New Directions

Quinn had said it was OK, and Brittany's dad could give her a ride (Britt herself didn't drive because driving was sooo confusing), so that afternoon Brittany turned up on the Fabrays' doorstep.

When they were little, Britt, Santana and Quinn used to come over to each other's houses to play with dolls and sleep over. Brittany missed that sometimes, but the stuff they did now was pretty cool, too: she and Santana still had sleepovers (which were way more fun than the ones they had as kids), and Quinn had a real live doll to play with. So there were some good things about growing up.

She walked up to the door and rang the bell.

It turned out that Quinn knew her way around the Fabrays' kitchen pretty well, because as she had said, all they really needed was chocolate chips. On the way to see her and Sarah, Puck had stopped by the store to pick some up, as well as some chopped walnuts in case she felt like adding those (his mom always had to have nuts in her cookies).

He couldn't help smiling as he got out of his truck and made his way to the front door. OK, maybe he had rediscovered his badassery while he and Quinn were apart and he was in juvie, but doing stuff like this with Quinn and the baby was nice, too.

Shifting the grocery bag to his other hand, he reached out and rang the doorbell.

The former strip club has changed a lot since the production of RENT. The stripper poles were gone, for one, and for another, there's a proper stage now. And regular theater seats, and nice stage curtains.

The set is decorated in generic winter holiday colors, red, green, blue, white. There's a few snowmen on the stage, and some trees, and some fake snow scattered on the stage.

It looks terribly festive. Mr. Schuester has enlisted some of the other more sympathetic teachers to help out with ushering people to seats and he's terribly excited to see what the kids put on.

The Emergency Room at the hospital was busy; after all, it was Saturday night. People get into fights on Saturday night. People get drunk and fall down and sometimes get hurt.

And little babies sometimes get ear infections.

Puck and Quinn carried their crying baby into the Emergency Room and went up to the front desk, where Quinn was handed forms to fill out and they sat and waited. And waited, taking turns comforting their child, who was still tugging on her ear and weeping. Quinn didn't even flinch when Sarah started pulling on her braids.

She didn't care, she just wanted her baby to feel better.

Quinn had said she was coming by with the baby at noon.

No big deal, Puck told himself as he rushed home from picking up garbage in the park, showered and dressed in clean clothes.

He had hurried home because he didn't want anyone he knew to see him on garbage detail (even though he did have a pointy stick to stab people with if they laughed), and he had to clean up because being near Sarah with garbage germs all over him was not a good idea. Certain people thought he was dumb enough already.

Brushing and flossing his teeth, combing his eyebrows and putting on some cologne had also been necessary.

Nope, not a big deal at all.

With her hands on her hips and her legs planted like tree trunks, Coach Shannon Beiste surveyed the McKinley football field like a warrior queen looking over her domain.

It looked like her predecessor's pathetic reputation was well-deserved, she thought with a sneer. She had never seen a sorrier bunch of recruits gathered in her presence - half of them looked like they would blow over in a strong wind, and the other half would trip over the goal line.

But then of course she had always coached winners.

Well, Panther, she thought to herself, think of this as a challenge to your coaching abilities. You can do anything, including turn this ragtag bunch of losers into the well-oiled destroying machine that everyone has come to expect of you.

Quinn had spent some time playing with and cuddling Sarah after school and Cheerio practice. She had homework she really should be doing but she could just stay up later. Besides, cuddling Sarah was way more important than homework.

She missed her baby when she was at school, but she knew that unless she did well in school, she'd never get into law school. And Quinn was going to do everything that she wanted to do and be a fantastic mom on top of it all. She would just have to work harder.

Quinn was very glad that Charlie was back in town. They'd always been good friends and she was looking forward to re-establishing their friendship.

She waited in the living room, playing peek-a-boo with Sarah as she waited for Charlie.

Three day weekends were the best, and definitely cause for celebration. It could have been any holiday, no matter how insignificant, but if it called for a Monday off school that meant there should be a gathering and fun times. At least that's what Blake believed. That's why he'd arranged for this cookout. Everyone had made it through the first week of school with little to no casualties, and that was great. Definitely a reason to have hot dogs and bratwurst and hamburgers and especially smores.

He'd gotten the fire pit going early, just to have it there. As he'd said before, he was content just to have a fire pit and then sit around it playing his guitar if no one came. But he hoped people would show up. There was a lot of food and he didn't want to have to eat it all himself later. Of course they hadn't cooked any of the dinnery type foods yet, that would have been silly as it wasn't dinnertime. But there were snacks and drinks for anyone who arrived earlier than dinner.

There were balloons on the mailbox so people could find the house, and a sign out front to point people to the backyard. So he just sat on the edge of the back patio, absently playing his guitar as he waited for anyone who was going to come.

Kurt had gotten Tanner out of the house for his birthday and then Quinn and her family had gotten to work arranging the birthday party. The backyard had been strung up with party lights (yellow and blue, natch) and they'd gotten everything X-Men themed, as Tanner had told Quinn he'd never had a fun kid-party.

In Mrs. Fabray's opinion, it was never too late to be a child, so they'd bought plates, cups, and napkins, all x-men themed and there was even a pinata. "We have to hang it higher than that," Quinn said, holding baby Sarah (dressed like Storm, because Storm was cool). Kurt's Dad was also there to help out, and he was on the ladder. Mr. Fabray was out getting ice cream at the last minute, and picking up the cake.

Quinn herself was making sure everyone was doing something and waiting for Kurt's call, letting her know they were on their way.

She wanted this to be his best party ever.

Quinn cuddled the baby close as she waited for Finn and Rachel to get there for babysitting. She was terribly nervous for Puck's band, she wanted very much for them to win. They were so good and it would be awesome for Puck to have this succeed.

She looked at her baby. "Are you going to be good for Uncle Finn and Auntie Rachel?" she murmured. Sarah looked back at her Mommy and gurgled. "Remember, Uncle Finn is hurt, so be nice to Auntie Rachel, she's probably not very familiar with babies." She smiled just a little. "But not too nice, because then Auntie Rachel will want a little baby and that's just not good for Auntie Rachel, okay?"

Sarah smiled and gurgled. Quinn grinned back. Sometimes, she swore that Sarah could understand every word she said...

Quinn's parents were taking a well-deserved few days' vacation, and for that time, Puck was staying with Quinn and Sarah (and Tanner, but he tended to be either at work or at Kurt's a lot of the time).

Quinn wasn't quite sure what to think of having Puck here, but she did know she liked having him around, and she thought Sarah was happier too. Still, it was weird having him around all the time. Not bad weird...just weird.

This was really the first time that Quinn had been left mostly alone in the house. She usually went everywhere with her parents. But now she was the parent.

And taking care of a house was...a lot of work. Even with just the four people living in the house...there sure was a lot of laundry! And a lot of trash. And a lot of...everything!

But right now, they were giving their daughter a bath and everyone was winding down.

"It's amazing how wet you get while giving such a small person a bath," she said, laughing. She was going to have to change her shirt for the fourth time today...

It was a beautiful day today. And one reason for that was that Glee club was back on again. And the other reason was that it was lovely and sunny. She dressed Sarah in her cutest little outfit and put sunscreen on her and a hat with a brim on it, then put Sarah in her stroller to walk to the park.

Going anywhere with Sarah took a lot of 'equipment' but Quinn had gotten better at it since she'd been born, and so now they were in the park, and she'd spread a blanket out, letting Sarah have some 'floor time' on the blanket. She'd chosen a shady spot under a tree for her to play and lay down beside her, talking to her while she played. Well, as much as you can talk to a baby, at any rate.

"Hello, precious baby. It's such a nice day today, do you like the sunshine and the tree? The tree and all the leaves...?"

It's only slightly sensical, but how else will she learn to talk if Quinn doesn't talk to her?

( Isn't she lovely? Isn't she wonderful? )

Quinn didn't know why she had to be in the hospital. She felt fine. She was tired, of course, but she was happy and even though she was aching all over, it wasn't anything worse than she'd felt after the first few cheerleading practices of the year. And after the visit from Mrs. Puckerman's hairdresser, she even felt pretty, something she hadn't felt in a long time.

About all she could do in the hospital was sleep, and eat, and take care of Sarah. She was sort of glad that she was here when she had to feed the baby, because the lactation consultants were very helpful. Still...she couldn't help feeling that she'd be way more comfortable at home.

She was very happy that Puck had kept his promise not to leave her alone in the hospital. She really didn't know what she'd do without him sometimes, and she hoped she never had to find out.