AN: Thank you all for the reviews and alerts and favorites! You're all amazing!
Important: Sign conversations are in italic.
Levi : Really?! Well, I hope you like it... :D
English is not my first language, so forgive my mistakes.. Enjoy!
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Part 2/4 - Learning to Use your Hands
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Age 6 - the day after.
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It was 6 a.m. and little Rachel was already up, peeking through the kitchen door while a yawning Hiram stumbled towards the coffee machine. He looked up and met her big brown eyes with his.
"Rachel, little star... what are you doing up?"
"How many hours and minutes for my friend to come and play with me?" Rachel asked, walking into the kitchen and sitting on one of the big chairs, resting her hands on the table and staring expectantly at her papa.
"At least two hours, Princess." Hiram rounded the counter and kissed her hair.
"When the big hand gets where?" She asked, looking at the large cream colored clock hanging above the door.
"The big hand has to be on 12 and the little hand must be pointing to the 8." He replied, pouring coffee in a pink mug with a white hand print on it (Mother's Day gift Rachel had made on kinder garden the previous year) and putting it on the table before opening the fridge in search of milk for his daughter's cereal.
"Why is it that you and Daddy like coffee so much, papa?" The little girl used her Minnie spoon to make a foam swirl in the dark brown liquid.
"Er..." Hiram ran a hand through his bed hair, trying to smooth it down. "Because it's a drink for grown up's, Princess."
"Can I try a little sip?" She raised her bright eyes to her papa and the man smashed his lips together. He could never resist that look.
"You've tried once and didn't like it, remember?" He poured the star shaped cereal into a bowl and added milk.
She pouted. "Yes, but I tried daddy's, not yours!"
"Is the same thing, Rachel."
"Just a little tiny sip, pleeeeease?" She asked, clutching the mug's handle.
Hiram sighed. "Okay, just a sip."
The little girl smiled and took the mug to her lips before blowing the steam away and trying a little, making a face right after the first taste.
"Eww! Is very yucky!"
"I told you so." Chuckled Hiram. "Here, eat your cereal, the bad taste will go away."
...
Rachel swayed her legs impatiently. She was sitting on the couch watching a cartoon with her daddy. In theory, that is. Her eyes strayed from the TV every 5 seconds to inspect the hall and the clock that stood above the fireplace.
"The big hand's already on 12, Daddy!" She exclaimed, standing up and running to the window to spy on house across the street. "Why is she not here yet?"
"It is still early, little star..." Leroy explained, smiling at his daughter antics.
"But papa's already left. And it is 8 in the morning... and... and... What if she doesn't want to play with me?" Her rushed words fogged up the glass and she used her hand to clean it every time.
"Don't worry, she'll be here soon... And if she doesn't come, we can stop by her house after lunch."
"But I want her to be here now and..." She was cut off as the white house's door opened and she held her breath for a split second. "She's coming! She's coming!" Her little hand reached for the door knob in time to find a blonde woman ringing the doorbell.
"Oh, hello..." The woman said, looking at the beaming little brunette.
Quinn waved at Rachel while holding her mother's hand and the gesture got the brunette rocking on her feet, filled with energy.
"So, you must be Rachel..." She smiled. "I'm Judy, Quinn's mommy. I've heard a lot about you last night."
"Really?"
"This one haven't stopped talking either.. She could barely sleep, so anxious about her new friend..." Laughed Leroy, finally reaching the door. "Leroy." He held out a hand to Judy.
"Nice to meet you. My husband said you'll be home all day, hope it's not a problem to leave her here..."
"Not a problem at all..." Leroy smiled.
"Our older daughter will be home, whatever you need, just call her." She drew a piece of paper out of her pocket. "Here are our phones, the sign for mom is like this.." She placed her thumb against her chin. Rachel mimicked the sign, wanting to learn how to talk to her new friend and seeing it as an opportunity.
Judy went through some other important signs before picking up her daughter in a tight embrace. Quinn had never been alone in a place where no one knew sign language before.
"She understands a little lip reading, but you have to be facing her and speak slowly. We started out with speech therapy at the beginning of the year, so she manages to oralize some things too, but not much. It's very hard to talk without ever having heard anything before..."
The woman kissed the little girl's forehead before letting her down next to Rachel. "Behave, I love you." She signed.
"I love you too, Mommy." Quinn replied with a smile before waving and Judy gave her one last concerned look before leaving.
As soon as the door closed, the little blonde found herself being dragged by the hand to the stairway. Rachel led her to her room and Quinn could see her lips moving a mile a minute, but didn't mind not understanding, smiling to herself about the prospect of playing with someone other than the school kids (that she considered too annoying and boring, and hadn't seen in over a month).
"This is my bedroom!" Rachel announced, opening her arms and watching Quinn look around with wide eyes.
The brunette's room was so colorful and crowded with toys and girl things... Quinn quickly gravitated toward the pile of stuffed animals beside the bed. She loved stuffed animals and Rachel's collection was almost as big as her own.
"You like them?" The brunette asked, seeing her take Gina the Giraffe by the neck and caress the soft fur of her mane. "My papa, Hiram says they will soon dominate my whole room and I think I'll have to give some of them to the kids that are too poor to buy them at Christmas... But I don't want to do that because they are all my friends and I don't know if another kid would take care of them right. I can give them to you if you want. Oh! They can stay at your home and I can go and see them whenever I want. I think it would be cool and I..."
Quinn, who was staring at her with a blank expression, stepped forward and covered her mouth with her hand, making Rachel' eyes grow wide. The blonde dropped the Giraffe and moved her free hand up and down, making the sign for "calm down". She shook her head and touched her temple with index and thumb, trying to say she wasn't understanding.
Rachel raised her eyebrows, also without understand, and pulled Quinn's hand away from her mouth. "Daaaaddy!" She screamed and in less than a second, Leroy materialized at the door.
"What is it? Is everything okay?" He asked worriedly, looking out of place in the overly girly room.
"Daddy, what is she saying?"
Leroy sighed. "What your papa and I told you about screaming like that?"
"Sorry..." She looked down at her own feet and he crouched, facing Quinn.
"What is it, sweetie?" He asked slowly, as Judy said she would understand.
The little girl pointed to Rachel and made a face, moving her mouth as if speaking before shaking her head and once again touching her temple.
"Rachel, were you speaking to her?"
"Yes?" The tiny brunette replied in a questioning tone.
"She can't hear what you say... You have to talk to her with gestures."
"But I don't know how!"
"You'll have to learn..."
Quinn nudged his arm and pointed to herself and then to Rachel and made the sign of 'my house', which Leroy understood, though he was not sure what she meant. He nodded and watched her face turn into a great big smile. The little girl grabbed the brunette's hand and pointed outside.
"What do I do, Daddy?" Rachel asked, feeling her friend slightly tugging at her arm.
"I think you go with her."
Quinn took her outside and opened the gate, pulling her towards the big white house. She rang the bell several times until a 15 year old with an angry look in pink pajamas slammed de door open.
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Francine Fabray rolled her eyes at her little sister, who entered the house with the tiniest little girl she had ever seen in tow.
"What are you doing here?" She wondered aloud, signing widely.
"Teach her how to talk with me." Quinn demanded, dropping Rachel's hand and facing her sister, not at all frightened by her irritation.
"Why would I?"
The little blonde crossed her arms and opened her mouth, letting out a shriek just as sharp as the previous day, which made Rachel stare at her in awe. She herself could not scream that loud.
"Quinn!" Francine cried out, a little more awake and considerably more annoyed. "How ugly! You know screaming is bad!"
"Teach her!"
"How do you expect me to do that?"
"Tell her the name for my signs."
"I have other things to do and this is too hard." Rachel looked from one to the other, trying to understand what was going on. "And daddy said I wouldn't have to take care of you today."
"I'll tell Mommy you didn't want to help me and she'll ground you forever!" Quinn repeated the sign of 'grounded' once again, pressing her bent fingers into the palm of her hand. Francine felt like laughing. It was almost funny to see a child her size signing like a grownup.
"Why don't you teach her?" Fran asked, signing at the same time and earning a look from the tiny brunette.
"She keeps talking with her mouth!"
"You have to show her signs so she can talk without her mouth."
"She doesn't understand me." Quinn stomped her foot and Francine sighed.
She looked around and her eyes fell upon a small children's book that rested on the couch.
"Okay.." She signed. "But then you're going to play at her house."
Quinn smiled adorably, making her sister's eyes roll before sitting in front of them with the book in hands.
"So, you are Rachel?" She asked, running a hand through her hair.
Rachel nodded and sat Indian style beside Quinn. "What were you talking about before?"
"She wants me to teach you to understand what she says. And my sister always gets what she wants..." She said the last part under her breath. "She told me you were talking with your mouth, but she can't hear if you don't use your hands." Fran tried to explain. "You'll have to ask her to show you the signs of things and then you'll learn, okay?"
The tiny brunette nodded with a determined gleam in her eyes that was rather intense for a child her age. Francine chuckled.
"Ok.." She scratched her head, considering what kind of signs could be important in the communication between two toddlers. "Play!" She began, signaling with two "Y".
"Like this?" Rachel tried to reproduce, positioning her fingers the wrong way.
"Almost ..." Fran was about to help her, but Quinn was faster. The little blonde took her friend's small hand and folded her fingers the right way, making the sign of applause when the petite brunette managed to do it correctly.
...
Fran spent the next hour showing signs for Rachel, until she decided that the two little girls had enough words to communicate without her.
"That's enough." She stood up. "I'm going back to sleep. Use the book to show her more signs and don't bother me anymore."
Quinn scowled and stuck her tongue out at her sister before grabbing the little book with one hand and Rachel's arm with the other.
"Bye, Quinn's sister!" Rachel said before being dragged back to the brick house.
...
The two little girls sat on the backyard and Quinn examined the little book with a concentrated expression before pointing to the figure on the first page, a girl with red hair. She made the sign for woman and saw her new friend get it right in the first try.
She taught her the colors and some animals that were in the story, as well as the letters that appear in the text that she still couldn't read. Soon, the amount of information became too much for the little brunette, who started getting distracted by other things, such as the hair clip that kept Quinn's bangs away from her eyes.
A small golden star.
Rachel watched it shine with the sun while the little blonde kept gesturing and pointing to things in the book. The sound of incoherent babbling brought her back to reality. Quinn stared at her in a mix of anxiety and annoyance and the brunette pointed to the hair clip, hesitating before making the sign for 'pretty' that Fran had taught earlier.
The blonde took a hand to her hair and smiled, picking up the little star between her fingers and letting her bangs fall wildly around her eyes. She did the sign for 'star' and Rachel mimicked, smiling too. She loved stars. Her dads always said she would be a big star one day, like all of those women who appeared on TV and sang on Broadway.
She wanted to say that she loved stars, but didn't know how to sign the word love, so she just said it out loud. She wasn't sure if Quinn had understood, but what the little blonde did next surprised her and for the third time in two days, Rachel felt her heart do a somersault.
Quinn got to her knees, leaving the book aside and, very carefully, clipped the tiny star on her new friend's very dark hair, pulling away to see how it looked on her.
"Beautiful..." she signed with a satisfied grin.
"Girls! Lunch is ready! "Leroy yelled from inside the house, coaxing Rachel to stand up.
"Let's eat!" She exclaimed, realizing she was hungry and pretending to eat something invisible. It wasn't the proper sign for food, but Quinn understood and followed her into the house.
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They ate and played, Rachel tried to share a bit of her world of sounds with Quinn, showing her favorite movies and even making the blonde clap along with the song she was singing. They colored and engaged in a stuffed animal war that didn't pleased Leroy very much.
Then Quinn's parents came to pick her up by dinner time and the two little girls hugged each other, satisfied with the day they had shared and tired for all the things they had done. Soon, it became routine and they couldn't even spend a single day apart. Rachel got a sign from her new best friend (the star sign, but done with the letter 'r'), she loved it, obviously, and showed it to everyone she knew, loving the attention she received when talked about Quinn to her dads' friends.
Summer went by so fast and the girls went to different schools. But they would still see each other on weekends and even during the week, when they managed to bug their parents hard enough.
And they really became best friends...
At first it was so hard for Rachel not to talk. She was talkative by nature and it was not as if she forgot that Quinn could not hear (most of the time), but it was so easy to get into ramble mode that she just couldn't contain herself. Still, there was something in the other girl that affected her deeply and, even though they were only six, she felt the need to learn...
Learn to respect the silence and express herself in different ways.
And with time, she truly did..
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AN: Next – Lots of time jumps, we get to see how they started to fall in love with each other.. It's also longer than this one..
Please review!
If you review, I'll do my best to update it tomorrow! :D
