Standard Disclaimer: I don't own Glee.

It had been a few weeks since Sam showed up at her office and, having relayed the tale to Quinn, Mercedes was explaining the situation again, this time to Tina.

"So wait, he broke up with you?"

"Uh huh," she replied, sipping the last of her drink.

"Out of the blue?"

"Uh huh."

"And then came into your office asking for you back."

"Uh huh."

"And you're okay with that?"

Mercedes opened her mouth to respond, but Quinn beat her to it.

"Okay with that? Tina, after leaving her office I needed a cold shower. I'd say she was more than okay with it."

Mercedes shot Quinn a look and turned back to the other woman. "Yes, I am okay with it. The situation was less than ideal, but he didn't betray or intentionally hurt me, he just did what he thought was right. I owe it to myself to give this a fair shot before I walk away. I wanna see where it goes."

"Mkay," Tina said, nodding. She signaled their waitress for another round of drinks. "If you're happy, I'm happy, but let the record show that I have a very friendly Glock. If he messes up again, just say the word."

Mercedes laughed, stopping when she realized she was serious.

"Girl, this is Nashville." Tina said with a wink. "So," she began again as the waitress placed their drinks in front of them, "does this Sam Evans have any friends?"

"He sure does," answered Quinn in a low voice, bringing her glass to her lips.

Mercedes looked at over at the blonde and raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Has Ms. Fabray seen something of interest? Perhaps in a one No-"

"So, Tina," Quinn said brightly, cutting her off, "how is work going?"

"Oh no, no, no," Mercedes said. "We're not playing the 'Air out Mercedes, but keep it hush hush with Quinn' game. You're interested in Noah aren't you?"

Quinn shrugged. "He's okay... And by 'okay,'" she said with a mischievous smile, "I mean I'd tap him like a maple tree."

"Who is this Noah?" Tina asked between laughter. "Mercedes, set something up with your boo because Quinn clearly needs some and I've been pork free for so long I'm basically kosher."

The laughter continued.

"Okay, okay." Mercedes said catching her breath. "I'll see what I can do."

The next night, Sam was at Mercedes' apartment and she was baking brownies to satisfy her sweet tooth. Sam watched as she stirred the batter, wondering how to start the conversation he knew she wouldn't want to have.

"Tell me about your life in L.A."

She stopped stirring for a nanosecond, a slight hesitation, but Sam picked up on it nonetheless.

"Why the interest?" she asked, reaching over to grab a bag of white chocolate chips. She held them up and, when Sam nodded, poured some into the bowl.

"Well, you've never really talked about it and I wanna know about your life B.N." At her questioning glance, he explained. "'Before Nashville.'"

He flashed her a smile, stomach clenching at the one she returned that didn't quite reach her eyes.

Mercedes stirred the batter faster. "Well, there's nothing much to tell. I moved there after college. Wanted to be a singer. Ended up working at a firm that had nothing to do with music. Took some industry classes on the side. Ended up here."

Sam watched her movements as she added more ingredients to the bowl. "Why Nashville?"

She stopped stirring completely and looked at him. "I guess you could say the decision was made for me." She stepped away from the counter and reached over to the dish rack where a metal tin was drying. She wiped it out with a paper towel and dusted some flour on the bottom. The two were silent as she poured in the batter.

Mercedes looked over at Sam and saw him watching her. She knew that she was being extremely vague, but she wasn't sure how much she could get into or where to even begin. It had been eight months since she'd left L.A. and in that time she'd kept every question, every fear, and every moment of sadness to herself. As much as she wanted, needed, to talk about it, she didn't want to bring him into her mess. She glanced back at him. If anyone could handle this though, it would be him. She took a deep breath.

"I moved to Nashville because it appears that I may have some information worth killing for." She glanced up to see his reaction, but couldn't read his expression.

She opened the oven to put the pan in. "Funny story actually," she said, turning back around to face him, her hands shaking. She placed them on the counter in an effort to steady them.

"My boss called me up one afternoon and asked me to grab some documents from his house. I didn't think too much about it because I'd done stuff like that before and already had a key to his place." Mercedes paused, looking down at her hands as she thought back to that day. "It was business as usual," she continued, raising her head to look at Sam. She swallowed. "When I got there, I was about to enter his study when I saw a car pull up across the street and… have you ever had one of those moments where you just know that something is wrong? That you shouldn't go somewhere or shouldn't do something? As I watched two men get out of that car, I had one of those and my only thought was to hide."

Her throat tightened, but she kept going, no longer in control of the words that came rushing out. She felt detached from what she was saying, almost as if she was sharing something she had heard about in passing rather than something she herself had gone through.

"Just as I was turning the corner upstairs, the doorbell rang and I heard Nick's voice as he opened the door. Then there was a gunshot. The whole thing must have taken a few seconds, but by that point I was curled up in the corner of a closet praying that whoever was there – whoever had that gun, whoever just walked up to the door like a goddamn Girl Scout and just shot him – whoever it was… I just prayed that they wouldn't find me. At one point they were in the same room as me, standing right outside the closet door arguing about whether or not I was there and if..." Her voice trailed off. "Eventually one guy convinced the other that they should just leave and a few hours later, the police came in and pulled me out. One of the officers told me that Nick was dead. That that was his blood in the hallway and his body in a bag and I remember being so confused because none of it made any sense. How could Nick be opening doors and getting shot if he was out of town? That's why I was there in the first place, because he couldn't be. Why would he lie about that?"

Mercedes closed her eyes, realizing that it was her first time saying Nick's name out loud in months. She took a deep breath before continuing.

"A few weeks later I went back to the office to get my things and in the middle of checking my messages I accidentally pressed the intercom system and connected myself to the new CEO's line. Just in time to hear him speaking with one of the men who shot Nick."

There. She said it again. His name left a strange, sour taste in her mouth.

"I would have recognized his cold voice anywhere. They were going on and on about some client and his money and then they start talking about me. How they searched my office and my apartment…" She brought her eyes to focus on Sam. "The night before, I got up in the middle of the night and found the window in my living room open. It was strange because I always lock my windows before going to bed, but I just thought… I thought that I forgot, that I was losing it. I even talked myself out of calling the police, but nope," she said softly, shaking her head as her eyes filled with tears. "Someone really was in my apartment. They really were right in the next room and I had no idea." Her voice broke.

"Mercedes," Sam said softly.

She ignored him and continued.

"I went straight to the police station to tell the officer working on the case everything and that's when he told me all about the man I used to work for – how he stole from one of the worst people in the world, how he used the company as a front to line his pockets. Then he told me that I had to leave town without a word to my family or friends. Just leave. He had a ticket and everything. So I called my friend Kurt, got shitfaced in a bar, woke up a few hours later, and hopped on a plane."

Mercedes let out a humorless laugh and looked down at the counter. She focused on a speck of flour and brushed it away before looking back at him.

"Sometimes I replay the whole thing in my mind, just to see if there's anything I may have missed, any signs I should have seen. I figure I should be ready to give Donovan, the guy behind all this, the information he needs if he ever comes after me. That way they don't…" She paused, taking her bottom lip between her teeth. "I mean… I have to know something right? I worked there for years, I knew damn near everything about Nick and about that place, and I just… How could I not…" She closed her eyes as she took a deep breath. When she opened them she sent Sam a shaky smile. "So that's how I ended up here. That's my life B.N."

He swallowed. "'Cedes, I…"

She grabbed baking supplies from the counter and began putting them away.

"These brownies are gonna take another twenty minutes or so. Do you want anything in the meantime?"

Sam walked over and put his hand on hers, stilling their movement. She looked up at him.

"I meant it when I said I won't let anyone hurt you," he said, his eyes locked on hers.

Mercedes nodded slightly before excusing herself from the room.

Sam stared at Mercedes' retreating form and slammed his fist on the counter.

Goddammit, he thought, running a frustrated hand over his face. He'd read the case file every day since Artie sent it over, but hearing her tell it? Seeing her face as she told him what she's been going through? That damn near killed him. Sam took several deep breaths before reaching into his pocket and pulling out his cell phone. He stared at the device for a few seconds before composing a new message to his partners.

Look into the deceased's travel history and get me everything you can on a guy named Kurt. – S.

After hitting "send" he cleared the counter and began washing the dishes, looking up when Mercedes walked back into the room.

She turned off the water and, without waiting for him to dry his hands, slipped hers in his and led them over to the couch. He sat down beside her and pulled her into his arms, closing his eyes as she leaned her head on his shoulder. It was obvious that she didn't want to talk and he wasn't going to push it. He'd put her through enough for the evening.

Just when he was certain she had fallen asleep, her voice broke into the silence.

"I'm supposed to ask you for friends to set my friends up with."

He looked down at her, running his hand across the curve of her leg. "Yeah?"

She nodded. "Yeah."

"Who are your friends?"

"Quinn, who you know, and Tina, who lives in this building."

"What are they like?"

Sam listened as she described the women, relieved that her mind was on something else.

"Well," he said when she was done, "I can definitely see Puck for Quinn."

"Puck? Is that Noah?"

He nodded. "Mmm hmm. And I may have someone for Tina."

"Awesome." She snuggled closer. "Let's plan something, but I don't want it to be too obvious."

Sam laughed. "Darlin', it's our job to pick up on things. They'll figure it out no matter what we do."

"Ok, fine," she said with resignation, but the smile was evident in her voice. "We'll call it what it is."

"Wanna do dinner this week?"

She nodded and they fell back into a comfortable silence that was only broken when the oven timer went off a few minutes later.

"Don't get up," Sam said, placing a kiss on her forehead.

He walked over to the oven and, grabbing an oven mitt from the counter top, pulled out the brownies to test them with a toothpick. Just as he was about pull the pan all the way out and set it on the stovetop, he heard Mercedes' voice.

"Sam?"

He looked over to the couch. "Yeah babe?"

"Thank you."

"For what?," he asked, taking off the mitt and setting it on the counter.

"For listening."

Sam closed his eyes and swallowed the lump in his throat. "Always."

There was another pause before Mercedes said, "I know that was a lot, but… it helps to know that I don't have to be alone in this."

He took a shaky breath and made his way over to her. This ends now. "Mercedes, I…"

His words trailed off when he got to the couch and a small smile broke out across his face as he looked down at her, eyes closed and lips parted slightly as she slept. Reaching over to grab the blanket from the arm of the seat, he sat back down and draped the blanket over her, adjusting her body so that his lap become a pillow. Confident that she was secure, Sam leaned his head back against the couch and closed his eyes. This ends now.

Dear you (yes you, the person reading this right now),

Thank you so much for taking the time to read, favorite, alert, share your thoughts, so on and so forth. I know it's said often, but it's meant always - your support is appreciated more than you can know.

As I mentioned a few chapters back, the idea came to me one day while listening to Aaliyah's track of the same name and that little moment of "what if..." has spiralled into 20,000+ words, thousands of views, dozens of well wishes... unbelievable. I know that the wait for updates is long, but I hope you understand that this is really an outlet for me. Between work and school, my fingers itch to get this story out, but while I'm as anxious as you, I don't just want to post anything. As readers you deserve more. As characters who have been neglected and destroyed by those who created them, Mercy and Sam deserve more too. I'm not saying I'm writing a story to end all stories, but because of who I am, I refuse to put out anything less than my best. I write and rewrite, draft and redraft until this is something I'd feel comfortable sharing. Something I feel comfortable attaching my name to (even if it is only a pen name :)) I hope that you think it's worth it.

Forgive me if this message seems odd or out of place, but I just wanted to take the time to provide a little explanation about what this is, why things are going at the pace they are, and why I think y'all are all amazing for sticking with it this far.

And thus, ladies and gentlemen, ends chapter ten. Here's to ten more.