Authors Note: In an attempt to kickstart my writing for Undying Love and Of Poles And Promises again, I thought I'd knock up a little one-shot from my outstanding list of prompts. This is, as usual, unbeta'd so please forgive any mistakes.
Please let me know what you think.
"Rachel."
At first Rachel had been tempted not to accept the call from an unknown number at such a late hour of the night but her fathers were away on one of their trips and you never know what might happen and who might end up calling about whatever did happen. So she had pressed the answer button and before she could even say hello, a very recognisable voice was whispering in her ear.
"Quinn?"
Rachel's heart beats just a little bit faster, like it always did when she spoke to the blonde, but even in the single word that Quinn had spoken so far she could tell something was wrong. Quinn sounded older, broken somehow in a way that Rachel could not explain.
"Rachel…" Quinn doesn't even make an attempt to hide the relief in her voice, "I need your help."
"Of course." Rachel says immediately, "What's wrong? Are you okay? Do you need me to pick you up? Just tell me where you are and I'll be right there."
Rachel has already dived out of bed and dragged a pair of sweat pants out of her closet. At the same moment she's pulling on the sweat pants, hopping around on one foot while searching her desk for her car keys and making a list of things she may need in her head.
"No Rachel, it's not that. It's about the wedding."
Rachel lets out a sigh and collapses back onto her own bed, already making to kick off the half-on sweat pants.
"Quinn, I know you're excited about your wedding and I'm presuming that excitement is causing a bout of insomnia that has you awake at this time of night. But I would really appreciate it if you could make any requests you need to during daylight hours. I'll be more than happy to help you with whatever it is you need my assistance with, but we'll get nothing accomplished at this late hour and I would really appreciate an undisturbed night's sleep."
Rachel is already back under the covers of her bed, the bedside light is back off and she's moments away from hopefully ending the call and going back to sleep.
"I just… I just need you to make me a promise."
"Okay Quinn" Rachel stifles a yawn, "What do you need me to promise?"
"In two weeks, at the wedding. When the priest asks, I need you to object."
"Excuse me?" Rachel asks incredulously.
The diva is now very much awake, staring up in the darkness in the general direction of her bedroom ceiling. Despite her own feelings, she had been helping Quinn with her wedding arrangements for months, always ready and willing to give her opinion on flowers, dresses, colour schemes and especially music. But if anyone had asked her what sort of crazy request Quinn would make of her in the middle of the night, this would have been the last thing she'd come up with.
"I need you to object." Quinn repeats her request slowly, "I need you to stop the wedding."
"Quinn, second thoughts about getting married are totally normal, but if you really don't want to go through with the wedding all you have to do is tell your fiancé. There's no need to come up with some…" she pauses long enough to avoid the use of the word crazy, "complicated scheme to stop it on the day."
"I can't do that, it's… it's beyond complicated." Quinn replies, "Rachel, please. I need you to promise me you'll do this. The wedding can't happen and you're the only one that can help me."
"Is someone threatening you Quinn?" Rachel asks worried that her friend is being coerced, "I can call the police, I'm sure they'll have someone who can help and if not, I'm sure I can find a specialist to hire..."
"NO!" Rachel's rambling is cut short by Quinn's shout, "Rachel, I don't have much time. Promise me Rachel, please. You don't understand… I can't… Please, I just need you to object."
"But what'll I say?" Rachel asks confused, "They won't stop the wedding just because I say that I object."
"Say anything, make something up, it doesn't matter. Tell them I'm already married, tell them I'm actually a boy, tell them I've been having a hot torrid affair with you, tell them you're in love with me and can't stand to see me married to someone else. Tell them whatever you need to, just stop the wedding."
"Quinn…"
"Please Rach, I need this. I need you…" Quinn pauses and Rachel can actually hear her taking a deep breath over the phone line, "I need you to swear to me on Beth, I need you to swear to me on my daughter and your sister, that you'll stop this wedding."
Rachel has never heard Quinn plead like this before and mentioning Beth just showed how serious the blonde was being. She didn't understand what was going on but she knew Quinn needed her help.
"Okay Quinn, I'll stop the wedding."
"No matter what happens between now and then Rachel, no matter what you hear. If I tell you myself that I'm so happy and I can't wait to be married, that I hope nothing goes wrong on the day… Even if I tell you not to come, you have to promise me you'll be there and object. No matter what. Swear to me Rachel, please."
"Okay Quinn, I swear, I'll stop the wedding."
Quinn's sigh of relief echoes clearly out of Rachel's mobile phone speaker.
"And Rachel, one last thing… You can't talk to anyone about this, not even me. You have to act as if everything is fine right up until you object. Do you understand?"
"Yes Quinn, I understand. But…"
"Thank you Rachel, thank you so much! You don't know what this means to me."
Before Rachel can even get another word out, the phone line goes dead.
When Rachel wakes the next morning, her first instinct is to jump on the subway and make the short journey to Quinn's apartment building. She might wake the blonde up, because a normal wake up time for Rachel is still too early for most, but she had to know what's going on and if the blonde was serious during her call in the early hours of that morning. But then she remembers how broken and desperate Quinn had sounded, how the blonde had begged had begged her to help and how she had warned Rachel not to talk to anyone.
So she decides to wait.
It doesn't hurt that Quinn was just asking her to do something she's been dreaming of for months now, ever since she heard the news that the blonde had gotten engaged. Their friendship had slowly grown ever since junior year at high school and had only solidified during collage. They started spending even more time together when Quinn had moved to the city to pursue her career until Rachel had finally to admit that she was developing feelings for her straight best friend.
Just as she got the nerve to talk to Quinn about her feelings, the blonde announced she was dating a man she had met at work.
Rachel hated him on principle, but when she met him she hated him for another reason. The man was a snake. Rachel had come across plenty of them as the clung to the fringes of the theatre scene as they lied and manipulated to get their way without a care for those they used in the process, so she could recognise them a mile off and this man was a de facto example.
Quinn didn't see it though and the resulting argument was unrivalled in their turbulent history. Quinn refused to talk to Rachel for three days, the longest they hadn't spoken since high school, and only relented when Rachel apologised and promised not to bring the subject up again. But Rachel had only apologised so that she could be there when what she was sure was the inevitable happened.
So even while Rachel was helping Quinn plan her wedding, even while she was getting fitted for her maid of honour dress and picking flowers and tasting cakes and puzzling over seating charts, she was quietly wishing that she could stop the whole thing from happening. And now Quinn had called her asking her to do just that and Rachel can't believe her luck.
But it worries her too, because why would Quinn want to stop the wedding and why would she need Rachel to object when it would be so simple for her to walk away herself? They're supposed to be having lunch together later in the week and Rachel decided she'll take the opportunity do a little fishing.
Quinn is already at the café when Rachel arrives. That isn't unusual, the blonde is always a better time keep than Rachel and she happens to work closer to the café than Rachel. The diva watches her through the window for a few moments. Quinn seems happy and relaxed. More so than normal recently because usually she's stressing about something to do with the wedding and Rachel wonders if she's relaxed because of the phone call she made to the diva a week earlier.
Rachel sighs to herself before she pulls the café door open and steps inside. The door doesn't make a sound but Quinn's head turns almost immediately towards where Rachel making her way through the sea of chairs and tables. Quinn breaks out in a smile that makes Rachel's heart skip a beat.
"Hi Rachel." The blonde says.
"Hi Quinn."
"Are you going to sit down?" Quinn asks after a moment.
Rachel blushes when she realises she's been standing behind her chair, one hand resting on the back while she started at the blonde. She pulls out the chair and sits, picking up one of the café menus to study even though she knows it by heart. Neither of the women break the silence until Rachel looks up and finds Quinn studying her intently.
"Rachel, is everything okay? You seem a little… off today."
Rachel shrugs and shakes her head a little.
"Rachel?" Quinn prompts.
"I'm good thank you Quinn. How are plans for the wedding going?"
It's a little bit of a cheat to use Quinn's current favourite topic to distract her but it works and Quinn is very quickly going through the latest details of her big day.
"So everything is more or less done." Quinn concludes after talking more or less non-stop for fifteen minutes. "The only problem that remains in the seating plan for the meal."
"The seating plan?" Rachel asks in confusion, "Why is that a problem?"
"Because I'm still waiting to know if someone…" Quinn looks at Rachel pointedly, "is bringing a plus one or not."
"Ah" Rachel says and shakes her head, "No, I won't be bringing anyone."
"You mean you still haven't talked to her?" Quinn asks.
During one of their lunch dates a few months previously, Rachel had not only admitted there was someone she was attracted to but that person was a female. Quinn had looked at her for a long moment, enough to make Rachel rather nervous, but had then smiled, nodded and commented that she wasn't that surprised. Ever since, she had been trying to find out who the mysterious woman that had captured her best friend's heart was.
Rachel just shook her head and glanced away.
Quinn sighs, "Rachel, you're never going to get anywhere unless you actually try. You never know, she might like you back."
"I don't think so Quinn," Rachel shakes her head, "She's straight."
"You're sure?"
"Yes."
"Oh." Quinn doesn't really know what to say to that, "That sucks."
Rachel nods sadly. For a while a heavy silence descends over their table until it's broken by Rachel.
"Quinn, can I ask you something?"
"Of course." The blonde nods.
"Are you happy?" Rachel asks. "I mean... With the wedding and your fiancé and... Well everything." Rachel looks into Quinn's eyes, trying to convey her true meaning with a look, "I just want to make sure you're getting married because it's what you want, that you're happy and its right."
Quinn treats Rachel to one of those genuine smiles that makes the diva's heart beat a little bit faster then she makes it worse by leaning over and actually giving Rachel a hug.
"You're my best friend Rachel, and you're always looking out for me." Quinn says warmly, "You don't know how much that means to me. And yes, I am happy Rachel. I love him and he loves me. This is right, I'm sure of that."
Rachel nods and adjusts her features to a well-practised fake smile as Quinn starts gushing about the wedding plans.
"Rachel, you need to calm down and relax. Everything is going to be fine." Quinn chuckles quietly, "And I thought it was supposed to be the bride that got nervous on her wedding day."
Rachel is pacing back and forth in Quinn's changing room at the church. The blonde hadn't wanted to risk crushing her dress on the drive over and so had arrived with the dress still in its carrier and wearing sweats. The dress was still hanging from a hook on the wall but Quinn had managed to lose her sweats which meant she was sitting in front of the mirror touching up her make-up in nothing but her underwear. Her very sexy underwear.
It wasn't helping Rachel calm down.
"I just want everything to go as it is supposed to." Rachel says.
The diva turns to pace back across the room for the umpteenth time but Quinn turns in her seat and catches Rachel's wrist. Rachel automatically turns towards Quinn and she can't stop her eyes tracking over the blonde's body. Quinn doesn't seem to notice.
"Everything is fine Rachel. Everyone is here, safe and sound and ready. It's just a matter of time now." Quinn smiles reassuringly at the other girl, "I know we've had a bad track record with weddings, but no one is going to get hurt today Rachel."
Rachel swallows and nods, her mind flashing back to running in to Quinn's hospital room in her own wedding dress.
"You should get dressed." She says, plastering on a weak smile.
It only takes a few minutes to get Quinn into her dress and even though she's seen it before, Rachel is once again stunned by how angelic the blonde looks. Her hands are surprisingly steady as she helps Quinn get her veil in position, then she hands the bride her bouquet.
"I guess I'm ready then." Quinn says after a moment.
"Nervous?" Rachel asks.
"No."
The next few minutes are a blur to Rachel. She vaguely remembers walking down the aisle as Quinn's maid of honour and then Quinn taking her position next to her at the altar. And then priest is talking and Rachel's mind is racing and her heart is thumping and Quinn is staring at her fiancé with so much love that for a moment Rachel has second thoughts. And then third thoughts, and forth thoughts and fifth thoughts... And the priest's words cut through the jumble in her mind and she reacts before she can even think about what she's doing.
"I object!"
She hears gasps and exclamations from everywhere around her but her eyes are focused on Quinn. Time seems to slow as the blonde turns to look at her but the anger or hurt that Rachel expected to see directed at her was absent, Quinn gaze full of worry and concern.
"Rachel?" the blonde asks quietly.
"I object." It's the only thing Rachel can think to say.
"Okay" Quinn says after a moment's silence, "Why?"
Rachel glances around in panic. The groom looks angry but he hasn't said anything yet. His best man and grooms men look confused and Rachel can hear people whispering throughout the church. But she turns back to Quinn and is floored when the blonde actually gives her a small smile of encouragement and has, at some point, actually taken her hand.
"Rachel?" Quinn asks again.
"I..." Rachel starts, then she swallows thickly and takes a deep breath to try and calm herself. "Quinn, I'm in love with you." She blurts, "And I can't let you go through with this if there's any chance for... for us."
It should sound ridiculous but it doesn't, mainly because it's true and honestly, Rachel can't believe she's actually said it in front of a church full of people. The gasps that come from the gathered guests, including two she recognises as her fathers, echo's the shocked expression that Quinn now wears.
"I know this may sound ridiculous, but I know you Quinn. We've been best friends for years and we've known each other for so much longer. I can't let this go without taking the chance. You may hate me for doing this or for waiting till now to it, but..." Rachel shakes her head, "But I can't miss this opportunity, I can't watch you pledge yourself to someone else if there is even the smallest chance, even the tiniest chance, that we could have something amazing together. Quinn, I know you, much better than he ever will." She gestures towards the groom, "I've known you at your best and I've known you at your worst and I'm still here. I know you've seen the same in me and you're still my best friend. You've been there for me... so many times I can't even count..."
Rachel forces her gaze up from their joined hands to look Quinn directly in the eye.
"I know this might be a shock for you Quinn but please... please... Just look into your heart and there's any chance, even a tiny chance for us to be together, let's take it. Let's get out of here and... I don't know, go somewhere and find out what we could be together."
Quinn's mouth opens but it's the groom that speaks.
"That's it, I've had enough. Get her out of here."
The best man and one of the grooms men move immediately, each taking one of Rachel's arms and literally dragging her away from the altar. She squirms and shrieks and tries to kick out at them, but they are too strong and she can't escape their grip. Quinn makes to stop them but a hand closes around one of her biceps.
"Carry on Reverend" the groom says as he holds Quinn at the altar, "This interruption is over."
"Hey!" Quinn says, pulling at her arm, "Let me go!"
"No! We are getting married and no dyke bitch is stopping that!"
The sound of Quinn's slap echoes through the silence of the church and Quinn is stunned when the man she is supposed to be marrying replies with a slap of his own leaving her cheek stinging and instantly red. She gapes at him for a moment until a blur knocks him to the floor and it takes Quinn a moment to realise that a very angry Santana has just literally tackled him. She looks over in scared confusion towards Brittany who is also heading their way, but instead of trying to get Santana under control, the other blonde actually seems to be helping the Latina beat holy hell out of the groom.
Quinn finds she doesn't care. But she's free of his grasp and she turns to look for Rachel. Puck and Sam are already dealing with the guys that had been dragging the diva away and Rachel is just standing there, half way down the aisle where she had been when the two men had released her, staring back towards the alter wearing an expression of horrified shock. Quinn makes up her mind in a moment, hikes up her skirts and starts towards the other girl. She grabs the diva's hand as she passes and once again Rachel is being dragged out of the church, willingly this time.
Quinn watches through a crack in the door of a small storage room as her younger self, complete with ivory white wedding dress this Quinn has learned to hate, dashes hand-in-hand with Rachel across the vestibule and out through the main door of the church. Two car doors slam in rapid succession a moment later and tires squeal as the car pulls away. Quinn closes the door and rests her head against the old wood.
"So, what happens now?"
Although she can't see it, Quinn is pretty sure Brittany just shrugged.
"I don't know."
"You don't know?"
"You've changed history Quinn." Brittany says quietly, "I've never done something like this before. You've just watched a new reality branch from the one we know and I honestly don't know which one we'll go back to."
"But we are still here." Quinn turns towards Britt, pulling up her shirt to reveal the bruising that covers most of her abdomen and medical strapping around her ribs, "These are still here. The broken ribs are still here Britt."
Brittany nods again, "We're protected by the machine while we're here." She says gesturing towards the glowing white portal she's standing next to. Blue energy crackles dangerously around the edges every so often but Brittany doesn't seem concerned. "The changes won't affect us until we go back."
"And when we do go back?"
Brittany considers the question carefully, "If we go back to the new time line, you'll be automatically integrated into that timeline's Quinn. You won't remember this little excursion or any of that." she gestures towards Quinn's injuries.
"And if we go back to our timeline?"
Britt doesn't reply immediately and the pause is enough to make Quinn shudder.
"I can't go back to that Britt, I'd rather die here than go back."
"If we go back to that timeline..." Brittany sighs and Quinn can't help but notice that the blonde won't look directly at her. "Santana and I got to know a lot of people when I was at MIT. People that work at certain three letter agencies that everyone pretends doesn't exist. People that would love for me to owe them a favour. People who know how to make other people disappear. Permanently. You won't have to go back to that."
Quinn looks at Brittany for a long time before she makes her decision. She hates that there is a chance that Brittany and Santana might have to make good on that promise if things don't work out like she hopes, she knows it'll put a strain on their relationship even as it puts Quinn into their debt, a debt she'll never be able to repay. But she holds her hand out and Brittany takes it without hesitation and they step in front of the portal.
"Don't let go?" Quinn asks, her voice faltering a little.
"Never." Brittany confirms.
And then they both step forward into the portal.
Quinn reaches out to steady herself against the living room door frame as a wave of dizziness washes over her. For a moment she knows she's home but for a second she doesn't recognise the house she is in. And then she remembers.
Everything.
She remembers running away from the church with Rachel that day. She remembers finding a motel in the middle of nowhere where they could both hide out for a little while. She remembers returning to the city a couple of weeks later to find her stuff already at Rachel's apartment, moved while she was away by Santana, Brittany and Puck. She remembers feeling nothing when Santana tells her that her now ex-fiancé is already shacked up with a new girl. She remembers really getting to know Rachel, spending long nights with her where they do nothing but talk before finally falling asleep in each other's arms. She remembers tentative dates, walking through the city hand in hand and stolen kisses in the park.
She remembers falling in love.
She remembers the first time they made love, clothes slowly stripped from lithe bodies. Eyes, fingers and tongues exploring everywhere. She remembers two fingers sliding into her and causing her to fall apart so beautifully. She remembers her own fingers entering that warm wet place between Rachel's thighs and the way that Rachel screamed her name and squeezed her fingers as she came undone. She remembers finally understanding the appeal of sex.
She remembers a lot of practice.
She remembers another wedding a few years later, she remembers standing at the altar this time, wearing a white tuxedo and watching Rachel walk towards her with her fathers. She remembers a honeymoon where she and Rachel hardly ever left their suite and where more than one piece of clothing was totally ruined. She remembers the intense agony of giving birth to her second daughter, her first with Rachel, and the intense love and happiness she felt when she was handed her baby. She remembers standing next to a hospital bed, holding a screaming Rachel's hand, watching in awe as the brunette brought their son into the world.
She remembers her family.
"Quinn? Can you check on Emily and Ethan for me while I finished dinner please?" Rachel's voice echoes from somewhere towards the back of the house, "Santana and Brittany are going to be here any minute and you know Santana will be hungry!"
"She's eating for two these days Rach, just remember how much you got through when you were pregnant with Ethan!" Quinn teases even as she turns to head upstairs to check on their children.
"She's not the only one!" Rachel calls back in an amused tone.
For a moment Quinn wonders what Rachel is talking about until she catches sight of her swollen stomach in the mirror mounted on the wall near the front door.
Santana didn't broach the topic until well after they kids had been put to bed and the four adults had settled down in the living room to watch a movie together.
"So did you see the newspaper today?" the Latina asks.
"Santana, No!" Rachel snaps almost instantly.
Brittany just stares at the television but the set of her jaw tells anyone who looks that she does not want to be part of this conversation. Quinn is just looking back and forward between the three other women in confusion. She hadn't seen today's newspaper even though they got one delivered every morning but she hadn't honestly thought anything of it, she'd just been busy with the kids and working on her latest novel.
"What's going on?" Quinn asks.
"You shouldn't hide it from Rachel, it's not fair." Santana says, ignoring Quinn's question.
"It makes no difference." Rachel snaps back.
"If it makes no difference, why are you hiding it from her?" Santana demands.
"She doesn't need the stress, not at this stage of her pregnancy!"
"Oh please, if it makes no difference, then there won't be any stress." Santana says and no one misses the exaggerated eye roll.
Rachel opens her mouth to reply but Quinn covers the diva's mouth with her hand.
"Will someone please tell me what you two are arguing about?!"
Santana doesn't say anything, just looks at Rachel expectantly with a raised eyebrow. Rachel huffs, but gently pushes Quinn's hand away then stands and walks into the kitchen. Quinn is about to follow when the diva returns carrying today's newspaper which she mutely hands to the blonde. It has been opened and refolded and Quinn's eyes scan the page until they land on a name she recognises.
The name of her almost-husband.
The article isn't that long, just reporting the charges and sentence, but Quinn learns that he's just been convicted of murdering his wife, the woman he had started dating only days after Quinn had left him at the altar. The story mentions a history of abuse, of broken bones and bruised skin, of one beating that went too far and ended in tragedy.
Quinn is silent for a long moment before looking up at Rachel.
"You really did save me."