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.

Apart from the time he spent with Santana (which Quinn totally knew about), Puck had been an attentive boyfriend all night. Dances, compliments, cups of probably-not-spiked punch, pigs-in-a-blanket... Quinn hadn't wanted for anything that evening. He knew he had messed up, not just with the way he had asked her to the dance, and he wanted to make up for it in a big way. He was pretty sure Quinn had welcomed the attention, and either he had done things just right or she was too polite to tell him to simmer down.

If Puck had overdone things, it was because he was nervous. Quinn once complained that he hadn't made a move on her since Sarah was born, so all night he had wrestled with the question of whether or not to invite her to park on Makeout Mountain.

If he suggested that they go, then there was the chance that she would say no. He decided to surprise her, and if she wanted to go home, then he would be a gentleman and do so. They didn't have to do anything she wasn't ready for (even though he, with the boxful of rubbers courtesy of Carmel stashed under the back seat, was ready for anything).

Puck willed himself to remain calm as they drove out of the McKinley parking lot. "Did you have a nice time at the dance?" he asked, hoping to distract her with some conversation.

It was always a tough job, picking up Sarah to take her to his house for the weekend. Even though she had her own bed and supplies at the Puckerman home, there was always a boatload of extra stuff that the kid needed, like some newfangled organic stuff that her Grandma Fabray thought she should try, and a bunch of new favorite toys that of course had to be brought over along with her old favorite toys. Puck was always preoccupied with figuring out how to cram it all in the truck, and bundle up Sarah properly, and remember Mrs. Fabray's latest instructions.

He was pretty sure he managed to remember it all this time, even though he had a niggling feeling that he had forgotten something.

Puck finally remembered what it was after he and Sarah had arrived. While his mom and Becky fussed over the baby and got her settled in, he picked up the phone to call Quinn and let her know that they got home safely.

"Hey," he said when she answered. "We're here."

The stage was bare but for a few chairs , a couple of microphones, and some instruments (a piano, some drums, electric guitars, that sort of thing) and Fenton was perched on the edge. As the kids filtered in, he gave them a little wave and waited until everyone was settled into the auditorium seats.
( Once everyone was seated, he cleared his throat and spoke. )

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 day of Sectionals had finally come. Three show choirs from mid-state Ohio were gathered to compete for the honor to compete some more! Regionals loomed in their futures, and after that, Nationals. In New York. It was a very big deal, and anyone who doubted that fact had never competed for anything in their lives.

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.

After the debacle that had been the failed Rocky Horror Show project, Will felt that he and all the kids needed a new challenge, a new thing to work on. Something that would hopefully re-charge their batteries.

And Will needed to get his focus back on Glee and off of Emma. She was dating and happy...he shouldn't interfere with that. And Carl was a nice guy, and he was good for her.

As much as he hated to admit that.

So as he and Brad set up for the new rehearsal, Will had quite a bit on his mind, only a few of those things Glee-related.

The visiting hall in the Allen County Juvenile Treatment & Detention Center is a large room with tables and benches for the residents and their guests. It looked a lot like the cafeteria where they ate their meals, except the tables were shorter and there were more of them so that groups wouldn't have to sit together.

Visiting hours were Wednesdays, 4-8 PM and weekends, 9 AM-5 PM.

Quinn padded over to Tanner's room in her nightgown sometime on Sunday. She was lonely, and she was not ready to face her mother or father yet, and she just wanted someone to listen to her.

She wasn't sure she'd done the right thing. Should she have stayed for Sarah's sake? Maybe she should just have tried harder, maybe she should have just ignored the sick feeling in her stomach about him and her mother's friends.

But that wouldn't have been her. Apparently, she was only good enough to hurt her.

She knocked on her brother's door. "Tanner?" she whispered hoarsely.

On an average day, Sam was bouncing around happily. On his birthday, the day of his party and after a day of catching up with closest friends, he was almost literally bouncing off the walls.

He was also responsible for the whole house looking like a giant balloon (or the house from Up at least), the garden was filled with lights and more decorations and, after Lillian's party, Sam had insisted on a karaoke machine. The tables set up were packed with food and drink and the huge 'Happy Birthday' banner would have been more impressive, and more meaningful, if Sam hadn't made it himself at 2 o'clock that morning.

Sam was in his full pirate outfit and had been for most of the day. His friends from home (Lee, Andy, Ben, Rebecca and Lisa) were in the garden with him, or rather a cowboy and Han Solo were sneakily smoking his brother's cigarettes and making Sam feel like part of the Villlage People, Princess Fiona and John Lennon were surreptitiously attacking the chip bowl and Alice was not so much in wonderland as she was in the bathroom.

Sam himself was letting his mother kiss him goodbye and nodding that of course he'd behave as he waited for his guests. He was also wondering where Blake had wandered off it, wondering if he'd gone to retrieve the rum.

Mr. Schuester and Brad were all set for the kids to start performing. He knew there were some strong personalities paired up, and he just hoped that the kids would put aside their differences to do the assignment.

They had a lot to cover, so as soon as all the kids were assembled, he got their attention in order to start. "Okay, kids...what pair of you wants to go first?"

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.

It seemed that it was Finn's lucky night, because as Puck was passing the liquor store on the way to 7-11, he saw that there was someone new working the register. The clueless newbie fell for his fake ID, easy, so Puck didn't have to settle for conning a stranger into buying him a beer, and he made his way to the Hudsons' with a six-pack and a bottle of Cuervo in a plastic bag, hidden under a couple jumbo bags of potato chips.

"Here I come to save the day," he muttered under his breath as he walked up to the Hudsons' front door and rang the bell.

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?

( No Day, But Today )