to time. They would never have children by her themselves, but they were young, they could find someone else to bear their seed. At the same time, I found myself becoming more and more sexually frustrated. Eastern Europe was certainly not a hot bed of women who filled my current need and desire. I was quite happy when I was back in western Europe. In Berlin, I found myself in a club that catered to western businessmen and all those enjoyed American music and culture. The dancers were dressed to look like a wide range of pop culture icons. I noticed both a Lady Gaga and a Cher. In fact, there was a 'Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves' Cher and an 'If I Could Turn Back Time' Cher.

I was ready to quench my thirst with the club's pseudo Nicki Minaj, when a second curvaceous black woman came out. At first I thought that it was an Aretha, which would have perhaps worked even better than the Minaj knock off. But then she turned around and it was very easy to see that her makeup and fashion was far more modern. Her breasts and hips and ass were deliciously large and full. I was sure that someone noted the fact that from the minute she hit the floor, but I demanded and dominated all her time. I gave her a hefty sum to accompany me back to the hotel. It was remarkably easy to monopolize her entire weekend. Though upon hearing her harsh German accent, I made sure that she knew she shouldn't talk. I ensured that she would find it very difficult to walk for at least the first two or three days of the week after she left my bed. I thoroughly enjoyed tricking her into taking an oral anti-biotic every day she was there. I could only hope that my seed would take root. Though, if she did get pregnant that weekend, the child could have belonged to someone else. I shared her with any number of the men I'd made the trip with, as was my normal practice. Had I kept her to myself, as I would the woman she was a surrogate for, it would have called attention to my obsession. That would never do. Instead I worked out my anger at having to share the body that was the closest to that of the woman my heart pined for by having the whore fucked with two cocks in her well used cunt. I found that hearing her try to scream around my cock lodged in her throat made me feel better. So much so that I was able to make more than a few lucrative deals that would certainly make up for having to wait to claim my prize.

As I was flying to Dubai on the twelfth of March, I received something from my contact at Time, Inc. Apparently, Mercedes had done a one on one interview with Melissa Harris-Perry the previous Saturday. He sent me the completed article that would come out in the April issue of Essence magazine. Her cover shot was amazingly beautiful. It was a close up of her face and her cleavage displayed in all its gorgeous perfection. The interior cover shot was a full body picture. She wore a gorgeous, butterfly wing, mini dress in bands of bold green with pops of purple, yellow and blue. A fuchsia camisole peeked from the very low V neckline and matched the suede heels that were showcasing her delightfully sturdy legs. I could easily imagine pushing the short skirt up to her waist and fitting myself between those charming, thick, creamy brown thighs. I forced that thought away and read the early question and answer formatted transcript that would become the article.

Mercedes Jones: Music's Fashionista Diva with the Heart of Gold.

MHP: "Mercedes Jones…thank you very much for sitting down with me today."

MJ: "No Ms. Harris-Perry, thank you. I know that I'm not your usual interview. You're usually sitting down with change-makers. People who create or change policy that effects our nation and our future. I'm sure that when you were given this assignment you were probably like, you want me to interview a singer?" Readers, her laugh was melodic and contagious. "So, thank you."

MHP: "You are changing hearts and minds. You are speaking on policy. You are a model of integrity for women and are unrepentantly dating two white men…I definitely had not a moment of hesitation in this assignment. Especially, since I wanted to talk to you. Over Valentine's weekend, I saw you attended a wedding for your cousin and the name Harris was all over it. I want to know if we might be related."

MJ: "Well, you do look amazingly like my momma's people. It is entirely possible. Only thing is didn't I read that your father an amazing hubby and stuff…our set of Harrises…well I'm pretty sure one of them was the Rolling Stone Papa the Temptations were talking about."

MHP: "Oh…See I'm not going to laugh at that. I'm just going to point out that I'm sure that your family is full of some very lovely people and we should certainly look into backtracking our family trees and seeing if they have the same roots. Now then, I guess I should probably ask you about your activism. How did you start speaking out?"

MJ: "I actually started speaking out, not on behalf of others…but by standing up for myself. I grew up in a school cluster where I was one of maybe fifteen black kids…if you want to talk people of color, you could bump it up to maybe twenty-five. Maybe. Of those, there were eight black girls. I was the only one who wasn't a size two or a size four. I was the only one who dressed the way I dressed. I was the only one who went to church every single Sunday. I was the only one who remained a virgin until Junior year. There were a million reasons I wasn't…well there were a million reasons people found to try and make me feel like who I was just wasn't enough."

MHP: "What changed? What gave you the strength to say enough?"

MJ: "To be honest, it is really hard to pinpoint an exact moment. The journey started when I joined the show choir. It was a chance, or so I thought, to finally shine. To finally show my classmates that I was more than any of them thought I was. But there was a person there who felt that she deserved to shine more. Our choir director seemed to agree with her. So, I was the glory note. Every time it became too much, I would show my…well I would act out. Maybe it wasn't always the most productive of methods…but I would make it known that I was twice as good. Because you know in order to be considered 'as good' any person of color has to really be twice as good as their white counter part. It's a truth that we all rail against, but it is a truth none the less." She took a long deep breath.

MJ: "Anyway, for two years. I allowed them to make me less. But then I had two guys who should never, according to everyone around me, have even wanted to be seen with me and they didn't want to just be my friends…they wanted to be my men…even though at the time they were not interested in each other as more than friends. They didn't just give me the confidence to keep speaking up, they gave me support in some of the most unexpected ways. Until Sam and Puck, the only people who offered me support that I could count on, no matter what twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week were my parents and my brothers. Puck who, despite having a mathematical genius in his mind, was considered a subpar student who often went to his classes without books, or pens or anything, if he went at all. Puck who called show choir 'gay' even when he was in it, researched the previous decade of NHSSCA winners to see that none of them were one trick ponies. They all had songs from multiple genres. We had show tunes and pop songs. That was it. With that information, our choir director at the time had no choice but to make changes. He showcased all of us and we won. While we were at nationals Sam, Puck and I were approached by Lyor Cohen…he loved my voice. He loved our voices together. That was exactly the validation that told me it was time to step up. I'd done the easy thing…it was time to do what was right. What was right, was speaking up for all the girls out there who were killing themselves to fit someone else's idea of beauty…an idea that they may never have been meant to look like. So now I speak up. I speak out. We should be healthy…not skinny. There are lot of skinny women who cannot do what I do…they can't sing and dance for twenty-thirty-ninety minutes straight. I want healthiness for them too."

MHP: "I'm fairly healthy and after dancing to about three fast songs I need a bottle of water and a chair. So, that speaks to your first round of advocacy…healthy body image. But you've spoken out about police brutality. You've spoken out about the right to certain expectations of privacy for celebrities. You've spoken out about the need for gun control. I've seen you speaking truth to power about the for profit jail system in this country."

MJ: "I'm black. The next hashtag could very well be a relative of mine, one of my cousins, one of my brothers, my father. I can't not speak out. Puck and Sam both feel the same way. We speak out because we have voices that will be heard. Because we have a platform that gives us the opportunity to, hopefully, make a difference."

MHP: "What about those who say that celebrities should stay out of politics? That they have no rights to tell the common every day American cop or the politicians how things should be done…what is right and what is wrong?"

MJ: "The simple truth is that famous or not, I am still the same American citizen that I was the day I turned eighteen. It is my constitutionally protected right to speak. As far as the common American cop…I didn't chose to become a police officer, but I know more than a few men and women who did. My cousin and PR manager is engaged to a SVU detective. She and her partner are amazing at their jobs. Even more than that, every Sunday since I can remember, in church, we prayed for the police officers in our congregation. Even after all that happened with Trayvon Martin, who I hesitate to put in the same category as Mike Brown, since George Zimmerman is not and will never be a police officer. Anyway, we still pray for police officers. But we also pray for young black men, who are being shot down in the streets and in the aisles of the stores for no reason beyond the color of their skin. There is also the fact that we are born black…people chose to become law enforcement officers."

MHP: "So, fame…"

MJ: "Fame gives us the impetus to speak. We have a voice that millions of Americans don't. Therefore, we should, we must speak out. We are not the first. We shouldn't be the last. By the way, where was all the 'celebrities should sit down and shut up' when Clint Eastwood was fussing at an empty chair." Her smirk was beautiful to be hold. "You see, that's the thing. When we speak of Ted Nugent's needing to go somewhere, it's not because he is famous and therefore, through some convoluted way of thinking, shouldn't exercise his right to speech. It is because the man had no moral ground upon which to stand. He speaks of 'family values' and yet he penned an opus to baby rape. Not only has he sung about it, but has admitted to a predilection for pedophilia. And before someone tries to claim that I am lying or committing slander, go watch his nineteen ninety-eight VH1 Behind the Music. He also managed to avoid serving in Vietnam. My grandfather and two of his brothers served, but Mr. Nugent was a draft dodger. Now he stands up and shouts out AMERICA and her soldiers as if it makes up for the fact that he's a coward and a child rapist."

*Research shows all above claims are true. Insert further proof of the truth of those statements.*

MHP: "So I take it you don't identify as a Republican?"

MJ: Laughs uproariously. "No. Not even a little bit."

MHP: "Did you vote for Obama? Are you even old enough to have voted for Obama?"

MJ: "Yes, I got to vote for him in twenty-twelve. I voted for democrats in the mid-term elections too. But I wish that I had done more in twenty-fourteen. You know. I could have driven people to the polls. I made my friends all vote, but if we could have gotten a democratic majority into the House and Senate then Obama could have made a real difference. The obstructionism of the Republican party was ridiculous. Now it's like the Repubs are saying 'the government doesn't work. Sure, we were the ones making sure that it doesn't work. But ignore all of that and vote for us anyway'. It makes absolutely no sense."

MHP: "I happen to agree with you. It would have been nice if we could have seen the full realization of Obama's policies. So we are soon coming to the beginning of the presidential campaign for twenty-sixteen…who would you like to see run?"

MJ: "Well, if not for that pesky twenty-second amendment, I'd say Obama." She smiled warmly. "But I like Elizabeth Warren. I like Bernie Sanders. I even like Hillary Clinton."

MHP: "Why the reticence about Clinton?"

MJ: "I remember something my mother said about Hillary when she was running in two thousand and eight. 'If Hillary was a man she would run this entire world. But she committed the ultimate sin, she didn't just sit down, shut up, look pretty and keep to the traditional First Lady roles. She showed Washington that she was twice as qualified as her husband when he was the president. She challenged men and beat them.' The average old rich white male will never forgive her for that. I don't think they will ever allow her to be president."

MHP: "That's a rather cynical way to look at it."

MJ: "I try not to be a cynical person…but it's the truth of the situation. If a man had been Secretary of State when Benghazi happened, do you think we'd still be hearing about it? The Congress voted to cut the budget for security at embassies. Benghazi was a direct result of that vote. But they blame Hillary. They never blamed Bush for Nine-Eleven and he ignored briefings that could have been acted upon to save thousands of lives. Yet, they have had hearing after hearing, wasted millions of tax payer dollars about four. Hillary could run against the least qualified man to ever run for the office and yet I'm still sure that this country would find a way to make Boo-Boo the Fool president before her."

MHP: "It does seem that way doesn't it?"

MJ: "Women still make seventy-eight cents on every dollar of men…women of color have an even greater deficient. Americans seem to think that equality is nice in theory…they just don't want to practice what they preach."

MHP: "Unfortunately that appears to be a human condition, not simply an American one."

MJ: "I suppose that is true. But I would love to believe that is simply a character flaw of a relatively young nation…something that we can and will grow out of. But then again, Sam and Puck do say that I am something of an optimist."

MHP: "I notice that most of your answers speak of Sam Evans and Puck Puckerman. There are those who would ask why you cannot answer a question without mentioning them."

MJ: Rolled her eyes hard. "Yeah…and I would point out that we live, work and love together. Of course, they are an intrinsic part of me. They are my husbands…my family."

MHP: "You understand that polyandry is illegal in the United States, and most places around the globe.

MJ: "We know. But we are committed to each other. We hold each other to the same expectations of fidelity that our legally married parents hold each other to. In this country, people can get married and divorced in the same weekend. A man can leave his wife while she is undergoing cancer treatments. We hold our relationship as sacrosanct. We are not asking for nor do we need validation for nor legalization of our union. We do hope that the Supreme Court will legalize same sex marriage soon. It is wrong that this country allows the degradation of marriage by heterosexuals, but will not allow same sex marriage. It is especially galling since all arguments against it are rooted in religion, when the first amendment guarantees that as a nation our laws will not be governed by any religion."

MHP: "Lets discuss something a little less controversial. You are very eloquent and only turned twenty-one two weeks ago. You attend both Columbia University and Juilliard. What are you majoring in?"

MJ: "I'm a business management major at Columbia and a vocal arts major at Juilliard."

MHP: "And your GPA?"

MJ: "At the end of Spring term last year it was three point eight. We aren't at mid-term yet, so at this point and answer I could give beyond that would be supposition."

MHP: "You should be proud. Two full time course loads, a more than full time job. You are co-parenting your husband's daughter. How do you not burn out?"

MJ: "Sam and Puck and I make love every chance we get. Well, now that is all done in the privacy of our bedroom…very carefully. We learned our lesson." She chuckled. That was, of course, a reference to the pending criminal charges against Richard Macardo for filming the triad having sex and tried to sell the video. "But in all honesty, we have an amazing team that makes our continuing school while having our career possible. We couldn't do what we do if not for our Team; that's our business manager Gwen Abrams, our talent manager Haja Johnston, our booking manager Brantley Clayton, our PA Hudson Friedman, our PR manager Daniel Harris, our Social Media Manager Darcy Lewis, our attorneys, Ethan Harris and Antwan Berry and our stylists Ruth Mayzer and Kurt Hummel. Our career wouldn't work without our Crew, that is our band, DJ, background singers and dancers. Our Support staff, the people who make sure that our Team has everything they need are all exemplary and do such amazing work. Our Caretakers at home, Bautista and Patrick…they keep out home clean and our bodies fed. They all do their work so that Sam, Puck and I can concentrate on the art of making great music."

MHP: "So at twenty-one, you, Sam and Puck are responsible for the livelihoods of, at least twenty-five people…isn't that quite daunting?"

MJ: "Yes and no. I firmly believe that Sam, Puck and I are uniquely able to handle that responsibility. I had parents who own their own dental office. I know how they treated their hygienists, billing staff and office manager. They have never had a problem with turnover or angry employees. Puck ran his own small business. He understands, from a different perspective how to maintain employee happiness and loyalty. Sam, with all his parents went through, he has a special understanding of what people are working towards…what they need to make their lives work, not to make work their lives."

MHP: "So, back to controversy…the Bill Cosby sexual misconduct accusations. They are all over the news and I'd be remiss not to ask a black celebrity about them."

MJ: "Sex without consent in wrong. Creating the situation where consent is impossible to assuage your conscience so you can lie to yourself and tell yourself it wasn't rape is, to me, even more wrong. I'm certain that if all the accusations are true, he will be punished to the fullest extent of the law. That being said…I don't see why I have to be punished because Bill Cosby raped women. I love The Cosby Show. They have pulled it off the air. If they feel that the proper response is to pull The Cosby Show off the air, why on earth is Seventh Heaven still on? Bill Cosby might be brought up on charges. He hasn't been at this point, but it seems like people are not going to rest until he is. And I get that, I totally get it. I know how violated we felt from having our privacy invaded…I cannot imagine how horrible it must be to be raped. Yet, Stephen Collins is a confessed child molester. He isn't being charged with anything. Granted, I get that there are more victims in the Cosby case…but I just cannot get past the age of the victims in the Collins case. I know there is no difference in the eyes of God, a sin is a sin…but I have an easier time watching Bill Cosby playing the father of the year than I do Stephen Collins."

MHP: "You don't have a problem with stating your feelings?"

MJ: "Sam loves to quote an old line from Buffy the Vampire Slayer…the TV show, not the movie. The character Cordelia Chase said once that 'Tact is just saying things that aren't true'. While I disagree with the wording of the statement, I do agree whole heartedly with the sentiment behind it."

*I must note the very visible love and caring that comes through whenever MJ speaks about Sam or Puck.*

MHP: "Well, we've discussed current events, politics, let's discuss celebrity…who have you not met that you would love to meet?"

MJ: Said with no hesitation at all. "Ms. Aretha Franklin, with Barack and Michelle Obama coming in a very close second."

MHP: "Well, there are some that say that you are the Aretha of your generation."

MJ: "I appreciate the compliment…but in my house that's borderline blaspheme." She chuckled.

MHP: "I can certainly understand that feeling. So then, who have you met that you go into fangirl mode every time you think about it?"

MJ: "Prince." Again, no hesitation. "His Royal Purpleness…though Barbra Streisand and Madonna are both awesome too. To be honest, Madonna is way more down to earth than most people will ever know. Will Smith was ridiculously nice. I should probably still be apologizing for the way my aunt fan-girled all over him at the release party for Necessity 4 Existence. And I love Pink. She is just so real and genuine and just, Wow. Oh, I cannot believe I almost forgot to say Jill Scott. If not for her, I don't think KAMA would be what we are today."

MHP: "Last questions…let's make them fun. Would you ever pose for Playboy?"

MJ: "Nope. Never in a million years. Think Puck might be willing to do a Playgirl spread though."

MHP: "Alright…that was pretty emphatic. Favorite Fashion designer?"

MJ: "Kurt Hummel, start looking for his lines around twenty-twenty." She laughed gleefully. "But if you mean currently, I'm loving Christian Sirano right now…and so many of the great houses, like de la Renta, of course, and Gucci. I just wish that there were more lines who catered to women with curves."

MHP: "Great, thank you very much for talking with me. You are certainly a smart, eloquent and thoughtful young woman. I believe that you will have a long and prosperous, creative career."

END of ARTICLE

MHP NOTES: Mercedes Jones was accompanied by two armed Rangeman Bodyguards and her PR Manager-cousin. Research needed to find out why the still heightened security after the arrest of Richard Macardo.

I read it through several times and I was more struck by what she didn't say. She didn't linger on the subject of the great love she supposedly shared with Puck and Sam. Maybe now that she was out of that little Podunk home town of theirs, she was beginning to understand that she had more options. Yes, that would certainly bear watching. On my final read through, I decided upon a way I could show that her issues were something I could support too. I had my company pull all advertising from the UP network. I even had our PR department put out a statement that spoke of the reasoning behind the decision. The best part was that the move saw both the stock prices rise and every single store, including our online store, saw significant bumps in sales. Who knew that advocacy could pay so well.

I also contacted the man I had on Rachel Berry. I wanted my prize's camp suitable distracted when I returned to the States. I was fairly certain that I would be able to use that distraction to give me the time to create a belief that I had moved on. A friend of mine had introduced me to Toccara…she was quite beautiful in her own right. Sexy, voluptuous, beautiful…she would make a delightful girlfriend until I could get my hands on the Jones I really wanted. Yes, that should work. I needed Ranger Manoso to pull back his men and lower the alert if there was to be any hope of absconding with my Prize after their last tour stop in Toronto. I had time and will on my side. Mercedes Jones was mine…whether she knew it or not.

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Good Morning. This is your author. It is 1:05 AM EST, I hope that you've enjoyed the journey. Not sure how you felt about it. So, why don't you drop me a review and let me know.

TTFN,

Anni