AN: I did a dumb and accidentally deleted this chapter. I suck at multitasking x.x

Chapter 9: Finally.

xox

"Hey."

He greeted her, smiling that crooked grin of his. "Spaghetti for one? Isn't that a little depressing?"

Mercedes still didn't have the means to form words. She did manage, though, to extract herself from the refrigerator, her eyes never leaving his face though.

He looked good. Same blonde hair that fell into his face. Same piercing Green eyes. Same cocky smile.

She swayed on the spot, drinking him in.

"Clumsy as ever," he said, chuckling. "Here, let me help." He strode over to her and roughly pulled her into his arms, holding her so tightly against him that she could barely breathe. "I missed you."

Mercedes closed her eyes and breathed in his scent. This wasn't really happening. She had progressed to full-on hallucinations. Why was he here, seducing her, when he could be at her apartment, seducing Sugar?

But oh god, it felt so good to be back in his arms. She savored the sensation, basking in the feel of his arms wrapped tightly around her. Was it possible to just stay in his arms for the rest of her life?

"Mercedes?" He released her slightly so that he could look at her face. "Why so silent? I'm not late, am I? Tomorrow is one year."

If she had felt astonished before, now she felt as if she'd just been hit with a sledgehammer. "What did you say?" she gasped.

"Tyler. He came back to Keira after exactly a year. Isn't that what you were waiting for? Or do I not know you at all?"

"You read my book?"

"I read all of them. Took me a while, but then, it has been a year. That was part of my soul-searching phase."

Mercedes couldn't hold herself back any longer. She threw her arms around his neck and began kissing him like there was no tomorrow. A moment later, she happily noticed that he was responding equally as ardently.

"What took you so long?" she gasped, finally wrenching her swollen lips away from his. "You didn't have to wait a year. I've been so lonely and I missed you so much and… and… you bastard! What was that 'Wait for me' note about? You are in such big trouble."

"But you still love me?" he asked hopefully.

Mercedes considered very hard saying no, just to let him see what it was like, but she didn't want him to ever let her go. "Yes, Sam. I still love you very much. But you have a lot of explaining to do."

"Later," he said thickly, kissing her long and hard again. "I haven't made love to you in almost a year; I've almost forgotten what it feels like."

"We can't have that, now, can we," she murmured, unaware of anything else but the kisses Sam was planting all over her face, neck, arms, breasts…

"I love you, Mercedes."

"I love you too, Sam."

It wasn't until after they had finished making love and she was happily lying in his arms (still on the kitchen floor) that it hit her. She sat upright so fast it made her head spin. "What did you say?"

"I didn't say anything," Sam said lazily, tracing circles on her back with his finger. His eyes hadn't strayed from her face in over an hour.

"No, I mean, what did you say before we started—"

"Oh. You mean 'I love you'?"

A smile started spreading across her face. "I think you forgot a part."

"Did I? How careless." He smirked in his usual way and she could have loved him again all over for it. "I meant to say, 'I love you, Mercedes.'"

"That," she said, leaning over to kiss his neck, "is much better." She settled back down on the floor, her head resting on his chest. "Seriously, though, I thought you'd never say those words."

"I always wanted to. Just never could."

"Say it again."

"I love you."

She closed her eyes. "Again?"

"I love you. I love you. I love you I love you I love you I love you." He pulled her back down on top of him, his arms tightly encircling her.

Mercedes was quite content to just lay there the rest of the night. But she still had unanswered questions. And she didn't like mysteries very much. She was always the girl who had skipped ahead to the end of the Nancy Drew books before she even started at the beginning.

"Sam?"

"Mmph."

"Why'd it take you so long to get here?"

He sighed, his chest expanding so that Mercedes' body moved upward several inches. "I knew I would have to answer that eventually."

"Am I going to like the answer?" asked Mercedes neutrally.

Maybe she should've asked what had happened before

"I don't know. I guess that depends on you." His fingers started tracing circles on her back again. "The first week I went to work and lived my normal life; only every second of my spare time was occupied by trying to figure out what I should do. I asked myself whether I loved you or Quinn; then I asked myself what I was going to do about me and Quinn's baby. I didn't want her to grow up without a father. No child should go through that, and I wasn't going to be guilty of it."

Mercedes forced herself to stay quiet.

"But Quinn solved all that for me," he said. "By choosing Finn instead."

"Finn?"

"That guy from your company, ne?"

"But she hated him!"

"She didn't hate him; she just acted that way when she was dating me because he wasn't taking a hint otherwise. She actually thought he was very sweet."

"And she told you this."

"Yes," he said, missing the sarcasm. "At their wedding."

"They got married?"

This was getting better and better.

"Yep. Just after she had Beth. She looked nothing like me and a lot like Finn; So she came clean about cheating on me with Finn. He'll be a good father, he's one of those mushy-gushy types. I was just happy to get out of that situation.. "

Mercedes laid there taking everything that Sam said in. She wanted to say something when she said that Quinn cheated on him with a guy from his work but decided to keep her mouth shut she was just glad that Sam was here with her and at this moment everything was falling into place.

"Beth. That's a pretty common name."

"She liked it. She said she wanted her daughter to have a normal life, so a normal name would fit."

Mercedes sat up indignantly. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Who knows. It's Quinn." He pulled her back down on top of him. "Any more questions?"

"You've explained maybe two days out of a year. Please don't tell me that you made me wait a whole 365 days just because one of the characters in my book did it."

"No, I didn't. I wanted you to have some time to think, too. I know I needed the time. After the fourth month of mind-wracking and guilty dreams I just decided… to stop thinking."

He was quiet for so long after this that Mercedes prompted, "And?"

"And… I asked myself what I really wanted. And what I really wanted was you."

She stared at him incredulously. "That's it?"

He smirked at her. "Occum's Razor. Sometimes the simplest explanations are the best."

"Not that I'm not happy, but you had to take the rest of the year to get to me?"

"I had to put my affairs in order. Put in a transfer for my job, sell my apartment, finish reading all thirteen of your books—that took a helluva a long time, why do you write such long books?—and then explain this whole story to Quinn, Santana, my brother, and the bartender at that bar we always used to go to."

"Why did you have to tell Artie?"

"He was curious. He said he'd been watching our drama unfold for so long that he couldn't possibly stand to not know how it turned out."

Mercedes was indignant. "As if we're some soap opera meant only to entertain!"

"I think it's pretty damned funny."

She gave him a wry glance. "You would."

He took her hand and playfully nibbled on her fingers. "Right. When I arrived here about a month ago—by the same train you took, incidentally—I couldn't just come see you… I had to watch you first, to slowly get you back into my life, to make sure I still understood you."

"What! You've been here a month?"

"Just following you around," he repeated. "It's a nice lifestyle you have. Wake up, eat breakfast, write for a few hours, eat lunch, take a walk around the area, return home, write again, read while you eat dinner, watch a movie, then go to sleep. Oh, and on Friday nights you walk around town while eating that ridiculously sugar-loaded concoction."

"Stalker."

"Only for you, my dear."

They fell silent again for a moment or two. Then Mercedes said: "What now?"

"Well we should probably get some sleep soon but I'm definitely up for some more s—"

"No! I mean… where do we go from here? In terms of us."

He shrugged. "I'll be here; I got a transfer. I'm not leaving anytime soon. In fact, I don't plan on leaving ever. You've noticed how we kind of complete each other?"

"Something like that." She smiled.

"Any more questions?"

"Does Quinn hate me?"

Sam winced. "Not a good question to ask."

"That's all right. I didn't expect much more."

"You didn't do anything wrong, Mercedes, She did." he said sternly. "So don't go thinking that you deserve her anger."

"I know. Still. That's one friendship lost."

He looked at her carefully. "Do you regret anything?"

She thought about it for a moment or two, then shook her head. "No. I don't. I wouldn't change anything. It sucks that it has to be you or Quinn; but I would definitely choose you any day."

"Thanks, babe."

"It's the truth." She tilted her head to the side and smiled. "But thinking about things from your perspective, you've basically given up everything for me."

He tenderly brushed a strand of hair out of her face. "Damn straight. You better appreciate this, woman."

Mercedes started laughing so hard that she physically couldn't stop. And to tell the god-honest-truth, she didn't want to.

It was the quiet creaking of the old house that woke Sam up. He had been born with ultra-sensitive hearing; a curse that had plagued him throughout his college years (he had been one of the unfortunate few saddled with a snoring roommate). But, he consented, pulling Mercedes closer to him, there were consolations: such as being able to watch Mercedes sleeping serenely, her lips curled up into a small smile.

He wrapped his arm around her stomach, playing with the thin fabric of her tee-shirt. Maybe someday, he thought, letting his hand rest on her stomach, this body would produce their children.

Hopefully sooner than later, he amended, thinking of the ring that was sitting in the glove compartment of his car.

It wasn't more than a few minutes that he was able to stay awake his eyes began to close on their own volition, but for once he didn't mind falling asleep: because he knew that the next time he awoke, his Mercedes would be laying there right beside him.

As he drifted off into the dream world, a smile to match his love's began to spread across his face.

THE END.

AN: Well that's the end of that. I just wanted to say you guys are amazing reviewers. The reviews I got for the chapters made me smile and laugh and motivated me to crank out the next chapter faster. I hope you guys liked how this story ended. I am working on another one that will be posted up as soon as possible so keep an eye out. =p