Author's Note:

Just a warning to say that soon I'm going to Tunisia for a fortnight and I have examinations for a couple of days after I get back, so I probably won't be able to post Chapter Seven until – at least – May 10th. I apologise for this, but I did make a real effort to give you gorgeous readers this chapter before I set off later today, so I do hope you enjoy it. Please do review whether you do or don't enjoy the chapter as I will still be getting emails in Africa.

DaenerysTargary3n

Two minutes and forty-two seconds later…

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.

~ Endymion (J. Keats)

"Oh, Quinn," Will sighed, finding his voice once more, "you can't feel that way. You just can't."

"Why not?"

The floundering adult gripped the hands of the girl beside him who was just looking at him with her wide and spectacular eyes before he replied, "There are literally so many reasons why not. It's actually difficult to narrow it down."

"I assume you are talking about being my teacher and the age gap and how I am so ugly at the moment no one could want me back!" Quinn spat, ripping her hands out of his comforting grip in spite of how safe she felt when his skin touched hers.

Will's brow furrowed, "No, well, I mean, yes, but no! Argh, yes you are too young for me and you shouldn't have feelings for me because I am your teacher, but no, don't think – ever – that you are ugly. You are beautiful and don't all the guys know it. I mean, c'mon, you're Quinn Fabray."

"Quinn Fabray is dead. Now, I'm just some loser that gets slushied in the face and knocked up by a dumb jock, not to mention raped by some drunk hick who came out of nowhere and just…"

Will watched as Quinn descended into wails and breathless, tearless sobs wracked her body. He pulled her closer to him so he could embrace her but before he had her fully encircled in his arms, his muscles seized up.

"No," he spluttered, "I can't. Quinn, there are certain…boundaries. Boundaries which we simply cannot cross. This was what social services and all those people at the hospital and the Principal and Miss Pillsbury were worried would happen when they let me – against their better judgment, I might add – take you in. I gave them my word that nothing untoward would happen, that this arrangement was a strictly staff-pupil arrangement on a platonic level and that I wouldn't take advantage of you!"

"I'm not asking you to take advantage of me. That is such a pre-feminist phrase, anyway. I have feelings and can act on them just as much as you can! It's not like you're some sexual predator or whatever who is preying on tiny, powerless children. Although I may not look it and don't really feel it, I am not powerless and I know my own mind, and more importantly, my own heart. It's a heart that has fallen for you: the one person in all the world who has been and is protecting me and standing up for me when I haven't been able to and all the time since the attack."

Will grimaced at her profuse admission, "That is precisely why you don't feel that way though, Quinn, don't you see?"

It was as she heard her name fall musically from his lips the way every word sounded when he spoke that she twisted toward those pert lips and planted hers on them. She felt the initial moment shock as Will's lips flinched from her touch and fretted that he would push her away, but she caught a glimpse of the man almost beneath her clamp his eyes shut and melt into the sensuality of her lips as they suckled his.

Once Quinn was certain that he was not going to retreat from her touch, she cupped his face, feeling the stubble scratch erotically at her palms and licked the rims of his teeth as she pressed her advantage. The joy and elation she felt when Will responded in kind and his arms went to her sides forced her belly up to lightly graze Will's abdomen. That was expected, but the sharp pang she felt immediately after their midriffs collided was not.

The jab to his stomach through Quinn's pulled Will from his brief reverie and he exclaimed, "What was that? Are you feeling okay? I'm so sorry, that was a mistake. We shouldn't have kissed. If you feel ill, we can go to the hospital. Just let me find my keys."

"No, no," Quinn responded quickly with a smile and gestured for Will who was already rising from the couch to reclaim his place beside her, "it wasn't a mistake and yes I am feeling fine, better than fine actually. That was the baby kicking. She does that sometimes."

"Wow, that's amazing, Quinn. It's great that she's fine."

Quinn smiled and rested her hand where she felt the baby's legs flex against her belly and when Will's hand touched her shoulder and she felt the electric jolt zip through her entire system, it became apparent to the young mother-to-be that her unborn daughter was quite attached to Will Schuester, almost as much as she was.

"Can you do me a favour, Will?"

He looked surprised but nodded, "Sure, what do need?"

"Just hold my hand and talk."

"Talk about what?"

She smiled and manoeuvred his hand and played with his fingers, feeling the same fire she felt whenever he came into contact with her, waiting for the child's response to accompany hers.

"Anything," she replied, "talk about sports, glee club, that kiss, which was amazing by the way. It doesn't really matter. I'm just trying to test out a theory."

Will chuckled but acquiesced. He chose the second of her choice of topics, not knowing anything about the first and wanting to leave the last until she was feeling alright without a doubt. It seemed to take only five minutes or so of meaningless drawl about potential glee club choreography before Quinn's experiment yielded positive results he judged from the iridescent smile that swam across her face after he mentioned a move that separated the guys from the girls in a river dance-esque turn.

"Well?" He inquired, her smile producing one on his face too, for he never – not even when they were simply faculty advisor and student – could not smile whenever Quinn Fabray was.

As tears built up, rendering her eyes a duskier shade of sage green, she murmured, massaging her taut stomach dotingly, "I guess that proves it. My daughter knows her daddy, without even seeing him, she knows. Smart, clever girl."

"I'm sorry…what?" The 'daddy' gasped.

"She knows who her daddy was meant to be," Quinn whispered with tears now in full flow down her alabaster cheekbones, "she knows that the man sitting next to me wept at how beautiful she is and worked so hard when he thought she would be a part of his future. I can see by that aghast look on your face that you're contemplating calling for a psych consult but let me tell you that recently, whenever you touch me, she kicks…hard. Even when it's as innocent as just holding my hand, she knows that the person touching her mommy is her daddy."

The full meaning of her words and the sentiment behind them hit the glee club teacher like a sledgehammer to the forehead. Just hearing Quinn speak so kindly of him and of his connection to the child thriving in her womb made him lose complete control of himself and gave his tears permission to join his companion's.

"Quinn…" he said as he retracted his hands, "I'm not really her dad. You want to give her up for adoption, remember?"

She felt the coldness wash over her as Will's touch went away but the tears kept on coming, "I know that, but I…"

"What, Quinn?"

She looked down at her hands before whispering, "I don't want to give her up."

Her housemate froze at that confession. He honestly had no clue that while the girl who was still weeping incessantly before him was working through her issues post-rape, she was also battling with her decision to part with her baby.

"I had no idea you were reconsidering the adoption. I thought you found a couple to raise her?"

She bawled at that, "No, I haven't yet. I'm still searching for the right people but I just don't know if I should carry on. I really don't want to give up my baby, Will."

The strength of her cries and the slump of her posture made his heart twinge so Will just opened his arms and no time elapsed before Quinn plunged into his embrace sobs, salty tears and all. He stroked her hair and held her while they both cried. He wept in sympathy for her and because he so desired to be daddy to the baby that kicked in his presence and at his touch, while she cried because she doesn't know her own mind and because her body still feels soiled and broken.

From her place ensconced on his chest, she began to explain, "It was only when my parents were in the picture and then when they disappeared, I thought it might get them and my sister back that I was going through with the adoption. Seeing as how that's really not happening, I don't want them to come back," she looked up at him, "'cos the only person I want in my life is you."

Will sighed, cursing his stupid hormones and masculine chemistry, as he brushed the tears off her cheeks as softly as he could with the pad of his thumb, "Quinn, you're being irrational. Why don't I just take you up to bed and we can talk some more tomorrow? You've had a long day and seeing the guys was a tough experience, plus that incident with Puck…"

"No, I don't want or need to go to bed yet. You know I won't sleep well anyway."

He scowled at the recollection of the nightmares of nights past and murmured soothingly, "You can try. I can succeed. You can wake me up at stupid o'clock screaming the roof off. I can come in and stay with you until you get back to sleep. We can do what is rational and what we have done pretty much every night since you moved in."

"But love is irrational," Quinn replied shyly, "and we could have it, if you would let us."

"No, Quinn, I'm not doing that to you. I'm not in love with you. I care about you a lot and I consider you to be one of my best friends, if not my best friend and I know you don't deserve any of the screwed up things that have happened to you. I want to help you and see you be the Quinn Fabray you used to be. So please – for your own sake – stop saying and thinking you're in love with me because it's just a trick the mind plays on the heart."

As Will concluded his speech, Quinn's jaw dropped and she quelled her tears. Once the room quietened, Quinn pulled away from the comfort of Will and after one look at his eyes, she pushed him away forcefully. Unable to comprehend the feelings her Spanish teacher just confessed to alongside the words he had just uttered, she rose – ungainly though she was – and moved towards the stairs, not caring to be in the vicinity of Will Schuester.

"Wait, Quinn!" Will hollered after her as she moved slowly towards the vestibule, appalled that she would attempt to climb the flight of stairs on her own steam in spite of what the doctors and nurses had told them both at the hospital.

She got no further than fifteen strides before her hand jerked out to clench at the wall while her other went to her stomach as she doubled over. It was evident that soon she would fall, but before her legs gave out under her, Will managed to reach her side and pull her into his front. First of all, he thought that he might be able to bolster her and prevent her from collapsing, but when his arms were around her again, it seemed she was in too much pain to remain upright so he lowered both of them safely and securely until she was sitting on his lap on the hardwood floor.

"Quinn," Will asked, worried and terrified, "what is it? What hurts?"

All she could manage was a throaty groan, "It's…nothing, just a twinge. It'll go away in a few minutes. There goes my dramatic, Quinn Fabray signature storm off, anyway."

"It was formidable," Will replied partly jesting, partly serious, "just don't try it again. I'm not sure I could take the stress of seeing you almost take a dive like that. So, let's just sit here until you've calmed down a bit and feel better and then I will take you upstairs."

Quinn smiled at the man whose lap she was occupying a significant part of and reached up to stroke his cheek, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for freaking you out but thank you for catching me. I meant what I said; you are the only man I'll ever want now, but I'm not going to push the issue because I am so glad and so grateful that I have you as a friend and a housemate."

"I'll tell you this: I'm glad I have you as a friend and a housemate too. I was so lonely before you moved in and I am glad that, once I actually go back to work, I'll have you to come home to."