AN-Short little one shot I wrote. If you don't like character death, don't read. Also, if you're anything like me while I was writing it; have tissues ready.
Disclaimer- I don't own Glee or any of these characters except the ones I've created.
She was asleep when it happened. She was dreaming about her wife when she got the call telling her that the same woman was no longer alive. Little did she know, that would be the last time she ever slept peacefully for years.
She cried for months. She cried when she told their teenage son that his mother had died on her way back from a nighttime photo shoot. She didn't try to stop him when he accused her of lying and began destroying the house. She only stopped crying when her son told her that it was time to get out of bed and get back into the real world because it had been 4 months.
She only ever talked about it with Santana and Brittany. When the couple had come to visit her, a week after her wife's death, she clung to them desperately while she poured her heart out. She was thankful when she tried to kiss Santana, that Brittany didn't get mad over that fact that she had kissed her wife- just held her while she cried. "I understand, Rachel." Brittany had said. "You just needed somebody." She talked about her wife's death again, later that night, while she was being rocked to sleep by both Santana and Brittany.
She was angry three years later when her fathers had called and suggested she try dating again. She screamed at them and started pounding her fists into her son's back as he held her and tried to calm her down. She fell asleep in her son's arms as they both cried over their loss.
She had freaked out when she went on a date, six years after her wife's death. She had reluctantly agreed to a date with a man that Brittany worked with at her dance studio because dating a woman would remind her too much of her wife. At the end of the date, when he asked her to come up to his apartment for coffee, she had said yes because the date had almost been fun and he seemed like a decent guy. When he tried to kiss her before she left his apartment, she freaked out. All she could see was her wife, so she pushed him back hard and ran out of the apartment.
Eight years after her wife's death, she felt guilty. Santana had set her up with a woman from her firm and she liked her. The woman –Mikayla, was her name- was funny, kind, and patient. Mikayla understood when she had kissed Rachel for the first time, the girl had cried and started whispering things under her breath about another woman. Mikayla was accepting about Rachel's past, and she understood when sometimes Rachel would say she couldn't be around her because she reminded her of her dead wife. They had been together for almost a year when they made love for the first time. When Mikayla left in the morning, Rachel had felt guilty because she enjoyed it and realized she loved this new woman. She texted Mikayla that she couldn't meet her for lunch as she held onto a picture of her wife and cried herself to sleep.
She felt like she could finally start to move on eleven years after her wife's death when she married Mikayla and became Rachel Fabray-Romano. Mikayla had been a little upset but accepted when Rachel had decided to drop the "Berry" part of her name and keep "Fabray" a part of her, along with adding Mikayla's last name. Rachel had cried tears of joy when Mikayla agreed to take "Fabray" into her name too. She had cleaned out her apartment the day, after their honeymoon in Fiji, with her new wife's help so Mikayla could move her stuff in. Mikayla had held her wife as she sobbed after finding a photo album that her dead wife had made containing only pictures of the two of them throughout their lives.
She feels at peace now on the fifteenth anniversary of her ex-wife's death. Mikayla comes to pick her up from the high school where she works as a music teacher and goes with her to her ex-wife's grave. Her son, Liam Quentin Berry-Fabray, is waiting for her at the grave. Mikayla stands back as she watches Rachel and her son place flowers on the grave as he whispers a few words to the grey stone. He walks over to Mikayla and gives her a hug and a kiss on the cheek as they watch Rachel speaking to the gravestone.
"Quinn, my baby, my angel, I love you so much," She chokes through tears. "I'll never forget you, baby, but it's time to move on. I love Mikayla, I'm sorry, Quinn, I really am, but I love her so much and I think if you met her you would really like her. She's a lot like Santana actually, just less mean," She chuckles. "And she has a kind heart like Brittany, kinder even. I'm sorry that I love another person, but Mikayla makes Liam and I happy and I know that's what you would want. I miss you so much, I do, but I need to move on." She kisses her hand and presses it to the tombstone on the word "Quinn". "I love you, angel, so much. Goodbye, baby."
The family drives home where they wait for Santana and Brittany to come visit with their daughter and Liam's girlfriend, Sophia, like they do every year on this date. Rachel looks to her bookshelf at the picture of her, Mikayla and Liam taken last Christmas and thinks to herself. "I really am happy, Quinn. Rest peacefully, baby."