A/N: Welcome to Chapter 12! I don't know about you guys, but I'm far less than pleased about what they're doing with Quick, especially after this week. I started writing this chapter after Big Brother aired and just finished it tonight, so it covers a little bit of everything. I hope you all enjoy it! Please read and review if you'd like! Xoxo-Katie

Disclaimer: I don't own Glee.

"What was that about?" Puck asks, coming around the corner as Artie wheeled away.

"Nothing," Quinn deflects, turning her chair around to force a smile up at her boyfriend.

"Didn't really seem that way to me."

"How much did you hear?"

"Enough to know that I need to have a talk with my bro, Artie."

"Puck, you don't have to. It's-."

"He's wrong, you know," he says, placing a hand on the back of her wheelchair, not to help her move but just to let her know he's still right behind her without being too obvious.

"Maybe he's not," she tosses over her shoulder. This was the second time she'd gotten into an argument with Artie about being about to walk again and it had heightened since she had started her intense physical therapy.

"Hey," Puck replies, gripping onto the handle of her chair and bringing it to a halt. "Since when do you talk like that?"

"Puck, please. Can't you just take me home? It's been a long day and I'm tired."

"Look, I'm not gonna force you to talk about stuff like this," he sighs as he lifts her up into his truck, folding her chair up and placing it into the back. "You know I'm not like that, but through all of this I've never heard you talk like that. What gives?"

"I don't know," Quinn admits, looking out her window. "Sometimes I just wonder if Artie's right. I'm sure he felt as optimistic as I do at one point and nothing worked out for him. I met a lot of great people at the skate park the other day."

"I'm sure you did, but we missed you at senior ditch day. I mean what the hell kind of senior ditch day was that if you spent it with a junior?"

"I would have just held you all back."

"No way. I'm sorry, Artie's by boy and all but I think you need to take everything he says with a grain of rice."

"I think you mean salt," Quinn chuckles.

"Whatever. My point is that he's kinda jaded. Just like Teen Jesus McHippie VonTwighead. What the fuck is his deal? Saying he was praying for you to accept whatever comes?"

"It still wasn't right of you to threaten to cut his hair off after I told you that."

"Yeah, well if he doesn't keep his distance I'll be doing a hell of a lot more than that."

"What about you? You don't want me to accept my situation?"

"No," Puck shakes his head. "I don't. I want you to demand what you think you want. I'm pretty damn sure you want to walk again and based on what your doctors have said and what I've seen for myself at your therapy, you should demand nothing less than that."

Quinn just smiles and reaches for Puck's hand. He's been nothing short of wonderful to her in the last couple of months. He was with her in the hospital every day after she had demanded he be able to be there and argued with her mother about it. He came early every morning before school and showed up every day after school was over to bring her homework and spend time with her before heading home and starting all over again the next day. He was there when she was finally able to leave the hospital and carried her up the steps to her bedroom when she didn't want to sleep in the converted guest room on the ground floor that first night home. Slowly, but surely, he ever started winning over Judy Fabray who told Quinn one night after he left that "any guy who sticks around through this can't be that bad at all."

"Thanks," she says once they've arrived at her house and he gently sets her down into her chair. "Are you coming in for a bit?"

"Actually, I have to help my mom with something at home but I'll call you later tonight."

It's odd that he doesn't come in, but Quinn shrugs it off because it's not odd that he would have to help his mom with something around the house. She gives him a kiss and wheels herself inside to work on homework for the better part of the evening. He calls like he says he would and before he hangs up, strangely suggests that she wear a jacket in the morning because it's supposed to be chilly. It's not until the next day when he shows up and starts to drive in the opposite direction of school that Quinn decides to question him.

"Ummm where are we going?" she asks. "School's the other way."

"I'm giving you a proper senior ditch day," Puck replies, matter-of-factly.

"What?"

"You heard me. I'm taking you to an amusement park for the day. Not Six Flags, though. I'm taking you to Kiddie Land because there are actually things you can ride there."

"You're actually serious right now?"

"Yes! Why do you think I told you to wear a jacket today?"

"I still don't know how much I'm going to be able to do," she says skeptically.

"That's OK. We'll do what you can and then there's some games and an arcade and shit, too that we can hit up."

Puck drives them the forty-five minutes to the amusement park, stopping at a McDonald's Drive Thru along the way to get some breakfast. Because it's a school day and still relatively chilly, the park is pretty deserted and they're able to take their time and enjoy the clear day. Quinn lets him push her after a while because she doesn't want to wear herself out too early in the day. Due to her injury, she can't ride any of the roller coasters, regardless of how small they are, but there are plenty of other rides she can go on. The staff is patient and accommodating as Puck lifts her out of her chair and into all of the rides. They end up going on the swings four times, the train three times, the tea cups five and the Ferris wheel seven because Quinn loves being able to see the entire park from the very top. They eat corn dogs and split a funnel cake before playing some games and Puck even wins her a teddy bear for knocking over a pyramid of milk bottles with one throw. She laughs harder than she can remember laughing in a long time and by the time they ride the Ferris Wheel one last time as the sun is setting over the horizon, she lays her head on Puck's shoulder and sighs, realizing just how tired but content she is all at the same time.

It's dark when they get back to Lima but instead of driving back over to Quinn's house, Puck steers his truck to his home and parks in the driveway.

"You want hang out here for a little while? My mom made lasagna tonight and I know you actually liked it when you lived with me. Plus, Sara really wants to see you. Only if you're up for it though, no pressure."

"I'd really like to, but…you might need to carry me up the couple of steps to the door."

Puck smiles and nods. He knows how hard it is for her to ask for help. When they reach his front steps he unlocks and opens the door and carries Quinn inside, setting her on the couch so he can bring her chair in, too. They eat dinner with his family and Ruth gently questions her son's girlfriend about how her physical therapy is going. Sara actually refrains from asking any super weird questions and after Puck helps with the cleanup they move on to hangout in his bedroom.

Quinn hadn't realized until they reach his room that it's been a long time since they've been there together since he usually came to her house, even before the accident. She notices that he's moved a few things around to make wheeling into the room easier for her. Puck's pretty proud of her when she insists on getting onto the bed by herself and watches as she uses her upper body strength to transfer herself into the mattress. He turns the TV on before taking the spot next to her and gathering Quinn into his arms like always but they barely pay attention to the program on the screen. Instead, they talk more about their day and Puck has to distract her from thinking about all of the homework they missed. Their discussion is studded with random pecks and kisses here and there and he tried to remember the last time she let him be this close to her since she came home from the hospital. Boldly, he lets his hand travel down her body until it's wandering over her thigh and tracing little patterns there.

"I can feel that, you know," she whispers against the corner of Puck's mouth.

"Well, that's kinda the idea here," he replies with a smirk, capturing her lips with his own. She kisses him back, tentatively. It feels amazing to be in his arms again, to feel this way because it's familiar and the closest she's felt to normal in a long time. His hands slowly inch their way back up her body and she's pretty sure she feels a recognizable hardness pressing against her thigh which causes her to pull back.

"What's wrong?" Puck asks, his eyes still half closed and lips still pursed. "Are you, OK?"

"Yes," Quinn replies quickly, bringing her hand up to her forehead. "I mean, no…I mean, I don't know."

"Hey, babe look at me. If you don't wanna do this, we don't have to."

"It's not that I don't want to, I just don't know if I can. It's not really fair to you."

"How is it now? I'm not doin' this out of pity or anything. I'm doing this because I love you and I wanna be with you and I wanna make you feel good."

"But what if it's not as good as it was before?"

"And what if it's better?" Puck smirks and rests his weight on his elbows. "Like I said, we don't have to do this, there's no pressure but I don't have any ulterior motives other than the fact that I love you and I've missed being this close to you. Even if this is all we do tonight, it's enough for me to be this close to you again."

"I've missed you too," Quinn admits. "Even though you've been here every day. I hate being watched over like a hawk by my mom. I feel like I have zero privacy anymore. She doesn't think I can do anything for myself anymore. At least you let me try. And then when you leave every night it's just so lonely. I've had dreams where you climb through my window again and they're great and then I wake up and I'm alone. You have no idea how lonely it is."

"I think I have some idea," he nods, brushing her hair from her forehead and kissing it. Quinn sighs and reaches for the hem of his t-shirt, letting her fingers ghost over his abs as she pulls it up and over his head.

"That's better."

"Are you sure?" he asks, toying with the bottom of Quinn's shirt.

"Positive," she replies, pulling herself off the bed a bit so he can discard her blouse.

Puck smiles against her lips and kisses his way down her neck and across her collarbone, skimming over her breasts and down her torso. He moves to lightly press his mouth over the scar on the side of her ribs from her surgery after her lung collapsed before he ends up just below her belly button at the waistline of her jeans. Stealing a glance up at Quinn, he unfastened them and tugs the zipper down. After peeling them off her body he takes a second to remove his own and lies back down next to her, running a teasing finger up her thigh, causing her left to flinch a bit

"Pretty soon I might be able to kick you again," Quinn jokes, playfully smacking Puck's arm.

"And I'll gladly accept it," he counters, grasping onto her hand so she can't pull it back.

"What about protection?" she asks seriously.

"I got it," Puck replies. He reaches back into his nightstand drawer and pulls out a condom. "Trust me."

Taking the foil wrapper from him, Quinn wraps her free arm around his neck, pulling his head down until it's inches from her face. "I do," she says, kissing him deeply. "More than anyone."

XXXXX

"I love you," Puck says, kissing and then resting his chin on Quinn's shoulder from behind.

"I love you, too," she echoes, pulling his arm even closer around her. "Thank you for everything today. It was just…perfect."

"I'm glad you enjoyed yourself. I know how much it sucks to be stuck in school and home all day every day."

"Yeah, even coming here was a nice change. It was great."

"That's good t hear. What would you think about coming over more often? I was thinking about putting a ramp at my front door. Last night, I didn't have to help my mom with something. I went over to Artie's. After telling him to stop bringin' your hopes down I had him help me look up stuff and dimensions for building a ramp. It's actually pretty easy. I can do it myself and if I take my doorframe off you'd be able to wheel into my room a lot easier, that is, until you're on your feet again."

"Are you serious about that?"

"Absolutely. Why would I joke around about something like that?"

"You wouldn't," Quinn shrugs, craning her neck to look at him over her shoulder. "That would just…mean the world to me. Just the fact that you've been with me through everything…"

"And will be with you through anything. I mean that, Quinn. I got my acceptance letter from Gateway Community College in New Haven. We're gonna be together out there."

"Oh my God, Puck! That's incredible. Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"Because today was your special day."

"I told you that you would get in," Quinn beams up at him. "I'm so proud of you."

"Thanks, babe," Puck replies, suddenly a bit shy at the words of his girlfriend's praise.

"Now today really is the best day ever. I'm so excited to go to Yale but I'm scared at the same time. Now I don't have to be scared anymore because you'll be there with me."

"This is gonna be the beginning of big stuff for us, Quinn. We're both getting out of here and getting the chance to do what we've always wanted to do. Being able to do it together is just going to make it even better."

"It really is," she agrees, kissing him softly. "And I wouldn't have it any other way."

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