Author's note: Here's the sequel I promised when I finished my previous story... hope you like it, and sorry it took so long to get started!
Chapter One: New Beginnings
Sometimes, Quinn Fabray felt like she spent half her life behind the wheel of her car. It wasn't that she especially minded driving, in fact, she usually appreciated the time to herself to think. She simply resented the fact that every minute spent commuting, was a minute less she had to spend with Santana. She spent the whole week at school looking forward to her last class getting out at two p.m. on Fridays, so that she could spend the best part of the next two hours on the I-95. She would get to spend two wonderful days with her amazing girlfriend, before repeating the whole journey in reverse at dawn on Monday mornings.
This particular Friday was different though. Finals were over for the fall semester and Quinn was making the eighty mile journey south west from New Haven to New York for the last time. Quinn grinned to herself as she glanced down at the letter on her passenger seat to which she had affixed a big red bow. After much persuasion, Quinn had finally been able to convince her mother to sign the necessary paperwork and hand over her credit card so that Quinn could complete her transfer to Columbia for the spring semester. It had taken two weeks of wrangling, pleading and pouting from Quinn to convince her mom that Columbia was the best place for her to be. Of course, if her mom knew the real reason Quinn was so desperate to transfer, she wouldn't have been in with a chance. Her mom had been reluctant to agree to the transfer in the first place because she didn't approve of Quinn's friends in New York. Only after Quinn had agreed to find an apartment in Manhattan did her mom finally cave in and sign the papers.
Quinn hadn't told Santana that she'd been accepted to Columbia. She'd actually gotten into the school way back at the start of the fall semester, but she and Santana were broken up at the time, and when they got back together in October, Quinn had been reluctant to put too much pressure on the relationship until they were both ready. Over the last month especially, things had never been better between them, and Quinn had finally decided that she needed to get over her anxiety and take the next step. She was planning to give the acceptance letter to Santana as an early Christmas present.
She was heading to New York for the weekend before she, Santana, and Rachel headed back to Lima for the holidays. Kurt and Blaine were flying out to Vale on Sunday for a short skiing vacation with Blaine's family before Christmas, and her friends had decided to have their own Christmas celebration on Saturday. Quinn was looking forward to these festivities much more than the real Christmas in twelve days time, when it would be just her and her mom in their big, cold house.
As she'd had to pack up the entire contents of her dorm room, Quinn had left New Haven later than usual, and darkness had fallen by the time she pulled up outside the rundown apartment building. Snow was falling lightly, but the ground was wet and it hadn't started to stick yet. Quinn texted Santana to let her know that she'd arrived, and started the arduous task of unpacking her car.
When they'd first discussed their Christmas vacation plans and Quinn had decided to drive home to Lima, via New York, she'd asked Santana if she could leave most of her belongings in the apartment. She'd used the excuse of fitting Rachel and Santana plus their luggage into the car, but in truth she wasn't planning to bring her car back to New York after winter break. She wouldn't need it in Manhattan, nor would she have any place to keep it.
By the time she'd traipsed across the slushy sidewalk for the third time to deposit neatly labelled boxes of clothes and books in the foyer, Santana, Rachel, Kurt, and Blaine arrived to help.
"What are you doing?" Santana chastised, without even pausing to say hello. She took the box of books out of Quinn's arms with a glare. "I told you to leave the heavy boxes to us."
Quinn rolled her eyes.
"I'm fine, San," she said with an indulgent sigh. "I know my limits." At the start of the summer, when Quinn had first arrived in New York, she'd overdone the lifting and carrying because she hadn't wanted to let on that she needed help. To all intents and purposes, she was fully recovered from her car accident of almost two years ago, but she knew she still had to be careful. She appreciated Santana's concern, but she hated to be treated like a china doll.
With her friends' help, Quinn's belongings were soon safely ensconced in the apartment, and she managed to sneak the letter from Columbia into the dresser drawer Santana kept clear for her in her sleeping area.
Rachel was in full festive swing, not letting a little thing like being Jewish get in her way of enjoying Christmas traditions as well as Hanukkah ones. She hummed Christmas carols whilst making eggnog, as Quinn curled happily against Santana on the couch, discussing finals with her friends.
"I'm pretty sure I did okay," she said with a shrug. "My classes were all pretty easy this semester."
"Did you decide what you're going to take next semester yet?" Santana asked, after detailing her own plans for the spring semester at NYU, and explaining animatedly about a dance class she hoped to get into that was dependant on her final grades this semester. She entwined her fingers with Quinn's as Quinn rested her head contentedly on her girlfriend's shoulder.
"Not yet," Quinn admitted, with a smile Santana couldn't see. Kurt noticed though and he looked at her with a curious expression.
"I thought you had your heart set on Professor What's-his-name's Shakespeare class?" Santana continued obliviously, her tone making it clear that she thought Quinn's interest in the sixteenth century playwright was just plain weird.
"Maybe," Quinn replied enigmatically. "How about you, Kurt?"
Luckily, Kurt had his ideal spring schedule already planned out and Quinn was able to listen to him rhapsodize until Rachel was finished heating the eggnog at which point the conversation turned to Christmas and Hanukkah plans.
Quinn listened sleepily, without really involving herself in the conversation as Santana stroked her arm gently. Every so often, Santana would kiss her lightly on her forehead, or her cheek, or the back of her hand, and Quinn felt delightful shivers down her spine at the contact. It was all so different than it had been six months earlier. Back then, Quinn couldn't have imagined that she'd be cuddling with Santana in front of her friends. She'd wanted Santana for such a long time, but she'd never quite allowed herself to believe it could happen. As she snuggled up happily against Santana, Quinn's mind drifted back to high school, and she could hardly believe she was the same girl who'd suppressed her true feelings for so long. Back then, a single word or look from Santana was enough to send her into a funk for days.
"Lay off Britt," Santana had admonished the glee club, when Brittany had announced the reason why she didn't want them to sing Britney Spears songs at the start of junior year. Quinn had rolled her eyes at Brittany's absurd reasoning, but Santana, as always, had jumped to her defense. At the time, Quinn had tried to convince herself that she just wanted someone to stand up for her the way Santana protected Brittany, but as the week had gone on, she had felt more and more isolated and depressed.
Then Rachel had chosen to sing that God-awful Paramore song at the end of the week. It had been all Quinn could do to keep from bursting into tears; the lyrics of the song had touched a chord in her and for the briefest of moments she'd allowed herself to admit that the words of the song matched the way she felt for Santana. She'd stared straight ahead, willing herself not to give herself away by looking in Santana's direction; then she'd noticed Puck staring at her and wondered if the truth was somehow written over her face. She'd panicked and locked her feelings away even more deeply inside. Later of course, she'd realized that there was no way Puck could've known what she was thinking – he had the emotional depth of a pencil after all, but she'd still resolved to work harder to keep those feelings at bay.
It was amazing to her now that she'd been able to keep a lid on her true feelings for as long as she did, but then she'd spent most of her high school career simply terrified that everyone would figure out just how much of a fraud she really was. It had been exhausting, and looking back, Quinn had no idea how she'd managed it. Now, she was comfortable in her own skin, and she was happy and proud to be able to admit that she was in love with Santana Lopez.
The only person she couldn't tell the truth to was her mother. If it hadn't been for the fact that her mom now controlled the purse strings allowing her to get an education, Quinn would have told her in a heart beat. Strangely enough, Santana was even more adamant than Quinn that she shouldn't tell her mom. She guessed it was because Santana knew that Quinn's mom would never be able to accept the truth about their relationship. To Santana family was the most important thing in her life, and she didn't want Quinn to lose the little family she had left. Santana knew first hand the heartbreak of losing a family member just because of who she loved.
"Quinn?" Santana had noticed that Quinn was off in her own little world, and was shaking her gently. "You okay, baby?" she asked her softly, her dark eyes tinged with concern. She was used to Quinn getting lost in her thoughts by now, but it didn't stop her from worrying altogether. Their friends were engaged in a lively conversation about what was the best Christmas movie and hadn't noticed Quinn's detachment.
"I'm fine," Quinn replied, brushing her lips lightly across Santana's. "Just thinking about going home for Christmas, that's all. It's going to be hard being away from you at night."
"You can come stay over at my place," Santana promised. "And I'll sneak over to your house after your mom goes to sleep. It'll be romantic, you'll see."
Quinn couldn't help but smile at Santana's optimism.
"I love you," she whispered softly. Then it was Santana's turn to smile. She detangled herself from Quinn and stood up with an exaggerated yawn.
"Quinn's tired," she announced. "We're going to bed." Quinn blushed at her friends amused glances. It was barely nine p.m. and they knew full well that sleep was not what was on Santana's mind. Still, she allowed Santana to pull her up and lead her by the hand into their bedroom. Before Santana let the drapes close, she fixed a stern gaze on Rachel. "Berry, I know that you have the restraint of the average five year old when it comes to the festive season, and we've all agreed to go along with your pre-Christmas Christmas Day celebrations tomorrow, but so help me God, if you wake us up at dawn, I will burn all of your Barbra Streisand memorabilia," she threatened. Rachel, used to Santana's threats by now, merely shrugged angelically and Quinn giggled.
Once they were alone, Santana's mood abruptly changed and she started kissing Quinn as though she hadn't seen her in weeks. With only the briefest twinge of embarrassment that her friends must have known Santana's intentions for their early night, Quinn lost herself in the moment and allowed Santana's hands to wander pleasurably over her body as she quickly divested Quinn of her clothes. Somehow, they managed to keep quiet as they gave themselves to each other, and by the time their desire was sated, the whole apartment was dark, save for the moonlight reflecting on the steadily falling snow outside the window.
"It's after midnight," Quinn murmured, looking at the illuminated numbers on Santana's alarm clock. "Merry Christmas."
Santana groaned.
"Not you too," she complained. "Christmas is over a week away, Q."
Quinn shook her head.
"I want us to celebrate Christmas together," she explained. "You, and the others, you're like my family. I won't get to see any of you on Christmas Day, so tomorrow will have to suffice. It'll be fun, you'll see."
Santana chuckled indulgently but planted a soft kiss against Quinn's lips.
"Merry Christmas, geek," she replied with a sigh. "Now, go to sleep or Santa won't bring you any gifts."
Quinn snuggled down obligingly under the covers and wrapped her arms around Santana. The next few weeks in Lima would be difficult, she had no doubt, but here and now, safe and loved in Santana's embrace, Quinn was happy.