Preceded by:
Puppy | My Girl(s) | Perfection | Decisions | Baby Love
Baby Love 2 | Slushies: The Next Generation | Little Gold Stars
Change | Baby Just Say Yes | (Not Quite) Nine Months
Double Trouble | Bigger is Better | Miracles | The Beginning
Mother's Day | First Date | Sick Day
-February 2025-
Quinn loved Mondays. Mondays were the days Rachel had off and since Quinn was still not working so she could be a stay at home mom it meant that Mondays were their days. The twins were at pre-school from eight in the morning until noon and those four hours were Rachel and Quinn time. At noon they would pick the twins up and go into the city and find something to do for a few hours before they picked Allie up from school then retreat back home for a relaxing afternoon. School holidays that fell on Mondays were especially wonderful because it meant the entire Fabray-Berry clan spent the entire day together.
It was President's Day, there was plenty of snow on the ground and the twins were bouncing off the walls from the time they woke up. The pair sprinted into their mothers' bedroom and landed right on top of a still sleeping Rachel and Quinn. Isabelle's knee dug deep into Rachel's stomach, Olivia's elbow left a nice bruise on Quinn's back.
"Mom, Momma!" Isabelle shrieked as Rachel groaned and tried to catch her breath.
"Yes, baby, what is it?" Quinn yawned.
Isabelle and Olivia quickly snuggled down in between their mothers, Quinn pushed the hair back on the right side of the one that had snuggled up with her and she spotted the absence of the telling freckle that said Isabelle had switched sides and was now snuggled up with her.
"It's snowing, Mom," Olivia whispered.
"Can we go out, please Momma?" Isabelle grinned. "Pretty please?"
"It's too early," Rachel groaned.
"Noooo." Isabelle shook her head and snuggled deeper into Quinn's side. "It's um…um…the little hand's on the um…the seven. An' the big one's on the three."
Quinn turned her head to look at the clock on her wall. It was seven-fifteen. She groaned and kissed the top of her daughter's head.
"Can you sleep for a few more minutes?" Quinn groaned.
"We're too 'cited to sleep!" Olivia insisted. "We wanna go outside!"
"Go tell your big sister," Rachel groaned.
Quinn rolled back over and locked eyes with Rachel who was grinning as Olivia tried to squirm out from underneath the blankets.
"Your mom was kidding," Quinn said. She reached over Isabelle and tugged on Olivia's bright pink pajamas to get her to settle back down. "Just…stay here with us and see if you can sleep a little more, okay?"
Isabelle let out a content sigh and Quinn smiled as the girl closed her eyes. She rubbed her back and soon enough the young girl was breathing deep. Olivia kept squirming until Rachel started to softly sing and in only a few minutes her breathing matched her twin's. Quinn smiled at her wife and kissed Isabelle's forehead before drifting back to sleep.
When the twins woke again Quinn consented that it was an appropriate time to get up. Rachel giggled and whispered something to Olivia and the girl nodded furiously and rolled over to whisper to her twin. Isabelle grinned.
"Can we, Mom?"
"What are you three plotting?"
Olivia giggled. "Mom says we can um…she says we can go wake up Allie."
Quinn rolled her eyes. "Your poor sister…"
Rachel cleared her throat. "Ahem, Momma, I do believe that you are a younger sister and if you attempt to argue with me and tell me that you did none of the things that little sisters do I will be happy to e-mail your sister and find out whether or not you're lying."
"Fine," Quinn sighed. "But don't come crying to me if either one of you ends up with a black eye."
Both twins squealed and Rachel hopped out of bed with them. Quinn followed behind as the three brunettes tiptoed down the hallway to Allie's bedroom door. Rachel quietly opened the door and poked her head in, Isabelle and Olivia did the same just underneath her. Quinn stood back and crossed her arms over her chest and tried not to smile. The blonde watched as Rachel cautiously opened the door and the twins tiptoed across the floor. Allie grunted and shifted, both girls froze until Rachel waved them on again.
Quinn covered her mouth with one hand to stifle a giggle as Olivia snuck around to the far side of Allie's bed and Isabelle cowered on the near side. Rachel waved them on again and both four-year-olds sprung up onto their sister's bed. Allie shrieked, Rachel doubled over in laughter and Quinn rolled her eyes while trying to suppress a giggle.
"You little rugrats!"
"Wake up Allie!"
"Come on! You gotta play in the snow with us!"
"Get up, get up, get up!" Olivia pounced on Allie again.
"Mom! Stop laughing and help me! Momma!"
Quinn giggled. "Okay, leave your sister alone. I think she's awake now."
The little brunettes sprang out of Allie's bed and tore down the hall to the stairway, Rachel was close behind. Quinn smiled as Allie grumbled and flopped back down on her bed.
"Too early," the teen grumbled. "I want pancakes to make up for it."
"Well I guess being a morning person is one thing you didn't pick up from your Mom," Quinn said with a smirk. "Breakfast in a few."
Allie grumbled again and pulled the covers up over her head and Quinn went downstairs to start breakfast. Rachel and the twins were on the couch with cartoons on already, the twins were passing a water bottle to each other and then finally to Rachel.
"Allie wants pancakes for breakfast, any other requests?"
Isabelle gasped and scrambled up off the couch. "I wanna help!"
Quinn chewed her lower lip and nodded, the four year old jumped up and down and skipped to the kitchen. Quinn tied a small apron over the girl's pink footie pajamas and tied her hair back in a loose ponytail. She pulled a stool over to the kitchen counter and Isabelle stood patiently and waited for Quinn to grab everything she needed.
"Okay," Quinn said. She pulled the top off of the flour container and pulled out the half cup measurer and handed it to her daughter. Isabelle eagerly bounced on her stool. "We need two cups of flour. This is half of a cup so we need to fill it four times and dump it in the bowl."
Quinn helped the little brunette count out the cups of flour. By the time she was finished the girl had managed to get flour up her nose and in her hair. She trooped on, though, and Quinn helped her measure out the rest of the ingredients and even let her crack an egg into a bowl. The blonde had to fish out half the shell and eight other tiny shards but she didn't dare throw the egg away. It went straight into the mixing bowl and Quinn could only pray she got out all the shell. Isabelle bounced with pride and Quinn got most of the mixture stirred up and let the little girl finish it off while she preheated the griddle on the stove.
...
"Mom, where do babies come from?"
The drink of water that Rachel had just taken shot out of her nose and the brunette sputtered a little at trying to get rid of the burning sensation. She wasn't shocked at the question itself because she'd had a PowerPoint ready to go ever since they gave Allie the talk, but the abruptness of it.
Olivia was laughing so hard she was holding onto her sides.
"Allie said you'd do that if I asked you."
"So you don't actually want to know? You simply wanted to watch liquid shoot out my nose?"
"Yup," the four-year-old said, turning her attention back to the TV.
Rachel shook her head. "We're in so much trouble," she mumbled as she went to the linen closet to grab a towel. After the water was cleaned up Rachel dropped back to the couch and Olivia snuggled into her side.
"Aunt Brittany is starting new dance classes this summer," Rachel said. "I think you'd like…"
"No."
"But…"
"No."
"Olivia…"
"Shhh! It's almost to the good part!" Olivia pointed at the TV, Jerry was sliding a mouse trap around the house and placed it carefully behind Tom. As expected, the cat's tail landed on the trap and he yelped. Olivia giggled.
"I hope you're aware that such things are not appropriate…"
"I know, Mom." Olivia yawned and snuggled in closer to her mother. "You always say that."
Rachel grinned when Allie started descending the stairs, Dorothy following right behind her. The teen rubbed her eyes and grumbled a "good morning" to her mother and younger sister before dropping onto the floor and curling up on her side. Dorothy curled up right behind her and settled her chin on Allie's hip, the blonde's hand immediately went to the dog's head.
"Allie, Mom made water come outta her nose 'cause I asked where babies come from!"
Allie and Olivia both chuckled, Rachel growled.
"Allison," Rachel said sternly, her rare use of the girl's full name catching the blonde's attention. "You shouldn't teach your sisters these things."
"Oh! No way!" Allie sat up and crossed her arms over her chest. "I believe that a certain brunette mother of mine is the one who encourages said sisters to pounce on me at ungodly hours of the morning when it's supposed to be a vacation day!"
Rachel bit her bottom lip and stifled a giggle. "Fine," she conceded. "SingStar duel later?"
"You're on."
"Mom, you hafta beat her this time," Olivia said, "I don't wanna lose another um…what's the big one?"
"A quarter," Rachel answered. "And you're too young to be gambling and that game isn't an accurate measure of skills."
"Oh it so is," Allie said with a grin. "And you're going down, squirt. Izzy is going to get so rich off of me, especially when I learn to beat Aunt B at DDR."
Before Rachel could retort, Quinn called that breakfast was ready. Allie leapt up off the floor, Olivia scrambled after her. Breakfast was noisy, the twins were arguing over what they were going to do in the snow, Rachel was attempting to diffuse that situation, and Quinn was scolding Allie for dropping pieces of pancake for Dorothy.
Just as Rachel started bundling up the twins, Quinn's phone rang. She took the call while Rachel nestled knit hats on the twins' heads, pink for Isabelle and purple for Olivia. Quinn sighed when she came back into the living room, she grabbed her car keys and shook her head.
"Brittany got her car stuck in the snow, Santana's not answering her phone. I'm going to go pick up her and Joshua and get them back to their place."
Isabelle whined. "Momma, you gotta play in the snow with us."
"I will when I get back, sweetie. Aunt B needs my help right now."
Quinn kissed both of her daughters on the top of the head and pecked Rachel's lips eliciting an "ew gross!" from the twins. Allie came bounding down the stairs and said goodbye to her mother and helped Rachel get the twins shuffled out the door.
The first thing Olivia did was grab a handful of snow and toss it at Allie, the teen retaliated with her own snowball that missed Olivia and pelted Rachel in the head. Rachel shrieked and tried to throw a handful of snow that hit all three girls, Allie doubled over in laughter and Isabelle growled and tossed a carefully crafted snowball at her mother. It ended up with the three girls ganging up against their mother, Rachel screamed how it wasn't fair to have three against one.
Isabelle quickly tired of the snowball fight and started rolling a ball around on the ground, gathering snow and started building a snowman. Rachel finally got Olivia and Allie to stop throwing snow at her to help the four year old who by that time had a ball almost as big as she was. It took Allie and Rachel both to get the remaining two pieces onto the snowman. The head rolled off at one point, almost landing on top of Isabelle who was tackled out of the way by her twin. Once the head was reassembled, Allie ran inside and found a carrot and then into the garage to get charcoal briquettes. Rachel lifted Isabelle up to put in the eyes and nose and then Olivia to put on the mouth.
"Good job, ladies," the older brunette said, standing back to admire their handy work.
The twins high fived and Allie initiated another snowball fight. Rachel ducked out of it and sat on the front step to watch closely. Her phone rang in her pocket and she pulled it out, furrowing her eyebrows at Quinn's number.
"Hey babe, everything okay?"
"Brittany left her apartment keys in her car."
"So…go back to her car to get them?"
"Her car is locked and I left our set of their keys at home. We're trying to track down Santana to get her keys and I have no idea how long it's going to take." Quinn whimpered. "I was really hoping to get to spend the day with you guys."
"You couldn't just leave Brittany and Joshua out in the cold, it's fine. Things are under control here!"
"Ugh, Santana's finally calling. I've got to go, I'll be home as soon as I can. Love you."
"Love you too, Quinn."
As soon as Rachel hung up the phone she was almost tackled by her daughters, each inquiring who was on the phone, when they'd get hot chocolate, and if there was still going to be a SingStar competition.
With mugs of steaming hot chocolate the foursome settled into the living room and Rachel got the SingStar set up.
"I'm still holding out for a Broadway hits version," Rachel said as she untangled the microphones. "Really, it would be excellent vocal training, the pop songs they choose aren't challenging."
"You just hate that you can't beat me," Allie said.
"I can and I will. Today will be the day." Rachel pulled out the 'Greatest Hits' version, the only one with songs she recognized, and put it in the game console.
"Bring it on," Allie said with a smirk as she grabbed her microphone.
Isabelle and Olivia sat on the couch, each with a quarter clasped in their hands, and watched intensely as song after song the scores switched back and forth between Rachel and Allie leading. Rachel chose the only songs she knew over and over again, Allie protested. After the ninth song the scores were thirteen points apart, Rachel in the lead.
"I believe we can call this round," Rachel said, her smile triumphant.
"No way! You only want to quit because you're ahead! We always go fifteen songs!"
"Nine is such a better number."
"No cheating, Mom!" came from Isabelle who was clutching onto her quarter.
"Nuh-uh! Mom wins! Gimme your quarter!"
"No! Allie said they're not done!"
Rachel sighed. "Okay. Okay, fine. Ten songs. But I get to choose the next one."
Allie groaned as Rachel selected "I Wanna Know What Love Is", her go-to when she needed an extra lift in points.
"I hate this song," the blonde mumbled.
"This song is a classic."
"It's cheesy."
"All of the best love songs are. Now, are you ready to be beaten?"
The young blonde snorted and stretched, popping her back and cleared her throat.
Rachel watched the scoreboard more than the screen, she had the lyrics and the notes memorized. When Allie's score started to pass hers she slowly inched over and nudged the blonde. Allie growled, her score stopped moving until she regained her place. She caught up quickly and Rachel scowled.
"Mom?" one of the twins asked softly. Rachel waved a hand at them signaling for them to wait.
"Mom…you gotta stop!"
Rachel waved her hand again, the scores were neck and neck and she was bound and determined to stay on top.
"Mom!"
Just as Olivia shrieked something happened. Sparks shot out of the game console, Rachel screamed, Allie swore and dropped her microphone and started shaking her hand. More sparks shot out and there was a loud popping noise and then smoke.
"What do we do?" Allie yelled. "Do we throw water on it?"
"No!" Rachel shrieked. "It's electronic!" The brunette carefully edged her way around to the back of the entertainment center and flipped the switch on the surge protector to cut off power to the electronics.
"What just happened?" the young blonde asked, panicked.
"You broked it," Olivia stated.
"I…I think that's an understatement," Rachel said, backing away slowly. "Are you okay, Allie?"
The blonde nodded and rubbed her hand a little. "It shocked me."
Rachel looked down at Allie's hand, it was a little red but nothing scarring. She looked at the microphone the girl had been holding and the wire had blown out halfway between the console and the microphone.
All four heads snapped to the kitchen when they heard the door open from the garage. Allie swallowed hard and stepped closer to Rachel. Quinn came in with furrowed eyebrows and looked around at the smoke-filled living room. Her eyes glanced back and forth between Rachel and Allie, the twins, and the smoking game console on the entertainment center shelf. Cautiously, she picked up the microphone that Allie had discarded and stared at it curiously.
"What the hell happened with the SingStar?"
Isabelle and Olivia immediately pointed to Rachel and Allie who looked away to different points on the wall. Quinn turned around and Rachel could feel the blonde's glare on her.
"Well?"
"I think," Rachel said softly, "that you need to be careful with your language around the girls."
"I think I have a right to know why it looks like the house could've been burned down."
"I think it's time for lunch!" Allie said, running toward the kitchen.
"Uh…" Rachel's eyes darted around and she took off after the young blonde, the twins soon following.
"Hey! Get back here!" Quinn scowled. "Rachel! Allison!" The blonde marched into the kitchen to find all four of her girls had disappeared. She walked around the island and there they were, cowering on the kitchen floor.
"Would you like a sandwich, sweetie?" Rachel asked with a grin.
"You're not going to tell me, are you?"
"I think we have turkey," Rachel said with a nod.
"I want mustard on mine," Isabelle said, jumping up to get to the refrigerator.
"Ketchup's better!" Olivia scrambled after her and the pair started grabbing things out of the refrigerator, effectively ending the conversation.
Lunch, unlike breakfast, was silent aside from chewing until Isabelle looked up from her plate with a puzzled look.
"So…who won?"
"I did," came simultaneously from Rachel and Allie.
It prompted an argument between the two, Rachel stating she had been watching the scoreboard and was definitely up by thirty seven points and the twins fighting over a quarter. Quinn buried her face in her hands and shook her head.
"They're going to kill me," she mumbled to herself with a grin.
Quinn still loved Mondays.
