Author's Note: Sorry for the huge delay in me getting to this chapter. I know, I know… I always take forever. Whatever. It's apparently who I am. At least I update it eventually.

By the way, the day after posting the previous chapter, I made this Finn & Quinn fanvideo:

/watch?v=rc47fWkbGno

I'd love your opinion on it. ;) It's, I think, a bittersweet tribute to them which was inspired of course by Cory Monteith's passing, sadly, but also by the Fuinn chapters at the beginning of this fic, which have been lovely to write and have made me appreciate the Fuinn ship more than I did before.

Anyway… here is the very last chapter pertaining to episode 1x13 "Sectionals" of the show. Finally. Technically, this episode spanned chapters 19 through 25 of my fic, haha. I hope you enjoyed the journey. I had no idea I could or would make a single episode of Glee – which in my mind apparently spanned approximately five days, from a Thursday through a Monday – span this far.

This chapter (Chapter 25) explores the final week-and-a-half leading up to McKinley High School's December 2009 winter break. Chapter 26 will be about their time off school. Chapter 27 will show their return to the school in January 2010 and cover episode 1x14 "Hell-O". This is the direction my fic is taking. Hopefully I can finish it up and get to episode 1x22 with the birth of Beth sooner rather than later. This fic has taken me way too long to write, lol.

Chapter 25: The First Snowfall

The next day was Sunday morning, and once again Quinn skipped church. This was the very first Sunday to arrive since she'd moved in with the Puckermans, and she wasn't sure what they might be expecting her to do when it came to church. Her cross necklace, which she'd been wearing constantly, even to temple, should have made it obvious to their whole family that she was Christian. But she had been avoiding attending a weekly worship service the entire time she'd stayed with Finn and his mom. She usually woke up early enough to go, and even still had her own car and could easily take herself… but she didn't think she'd be welcome at her own church. She didn't want to run into her parents, and everyone else in the congregation would have most likely heard the gossip by now. Everyone, even the pastor, would look at her as a sinner. She didn't want to deal with that.

Still, she made a point to pray every Sunday morning, in order to at least partially make up for the fact that she wasn't attending church. Today would be no different, despite the new surroundings she found herself in. She got out of the pull-out couch bed where she had been sleeping and, still in her nightgown, kneeled on the floor beside it. She then put her hands together, intertwining her fingers, and rested them upon the bed, closing her eyes to prepare to pray.

She thought about how grateful she was to have this bed to sleep on. She was extremely thankful that it had not been only the Hudsons who were so willing to take her in, but also now this new family, and she hadn't even had to ask them. Puck had just come to her, ready to save her from her homelessness without even truly having knowledge of just how dire her plight was. Everything was working out for her despite how scary and even hopeless it far too often seemed. She thanked God for His guiding hand in all of this - for never ignoring her desperation, and for giving her a place to land.

She focused on all of the positive things in her life, including the fact that just the day before, her glee club team had somehow managed to win a beautiful trophy despite the unfair set of events leading up to it. All of their planned songs had been stolen, yet somehow, they were able to triumph. She then thought about the little baby girl growing inside of her. She remembered that God must have a plan. Far too often, in Quinn's life lately, it seemed all of her carefully laid plans were getting destroyed. The Schuesters weren't going to be adopting her baby. Finn found out the truth despite her best efforts to keep it concealed. Anything and everything was going wrong, and sometimes she felt like things couldn't get any worse. But, she realized things kept having a way of working themselves out, just the same. She might think things were going horribly, but not long after the thought entered her mind, things would start looking up.

"What are you doing?" a young voice called out from the top of the stairs, where Puck's sister was now standing and watching her.

Quinn looked down at herself. She was kneeling and had her hands in a pretty specific position.

"What do you think I'm doing?"

"Praying," Abigail answered.

"Exactly," Quinn confirmed with a smile. "Would you mind letting me finish up, really quickly?" she asked.

"Sure," Abby replied. Quinn wasn't sure what she had left for God to hear. She thanked Him again and said her 'Amen', then stood up. She felt a little dizzy as she rose, and she closed her eyes while pausing to steady herself and let the dizziness pass. This was a normal pregnancy symptom, and she knew it, but it was still one of the many unpleasant things she had to deal with.

Meanwhile, Abby made her way downstairs in order to pour herself a bowl of cereal. Quinn joined her in the kitchen.

"So, what were you praying about?" Abby asked, full of innocent curiosity. Quinn was a little surprised by the question. In her past experience, asking what someone had been praying about would be an invasion of privacy. But she found she didn't really mind answering.

"Um… well, I was thanking God for helping me end up here in your house, helping our show choir win sectionals, stuff like that."

"You're glad you're here in our house?" Abby asked incredulously. "Didn't your parents kick you out or something?" The words were laced with the unspoken but obvious, and isn't that a kind of horrible thing?

"Um, yeah, they did," Quinn replied quietly, confirming it was a horrible thing with her solemn tone. "I wish they hadn't done that, obviously," she added. "But… I am still grateful to God for helping me get through it, if that makes sense," she tried to explain.

"Oh, okay," Abby replied, accepting the answer.

A few hours later, Puck finally got out of bed, immediately noticing the scent of nail polish in the air. He left his room and walked into the hallway to find his sister's bedroom door open, and usually he'd walk right by, but this time he noticed Abby was not alone. The bright blond hair did not look anything like his sister's dark locks.

"What are you doing?" he asked the two of them, stopping in the doorway.

"Painting our nails," Quinn answered, her tone teasingly mocking him for not being able to figure that out on his own. Puck took a closer look and realized that was pretty obvious. He'd already been smelling the fumes. He should have known. He looked closer and noticed that the girls both were painting their nails a shade of pink. They seemed to be enjoying each other's company.

"You sure that smell isn't bad for the baby?" Puck asked, concerned. Nail polish had such a strong odor.

Quinn smiled, again surprised at how concerned Puck always seemed to be for her baby. Their baby. She wasn't used to anyone else thinking about the little girl's well-being, and every time Puck did, it was unexpected.

"Don't worry," Abby replied. "Quinn looked it up online right before we did it, and as long as she doesn't do it more than once a week, it should be completely fine."

"Yeah," Quinn added. "Working in a nail salon might be a little dangerous, but not this."

"Okay, good," he answered, glad they had thought of this concern too.

During the afternoon, Quinn called her sister from her cell phone. Gabi, luckily, was home for the weekend and had some time to talk.

"Quinn?" she sounded so surprised to hear from her younger sister. They hadn't spoken since Thanksgiving.

"Yeah, hi," Quinn replied.

"It's… it's so nice to hear from you. How are you?" Gabrielle asked sincerely.

"I'm… okay," Quinn answered, truthfully. "I'm not living with Finn anymore," she informed her.

"What? Why?" Gabi asked, perplexed. "Oh, did Dad let you back home?" she asked, her tone full of hope.

"Oh, no, nothing like that," Quinn replied, sorry to disappoint her. "Actually, um… Finn and I broke up."

Puck was eavesdropping from around the corner, unbeknownst to her. Quinn was in the living room, sitting on the couch that pulled out into a bed every night. Puck hid in the kitchen.

"How could he break up with you?" Gabrielle indignantly responded. "That jerk! The father of your child?!" She clearly could not believe that he'd be so cruel.

"Well, actually…" Quinn started to explain, slowly. She trailed off.

"Oh wait! Did you break up with him? Did he do something to deserve it? Then he's still a total jerk," Gabrielle confidently asserted.

"No, it's not like that," Quinn quietly replied. Gabi waited for her to continue. "Finn… was never the father," she admitted in her softest voice yet.

"What?" Gabrielle replied in a near whisper, astonished.

"I know," she whispered back, so embarrassed to need to admit to her transgressions.

Puck strained to hear what was still going on. He didn't know who Quinn was talking to. But he really wanted to know what Quinn had to say to whomever on this subject matter. He was actually very curious about what was going on in Quinn's mind when it came to Finn. Quinn wasn't talking to Puck about any of it.

"I never even slept with Finn," Quinn quietly continued, "but I managed to convince him he was… but the truth got out anyway." Tears threatened to fall.

"Who is the father?" Gabi asked.

"It's, um… actually his best friend," she replied. "Well, former best friend," she clarified. She took a deep breath, trying to maintain her composure.

Gabrielle didn't respond.

Puck, still listening intently, tried to remain as quiet as humanly possible as he remained in his hiding spot. It stung that she was bringing up how he had betrayed his best friend.

"I am living with him and his family now, actually," Quinn said, after an awkwardly long period of silence.

"That's good," Gabi replied, not sure what else to say. "I mean, I'm glad they…." She didn't finish her sentence. Quinn understood what she meant, just the same.

"Yeah, I'm glad too."

"Talk to you later?" Gabi asked, wondering if they were both ready to end the conversation.

"Talk to you later," Quinn confirmed. She hung up the phone, and then let the tears fall. She quietly sobbed, burying her face in her hands, glad to have gotten that over with. She knew the truth about how she'd broken up with Finn… and why… and where she was living now… would all have had to come out to Gabrielle eventually. In a way, it was a relief to get the truth out there, even if it also hurt. The weight of her secrets and lies was lifted, and more tears fell as she let herself really experience all of the emotions that went along with that.

Puck listened, his heart breaking as he heard her cry. He wanted to go out and comfort her, but he didn't want her to know he'd been eavesdropping, so he felt quite torn. He waited a minute or so, and heard her sobs lessen. He decided to slowly approach her.

"Are you okay?" he asked, as sincerely full of concern as he'd been the night he'd ended up knocking her up.

She looked up and hastily wiped the tears off her face.

He placed himself beside her on the couch.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied, shooting him a somewhat forced smile.

He eyed her skeptically.

"I was just talking to my sister," she explained, since he didn't seem to be letting it go. She was embarrassed that he'd caught her crying.

"Was she mean to you?" he cautiously asked.

"No, she's… she's being pretty great, actually," Quinn answered.

"Good," he said. He placed his hand on her leg, comfortingly. She looked down at his hand and smiled to herself, appreciating the gesture.

The three Puckermans and Quinn gathered around for lighting of another candle on the menorah once sunset arrived. Abby received her second Hanukkah gift. The three kids all were finished their homework that had been assigned over the weekend - even Puck had done his schoolwork, for once! They all had a relaxing meal together that evening, and the weekend concluded pleasantly enough. Quinn entered Puck's bedroom while he was brushing his teeth. She needed to pick out her clothing choices for the next day, and she was now keeping all of her stuff in his room.

She found a dress that would match her new nail polish and the dark pink shoes to match it. She was gathering up a simple white sweater to wear with it when Puck came back.

"Do all girls spend this much effort deciding what to wear to school?" he asked.

"I don't know," Quinn answered. "I used to just wear my Cheerios uniform every day."

"Oh, right," he replied.

"Plus, now that I'm pregnant…" she trailed off, looking down at her expanding bump.

"I get it," he said. He still couldn't relate, since he always just threw on any clean shirt and pants he could find.

Quinn started to leave the room, her entire outfit now gathered into her arms, along with the fresh nightgown she was planning to sleep in that night.

"So, I'll see you in the morning?" he asked, the rhetorical question more a way to politely say 'goodnight' to her than anything else.

"Yeah," she responded. "See you then." She smiled, and he smiled back at her.

On Monday, the school day was fairly mundane. Students were starting to get restless, impatient for winter break to begin. There was only a little over week left of school. Quinn found herself less worried about all the stares and gossip, and especially found herself less nervous that all of the glee club members would be hating her. There was only one person's gaze she was still trying to avoid – Finn's.

She couldn't avoid him though, when they were going to be two of only twelve people in a room, as would happen as the glee club meeting commenced. It was the last period of the day, and she entered the room nervously. Rachel, Artie, Mercedes, Tina, and Finn himself were already there. Finn was actually holding the trophy they'd won on Saturday. They all seemed happy and excited, even giggling about something.

"What?" Quinn asked as she approached them.

"Mr. Schue was reinstated to be our coach!" Rachel squealed. "Principal Figgins just informed us. He's heading to his office now to tell Mr. Schue the great news too!"

"We were thinking we should sing a song for him," Mercedes added. "To let him know how much we really do appreciate everything he's done for us."

"Oh, cool," Quinn replied.

"Also, because he couldn't be there to see us perform on Saturday," Artie chimed in.

Santana and Brittany then entered the room, closely followed by Matt, Mike, and Kurt. The only person Quinn didn't see was Puck. She wondered where he was.

Eleven of the twelve team members hurriedly settled on a song that would be appropriate enough. One that everyone knew. Finn and Quinn never spoke directly to one another. Things were still a bit too strained and awkward between them. But they managed to successfully ignore the fact that the other was there, at least enough so as to not slow down the planning process. They picked a Kelly Clarkson song that had been on the radio often enough as of late.

"Maybe we should hide the trophy from him," Kurt suggested, "and then pull it out to surprise him!" Everyone agreed it was a fun plan. They'd make good use of Artie and the fact that he was low down because of his wheelchair, and then their tallest member, Finn, could stand in front and hide it.

Puck entered the room just seconds before Mr. Schue, after everyone was in position. He went over near Quinn, and she pulled him down to whisper the whole plan in his ear. Puck loved being so close to her that he could feel her breath.

When they finally did start singing "My Life Would Suck Without You" for their teacher, Quinn let herself have a ton of fun with it. The choreography they improvised on the spot was so upbeat, and she couldn't help but smile as she danced. She easily was able to avoid getting too near Finn. But she found herself dancing near Santana and Artie a lot of the time, and even making a halo with her hands over Rachel's head.

The lyrics of the chorus, Quinn realized, were especially appropriate given how grateful she was that Mr. Schue had opened his home to her. She would forever remember how he had saved her from homelessness that night.

The glee club decided to do Christmas and Hanukkah related songs that final week and a half before the winter break, and Quinn, for once, realized that Hanukkah really was quite a bit earlier in the winter than Christmas. Everyone treated it as if it happened at the same exact time, but it didn't. However, the eight nights of Hanukkah were still occurring as they worked on this music and Quinn was happy to now have firsthand experience with a Jewish family in order to really appreciate what that all meant.

The club had fun with it, and each day they decorated the room a little more in honor of the holidays as well. Quinn tried to appreciate all of the festive holiday spirit that was blossoming around her at school, because there wasn't even a Christmas tree at the Puckerman's house. She tried not to dwell on how disappointed she felt at the lack of being able to celebrate Christmas with a family who actually recognized the holiday. She wondered what it would have been like had she still been with the Hudsons. She of course really missed everything her own family would always do on the holiday, since, like with Thanksgiving, she had such fond memories of all of their traditions. Selfishly, she wished for gifts. She thought about it, and realized she really wanted to give some gifts too. Maybe to her sister, who had been surprisingly nice to her ever since Thanksgiving. Gabrielle had actually sent her some money in the mail, for which Quinn had been extremely grateful. Gabi had asked for Quinn's current address on Monday and Quinn texted it to her, not sure why she'd wanted it. On Thursday, Miriam handed Quinn an envelope addressed to her, which contained some cash. Quinn thought it'd be nice to use a small portion of the money for a Christmas gift as a 'thank you'.

She also wanted to maybe give a present to Finn's mom, who had been a saint from the moment Quinn's parents had kicked her out, and to whom she'd never said goodbye. She also thought about giving one to Mr. Schue, who had welcomed her into his home not too long ago. Maybe to all three of the Puckermans, who didn't even celebrate Christmas, but to whom she was quite grateful. She hoped she could make her limited funds work. She might not be able to give gifts to everyone she wished to, but she could probably do at least a few of them.

As school was ending on Friday, December 18th, exactly one week before Christmas, she decided that particular afternoon would be the perfect time to head to the Lima shopping mall. She needed more maternity bras anyway, surprised by just how huge her cup size was getting, and she planned to purchase some gifts for these people in her life who deserved them.

She exited the school with her books in her arms, not expecting to see snowflakes in the air. The snow was falling slowly, barely more than flurries, and she smiled. She was distracted by the beauty of the weather and so she didn't even notice Puck until he was immediately beside her.

"Hey, let me take your books," he offered, pulling his backpack off of his shoulder and opening it up. "You don't want the snow getting your books all wet!"

"Thanks," she replied, smiling. The snow really wasn't that dangerous to her books at the moment, but she appreciated the thought.

Puck walked with Quinn to her car. She had been giving him rides to school in the mornings all week.

"I'm actually gonna go shopping," Quinn mentioned. "So I'll just drop you off at your house, today, and then leave to immediately go to the mall."

"What?" Puck replied. "Why do you need to go shopping?"

"Christmas presents," she answered, which was only half of the answer. She didn't want to bring up the bras with him.

"Oh, cool," Puck replied.

She dropped him off, glad he didn't want to accompany her to the mall. He took his backpack inside, which contained her books as well as his. She tried to think of what a good, small, gift he'd appreciate might be.

Driving to the mall, the windshield wipers going the whole time, she appreciated the snow falling all around their small Ohio town.

The Christmas decorations outside the mall were beautiful and she was getting completely into the spirit of the season. She loved how the green wreaths and silver tinsel looked with snow beginning to cover them.

She got out of the car and pulled her jacket tight. She knew what she would be getting everyone. She had decided on the drive over. She smiled, ready to begin her shopping, and took her first steps toward the mall.