The Way We Were

The Way We Camp Part II

Mercedes set the package on the bed. She wondered what was in it before ripping the tape off the top.

Quinn walked in. "Hey. What's that?"

"We had packages at the front office." Mercedes opened it up and began taking things out.

"I hope we get more blankets. It's cold at night." They were in the mountains after all.

"I don't see any but we have letters." Mercedes lifted them up.

"From who?" Quinn sang as she jumped onto the bed.

"Brittany, Santana, Matt (probably telling Mikey that he's safe in Atlanta), Tina, Artie, a couple friends from cheer. Oh!"

"What?" Quinn started going through the box and found a bag of almonds, which she preceded to open and eat.

"Finn and Noah. They wrote us." Mercedes showed the letters.

Quinn sat aside the almonds and snatched the letters. "What nerve! How dare they write us?!"

"I don't know but I don't want to read it." Mercedes blew out a breath.

Quinn opened her letter from Finn. "Well I want to know!"

Mercedes waited while she read but her facial expression didn't change and she wasn't saying anything. "Well?!"

Quinn lowered the letter. "He says he still loves me."

"Oh, Quinn."

"He says that he's sorry for not standing up for us when he had the chance."

"This has to be terribly confusing for you."

"I think you should read Puck's letter."

Mercedes shook her head. "I couldn't handle it if he said he still loves me."

Quinn yanked up the letter and opened it.

"Hey!"

Quinn read over the letter. "He's telling you about his mom and sister. About how much they miss you and what they're up to. He's saying what he's up to and how much he misses you."

Mercedes chewed on her lips. "Do we miss them?"

Quinn flicked her gaze to her wife's before finishing the letter. "He says that he prays that this is all a dream and that he'll wake up and you'll be together again."

Mercedes pouted. "This is torture. Stop reading."

"There's not much left. He says he loves you and thinks about you often." Quinn sighed. "You know that he chose this? Right? He chose to not marry you and he created this mess."

"How do you figure?"

"I talked it over with Marcy-"

"Why?! You know she takes the romance out of everything!"

Quinn giggled. "Because I was missing Finn and she helped. Do you want to hear this or not?"

"Go on."

"She thinks that if a man really loved you, when faced with a big problem, he'd try anything to help you out of it. He'd be there for you and figure it out together. They just left us and didn't speak to us for months."

Mercedes nodded. "They didn't."

"We could have figured it out if they'd at least stayed around to talk to us about it but they chose to leave. They chose to not marry us. They chose to ignore us. They didn't choose us."

Mercedes nodded again. "I felt like he abandoned me."

"So did I. They chose something other than us so they can't try to choose us now. It's too late."

Mercedes nodded a third time. "You're right! We don't need them! Sonny is a good husband!"

"He really is." Quinn chewed on her lips. "So what are we going to do with these letters?"

"I think we should burn them." Mercedes took both letters and left the room.

Quinn followed behind her as she went to the kitchen and lit the stove. "You know you're leaving out the firebug."

"I don't wanna wait." Mercedes lit the letters aflame. She set the paper in the sink and let the fire dance high. "This is the last that we'll even think of those two."

"Is something on fire?"

The girls turned to face Mike walking in. "Hey."

"Hey. What's on fire?" He looked in the sink.

"Nothing important." Mercedes smiled.

"Well I got you something." He held up a daisy.

"Thank you!" She hugged him.

"You're welcome." He tugged Quinn over. "I got you a yellow rose."

Quinn hugged him, too. "Thank you, Mikey."

"You're welcome."

"Let's go to the main cabin and see what everyone's up to." Mercedes suggested.

"Okay." Quinn ran water over the charred paper. The trio walked out of the kitchen and towards the front door.

Mercedes took down her ponytail and redid it with the daisy. "We appreciate you, Sonny."

Quinn put her rose behind her ear. "We really do."

Mike smiled. "I appreciate you guys, too." He took their hands like he used to do when they were little and started the journey to the main cabin.