So Mercedes, I'm going to beat around the bush here. I think you're very aware of the status of your relationship and that your views on it are very strong. Some might even say unwavering."

In her chair, Mercedes played with her fingers, something she did when she was nervous. "Okay."

"I want to talk about your mom. From an outsider's perspective and based on what you and Sam have told me in both your individual and couple's sessions, it seems that your mother is a recurring theme in a lot of your issues."

"What? My mom and I are on the mend now. We've talked about this already."

"That may be true, but so many of the issues that are or have been present in your relationship with Sam could very well be traced back to your mom. Why do you think it is that you broke off your engagement or moved out of Sam's house? Possibly most importantly, why do you think that you always want to keep your relationship a secret?"

"I've already explained each of those in our sessions. Do you want me to go over it again?"

Dr. Green nodded. "If you don't mind."

Mercedes adjusted her position in her seat. "I broke off our engagement because I realized that we had problems we weren't confronting, I moved back in with my parents because I couldn't handle being with Sam—"

"No, I asked why you moved out of Sam's house. Not why you moved in with your parents."

"What's the difference?"

"Well, of course, if you're moving out of Sam's place, you're going to move back in with your parents. Free room and board, homecooked meals that you don't have to prepare yourself, and there may not be housekeeping like any of the hotels in the area, but they're the people who raised you. Seems like a no-brainer that you'd move back in with them. What I'm asking about is the decision to move out in the first place. What got you there?"

"What got me there was the fact that it was too hard to be around Sam all the time. But with your help, I've been working on it and I'm mostly on the other side of that now."

"That's nice to hear, but you could've moved out a week after your fight with Sam. You could've moved out the next day. You could've even packed your things that night and went to your parents' house. But you didn't. What was the difference between the version of you that was going to stay and the version of you that decided to leave?"

"Aside from what I just told you?"

"Yes. There's something else."

She sucked her teeth and sat silently in her chair. She knew what Dr. Green was talking about, but she didn't even want to entertain the thoughts that came with it.

"Do you want to talk about something else?"

"Not if it's just going to circle back to my mom."

Out of options, Dr. Green shrugged. "I don't know what to tell you, Mercedes. I can't help that I'm noticing patterns and potential roots of your problems. I can only go off of what you and Sam tell me in our sessions. For this to be productive, we both have to be candid with each other. That includes you telling me anything I may need to know to help you and me coming at you with whatever it is that I gather from what I'm given. That's the bare minimum of our jobs here. From what you've told me, I believe your mother may be a severe obstacle in your entire life, not just in your relationship. Now, if you have anything to tell me that could lead me to anyone else being a vital source in the issues you've come here for, please tell me and we can talk about that instead of this."

Mercedes didn't have anything else on anyone else. "My mom talked to me about moving out."

Dr. Green nodded, ready to move on. "She told you that you always had a place with her and your dad, correct?"

"Yeah."

"And just a few weeks shy of that, she went to Sam and told him that he should end things with you."

"She did."

"Does that not seem the slightest bit convenient? Or like maybe she took advantage of your emotional state?"

"Hold up, are you calling my mom manipulative? Because that's not who she is."

"I'm not calling her anything." Dr. Green put her hands up. "I'm just saying that it seems… opportunistic, for lack of a better word, that she brought up something that, from what you've told me, you weren't even thinking about at the time. You never planned to move in with your parents, even though you had more than enough reasons to. You would've been able to be there for your dad, you would've had some time off from Sam, and you wouldn't have felt the slightest bit out of place because you grew up there. But still, you weren't in that headspace until Michelle said something. And the thing that she brought up lined up pretty well with the goals she had when she talked to Sam a few weeks prior."

"Okay, so let's just say for a second that you're right. What am I supposed to do with this information? I'm not cutting my mom out of my life."

"I'm not asking you to. I never would. But with this information, you may see that it's worth examining her motives and her actions. You may find that there have been situations where you interpreted things one way when they could've been interpreted another way. You may notice red flags that you missed before."

"And you think that'll turn up something?"

"Honestly? Yes, I do. And judging by the status of your relationship with her since you moved out, I'd be willing to bet that her issues with you and Sam lie less with you and more with Sam. Obviously, I can't say this for certain for various reasons and it's only an educated guess. That being said, I've been studying people and their behavior for some time now so my guess is very thoroughly educated. If she can get you to move out of your home that you shared with the man you want to spend the rest of your life with, engagement or not, and make nice with you afterward, something tells me that her focus is on keeping you away from him."

"What do I do if I find something?"

Dr. Green smiled a little. "Document your findings and report them in our next session."

Mercedes eyed the woman across from her quizzically. "Okay, now let's say that you're wrong. Your guess wasn't accurate and Sam and my mom only have issues because they've never gotten to know one another well enough to really understand each other. What if their problems were initially imaginary but they continued adding onto them and now it's this big mess?"

"Is that what you think is happening?"

"I've spent a lot of time thinking about it."

"Alright. In that case, I would suggest that you try to get Sam and Michelle in a room together. Physically or metaphorically. Try to guide them into one another's paths so that they can have some sort of bonding time. If what you believe is true, then a little push from you will likely be just the thing that they need to settle any beef they may have. Thanksgiving is this week. Do you have any plans?"

She shook her head. "Not currently. Dinner with our families, but nothing special."

"Well, maybe that would be a great time for the two of them to deepen their connection. It's certainly worth a shot."

Mercedes entered McKinley's administration office, smiling at Donna, who let her know Will was ready to see her in his office. With a knock and permission to enter, Mercedes opened the door.

"Mercedes." Will smiled. "Top of the morning to you."

Mercedes smiled back, deciding not to visibly cringe at his expression. "Morning, Will. What's going on? It's been a while since I've been called to the principal's office. I almost felt like a teenager again when I got your email."

He laughed. "Don't worry, you're not in any trouble. Close the door and please, have a seat. I want to talk to you about the glee clubs. Sam's told me you've been a tremendous help with them lately and that they wouldn't have done so well at Internationals without you."

"I wish I could've helped them do a little better," she admitted.

"Are you kidding me? 6th place out of over 80 countries? I think that that's pretty incredible for a group of first-timers."

"That means a lot coming from you Mr. Schue." She caught herself. "Will." She was still getting used to the first name basis thing, even after all these years.

"Well, I hope it means enough for you to do me a huge favor. A couple of huge favors, actually."

"What might those be?"

"As you know, the current football and basketball coach is going to be leaving us in the next few weeks. He's also the assistant coach for our baseball team. Now, I've been searching and searching for months and still not been able to find a good replacement for him. But I think Sam could be just the man I need. I want to bring him on as coach and I need your help to do it."

"You need me? What, to convince him? I'm not sure he'll need much convincing; this sounds like something he'll be jumping at the chance to do."

"I will need your help to convince him, yes, but that's not all. I want to—"

"Wait, if he's going to be the actual coach? Sam has an Associates in Education, he can barely substitute teach in most states. Surely there's some kind of Bachelor's degree or licensure he needs to become an actual coach."

Will nodded. "I'm willing to make concessions for him for the school, but the state requires that all coaches have certain credentials. What I can do, though, is hire him provisionally as long as he's accepted into and enrolled in a licensure program, which is why I pulled some strings and got him a spot in Ohio State's accelerated coaching program if he can successfully complete the entrance exam."

Mercedes raised her brows, shocked. "Must've been a lot of strings."

"More than I care to admit, yes." He laughed to himself.

"I still don't know what else you need me for, though."

Will sat up in his chair a bit, readying his pitch. "The position may be provisional, but Sam's still going to have all the hours and responsibilities of a full-time coach and on top of that, he'll be in school until he gets his certification. He'll still be able to help with the glee clubs, but his availability to them will be pretty limited. Especially for the first couple of months."

"I see where this is going." She smiled some. "You want me to take over the glee clubs until you can find someone else. I'll do it, but-"

"Not quite." He interrupted her. "I want you to take over the glee clubs. Period."

She almost choked. "Whoa, Mr. Schue."

"Will."

"Whoa, Will," she said using the same tone.

"I know, I know. Your work won't be for nothing, though. I want to bring you onto payroll as a full-time employee. You're already here most of the day every day, now you'll be getting paid for it. You'll have a job right here in Lima."

"But Will, I already have a job in L.A. What's more, I have a life in L.A. The only reason I've been here this long is that—"

"Your dad, I know."

"He's slated to be in full remission by Christmas. I plan on moving back to Cali around the new year."

"I understand that. But Mercedes, there's no one who's equipped to help these kids right now the way that you are. I mean, before you got here, I hadn't even considered giving Sam the coaching position because I didn't think anyone within a 500-mile radius was worthy of coaching these glee clubs. Then, you came and all but transformed those students in a matter of months."

She placed her hands on her chest. "Will, I'm honored and appreciative, but concerned."

"Okay. Sam's program will last about a year. It's completely online except for once a month when he has to go to OSU to complete his exams. Give me half that. Six months to find someone to direct the glee clubs."

Mercedes gave him a wary look.

"You know what? Take Thanksgiving break to think about it. You have plans?"

"Yes. Sam has somehow convinced me to agree to invite both our families to his house."

"Great! So, you'll be with your families, catching up, bonding, having a grand ole time."

"You don't know our families," she said to the floor beneath her.

"What was that?"

She jerked her head up. "Nothing."

"Just casually bring it up over the break and we'll talk again first thing Monday morning. How's that sound?"

She crossed her arms, sighing, "I'll have to talk to my manager and a few other people to see if it would be possible for me to stay a little longer. But I'd have to split my time between here and L.A. I know that for sure."

"If that's the case, then we will sort that out."

After a few moments, she gave in. "Fine. I'll think about it and get back to you on Monday."

He jumped up from his chair. "Amazing! Thank you so much, Mercedes." He rounded his desk with his arms outstretched.

"Uh uh," she said as she stood from her chair. "Don't thank me yet, Mr. Schue. I haven't yes yet and there's a good chance I won't." She started walking out of his office.

"I'm putting it into the universe that you're going to," he called out to her.

She smiled as she entered the hallway. "Good luck with that."

After work that day, Sam and Mercedes cuddled up on his couch watching a movie. Well, he was watching it. She was on her phone texting back and forth with her manager about this Will situation.

"Are you and your phone going to be ready for Thursday?" He asked her.

She rolled her eyes. "You better hope you're ready for Thursday. It's going to be a mess, you know."

"Oh, no, it is not."

"Yes, it is! Your mom and my mom sitting at a dinner table together. My mom will say something she shouldn't say and then your mom will sit there, biting her tongue and being the saint that she is. After dinner, it'll be your mom telling you to break up with me instead of mine."

He laughed. "Stop being so dramatic. You know my mom already loves you as if she raised you. One dinner with your mom is not going to do anything to change that."

"Whatever," she said as her phone went off, signaling another text. "So, what are you most worried about other than our mothers biting each other's heads off?"

"Let's see. My dad is probably going to be an embarrassment for sure. Before you started putting out music, the man never intentionally listened to R&B a day in his life. Now, he's a self-proclaimed expert not only on all things Mercedes Jones, but all things R&B and Soul."

She laughed out loud.

"You're laughing, but I'm so serious, Mercedes," His voice was evidence of his distress. "He can tell you every single one of your accomplishments, when and where they happened, he probably even has record of where he was when he witnessed them. It's ridiculous."

"I think it's sweet that your dad's a superfan. I don't know many of my superfans."

"It's not sweet. It's humiliating. Then, there's going to be your brother."

She looked up from her phone and frowned. "What about my brother?"

"I mean, we haven't spoken since we broke off the engagement."

"You haven't?" She asked, sitting up.

Sam shook his head. "Not really, no. There's definitely going to be some tension between us."

"But he knows we're all good now, right? So you two should be fine."

"No. He doesn't trust me as far as he can throw me right now."

Hearing this, Mercedes put her phone down and grabbed his hand. She could see that this was tearing him up inside. She hadn't known until she got back but while she was off in California, but Sam and her brother had actually gotten really close. "Do you want me to talk to him?"

"Don't do that, Mercedes. He needs his time to get through it. Just like you did and just like Marvin did. I'm going to talk to him the day of, but there's really nothing I can do other than that."

Mercedes was about to say something when her phone went off yet again. She picked it up.

"Okay, is there an impending apocalypse or something that I'm not aware of? Because you've been texting like you're sending last words each time you pick up your phone."

She whipped her head up at him and then down back to her phone. "I'm sorry. It's Evie. We're trying to work out some pretty big things over the next few days."

"Your manager works on Thanksgiving?"

She shrugged as if it were nothing. "I still need managing. It's kind of what I pay her for. And it's not Thanksgiving yet. I have 2 days."

"Any chance I can be let in on this massive secret thing you're doing?"

"Actually," she looked up, "I'm glad you asked. It's about you."

She started telling him about her conversation with Will. He seemed to be genuinely excited until she brought up the coaching program.

"I'm gonna stop you right there," he said. "I love you, Mercedes. I especially love you for considering doing something like this for me. But that won't work."

"Babe, if you're worried about the kids, I promise you I've got them and will do my best to make sure they're getting as much of my attention as possible."

"No, it's not that. I know that if anyone can take care of them, it's you. It's that I've looked into that program. Tuition alone for one semester is over $5,000. With two semesters and the summer session, that's upwards of $12,000. And that's not even counting fees, books, transportation to Columbus once a month—"

"Sam, it's not even two hours away," she said, not understanding the issue with it. "Can't you just make the drive, take your exams, and drive back? I can drive you if that's what you need."

"No, you're still not hearing me. I don't have that type of money to just shell out."

"But isn't there financial aid and stuff?"

"Sure, for 18-year-olds. And adult students who are going for their first degree. But I already have one and this isn't even a degree, it's a certificate program. There's just not a ton of funding for it."

"Is there nothing else you can take?"

"There is, but it wouldn't fit McKinley's requirements. Will may be willing to make concessions for me, but the parents would be in an uproar. My time as the coach would be over before it even started."

Mercedes shook her head. There had to be something else that they could do. Sam could do the job, he wanted the job, and Will wanted him to have it. That alone should've been enough. "Sam, we're going to figure something out. Surely, there's something—"

"There's nothing, Mercedes." He shrugged, having accepted the fact that he was out of options a long time ago. "It's a great idea, but it's just that. An idea." He watched as she sulked. He tapped her on the hand and gestured for her to come to him. "Come here."

She kept her sad look and didn't move.

"Come here," he repeated.

"Sam, I'm not in the mood for games right now."

"It's not a game, come here." The small smile on his face said something different.

Still, she scooted an inch closer to him.

He continued beckoning her, "Little more."

She scooted again.

"Almost there, come on."

Finally, she moved so that she was right next to him.

He quickly but gently grabbed her and pulled her onto his lap, laughing at the small yelp that came from her being whipped around. He cheesed with his hands on either side of her waist. "That's better."

She smacked her lips, annoyed. "Why can't you be serious?"

"Because life's too short to be so serious about things you can't control, baby. Coaching certification or not, everything's going to work out exactly the way it should. Okay?" He kept his smile, widening it for her to return.

She pouted, which turned into a smile that she wouldn't allow to fully form.

"I'll take it," he said as he kissed her.

She returned the kisses and wrapped her arms around him as she lay her head on his shoulder. "I'm still going to talk to Evie about staying for another six months, just in case we find a way for this to go through. Because I'm not giving up on this and I'm not giving up on you."

He squeezed her tightly, silently thanking her. He didn't exactly believe that him taking the coaching position would be possible, but she had no idea how much it meant to her that she believed in him. "You know who would love to hear you say that?"

"Who?"

"Dr. Green." He smirked.

"Oh, God. Dr. Green," she groaned.

"That woman is tough, isn't she?"

"You're telling me," she said as she sat up. "She's got me examining parts of my life that I would've never thought to examine. Stuff that happened before I even met you."

"Same here. She's no joke." Sam felt his phone vibrating in his pocket and pulled it out. "Speak of the devil." He showed it to her and smiled. "Hey, Dr. Green. Mercedes and I were just talking about you."

"Oh, you're there with Mercedes? Well, I can kill two birds with one stone. Mind putting me on with both of you?"

"Sure." He put her on speaker. "She wants to speak to us."

Mercedes moved off of him. "Hi. Dr. Green. How are things?"

"Well, they're things, that's for sure. I won't keep you two for very long. I just wanted to let you know that I'll have to cancel our session tomorrow. My mother had a fall and I'm on my way to her now. I won't be able to come back until after Thanksgiving."

"Oh, my goodness. Is she okay?"

"She's absolutely fine, but now she's demanding that all of her family is there early for Thanksgiving to celebrate her getting out of the hospital. Trust me, it's easier to just reschedule all of my appointments tomorrow than fight her on this. I know that our next session isn't until a few weeks after Thanksgiving and I'll try to fit you two in somewhere between now and then, but I want to go ahead and give you two something to work on until we can see each other."

"What is it?" Sam asked.

"I gave Sam this assignment in our last session, but I wanted to give it to you too, Mercedes. I want you both to start thinking of non-negotiables in your relationship. Not just the present ones, but the things that are fine at the moment that may cause a problem in the future. It's really important that you stay ahead of your fears and potential problems in your relationship so that you can confront them before they get the chance to do any real damage. It can be big or small, but it has to be something that will cause a problem if it continues. Okay?"

"Got it," they said together.

"If you feel comfortable, share them before our next session and see if you can find a way to start working through them. We'll discuss what you've come up with next time. Sam's a bit of a head start because he's had this task for a couple of weeks now so Mercedes, I don't want you to rush yourself. Arrive at your decision at your own time."

Thanksgiving Morning

Mercedes got back in bed for the fourth time that morning, much to Sam's dismay.

"You've been cooking since yesterday and up since 4 in the morning." He mumbled into his pillow. "What could you possibly be cooking that's taking that long?"

"Boy, hush. It's Thanksgiving. My family does it big when it's just us. Now, we've got 4 other people coming. I'm preparing to be a hostess. And we'll both be up in an hour doing some last-minute cleaning, so don't plan on getting your beauty rest for too much longer."

He whined loudly and flipped his pillow over on top of his head to shut her out.

"Hey, can I ask you something?" She asked after a while.

Sam didn't say any actual words, just let out a sound that seemed like a 'yes'.

"Have you come up with your non-negotiable yet?"

"Mmhmm."

"What is it? If you don't mind me asking."

He propped himself up, his eyes barely open. "You really wanna know?"

She nodded.

He sat fully up and rubbed his eyes. "Okay. But I'm only telling you this because you asked. Our families are going to be here in a matter of hours and we're going to have a great Thanksgiving weekend. I'm not telling you this for you to mull over it over the stuffing. You still want me to tell you?"

Another nod.

"My non-negotiable is telling people about us."

"Really?"

"I've been realizing that it's been getting to me a little more than I thought." He thought for a second. "Okay, a lot more. I understand you have your reasons behind it, but it's something I'm starting to reach my limits with."

Mercedes felt an intense pang of guilt. "I'm sorry. If I had known—"

"Except you did, Mercedes. You've known for a while now how much it gets to me. And I'm not blaming you or attacking you for anything, but you can't pretend that this is news to you." He pointed at her. "No sulking, okay? I didn't tell you this because I wanted to upset you. I'm just letting you know like Dr. Green said."

"I understand." She gave a closed half-hearted smile.

He kissed her on the forehead and got out of bed. "Now, let's get to cleaning. It's Turkey Day!" He screamed, exciting their dog, who joined him in the celebration.

Her smile grew as she got out of bed as well. She wasn't going to mull. As much as she would've liked to, she had bigger fish to fry today. Today was the day that she was finally going to work on getting her boyfriend and her mom to get to know one another, and that would require all of her attention.

Glad to see y'all are still with me and enjoying the story. How are we feeling about this coaching situation? Could it be good for the couple if it happens? The next couple of chapters will be Thanksgiving, so the families will finally meet! Do y'all think Sam and Michelle will be able to find some common ground? See you next time!