The Fear Is Paralyzing

Kris had called both Dani and Noah, trying to find Quinn after she had left and hadn't come back after several hours. She had turned her phone off after he had called her three times in a row. Clearly she didn't want to talk to him right now. Kris felt bad, he really did. He knew he had messed up, and he should have told her sooner, but he honestly thought he was protecting her this way.

Neither Dani nor Noah had heard from her. And, Noah had asked Kris for all the details that lead up to her leaving, and then proceeded to lecture him about keeping that information to himself. As if Kris didn't already feel bad enough. But, Noah had given him one good piece of information during the phone call: he had a feeling Quinn had gone to find Dean, most likely at his place or at her parents.

Kris couldn't believe he hadn't thought of that sooner, and he immediately grabbed his car keys. He didn't know where Dean lived, so he hoped that Quinn had gone to her parents. He got there in record time, and barely turned off the car before he ran for the front door. Her car was sitting in the driveway, and regardless of whether Dean was there or not, he knew Quinn couldn't be having a good time inside.

He rang the doorbell and impatiently waited for the door to open. When it finally did, he saw Corinne standing there, her arms crossed over her chest, staring him down. "What do we owe this great pleasure in seeing you here? Quinn already filled us in on you keeping things from her. Do you really think it's a good idea for a boyfriend to keep things from his girlfriend?" she questioned him, raising an eyebrow at him. Kris had to admit that he was a little surprised Quinn had filled her parents in, but he assumed she had to tell them something for the reason she showed up unexpectedly.

"Fiancé," Kris corrected her, ignoring all her questioning.

"Excuse me?" Corinne asked.

"Fiancé," he repeated. "I asked Quinn to marry me, and she said yes. Now can I please see my fiancée?" he asked pointedly.

Corinne started to open her mouth to give a response when Quinn's voice rang out. "Goddamn it Dean!" Kris didn't wait to hear what Corinne was going to say and instead pushed past her and ran to the living room where Dean and Quinn were standing toe to toe with Garrett walking down the stairs to see what all the commotion was about.

"Quinn," Kris began.

Quinn turned her head around to see him standing there, but then quickly spun back around to stare at Dean. "Tell me what the hell is going on!" she demanded.

"That's what we all want to know!" Garrett rang out. "Quinn, what are you doing here? And why are you yelling right now?" he asked, never having seen Quinn get so angry.

Quinn didn't take her eyes off of Dean as she gritted her teeth. "Dean is up to something," she spoke rather calmly, though it was obvious she was fuming. "First, he's trying to still trying to get the team," she announced, and Corinne and Garrett looked at each other, trying to figure out what she was talking about. "And, not only that, you decide to bring Darcy into it?"

"Like I already told you, I don't know who this Darcy is that you keep talking about," Dean told her, but Quinn wouldn't let it go.

"Stop with the lies! I know you were with Darcy…" she trailed off, turning to look at Kris, realizing she didn't even know Darcy's last name. The woman was causing chaos in her life, and she really knew nothing about her, except that she was Kris's ex-girlfriend--ex-fiancé. "What's Darcy's last name?"

"Bellerose," Kris answered.

"You were with Darcy Bellerose. You want to try to take the team from me? Fine, go for it. You're not going to get it anyways But, don't you dare try to fuck with my relationship with Kris!" she yelled. Her emotions were taking a toll, and it was obvious in the way she was speaking.

Corinne stepped towards Dean and Quinn. "Quinn, I don't think Dean would try to mess with your relationship. I don't know why you try to blame him for everything."

Quinn spun around to look at her mother, completely exhausted. "Mom! Stop taking his side for everything! Open your eyes! He's a schemer. He always has been."

"Quinn, I don’t know why you always think everything is about you. What's going on with me and Darcy has nothing to do with you," Dean stated.

"I don't believe you!" Quinn cried, and while Kris hated everything she was going through right now, he was happy she was standing up for herself for once. "It's just one big coincidence that you're meeting up with Kris's ex-girlfriend, who we saw just a couple weeks ago? She is a manipulative bitch just like you, and she wants Kris back. You want to tell me that you're not teaming up with her to both get what you want? And to ruin my life in the process?" she questioned. "That's what you wanted all along, wasn't it?"

She heard the front door open and close but she didn't bother turning around to see that Noah had joined the rest of them in the living room for the confrontation. "Quinn, I'm not helping Darcy get Kris or whatever the hell you want," Dean told her.

"Then you tell me right now why the hell you're hanging out with her," she told him, knowing he was about to give her some lie.

"I'm trying to get into her company," he said simply.

"What?" Quinn and Kris both said at the same time, utterly confused.

"Her family, they have a huge wine business," Dean said, and Quinn remembered Tyler telling her that when she had asked him for information on Darcy. "I figured I could get part of it out of her," he shrugged his shoulders. "She seems pretty easy," he added.

"Oh, so you've just decided to give up trying to get the team from me?" she questioned, not believing it. He had been trying for a year to get that team, and there was no way he was just going to stop until he'd exhausted all options.

"Look, I'm not going to say I didn't try to get that team from you," he said, and she heard Corinne gasp in the background, shocked to hear an admission from him. Quinn had been telling both her and Garrett that for the longest time, but neither of them believed the worst in Dean. "I went to Florida and had some lawyer look for any type of loophole for me to get that team, but somehow Noah wrote that contract with no way in," he said, looking at his big brother who was standing behind Quinn. "The guy told me I could take it to other lawyers but they'd all tell me the same thing. You've got a backup by having Mario have half the share. He can veto any incoming owner. And I know that guy likes you for some unknown reason and he'd never approve of it. So, my only option would be getting you both to give up the team, which isn't going to happen. There's no way for me to get around that," he explained.

"It's true," Noah nodded his head. Quinn hadn't realized Noah had written that part into the contract, and she couldn't thank him more for being the genius lawyer that he was.

"So, I decided I'd move on to another venture. I heard about Bellerose through a friend of a friend, and then I found out she had dated your boyfriend," Dean continued his confession. Quinn couldn't believe what he was actually telling her. She was still skeptical that it was the truth, but everything seemed legitimate right now. "I had an in that way. I told her I could help her get him back."

"So you were trying to break me and Kris up," Quinn said.

"Hold your damn horses, will you?" Dean said. "It has nothing to do with you. I don’t give a fuck about you and your fuck buddy," he said, and Quinn glared at him for his choice of words. "But I knew I could reel her in that way. And, I could sink my claws into that winery," he shrugged his shoulders.

"And who cares what she does to me and Kris?" Quinn questioned.

"Look, like I said, I don’t care about you and your fuck buddy," he repeated, and once again, Quinn hated his use of words. "If she wants to try to break you up and get him, she can go for it. But, I'm not going to waste my time with any of that shit. I don't get anything out of the deal."

Quinn was quiet for a minute, trying to process everything he had just told her. "So you really aren't trying to get the team anymore?" she asked. She didn't really care if he was helping Darcy try to break her and Quinn up. That wasn't going to happen because she and Kris were stronger than that, and they now knew it was coming. But, she was tired of having to watch her back when it came to the team.

"If this asshole hadn't have written that contract like he did, I'd already have it," he said, jerking his thumb in Noah's direction. "Instead, I'm just wasting my time instead of focusing on something I can get, like the Bellerose winery," he said.

It made sense to Quinn, though she wasn't going to completely believe him just yet. She'd never trust the man, but he seemed to be telling her the truth. She turned around to face Noah. "Thank you for writing that contract. It seems you saved the team for me," she said.

Noah smiled and mouthed a "you're welcome", knowing Quinn wouldn’t be able to hear him over both Corinne and Garrett screeching at Dean, unable to believe everything he was up to.

Quinn turned around to look at Kris. "Let's go home," she said, and he put his arm around her, as she leaned into him, completely exhausted by everything that had gone on in the past twelve hours.