Without stopping to think, Finn took off his nightshirt and exchanged it for a random T-shirt from a drawer. Then he pulled on a pair of jeans and shoved his cell phone in his front pocket and his wallet in his back pocket. By that time Lily was already awake and sitting up. Finn slung the diaper bag over his shoulder, picked up Lily in his other arm, and took off. Carole was already waiting out front with the car. Finn wondered if he should take the time to put Lily's car seat into his mom's car, then realized that Quinn had had it in her car anyway. Finn climbed into the backseat and shut the door. He was shaking as he tried to pull the seatbelt over himself and Lily and click it into place.

"What exactly did they say?" said Finn.

"That she was in critical condition after crashing into a cement wall at roughly fifty miles per hour," said Carole. "They didn't say why. Only that…"

"That what?" asked Finn after his mom paused for a few seconds.

Carole hesitated. "That she might not have much time."

Finn felt more scared than ever as he wrapped his arms tighter around Lily. After a few minutes of just sitting there trying to process what was going on, it suddenly occurred to him to wonder why he was so scared. He shouldn't be feeling so afraid to lose Quinn. She'd confessed to repeatedly cheating on him with his best friend less than four hours ago. Not to mention all the lies about Lily…

"Do Quinn's parents know what's going on?" asked Carole.

"I don't know," said Finn. He pulled out his cell phone and speed-dialed the Fabray house.

The phone was answered on the third ring. "Hello?"

Oh, crap. It was Quinn's Dad. The one who had kicked her out in the first place. "Hi, could I speak to your wife please?"

"She's out of town at the moment," said Mr. Fabray. "Can I take a message?"

Finn sighed. "This is Finn. Quinn just got into a car accident. She's in the hospital."

"I'm sorry, who?" said Mr. Fabray.

"Finn Hudson," said Finn.

"I got that," said Mr. Fabray. "Who are you talking about?"

"Quinn, your daughter," said Finn.

"I'm sorry, my only daughter's name is Sarah Frances Williams," said Mr. Fabray. "And she's married to a good Catholic man."

"Look, if you're not even going to acknowledge your own dying daughter, will you at least have the decency to tell Quinn's mom that she might only have one more chance to see her?" said Finn.

"I might if I see her," said Mr. Fabray. "If it doesn't turn out well, please know that I'm sorry for your loss." Then he hung up, leaving his last words to haunt Finn.

I'm sorry for your loss.

It was as if Finn was the only one who should care.

"We're here," said Carole softly as she pulled up the entrance to the emergency room of Lima General Hospital. "Should I take Lily?"

"No!" Finn almost snapped as he undid the seatbelt and grabbed the diaper bag. "Just go park the car," said Finn. He noticed that Lily was beginning to fuss and put her head on his shoulder, hoping that she would fall asleep as he rushed in through the automatic doors and up to the desk. "Excuse me?" said Finn. "I need to see Quinn Fabray."

The nurse at the desk checked something in her computer. "Are you a family member?"

"I'm the father of her child," said Finn. "She has no other family."

The nurse suddenly looked up sympathetically at Finn. When she noticed Lily in his arms she blinked back a few tears. "How old are you, son?"

"Is that relevant?" said Finn. "Please, just let me go see her."

The nurse nodded and pulled out a microphone. "Dr. Logan, please come out to the waiting room, Miss Fabray's family is here. Dr. Logan, please come out to the waiting room."

"Why can't you just let us in?" said Finn in an almost demanding tone.

"The doctor has to tell you what happened before you can see her," said the nurse softly.

Finn sighed and blinked back a few frustrated tears as he patted Lily's back. "Go to sleep," he whispered. She whimpered in response. She must have known something wasn't right.

"Take me in into your darkest hour
And I'll never desert you
I'll stand by you
I'll stand by you
Won't let nobody-"

"Are you Miss Fabray's family?" asked a man coming up to them in scrubs.

"Yes," said Finn.

"You're…her brother?" the doctor guessed.

"No," said Finn. "I'm the father of her child."

The doctor's face fell. "This is the child?"

"Yes," said Finn. "Can you please, please let us see her?"

The doctor looked away from Lily and seemed to try not to think about her as he got his words out. "Let me explain to you what happened. Ms. Fabray was found on the highway having crashed her car into a cement wall. She was thrown from the driver's seat and hit her whole body against the concrete. Many of her bones were broken, including her skull. She was still alive when the ambulance picked her up, and they found out that she had a blood alcohol content of 2%, which if she were overage would have been over twice the legal limit."

"She's dead, isn't she?" Finn interjected.

The doctor hesitated for a split second before nodding. "Yes. I'm sorry. We'll need someone to come look at her for identification purposes."

"What's going on?" asked Carole, coming up behind Finn.

"She died, Mom," he whispered. Carole wordlessly put her arms around Finn and Lily.

"We'll need someone to come look at her for identification purposes," the doctor repeated, pointedly looking at Carole that time.

"Want me to do it?" asked Carole softly. Finn nodded. His mother gave him a quick squeeze before leaving to go identify Quinn's body.

"Does she have any other family members who would be willing to make funeral arrangements for her, or…" the doctor's voice trailed off.

"I'm not sure," said Finn. "I'll try calling her mother again later." He wordlessly turned around and sat down in a nearby chair with Lily, who had quieted down and was trying to fall back asleep. Finn laid her down on his lap and tucked her head into the crook of one arm, put his head in his other hand, and cried.

Three days later, Finn waited outside of Quinn's church for the doors to open and the funeral guests to arrive. The only people with him were Quinn's parents and Lily in a little black dress.

"What's her boyfriend doing here?" asked Mr. Fabray gruffly.

"He has just as much a right to be here as anyone else, darling," said Mrs. Fabray with a subtle fake smile.

They all stood there in silence until a church worker brought out a large sign to put by the door. It had a beautiful picture of Quinn in a white dress, and underneath it the words

R.I.P. Lucy Quinn Fabray
1994-2009
Age 15
Gone but not forgotten

"Oh, sir," said Mrs. Fabray. "You made a mistake on the sign."

"Your husband had it made," said the worker. "Ask him about it if you see any mistakes."

"But you got the year wrong," Finn interjected. "Her age, too. It's 2011 and she's almost seventeen.

"She was dead to us two years ago, Finn," said Mr. Fabray, putting his arm firmly around his wife.

"No!" snapped Mrs. Fabray, pulling away from her husband. He stepped back in complete and utter shock. "No more! I'm done with this! Quinn may have made a mistake, but she never deserved the kind of treatment that you gave her. Or that I gave her either. I let you steal the last year and a half of my daughter's life away from me…and I'll never forgive myself." Then she turned to Finn. "Any day that you need someone to watch Lily and your mother isn't available, call me. I know that it's too late to make it right…" She forced herself to choke back a few tears. "But I'm going to try anyway." Then she walked up to the sign, pulled out a black sharpie, and wrote "11" over "09" and a "6" over the "5" in Quinn's age. Then at the very bottom of the sign, she wrote, "Beloved mother". Quinn's father glared at the sign but didn't say anything.

A few minutes later, the doors opened, and the guests began to arrive. Quinn's mother insisted that Finn and Lily would sit in the front pew along with her, her husband, and Quinn's sister and brother-in-law. Then she went over to the priest to make sure that Lily would be acknowledged in the service.

"We are all gathered here today to mourn the loss of Lucy Quinn Fabray, loving daughter of Russell and Judy Fabray, and loving mother of Lillian Carole Fabray-Hudson." Mr. Fabray turned to glare at his wife immediately, she reciprocated. "I think that Quinn's mother would like to say a few words to all of you."

Mr. Fabray blinked in confusion as his wife pulled a piece of paper out of her purse and walked up to podium. The priest nodded to her politely and stepped aside. Mrs. Fabray took a deep breath. "I remember one time when Quinn was a very little girl, I let her borrow a pearl necklace of mine to wear to church. It wasn't real, but she didn't know that. She was very proud to be wearing it, took herself very seriously that day. Then after Sunday school, I couldn't find her anywhere. Everyone was looking all around for her, in the church, in the parking lot, at the playground. Suddenly her father and I got a call from the local train station saying that Quinn was there at the window trying to buy a ticket to Paris with fifty three cents that she had in her pocket. When I went got her I asked her why she'd wanted to run away, and she confessed that she'd taken the necklace off to look at it and accidentally dropped it down a rain gutter and she told me…" Quinn's mother paused to wipe a few tears from her cheeks, "That she didn't think I would ever be able to forgive her. And I looked her in the eye and said, "I'm your Mommy, I will always forgive you". And I meant it. Yes, Quinn made a mistake when she was a teenager. But she paid for it dearly. She had to quit the celibacy club and cheerleading. She had to stay home from school for six months and worry about healthcare costs and babysitters and the cheapest diapers to buy at sixteen years old. Sixteen." The priest stepped over sympathetically as tears began to spill from Mrs. Fabray's eyelids, but she continued anyway. "As every other parent in here knows…when you have a child, they're a part of you. It's like you're attached by this invisible tether, and no matter how far away they are, you can always feel them. Now when I reach for that tether, I know there's no one on the other end. And it kills me. But still, I can feel her." Quinn's mother paused to take the piece of paper she'd been reading from and crumple it into her hand. "I forgive you, Quinnie." She said out loud.

Then she quietly walked off the podium and sat back down in the pew next to Finn. Her husband shook his head in disgust, got up, and left the building.

After the service was over, Finn stood up to leave. "Finn?" said Quinn's mother. "I would be honored if you and Lily would stand up and say goodbye to the guests with me."

"Thank you," said Finn. Really he just wanted to go home with the baby, but he didn't feel like he could say no to Quinn's mom now. He got up and walked to the exit of the church with Mrs. Fabray and with Lily in his arms. Lily's eyes darted around in confusion. "She's looking for Quinn, isn't she?" said Mrs. Fabray softly.

"Of course," said Finn. "She's been looking for her for the last three days straight."

"Don't worry," said a nearby relative of Quinn's as she walked past. "Babies' memories aren't that good. She'll forget and stop looking in a week."

That made Finn want to cry even more than seeing Lily so confused. In another week, his daughter wasn't going to remember her own mother. What kind of a consolation was that?

For the next hour or so, Finn stood with Quinn's mom mindlessly accepting people's condolences and listening them to tell him Lily was beautiful and adorable and looked just like her mother. He wasn't quite sure what to say to everyone. He was too numb to process what was going on himself. All he could think about now was Quinn's beautiful smile when she looked up at him, watching her hold Lily in her arms and talk to her, waking up with her head on his shoulder. This didn't make any sense. Four days ago, he'd been furious with her. And she certainly had never given him any reason not to be towards the end.

It was only when Kurt and Rachel came up to Finn hand in hand that he fully snapped back into reality. "Hi," he said, quite surprised to see either of them. "Thanks for coming."

"I'm so sorry," said Rachel tearfully. She put her arms around both Finn and Lily and hugged them gently. She hadn't expected to cry during the service, but despite having wanted Quinn out of the way for so long, she had. Not like this, Rachel kept thinking.

"Thanks, Rachel," said Finn gratefully.

"If you need anything let me know," she said.

He nodded and gave a tearful smile before turning to Kurt. The two guys starred at each other for almost a full thirty seconds before they both blurted out, "I'm sorry."

"No I'm sorry," said Kurt quickly.

"No I am!" said Finn. Rachel smiled a little when the two brothers hugged each other tightly and patted each other's backs.

"Come back home?" said Finn.

"Yeah," said Kurt. "Just let me go to Rachel's house and get my stuff." Finn nodded. Kurt quickly squeezed his shoulder before leaving the church with Rachel.

After that, every single one of the members of New Directions came through and offered their condolences, help, and support. Finn was torn between happy and sad feelings the whole time until Mercedes came up. That's when he remembered how she'd been there during Lily's birth and they both started bawling and hugging each other. Then Santana came over sobbing with Brittany's arm around her shoulders. "Finn, I think I killed her!" she blurted out between sobs.

"What?" said Finn.

"I called her a MILF right before she left," said Santana.

"You were drunk," said Finn. "That's not what killed her, the damn alcohol and the road killed her!" He and Mercedes both put their arms around Santana, and Brittany joined in the hug as did Artie, Tina, Sunshine, Sam, and Mike. Finn looked up. The only two Glee club members who weren't anywhere near them were Puck and Lauren. As everyone else gradually made their way outside, Puck turned around and headed for a different exit. "He says he'll talk to you later," said Lauren. "We're both very sorry for your loss."