A/N: We know we've been MIA so here's a double feature for you!

enjoy!

Chapter 10

Mercedes nervously bit her fingernails as she waited for Shelby to call her about the single. She knew the song was great, and everyone who heard it knew it was too, but all that mattered was how the label felt about it. If they didn't like it, then they were not going to promote it.

After cleaning her entire condo, and going through a few old boxes, she sat at her piano and started to play around with the keys. Her mind drifted to Sam, to what he said to her and she continued to wonder if he really meant that or not. Maybe he was just saying what she wanted to hear, or maybe he meant it. Sam was a good guy, she knew that. But maybe they just weren't it for each other.

She heard a knock on the door, and then it opened and she shook her head as Malcolm walked in.

"I should have never given you a key."

Malcolm sat on the sofa. "How are you lil one?"

She randomly pushed a few keys. "I'm okay. Just waiting for Shelby to call me."

As if she was being summoned Mercedes phone rang, seeing it was Shelby she frowned standing and handing the phone to Malcolm. "What if she is calling to say I suck."

He shrugged. "Only one way to find out." Answering the phone he smiled. "Mercedes Jones' phone, her brother, how can I help you…uh huh? Oh? Okay sure thing. I will tell her and she will be there. Thank you."

Mercedes stared at him biting her bottom lip. "What did she say?

Malcolm shrugged. "I don't know…something about…releasing your single Temporary for a midnight release tonight and you are due in the studio tomorrow to record not only a video for temporary but they want to do something for "Someone you Loved. She said she will call you if she needs you but if not she will see you tomorrow."

Mercedes' eyes widened as she jumped up in his arms. "I hate you for that! This is so amazing! Its everything I wanted to do…everything I said I would do."

Malcolm hugged her tight before putting her down. "I think there is someone who would love to hear this news."

Mercedes laughed. "You are right! But I am pretty sure Sananta and Quinn knew before me, and as for Kurt well he's showing a house soo.."

Malcolm rolled his eyes. "I was talking about Sam."

"Did you get hit during practice? Why would I tell him anything?"

"Look I was an ass. I saw you and Sam together and instead of seeing my grown ass sister. I just saw my baby sister who I needed to protect. I did something I should have done from the beginning. I actually talked to Sam and he's a good dude, like I always knew he was."

"None of that matters now. After what happened I am going to focus on my work and that is it. I don't need the drama and neither does he. You guys have the Super Bowl coming up and I am just a distraction. Plus Sam and I said our peace."

"He cares for you and I think you care for him…"

Mercedes stared at her brother. If only he was this mature when she first arrived. "Mal…it's too late. Just drop it…I am gonna call Kurt to see if we can work on my look, I trust him more than I trust others."

Malcolm sighed looking at her. "Merce please just…Sam needs you. He really does. Can't you just think about at least coming to the game."

She nodded. "If I say yes, will you stop talking about it?"

"Yes…"

Mercedes rolled her eyes as she grabbed her phone sending out texts. She was certain it was a waste of time to go to the game, but she would do as her brother asked and go to the game. But right now she needed to focus on her music. On her future.

Sam stared out into the field from the stands. The game wasn't supposed to start for a few hours, but Sam liked to get a few moments to himself before everything went down. It was his safe space. Closing his eyes, he inhaled. "We got this…I know we do." He said to himself, opening his eyes and watching the field once again.

Heading back towards the locker room he stopped as Mercedes and Quinn walked towards him. Quinn beamed. "Sam! Are you ready?"

Sam looked at her and nodded, his eyes darting to Mercedes. "I am excited, pretty sure we are gonna take this all the way. Mal and I have been on a roll."

"I noticed!" Quinn laughed. "You guys can win this alone but having the team will make it better."

Sam nodded looking at Mercedes. "You look really great, Mercedes."

She smiled. "Thanks Sam…you are going to crush it tonight. I am sure you guys are going all the way."

Quinn saw Malcolm walking towards the locker room and chewed her bottom lip. "Hey I am going to check on Mal…I will be back." She walked towards Malcolm as Mercedes looked at Sam.

"I think it's obvious to everyone but them that they like each other."

Sam smiled. "I think we may need to give them a push or something."

She nodded. "Yeah, Mal needs someone like Q to even him out."

Sam stepped slightly closer to her. "I told Mal the truth…about how I feel about you…"

"Sam…"

Sam shook his head. "I don't want to pressure you, I don't want to make you feel like I am expecting anything from you. You were right, I should have stepped up from the beginning, I was so worried about how all of this would affect me, I didn't even think about how this would affect you. All I am asking is after the game, you give me a few minutes of your time."

Mercedes nodded. "Okay…I can do that." She turned to leave but stopped looking back at him. "Good luck Sam." She said moving to kiss him on his cheek.

"With you cheering us on from the sidelines, how can we do anything but win?" Sam said, taking her hand and kissing it then walking away. Things might not be fully where Sam wanted them but maybe they were back on track.

The game was a tense one. Patriots against the Rams brought fans from all over to the stadium. Quinn and Mercedes got to stand on the sidelines with the team, and they didn't know who was screaming louder. The fans or the girl's. Mercedes looked at Quinn.

"Okay my heart is racing, the game is tied, and we have the ball. I don't know if I can stand it!"

Quinn laughed. "I know! And to get to stand here on the sidelines…must be nice to be so connected."

"Stop I mean okay it's great but it's not like you are saying, Mal got me here not Sam."

"Uh huh, that man has been staring at you the whole game. Are you ever gonna give him a chance to make everything up to you?"

Mercedes sighed looking out to the field, Sam caught her eyes and smiled at her. Without thinking she smiled back, as a blush caught her face. Sam's smile widened as he went back to focus on the game.

Malcolm looked at him. "What's got you all smiling?"

Mike laughed. "Don't you mean who?"

Sam shook his head. "Y'all cluck more than the hens in the hen house can we win this game please."

"Looks like you got more than winning the game on your mind…" Malcolm said, looking back at Mercedes and Quinn.

"Looks like you do too." Sam said as they lined up on the run the play.

Sam called the play and caught the ball, he looked around to see if Malcolm was open, seeing he wasn't and that there was a clear path to the end zone.

Taking his chance Sam ran as fast as he could. Dodging a player as he tried to tackle him. Pushing himself harder Sam ran the ball right into the end zone.

Everything happened in an instant. Sam felt the joy coursing through him of the completed play, they were now three touchdowns over the Rams and the path to those rings were so close he could taste it and then pain. Nothing but excruciating pain ran through him. As someone hit him low in his left leg causing Sam to fall backwards and land awkwardly on it, then the player fell on him.

Mercedes stared at the horrifying sight before her. She had gone from celebrating that amazing play to screaming as everyone heard the sound of Sam's body getting hurt. She didn't even realize her feet were moving until she was at Sam's side.

"Sam!" She screamed as he laid there unmoving.

She fell to the ground as she reached him. "Sam? Baby get up!"

Malcolm, Mike and the Coach came up after her, as Sam came too the look on his face told everyone all they needed to know. He was hurt. Bad.

"Sam don't move." The coach said as the medics made their way over to him.

Malcolm pulled Mercedes up but she pushed him away, refusing to leave Sam's side. "I'm not leaving him!" She said as tears started running down her face.

"Cedie, you have to let them take him." Mal said softly and against her wishes she moved out of the medics way so they could get Sam on the stretcher.

All of his teammates watched with wide eyes as he was lifted onto the stretcher and his leg dangled off to the side. Placing his broken leg next to the other, they placed him on the four wheeler, driving him to the pop up medical tent.

Mercedes hopped on the four wheeler as half the team tried to follow but the coach raised his hands. "We still have a game to win, there is nothing we can do for Evans right now."

They hesitated for a moment but nodded going back to the field, knowing they needed to make the Ram's pay for what they did to Sam.

Finn hesitated as he ran onto the field as back up. Malcolm turns from watching them take Sam and follows Finn.

"Well Hudson looks like you got your wish. We all know you wanted Sam out of the game."

Finn looked at him angrily. "This is not what I wanted! I didn't do anything it's not on me!"

Mal looked at him confused before slowly nodding. 'Dude, chill. I'm just messing with you, we know you hate Evans but not enough to do something like that."

"Oh, right. Sorry, all this has me nervous…" Finn replied, looking around hoping no one else noticed his outburst.

"Look, we're all stressed about Sam but we still have a game to play and we have to win it for him because that hit was foul." Mal said, patting him on the back before walking away to join the huddle, he turned and looked at Finn. "Dude are you coming? You're QB now."

Mercedes sat next to an unconscious Sam, holding his hand as they set up the portable xray machine. Sam had been in and out due to the pain he was in, one minute he was awake and the next out like a light, but they said that was normal. Mercedes was always glad that every game had actual doctors standing by, so they could get to the injured party faster and not have to waste time waiting on an ambulance.

"Dr. Clark, how is it looking? Is Sam gonna be okay?"

"I'm sorry I can't give out any information to someone who isn't' family."

Mercedes hesitated for a moment unsure of what to say.

"She is my family…she's my fiancee." Sam said weakly, squeezing Mercedes hand gently. "Stay…"

Mercedes looked down to Sam and placed her forehead against his. "Wild Horses couldn't keep me away Sam…"

Dr. Clark nodded. "From the x-rays it looks like he broke his ankle and messed up his knee. We will know more once we get him to the hospital and stabilized."

"Sam!" Stacey said as she and Stevie ran into the tent.

Dr. Clark looked at them about to speak but Mercedes cut him off. "That is Sam's family. His sister and brother."

He nodded as Stacey walked towards Sam taking his other hand, "How is he?"

"We need to get him to the hospital to reset his ankle. He will be off his feet for a while, and rehab is definitely needed but with proper healing your brother should make a full recovery, as long as we don't see anything worse when we go in to fix his leg." Dr. Clark said softly. "The ambulance is outside and we will head over to the hospital."

"What about his head? He fell pretty hard." Mercedes questioned, following as they wheeled him out to the ambulance. .

"We'll do a full CT scan at the hospital, I can't do much with the machine I have here." Dr. Clark replied and Mercedes nodded, taking a step back as the paramedics loaded him into the back.

"We can allow one person to ride with us." The paramedic said to the three of them and Mercedes looked at Stevie and Stacey.

"One of you should go…" She said and they both gave her a knowing look before shaking their heads.

"No we can't, we need to get our parents and put out some small fires. You go with him and keep us posted on everything, here take this." Stacey said, giving her her spare phone. "Only family members call this phone, don't use yours. We have to keep his condition to us until we have a full game plan on tackling the press."

"Don't answer any questions either, no matter who asks, only speak to his doctors. You'll have to ignore the nurses too, they're never nice to any women who arrive with high profile athletes." Stevie added and Mercedes nodded.

"When you get there only ask for Dr. Chang, Mike's wife, she'll walk you through everything." Stacey said before nodding her off.

"I'll make sure to keep everyone posted." Mercedes said before they closed the doors and drove off.

…

Stacey and Stevie weren't joking, the second the press found out which hospital Sam was being taken to it became a shit show. The ambulance barely could get in due to all the news vans and reporters blocking their way, she was instructed by the paramedics to stay close and to keep walking.

As soon as the door opened their were countless numbers of flashes and people from all directions shouting question at her, she tried to keep up with the paramedics but the reporters were cornering her and she was becoming overwhelmed before they all heard a loud whistle.

"I am Dr. Tina Cohen-Chang, we will be giving a full report after we've assessed the patient but not a minute before, you need to move away from the emergency lane immediately."

Mercedes sighed in relief as everyone slowly moved out of the way and she hurriedly walked inside and let out a shaky breath. She'd never experienced this before because she was never at any of Mal's games when he did get hurt but if this was the result she would never ride in the ambulance again.

"Stacey said you might need some saving, I'm Tina."

Mercedes looked at the woman and gave her a small smile. "Thanks, is it always like that?"

"Yes, it's crazier when your brother even walks in here. Come on, I'll take you to the wing where we're keeping him, it's private." Tina said before leading her to the elevators.

Once they got into the elevator Tina let out a sigh. "Sam's never been hurt like this before… I wasn't able to watch the game, did you see what happened?"

"He scored and then some huge guy tackled him before slamming onto him after he was down." Mercedes replied before covering her mouth. "I'm not sure I was supposed to say that."

Tina shook her head. "They can't hear anything in here… did you see how he landed? Did he hit his head?"

"He fell in a weird way but he hit his head pretty hard."

"Probably concussed, we'll have to keep that part out for sure… how big was the man that tackled him?"

"Fairly large, he wasn't small and the hit came after the fact…" Mercedes replied. "Is he going to be okay?"

"I believe so but I won't know until after I get a full scan and an MRI done. Come on, you can wait in his room." Tina said as the doors opened and they walked down a long hallway before stopping at a room.

"Thank you."

"No matter who comes in here, do not answer any questions about Sam. Just say you're waiting on the doctor." Tina instructed before walking back out and leaving her alone.

Mercedes sighed as Tina left, sitting down next to Sam and taking his hand. Seeing him like that put everything into perspective for her, she really did care for him, deeply, strongly and it scared the shit out of her, but not as much as the thought of losing him.

She ran her hand over his forehead, closing her eyes. "You scared the shit out of me Sam, when I saw you like that…" She opened her eyes, tears forming. "I don't know how you deal with all of this, the people here just…they don't care about boundaries."

Mercedes took a breath as the door opened and someone in an orange nurses uniform walked in. She raised her eyebrow lookin at them. "Hello…"

"I am umm here to check on his uh vitals. I didn't know anyone was umm in here." The nurse said quickly.

Mercedes nodded looking at her. "Okay…go ahead."

The nurse stayed put as Mercedes got a good look at her, first, she wasn't being mean at all, second she seemed off. Walking over to Sam the nurse looked at Mercedes.

"And ummm who are you to him?"

Mercedes raised an eyebrow really on alert considering Dr. Clark told the staff she was Sam's fiance the moment they got there. That's how Dr. Chang knew. Hitting the nurses button, Mercedes turned completely to the dark haired female, who now on closer inspection, was wearing a wig, her blonde hair was sticking out.

Mercedes shook her head. "I didn't catch your name."

"Oh I am ummm Nurse Ro-derman… yes Roderman…" she said quickly.

"Uh huh, and you are here for the vitals…where is your stethoscope?"

"Dammit I forgot it, what was I thinking?"

The nurse went to the door but stopped as another nurse, one Mercedes knew for a fact was Sam's nurse walked in.

"Yes Ms. Jones- Dammit Kitty! Not again!"

"Lauren come on I just needed a moment alone with him, he will want me here!"

Lauren picked Kitty up over her shoulder. "Sorry Ms. Jones, the moment she hears there is a player hurt, this one sneaks into the room, taking photos, making it seem like they were together, it's sad really."

"Its not sad! Sam and I are in love! He told me if he ever got hurt to come here!" Kitty said in Laurens arms and the nurse just laughed.

"Uh huh and you said the same thing about Mike when he hurt his shoulder last year."

"Mike was in love with me!"

"Mike is married to Dr. Chang! Girl, you need help. Excuse me while I take out the trash. I will come check on you guys in a few."

Lauren walked out the door with Kitty still over her shoulder. Mercedes shook her head as she looked back at Sam. He looked like he was sleeping but she knew it was more than that. He was hurt badly and there was nothing she could do to make it better.

She leaned in and placed a kiss onto his lips. "I think I am falling in love with you Sam…" She whispered as she fell back onto her chair, Sam stirred a bit, groaning but ultimately falling back to sleep.

No waiting needed enjoy!