03. 12. 2022.
Familiar.
The one word Quinn feels, as she steps out from the elevator, that day. The smells, the sounds, the supposedly calming colors upon the walls. Plaques with names of investors, telephones ringing, people crying.
All in all...
Hospitals suck.
It's sad to think that hospitals have become familiar territory for her, but everything that has happened to her in hospitals has changed her for the better. Normally, she'd be in the hospital visiting one of her clients, or witnesses, for interviews and gathering autopsy reports for evidence.
But she's here, for someone special. Someone who means the world to her.
"Rachel Berry." she tells the secretary, on the fifth floor. The lady looks at her, with tired eyes.
"Sorry, no one has been admitted, with that name." Quinn huffs first and then chuckles nervously.
"No, my mistake." Quinn clears her throat, "Rachel Fabray." she fiddles, anxiously, with the cuffs on her blazer. She looks overly dressed, to be in a hospital, right now. However, when your wife goes into labor with your first born child, you might have to tell the other prosecutors that they can take care of the serial killer without her.
The lady behind the counter types the new name into the hospital's search engine. It works.
"Room 522," she states, and within five seconds, Quinn is off.
She clutches her brief case to her chest, as she looks for the room that will change everything. She then hears a familiar voice approach her.
"Lady, move it, I have a child to deliver in five sec...OH! Quinn!" Santana envelopes Quinn into a hug. She then looks the blonde over, quirking an eyebrow at her choice of clothing for the occasion. "You look ready to sue some messed up fuckers."
"You look ready to deliver Berry baby number one."
"The number implies you're thinking of adding more fucked up spawns to the mix of your weird little life." She pulls on some gloves, and Quinn rolls her eyes.
"They are only going to be fucked up because you're going to have to babysit them."
"Hells nawh," Santana says, opening the door for them, "It'll make them awesome." once they open the door, Kurt is holding his breath while Rachel is gripping his hand and screaming her head off. His blue eyes have some red in them, indicating he's been trying really hard not to yell his head off at Rachel. The site makes Santana laugh and Quinn cringe for him. The moment Rachel's eyes lock on Quinn's, she calms down a little bit. Kurt takes the opportunity to steal his hand back.
"GOD, woman, I need surgery for my hand." Kurt claims, as he makes sure his hand has no dents in it. He then runs up to Santana. "Does it look sprained?"
"No," She declares, "you could be a fucking hand model for pixies everywhere."
Quinn takes Kurt's place, at Rachel's side. She holds her hand, and kisses her softly. Tears are in Rachel's eyes, she looks tired, her face is makeup free and her hair is in a messed up bun. Quinn thinks she's never looked more gorgeous. She tells this to her, but sweet Barbra, Rachel accuses her of just wanting to get in her pants. Then she chastises Quinn for wanting to get into her pants at this odd moment. Rachel goes back to screaming at everyone that is breathing.
Quinn needs to send Mercedes and Puck an apology, for when they helped her while delivering Beth.
Shelby, Hiram, Leroy, and Judy are trying to calm a hysterical ten year old, who keeps panicking about being a good big sister.
"There are no pamphlets," Beth lists, "there are no manuals, there aren't seminars or special movies. What if...what if they don't like me? What happens then? I can't not be involved in their lives!" Beth keeps pacing, and her grandparents just watch her. Judy scoots closer to Shelby.
"You let Beth hang out with Hiram too often." Judy sighs and Shelby chuckles.
"I know, I'm sorry."
"I can hear you, you know?" Hiram states, pretending to be offended. Leroy shakes his head and the two women laugh more. Beth can't breathe.
"I need to be in there! No, actually, I just need Starbucks. Mum, where's Puck?!"
"Relax, I told him to get your caramel salted latte, thingy." Shelby answers.
"It's salted caramel." Beth corrects. Just then, Puck and Mike walk in, rolling Artie. Artie has coffees for everyone. Puck picks up Beth's, and hands it to her.
"Here's your salty...caramel...shit."
"Salted Caramel!" Beth scolds. Puck is visibly uncomfortable.
"Down, Quinn junior. You're lucky I even remembered whats in it."
"Sorry...sorry." Beth takes a sip and relaxes as Puck holds her. "I know this is a stupid question, but what if they don't have time for me?" Puck sighs. "I mean, the Skype calls...everything will be different."
"Listen here, rock-star," Puck says, "Quinn will always make time for you. So will Rachel. In many ways, you're their first real kid. Everyone's, actually. What you're feeling...all these nerves...all of us felt exactly the same when Quinn had you."
"Yeah," Artie adds, "we were worried. I mean, we didn't know how Quinn would react. She's always been unpredictable. We also wanted you to be delivered safely." Beth nods.
"She handled it well." Judy stated. Everyone turned to her, and stared, like she had three heads.
"Her hair was pink." Mike notes aloud.
It has been, exactly, 7 hours that Rachel has been in labor. Beth is sitting with Puck, Brittany, and Blaine. She's reading her favorite excerpt from the book Quinn gave her.
"She loves that book." Shelby tells Judy, softly. "Ever since Quinn's been back in her life, she's never left her room without that darn thing."
"That book is a favorite of Quinn's." Judy informed. "I'd catch her reading it every time I'd pass by her door, at night."
"I'm glad she inherited Quinn's academic mindset." Shelby said. As they looked over at Beth, they observed the child's other parent.
"The movie didn't even make sense." he told her. She glared at him.
"That's because the movie was a poor representation of what the novel is capable of!" She huffed, and began reading some more of the chapter. Puck shook his head, and so did Judy and Shelby.
"So glad." Judy said. Shelby giggled.
Tina was the last to arrive, and she had made it just in the nick of time. As she plopped down, beside Mike and Brittany, on the waiting room chairs, Santana burst through the double doors. Everyone immediately stopped their actions. Santana watched everyone's expressions.
"Stop looking like you're about to shit yourselves." she stated. She walked over to a chair, picked up a magazine and began reading some of Lindsay Lohan's antics. Her head snapped up, and she sported a devious smirk at all the angry and anxious faces. "Oh, and it's a girl."
Meanwhile, in a different room, Quinn and Rachel fawned over their gorgeous new baby girl. Ten toes, ten fingers, pale skin, chubby cheeks and thin blonde hair. Rachel beamed.
"She looks so pretty. Just like her Mommy." Rachel turned her head to the side, to give Quinn a soft kiss. After they broke apart, they noticed two big brown eyes staring up at them. Quinn smiled from ear to ear.
"Hmm...well she's not exactly like me." Quinn said.
"Well...mostly." Rachel watched Quinn place her pinky finger near the baby's tiny fist. Her fingers spread apart slowly, and accepted her mother's finger and held on for dear life. Quinn started to cry.
"She's perfect..." Quinn kissed Rachel more deeply this time. They made it. Rachel began to cry as well, and smiled her famous Rachel Berry smile. They watched the tiny infant squeeze Quinn's finger until there was a loud knock on the door.
"KNOCK, KNOCK, BITCHES! I WANTS TA GET MY SAPS ON!"
"Let us in, for the love of Barbara!"
"I brought flowers!"
"We wanna see our grand-baby!"
"You guys think I can knock it d –!"
"NO, PUCK!"
Rachel and Quinn giggled at one another. They shared one last kiss.
"We should let them in." Rachel said, and Quinn nodded, still unable to wipe the smile off of her face. Despite what Rachel said, Quinn hadn't moved from her spot.
It was 9pm, by the time everyone had decided that they'd had enough of baby Berry – Fabray. Visiting hours were nearly up, and Rachel had to stay overnight. Quinn and Rachel were about to start naming, until someone came in. She hadn't been in yet, and no one noticed. Rachel smiled, while Quinn was holding the baby and cooing at it.
"Am...am I intruding?" Beth asked, hesitantly.
"Heavens no, sweetie." Rachel stated, "Come here. Meet your baby sister." the ten year old sat in the rocking chair that the hospital had provided them with. She placed her bag next to the rocking chair and sat down quickly. In all her movements, since entering the room, she never took her eyes off of the pink bundle Quinn was holding. Quinn looked up at Beth and noticed the curiosity, in her hazel eyes. Quinn spoke softly.
"You wanna hold her, Beth?" The ten year old's mouth remained glued in a straight line, but her eyes were all the indication Quinn needed to walk over to her. As Quinn approached, Beth subconsciously extended her arms out. Quinn instructed her on what to do and Rachel giggled as Beth kept nodding, just excited to hold the new baby. "Be careful with her head." Quinn reminded her. Once she was in her arms, Beth couldn't stop looking at her. The little crinkly face and wispy blonde hair had Beth captivated.
"She looks like you." Beth told Quinn.
"You do, too." Quinn said, but immediately froze. They never talked about the whole biological mother thing. It was easier with Puck though, because Beth had no adoptive father. Beth looked at Quinn for a second. When she noticed the discomfort, she smiled.
"I guess so." she giggled. Quinn let out a shaky breath and Rachel did to.
Several moments of silence passed by, and no one said a word. Beth cooed at the baby, while Rachel and Quinn were snuggled up together, on the hospital bed. The only noises were the rocking chair, the oddly calming sounds of New York city streets, distant beeping and the air vents.
"Have you...have...have you guys thought of names?" Beth asked, even more nervously than when she entered the room. Rachel and Quinn stared at one another.
"No, we haven't decided on one yet." Rachel informed her, "We were planning to think of one when everyone left, for the night, and name her before we went home, tomorrow morning." Beth pondered for a moment and then her eyes lit up. She looked at Quinn.
"I...I've...can you get the book from my bag, please?" Beth questioned. Quinn nodded, and headed over to the black and navy Herschel bag. She undid the buckles, and went through the contents. It was mostly standard pre – teen stuff; lip gloss, coin purse, cell phone, cell phone charger, a pack of gum...and then...
"Beth?" Quinn asked, pulling out the hardcover book. It was relatively beaten up, and the page corners were bent, from years of makeshift bookmarking. When Quinn opened up the book to the very last page, she immediately noticed the writing.
This book belongs to: Lucy Q. Fabray
Yep.
Even at nine years of age, Quinn had impeccable cursive skills. She patted herself on the back, mentally. But underneath her own writing, there was another name.
Beth F.-P. Corcoran
Quinn smiled, as she traced over Beth's writing with her index finger. She was confused with the two initials in between Beth's first and last names.
"What's 'F.-P.'?"
"Fabray-Puckerman." Beth stated, as if it were common knowledge. Rachel looked touched with watery eyes and Quinn just looked shocked. "I didn't have a middle name...when I'm eighteen...I asked mum if I could make yours and Puck's surnames my makeshift middle name. It's silly...but once I found out what your last names were...I wanted to keep them somehow." She looked at Quinn with shy eyes. "Are you gonna ask about the book now?" Quinn and Rachel nodded. "Well...when Quinn started visiting regularly, she'd read me a chapter of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll. Each visit, she'd read me it, and we'd talk about all the characters and meanings in quotes." Beth began to laugh. "Once, I brought it to show and tell, and people said that was a boring way to connect with..." she paused, and then kept going, "my...real mother. Anyway," she quickly brushed it off, "when we finished it, you let me keep it. I've read it a lot...and when you told me you were having a baby...I was a little sad...but then I remembered our book, and all the fun times we have. I liked thinking I could have you all to myself...but then I realized I really wanted a baby sister. You know? Someone that I can hang around with, when we visit you and Rachel in the city. But other than those times... I won't see her a lot, and we won't hang out as much as sisters are supposed to." Beth looked at the baby in her arms and smiled brightly. Then she looked into Quinn's eyes and stated, "So I want to do what you did. When I come here, I'll read it with her."
At this point, Rachel was sobbing like a maniac. Damn baby hormones, the miracle of childbirth and morphine... Quinn shed a stray tear, herself, but quickly wiped it away.
"I think that's a wonderful idea, Beth." Quinn said, running her hand through Beth's long blonde hair. "Also, your middle name idea isn't silly. It's really sweet. I'm...I'm so proud of you. I always have and I always will be." Quinn placed a kiss on Beth's forehead. The baby stirred a little and both blondes were observing her movements.
"I...would you both consider naming her Alice?" Beth asked Rachel. Rachel loved the name, and she smiled her famous one billion-watt smile.
"I like it...what about you Quinn?"
"I think it's wonderful. Alice it is."
"REALLY?" Beth shouted, but then she corrected herself, "Sorry...but really?"
"It's honestly amazing that you'd want to name her anyway." Rachel informed her, "The only other suggestion we got was 'Midget Barbie Spawn' from Santana...we love the name anyway. Thank you Beth." Beth handed Alice back to Quinn, and rushed over to the bed. She flung herself into Rachel's arms.
"No problem!" Beth told her. She then looked at the clock. "Well, I have to go now. I'm going to eat a late dinner with Judy and Shelby." She kissed Rachel on the cheek and then she did the same to Quinn. "May I?" she asked, gesturing to Alice. Quinn bent over and Beth kissed Alice on the cheek. Beth then grabbed her bag and said one last goodbye before she left the room. Rachel and Quinn listened as Beth's footsteps faded away. Rachel then turned to Quinn.
"We definitely need Beth as a major influence for little Alice here." Quinn just nodded.
"It's imperative."
"So, we've agreed on her middle name?" Quinn asked Rachel, as they signed the birth certificate.
Rachel was holding Alice gingerly in her arms. She barely looked up at her wife when she said, "honey, there was no mistaking what her middle name was to be." Quinn smiled.
"Just checking." She signed off on the paper, and she kissed her wife and baby Alice. A nurse came over, to collect the birth certificate. She read over the name and fawned over it.
"Alice Bethany Fabray?" the nurse asked. Rachel and Quinn both nodded, without taking their eyes off of the new addition to their family. "Beautiful." said the nurse.