A/N: Next chapter up. I think you will like this. Its a surprise character and POV. Please let me know what you think. I am really interested. Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or any of its characters. Glee belongs to its creators and FOX. Please Review.
When she'd finally gotten the message from her mother, a month had passed since the accident. The unexpected and excruciating pain that gripped her heart as her mother's distraught voice told her that Quinn had been in an accident and was in a coma was not the first thing she wanted to hear upon coming home from her month long cruise with William and their daughter. With the succession of message after message, five in total, her mother's voice grew from worried and scared to furious. Her mother's final words rung in her mind, "Though I doubt you care, Quinn has finally woken up from her coma, but she is paralyzed it might be temporary we won't know until well, until Quinn starts to recover. I…I am so disappointed in you Francine, I know you don't agree with some of Quinn's choices, and that you blame her, unfairly, for my divorce from your father, but I never thought you were callus enough to ignore your sister when she needs her family, when she needs you more now than ever. You've never reminded me of Russell more than you do now. I hope you come to your senses and decide to support Quinn. Goodbye."
Her mother had compared her to Russell and Frannie wanted to vomit, want to yell and scream at her mother for being so cruel. Frannie was not her father. Russell Fabray was an abusive, vindictive, cruel, racist man. Frannie was nothing like him. She was so mad that she refused to acknowledge the messages for two weeks. If her mother thought she was like Russell than she would be.
It wasn't until she was cleaning out the attic, to move the baby crib up there, and she came across her old Hope Chest that she broke. William had found her up there crying with pictures of her and Quinn when they were children. There was one of an eight year old Frannie holding little baby Lucy close a huge smile on her face. The next was of a 16 year old Frannie cheering as Lucy rode down the street on her bike without training wheels for the first time. The one she was currently looking at Frannie was in her cap and gown, it was her graduation day from Princeton, Quinn was next to her in a pretty light blue sundress. Quinn was fourteen about to enter her freshman year of high school that coming fall. Frannie whipped the tears as William sat next to her. "We were so close than. I don't know what happened. Despite out age difference, she was my Lucy, and then it was like there was an ocean between us."
William sighed, "That was the summer she ran away to our house. She was crying and admitted that Russell had been beating her and that your mother was an alcoholic. She wanted to live with us."
"I can't believe I didn't believe her." Frannie leaned into her husband who held her close.
"You didn't want too. Russell had been a strict father with you, but he never laid a hand on you, other than the occasional light spanking." William tried to reason with her, make her feel better.
"Not until I confronted him about kicking out Quinn." Frannie remembered the day too well. Russell and her mother had been over near Christmas. Frannie had asked where Quinn was. Her mother's fake smile slid from her face and she looked away as Russell went on a tirade about the disgrace that was Lucy Quinn Fabray. When he'd mentioned that Quinn had gotten pregnant, Frannie and all her good Christian upbringing had agreed how disappointing it was, but when Russell declared he'd disowned Quinn, kicked her from the home, Frannie had, to her own surprise, gone to her little sisters defense. Russell in a blind wave of rage slapped her across the face. Frannie had been stunned and when Russell declared that he'd disown her if she extended a helping hand to the disgraced Fabray, she agreed foolishly to stay out of the whole affair. It took Frannie a month to tell William what had happened. Needless to say Russell Fabray had not stepped foot in their home again.
The damage had been done though. Frannie in her confusion and shock over suddenly seeing the father that Quinn had grown up with, transferred all her anger away from Russell and on to Quinn.
"I was so wrong and now, God William what do I do now?"
William leaned over and kissed her temple tenderly, "You go to your sister, you support her, and ask for forgiveness."
"But what if she doesn't forgive me?" Frannie's heart broke at the thought of the rift between herself and Quinn continuing. She'd created the rift but it was up to Quinn to close it again.
"She will, it may take time, but she will. She forgave your mother." Frannie could only hope she was so lucky.
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It took another two weeks but Frannie was finally in of the home she'd spent so little time in, the one that Russell bought upon moving to Lima when she graduated from college. It was large and imposing, there was none of the warmth that her old modest four bedroom childhood home in Belleville had possessed. Swallowing she knocked on the red door. There was rushing inside and the door swung open. Frannie's breathe halted in her chest. There in front of her was Quinn. But she was not the Quinn she remember, her hair was shorter, her cheeks and jaw defined, her eyes haunted and she sat in a blue wheelchair. Upon her lap a toddler, a year older than her own Annabelle, sat. The little girls white blonde hair held cute curls, her big baby eyes were the same hazel as Quinn's, as Russell's.
Frannie could believe it, all the stories she'd been told, the ones she'd prayed not true but known had been, were staring her in the face. Reality came crashing down. Frannie was no longer a third party observer. Here she stood on the cool early spring afternoon, upon the doorstep of her sister's childhood home, witnessing the truth first hand. Little Lucy had gotten pregnant at sixteen, the proof sat upon Lucy's lap, Little Lucy had been in a horrific car accident leaving her paralyzed, the wheelchair that held the two blondes its own form of proof. Everything was true. Under her own sightless gaze and self-imposed deafness her Little Lucy had been abused for year by Russell. Frannie wanted to run away, to forget, to pull the veil back over her eyes but she couldn't not now.
"Fran." Quinn chocked, clearly surprised to see her.
"Little Luc…"
"Don't call me that." Quinn growled her face transforming from shock to anger to indifference. "Can I help you?"
Frannie resisted the urge to step back from the icy glare cutting her down.
"Kin, who dat?" The sweet voice interrupted the staring contest between the two sisters. Quinn's face soften, her eyes lit as they focused on the little girl in her lap.
"Your Aunt Frannie, Beth. Come on lets you find your mom." Quinn didn't address Fannie again but she left the door open. Frannie hesitantly stepped in and followed Quinn into the kitchen where their mother and a tall brunette woman who was taking Beth from Quinn sat.
"Francine." Judy stood her eyes darting between her two daughters.
"Mom. I…" she didn't know what to say, "I needed to come by." That was it that was the truth.
"Hey guys, I found the game." A tall tan skinned boy with a Mohawk came running in and screeched to a halt as he entered the tension filled room.
"Whoa, uh, Quinn?" He moved to Quinn quickly his hand resting upon Quinn's shoulder. Frannie saw her sister visibly relax at his touch.
"Perhaps myself and Noah should leave." The brunette announced.
"That may be for the best Shelby. Thank you for stopping by with Beth." Judy hugged the woman tightly.
"We are family now Judy. Beth is your granddaughter, I wouldn't keep you apart." The Shelby woman smiled. Her eyes moved to Frannie and then Quinn and finally back to Judy, "Call me if you need anything."
"I will." Judy smiled and then kissed Beth on the forehead, "Bye Beth."
"No go Udy." Beth pouted and Frannie was instantly reminded of Quinn at that age.
"Yes time to go. Your mommy needs to take you home. I'll see you soon."
Shelby allowed the Mohawked boy, Noah, kiss Beth goodbye and then Quinn, she was almost out of the kitchen when she turned back to Noah, "Noah are you coming?"
Noah for his part kneeled down before Quinn and took her hands, "You need me to stay?"
Quinn shook her head, "No, I…We need to be alone."
"Alright, call me later." He kissed Quinn's temple and then left with Shelby and Beth.
Silence fell and Frannie didn't know what to do. Should she talk first, or should she let her Mom or Quinn. Finally when it was clear that neither her mother nor Quinn was going to open up first she took the initiative. "I was on a cruise, when the accident happened. I didn't get your messages until a month after."
"A month long cruise?" Quinn scoffed in disbelieve.
"William was granted a sabbatical from work, we took Annabelle, it was nice." She didn't know what to say to make Quinn believe her.
"That was a month ago, what took you so long after getting the message?" Quinn was definitely not in the mood to beat around the bush.
"It took a while to get more time off work." She lied but as the words came out of her mouth she knew she couldn't do this, she couldn't lie. It was the time for the truth. "No that is a lie. I was furious at mom's message."
"Frannie, I'm sorry, I thought you'd ignored me on purpose, I didn't know you were on a cruise." Judy interrupted. Her eyes breamed with tears and guilt.
Francine shook her head, "No you were right, maybe not about me ignoring you this time, but I've been ignoring the situation since Quinn showed up on my doorstep four years ago." Frannie turned her attention back to Quinn who was sitting quietly in her chair. God damn that chair. "Quinn I am so sorry, I am so sorry that I didn't believe you when you told me Russell was hitting you or that Mom was drinking."
Judy slumped at Frannies mention of her alcoholism. Frannie sat down across the island from her, "And I am sorry that I didn't offer my help to you mom. I knew you were struggling I just wouldn't let myself believe that you had a problem or that Russell was abusive." Frannie shook her head, tears streaming down her face. "I couldn't see it because I didn't let myself. Russell had never treated me like that. I couldn't understand why he would do that to Quinn and not me. But then he hit me when I told he was wrong to kick Quinn out."
"What?" Quinn had rolled closer.
Frannie shook her head, "It doesn't matter, I let him bully me into not helping you. I feared being disowned like you had been. Then I grew angry. I couldn't reconcile the man I was seeing with the one I grew up with, the one who held me in his arms when I had a nightmare, who helped me sell Girl Scout Cookies. I unfairly blamed you Quinn, instead of him, where the blame really belongs. I am so sorry that I let my fear and anger cloud by judgment, I am so sorry for abandoning you when you needed me most." Frannie didn't know what else to say, was their anything else.
"I don't know why he hit me and mom and not you." Quinn admitted sadly.
"Wait he hit you Mom?" This was the first Frannie had hear of this.
Judy nodded, "After you left for college, when he began drinking more, I don't know what changed him. I didn't know he'd been hitting Quinn until later, I thought it was just me that first year and then." Judy looked away. Pure agony oozed from her. "God I'm so ashamed, I should have stopped him, left him as soon as I discovered what he did to Quinn, but I was weak, and too drunk to think clearly. Quinn I…"
"Stop!" Quinn yelled, startling Frannie, who was seeing her mother and this whole situation in a new light. Rage at Russell, her mother, and herself boiled within, how they'd all failed Quinn so spectacularly.
"It happened, it is done with." Quinn stated her emotions calm. "Mom I forgave you long ago, and Frannie, I came to you for help and you turned me away, I know why, it must have been hard for you, to hear the things I had to say. Does it hurt that you called me liar and told me to leave, that you slowly but effectively cut me out of your life, yes more than you know. But it is done. He was beating me in private, without either of you knowing since I was eight years old. There is nothing to be done now. He is out of our lives, my life that is all that matters."
"Eight?" Judy and Frannie squeaked together.
Quinn rubbed her face, "Yes, eight. See it's my fault as well, I had eight years to speak up, but I didn't, that is on me."
"No." Frannie once again yelled at the same time as her mother.
Frannie was on her knees before their mother got there. Instead Frannie felt Judy stand behind her, and united front for the first time in years. "It wasn't your fault. I should have seen it." Frannie urged.
"No those early years all of it is on me." Judy interrupted again.
"See, see this." Quinn cried. Frannie was stunned to realize that this was the first time she'd seen Quinn cry since the girl was about nine, aside for when she came begging for Frannie's help. "This is him winning, he isn't even here but he is poising this family. We all make mistakes over the years, but the only person at fault is Russell; not you Mom, and not you Frannie. Please I don't want this anymore, I want to move on." Quinn turned her attention to Frannie. "Fran I won't lie, I am still so hurt by you, but I don't want to be mad anymore, it is pointless. If having Beth and this accident have taught me anything it's that I have to learn to let go of the pain; that people make mistakes, and everyone deserves a second chance. I gave Mom one and I will extend the same curtsy to you Frannie, but I can't trust you right now. We can't get back what we lost, but we can build something new, better maybe, right Mom."
"Right." Judy smiled and ran her hand through Quinn's hair. Quinn yawned at the touch. "You need to take a nap sweetheart."
Quinn rubbed her eyes, "I do. Fran will you be here later, I want to keep talking but I am really tired."
"Of course Quinn, I'll be here." Quinn smiled and rolled away towards the front of the house. When Frannie heard a door close she turned to her mother. "I'm sorry Mom."
Judy pulled her into a tight hug, "Enough of that. We've both been give second chances with her. It will be hard Frannie, I am still working on rebuilding my relationship with her, but it is worth it so worth it."
"I know it is." Quinn had always been worth it and Frannie wasn't going to squander this opportunity. God had save Quinn for them, for Frannie to have the chance to get her sister back and she was going to take it.
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