A/N: This one is a bit longer than usual, I hope you don't mind. Another one of my favorites, the story line was so fun to play around with! I hope you like it! Let me know!
Emily had it all figured out, her plan was brilliant. She'd give the kids an assignment but it would just be an excuse for her to sing Sam the song she was planning on singing. Then, all the memories from that time when they were together and happy would resurface and she'd ask him out — with all the letters just as Ms. Fabray had asked of her — and he'd say yes and they'd finally be back together and she'd finally have her shit at a happily ever after.
But first, she needed a cup of tea from the Lima Bean for the nerves. No, they weren't nerves from her plan regarding Sam — she was actually very confident in all of that — but that week, one of the judges from the panel of the National Cheerleading competition from that year would be checking in with her and the squad that week to see if they met all the criteria to qualify for competition. They were all very basic, really: all the students on the squad needed to have a good average score in school, no use of illicit substances was allowed, the kids weren't allowed to drink, or smoke... Stuff like that. Stuff that Emily always made sure none of her kids was involved with so she wasn't too worried. Still, she couldn't help but feel some nerves boiling up inside of her and she really hoped that the dose of caffeine she got from the Lima Bean would be enough to push her through this day so she could do everything she was planning on doing for herself and her team that week.
***
Sam lifted his eyes from his files as soon as he heard a knock on the door.
"Hey, Mr. Evans... Are you busy?"
"Not really." Sam shook his head then, smiling a bit as he pointed at the chair in front of him. "Come on in, Luke. Take a seat."
Luke smiled back at the teacher then, stepping inside his office and pulling out the chair for him.
"How can I help you, Luke?" Sam asked then, as the boy in front of him shrugged quietly, probably struggling to come up with the right words to say whatever it was that was bothering him.
Sam watched him carefully, silently waiting for him to speak up and, after about two minutes, he finally did.
"So, hum... Claire and I... We're kind of dating, I guess?"
"Kind of dating?" Sam asked then, before widening his eyes just slightly. "Is this you asking me advice for some kind of not exclusive but not not-exclusive type of relationship? Cause I'm literally the last person you should ask advice for in this."
"What? No." Luke shook his head with a frown. "What's a not-not exclusive relationship?"
"Forget I ever said that." Sam shrugged, slightly embarrassed. "Just, hum... Tell me what seems to be the problem."
"It's just... So Claire and I are kind of a thing, but she's never been in a relationship before so she asked me to take it slow with her and I am. But then the other day we were in her house and we were watching a movie and stuff and it's great, but then suddenly we're making out and I just put a hand on her thigh but then she freaks out and kicks me out of the house and she won't answer my calls or my texts and she won't talk to me. I just... i just wanted to apologize cause I never meant to make her uncomfortable or anything, but I how can I do that if she won't listen to me?"
Sam blinked a bit at that, surprised at just how much Luke had just shared and unsure on how to react at all, but after processing everything for a second or two, he started talking.
"Okay, hum... So, there's actually a whole lot to unpack here so... Let's take it easy, okay?" Sam asked then, as Luke nodded, taking a deep breath as he apologized quietly. "First of all... It's great that you're taking it slow with her as she asked and, I know you will, but I just feel the need to stress this... Respect her boundaries, okay? It might seem difficult sometimes — most times — but it's the right thing to do."
"I know." Luke nodded as Sam smiled.
"Good, now. About what happened..." The man said, trying to come up with the right words to say what he wanted to say without messing it up. "You said it yourself. It's Claire's first ever relationship so everything is kind of new to her. And she is a more private kind of girl so she'll need a little more time to adjust to everything. So just... Go on her pace and next time you want to try something new, just try and ask her first if she's comfortable. How does that sound?"
"Yeah." Luke nodded again. "Yeah, okay. Yeah, I can do that."
"Good. Now, about her not listening to you... She's probably just a bit embarrassed. Give her a little time so she can feel safe and comfortable around you again. But if I could give you some advice... You're both in glee club. Just sing about it."
At that, Luke's whole face lit up and he smiled, nodding along feverishly as Sam just chuckled quietly.
"That's genius, Mr. Evans! Thanks!"
And as he watched Luke rush out of his office with a wave in his direction, Sam shook his head with a smile. As soon as the boy was out, however, Sam's eyes fell on the clock over his desk and he gasped, quickly getting up from his chair as he picked up his files and started to make his way out of the office too.
"Shit..." He mumbled, realizing he was, for the first time, late for his Monday morning meetings with Emily in the teacher's lounge. As soon as he got there, however, he realized she hadn't even noticed. "Hi, hum... I'm sorry."
"Sam! Hi!" She greeted him, excitedly, smiling brightly at him when she spun around from where she had been standing by the coffee machine. "You okay? Did you have a good weekend? What did you say you're sorry for?"
"Hum... Being late?" He frowned, confused, not just because he knew how much Emily didn't like being kept waiting but also, because the woman had never been a morning person at all and seeing her so hyped over absolutely nothing was kind of scaring him a little.
"Oh, no worries. I was actually just looking through the biscuits that the school puts out for us every morning and they changed it. The sweet one used to be like a chocolate-y thing but today they have ones with some kind of strawberry filling and sugar over it. It's actually really good, though I do prefer the chocolate ones. Oh, but you should try one!"
Sam frowned, absolutely shocked. That was definitely not the Emily he was used to. Sure, she looked the same but she was acting like a child in some kind of sugar induced high and Sam wasn't sure how much he actually liked that. Still, he let her grab one of the biscuits she was telling him about before skipping — literally skipping — over to him and grabbing his hand as she guided him to sit down on a chair. Emily sat down beside him too, shoving the biscuit in Sam's hand as she bounced a bit in her seat.
"Also, I have the most brilliant idea for glee club, do you want to hear it?" She asked, and even before Sam could even respond, she continued talking. "So, we call it Throwback so the kids can go through songs that they like that aren't necessarily current, you know? I guess they'll choose some songs from the 2000's cause that's probably old for them which is probably gonna make us feel old, but I feel like we could work with some interesting songs if we do like a throwback time or something. Or maybe just for fun, I don't know. I just feel like it would be cool. What do you think? Oh, and the cookie... Did you like it? It's good, right? I thought you'd like it cause it's strawberry and you love strawberry, but I also know you don't like sweets that much, so I was worried with all the sugar and..."
"Yeah, yeah, the cookie is great." Sam interrupted Emily's ramblings, still slightly worried about her as he squinted his eyes, analyzing her whole face for any sign of what could possibly be wrong with her. "And your idea for glee is good too. We... We can definitely do it. But..."
"Great! Because I was thinking, we could..."
"Em, darling wait..." Sam interrupted her again. "Stop talking for a bit."
"Oh, hum... Sorry..."
"It's okay." Sam smiled gently, grabbing Emily's hands over the table. "I'm just... Worried. Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yeah, why?" She frowned, her eyes widening as she gasped. "Do I not look okay? Is it my face? I swear I've been trying to sleep more but I guess the bag under my eyes are still very bad, right? Or is it something else? I don't..."
"No, no, no... Em, stop, no. It's not your face. You look beautiful as always." Sam chuckled then, placing his hands on both of Emily's cheeks to get her to look at him. He frowned when he felt how hot she felt under his skin. "Em, are you sure you're okay?"
Emily nodded then, gulping quietly as she stared at Sam's worried green eyes, glued to her brown ones. She smiled a bit at the frown on his face and reached a hand over to rub her thumb over his forehead.
"I promise, Sam. I'm okay. But thank you for worrying." She smiled, the speed of her speech slowing down for a second until her eyes left Sam's and found the clock on the wall behind her. Just like that, her sugar rush came back full force as she jumped up from her seat. "I gotta go now, though. I have to practice with my girls for the Cheerios. I'll see you at glee. Have a nice day!"
And when she leaned down to press a quick kiss to Sam's lips before skipping out of the room with her files in one arm and her cup of coffee in the other, Sam just stared at a wall wide eyed because, it wasn't that he didn't like it, but that Emily he had seen that morning was, most definitely, not his Emily.
***
Emily was still acting weird, Sam thought. Talking faster and too much, her voice sounded more high pitched than usual, her focus all over the place and her hands and legs just couldn't stop shaking for whatever reason and, as much as during lunch break when Sam had gone to check on her, she had seemed a bit better, now, two o'clock in the afternoon that Monday, she just seemed... Wrong again.
So Sam had taken it upon himself to do the speaking, mostly that day. And Emily didn't complain, choosing to, instead, sit beside Sam as he explained to them the Throwback theme of the week while trying with everything she had to not bounce her leg too much.
"Mr. Evans?" Chloe called, raising her hand as soon as Sam was done explaining the assignment.
"Yes, Chloe?"
"Tabatha and I have this number that we sing since we are young and I think it fits the assignment just fine." She said, as Tabatha blushed a bit when Mason spun around in his seat to look at her. "Do you think we could show it to everybody?"
"Of course." Sam smiled, extending a hand to Emily to help her up from the bench so they could sit down with the rest of the children instead to watch the performance. "The floor is yours, girls."
And so Emily and Sam sat down, smiling as soon as the familiar beats of Walking on sunshine started to play. It was the middle of the performance, as the two girls danced and sang, that realization hit Emily square in the face and she gasped, so loud that, beside her, Sam frowned, turning to look at her.
"You okay?" He whispered, as Emily nodded, her eyes glossy and unfocused as she kept staring at Chloe and Tabatha but paid their performance no attention.
"I, hum... I gotta talk to you when this is over."
***
As soon as glee was over, for the first time ever, Sam and Emily were the first ones out of the room. Tugging Emily by the hand, Sam walked out of the choir room with her, walking down the hallway so the two of them could talk without any of the children to interrupt them. As soon as they were out of sight, Sam stopped and turned around so he was looking at Emily, his creased forehead letting the woman know Sam was all worried about her all over again.
"What happened?" He asked her, and, blinking a few times, Emily tried to bring Sam's face back on focus again.
"What were the signs that gave away to you that I was different today?"
"You were... You were talking more than usual. And faster... And you didn't seem to focus on anything and everything amused somehow..."
"Oh my God..." Emily mumbled, the pieces starting to fit together but still not making that much sense anyway. "Sam, I think I'm high."
"W-what?" Sam choked, surprised. After all, of everything he thought Emily could possibly tell him now, being high had never even been an option in the first place. "What do you mean?"
"Freshman year... The girls and I took some medicine from Mr. Schue's ex-wife and she said it was just vitamin but turns out it had a composition of meth or something, I don't know..." She mumbled, trying to make sense of everything going through her head. "I don't... It was a trip, I don't know... Point is, we all took it, but I guess I'm a lightweight and it affected me a lot. Just like that... I talked too fast, I talked too much, I had a fever afterwards..."
"So... What are you saying?" Sam frowned, shocked by the story as a whole but deciding to let it go for the sake of his own sanity. "You're high? How?"
"I don't know." Emily shook her head. "I... I don't know. But we have to go talk to Mr. Schue, I have... Actually, no I can't talk to Mr. Schue, what am I gonna say? That I came to work high off my ass? I can't do that, but then... I need help, I don't, I don't..."
"Em, Em, Em..." Sam shook his head with a smile, grabbing her face in between his hands again. "Let's talk to Mr. Schue. If he's seen you like this already, he'll know what to do, right?"
"Right." Emily nodded. "Right, right, right, let's go."
Sam smiled, then, grabbing Emily's hand as he made his way with her through the hallways of the school and toward the Principal's office. As soon as they walked down the stairs, however, they knew something was wrong because, not only was Mr. Schue's chair turned the other way so the back of it was the only visible part of it through the glass doors of the office, but, reunited by the door were Mr. Schue, Ms. Pillsbury and coach Beiste, clearly trying to open the door.
"What happened?" Sam asked, as soon as the two younger teachers approached them.
"I don't know." Mr. Schue shrugged. "I was out of this office for five minutes and when I came back, it was locked from the inside."
"And you can't open it?" Emily asked.
"No."
"But how..."
"Out of the way, bitches!"
At the sound of her voice, Emily gasped, turning around just in time to see Becky Jackson herself walking through everyone as they all stared at her in a mixture of shock and disbelief as the young woman pulled out a key from the office to open the door as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Emily widened her eyes then, but before she could even say anything about that, Becky unlocked the door and spun in her heel to look at Emily straight in the eye.
"Vice President Sylvester wants to see you, Marshall."
And as soon as the words left her lift, Emily groaned, throwing her head back as she finally understood everything. Sue Sylvester was back at McKinley and on the same day she was drugged? There was only one explanation for it and it definitely had something — well, everything — to do with Sue Sylvester herself. Sending Sam and Mr. Schue a look, Emily sighed heavily, fixing her loose ponytail in her head before following Becky inside.
"No-Boobs McGhee!" Sue smirked, spinning around in Mr. Schue's chair as she leaned back into it, placing her feet up on his desk. "Long time no see! Actually, I did see you, in some of your performances for the professional teams you worked for and you were... Well, you were decent there. Definitely better than any of those other girls who were never trained by me but still, just okay."
"Sue..."
"In any case... I thought you'd be there in the professional teams for a while, but then, word got to me that, instead, you chose to came back to this hell hole of a town to train the Cheerios in this High School Musical wannabe place instead of shining in the football fields where you belong."
"It's what I've always wanted to do." Emily protested as Sue scoffed, still sat in Mr. Schue's chair as the Principal and all the other teachers stood a few feet behind Emily as she confronted her ex-coach. Sam could see Emily's hands were shaking, if from the drugs in her system or from rage, he wasn't entirely sure.
"It's honorable. Your wish to teach children, I'll give you that." Sue shrugged, getting up from Mr. Schue's chair and walking around his desk to lean against it as she talked. "But see, ever since I've left this place, I've been making every single Cheerios' coach life a living hell. It all started with me just trying to annoy the living hell out of Roz Washington. She lasted a whole year, which is impressive, but after the rush I've experienced after pushing her so far off the edge that she quit, I just couldn't stop. So, there I was, making every cheer coach's life in here miserable just so I could get the satisfaction of watching them resign, forcing William to scramble around for a new coach every other month and maintain my post as the only cheerleading coach to ever have seven consecutive National championships. So... You could imagine my pain when I heard that my next target would have been Ms. Emily Marshall herself."
"Yeah, I can imagine..." Emily rolled her eyes, annoyed.
"You hurt me, No-Boobs McGhee..." Sue placed a hand over her chest as if her heat hurt. Or as if she actually had a heart to begin with. When Emily rolled her eyes, however, Sue smirked and decided to drop her act. "In any case... I'd definitely stop drinking that mango juice you've brought for lunch."
"How did you do it?" Emily asked then, her eyebrow furrowing as she frowned, confused on how Sue had pulled this whole thing off and hurt that she'd even do that in the first place. Especially to her. "How did you spike my drink? And whatever did you put in it?"
"Well, I went undercover in the Lima Bean this morning and made sure your early morning black tea with no cream and no sugar was made by me." Sue shrugged as if it was nothing. "As for your juice, you should ask Becky, but you should start considering not leaving the windows of your office open when you're not around."
"You're crazy." Emily spat, clearly annoyed. "But your plan won't work. Mr. Schue won't fire me for having my drinks spiked today. Especially considering you admitted to it in front of him."
"Oh, you see, but getting you fired was never the plan to begin with." Sue shrugged, extending a hand toward Becky as the girl placed a small box in the older woman's hand. "Because, as I've heard... This week one of the judges from Nationals was supposed to come around and see your squad. So, I've pulled a few strings with Mr. President himself and managed to get the most by-the-book of the judges in this year's panel to come by today. However, if they see something suspicious, they are allowed — and required — to run some tests. Now, it won't be good for the team to have their coach of all people with enormous amounts of pseudoephedrine in her system right? Because as far as a very quick research in google can tell us, that is one of the main components of methamphetamine."
At that, Emily frowned.
"What?"
"Welp... Good luck explaining that one for the judge, No-Boobs McGhee." Sue shrugged, throwing the box in her hands at Emily as she nodded at Becky to follow her out of the room. Passing by Mr. Schue, Sue smirked again. "William."
Mr. Schue just rolled his eyes then, watching as both, Sue and Becky walked out of his office.
"See you later, whores!" Becky called out and, before any of them could even react to that, they all turned to Emily when she crumbled in one of Mr. Schue's sofas, sniffling slightly as she tried not to cry.
"That's it. I'm done." She whimpered, turning the so familiar box of the very same "Vitamin D" Terri Schuester had given her and the rest of the girls in her freshman year. "The judge's gonna come and they're gonna notice and they'll test me and the whole squad is out of the competition... I've lost everything, Sam... Everything..."
And as soon as the first sob got past her lips, Sam wasted no time in rushing toward Emily and wrapping her in his arms as she cried, rocking her slightly from side to side.
"We'll figure something out, Em..." He whispered, exchanging worried looks with the three older teachers in the room, who sighed at the scene in front of him. "I promise, darling, we'll figure something out."
***
"Oh, I'm so glad you came..." Luke sighed in relief as soon as the door of the auditorium opened and Claire walked inside, a small smile on her lips. "I was worried you wouldn't."
"Well, considering I got a text from my boyfriend saying auditorium, now!, I figured it was going to be important."
Luke smiled then, happy to hear Claire calling him her boyfriend. Extending a hand toward her he grinned when Claire shook her head but walked toward him anyway, grabbing his hand in hers and allowing him to pull her up on the stage.
"Before you do anything... I have something to say." She said, and nodding at her, Luke let her know he was listening. "I'm sorry I've been ignoring you those last few days. I just... I just freaked out a bit and got a bit embarrassed. So I just... I just kind of didn't want to see you, but I'm not mad at you or anything, I just... It's just..."
Luke smiled then, leaning down toward Claire and kissing her gently to stop her from talking.
"I understand." He nodded. "And it's totally okay for you to not feel comfortable with something I do. And I promise I'll do better from now on. Promise to always ask you for permission and to never pressure you into anything. But in return, I want you to promise me that you'll never keep anything to yourself, okay, babe? Because I need you to tell me if anything I do makes you sad or upset or nervous or anything... You need to tell me. Promise?"
"Promise." Claire smiled, leaning her forehead up against Luke's as he smiled.
"Good, now let me show you why I called you here." He said, stepping away from Claire just a bit as the girl giggled when the lights of the stage turned up and she saw the band there. "So, this week's assignment is throwback, right? So I've decided to give you a throwback to one of your favorite eras of music."
"Oh my God! Are you doing Disco?" Claire squealed in delight as Luke nodded. "But you hate Disco."
"But I love you." He shrugged, before turning to the band and nodding before grabbing Claire and pulling her closer to him as they danced around the stage together. "Hit it."
Here in your arms I found my paradise
My only chance for happiness
And if I lose you now, I think I would die
Oh, say you'll always be my baby, we can make it shine
We can take forever, just a minute at a time
***
Emily had thrown away her whole lunch, unsure of what in there was actually spiked or not. As she paced around in her office, Sam watched her with soft eyes, realizing there was not much he could possibly do help. She was stressed and the drug was still acting up on her, so she could not figure out how to stop moving. Or how to stop talking for that matter.
"I don't know what to do. The judge's gonna notice..." Emily stressed as she pulled her hair and picked on her fingernails, in front of Sam. "I mean, look at me. I can't stop shaking. I can't stop moving. I can't stop talking... I can't act normal, Sam, and they're gonna notice and I'm gonna blow this whole thing up for the squad and I... Oh my God, the scholarships for some of my seniors? The whole reputation of the Cheerios is at stake... Can you imagine the scandal when people hear that the coach of the Cheerios uses meth? Oh, Sam... What the hell do I do?"
"Em, I... I'm so sorry..." Sam sighed, unsure of what else to say. Still, he got up from his seat in one of Emily's chair as he walked toward her and held her still for a second as her teary eyes finally looked up to look at his. "But you need to breathe, okay? Just breathe for a second and maybe the shaking will stop. Come on, Em... Just breathe with me. Easy, come on..."
So Emily followed his lead, breathing in and out slowly, in hopes of, at least, try and get her body to stop moving too much. When that didn't work, however, and there was a knock on her door, Emily almost burst out into tears.
"Fuck..." She mumbled under her breath, stepping away from Sam and toward her door as she smiled at the woman standing just outside of it. "Hello, how can I help you?"
"My name's Danielle Summers, from the Cheerleading National Championship." The woman introduced herself, raising an eyebrow over her black rimmed glasses, noticing the way Emily kept bouncing just barely in the balls of her feet. "I came for Ms. Emily Marshall."
"That's me." Emily said, biting her tongue to avoid talking too much and extending her hand out, hoping the way it shook wasn't as visible as she thought it was. "That's, hum... That's me. Emily. It's, hum... Nice to meet you."
"A pleasure." The woman nodded, clearly unimpressed. "So... Can you show me your gym?"
"Of course." Emily nodded quickly, looking over her shoulder at Sam and smiling when he nodded at her, encouragingly. "Sure, hum... I can definitely show it you, sure. If you just... If you just follow me, Ms. Summers, I can... I can definitely show you the gym."
And as Sam watched Emily walk out of the room opening and closing her hands in fists, he knew she was struggling. And judging by the face in Danielle Summers' face, she could, most definitely, see it as well.
***
Emily had never felt that humiliated in her whole life. Having to hear Danielle Summers asking her what kind of substance was she under in front of the whole squad, almost crying as soon as the woman asked for a doping test to be done on her and having to swear over anything that it wasn't what she was thinking and that her squad was clean was so demeaning that she had stayed inside in her house and not getting out for a whole day after that.
Thankfully, just in time, Sam Evans had stepped up and saved the day like no one else but him could do. After convincing Danielle to take the conversation somewhere more private, he had also managed to persuade her to test Emily and all of the squad and, if none of the kids in the cheer team had anything in their system, he'd promised he'd step up as their coach for Nationals while Emily stepped down from the team entirely, for as long as Summers thought she should.
"I'll even take the test too." Sam had offered causing Emily's heart to melt, fully aware of how much Sam hated having his blood taken. "Just... Don't take the chances from these kids to compete for something completely out of their control. And don't... Please don't punish Ms. Marshall too much. She lives and breathes that team and none of this was her fault."
Somehow, after explaining the whole Sue Sylvester situation, Summers had given in and allowed Sam to step up as an honorary coach for the Cheerios if Emily stepped down from the position for the rest of the year. Emily had agreed to those terms, knowing that was the only shot she'd have if she wanted her kids to compete, but she'd cried. As soon as Summers had left, she'd cried. As Sam took her home after, she'd cried. Before falling asleep that night, she'd cried. During most of the next day that Mr. Schue had kindly given her off, she'd cried. And again, during the night, she'd cried. But when she woke up the next day, she hadn't cried anymore. Instead, she felt angry and, after walking into the school and asking — well, actually demanding — Sue Sylvester to meet her at McKinley's auditorium, she stood there, up on the stage with her arms crossed in front of her chest as she glared daggers at Sue.
The woman sat down in the audience beside Becky, smirking up at a very angry Emily Marshall and she opened her mouth to speak, but, before she could, Emily cut her short.
"I want you to know your plan didn't work." Emily spat at her. "I wasn't fired, the whole doping thing was kept in the down-low and my squad is still going to Nationals. And they are still going to win. With or without me, they'll win. Because unlike you, I taught them to be good cheerleaders and I taught them to solve their problems when needed. I taught them to be people, because I am a teacher, an educator. And that's what an educator does. They don't just try and put their students in a cannon and kick them out of the team when they refuse to get inside."
"Still bitter about this, No-Boobs McGhee? That was years ago, I..."
"Also, as an educator, I should not teach lessons on vengeance or spite." Emily continued talking as if Sue had never even interrupted her. "However, I'm still human. And I'm still petty. So, since I know how much you hate glee club and how we sing to talk about our troubles, that's exactly what I'm gonna do. So enjoy it, Sue, Becky... Because this one... This one is specially for you.
I wake up every evening
With a big smile on my face
And it never feels out of place
And you're still probably working
At a nine to five pace
I wonder how bad that tastes
When you see my face
Hope it gives you hell
Hope it gives you hell
When you walk my way
Hope it gives you hell
Hope it gives you hell
***
Sam smiled as soon as he stepped foot inside Emily's house that night. For a second, he let her fuzz over him, taking his coat off and hanging it up before guiding him toward the table she had set up for the two of them in her kitchen where the so familiar smell of pork ribs filled his nose.
"You know, I called your mom for the recipe on this because I know it's your favorite and I wanted to make it justice." Emily said, as she placed a plate in front of Sam before sitting down across from him with a plate for herself. Sam looked down at the ribs in front of him, wide eyed before looking back up at Emily. "It's probably not as good as your mom's but I really tried."
"That's amazing." Sam beamed excitedly as Emily just shrugged. "Thank you."
"No. Thank you." Emily corrected, her eyes already filling up with tears again as Sam sent her a soft smile. "For everything you've done for me. For stepping up for my squad, for defending me from Summers, for staying by my side... I can never repay you for any of this."
"You don't need to repay me, baby." He assured, the nickname he had been dying to use again slipping past her lips so easily it actually made Emily cry tears of joy. "I love you. And I'd do it all over again if I needed."
"Yeah, I hope you don't need to." Emily smiled through her tears then. "With the amount of drug Sue put inside of me, I spent a whole night throwing up in my bathroom."
"I'm sorry..." Sam pulled a face as Emily shrugged again, wiping her tears away as she felt more at ease now than she had over the course of the week.
"It's fine." She said. "It just sucks that... I had this whole week planned out and it was going to be great and then Sue came and ruined it all. I got so stressed over the Cheerios that I didn't even remembered to sing with you the song that I wanted to."
"Well, it's still Friday, so we can technically still sing something from the assignment." Sam shrugged, with a small smile, getting up from his seat to rush toward Emily's living room to grab her guitar. Emily chuckled when he came back with the instrument, but blushed when Sam pulled his chair from around the table to place it beside hers instead. "So, tell me... What it was that you wanted to sing with me?"
"I wanted to recreate one of my favorite duets we've ever done." Emily smiled shyly at Sam as he smiled right back at her. "One that we should actually thank Britt for."
At that, Sam chuckled, moving to sit in his chair beside Emily as he fixed the guitar in his lap.
"Say no more." He smirked at her, before starting with the first chords of the so familiar song. "Take it away, baby. I'll follow you along."
More than words
Is all you have to do to make it real
Then you wouldn't have to say
That you love me
'Cause I'd already know