Something - Quinn Fabray

Chapter 14

"Hello Quinn, I didn't know you'd be back already," Ryan smiled at her as she entered the choir room, where he was standing at the piano sorting out some of his music. It was the Monday after Regionals, and it was back to school as usual. Mr. Schue had told them that Figgins said they had to vacate the choir room by tomorrow. It was going to be just enough time for them to practice one more song. "I thought you might take a few days from school."

"I'm fine," Quinn answered, returning his smile. "The doctors said it was fine."

Ryan studied the blonde. She did look fine. He wasn't used to seeing her not pregnant anymore, and she looked a little strange without the baby bump she had sported for the last few months, but she did look fine. Physically anyways. He could see the tiredness in her eyes, and he sensed that she was a bit off somehow. "Are you sure? You know you can talk to me if you need to."

Quinn's smile turned sad. "Talking seems to have become our thing. We need to find a new line," she quipped. "I'm fine. Just...tired." She was quiet for a moment. "Puck and I decided on a family yesterday."

Ryan looked up from the papers he was sorting, his hand going up to his hair. "Oh. I see," he said, unsure of what to say.

Quinn came over to lean on the piano opposite him. She picked up some of the papers, fiddling with them as she continued to talk. "Simon and Julia Waterson. They're from Dayton." She paused, and both of them stood in silence for a moment. "They gave me their number. They said if we wanted, they were willing to let me and Puck see her from time to time. Or they said they could send pictures."

Ryan looked back at her. "What did they name her?" he asked curiously.

Quinn smiled softly. "Beth. Puck told them what he wanted to name her, and they agreed."

"Well, at least it wasn't Drizzle," Ryan said lightly, smiling when Quinn chuckled. "Are you taking them up on their visitation offer?"

"I'm...not sure yet," Quinn said slowly. "Maybe someday. It's too soon right now."

Ryan nodded absently. He still wasn't sure what to say. So he decided to change topic. "Well, I was thinking, we have one more session in here. I thought we could get together one last time, sing one more song to Mr. Schue. he put a lot of work into glee club, and now it's just...over." Even if Ryan and Mr. Schue hadn't always gotten along, Ryan recognized that Mr. Schue had tried his best to inspire them and guide them. He'd helped them a lot this past year, and it seemed right that he should have their last song.

"I think that's a good idea."

A couple of days later, Ryan was fixing up another car back in Burt's auto shop. He hadn't been able to spend much time here in the days leading up to Regionals. It was relaxing to be back.

They had ended up singing To Sir, With Love to Mr. Schue in the auditorium. Carefully attaching a new brake pad to the car he was working on, Ryan thought about his conversation with Quinn. He was truly happy for her. True, she'd seemed tired and sad, but she had also seemed peaceful now that she thought about. More relaxed. She had been understandably stressed over the past nine months, and it looked like she was genuinely happy with her decision to give her baby up for adoption.

And he was glad that she'd found Beth a family that had offered to let her meet her child. He couldn't help but wonder how different his life would be if his own fathers hadn't set up that contract. Logically he knew it was for their protection, that they were afraid Shelby might back out on them. But then he remembered all the times he'd been teased for not having a mom, and his resentment returned in full force. If they weren't going to pay attention to him, they could have at least given him the option of meeting his mom.