Author's Note: I've been meaning to write this all day, and finally when I get the chance we're nearing the end of Father's Day! So I'm going to do this generally quickly, but in hopes that quality remains! Thank you for reading! : )
Quinn decided to spend her June Sunday locked in her room. Her mom had been going hysterical throughout the whole house because of Father's Day. Naturally because Russell had decided to cheat on her, and then leave her for said mistress. Quinn could only hope that there wouldn't be more holidays like this…After two hours of clever avoiding in solitude her mom knocked on her door before quickly opening it which to Quinn seemed to defeat the purpose of knocking. Her mom's eyes were still red but she reapplied her makeup in attempts to look less defeated.
"Hey Quinnie, I just wanted to let you know that I'm going to head over to Grandma's house to spend Father's Day with grandpa since he is very much my father…I'm sorry your—" she started to say but clearly couldn't finish it well enough.
Quinn just nodded her head with a "Kay." She knew that by Grandma's house it meant to the Plaza which was the fanciest place in Lima that one could get a drink. Her mom had been a regular attendee at said bar. She of course had never told Quinn, and she had figured in her mind the classier the drink the less drunk you got…but the time and way her mom usually got home that theory hadn't proven true.
Quinn herself had been having a hard time with this whole Father's Day thing herself, but that was probably the last thought in her mother's mind. Even though he was actually Quinn's father, rather than her husband…
Her mind then reverted back to last year when her and Puck were still dating, after Beth was born. It was June and she had been a regular visitor at the gym trying to get her body back from the whole pregnancy/birth process despite Puck's many encouragements of how she still looked good. She looks back on it feeling bad for not listening to him when he was being nice. In fact she started to look back on all the times Puck was actually sweet to her that she hadn't taken for granted. She bit her lip wishing she could just take it all back, speaking of Puck she wondered how he was doing today. He never talked about it, only when Quinn had pushed him to, but he was still beat up about his dad leaving and such making Puck the 'man of the house'. He was depressed last Father's Day and assumed this year wouldn't be any different. She probably shouldn't have done it, but she didn't want to spend Father's Day alone so she followed through.
Within a half an hour she was sitting in her car in the Forest Preserve parking lot, just sitting. After much encouragement and pep talks she had given herself she got out of the car and walked down the hill that led to a large pond, just small enough to not be considered a lake. There in front sat two benches where people could sit and feed the ducks, there in the left bench sat Puck. He came here last year and she unknown to him followed him there, after much talk he let her stay and explained that every year he came here on Father's Day particularly to sit where in the one place where he had a happy memory with his dad. She licked her lips before approaching and moving towards the front of the bench not daring to sit down just yet. "Mind if I sit?"
"What are you doing here Quinn?" he said keeping a steady eye on the pond after giving her a quick glance.
She took it as an invitation enough and sat down next to him. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine Q, and you didn't have to come here to check on me…"
Usually she would get mad or take offense to his bitterness, but he had a pretty valid reason not wanting to tap into all his emotions and stuff, she could easily relate. With unusual patience she responded, "I didn't come here for you…" which was a partial lie, she did come here for him just to talk but he didn't have to know that, "I don't have a dad either you know? So I can relate, the only difference is, he left a year ago…" she sighed letting out some cold air through her lips.
He immediately stiffened at the subject. "Well I guess you can join the lake-sitters club..." he said in hopes to smile but failed.
She just nodded her head in return finding it easy to get lost in the pond, lake whatever it was as he did. It was actually very soothing and this whole tradition was starting to make sense. Even though her dad never took her to the forest preserve because he was scared that she would get West Nile Virus from all of the mosquitoes that thrived off of the lake.
"What'd you guys do down here?" she asked hoping to ask the very thick silence.
"He fished. I watched. It was the only thing I remember him and I doing together…" he frowned looking down at his jeans then shook it off and looked back up at the lake.
"My dad may have been around since I was 16 but the only stuff I remember us actually doing together was going to baseball games when I was four…"
He nodded his head simply in agreement of both of their 'daddy issues'.
"Do you think we, I did the wrong thing?" he asked looking over at her.
She knew what he was talking about already and had a feeling he would bring it up, but she asked anyway just in case, "What wrong thing?"
"Giving her up you know because Shelby isn't married…and now she's just like us. Why should we have to put her through that?"
She wanted to start crying at his words, it made her feel even worse than she already did about the whole ordeal. She already felt bad about giving Beth up, she had wished many times that she could just snap her fingers and take her back but it never worked. Now to imagine Beth on Father's Day without a dad…it made Quinn's stomach churn.
"I don't know…" she frowned doing her best to maintain herself.
"What if she turns out like me?" he asked looking over at her.
She bit her lip softly before answering, he seemed really worried about this. "I don't think that'd be a bad thing…" she smiled up at him.
"Yeah it would, sure I'm as badass as they come and I've got 5 different bed posts for all of my notches but that's no way for a girl to be brought up and it'll be because she doesn't have a dad…"
"I'm sure she'll be fine, Shelby has a good head on her shoulders to make sure she doesn't turn out like a 'badass' and shave herself a mohawk." She smiled in hopes to make him feel better about this, and hopefully make herself feel better too.
He nodded his head with a familiar side ways smile that came about when he was thinking about something. "It would be pretty badass if she had a mohawk wouldn't it?"
She just laughed and looked back out at the rippling water. She noticed that they were a couple ducks in the distance but they were moving towards them. First noticing a larger one who was green instead of brown and she was no bird expert but she knew that the green ones were the boys and the brown one that simply glided behind him was the girl. Then there lined behind them were three little ducklings that made Quinn 'aww' out loud.
"Did you know that…the boys are called mallards, and the boy is that greenish looking one in the front." He recited watching them float about with great interest.
"No I didn't know that." She smiled over at him, feeling stupid for being astonished that he knew such a fact. She wasn't one to call him dumb but the only facts that he knew were 'off the street'.
"Thanks for coming here Q, it means a lot." He felt ridiculously cheesy for saying so, but he wanted her to know that he did appreciate it, having someone to talk to and all.
"Thanks for being here, I didn't want to spend Father's Day alone, it seemed ridiculous."
"Yeah, same." He said keeping his eyes steady on the ducks.
"Oh, I got you something on my way over…" she said reaching in her purse and pulling out an envelope. "I'm not one for all that Hallmark crap but I thought I'd get you something…" she said handing it over to him.
He licked his lips as he opened the card cautiously, it was one of those fancy ones with the cursive writing and some nature photography on the front, he opened it and at the bottom it was signed Quinn and then a handprint next to her name. "Where'd you get…" he swallowed hard at just the sight of it, something tangible that his daughter had touched.
"Shelby let me have it when she left the hospital, I thought you'd want one, I have her right hand still…"
He bit his lip, not wanting to cry although he could honestly feel like it but he didn't want to, not in front of her. "Thanks Q."
"Happy Father's Day Puck." She said kissing his cheek softly before turning her attention back towards the ducks. He placed the card beside him but kept the piece of paper in his hand and did the same.