Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or any of its characters. I am merely borrowing them for my stories. That is all.
A/N - I wrote this oneshot after watching last night's episode and by request from "ice-whisper" on tumblr. I'm not normally a oneshot writer. I like to carry my stories out a lot longer, but since I've been slacking on my chapter fics lately, I figured that writing a few oneshots may help. So... if you have any to request, message me here or on tumblr! My user name is puckandquinn.
Another warning - this wasn't beta-ed and I wrote it at 3am. I proofread it a bunch of times, but I may have left some mistakes let me know!
(The title of this fic is from "Better Days" by Goo Goo Dolls)
Senior skip day was fun. It was.
From eating candy and popcorn to riding roller coasters and hanging out with his friends, Puck had literally the best senior skip day imaginable.
But the fact that someone was missing from the day made it a little less enjoyable.
He should have been used to it by now – Quinn disappearing from his day to day life; not really looking at him, but through him; not being there when he wanted (needed) her to be. They'd been doing this dance for the better part of the last three years, but that didn't make it any easier to deal with.
Ignoring Quinn Fabray was a hard fucking task. Anyone who found it to be something easy to do didn't really deserve to know her, in his opinion. For him, not having her around made his chest hurt about as much as he figured an elephant sitting on it would.
Not ignoring her when she didn't want much to do with him hurt a hell of a lot worse, though, so he was pretty much in a lose-lose situation.
Pursuing the things that he wanted in life was a new thing he was trying, though, which is exactly what Puck convinced himself of in order to end up standing on her front door step the following Saturday morning.
He wasn't surprised at all when she answered the door with a look of complete contempt on her face.
"What are you doing here, Puck," she asked, crossing her arms indignantly.
He stared at her for a second, his signature smirk firmly in place. He wasn't about to clue her into the fact that it kind of irked him to see her so annoyed by him being there. She'd tear him a new one, and he wasn't in the mood for that type of drama.
"Picking you up," he replied with a shrug, pushing passed her into the foyer. Grabbing her coat and purse off the rack beside the door, he handed them to her quickly before taking hold of the handles on her chair and wheeling her outside. "We're going somewhere, Fabray." He set the parking brake on her wheelchair, and opened the door to his truck. Turning back around to face her, he examined the look on her face. "Has anyone ever told you that if you keep making mean faces like that and the wind changes, you'll get stuck that way?"
"Shut up," she bit back, glaring at him for a couple of seconds, obviously considering denying him. Then, surprisingly, her expression softened and she wordlessly held her arms out, beckoning him to lift her out of her seat. Look of embarrassment that passed over her features when he did wasn't lost on him. "Where are you taking me," she asked once her seatbelt was buckled and her chair was packed safely into the backseat.
Puck climbed into the drivers' seat and started the engine. "Some place fun," he replied simply before pointing his truck in the direction they were headed.
They sat in comfortable silence until they pulled into the parking lot of the place he'd been searching for. It took a few hours, but they've never had trouble dealing with the quiet. Ignoring each other was normal for them, though Puck really fucking hated it.
Climbing out of the truck, he unpacked her chair and then brought it around to the passenger side. She didn't reach for him when he reached for her, and he wasn't surprised.
"Why are we here?" Her eyes were wet with unshed tears and he hated it, but he continued to hold his arms out anyway. He wasn't going to let her back out. She looked out the windshield at the park in front of them, and shook her head. "I can't go in there, Puck. I can't ride those rides anymore. Not right now, at least."
He raised his eyebrows, a look of complete disbelief playing on his face, and then he leaned in closer, his arms still held out for her. He wasn't going to drop them, but he wasn't going to force her out of the truck either. This had to be a decision she made on her own. "Who said?"
"Plenty of people," she spluttered. "Artie said that – "
"Who cares what Artie said, Q," he interrupted, a look of annoyance crossing his features. "Who cares what anyone said? You're the one who wanted to be treated like your old self, remember? You're the one who wanted to be a normal high school senior going to a normal senior skip day with your friends, and you backed out on it because someone told you that you couldn't do it? That's not the Quinn Fabray that I know. The Quinn Fabray I know doesn't just give up like that."
"How dare you," she bit out, clearly upset and off-put over being called on her crap. "And what Quinn Fabray do you know, anyway? It's not like you've even cared to be around since my accident. I could have changed completely for all you know."
"Please," Puck said, his eyes rolling in exaggeration. "If the last three years couldn't get rid of the feisty, take-no-prisoners, 'I get what I want no matter what,' Quinn Fabray that I know and love, neither will this accident." He'd caught his own choice of words, and frankly…they didn't bother him. "You're still the same Quinn; you got that? You're just a little broken right now, and only for a little while. That's not something you can't handle. Right?"
Her features softened a little bit, and she only hesitated a second longer before allowing him to lift her up and then into her chair. "Right," she agreed firmly.
"And for the record," he added as they made their way into the park, and he helped her onto their first ride of the day. "I was around after your accident. Just because you weren't awake for it doesn't mean that it didn't happen."
Quinn gripped the shoulder rests that were wrapped tightly around her frame and then turned her head to look at him in obvious shock. "Why didn't you tell me before? Or… you know, stick around until I was awake?"
He chuckled humorously and then shook his head, gripping his own shoulder rests. His mind went to the many times he'd tried to help her in the past; the many times he'd tried to be there for her; the many times he'd wanted her to be there for him. All of those times fell through in one way or another. He'd either fucked it all up or she had. "It's not like it would've mattered much anyway," he said plainly. "Look, let's just… have fun, ok? It's senior skip make-up day, remember?" He focused on the view in front of them, and then, with a wide grin, he reached blindly for her hand. "We're gonna have a blast."
And they did.
On that ride, and on the one after it… and then on the one after that.
Quinn laughed, and screamed, and at times Puck was sure that if she'd been able to stand, she would have danced.
He couldn't wait to see her dance again, and she would.
He believed it.
They rode back to her house, again, in comfortable silence. Only this time, it was lighter. There was nothing sad or angry or contemptuous about it. They'd had a good day – their best day together in a while – and there was no reason to ruin it.
Before long they'd pulled into her driveway, and Puck was pushing her up to the front door again.
"There ya go," he said with a smirk. "You're home… safe and sound. Not a scratch on you."
"Yeah," she agreed with a nod, unlocking the front door and then rolling just inside before turning back to face him. "Thanks for taking me today. It really sucked to miss the first trip."
"It was no problem." He waved her off, struck with the need to pretend like it was no big deal at all. "I'll, uh… I'll see you at school on Monday." When he received a slight nod, he turned his back to leave only to be stopped quickly by his own name being called back to him. "Yeah," he asked, turning back to catch her gaze.
"It would have mattered, you know." She paused, her pink tongue dancing out across her lips. If he didn't know her as well as he did, he'd never have known that that was a tell tale sign of Quinn Fabray nervousness. "You being there when I woke up, I mean."
"Good to know," he replied, smiling back at her. Puck closed the small gap between them, bending down to kiss her forehead quickly before straightening himself again. "I'm glad you're ok, Fabray," he called over his shoulder as he turned to leave.
By the time he'd climbed into his truck and begun backing down the driveway, she'd gone inside, and he was still smiling.
Senior skip day was fun. It was.
But this day? It was way better.