A/N: More filler but Samcedes fans stick around to the end. I own nothing but the mistakes that were made.

44

After Mrs. Banks was finally unable to stall being released that afternoon, Cedes offered to drive her home because it was the least she could do, all things considered.

"Regina is a very clever girl," Mrs. Banks said after waking up because she'd fallen asleep the instant they headed out of the parking lot.

They were almost in Lima Springs, and Cedes wondered if Mrs. Banks was going to delay going home now she was awake like she tried to delay leaving the hospital. "Thanks for saying that, I do believe, she is indeed."

"Oh, can you stop by the Cut, Curl, and Color, honey? I need to grab a few things from the triple C."

"Sure, no problem." Cedes couldn't keep herself from laughing when she went inside and saw Mrs. Banks name on a couple of bags that were already waiting for her. The old lady really knew how to get people to do things for her.

Instead of taking her home after leaving the beauty salon, Mrs. Banks said she needed to go to the grocery story because she was out of tissue paper and Mountain Dew; as soon as Cedes got these things for her, she asked her to go to the hardware store for five rolls of electrical tape. It wasn't until their next stop, a bait shop, that Cedes began to wonder if she was afraid to go back to her home and stay there alone after what transpired there. Several people had volunteered to clean her house after forensics finished gathering all the evidence. They even went above and beyond by replacing three broken windows, fixing her kitchen's leaky faucet, and bringing her some home-cooked meals that she could easily warm up in the oven or microwave.

Cedes still could understand Mrs. Banks' hesitancy about entering a home she was attacked in. Cedes was sure her home was the one place she felt safe, and now she would have memories of Chris Pratt brutalizing her and the children who did indeed came in and rescued her though they were severely injured as well. A man had died in her kitchen even though he deserved it after stabbing Ricky multiple times.

"I know you want to get back to your daughter, so I promise that this will be the very last stop," Mrs. Banks said.

"Mrs. Banks, it's okay if you are not ready to return home, do you have friends or family who would let you stay with them?"

"That's not going to be an issue, dear, I am ready to go home; I just need one more item."

"Are you sure you need something from the Ultimate Sports Store?"

"Yes."

"What sport are you going to be participating in, pickle ball?"

"No, my knees aren't what they used to be nor my hip; I think I am going to take up fishing on the Lima River."

"They fly fish out there, are you sure you want to do that." Cedes said with a disbelieving smirk.

Cedes was surprised to see Hunter headed to the back of the store, so she got out of her cruiser and ran towards him. "Wait for me, Hunt."

"I got a call about a disturbance here as soon as I reported back to duty."

Cedes went back to the cruiser and told Mrs. Banks to stay inside of the car. She locked the doors and followed Hunter inside with her hand on her gun.

Hunter tried the back door and realized it was unlocked. She nodded her head for him to enter. They quietly walked inside to find an empty storeroom. After they headed up front and cleared the floor the saw the sign on the locked front door read CLOSED.

"There's nobody here," Hunter said, right before they heard a crash in what had to be a room below.

"Let's look for a basement." She told him, and they finally found a set set of stairs which were not easily seen or navigated.

"Sheriff's office!" Hunter said. "Show me your hands!" As soon as they made it below.

When they fully entered the room, the lights came on blinding Cedes for a few seconds. When her eyes adjusted to the light, she looked around at a room filled with smiling faces.

She and Hunter looked at each other. "What's going on here?" he asked her.

"I was just about to ask you that exact question."

She was amazed when she saw everyone there, especially Mrs. Banks, whom she'd just locked in her cruiser, and her parents who were supposed to be with her daughter at the hospital.

"Did you lose Gina again?" she asked them.

Her father smiled at her, "Don't worry about Gina. She's in very good hands and wouldn't want to leave Ricky's side."

Cedes also saw Mayor Rachel Berry standing off to the side with her arms crossed over her chest and a satisfied smile on her face.

"You can put those guns away." She told Cedes and Hunter. They put the weapons in their holsters.

"Is this what I think it is?" Eleven of Lima Springs's finest or connected minds in the basement of a sporting goods shop.

"You figured it out what I wanted you to, so it was about time," the mayor said.

"What did you figure out?" Hunter asked her.

"That the mayor is a member of the Dangerous Damsels."

"They're real but I thought it was women only?" he asked.

"They are real, and I think this has something to do with the missing persons case that Gina has been investigating." Mrs. Banks being a part of it, solidified that thought in her head.

"It is. I told you, that girl of yours is clever. How in the world she found that Pratt boy is beyond me."

"Can someone tell me what the hell is going on?" Hunter asked totally confused as why finding the Pratt boy was a good thing.

"As soon as you accept this." The mayor said handing him a coin.

"Sordid Son." He looked back at her. "Yeah, taking this really cleared everything up."

"Maybe this will help," Mrs. Banks said. She got up and gave Cedes a coin as well that had Dangerous on one side and Damsels on the other. Whereas Hunter's coin was traditional gold, hers was rose gold and very old. The words were almost worn off from decades of use. Hers also had a crown on it; Hunt's didn't.

"Don't lose that coin. They are all irreplaceable. The one you have Mercedes was made in 1939 by a Welsh jeweler who made rare coins and designed the official seal for the Royal House of Wales."

Mrs. Banks laughed. "I'm joking about them being irreplaceable, that is. I've lost mine ten—"

"Twelve," Minnie said.

"—twelve times. But it is very hard to get them replaced. Just so you know."

Cedes looked around and saw educators, farmers, custodians, and business owners; even the high school principal was there along with the second love of her life, Andy Collins.

"I have to admit, I had no idea about the sons."

"I'm Salacious," Collins said, a wicked grin spreading behind his beard.

"Why doesn't that surprise me?"

One by one they were introduced to the Damsels and the Sons. The damsels had names like Dastardly, Diabolical, and Devastating, a.k.a., her mother. And sons like Savage, Sinful, and Scandalous, a.k.a., her father.

"We're being inducted into a secret society," she said not fully realizing all the ramifications of this.

She was surprised to see Roz there and thought about the time she had Andy Collins watching her house for Martinez, and she didn't know they were in a secret society together. What a waste of time.

"Only if you choose to be a part of it," her mother said.

"And if I don't?" she asked.

"Well, you've already seen our faces, so we'd have to make you disappear."

"If Cedes is taking Mrs. Banks' place," Hunter said, looking at his coin, "whose place am I taking?"

Andy gave him the news. "Biff McIntosh, your former lieutenant." Hunter looked at the coin in his hand with a new respect thinking he would accept it in remembrance of his friend.

"So, there's always thirteen members at any given time?"

"Yes, seven women and six men." Mrs. Banks said.

"And we were lucky to get that many men included," Andy said. "She was very reluctant to let any man have a say in her club."

Mrs. Banks nodded. "I was talked around to it when I realized that the women will always have the final vote."

"You are missing another member then." Cedes counted everyone in the room again.

"Sinister is not here. While you may be the reigning queen, even though I know I would have been the better choice; he is the—", Only Rachel Berry could turn a one word answer into an essay.

"The king?" she asked to shut her up.

"More like the prince regent like with Elizabeth and Phillip," Mrs. Banks said. "No one has more power in this group than the queen. He couldn't be here today, but he's already cast his vote concerning you two."

"As we all have," her dad said.

Why would Mrs. Banks want her to replace her in this organization? She didn't feel worthy of this. "I'm humbled that you all think so much of me."

Hunter nodded, unable to speak himself because she knew he felt as unworthy as she did.

"This is a big day for you. Passing on the torch that you lit."

"I've been running this town for more than fifty years."

"Why are you stepping down now?"

"I have been waiting for you to come home. Sometimes, I thought you'd never come back. Eventually, we realized we'd have to force your hand."

"You were involved with the election tampering?"

"Involved? It was all my idea."

"That's not true at all," her mom said.

"But why me?" she asked.

"A butterfly and a golf club" Mrs. Banks said.

She and Hunter asked simultaneously, "A butterfly and a golf club?"

"You may not remember this, but when you were about five, I found you in the park holding a butterfly in your hands."

"John Henry, he was a Monarch butterfly."

"Yes, you saw some boys torturing it, and you made them stop. You saw me and told me that you were going to take it to the vet."

"I remember that. Mom wouldn't take it to the vet. She said they didn't treat insects."

"Your heart broke. I'll never forget the look on your face when your mother told you it was going to die. You still took it home and cared for it day and night for a couple of weeks because you wanted it to feel happy and safe for the rest of its life, no matter how long that would be."

"You never told me that," Hunt said.

"I'd forgotten about it I think."

"I didn't," Mrs. Banks said. "Your mother kept me updated. When John Henry died, she was worried she was going to have to get you into grief counseling."

"That was probably true."

"So where does the golf club come in?" Hunt asked.

"When I saw Mercedes at the park right after the butterfly's passing, she was carrying a golf club almost big as her."

"I have no memory of doing that."

"You stopped where I was sitting, pointed to the boys who'd been torturing the butterfly, and told me you were going to beat them up." Mrs. Banks clapped her hands in glee, her laughter filled the room.

Cedes tried hard not to smile.

"You almost did it, too. I'd never seen those boys run so fast in my life. You were like a banshee, swinging that golf club around. If not for your mother capturing you mid-swing, your parents would've had to pay off several lawsuits and hospital bills."

"So that's why you chose me?"

"That was only the beginning. I started watching you, Merce, and I was pleased to see that you had all the fire and conviction I once had. You were the one I wanted to take my place."

"Thank you, I guess."

"I want to know how this whole Dangerous Damsels thing get started?" Hunter asked as he brought around a chair for Cedes and took one beside them. Everyone else did the same, so they could hear the story once more.

"Like Mercy said. It started with the missing persons cases. It's so odd. It just doesn't seem like that long ago. Regina was right. The people who went missing in the late fifties and early sixties, many of them anyway, had stayed with us at the boardinghouse. For almost a decade, people just disappeared. Not a lot, one or two a year. Sometimes they'd leave some of their belongings. They'd leave, and we wouldn't hear that they never made it to their next destinations for weeks. Sometimes months, if at all."

Andy brought Mrs. Banks a cup of tea. "Thank you, Sheriff."

Cedes smiled. Lots of people in town still called Andy "Sheriff." She loved it. If she could co-sheriff with anyone, it would be him.

"But it was the Emily Pratt case that brought it all to the forefront. The news reporters found out that she'd stolen a tennis bracelet and was headed to Seattle to meet up with her boyfriend when she disappeared."

"Was it the same tennis bracelet Chris Pratt was after?" Hunter asked her.

"Yes, it was. That's when I first started to have suspicions. I found the tennis bracelet in my husband's dresser. He said Miss Pratt forgot it when she took off, but I knew the truth. Deep down, I think a part of me always knew he was killing those people for what little they had. He killed that sweet girl. He killed them all."

"I'm so sorry," Hunt said.

"I am too, but I think this story should be told. The world needs to know who the real killer was."

"Oh, don't you worry about that. I have that daughter of yours working on doing exactly that."

Cedes did not like the sound of that but she knew it was not the time or place to disagree with the elderly woman.

"Horace didn't expect the media firestorm he brought down on us. The family wanted that tennis bracelet back and, quite frankly, they were willing to move heaven and earth to get it. They had all kinds of investigators comb through this town and the whole area. We even had Pinkertons in Lima Springs."

"Wow," Hunter said. He'd wanted to become a Pinkerton at one point. Allan Pinkerton had been a hero of his since he found out the man helped with the Underground Railroad. "But I didn't think the tennis bracelet was worth that much."

"According to the family, it wasn't. They said they only wanted it for sentimental reasons."

"You didn't believe it," Cedes said.

"Not really, but Horace got it in his head it was worth a lot of money to them, so he was going to demand a ransom of sorts. In the meantime, the detectives began to realize that more than a handful of people who stayed at our boardinghouse went missing soon after. It did not look good."

"That's when you figured it out?"

"I confronted Horace about the killings before he could send his ransom demand." She took another sip of her tea before confessing. "Let's just say, Chris Pratt was not the first man to die in my kitchen."

"You killed Horace?" Hunter asked.

"I'll let you decide. I told Horace I was going to tell the sheriff everything and, well, he did not want me to. He went to kill me with a toaster. When he grabbed it, I plugged it in real fast, and he electrocuted himself." She shook her head. "I kept telling him to fix that old thing but he kept forgetting to."

Cedes covered her mouth and pretended to clear her throat to hide her disbelieving chortle. That was the most ridiculous and sad story that she'd ever heard told at one time.

"But with all the detectives running around, and now with Horace dead, I was afraid they'd think I was the serial killer. So, I buried him in the backyard, planted an avocado tree on top of his remains."

That time Hunter had to be the one to hide his laughter.

She and Hunter were now in one of those situations where they were making an oath to a group of people that usually had motivations and loyalties that lined up with the law, but sometimes they didn't. But they'd taken an oath to uphold the law, so what would happen when there was a conflict? When one of those group decisions contradicted with their oath to serve and protect all of Lima Springs citizens? What would they do then?

"As you may have guessed, I had to turn myself in because the guilt was eating me alive. So, about a week after I did it, I confessed everything to the sheriff." She laughed before continuing. "You should have seen the look on his face when I told him."

"He didn't think you did it?"

"No, he knew I did it because we were courting before I met my husband. He knew what I was capable of. The problem was, he was having an affair with a very young girl on the side and I knew it. When he figured out I knew the truth and he could lose all the money he'd married into, he told me I was mistaken about Horace being the killer. Said I was confused. Said I was hysterical, and that they'd found the man responsible for the missing people over the years. He proudly told me that it was a drifter by the name of Buddy Leibowitz. And they had proof because he was caught with one of the missing men's wallets."

"Who was this Buddy Leibowitz?" Hunt asked.

"A drifter who come to Lima Springs at the wrong time."

"But how would a man passing through town be responsible for all of those other people's deaths over that many years? Didn't anyone think of that?"

"They didn't care. Once Buddy escaped the jail, their only lead was gone. They had nothing to go on, and the family had no way of getting the tennis bracelet back. When they found Buddy dead two weeks later, the investigation was officially over."

"Did they ever find who killed him?"

"No. And it's funny how I was never brought up on charges myself. I guess Sheriff Campbell figured if I stayed quiet, he'd stay quiet."

Cedes gave her a grin. "That doesn't much sound like you."

"It doesn't, does it? By that point, I'd had about enough of men and their handling of things around town. We were getting to be a bit of a tourist town, even back then, and I knew things needed to be handled right and corruption needed to be brought to a minimum, so I brought the Dangerous Damsels back to life."

"And later the Sordid Sons in the eighties," Malcolm said.

Cedes looked up at her dad. So proud of him.

"Also, for the record, the fact that the sheriff went missing himself a few months later had nothing to do with me."

Cedes and Hunter exchanged glances and decided to let it go. For now.

"Wait," Cedes said, thinking back to her research. "I thought the Dangerous Damsels was formed in the thirties after the mines shut down and a bunch of women were left undefended when the men went off to find work elsewhere."

Even the mayor was surprised by her question. "You really did your homework."

"Told you," Mrs. Banks said. She held out her hand and the mayor slapped a five into it. The older woman cackled again and stuffed it into her bra before turning back to them. "I suppose I should have said I brought the Dangerous Damsels back to life. My mother first started them when a group of men came in and tried to take over the town. And the women running it. There were about a dozen men who liked to call themselves the Dirty Dozen. My mother got her friends together, and they quickly saved the town from them by poisoning them with arsenic in their liqueur.

"Wow probably the real reason for the movie Arsenic and Old Lace." Hunter said.

"What happens now?" Cedes asked.

"You two need to learn our mission statement and rules and swear to uphold them, but yeah. For the most part."

"Which are?"

"Our main mission is to stop people who are corrupted from having too much power," her mother said.

Andy expanded on that. "And we cannot ever use our position to gain power or favor for ourselves, to sway a vote on the city council for personal gain that does not benefit the whole town, for example."

"You're fighting basic human nature," Cedes said thoughtfully. "Who wouldn't use their position to get perks?"

"Which is why there are thirteen of us. We keep each other in line."

"Boy, do they," June Dalloway, the baker of cursed donuts.

The mayor reminded her, "You did ask permission to kill your husband and bury his body in the backyard."

"I was only kidding." She glanced around. "I love Johnny. It was only a joke."

"Our system is far from perfect, Mercedes," Mrs. Banks said. "But it's the best we can make it, and it's worked well for the past fifty-plus years."

"I think it's amazing, Mrs. Banks. What you've done."

"Does that mean you're in?"

"I'm in." Really, how could she not be?

"And you, Chief Deputy Clarington?" Malcolm asked Hunter.

"I was in the minute you gave me this coin." He admired it again and Cedes laughed softly.

They served a dinner for Mrs. Banks, all of her favorites, but Cedes could tell she was getting tired.

She pulled her aside. "If you're ready to get some rest, I can take you home." The woman did just get out of the hospital, after all.

Was that what all of this was about? Did the sons and daughters choose today because they were worried about her? Or had today been the plan all along and the attack was just bad timing?

"I guess I am getting a little tired," Mrs. Banks said. She reached into her mammoth bag and handed a small tin to Cedes. It was an antique sewing kit, the box rusted and the paint peeling. "This is for you. She who wears the crown …"

"Mrs. Banks, I am beyond honored to have been accepted into this organization, especially considering the limited seating, but the crown? For me to be Dangerous … I mean, the others have been here so much longer. They've put in the time and served the town."

"I chose you as my successor over fifteen years ago."

"I don't understand."

"The way you handled … well, everything after your abduction. I knew you were the one."

Of course. "I hardly handled anything, Mrs. Banks. It happened. I just dealt with it the best way I knew how. If it weren't for my parents, I would've been lost."

"That's all any of us can do, love. But I disagree. I think, with or without your parents, you would've handled it all exactly the way you did. Not with anger or resentment, but with dignity and grace and, dare I say, a healthy dose of screw you."

Cedes had to laugh at that.

"You refused to let what happened stop you or use it as a crutch, and you've only ever done right by that baby girl of yours."

"She has been the easiest person to do right by," Cedes admitted.

"Like I said, she who wears the crown …"

Cedes opened it. It was all the evidence they would need to bring closure to all the people's families that Mr. Banks had stolen from and caused immeasurable grief. Cedes was in awe of the record keeping and time that Mrs. Banks put into it. Even the belt that Horace used to place notches in after he killed someone else. When she counted on extra notch, Mrs. Banks informed her it was fitting for him to be included in the total since he basically killed himself by trying to kill her.

A little while later, Hunter walked up to her as everyone sat around a a round table like they were King Arthur and his knights. They were laughing and talking about Mrs. Banks and her penchant for confessing to every crime ever committed.

It was simply one of her quirks. It was how she coped with the horrors she'd endured, probably.

But the dinner saddened Cedes to the depths of her soul. The entire town should be celebrating Mrs. Banks, not just the people in this room.

"Maybe we should throw a celebratory party for Mrs. Banks while she's still with us. Like on her next birthday."

Hunter brightened. "I could totally help plan that."

"Okay, it's next week."

"Oh, hell." His mind raced. "I have so much to do. I need to call the caterer. And get a cake ordered. And what about a champagne fountain as a centerpiece and what should our decorations be?"

He stood to make some calls.

"Are you okay with all of this, Mercy?" Her dad asked

"I'm just not sure I'm the person for this role."

"I have to be honest. I don't think Mrs. Banks has been wrong a day in her life."

"She married Horace."

"Touché."

"Can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead."

"There's no delicate way of asking this. Were you ever in prison?"

He'd been in the middle of swallowing the mountain dew when he started coughing uncontrollably.

Clearly, she was onto something.

Her mother rushed over and took the opportunity to beat him senseless, asking if he needed water, CPR, or Vicks VapoRub.

After another couple of minutes where he had to wave off all the expressions of concern surrounding him, he looked Cedes square in the face, and lied. "No. Why do you ask?"

She stared at him.

Her mother hit him on the back again for good measure.

He stared back at Cedes.

"Alrighty, then," she said. "We'll come back to that. For now, I'm going to go see if Sam has healed enough from his injuries and now wants me to jump his bones."

It was her mother's turn to cough. Her dad got to beat her mom's back for a bit. Good times.

She pulled the tin box close to her chest, proof that this precious thing called life could be taken away at any moment. Life was too short, and Cedes had too many things she wanted to accomplish before her journey came to an end.

Having lots of sex with the man of her dreams had been at the top of her bucket list for decades, and she wasn't getting any younger. As long as he was on the same page as her, she would not go to her grave without having at least tried to have sex—real sex—with the man.

After her mother recovered, she cleared her throat, and said, "Thank God." She looked at her husband. "We can cancel that idiot Anderson boy."

"What idiot Anderson boy?"

Her mother opened her bag, took out a sheet of paper, and handed it to her.

Hunter, apparently having finished organizing Mrs. Banks's celebration of life, sat beside her and read over her shoulder. It was a list of names with the three at the top crossed out. Cooper Anderson, Blaine's brother was the next name on the list.

"I can't believe you have a list."

"How else would I keep all of these men organized?"

Hunter leaned over and pointed to a name.

"Joshua Menkins, you were going to set me up with Sam's cousin?"

"It's a small town, honey. There are not that many eligible men around her to choose from. Cooper is only visiting Blaine and Kurt until his next commercial job in LA. That's why we had to bump him up the list."

"Besides, we couldn't think of a better way to help you see the light."

"And what light would that be? The red special one? Because you guys clearly see yourselves as pimps."

"Stop being a drama queen, love. We had to make you realize that nobody else was right for you."

"Nobody else? You mean other than a hired assassin?"

"You're never going to let us live that down, are you?"

"Never, even on your death beds I will remind you of that."