A/N- Title from George Strait 'all my ex's live in Texas' just a short oneshot I thought up when reflecting on the oddities of coming back to your hometown after a while.
"Alright, ten minutes in and out. We just need to pick up the cranberry sauce, marshmallows, and Sprite. No sidetracking and no dillydallying, got it Fabray?" Rachel asked, cutting the engine to her little blue car and fixing her girlfriend with a serious look.
"Got it, drill sergeant." Quinn snarked.
Rachel rolled her eyes, unbuckling her seatbelt and starting across the parking lot without waiting for Quinn to exit the car too. The blonde easily caught up to her, linking their arms together and shoulder bumping the smaller girl gently, "I'm just teasing, why are you so worked up? We've done the holidays with your dads before."
Rachel sighed, it was true the women had been together for nearly four years now, they had gone to Ohio to have Chrismukkah with Rachel's family the previous year and spent a week there over the summer break after they graduated from college as a pit stop on their cross country road trip.
"I don't know, something about Ohio at Thanksgiving always gets me on edge."
"Hey it's better than Thanksgiving in New York was last year with my family." Quinn said, recalling the great Frannie-Judy Standoff of 2015 that left the carpet wine stained, a hole in the wall, and Quinn with four stitches in her foot from stepping on a rogue glass shard.
"Don't jinx it." Rachel warned.
Quinn laughed her musical laughter that filled Rachel with the same sense of warmth as the first time that she heard that laughter across a coffee shop in New York. It was a laugh that sounded nothing at all like cold lonely days growing up in Ohio, and she smiled. She stopped there at the edge of the parking lot and forced Quinn to stop along with her. When the blonde turned with a question already forming on her lips, she was answered with Rachel winding a hand around the back of her neck and pulling her down for a kiss. They weren't normally the kind of couple that was affectionate in public a lot, and especially not when they visited the conservative town that Rachel grew up in.
When Rachel released her girlfriend, her only response to Quinn's stunned expression was a wicked smirk, "Can you grab a basket, babe?"
After a second, Quinn shook her head, ran a hand through her hair and nodded, "Yeah, sure."
Once she had gotten the basket, Rachel had what Quinn like to call her 'determined energizer bunny' face on, "Alright, so I'll grab the Sprite, can I trust you to get the marshmallows without trying to buy half the candy aisle?"
"I'm mildly offended that you even have to ask."
"Right, so we'll meet at cranberry sauce and if you aren't there in eight minutes I'm sending out a search party." Rachel decided.
"Why can't we just shop together?" Quinn half whined.
"Because this will be quicker." The brunette said, cutting off any protest, "If you get to the cranberry sauce before me, I'll give you a reward tonight." She promised with a devious smile.
Quinn was off in seconds, power walking away in the general direction of the sweets. Rachel shook her head, as stubborn as her girlfriend could be, Rachel always knew how to motivate her.
Rachel took her time making her way down to the soda aisle, secretly hoping that Quinn would beat her. She regarded the selection before her, weighing the relative benefits of diet versus regular Sprite. Rachel didn't even drink soda unless it was as a mixer for something alcoholic, so she wasn't extremely invested in it, but on the other hand-
"Rachel Berry?"
The brunette was drawn from her musing by a surprised voice, she spun on her heel to be confronted with someone she hadn't seen in six years, "Finn Hudson?"
They just sort of stared at each other for a moment while rachel took in the boy she once thought she would spend her life with. He looked very much the same as he did in high school though he had lost some of the baby fat on his face. He was dressed exactly like he used to in high school, jeans and a button up over a t shirt leaning on a mostly full shopping cart.
"It's great to see you, Rae." Finn finally said.
The singer frowned internally at the old nickname, "Yeah, you too, how have you been?" Rachel asked politely, still reeling from this blast from her past.
"Good, I took over Burt's auto shop and business has been steady." Rachel nodded, and only then did she notice the woman standing at Finn's elbow. The woman dropped a bottle of ginger ale into his cart and looked between the two questioningly, "Oh, this is my wife, Sandy." Finn did the introduction with a blush.
Rachel smiled at the woman, she looked sweet enough, exactly the kind of woman that Rachel would have expected him to end up with, and as she gave the woman the customary once over that all women do upon meeting, she felt her eyes grow wider as she took in Sandy's obvious baby bump.
Sandy smiled, "I'm due in February." She said to Rachel's unasked question.
"Congratulations!" She managed to get out, thanking four years of theatre school for her performance in the soda aisle.
"Thanks, it's our first so everything is so new!" Sandy gushed excitedly.
Rachel just nodded along, almost missing Finn's question, "Are you just back for the holiday?"
"Yeah, then back to New York."
Finn looked like he was about to say something else before he was interrupted by a new arrival, "There you are, Rach. I know Hiram likes the cranberry sauce with berries in it, but those weird me out so I think we can get away with buying smooth too."
"Quinn-"
"And you were right, I couldn't just get the marshmallows. But I know you love peanutbutter cups anyway so you can't be too mad." The blonde reasoned, coming up behind Rachel and looking at her with a sheepish smile.
Rachel didn't say anything, she was too busy watching the wheels spin in Finn's head but the boy wasn't getting any traction, "Rach?" Quinn asked, finally noticing that Rachel seemed to have been talking to the dopey man before her. She switched the shopping basket into one hand and placed the other one on the small of Rachel's back, drawing her back to the present.
"Sorry, Quinn this is Finn and his wife Sandy." Rachel said.
Quinn's eyebrows knit together for a moment, "Finn Hudson?"
"The one and only." Rachel smiled, giving Quinn a look that clearly said 'play nice'. The blonde didn't listen.
"You used to sing with Rachel in high school, right? Are you still involved in entertainment?" Quinn asked sweetly already knowing the answer.
"No, I own a garage." Finn replied, his jaw marginally tighter.
"Oh, small buisness ownership is such a brave endeavor."
"Right."
Rachel watched the stiff interaction between the two of them, observing the slight smirk that Quinn was hardly containing.
"What do you do, Quian?"
The blonde's eyes narrowed at the obvious butchering of her name and Rachel jumped in, "Quinn." She corrected shortly, "She's a lawyer."
"Actually I'm still in school, Rachel likes to brag." Quinn said, giving her girlfriend a sideways glance.
An awkward silence passed between the two of them, eventually broken by Finn. Quinn was proud that he was the first to crack, "How did the two of you meet?"
"A mutual friend introduced us at school." Quinn said shortly which wasn't too far off base. If that mutual friend was tequilla and 'school' was the bar where they first met. Quinn was the hook up from a bar- even prettier in the day time- awkwardly invite her out for coffee the next morning- let her borrow a pair of jeans so she doesn't have to wear her dress from last night- one night stand that wormed her way into Rachel's heart.
"Ah." Finn said, "Do you have family here in Ohio too?"
"No, I'm staying with the Berrys." Quinn replied, taking far too much enjoyment in how Finn still didn't get it, "Rach braved my family last year for Thanksgiving so it's only fair that I do the same with hers."
"Oh, are you two like roommates?"
Quinn smirked, "Yeah, we finally are. It took nearly three years to convince her to move in with me." She wrapped an arm around Rachel's waist and used it to pull the shorter girl affectionately into her side. She always teased rachel for staying in the pricy apartment near her campus with Kurt until she graduated.
Something finally seemed to click for Finn as his eyes widened and flew between the two women, "You're together?"
"For nearly four years." Quinn confirmed.
"How wonderful!" His wife interjected with genuine enthusiasm brightening her face, "We weren't together that long before Finn proposed."
Quinn smiled politely back, raising an eyebrow at Finn. He coughed awkwardly, "We had better be off." He said, scratching the back of his neck.
"Yes." Sandy agreed, "It was so nice meeting the both of you."
"You as well." Rachel smiled.
"Nice to see you, Rae." Finn said before turning and pushing his cart down the aisle after his wife. He did not say goodbye to Quinn.
When the Hudson family left the soda aisle, Quinn didn't even wait for Rachel to say anything before she was on the defensive, "I don't like the way he was looking at you."
Rachel rolled her eyes, "Please do tell me, Quinn, how was he looking at me?"
"Like he's seen you naked."
"He has."
"But he shouldn't look at you like it!" Quinn whined, "Especailly not with his pregnant wife six inches away!"
Rachel began away towards the registers, "You're ridiculous Fabray."
Once they made it out of the store and back to the car, Quinn couldn't hold back her snark any longer, "Well that was awkward." She said while Rachel pulled out of her parking spot.
"Mhm." She agreed.
They drove quielty for a while until Quinn dropped a hand onto her girlfriend's thigh, "What's going on in there?" She asked, her own little way of asking to be let into Rachel's head.
The singer was silent for a bit, trying to put her thoughts in order, "It's just weird I guess. People our age are married and having kids. I just wonder if there's something we're missing out on."
Quinn waited until they were stopped a red-light before commanding Rachel's attention, "Listen to me, Berry and listen close because I'm only good for one inspirational speech a day. You are twenty three years old, you're starring in an off broadway production, you're living in an apartment in New York with your incredibly attractive and highly successful future lawyer girlfriend." She paused there with a wicked smirk, "We have plenty of time to do the wife and kids thing, but right now you're doing just fine."
Rachel listened carefully before a wide grin broke out on her face, "Quinn Fabray, did you just imply that you want to have children with me?"
The blonde rolled her eyes and sat back in her seat, "Oh shove off."
"You want to marry me, you want to have my babies-" Rachel began in a sing-song voice.
"Just drive!"
"You want to buy a mini-van, and be a soccer mom."
"So immature."
A/N- Drop a review, let me know what you thought.