I'm working on Chapter 30 for 'Don't You Know?' I promise.
However, this story popped into my head so... yea
Just when Rachel thought her day couldn't possibly get any worse, it did.
Not only did she start by waking up late, but her hair just had to refuse to submit to her will as well. She showed up late to her appointment with her stylist which meant a rushed job because the interview she had scheduled definitely could not wait. After that, her assistant had spilled coffee all over her, ruining her dress and sending her mood from 'highly irritated' to 'murderous'. He had barely gotten away with not getting fired—she wasn't evil, after all, and she knew he needed the job.
Really, though, the kid was awful; even if he hadn't fumbled over his own two feet and splashed the liquid all over her, she did not miss the fact that it wasn't even hot. She knew the coffee would have ruined her day either way and she wasn't surprised. Afterwards, she had to go all the way back to her hotel to change because she had a date planned right after the interview. It had taken forever to finally schedule a date with her boyfriend because of their ridiculously hectic schedules and she absolutely refused to be late for it. Yet, she found herself running short on time because the traffic was typical New York and she was only just pulling up to her hotel.
While she had an apartment, she hadn't been there in a while due to the proximity problems; the hotel was much closer to where she needed to be for the time being than was her apartment. Also, she much preferred not having to clean up after herself.
What her dads would say now, if only she had kept in contact with them.
With a frustrated exhalation, she shoved money towards the driver and briskly walked – she did not run – into the hotel and headed for the elevator. The tapping of her foot was the one thing keeping her sane at the moment. All she was managing to do was frustrate herself more by continually thinking about how to unwind for her date. Rachel knew that she would ruin the date if she remained as irate as she was now.
The doors opened and she thought finally in an extremely frustrated tone of voice. It was, thankfully, empty and the brunette stepped in and pressed her floor. Right as the doors started to close, she watched as a blur ran through them. The metal stopped moving for a moment and then continued their journey.
She looked over her shoulder to find a little girl with blonde curls standing in the other front corner silently. Her back was pressed against it as if she was hiding and her breathing was rapid. It made sense, considering that she had just been running.
Rachel ignored the girl and just stared as the numbers glowed and they passed the second floor. They were somewhere between the fifth and sixth floor when the lights dimmed and the elevator came to a stop. She immediately went to reach for her phone only to realize that she had left it in her previous outfit— the one that Josh had spilled coffee all over. She was now second-guessing her decision not to fire him.
"Just my fucking luck," she pounded her head against the wall, pressed the emergency button, and remained completely ignorant to the child that was in the corner still. The girl had definitely dropped the smile that was on her face, though.
"What was that?" Rachel heard the tiny voice of the girl question. She looked up and momentarily regretted her curse.
"That was the elevator stopping." Why should she sugarcoat it? This was New York where kids either grew up fast or they got beaten down.
"Why did it stop?" she tilted her head to the side and blonde curls swayed towards the floor.
"Because the world hates me," Rachel groaned as she let her knees give out and fell to the floor. The single favorable outcome of the day was that she had had a spare change of clothes so, even if they weren't 'date worthy', she wasn't stuck in the stupid elevator and covered in cold, stale coffee-stained clothes.
Considering the day she'd already had, that small fact was a blessing from the gods that oh-so-clearly loathed her existence. They really had to go out of their way to make her day so unequivocally unpleasant. What she had done to deserve such karma, she had no idea. She swore she wouldn't fire Josh if she was out of the freaking metal box within the hour. At this point, she would most definitely be late, but at least she would still make it if her wish came true. There was one thing that she wanted was to see tonight, and that was her boyfriend. The plan had been to have a nice night, share a few laughs, and sleep in his arms. Was that really so much to ask? She didn't think so.
"Why does the word hate you?" Even Rachel's cold heart softened a bit at the girl's mispronunciation of the word 'world'. Knowing that nothing was going to change anytime soon, she looked at the girl and finally took in her whole appearance. The loose blonde curls framed large hazel eyes that were open and looking at Rachel as if she held all the answers. There was a white flower clipped into the side of her hair to match the white dress with thin shoulder straps and a pink band around the stomach. To end the outfit, she wore white tights and black flats. She was definitely dressed up for something, probably a wedding; they were at a hotel. Rachel wondered who her parents were. Hopefully they were important because she'd be damned if she was stuck in here with a kid for more than an hour.
"Who knows. You don't have a cell phone, do you?" The girl's jaw dropped and she stuck her head out. And people told Rachel she was overdramatic.
"I'm not even six yet!" she sputtered, hands tossed in the air. Rachel wanted to respond with a, "Yea? I've seen four year olds with iPads, let alone phones, ya snot," but she refrained. It'd be a new low to bitch out a child, even for Rachel Berry. The tabloids would have a field day.
Instead, she just sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "Sorry your parents are behind the times, kid."
The girl made a choked sound and Rachel assumed she had scoffed. "Mommy is always neaw. I don't need a phowne." The sound of Beth plopping down across from Rachel filled the small space.
"And your father?" Was Rachel really starting something with a five year old? She wanted to shake her head at herself but it's not like she had anything better to do.
The reaction she got wasn't completely unexpected but it certainly wasn't what Rachel actually expected to hear. The girl shrugged sadly, "I don't have a dad."
Rachel stayed silent, not sure what to say. It felt weird to say 'sorry' to a five year old girl she had just met. Luckily, the girl spoke up before she had to say anything herself.
"Is the elevato bwoke?" Rachel was once again reminded that she was speaking to a child, even if said child was beginning to make the brunette think she was adorable. Now that she thought about it, five year olds weren't even in kindergarten. What was a five year old doing running around a hotel? Maybe her mother wasn't so important after all. She just sighed mentally; it was New York.
"Broken. And yes, it is."
"Oh."
There was silence.
"I'm Beth."
"Rachel."
"Awe we gonna die, Wachel?"
The diva choked on her own air.
Quinn just needed her day to be over. She was happy for her friends, really. Brittany and Santana deserved each other, always had, always will. However, she was tired and she really just wanted to go to her room and fall asleep. Of course, her best friend had reserved some part of the hotel for her wedding and the reception was barely just getting started. Quinn was exhausted, though.
She'd been up late reading through the same story for the eighth time in case she missed anything the first seven times. She'd found nothing except one misplaced comma which meant that she'd have to go through it at least one more time. The one plus side to having already read the story once – though the second time counted, too – was that she tended to focus more on the words anyway, seeing as she already knew the story by heart. Really, though; this was a story she needed to be perfect. The story would possibly – and probably – change her career.
In other words, to say that she was tired would be the understatement of the year. The singular thing keeping her even mildly alert was the stampede of children running around the place. She had to make sure one of the little runts didn't take her out.
Speaking of runts, she didn't see her own. The ones running around looked to be playing tag and she was certain her daughter had been among them. Scanning the crowd for a bouncing ball of blonde, Quinn felt a slight panic creeping up on her. It was so easy for a child to disappear in such a big party…
It didn't help her fear that she had just watched a movie about a girl being kidnapped the other night. Right after it ended she had rushed to her daughter's room just to double check that she was, in fact, still there.
She didn't feel that sense of relief of knowing her daughter was safe right now; she felt worry instead. A deep, nervous sense of worry.
She practically jumped out of her seat to search for her girl when the sound of a distant alarm reached her ears. Her heart instantly started beating double time and she bolted from the room as fast as she could while not falling over in her heels.
When she reached the receptionist booth she saw a few people making calls and a red light blinking.
The snippets of conversation she heard didn't alleviate much of her confusion. "Elevator B," "A woman and a girl," "Microphone not working," "About ten minutes. Seven minutes and thirty four seconds to be precise."
"Excuse me," she interrupted and three heads turned in her direction. She pulled back, slightly intimidated by the three pairs of eyes staring at her. "I'm looking for my daughter; blonde hair, white dress. She has a flower on the side of her head."
The three heads swiveled in the direction of each other. "You mean this girl?" the only woman of the group turned a monitor in her direction. Quinn swallowed before looking, preparing for the worst. A blinking light, phone calls, pale faces—that never ended well.
Finally dragging her eyes to the screen, Quinn felt all her thoughts whirlwind and jumble her mind. What was she looking at? There was a tiny room with metal rails on the screen and there were two people sitting down so that the only real visible part of them was the top of their heads. Quinn thought maybe they were sitting down and out of view of whatever camera was on them. The woman on the right had dark hair. The one on the left was much smaller and she had blonde hair and a white flower…
"Beth!" she grabbed the sides of the monitor. "What is my daughter doing on some screen?" she accused and glared at all three employees.
"That's the view from inside elevator B," one of the men said as he pointed to his left. Quinn looked over to her right, eyes finding the elevator in question. A red light was blinking over it.
"I don't understand," she said slowly. Why was her daughter on screen and in a blinking elevator?
"The elevator is malfunctioning and has stopped between the fifth and sixth floor. We've already called for someone to—"
"My daughter is trapped in an elevator with some stranger!" she shouted, terrified. Why in the world had she taken her eyes off of her daughter? It had been for a solitary moment, a quick flash of time, when her fatigue had gotten the best of her and her eyes had closed of their own volition.
"She's perfectly safe, I assure yo—"
"And I'm sure that, twenty minutes ago, you would have assured me that those elevators were safe, too!" She might not be thinking rational thoughts at the moment, and she was aware of that fact, but nothing mattered because her daughter was trapped in an elevator without her and Beth got panicky when Quinn left her alone for more than an hour or two at a time. The blonde knew how long it could take to get her out and she wanted to cry. Sure, her daughter would be fine at first, but eventually she would settle down and realize Quinn wasn't coming anytime soon and she would be overcome with anxiety.
Ever since she'd lost her other mother, the girl had needed Quinn's presence in her life like never before. Quinn had been forced to start to work from home in order to be around her daughter and rarely did she go anywhere without her. When the occasion where she simply couldn't bring her daughter arose, Santana or Brittany would watch the girl until Quinn got back. Even then, Beth would oftentimes cry the entire time because she feared her mommy was never going to come back.
Losing Emily had been hard on both of them, but Beth had really taken to the other woman. It had been almost a whole year into their relationship when Quinn suddenly got the call that Emily wouldn't be home that night. Dropping Beth off in order to go to the hospital to identify the body had been one of the hardest things she'd ever been forced to do. Somehow, she managed not to break down then. She didn't break down the next month, either. No, instead she broke down five weeks and two days after the fact when she came home and found a note on the counter that Brittany had left.
"Took Beth to the hospital. Left a message on your phone."
It had been awful, searching the house for something telling and finding the broken glass of the table in the living room. There had been a sufficient amount of blood pooled around some specific pieces and Quinn's heart had dropped. She had cried the moment she saw her daughter's hand wrapped in thick bandages as she sat in a hospital bed.
"I'm so sorry, Quinn! She was crying for Emily and I tried to calm her down, I really did, but she screamed and slammed her fists into the glass. I'm so, so sorry."
But Quinn hadn't been mad at Brittany—she'd been mad at herself for not addressing the issue well enough with her daughter. She had tried to block out the pain instead of dealing with it. In the process, she had apparently forgotten about her daughter's feelings.
"Whewe's Emily, mommy? I wan Emly!"
"She's gone, baby, I'm sorry."
"No! I wan Emly! I WAN EMLY!"
Quinn had taken her home with red eyes and a strained heart. The next morning, when she had tried to leave for work, Beth threw a fit and cried, begged, pleaded for her mommy not to leave her. It didn't matter that Quinn promised to return, Beth was devastated. It was as if the girl expected Quinn never to return either. The fact that her five year old daughter thought she was going to die terrified Quinn. She couldn't imagine leaving Beth on her own. Needless to say, work was called and Quinn informed her boss of what was going on. He had, fortunately, understood and allowed her to work from home. It helped that her employee record was spotless.
She'd spent her entire morning with her arms wrapped around her daughter's tiny body as she whispered soothing words and sang a few songs. She'd eventually fallen asleep and Quinn hadn't the heart to leave her in her bed alone. Instead, she'd held her and just cherished the fact that she hadn't lost both of them. That was around four months ago.
The man behind the counter looked like he was about to bite back but the female employee shot him daggers from her eyes. "I can see why you're upset but yelling won't help your daughter right now. The elevator is stable. The problem is just an electric malfunction that the technicians will be able to fix in a few hours at most. I have a daughter, too. I'm sure you're just concerned for her safety."
Quinn tried to relax, she knew it was necessary if she didn't want to be confined to solitary, but all she could envision was her daughter going insane.
"My daughter has panic attacks," she pleaded to the woman who looked at her sympathetically. "They get merciless and I won't be able to calm her down because she's stuck in an elevator without me!"
"We'll inform the technicians but, and I'm truly sorry, there's really not much we can do at this point but wait. You're free to watch the monitor as long as you need to." Quinn couldn't do much but collapse onto the floor and let out an excruciated cry. She hardly even noticed the warm arms of her best friend wrap around her.
Leave it to her to ruin the woman's wedding day.
"No, I don't believe so." She wanted to roll her eyes but the girl had asked so seriously and Rachel hadn't missed the look that crossed her face. She knew that whatever curious phase the girl had been in had passed. She was moving on to the peri-panic phase. The folding of her arms over her pulled in legs said as much. The child was practically in fetal position.
"My mommy's fwiend got mawwied today."
"You don't say." It was evident that Rachel's sarcastic tone of voice flew right over the girl's head as she nodded excitedly.
"Aunt Santana and Aunt Bwittany." Rachel blinked and wanted to slap herself because of it. She blamed her reaction on being caught off guard on her nightmare of a day. Why should two women getting married shock her? Her dads were gay and it was 2019. Times had changed from when she was in high school. Plus, and it really was the end-all explanation, she was in New York. She was embarrassed by herself.
"Do you like them?" More nods.
"You wemind me of Aunt Santana. Mommy is mowe like Bwittany." Rachel chuckled as she assumed the girl meant that Santana had brown hair and, seeing as Beth was blonde, she figured so were her mom and Brittany.
"Do you look like your mother?" Still more nods.
"She's weally pweatty," she beamed.
"I bet you she's not as pretty as you," Rachel had no idea when she had decided to be nice, but she found that her bad mood had simmered. The girl was clearly trying to distract herself from something, likely fear of dying in an elevator with a stranger. It wasn't a terrible favor for Rachel to speak to the kid. She would've wanted someone to talk to her if she was in Beth's situation, she just wasn't used to communicating to real people anymore. The one person she talked to in a conversational manner was David, her boyfriend, and even then she tended to treat him like crap. He gave it right back, though, and that was why Rachel needed him in her life.
The girl's smile got even wider and Rachel couldn't believe this girl wasn't an actual angel. She started to wonder if maybe God was sending her an intervention. She inwardly mocked herself; she didn't believe in any god. She hadn't in a while.
"She's beautiful, though."
"I'm sure she is."
"Youw pwetty, too." Rachel couldn't explain it but she blushed. There was something about kids and honesty; they rarely said things they didn't mean unless they wanted something. Like an extra cookie before dinner.
"Mommy says that when people blush it's cuz theiw embaw… embawwassed." Rachel could tell she had tried her best to get that 'r' sound in, but just couldn't.
"Your mother sounds like a smart woman," Rachel smiled at the girl. Part of her stopped wanting to be let out of the hell hole of an elevator so soon. She found that, with her anger gone and David out of her mind, she was quite content being blocked out from the world.
"She is. Vewy smawt."
"I'm sure," Rachel said but, this time, she didn't say it as an insult in disguise. Deciding to relax a bit more, she closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the wall.
"Wachel?" Beth intoned after biting her lip.
"Yes, Beth?" the diva peeked open an eye.
"I want my mommy." It hurt, slightly. Why? Rachel had no idea. Maybe it was because the girl had a mother to love or maybe it was because Rachel felt inadequate. Why should she, though? It's not like she knew Beth; she had only just met her and not on pleasant terms at that.
"I bet she wants you, too."
"I'm scawed." Something ticked within Rachel. It could have been the hint of a whine in Beth's voice, foretelling of possible tears, or it might have been the shaking of the lip. Either way, she lowered her knees so that she was sitting with her legs crossed and opened her arms. It was as if the girl had wanted just that, only she didn't want to ask, as she instantaneously scuttled over and threw herself into Rachel's lap. Her arms flew around a tan neck and she rested her forehead on Rachel's collarbone.
"I bet, elevators are notorious for smelling bad; it frightens me, too," the brunette said as she awkwardly rested her arms around the girl. The last time Rachel had held a child was in college when she had watched her roommate's sibling for a day. That had been freshman year and, while it had gone well, Rachel had changed so much since then. The last three years had literally ripped her apart as she had lost and gained parts in shows by various deeds having been done. She had carried out acts that she had never even dared imagine she would do.
It was when Beth burrowed into her further that Rachel felt her body loosen up. She allowed herself to find reassurance in the touch. Beth needed her because she was a scared child, locked in an elevator with a strange lady, and she wanted her mother. Well, Rachel wasn't her mother by any means but she felt something shift inside her.
She wanted to be mad over missing dinner with David; surely she would miss it at this rate. She knew she should be upset because she always was these days. She wanted to throw a bitch fit and kick everything around her like a child during a tantrum. She wanted everyone around her to show concern for her so that she could blow them all off and let them realize that she didn't give a flying fuck about what they thought of her.
That was who she was. It was who she'd been for so long a time now.
The thing was, she held an innocent child in her hands and she really couldn't get the idea that the girl was an angel out of her head. How could she possibly remain distressed when Beth was in her arms?
She'd never allowed herself to picture a life with kids, with a family; David didn't want them. They weren't married, yet, but they'd been together a long time and Rachel figured it would happen eventually. Once she finished with her latest project, David will have finished his up and they'd have more time together. She was expecting him to ask within the next year.
It was weird, sitting in an elevator with a child. With no phone and no one but a five year old to talk to, Rachel found that things were clearing up about her life. She hadn't sat down to just think in months. With her life as busy a mess as it had been, she was lucky she remembered her own name half the time.
Why was she expecting David to ask anyway? It wouldn't change anything. They'd still fight, still find other projects to work on. They'd rarely see each other. Nothing would change with vows. There wouldn't even be a big wedding; they wouldn't have time. Neither would want to take off of their job for so long.
Occupations came before their relationship. Rachel couldn't even honestly say she was happy with David; she just wasn't unhappy. It wasn't as if David was a bad guy; he was a better person than she was, actually. They were merely good together because they both understood that life wasn't some beautiful land of love and fairytales.
David was a big factor for why she was estranged from her fathers, though. They didn't approve of a relationship without love. Rachel knew they'd never understand.
What she and David had wasn't love but it was easy and it worked. They liked each other, they were friends, and they could spend the rest of their lives together and not care.
The kicker was that Rachel looked down at Beth and realized that she wanted her. Not in, like, a kidnapping kind of way. She just held the girl and knew she couldn't live that life of ease and dispassion if it meant no kids.
Beth crying for her mother caused Rachel to be reminded of her fathers and how much she missed them. Surprisingly, Leroy had been far more wounded by his daughter's betrayal than Hiram. It still hurt, thinking about them. She remembered being young, like Beth, and scraping knees. She remembered 'boo-boo bunnies' and magical kisses that healed all wounds. She remembered her bedroom, yellow and completely child-like even when she was a teenager. She remembered her ghastly fashion sense and hugs.
Hugs. She remembered being held when she cried, which was often. High school had been a bitch to Rachel. She resented her old classmates more than anything else. Scratch that; she resented her first boyfriend more than her old classmates. Finn Hudson had left her like trash on a sidewalk the moment she'd introduced him to her fathers.
Sighing, Rachel wished for the hugs back. She wished for the protection of Leroy's strong arms and Hiram's soft ones.
She was an adult, now, though. She didn't need hugs. The one she was giving Beth was strictly for the child's sake. The hand rubbing the girl's back wasn't a comfort to her for being needed; no. Beth needed her mother and Rachel was being forced to play the part. Being an actress, Rachel was only a character in a scene.
That's what she tried to convince herself of, anyway.
Beth's arms tightened around her neck and any ice left in Rachel's heart dissolved.
"I can't lose my othew mommy, too, Wachel," the girl was shaking and Rachel knew that, if they weren't there already, the tears were coming.
"Shh," she turned the girl so she was sideways on her lap and ran her left hand through the right side of the girl's hair. "We're gonna get out of here and your mommy is going to be standing outside of the door. She'll be smiling at you and telling you what a brave girl you've been."
"I want my mommy, Wachel."
"I know," Rachel sighed for what felt like the millionth time. This time was different though; this time it was a sigh of agreement. For the first time since adulthood, Rachel wanted her dads.
"Thanks, S." Though Quinn's eyes were still red from crying, she had finally ended her fit and now she only had to deal with a small case of hiccups.
"No problem, Q. I always knew you'd make my wedding about you," the Latina joked. She needed to see Quinn smile because her friend had gone through too much shit in the last few months. Hell, Emily's death had affected everyone.
The broken laughter she received wasn't what she had hoped for but it was better than the crying.
"Ready to watch?" she asked gently. She knew Quinn needed to see Beth, even if it was through a ten by twelve inch screen on a computer. The blonde nodded and gripped Santana's hand.
"Will you stay with me?" She didn't want to ask but Quinn didn't know if she could watch her baby girl panic without support. She knew it was inescapable, much like the elevator.
"Of course, Q."
"Have they figured out why the microphone isn't working?"
"No, but they at least managed to hear what's going on in there, even if they can't communicate back."
"Oh, that's better than nothing, I guess." Quinn felt a new wave of misery wash over her but she swallowed down her sob and covered it with a hiccup. She needed to see Beth and she couldn't do that if tears were blurring her vision.
The tears had hit Beth and they'd hit her hard. Rachel wished she had some sort of way to measure time. For all she knew, they could have been in that damned elevator for anywhere from thirty minutes to six hours.
Rachel had felt the first signs of hunger a while ago, though, so she assumed it had been about two hours, maybe two and a half. She vaguely wondered if David had stormed out of the restaurant or if he had gone and ordered food anyway. Likely the latter.
She knew Beth had been crying for a long time, she just had a very bad idea of just how much time had passed. She'd tried all sorts of things to calm the girl down and none seemed to work.
What did parents do? Beth was five. What did parents do for five year olds? These were the questions she'd asked herself and, seeing as she had never planned to have a child, she didn't know the answers.
She was so close to letting the anxiety take over her because it seemed as if the girl was breathing funny. Small gasps made their way out of the girl's throat and that was when she recognized the panic attack taking over the kid. Hazel eyes were pinched shut as if Beth was in pain and Rachel tried to think faster.
Changing tactics, because clearly the first ones weren't working, she decided to ask herself what she did when she was sad and what her fathers used to do for her. Suddenly it all came together and she felt like an idiot.
"Santana, she's holding my child," Quinn was pulling out her hair in her frantic state. Her daughter had jumped onto the woman's lap as if she was Santa because she wasn't there for her!
"Yea, Q, she's comforting your child. You should be damn thankful."
"No, she's failing to comfort Beth because no one can comfort Beth except me and you know that! Nothing's changed in the last hour!"
"At least she's trying, Quinn," Brittany came up behind the two and wrapped her arms around her fellow blonde in an attempt to settle her. Nothing could settle her, though, as she imagined the panic attack worsening to the point where her daughter would throw up and pass out. How on Earth would that woman with her in the elevator know how to handle the situation?
Quinn didn't even have time to verbally counter what her friend had just said because the sound coming from the monitor snatched their attention and put it on lockdown.
Hello world
Hope you're listening
Forgive me if I'm young
For speaking out of turn
There's someone I've been missin'
I think that they could be
The better half of me
They're in the wrong place trying to make it right
But I'm tired of just-i-fying
So I say to you…
Come home
Come home
Cause I've been waiting for you
For so long
For so long
Right now there's a war between the vanities
But all I see is you and me
The fight for you is all I've ever known
So come home
Quinn, Santana and Brittany weren't the only ones to find themselves enamored by the woman's voice. A crowd of employees and party guests – ones that were close to Quinn – were just as captivated as most of the group.
Quinn was trapped as her eyes watched as her daughter's chest lessened in its heaving more and more with each verse. By the last one, she looked almost as if she was… sleeping. But there was no way because no one could handle Beth; the girl refused to be handled.
So come home
Rachel was pretty sure that Beth had fallen asleep somewhere near the end of the first refrain. She had sung slowly to lengthen the song and was amazed at how fast it had worked. She couldn't believe she hadn't thought of it earlier; she would've saved the girl so many tears.
Hazily, Rachel realized that she was still trapped in an elevator and she wondered if the emergency button even worked. Was anyone aware of her missing presence? Surely someone was very distraught over Beth's disappearance. Rachel was certain someone had to be missing the girl; she was so precious.
Then again, part of the singer almost didn't want to be found but another part of her recognized that her thoughts were foggy, probably due to her hunger. It also felt like it had been a really long time. With stiff muscles, Rachel shifted her weight in small increments so as not to wake the blonde in her lap. She debated the pros and cons of lying on the floor – hey, it was reasonable; people did questionable things in elevators – and ended up ignoring the fact that a numerous amount of things had come into contact with the tiled floor. Ever so gradually, Rachel tilted her body so that she was lying on her back and Beth was resting on her stomach, head still resting by her shoulder.
She wondered if having a kid would give her this feeling of being needed and… whole. Complete. She hummed the rest of the song to herself before she let sleep take over her as well.
The area had become dead silent with the song saying everything. No one spoke for at least a few minutes after the song. Even then, they had waited to speak until the woman had moved and came into view. Quinn watched as her daughter was gently shifted so that she was lying down over the stranger. As much as her heart wanted to break over seeing her daughter be comforted by someone who wasn't her, she allowed her gratefulness to take over instead.
Her daughter was sleeping and her panic attack had apparently ended. Regardless of the fact that a woman that no one seemed to know was taking care of her child, Beth was safe for the time being. Maybe that was all that mattered, but Quinn still felt a few silent tears break over her lashes.
"Oh my god, that's Rachel Berry," a woman's voice finally piped up. Murmurs of excited agreement ran through the small crowd and a few noticeable shouts from obvious fans could be heard. Most of the people around were already on phones typing away while Quinn just stared at the screen as if mute. It was as if minutes turned into seconds.
She vaguely knew of a Rachel Berry – who didn't? – but fame didn't matter much to a woman whose daughter was in Beth's position.
"She's supposed to be a major bitch, though," someone pointed out.
"Yea, no way that's her."
"Maybe if you stopped reading tabloids and started reading your textbooks, you wouldn't be so stupid. That's Rachel Berry, for sure."
"Sorry not all of us—"
"Shut up, already!" someone shouted.
After another twenty minutes or so, the technicians' device sounded and a garbled, "It's fixed," came through. The red lights stopped flashing and the heavy shifting sound of an elevator moving could be heard through the device as well.
"We've programmed the elevator to come back down to this level," the woman, whose name was Lauren, behind the counter said.
It was funny how little Quinn had noticed anything outside of the world of the screen. The lights in the elevator got brighter and the woman, apparently Rachel Berry, blinked a few times. The camera had a decently graded picture and, though it didn't capture things perfectly, she could see such movements just fine. Therefore, she saw when Rachel ran her hand through Beth's hair and whispered something that the microphone couldn't pick up.
"Hey, pretty girl, it's time to wake up." The sight of Beth's eyes peeking open, no longer red and puffy, pulled at the brunette's heart. "It's time to see mommy."
"Mommy?" Hazel eyes snapped wide open and shown with an excessive amount of vulnerability. Breath found itself trapped in Rachel's throat and the woman could only nod in response. Slowly, ever so slowly, Rachel forced herself to stand and she lugged up Beth while she was at it. Placing the girl on her right hip, Rachel looked up to the numbers and watched they left the fifth and a half floor and made their way down to the first.
"Yes, Mommy. She'll be standing right there, I bet," she pointed to the door. Beth turned her gaze to the door and gripped tighter around Rachel's neck in anticipation. A feeling of apprehension suddenly flew through her; she imagined Beth's mother standing there, likely with tears streaming down her face, and she imagined handing the girl over. Then she imagined looking around and knowing that no one would be there for her. She'd walk away after being asked 'what happened?' a bunch of times and she'd take the stairs to her seventh floor room, alone.
As overjoyed as she felt for Beth, she felt only pity for herself. The fact that it was her own fault weighed heavy on her chest; she was the one who had pushed people away. It's the way her life went and it worked. Even if it hurt, it kept her life moving freely.
The elevator stopped as they reached their destination. The big "1" was lit and, ever so deliberately slow, the door opened to a sizeable crowd of people all dressed nicely. Figures it would be the wedding party. Rachel was left wondering if maybe the mother was important if so many people cared for her child.
"Mommy!" Beth's voice broke and she immediately started crying again. Rachel stepped out of the elevator, ignoring the looks of the large group of people, and headed towards the woman who looked strikingly similar to her daughter. The woman met Rachel in the middle and bent down slightly, allowing pale arms to wrap around her own neck as she took Beth from the smaller woman.
"Beth," she did indeed have tears in her eyes as she dug her face into her daughter's hair and really breathed for the first time in hours. Rachel immediately felt awkward – something she rarely felt as she always made everyone else feel awkward – so she just turned her head to the side and took a step back.
"I told you it was Rachel Berry!" It hit the singer then that maybe the crowd wasn't just for Beth after all. How did they know, though? "You've been in there for hours!" someone shouted and her heart sank. The familiar pattern of pictures being taken was not missed by Rachel and she didn't even want to think about what would be online later.
"Thank you," a low voice whispered and Rachel looked up to see a familiar set of hazel eyes gazing at her. She felt her stomach flutter as she took in the features of Beth's mother. Her beauty was flawless and Rachel understood that Beth had been correct. Leave it to Rachel Berry to get herself trapped in an elevator with a beautiful child whose mother is the definition of perfect. Even worse, leave it to her to feel tingles at the sight of the mother looking at her with such an intense stare.
"It was no problem, really," she looked for an escape but found none; everyone had circle around. "I'm just going to leave now, I guess," she turned to her right and released a huge sigh of relief when that part of the circle split wide open to let her through. The first step she took on the stairs killed her; what was she supposed to do now?
She sat down and covered her face with her hands. Reliving the entire past few hours, she knew what she wanted to do, but she knew what that would entail.
Standing up, she straightened her posture and took the second step. Once she got to her room, she would call David on her second phone, explain to him what happened, and then she would head over to his apartment and move on as if nothing had ever happened.
After all, it wasn't as if she'd ever see Beth or her mother again. She didn't even know the blonde's name.
This is a one-shot unless I'm prompted to do otherwise.