Forever Begins with the Ocean's Tides [14/14]
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: ~2,000 for this chapter; ~27,800 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
Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13
-Chapter 14-
One year later…
Rachel took her final bow on stage and the crowd went wild with applause. She smiled and exited to her dressing room, she was met with a room full of gifts from men who desperately wanted to court her. She declined all of them, of course. Her heart would always belong to Quinn.
No matter how successful Rachel became the void in her heart was never completely filled. When she had first learned that Quinn escaped from the gallows she was ecstatic and she waited that night and the next for the blonde to come find her. She’d first heard the news of Quinn’s death through someone that burst into the boarding house yelling about it. Rachel’s heart immediately sank and she’d run to the docks but saw no sign of The Cheerio. When she returned to the boarding house she was met with Brittany and an inconsolable Santana in her room. They told her the whole story and then went on their way, Rachel hadn’t seen or heard from them since.
The gossip all over the city was the same over the next few weeks. The pirate that had evaded the British navy on the seas and the army on land had been shot and killed, her body taken away and buried. Rachel was more than devastated; she didn’t leave her room for weeks. When she did finally leave she landed a part in the theater and in the months that followed, her friends and fellow actors had tried to set her up with suitable partners but Rachel refused, stating her heart belonged elsewhere.
Rachel looked around her dressing room at the typical gifts, they were the same every night: dresses, flowers, books, fine jewelry. However, this night, something caught her eye. A plain wrapped package with flowing, familiar handwriting reading “Rachel Berry” on it was placed on a table. Rachel stared down at the writing on the packaging and tried to remember where she’d seen it. When memories of a ship and a desk and charts on that desk flooded her mind she felt her heart stop.
“It can’t be,” Rachel whispered when she traced her fingertips over the ink. It smudged, the ink was fresh. She carefully tugged the paper off and a leather bound and covered book was revealed. She opened the front cover to see William Shakespeare’s signature.
“You know,” a voice said from behind her, “I’m thinking that loud mouth of yours is actually kind of a gift because even though I was hiding in the balcony I could still hear you. And you were magnificent tonight, Rachel.”
“Quinn,” Rachel whispered, still looking down at the book. “This is impossible.”
“Not really.”
Rachel turned around and Quinn emerged from the shadow of the corner where the candle light didn’t reach. “Are you ghost? I…I sometimes can see ghosts…”
“I’m not a ghost, Rachel.”
“But how…They said they caught you after you escaped. Everyone in the entire city was talking about it! They said they caught you and you were sh-shot! Brittany and Santana! They were here, they told me! They saw it! They saw you die!”
Quinn pulled down the shoulder of her shirt, there was a perfectly round scar just under the right side of her collarbone. Rachel gasped and Quinn smiled. She dug in her pocket and pulled out a round silvery ball. She tossed it up in the air and caught it with a smirk.
Quinn didn’t remember anything until she woke up on a hard table. There was a searing pain in her shoulder and she immediately vomited. When she felt she could stand she got up and looked at her surroundings. She noticed blacksmith tools and a man passed out on a chair in the corner, a bottle of rum in his hand. Quinn looked down at her shoulder, the blood had stopped flowing out but she knew the bullet was still in there. She rummaged around for something, anything, to try and pull the bullet out and she finally found a small knife resting near some other tools. She stuck it in the fire for a few seconds to clean it, like she’d been taught after a crew member had been shot when Sylvester was still captain. Quinn was at least thankful for that lesson.
The captain sat down on the ground and clamped her jaw shut when she pushed the end of the knife into the hole just underneath her collarbone. She felt it hit the small bullet and then closed her eyes and pried it out all the while trying not to scream. The ball hit the ground and Quinn vomited again. The blood started oozing out and she pressed her hand against it but it was no use. The blood came faster. She looked around and her eyes landed on the handle of what looked like a knife in the making that was sitting in the hot coals of another fire. The glowing metal on her skin was almost unbearable but she didn’t let go until the bleeding stopped. She dropped the knife back into the fire and vomited yet again.
Rachel’s mouth gaped open and the color drained from her face.
“It hurt…God, it hurt, Rachel. But I knew if I could survive it then I could see you again. I wrote in his log book that I’d been taken to an unmarked grave and then I left.”
Rachel dropped the book back on the table and took a few steps closer to the captain. Quinn smiled and reached toward her but was met with a smack to the face.
“Not sure I deserved that,” Quinn mumbled. She rubbed the sting on her cheek.
“How could you do this to me?!” Rachel shrieked. “You…how could you?! Why didn’t you come find me? I would have helped you!”
“You had a future and I wasn’t going to subject you to the life of being on the run all the time! If they’d found out I was alive and you were helping me then you would’ve gotten the same punishment! I was protecting you, Rachel!”
Rachel smacked her again. “Why did you wait a year?!”
Quinn rubbed her jaw. “Could you not do that anymore?”
“I think I am entitled to it! I thought you were dead! You should’ve given me a sign, a letter, anything! How do you know I haven’t moved on, hm? What if I’m married?”
“You’re not married.”
Quinn ducked the next swing.
“I could be!”
“Where’s your wedding ring?” Quinn reached out and took Rachel’s left hand. The brunette tried to pull it back but Quinn held on tight and kissed Rachel’s bare ring finger.
“You can’t just waltz back into my life and expect me to…I mean…you let me think you were dead! I can’t just forgive that.”
“You can forgive my past as a bloodthirsty murderer but you can’t forgive me for laying low for a year to ensure my safety?”
Rachel crossed her arms over her chest. “You could have come to me!”
“I told you, I couldn’t do that to you, Rachel. I couldn’t bear the thought of you facing the same fate as me if we were caught. I wanted to…so many times I wanted to write you a letter but I couldn’t risk it. Santana…”
“So you were on The Cheerio?” Rachel cut her off.
Quinn nodded. “I mostly let Santana do the captaining. We didn’t kill anyone, I promise.”
Rachel sighed. Quinn reached forward and brushed the brunette’s hair back and gave a hopeful smile.
“I came back for you, Rachel. I’m here now, okay? I’m here and I’m not leaving again. I packed up everything from The Cheerio and told Santana and Brittany to have fun and gave Juliet to Kurt and here I am. I choose you, Rachel. I love the ocean and I love being out at sea but I love you more. I have enough money to make sure we live really well for a long time. You don’t even have to be a housewife, you can keep acting. I’ll buy us a house in the city. I’ll-”
Quinn was cut off by Rachel’s lips on hers and the shorter woman’s arms around her neck.
“Right now,” Rachel said when she pulled away. “I want nothing more than you and me in my bedroom.”
Quinn nodded. “Please God, yes.”
-*-*-*-*-*-
Quinn and Rachel lay in bed tangled together, both still awake when the sun peeked through the window of Rachel’s room above the theater.
“John was still here,” Rachel said after Quinn asked her to tell her about the past year. “Daniel had left the theater and moved on, no one knows exactly where. There was an opening for a female lead and I auditioned with ‘Fare Thee Well’ and a monologue from Romeo and Juliet. I’ve been in so many amazing plays, Quinn. I wish you could have seen all of them.”
“I’ll see plenty,” Quinn said. “I’ll come see you every night.”
Rachel grinned and reached up to kiss the blonde. “You realize that I perform the same play for weeks at a time?”
“Okay so I’ll hide in your dressing room.”
Rachel giggled and snuggled in closer. “What about you? How exactly did you get back to The Cheerio? Santana and Brittany told me they were going to Boston.”
“I managed to drag myself out of the city and I found them sleeping in a shack on the north edge. The trip was…really exhausting. I probably shouldn’t have survived it. Once we got back on The Cheerio I made sure Santana stuck to places we knew really well so we wouldn’t be far from here. After we’d been out there a while and I knew it would be safe I told her to get us to New York and I said my goodbyes yesterday morning.” Quinn held on tighter to her lover and kissed Rachel’s neck.
“You really did give it all up?”
Quinn nodded. “But what I’m getting is so much better.”
“You’re sure about this? People could still recognize you…”
“Rachel, I’m sure. And no one will recognize me. My father is dead. I heard about it in the Carolinas.”
“About a month after…well, after you died,” Rachel whispered. “I heard it from the landlord. His company was absorbed into the East India Company. But what about your mother?”
“Even if I saw her again she won’t say anything. She’s soft.”
“Mmm, now I know where you got it from.”
Quinn scoffed. Rachel giggled and kissed her.
“I love you, Quinn.”
“I love you too.”
Rachel grinned and slipped her fingers between Quinn's, looked up at her lover and smiled.
“If I profane with my unworthiest hand,” the brunette whispered, “This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this: My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.”
Quinn sighed and felt a tear slip down her cheek and she tasted the salt on her lips. Rachel kissed the salty taste away and nuzzled her nose into Quinn’s neck.
“Rachel, I…when I was disowned I thought the ocean would be my life forever. I wanted it to be my life forever. I would have been more than happy to die on The Cheerio. Then…then I had this moment of madness and took a short brunette hostage.”
Rachel playfully hit Quinn’s chest and the blonde giggled.
“The ocean is…dull compared to you, Rachel. I’d rather have uncertainty and excitement with you than the same thing every day.” Quinn looked down into her lover’s eyes and Rachel nervously took her lower lip between her teeth. “You’re my forever now.”
Rachel wrapped her arms tighter around Quinn and held her close. “I think forever has started out pretty good.”
Dark hair. Deep, dark chocolate eyes. A voice that could rival that of an angel’s. All things Quinn Fabray loved about her lover. And about her life. She’d loved Rachel since the moment they recited Shakespeare together. She fell asleep with Rachel in her arms every night in the house she bought and she let her mind drift to her future and she smiled. Life was going to be good.
The End
Shakespeare
-*-*-*-*-*-
And that's a wrap! Thanks to all of you who took the time to read it, I really appreciate it =)
Before you ask, there will NOT be a sequel. Ever. Please don't ask, it'll make Brittany cry. I'm itching to get back to the Puppy-verse and finish up a few other things I've been working on while posting this. Again, thank you!
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: ~2,000 for this chapter; ~27,800 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
Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13
-Chapter 14-
One year later…
Rachel took her final bow on stage and the crowd went wild with applause. She smiled and exited to her dressing room, she was met with a room full of gifts from men who desperately wanted to court her. She declined all of them, of course. Her heart would always belong to Quinn.
No matter how successful Rachel became the void in her heart was never completely filled. When she had first learned that Quinn escaped from the gallows she was ecstatic and she waited that night and the next for the blonde to come find her. She’d first heard the news of Quinn’s death through someone that burst into the boarding house yelling about it. Rachel’s heart immediately sank and she’d run to the docks but saw no sign of The Cheerio. When she returned to the boarding house she was met with Brittany and an inconsolable Santana in her room. They told her the whole story and then went on their way, Rachel hadn’t seen or heard from them since.
The gossip all over the city was the same over the next few weeks. The pirate that had evaded the British navy on the seas and the army on land had been shot and killed, her body taken away and buried. Rachel was more than devastated; she didn’t leave her room for weeks. When she did finally leave she landed a part in the theater and in the months that followed, her friends and fellow actors had tried to set her up with suitable partners but Rachel refused, stating her heart belonged elsewhere.
Rachel looked around her dressing room at the typical gifts, they were the same every night: dresses, flowers, books, fine jewelry. However, this night, something caught her eye. A plain wrapped package with flowing, familiar handwriting reading “Rachel Berry” on it was placed on a table. Rachel stared down at the writing on the packaging and tried to remember where she’d seen it. When memories of a ship and a desk and charts on that desk flooded her mind she felt her heart stop.
“It can’t be,” Rachel whispered when she traced her fingertips over the ink. It smudged, the ink was fresh. She carefully tugged the paper off and a leather bound and covered book was revealed. She opened the front cover to see William Shakespeare’s signature.
“You know,” a voice said from behind her, “I’m thinking that loud mouth of yours is actually kind of a gift because even though I was hiding in the balcony I could still hear you. And you were magnificent tonight, Rachel.”
“Quinn,” Rachel whispered, still looking down at the book. “This is impossible.”
“Not really.”
Rachel turned around and Quinn emerged from the shadow of the corner where the candle light didn’t reach. “Are you ghost? I…I sometimes can see ghosts…”
“I’m not a ghost, Rachel.”
“But how…They said they caught you after you escaped. Everyone in the entire city was talking about it! They said they caught you and you were sh-shot! Brittany and Santana! They were here, they told me! They saw it! They saw you die!”
Quinn pulled down the shoulder of her shirt, there was a perfectly round scar just under the right side of her collarbone. Rachel gasped and Quinn smiled. She dug in her pocket and pulled out a round silvery ball. She tossed it up in the air and caught it with a smirk.
Quinn didn’t remember anything until she woke up on a hard table. There was a searing pain in her shoulder and she immediately vomited. When she felt she could stand she got up and looked at her surroundings. She noticed blacksmith tools and a man passed out on a chair in the corner, a bottle of rum in his hand. Quinn looked down at her shoulder, the blood had stopped flowing out but she knew the bullet was still in there. She rummaged around for something, anything, to try and pull the bullet out and she finally found a small knife resting near some other tools. She stuck it in the fire for a few seconds to clean it, like she’d been taught after a crew member had been shot when Sylvester was still captain. Quinn was at least thankful for that lesson.
The captain sat down on the ground and clamped her jaw shut when she pushed the end of the knife into the hole just underneath her collarbone. She felt it hit the small bullet and then closed her eyes and pried it out all the while trying not to scream. The ball hit the ground and Quinn vomited again. The blood started oozing out and she pressed her hand against it but it was no use. The blood came faster. She looked around and her eyes landed on the handle of what looked like a knife in the making that was sitting in the hot coals of another fire. The glowing metal on her skin was almost unbearable but she didn’t let go until the bleeding stopped. She dropped the knife back into the fire and vomited yet again.
Rachel’s mouth gaped open and the color drained from her face.
“It hurt…God, it hurt, Rachel. But I knew if I could survive it then I could see you again. I wrote in his log book that I’d been taken to an unmarked grave and then I left.”
Rachel dropped the book back on the table and took a few steps closer to the captain. Quinn smiled and reached toward her but was met with a smack to the face.
“Not sure I deserved that,” Quinn mumbled. She rubbed the sting on her cheek.
“How could you do this to me?!” Rachel shrieked. “You…how could you?! Why didn’t you come find me? I would have helped you!”
“You had a future and I wasn’t going to subject you to the life of being on the run all the time! If they’d found out I was alive and you were helping me then you would’ve gotten the same punishment! I was protecting you, Rachel!”
Rachel smacked her again. “Why did you wait a year?!”
Quinn rubbed her jaw. “Could you not do that anymore?”
“I think I am entitled to it! I thought you were dead! You should’ve given me a sign, a letter, anything! How do you know I haven’t moved on, hm? What if I’m married?”
“You’re not married.”
Quinn ducked the next swing.
“I could be!”
“Where’s your wedding ring?” Quinn reached out and took Rachel’s left hand. The brunette tried to pull it back but Quinn held on tight and kissed Rachel’s bare ring finger.
“You can’t just waltz back into my life and expect me to…I mean…you let me think you were dead! I can’t just forgive that.”
“You can forgive my past as a bloodthirsty murderer but you can’t forgive me for laying low for a year to ensure my safety?”
Rachel crossed her arms over her chest. “You could have come to me!”
“I told you, I couldn’t do that to you, Rachel. I couldn’t bear the thought of you facing the same fate as me if we were caught. I wanted to…so many times I wanted to write you a letter but I couldn’t risk it. Santana…”
“So you were on The Cheerio?” Rachel cut her off.
Quinn nodded. “I mostly let Santana do the captaining. We didn’t kill anyone, I promise.”
Rachel sighed. Quinn reached forward and brushed the brunette’s hair back and gave a hopeful smile.
“I came back for you, Rachel. I’m here now, okay? I’m here and I’m not leaving again. I packed up everything from The Cheerio and told Santana and Brittany to have fun and gave Juliet to Kurt and here I am. I choose you, Rachel. I love the ocean and I love being out at sea but I love you more. I have enough money to make sure we live really well for a long time. You don’t even have to be a housewife, you can keep acting. I’ll buy us a house in the city. I’ll-”
Quinn was cut off by Rachel’s lips on hers and the shorter woman’s arms around her neck.
“Right now,” Rachel said when she pulled away. “I want nothing more than you and me in my bedroom.”
Quinn nodded. “Please God, yes.”
-*-*-*-*-*-
Quinn and Rachel lay in bed tangled together, both still awake when the sun peeked through the window of Rachel’s room above the theater.
“John was still here,” Rachel said after Quinn asked her to tell her about the past year. “Daniel had left the theater and moved on, no one knows exactly where. There was an opening for a female lead and I auditioned with ‘Fare Thee Well’ and a monologue from Romeo and Juliet. I’ve been in so many amazing plays, Quinn. I wish you could have seen all of them.”
“I’ll see plenty,” Quinn said. “I’ll come see you every night.”
Rachel grinned and reached up to kiss the blonde. “You realize that I perform the same play for weeks at a time?”
“Okay so I’ll hide in your dressing room.”
Rachel giggled and snuggled in closer. “What about you? How exactly did you get back to The Cheerio? Santana and Brittany told me they were going to Boston.”
“I managed to drag myself out of the city and I found them sleeping in a shack on the north edge. The trip was…really exhausting. I probably shouldn’t have survived it. Once we got back on The Cheerio I made sure Santana stuck to places we knew really well so we wouldn’t be far from here. After we’d been out there a while and I knew it would be safe I told her to get us to New York and I said my goodbyes yesterday morning.” Quinn held on tighter to her lover and kissed Rachel’s neck.
“You really did give it all up?”
Quinn nodded. “But what I’m getting is so much better.”
“You’re sure about this? People could still recognize you…”
“Rachel, I’m sure. And no one will recognize me. My father is dead. I heard about it in the Carolinas.”
“About a month after…well, after you died,” Rachel whispered. “I heard it from the landlord. His company was absorbed into the East India Company. But what about your mother?”
“Even if I saw her again she won’t say anything. She’s soft.”
“Mmm, now I know where you got it from.”
Quinn scoffed. Rachel giggled and kissed her.
“I love you, Quinn.”
“I love you too.”
Rachel grinned and slipped her fingers between Quinn's, looked up at her lover and smiled.
“If I profane with my unworthiest hand,” the brunette whispered, “This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this: My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.”
Quinn sighed and felt a tear slip down her cheek and she tasted the salt on her lips. Rachel kissed the salty taste away and nuzzled her nose into Quinn’s neck.
“Rachel, I…when I was disowned I thought the ocean would be my life forever. I wanted it to be my life forever. I would have been more than happy to die on The Cheerio. Then…then I had this moment of madness and took a short brunette hostage.”
Rachel playfully hit Quinn’s chest and the blonde giggled.
“The ocean is…dull compared to you, Rachel. I’d rather have uncertainty and excitement with you than the same thing every day.” Quinn looked down into her lover’s eyes and Rachel nervously took her lower lip between her teeth. “You’re my forever now.”
Rachel wrapped her arms tighter around Quinn and held her close. “I think forever has started out pretty good.”
Dark hair. Deep, dark chocolate eyes. A voice that could rival that of an angel’s. All things Quinn Fabray loved about her lover. And about her life. She’d loved Rachel since the moment they recited Shakespeare together. She fell asleep with Rachel in her arms every night in the house she bought and she let her mind drift to her future and she smiled. Life was going to be good.
The End
Shakespeare
-*-*-*-*-*-
And that's a wrap! Thanks to all of you who took the time to read it, I really appreciate it =)
Before you ask, there will NOT be a sequel. Ever. Please don't ask, it'll make Brittany cry. I'm itching to get back to the Puppy-verse and finish up a few other things I've been working on while posting this. Again, thank you!