Are You Ten Years Ago? [1/14]
Title: Are You Ten Years Ago?
Major Characters/Pairings: Quinn Fabray-Puckerman, Beth Puckerman, Noah Puckerman, Jr., Jasper Puckerman, Rachel Berry, Finn Hudson/OC, Mentions past: Quinn/Puck, Rachel/Puck, Rachel/Quinn
Minor Characters/Pairings: Mike/OC, Matt/OC, Artie/Tina, Rachel's dads Mentions: Brittany/Santana, Mercedes/OC, Kurt/OC
Rating: PG-13
Length: 45,200+
Summary: AU beginning after 'Funk'. Rachel got the hell out of Lima, Ohio immediately after graduation, breaking Quinn's heart in the process, and never looked back. Now, ten years later, she's back and Quinn is the one to show her the aftermath and the pieces of what she left behind - all the while trying desperately not to fall back in love with her ex-girlfriend.
Warnings: Pre-story character death discussed in detail.
Author's Note: Holy sweet Jesus, this took a long time. I kept getting distracted by other things and it just kept getting shoved on the back burner but now it's done and here and I don't have to mess with it anymore, yay!
-Chapter 1-
When Quinn Fabray Puckerman got the invitation to her ten year class reunion in the mail she scoffed at it and tossed it in the trash. Almost everyone knew what happened to her and she knew what happened to anyone she ever cared about in high school.
Finn went to OSU and met and married a woman named Kelsey and moved back to Lima to teach gym and coach sports at McKinley. Santana and Brittany had miraculously made it out and were living a happy life in Boston as a general surgeon and dance teacher, respectively. Tina and Artie were still in Lima and running their own pharmacy. Mercedes got married and moved to New York as did Kurt where he met his partner and once there Kurt re-teamed up with Mercedes and they started their own clothing line that was now being recognized all over the world. Mike and Matt had both played college football before they each got married and moved back to Lima where Matt was part owner of a Chevrolet dealership and Mike was managing a bank.
As for Rachel? Rachel Berry [Gold Star]? Rachel had a Grammy, two Tonys, an Oscar nomination, an Emmy, a failed marriage, and two albums under her belt…and a little of Quinn’s heart still clenched in her fist after having brutally ripped the organ from the blonde’s chest.
Quinn stared at the discarded invitation for a few moments longer before her trance was broken by the cries of reality. Reality, this time, had taken the form of her youngest son just waking up from his nap. Stepping away from memories of head-Cheerio and a short, brunette diva-to-be, and back into the mother role, Quinn made her way from the kitchen and down the hall to her sons’ bedroom. Jasper looked up at her with tears in his eyes and a wide smile at his mother’s presence. Quinn smiled back at her baby boy, sitting up on his own (a new development and complete miracle), and she picked the four-year-old up and dried his tears. She wished he hadn’t inherited Puck’s build because the boy was going to get even more difficult to lift as he got older, the doctors and therapists said. Quinn, however, was still holding onto hope that he would continue get better and lifting wouldn’t even have to be considered.
The racecar themed clock on the wall showed 1:30, meaning to Quinn that she had an hour and a half to get to the store before school let out. She brushed through Jasper’s hair, grabbed her purse and Jasper’s bag, and slipped her shoes on. She made sure to lock and deadbolt the front door and looked around nervously before going to her van that was on its last leg and lifting Jasper into his car seat and strapping him in. The route to Pick-n-Save was one she could drive with her eyes closed as was the path she would take through the store with her eyes on the wallet in her purse containing her employee card for that life-saving 10% discount.
After getting Jasper into a cart and checking once again that she had her wallet she headed inside and nodded to each cashier with a small smile.
“Hey boss,” they all greeted her.
“Couldn’t stay away for one day, could you?” a young girl just out of high school, Nicole, asked with a smile.
“I just missed you all so much,” Quinn replied, her tone sincerely bright. She smiled at the store manager who was making his way up to one of the cash registers. He gave her a big smile and patted Jasper on the head, earning him a gurgle from the young boy.
The blonde made her way through the store and was in the boxed food aisle when Jasper started whining and reaching insistently for his bag.
“What do you need baby?”
Jasper babbled incoherently.
“Use your words,” Quinn said. She reached over to grab a few boxes of macaroni and cheese.
“Want!”
“What do you want?” Quinn pushed the cart further down the aisle and grabbed two boxes of generic Hamburger Helper.
“Joo!”
“What kind of juice? Apple or orange?”
Jasper was quiet for a second and Quinn repeated herself.
“Tell me baby, apple or orange?”
“App!”
Quinn smiled and kissed her son’s forehead. “That’s my good boy. We’re getting there, aren’t we?” She stopped the cart and rummaged around in the backpack and pulled out an apple juice box and stuck the straw in it. Jasper concentrated for a moment before clasping it with both of his hands; Quinn kept a hold of it until he was sure with his grasp and started happily sucking away.
“What do you say to Mommy?”
“Mmm!”
“No, come on.”
With the attention on her son, Quinn lost focus on where she was headed and only looked up when her cart collided with another. The sudden jar caused Jasper to drop his juice box and promptly start crying; Quinn groaned and muttered a soft “damn” under her breath.
“I’m so sorry,” she said in the general direction of the other cart’s driver as she knelt down to pick up the juice box. Never one to waste, she pulled out a cleaning wipe from the backpack and cleaned off the box and wiped the straw with her shirt. It wasn’t sanitary but an extra juice box meant an extra thirty-five cents and maybe it didn’t sound like much but, added up over time, it was enough.
“It’s okay,” a female voice came.
Quinn finally looked up at the other woman and the friendly smile she intended to give turned into a look of complete disbelief. This was not what she needed right then. Or ever.
“Rachel…”
“Quinn…Hello, how are you?”
“I’m…” Quinn took a deep breath. ‘Exhausted’ didn’t cover it. ‘Emotional wreck’ wasn’t really appropriate for forced conversation. ‘Stretched so thin that I’m lucky if I get to sleep more than four hours uninterrupted’ seemed a little too detailed. “Fine,” she said when she exhaled. “How are you?”
“I’m doing quite well, thank you,” Rachel said with a smile. “You look like you have your hands full.”
Quinn looked down at Jasper who was again happily sucking away on his juice box, his eyes a little red from the almost-tantrum. Rachel didn’t know Jasper. She didn’t know Noah Jr. She barely knew Beth. She didn’t know anything about Quinn’s life anymore. They hadn’t spoken since just after graduation. ‘Hands full’ was a complete and total understatement.
“Yeah,” was all she could think of to say. “A little.”
“I’m in town for a little vacation and of course the reunion,” Rachel said, still smiling, obviously unaware of the look Quinn knew she had that screamed ‘get me the hell out of here’. “I haven’t talked to anyone in so long; it will be wonderful to get caught up.”
“Everything’s the same as you left it,” Quinn couldn’t help but hiss, just enough venom in her voice for Rachel’s shoulders to drop a little and her smile to fade.
“Not exactly the same,” Rachel noted quietly.
“Puckerman!”
Quinn turned around at the sound of her married surname and her boss approached her.
“Can you come in on Saturday?” the old man asked.
Quinn saw Rachel’s eyes dart to the man’s nametag with “Pick-n-Save” etched on it.
“I…I don’t know,” Quinn said. “I would have to ask my babysitter.”
“We need to get the inventory finished up and put into the computer. You’re the best one I’ve got for inventory, you know that. You get double overtime.”
Quinn sighed. She needed the money and she knew someone in town would be able to watch the kids, she would just have to work her way through her list of friends.
“I’ll do it.”
“You’re a life saver, sweetie. Tell whoever rings you up to give you an extra ten percent off, okay? Dinner still on for Wednesday?”
Quinn nodded and smiled appreciatively. Her boss knew her story. He knew her situation. He was like the father she never really had. He and his wife invited her family over for dinner on a weekly basis and he told her how much she reminded him of his daughter who had long since moved away from home. He assured her that one day she would be managing the store if she could get some college classes under her belt. While she really appreciated it, the foreseeable future didn’t show her as manager of anything. College was the last thing on her mind. Even if she did get there, “Manager of Pick-n-Save” wasn’t what she wanted as a job title for the rest of her life.
The blonde almost forgot that Rachel was standing there until she turned around and the short brunette was looking at her. The expression on Rachel’s face was unreadable. She’d just found out more about Quinn than Quinn ever intended for Rachel to know. First and foremost that…
“So you and Noah?” Rachel finally asked.
Quinn swallowed hard. Puck wasn’t something she talked about. Not anymore. So all she did was nod.
“That’s…good for you guys,” Rachel said with a smile. “I’m happy for you. How long have you been married?”
Quinn was stunned. The thought hit her that if Rachel didn’t know they were married then she also didn’t know…anything else. The blonde wondered exactly how often Rachel spoke to her dads. It wasn’t like they didn’t know, either. Everyone knew.
“About a year after graduation,” Quinn said, “I got pregnant again we figured if we were going to keep having kids together we might as well get married so we did. Speaking of which, I need to go. School lets out soon and I still have shopping to do. Nice seeing you.” Sure that the answer would pacify the diva’s curiosity, Quinn gripped tight to the handlebar of her cart and fixated her gaze ahead. The familiar burning behind her eyes intensified a little as her peripheral vision caught Jasper with a smile, his father’s smile, and she pushed the cart forward to get away from any more questions. Any more reminders than she already had.
She was stopped by a soft, small hand on her arm. “Quinn, I haven’t seen you in ten years! I know…I know things weren’t left on the best of terms but I would like to see you while I’m here. Would you like to have dinner this week?”
“I have three kids, Rachel. I can’t just go out and have dinner.”
“Can’t Noah watch them?”
Silence. Deafening silence as Rachel obliviously looked into Quinn’s eyes, now brimmed with tears, and smiled a little.
“No, he can’t,” Quinn said softly. “I have to go.”
Quinn ignored Rachel’s call to her as she walked toward the dairy case and wiped away the tears that had slipped out of her eyes. She avoided Rachel’s gaze when they met as she walked up and down the other aisles and got what she needed. Rachel gave her a little wave while Quinn was at the registers and the blonde tried desperately hard to hide the piece of plastic with “Ohio State Benefit Identification Card” stamped on it as she handed it over to Nicole as well as her employee card. She looked over her shoulder at Rachel who was walking by slowly with that look on her face when the cards were handed back. The look that Quinn had seen so many times when she would hand over her card and someone behind her would see it and her with her kids. The look of sympathy for a young, exhausted mother handing over her government assistance card.
It took Quinn four tries to get her van started and she sighed and made a note to take it to Burt Hummel when she got the chance. She knew he either wouldn’t charge her if it was something he could just fix right there or he wouldn’t tack on labor if he had to order parts. Quinn had resigned her pride long ago and she would always take whatever she was given by those that offered their help: Car service from Burt, discounts at the store, free babysitting from Finn and Kelsey, offers of great deals on cars she knew she couldn’t afford from Matt, discounts on what she had to pay out of pocket for the kids’ prescriptions and any supplies Quinn needed for Jasper from Tina and Artie, breaks and extensions on payments at the bank from Mike. From her parents? A glance at each of the Puckerman children if they were seen in public before shaking their heads and turning away. It was usually followed by a growl from Beth before she took Noah’s hand.
The blonde really, honestly felt sorry for her only daughter. It wasn’t Beth’s fault that she had been born first and the responsibility for Noah came with it more than Quinn wanted it to. The twelve-year-old girl had dark brown hair and hazel eyes, the only one out of the three to get her mother’s eyes, and she was the single most patient person that Quinn knew. Beth knew how to deal with Noah’s mood swings and how to keep him calmed down if it was one of those days when the boy didn’t want to deal with his life. What nine-year-old would want to live the life he was in?
The first stop after the grocery store was the elementary school, Noah climbed in the back and took his seat next to Jasper and buckled in. He crossed his arms over his chest and let out an exasperated sigh, telling Quinn that today hadn’t exactly been ideal.
“How was your day, sweetie?” Quinn asked once she was out of the elementary school traffic and headed to the middle school.
“Fine,” the young boy answered with a distinct growl.
“What’s wrong?”
“Stupid career day is next week.”
“Oh.” Quinn paused. “Why don’t you see if maybe one of your aunts or uncles could come in? I’m sure Aunt Tina or Uncle Artie would come in and talk. Or maybe Uncle Mike could talk about all the money at the bank. I could talk to Uncle Matt or Mr. Hummel and see if he would come talk about cars?”
They went through the same thing last year. Luckily Santana came in on vacation and Quinn convinced her to go with Noah and talk about being a surgeon. She was the best one there, Noah had said, because she talked about guts and gore and blood in vivid detail and even got the Lima hospital to let her bring in some of their preserved organs. Unfortunately, the Latina had already said she wasn’t going to be in town anytime soon.
“I want Aunt Santana to come again.”
“She’s not going to be here Noah. I’m sorry but we’ll have to find you someone else.”
Quinn sighed at her son’s defeated groan. “I guess Uncle Mike would be cool if he brings us all a thousand bucks.”
“I wish, baby.”
Beth quickly hopped into the van when Quinn pulled up at the middle school. The girl waved goodbye to her friends and shifted uncomfortably in her seat as they drove away.
“How was your day, baby girl?” Quinn greeted her daughter.
“It was okay. The class hamster got loose so we had to chase it all around the school until we got it.” Beth smiled. “And Jeremy Hutchins smiled at me.”
“Jeremy who, now?”
The girl giggled. “Jeremy Hutchins. He moved here a couple months ago. Bailey says that Jessica told her that Nathan said he overheard Naomi and Ashley talking that they heard Jeremy tell Kyle that I was cute and he liked me and he might ask me to the spring dance.”
“Wait now, what? Repeat that again in English.”
“Jeremy moved here a couple months ago and he might ask me to the spring dance.”
Quinn blinked a few times and gripped onto the steering wheel. “A boy…asked you to a dance?”
“No, he might ask me. But the dance isn’t for like a month.”
“Is he nice?”
“Yeah. He’s really quiet.”
Quinn grimaced a little at the thought of any boy being near her baby girl. She knew her daughter was only twelve and these things were going to start happening but as a mother who had said daughter when she was sixteen, she had every right to be concerned.
“I want to meet him if he asks you,” the blonde said.
“Mom it’s just a stupid dance.”
“I know…but a mother can never be too careful.” Quinn smiled.
“Is it okay…I mean… if he asks me could you maybe take me to his house?”
Quinn nodded silently. Beth was at the age where she knew she didn’t live in the nicest part of town. They barely lived in a decent part of town. Beth and Noah weren’t allowed off of their street because two blocks to the east was the part of town that they heard sirens come from almost every night. Quinn knew that the twelve-year-old was aware that everyone that lived in her neighborhood and on her street were renting cookie-cutter houses built by the government and that everyone had that little plastic card they used at the grocery store. Quinn dreaded the day when Noah really started to get it because he was just enough like his father that, despite his small stature, he would deck the first kid that said anything to him.
Once home, Noah scrambled to the front door before Quinn could yell at him to grab a bag of groceries. Beth made sure to grab a few bags on each arm so Quinn could get Jasper in one arm and the remaining bags with the other. She handed the keys to Noah to let him open the door and the blonde got the two oldest kids settled at the kitchen table with their homework and Jasper in his chair with a puzzle while she put away the groceries.
“What do you guys want for dinner?” she asked. “I picked up some macaroni and cheese, we could do that and hot dogs. Or I got the cheeseburger Hamburger Helper that you like.”
Beth shrugged. “Whatever’s easiest, Mom.” The young girl smiled up from her homework momentarily before going back to it.
“Hot dogs!” Noah said with a grin.
“Hot dogs it is!” Quinn smiled and went to the kitchen cupboard to pull out a sippy cup for Jasper but a knock at the door made her stop.
“What the…” the blonde wandered into the small living room and peered out the peep hole of the front door cautiously. She growled when she saw a short brunette standing outside her door. She opened it just a crack, enough to stick her head out.
“Rachel, what are you doing here?”
Rachel looked extremely nervous as a police car went flying up the road. The brunette glanced around at her surroundings and swallowed hard.
“I looked you up in the phone book.”
“Mom, who is it?!” Beth called.
Quinn sighed and turned a little to call back to her, “Don’t worry about it. Do your fractions!”
“Was that…was that her?” Rachel asked with a small smile. “Beth?”
Quinn nodded. “Why are you here?”
“I wanted to see you. I was thinking maybe I could take you and the kids out to dinner tonight. My treat.”
“I don’t want your charity, Rachel.”
“I’m not doing this for charity. I’m doing this because I want to. Where do they like to eat? I can get a reservation anywhere.”
“Rachel, don’t…”
“Please, Quinn. I’m pretty sure you deserve the break.”
Quinn knew the look in Rachel’s eyes. It was sincerity. It was the look that Rachel didn’t have on her face when she ended things. The blonde quickly weighed the options and her ten-year-old grudge against the star was overpowered by wanting to talk to someone that didn’t already know everything about her - plus the fact that this was one meal she could save for later.
“They like Denny’s,” Quinn said. “Noah’s pretty picky, that’s the only place he’ll eat.”
Rachel furrowed her eyebrows.
“Noah Junior.”
“Oh!” Rachel smiled. “Will Noah…the first one…will he be joining us?”
Quinn shook her head. “No.” How Rachel could still not know was beyond her. Surely she’d seen other people they went to high school with or her dads would’ve told her. Apparently not.
“Okay,” Rachel said. “Denny’s at six?”
“Sounds good.”
Chapter 2
Major Characters/Pairings: Quinn Fabray-Puckerman, Beth Puckerman, Noah Puckerman, Jr., Jasper Puckerman, Rachel Berry, Finn Hudson/OC, Mentions past: Quinn/Puck, Rachel/Puck, Rachel/Quinn
Minor Characters/Pairings: Mike/OC, Matt/OC, Artie/Tina, Rachel's dads Mentions: Brittany/Santana, Mercedes/OC, Kurt/OC
Rating: PG-13
Length: 45,200+
Summary: AU beginning after 'Funk'. Rachel got the hell out of Lima, Ohio immediately after graduation, breaking Quinn's heart in the process, and never looked back. Now, ten years later, she's back and Quinn is the one to show her the aftermath and the pieces of what she left behind - all the while trying desperately not to fall back in love with her ex-girlfriend.
Warnings: Pre-story character death discussed in detail.
Author's Note: Holy sweet Jesus, this took a long time. I kept getting distracted by other things and it just kept getting shoved on the back burner but now it's done and here and I don't have to mess with it anymore, yay!
-Chapter 1-
When Quinn Fabray Puckerman got the invitation to her ten year class reunion in the mail she scoffed at it and tossed it in the trash. Almost everyone knew what happened to her and she knew what happened to anyone she ever cared about in high school.
Finn went to OSU and met and married a woman named Kelsey and moved back to Lima to teach gym and coach sports at McKinley. Santana and Brittany had miraculously made it out and were living a happy life in Boston as a general surgeon and dance teacher, respectively. Tina and Artie were still in Lima and running their own pharmacy. Mercedes got married and moved to New York as did Kurt where he met his partner and once there Kurt re-teamed up with Mercedes and they started their own clothing line that was now being recognized all over the world. Mike and Matt had both played college football before they each got married and moved back to Lima where Matt was part owner of a Chevrolet dealership and Mike was managing a bank.
As for Rachel? Rachel Berry [Gold Star]? Rachel had a Grammy, two Tonys, an Oscar nomination, an Emmy, a failed marriage, and two albums under her belt…and a little of Quinn’s heart still clenched in her fist after having brutally ripped the organ from the blonde’s chest.
Quinn stared at the discarded invitation for a few moments longer before her trance was broken by the cries of reality. Reality, this time, had taken the form of her youngest son just waking up from his nap. Stepping away from memories of head-Cheerio and a short, brunette diva-to-be, and back into the mother role, Quinn made her way from the kitchen and down the hall to her sons’ bedroom. Jasper looked up at her with tears in his eyes and a wide smile at his mother’s presence. Quinn smiled back at her baby boy, sitting up on his own (a new development and complete miracle), and she picked the four-year-old up and dried his tears. She wished he hadn’t inherited Puck’s build because the boy was going to get even more difficult to lift as he got older, the doctors and therapists said. Quinn, however, was still holding onto hope that he would continue get better and lifting wouldn’t even have to be considered.
The racecar themed clock on the wall showed 1:30, meaning to Quinn that she had an hour and a half to get to the store before school let out. She brushed through Jasper’s hair, grabbed her purse and Jasper’s bag, and slipped her shoes on. She made sure to lock and deadbolt the front door and looked around nervously before going to her van that was on its last leg and lifting Jasper into his car seat and strapping him in. The route to Pick-n-Save was one she could drive with her eyes closed as was the path she would take through the store with her eyes on the wallet in her purse containing her employee card for that life-saving 10% discount.
After getting Jasper into a cart and checking once again that she had her wallet she headed inside and nodded to each cashier with a small smile.
“Hey boss,” they all greeted her.
“Couldn’t stay away for one day, could you?” a young girl just out of high school, Nicole, asked with a smile.
“I just missed you all so much,” Quinn replied, her tone sincerely bright. She smiled at the store manager who was making his way up to one of the cash registers. He gave her a big smile and patted Jasper on the head, earning him a gurgle from the young boy.
The blonde made her way through the store and was in the boxed food aisle when Jasper started whining and reaching insistently for his bag.
“What do you need baby?”
Jasper babbled incoherently.
“Use your words,” Quinn said. She reached over to grab a few boxes of macaroni and cheese.
“Want!”
“What do you want?” Quinn pushed the cart further down the aisle and grabbed two boxes of generic Hamburger Helper.
“Joo!”
“What kind of juice? Apple or orange?”
Jasper was quiet for a second and Quinn repeated herself.
“Tell me baby, apple or orange?”
“App!”
Quinn smiled and kissed her son’s forehead. “That’s my good boy. We’re getting there, aren’t we?” She stopped the cart and rummaged around in the backpack and pulled out an apple juice box and stuck the straw in it. Jasper concentrated for a moment before clasping it with both of his hands; Quinn kept a hold of it until he was sure with his grasp and started happily sucking away.
“What do you say to Mommy?”
“Mmm!”
“No, come on.”
With the attention on her son, Quinn lost focus on where she was headed and only looked up when her cart collided with another. The sudden jar caused Jasper to drop his juice box and promptly start crying; Quinn groaned and muttered a soft “damn” under her breath.
“I’m so sorry,” she said in the general direction of the other cart’s driver as she knelt down to pick up the juice box. Never one to waste, she pulled out a cleaning wipe from the backpack and cleaned off the box and wiped the straw with her shirt. It wasn’t sanitary but an extra juice box meant an extra thirty-five cents and maybe it didn’t sound like much but, added up over time, it was enough.
“It’s okay,” a female voice came.
Quinn finally looked up at the other woman and the friendly smile she intended to give turned into a look of complete disbelief. This was not what she needed right then. Or ever.
“Rachel…”
“Quinn…Hello, how are you?”
“I’m…” Quinn took a deep breath. ‘Exhausted’ didn’t cover it. ‘Emotional wreck’ wasn’t really appropriate for forced conversation. ‘Stretched so thin that I’m lucky if I get to sleep more than four hours uninterrupted’ seemed a little too detailed. “Fine,” she said when she exhaled. “How are you?”
“I’m doing quite well, thank you,” Rachel said with a smile. “You look like you have your hands full.”
Quinn looked down at Jasper who was again happily sucking away on his juice box, his eyes a little red from the almost-tantrum. Rachel didn’t know Jasper. She didn’t know Noah Jr. She barely knew Beth. She didn’t know anything about Quinn’s life anymore. They hadn’t spoken since just after graduation. ‘Hands full’ was a complete and total understatement.
“Yeah,” was all she could think of to say. “A little.”
“I’m in town for a little vacation and of course the reunion,” Rachel said, still smiling, obviously unaware of the look Quinn knew she had that screamed ‘get me the hell out of here’. “I haven’t talked to anyone in so long; it will be wonderful to get caught up.”
“Everything’s the same as you left it,” Quinn couldn’t help but hiss, just enough venom in her voice for Rachel’s shoulders to drop a little and her smile to fade.
“Not exactly the same,” Rachel noted quietly.
“Puckerman!”
Quinn turned around at the sound of her married surname and her boss approached her.
“Can you come in on Saturday?” the old man asked.
Quinn saw Rachel’s eyes dart to the man’s nametag with “Pick-n-Save” etched on it.
“I…I don’t know,” Quinn said. “I would have to ask my babysitter.”
“We need to get the inventory finished up and put into the computer. You’re the best one I’ve got for inventory, you know that. You get double overtime.”
Quinn sighed. She needed the money and she knew someone in town would be able to watch the kids, she would just have to work her way through her list of friends.
“I’ll do it.”
“You’re a life saver, sweetie. Tell whoever rings you up to give you an extra ten percent off, okay? Dinner still on for Wednesday?”
Quinn nodded and smiled appreciatively. Her boss knew her story. He knew her situation. He was like the father she never really had. He and his wife invited her family over for dinner on a weekly basis and he told her how much she reminded him of his daughter who had long since moved away from home. He assured her that one day she would be managing the store if she could get some college classes under her belt. While she really appreciated it, the foreseeable future didn’t show her as manager of anything. College was the last thing on her mind. Even if she did get there, “Manager of Pick-n-Save” wasn’t what she wanted as a job title for the rest of her life.
The blonde almost forgot that Rachel was standing there until she turned around and the short brunette was looking at her. The expression on Rachel’s face was unreadable. She’d just found out more about Quinn than Quinn ever intended for Rachel to know. First and foremost that…
“So you and Noah?” Rachel finally asked.
Quinn swallowed hard. Puck wasn’t something she talked about. Not anymore. So all she did was nod.
“That’s…good for you guys,” Rachel said with a smile. “I’m happy for you. How long have you been married?”
Quinn was stunned. The thought hit her that if Rachel didn’t know they were married then she also didn’t know…anything else. The blonde wondered exactly how often Rachel spoke to her dads. It wasn’t like they didn’t know, either. Everyone knew.
“About a year after graduation,” Quinn said, “I got pregnant again we figured if we were going to keep having kids together we might as well get married so we did. Speaking of which, I need to go. School lets out soon and I still have shopping to do. Nice seeing you.” Sure that the answer would pacify the diva’s curiosity, Quinn gripped tight to the handlebar of her cart and fixated her gaze ahead. The familiar burning behind her eyes intensified a little as her peripheral vision caught Jasper with a smile, his father’s smile, and she pushed the cart forward to get away from any more questions. Any more reminders than she already had.
She was stopped by a soft, small hand on her arm. “Quinn, I haven’t seen you in ten years! I know…I know things weren’t left on the best of terms but I would like to see you while I’m here. Would you like to have dinner this week?”
“I have three kids, Rachel. I can’t just go out and have dinner.”
“Can’t Noah watch them?”
Silence. Deafening silence as Rachel obliviously looked into Quinn’s eyes, now brimmed with tears, and smiled a little.
“No, he can’t,” Quinn said softly. “I have to go.”
Quinn ignored Rachel’s call to her as she walked toward the dairy case and wiped away the tears that had slipped out of her eyes. She avoided Rachel’s gaze when they met as she walked up and down the other aisles and got what she needed. Rachel gave her a little wave while Quinn was at the registers and the blonde tried desperately hard to hide the piece of plastic with “Ohio State Benefit Identification Card” stamped on it as she handed it over to Nicole as well as her employee card. She looked over her shoulder at Rachel who was walking by slowly with that look on her face when the cards were handed back. The look that Quinn had seen so many times when she would hand over her card and someone behind her would see it and her with her kids. The look of sympathy for a young, exhausted mother handing over her government assistance card.
It took Quinn four tries to get her van started and she sighed and made a note to take it to Burt Hummel when she got the chance. She knew he either wouldn’t charge her if it was something he could just fix right there or he wouldn’t tack on labor if he had to order parts. Quinn had resigned her pride long ago and she would always take whatever she was given by those that offered their help: Car service from Burt, discounts at the store, free babysitting from Finn and Kelsey, offers of great deals on cars she knew she couldn’t afford from Matt, discounts on what she had to pay out of pocket for the kids’ prescriptions and any supplies Quinn needed for Jasper from Tina and Artie, breaks and extensions on payments at the bank from Mike. From her parents? A glance at each of the Puckerman children if they were seen in public before shaking their heads and turning away. It was usually followed by a growl from Beth before she took Noah’s hand.
The blonde really, honestly felt sorry for her only daughter. It wasn’t Beth’s fault that she had been born first and the responsibility for Noah came with it more than Quinn wanted it to. The twelve-year-old girl had dark brown hair and hazel eyes, the only one out of the three to get her mother’s eyes, and she was the single most patient person that Quinn knew. Beth knew how to deal with Noah’s mood swings and how to keep him calmed down if it was one of those days when the boy didn’t want to deal with his life. What nine-year-old would want to live the life he was in?
The first stop after the grocery store was the elementary school, Noah climbed in the back and took his seat next to Jasper and buckled in. He crossed his arms over his chest and let out an exasperated sigh, telling Quinn that today hadn’t exactly been ideal.
“How was your day, sweetie?” Quinn asked once she was out of the elementary school traffic and headed to the middle school.
“Fine,” the young boy answered with a distinct growl.
“What’s wrong?”
“Stupid career day is next week.”
“Oh.” Quinn paused. “Why don’t you see if maybe one of your aunts or uncles could come in? I’m sure Aunt Tina or Uncle Artie would come in and talk. Or maybe Uncle Mike could talk about all the money at the bank. I could talk to Uncle Matt or Mr. Hummel and see if he would come talk about cars?”
They went through the same thing last year. Luckily Santana came in on vacation and Quinn convinced her to go with Noah and talk about being a surgeon. She was the best one there, Noah had said, because she talked about guts and gore and blood in vivid detail and even got the Lima hospital to let her bring in some of their preserved organs. Unfortunately, the Latina had already said she wasn’t going to be in town anytime soon.
“I want Aunt Santana to come again.”
“She’s not going to be here Noah. I’m sorry but we’ll have to find you someone else.”
Quinn sighed at her son’s defeated groan. “I guess Uncle Mike would be cool if he brings us all a thousand bucks.”
“I wish, baby.”
Beth quickly hopped into the van when Quinn pulled up at the middle school. The girl waved goodbye to her friends and shifted uncomfortably in her seat as they drove away.
“How was your day, baby girl?” Quinn greeted her daughter.
“It was okay. The class hamster got loose so we had to chase it all around the school until we got it.” Beth smiled. “And Jeremy Hutchins smiled at me.”
“Jeremy who, now?”
The girl giggled. “Jeremy Hutchins. He moved here a couple months ago. Bailey says that Jessica told her that Nathan said he overheard Naomi and Ashley talking that they heard Jeremy tell Kyle that I was cute and he liked me and he might ask me to the spring dance.”
“Wait now, what? Repeat that again in English.”
“Jeremy moved here a couple months ago and he might ask me to the spring dance.”
Quinn blinked a few times and gripped onto the steering wheel. “A boy…asked you to a dance?”
“No, he might ask me. But the dance isn’t for like a month.”
“Is he nice?”
“Yeah. He’s really quiet.”
Quinn grimaced a little at the thought of any boy being near her baby girl. She knew her daughter was only twelve and these things were going to start happening but as a mother who had said daughter when she was sixteen, she had every right to be concerned.
“I want to meet him if he asks you,” the blonde said.
“Mom it’s just a stupid dance.”
“I know…but a mother can never be too careful.” Quinn smiled.
“Is it okay…I mean… if he asks me could you maybe take me to his house?”
Quinn nodded silently. Beth was at the age where she knew she didn’t live in the nicest part of town. They barely lived in a decent part of town. Beth and Noah weren’t allowed off of their street because two blocks to the east was the part of town that they heard sirens come from almost every night. Quinn knew that the twelve-year-old was aware that everyone that lived in her neighborhood and on her street were renting cookie-cutter houses built by the government and that everyone had that little plastic card they used at the grocery store. Quinn dreaded the day when Noah really started to get it because he was just enough like his father that, despite his small stature, he would deck the first kid that said anything to him.
Once home, Noah scrambled to the front door before Quinn could yell at him to grab a bag of groceries. Beth made sure to grab a few bags on each arm so Quinn could get Jasper in one arm and the remaining bags with the other. She handed the keys to Noah to let him open the door and the blonde got the two oldest kids settled at the kitchen table with their homework and Jasper in his chair with a puzzle while she put away the groceries.
“What do you guys want for dinner?” she asked. “I picked up some macaroni and cheese, we could do that and hot dogs. Or I got the cheeseburger Hamburger Helper that you like.”
Beth shrugged. “Whatever’s easiest, Mom.” The young girl smiled up from her homework momentarily before going back to it.
“Hot dogs!” Noah said with a grin.
“Hot dogs it is!” Quinn smiled and went to the kitchen cupboard to pull out a sippy cup for Jasper but a knock at the door made her stop.
“What the…” the blonde wandered into the small living room and peered out the peep hole of the front door cautiously. She growled when she saw a short brunette standing outside her door. She opened it just a crack, enough to stick her head out.
“Rachel, what are you doing here?”
Rachel looked extremely nervous as a police car went flying up the road. The brunette glanced around at her surroundings and swallowed hard.
“I looked you up in the phone book.”
“Mom, who is it?!” Beth called.
Quinn sighed and turned a little to call back to her, “Don’t worry about it. Do your fractions!”
“Was that…was that her?” Rachel asked with a small smile. “Beth?”
Quinn nodded. “Why are you here?”
“I wanted to see you. I was thinking maybe I could take you and the kids out to dinner tonight. My treat.”
“I don’t want your charity, Rachel.”
“I’m not doing this for charity. I’m doing this because I want to. Where do they like to eat? I can get a reservation anywhere.”
“Rachel, don’t…”
“Please, Quinn. I’m pretty sure you deserve the break.”
Quinn knew the look in Rachel’s eyes. It was sincerity. It was the look that Rachel didn’t have on her face when she ended things. The blonde quickly weighed the options and her ten-year-old grudge against the star was overpowered by wanting to talk to someone that didn’t already know everything about her - plus the fact that this was one meal she could save for later.
“They like Denny’s,” Quinn said. “Noah’s pretty picky, that’s the only place he’ll eat.”
Rachel furrowed her eyebrows.
“Noah Junior.”
“Oh!” Rachel smiled. “Will Noah…the first one…will he be joining us?”
Quinn shook her head. “No.” How Rachel could still not know was beyond her. Surely she’d seen other people they went to high school with or her dads would’ve told her. Apparently not.
“Okay,” Rachel said. “Denny’s at six?”
“Sounds good.”
Chapter 2