Mercedes was one of the first to reach the airport. Her parents being the obsessives that they were, hadn't wanted to get her there late, which had resulted in her being there far too early. It was annoying as she would have much preferred a little more time in bed but with all the last minute mind changing when it came to the outfits she'd packed there had been very little sleep anyway.

Her parents decided to stay chatting with MrSchue who was at the check-in desk with the tickets, handing them to each student as they arrived and watching to make sure that they were properly checked in before heading through to the small departure lounge. He had decided to stay there with the tickets and only pass through once each student had collected their ticket from him and checked in correctly. As the only other place they could go after security was the lounge, he was happy to let the students pass though alone as and when they arrived.

Mercedes headed to the gate and saw Artie slumped in his chair, asleep. Mike and Tina were huddled in a corner, barely awake but still managing to be soppy. She smiled and waved over at them before finding her own seat. Much as she would like to have had a doze, she was suddenly excited and wide awake. In a moment of sheer stupidity she had accidentally thrown her iPod into her checked bag and she could clearly see the exact spot on her dresser that she had left the earphones for her phone so there wasn't going to be any music for the wait. Kurt and Finn were next in through the door, immediately followed by Sam. She'd forgotten that he was travelling to the airport with them. He caught her eye, shot her a smile, noticing the empty seat beside her and looked like he was heading towards it unluckily for her Kurt was faster.

"Cedes!" Kurt cried, in a tone far too jovial for that hour of the morning. His arms stretched out for a hug and she stood up to meet him. Sam dropped his pace, clearly disappointed and looking for another seat when Quinn appeared from nowhere, grabbed his arm and pulled him to the side. Mercedes was still looking over at him and their eyes met again for the briefest millisecond before he had to turn away.

"Might I say you look wonderful this fine morning Miss Jones. New York won't know what hit it when you step off the plane!" Kurt the drama king was on full form.

"And may I say you're looking pretty dapper yourself!" She matched his fake English accent for his reply but she spoke the truth. He literally did look dapper. Her actually looked as if he hadn't bothered to go to bed, instead choosing to use the time to pick an outfit and make sure there wasn't a hair out of place. He took the complement graciously and followed her eyes to the corner where Sam and Quinn were deep in some sort of intense conversation.

"I wonder what all that's about!" he said as she checked his nails to make sure they were clean.

Mercedes shrugged. She didn't yet trust herself to open her mouth to speak and chose instead to pretend she wasn't that interested in what was happening there.

But the truth was that she was devastated. She'd lost Sam. Not that she'd ever actually had him at any point. But any foolish notions that she had developed in her head about him were being shot down one by one. The whole Stella groove thing wasn't coming on quite as well as she'd planned and it really irked her that this crush was one that refused to go away quickly. Something about Sam Evans had seriously got under her skin and was refusing to budge.

"So what plans do you have for the Big Apple?" Kurt had rested his chin in his hand, and his eyes were wide with anticipation. Mercedes had to focus her thoughts back on the conversation at hand before Kurt picked up on her distraction and pushed for answers.

"I hadn't really thought about it too much. Maybe some shopping. To be honest I just want to be there absorbing the amazingness of it all."

"Me too. I told myself that I'll do everything in my power to try and get the opportunity to sing on a Broadway stage. Can you imagine? It'll be like having a little foretaste of the future. A little stoke to the fire that's already in my belly."

She smiled. "I can so see you doing that. And you're the only one I know that's crazy enough to risk trying to do that sort of thing. Except maybe Rachel!"

He laughed, but also looked as if he was seriously contemplating the idea.

In that perfect moment, Rachel came through the door closely followed by Santana. Rachel scanned the room, saw Mercedes and Kurt, and positively hopped and skipped over, dropping onto the seat next to Kurt. Her excitement was palpable.

"I cannot believe that I, Rachel Berry, am about to get on a plane to New York! NEW YORK!"

It really was too early in the morning for such glee in the literal sense. But Kurt was on her wavelength and their gushing simply made her roll her eyes.

Santana's entry had been more guarded. She scanned the room, her eyes resting on Quinn and Sam fractionally more than the others before quietly finding a seat on her own at the other side. Quinn's head had snapped up on her arrival. She said a few more words to Sam, squeezed his shoulder gently then made her way over to Santana. Mercedes was fascinated. Wondering what was going on between Sam and his two exes. Quinn spoke to Santana for a moment. Initially to an unwilling ear which gradually softened and ended with a hug. Clearly a make-up of some kind. But she was damned if she knew what the hell it was all about. She looked over at Kurt to see if he had noticed, but he and Rachel were chatting so fast they were barely pausing for breath.

She looked back across to Sam. He looked pleased that the two girls had made up and she wondered if anything he had said or done had contributed to it. He then yawned widely and rubbed his eyes. Boy did he look tired. Her heart went out to him. His life had been non-stop for so long that it must have been great for him to finally get a break and spend time with kids his own age. He rubbed the back of his neck, stretched out his long legs and closed his eyes. She would have gone over to sit with him but he didn't look like he wanted to be disturbed.

"Sam? Sam? You need to wake up. We're boarding now."

He felt a hand over his and heard the voice of an angel. Mercedes was leaning over him trying to pull him from sleep. It was a struggle to open his eyes and he knew that they would be bloodshot. Oh my god I hope I wasn't drooling in my sleep!

He rubbed his eyes and sat up straight from his slumped position. The beautiful vision in front of him had that soft smile that he loved so much. Despite the early hour she looked fresh faced, even without makeup, and she still had that lovely sweet smell.

"Hey Sam, we were just going to leave you here," grinned Finn as he walked past, clearly finding the whole thing funny, "You looked so peaceful slumped there!"

Mercedes' eyes looked concerned. "Are you feeling ok?"

How could she possibly not know that he always felt fine when she was around him? "Sure. I'm good to go." He stretched as he stood and grabbed his carryon. "Do you want me to take your bag for you?" Oh no – did that sound too geeky?

"No thanks - it's fine."

A smile played at the corner of his lips as he became fully convince that his question had made her blush. "So what seat have you got?"

She waved her boarding pass at him. "13B."

"Oh. I have 11F." He couldn't hide the disappointment in his voice at the distance between them and he fell in step with her as they walked across the tarmac.

"So how've you been?" she eventually asked, "I haven't seen you for the last couple of days."

"It's been crazy busy. Trying to finish up at work and looking after the kids. Where did you rush off to after Glee? My Schue grabbed me to ask if I was well enough for the trip and by the time I'd turned around you were gone."

"Kurt took me out for coffee."

"That's a shame. I wanted to thank you again for all you help when I was sick. And I got a B on that English assignment you helped me with. I never would have been able to do that without you Cedes!" She really had been a massive help. In recent months, with all that had been going on, his grades had been slipping and some of the teachers were starting to express concern. He really needed to pull up his average grades otherwise his graduating on time could be put in jeopardy!

Sam wanted to reach out and touch her but didn't dare. Somehow, now that he'd started to realize he had feelings for her, touching had become a taboo. There was too much of a physical reaction.

"It was no problem. Just ask me any time."

The short walk was over and they boarded the plane. He wished that he could be sitting nearer to her but it wasn't to be. He couldn't even turn round to look at her.

Although on reflection that probably wasn't a bad thing. He could feel his eyes continually being drawn to her and he hoped that nobody else noticed. Seeing her had brought back all the words his siblings had said to him. And they were right. More right than they had ever imagined. If things were different he might have considered pursuing this. But the mess his life was in meant that this was just going to remain a crush. The most unusual of crushes but a crush nonetheless. Nobody would ever believe him so he'd be able to get away with it.

But this girl got under his skin something critical. There was no way of explaining it. When was with Quinn she'd been everything he'd always thought he wanted. The kind of girl who, until a couple of years ago he would never have dreamed he would be able to get. He still couldn't believe that she'd responded when he'd tried it on. Having nothing to lose does give a guy a certain amount of confidence. The worst that could have happened was that she would have blown him off. And it's not like that hadn't already happened to him several times in life already! No, Quinn Fabray was just like a precious china doll that he'd placed on a pedestal until she broke his heart and opened his eyes to his own naivety. With hindsight he'd been able to reflect on the fact that she wasn't a bad person as per se, she was just damaged and looking for comfort in the wrong places. She had her own issues with being honest and until she took the time to confront them and search herself she would never be able to be truly happy and at peace with herself.

Santana had been, well, he blushed at the thought of what Santana had been. She was a very hot mistake that he did regret. While Quinn had worn a chastity bracelet, Santana had worn her promiscuity as her personal badge of honor. He wasn't proud of his behavior with that one but Santana wasn't a meanness and bad attitude. Their conversation in the library had really made him think. For all her faults, Santana was at least, extremely honest. She had just never heard of sugar coating her words. He hadn't seriously considered her offer of being his 'mistress' until he'd had the breakup conversation with Quinn. The fact that even to his face she couldn't be honest had hurt him so badly that he'd reacted in kind, saying that he was seeing Santana. He had just wanted to make Quinn feel the kind of pain that she'd caused him to feel. Most of the time Santana even didn't like him and his 'trouty mouth', but when she did she really did! Being the teenage boy that he was he hadn't complained and she hadn't minded being the rebound girl. But he wasn't a fool. He saw the way that she looked at Brittany. Even when she was with him she was never 100% there. It was more like she was trying to prove something to herself. What was it with him and girls with baggage?

And to think he'd ended up helping the same two girls to sort out their differences after coming across them nearly coming to blows by the lockers just before the last Glee club! If he hadn't held Quinn back and made Santana go ahead there would have been violence and he couldn't bear to see girls fight.

Then there was Mercedes. Mercedes had trumped them both, occupying a place in his dreams that he never knew even existed. How or what or when he was still unsure of, but all he knew was that she was there and seemingly determined not to be moved.

The seatbelt sign was on and the plane started to taxi on the runway. As they turned, Puck's head lolled towards him. On his other side, Finn emitted a little snore. The plane was silent. Everyone was shattered. Either dozing if they'd flown before, or staring anxiously out of the window if it was their first trip. Sam liked planes and liked flying. When he was little he used to imagine that the plane was really a space shuttle and they were launching from Cape Canaveral to explore the stars. He used to love flying out on holiday to the West coast with his family. While he was at boarding school many of the boys would travel to Europe on their breaks. He'd never been to Europe himself but had dreams of one day doing a road trip there. Maybe even on a motorbike! When Stevie and Stacy were small they would travel to some of the national parks during the holidays. His favorite was Yosemite. He wondered if Mercedes had ever been to Yosemite. There, that name again. It always comes without even trying.

He rubbed his eyes. They were sore and grainy from the lack of sleep. It wasn't a long flight but he knew he needed to get some shut eye otherwise he would have a really bad first day in New York.

As his eyelids closed, the image behind them was of Mercedes' beautiful face as she had gently woken him from his sleep…