"They're not here yet."
"Who?"
"The string band."
"WHAT!?"
Sam took a few cautious steps back as Santana totally lost her cool. After being carefully selected as the head bridesmaid at her best friends' wedding, Santana had been determined to make sure she arranged everything to perfection. Flowers, catering, venue, music, and the rest. Except now the string quartet she had booked to play Quinn and Rachel down the aisle weren't there. After weeks of planning, something had gone wrong, and now she was about ready to throw down.
"Don't worry, San. A String quartet sounded like a terrible idea anyway. Like, what if they got tangled together and ended up in a knot? Or is that why you booked them? Is that what 'tying the knot' means? Do Quinn and Rachel get to tie the band together?"
Tina placed a gentle hand on Brittany's arm, the universal symbol for "please stop talking", as Santana began to pace muttering under her breath about where someone could "stick that cello".
"You know, we could do it." Mercedes spoke up from her seat across the room. Santana paused and looked towards her.
"Do what? Play the violin? Oh yeah, I forgot about our magical musical powers Wheezy. Thank you so much for bringing that to my attention." Santana spat out her sarcasm, causing Sam to flinch from his safe distance hovering in the doorway. In the background, Brittany carried on rambling to Tina about how long a piece of string band was. Mercedes ignored Santana's sharp tongue and carried on.
"No, dummy. We could sing for them. While they walk down the aisle."
Santana still looked totally unconvinced. Sam spoke up.
"Well, we are a glee club."
"Were. As in, haven't been in years. And even if we did, what would we sing? The wedding march doesn't exactly have lyrics, and we don't have a whole lot of time to figure anything out."
Mercedes rolled her eyes at how stubborn the former Cheerio was being. If they could come up with original songs to perform within days of a competition, she was pretty sure they could select and rehearse something wedding-suitable in the next 10 minutes.
"It's not like we never performed any love songs. If we can just find one that wasn't performed by Rachel-" Mercedes paused to let Santana get her quick bark of laughter and sarcastic "yeah, right." out of the way "-or Quinn, then we can sing it as they walk up the aisle. The whole of New Directions is here today, and so is Mr. Schue. I'm sure we can think of something."
"But...if we were to do it, it would have to be, like, "special"." Santana used air quotes around the word and rolled her eyes as if she didn't believe in romance and hadn't spent half of her life being totally in love with her best friend. Mercedes stood up and walked closer, sensing that Santana was actually starting to click with the idea.
"Right, like something special to Rachel and Quinn. Do you know if they have a song?" Mercedes asked hopefully as Sam, Santana and even Tina and Brittany began to brainstorm for the perfect wedding song.
Thirty seconds of silence later and Santana's face dropped from thoughtful to disappointed. "Well, crap. I have no ideas. I mean, it's not like they figured out they were in love soon enough for them to make any "glee moments" out of it. And if Rachel has her say it's probably some ridiculous old show tune we've never heard of. And Quinn likes all kinds of music. It could be anything." Everyone began to look equally stumped.
"What about a song that summarises their relationship? Maybe something about how perfect they are together after it took them forever to get together because they used to hate each other and fight about the same guy?" Tina's suggestion had started hopeful. By the end Santana and Mercedes were just staring at her with an expression that said "really?".
"Or maybe something about their story?" Sam stepped in, trying to take the heat off Tina. "Like when Rachel and Quinn knew they were in love, like...how did they know?"
"Or we could just-"
Santana's sarcastic and no doubt completely useless suggestion was cut short by Mercedes saying "Wait!"
Everyone looked to Mercedes as she looked towards Santana with a grin, "I've got it!" she said. Then she turned to Sam, "Get Kurt."
"There's a girl, I know. She's the one I dream of..."
Mercedes, Kurt, Santana and Tina stood towards the far end of the aisle facing out towards the rest of the wedding guests. It took little to convince Santana that 'How Will I Know' would be a good choice, and with some switched pronouns and a quick reshuffle of the singing parts, they were ready to perform by the time the string quartet had been scheduled to start. The happy couple had been told about the change and quickly gave the go-ahead, but the guests had been left in the dark, totally unaware until the group had made their way to the front and the guests had fallen quiet.
"Oooh, How will I know?"
Santana had taken over Rachel's part as Tina had agreed to pick up her harmonies. The church was silent except their voices, guests looking on in awe at the wonderful performance.
"How will I know if she really loves me?"
As the first chorus came to an end, the doors towards the back of the church opened and Quinn Fabray began walking down the aisle, slowly, on the arm of Leroy Berry. Several excited gasps rippled around the room. Quinn was the picture of the perfect bride.
"I'm shaking. I wish I had you near me now..."
The acapella performance – now timed with synchronised finger clicks – was slowly leading to a build of tension and excitement that Quinn was only too aware of as she made her way through rows of family and friends to where she would become Mrs. Berry-Fabray. She grinned, trying to resist the urge to laugh out loud. She really couldn't wait.
"If she loves me... If she loves me not!" Quinn arrived at her place just in time to turn towards the door. The timing was impeccable.
"Ohhhh, How will I know!" Santana let the note run as Rahcel Berry appeared in the arched entryway. A second set of gasps were released, the loudest of all from Quinn, slightly masked by the crescendo of the last chorus and rhythmic thumping of Sam's fist against the side of a pew - in lieu of any percussion instruments.
Rachel, too, paced her descent of the aisle to the music. She was glad to take her time, walking on the arm of Hiram Berry, as she took in the room around her. All of her loving family, a beautiful performance by some of her closest friends, and her favourite part, Quinn! Rachel's thousand-watt smile was the most genuine of her life as she locked eyes with her fiancé. I am going to be her wife. The thought caused a jolt of pure joy to hit Rachel's heart and tears of happiness welled in her eyes.
"I fall in love whenever we meet." Quinn mouthed the line as she held Rachel's gaze, causing Rachel to let out a small chuckle. As Rachel approached the alter she took a deep breath. So much perfection in one place was almost too much for her emotions to handle. Finally she took the last steps, kissed her father on the cheek and he let her arm go, and turned to face the love of her life.
"How will I know?"
"And now, Rachel, if you would like to read your vows to Quinn."
"Yes. Of course. Actually, these aren't the ones I wrote. These are better. But I didn't write them down." Rachel quickly rushed out her explanation to the minister, and after receiving a nod, took a deep breath, squeezed Quinn's hands with her own, and began to pick the words to explain her love to Quinn.
"Well, as a wise woman once asked, How Will I Know?" Rachel smiled and paused as some of the guests chuckled lightly. Quinn quirked an eyebrow.
"But the question here is not how I will know that you love me, Quinn. I trust your love for me, and I have since the first time you announced it." Both women took a second to smile at each other, both summoning the memory of that phone call.
"I think the question here is, how will you know?" Rachel quelled the slight look of worry appearing on Quinn's face with a reassuring smile. "You're always so...humble, about our relationship, and about expressing the love we have. You're always so grateful for me, and I can tell that you love me from the way that you treat me every second of every day. I know that you love me, and I want to tell you how you'll know I love you."
Rachel paused to take a breath, never breaking her gaze with Quinn. She really hoped she was explaining this properly. Quinn's vows had been so beautiful, Rachel really hoped she was making the right decision with her impromptu new speech. The idea had come to her after being told about the music change. She was still expressing her original vows, but using the song theme to help boost them.
"You will know that I love you because of my vow to always be by your side, whenever you need me." Rachel spoke clearly, certain of her words.
"You will know that I love you by this vow to never leave you. You will know that I love you because of the way I will treat you with love, kindness, acceptance and dignity." Quinn's face was emitting reassurance and gratitude, and it was all Rachel could do to not cut her vows short just to get to the kiss faster.
"You will know that I love you by my promise to never hurt you, or ever let anyone else hurt you." Rachel felt Quinn squeeze her hands. She squeezed right back.
"You will know that I love you by my vow to always support you, and do whatever it takes to make you happy." Guests were sniffing back tears as everyone looked towards the couple in awe. This was as much as Rachel could express about their love, and even her eloquently selected words were struggling to describe what she and Quinn shared, and what she knew was filling this chapel up completely today.
"But most certain of all, you will know that I love you, because I vow to never stop telling you I love you, and to never stop meaning it." With a smile, she finished. That was all Rachel had to say. But by the look on her face, it was everything Quinn needed.
Quinn knew.
A/N: Hi! I hope you enjoyed reading this. I realised as I finished writing it it could be a kind of companion piece to the other faberry fic I wrote, 'Going to the Chapel'. Also, I've never been to a wedding so if anything about Quinn's and Rachel's seemed weird it's because I was basing it on what they look like in the movies! Song used was of course How Will I Know by the Glee Cast
I ship Brittana more than Faberry but somehow Faberry is easier for me to write. So if you're reading this and are subscribed to In Every Generation, I've had major writers block and then moved abroad which is why it's been left for the last 6 months but I'm slowly getting back to it, this was like a warm up :-)