Authors Note: This chapter kind of jumps all over the place, but I needed to provide some background. It includes a MASSIVE "how Sam and Mercedes got together" flashback-ish section, but I don't think you guys will mind! In my head, this has always been how they got together, so I'm happy to have finally written it out. Enjoy! Thanks to everyone who has reviewed! I eat the reviews up like CANDY!
Disclaimer: I don't own Glee or Samcedes would alive and kickin'!
PART IISaturday afternoon, Mercedes climbed into the driver's seat of her dad's SUV parked in her driveway. She dialed Sam's number and placed the phone in the cup-holder to her right as she buckled up and backed out of her driveway.
"Hey Mercy!" he answered cheerfully.
"Hi, baby," she cooed back, "I'm on my way to Marcus' family party and I need a pep-talk."
"You'll be amazing. You look so beautiful today," Sam told her without hesitating.
She laughed hard, throwing her head back as much as is possible while operating a motor vehicle, "Boy, what are you talking about? You can't see me."
"Well I'm imagining…" he said seductively.
"Oh, stop pervin'…" she giggled again. She was happy that he can always make her feel a little better, but still uneasy about the afternoon ahead of her. "I am nervous, Sam. Marcus is relying on me…"
"Can I sing you a pep-song?"
She smiled, "Please, please do. That's the only thing that will make me feel better."
"Okay, let me grab my guitar," Mercedes heard some noisy shuffling from the other end of the phone and giggled at her gawky boy.
"Alright," Sam said, after returning. He strummed the guitar a few times to develop a melody and cleared his throat before releasing a pensive, "Hmmm," then began…
You are so beautiful,
Your heart is made of gold,
Oh Mercy, my hero,
You'll have them all sold.
Who could help but love you?
No one in his right mind,
Oh Mercy, my hero,
Marcus has quite the find.
Mercedes laughed hard at that line, but cut herself off quickly so she wouldn't miss any of his song.
One glimpse of your bright smile,
They'll all be blown away,
Oh Mercy, my hero,
Promise it'll be okay.
When he finished, Mercedes affirmed his pep-abilities by vowing, "I am now prepared to do anything: Be there for Marcus. Run for President. Fight Evil in a cape and spandex."
"Ooo I like the sound of that…" Sam jumped in breathily.
"There's that pervy Sammy again."
"Oh, you love Pervy Sammy," he told her then noted, "and does Pervy Sammy love you, baby"
She laughed again and turned onto Marcus' street. "You're such a boy…"
"I'm all man, Ms. Jones," he told her in his best Matthew McConaughey.
"Don't you have a brother and sister to watch your words in front of, Mr. Evans?"
"My parents took them to the park. Plus I have my own room now," he added, sighing, "I have a big empty room but not my pretty girl..."
"I know," Mercedes sighed. She didn't have the words to soothe him because she was equally saddened by this truth. "I should go now. I'm almost to Marcus' house. I just need to get up and get in there."
"That's what HE said!" Sam interjected before laughing heartily.
"Seriously. Such a boy…" Mercedes smirked, "Have a good day, Sam. I miss you already."
He groaned expressively in return and then told her, "Me, too. Good luck, pretty girl."
"Bye," she said softly and pressed End. Mercedes found Marcus' block already crowded with cars. He had a large extended family and today was his great-aunt's 90th birthday, so everyone would be there. She found a parking space a few houses down and turned her engine off.
Sitting back, she took a few deep breaths and thought about her Sam. Whenever she started to feel anxious or nervous or lonesome or bored, really, she replayed their story of in her head, like it was some classic romance. It always, always made her better.
It had all started the night of junior prom, she recalled. Sam, Mercedes, and Rachel, the "Glee Club leftovers" had gone to prom together in a truly thrifty fashion. With Rachel so distracted by her usual Jesse and Finn drama, Sam and Mercedes were left to fend for themselves for large portions of the night.
Looking back, Mercedes couldn't pinpoint what exactly changed between them at prom, but something changed. It was almost like God lit a match so they could see each other for the first time.
From there, their friendship snowballed. They talked more and more and found themselves sitting together in Glee. Over the next few weeks, it began to seem like Sam was always around. He started bringing his siblings by every Sunday afternoon to play on the big wooden swingset in the Jones' expansive backyard. Sam would frequently show up at her house for help with his spanish or chemistry or history homework. He would call and wake her up early in the morning, begging her to come to the motel to help pick out an outfit for Stacey to wear to school. One time he showed up at her door at 11 o'clock at night to borrow a stapler. Yes, a stapler.
After that particular "Sam incident," Mercedes was standing in her kitchen, throwing together her lunch for the next day when her mom sat down at the kitchen table and chuckled.
"Baby girl," she said, "Does that boy have it bad for you..."
Mercedes shook her head quickly, "No, no. We're friends, Mama. He doesn't see me like that. His family is going through this really rough time so, he just needs a lot of help right now and I'm helping whenever I can."
"I know you are. I know you're a great friend. But you haven't had a lot of experiences with boys, Mercedes, and you haven't seen what they do when they are courting a girl or wanting to court a girl," she told her daughter, "But I promise you, Sam likes you."
Mercedes just stood and stared at her mother for a long moment. It had honestly never crossed her mind that that was what was happening.
The next day, in school, everything was different. If Prom was like God lighting a match, then this day was God flipping on a floodlight. Mercedes was sitting across from Sam at lunch while he told her stories about his crazy history teacher, Mr. Goodwin. She was having trouble concentrating on his words and she completely blamed her mother.
As she watched him talk, Mercedes could not stop looking at the movement of Sam's perfect pink lips and the way he absentmindedly pushed the soft blond hair out of his eyes every few minutes. She had never wanted to touch his hair before but here she found herself having to sit on her hands.
"I need to ask you something," she suddenly interrupted him towards the end of the lunch period.
"Okay," he grinned at her, "Anything. Shoot."
Mercedes took a long moment to gather her thoughts, avoiding eye contact by watching people walk by their table on the way out of the cafeteria. Sam waited silently. When there was finally no one around, she looked down at her hands on the table in front of her and asked him very calculatingly, "Do you like me?"
When he didn't immediately answer, she raised her eyes slowly to meet his and found him smiling at her. He opened his mouth, possibly to respond, but she cut him off nervously before he was able to do so.
"I mean," she rambled, "I mean, I don't think you do, but my mom said something last night and it got me thinking and now I'm probably freaking you out, but I just had to say someth—"
"Yes," he interrupted her, "I like you, Mercedes." She stared at him with wide eyes, unable to keep her mouth closed. He laughed a little at her stunned face and went on, "I like you a lot actually. But I know you don't see me like that and it's okay."
She shook her head, suddenly embarrassed but uncertain of what she had to be embarrassed about. He grinned at her again and she relaxed a little. "It's okay because I'm going to prove to you that I'm worthy of you. And your heart. Or I want to be worthy," he rambled a bit, himself, then added, "I, Sam Evans, will be worthy of you, Ms. Mercedes Jones. And I can wait. I'll be here when you feel it."
At that, she gave him a smile, but still didn't have any words to share.
He stood and gathered up both of their trash on his lunch tray. "We should go to class. I know you don't like to be late."
She followed his lead, standing and finally answering, "Right."
Mercedes picked up her books and Sam threw his backpack over one shoulder, dumping their garbage in a big trashcan. They had classes in opposite directions and needed to close this conversation before the bell rang.
"You okay?" he asked her, his eyes showing concern.
"Yeah," she nodded quickly and involuntarily held her breath as Sam leaned in and kissed her cheek softly. She watched him turn and walk out of the cafeteria.
During the days that followed, Mercedes often found herself not knowing what to say to Sam. This was something entirely new for her. Diva as she was, she couldn't believe how completely nervous Sam suddenly made her. He probably knew, but he didn't seem to mind. He managed to always get the seat next to her in Glee. He started walking Mercedes to her car after school and coming by her house with less ridiculous excuses to see her. He just wanted to be near her and she was starting to feel the same. Looking back, she's still surprised that Kurt didn't catch on to any of this. But he was busy being wrapped up in his own love story and she couldn't fault him.
For most of the time she knew Sam, Mercedes didn't allow herself to even flirt with the idea of liking him. After the Kurt crush disaster, she learned to be that way with all the boys in Glee. What was the point of letting herself like someone when they always went for Quinn or Rachel or Tina? Even when she dated Puck, it was an image thing and he never had romantic feelings for her. It wasn't self-deprecating. She knew she was fabulous, but she had pretty much given up hope that the boys in this stage of her life would ever know it, too. She had resigned herself to waiting, thinking that once she got out of Lima she would find someone who wanted her most. And she was willing to wait because she knew that she was worth that adoration. She never thought that this person could be hiding right under her nose.
Sam clearly didn't want to scare her away so he didn't push too hard. He was just Sam and Mercedes was beginning to see how special that was. He was sweet to her, but he never made a move. They found themselves at an unspoken standstill. He was proving himself to her and letting her take the lead when and if she decided to be more than his friend, but she was having trouble gaining the nerve to make that move.
Then Mr. Schue brought Jesse St. James in as a Glee consultant and announced that they were holding auditions for solos at Nationals. Mercedes knew right away that she would try-out. Nationals was her dream just as much as Rachel Berry's and she knew that she could deliver something really special for her team.
After some contemplation, she settled on singing Otis Redding's "Try A Little Tenderness," one of her father's all-time favorite songs. She grew up listening and singing along to it and knew this was the song to showcase what she could do.
The day of the audition, she was hanging around after school with Kurt, Santana, and Rachel, waiting to be called into the auditorium by to audition. She wasn't nervous. She was never afraid to sing. The stage was the place she always felt comfortable and powerful.
When Kurt came back to the choir room, she knew it was her turn. Without a hint of nervousness, she left the others in the room and headed confidently for the stage door. Just before she reached it, an arm grabbed her shoulder from behind. She turned to see who was following her, finding Sam. He was out of breath and wearing his pizza delivery uniform.
"What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be working tonight?" Mercedes asked him perplexedly.
" Yeah, I'm on the clock. The car's outside," he lifted up the Pete's Pizza cap on his head and scratched the back of his golden locks, "I just wanted to tell you good luck. I know you'll be amazing. You deserve this more than anyone, Mercy."
Mercedes beamed at his confidence in her. "I should get in there. Don't want to give them any more reason to not pick me for a solo," she joked, then asked him bashfully, "Do you have time to stay? While I sing?"
"Of course," he nodded, "But it's supposed to be a 'closed audition,' so I'll just listen from backstage."
They walked toward the stage door in silence. Suddenly, for the first time in a very long time, Mercedes was nervous about performing. She wasn't sure if it was the pressure of the audition or the fact that Sam would be standing fifteen feet away, watching no one but her. She took a deep breath as he opened the big wooden door, letting her go first then following closely.
They passed through the quiet, dark backstage area. During a play or an event, this place would be teeming with people. But now it was deserted, occupied only by some music stands and a few props left unclaimed after McKinley's winter performance of The Glass Menagerie. The stage's old velvet curtains hung from the high ceilings and bunched into the disordered room, filling it with their wonderfully musty scent.
As the bright light of the stage came into view, Mercedes felt Sam reach down and grab her hand, interlocking their fingers. Too nervous to slow down or even look back, Mercedes just kept pushing her way through the twists and turns of the dark cavern, continuing to breathe deeply.
When they reached the threshold of the stage, Sam released her fingers and stopped. She started across the stage and turned around just long enough to see him smile brightly for her. She answered with her own smile, not just for Sam, but for Mr. Schue and Jesse and anyone else who might be there to witness it.
She nailed the song. There was no doubt about it. As her lips sang those words to the two men at the table, she knew her heart was singing them to Sam. She prayed he was listening.
It's all so easy,
Come on and try,
Try a little tenderness.
When she finished, Mr. Schuester thanked her and sweetly reminded her how far she and the whole club had come. But then Jesse, with one foul choice of word, ruined her moment by calling her lazy.
In a fit of rage, Mercedes grabbed the microphone and stormed off the stage. Forgetting entirely that Sam was there, she walked directly into him.
"Hey," he whispered as she pushed past him, back into the shadowy backstage room.
"Hey," he said again, slightly louder, and reached out again to grab her hand from behind.
She stopped and turned to face him, thankful that the dim lighting probably hid the tears in her eyes. Sam was grinning ear-to-ear.
"Mercedes," he was so exultant he was almost laughing, "That was…You were incredible."
She shook her head and looked down at their fingers still intertwined, "Didn't you hear Jesse's review? He said I'm lazy."
"Jesse's an idiot. You know that. Mr. Schue knows that," he spoke assuredly," Don't count yourself out yet, because unless they're completely deaf I can't imagine them not insisting you sing that song at Nationals. If I was them, I'd insist you sing it every-damn-day, just so I could hear the most beautiful thing I've ever heard coming from the most beautiful girl I've ever se—"
Mercedes stopped his words by reaching up quickly and pulling him down to her lips. She couldn't not kiss him for a minute longer. He pulled back after a moment and looked into her eyes, his own full of surprise and joy. She strained to watch Sam's face and he grinned his most reassuring of grins. He then wrapped his arms around her waist and yanked her into him. Mercedes reached up and straightened the baseball cap on his head, unabashedly smiling back at him.
"You're amazing," he whispered and moved backwards, pulling her with him deep into the swell of the soft stage curtains. With the heavy velvet surrounding them, Sam bent down to intuitively find her lips once again in the now complete darkness.
They stayed wrapped up in those curtains for some time. Rachel headed onstage and started to sing "My Man" completely unaware that Sam and Mercedes were trying a little tenderness some twenty feet away.
Midway through Rachel's song, Mercedes pulled back and Sam gasped a little at the loss of her soft lips.
"I have to go," she whispered, "Kurt's going to come looking for me."
"Okay, I should go back to work before they fire me. I've been delivering one pizza for the last 45 minutes," Sam said jokingly, his arms still snug around her waist.
But they didn't move. They just stood there, eyes having finally adjusted to the deep darkness of their velvet nest; they just studied each other for probably another twenty seconds.
Finally, Mercedes leaned up and gently kissed Sam once more before she, against every instinct in her body, dropped her hands from his shoulders and pushed quickly out of the curtains. She ran through the dim room and found herself back in the hallway just as Kurt and Santana were making their way towards the top of the auditorium.
"There you are. How'd it go?" Kurt asked her.
Mercedes blinked at him and Santana, completely blank.
"Mercedes?" Kurt asked her again.
"It was wonderful," she finally told them confidently and fell in behind the other two as they walked into the auditorium to see the remainder of Rachel's audition.
Looking back, Mercedes knew that that moment in the curtains largely contributed to the development of their relationship as a secret, which lead her to playing this role for Marcus today. Those damn curtains. They kept calling their names, and Sam and Mercedes kept finding themselves wrapped up in them, often a few velvety feet away from getting being discovered. The excitement of secretly dating quickly lured Sam and Mercedes. They were both considered such dependable and predictable parts of the Glee Club. Because of that, they relished this opportunity to not only enjoy the thrill of hidden touches and secret rendezvous, but also to keep something for themselves for a while.
Sam had been hurt by Glee Club gossip when his family moved into the motel, and everyone assumed the worst of him when he was already vulnerable and ashamed. He had been hurt by Quinn when she publicly cheated then he was forced to deal with their friends' comments everyday in Glee. Mercedes had admittedly been part of the rumor-mill. But now, knowing Sam and seeing how it had hurt him, she refused to let them be brought down by the opinions and schemes of the club's members. So they kept it a secret, entirely intending to come out as a couple before they started their senior year at McKinley. But that never happened.
The walk up Marcus' driveway was quick; Mercedes went over her standard story. She rang the doorbell and straightened the turquoise dress she was wearing. Marcus answered the door right away, dressed in a nice shirt and tie. He gave her a warm grin and a warmer hug, complimenting her dress then her hair. The boy knew how to get on her good side.
Marcus grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the kitchen where his mother and some female relatives were gathered. She had met Marcus' mother before, but only in passing and mostly when she and Sam were hanging out in their driveway playing basketball. Marcus had told her that she worked a lot since she was raising him on her own. His dad lived in Cleveland and Marcus had painted a picture of him as pretty unreliable.
"Mercedes!" Marcus' mom said when they walked into the kitchen. Everyone turned to look at Marcus and Mercedes and his mother reached out to hug her. "It's so good to see you. Marcus has been telling me all about your Glee club."
"Yes," Mercedes smiled, realizing that every eye in the room was on her. "We placed twelfth at Nationals last year. Now we're preparing for Sectionals in a couple months."
"Mercedes was picked to sing the national anthem at the big Titans pep rally next weekend," Marcus told everyone. The women doted and smiled.
Marcus' mom told her, "That's great! I'm going to be there. Do you know where you'll be attending college yet, Mercedes?"
"Uh, yes," she said, a little uncomfortably, "I got accepted into Northwestern University's School of Music. I've wanted to go there forever. My dad graduated from Northwestern."
"How wonderful!" she hugged Mercedes again. Mercedes couldn't help but notice how warm she seemed. "And Marcus won't be too far from Chicago when he's playing football at Indiana University."
"Uh huh," Mercedes nodded.
"We understand you two met through Marcus' friend Sam? Is that right?" one tall woman in her late twenties asked.
Mercedes grinned slightly too big and nodded again, "Yes, that's right."
"The food is just about ready," a woman in her late forties told them, "You should go say hi to Auntie Barbara. It's not everyday a woman turns 90 in this family!"
Mercedes smiled and Marcus started to push her out the back door to the patio, which was packed with even more people. They made their way over to the elderly woman sitting in a soft chair in the shaded side of the yard. After wishing her a happy birthday, they moved over to the table of food that had just been put out. Music was playing, providing enough cover for Mercedes to ask Marcus, "Who were all those women in the kitchen?"
"Well, you know my mom. The others were my aunties, Pam and Jada, and my cousins Aisha and Jasmine," he lowered his voice to a whisper. "The one that told us to come out here is Pam. Her son is my cousin Vince. You know. The one gay cousin who we don't speak of."
Mercedes had known of this "gay cousin that we don't speak of" for a while now. Since they became friends, Mercedes and Marcus often found themselves in long conversations about God and their faiths. They both believed in the same loving God and had had so many of the same experiences, but their discussions made them realize that when it came to certain social topics, their family's faith lives were very different. Marcus and his family were members of the Grace Baptist Church of Lima, which was a lot more conservative in it's teachings and practices than the Methodist church in town that Mercedes' family attended. Marcus' congregation and family had very specific beliefs about homosexuality, which left little room for any alternate lifestyles.
One Sunday evening, about a week before Sam left for Nashville, Mercedes and Sam were alone at her house, curled up watching TV, when there was a knock at the door. It was Marcus, breathing tensely, his face wet with tears.
"What's wrong?" Mercedes asked, pulling him into the house.
"What happened, Marcus?" Sam questioned and then shared a worried look with Mercedes.
Marcus told them that his cousin Vince had just come out to their family after church and that it had gone horribly. There was yelling and tears and Vince's father had kicked him out of their house unless he was willing to change. It terrified Marcus to his core.
"I have no idea how I'm going to do this," Marcus told Sam and Mercedes, as he paced back and forth in Mercedes' living room, "They are constantly asking me if I've met 'a nice girl.' People from the church are trying to fix me up with girls all the time and I'm running out of excuses."
Mercedes and Sam sat on the couch in front of him. She nodded support to Marcus and reached out for Sam's hand, glad that they were both here for Marcus in this moment. She suddenly realized that a week from now Sam would be gone.
"I'm not ready to come out to them," Marcus cried, "I can't get kicked out like Vince did. But I can't start force myself to like girls just to get them off my back." He sat down in a chair and closed his eyes. "I'm going away to college in less than a year and once I'm gone, I know I can stop hiding all the time. But some days, I don't know if I'll make it until then."
Suddenly, Mercedes had the idea. "Marcus," she began, "If they thought you had a girlfriend, would that make it easier to get by?"
"Well, yes," he answered, not following what she was saying.
Mercedes turned to Sam and asked him, "Will you come outside with me for a minute?" He nodded and followed her onto her front porch. They took a seat on the steps.
Before she could begin, Sam told her assuredly, "Do it. We need to help him."
"Are you sure?" Mercedes asked him, running her fingers across his cheek.
"Absolutely. Maybe it's fate or God or something… that we're still a secret and he needs help. It all works out. I'm leaving and he needs you," Sam told her and brought her fingers to his lips to kiss them softly.
"For the record, Ohio, Tennessee, or the Moon: I'll always need you," Mercedes told him, leaning forward to nuzzle his chest, "What a wonderful heart."
A minute later, they returned to the living room finding Marcus with his head in his hands.
"I'm yours," Mercedes announced to him. Marcus looked up slowly with confusion written across his face. Mercedes gripped Sam's right hand with both of hers.
"Marcus, let's give them the impression that you and I are together. So they'll get off your back. It's worth a try, right?" she asked.
Marcus looked at Sam standing at her side and smiling down at Marcus. He nodded reassuringly.
"Thank you," Marcus stood and pulled both of them into a hard hug, "Thank you both so much for doing this for me. "
Marcus and Mercedes soon realized that it didn't take a lot for people to think they were dating. They just started hanging out one-on-one in more public places and letting word get passed to Marcus' relatives and family-friends.
Almost immediately, people stopped trying to fix him up and started asking about Mercedes, which is why, a month later, she was at this party today. When people asked them questions about their relationship, they both played the "shy card" and said very little, offering that they were taking it slow. They were a good Christian couple, after all.
After a couple hours of chatting with his cousins, aunts, and uncles at the party, Mercedes told Marcus she should probably head out. Marcus walked her to her car and pulled her into a hug as soon as they reached it.
"I don't know if I say this enough," he told her, "but thank you so much for everything you're doing for me."
She smiled, "It's no problem, Marcus. You're my friend and I'm here for you whenever you need me."
As she opened the car door, Marcus stood a few feet away and changed the subject, "Whenever you talk about Northwestern you never seem excited. What's the deal, girl? Does Sam still not know what he's doing?"
She sighed and shook her head, "We don't talk about it a lot. He gets uncomfortable because he doesn't think he can get a football scholarship." Mercedes turned the engine on and opened the window to talk to Marcus.
"Something will work out," he told her and patted her hand through the window, "Don't worry so much, gorgeous. You and Sam are happy and apparently everyone thinks I love the ladies."
"Oh my god, I totally forgot," she slapped her forehead, "Kurt is catching on. He pretty much figured out that you and I aren't really together. I'm a little nervous he'll figure it all out one day and shout it down the hall or something. What should I do?"
Marcus laughed and sighed broodingly, "Tell him. I don't really know Kurt but I know he's a good guy. If he's your best friend and you trust him with this secret, I trust him with it."
"Okay," she nodded and pulled the car into gear, "I'll talk to him soon. See ya, Marcus."
"Bye, Mercedes," he waved and moved out of the street so she could drive away.
A few minutes after getting home, Mercedes got a text from Sam, "How's my hero doing? Do you need another song?"
She giggled a little and answered, "I'm great, but a song from you will always make me better."
"Okay, good," Sam texted back, "because I've been working on another song for you. And this one involves Na'vi."