"Airplanes"
A Will/Quinn fan fiction
by LeahAnne
A/N: Hi guys, I'm back with another Will/Quinn one-shot. :P Super excited about this one. And once again, I'm trying to step out of my comfort zone as a writer and try something new.
I could use a dream or a genie or a wish
To go back to a place much simpler than this
Cause after all the partyin' and smashin' and crashin'
fAnd all the glitz and the glam and the fashion
And all the pandemonium and all the madness
There comes a time where you fade to the blackness
And when you're staring at that phone in your lap
And you hoping but them people never call you back
But that's just how the story unfolds
You get another hand soon after you fold
And when your plans unravel
And they sayin' what would you wish for
If you had one chance?
It was February when he saw her walking down the street for the first time after graduation. It was cold outside and snowing, typical February weather for Lima, Ohio. He saw a flash of blonde hair as the woman disappeared inside a nearby bistro. He'd only seen that particular shade of blonde on one girl before – and he couldn't understand if it was, in fact, her, why she would still be here.
He nonchalantly walked into the bistro and she was sitting by the window, on the phone, obviously in a very colorful argument with someone. He inched ever closer, drawn as if he were a moth to the flame.
Quinn Fabray.
"God damn it! Eric, I already told you that I didn't want to see your face again! Quit calling me before I have your fucking number blocked!" She hung up and turned her face in his direction, perhaps sensing that someone was watching her.
She locked eyes with him and frowned for a brief instant, trying to discern who was standing there.
"Mr. Schue?"
And he couldn't help but recognize the excitement in her voice.
"Hi, Quinn," he said, smiling at her.
She moved the newspaper out of the way and offered him a seat across from her. "Come on, sit down, tell me what you've been up to!"
He obliged and took the seat across from her.
She was beautiful, absolutely breathtaking. Age had suited her well. He couldn't remember how many years it had been since he'd seen her. Seven? Eight?
"So, tell me. How are the kids at McKinley?"
"They're great. Glee club's still going strong... although not as good as what you guys were," he admitted ruefully. "Figgins resigned the year after you left and then Sue decided after her brief stint as a principal that it wasn't the position for her, so they brought someone else in. Someone who actually likes glee."
Quinn smiled. "Well, that's good."
"But tell me what you've been up to. I know you said that you wanted to go to Ohio State. Did you?"
She nodded. "I did. I got my degree in Biology. I thought about going to medical school and I was on that track, but I decided not to. I'm thinking about going to grad school so I can teach, but..."
"That's awesome, though. I always knew you were smart," he shrugged. "It just depended on what you decided to do with your smarts."
She blushed. "But what about you? It's been, what, seven or eight years since I graduated high school. Did you ever find someone? Get re-married? Are there a whole bunch of little Schuesters playing behind your white picket fence?" she asked. Somehow he wondered if there was a wry tone behind her interest.
"Nope," he sighed. "It's a small town and everyone knows that my ex is the owner of Sheets 'N Things, where everyone in town now sends their laundry. And she's pretty much run my character into the ground, as the evil son of a bitch who left her after she miscarried our baaaby..."
"Well, you and I both know that's not true."
And then it hit him. Out of all of the people left in Lima, he and Quinn were the only two people who knew exactly what had gone on with that whole fiasco. Well, besides Terri. He and Quinn were the innocent victims of it all.
"Have you seen her?" he found himself asking.
"Who?" Quinn asked, looking down at the table.
"Her."
And he knew that she knew he wasn't talking about Terri anymore.
"I ran into Shelby at the park. I went there to run, just to let off some steam. She's eight now. Third grade at Lima Elementary. She was playing soccer. She looks just like me, Mr. Schue. Except she's got his dark hair."
"Will," he corrected her. He wasn't her teacher anymore and he hadn't been for a while.
"Will," she continued, "I wonder how different my life would have been if I'd kept her."
"No use asking yourself that. I wonder how differently my life would have gone if Terri really had talked you into giving her to her."
"Touché,"she sighed.
The tinkling of the door caused them both to whip around and he heard Quinn inhale a sharp breath. Shelby Corcoran was standing in the bistro, holding the hand of a little girl wearing soccer cleats and whose hair was pulled back in a curly ponytail, one so similar to the one Quinn had worn so long ago.
"Mommy, can I have a cookie?" Beth asked, pulling her mother's hand.
"Hang on a second, sweetie. Here, just – go have a seat over there by the window." And she turned around and her eyes locked on Quinn and Will sitting there by the window. Quinn didn't move an inch. She just sat there silently, her eyes welling up with tears.
"Here, Beth, why don't you sit down with my friends here. Beth, this is Quinn and this is Will. They're old friends of mine." She looked over at Quinn, who was able to nod.
"Hey, my middle name is Quinn," the little girl grinned. "Bethany Quinn, but everyone just calls me Beth."
"Well, it's a pretty name," Will said. He wasn't sure if he was talking about Beth or Quinn. Both, he supposed.
And looking back and forth between mother and daughter, he saw the resemblance. Both had the same eyes, the same smile, the same high cheekbones. He supposed the girl got her curly hair and her nose from her father. He hadn't seen Noah Puckerman in years and he wondered whether Quinn had seen him since graduation.
Shelby came over and pulled up a seat next to the table. She pulled a cookie out of the bag and handed it to Beth. Beth broke it in two and handed the other half to Quinn.
"You look so sad. Cookies make me happy and they should make you happy, too," she said innocently.
Shelby and Quinn shared a glance and Will noticed that Shelby had saw the tears welling up in Quinn's eyes.
"Okay, Beth, we should probably get going," she said.
"But we just got here!" Beth whined. "And I wanted to sit here and share my cookie with Quinn. I really like her."
"How can you like me when I haven't said anything to you?" Quinn asked, half laughing.
"I don't know," Beth shrugged. "You just seem nice."
"Bethany, we need to be going. Say goodbye to Quinn and Will," she said.
Beth hopped up from the seat and waved. Shelby mouthed a quick "I'm sorry" to Quinn and the two disappeared out the front door of the bistro.
Quinn looked rather shaken and Will took her hand and she squeezed it.
"I knew it was going to be hard, coming back here. But I felt like I was missing something. And I still am. Beth is Shelby's daughter now. She even looks a lot like her," she said bitterly. "I just kind of hoped that maybe Beth would recognize me."
"I think she did," Will said softly. "She shared her cookie with you and she said you 'seemed nice.' That's something in my book."
"Why did I even come back?"
He could see that she was hurting and the fact that seeing that the tiny daughter she had given up for adoption so long ago had grown up without her still hurt.
"Perhaps there's something better here than you think," Will suggested. "You never know... obviously, you came back for a reason."
"I came back because I was thinking of finishing out my degree at OSU in Lima," Quinn said wearily. "I don't know if that's a good idea or not."
She looked out the window.
"I should probably get going, at any rate," she said hastily.
"Hey, wait!" Will found himself blurting. He pulled a napkin out of the dispenser on the table and pulled a pen out of jacket pocket. "You need anything – anything – while you're here, just call, okay?"
Quinn looked surprised, but she took the napkin from him, carefully folding it and sticking it in her purse.
And then she was gone.
Will climbed into his truck and sat there, staring in the window of the bistro. He missed her already.
It was two weeks later. Three o'clock in the morning, and Noah Puckerman was sitting on her couch, absolutely wasted.
She wasn't sure quite how he'd found her and she hadn't even known that he was still in town. He lived in the rougher end of town and from the stories he'd told her, he was still sleeping around. As much as she'd hoped he'd learned his lesson from when Beth was born, he hadn't. Noah Puckerman was a father of three and he only saw one of his kids from time to time... Little Noah Junior was three and his mother was in and out of Lima, staying with whomever she could. Tonight, she was sleeping on Puck's couch and he left, unable to stop blaming himself for the stupid decisions he'd made – or so he'd told Quinn.
"You know, I should have learned the first time, with you. I should have stopped being the stupid, stubborn fool I've always been. And I should have been smart enough not to repeat my mistakes. Sleeping with you was the biggest mistake I ever made," he slurred.
"I saw her, Puck," she replied. The sharp memory was seared into her eyelids. "With Shelby. She looks just like me, Puck. Except she's got your hair. And your nose."
"Of course she'd look just like you. You're beautiful," he said, looking over at her. She could smell the alcohol on his breath. He was getting closer and closer and she wasn't going to make that stupid decision again.
"You should probably get back home, Puck," Quinn said, getting up.
"No!" Puck roared. "You listen to me!"
She saw the maniacal gleam in his eyes and she stepped backward. And suddenly, he was running toward her in a rage and she ran back to her bedroom and slammed the door in his face, hurriedly locking the door.
Her purse was sitting on the bed. And suddenly, almost as if in a dream, she remembered the phone number she'd put there.
"Hello?"
He was sleepy. Of course, he was sleepy – it was just past three o'clock in the morning.
"Will, I need you."
She needed him and he was there within five minutes. He thanked God that she lived just around the corner.
The door was locked, but she mentioned that she hid a key under the fire extinguisher across the hall, in case of emergencies. He heard a roar and with a swift click, the lock opened.
He followed the scuffles and ran into the bedroom, seeing a scared and horrified Quinn pushed up against the wall by an enraged Noah Puckerman, clad in only a bra, her sweatpants pushed all the way down to her ankles.
"Puck," he said calmly. "Get off of her."
"Is this why?" Puck yelled. "Tell me! Is this why you don't want anything to do with me?"
"Puck," Quinn pleaded. "You're hurting me."
"I fucking gave you every opportunity to keep our daughter and you gave her up anyway! It's your fault I turned out like this!" he yelled.
Will grabbed his arms and pulled him away from her, leading him outside.
"Puck, go home," Will insisted. "I'm going to call a cab for you and I want you to sit out here until it gets here."
He locked the door and Puck continued to beat on the front door.
Will headed back to the bedroom, where Quinn had pulled her pants back up and found her tank top on the bed. She was sitting on the bed, her knees pulled up to her chest, silent tears making their way down her cheeks.
"Shhh," he hushed her. He grabbed a wash cloth out of the nearby laundry basket and got it wet in the bathroom next to the bedroom. He came back in and sat down next to her, holding the cold cloth up to her eye.
"Did he hit you?" he asked her.
She simply choked back tears and nodded.
"I never knew he hated himself for what I did," she cried. "I never knew..."
"You did what was best for you. Who knows? Had you kept Beth, would he have stayed around?"
She shrugged. "But it was what I did that set him on the warpath. Had I had kept Beth, maybe all of this would have been easier."
He didn't know what to say. He simply held her.
It was April when they shared their first kiss.
She thought he was beautiful and despite being him being her former teacher, she didn't think the fact that she was falling for him was weird or strange in the slightest. It just seemed right.
But she still had reservations, especially since every single person she had ever dated had let her down. But Will had saved her. Not that she felt she had ever need saving, mind you.
And Will still had reservations about the whole thing. Obviously, he couldn't get past the fact that she had been his student. She was 25, for crying out loud! She was a college graduate and she had already given birth to a child who could play soccer and sing and play piano.
Shelby had sent Quinn an invitation to Beth's first piano recital. Quinn already knew who she wanted to go with her... there wasn't a second's hesitation.
You are cordially invited to attend BETHANY QUINN CORCORAN'S first piano recital in William McKinley High School's Auditorium on April 13, 2018. Please RSVP at your earliest convenience.
She wasn't quite sure why it was necessary to RSVP to a piano recital or when they started handing out invitations for these sort of things. Perhaps it was just because Shelby wasn't sure if she would want to go or not. She had no clue.
So she called Will.
He promised he would hold her hand through the whole thing and that they could leave if they needed to.
To be honest, she couldn't figure out why Shelby kept pushing Beth on her. It wasn't as if Quinn was her mother, not anymore. Shelby had assumed all of those responsibilities when she had signed the adoption papers.
And it wasn't as if she didn't love Beth. In fact, she couldn't remember ever loving someone more. It scared her how much she loved Beth. She wanted other children, yes, but she would never ever forget the experience of bringing her first-born daughter into the world. She just wasn't sure if she really wanted to watch her grow up from afar.
"Quinn?"
She turned around and saw Will coming into her apartment, a quizzical look on his face.
"I don't know if I want to go," she mumbled, showing him the invitation.
"Whatever you decide, I'm here," he shrugged, pulling her close to him. She looked up at him and before she could even think, her lips were on his and she was kissing him.
He pulled back, looking surprised.
Their first real date was to a nice restaurant – Burgundy's. Italian was Will's favorite, but it wasn't a secret that this was the nicest place to eat in Lima.
As much as he tried, he couldn't focus on the fact that Quinn Fabray was no longer his student. She was a strong, independent woman and he knew she was interested in him. But she was twenty-five and he was thirty-seven and the age difference was one of the many things that was on his mind.
He was lonely and since Quinn had arrived in Lima, so much of that had changed. For the first time in forever, he was smiling again.
They took their seats at the table and Will ordered a nice bottle of chardonnay. They talked about the things they always talked about – school, work, what they had done that week...
And then he remembered the conversation she had had the first time he'd seen her.
"Can I ask you something?" he supplied.
"Anything," she answered.
"Who was Eric?" he asked.
She frowned and pursed her lips. "What makes you bring that up?"
"It's the only time I've ever heard you cuss," he said, shrugging. "I was curious."
"He was my ex. I caught him in bed with my best friend. He knew how sensitive I was since that's exactly what I did with Puck and Finn. He used that opportunity to break up with me."
Will wasn't quite sure what to say. He simply nodded. "So he's a jackass."
Quinn choked on her wine.
"True," she laughed. "Very true. So tell me," she grinned. "Besides Terri, how many people have you been with?"
Will ducked his head. "Why does that matter?" he asked.
"I'm curious. How many?"
"Three," he answered, his face vividly red. He couldn't believe she was asking him this.
"In seven or eight years? That's not bad," she shrugged.
"What? And you're going to say more than that?" he asked her. Please say no, please say no.
"No," she replied. "Just Eric. And Puck. But you already knew about that."
"How long were the two of you together?" he asked her.
"A while. Three and a half years. I was celibate my first two years of college," she smirked. "I didn't want a repeat of the Puck fiasco."
"Oh," Will replied.
And the server had brought them their dinner. They ate mostly in silence and Will was surprised that he didn't feel the need to fill the conversation with meaningless chatter. It was a first.
And so they ate in silence, exchanging looks as if to discuss the quality of the food.
And after dinner was over, they talked some more. And somehow, Will found himself bringing Quinn to his apartment where they sat on the couch and popped in a movie.
They reclined the sofa back and Quinn snuggled closer to Will, marveling at the fact that he seemed to be able to make everything okay, even if it really wasn't.
The credits rolled as the movie finished and they sat there in silence for a few minutes.
"Have you ever thought about getting married again?" Quinn finally asked him. She wasn't sure if she wanted to pursue the topic or not, but tonight seemed just as good of a night as any.
Will sighed thoughtfully. "The opportunity hasn't come up. But yes, I think I've gotten to the point in my life where I would like to think marriage would be something I could commit to in the future. If I ever met the right woman, that is." He paused in thought. "What about you? Would you ever have children again?"
Quinn smiled. "One day, I want to have three children of my own. Two little girls like Beth and a little boy. All with curly brown hair and dimples," she said softly, looking up at Will. The closeness of their bodies had suddenly made her hyper aware of every move he made, every breath he took. It was sensual and exhilarating, giving her a high she hadn't had in a while.
She peered through her eyelashes at him and suddenly, he was kissing her. She let him push her down onto the couch, let him brush his hand through her long blonde hair. He was breathing unsteadily now, obviously caught up in the moment.
And the feeling between her legs, the sudden wet heat, surprised her. She hadn't wanted this so much since... since that fateful night nine years ago. She wanted Will.
"Do you want to take this somewhere else?" Will whispered to her.
She nodded, pushing him off of her. Getting up, she led him by his hand into his bedroom. "I... um... thought this was where you wanted to take it," she said, sounding like a pathetic schoolgirl all over again. She could have slapped herself and she knew she was blushing vividly.
"This is definitely where I wanted to take it," he said, pulling her close to him. He kissed her deeply, toying with the bottom of her shirt. Frustrated, she pulled the shirt off, revealing her red push-up bra... a color that could only be described as William McKinley High School Cheerio red. He had never seen that color look so sexy.
She hesitantly reached for Will's belt buckle and he couldn't help but smirk at her nervousness. Obviously, she hadn't done this in a while. Then again, neither had he. He reached for her bra and his eyes widened in awe at her firm breasts, her pert nipples.
"You know, I don't normally do this on the first date," she breathed as they climbed onto Will's bed. "I don't want you to think I'm loose or something."
"I wouldn't think that in the first place," Will said, kissing down her neck. "You're the epitome of class, having had me wait until I knew you nearly ten years."
She blushed scarlet. "Will!"
He paused, their naked bodies mere inches from one another. If she stopped him now, he knew he would die inside.
"Are you sure?" he asked her.
She nodded, biting down on her bottom lip. She was so nervous and she didn't know why.
And then he was moving inside of her and she felt herself letting go. Within minutes, she was writhing underneath him in ecstasy, that nervous feeling in the pit of her stomach completely gone.
And as he finished and the sleepy feeling came over him, he pulled Quinn closer to him, closing his eyes and letting the warm afterglow wash over the pair of them.
He loved Quinn. He knew he did. He wasn't quite sure how she felt about him. But one thing was for sure... this was definitely meant to be.
Thanks for reading! Please review! Much love,
xoxo
