Author's Note:

Sorry the update has taken so long, I've had a 5000 word paper to do on the trial narratives in The Bible (snore!) but I've got an extension and I need a break from John, Luke and Mark so I'm back to this story. Please do review it, as I do so appreciate the time you guys take to favourite/follow/review my work.

DaenerysTargary3n

Later that day…

The female that loves unrequited sleeps,
And the male that loves unrequited sleeps,
The head of the money-maker that plotted all day sleeps,
And the enraged and treacherous dispositions—all, all sleep.

~ The Sleepers (W. Whitman)

Will had cleared his paid leave with Figgins and then had rushed to the mall as fast as his bucket of bolts would get him there in one piece. He felt good that Quinn was coming to stay with him but the guest room at his place could use a little sprucing up and 'Quinnification'. He smiled as he thought of what the former cheerleading captain might like in her bedroom. In spite of the circumstances that caused her uprooting, he was excited to do something for his house that did not involve bending to Terri's will or ridiculous fads and if it made Quinn feel as good as he felt in its contemplation, then he'd be over the moon about giving her some small feeling of respite from all the pain the world had heaped on her shoulders.

As he stalked the aisles of the department store searching for the perfect duvet set for what would be Quinn's bed, Will began to notice that a lot of the store clerks and female clientele were sending him odd glances. It was only when he pivoted on the spot searching for some stain or blemish on his person that would lead to such bizarre reactions to him looking for bed linens in a perfectly normal store.

"Hey," a girl who was probably in her early twenties said coyly as she approached him, "can I help you?"

It did not escape Will's notice that the woman before him was not wearing a uniform or nametag, so he inquired, "Yeah, that would be great."

"What are you searching for?"

He smiled, "I need a duvet set for a teenage girl, the daughter of a friend of mine is coming to stay at my house for quite some time while…she sorts some stuff out and my guest room can only be described as fifty shades of beige and I want it to feel more like home for her."

The girl before him looked as though all her Christmases had come at once when he described his place and asked with an obscene leer in her eye, "So, how come your wife isn't shopping for your friend's daughter? How'd you draw the short straw?"

Will saw her eyes dart down to his left hand where on his ring finger the silver band still sat. He kicked himself internally for not removing it earlier, but he had donned the ring out of habit after showering for so many years that the habit was evidently going to take some effort to break. He made a subsequent mental note to put it away and not just leave it on his bathroom cupboard.

"Oh," he said pithily, "I'm not married. Divorced, actually. Anyway, what do you think about these ones?"

"They're fine, a bit pink maybe though, don't you think?"

The selection he had taken from the shelves were both pink and he didn't know why but somehow he still saw Quinn as a little girl who was into pink this, pink that and pink everything, yet he was wrong. She wasn't that person anymore (if she ever was), she was more mature than that and she would probably appreciate something less…perky.

"You're right," Will admitted, "in fact I can see her rolling her eyes at me right this second. I think she'd like this one though. It's much more her style."

Will had managed to discover a light red and white set which kind of reminded him of the Cheerios and their uniforms. It did occur to the Spanish teacher that Quinn might not want the reminder but she had adored being a Cheerio and their captain, no less, so it stood to reason that as a hint of happy memories from times gone by, the bright colour of the linens might just be enough to cause the fallen captain to regain some sense of looking to the future and the return of joy.

"Alright then," the overly committed saleswoman giggled, "just follow me and I'll process that for you then I'm off my shift so if you like, we can go get a coffee at the place round the corner. It just happens to serve the best coffee north of Colombia."

"Oh God," Will interrupted her awkwardly and already feeling himself blush a bright scarlet, "I'm sorry, but I can't go for coffee I'm afraid. I've really got to get home and set up my friend's room before I pick her up this evening. It was nice talking to you though."

As quickly as he could, he scarpered away from the over-zealous sales assistant, recalling that there were additional cashiers on the floor below and he would rather walk (or more aptly, jog) the extra distance just to avoid what must be the sneer of the rejected woman. Once he reached the checkout and had paid for the bed linens a haughty chuckle let loose from his lungs with the mortification and embarrassment turning into humour and incredulity. As he strode back to his car, he wondered all the way there just how someone thought they could pick up in the aisle of a department store when the customer had just told them that not only were they divorced but that a teenager who was clearly going through some stuff was about to move in. It truly was a mystery to the glee coach but as soon as he looked upon the prepared guest – no, Quinn's – room, he had the distinct feeling that he would be entirely content for the next few months just to tend to Quinn and get the glee club ready for Regionals.

It was a few hours later when he got the call from the hospital saying that Quinn was ready to be collected from Outpatients and asking if someone would be along to get her or if she needed to be put into a cab. He was appalled by the thought of her just being pawned off on a strange taxi driver even if he had every intention of driving over to the hospital to get her and bring her home, but he supposed that some people were unfortunate enough not to have people who could support them and step up when the hard times came to call. That was just a fact of life, but he still thanked God that Quinn Fabray was not a poor, lost soul like that. Before he left his home, he took one last look at the newly decorated bedroom that was to be Quinn's and smiled, truly satisfied with what he had accomplished with his afternoon: a safe place and a homely one at that for one of his favourite students.

When he saw her sitting in a wheelchair he smiled and called her name, but when he realised that his exclamation caused her to flinch and awake from the trance she was in just made him realise just how careful he would have to be around her at home.

A nurse who saw him approach, intercepted him before he could reach Quinn and instructed him tersely, "Mr. Schuester, I understand you will be Miss Fabray's primary care giver during her recovery?"

"Yes, that's correct."

"Well, then, you need to know that she will have to stay on bed rest until the end of her pregnancy and when I say bed rest, I mean no walking, no excitement, no undue stress of any kind. If she does overexert herself, she could go into premature labour and it could result in all kinds of complications for her and her child."

Will sighed, still unable to believe how much had been heaped on the unsuspecting teenager, "I understand. I've booked some leave at the school so I'll make sure she rests."

The nurse saw the deep care the man before her bore for his student and had a feeling that she was not failing her duty of care by releasing the poor girl into his guardianship. When she had been informed of her patient's situation and where she was to live for the foreseeable future, she had been more than sceptical, but maybe the girl's glee coach had the right attitude and capabilities to nurse Quinn Fabray back to health.

"Thanks for all your help," Will continued, "I know Quinn really appreciates it."

She nodded and went back to the nurse's station, not psyched that she had pulled the nightshift that night and it was looking to be a particularly gruelling graveyard shift.

"Will, can we go ho-" Quinn began but then pinched her brow, before finishing, "can we go back to your place?"

"Sure we can but Quinn, you know it is okay for you to ask if we can go home, right?"

"Uh huh," she whispered, "I just want to get out of this hospital. It gives me nightmares."

He placed a hand gently on her shoulder and squeezed, "Okay. We'll be home in half an hour."

"Good."

That was the last word she spoke until Will pulled his car up to the front of his house and unclicked his seatbelt. It suddenly dawned on him that they had left the wheelchair at the hospital and she would have to get from the car to the front door and then upstairs on mostly her own steam until a rather 'gleetastic' idea popped into young Mr. Schuester's head.

He quickly hopped out of the car and pulled open the passenger-side door and reached across Quinns so rapidly that she didn't have the opportunity to react, unbuckling her belt and in one fell swoop lifting her fair form into his arms. Once she had been deposited in his strong embrace as he rose to lift her bridal style, she began her hegira.

"Mr. Schue, Will," she cried, "what the hell do you think you're doing? Put me down! I can walk, you know? I'm pregnant, not ill!"

Recollecting the nurse's severe instruction, Will chided, "Quinn, be quiet and calm down and no you cannot walk. The nurse told me strictly to keep you off your feet and I know you're pregnant and not ill. I'm not an idiot. I've got your room all set up and the last thing I need is to make a Hail Mary trip back to the hospital because you suddenly felt faint walking up the stairs and landed flat on your face only to get my ass handed to me by that really scary nurse. So, do I have your permission to carry you upstairs?"

Quinn could have cried in that instant. Now that the initial shock of being hoisted out of the car and into her housemate's muscular arms had worn off, it was all truly hitting home hard just how far she had fallen in recent months. She still couldn't – and didn't know if she would ever be able to – believe that the only person she had in the world was Will Schuester who was being all sweet and kind and generous and understanding towards her, making room for her in his life and home, taking leave with the school so he could take proper care of her. It was all just a bit of a stretch for the imagination of the former cheerleaders' captain.

"Yeah, you do," she murmured almost so quietly he couldn't hear her, "and thank you."

He proceeded to walk carefully up to the door and managed to fiddle his key into Quinn's hands and manoeuvre their bodies so that she could open the door in a fit of giggles at his physical contortions and then turn on the hallway light. She dropped the keys in their bowl as though it was habit, which made Will smile, before he negotiated the flight of stairs that led to the living quarters of his small suburban house.

As soon as Will shoved open the door to Quinn's new bedroom and she turned on the light, the sharp inhalation of breath made his eyes dart to her face in worry but the moment they alit on the gentle smile that was turning up the corners of her lips which also reached the very cores of her pupils, he knew he had done good. He would have been happy to stand there holding Quinn in his arms as she simply took in the sight before her and loved it (it seemed) for hours, but his arms were beginning to revile the exertion of having a pregnant girl in them. Will glided over to the bed, unwilling to jostle Quinn out of her reverie, and set her down on the bed before sitting at the other end to face her.

"Do you like it?"

"Like it? I think it's the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me…ever," she spluttered out, "and I don't know how to thank you, for any of it. I can only say how sorry I am that I've made you go to so much trouble."

He inched closer to her so he could hold her hand, "No, don't apologise, not to me. I miss the company and having someone around here, so call me selfish, cos I did it just so I can have someone to talk to at home."

"I can't call you selfish, Will. I doubt anyone can. You do so much for us glee kids and you don't really take any credit for it. So, whoever calls you selfish is talking out of…well, not out of their head!"

Will frowned at what he thought might have been her first joke and light-hearted comment since the attack and when her smile let forth a musical laugh, he couldn't help but laugh with her.

When he finally held his guffaws in check, he realised just how fatigued he was and how exhausted she must be, so he just asked, "Quinn, I'm wiped so I'm going to get some z's, but is there anything else you would like or need that I can get for you?"

"No, I'll be fine here."

He smiled in understanding, "Okay, then," but then blurted out, "the glee club all want to come this weekend and see you but I said I'd leave it up to you. It's completely your decision, but all they want to do is be here for you and be your friends and it might help you to just let them."

"I'll think about it…how's that?" She replied, hoping that she would feel up to seeing her friends but not wanting to get Will's hopes up.

He smiled as he rose from the soft bed and wished Quinn a goodnight before going to his own bedroom to get some much needed rest after such a trying couple of days. It spoke volumes as to how overworked and how the ordeal had taken its emotional toll on Will Schuester that a second after his head landed on the downy pillow of his bed, still clad in his day clothes, sleep took hold of the beleaguered man.

It would have been the easiest thing for Will to have slept serenely through the night not to be roused until the sun shone through his bedroom window at 7:30am, however, as he had been thoroughly taught over the past year, life was a bitch.

When the screams reached his languid ears, he rolled over to check what time it was before hastening down the hall to the girl he could hear screaming her lungs out. It saddened him that it was only 01:00am, which meant that said wailer had only managed to get about three hours sleep and those hours had probably not been filled with peaceful sleep.

Once he reached her bedside, he struggled to restrain the gyrating, shrieking pregnant girl, but the minute he got his arms firmly clasped around her shaking and clammy midriff, he murmured, "Shhhh, Quinn, it's alright. Quinn, it's alright, just wake up and it'll all be over. Just wake up."

It dawned on the inexperienced languages teacher that holding Quinn so tightly was probably not helping her in her night terror but he did not want her to physically harm herself as she threw herself about on the bed. It was only when he heard the words underneath the scream that he comprehended just what his student was seeing in her mind's tortured eye.

"Just cum! Do it and let me die!" Quinn screeched at the top of her voice as she fought Will's iron grip and tried to fight back at her invisible assailant.

Then, the venomous tears cloyed Will's eyes and made them burn in anger and anguish. He knew all he had to do was wake her up and then she'd be back with him in the now and away from that monster who had turned her into this stammering and tormented shadow of her former self. He knew it was probably a bad decision, but nevertheless, he could see no other way to rescue Quinn from her nightmare, so Will held her down flat while he sat on the bed and pulled her into his lap so she was facing away from him. One of his arms stayed wrapped tautly around her while the other snaked up to her head and he let his hand just glide over her hair damp though it was from the cold sweat she had worked up.

"Quinn, sweetheart, just wake up and it'll be okay. I'm here, just wake up now." Will chanted over and over again, waiting and watching as her fight died down and her breathing evened out.

It took a while for his ministrations to soothe her into consciousness, but he exhaled a sigh of relief when he heard her suddenly say his name and try to turn to face him. Awkwardly, she did manage to twist in his lap and buried her head in his chest while wrapping her still trembling arms around his slender body seeking comfort wherever she might find it.

"I'm sorry. I woke you up, didn't I?" She asked as the tears flowed and her breath hitched.

He shook his head, "No, Quinn, well, actually yeah you did, but don't worry about it. It's no problem. I can sleep anytime. Do you think you'll be able to get back to sleep or shall I stay with you for a while?"

"I'm not going back to sleep, but you don't have to stay up with me. You can go back to bed if you want. I can read a book or something."

Will laughed softly, "I didn't give you that option. You are not staying up alone so you can sit here and talk to me for a while until you feel better or you can try and go back to sleep."

"I'd like to talk for a bit, if that's okay?"

"I can do that. So, what do you want to talk about?" Will agreed.

She sat and thought for a moment before suggesting, "Glee club?"

He extracted himself from Quinn's arms and moved to lean against the headboard and gestured for Quinn to come and sit beside him before he asked, "So, got any ideas for songs we can do for Regionals? Any choreography suggestions?"

"No, not really."

Will looked at her with a cheeky smile on his face, "You said you wanted to talk about glee but you've got nothing to say. You should write a song for them to sing and dance to. That way you can have a bigger role in the lead up to Regionals since you probably can't come to all that many rehearsals."

Quinn smiled back at her friend, "I'm not that good a songwriter, but I do want to go to some practices, Will, even if I just sit on the benches and watch. No offence, but I don't want to just stay in this house for the next couple of months."

"That sounds like a plan and none taken." He replied, giving her a wink.

They talked for about an hour about what she could and couldn't do and what foods she liked and magazines and music. He promised to go to the store tomorrow and get her some posters of artists she liked like Michael Bublé and Bob Dylan, which he offered to put up in her bedroom for her. She reciprocated and vowed not to roam the house when he was out (and when he was in too!). Their conversation moved onto his marriage and his experiences when he was a student at WMHS. They laughed together for what seemed like hours but soon enough, Will began to see the tiredness overwhelm the expectant teenager and knew he would soon succumb to his own fatigue.

"If you're feeling tired, I can go," Will offered with a yawn, "it is 3:30am, after all."

"I'm not the one who's yawning." Quinn rebutted, but laid her head down to rest it on Will's shoulder.

"You are on the inside."

"What do you know?"

"More than you do!"

Quinn groaned, too tired to continue bickering with Will. Her muscles relaxed and she began to slip down the bed. Within seconds, her head had moved to rest near the crook of Will's elbow and she was almost entirely horizontal and yearning for the peaceful sleep that had so far eluded her.

"Yeah, you're not tired," Will joked, "so I'll say goodnight, I'll let you get some sleep, Quinn, and I'll see you later."

"Okay," she mumbled, sleep already claiming her, "'night, Will. Love you."

His body seized up as he heard those last syllables spring unexpectedly – and he was sure, unintentionally – from her lips. Before he could call her on her words, he noticed that her eyelids had already shut and she was emitting little snores as she slipped further and further asleep so he just crept quietly down the hall and fell into his own bed.

Quinn's words had thrown him into an emotional and moral storm but as much as he endeavoured to convince himself that she must have thought he was her dad wishing her goodnight or just relaxed enough that she felt safe enough to say it, Will could not shake the concept that something had changed. He felt as though he was her family and was proud that he made her feel at ease enough to express such an emotion, not that he really believed she held him in such esteem, just that she felt she could love again now that she was properly sheltered and under no form of attack. Did he love her as family though? On consideration, Will Schuester realised then and there that the answer to that question was affirmative. He did think of the girl in the room down the hall as part of his family. He had before he had taken her into his home, the way he considered all the glee kids his extended family, but now that they had become significantly closer, Quinn was more his family than anyone else in the world right now.

That musing was the last thing that shot through his synapses before he ceded to sleep and dreamt of the new family he had found in Quinn and what a quirky and 'gleetastic' family they were together.