Disclaimer: Not my property people! Just borrowing them a while :) If you haven't already done so please check out Searching for a Heart by the wonderful Syl...you'll love it!

The inspiration for the title came from Ash's Shining Light.

Chapter one: Driven by You

You know I love you but you drive me crazy
'Cos you're saying all the things I want to say to you
(You say) Everything I do is driven by you
Everything we do, oh yeah, everything we do
Everything we do, everything we do
Everything we do is driven by you

Driven by You:Brian May

Mercedes Jones got out of her car, heart thumping. Of all the times and neighbourhoods to break down on this was not the one. One minute she had been driving along, coming back from visiting Quinn and thinking about how unfair it was that Quinn still wasn't able to walk the next the car had started shuddering and jolting. She had just entered the seedier part of town, taking the short cut through, rather than driving the long way around the outskirts of town. She pulled the car over to the side of the road and got out, noting the acrid burning smell in the air. Smoke was drifting out from the bonnet and her heart sank. This was not a good place to break down. She gingerly opened the body and was assaulted by a hideous smell. Oh no this does not look good she acknowledged, wiping her hands on her jeans. She got back in the car and tried to start the engine but there was a horrendous grinding noise then it refused to even turn over. She wracked her brains trying to remain calm, whilst thinking about which was the best course of action to take. Her father had whisked her mother away and they were celebrating their twentieth wedding anniversary in New York and her brother was at college in California hundreds of miles away so she couldn't call any of them for help. It was starting to get dark, and as she scanned the street she saw a guy on the corner approaching a car which had pulled up leaning in and exchanging packets with the people inside. Great, obviously a drug deal taking place and she was stuck there as a highly conspicuous witness. It was starting to get dark and fear began to flow through her veins. No this was definitely not a good place to break down. She grabbed her phone from the passenger seat and quickly dialled the number that she knew would provide her with help out of this situation. Ring, ring, three rings, four, six rings later the call went to voicemail. Don't panic, she instructed herself, keep calm and try again. Three attempts later though, panic was definitely setting in. How stupid was she? The same thing had happened to the car three weeks ago but luckily it had been in the school car park and she had called Shane to help her out. Although, a tiny voice whispered, you had to stop yourself from calling someone else instead. After letting the car cool down, it had miraculously restarted. She had been meaning to get Kurt's dad to check it out but with all the drama that had been going on with both Shane and Sam she had clean forgotten and it looked like she was about to pay for that oversight now. There was no way she could call him now, not after what she'd done to him. She knew he would drop everything and help her because at the end of the day Shane was good people, but her sense of guilt and fairness would not allow her too. She flicked down the contacts and selected another one, feeling a sense of despair as the rings echoed through the tiny handset. Finally when she was about to hang up, the call connected and a voice came on the line. A voice she would know anywhere, a voice she heard at night in her sleep, a voice she loved to hear more than anything else in the world.

'Hello?' Taken aback Mercedes didn't answer immediately. She hadn't expected it to be him. Sure she knew he lived there…but she just hadn't counted with the fact that he might answer the call.

'Hello?' he said again, this time a touch of irritation evident in his voice.

She took a deep breath and said 'Sam…it's me,' A couple of seconds pause then he sighed, the sound echoing down the line.

'Mercedes,' he said flatly and she was horribly aware by the tone in voice that she was the last person in the world he wanted to be speaking to. A sharp pain lodged itself in her chest at the thought and she choked the tears that had rising in her throat back. No calling her Mercy anymore…she was now just Mercedes to him and that thought killed her.

'Is…Kurt there?' she asked, praying he wouldn't hear the way her voice was almost breaking.

'No, he's out somewhere with Blaine,' he told her. 'He's left his cell behind by mistake,'

'Umm well…' her voice had dropped down to a whisper so she cleared her throat and tried again 'Could you ask him to ring me as soon as he gets back? It's kinda urgent…' she supressed a nervous laugh as she looked over her shoulder at the darkening shadows of the street.

'Hey mamacita!' she looked over across the street where a bunch of guys were hanging out, playing about with a basketball. Oh no, please don't let them start on her.

'Dear God no,' she muttered forgetting for a moment she was on the phone with Sam eyes, riveted to the group, watching for any sign they were going to come over.

'Where are you?' Sam asked his tone alert, obviously having heard the cretin in the background.

'You wanna play?' one of the group broke away gesturing at her.

'No, thank you!' she replied firmly.

'Oh come on gordita! You'd really like it,' he smiled flirtatiously at her. Mercedes looked him up and down disdainfully.

'Get lost, you creep,' she raised her voice. If she showed no fear then they might get bored and move on. Or not, her mind warned her.

'Where the hell are you?' Sam asked again.

'I've broken down. I was on my way back from seeing Quinn and the car kinda started acting weird. So I pulled over… But now the car won't start. I was hoping to get Kurt-'he cut across her.

'Where Mercedes?' and his tone indicated he was not in the mood to argue. She told him and there was a slight pause before the explosion.

'You're in the Adjacent! Are you crazy!' she could tell he was furious. 'Do not move! Get in the car, lock it and do not move! Anything happens you call the cops!'

'Are you going to get Kurt to come?' she asked hopefully, knowing it was foolish to think that he himself might come out and rescue her.

'No, I'm damned well not! I'll be there, just get in the damned car and-'he was saying.

'Epa mami! Ven aca!' She whirled around to face the idiot that just wouldn't stop.

'Do not make me come over there and lay the smack down on your busted ass, boy!' she shouted, just about to go into full Mercedes Jones meltdown. Anger, she told herself, was much better than fear.

'MERCEDES!' Sam shouted down the phone at her.' Do not, I repeat do not front up to that guy! This is the friggin' Adjacent not some nice, safe suburban area! Get in the damned car now! If I find you outside of that car when I get there so help me you won't sit down for a week,' he cut the call and she looked at the phone in shock. Sam had never once raised his voice to her or spoken to her in such a way…she had no doubt he was deadly serious so she contented herself with sending the troublemaker a killer look and proceeded to lock herself in the car.

As the minutes ticked by she tried to steel herself for coming face to face again with Sam, and an angry Sam at that. They hadn't spoken much since Valentine 's Day, every attempt she had made to maintain some semblance of friendship had failed. He refused to look at her in the eyes, in fact refused to speak anything more than hello or goodbye to her and he tried to avoid her even if they were with their friends. She missed him so badly that some days it was all she could do not to bawl her eyes out in the middle of the crowded school corridors. Mercedes bore it stoically though; what exactly could she say? She had brought them to this, by her own stubbornness and stupidity. She should have ended things with Shane as soon as Sam had come back…in fact come to think of it she shouldn't have even started things with him in the first place. Not when she was still in love with Sam. She had broken his heart. She winced as she thought about what Shane had said when she told him about Sam. 'Shit Mercedes! I feel like you've punched me in the heart…What did I ever do to deserve this,'. The worst thing about it was that he had done nothing, nothing to deserve it. She had gone along with all his future plans as if on auto-pilot, somehow knowing deep in her heart that he was just a rebound, coming in a very poor second best to the boy she loved with all her heart. She would have spent her life with him secretly imagining what if, secretly longing for someone else. Yes, she had hurt him but what really horrified her was how close she had come to cheating him of the chance to be loved as much as she loved Sam. He deserved to find that kind of breath-taking, soul-shaking, heart-rending love with someone, and she had cheated him from day one knowing that she could never give him that.

She had destroyed nearly everything she had held dear single-handedly and the knowledge proved a bitter pill to swallow. Losing Shane's respect and friendship had been bad enough, but losing Sam's love was quite possibly the worst thing that had ever happened to her. Sometimes she felt Sam staring at her when she wasn't looking but she put that down more to her own imagination because nothing could be any clearer. Sam Evans was done with Mercedes Jones and there was no coming back from that.

The Hudson-Hummel house was quiet for a change, all the occupants seemingly having an elsewhere to be. Burt was still at the garage, Carol was at her weekly zumba class, Kurt off with Blaine somewhere and Finn had taken Rachel to Breadstix. Sam was left in the house by himself, just him and his guitar and a whole lot of painful thoughts. He sat on his bed, strumming mindlessly, staring off into space as he tried to block out the only person who kept featuring in them. Mercedes. He sighed as he thought about her and he removed the guitar strap from his neck and laid the instrument down on the bed. Things were so messed up at the moment and he didn't know what to do. All he did know was that he'd come back, fought so hard for her and had failed spectacularly. Valentine 's Day had probably been the worst day of his life so far, even topping the day his father lost his job and their house was repossessed. She had stood in front of him, telling him that although she loved him she couldn't be with him. Why? Why can't you just let me love you, his heart had cried out but one look at her face had told him she wasn't going to change her mind. The song she had sung later in Glee club had been his undoing. She sang from the heart, bravely and strongly and even though he could see the heartbreak in her eyes she shone brightly, like the star she truly was. He closed his eye as the memory took over and when he opened them again his eyes were wet. He rarely allowed himself to replay the memory because each time he did it broke him and he feared the heartbreak was so overwhelming it would pull him under completely. He pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers and took a deep breath, trying to regain some kind of control.

'Come on Sammy…buck the hell up,' he muttered under his breath. 'You knew what the stakes were and you played and lost,' And there it was, the thought that crucified him daily. He had come back swinging into McKinley, determined to get Mercy back, no matter what the cost and that had proved to be his downfall. The cost had been Mercy's guilt and his heart and he knew they were both paying the steep levy. His train of thought was cut off by the ringing of a phone. It rang off them immediately started ringing again. When it rang a third time he got up and went in search of the sound. He cocked his head to one side, ascertaining the sound was coming from downstairs. He descended the stairs following the ringing into the kitchen. There, on the counter was Kurt's cell phone. Sam glanced at it, his heart stuttering to a stop when he saw the caller id. Mercy-me. Mercedes. She was obviously trying to ring Kurt, but her best friend had left his phone by mistake. The phone rang off in the next instant and he released a breath he didn't know he had been holding. Even her name on the small screen of the cell affected him profoundly, and he wondered for the thousandth time since he'd come back whether it was always going to be like this. The shrill tone of the house phone cut through the silence and he strode into the den to pick it up, the breath leaving his body as though he had been punched when he heard who it was on the other end of the line. As she talked and replied to his questions his brain kept repeating only one thing…she was in the fucking Adjacent! Remembering Santana's outburst at Nationals when she had screamed at Rachel his heart pounded in fear.' Sabes lo que pasa en Lima Heights Adjacent? Cosas malas!' Sam knew enough Spanish to be able to make a reasonable translation of her words. Certainly he knew, as they all did that bad things happened at sundown in that neighbourhood. Hanging up the phone, he didn't even stop to grab a jacket, just swept his keys off the entrance hall's table into his hands and ran to his truck, his sole focus was on getting to the girl he was madly, hopelessly, irreparably in love with.

Mercedes saw the heavens open and heard raindrops pelting the car's roof and windows and wondered if this day could get any worse. The guys who had harassed her were still on the street although they hadn't turned their attention back to her yet, a fact for which she was thankful. She saw the headlights of Sam's truck cutting through the twilight gloom before she was actually able to make the truck itself. Sighing in relief, she got out of the car and waited for him to park. Her heart had started pounding heavily, almost making her feel ill, and her palms were sweating. She hastily wiped them down the legs of her jeans and tried to stand straight, head held high, even as the rain lashed at her, soaking her to the skin.

Sam parked the truck just in front of Mercedes car and got out, gasping slightly at the force of the driving rain. He saw Mercedes standing over to the side of the car, completely soaked and relief flooded through his system followed by a feeling of white-hot anger. 'Hey man!' he looked across the street at a bunch of guys, playing basketball in the street, apparently unconcerned by the rain. 'She your girl?' one of them asked. This must be the guy he had heard in the background during his conversation with Mercedes. He inclined his head slightly.

'She a real handful, man,' the guy said flashing him a smile.

'You have no idea,' Sam replied with biting irony before walking around to face Mercedes.

'Are you ok?' he asked biting down hard on his lip to keep for shouting at her. Was she crazy? Or was she just trying to drive him crazy?

'I'm ok,' she said twisting the ring on her finger, nervously. He held out his hand, silently requesting the key and she handed it to him wordlessly.

'Get in the truck, Mercedes,' he instructed her tersely.

'But-'she began to argue then stopped as her cut across her.

'Get in the truck, now,' his voice dripped icicles and she shivered in reaction. He was very, very angry, she acknowledged and she looked down at his clenched fists, the only visible clue that he was struggling to contain his anger. In fact he was furious, and the deadly quiet tone of his voice let her know just how angry he truly was. Without a word, she turned on her heel and climbed into the truck. Five minutes later he got into the driver's seat tossed her the keys and said 'I'm calling Burt. They're going to have to tow it.' And with that pulled his cell phone, dialling Kurt's dad.

'I can't leave it here!' She cried, imagining what could happen to her car if she left it for any amount of time in such a place. He levelled a fulminating look at her whilst he waited for the call to connect.

'Yes you are. You are not staying here with that car,'

'But-'

'That's my final word on the subject. Deal with it,' he told her firmly as she gaped at him. Mercedes had a nasty feeling she had underestimated Sam all this time. She had always thought of him as being somewhat of a pushover, easy-going and slow to anger but she suddenly realised she had just grabbed a sleeping tiger by its tail…and there was nowhere to run.

Oh-oh should have joined a breakdown service Mercedes! Thanks to all of you guys who reviewed Homeless and Coming back to what you know...love y'all!