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Thanks to Scarlett88 for Beta-ing!
Here's the next chapter so enjoy and review!
Chapter Fifteen
Beth really did not want to go to school the next day, but she had already missed two days and her mom would not allow her to miss any more.
The night before it was decided that Puck would stay in the house with them, just to make sure nothing funny happened. Quinn had to take the kids back to Cincinnati, but she promised to come back and visit that weekend.
It was almost crazy how much safer Beth felt just having Puck in the house, and Jim out of it. For the first time in seven years she slept throughout the whole night, without waking once. And when she woke up for school that next morning she felt refreshed.
"Good morning," Beth said as she entered the kitchen where her mom was flipping pancakes and Puck was sitting at the counter, reading the newspaper.
Beth lifted her eyebrows. "You don't seem like the kind of person who reads the newspaper."
Puck chuckled. "I'm not. This is my first time actually."
Beth just giggled as she sat on the stool next to her father.
"Your laugh sounds a lot like Quinn's," Puck informed her
"Really?" Beth smiled.
"Really, really."
"Breakfast is ready," Shelby said as she brought pancakes over to the counter.
"Thanks mom," Beth said as she greedily took three pancakes for herself. She was actually hungry, something she wasn't used to because it hadn't happened in seven years. She had always felt nauseous and just ate to keep people from suspecting anything, but it just seemed like now that her secret was out, she was free. She was finally free to live her life without an ever-present rain cloud above her head. Sure, she would occasionally be hit with a memory of what happened, and she would be sad for a while, but one thing she had learned in all of this was that the sun always shone after those kind of days.
"Wow, Bethy, you are really hungry," Shelby commented as she nibbled on her own pancake.
Beth nodded. "I don't know why, but all the sudden I feel like I can eat anything I see."
Puck took a bite of his pancake before speaking. "I was thinking maybe I should drive Beth to school today and pick her up."
"But I can drive on my own," Beth protested.
"No, Puck's probably right," Shelby said. "Maybe it would be better if, for today at least, someone else drove you."
"Oh, fine," Beth said giving in. She knew from now on her mom would be super protective of her, and she knew it would get old very quickly.
The three of them finished their pancakes before heading out the door. Since Puck didn't have his own car, Beth said he could drive hers.
"Can I ask you a question?" Beth asked when they were on the way to school.
Puck nodded. "Shoot."
"You still love Quinn, don't you?"
"What would make you think that?"
Beth shrugged. "I've seen the way you look at her. I've never seen anyone look at someone else with that much love."
Puck sighed. "Promise not to tell anyone?"
"Cross my heart and hope to die."
"Alright, I do still love your mom. I've loved her since high school, since before we even slept together. But after you were born everything sort of fell apart for us, and I was too chicken to glue everything back together. So I decided to run to New York like a pansy instead of facing everything."
Beth nodded. "You know what I think. I think that it's not too late. You know why?"
Puck shook his head.
"Because she looks at you the same way."
"She's married, babe. I slept with her once when she was dating my best friend, and that was mistake enough. But getting together with someone who's married is a whole different ball field I don't want to find myself in."
"All day yesterday when you were with her, your eyes sparkled with happiness," Beth explained. "But the minute she said good-bye and walked out that door, they went back to plain and dull."
Puck pulled into the carpool line and Beth grabbed her backpack. "My instincts tell me the two of you will get back together, just give it time," Beth said as she opened the car door. "Thanks for the ride, dad."
"Anytime." Beth got out of the car. "And Beth…"
She turned around. "Mmhmm?"
"Thanks for telling me all that," he smiled.
Beth liked seeing her dad smile. It seemed he had had a hard life so far and there weren't many smile lines on his face, which she hoped to fix. "No problem, dad. I meant every word."
She closed the door and headed into school. He watched to make sure she got in safe before taking off.
As Beth was walking through the halls she was very thankful she had Glee first period because she was in no mood for school work. She went to her locker, grabbed her books, and headed for the choir room. It would be her first time in there since she met her birthparents and she wanted to find every trace of them she could.
She wasn't surprised when she was the first one in the room, she had arrived at school a bit early after all. She was looking at the National's pictures once again, smiling, when she heard the sound of a familiar voice call her name.
"Beth," she heard Emerson, her best friend, say.
"Em," Beth said as she turned around and smiled, happy to see her friend. She walked over to the other blonde and gave her a hug, to which Emerson held on tight. Just that little sign made Beth realize Emerson somehow knew what was going on.
"You know, don't you?" Beth asked.
Emerson smiled warmly at her friend and nodded. "Your mom called my mom."
"Oh," Beth said, putting her head down a bit. "I'm sorry I never told you, I just-"
Emerson put her hand up to stop her friend. "You don't have to explain, Beth. I am in no way mad at you for not telling me, although I do wish you would have. It's a hard thing to get out, but I'm proud of you for doing it."
Beth smiled at her friend as a single tear fell down her cheek. Emerson embraced her into another tight hug before the warning bell rang and other kids started to fumble into class. Beth wiped her eyes and smiled at Emerson, who linked arms with her friend as they went to take their seats.
X-X-X-X-X
After dropping her kids off at school that Wednesday morning and running a few errands, Quinn decided she would call Joe and try to work everything out, for the kids' sake at least. She sat on the comfy armchair in the family room and dialed his number.
It kept ringing and she was surprised that not even his new secretary (he had told her he fired the first and hired a new, male one) was answering. She hung up, and tried his hotel.
They connected her to his room, and she was surprised to find he was in. Why wasn't he at work on a Wednesday afternoon? But all Quinn's thinking went out the window when she heard a voice that was not Joe's answer
"Hello." The voice was feminine, soft, and dainty and Quinn about lost it.
"Is Joseph there?" she said through gritted teeth.
"He's in the shower can I take a message?" the girl said. "What's your name?"
"My name is Quinn, as in Joe's wife. Who are you?"
"Oh, um, I'm, um, my name is Trudy. I'm your husband's secretary," she answered awkwardly.
Quinn's eyes suddenly went black with rage. To keep from saying something she would seriously regret she slammed the phone down as hard as she could. She was so angry she didn't even feel like crying, she was just sitting, feeling like the rage building up in her body would explode at any minute.
She got up and began to pace around the room. She paced faster and faster until she felt like the friction of her socks on the carpet would start a fire.
She looked up on the mantelpiece and saw a large picture of her and Joe on their fifth wedding anniversary. She took the picture out of the frame and looked at it. They had gone to Florida for the occasion and were sitting on the beach, wrapped in each other's arms, smiles adorning both their faces. What happened to these two people? Quinn wondered. They had been so happy then, and carefree. How, in the past four years, had she changed so much that her husband didn't even want her anymore? She shook her head because thinking about it hurt too much. She took the photo and ripped it in half before throwing it into her fireplace.
How could she be so stupid, so naïve? And she was actually going to give that bastard a second chance. She should have known everything he had said to her Monday was a lie, after all he had been lying during most their marriage. She just couldn't believe she had wasted nine precious years of her life on someone so disgusting. The only good thing she had gotten out of those nine years is Ella and Ayden. But she felt sorry for them because now she was certain their parents would not be getting back together.
In her heart all she really wanted to do was call Puck and tell him what happened. Did that make her any better than her husband? Well, it's not like she planned on sleeping with him. She just needed someone to talk to, a friend, and since she was short on those, he was really the only person she could call. Except maybe Rachel. They were friends now, right? She had apologized and Rachel had forgiven her, that made them at least not enemies. Whatever she did, she needed to get out of this house. She picked the phone back up and texted Joe.
I need you to pick the kids up from school and keep them for the night. I have some thinking to do. Alone. Oh and she better not be there.
She knew the alone part was a lie, she didn't want to be alone, but she didn't want him trying to come over and explain. She knew well enough what had happened, again, and she wasn't going to try and let him brainwash her with any more of his lies.
Her phone vibrated signaling she had a text from him.
Okay. And tomorrow, maybe you can give me a chance to explain?
She sighed before answering.
We'll see.
She then went to her address book and found Puck's number. She pressed call and held the phone up to her ear, waiting while it rung. After a few seconds she heard a voice on the other line. "Hello."
Something about the way he had said 'hello' had broken something down inside of her and she began to cry. "Puck," she sobbed.
"Quinn…Quinn what's wrong?" he said, a bit panicked.
"Everything," she cried.
"Are you okay?"
"I just, can I drive down there and meet you? I really don't want to be alone right now."
"What about the kids?"
"They're with their father," Quinn answered.
"Are you sure you're in a good state to drive?"
"Yes," she nodded.
"Okay."
"Okay, I'll be there in an hour and a half." Quinn hung up the phone before going in her bathroom to wash her face and re-apply her make-up. She went down stairs, grabbed her purse, and headed for Lima.
She was still full of so much anger she got to Lima twenty minutes fast than usual, speeding almost the whole way. By the time she got there it was turning into evening and dinnertime. She knew she was in no condition to see Beth. Beth had enough on her plate she didn't need to see her birth mom in such a frantic state. She called Puck and asked him to meet her at Breadstix for dinner, and he agreed.
She arrived at the restaurant before him and took a seat inside one of the booths. She grabbed a breadstick from the center of the table and snapped it in half before biting in. It tasted so delicious in her mouth; it had been fourteen years since she had eaten at this restaurant and she definitely missed it.
A couple minutes later she saw him walk into the restaurant and waved at him so he knew where she was sitting. He smiled and nodded before heading her way. He sat down in the booth across from hers. "Hey."
"Hey, thanks for meeting me here," she smiled at him.
"Yea, well, you sounded kind of panicked on the phone and I wanted to make sure you were okay," he answered.
The waitress interrupted them by taking their drink order. Puck got a beer while Quinn got herself a Margarita. The waitress was young, probably about 25, and she kept smirking at Puck as she took the order. Had this been a week ago while living in New York he would have taken advantage of her easily, but now that he had a chance of winning Quinn back, he wasn't going to risk it.
When she turned around to go put their drink order in he swear he saw her wink at him, but he just shook his head and ignored it.
"So what's up?" he asked.
Quinn sighed. "I called Joe earlier to try and talk everything out and he wasn't at work so I tried the hotel and his slut of a secretary answered, which can only mean one thing."
Puck couldn't believe what he was hearing. Who did this guy think he is, cheating on the most beautiful woman in the world not only once but two times, if not more! Just the thought of doing something so completely stupid made him want to hit his head against the wall.
"The man is obviously the biggest douche bag," he said. "He doesn't deserve someone like you, Quinn."
The waitress came back, of course at the most inopportune time. She handed them their drinks and took their food orders, still not taking her eyes off Puck. She left to put their orders in and Quinn took a big gulp of her margarita.
"Wow, slow down there slick," he chuckled.
She just giggled as she took another gulp. "It's been a while since I've drank alcohol," she said. "I've forgotten how good it can make you feel."
Throughout the dinner Quinn continued to tell Puck everything that had happened that day and in the weeks before. It felt good to be able to talk to someone and be completely honest without fear of judgment. It was also good to hear things like 'he's a jackass' or 'who the fuck would do that shit?' And by the end of the meal they were both on their third drink.
Puck, who was used to drinking a lot, paid the bill and escorted a drunk Quinn to her car. He opened the door intending to put her in the back seat, but she drunkenly threw her arms around his neck and leaned in for a kiss.
It felt so good at first that he let it happen, but then he remembered the circumstances and pushed her away.
"What? I thought you wanted me," she stated.
"I do want you, Quinn. More than I've wanted anything in my life. But you're drunk, and we all know you don't make rational decisions when that happens. I know you'll regret it in the morning. Plus, you're married."
"I'm getting divorced," she corrected. As she leaned in and began to place soft kisses on his neck. He was surprised when she dove straight into the sensitive spot on his neck and began to suck.
He tried, he really tried to will himself to push her away again, but he was powerless against her. She had some sort of hold over him he would never understand. And honestly, it felt good to be doing this with someone he actually loved and cared about. That hadn't happened since the last time he slept with her, fourteen years ago.
He smirked down at her as he laid her on the back seat of the car, closed the door, and removed his shirt. Maybe Beth was right, maybe this was just meant to be, he thought as he leaned down and kissed Quinn deeply for the first time in sixteen years.