Hello again, dear friends, readers and reviewers. It took me a moment to figure out where I wanted to begin the sequel, but I finally came to a decision and I hope that you like it.

The first story, As Far As Eye Can See grew into something that I never imagined when I first began writing it, and due to the fact that racism is based upon looks more than any of the other "reasons" a racist may give and the fact that one of the main characters does not have eyesight, I used the word "Eye", instead of "I" in the title, as a play on words and a metaphor for some content within it.

I decided to do that again with this story: Do You See What Eye See, and I hope that we all can enjoy this journey together as we look at our couple, yet again, this time, with the eyes of the public on them.

The Revenue

While it had been a painful and hard decision to make, ultimately, Mercedes Jones felt slightly relieved after moving out of her apartment on the top floor of Pieces of Mercy, her antiques and gift shop. The apartment became a storage area and the area downstairs became a place for additional parking. The store became quite a popular place in Lima after the rising success of her fiance's biography, the movie adaptation, which would be released in a few months, and a spin off regular series currently in production, but not yet airing. Many times, people simply wanted to come into the building that was spoken of so much during interviews and would be the place that the show's main location was modeled after.

The shop sold the books and sometimes, people simply wanted to take a picture of or with Sam Evans, the real life survivor and one of America's newest favorite protagonists in a story. Which was why moving out of the place was a wonderful change of pace. Sam now had his own money and resources. The first thing that he did when he received his first payment was to write a check to pay back everything that Mercedes had ever helped him out with, including the things that she did for his family, when they were in need. Now, it was his turn to make sure that she was provided for. Sam was able to collect enough money to buy a house for them, with plenty of room for his father, Dwight and sister, Stacie, and the five dogs that they had. Mercedes' seeing-eye dog, Kissy Kissy Bang Bang and her guard dog Clusterfrak, plus his brother Stevie's guard dogs – Bruiser, Crusher, and Smasher.

His publicist, Missy Gunderson seemed to be at his side at all times, which annoyed Mercedes (and Sam a lot of the time), but they allowed it, since it was her doing that Sam was able to finally move towards building a real life for himself, outside of his dreaded past, without feeling like a charity case. Missy was constantly reminding him of certain things and telling him what would be a good thing to say, or as was usually the case – telling him not to say exactly what he was thinking about something. It sometimes amazed him how much politics went into something that should have been as simple as him going out into the world and telling them about his experiences… but Missy insisted that not all things should be shared and that the things that should be shared should be presented in a certain way. It made his head hurt, at times.

Sam spent many nights away from his love and it stressed him out, because it was easier for him to sleep with her with him, and because he had a high level of paranoia over her safety. He believed that things had become much better after the men directly responsible for his young entry into the world of white supremacy had been put into prison, but he always worried that some trickle somewhere might fall on them and that something might happen to her. She really was too good to be true, and he didn't know what he would do if he ever lost her. Mercedes Jones was the beautiful woman and kind soul who took him in, gave him another chance at life when he had not many options. She was gracious towards him, never judged him for his past and ultimately, they fell in love and had to endure hell together, along with their friends.

Now, more than a year after the trial that put Will Schuester in prison and showed the world the brave young man that Sam had become, she was his fiancé and their future looked bright.

Mercedes left out of their home, relishing in the smell of the flowers that Stacie had growing outside as she and the dogs made their trek to the gift shop. That was one significant difference about the new house – it wasn't too close to the shop and she generally had to leave pretty early to get there "on time." She had a wonderful staff that always greeted her with love and she remained highly involved in all of the business dealings, even though she truly did not have to be.

Her store manager, Santana Lopez handled most of the details for her, but was certain to always let her know about decisions. Her purchaser, and assistant manager Lauren Zizes was terribly efficient at the job that Santana used to have and Santana didn't miss it, at all. Then, there was her personal assistant, Stacie Evans, her future sister-in-law, who loved her work so much. She basically got to hang out with her favorite lady when she didn't have classes, read her mail, email, etc, reply accordingly and taxi her around.

Others working at Pieces of Mercy also included the sales specialist, Becky Jackson, who handled special orders, custom gifts and kept up with the high end merchandise upstairs. Brittany S. Pierce worked as a sales floor representative… She basically made sure that in stock items were displayed, set up displays and greeted and helped customers to find what they might need. And the cashiers were a spunky blond woman, trying to get on her feet after a series of bad decisions, named April Rhodes (Mercy sort of had a soft spot for special cases), one of Mercedes' old friends/her old roommate from the institution, Dottie Westerston, and a really nice but sassy and sweet transvestite named Unique.

These ladies worked well together, unlike a lot of places with a lot of cattiness going on… (Because Santana fired catty folks. A few hadn't made it for their messy bull.) Plus, Mercedes historically only hired friends and those in need passing through, so if someone new was going to come in, they had better come in ready to be a part of the team. Tana had no time for fake people. Brittany had made a display on the wall of the POM Girls, and had photos of each member of staff, with their job title beneath it. She decorated the wall in pink and glitter and unicorns. Santana loved her and let her get away with it, but she was really glad that Mercedes couldn't see that mess.

Mercedes liked to walk to work. It made up for the fact that she no longer had daily jogging dates with her best friend, Quinn Fabray. A lot had happened between Quinn and the others during the ordeal, and while it was all forgiven now; Quinn had a very rewarding job that she was excellent at – bossing people around in an intelligent manner and basically telling them how they ought to run their businesses, so she didn't have a reason to return as the store manager of POM. She loved it and it fit her well, as well as gave her a healthy alternative to being the control freak that her friends had always reminded her that she was. Yet, Quinn always made time to pick up Mercedes for lunch and meet with their other best friend, Tina Cohen-Chang, whose wedding the three were currently planning.

"I think that is an awful idea, Tina," Quinn commented, about something in regards to the planning.

"You think that all of the ideas that you didn't come up with are awful," Tina retorted, giving her an annoyed look. Quinn nodded, in agreement, with a proud face.

Mercedes simply snickered. "This is exactly why I'm not letting Quinn anywhere near the planning of my wedding," she told them.

Quinn scoffed and said, "I wouldn't even want to be involved in that!" But when she saw the frown on Mercedes' face, reached over to stroke her hand, "You know I love you and Sam is the guy for you, but I seriously do not appreciate the representation of us from what I've seen of the movie. I thought that he and I were better than that, now."

"You did attempt to let him be killed," Tina reminded her.

"Yes, but it was never malicious. I never was like that bleached blond portrayal that is now gracing the covers of magazines for the anticipation of her playing me, and she's signed on to play me in the series, as well. I wonder what they'll do in the show, since it's obvious that in the movie, I am going to be nothing but the traitor bitch. And yes, I was a traitor bitch, but it was circumstantial and I was desperate. Did you see the clip of the conversation that I supposedly had with my father about Sam? The dialogue actually has my character saying, 'I don't care what it takes, I want that bastard gone.' I never said anything like that about him. I had to be coaxed into agreeing."

Tina shrugged her shoulders and said, "That's something you'll just have to deal with for even becoming traitor bitch, in the first place. And that Kitty woman is a very good actress. This is her first big break, but I think that she'll be great – even if her character doesn't reach beyond that of traitor bitch."

"And what about you - unnecessarily angry woman of color?" Quinn asked. "It's like all your character seems to do from what I've seen is attack Sam at every turn and tell Mercedes why she shouldn't be with him. I don't know, maybe I missed something, but I seem to remember you warning her about him once in the beginning, then not bothering with that issue again, because you had said your peace!"

"The difference is that I don't care how they've portrayed me. You act like movies that are inspired by true events are true stories. They aren't. They take the basic model of the story and fill it in with whatever they find entertaining." Tina shrugged her shoulders and said, "I'm not even going to watch that movie."

Mercedes spoke up now and asked, "You aren't? But, what about the premiere in Los Angeles? You aren't coming?"

"Yes… and after I've had the chance to meet some stars and get some autographs, I'm ducking the hell out. I've already lived that shit. I don't need to see a movie that's going to cause me to relive it."

"I doubt that you'll have that problem, because the movie is not about what we went through. The movie is about Sam and how he's some majestic goddamned hero who saved all of us from our shit existence when he did everything in the world to get the big bad wolf off of our doorsteps. I shiver to think of how Matt might be portrayed," Quinn complained.

"Matt isn't even in the movie," Mercedes said.

Now, Tina asked, "WHAT?"

"There was this huge legal battle between his lawyers and the production company about misrepresentation, since Matt's now a public figure. The studio had to pull the Matt character out and replace him with another black antagonist."

"Why is he an antagonist in the first place, though?" Tina asked. "Hell, why can't it be like the book?"

"Matt is the antagonist in the book," Quinn said. "Didn't you read it?"

"NO!" Tina said, "I already lived that shit. I don't need to read a book that's going to cause me to relive it, but Sam helped to write the book, so I presumed that Matt's nature would be accurately accounted for in it."

Quinn said, "Basically, Sam has been given a lot of money to make the rest of us look like we aren't worth a damn and he's perfectly reformed and never ever wrong."

Mercedes defended, "That's not what he did. Yeah, the book comes across that way in certain places, but that was all Missy's doing. They have an image that they want to present of Sam, as a reformed man." Quinn and Tina both gave each other frowning looks and Mercedes could practically feel the side eye from the two of them. "It isn't his fault. He doesn't have the control over all of it that you guys seem to think."

"I think that he could have come across still as a good guy, if they even let him keep the flaws that Sam Evans actually has – like a horrible temper, a jealous heart, and unrealistic hopes and dreams," Quinn criticized. "I mean, I think that it would have been good for the audience to experience that he did slip out some racist comments a few times, some unaware, at least one slur that he intended to hurt Puck with. I mean – they never tell you that when he first came around that he called Kurt the F word. They never tell you that he asked Sunshine what she was and didn't even know where the Philippines were. They never tell you that he himself has admitted that he is afraid that he might slip up and say something that might hurt Mercy, because of his past programming."

"I'm with Tina, on the whole it's not exactly real life thing. Expect fantasy in any movie, even ones based on true stories," Mercedes said.

"I don't know, Cedes… I'm kind of leaning towards agreeing with Q, now that she's explained it. Goodness. So, how is Mercedes portrayed?" Tina now wondered.

Quinn laughed and shook her head, "As a catalyst for Sam and not even an individual identity. It's like her main purpose in life is to tell everyone that Sam has changed and to love him no matter what while he's been the sacrificial hero that nobody else understands or cares about."

"God, Quinn, enough! You hate the book and you'll hate the movie. We get it. Can we all move on? I thought this was a wedding planning lunch," Mercedes complained.

Things had been that way for a few months, now. After the release of the book, many of their friends got upset or felt cheated in how they were depicted, if they were depicted, at all.

Shane's appearance included him beating Sam senseless, being face to face to talk to him and telling him that he could not forgive him… None of his future endeavors at making peace, none of his assistance in the efforts against the enemy, nothing else worthy was mentioned, not even the fact that he helped to take care of Sam's sister, out of the goodness of his heart. Joe's character had not even been spoken of. Missy insisted that Joe's character would take away from the Sam character and when Sam was irate about the fact that Joe had not been included, she told him, "Anything that you want to add into your story, you'll be able to include in a few years when you release your autobiography. This book is a biography. That means that it isn't written from your viewpoint, but from the author's and the author sees you as a true hero."

The book left no room for Artie or Becky, except for mentioning that Sam would be sweet to them when they were around, blah, blah… The friendship that Sam had with Lauren somehow became her being in love with him from afar and never telling him. The friendship that he had with Tina was reduced to him working with her for the greater good and her feeling obligated to work along with him. But what really pissed Sam off, as far as characterization was concerned was his portrayal of his family… They were all depicted as victims. Every. Last. One… Including Mary. Her "rape" was never issued as a lie and her death was seen as heroic and loving, and was spun to be a central portion of Sam making sure that he took down the enemy.

Mercedes spent many nights trying to soothe him over for his displeasure with how the book had treated their friends. Sam felt guilty and insecure. He thought that they would blame him for it. They were upset at first, but Mercedes explained it to them exactly how Missy had explained it and made sure to emphasize that Sam had no control over it. Tina couldn't care less, because she was not into that fandom, anyway. Joe was very understanding about it, but the others had some issues with getting over it, even if they weren't mad at Sam.

Kurt told her, "It's just that everyone was a hero in their own rite. Everyone certainly went through terrible nights and had to come out stronger. It's a tragedy to downplay anyone's involvement and a greater wrong to play up someone else's. Sam is a hero. We all know it, but we all know that he didn't do what he did alone."

Stacie finished up some homework in the cash office, at the desk while she waited on Quinn to come back with Mercedes. They were going to be going by the community center that Shane owned to spend time with the children and she could hardly wait! Her favorite part of the week was going to the community center. When she heard Mercedes, Quinn and Tina's voices laughing and talking about how soon they needed to get together for late night crème brulee cheesecake bars and vanilla cream lattes, she practically came running out of the backroom.

For one thing, she wanted to make sure that she hugged Tina and made plans to get with her on the flowers for her wedding. They were going to go to a fancy botanical garden, for Tina to make her selections; then Stacie was going to challenge herself to grow whatever the bride wanted, which was cheaper than ordering them, and to Stacie – much more fun. For another thing, she was ready to hightail it to the center.

Stacie hugged Tina and they began to talk, and Mercedes was in the conversation as well. Quinn pretty much shied away, as she generally did when Stacie came into the picture. The young lady did not like her, before, and after the release of the book, Stacie had become noticeably adverse to the older woman. The book did nothing to convince her otherwise and she would probably never be able to look at her without seeing the woman that could have and would have had her brother killed. She prayed about forgiveness every single day… but she knew that it could take a while… a long while… she glanced at Quinn and forced a smile, "Hello, Miss. Fabray," she said.

Quinn was the only person in Mercedes' life that she addressed that way. She even called April, a woman old enough to be her mother, April (because April insisted), but Quinn was always Ms. Fabray. "Hi, Stacie. How's college going?"

"It's good. Tina's got me in a similar practice as the one that you had when you worked here full time and also worked on getting your business degree."

"And you're majoring in plant sciences, correct?" Quinn asked, their conversation stilted and obviously tense.

"Mmhmm. I've always loved plants, picking flowers, climbing trees, laying in the grass, and I do a lot of gardening, but with this major, I can do a lot of good in the world. Everything is becoming so technological and synthetic. Hopefully, we'll be able to preserve the plant life that we now have, as well as produce more healthy and nutritious food, enough to help feed the hungry and just… a lot of other great things that we can do – trying to make sterile environments able to sustain plant life for expanded growth and investigating new methods of fighting diseases. God has given us a cure for or help with everything in plants, I think. I think that we just have to find them."

"Sounds like noble work," Quinn said and glanced at her phone for the time. "I have to get back to the office. I have a couple of appointments this afternoon," she told Tina and Mercedes before hugging and kissing them each goodbye and Tina left shortly after her.

"Is it time to go to the community center, yet?" Stacie wondered.

"Yes, it is. Just let me get the dogs," Mercedes said.

They arrived at the center while Joe was seated in front of the children, playing his guitar and singing, "All my life, I have been called unworthy. Named by the voice of my shame and regret. But when I hear you whisper, 'child lift up your head,' I remember oh God, you're not done with me yet. I am redeemed. You set me free. So I'll shake off these heavy chains. Wipe away every stain. Now I'm not who I used to be. I am redeemed. I'm redeemed…" She leaned against the wall and rocked with her eyes closed, just enjoying his voice. She couldn't tell you that the song was called Redeemed by someone called Big Daddy Weave. All that she knew was how much she loved to hear Joe sing, especially within his element – Christian songs.

Her eyes opened and she stared at him, strumming the instrument and singing with such passion that she thought she might cry. His voice was so beautiful. Shoot, he was beautiful. Funny enough, only Tina and Santana knew the real truth – Stacie had become noticeably adverse to Quinn when she found out that Quinn and Joe used to sort of have a thing. And that came about after Joe overheard her make a comment about Quinn to Sam and Joe, in all his wonderful, judge not glory, tried to speak up for the woman and explain to Stacie that Quinn was simply misunderstood and had needed professional help when she did what she did to Sam.

Stacie didn't understand why such a sweet person would have wasted his time on someone like Quinn, who she was still convinced was probably rotten to the core. But, she didn't want to think about that, right now. It was only right to simply focus in and listen when Joe was blessing someone with song. He ended it with a soft, "Thank you," and the children clapped for him.

Joe smiled at Stacie and Mercedes and announced to the children, "And now, the moment that you've all been waiting for…" The children turned around and saw Mercedes and rushed to tackle her with hugs and kisses. Stacie moved aside and allowed them to take her sister as Joe got up from his chair and placed his guitar strap around himself. He walked over to her and greeted her with a hug, "Hello, Stace-Face." The two of them had gotten used to each other during the process of Sam helping his father to rebuild their family. Joe would come over once a week to join in a prayer circle with them, and he was something like Sam's spiritual advisor, even though Sam was a little older than him.

"Hey, Joe-Yo," she said and tried not to look too starry eyed as she looked up at him. "Great song and beautifully performed, as usual."

"Thank you. I credit God for the gift of music and I'm that he uses me for the purpose of spreading his message through it."

"Amen," she said and nodded. "Is Artie around?"

"He's out with Shane getting some things for the winter festival dance. It's going to be a sock hop."

"Well, you should feel right at home, because you're always going barefoot," she commented.

"Yeah," he said with a smile and wiggled his toes. "Straight up barefoot, though. I don't do that silly sock business." Stacie laughed a little, then a child ran right into her and attacked her with a huge hug. "Hey you!" She said to the kid, picked her up, threw her over her shoulder and began to tickle her. Joe smiled at this, then left the ladies to entertain the children in whatever way they would see fit as he headed towards his office. He didn't notice Stacie trying to pretend to walk away. He never really noticed that.

Sam sighed and tried not to fall asleep as Missy continuously complained about some questions that one of the audience members of a talk show was asking Sam. "I know that Matt Rutherford is responsible for that line of questioning! I know that you and he have an understanding with each other. You need to tell him to back off!" She complained.

"If you ever listened to anything that I've ever said, you would know that Matt doesn't back off. If he believes in something, he's willing to fight. It's one of his most admirable traits – you know – those admirable traits that were completely left out of his character in the book?"

"Well, he certainly seems to be acting just like he does in the book!" She whined.

"I'm still confused as to why you think that every critic was sent by Matt," Sam said, strumming his fingers across the cover of his now filled up journal that he still brought everywhere with him. He had another for journaling, but he still never went a step without the first one.

"He has been criticizing the book since the release," she said. "Even if he didn't send people, it's definitely his influence that has them second guessing. He picked the book apart like he was going to teach a college course on discrepancies or something!"

"Think maybe the book shouldn't have enough discrepancies for that kind of dissection?" Sam asked.

"I think that people need to just suck it up and resign themselves to the fact that YOU are the interesting one. You are the one that America loves. You are the face that people want to see. They all want to hug you. They empathize with you. They feel you. The others need to simply admit that they aren't as marketable or popular."

"When we first began this thing, you told me that you wanted the world to know my story… but you've just made up the story…"

"I didn't make up anything," she corrected him. "The book was written from the perspective of an author that admires you and it highlights your qualities without focusing on your limited shortcomings. But, it doesn't lie. Now, the movie is something else, because we gave up the story to creative freedom, but we did advise them and they are not allowed to sully you for shock value. You are a treasure among other mere common coins… Maybe you should resign yourself to that."

"All that I'm resigning myself to is making sure I have all of my notes squared away for writing my autobiography. I still believe that the world should hear the real story. Nothing sugarcoated or exaggerated for my name's sake."

"See? That's another example of how noble you are," she said and rubbed his leg, gently. "People will love you even more when that happens."

"Only people I care about loving me are my family, friends and future wife," he said. Missy lifted an eyebrow and nodded her head, then looked out of the window.

"And they do," she told him. "But America loves you too, and I'll do whatever it takes to keep it that way. It's my job and my pleasure."