"I think I'm going to do it."

"Do what?" Mike asked, not really paying attention to her as he channel surfed.

"I think I'm going to have Shelby tell Beth who I am."

That got Mike's attention as his finger froze above the button to change the channel. Quinn hadn't mentioned Beth since that time when she had brought over those cupcakes earlier in the year and he just figured that she had decided what to do a long time ago. While his brain tried to catch up, she had continued talking.

"–don't have to say anything. I just… needed to tell someone."

"Oh."

"I don't think I've ever been so terrified in my life." He turned and found her staring blankly at the TV screen. "What if she hates me for giving her up?"

"She won't."

"What if she does?" she asked as he looked over at him. "I keep imagining coming home one day and finding a pile of all the gifts I've given her on my doorstep."

He laughed then said, "That's insane. She's a teenager. There's no way she's giving up a bunch of stuff she loves."

"Exactly, she's a teenager. Teenagers do crazy things. We have first-hand knowledge on how crazy they can be."

The TV rose in volume as something excited happened while he spent a few seconds to gather his thoughts.

"Have you talked with Beth before?"

She shook her head as she said, "No, I send her gifts and I get thank you notes back."

"Oh."

"Shelby says Beth wants to meet the awesome aunt who's always sending her cool gifts," she said with a smile. "Her notes have even gotten a more personal."

"You could always write her back."

"I know, but I think my first conversation with her should be a real conversation, not just a letter from her awesome aunt."

"Might be easier if you write it down," he said with a shrug.

She nodded then fell silent.

"It'll be fine," he said. "When she hears the story she'll understand."

The expression on her face made it seem like she wasn't exactly convinced which he thinks might be why she licked her lips and asked, "Can I make the call from here? You know, in case things don't work out?"

"And if things do work out like I think they will? How are you gonna repay me for clearing an entire afternoon or evening for you?"

The quivering of her lips gave away the fact she wanted to smile but, after a bit of a struggle, she kept her face straight and said, "Pig's feet stew for dinner."

"You hate that stuff."

"But you love it for some reason."

"What can I say? The Chinese will eat anything." He grinned. "What about dessert?"

"Quit being greedy. I'm just coming over to make a phone call."

Mike laughed and nodded then watched as Quinn exhaled.

"Just let me know when you're gonna make the call."

"I will. And thanks."

XXX

The phone call happened the next weekend.

After starting the stew in his pressure cooker, she paced in front of his couch for a good five minutes before he said her name. That snapped her out of whatever place her mind was in, but she still didn't make the call and just stared at his living room floor. He took things into his own hands by walking over and placing them onto her shoulders, feeling a slight shiver run through her.

"What if she doesn't like me?"

"You may find it hard to believe, but you're an easy person to like."

"You're right. I do find that hard to believe."

Ignoring that heartbreaking comment, he gently squeezed her shoulders and said, "You'll be fine."

"Why are you so nice to me?"

"Because you're the saddest girl I've ever met."

Her head lifted. "Wha—"

"But, you're also the strongest person I know."

She dropped her head again. "No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are. I know what you went through in high school and you're the only person I know who could have gotten through that." He squeezed her shoulders again. "You can do this."

She looked up and nodded. He stepped back, letting her make the call. Not that it was done quickly as she stared at her phone for a minute before finally dialing the number.

Her pacing resumed.

Just because she wanted to be here didn't mean she wanted him to listen to her conversation, so when she stopped pacing and began talking, he went to the kitchen and turned down the heat on the stew. He took the look on Quinn's face when he looked back to be a good sign and headed to his bedroom to grab a zip-up hoodie.

It took a few seconds for him to scribble a note down on a piece of paper, saying he was going out for some groceries. It took a few more seconds to actually confirm that the conversation was going well and by the smile on her face he was pretty sure it was, he got her attention and gave her the note. With a roll of the eyes and a shooing motion with her hand, she went back to her conversation after glancing at the note.

The last thing he heard as he left the apartment was her laughter and he knew everything would be alright between Beth and Quinn.

XXX

"What'd you do with your spare time besides hang out with me?" Quinn asked one day during a quiet moment while they both were in her office.

Not really thinking, he said the first thing that came to mind: "The usual stuff."

Quinn, none too pleased with his flippant answer, raised an eyebrow and said, "Like?"

"Hang out with other people, read books, listen to music, go to a dance studio. You know that usual stuff."

"You still dance?"

"I do, but it's nothing organized. I just mess around with some people at the studio."

"Oh." She glanced down at her desk before continuing to talk. "When was the last time you did something on the weekend without me?"

It took a few seconds for him to respond because it wasn't something he knew off the top of his head.

"Uh, went out to a bar with the guys a couple of weeks ago." He twisted his lips around for a second. "I think."

Her lips pursed for a moment like she was unsure of something before she spoke again. "I'm not taking up too many of your weekends am I?"

"Didn't we talk about this already?"

"Yea, but—"

"But nothing. If I need a weekend, I'd tell you."

He waited to see if Quinn would continue talking and, for a few seconds, it seemed like she would but, when her head bowed, he followed suit and went back to the paper he was reading. It didn't take long for her to speak again.

"When was the last time you went on a date?"

Now that was a question that Mike had to think about and even then he couldn't remember anything specific. "Uh… months and months ago probably. Why are you asking?"

"Why haven't you been dating?"

His eyes narrowed slightly at the obvious side-stepping of his question but he ignored it because there was no point in mentioning it. "Haven't felt like it."

"Why?"

"LA kinda made me sick of the whole dating scene."

"How so?"

"I don't know if it was the people I hung out with or something else, but everything seemed fake out there. One night stands, casual relationships, and all that fun stuff."

"Doesn't sound so different from plenty of other places."

He shrugged and said, "I'm sure it's not, but I came to realize I didn't like what that city was doing to me, so getting this job was the perfect reason to get away from that city."

"What was the city doing to you?"

"You know: one night stands, casual relationships, and all that fun stuff."

"You did all those things?" she asked with a tone that betrayed the disappointment she kept off of her face.

"I'm not proud of it."

"You were a man slut," she deadpanned.

He laughed and shrugged. "I guess, but I'm not ashamed of it either. It was just something I did. I guess it was a case of 'monkey see, monkey do' with the group of people I hung out with and it was fine for a while but I started to want more and I couldn't seem to find it there."

"Am I keeping you from dating?"

He sighed then said, "Why do you always believe you're stopping me from doing anything I want?"

"Because… we spend a lot of time together and it doesn't leave you with a lot."

Mike sighed. He knew Quinn could be stubborn sometimes but this was getting to be a bit much.

"Listen, I'm going to say this one more time: I hang out with you because we're friends, but, more importantly, because I want to."

He didn't know what kind of response he would get but it sure wasn't a smile that didn't come close to reaching her eyes.

XXX

Thinking over that conversation with Quinn off and on for two days brought Mike to the conclusion that he had absolutely no idea why he hadn't been on a date in months.

This problem was easily solved by asking out someone who had caught his eye. Conveniently, she worked in the same building and just happened to get in at around the same time as him. He wasn't positive, but he thought with the way she looked at him when they did catch the same elevator he had a shot with her. That hunch proved to be correct as she accepted his offer of dinner by asking him what took so long.

The dinner was perfectly pleasant. Any apprehension due to having not dated in a while quickly vanished when he found out they were in neighboring industries with her being a policy wonk for a think tank. That led to all sorts of lively political discussions which eventually led to them agreeing that work talk would be banned for the rest of the night. That led to him finding out, that aside from being smart, she had a wickedly funny, yet horribly dirty, sense of humor and a love for horses that bordered on scary. Combined with the fact that anyone he could have asked would have said she was pretty and it was amazing he had basically stumbled into this date with her.

They made plans for a second date.

XXX

"It feels like it's been forever since we've had a movie night."

Quinn smiled and said, "It's only been a few weeks."

"I know, but I've missed them."

She smiled again as she finished plating their dinner of homemade fried chicken and brought the plates over to the table, but said nothing.

"So, what have you been up to with all your newfound time on the weekends?"

"Not much," she said with a shrug. "I've been catching up on some reading. And…I went out on a date."

"Oh? And how was that?" he asked as they took their seats.

"Nothing to write home about, but everything is progress, right?"

He grinned and said, "Yea and you'll get it right one day."

With a wry smile, she said, "Maybe," then looked down and began eating, trying to be dignified by using utensils but then giving up all pretense since clean and fried chicken were two things that didn't go well together. He, on the other hand, didn't even bother and just dug in with his hands.

"Are you planning on getting it right this time around?" Quinn asked while he had a mouth full of chicken.

Quickly chewing and swallowing allowed him to say, "I hope so."

"I take it things are going well?"

He grinned behind the piece of chicken he held in his hands. "They are. She's smart, funny, and sexy and we have fun together."

"Oh." Her lips pursed and she wrung a napkin with her hands before dabbing her mouth with it. "I'm glad."

He couldn't help but notice that she had almost a full plate of food when they finished eating. When he asked her about it, all she said was that she wasn't that hungry. He took her at her word and gladly ate the leftovers while they watched TV.

XXX

"I hear you broke up with whatsherface."

Mike spun around and stared at Heather in disbelief. "How do you find out about these things? I did it over the weekend and didn't tell anyone yet."

"When a woman gets dumped by a guy like you, she tells her friends. Those friends talk to other people and those people talk and so on and so on, and it eventually gets back to me. Plus you made it so much easier when you dated someone in the building, so thanks for that."

"You're welcome?"

Heather walked over, ran her hand through his hair, and said, "So why'd you do it?"

"I don't know," he said while shaking his head. "Something was just missing and I figured that ending it after a month would be better than ending it after a year."

"You better invite me to your wedding," she said as she ran a hand through his hair again. "After seeing who you dumped, I wanna know just what kind of woman is good enough for you."

"Hey, I'm not that demanding. Sometimes people just don't click."

"You mean like how you and Quinn click?" she asked with a grin.

"We're friends. You know, like how you and me are friends."

Heather laughed. "Your friendship with me is nothing like the…friendship you have with Quinn. For one, I don't want to sleep with you."

"She doesn't want to sleep with me. She didn't even care that I was dating someone."

"Oh Mike, don't be naïve. A girl like Quinn won't tip her hand. You've gotta make the first move, but you should know this already."

XXX

"Hold still."

Mike grinned as he watched Quinn composing the picture she was trying to take of him as they stood near the entrance of the National Zoo.

"Almost got it."

"You know, you're a terrible photographer."

"Shut up." The camera shutter released. "Got it."

"Took you long enough," he said as he pulled up his own DSLR and fired off some candid shots of Quinn until she noticed and glared at him.

When he noticed that she wasn't paying attention anymore, he brought his camera back up and continued to shoot her as she looked around and took her own pictures. When she caught him this time around, she just rolled her eyes and ignored him. This day was something he wanted to document and he had a hunch that Quinn would feel the same way someday. Even if she said otherwise right now.

He hid his smile behind his camera as, every so often, she looked at her phone. Quinn liked to believe that she presented an emotionless façade to the world, but if he paid attention to the details he could see little cracks in that mask. He grabbed as many shots of her looking at her phone as he could, the bad ones to be deleted and the best one given to her one day. Maybe Christmas since they were more than halfway through the year.

As he was planning this out, he caught something out of the corner of his eye which made him take a few steps away and to the side of Quinn. He quickly recomposed his shot to place Quinn off to the side and took as many pictures as he could. This was the moment he really wanted to capture.

"What are you doing?" she asked, turning to face him.

"Nothing, just wanted to shoot from a different angle."

Looking as if she didn't believe him at all, she went back to her own photos which gave him the opportunity to include the pair of people, one tall brunette and a shorter blonde, walking up behind Quinn.

The taller of the two waved.

He waved back which caught Quinn's attention, causing her to freeze then slowly turn around. To say there was a mix of emotions, ranging from surprise to terror to joy, on her face when she saw Shelby and Beth would have been an understatement. That was the look he wanted to remember.

The other pair stopped a few yards away and absolutely nothing happened. Mike would've laughed at the little showdown they were having if he didn't think Quinn would tear him a new one. Shelby caught his eyes then rolled hers and he grinned back. When he did, she gave Beth a little shove. Mike followed suit with a nudge to Quinn. Their actions finally got the pair of blondes moving, slowly. But, moving nonetheless.

After Quinn took a few steps, Mike slowly followed and finally got a good look at Beth. She was the spitting image of her mother, with only a slightly wider chin and nose which seemed to be the only contributions from Puck. When they stopped a few feet away from each other, he could only grin which he saw Shelby doing as well.

"Hi."

"Hi," Beth said back as they moved in to hug each other. "Took you long enough to meet me, mom."

"Took you long enough to come out here, brat."

For some reason Mike expected this coming conversation to be climactic, instead all he got was Beth—who, apparently was a pretty big smartass—telling Quinn what new songs she had learned to play on the guitar. This made sense since they had been talking regularly ever since that first phone from his place, but this was the first time they had seen each other in over a decade. He supposed that did count for something anyway as the pair headed into the zoo, leaving him and Shelby trailing behind.

"I guess we've been replaced."

Shelby laughed. "I hope so, raising a kid is hard. I could use a break."

He tried to make small talk as best he could with the former show choir director but they didn't have much in common, so much of his time trailing the blondes was spent taking photos of them and the animals at the zoo. The animals were animals and he'd seen those before. He had never seen Quinn interact with anyone like she did when she was with Beth.

It wasn't as though Quinn was free and loose around her daughter. He didn't think there would ever come a time when she would be completely free and loose around anyone, but he had seen moments of that freedom. There was certainly some of that in her interactions with Beth, but it was more of a willing openness to discuss personal issues and sharing personal experiences he had never heard. Even though he was standing mere feet away from her, those stories weren't for him so he tried not to pay attention while shooting.

The conversation became hard to ignore when Beth said, "So, am I getting a new uncle soon?"

"No. What are you talking about?"

"You're always talking about this Mike guy. I just assumed he was your boyfriend."

"No. That's—"

"Is that him?" Beth asked, glancing at him.

"No. Wait, I mean, yes that is him." Quinn looked over. "But he's not my boyfriend."

"Why not?"

Quinn stared at him wide-eyed and mouth slightly agape which he took as his cue to step in.

"HI, I don't think we've really been introduced yet." He held out his hand. "I'm Mike, Quinn's friend you've heard all about, and I'd be a terrible boyfriend."

Beth giggled as she took his hand.

"You giggle, but it's true. I'm rude and mean and all sorts of nasty things."

Beth giggled again, let go of his hand, and said, "Quinn's said pretty much the opposite. Didn't say you were so silly though."

"Silly? Me?" He plastered one of his patented goofy faces on for a second, drawing more giggles from Beth. "Never."

"Don't pay attention to him," Quinn said. "He's plenty silly."

"Okay, that's enough of this disgusting display," Shelby said as she walked up. "If it goes on any longer, I'm going to be washing my own puke from Beth's hair."

Beth made a face and said, "Mom!"

Shelby smiled and tried to brush Beth's cheek who pulled away with a mock disgusted look. "So, dinner?" she asked as she rolled her eyes.

"Yea," Quinn said. "There are plenty of good restaurants around here."

"Well, we've got no idea what's good so that's up to you and Mike," Shelby said.

Mike didn't really care where they ate, but Quinn insisted on talking about it. Normally, Quinn wouldn't have cared about this, but he guessed that she wanted to make this day special — Well, more special — so he humors her. They spent the next few minutes discussing the pros and cons of the restaurants around the zoo with Quinn picking apart every single restaurant he suggested, even the ones he knew she would happily eat at for the rest of her life.

"Okay," he said after she shot down yet another suggestion. "Where would you like to eat?'

"I don't know. That's what we're trying to decide."

"No, that's what I'm trying to do. I have no idea what you're trying to do."

Quinn glared at him, but Beth's giggles put a quick end to that.

"I bet Shelby and Beth don't even care where we eat," he said.

"We really don't," Shelby said.

"We could go to that bar I saw across the street," Beth said.

"Absolutely not," Quinn and Shelby said at the same time.

"That's…freaky…," Beth said. "I don't like it at all."

Everyone except Beth laughed at that who glared at them which only made the adults laugh harder.

"Alright, enough of this," he said as he placed a hand on Quinn's lower back and guided her forward. "I'm picking a place and you can't say no."

Quinn wrinkled her nose then grinned. "Fine. I won't."

"I'm so getting an uncle," he heard Beth say and when he looked over at Quinn, she was rolling her eyes, but the grin was still on her face.

XXX

Besides work and nerdy TV shows/movies there was another major interest that Mike shared with Quinn and that was food. When they weren't sitting on his couch vegging out in front of his TV, they were out at whatever new restaurant the food bloggers were raving about. Or Quinn would have his kitchen commandeered to try out a recipe from one of her seemingly endless cookbooks. And with a love of food came a love of wine, enjoyed on its own or paired with food.

So, they were both thrilled when Restaurant Week came around in the fall which was basically an excuse for them to eat lunch or dinner at some of the most popular restaurants in town for less than what they would usually have to pay. Some days they ate with other people. Some, like dinner this Friday night, they were on their own.

"So, what'd you think?"

Mike made a face then brought his hand up and waggled it.

"Yea, that place isn't going on our return list."

Mike shrugged.

"Are you not talking for the rest of the night?"

He shrugged again then noticed that she was rubbing her bare arms and said, "Cold?"

"A little."

"We should've taken a taxi," he said as he draped his suit jacket over her shoulders.

"I wanted to walk back," she said, tugging the jacket a bit tighter. "Plus, we weren't taking a taxi to go five blocks down the street."

With a grin, he threw an arm around her shoulders and pulled her along at a quicker pace until she elbowed him in the ribs.

"Wanna grab a drink?" he asked as they started passing a cluster of bars on the street where their apartments were.

The feeling of her shaking head against his arm and chest was the only response he got and the little stumble in her step was the only explanation he needed. Mike didn't know if it was the wine in his stomach or the heat from her head against his chest, but he felt like there was a feather tickling his insides.

Her place was closest to the restaurant and they only had to walk a few more minutes to get to the front steps of her building. That was where Mike found himself waiting as she hunted through her bag for her keys. He had to grin as her face took on a more and more annoyed look, the longer it took her to find her keys. A sound of triumph came from her as she finally yanked her keys out of her bag with a grin then held them above her head like a trophy.

He grinned at her antics, thinking that the wine from dinner must have hit her a bit harder than usual, and she sheepishly smiled back after she brought her hand down. A street light hit her blonde hair just right as she gently swayed to some unknown beat, making it seem as though her entire face was glowing. He made the decision was made right then and there and leaned forward. The last thing he saw on her face before he closed his eyes and his lips touched hers was surprise. Or panic.

At first, he figured it was surprise because he felt her press into him and tasted the hint of the wine on the softest pair of lips he had ever known. However, he settled on panic when her hands came up and pushed him away, the keys in her right hand digging into his chest. That was confirmed as he pulled back and she scrambled to open the door to her building, looking as flustered as he had ever seen her.

Before she disappeared inside, he barely heard her say, "Goodnight."

This mess was the wine's fault. Or at least that was what he told himself.