A/N: I tucked in a tiny tribute to the fanfic, 'Bird on the Wire.' Read it if you get the chance. It's the only other Quinn-postpartum-story I've seen and it's fantastic. I need to go review it. Speaking of reviews, if you are reading this story, I love feedback! Please leave me a quick review to say what you thought. This next chapter goes out to reader/reviewer rachelsheadband17. I'm aiming to honor your request in this one!

She stayed at the Abrams' home as they came and went for the next several days that followed his surgery. Now that she had her own car, Quinn was able to help with things, too, like bringing items that they needed to the hospital. A couple of times, she paid forward the favor that Artie had done for her, when she was in the hospital, and brought milkshakes. The whole family loved ice-cream. Amy said it was an inherited addiction.

Finally, Quinn got word that Artie was ready to come home on Friday. They'd even managed to secure the help of a home health nurse to come and go for the first few days, taking some of the stress off the family.

And that was Quinn's cue to go. Before the family arrived home that day, she quietly packed her things and filled the trusty cooler to the brim. She needed a second, smaller cooler, just to get it all. Once she was finally packed and had pumped one more time, she was ready to set off for Akron.

But first she had to pick up Rachel.

It was Shelby who let the cat out of the bag. During a casual phone conversation with her biological daughter, something they did regularly now, she let slip that Quinn would be staying with her for the next week or so. Naturally, Rachel invited herself along. And that was how Quinn ended up driving Miss Berry. Because Rachel was evidently far too talented to make time for silly things like getting her driver's license.

So, Quinn had one more stop to make on her way out of town, and that was to the home of Rachel Berry. Before she arrived, she got a phone call. Artie. She was glad Rachel wasn't with her just then, otherwise she would have had to decline the call in order to preserve Artie's secret.

"Hello?" Quinn wasn't sure if it would be actually Artie calling or his sister with his phone, calling to give her the latest on him.

"You left," croaked the gruff voice belonging to Artie.

"Artie!" She greeted him the way he usually greeted her. "I didn't expect to hear from you personally. Yeah... sorry, I did leave. I'm going to visit Beth and Shelby."

"Oh, okay." He sounded pretty out of it.

"How are you feeling?"

"Nope."

Definitely pretty out of it, Quinn thought, after his 'nope' in response to something that wasn't a yes or no question.

"Sorry to hear that..." she told him, as she pulled into Rachel's driveway. Then she thought of something he might find amusing. "Hey, it could be worse. You could be on your way to pick up Rachel for a three-hour car trip like I'm doing right now.

At that, Artie laughed, then coughed, and finally groaned. "Don't... make... me... laugh!" He drew out each word like it was killing him to speak, and Quinn immediately felt bad.

"Sorry," she said, quickly. "I forgot. Concentrate on getting better. And... seriously, I can stay gone as long as you need. I get that you need your space, and that's okay."

There was a long pause, and she wondered if she'd given him too much to process in his current state.

"Not too long," he finally said. "Bye, Lucy."

She would let him get away with the name because he wasn't feeling like his usual self. After hearing from him, she was really glad she was out of the way. Now, Artie didn't have to worry about her accidentally hearing things that he didn't want her knowing about.

She didn't really want to go in or anything, so she just texted Rachel from the car. She waited a good five minutes before she got a reply back. But it said: 'hi! I'll just be a minute, come on in!'

It was just beginning. With an eye roll and a huge sigh, Quinn looked over Rachel's very ordinary looking two-story house with a sense of trepidation. If ever there was anyone she couldn't have gone to live with, it was Rachel Berry.

"I'll wait here," she texted back.

After five more minutes, Rachel came out, dragging a pink suitcase and carrying her gaudy pink plastic make-up kit. Her hair was in rollers. Quinn's eyes bugged out, as she tried to figure out why Rachel looked like she was prepping for a stage show.

"Just wanted to look my best for my mom," she said, defensively, catching Quinn's critical eye and having the wherewithal to correctly read what the blonde was thinking.

Quinn usually had a snarky comment ready to fire back at one Rachel Berry, but throughout the time that she'd spent as the pregnant girl, she'd sort of lost her nerve. She could feel it coming back, though, and the temptation was there to pick up right where she left off, back when she'd been drawing ugly pictures of Rachel and making malicious comments on her ridiculous MySpace videos. But she held it back anyway, remembering that she was in a car with her for three hours now. Consequently, she said nothing, leaving it to Rachel to fill the awkward silence.

As usual, she had a plan for that.

"I have an iPod shuffle dedicated to ideas for next years' competition songs," Rachel announced. "I'm really hoping we advance past Sectionals, because I have too many for just one competition. There are just so many songs out there perfectly suited for Finn and me."

At times, Quinn still couldn't help herself from blurting out her thoughts. "Find any good ones that feature the rest of us?"

At that, Rachel paused. "Well, obviously there are a lot of songs out there better suited for a singer like Mercedes," she said, trying to sound tactful. "And Quinn, you have a lovely alto tone that compliments just about any soprano."

"But doesn't stand on its own," Quinn interjected. "That is what you mean, right?"

"Not at all." Rachel frowned and looked at her lap, smoothing the skirt she was wearing. (Quinn didn't think she'd ever seen the other girl wear pants.) "I merely meant that you make anyone sound better. Sorry... if it came across differently than I meant."

"Well, I don't mean to be sensitive," she said. "It's just that you're looking for songs for you and Finn. What about the rest of us? There are others who deserve a chance in the spotlight. Like Mercedes, for instance. And what about Artie?"

"Artie?" Rachel echoed, as though she couldn't imagine why Quinn would bring him up.

"Yeah, Artie," Quinn said again. "I mean, I heard you recruited Finn before us Cheerios and the other football players joined, because you needed a male lead. But you already had a pretty good one. Artie. He's a much better singer than Finn, no offense to Finn. But Artie sounds like a professional."

"Quinn," Rachel said, in a tone that suggested she didn't think Quinn could be serious. "I think we both know that, yes, Artie has a wonderful voice. But he's a little limited. Don't get me wrong, I love having him on stage. I love the message of inclusion that he promotes. But I don't think the judges could really get behind the idea of Artie as the male lead."

Quinn could feel her face heating up, the more Rachel spouted off her nonsense. Of course Artie could be the male lead. Being in a wheelchair shouldn't disqualify him for that. She realized they had a very long ride ahead of them, so unless she wanted to fight with the hobbit for the next three hours, it was time to stop talking about glee club.

"Let's listen to your playlist," she suggested, cutting the conversation short. Luckily, Rachel's playlist was long enough to go on for the remainder of the trip. Most of the selections were recent adult contemporary type songs or Broadway standards. Quinn wasn't super knowledgeable about Broadway shows, so when she'd hear something she liked, she asked Rachel about the show. Rachel was always ready with the title, original release, and the names of some of the original cast on Broadway, plus random facts about all of them.

By the time they got to Shelby's, Quinn almost couldn't concentrate on anything except her throbbing chest. She needed to get inside as quickly as possible and into a private place to pump. Now that she'd started pumping, she didn't know how to even stop. Any time she went more than three hours between pumping, the pain was intense and the only relief came after she'd finally pumped.

That was why she grabbed her bags, plus the backpack with her pump, and practically ran up the steps, with Rachel trailing behind, mystified by Quinn's intense hurry.

"Hi, I need to pump now," was how she greeted Shelby, who answered the door in the apartment that had clearly been cleaned in anticipation of their visit but still wasn't nearly as immaculate as it had been before Beth.

"My bedroom," said Shelby, stepping aside to allow her entry. Quinn hurried past, leaving Rachel to greet her mother in peace. As she went, she heard Shelby call out: "Beth's in there napping, too!"

She stopped abruptly in front of the bassinet, staring at the sight of the sleeping infant, who had grown and changed so much in two weeks. Quinn was amazed to see the result of her efforts. It made it completely worth it, as she fumbled to piece back together the pump parts, arrange everything just so, and start up the noisy machine yet again. The repetitive humming sound didn't bother the sleeping babe one bit.

"This is all for you, baby girl," she whispered, smiling as she watched Beth sleep. Somehow, though she loved the baby just as much as she had from the first time she'd felt her moving around inside the womb, she was finally letting go. She found that she'd somehow accepted the fact that this baby wasn't ever going to be hers.

It didn't mean she loved her any less.

When she finished producing the milk, almost on cue, Beth abruptly woke up, crying and hungry.

"Fresh off the tap today, baby girl," Quinn said, as she attached the bottle nipple instead of the lid and scooped Beth right up from the bassinet. Beth immediately took the bottle, gulping it down much faster than Quinn remembered, another sign that she was getting a little older now.

Beth actually cooed, in between gulps, and smiled at Quinn. Now that she was five weeks old, as of tomorrow, it looked like she was already beginning to develop that first smile that wasn't just in response to being gassy. Or... maybe she was just gassy, it was hard to tell, but Quinn would go on and assume it was a real smile.

When she finished feeding Beth, she decided she'd just refrigerate the second bottle and have that one ready for the next feeding. As she emerged from the bedroom, cradling Beth, Rachel and Shelby came back into the apartment carrying the cooler. Since she had her hands full, she couldn't be any help, so she watched as the other two unloaded all the bags into the freezer.

"There's one more," Quinn said, sheepishly, for even she couldn't believe the number of frozen milk bags she'd brought this time. "It's smaller. I'll go get it, it's not—"

"You stay put," Shelby insisted. "Enjoy Beth for a minute. I'll head down and get it."

Obediently, Quinn took a seat on the couch, continuing to soak up every new detail about Beth, as Rachel took a seat beside her and admired the adorable infant, occasionally reaching out to stroke her hair as she finished the bottle.

"She's a miracle," Rachel breathed, and Quinn didn't mind the sound of her voice for once. "Is it weird to see her and realize she was with you for nine months?"

"It doesn't even seem like it really happened sometimes," Quinn commented. "Like it was a dream or something. Then I come here and see her and I remember everything."

Quinn touched her still-soft stomach, where baby Beth had been, like it or not, and she could honestly say that the loose skin and the stretch marks that weirdly only landed on her hips, were worth it in the end. Even the heartburn, the embarrassing gas, and most of all, the humiliation of being thrown off the Cheerios and walking around her high school amid all of those critical stares, had been worth it.

Shelby returned with the second cooler and began adding the rest of the bags to the freezer stash. "Goodness," she remarked. "Do you have time to do anything else?"

"Well, it helps that there's nothing else to do," Quinn commented, laughing lightly as she caught sight of the overflowing freezer. "Mostly, I'm just laying around at Artie's."

"At Artie's?" Rachel shot her a confused look. "I thought you were staying with Mercedes."

Dammit. Quinn hadn't meant to let that slide. It wasn't like she was hiding the fact that she was staying with Artie, but she was trying to respect his wishes about keeping the surgery news private. It wouldn't do any good if Rachel suddenly decided to come looking for her one of these days, because she randomly needed an alto or some other ridiculous reason like that.

"Uh, no." Quinn played it as casually as she could. "No, Mercedes has her older brother home all summer, and it's only a three-bedroom house. The Abrams have an extra room, so I'm staying with them for now."

"What does Tina think about that?"

Quinn had to give Rachel credit. She'd at least taken note of the fact that Tina and Artie were dating at some point. Quinn hadn't counted on the other girl leaving Finchel Land long enough to care about that.

"She doesn't even care," Quinn said, with a shrug, stopping herself from saying something about Tina and Mike and camp. It did no good to speculate or start rumors, even though Quinn was 99% sure she'd seen this one coming.

"She ought to be threatened by you," Rachel observed, eyeing Quinn in that intense way that made her kind of uncomfortable. "I know I was."

"I kind of thought that worked the other way around but okay." Quinn saw Shelby pretending to be busy in the kitchen, pretending not to listen. "I mean, I'm the one who, up until recently, was the size of a whale and not really a threat to anyone."

"And look at you now." Rachel did that intense, quiet thing again, as Beth fell asleep at the conclusion of her feeding, safe in Quinn's arms.

"And you were never the size of a whale," Shelby interjected, from the kitchen, putting a hand on her hips. "On the day you went into labor, you were wearing that poofy skirt and it was hard to even see that you were pregnant. Would you like some of that tea I made you last time? Red raspberry leaf tea?"

"Yes, please," Quinn said.

"Great, I'll make some for all of us."

"Back to you living with Artie," Rachel said, seemingly not able to leave this one alone. "Is that why you brought up this idea of him singing lead?"

Girl doesn't know when to quit. "No," said Quinn, calmly. "I brought it up because I honestly think he deserves a shot at having a solo in competition."

Rachel furrowed her brow. "I just don't see how that would work."

"You stand next to him and dance beside him, that's how that works," Quinn went on, maintaining that calm voice that effectively hid the fact that she kind of wanted to choke her. "He's already front and center most of the time anyway, what could it hurt to feature his gorgeous voice?"

Rachel looked stumped for a moment. Shelby looked up from making tea and caught Quinn's eye long enough to share a smile in response to what she'd overheard.

"At Nationals this year, one team had a blind singer," Shelby shared. "They featured him a lot. It made for tough competition. That team ended up coming in third, but I thought they stood a chance to beat us."

Quinn knew that Vocal Adrenaline had won Nationals again that year. Shelby hadn't actually gone, since she was home with Beth, but she'd gotten the credit she deserved for making it possible for the team to advance to that level and win. Consequently, Shelby had received a raise for the following school year. She'd told Quinn about it during one of their many phone calls.

"Well, that's true," Rachel commented, not one to disagree with the biological mother she idolized. "I hadn't thought about that. Artie being featured could be pretty inspiring for people."

Quinn hadn't meant to make Rachel see it from that angle, and if anything, it was worse. "No, but..." she began, trying to think of how to put it. "Artie shouldn't just be there to inspire people. I mean, he might inspire people, but that isn't why we should feature him. He doesn't just exist to inspire other people because he happens to be a disabled guy in a show choir."

"Oh." Now Rachel just looked sorry she'd said anything at all and Quinn felt a little bad because, until recently, her thinking would have been along the same lines as Rachel's.

"Hey, girls?" Shelby spoke up then, saving them from the awkward moment. "While you're here, would you like to help me do a little house hunting? Now that Vocal Adrenaline finally gave me the raise I needed to get my own place, I figured early in the summer would be the best time to look."

"Sure!" They both spoke at once, and they could definitely agree upon the fact that house hunting with Shelby and Beth sounded like fun.

A/N: Remember to tell me what you thought and remember that I take reviewer suggestions into account!