Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own the Glee series or any of its characters.
Notes: This is a Quartie fic. Rated M for future chapters. Set in the time of Ballads. Please R&R.
Any guy with a functioning penis could see that Quinn Fabray was a catch, and as Artie Abrams had already established (not with Quinn, but with Tina Cohen-Chang, their fellow Glee Club member), despite being in a wheelchair, he still had full use of his penis. Right. But he wouldn't talk about that with Quinn. He wouldn't tell anyone what he was feeling in regards to a certain glowing pregnant female. Especially not Quinn herself. He couldn't do that. He was Artie, and she was Quinn. Pregnant cheerleaders did not like guys in wheelchairs. It was like one of these irrefutable facts of life. Some things just couldn't happen, and Artie had come to accept that he and Quinn Fabray were just never going to be.
Artie could pinpoint the exact moment when he knew that he liked Quinn – not liked liked, but liked, as a person. It was the time that he had rolled past the Home Economics room and he had seen her measuring out ingredients to cupcakes for the bake sale for the handicapped bus to sectionals. Even if she claimed to hate it with Puck later (he had heard that part of the conversation go down), she looked like it was almost soothing to her to be measuring out flour and eggs. Regardless of how she felt about the bake sale, she was the only person who had taken charge and really shown any interest at all – even if she had been the one to originally say that he would understand if he had to go by himself to sectionals. But he could forgive her for it. Like everyone else, she just didn't understand. No one understood.
Not even Tina. He had thought that she did, but after she had confessed that she didn't actually have a stutter, that had hurt Artie a heck of a lot more than he'd even let on to her. He had been stuck in a wheelchair since he was a kid. He was never going to walk again, and there she was, getting to be perfectly normal. Artie didn't really have the capacity to hate anyone, in general he found that it took more work than anything else, but he was angry with her. Sure, for the sake of Glee Club, he was putting on a brave face like he hadn't just wasted months of his life crushing on a girl who had been telling a major lie since she was twelve. Artie just couldn't put his trust in someone like that. Someone who lied about being different, about being an outsider.
But Quinn Fabray was an outsider, she just didn't really realize it. Or maybe she did, and like him, had just put on a brave face. One would think that the former captain of the elite Cheerios squad would fit in. Smart, talented, pretty. She had it all. But he had been rolling through the research section of the library their freshman year (which seemed like a really long time ago, even if it had only been a year or so ago), looking for some books for his biology project, when he had noticed Quinn, Santana, and Brittany at a table. Santana and Brittany were busy defacing lots of yearbook pictures – including his, most likely. They were so absorbed in everything that it was like Quinn didn't exist. Sure it didn't look like Quinn was by herself, since occasionally they would throw in a comment to her, but he could see the look on her face, the one she was trying to hide, because it was the same look that he had when he was by himself; the look of loneliness. That was the day that Artie Abrams realized that he and Quinn Fabray were more alike than anyone would have originally thought possible.
And his suspicions were only confirmed when they were paired together for ballads. In a way, he was happy that he had picked Quinn's name. He definitely didn't want to have to sing to Tina right now, and working with Rachel Berry would be difficult, which was a highly censored version of what was actually going through his mind. He wouldn't have minded getting Mercedes, but they already worked together a lot, so he wanted to work with someone new. Quinn worked out perfectly. After Mr. Schue had given them time to work out a practice schedule together, they'd agreed to have Artie's dad pick them up and they'd practice at his house on Tuesday night after school.
When Tuesday rolled around, it was pretty clear that Quinn forgot. Or maybe she didn't forget, and she just didn't care. His dad had sent him a text message that he had had something come up at work and he couldn't go pick them up. Figuring he had to tell Quinn about the change in plans, he went searching for her in the school. In the end, he wound up finding her sniffling away in the auditorium; probably because she knew no one would be in there. They had just installed the handicap ramps in the auditorium the other day, so reaching her was an easy task. "Quinn, are you okay? My dad just texted me to let me know that he can't pick us up," Artie explained, figuring she would want to know that he wasn't just being a creeper and he didn't make a habit of trying to save obviously wounded girls. Quinn looked up and he could tell that she had completely forgotten about practice. "I can go, if you want," he offered, raising his eyebrows at her. Unlike the other men in her life, Artie Abrams had never been the overly pushy type. If she wanted her moment to herself, he would quietly and politely take his leave.
"No, stay," Quinn insisted, nodding her head like she meant it, as she brought her sniffles to a minimum. "We were supposed to practice, and I could really use the distraction right now," she added, looking expectantly at him. One thing he'd noticed about Quinn Fabray was that she was ridiculously sure of herself at times, and now was one of those times.
"Well, I don't really live far from here. It's about a fifteen minute ride," Artie suggested, noting the look on Quinn's face. "I thought you just said your dad couldn't pick us up," she reminded him. "That's not what I meant," he laughed, patting his lap for Quinn to sit. She looked a little sceptical, which he could understand. "Are you sure, cause I can walk you know? I'm pregnant but I'm not – sorry. Yeah, a ride would be great," she corrected. Artie knew what her little fumble was about, but at this point, he was used to it. Everyone always seemed to think that he was going to get offended if they said something about being an invalid or something. Yeah, at first it had hurt, and depending on the context, it did sometimes, but he would have been alright.
Waiting for Quinn to make herself comfy on his lap, he smiled at her reassuringly as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders gently. It wasn't the same way that she had them around Finn's neck the other day, it was a friendly distance, and that was fine with him. Artie didn't need rumors floating around that Quinn was blatantly cheating on her boyfriend with the handicapped kid, as he was known around the school. They were just practicing for Glee Club, because he'd happened to pick her name out of a hat, that was it. No scandals going on there.
The ride back to his parents' home was one made mostly in silence. He could tell that Quinn was thinking, and Artie left her to her thoughts. The only break they had in what he was deeming a comfortable silence was for Quinn to ask him a simple question, "Are you okay? I must be getting heavy with my stupid baby bump," she sighed, looking down at him with a raised eyebrow. "I can't feel my legs," he reminded her. "Oh! You should have said something! I'll get off," Quinn replied, making a gentle motion to still his hand. "Um, no, you can stay if you want. I can't feel my legs, Quinn," Artie repeated, pointing down to the chair. Quinn's face turned a bright shade of red and she quickly took to examining her shoes in great depth. Chuckling a little, he saw her fight not to break out into a grin as well as she continued to look down at her feet. Artie didn't say anything further on the matter because his chuckle said everything for him.