This was intended to be the prologue to a much longer piece - but I just can't seem to get all that together. So here's what I've got - whatever else I may or may not ever write, I don't see this part changing.
June 2020, Tony Awards Night
"Then why is he still texting me?"
Mercedes asked the question of no one in particular, and really, of no one at all, but Blaine turned and shrugged his shoulders at her anyway.
"Honestly, Mercedes, I don't know why he keeps dating all these random girls when he's clearly still hung up on you," Blaine said quietly and that made it Mercedes' turn to shrug.
"That's Sam, isn't it?" she said lightly. She didn't want to get into this conversation now, not on Rachel's big night and not with Sam's best friend, who was the only one who made her wonder if they suspected anything.
Blaine studied her for a moment and then Rachel was calling them in and the moment, thankfully, was lost.
Chaos reigned for a little while and then Rachel and Jesse finally got out the door and things calmed down and Mercedes was able to find a quiet corner to step away and pull out her phone and send a text to Sam.
"Another new girlfriend, huh?" she sent and smiled when his response came almost immediately.
"Uhoh. Guess my wife doesn't like that, does she?"
"No," she texted back. "No, she does not."
The responding buzz was longer than a text would be and she looked at the screen to realize he was calling. She glanced around, confirming that everyone was otherwise occupied before stepping into the hallway and away from the party to answer.
"Hey," she started to say but couldn't even get the whole word out before Sam was talking.
"Good thing it's a fake girlfriend, then, huh?"
"A very good thing," Mercedes replied softly.
"Should I remind you that the secrecy is still your idea?"
Mercedes sighed. "I know. Just a couple more months – we'll all be together at the auditorium dedication and we'll come clean."
"I know." They were both quiet for a moment before Sam spoke again. "I miss you."
"I miss you too," she replied, the wistfulness in his voice stabbing at her heart. "But I'll be there tomorrow – and we'll have the whole summer."
"Summer is our season," he said and then yelped, "Ow! Daniel Schuester, that was NOT cool!"
Mercedes giggled. "Are you on Schue kid duty?"
"Yes. And that one just appeared like a ninja and tried to take out my kneecap. Jesus," he grumbled. "And you're just laughing at me."
Mercedes couldn't help it, she giggled again. "Poor baby. I'll kiss it better tomorrow."
"In that case, I should've told you he kicked me somewhere else," Sam shot back and she could hear the grin in his voice.
"Sam Evans!" she said, a little louder than she meant to, her guard dropping in the face of the images in her mind – sweet ones of Sam running around after Will and Emma's pack of young children, adding fuel to the far-off dreams she had, of Sam and other children, ones they'd create together, which, naturally led to the slightly less sweet – or maybe sweet in a different way – images of just how those children would come to be. She hadn't been back in Lima in almost a month and she suddenly found herself missing Sam, being in his arms, in his – well, their – bed, desperately.
"Is that Sam?" Blaine said from behind her and she jumped about a foot in the air.
"Jesus, Blaine, don't sneak up on a person like that," Mercedes said, hand pressed to her heart, her mind racing, wondering, how much had he heard?
"Sorry," Blaine apologized. "Just wanted to say hi if it was Sam."
"Hey Blaine!"
Sam spoke the words loudly enough that they both could hear them and Blaine shook his head. "Hey man!"
"Listen, I better let you get back to the mini-Schues," Mercedes said, bringing the phone back up to her ear. "I'll talk to you soon."
"Love you," Sam said, so quietly she almost couldn't hear it, so she felt certain Blaine hadn't and she smiled.
"Same," she replied, knowing he would understand her not saying the actual words, and then ended the call and turned to look at Blaine, who was studying her again.
"You talk to Sam a lot?" he asked, curiously.
Mercedes shrugged. "A normal amount, I guess. We're friends, we've always been friends."
Blaine shook his head. "Sorry. I just – every time we turn around, there's another new girlfriend and yet they never last. At the risk of sounding like a romantic, I wish you guys were able to figure things out."
Mercedes shook her head back at him. "Maybe one day we will," she said simply and steered him back to the living room.
After writing this, I realized I kind of really have a mild obsession with the secret wedding trope when it comes to Samcedes. I'm not entirely sure why, but I think a lot of it is that while professionally, Mercedes thrives on the attention to her voice and performance skills, she does not like that attention on her personal life. I can see her feeling that the marriage vows are just for her and Sam (and God) and no one else needs to be involved. Also, since canonically we know that Kurt, Blaine, Rachel, Artie and Brittany all know about the waiting for sex until marriage thing, it stands to reason that basically all of their friends know (since NONE of these fools know how to keep quiet on anything) and they just do not want to deal with all their friends' knowing looks and innuendo and teasing during the planning process and on the actual wedding day/night itself. I can completely see them being like back in medieval times and threatening them with a bedding ceremony. (in which at bare minimum the newlyweds are led to their marital bed by friends and family and in some cases the actual consummation being witnessed by same) So yeah.
Anyway. Hope you enjoyed this. Maybe I'll get the full story written one day!