June 11, 2022 (Saturday)
Since the majority of Sam's groomsmen had reserved rooms at the hotel, Kurt decided to kick Sam and Stevie out of the Evans house and have the girls stay. "What about you and Blaine?" Stevie balked earlier, to which Kurt said, "Hello? Wedding planner over here! I need to be here in the morning when my crew arrives to set up. And Blaine's looking after Lizzie seeing as I'll be busy, and it'd be easier for them to be here at the house rather than him carting her back and forth from the hotel."
With that, he and Sam, along with Mike, Artie, Jay and Mercedes' brother, Marcus found themselves sipping down water and beers in Sam and Stevie's hotel room. Jay, Marcus and Artie were sharing the adjoining room; Mike and Tina had a room at ground level and Finn had a room for him and Quinn, two floors below.
Marcus—who shared an undeniable facial resemblance to his little sister—was propped up against the front of a couch, caught in a friendly argument with Jay and Mike over who was the better football team: the Saints or the 49ers. From the sounds of things, Jay was making a compelling argument for his team, the Saints but Mike and Marcus were diehard 9ers fans.
Sam had just emerged from his and Stevie's bedroom, clad in a wife beater and DC Comic-printed pajama pants when Artie hailed his attention.
"Hey Sam, where'd you say Finn went again?" wondered the brunette.
The groom lowered the beer bottle from his lips and shrugged, "He didn't say. All he said was he'd be back soon."
"Yeah but," Mike chimed in, "that was like an hour ago."
Again, Sam shrugged, "I dunno dude."
No sooner had Artie asked, was there several knocks on the door. Sam stood up, wandering skeptically to the door. Since there was no peephole, he put his cheek parallel to the door and asked, "Who is it?"
"It's Finn! Open up!"
Recognizing his old friend's voice, Sam turned the handle down and swung the door open. He stepped aside to let Finn in but Finn just stood there, wearing an unusually wide grin.
"Uhh…" Sam's brows drove together. He gestured toward the inside of the room and said, "You can come in now dude. Door's open."
"I know, I know!" Finn said excitedly, "But I have a surprise for you."
"Oh God, you didn't bring me strippers did you?" Sam asked with instant dread.
"Hollaaaa!" Artie and Jay called in near-unison from inside the room.
There was a faint smack, followed by Mike saying, "Artie you have a girlfriend!"
"Nope, not anymore—I'm free as a bird man. Would'a made Vegas a helluva lot more fun if she'd dumped me two weeks ago."
Sam was torn between glaring at Finn and ripping his own face off. "Just tell me what the surprise is."
Still bright-eyed and grinning, Finn told him, "I'll show you," and then with one of his leggy strides, he stepped aside.
A man, nearly as tall as the brunette stepped into view. He was of nearly the same build—slightly bulkier than Finn—and was clad in traditional Marine Corps dress blues. His white visor was under one arm while his other arm supported a duffle bag strap. His olive-toned skin only showed a few aging since high school and, due to military customs, he no longer sported a mohawk.
"WHAAT?" exclaimed Artie.
"PUCK!"
"NO WAY!" Mike and Sam said, overlapping one another.
"That's Sergeant Puck to you maggots," sassed Puck with a growing smirk.
Finn re-appeared at his side, still grinning while he explained, "Yeah I picked him up at the airport, fresh off the tarmac."
Sam was the first to hug Puck, and once he was inside, Mike hugged him next. He then went to Artie to hug him while Sam introduced Jay and re-introduced his brother, Stevie.
"So you and Mercedes are finally tying the knot tomorrow," Puck stated as he dropped his duffle and sagged into an empty chair. He jerked a quick nod to Finn and cupped his hands to catch the bottle of Corona.
"Yeah. We wanted you in the bridal party but you told us you weren't gonna be back in the States until July."
Puck downed some beer and then explained, "Yeah that's what I thought but someone fucked up my schedule. I woulda told you guys but it was too late by the time I found out. I was lucky no one comes to Kentucky or I probably wouldn't have even gotten my flight so last minute."
Sam smirked and rolled his eyes. "Well it'll be good to have you there tomorrow. Mercedes will be surprised—that's for sure."
His Marine friend chuckled once and took another swig of beer. "How's work life and all that for you guys? Finn was telling me on the way here how he became a mini Schuester out in Chicago. Even ditched the crazy first wife."
"Hey man," Finn said in a warning tone. "Rachel and I may not be together anymore but…come on dude, she's not crazy."
The silence that fell over the room seemed to be enough of a disagreement.
"Oh yeah?" scoffed Puck. "Has she changed since high school?"
Finn swallowed hard while averting his gaze in a clockwise travel.
"That's what I thought."
Mike spoke up, "Yeah but if you're gonna compare to our high school days, Quinn had her crazy moments too."
"Yeah but think about it; Quinn had her moments, then she learned her lesson and finally wised up and grew the hell up. She changed. That's what I did when I signed up for the Marine Corps, and now look at me. I own my military swag. But Rachel?" He drove his hand through the air in a horizontal line to emphasize, "She hasn't changed at all from what I've heard."
No one could really rebut that, nor did they try to. Not even Finn. He had been the closest to her out of all of them, but knew that was the biggest reason they had gotten a divorce.
Puck waved off the discussion though, "Alright now that I've made my point there…Artie, what are you doing these days?"
The bespectacled brunette looked to the Marine. Artie's looks hadn't changed dramatically; still bound to his wheelchair, he was still fairly lean and stuck to his business casual wardrobe. At most, the changes were his glasses with the same shape, but thinner rims, and it didn't seem like he could grow much facial hair but he kept the sparse stubble that did grow along his jaw and cheeks. He was mid-sip of his beer when Puck asked him about his job and when he lowered the bottle from his lips he told him, "Working for Apple, my man."
"Word?" asked Jay who would have already known, had he been attentive to some of the conversations in Vegas.
"Yep. Graduated from Stanford out in California and got lucky to have an intern position waiting for me after I got my degree. Now I'm living in San Jose, but I go up to San Fran and visit Tina and the Dancing Machine." He jerked a thumb to Mike, who chuckled at the nickname.
"Cool, bro," Puck said. He proceeded to catch up with his friends until he and Stevie eventually got sucked into a conversation about the military. It started sounding a little more like a debate on who was better—the Marines or the Navy—until a heavily buzzed Artie cut in, interrupting all the conversations.
"WEEELL I just wanna say…in case I don't get the chance to, tomorrow…" His head lolled in Sam's direction as he raised a new beer bottle and then lowered it to his level. "Sam, congratulations man. You and Mercedes—the diva supreme! You guys are the shit, yo! And…"
The other guys were quietly snickering because Artie's voice had raised several octaves on his last statement, and then suddenly dropped back to normal by "And".
"…I just think it's great you're marrying each other."
"Amen to that!" echoed Jay, and the two tapped beer bottles.
Artie finished by loudly saying, "Have fun on your honeymoon! Make some swirly babies in…um..where are you guys going?"
Sam—who had been trying not to laugh too loudly at his tipsy friend, shook his head while grinning. "Can't tell you dude. Sorry."
Artie's own smile vanished as his brows came together. "Hold up. Why not? It's not like I'm gonna try and join y'all. Artie Abrams don't roll like that. Pun intended." He licked one finger and gave himself a tally in the air.
Puck, Mike and Finn snorted in attempts to stifle their laughs. Stevie, Marcus and Jay stared at Artie as if he'd grown a third eye. Sam slapped a palm to his forehead.
"I wasn't even…no, I just don't want anyone to slip up and tell Mercedes tomorrow."
"So she still doesn't know where you're taking her for the honeymoon?" asked Stevie.
Sam shook his head, "Nope, not until after the wedding. I wasn't gonna tell her until we got to the airport but she made me change my mind about that after she told me she wouldn't know what to pack."
Puck slapped on a devilish smirk and loudly murmured to the others, "Yeah, but if he were smart he would've just told her to bring a toothbrush and a pair of heels,"
"Wow," gaped Stevie, whose face was quickly reddening. Jay, Finn, Artie and Mike all snickered.
"`ey man, come on now. I don't wanna hear about my sister like that," said a disgusted Marcus Jones.
"What?" Puck unabashedly grinned now. "Stevie brought up the honeymoon. What else are they gonna do?"
Marcus shook his head with a hardly amused smile and got up, "I don't really care but I'm gonna head to bed so I actually wake up in the morning." He looked to Sam, "You should do the same thing, brother or you gonna be catchin' flies at the altar. Night you guys."
He waved on his way to the adjoining room while the others said their goodnights to him. Once the two rooms' conjoining door closed, Puck went back to the sex taunts and interrogation.
"No really bro. Why bother letting her pack anything? In fact, why even go anywhere for your honeymoon? If I were getting married, we wouldn't need to blow a bunch of money just to go somewhere and gave sex the whole time."
"It's called a change of pace," said Mike.
Puck snorted, "Yeah I bet it is."
Ignoring the warmth in his cheeks, Mike corrected himself, "I meant a change of scene! You know, it makes it different than when you're just at home."
"Yeah," agreed Finn. "Going somewhere for your honeymoon's kind of a cool thing. Even if you don't have sex the whole time."
Puck's wicked grin returned as he asked, "Sounds like someone's well runneth dry on their honeymoon."
Artie's head turned dramatically in Finn's direction, "Say whaaat?"
"You and Rachel didn't have sex on your honeymoon?"
"What the actual fuck?"
Finn raised his hands as if it would stop the inquiries.
"How is that even possible?"
"What a fucking waste of a trip."
"No wonder you couldn't take it anymore."
"What the hell is this? 'Get on Finn's Ass' Night? Lay off you guys!" demanded Sam, though in private he'd been a little surprised as well.
"Yeah, this is supposed to be about Sammy Boy, remember?" said Jay, quickly shifting the pendulum of talk back to the blond.
"Yeah," seconded Puck. "So you and Mercedes are gonna go somewhere and play Twister in bed for a week?"
"I saw a Twister game board printed on a bedspread once," noted Mike. "Tina didn't realize what it was and wouldn't let me buy it though. She said it was ugly."
"Sounds like fun," Sam said.
"Ohhh," Puck quickly jumped on his response and leaned toward the blond. "So you and Mercedes like getting' a little freaky-twisted up in bed, huh?" He wagged his brows but leaned away as Sam took a swipe at him.
Stevie promptly rose to his feet, clasping both hands to his ears as he strode away, "I think Marcus had the right idea. Goodnight."
Sam bid his brother goodnight while the other guys laughed. Just from looking around the room though, it was a safe guess that Artie and Jay were going to be the next ones to call it a night. Sam knew he needed to be doing the same, but he had a feeling that once he put his head to a pillow, his eyes were going to stay wide open while his body would beg for slumber. He would be getting married in less than 24 hours; there was no way his body and mind were going to make his night an easy rest.
He was yanked out of his internal thoughts at the sound of a shameless Puck, "Look we all know you got moves White Chocolate!"
Mike nearly choked on his beer. Instead it ran down the front of his pajama shirt. "That's what you get," muttered Sam—his cheeks turning red.
"Plus," chimed in Artie, "Mercedes is a brick house…mightay, mightay!"
Mike swiftly moved out of Sam's swinging arm; the dancer stopped trying to control his laughs. Sam looked to Finn for a lifesaver but Finn innocently shrugged back at the blond.
The teasing just kept on coming as Puck elbowed his friend, "Hey Mike, where'd you say you saw that bedspread at? I haven't got the bride and groom a gift yet..."
PLEASE leave reviews! What'd you think of this chapter? I wanted to give Sam and the boys a little more attention than they've been getting thus far. Plus I know people were wondering about Puck. I hadn't forgotten about him! His Marine status & Artie's career choice were both planned from the get-go. :) As always, thanks for reading and expect more very soon! The wedding chapters are coming next!