Return to Sender, Damaged in Transit
...
First impressions are important. Quinn knows this better than anyone. It's why she'd tried out for the Cheerios straightaway during freshman year. It's why she always makes sure to get As in the first semester. It's also why she decides to show up for work at the library half an hour early. She knows she'll be working under Ellen, a librarian in her fifties, and from what Quinn had seen of her at the interview, apart from the woman's fondness for argyle, she seemed like a nice enough person.
"Follow me, I'll show you to the front desk." Ellen goes on to make small talk about the summer and Quinn responds politely, focusing more on her new surroundings. "It's so nice to have another young adult working with us, shows the rest of them that libraries aren't just for people who can't use the internet," says Ellen.
"Wait, I'm another young adult?"
"Well yes. You see a couple of days after I hired you; I was approached by a young man who said he's always been interested in working here but never lived close enough. He started a few days ago."
No.
It can't be.
Just – no.
As Quinn turns the corner, she realises that in fact it's a yes. Jesse St. James is sitting right there, scanning a few books and despite herself, she gasps.
"Jesse, this is the girl I was telling you would be joining today. Quinn this is Jesse."
His eyes meet hers and the corners of his lips instantly turn upwards. "Quinn," he says standing up and extending his hand, "Nice to meet you."
She's pretty much in shock as she raises her hand for him to shake and of course, he's grinning the entire time. The feel of his skin against her own snaps her out of her daze though and it's then that she realises that instead of dumbstruck, she should be really, really pissed at him.
She was here first.
"Now Quinn, Jesse has some previous experience with libraries and I'm sure he'd be happy to help if you have any difficulties," says Ellen. Jesse nods sagely and if it was possible, Quinn's pretty sure her body would have burst into flames by now. Ellen continues talking and Quinn is too busy staring at him to comprehend what the older woman is saying. "If he can't, then just dial 5 on the phone and I'll come over." With that Ellen turns and makes her way upstairs, leaving Jesse and Quinn alone.
Quinn's not really sure what to say – their last conversation had ended on less than good terms but Jesse just smiles up at her, patting the chair next to him. It makes her face heat up and she suddenly can't bring herself to accuse him of stealing her idea. Clearly she's not going to get a break from all the confusion any time soon.
"Fancy seeing you here Quinn," he says without looking at her, focusing instead on a pile of returned books in front of him.
"Yeah. Some coincidence," she says sarcastically. "Why?" She's asking more out of curiosity than anything else; she needs to know why he's so keen on spending so much time with her.
He just shrugs.
As the days go by, Quinn begins to realise that things aren't exactly okay between them. Sure Jesse is just as casual as ever but for how much he normally talks, he never says more than two sentences to her at a time now. It also becomes painfully obvious that he has no interest whatsoever in working at a library – he develops the inane ability to blame her for when things go wrong. When the alarms go off because he forgets to properly check out books for a class of junior school kids, Quinn finds herself dealing with crying children, an angry summer school teacher and an annoyed Ellen all at once. It feels like he's giving her the cold shoulder without even really trying. She hates it. Everything about him is so confusing for her – most of all why she's so concerned that he's annoyed with her, because really it shouldn't matter at all.
One day she just cannot take it anymore.
"Quinn, I know you are still new here but you need to rescan all of the books that are returned before they get shelved," says Ellen, almost glaring at Quinn over the top of her glasses. "Otherwise, the online catalogue and our records become redundant."
"I know that," replies Quinn, trying to keep an even tone and a passive face, "but that's Jesse's job."
Ellen turns to Jesse and he immediately looks at her wide eyed. "You'll have to forgive me, you see Quinn –"
"No," Quinn cuts in, "you are not pinning this one on me. I was all the way over in the pre-K section; I'm not supposed to be on desk duty."
"Yes but you forgot to wear your cardigan today," he says smoothly, "I took one look at those shoulders and well, I could barely remember what time of day it was, let alone how to deal with overdue books."
"I can't believe you got us demoted to shelving," grits out Quinn, slamming a worn out volume of 'War and Peace' back into its place.
"Technically you got demoted to shelving. I'm doing you a favour by volunteering to help."
She turns to give Jesse her well practised ice queen stare and sees that he's leaning against the shelf, eyes fixed on her face. "Did I do something to you?" she asks as she rolls up the sleeves of her now permanent cardigan, because his behaviour is annoying her to no end and she might as well deal with it now.
"No."
"Then why are you acting like this?"
"Like what?" He looks at her all innocent and she knows he's playing dumb on purpose.
"Oh my god, stop this!" She pretty much yells it and a lot of the readers stare up at them, clearly annoyed at having the quiet atmosphere being disturbed, by the staff no less. "I don't want these stupid games anymore Jesse, why are you here?" she asks, trying to keep her voice under control.
A small smirk graces his features. "You've been on my mind Quinn."
"Then save it for when you're home alone." She tries to cover up her little outburst by being mean; she's pretty sure it comes out more like flustered. "There's really no need for you to be here," she argues weakly. He looks even more amused now and this is ridiculous; she can't intimidate or outsmart Jesse like all the other boys she's been with and now she really has no idea what to do.
"Actually there is. You see I need the money and despite what my father says, I refuse to earn it writing names on coffee cups. Plus you set such a good example with your...self sufficiency, I couldn't help but follow," he says, giving her a one shouldered shrug before spinning on his heels and walking into the next aisle.
For how much of a tease Quinn has been since high school, she'd never even thought that she'd end up being the 'teasee.'
It's 2am at night when she finally figures out why he's being so cold.
So the next morning, before the crowd of people get in, she corners him between two of the non-fiction shelves. "I'm only going to say this once so you better listen." The words escape her mouth before she can stop them but maybe it's not so bad, because she actually wants to sort this out. Jesse quirks an eyebrow and she takes it as a cue to continue. "I know that after all the time we've spent together I should be okay with getting coffee in Lima but I'm not and I can't explain why. I'm not sure I know either. It doesn't mean I don't want to so...I'm sorry." She says it all without even taking a breath; she wants to believe that it's why the last two words come out particularly quiet.
Jesse takes a second and blinks before giving her a slight nod like he gets it. If anything, it makes her nerves worse thinking he understands something about her that even she doesn't. "So you want to make all of this a little more interesting?" he asks. She's confused and he must pick up on it because he elaborates. "I suggest we make shelving a contest. First person to put away all their books correctly wins."
She's not sure whether she should be annoyed that he's brushing over an apology that was really fucking hard for her to make or thankful he's not making a big deal out of it. But if he can find it in himself to overlook drama, well she can too. "Fine. If I win, you look for a job somewhere else." She says it with a faint smile and it seems to work because he laughs a little and rolls his eyes.
"Suit yourself Fabray. I'll decide what I get after I win. And I will win."
"I wouldn't be so cocky at your next job interview St. James, you come don't come off very well." The tightness in her chest that she's been feeling around him eases up for the first time in weeks and as she watches Jesse divide up the letters of the alphabet between the two of them, she's grateful. He hands her a list of letters and she quickly scans it. "Wait, how come you get Q,U,X,Y and Z and I get letters like A,S and T? Do you know how many books start with 'the'?"
"No, but after this I'm sure you'll be able to tell me."
She loses by an entire eight minutes.
Needless to say she's stuck with Jesse for the rest of the summer. Apart from his constant gloating and smug smirks, maybe it's not the worst thing in the world. Of course, there's the part of her that's dreading what he's going to ask for in return but whenever she brings it up, he says he's still deciding so she's not going to push.
In fact now that she's on his good side again, Jesse shows her many ways to get away with pretending to work. Quinn knows she shouldn't be slacking but sometimes (especially when the kids from church camp come in) it's fun to just sit on the floor with him between the rows of dusty psychology books, talking about both everything and nothing.
When she thinks he's not looking, she sneaks a glance at him from out of the corner of her eye. His hair is a lot shorter now and she has the sudden urge to tease him about it, if only to wipe the ever-present grin off of his face. "So did you take Santana's advice too?" she asks, eyeing the stray curl that hangs over his forehead.
"No," he scoffs, "but if I did, I'd tell you she doesn't make for a very good life coach." He picks up 'A History of Madness' and begins to look through it. One thing that's different about Jesse is that he's so difficult to read and the smallest of his gestures, whilst seemingly insignificant probably aren't. "Clearly you've been taking advice from all the wrong people," he says, idly flipping a page.
"I don't need anyone's advice." She tries to keep her tone casual and she's still trying to figure out whether she likes or hates the fact that he's so blunt with her.
"Well then maybe that's your problem." He puts the book back down and turns his whole body to fully focus on her. "Perhaps I can help."
She eyes him warily, noticing he's way too eager and she knows that look, she gets it all the time when she's plotting something."You want to help me? Okay. You can start with the dishes tonight," she replies with a sweet smile.
"I'd be happy to. It'd be the least I could do after your generous dinner invitation." Her smiles drops when he twists her words and he laughs a little, eyes falling shut as he does so. And wow, she's really not prepared for just how good he looks doing it; the fact that his face is so close to hers is not helping either. "Jokes aside Quinn, you need a new mentor – a good one."
She's pretty sure she knows where he's going with this and honestly she should just stop him from continuing right now. "Who you?" she asks sceptically.
"I assure you, I come with excellent references."
She laughs out loud, despite the library's quiet policy because, what?
Yes she is a lot more comfortable around him now and maybe they can work their way up to actually having coffee sometime but if Jesse thinks he can just waltz in and start tinkering with her life like he did with Rachel's, he is beyond mistaken. She tells him so and he promptly goes into a lengthy explanation of how he'd be a 'good influence' based on the fact that he ruled Carmel for four years and wasn't slushied even once at McKinley.
It hardly counts.
"Whatever grandma. I'm not here to have my questions answered by you, now show me where Quinn Fabray is or I'll file a complaint about a little asbestos problem this library may be having. My dad's a doctor you know."
Quinn recognises that voice almost instantly and soon enough a fuming Ellen is storming towards her, telling her that two cheerleaders of questionable morals are waiting to see her. Sure enough when Quinn reaches the front desk, Santana and of course, Brittany are right there. "Hey Q, guess you really do work here now," says Santana with a grin.
"Yeah so?" Quinn folds her arms and levels the Latina's piercing gaze.
"So nothing. Brittany wants to borrow a few books. Isn't that right Britt-Britt?"
The blonde nods eagerly. "Yeah Quinn, can you help me find 'Freakonomics'?"
Quinn raises an eyebrow. "Really? That's what you want to read?"
"Oh it's not for me. It's for my cat. He's thinking of broadening his horizons by keeping up with today's economic climate."
Quinn just nods stiffly and after a quick search on the online catalogue shows Brittany the aisle where the book is located. "I can't believe you're here to spy on me Santana," Quinn whispers as Brittany wanders off to check out the book.
"The fuck ever Q, we were on our way back from cheer camp and Brittany wanted a book so I brought her here. I don't see anything wrong with that."
"Oh sure, and you just happened to ask the librarian to see me."
"Well yeah, you're my friend," the Latina drawls, wrapping an arm around Quinn's waist, "and I figured you could get things done a little faster for us. Also Britt and I need to sign up for a library card and yeah, I'm sure you know there's a registration fee. It'd be nice if that went away."
Quinn rolls her eyes and removes the girl's arm, knowing that by entering Santana's name into the system and giving her a pass to walk into the library whenever, she's pretty much signing her own death warrant.
Just as the cards are printing, Jesse walks in dumping a few books in front of her. "I still haven't thought about what I want from you Fabray," he says with a smirk, before taking a seat behind the desk. Quinn's not sure why she freezes but the entire time she watches Santana; an almost murderous grin has spread across her friend's face and her eyes flick from Jesse to Quinn.
"Hi Jesse," says Brittany, giving him a small wave.
It's only then that he seems to realise who's actually standing in front of him and he smiles back at the bubbly blonde. "Brittany, nice to see you again. How've you been?"
"Awesome."
"And what about Lord Tubbington?" he asks with a pleasant smile. Jesse couldn't remember the names of most people, since when did he start paying attention to things about cats?
Jesse and Brittany go into an in depth conversation; Quinn's pretty sure she hears him throw in a few flirtatious double entendres but she can't focus on them because as they speak Santana's leaning in closer to her.
"So it's true, you are here with St. Hairspray," she whispers, eyes lighting up.
"We work together. That's all."
"Sure. Just like Puck used to work with his cougars."
"He only did that because he wasn't satisfied with what he was getting from his actual relationship – with you."
Santana smiles and tilts her head. "I guess you're right Q. I mean he did spend an entire semester fucking my brains out when he was dating you."
Quinn wants to say that she wasn't aware Santana had brains to fuck out but she's at work and they're going to be seniors and well, it's kind of crazy that they still go at each other like this. Instead, she rolls her eyes and somewhat hesitantly hands over the two new library cards. "I knew it, you are here to spy."
"I'm stuck in Lima for the summer and since Finept and his troll make me want to barf, this is the only entertainment I got. Sue me."
"Whatever. Just don't start telling people things."
"As if you don't enjoy having everyone talking about you."
They're interrupted by Brittany bursting out laughing and suddenly Santana's glaring at Jesse and leading the other cheerleader out of the library in a hurry. When Jesse just shrugs, Quinn sees that Brittany's left her book so she rushes to catch up with them. She grabs Santana's wrist and turns her around. "We're not together Santana," she says, keeping her gaze fixed on the Latina's face even as she hands over the book to Brittany.
"Not yet."
...
Author's Note: Sorry for all the time jumps, but I really wanted to get the story moving a little. As always, please do leave a review and let me know your thoughts and feelings about this :D