I know this is going to be an extremely long authors note, but i would appreciate it if you read the whole thing.
I wanted to start out by thanking each and every one of my readers for taking the time out of your day to read my story. It means more than you'll ever know that you actually read it. I want to think Dani, Gleekingout, and Egyouppt- 3 people i know who have been with me since the beginning, and i want to thank each and every one of you who started in the middle of the story and took time to catch up, even when it was in its longer stages. Thanks to everyone who reviewed and to everyone who has been reading this and hasnt reviewed. if you've been reading this but not reviewing i would love for you to review this last chapter so i can thank you personally. If not here's your thank you, from the bottom of my heart.
This is only the second fanfiction I've ever finished (and believe me Ive started dozens) and its also the longest. I can guarantee there is no way i would have finished this had it not been for you all encouraging me the whole way. I take the time to read and respond to all the reviews i get and i really take what you say to heart.
Look out for the sequel to this story; it will be titled "In My Daughter's Eyes" and probably will not be pubslished for two to three weeks, because I'm trying to finish a story i have been working on for awhile. I will be publishing the first chapter tomorrow and it is titled "Alseep at Heaven's Gates" so if you liked this story you should check it out.
Please remember to review after this last chapter on here or tumblr (link is on my profile page). Once again i would like to thank all of you for reading this story and be on the look out for the sequel because i know you will enjoy that, too! Enjoy this last chapter :)
Journey
Part 4
Once the nurse said it was okay the rest of the Glee Club came in to see Beth. Everyone cooed at the baby and told the parents how beautiful she was. Quinn was glad no one asked to hold her because she didn't want to tell her friends no, but she also couldn't risk anything happening to her baby girl.
Quinn told everyone how painful giving birth was and that she wasn't going to do it again for a long, long time. Once the team had been in the room for fifteen minutes, Finn got a call from Rachel explaining that they were going to announce the winners in ten minutes. When everyone looked hesitant to leave her, Quinn told them to go; Puck and she had a lot of things to talk about anyway.
Everyone but Puck left, and Judy went out in the hall to make phone calls. Quinn put Beth in her bassinette and leaned back on her bed. Puck scooted his chair closer to the bed and took her hand.
She smiled at him. "Puck, I have something to tell you," she said.
He nodded, his gaze fixed on Beth. "Right before I went into labor I was talking to my mom and she told me she wanted to keep Beth. She offered to convert the guest bedroom into a nursery and everything." She saw his eyes gleam as she said this, knowing there was finally hope they could keep the baby.
"What do you think?" he asked, trying to keep his cool, but inside he was exploding with happiness.
"I don't know," Quinn said, her eyes, too, on Beth. "I mean after seeing her I couldn't imagine ever living without her, but on the other hand I still don't know if I'm ready."
"Quinn, if you weren't ready, you wouldn't be so hesitant to give her up," Puck said squeezing her hand gently. "You know what I think about this. Hell yea I want to keep her, I've wanted to since day one."
"I know but…"
"You still think I'm going to be a deadbeat don't you?" Puck asked.
"No, it's not that, it's just I don't want to end up doing this on my own," she explained. "I mean you have your job, your friends, Glee club, and football. When are you going to have time for us?"
Puck chucked a bit before leaning down and kissing her. "Quinn, you think I'm going to play football if we keep her? Hell no. I don't even like football anyway; the only reason I play is because I have nothing else to do. And as far as glee goes, you know Mr. Schuster will do anything he can to make sure we can both stay in it."
Quinn smiled. "You would really give up football."
"In a heartbeat," he answered. Quinn knew Puck would help out if she kept Beth and she knew he would always be there for their daughter, but she was still scared she would end up doing the majority of the work herself. She also knew it would be a long time before she wanted to do anything remotely close to sex, and she was scared that would send him running. She knew how he felt about that and even though he hadn't been pressuring her lately that didn't mean he could go forever without it.
"You're not going to leave me for another girl if I refuse to put out?" she asked.
"Never," he answered. "I can find other ways to meet my needs that doesn't involve other girls."
"You're going to become gay?" Quinn joked.
They both laughed and Puck nudged her shoulder. "So is this a yes?" He asked with pleading eyes.
Quinn once again looked at Beth who was now sleeping and knew giving her up wasn't an option. She had already become attached to the infant and she only gave birth to her less than an hour ago. "Yes." Puck jumped up from the chair, smiling. He started to dance around the room singing "we get to keep her, we get to keep her!" Quinn couldn't help but laugh at his idiotic behavior.
"You won't be sorry!" he smiled as he bent down to give her a small peck on the lips.
"I know," Quinn answered. "Now, I'm tired; giving birth really wares you out, so if you don't mind, I'm going to take a nap while the baby is sleeping."
"No problem," Puck said as he went to turn out the lights for her. Quinn was so exhausted that it didn't take but two minutes for her to fall asleep.
She awoke an hour later, feeling a little more refreshed. She smiled as she turned over to see her baby in the bassinette, and began to internally freak out when Beth was not there. She almost yelled for a nurse when she heard Puck's hushed whisper coming from the corner of the hospital room. She turned her head to see him sitting in the chair, Beth held tightly in his arms.
"Now, Beth," he said, "There will be no dating until you are thirty five. If you wind up anything like your mother you will end up with a guy like me and you want to stay away from guys like me because you know what we do? We get girls pregnant when we're teenagers and that is not going to happen to you, you hear me? I mean I'm happy we had you and all, but a few more years to mature would've been nice too. Don't you worry though, I'm going to be the coolest dad around. All the kids at daycare will be jealous that your dad is such a BA. I'm going to teach you all about football and cars and guns, and your mommy will be so mad at me so we will have to do it in secret, okay?"
"Already turning her against me are you?" Quinn joked. Puck jerked his head up, not knowing she was awake. "She's only a day old."
Puck began to chuckle. "It's never too early to join Team Puck."
Quinn rolled her eyes. "Where's my mom? Shouldn't we tell her we've chosen to keep Beth?"
"She went to my house to get you something things, since we didn't anticipate this happening so fast," he answered.
"Have you heard any news from the team?" Quinn asked, curious as to how their team had done at Regionals. It seemed crazy to Quinn that she had competed in a Glee Club competition earlier that day. That morning seemed like it was another lifetime ago.
Puck's face went a little grim and Quinn became nervous. "We um, we came in third."
Quinn's stomach dropped. There was no way they had gotten third. Even if they hadn't done better than Vocal Adrenaline, Quinn knew they had done better than Oral Intensity; this had to be some kind of mistake. "What?" Quinn said, "That's outrageous!"
"Tell me about it," Puck huffed.
Quinn sat in disbelief for a few more seconds. Her mood had become less cheerful, but one look at her precious baby and everything was better.
Before they had a chance to say anything else about it, Judy walked into the room with a bag of things for Quinn.
"Oh Quinnie, you're awake!" she smiled. "How are you feeling?"
"Better," Quinn answered, "But still a little sore."
"Well, that's to be expected," Judy said. She walked over to where Puck was sitting and gently took a sleeping Beth into her arms. She began to sway back and forth with the infant tucked tightly to her chest.
"Mom, Puck and I wanted to talk to you about the offer you made to me earlier today," Quinn said.
"Yes," Judy said.
"Well, we think we're going to take you up on your offer. I mean, before you asked we were planning on giving her up, but now that we know we will have help with everything we think we may be able to do it," she explained.
"We know we'll be able to do it," Puck corrected and Quinn nodded in agreement.
"Quinnie, you know I would be happy to have you and Beth stay with me," Judy said. "But I'm not going to tell you it will be really easy, being a teen mom. It's going to be hard, but if you think you can do it, that you both can do it, then I will do whatever I can to help."
"Thanks so much mom!" Quinn smiled.
"That reminds me," Judy said. "I talked to your school today and since there are only two weeks left of the year you are excused from your exams."
"Really?" Quinn said. "Well, that takes a load of my mind."
"But I do expect you both finish high school and even move on to college," Judy said sternly.
"Of course we will," Quinn answered. "Only the best for Bethany Fabray Puckerman."
As Quinn was watching Beth sleep in her mother's arms a sudden realization hit her. "But we don't have any baby things! We don't even have a car seat for her to leave the hospital in!"
"Leave everything to me," Judy smiled. "You know I love decorating. Little Beth will have the best nursery in all of Lima." Quinn didn't doubt that would be true. Her mom had always been into interior design and everything looking its absolute best. As a child Quinn would be scolded if she left anything lying around the house. She didn't plan on being as strict with Beth as her mom had been with her. Quinn was going to make sure Beth felt comfortable talking about things with her, and that it was okay to have problems and talk about them, something Quinn had never learned in her own home. She was going to learn from her and Puck's parent's mistakes and try to be the best mom she possibly could.
"Thanks mom," she said. "I'm sure we can get Mercedes and Kurt to help in the wardrobe department as well."
"I don't know," Puck said, "I don't want to think about what kind of outfits Hummel might dress her in."
Quinn laughed, knowing that could be true. "If we don't like them we don't have to dress her in them." Puck nodded, thinking that was a suitable solution.
That night Judy went home to start on plans for the nursery and Mercedes and Kurt came by to visit Beth again. Quinn asked them about buying Beth's clothes and Kurt said yes so fast it make the other three burst out laughing. Quinn gave them one of her mom's credit cards and told them to buy as many outfits as they thought Beth needed (her mom owed her anyway).
The nurses continued to help the two new parents adjust to parenthood. The nurses showed Quinn how to breastfeed (which she hated, but decided to do anyway because it was healthiest for Beth). They helped them get used to changing a diaper and showed them how to bathe Beth. Quinn was perfectly fine taking care of Beth while at the hospital, but the real test would be when they got home.
Puck decided to stay the night at the hospital, not wanting to leave either of his girls, and the nurses brought in a cot for him to sleep in.
Beth was sleeping in her bassinette, holding onto Quinn's finger with her small hand, and the two parents were lying on their beds watching their new baby in amazement. Quinn reached over and smoothed Beth's dark hair into a Mohawk and began to laugh at the sight. "I did tell you the only way we are keeping her is if she has a Mohawk, so there you go," she laughed.
"My daughter, the badass," Puck joked.
She giggled as she smoothed the baby's hair back down against her head. "Can you believe we created something so beautiful?" she asked.
"We do have pretty good genes," Puck smiled. "I mean with awesome DNA like ours, there's no way we were going to have an ugly kid."
Quinn chuckled, "I guess you're right."
They went to sleep after that, both exhausted from the long day they had just had, but their sleep was short-lived when Beth woke up at two in the morning, crying. Quinn sat up, groggily, and picked up the crying infant. She pulled down her hospital gown and began to breastfed Beth as the nurse had showed her. She knew this was only the beginning of what she was about to go through, but somehow she felt oddly okay with the late-night feedings and diaper changes that were ahead. Anything was worth it, to watch her daughter grow up.
Beth woke up two more times that night and by the next morning Quinn felt just as tired as the day before. Quinn finally caught up on sleep when they took Beth in to have her last round of tests; they were set to leave the hospital that night.
Mercedes and Kurt came in that afternoon with a dozen shopping bags filled with every kind of outfit a baby girl would need and Quinn thanked them profusely, but knew they probably would have done it whether she asked them to or not.
After one last check-up from the doctor Quinn and Beth were both cleared to leave that night. As they packed up everything they needed Quinn felt a pang of nervousness and excitement shoot through her body. She was finally going to take Beth home. She was going to get to see whether or not she was cut out to be a mother, but a part of Quinn worried she wouldn't be good at the part. What if she didn't know what to do to get Beth to stop crying? What if she never got any sleep and started to resent Beth and Puck? Quinn did not want any of this to happen, although she knew it was always a possibility.
"You ready?" Puck asked, breaking her from her thoughts.
She looked down at Beth in her hands and smiled. She put the infant into her new car seat and went to sit down in the wheelchair Puck brought her (this time not stolen from an old man, he promised), Beth's car seat on her lap. "Yea," she said and Puck began to roll the wheelchair down the hall. Whether or not she was ready for motherhood it was coming and Quinn could worry all she wanted about being the perfect mother, but she knew as long as she loved Beth with everything she had, Beth would be alright. And as Puck wheeled her and Beth down the hall, and opened the doors to the hospital to leave, Quinn thought about how these doors were not just hospital doors, but the doors leading to her new life; a new life with a boy she loved and a baby she adored. What more could a girl ask for?
