Mercedes and her family arrived early at the game, at her grandmother's request.
"I'm not letting anything stop me from getting a front-row seat in those bleachers. Sunshine, did you bring the foam fingers?"
"I did, Grandmother," Merecedes answered.
"Moonshine, did you bring the sign?"
"Got it right here! But," the little girl tilted her head. "I don't think this one is spelled right."
"Nonsense," said Mercedes. "I wrote them all myself."
"Then why does it say 'rotting for the quarterback?"
"What?" She took the sign, read it, and groaned. "It's supposed to say 'rooting for the quarterback'."
"Well, it says rotting."
"Yeah, I know, Amaiya. I can see it. I can't believe I misspelled it. I wrote it down twenty times before putting it on the sign."
"It happens to the best of us. Not me," Amaiya flipped her braids, "but the rest of the best of us."
"I will—"
"You two hush. Sunshine, it'll be fine. The sign looks beautiful and it'll reach whoever it needs to, no matter how it's spelled." Abeline waved her off.
When they found a seat and set the posters down, Mercedes got a text from Kurt.
"Grandmother, Kurt wants my help with his face paint. I'm going to come back and sit with them."
"Oh, so she decides to come to her first-ever football game and all of a sudden she's too good for us, Moonshine!" Abeline joked with her granddaughters.
Amaiya shook her head and clicked her tongue. "What. A. Shame. It's okay, Grandma. You've always got me. Don't worry, maybe she'll come back if she needs some money for food from the concession stand." She patted her on the back.
"I'm not even dealing with you two today," Mercedes said as she smiled. "I'll see you later." As she walked away, she couldn't help but laugh at her sister, a full-blown adult in an 8-year-old's body.
After finishing Kurt's face paint (and barely avoiding him painting hers), Mercedes, Kurt, and Tina sat down towards the top of the bleachers. The game was soon to start, it was already packed, and Mercedes was already uncomfortable. Perks of going to a homecoming game.
"So, Sam's playing. You must be excited?" Kurt smiled at her.
Mercedes rolled her eyes.
"Santana told us about the dress thing. Do you think he's your mystery man?"
"Kurt, calm down," Tina said. "I highly doubt Sam is the only thing on her mind." She smirked. "Noah's on the starting lineup tonight, too."
"Oh, my gosh." Mercedes pressed her palms to her face so that her friends wouldn't register the smile that dared to creep up on her. "Can we just not talk about either of them for five minutes?"
"Come on, Mercedes." Kurt pleaded. "You don't date anyone. Ever. And with the exception of Quinn, we're all dating someone."
Mercedes whipped her head to look at him. "You're dating someone?"
"He and Blaine have spent every weekend together since B4. Where've you been?"
"Let's just say preoccupied." Mercedes took out her phone.
A few minutes before the game was set to start, the announcer began the opening remarks and named the starting lineup for the team. Mercedes and her friends clapped as each name was read.
"And your starting running back tonight, #14, junior Noah Jackson."
As everyone else clapped and roared with cheers, Mercedes' friends stayed on her for her reaction.
She rolled her eyes at them and clapped like she did everyone else.
"And last but not least, we've got a new player on the field tonight, quarterback, junior Sam Evans, #6."
Mercedes found herself startled by the unexpected cheers of the people in the stands. Clearly, Sam had been making plenty of friends in the couple of months he'd been here. She couldn't help but smile as she clapped for him. The smile widened when he turned to the bleachers and instantly found her.
"Jesus, why don't you just make out with him already?" Kurt asked.
Tina laughed at him. "Let her have a little fun. I mean, Noah didn't look back to find her."
"Noah probably doesn't even know I'm here."
"Maybe if he was as hooked on you as Sam, he would have."
"I don't even know if Sam likes me. For all I know, he could like someone entirely different than me. Someone other than Quinn. That's what he told me earlier."
Kurt frowned. "He told you that he liked someone other than Quinn?"
She nodded. "He didn't get a chance to tell me who, but I doubt he was going to say me."
Kurt and Tina looked at each other. He was definitely going to say her.
The game had been going extremely well. The Titans were up by 15 at half-time. Some were saying they had never witnessed the team play a game like this. A lot of people were convinced that the change in luck had to do with the new quarterback.
"Seems like your boy's already got quite the fan club," Kurt said to Mercedes.
She ignored his comment. "Do you guys really think Sam might be my secret admirer?"
Tina shrugged. "Anything's possible. Especially since he knows about the dress."
"He also had a business card from the same florist my roses came from," she said quietly.
Kurt gasped. "Shut up."
"Did you ask him about it?" Asked Tina.
"I did. He said he bought a corsage for Quinn, which seems legitimate. He didn't really seem like he was lying."
"But still, the same florist? Out of all the florists in the city he could've gone to?"
"I don't know about you two," Kurt said, "but I'm ready to call it."
Tina agreed. "Second."
"Hold on, y'all. We keep forgetting that in order for Sam to be my secret admirer, he would have to like me, which he's shown no signs of whatsoever."
"Cedes, are you joking right now?" Kurt looked at her as if she had spoken another language. "Like, are you actually making a joke?"
"Kurt," Tina warned him with a look. Since Sam hadn't come to them about the secret admirer thing, the two of them and Santana had promised not to meddle with anything concerning Mercedes and Sam. That included telling her that he liked her back.
Luckily for Kurt, the game would restart and put a temporary end to his misery.
In the second half of the game, the opposing team had come back with a vengeance. They weren't letting the home team go anywhere or score any points while making touchdowns like it was nothing. There were currently 5 seconds left on the clock and the home team was 4 points behind. People were already heading out, sure that the game was over and the Titans had lost. Mercedes would've left too if it weren't for Sam. She didn't know much about football, but even she could tell how bad it was.
The teams were currently in a timeout that Sam had called, their last one for the night. In the huddle, he was fighting for a chance to win the game.
"This better be damn good, Evans," Coach Beiste said sternly.
"Coach, I say we let me rush it."
There were sounds of shock and disagreement all around him.
Noah was particularly averse to the idea. "Coach, we can't go with a Hail Mary following some dude who just got two months ago. No offense, Evans. You're cool and all, but that's not gonna work."
Mike spoke up next, "I don't know, Sam. Are you sure you wanna do that?"
Sam addressed the entire huddle. "I've got this, guys, I promise. Mike," he looked at him. "You're one of the fastest guys on this team. If you and Cook switch spots for the play, I can get where I need to be, you can cover me, and I can bring it home."
Without a moment of hesitation, Mike nodded. "I've got you."
"Oh, hell no," Noah said, his voice rising. "Coach, he won't make that."
"You got a better idea, Jackson?" Beiste asked him.
"No, but—"
"Then shut up." He looked at Sam. "Evans. I know you may feel you have to prove something, but I like for my teams to lose with some dignity."
"If we do this, we won't lose."
Seeing their clock run out, Beiste decided to give Sam the shot he had proven he deserved. "You heard your quarterback. Get your asses out there and don't embarrass me."
Out on the field, Sam could feel his heart beating outside of his chest. As he was looking at the defense, he realized he had made a pretty big promise and he wasn't sure he could deliver. Something told him to look to the stands and when he did, everything slowed down. He could see Mercedes holding up a sign, 'rotting for the quarterback'. He chuckled. That was all he needed. He was ready. Turning his head back to the line of scrimmage, he took a deep breath. "Red 6, hut-hut!"
In the stands, Mercedes gasped as she watched Sam take off down the field with the ball. "Oh, my god."
Around her, everyone in the stands was roaring and screaming, shocked and excited by what they were witnessing.
Mercedes felt every hair she had standing straight up as Sam shot down the field like a lightning bolt.
"Holy shit, he's going to make it!" Kurt yelled. "Mercedes, he's going to make it!"
She couldn't say anything, she was too nervous. But at last, after bobbing and weaving through the defense, Sam ran out the clock and made it into the end zone for the winning touchdown. She'd never screamed so loudly in her life.
On the field, Sam yelled out in victory and his teammates ran to and into him, celebrating him and their win. Before he knew it, he was being hoisted up onto their shoulders and watching the crowd cheer for him. He loved it, but there was only one face he was interested in seeing in the sea of people. He winked at her and smiled hard.
Mercedes offered him a proud smile and nodded once, telling him that he did a good job.
In the few seconds the interaction lasted, they were the only people there on that field.
Tina caught the whole thing. "Did he just wink at you?" She asked just loudly enough for Mercedes to hear over the celebrations around them.
So did Kurt. "Shouldn't that be something he's reserving for Quinn?"
She felt her cheeks get warm. "Let's just go ahead and head out so we can get to the dance on time," she said, not entertaining them.
They had to wait for Santana and Quinn to get back from their Cheerio duties so they could get to Mercedes' house to get ready. While they were waiting, Mercedes decided to take a quick bathroom break. After leaving the bathroom, her phone buzzed. It was a text from Sam.
If you're still here, meet me in the choir room?
She sent back her reply,
On my way.
"The best game all season," she said with a smile once she made it to the choir room, "some are even saying record-breaking."
Sam turned to greet her and grinned. "So you weren't as incredibly tuned out as you thought you'd be?"
"Are you kidding? Sam, that was amazing." She walked over to where he was beside the piano. "I know every game won't be like that, but if Coach Beiste puts you back on that field this season, you'll have no convincing to do to get me to show up."
"When."
"What?"
"When Coach puts me back on the field. He's making me head quarterback for the rest of the season."
Her jaw dropped. "Oh, my gosh! Congrats!"
He thanked her. "I wanted you to be the first to hear it. And I wanted you to hear it from me. I can't tell you how much it meant to me that you came tonight, Cedes."
She smiled that same smile from earlier, when he had just won the game. "I'm so proud of you, Sam. I hope that's not… weird or anything and I'm not saying it because you're like family and that's what family's supposed to say to family after a big moment or whatever," she said in one breath. "You got here a mere two months ago, all lanky and green, a few days after a really frightening experience, and in those two months, you haven't missed a beat. I still don't know exactly why you don't want to go back to foster care," she put her hands out to calm him once she saw the worry on his face, "don't worry, I'm not going to try to pry it out of you or anything. You'll tell me when you're ready, if you're ready. But I could tell that you were scared, too." She nodded. "You didn't ever talk about it, but I could see it. Hell, I could feel it. But still, every single day you got up and you put your absolute best foot forward. You've helped out in the bakery almost every day, Kurt says you already have your own personal fan club here, and you even look different. You look like you took a Super Soldier, it's insane."
He nodded in agreement. "Well, I've been working out a lot with Mike, but really, you can thank your grandmother's cooking for that."
She laughed at him. He had a point. "And now, you've gotten back what was one of the biggest parts of your life before all of this happened. You did that, you know? And I hate that Finn had to sprain his ankle and the backup guy couldn't find a tutor worth shit," she chuckled, "but I'm so proud to have been there to witness all of that."
Her glowing words made him want to swoop her up into his arms and kiss her. How had she gotten this much power over him? He needed to tell her how he felt and he needed to do it now. "None of that would've been possible without you, Cedes. You're right. I was scared. I still am. Scared and angry. All the time." He looked away from her to keep his dry eyes that way. "I'm always obsessing over how things can go wrong and when I got here, I didn't want to let myself go after anything. It felt like my dreams were shattered and 'a full ride on the Crimson Tide' was no more. I didn't want to give myself a chance to go after something worth celebrating. I didn't want to give myself a chance to hope. But then, I would look at you. And sometimes you'd look back at me and give me that smile where it kind of starts and then you bite your lip before it can fully—"
Unknowingly, she did just that.
"That one right there!" He pointed at her and smiled when she laughed. "You'd give me that smile and for the slightest of moments, everything feels oddly okay. I don't feel angry or scared or hopeless. And tonight when there were five seconds left on that game clock, I felt I had bitten off more than I could chew, and I just knew that I was staring down the barrel of the end of my football career. But them I saw you in the stands, 'rotting for the quarterback'."
Mercedes gave an embarrassed smile and rubbed the back of her neck.
"In that moment and the moments after, I didn't feel anything but hope. Not only have you taught me that it's okay to hope, but you've been my hope, Mercedes. This entire time. We won that game tonight because of you. You and this light that just radiates—"
"Sam, I like you," she blurted out with a breath. "I'm not sure exactly when it started, but you're always on my mind. I'm always wondering if you're okay, how your day is going, if it's too quiet at night because of your first night here when I offered to bring my tv into your room. I can't. Stop. Thinking about you."
He slowly closed the space between them and caressed her cheek. "I've felt the same way since the moment I saw you," he said softly.
She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding as she nearly dissolved into his touch. "But I'm afraid of what might happen if we go there. What if we—"
"What if we have to hide how we're feeling while we date other people? I feel like we're already past that point, don't you think?"
"That too, but what if we get in trouble? Or, God forbid, what if you get sent back into foster care and you can't play football anymore? There's so much at stake and I can't be the person that screws all of this up for you."
"That won't happen," he said surely. "You're the reason I even have so many things to lose. You could never be the reason that I lose them."
She wasn't religious, but as he continued drawing closer to her, she prayed that he was right.
He placed his lips on hers and just like on the football field, he felt everything slow down. In fact, they both felt like time had stopped for a moment just so they could have this.
She kissed him back slowly once, then again, and then again. They stopped, briefly before smiling at one another and going back in for more.
"Cedes, are you— oh, wow."
Sam and Mercedes turned their heads to see Santana standing at the door.
Mercedes back away from him. "Tana, what are you doing here? I thought you were headed to the car."
"Kurt told me to come to find you because you'd been in the bathroom for a while. But now I see why." She smirked. "You finally fessed up, huh?" She asked Sam.
Mercedes didn't even give him the chance to react. "How did you find me here?"
"Well, Quinn and I checked all the bathrooms and you weren't by your locker. Where else would you have been?" She fanned herself. "So, is it steamy in here, or is it just me?"
"Okay, it's time for us to go. I'll meet you in the car, Tana."
"Hold on now, I think we should—"
"Santana, the car. Go." Mercedes demanded her with her eyes and started to follow her out.
"Mercedes, wait." Sam grabbed her hand. "I'll see you at homecoming, right"
"Are you getting dressed at the house, or?"
He shook his head. "Artie and I are going over to Mike's. But I'll see you at the dance."
She looked at their connected hands and then back up at him."Great job tonight, Sam."
On the way back to her car, Mercedes was embroiled in Santana's lightning round of questions.
"So he told you he liked you?"
"Yes."
"And you told him too?"
"Yes."
"So, which happened first?"
"I told him, then he told me."
"How did you two even end up in the choir room at the same time?"
"He asked me to come."
"But he didn't confess to liking you first?"
"No, I already said that."
"So how did you get on the topic?"
"I congratulated him on a great game, we exchanged a bunch of sweet words, and next thing I knew, we were kissing."
"Hold up, wait." Santana halted their trek to the car. "You two actually kissed?"
"Duh."
Her eyes widened. "No, not duh. I thought I was walking in on you two about to kiss. I didn't know you were going for seconds." She gasped loudly. "Or thirds?"
"Okay, will you keep your voice down?" Mercedes looked in the hallway around them. "There's no telling who's still in here. And not a word about this until I say otherwise, got it? Not to Kurt and Tina or anyone else."
"Why not? That's no fun."
"Because I'm not sure if I should've done that. I wasn't thinking about Noah or Quinn."
"Who cares about them?"
"I do! I care about both of them very deeply. Sam doesn't have much of a connection to either of them, but they are both some pretty important people in my life."
"But this is about you and Sam."
"There is no me and Sam, Santana. It was a kiss. A few kisses. Ugh." She rubbed her eyes in frustration. "Whatever. No more talking about this tonight, okay?"
"What are you going to do about the dance?"
She shrugged. "I'll have to figure it out by the time I get there. Now, come on."
Mercedes and her friends arrived back at the school for the dance. As they were walking and talking about how they expected the night to go, Kurt noticed Mercedes was speaking even less than usual. He asked if she was okay.
Santana covered for her. "Of course she is. She's probably just ready to finally figure out who the secret admirer is."
Mercedes nodded, signaling that she was right. In reality, Mercedes could care less about the secret admirer. She was pretty sure it was Sam now that she knew how much he liked her. But it didn't matter. Someone was going to get hurt tonight, she could feel it. It could be Noah, Quinn, Sam, or even her. She had no way of knowing. Her eyes were aimed at the floor when they arrived at the entrance to the dance. She felt Kurt tapping her repeatedly on the shoulder. She looked at him.
"Just. Look. Ahead," he whispered, echoing the last lines from the secret admirer note from earlier.
"Hi, Mercedes."
When she looked, up, her heart shattered into a million pieces. She asked a question she already knew the answer to. "Noah. You're the secret admirer?"
He smiled and nodded. "I hope the roses weren't too much, but I wanted to show you the attention and time that you deserve."
While the rest of their friends looked on with adoring faces, Mercedes' face poorly feigned surprise and Santana watched her friend warily. They both knew the disaster that this had just become.
Kurt poked her in the side with his elbow. "Speak."
She mustered up words, but she wasn't exactly sure if they even meant anything. "They were lovely, thank you."
"I'd like to try again and I'd like to do it right this time." He stuck his hand out. "What do you say?"
A slow song started playing in the gym and Mercedes could feel her insides twisting, but nothing could've prepared her for what she saw next: Sam, a ways away from them, watching their interaction intently. She averted his gaze. Trying not to show her reluctance, she put her hand in Noah's and her friends, sans Santana, smiled wide.
"Let's dance," Noah said with a smile.
Mercedes followed him onto the dance floor and by the time she looked back to Sam's spot, he was already gone.
The dance had been going well for everyone except Mercedes and Sam, who was still nowhere to be found an hour later. Santana wandered through the dance floor to find Mercedes and Noah together dancing. Well, Noah was dancing. Mercedes was making half-hearted movements that seemed to mimic it. She went up to them.
"Hey, there, Noah. Mind if I cut in for a song? You've been hogging my girl all night."
He nodded. "Sure. I'm going to get something to drink, you want anything?" He asked Mercedes. "Punch, soda, water?"
"Water' fine, thanks." Mercedes watched him walk off before being violently dragged off the floor by Santana. "What the hell?"
"What in God's name are you doing?" She snarled.
"What do you mean?"
"What do I mean? I mean why are you living it up on the dance floor with the Senator's son when not even three hours ago, I saw you with your tongue down Sam's throat?" She asked, a little too loud for Mercedes' liking.
"Lower your voice!" Mercedes pulled them further away from the crowds of teenagers. "And you didn't see my tongue on anything."
"Cedes, you know I love you, but what the hell were you thinking? Why would you do that to Sam? Why would you do that to Noah? Now, you've got to break his heart tonight after the dance."
"Why would I be breaking Noah's heart?"
"Uh, because you have to tell him that you want to be with Sam," Santana said as if it were obvious.
Mercedes didn't respond, she just looked down at her feet, almost as if that weren't the truth.
"Okay, you can't tell me you don't want to be with him anymore because I won't believe that. There's no way someone with lips that big could kiss that bad."
"It's not about that, Santana."
"Then what is it about?"
She took a breath and murmured, "I think that kissing Sam might have been a mistake."
"Oh, no." Santana started shaking her head. "Don't even get started on that, Mercedes. Don't you dare do that shit."
"Do what?"
"Cut out on things when they get a complicated or messy."
"Tana, things have been complicated and messy since the moment Sam stepped foot in my house. The longer that I let it continue, the more complicated and messy it's going to be. I'm trying to stop the shit from hitting the fan."
Santana's eyes widened. "The shit's already hit the fan, Mercedes! And it's disgustingly," she made rapid circular motions with her forearm, "swirling around and raining down on top of all of us, we just don't know it yet. What did Sam say about all of this?"
She shrugged dubiously. "I didn't talk to him."
Santana's eyes now narrowed at her friend. "Do you know that you're going to drive me crazy?"
"Tana—"
"No, I don't think you understand. You are going to be the first thing that I write on my intake form when I voluntarily admit myself to a psychiatric facility. You need to go find him and now."
"But what am I supposed to say?"
"I don't care! But you need to make it quick. Otherwise, all four of you are going to become even more hurt than you already will be when all this is said and done."
Mercedes frowned out of confusion. The only people she thought would be truly upset over this were her and Sam. "Four of us?"
"Oh, yeah. Quinn's irate. She has heard from Sam all night, she hasn't even seen him. But we have. We know he was here and that he performed one of the greatest disappearing acts of all time, which means that this is upsetting him big time. And when Noah finds out, he and his temper are absolutely gonna go ballistic."
"But Santana, I—"
"No." She stopped her. "Look, I know you and Dolly Parton's grandson aren't exactly less than star-crossed, but I'm gonna say this again, I don't care. If you don't settle this situation with a quickness, it's going to wreak havoc on our entire friend group. I'll cover for you with Noah, but you have to go and find Sam right this minute. Go." She shooed her away.
Mercedes left the gym, only now realizing the can of worms she had just opened. She didn't want Noah as much as she once did, but she had been cozied up with him all night. She wanted Sam, but there was no way they could be together without him losing something. Quinn was her friend, but she had led Sam on and now he wasn't as interested in her anymore either. How could one kiss have already caused so much damage?
She had looked throughout the school without seeing so much as a sign of Sam and had given up when she went to the courtyard for some fresh air. There, she saw him with his back to her. She took a deep breath and made her way over to him.
By the time she got there, he had already turned around and he looked pissed.
She looked down at the ground for a moment then back up at him. "Sam,"
"What do you want?" He asked sharply.
She instantly regretted not finding him earlier. "Sam, I want to apologize."
"For what exactly? Kissing me and then taking another guy's hand in my face or the fact that that guy was Noah?" He stood up. "I mean, out of all people, Mercedes. Seriously?"
"What do you mean 'out of all people'?"
Sam didn't answer, realizing that she must not have clued into the tension that had existed between him and Noah since they first met at Sam's football tryout.
"Look, it's not what you think, okay? Noah has been leaving me notes and gifts since last week and up until that very moment, I didn't know that it was him. Actually, a very large part of me thought that it could've been you and once you admitted to liking me, it all seemed to make sense. And that was the headspace that I was in when you kissed me."
"I wasn't the only one doing the kissing."
Not having a valid response to that, Mercedes resumed her original line of defense. "But once I found out that it was Noah, I couldn't just ditch him like that after all the effort he put into this last week."
"So, since it's not what I think, you and Noah are over after the dance? And you're going to tell him that you had fun tonight, but there's someone else?" His tone was genuine, but he felt he already knew the answer.
She kneaded her lip and said to her feet, "I don't know that there is."
"What?"
"I don't know that there is," she said louder, looking up. "Sam, I don't think we should—"
"Wow." He chuckled sarcastically.
"Just hear me out."
"No, I won't," he spat as he shook his head. "You know, I talked to Santana, Tina, and Kurt. They were the ones who even convinced me to tell you that I liked you. They told me that you liked me and that you wanted to be with me over Noah. And at the time, I thought it was nonsense, but then you came into the choir room and you told me that you liked me and I thought maybe, just maybe, she hasn't made that choice yet. Maybe there's still a chance."
Mercedes felt annoyed at her friends. "That was something I told them in confidence. They never should've repeated that back to you."
"It doesn't matter and I'm not done."
She could feel her breath halting as the venom in his words and his gaze seared her.
"You knew you weren't going to choose me this whole time, didn't you? God, you listened while I stood there and I told you that you how you had changed me. I told you how I was sad and angry because my life has always been 50 shades of fucked but you made it more bearable. You let me tell you that you were my hope and kissed me back, meanwhile you knew that this wasn't going anywhere. How could you even do that?"
She could feel him growing angrier and angrier. In the short time he had been here, she had seen him angry from time to time. It would happen when someone would make an insensitive comment about his mom or a customer in the bakery would ask him about where he came from and why he was living with them. Sometimes, it wouldn't be anyone's fault in particular, but he would realize just how harmful his past was to the 'normal' life he was trying to live, like when he couldn't make the football team. She had seen him angry multiple times, but never at her. Witnessing his anger was one thing, but being on the receiving end of it, that hurt. And it hurt doubly so because she knew she deserved it.
He continued. "I thought that coming here was a blessing in disguise. Over these couple of months, I really thought that you were proving that I can still have dreams and expectations and optimism. But in reality, you're just another example of why hope is useless to me. Always has been, always will be." He walked past her. "I'm out of here. Don't wait up."
Cursing herself for the tenth time in the last three hours, she called out to him, "Sam, where are you going?" She yelled again after no response, "Sam?"
He stopped for a second and she held her breath. In that second, she hoped and prayed that he'd turn around and they'd make things right. Both her hopes and prayers fell on deaf ears as he walked out into the night, leaving her alone in the courtyard.
*peeks out from around the corner* I hope y'all don't hate me! I won't lie, I know most (if not all?) of you were banking on Sam for secret admirer and it was very unfortunate reading how much y'all were into it, but I just had to! I've said before that there were going to be some roadblocks for Samcedes, and this was the first of them. Don't worry! They will make up, but how will they handle everything now that it's all out in the open? Feel free to share all your thoughts on this chapter, I know a lot happened!