fic: cracks in the armor 5/?
Title: Cracks In The Armor
Author: takeanotherturn
Rating: PG-13
Length: 1800+
Spoilers: Season 2
Pairings: Sam/Quinn, Finn/Rachel, eventual Quinn/Rachel
Summary: Post The Substitute. All Sam Evans wanted to do was tell Quinn Fabray that he loved her. He never expected it to turn out like this.
Quinn didn't see Kurt's pale, terrified expression or the look of surprise on Azimio's face, all she saw was red. Fuelled by pure unadulterated rage that Karofsky would dare put his hands on a woman, on Rachel, Quinn stalked down the hall towards them, shoving aside a freshman that was unfortunate enough to innocently wander into her path.
“Let her go,” she commanded, baring her teeth at the jock that was pinning Rachel against the hard metal lockers.
Azimio smirked at her. “Oh look, it's the head queerleader, come to defend her little gay club,” he jibed.
Quinn bristled even more, clenching her fists at her sides. She had years worth of pent up anger and frustration just begging to be unleashed. “Let her go,” she repeated, fixing Karofsky with the deadliest glare that she had in her arsenal.
“You heard Quinn, put Rachel down,” Sam ordered from behind her. Internally, Quinn breathed a sigh of relief that he was there backing her up because she knew that if the situation got physical she wouldn't have stood a chance on her own. “Now.”
If Karofsky heard them he didn't give any indication of it. His eyes were still fixed on Rachel, his mouth twisted into an angry snarl. To her credit, Rachel refused to back down, glaring back at him with just as much venom. She looked like she was about to bite off Karofsky's nose if he didn't put her down within the next ten seconds and, knowing Rachel, Quinn wouldn't be surprised if she actually tried to.
Azimio Adams may have been dumb but he wasn't stupid, when McKinley's newest power couple ordered you to do something, you did it. Especially when Quinn had the power to blacklist you from dating any of her Cheerio's. “Come on, man,” he said, grabbing his friend's broad shoulders and not so gently pulling him away from Rachel. “These freaks ain't even worth it anyways.”
Karofsky snorted, turning his menacing glare away from Rachel and settling it on an ashen Kurt who was huddled up against the lockers. “I'll be seeing you real soon, Hummel,” he growled then shoulder checked the smaller boy as he passed by.
Sam reached out and steadied Kurt, who looked like he was about to fall over at any second. “Kurt, you okay? You look like you're about to puke.”
Kurt swallowed hard and nodded shakily. “Y-yes, I'm fine. Thank you,” he said, sounding frail.
But Quinn wasn't listening to them, she'd been diligently monitoring the two jocks retreat, just in case they decided to come back for more, when she noticed something that had made her blood boil. Finn was standing at his open locker, his eyes wide and mouth flapping open like he was a fish on dry land. He'd been watching. He'd seen Rachel, his girlfriend, being thrown into a locker and he hadn't done a damn thing about it. In that moment, for the slightest second, Quinn actually wanted to kill him.
“Thank you for stepping in, Quinn,” Rachel's soft voice pulled Quinn out of her homicidal thoughts and refocused her attention on the girl in front of her. “You too, Sam.”
Forgetting herself for a moment, Quinn stepped closer, gently laying a hand on Rachel's forearm. “Are you alright?”
Rachel looked down at Quinn's hand as though it was a foreign object. Quinn Fabray was touching her? Willingly? “I'm quite alright. To be honest, I'm more concerned about Kurt.”
Quinn frowned, looking around for their fellow glee club member and finding him to be missing. She'd been so focused on Finn and then Rachel that she hadn't even noticed that he'd left. “Kurt?”
Rachel nodded, looking deadly serious. “Yes, I know that he's always been bullied but lately Karofsky's just taking it to a whole new level...I'm really worried about him.”
From what she'd just seen, Quinn certainly didn't blame her.
-
Waiting outside the boys locker room was not the way that Quinn had imagined spending her lunch hour when she'd gotten up that morning. But, then again, she hadn't imagined she'd risk her social status by standing up to the two biggest bullies in school on Rachel Berry's behalf either, so she figured she may as well continue with the roll she was on.
“Hey,” Sam greeted her, emerging from the locker room.
Quinn perked up. “Is he in there alone?”
“Yeah, I told him that I dropped half a roll of Lifesavers in his locker, he's still looking for them.”
“Thanks, Sam.”
He grinned at her. “Hey, this is what lesbros are for.”
“Right,” Quinn agreed, even though she had no idea what a lesbro actually was.
“Do you want me to wait?”
Quinn paused with her hand on the door. “It's alright, this shouldn't take long. I'll see you at rehearsal.”
-
Sam was right, Finn was still rooting through his locker for the nonexistant candy when she entered the locker room, Quinn wrinkled her nose at the smell -would it kill them to use some air freshener in there?- and approached him. “Finn?”
Finn jumped, banging his head against the roof of his locker. “Q-Quinn,” he stammered in surprise. “What are you doing in here? You aren't here to try and get me to go out with you again are you?”
“No, Finn, I'm not,” she said flatly, settling her hands on her hips.
“Oh good,” he breathed in relief. It hard been hard enough to turn her down the first time, he didn't know if had the willpower to do it again.
“I'm here to ask you why the hell you didn't do anything this morning when Karofsky and Azimio were harassing Kurt? I know you saw them.”
Finn was confused, since when did Quinn give a damn about Kurt? “Look, you have no idea what it's like for me, Quinn, okay? I'm the captain of this team, I need these guys to respect me. It's bad enough that I'm in Glee club and dating Rachel, they already think I'm gay, I don't need to give them any extra ammo.”
“Kurt is going to be your stepbrother and Rachel is your girlfriend, do you really care more about your reputation than you do their safety?” Quinn pressed.
“Rachel's a girl, they're not going to hurt her. Not really,” he denied, looking away from his furious ex-girlfriend.
“Karofsky shoved her into a locker!”
Angry at her for challenging him like this and angry at himself for knowing that he deserved it, Finn turned on her. “Why do you even care? You can't come in here and lecture me about Rachel when you've always been mean to her!”
“I'm not the one dating her, Finn! If I were, I'd stand up for her. I'd actually care when other people put her down. If Rachel was my girlfriend, I'd be able to compliment her without insulting her in the same breath-” Quinn ranted, letting her frustration get the better of her.
“Okay, I don't understand what's happening right now,” Finn said slowly, completely bewildered. Quinn hated Rachel, if anybody knew the depths of the hatred Quinn held towards his girlfriend, it was him. So why was she talking about what she would do if Rachel was her girlfriend?
Quinn clenched her eyes shut, taking a moment to get a hold of herself. “What I'm trying to say is that you are being a sucky boyfriend to Rachel and an awful friend to Kurt. They both deserve better than that and I know you well enough to know that somewhere inside that pea sized brain of yours, there's a guy that is capable of being what they need.”
“But why are you doing this? You don't even like them.”
Because I'm in love with your girlfriend, you moron. “Because somebody has to,” Quinn said instead. Her skirt flared out as she turned on her heel and exited the locker room as quickly as she'd entered it, hoping that at least some of what she had said had penetrated her ex-boyfriend's thick skull.
-
Evidently her harsh words had had the desired effect on Finn. For the rest of the day, Finn shadowed Rachel everywhere, glowering at anyone who got too close to the fun sized singer. Then in Glee he went over the top with praise for his girlfriend, which given Finn's rather limited vocabulary, was painful for all of them except Rachel who soaked up the compliments like a tiny attention starved sponge. Santana had finally put a stop to it by threatening to beat Finn to death the next time the word 'awesome' came out of his mouth. Mr. Schue had stepped in immediately, assuring Finn that he wasn't going to let Santana lay a hand on him but Finn had been scared enough to keep his mouth shut for the rest of the lesson.
“So, don't get me wrong, I don't mind that you're here,” Sam huffed. He was currently laying on his bedroom floor doing crunches. Shirtless. And Quinn hadn't even spared him a second glance, she was definitely a capital-G gay. “But why are you going through my iTunes?”
Quinn pursed her lips and continued scrolling through Sam's music library. For a supposedly straight teenage boy, he had an extraordinarily large collection of songs by Kelly Clarkson and Taylor Swift. “I want to sing a song to Rachel.”
Sam paused mid-crunch, ignoring the burning in his abdomen. “Really? I didn't think you were anywhere near ready to come out like that. That's like going all warp speed.”
“Well, she won't actually know that I'm singing it to her,” Quinn sheepishly admitted. “I was thinking that if you sat behind her then everyone will just assume that I'm singing it to you.”
He grinned at the thought of being serenaded, even if it would be fake. “That could work,” he said, jumping up and wiping the sweat off the back of his neck with a towel. “Do you have any particular song in mind?”
Quinn cringed at the feeling of Sam's bare torso pressing against her arm as he came to stand next to her. “Ew, you're all sweaty!” she exclaimed, pushing him away. “Put a shirt on.”
Sam was aghast at the suggestion. “And cover up perfection?” He pouted, running his hand across the sculpted abs he worked so hard to maintain.
Quinn just rolled her eyes and turned back to the computer, determined to find the perfect song to sing to Rachel. Problem was, she didn't even recognize half the names of the bands that Sam had in his collection. Although Quinn kept up with the current Top 40 in an effort to maintain the illusion that she fit in with her peers, she still preferred the music of the 50's, 60's and 70's that she'd listened to while growing up to anything modern. She'd never admit it to anyone but her favorite singer ever was Dusty Springfield.
“Sam...why do you have like a million mp3s of Kurt singing on your computer?”
Author: takeanotherturn
Rating: PG-13
Length: 1800+
Spoilers: Season 2
Pairings: Sam/Quinn, Finn/Rachel, eventual Quinn/Rachel
Summary: Post The Substitute. All Sam Evans wanted to do was tell Quinn Fabray that he loved her. He never expected it to turn out like this.
Quinn didn't see Kurt's pale, terrified expression or the look of surprise on Azimio's face, all she saw was red. Fuelled by pure unadulterated rage that Karofsky would dare put his hands on a woman, on Rachel, Quinn stalked down the hall towards them, shoving aside a freshman that was unfortunate enough to innocently wander into her path.
“Let her go,” she commanded, baring her teeth at the jock that was pinning Rachel against the hard metal lockers.
Azimio smirked at her. “Oh look, it's the head queerleader, come to defend her little gay club,” he jibed.
Quinn bristled even more, clenching her fists at her sides. She had years worth of pent up anger and frustration just begging to be unleashed. “Let her go,” she repeated, fixing Karofsky with the deadliest glare that she had in her arsenal.
“You heard Quinn, put Rachel down,” Sam ordered from behind her. Internally, Quinn breathed a sigh of relief that he was there backing her up because she knew that if the situation got physical she wouldn't have stood a chance on her own. “Now.”
If Karofsky heard them he didn't give any indication of it. His eyes were still fixed on Rachel, his mouth twisted into an angry snarl. To her credit, Rachel refused to back down, glaring back at him with just as much venom. She looked like she was about to bite off Karofsky's nose if he didn't put her down within the next ten seconds and, knowing Rachel, Quinn wouldn't be surprised if she actually tried to.
Azimio Adams may have been dumb but he wasn't stupid, when McKinley's newest power couple ordered you to do something, you did it. Especially when Quinn had the power to blacklist you from dating any of her Cheerio's. “Come on, man,” he said, grabbing his friend's broad shoulders and not so gently pulling him away from Rachel. “These freaks ain't even worth it anyways.”
Karofsky snorted, turning his menacing glare away from Rachel and settling it on an ashen Kurt who was huddled up against the lockers. “I'll be seeing you real soon, Hummel,” he growled then shoulder checked the smaller boy as he passed by.
Sam reached out and steadied Kurt, who looked like he was about to fall over at any second. “Kurt, you okay? You look like you're about to puke.”
Kurt swallowed hard and nodded shakily. “Y-yes, I'm fine. Thank you,” he said, sounding frail.
But Quinn wasn't listening to them, she'd been diligently monitoring the two jocks retreat, just in case they decided to come back for more, when she noticed something that had made her blood boil. Finn was standing at his open locker, his eyes wide and mouth flapping open like he was a fish on dry land. He'd been watching. He'd seen Rachel, his girlfriend, being thrown into a locker and he hadn't done a damn thing about it. In that moment, for the slightest second, Quinn actually wanted to kill him.
“Thank you for stepping in, Quinn,” Rachel's soft voice pulled Quinn out of her homicidal thoughts and refocused her attention on the girl in front of her. “You too, Sam.”
Forgetting herself for a moment, Quinn stepped closer, gently laying a hand on Rachel's forearm. “Are you alright?”
Rachel looked down at Quinn's hand as though it was a foreign object. Quinn Fabray was touching her? Willingly? “I'm quite alright. To be honest, I'm more concerned about Kurt.”
Quinn frowned, looking around for their fellow glee club member and finding him to be missing. She'd been so focused on Finn and then Rachel that she hadn't even noticed that he'd left. “Kurt?”
Rachel nodded, looking deadly serious. “Yes, I know that he's always been bullied but lately Karofsky's just taking it to a whole new level...I'm really worried about him.”
From what she'd just seen, Quinn certainly didn't blame her.
-
Waiting outside the boys locker room was not the way that Quinn had imagined spending her lunch hour when she'd gotten up that morning. But, then again, she hadn't imagined she'd risk her social status by standing up to the two biggest bullies in school on Rachel Berry's behalf either, so she figured she may as well continue with the roll she was on.
“Hey,” Sam greeted her, emerging from the locker room.
Quinn perked up. “Is he in there alone?”
“Yeah, I told him that I dropped half a roll of Lifesavers in his locker, he's still looking for them.”
“Thanks, Sam.”
He grinned at her. “Hey, this is what lesbros are for.”
“Right,” Quinn agreed, even though she had no idea what a lesbro actually was.
“Do you want me to wait?”
Quinn paused with her hand on the door. “It's alright, this shouldn't take long. I'll see you at rehearsal.”
-
Sam was right, Finn was still rooting through his locker for the nonexistant candy when she entered the locker room, Quinn wrinkled her nose at the smell -would it kill them to use some air freshener in there?- and approached him. “Finn?”
Finn jumped, banging his head against the roof of his locker. “Q-Quinn,” he stammered in surprise. “What are you doing in here? You aren't here to try and get me to go out with you again are you?”
“No, Finn, I'm not,” she said flatly, settling her hands on her hips.
“Oh good,” he breathed in relief. It hard been hard enough to turn her down the first time, he didn't know if had the willpower to do it again.
“I'm here to ask you why the hell you didn't do anything this morning when Karofsky and Azimio were harassing Kurt? I know you saw them.”
Finn was confused, since when did Quinn give a damn about Kurt? “Look, you have no idea what it's like for me, Quinn, okay? I'm the captain of this team, I need these guys to respect me. It's bad enough that I'm in Glee club and dating Rachel, they already think I'm gay, I don't need to give them any extra ammo.”
“Kurt is going to be your stepbrother and Rachel is your girlfriend, do you really care more about your reputation than you do their safety?” Quinn pressed.
“Rachel's a girl, they're not going to hurt her. Not really,” he denied, looking away from his furious ex-girlfriend.
“Karofsky shoved her into a locker!”
Angry at her for challenging him like this and angry at himself for knowing that he deserved it, Finn turned on her. “Why do you even care? You can't come in here and lecture me about Rachel when you've always been mean to her!”
“I'm not the one dating her, Finn! If I were, I'd stand up for her. I'd actually care when other people put her down. If Rachel was my girlfriend, I'd be able to compliment her without insulting her in the same breath-” Quinn ranted, letting her frustration get the better of her.
“Okay, I don't understand what's happening right now,” Finn said slowly, completely bewildered. Quinn hated Rachel, if anybody knew the depths of the hatred Quinn held towards his girlfriend, it was him. So why was she talking about what she would do if Rachel was her girlfriend?
Quinn clenched her eyes shut, taking a moment to get a hold of herself. “What I'm trying to say is that you are being a sucky boyfriend to Rachel and an awful friend to Kurt. They both deserve better than that and I know you well enough to know that somewhere inside that pea sized brain of yours, there's a guy that is capable of being what they need.”
“But why are you doing this? You don't even like them.”
Because I'm in love with your girlfriend, you moron. “Because somebody has to,” Quinn said instead. Her skirt flared out as she turned on her heel and exited the locker room as quickly as she'd entered it, hoping that at least some of what she had said had penetrated her ex-boyfriend's thick skull.
-
Evidently her harsh words had had the desired effect on Finn. For the rest of the day, Finn shadowed Rachel everywhere, glowering at anyone who got too close to the fun sized singer. Then in Glee he went over the top with praise for his girlfriend, which given Finn's rather limited vocabulary, was painful for all of them except Rachel who soaked up the compliments like a tiny attention starved sponge. Santana had finally put a stop to it by threatening to beat Finn to death the next time the word 'awesome' came out of his mouth. Mr. Schue had stepped in immediately, assuring Finn that he wasn't going to let Santana lay a hand on him but Finn had been scared enough to keep his mouth shut for the rest of the lesson.
“So, don't get me wrong, I don't mind that you're here,” Sam huffed. He was currently laying on his bedroom floor doing crunches. Shirtless. And Quinn hadn't even spared him a second glance, she was definitely a capital-G gay. “But why are you going through my iTunes?”
Quinn pursed her lips and continued scrolling through Sam's music library. For a supposedly straight teenage boy, he had an extraordinarily large collection of songs by Kelly Clarkson and Taylor Swift. “I want to sing a song to Rachel.”
Sam paused mid-crunch, ignoring the burning in his abdomen. “Really? I didn't think you were anywhere near ready to come out like that. That's like going all warp speed.”
“Well, she won't actually know that I'm singing it to her,” Quinn sheepishly admitted. “I was thinking that if you sat behind her then everyone will just assume that I'm singing it to you.”
He grinned at the thought of being serenaded, even if it would be fake. “That could work,” he said, jumping up and wiping the sweat off the back of his neck with a towel. “Do you have any particular song in mind?”
Quinn cringed at the feeling of Sam's bare torso pressing against her arm as he came to stand next to her. “Ew, you're all sweaty!” she exclaimed, pushing him away. “Put a shirt on.”
Sam was aghast at the suggestion. “And cover up perfection?” He pouted, running his hand across the sculpted abs he worked so hard to maintain.
Quinn just rolled her eyes and turned back to the computer, determined to find the perfect song to sing to Rachel. Problem was, she didn't even recognize half the names of the bands that Sam had in his collection. Although Quinn kept up with the current Top 40 in an effort to maintain the illusion that she fit in with her peers, she still preferred the music of the 50's, 60's and 70's that she'd listened to while growing up to anything modern. She'd never admit it to anyone but her favorite singer ever was Dusty Springfield.
“Sam...why do you have like a million mp3s of Kurt singing on your computer?”