Disclaimer: I own neither Glee nor any part thereof. No money is being made off of this story and is intended only for entertainment purposes; therefore it falls within the parameters of "Fair Use"
A/N: So here at long last is the much requested sequel to "Beautiful Lost Girl". It's probably not remotely what anyone was expecting but I've written enough stories about the beginnings of a Faberry relationship. I wanted to write something with them more established. Also the story isn't entire Faberry-centric. Hope you still enjoy.
Missing Things
"Mama, I can't find Mr. Flopsie," Maya called through the apartment.
"Do you remember what we talked about last time you couldn't find one of your toys?" Rachel said, walking from the bedroom towards the family room where Maya was.
"To think about when I did know where it was," the little girl said.
Rachel scooped her up and took both of them to sit on the couch. "That's right," she said, "Now let's think. Did you have Mr. Flopsie at Aunt Charlotte and Uncle David's yesterday afternoon?"
"Yes, um, because I remember Baby Willie chewing on his ear," Maya said.
"Okay, did you have him in the cab ride back home?"
"Yes, because I was trying to get the baby slobber off of him."
Rachel silently prayed that the answer to the next question was also a yes. "Do you remember having Mr. Flopsie after you got out of the cab, between the cab and our front door?"
Maya thought about it for a minute and said, "I don't know."
"I need you to think about it really hard. Okay, honey? Can you do that for Mama?"
The little girl nodded and her face scrunched up as she thought for a few minutes but once again said, "I don't know."
Rachel truly dreaded the undertaking that would be involved in retrieving the stuffed bunny if the girl had left him in the cab. Accessing their bank records to find out which cab company Quinn and Maya had used and which specific cab they had been in and then getting in touch with the driver, hoping that he had found it before some other child had taken it for their own, and then of course traipsing across town to go get it. She would do it, of course. Rachel would give this child… her child the moon if she asked, but that didn't mean she had to look forward to potentially running all over the greater New York City Metropolitan Area to do it. "Let's go through the steps, one by one. Maybe something will make you remember. Okay?" The little girl nodded emphatically. "Okay, you and Mom got out of the cab. You walked up to the front door of the building. You walked through the lobby. Mr. Maurice would have been there behind his desk…"
"I did!" She said excitedly, "I did! I did! I did! Mr. Maurice said hello to me and Mom and Mr. Flopsie. I had him in the building."
"Okay, what was the first thing you did when you got back home?" Rachel asked.
"I ran to go see Aunt B, so I could give her a hug. I missed her while I was at Aunt Charlotte's."
"And did you find Aunt B in her room?" Rachel asked. The little girl just nodded. "Okay, then I think that's a good place to start our search." Maya wiggled her way down off Rachel's lap and took off for the bedroom as fast as her tiny legs would carry her. Rachel was up and striding after her soon after. The little girl was reaching for the knob when Rachel said, "Maya, what do we do before going into someone else's room?"
"Um, knock?" she said.
"And did you?"
"Mama," Maya sighed, "Aunt B and Aunt T aren't home. Why do I gotta knock when they aren't even in there?"
Rachel sighed to herself. How exactly to describe to a six year old the risks of entering Brittany Pierce's bedroom without first making yourself known? In almost five years of living with her, Rachel had only made that particular mistake only once but she still couldn't get rid of the mental image of her best friend and the two very well endowed men that she was entertaining that afternoon. Which is not to say that things hadn't changed significantly over the last three years, when Quinn and Maya moved in six months after Quinn and Rachel had gotten together, Brittany had stopped bringing her random hook-ups home and of course about year later Brittany had stopped the random hook-ups all together when she'd fallen in love herself.
At first both of them claimed that is was just sex, drunken, fun romps in bed and nothing more, but after Brittany had scared Quinn and Rachel horribly by disappearing for four whole days on what supposed to an uninterrupted sex marathon, but turned into so much more in a trip upstate where they both admitted to having real feelings for one another. When they returned, Brittany made a big show of officially introducing Rachel, Quinn, and Maya to her new girlfriend, Tina Cohen-Chang. Tina had been a classmate of Quinn's from the moment she'd arrived in New York and had been a near constant fixture in their lives so it wasn't exactly something new, except that Brittany once again resumed "entertaining" in the apartment.
On the occasion of Brittany and Tina's one year anniversary, Quinn and Rachel had accompanied the happy couple to Atlantic City and wound up serving as their maids of honor when they decided spur of the moment to get married. Maya spent the next three days with Quinn's sister and brother-in-law and Rachel and Quinn avoided the apartment for much of the same time. Finally unable to take it anymore, Rachel packed the newlyweds off on an official honeymoon in Paris and while Brittany and Tina were gone had their bedroom soundproofed.
"It's about developing habits, sweetheart," Rachel explained, "If you always knock, even when you are sure Aunt B and Aunt T aren't home, then you'll always knock when you are supposed to as well. If you just walk in without knocking, that could be what you learn to do and believe me, that's not a practice you want to get into."
"I see you and Mom kiss all the time. I see Aunt B and Aunt T kiss even more. What else is there to see?" Maya asked as she knocked on the bedroom door. Suddenly a barrage of images flashed through Rachel's mind images of what else there might actually be to see on the other side of the door: costumes and toys and oils and God knows what else. Brittany and Tina had a very active, very diverse sex life and neither of them were particularly tidy people. "They aren't home. Can I go in now?" Rachel couldn't come up with a reason to say no so she just nodded and hoped for the best, hoped that Tina had gone into one of her cleaning sprees. Brittany was just messy, always had been. Tina's parents had always made her keep everything in her house super tidy so when she moved out she rebelled against her upbringing and became a huge mess, too, but every so often her mother's voice in her head would get the best of her and she'd clean everything up and they'd start the whole cycle over again.
When they walked in Rachel relaxed considerably. While the room was by no means clean, it also did not in any way resemble the set of a pornographic movie. Dirty clothes rather than sex toys littered the floor. Rachel felt slightly foolish for even worrying about it. Maya did spend a great deal of time with Brittany and Tina after all, much of it in their room. "Mr. Flopsie," Maya called out as thought the stuffed rabbit could respond.
They looked around and beneath things for several minutes, Rachel throwing dirty clothes into their under used laundry hamper, Maya just sort of tossing them behind her. Rachel made a note to have the girl work on this habit later. A sharp buzzing sound came from the front door and Rachel sighed, "Mom and Aunt B must have forgotten their keys again." It seemed almost like it never failed. Quinn and Brittany went to morning yoga class and leave their keys at home, especially in the summer when they didn't need coats and thus had no pockets. "Keep looking for Mr. Flopsie, sweetheart. Mama will be right back."
Rachel made her way quickly back down the hall, through the family room, and up to the front door. She pressed the button and said, "If you would remember your keys occasionally then we wouldn't have to go through this all the time."
"Berry?" The voice was familiar but not immediately identifiable, Rachel hesitated to reply. "It's Santana. Can I come up?"
"Santana Lopez?"
"Heh, how many Santana's do you know?" She replied. The question wasn't snarky or sarcastic like Rachel would have expected it to be. It sounded downright playful. "Look I hate to be rude but it's like the surface of Mercury out here. Can I come up?"
"Oh, yes, of course," she said and pushed the button to let Santana in the front door. Rachel hadn't seen Santana Lopez since her one and only trip back to Lima almost five years ago. She hadn't spoken to her since the day Brittany moved to New York and Santana made her swear to look after their mutual friend. She was curious how much Santana knew about their lives. She knew that Brittany had kept in touch with her for a while after she moved out and Santana moved to California but she was pretty sure they hadn't spoken in while.
Sooner than she would have expected Rachel heard a rap at the door. Rachel took just a second to prepare herself for dealing with Santana Lopez once more then opened it and what she saw she was not expecting: Santana Lopez was smiling brightly and holding what looked like a bushel of daisies. "Hey, Rachel," she said offering up the flowers. "It's rude to show up empty handed and I didn't know if you guys drank anymore so I didn't know if wine would be the right call so I figured between you and B, you couldn't go wrong with flowers, right?"
Rachel presently shook off her shock at this person who claimed to be Santana Lopez but acted nothing like the girl she remembered. "Thank you, Santana," she said accepting the flowers, "These are lovely. Won't you please come in?" Rachel led Santana into the apartment towards the kitchen. "Can I offer you a beverage?"
"Hell, yes, I would murder a bottle of water right now," she said, "but I can totally get myself since you've got your hands full."
"Very well," Rachel said as she sat the flowers stems down in the empty sink, "Help yourself in that case. There's also a mountain of really good Italian leftovers in there if you're hungry."
"Shit yeah, I'm always hungry," she said peering into the fridge. "The ones with the stars on them would be your vegan stuff, I take it?"
"Indeed," Rachel replied. Santana stepped back from the fridge with two bottles of water and one tray of Rachel's leftovers. "Don't tell me you're vegan," Rachel said in complete surprise.
"Thought you might like that," Santana said as she turned the oven on to reheat the pasta. Rachel silently pointed her in the direction of a plate, "Although I'm not quite full vegan yet. I went Lacto-ovo about a year ago, and then gave up the Lacto in January. I'm still looking for a good egg substitute before I can go all the way vegan. I love an omelet too much to give them up without an alternative." Santana put the food in the stove and pulled up a stool to the island
Rachel, who'd been looking high and low for a vase, smiled at her long lost friend, "My God, Santana you are so different. I mean that in a good way. You seem really happy, I'm glad."
Santana finished shotgunning her first bottle of water and sighed in relief. "Do I seem really happy?" she said. "Well, I guess appearances can be deceiving, because I am fucking extraordinarily happy right now." A large plastic jar was plunked down onto the counter next to Santana. The sudden, unexpected sound from the unnoticed little girl caused to Santana to nearly jump out of her skin, "Holy shit!"
"You owe the swear jar three dollars," Maya said as she climbed up onto the stool next to Santana, "Mama, I found Mr. Flopsie. He was under the bed on Aunt B's side, under some clothes."
"Mama?" Santana echoed, looking back and forth between Maya and Rachel a couple of times, "You've got your own Mini Me already? You've spawned? Wait, no. You couldn't have had this kid. You'd had to have had her like freshman year of high school or something."
"Actually, I'd had to have had her sophomore year, but it was not me who had her…"
Santana nodded and cut Rachel off, "Adopted, got it. Explains why she looks nothing like you." Santana turned to the girl and said, "What's your name pretty girl?"
"Maya," she replied, "What's yours?"
"I'm Santana Lopez," she said, "I went to school with your Mama and your Aunt B."
"And my Aunt T?"
Santana said, "I don't know. Who's your Auntie?"
"Not my Auntie, my Aunt…"
Maya was cut off by her mom's voice bellowing, "MAYA! RACHEL!"
"In the kitchen," both of them called back at the same time.
"Is everything okay? The front door was open… or well, unlocked any…" Quinn stopped talking when she turned the corner into the kitchen and caught sight of who was sitting at the counter.
Santana had turned when she heard the voice, recognizing it but not quite believing who it was until she saw her. "Holy fuck! Q?"
"Four dollars," Maya said.
Santana laughed as she launched herself from the stool towards Quinn wrapping the blonde up in a tight hug. It took a minute for the shock to wear off of Quinn so she could hug Santana back. Both girls were sporting huge grins and pulling tighter and tighter against one another, when another voice chimed in. "San?" Brittany said almost like she didn't really believe it was her, scared that saying her name might break the spell.
Santana turned to see her and smiled even bigger, "B! God, get in here." Brittany needed no second invitation and wrapped her arms tightly around both girls who both worked an arm around her as well. "My girls," Santana said, "It's so fu… freaking good to see you guys. I love you both so much. I'm sorry I never told you before."
"Love you, San," said Quinn.
"Totally love you," said Brittany.
The three girls once known as the Unholy Trinity stood silently enjoying each others' presence for several minutes with the occasional tear of joy running down one or the other's cheeks before finally something dawned on Santana, "Oh, duh, sophomore year. That's your Mini Me in there shaking me down for my lunch money. How did I not see that immediately? She looks just like you. So you and Rachel?"
Quinn said, "Yeah."
"How'd that happen?" Santana asked.
"Long story," she replied, "but I'm sure Rachel would be happy to tell you all about it if you asked."
As if on cue, Rachel stuck her head out of the kitchen, "While I certainly do not wish to disrupt this joyous reunion of dear friends, Santana, your food is ready when you are."
"Food," Santana repeated. "Q, B, as much as I'm digging the huggage, I needs mah food. Come, beautiful women, tell me about all the things I've missed while I gets mah grub on." Santana led the girls back into the kitchen. Of the food sitting where she'd been sitting, Santana said, "This smells amazing. I love it already."
Quinn circled around the island kissing her daughter on the head on route to where Rachel was standing and kissed her as well before moving around behind her and wrapping her arms around Rachel's waist. Rachel leaned back into Quinn who leaned back to rest against the counter behind them. "Marking your territory there Q?" Santana asked.
"No," Brittany responded first, "They're just always like that, all touchy and stuff."
"Really?" Santana said with a smile, "Quinn Fabray, hugger, never would have guessed, but then again I'm sure smiling, happy Santana is pretty alien to most of you, too."
"So Santana," Rachel said, "not that we're not all very glad to see you, but what brings you to New York?"
"A couple of things," she said as she took a bite of her food and quickly followed by about half a bottle of water. "HOT! Hot, hot, hot. Okay, let that cool off a moment. One of the reasons I'm here in New York and the reason I'm here in this apartment is to make amends."
"Amends?" Brittany said.
"Yeah, a little over two years ago I went off the deep end." Santana looked suddenly at Maya. "Mini Q, it's totally awesome to meet you and I want to know all about you, but right now I need to have some adult time with your mommies and your Aunt B, okay? I promise Auntie Tana will take you out for ice cream or something later okay?" The mere mention of ice cream sealed the deal for Maya.
"I'll go play in my room," she said. "You have to come see it later."
"Will do, honey."
Maya climbed down off her stool and bounded down the hall and into her room. "So, deep end?" Rachel prompted.
"Yeah, booze and weed at first. I stopped going to class, stopped doing anything that wasn't getting high and getting drunk. For six months or so, that's what I did, then I went to a party with this chick I was seeing and there I graduated up to cocaine. The next six months made the first six look like the glory days of reasonability and restraint. I was either high as shit or passed out in a coma from being high too long. One year and five weeks ago tomorrow, I went too far and I OD'ed… bad. Not that there's such a thing as a good OD but I mean the doctors say they have no idea how I didn't die. I should be dead right now, but for the grace of God." Three hands all reached out for Santana virtually all at once. "And don't any of you dare apologize for not being there. You weren't there because I pushed you all away. I'm in the program now, and that's why I'm making amends."
"Amends for what?" asked Brittany.
"In short, every bad thing I've ever done, Britt," Santana said, "and since you asked, I'd really like to start with you since I wronged you the most. Do you remember why we drifted apart?"
"The duet," Brittany said.
Santana nodded, "You guys probably know this, but Britt and I were involved in high school. We were never officially anything because I wouldn't let us be. Early Junior Year, Brittany wanted us to sing a duet of a Melissa Etheridge song and basically come out to the Glee Club and I said some horrible things. Brittany, I told you that I didn't love you. That was a lie. I was very much in love with you and I was afraid that made me gay and that my family would throw me out. I'm very sorry for lying to you, for driving you away, and for belittling what was between us because not only did I drive off the woman I loved but also my best friend. Please tell me what I can do to make it up to you so that I can have you back in my life."
Brittany wrapped her arms firmly around Santana's neck and said, "You already did it, San. But just as friends this time, though. I'm…" Brittany let go of the hug to look Santana in the face when she said this, "I'm a married woman now."
"Shut up!" Santana said. "Married? That's so awesome, honey. I'm so happy for you." Santana hugged Brittany enthusiastically again. "When we get done here, I want to hear all about it, but yeah, friends is what I meant. I'm with someone too." Santana looked to Rachel next. "Rachel, when I was going through all that, struggling to deal with my sexuality, you really tried to be there, but I kept you at arm's length because I was scared. I was honestly scared that if I let you in that I'd accept myself. How fucked up is that? So for that, for letting our friendship fall apart, for the horrible names, and for not protecting you from the assholes of McKinley I am deeply sorry. Is there anything I can do to make up for it?"
"Your apology is entirely sufficient, Santana," Rachel replied, "Although I do have a question, if I might?"
"Go for it," Santana replied.
"You said that you struggled with your sexuality and you've mentioned being in love with Brittany and being with another girl. Does that mean that you're gay?"
"There's, uh, there's a much longer answer to that question but suffice to say that I identified as strictly gay for a long time, but have recently come to accept that I have genuine attraction and affection for men as well. I'm bi," she said.
"Okay," Rachel replied, "Just wondering."
Santana nodded and looked finally at Quinn, "Q, I don't even really know where to begin. I let stupid cheerleading come between us when you needed me most. We may have fought about fucking everything, but we always had each other's back. In my mind that makes us sisters, and I failed you. I should have been right there with you when your horrible excuse for a father threw you out. I should have been in there raising Hell and kicking ass. I should have brought you home to my house instead of letting you get packed off to your sister's like some big family shame or something. After hurting Brittany it's my biggest regret and I am so sorry."
"I accept your apology, San, but for the record, I wasn't packed off to my sister's she rescued me. She did raise Hell with Russell and Judy, though she stopped short of kicking ass."
"Well, good," Santana said, "I'm glad one of your sisters had their heads out of their asses enough to do right by you."
Quinn smiled at her long absent friend and said, "So was it your brush with death that's caused this dramatic..."
Quinn was cut off be sound of the door opening once again. "Where my girls at?"
Santana looked up at Quinn and Rachel standing together hiking an eyebrow. "Is that...?"
"My wife," Brittany answered. "In the kitchen, babe."
"Good," Tina called back, "That's where I like my women. Better have my dinner." Tina rounded the corner with a big smile on her face which turned to shock when she saw their guest. "Santana?"
"You're..." realization hit Santana about a previous conversation, "Not her Auntie, her Aunt T. Hey Tina. How are you?"
"I'm great," Tina said crossing into the kitchen and making a show of kissing Brittany. "How are you?"
Santana smiled at her and said, "Relax, T. I'm not here to steal your lovely wife away from you. I'm happy for you guys." Tina still looked skeptical. "Seriously. I'm got my own relationship with… heh, oh my God." Santana started laughing.
"What?" asked Tina.
"What's funny?" asked Quinn.
"This group," she said shaking her head. She gestured at Quinn and Rachel and said, "These two both dated Finn and Puck and now they're together." She gestured to Tina. "You're married to Brittany, my ex and I'm with your ex, Mike."
"Mike?"
"Mike Chang?"
"When did that happen?"
"How did that happen?"
"Is it serious?"
"Whoa," said Santana reflexively to the barrage of questions. "Um, okay. Yes, Mike Chang and yes it's serious. I mean we aren't married or anything like you two, but we're living together. How and when it happened, well that's a bit of a long story. The short version is we stayed close when we moved to Cali since we were both the only ones either of us knew out there. Mike left Stanford after a year to study musical theater at UCLA where I was. Tina, you missed the part of the story where I had a huge drug problem and nearly died. Mike never gave up on me even when gave him every reason to. When I OD'ed, he saved my life. Literally. He gave me mouth-to-mouth got my heart beating again, risked going to jail blowing stoplights and speeding to get me to the hospital, and refused to leave until I could. After that I couldn't deny my feelings for him anymore." There was a chorus of "Aww"s from the girls. "Yeah, he's totally my hero, I'm completely in love with him, and," Santana sighed and smiled brightly, "and we're having a baby."
Another barrage of excited questions followed, "A baby?"
"Really?"
"When?"
"How far along?"
"Do you have names picked out?"
"Didn't you always say you never wanted kids?"
"Wow! Good lord," Santana said, "where to start?" She took a large bite of her food and smirked as she chewed it very, very slowly. Rachel huffed at her. The rest of them just smiled and shook their heads at her. "Okay," she said once having swallowed her bite, "Yes, we're really having a baby. I'm 18 weeks, so it's due just after the New Year. January 6th is my projected due date. We have a short list of names which is now one shorter since it would be really weird if my daughter was also named Maya. And yes, Britt, I did always say I didn't want kids and a year I'd have told you the same thing, honestly up until I found out I was pregnant I probably would have said it but it was all a product of self-loathing. I didn't think any kid should have to have me for a mom."
"That's just silly," Brittany said, "You're gonna be a great mom, San."
Santana couldn't help but smile just a little bit brighter at the supreme confidence her oldest friend had in her. "Thank you, honey. You don't know how much you saying that means to me. I'm sure I'll do fine with a little help from my friends."
"Does that mean you're moving to New York?" Rachel asked.
"Or have you already?" Tina asked.
Before Santana could answer she was cut off by Maya. "Aunt T!" The tiny blonde girl charged into the kitchen flinging her arms around Tina who quickly scooped her up in her arms. "Why didn't you come see me when you got home?"
"I'm terribly sorry, pretty girl," she said, "I got distracted by an old friend."
"You been gone a while or something?" Santana asked.
She nodded. "Cousins just moved from Cleveland to Buffalo. I was emotionally blackmailed into helping them unload and unpack. Spent two nights up there. Let me tell you something, fun things to do are not in Buffalo."
"Well, lovely ladies," said Rachel, "as much I do not wish leave your company. I have a work meeting."
"Okay, Mama," said Maya, "Tell Aunt April I said hi."
"Maya Charlotte Fabray," Rachel said, "That woman is not your aunt."
"She's your mama's boss and that is all," added Quinn.
"Do not eat or drink anything she ever gives you," Rachel said.
"Work meeting," said Santana, "Theater district?" Rachel nodded. "I'll ride with you, if you don't mind. To answer a previous question, Mike has an audition for a show. If he gets it, we're moving. If he doesn't, we may move anyway. I told him I'd be there to watch." Brittany pouted and Santana said, "You're welcome to come along. I'm sure Mike would be thrilled to see his Little Sis. Although if your wife has been away for two days, then I think you have some catching up to do."
"I do," she said leering at Tina, "A lot of catching up."
"That's cool. We'll be in town a couple of days yet," Santana grabbed a nearby piece of paper and jotted down two phone numbers. "These are mine and Mike's numbers. Everybody text me so we have yours. I've really hated not talking this last year."
"Sorry," Rachel said, "there was an incident..."
"Yeah, I heard about Jewfro," she said, "Cloned all your cells and stuff. Is that perv in jail? Cuz I haven't gone all Lima Heights in a long while but I fucking will."
"Five dollars," Maya said.
"Your kid is gonna break me," Santana said.
"Yes," Rachel replied, "Either financially or grammatically."
"Oh well," she said, "I guess if I'm gonna be a mom I need something curtail my foul mouth."
X X X X X
"So you and Q," Santana said. Rachel and Santana were in the back of a cab bound for Broadway a few minutes after saying their goodbyes. "That's awesome, but how'd it happen? I mean, she was in Canada last anyone knew. Don't tell me you lead a search party into the Great White North after your high school crush."
"She wasn't lost in the wilderness, Santana. She lived in suburban Toronto, a thriving metropolitan city. That being said, I met back up with her a little over three years ago. She had moved to New York at roughly the same time I did. She came to see my show, my old show, and stayed after to say hello and to apologize for being horrible to me in high school. I took her to dinner and the rest as they say is history. She and Maya moved in six months later."
"About that, she calls you Mama. Does Puck know about all this?" Santana asked.
Rachel sighed and rolled her eyes, "No, but not for lack of trying on our part. I have legal guardianship of Maya in case I need to sign something for her but I want to adopt her. For that we need Noah's signature. Supposedly his band tours up and down the East Coast but we don't know where and we don't know when. Honestly, what kind of band doesn't advertise their show?"
Santana laughed and pulled out her phone, "Bands with hipster cred," she said, "Basically, if more than 200 people show up to see you play, you aren't cool anymore."
"And meanwhile five grown men live in a van for going on five years now." Rachel rolled her eyes. "Unfortunately, I'm Miss Mainstream Broadway so I have no knowledge of the underground music scene, and Quinn keeps up with Indie music but mothers of a six year old generally don't have time to track down a band that doesn't want to be found."
"I might know someone," Santana said punching a button on her phone, "Laur, hey. Do I ever have some stuff to tell you. Like Brittany, my ex, married to Mike's ex. Yeah, incestuous little group of friends. Listen, you know those gypsy bands you like? The ones that have the guerilla shows that they don't tell anyone where they are, you have to go and find them? Yeah, those, listen would you be able to track down one on the East Coast?" Santana looked up at Rachel, "What's Puck's band's name? Oh wait never mind. Laur, they're called Raise the Titanic. I'd appreciate it. Thanks, hon. Love you."
"You have a hipster on speed dial?" Rachel asked.
"My college roommate, Lauren, she's not bad for a hipster."
"Lauren?"
"Lauren Hardison, not Zizes," Santana explained.
"Speaking of college, are you still in? You were a Vocal Performance Major last I heard," Rachel said.
"Yeah, I am… or I was rather," Santana said. "I'm three semesters short of my degree but my voice is shot. The drugs wrecked it. I can't hit a note or hold it. My voice coach says that I'll never sing again. God, he was pissed at me. Seems really unfair that rock stars do drugs for years, for decades and are fine but I have one dark year and I'm just fu… screwed."
"You're getting a second opinion," Rachel said.
"What?"
"Your voice coach, whoever he is, isn't the final word in whether or not you'll ever sing again, and if you got connected with him through UCLA then he really isn't even the first word." Rachel pulled her cell phone out and typed quickly finally finding what she was looking for and hitting the call button. "Shelby, hey I've got a potential new client for you. Well, make room. Because she's a dear friend of mine who lost her way and could use a helping hand. Yes, I know that very well and that can be arranged. Well, call me back when you do know."
Santana looked at her with an eyebrow ached as high as it could go. "Shelby," she said, "As in your mom?"
"No, Shelby, as in my surrogate," Rachel corrected, "because that's all she is to me and all she's ever going to be in that regards, Shelby Schuester, by the way. Yes, as in Will Schuester, he's on Broadway too, and a dear friend, and really that's more of an accurate description of Shelby and I, friends. I'm perfectly aware of how strange that is. I have accepted that I live in a strange world where I'm in a serious long-term relationship with a girl who used to bully me, where I'm helping said girl raise the daughter that she had with my childhood friend, where my friends have played musical chairs with their lovers since high school, where my closest professional friend is my former Spanish teacher whom I once had a crush on, where a Glee Club of no particular importance that only existed for two years has, with Sam and Matt's success in sports and mine, Will's, and Mercedes' success in entertainment, produced no less than five famous people so far, and yes, where I am friends and nothing more with the woman that carried me inside her for nine months."
"Rach, I don't know if I want to get between you guys like that," Santana said. "It sounds like a mine field."
"While I appreciate the concern," Rachel said, "and understand your apprehension, I assure you that Shelby and I are fine. There is no, as you say, mine field."
"You guys didn't sound fine on the phone just now," Santana said, "You were short with her snapping at her."
Rachel shook her head, "That's because she was being short with me and that's just how you have to deal with Shelby. When she's in a bad mood, she pushes and you have to push back. It's the only way to get through to her. I'm sure Sugar is just being horrible again."
"Sugar? Dog?"
Rachel sighed and said, "Foster daughter, a horrible little brat of a child that they've had for the last four months. They want a family but Shelby can't have any more children so they're trying to adopt but they're having trouble getting approved since they're both in show business which isn't really considered a stable career. They've been fostering for a year now to try to prove that they're suitable candidates for adoption."
"I don't know, Rach…"
"She's the best, most respected voice coach in New York which in my less than humble opinion makes the best voice coach anywhere. You're doing me a favor, helping us find Noah, let me do this for you. Maybe you're correct and your voice is wrecked and you'll never sing again which I would call a tragedy of the highest order because you have a wonderful voice, but what's it going to hurt to try? Worst case scenario, you confirm what your voice coach already told."
Santana studied Rachel for a long moment before saying, "You're not going to let this go, are you?"
"I'm not generally known for it," Rachel said, "Giving up, that is. It's not particularly conducive of show business success."
"Fine," she said.
"Ladies," the cab driver said, "this jam ain't clearin up anytime soon. I mean, you can wait if you want."
Rachel looked to Santana and said, "I do not wish to volunteer the pregnant woman to walk, even if it is only a few blocks."
"I'm not an invalid, Rachel," Santana said.
They exited the cab and started walking. "So I didn't even know Mike was still performing," Rachel said, "Has he been in many things?"
"Uh, student stuff mostly," she said, "He starred in a short film that got submitted to Cannes last year but we didn't get to go. Money and stuff. Then there was a six month run of Rock of Ages last summer and fall. He played Justice."
"That's fairly impressive for someone who just graduated. He did graduate, right?"
"Yeah," Santana said, "it was very important to him to get the degree. Fall semester last year was kind of rough with school and the show, but he got it done."
"So what show is auditioning for?"
"Some new thing called Crossroads. It's not an adaptation of that awful Britney Spears movie, I already checked," Santana said glancing over to notice Rachel had stopped several paces back. "What?"
"That's my show," Rachel said catching up, "Is Mike auditioning to be our new Luke?"
"There was an old Luke? I was under the impression this was a new show," said Santana.
"It is," Rachel said, "but we had another actor cast as Luke and we were doing dance rehearsals last week and James hurt his leg. This meeting was supposed to be about the status of his returning, so I guess he's not. I'm not surprised. He was in a tremendous amount of pain." Rachel looked very concerned about him. "If he can carry the vocals, the role will be a great fit for Mike. I'll have to step up my game dancing though if I'm to keep from being upstaged. Interesting side note, Crossroads was originally to be spelled R-H-O-D-E-S and was to be the life story of April Rhodes."
"Who's April Rhodes?"
"The ringer than Will brought in sophomore year to replace me when I left to do Cabaret," Rachel replied.
"The boozy blonde?" Santana asked. Rachel nodded. "So why isn't it her life story now?"
"Well, as it turns out she doesn't really remember huge chunks of her life story," Rachel said, "There were entire years were she was blacked out, so the story wasn't very compelling so her financial backers had the people writing the show use what she did remember as a basis for a largely fictional story of a young couple in love struggling to keep their relationship together while pursuing careers in the world of theater. If Mike gets the role he'd be playing my love interest which would be a welcome change I must say as James was a huge flirt."
"Uh, Mike's a pretty big flirt in his own right," Santana said.
"Okay, well, James made it clear that he was interested in more than flirting and didn't seem to care that I'm in a relationship with another woman no less, which I'm reasonably certain could never be said of Mike."
"No, def…" Santana was cut off by her phone chiming. "It's Lauren," she said, "Looks like Raise the Titanic is playing a club called Scorch in Middletown, New Jersey at 9:00 tonight."
"I don't suppose she knows any other dates they have lined up," Rachel said, "Tonight's not likely to be a good night for us. Not that there's ever a good night to go to New Jersey, but Tina just got back into town and…"
"Mike and me can watch Maya if you're short a pair of baby sitters," Santana said.
"Are you sure?" Rachel asked, "I don't wish to ruin your vacation by saddling you with our child just so we can go get a piece of paper signed."
"How is that ruining our vacation? Mini Q seems like a great kid, plus you know, we kind of need the practice chasing after a rugrat. I did already promise her ice cream anyway, and it's not just a piece of paper. It's important to you and I am supposed to be making amends to you guys." Santana said.
"Very well, I'll call Quinn and tell her. Does this club have an address or must we go in search of it as well?"
X X X X X
The general belief was that the audition had gone extremely well. Mike felt good about his it. Rachel had been suitably impressed with Mike's much improved vocal range. The director had Rachel run some lines with him to see if they had chemistry together which everyone seemed to agree they did. The producers were of course non-committal but Rachel seemed rather convinced that the part was Mike's for the taking.
"I thought you said you were coming straight over from the audition," Rachel said as they ushered Santana and Mike into their apartment towards the living room where they all took seats. They had left the auditions at the same time, but Mike wanted to go by their hotel and shower before they picked up Maya.
"Yeah that was the plan," Santana said, "but then it occurred to us that if we were sitting all night, that means no alone time, and well, a pregnant woman has needs. Right Q?"
Quinn rolled her eyes at Santana from her customary place behind Rachel. "Hey, Mike," Quinn said, "How are you? It's good to see you. I heard the audition went well."
"I think it went really well," Mike said.
"It did. You were excellent, Mike," Rachel said again, "It will be refreshing to work with someone with a sense of professionalism once again."
Santana added, "To say nothing of working with someone who has a girlfriend that would kick his ass if he tried any of the stuff that the last guy pulled."
"Can we not talk about him?" Quinn asked clearly not finding the subject of James amusing.
As if on cue, as if she could sense that they needed a change of subject, the sound of Maya's little legs racing down the hallway preceded her voice, "Auntie Tana. Auntie Tana, look! Look what I drew for you." Maya, without really asking, crawled up into Santana's lap made herself at home and showed Santana the crayon-on-construction paper drawing of five vaguely people shaped blobs, four of them the same size and one smaller in the middle, all clearly labeled as "Mom", "Mama", "Maya", "Tana", and "Mike" in order.
"This is awesome, Mini Q," she said, "But what with the dark spot on me?"
"That's the baby in your belly," Maya explained, "I've never seen a baby before they come out so I don't really know what they looked like. I asked Mom and she said they mostly look like a little tiny blob. I was gonna write the baby's name but I didn't know it."
"It doesn't have one," Santana said, "We don't know if it's a boy or a girl, so we can't really pick a name yet. The doctor will tell us in a couple of weeks and then we can start figuring out what to call him."
"Or her," Mike added reflexively, looking around quickly adding, "Santana thinks it's a boy."
"I don't know why," she said, "I just do."
"Are they here?" Brittany's voice carried down the hallway. She rounded the corner and smiled a Maya sitting on Santana's lap before shifting her gaze to Mike. Her face lit up like a Christmas tree and she said, "Big Bro!" She literally leapt across the room to him as he rose from the couch to meet her with a warm embrace.
"Hey, Little Sis," Mike said to her, "How's my favorite dance partner?"
"I'm totally great," she said, "I'm all married now."
"Yeah, I heard," Mike said, "To Tina."
"You don't mind to you?" Brittany said with a smile.
"Is she good to you?" Brittany nodded. "And I know you're good to her, so no, I don't mind. You don't mind that I knocked up Santana, do you?"
"Mike, you saved Santana's life and brought her back to us. You totally have my permission to make babies with her," she replied. Brittany loosened her hug but kept her arms wrapped around his waist. She turned back to face the group resting her head on Mike's shoulder. "Have you guys told them yet?" Rachel and Quinn shook their heads while Mike and Santana looked confused. "We don't want you to go back to LA," Brittany said.
"That is to say," said Rachel spoke up, "that you've expressed an interest in moving to New York regardless of the outcome of Mike's audition, and we wish to encourage that mode of thinking. I gleaned from our conversations today that you aren't particularly happy in or attached to Los Angeles."
"You guys don't have a lot of friends in LA, do you?" Quinn asked.
"We have more friends in this apartment," Mike said.
"Having a baby," Quinn nodded and said, "You need more than that. You need a support system. And not to think too much of myself, but I've been there before, so I can help. My sister too, Charlotte has an eighteen month old named William."
"And please don't take this the wrong way, Santana," said Rachel, "but if you backslide into addiction once again, Mike's going to need people around him to help him help you. Mike, Santana explained to me how bad it got for her and knowing that, you've done amazing job helping Santana back to good health, but you shouldn't have had to do it alone and we want to be there if it ever happens again."
"You almost died," Brittany said, "and we couldn't help because we didn't know because we weren't there. You won't let us apologize for it but can you please let us be there now?"
"Guys," Santana said, slightly stunned and overwhelmed by outpouring of concern for her and her family, "this sounds great but we've got a lease and we have no jobs here and nowhere to live. I-I don't want to leave you guys, but it's not as simple as that."
"I would gladly loan you the money to break your lease," Rachel said.
"We can find you jobs," Brittany said, "We know people all over. What do you do in LA?"
"I teach dance at a studio owned by one of my former teachers," Santana said, "I help out with the administrative stuff too sometimes, bookkeeping and stuff."
"Well, that sounds just about perfect for you, doesn't it Britt?" Quinn said.
"Totally, perfect," Brittany responded.
"Perfect for what?" Santana asked.
Brittany was grinning from ear to ear. "I meant to tell you this when you were here, but we were busy with other things. Plus now Mike's here so I get to tell you both at the same time. The reason you're perfect is that I've got my own studio and I really, really need help with the office stuff, plus if you wanted to teach a class or a bunch of classes or whatever that would be great. I've got more kids than I have teachers already. There's a wait list to get in. Mike, you can come work there too if you don't get the part in Rachey's show but she said that it was a done deal so I believe her."
Santana was up out of her seat carrying Maya with her across the room to wrap Brittany in a hug which Maya was all too happy to join in on. "Britt, you got your own place," Santana said, "just like you always wanted. I'm so proud of you, honey. So what's your studio like? Is it awesome like you always said it would be? I guess it must be if you have a waiting list."
"It's pretty awesome," Brittany said, "Maya likes it, don't you Sugarplum?"
"Aunt B's is my favorite," she said.
"It would be even cooler if your Auntie Tana would say yes to working there," Brittany said.
"Britt, I would love to come work for you, but…"
"With me," Brittany corrected.
"But is Tina going to be okay with this?" Santana asked, "I got the distinct impression that she wasn't really cool with me being back in your life and frankly she has every right to feel that way. I don't want to cause friction in your marriage. Where is she anyways?"
Brittany looked at Maya then at Santana and said, "We had a lot of catching up to do after she was gone for two days. She got caught up a lot and then she got sleepy and she's taking a little nap." Santana smiled and the innuendo. "I can go get her if you want but she's really grumpy when she gets woken up. What's the rule, Maya?"
"Don't wake the vampire," she replied.
"She knows I'm not going anywhere," Brittany reassured her, "I think she's just worried that you're going to try something and hurt me, but I know you're not. Eventually, she'll see that you aren't the old Santana anymore. Until then she'll trust my judgment." Santana looked like she was still unconvinced that this was a good idea. "Come on, Santana, say yes. Us getting to go to work together would be like a crazy amazing dream come true."
"Well, that's not fair at all," Santana said, "Who could say no to that?" Brittany just smiled brightly knowing exactly what she was doing. Santana made her way back to the couch and looked up at Mike still standing behind Brittany and said, "What do you say, Big Bro? Move to a cheaper hotel room, start looking for an apartment?"
"Okay, the fact that you and I… catch up, don't call me Big Bro," he said, "But yeah, we could probably do that. We might have to sell our cars to pay for it, but if we live in the city that shouldn't be a problem, and I'd honestly rather do that than drive them across the country."
"We're going to have to sell at least one of them anyway," Santana said, "Neither one of them has a backseat."
"We actually had some ideas about that too," said Quinn.
"There are a couple of places you guys could stay until you find an apartment that you like," Rachel said, "My father's have a guest room at their home in Plainsboro, New Jersey."
Quinn said, "My sister and brother-in-law have a finished basement. They only live in Brooklyn."
"And Holly's loft is empty right now," said Brittany, "She's on a meditation retreat in India if you wanted to have a place to yourselves."
"Holly Holiday?" Santana asked.
"Yeah," Brittany said.
"Is everyone even slightly connected to this Glee Club here in New York? Shue, Shelby, April Rhodes, and now Holly, tell me that Emma Pillsbury shops on Fifth Avenue and I think I'll die of a freaking stroke."
Everyone but Maya laughed at the image. "No," Rachel said, "Emma Howell lives in Cincinnati last I heard. Artie as well as Kurt and Blaine are still in Boston. Mercedes makes her home in Atlanta although she's perpetually on tour. Matt's still in Miami playing for the…Sharks?"
"Dolphins," Brittany, Santana, and Quinn all said in unison.
"Finn is in Lima," Rachel said, "so when you officially move, Sam will be the only one of us left on the west coast."
"Actually," said Mike, "they just announced that Sam was getting traded to the Jets."
"Oh dear lord," Santana said, "It's like we're all just being pulled here, like New York is some sort of giant magnet for the New Directions or something." Just then Santana's stomach rumbled very audibly. "I think it's that time. Maya, honey, did your moms tell you that you're hanging with Auntie Tana and Uncle Mike tonight?"
"Yeah, I'm so excited," she said.
"Okay, well I'm getting mightily hungry so we need to be getting on. Can you go get anything you want to bring with us?"
"Sure," she said, "can we go eat at Papa Antonio's?"
"Whatever you want, honey," she said.
As soon as she's out of the room Santana said, "Q, are you absolutely sure that your sister won't mind us staying with her?"
"No, she doesn't mind a bit," Quinn said, "She even promised not to try to pawn Baby Willie off on you too often."
"So we're moving to Brooklyn?" Mike asked, "We don't even want to go look at Holly's loft? I mean I get that a loft isn't really you're style but there could be something to be said to having a place to ourselves since that will never happen again come January."
Santana just looked at him and said, "Okay, well I'll let you make the call, but just full disclosure. Holly and I use to hook up senior year… well, and once freshman year of college, well not just once, but one weekend."
"So Brooklyn it is, then," said Mike.
X X X X X
Brittany lay in bed next to a still lightly dozing Tina absently running a finger over a photograph and smiling brightly. She couldn't believe the day she'd had. Not only had her wonderful wife whom she had been missing severely come home to her but her birthday wish had come true. She hadn't told anyone, of course, but back in January on her birthday she'd wished that Santana would come back into her life. She'd severely missed her oldest friend and regretted letting their connection go when she'd started seeing Tina, but now she was back and it was better than she could have ever dreamed because Santana was with her Big Bro, Mike, and they were extremely happy together and soon Santana and Brittany would be working together.
Brittany felt Tina begin to stir next to her. A year and a half of sharing a bed with her told Brittany that Tina would be awake in five minutes so she quickly stood up and shed her robe leaving her in short sleep shorts and a thin cami. She let her hair back down and slid into bed next to Tina and waited for her to wake up.
"Hey," came the gravely, sleep tinged voice of Tina after she rolled over, "I guess I crashed on you."
"You did," Brittany said, "but that's okay. You did have a long drive home and besides it's not like this is the first time I ever put you into a sex coma."
"How long was I out?" Tina asked.
"Only about an hour and a half," Brittany said, "but kind of an eventful one. Mike and Santana came over to pick up Maya so Q and Rach could go track down Puck's band..."
"So we have the house to ourselves?" Tina asked with a devilish grin.
"Yep," Brittany said, "and I like where your mind is going but we have a couple of things we need to talk about first."
Tina let out a long, low growl while she slid a hand under the hem of Brittany shirt. "We had two days of talking," she said playfully, "This is supposed to be orgasm time."
"And it will be," Brittany smiled, "but first I need to tell you that I hired Santana to run the office and maybe to teach."
"I don't trust her, Britt," Tina said.
"I know you don't but you trust me, right?"
"Of course, baby."
"And you know how I am with reading people? Like when we go people watching in the park how much I rule at knowing what's going on between people," Tina nodded. "Well, this is my oldest friend. I know her so well, and the confident, happy woman that walked into this apartment today was a different person than the scared, angry girl we went to high school with. I know with time you'll see that too."
"Okay," Tina said, "I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt for you, but if she does anything..."
"She won't," Brittany said.
"But hypothetically, if she does."
"Then she's out," Brittany said without hesitation, "Tina, you're the most important person in the world to me. I'm not ever gonna let anything come between us like that."
"I know," Tina said, "and I'm sorry for seeming like I don't trust you. I do. I just know how things can be. She's your first love. You know what all I went through with Artie senior year."
"I do," Brittany said, "and I'd be lying if seeing her again didn't cause some of those old feelings to flare back up, but I never, even for a second, considered acting on them. Nothing's worth losing you."
"God, I have the sweetest wife," Tina said leaning in to hug up against Brittany's side. "I love you."
"I love you," Brittany said.
"What's that?" Tina said of the picture still in Brittany's hand.
"It's Santana's sonogram," she said.
"Brittany," Tina said sounding slightly exasperated, "We talked about this when we opened the studio."
"And we said we'd talk about it again in a few months," Brittany said, "and I'm really sorry to be a nag but I just want one so bad. Spending time with Maya is so much fun but it just makes me want a baby of our own that much more. A little you or a little me running around, the idea of it just makes me feel all happy inside, plus if we got pregnant now, our baby would be almost the same age as Mike and San's baby and they could grow up to be besties like me and San were."
"I know, hon," Tina said, "I know how much you want this. I just don't know if the time is right. I mean, you're our only source of income right now. Which means me carrying the baby, but I've still got another year of school left, at least, if I don't go after my Master's."
"You want to go for your Master's?" Brittany asked.
"I-I don't know… maybe?"
"T, you complain all the time about being tired of being in school. Do you really want to commit to two more years of it?" Brittany asked. Tina offered a kind of non-specific shrug and Brittany just looked at her for a long moment before saying, "Baby if you're not ready for us to have kids, you can just say that, I swear I won't be mad… disappointed maybe, but not mad, I swear."
"It's not that I don't want kids, you know I do," Tina said, "or even … really that I don't want them now, I guess, so much as… We don't think about things before we do them, Britt. When we started hooking up we never really considered the consequences it could have. I mean, the first time we were drunk and not really thinking at all but after that when it kept happening, we never really considered the repercussions it could have had on our friends. Luckily it worked out. We got married on a whim. We didn't even have rings. And I will always be so happy we did it that way because I know that I'd have driven myself insane trying to plan a traditional wedding and besides that it was just such a spontaneous and romantic thing to do. I just don't want our whole lives to be a series of impulsive decisions. Do you understand?"
"I do," Brittany said, "and I think I have a compromise. What about if next Friday after your last class we go look at potential donors, not committed to picking one and not even committed to having a baby right now, just to see what our options are, to determine what we would even want out of a donor."
"Like window shopping for a baby daddy?" Tina said with a smile.
Laughing Brittany said, "Totally."
"We could do that," Tina said. Tina leaned in to kiss Brittany. "Now take your pants off, it's orgasm time."
X X X X X
"You know what's really bizarre?" Rachel said, "Aside from you and Brittany going to yoga this morning and Mike's audition, we've been together almost all day and yet it feels like I've barely seen you." Quinn and Rachel were sat near the back of the club that Raise the Titanic was allegedly playing. The band was supposed to go on at 9:00 but it now half past and no sign of them yet. Rachel didn't exactly look comfortable sitting in the club since as the name implied the theme of the place was fire. Quinn had an eye for art and even she had trouble telling if the building had once suffered fire damage in an actual fire or if it was done by design but the walls, the bar, the tables, the doors, and even the stage floor had all been burned. Nothing about the place looked structurally unsound but that didn't stop Rachel's paranoia from kicking into overdrive.
"Welcome to the world of Santana Lopez," Quinn said, "where all attention is drawn to her, apparently even when she doesn't necessarily mean it to."
"Quinn, be nice," Rachel said, "She did us a huge favor today."
"It was just an observation," Quinn said, "How are you feeling about tonight?"
"Anxious," Rachel said, "I'm very excited that we're actually going to get the papers signed. I'm going to be Maya's mama, legally and everything. I'm also nervous about the possibility that he won't sign or won't want to. And honestly I'm intrigued at the idea of seeing Noah again. I haven't seen him since I left Lima, just various pictures on Facebook and such. I wonder if he still has his mowhawk."
"I wouldn't get my hopes up about him, Rachel," Quinn said, "You know I don't like to be negative, but we're talking about a guy who has basically become everything he once hated. I know you guys always had some strange connection through your shared heritage, but…"
"I have no illusions about Noah Puckerman, Quinn," Rachel said, "I'm well aware that he's a deadbeat father who lives out of a van with four other grown men and has for years now, all the while purposefully holding himself back financially so that he can maintain some ridiculous 'hipster cred' as though that were more important that than the wellbeing of his child. Had I somehow forgotten all of that, I would be instantly reminded by this monstrosity of a club. And still I am excited to see my friend."
"Fair enough, I guess," Quinn said, "as long as you don't expect me to match your mood about him."
"Certainly not," Rachel said, "I realize that your life experience with Noah greatly diverges from mine, and I have a certain animosity towards him for how he's treated…" Rachel was instantly distracted by the chiming of Quinn's phone indicating a text message. Shifting topics on a dime, Rachel said, "Is everything alright? Is Maya okay?"
"Rachel, I know this place has your paranoia running rampant, but relax. I'm sure if it was important they'd have called instead of sending a text," Quinn said retrieving the phone from her purse. She opened the message saying, "It's from Mike." She looked at the message which was actually a picture of Santana and Maya fast asleep, Maya's head laying on Santana's stomach. The caption read: One minute they were tickle fighting, the next they were out cold. Quinn laughed at the sight of the two girls sprawled out on the bed and showed it to Rachel.
"Oh, that is precious," Rachel said, "Send that to my fathers, please."
"Done," said Quinn forwarding the shot along and then replying to Mike. Thanks for the pic Mike. Still waiting on Puck's band to go on, atm.
If it's going to be late, Maya's welcome to stay. We have plenty of room, King sized bed and all. I was going to take San out for pancakes in the am. Maya can come with.
"Mike's offering to keep Maya overnight," Quinn said.
"A night alone?" Rachel asked smiling devilishly. "Sex without having to stifle my enthusiasm?"
Quinn smiled and giggled quietly. Maya would love that. Just call us when you're done eating. She replied, a moment later adding. Take your time at breakfast.
Message received.
Finally at five minutes to ten Raise the Titanic made their way to the stage, apparently to begin sound check. Puck did, indeed, still have his mowhawk although he was painfully skinny, almost gaunt. Rachel assumed it was due to the life of a starving artist and a lack of access to exercise equipment. Quinn had other thoughts. After about ten minutes of the four of them (one less than their traditional five) tuning their instruments, they finally began playing… and they were awful. Puck was clearly intoxicated and possibly more. The rest of the group was just terrible. Their bassist had no rhythm, their drummer kept losing grip on his sticks and knocking over his high hat, and their keyboardist had neglected to turn his instrument on and failed to notice this for three and a half songs. The only time all night they showed the least bit of promise was when the rest of the band vacated the stage and Puck played an acoustic rendition of "Sweet Caroline" and Rachel briefly wondered if Puck had been tipped off to her presence there that night since he'd once sang that song to her in Glee Club. Rachel was reasonably famous after all. It wasn't beyond the realm of possibility that someone had recognized her and somehow knew of Rachel and Puck's shared history, but if he knew she was there, he certainly didn't know where she was as he never looked in their direction.
Eventually their set came to a conclusion, thankfully Quinn and Rachel thought, and Rachel flagged down a server and said, "Excuse me, Naomi, could you get a message to the lead singer of the band for me?"
"Sure," Naomi said reluctantly, clearly having something better to do. She handed Rachel a napkin saying, "I won't remember it. Write it down." Rachel quickly wrote out a brief (for her) message and passed it back to the server.
Quinn sighed and said, "Okay, I'll be at the bar. If he tries anything, remember the panic word."
"Get the fuck off me, Puckerman?"
"That would be the one," Quinn said and after a brief kiss she was headed away from the table. Rachel watched her go the whole way.
Rachel waited patiently at the table for a few minutes before she began to worry that there was a terrible flaw in their plan. What if Noah had wandered back out to the bus and fallen asleep or worse yet fallen into a gaggle of girls with terrible taste in music and very low self-esteem? Rachel figured it wouldn't be hard to find their van, but she wondered if she would want to open it to see what was inside. As it turned out, she needn't have worried as Puck eventually made his way over to her table. "I knew if we played the tri-state area long enough, that you'd show up eventually," he said leaning in and hugging her somewhat uncomfortably, "I knew you always had a soft spot for me."
Rachel shrugged his embrace off and said, "While that's certainly true, Noah, it doesn't mean what you seem to think it means. Now kindly cease and desist getting your beer breath all over me and please join me. Can I get you anything? You look like you haven't eaten a decent meal in weeks."
"I can think of something I'd like to eat," he said waggling his eyebrows.
"While I cannot say I didn't walk right into that," Rachel said, "Please stop being crass, Noah. I'm very much spoken for and even if I weren't I wouldn't be interested in you in your current state. I have a bit of business I wish to discuss if you could manage to drag your mind out of the gutter for a few minutes."
"Business? You here to offer us a record deal?" he asked.
"Record deal? Noah, you know who you're talking to, right? Rachel Berry? I'm on Broadway. I do not represent any record labels and even if I did, after your abysmal performance here tonight…"
"Hey, now," Puck said, "Our performance was conceptual."
A manila file folder was flopped down in front of Puck as Quinn standing over them said, "Was the concept 'crappy band gets fucked up and stinks up the place'?" Puck stared at Quinn like he'd seen a ghost. Meanwhile Quinn took a seat next to Rachel and pushed a pen across the table towards Puck. When he made no move to take it up or to look at the contents of the folder or really do anything but stare. Quinn said, "Just sign the papers, Puck. You can go back to your life and we'll go back to ours."
"Papers?" he said as though the word was entirely alien to him before finally snapping out of his stupor. "Did you come all the way from Canada just for the show?"
"I haven't lived in Canada since 2011," Quinn said. "I moved to New York about the same time you were dropping out of high school to start up this shitty band, but for the record I didn't even drive across the bridge 'just for the show.' I came so you'd sign these papers, moron."
"What the fuck is it with you and the papers, Q?" Puck said taking up the pen. "What the hell even are they?"
"They're legal forms saying that you relinquish your parental rights to our daughter," Quinn said.
"You want me to give up on Maya?" he said shocked.
"You gave up on Maya years ago," Quinn said, "and before you say otherwise, just think about when the last time you sent money or a birthday card or even called just to tell her you love her. You're a deadbeat. You don't care. You haven't cared in years, if you ever did. Don't insult us by pretending otherwise."
The word "deadbeat" hit him like a punch in the gut… from Mike Tyson. Intellectually, he knew that he hadn't had even the slightest contact with them in years but for whatever reason it never connected his actions with the word. "Why-why-why do you want me to sign her over to you? I wasn't gonna try to get her away from you, not like I even could."
Rachel spoke first, "Because I wish to adopt the daughter that I've been helping to raise for the last three years."
Puck suddenly felt like his head was going to explode. So stunned was he at the appearance of Quinn Fabray back into his life after six years that he'd honestly forgotten that Rachel was at the table with them until she'd spoken… and said that… "Wait, so you two are… like together?"
"Yes," Quinn and Rachel said in unison,
"Like together together?"
Quinn rolled her eyes and said, "Yes, I'm gay, Rachel's bi. We've been together for a little over three years. In that time she's helped me raise Maya. Maya, who barely remembers Rachel not being around, calls her 'mama' and thinks of her as such, now we want you to make it official," Quinn poked the folder still sitting unopened in front of Puck, "Sign the papers."
"Can I see her first?" he asked with a hint of desperation in his voice.
Rachel looked to Quinn to determine an answer to a question that she thought was reasonable enough, but Quinn was already shaking her head, "No," she said, "not like this."
"Okay, give me tonight so I can sleep it off," Puck said, "We can do lunch tomorrow."
"I'm not talking about the booze," Quinn said, "Although that would be reason enough. You're a junkie, Noah. Why would I ever let that near my daughter?"
"Junkie? What the fuck are…"
"Oh please, look at you, Puck," Quinn said, "You're skin and bones, you're practically yellow, and you have needle marks on your left arm." Rachel quickly took note of everything Quinn pointed out and realization hit her. "It's plain to anyone that looks that you're addicted to heroin." Puck had no retort so Quinn said once again, "Sign the papers."
Puck opened the folder and moved the pen over to the indicated place for his signature. He hovered over paper for a full minute before dropping the pen back to the table. "I need $15,000," he said.
"No way," Quinn said.
"Absolutely not," Rachel said.
"You can't extort us on this, Puck," Quinn said, "You have no cards to play. We can take this to court and get your rights revoked. We were just trying to do this amicably."
"I'm not trying to extort you. I'm… I ju… Look, I'm a fuck up, okay?" he said, "I know that. I'm a fucking terrible father. Fuck, I'm not even a father, just some deadbeat asshole like my dad, but I want to change. The money's for rehab. I-I-I know I don't deserve to call myself her dad but I want to be a part of Maya's life. I can be better."
Quinn and Rachel looked at each other for a long minute. Neither of them had even been remotely prepared for this reaction. Finally Quinn looked back at Puck and said, "You want to be a part of her life? Sign the papers, get clean, get your GED, get a job, a real job with a steady paycheck, get a permanent address and a phone number, pursue music in your free time, and then we'll discuss it."
"And I've got what to go on there? I just supposed to believe you won't just force me out once I sign this fucking thing?"
"My word's not good enough for you?" Quinn said.
"You've done it before," he hissed at her.
"Jesus, Puck, we got into one fucking fight and you disappeared off the face of the face of the Earth. You could have called at any time. I had the same phone number up until eighteen months ago. I kept that fucking number specifically so that you could have access to her if you ever wanted it back, but you never did until now when it's about to be cut off!"
Standing up from the table suddenly, Puck shouted, "You know what Quinn? You can…"
"NOAH!" Rachel shouted over him, cutting him off. "Whatever you were about to say, please don't and please sit back down." He remained standing and staring holes in Quinn for a minute before finally settling back into his seat. "Quinn, can Noah and I speak alone for a moment, please?"
"I'll be right over there at the bar," Quinn said, "I get the sense that you are even thinking about doing something dumb and you will suffer the consequences, Puckerman." Puck said nothing but glared at her as she walked away. Rachel also followed Quinn's departing form but she was more leering than glaring.
"I don't trust her not to force me out," Puck said.
"Then trust me," Rachel countered quickly, "Life has changed considerably for both us but for my part I haven't changed that much. Though I've achieved my dream of being on Broadway, I'm still me, and for everything that has changed with you, Noah, you're still my oldest friend. Though we've not seen each other or spoken in five years, I still think of you as my friend and as such I would never let Quinn or anyone else do something like that to you."
"You swear?"
"On my future Tony award," Rachel said. "But just so we're clear, I'm not going to give you the money. For as well intentioned as I believe you are right now, you're still a junkie. You still have a junkie's mentality and tomorrow you'll get to chasing your high again and the money will end up in your arm. I say that not with judgment…"
"No judgment? You just called me a fucking junkie," Puck said.
"You're right," Rachel said, "I'm sorry. That was rude and I shouldn't have said that."
"Thank you."
"Noah, you have a serious substance abuse problem," Rachel quickly shot back, "and left to your own devices, you will use again, especially if you have a small mountain of cash. Now if you are genuinely sincere in your desire to get clean and fix your life, I'll gladly pay for rehab, but I'm not giving you the money."
"Do I still have to sign over my rights to Maya?" Puck asked his head cast down to the documents in front of him.
Rachel nodded her head steadily and said, "Yes, because while I'm hopeful for your rehabilitation, Noah, I'm not banking on it. I'm certainly not banking Maya's future on it. If something were to happen to Quinn, I have to know that Maya is taken care of, and while I easily could and, no offense, would have you declared unfit since you have no job, no money, and no home, I don't wish to put her through that and I certainly don't want her to end up in foster care while it's happening. So yes, you still have to sign the papers. That is non-negotiable."
"You and Quinn," he said shaking his head, "I've got like a million questions."
"None of them need to involve the word threesome," Rachel said.
He laughed a little, "Well, okay, then that cuts me down to just a handful of questions. I wanna ask if it's serious, but I guess three years and trying to adopt her kid then it's pretty serious."
"Keep a secret that I haven't told anyone else, one Jew to another?" Rachel said softly.
"Yeah," said Puck eagerly.
"Poker face, here, Noah," Rachel said, "She's watching you and if you get all excited about it, you'll give me away."
"Right," he said, "My poker face is the shit. Let's hear it."
"I'm going to ask her to marry me," Rachel said. Puck's face almost betrayed his emotions but he held himself. "I've got the ring already. I've just got to figure out the time and the place. I want it to be something truly spectacular."
"Good for you," he said, "both of you. Although I gotta say, two less hot chicks on the market, makes me a little sad." Rachel rolled her eyes at him still smiling. "Okay," Puck said, "if I've got your word that Quinn's not going to use this to muscle me out of Maya's life before I have a chance to make things right with her, then I'll sign the papers." Puck took up the pen to sign again.
"One moment," Rachel said, "We need Quinn here." Rachel waved her hand and a moment later Quinn was back with them at the table.
"I know I can't see her," Puck said, "but what about like a picture? Rach, you've gotta have like a hundred of them in your phone, knowing you. Can I please just see a picture?" Rachel pulled out her phone and brought up the picture gallery and indeed she did have hundreds of pictures of Maya in it, although he only showed him a few. "God, she looks just like you, Quinn."
"Except for the eyes," all three of them said at once.
"I'll send you a mountain of pictures to keep when you get to rehab, Noah," Rachel said encouragingly, "so that you'll always have a reminder of your inspiration for getting yourself together."
"Thanks, Rachel," he said. Puck finally set pen to paper, signed his name, and continued, "I guess this means I'm breaking up the band, which makes you two Yoko."
Quinn snorted derisively while Rachel said, "I scoff at the notion that your band was in any way like The Beatles and thus our status as Yoko is fairly laughable. Furthermore, Yoko Ono had very little if anything to do with the dissolution of the legendary band. She was just a lightning rod. You, Noah, are a talented singer and guitar player. Somewhere under the booze and the drugs, I'm certain that talent still exists."
"But your band mates suck," Quinn added.
"Indeed, they are untalented and seem to be part of your problem," Rachel concurred, "Why did you ever agree to be in a band that hides from its audience? In high school, you wanted to be Bruce Springsteen in the worst way. Do you think Bruce became The Boss by refusing to tell people where he was?"
Puck passed the now signed papers back across the table as he smiled in thought of long forgotten dreams. "Wait," he said, "aren't these kinds of documents supposed to be signed while witnessed by a notary or something?"
"They were," Quinn said as Rachel dug an embosser and a self-inking stamp out of her purse and set about notarizing the forms.
"Do you need us to find you a place to stay until we can get you checked into a clinic?" Rachel offered.
"Nah," he said, "I got this chick up in Queens that I've been kinda seeing. She doesn't let me bring drugs or booze into the house. I'm sure when I tell her that I'm getting clean that she'll let me crash for a day or two."
"Alright," Rachel said as she repacked her notary kit into her bag. She pulled out her card and slid it across the table, "We're going to get back to the city," she said, "You've made the commitment, Noah. We leave the next step to you. Call us when you're ready to go in and I'll arrange it."
All three of them stood. Puck said, "It was really good to see you again, Rach, and thank you for all of this. I don't know what to say but thanks."
"You needn't say anything else, Noah," Rachel said. "I'm getting you help because without you I wouldn't have this beautiful child in my life and now because you've signed the papers she's mine, legally and officially, and that brings me limitless joy. I'm sure it was hard to give her up, so thank you."
"Actually, it was kinda easy," he said, "She deserves better than me, and if I gotta give her up to anyone then I can't think of anyone better to give her up to than my Jewish American Princess." Puck smiled and Rachel leaned in to hug him again, considerably less awkward and uncomfortable this time.
They said their goodbyes and when he was gone Rachel looked to Quinn and said, "I think you enjoyed playing Bad Cop a little too much, Quinn."
"Well, complain to my acting coach then," Quinn replied, "You're the one that told me to trust my instincts. My instincts just so happen to be very angry at him. And besides, what are you complaining about, it worked didn't it?"
"It did," Rachel beamed. Quinn beamed back just a brightly, "He signed. It's official, she's ours."
"I can't believe it," Quinn said pulling Rachel into a hug.
"I'm serious about helping him, Quinn," Rachel said.
"I know you are," Quinn responded, "and if he actually shows up for rehab and goes through with it and takes it seriously, then I'm all for helping him too. If he manages to get his life together and get sober and stay that way, then I don't have a problem giving him provisional access to Maya."
"Maya," Rachel said, "My Maya, our Maya. Maya Charlotte Fabray-Berry."
Quinn scrunched her face and said, "Berry-Fabray, but never mind that now. Let's get home and celebrate with some unrestrained sex."
"Vocally unrestrained," Rachel said as they were walking towards the door, "I think I'm in the mood to be physically restrained tonight."
A/N: Sorry for the long delay in publishing. Blame David Fincher and Stieg Larsson. I watched The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and spend the next two weeks reading all three books. There's a spin-off chapter to story that is the back story of Santana and Mike if anyone is interested.