A.N. Sorry about the small, well it's not so much a spoiler as just adding to this stories canon, anyway I just wanted to address this real quickly. I don't know what they actually do in the show and I don't particularly care, these are the jobs of Brittany's and Santana's parents in this story. Santana's mother is a lawyer, she works for the D.A.'s office and her father, though he isn't mentioned in this chapter, is a doctor. Brittany's father is the sheriff and her mom is a homemaker. Like I said I don't know if that's canon or not, but it is in this story. So anyway, standard disclaimer I don't own Glee or any of its characters.
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"Show me your arm." Santana demands as she yanks Quinn into an unused classroom.
"What the hell Santana!?" Quinn demands, wondering what her friend's problem was.
"I said show me your fucking arm."
"What? Why?"
"Please Quinn." Said girl looks over and sees Brittany standing behind Santana, unable to meet her eyes and looking very guilty.
Quinn sighs, "You told her."
Brittany just nods her head, biting her lip nervously.
"Brittany…" She says frustrated, but not really angry, it really was a long shot that the girl wouldn't tell Santana, still she had hoped.
"That's right, B told me, now show me." Santana demands again.
"It's not that bad San, B's making a bigger deal out of it than it really is-"
"Don't fucking lie to me; now show me your arm."
Quinn doesn't move to do so, but she also doesn't stop the Latina when she reaches over and rolls up Quinn's sleeve. Santana inhales sharply when she sees it. "You promised me that you would tell me if it got worse!" She demands, her eyes watering.
Quinn tries to make light of it, "Technically I told you that you didn't have to worry about it."
The glares that she receives from both Santana and Brittany let her know that they were not going to let this go.
"I'm calling my mom and then I'm calling B's dad and we are getting you the fuck out of there." Santana says while reaching for her cell phone.
"No!" Quinn yells startled, yanking the phone from her friends grasp. "Look this is why I didn't tell you. I've said this to B and now I'll say it to you, telling someone, anyone, does me no good. I've tried it before and it doesn't help, it just makes it worse. Trust me. I know you want to help, but don't. I'm asking you, I'm begging you, as your friend, please just drop it."
"Drop it! Quinn… fuck Querida this isn't something you just shrug off, you need help!"
"Look, I've been living with this for as long as I can remember, I know how to survive it. It doesn't happen often, I can usually avoid my father when he gets violent, I just need to survive until graduation and then I can leave there forever."
"Q, can you even hear yourself!? You talk about surviving home, home, where you should be safest, and that bruise is clearly proof that you're not safe there. I don't care, I'm telling my mom, she's going to have his ass thrown in jail and you're coming to live with me or B."
Quinn glares at the girl and takes a step back rolling her sleeve back down, "I'll deny it happened. I'll say that I have no idea what you are talking about and you'll have no way to prove otherwise."
"That bruise on your arm is proof enough!"
"I won't ever let them check, they'll need to get a court order or something to do it and I'll just lie about where it came from."
"The hell is wrong with you!?" Santana screams. "If it were me or B going through this then you would be fighting tooth and nail to get us out, you would instantly recognize how fucked up this is and do something about it, so why the fuck won't you do the same for yourself!?"
"Please San," Quinn asks her friend desperately, "please if you're my friend, you'll let this go."
"No, give me one damn good reason why I should!"
Tears begin to fall down Quinn's face. She knows she's being stupid, she knows she should tell someone, but it didn't work in the past, and despite everything, they're still her parents, she still loves them and telling someone would feel like a betrayal.
When she thinks of them she doesn't see Judy Fabray the emotionally distant woman who can't say I love you without a drink in hand, she sees the woman who held her when she was five and sang her to sleep after she had secretly watched a scary movie and had a nightmare.
She doesn't see Russell Fabray, the man who scares and hurts her, she sees her daddy who used to tuck her in and read her stories. Who held her when she came home crying because a boy at school was mean to her. He used to be her hero, and despite both of her parents many flaws, she loved them, she needed them.
"Please Santana, I promise this won't happen again, I promise, please, please, if you love me if you care about me, you will leave this alone."
"Quinn!"
"No listen, I've been dealing with this for years, it really isn't that bad. It's not great, I know that, but it will be better in the long run if you just leave it alone. Please promise me that you will drop this."
"This needs to stop. This," She says motioning to Quinn's arm, "will not happen again, I… I can't believe I'm about to fucking agree to this," Santana growls out, sounding completely disgusted with herself. "But fine, I'll keep my mouth shut for now."
"Thank yo-"
"No! Don't you dare fucking thank me for this! I am going against every good instinct, every feeling that I'm having about this by agreeing to not say anything. And I'll tell you this right now, if it happens again, if I see or even suspect that you've been hurt again, I'm telling. I don't care, I don't care if you hate me, if you say you'll deny it, I'll tell. It won't matter how much you beg, or plead, or reason, or threaten, I won't fucking care! You're life and safety, mean more to me than your friendship, so if saving you means losing you, I will go to sleep with a big fucking smile on my face!" Santana is crying now.
"Don't you ever fucking dare to thank me for doing this, I… I just… FUCK!" Santana turns and storms out the door.
"San…" Quinn whispers, wishing that she could say or do something to let her friend know that it was okay, that everything was going to be okay.
"I'm sorry." Brittany mumbles. "I know I promised, but I'm really scared for you, please, I know I promised not to tell, but I had to. You're my best friend and," Brittany looks up at her, her eyes wide and fierce "You would have done the same thing! Please don't hate me; I just want you to be safe."
"I've told you B, I could never hate you." Quinn says softly, turning away, unable to meet her friends gaze.
Brittany moves up to her and pulls her into a hug. Brittany than leans in and begins to whisper in her ear. "I'm with San on this one, I love you to death Quinn, and the thought of you being hurt is awful. I'll keep my mouth shut this time, but like San said, your life and safety mean more to me than your friendship, and I'll protect you even at the cost of losing you." Brittany quickly leaves, leaving a pensive Quinn alone in an emotional whirlwind.
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Quinn decided to give both of her friends some space for the rest of the day. She understood where they were coming from, and they were right, if the situations were reversed she would do everything that she could to protect them, but the situations weren't reversed and it may be hypocritical of her but she didn't need them to interfere. She could handle things on her own.
She catches Santana just as the girl is about to enter the choir room for glee club. "San, I need to talk to you a moment."
"What?" The girl replies shortly.
"Look I know you're mad at me, but I need you to do something for me, it's about what coach Sylvester asked us to do."
"Yeah… go ahead."
"Today Rachel is going to make a suggestion and I need you to back her on it. It may not make sense right away, like it may seem like it's actually helping the group, but I need you to trust me on this. Back her play, and if you're interested I can tell you what I came up with after school today, if not… I understand."
Santana rolls her eyes. "I'm pissed at you, but don't act like we're not still best friends, Britts has made plans with the dwarf- I mean Berry, this weekend so we can chill at my place and we can go over what you've got."
"Thanks San."
"Now come on, let's go spend the next hour step, clap, stepping." The Latina finishes in a falsely excited voice.
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It wasn't until the last ten minutes of glee club that Rachel finally made her move. They had just done this particularly awkward hip shimmy and Quinn couldn't take it anymore she caught Rachel's eye and gave her pointed look. The diva nods her head and speaks.
"Could… could we stop please?" Rachel calls out.
"You don't have to ask my permission every time you need to go to the bathroom Rachel, you can just go." Mr. Schuester says a little patronizingly.
"It's not my bladder."
"It's the choreography."
"This again?" Mr. Schue sighs.
"We can't compete with Vocal Adrenaline with these steps. You're a great vocal coach Mr. Schue but… you're not a trained choreographer. That's what we need to be the best."
Mr. Schuester nods along but you could tell that he was getting annoyed with the situation.
"We need Dakota Stanley." Rachel presses on. "He's the best show choir choreographer in the Midwest. He understudied for the candelabra in Beauty and the Beast on Broadway, we can't take sectionals without him."
"Just because he understudied doesn't mean he ever actually performed." Mr. Schuester counters.
Quinn catches Santana's eye and nods, and the girl takes this as her moment to step in. "Have you ever performed Mr. Schuester, after high school, I mean. Did you ever perform, or even try?"
Mr. Schuester looks so gob-smacked by this that he doesn't have a response. He stands there for a moment and then looks down embarrassed, before calling it a day, he leaves them with very few words, just an I'll see you Monday.
The kids all look around at each other awkwardly. "Dude Rachel, what was that?" Finn finally asks frustrated.
"I…" the girl stammers.
"I mean seriously, why are you riding him so hard?"
"Finn, I'll handle this." Quinn says to her boyfriend sweetly. "Why don't you guys get out of here okay?"
Finn casts one more look at Rachel. "Fine. Thanks Quinn."
She smiles at him and then waits patiently as the rest of the club files out, except for of course Rachel, Brittany and Santana.
"You look troubled, you okay Berry?"
The girl looked a little stricken, like she didn't expect Mr. Schuester to take the suggestion so personally. "I feel awful, I just… we need to win… but maybe, this isn't the best route to go… I mean he looked so hurt."
"Yeah Rach, where did you hear about this guy from?" Brittany asks, sounding a little hurt herself. "I thought you and I were going to work on some things together to show him."
"That would be me B." Quinn says and the other blond looks at her startled.
"You? Why?"
"Because B, Mr. Schuester doesn't take his students seriously, but I figured if we could get another adult in here, someone that Mr. Schue would have to treat as an equal then we could finally get around to making some real changes to the club. Be the best at it that we can be, I figured Dakota Stanley would be the way to go. He coaches the current national champions; if we could steal him then we have a fighting chance of winning." Quinn hates herself for every word out of her mouth. Most of what she said would be true if you didn't take into account the rumors that Dakota Stanley was every bit as mean as coach Sylvester and willing to get way more personal in his attacks in a way that even she wasn't.
"Oh, yeah… that might work." Brittany says hesitantly.
"But Mr. Schuester looked so hurt, and despite the questionable choreography he is a good coach for this club." Rachel says timidly.
"I know that, but you want to win don't you?" Quinn asks her.
"Well yeah… of course I do."
"Then you know that this needs to happen."
"Still I think I had better apologize to him…"
"You do whatever you think you need to do to clear your conscience, but just remember that without Dakota Stanley we can't win. So while you're apologizing to Mr. Schuester for trying to make the club better, keep that in mind." Quinn then turns to Brittany. "I'll see you Saturday B?"
"Yeah…"
Quinn heads over to her friend and asks quietly. "Are you still mad at me... you know about earlier?"
"What?...Oh no, I don't get it and I wish you would let us do something, but you know where I stand… it's about hiring this other guy. You're not trying to replace Mr. Schue are you?"
"No, of course not B. I just think that he can use a little help that's all."
"Okay, good. Cause I really like Mr. Schue," Brittany says smiling.
Quinn and Santana both look a little shocked. "Even after he was so mean to you?" Quinn asks hesitantly.
"Well yeah, I mean it hurt my feelings but I think that he's just under a lot of pressure that's all. He's never really been a coach before, so he's still learning."
Quinn hides her guilt behind a smile and after saying their goodbye's to the blond girl both she and Santana leave for her place. Once they are our of ear shot of Brittany and Rachel, Quinn turns to Santana. "Well I feel like shit."
"Look it's either glee club or cheerios… it's not a contest, no matter how B might feel about it." But Quinn can tell that the girl is starting to regret agreeing to destroy the club as well.
"So what's this master plan of yours' anyway? From the sound of it this Stanley guy is the answer to every prayer that this club has."
"That may be true, if it weren't for the fact that he's the show choir version of coach Sylvester. I guarantee you, the club won't last a day under his direction."
"And you think that Mr. Schuester is going to just stand there and let it happen?"
"I think that Mr. Schuester is finally starting to listen to us and that his prides been hurt so he's not going to step in unless asked. He's now had three of his students tell him that he's screwing up, you, me and Berry. His pride won't let him be around while the other guy is."
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The next couple weeks work out better than Quinn could have imagined. Santana's comment about him never actually having performed seemed to have struck a chord with the guy and he had started his own singing group. He was constantly missing practices and when he did show up he hardly participated because he was so focused on this Acafella's thing of his that he had all but dropped glee club. Things were going so badly in glee club that Quinn wasn't even sure if they would need to hire Stanley.
The infighting had gotten bad without Mr. Schuester there to play referee and to unite them. Rachel was trying to take over and run things with Mr. Schue basically gone, and both Mercedes and Kurt took umbrage at that, and so fought her at every turn, wanting to run the club themselves. Tina supported Artie, who was backing Finn, who was mad at Rachel, blaming her for Mr. Schuester losing interest in glee, so they argued with the girl as well, but they didn't like Kurt or Mercedes' ideas either and so they argued with them too.
Brittany supported Rachel and tried to push her ideas, and when the others tried to shoot her down, sometimes nicely, sometimes not so nicely, Santana would step in, and when Santana stepped in, then Quinn had to step in, if only to prevent bloodshed. It was rather ironic that things had worked out that Quinn had to basically back Rachel up.
It did cause some strain between her and Finn who felt that as his girlfriend she should side with him, but his annoyance at her was outweighed by his anger at Rachel and so Quinn wasn't too worried about it. As far as she could tell things between Finn and Rachel were over before they could really begin, which was a relief on Quinn's mind. She no longer had to worry about Finn sneaking out behind her back to be with the other girl. No things were going great for Quinn, except for one thing.
She felt guilty; she was basically destroying this club for no real reason. She was destroying this club for a coach that was only missing out on, like an additional 60 bucks a month, a fraction of what she pulled in from the school district, advertising, and various other donations. She was doing it for a friend who didn't actually have a grudge against the club, and in fact loved it and Quinn felt awful. She basically ruled this school and what did these other kids have? A dinky little singing club that wasn't hurting anyone and she was ruining it for them.
Still Quinn knew what she had to do. Once glee club was gone things would go back to normal. Finn wouldn't have to see Rachel anymore, coach Sylvester would quit stalking her about how things were going, and her father would get off her back about it as well. She could just go back to how things were before this club had come into her life.
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Quinn was going over to meet up with Brittany and Santana when she felt her heart catch in her throat. There up against Santana's locker was Puck. The two were kissing and flirting with each other and when Puck looked up and saw her, Quinn felt all of the blood rush from her face.
She is about to turn around and head the other way when Santana waves her over and she forces herself to go meet them. The smirk on the boy's face was infuriating, it was like he was holding something over her and he knew that she knew it. Still she had to face him sometime and see what he was going to do.
"Hey San," She says cautiously. "Puck," she all but snarls.
"S'up babe?" He grins at her.
"What's up San, I thought we were hanging out today?" Quinn asks her friend.
"I know but I haven't seen Puck in a while, you don't care do you?"
"Yeah Fabray, you don't care do you?" the boy leers at her.
"You can do whatever you want," Quinn sneers and then turns around abruptly and leaves.
"Whoa, hey Q, what's going on?" Santana says rushing to catch up with the blond. "I know you don't like him, but what's your deal? That was cold even for you, I put up with Finn so why can't you do the same with Puck?"
There are so many things that Quinn wants to say to that. How about the fact that Puck doesn't actually care about her, or that Santana is in love with Brittany and she knows that it hurts the other girl that Santana won't commit to her? Or how about the fact that Puck is the kind of guy who only cares about what's between a girls legs and he's willing to do anything to get it?
"Look I just don't like him, you can do better." She leans in and whispers, "You have done better, and you're making a mistake by being with him." She says talking about Brittany.
Santana steps back and quickly looks around checking that nobody over heard that, before responding angrily. "I don't know what the fuck you're talking about, and even if I did, it's none of your business, and considering what you've been doing lately you have no right to talk to me about making mistakes. Whatever you're problem with Puck is, get over it, if I have to put up with Finn you can tolerate Puck."
"San-"
"No, I don't want to hear it, now I'm going to go hang out with my boyfriend. We may not be all cliché cheerleader-football player like you and the Jolly Green Giant, but I have fun with him. He's just got back from being suspended, I haven't seen him in a couple of weeks and I want to go have some fun. You don't like it, tough."
And this right here is why Quinn couldn't tell Santana that she slept with Puck. Despite her feelings for Brittany and despite her indifference to Puck's infidelity she still considered Puck hers. Puck slept around, but none of his conquests ever talked about it, because Santana would kick their asses. And while she wasn't worried about Santana getting physical with her, she was worried about ruining their friendship. She had put enough strain on it lately.
"I'll… I'll see you around. Have fun…" Quinn hesitates but continues on anyway. She had been with Puck and she didn't understand how anyone could consider it fun. "Be careful." She tries to warn her friend.
Santana grins at her. "Don't be such a prude Quinn, and don't worry. I'll call you tonight, oh and tell B I'm sorry I couldn't make it."
Santana makes her way over to Puck and he puts his arms around her shoulder and they walk off. As they're leaving he looks back at her and smirks, while giving her a wink. And all of the memories of that night come rushing back to her along with the humiliation, the shame, the awkwardness, all of it. She had thought she was doing better, getting over it but this just showed how far off she was. She manages to hold it together, but it's touch and go for a bit, she just needs to focus on something else.
She spots Rachel and decides to see if the girl has gotten Mr. Schuester's permission to hire Dakota Stanley yet. Even though he had all but abandoned the club, he was still the teacher in charge of it and without his permission they couldn't hire the other man. Plus if she's thinking about destroying glee club she can't be thinking about Puck.
She talks to the girl and finds out that she's going to try and talk to him again on Monday. Hopefully he'll come back and let them hire Stanley. After leaving the girl, she finds Brittany waiting by her locker.
"Hey Quinn you ready for our sleep over this weekend?" The blond asks excitedly.
"Sure am, I'm thinking we should pop some popcorn, re-watch some Buffy episodes, then maybe we could do a Lion King marathon, you know all three movies, and then look up some stuff for glee club. Maybe you and I could do a duet?"
"Oh my God! That would totally rock!" Brittany squeals. "Hey where's Santana?" She finally asks looking around expectantly.
"Oh… um she said she couldn't make it tonight… she's busy." Quinn tries to hedge around the reason why Santana is busy.
"She's with Puck isn't she?" Brittany's face falls and it breaks Quinn's heart a little. This is why she had suggested a whole bunch of things that Brittany would enjoy, so that she wouldn't be so sad to find out that Santana wouldn't be there, but it didn't seem to work and Brittany looked like she was about to cry.
"Oh B, I… I'm sorry," Quinn says taking the girls hand and squeezing it comfortingly.
"No it's… it's fine. He's her boyfriend and… I'm just her friend."
"Hey you know what we could do? We could cuddle on the couch and watch sad movies? And then maybe we can spend the entire evening talking about what a jerk Puck is?" Who knows, it could be fairly therapeutic for her as well.
Brittany still looks sad but smiles at her hopefully, "And maybe we could still work on a duet?"
Quinn grins at her friend and then links their arms. "We're going to come up with something so kickass that it's going to win us nationals."
Brittany laughs and the two girls make their way to Brittany's house for the night.
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A.N. So that was chapter seven, I hope you all enjoyed it. As always the next chapter will be up next Friday, so watch for that.