A short little fic originally written on my tumblr. Posted here on request. I wrote this during the summer, before I knew Quinn was going pink. And with that you know all you need to know about before reading.
Judy Fabray has had enough. It was always "Rachel this, Rachel that" in this house. "Rachel is always stealing my boyfriends", "It's annoying how Rachel is always wearing the shortest skirts", and "Ugh I hate how Rachel's eyes are so hypnotizing in this picture that I keep under my pillow for some reason". Okay, the last one might be an exaggeration, but Judy did find that picture under Quinn's pillow, so it stands. Something had to be done.
So one day she sat Quinn down for a little mother-daughter talk and just came out with it (no pun intended).
"You're gay."
Quinn's jaw dropped.
"Whuh- What?"
Judy sat back and pulled the infamous Fabray eyebrow raise.
"You heard me. I'm telling you that you're gay. And what's more, you're gay for Rachel Berry. Admit it to yourself because you're driving me crazy with your lack of self-awareness."
A minute went by and Judy watched Quinn go white as a ghost and have a whole host of emotions play out on her face. It seemed like her daughter couldn't decide if she was going to throw up her guts, tear her a new one, or cry. Finally she settled on blind panic with denial on the side.
"N-no! No. I don't even- why would you! I'm not Santana! Why her- why would I? I'm not gay!"
Judy sighed and wrapped a comforting arm around her daughter. This must have been hard to hear for someone so deep in denial. But if Judy had to go through one more day of Quinn sulking around the house and concluding that it was Rachel's fault but not knowing why exactly that was she was going to throw a fit.
"Yes, you are. Sooo gay. I think that's why you keep getting those tension headaches, because you're trying to hold it in. But it's too much Quinnie, it's too much gay to hold in."
Quinn was not babbling anymore, but she was not relaxing even a bit. Judy felt like she had her arm around a wooden board. A wooden board that wanted to get 'all up on' (as the kids say) another wooden board that had a propensity towards argyle.
"And you know what's even better than aspirin? Rachel Berry. Because she brings your gay out. You should just let her take your gay out."
"There... there's nothing to take out though..." Quinn said in a small voice.
"Now Quinn, I thought we went over this already. You're gay. You talk about Rachel Berry constantly. You obsess with her. You have a picture of her under your pillow."
Quinn lurched in panic, throwing Judy's arm off of her.
"I didn't put it there because I'm in love with her or something! It's from my 'I hate Rachel Berry' box underneath my bed. I just had it under my pillow because I was about to give her a moustache with a sharpie."
Judy had to roll her eyes at that one. Yeah, sure, that's why the picture had been there for the last two weeks. Because Quinn was surely just taking the time to think of a really good moustache to draw on and not because she was busy memorising Rachel's face.
"And what about the time I was called in because my daughter was caught defacing school property with surprisingly detailed, anatomically correct pornographic images?"
"I was going to put a moustache on that one too! But... the drawing was really good so I didn't want to spoil it," this small admission made Quinn flush from her toes to her ears and let Judy know that she was not fighting a losing battle.
"I know, the art teacher wanted you to join a workshop for talented young artists but I didn't want to encourage you to draw Rachel Berry naked. Imagine if I let you go. This conversation might not have been necessary."
Quinn, apparently mortified beyond belief, didn't say anything for a long while. But when she did it was... interesting to say the least.
"Just because you have feelings doesn't mean you should do anything about them."
There was a pause while Judy took that in and thought of what an appropriate response would be.
"And what does ignoring them do for you?"
Quinn didn't have an answer for her.
"Just think about it –if you choose to not ignore them you could potentially have Rachel Berry, annoyingly short skirts and all. And trust me, I wouldn't mind if the reason you were talking about Rachel all the time was because you two were in love and she made you insanely happy."
Quinn scoffed.
"Oh yeah mom, I'm just going to go up to Berry and make her my girlfriend. That's not how life works. If I'm obsessed with her, then she's obsessed with dimwit Hudson."
Well at least her daughter was admitting to her obsession. Even though she was gullible enough to believe that Finn had anything to do with choosing Quinn's corsage.
"That's not what she tells me."
It was a simple thing to say, but Quinn spun on her with crazed eyes.
"What. Did. You. Just. Say?"
Judy shrugged nonchalantly.
"Oh, it's nothing, really. I just have her over for tea on Saturday afternoons while you're doing your volunteering at the hospital. I figured if I was hearing so much about her, I might as well get to know the girl that got my daughter so worked up."
Quinn seemed defeated by this new information. She slumped forward with her head in her hands. Her mother rubbed a comforting hand on her back, but not for too long. Judy knew better than to coddle her daughter when she was being overdramatic.
"God, my life is over. Why would you do this to me?"
There she went with the dramatics. Judy rolled her eyes and figured she should bring her daughter back from the deep well of embarrassed despair she was entrenched in.
"Because now I can tell you that Rachel feels a spark of electricity with you that she's never felt with Finn? That you seem to be the one person that she seems to feel a deep connection with? And that she would be willing to pursue it if she was given any indication that you might feel the same?"
The full body blush was back with a vengeance.
"What? Why would she tell you that? You're my mother for God's sake."
Judy smiled loftily.
"People like to confide in me, Quinnie. I'm very personable. And Rachel is very earnest and enjoys sharing intimate details about her life. I mean, have you seen half the stuff she posts on facebook?"
"You're her friend on facebook? I'm not even her friend on there," Quinn muttered resentfully.
"I know, she keeps trying to add you and you reject it each time. Do yourself a favour, Quinn. Just accept her friend request. And then maybe you can change your relationship status and write cutesy little things on each other's walls. I think you'd like it."
Quinn just shook her head.
"My head's a mess because of you. I need to get to the hospital before Santana decides that since I'm not around to stop her she's allowed to be a candy stripper instead of a candy striper," she sighed, getting up.
"Hold on just a minute, we have more to talk about, like-"
The doorbell rang and Judy's mouth curled into a smile. She picked up her cup of tea and took a small sip. It seemed like Quinn was frozen in sudden realization that it was indeed a Saturday.
"Well go on, Quinnie. It seems like we have a guest waiting. And don't you worry about the hospital, I called them earlier to say that you weren't coming in today."
She was quite enjoying the gobsmacked expression on her daughter's face. Impatient, she made a little shooing motion for Quinn to get on with it. Finally, the girl got the hint and left the room. Now it was time for the elder Fabray to make her exit. She picked up her purse and crossed the hall silently. On her way over to the garage she heard the door open and her daughter's quiet "Hi." It was met with an equally shy "hi". Judy smiled wryly.
Kids sure had a way with words these days.