We might fall fast. We might fall hard (2/?)
Title: We might fall fast. We might fall hard (2/?)
Author: appleswithin
Rating:: NC-17 just to be uber safe for now.
Length: 4000+
Spoilers: Season One
Summary: How one slushy changed everything for Quinn and Rachel.
Authors Note: This is kinda AU and kinda canon. UnBeta'd, so all mistakes are mine, and mine alone. Also my first fic. I absolutely suck at angst, so this is all fluff. (Yes my summary is lame, and so is my title. I'm sorry)
Also, i don't own Glee
Chaper Two
Quinn was in the den of the Berry home, drinking hot chocolate and sitting on the most comfortable chair in the world. She’d eaten her ice cream, two portions of it in fact, and had stayed long enough to meet David’s husband Lucas.
Rachel’s parents were nice. A hell of a lot nicer than her parents, if Judy and Russell had found a strange girl in their house they probably would’ve thrown her out. Especially if that girl was Rachel Berry.
But these two men welcomed her into their home without question and then fed her. She did consider asking them if Rachel had ever mentioned her, she was one of the primary assailants on their daughters daily abuse after all, but she thought better of it though.
The den had a smell to it, she couldn’t put her finger on what the aroma was, but it was definitely very pleasant. So the smell coupled with the worlds most relaxing chair made her come to the conclusion that this, was in fact, the best room on earth.
Was this a bold statement? Probably. Quinn’s experience when it came to any place outside of Lima, Ohio was very limited. In all likelihood the pregnancy hormones were a factor in this decision, but regardless of that, she still stood by the statement.
“I think I want to marry this chair.” She said after sinking into it happily.
“Sorry Kiddo,” David laughed, “You’re going to have to get in line.”
“I guess I’ll just have to settle on having an affair, I hope you don’t mind.”
“No. But just so you know, she’ll let anyone sit on her.”
“So she’s easy, just the way I like ‘em” She laughed at her own statement, this was certainly a very weird conversation. One of many she’d had today. She took a sip from her mug and shifted herself again, no matter what position she got in it felt like heaven. It was liked being hugged by Angels, fluffy bunnies and Mr. Snuffleupagus all at once. “I wish my parents had a chair like this, all the furniture in their house is about the aesthetic, not about the practicality.”
“Do you resent your parents for kicking you out?” It seemed that Lucas Berry had the same problem with tact that Rachel has. He received a stern talking to from his husband.
“I’m sorry Quinn,” David started “My husband has a tendency to turn his brain filter off.”
“Sounds like someone else I know.” She chuckled when they both nodded their head in agreement, “But its okay. People don’t talk to me about what my parents did, I think they figure if they don’t bring up the subject that I’ll just forget it happened.” She fidgeted with her cardigan for a second wondering if it was a good idea, talking about something so personal to people she didn’t know. The fact that the two men weren’t judging her and the comfort she felt being in the room made her want to talk about it, so she continued. “To answer your question, yes, I do resent them. I made a mistake and they abandoned me because of it, they abandoned me because I made them look bad to all their peers. I still love them, in a way, but I really don’t like them very much.”
The conversations continued, the topic of staying with Puck came up, she jokingly said how much she missed bacon and David laughed.
“I know what you mean.” The taller man said. “I respect my family not to eat it in our home, but I have been given permission to eat it outside of the house. We should make a lunch date Quinn. There’s a place in town that makes the best, and I’m not exaggerating, best, bacon rolls. I think they lace it with something, but I don’t care.”
Quinn laughed. “Sounds good. Sometimes, I could literally kill for one. But that’s more than likely the pregnancy hormones. They make a girl do crazy things. I wonder how many women have actually killed because of that?” It was more of a rhetorical question, but it caused a discussion with the two men for almost twenty minutes.
She looked at the clock and couldn’t believe she’d been there for almost three hours. “I really should go. Puck doesn’t know where I am, he’s probably worried, and we weren’t in Glee. Mr Schuester’s probably worried too, Rachel never misses practice.”
She resentfully got up from the comfortable chair and headed upstairs to get her bag, Rachel was in her night clothes and under the blankets, still awake. She was holding a hand up and staring at her palm, Quinn resisted the urge to make her slap her own face.
“What’s so interesting about your hand?”
“I was trying to figure out how many lines there are, but I keep losing count.”
The blonde took a deep, shaky sigh and repeated, ‘Rachel Berry is not cute. Rachel Berry is not cute’ in her head.
“Hmm. Well, I’m about to go. How are you feeling now?”
“Okay.” Rachel stopped staring at her hand and rubbed her face. “I’m really itchy.” She said looking up at Quinn when she was done.
The pregnant girl sat on the edge of the bed next to the brunette and brushed away the hair from her eyes. She’d done it unconsciously, Rachel was so childlike in this state Quinn’s maternal instincts kicked in before she could stop herself from performing the simple gesture.
The Diva smiled up at her lazily and said, “We’re even now.”
“How so?”
“One act of kindness for another.”
“I’m not sure that we’re exactly even, I mean I don’t need a change of clothes and a shower.”
“No, but you didn’t have to bring me home. You could’ve taken me to the nurse or just let Mr. Schuester deal with me.”
“Maybe next time I will do that.” She said softly.
“Oh no. There won’t be a next time, I’ve learned my lesson. Always read the label.”
“That’s very wise.”
Rachel’s eyes became unfocused for a second and then she rubbed her face again. “You’re bag’s been ringing for a really long time.” She said once she’d finished scratching.
Quinn picked up her backpack and took out her phone. Twenty two missed calls from Puck and Santana and thirty seven texts, she could only see Pucks I.D, the last one saying. Oh my god r u dead?
“You could’ve answered it Rachel.”
“No! I’m not going into your bag, its private.”
“Didn’t you get suspicious when the phone kept ringing?” Quinn asked quietly. She was surprised that Rachel had let the ringing go on for so long. If it had been her she wouldn’t have cared about privacy issues, she’d just want the damn noise to stop. But, she guessed, that’s where her and the brunette differed.
“No. You are popular after all. I just thought that’s what a popular kid’s phone must sound like.”
“I was popular. Past tense.”
“Oh. Well my bad.”
“That’s okay” She laughed and pressed the send button, she only had to wait a second before Puck answered.
“Hi, Puck.”
“Where the hell are you? I’ve been calling you for hours. My mom is worried sick.”
“I’m at Rachel’s, sorry.”
“Why the hell are you at Berry’s house?”
“I had to take her home, she wasn’t feeling well.”
“Did you poison her or something?”
“No, I did not poison her!” Rachel laughed. “I’ll be home soon okay. You can stop worrying. Bye.”
She pressed the end button and sighed. She didn’t want to go back to the ridiculously depressing Puckerman residence, but she knew she had to. She stood up and put her bag over her shoulder. “See you tomorrow Berry.”
“You betcha.” Rachel bobbed her head enthusiastically.
She went into the den to say goodbye to David and Lucas. “Thank you so much for your hospitality, and your ice cream. I had a nice time.”
“That’s good to hear, and you’re welcome.”
The two men saw her out, and as she drove off she thought to herself that today had turned out to be a good day, they had become increasing less frequent of late and she learned how to relish them when they actually came along.
__________
During lunch the next day Quinn was standing by her locker, in the unusually quiet hall waiting for Puck, she caught some movement from the corner of her eye and turned to look. She frowned when she saw that there was nothing there and shrugged it off, she opened her locker to take out her lunch and a flash of colour came into her peripheral, she turned again and saw nothing, again. She grunted as she slammed her locker shut, “JewFro, if that’s you, I’m kicking your ass.” She waited a few seconds but didn’t get a reply. There was the possibility that she was going crazy. Her phone beeped informing her of a message, she opened it up and read the text from Puck.
Sorry babe cant make it
She snapped her phone shut and mumbled “Asshat”
She heard a clunk from near by, some bastard was trying to mess with her and if that bastard was Puck, she would have no qualms about cutting him. She took a step back and saw an argyle sleeve hiding around the corner; she didn’t bother trying to keep the smile from spreading across her face. She went back to her previous position by the locker.
“Rachel? What are you doing? Are you high again?”
“No, I am definitely substance free. I was just wondering if I could borrow you for a sec?” The brunette answered not moving from behind the wall.
Quinn was curious as to why the singer was hiding; this was not necessarily the actions of a drug free individual, or sane one for that matter. She gave an exaggerated sigh and said, “I might go crazy Berry, and let you borrow me for lots of secs.”
No. She did not just say that. Confirmation came when Rachel’s head shot around the corner with a look of confusion and mirth. The blonde banged her head on her locker door, over, and over and over again. That’ll teach her to be flippant.
“Quinn! Stop that!” Rachel said going back behind the corner.
“Why do I speak?”
“It’s fine. I knew what you meant. But I would still like to speak to you.”
“About what?” The pregnant girl had stopped banging against the locker door, but she kept her forehead pressed against the cool metal, trying to extinguish the warmth radiating from her face.
Rachel was feeling bold. “Well, it’s not about the amount of secs you can give me.” She held her breath. This could go very, very wrong. The sound of an almost thunderous laugh made her squeal a little in excitement. She had made Quinn Fabray laugh without the aid of any kind of drug enhancement.
She moved away from the wall and stepped out in full view. The blonde was bent over with an arm covering her swollen belly. People passing by were giving her strange looks, but put it down to the pregnancy. Rachel was brimming with courage and went to stand next to the laughing girl and leaned against the locker bank. Quinn grabbed hold of the Diva’s wrist, not viciously, it seemed to Rachel that it was more for support. Like without holding on to her the pregnant girl would just crumple like a flower.
This continued for another few minutes, and all the singer could do was smile her biggest, proudest smile and be there to keep the other girl from collapsing. The laughter became sporadic, until it finally ceased. Quinn lifted herself into a stand and fell back against the lockers.
“That’s twice in the space of twenty four hours. You’re like a comedy ninja, Berry. I think you deserve a medal for that.”
Rachel smiled. She wasn’t sure if Quinn was aware that she still had hold of her wrist and she wasn’t going to bring attention to it in case the blonde let go.
“You wanted to talk to me about something right?” The blonde’s mouth twitched.
“Yes. My Dad asked me to ask you if you wanted to go to lunch. Something about bacon. He said you’d know. He’s picking me up now if you’d like to come. You don’t have to if you don’t want to of course, you probably have plans with-”
“Berry!”
“Yes. Sorry. Yes.” Rachel said and started biting her bottom lip.
“You had me at bacon.”
The singer stopped worrying her lip and broke into a smile. Quinn looked down at her hand that was still attached to the Diva and furrowed her brow for a split second then looked back up to the other girl. “Lets go then.”
Rachel let herself be practically dragged down the corridor as the blonde headed outside. “Is he here?” She asked looking around the parking lot. Rachel pointed to the car parked nearby and Quinn bolted for it. She opened the back door and David Berry gave her a toothy grin.
“Hello Sir.”
His smile faded dramatically. “I know what you’re doing Quinn Fabray. Get in.”
Rachel wanted to sit in the back with Quinn, but her self-assurance was waning now so she went up front.
“How has your day been girls?”
“Good.” Rachel said.
“Really good.” Quinn said. The singer looked behind at the blonde in the back seat and suddenly felt shy when she saw the girl smile at her.
“Excellent.” The man sing-songed, as he drove off.
__________
“I’ve died. And this is heaven.” Quinn said holding up her bacon roll triumphantly.
David and Rachel laughed, the blonde was on her third roll in less than ten minutes, and there was no sign of her stopping anytime soon.
“You’ll get hiccups or indigestion if you’re not careful.” David said taking a bite of his first.
“Mr. Berry.” Quinn said as she leaned across the table. “I am quite pregnant. I laugh mockingly in the face of hiccups and indigestion. And besides, if I don’t eat these quickly then there won’t be time for ice cream.”
“I can’t argue with that.” He shrugged.
Rachel was sitting quietly and swinging her legs because the chairs were just a little too high for her to reach the floor. She was eating her own salad lunch while the other two ate their bacon. Every now and then they would look over to her and smile and she would smile back. She wanted to scream “I’m so happy right now.” But that would be too weird.
“You okay sweetie? You’re unusually quiet.”
“Yes Dad, I’m okay. I’m enjoying my lunch.” She rolled her eyes at him.
“That told you” Quinn smirked at the man then shoved the rest of her roll in her mouth. She chewed as little as possible then swallowed. She hadn’t chewed enough though and had to use her water to force the rest down. “I’m done.” She said, then held her breath to try and prevent herself from hiccupping, before taking another gulp of water.
“You’re looking very impatient Miss Fabray.” The tall man said with a glint in his eye.
“That’s because I’m feeling impatient. You know, you shouldn’t keep hormonally charged girls waiting.”
“We do it with Rachel all the time.” David said nonchalantly.
“Dad!” The Diva looked mortified.
Quinn laughed and put her elbows on the table and her chin in her hands. She squinted at David and watched him eat his food at leisurely pace. He put the last piece of bread in his mouth slowly, looking directly at the blonde. “You are a cruel man.” She huffed.
He chewed, counting up to twenty five with his fingers and swallowed. “Okay, I’m done.” He smirked.
“Finally!” Quinn jumped from her seat and ran to the car, then came back, picked up her bag and ran off again.
“I like your friend Honey.” He said clearing the table.
“Me too.” Rachel nodded at him, before walking over to the blonde standing by the locked car.
__________
"So, what are you like BFF’s now?” Santana scoffed.
Quinn had her head down, she was drawing in her notebook to pass the time before their teacher arrived for the first class after lunch. “No. But she’s grown on me.”
“Three days ago you could barely stand to be in the same room as her. So what changed?”
“I don’t know. I got to know her better.”
“I would’ve thought that would be a reason to stay away from her.”
“I like Rachel.” The two girls looked to Brittany. “She’s sweet, in a scarily intense way. And she has an awesome singing voice. She’s so small, sometimes I wish I could put her in my pocket, but I’d probably get tired of her talking all the time, and she’d probably complain about being in my pocket. Sometimes I put my old chewing gum in there when I can’t find a trash can.”
Quinn and Santana waited to see if there was anymore, and when they were confident the monologue was over they continued the conversation.
“I just don’t get it Q. At least you can’t really get any lower on the social ladder right now, so it won’t affect you there.”
All heads turned to the door as the teacher walked in.
“Buenos días class.”
“Buenos días Mr. Schuester.” The classroom chorused.
“Is this some sort of prank?” Santana asked turning back to face the pregnant girl.
“No. She’s nice, I like her.”
“Uh, she not nice. She obnoxious, bossy, self-centred, and you do remember her telling Finn about the baby so she could get her manly hands on him?”
“She apologised for that.”
“It wasn’t like it was a slip of the tongue. She went out of her way to do it. That’s malicious!”
“And we’re so damned sweet and innocent!” Quinn snapped.
“She almost cost us sectionals because of it.” Santana continued undeterred.
“The leaked set list was quite a big factor in that disaster.” She said quirking an eyebrow.
Santana rubbed Brittany’s arm when the blonde Cheerio whimpered, then she gave Quinn a warning look.
“And anyway,” The smaller blonde continued. “She ended up saving us at sectionals.”
“Fine. Yeah okay, she did.”
“She’s different when you get to know her.”
“Because… you and her have been friends for so long now. What’s it been? Four hours?”
Quinn banged her head against the desk.
“Girls? Eyes front please.” Mr. Schuester said tapping the white board.
“Culo” Santana mumbled under her breath.
__________
When she walked into the auditorium during lunch the next day, Quinn could see Rachel’s small figure sitting on the edge of the stage. Having Puck cancel on her again, she decided to actively seek the other girl out. She made her way down to the pit and the brunette only noticed she was there when she was directly in front her. Rachel pulled out her earphones and smiled.
“Hey.” Quinn murmured.
“Hey back.” Rachel half smiled.
“Mind if I join you?”
“No, of course not.” The brunette patted the stage.
The blonde made her way up the steps and sat a foot away from the Diva, letting her legs dangle over the side. She opened up the brown paper bag pulling out her banana and sandwich, opting to go with the fruit first. She felt a little nervous. This was the first time they’d be hanging out without Rachel being high, or having her Dad as a buffer.
Halfway through eating her banana, an earphone was offered over to her and she frowned at the white bud, then looked up at the brunette.
“If you’re worried that all I have on my IPod are show tunes, don’t, I do enjoy all genres, including contemporary music too. Here,” Rachel handed the blonde her MP3 “You can choose.”
Quinn put the bud in her ear and pressed shuffle. She skipped the first song, took a bite from her banana, then skipped the next one, and the next. It wasn’t that she didn’t like the songs, she didn’t know them. Rachel’s tastes were certainly eclectic. When the next song came on she laughed and gave Rachel an amused look.
“What?” The Diva asked smiling. “Sometimes ‘Hakuna Matata’ is just what a girl needs to brighten up her day.”
Quinn nodded and skipped the song anyway taking another bite of her food. When ‘On My Own’ came on she let it play, which clearly surprised the other girl, but she just shrugged and finished off the fruit putting the empty peel into the brown paper bag. She un-wrapped the foil from the sandwich she’d been putting off and stared at it for a few seconds. She really wished that Mrs. Puckerman didn’t insist on making her lunch, because it was always made with processed meat and cheap butter substitute. The woman thought that a TV dinner was a healthy option for a pregnant teen, she missed real food. She wished that she could cook so that she could eat real food.
She took one bite of the sandwich and groaned, feeling nauseas.
“What’s the matter?” Rachel asked moving closer to the blonde. “Is it the baby?”
Quinn looked at the brunette whose eyes were wide with concern. “It’s okay Berry, it’s just that baby doesn’t like my food.”
“Oh good.” Rachel sagged with relief. “Not ‘oh good’ that the baby doesn’t like your food,” She corrected “I mean ‘oh good’ that there’s nothing wrong.” The brunette shook her head slightly and chuckled. “Would you like some of my pasta salad? Or I could get you something from the cafeteria if you’d like?”
“No. It’s okay.”
“Quinn. You really need to keep your strength up, it is imperative for the well being of your child that you eat properly. Please take my salad.” Rachel handed her the tub and a fork. “Please.” She said again in a softer tone.
“Thank you.” The blonde said taking the food grudgingly. “I’d offer you what I have, but it’s supposed to be ham.”
“Supposed to be?”
“It’s not real meat.” The blonde said curling her lip in disgust. “Thank you again.” Rachel nodded, and Quinn opened up the container, stabbing the pasta with the fork. She was hesitant, but she was also hungry and was pleasantly surprised that it tasted so good. She had forgotten that she was listening to music until the next song came on, which again, she didn’t know, but she was too busy eating actual food to care.
“Would you like me to skip it?”
She turned to face Rachel and shook her head. “No, there’s no harm in expanding my musical repertoire. This is really good by the way. Did you make it?” She asked lifting up the tub.
“Yes.” The brunette blushed.
“Maybe you can come over and forcibly teach Puck’s mom to cook. I think the extent of her ability is grilled cheese. Which she doesn’t do very often. I think that’s ‘Special occasion’ food.”
“She can’t be that bad surely?”
“It is that bad. And don’t call me Shirley.”
Rachel giggled. “That was terrible.”
“Yes. You still laughed though.” The blonde pointed a finger at her accusingly.
There was a beat of silence before Rachel said “Dad has taken a shine to you.”
“Okay.” Quinn smiled at the change of subject. “The feeling is mutual.”
“Do you like potato dumplings?”
“You should really go see someone about your A.D.D.”
Rachel crossed her arms over her chest and huffed. “I do not have Attention Deficit Disorder.”
“You keep changing the subject. That leads me to believe that you lack concentration.”
“If you’d let me finish my sentence then you’d realise that it’s all relative.”
“Fine. Finish your sentence.”
Rachel looked over at the blonde, keeping her gaze for several seconds before continuing.
“The only reason we eat so much take out is because we are all very busy people, there’s hardly enough hours in the day to cook and it is very time consuming. But every Friday, one of us makes a meal. Tonight is Daddy’s turn, he was taught how to cook by his Gramma Gerdy so most of his specialities are German-”
“Rachel!?”
“Yes?”
“Is there a point to this?”
“Would you like to come over for dinner tonight?” The Diva blurted out, her hand flying up to tug on her lip nervously.
“Oh!” Quinn’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Actually, I think I would.”
“Really?” Rachel asked, relaxing at the other girls acceptance of her offer.
“I would like to eat something that doesn’t come pre-packed in a plastic tray, and I like your Dad’s, they’re nicer and less depressing than Mrs. Puckerman. So yeah, I think I would.”
The Diva smiled and pulled an apple from her bag, rubbing it on her sweater. “Great.”
“Oh! And I can get to sit on your slutty chair again.”
Rachel turned to look at the blonde with a frown. “My what?”
Ah, that’s right, Rachel hadn’t been there. “The armchair in the den.” Quinn said, barely suppressing the chuckle at the adorably confused look she received in response to her answer.
“My chair? Why are you implying that my chair is sexually promiscuous?”
“Uh. It’s a joke between me and your dads. It is a compliment, I swear.”
“Hmm. Okay then.” The Diva seemed to go into her own world for a few moments then snapped her head back to face the blonde. “So. Can you come over around six?”
Quinn had a mouth full of pasta, so she nodded her reply. Her body was tingling from excitement. Who would’ve thought that the idea of spending time with Rachel Berry would cause such a reaction?
She didn’t want to dwell on it too much though. It could get her into trouble.