Shout-out to the anonymous reviewer for inspiring the Santana content in this one. That specific loss had not occurred to me but I was immediately like, oh my gosh, that's so true!
Enjoy this one - it may be a little while before the next as I've got later parts of the weekend written already, but only a few thought fragments for the part that needs to be next. So send me all your good vibes and let me know what you think about this part!
Friday evening, Lima Central High
"It's a gorgeous night," Mercedes said, gazing up at the star-filled sky. "It's nice to see the stars for a change."
"It's a perfect football night," Sam agreed. They stood just inside the gate at Lima Central High, waiting for the others who were coming to the game that night. Since McKinley no longer had a football team, they'd decided to go support Coach Beiste's current school; Mercedes knew that Sam went to a lot of their home games, sometimes with Will, sometimes with Jake, who was one of the few other former New Directioners who still lived in Lima, and sometimes just to hang out on the bench with the coach. He really did just love football.
"There they are," Sam hollered suddenly as he spotted Kurt and Blaine moving through the crowd. "Blaine! Kurt! Over here!"
Both men smiled and waved as they moved in their direction. Sam and Mercedes had been holding hands as they waited and now Mercedes dropped Sam's hand so he could frantically wave both arms over his head.
"Oh my God, baby, calm down!" Mercedes laughed, tugging at his arm. "They see us."
Sam just grinned. "I know, I'm just excited," he exclaimed as Kurt and Blaine finally made it through the crowd and Sam immediately grabbed Blaine into a hug.
Mercedes just laughed. "Some things never change," she said affectionately before reaching out to hug Kurt, who had an oddly suspicious look on his face. "Hi, Kurt."
He hugged her back, but didn't actually return the greeting, instead saying curiously, "What is going on here? Are you two a thing again?"
Mercedes opened her mouth to respond but before she could say anything, Kurt continued, "I saw you holding hands. Spill."
Mercedes tried to play innocent for a moment or two, before cracking, unable to stop the smile from spreading across her face. She put the index finger of her right hand to her lips in the universal 'shh' sign before quickly flashing her left hand at Kurt, enjoying the moment his jaw dropped.
"Shhh!" she said quickly, whispering. "Don't deprive him of his 'bro moment' or I'll never hear the end of it."
Kurt rolled his eyes but complied as they both tuned into Sam and Blaine's conversation, which, at the moment, appeared to be about Tracy's whereabouts and the toddler's plans for the weekend.
"So, she's with Burt and Carole tonight and then tomorrow night she'll go to my parents, but don't worry, I promise she'll get to see Uncle Sam at the picnic tomorrow."
"Okay, good," Sam replied, clearly relieved. "Definitely need some Tracy time this weekend!"
"So how are you, man? What's going on?" Blaine asked.
"Well," Sam said, "I actually – I kind of have some news, on the romance front."
Blaine groaned. "Oh, Sam – not another new girlfriend? We've talked about this – they never last and you know why," he said, inclining his head in Mercedes' direction, not seeming to realize that she and Kurt were also actively listening to this conversation. "I thought you were finally done with trying to make things work with other girls."
Sam just grinned. "I am done with other girls," he stated, glancing at Mercedes. "I don't think my wife would like it if I was going out with anyone else."
"Well, no, I don't think she would like – "Blaine's voice trailed off as Sam's words caught up to his brain. "Your what? Did you say wife?" Sam nodded and Blaine looked even more confused. "But – what? When? Wh – I don't understand – "
Mercedes finally decided to take pity on him, and she stuck her hand out to shake Blaine's. "Hi, Mercedes Evans. I'm Sam's wife," she said, giggling, and Blaine looked even more confused.
Sam started laughing too then while Kurt incredulously mouthed the word 'wife?' at Mercedes, who just shrugged sheepishly back at him.
Sam slung his arm around Mercedes's shoulders and said, "Surprise! We got married the other day."
It took a moment, but Blaine rallied and threw his arms around both Sam and Mercedes. "Oh my God! Oh my God, you guys! Oh, congratulations!"
Kurt apparently decided to just roll with it as well, saying, "Well, let me in on that hug too," before adding genuinely, "This is certainly an exciting way to kick off the weekend! You know I love a surprise wedding, but a surprise elopement? That's even better!"
Sam's phone dinged at that moment and he glanced at the screen before telling the rest of them, "Will says they're running late and to go ahead and sit down, they'll find us when they get here."
Blaine shook his head. "I don't know how they get anywhere with four kids. It's hard enough with just one."
"Oh, man and those four are wild," Sam said as they started walking into the stands. "The boys are bad enough but the little one – you think she's this sweet innocent little girl, but her brothers have taught her everything they know about being demons."
"Hm," Blaine said. "I wonder where that comes from. You wouldn't think two people as relatively chill as Mr. Schue and Ms. Pillsbury would produce kids like that."
"Speaking of kids…" Kurt said pointedly, directing his gaze at Mercedes's mid-section.
"Oh my God, Kurt, no!" Mercedes said, slapping at his arm. "I am not pregnant, no shotguns at this wedding, thank you very much. And no plans to be any time soon, either."
Kurt shrugged, linking his arm with hers as they began to walk, following their husbands into the stands. "Well, the way you two like to keep things secret, this could have been going on for months, maybe years, and apparently none of us would have ever known. Either way, I'm happy for you."
Mercedes smiled. "Thank you. I'm happy for me too," she laughed.
"Even though you're married to the biggest dork on the planet?" Kurt teased.
"Look who's talking," Mercedes countered, "the guy married to the man with the biggest bowtie collection on the planet."
"Touché," Kurt conceded. "But I do feel compelled to point out that your husband is wearing his high school letter jacket tonight. Ten years after high school."
"I know," Mercedes laughed. "And actually, only nine years for him, but still. Isn't he ridiculous?" she said cheerfully, gazing at Sam with unabashed affection.
"Oh, dear, you are so far gone," Kurt lamented.
"I mean, if you can't drag it out for a reunion, when can you wear it?" Mercedes said with a shrug. "And I can attest, he was not entirely sure where it was. He dug through three boxes in the guest room closet before he found it. So it's not like wearing it is a regular thing."
Kurt just shook his head, knowing full well that Sam had been a lost fashion cause for years. "Okay, well, tell me everything. How, exactly, did this marriage happen?"
Mercedes laughed and launched into the story.
Ahead of them, Blaine said to Sam, "That was the first time you've said 'my wife' to anyone else, wasn't it?"
"To anyone but her, yeah," Sam replied. "Dude, how could you tell?"
Blaine rolled his eyes. "You were about to burst with the pride of it. I remember what it's like. I know you think I'm an old married man, but the beginning wasn't that long ago for me and Kurt."
"Yeah, I know," Sam said, grinning. "She was giving me shit earlier about how much I've said it in the last two days, but I just, like, feel so warm and fuzzy all over when I do. So I just want to keep saying it."
Blaine smiled indulgently. "When Kurt and I first got back to New York after our wedding, I wanted to shout 'this is my husband!' at like every random person on the street. So I get it. And you've wanted this with her for so long, like as long as I've known you, practically. So how'd it finally happen?"
"All her idea. She just showed up in the choir room on Wednesday and said she was ready to get married. So we went to the courthouse and said 'I do.' Boom. Married."
"See?" Blaine said. "I told you, didn't I? I told you to just chill out and be patient and time would take care of working the rest of it out."
"I know, I know, you were right," Sam admitted. "It wasn't easy holding out hope all that time, but – and I know we're only two days in, but so far it has absolutely been worth the wait."
Sam spotted a large area of empty seats and pointed to them. They started climbing the steps and after a few minutes of discussion and confusion, wound up with Kurt and Mercedes on one row of bleachers with Blaine and Sam on the row above them. It was an older stadium and the rows were close together, making it easy for them to huddle together as a group, Kurt and Mercedes angling themselves towards that next row up. (It had finally been determined that this would be the best positioning, as they would probably talk through much of the game and Sam and Blaine actually wanted to watch at least some of it.)
"Are we the first ones to know?" Kurt asked.
"Well, almost," Mercedes said, wrinkling her nose at him. "I went to meet Sam at school for lunch and stopped by Finn's tree first and ran into Quinn there – they got in town at like 2:00 this morning. We had originally decided that we'd wait and tell all you guys together on Sunday, but - she saw my ring, so, I caved and told her. And," she added, propping her arm on Sam's knees and smiling up at him, "I realized that I didn't want to have to pretend like nothing had happened."
Sam grinned at her. "Yeah, 'cause then I wouldn't be able to do stuff like this," he said, leaning forward to give her a quick kiss, Mercedes laughing as she kissed him back.
The reactions were mixed.
"Awww," from Blaine. "You two are so cute!"
And from Kurt, "Oh, no, I don't know if I can take this from you two. This may be when I will miss Santana the most. This just cries out for her specific brand of snark."
"Oh, Quinn and I were talking about that earlier," Mercedes said. "Not this morning, but later, on the phone. We were trying to figure out what kind of inappropriate comments she would be making about us. Like 'Congrats, Wheezy, so glad to hear you won't die a virgin.'"
"She would, too, wouldn't she?" Sam said, shaking his head. "And then she definitely would have brought up my mouth."
"Oh, absolutely," Kurt said, thinking for a minute before saying, "'Trouty Mouth better be making good use of those lips' or something like that."
"Yup," Blaine agreed. "And she'd say it in that totally full-of-innuendo way."
"Yeah and then be all innocent being all like 'I was only talking about kissing, I don't know what your filthy minds are thinking about,'" Sam added.
"Oh, you guys, I miss her," Mercedes said quietly and the rest of them nodded in agreement. "I know it sounds crazy, but I'd give just about anything to have her here teasing us about our sex life." She laughed as Sam squeezed her hand. "Now there are words I NEVER thought I'd say out loud!"
Sam laughed too. "I never would've thought it either. Not in front of other people or to anyone besides me!"
"Life takes you on some strange twists and turns, doesn't it?" Kurt said lightly, reaching up to take Blaine's hand in his. "We've certainly all learned that!"
"Yeah," Sam agreed. "Anyway, to get back to your question, then we went ahead and told Will since he was in the teacher's lounge eating too. So, you're third, that's not bad, right?"
"I suppose," Kurt said. "And listen to you, calling him 'Will' like it's no big deal. I'm still just not sure I'll ever be able to do that."
"Right?" Mercedes replied. "I say the same thing and he just runs around talking about 'Will' and 'Emma' like it's nothing."
Sam rolled his eyes. "You guys, come on. We've worked together as adults for years now." Then he lowered his voice to a conspiratorial tone. "But it is still weird to me sometimes too."
"I knew it," Kurt said smugly.
"So, what about your parents?" Blaine asked. "You haven't told them yet?"
Mercedes shook her head. "No. They knew I was coming to town for the reunion but they think I'm staying at a hotel so I wouldn't disturb them coming in and going at all hours. They think I'm staying through Monday, so I'm supposed to have dinner with them Sunday night. So, we're both going to go and tell them then."
"Yeah, and I usually talk to my family on Sundays anyway, so we'll call them before we go to her parents," Sam added.
"Well, good luck with that," Blaine said, clapping Sam on the shoulder. "I know it's nerve wracking."
Sam shrugged. "Mercedes is the one who should be nervous – she showed up and proposed to me without talking to my dad first," he joked. Then he frowned. "Or I guess maybe she should've talked to my mom? Since it's swapping the normal gender roles?"
"Oh my God," Mercedes said under her breath. "You're insane," she said to him.
"Yeah and you still love it," he shot back, leaning forward for another quick kiss.
Blaine nudged Kurt's shoulder. "C'mon, Kurt, you have to admit they're kind of adorable."
Kurt sighed. "I suppose it is sweet," he conceded. "Oh, look," he said, spotting Will, Emma and their children climbing up the bleachers to where they sat, "there's Mr. Schue – Will – and Ms. Pills – Schues – Emma - and their apparently demonic children. Let the fun begin!"
