As Mercedes approached the stoplight, upon noticing a woman about to cross the street, she snapped out of her thoughts. On the medium strip of Jefferson Davis Highway stood a young woman wearing an old 1992 multi-colored suede jacket that was three sizes too big. It was practically hanging open off of her shoulders and she had on nothing under it but her panties, bra, and some fluorescent orange socks. Mercedes felt sorry for her as she watched the girl look both ways and then drop her head before putting both her feet on the pavement to cross the street. 'Damn, I hate to see a sister out here like that. It's almost 100 degrees and she hasn't got a clue. She has to be burning up. I remember I used to have a coat like that. Cara and I drove to Potomac Mills and got coats just alike. She and I used to be road dogs, now we don't even speak. Funny how you can be somebody's best friend one day, and one incident can show you their true colors. I wonder why she hung around me so long if she didn't care for me.'

The light changed before the girl was finished crossing the street. Mercedes waited for the girl to get to the other side and she pulled off. As soon as she pulled off, she looked in the rearview mirror and then looked again. I know that walk from somewhere. She made a U-turn and when she got back down to the stoplight, the girl was lying on the ground. She pulled her car into a Chinese restaurant parking lot and hopped out of the car, as tears formed in her eyes.

"Cara, oh my God?" She put her arms around Cara. Cara couldn't look at Mercedes. She jerked away. "Cara, I am not going to hurt you. Just please let me help you."

"Mercedes, I am soo sorry, for everything," Cara cried.

"I know, Cara," Mercedes said to Cara in an understanding tone. "Now, please just get in my car."

Cara shook her head, "How can you honestly help me after all I've done to hurt you?"

Mercedes was squatting in front of her. She ignored Cara's question. "Cara, please just get in my car. I don't want anybody to see you out here like this. Now, please!"

"Mercedes, you don't understand. I think you're blind to the fact of everything I've done to you. I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

No matter how much Mercedes insisted on Cara to get in the car, Cara repeatedly told her, she was sorry. She tried to be strong for Cara, "Cara Ann Bloomfield, I am demanding that you get off these streets half-naked."

At that moment, Cara realized just exactly what she was wearing. "Oh, my God, where are my clothes? All I remember is I was getting high with two guys, and the next thing I know I woke up laying on top of my coat." Cara said to Mercedes as she wiped her tears, "I have to tell you because I know it's probably killing you, but I was the one who trashed your condo."

Mercedes covered her mouth and just cried. She got up and walked off. She couldn't believe her once best friend in the whole world, had hated her so much. They both cried.

Cara got up and zipped up her coat and walked over to where Mercedes was standing. "I am sorry, I swear I am so sorry. I'll do what I have to do to repay you," Cara cried.

"You mean that?" She raised her voice at Cara. "Do you mean that?" Under any other circumstances, Mercedes would have probably hit anybody else upside the head, but she just couldn't lash out on Cara.

Cara nodded her head timidly and said, "Yes, anything."

Mercedes grabbed Cara's arm and pulled her over to the car's side-view mirror. "Look at yourself? You look a shitty mess! Now what you're going to do is get your frail hind parts in the doggone car." Mercedes said, pointing to the car. "Right Now!" She opened up the car door and pushed Cara in the car. Mercedes ran around the other side, got into the car, and drove off.

She pulled down the mirror in the roof of the car because Cara was afraid to look at herself in the side view mirror. "Look at yourself." Cara had no choice but to look.

She slowly glanced at herself in the mirror and screamed. "Oh, my God." They were both quiet.

Mercedes pulled up into the gas station parking lot. "Stay here." Cara nodded her head and watched as Mercedes went to get the key for the bathroom from the gas attendant. Mercedes went into the store and brought some shirts and a t-shirt, toothbrush, toothpaste, and deodorant, and instructed Cara to go into the bathroom and put the shorts, t-shirt on. While Cara was in the bathroom, she went to her car and took out a pair of old gym shoes she had and gave it to her. Cara finally was dressed. Mercedes was waiting in the car. "I am glad it fits,"

"Mercedes, it's a shame. You know I always sized 15/16 and I looked inside the label of these shorts and they are a 5/6. I stared in the mirror and what used to be my voluminous butt, is gone. I've even lost weight in my face. How did you even recognize me? I know I look a mess. If the tables were turned, I wouldn't even allow me to be in this car. I was smelling, and for you to allow me to even sit on your leather seats as dirty and stinky as I was. I thank you so much."

Mercedes didn't respond as she pulled in the McDonald's parking lot. She ordered Cara something to eat and herself a drink.

"Thank you for allowing me to see what I was letting drugs do to me."

"Yeah, well what are you going to do to stop it?"

"I don't know, I hadn't realized it had gotten this out of control. I thought I was handling it. I don't know what to do, or who to go to because my family has disowned me." She shook her head in disgust as she dropped her head. "I even lost custody of Lil Ronny, I lost my house. I lost everything."

Mercedes reached her hand out of the window to grab Cara's food and their drinks as she passed Cara the food, she asked her, "Cara, you never even smoked cigarettes, better yet used any drugs when we were friends, so how did it get to this?"

"Girl, I just got caught up. Right after we fell out, Mike got locked up and he started snitching on everybody in sight. He told on everybody he dealt with around Richmond, about thirty dudes, and they only took like ten years off of his twenty-seven-year sentence, and you have to do a day for day. If you're sentenced to three years, you have to do every day. So, he continued to rat on people, anybody and everybody he knew or heard of. They reduced his time again, taking three more years off. See, that's the part I don't understand, how they make you tell on all of the people and yet, still make you do years. After he got another reduction, that still wasn't good enough, so he was putting pressure on me to go around to clubs in D.C. and North Carolina meeting dudes who look like they getting any type of money to get their numbers to talk to them and find out details, where they are, what they drive, what they do or just whatever information I can get and turn it over to the proper authorities."

"And these dudes were telling you all their business?" Mercedes asked in a surprised tone.

"Mercedes, you know what a dude would do for a big butt and a smile! They pour out their whole game plan, trying to impress me, plus I wasn't from there, which meant, "new coochie!" Chile, please! And, I put my work in faithfully for him, but it was never enough. I wasn't cut out for that doing time with a dude type shit. And, you know this from when I used to tell you, but I tried being there for him, but when I wasn't at home to take his calls or on time when visiting hours started, because maybe I was putting in work the night before for him, I was cussed out, called everything, but a child of God. The whole scenario just began to frustrate me, because it was NEVER enough to get him released. I started feeling useless, pathetic, and hopeless. So, I started smoking weed, staying high all day, every day. Then lacing the weed with coke, and shortly after just leaving the weed out and doing coke, 24-7, I just got tricked up in the game. And whenever I wasn't high, I would think about you, and resentment would set in when I thought how you held it together running up and down the road to see Sam for all those years and just being a devoted friend to him along with everything you was faced with in your own life. Taking all your strengths into consideration, I began to hate you. When I heard that you'd finally gotten your townhouse, I couldn't stand the thought that you were faced with almost the same struggle as I was, if not even worse, and you prevailed, and I was just smoked out!" Cara covered her face as the tears rolled down her eyes uncontrollably. "And to top it off, Mike met some girl through the prison's pen pal program and married her right before he came home. When he was released, we saw each other. He rolled up on me in his brand new Lexus, that he got from hustling. Can you believe he's right in this same town where he told on a rack of people not even three years ago? And these same local dudes are still buying and selling drugs to his police ass. He said he'd lost all respect for me because I'd looked so bad and had let drugs get the best of me. Well, I told him that I'd lost respect for him too because he wasn't a man, he couldn't do his time without bringing other people, who had nothing to do with his case down. He beat me like he was fighting a man, and called me a "crack head, trick bitch." I told him, with what little energy I had that he was a coward and a snitch, and that he can beat me, but while he's beating me he better be looking over his shoulder because somebody may be coming to kill him. He only got madder and stomped me with his Timbs.

"Damn, Cara. I feel so bad for you. I had no idea that things had gotten so rough for you. But, Cara, you got to bind out that evil spirit, that curse, that addiction in the name of Jesus, Girl. You've got to stay in the word." She reached into the back seat of her car and grabbed her Bible and gave it to Cara. "And on your knees in prayer and believe in your heart that it can be done. Take my word, Cara, that all things are possible through Christ who will strengthen you." Just then, they pulled up at the Good Samaritan Inn on Hull Street, which was a place that rehabilitated people, provided them with a structured environment, meetings, shelter, and helped them find employment. "Cara, I was en route to do something very important when I saw you. These people here will be able to help you get yourself back on track. My boss is a personal friend with the coordinator, so they will call me if you get out of line. Don't disappoint me. I called while you were in the restroom, so they are expecting you."

"I won't disappoint you because, after everything shiesty that I have done to you, you've found it in your heart to get me out the gutter and back onto the right road. Thank you so much, Mercedes."

Mercedes didn't want to get emotional, so she never elaborated on what Cara had just said to her. She told Cara, "I won't be able to bring you any of the things you need here because I will be preoccupied for the next few days, but I am going to get Steph to bring you some personal items and a couple of outfits. They're not going to allow you to go out for the next thirty days."

Cara shook her head. "I understand. I owe you my life. Thank you."

Mercedes drove off. She had no idea exactly how much she loved Cara despite everything Cara had done to her. She had always said to herself that if she ever saw Cara, after everything she's done from throwing dirt on her name to sending Sam letters revealing every foul thing Mercedes had ever done, to calling her job trying to get her fired, if she were to see her lying on the side of the road dying and needed one drop of water, she wouldn't even spit on her. That's how much animosity she had towards her. Now, after seeing Cara, she'd realized exactly how much God had ministered her heart. Mercedes knew that it wasn't her who had the will and the power to put her feelings aside to assist Cara. It was God. This was another confirmation of God's miracle-working powers.

Meanwhile at the Haynesville Correctional Center. "Samuel Evans, B&B," said a correctional officer with sweat rolling down his face.

Sam heard the announcement while he was playing chess. "What is going on?" He said. The correctional officer arrogantly said, B&B, Bed, and Baggage.

"Where am I going? They don't usually transfer in broad daylight." Sam asked suspiciously.

"Are you going home or not?" The correctional officer asked.

Sam grabbed his state-issued property, mattress, blanket, and sheets. He didn't know what type of stunt was being pulled. He gave all his items he'd just bought from the canteen two days before away. The only thing he kept, was the sweatsuit that he purchased from the J.C. Penney Catalog. The clothes he wore were too small. He'd gained forty pounds, all muscles from working out over the decade he'd been there. He walked through the gates. He saw Mercedes leaning on her black convertible Jaguar waiting for him. The gates shut behind him. He dropped to the ground and started thanking God. He stayed on his knees for ten minutes. Once he finished praising God, he gazed up, and Mercedes was standing right there. He hugged and kissed her. They hopped in her car and drove off.

Mercedes and Sam ended up in D.C. where she was taking him shopping. They enjoyed a quiet lunch together. Mercedes explained to Sam the information that Gloria had produced. "Didn't I tell you that I was going to get you out? It may have taken me a decade, but I came through."

"Just like you always have. Thanks for being there so faithfully for so many years," Sam said kissing Mercedes with a long passionate kiss.

Mercedes felt so complete. She had never felt so comfortable around any man as she had Sam. She loved him wholeheartedly. He loved her completely as well and had the utmost respect for her.

As they ate lunch, they fed each other. Sam gazed into Mercedes eyes. He thought to himself how he wanted to marry her right then and there. He wasn't in the appropriate position that he felt he needed to be in to marry her though. "Mercedes, I am going to marry you in the next few months, but I have one order of unfinished business I have to take care of," Sam explained. She was shocked that Sam had spoken about marriage after he had only been home for a few hours. The reality of it was that Mercedes didn't care what Sam's' financial situation was. She wanted to be his wife. She wanted nothing but to marry this man, to take on his name, to bear his children, and to be with him until death do them part. They were destined. He was her soul mate. She was also alarmed that he said he had some unfinished business to take care of. She was heated.

"What do you mean you have some unfinished business to take care of?"

"It doesn't involve any drugs or anything that will risk me being removed from your life again. Mercedes, I'm never leaving you ever. I've just got to put some things into effect so we can live comfortably.".

His words didn't reassure her though. She had made up in her mind that she wasn't expecting to get married any time soon. She was fully aware that the reality of the situation is that Sam was raised in the streets. He went to college and was the Valedictorian of his high school senior class, but he'd been married to the street life for so many years. She had promised herself that she'd never accepted a hustler into her life again. A hustler had a lot of excess baggage that comes with him: the women, the perks that the hustlers get for having the drugs, the late-night hours, the jealous people, and the haters which could result in kidnappings, robberies, and murder. She couldn't accept any of those things into her life anymore, not even for Sam. She loved him but she loved herself more.

Gloria and Sandra had planned a nice get together for Sam. He was overjoyed that Sandra and Gloria had gone through so much for him, especially Gloria. Gloria was a remarkable woman. He could understand entirely why he loved Mercedes so much. Look at the woman who raised her. He knew Mercedes had doubts of him cheating due to the fact he had been locked up for so long. But the truth was, Sam had done everything that the streets had to offer before he went in. Mercedes proved to be everything he needed, wanted, and desired in a woman. She was truly his very best friend. All he wanted to do was be her Knight in Shining Armor.

As Sam made his rounds around the party, he met the friends that Mercedes had acquired over the years while he was in prison. He also was formally introduced to Larry and Jack. He gave them his eternal thanks for the work they had done on his case.

Gloria presented Sam and Mercedes with the picture, she had taken of them on their first date. She had it painted and framed for them to hang over their fireplace once they were married.

Gloria's restaurant became one of the classiest restaurants in Richmond.

Sam and Mercedes went to Las Vegas, it was their first vacation away from Richmond since he had been home from prison. Sam had arranged everything. On New Year's Eve, early during the day, they were at the Venetian Hotel riding on the gondolas, and the man rowing the boat started singing, "When we get married we'll have a big celebration. There will be dancing and all when we get married." Sam looked into Mercedes eyes and said to her, "Mercedes, I love you so much. What do you think about us just getting married while we're out here?"

Mercedes was speechless as tears of happiness filled her eyes.

Sam wiped her eyes and said, "Listen, baby, I need you to look at me. Look into my eyes."

She looked up at Sam. He was holding an exquisite, platinum solitaire marquise ring with baguettes on each side of the band. The sight of the ring left Mercedes breathless.

Later that night on December 31st at 11:00 p.m., Mercedes and Sam were married at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas on the Eiffel tower. The ceremony was simply beautiful. Sam had surprised Mercedes by flying in the guests in hopes of her accepting his proposal. Gloria gave her away. The wedding was very intimate. Only twenty guests were allowed to attend the wedding. Among the guest, there was one of Sam's guests that Mercedes didn't recognize or had never even seen before for that matter.

The ceremony was over right when the New Year, came in. The fireworks began right after Sam kissed the bride. The timing was perfect. After the ceremony, Sam introduced the arbitrary guest as Rico, an old and devoted friend. The next day Sam and Mercedes got tattoos on their left finger, the wedding bands. Sam explained to Mercedes that the ring finger has the main artery that runs straight to the heart, that was why it was so important for them to get the tattoos there and always wear their wedding rings. Sam even surprised Mercedes with a tattoo on his arm with a heart with Mercedes's name, their wedding date, and a message reading "Death Before Dishonor."

Later that evening, while still in Vegas, Sam met up with Rico while Mercedes was in the Christian Dior store. Rico handed Sam a huge Bellagio shopping bag full of money.

"Congrats on your wedding are in order," said Rico.

"Yeah, thanks, man," Sam said while smiling.

"You've got a good wife, Papi. She loves you!"

"Yeah, I know, man! Look, thanks for everything!"

"Thanks for giving ten years. You could of so easily told, but you didn't." Rico said.

"Thanks for the ultimate get back taking Drew out for all the pain he caused my wife."

"No problem at all, Papi," Rico added. "Just for the record, I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent flowers and a representative."

"This is it for me. I'm through with the drug game and the street lifestyle. I've got my freedom, my wife and I know God. I can't straddle the fence. I'm outta this," Sam said.

"I respect you papi, and can only pray that I retire out of this game before I am killed. I love you, pa, and I hope to be the Godfather of your children." They hugged, patted each other on the back, and went their separate ways.

After 5 years I can finally say that this fic is finished. I appreciate those of you who were patient and gave this one a try. All feedback is greatly appreciated.