"The Mistaken M. Jones"

35. Convergence

March 2012 – Lima, Ohio

Quinn had managed to ditch Santana the day before, keeping her from having to have That Conversation with her, but it was only a small respite, she knew. She'd been so cornered by Mercedes that she hadn't been able to get them somewhere so she could be sure that they wouldn't be heard, and she hadn't been able to think through what she was actually telling her, so near to being in the open. And for that, Santana had overheard them. The victory on the girl's face had made Quinn wish she could get up and smack it right off of her.

She barely managed to roll through the doors the next morning before Santana slipped in behind her and took control of her wheelchair.

"If I were you, I would keep it cool," she spoke at her ear, and Quinn held her tongue, gripping at the chair as she was led into the empty choir room. She had a feeling Santana was relishing this position of power over her, not only in that she could get her wherever she wanted, but also that she could than stand and look down over her like a giantess. "Is there something you want to tell me… Quinnie?"

"Yeah, you should really get that thing under your chin checked out," Quinn pointed, and Santana's hand slapped up under her chin, feeling around. When Quinn smirked, she let go with a frown.

"Having fun?"

"Yes, it's just a carnival down here," she replied, dripping sarcasm as she tapped the chair she was confined to. "Just so we're clear, if you pull this kind of crap on me, I will start packing a stick in here…"

"Wanky," Santana tipped her head.

"… to push you away, since I can't reach your face," Quinn finished.

"Yes, well you don't have a leg to stand on… literally… You've been lying to us. What, did you think the sympathy vote was going to work?"

"Well it did, didn't it?"

"Santana…" They were interrupted when Brittany came into the room, Puck behind her. "We did something last night," she pointed back to Puck, which earned him dagger eyes from Santana.

"Woah, hey, not like that," he held up his hands in innocence.

"Puck wanted us to break into Gemma's place and…"

"Britt, shut up," Santana warned, knowing Quinn was right there and, being Gemma's helper, she'd no doubt report this to her.

"… we had her address, and we went there, but then there was this guy. I think he must have been a spy or a secret agent or something."

"He was not," Puck insisted, frowning.

"What's the matter, do you miss juvie?" Santana still glared at him, thinking of the trouble he might have gotten Brittany into.

"You can't tell me she's not hiding anything," Puck shook his head.

"What's going on?" The four turned to see Sugar standing at the door.

"Nothing," Santana and Puck both said, but they weren't convincing her. She turned her head back to look into the hall. "Artie!" she called. "Come here, come here!" she waved in semi-urgency.

"Don't get him into this," Puck moved toward the door to try and shut her out, but Sugar held her ground.

"Too late," she glared as fiercely as she could, a flare of Padra emerging. It was so clear a difference that it caught him by surprise, allowing for Artie to arrive and wheel into the room.

"Great, the narc's here. Going to rat us out, are you?" Puck glared at Artie, but the other boy was not so much concerned about him than he was about seeing all of them standing around that room, all of them looking like they were just moments away from a smackdown.

"What, him, too?" Santana piped in. "Is this like a required thing, have a chair, spy on your friends?"

"What is she talking about?" Sugar asked, confused. Puck was staring at Quinn though, and she could try to look like she had no idea what Santana was going on about all she wanted, but Puck could see through her better than most people.

"Quinn?" he asked.

"Well can you really blame her?" she finally sighed. "Look at yourselves. Breaking into apartment buildings…" she stared up at him.

"He did what?" Sugar blurted out, looking panicked.

"We didn't even get anywhere, the spy kicked us out," Brittany insisted.

"You, too?" Sugar looked at her.

"He wasn't a spy!" Puck and Santana told Brittany at the same time.

"Enough!" Artie's voice rose, but his effort fell flat. They were only getting louder, each voice burying the others'. It got loud enough that their voices carried into the hall, and finally they reached Will, who came through the door and made his way in the middle of the argument and achieved what Artie had not managed to do.

"What is going on here, what are you all fighting about?" he asked loudly. Every last voice extinguished at once, all of them standing still primed to shout but at the same time there was something going from one set of eyes to the other. It was one thing for them to argue this amongst themselves, but they were not bringing Schuester into this.

"Nothing," Puck finally spoke, and the others nodded.

"Right," Artie piped in, which only got him a look from Puck that seemed to say 'stay out of this, it's all your fault.'

"You expect me to believe that?" Will looked from one to the next, looking for the one who'd break. "Brittany? What happened?" The others looked at her. It took a few seconds, but she shrugged.

"We were doing anger management exercises. It's good to let things out," she nodded. The rest of them tried not to look so impressed with how she handled this, but then it did the trick, so that was what really mattered.

The argument, before it had broken, hadn't just brought Will into their midst. Out in the hall, Gemma Lucas had watched the last seconds of the shouting match before Will had broken it up. Before they could see her, she'd slipped away. This wasn't how it was supposed to go, was it? They were supposed to work together, not fight… She needed to talk to the Doctor.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)