DISCLAIMER: I don't own Glee or any of the characters from the show.
RATING: PG-13 (T) – One use of a curse word, mentions of teenage pregnancy and underage drinking.
TIMELINE: Post-Sectionals. Minor speculation about the back nine.
SUMMARY: It really shouldn't break her heart as much as it does. After all, she bought the situation on herself.
AN: I haven't written any fanfiction in what feels like a million years, but felt inspired to write this after reading some awesome fics. Let me know what you think =)
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It really shouldn't break her heart as much as it does. After all, she bought the situation on herself, no one forced her to drink those wine coolers that had made her such an easy target for Puck.
But that doesn't stop the pain of seeing them together, seemingly following her around McKinley High like a shadow or a creepy pair of stalkers. She never sees one without the other, and she supposes that it's possible they never separate. His mum has always been more than understanding about those things, and she has two dads – how more liberal do you want to be?
She loved him once. Truly she did. But there were all those sayings about things, that at the time, she'd not understood. Now, she understands them far too well for any teenager. Instead, she has to walk past them and smile, pretending that she's over it, over them, rather than crying on the inside.
It's so hard to hate Rachel, despite being the reason that he found out the truth. But it just proved that the brunette had more bravery than she did. She supposed, in some twisted, fucked up manner, he was the prize for that. The other girl had helped her so much, mostly packing up to move into Brittany's house and being her only friend when the rest of the Gleeks wanted nothing to do with her.
Well, not all of them. Puck was still determined to be a part of the baby's life. He just wasn't so sure that he wanted the mummy as well. Damaged goods rarely sell for full retail value after all.
Now, she can't help but wonder if Rachel only helped so that she could get to him faster. She couldn't blame her. It was exactly the sort of thing the former Head Cheerios cheerleader would have done. Wait for the opposition to fall, then help them gracefully exit, stage left, just to look even better in his eyes. Increase the prospects of success with him. It was a little too perfect though, even for Rachel and her obsessive planning.
Of everyone involved, she was most surprised by Mr Schue. She'd helped lie to him for months about his wife's condition, been planning to help continue the ruse far into the future by giving up her daughter. She'd truly believed that the life would have been better for her. Of everyone, she'd truly believed he'd be the one to hate her the longest. Sure, she'd told... him, that he was the baby-daddy when it wasn't possible, but she'd effectively destroyed Mr Schue's marriage. If she'd come forward about the whole thing, maybe something could have been salvaged.
It also meant that as her belly expanded, she was left with fewer and fewer options as to what to do when she finally popped. She didn't want to hand the baby over to some faceless parents whom she couldn't guarantee would love her as their own – no matter the rigorous checks she knew where in place for such situations. She certainly couldn't raise the baby on her own, she didn't know how, and even though Glee were trying to be supportive what did twelve sixteen and seventeen year olds actually know about raising a baby? Other than how to formulate a hilarious image in her mind, of course.
One thing for certain, she sure as hell wasn't putting her baby in the hands of Mrs Schue or her equally crazy sister. The pair of them would no doubt irrevocably damage her little one's sensibility and the only thing she wanted for her unborn daughter was a bright future where she could be what she wanted to be.
So she does the one thing that will break her heart more than seeing Finn and Rachel happy in the hallways, seeing Santana and Brittany in their Cheerios uniform, Puck running round campus trying to inflict her own status upon more unsuspecting virgins and being kicked out of her parents house all added together.
She approaches Emma Pillsbury.
Quinn isn't stupid. She certainly isn't going to give her baby to the clean freak, but there is something that the councillor can do that she is even better at than cleaning every surface within a ten-foot radius. Play Mr Schuester like a violin.
Together, the three sit down, and she convinces him that he will be the best person to take care of the little girl growing inside of her. That's not the part that tears her up. It's the being so close she can touch her, but never letting her know the truth behind the relationship. She supposes, one day, far into the future, when Will and Emma have gotten their act together and given Glee's current youngest member a few more siblings, and her own life is far more stable than it currently is, that she might be able to tell that little girl the truth.
That she means the world to Quinn, no matter the circumstances that brought her into it.