April 2010

Homeless and pregnant. Life was not going according to the plan she'd made for herself after eighth grade, when she'd lost seventy pounds, dyed her hair blonde, and gotten a nose job.

In some ways, Lucy had more going for her back then, pre-makeover, than Quinn did now.

After being unable to deal with life at Puck's, Quinn took Mercedes up on the offer for a new place to live. Mercedes' older brother, she'd said, was away at college and wouldn't need his room.

What Mercedes didn't mention was that her brother, DeShaun, did visit some on the weekends and was going to be sleeping on the couch during said visits. Quinn felt terrible, for pushing the guy out of his own room like this, but the guy just insisted it was fine by him. He'd looked her up and down as he said it, eyeing her stomach with trepidation. Quinn knew that, even if the older guy had any objection to giving up his bed, all thoughts of protesting had disappeared when he saw her. Nobody was going to make the teenager with her swollen belly carefully concealed under a tent-like dress and a cardigan sleep on the couch.

(Oh, wait, that was what Puck had done.)

After Quinn had finished unloading the duffel bag full of the same type of billowy dress and cardigan outfits into the closet space they'd made for her, plus a bunch of baggy t-shirts and sweat pants into the drawer DeShaun had emptied for her, she headed downstairs where Mercedes' parents were catching up with their son.

Quinn took a seat in the living room with the family of four and looked around nervously. But then she remembered what kind of people were responsible for bringing up Mercedes, and she relaxed a little. The family talked about DeShaun and college, then transitioned into talking about Glee club. At no point did anyone bring up the baby or her pregnancy, and Quinn was relieved not to talk about it.

"Cedes, let's shoot some hoops," DeShaun eventually suggested. Quinn remembered seeing a goal at the end of their long driveway.

"You're on!" Mercedes grinned at her older brother. "Quinn, you wanna join us?"

"I'll watch," Quinn said, timidly. She didn't think she'd be very good at shooting hoops when she looked like she'd smuggled a basketball under her baby doll dress.

DeShaun was obviously good. Anyone could tell that he'd been the star player at McKinley back in his day. Unlike their football team, McKinley's basketball team still had a pretty good record, thanks to players like DeShaun.

Quinn was enjoying watching Mercedes taking turns shooting free throws and lay-ups with her brother. Mercedes wasn't so bad herself, Quinn thought, and she could probably go out for the basketball team if she wanted to. They'd set Quinn up a little camping chair and she'd brought herself a huge cup of water. The doctor had told her to drink plenty of water to keep from getting swollen feet. Her hands naturally rested atop her belly, as it just felt like the right place for them these days.

She'd been so caught up in watching Mercedes playing with her brother that she almost didn't notice the person approaching along the paved sidewalk.

"Quinn!" Artie Abrams always greeted her with the utmost enthusiasm, the way he'd said her name when he'd drawn it out of a hat and they'd wound up as duet partners in Glee.

"Oh, hey, Artie," Quinn said, as she adjusted her position in the camping chair. He wheeled right up the driveway and backed up to sit right by her. She'd almost forgotten that Artie lived just a few doors down from Mercedes.

"'Sup, Wheels?" That was DeShaun, and apparently, he knew Artie well enough to use that particular nickname. His greeting elicited a grin from Artie.

"I thought I saw your car in the driveway, dude," he said, exchanging a quick high-five with the older guy. Quinn noticed that Artie dressed differently when he was at home. He'd changed into workout clothes. But then he gave the explanation for that. "... when I was on my way home from physical therapy."

"Yup," DeShaun supplied, spinning the ball on his finger as he spoke. "I don't have classes on Fridays this semester, and I wasn't scheduled to work either, so home I come." He then tossed Artie the ball. "You guys got plans tonight?"

"As a matter of fact, yeah," Artie said, looking at Mercedes and Quinn. "Or did you guys forget we have that pizza party at Mr. Schue's to pick the songs for Regionals? Only about a month left to rehearse, and a week of that is Spring Break."

Quinn closed her eyes. "I was trying not to think about it," she said. "Artie — Glee club is screwed."

"It'll be okay," he countered. "I know we'll lose a little rehearsal time, what with Regionals being after Spring Break this year, but all the clubs were affected by the winter storm pushing Regionals back."

"No, it's not that..." Quinn said, realizing he didn't even know yet. "Santana and Brittany just told me that Coach Sylvester is one of the judges at Regionals."

"What?!"

"I heard that, too," Mercedes said, sadly. "I was trying not to think about it this weekend. But yeah. She's going to crush us."

Artie looked desperately from Mercedes to Quinn, trying to be the eternal optimist, saying, "We don't know that."

"Yeah, I'm afraid we do," Quinn told him, gently. "Santana and Brittany told me that her exact words were 'I'm going to crush glee club.'"

...

Mercedes drove Quinn and Artie to the party at Mr. Schuester's apartment. It turned out that everyone else had heard the news, and nobody felt much like having a party anymore. The three rode back in silence for awhile, having left without really managing to eat much of the pizza. No one had much of an appetite, what with all the crying and reminiscing about Glee club. They hadn't even settled on a setlist, which had been the original plan for the event.

"I still think we could do our funk number..." Artie was trying to sound hopeful about that, but even he was struggling. "I mean, it genuinely intimidated Vocal Adrenaline..."

"Quinn, you were cute in that," Mercedes reminisced, as Quinn cringed over the memory of the tight-fitting orange top and camo pants that made her condition pretty obvious, compared to the other costumes she'd worn.

"She was." Artie seemingly had blurted this out, and he blushed furiously as both girls glimpsed him in the backseat and promptly burst out in a fit of giggles.

"Watch it, Wheels," Mercedes warned him, teasingly. "What would Tina say if she heard you say that?"

"Hey, it was an innocent compliment," Artie said, holding up his hands and smirking at them. Quinn continued to smile at him as she looked over her shoulder. His eyes met hers for a moment, and she wondered... did he recognize her?

If he had, he was doing her a huge favor by not mentioning her secret identify to anyone. Quinn thought back to their original meeting, nearly eight years ago. Perhaps Artie thought Lucy was Quinn's cousin. Whatever he thought, it was odd that he had yet to bring it up.

They pulled up to Artie's house and he began the tedious process of reconstructing his chair beside the vehicle and then sliding from one seat to the next. As he carefully arranged his feet, Quinn got out of the car. When both of his saddle shoes were placed securely back on the footrests, he glanced up at her.

"I've got it," he said, uncertainly, obviously thinking she'd gotten out to help him or something. "I do this all the time by myself."

"No, I know..." Quinn glanced furtively at Mercedes, who was busy talking on the phone inside her car and not paying attention to them. Quinn took advantage of the chance to ask without being overheard. "Do you... do you recognize me?"

Artie's eyes widened. "So you are the girl I met at the soccer field," he said, incredulously, confirming Quinn's suspicions that he might have recognized her before. "You're Lucy."

A/N: I'm making the Journey to Regionals episode span about a month, to show what went down while Quinn lived with Mercedes, down the street from Artie in my 'verse. And I also attempted to explain why Regionals happened so late in the year. (Massive snow storm.) You like? Give me a review!