A/N and Disclaimer: I own nothing as always thanks for reading and supporting…This is the final chapter. I do have the epilogue and the bonus story coming up tomorrow if the electricity stays on and the creeks don't rise. I hope you all are warm and safe if you in the subfreezing areas during this time. Eat, drink, and be merry if you can. Those are my plans as I finish my Nikolas and Gia Story marathon on YouTube thanks to NiaNikGia before I got drawn into Samcedes I used to watch Nikolas and Gia on General Hospital. I am also trying to watch LA LA Land on Amazon. Maybe I will watch a Christmas movie today and tomorrow as well. I am spending the holiday alone on purpose to be drama free and not risk getting stranded in the mountains with my family LOL. But I will be here online as long as I have internet spending bits of it with you my Samcedes' family.

Chapter 16

Cedes

Nashville, Tennessee

December 23

As Cedes got out of the hired car that America's Newest Star had sent for her, she saw a few of those rare Nashville snowflakes swirl above her head. The Grand Ole Opry was even more festive than usual, with thousands of Christmas lights crisscrossing its façade, and a massive Christmas tree out front shining and shimmering with beautiful ornaments on every branch. She felt hopeful for some Christmas magic to make her wish come true—but when she saw Lauren and April standing at the entrance of the building, underneath the thickest cedar garland she had ever seen, Cedes knew from their facial expressions that Sam wasn't there yet. "He'll be here," was all April said before hurrying off.

Cedes' heart sank all the way down to the toes of the three inch heels she was wearing. Still, she reached up to touch the tiny gold horseshoe nose stud her gran had given her as a Christmas gift the year before and forced herself to keep on believing a little luck and Christmas magic would come her way and she would get everything she wished for and what she now knew she deserved.

"Come on," Lauren said, grabbing Cedes by the hand. "Now, listen to me, this sounds bad but we are going to take care of it." Cedes's heart sank even further, down to the building's basement below, but she took a deep breath and listened to Lauren's news. "Will is saying you came onto him and he being a happily married man turned you down, so you fired him."

"Oh hell to the no!"

"I know. It's a vile lie. But Will can't hurt you, okay? Right now, he's insisting Jesse St. James is ready to go with what Will says is going to be the next holiday classic—something called 'Holiday Jet Plane'?" Cedes just rolled her eyes. "But I've already met with the rest of the producers. We have a contract and no matter what Will says, the network's top brass know the world wants to see Samcedes and decide for themselves if what's between you is real or not. The ratings are projected to be massive, and it has nothing to do with Jesse St. James and some song about a Christmas plane."

"I know this, but Sam isn't here."

"He will be."

"How can you be so sure?"

For a moment, Cedes was sure she saw Lauren's confident expression waiver, but then she patted Cedes on the back. "Don't be worrying about things you can't control, Cedes," was all she said. And Cedes couldn't help but smile because this was just the kind of advice Grandma Sadie would have given her right then.

When they reached her dressing room, they both stopped short. "Take all of this in," Lauren said. Cedes's name was on a plaque, surrounded by lights. Her breath caught as she looked up.

"Wow."

"This is all for you, Cedes. You did this. Never forget it. Your voice. You." Lauren handed Cedes a slim package wrapped in shiny red paper. "A little Christmas present for you," she said. "No one else needs to know what a big softie I am, that I a Jewish girl from Brooklyn, bought you a Christmas present."

"I'm sorry I didn't get anything for you for Hanukkah. I didn't do any holiday shopping this year. Except for . . ."

Sam. She and her mother had gone out to a street market the night before, and she had seen the perfect gift for Sam. Cedes had had no idea if she would ever be able to give it to him, but she had bought it anyway. Come on, Sam, please, get here, Cedes willed.

"Nonsense, you've been busy," Lauren said. "Come. Sit down. This is nothing, really. Just a small token, something to remember tonight by."

Cedes sat in the chair in front of the mirror and ripped open the festive wrapping paper. These past few years had been a blur, but Cedes loved the holidays, loved giving and receiving gifts. She vowed that the following Christmas, no matter where she ended up, things would be different. She would never again get so wrapped up in her work that she didn't even go Christmas shopping for the people she cared about.

Inside the slim box was a tiny replica of the nameplate they had just been admiring on the door of her dressing room. "Now you'll never forget this night," Lauren said. Cedes had worked with Lauren for a long time, but had never felt truly close to her. Not until tonight, when Lauren suddenly felt like a safe port in a storm.

There was a tap on the dressing room door. Cedes' heart lifted for just a moment,, but it wasn't Sam.

It was a friendly face, though.

"Kurt!"

"Merry almost Christmas, my darling!" He had two garment bags over his arm, and he held them up one by one: a deep red jumpsuit with a plunging neckline and a green one with a high neck and a plunging back.

"The red," Lauren said. "Definitely the red. Cedes Jones needs to show the world she is not messing around. Even though she would look gorgeous in green. Both are her color but the red makes a statement."

"She's right," Cedes said with a smile. "Let's go with the red."

"That's what I was hoping for," Kurt said with a grin. "Okay, I think you're due for a sound check now, and by the time you get back, I'll be all set up with accessories. Tesla is doing your makeup and Shaynice is doing your hair. We are going to make you look like the star you are. So no nerves, okay? You've got this."

He handed Cedes a tissue, and she wiped her eyes and blew her nose.

"Thanks, Kurt."

"Any time at all, and I mean it."

Lauren was checking her watch. "Okay, time to get out there for a sound check," she said.

She linked arms with Cedes and they headed back down the hall.

"Now, remember," Lauren said, just before they entered the hallowed auditorium. "No matter what happens, I've got your back. You're not alone. And trust me, I can handle Will."

Cedes stepped into the Great Hall and was upset to see Will and Jesse St. James sitting on the stage together. Jesse was singing the sickly, familiar bars of the "Holiday Jet Plane" song she and Will had been working on together at the studio the day before. If nothing else, Cedes felt grateful she was never going to have to sing that terrible song again.

As Cedes made her way to the front of the room to take her rightful place on the stage, Lauren was right behind her.

"Will," she said in a firm, cold voice. "My client is here, and the stage is hers at the moment."

Will straightened up and checked his watch. "Actually, according to me, my client has the stage for another ten minutes. And then your client is welcome to it." He looked around theatrically. "Only, it won't be much use to her if her sorry ass duet partner doesn't show up." As he said the word partner he caught Cedes's eye and for a moment her bones felt like they were turning to jelly. She could almost feel his grip again, how helpless she had felt as he forced himself on her.

Lauren stepped closer to Will. She wasn't six feet tall, but suddenly, she seemed to tower over Will.

"Will, get the hell out of here," she said in the most venomous voice Cedes had ever heard her use. "You're making assumptions you should not be making about who will end up performing tonight, and you need to back off or face consequences. You are a producer of America's Newest Star, not the producer of the network. Should I call Roz?"

For a moment, Will looked like he was going to argue with Lauren, but then he backed off. He looked a bit scared, actually. It was incredibly satisfying to Cedes. He said something indecipherable to Jesse and the two of them stalked away.

When Will and Jesse were gone, Cedes sat down at the piano and forced herself to try to settle down. She could feel stage fright and anxiety beginning to circle around her, looking for an opening.

"Lauren," she said in a whisper. "He's still not here. What if he doesn't come?"

"You just sit tight, okay? Act like you warming up alone is exactly how you two planned it. Let them put the microphone on you when they need to and check the levels on your voice. I'll go find April."

When Lauren was gone, Cedes looked out into the auditorium. Crew members and tech bustled to and fro. No one was paying attention to her yet. She played a few bars of the song she had written for Sam, then started to sing it with her eyes closed. When she opened her eyes, she didn't find the face she was looking for.

Instead, her mother was sitting in the front row.

Cedes jumped up. "Mom! What are you doing here? I thought you were coming later?"

She raced to her mom to hug her; the way she hadn't allowed herself to for so many years. She hadn't realized how much she needed her mom until she showed up.

"You often leave things unsaid; unfortunately, you got that from me." Marilyn smiled. "But that doesn't mean the people who care about you most don't know exactly what you need. Now, as your grandmother would say, go on up there and make us proud by sharing that God gifted voice with the world," she said.

It was almost enough to bolster her and get her back up on that stage to rehearse. But the spotlights had been turned on and were shining down on the empty stool where Sam was supposed to sit. "I don't think he's coming tonight, Mom. I don't think my dream of singing at the Grand Ole Opry is going to come true after all."

"Look around you, Cedes. Where are you right now?"

"At the Grand Ole Opry."

"And what is that, up there on the stage?"

"A piano. Where are you going with this, Mom?"

"Who is that piano for? Is it for Jesse St. James? Because I don't think Jesse St. James actually knows how to play the piano. He can barely play a ukulele."

Cedes couldn't help but laugh. It was true. Jesse had persona and stage presence to spare, but his technical musical talents left something to be desired which was probably why he was such a showboat. It was a distraction tactic.

"So, if you go up on that stage right now, and you play me your song, what does that mean?" Marilyn asked Cedes. "What it means is that you, Mercedes Jones, will have officially performed for an audience at the Grand Ole Opry. Isn't that right? Take it from me, life doesn't always go the way you imagine it will. Man plans and God laughs. But that doesn't mean that what you end up doing instead isn't worth anything."

Cedes glanced at the stage, at the piano up there waiting for her, then back at her mom. Could she really be happy with nothing but a rehearsal up on that hallowed stage?

"Cedes, I think it's time for you to start being proud of yourself. Now, get up there and do your thing. Don't let anyone—not Will, not Jesse, not even Sam—take this moment away from you. It doesn't matter if it's not how you imagined it. What matters is that it's happening. It's real. You just have to work with what you have. Live in the moment, my baby girl."

"You sound just like grandma," Cedes said.

Marilyn smiled tearily. "Since she's been gone, I've noticed that more and more. Like she's with me; the way she promised she always would be."

"She promised me that, too," Cedes said softly. Then she and her mother looked around the huge room, and Cedes knew they both felt the same thing. It was hard to fully understand but it was there no less: the presence of a loved one they both needed very much.

"Off you go, baby girl. Make her proud."

Cedes went back up on the stage and sat down in front of the piano again.

She closed her eyes and she started to sing her song for Sam again. But she also sang it for her mom. Maybe this was all she was going to get, a chance to perform for her mom at the Grand Ole Opry. But it suddenly felt like enough.

Halfway through the song, Cedes felt something. A shift in the air, like an electrical current. It made all the hairs on her arms stand on end.

All at once, she smelled cologne and cinnamon gum. She opened her eyes.

Sam Evans.

He was standing in front of her, his head tilted to one side, the way she knew he looked when he was really listening. There was so much to say, but it was all in her song, so she gazed into his eyes and kept right on singing. "I really never believed in love at first sight. Told myself I hated you despite the way I felt when I saw your face again. And though outside forces worked to end what we had. It temporarily worked and I feel so bad without you, and I realized in spite of all the bad I really love you. And I have only one wish. I wish on all the sleigh bells I keep hearing, ringing, that you will come back to me. So, please be listening baby to those same sleigh bells and make my wish of Christmas love come true and come back to me this Christmas."

Sam joined her on the piano bench. He had his guitar with him and started to strum it. He wasn't playing along with her song, not quite. He was weaving a different song into hers, she realized, a song all his own and yet somehow it fit into hers perfectly. As Cedes sang and played she made space for him in her music the way she should have made space for him in her life. "Baby, I never knew a love like this before so I messed up and almost threw away the most important thing that has ever happened to me," he sang. "And I wish upon every star, especially this Christmas, that you will make my yuletide wish come true—because, my love, the best Christmas gift is you. I can hear those sleigh bells ringing and if angels are able to get their wings every time the bells are ringing then surely I can get my Christmas wish to come true that you will come back to me this Christmas."

She felt breathless and elated when it was over not just her song, but their song.

"We did it," she whispered. "We wrote a song."

Sam leaned his guitar against the bench and reached for her. "We sure did, sweetheart." She leaned her head against his shoulder, then looked up at him. "I'm so sorry," he said. "I've been an absolute idiot, not able to see past my own jealous nose. I know you would never, ever have had anything going on with Will, and I swear, if that man comes near you again, I will—"

"It's okay, Sam. I'm going to handle Will. Lauren and April are going to help me. It might not be easy, and I may need your help in the future to hurt him where it really counts. I don't want you arrested for assault on his worthless ass." She reached up and touched his cheek. "Please don't sink to his level by getting angry, let's have the best revenge showing him we will be happy together despite his attempts to tear us apart." she said with a sad smile. "All I need is you believing in me and just for you to be there for me as I try to deal with the fallout of this. I don't need a prince to rescue me; I just need you to stand by me and encourage me to stop blaming myself. I can slay my own dragons when my worst enemy is me."

"I can do that, Cedes. Of course I can. I will do whatever you want. Even though you are strong and could do everything on your own; you don't have to. I am here for you for whatever and whenever you have a need."

"All I do know is that right now Will doesn't deserve one more moment of our time or energy, not today. But we'll keep dealing with him, so he never gets a way with what he has done. Together, we can overcome anything. And I accept your apology, Sam. I understand why you would have made judgments about me that weren't always true. It was my own fault. Like I said I was my own worst enemy. I never fully let you in, so you didn't really know me—not until now. And I judged you harshly, too. I'm sorry for that. I hope you can forgive me. And . . ."

What Cedes wanted to say next was going to take a lot of courage. While she hoped the lyrics of her song had made her feelings abundantly clear, she knew she had to stop leaving things unsaid. "I love you, Samuel Evans. That's the truth. What we have has always been real to me. I want us to be together forever." As she spoke the words she saw his expression change and was deeply relieved to see in his eyes that he felt the same.

"Mercedes Jones, I love you, too. More than you can possibly imagine." Sam had never looked happier, and as he leaned in, he whispered, "I was drawn to you the first time I saw you, and I began falling in love you since the moment I heard you sing. I was just too much of an idiot to accept how I felt." Then he kissed her passionately, his hands tangled in her hair, their lips speaking a private language only the two of them knew. For a magical moment, the rest of the world fell away. It was almost as if they were standing in the snow, in the middle of the Colorado mountains, just the two of them, their bodies pressed together.

"I have something for you," Cedes said, finally pulling away from the kiss and reaching into the pocket of her sweater. She'd been carrying the tiny tissue-wrapped package around with her hoping to be brave enough to give it to him tonight if he showed.. Sam unwrapped it: inside was a white gold Christmas ornament shaped like his cabin in Vail.

"We were so happy there, together in Vail," Cedes whispered.

"We'll go back. We can be happy there again. We'll go as soon as we've done everything we need to do here in Nashville."

"But we'll come back here, too?"

"Of course," Sam said. "It never has to be all or nothing. We don't have to run away from anything or anybody." He smiled down at the gorgeous ornament, then tucked it in his pocket.

"Hey, is that your mom, sitting in the front row, there? She looks pretty happy considering the fact I almost just made out with you in front of God and everyone here."

Cedes smiled and waved at Marilyn. "She is happy," Cedes said. "Because she's finally starting to understand—with my grandma's help, I think—that I'm exactly where I need to be, right here, chasing my dreams. But I know it isn't going to be easy, and I won't take her for granted anymore. I know how much you wish your mom could be here to see you."

The sound techs had spotted Sam and descended on them now. Their private moment was over, for now. But Cedes smiled, thinking about what was to come.

As they finally strode out onto the Grand Opry's stage, hand in hand, Cedes scanned the audience. She found many familiar faces: Marilyn, sitting beside Lauren and April, right on the front row. Tana, sitting in the same row as her mother, mouthing, Break a leg, lovebirds! Tana had popped into Cedes' dressing room earlier and Cedes had told her about the happy reunion. Her friend and mentor was thrilled and had also alluded to the fact that Will Schuester was in the process of getting exactly what he deserved.

There was Dwight, too, winking at Cedes like the shameless flirt he was, then saluting his son with a smile. Stacie was sitting beside her father with her hands clasped over her belly, and Rory, Stacie's boyfriend, was in town for the holidays, too. Kurt was sitting near the front, his hand to his heart, mouthing, You look absolutely gorgeous, to Cedes. Unique was there, from the Bourbon Street Blues and Boogie Bar, without whom Cedes' song would not have come to be.

Cedes found her mother's face once more. She touched the side of her nose and smiled.

Cedes took a deep breath and drank it all in. Sam squeezed her hand and whispered, "Ready for this, love?"

"I've been ready for this my whole life, love of my life," Cedes said, giving him a kiss that made the already excited crowd go wild.

They stepped forward and took their places. Cedes sat on the piano bench, and Sam sat on a stool beside her.

The crowd fell silent as Cedes and Sam looked into each other's eyes. Cedes began to play the piano, and then Sam joined in with his guitar. There were thousands of people in the audience, millions of people watching at home, but as Cedes and Sam sang their song to one another, it felt like they were the only two people in the world. They traded lines back and forth, the words intertwining as if they had been written side by side.

When it was over, the audience stayed silent and Cedes experienced a beat of worry that maybe it hadn't gone over the way she and Sam had wanted it to. Maybe the crowd just hadn't liked it. Maybe it was really just for them. But the sudden roar of applause was deafening. Most of the audience jumped to their feet to give them a standing ovation. A jubilant Sam pulled her from her piano bench and spun her around, then kissed her deeply as the crowd hooted and hollered for an encore.

"We did it!" Cedes said, throwing her arms around Sam's neck. "I only wish we had something we could do for an encore."

Sam smiled and said, "My endless love, all the audience wants for an encore is this. I love and adore you, Cedes Jones," he said as he stared into her eyes.

"And I love you, Sam Evans. Make my wish come true because all I want for Christmas is you."

At that, Sam kissed her again, as their adoring fans, and the people who loved and supported them most—cheered them on.

BREAKING #SAMCEDES NEWS: Happily Ever After!

Nashville's favorite duo has convinced us their love is real, just in time for Christmas!

All we wanted for Christmas this year was for our Christmas wish that Sam Evans and Cedes Jones to get back together and for Cedes to not really be secretly seeing the disgusting creep Will Schuester, come true; but it's a cruel world out there, and you don't always get what you wish for, right? Well, unless you recently moved to the moon (and even then, you probably saw the America's Newest Star holiday extravaganza) you know there has been Christmas romance and magical wishes coming true in Nashville tonight!

Recent rumors of cheating hearts and an acrimonious break up had us doubting the veracity of what we had all longed to believe was the feel-good romance of the year. But watching #Samcedes singing their song "Sleigh Bells" to each other live onstage at the Grand Ole Opry was enough to make even the most jaded among us believe in true love again. We were scared, though. Was it for real, or were we going to get our hearts broken again?

Maybe #Samcedes understood we were feeling vulnerable, after all the uncertainty of recent days. Maybe the most captivating and impossibly talented couple in town knew we needed a grand gesture to make us truly believe they weren't just toying with our emotions.

Or maybe Christmas really is the most wonderful time of the year, when every wish can come true.

Here's how it went down: the final notes of #Samcedes's spectacular Christmas love song faded out, and the two stars stared longingly into each other's eyes for a long moment. Then they shared a kiss that left us all feeling light-headed. If they were faking their emotions, they both deserve an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony for the song and their acting abilities. Since it's Christmas Eve, we've decided to believe in this talented duo. Love is in the air, and it really is the most wonderful time of the year!