She sighs happily against his skin, careful to not press her cheek to hard against him. “I love you too. So much.” She lets out a sigh of relief, her lips curling into a smile against his skin. A perfect end to an awful night. Thinking about the night sends a wave of exhaustion over her, and she cuddles herself closer to him, letting her eyes fall closed. “You’re my stupid cowboy.” She murmurs sleepily, reaching down and finding his hand, lacing their fingers together.
“All yours,” he whispers, running his fingers slowly through her hair. He gives her hand a squeeze, feeling her breathing even out, watching her for a while as she sleeps, her chest moving up and down with each breath. He presses his lips to her forehead, holding them there ad letting out a breath, the feeling of really having her, once and for all, washing over him and radiating through his veins. He finally shuts his own eyes, smiling as his chin rests against her forehead and he manages to drift off himself, their fingers still laced.
“No stealing my covers. You know I’ll steal them right back.” She laughs, pressing a long kiss to his lips, only pulling back when air is desperately needed. “Of course I say yes, you stupid cowboy.” She laughs, pressing her face against his neck and holding him as tight as she can without hurting anything. “We can live either place. I don’t care.” She says, but then pauses for a minute, her brow wrinkling in thought. “Would you want to live at my house?” She asks, her voice softer and more nervous now. “I mean, if you’d be more comfortable staying here, I’m okay with that too. That house just…” She trails off, sighing softly. “It’s one of my only happy memories.” she shrugs slightly, resting her head against the pillow, biting her lip and looking up at him through her lashes.
“I think your house would be perfect,” he mumbles, pressing a kiss to her lips and smiling widely, “we’re gonna live together, huh,” he runs his thumb over her lower lip once he’s pulled back, “the little fancy hollywood girl and the stupid, lucky cowboy,” he smirks at her, pulling her gently into his chest, pressing his face back into her hair, “I love you,” he murmurs into it, “a lot, baby. I’m gonna make sure no one ever hurts you, ever again.”
She freezes and her eyes widen when he says ‘sticking around for good’. Is he asking what she thinks he’s asking? His momentary nervous pause assures her that he is. She bites her lip as he rambles about where they’d live, blushing pink when he says he’d be absurdly happy if she agrees. “Do you know what you’d be getting yourself into?” She asks, nervously chewing on her bottom lip. “You’d have to cook anytime I don’t feel like it. Or get takeout from somewhere.” She flushes again, smiling softly. “And you’ll have to snake the drain in the shower cause I’m a girl and it just comes with the territory.” She’s smiling in full force now, happy tears brimming in her eyes. “And if….when you get mad at me, you’re just gonna have to deal. Because we’ll be living together and you won’t have some other place to just run off to. Do you really think you can handle all that?”
“Baby,” he takes her by the chin, very lightly, his other hand running his fingers through her hair, “I already have to snake your drain, and I have like the three best takeout restaurants around here on speed dial, and when I get mad at you,” he smiles smally, a laugh in his throat when he sees the tears in her eyes, “there’s always the bar.” He smiles tentatively at her, nuzzling her neck a bit, “what do you say? Do you say yes? Can I bug you and steal all your covers, and trip over your shoes, and love every second of it?”
and i'm coming home: npuckermanssss: He doesn’t expect it, not in the slightest, which...
He doesn’t expect it, not in the slightest, which might make it slightly better - the thing is, he doesn’t think he’s ever felt like this before. He feels like he’s been lit on fire, like he’s warm and blazing and it feels good. He knows, now, that he wasn’t in love with…
“Sure about that?” He teases, a smile on his lips, pressing another kiss to hers before moving down to her neck, pressing his face there as gingerly as he could, “We have a lot of time, for that, y’know,” he mumbles against her skin, “considering I don’t think I plan on letting you leave this place for very long, unless it’s to get reinforcements. In fact, I think maybe you should think about sticking around here for good.” He hadn’t realized he was doing it until he did - hadn’t realized he’d actually wanted her to live here, rather than have to switch houses back and forth, night after night, but he knows, now that he does. He really, really does, and he kind of hopes he didn’t just blow it. He backpedals a bit, “I…I’d understand,” he feels nervous, but also right - natural, “if you wanted to stay in your house. I know it was…your childhood home, and all that, and you just bought it, so I’d get it…I’d go there, if you wanted, ‘cause this place…is kind of just a lot of bad memories, sometimes, but either way…I think,” he looks at her, hopeful, “I think…I’d be kind of absurdly happy, if you wanted to…live with me, I mean.”
and i'm coming home: npuckermanssss: He’s confused, the whole time she speaks, and when she...
He’s confused, the whole time she speaks, and when she finishes he looks up at her with his brows raised, “You think this is something that’s gonna make me want out?” He laughs - he can’t help it, and he really doesn’t mean to, but he does, because it’s just so fucking…
He doesn’t expect it, not in the slightest, which might make it slightly better - the thing is, he doesn’t think he’s ever felt like this before. He feels like he’s been lit on fire, like he’s warm and blazing and it feels good. He knows, now, that he wasn’t in love with Santana (he’d known before, but this was a different kind of know,) that he hadn’t been in love with anyone, because he was in love with Quinn, and he could feel it in every nerve in his body, in every single fucking cell. He presses a slow, long kiss to her lips before he can think about doing otherwise, and when he finally pulls back he looks at her with a tiny smile on his face, breathing out, “God, I love you, too,” as his hand moves gently to the cheek opposite where her skin is raw, “so, so much…and I know this is probably not what you want to be thinking about, but…I really do. I really do, and you really have to know,” he laughs, shaking his head, “especially now, I’d say.”
and i'm coming home: npuckermanssss: He sighs as she speaks, his blood heated with the...
He sighs as she speaks, his blood heated with the mention of Alex and his plan, “Baby,” he says, his voice quiet. He put his hand gently onto her leg, looking right into her eyes, “first of all, he’s not going to be doing any of that. If anything, he’s gonna be tellin’ the…
He’s confused, the whole time she speaks, and when she finishes he looks up at her with his brows raised, “You think this is something that’s gonna make me want out?” He laughs - he can’t help it, and he really doesn’t mean to, but he does, because it’s just so fucking ridiculous - and he can tell that she’s confused, or at least slightly annoyed, maybe even hurt, “Quinn,” he lets out a breath, “you’re crazy. I have a dead wife, a dead wife I wouldn’t even tell you about for months, and you’re still here - you think some asshole who hurt you, who you were honest with me about from one of the first times we spent together, and who did something you couldn’t control? You think that’s going to shake me?” He gives her hand a squeeze, “you’re gonna have to do a lot worse than that to get rid of me, okay? I’d be insane to let you go, especially for something like this. One day,” he leans his forehead to hers, a small smile on lips, “one day this isn’t even gonna be a blip on our radar.”
and i'm coming home: npuckermanssss: He nods, pressing a kiss to her forehead and then...
He nods, pressing a kiss to her forehead and then sitting down on the closed lid of the toilet, moving her gently between his legs. He takes the lotion, puts some onto the tips of his fingers, and then holds her arm with the other hand. Gently, he rubs it into the spots where…
He sighs as she speaks, his blood heated with the mention of Alex and his plan, “Baby,” he says, his voice quiet. He put his hand gently onto her leg, looking right into her eyes, “first of all, he’s not going to be doing any of that. If anything, he’s gonna be tellin’ the press that he’s going to get some help. That he has done something wrong, and he’s gotta deal with it,” he slides his hand up to hers, lacing their fingers, “and second of all, you couldn’t ‘ve had any idea,” he gives her hand a light squeeze, afraid he’ll hurt her or something, “look at me, okay? You are okay. You are safe, and he isn’t comin’ back here. And you can tell the press anything you want - you can tell ‘em nothing, if that’s what you want. This isn’t something you should be worryin’ about, right now all that should be on your mind,” he inches closer to her, pressing a kiss to her forehead, “is getting better, and showing him that what he did didn’t change a thing, for you. You can’t give him the gratitude of knowin’ that he effected you,” he looks into her eyes, giving her a tiny smile, “okay? You’re gonna be fine, I promise. I’m gonna make sure of it, myself.”
She just stares at his chest, her fingers tightly fisted in his shirt, holding on and making sure he would be staying right with her. She doesn’t even know where to begin with things they should talk about. Thanking him for saving her life? Thanking him for calling the cops, so now she has the evidence that this happened? Apologizing again for trying to do this on her own? She doesn’t know where to start, so she just doesn’t. After a few minutes though, the stinging in her skin starts to get stronger, and she sits up, wincing slightly. “Do you have face moisturizer?” She asks softly, sighing in relief when he nods and leads her into the bathroom. She flinches when she sees the outline of the red handprint on her cheek, but focuses on careful rubbing the lotion onto the area, feeling a slight relief at the cooling sensation. She repeats it on the other cheek, before setting the bottle down and grabbing normal lotion. “Can…you do my arms?” She asks quietly, looking down at the bruises. “I know I won’t be able to do them very well.”
He nods, pressing a kiss to her forehead and then sitting down on the closed lid of the toilet, moving her gently between his legs. He takes the lotion, puts some onto the tips of his fingers, and then holds her arm with the other hand. Gently, he rubs it into the spots where Alex’s fingers had dug into her skin, feeling his stomach churn at every wince and unpleasant noise she made, “I’m sorry,” he whispers, trying his hardest not to hurt her, “baby, I’m so sorry, I’m tryin’ to be as gentle as I can.” He leans forward when he’s done, pressing a kiss to her abdomen, then stands, gently smoothing her hair back, “come on, we’re gonna lay down and forget about mirrors, for now,” he picks up the lotion, having rubbed the remnants into his own skin, “and we’ll bring this, just in case. You want aspirin, too?”
She hops out of the ambulance as soon as she sees him walking over to her, noticing the way his eyes linger on her bruises for a moment. She buries her face in his chest when he pulls her near, just letting herself cry, her tears soaking through his shirt. Her cheeks are still red and stinging from where Alex slapped her, but she ignore the pain and just pulls herself closer to him, hanging on for dear life. God, how could she be so stupid? To actually think that Alex would hold back at all, ha! She should’ve known better, she should’ve let Puck come with her when he said he wanted to, she should’ve never said she would talk to him. She feels like the stupid girl she was when she first married him, and used to brush off his hitting as him having a bad day. “I am so sorry.” She whispers into his chest once the tears stop, ignoring the pain shooting through her arms and face. “I should’ve just listened to you.”
He shakes his head, shushing her and rubbing her back softly, “Don’t,” he whispers, “baby, don’t apologize, okay? C’mere,” he pulls her in a little closer, sighing deeply and then looking over his shoulder at her house, figuring it’s probably the last place she wants to be at all, “we’re gonna go to my place, okay?” He lifts her up, gently so he doesn’t hurt her, and brings her to his chest, carrying her slowly to his car and setting her on the seat, pressing a kiss to the bottom of her ear before shutting the door. He gets around to the drivers side and then drives them quickly to his place, lifting her back out of the car once he’s turned the ignition off, and then brings her up to his bedroom, setting her down and crawling in next to her, pulling her into his chest and mumbling soft reassurances into her hair, hoping she’d calm down soon.
and i'm coming home: npuckermanssss: He gets everyone right the fuck out of there, because...
He gets everyone right the fuck out of there, because he’s going to be damned if he doesn’t follow her home. He’s got a shitty feeling about this guy, and he knows he’s right to - he knows this type, if he’s not there with her, this asshole’s going to try something, and he’s…
He wants to tell her she’s got absolutely nothing to be sorry about, but then the EMT’s and the police pull them apart and he’s being asked a ridiculous influx of questions. He gets his words in a nice neat line, telling them the story from start to finish, then looks over at her, watching as the EMT speaks to her calmly. “Am I ‘bout done,” he asks, his voice rough, “I have somethin’ else I need to be takin’ care of,” he watches as the officer looks from him to Quinn, then nods, telling him they’ll call him with any further questions. He makes his way over to her and, for the first time, notices the bruising on her. He doesn’t say a word, just scoops her into his arms and pulls her to his chest, breathing into her hair and rubbing her back slowly, knowing it was just what she needed - him to be there.
