Disclaimer: Glee and all characters from at are not owned by me, but by Twentieth Century Fox. I do own the parts of my plot that I came up with though.
*Starts from the episode 'Hell-o.' Disregards many episodes. Slightly AU Plot. Some Spoilers*
Quinn's POV
"-and that's how I finally beat Bowser and saved the Mushroom Kingdom." finished Noah Puckerman with a satisfied smirk. He leaned against a locker, casually pushing a Freshman out of the way.
Quinn only nodded, pretending she had heard him. In reality, her eyes scanned up and down the hallway, searching. She found him- absurdly tall, face depressed- and looked away, biting her lip.
In a world that was normal and sane, Finn Hudson never looked depressed. Quinn Fabray never looked away.
He hadn't been the same since he'd found out. But then, neither had she.
Finn's slowly improving performance in sports (now basketball) had plummeted once more, and Quinn, already slightly withdrawn due to her situation, barely talked to anyone.
Not that she had many people to talk to anymore. It was basically the Glee Club- even though Santana and Brittany didn't acknowledge her outside of their meetings- and Miss Pillsbury.
Her once carefully cultivated social empire crumbled, and her GPA had jumped to a perfect 4.0 as she used some of her now copious amounts of free time studying, for want of something to do. When she wasn't studying (which was still fairly often), she was singing. Always singing. She wasn't even sure why she sang so much, at least, not consciously.
Her subconscious, however, knew exactly why.
The way Quinn Fabray's subconscious reasoned things out, was that if she got good enough, Mr. Schue would start giving her female leads.
Occasionally, female leads would get duets. With male leads. With Finn.
Of course, beating out Berry would take a lot of practice, but she was used to it. If Sue Sylvester's Cheerio Dictatorship had taught her one thing, it was how to practice hard. How to prepare to win.
And besides, at rock bottom, there was nowhere else but up.
Now that she had lost everything, things that were truly important to her had become painstakingly clear. Her popularity had been nothing more than a shield, her insecurity's attempt at hiding what she believed to be her faults from those in her life.
Only with Finn had she let that shield slip, just a little, and taken steps towards being herself.
Only with Finn could she be silly, and have fun.
And now he was gone.
She closed her eyes tightly, willing the tears not to fall. Too late, she felt the hot drop slip down her cheek and fall off her chin.
"Babe?" asked Puck, concern in his voice "Whatever I said, I'm sorry."
He wrapped her in a hug, and more tears leaked out because, as sweet as he could be, there was a different set of arms that she longed for. A different person that her heart belonged to.
Finn's POV
And there was Puck. Hugging her.
Finn clenched his jaw, a bitter taste in his mouth, and resisted the urge to punch a locker, or better yet, to punch him.
Then, just as quickly as it had flared up, the intensity of his temper was gone, replaced by the same dull, slighty numb sadness that he'd been in since the end of Sectionals.
He had some idea that people were concerned for him- his Mom, his friends, Mr. Schue, Glee Club- yet in the same thought, he couldn't find the will power to care.
Finn wondered briefly if this was what being a ghost was like, but then figured it wasn't, because ghosts could walk through walls.
Sinking back into the numbness that hurt so much less, Finn started walking to class again, people parting around his tall figure.
Then he heard her. Her soft voice cut through the haze, right to his heart.
"It's alright Puck, It's not your fault."
The rage and pain was sudden, intense and all consuming. It was his fault. Everything was his fault. How could she-?
He froze right there in the middle of the hall, and not even Karofsky could look at him as he passed with a slushie. Wise of him. Finn's entire body shook with suppressed emotion, his large hands trembled and shook. He had to get out of here now. He didn't care that he'd miss the entire day of school. He didn't care that he had Glee later. He didn't care about anything, with one outstanding and painful exception.
So of course Rachel picked this time to appear at his shoulder like some sort of irritating squirrel.
He was the nut of course.
"Finn!" she beamed, oblivious "I just wanted to inform you that I've had matching his and hers calendars made. Now you can't say that you forgot when you miss our dates anymore. If you look over here," she held up the thin object and gestured with a manicured nail "you can see that we-"
He turned away. All he saw was the door down the hall.
"Finn!" she yelled again, this time shocked and offended. "As a high maintenance rising star, I have needs to be met. And what I need is for you to pay more attention to me and less to-"
"Don't say it," he rounded on her, towering over her already small figure. The expression on his face was terrible to behold, and the entire hall stopped moving. Students instantly adjusted themselves to a safe distance. Most of them knew what was about to happen, an event which constant tales had elevated to a near-Mythical status.
Finn Hudson was a nice guy. This was a widely known fact. Another widely known fact was that he had a breaking point, and once it was reached, Finn exploded. It had happened twice, once in 2nd grade and again in 7th. Each time had resulted in something broken, be it a wooden desk or an arm.
And for Finn Hudson, it was exploding time.
He slapped the calendar from her hand. It struck the wall with a sharp smack! She gave an 'eep' of fear.
"I'm- i'm tired of all of this! I'm tired of having to- of having to care for everything. Of all this responsibility. Football, Glee, the- the baby. I couldn't even take a break cause they all needed me and now- now I don't have to be the bigger person, now I have a chance. But you," and he pointed an accusing finger at Rachel, "you're trying to give me more things to do when that's the last thing I want. All I want," his voice cracked on the last word and he stopped to take a shuddering breath, "all I want is a break."
"Now Finn, I know that you've been through some, frankly, horrible times but," Rachel began again after a shocked silence. Her voice was soft and understanding now; she'd made the change from obnoxious, bossy Rachel to understanding, empathetic Rachel.
And right now it irritated the crap out of Finn.
He looked her dead in the eye as the psychologically sound reasoning fell on deaf ears, "Rachel. I don't care." Then he spun around and left. The still-silent students of McKinley High tripped over each other trying to get out of his way.
Rachel gulped loudly and teared up, making her look like some kind of Jewish frog.
The first tear rolled down her cheek at the same time Finn reached the door, ripping it open. The glass cracked in a spiderweb pattern from the force of him slamming it open and against the wall of lockers.
But Finn didn't care.
AN: So... How was it? Feedback away, but please don't flame. Because, as we all know, every time a flame is posted a writer dies a little inside. My main goal for this is to just have all the characters stay... In character.
