Author's Note: So apparently my muse is only working part-time 'cause it looks like I can only fill out fluff prompts nowadays. Oops. This is a response to a prompt where Quinn's goes into labor on Tina's birthday while the gleeks are at a gimmicky restaurant. This is part 1 of 2. This turned out much longer than I expected as you will see, but I hope you like it anyways =)
Disclaimer: Nope, don't own a thing.
Tina expects many things on her sixteenth birthday.
She looks forward to her mom's amazing birthday brownies, hanging out (and maybe making out) with her very first boyfriend, maybe winning a trophy at Regionals, and of course to run into Madame Serena who will give her magical witchy powers that will turn her popular and let her sidekick participate in the most awkward rap battle of all time.
Okay, so the last one is totally the plot to Teen Witch.
Whatever.
The point is Tina does not expect Quinn's water to break all over her brand new leather boots while standing around waiting for a table in a tacky pirate themed restaurant off of Highway 270.
Naturally, it's basically chaos from there.
Rachel rushes over to help Quinn sit down and do her breathing exercises, Mr. Schue tries to figure out where the nearest hospital is, and Kurt looks positively green and is hanging on to their second place trophy for dear life.
"Fuck! Fuck!" Puck says and tries to stomp his way to the kitchen to get hot water.
"Puck, I am not having a baby in a restaurant by a highway!" Quinn manages to glare and wince at the same time. She clutches her stomach as if trying to keep the baby from falling out. Which, Tina is really hoping it won't.
"I'm having this thing in a proper hospital, like a normal person! Hey, you!" Quinn tries to get the attention of their panicking, pimply faced server.
"Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod," he mumbles to himself, eyes wide.
"Listen to me, you idiot. If you don't tell Mr. Schue where the hospital is right now, I will beat you to death with your own peg leg!" Quinn yells. Then after what looks like a particularly painful contraction, she adds, "And no one will miss you."
Shocked into action, the server runs over to Mr. Schue, the stuffed parrot on his shoulder awkwardly flapping with his movement, and jots down directions, shaking hands visible from a few feet away.
"Holy crap," Artie breathes.
Tina stands stock still, thinking the same thing until Mike jolts her out of it.
"Dude, you've got like, placenta on your shoes," he informs her helpfully.
Of course, Rachel decides this would be the best time for a women's health lecture.
"Mike, it's not placenta, it's amniotic fluid. This occurs during—"
"Oh my God, Rachel. Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Quinn exclaims. She clutches at her stomach again, face red, and bites down on her lip.
Thankfully, Mr. Schue appears again interrupting another murder threat from Quinn.
"We'll take the bus there," Mr. Schue says firmly, franticness creeping into his voice.
For the most part, the gleeks get on the bus in what feels like record time. And although nobody says anything when Artie's chair lift takes what seems like an eternity, everyone is glad that Quinn is luckily between contractions, and she's no longer making death threats.
On the bus, Puck tries to sit with Quinn, but she gives him one look and he moves to the back, tail between his legs. Mr. Schue hands the directions to the bus driver, telling him a baby is on the way and motions for Rachel to come and sit in front with Quinn.
"No!" Quinn says firmly. "Not Rachel, Mercedes. I want Mercedes to sit with me."
"Mercedes?" Mr. Schue looks confused for a second but gestures for her to sit up front with Quinn.
Even though she's also baffled as hell, Mercedes releases the death grip on she has Kurt's hand and he gives her a quick reassuring smile before she makes her way down the aisle to Quinn's seat.
As she sits down next to Quinn she can't help but give her a questioning look.
Exasperated, Quinn says "Look, I just can't deal with questions about how far I'm dilated right now."
Mercedes tries but fails to hide her expression at that one.
"Girl…." Mercedes drawls.
Then Quinn winces and clenches her jaw and Mercedes slips her hand into Quinn's. Because even though in the third grade Quinn had some of her friends put dirty sandbox sand in her lunchbox , and they've never really talked all throughout high school, the girl is still a teenager who is about to push a several pound baby out of her…area.
And Mercedes thinks the least she could do is sit next to her and hold her hand.
"Hey, can you step on it please?" Tina tells the bus driver, leaning forward in her seat.
He obliges, swerving a little bit and Tina thinks briefly that if he keeps going at this speed Quinn might have to give birth by the highway after all—in a ditch.
When they all finally get to the hospital Quinn is whisked away and the glee club is left to crowd the waiting room. Most of them are calling their parents to tell them they'll be late, but Puck stands in middle of them, silent and still, hand clutching the straps of Quinn's purse so hard his knuckles are white.
Tina sits down in an uncomfortable chair next to Artie and he slips his hand into hers. They smile at each other. The upcoming birth of Baby Fabray has him thinking about the future. When the baby is two, they will be in college. And, he can't help thinking about where he and Tina will be. His parents have started slipping him some college brochures and he's pretty sure Tina- He's interrupted from his thoughts as Puck loudly curses and shoves Quinn's cell phone back in her bag.
"No one's answering," he snarls to no one in particular.
"Maybe they've got, um, caller id?" Tina replies quietly, hesitantly. She fumbles around with her own cell phone. "I'll try calling." She punches in the numbers Puck gives to her, aware everyone is watching her intently.
There is an answer on the second ring.
"Fabray residence," says a female voice. And even from miles away on a phone, Tina instantly feels a little bit chilly.
"Hi, um, Mrs. Fabray?"
"Yes, this is she."
"Hi, my name is Tina Cohen-Chang? I'm in glee club with Quinn?" Tina knows she is speaking in questions all of the sudden, but she doesn't care because Mrs. Fabray's Ann Coulter-brand of icy scariness is well, terrifying.
"Quinn's having her baby," Tina continues.
"I see," Mrs. Fabray replies.
"Well, I'm sure Quinn would like—"
Click.
"Dammit," Tina whispers. She walks over to Puck because the last thing she wants to do is to say this in front of the whole club. "Um, I don't—I don't think she's coming," she says softly.
"Whatever," Puck growls. "I'm calling my mom."
While Puck's on the phone with his mom, voice shaky, a nurse comes out to summon him.
"You're the father?"
Puck nods.
"Let's get you scrubbed up," she says briskly, and Puck follows behind like a confused kid, Quinn's purse swinging limply from his hands.
When Tina goes back to sit with Artie, her ruined shoes the last thing on her mind.
Eventually, Mr. Schue tells everyone to board the bus again as the bus company charges extra for additional hours and Figgins is, as always, near the end of his rope with the club.
It's nearly 11:30 by the time Mr. Abrams gets Tina to her house. Tina thanks him for the ride and kisses Artie before going in. And although they've been going out for a little while, her stomach still flutters, her entire body feels like it heats up and he still grins that doofy grin at her after they kiss. He looks like he wants to say something, but he doesn't so she doesn't push him. Instead, she exits the car and makes sure to give him a little wave from the living room window once she gets inside.
The house is quiet, as her parents are already asleep and she finds a tray of brownies and a card from them on the dining room table. It's only then that she remembers that it's her birthday.
In her room, she answers a call from Artie while munching on a brownie.
"Hey, Artie," she answers, mouth full of chocolate.
"Hey, girl," he says as a greeting, and she bites her lip to keep from giggling. "So, I um, I kind of forgot it's your birthday," he mumbles.
She laughs. "It's okay. A lot happened today; also I think I have to throw away these boots. Actually, I forgot about the birthday too until I saw my parents' presents."
"Really? What'd they get you?"
"Ummm…hold on a sec," Tina answers and there's some noises of items shifting as she puts her brownie down on her nightstand and opens the envelope. "Okay, so aside from an extremely cheesy Hallmark Sweet Sixteen card I got…an iTunes gift card and a Hot Topic gift card with explicit commands not to spend it all on hair dye." Tina listens to Artie's warm laughter. "Seriously, it's in all caps!"
"You're awesome, Tee."
"You're awesomer."
"Hey, Tee?"
"Yeah?"
"What do you think—" but Artie's question is interrupted by Tina's loud yawn. He smiles.
"What?"
"No, it's okay, we can talk later. You should get some sleep; I know how you get when you're tired."
"How do I get?" she asks in a mock warning tone.
"Grouchy," he answers decisively.
"I do not!"
"Tee, people fear for their lives when you haven't had enough coffee."
"Okay, maybe a little."
Artie snorts.
"Maybe a lot. Goodnight, Artie. For real this time."
"'Night, Tee. See you tomorrow."
It's several days later, and things are as normal as they can be considering. The glee club is generally unsure about what to do for Quinn. The executives at Hallmark don't watch enough reality MTV for this kind of thing, a Get Well Soon balloon is sure to not go over well, and a cheery "Congratulations!" doesn't sound right. So instead, they settle for sending her some nice flowers and assurances that they'll all be there for her when she comes back.
Quinn still hasn't made it back to school and Puck is out as well. Everyone knows Quinn gave her daughter to a nice young couple so she's not out on maternity, but no one protests. It's a little weird to have two people missing from glee at once and sometimes Finn gets this faraway look on his face, but for the most part things are getting less tense by the minute.
On Thursday, Tina is gathering her books before glee when Mercedes and Artie approach her.
"Hey Tina," Mercedes says cheerfully. "Practice is in the auditorium today."
"Yeah, we'll walk you!" Artie adds.
"Oh, I have to use the restroom first, you guys go ahead," Tina says.
"Uh, we can…we can wait," Mercedes says.
Tina looks at the both of them suspiciously, eyes narrowing. Mercedes is dressed a little weirdly, and Artie in particular looks like he is trying to channel Jazzy Jeff.
Artie sighs.
"We should tell her," he says to Mercedes.
"What do you want to tell me?" Tina says slowly.
"Hell, no!" Mercedes declares to Artie, one hand on her hip.
"Seriously, you guys, what?" Tina nearly shouts.
"We have a surprise for you."
"For your birthday," sighs Mercedes. "We were gonna surprise you at Pirate Pete's but then Quinn had her baby so….," Mercedes continues.
"We prepared a little birthday performance for you," Artie says, eyes gleaming mischievously.
Tina grins. "Oooh, will there be cake?"
"Girl, have you been hanging out with Finn lately?"