Forever Begins with the Ocean's Tides [8/14]
Title: Forever Begins with the Ocean's Tides
Pairings/Characters: (in order of appearance) Quinn/Santana, minor Puck/Kurt, minor Santana/Puck, side Brittany/Santana, Rachel/Quinn
Mentions: Quinn/Finn, Quinn/Puck, Rachel/Finn
Other Characters: Artie, Mike, Will, Russell & Judy Fabray, Matt, mentions SueRating: PG-13 for this chapter; NC-17 overall
Length: ~1,600 for this chapter; 26,000+ overall
Summary: AU Captain Quinn Fabray is in love with the sea and her ship, The Cheerio. With Santana at her side as her first mate she's certain she doesn't need anything else. But when the crew of The Cheerio takes over the Glee and they find some unexpected crew members on board the captain starts to question everything around her.
Author's Note: See Chapter 1
Previous Chapters:
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5
Chapter 6 | Chapter 7
[Rose is prepared to jump off the back of Titanic]
Rose: You're distracting me! Go away!
Jack: I can't. I'm involved now. You let go, and I'm…I'm gonna have to jump in there after you.
-Titanic (1997)
-Chapter 8-
“Rachel, no!”
Rachel turned around to look at Quinn and the blonde took a flying leap. Just as Rachel let go of the rope and began to fall forward Quinn wrapped an arm around the brunette’s waist and planted one foot perfectly on the railing and she pushed hard sending both women flying backward to the deck. They landed with a crash, Rachel on top of Quinn on their backs. Rachel rolled over and buried her face into Quinn’s chest and the blonde kept her arm around Rachel’s waist and ran the other one up and down her back.
“Rachel...no.” Quinn gasped.
The brunette only clung to Quinn’s shoulders.
“What the hell is going on?!” Quinn heard Santana yell when she emerged from the hatch, sword drawn and Brittany at her side. A few other crew members joined her, all staring down at Rachel and Quinn. Brittany crossed the deck first and pulled Rachel up and into her, holding her tight.
“What did you do to her this time?” Brittany scowled.
Quinn hopped up and crossed her arms over her chest. “All of you back to what you were doing!” she yelled. The crew, save for Santana, Brittany, and Rachel all filed back down below deck.
“Brittany, it’s fine,” Rachel sniffled.
“No it isn’t,” Santana said, thrusting a piece of parchment out. “What is this?”
“Can I please be alone with Quinn?” Rachel asked, pulling away from Brittany. “Please?”
Santana nodded and held out her sword. “Take this. If she tries anything you have my permission to use it.”
“She won’t.”
Santana and Brittany both sighed and stood their ground while Rachel and Quinn adjourned to Quinn’s cabin, Quinn following Rachel.
Quinn turned up her lantern and Rachel sat down on the bed. The captain remained standing.
“Why did you do that, Rachel?”
“Why not?” Rachel shrugged her shoulders. “I have nothing more to live for. You won’t let me in, the only thing I have waiting for me in the Colonies is settling for a life I never wanted. A husband if that’s even possible by now, if any man will want me. My friends were all married and had children by the time I left, you know? Before they were even twenty.”
Quinn crossed her arms over her chest and stared down at Rachel. The brunette’s shoulders were slumped and she was staring down at her hands, picking at her fingernails.
“Why are you going back there to begin with if you know what’s waiting?”
“I’m going back because the European stage is getting too crowded and it was becoming difficult to get parts but if the Colonial stage is just the same then I’ll be resigned to the life of a meaningless housewife and I can’t do that.”
Quinn shifted her weight from one foot to the other and back again. It scared her a little bit that what Rachel had just said had echoed through her own mind several times in her life when she’d wondered what it would have been like to marry Finn Hudson. She thought briefly that she could offer the brunette a permanent job in the kitchen but her thoughts were snapped back to the present problem of trying to figure out why Rachel just attempted to jump off her ship when the aforementioned brunette whimpered.
“You have no family that could take you in?”
Rachel let out a quiet sob and buried her face in her hands. “I’m an orphan.”
Quinn shifted uncomfortably again as her mind echoed those words. She had parents…but they had disowned her. Thrown her from their lives. She was an orphan, too. Rachel wasn’t lying when she’d said they had more in common than a love for Shakespeare.
“I…I don’t really know the whole story,” Rachel continued, “but I was raised in the theater. There were two actors there, John and Daniel, they were the ones who took care of me. I never knew my mother…John and Daniel were good to me but I knew I was just a burden and so the engagement to Finn was good for them but I knew, I just knew that my life couldn’t be that. So I gave him the ring and took all the money I had saved and got on a ship and went to England.”
The brunette wrung her hands in her lap. She sniffled and let out a few more quiet sobs over the minutes that lapsed where Quinn was still shifting her feet and contemplating the fact that maybe, just maybe, the pair were more alike than they were different.
Quinn, mind and heart both racing, crossed the floor slowly. She couldn’t see behind the curtain of dark brown locks around Rachel’s face. She didn’t even know if the brunette knew she was still in the room. Quinn dropped to her knees in front of Rachel and reached forward. She pushed the thick locks out of the way and Rachel looked down at her, completely defeated.
“I have nothing, Quinn,” Rachel sobbed. “Then you opened up to me just a little and I was naïve enough to grab on to that little bit of you. And all you did was hurt me.”
“I’m sorry,” Quinn whispered. She reached up and cupped Rachel’s jaw in her hands.
Quinn studied Rachel’s eyes, looking for something. She didn’t know what it was but she was looking for it and she so desperately wanted to find it. Rachel just looked back, her stare lacking any emotion but helplessness.
“Rachel…Rachel I don’t know what to do. I can’t give you what you want.”
“You don’t know what I want.”
“You don’t want a bloodthirsty pirate. I’ve killed innocent people, Rachel. You don’t want that.”
“You’re right, I don’t. I want a woman who will recite Shakespeare to me, who will care for me if I’m wounded…who will save me when I’m on the edge.” Rachel reached out and touched her fingers to Quinn’s cheek. “I want Quinn Fabray, not Captain Fabray. That’s all I’ve wanted since the day you recited Romeo and Juliet’s prologue to me.”
“One comes with the other,” Quinn said. She pulled her hands away from Rachel’s face and dropped her head. “I have to captain my crew.”
“Then captain them out there.” Rachel put her fingertips underneath the blonde’s chin and tilted her head back up. “But leave the captain on the decks.”
Quinn pulled back a little. “I can’t…I’ve never felt this…this thing before. I hate it, Rachel. I hate it. I hate it because I know when we get to New York City there’s a good chance that we’ll be torn apart and the last you’ll see of me is swinging in the gallows. I hate it because I don’t want to get hurt…and I don’t want you to get hurt, either.”
“I know you’re afraid of getting hurt, Quinn. You think I don’t have the same fear? It’s too late to be afraid, though. I’ve already let myself fall for you. I gave myself to you. It doesn’t matter if or how we part. Quinn, you are all I have…this sliver of yourself that you let slip. That’s all I have to live for. Whether you tell me no right now or swing in the gallows…this piece of you is all I have to live for. Despite the way you’ve treated me, I do love you and I know that you at least care about me enough to risk your life to save mine. Stop fighting what you know you feel.”
Quinn threaded her fingers through Rachel’s hair and Rachel slipped her hands around the back of Quinn’s neck. The blonde wasn’t sure who pulled but they ended up resting their foreheads together and just staying there. Quinn felt the vulnerability slip over her again only this time she didn’t fight it. She let it consume her and she started shaking. Every word Rachel ever said to her was the honest truth and all of them rushed through her brain and she admitted to herself (possibly even out loud, she didn’t know) that Rachel was right…and that she loved her.
“I’m going to kiss you now,” Rachel whispered. Quinn nodded.
Their noses bumped and Rachel smiled a little before their lips connected. Despite their previous encounter, the kiss was slow and exploratory. Rachel’s tongue explored Quinn’s mouth and Quinn pulled back for a breath before slipping her tongue into Rachel’s mouth. She took her time, tasting, feeling, letting it all sink in. Rachel pulled back this time and traced her thumb over Quinn’s lips.
“Dost thou love me?” Rachel recited quietly. “I know thou wilt say ‘ay,’ and I will take thy word. Yet if thou swear’st thou mayst prove false. At lovers' perjuries, they say, Jove laughs. O gentle Quinn, if thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully. Or if thou think’st I am too quickly won, I’ll frown and be perverse and say thee nay, so thou wilt woo. But else, not for the world. In truth, fair Fabray, I am too fond, and therefore thou mayst think my 'havior light. But trust me, lady, I’ll prove more true than those that have more coying to be strange.”
Quinn got up from her knees and guided Rachel back to lie on the bed. She hovered over the brunette and pressed another kiss to Rachel’s lips.
“Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear, that tips with silver all these sails…” Quinn smiled and kissed Rachel again.
“Quinn, please promise me something.”
“Anything.”
“Don’t shut me out again.”
Quinn shifted and settled next to the brunette and Rachel turned to face her. Quinn wrapped her arm around Rachel’s waist and pulled her in close. Rachel settled her hand on Quinn’s neck.
“I’ll try.”
Chapter 9
-*-*-*-*-*-
Shakespeare
Pairings/Characters: (in order of appearance) Quinn/Santana, minor Puck/Kurt, minor Santana/Puck, side Brittany/Santana, Rachel/Quinn
Mentions: Quinn/Finn, Quinn/Puck, Rachel/Finn
Other Characters: Artie, Mike, Will, Russell & Judy Fabray, Matt, mentions SueRating: PG-13 for this chapter; NC-17 overall
Length: ~1,600 for this chapter; 26,000+ overall
Summary: AU Captain Quinn Fabray is in love with the sea and her ship, The Cheerio. With Santana at her side as her first mate she's certain she doesn't need anything else. But when the crew of The Cheerio takes over the Glee and they find some unexpected crew members on board the captain starts to question everything around her.
Author's Note: See Chapter 1
Previous Chapters:
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5
Chapter 6 | Chapter 7
[Rose is prepared to jump off the back of Titanic]
Rose: You're distracting me! Go away!
Jack: I can't. I'm involved now. You let go, and I'm…I'm gonna have to jump in there after you.
-Titanic (1997)
-Chapter 8-
“Rachel, no!”
Rachel turned around to look at Quinn and the blonde took a flying leap. Just as Rachel let go of the rope and began to fall forward Quinn wrapped an arm around the brunette’s waist and planted one foot perfectly on the railing and she pushed hard sending both women flying backward to the deck. They landed with a crash, Rachel on top of Quinn on their backs. Rachel rolled over and buried her face into Quinn’s chest and the blonde kept her arm around Rachel’s waist and ran the other one up and down her back.
“Rachel...no.” Quinn gasped.
The brunette only clung to Quinn’s shoulders.
“What the hell is going on?!” Quinn heard Santana yell when she emerged from the hatch, sword drawn and Brittany at her side. A few other crew members joined her, all staring down at Rachel and Quinn. Brittany crossed the deck first and pulled Rachel up and into her, holding her tight.
“What did you do to her this time?” Brittany scowled.
Quinn hopped up and crossed her arms over her chest. “All of you back to what you were doing!” she yelled. The crew, save for Santana, Brittany, and Rachel all filed back down below deck.
“Brittany, it’s fine,” Rachel sniffled.
“No it isn’t,” Santana said, thrusting a piece of parchment out. “What is this?”
“Can I please be alone with Quinn?” Rachel asked, pulling away from Brittany. “Please?”
Santana nodded and held out her sword. “Take this. If she tries anything you have my permission to use it.”
“She won’t.”
Santana and Brittany both sighed and stood their ground while Rachel and Quinn adjourned to Quinn’s cabin, Quinn following Rachel.
Quinn turned up her lantern and Rachel sat down on the bed. The captain remained standing.
“Why did you do that, Rachel?”
“Why not?” Rachel shrugged her shoulders. “I have nothing more to live for. You won’t let me in, the only thing I have waiting for me in the Colonies is settling for a life I never wanted. A husband if that’s even possible by now, if any man will want me. My friends were all married and had children by the time I left, you know? Before they were even twenty.”
Quinn crossed her arms over her chest and stared down at Rachel. The brunette’s shoulders were slumped and she was staring down at her hands, picking at her fingernails.
“Why are you going back there to begin with if you know what’s waiting?”
“I’m going back because the European stage is getting too crowded and it was becoming difficult to get parts but if the Colonial stage is just the same then I’ll be resigned to the life of a meaningless housewife and I can’t do that.”
Quinn shifted her weight from one foot to the other and back again. It scared her a little bit that what Rachel had just said had echoed through her own mind several times in her life when she’d wondered what it would have been like to marry Finn Hudson. She thought briefly that she could offer the brunette a permanent job in the kitchen but her thoughts were snapped back to the present problem of trying to figure out why Rachel just attempted to jump off her ship when the aforementioned brunette whimpered.
“You have no family that could take you in?”
Rachel let out a quiet sob and buried her face in her hands. “I’m an orphan.”
Quinn shifted uncomfortably again as her mind echoed those words. She had parents…but they had disowned her. Thrown her from their lives. She was an orphan, too. Rachel wasn’t lying when she’d said they had more in common than a love for Shakespeare.
“I…I don’t really know the whole story,” Rachel continued, “but I was raised in the theater. There were two actors there, John and Daniel, they were the ones who took care of me. I never knew my mother…John and Daniel were good to me but I knew I was just a burden and so the engagement to Finn was good for them but I knew, I just knew that my life couldn’t be that. So I gave him the ring and took all the money I had saved and got on a ship and went to England.”
The brunette wrung her hands in her lap. She sniffled and let out a few more quiet sobs over the minutes that lapsed where Quinn was still shifting her feet and contemplating the fact that maybe, just maybe, the pair were more alike than they were different.
Quinn, mind and heart both racing, crossed the floor slowly. She couldn’t see behind the curtain of dark brown locks around Rachel’s face. She didn’t even know if the brunette knew she was still in the room. Quinn dropped to her knees in front of Rachel and reached forward. She pushed the thick locks out of the way and Rachel looked down at her, completely defeated.
“I have nothing, Quinn,” Rachel sobbed. “Then you opened up to me just a little and I was naïve enough to grab on to that little bit of you. And all you did was hurt me.”
“I’m sorry,” Quinn whispered. She reached up and cupped Rachel’s jaw in her hands.
Quinn studied Rachel’s eyes, looking for something. She didn’t know what it was but she was looking for it and she so desperately wanted to find it. Rachel just looked back, her stare lacking any emotion but helplessness.
“Rachel…Rachel I don’t know what to do. I can’t give you what you want.”
“You don’t know what I want.”
“You don’t want a bloodthirsty pirate. I’ve killed innocent people, Rachel. You don’t want that.”
“You’re right, I don’t. I want a woman who will recite Shakespeare to me, who will care for me if I’m wounded…who will save me when I’m on the edge.” Rachel reached out and touched her fingers to Quinn’s cheek. “I want Quinn Fabray, not Captain Fabray. That’s all I’ve wanted since the day you recited Romeo and Juliet’s prologue to me.”
“One comes with the other,” Quinn said. She pulled her hands away from Rachel’s face and dropped her head. “I have to captain my crew.”
“Then captain them out there.” Rachel put her fingertips underneath the blonde’s chin and tilted her head back up. “But leave the captain on the decks.”
Quinn pulled back a little. “I can’t…I’ve never felt this…this thing before. I hate it, Rachel. I hate it. I hate it because I know when we get to New York City there’s a good chance that we’ll be torn apart and the last you’ll see of me is swinging in the gallows. I hate it because I don’t want to get hurt…and I don’t want you to get hurt, either.”
“I know you’re afraid of getting hurt, Quinn. You think I don’t have the same fear? It’s too late to be afraid, though. I’ve already let myself fall for you. I gave myself to you. It doesn’t matter if or how we part. Quinn, you are all I have…this sliver of yourself that you let slip. That’s all I have to live for. Whether you tell me no right now or swing in the gallows…this piece of you is all I have to live for. Despite the way you’ve treated me, I do love you and I know that you at least care about me enough to risk your life to save mine. Stop fighting what you know you feel.”
Quinn threaded her fingers through Rachel’s hair and Rachel slipped her hands around the back of Quinn’s neck. The blonde wasn’t sure who pulled but they ended up resting their foreheads together and just staying there. Quinn felt the vulnerability slip over her again only this time she didn’t fight it. She let it consume her and she started shaking. Every word Rachel ever said to her was the honest truth and all of them rushed through her brain and she admitted to herself (possibly even out loud, she didn’t know) that Rachel was right…and that she loved her.
“I’m going to kiss you now,” Rachel whispered. Quinn nodded.
Their noses bumped and Rachel smiled a little before their lips connected. Despite their previous encounter, the kiss was slow and exploratory. Rachel’s tongue explored Quinn’s mouth and Quinn pulled back for a breath before slipping her tongue into Rachel’s mouth. She took her time, tasting, feeling, letting it all sink in. Rachel pulled back this time and traced her thumb over Quinn’s lips.
“Dost thou love me?” Rachel recited quietly. “I know thou wilt say ‘ay,’ and I will take thy word. Yet if thou swear’st thou mayst prove false. At lovers' perjuries, they say, Jove laughs. O gentle Quinn, if thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully. Or if thou think’st I am too quickly won, I’ll frown and be perverse and say thee nay, so thou wilt woo. But else, not for the world. In truth, fair Fabray, I am too fond, and therefore thou mayst think my 'havior light. But trust me, lady, I’ll prove more true than those that have more coying to be strange.”
Quinn got up from her knees and guided Rachel back to lie on the bed. She hovered over the brunette and pressed another kiss to Rachel’s lips.
“Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear, that tips with silver all these sails…” Quinn smiled and kissed Rachel again.
“Quinn, please promise me something.”
“Anything.”
“Don’t shut me out again.”
Quinn shifted and settled next to the brunette and Rachel turned to face her. Quinn wrapped her arm around Rachel’s waist and pulled her in close. Rachel settled her hand on Quinn’s neck.
“I’ll try.”
Chapter 9
-*-*-*-*-*-
Shakespeare