"It seems like you've mistaken me."

[theundapperone]

Who: Jeremy Smyth and Quinn Fabray
What: That awkward moment where she didn't call you back
Where: Publix, Miami
When: Early Saturday morning

Jeremy decided it was seriously too early in the morning on a Saturday to be grocery shopping. He was sort of aimlessly pushing his cart through the aisles without his brain really registering what he should be putting into it. The only reason he had volunteered his shopping services that early to start with was because Blaine had a near meltdown, superbitch style when he was up early to get ready for the drive to Jacksonville to pick Kurt up. After almost three months in the clinic, Kurt was finally being discharged after putting on a little weight and finding a regular eating and treatment regime that was working for him to be able to strive towards fighting the eating disorder once again. Blaine was nervous and excited about having Kurt released, especially considering that when they arrived back in Miami, they would begin hunting for a big house they could live together mutually with their friends. Jeremy figured Blaine was probably just a little worried that when push came to shove, the clinic would still keep Kurt after all. So he had been edgy and threw a bitchfit when he discovered that not only was he left without toilet paper (and stuck in the bathroom because of it to boot) but also out of Froot Loops and milk, he had yelled at Puck, Sebastian and Jeremy so Jeremy had quickly volunteered to run to the store to get said items.

Normally, Jeremy would still be asleep, but Blaine banging around the apartment had woken him up, so he had gotten up. He was lacking sleep, though, so he was hazy and groggy. He was just in the personal hygiene aisle near the toilet paper trying to remember what brand Blaine preferred when a text came through from Blaine telling him not to worry, that he was getting McDonalds for breakfast on his way to Jacksonville. At least Jeremy didn't have to rush now. He shrugged to himself and shoved his iPhone back in his pocket. Didn't matter to him either way. He was sort of in a funk himself lately, still looking for work and wondering exactly what sort of work he even wanted to do. He was qualified, but couldn't decide exactly what he wanted yet. He had been in a funk ever since he was dragged out by Puck and Sebastian to get drunk because he had been moping over the crap that happened in Paris. He ended up having a pretty cool one-night stand with a chick that seemed nice, albeit pretty damn drunk. Jeremy had given her his number that night, but she never called so it was a bit of a kick in his ego pants.

He grabbed the toilet paper that seemed like the best choice and tossed it into his cart before rounding into the next aisle where the toothpaste and stuff was. Which was when he nearly bumped right into said girl he had a one night stand with who was standing there looking seriously at the shelves in front of her. "Oh... uh, hey!" he said with a sort of awkward half-smile and a bit of a wave, then pushed his glasses back up his nose shyly. What the hell was he supposed to say in this situation. "H-How are you?"

Comments

[theundapperone]

Jeremy shook his head, swallowing to wet his throat. "Nope. If I put anything in my mouth, it won't stay there for very long." Why did that have to sound so dirty? This is what he got for having Sebastian as his twin. If he had just stuck with using his mouth that night, neither of them would be in this mess. His stomach was just flipping over and over, though, and he was worried about what the outcome of all of this would be. Had had waited in the kitchen whilst she had gone to the bathroom, and he was still hovering there now. The place had a nice feel to it, with photos of Quinn and her friends stuck all over the front of the fridge with magnets. He found himself standing in front of it to look, and he sought out the face he was looking for and pointed. "Is this Kurt?" he asked. He looked over all the photos and knowing what Kurt was battling through, he could actually notice the increase and decrease in his wait throughout them. Some of the photos, he was desperately thin and drawn around the face, but others, he looked somewhat normal, albeit still very slender in all of them. It must be as his condition went up and down over the years. "I can see why Blaine is smitten, he's beautiful. Blaine hasn't got any photos of him. I guess he's not a fan of the camera. All these pictures are from the shoulders up."

He didn't mean the therapist in him to start coming to the forefront, but it was a distraction so he didn't have to analyse his own issues. Everyone else's were okay, but if he had to face his own, he was going to flip out. If Quinn turned out to be pregnant, it was going to set a cat amongst the pigeons in this whole scenario. He had heard that Blaine and Kurt were actually contemplating moving in together, along with Kurt's two room mates and Puck. With Jeremy and Sebastian as Blaine's brothers, that would mean he and Quinn were both firmly in this whole thing, whatever the result of that test would be. They just didn't realise how much they were connected until now, considering Quinn had been thinking he was Sebastian. "I mean, I'm sure you're really protective of him after everything, but I promise Blaine's intentions are absolutely 100% pure. He's a good old fashioned lover boy, and he's fallen head-over-heels for Kurt. Talks about him all the time, has Kurt's entire treatment and eating regime pinned to the fridge so he can text message him at the clinic to see how his meals go. He's studying Musical Therapy. He understands the desire to help people."

[woman_or_a_girl]

Quinn was distracted, but when Jeremy asked about the photo on the fridge, she had to smile, even if only a little. "Yeah... That's him. The fabulous fag to my hag. He's the most amazing person, despite everything he's been through. I'm lucky as hell that I managed to blackmail him into being my best friend... It was a horrible thing to do to him, but somehow, it all ended up turning into something I wouldn't take anything in this world for." Thinking of how Blaine looked at Kurt just warmed her heart, but with a hint of pain at the question inside of her as to whether anyone would ever look at her like that again. It sounded like an awful and selfish thing to think, but she couldn't help it. Still, she certainly didn't spite Kurt what he'd found. In fact, she was probably one of the people who was most thrilled by this whole turn of events and what it meant for Kurt. "They're gorgeous together... You'll see what I mean when you see them. But no... Kurt really isn't a fan of being photographed. He's... Well, if you're close to Blaine, you know he's been in a bad way a lot lately."

She put up a hand to stop Jeremy's defense of Blaine. "Honey, you don't have to explain anything to me... I don't think Blaine has it in him to have less than pure intentions with Kurt. He's beautiful, too. There's just such an... an innocence and kindness to him that I love... I trust him with Kurt, which is saying a lot, because there aren't many people in this world that I can say that about. Blaine's perfect for Kurt, and Kurt's trying harder than ever to get better." She glanced at the photos of Kurt on the fridge for a few long moments, just thinking about the difference she'd seen in Kurt since he'd met Blaine. But after a few moments of standing there in a silence that, while still awkward, was less so than it had been previously... when the topic of conversation wasn't Blaine and Kurt. She glanced at her watch a few more times, before the time was finally there for the moment of truth. A truth she wasn't sure she was ready for, but truth just the same. Glancing sheepishly at Jeremy, she pointed at her watch. "Um... are you... ready for this?"

[theundapperone]

Looking at the photos, Jeremy was hit with a pretty distinct sensation of missing his brothers. He wasn't sure where it came from, but it was definitely there. He gave a small glance to Quinn, unable to stop his green eyes just briefly dropping down to her stomach as he wondered how both Sebastian and Blaine would react if he told them they were going to be uncles. Probably extremely different reactions, to say the least. Jeremy was scared. Terrified, really. Sure, he knew it was more scary for the girl in a scenario like this, but his life was potentially about to change epically too and he was only just freshly out of college and starting the career he had worked really, really hard on. He was a psych major, specialising in child psychology and even had a string of interviews ahead of him in the coming weeks. Now this? Getting drunk and knocking a girl up really wasn't something he ever thought he would find himself doing, but here they were and he was scared. He sort of wanted a cuddle and he wanted his brothers. But telling them would be a whole other story... or plucking up the courage and finding the balls to tell them, rather. He wet his lips, which just seemed to want to keep drying out on him right now because he was maybe slightly borderline on the near-hyperventilation thing and breathing through his mouth a lot. Could he raise a baby? He had no goddamn idea. What if he couldn't? How did you easily raise an infant with someone you weren't even dating anyone? Was it always like it was on Jerry Springer or Maury, or could it be nice and civil? "Blaine's always been hesitant in relationships. First time he went out with a guy in public, he got the living crap beaten out of him and ended up in a coma. Ever since then, he was sort of reserved on trusting. Which is why we were sort of surprised when he went in all guns blazing and heart-first with Kurt when Kurt, well, literally fell for him on the sidewalk that day. We were worried he wasn't thinking straight and was getting too involved too quickly, so we came to Miami to see how he was. Turns out, he was fine. Well, worried and upset about the ordeal Kurt was going through, but fine within himself over the progression of the whole thing."

When she asked that question of doom (in his humble opinion), he was shaking his head before his brain actually had time to rationally consider it. "Nope. But then, I don't think I would ever be, no matter how much time passed. Sorry. I'm just... I'm, like, toeing the starting line of my entire career and I sunk everything into college for years, and I was looking forward to starting work and helping out kids having a tough time. And I'm going to shut up because you don't need to hear my life story right now. I just never banked on my own kids being a factor in any of this. I have no idea how my family will react to it, and I know what I have to do, but that doesn't mean I'm ready for it. But it's life and we did what we did, so now we have to face the consequences, ready or not."

[woman_or_a_girl]

There was a tension and a nervousness hanging in the air between the two of them, but Quinn couldn't shake the feeling that there was... well, something else, too. Solidarity seemed like a good word for it. There was very much a feeling that if this test did prove what Quinn suspected, Jeremy would be there beside her to see this whole thing through. He didn't seem the type of guy to knock a girl up and then run like hell. This was a huge thing... Maybe even a nightmare, if things went badly. Quinn hadn't been sure if she even wanted kids, and now here was this huge question of what was going to happen. She'd never been a fan of the idea of termination, but she was in law school, and when she'd thought she was going to have to go this alone, the realization had hit her very quickly that it might be her only real option that made any sense. But she just seemed to know through talking to Jeremy, if only for a short while, that he wasn't the kind of guy to run away from a situation he'd been part of creating and leave the consequences to the other person involved. She could only hope that, if they decided to go through with this, have the baby, and move on with things together, they'd manage to work it well for the sake of their kid. She hardly knew him, and she wasn't deluded enough to think that this might lead to anything more than two adults trying to raise a child. She didn't think for a minute that they'd end up falling in love or anything ridiculous like that, because life just didn't work that way. This wasn't like the olden days were a pregnancy automatically meant a marriage, nor did Quinn want it to be. She liked this guy. He seemed genuinely sweet and kind, and like someone she would've dated in normal circumstances. But that didn't mean she was ready for anything more than figuring out what came next if she really was pregnant. "I can understand that... But maybe when it's right, sometimes you really do just know. You meet that person that changes your whole life and your whole way of looking at things, and nothing is ever the same again. I don't think that's the way for everybody by any means, but maybe that's what it was with Kurt and Blaine. Maybe what they have is so right that it just clicked, at least for Blaine. For Kurt, it was never not going to be a struggle on some level, because of his condition. But he's opened up to Blaine more than he's ever opened up to a guy, and that's been... something really special for all of us."

"No..." she said softly, stepping just a little closer to him and giving his arm a warm squeeze. "Hey, listen... If this goes the way I'm kind of thinking it's going to go, we're going to have a lot more than just life stories to share. This is a huge mess, Jeremy. I get that. I'm in law school for Christ's sake. This isn't something that I was ever planning on dealing with at this stage in my life. I don't expect you to be all, 'Oh em gee, yay, baby!' right now. That's not... Neither of us would've wanted this to happen this way. Trust me, I thought if I ever got pregnant, it would all be planned, and with someone that I was married to, or well on my way to marrying anyway. This is just kind of the way the cookie crumbled, and we'll just have to figure out how to go with it as we go. That's really the only choice we have at this point. As much as that sucks, it's just the way it is."

[theundapperone]

Jeremy just shrugged at that and wet his lips nervously. "I'm honestly in no position to be able to make an informed judgement on something like that. None of my relationships ever worked out, and none even came remotely close to it either. I've never just known anyone was right for me, and probably wouldn't even know how to recognise it. Like most people, I've made some stupid mistakes and gotten tied up in situations that weren't right, but once you do something like that, you can't wind back the clock and erase it. It becomes a fixture of your make-up and who you are. What you can change is how you face similar situations in the future. But fuck, if you're lucky enough to find your perfect match, it must be pretty awesome. It sounds and looks awesome anyway. I can't think of anything more special that just having someone to share your life with, to wake up with each day, and do things you love together. I mean, sure... I've pretty much already got a second half, but he doesn't count. He's just part of the package that anyone I have to date will have to like or they will have no chance. Sounds superficial, but it's true. Bas has put quite a few potential girlfriends of mine through the absolute wringer and as much as I hate to admit it, he was right in a lot of the things he called them on. Maybe being an identical twin is just really, really bad for one's romantic life. Who knows? But anyone, even a perfect match, needs to take Bas and me as a package deal and he's very much an acquired taste. Maybe one day I'll find my person who clicks and Bas actually likes them too."

He just gave her a brief, faint smile but then just cleared his throat and pointed at the door. "You should just probably check the result out. No sense standing here planning anything in the future beyond the right now until we know what it says. For all you know, you've gotten off scot-free and all this worry is for nothing. At least the close shave will have been with me and not my gay twin, right?" he joked, trying to lighten the mood a little. On the flipside, if that test was positive, how the hell was he even going to begin to tell Sebastian? It was so far out of the realms of any situation he thought he would find himself in that he couldn't fathom Sebastian's response, especially considering Quinn's connections to Kurt, and therefore Blaine. Blaine, who happened to be BFFs to Tina, who happened to have quite the distinct history with Jeremy that was very much a big secret to this day that Jeremy had kept hush for her sake.

[woman_or_a_girl]

"Neither am I, really," Quinn replied easily. "I mean, I thought I was. I was really happy with someone for a long time, and we had a great life together while it lasted. We're still amazing friends, which is something not many couples can say after a break up." She had a moment where she realized that there was a connection there, too. "He's actually... The guy that your brother was into and tried to steal from me back in the day. It's kind of a weird realization how tied together everyone from Ohio is here in Miami of all places. I can't deny, though, I do miss it... Not really being engaged to him, because I love him to bits, but we weren't right for each other in the end. Just because you work as a couple doesn't mean you're actually meant to be one. But I miss that knowing that one person was always going to be there... Going to bed in someone's arms, and waking up still there... You really can't beat it." She couldn't think too much about that now, though, because the odds of ever finding someone now that she was probably going to be a mom? Were probably slim to none. It was guys with kids that always made girls all warm and fuzzy inside. Girls with kids never really brought the same response from guys. "It's not superficial that anyone you date needs to get along with your twin. He's half of you! You guys will always be part of one another, no matter what happens with other people in your life. You have every right to want and need that in a relationship. Sebastian's just a bit harder for some people to get used to, that's all."

She nodded quietly, not really able to speak without the sudden feeling that she very much just wanted to cry. There was no point in crying, though. Not until she knew for sure what was going on. So she moved away from where she'd been standing to talk to Jeremy, and made her way back to the bathroom where she'd left the test to wait the appropriate amount of time. She picked it up, and as her fingers wrapped around it, she found herself closing her eyes, delaying the inevitable just for one more second. But this was the moment of truth, and after a deep breath, she opened them, and flipped the test over to see the screen that said a single word, plain as day: PREGNANT. In all caps. As if Quinn needed the damn thing yelling the results at her. Her free hand came up to cover her mouth as she all but choked. She'd been hoping somehow, on some level, that this would all turn out to be a joke, but it wasn't. It wasn't a joke at all. And she was swallowing hard before she turned back around to go back to the living room and report the news to Jeremy. The test still clutched in her hand, she met his gaze, and when words weren't cooperating, she just gave him a single nod of her head.

[theundapperone]

Jeremy's mind turned to Tina briefly then, and he hoped she was happy. He knew she was in town, but they had been quite pointedly avoiding being in each other's presences. He knew she was more favourable to being with girls these days, and that she had told him he would be the exception to that if anything had a chance of working out between them. It couldn't, though, and they both did know that. Jeremy held commitment and fidelity in very high regards in his morals, and he regretted that he had been a playing part in her cheating on her marriage, but he didn't regret be able to help her see that her marriage was poisonous for her happiness. When he ever managed to find love, he needed it to be something above and beyond just random hook-ups. It had to mean something, it had to be special. Probably why he found it so hard. Everything was about sex and whilst he enjoyed sex as much as the next person, he was ultimately looking for the whole package if he chose to bite the bullet and settle. Which was how he was easily taken advantage of, and why Sebastian was so protective of him. His forehead creased up when Quinn came to mention his twin here. "Sorry, but Sebastian tried to steal a lot of people's boyfriends over the time. I'm not getting any immediate flagging of anything specific here. Not that it matters, he's not into that sort of shit these days. He grew up. He prefers no baggage and no strings at all, which includes people already attached. As to me, people probably think I'm a bit of a pushover or an easy ride because I'm not the residence bitch. If I'm honest, that's gotten me hurt more than I care to admit over the time. I'm more wary these days. At least, until alcohol is involved apparently... something I don't usually get too involved with either because it goes straight to my head."

He paced a couple of times back and forth in the kitchen while he waited for her to come back from the bathroom. He chewed on his thumbnail, feeling his heart pounding in his chest and fighting the urge to call Sebastian just as moral support. Sebastian just wasn't ever the most subtle of choices for moral support, and Jeremy's only other real options were Santana (same boat as Sebastian as to subtlety), Blaine, who had his hands full with Kurt, and Puck, who was... yeah, not an option, really. Then Quinn was back and he could tell from the look on her face what the result was. But the nod did it. It seemed so finale and he felt dizzy, putting a hand up to his mouth. "Ohhhh god, I feel like I'm going to be sick," he said shakily, breaking out into a panicked sweat. How had this ended up happening to him?

[woman_or_a_girl]

There was something innately protective in the way that Jeremy talked about his twin. Quinn could imagine that he was probably quite used to having people say less than nice things about his brother, and that it probably bothered him to hear it. His family was clearly important to him... In fact, he'd even told her back at the store that he and Sebastian had come back to the country to look out for Blaine when he was going through a rough time. She didn't want to just be another person in the never ending line of people who just assumed that Sebastian was still the same jerk he'd been in high school. It wasn't really fair to him, or to Jeremy, who obviously cared a great deal about his twin, to just slot him into that same mindset without having spoken to him in years. "It's okay. It was a small eternity ago. We were all kids back then, and not always the nicest ones, either. I can't really judge Sebastian on being a bitch, because I was one myself for years. Kurt and I were like... Team Bitch, and we were the reason that Santana wasn't co-captain of the Cheerios... that's the cheerleading squad from our high school... So yeah... I have no room to judge anyone for that. At all." She paused, taking in what he was saying quietly, and almost feeling bad about the whole thing. Had she somehow managed to be another name on the list of people who'd hurt him because he wasn't like his brother without even meaning to. "I..." She bit her tongue then, focusing on not making this anymore awkward than it already was at this rate.

If she were honest, Quinn felt very much the same. Although she'd felt like that for days now, even before it hit her that she might be pregnant. The fact that the news was official now, right there in digital letters on the front of the test, just made her feel that much more like losing her lunch... Which she probably would've done right now, if not for the fact that she'd hurled it all over Jeremy and the aisle of the supermarket earlier. She opened her mouth a few times to say something, but her words seemed to be getting stuck in her throat, which felt painfully dry. With a deep breath, she took a bottle of water from the fridge and took a long sip of it. But that just left her feeling worse, and she set it aside, focusing on not throwing up. "I... I'm sorry," she murmured, although what for, she wasn't really sure. It wasn't entirely her blame to carry, nor was Jeremy acting as if it was. It was all just a stupid mistake... A very huge, very stupid mistake.

[theundapperone]

Jeremy just held a hand up, but kept his other with his fingers pressed safely against his lips for a few lingering moments before he dared try to speak again. "You don't have anything to apologise for her," he told her through a sharp exhalation that had followed a distinct gulp to try to get his nerves under control. "But you know what? I think I'm maybe just going to go so we can have a bit of... space, or something. To process. That's probably the best thing right now." He didn't want to freak out in front of her because that would be epic fail and he was just as much at fault here as she was. He was suddenly cursing the fact he was not only a lightweight but booze wasn't his friend much these days with the medication he needed to take. He could still drink, but it had a more intense affect on him and way quicker than it would most people. It could be funny at a family gathering or a night out with the guys, but this? This wasn't very convenient at all and he was pretty sure he was going to need to throw up all over the place somewhere just to release the tension in his gut that was coiled up like a pretzel. He just didn't want to do it around her.

"Look, I'm really sorry we've gone and made a pretty epically stupid mistake. But a common one, and now we have to deal with it whether we like it or not. I just sort of need a bit of time to wrap my head around all this." Sometimes, he was lucky if his brain even functioned enough to get him to aim at the toilet properly, but that was very, very much a story for a completely different day. There was a time and a place, and this wasn't it. "I'm not going to leave you high and dry, though. We'll figure it out together once the initial shock as worn off. You should probably try to book a doctor's appointment or something, and just... let me know when you want to go and I'll come with you. We'll split all the bills on everything and try to make sure it's the least painful it needs to be," he resolved. Damn, he needed a Tylenol because he suddenly had one epic headache coming through.