Love dictates, but a kiss writes the secrets of the heart

~Unknown

"Quinn, your baby rocks!"

"Excuse me?" Quinn quickly slammed closed her locker so she could get a look at Puck, leaning comfortably against the wall next to her, smiling.

"I mean your baby is awesome, she's a little baby badass"

"Don't call my baby any sort of ass, and why are you saying all this? You haven't even met her" Puck smirked before gesturing back towards Ms. Pillsbury's office.

"She's over with Ms. P and she keeps spitting up on her" Puck started laughing as he remembered the look on the Guidance Counselor's face, "It's like she's enjoying her suffering".

"Oh God" Quinn muttered as she quickly left a still laughing Puck and hurried down the hall towards the Guidance Office. A sharp cry and then an equally hysteric moan sent her running faster, and when she reached the door she pulled it open without so much as a pause, desperate to see what was going on in there.

To say she was unhappy with what she saw was an understatement.

Grace lay fussing in her stroller, her front covered in the milk Quinn knew she had spit up. Emma was leaning against her desk, frantically rubbing and scrubbing the front of her dress that was covered just as Grace's clothes were. Will, who had apparently gotten there just moments before she had, looked entirely overwhelmed as he tried to go between the two of them, unable to really navigate the distressed noises that both of them were making.

Quinn wasn't very proud of her next movement, but maternal instinct took over before she could stop it and she found herself pushing Will out of her way and over towards Emma in her haste to get to Gracie, whose face was getting redder as she cried. It bothered her severely that Will had seemed to be torn between helping their child and the red-head determined to steal her way into his heart (something that Quinn had assumed was occupied by herself). She had known the minute she'd heard Ms. Pillsbury had come back to Lima after a year in Cincinnati that her plan had been to try to get Will back, and it seemed like she was going to try to use Quinn's baby to do it.

Fat chance.

"Baby Grace, why are you crying sweetie?" Quinn's voice took on a musical quality as she bent down to Gracie's level, hoping to sooth her.

"I don't think she likes her formula" Emma managed to get out as Will tried to cover the cloth she was using in sanitizer for her.

"It isn't formula" Quinn quipped. Emma's eyes bugged out as she realized what the liquid really was, her breath hitching in such a way even Quinn was feeling a little concerned. It was overwhelmed, however, by her anger that her baby was covered in spit up and howling. She reached around behind the stroller to grab the rag she had put in there that morning, only to come up empty handed. Turning around, she nearly growled as she realized that the cloth had been pilfered by Ms. Pillsbury for her own uses. Without much thought, she shrugged off the cardigan she'd worn over her uniform and began to use it to mop up the mess on Gracie, muttering soothing sounds to the baby as she did so.

"I can't believe you're using your own clothing for that" Emma's voice was pitchy and panicked, so much so that Quinn's maternal instincts couldn't help but be slightly misdirected.

"When it's your child and you know they're upset, you don't care what it is you're using just as long as it makes them better" To stress her point, Quinn lightly bopped Gracie on the nose and made a popping sound, causing the cleaned up child to start to giggle. "See? All better"

"Emma, I think you are just going to have to change... There is no way we'll be able to get this clean enough for you" Will's comment was half-hearted, his attempts to help clean up Emma slowing and then stopping as he watched Quinn with Gracie. He should have known better then to have left his daughter with Emma, but she had been so insistent that she could handle the little girl and he did still have a bit of a soft spot when it came to the redhead (one he was sure to be getting in trouble for fairly soon). He knew she had been trying to impress him, and that it was wrong to give her false hope, but he'd just wanted a few more minutes to finish his grading and Quinn had been in the middle of practice when Mrs. Weiss had dropped the baby off.

If Emma noticed the shift in Will's attention, she didn't show it. Instead she was hastily pulling out her spare bag full of clothing and a bathroom's worth of shampoo and soap. Changing outfits just wouldn't get her clean enough, not when breast milk was involved. Quinn watched the older woman's movements with an amused smirk, Gracie now cradled against her chest and seemingly watching Emma as well.

"I'd avoid using the girl's locker room showers if I were you. Santana and Brittany are probably still in there" Quinn's comment was enough to draw Will away from his gawking and he tilted his head in question, already getting the implication but wondering what the story was behind it. The anxious red-head didn't seem to take the information past the shower, and started muttering nervously about what other place she could wash up at in the school as she made her way out of her office, Grace choosing that exact moment to start laughing and waving her arms at Emma's retreating back.

"Gracie, stop that" Quinn half-heartedly scolded, barely trying to control Gracie.

"Oh, don't bother... I know she's just doing what you would if you could" Quinn's eyes narrowed as she took in Will's light smile that started wilting under her gaze.

"What the hell was she doing with Grace?" The coldness and anger in her tone stunned Will, and it took him a second to recover and come back with a response.

"Quinn, it's not a big deal... Emma's just-" Will struggled for a second to find the right words to placate her while acknowledging the full scope of his complex relationship with the Guidance Counselor. Quinn rolled her eyes at his struggle, moving Gracie to her other shoulder as she reached into the diaper bag to pull out a pacifier she knew would be needed in a matter of moments.

"I think the words you're looking for are in love with me and wants in my pants and is trying to use our baby to do it"

"Quinn, we both know I'm not going to let anything happen between Emma and me" He moved closer to the two, wanting to wrap his arms around them but knowing that that would be a poor decision considering where they were.

"Oh, trust me, I know" Will couldn't help but smile at her confidence and the fact that she seemed to trust him in a way Terri never did. "But what I'm trying to figure out is why you thought someone with OCD could handle a baby who just this morning pooped on you while you were changing her diaper"

"She told me... God, it doesn't really matter what she told me, does it? I should have known better" He looked down at the floor for a second to collect his thoughts before looking back up just in time to see Quinn place a kiss on Grace's now sleeping head. It reminded him once again just how naturally she had taken on the mantel of Mom, and how it both warmed and broke his heart that she did it so easily.

Was that part of the reason he was so willing to let Emma have the baby? Did he want her to get along fantastically with Grace so she could be her mom while Quinn returned to being a normal teenager? He knew everyone else in the school was expecting that to happen, expecting that the normal boundaries in adoptions would be established once Ms. Pillsbury returned and the relationship that looked to be forming before she left actually did. Was he subconsciously trying to make everyone else happy?

"You're right, you should have. And I know that normally you would... but whenever she comes into the picture you seem to lose your sense" There was that jealousy Will had been waiting for, laced with a bit of anger for good measure. It was enough to shake him out of his moment of reflection and bring him back to the situation at hand. If there was one thing he was good at, it was calming down an angry Quinn Fabray.

"I don't lose my mind around her anywhere near as much as I do when it comes to you" His eyes fell on his daughter briefly before meeting Quinn's again. "And you're holding the proof" The gentle smile that crossed her face was enough to tell him that he was at least partially forgiven, and this time he couldn't stop himself from stepping forward and placing himself next to her, knowing that if anyone barged in or happened to look upon them that he could use the excuse of wanting to check on Gracie without disturbing her slumber. He leaned down slowly to place a kiss on his little girl's head, his lips lingering there as he closed his eyes and breathed in that milky, powdery smell that only a baby could have. Resting a hand on the back of her head, he straightened back up, managing to just graze Quinn's cheek with a kiss as well. Her eyes closed reflexively and she let out a ragged breath, a smirk making its way across Will's face as he saw her reaction.

"You're being very naughty today, aren't you?" Her eyes opened slowly as she talked, the words almost purred out in that bedroom voice that just about makes him the one breathing uneasily. Quinn tried to act stern as she stared him down, but the lusty quality of her hazel eyes give her away and the smile she put on had him thinking about bedrooms and stolen moments during naps that ended far too soon.

"Didn't I say you make me lose my mind?"

...

She walked out of the office with a smile on her face, pushing Gracie in her stroller and thinking about what to tell Will to bring home for dinner later. It took her a second to register Puck standing against the wall, watching her with a look that didn't quite fit.

"Can I help you?" She didn't mean to snap out the comment, but the way he was staring had her uncomfortable, and the fact he didn't seem to acknowledge her tone by adopting his badass demeanor made it worse.

"Didn't I tell you she was a badass?" He should have be laughing as he said this, or at least acting smugly, but he wasn't. "You only laugh like that when you're pleased with yourself"

"As much as I like to think my baby is a genius, I doubt she has the capacity to decide to deliberately puke all over someone and then laugh about it" She's got tenser as she talked, the realization that Puck had been looking in on them making her wonder just what all he saw and what he perceived it to be.

"I'm not going to say anything" He doesn't have to qualify that with what he's referring to, and before she knew it there are tears pooling in her eyes and she had a remarkable urge to start begging Puck to just walk away. "I know what it's like not to have an old man. I wouldn't want to put that on anyone"

"Puck-"

"No, it's fine. You don't have to say anything. I'm all for banging an older hottie every once and awhile" He pushed off from the wall and walked over to the front of the stroller, bending down to get a closer look at Gracie. The strange look from earlier melted away and the smile that took its place reminded Quinn of all the nice (well nice for Puck) things he'd done for her while she had been pregnant. "You guys have to be more careful though... you mess this up and she's gonna be the one to pay for it" Puck looked up at her with imploring eyes and she almost wanted to cry again because finally someone knew the truth and it wasn't all going downhill.

"We will. I promise" He nodded his head, satisfied with her answer, before giving Gracie another soft gaze and standing up. He stuffed his hands in the pockets of his letterman jacket and gave Quinn a once over.

"Have I told you lately your boobs look awesome?"

She'd never been quite so realized for leering before in her life.

A million thanks to Dustbowl Dance, or Jacky, for ALL her help.

Again, other than Gracie, I own nothing in this.