I'm so thankful that you seem to love this story as well as my other J/Q one, and that means the world to me. Thanks for reading and reviewing, and keep them coming please! :D Only makes me upload faster. After this, there's one more chapter and to end, and epilogue. Enjoy!
19:05
They got to the hospital pretty fast, mostly because Jesse had broken a lot of traffic rules in the process. He carried her out of the car like before and quickly entered the ER.
The nurse let them go first because of Quinn's pregnancy and she told them to wait in the first examining room until Quinn's doctor, whom the hospital had called up, arrived there.
Jesse carefully put Quinn on the table when he entered the room, with her still in his arms, and grabbed the nearest chair to sit on. Quinn's pain had subsided a bit but she was scared something had happened. Her ankle still hurt though, but that was the least of her worries.
"Jesse?" she began, him zoning in on her eyes again. If he had looked at her quivering chin there's no way he wouId've been able to stay as calm as he then was.
"Quinn?" he mimicked in an effort to lighten the tension and the giant elephant in the room. His effort had no effect.
"I'm scared." She paused. "I started thinking about the things that can still happen. If I fall down the stairs or slipped in the bathtub, I could lose the baby. Although he or she wasn't expected per se, I don't want anything to go wrong. I'm so scared."
He took her hand in both of his and squeezed it tightly to let her focus go back to him.
"First of all, you really need to calm down. Worrying is not going to help anything, if only it'll just make you more vulnerable. You have nothing to be scared of. You are a healthy, gorgeous girl. If anything, your baby is going to be too healthy. Your doctor is just going to do a check up, so breathe deeply and try to relax."
She smiled thankfully when her breathing did stabilize. She laced her fingers through his slowly in a sneaky way (which he liked) as they waited a little longer for the doctor to come in.
"l wonder what Rachel would say if she knew you were here with me." Quinn said after a short, but not uncomfortable silence. A grin spread across her lips and she pulsed for his reaction, before letting her gaze rest on their linked hands.
"She actually told me to go with you. She'd just called me when you ran by, but I ended it when I saw you fall. Either way, she seemed worried."
They both caught how good their hands fit together, even though his were bigger than hers.
19:15
When the doctor came in, he moved his one hand away from underneath hers so that only his left was lying on her right.
Dr. Luke Robertson, as Jesse could read from his name tag, was a relatively young doctor. As far as he could judge guys by their appearance, he would say that Luke would be handsome in a girl's eyes. He peeked at Quinn but she didn't seem to have a particular fascination for him (but maybe that was due to the fact that she had been a patient of his for a while now).
The doctor took in the two teenagers; the scrapes and bruises on Quinn's arms and legs - the girl he had treated since the beginning of her pregnancy, and then Jesse's guilty expression (that had to do with the fact that he'd gone too far by taking her hands, he didn't want to take 'advantage' of her when she was down) - his version of what'd happened was quickly formed. He sent Jesse a sharp look as he sat down on the other side of Quinn.
"Ms. Fabray, can you tell me what happened to you?" he asked, giving her a sympathetic glance.
"I was running to catch my bus and I fell down." she answered reluctantly, feeling somewhat stupid when she heard it like that.
"And where were you when this happened?" He turned to Jesse next.
"Uh, I was walking by on my way home. I ran out to help her." Why was that even remotely important? He needed to examine her, damn it!
"Listen fella, I know that nowadays, you high school boys are under a lot of pressure and your status is very important, but when you get your girlfriend pregnant, the least you can do is support her and keep your hands off her!"
The doctor was getting very defensive and now Jesse understood where he was getting at. Frankly, he was offended that he looked like the kind of guy who would beat his pregnant girlfriend into the ER.
"You think I did this to her? That's absurd! Quinn?"
"Luke, he's telling the truth." she told him, nodding affirmatively. However, he still didn't believe it. He'd heard many excuses over the years.
Jesse knew he had to leave if he wanted to keep calm, the frustration was already bottling up inside of him.
"Quinn, I'm sorry. My being here maybe wasn't a good idea." he told her and he was ready to storm out the room when Quinn grabbed his wrist to stop him.
"No! Jesse, I need you here. Please don't leave me."
The girl sat up straighter and came to his defense. "Luke, I'm not his girlfriend. He's my friend from school, he brought me to the ER. I have no other boy in my life right now."
The room fell silent after that and Dr. Robertson could tell she meant what she said. He quickly apologized to Jesse and motioned for him to wait.
"Again, excuse me, but trust me, it happens more than you think. Now, I'm sure you can wait outside for a moment while I examine her."
"No, please, he is the father of my baby." Quinn interjected, wanting him beside her when she was finally calm. (And there might have been another reason) "We're just not a couple. But he's there for me."
Well, two true things out of three wasn't bad, she thought to herself.
Jesse raised his eyebrows at her but she pleaded him to remain silent. And he did.
"Very well then. I was rude earlier, but now I have to take it all back. You did a good thing by bringing her in. You're going to make a great father." the man praised, a compliment that had them both smiling.
That shouldn't have made Jesse feel as good as it did; it wasn't true. Not true. Made up. What he needed was to was distance himself, before it got way too complicated for the both of them.
Dr. Robertson told them to sit back while he left to get the necessary equipment, which worked out for them to be able to talk.
19:22
Jesse sat back down in the chair he had left vacant and sighed.
"I'm sorry he attacked you like that, you didn't deserve that at all. And I also apologize for lying to Luke just now, for putting you in that position. It's just... I hate the fact that I'm responsible for having a baby that doesn't have a real, loving father. I wish Puck cared as much as you did." she admitted, her brown eyes sad because of more than one reason.
"You know who you remind me of?" he asked her out of the blue, trying to distract her from the eternal question mark that was Noah Puckerman.
She shook her head and raised in eyebrow in curiosity.
"What you have to know is that I have been catching up with 'Little Women' recently. Rachel ordered me to read it and although I started, I never finished it. But now I am."
Quinn shot him a look that basically told him to get to the point if he had one.
"Beth March. That's who you remind me of. From what I've read, you two have a lot in common; you're kind, quiet at times, a pianist (!characteristic of Quinn in my other St. Fabray story that was appropriate here too). She recovers from her difficulty, her disease, but she's weakened and left vulnerable by it, she never lets herself off the hook. I see that in you too. You have way too much guilt over this pregnancy. Don't. Whatever you decide, you're doing a wonderful thing, Quinn. Or Beth, whatever you like best?"
He chuckled and she narrowed her eyes in mock irritation.
"You know she died, right?"
"What?" he replied with a shocked expression. "You totally spoiled the ending for me now. Thanks a lot, Fabray."
"My pleasure, Mr. St. James." She played the game along, recognizing a bit of her old Cheerio self in the tone she had used.
19:24
"And by the way, it's 'do'." he said, again out of the blue, but this time not to distract her.
She looked at him as if he'd gone crazy. He was absentmindedly staring at the wall behind her and for a moment, she actually doubted his sanity.
"What?"
She wanted to know if she was going to have to call a nurse or something.
"You said 'did'." he began, facing her again and holding her gaze firmly.
"You said 'as much as you did'. But I still do. I still care, whether or not you're in need."
She felt a genuine smile creeping up her lips and that was the first time in a long time someone had said those words to her. And coming from him, it meant so much more.
Then she found herself leaning towards him; he noticed and his eyes were already looking at her lips, their hearts already beating out of their chests and that familiar feeling in the pit of their stomach rising, him moving his hand to cup her cheek... The moment was there, and it started perfectly.
But of course, just like you would expect, Luke came barging in with the sonogram equipment.
19:25
The two of them quickly lunged to opposite sides and tried to keep their faces straight. The man clearly sensed something had happened and asked if he had interrupted something. (Jesse could swear he'd seen a glimpse of a grin on his face.)
Quinn shook her head, visibly caught off guard, but she managed to form a smile for her doctor.
"We were just... talking." she told him.
Jesse quickly recovered to his pragmatic self, mainly thanks to the media training they had had to take to join Vocal Adrenaline.
"Okay then. First I'm going to have look at your foot, but I'm pretty certain it's just a sprain. You're in luck what that's concerned. Next are these scratches, those need to be cleaned." he explained to her, adding that Jesse could help him with that if he wanted.
"And the baby?" Jesse asked, a little annoyed at his dawdling.
"That's right after that. Quinn is our main concern; but healthy mommy usually means healthy baby so..." he didn't finish, but he gave Quinn a reassuring nod before going about his procedures.
She flinched a couple of times when sudden jolts of pain went through her body, but overall it was less brutal than she'd expected. But what she was really nervous about still had to come.