"Hi honey," Beth said, moving aside to let Quinn into the house. "I think Artie's in his room looking for something. Feel free to go tell him to hurry up so you guys aren't late!"
"Thanks," Quinn said, smiling and heading towards Artie's room.
When she got there, she noticed the door was ajar, and knocked softly.
"Quinn? Just a second!" she heard, and decided to wait. His voice sounded slightly out of breath, and she wondered what he was up to in there.
She heard what sounded like something being thrown at the ceiling several times, and then the door opened.
Artie hoped she hadn't heard the thumping against the ceiling. He had a plan to explain...that, and it would work best if she didn't know what was up there.
"Hey," he said softly, pulling her into his lap. "How about a kiss?"
"Artie, your mom is right outside," she said, looking amused. "And we're going to be late for the food bank!"
"You dare to argue with mistletoe?" he said, his eyes drifting upwards.
Quinn's eyes followed.
"Artie...are those darts in your ceiling?"
"I had to get it up there somehow," he said, grinning. "I'm not exactly built for climbing up on things to hang stuff. And it's not like I could just have gone up to Michael or my dad and been like, 'Could you please hang this all over my ceiling?' Plus, it was really easy, I just had to stab them through the stem, and then throw them a few times until they stuck."
"What's your mom going to say when she sees that? How are you going to get those down?" She looked amused, but also slightly concerned.
"I thought I might just leave them up all year...you can never have enough mistletoe, right? It's plastic, so it's not like it'll go bad."
She grinned. "I'll make sure to let all our friends know that they should come in your room. You could be quite busy if you leave that up there."
"Ok, fine, maybe I won't do that. I have this girlfriend though, who used to be a cheerleader, which involved climbing all over stuff, so I think I might ask her if she'll help me take it down...eventually."
Quinn laughed. "I don't know if she'd be into that. If it were me, I'd want you to leave it up all year just so I had an excuse to kiss you," she said, planting a kiss on his cheek, "and kiss you some more," she finished, her lips lingering on his.
"I'd be ok with that," he whispered, kissing her back. "But we can't get too into this right now, we have to be at the food bank."
"Should we have brought a donation or something?" Artie asked, as they got out of the car in front of Quinn's church. "I was going to grab some stuff, and totally forgot. I got distracted by my ingenious dart plan."
Quinn laughed, heading around the car to haul his chair from the back seat. "I've got a box of stuff in the trunk."
"I love how you always think of everything," he said, getting himself situated. "You know, like ribbon and canned goods."
She grinned, and they headed towards the front door.
As they opened the door, Quinn immediately spotted Mary, the lady from her church that had asked if she would be willing to help at the food bank. Mary said that Christmas Eve was one of their busiest days, and they could use an extra set of hands.
Quinn had been happy to agree to this, and had asked if she could bring Artie as well. Mary had told her the more the merrier, and so there they were.
"Mary, this is my boyfriend, Artie," she said, introducing the two. "Artie, this is Mary. She's in charge of the food bank."
They shook hands, and then Mary promptly told them what needed to be done.
Quinn and Artie spent the first half of the morning sorting canned goods and things like bread into brown paper bags, making sure that each bag had one of each thing. They were putting together the packages to be given to people so that they could have a nice and nutritional holiday meal.
"Does this food bank rely totally on donations?" he asked, placing a box of stuffing mix into one of the bags, "or do they get funding from somewhere?"
"Everything they have here is donated by people," she said, placing several oranges into a bag. "Most of this stuff was donated by people from our church. Sometimes people donate money instead of food, so that certain things can be bought, and then the church also donates a percentage of its yearly fundraising to make sure that everyone gets fresh meat and things like that."
"It doesn't look like there's enough stuff here," he said, glancing at the meagre amount of food piled onto the tables. "Did you see the line up outside? There is no way everyone is going to get everything."
"From what Mary was telling me, there's never enough," she said, stopping what she was doing and surveying what they had left. "I wish we could get more food, but I don't have very much money, and I know you don't either."
He thought for a moment. "I have a plan," he said, pulling his cell phone out of his pocket.
About forty five minutes after Artie sent out a mass text to everyone in his phone, people started showing up with donations.
The first to arrive were Kurt and Finn. "We convinced my dad that making a large charitable donation would not only be good karma, but would also be a nice tax write off," Kurt said, as they unloaded what appeared to be about thirty bags of groceries. "Artie didn't say what exactly you guys needed, so we got some of everything."
Quinn stared at the bags, as Finn and Kurt finished bringing them in from Kurt's car. They had brought what looked like several hundred dollars worth of groceries...all things that they could use in the packages they were putting together.
"Wow, this is great. Thanks, you guys!" Quinn said, hugging Kurt and then hugging Finn, albeit somewhat awkwardly.
As they were leaving, Mercedes and her mother showed up. "Hey Quinn, hey Artie," she said, putting down the box she was carrying. "We brought a bunch of canned vegetables for you guys to put in those packages, are those alright?"
Quinn smiled. "Those are perfect! Thanks Mercedes," she said, hugging both of them.
Beth and Lindsay showed up a few minutes after Mercedes and her mother left, with several bags of dry and canned goods, as well as several packages of chicken. Quinn thanked them, and they left after a couple of minutes, because Lindsay was on her way to dance class.
Over the next hour, almost everyone that Artie had texted stopped by.
Rachel, Martin, and AJ showed up with several bags of fresh fruits and vegetables, which Rachel had insisted were much better than anything canned, and Quinn agreed with her.
Santana and Brittany showed up with a couple of cases of canned juice, and then left when Brittany started asking questions about why the food bank couldn't just take money out of itself to buy food and help people, if it was really a bank.
Mike and Matt showed up with what appeared to be the grocery store's entire supply of Stove Top Stuffing.
Tina and Sam showed up with a small box of assorted canned goods, stating that they didn't have money to go out and buy anything. Quinn wondered if something was going on between the two, because it seemed odd that they showed up together, but she didn't say anything. She was very glad when they left. She decided to ask Artie about it another time...she knew he wouldn't have texted Tina, but he may have texted Sam. She kind of wanted to know if he knew what was going on there, just because she was nosy, but she didn't want to bring up Tina and risk making their day anything less than great.
A couple of members of the jazz band, who Quinn recognized but didn't really know showed up with several bags of potatoes, a case of some sort of pasta mixes, and four boxes of candy canes.
Even Puck showed up, to Quinn's surprise, carrying a large box full of bags of holiday cookies, which he insisted his mom had picked out at the store for him to bring because everyone should have a nice Christmas. Quinn didn't see his mother anywhere with him, and smiled a little, thinking it was nice of him to put so much thought into what he had brought.
By noon, when the food bank officially opened its doors to the long line of people waiting outside, Quinn and Artie couldn't believe how much food they had. There would be enough for everyone that was there, and probably enough for anyone else that stopped by later in the day.
As Mary surveyed the tables, now covered with brown paper bags overflowing with food, a couple of tears made their way slowly down her cheek. She turned to Quinn and Artie, and said "Thank you, kids. Without you we wouldn't even have come close to having enough for everyone. It looks like we may even have enough so that we can deliver some to the people that we know are in need but aren't able to be here today."
"It's Christmas at the food bank too," Artie said, smiling. "We're really glad that we were able to come and help out." He turned to Quinn. "I'm really glad you asked me to come with you today."
She grinned. "I'm really glad too. You're amazing."
His smile widened. "Well, I try," he said, winking. "Now, let's go give these people their food!"
The afternoon went by quickly. Quinn and Artie had intended to stay only until about 1:00, but before they knew it, it was after 3. While Quinn, Mary, and another volunteer handed out the food to people, Artie entertained the many children that people had brought with them.
They had set up a small area in one corner where people could get coffee, hot chocolate, and tea, to warm themselves before heading back outside. One woman told Quinn that they had been waiting in line for almost two hours, and she was glad that they were giving people warm drinks.
When she looked over towards Artie, she noticed that he had a small group of children crowded around him, while their parents sat, enjoying their warm drinks and having polite conversations with others who were doing the same.
Judging from his animated hand movements and the expression on his face, Artie was engaged in telling them some sort of story. Every once in a while one of them would laugh, clap their hands, or start jumping up and down, and the whole scene really tugged at Quinn's heartstrings. She found her mind, once again, drifting to that place where she thought about what a great father Artie would be, and how different her life and her baby's life might have been if Artie had been Beth's father. Would they have decided to keep her? Would the end result have been the same?
These thoughts were pushed out of her mind as a woman who had been waiting in line threw her arms around her, and thanked her for the food she had just given her. The woman, who's name was Angie, Quinn learned, had been waiting outside with her three small children for over an hour. As Angie pointed out her children, Quinn noticed that none of them were really dressed for such cold weather. She thought she recognized the children from the Sunday School classes she sometimes helped with, and she wondered if that was why Angie also seemed familiar to her, from church. The two chatted for a couple of minutes, before Angie announced that they had to be going, so that they could catch the bus back home to their apartment.
As Quinn finished up her duties and got ready to leave, she couldn't get the thought of Angie and her children waiting outside in their thin, threadbare coats out of her mind. They definitely weren't the only ones there that were improperly dressed for the weather, but they stood out the most to Quinn. She wondered if perhaps that was because she knew the children from Sunday School.
As she was putting on her coat, she turned to Artie. "Did you see that lady with the red hair I was talking to earlier, Angie?"
He nodded.
"I want to go get some nice, warm coats for her and her kids. Would you be into pooling our resources for that?"
He smiled. "I think that could be arranged. Her kids were Chloe, David, and Billy, right?"
Quinn nodded.
"I think we can probably pick out some things that will fit them. She's about your size, so that shouldn't be too hard either."
As they headed towards the car, Quinn looked through her wallet. "I have...$30. That isn't going to be enough."
Artie fished his wallet from his jeans, and unfolded it. "I have $50. We should be able to get each of them something for what we've got, right? Where did you want to go?"
She thought for a moment. "I hate to say this, but Walmart is probably our best option. Their prices are good, and they always have lots of stuff for kids. You know I'm not a fan of that store, but I think that's where we should go."
He nodded. "Do you know where they live?"
"Oh!" Quinn said, turning around. "I was going to ask Mary, but I forgot. I'll be right back." She ran back into the church, and emerged a couple of minutes later, a piece of paper with the address in her hand. "Ok, let's go!"
Once they got to the store, Quinn wasted no time dragging Artie to the children's clothing selection and choosing warm coats for the three children. Their next stop was the women's department, where Quinn selected a warm and attractive fleece-lined coat for Angie.
"This is perfect," she said, piling the coat onto his lap. "Let's pay for these and get over there! I can't wait to see their faces!"
Artie wondered if that might have been an appropriate moment to say something about not everyone appreciating charity like that, but he decided to remain quiet, hoping that Angie and her family would be as happy about the gift as Quinn thought they would be.
As they headed towards the checkouts, Quinn grabbed a roll of wrapping paper and a package of tape, saying that they would quickly wrap them in the car.
After a bit of searching, they found the correct apartment building. Quinn was relieved to see that their apartment was on the ground floor, because she was pretty certain that the building did not have an elevator.
As Quinn knocked on the door, she glanced over at Artie, who was barely visible behind the pile of bulky, brightly-wrapped packages piled on his lap.
After a minute or so, the door was thrown open by Chloe, the youngest of Angie's children.
"Mommy!" she yelled, turning around. "That nice wheelie man from the church is here with the pretty lady that gave us the food!"
Quinn heard some pots banging in the kitchen, and a moment later a somewhat surprised Angie emerged from around the corner.
"Quinn! What are you doing here?" she asked, wiping her hands on the small apron tied around her waist.
"I just wanted to drop something off," Quinn said, removing a gift from the stack on Artie's lap, bringing his face into view. "Did you meet my boyfriend Artie earlier?"
"She's not dropping me off..." he stated, a twinkle in his eye. "These are for you," he said, holding out the packages.
"I don't know what to say," Angie said, clearly having difficulty reaching for the right words. "Thank you."
By this point, all three children were huddled around, and Quinn gave each of them their neatly-wrapped gift.
"Mom, can we open these now?" David asked, holding the gift towards his mother.
Angie smiled, wiping a tear from her eye. "Yes, go ahead."
The three children tore the paper off their gifts, and when Quinn saw their reactions, she knew they had made the right choices. She had never seen children so excited about receiving clothes.
As Angie watched her children put on their new coats, and start running around the small apartment, the volume of tears running down her cheeks increased dramatically.
"I still don't know what to say," she said, hugging Quinn, and then Artie. "Thank you."
Quinn smiled. "You're welcome. This is for you," she said, handing the final package to Angie. "I hope it's alright."
Angie smiled through her tears, and gently unwrapped the package.
"Quinn, it's beautiful," she said, holding up the coat and looking at it. "But I can't take this from you, though," she added. "It's not right."
"Please, Angie, take it. Artie and I both picked these things out for all of you, and we really want you to have them," Quinn said. "Think of it as a little holiday joy from us to you and your family."
Angie smiled, and hugged them both. They chatted for a couple more minutes, before Quinn announced that they should probably get going so that Angie could get back to her cooking, and they could get back to Artie's house.
After hugs from the three children, and another round of hugs and thank yous from Angie, they left.
Once they were back in the car, Artie turned to Quinn.
"That went well," he said, "I was a little worried that she might not want to take them. Sometimes people don't like charity like that."
"I know," Quinn said, "but I just hoped so much that she would be alright with it. Did you see how excited the kids were?"
"Yeah," he said, "I think we made their day."
As they pulled up to Artie's house, he asked her if she wanted to come in.
"I should get home," she said, "There are a couple of things I still need to do, and I don't want to be rushing around tomorrow morning before we come for brunch. What do we need to bring for that?"
He grinned. "Just bring yourselves. We've got everything else under control."
She grinned back. "Deal. If we need to bring anything, just let me know at some point before tomorrow morning."
"Will do," he said, getting out of the car. "Thanks for taking me with you today. I had a great time."
"Me too," she said. "I should be thanking YOU for getting all that stuff together for the food bank. You helped a lot of people today."
"We helped a lot of people," he said. "I was just a vehicle for that. Or something. I don't know if that makes sense."
She grinned. "You were amazing, that's what you were. I'm glad I have such a great boyfriend."
His face reddened slightly, and he looked up into her eyes. "Your level of amazing tops mine by about 50 points." He grinned. "I love you so much."
"I love you too," she said. "Now, get inside before you get sick. The last thing I want is for you to be sick on Christmas!"
He grinned. "I won't get sick, but I might be dead if my mom sees those darts in the ceiling. The holes won't be too noticeable, right? I mean, it's stucco. They should just blend in."
She laughed. "She won't kill you on Christmas."
"No, but she would the day after." He grinned. "Drive safely, ok?"
She nodded, kissing him and heading back to her car. "I always do."
He watched as she got in and drove away, thinking two things. The first was that he should see about other volunteering opportunities through her church, and the second was that he couldn't believe how lucky he was to have her in his life.
A/N: I really hope this didn't disappoint. I know people (or, at least...one person) have been waiting for this, and I really hope it lived up to the hype! Hahaha
I am going to try my absolute best to have the Christmas oneshot uploaded tomorrow, but if I don't quite make it, it will be uploaded on the 26th.
If I don't make it tomorrow, I would like to wish everyone that celebrates it a MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Thank you so much to everyone that reads and reviews. It really means a lot to me to know that what I've written is being appreciated.
Also, if you're out and about today, tomorrow, or...any day, really, and you have a local food bank, stop by and make a donation if you have something you can spare. Food banks help a lot of people each year, and I think sometimes we forget that they serve people year-round, not just during the holidays.