"Isn't this perfect?" said Jesse. "We get to have a romantic dinner and scope out the competition!"
Rachel bit her lip. She was thinking something more along the lines of "they got to have a romantic dinner and listen to the Warblers sing". But she just smiled.
"Happy Valentine's Day," said Jesse, leaning across the table and giving his girlfriend a kiss. Then he subtly fastened a necklace around her neck. Rachel gasped when she looked down and saw that he'd given her a gold star necklace. "Because you're our star," he whispered. In response, she kissed him again.
"Hey guys, are you ready to order?" asked Sunshine, walking up to the table in her tiny uniform.
"Sunshine! You're working here?" said Rachel.
"Isn't she your replacement on New Directions?" said Jesse.
"Kind of," mumbled Rachel. Oddly enough it hurt to think of her old teammates "replacing" her, even though she was the one who had left them.
"Yeah, I needed some money to pay for extra singing lessons, it can't hurt to improve my voice even though I am already a better singer than everyone else in the Glee club," said Sunshine. "Certainly way better than them," she motioned to Artie and Tina sitting at a table nearby sharing a heart-shaped slice of chocolate cake. "And definitely better than any of them."
Rachel was surprised when she glanced at a nearby table and saw Brittany, Mike, Mercedes, Santana, and Sam all sitting together. "Brittany and Mike aren't dating, are they?" asked Rachel.
"Nah," said Sunshine. "Just friends."
"Why the hell is Santana holding an icepack to that blonde guy's lips?" asked Jesse.
"He kissed every girl in the whole school to raise money for Glee club," said Sunshine. Then she leaned and whispered to Rachel, "Don't do it. He'll put his mouth over your whole face without even realizing it."
Just then, Finn and Quinn walked into Breadsicks and asked for a table. "What are they doing here?" asked Rachel.
Sunshine looked at Rachel. "Having dinner, obviously."
Finn and Quinn sat down in the booth across from Puck and Lauren. "I can't believe that your mom agreed to babysit on Valentine's Day," said Quinn.
"I think she and Burt are too tired to do anything anyway," said Finn. "I feel kind of bad for them working overtime the way they are for us and Kurt."
"You too," remarked Quinn. "This is the first night you've had off this week."
"I'm gonna try and see if Burt will hire me to work in the shop with him from now on," said Finn. "It's awkward pretending that I don't have the use of my legs in order to go to work every day."
"And dishonest," said Quinn.
"Yeah," said Finn. "I never would have done that if it wasn't for Lily."
Quinn smiled. "I know."
At their table, Lauren leaned across and whispered to Puck. "Now's the time."
At the front of the room, Kurt tapped the microphone. "Testing, one, two, three…"
"After the song," Puck whispered back.
"Sooo, happy Valentine's Day everybody," said Kurt.
"Isn't it a little wrong to do this today?" said Puck.
"Don't you even think about wimping out on me!" Lauren hissed. "And more importantly, yourself. You've put this off long enough."
Puck sighed and nodded to himself. "You're right. I can do this. Quinn took my daughter away from me for god sakes, I can make her boyfriend hate her on Valentine's Day." Lauren smiled at him, and he grinned back, not willing to admit to himself that he felt nervous about this.
"Whether you are single with hope, or madly in love and are here because I forced you to come out and support me," said Kurt, "Sit back and enjoy. And to all the singles out there…this is why we're here."
Moments later, Blaine and the Warblers' amazing voices began to fill the restaurant with happiness. Sunshine stopped working so that she could watch. Artie and Tina were smiling and holding hands as were Finn and Quinn. Santana removed the ice pack from Sam's lips just long enough to give him a quick kiss. Rachel starred at Blaine and realized with happiness that he was glancing at Kurt way more often than necessary. Jesse was starring at Blaine wondering how he could make sure that his voice stayed more impressive than his. At the end of the song, the whole room errupted into cheers. That was the exact moment that Puck bolted up out of his seat and stormed over to Finn and Quinn's booth. This was it.
"I'm Lily's father."
In that instant, the entire restaurant fell dead silent. "Puck, that's not funny," said Quinn sweetly.
"No, it's not," shouted Puck. "That's why I wouldn't say it if we didn't both know it was true."
"That's impossible," said Finn. "Quinn and I were dating for months before she got pregnant."
"Well she cheated on you, moron!" shouted Puck.
"That's a lie!" shrieked Quinn.
"Puck, shut up," snapped Finn. "I mean it. It's not funny and everybody's starring at us."
"So what?" said Puck. "Most of them already know anyway."
"There's nothing to know!" yelled Quinn. "I don't know what the hell his problem is, Finn!"
"By the way, I'm wondering," said Puck, leaning onto the table and looking right into Quinn's eyes. "Did you two ever have sex? If you did, then Finn could probably tell me if you ever fixed that inverted nipple after you started nursing."
Finn blinked. "How did you know that she used to have an inverted nipple?"
"I'm sure he just heard me talking to you about it at some point," said Quinn quickly, although she didn't really think they'd ever had a reason to discuss it outside of her doctor's office or their bedroom.
"Really, Quinn?" said Puck. "How often do you talk about that egg-shaped birthmark you have on the left cheek of your ass?"
That was it. Finn's chair fell to the floor as he jumped up and tackled Puck to the ground. The next two minutes ran in a blur of flying punches and horrified gasps from everyone in the room until Finn was suddenly yanked off of Puck by Sam and Blaine. "Finn, get off!" yelled Kurt, stepping in to try and keep it from getting any worse than it already was.
"Is it true?" hollered Finn. "Did she really lie to me?"
"Hey, hey, what's going on?" asked the restaurant manager coming out of his office.
"This guy just walked up and sucker punched me!" said Puck, suddenly looking relatively calm and unthreatening.
"No, that's not true!" yelled Finn. "They're lying!"
The manager walked over to Finn and put a hand on his shoulder. "Look, just calm down."
"No!" said Finn. "I want to hear it from you!" He pointed an accusing finger at Quinn.
"Am I gonna have to call the police?" asked the manager.
"No," said Finn. He stopped struggling against Sam and Blaine until they let go of him, but kept his eyes on Quinn, who was crying. "Is it true?" he asked her. "Just tell me…is it true?"
Quinn stood up from her seat shakily and looked away from him as she nodded tearfully. "Yes," she whispered. "Puck was her father."
At that point, Finn was too stunned to be angry. He just shook his head to himself. "All that stuff in the hot tub…you set that up?"
"Yeah, well you were stupid enough to buy it!" said Puck.
Finn whipped around and nearly punched him again put Quinn put a hand on his shoulder and stopped him. "I'm…I'm so sorry," she whispered.
Finn's eyes hardened. "Let's just get the hell out of here," he said, taking out a hundred dollar bill and handing it to the manager. "Keep the change," he mumbled before proceeding to exit the restaurant vaguely aware that Quinn was following behind him. His mind was reeling, refusing to accept the fact that Quinn had cheated on him at all, let alone that the baby girl he'd been caring for for the last eight months was…Puck's biological daughter? Even thinking the words felt surreal.
"Let's get out of here," said Tina.
"I agree," said Artie, counting out the money that they would need to pay for their meal. All of their friends did the same thing at their own tables, including Jesse and Rachel.
"Thanks for coming, everyone," said Kurt.
"No problem," said Tina. "The show was amazing."
"Yeah, it was," said Mercedes. Everyone else agreed.
Meanwhile, Puck walked back over to Lauren at their table. She smiled before he even said anything. "That was the best Valentine's Day present anyone has ever given me."
Puck grinned. "You know what would be the best Valentine's Day present you could give me?"
Lauren grinned. "Let's finish our dinner first." The two of them quietly sat down to finish their Valentine's Day meal, complete with two massive slices of chocolate cake, before heading back to Puck's house. They snuck past his mom's bedroom and into his, where the wildest night of both of their lives commenced.
Finn and Quinn entered the house the same way they'd been the entire way home, tears streaming down their faces, not saying anything. As soon as they got inside, Finn said, "You're sleeping on the couch tonight." Quinn didn't argue, she just followed him into their bedroom to change into her pajamas. Both of them realized it would be best not to say much to each other that night. Lily was in her crib already asleep, giving them the perfect excuse to be silent.
Meanwhile, Jesse drove Rachel home after they paid for their food. "What's with the bizarre smile on your face?" said Jesse. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
Rachel doubted it, but she just looked at him and let her smile grow a little wider. "Depends what you're thinking."
Jesse's face lit up. "That New Directions may just not be able to survive this mess."
Rachel laughed at just how wrong he was. "Exactly!" she lied.
Jesse grinned. "Good girl, Rachel. You're finally learning how to think like a real diva."
He leaned over and kissed her goodnight.
As soon as Rachel got upstairs to her room, she laid down on her bed and closed her eyes. In her imagination, Finn had broken up with Quinn and run over as fast as he could. He had somehow gotten past Shelby and into Rachel's bedroom, maybe by climbing up through the window. He was singing "Jesse's girl" and then getting down on his knees begging her to come back to New Directions and break up with Jesse. Then he reached down and pulled a tiny box out of his pocket. He opened it, there was a diamond ring inside…
Rachel opened her eyes, sat up, and smacked herself on the forehead. No. She was with Jesse now, and Finn obviously had way bigger things on his mind but her at the moment.
Although…maybe someday…
About four hours later, Finn was woken up by the sound of Lily crying quietly. Knowing that Quinn wouldn't be able to hear her anyway, he sighed and got up. He lifted her into his arms, the fact that she had actually gotten her black hair from Puck suddenly occurring to him. It disgusted him. "Shh…it's okay…" he whispered. Lily continued to cry and look at him expectantly. He realized that there was only one thing he could do to calm her down, took her over to their rocking chair, sat down, and began to sing.
"Oh, why you look so sad?
Tears are in your eyes
Come on and come to me now
When the night falls on you
You don't know what to do
Nothing you confess
Could make me love you less"
And that was the moment that Finn realized that no matter what happened from here or how Quinn and Puck had deceived him, there was no way around the fact that Lily was his daughter.