I Think I Wanna Marry You
Title: I Think I Wanna Marry You
Rating: T
Pairing(s): Rachel Berry/Quinn Fabray
Summary: A redone Faberry version of Furt
Disclaimer: We don't own Glee and if we did Rachel and Quinn would be together
“Artie, Mike, can I talk to you?” Rachel actually asked, and it was that fact which stalled the two football players on their way out of the Glee room.
“Uh…sure, Rachel,” Artie agreed, wheeling back in to the room as Mike silently sat down in a chair.
Both hands on her hips Rachel waited until she had the attention of both boys. “This Kurt-Karofsky bullying situation is getting way out of control.” Even as the two boys looked at each other in confusion Rachel continued on. “Kurt’s miserable, he’s loosing weight - and not in a good way. And he’s barely even fighting me for solos anymore.”
Artie looked at Rachel from his chair, “We’ve all been teased, but something about what Karofsky’s doing is so much worse,” he agreed. But it was obvious that neither Mike nor Artie understood her point.
“Fortunately you are both on the football team,” Rachel explained, pausing for emphasis. “I believe the Glee boys need to band together to confront Karofsky. Individuals like Karofsky only respond to muscle.”
Mike, at least had cottoned on. “So you want to fight violence with violence?”
“No! I’m not saying you should hit him. What I’m saying is that we need to defend Kurt, and there’s strength in numbers. And if something bad happens to Kurt, and we didn’t do anything to stop it…” Rachel paused for a moment, thinking about the teasing and harassment that she had endured. “We’ll never be able to live with ourselves.”
---
From her locker Rachel watched, with a little bit of pride, as her plan fell in to place.
“Stop picking on Kurt,” Artie said, wheeling into Karofsky’s personal space.
Kurt’s tormenter looked at his two teammates. “You mind? I’m busy.”
But Karofsky barely got his fingers out of the way of the locker door as Mike slammed it shut. “We’re serious,” the usually stoic running back gave his input. “This is a warning.”
“Oh yeah?”
“From now on, you’re gonna leave him alone.” The threat didn’t exactly carry a lot of weight from a handicapable boy but Rachel was glad it was out there. She didn’t have to watch surreptitiously because most of the hall was taking notice.
“Look, if he wants to be a homo, that’s up to him, but don’t rub it in my face.” Every word out of Karofsky’s mouth made more people turn and stare. But they also made Rachel nearly burst with the need to give him a talking to and she drifted closer to listen.
“We’re not asking you,” Artie interjected.
Approaching the scuffle Rachel raised her voice to be heard over the din, “Violence is not the answer!” Even trying to break up the fight she had enough self-preservation instincts not to get in the middle of two brawling football players.
But when Sam shoved Karofsky in to the row of lockers on the other side of the hall, Rachel skittered out of the way. Only to put herself right in the path of Karofsky’s next punch.
---
After nearly an hour of being in the nurse’s office and Principle Sylvester’s office the petite diva shook off her dads and surprised the rest of the club by showing up for Glee. Mike and Artie showed a few bruises and were being fussed over by Tina and Brittany, the later was much to Santana’s annoyance. And Sam nursed his own black eye which matched Rachel’s already purpling eye.
“Karofsky is expelled,” she announced with somewhat less pep than usual, understandably so. Rachel also didn’t remove the icepack she held to her eye as she sunk in to a chair.
Without saying anything, Quinn removed Rachel’s hand from the icepack and pulled it back enough to look at the damage. The skin was colored a nasty purple, but at least it wasn’t swelled shut. Pressing the icepack back against the brunette’s eye, a dozen different ways to get revenge for her girlfriend whirled through the blonde’s mind. It was a good thing Karofsky was expelled.
“Rachel, you shouldn’t have been in the middle of that,” Finn half scolded, half whined. Rachel knew he was feeling guilty for turning her down for intervening on Kurt’s behalf with Karofsky. She’d asked him before Artie and Mike; capitalizing on the attraction he still held for her, to no avail.
“You’re right, I should have been in there,” growled Puck, who had been held back by an equally furious Santana in the hallway.
Flipping the icepack so the cooler side pressed against her eye Rachel gave a glare that would have been withering with two eyes. “I wasn’t in the middle of - ah! - anything,” she finished with a wince.
“Don’t glare. You’ll hurt yourself,” Quinn instructed as she turned her icy blue eyes onto Finn to make up for her girlfriend’s inability. “At least she had the guts to do something, Finn.“ Sometimes the blonde wondered what she ever saw in him to begin with.
“You’re kind of lame,” Brittany chimed in from beside Artie, barely glancing up from the boy in the wheelchair as she continued to examine his minimal bruising.
Santana scoffed in Finn’s direction but before Mercedes could open her mouth to lay in to him a quiet voice piped up from the corner. “Lay off Finn, everyone. It isn’t his problem. It’s none of your problems, actually. But thank you for what you did, especially Sam. And as much as I hate to say it, Rachel.”
Giving an awkward half smile with the uninjured side of her face was the best Rachel could do before Mr. Shue walked in. “What’s goin’ on? What happened to Sam and Rachel?” asked the obviously clueless Spanish teacher. Most of the school had heard about what happened by now, or at least all of Glee.
“They took on Karofsky,” Tina supplied from his chair next to Mike. Quinn looked from her ex-boyfriend to their teacher, narrowing her eyes slightly.
“No one else was going to do anything for Kurt,” she added after a moment, making sure that she was applying a gentle pressure to the ice pack as she held it to her girlfriend’s bruised skin.
“Are you both okay? We should probably go talk to Sue - er Principal Sylvester.”
“I already have, Karofsky’s expelled,” Rachel announced for the second time but she regained some vigor as the Glee wheels in her brain started turning. “We need to practice. Sectionals are in three weeks and the wedding is in four days.”
Mr. Shue looked at Rachel with a bit of awe, some frustration and just a hint of annoyance. “Rachel, one day off wouldn’t kill you…”
“She’s fine, Mr. Shue. Let’s practice so we can go home,” Quinn snapped before turning her attention back to the brunette at her side. She wasn’t one to be too openly affectionate in public, but Glee Club was something different. Reaching over with her free hand, she grabbed one of Rachel’s and laced their fingers together.
“I agree, Mr. Shue. We really do need to practice,” Artie chimed in with a nod from Mercedes.
“We’ll take it easy today and just do vocals,” Mr. Shue offered, considering almost half his Glee club was more than a little banged up
---
That evening Rachel lay on her bed with a bag of frozen peas pressed against her face. The bruising had spread and the swelling had moved to her eye as well as cheek, though a coerced visit to the doctor said it wasn’t serious. And had provided pain medicine that Rachel protested taking. At least until Beth, interested in the funny colors on Rachel's face, had tried to grab swollen skin. But now that she had taken the medicine the brunette didn’t complain about having her head in Quinn’s lap.
Relaxing against the headboard, the blonde gently ran her fingers through the soft brown hair that belonged to her girlfriend. It was still rather early, but Quinn was more than ready to just lay down and sleep. Between the fight, practice, and then going with Rachel to the doctor she was exhausted.
“You feelin’ okay?” she asked after a moment, worried about the fact that her diva was very silent.
“My face hurts. And I think it’s the same color as the dress.” Thinking about the wedding made Rachel groan. There had been little cuts within the bruise, which would prolong the healing time a few days. “I’m going to look awful for the wedding, and it’s the first wedding I still haven’t actually gone to yet.”
Quinn shook her head, leaning down to press a quick kiss to the top of the brunette’s head. “You look beautiful, no matter what. Do you want some more pain medicine?” In some respects it was easier to take care of Beth then to attempt to read Rachel's mind to know what the brunette needed. She was never the best at situations like this, but she always tried her best for Rachel. It’s what the other girl deserved, after all.
“You’re supposed to say that, you’re my girlfriend.” With the hand that wasn’t holding the frozen bag of veggies to her face Rachel grabbed Quinn’s hand. But she shook her head carefully at the offer of more medicine. “No, my commitment to living a holistic life without additives, processed food and drugs may be set back a bit but I don’t want more.” Her short ramble made the upper part of the left side of her face hurt but Rachel ignored it.
Shaking her head, she gently squeezed her girlfriend's hand. "I'm saying it because it's true. Promise," she stated softly. Quinn would honor the brunette's wishes for the moment. "You don't have to go to school tomorrow. I can stay with you," she offered.
Rachel looked up at Quinn with a look of bewilderment. “Why would I ruin my perfect attendance record over a few bruises? Besides if I don’t show the rumor mill will have a field day.” She had long since gotten over caring what the majority of people at William McKinley High School though about her. And this time let them talk because this time they wouldn’t be mocking but admiring her handiwork of ending Karofsky’s reign of terror, even if they didn’t know she orchestrated it.
"You know I wouldn't let them," Quinn pointed out. She was fiercely protective of the brunette and being the head cheerleader came with some advantages. She had the ability to protect her girlfriend from slushies and most other things. It also helped that she had Santana on her side. "You did the right thing."
“I know you wouldn’t and of course I did.” It wasn’t fair for Kurt to be the sole target of Karofsky’s torture. Rachel knew what it was like to be picked on so she had been perfect to step in. Quinn’s regained position as top dog was a good buffer between Rachel and the general school public. Mostly insults came only from Glee Club and were only in jest.
Sitting up was only slightly jarring to her eye but that subsided when Rachel rested the uninjured side of her face on Quinn’s shoulder and wrapped her arm around the other girl’s waist. “Now how did your part of the song go when you practiced with Sam? It is difficult to keep an eye on everything with none to spare.” The pairings for the number were not ideal but they would make do.
Pulling Rachel closer, she made a conscious effort not to shrug her shoulder. "It was okay. He dances better than Finn, but he doesn't sound as good as Puck or Artie."
Shifting a little, Quinn leaned down to kiss the top of Rachel's head. "I would much rather sing with you though."
“Trust me, I’d rather sing with you too,” Rachel assured her girlfriend.
---
To her dismay there was little Rachel could do to cover an entire face full of bruises. They looked better than before but were still pretty bad. Pinning the red-orange flower to the right side of her hair, in an attempt to divert attention, Rachel looked in the mirror and smiled at Quinn as the blonde hovered in the doorway.
"You look beautiful," Quinn stated with a smile as she walked over to Rachel. The blonde pressed a gentle kiss to the bruised side of her girlfriend's face. "You don't need the flower, Rach, but it is a nice touch," she conceded after a moment of staring at Rachel's reflection.
Turning away from the mirror, Rachel hesitated before resting her hands on Quinn’s waist, because Kurt would give her worse than a black eye for wrinkling the dress. Instead she wrapped her arms around Quinn’s neck, careful not to mess up her girlfriend’s hair. “You look beautiful, too. But if any of us didn’t have the flower Kurt would have a conniption fit and you know it.”
Instead of wrapping her arms around Rachel, the blonde cupped the brunette's face gently. "If Finn so much as looks at you the wrong way I will destroy him," she offered before leaning forward to gently kiss Rachel on the lips. "I love you, so let's go out there and do our thing."
Quinn’s jealousy made Rachel smile a little. Rachel also tried to avoid her girlfriend getting too jealous by changing her choreography with Finn. On Thursday it was clear to the brunette that Quinn didn’t like Finn picking up Rachel. Under the pretext of keeping her eye from getting hurt further she nixed the lift. “Whenever you’re ready,” Rachel said, linking her arm with Quinn and heading for the door.
---
Taking the pins out of her hair Rachel raked her fingers through her hair. The wedding had gone off without a hitch. There was a vegan option at the reception and everyone had carried on until it was nearly midnight.
Coming up behind Rachel, the blonde pressed a kiss to the bruises as she wrapped her arms around her girlfriend's neck. "You were brilliant today, Rach," she whispered softly. The wedding had turned out better than planned, but now she was exhausted after dancing so much.
“I’ve had better days, but Finn was a better than passable best man.” Just the Way You Are was a guilty pleasure of hers but Rachel would go to her grave saying it was corny and didn’t stand out among current R & B songs. “My dads are taking care of Beth tonight,” Rachel offered with a slight smile.
"He was okay," she conceded after another quick kiss. Quinn still wasn't ready to forgive Finn for his inaction just yet. Smiling at the thought of a free night, the blonde nodded. "We‘ll go home. Just let me get out of this dress."
Stifling a huge yawn Rachel smiled at her girlfriend. “My dads left a few hours ago with Beth. And I didn’t bring a change of clothes, but I can help you out of yours,” Rachel offered with a sly smile.
Ducking her head, Quinn grabbed her bag up from the nearby table. "It can wait until we get home. Come on Diva." she stated, glancing up long enough to shoot Rachel one of her trademark smirks before she started out of the door.