Hi, everyone! Hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving! Chapters will be a little longer now since I'm not chopping them up that much. Also, thanks to those who wished me a happy birthday! I hope this gives y'all some more of those Samcedes lovey-dovey feels you've been wanting! Enjoy :)
Mercedes's eyes flickered open as she awoke. Taking a deep breath in, she rolled on her opposite side to an empty bed. She wiped the sleep out of her eyes and began thinking back on the previous night when someone's voice brought her out of it.
"How'd you sleep?"
She looked to the door where Sam was leaning up against the doorframe. "Good. Really good." She smiled a little and sat up, crossing her legs. "You?"
He walked over and sat beside her on the bed. "Amazing." He sneak-kissed her lightly.
She scrunched her face. "You've brushed your teeth. You'd kiss me knowing I have morning breath?"
"Honestly, I've been waiting to wake up to you in my bed and kiss you for over five years; I'd kiss you if you had been eating rice pudding and brussel sprouts all day." He explained, mentioning his least favorite foods. "Morning breath means nothing to me."
"Oh, well, in that case." She rose to her knees and leaned over, resting her hands on his shoulders and planting a few more kisses on him. She was 100% against morning breath kissing, but it wasn't so bad when she was the only one with morning breath.
After the kisses, he scooted himself over to sit with his against the headboard and brought her with him. She leaned into him and he wrapped her arm around her. "I have to go to the school to get a couple of things done, but if you want to stay here, I should be back in time for you to get back home and ready for the brunch. Or I could just take you home now if you want."
Mercedes traced circles on his leg. "Actually, do you mind if I go with you? I kind of want some time to walk the halls and stuff. For old times sake."
"Yeah, sure." Sam nodded.
She stared up at him for a minute. He looked like he wanted to say something. "What?" She asked.
He shook his head. "It's nothing. I just…" He trailed off.
She looked at him expectantly.
"About what we said last night, about not telling anyone—"
"Sam." Mercedes cautioned.
"No, I know what you said. But do you think maybe I could tell Will?"
"Absolutely not." Mercedes shook her head.
"Look, I know it may seem weird or pathetic given that he's my former teacher but he's one of my closest friends. Not just spiritually or whatever but, like, geographically. We talk a lot about relationships and stuff and I don't want to lie to him about this."
"Sam, we talked about this." Mercedes sat up and turned to face him. "This isn't like when we were in high school or even after. I have a different life now and a career to think about. That means a different and more fragile reputation, it means that people are watching me intensely all the time, and it means that I have certain people I have to talk to before I make any big moves. That includes announcing my new boyfriend. And I don't want to have to bring anything up when in the next few weeks we're going to be long-distance anyways."
"So, what, people will just never know about us?" He frowned.
Mercedes closed her eyes and sighed, seeing that she put her foot in her mouth. "It's not that. I promise." She took his hand in hers. "And when the time is right, we will tell people. You'll be allowed to scream it from the rooftops and write it in the sky." She smiled a little. "But another part of my life is that I already struggle to keep my personal life personal. I just want to savor that part of this for a bit, okay?"
"Okay," Sam said. "I understand that. I don't really get it, but I understand. But Will's not some blogger or crazed fan on social media."
Mercedes put her hand up before he could even finish his thought. "No, Sam," She groaned. She started off the bed to go get ready.
"He's our friend and mentor and quite honestly," He quickly jumped out to grab her gently and bring her back to the bed, "he's the entire reason we ever even met. He's a private guy, you know that. You don't have to worry about it getting out to anyone."
"How many times do I have to tell you no before you just accept it?"
"How about this?" Sam sat on the edge of the bed next to her. "I'll tell him that we had dinner last night and that you said you still loved me. Yeah? Not the complete truth, but it's not a lie, either. Please?" He pouted a little.
Mercedes looked over at her boyfriend. Damn, She thought. Those eyes are going to be the death of me. She took a deep breath and shook her head reluctantly before forcing out one word. "Fine."
Sam got up and began his personal celebration.
"Not so fast." She pointed at him. "You can tell him that we had dinner last night and that I said I may or may not," She emphasized the 'may not,' "be looking for someone. That's it, Sam. Nothing that even hints at the fact that we're together."
"Totally. I've got you. Don't even worry about it," Sam said excitedly. He jumped back onto the bed and laid against the headboard again.
Mercedes rolled her eyes and smiled at his enthusiasm. "Okay, I'm gonna go get ready. Just give me 15 minutes." Mercedes went to leave the bed but was pulled back into place.
"Not yet," Sam said. "Just a few more minutes of this." He kissed her on the forehead and embraced her firmly.
She grinned and looked up at him. She reached up to give him a peck on the cheek while he turned his face slightly at the last minute to turn it into a kiss on the lips. She winced in disgust for him. "Oh, ew."
He just held onto her and laughed.
Pulling into McKinley's parking lot, Mercedes got hit with an immediate wave of nostalgia, "I've never had so many memories flood back at once in my life." She smiled a little.
"Just wait until we get in. The place hasn't changed a bit."
With the parking lot being as empty as it usually was on a Saturday, they decided they were in the clear to share a few kisses before getting out of the truck. They walked into the school and Sam led them to the front office, where he told Mercedes to wait outside.
He walked in and spoke to the receptionist with a smile on his face. "Donna, how's my favorite administrative assistant doing this morning?"
Donna smiled back at him. "I'm doing great. And how's my favorite choir director doing?"
He put on the charm. "Feeling like a million bucks." He looked around as if he was about to reveal classified information and leaned in to whisper to her. "Actually, today, I'm feeling more like a million and one."
Donna chuckled. "Well, that's great, Sam. Principal Shcuester's right in his office waiting for you."
"Awesome." Sam clasped his hands together. "If you could do a favor for me, I've got a friend that I would love for you to keep company while I chat it up with Will. Is that okay?"
"Of course, bring them in!"
Sam went back out to the hallway and brought Mercedes back with him, "Donna, this is Mercedes. McKinley alumna, class of 2012."
"Oh, I know who this is," Donna said. "Who could forget a face and a voice as wonderful as yours?"
Mercedes blushed. "Thank you. How are you? It's so nice to see you again."
"I'm doing well, sweetheart. I'm doing well."
Sam turned to Mercedes, "I'm going to go talk to Will for a second and I'm going to come out and get you as a surprise, okay?" He didn't wait for an answer before looking at Donna, "Take care of my girl, Mrs. Donna."
"You know I will, Sam." She smiled.
Mercedes bit back the smile that wanted to creep out when she heard Sam referring to her as his girl.
Sam entered Will's office, closing the door behind him. "Sam Evans, at your liege," He said stately.
Will laughed a little. "Morning, Sam. Have a seat."
Sam did as told. "So, the kids and I got together and came up with a set list for the First Day of Class Assembly. I sent it to you in an email yesterday."
Will nodded affirmatively. "I got it, checked it out, everything looks great. I can't wait to see and hear you guys' performance. Now, I wanted to go over the Glee budget you submitted. There are a couple of red flags."
Sam took a deep breath, preparing his rehearsed defense. He had a feeling it would go this way. "I get that it's a bunch more expensive than last year's but we won our fourth National Championship in a row. And next year we're going to Moscow for Internationals. If any club in this school has earned a budget increase it's us," He said. "And the squad we've had this year is the best we've ever had. Even better than my junior year when we had Rachel and Santana and Mike Chang—"
"I know. Which is why I'm concerned about these numbers," Will started. "Those Russian teams are backed by oil billionaires and they aren't handcuffed by all the regulations we are. If you honestly want to compete with those squads, you need more rehearsal time which means at least one more mentor. And you need all new costumes. And some 88 millimeter confetti canons." He laughed slightly. "There isn't near enough in your budget for that. I can't approve this unless it's fifteen percent higher." He smiled.
Sam's jaw dropped. "Seriously?"
Will shrugged. "My hands are tied, Sam. Never forget our motto—"
"Imagination is more important than knowledge," The younger man said, still in awe. "I am living proof of that."
"I keep telling you, if you're gonna dream, dream BIG." Will half-chided. He sat back in his chair, shifting to a less formal topic of conversation. "Hey, how is that girl you were dating?"
Finally, the part of the conversation Sam was waiting on. "Which one? The one from Jamba Juice?" He shook his head. "Didn't take." He sat up in his seat eagerly. "I did have dinner with Mercedes last night though. She flew in for the dedication."
This piqued Will's interest. "Is she single?"
"Yes, and she said she thinks she's ready to settle down." He smirked, intentionally ignoring the latter portion of what Mercedes told him to say. What she didn't know wouldn't hurt her. He slowly rose from his chair. "Speaking of which," He quickly went out into the office lobby, bringing Mercedes back with him, "guess who decided to join me this morning?"
Mercedes smiled widely and threw her arms out in front of her as she walked over to her former teacher. "Mr. Schue!"
Will let out a surprised laugh and rose to meet and hug her. "Oh, my goodness. Mercedes."
The two hugged tightly, not having seen one another since the last time Mercedes came to McKinley.
"How are you?" He asked. "You look incredible."
"I'm good, Mr. Schue. I'm really good. I'm so happy to be back at McKinley. I really haven't come here enough."
"We're happy to have you. And please, we've been through this. Call me Will."
"I'll try, but no promises." She laughed.
"Hey," Sam stepped in, "why don't you two talk for a bit? Mercedes, I'll be in the choir room if you need me. I shouldn't be long."
"Alright. I'll catch up with you," Mercedes said.
Will welcomed Mercedes to take a seat as Sam left. "Sam told me you flew in last night. Frankly, I'm surprised you're here and not still in the bed reeling from jetlag."
"Yeah, I was pretty tired," She admitted. "Still am, actually. But I wanted to come in and see the school by myself for a bit. Maybe go to the auditorium."
"Well everything should be open and unlocked, so feel free to roam to your heart's content."
They talked for a little while longer until Will got a call. Mercedes excused herself, telling him that she'll see him at the dedication. She started toward the choir room but changed course for the auditorium halfway. Memory after memory came flooding back again, just like Sam said they would. She closed her eyes and breathed in the place. She found herself standing in front of the memorial plaques on the wall.
It was tough watching everyone from the New Directions living out their dreams without their leader. He was their biggest supporter. All of them. No matter their history or how he was supposed to treat them according to the rules of high school, Finn didn't care. That was the one thing she loved most about him.
She must've been staring at the plaques for a long time, because Sam slightly interrupted her thoughts. "Will said I might find you here," He said from the other side of backstage.
She turned around. "Yeah, I was just," She exhaled and turned to look back at the plaque, "reminiscing. Thinking about him."
He stood beside her and interlaced their fingers. "I do that a lot, too."
"You know, I have to hand it to you, Sam. I don't know how you do it."
"What?"
"I walked down that hallway and as soon as I stepped into this auditorium, I felt a shift in the atmosphere or something," She said. "It's like you can feel him in here. I can barely stand to be in here for twenty minutes and you, you're in here everyday."
"Oh, there's never a day where I'm in here that I don't feel him." He shrugged. "Some days are harder than others," He said simply. "There are times when we're working on a classic rock song and you know he freaking loved arranging and singing those. And there are times when I have a student that I know he'd be the perfect person to help get on the straight and narrow." He looked at his girlfriend and noticed her eyes getting glassy. He removed his hand from hers and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, prompting her to snake her arm around his waist and lean her head on his chest. "I just have to re-accept the fact that he's not here. But then," His tone changed, "there are the days when I feel like I can hear his voice in here. Telling me how good of a job I'm doing with these kids and how proud he is of me." He squeezed her shoulder when he heard her sniffling. "And I think working here and being here everyday has helped me, really. Because somewhere along the way I started having more of those days than the others."
Mercedes cleared her eyes of the tears that never quite fell. "Maybe I can get to that place over the next couple of months."
"Maybe." Sam kissed her on her forehead and brought her in for a full hug. When they separated, he interlocked their fingers again. "Let's go ahead and get you home so you can get ready."
They started walking out of the auditorium.
"Please, no." Mercedes threw her head back tiredly. "I'm still not ready to see my mom yet."
"I'm surprised she hasn't called you asking where you are. She must not know you're with me."
"What does that mean?"
"Just that she doesn't like me." He only half-joked.
Mercedes rolled her eyes. "My mom likes you just fine, Sam."
"Sure, as your friend, maybe. But as your boyfriend—"
"Which she doesn't know you are yet." She interrupted. "Remember what we said."
Sam nodded. "I remember." He wasn't willing to go with it for very long, but he figured it was only fair given their current circumstances.
"Great. So, your house, then?" Mercedes smiled.
"My house it is. You can finally meet Jr."
"Hold up." Mercedes stopped in her tracks in the middle of the parking lot. "This isn't your way of telling me you have a kid that you've managed to keep a secret from me for the past few years, right?"
Sam stopped himself before he got too far in front of her and laughed. "No, not quite. Jr. is my dog. A chocolate labradoodle and the apple of my eye after you, of course." He opened the passenger side door of his truck and helped her in.
Mercedes smiled to herself hearing him say that. Eventually, she was going to have to stop letting the simplest things this man said have such a big effect on her. But today wasn't that day.
As they arrived in Sam's neighborhood, Sam figured he'd warn Mercedes about the impending attack, "I have a doggy door and Jr. likes to greet me when I pull into the driveway, so just beware."
Mercedes saw that he was right. Before Sam's truck even parked, Jr. was running enthusiastically around the yard waiting for him. Sam got out of the truck and said hello to the dog before going around to get Mercedes.
"Mercedes, meet Jr." Sam bent down to whisper to the dog. "I hope you love her as much as I do; you're two of my most important girls now."
Mercedes looked up at Sam while the dog sniffed her out and, quickly deciding that she liked her, began jumping up at her. She frowned as she pet her. "Girls? Jr.'s not a boy?"
"Nope. She's 100% bonafide bi—"
"You're not about to say that." She stared him down as he put his keys in the door.
"You're exactly right, I'm not." He instantly redirected.
"Didn't think so." She walked in the door, Jr. hot on her trail. "So what's up with Jr.? Why give her a boy's name?"
"Hey, not fair, plenty of women are Jr.s." Sam defended himself. "Serena Williams' daughter. Florence Henderson. Wasn't she a junior?"
"What?" Mercedes asked, amused. "I mean, Alexis Ohanian, yes. She's a junior. But that's still very rare."
"Queen Elizabeth II! Who's more 'Jr.' than her?"
"Oh, my gosh."
"Anyways, I'm keeping Jr. because I named her after someone very special to me."
"Who is she named after, Sam?" She reluctantly asked as she sat on the living room couch.
"Our dear old friend McConaughey." He plopped down beside her and gave… McConaughey Jr. some love, scratching the back of her ears.
Mercedes had to collect herself and her laughter that threatened to burst before asking. "You named-" She had to quell her overflowing amusement once more. "You named your female dog after our male dog that you named after Matthew McConaughey?"
"Uh, yeah." Sam shrugged as if it was obvious.
"Okay. I mean, that's," She tried finding the words, but she couldn't. She laughed harder than she had laughed in quite some time.
Sam didn't understand. "What? Is that just so comical that I wanted to remember him?"
"No, no." She put her hand on his shoulder sympathetically while she struggled to reel herself back in. "It's not, Babe. I just..." She snickered and cleared her throat to reset. "It's not," Her serious tone returned, "but does she have any other name that doesn't have to do with Matthew McConaughey?"
"Her breeder named her Claire. Like a chocolate eclair. But she prefers Jr. and doesn't always answer to Claire, so." He looked at her as if he had proved something.
"Alright, then. I'm going to try and get her to a place where she feels comfortable answering to both." She turned to the dog that was sitting in between their feet. "Isn't that right, sweet girl? We're going to call you Claire. Yes we are." Her voice raised while she and Claire played together. "Yes we are."
Sam sat back and watched on as they played. She never played with McConaughey like this. Maybe it was because he didn't exactly have her permission to bring him home. But she seemed to love Jr. already and it made his heart swell to see them getting along so well.
"I've really missed you, you know," He said.
Mercedes looked up from the floor, where she had migrated during her play session. She got up and gave him a sweet kiss. Before she pulled away he took her by the waist and pulled her down onto the couch. She squealed as he brought her down and kissed her all over her face playfully before settling on her lips with a loud smack.
"I've missed you too." She smiled as she stared into his eyes.
Sam smiled back. "Let's go get ready for this brunch."
The '12-'13 New Directions decided to go to brunch together before the dedication to have a little more time to catch up. At the brunch, it was clear that they were no modest crew. As the group and individual hugs went around, Mercedes could see that everyone was dressed in their best brunch apparel. Even Brittany, who had been wearing Santana's new lingerie and swimsuit line every single place she went.
"It's nice to have the support, but if she didn't wear regular clothes at least to this thing, I was going to actively lose my mind," Santana said as she, Quinn, Mercedes, and Tina were talking outside of the restaurant.
Quinn smiled. "Well, maybe this can serve as a warning for the next time you decide to create a clothing line so obscene Victoria's Secret won't even sell it."
"Please." Santana rolled her eyes. "Every single one of their 'angels' wouldn't know sexy if it hit them in the face and eating air sandwiches for every meal."
"Oh, my goodness." Mercedes shook her head and chuckled, shocked. Ever since she took the illustrations of her clothing to VS and they turned her down, she'd been pretty bitter about it. "Would it kill you to just leave them alone? They have nothing to do with the fact that your line isn't safe for normal human consumption."
"Yeah, and," Tina chimed in, "it's not like that company didn't just pave the way for something even greater."
"Look, all I'm saying is that VS and every single one of their super tiny models are overrated and outdated and they've been making the same stuff since what, like, the late 90s? It's 2020. People are getting sexier and they need the clothes to match." Santana shrugged. "But you're right, Tina, joke's on them because who wouldn't want to work with Rihanna?"
The girls gave one another a look that said 'touche' and moved to talk about something else.
"So, Tina," Mercedes smiled at her, "how does it feel to be a super famous actress now?" She flipped her hair like a celebrity on the red carpet.
Tina laughed. "Well, I'm not super famous yet, but Artie and I just started the festival circuit and I've already gotten some directors interested in my talents, so maybe you'll be seeing me on the big screen sooner than you think—"
"Okay, great, so just to recap," Santana interjected, "Quinn Fabray is the best psychiatrist in training this side of the Mississippi, I'm currently living my best life as a social media mogul and ever so fresh fashion designer, and Cohen-Chang is about to be presenting at the Oscars with the best of them. Now, there are so many things we could be asking you about—"
"Like what you're going to be doing now after your tour." Quinn offered.
Tina went next. "Or which magazine cover you're going to be gracing next."
"Or even about the arrival of your second album that critics and fans alike are already oh-so eagerly awaiting." Santana put her hands together and smiled. "But I think that there is one thing," She put her index finger up and looked between the other two girls. "One very specific thing that the three of us," She used the raised finger to gesture to herself, Tina, and Quinn. "All care about immensely more than whatever new celebrity thing you've got going on and that is when in the hell did you and The Hormone Monster get back together?"
Well, Mrs. Lopez certainly didn't pull any punches, but what else did we expect from her? In the next chapters, we'll see what Mercedes has to say about this accusation and get to meet some more of the Jones family! I love reading y'all's reviews, so keep them coming!
