The girls made their way to the kitchen to get something to drink. Mercedes opted for a Diet Coke while Quinn made a tall glass of chocolate milk, vowing that when Beth was born she would cast aside the Krispy Kreme's and other things of that sort and re-embrace healthy eating habits. She ate well-balanced nutritious meals of course, she wanted her baby to be healthy….but those darn late night cravings, and Puck had spoiled her acting as a faithful enabler….well, she had developed quite the sweet tooth.

She was raising the cool glass to her lips when Beth abruptly informed her that the drink had nowhere to go if she swallowed it. She quickly set the glass down on the kitchen counter with a *thunk*. "Gotta pee!" she explained as she spun and jogged/waddled to the nearest bathroom. Mercedes waited out the few minutes patiently until she heard the concluding sound of the toilet flushing and the sink running as Quinn washed her hands. "That came out of nowhere," she observed as Quinn emerged.

"Yep, that's how she rolls, or in this case, jumps. You always hear pregnant women say the baby is using their bladder for a trampoline, it's true. You think you're fine, you don't have to go, then the baby repositions itself and you can't get to a bathroom quick enough."

Mercedes looked at the clock on the microwave; it was nearing nine-thirty. "Have you been back to church? Since you…left home, I mean."

"Not really, I couldn't face my congregation. I was going to go to a Christmas Eve service with Finn and his mom at a church they sometimes go to, but then Babygate busted open a couple of weeks before it, so- I couldn't face them either."

"Well I was wondering if you wanted to come with us tomorrow morning. We got nothing but good people." Mercedes quickly interjected as Quinn looked down at her obviously pregnant belly, "No one will judge you, you won't be the first teen mom to walk through those doors, trust me. But since you are growing a baby in there, you might want to take a sack lunch. When we have church, we have church!"

Quinn smiled warmly, "thank you, Mercedes, I'd love to."

"Good, hey, I'm gonna go put on my pj's and I'll meet you back in your room okay?"

"Okay," Quinn said. 'Your room', Mercedes had said. It was funny sounding. Quinn wondered how many years the Jones' had been at this house. How many years had that particular room had belonged to Bryce, now his sister had effortlessly made the transition of "ownership"? Naturally, the room bore no resemblance to her own, which she missed grievously. The bed seemed soft, pliant, just the way she liked, the comforter looked smooth, soft and warm enough but she missed her Egyptian cotton sheets. And of course she missed the antique hand-painted floral 1930's Italian bed they went on, not to mention the matching vanity complete with ottoman. She missed her personal fireplace on the far wall of her spacious room parallel to her antique Victorian settee where she would do her homework. She even missed her 1970's chaise at the foot of her bed, even though she rarely used it. No she wasn't spoiled at all.

Quinn set her now half consumed glass of milk on Bryce's desk and changed into her own sleepwear, Pucks shirt and shorts. The scent of his house, of him, drifted up to greet her and she breathed in deep. She did miss him, despite the fact that of late she had been in the "strangle him" mood more often than not. She heard Mercedes knock softly at the door and she let her in and they resumed their positions on the bed.

"So, I guess you guys really are calling her Beth then, huh?" Mercedes inquired.

"Yeah, I guess. I mean it's really for Puck. He wanted something we could call her, which is weird because Finn wanted to name her, too. At first I didn't want too. Not to sound cold, but I'm not keeping her…it just seemed like it would hurt even more giving her up after naming her. But Beth…it's a really nice name. A lot better than his other ideas: Jack Dani—oh wait sorry Jack-ie Daniels," Quinn said emphasizing the gender modifying vowels. "Stevie Nicks, who I love but I'm not naming my child that. He had some conglomeration of Joan Jett and Pat Benetar figured out that I can't even remember. He was bound and determined for her to have a rock star name."

'What about Axl Rose?" Mercedes offered.

"I think he mentioned that one too." Quinn recalled. "Anyway, the more names he chose, the more I liked 'Drizzle'. That was Finns choice."

"Drizzle?"

"Drizzle?" Quinn repeated. "Like when it's raining, but not hard, so you don't really need an umbrella."

"-Drizzle." Mercedes said once more, testing the name. "You know, it would make a cute nickname. Or middle name. Beth Drizzle Fabray-Puckerman."

"Oh, Dear Lord, do NOT even go there." Quinn rolled her eyes, groaning albeit good-naturedly. "No, I've made up my mind. No Fabray-Puckerman anything. I'm giving her up to someone who can take much better care of her than I can. Anyway, stop getting the chapters mixed up. I haven't even figured out I'm pregnant yet."

"Fine, so you went to church…" Mercedes began for her.

"Right, I went to church and we discussed how that went. Afterward Finn called me, just like he promised he would, for once. We met for brunch at a café on Anderson. It was nice, my family normally goes for brunch after mass, so it was nice to do that with him just that once. He was being so attentive to me. I don't know if something bad had gone down with him and Rachel or what, maybe he was just feeling guilty. I was feeling guilty and I certainly was not going to look the proverbial gift horse in the mouth. Whatever time he wanted to spend with me I was on it. Being in that hot tub with him the night before was seriously that last place I wanted to be, but I didn't want to give him any more reasons to go running back to Rachel."

'So have you called Puck yet?' Finn asked, poking at his omelet.

The olive that was on Quinn's fork centimeters away from her open mouth fell back onto the plate as a "deer in the headlights" look overtook her face. 'What?'

'I was just wondering if you'd talked to Puck.'

'What would I talk to Puck about?' she said, dabbing her mouth with her napkin, willing her pulse to regulate.

'Y'know….the hot tub' he muttered. 'I guess, it just, I dunno, needs to be cleaned before your parents come back.'

'Right,' she breathed a sigh of relief. 'Well, I can just clean it myself, how hard can it be?'

'Well yeah, but, what about refilling it. Do you know how to get the chemicals right and everything?'

Crap! She didn't. 'Oh, right, well I guess I will call him then.' Quinn tried to sound nonchalant as a string of four letter words sat poised to erupt unbidden from the back of her throat.

'And I'll pay for it…' Finn began.

'No, it's okay.' Quinn assured him. 'My parents always leave extra cash when they go somewhere for stuff like this. I'll just tell them Puck was going through his list and saw we were due and I told him to go ahead.'

'Awesome,' then he asked sheepishly, 'you're not gonna tell him why are you?'

'Of course not, Finn' she said softly, a sympathetic smile tugging the corner of her mouth.

"Of course Puck was the last person I wanted to call. I tried to think of anyone else, because, you know, SO many people have pools in Lima, Ohio."

"Oh, yeah there must be dozens of pool cleaning businesses. One on every corner." Mercedes chimed in.

"Right. There are a couple more but I knew they wouldn't come out on such short notice on a Sunday afternoon…so I called Puck. Well, texted him actually."

'I need a favor from u. I need my hot tub cleaned b4 my parents get home 2nite. Don't ask why, can u do it?'

'yea, I b there bout 3'

"I told him I wouldn't be there. I'd just leave the key to the gate in a hanging basket and the kitchen door unlocked with the money on the counter and have him lock up when he left. I didn't know where I was going to be at three but it wasn't going to be around him. Before Finn and I left the café we made plans to meet at his house and watch a movie. I chose his house because I told him I was gonna go home and get the place spotless before my parents got back. Truth is it was just to avoid seeing Puck.

"I went home, cleaned the house, then I called Coach Sylvester. My plan to get Finn back that I had told Puck about, it was the Dakota Stanley thing. Finn for some reason had quickly developed a complete hero worship of Mr. Schue and I knew if I could get the club, especially Rachel, to turn on him it would get Finn away from her and maybe it could bring down the whole club. I told Sue about Mr. Schue's less than stellar choreography, she used her whatever-she's-got to find out Vocal Adrenaline used Dakota and we sort of concocted the plan together.

"At about 2:45 I set up everything for Puck and went over to Finns. He let me pick the movie but I don't even remember what we watched. I just remember getting home about six, everything was locked up, the hot tub looked clean and there was the little yellow receipt on the kitchen counter…next to the money. The receipt was blank all except for a line that said something like, 'On the house, just left this so you would know I did it.' I guess that was his way of apologizing some more.

"I got a couple last minute things in order for my parents, feeling sick to my stomach the whole time, wondering if when they got home if they'd be able to see my sinful acts written all over my face. But then I reminded myself that this was my parents we were talking about. They wouldn't say anything even if they did notice. Still, I was literally hot and cold. I felt so dirty and horrible and unforgivable, yet on the other hand things with Finn had turned for the better so quickly I thought maybe God was being merciful to me. I really didn't know what to think or how to feel so I just chose to disillusion myself with the latter, the one that made me feel better. It's the Fabray-way after all, no matter what keep your head high and think happy thoughts and the bad doesn't exist.

"They got home around nine. I hugged and kissed them, smiled and asked them how the retreat was and pretended to be interested as they told me all about the motivational speakers and everything. Then dad poured himself a scotch and went to watch all the TiVo'd Glenn Beck he'd missed and mom made herself a mojito and went to her office to catch up on some paperwork. I watched a little TV in my room, called Santana and filled her in on the "Death of Glee Club" plan, then went to bed.

"Next day at school, me and San talked to Rachel about Dakota Stanley, she brought it up to Mr. Schue, he created the Accafellas and did Glee less and less, Finn turned on Rachel everything was working like clockwork. Coach Sylvester then suggested we start picking off the other Glee members, and that's where you come in."

"Finally! I was wondering when this story was gonna get good." Mercedes sassed, laughing.