fic: Eight Years
A/N: Just got backkkkkk from Dr. Carl the Dentist, told me he hadn’t seen this many cavities since Brittany S. Pierce and said I should seriously lay off the fluff for a whileeeee. lol! Superrrrrr fluff ahead, be warned =D
A/N2: I canttttttt say how much I love this fic, I’m honestly rly proud of this, cant quite put my finger on it, probably cause im suchhh a sucker for fluff =)
A/N3: I again want to thank everyoneeee for their support after the whole fic-gate mess. Its over and done with, and im moving on to more writing! YAY!!
One of the very few perks of living in a small town like Lima was the fact that with so few people, public places are pretty vacant at night. Quinn had thought about that little fact when she had planned what her first date with Rachel would be like. Quinn was still very much in the closet when she pulled the diva aside after glee one day. A stuttering and blushing mess, Quinn quickly squeaked out that she would like to take Rachel on a date. Confused and maybe even a little afraid of a sneak-slushy attack, Rachel asked the blonde to repeat herself, this time about five times slower. Quinn nodded bashfully and softly uttered the simple sentence, “Rachel, would you like to go out with me?”
Rachel thought it was a joke. A cruel and highly unamusing joke. She started to go on a furious diva tangent, explaining how mean it was to play with someone’s emotions, but the rant was cut short by a chaste kiss placed firmly against her lips. Quinn didn’t hold it for more than a few seconds, just long enough to show Rachel she wasn’t kidding. When the taller girl pulled back, her nervous eyes shot down to the ground as her mouth took on a mind of it’s own and again repeated her request of taking Rachel out on a simple date. Rachel stood before her, utterly speechless, for almost a full silent minute, before shakily nodding her head. Quinn smiled, her blush growing tenfold, and awkwardly thanked her smaller counterpart. Rachel giggled and told Quinn to call her when she decided what she wanted to do.
Quinn was intent on keeping the date a secret; she was mending her relationship with her mother and being “out” would almost certainly derail that, plus of course the hate that filled their small town when it came to gay people. So Quinn had decided cooking a simple meal at her house (provided her mother was out), followed by a stroll through the park on the brisk November night, where Quinn secretly hoped she would get to kiss the brunette again.
So here they were. Quinn had prepared a vegan pizza, the easiest thing she could find online, and afterwards held Rachel’s hand as they took the quick walk from Quinn’s house to the park a few blocks down. They took their stroll almost silently; the normal teenaged awkwardness had taken control, being that this was Rachel’s first real date and Quinn’s first date with someone she felt so strongly about. It wasn’t until they stopped by a massive oak tree, the largest in all of Lima as the plaque beneath it read, that a small conversation broke out.
Rachel smiled widely her eyes fell on the tree. She tugged Quinn’s hand gently and directed their walk towards the huge oak. Rachel stared up at it fondly. “What’s up?” Quinn asked curiously. Rachel’s gaze snapped to Quinn, the grin still adorning her face.
“When I was younger my dads used to take me here all the time,” the brunette explained, unaware that she had dropped Quinn’s hand and was now slowly walking towards the tree. “Every Saturday when it was warm enough, they would take me to the park for a family picnic and we would always set up right here and I would climb this.” Quinn smiled to herself; knowing any small, obscure detail about Rachel made her feel all warm inside. She hoped that for the rest of her life, she would never, ever forget this feeling. There was silence as Rachel’s hands gently touched the tree, her gaze directed upwards. Quinn waited for a minute, thinking that Rachel must have been reliving fond memories from when her dads weren’t fighting or on the brink of divorce, and wanted to let her have that. But after almost two minutes of silence, Quinn was starting to get a little bored. “I wonder…” Rachel mused softly. Quinn cocked her head to the side.
Not even a split second later, Rachel jumped up and grabbed one of the smaller branches, and with amazing strength, lifted her body up. Quinn’s eyes went about three sizes wider than they ever went before. “Rachel!? Rachel, what are you doing?!” Quinn squeaked, jogging towards the tree as the tiny singer climbed up to one branch, and yet another and another after that. “Rachel, you’re going to hurt yourself!” Quinn cried out nervously, watching with nothing but a feeling of helplessness as her crush climbed higher and higher.
“No I won’t Quinn, I’ve done this like a hundred times!” Rachel called down giddily. She was laughing softly to herself as she brought herself higher, unbeknownst to her that she had long since past the highest point that she had climbed to as a child. She continued to climb with the confidence she had held as a youngster, constantly defying Quinn’s pleas to come down.
After five minutes of seemingly endless climbing, Quinn was sweating with fear. “Rachel, do you not get how high up you are?!” the blonde shouted from the ground.
“Quinn, you’re being crazy, I used to climb this high up all the time, probably higher!” Rachel shouted back.
“I highly doubt that!” Quinn bellowed. Rachel huffed and, determined to see what the fuss was all about, stopped herself and sat down on the branch she was currently balancing on.
“See, Quinn? I’m not that-“ Rachel froze. When on earth had she gotten that high up!? Who even knew this tree was that big?!?! The singer sat perfectly still, paralyzed with fear.
“Rachel?” Quinn called from bellow. No response. “Rachel?! Are you ok?”
“……Quiiiiiiiiinn,” Rachel whimpered, her voice oozing with uncertainly.
“Oh God,” Quinn grumbled to herself. “Rach, you ok?” she repeated, craning her neck to spot the small girl perched on the branch. Again, no answer. Quinn squinted, trying to get her eyes adjusted to the poor light of the moon and the various lamps on the parks pathway. Finally, she saw Rachel’s face, saw her sitting there, completely petrified with fear.
“Quiiiiiiinn!” Rachel suddenly wailed, tears bubbling to the surface. “Quiiiiinn, I’m scared!” Rachel whined, her nails digging in to the bark of the tree.
Fuck. “O-okay Rach, shhhh, don’t cry!” Quinn called up, walking closer to the tree but never taking her eyes off her date.
“Quinn! What do I do!?” Rachel cried. “Oh-my-god-oh-my-god-oh-my-god-oh-my-god!” she gasped, her head sifting back and forth wildly, looking for some sort of exit strategy, some hidden escape ladder that the city of Lima put up for cases like this. Sadly that didn’t exist. Rachel made a mental note to write a scathing letter to City Hall when she got home…if she ever got out of this tree, that is.
“Ok, Rach, this is ok, you’re ok, ok?!” Quinn was in a panic. “J-Just, uhhhh…”
“Quinn, call the SWAT Team!” Rachel wailed anxiously. “Call Superman! Call someone, get me down!” she pleaded helplessly.
Quinn gulped, her gaze lowering to the trunk of the tree. The blonde took a deep breath and reached out for the very branch Rachel had started all of this with. “Ok, Rach, I want you to listen to me, ok sweetheart?” At the use of the loving pet-name, Rachel felt herself relax, her mind suddenly more focused on that, and less focused on the fact that she was trapped in a stupid tree. Quinn was shaking as she tried to climb up to the next branch, but her voice thankfully didn’t betray her. “Rach, you listening?” she called up.
“Uh-huh…” Rachel whimpered.
“O-ok, good,” Quinn whispered to herself. “Ok, here’s what I want you to do, you ready babe?” Again Rachel felt herself relax slightly, a small smile gracing her otherwise petrified face.
“Yeah,” Rachel responded, sounding like nothing more than a small child, ironically the very thing she had been emulating.
“Great! Now, I want you to try, really really carefully, to step down to the next branch, ok?” Quinn called up and brought herself up another two branches. “I want you to climb down, just a little, and I’m going to meet you up there, and then we’ll climb down together, alright?”
Rachel took a deep breath and nodded shakily. “A-Alright!” She took another deep breath to steady her nerves, and reached her hand out to hold on to a nearby branch and let her leg dangle down until she felt the sturdy resting place beneath her. Gently, she lowered herself down one, her heart palpitating the entire time.
“Great job, Rach, you’re being so brave!” Quinn called up encouragingly as she got closer and closer to the object of her affections. Rachel nodded with a dazed smile. “Can you go down another one, you think?” the blonde called up hopefully, trying to make it so she wouldn’t have to climb up too high. She watched Rachel carefully as she nodded and slowly lowered herself down one branch and then another. After another minute, and three more branches on Rachel’s part later, Quinn hoisted herself up and found herself settling next to a shaking Rachel.
“Hi,” Quinn said softly as she sat herself down. Rachel had tears in her eyes and her lower lip was quivering as she enveloped Quinn in a bone crushing hug.
“Oh Quinn,” Rachel started to sob into the blonde’s shoulder, clutching her for dear life. Quinn was taken aback by the display of affection, but smiled giddily as she slowly wrapped her arms around the quivering girl. “I-I thought I was going to be stuuuuuck,” she moaned. Quinn couldn’t help but chuckle and gently stroked the brunette’s silky hair.
“Oh, Rachel, I would never let you get stuck,” she whispered soothingly, rubbing small circles into her back with her open hand.
“P-Promise?” Rachel whimpered, her tears suddenly slowing. She pulled back, her puffy red eyes staring into hazel.
Quinn smiled warmly and genuinely at the girl before her. “Of course.” Rachel put on a watery smile and leaned forward to kiss Quinn passionately.
All things considered, Quinn decided that the first date had gone kinda perfectly.
**
After “The Tree Incident,” as Quinn had taken to calling it, Rachel deemed the blonde very worthy of being her girlfriend. They had been seeing each other for about three months when it dawned on Rachel that Valentines Day was just around the bend and she needed to think of the perfect gift to buy the girl who had been nothing but kind and selfless throughout the brief relationship.
Rachel, in typical Rachel Berry fashion, constructed a massive diagram laying out all things she could think of related to Quinn. After hours of thinking and planning, she had narrowed it down to one thing: bacon. Quinn loved bacon. But buying someone you loved (even if you hadn’t actually said those three little words to each other yet) a pork product seemed highly idiotic to the diminutive diva. But bacon was definitely the right path. The big question was: where did this right path lead? Luckily for Rachel, Google helped her out. With a quick click of “Add to Cart” and the use of her dad’s credit card, Rachel sat back in her computer chair and grinned with pride as the website spit out, “Your order has been placed. Expect arrival in the next 2-5 days.”
When Rachel arrived home from school three days later, a package was waiting for her on her house’s front step. The singer literally jumped for joy and hauled the box inside. She pulled the garment from its cardboard container and held it up, a massive grin plastered to her face. “Perfect!” she squeaked and hurried up to her room to wrap it.
The next week, McKinley was decked out in pink and red to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Tina and Mike had exchanged Asian cards, Brittany and Santana gave each other (shocking) free passes for sex, even Mercedes and Kurt swapped tiny tokens of friendship. When Rachel energetically walked into glee clutching a large, neatly wrapped box, Quinn’s eyes lit up. She herself was clutching a small box holding a necklace with a small gold heart with R+Q engraved in the center. It wasn’t all that expensive (it wasn’t like she could afford real gold) and the mall was having a sale on engravings, but it was still really pretty.
Only the glee kids knew about Quinn and Rachel’s relationship, and watched with interest as the brunette pecked Quinn on the lips and handed her the large box, and then beamed in return at Quinn bashfully handing her the smaller gift. Rachel gasped when she saw the shimmering necklace and passionately kissed her girlfriend, ignoring the catcalls from Puck, before instantly putting on the piece of jewelry.
Quinn was so happy that Rachel had liked her gift that she completely forgot she was holding a large box in her lap. “Well? Aren’t you going to open yours?” Rachel asked hopefully, her eyes glistening with joy. Quinn snapped back to reality and nodded, meticulously unwrapping Rachel’s present for all the club to see. When the blonde lifted the lid of the box, the hopeful smile she had been wearing dropped like a hot potato as roars of laughter erupted from Puck, Santana, Finn, Sam, Artie, Mercedes and Kurt. Brittany just stared at it, somewhat amused, and Mike and Tina were too busy being engrossed in themselves to stare. Inside was possibly the most hideous, atrocious thing Quinn had ever laid eyes on. No, not just hideous and atrocious, but embarrassing; simply and utterly embarrassing.
Staring back at Quinn was a large zip up hooding, electric pink in color, which read “Anyone smell bacon?” across the chest in huge black bold letters. Possibly worse was the fact that the hood of the sweater had pink piggy ears and a snout pushing forward. But when Quinn took the atrocity out of its box, the true horror revealed itself: a short curly tail hanging off of the backside. Quinn stared at the monstrosity, gaping like a dying fish, as the club howled with laugher. Rachel stood up and huffed, scolding the other kids for mocking what she considered a truly wonderful and thoughtful gift.
“The fuck are you on Berry?” Santana scowled. “Besides, look, Quinn hates it!” The Latina continued with a smirk.
Rachel looked appalled and directed her stare towards the girl in question, who was still holding the sweater at arms length like it would give her cooties. “Quinn?” Rachel asked softly.
Quinn snapped her eyes to her girlfriend, looking at her nervously. “See, she hates it, its fucking disgusting!” Santana chided again.
Rachel lower lip started to quiver and Quinn felt like she was going to be sick with guilt. Suddenly, she sprung from her seat and unzipped the hideousness that was the sweater. “No I don’t!” Quinn said quickly, slinging her arms through the sleeves. She was cursing herself internally as she zipped it up half-way. “See? I love it! Thank you baby, this was very thoughtful of you,” Quinn said warmly to Rachel, who was now beaming and bouncing on her heels with joy. After a quick kiss, Mr. Scheuster came in to get the club started (after doing a confused double-take to Quinn’s latest apparel). Just as the pair went to sit down, Rachel pulled the hood over the blonde’s head.
“It’s the best part!” she whispered happily. Quinn put on a cheesy fake smile a nodded. After a few minutes, she bucked her head back and let the embarrassing hood fall back. Rachel didn’t notice…that time.
For the rest of the day, Quinn walked around school with Rachel hanging off her arm and the sweater covering her normal Cheerios uniform. Just about everyone, faculty included, did some combination of point, laugh or comment on the foolish attire, but Quinn held her head high and wore the sweater if it meant that Rachel was happy. But that fucking hood…Rachel was resilient with it. Whenever she noticed that it wasn’t over Quinn’s golden hair, she would forcefully pull it forward, always repeating that that feature was her favorite part of the garment. Quinn would always play stupid when Rachel would ask why she wasn’t wearing it, but was quick to buck it off whenever the diva wasn’t looking.
Finally, during a mutual free, Rachel and Quinn were meandering around the halls when Quinn shook her head briskly and let the hood fall from her head. Rachel winced and stopped their walking, standing on her tip-toes to pull the hood over Quinn’s head again. She beamed. “Much better!” she declared.
Quinn winced and bucked her head back again, knocking the ears and snout off. She stared at Rachel defiantly and raised an eyebrow, as if saying “what are you going to do about it?” Rachel huffed, her lips pursing and yanked the hood over Quinn’s head. The blonde responded by shaking her head like a dog drying itself after a bath, knocking the fabric off with a soft thump. “Quinn, why won’t you wear your hood?” Rachel demanded.
Because it makes me look like a jackass. “I dunno…” she replied. Rachel sighed and pulled it forward again, just to have the same response.
“Quinn, wear the hood.”
“No.”
“Quinn! Wear the hood!”
“No!”
The girls stayed still, eyes locked. But Rachel knew Quinn well enough, and let her lower lip start to quiver. “Quinn…” Rachel whimpered. “I-I’m sorry you hate it,” she whispered sadly and turned away slowly. Quinn felt like she just kicked a puppy. She sighed.
“No, Rach, look…I’m sorry, see?” She pulled the hood over her head. “See, baby?” Rachel turned around…just in time to see Karofsky fling a blue raspberry slushy directly into the side of Quinn’s now hood-protected face.
“Happy Valentine’s, freak!” he snorted and continued his march down the hall. Quinn stayed perfectly still, but couldn’t help smiling to herself that she got away from the slushy attack unscathed due to her girlfriend’s present. Rachel didn’t take the event as calmly.
“OH NO! QUINN, IT’S RUINED!” Rachel wailed, staring with disbelief at her now bright blue girlfriend.
“What a shame,” Quinn said with a hidden smirk and unzipped the ruined sweater, quickly depositing it in the trash, before claiming her girlfriend’s hand to continue their walk.
**
Five years later, as seniors in college, Rachel and Quinn had managed to stay together. They had had more than their share of fights, what with Quinn’s protective attitude whenever they attended either a Julliard or Columbia party together and Rachel’s desire to be sociable with any and everyone. But they always made up and always went to one of their dorms together at night. No matter how bad the yelling got, Rachel stuck around. And being fucked passionately on Quinn’s talented fingers certainly didn’t hurt either.
While Rachel chose to stay in Julliard’s dorms for her four years, Quinn had recently decided that living in New York, one must take advantage of the situation and get an apartment. She had been lucky in her search and found a cozy one bedroom by the Columbia dorms in a safe area. Because the apartment was so new and was constantly full of unpacked boxes, the pair spent a heavy amount of time in Rachel’s suite-style dorm.
Finally, Quinn decided to surprise Rachel by spending a full 24 hours unpacking everything and tidying up, and then inviting her long-term girlfriend for a lovely home-cooked meal, which she realized would be the first time she had really cooked a meal (the last time being when she “made” the vegan pizza from their first date, and honestly she had just followed the simplistic instructions online). So Quinn called Rachel and told her to come by at 7pm sharp. Cooking; how hard could it be?
Well…Quinn was naïve, to say the absolute least. The cleaning and unpacking went seamlessly; she did it all while bouncing around her apartment blasting old songs from her ipod. But when Quinn started to actually cook, all hell broke loose. First, she attempted to mix an assortment of ingredients in a large bowl and she attempted this with an electric mixer. It started ok; she would spin the bowl gently while holding the mixer in place, stirring out all the lumps of her meal. Little by little, she started to spin the bowl faster, finding it amusing and giggling at the loud sound the metal mixer would make hitting the metal bowl. But with one spin that was just a bit too fast and loose, the mixer lost control and sprayed the thick concoction all over the walls of Quinn’s newly cleaned kitchen.
After a half-assed attempt at cleaning up the mess, Quinn had moved on to chopping vegetables. She nicked her fingers several times, thankfully nothing too serious, but the real treat came when she lost herself in her thoughts of old times, and felt herself getting infuriated at the thought of Finn dating Rachel. She got so carried away that she didn’t realize she brought the knife down too hard. Not only did the plastic cutting board get chopped in half, splintering everywhere, but her new countertop now had a knife indent engrained in it.
Finally, her meal was mostly put together, and was ready to bake. The clock hanging by the door to the kitchen read 6:30. Quinn smiled and decided to take a very quick shower while the food cooked. She reminded herself how sensitive her dish was, and told herself to make sure she was quick. That idea quickly left Quinn’s mind when the warm water washed over her body, soothing her achy muscles after all the heavy lifting and moving she had done that day. She didn’t even realize she had been in the shower for very long until she heard the fire alarm go off. “FUCKING SHIT!” Quinn screamed and jumped out of the shower, leaving the water running and slipping in the process.
She made it out just in time to see Rachel pulling out her thoroughly burnt (and smoking) dinner from the oven, coughing lightly at the smoke that was wafting through the apartment. Quinn stood there sputtering, dripping with soap, completely naked and wildly embarrassed.
“Happy anniversary,” Rachel offered with a smile as tossed the food in the trash and pulled out her cell phone to punch in the number of a nearby pizza place.
**
Raising a newborn baby was easily the hardest thing Quinn had ever had to do. She had graduated from Columbia three years ago, and her and Rachel had decided that after being together for eight years, they wanted to start a family together. Quinn had carried their child and in 9 months, beautiful baby Lily Berry-Fabray was born.
All the baby books had warned them that sleepless nights were a given, that the baby monitor would quickly become their least favorite device in the house and to sleep whenever the baby slept, lest the parents go absurd amounts of time on virtually no sleep. Quinn had taken the majority of the late nights, waking up to Lily wailing into the monitor, hungry as could be. Quinn would weakly open her eyes, wanting nothing more than to curse, but seeing Rachel’s body beside her somehow made it all ok. Most nights Rachel would wake up with her, but Quinn would always tell her to go back to bed, that the baby wanted food (even when it didn’t) and that it wouldn’t serve Rachel any good to get up.
One night, after a particularly long and stressful day of work, Quinn came home and completely collapsed onto their queen-sized bed. Rachel was already dozing when Quinn’s head hit the pillow. It didn’t take 5 minutes though before Lily’s cry burst into the room. Quinn froze, the extent of her exhaustion hitting her. She considered just letting Lily cry herself back to sleep, she was honestly that exhausted. As she weighed the pros and cons, she felt the bed shift and opened one eye to see Rachel shuffling towards the door. “Babe, I got it,” Quinn mumbled and started to push herself up.
Rachel stopped in the doorway and turned around. “Quinnie, let me get this one, I want you to rest,” she pleaded. Rachel knew how hard Quinn was working and it killed her that not only was their time together cut drastically, but the time they did spend together Quinn was too exhausted to breath, nonetheless hold on a conversation about anything but the baby. Quinn shook her head.
“She wants-“
“She wants milk, I know that. You used the breast pump and we have some bottles in the mini-fridge in the room, I saw you put them there. Please, you’re too sleep deprived, I need you to rest.” With that, Rachel was gone, padding down the hallway. Quinn sighed as she heard the door open through the monitor.
“Awww, hey baby girl,” Rachel’s voice glided through the monitor softly. “Shhh shh, come on baby, theeere we go.” She heard Rachel lift the baby. “Want some milk, huh? That what you’re all fussy about?” Rachel asked. “With where you get your food, I’d be hungry all the time too.” Quinn laughed. She listened as Rachel cooed over the baby, her heart warming with love. She couldn’t stand it, she pushed herself off of her bed and tip-toed down the hall. The sight could make the most cold-hearted person swoon.
Rachel was holding the baby with one arm, holding a bottle to her little mouth with the other, and rocking her gently in her arms, softly singing. “If you wanted the sky I would write across the sky in letters, that would soar a thousand feet high, To Sir, with Love…” The baby cooed and gurgled around the nipple of the bottle, as Rachel sang the old song to the infant. Quinn felt tears stirring in her eyes as she leaned in the doorway, watching the singer gently place the empty bottle on the windowsill. “You know what baby girl?” Rachel cooed gently. Quinn’s ears pricked up as if she was the one being addressed. “If you told me just a few years ago that I would be so lucky as to have you and your mommy in my life like this, I would’ve said you were crazy. But you know what? I don’t think I’ve ever been happier…” Lily spittled a little. Rachel giggled and wiped the drool away with her thumb. “Too corny for you? Ouch,” Rachel said with a giggle and bounced the baby lightly in her arms. The baby gurgled again. “Ready for bedtime, hmm? Yeah, let’s get you tucked in.” As Rachel turned around, she caught sight of the blonde watching her, tears gently streaming down her face. “Quinn, I told you to go to sleep sweetheart…”
Quinn nodded and stepped into the nursery as Rachel laid the baby down and tucked it in tightly. “I couldn’t sleep,” she whispered. They watched as Lily’s eyes drooped and quickly fell back asleep. Rachel and Quinn hovered over the crib, watching the child sleep peacefully, before Rachel took Quinn’s hand in hers.
“Come on, let’s go back to bed.” Quinn looked at Rachel a smiled warmly. The pair walked quietly down the hallway and back into the bedroom, curling up snuggly together. Quinn’s arm slung around Rachel, as the pair dozed softly.
“Rach?”
“Mhmm?” Rachel groaned softly.
“Question…”
“Mhmm?” Rachel grumbled again. Quinn’s arm was suddenly withdrawn from her waist. Rachel’s brown furrowed at the loss of contact. She heard some shuffling and then silence. The bed shifted and Rachel heard Quinn walking around to her side of the bed. “Quinn, what?” Rachel mumbled. “Qu-“
Rachel opened her eyes weakly. Quinn was down on one knee, holding open a small black box with a diamond ring inside. Rachel’s eyes opened wide, going back and forth from the ring to Quinn’s buoyant eyes. Silence. “Well?” Quinn asked hopefully.
Rachel grinned and tackled her then fiancé, kissing her passionately. “Yes!” They stayed on the floor like that, just holding each other tightly and breathing in the sweet smell of the other, crying gently with joy. In that moment, Quinn felt all warm inside, a feeling she remembered well and a feeling she knew she would never forget.
A/N2: I canttttttt say how much I love this fic, I’m honestly rly proud of this, cant quite put my finger on it, probably cause im suchhh a sucker for fluff =)
A/N3: I again want to thank everyoneeee for their support after the whole fic-gate mess. Its over and done with, and im moving on to more writing! YAY!!
One of the very few perks of living in a small town like Lima was the fact that with so few people, public places are pretty vacant at night. Quinn had thought about that little fact when she had planned what her first date with Rachel would be like. Quinn was still very much in the closet when she pulled the diva aside after glee one day. A stuttering and blushing mess, Quinn quickly squeaked out that she would like to take Rachel on a date. Confused and maybe even a little afraid of a sneak-slushy attack, Rachel asked the blonde to repeat herself, this time about five times slower. Quinn nodded bashfully and softly uttered the simple sentence, “Rachel, would you like to go out with me?”
Rachel thought it was a joke. A cruel and highly unamusing joke. She started to go on a furious diva tangent, explaining how mean it was to play with someone’s emotions, but the rant was cut short by a chaste kiss placed firmly against her lips. Quinn didn’t hold it for more than a few seconds, just long enough to show Rachel she wasn’t kidding. When the taller girl pulled back, her nervous eyes shot down to the ground as her mouth took on a mind of it’s own and again repeated her request of taking Rachel out on a simple date. Rachel stood before her, utterly speechless, for almost a full silent minute, before shakily nodding her head. Quinn smiled, her blush growing tenfold, and awkwardly thanked her smaller counterpart. Rachel giggled and told Quinn to call her when she decided what she wanted to do.
Quinn was intent on keeping the date a secret; she was mending her relationship with her mother and being “out” would almost certainly derail that, plus of course the hate that filled their small town when it came to gay people. So Quinn had decided cooking a simple meal at her house (provided her mother was out), followed by a stroll through the park on the brisk November night, where Quinn secretly hoped she would get to kiss the brunette again.
So here they were. Quinn had prepared a vegan pizza, the easiest thing she could find online, and afterwards held Rachel’s hand as they took the quick walk from Quinn’s house to the park a few blocks down. They took their stroll almost silently; the normal teenaged awkwardness had taken control, being that this was Rachel’s first real date and Quinn’s first date with someone she felt so strongly about. It wasn’t until they stopped by a massive oak tree, the largest in all of Lima as the plaque beneath it read, that a small conversation broke out.
Rachel smiled widely her eyes fell on the tree. She tugged Quinn’s hand gently and directed their walk towards the huge oak. Rachel stared up at it fondly. “What’s up?” Quinn asked curiously. Rachel’s gaze snapped to Quinn, the grin still adorning her face.
“When I was younger my dads used to take me here all the time,” the brunette explained, unaware that she had dropped Quinn’s hand and was now slowly walking towards the tree. “Every Saturday when it was warm enough, they would take me to the park for a family picnic and we would always set up right here and I would climb this.” Quinn smiled to herself; knowing any small, obscure detail about Rachel made her feel all warm inside. She hoped that for the rest of her life, she would never, ever forget this feeling. There was silence as Rachel’s hands gently touched the tree, her gaze directed upwards. Quinn waited for a minute, thinking that Rachel must have been reliving fond memories from when her dads weren’t fighting or on the brink of divorce, and wanted to let her have that. But after almost two minutes of silence, Quinn was starting to get a little bored. “I wonder…” Rachel mused softly. Quinn cocked her head to the side.
Not even a split second later, Rachel jumped up and grabbed one of the smaller branches, and with amazing strength, lifted her body up. Quinn’s eyes went about three sizes wider than they ever went before. “Rachel!? Rachel, what are you doing?!” Quinn squeaked, jogging towards the tree as the tiny singer climbed up to one branch, and yet another and another after that. “Rachel, you’re going to hurt yourself!” Quinn cried out nervously, watching with nothing but a feeling of helplessness as her crush climbed higher and higher.
“No I won’t Quinn, I’ve done this like a hundred times!” Rachel called down giddily. She was laughing softly to herself as she brought herself higher, unbeknownst to her that she had long since past the highest point that she had climbed to as a child. She continued to climb with the confidence she had held as a youngster, constantly defying Quinn’s pleas to come down.
After five minutes of seemingly endless climbing, Quinn was sweating with fear. “Rachel, do you not get how high up you are?!” the blonde shouted from the ground.
“Quinn, you’re being crazy, I used to climb this high up all the time, probably higher!” Rachel shouted back.
“I highly doubt that!” Quinn bellowed. Rachel huffed and, determined to see what the fuss was all about, stopped herself and sat down on the branch she was currently balancing on.
“See, Quinn? I’m not that-“ Rachel froze. When on earth had she gotten that high up!? Who even knew this tree was that big?!?! The singer sat perfectly still, paralyzed with fear.
“Rachel?” Quinn called from bellow. No response. “Rachel?! Are you ok?”
“……Quiiiiiiiiinn,” Rachel whimpered, her voice oozing with uncertainly.
“Oh God,” Quinn grumbled to herself. “Rach, you ok?” she repeated, craning her neck to spot the small girl perched on the branch. Again, no answer. Quinn squinted, trying to get her eyes adjusted to the poor light of the moon and the various lamps on the parks pathway. Finally, she saw Rachel’s face, saw her sitting there, completely petrified with fear.
“Quiiiiiiinn!” Rachel suddenly wailed, tears bubbling to the surface. “Quiiiiinn, I’m scared!” Rachel whined, her nails digging in to the bark of the tree.
Fuck. “O-okay Rach, shhhh, don’t cry!” Quinn called up, walking closer to the tree but never taking her eyes off her date.
“Quinn! What do I do!?” Rachel cried. “Oh-my-god-oh-my-god-oh-my-god-oh-my-god!” she gasped, her head sifting back and forth wildly, looking for some sort of exit strategy, some hidden escape ladder that the city of Lima put up for cases like this. Sadly that didn’t exist. Rachel made a mental note to write a scathing letter to City Hall when she got home…if she ever got out of this tree, that is.
“Ok, Rach, this is ok, you’re ok, ok?!” Quinn was in a panic. “J-Just, uhhhh…”
“Quinn, call the SWAT Team!” Rachel wailed anxiously. “Call Superman! Call someone, get me down!” she pleaded helplessly.
Quinn gulped, her gaze lowering to the trunk of the tree. The blonde took a deep breath and reached out for the very branch Rachel had started all of this with. “Ok, Rach, I want you to listen to me, ok sweetheart?” At the use of the loving pet-name, Rachel felt herself relax, her mind suddenly more focused on that, and less focused on the fact that she was trapped in a stupid tree. Quinn was shaking as she tried to climb up to the next branch, but her voice thankfully didn’t betray her. “Rach, you listening?” she called up.
“Uh-huh…” Rachel whimpered.
“O-ok, good,” Quinn whispered to herself. “Ok, here’s what I want you to do, you ready babe?” Again Rachel felt herself relax slightly, a small smile gracing her otherwise petrified face.
“Yeah,” Rachel responded, sounding like nothing more than a small child, ironically the very thing she had been emulating.
“Great! Now, I want you to try, really really carefully, to step down to the next branch, ok?” Quinn called up and brought herself up another two branches. “I want you to climb down, just a little, and I’m going to meet you up there, and then we’ll climb down together, alright?”
Rachel took a deep breath and nodded shakily. “A-Alright!” She took another deep breath to steady her nerves, and reached her hand out to hold on to a nearby branch and let her leg dangle down until she felt the sturdy resting place beneath her. Gently, she lowered herself down one, her heart palpitating the entire time.
“Great job, Rach, you’re being so brave!” Quinn called up encouragingly as she got closer and closer to the object of her affections. Rachel nodded with a dazed smile. “Can you go down another one, you think?” the blonde called up hopefully, trying to make it so she wouldn’t have to climb up too high. She watched Rachel carefully as she nodded and slowly lowered herself down one branch and then another. After another minute, and three more branches on Rachel’s part later, Quinn hoisted herself up and found herself settling next to a shaking Rachel.
“Hi,” Quinn said softly as she sat herself down. Rachel had tears in her eyes and her lower lip was quivering as she enveloped Quinn in a bone crushing hug.
“Oh Quinn,” Rachel started to sob into the blonde’s shoulder, clutching her for dear life. Quinn was taken aback by the display of affection, but smiled giddily as she slowly wrapped her arms around the quivering girl. “I-I thought I was going to be stuuuuuck,” she moaned. Quinn couldn’t help but chuckle and gently stroked the brunette’s silky hair.
“Oh, Rachel, I would never let you get stuck,” she whispered soothingly, rubbing small circles into her back with her open hand.
“P-Promise?” Rachel whimpered, her tears suddenly slowing. She pulled back, her puffy red eyes staring into hazel.
Quinn smiled warmly and genuinely at the girl before her. “Of course.” Rachel put on a watery smile and leaned forward to kiss Quinn passionately.
All things considered, Quinn decided that the first date had gone kinda perfectly.
**
After “The Tree Incident,” as Quinn had taken to calling it, Rachel deemed the blonde very worthy of being her girlfriend. They had been seeing each other for about three months when it dawned on Rachel that Valentines Day was just around the bend and she needed to think of the perfect gift to buy the girl who had been nothing but kind and selfless throughout the brief relationship.
Rachel, in typical Rachel Berry fashion, constructed a massive diagram laying out all things she could think of related to Quinn. After hours of thinking and planning, she had narrowed it down to one thing: bacon. Quinn loved bacon. But buying someone you loved (even if you hadn’t actually said those three little words to each other yet) a pork product seemed highly idiotic to the diminutive diva. But bacon was definitely the right path. The big question was: where did this right path lead? Luckily for Rachel, Google helped her out. With a quick click of “Add to Cart” and the use of her dad’s credit card, Rachel sat back in her computer chair and grinned with pride as the website spit out, “Your order has been placed. Expect arrival in the next 2-5 days.”
When Rachel arrived home from school three days later, a package was waiting for her on her house’s front step. The singer literally jumped for joy and hauled the box inside. She pulled the garment from its cardboard container and held it up, a massive grin plastered to her face. “Perfect!” she squeaked and hurried up to her room to wrap it.
The next week, McKinley was decked out in pink and red to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Tina and Mike had exchanged Asian cards, Brittany and Santana gave each other (shocking) free passes for sex, even Mercedes and Kurt swapped tiny tokens of friendship. When Rachel energetically walked into glee clutching a large, neatly wrapped box, Quinn’s eyes lit up. She herself was clutching a small box holding a necklace with a small gold heart with R+Q engraved in the center. It wasn’t all that expensive (it wasn’t like she could afford real gold) and the mall was having a sale on engravings, but it was still really pretty.
Only the glee kids knew about Quinn and Rachel’s relationship, and watched with interest as the brunette pecked Quinn on the lips and handed her the large box, and then beamed in return at Quinn bashfully handing her the smaller gift. Rachel gasped when she saw the shimmering necklace and passionately kissed her girlfriend, ignoring the catcalls from Puck, before instantly putting on the piece of jewelry.
Quinn was so happy that Rachel had liked her gift that she completely forgot she was holding a large box in her lap. “Well? Aren’t you going to open yours?” Rachel asked hopefully, her eyes glistening with joy. Quinn snapped back to reality and nodded, meticulously unwrapping Rachel’s present for all the club to see. When the blonde lifted the lid of the box, the hopeful smile she had been wearing dropped like a hot potato as roars of laughter erupted from Puck, Santana, Finn, Sam, Artie, Mercedes and Kurt. Brittany just stared at it, somewhat amused, and Mike and Tina were too busy being engrossed in themselves to stare. Inside was possibly the most hideous, atrocious thing Quinn had ever laid eyes on. No, not just hideous and atrocious, but embarrassing; simply and utterly embarrassing.
Staring back at Quinn was a large zip up hooding, electric pink in color, which read “Anyone smell bacon?” across the chest in huge black bold letters. Possibly worse was the fact that the hood of the sweater had pink piggy ears and a snout pushing forward. But when Quinn took the atrocity out of its box, the true horror revealed itself: a short curly tail hanging off of the backside. Quinn stared at the monstrosity, gaping like a dying fish, as the club howled with laugher. Rachel stood up and huffed, scolding the other kids for mocking what she considered a truly wonderful and thoughtful gift.
“The fuck are you on Berry?” Santana scowled. “Besides, look, Quinn hates it!” The Latina continued with a smirk.
Rachel looked appalled and directed her stare towards the girl in question, who was still holding the sweater at arms length like it would give her cooties. “Quinn?” Rachel asked softly.
Quinn snapped her eyes to her girlfriend, looking at her nervously. “See, she hates it, its fucking disgusting!” Santana chided again.
Rachel lower lip started to quiver and Quinn felt like she was going to be sick with guilt. Suddenly, she sprung from her seat and unzipped the hideousness that was the sweater. “No I don’t!” Quinn said quickly, slinging her arms through the sleeves. She was cursing herself internally as she zipped it up half-way. “See? I love it! Thank you baby, this was very thoughtful of you,” Quinn said warmly to Rachel, who was now beaming and bouncing on her heels with joy. After a quick kiss, Mr. Scheuster came in to get the club started (after doing a confused double-take to Quinn’s latest apparel). Just as the pair went to sit down, Rachel pulled the hood over the blonde’s head.
“It’s the best part!” she whispered happily. Quinn put on a cheesy fake smile a nodded. After a few minutes, she bucked her head back and let the embarrassing hood fall back. Rachel didn’t notice…that time.
For the rest of the day, Quinn walked around school with Rachel hanging off her arm and the sweater covering her normal Cheerios uniform. Just about everyone, faculty included, did some combination of point, laugh or comment on the foolish attire, but Quinn held her head high and wore the sweater if it meant that Rachel was happy. But that fucking hood…Rachel was resilient with it. Whenever she noticed that it wasn’t over Quinn’s golden hair, she would forcefully pull it forward, always repeating that that feature was her favorite part of the garment. Quinn would always play stupid when Rachel would ask why she wasn’t wearing it, but was quick to buck it off whenever the diva wasn’t looking.
Finally, during a mutual free, Rachel and Quinn were meandering around the halls when Quinn shook her head briskly and let the hood fall from her head. Rachel winced and stopped their walking, standing on her tip-toes to pull the hood over Quinn’s head again. She beamed. “Much better!” she declared.
Quinn winced and bucked her head back again, knocking the ears and snout off. She stared at Rachel defiantly and raised an eyebrow, as if saying “what are you going to do about it?” Rachel huffed, her lips pursing and yanked the hood over Quinn’s head. The blonde responded by shaking her head like a dog drying itself after a bath, knocking the fabric off with a soft thump. “Quinn, why won’t you wear your hood?” Rachel demanded.
Because it makes me look like a jackass. “I dunno…” she replied. Rachel sighed and pulled it forward again, just to have the same response.
“Quinn, wear the hood.”
“No.”
“Quinn! Wear the hood!”
“No!”
The girls stayed still, eyes locked. But Rachel knew Quinn well enough, and let her lower lip start to quiver. “Quinn…” Rachel whimpered. “I-I’m sorry you hate it,” she whispered sadly and turned away slowly. Quinn felt like she just kicked a puppy. She sighed.
“No, Rach, look…I’m sorry, see?” She pulled the hood over her head. “See, baby?” Rachel turned around…just in time to see Karofsky fling a blue raspberry slushy directly into the side of Quinn’s now hood-protected face.
“Happy Valentine’s, freak!” he snorted and continued his march down the hall. Quinn stayed perfectly still, but couldn’t help smiling to herself that she got away from the slushy attack unscathed due to her girlfriend’s present. Rachel didn’t take the event as calmly.
“OH NO! QUINN, IT’S RUINED!” Rachel wailed, staring with disbelief at her now bright blue girlfriend.
“What a shame,” Quinn said with a hidden smirk and unzipped the ruined sweater, quickly depositing it in the trash, before claiming her girlfriend’s hand to continue their walk.
**
Five years later, as seniors in college, Rachel and Quinn had managed to stay together. They had had more than their share of fights, what with Quinn’s protective attitude whenever they attended either a Julliard or Columbia party together and Rachel’s desire to be sociable with any and everyone. But they always made up and always went to one of their dorms together at night. No matter how bad the yelling got, Rachel stuck around. And being fucked passionately on Quinn’s talented fingers certainly didn’t hurt either.
While Rachel chose to stay in Julliard’s dorms for her four years, Quinn had recently decided that living in New York, one must take advantage of the situation and get an apartment. She had been lucky in her search and found a cozy one bedroom by the Columbia dorms in a safe area. Because the apartment was so new and was constantly full of unpacked boxes, the pair spent a heavy amount of time in Rachel’s suite-style dorm.
Finally, Quinn decided to surprise Rachel by spending a full 24 hours unpacking everything and tidying up, and then inviting her long-term girlfriend for a lovely home-cooked meal, which she realized would be the first time she had really cooked a meal (the last time being when she “made” the vegan pizza from their first date, and honestly she had just followed the simplistic instructions online). So Quinn called Rachel and told her to come by at 7pm sharp. Cooking; how hard could it be?
Well…Quinn was naïve, to say the absolute least. The cleaning and unpacking went seamlessly; she did it all while bouncing around her apartment blasting old songs from her ipod. But when Quinn started to actually cook, all hell broke loose. First, she attempted to mix an assortment of ingredients in a large bowl and she attempted this with an electric mixer. It started ok; she would spin the bowl gently while holding the mixer in place, stirring out all the lumps of her meal. Little by little, she started to spin the bowl faster, finding it amusing and giggling at the loud sound the metal mixer would make hitting the metal bowl. But with one spin that was just a bit too fast and loose, the mixer lost control and sprayed the thick concoction all over the walls of Quinn’s newly cleaned kitchen.
After a half-assed attempt at cleaning up the mess, Quinn had moved on to chopping vegetables. She nicked her fingers several times, thankfully nothing too serious, but the real treat came when she lost herself in her thoughts of old times, and felt herself getting infuriated at the thought of Finn dating Rachel. She got so carried away that she didn’t realize she brought the knife down too hard. Not only did the plastic cutting board get chopped in half, splintering everywhere, but her new countertop now had a knife indent engrained in it.
Finally, her meal was mostly put together, and was ready to bake. The clock hanging by the door to the kitchen read 6:30. Quinn smiled and decided to take a very quick shower while the food cooked. She reminded herself how sensitive her dish was, and told herself to make sure she was quick. That idea quickly left Quinn’s mind when the warm water washed over her body, soothing her achy muscles after all the heavy lifting and moving she had done that day. She didn’t even realize she had been in the shower for very long until she heard the fire alarm go off. “FUCKING SHIT!” Quinn screamed and jumped out of the shower, leaving the water running and slipping in the process.
She made it out just in time to see Rachel pulling out her thoroughly burnt (and smoking) dinner from the oven, coughing lightly at the smoke that was wafting through the apartment. Quinn stood there sputtering, dripping with soap, completely naked and wildly embarrassed.
“Happy anniversary,” Rachel offered with a smile as tossed the food in the trash and pulled out her cell phone to punch in the number of a nearby pizza place.
**
Raising a newborn baby was easily the hardest thing Quinn had ever had to do. She had graduated from Columbia three years ago, and her and Rachel had decided that after being together for eight years, they wanted to start a family together. Quinn had carried their child and in 9 months, beautiful baby Lily Berry-Fabray was born.
All the baby books had warned them that sleepless nights were a given, that the baby monitor would quickly become their least favorite device in the house and to sleep whenever the baby slept, lest the parents go absurd amounts of time on virtually no sleep. Quinn had taken the majority of the late nights, waking up to Lily wailing into the monitor, hungry as could be. Quinn would weakly open her eyes, wanting nothing more than to curse, but seeing Rachel’s body beside her somehow made it all ok. Most nights Rachel would wake up with her, but Quinn would always tell her to go back to bed, that the baby wanted food (even when it didn’t) and that it wouldn’t serve Rachel any good to get up.
One night, after a particularly long and stressful day of work, Quinn came home and completely collapsed onto their queen-sized bed. Rachel was already dozing when Quinn’s head hit the pillow. It didn’t take 5 minutes though before Lily’s cry burst into the room. Quinn froze, the extent of her exhaustion hitting her. She considered just letting Lily cry herself back to sleep, she was honestly that exhausted. As she weighed the pros and cons, she felt the bed shift and opened one eye to see Rachel shuffling towards the door. “Babe, I got it,” Quinn mumbled and started to push herself up.
Rachel stopped in the doorway and turned around. “Quinnie, let me get this one, I want you to rest,” she pleaded. Rachel knew how hard Quinn was working and it killed her that not only was their time together cut drastically, but the time they did spend together Quinn was too exhausted to breath, nonetheless hold on a conversation about anything but the baby. Quinn shook her head.
“She wants-“
“She wants milk, I know that. You used the breast pump and we have some bottles in the mini-fridge in the room, I saw you put them there. Please, you’re too sleep deprived, I need you to rest.” With that, Rachel was gone, padding down the hallway. Quinn sighed as she heard the door open through the monitor.
“Awww, hey baby girl,” Rachel’s voice glided through the monitor softly. “Shhh shh, come on baby, theeere we go.” She heard Rachel lift the baby. “Want some milk, huh? That what you’re all fussy about?” Rachel asked. “With where you get your food, I’d be hungry all the time too.” Quinn laughed. She listened as Rachel cooed over the baby, her heart warming with love. She couldn’t stand it, she pushed herself off of her bed and tip-toed down the hall. The sight could make the most cold-hearted person swoon.
Rachel was holding the baby with one arm, holding a bottle to her little mouth with the other, and rocking her gently in her arms, softly singing. “If you wanted the sky I would write across the sky in letters, that would soar a thousand feet high, To Sir, with Love…” The baby cooed and gurgled around the nipple of the bottle, as Rachel sang the old song to the infant. Quinn felt tears stirring in her eyes as she leaned in the doorway, watching the singer gently place the empty bottle on the windowsill. “You know what baby girl?” Rachel cooed gently. Quinn’s ears pricked up as if she was the one being addressed. “If you told me just a few years ago that I would be so lucky as to have you and your mommy in my life like this, I would’ve said you were crazy. But you know what? I don’t think I’ve ever been happier…” Lily spittled a little. Rachel giggled and wiped the drool away with her thumb. “Too corny for you? Ouch,” Rachel said with a giggle and bounced the baby lightly in her arms. The baby gurgled again. “Ready for bedtime, hmm? Yeah, let’s get you tucked in.” As Rachel turned around, she caught sight of the blonde watching her, tears gently streaming down her face. “Quinn, I told you to go to sleep sweetheart…”
Quinn nodded and stepped into the nursery as Rachel laid the baby down and tucked it in tightly. “I couldn’t sleep,” she whispered. They watched as Lily’s eyes drooped and quickly fell back asleep. Rachel and Quinn hovered over the crib, watching the child sleep peacefully, before Rachel took Quinn’s hand in hers.
“Come on, let’s go back to bed.” Quinn looked at Rachel a smiled warmly. The pair walked quietly down the hallway and back into the bedroom, curling up snuggly together. Quinn’s arm slung around Rachel, as the pair dozed softly.
“Rach?”
“Mhmm?” Rachel groaned softly.
“Question…”
“Mhmm?” Rachel grumbled again. Quinn’s arm was suddenly withdrawn from her waist. Rachel’s brown furrowed at the loss of contact. She heard some shuffling and then silence. The bed shifted and Rachel heard Quinn walking around to her side of the bed. “Quinn, what?” Rachel mumbled. “Qu-“
Rachel opened her eyes weakly. Quinn was down on one knee, holding open a small black box with a diamond ring inside. Rachel’s eyes opened wide, going back and forth from the ring to Quinn’s buoyant eyes. Silence. “Well?” Quinn asked hopefully.
Rachel grinned and tackled her then fiancé, kissing her passionately. “Yes!” They stayed on the floor like that, just holding each other tightly and breathing in the sweet smell of the other, crying gently with joy. In that moment, Quinn felt all warm inside, a feeling she remembered well and a feeling she knew she would never forget.