A/N and Disclaimer: I own nothing from Glee, Carr's story, or any other copyrighted material. I hope you enjoy it. Please as always forgive all of my mistakes. No more cliffhangers after this I promise. Thanks for staying supportive, and I will probably finish this short story tomorrow. So, the end is nigh.

Chapter 10

Mercy had just gotten everyone settled in their seats after story time when the fire alarm went off. She stifled a groan.

Typically, the principal, Mr. Figgins, let the teachers know ahead of a time when he scheduled one for a drill. Particularly because it was like herding cats to get little kids out of the building in an organized fashion.

"Class," Mercy said, raising her hands calmly when a couple of the girls squealed loudly and at least five boys bounced out of their chairs excitedly. "We had a fire drill last week. You remember what you're supposed to do. Line up at the door. We're going out the back door of the school, single file."

She hurriedly went to her desk for a copy of the roster, her safety vest, and a sign with her name on it. She needed her roster to call roll once they were all out to make sure no student was left in the building.

"What about Jake?" Harmony asked noticing her friend was not in the room.

Mercy quickly remembered that her son had somehow managed to nicked his finger with the safety scissors—a feat only he could manage—and asked to see the nurse for a Band-Aid. Mercy kept Band-Aids in the classroom, but JJ insisted that the ones in the nurse's office were better.

She knew by "better" it meant that the bandage would be issued with candy.

"He'll be fine," she assured Harmony. "He'll just go outside with the nurse." She said calmly.

"I smell smoke!" Kurt Hummel yelled, pointing at the closed door.

The word went through the classroom like a bomb exploding. The line they'd slowly started forming disintegrated, as chaos took control. Kids started running and screaming. Mercy's shiest little student, Roderick, started crying.

Mercy raised her hands. "Quiet!" she bellowed over the din. "Freeze."

They all stopped mid-step and looked at her.

"My directions haven't changed. Line up at the door."

She had a rope with knots that she'd used the first week of school to teach them how to walk single file. She grabbed it from the storage bin next to her desk. Starting with the line leader, she unrolled it, instructing each child to hold onto a knot.

"No one lets go of the rope for any reason. Understand?"

All the heads bobbed up and down, and she could see fear on too many faces.

"We're going to be fine. Just hold onto the rope and follow me. Okay. Let's go."

She felt the door before opening it. There wasn't any heat, so she cracked it just a few inches and saw the other kindergarten class passing by, walking behind their teacher, Miss Holiday.

Once they'd passed, Mercy's class filed out as well. She walked next to the line leader until they were directly behind the other kindergarten class. "Follow them, Kurt. I'm going to drift to the back to make sure everyone is still holding on to the rope."

Kurt nodded, straightening up, taking his leadership responsibilities seriously.

The halls were filling up with smoke quite rapidly, though Mercy couldn't see any flames. A couple of the kids started coughing.

"We're almost there," she said encouragingly.

Finally, they reached the back door. There were two classrooms per grade, and the students were divided according to their reading levels. She had the advanced class for her grade, and Miss Holiday taught the remedial class. The remedial teachers were also certified in special education, and their classes were smaller, so there were not a lot of children to bring outside of the building on the K-2 side. The elementary school building was U-shaped and as small as Lima. The composition of the building had the lower grades on one side of the U with their exit, and the upper grades on the the other side of the U with their own exit. Because of the building's design it had a lot of big windows, allowing in bright light. The front office with the secretary/bookkeeper's, principal's, assistant principal's, counselor's offices, cafeteria, the nurse's station, and library were in the center of the building with it's entrance. So, JJ would most likely be in the group coming out of the center of the building.

Once they were outside, Mercy guided her class to the swing set, their designated area during drills, and quickly called roll. Everyone was present and accounted for—except for JJ. She looked around the playground, relieved when she spotted all of the front office staff heading her way but no JJ.

"Where's Jake?" she asked when she reached them.

Tina frowned. "What do you mean? I sent him back to you a couple minutes before the alarm went off. He didn't make it?"

"Shi-ugar." Mercy frantically searched the other groups of students, looking for JJ's face. Several teachers saw her alarm, and Tina told them Jake was missing. Every adult started calling Jake's name, but there was no response.

"Tina," Mercy said, panicking. "Please, stay with my class. I'm going to circle the building."

Tina nodded as she took off, yelling Jake's name. She'd looped the place twice before accepting the fact that he wasn't outside. She glanced at the school. There was a significant amount of smoke coming through the back door they'd just exited. Adrenaline and fear took over as Mercy sprinted for the building, Tina shouting her name, yelling for her to stop.

There was no way she was waiting outside for the fire trucks to arrive. Smoke inhalation was as dangerous as the actual fire, and there was too much smoke.

Mercy sprinted down the hallway she'd just walked with her students, calling out JJ's name between coughing fits. Dashing back to their classroom, she quickly scanned the area.

No JJ.

There was less smoke in the room, so she sucked in several deep breaths before heading back into the hallway.

She could hear the sound of sirens in the distance, but it didn't calm her down. They were still too far away.

"Jake…JJ…baby!" she yelled once she was back in the hallway, darting from room to room, throwing open the doors to look for him. Her eyes were starting to sting from the smoke, tears streaming down her cheeks.

She'd only gotten to the first, second, and third grade rooms before she heard her name.

"Mercy!"

She spun around and saw Sam sprinting toward her. He was wearing his firefighting gear and the large helmet he'd plunked down on Artie's head during their field trip.

His expression was one of pure fury. "What the hell are you doing in here?"

"I can't find my son," she said, the words broken up with coughs. "He's not outside."

"You have to get out of here," he said, gripping her upper arm.

She shook him off. "Not without my child."

Sam looked over his shoulder as Ryder approached, hose in hand. "Head to the cafeteria," he commanded. "Principal said the fire started there. We've got a missing kid."

Ryder looked alarmed.

"Her son, JJ," Sam quickly added.

Ryder dragged the hose in the direction of the cafeteria as Sam took her hand, the two of them turning the front corner of the building, passing the entrance to the library.

"JJ!" Sam yelled, his voice echoing in the empty hallway.

"JJ! Where are you?" Mercy called out.

They were about to enter the library, when the door to the library opened and JJ emerged.

"Mommy."

Mercy ran to him, bending over to pick him up in her arms. "JJ. JJ." She covered his face with kisses, fully aware that it wasn't the smoke causing the tears she cried anymore.

"Come on. I have to get the two of you out of here."

Sam led them to the closest exit, near the front of the building. The rest of the student body had moved to the back of the school to keep the kids out of the way of the firefighters.

Once they were out, she sucked in big gulps of fresh air, clinging to JJ tightly, despite his efforts to wriggle free.

"I have to go—" Sam started.

His walkie-talkie crackled, Ryder's voice coming through. "Sam?"

"Yeah," Sam said, pressing the button on the side.

"Fire's already out. Faulty oven. I'm afraid the tater tots are a total loss. Did you find the kid?"

"Yeah. I got him. I'll be there in a minute," Sam replied.

JJ's struggles grew stronger, so Mercy let him down.

"I waited for you, Sam."

"What?" Sam asked, kneeling in front of her son, taking his helmet off and placing it on the ground.

"I waited for you in the library. I wanted to help you fight the fire."

Sam looked up at her, frowning.

Her relief vanished, flashing to anger.

"You did what?" she asked aghast, not believing her ears. "Why in the hell-eck would you do something like that?"

JJ's lower lip started to wobble in the face of her sudden fury.

Sam stood up and placed his hands on her cheeks, his thumbs brushing away her tears. "Let me talk to him, please."

She was struggling to breathe, fighting serious rage. It was probably better that Sam take over because she was shaking—the fear, adrenaline, and anger combining, making it hard for her to get control of herself.

She nodded once, and Sam released her, offering a comforting smile before kneeling in front of JJ again.

Before Sam could speak, JJ continued, "I thought if I helped you fight the fire, you'd like me again, and then you would come back to my house, so we could play ball some more."

"Oh my God," she whispered. She'd been so wrapped up in her own broken heart, she didn't realize JJ had been suffering the same. She sucked in a harsh breath, one that rattled with a barely concealed sob.

The only thing that stopped her from picking JJ back up was Sam. He looked utterly devastated as he cupped her son's face the same way he'd just done with hers. "Good Lord above, JJ. How could you think that? I've never stopped liking you. You're my cool little man with a killer arm and awesome taste in movies. We're always going to be friends. Always. I swear it."

"But you won't come to play catch anymore."

"That doesn't have anything to do with how I feel about you. Your mom and I…well, we've got some things to work out." Sam glanced up at her, his gaze one of pure determination. "And we're going to do that in a minute."

He was right. They needed to talk…for JJ's sake if nothing else. She nodded her head in agreement.

"But before that," Sam said, "we've got to settle this fire thing right now. Do you remember what I told you to do whenever you heard the tornado drill?"

JJ nodded earnestly. "Be the man of the house and take care of Mommy. Go to the basement."

"That's right. You take care of your mommy, but at the same time, you take care of yourself. You never—never—stay inside a burning building. What should you have done when you heard that alarm?"

"Find Mommy and go outside with my friends." JJ answered the question, but the sudden thickness in his voice and the tears in his eyes proved he understood he'd been wrong. JJ had been a people pleaser from the cradle. He hated to disappoint anyone, always crying whenever he'd done something naughty, apologizing quickly.

"That's right, JJ. What you did today was dangerous. And because you did it, your mommy ran back into a burning building to save you. So, she was in danger too."

JJ looked up at her, crying. "I'm sorry, Mommy."

Her anger evaporated as quickly as it had come, and she started to take him back into her arms. Before she could do that, Sam spoke again.

"Come here, little man." Sam wrapped JJ in a tight embrace. "Promise me the next time you hear a fire alarm, you'll get out."

JJ clung to Sam, and Mercy was struck by the genuine caring that passed between them. "I promise, Sam."

"You scared ten years off my life," Sam murmured. "What would your mommy do without you? What would I do without you?"

Mercy was never going to stop crying at this point. Seeing how much Sam loved her son touched her more than anything else in her life.

"I'm sorry, Sam," JJ said again.

They held onto each other for a few moments more, then Sam released him and JJ flew back to her. She lifted him, hugging him tightly, as he whispered another apology.

"Don't cry, Mommy."

"It's okay, baby," she said, trying to soothe him. "It's okay. We're okay." Mercy realized that reassurance wasn't just for him.

Sam lifted his walkie-talkie. "Ryder?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you and the other volunteers good back there on your own for a few minutes more? I need to do something."

"We got this. I am going to prop the doors open and set up fans to try to clear the smoke. I'll have the volunteers deal with the hoses. Take your time."

Sam took Mercy's hand. "Come on."

They walked around the building to where the rest of the students and faculty were waiting. Now that the fire was out, the teachers had apparently declared an impromptu recess. The kids were playing, and Mercy overheard the principal announcing to several teachers that school was canceled for the rest of the day. Apparently, an alert was going out to parents and the school busses were on their way back.

Tina ran over to them the second she spotted Mercy and JJ. "Thank God," she said, grabbing JJ from Mercy's arms and hugging him "JJ, my sweet JJ." Calling him by his nickname at school, the one he didn't want them to use while he was there.

Mercy had been in Lima two months and met some of the best people she'd ever known in her life. Somehow she'd managed to find JJ and her the perfect community.

"You mind keeping an eye on JJ?" Sam asked Tina. "Mercy and I have something we need to discuss."

Tina narrowed her eyes, but Mercy put her hand on her friend's arm. "It's okay, Tina."

Then, like a coward, Mercy tried to think of some way to put off this talk with Sam. She knew it needed to happen, but her emotions were on a system's overload. She figured she was one second away from dissolving into a puddle of tears.

She officially had no more strength left. Any strength she had left was what she needed if she hoped to resist Sam, especially after seeing how much he cared about her son.

Fortunately, Kitty appeared at that moment, and her backbone straightened as she recalled the other woman emerging from the fire station Sunday morning.

"There's our sexy hero," Kitty cooed, standing a hair too close to Sam, considering where they were.

"Kitty. Just the person I wanted to see. Come here." Sam still had a firm grip on Mercy's hand, and it was clear that whatever he wanted to say to Kitty was going to happen with Mercy as a witness.

"Sam," Mercy said, trying to pull her hand away.

"I need five minutes, Mercy. Just five."

She opened her mouth to refuse. At least until he looked her right in the eye and added the word, "please."

His sad expression reminded her of the way he'd looked the day she'd laughed at the ball field. The day he'd asked "What about me?" and she laughed. The guilt she had suffered over that was enough to have her agreeing. It helped that numbness was starting to set in too.

"Okay," she murmured.

Sam led Kitty and Mercy to the side of the building, well out of the hearing and visual distance of anyone else outside.

Sam turned to face Kitty. "Who did you spend last Saturday night with at the fire station?"

His question, directed at a suddenly red-faced Kitty, caught Mercy off guard.

"I, um," Kitty hedged, her gaze drifting to Mercy. It was obvious she didn't want to answer that question in front of her.

"Who, Kitty?" Sam's tone made it clear he wasn't going to back down.

Kitty might get knocked down, but she never stayed down. She threw her head back haughtily. "Ryder."

Mercy frowned. "But you said—"

"I know what I said." Kitty cut her off.

"I know what you said, too," Sam added, turning to Mercy. "I just found out about your visit Sunday morning an hour ago from Mike. I took Silas to Cleveland for the weekend for his birthday. We spent Saturday night in a hotel, then saw the Cavaliers game on Sunday. I spent Saturday night with my baby brother. And only my brother."

"You weren't even home," Mercy said, torn between laughing and crying. Kitty had made a fool of her for the last freaking time.

Then she remembered the texts. "What about your date on Monday?"

"You should have stuck around and asked me about those messages," Sam said.

She should have, but at the time, she'd been too uncertain of his feelings and too distrustful of her own judge of character. Even so, she said, "I'm not sure how I could have misconstrued what they said."

"Where were we a couple of Mondays ago, Kitty?"

Sam seemed determined to straighten both Mercy and Kitty out at the same time. And while Mercy was starting to understand, Kitty was slower to learn her lesson.

"My house."

Sam scowled at her. "Your parents' house. Where you live. And what was I doing there?"

Kitty crossed her arms, her lips pursed tight.

"Kitty," Sam said darkly, his tone pure threat. The truth was coming out, even if he had to drag it out of her.

"Filling their new indoor pool."

Sam's direction turned to Mercy. "Filling a pool."

Her mind flashed back on that final text. The one that had made her run from his bed.

I can't wait for you to fill me up with your big hose.

Now it was Mercy's turn to frown at Kitty. The woman had gone out of her way to make her believe she and Sam were having an affair.

Before Mercy could call Kitty every bad name in the book, Sam took charge once more.

"Kitty, I'm going to say this one last time, very slowly, so you hear every word and understand. All of this stops right here. You and I are never going to happen. Never. You're going to stop with the flirting, and overt sexual innuendos you text or say to me, and you sure as hell better stop coming on to me and lying to Mercy. Got it?"

Kitty rolled her eyes, refusing to answer.

"Do. You. Understand?" Sam asked, enunciating every single word.

She huffed impatiently. "Fine. Whatever. I'm bored with you anyway. You deserve your short, wide, and black Mary Poppins. I hope you'll both be miserable with each other."

With that, she spun on her heel and stomped back to the playground.

"What a cuntcake," Mercy muttered.

She expected—okay, hoped for—a laugh from Sam, but he was on a roll.

"Now," he said, turning toward her, "as for you."

She didn't let him finish. "I'm sorry, Sam. I'm so sorry for everything. I don't have a single good excuse for how I behaved, and I don't blame you if you walk away from me right now. I'm an idiotic almost twenty-seven-year-old near-virgin with zero experience when it comes to relationships. You'd be a fool to take on someone like—"

Sam gripped her face and kissed her hard, cutting off the rest of her words. The kiss lingered as his tongue touched hers. He tasted like peppermint and coffee, Mercy's new favorite flavor.

When they parted, she realized the noise of the playground in the distance had faded, the shouts and laughter of the kids had been replaced with silence. It was always that way with him. One kiss and the rest of the world vanished.

"As for you," he started again. "We're dating. I'm your boyfriend, and you're my girlfriend. Exclusively. No one else."

He pressed on her jaw with one finger and she realized her mouth was open. "Flies," he teased with a wink as he pushed it closed.

"Then," he continued, "in a few months, I'm going to propose to you and you're going to say yes, you're going to let me be a husband to you and a father to that beautiful boy. By the way, we're going to give him a brother and a sister hopefully. If we have to keep trying, then we may have two or three brothers and a sister."

"I thought you didn't want to get married. And I have had a C-section, so I don't know about all those babies."

He sighed. "Listen here we will negotiate about the babies, but we are going to have a problem if you still believe what the gossips say about me?"

Mercy laughed and shook her head. "Okay, but I don't believe the gossip. It's been wrong about everything when it comes to you."

Sam gave her a sheepish grin. "Well, in all fairness, I wouldn't say all of it was—"

She narrowed her eyes. "All of it," she stressed.

He chuckled. "Okay. All of it. Pure lies."

"Sam," she said, aware there was one more thing she had to say.

"Yeah?"

"The other day at the ball field, when I laughed…"

"Yeah," Sam interrupted. "Let's fix that too. I believe you were telling me what you wanted from a man, so I'm going to ask you again. What about me?"

This wonderful, sexy firefighter was giving her a do-over, a chance to fix what she'd screwed up so badly.

"I think you're the perfect man for the job."

While they were wrapped up in each other, Tina and JJ had moved closer and as soon as her gaze connected with her son's, he darted over to them.

Sam scooped him up in his arms, spinning him around as JJ giggled.

"Actually..." Sam put JJ down, kneeling in front of him. "I think it's probably more proper if I ask the man of the house for permission. JJ, may I date your mommy?"

JJ nodded so emphatically, Mercy feared he'd break his neck. "Yeah!" he shouted.

Mercy laughed. "I knew you were going to be problematic."

Sam stood up. "Hey, you're the one ruining my reputation." He tugged her toward him.

"Sam." She said his name as he bent his head towards her. "What about JJ?"

"He's about to get a lesson in true love."

He kissed her more chastely than either of them wanted, as JJ clung to their legs, his face one of pure joy.

"What are you doing tonight, ladies man?" she murmured.

Sam winked. "Making up for lost time with the only lady I care to be called her man."