-Authors Notes-

Hello my loves.

Sorry for the unexpected hiatus over the holidays. My step brothers are always here for the holidays and I miss them so and we try to pack so much in I genuinely just don't have the time. I should have warned you. Opps.

Anyway so we're just over half way through this half of the story (before our jump through time and space) so we're at the regionals. Sweet.

It's a Quinn chapter. Personally it felt like it was the only way. She has a damn baby, it's only fair she gets the chapter.

It's all baby drama and Quick ahoy and expect more frequent updates in general. I promise. Normal service resumes.

Ok so the next chapter will be regionals part II (kind of a meanwhile back at the competition scenario) but beyond that we will be following the timeline of the show and going to season 2 (but there will be mention of summer).

ALSO one last thing. As ever thanks for my reviews. I haven't really kept up with them over my illness and Christmas so I apologize. I do still read them and appreciate them and promise to get back on top of my life! So as ever I hope to hear some of your thoughts.

Much love. Live long and Finchel.

-X-

Quinn ran off stage grasping her baby bump as she went.

She was enjoying the adrenalin high that the entire club was experiencing. They were over the moon, on stage nothing had mattered, they'd put on the best show they could have. Who got solos? Duets? The choreography? They had been a team. New Directions had owned that stage. It was different from when Quinn had performed with the cheerios, they were a machine. New Directions was a family, Quinn was finally starting to see it. The way they accepted her when the cheerleaders gave up on her, how they looked after her.

It was awkward, it always would be. Puck still pined after her when Finn wasn't looking and on top of that Finn had got it into his thick skull that he could sing the dwarf straight out of Jesses arms and into his. While he was still pretending to be Quinns boyfriend.

He's earned a pretty black eye for that dumb move.

But in that small window of time on stage every drama the team had suffered had melted away.

Quinn giggled as she heard Rachel assure Tina, "screw that we are gonna win this!"

Then she heard a new voice. A familiar voice but unexpected voice.

"Quinne"

Quinn couldn't hide the confusion in her face as she realized who was standing in front of her.

"Mom? What are you doing here? Is Dad ok?"

Her mothers voice was laced with happiness and pride as she spoke, "I came to hear you sing. You were wonderful. I'm so sorry I missed all the other times you performed. Were there a lot?"

Quinn was speechless. The mother who had allowed her to be expelled from her home was standing in front of her apparently looking for forgiveness.

"I left your father"

The words washed over her as she tried to process what it meant for the family she had once belonged to.

"I kicked him out actually. He was having an affair with some... eh... tattooed freak"

Quinn felt a unfamiliar ache spread through through her abdomen as her mother continued to prattle.

"Quinne, I want you to come home with me. I can turn the guest room into a nursery"

She felt a wetness overcome her, it had been the one sensation of childbirth she'd been sure she would be able recognize when it happened.

"Oh sweetie say something?" her mother begged unaware of her daughters current state.

"My water just broke".

She gripped her stomach as the ache turned into pain. She was expecting it, she'd been told what a contraction felt like and she had tried to prepare for it.

However Quinn was not prepared for it.

Her mother started panicking like only she can. Taking charge and ordering people about while somehow still slightly hyper ventilating.

Quinn was now surrounded by the glee club. All of them trying to be involved. She lifted her head to look at them all as she recovered from the pain.

Mercedes was the first to say anything that made any sense, "give the girl some room people, she's having a damn baby".

Quinn breathed a sigh of relief as everyone took one step back and she offered a thankful look to the girl who had become an unexpected but truly loyal friend.

Regardless Finn pushed through, fell to his knees in front of her and with the look of a child who had just been thrown in the deep end muttered, "what do I do?"

"Well that's obvious dude, just do whatever she tell you to!", Puck said as a matter of fact.

Quinn looked up at Puck and had never doubted her choice to choose Finn over him so much. That one sentence, although not exactly rocket science, described perfectly what she wanted.

Do everything she says because she is preparing to push a small human out from inside her.

Mr Schue finally made himself heard over the panic, "Ok guys I know everyone wants to come but somebody needs to stay here and represent the team".

Bickering broke out which was silenced by Rachel, "well as co captain I would feel it my responsibility to stay and allow those who are needed at the hospital to be there"

"And of course I'll stay", Jesse chimed grabbing her hand.

Quinn heard Finn mumble "Thanks Rachel" before blushing and returning his gaze to Quinn. She didn't even have time to care who was coming or staying, or if Finn had looked at Rachel. Nothing else mattered except getting to the hospital and Quinn did not think it was happening fast enough.

Following that thought she then found herself being scooped up and taken to a car, that was more like it. The cries and worries of the rest them had become white noise to Quinn, she focused on breathing. That's what she'd been taught, just to breathe. It had seemed stupid at the time but it was actually harder that it looked.

"Puckerman what are you doing?" Quinn heard Santana screech breaking her concentration as Puck held the door open to her mothers car and slipped in with Finn and her in the back.

Mercedes was sitting in the front with her Mom so it wasn't obscenely weird that he was in the car. Then again from Puck any public display of caring about anyone other than himself probably looked weird.

"Going to the hospital, duh!" he replied as her Mom pulled the car away at great speed and the bus screeched to life behind them for the rest of the Glee club to follow.

Finn was holding her hand. His hands felt like a hundred degrees and she slipped her other hand into Pucks. His hand was amazingly cool which felt such a relief.

If Finn was about to question the move he didn't get a chance as it seemed to make sense in the next moment. She suddenly gripped both of their hands and clamped down on them almost as if to steady herself as she braced for the next contraction.

Mercedes said soothing things from the front and her mother screamed things like, "just hold on Quinne" and "move out of the way you idiot my daughter is having a baby".

Quinn did get her temper from her Mom.

Eventually they made it to the hospital and Puck backed out and held a hand to help her. Finn ran around the car to grab her other hand and there she was. Being helped by both Finn and Puck. Still stuck in the middle of them both.

The awkward moment however was when Puck grabbed a wheelchair for her and readied himself to push it as Quinn sat in it.

"Dude can I kinda push the mother of my baby to the delivery room?", Finn asked.

Puck looked down at Quinn for a second and despite the devil may care look on his face she saw sadness in his eyes.

She put her hand on his hand and tried to convey apologies back to him through her eyes, "Puck I think Finn can handle it from here".

Quinn actually felt a pang of regret. Puck was about to be a dad and unable to show it.

Then again he didn't have to push the baby out first.

Reality consumed her again as the bus arrived with the rest of the club and Puck stepped aside for Finn to take the reign.

"Why are we just standing here? Move people move!", Mercedes shouted.

The jamboree took off through the hospital looking like a garbled mess of people. All shouting and panicking. Quinn felt the contractions flood over her faster and faster.

"Stop!" she demanded almost as much to the contractions as to the people around her.

The chair screeched to halt.

"I want Mercedes with me too".

Mercedes had a flash of fear in her face before gulping and nodding.

There was only one other person Quinn wanted in the delivery room but all she could do was offer him a sad smile as she was wheeled away.

Quinn grabbed the scrubs of the first medical person she saw as she was wheeled in like a prize pumpkin.

"I want you to give me all the drugs you have. ALL OF THEM".

-X-

Quinn sat in her hospital gown basking in the silence.

Her mother had gone to coo over 'Baby Hudson-Fabray', Finn had gone to get some air or maybe vomit she didn't really know or care, it wouldn't be long before the facade with him was over anyway. Mercedes had insisted on going to the hospital shop to buy Quinn something although Quinn highly doubted she would find anything other than skittles and newspapers.

She was exhausted. That was the only word to describe it. No matter how magical it had felt to hold that tiny baby girl in her arms it had still exhausted her. And instead of the natural maternal instinct Quinn just felt knots of fear eating away at her.

Quinn Fabray was in no fit state to be a mother. Despite the offer of help from her mother she couldn't do it. She wanted to, in the back of her mind she knew she loved her little bundle of baby but she just couldn't. Her options well null and void.

Option one, of course Finn would be no help. He would try but Quinn would no longer be able to ignore the fact that he was obviously interested in man hands. She couldn't condemn herself to 18 years in a fake relationship. Or 18 years with a weekend dad for her daughter.

Option two, well it wasn't worth discussing. She certainly wasn't going to go ahead and raise her alone.

And Puck? Puck wasn't even an option. It would destroy everything if people found out now.

No one would trust her ever again.

Quinn may have been selfish. She may have been conceited and well frankly a bit of a bitch sometimes but even she knew that what she had done was horrible.

Truly monstrous.

She had chosen Finn to be the father of her baby, to support her throughout the pregnancy and to give up the baby he wanted to raise, when he wasn't even the baby daddy.

Quinn felt dirty just thinking about it. She was in way too deep. She could only imagine what everyone would do.

Finn and Puck would actually kill each other. Quinn herself would probably be stoned or something. She doubted even glee club would forgive a lie of such epic proportions. Not when she had taken it so far.

Not when Finn had been the one to hold her hand all this way, to be with her in the delivery, to actually hold the baby.

She had condemned one more person than was necessary to suffer the heartbreak of giving up a baby.

A knock at the door startled Quinn into opening her eyes, which were slowly closing as she thought about her sins.

"Quinn?"

The mohawk came through the door first.

"Puck? What are you doing in here?"

He made air quotes, "I came to see how you are".

Puck moved to sit in the chair by her bed. She sighed looking at the boy, wondering what could have been.

In the blink of an eye Puck seemed like the one person she most needed to talk to.

"Listen Puck, I'm actually glad you came in. I wanted to say something and well I want you to shut up and listen".

"Shoot baby mama"

Her eyes flashed to the door to ensure no one was there to hear that, or to hear what she had to say.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry I never trusted you to be the one. To be the father. I should have given you a shot Puck, you deserved it. I don't deserve forgiveness or anything, so I'm not asking for it. What's done is done. I made a really stupid choice based on who I thought would help me stay popular and well... It should have been you. I'm giving up this baby now based on that fact that I can't raise her with Finn. I'm not saying me and you could of but, I'm sorry that we'll never know".

He laughed, "that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard".

She stared, dumbstruck, "what?"

"Me? The safe bet? Baby, I'm a idiot. Finn is a idiot too, no doubt, but neither of us was cut out for this. Yeah I wish I'd of been there for you cause hell that baby girl is mine. Not his. But whatever, you made your choice and I had to accept it. In some ways I even understood it. My baby mama had to do what was best for her and I can relate. The Puckster is all about looking after number one. It's a dog eat dog world Fabray. And I know that this confession thing is important for you christian girls but you don't have to apologize".

She looked down to her lap, "why are you being so nice to me after..."

Puck cut her off with three words. "I've seen her".

Quinn smiled up at him, at the look in his eyes. "And?"

"She is beautiful, like you. And tiny. She's got my lips", he pouted and winked at her, "but she's got your eyes. She's amazing".

Quinn didn't know what to say. She hadn't planned the apology but him walking in seemed like fate and now Noah Puckerman was saying all the right things to please her drug addled mind. The look of sincerity on his face only fuelled her cloudy judgements.

"I don't know what to say", she admitted.

"Don't say anything else just let me know if I've still got a shot after babygate is over because... well because I did love you Quinn. I do now more than ever".

Before Quinn could reply he jumped up from his chair, swooped in and kissed her. Hard. She had to catch her breathe when he pulled away but before she could think of her response she heard the creek of the door and caught sight of some chocolates and a teddy bear.

Quinn made no attempt to hide the blush in her cheeks, "Hi Mercedes"