June
The April gathering had been put on hold when Asia was rushed into hospital because the baby hadn't moved for a whole day and everyone was panicking "We need to have a plan" Sam told them when everyone became hysterical at the nurse, they'd gone home that afternoon to make that plan, and everyone said they were clear.
Month seven of the pregnancy and Asia was past bored, she moved slowly between the studio, the garden and antenatal care, she had no life, she missed companionship. She cuddled with her parents every chance she got, they encouraged it, but she still needed someone to wrap up in that wasn't leaving her for a warmer bed or someone else's arms in the middle of the night
Baby Lathan came into the world in the middle of the night, on a breezy afternoon in June, so, the third attempt at their family gathering had been put on hold when Asia went into hospital on that morning with contractions. Sam and Mercy in full panic mode, the emergency delivery kit came out, Sam decked in full delivery gear before they made the 10-minute journey to the hospital, only to be told the labour pains had stopped
Sam was so stressed he insisted she stay in hospital, so they booked into the hotel next door and kept vigil at her bedside until she finally went into labour for real 6 days later. Delivering a blue eyes, milky coffee shade of urban, with long fingers and toes and a curly mop of light brown hair, she named Lathan, some 9 hours later amidst Mercy demands for pain relief, induced labour and even a caesarean section, Asia rolling around with a permanent, high pitched scream.
Sam finally had to go into the delivery room and take control of the situation when amidst Asia's screams Mercy's voice bellowed down the corridor shouting "Knock her the fuck out" they both stood in the corner of the room, waiting for their grandson to enter the world, and cried as they held the tiny mite in their arms "I don't remember any of that happening for me" Mercy looked up at Sam crying
"You must have just blocked it out" he smiled down at the baby in her arms "You did good" he looked at Asia, she was totally exhausted but smiling at her bundle of joy
"I think he wants food" Mercy handed him to his Mother
They were alerted by the evening news that they were being hailed as the family that had appeared overnight, making the internationally acclaimed Cedes a Mother from her young surrogate, and highlighting the mysterious man waiting near the delivery room, all questions the public wanted answers to. Mercy was used to ignoring it all, but Sam wasn't used to his life being thrown under buses, he hit the roof at the hospital staff for leaking the story, demanded heads roll, and even offered to help with that process, Asia and Mercy sat watching him, defending his family
"I think this is Sam the man" Asia told her Mom
"Dad, partner, protector all in one" Mercy laughed
The next day amid reporters and hospital staff they took their daughter and Grandson home, to start their new life as a family. Mercy skipped work for a few weeks, but she couldn't lie, she was happy to get back to it. Within weeks Asia had somehow forgotten that she'd arrived home with a new baby, expecting the doting Grandparents to do all the feeds and nappy changes, Sam was happy to do it, Mercy on the other hand was starting to realise, she might not be cut out for motherhood after all
July
Week five and nothing much had changed, Sam was finally fed up of Mercy nagging him about taking on too much responsibility, the realisation came one afternoon when he'd taken Asia and Lathan up to the studio because they were all supposed to go out to dinner to celebrate Lathan's arrival, their families were arriving later and she'd invited Alex, and the crew, so it made sense to have dinner in the city. It was the first time the family were seeing Lathan Jr in the flesh, the meal went well, Asia was basking in all the attention, getting her promised presents, including her ticket to Ghana, roller skates, cake and Mercy singing a special rendition of 'Slow Dancing' by Tayla Parx as a treat the girl was forever walking around singing it, everything was going her way, so when Alex and some the guys in the band suggested they were going off to the club for drinks, she jumped up, excited to follow them
"Where are you going?" Sam looked at her shocked
"With the guys" she flipped her hair off her shoulder telling him
"So, who's looking after Lathan?" he asked, everyone sat around listening to the conversation
"You and Mom" Asia told him, he gasped, realising Mercy was right
"Mom and I will drop you back home, but we've got a date night planned" he looked at Mercy "So grab your things, get your baby ready, and come on, we'll drop you off" his voice was soft but she knew he wasn't joking, she stomped back to her seat and did as she was told. The chatter started back up, Alex touched her shoulder as she passed him, feeling her pain, but his eyes were telling her that she chose that life, and her Dad was right. She stormed out with the stroller in front of her, packed with presents and baby. Her grandparents and Uncle, obviously knew the point Sam was trying to make, Mercy and he had moaned about it to them enough times
"This is messed up" she hissed at her Dad as she opened the door for Amy to jump in
"Messed up is you thinking you've got live in babysitters" he snapped back, Mercy stood looking at the two of them, they were spoiling for a fight
"I want to go home" she snapped back, putting the baby in the car seat "Back to Lima" she sat in the car and looked up at her Dad
"Oh, you're going home, you got that right" he slammed the door and put the stroller and the presents in the trunk, banging the trunk loud enough to make them all jump. The ride home was quiet, the air thick with unsaid angry words, Mercy dare not speak for the two of them turning on her, she leaned in and turned the music on, to cut the silence, singing along
"I love me some Major" she smiled at Sam side eying her, before looking in his mirror at Asia sat sulking in the back, a few more minutes of listening to Mercy singing, before the car stopped outside their house, Asia grabbed the baby, Amy grabbed the small bags and headed in, Sam and Mercy grabbed the other presents and the stroller
"Oh" they heard her gasp as she walked into the house, they looked at each other knowing she'd found her present
"I've a good mind to ban her from opening it" he hissed
"You know you're going to have to be the parent in this situation?" Mercy looked at him
"I am" he screeched
"Okay" she held her hand up stopping him "I'm not the enemy here"
"Sorry" he shut the trunk "We need to talk" he rested on it
"Okay" she picked a couple of packages up "When everyone's gone home tomorrow good?" she asked before they went into the house
"Yeah" he closed the trunk and followed her in
"Thanks" Asia held up the gold Pandora bracelet with 15 trinkets hanging from it "One for each year" she smiled at them
"For every year we missed" Mercy smiled
"Don't get too excited at the 5K you're holding in your damn hand" Sam snapped at his daughter still angry
"I'm grateful" she snapped at him, tears suddenly running down her face "The house, the life, everything, I'm grateful" she flopped onto the couch, Sam and Mercy looked at each other shocked "But it hurts that you're ashamed of me"
"Who's ashamed of you?" Mercy stepped towards her
"Don't" she held her hand out to her "It doesn't mean anything"
"I'll deal with Lathan" Amy quickly picked him up and left the room
"What?" Sam stepped towards her, "What do you mean?"
"Asia talk to us" Mercy begged
"I don't want to talk" she got up and walked off to her room
Whatever plans they had for this date night, quickly went out the window, they couldn't even pretend to have a good night out, with Asia throwing that bombshell at them. Mercy was all up for leaving her to calm down, but Sam wanted to get to the bottom of it, he was never the kind to see a problem and not dive in to sort it out, he grabbed Lathan's bag and set off up the stairs
"Asia" he opened her bedroom door, searching the room for Lathan "We need to talk" they walked over to her bed, Sam dropping Lathan's bag on the floor, while Mercy sat on her bed, watching her crying into her pillow, "So" he found the chair "Tell us what's happening for you"
"We do care Asia" Mercy sat closer to her "Is Lathan too much?"
"No" her head jumped off the pillow in response
"He couldn't be you hardly look after him" Sam snapped
"Sam" Mercy snapped at him, he cut his eye and sat in silence waiting
"I didn't mean to sound ungrateful" Asia sat up on her bed "We've been here for 7 months now and…" she looked from Mercy to Sam "Are you guys ashamed of me?"
"What?" Sam gasped "Of course we're not"
"Why would you think that?" Mercy asked, upset
They sat watching her tapping on her leg, she was anxious about something, they looked at each other and decided to wait for her to be ready to say what was on her mind, she sat humming 'I wonder why I'm so afraid, of saying something wrong and never said I was a saint, I wonder, when I cry into my hands, I'm conditioned to feel like it makes me less of a..."'Wonder' by Shawn Mendes. "Okay" she sat up crossing her legs "Why haven't I met any of your friends?" she looked at her Mom
"I don't get too much time for friends you know my schedule" Mercy replied
"Surely they made contact when they heard about us" Asia snapped
"Yeah, the nosey ones did"
"Lathan's 6 weeks old, and you still don't feel we're important enough to invite your friends tonight"
"Is that your problem?" Mercy asked shocked
"Yes Mom, that's my problem, you're ashamed of us"
"No, I'm not" Mercy shouted, grabbing her daughters hand "In my world there are very few people you can trust with your real life, everything is fake, people, TV, media, everything" she looked at Sam "I thought I was protecting you from that world" a tear fell down her face "I'm sorry" her face broke into full cry
Sam sat watching with mixed feelings, he wanted to jump up and shout at Asia for making her Mother cry, but he had nothing to say to make this better, added to that, he was seeing the hurt his child was going through, and knowing her mother had caused it, he couldn't help one without hurting the other, so he sat helplessly watching them
"Okay" Mercy finally wiped her wet face "It was supposed to be a surprise, but I do have a dear friend visiting in two weeks, they're in Europe at the moment, when they get here we'll have a cookout, I'll ask them to stay here, instead of in town, for the weekend" she looked at Sam "Is that alright?"
"Whatever you think best babe" he smiled at her "And sweetheart, you need to talk to us, don't hold stuff in, there's nothing you can't tell us, we're here to support you" he smiled at her about to speak, holding his hand up "And no we're not going out now, but you do need to look after Lathan"
"You should go" she looked at her Dad "I'm alright, honestly, Amy's here"
"We will go out, but only for a while" Mercy told her "We won't be long" she kissed her daughter's forehead and got up
"Goodnight sweet" Sam got up and kissed her leaving the room with Mercy
"Come on" Mercy ran down the stairs, grabbed her purse, and walked straight out the door
"Mercy" he followed after her, something was wrong, she was sitting in the car before he could get to the door "What's wrong?" he sat looking at her
"Just drive the damn car Sam" she shouted at him, he knew tears were coming, he turned on the engine and drove, they hadn't got outside the gates before she burst into tears, he wanted to stop the car to console her, but behind the crying there was anger, she needed to vent he drove a few miles down from the house to their favourite plateau on the rocky ledge in the middle of their hill, and stopped the car "I'm not cut out for this" she turned to him "I don't know anything about being a damn mother"
"We're all learning"
"At least you're learning, I got the whole thing so wrong, I feel so stupid"
"That's never been a word I'd associate with you"
"How could she accuse me of being ashamed of her?" she looked at him expecting an answer
"She was upset"
"Well now I'm upset, she hurt me Sam" she looked into his eyes "I can change" she wiped her face "I'll fix this"
"Hey" he smiled at finally getting to wrap his arms around her, staring out into the night sky, the waves leaping up the side of the rocks, the moon full and bright "Listen, I found a chorus for our song" he smiled singing it to her
Ooh, so don't fix yourself, oh cause, nothing is broken, there's no one else, who could even come close,
Yeah, I know, I know you're a beautiful mess, but that's who you are, and that's who I love, I won't let you go,
If you could see the way I see you, you will know, you could never make me love you less
And yeah we're a beautiful mess, but that's who we are, and that's who I love
'Who I Love' by Guy Sebastian
"But right now, I don't feel like a beautiful mess"
"But she loves us, she says it every day, you say it every day" he rubbed her arm "And we made her feel comfortable enough to let us know what was wrong, and you're already fixing it"
"You always put a Sam Evans spin on things and make me feel better" she smiled up at him
"That's my job" he kissed her forehead, and got out the car "Who are these friends you're inviting, are they fit to be around my daughter?" he giggled
"I'll confirm him" she laughed, getting out to join him, on the bonnet "I'll might call the other one tomorrow, see if we can work something out for the weekend, it's been a while" she looked into his eyes "Thanks" they stood watching the night take over their piece of the world
"We've wasted so much time, 16 years is a long time to be in love with one person" he looked at her "Looking out at the sky like this, kind of reminds me of our first time"
"I hope you do remember our first time" she nudged him
"I worked hard enough for it" he laughed "I'm not even mad about that, it was worth the wait"
"You said you were going to love me for the rest of your damn life"
"Nothing's changed" he looked at her "I still love you"
"How much?" she smiled at him
"Enough to want you to be my wife"
"Really?" she asked shocked
"As I said, we've already wasted 16 years, and I love you"
"And I love you too, but marriage?" she smiled nervously
"Well, just putting it on our agenda"
"Okay" she smiled to herself, since they'd been split up, she'd never thought of herself as a Mrs anything, let alone Evans, but now it was on the table there was a feeling of excitement reeling through her body. "How do you fancy alfresco?" she looked at him smiling
"This place is turning into our red room" he looked around, there were only trees and rocks, one road in and they could see lights coming from half a mile away "I'm not even caring right now, I'm stock piled" he grabbed her waist and pulled her to him, they stood getting lost in each other until the distant lights dimmed "Babe we've got to get over this Asia being in the house thing, it is killing me" he held onto her hips letting himself relax
"Soon" she sat up on the bonnet
"Whatever happened to that Tina woman you were close to at Uni?" he asked putting his top back on
"She married some dancer guy, they went off to New York or somewhere" she smiled at the memory of her friend, "She's a good friend"
"You should link up with her, at least she's not a fake friend, see if she's free for that weekend"
"Tina was the other friend I was thinking to invite"
"See it's sorted" he smiled "It's only 8pm in New York, you could call right now if you wanted"
They hadn't spoken for well over two years, but they were the kind of friends that didn't need to live in each other's pockets. It could have been ten years ago since they'd hooked up, they would always revert back to Mega-talented Tina Cohen Chang and Diva-licious Mercy Jones, when it was them against the world.
They got back in the car, Sam sat watching Mercy make the call "T" she smiled at him as her friend answered the phone
"This is such a coincidence" Tina laughed "I was just talking about you to Mike"
"How are you?"
"I'm fine, I heard all that bull shit on media, about you and your new-found surrogate family"
"Actually, it's not all bull shit" Mercy laughed "Sam's sitting right here and Asia's at home with our Grandson"
"Cedes" she gasped "I need to meet them, when can we come see them?" she giggled "It's about time I got a visual on Sam"
"That's what I was calling for, we've moved to Santa Monica, and well Asia doesn't know any of my friends and while I was promising her she could meet them I sort of came to the conclusion that I had very few"
"Which friend did you call first" she giggled
"You of course" she laughed, looking at Sam again
"Right answer" she giggled "Well the reason I was thinking about you" she took a breath, "Was because Mike's doing a show at the MD in two weeks time, on Friday evening, and I was thinking to drop by and surprise you, but you're that busy, Mike was just suggesting that we call first"
"That would be great, there's space to stay, so get us tickets and we'll make it an evening" she looked up at Sam for confirmation, he smiled nodding his head
"Wouldn't it be great if we could get hold of Kurt?" Tina asked
"A real reunion" Mercy laughed "I've got an old contact number, I was going to try anyway, everything crossed"
"Everything" Tina laughed
"What time are you getting in?"
"About 9am Friday morning, you could meet us at the MD before 11am"
"Okay, we'll see you then, bye"
"Bye" Tina's voice faded
"Okay, let's get this show on the road" Sam smiled "Ready to go home?" he started the car
"Ready" she sighed, happy
August
Friday, Mercy went to meet Mike and Tina, took Tina and the bags to her house while Mike stayed for rehearsals. By the time they finished lunch it was time for Tina to go back at MD. Sam and Mercy went to the show and the evening finishing with celebratory cocktails before retiring for the night, it was past 2am, Mike was tired.
Saturday
Saturday morning started slow, Asia and Lathan were up way before everyone else, he lay in her arms gulping his milk down, eager to get to the other nipple, fussing for her taking her time to give it him
"Hi" Tina came walking into the lounge, smiling at the scene "You must be Asia"
"Yes" she smiled up at the woman
"And this must be the very handsome Lathan" she bent to touch his tiny hand "Congratulations"
"Thank you" Asia watched Tina sit on the empty couch opposite her, "So" she finally looked up from a fidgeting Lathan "How well do you know my Mom?"
"Best friends from college and for life, we haven't seen each other for like two years, but when we connected again yesterday, it was like it had only been a few days, honestly"
"What was she like in college?"
"Diva extraordinaire" Tina smiled at the memory "She'd always got a dream, and she needed it to come true, I'm glad it has"
"So, how did you two, hook up?"
"Would you believe we were in the nerds class, sorry let me rephrase that, we were in the class just below the nerd class" she laughed "Math was my thing, and your Mom must have read every book there was to read before she started school, she was so into books, research, we were that good, even the nerds snapped at us" she laughed "Between us we just had a theoretical or numerological answer for everything, boys liked that, so girls hated us" she laughed "Then of course, the dumb boys would feel intimidated, we couldn't win"
"Sounds like you had a great time"
"We did" she smiled "What about you?"
"I had a good life with my adopted parents for a long while, Mason lost his job and things went downhill from about 3 years ago, I found Mom and Dad at the right time"
"And it seems they found you at the right time too" she smiled "If you think your Mom and me were nerdy, wait till you meet your Uncle Kurt" she laughed "He was already in the group when we joined"
"How many of you are in this group?" she laughed
"Three" Tina laughed "I think you'll like him though, he comes across as strict but… just smile at him, putty" she waved her hand in the air "Take notes"
"Do you know my Dad?"
"Not really, I heard a lot of their conversations over the years, which I'll never tell, and I said hello to him a lot, but that was it, until last night"
"He's a cool Dad, and so is Mom" Asia smiled
"I know, I only hang with cool people"
"I've been looking for you" Mike walked into the room "Woke up in a strange house, my wife's gone…"
"I had to find my way too" Tina stretched her hand out for him "This is Mike my husband of the last 4 years, for whatever reason, he still loves me" she took his kiss
"Hi Asia" Mike smiled "Nice to meet you, and your parents" he looked at Lathan now sleeping in her arms "He's grand, congratulations"
"Thank you"
"And for the record it's me who can't believe she still loves me" he looked at his wife smiling
"Breakfast?" Sam came walking into the room asking everyone "Mercedes is sleeping in, she's had a rough week" he lied, they'd both had enough to drink last night, flirted with each other all evening and by the time they got to their room, she'd forgotten about Asia down the hallway. For the fourth time since they'd moved into their home, they'd actually had sex in their bed while their child was home, and he'd took full advantage
"We're easy, whatever you're having" Tina told him, watching him kiss Asia and Lathan before exiting the room
"We always have a full breakfast on a weekend, Dad's thing" Asia told them "He sort of expects company in the kitchen" she got up with Lathan still sleeping in her arms
Breakfast was ready by the time Mercy emerged, giving her apologies while she watched Asia jump up to grab her breakfast "Morning" she smiled "Where's that grandbaby of mine?" she looked around the kitchen, smiling at him asleep in his sleeper
"What time is Kurt coming?" Tina asked excited
"His flight lands at 11am, he should get here for about 1pm" she replied
"It will be good to all be together again" Tina smiled taking her hug, watching as she hugged and congratulated Mike yet again on his performance before ending up in the seat next to Sam in time for her breakfast, kissing her daughter by way of thanking her, smiling at Sam while she took his kiss
The afternoon came quickly bringing the arrival of Kurt with his new husband Blaine Anderson-Hummel and Blaine's 16 year old son Grant, from another life, Sam was gassed to see his friend from their old school back then turn up, it had been so many years since they'd seen each other, of course Mercy enquired about Rachel, she's been a friend back then. Asia was super excited for seeing someone else her age, plus he took so quickly to Lathan
The adults had gone outside, the patio was coming alive for the cook out, Asia took the warm up time to get Lathan changed and fed, so maybe he could take a nap while she had something to eat, and grab some adult company, by the name of Grant. He must have read her mind, because just then the lounge door opened and his cute slightly tanned head and mop of curly dark hair, complimented by deep brown eyes were peeping round it "Hi" he smiled
"Hi"
"I was missing my wing man, thought I'd come and check where he was, are you putting him to bed?"
"I'm trying to get him settled"
"I just heard my Dad tell your parents we're staying for 6 months, this is typical of them, they never tell me what's going on"
"Are you sad about that?"
"I am in a way, I didn't get to say bye to my friends in Boston" he frowned "Oh" he giggled "I forgot, I wasn't there long enough to make any" he tittered covering his mouth "Dad moves around, depending on where he's shooting movies, and Kurt, I haven't gotten around to giving him another name just yet, he writes and apparently he can do that anywhere, they're perfect for each other" he huffed "But the good thing that's happened, is that your parents have agreed we can stay here for the duration so.."
"Gosh you talk an awful lot" Asia frowned
"If my Dad's are going to be around for 6 months I suggest you get used to it, learn how to shout, or get some earplugs" he laughed "Can I?" he held his arm out wanting to hold Lathan
"Sure, but he's going to get grizzly soon, I'll need to get him to sleep in a bit" she passed him over and watched Grant sit on the couch with Lathan comfortably in his arms "So I guess you'll be going to school while you're here?"
"I guess I will" he sat staring at Lathan, gently rocking him until his eyes finally closed "I've got the knack" he whispered putting him in the sleeper.
"They agreed for me to go back to school after the holidays too" she smiled at Lathan settling "We can be travel buddies"
"I hope so, I don't know anyone else around here"
"I say travel buddies, but they have a roaster to pick me up and drop me off, I'd much more prefer the bus" she giggled
"Maybe we can negotiate something" he smiled, grabbing her hand, and Lathan's sleeper, to make their way to the others
The BBQ happened but it might as well have not, for all the attention Grant and Asia gave it that night, Sam sat looking worried, they'd just agreed for their friends and their 16 year old son to stay for 6 months, but what was brewing on the lawn didn't seem like it was going to take 6 days to turn into something.
"I'm not too sure about Grant and Asia" Sam sat on their bed that night finally able to air his frustration about the situation
"You need to make your mind up and stick to it" Mercy laughed at him
"Things change by the day"
"Alex, which I agree by the way, was too old" she huffed "Lathan we both agree needs to stay lost, and now she's found someone her own age, and we know the stock, you still have something to say"
"And I'll keep saying it until I feel comfortable enough not to" he kissed her forehead "If you don't mind"
"I don't mind" she grinned "As long as you tell yourself that at some point you're going to have to accept her choice"
"Thanks for that snippet of reality" he frowned "You need to be punished" he smirked "Bathroom" he nodded for her to get there
Sunday was filled with more reminiscing and by early evening Tina and Mike left for home, Mercy and Kurt took them to the airport, and Monday morning they started preparing for a different kid of family life.