-Chapter 2-
Quinn thought about that kiss every moment of every day up until sectionals. When Finn found out the true paternity of the child Quinn was carrying the blonde's life completely crashed down around her. Finn gave her a week to find somewhere else to live. Mr. Schuester left his wife leaving Quinn without parents to adopt the baby.
She couldn't live with Puck, she'd kill him. After what had happened with Finn none of the other Glee kids seemed inclined to give her the time of day let alone let her live with them. Even Brittany and Santana were a little stand offish. Only one person dared be nice to her and it was the single most unexpected moment in Quinn's life when Rachel sat down next to her and told her that it was she who had spilled the secret about the paternity of the father. Surprisingly, Quinn wasn't enraged. It wasn't because she was in love, it was because she was glad that she had no more secrets. At least not to Rachel.
Quinn packed up her things from Finn's house. It had been four days. She still had nowhere to go. She walked down the hall to Finn's room and lightly knocked on the open door. He looked up from his Xbox and glared at her.
"Can I borrow your cell?" Quinn asked quietly. When her parents said they were going to cut her off, they meant it. Her cell phone stopped working an hour after she left their house.
Finn tossed her the phone and she nodded appreciatively before going back to her room. She scrolled through his contacts before finding the number she needed and she hit "call". It rang three times before Rachel's voice came on the other end.
"Hello Finn, I wasn't expecting you to …"
"It's Quinn."
"Oh. Hello."
"Um…I…Rachel…can I ask you something? Completely hypothetical?"
"I suppose," Rachel sighed.
"So…say a friend of yours got kicked out of their house and needed a place to stay, what would you do?"
"Hypothetically?"
"Of course."
"Hypothetically, has this friend tortured me since freshman year and recently professed her undying love for me?"
"Possibly," Quinn whispered. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have even…"
"Well, hypothetically, I would tell her to give me fifteen minutes to talk to my dads and then I'd have one of them drive to Finn's house to pick her up and she could stay in the guest room until other arrangements have been made."
"Really?"
"I'm not a bitch, Quinn. I know no one else will let you stay with them and I'm not about to be responsible for having a pregnant girl sleep on the street, it could come back to haunt me when I'm famous. Not to mention the fact that you're the third strongest female in glee club and it's the middle of November. The extensive exposure to the cold air could be harmful to the baby and your vocal cords."
"Thank you, Rachel. You know, hypothetically." Quinn smiled a bit.
"We'll discuss the rules when you get here. I'll see you in a bit."
"Okay. Bye."
"Bye."
And so, Quinn took her bags downstairs and waited in the living room until there was a knock on the door. Quinn said a soft goodbye to Finn's mom and one of Rachel's dads took her bags and loaded them into the black SUV parked outside Finn's house. Quinn sat in the back seat, Rachel and her "Daddy" up front. The ride to Rachel's house was silent. When they pulled into the driveway Quinn hopped out of the vehicle and reached for her bags but Rachel's "Daddy" grabbed them.
"No heavy lifting for you, Miss Fabray," he said.
"Thank you Mr. Berry."
"It's Jim, sweetie." Jim was tall and dark and had an absolutely loveable air about him. Quinn was certain, even without having met Rachel's other dad, that if the diva wanted something that Jim was the one she went to first.
"Daddy, it's cold!"
Jim shook his head and headed up the walkway following Rachel. Quinn followed them both into the house. She was greeted with a warm feeling and the smell of cinnamon. She already loved the house. It was so much different than the one she'd lived in for the first sixteen years of her life. The furniture wasn't all antiquities but it wasn't brand new. It looked comfortable and inviting. The atmosphere was relaxed and the tension in her shoulders that had been there for most of her life lessened considerably.
To her left was a red loveseat facing a fireplace on the outside wall and an upright piano up against the wall shared with the kitchen. To her right was a blue couch and two matching armchairs, the couch facing a TV and a doorway leading to a hallway next to it. A staircase on the far right wall led upstairs. There were pictures lining the walls, the majority of them of Rachel throughout various stages of her life.
"Dad, we're home!" Rachel called out. She took off her jacket and tossed it over the arm of the couch.
Rachel's other dad came in from the kitchen and nodded at Quinn. He was short and didn't have much of his hair. He looked at Quinn carefully over the rim of his glasses. She smiled politely even though she saw the look in his eyes that told her he had probably been the one to hold Rachel multiple times over the last few years as she cried about the horrible girl that tortured her in school.
"Dad, this is Quinn. Quinn this is my dad, Chuck."
"It's nice to meet you," Quinn almost-whispered. She was slightly terrified that Chuck was going to shove her back out the door she just came through, all the while describing in vivid detail exactly all the pain Quinn had caused his daughter.
"You can get your things settled in the guest room upstairs then come back down and we'll talk," was all he said before turning to Rachel.
Quinn was led up the stairs by Jim. The two left Rachel and Chuck whispering about who knows what as they ascended the staircase. Quinn instantly knew which room was Rachel's when they passed it, it was straight across the hall from the staircase, and there was a large gold star on the door with Rachel's name on it. Quinn's room was at the end of the hallway, she and Rachel would have to share a bathroom that was between the two bedrooms but the bedroom was all hers. Jim left as she put her things away in the dresser and set her laptop on the desk and hung the rest of her clothes in the closet. She took a deep breath before heading back downstairs. Voices from the kitchen indicated that was where she needed to be and the room fell dead silent when she entered. Jim stood and wrapped an arm around her shoulders and led her to one of the four chairs at the small kitchen table.
"Would you like some tea?" he asked.
"No, thank you," Quinn whispered.
Chuck spoke first. Quinn was still slightly terrified. "I just want to preface this by saying that I am not entirely sure that any of this is a good idea."
"Honey, Quinn has just been through a very stressful time and I think we ought to give her a little bit of time to get adjusted before we determine if the situation is a good or bad idea."
"No, it's okay," Quinn said. "I was horrible to Rachel and I don't deserve for her to even speak to me let alone have you open up your home to me. But believe me, please, I've been working really hard at changing and being a better person."
"We know," Jim said. "We know the whole situation."
"All of it?"
"All of it," Rachel said.
"I'm slightly surprised I'm still alive," Quinn said.
Jim chuckled and Chuck stayed stoic. Quinn made a mental note to ask Rachel if there was a gun in the house anywhere.
"Rule number one," Chuck said when Jim stopped chuckling. "We demand nothing but respect for all members of the household. No name-calling or tossing frozen drinks anytime or anywhere. Rule two, curfew is at ten o'clock on weekdays, eleven on weekends. Rule three, tantrums and diva-fits are to be thrown in one's own bedroom with the door shut."
Rachel looked down at the table. Quinn smiled.
"Everyone pulls their own weight," Chuck continued. "As long as you're part of this household you'll have chores to do, just like the rest of us. I'll amend the chart first thing in the morning and make sure yours are suitable to fit your condition."
Quinn nodded.
"I think that's it for the basic rules. I know Rachel has a few things she wants to go over with you. Do you have any questions?"
Quinn shook her head. "I do want to thank you though. I know you didn't have to do this and after what I've put Rachel through I'm sure you didn't want to but I promise I'll pull my weight and I'll follow the rules. Whatever you ask of me, I'll do it."
Rachel smiled. "Welcome home, Quinn."
Quinn beamed.
"Rachel," Jim said, "why don't you give Quinn the grand tour and make sure she knows where everything is while we finish dinner? We'll call you down when it's ready."
Rachel stood and so did Quinn. The taller girl followed her new housemate through the sitting room.
"Daddy's study is through there," Rachel said, pointing to the door frame next to the staircase. "And there's a half bathroom, too. It's the door just to the left. Laundry is in the basement, it's the door to the right."
Rachel ascended the stairs and went into her room. "If you want to borrow my clothes at least ask first," Rachel said, nodding to the closet.
"About that, I'm taking you shopping. Kurt will kill me if we're living together and I don't do something about the bright blue pant-suit."
"There's nothing wrong with a sensible pant-suit."
"If you're Hillary Clinton."
Rachel shook her head. She showed Quinn to the bathroom which was situated between their rooms. It was no different than any other bathroom, really. Rachel's pink toothbrush was in the holder, the towels and rug were pink, and there was a linen closet that contained more pink towels. Quinn got her bag of things from her bedroom and dropped her red toothbrush into the holder next to Rachel's and put her other things away in a drawer Rachel emptied out for her. Jim and Chuck's master suite was across the hall from their rooms and bathroom. They wandered back to Rachel's room and the pair stood in an awkward silence for a few minutes before Rachel spoke again.
"Dad will come around."
"I can only imagine what he thinks of me."
"Do you want me to lie?"
"I didn't think you could lie."
Rachel sighed. "He isn't fond of you. He went through the same kinds of things when he was in school and he just really relates to it. I guess that's why I tell him everything. Daddy's parents were okay with him being gay and they made sure he went to a high school where he wouldn't be picked on which is why he doesn't fully understand what it's like. He's very optimistic and believes anyone can change which is why he likes you."
"So if Chuck isn't fond of me then why am I here?"
"Daddy reminded him of what it was like to have your parents disown you. Dad wasn't kicked out or anything, he didn't come out until after he met Daddy. After that his parents just kind of stopped speaking to him. That's why when they did their commitment ceremony he had his last name legally changed."
"What did they say when…when I told you how I felt?"
"Daddy had suspected it all along, again that's the optimistic side of him. Dad said I should be more careful and watch more closely because he thought it might be some kind of setup."
"Is he going to toss slushie on me while I sleep?"
"Slushies have been banned in the house since December of last year."
Rachel's floor suddenly became extremely interesting to Quinn. "Sorry."
"He'll come around."
The first couple of weeks were tense. Quinn was on eggshells at Rachel's and at school. On the rare occasions she went out with Brittany and Santana she made sure she was home at least fifteen minutes before curfew. She still defended Rachel at school and she stuck like glue to the chore chart which for her was pretty much just doing dishes and keeping her room clean. Quinn and Rachel worked out a bathroom schedule based around Quinn's morning and evening sickness. They generally spent most of the time in their separate rooms except when there was something good on TV. Both girls discovered they shared a common love for the drama of Desperate Housewives. Quinn got Rachel addicted to Food Network, Rachel got Quinn addicted to reruns of The Twilight Zone that showed late at night on the Sci-Fi channel.
Quinn discovered that Rachel wasn't nearly as infuriating at home as she was at school. Sure she was still a tiny bit obsessive compulsive about her MySpace schedule but she seemed to relax the moment Jim picked them up from school. Quinn quickly put two and two together to realize that it was Chuck that owned Berry's Furniture downtown. Jim was a family lawyer, specializing in adoptions and children's rights but he and his business partners were all family men and therefore made sure that their own families came first and that work never interfered with whatever was going on at home. He dropped the girls off every morning and picked them up every afternoon after glee practice which Quinn was grateful for since her father refused to give her the keys to her car when she had left with Finn.