fic: we make plans (they never work out right) 5/9
Title: We Make Plans (They Never Work Out Right)
Author: takeanotherturn
Rating: NC-17
Length: 4000+
Spoilers: Season 1
Warnings: genderswap, het sex
Summary: Based on this prompt from the glee kink meme. Boy!Rachel (Ryan) gets Quinn pregnant.
A/N: The next chapter might be a little longer in coming because it is big. I mean, we all remember what happened in Ballads, right? ;)
As soon as she could safely do it without arousing suspicion, Quinn had excused herself from the group -having a baby that liked to press against your bladder was so convenient sometimes, nobody questioned it when she said she had to go to the bathroom- and headed straight for Figgins' office, only to find Ryan sitting on the bench in front of the vacant secretaries desk.
“You shouldn't have done that, you know,” she said softly, hoping that she didn't sound ungrateful.
“He deserved it,” Ryan said unapologetically as she sat next to him.
“Maybe he did. But still, you could be expelled.” The thought of not being able to see Ryan every day scared Quinn more than she'd like to admit.
Ryan shook his head. “Schuester needs me for glee club and when I threatened to call in the ACLU over how he was going to let you get slushied, Figgins looked like he was going to wet himself. Also, I've got Sue Sylvester in my corner.”
Quinn looked to the office where she could see Mr. Schuester, Principal Figgins and for some reason Sue Sylvester all arguing with each other, through the glass wall. “What's coach doing in there?”
“She came in demanding that a shrine be built in my honor,” Ryan said, not looking at all opposed to the idea. “I guess she heard about what happened from Brittany and Santana. They were still fighting about it when they kicked me out here to wait for my dads.”
“Ryan, why did you do it?”
“Because I want to protect you, Quinn. I want to protect you so badly but I'm not popular enough and I'm not big enough,” he said like it physically hurt him to admit. “So I don't have the power to do that. But Schuester does, not only that but it's his job. So to hear him just laugh it off when he can actually do something to stop it from happening...It was infuriating and granted I may have acted a little dramatically but I don't regret it. Not if it means you'll be kept safe.”
-
The last thing Sue Sylvester expected when she exited Figgins' office was to see her former protégé/biggest disappointment, Quinn Fabray, looking at Ryan Berry like he'd hung the moon and the stars. She could certainly understand why though, Sue thought if she'd been there to witness the singing Hobbit slushie Will Schuester in person, she would've dropped to her knees and proposed marriage to him on the spot. She cursed Brittany and Santana for not getting video footage of the blessed moment and idly wondered how much it would cost to have spy cameras implanted into their retinas, she couldn't afford to miss an event like this again.
“Liberace, Preggo,” she greeted them sharply, snapping them out of their haze of despicable teenage lust. “Figgins will see you now, Elton,” she said as she passed by.
Ryan nodded, standing. He blinked in surprise when Quinn moved to follow him.
“I need to speak to Figgins about this,” she explained, barely concealing a grin when Ryan jumped forward to open the door for her. He was such a gentleman; if he wasn't a Jew, the son of two gay men and the father of her unborn bastard child, Quinn knew her father would love Ryan.
“Quinn,” Mr. Schuester said in surprise when she entered the office. “What are you doing here?”
“I just wanted to make sure that Ryan didn't get into trouble, it wouldn't be fair. He was only trying to stand up for me.”
Schuester and Figgins exchanged disbelieving looks. The Quinn Fabray they knew would never try to help a fellow student if there was nothing in it for her, especially not Ryan Berry.
“He was right,” Quinn continued. “It's not okay for me to be slushied, Mr. Schue. I could get sick or I could slip and fall...and I'm telling you right now, if anything happens to me or my baby because you failed to stop me being slushied even after I told you it'll happen, I will be suing this school for all it's worth,” she finished, with all the confidence and attitude of the head cheerleader they all used to fear.
Ryan grinned proudly at her while Figgins eyes widened. “There's no need for that, Ms. Fabray. I assure you that we will be taking the necessary steps to make sure you are protected, Coach Tanaka will speak to the football and hockey teams to let them know that you are not to be touched.”
“Thank you.”
“However, no matter how noble Mr. Berry's intentions, his actions cannot go unpunished. Ryan Berry, you are hereby suspended for a week, effective immediately.”
Quinn gasped, outraged. That was a week too long, as far as she was concerned, although judging by the way she heard Ryan whisper “Worth it” under his breath, apparently he didn't agree.
“I understand and accept your decision,” Ryan said stiffly.
“You know, I'm really disappointed in you, Ryan,” Mr. Schuester said with sad eyes that were no doubt intended to shame him.
He'd have to do better than that. Ryan smirked at their teacher and Quinn had to duck her head to hide her smile. “Believe me, Mr. Schuester, the feeling is mutual.”
-
Quinn had to admit it, the Cheerios were absolutely amazing. Being on the team, she'd never had the opportunity to just sit back and observe their routines, when she did get a chance to watch she'd been consumed with her captainly duty of picking out every single flaw in their performance -a misstep here, a wobbling knee there-, she'd never been able to just appreciate the sheer spectacle before.
And great, here came Finn to ruin her quiet contemplation.
“You shouldn't do this to yourself,” he said, sitting next to her in the bleachers.
“Do what?”
“I know how much it hurts to be off the team, you're just torturing yourself watching.”
“I need a good distraction.” That much was true; it was Ryan's first day back from suspension and she was barely keeping herself from hunting him down in the hallways as it was, she didn't want to come of as desperate because she wasn't. She just hadn't seen him for a whole week, which meant she hadn't had sex for a whole week, which meant she was about ready to explode from the sexual frustration, that was all.
“From what?”
Then there was the other more serious issue that Quinn was trying to distract herself from. She reached into her bag and pulled out the one of the bills that was weighing heavily on her mind.
“Six hundred and eighty five dollars?” Finn wheezed like he'd just been punched in the stomach.
“That's how much a sonogram costs.” Quinn pursed her lips and turned to her boyfriend. “This is just the beginning, there's going to be more doctors visits, vitamins, new clothes for when I explode.” That was probably the part she was least looking forward to. She was going to get so fat even Ryan probably wouldn't want her anymore.
Finn looked like he was struggling to comprehend it all. Did he not understand that babies cost money? “What are we gonna do?”
“What are you gonna do,” Quinn shot back. She knew it was unfair to make Finn shoulder all the financial responsibility but she couldn't get a job herself, not without arousing her parents suspicions.
“I-I'm looking for a job,” Finn stammered. “I mean, no one's hiring. I almost got in at Olive Garden but they said I was too tall to be a bus boy.”
“Somewhere in that pea brain of yours' is a man, access him and tell him to prove to me that I chose the right guy to have a baby with,” she said almost desperately, because Quinn was sincerely starting to have her doubts.
“I will. I'll find a job, you can count on me, I swear.”
Quinn stood up, she didn't think she could stand to be in Finn's presence any longer without blurting out the truth.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“You were right, this does hurt too much.”
He still thought she was talking about the Cheerios and Quinn didn't bother sticking around to correct him.
-
“I don't know if it was the unexpected badassness of him slushie-ing Schue but Berry's starting to look kind of hot to me.”
Quinn's head whipped around to face Santana who was talking to Brittany while they waited in the choir room for Mr Schuester to grace them with his presence.
Brittany nodded in agreement with her best friend. “He is looking super fine lately.”
Frowning, Quinn turned to study Ryan who was standing by the piano, completely focused on his sheet music. He didn't look any different to her. He wasn't even dressing any differently -she'd seen him wearing that charcoal gray long sleeved v-neck shirt -that clung deliciously to his chest and arms- before, she was sure of it-. So what was making Santana take notice of him now and, more importantly, what if other girls started noticing it too.
“If he wasn't a capital G gay and I was into social suicide, I would be on that like white on rice,” Santana declared.
But Quinn didn't hear her, she was entranced by Ryan smoothing back the locks of dark hair that had fallen into his face, just that simple action had her quivering with desire. Squirming in her seat, Quinn cleared her throat and decided to vent some of her frustrations the only other way she knew how, by taking them out on Finn. “Have you found a job yet?”
Finn looked stricken. He didn't know how Quinn expected him to find a job in the two hours between their conversation that morning and now but apparently he'd failed her again. “No.”
“What about Target?” she suggested.
“Tried, not hiring.”
“Another doctor bill came to my parents house last night, Finn,” Quinn said, trying to impress the seriousness of the situation onto her boyfriend. He should started looking for a job the moment she'd told him she was pregnant. “We're lucky that I'm clever and I intercepted it but we have to start paying these doctor's bills or they're going to a collection agency and then my parents are going to find out that I'm with child. Your child.”
Finn was saved by their teacher finally striding into the room, only fifteen minutes late. “Okay guys, before we begin, I believe Ryan has something he wants to say.”
Ryan rolled his eyes and joined Mr. Schuester to address them all. “Yes, I need to apologize for my outburst last week. It was inappropriate, unacceptable and, according to some people, uncalled for. Mr. Schuester, I am sorry for throwing an iced beverage in your face, it won't happen again.”
“Thank you, Ryan,” Mr. Schuester smiled, obviously not picking up on the fact that Ryan was lying through his teeth. “You can sit down now.”
Ryan pouted -he had prepared a special performance of 'I Am Sorry' by Brenda Lee but if Schuester wanted to be deprived of it then so be it- and took a seat next to Kurt..
“Now onto our second order of business,” Schue continued. “The school won't pay for the special bus we need to take Artie and his wheelchair to Sectionals.”
“W-w-what?” Tina stuttered.
“That's completely unfair,” Ryan interjected, even though they didn't have much in common -other than shared fondness for sweater vests- he liked Artie.
“So we have to raise money to pay for it ourselves,” Schue said, rubbing his hands together. He had a feeling his kids were going to love this idea. “See when I was in glee club-”
Oh great, here we go with the 'when I was in glee club' stories. Maybe Ryan had a point about him trying to relive his youth through us Quinn thought as she rolled her eyes.
“- and we needed new silk cummerbunds for Regionals, we held a bake sale.”
Schuester's idea was met with silence and then disbelieving laughter.
“You're joking, right?” Santana was the first to speak up. “I mean, bake sales are kind of bougie.”
“So hip people stopped eating delicious sugary treats?” Schuester asked defensively.
“It's not that,” said Brittany. “It's just that most us don't know how to bake. I find...recipes confusing.”
“My family's fully committed to take out,” Ryan added.
“Yeah, Mr. Schue,” Finn's voice joined the chorus. “Kids are busier than when you went here, we've got homework and football, teen pregnancy, lunch.”
“Can't Artie's dad just take him?” Mercedes asked, offering up what she thought was the most obvious solution.
“I can't believe how insensitive you're all being,” Schue began in his best 'I'm so disappointed in all of you, I'm a nice guy and I don't want to make you feel bad but you should be very ashamed of yourselves' voice. “Aren't you a team?”
Well, Quinn wasn't going to let him get away trying to make them feel ashamed of being insensitive, not after last week. “Of course, but Artie understands, don't you Artie?”
“Of course,” Artie agreed, he didn't want to be a bother to the rest of the team. “It's cool, anything that takes our time away from rehearsal doesn't serve the team.”
Thankfully the bell rang then, sparing them from anymore of Schuester's lectures. As they walked out, Quinn broke away from Finn to sidle up to Ryan. “Lunch time, the auditorium?”
“I'll be there.”
-
Quinn Fabray was officially pissed off. Not only did she have her pregnancy -and everything that came along with it- to deal with but now, thanks to Mr. Schue and his 'brilliant' ideas she had to spend three hours a day in a wheelchair, because getting around the school with her baby bump wasn't difficult enough already. And to top it all off, she hadn't had sex in eight days! EIGHT!
She couldn't being to describe how angry she'd been when she'd gotten to the auditorium the previous day, only to find it occupied by the drama club. She didn't even know the school had a drama club! And now it was lunch time again and instead of riding Ryan in the backseat of her car, she was stuck making cupcakes for Schuester's fricking bake sale.
“Hey.” As if summoned by her thoughts, Ryan appeared in the doorway to the Home Ec. room. “Need some help?”
Quinn looked at him from under her long lashes. “I thought you said you couldn't bake.”
“No, I didn't. I said my family usually gets take out.” He smirked, leaning on the opposite side of the counter. “Besides, it's just mixing stuff together and sticking it in an oven, how hard can it be?”
He was actually a marvellous baker, his cookies were famous, but Quinn didn't need to know that.
Quinn just arched her eyebrow at him, amused and unimpressed.
“Look, it's unfair of us to expect you to make all these cupcakes by yourself, so I'll be your assistant,” he said, moving around the counter to stand next to Quinn. “This way you get to order me around, I know how much you like that.”
“Oh really?” Quinn chuckled, looking down at the measuring cups and hoping that he didn't notice her blush. “Okay, fine, you can start by measuring out three cups of flour.”
Ryan nodded, accepting the offered measuring cup from her. He looking at the various bags set out in front of them. “Right, so which one's the flour?”
-
It was the longest amount of time they'd ever spent together where they weren't having sex and Quinn, to her surprise, was enjoying herself immensely. Ryan had dropped the dumb act -thank God, because he was starting to remind her of Finn- and proved himself to be a competent baker, although he let Quinn remain in control and only occasionally offered helpful hints. She was having fun -not dirty, sexy fun but pure, joyful fun- for the first time in a long time.
“So how much do you think we'll make?” Ryan asked, removing the last tray of cupcakes from the oven and placing it on the cooling rack.
“Not enough for Artie's bus, that's for sure. I know for a fact that none of the Cheerio's are going to buy any, they're all on Sue's master cleanse this week.” If there was one thing Quinn didn't miss about being on the squad it was the insane pressure to keep her weight down. Now she could eat whatever she wanted without fear of retribution. And great, now thinking about food had made her hungry.
Without thinking, she ran her finger through the last remnants of cupcake batter that still clung to the mixing bowl and brought it to her mouth only for Ryan to grab her wrist before it could touch her lips.
“It's got raw eggs in it, it's bad for the baby,” he reminded her, still not letting go of her wrist.
“Right,” Quinn sighed. She knew that, she did, and she'd still been about to do it anyway. God, it was a good thing she was giving the baby away, she was obviously going to be a terrible mother. “I wasn't thinking.” She frowned, now she had cupcake batter all over her finger and she couldn't suck it off herself....She couldn't suck it off. She held her finger up to Ryan's lips. “Here.”
“Um.” Ryan blinked in surprise. “Okay.” He opened his mouth and gently closed his lips around Quinn's finger.
As soon as his lips touched Quinn's skin, it was like a switch inside her was flipped from 'Yay! I'm having fun with a boy I like!' to 'Holy God, I need him inside me right now!'. Her cheeks flushed, her pupils blew, her breath started coming in short pants and it was like someone had turned on a fire hose in her panties she was so wet. And judging by the way Ryan was looking at her, she wasn't the only one feeling the effects.
Ryan's tongue swirled around her finger and Quinn's other hand came up to tug desperately at his collar as she whimpered.
“Yo,” Puck said loudly as he walked through the door causing the two to throw themselves away from one another. “Are the cupcakes ready yet? Schue says that the natives are getting restless, whatever that means.”
Quinn, now standing at least five feet away from Ryan, cleared her throat before she spoke. “The ones on this end of the counter are ready to go. The next batch should be out in about ten minutes.”
“Cool.” Puck nodded and stuffed one of the iced cupcakes in his mouth before grabbing the two full trays and walking out again.
Well, this was awkward. Quinn let out a huge breath and clumsily gestured to the still un-iced cupcakes on the cooling rack. “We should...”
“Yeah,” Ryan quickly agreed, grabbing the bowl of bright red icing. “So do you think we put enough food coloring in this?”
-
They'd been sitting there for thirty minutes now and they hadn't sold a single goddamn cupcake. It was a complete waste of Quinn's time. Time she could have been spending exercising out over a week's worth of sexual tension with Ryan.
“These cupcakes suck, that's why we're not selling any,” Finn said, throwing one of the baked treats back down on the table.
How dare he. She and Ryan had worked hard on those and Quinn knew for a fact -she may have had half a dozen herself- that they tasted delicious. “It's not about the cupcakes, it's about us,” she snapped at him. “Nobody wants to buy from losers. We're in glee club and in wheelchairs.” Seriously, screw Schuester for doing this to her.
“She has a point,” lamented Puck. “Six months ago we could have sold fifty of these things on fear alone.”
And then along came Brittany with a special ed kid on her arm. This day just kept getting better and better. “Oh my god!” Quinn exclaimed. “What is she doing?”
“I actually think they're kind of friends,” Finn informed them.
Puck could confirm that. “Brittany's always cheating off her test papers in math class.”
“See, so many, and look how pretty they are, Becky,” Brittany said to her new friend.
“Wow.”
“Brittany, you're supposed to be in your wheelchair,” Santana said, being the only one to notice that Brittany was walking when she was supposed to be rolling like the rest of them.
“I lost it.”
Nobody thought to question it because it was Brittany, she would lose a wheelchair.
Quinn sat back and watched Brittany give a dollar to Becky so she could buy a cupcake. Great, now they had one whole dollar. Soon they'd be able to afford to buy a plane to fly Artie to Sectionals!
“So how much do we have now?” Brittany asked, looking proud of herself for drumming up some business.
“Well,” Finn said, putting the bill into their cash box. “With this one dollar...we have one dollar.”
Whose dumbass idea was it to sell them for a dollar each anyway. They were never going to sell six hundred cupcakes. “This is ridiculous,” said Quinn.
“Well, maybe if we put a jellybean or something on top, we'd sell more,” Finn suggested.
“Are you an idiot?” Quinn didn't even know why she bothered asking, she already knew the answer. “How am I supposed to trust you to take care of our baby when you can't even figure out how to sell a damn cupcake?”
It was just becoming clearer and clearer to Quinn that she had made a huge mistake choosing him to be the baby's father instead of Ryan. What Ryan lacked in status, he more than made up for in every other area.
“Stop attacking me, I'm sick of it.”
“Get a job.”
“I'm trying!” Finn stood up and kicked his wheelchair. It was like watching a wildly overgrown toddler in the midst of a temper tantrum. Yep, she'd definitely made a huge mistake.
-
The next day before school even started, Quinn found Ryan in the choir room, sitting at the piano and practicing his scales.
Without saying a word, she joined him on the bench and wrapped her arms around his waist, laying her head against his shoulder. “Sing me something,” she ordered softly. She needed to see him in action, she needed to be reminded of his talent, she needed to be reminded of the reason she was doing all of this. Because now that being with Finn only caused her stress and aggravation and no longer offered her any protection, his quarterback status hadn't even cushioned her fall, she was so close to giving up and letting the truth come out.
“Any requests?” Ryan asked, setting his fingers on the black and white keys.
“Surprise me.”
Ryan nodded and started playing, Quinn recognized the opening notes immediately.
“I've been alone with you inside my mind and in my dreams I've kissed you lips a thousand times,” he crooned, holding Quinn's gaze. “I sometimes see you pass outside my door. Hello, is it me you're looking for?”
As he sang, Quinn was reminded that he had a future. A future outside of Lima, a future without a baby, a future without her. Her plan had worked perfectly.
But as with all her plans it seemed, this one had an unexpected consequence; because as he sang, she could see it in his eyes -his beautiful expressive eyes- that he truly meant every word that he was singing to her. He'd picked this song for a specific reason, he chose it because it said everything he wanted to say to her but she wouldn't let him.
“Hello! Is it me you're looking for? Cause I wonder where you are and I wonder what you do. Are you somewhere feeling lonely or is someone loving you?” he belted the final chorus. “Tell me how to win your heart, for I haven't got a clue. But let me start by saying...I love you.”
Of course, he would declare his love for her through song. It was such a perfectly Ryan Berry thing to do it that made Quinn want to cry. She was powerless to stop the tears from welling in her eyes.
“I have something for you,” he said, as soon as he'd finished playing the final note, not giving her a chance to react. He reached into his jacket and withdrew an envelope, handing it to her.
Quinn took it hesitantly, afraid of what she knew was inside and what it meant.
“It's for the baby, I overheard you yelling at Finn about the doctor's bills the other day.”
Quinn opened the envelope and was shocked to find it was full of fifties. “There must be over a thousand dollars here,” she gasped.
“Fifteen hundred and I can get more, whatever you need.”
Quinn looked at him curiously. “How?”
“I have a job. I've been working since I was thirteen, singing at private functions; weddings, birthdays, corporate events, stuff like that. It pays quite well. I'm supposed to be saving the money for after I graduate, New York is an incredibly expensive place to live, but this is more important. I want you to have it.”
Closing her eyes, Quinn felt the guilt wash over her. This is exactly what she didn't want to happen. “I can't accept this.”
“Yes, you can,” Ryan insisted with unexpected forcefulness. “I'm not going to have my child go without it's necessary prenatal care just because Finn Hudson is an incompetent buffoon.”
“It's a girl,” Quinn said quietly, realizing he didn't even know the sex of his own child. God, why did he have to be so sweet and perfect, it made it so much harder not to fall in love with him. No, it made it so much harder to pretend to not be in love with him. It made her want to keep the baby she knew she had to give away.
“A girl?” he whispered in awe, smiling brilliantly. He reached out and gently cupped her baby bump. “We're having a daughter.”
“Don't,” she whimpered, shying away from him.
“Quinn,” Ryan sighed. He wrapped his arms around Quinn, who was now sobbing heavily, and pulled her against his chest. “I'd be a good father,” he swore. “I'd take care of you and her.”
“I know. I know that you would,” Quinn said, burrowing in further against him. She was so close that she was almost in his lap. It was true, she didn't have a doubt that Ryan would be an amazing father; he'd be devoted and loving and focused on their child because, she knew, when Ryan Berry committed to something he always gave it 100%.
“So why won't you let me?”
Quinn didn't reply, she just cried harder. That was how Finn found them when he came wheeling into the room. “What the hell's going on?”
Panicking, Quinn looked up at Ryan pleadingly as she tucked the envelope he'd given her into the pocket of her cardigan.
Ryan immediately withdrew his arms from around her. “Your girlfriend's having a hormonal moment, Hudson,” he sneered, standing up from the piano bench and getting into his wheelchair. “You might want to deal with that.”
And with that Ryan was off, his departure slightly less dignified than he'd hoped, thanks to his stupid faulty wheelchair that refused to navigate through doorways without catching the frame at least once. It seemed that Schuester never missed an opportunity to sabotage him.
Hugging Quinn, Finn glared at him until he was out of sight. There certainly was no love lost between the duelling male leads. “Why are you crying? Was he mean to you?”
“No,” Quinn denied, pulling away from her boyfriend and wiping the tears from her face. “He was really nice, actually.”
“Nice? Berry?” Finn repeated in confusion. Ryan Berry was an arrogant ass, he was never nice. “If he was nice then why were you crying? You shouldn't lie to protect him.”
“I'm not! He was nice to me and I started crying, you know that it doesn't take much to set me off lately since my hormones are so out of whack.”
Finn nodded, it was true; Quinn's mood swings were powerful, unpredictable things. One minute they'd be kissing, then the next she'd be smacking him and yelling at him to get his hands off her. It was terrifying. “So I got job,” he announced, finally remembering what he'd come to tell his girlfriend.
“You did?”
“Yeah, at the Ford dealership. Artie gave me the idea, I'll have to stay in the chair the whole time I'm there and the pay isn't that great-”
“It's okay,” Quinn cut him off, forcing a smile. Finn was trying, in his own sweetly stupid way and for that she was grateful; it made it easier to resist all that Ryan had to offer her. “Thank you.”
Finn grinned at her and patted his lap. “Can I give you a ride to homeroom?”
Quinn took a deep breath and closed her eyes, gathering up everything she felt for Ryan -all the longing and lust and love- and burying deep down inside. It wasn't going to happen, it couldn't happen. She'd made her bed and now she was going to lie in it. She opened her eyes and smiled down at Finn. “Sure.”
Author: takeanotherturn
Rating: NC-17
Length: 4000+
Spoilers: Season 1
Warnings: genderswap, het sex
Summary: Based on this prompt from the glee kink meme. Boy!Rachel (Ryan) gets Quinn pregnant.
A/N: The next chapter might be a little longer in coming because it is big. I mean, we all remember what happened in Ballads, right? ;)
As soon as she could safely do it without arousing suspicion, Quinn had excused herself from the group -having a baby that liked to press against your bladder was so convenient sometimes, nobody questioned it when she said she had to go to the bathroom- and headed straight for Figgins' office, only to find Ryan sitting on the bench in front of the vacant secretaries desk.
“You shouldn't have done that, you know,” she said softly, hoping that she didn't sound ungrateful.
“He deserved it,” Ryan said unapologetically as she sat next to him.
“Maybe he did. But still, you could be expelled.” The thought of not being able to see Ryan every day scared Quinn more than she'd like to admit.
Ryan shook his head. “Schuester needs me for glee club and when I threatened to call in the ACLU over how he was going to let you get slushied, Figgins looked like he was going to wet himself. Also, I've got Sue Sylvester in my corner.”
Quinn looked to the office where she could see Mr. Schuester, Principal Figgins and for some reason Sue Sylvester all arguing with each other, through the glass wall. “What's coach doing in there?”
“She came in demanding that a shrine be built in my honor,” Ryan said, not looking at all opposed to the idea. “I guess she heard about what happened from Brittany and Santana. They were still fighting about it when they kicked me out here to wait for my dads.”
“Ryan, why did you do it?”
“Because I want to protect you, Quinn. I want to protect you so badly but I'm not popular enough and I'm not big enough,” he said like it physically hurt him to admit. “So I don't have the power to do that. But Schuester does, not only that but it's his job. So to hear him just laugh it off when he can actually do something to stop it from happening...It was infuriating and granted I may have acted a little dramatically but I don't regret it. Not if it means you'll be kept safe.”
-
The last thing Sue Sylvester expected when she exited Figgins' office was to see her former protégé/biggest disappointment, Quinn Fabray, looking at Ryan Berry like he'd hung the moon and the stars. She could certainly understand why though, Sue thought if she'd been there to witness the singing Hobbit slushie Will Schuester in person, she would've dropped to her knees and proposed marriage to him on the spot. She cursed Brittany and Santana for not getting video footage of the blessed moment and idly wondered how much it would cost to have spy cameras implanted into their retinas, she couldn't afford to miss an event like this again.
“Liberace, Preggo,” she greeted them sharply, snapping them out of their haze of despicable teenage lust. “Figgins will see you now, Elton,” she said as she passed by.
Ryan nodded, standing. He blinked in surprise when Quinn moved to follow him.
“I need to speak to Figgins about this,” she explained, barely concealing a grin when Ryan jumped forward to open the door for her. He was such a gentleman; if he wasn't a Jew, the son of two gay men and the father of her unborn bastard child, Quinn knew her father would love Ryan.
“Quinn,” Mr. Schuester said in surprise when she entered the office. “What are you doing here?”
“I just wanted to make sure that Ryan didn't get into trouble, it wouldn't be fair. He was only trying to stand up for me.”
Schuester and Figgins exchanged disbelieving looks. The Quinn Fabray they knew would never try to help a fellow student if there was nothing in it for her, especially not Ryan Berry.
“He was right,” Quinn continued. “It's not okay for me to be slushied, Mr. Schue. I could get sick or I could slip and fall...and I'm telling you right now, if anything happens to me or my baby because you failed to stop me being slushied even after I told you it'll happen, I will be suing this school for all it's worth,” she finished, with all the confidence and attitude of the head cheerleader they all used to fear.
Ryan grinned proudly at her while Figgins eyes widened. “There's no need for that, Ms. Fabray. I assure you that we will be taking the necessary steps to make sure you are protected, Coach Tanaka will speak to the football and hockey teams to let them know that you are not to be touched.”
“Thank you.”
“However, no matter how noble Mr. Berry's intentions, his actions cannot go unpunished. Ryan Berry, you are hereby suspended for a week, effective immediately.”
Quinn gasped, outraged. That was a week too long, as far as she was concerned, although judging by the way she heard Ryan whisper “Worth it” under his breath, apparently he didn't agree.
“I understand and accept your decision,” Ryan said stiffly.
“You know, I'm really disappointed in you, Ryan,” Mr. Schuester said with sad eyes that were no doubt intended to shame him.
He'd have to do better than that. Ryan smirked at their teacher and Quinn had to duck her head to hide her smile. “Believe me, Mr. Schuester, the feeling is mutual.”
-
Quinn had to admit it, the Cheerios were absolutely amazing. Being on the team, she'd never had the opportunity to just sit back and observe their routines, when she did get a chance to watch she'd been consumed with her captainly duty of picking out every single flaw in their performance -a misstep here, a wobbling knee there-, she'd never been able to just appreciate the sheer spectacle before.
And great, here came Finn to ruin her quiet contemplation.
“You shouldn't do this to yourself,” he said, sitting next to her in the bleachers.
“Do what?”
“I know how much it hurts to be off the team, you're just torturing yourself watching.”
“I need a good distraction.” That much was true; it was Ryan's first day back from suspension and she was barely keeping herself from hunting him down in the hallways as it was, she didn't want to come of as desperate because she wasn't. She just hadn't seen him for a whole week, which meant she hadn't had sex for a whole week, which meant she was about ready to explode from the sexual frustration, that was all.
“From what?”
Then there was the other more serious issue that Quinn was trying to distract herself from. She reached into her bag and pulled out the one of the bills that was weighing heavily on her mind.
“Six hundred and eighty five dollars?” Finn wheezed like he'd just been punched in the stomach.
“That's how much a sonogram costs.” Quinn pursed her lips and turned to her boyfriend. “This is just the beginning, there's going to be more doctors visits, vitamins, new clothes for when I explode.” That was probably the part she was least looking forward to. She was going to get so fat even Ryan probably wouldn't want her anymore.
Finn looked like he was struggling to comprehend it all. Did he not understand that babies cost money? “What are we gonna do?”
“What are you gonna do,” Quinn shot back. She knew it was unfair to make Finn shoulder all the financial responsibility but she couldn't get a job herself, not without arousing her parents suspicions.
“I-I'm looking for a job,” Finn stammered. “I mean, no one's hiring. I almost got in at Olive Garden but they said I was too tall to be a bus boy.”
“Somewhere in that pea brain of yours' is a man, access him and tell him to prove to me that I chose the right guy to have a baby with,” she said almost desperately, because Quinn was sincerely starting to have her doubts.
“I will. I'll find a job, you can count on me, I swear.”
Quinn stood up, she didn't think she could stand to be in Finn's presence any longer without blurting out the truth.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“You were right, this does hurt too much.”
He still thought she was talking about the Cheerios and Quinn didn't bother sticking around to correct him.
-
“I don't know if it was the unexpected badassness of him slushie-ing Schue but Berry's starting to look kind of hot to me.”
Quinn's head whipped around to face Santana who was talking to Brittany while they waited in the choir room for Mr Schuester to grace them with his presence.
Brittany nodded in agreement with her best friend. “He is looking super fine lately.”
Frowning, Quinn turned to study Ryan who was standing by the piano, completely focused on his sheet music. He didn't look any different to her. He wasn't even dressing any differently -she'd seen him wearing that charcoal gray long sleeved v-neck shirt -that clung deliciously to his chest and arms- before, she was sure of it-. So what was making Santana take notice of him now and, more importantly, what if other girls started noticing it too.
“If he wasn't a capital G gay and I was into social suicide, I would be on that like white on rice,” Santana declared.
But Quinn didn't hear her, she was entranced by Ryan smoothing back the locks of dark hair that had fallen into his face, just that simple action had her quivering with desire. Squirming in her seat, Quinn cleared her throat and decided to vent some of her frustrations the only other way she knew how, by taking them out on Finn. “Have you found a job yet?”
Finn looked stricken. He didn't know how Quinn expected him to find a job in the two hours between their conversation that morning and now but apparently he'd failed her again. “No.”
“What about Target?” she suggested.
“Tried, not hiring.”
“Another doctor bill came to my parents house last night, Finn,” Quinn said, trying to impress the seriousness of the situation onto her boyfriend. He should started looking for a job the moment she'd told him she was pregnant. “We're lucky that I'm clever and I intercepted it but we have to start paying these doctor's bills or they're going to a collection agency and then my parents are going to find out that I'm with child. Your child.”
Finn was saved by their teacher finally striding into the room, only fifteen minutes late. “Okay guys, before we begin, I believe Ryan has something he wants to say.”
Ryan rolled his eyes and joined Mr. Schuester to address them all. “Yes, I need to apologize for my outburst last week. It was inappropriate, unacceptable and, according to some people, uncalled for. Mr. Schuester, I am sorry for throwing an iced beverage in your face, it won't happen again.”
“Thank you, Ryan,” Mr. Schuester smiled, obviously not picking up on the fact that Ryan was lying through his teeth. “You can sit down now.”
Ryan pouted -he had prepared a special performance of 'I Am Sorry' by Brenda Lee but if Schuester wanted to be deprived of it then so be it- and took a seat next to Kurt..
“Now onto our second order of business,” Schue continued. “The school won't pay for the special bus we need to take Artie and his wheelchair to Sectionals.”
“W-w-what?” Tina stuttered.
“That's completely unfair,” Ryan interjected, even though they didn't have much in common -other than shared fondness for sweater vests- he liked Artie.
“So we have to raise money to pay for it ourselves,” Schue said, rubbing his hands together. He had a feeling his kids were going to love this idea. “See when I was in glee club-”
Oh great, here we go with the 'when I was in glee club' stories. Maybe Ryan had a point about him trying to relive his youth through us Quinn thought as she rolled her eyes.
“- and we needed new silk cummerbunds for Regionals, we held a bake sale.”
Schuester's idea was met with silence and then disbelieving laughter.
“You're joking, right?” Santana was the first to speak up. “I mean, bake sales are kind of bougie.”
“So hip people stopped eating delicious sugary treats?” Schuester asked defensively.
“It's not that,” said Brittany. “It's just that most us don't know how to bake. I find...recipes confusing.”
“My family's fully committed to take out,” Ryan added.
“Yeah, Mr. Schue,” Finn's voice joined the chorus. “Kids are busier than when you went here, we've got homework and football, teen pregnancy, lunch.”
“Can't Artie's dad just take him?” Mercedes asked, offering up what she thought was the most obvious solution.
“I can't believe how insensitive you're all being,” Schue began in his best 'I'm so disappointed in all of you, I'm a nice guy and I don't want to make you feel bad but you should be very ashamed of yourselves' voice. “Aren't you a team?”
Well, Quinn wasn't going to let him get away trying to make them feel ashamed of being insensitive, not after last week. “Of course, but Artie understands, don't you Artie?”
“Of course,” Artie agreed, he didn't want to be a bother to the rest of the team. “It's cool, anything that takes our time away from rehearsal doesn't serve the team.”
Thankfully the bell rang then, sparing them from anymore of Schuester's lectures. As they walked out, Quinn broke away from Finn to sidle up to Ryan. “Lunch time, the auditorium?”
“I'll be there.”
-
Quinn Fabray was officially pissed off. Not only did she have her pregnancy -and everything that came along with it- to deal with but now, thanks to Mr. Schue and his 'brilliant' ideas she had to spend three hours a day in a wheelchair, because getting around the school with her baby bump wasn't difficult enough already. And to top it all off, she hadn't had sex in eight days! EIGHT!
She couldn't being to describe how angry she'd been when she'd gotten to the auditorium the previous day, only to find it occupied by the drama club. She didn't even know the school had a drama club! And now it was lunch time again and instead of riding Ryan in the backseat of her car, she was stuck making cupcakes for Schuester's fricking bake sale.
“Hey.” As if summoned by her thoughts, Ryan appeared in the doorway to the Home Ec. room. “Need some help?”
Quinn looked at him from under her long lashes. “I thought you said you couldn't bake.”
“No, I didn't. I said my family usually gets take out.” He smirked, leaning on the opposite side of the counter. “Besides, it's just mixing stuff together and sticking it in an oven, how hard can it be?”
He was actually a marvellous baker, his cookies were famous, but Quinn didn't need to know that.
Quinn just arched her eyebrow at him, amused and unimpressed.
“Look, it's unfair of us to expect you to make all these cupcakes by yourself, so I'll be your assistant,” he said, moving around the counter to stand next to Quinn. “This way you get to order me around, I know how much you like that.”
“Oh really?” Quinn chuckled, looking down at the measuring cups and hoping that he didn't notice her blush. “Okay, fine, you can start by measuring out three cups of flour.”
Ryan nodded, accepting the offered measuring cup from her. He looking at the various bags set out in front of them. “Right, so which one's the flour?”
-
It was the longest amount of time they'd ever spent together where they weren't having sex and Quinn, to her surprise, was enjoying herself immensely. Ryan had dropped the dumb act -thank God, because he was starting to remind her of Finn- and proved himself to be a competent baker, although he let Quinn remain in control and only occasionally offered helpful hints. She was having fun -not dirty, sexy fun but pure, joyful fun- for the first time in a long time.
“So how much do you think we'll make?” Ryan asked, removing the last tray of cupcakes from the oven and placing it on the cooling rack.
“Not enough for Artie's bus, that's for sure. I know for a fact that none of the Cheerio's are going to buy any, they're all on Sue's master cleanse this week.” If there was one thing Quinn didn't miss about being on the squad it was the insane pressure to keep her weight down. Now she could eat whatever she wanted without fear of retribution. And great, now thinking about food had made her hungry.
Without thinking, she ran her finger through the last remnants of cupcake batter that still clung to the mixing bowl and brought it to her mouth only for Ryan to grab her wrist before it could touch her lips.
“It's got raw eggs in it, it's bad for the baby,” he reminded her, still not letting go of her wrist.
“Right,” Quinn sighed. She knew that, she did, and she'd still been about to do it anyway. God, it was a good thing she was giving the baby away, she was obviously going to be a terrible mother. “I wasn't thinking.” She frowned, now she had cupcake batter all over her finger and she couldn't suck it off herself....She couldn't suck it off. She held her finger up to Ryan's lips. “Here.”
“Um.” Ryan blinked in surprise. “Okay.” He opened his mouth and gently closed his lips around Quinn's finger.
As soon as his lips touched Quinn's skin, it was like a switch inside her was flipped from 'Yay! I'm having fun with a boy I like!' to 'Holy God, I need him inside me right now!'. Her cheeks flushed, her pupils blew, her breath started coming in short pants and it was like someone had turned on a fire hose in her panties she was so wet. And judging by the way Ryan was looking at her, she wasn't the only one feeling the effects.
Ryan's tongue swirled around her finger and Quinn's other hand came up to tug desperately at his collar as she whimpered.
“Yo,” Puck said loudly as he walked through the door causing the two to throw themselves away from one another. “Are the cupcakes ready yet? Schue says that the natives are getting restless, whatever that means.”
Quinn, now standing at least five feet away from Ryan, cleared her throat before she spoke. “The ones on this end of the counter are ready to go. The next batch should be out in about ten minutes.”
“Cool.” Puck nodded and stuffed one of the iced cupcakes in his mouth before grabbing the two full trays and walking out again.
Well, this was awkward. Quinn let out a huge breath and clumsily gestured to the still un-iced cupcakes on the cooling rack. “We should...”
“Yeah,” Ryan quickly agreed, grabbing the bowl of bright red icing. “So do you think we put enough food coloring in this?”
-
They'd been sitting there for thirty minutes now and they hadn't sold a single goddamn cupcake. It was a complete waste of Quinn's time. Time she could have been spending exercising out over a week's worth of sexual tension with Ryan.
“These cupcakes suck, that's why we're not selling any,” Finn said, throwing one of the baked treats back down on the table.
How dare he. She and Ryan had worked hard on those and Quinn knew for a fact -she may have had half a dozen herself- that they tasted delicious. “It's not about the cupcakes, it's about us,” she snapped at him. “Nobody wants to buy from losers. We're in glee club and in wheelchairs.” Seriously, screw Schuester for doing this to her.
“She has a point,” lamented Puck. “Six months ago we could have sold fifty of these things on fear alone.”
And then along came Brittany with a special ed kid on her arm. This day just kept getting better and better. “Oh my god!” Quinn exclaimed. “What is she doing?”
“I actually think they're kind of friends,” Finn informed them.
Puck could confirm that. “Brittany's always cheating off her test papers in math class.”
“See, so many, and look how pretty they are, Becky,” Brittany said to her new friend.
“Wow.”
“Brittany, you're supposed to be in your wheelchair,” Santana said, being the only one to notice that Brittany was walking when she was supposed to be rolling like the rest of them.
“I lost it.”
Nobody thought to question it because it was Brittany, she would lose a wheelchair.
Quinn sat back and watched Brittany give a dollar to Becky so she could buy a cupcake. Great, now they had one whole dollar. Soon they'd be able to afford to buy a plane to fly Artie to Sectionals!
“So how much do we have now?” Brittany asked, looking proud of herself for drumming up some business.
“Well,” Finn said, putting the bill into their cash box. “With this one dollar...we have one dollar.”
Whose dumbass idea was it to sell them for a dollar each anyway. They were never going to sell six hundred cupcakes. “This is ridiculous,” said Quinn.
“Well, maybe if we put a jellybean or something on top, we'd sell more,” Finn suggested.
“Are you an idiot?” Quinn didn't even know why she bothered asking, she already knew the answer. “How am I supposed to trust you to take care of our baby when you can't even figure out how to sell a damn cupcake?”
It was just becoming clearer and clearer to Quinn that she had made a huge mistake choosing him to be the baby's father instead of Ryan. What Ryan lacked in status, he more than made up for in every other area.
“Stop attacking me, I'm sick of it.”
“Get a job.”
“I'm trying!” Finn stood up and kicked his wheelchair. It was like watching a wildly overgrown toddler in the midst of a temper tantrum. Yep, she'd definitely made a huge mistake.
-
The next day before school even started, Quinn found Ryan in the choir room, sitting at the piano and practicing his scales.
Without saying a word, she joined him on the bench and wrapped her arms around his waist, laying her head against his shoulder. “Sing me something,” she ordered softly. She needed to see him in action, she needed to be reminded of his talent, she needed to be reminded of the reason she was doing all of this. Because now that being with Finn only caused her stress and aggravation and no longer offered her any protection, his quarterback status hadn't even cushioned her fall, she was so close to giving up and letting the truth come out.
“Any requests?” Ryan asked, setting his fingers on the black and white keys.
“Surprise me.”
Ryan nodded and started playing, Quinn recognized the opening notes immediately.
“I've been alone with you inside my mind and in my dreams I've kissed you lips a thousand times,” he crooned, holding Quinn's gaze. “I sometimes see you pass outside my door. Hello, is it me you're looking for?”
As he sang, Quinn was reminded that he had a future. A future outside of Lima, a future without a baby, a future without her. Her plan had worked perfectly.
But as with all her plans it seemed, this one had an unexpected consequence; because as he sang, she could see it in his eyes -his beautiful expressive eyes- that he truly meant every word that he was singing to her. He'd picked this song for a specific reason, he chose it because it said everything he wanted to say to her but she wouldn't let him.
“Hello! Is it me you're looking for? Cause I wonder where you are and I wonder what you do. Are you somewhere feeling lonely or is someone loving you?” he belted the final chorus. “Tell me how to win your heart, for I haven't got a clue. But let me start by saying...I love you.”
Of course, he would declare his love for her through song. It was such a perfectly Ryan Berry thing to do it that made Quinn want to cry. She was powerless to stop the tears from welling in her eyes.
“I have something for you,” he said, as soon as he'd finished playing the final note, not giving her a chance to react. He reached into his jacket and withdrew an envelope, handing it to her.
Quinn took it hesitantly, afraid of what she knew was inside and what it meant.
“It's for the baby, I overheard you yelling at Finn about the doctor's bills the other day.”
Quinn opened the envelope and was shocked to find it was full of fifties. “There must be over a thousand dollars here,” she gasped.
“Fifteen hundred and I can get more, whatever you need.”
Quinn looked at him curiously. “How?”
“I have a job. I've been working since I was thirteen, singing at private functions; weddings, birthdays, corporate events, stuff like that. It pays quite well. I'm supposed to be saving the money for after I graduate, New York is an incredibly expensive place to live, but this is more important. I want you to have it.”
Closing her eyes, Quinn felt the guilt wash over her. This is exactly what she didn't want to happen. “I can't accept this.”
“Yes, you can,” Ryan insisted with unexpected forcefulness. “I'm not going to have my child go without it's necessary prenatal care just because Finn Hudson is an incompetent buffoon.”
“It's a girl,” Quinn said quietly, realizing he didn't even know the sex of his own child. God, why did he have to be so sweet and perfect, it made it so much harder not to fall in love with him. No, it made it so much harder to pretend to not be in love with him. It made her want to keep the baby she knew she had to give away.
“A girl?” he whispered in awe, smiling brilliantly. He reached out and gently cupped her baby bump. “We're having a daughter.”
“Don't,” she whimpered, shying away from him.
“Quinn,” Ryan sighed. He wrapped his arms around Quinn, who was now sobbing heavily, and pulled her against his chest. “I'd be a good father,” he swore. “I'd take care of you and her.”
“I know. I know that you would,” Quinn said, burrowing in further against him. She was so close that she was almost in his lap. It was true, she didn't have a doubt that Ryan would be an amazing father; he'd be devoted and loving and focused on their child because, she knew, when Ryan Berry committed to something he always gave it 100%.
“So why won't you let me?”
Quinn didn't reply, she just cried harder. That was how Finn found them when he came wheeling into the room. “What the hell's going on?”
Panicking, Quinn looked up at Ryan pleadingly as she tucked the envelope he'd given her into the pocket of her cardigan.
Ryan immediately withdrew his arms from around her. “Your girlfriend's having a hormonal moment, Hudson,” he sneered, standing up from the piano bench and getting into his wheelchair. “You might want to deal with that.”
And with that Ryan was off, his departure slightly less dignified than he'd hoped, thanks to his stupid faulty wheelchair that refused to navigate through doorways without catching the frame at least once. It seemed that Schuester never missed an opportunity to sabotage him.
Hugging Quinn, Finn glared at him until he was out of sight. There certainly was no love lost between the duelling male leads. “Why are you crying? Was he mean to you?”
“No,” Quinn denied, pulling away from her boyfriend and wiping the tears from her face. “He was really nice, actually.”
“Nice? Berry?” Finn repeated in confusion. Ryan Berry was an arrogant ass, he was never nice. “If he was nice then why were you crying? You shouldn't lie to protect him.”
“I'm not! He was nice to me and I started crying, you know that it doesn't take much to set me off lately since my hormones are so out of whack.”
Finn nodded, it was true; Quinn's mood swings were powerful, unpredictable things. One minute they'd be kissing, then the next she'd be smacking him and yelling at him to get his hands off her. It was terrifying. “So I got job,” he announced, finally remembering what he'd come to tell his girlfriend.
“You did?”
“Yeah, at the Ford dealership. Artie gave me the idea, I'll have to stay in the chair the whole time I'm there and the pay isn't that great-”
“It's okay,” Quinn cut him off, forcing a smile. Finn was trying, in his own sweetly stupid way and for that she was grateful; it made it easier to resist all that Ryan had to offer her. “Thank you.”
Finn grinned at her and patted his lap. “Can I give you a ride to homeroom?”
Quinn took a deep breath and closed her eyes, gathering up everything she felt for Ryan -all the longing and lust and love- and burying deep down inside. It wasn't going to happen, it couldn't happen. She'd made her bed and now she was going to lie in it. She opened her eyes and smiled down at Finn. “Sure.”