After Deployment

36

After spending the day with Carole, Quinn and Puck spent a few days with Quinn's mom, who ridiculed and criticized Puck every chance she got.

"What time is it?" Quinn muttered, dozing off on Puck's lap on the couch.

"It's late." Puck answered. "Go back to sleep."

"We should go to bed." Quinn responded.

"You wanna go upstairs?" Puck asked.

Quinn nodded slowly.

"Babe, I can't get up until you're up." Puck reminded Quinn.

"Sorry." Quinn mumbled as she slowly stood up. She reached her arms up and yawned as she stretched.

Puck smiled as he got up. He grabbed Quinn's hand as it returned to her side and looked at her. "You're so beautiful."

"I love you." Quinn smiled. "Let's go to bed."

"I love you, too." Puck said as he kissed Quinn's cheek.

The pair went upstairs to Quinn's room, which had been converted into a guest room shortly after Quinn had left for college. They curled up in bed together with Puck holding Quinn in his arms.

"I'm gonna head over to my mom's in the morning." Puck informed Quinn. "You can come, but if you wanna stay here, that's fine, too."

"Do you want me to come?" Quinn asked.

"Of course I do." Puck said. "But you said you see more of my family than yours, so I figured you'd wanna stay a little longer."

"Only like a day or two." Quinn responded. "And then we can go see your family for however long you want."

"Quinn, I can't stay here anymore." Puck shook his head. "I love you, but your mom is driving me crazy."

"I'll talk to her." Quinn promised.

"It's okay." Puck said. "Just get some sleep and we'll see my family whenever you're ready."

"Okay." Quinn replied. "Goodnight, Noah. I love you."

"I love you."

-

In the morning when Quinn woke up, the bed was empty.

"Noah?" Quinn called as she rolled over and grabbed her phone from the nightstand. She had a text from Puck.

Good morning baby - I woke up early so I went to my mom's to surprise everyone with breakfast. I'll see you later. I love you

Quinn furrowed her eyebrow as she put her phone down and got out of bed. She walked downstairs and saw her mom sitting on the couch.

"Morning, Mom." Quinn muttered.

"Good morning, sweetie. You slept in today." Judy noted.

"Yeah." Quinn said.

"Noah was up and out early." Judy responded. "Everything okay?"

"Actually, I wanted to talk to you about something." Quinn answered as she sat down on the couch. "About Noah."

Judy furrowed her eyebrow.

"You're way too hard on him." Quinn began. "You're constantly telling him what he does wrong and nagging him to finish the baby's nursery-"

"I'm not nagging him to finish it." Judy cut Quinn off. "All I did was ask if he started it, which he didn't."

"We've been taking care of other things." Quinn said.

"Well, sweetheart, the baby isn't gonna wait until your other things are taken care of. He's gonna come when he's ready." Judy stated.

"I know that, but we still have a few more months." Quinn noted.

"You should avoid scrambling around at the last minute." Judy advised Quinn.

"Noah and I are figuring everything out together." Quinn said. "Neither of us need the stress of anyone's nagging or judgement."

"I'm not judging you." Judy replied. "Or Noah. I'm just trying to help."

"Well, you've helped plenty." Quinn muttered as she got up.

"Where are you going?" Judy wondered.

Quinn didn't answer. She just put her shoes on and walked out of the house.