*Well look what the cat dragged in. I am sorry for the late update. But this funny thing called life got in the way. Long story short, lots of crying, counting of blessing, and rejoicing, I finally bring to you the next part. Please enjoy. Feedback welcome. It humbles me to no extent. As ever I own nothing from Glee or any other TV show/Book/Comic/Movie mentioned here.*
Chapter 33: Just the two of us
"Ok close your eyes."
They had been cuddling on the couch watching a House marathon-a much needed break after a day filled with a lot of silliness in the form of games, jokes and Christmas movies, when Sam had suddenly shot up, before slapping his own forehead, as though he had just remembered something.
"What Sam?"
Mercedes asked, as she turned to look up towards Sam half amusing, but he was already up from the couch.
"Wait where you goi..." But Sam had already left the room running into his own.
Mercedes sat back on the couch. She paused the episode-any second now the team would be getting an MRI-when she heard Sam come running back.
"Eyes!" He yelled when he noted Mercedes weren't shut;
"No peeking!" he commanded.
Mercedes instantly closed her eyes before adding, sarcastically.
"Please, sir what is it?"
Sam literally had to stop himself from kissing her while she just sat there oblivious to what he was clearly-quite seriously contemplating-mind you. But Sam resisted. Instead he took Mercedes hand, turning it over he opened her palm, and placed a box in it.
"Merry Christmas."
Mercedes opened her eyes and instantly frowned.
"Sam, we agreed no presents!"
"First, this isn't from me. It's from Grammy, Mom and Stace, and second..."
But Sam didn't finish what he was saying; instead he smiled too upon seeing Mercedes smile at the mention of the females in his family.
"Well go on open it, I have strict orders from Stace to report back every expression and or reaction." Sam ushered,
Mercedes made a face, to which Sam responded:
"Seriously her words not mine. She may be my baby sister, but damn she is scary."
Mercedes let out a small laugh,
"In fact maybe I should record this" Sam muttered to himself.
At which point Mercedes laughed louder;
"Go on, Mercy, before I tear it open for you, trust me, wrapping paper and I do not go well together."
Mercedes didn't believe him, until she had to bat his hand away from her box. She quickly tore the paper, and opened the lid to see a beautiful purple rhinestone necklace.
"Wow," she looked at it for some time carefully admiring the handiwork and its utter beauty.
"Sam, it's beautiful"
She turned to look at Sam,
"Mom made it...for you."
Mercy smiled, kissing Sam, she said;
"I Love it, and quote me on that!"
"Duly noted." Sam replied before kissing Mercedes.
"Ok so just so I remember, so you kinda blushed at first..." Sam began counting on his fingers
"then smiled-a lot, then sighed a little..."
Mercedes playfully hit Sam, while he carried on cheekily:
"Then your eyes did that orb thing..."
"What?" Mercedes asked bemused,
But Sam continued,
"Then you said you loved it. So I'll do all of that...well except the kiss, I mean seriously, there are limits."
Mercedes playfully slapped Sam, before turning to look back at the necklace adding:
"It truly is beautiful. Your mom is so talented."
"But you know," Sam began,
"It'll look even better if..."
Sam took the necklace from her and clasped it around her neck before delicately kissing her behind her ear.
"There." He added, admiring her.
"Sam."
"Hmmm"
Mercedes now rested her head on Sam's shoulder as he hugged her closer:
"You never finished what you were saying before, you know, first; that this wasn't from you and second?..."
Sam smiled before hugging her tightly, laying his head to rest on hers;
"Second, you already got me the best present ever."
Mercedes turned to look up towards Sam, as he added;
"My pick."
"Wait, Sam I think I found it, it's on the coffee table."
Mercedes went to pick up Sam's wallet, when it fell out onto the floor. At first she didn't make much of it, it merely looked like a folded picture, but then she noticed Santana's pink ear muffs and froze.
She raised the photo closer to her face, yes it was definitely Santana, but she was in the corner of the picture, her hands were not visible, the picture having been folded. Mercedes unfolded it, but before she could gasp, she heard Sam:
"That was my first picture of you ever."
Mercedes turned up to look at him, the brown in her eyes fiery amber. While Sam made his way over to her, standing behind her he rested his chin on her shoulder.
"Sam, we've never been skating together, so how did you?"
"Remember, Friday? Skiving Storm? The deli?"
Mercedes was still drawing a blank,
'Friday, Deli, what was he talking abo...'
Then it suddenly hit, and Mercedes remembered. The first week Sam had started working at the magazine, the same week she had taken a day off work for April, to go shopping, movies and skating. The same week, she had come to realise April's Sam was her Sam. That Sam was Trouty.
"I love snapping pictures of the rink at Christmas, and well as luck would have it, this happens to be my best yet."
Mercedes smiled, recalling how in the picture, Santana had just fallen, and so had decided the only way to skate was to hold Mercedes hand;
"If I go down, you go down with me." She had warned, after Mercedes had managed to stop laughing at Santana,
"Hey I didn't push you." Mercedes had protested
"Yeah well, I can't exactly yell at the kid, when his Mom looks like the Michelin man."
"Sam you have a tonne of pictures of me now." Mercedes began while thinking to herself;
'Yes many to my annoyance may I add'
It was no secret Sam loved to take pictures and he loved Mercy, and so naturally unfortunately for Mercy she was often the subject of his forever handy camera.
"SO?" Sam asked, kissing Mercy on her cheek
"SO, why do you still have this one in your wallet where I'm only in the background."
"Because..."
Sam paused, before he added;
"I like it, don't you think it's a good picture."
Of course it was a good picture, all of Sam's photo's were incredible, but Mercedes knew he had hidden something from her. He had paused. He had wanted to say something else but had stopped. But why?
"Sam, it's beautiful. But that's not why."
Sam smiled. Of course she would realise he was hiding something. That was the thing that was their thing, where, one would instantly know what the other was thinking or feeling without the former telling the latter. He turned Mercy around to face her, placing one hand on her cheek; he looked at her carefully.
Mercy could see the reddening of his ears;
"Ok, this is going to sound super corny but..."
"Sam, it's you, everything about you is corny." Mercedes interrupted, at which point Sam averted his gaze,
"But I love that about you."
Sam looked back at her and Mercy was sure his eyes had twinkled.
" It is why I love you, well, among many other things...the list is kinda long" She finished, squeezing his cheek.
"Ok, so I was thinking of you."
"Huh?"
"When I was snapping those pictures, of the ice rink, of random people, I was thinking of you."
Sam continued;
"I was more precisely thinking about your pitch and well truthfully how much respect I had garnered for a complete stranger who little over a couple of days ago I had imprudently flashed."
Mercedes let out a small laugh, playfully slapping Sam.
But Sam continued, maintaining her gaze, the green in his eyes now completely gone.
"You left our mark on me Mercy. And so when I came to print these pictures, and lo and behold there you were I couldn't help but take that picture and keep it. I don't know but it felt as though that moment; of you skating and me taking pictures had joined us together."
Sam finished.
"Yeah that was corny," Mercedes responded, before adding;
"And if I was to hear that from anyone else, especially in a Sandra Bullock movie" she emphasised, while Sam smirked;
"I'd have rolled my eyes and probably thrown up a little bit in my mouth,"
Sam rolled his eyes, shaking his head at Mercedes, but just as he went to speak, Mercy kissed him. Breaking apart she spoke;
"But coming from you, I know how genuine it is. I know how real it is. I know how it makes me feel as though I have a whole host of butterflies fluttering in my stomach."
Sam laughed, while Mercedes added, placing both her hands on his cheeks:
"Sam Evans you idiot, you've turned me into a romantic fool."
"Nope."
"Huh?"
"I said nope. I haven't turned you into anything." Sam said, while he added placing his hands around her waist.
"You're still the; action over romcom's, scrunch you nose at PDA's and never cried over the Notebook girl. And always will be. But that is why I love you. Mercedes Jones, you are still the same vivacious woman except only now, you finally put down your glass."
"My glass."
"Your glass."
Sam didn't expand on what he had meant by glass but he didn't need too. Mercy knew. Her glass, her glass full of all those years of stagnation. Of being stuck. Of feeling as though this whole world was passing by. Of not living each day. All of that.
Now gone. Gone thanks to Sam.
"Mercy?"
"Yes."
"Your idea, you know the special feature you wanted to run? How did you come up with it?"
Mercedes led Sam to the couch, she sat down near him.
"It was personal, I didn't let on then, but I was actually..."
"Hurt by Claire's rejection." Sam finished for her.
"Yeah, figures you'd know."
"Personal? How?" Sam probed.
"Yesterday when I told you about the candles at the park, well, I may have edited the story a little."
Sam waited for Mercedes to continue:
"I was upset about the finalisation of our childhood home being sold, but there was more to it. I had met a girl. Sarah. Sarah Walker. She was nine, and had beautiful blonde locks and hazel eyes. She was gorgeous, Sam." Mercedes sighed a little.
"She'd seen me every day that week, at the park. I'd come every evening to get away from everything and I'd just sit there for a while before heading back to my dorm. But Christmas Eve was the first time she spoke to me. Or rather she gave me tissue. A tissue, Sam."
Mercedes smiled weakly;
"She told me that, she'd been using them all week, today she figured I needed it. I did, I took it from her and cried. I cried to a nine year old, the person who never cried in public, not even at her parents funeral had cried to a nine year old who knew that I needed to."
Sam kissed Mercy on top of her head, encouraging her to continue.
"We got talking; she used to live with her mom, just the two of them, on the 8th floor, in their two bed apartment,"
"Used to?"
"Yeah, she was moving to Kentucky with her grandmother after Christmas."
"Without her mom?" Sam asked
"Yeah, her mom had died two weeks ago, breast cancer."
"I'm sorry to hear that." Sam added, hugging Mercedes tighter.
"As was I, this incredibly, wonderful wonderful little girl, was being uprooted from her life and I an adult was crying to her."
Mercedes turned to face Sam;
"I felt so selfish."
"Hey, hey," Sam hugged Mercedes
"You are not selfish, you weren't being then, and nor are you today."
"I asked her what she did with the tissues, she told me that she handed them out to anyone she saw upset, she thought today was the day that I would need one. She was right. That little girl was so brave, after everything she had gone through, I just felt even more than before that life didn't have a..."
"...happily ever after." Sam finished for her.
Mercedes merely nodded her head.
"Did you ever see her again?"
"No, I thought I did once, two years ago, but it was just someone else who looked remarkably like her."
"And that's when you wrote your piece,"
"Yeah, that night, I didn't necessarily intend for it to be an article or for the magazine, I just wrote, I wrote what came to me and let everything wash over me."
Sam hugged Mercy tightly, kissing her added;
"I was right."
"Hmm"
"That day when you pitched your piece, it hurt, naturally but you didn't resent Claire nor did you scoff at the eventual chosen idea."
Mercedes looked up at Sam trying to understand what he was getting at:
"Mercy, it was that that made my respect for you raise tenfold."
They sat there for a while then, neither one speaking but holding each other, as though they were cleansing their inner peace, as though just sitting there in each other's arms was recharging them. Giving them a whole new lease of life.
Mercedes had for the past ten years believed that happily ever after's didn't exist. Sure people led beautiful happy lives, she didn't need to look much beyond April for proof, but the reality was that, the universe wasn't as magical and wasn't as sweet, as people hoped it to be. As people believed it to be. Karma existed but unfortunately the universe didn't settle every score. It should, but it didn't.
Sam had grown up knowing that life was tough, that plans would change, but what mattered most was how we controlled that change. Nothing is ever black or white, it never should be. With millions and millions of shades why settle. He knew that tragedies existed, unfortunately he had lived a couple of sad stories himself, but he also believed that there was always a silver lining after a cloud. That light always followed dark. A little bit of magic didn't go amiss.
It was for that reason that they completed each other. The perfect ying to his yang. It was for that reason that they could speak a million words, wordlessly, that one look however brief was filled with a thousand emotions. It was for that reason that although the two had been complete strangers five weeks ago, how one incident set off a chain reaction that ultimately connected them forever. It was as though it was written in the stars, that one Miss Mercedes Jones would bump into a Mr Samuel Evans and start to look at the world through new spectacles. He wouldn't change her. Nor should she have too. But he would unleash within her what she had buried a long time ago.
And what would she do for him? She would complete him. Something had always been missing from his life. Sam was always the guy to take care of others: his siblings, his parents, his grandparents, lookout for his friends, forever be the doting boyfriend. But now, after that one embarrassing meeting with Mercedes, Sam literally found his missing puzzle piece, the piece he would never let go.
In many ways than one, that Christmas had turned out to be quite out of this world. New traditions found their foundations that would come to be cherished and followed years from now. New families were brought together that would expand and bring along with them a completely new generation. But most of all, two people came together, two people who lived in the same part of the city, who had perhaps crossed each other's paths many times. May have eaten in the same restaurants, waited in the same traffic jam. Lives which perhaps would have continued running parallel until one fateful meet. But those lives would have remained incomplete until they finally met.
*Till next time. ;)*