He fucked up.

It had been three months since that day. Three months since he had helped his hysterical friend pack up all of her belongings so that she could flee from her baby's father. At the time he thought he was doing the right thing but now he knew he was wrong. He should have made her stay and listen. Now everything was all messed up and he didn't know how to fix what he helped break. Daily he thought of the events that led to this place and often when he replayed it in his head he could pinpoint the exact moments when it all went south. It all started with a simple phone call...

"Hello?"

"Kurt?"

"Mercy? What's up baby...are you okay?" Kurt's blood stilled at the way Mercedes said his name.

"I need...I need your help..." She choked out.

"What is it? Where are you?" Kurt asked starting to get panicky, "do you need me to come get you?"

"I'm at home, I need your help!" She cried.

"Ok honey, I'll be there in just a few minutes." Kurt hung up the phone and in a flurry of movement jerked on his shoes grabbed his keys and cell phone and hustled out the door.

True to his word Kurt arrived at Mercedes apartment a few minutes later. He used his key to open the door and the sight that greeted him almost broke his heart. He found his best friend huddled on the ground and sobbing into her hands. All around her were boxes; some filled to capacity while others were on their way there. He had just been at her place the night before and Mercedes had been militant about her 'system' being followed to the tee. She had all of her boxes labeled neatly and if it said living room on it you had better not come anywhere near it with so much as a potholder from the kitchen. He had teased her mercilessly about it but he knew that even though it was driving him insane unpacking would be a breeze. Now, it seemed as if the system had been shot to hell. Pillows from the bedroom were shoved into a box that was labeled 'bathroom'. Pots and pans were thrown haphazardly in the 'living room' box and the rugs from the bathroom were stuffed into the 'kitchen' box. Kurt looked around in disbelief at the chaos that was his best friend's living room. He rushed to her side and prodded her shaking frame gently.

"Mercy, honey, what's going on?"

"Sam...he's-I can't believe...I'm so stupid." She wailed before putting her hands back over her face.

"Please, tell me what's wrong. You're scaring me! What did Sam do?" Kurt tried to keep his voice gentle but seeing his friend like this was stressing him out.

"Quinn...she's pregnant."

"Okay...what does that have to do with Sam?"

"It's his." Mercedes lifted her face out of her hands and regarded him with cool, dull, red-rimmed eyes. "Quinn brought the sonogram picture to work today so that he could see his kid and fall in love with him. And with her."

"Are...are you sure Mercedes?"

"Yes!" She shrieked, "Yes! I looked at the damn thing myself. I stood there with that damn picture in my hand and I read the sappy love note that she wrote on the envelope. She even went out of her way to let Sam know that their little baby boy would have the same initials as his daddy." She spat out disgustedly.

"Are you sure you didn't misunderstand? Maybe-"

"No." She snapped sharply, "Even if I had doubts it wouldn't have mattered because Stevie was there to confirm it all. He told me...he told me..." Mercedes put her face in her hands and started sobbing again.

"Sweetie, what did he say?"Kurt waited patiently until her sobs finally subsided.

"He told me that he didn't want me to find out that way. That Sam didn't really want me and that he was just using me. He said that I was nothing but a challenge that Sam needed to conquer. He said..."Mercedes stopped as tears slipped down her cheeks.

"He said what?"

"He said that Sam was always going to end up with Quinn despite everything and I couldn't compare. He actually asked me if I thought I could. Can you believe that?" Mercedes words were sharp but the look on her face was heartbreaking. "He said that Sam just needed another notch on his belt before he took the plunge with Quinn and I was the lucky girl."

"Mercedes, honey, that doesn't sound like Sam."

"That sounds exactly like Sam." She snapped. "That jerk that I first met? That sounds exactly like him."

"Well, maybe he's changed-"

"In a few weeks? He didn't change, he just played me like a fool and I fell for it. He practically paraded Quinn right in my face and I was too stupid to realize what was going on!"

"Mercy, you need to calm down. Have you talked to Sam?"

"NO! I don't want to hear anything he has to say." She shook her head stubbornly back and forth.

"Is that really fair? Shouldn't he be allowed to defend himself? You're going to take the word of his brother? The same brother that you said he has been having issues with?"

"Issues or not why would Stevie lie about something like that?"

"I don't know...maybe it's really his kid?"

"Bullshit." she spat out, "that doesn't even make any sense. If the kid was Stevie's then why in the world wouldn't Sam just tell me that? He would have had no reason to hide or lie if the baby was his brother's."

Mercedes had a point but Kurt still couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to the story than either of them knew about.

"Fine, even if it's all true shouldn't Sam still get the opportunity to tell you that himself? Don't you want to hear it from the horse's mouth instead of his brother's?"

Mercedes gave an unladylike snort, "do I want to hear Sam tell me that I was nothing more than a replacement fuck until he got who he wanted? No, thank you."

"You don't really think he would say that do you? I mean, I had my doubts about Sam at the beginning but you've been gushing about him almost non-stop for 6 weeks now and I began to think he was decent guy. You couldn't have been completely wrong about him, right? The guy can't be that good of an actor."

"Clearly my bullshit detector is broken. This isn't the first time I believed a man loved me only for him to kick me to the curb for someone else."Mercedes face crumpled as more tears started to run down her face.

"Mercy..."

"No." She cut him off, "No, I'm not doing this right now. I don't have time for it. I want to be gone before Sam gets back tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Kurt asked in disbelief, "You want to have this entire apartment packed up and ready to be moved by tomorrow? That's going to take all night!"

"Exactly, which is why we need to get started right now."

"Whoa...wait, a second. Your new apartment won't even be ready for three more days, where the hell do you plan on putting all this stuff?"

"Some of it going in storage for now."

"And the rest?"

"Can you grab that tape over there for me?" Mercedes asked evasively, "I want to get these full boxes taped up and moved out of the way."

"Mercedes, where is the rest of it going?"

"Ohio." She said quietly, refusing to meet his eyes.

"OHIO? Ohio had better be the name of a street here in this city."

"No, I mean Ohio as in the state of Ohio."

"Is this some kind of joke? You're really going to leave the city because of this bullshit with Sam? Even if it's all true then tell him to go to hell and move on. You don't live together, you're not married and you don't have any kids so at the end of the day it doesn't affect your life that much."

"I love him."

"So what? What if you meet someone else and fall in love? If things don't work out with them are you going to run then too?"

"It's a bit more complicated than that!"

"It had better be out of this world complicated for you to leave your job, your friends, and the life you've built here for it."

"I think I'm pregnant. Actually, I'm almost positive I'm pregnant."

Kurt let out a big whoosh as all the air escaped his lungs at once. He stared at Mercedes' sad face in shock.

"Wha-how...are you sure?"

"No, I'm not sure I haven't taken a test yet."

"Do you need me to get you one?" Kurt started patting his pockets looking for keys as he got up and started walking towards the front door.

"No, I already have one. I was going to take it at work earlier today but then everything happened with Quinn's note and I just...I can't do it right now."

"Why not?"

"Because I need to focus on packing and what my next move is going to be. As long as this pregnancy is just a maybe thing then I can concentrate on what I need to do right now."

"Okay, Mercy you know I love you but if you are pregnant then running is an even worse idea then I previously thought."

Mercedes hands stilled on the giant pillows that she was trying to stuff into the cardboard box. Kurt swallowed hard but he continued on even though he knew he may regret it.

"It's not fair to your baby to grow up without its father."

"No." She snapped, whirling around to face him, "it's not fair for my baby to grow up with a father that rather be somewhere else with his other family."

"What are you talking about? You don't even know for sure if-"

"Are you going to help or not? I don't want to talk about this anymore."

"Mercedes, I know you're upset but honey you need to slow down. Moving to Ohio like this is a bad idea and you need to think of the repercussions."

"You think I haven't? All I thought about for the last couple of hours are the repercussions. I know this may not be the best idea but it's the best one for me right now and I don't have time to think of another one. So please, Kurt can you just help me? I need you to be my friend and have my back, that's all. Can you please do that for me?"

Mercedes voice had gotten high and panicky so Kurt realized that arguing with her wasn't going to do anything but agitate her more and if she was pregnant that was the last thing she needed .

"Okay," he said grudgingly.

Mercedes gave him a watery smile before walking over to him and giving him a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you Kurt." She whispered sincerely. "So where's that tape?"

Kurt shook his head as he thought about how his actions helped to bring them to where they are right now. If he had just put his foot down and held his ground then odds are Mercedes wouldn't have gotten packed in time and Sam would've have caught her before she left town. Kurt always prided himself on being a loyal friend but this time he had to find out the hard way that being loyal wasn't always the best course, especially when being loyal means helping your friend make a bad life-altering decision.

Kurt still remembered the cold chill he felt every time the phone rang that day. He remembered how Mercedes hands would become more and more frantic with every shrill ring. He had lost count at how many times she let it ring before she finally begged him to answer the phone. He remembered the haunted look in her eyes when she got on the phone with Sam. He remembered her curt words as she rushed him off the phone. He remembered the way she crumpled in his arms and sobbed for what seemed like forever when she got off. He remembered the dull but determined gleam in her eye when she finally pulled herself together. He remembered all the business-like calls she made to moving companies and storage companies as she prepared to uproot her entire life in less than 24 hours. He remembered the heavy silence as he helped his best friend hurriedly pack her things so that she could leave him behind.

He remembered it all and he hated it.

The only bright spot of that hellish 24 hours was when Mercedes took her pregnancy test. He sat next to her on the side of the tub in the bathroom after she took it and he couldn't help but ask,

"So, how'd this happen?"

Mercedes gave a small smirk, "do I need to explain the birds and bees, Kurt?"

"Ha ha, very funny. What I meant was you seem pretty sure you're pregnant, where you guys trying?"

"No. I was just one of those moments. Sam forgot the condom and I had screwed up on my birth control."

"You know there's Plan B, right?"

"Yes, I know, believe me I know. The second he realized the forgot the condom he told me about it and he went on and on about how he wasn't trying to have any kids so when I realized I forgot my birth control I panicked and lied and told him that my end was taken care of."

Kurt gave out a loud gasp and Mercedes just shot him a look.

"The next morning I went and got the Plan B pill and I intended to take it when I got back home. However, before I could Emma had her baby and Sam and I went to go see him. While we were there Sam held him in his arms and he was so great with him, I knew for a fact that I loved him in that moment." Mercedes wiped her damp eyes, "when we got back here I tried to rush up here and take the pill but Sam knew that something was up with me and he demanded an answer. I told him all about the pill mix-up and the Plan B and he asked me not to take it."

"What?"

"Can I finish?"

"Yeah, it's just, he wanted the baby?"

"That's what I thought," Mercedes answered bitterly, "but I guess I was wrong."

"Merced—"

"Anyways, we argued a while about me taking the pill until I finally admitted that the reason I didn't want to take it was because I felt like I would be getting rid of our baby, instead of just protecting myself against a possible pregnancy."

"Plan B is just an emergency form of birth control."

"I know that Kurt, I didn't say what I felt was factually correct, but it was still the way I felt."

"So you didn't take it?"

"Yes, I took it, but apparently it didn't work or I waited too long or something. Or maybe it did and this whole conversation is pointless."

"Well, your time is up so whenever you're ready to check it..."

Mercedes gave Kurt a scared look as she chewed on her bottom lip.

"If this is positive then everything changes, no matter what my life will be different from now on."

"Yep." He nodded slowly in agreement.

"I'm scared." She whispered timidly, "I'm scared that it's positive, I'm scared it's negative. I don't know what I want it to be."

"Do you want me to look?"

"Please?"

Kurt reached over and pulled the white stick off the bathroom counter and looked down at the little digital readout.

Pregnant

He felt tears well up in his own eyes as he reached over and hugged his best friend.

"Congrats, Mommy."

At Kurt's words Mercedes started to cry against his shoulder. She pulled the test up from his lap so that she could see and she gave a watery giggle when she was the word for herself.

"What the hell am I going to do?"

Kurt remembered the desolate tone of Mercedes' voice as she asked that question. He remembered the helpless feeling that washed over him as he realized that his friend was truly struggling and he didn't know how to help her. At the time he thought her going to Ohio to be with her mother would be the best thing for her but now he knew that he was dead wrong. Helping her run to Ohio didn't make Kurt a good friend, it made him a fool for helping his friend run from her problems.

Now here he was three months later full of regret. After he left Mercedes early that morning to run some errands he never expected it would be the last time he saw her. He never expected her move to Ohio to be a permanent one, in fact, he even went out of his way to make sure most of her stuff ended up in storage instead of on the truck to Ohio. He just knew that she would either come to her senses or Sam would get through to her and bring her back. It was all supposed to work out, because once Mercedes found out about Stevie being the baby's daddy all the other pieces would fall into place and she would realize that the only thing Sam was guilty of was protecting his shady, deadbeat brother.

As Kurt thought about Sam his heart clenched. That man had been through hell for the past three months and Kurt would never stop regretting his role in it. If he had just told Sam that first day that Mercedes went to her mother's in Ohio then all of this could have been avoided. He had figured it out on his own a week later but by then it had been too late and Mercedes was gone.

That was 11 weeks ago.

Mercedes hasn't been seen or heard from since.

I know I'm evil for leaving it there but don't worry all will be explained in the next chapter. Hopefully it will be up before the end of the weekend.