As much as I like Quinn and Sam together, I would like to see some kind of resolution to the Puck/Quinn storyline from last season. Here's my attempt at that. As always, just borrowing the characters.

A Long Overdue Talk

"Do you really not care at all?"

It's been a long day already, I still have football practice before I can go home, and now the last person on earth I want to see is standing beside my locker, looking at me with those big eyes of hers. From what I hear, he is as much of a sucker for those eyes as I am. "Go away, Quinn."

I slam my locker door shut and try to step around her, but she's always been quick on her feet. She grabs me by the arm and directs me into the nearest empty classroom. For some weird reason, a blush spreads across her cheeks when she catches sight of the planet models hanging above our heads. I can tell she's steeling herself before she asks her question again. "Answer me, Puck. Do you really not care at all that I'm dating Sam?"

I restrain myself from letting out a growl of frustration and flinging my backpack against the wall. What does she want me to say? That I have the urge to puke when I see them all cuddled up next to each other at Glee practice? Or that I almost put my fist through the wall when that little punk had the nerve to hold mistletoe over her head in the hallway and was rewarded with a kiss rather than a quick right hook to that overly large mouth of his? I have way too much pride to admit any of that, so I stick with a safer response. "Dating? Is that what that little ring on your finger means? I thought they had another word for that."

"We're not engaged, Puck. It's just a promise ring."

She glances down at said ring, which she's been twirling around her finger with her other hand. Not sure if it's a good or bad sign that her newly acquired nervous habit is focused around Sam's ring, but I'm at the point that I'll take any possible ray of hope. Throwing on my famous Puckerman smirk, I close the distance between us with a few steps. "Just a promise ring, huh?"

I lift my hand to brush her face, just as I did when we were covered in eggs and flour in the school's kitchen last year… one of my favorite memories with her. This time, though, I get a scowl instead of a smile, and she knocks my hand away and steps back from me. "I didn't mean it like that."

Now I do let that growl of frustration go. "What is this all about, Quinn? If you're so happy with Prince Charming, why exactly does it matter what I think about it all? Unless you're not as happy as you appear…"

"No, I'm very happy," she says with a slight smile, glancing back up at the ceiling, and I know her well enough to see the complete honesty in that statement. Her smile drops, though, when she turns her eyes back on me. "But let's be honest here, Puck. There is a lot of history here that can't be ignored." I can't help but let out a bitter laugh. Total understatement of the year right there. Her eyes narrow in response, and I can easily read the unspoken message there: Don't forget, Puckerman, that you're the reason we're not together in the first place. "This year, it's like none of it ever happened. To tell the truth, I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop."

Throwing caution and pride to the wind, I close the distance between the two of us again and grab her hands before she can step away. She looks like she wants nothing more than to bolt out of this room and out of my life forever, but I just tighten my grip. "Maybe you just don't want it to be over. Maybe that's what's really bugging you. You know that you're the one that makes me want to be a better man." My voice is soft and low, with no trace of my usual cockiness, and I can see her eyes soften. She shakes one of her hands free from mine and places it against my cheek. Rising up on her tiptoes, she brushes her lips against my other cheek. I turn my face toward her, trying to capture her lips with my own, but she's too fast for me again. She's sidestepped me and is heading toward the door. "Quinn…"

She stops right as she reaches the doorway, her hand resting on the handle. She only half turns back toward me, but it's enough to reveal the tears that have begun to fall from her eyes. "Puck, it was never me that made you want to be a better man. If it were, I would have been enough; you wouldn't have wanted any other girl." I open my mouth to argue, but she continues before I get the chance. "You may be jealous of Sam, but it's not really me that you miss. It's Beth. I know because I miss her too." Hearing the name of our little girl hits me like a punch in the gut, and Quinn is out of the door before I can recover.

I rub my hand across my eyes and am surprised to feel the wetness of my own tears. Beth is a forbidden name, one only spoken in the middle of the night when I wake up from dreams of little blonde-haired girls with pigtails. It's definitely not a name I can consider right now if I'm supposed to make it through football practice… the practice I'm about the be late for… Great. I tear out of the classroom and through the halls, hitting the locker room doors with two minutes to spare. Finn's giving me a weird look, but I just ignore him. We may not hate each other anymore, but I have a feeling that Quinn and the baby are two of those topics that will never be open for discussion between us. I'll decide what I think about what Quinn said later. At this moment, though, I let myself drift into a daydream of all the ways I'm going to make sure that Sammy Boy has the worst practice of his McKinley High School football career.