DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN GLEE NOR ANYTHING ELSE.

ENJOY :)

McKenzie turned in her bed, yawning slightly as she opened her eyes. She smiled when she saw her mother still sleep. She was excited when her mom told her that she was going to be sleeping with her for awhile. She was excited because she labeled it as a sleepover with mommy but one thing she couldn't figure out why was mommy no longer sleeping with daddy. She asked Mercedes about it and she just said that she wanted to spend some time with her baby girl but she knew that wasn't true. Even though she was just five years old, she knew something bad was going on between mommy and daddy. She bit down on her lip as she took her small hand and touched her cheek before getting out the bed. Quietly, she went over and opened her door, going down the long hallway until she made it to the room. Knocking on the door, she rocked on her heels before she heard her daddy say come in. She twisted the knob and pushed the door open, finding him sitting up in the bed, she walked over to him and got in.

"What are you doing up so early kiddo?" Sam asked his little girl with a small smile as he scanned her face.

McKenzie shrugged her shoulders, chewing on her bottom lip before looking up at him through her lashes, "Are you and mommy breaking up?"

Sam closed his eyes and let out a sigh. He knew this was coming. Its been three days since his and Mercedes' fight. He tried his best to make sure that the kids didn't notice that anything was going on but obviously, he didn't do a good job, "Come here." He opened up his arms for her to come to him, when she sat on his lap, he pressed a kiss to her forehead, "Mommy and I just had a little disagreement, that's all. I promise you, we are not breaking up."

McKenzie pouted as she looked at him, her brown eyes meeting his green ones, "But you're still mad at each other because you're not sleeping in the same room."

"Mommy just need some time to cool down and plus, she wants to spend some time with you." Sam tapped her nose, earning a smile from the little girl, "Everything is going to be just fine."

Kenzie nodded as she leaned up and hugged him around his neck, "I love you daddy."

"I love you too Kenz." Sam hugged her back tightly, kissing the side of her head before looking at her, "Now get back in bed."

The little girl nodded as she got off of him and out the bed, walking back to her room so she could a least get a few more minutes of sleep in.

Sam ran his hands over his face with a grunt, leaning his head back against the headboard. He couldn't believe that things were going the way they were. He lifted his head up slightly when he saw Mercedes come in. Without a word, she went straight into their bathroom and closed the door. Shaking his head, he didn't know how much longer he could take of the silent treatment.

Mercedes placed her toothbrush back into the holder when she finished brushing her teeth. Looking in the mirror, she took a calming breath as she brushed out her hair and braided it up into a quick updo. Once she was finished, she exited out of the bathroom and went straight to the closet, still ignoring her husband. Opting to go with a short-sleeved navy blouse and black skinny jeans paired with a pair of black hollow out point toe ankle heels, she quickly dressed and sat at her vanity inside the closet to do her makeup.

Sam looked at her and rolled his eyes, "You can't ignore me forever." When she didn't say anything, he moved the cover off of him and went to stand in the entrance of the closet door, "How long are you going to act like this?"

"I'm not acting like anything, I'm just keeping my distance." She replied as she picked up the mascara brush and starting doing her lashes.

"I can't keep fighting you on this Mercedes. I said what I had to say and I'm not apologizing for it. But I will apologize for saying that you don't love me enough because I know you do. I said that strictly out of anger and you know that."

"How am I suppose to believe that?" She turned around and looked at him, trying to hide her obvious hurt expression. Shaking her head, she stood up and walked pass him, "You know what, it doesn't even matter Samuel, it doesn't."

Sam caught ahold of her wrist to stop her, turning her to him, "It does matter. I love you Mercedes, with all of my heart and I would never not love you. And I know you feel the same way and I'm sorry for letting my anger control how I felt."

"Whatever Sam." She whispered as she yanked her hand away from him, trying to walk out the room but he blocked her, "Would you please move?"

"No because I'm not going another day like this." He said finally as he stared at her deep in her eyes, "Madison came to me last night and told me the twins ask her were we getting a divorce. McKenzie came to me just a few minutes ago and asked if we were breaking up. Do you know how that made me feel as a father? To know that our shit is taking a toll on our kids and having them think we are on a verge of a divorce. This is affecting our children and that's the last thing I want."

"It's the last thing I want too and I hate that they feel that way." Mercedes licked her lips as she moved back, looking at him before she walked around him, "I'm standing by my decision. This is something for me and I'm sorry that you can't understand that."

"I'm sorry I can't either." He said as he watched her walked down the hallway, groaning out loudly. He didn't know what he could do to make this right. Things were bad and he could only hope that they didn't get worse.

Madison distractedly drew circles across her paper as she sat in her desk. She tried focusing on what her teacher was saying but she couldn't. This whole thing that was going on between her mom and dad was weighing heavily on her mind. She didn't understand what could make them fight like this.

"That's how Shakespeare said it and that's exactly how it was written." Maverick spoke to his class before shutting the book and leaning against his desk, "I want a four page paper on our discussion from today and I want you to give me a honest opinion but back it up with facts." The bell sounded off, causing everyone to move and get their things together, "And it's due next Tuesday, have a good day." He placed the book on his desk as everyone filed out of the room. He turned to see his sister still sitting down, writing something on her paper, "Madi?"

"Do you think they're going to get a divorce?" She asked lowly as she lifted her head, tapping her pen hard against the paper.

"No." Maverick said truthfully as he walked over to her, taking a seat in one of the desk.

"They haven't spoken to each other in three days and mom sleeps in Kenzie's room. To make things worse, we don't even know what happened to make them act like this."

"Madison, listen to me." He grabbed her hands with his, looking at her seriously, "They're going to be fine. They just hit a rough patch, which happens occasionally in marriages. Mom and dad's love is too strong for anything bad to happen between them. Another reason I know they're going to be okay is because they love you guys too much."

Madison sighed as she looked down at her paper, "What are we going to do?"

"You know I've been thinking a lot about that and I think I came up with something good." Maverick said with a smile before he leaned back in the seat, "And it involves reminding them how in love they are. Since this is my last class for the day, I was thinking of taking you and picking up the rest of the kids early. I need their help to pull this off."

"Pull what off?"

"You'll see." He smirked as he leaned forward and gave her a hug, standing up afterwards, "Everything's going to be fine. Go get your stuff so we can go."

"Okay." Madison said slowly as she closed her binder and placed it in her book bag. She didn't know what her brother has planned but she hoped it worked.

Mercedes smiled down at Brayden as he sat in her lap, looking at the door when she heard a knock, she saw her boss and gave her a look, "I'm sorry, my babysitter called in sick."

"Hush Mercedes, you know I don't care about that. Things happen." Laura smiled as she pinched Brayden's cheek before setting the papers down on her desk, "A new case I want you to look over by the end of week, it's a good one."

"Okay, thank you." She said as she watched her walk out of her office. She looked down at her son, who was busy chewing on his teething ring.

Lindsey knocked on Mercedes' door with a smile, holding up a package, "This came for you."

"You can go sit on the desk, thank you."

Lindsey smiled as she put it down, looking at her, she took a calming breath, "I can watch him while you work if you want me too."

"Do you mind? I just have a few paperwork to finish and he has eaten so he should be ready for a nap."

"I don't mind at all." Lindsey said with a smile as she walked around Mercedes' desk and picked the little boy out of her arms, "Hey there Bray."

"Thank you so much Lindsey. I'll be finish in two hours tops."

"Take your time." Lindsey said as she smiled at Brayden, turning around to walk out the room.

Mercedes smiled as she looked around and grabbed all of files. She looked at the package Lindsey sat down and picked it up, she was about to start reading the label until there was another knock at her door. Looking up, she rolled her eyes when she saw who it was, "What do you want Liam?"

Liam gave her a nervous smile as he stepped into her office, "Um..Mr. Evans wanted me to come get Brayden."

"And why do he want you to do that?" She crossed her arms and gave him a look. Liam has been an intern at at Sam's firm for a little of two years and he just became Sam's assistant a couple of months ago.

"He just told me to um..come get him and he'll take him for the day."

"Well you can go back and tell your boss no. Also tell him not to use you as a middle man and to be a man himself to come get his own son." Mercedes gave him a smile before going to back open the package, "Have a good day Liam."

"Y-you too, Mrs. Evans." He stammered out as he walked out her office. He didn't know what was going on between the two but he hoped that they fixed it soon because Sam has been in a pissy mood for a few days and it was definitely showing at work.

Mercedes shook her head as she pulled out what felt like a disc, a note falling out as well.

She unfolded the note and was about to start reading until her phone vibrated, looking to see it was Sam calling, she canceled his call and went back to what she was doing. She began reading the unfamiliar handwriting from the note.

Please watch it.

Mercedes took the dic and placed it in her computer, clicking the play button when it popped up. Her eyes went slightly wide when she saw the woman, who looked completely different but in a good way.

Allison moved her long blonde hair back as she looked into the camera, "Um, hi Mercedes. I know I am the last person you would want to talk to but I want to talk to you. So I'm asking as a favor to please watch this video." She licked her dry lips as she played with her hands, "I kind of figured when I requested to see you, you would mostly decline but I kept trying, hoping that you would consider giving me a moment of your time, even when I know I don't even deserve it. I just want to give you my side of the story, which also you might not care nor want to hear but I at least owe you explanation. Back when Madison came, I couldn't give her one but since then, I've been getting the help I need and hopefully it can give you insight to why I was the way I was." She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, "I realized the mistakes, the horrible mistakes I have made and I can't help but to hate myself because of them. When I was younger, my mom was on drugs really bad and she kept my dad away from us by us constantly being on a run, left me and my sister fending for ourselves. I'm guessing as I grew older, I started to fall into the wrong crowd of people and fell into doing the same things my mother was doing. With the bank robbery, it was dumb and stupid. I ran after it happened. I changed my name and identity when I moved with a friend to Tennessee. Her father had connections with school so he got me in. I wanted and tried to better myself and I used Sam to help me with that. One thing I can say, I honestly did love him at one point but my old ways starting to come back and it overpowered that. I grew malicious towards him. That's why when I had Madison, I wanted to keep her away from him, just like my mother kept me away from my father." She wiped a tear that had fallen, looking up to the ceiling, "Madison was so innocent in all of this. I misplaced all of my anger on her and I hate it. Raising her was hard for me because here I was in a situation just like my mom was and I decided to do the same thing she did to me. Half of time I hit her, it was never a reason and the other was because I wanted to be in control. I lost control over my life so I wanted to have control over hers. Whooping her for no reason just took me back to when I was a kid. I guess what I did was me thinking that it was okay since I was raised to like this. Thinking about what I did to her makes me sick to my stomach. God, I'm so sorry." She sniffled hard, wiping her face with her sleeve as she looked back at the camera, "I know this doesn't excuse what I did and I understand that. I've been getting therapy for the last year and it has truly helped and changed me as a person. My therapist actually recommended I reached out to you and at moments I was hesitant for obvious reasons." She ran her hands along her pants, tears flowing freely, "I really want to say thank you. Thank you for saving my little girl from me. She seems like she has grown into a strong, passionate young woman and I know that's because of you. You're her mother, something I will never be to her and I have accepted that. You are her mom, I'm just the egg donor and strangely I have come to terms with that because she deserves so much better than what I gave her those five in half years. I can never stop apologizing for what I did, ever. My name is Allison Parks. This is me..the real and improved me and I'm apologizing and owning up to every mistakes I have ever made. This is no joke, no catch or anything. I am really a changed person. Hopefully, you will look at this and not throw it away. This is all I wanted to say and now, I'm going to leave you and your family alone for good. Thank you for everything once again." Allison sent her a sincere, small smile, "Goodbye Mercedes."

Mercedes wiped the tear that fell from her eye as the screen went black. Letting out a shallow breath, she blink her eyes rapidly as she looked up to the ceiling, leaning back in the chair, "Oh my god." She was definitely not expecting this. The woman she saw on the screen was definitely not the woman eight years ago when she last saw her. This was why she wanted to go talk to her, for an explanation, that's all. And she gave that to her and much more. Just like she said, even though it doesn't excuse her for doing it, Mercedes understood now where her mind frame was back then.

Sam closed the front the door, throwing his keys on the table. He had a long, stressful day at work and all he wanted to do was see his kids, eat and take a shower. This whole thing with Mercedes was taking a toll of him and he wanted nothing more than to fix it but she wouldn't let him.

Maverick heard the front door open, peeping around the corner from the living room, he could easily see how frustrated and stress he was, "Hey there."

Sam came out of his thoughts when he heard a voice, mustering up a smile, "Hey Mav, what's up?"

"Nothing." He said innocently as he gave him a big, guilty smile, "We were hoping you haven't ate because the kids and I made dinner."

"No, I'm starved." Sam said just as his stomach growled loudly, earning a laugh from both men, "I'm just going to head up and take a shower real quick."

"Good, everything should be finished by then." Maverick watched as he nodded and made his way up the stairs, seeing his mom pulling up, he sent a call whistle to let his siblings know what to do next.

Mercedes parked the car and unbuckled her seatbelt, laughing lightly as Brayden babbled on loudly in the back. She got out the car and opened the back door, unstrapping him from his car seat and getting him out, "You've been such a good boy today." She closed the door and started making her way up to the house, greeted by a smiling Madison as the door opened, "Hey there."

"Hey mama." Madison said with a smile, not knowing how much that word meant to Mercedes at that moment. She stepped down and grabbed Brayden out of her arms, "I got him. Me and the kids decided to cook tonight so you can use my bathroom to take a bath since.."

"We're not getting a divorce, just so you know." Mercedes told her truthfully as she stepped up, moving past the the taller girl, "We had a fight, words were said and we just need a moment to cool down."

Madison nodded, relieve that they were not getting a divorce but she was still sad that they were fighting, "It's some clothes already in my room for you."

"Thank you." Mercedes said as she walked down the hallway and into her room.

Madison waited until she was in before she made her way to the kitchen, where everyone else is, "Okay, she's in."

"Good, we have a good five minutes." Maverick said as he grabbed the plates and started setting up the table.

McKenzie opened the refrigerator, standing on her tippy toes to grab Brayden's bottles, placing them in a bag.

Savannah and Spencer each handed Maverick a candle, while Brent finished setting up what he was doing here.

Madison bounced Brayden in her arms, looking at the clock on the wall, "Three minutes."

"Okay, you guys go get ready, I got the food." Maverick said as he watched them leave. He turned off the oven and grabbed a towel, pulling the hot pan out and setting it on the counter. Closing the oven back, he carefully slid the dish on a platter and set the pan in the sink. Picking up the platter, he rounded the counter and sat it in the middle of the table, "Shit." He mumbled when he heard the shower shut off downstairs. He quickly finished everything he had left to do and walked out.

Sam had tossed a fresh t-shirt on before putting his clothes in the basket. Putting his phone on the charger, he shut off the lights in the room before heading down the hallway.

Mercedes quickly dried off when she got out the shower, putting on her clothes Madison left for her. Her mind was still on the video and something about it just brought a sense of calm over her. Taking a deep breath, she tossed her clothes in the dirty laundry basket and opened the door, pulling her hair into a ponytail as she walked down the hallway.

Sam got down to the last step when he noticed how quiet it was in the house. Moving to the dining room, he closed his eyes when he realized what was going on, "Dammit."

Mercedes stopped short when she entered through the other door that led to the dining room. Seeing Sam, her eyes scanned over the table and she knew exactly what was going on. Her kids set them up. They had set up the dining room just for them. With only two chairs at the table that was right beside each other. The lights were dimmed and there were two candles lit on the table. She crossed her arms and shook her head. How the hell did they get this passed her?

"It's clear that they set us up." Sam said, breaking the silence and tension that you could feel in the room as he leaned against the doorframe.

"Yeah, they did." Mercedes replied as she looked to side just in time to see a note. She picked it up and read it out loud, "Sorry we had lie to you but it needed to be done. You two need to talk about whatever is going on between the both of you. It's not only affecting you but us as well. We set this dinner up to remind you how much you love each other and no matter what you go through, you will love the other at the end of the day. Brent and I got the kids tonight so don't expect for them to be back. With love, Maverick."

"Great, just great." Sam mumbled underneath his breath before sighing, "I'll just put it up."

"No, it's fine." Mercedes said as she sat the note down, looking at him, "The kids made it so I don't want to them we didn't eat it."

Sam nodded as he pushed off the door and went and pulled the chair out for her. No matter how mad they were, he was going to be a gentleman. His mother would kill him dead if he wasn't.

"Thank you." She said quietly as she sat down, scooting it up to the table. Mercedes grabbed the wine bottle and filled her glass up halfway.

Sam sat back as he looked on curiously, shaking his head with a chuckle when he noticed something.

Mercedes looked over at him with pursed lips, "What's so funny?"

"Nothing."

"It's something if you just randomly start laughing out loud."

Sam rolled his eyes at her as he leaned forward and grabbed a slice of pizza, "Well Ms. Attitude, if you didn't realize because you're so pissed at me, you would see that they recreated our second date."

"I don't have an attitude." She snapped back as she sent him a glare, "And I did notice, thank you very much."

"What is that you want me to say Mercedes?" Sam turned and asked her seriously, "I have apologized for what I said multiple times, I don't know what else it is I can do."

"Sam please.."

"No, listen. I'm so sorry that things got out of hand like it did but you can't blame me for wanting to protect you. You are my wife and I love you. I would never want anything bad to ever happen to you."

"I know that Sam..but as your wife, I would think that you would at least hear me out, take into consideration that maybe this is something I needed to do." She looked away from him as she picked up her glass, "But you won, you don't have to worry about me going."

"Mercedes." Sam sighed as he leaned back in the chair, closing his eyes, "You don't have to do that. You're a grown woman and at the end of the day, it's your decision and as your husband, I'm going to have to respect that."

Mercedes looked over at him with an unreadable expression, "I don't have to go to her because she came to me. Sent me a video. It's in my purse and I really think you should watch it when you get a chance." She moved her loose hair behind her ear, turning away from him as she leaned forward and grabbed a piece of pizza, whispering, "And I love you too."

Sam was clearly taken aback that Allison had reached out to Mercedes. He wondered what was on the disc that she wanted him to see. Hearing her whisper, he let a lopsided grin take over his lips, "I love you and I'm sorry that we had this fight. You know I love you to the moon and back."

"I know and I'm sorry about everything too. Letting you sleep alone, not giving your Brayden today, by the way, tell Liam I am sorry and that I still love him."

"He knows." Sam said as he scooted closer to her, grabbing her hand, he leaned forward and pressed a soft, long kiss to her lips, the feeling of her love and warmth he has been missing for the last few days.

Mercedes titled her head as she kissed him back, her right hand going to the back of his neck. She pulled back and gave him a smile before giving him a small peck, "I love you."

Sam smiled as he wrapped his arms around her, giving her tight hug. Kissing the side of her head, "I love you more baby." They sat there for the next couple of minutes in that same position, neither one wanting to let go. After awhile, they finally pulled back and enjoyed the rest of the evening together.

Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny. -C.S. Lewis

A/N. Hope you enjoyed. Have a great & safe weekend!