Say Something – A Quill fanfiction
Summary: Will comes home to find Terri yelling at a mortified Quinn Fabray in the living room. He finds out what rage can truly do to an already flawed bond of love, and how honesty can work miracles.
A/N: another Quill fanfic becuz, you know, i ship them; HARD.
disclaimer: SONG DOES NOT BELONG TO ME! NEITHER DO WILL OR QUINN! OR GLEE!
It had been a particularly awful day for Will Schuester. His students were flunking Spanish, his rivalry with Sue Sylvester has not been mended despite the aid offered by a certain guidance counsellor, and the New Directions have not mended their feud between themselves. And to think, that certain feud had started all because of one obnoxious Rachel Berry.
He sighed, hesitating on the porch of the front door as he ran his hands distressfully through his hair. Terri's waiting inside.
Say something, I'm giving up on you.
Terri: the insecure and malevolent-when-pushed-too-far soon-to-be mother of their child. She had been all but senseless ever since day one, ever since they found out she was pregnant. Will noticed that she did her best to stay away from him. Even when they were lying in bed about to sleep, she would turn away from him and instead lie on her side, and he was left there wondering what he had done for the next 10 minutes until he fell asleep.
It was frustrating, he could admit that. But he couldn't just leave her. He was the father. He wouldn't be known to his son, or daughter, as the man who had left them because he couldn't take the pressure. He wouldn't be known as an alien to the child who was his own flesh and blood.
Will took a deep breath, ruffled his already tousled hair, put his hand on the door knob, turned it, and then stepped inside.
I'll be the one, if you want me to.
He expected the air to smell like food, because usually by that time Terri would be cooking dinner. He looked down at his watch. It was 6:30. Confused, he closed the door behind him and took a step forward, only to be stopped in his tracks by a sound that he had never expected to hear in his lifetime.
"You bitch!"
He didn't know what to think. Will knew it had been Terri who yelled, but that was it. He didn't know who else could have been in the house, but he was determined to find out.
The yelling continued, but he didn't want to hear anymore. He forced himself to block it out, the cold claw of anxiety and fear already squeezing his chest as he made his way to the living room because that's where the yelling was coming from. Numb feet carried him forward despite the fact that he didn't want to know what had made his wife so angry.
After what seemed like a long time but had actually been less than one minute, he eventually arrived at his destination, with the bottom of their staircase to his right… and a doorway leading to the living room to his left. The fact that Terri's voice had not stopped rambling unnerved him, because that meant that she had not heard him come in, and that meant that she was too preoccupied being angry.
But then another voice cut her off, and Will must have stopped breathing then because he knew that voice all too well and the thought of that person being in his house was something he could define as odd.
Her voice was considerably calmer than Terri's, but it was her words that caught his attention.
Anywhere, I would've followed you.
"She is my baby, Terri. I get to decide whether I keep her or not." There was a strange sort of conviction in her tone, and it made Will want to curl up into a ball and not think about anything else, because he knew what it meant. He was finally able to push himself to look into the room, and what he found would have been surprising but not at all a reason to be angered if the circumstances were different.
Terri stood in the middle of the room, glaring down at an affronted Quinn Fabray. Both stood to their full heights, their faces pulled down into scowls of resentment for the other. And there Will stood, not quite getting any kind of courage to step into the room and announce his presence. He couldn't, because something deep down inside him told him that he needed to hear this.
"You said you would give her to me, you little—"
"I said I would think about it," Quinn cut her off, raising her voice now. "I never agreed to it. I never signed a contract that would permit you to have my baby, now did I?"
Will was barely following any of it. Why would his wife possibly have any reason to want to have Quinn Fabray's child? She had a perfectly fine baby on the way, and—
"You promised me you would." Terri's voice dropped a dangerously low octave. Her hands travelled up and gripped Quinn's shoulders tightly. "You wouldn't want me to become homeless, would you?" The teenager's eyebrows furrowed in confusion and irritation as Terri shook her, desperately saying, "Because when Will finds out about this he'll kick me out. He'll stop talking to me!"
Will's stomach dropped, and his mouth formed an O, because everything was slowly starting to dawn upon him.
Say something, I'm giving up on you.
Something flashed in Quinn's eyes, and her gaze wavered. She lowered it to look down at the floor, pursed her lips, and then met the woman's eyes again. Her hands were clenched into fists, and her voice was low, and vindictive, and spiteful. Her jaw was set when she said, "It's not my fault anymore. You're the one who lied to him."
A loud noise resounded all over the room, even across the hall. And when it reached Will's ears, combined with the scene playing out before him, he grew devastated.
There was no hint of regret in Terri's eyes as she watched Quinn compose herself. There was now a mark on her right cheek from where the slap had landed, red, and swollen, and throbbing.
She refused to show any sign of hurt or pain on her face, though. She kept her jaw set, her eyes hard and cold, and her teeth clenched, because if she hadn't done all those things there would have been a wet ball of spit right on Terri's face.
"Mr. Schuester is better off without you." Her cheek stung, but she said it anyway, and it could have been the worst decision she'd ever made in her life if it weren't for the fact that she was already pregnant.
And I am feeling so small.
Terri lost it, then. A cry of rage erupted from her throat and she threw Quinn to the ground, yelling angry nothings as she started pulling at the girl's hair.
Quinn was yelling too, but she wasn't fighting back. Her hands gripped Terri's tight in a desperate attempt to make her let go of the fistful of hair in her hands but it didn't do anything.
It was over my head,
Will had seen enough. He was in the room and pulling one woman off the other by the count of three. "TERRI!" His mere presence and the booming sound of his voice was enough. The woman stopped thrashing in his arms, instead stilled into a statue and stared at seemingly nothing.
That was when he let her go, presumably quite roughly, leaving her on the floor. "What is wrong with you, Terri?" he yelled, his fists shaking with rage and torment and grief. Anything that could have possibly been found in-between was lost in his tears.
He understood now.
There was no baby.
I know nothing at all.
"Terri…" He looked down at her as the tears spilled from his eyes. He refused to blink them away. "There isn't really any baby, is there." He had to say it, because if he hadn't said it he'd have to live with it in his chest, and it would tear him apart from the inside out.
His 'wife' was sobbing beneath him as she slowly turned her head to look at him. "Will—"
She tried to reach out to him, but he had already taken two steps back. "TELL ME THE TRUTH!" He had never yelled at her before, never, and it truly broke his heart that the reason he was yelling at her now in the first place was because she lied.
It had been going on for so long, her façade, and he was stupid enough to fall for every single word that came out of her mouth. Terri was crying, and so was Will. "Just tell me." His voice broke when he said, "Show me what's real."
Say something, I'm giving up on you.
Terri knew what he meant, and that made her sob even louder. But she said nothing more. Instead, she pulled herself to her feet, crying as she pulled her blouse up and showed him the fake baby bump that was manufactured only from garter latex.
Will could only stare at it for a long moment because that was all he was capable of doing at the time. He could practically feel his heart being torn to pieces, to nothingness, leaving him hollow and empty as the dream of being a father and holding his new-born child in his arms slowly disappeared.
It was impossible for that dream to reawaken now. He wouldn't find another who would bear his child. He feared that they would lie to him just like Terri was doing right at that moment. She had lied, and was lying, about her love for him, because if her love really was true then she wouldn't have kept the truth from him like she did.
She would have fessed up, but she didn't.
It wasn't love.
I'm sorry that I couldn't get to you.
He took a deep breath and watched her as she dropped the hem of her blouse so that it once again covered the artificial bump on her stomach. "Why?" he asked, his voice cracking.
"Oh, Will…" Terri's voice was a whisper. She stared up into his eyes even though he didn't want her to even look at him anymore. "I knew how much you wanted a baby. I saw how happy you were when we went for my check-up and I… I just didn't want to break your heart."
Will closed his eyes as a slight smile tickled the corners of his lips. "You're too late, then." His heart was already broken the moment she started yelling at Quinn about something she didn't want to do. "You're too late," he repeated.
Anywhere, I would've followed you.
And yet Terri didn't seem to hear anything he had just said. If she had she would have stopped talking indefinitely. But she went on. "Will, hear me out—" He didn't even need to say anything in order for her to shut up. She did that by herself when she saw the clear fire in his eyes.
"Whose ultrasound was it?" All he wanted her to do was to stop talking.
"Hers." Will didn't need to look to know she was pertaining to Quinn. He didn't even want to look at either of them, but he was only furious with one of the two.
He gulped down the lump in his throat and asked another question. "Were you going to take Quinn's baby too?"
"Yes."
Say something, I'm giving up on you.
"I would have done anything for you, Terri." The words spilled from his mouth like honey. Bittersweet honey. "I would have done anything, been anything, for you…" He finally gained the courage to look up, and wasn't surprised to see a pair of eyes brimming with tears looking up at him. "But it's not going to be like that anymore."
Will was numb. He felt numb, but when he heard a small sob to his left, some feeling rushed back into his fingertips.
It warmed him, made his heart beat again, the sound. And when he turned his head to look to whom it had come from, that same pang of guilt and righteousness and glee and hurt touched his heart. He could feel again.
And I will swallow my pride.
Quinn was crying. Will could see the tears in her eyes and the wet paths they ran down her cheeks. She was still on the floor, but now leaning against the wall across the two adults. She seemed to be making herself seem smaller.
Will cast her a small, sad smile, one she didn't return, but one she saw. She regarded it with wide eyes as Will said, to her shock, "Get out." He wasn't talking to the girl by the side of the room. He was talking to the woman who had lied to him, who had manipulated him, who was standing somewhere close to his right.
You're the one that I love,
"What?" Terri gasped, her eyes wide.
"I said, get out."
And I'm saying goodbye.
"Will, please." She started sobbing hysterically, then. "We can make another baby," she added quickly, walking towards him and trying to make him look at her again.
He did, but only because his patience had run out. "I said get out, Terri! Can't you see?! I don't want you here anymore! This was all your fault! Your lies! And I'll have none of it anymore!"
"My fault?" she seemed to be completely stunned that he was siding with that fact, that he was siding with the girl who had lied many more times than she, and she was willing to voice that out. "My fault? It's her fault! Why would you even try to pin this on me when she was the one who came offering the baby!?"
Say something, I'm giving up on you.
"You accepted."
"Because you would have wanted me to." Terri countered, throwing her hands up in exasperation. "Will, this was supposed to be our life, our family. Just because the baby won't be yours doesn't mean we shouldn't get to keep it!"
"I don't even know who you are anymore." He stared at her, and she stared at him with tears in her eyes. "I'll say it again," his eyes were cold as stone, just like his voice as he said, "Get out."
Terri stood there for a long while, just looking up at him with tearful eyes. Will was concerned that he would have to start yelling at her again when she finally stepped down.
She turned around, grabbing her coat in one fluid motion before starting to walk away and out the door. That was, before a voice called her back, and it wasn't Will's.
Say something, I'm giving up on you.
Quinn called out the woman's name before she could stop herself, and Terri had turned around and she was just sitting there staring wide-eyed because she had said something without thinking.
She refused to keep quiet though, not after seeing something like that play right before her eyes. She had to say something. And she surprised herself when that something she said was "I'm sorry". She offered a small smile to a dumbstruck Terri Schuester, but it wasn't returned, and it wasn't acknowledged.
Terri was out of the room before anything else could be said, and that was that.
Will turned back around to look at the girl by the corner of the room. "You alright?" He deftly rubbed away the tears still left on his face and tried to keep his voice firm and steady, though his heart was falling apart piece by piece, slowly. "I'm sorry you had to see that."
And anywhere, I would have followed you.
All Quinn could do was nod as she picked herself up, aware that she was only wearing a dress and that it was no longer a woman standing in front of her. She cleared her throat. "Mr. Schue, I—"
Oh…
"It's fine, Quinn. It's just…" he trailed off, his mind wandering to placed that shouldn't have been explored. He looked away from the girl, the pain too much to bear, collapsing on the couch with his head in his hands. "It's not your fault."
Nothing else was said after that, and he was led to believe that Quinn Fabray had already left. He wouldn't have blamed her, except she actually hadn't left yet. He found that out when the cushion beside him sunk, caused by someone sitting on it, beside him. Then hands were gripping his own and pulling them away from his face.
Say something, I'm giving up on you.
He looked to find Quinn right there, staring into his eyes, her hands over his hands. "I really am sorry, Mr. Schue," she whispered, tears in her eyes as well.
"Quinn…" That was when she hugged him, wrapping her arms over his shoulders so that his chin rested on the back of her neck. The scent of jasmine flowers and morning dew immediately filled his nose. Something inside him shattered, then. Be it his dignity or his heart or his soul, he didn't pull away.
Say something, I'm giving up on you.
"I'm so sorry, Mr. Schue," Quinn sobbed into his shoulder, her tears already soaking his shirt but he didn't care, because at that moment he had no one else but her and he could accept that. The weight in his chest increased tenfold, and a sob escaped his lips, a tear trailing down his cheek. "I'm so sorry."
They both whispered silent nothings to each other, comforting each other, because both of them knew that the other was broken as well. The feeling was mutual, and it sucked.
Say something...
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