Quickly, I appraise the apartment before I settle back into the couch with another beer. The toys that were strewn about have neatly been tucked onto shelves, the ash tray on the balcony emptied, and the dishes scrubbed. I glance down at my phone, 7:45... she should have been here by now. I offered to pick her up at the bus station, but as usual she refused. She said something about not wanting me to go out of the way for her. Really, I don't mind at all.

Trying to kill time, and curb my anxiety I reach under the coffee table and grab one of the photo albums stacked there. That is one thing that I want Evie to have that I never did. Photos of my childhood, and my friends, and my family. To this day the only memories that I have of my own mother are the ones etched in the back of my mind. Most of them aren't nice memories of us doing things like going playground, the beach... It's us sleeping together on a roach infested floor at her dealers house, or me trying to wake her up to make food when she was passed out cold.

Smiling I crack the cover to the album, and the first picture is a closeup of a toothless smiling baby girl with her face covered in cake. It was Evie's first birthday. I let my mind wander back to the day that photo was taken. I had never thrown a kid a birthday party, and I was a nervous wreck. Marley, Mercedes (who had just gotten out weeks before), and I had gone to the dollar store and bought a bunch of princess decorations, everything pink and purple. We had invited a few other kids and their parents from Evies head start program out to the park behind Pucks shop for cake and ice cream. Only a few kids came, mostly kids with young parents like us, but Evie's family was there. Both Puck and Jake, who at that time was working on getting back into Marleys good graces, and Mercedes came loaded with arms full of gifts that they could not afford. They however were more concerned about Evie having a good day then being put out. I remember having told them that she was only one, and that she wouldn't remember... but then Marley gave me my gift. Now she will, I remember her saying to me as she handed me the second hand Polaroid. And she does, and she retells me stories that I told her about that very day, and she know how much she is loved. No matter what. Yet still, I have to suppress that ping in my chest when I look back at these photographs and there is one person missing. Quinn.

The sharp sound of a buzzer cuts through my thoughts. Quickly I rise to my feet and cross the room to the broken talk box. I hold my pointer finger down on the button to hear a low crackling on the other end.

"Who is it?" I ask trying to not sound annoyed

"Who do you think it is?" A raspy voice quips back at me

I try to suppress the grin that spread across my face when I hear her voice. A voice that is coming from yards, rather than miles away for a change.

"You're fucking late." I try to cover my excitement with agitation, and fail miserably

"Are you going to punish me?" Her voice drawls out in anticipation

"I should"

"I'd deserve it." My breath hitches in my throat as I try to bring myself back to reality instead of the image of this girl bent over in front of me

"Where the fuck is your key?" I ask her

"Lost it." She responds nonchalantly

"Where?"

"I don't know, otherwise it wouldn't be lost, would it?"

"Fair enough, smart ass." I smirk tossing my hair over one shoulder

"Are you really going to make me stand out here, or at some point are you intending to let me up?"

"I haven't decided yet."

"Sannnnnnn!" She whines "I've really gotta pee and creepy Tony is weirding me out."

Creepy Tony is the homeless man that hangs out on our stoop that is known to talk to himself, and imitate animals.

"Fine." I concede hitting the open button and buzzing her inside. Then I wait, a few seconds and three taps on the door later and she's there.

I feel my heart beating against my chest as I pull the door back, and there she is. Quinn Fabray in the flesh.

"Hey Mami" I can feel my voice get raspy as I look the girl in front of me up and down. Her black denim jeans practically cling to her legs, and her choppy blonde hair still falls just above the shoulder of her black motorcycle jacket. She smirks at me behind her red stained lips... in there when we were locked up, she looked like an innocent little girl surrounded by hardened criminals. Out here it is clear, this girl is trouble at it's finest.

"Hey." She greets me as she steps through the threshold of my apartment. One hand clutches her bag, and the other finds itself on the back of my neck and pulls me toward her. "I've missed you" she coos and her fingers stroke the fine hairs on the back of my neck.

"I've missed you too." I reply gently grabbing her by the hips and closing the space between us.

And we stay like that for some time, lips, and hands, reacquainting with one another there in front of the open door because when I am with her nothing else matters. And that's part of the problem isn't it?

Her taste is like home to me, and as my head swims I get lost in the feel of her body against mine. Every crevice of her is committed to memory, with a perfection that never gets old. She is love, and I just want to relive it over, and over and over-

"San?" She asks pulling back, breathless from our make out session.

"Hmmm?" I answer as I bury my head into her neck and pepper it with kisses. Her smell is intoxicating, and I want it, always.

"We need to close the doors so the neighbors don't see." She moans fisting the back of my hair as I continue my assault on her neck.

"See what?" I ask dumbly, her words sound foggy in my ears

"Me fucking you senseless."

It is then I have to push back, ignoring the bulge growing in my pants as I take another second to eye the girl, panting in front of me with hooded eyes, clouded with lust. She looks beautiful, but she also looks tired.

"Come on." I guide her with one hand to the kitchen, kicking the door closed as we go. "Sit." I order her pointing to the island in the kitchen. She obediently props herself up onto it. "First I feed you, you look like skeletor."

She pouts as she rests her hands between her knees on the counter and swings her legs back and forth. It took me until Evie to learn, really learn that love is more than just banging it out with someone.

"I grabbed food from the vending machine at the bus station." She shrugs looking around the apartment.

"Alright." I nod, unconvinced "but that still doesn't sound like dinner."

Quickly I throw some pasta on the stove and then go rejoin Q at the counter.

"How have you been?" I ask her as she pulls me between her legs.

"Alright." She nods, as she lets her eyes float away

"Really Q?"

"I've been fine, I swear."She sighs for a second "Look." She leans back giving me the most delicious view of her abdomen as she reaches into her jacket pocket to produce a coin. She give me a nervous smile as she hands it off to me.

"One year." My eyes flick to hers, a small blush creeps up her cheeks as she nods.

"Clean and sober." She confirms before taking the coin back and tucking it into her pocket.

"I'm so proud of you Mami," I pull her into a quick kiss before she shies away.

"Sooo," She says suddenly changing the subject, as she always does when I comes to issues involving her.

"So?" I look at her pointedly as I go back to preparing food

"How was Evies report card?" She pulls her bottom lip between her teeth and adjusts her shirt.

"It was better. She is behaving according to her teacher, for the most part anyway."

"That's good."

"She's getting pulled out for extra math help for about an hour a day with some other kids. She seems to really like it."

"It seems like she does better when there are less kids in the class."

"Yeah, that's what I think too. I'm hoping by next year to find another place in a better school system, or see if I can get her into a charter school or something like that yanno? The kids smart, she just can't focus."

I see Quinn deflate a little, and nod in understanding. It is no secret that Quinn blames herself for Evie's attention problems, and some of the delays that she is having in school. She was using the first part of her pregnancy, but she was seventeen, and she didn't know. I tell her time and time again that shit happens, we just gotta deal with it.

"I can pitch in for some tutoring if she needs."

I nod as I begin to chop fresh peppers.

"We don't need to worry about that right now." I remind her "How long are you free for?"

"A week. I just got back from the retreat last night, and I have this week to try to find housing, and prove that unattended and left up to my own devices I won't use. If I can do that, than I can be free in the next couple of weeks. I mean, I'll still have to check in with my P.O three times a week, and do drug tests and all of that but yeah."

"That's fucking awesome babe." I turn back around to see her fidgeting with her fingers.

"You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm good."

"So why didn't you tell me that you were so close to being done?" I ask, trying not to be hurt by the realization.

She shrugs again.

"I guess I just wanted to be sure."

"Be sure of what?"

"That I it would all pan out, that I wouldn't fuck up again."

I nod. And as fucked up as it is she is right. This has happened once before- and just like that out on probation a failed drug test got her locked back up for three months. It was after that incident early last year that Quinns mom tracked her down... finally coming to her senses about what her father had done to her all of those years before. One thing that I didn't know until that point was that Quinn's family had money, and they pulled some strings. For the past year she has been living in an inpatient rehab center while on probation. It was condition of her release, orchestrated by her mother. Other than that help, which Quinn wasn't in the position to refuse, that is the only contact she has had with her mother. Since we got out when Evie was a baby that is the only time Quinn's gone back inside. It changed something in her. She wants so badly to do well, but she is her own worst critic and with a knack for getting in her own way.

"You won't fuck up." She looks up at me through tear brimmed eyes "You wont." I say again as I bring my hand to her cheek. "Come stay with me and E."

"San," She says pulling back from me, she slides my hand from her cheek, but still holds on tightly.

"Come on Quinn, it's going to have to happen sooner or later."

"I know, I know... it's just- I..." She furrows her brow tightly trying to come up with the right words "I love Evie more than anything, and I couldn't stand to disappoint her. I want to be the best mother to her that I can be, and I want us to be a family. It just has to be right. And I know San, I know that it's not fair the position that I have put you in-"

"It's fine"

"It's really not. But I'm going to make it up to you. You, and Jake, and Mercedes, and Puck, and even Marley."

Even Marley. Maybe it was time to settle the bad blood there, on both parts.

"All I need is just a little more time. I know it's not fair to ask, but just a little more."

"Under one condition."

"Shoot." Quinn says trying to recover her posture as she wipes a stray tear from her eyes.

"Come with me on Wednesday to pick Evie up from school, it's our ice cream date day."

"Hahaha" Quinn laughs

"What?"

"You barely let that kid have any sugar, what gives?"

"Now now." I saunter back over to Quinn, lazily wrapping my arms around her neck "We all deserve a little sweetness in our lives"

"That we do."

Shes baaaacccckkkk! Sorry about the delay. Life has been crazy, but I am still working on this story. Please let me know what you think! Anyway, lots more to come- questions to be answered, like what's up with Santana and Marley, where has Quinn been for all of these years, and her trying to find her way with Evie. Thanks for reading.