At Nationals
"Congratulations, Finn." the sound of Rachel's voice still had the same effect on him. He looked at his cell phone at those big brown eyes, the auburn hair with it's new pixie cut, those lips he longed to kiss. Technically they're just friends but Valentine's day was no fluke. Endgame. Since then they've been spending hours on the phone, talking about New York, Nationals, the future.
"Thanks, Rachel, but the congratulations are really due to the team. They really pulled it out this time."
"Yes. It was..." she searched for the correct words to address the question of why he'd abandoned her carefully chosen set list. She and Kurt had worked so hard on that. Everybody back at NYADA thought her set list was great and hadn't the first one won them Regionals? "Different. Different from what we discussed."
"Yes. I know that – and Will agreed with you - but, as the director, that's what I decided to to do. To do something a little different. And we did go with a Broadway tune for our opening number." He reminded her.
"But you opened with Tina! Marley would have been..."
"But we made it to the next round, isn't that the point? I always knew Tina was like the MVP of New Directions. And Marley, she has two more years to perform. This was Tina's last chance and she nailed it." Finn's grin was ear to ear, visualizing Tina belting out "Everything's Coming Up Roses" from "Gypsy". It was a gamble but it worked. Everything's coming up rainbows and lollipops he hummed to himself.
"Well I can't argue with that. Where did you get the idea?"
"It was your idea to open with a big Broadway tune." Finn pointed out.
"I think I said ballad." She gently corrected him.
"And Kurt's always been a fan of Gypsy." Finn talked over her. "I've seen it a couple of times with him and I always liked how Mama Rose was half hysterical when she sang that song. Tina's been acting odd, really odd, lately so that song, well the emotion behind it, really fits. And like Will always says, singing it out really helps. Then when I picked the first song Mercy..."
"Mercy? Who's Mercy?"
"Mercedes. Mercedes Jones. You remember her."
"Oh." She remembered her old singing rival. "Was she there?"
"Well, Nationals are in Los Angeles this year and that's where she lives. Anyway she was in Lima a couple of months ago, something for her dad, and we grabbed a bite to eat, hung out with some friends of hers. Then she called me a couple of weeks later and asked me to help her with a course she was taking. A case study for a marketing course. She's really good, business is up 15%. I think I mentioned it before. Changes I made to the garage?"
"Ah yes, the garage." Rachel and Kurt both tuned out when Finn talked about the garage. "So you were talking with Mercedes about the garage?"
"Yes. That's when I mentioned Nationals and Everything's Coming Up Roses. Continuing the rose theme was her idea. Sting's Desert Rose, Seal's A Kiss From a Rose. She knew Artie knows Hebrew and figured he could learn Arabic. She even suggested Sam do Sting's vocal and Blaine for the final piece. Not that it was totally her idea, we discussed it." And that Mercedes really fought for Tina in particular and called Rachel's set list 'OK for Lima' was something Rachel didn't need to hear.
"Guess I can't argue with success." Rachel said grudgingly.
"I knew you'd see it that way." He beamed at his future wife. Endgame and they both knew it.
"I hear you guys are doing public performances all the time now?"
"Another idea from Mercy. She said you'd know all about this. Raising visibility, getting more practice for everybody. Some people are never going to sing lead at a competition. She said the least I can do is let them have the lead at a nursing home every now and then. And the kids," he laughed and Rachel wondered when was the last time she'd seen him in such a good mood. "Listen to me. I sound like an old man, but the kids really like it."
"Yeah, Mercedes!" Rachel said sarcastically. "By the way, what's that commotion behind you?"
Finn grinned again. "It's a Ferris wheel."
"A Ferris wheel?"
"Yes. We're in Santa Monica" He turned the phone so that Rachel could see the waterside entertainment pier. "It's Mercy's favourite place in the city and she said we really ought to see it while we're here. See, there's the Pacific Ocean," he re-aimed the cellphone camera "and the carousel, and the roller coaster, and..."
"Finn, stop! You're making me nauseous!"
"Sorry. So Rachel, when is school over? I haven't seen you in person in so long since you and Kurt were too busy to come home for spring break."
She smiled, glad that his attention was turned back to her. "Next month. I have to stay a couple of weeks to help Brody with incoming students and..."
"Brody?" His grey eyes clouded over.
"I mean," she launched into her explanation, "he moved out weeks ago but we're still working on this project together and..."
"Got it! So next month?" So Brody was still sniffing around. Well, she might as well get him out of her system. Endgame. "Listen Rachel, I have to go for a bit. We didn't have a place to practice for our presentation tomorrow, Will started looking around too late but Mercy found us a place. She's a personal assistant for this writer guy and he has a yoga studio and they let her..."
"A personal assistant? Not a singer?" Hah, Rachel thought to herself, I knew she'd never make it.
"She still sings but the assistant job comes with a place to live. It's really expensive out there and it's the only way so can afford to stay. Plus, this writer..."
Rachel was not at all interested in Mercedes' living arrangements. She had plenty of problems of her own to worry about. "Ok. Well I'll let you get going."
"Thanks, Rach. I need to round up the kids and get going. Talk to you later."
later that afternoon
So this is what a LA mansion looks like, Finn thought looking at the big house built in a boxy style. The house was adobe style, or so Blaine informed him, in that brown earth tone everything out here is when it isn't some crazy tropical color. The house was large and sprawling, with a dance studio on one side. That's where Mercedes lives. She had sent Finn pictures from her apartment over the studio with it's deck looking out at the ocean. Finn even recognized the person who opened the front door.
"Finn Hudson, you've got to be Finn. She said you were very tall." Of course he looked tall to the man in the wheelchair. Finn knew that Ben McKenna had been tall too, before the accident. The black man with dreadlocks backed this chair up so New Directions could get past him. "Welcome! I hope it didn't take too long to get here. Pretty good timing, I just finished making lunch."
"You made us lunch?" Will asked. "You didn't have to go through so much trouble. I mean, the use of your studio was more than enough."
"You must be Will." Ben offered his hand. "It was no trouble, really. Lunch for a crowd this size is nothing. Tim's a vegan chef, among other things, and you can thank him for the use of the studio."
"She's vegan now?" Sam asked, wondering why he even cared.
"Mercy and I are what you might call house vegans. We have to wait till Tim goes out of town to sneak out for burgers or ribs. I'd love to chat but I really have to get this finished." He wheeled himself to a desk near the window, letting them know they were dismissed. "Mercy's in the studio out back, through the kitchen. There's a ramp, totally accessible." He added in Artie's direction.
Most of the members of New Directions were distracted by the food laid out on the kitchen counter but Sam and Jacob rushed out to the studio. Jacob wanted to see a professional dance studio, Sam wanted to see...
Mercedes was standing in the room with two other dancers, a black woman with an impressive afro and an Asian man with a ponytail. They were standing at a barre, doing ballet exercises, stretches and whatnot, but the music wasn't classical. The music was slow and sad.
So I've Learned That Love's Not Possession
And I've Learned That Love Won't Wait
Now I've Learned That Love Needs Expression
But I Learned Too Late
She's Out Of My Life
She's Out Of My Life
Damned Indecision And Cursed Pride
Kept My Love For Her Locked Deep Inside
She was dressed simply, a loose tshirt and shorts, but Sam saw her the way he first saw her. The first time he really saw her, dress rehearsal for that waste-of-time Rocky Horror play.
"I don't know about all that groping." Mercedes said hesitantly. "I mean, I know that's how Schuester wants it but..."
"It's okay" Sam reassured her. He wasn't exactly looking forward to getting groped by a girl he barely knew either. "Don't you think it would better if you just touched my shoulder or something, like I was irresistible or something?"
She laughed nervously. "Or something. You ready?" She asked as she unbuttoned the lab coat she was wearing.
Normally in every thought Sam had of her, and the thought of her never lasted more than 10 seconds, she was walking hand-in-hand with 'for a big girl.' So now, when he looked at the black getup she was wearing he thought, kinda sexy, for a big girl. And when they went on-stage.
She was playing a mad scientist, Sam hadn't paid much attention to the script because the character he played, Rocky, doesn't talk much. In this particular scene all he had to do was stand there in gold shorts. He was thinking about how much he felt like a fool, standing there wearing only shorts, how cold the auditorium was, when he noticed Mercedes again. She was supposed to take the coat off before going onstage but kept it on for the whole scene. Nobody complained, just like she told Sam backstage, nobody wanted to see her in something skimpy. But what Sam noticed was that as she circled him on the stage he kept getting flashes of her thighs behind the labcoat. And that they were very shapely thighs. He was also surprised by the way she moved. He'd imagined, due to her size, that she would be clumsy and awkward. Like an elephant. But no, she moved with feline grace, like a big cat stalking it's prey. Like a panther, a black panther. And he noticed she was ignoring him and concentrating on the song she was singing. He looked at her face and decided her particular combination of chocolate skin and cherry lips was beautiful, on any girl.
Sam was supposed to stand there and look straight ahead but found he couldn't do it, he was too distracted by her thighs playing peek-a-boo with that lab coat, those dimply knees, those fuck-me boots. Fuck-me boots? Sam squeezed his eyes shut. Suddenly he felt her hand on his cheek. Instead of touching his shoulder she touched his cheek, turning his face towards hers and his eyes snapped open.
Just like in the movies the earth's rotation seemed to stall. The world stopped and interestingly enough the sound went off. The only thing he could hear was the pounding of his heart, and delayed by a faction of a second was the sound of another heartbeat. Hers? She stood there, staring at him in shock, the song she was singing completely forgotten. When the sound came back Sam heard yelling.
"What's going on up there?" Schuester called out.
"Nothing!" Mercedes lied, tearing her eyes away. "Static. Just static electricity." She took a step backwards.
"Keep going!" Schuester yelled.
"Got it!" she yelled back.
After that Sam flirted with her like crazy. He'd do imitations and she'd laugh but not the kind of laugh he normally gets from girls. Not the 'oh, you sexy dog' laugh but the 'stop it, fool' laugh. Sam had nearly figured out how to make sure she'd know he was flirting, not kidding, when a financial tsunami hit his family.
And It Cuts Like A Knife
She's Out Of My Life
"Hey! It's Jacob, right?" She ran over to the two boys as the song died away. "Puck mentioned you, before he skipped on the rent. Color me shocked." She snickered. "It worked out though, everything worked out in the end. Jacob, Sam meet Tim and Alice. You must have met my boss Ben already, unless you broke in." she laughed nervously "Ben's husband and sister." She waved at the other dancers while she glanced at Sam and continued rambling. Tim and Alice shook hands on their way out. "We teach an exercise class, whichever one of us is around and we're just going over the choreography. Done now. Where is everybody?"
"Probably got distracted by food." Sam answered. Jacob just looked around, eyes wide. He'd seen plenty of dance studios in his time but never one like this. The mirrored walls he'd seen before but the view! The mirrors reflected the view from the wall of sliding glass doors. On the other side of the doors, the Pacifc Ocean. Right now the doors were open and the sound of waves crashing against the shore mingled with the sounds of people on the beach below the deck of the studio. Jacob plugged in his ipod and started doing stretches.
"You and Puck lived together?" Sam asked. He could tell she wanted to leave, the way she was edging her way out the door following Tim and Alice.
"For a while. Neither of us knew anybody here so it made sense to pool our resources."
"And you rented an apartment here?"
"Here? God no!" That same nervous laugh. "We could never afford someplace this nice. Where we lived was sketch-city. And then Puck bailed."
"How did you manage?" He asked, sincerely interested.
"Well, I had to give up the weave." She ran her hands through her shorter, natural hair. "You wouldn't believe how much fake hair costs. Then, trying to sneak into a class I wasn't enrolled in, I met Ben. He was giving a lecture and having trouble with his chair. Because of my grandma and Artie, well I'm pretty handy around a wheelchair so when Ben needed somebody full-time and I needed a place to live... Well, there you go." She paused for a few minutes. "And how are you?"
"Good." He nervously licked his lips. "Listen, I'm sorry the backing singer job didn't work out."
"It worked out, just not the way I thought it would. I mean, I ended up here." She spread her arm out to the view. "Everything always works out, eventually."
"Well," he huffed, "I still haven't seen the good side of being homeless."
"If you hadn't been homeless we would have never gone out."
"That's not true and you know it." He said firmly.
"Which part? The part about going out with me being a good thing? Maybe you didn't see it that way. Or the part about us, about that meaning something? Maybe that never was a thing, something that only existed only in my imagination."
"All of it." he said angrily. "All of it and you know it."
"Jesus Sam! Not that a keep track," she smiled at him because she had been keeping track. "But look at it. Quinn, Santana, Me. Quinn again, Britt and now Kitty." She smiled wryly. "Not that I'm keeping track. Anymore."
"I came all the way back to Ohio for you!"
"For me, for poor little me?" she sneered. "You came to Ohio for New Directions! And the fact that I was no longer in New Directions? How long did it take you to even notice? I was happy in the TroubleTones and you put an end to it! Did ya notice that?"
"Mercedes" He reached out for her. They had argued constantly and about everything the last couple of weeks before she suddenly left Lima.
"Sam! There you are!" Kitty called from the doorway.
"Oh look! It's your latest skinny white girl!" She said softly, too softly for Kitty to hear. "I gotta go." She walked out through the sliding glass doors to the deck.
She's Out Of My Life – Michael Jackson