Title: Life Goes On
Author: msathenaxf
Disclaimer: Neither Glee, or any of its characters, belong to me. But I really love them and am borrowing them for my own amusement.
Author Notes: For the purpose of this story, I am assuming that Quinn, Finn, and Puck are all seniors in the current season. The others are either juniors or sophomores. I don't think their official grade levels have been mentioned yet.
Quinn
For Valentine's Day, Finn gave her a bouquet of roses and a tender kiss.
In return, she ripped his heart out.
Quinn was nearing the end of her second trimester and the stress of her life and lies was wearing on her. Looking into Finn's loving eyes broke her. She burst into tears and blurted out the truth. Quinn could see the exact moment he understood. The light in his eyes went out and he shut down. All she could do was watch him walk away, sobbing worthless apologies into the night.
It didn't occur to her to call Puck with a warning. When he showed up at her house the next day, sporting a serious black eye and moving more stiffly than he ever had after a football game, she couldn't bring herself to feel bad. If she was going to hurt like this, it seemed only fair that Puck should feel some of it, too.
In the past, she had always pictured him quietly pining over his best friend's girl. It made it easier to put all the blame on him and take none for herself. It was easy to say Puck got her drunk and took advantage. It was easy to forget that he was drunk before she even arrived at the party, easy to ignore the fact that he didn't say wait, and she didn't say stop.
But Quinn had grown up over the past few months, and she could admit that that night had just been a very bad decision made by two stupid teenagers who had too much to drink. Either way, Quinn didn't want Puck, not like that. But she was going to need him now, and she knew that too.
Two days later, when she finally dragged herself back to school, Quinn had her first destination clearly in mind. But Rachel and Kurt were already there, standing outside of Mr. Schuester's classroom, waiting for her. How she let two of the biggest freaks in school convince her not to quit glee club, was beyond her understanding. But everyday she was grateful for it.
Finn refused to quit—he was there first. There was no way Puck was going to leave the two of them alone. He didn't care about Quinn like that—much—but that was his kid in there, and he couldn't allow Finn to stress her out. So rehearsals continued, bleak and uncomfortable. Oddly enough, though, their performances were more sincere, emotional, and heartfelt than any team at Regionals.
She tries not to think too hard about the day she gave birth. She tries very hard not to refer to the little girl as her daughter. It was a semi-open adoption, and she and Puck were able to approve the couple. They each wrote private letters to the girl and left them with the adoption agency. If she ever decided to seek out her biological parents, it would at least give her a place to start. Hopefully, their words would also convey how heartbreaking this decision was, even if they knew it was the best thing for her.
After the trials of her senior year, college was a breeze. Since 10th grade, Quinn had been aiming for a private Christian college just east of the border in Pennsylvania. Quinn had been terrified that they might turn her away during her admittance interview; her pregnancy could not be hidden, and in fact, Quinn didn't want to hide it. But the school embodied the ideals of Christian forgiveness that her parents only seemed to preach, and they recognized her desire to do the right thing.
So she left Lima and went to college. No one knew her here; she could be anyone she wanted to be. The thing was, Quinn didn't know who that was and she was relishing the chance to find out. So she studied. She studied long hours and late nights. Quinn didn't party; she didn't join the cheer squad. However, every Sunday she found herself singing in the church choir after blowing the director away during an audition. And she didn't once feel ashamed about it.
In the beginning of her senior year, she ran into Finn at an interleague football game. It was sudden, like in the movies when the crowd parts to reveal exactly who and what you are looking for. They had not seen each other since right before leaving for college. Their breaks were different and they were rarely in Lima at the same time. But Quinn knew, locking eyes with him, that this was not the same Finn she had dated in high school. They were both different people now.
Different, and still just as perfect for each other.
It was slow, painfully slow. But they got reacquainted and kept in touch by phone and e-mail. Quinn was pretty sure they were friends. She didn't realize until now that they had never been friends before; they were always just Finn and Quinn, star couple of McKinley High. It was very enlightening.
He surprised her at her graduation and made her cry again. She took a job in Penn Hills, near Pittsburgh. When she told him that she would not be able to take any time off for the holidays, Quinn wasn't quite able to keep the tremble from her voice. His company closed shop for Thanksgiving, and so he showed up at her hospital with two turkey sandwiches from Subway.
Quinn kissed him and it was the most heavenly second first kiss she could imagine.
Not until the end of the long weekend did he announce he was transferring to the Pittsburgh branch of his company. He would be back in early January. She wanted to know if he had requested the transfer. She wanted to know if he was happy with it. It was a sheer miracle that she stopped herself from asking. Quinn tried not to hope, but Finn smiled her and made her skin tingle. She didn't need to hope anymore—she knew.
The day Finn proposed, three years later, was the happiest Quinn had ever been in her life.
