A/N: Sorry this one is so short. I hate writing short chapters I feel incomplete. But I wanted to save Sectionals for one chapter by itself. So read and enjoy and review!
Nearly a week passed and Will had almost forgotten about Terri's lie. He'd completely submerged himself with glee club. He called a rehearsal almost everyday after school and held it longer than usual. His excuse was that they needed to be perfect for sectionals. The real reason was because he did not want to go home.
The last thursday, Will bravely went home and like he suspected, Terri was there. He had walked in to find a few bags on the floor and Terri popped her head out of the living room and the two stared at each other in an extremely awkward silence.
Will placed his case down next to the bags on the floor and looked back up to Terri, silently questioning about the bags.
"I'm going to Kendra's." Terri answered quietly, stepping into the hallway. Will said nothing in response, not even a nod. Terri walked over to him and held out her hands toward him, paused, then dropped them to her sides. She obviously wanted to hug him or take his hand but his looked changed her mind. Will could feel the coldness in his eyes. Terri looked away from his face and grabbed her bags. She started to walked past him but paused next to him, turning her head to face him. "I really am sorry Will."
Will closed his eyes tightly and could hear Terri's sigh and then her footsteps as she walked to the door. The door opened, her footsteps stopped for a minute and then the door creaked as it slowly closed.
Will knew he should have felt some remorse from hearing his wife leave but he didn't. He looked over his shoulder towards the closed door and felt an emptiness inside his heart. Though he knew if Terri hadn't left, he would've.
Will avoided the craft room/nursery. The first time he passed it and caught sight of the half built crib, rocking chair and the pile of stuffed animals in the corner, he broke down. He told himself he wouldn't cry over it anymore but once he saw all the baby furniture he lost all his self control. He collapsed to his knees in front of the door, buried his face in his hands and mourned the loss of his baby girl.
After that, he closed the door and locked it, making sure he would never have to see any of the baby's or Terri's stuff again. Though even with the door closed, he tried to avoid walking near that door as much as he could.
Terri thankfully cleaned out all of her clothing, leaving their dresser drawers practically empty. There were a few things that still belonged to Terri lying around the apartment. Terri's had way too much stuff to fit in the few bags she was carrying. Will ignored them for the first couple of days but when he was feeling better he packed her stuff into boxes and stored them in the hall closet, where they would stay until Terri came back for them.
Will tried to avoid being home as much as possible, even though he didn't have to worry about running into Terri. He stayed after school even if there was no glee club and he would grade papers or work on something for glee club and then in the mornings he would get up early and get to school early. Sometimes he would stop by Emma's office when she got there early and talk to her until classes started. Ever since he found out about Terri's fake pregnancy, Emma became his only source of happiness even more than glee club. The glee club would sometimes stress him out even more, he would get more frustrated at them even when they're practices were really good. Rachel even stopped being a drama queen because she, as well as the rest of the glee kids could tell, that their teacher wasn't himself. Emma, so far, was the only one who could get a smile on his face. She just simply had to smile at him and he'd smile back. Emma's smile was the most adorable and infectious smile he'd ever seen and no matter what he was going through it'd always cheer him up.
Emma only brought up the topic of his wife when he mentioned it first. She knew it made him uncomfortable and brought back the pain he was trying to forget so she always found something else to talk about with him when he wasn't in the mood to discuss his marital problems.
Sectionals were two days away and Will sat in the choir room, near the piano and watched the glee kids practice 'Don't Stop Believing'. They danced around the choir room with ease and their vocals were stronger than ever. Will wasn't as critical as he had been the last week because he was in a surprisingly good mood, so instead of watching with a hardened frown he watched his kids with a proud smile.
The kids belted out the last lines of the song and stood in their ending positions. Rachel and Finn were the first ones to look up to gauge their teacher's reaction, the others followed soon after hoping that Mr. Schuester wouldn't be too harsh on them.
Will grinned and rose to his feet clapping. "Very good guys." He walked towards them and relief spread across all their faces as they looked around at each other with smiles. "That was your best performance yet. If you do that at sectionals, we'll take the prize."
They all cheered happily and high fived each other, laughing at their victory. Will noticed that even though they were happy with their performance they looked weary and it was all his fault. He inflected his own misery onto his kids and that wasn't right. He looked up at the clock and noticed it was only five after four. The kids had run through all their numbers and were excellent at each of them.
Will clapped his hands together to get their attention and they all settled down. "Alright guys, since you were so good I'm going to let you go. Tomorrow though is our final rehearsal before sectionals on saturday so I want you to get your rest and be ready for the ultimate rehearsal. Okay?" The kids nodded in agreement and he made a shoo-ing motion with his hand. "Alright, have a good day guys."
Will headed over to the piano, gathering his sheet music as the kids shuffled out of the room, all talking to each other. Quinn paused in the center of the room and Finn looked back at her with a questioning look. "I'll be there in a few." She told him quietly. Finn furrowed his brow and she gave him a small smile and squeezed his hand. Then Finn nodded and walked out of the choir room.
Quinn let out a breath and turned to Will. "Mr. Schuester?"
Will looked up from his folder, eyebrows raised. "Hey Quinn what's up?"
She slowly walked over to him and glanced up at him shamefully. "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry." She swallowed hard as Will's face fell. "Mrs. Schuester told me that you know."
Will let out a long sigh and shook his head slowly. "It's not your fault Quinn. You have nothing to be sorry about."
Quinn's eyes filled with tears and she took a shuddering breath. "If it weren't for me this never would have happened." She shook her head and a tear rolled down her cheek. "I see how miserable you've been the last week. Mr. Schue, I never wanted to hurt you." She sobbed and buried her face in her hands. Will walked around the piano and gently took her into his arms, rubbing her back.
"I don't blame you Quinn." Will whispered into her hair. "It's not your fault. It's Terri's, she was the one who lied."
"But I went along with it." She sobbed into his chest.
"You're scared Quinn. Terri offered you an outlet, its only natural for you to want to take it." Will said in reassurance.
"It was still wrong." She whimpered. "I never should have said yes. This never would have happened."
Will scoffed half heartedly. "Unfortunately Quinn that's not true. If you hadn't said yes Terri would have found someone else." His voice cracked unintentionally and he cleared his throat to try and hide it. But Quinn still heard it and she lifted her head up to look at him, tears spilling down her cheeks. Will smiled sadly at her and his eyes were misty which made Quinn back away from him, covering her mouth. "I'm so sorry." She whimpered again.
"Quinn." Will gave her an exasperated look and reached up to tuck a strand of her blonde hair behind her ears and wiped her tears away. "Look, I'm not mad at you. You did what you thought you had to. Terri is the one who hurt me, not you."
"You really mean that?" She questioned quietly.
Will gave her a small but sincere smile. "I do."
Quinn wiped at her eyes, sniffling quietly. "Thanks Mr. Schue."
Will rubbed her arm affectionately and she turned to leave. Will watched as she walked towards the door, then she paused in the doorway and looked back at him. "For the record, there is no one else who I'd rather have raise my baby than you. You would've been a great dad."
Will felt something tug at his heart strings. Whether it was the fact that he was just reminded he wouldn't be a father, or that Quinn trusted her baby to him or both, he wasn't sure.
Quinn gave him a small, sad smile and then walked out of the room. Will ran his fingers through his hair, closed his folder and turned back towards the door when he saw Emma standing in the doorway.
"Emma." His smile immediately returned to his face at seeing his best friend. Emma walked into the choir room, sending a quick questioning look over her shoulder. "I saw Quinn leaving in tears, what happened?"
Will lifted his shoulders and sighed. "Baby drama."
"Oh." Emma replied quietly and dropped the subject, leaving them standing in the quiet room awkwardly.
"So uh...did you want something?" Will asked after a minute.
"Oh!" Emma smiled as she remembered what she came in there for. "Yes, I wanted to tell you something."
Will raised his eyebrows in question and anticipated her response.
"Turns out," She started, walking towards him slowly, "That the reservations set for the other group at the wedding hall was canceled, so the house is open all day long."
"And..." Will urged her on, wanting to see where she was going with this.
"Well, since we now don't have a time limit, I was thinking that Sectionals is in the morning and if we push our wedding back to late afternoon then I could do both." Emma explained.
A smile began to tug at his lips but then it fell and he shook his head. "I can't ask you to push your wedding back Emma."
Emma shook her head. "You're not asking anything Will. I want to do this. I want to come with you to sectionals."
"What about Ken? What does he think of this?" Will asked.
"He took it great!" Emma plastered a fake smile on her face, remembering the conversation she had just had with Ken minutes ago.
"You will always choose Schuester over me!" Ken exclaimed angrily.
Emma furrowed her brow, frowning. "It's not about him Ken, its about the kids. They've worked hard to make it this far and I want to be there for them. I thought you would understand that!"
"This time I don't think I do." He kissed coldly, storming out of the room leaving Emma alone.
"Just great!" Emma reaffirmed.
A smile spread across Will's face and his eyes lit up. "That's great Emma! The kids are going to love that you're coming with us." And so am I.
Emma grinned happily, thankful that she was able to go to sectionals and thankful that her wedding would be not as soon as she thought.
"If you want, tomorrow after school we'll be having our final rehearsal, you can come watch." Will offered.
"I would love to!" Emma replied happily, her smile reaching all the way up to her eyes.
Will's heart fluttered at the sight of her smile and an equally big smile spread across his face. "Great!" The more time he had with Emma the better. She was getting married in two days and he didn't like to think about that at all. Ever since he found out about the lie he seriously considered leaving his wife for good and if Terri was out of the picture that means Emma could come into the picture and he wouldn't have to hide his feelings and neither would she. But as it would happen life didn't work out that way. Instead of finally being able to be with Emma he was going to lose her for good. He felt his stomach drop at the thought, it was almost painful. Was that how she felt while he was still happily married? If Emma felt anything like he did then he felt guilty for putting her through such torture.
"Can I walk you to your car?" Will asked, not wanting to see her go yet.
"Sure." Emma answered, not wanting to go either. Will grabbed his case from the piano bench, slipped it over his arm and then walked with Emma towards the door.
"I heard them singing from down the hall." Emma said, turning to look at Will as they walked out of the choir room. "They're very good."
Will smiled proudly and nodded in agreement. "They really are. I am so proud of them. I think we can really win this."
"I think they will." Emma agreed. "I'm really glad I get to be there to witness it."
Will smiled down at her and they were walking so close together that the slightest movement of either of their arms would cause their arms to brush against one another. Will's arm brushed up against Emma's and he was half tempted to just reach the half an inch more and take her hand. "Me too."
Emma glanced up at him, wondering if he meant he was glad he was going to be there or if he was glad she was going to be there. From the look in his eyes she guessed the latter. A light blush coated her cheeks and she looked down shyly, watching out of the corner of her eye how close Will's hand was coming to hers.
"So what songs are on the set list?" Emma asked to break the awkward tension that had fallen over them.
They continued to walk down the hall as Will explained the set list and other details about the day of sectionals, both unaware of Ken Tanaka glaring at them from the end of the hallway.