This is a triple shift day. There will be two more uploads today: Let Me Tell You A Story, chapter 3 and Remember That Night When.
"This Little Light of Mine"
3. Arrives Soon
Quinn had been just as anxious for Rachel and Puck to arrive as her daughter had been. There was always something special about all four of them being in the same city. They were a far cry from the teenagers they had once been, and they'd left so much drama back there you would have thought they could now fly. They were family, pure and simple.
"There space for me over here?" she looked up at the sound of Rachel's voice and smirked, seeing her waddling in.
"Take a load off," Quinn cleared the laundry off the bed and Rachel sat, kicking off her shoes and swivelling her legs up on to the bed before resting her back against the pillows. She breathed out. "Better?"
"The home stretch is kicking my a…" she paused. "You know," she gestured, refraining from the word while 'around the baby.' "Hey, come here," she waved, and Quinn scooted back to come and sit at Rachel's side and they side hugged.
"So glad you guys are home," she smiled.
"Oh, so am I," Rachel chuckled as they sat back. "I mean I stayed there much longer than I was planning to, now I'm just ready to sit back and relax until I have this baby," she declared, resting a hand to her belly. Quinn reached out to add her own.
"Getting big," she had not seen her face to face in months now, and it was hard not to get emotional, seeing her this far along.
"Getting? I'm still not entirely convinced there aren't two of them in there, no matter what my doctor says. Massive is more like it. And look at you," she gestured to Quinn, who shook her head.
"Just wait a few weeks, you'll see."
"Yes, I will," Rachel told her and, at her confused look, she smiled. "We're staying in Lima until after this one's born, too," she indicated Quinn's belly, which made the blonde smile.
"Good," she squeezed her friend's hand. "Does Nora know?"
"Not yet, we said we'd tell all three of you at dinner, so… act surprised," she winced, and Quinn laughed.
"My lips are sealed," she promised.
"How about unsealing them on something else then?" Rachel asked.
"What's that?"
"What about the name?" Quinn smiled. They had both decided they would wait to share this information when they were in the same room.
It was already such a surprise for them that they should be pregnant at the same time, give or take a few weeks, and that they had to spend it in two different cities had been so regretted that Rachel had almost backed out of the role which had taken her back to New York, but Quinn wouldn't let her. So, even being away from one another, they found ways to share in their progress. They both cheered when they had found out one and then the other were both having girls, they shared this 'horror story' and that… Quinn as the 'seasoned expert' had been there to see first time mom Rachel through everything she could. But for the names they had agreed to wait until now.
"Okay, who goes first?" Rachel asked.
"Well, you do have… seniority," Quinn frowned against the term, which made both laugh.
"Fair enough," she bowed her head. "Well, we argued it out; we both had our favorites, and neither of us could let go, I hope she's not nearly as stubborn as us…" she had spoken all this on the same breath before finally pausing to breathe, making Quinn smile.
"He might have mentioned something about that," she confirmed
"But… in the end we put all those aside and started over, together. Which is just as well. I couldn't see her as anything but the one we picked," she trailed off before looking back to Quinn. "Her name is Hannah." The thought this had brought to Quinn's mind must have carried to her face, because Rachel froze. "That's not what you guys picked, too, is it?"
"No, no," Quinn reassured her. "But it's just… it's Hailey," she revealed. Finn had been the one to think of it, and when he had told her about it, she'd thought it was perfect, refusing to consider another.
"Hannah and Hailey…" Rachel just had to laugh, understanding Quinn's surprise now. "If that doesn't have dream team written all over it, I don't know what does," she sounded so excited and Quinn laughed with her. "Middle name?" Rachel gave her a look, and Quinn just shook her head.
"We're not doing that to them," she insisted, though she knew she was only joking. Rachel gave mock indignation.
"Come on… Hannah Quinn Puckerman," she pieced together, "And Hailey Rachel Hudson." Quinn gave a smiling frown.
"It sounds like we married each other's husbands," she pointed out, and Rachel let her hands down.
"Oh… yeah… okay, forget it," she waved it off. "What's it going to be?" she asked.
"Hailey Jane," Quinn spoke, her hand going to her belly. "You?"
"We decided on Hannah Rose," Rachel shared, and they just smiled to one another… It wouldn't be long now…
They had spent the next little while just sitting there, swapping stories, Rachel on the trip from New York, Quinn on Nora and her recent adventures. She was just in the middle of one of those when the girl in question announced her return and soon joined them, hauling a guitar case.
"Where'd you get that?" Quinn asked as Nora set the case down and climbed on the bed, crawling to come rest between them, soon wrapped in Rachel's arms from behind.
"Dad gave it to me," she turned her eyes up to look at Rachel. "It was his dad's and now he gave it to me."
"He did?" Quinn smiled.
"Yeah, and he showed me some things. He showed me how to hold it, and how to do some notes," she mimed.
"Hey, do you want to know a secret?" Rachel told her, looking to Quinn, who understood.
"What secret?" Nora asked, looking back and forth between her mothers.
"Want to know your sisters' names?" Quinn asked, and her eyes grew wide. She nodded rapidly, making them smile. So they told her, about Hannah, and about Hailey. She smiled, declaring she couldn't wait to meet them, and then…
"Harper!" she blurted out.
"Who's Harper?" Rachel asked.
"Now who… My guitar, Dad said I should name it. I'll name it Harper. It'll be like my sisters: Hannah, Hailey, Harper."
"Sounds good," Rachel kissed the top of her head.
TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)