Author's Note:

Hello, happy readers! Just a brief intro to this story which I predict will be about 15 chapters long. Firstly, I do not own Glee or its characters or plotlines I have chosen to include in this story. This is set in the middle of season 1 while Quinn is in the later stages of her pregnancy and Will has just discovered Terri's deception. I give a brief "Previously on Glee…" outline to show what has happened and there are some elements I have opted to omit from this scenario so unless I have specified the important ones, they are not part of the AU I am creating here. Finally, all that has to be said is that I hope you enjoy this as I have only just started watching the show but am a few episodes into season 2 at the moment and are moved to read it, even though it is rather dark. It is my forte: making happy and gleeful shows take a dark and morbid twist so if that's your thing, do take a look through my other stories and read at your leisure!

Happy reading,

DaenerysTargary3n!

Previously on Glee: Quinn is pregnant and staying with Mercedes and everyone thought the father was Finn but it turns out that it's actually Puck. Will thought his wife was pregnant but really Mrs Schue was just faking it and they're divorced now and he tried it out with Miss Pillsbury but she's now dating some dentist guy so that's over. Tina and Artie are in a rough place after he thought he might be able to walk at some point in his life but they'll probably get through it. Finn, Rachel and Puck are still doing their love triangle thing but she still can't make her mind up and is still annoying everyone else in the club. Finally, Coach Sylvester is still trying to get Santana and Brittany, who are secretly hooked up with each other, to screw with the club's push to place at Regionals and that's just about it in Glee!

Terrific fiend! Thou Monster fell,
Condemn'd in haunts profane to dwell,
Why quit thy solitary Home,
O'er wide Creation's paths to roam?
Pale Tyrant of the timid Heart,
Whose visionary spells can bind
The strongest passions of the mind,
Freezing Life's current with thy baneful Art. ~ Ode to Despair (M. Darby Robinson)

Will once more was sleeping in his office as he couldn't stand to be in his house one his own now that Terri had moved all of her crap out of the place. It had felt refreshing and rejuvenating to redecorate the place with his stuff, making it more of the bachelor pad it now was, but after a few days all he really saw when he was there was a three bedroom house with one divorced man occupying the master suite. He had taken to using a sleeping bag to crash in his office and he paid off the janitor to not tattle on him to Figgins, so nobody knew that Will's new office that abutted the choir room by day was a thriving office but by night was a depressing home of a newly single man.

That was how he found himself at about eleven o'clock on this Wednesday night, tucking himself into his quaint sleeping bag on his cold office floor when he became aware of noises coming from next door. It sounded like one person who had for some reason interloped into his club room and had just pulled out the piano stool. He couldn't see any reason to stir for the time being as the intruder seemed to only want to play the instrument and not steal it, so all the Spanish teacher did was listen quietly as the keys moved in the other room and a beautiful, ethereal melody swam through the night air into his ears.

It was when the vocal line entered that the identity of the person next door became apparent. He prided himself on knowing intimately and well the voices of all the kids in his club and the girls' voices in particular were easy to identify. Rachel's was stellar and stood out in any ensemble, Mercedes possessed an earthy and booming gospel voice, Santana's was like a cross between Shakira and Jennifer Lopez, Brittany sounded like a more nasal Kristin Chenoweth and Tina's voice was the punchiest and made him think of what Hayley Williams might sound like if she took to singing show tunes.

Clumsily and tiredly, he rose and glimpsed the piano through his shuttered window at the hunched over figure sat before the instrument. The room was dimly lit and he could barely make her out, but he was perplexed as to why Quinn Fabray would be roaming school halls so late at night and alone while pregnant and find her way to the glee club's piano. The song she had chosen confused him as well, for instead of the poppy and gutsy female ballads she adored, now she was performing (not only singing, performing!) a heartfelt and gripping Barbra Streisand style ballad that appeared to be self-composed. The lyrics were certainly penned by Quinn; they were so her it was unmistakable.

They used to call you queen of the jungle,

You used to be that strong.

But then the lion took you

And now everything has gone wrong.

You've got such a heavy load to bear

And no one's there to carry you.

The queen has become the slave

Of the entire jungle crew.

Will Schuester found himself crying as she went from the chorus into a wistful yet raging piano solo and he knew he had the tendency to cry a lot but there was something so honest and pitiful about this fallen girl before him who had so much talent and beauty that spiked his gentle heart into overdrive.

He quietly crept through his door into the open room not wishing to disturb her song or startle her with any loud noises. He noticed in closer proximity that she had her eyes firmly squeezed shut she was so engrossed in her composition and her body jerked and gyrated with fluidity as she felt the nuances and accents in her song. Despite being about seven months along, her body still had all the grace and musicality of the cheerleader captain that she had been and longed to be once more. It was awe-inspiring and he felt a sudden pang of sorrow that she felt she could not be this way more openly and in front of the glee club.

As the chorus recurred, he joined in and sung a low baritone harmony to match her soprano melody line. He half expected her to react and stop playing and singing, but as always, Quinn Fabray surprised him and merely opened her eyes to see who else was in the glee room that night and was singing in tandem with her. She smiled at Will radiantly and merely nodded in greeting while continuing to sing.

Once the song drew to a close, she stood awkwardly and asked, "What are you doing here, Mr. Schue? It's a little late to be in school."

He laughed easily, "Right back at you," he retorted, "and I don't sleep at home any more. It's weird just being there by myself…there are too many rooms."

Quinn looked down at her hands folded around her swollen belly and replied sotto voce, "I'm sorry."

"What do you have to be sorry for?"

With a morose tilt of her head, showing him the glint forming in her eyes as the tears formed, "I know that you know Mrs Schuester was lying about being pregnant but I don't know if you know…"

"Quinn, I know she was going to use your baby," he interrupted, "I guessed it when she didn't say anything when I asked her what she planned to do when the baby was supposed to arrive, plus I recall a certain hug that came from nowhere."

It stunned her that even while he was undergoing so much pain and experiencing such adversity, he managed to be happy (or at least come across as happy) in this room. She didn't feel guilty about that much in her life, but it killed her that she had almost been a part of this man's sorrow.

Will noticed her quieten and retreat but he had more to talk to her about, "Can I ask you something…something I probably have no business asking you, Quinn?"

"Sure."

"I know why you want to give your daughter up for adoption but what did Terri say or do that made you want her to be the mother of your child?"

The tears started falling at this point but she wiped them off her face. They seemed to weigh her down so she sat again and replied, "She asked me if I thought you'd be a good dad, Mr. Schue and she told me about all this prenatal stuff that I had no idea about."

"Ah, she scared you. That makes sense because I couldn't work out just what would make you get involved in such a horrible – not to mention hurtful – plot. I thought you were one of my kids, Quinn."

As he spoke to her, her cries grew louder and the tears flowed freer and Will was tempted to embrace her but he had to know just what had gone through the young girl's head during that decision process.

"I'm so, so sorry, Mr. Schue. It was the worst decision I've ever made and I'm sixteen and pregnant so that's saying something. I love the glee club and being part of it. The others and you have been so nice and great to me ever since I got pregnant and I am so sorry for what I've done. I love being one of your kids."

He sighed, realising that she had suffered more than her due and he was a jerk for dragging out her pain. He walked over to her and gently pushed her along the piano stool making room for him to sit beside her and he put his arm around her and just held her while she cried.

"That was a gorgeous song, Quinn. Why didn't you ever tell me you could play and write like that?" He asked after a few minutes.

She shrugged, "I guess I didn't know I could until I had something to sing about. I was in the auditorium a couple of days ago and it just came to me. The playing is thanks to endless piano lessons at church. I can pretty much play the entire hymnal."

"Well, we'll have to get you singing and playing in glee club then. No reason Finn and Puck should be the only ones who play their instruments. We might even be able to pull off All That Jazz and you can be the cool pianist guy."

"I can't play in front of the club," she confessed meekly, "this is just for me."

"I've heard you play and sing, though. Doesn't that make it easier?" Will countered, not wanting her to retreat into the shell she had built for herself since she discovered she was pregnant.

"No. You're Mr. Schue. I can do anything in front of you because you believe in me and in everyone else, but the others are just waiting for me to fall on my face and I am not ready to open myself up to them."

He smiled at her, "Well, thanks for the compliment…I think, but what makes you think everyone in glee is waiting for you to fail? They've shown their support for you and they think you're their friend. Genuinely."

"Please. Don't try to convince me that Rachel and Mercedes and Santana and Brittany and all the others like me because it is not true. They were only nice to me when they thought it was Finn's baby and he was the first cool kid to be nice to them so they did what they did, but it wasn't for me. It was for him."

While he pondered her words and attempted to come up with an apt response, she started tinkling on the ivories and played a few lines of the hymn Abide with Me. Once she got to the end of one verse, she did not continue but instead pulled herself out of his steadying embrace and looked him directly in the eye.

"Do you miss your wife?"

The question did take him by surprise but he answered it nevertheless, "No, I don't miss Terri but I do miss the company and constant presence of someone. I spend all day here and you guys are so lively and so great but then I go home and it's just me and I can't stand my own company. I guess I have problems with being alone. Something we seem to share, Miss Fabray."

Quinn looked down at her engorged stomach and ran her manicured hand along its stretched skin, "I used to hate being alone but now I just want to be on my own in my own skin, just me."

"Not long to go though. Only a couple of months."

She shook of the subject, although Will could see that she was only doing so externally but let it go and turned to face him, "Mr. Schue, I know I'm the last person who has a right to ask you for anything but ever since I've been staying at Mercedes' place, I really miss the quiet of my own space and I was wondering if it would be okay if I came to play and sing here some nights. I wouldn't disturb you if you were here and it's not like I would expect you to come out and talk to me. It's just Mercedes and Kurt and her mom are so loud!"

He laughed, understanding fully how living with big personalities could be exhausting and frustrating. Terri had not been a walk in the park whatsoever, "Course you can, Quinn but I can't give you free run over the entire school after hours so just in the choir room, then if anything happens, I'll more than likely be here."

She hugged him again, thanking God for putting a man like Will Schuester into Lima, Ohio, "Thanks, Mr. Schue. I promise I'll only use the glee room and you won't even know I'm about."

"Quinn, stop wishing people to find you invisible. You're not invisible and before you say so, it's not just because of the baby. You are a talented, unique and valuable member of the glee club and just because life seems pants now doesn't mean it always will."

The mother-to-be was accustomed to feeling her unborn child kick in her stomach but except for her own, she had never noticed anyone else's voice stimulate a kicking flurry in her abdomen. However, that was exactly what happened now as Mr. Schuester spoke to her in his certain and calming tone of her positive characteristics. It made her weeping recommence and she did not know how to explain why to her companion except for taking his hand in hers and placing it on her belly where the child's kicks were aimed.

"Wow! That's…" he mumbled, truly lost for words as he had been when he saw the sonogram of this same baby, although at the time he mistook its identity and parentage, "that's, that's a strong kick, Quinn. Got a girl who'll play football or do gymnastics in there for sure. You know I've seen what your daughter looks like?"

"Huh?"

"Yeah, Terri used your video for her 'appointment' and the sight of it – of her – made me cry."

"That's sweet. She really would have been lucky…" Quinn whispered.

He patted her soothingly on the spot where the baby kicked before replacing his hand, "Thanks for saying so. I would have been luckier to have been her father. Anyway, we've got a big day tomorrow and there's only so much heartfelt conversation I can give or take for one day, so why don't I take you home and I'll see you tomorrow at practice."

"Sure, thanks Mr. Schue. You're the best."