Quinn was 5 years old the first time she'd kissed Rachel Berry.
She'd seen a boy peck a girl on the cheek so while they were playing in the sandbox she leaned over and did the same; the brunette giggled and pecked her back.
No reason it was any different, Brittany and Santana seemed to do it all the time too. Though Brittany was already insisting she was going to marry Santana.
Everything was fine, until Quinn invited Rachel over for a sleepover.
The Fabrays were known for checking up on people, knowing who their daughter was mingling with. So Rachel only ever got to stay over the one night, especially after Quinn pecked Rachel on the cheek.
"But daddy" the tearful blonde had pleaded.
"No buts Quinn, those people bring shame upon themselves! And that girl is a part of their shame; you're not to be around her anymore"
The blonde sniveled uncontrollably, "but, she's my friend, my bestest friend, and her daddies love her like you love me daddy"
The blonde gasped as Mr Fabray grabbed onto her tiny wrist with more force than necessary.
"Don't you dare ever compare me to a homosexual young lady, I won't stand for it" he hissed.
Poor Quinn was so confused, she was a child, and she had no idea what a homosexual was or why the idea of two loving men raising their daughter was so wrong.
"Daddy what's a hom.."
"Enough, Quinn! We're done with this; you and Rachel aren't friends anymore. That's final"
Quinn cried herself to sleep that night; Rachel was her best friend and her dad had just taken that away from her because she knew what would happen if she disobeyed him.
The Fabrays looked kind enough on the outside, but they punished Quinn severely when she did wrong.
The sobbing blonde looked down at her wrist where someone she loved had hurt her; he grabbed me so hard she whispered to herself as she curled up.
She was too young to know what heartbreak was, but she knew that she felt a pain in her chest that wasn't usually there.
She had no idea what would happen seeing Rachel around, but she knew she couldn't tell her the truth.
"We can't be friends anymore"
"Wh-why?"
"We're not allowed"
"But we're best.."
"Not anymore. Leave me alone"
"But Quinn.."
"Get away from me!" the blonde exclaimed pushing the confused brunette away from her, not meaning to shove quite so hard. Rachel fell down and grazed her knee, her eyes filled up and she turned her head away.
"I'm so sorry" Quinn whispered, but it was too late. Rachel had already ran off to the bathroom, where she stayed all day.
It wasn't until middle school that Quinn found out what the word homosexual actually meant, and she was shocked.
Not in a naïve way, in the way that she couldn't' believe her dad could be so narrow minded. What was wrong with loving someone? So what if they were two men or two women?
But still, the blonde knew she couldn't fight him. If she said anything out of line she'd get grounded, her allowance taken away, she wouldn't get to cheerlead and worst of all her parents would remind her any chance they'd get to let her know she was a disappointment.
So, like she had since they were young, Quinn kept up the icy façade.
She excelled in cheerleading and she knew from watching movies that they tended to be the top dogs, meaning she'd never have to deal with Rachel Berry again anyway. Sorted, right? Not quite.
All her other cheerleading friends liked boys and never shut up about them, Quinn joined in so she didn't seem different but the truth was; she thought boys were smelly and the idea of kissing one made her face scrunch up.
But still she lied to her fellow cheerleaders, they all thought she'd had her first kiss and had already had boyfriends.
So the rumour mill got a hold of the information and of course exaggerated it, a few boys even went along and said that she'd kissed or dated them. The only person that knew the truth was Quinn herself.
She was 14. She'd never kissed a boy, didn't even want to think about it and she didn't want a boyfriend like all the other girls seemed to.
The only person she ever truly thought about was Rachel, it still pained her knowing what she'd put the poor girl through.
She'd stop, but then she'd have to try and find someway to explain what had happened, but the thought of having to burden the brunette with that information hurt too much.
So she simply kept up, giving her new nicknames and something called a 'slushie facial' that lasted until they were in high school.
At 16 Quinn was by far the most popular person at Mckinley High.
She was head cheerleader, hot, had earned multiple trophies with her team, was keeping her grades up so her parents were happy and all the boys in school wanted to date her. Perfect. Still, no.
Quinn had a shocking realization that made her realize she really couldn't let the taunting and teasing stop.
The nicknames increased and the slushie facials were daily, yet the petite brunette diva took it all in her stride.
Quinn realized that she felt something towards Rachel that went beyond friendship; she still no longer wanted a boyfriend though she had Finn for appearances.
Kissing him wasn't terrible, but she just knew. She knew in her heart, she wanted a girl. She wanted Rachel, and she could never have her.
Everything would be taken away from her. Friends, cheerleading, her car, her trust fund. Possibly even her family knowing how her father had reacted just over her best friends parents being gay.
It was this realization that caused Quinn to seek solace in something. This solace came in the form of a compliment, wine coolers and Noah Puckerman.
He was one of Finn's friends on the football team, he was a bad boy and he was constantly flirting with her but Finn was too dopey to notice half the time where he was let alone someone macking on his girlfriend.
This lead to Quinn getting into a serious make out session with Puck. She pulled away from him and asked him one thing,
"Do you think I'm pretty?"
"I think you're totally smokin' and I wanna be your first"
A few minutes after that, Quinn lost her virginity. She hated it. It was nothing like she thought it would be.
It hurt her and felt strange and the sight of Puck sweating and grunting made her feel sick, luckily it didn't last very long.
As soon as Puck got off of her she quickly redressed and went home, sobbing as soon as she reached her room.
She cried herself to sleep unable to think about what she'd just done. And since she was a Fabray she did what they seemed to do best, block things out.
It worked magically, until she missed her period. Soon after that it was goodbye good girl and hello looser fitting pants. Everything changed.
She was lying more than she ever had, her cheerleading friends ridiculed her, her family had disowned her and all hell broke loose when Finn found out the truth. Worst of all, she was lonely.
She'd lost Finn, and Puck was just Puck. She didn't have the desire to sleep with him again, not even with raging baby hormones, so he continued to show his interest about the baby but get distracted whenever another girl walked by.
It was his attitude that made it so much easier to agree that the baby would be better off with someone better equipped to take care of a child.
It was after she'd had Beth and convinced herself that she'd never get into that situation again when Quinn realized that she had to stop hiding.
She needed to stop being what people expected her to be and just be herself.
Being in Glee Club all those months, having people there that weren't judging her throughout her pregnancy (minus Santana and Finn) had bought all her emotions flooding back. The icy exterior had melted and the real Quinn was back.
It was summer break and Quinn was still staying with Mercedes family.
The blonde had become very close with them all and she considered the strong talented black woman one of her nearest and dearest.
She told Mercedes the entire story and she couldn't believe it. Her family was deeply religious but they accepted Kurt for who he was.
So it was with Mercedes support that she decided it was time to pay the Berry's a long over due visit.
Quinn drove to Rachel's house with her heart pounding in her chest. What if she didn't want to know?
Not that she'd blame her with how she'd been treating her all this time but still, would she be able to handle the rejection?
She didn't expect her to be the most understanding person on earth but she still wanted to be her friend, at least.
One of Rachel's dad's opened the door, looking shocked to say the least. "Rachel, Quinn's here" Leroy called up the stairs telling the blonde to go on up.
Quinn reached the top of the stairs when Rachel appeared in the doorway of her bedroom.
"Quinn, what are you doing here? Santana's got the homework you guys wanted to cheat off" the brunette sighed looking at the blonde rather blankly.
"Can we talk, please? In your room, it's private"
Quinn stood nervously as Rachel sat on her bed; Rachel's room was exactly how she'd imagined it.
"So.."
The blonde fumbled with her hands nervously. "This isn't going to be easy for me, but I owe you an explanation. I need to tell you, why I am the way I am, or was the way I was"
And with that she proceeded to tell her everything, the truth. About her dad, her family, her fear.
Rachel sat trying desperately not to cry, all these years she'd simply thought Quinn had turned on her because she wasn't 'cool' or one of the pretty girls.
"I can't believe it, all this time I've been thinking it was me" she whispered.
Quinn walked over and hugged her impulsively, clinging on tightly as if she was making up for all the years gone by. She inhaled Rachel's scent like it was a drug; it calmed her and soothed her thudding heart.
"So, why now?" Rachel asked as they sat side by side on her bed, Quinn shrugged nonchalantly.
"I've learnt a lot being back around you in Glee Club, and having Beth. I couldn't' stay away any longer Rachel. There's more that you don't know, but I don't want to spring everything on you at once and have you not want to be around me"
"Quinn, losing you as a friend is honestly the worst that's ever happened to me. Worse than being made fun of, worse than losing my voice, worse than slushie facials every day. Please, tell me?"
The blonde blushed and kept from making eye contact, Rachel leaned down and pushed her hair away from her face forcing her to look at her.
"No secrets, total honesty"
"I'm gay, Rachel" she whispered so quietly that at first the brunette thought she'd heard wrong, until she saw the tears running down her cheeks.
She pulled her close hugging her tightly telling her how it was okay.
"And I think I'm in love with you, please don't hate me" the blonde whispered again practically inaudibly.
Rachel hugged her impossibly tighter. "How could I ever hate you Quinn?"
The blonde sniffed. "After everything I've put you through it wouldn't surprise me"
"How could I hate someone I've been in love with since I was 5 years old?" she smiled.
That had been 10 years ago. The two women were now nearing 30 and were still happily in love.
They'd almost broken up when they had to maintain a long distance relationship going to different universities, but learning to cope with the circumstances had caused their relationship to grow immensely strong and they knew they couldn't be without one another.
They'd been living together, permanently, for 5 years, had wed on Rachel's 25th birthday and they were now planning to find a sperm donor to conceive a child after Rachel's last performances with her theatre company.
Everything had fallen beautifully into place. They were still in regular contact with their old friends, Quinn's photography career had really taken her places and both women had enjoyed showing up hand in hand at the Mckinley Reunion they attended.
"Well?" the blonde asked anxiously, Rachel nodded and jumped at her kissing her senseless as she still managed to after all this time.
"I can't believe we're gonna have a baby!"
"I can't believe we're so lucky, it's only the second try and we're pregnant!"
Both women jumped around excitedly before moving the celebration to their bedroom.
"I love you so much, I didn't think it was ever possible to be this happy" Quinn beamed as the two of them lay still entwined in their sheets.
Rachel took her hands and put them on her stomach. "Soon enough this right here will be growing, and it'll be our little girl or little boy. And whether they're gay or straight I hope they have a chance at what we have"
The blonde looked at her with tears glistening in her eyes, "I hope they never have to go through what we did to get here though"
Rachel kissed her wife sweetly. "I hope so too beautiful, so do you think we should call my dads?"
Quinn shook her head and smirked, "not yet, I'm not done with our personal congratulating".