The Fear Is Paralyzing

Quinn bit her thumbnail as she sat in her car in the parking lot outside of Kris's apartment. She had called him and told him she needed to talk to him, and he had told her to come over to his place. Now, she had to get the courage to actually get out of her car and go up to his place. But, she wished she could avoid all of this and stay in her car for the rest of eternity.

After several more minutes, she finally pulled the handle of the car door and opened it, feeling the cold air hit her face. She slowly got out of the car and made her way inside and into the elevator, going up to his apartment.

When he opened the door for her, he had a smile on his face, and she hated that she was about to make that smile disappear. "Hey," she said quietly, walking around him into his place.

He shut the door behind her and turned around towards her. "So what's up?" he asked, seeing the look on her face and knowing something was bothering her.

"Maybe you should sit down," she suggested.

Kris narrowed his eyes at her, looking at her skeptically. "Quinn, just tell me what's going on, you're making me more nervous the longer you wait."

"You're going to hate this," she said, shaking her head. She knew she was just dragging this out, but she didn't know how to tell him.

"Quinn," Kris began again.

Quinn took a deep breath before looking at the floor in front of Kris's feet. She couldn't bear look him in the face when she told him this. "Dean knows," she blurted out, continuing to look at the ground as she waited to hear what he had to say. Several moments passed, and Kris still hadn't said anything, so she reluctantly looked up at him. "Did you hear me?" she asked, her voice straining. "Dean knows."

"Dean knows what exactly?" Kris asked.

"About us," Quinn sighed. "He came over to my place earlier and he basically gave me an ultimatum. I either sign the team over to him or he's going to the press and telling everyone that we're together."

"Shit," Kris muttered as he sat down on the couch, running his hand through his hair. "How did he find out?" he wondered aloud.

Quinn sat down beside him. "No idea. But, I don't know what to do."

"You let him go to the press," Kris said as if it were the obvious choice. But, it wasn't for Quinn, who had been battling with this for hours, wondering what was best for everyone involved and how she could get out of this with the least amount of casualties as possible.

"I can't do that," Quinn told him. "If he does that, he's ruining both of us. Think about your career, Kris. What happens if the press finds out that you're dating the team owner? That's not going to look good for anyone, especially you! I can't let him go to the press."

Kris turned his head to look at Quinn. "So what? You're going to just hand the team over to him?" he accused her. It was very obvious that Kris was against this option, but this was what Quinn had begun to believe was the best way out of this situation.

"I don't want to give him the team, Kris, you know that. But, what other choice do we really have?" she asked him, sighing.

"Let him go to the press. Who gives a damn?"

Quinn shut her eyes, wishing all of this would go away, but when she slowly opened them, she realized this was her reality. "I do, Kris," she told him, calmness in her voice, though her head was spinning in circles. "Think about it. If we let him go to press, think about how many people we'd be hurting. I'm not just thinking about myself, though sure, he would be hurting me, obviously. But he'd be hurting you, too. He'd be hurting the whole team. He'd be hurting so many people, and I can't let him do that," she tried explaining her point of view on the whole situation, though she knew Kris wasn't going to agree with her by the expression on his face while she was telling him this.

"So instead you're going to hurt those same people that you claim you're trying to save by giving the team to Dean?" Kris questioned. "Think about that, Quinn. You know he'd run the team into the ground. He wouldn’t care about the team at all, just himself and if he's making money," he argued.

"So what do you expect me to do?" Quinn exclaimed, louder than she had expected to. There was no winning solution in this dilemma, and she just wanted to get out of it with the least amount of hurt that was possible.

"I just told you," Kris said, raising his voice as well, making Quinn scrunch back in her seat next to him. "Let him go to the press."

Quinn shook her head. "I can't do that, Kris."

"So you're going to give the team up to him," he said, his eyes boring into her. She knew he hated what she was doing, but in her eyes, it was the best solution. "So much for you giving a damn about this team at all," he hissed at her as he stood up, heading towards the door.

"Where are you going?" she asked him. She was in his apartment, shouldn't she be the one to leave?

"Anywhere away from you," he stated before slamming the door behind him, leaving Quinn sitting there in a mess. She didn't really know what to do. She felt awkward sitting in Kris's apartment by herself when she had just gotten into a big fight with him. She didn't even know where they stood right now, though she was pretty sure that when she handed the team over to Dean that she and Kris would be over. Dean was going to get exactly what he wanted: he was ripping everything Quinn had right out of her hands.

***

Quinn sat in her office at the arena, just staring at the door. She was waiting for Mario to arrive so she could talk to him. She wasn't quite sure how she was going to address the situation with him, but she'd have to figure that out fairly quickly.

She looked around her office, thinking about how much her life had changed in the past several months since she had taken over the team from her father. She would have never even dreamed this would happen to her. She hadn't wanted the team from a sport she knew nothing about, but now she couldn't imagine not having them. And now Dean was trying to take that away from her.

She saw Mario walk through the front door of their office, and she stood up, walking over to him. "Hey Mario, do you have a minute?" she asked him, and he nodded his head, motioning for her to follow him into his office.

He shut the door behind them, giving them some privacy, before he sat down in a chair, with Quinn sitting down across from him. "What's on your mind?" he asked with a kind smile, giving Quinn a little bit of comfort.

She took a deep breath before answering. "I don't really even know where to begin," she said with a nervous laugh. She had no idea how Mario was going to take all of this, but she needed to fill him in on what was happening. After all, he was the one that was going to have to deal with the aftermath of the situation.

He continued to smile at her as he said, "Take your time."

"Well, I guess I should start out with, um, well, I'm dating, um…" she stuttered, not knowing how to just spit out the sentence.

"Kris?" Mario finished for her.

Quinn's eyes widened as she looked over at him to see the smile still on his face. "How did you…?" she asked, not being able to finish her question.

Mario chuckled. "I've known your little secret for a while," he admitted. "I saw you two on the road trip, I saw Kris leave your room, and I knew something was going on with the two of you."

"But you didn't say anything?"

He shook his head. "No, I figured you didn't want to talk about it or want anyone to know. You never acted like you were together when you were around other people, and it never affected your job, so I never brought it up. Your personal life is just that: your personal life. It's none of my business who you're dating," he told her. Quinn couldn't believe that Mario had known about her relationship with Kris for so long and he hadn't said anything about it. "I don't think that's what you wanted to talk to me about, is it?" he asked her.

Quinn shook her head. "No," she sighed. "I guess the next part of the story you should know is that my step-brother is out to get the team, and he'd do anything to do that. And, he just found out some information that's going to allow him to do that," she explained.

Mario scrunched his forehead in a confused manner. "I don't understand," he told her.

"Sorry," Quinn apologized quickly before continuing. "Dean found out about my relationship with Kris and he's basically saying he's going to go to the press with the information if I don't give him the team."

"So you're going to give him the team?" he questioned. He wasn't as harsh as Kris had been, but she knew he didn't agree with that decision either.

Quinn put her head in her hands. "I don't know. I thought so, but you don't think I should either?"

"Quinn, you're a great owner. I know it was rough for you at the beginning, but you've really grown into that role. You've stepped up and it's shown how hard you're working. The team is really reaping the benefits of that. Now I don't know your step-brother, but I know he is not going to be you, and the team is really going to lose an asset if you decide to hand the team over."

Quinn listened to him talk, and she couldn't believe the words he was saying about her. She had never thought she would make a good owner, but that was exactly was Mario was telling her. "If I don't, the team is going to get thrown under the bus with the press," she told him. "And can the team really afford to pay for my mistake?"

"As far as I can see, you never made a mistake," Mario spoke. "Your personal life has nothing to do with the team."

"That's not what the media is going to say. They're going to claim that Kris is getting special treatment or something. That because I'm technically majority owner that I can do what I want, and that because Kris is dating me that he's going to get extra benefits or something crazy like that. It would be a PR nightmare."

"Quinn, have you thought about what the media is going to say if you hand the team over to your step-brother? There's a reason behind the switch, and they're going to get to the bottom of it, and in the end, they're going to find out the truth."

Quinn repeated Mario's words in her head. She hadn't really thought of it that way. "You're right," she told him.

"I can't tell you to do one thing or the other. But, I am telling you that you are a great owner. The team will suffer if you leave us. Don't worry about the press. We have excellent PR people for a reason. All you need to worry about is what is going to be best for the team as a whole."

Quinn nodded her head but stayed quiet. She had a lot of thinking to do in a short amount of time.