fanfic: Fate Or Something, PG-13 (Artie/Quinn)
Title: Fate Or Something
Author: ipickquinn & backitup_baby
Pairings/Characters: Artie/Quinn
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 6,050
Spoilers: none
Summary: Artie and Quinn get over the shock of her pregnancy and find out the gender of the baby. And Santana teaches Andy Spanish and offers Quinn a job.
A/N: This fic was written by ipickquinn (as Quinn) and backitup_baby (as Artie)!
( Artie/Quinn 'verse masterlist)
Fate Or Something
The next day, as promised, Quinn went out and bought a home pregnancy test to appease Artie. There was no way she could be pregnant so this was really just for show. She decided to wait until he got home from work to take it so he would know she was being honest about it, not that she had any reason to lie. When she heard the front door open she made sure Andy was settled in his playpen then went to the front door to greet him.
“Hi, baby,” she said with a smile and leaned down to kiss him. “I’m glad you’re home.”
“Everything okay?” Artie asked, just to make sure, reaching out for her hand. It didn’t seem like there was anything wrong, though, so he smiled up at her. “What’s up?”
“Yeah, everything is fine. Andy’s in his playpen.” She paused a minute to bite her lip before speaking again. “I bought a pregnancy test. I was waiting for you to get home so I could take it.”
Artie had secretly been concerned that Quinn would purposely forget to do this so he nodded a little, kind of apprehensively, and said, “Okay. Are you going to do it now?”
“I guess so. I know you want me to,” Quinn said. “So, I’ll just go do that then. Can you go watch Andy then?”
“Yeah, of course,” Artie said, squeezing her hand a little before wheeling past her to go say hi to Andy. Lowering one of the playpen’s sides, he took his son out and went to go put him in his jumper so they could play together.
Quinn could hear Artie and Andy playing in the other room as she forced herself to pee on the stupid pregnancy test and set the timer. She wanted to wait for the results so she knew how to approach Artie and when the three minutes were up and she flipped the test over, she had to blink a few times. How could this even be possible? With a frustrated sigh she exited the bathroom, pregnancy test in hand, and went to join her boys. “Here,” she said, wrinkling her nose as she held it out for Artie, not bothering with a greeting as she entered the room.
Artie had gotten himself on the floor in Quinn’s absence and was in the middle of tickling Andy when Quinn walked back in. “I don’t want to touch that,” he said, leaning over so he could look at it better. “Wait, what does that mean?”
“It means... It means I’m fucking pregnant. How the fuck am I pregnant?” Quinn said in frustration and set the test on the coffee table, even though if she thought about it, it was really gross.
“Hey,” Artie said, looking pointedly at Andy and covering his ears once Quinn started swearing. He was beginning to mimic sounds, or at least Artie thought he was, and that was the last thing he wanted him to start trying to say. It took a moment for what she’d said to really sink in, though, and when it did he blinked a little up at her. “So... um. Wow. I mean, that’s cool, great actually, because we did want two kids, but.” He looked again at Andy, biting his lip a little. “Andy’s so young. And we might have to move. Are you okay?”
Quinn sighed again and dropped down to sit on the floor. “I just don’t get it. I’ve been careful. Are you okay with this? Because you seemed really worried about it last night. And now the fu--stupid,” Quinn rolled her eyes as she corrected herself, “test is saying I’m pregnant. Maybe I should go to the doctor to get another test.”
“Maybe,” Artie said, still trying to think about this and what they would have to do if she were really pregnant. Again. “Well, we had stopped using condoms,” he said after a moment, “though I’m not really sure whether that would really make a difference. I don’t know. I mean, we have to be okay with it.”
“We don’t have to be okay with anything, we don’t know anything,” Quinn said stubbornly then reached out to rub Andy’s stomach. “We should start using condoms. Because I know I didn’t mess up my birth control.”
“Okay,” Artie agreed, though privately he thought they probably shouldn’t be having sex in the near future if she wasn’t actually pregnant. Just to buy them some time. “Are you going to make an appointment?”
“Yeah I will in the morning. I think the offices are closed for the night,” Quinn said, frowning slightly. “I guess we should just make dinner and get Andy to bed then.”
“Okay,” he said again, before blurting, “Quinn, you do know you probably are pregnant, right?”
Quinn let out a pathetic whimper and flopped onto her back. “Yes, I know that. But what are we going to do about it?”
Artie leaned forward and took Andy out of the jumper, smiling a little despite the seriousness of the conversation as his son wriggled and made adorable noises. “I guess we can probably turn the spare junk room into another room and Andy can go in there in 9 months. That wouldn’t be so bad, right? Finding a new place would just be really hard right now.” He sat Andy down next to Quinn, hoping that would cheer her up. “It’ll be good.”
If Artie was trying to distract her with how adorable their son was, he was succeeding. Quinn reached out to take hold on Andy’s hand, smiling slightly at how cute and chubby it was. “This is just really unexpected. I know we want more kids I just didn’t expect it to happen so soon.” She leaned forward and kissed the top of Andy’s head. “It will be okay though, we can do this. Right?”
“Of course we can,” Artie said, trying to be reassuring even though he was definitely freaked out by all of this. “We’ll figure it out. It’ll be hard. But we’ll do it.” He lowered himself down, placing his hands on either side of her, so he could kiss her.
Quinn sighed into the kiss and wrapped an arm around his neck, letting the kiss go on for a long while before pulling back. “How did I get so lucky with you? And our little boy, too,” she grinned and reached out to tickle Andy.
“Fate or something,” Artie said, sitting up slightly to watch Andy start to wander around their living room. “Will you fix the baby gate thing so he can’t escape, please?”
“I like our fate,” Quinn said, giving Artie another kiss before hoisting herself up off the ground and went after Andy. “He got really good at this already,” she said as she turned him around so he would being crawling back to Artie then went and got the removable gate and put it in the doorway.
Artie grinned back at her once she returned. “Hey, so... this is your doctor. I have your pregnancy results right here. And guess what? You, uh, you got knocked up, so you should probably get out of news.”
“Oh, really?” Quinn asked, raising her eyebrow, then glanced at Andy quickly to make sure he was okay. He was pretty content crawling around and suddenly stopped and became very interested in his toes. Quinn just laughed and moved back over to Artie, straddling his waist. “Is that your professional opinion, doctor?”
“Yes, yes it is,” Artie said, reaching up with his arms for a moment to stretch before wrapping them around her waist. “I love you. And I’m excited about our impending baby. ... That sounds so ominous.”
“It does, doesn’t it? But, it’s going to be great. We didn’t expect Andy but look at him. He’s already crawling and we’re happy right? This is going to be good,” Quinn said resolutely then leaned down for a kiss.
"Of course we are," he said, smiling at her and secretly wondering how she even needed to question whether they were or not. "It'll be great. Maybe we'll have a girl."
“Good, I’m glad you’re happy. Because I’m happy. With you and Andy. And with the little boy or girl that’s on the way. I hope it’s a girl because then we’d have one of each. It’ll be great,” Quinn repeated with a grin and gave him another kiss, finally feeling like it was really going to be okay.
---
Quinn felt the familiar feeling of anticipation as she and Artie waited in the examination room for their 18 week ultrasound. The last time they had been to the doctor and tried finding out the gender the baby was positioned the wrong way, leaving Quinn and Artie disappointed. But they were hoping for better luck today. Giving Artie’s hand another squeeze, she turned to look at him. “I can just feel it’s a girl.”
Artie wasn't really sure how Quinn could sense that but he was kind of hoping that she was right, just because it would be nice to have one of both. That wasn't his main priority, though, and he was happy that everything was going okay developmentally. "Are you going to be really upset if it's not?" he asked after a moment, just in case.
“Yep, and I am going to personally hold you responsible for allowing the wrong sperm to impregnate me,” Quinn teased. “It doesn’t matter, really though. Just as long as the baby is healthy, right?”
"Definitely," Artie said, smiling at her briefly before smirking. "I would say that if we had a girl I'd be worried she'd end up like you but I think we're already in danger of that happening with Andy."
“What’s wrong with our kids being like me? You married me after all,” Quinn said, putting a hand on her stomach protectively, as if to shield the baby from hearing Artie’s concern.
"Sorry if I don't like it that our son rolls his eyes at us when he doesn't want to do something," Artie said, shrugging and trying to keep a straight face. "He definitely gets that from you. I never do that."
Quinn couldn’t help but giggle. “I think it’s cute. He has a lot of personality. And it’s a good trait for a person to have, don’t you think?”
However, Artie never got the chance to respond because their sonogram technician walked in at that point. “Good afternoon! How are you both doing today?”
Artie was about to ask her how being sassy was a good trait when they were interrupted. "Hi," he said, switching gears immediately. "We're great, thanks. Excited to see what's up. How are you?" He then shot Quinn a look to tell her their conversation was not over.
Quinn shot Artie a smirk before focusing on the technician to respond. “Yeah, we’re good. Just excited! Hopefully the baby isn’t shy today.”
“Good to hear it. Well let’s see how you’re coming along.” At this, Quinn lifted up her gown then winced slightly as the cool gel was squirted on her stomach. “Oh good, it looks like the baby is in good positioning for us to find out the gender. Everything looks healthy though, the fetus is the right size. See and there’s the head, and here’s a little hand,” the technician said and pointed to different spots on the screen.
Smiling, Quinn gave Artie’s hand a squeeze. “And the gender?”
Artie waited patiently, then looked over at Quinn to see how she felt when the technician told them they were expecting a boy. He was pretty okay with this and hoped Quinn would be too.
"That's great," Artie said, squeezing Quinn's hand as he spoke. "And everything is okay, too?"
“Everything looks great with the little guy,” the technician said and handed Quinn a towel to wipe off her stomach. “And you’re not experiencing anything abnormal, Quinn?”
The blonde finished cleaning her belly off then pulled down the gown. “No, I feel great. All the morning sickness has passed, he hasn’t started kicking yet. Or at least kicking that’s really noticeable.”
“Excellent. Well congratulations on another boy. The receptionist will help you schedule your next appointment.”
Once Artie and Quinn were alone again, she turned to face him, half smiling. “I guess I can deal with being outnumbered. Three against one...” she pouted. “We can start thinking of names though. That’s exciting.”
"Are you sure?" he asked, moving himself a little closer to her and letting go of her hand so he could rub her arm a little. "We can definitely start thinking of names though. I think Andy will be
pleased, though. I asked him last night if he wanted a little brother or sister and he was a lot more talkative when I mentioned having a little brother. Or maybe that's just my own interpretation and he really doesn't care. Who knows."
“Oh so that’s what you two were talking about while I was working on dinner? You two are always so cute,” Quinn said, actually feeling quite happy even though they weren’t having a girl. She let Artie rub her arm for another moment before moving it down to her stomach.
“This is good though, we won’t have to repaint the nursery. And I sort of like the idea of having all you boys wrapped around my little finger,” she said with a smirk.
Artie absentmindedly moved his hand in circles on Quinn's stomach, thinking about this. "Yeah, and most of the stuff is out of the spare room now so we just have to actually turn it into a bedroom within the next few months. So it'll be fine." After a moment, he added, "Just don't make the second one as sassy as Andy is getting."
“Andy isn’t too sassy. You’re just mad he takes more after me than you. It isn’t a competition.” Quinn paused a moment before adding with a giggle, “Though if it were I’d be winning.” She smiled at him then. “I’m just kidding. I’ll try to make this one behave.”
"Well, I'm not really a big fan of the sass when you do it and even more so when it's our son," Artie said very straightforwardly, shrugging. "Not that I don't love you. Or him. Are you ready to go?"
Quinn frowned slightly at Artie’s tone and pushed his hand off her stomach so she could hop off the table and get dressed. “Yeah just give me a minute.”
Artie bit his lip and watched her for a moment, quietly, before saying, "I'm sorry. I'm just kind of stressed, I guess. It feels more real now that we know we're having a son. And I'm trying to figure out how this will work for us."
“And the past four and a half months as you watched my stomach grow, that wasn’t real enough?” Quinn asked as she pulled her shirt on. “How what will work though? Money stuff?”
Artie blushed a little and shrugged, knowing she had a point. "Yeah, I guess. To both of those. You're going to have to take off work again... Obviously. I guess we just need to sit down and really figure all of that out."
“I can start doing freelance work again. I’m sure I could line up some projects before the baby is born. We should definitely figure all this out though before I give birth. It will be okay though. We did it before.” Quinn was done getting dressed now so she walked over to Artie and stopped in front of him. “I love you, by the way. Thanks for coming to the appointment with me.”
"Of course," Artie said, reaching out to hold both of her hands. "I'm glad everything's okay. For both you and our son. I wonder how Andy is doing right now. Santana didn't seem too excited when we called and asked her to come over for a few hours."
Quinn put his hands on her stomach momentarily before leaning down for a kiss. “I’m glad everything is okay, too. But we should get home. You think I’m a bad influence on him, who knows what Santana is trying to teach him.”
"Oh god," Artie said, imagining the worst. "Especially because he really likes her. Between the two of you Andy might become a little hell raiser," he added, this time obviously joking. "I can only imagine. He might start slushieing people in elementary school."
“I won’t let him do that,” Quinn said dismissively. “I’m all dressed though so let’s get home. You know, just to make sure the world isn’t ending with Santana influencing our son.” She grabbed her purse and opened the door, ushering Artie out in front of her.
When they got back to their apartment, they found Santana and Andy watching Dora the Explorer on their television. "Great, his television addiction can begin early on," Artie whispered to Quinn as they made their way into the living room.
"Hola," Santana said, not looking away from the television. Neither did Andy.
Quinn leaned down and kissed Artie’s neck before whispering back, “It could be worse, and remember to say thank you to her for baby sitting,” she said before giving him another kiss and standing up.
“Hola,” she responded to Santana with a smirk then gradually eased herself down onto the floor so she could give Andy a kiss on the top of the head. “Hi sweetie.” Andy turned slightly to give his mother a look of ‘not now’ then turned back to the tv. Okay, maybe Artie had a point about the ‘too sassy’ thing.
“See, I told you,” Artie said, looking pointedly at Quinn. “And this will only get worse as he starts putting together complete sentences. I will bet you money on this.”
Santana turned around and glared at both of them. “Hey, this is the good part. They’re about to solve the mystery. Give us a moment, okay?”
“You’re legit emotionally involved in Dora the Explorer?” Artie asked, heartily bewildered by this.
“She’s legit,” Santana said, as though that settled things.
“Um, okay,” Artie said, shrugging.
Quinn watched this exchange with amusement then lifted Andy onto her lap, rolling her eyes slightly when he flailed. But once she had him settled and he was focusing on the tv again, he calmed down. “We are not betting money on our children. He’ll be fine though. Won’t you, Andy?” He let out a disgruntled noise and just kept staring at the tv. “See, he just wants to learn,” Quinn said weakly. They really had created a monster.
“He can’t even understand half of what they’re saying,” Artie argued, turning more towards Quinn. “We should definitely bet. I don’t know what, but we will bet something. Maybe dinner. I think this is a great idea. We can revisit this in two years and I bet Andy will be a little nightmare.”
“He can’t understand it yet,” Quinn said pointedly then gave Andy a loving pat on the head. “He’s learning. And we will negotiate this whole betting business later. Anyway, why are you so pessimistic? You don’t want him to be a nightmare, do you? And how do I know that you won’t encourage him to sass back just so you can win the bet?” She looked over at him, pursing her lips.
“I don’t want him to be a nightmare but he’s already a little sassball and how is that going to change? Isn’t these first few years when people’s personalities really begin to become defined?” Artie reasoned, looking at his son very observantly.
“Shh,” Santana said, turning her head to glare at him again before turning her attention back to the television. “Seriously. And just get over it, if he’s going to be like whatever he’s going to be like whatever.”
Quinn snorted slightly at Artie using the word ‘sassball’ and looked down at Andy. “He has a strong personality like his mama,” she said firmly then glanced at Santana. “And she’s right. We can’t try to define him otherwise he wouldn’t be him. We just have to let Andy be Andy.”
“I guess,” Artie said, getting the sense that no matter what, he was always going to be overruled on this. “So, um, what’s going on?” he asked Santana.
“They found this map and they were trying to find the treasure but it’s taking an entire half hour to figure it out when clearly they should just go to where the x is,” Santana said.
Artie looked over at Quinn and raised his eyebrows slightly. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure this is just another example of how you’re probably too old to watch this show, Santana.”
“I’m going to have to agree with Artie on this one, Santana,” Quinn said giggling slightly. “Isn’t there a mischievous fox that gets in their way though? So it’s not entirely their fault that it takes them a while,” she said logically.
“Dora is a pioneer in positive role models for Latin women,” Santana told them both. “How was the appointment?”
“Well Andy is going to be very aware of multicultural issues then,” Quinn said, trying her best not to laugh again. “The appointment was good. Baby is healthy... we’re having another boy.”
“Oh, congratulations,” Santana said, flashing her a genuine smile. “That’s great. More miniature big-eared Arties.”
“Thanks, Santana,” Artie commented, rolling his eyes.
“Hey, stop making fun of the ears, they’re cute,” Quinn said and looked over at Artie affectionately then down to Andy. “Cute like his daddy, right?”
“Hopefully you think I’m cute,” Artie said, leaning in to kiss Quinn.
“Please stop that now,” Santana said, before turning herself a little on the couch to face them. “When are you going to go on leave?” she asked Quinn.
Quinn ignored Santana and leaned forward to kiss Artie, leaving one arm around Andy to keep him in place and used her other hand up to cup his face. When she finally pulled back from their kiss she grinned. “You’re more than cute, you’re adorable.”
Figuring she had tortured her best friend enough she pulled back and looked her. “Depends what the doctor says, whether I need bed rest or not. Everything seems okay right now though.”
“Okay, well... you should totally be my personal assistant when you’re on leave if you want to be,” Santana said carefully, though she couldn’t help but add, “You can be my bitch. Totally kidding. But seriously, if you want.”
Quinn’s eyes had snuck back over to Artie and she was busy thinking about kissing him that she only half heard what Santana had said. Until she heard her telling Quinn she could be her bitch. “Wait, what? Why would I want to be your bitch? What the fuck? Oh, sorry Andy,” she said immediately after she realized she had said a ‘bad word’.
Artie glared at them both. “You should both just watch your language around Andy, thanks,” he said, not really sure he was addressing more.
“Whatever,” Santana said, though she was secretly making a mental note to only swear in Spanish when she was at their place from now on. “Seriously, though, I don’t know whether you are going to be working from home or not but if you won’t have anything lined up and you’ll just have paid leave, let me know.”
Quinn sent an apologetic look at Artie then looked at Santana. “Wait, are you seriously offering me a job? Are you sure that would be a good idea?”
“Why wouldn’t it be?” Santana asked, genuinely confused.
“Oh, well, you know what they say about mixing business with pleasure,” Quinn said, giving a nervous laugh.
“I wasn’t aware we were involved in pleasure,” Santana commented, unable to help a smirk.
Artie looked at them both skeptically. “Are you flirting with my wife?”
“I’m just trying to figure out what she’s talking about,” Santana replied, innocently.
“Oh my God, Andy and I will just be here while you two discuss whether my best friend is flirting with me or not,” Quinn said with a groan. “I just, I don’t want us to get mad at each other because you’re bossing me around because you’d essentially be my boss and then have our friendship be messed up.”
“I wouldn’t get mad at you because you wouldn’t screw up to begin with,” Santana said confidently. “So if you’re interested just let me know. And I’m not flirting with you.”
“You better not be,” Artie said before looking at Quinn. “If you want to do it I think it’s kind of a good idea.” Then again, he was probably biased because they could always use more money.
“Well I am really good at getting people to do what I want them to do so getting stuff done for you would be easy,” Quinn said logically. “What would I have to do exactly?”
“Not that much stuff,” Santana said, thinking about it. “Just like, handle my calendar and appointments and maybe emails. No big deal.”
“So stuff I could do and still stay at home with the boys?” Quinn asked, seriously tempted by this offer. While she enjoyed her job at the small marketing firm she worked at, she couldn’t deny that being able to work from home while the kids were young would be awesome.
“Yeah, exactly,” Santana said, nodding. “Plus it’s not like you don’t already work in marketing so you know how things work anyway. So as long as you don’t try to like, steal my clients away from me, which would totally not be legit, it should be fine. So just let me know.”
“Okay. Well Artie and I should talk about it some more just to be sure but I’ll definitely let you know,” Quinn said as she absentmindedly flattened Andy’s hair down.
“Sounds good,” Santana said, standing up after a moment and stretching. “Well, I should probably go. I think Brittany and I are going out to dinner and I should go home and get ready beforehand. See you guys soon?”
“Yeah, we’ll do something,” Artie said, moving his arm around Quinn.
“Okay. Well thanks for watching Andy and tell Britt we say hi. All four of us should do something together soon, you know if things are good between you two,” Quinn said giving Santana one of those looks she always gave her when she was trying to tell her not to mess it up again.
Santana had a very self-righteous look on her face. “Things are good,” she said, before looking at Quinn a little skeptically. “Why, did she tell you they aren’t?” She leaned down to give Quinn a hug, then ruffled Andy’s hair before going over to give Artie a hug as well (though that would probably just always be slightly awkward).
Andy made an indignant noise at Santana ruffling his hair and Quinn smirked slightly, mentally reminding herself to tell Artie that their son took after him in at least one way. “No she hasn’t said anything. I just want you to keep it good. So make sure you do,” she said.
Santana nodded a little and resisted the urge to roll her eyes, feeling like she was talking to her mom or something. “Yeah, I know. It’ll be fine. I’ll let you know how it goes. Bye!”
Once Santana had left, Artie turned to Quinn and reached out to take Andy from her. “So are you going to consider it?”
Quinn waved after Santana then gave Andy a kiss on the top of his head before handing him to Artie. “Oh look at him, reaching out for you. You two are always so cute.” She watched them a few moments more before nodding. “Yeah I’m considering it. You don’t think we’ll drive each other crazy do you? Well, more crazy than we already make each other.”
“But it’s a lot better than when we were in high school,” Artie said, after considering this (because she really did have a point). “You guys rarely fight these days. So it should be fine, right? Unless the close proximity will bring that back. But the point of you working for her is that you would be able to work from here, and unless she was also working from here... Unless you have a problem with the whole idea of working for her in general.”
“That’s a good point, I wouldn’t actually be interacting up close with her. And I’d get to stay home with this little one,” Quinn said, giving her stomach an affectionate rub. “I think I should do it then. It would be good. And you’re right, we don’t really fight that much anymore. We’re older and more... mature now,” she said, nodding her head logically.
“Exactly,” Artie said, leaning in to kiss her before setting Andy down on the ground (he had gotten too wriggly and clearly wanted to be set free). “Although maybe I should email her and tell her to not have a power trip or anything, being your boss.”
Quinn watched Andy go crawling around, glad she had thought to put up the gate before hand so she didn’t have to get up again, then turned to Artie. “Maybe, because you know I don’t like anyone but you being the boss,” she said with a smirk.
Artie rolled his eyes at her and tried not to smile in response to that. “You’d better not like it if she were doing that to you,” he said, although the mental image that unwillingly popped into his head was actually kind of hot. “Hey, can you get him?” he said then, raising his eyebrows as Andy tried to climb up onto the coffee table, out of his reach.
“Yeah I got him,” Quinn said, jumping up (well as fast as a 5 month pregnant woman could) and scooped up Andy into her arms. “You are getting to be quite the little rascal, aren’t you?” She said, looking down at him before kissing his forehead. “Mommy and daddy don’t want you to get hurt though.” She walked back over to Artie and sat down with Andy before looking at him. “Why would you think I would like that? You know I only want you.”
Artie decided this was an appropriate time to put the television back on (which they would do sometimes as a last resort) and select another episode of Dora so Andy would calm down. “I know,” he said, settling Andy back down next to Quinn after he’d popped up again. “It’d be hot though.”
Quinn absentmindedly played with Andy’s hair as she raised an eyebrow at Artie. “Oh, really?” She said, noncommitally, wondering if he would keep talking or just do that embarrassed trailing off thing he did.
“Kind of,” Artie said, just as vaguely. He didn’t want to get into how, first, he had accidentally once had less than appropriate thoughts about her best friend, and second, didn’t want to talk about things in more detail when his son (well, technically both of them, but one of them would always be around) was present.
“I better still be who you want the most though,” Quinn said, narrowing her eyes slightly.
“Of course you are,” Artie replied, automatically.
“I’m not sure whether the fact that you responded so quickly means you’re telling the truth or you’re just trying to tell me what I want to hear.” Quinn’s eyes narrowed even more.
“Quinn,” Artie said warningly, turning his head a little to look at her. “You’re kind of being crazy right now. I am telling the truth and coincidentally, it’s also what you want to hear.”
Quinn took a moment to calm down then half-sighed, half-laughed. “I’m going to blame the hormones. Sorry, baby. I love you.”
“I love you too,” Artie said, leaning in to kiss her over Andy’s head. “Even when you’re crazy.”
She turned her head to kiss him a little more thoroughly before pulling back. “You make me crazy. But mostly in the good ways.”
“I think I should be the one to decide whether or not it’s in a good or bad way,” Artie said, obviously joking. “Guess what? I still love you.”
“No, I think you decide when it’s in a good or bad way,” Quinn shot back with a smirk. “I still love you too though. Even when you make me the bad kind of crazy.”
Artie was about to say something in response to this but he trailed off and looked down at his son, who had been contentedly babbling in English for a while before suddenly managing sounds that sounded like Spanish. “Did you hear that?”
“Did he really just...?” Quinn asked, a little perplexed if Andy had really just started babbling in Spanish. “I guess this is what we get for having Santana watch him so much.”
He pondered this for a moment, still looking skeptically down at Andy. “Yeah, probably,” he said, after listening to Andy have a conversation with the television in a mix of both. “Well, he’ll be well rounded.”
“It’s kind of cute though,” Quinn said after a moment and reached out to pat Andy’s head. “Except what if Santana and Andy start having conversations in Spanish about us and we can’t understand it?”
“Hmm,” Artie said. “Didn’t you take Spanish in high school? Or did you forget it all? Or maybe she will teach him Spanish pig latin so we can’t understand it as easily.”
“I’m a little rusty. I mean, I could probably understand the basics of what they were saying. But not like, interact with them. I understand a lot better than I execute. And don’t even give Santana ideas like that, you know she would do it,” Quinn said, frowning slightly at the possibility of that happening.
“Yeah, probably,” Artie said without hesitation. “Well, Andy will have to remain loyal to us for now because we’re his parents and he loves us. And we still have at least 12 years before he starts rebelling. Wow, when that happens we’ll be almost 40. And will have been together for a..... really long time.”
Quinn’s eyebrows went up as Artie started to have a mini-freak out but once she started thinking about it too, it was kind of... alarming. “Twenty five years, by the time Andy is that old. Are you sure you’re not going to be sick of me?”
Artie turned his head to look at her, seriously considering this question instead of just automatically answering with what he was supposed to say. “I’m pretty sure that we’ll be fine,” he said then, smiling. “That was kind of what I signed up for when I asked you to marry me.”
“We’re lucky, you know, to find the person we love so early.” Quinn reached out to take Artie’s hand. “I think I’m lucky anyway. And the thought of being like, super old is a lot more manageable when I know I’ll have you.”
"I don't want to be super old though," Artie said, then realized he was kind of missing the point. "But I think you're right. We lucked out. I'm just glad you realized that you were destined to be my co-person."
Quinn looked down to make sure Andy was properly distracted with the television (which he was) before moving so she was on the other side of Artie and could more easily lean into him for a kiss. “It’s just easier not to fight fate.”
"I guess you were fated to kiss me just now," Artie said contentedly, leaning in again for another. "I'm pretty happy with life, I think. I think that's your fault."
“I’m entirely okay with taking the fall on this one,” Quinn replied happily then gave him another kiss. “I love you.”
“Love you too,” Artie said, letting go of her hand for a moment so he could place his on her stomach. “A lot. Thanks for dealing with me.”
Author: ipickquinn & backitup_baby
Pairings/Characters: Artie/Quinn
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 6,050
Spoilers: none
Summary: Artie and Quinn get over the shock of her pregnancy and find out the gender of the baby. And Santana teaches Andy Spanish and offers Quinn a job.
A/N: This fic was written by ipickquinn (as Quinn) and backitup_baby (as Artie)!
( Artie/Quinn 'verse masterlist)
Fate Or Something
The next day, as promised, Quinn went out and bought a home pregnancy test to appease Artie. There was no way she could be pregnant so this was really just for show. She decided to wait until he got home from work to take it so he would know she was being honest about it, not that she had any reason to lie. When she heard the front door open she made sure Andy was settled in his playpen then went to the front door to greet him.
“Hi, baby,” she said with a smile and leaned down to kiss him. “I’m glad you’re home.”
“Everything okay?” Artie asked, just to make sure, reaching out for her hand. It didn’t seem like there was anything wrong, though, so he smiled up at her. “What’s up?”
“Yeah, everything is fine. Andy’s in his playpen.” She paused a minute to bite her lip before speaking again. “I bought a pregnancy test. I was waiting for you to get home so I could take it.”
Artie had secretly been concerned that Quinn would purposely forget to do this so he nodded a little, kind of apprehensively, and said, “Okay. Are you going to do it now?”
“I guess so. I know you want me to,” Quinn said. “So, I’ll just go do that then. Can you go watch Andy then?”
“Yeah, of course,” Artie said, squeezing her hand a little before wheeling past her to go say hi to Andy. Lowering one of the playpen’s sides, he took his son out and went to go put him in his jumper so they could play together.
Quinn could hear Artie and Andy playing in the other room as she forced herself to pee on the stupid pregnancy test and set the timer. She wanted to wait for the results so she knew how to approach Artie and when the three minutes were up and she flipped the test over, she had to blink a few times. How could this even be possible? With a frustrated sigh she exited the bathroom, pregnancy test in hand, and went to join her boys. “Here,” she said, wrinkling her nose as she held it out for Artie, not bothering with a greeting as she entered the room.
Artie had gotten himself on the floor in Quinn’s absence and was in the middle of tickling Andy when Quinn walked back in. “I don’t want to touch that,” he said, leaning over so he could look at it better. “Wait, what does that mean?”
“It means... It means I’m fucking pregnant. How the fuck am I pregnant?” Quinn said in frustration and set the test on the coffee table, even though if she thought about it, it was really gross.
“Hey,” Artie said, looking pointedly at Andy and covering his ears once Quinn started swearing. He was beginning to mimic sounds, or at least Artie thought he was, and that was the last thing he wanted him to start trying to say. It took a moment for what she’d said to really sink in, though, and when it did he blinked a little up at her. “So... um. Wow. I mean, that’s cool, great actually, because we did want two kids, but.” He looked again at Andy, biting his lip a little. “Andy’s so young. And we might have to move. Are you okay?”
Quinn sighed again and dropped down to sit on the floor. “I just don’t get it. I’ve been careful. Are you okay with this? Because you seemed really worried about it last night. And now the fu--stupid,” Quinn rolled her eyes as she corrected herself, “test is saying I’m pregnant. Maybe I should go to the doctor to get another test.”
“Maybe,” Artie said, still trying to think about this and what they would have to do if she were really pregnant. Again. “Well, we had stopped using condoms,” he said after a moment, “though I’m not really sure whether that would really make a difference. I don’t know. I mean, we have to be okay with it.”
“We don’t have to be okay with anything, we don’t know anything,” Quinn said stubbornly then reached out to rub Andy’s stomach. “We should start using condoms. Because I know I didn’t mess up my birth control.”
“Okay,” Artie agreed, though privately he thought they probably shouldn’t be having sex in the near future if she wasn’t actually pregnant. Just to buy them some time. “Are you going to make an appointment?”
“Yeah I will in the morning. I think the offices are closed for the night,” Quinn said, frowning slightly. “I guess we should just make dinner and get Andy to bed then.”
“Okay,” he said again, before blurting, “Quinn, you do know you probably are pregnant, right?”
Quinn let out a pathetic whimper and flopped onto her back. “Yes, I know that. But what are we going to do about it?”
Artie leaned forward and took Andy out of the jumper, smiling a little despite the seriousness of the conversation as his son wriggled and made adorable noises. “I guess we can probably turn the spare junk room into another room and Andy can go in there in 9 months. That wouldn’t be so bad, right? Finding a new place would just be really hard right now.” He sat Andy down next to Quinn, hoping that would cheer her up. “It’ll be good.”
If Artie was trying to distract her with how adorable their son was, he was succeeding. Quinn reached out to take hold on Andy’s hand, smiling slightly at how cute and chubby it was. “This is just really unexpected. I know we want more kids I just didn’t expect it to happen so soon.” She leaned forward and kissed the top of Andy’s head. “It will be okay though, we can do this. Right?”
“Of course we can,” Artie said, trying to be reassuring even though he was definitely freaked out by all of this. “We’ll figure it out. It’ll be hard. But we’ll do it.” He lowered himself down, placing his hands on either side of her, so he could kiss her.
Quinn sighed into the kiss and wrapped an arm around his neck, letting the kiss go on for a long while before pulling back. “How did I get so lucky with you? And our little boy, too,” she grinned and reached out to tickle Andy.
“Fate or something,” Artie said, sitting up slightly to watch Andy start to wander around their living room. “Will you fix the baby gate thing so he can’t escape, please?”
“I like our fate,” Quinn said, giving Artie another kiss before hoisting herself up off the ground and went after Andy. “He got really good at this already,” she said as she turned him around so he would being crawling back to Artie then went and got the removable gate and put it in the doorway.
Artie grinned back at her once she returned. “Hey, so... this is your doctor. I have your pregnancy results right here. And guess what? You, uh, you got knocked up, so you should probably get out of news.”
“Oh, really?” Quinn asked, raising her eyebrow, then glanced at Andy quickly to make sure he was okay. He was pretty content crawling around and suddenly stopped and became very interested in his toes. Quinn just laughed and moved back over to Artie, straddling his waist. “Is that your professional opinion, doctor?”
“Yes, yes it is,” Artie said, reaching up with his arms for a moment to stretch before wrapping them around her waist. “I love you. And I’m excited about our impending baby. ... That sounds so ominous.”
“It does, doesn’t it? But, it’s going to be great. We didn’t expect Andy but look at him. He’s already crawling and we’re happy right? This is going to be good,” Quinn said resolutely then leaned down for a kiss.
"Of course we are," he said, smiling at her and secretly wondering how she even needed to question whether they were or not. "It'll be great. Maybe we'll have a girl."
“Good, I’m glad you’re happy. Because I’m happy. With you and Andy. And with the little boy or girl that’s on the way. I hope it’s a girl because then we’d have one of each. It’ll be great,” Quinn repeated with a grin and gave him another kiss, finally feeling like it was really going to be okay.
---
Quinn felt the familiar feeling of anticipation as she and Artie waited in the examination room for their 18 week ultrasound. The last time they had been to the doctor and tried finding out the gender the baby was positioned the wrong way, leaving Quinn and Artie disappointed. But they were hoping for better luck today. Giving Artie’s hand another squeeze, she turned to look at him. “I can just feel it’s a girl.”
Artie wasn't really sure how Quinn could sense that but he was kind of hoping that she was right, just because it would be nice to have one of both. That wasn't his main priority, though, and he was happy that everything was going okay developmentally. "Are you going to be really upset if it's not?" he asked after a moment, just in case.
“Yep, and I am going to personally hold you responsible for allowing the wrong sperm to impregnate me,” Quinn teased. “It doesn’t matter, really though. Just as long as the baby is healthy, right?”
"Definitely," Artie said, smiling at her briefly before smirking. "I would say that if we had a girl I'd be worried she'd end up like you but I think we're already in danger of that happening with Andy."
“What’s wrong with our kids being like me? You married me after all,” Quinn said, putting a hand on her stomach protectively, as if to shield the baby from hearing Artie’s concern.
"Sorry if I don't like it that our son rolls his eyes at us when he doesn't want to do something," Artie said, shrugging and trying to keep a straight face. "He definitely gets that from you. I never do that."
Quinn couldn’t help but giggle. “I think it’s cute. He has a lot of personality. And it’s a good trait for a person to have, don’t you think?”
However, Artie never got the chance to respond because their sonogram technician walked in at that point. “Good afternoon! How are you both doing today?”
Artie was about to ask her how being sassy was a good trait when they were interrupted. "Hi," he said, switching gears immediately. "We're great, thanks. Excited to see what's up. How are you?" He then shot Quinn a look to tell her their conversation was not over.
Quinn shot Artie a smirk before focusing on the technician to respond. “Yeah, we’re good. Just excited! Hopefully the baby isn’t shy today.”
“Good to hear it. Well let’s see how you’re coming along.” At this, Quinn lifted up her gown then winced slightly as the cool gel was squirted on her stomach. “Oh good, it looks like the baby is in good positioning for us to find out the gender. Everything looks healthy though, the fetus is the right size. See and there’s the head, and here’s a little hand,” the technician said and pointed to different spots on the screen.
Smiling, Quinn gave Artie’s hand a squeeze. “And the gender?”
Artie waited patiently, then looked over at Quinn to see how she felt when the technician told them they were expecting a boy. He was pretty okay with this and hoped Quinn would be too.
"That's great," Artie said, squeezing Quinn's hand as he spoke. "And everything is okay, too?"
“Everything looks great with the little guy,” the technician said and handed Quinn a towel to wipe off her stomach. “And you’re not experiencing anything abnormal, Quinn?”
The blonde finished cleaning her belly off then pulled down the gown. “No, I feel great. All the morning sickness has passed, he hasn’t started kicking yet. Or at least kicking that’s really noticeable.”
“Excellent. Well congratulations on another boy. The receptionist will help you schedule your next appointment.”
Once Artie and Quinn were alone again, she turned to face him, half smiling. “I guess I can deal with being outnumbered. Three against one...” she pouted. “We can start thinking of names though. That’s exciting.”
"Are you sure?" he asked, moving himself a little closer to her and letting go of her hand so he could rub her arm a little. "We can definitely start thinking of names though. I think Andy will be
pleased, though. I asked him last night if he wanted a little brother or sister and he was a lot more talkative when I mentioned having a little brother. Or maybe that's just my own interpretation and he really doesn't care. Who knows."
“Oh so that’s what you two were talking about while I was working on dinner? You two are always so cute,” Quinn said, actually feeling quite happy even though they weren’t having a girl. She let Artie rub her arm for another moment before moving it down to her stomach.
“This is good though, we won’t have to repaint the nursery. And I sort of like the idea of having all you boys wrapped around my little finger,” she said with a smirk.
Artie absentmindedly moved his hand in circles on Quinn's stomach, thinking about this. "Yeah, and most of the stuff is out of the spare room now so we just have to actually turn it into a bedroom within the next few months. So it'll be fine." After a moment, he added, "Just don't make the second one as sassy as Andy is getting."
“Andy isn’t too sassy. You’re just mad he takes more after me than you. It isn’t a competition.” Quinn paused a moment before adding with a giggle, “Though if it were I’d be winning.” She smiled at him then. “I’m just kidding. I’ll try to make this one behave.”
"Well, I'm not really a big fan of the sass when you do it and even more so when it's our son," Artie said very straightforwardly, shrugging. "Not that I don't love you. Or him. Are you ready to go?"
Quinn frowned slightly at Artie’s tone and pushed his hand off her stomach so she could hop off the table and get dressed. “Yeah just give me a minute.”
Artie bit his lip and watched her for a moment, quietly, before saying, "I'm sorry. I'm just kind of stressed, I guess. It feels more real now that we know we're having a son. And I'm trying to figure out how this will work for us."
“And the past four and a half months as you watched my stomach grow, that wasn’t real enough?” Quinn asked as she pulled her shirt on. “How what will work though? Money stuff?”
Artie blushed a little and shrugged, knowing she had a point. "Yeah, I guess. To both of those. You're going to have to take off work again... Obviously. I guess we just need to sit down and really figure all of that out."
“I can start doing freelance work again. I’m sure I could line up some projects before the baby is born. We should definitely figure all this out though before I give birth. It will be okay though. We did it before.” Quinn was done getting dressed now so she walked over to Artie and stopped in front of him. “I love you, by the way. Thanks for coming to the appointment with me.”
"Of course," Artie said, reaching out to hold both of her hands. "I'm glad everything's okay. For both you and our son. I wonder how Andy is doing right now. Santana didn't seem too excited when we called and asked her to come over for a few hours."
Quinn put his hands on her stomach momentarily before leaning down for a kiss. “I’m glad everything is okay, too. But we should get home. You think I’m a bad influence on him, who knows what Santana is trying to teach him.”
"Oh god," Artie said, imagining the worst. "Especially because he really likes her. Between the two of you Andy might become a little hell raiser," he added, this time obviously joking. "I can only imagine. He might start slushieing people in elementary school."
“I won’t let him do that,” Quinn said dismissively. “I’m all dressed though so let’s get home. You know, just to make sure the world isn’t ending with Santana influencing our son.” She grabbed her purse and opened the door, ushering Artie out in front of her.
When they got back to their apartment, they found Santana and Andy watching Dora the Explorer on their television. "Great, his television addiction can begin early on," Artie whispered to Quinn as they made their way into the living room.
"Hola," Santana said, not looking away from the television. Neither did Andy.
Quinn leaned down and kissed Artie’s neck before whispering back, “It could be worse, and remember to say thank you to her for baby sitting,” she said before giving him another kiss and standing up.
“Hola,” she responded to Santana with a smirk then gradually eased herself down onto the floor so she could give Andy a kiss on the top of the head. “Hi sweetie.” Andy turned slightly to give his mother a look of ‘not now’ then turned back to the tv. Okay, maybe Artie had a point about the ‘too sassy’ thing.
“See, I told you,” Artie said, looking pointedly at Quinn. “And this will only get worse as he starts putting together complete sentences. I will bet you money on this.”
Santana turned around and glared at both of them. “Hey, this is the good part. They’re about to solve the mystery. Give us a moment, okay?”
“You’re legit emotionally involved in Dora the Explorer?” Artie asked, heartily bewildered by this.
“She’s legit,” Santana said, as though that settled things.
“Um, okay,” Artie said, shrugging.
Quinn watched this exchange with amusement then lifted Andy onto her lap, rolling her eyes slightly when he flailed. But once she had him settled and he was focusing on the tv again, he calmed down. “We are not betting money on our children. He’ll be fine though. Won’t you, Andy?” He let out a disgruntled noise and just kept staring at the tv. “See, he just wants to learn,” Quinn said weakly. They really had created a monster.
“He can’t even understand half of what they’re saying,” Artie argued, turning more towards Quinn. “We should definitely bet. I don’t know what, but we will bet something. Maybe dinner. I think this is a great idea. We can revisit this in two years and I bet Andy will be a little nightmare.”
“He can’t understand it yet,” Quinn said pointedly then gave Andy a loving pat on the head. “He’s learning. And we will negotiate this whole betting business later. Anyway, why are you so pessimistic? You don’t want him to be a nightmare, do you? And how do I know that you won’t encourage him to sass back just so you can win the bet?” She looked over at him, pursing her lips.
“I don’t want him to be a nightmare but he’s already a little sassball and how is that going to change? Isn’t these first few years when people’s personalities really begin to become defined?” Artie reasoned, looking at his son very observantly.
“Shh,” Santana said, turning her head to glare at him again before turning her attention back to the television. “Seriously. And just get over it, if he’s going to be like whatever he’s going to be like whatever.”
Quinn snorted slightly at Artie using the word ‘sassball’ and looked down at Andy. “He has a strong personality like his mama,” she said firmly then glanced at Santana. “And she’s right. We can’t try to define him otherwise he wouldn’t be him. We just have to let Andy be Andy.”
“I guess,” Artie said, getting the sense that no matter what, he was always going to be overruled on this. “So, um, what’s going on?” he asked Santana.
“They found this map and they were trying to find the treasure but it’s taking an entire half hour to figure it out when clearly they should just go to where the x is,” Santana said.
Artie looked over at Quinn and raised his eyebrows slightly. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure this is just another example of how you’re probably too old to watch this show, Santana.”
“I’m going to have to agree with Artie on this one, Santana,” Quinn said giggling slightly. “Isn’t there a mischievous fox that gets in their way though? So it’s not entirely their fault that it takes them a while,” she said logically.
“Dora is a pioneer in positive role models for Latin women,” Santana told them both. “How was the appointment?”
“Well Andy is going to be very aware of multicultural issues then,” Quinn said, trying her best not to laugh again. “The appointment was good. Baby is healthy... we’re having another boy.”
“Oh, congratulations,” Santana said, flashing her a genuine smile. “That’s great. More miniature big-eared Arties.”
“Thanks, Santana,” Artie commented, rolling his eyes.
“Hey, stop making fun of the ears, they’re cute,” Quinn said and looked over at Artie affectionately then down to Andy. “Cute like his daddy, right?”
“Hopefully you think I’m cute,” Artie said, leaning in to kiss Quinn.
“Please stop that now,” Santana said, before turning herself a little on the couch to face them. “When are you going to go on leave?” she asked Quinn.
Quinn ignored Santana and leaned forward to kiss Artie, leaving one arm around Andy to keep him in place and used her other hand up to cup his face. When she finally pulled back from their kiss she grinned. “You’re more than cute, you’re adorable.”
Figuring she had tortured her best friend enough she pulled back and looked her. “Depends what the doctor says, whether I need bed rest or not. Everything seems okay right now though.”
“Okay, well... you should totally be my personal assistant when you’re on leave if you want to be,” Santana said carefully, though she couldn’t help but add, “You can be my bitch. Totally kidding. But seriously, if you want.”
Quinn’s eyes had snuck back over to Artie and she was busy thinking about kissing him that she only half heard what Santana had said. Until she heard her telling Quinn she could be her bitch. “Wait, what? Why would I want to be your bitch? What the fuck? Oh, sorry Andy,” she said immediately after she realized she had said a ‘bad word’.
Artie glared at them both. “You should both just watch your language around Andy, thanks,” he said, not really sure he was addressing more.
“Whatever,” Santana said, though she was secretly making a mental note to only swear in Spanish when she was at their place from now on. “Seriously, though, I don’t know whether you are going to be working from home or not but if you won’t have anything lined up and you’ll just have paid leave, let me know.”
Quinn sent an apologetic look at Artie then looked at Santana. “Wait, are you seriously offering me a job? Are you sure that would be a good idea?”
“Why wouldn’t it be?” Santana asked, genuinely confused.
“Oh, well, you know what they say about mixing business with pleasure,” Quinn said, giving a nervous laugh.
“I wasn’t aware we were involved in pleasure,” Santana commented, unable to help a smirk.
Artie looked at them both skeptically. “Are you flirting with my wife?”
“I’m just trying to figure out what she’s talking about,” Santana replied, innocently.
“Oh my God, Andy and I will just be here while you two discuss whether my best friend is flirting with me or not,” Quinn said with a groan. “I just, I don’t want us to get mad at each other because you’re bossing me around because you’d essentially be my boss and then have our friendship be messed up.”
“I wouldn’t get mad at you because you wouldn’t screw up to begin with,” Santana said confidently. “So if you’re interested just let me know. And I’m not flirting with you.”
“You better not be,” Artie said before looking at Quinn. “If you want to do it I think it’s kind of a good idea.” Then again, he was probably biased because they could always use more money.
“Well I am really good at getting people to do what I want them to do so getting stuff done for you would be easy,” Quinn said logically. “What would I have to do exactly?”
“Not that much stuff,” Santana said, thinking about it. “Just like, handle my calendar and appointments and maybe emails. No big deal.”
“So stuff I could do and still stay at home with the boys?” Quinn asked, seriously tempted by this offer. While she enjoyed her job at the small marketing firm she worked at, she couldn’t deny that being able to work from home while the kids were young would be awesome.
“Yeah, exactly,” Santana said, nodding. “Plus it’s not like you don’t already work in marketing so you know how things work anyway. So as long as you don’t try to like, steal my clients away from me, which would totally not be legit, it should be fine. So just let me know.”
“Okay. Well Artie and I should talk about it some more just to be sure but I’ll definitely let you know,” Quinn said as she absentmindedly flattened Andy’s hair down.
“Sounds good,” Santana said, standing up after a moment and stretching. “Well, I should probably go. I think Brittany and I are going out to dinner and I should go home and get ready beforehand. See you guys soon?”
“Yeah, we’ll do something,” Artie said, moving his arm around Quinn.
“Okay. Well thanks for watching Andy and tell Britt we say hi. All four of us should do something together soon, you know if things are good between you two,” Quinn said giving Santana one of those looks she always gave her when she was trying to tell her not to mess it up again.
Santana had a very self-righteous look on her face. “Things are good,” she said, before looking at Quinn a little skeptically. “Why, did she tell you they aren’t?” She leaned down to give Quinn a hug, then ruffled Andy’s hair before going over to give Artie a hug as well (though that would probably just always be slightly awkward).
Andy made an indignant noise at Santana ruffling his hair and Quinn smirked slightly, mentally reminding herself to tell Artie that their son took after him in at least one way. “No she hasn’t said anything. I just want you to keep it good. So make sure you do,” she said.
Santana nodded a little and resisted the urge to roll her eyes, feeling like she was talking to her mom or something. “Yeah, I know. It’ll be fine. I’ll let you know how it goes. Bye!”
Once Santana had left, Artie turned to Quinn and reached out to take Andy from her. “So are you going to consider it?”
Quinn waved after Santana then gave Andy a kiss on the top of his head before handing him to Artie. “Oh look at him, reaching out for you. You two are always so cute.” She watched them a few moments more before nodding. “Yeah I’m considering it. You don’t think we’ll drive each other crazy do you? Well, more crazy than we already make each other.”
“But it’s a lot better than when we were in high school,” Artie said, after considering this (because she really did have a point). “You guys rarely fight these days. So it should be fine, right? Unless the close proximity will bring that back. But the point of you working for her is that you would be able to work from here, and unless she was also working from here... Unless you have a problem with the whole idea of working for her in general.”
“That’s a good point, I wouldn’t actually be interacting up close with her. And I’d get to stay home with this little one,” Quinn said, giving her stomach an affectionate rub. “I think I should do it then. It would be good. And you’re right, we don’t really fight that much anymore. We’re older and more... mature now,” she said, nodding her head logically.
“Exactly,” Artie said, leaning in to kiss her before setting Andy down on the ground (he had gotten too wriggly and clearly wanted to be set free). “Although maybe I should email her and tell her to not have a power trip or anything, being your boss.”
Quinn watched Andy go crawling around, glad she had thought to put up the gate before hand so she didn’t have to get up again, then turned to Artie. “Maybe, because you know I don’t like anyone but you being the boss,” she said with a smirk.
Artie rolled his eyes at her and tried not to smile in response to that. “You’d better not like it if she were doing that to you,” he said, although the mental image that unwillingly popped into his head was actually kind of hot. “Hey, can you get him?” he said then, raising his eyebrows as Andy tried to climb up onto the coffee table, out of his reach.
“Yeah I got him,” Quinn said, jumping up (well as fast as a 5 month pregnant woman could) and scooped up Andy into her arms. “You are getting to be quite the little rascal, aren’t you?” She said, looking down at him before kissing his forehead. “Mommy and daddy don’t want you to get hurt though.” She walked back over to Artie and sat down with Andy before looking at him. “Why would you think I would like that? You know I only want you.”
Artie decided this was an appropriate time to put the television back on (which they would do sometimes as a last resort) and select another episode of Dora so Andy would calm down. “I know,” he said, settling Andy back down next to Quinn after he’d popped up again. “It’d be hot though.”
Quinn absentmindedly played with Andy’s hair as she raised an eyebrow at Artie. “Oh, really?” She said, noncommitally, wondering if he would keep talking or just do that embarrassed trailing off thing he did.
“Kind of,” Artie said, just as vaguely. He didn’t want to get into how, first, he had accidentally once had less than appropriate thoughts about her best friend, and second, didn’t want to talk about things in more detail when his son (well, technically both of them, but one of them would always be around) was present.
“I better still be who you want the most though,” Quinn said, narrowing her eyes slightly.
“Of course you are,” Artie replied, automatically.
“I’m not sure whether the fact that you responded so quickly means you’re telling the truth or you’re just trying to tell me what I want to hear.” Quinn’s eyes narrowed even more.
“Quinn,” Artie said warningly, turning his head a little to look at her. “You’re kind of being crazy right now. I am telling the truth and coincidentally, it’s also what you want to hear.”
Quinn took a moment to calm down then half-sighed, half-laughed. “I’m going to blame the hormones. Sorry, baby. I love you.”
“I love you too,” Artie said, leaning in to kiss her over Andy’s head. “Even when you’re crazy.”
She turned her head to kiss him a little more thoroughly before pulling back. “You make me crazy. But mostly in the good ways.”
“I think I should be the one to decide whether or not it’s in a good or bad way,” Artie said, obviously joking. “Guess what? I still love you.”
“No, I think you decide when it’s in a good or bad way,” Quinn shot back with a smirk. “I still love you too though. Even when you make me the bad kind of crazy.”
Artie was about to say something in response to this but he trailed off and looked down at his son, who had been contentedly babbling in English for a while before suddenly managing sounds that sounded like Spanish. “Did you hear that?”
“Did he really just...?” Quinn asked, a little perplexed if Andy had really just started babbling in Spanish. “I guess this is what we get for having Santana watch him so much.”
He pondered this for a moment, still looking skeptically down at Andy. “Yeah, probably,” he said, after listening to Andy have a conversation with the television in a mix of both. “Well, he’ll be well rounded.”
“It’s kind of cute though,” Quinn said after a moment and reached out to pat Andy’s head. “Except what if Santana and Andy start having conversations in Spanish about us and we can’t understand it?”
“Hmm,” Artie said. “Didn’t you take Spanish in high school? Or did you forget it all? Or maybe she will teach him Spanish pig latin so we can’t understand it as easily.”
“I’m a little rusty. I mean, I could probably understand the basics of what they were saying. But not like, interact with them. I understand a lot better than I execute. And don’t even give Santana ideas like that, you know she would do it,” Quinn said, frowning slightly at the possibility of that happening.
“Yeah, probably,” Artie said without hesitation. “Well, Andy will have to remain loyal to us for now because we’re his parents and he loves us. And we still have at least 12 years before he starts rebelling. Wow, when that happens we’ll be almost 40. And will have been together for a..... really long time.”
Quinn’s eyebrows went up as Artie started to have a mini-freak out but once she started thinking about it too, it was kind of... alarming. “Twenty five years, by the time Andy is that old. Are you sure you’re not going to be sick of me?”
Artie turned his head to look at her, seriously considering this question instead of just automatically answering with what he was supposed to say. “I’m pretty sure that we’ll be fine,” he said then, smiling. “That was kind of what I signed up for when I asked you to marry me.”
“We’re lucky, you know, to find the person we love so early.” Quinn reached out to take Artie’s hand. “I think I’m lucky anyway. And the thought of being like, super old is a lot more manageable when I know I’ll have you.”
"I don't want to be super old though," Artie said, then realized he was kind of missing the point. "But I think you're right. We lucked out. I'm just glad you realized that you were destined to be my co-person."
Quinn looked down to make sure Andy was properly distracted with the television (which he was) before moving so she was on the other side of Artie and could more easily lean into him for a kiss. “It’s just easier not to fight fate.”
"I guess you were fated to kiss me just now," Artie said contentedly, leaning in again for another. "I'm pretty happy with life, I think. I think that's your fault."
“I’m entirely okay with taking the fall on this one,” Quinn replied happily then gave him another kiss. “I love you.”
“Love you too,” Artie said, letting go of her hand for a moment so he could place his on her stomach. “A lot. Thanks for dealing with me.”