Mothers, Be Good to Your Daughter
Title: Mothers, Be Good to Your Daughter
Pairings/Characters: Rachel/Brittany/Santana, brief Rachel/Finn, Quinn, Puck
Rating: PG-13
Length: ~3,900
Summary: When Quinn shows up at Rachel's doorstep and asks her to babysit, Rachel has no idea that it will change everything.
Author's Note: Something a little different than usual. Hope you like =) Also, Quinn didn't give up Beth and her parents didn't split up. Special thanks to my beta, faithlessfate and unintentional beta, dramatricks =D
Beth Charlotte Fabray is three months, two weeks and five days old.
Rachel practically skips to the front door, curious as to who could be knocking at one in the afternoon. She thought she made it very clear on her MySpace page that she was busy for the remainder of the week, preparing for school to start, but obviously someone had ignored her notes. Again. She opens the door to find a very tired-looking blonde holding a very fussy baby and a heavy looking diaper bag.
“Rachel, I really need a babysitter.”
“Quinn…”
“Please,” the blonde begs, tears forming in her eyes. “Please. I really need you to take her. You…you’re the only one that can right now. Just for today, please.”
Rachel finds herself nodding and reaching for the infant and the diaper bag. Beth settles her head on Rachel’s shoulder and Quinn leans in to kiss the baby’s temple and whisper a goodbye. There’s an odd tingling running up the brunette’s spine and she has a bad feeling about this, but she doesn’t say anything as Quinn hops in her car and leaves. She takes Beth to the living room and settles her on the floor. They play and giggle and coo all afternoon. Rachel fixes her a bottle and Beth is asleep when her dads get home. When it gets to be eight in the evening, Rachel starts to worry. She picks up her phone to call Quinn and the answer she gets - three times - makes her a little sick to her stomach.
We’re sorry, the number you dialed is not in service. Please hang up and try your call again.
She knows none of the other glee clubbers will be able to help her, there’s a schedule tacked on her bulletin board telling her when they’re coming back from vacation and while the closest are Santana and Brittany, they won’t be home until the next day. The Fabray’s number is unlisted in the phone book, Rachel finds out, so she rocks Beth to sleep in the recliner in the living room. Her dads rummage around in the basement and pull up Rachel’s shrink-wrapped playpen for Beth to sleep in for the night.
Rachel tries to call again in the morning and again, she gets the same operator’s voice. She realizes that the diaper bag is packed with enough formula and diapers to last at least a few days, if not longer. It’s after lunch when she calls Santana.
“How the hell did you get my number, Berry?”
“That’s not important. I need to find Quinn, do you have any idea where she might be?”
“Seriously? I’m hanging up.”
“Santana, please!”
“You really don’t know?”
“Know what?”
“Her parents shipped her out to live with her dad’s family in Texas. She left yesterday, Captain Oblivious. God, I’ve been gone for three weeks and even I knew that.”
Beth chooses that moment to start crying and Rachel groans as she pins her phone between her ear and her shoulder to pick up the screaming infant.
“Whoa, wait a minute, Treasure Trail. Is that Beth? What the hell?”
“Yes, Santana. Quinn left her. With me.”
“She told me she found someone to take her…”
“Obviously.”
Rachel roots around in the diaper bag and when her hand hits something unfamiliar she furrows her brow and fishes it out, holding an envelope with her own name scrawled on the front in Quinn’s handwriting.
“I’ll call you back, Santana.”
Rachel,
I’m so sorry. I couldn’t think of anyone else…please, please just make sure she gets a good home. Don’t tell my parents, they’ll just turn her into another clone. I trust you with her more than anyone.
Rachel stares at the letter and re-reads it several times until the words are memorized. A knock at the door is the only thing that stops her from reading it again. On the other side are the two people she least expected.
“Santana, Brittany. Come in.”
Santana nods and steps inside quietly. Brittany, clutching the Latina’s hand, follows close behind.
“She really left her?”
“It seems that way.”
“What are you gonna do?”
Brittany worries her lower lip between her teeth and looks like she’s about to cry.
“I don’t know.”
-*-*-*-*-*-
Beth Charlotte Fabray is four months old.
“Rachel, you can’t just quit!”
“I have to,” Rachel shuts her locker and looks up apologetically at her boyfriend.
“The agreement with my dads was that I would help out. I need a job and being in glee club will minimize the hours I can work.”
“Why did you keep her? It’s been like a week and a half, aren’t you gonna give her up?”
“We’ve been over this. I’m not giving her up to some strange couple.”
“Quinn hated you, why are you doing this?”
“Because, Finn, no one will ever love that little girl as much as all of us. Are you in this or not?”
“I’m not ready for this.”
“I wasn’t ready for her to be dropped at my doorstep but it appears as though I have more, pardon my language, balls than you do. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a job interview at the mall.”
-*-*-*-*-*-
Beth Charlotte Fabray is one year, one month, two weeks, and three days old.
Rachel smiles and coos at the toddler making her way around the coffee table. Beth is incredibly close to walking on her own and Rachel has her video camera ready. She has a rare day off from working at Bath and Body Works and she’s determined to spend every moment of it with Beth.
The guest room upstairs now houses a crib, changing table, a toy box and the dresser is full of baby clothes. Unfortunately, the enthusiasm the glee club once showed for coming together to raise the little girl has diminished to almost nothing. Puck, Santana and Brittany are the only ones that still help.
Beth squeals when Puck walks into Rachel’s living room, hands shoved in his pockets and staring at the floor.
“I’m moving,” he mumbles. “My grandma got sick so my mom is moving us to Florida.”
Rachel can only nod and her mind immediately goes to the calendar she has upstairs and how she can find another babysitter. When Santana and Brittany find out, they quit the Cheerios and practically move into the Berry house. Rachel isn’t freaked out or uncomfortable the first time she is trapped between Brittany and Santana in bed at night. It works. They love Beth and because of learning to work together to figure out how to raise this girl, they fall for each other. Yes, the relationship is sudden and a little unaccepted in Lima, Ohio but they can’t figure out an alternative. There is no alternative. Not one they want to consider. The parents are all a little skeptical but they know there isn’t much they can say. The three stand with their hands clasped together and one of them holding Beth and none of the adults say much beyond “we’re here if you need us”.
-*-*-*-*-*-
Beth Charlotte Fabray is one year, eight months, one week, and six days old.
“Move, Rachel,” Santana growls as she drags a pink duffel bag into the apartment. “This thing is heavy.”
“We have too much - ow, Brittany, your elbows are sharp - stuff. We have to cut down.”
They’re in Cincinnati. Rachel and Santana graduated a semester early, Brittany has her GED. Their apartment is a little small - two bedrooms, one bathroom - but it’s the best Rachel’s dads could offer them in the apartment building they own. They live rent free, thankfully, which allows them to be a little freer financially, making sure Beth gets the best of everything. Once they finally get down to a reasonable amount of furniture, the real fun begins.
Rachel watches Beth in the early morning and gets the girl’s breakfast ready while Santana works a shift at Starbucks and Brittany walks their neighbors’ dogs. In the afternoons, Rachel takes classes at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (on musical and academic scholarship), Santana works in her metal shop which is essentially just an abandoned shed on the apartment property (it had come as a shock to Rachel when she walked in on the girl welding sheet metal into absolutely beautiful sculptures one afternoon and she demanded that the Latina pursue her passion. Santana sold two of them during the summer for decent profits), and Brittany takes care of Beth. Rachel goes from class to her job on campus for the evening while Santana takes Beth and Brittany teaches night classes at a dance academy.
It’s hectic and they rarely have a day for the four of them to spend together but it works and they know that in the long run, it will be worth it. Even on days when they’re exhausted and frustrated, none of them regret the decision to take that baby girl and make her feel as loved as possible.
-*-*-*-*-*-
Beth Charlotte Fabray is four years, six months old.
Rachel is frantically searching the living room for Beth’s left shoe when there’s a sharp knock on the front door. Beth is perched happily on the couch watching cartoons and Rachel dashes to the door, panting as she flings it open.
“Quinn…”
Quinn looks different, Rachel notices right away. She looks healthier than the last time the brunette laid eyes on her, her hair has grown out a little bit more and there’s a genuine smile on her face. Rachel jars a bit when a tiny body collides with her leg and holds on tight. Quinn’s smile falls as she looks down at the girl.
“You kept her?”
Rachel nods. “I did.”
“Rach, who is it?”
“Brittany?” Quinn’s eyebrows wrinkle.
“Rach! I found the other shoe!”
“S-Santana?”
Rachel nods at both of Quinn’s questions. Brittany comes bouncing into the living room holding said shoe in one hand and Santana’s hand in the other. The bounce stops when she sees the visitor in the doorway.
“What the hell do you want?”
“Santana,” Rachel reprimands the Latina, “not in front of Beth.”
Beth reaches up for Santana and the young woman obliges her request. They move out of the way enough for Quinn to come in and sit down, then they start from the beginning, from the day Quinn left. They tell her about Rachel quitting glee club, Puck leaving, Santana and Brittany quitting Cheerios, falling in love, graduating and moving.
“You’re all...together?”
They nod.
“It was difficult not to fall in love with them,” Rachel sighs happily.
“I told you to give her up.”
“You told me you trusted me.”
Brittany takes Beth to her bedroom when Quinn drops the bomb that she wants to be involved in the young girl's life since she has the chance. Rachel holds Santana back as she growls at the blonde and spits hateful things at her.
“You abandoned her, you piece of trash!”
“I didn’t have a choice!”
“Did you ever think to tell your parents to fuck off and come to us?”
“I didn’t…”
“There’s always a choice, Fabray.”
“I want my daughter back.”
“You’ll have to fight for her.”
Two social workers show up four days later and hand the three women a court summons. Brittany sobs in the bedroom in Santana’s arms as Rachel packs a small bag with a social services representative watching her every move while another sits in the living room and talks to Beth. Rachel does her best not to cry as she packs the little girl’s stuffed bunny and her pink toothbrush.
Brittany somehow gets out of Santana’s embrace and races through the apartment as the social services agents are leading Beth out the front door with her bag. It takes Rachel and Santana to hold the older blonde back and to cradle her fall as she collapses on the floor and begs for them to come back with her baby girl.
-*-*-*-*-*-
Beth Charlotte Fabray is four years, nine months, and three days old.
“Court is now in session. Fabray versus Berry, concerning the matter of custody of a minor child.”
Quinn shoots venom from her lips as she says things that make Rachel cower into Santana’s arms. She cites that Beth shouldn’t be raised by three perverts going against the will of God not only in being all women but there being three of them in the relationship. She has research findings and articles to say that children raised in polyamorous relationships aren’t well adjusted and that she and her parents are more than ready and willing to take Beth from the foster home she’s in.
Rachel regains her composure to present a copy of the letter Quinn wrote specifically asking her not to tell her parents and she says Quinn is easily influenced, as was obvious by the two contradictory views on her parents. She reminds the judge that Quinn abandoned her daughter and that the three were the only ones that loved the girl enough to stick with her. When questioned about Puck, Rachel shrugs. They haven’t seen or heard from him since the day he moved.
It takes two days of witnesses, childcare experts, psychologists, and pediatricians for the verdict.
-*-*-*-*-*-
Beth Pierce Berry-Lopez is five years, three months, and two weeks old.
“Are you sure you have all of your pencils?” Rachel checks the girl’s backpack again.
“I got ‘em Mama.”
“Remember what I told you,” Santana says as she straightens out the purple argyle sweater vest and white blouse.
“If anybody picks on me I tell ‘em my Mami will take care of 'am!”
“That’s my girl.”
Brittany hands over the bright pink lunch box and sniffles a few times. “It’s your favorite. Peanut butter and strawberry jelly.”
Beth grins and hugs the tall blonde’s legs. “Thank you, Mom.”
They pick her up that afternoon and Rachel looks worriedly at a blonde parked in a car across the street. Santana growls. Brittany picks up Beth and swings her around as the little girl rattles on about her day.
“Leave her be,” Rachel whispers as Santana steps off the curb, a hand on her arm.
“She’s stalking my daughter.”
“It’ll be okay, San.”
Beth squeals happily as Brittany hands her off to Santana and the tiny blonde continues going on about her day and all of the kids she met. She tells her mothers about telling everyone that her Mama is the best singer in the whole world, her Mami makes her pretty things, and her Mom is a better dancer than those people on TV. The three women smile and hope that the events of the last year will slip from her mind as they try to fill her life with as many happy memories as possible.
-*-*-*-*-*-
Beth Pierce Berry-Lopez is eighteen years, three weeks old.
“It’s still a rip-off. That teacher was going too hard on her.”
“Santana, she got a B in AP Chemistry; that demotes her from valedictorian to salutatorian and we should still be proud of her.”
“Of course I’m freakin’ proud of her. But that teacher was a total ass. If you didn’t tell me you’d withhold I would’ve gone down there and-“
“There she is!”
The conversation effectively stops when Rachel, Santana, and Brittany see their baby girl walk up on stage to take her place in the salutatorian’s chair. The girl waves to them and the three wave back; Rachel snaps a picture with each of the three cameras she has, Santana whistles, and Brittany whines because the screen on the video camera is black until Santana takes the lens cap off. They yell and whistle when Beth gets her medal and shakes the superintendent’s hand and the girl smiles and again waves to her mothers.
The four are walking out of the gymnasium when Rachel sees her. It’s not the first time since Beth started kindergarten. She was there when Rachel walked Beth out of Hebrew school one evening, when Brittany brought her home from dance class, and when Santana took Beth to her first art gallery exhibit opening. She was there, watching from a distance. She never approached them, never spoke, and never stuck around long enough to get more than a glance.
This time, though, is different. Quinn locks eyes with Rachel and takes a few steps forward through the crowd. Rachel panics, knowing Santana speculated that they would catch a glimpse of the woman today, and clearly stated she wasn’t above taking her down in the middle of the crowd despite their daughter’s wishes. This is a big moment, though. Rachel knows when Santana sees her because the Latina straightens up and grips onto Beth’s shoulders. Brittany takes Rachel’s hand and they wait.
-*-*-*-*-*-
Beth Pierce Berry-Lopez is seventeen years, eight months, and four days old.
“Moms?”
Rachel is on the couch, in the middle, with Brittany’s head on her lap and snuggled into Santana’s side. There’s a rerun of Desperate Housewives on TV but it can wait. Rachel sees the look in Beth’s eyes that tells her that this is important. More important than the first time she asked to go on a date, more important than when she asked where babies come from, and on the same level as the days the three had to explain where Beth came from. Each time was more detailed, more revealing.
Brittany straightens up and Rachel gets up to sit on the coffee table so Beth can take the place between Santana and Brittany. The short brunette glances at the two older women and takes a deep breath.
“What’s up, kiddo?” Santana asks, wrapping an arm around her daughter’s shoulders.
“Qu-Quinn will probably show up at graduation, won’t she?”
Santana purses her lips and Rachel gives her the warning look to be nice.
“It is a distinct possibility.”
“She’ll stay the hell away if I have anything to do with it.”
“I…I don’t want her to stay away.”
Rachel and Santana expect it. Brittany doesn’t and the other two see it on her face. Her blue eyes go wide and her eyebrows furrow. She bites her lower lip and clasps her hands in her lap.
“Why, Bug?” the older blonde asks softly.
“I just want to see her. Just once.”
The three nod a little and Beth hugs them before bouncing to her bedroom to do homework. It takes a lot of cuddling and a lot of reassurance to Brittany to make sure she knows that Beth is theirs and always will be.
-*-*-*-*-*-
Beth’s face is ice cold when Quinn walks up to them. Rachel sees Santana glance at their daughter and gasp a little. She’s apparently picked it up and perfected it from the Latina. Quinn stands there for a few moments to let the crowd thin out a bit and things quiet down. Rachel straightens up and adjusts her heart necklace with “Mama” engraved on it; it matches the ones Brittany and Santana are wearing with “Mom” and “Mami” engraved, respectively.
“Hi,” Quinn finally breathes.
Beth only gives a curt nod. Quinn digs through her purse and pulls out an envelope with Beth’s name on it. It’s a card, obviously, and Beth looks disinterested as she opens it. It’s long and skinny with “Congratulations” in raised, silver letters on the front. It opens horizontally and Rachel takes a quick glance inside and she has to hold in a gasp.
“It should pay for a semester or two,” Quinn says. “Sorry it can’t be more but-“
Quinn is cut off by a very distinct sound that makes Rachel proud, Santana smirk, and Brittany gasp. Beth hands back the card and check, now in half, and folds her arms over her chest.
“I’m more than ready for that.”
Santana straightens out her polo with the Northwestern logo embroidered on it. Rachel smiles at the image of Beth’s acceptance and scholarship letters framed and hanging next to her senior portrait above their TV. They could have handled her college education, yes; all three incomes plus help from Beth’s three sets of grandparents would’ve seen her all the way through, but she’d gotten four academic scholarships and was determined to do it on her own.
“Beth…”
Beth shakes her head. “I don’t know what you want from me and quite honestly, I don’t care. You don’t get to come here and pretend like everything is fine. You don’t get to come here after trying to rip me away from the women who love me the most after you gave me up and try to buy me off.”
Santana nods, still smirking.
“I’m your mo-“
“Not even close,” Beth growls. “I’ve been waiting since the day I walked out of that courtroom to tell you this. That woman, my Mom,” she says, pointing to Brittany, “screamed and cried the day social services came to get me when you sued for custody. You accusing them of what you did was deplorable. That sound? That is what I remember about you. Because of you, I will never forget that sound.”
Brittany whimpers and lets go of Rachel’s hand to take Beth’s.
“My Mami? She would kill for me. She almost did when my first boyfriend broke my heart and the first time I ever got picked on. I saw her cry one time and it was because of you. It was the day I came home from that foster place.”
“I had allergies,” Santana mumbles, gripping a little tighter to Beth’s shoulders.
“My Mama doesn’t care that I’m tone deaf and can’t carry a tune in a bucket with a lid. She does care that I’m around. She loves me and she’s the reason I’m loved. These women are my mothers. Not you. Not now, not ever.”
“Well,” Quinn straightens up her shoulders and Rachel can’t help but smile on the inside at her wounded look, knowing she’d lost. “I wish you luck.”
The only sound from Beth is an affirmative noise before she turns around and hands her cap to Rachel to tuck a few stray hairs back before slipping the cap on again. Rachel watches out of the corner of her eye as Quinn walks away, turning back just as Beth finds some of her friends and Santana starts taking pictures. One is framed and added to their shelf and a copy is sent with Beth to Northwestern. Beth stands between Brittany and Rachel with Santana to Brittany’s side and Beth wears a wide grin as she grips her mothers close.
Rachel looks at the picture every now and then and she smiles. Inevitably, Santana always chooses that moment to come in from her metal shop to wrap her arms around Rachel’s waist and press a kiss to the back of her neck. It only takes a few minutes before Brittany (who has a sixth sense about anyone snuggling without her) bounces in to wrap her arms around them both and sigh happily. They’re moving to the bedroom when there’s a few loud bangs on the front door followed by the yell of their daughter that she has bags of laundry and Northwestern gear. There are promises of time for themselves later before rushing to the front door to greet Beth for her first weekend home from college. Their baby girl walks through the door with her bag and a huge smile and hugs her mothers. For the umpteenth time, and most definitely not the last, they greet the blonde with open hearts and open arms and they tell her how much they love her and welcome her home.
Pairings/Characters: Rachel/Brittany/Santana, brief Rachel/Finn, Quinn, Puck
Rating: PG-13
Length: ~3,900
Summary: When Quinn shows up at Rachel's doorstep and asks her to babysit, Rachel has no idea that it will change everything.
Author's Note: Something a little different than usual. Hope you like =) Also, Quinn didn't give up Beth and her parents didn't split up. Special thanks to my beta, faithlessfate and unintentional beta, dramatricks =D
Beth Charlotte Fabray is three months, two weeks and five days old.
Rachel practically skips to the front door, curious as to who could be knocking at one in the afternoon. She thought she made it very clear on her MySpace page that she was busy for the remainder of the week, preparing for school to start, but obviously someone had ignored her notes. Again. She opens the door to find a very tired-looking blonde holding a very fussy baby and a heavy looking diaper bag.
“Rachel, I really need a babysitter.”
“Quinn…”
“Please,” the blonde begs, tears forming in her eyes. “Please. I really need you to take her. You…you’re the only one that can right now. Just for today, please.”
Rachel finds herself nodding and reaching for the infant and the diaper bag. Beth settles her head on Rachel’s shoulder and Quinn leans in to kiss the baby’s temple and whisper a goodbye. There’s an odd tingling running up the brunette’s spine and she has a bad feeling about this, but she doesn’t say anything as Quinn hops in her car and leaves. She takes Beth to the living room and settles her on the floor. They play and giggle and coo all afternoon. Rachel fixes her a bottle and Beth is asleep when her dads get home. When it gets to be eight in the evening, Rachel starts to worry. She picks up her phone to call Quinn and the answer she gets - three times - makes her a little sick to her stomach.
We’re sorry, the number you dialed is not in service. Please hang up and try your call again.
She knows none of the other glee clubbers will be able to help her, there’s a schedule tacked on her bulletin board telling her when they’re coming back from vacation and while the closest are Santana and Brittany, they won’t be home until the next day. The Fabray’s number is unlisted in the phone book, Rachel finds out, so she rocks Beth to sleep in the recliner in the living room. Her dads rummage around in the basement and pull up Rachel’s shrink-wrapped playpen for Beth to sleep in for the night.
Rachel tries to call again in the morning and again, she gets the same operator’s voice. She realizes that the diaper bag is packed with enough formula and diapers to last at least a few days, if not longer. It’s after lunch when she calls Santana.
“How the hell did you get my number, Berry?”
“That’s not important. I need to find Quinn, do you have any idea where she might be?”
“Seriously? I’m hanging up.”
“Santana, please!”
“You really don’t know?”
“Know what?”
“Her parents shipped her out to live with her dad’s family in Texas. She left yesterday, Captain Oblivious. God, I’ve been gone for three weeks and even I knew that.”
Beth chooses that moment to start crying and Rachel groans as she pins her phone between her ear and her shoulder to pick up the screaming infant.
“Whoa, wait a minute, Treasure Trail. Is that Beth? What the hell?”
“Yes, Santana. Quinn left her. With me.”
“She told me she found someone to take her…”
“Obviously.”
Rachel roots around in the diaper bag and when her hand hits something unfamiliar she furrows her brow and fishes it out, holding an envelope with her own name scrawled on the front in Quinn’s handwriting.
“I’ll call you back, Santana.”
Rachel,
I’m so sorry. I couldn’t think of anyone else…please, please just make sure she gets a good home. Don’t tell my parents, they’ll just turn her into another clone. I trust you with her more than anyone.
Rachel stares at the letter and re-reads it several times until the words are memorized. A knock at the door is the only thing that stops her from reading it again. On the other side are the two people she least expected.
“Santana, Brittany. Come in.”
Santana nods and steps inside quietly. Brittany, clutching the Latina’s hand, follows close behind.
“She really left her?”
“It seems that way.”
“What are you gonna do?”
Brittany worries her lower lip between her teeth and looks like she’s about to cry.
“I don’t know.”
-*-*-*-*-*-
Beth Charlotte Fabray is four months old.
“Rachel, you can’t just quit!”
“I have to,” Rachel shuts her locker and looks up apologetically at her boyfriend.
“The agreement with my dads was that I would help out. I need a job and being in glee club will minimize the hours I can work.”
“Why did you keep her? It’s been like a week and a half, aren’t you gonna give her up?”
“We’ve been over this. I’m not giving her up to some strange couple.”
“Quinn hated you, why are you doing this?”
“Because, Finn, no one will ever love that little girl as much as all of us. Are you in this or not?”
“I’m not ready for this.”
“I wasn’t ready for her to be dropped at my doorstep but it appears as though I have more, pardon my language, balls than you do. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a job interview at the mall.”
-*-*-*-*-*-
Beth Charlotte Fabray is one year, one month, two weeks, and three days old.
Rachel smiles and coos at the toddler making her way around the coffee table. Beth is incredibly close to walking on her own and Rachel has her video camera ready. She has a rare day off from working at Bath and Body Works and she’s determined to spend every moment of it with Beth.
The guest room upstairs now houses a crib, changing table, a toy box and the dresser is full of baby clothes. Unfortunately, the enthusiasm the glee club once showed for coming together to raise the little girl has diminished to almost nothing. Puck, Santana and Brittany are the only ones that still help.
Beth squeals when Puck walks into Rachel’s living room, hands shoved in his pockets and staring at the floor.
“I’m moving,” he mumbles. “My grandma got sick so my mom is moving us to Florida.”
Rachel can only nod and her mind immediately goes to the calendar she has upstairs and how she can find another babysitter. When Santana and Brittany find out, they quit the Cheerios and practically move into the Berry house. Rachel isn’t freaked out or uncomfortable the first time she is trapped between Brittany and Santana in bed at night. It works. They love Beth and because of learning to work together to figure out how to raise this girl, they fall for each other. Yes, the relationship is sudden and a little unaccepted in Lima, Ohio but they can’t figure out an alternative. There is no alternative. Not one they want to consider. The parents are all a little skeptical but they know there isn’t much they can say. The three stand with their hands clasped together and one of them holding Beth and none of the adults say much beyond “we’re here if you need us”.
-*-*-*-*-*-
Beth Charlotte Fabray is one year, eight months, one week, and six days old.
“Move, Rachel,” Santana growls as she drags a pink duffel bag into the apartment. “This thing is heavy.”
“We have too much - ow, Brittany, your elbows are sharp - stuff. We have to cut down.”
They’re in Cincinnati. Rachel and Santana graduated a semester early, Brittany has her GED. Their apartment is a little small - two bedrooms, one bathroom - but it’s the best Rachel’s dads could offer them in the apartment building they own. They live rent free, thankfully, which allows them to be a little freer financially, making sure Beth gets the best of everything. Once they finally get down to a reasonable amount of furniture, the real fun begins.
Rachel watches Beth in the early morning and gets the girl’s breakfast ready while Santana works a shift at Starbucks and Brittany walks their neighbors’ dogs. In the afternoons, Rachel takes classes at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (on musical and academic scholarship), Santana works in her metal shop which is essentially just an abandoned shed on the apartment property (it had come as a shock to Rachel when she walked in on the girl welding sheet metal into absolutely beautiful sculptures one afternoon and she demanded that the Latina pursue her passion. Santana sold two of them during the summer for decent profits), and Brittany takes care of Beth. Rachel goes from class to her job on campus for the evening while Santana takes Beth and Brittany teaches night classes at a dance academy.
It’s hectic and they rarely have a day for the four of them to spend together but it works and they know that in the long run, it will be worth it. Even on days when they’re exhausted and frustrated, none of them regret the decision to take that baby girl and make her feel as loved as possible.
-*-*-*-*-*-
Beth Charlotte Fabray is four years, six months old.
Rachel is frantically searching the living room for Beth’s left shoe when there’s a sharp knock on the front door. Beth is perched happily on the couch watching cartoons and Rachel dashes to the door, panting as she flings it open.
“Quinn…”
Quinn looks different, Rachel notices right away. She looks healthier than the last time the brunette laid eyes on her, her hair has grown out a little bit more and there’s a genuine smile on her face. Rachel jars a bit when a tiny body collides with her leg and holds on tight. Quinn’s smile falls as she looks down at the girl.
“You kept her?”
Rachel nods. “I did.”
“Rach, who is it?”
“Brittany?” Quinn’s eyebrows wrinkle.
“Rach! I found the other shoe!”
“S-Santana?”
Rachel nods at both of Quinn’s questions. Brittany comes bouncing into the living room holding said shoe in one hand and Santana’s hand in the other. The bounce stops when she sees the visitor in the doorway.
“What the hell do you want?”
“Santana,” Rachel reprimands the Latina, “not in front of Beth.”
Beth reaches up for Santana and the young woman obliges her request. They move out of the way enough for Quinn to come in and sit down, then they start from the beginning, from the day Quinn left. They tell her about Rachel quitting glee club, Puck leaving, Santana and Brittany quitting Cheerios, falling in love, graduating and moving.
“You’re all...together?”
They nod.
“It was difficult not to fall in love with them,” Rachel sighs happily.
“I told you to give her up.”
“You told me you trusted me.”
Brittany takes Beth to her bedroom when Quinn drops the bomb that she wants to be involved in the young girl's life since she has the chance. Rachel holds Santana back as she growls at the blonde and spits hateful things at her.
“You abandoned her, you piece of trash!”
“I didn’t have a choice!”
“Did you ever think to tell your parents to fuck off and come to us?”
“I didn’t…”
“There’s always a choice, Fabray.”
“I want my daughter back.”
“You’ll have to fight for her.”
Two social workers show up four days later and hand the three women a court summons. Brittany sobs in the bedroom in Santana’s arms as Rachel packs a small bag with a social services representative watching her every move while another sits in the living room and talks to Beth. Rachel does her best not to cry as she packs the little girl’s stuffed bunny and her pink toothbrush.
Brittany somehow gets out of Santana’s embrace and races through the apartment as the social services agents are leading Beth out the front door with her bag. It takes Rachel and Santana to hold the older blonde back and to cradle her fall as she collapses on the floor and begs for them to come back with her baby girl.
-*-*-*-*-*-
Beth Charlotte Fabray is four years, nine months, and three days old.
“Court is now in session. Fabray versus Berry, concerning the matter of custody of a minor child.”
Quinn shoots venom from her lips as she says things that make Rachel cower into Santana’s arms. She cites that Beth shouldn’t be raised by three perverts going against the will of God not only in being all women but there being three of them in the relationship. She has research findings and articles to say that children raised in polyamorous relationships aren’t well adjusted and that she and her parents are more than ready and willing to take Beth from the foster home she’s in.
Rachel regains her composure to present a copy of the letter Quinn wrote specifically asking her not to tell her parents and she says Quinn is easily influenced, as was obvious by the two contradictory views on her parents. She reminds the judge that Quinn abandoned her daughter and that the three were the only ones that loved the girl enough to stick with her. When questioned about Puck, Rachel shrugs. They haven’t seen or heard from him since the day he moved.
It takes two days of witnesses, childcare experts, psychologists, and pediatricians for the verdict.
-*-*-*-*-*-
Beth Pierce Berry-Lopez is five years, three months, and two weeks old.
“Are you sure you have all of your pencils?” Rachel checks the girl’s backpack again.
“I got ‘em Mama.”
“Remember what I told you,” Santana says as she straightens out the purple argyle sweater vest and white blouse.
“If anybody picks on me I tell ‘em my Mami will take care of 'am!”
“That’s my girl.”
Brittany hands over the bright pink lunch box and sniffles a few times. “It’s your favorite. Peanut butter and strawberry jelly.”
Beth grins and hugs the tall blonde’s legs. “Thank you, Mom.”
They pick her up that afternoon and Rachel looks worriedly at a blonde parked in a car across the street. Santana growls. Brittany picks up Beth and swings her around as the little girl rattles on about her day.
“Leave her be,” Rachel whispers as Santana steps off the curb, a hand on her arm.
“She’s stalking my daughter.”
“It’ll be okay, San.”
Beth squeals happily as Brittany hands her off to Santana and the tiny blonde continues going on about her day and all of the kids she met. She tells her mothers about telling everyone that her Mama is the best singer in the whole world, her Mami makes her pretty things, and her Mom is a better dancer than those people on TV. The three women smile and hope that the events of the last year will slip from her mind as they try to fill her life with as many happy memories as possible.
-*-*-*-*-*-
Beth Pierce Berry-Lopez is eighteen years, three weeks old.
“It’s still a rip-off. That teacher was going too hard on her.”
“Santana, she got a B in AP Chemistry; that demotes her from valedictorian to salutatorian and we should still be proud of her.”
“Of course I’m freakin’ proud of her. But that teacher was a total ass. If you didn’t tell me you’d withhold I would’ve gone down there and-“
“There she is!”
The conversation effectively stops when Rachel, Santana, and Brittany see their baby girl walk up on stage to take her place in the salutatorian’s chair. The girl waves to them and the three wave back; Rachel snaps a picture with each of the three cameras she has, Santana whistles, and Brittany whines because the screen on the video camera is black until Santana takes the lens cap off. They yell and whistle when Beth gets her medal and shakes the superintendent’s hand and the girl smiles and again waves to her mothers.
The four are walking out of the gymnasium when Rachel sees her. It’s not the first time since Beth started kindergarten. She was there when Rachel walked Beth out of Hebrew school one evening, when Brittany brought her home from dance class, and when Santana took Beth to her first art gallery exhibit opening. She was there, watching from a distance. She never approached them, never spoke, and never stuck around long enough to get more than a glance.
This time, though, is different. Quinn locks eyes with Rachel and takes a few steps forward through the crowd. Rachel panics, knowing Santana speculated that they would catch a glimpse of the woman today, and clearly stated she wasn’t above taking her down in the middle of the crowd despite their daughter’s wishes. This is a big moment, though. Rachel knows when Santana sees her because the Latina straightens up and grips onto Beth’s shoulders. Brittany takes Rachel’s hand and they wait.
-*-*-*-*-*-
Beth Pierce Berry-Lopez is seventeen years, eight months, and four days old.
“Moms?”
Rachel is on the couch, in the middle, with Brittany’s head on her lap and snuggled into Santana’s side. There’s a rerun of Desperate Housewives on TV but it can wait. Rachel sees the look in Beth’s eyes that tells her that this is important. More important than the first time she asked to go on a date, more important than when she asked where babies come from, and on the same level as the days the three had to explain where Beth came from. Each time was more detailed, more revealing.
Brittany straightens up and Rachel gets up to sit on the coffee table so Beth can take the place between Santana and Brittany. The short brunette glances at the two older women and takes a deep breath.
“What’s up, kiddo?” Santana asks, wrapping an arm around her daughter’s shoulders.
“Qu-Quinn will probably show up at graduation, won’t she?”
Santana purses her lips and Rachel gives her the warning look to be nice.
“It is a distinct possibility.”
“She’ll stay the hell away if I have anything to do with it.”
“I…I don’t want her to stay away.”
Rachel and Santana expect it. Brittany doesn’t and the other two see it on her face. Her blue eyes go wide and her eyebrows furrow. She bites her lower lip and clasps her hands in her lap.
“Why, Bug?” the older blonde asks softly.
“I just want to see her. Just once.”
The three nod a little and Beth hugs them before bouncing to her bedroom to do homework. It takes a lot of cuddling and a lot of reassurance to Brittany to make sure she knows that Beth is theirs and always will be.
-*-*-*-*-*-
Beth’s face is ice cold when Quinn walks up to them. Rachel sees Santana glance at their daughter and gasp a little. She’s apparently picked it up and perfected it from the Latina. Quinn stands there for a few moments to let the crowd thin out a bit and things quiet down. Rachel straightens up and adjusts her heart necklace with “Mama” engraved on it; it matches the ones Brittany and Santana are wearing with “Mom” and “Mami” engraved, respectively.
“Hi,” Quinn finally breathes.
Beth only gives a curt nod. Quinn digs through her purse and pulls out an envelope with Beth’s name on it. It’s a card, obviously, and Beth looks disinterested as she opens it. It’s long and skinny with “Congratulations” in raised, silver letters on the front. It opens horizontally and Rachel takes a quick glance inside and she has to hold in a gasp.
“It should pay for a semester or two,” Quinn says. “Sorry it can’t be more but-“
Quinn is cut off by a very distinct sound that makes Rachel proud, Santana smirk, and Brittany gasp. Beth hands back the card and check, now in half, and folds her arms over her chest.
“I’m more than ready for that.”
Santana straightens out her polo with the Northwestern logo embroidered on it. Rachel smiles at the image of Beth’s acceptance and scholarship letters framed and hanging next to her senior portrait above their TV. They could have handled her college education, yes; all three incomes plus help from Beth’s three sets of grandparents would’ve seen her all the way through, but she’d gotten four academic scholarships and was determined to do it on her own.
“Beth…”
Beth shakes her head. “I don’t know what you want from me and quite honestly, I don’t care. You don’t get to come here and pretend like everything is fine. You don’t get to come here after trying to rip me away from the women who love me the most after you gave me up and try to buy me off.”
Santana nods, still smirking.
“I’m your mo-“
“Not even close,” Beth growls. “I’ve been waiting since the day I walked out of that courtroom to tell you this. That woman, my Mom,” she says, pointing to Brittany, “screamed and cried the day social services came to get me when you sued for custody. You accusing them of what you did was deplorable. That sound? That is what I remember about you. Because of you, I will never forget that sound.”
Brittany whimpers and lets go of Rachel’s hand to take Beth’s.
“My Mami? She would kill for me. She almost did when my first boyfriend broke my heart and the first time I ever got picked on. I saw her cry one time and it was because of you. It was the day I came home from that foster place.”
“I had allergies,” Santana mumbles, gripping a little tighter to Beth’s shoulders.
“My Mama doesn’t care that I’m tone deaf and can’t carry a tune in a bucket with a lid. She does care that I’m around. She loves me and she’s the reason I’m loved. These women are my mothers. Not you. Not now, not ever.”
“Well,” Quinn straightens up her shoulders and Rachel can’t help but smile on the inside at her wounded look, knowing she’d lost. “I wish you luck.”
The only sound from Beth is an affirmative noise before she turns around and hands her cap to Rachel to tuck a few stray hairs back before slipping the cap on again. Rachel watches out of the corner of her eye as Quinn walks away, turning back just as Beth finds some of her friends and Santana starts taking pictures. One is framed and added to their shelf and a copy is sent with Beth to Northwestern. Beth stands between Brittany and Rachel with Santana to Brittany’s side and Beth wears a wide grin as she grips her mothers close.
Rachel looks at the picture every now and then and she smiles. Inevitably, Santana always chooses that moment to come in from her metal shop to wrap her arms around Rachel’s waist and press a kiss to the back of her neck. It only takes a few minutes before Brittany (who has a sixth sense about anyone snuggling without her) bounces in to wrap her arms around them both and sigh happily. They’re moving to the bedroom when there’s a few loud bangs on the front door followed by the yell of their daughter that she has bags of laundry and Northwestern gear. There are promises of time for themselves later before rushing to the front door to greet Beth for her first weekend home from college. Their baby girl walks through the door with her bag and a huge smile and hugs her mothers. For the umpteenth time, and most definitely not the last, they greet the blonde with open hearts and open arms and they tell her how much they love her and welcome her home.