Disclaimer: I do not own neither Glee nor Life Unexpected.
A/N: I've been struggling a little bit, because I want to do this justice. I want to get the emotional parts really emotional. So it's coming very slowly to me.
Chapter - 4
"Quinn?" Rachel takes in the blonde's appearance. She still has her blonde hair short, the way she cut it down while in New York for Nationals. She looks more mature and older, but that doesn't diminish her beauty, au contraire.
The blonde still has her arm towards the brunette on the floor, but she adopts now a slightly annoyed pose, raising her eyebrow. "You want up?" Finally, Rachel reacts and grabs her hand so the blonde can help her up.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome." She arranges her things in her paper bag and seems ready to leave, but before that happens, Rachel needs to talk to her.
"I'm sorry I bumped into you like that. Are you ok? Did I injure you? I'm hoping everything you bought is still in prime condition."
"Everything's fine, Rachel." She chuckles. "And you haven't changed a bit. How long has it been? Thirteen years?"
"Fourteen, actually." The brunette just smiles.
"You still rumble a lot."
"Honestly that only happens when..." I'm nervous, I'm around you? She stops herself for continuing the sentence and shakes her head to move to another line of conversation. "What have you been up to? I haven't seen you or heard about you since graduation! You kind of vanished from us..." She tries to enquire.
"Oh, nothing much. I graduated from college and started working here and there." She shakes her free hand trying to distract the vague statement with fake unimportance. "And what about you? What are you doing back in Lima?"
"Well, I could ask you the same." Rachel is taking none of that and squares herself to the blonde, hands in her hips. "I didn't vanish, far from it. I graduated from NYADA and starred in various musicals. I released a couple of albums and received awards. But I still talked on the phone or on skype with my friends and more or less know what they've been up to since college."
"Are you seriously lecturing me?" The blonde looks at her through semi-open eyes and Rachel isn't sure if they are like that out of curiosity or anger. She prefers to think it's the first one.
"Well..." She starts a little bit uncertain and the blonde opens her hazel eyes and raises her perfect eyebrow. "Yes." She continues more certain and resuming her posture. "I even talked on skype today with Santana and Brittany and even they didn't know a think about you. I find that very insensitive, Quinn Fabray! ...or Lucy, whatever you go by know." She finishes.
Although the whole conversation with the brunette is been some kind of fun, the last statement manages to surprise her and her walls come up a little.
"Why were you even looking for me?" She asks with a little bit of anger.
"I'll have you know I needed to speak with you." She now crosses her arms above her chest. "Actually, I still do."
"Well, you got me here. Speak to me." She copies Rachel's posture as much as she can with a paper bag.
"So... what have you been really up to? Are you married? Any children?"
The blonde scoffs. "You wanted to catch up?" She turns around away from Rachel.
"Yes and no." She dares to touch the blonde's shoulder. "It's just a conversation starter. It's been a long time and this isn't something I could start a conversation with."
Quinn turns back again. After all, the brunette insistence has always intrigued her. "What is it, Rachel?"
Rachel takes her hand off the blonde's shoulders and fidgets with both her hands in front of her, looking down at her. "I've kind of... come across Beth." She looks back trying to read Quinn's reaction.
The blonde doesn't know where to look. She doesn't even know how to feel. She's happy to hear from the daughter she had to give away so long ago, but sad that it isn't any direct contact and that maybe she won't want to meet her.
"Is she ok?" It's the first question that pops into her head and the most important answer she needs to receive.
Rachel smiles gently. "Yes. She is very good. She looks so much like you." She stops there. The brunette needs to know that Quinn really has an interest in knowing her daughter.
"And how did you...?" Her question is interrupted by the brunettes phone.
"Damn." She shoots an apologetical look to Quinn and picks it up. "Hello? Yes, Dad. I won't be long, I promise. Bye." She pockets her phone back. "Listen, I still have so much to tell you. But I have to buy some vanilla ice cream for my Daddy's dessert and go back."
Quinn takes in the brunette's distress and her inner debate. She reaches in her purse and takes out a little card.
"I'm in town for a few days." She hands it up to her. "So call me and we can catch up... in everything."
"I'd like that very much." She takes the card, her hand lingering for a few more seconds within the blonde's hand. "Lucy Scott?" She says at loud. "It sounds really good." The blonde smiles.
"Lucy really was my real name, you know?"
"Yeah. The Lucy Caboosey poster incident?" The brunette shakes her head. "Never understood it, but I got that much." She bites her lip and hopes for the best before asking. "And the Scott?"
"It's my mother's maiden name. I couldn't keep the Fabray." Rachel's theories involved her nuptials at some point. Unconsciously, she beams at her mistaken ideas. "So, see you around?"
"Definitely. See you around." The brunette nods and turns to finally enter the shop.
Quinn, or rather, Lucy is left behind, eyeing the brunette disappearing through the automatic doors to the store. She can't believe the turn her life has taken in the last five minutes.
The blonde's feet guide her towards her car, where she seats down but doesn't start the engine. Her brain is on overload. She just met Rachel freaking Berry after fourteen years. The bubbly girl excited for the future ahead of her has grown up into a stylish woman still excited for all the things in her life. She hasn't lived in a cave for all these years, she knows about the brunette's successful career and the somehow abrupt way she left the stage.
On top of just being star struck by someone of her past, said woman also brought up someone she thought long lost, the daughter she gave up when she was only sixteen. Excuse her if her brain isn't really able to form a clear thought just yet.
As she processes everything that just happens, more and more questions pop into her head and makes her even more nervous. She can't even wait.
By the time she finally gets her head around what has just happened, she's spent half an hour staring at nothing in particular in her car. The blonde grabs her phone and shoots a text message to her mother. She gets off the car and strides back into the store. She walks around the corridors and finally, approaches the employee.
"Hello. Have you seen a tiny brunette... more or less this tall..." She gestures. "...or short. That came a little while ago in a hurry?"
"You mean Rachel Berry?" The guy says. "Man, I loved her on that TV show she was as a guest star. The one with the detective and the writer?"
"Yeah, yeah. Did she leave long ago?" She cuts to the chase.
"About fifteen minutes, I'd say."
"Thank you very much." The blonde goes back to her car and finally starts it.
"Rachel." Hiram welcomes her. "What took you so long? I was starting to get worried."
The brunette gives him the ice cream, one regular, one fake, for him to start serving it.
"You're not going to believe what just happened to me." Rachel starts walking around the kitchen.
"What, dear?"
"I just bumped into her. I seriously don't know what's gotten into me." She exclaims.
"What?" Hiram is lost in her daughter's ramble.
"I keep bumping into people." She keeps going, but Hiram just lets her get to the end before intervening again. "First was Lux. I almost killed her. Then I knocked Tasha to the ground. And now her."
"Who did you bump into now?" He says calmly at the end.
"Into Quinn!" She exclaims in a whisper so nobody can hear her from the other room. "Well, Lucy now. She changed her name."
"Oh my." He freezes.
"Yeah." She nods.
"And what happened? Did you tell her?"
"I told her I had come across her daughter, but I didn't go into any details."
"How did she react?"
"She was so shocked... She asked me if she was alright and gave me her card to call her when you called my phone and asked me to hurry up."
"Honey, you could have told me."
"Yeah, right." She fakes the conversation in a whisper. "Hey Dad. No, don't worry. I'm just talking with Lux's biological mother. It won't be long."
"Point taken." She speaks. "So what are you going to do?"
"I'll call her tomorrow morning. See if she wants to meet for a coffee and talk."
"That's good." He states and then... "Are you going to tell Lux about it?"
She stops moving. "I don't know. I was hoping for your advice." She frowns. "Remember what happened with Shelby?"
"Yes, darling. You were very sad for quite some time."
"I don't want Lux to have to go through something like that." She shrugs. "But I don't want to lie to her either." She shakes her head. "She says that she only wants to contact her mother to have her sign her right release form, but really? I bet she'd be crushed if she met her now and she didn't want anything to do with her."
"Do you think Lucy will want to establish a relationship with her? Some sort of friendship?"
"I don't know." She shakes her head. "Lux told me a couple of friends are dropping by tomorrow. Maybe I'll be able to speak with her first." She bits her lip. "But still... I don't know if I should tell Lux that she's even in town."
"I think there's nothing to tell her yet. You wouldn't be technically lying if you don't tell her. But after talking to Lucy, you've got to tell her everything, whether it's good or bad."
She's only been once in the Berry house, at a lame party the brunette hosted in high school. She remembers it was the first time she drank after having Beth and only did so after Finn swore to God that he would see to her safety. She woke up in the couch tangled in Rachel, but... she was actually safe.
She parks the car and walks decisively to the door. She has no clue if the brunette still lives there, but it's the only way she can contacts her. She knocks twice and pretty soon she hears footsteps.
"Good evening, Mr. Berry." She speaks first. "I don't think we've ever met, but I went to high school with Rachel?"
His hands covers his mouth. "Lucy?" He mumbles after a while.
"Yeah?" She says unsure. She didn't expect him to recognize her and now that he does she doesn't know what for. Did Rachel ever tell them what she put her through at first? But she just told her that she changed her name...
Hiram Berry steps back and calls inside. "Honey? There's someone here to see you?"
She hears some plates clatter a little bit and then the brunette's footsteps, until she sees her emerge from the kitchen.
"Hey. What are you doing here?" She approaches the door. "I was going to call you in the morning to grab a coffee or something like that."
"I couldn't..." She starts, frowns and brushes the back of her hand over her eyes. "I needed to know more... I had a lot of questions..."
Rachel beams, her smile showing all her teeth. She looks at her Dad, still in the hall with them and he slightly nods.
"Hey, Rachel." Another blonde appears. "Leroy and I were wondering, what's taking you so long? Where's the ice cream?" She comes to a stop and faces the older woman, raising her eyebrow. "Hi."
The older blonde opens her mouth in astonishment and examines the teenager from head to toe, biting her lip. Her eyes are beginning to tear and she can't help it. She looks for a second to the brunette, who nods her head.
"Oh my god..."
The teenager doesn't take her eyes from Quinn. She remembers the picture in Rachel's house, the blonde woman in it. It's the one in front of her.
"Rachel?" She simply says.
The brunette understands it perfectly and gives her the answer she was hoping. She clears her throat. "Lux, this is your mother."
"Hi." Lux says, still shocked. One moment she doesn't know where the hell her mother is and now, she's standing right in front of her. Excuse her if she needs some time to process it.
Something snaps and the Berrys start moving. Hiram goes back into the living room, to bring Leroy up to date in what's going on in the hall. Rachel, in the other hand, walks behind the still shocked Lucy and closes the door behind her, pushing the blonde definitely inside and snapping her too into motion.
"I can't believe you are here." Her daughter, her now sixteen years old daughter, is still standing right in front of her. The little baby she gave up when she was the same age as her daughter is now. Not so little anymore.
"I... I'm so glad I got to meet you." She rambles. "You're so big... Not big, big. Proportional." Lux chuckles. "How are you?" She aches to touch her, to hug her, but she doesn't know if the girl will be open to her invading her personal space.
"I'm fine... you know? Proportional..." She lets escape a nervous laugh and takes a step forward towards her mother. Lucy doesn't hesitate anymore and hugs her longingly and it's like a piece of her has been restored.
After a while, she lets go of the girl, leaving a kiss in her head before retracting.
"Hey girls." Hiram reappears in the hall, with Leroy in his arm.
"Aaw, that's so sweet." Leroy comments in a lower voice.
"We are going to bed now, but please, come on in and have some ice cream or... whatever." He shakes his free hand.
"Also, can we get full story in the morning?" Leroy adds. Hiram smacks his husband's arm and pushes him forward.
"Oh, we can continue this in our place." Rachel chimes in.
"Nonsense, sweetie." Hiram says at the bottom of the stairs. "Just because we can't keep up with you, doesn't mean we are kicking you out." He takes on step on the stairs, but Leroy gets left behind. He looks at him and he reads that he doesn't want them to see just how hard the stairs are for him these days. "Why don't you help yourselves to that ice cream? I think I left it out of the fridge."
Rachel gets the idea too. "Okay. Goodnight, Dad, Daddy." She gestures Lucy and Lux to go to the kitchen.
"Goodnight, Hiram, Leroy." Lux smiles to them and goes out of the room.
"Goodnight, Mr. Berry and Mr. Berry." Lucy nods at them and follows the brunette and her daughter.
"Goodnight, girls." They call out.
Rachel picks the ice cream, not for the counter, but from the fridge - yeah, she had read that right. "Do you want some vanilla ice cream?"
"Sure." Lucy sits in one of the kitchen stool.
"I'm guessing regular, right?" The older blonde just nods slightly. "Lux, regular or vegan?"
"Vegan." Lucy keeps staring at them, like a tennis match. The questions start accumulating.
"Ask away." The brunette still knows how to read her, after all of this time.
"You adopted Lux? When...? I... what happened to her adoptive parents? how did she end up with you?" She tries to voice some of the more pressing ones.
"I was never adopted." The younger blonde starts.
"What? Why? They told me they wouldn't have any problem to find you a good family!" She exclaims.
Lux just shrugs, having a spoon full of ice cream sitting on another stool, so Rachel answers. "She had a heart condition. I'm guessing the doctors never told you?" Lucy shakes her head no. "She had to go through a series of operations and when she finished she was already too old for prospective parents."
Lucy looks at her daughter with a mix of fright and sadness.
"Don't you dare pity me." She says in an angry tone. "I'm fine." She adds, with less anger in her voice.
"So how...?"
"I crashed into her..." The brunette starts.
"Literally..." Lux mumbles.
"...the day before her emancipation hearing." Rachel finishes.
"Emancipation from who?"
"The foster care system." Both Rachel and Lux say at the same time.
Lucy nods, trying to still make sense of everything. "And after that, you ended up living with Rachel?"
"It didn't go as expected..." Lux just says.
"The judge didn't grant her emancipation, because she thought Lux couldn't care of herself and because... you and Noah didn't sign the right release form." Lucy looks at Lux and she shrugs. "She put her in my care for the time being. And look where has it taken her." The older blonde smiles. "I didn't know at first she was your daughter... but I've been trying to find you ever since."
Lucy just smiles, because after everything, Rachel still cares a lot about what she thinks and how she feels. After everything, she thinks Rachel will be the best adoptive home the girl can hope for. She had, and the blonde thinks she still has, a huge ego, but she's also attentive and very sweet.
Lux closes her eyes as she faces her bowl of ice cream and finds the calmness in herself to wear a cool face as she asks her biological mother. "So... maybe now that you are here... could you sign the right release?" Lux tells her.
Lucy looks at Rachel, wondering why the arrangement isn't permanent and her daughter isn't staying with her until she is legal. Rachel is looking at Lux, wondering why she is being so direct with Lucy and hasn't been able to talk to Noah about the same thing.
After a while, Lucy returns to her daughter and nods. "Yes... of course." She doesn't want to. Hell, she'd like to hug her and never let go of her little girl. But she can't deny that little favor to her. After all, it was her that gave her up in the first place.
Lucy takes a spoon full of her quickly melting ice cream and the other two imitate her, maintaining the silence. After a while, she has to say something. Anything.
"So... have you met Puck?"
Lux nods. "Yes. He's cool."
"He never left Lima. He was easy to find. Now you..." She points at her with her spoon. "What have you been up to? You always intrigued me. Brittany said something about a poetry book?"
She chuckles. "So she did receive it." Rachel laughs along. "I needed time to figure myself out and I felt I couldn't do it with the people from my past judging my changes. After I figured it out, I had already lost touch with everyone." She shrugs and suddenly become shy. "And my book... it's just a few poems I wrote mostly during that time and high school." She looks at her daughter.
Rachel hums curiously. "So... you are a writer?"
"Not really." She shrugs. "I did write a whole book, but I have never liked writing and having strangers read it. It's personal and therapeutic. But I have always liked reading, though."
"It used to drive me nuts when you read at the back of the glee meetings."
The older blonde chuckles. "I know it did." She nods. "It used to make reading even more entertaining."
Rachel's jaw slackens and falls open in an indignant shock and the younger blonde shakes in silent laughter until she can't take it anymore.
"You did that just to piss me off?" She asks in disbelief.
Lucy laughs along for a moment. "Not just. But your subtly angry look was hilariously cute."
The brunette tries to, but doesn't succeed in avoiding the little pout in her lips. Lucy laughs a little more and then tries to sober up. "Anyway. I still write private stuff, but I now read... I'm an editor." Lux looks at her mother and smiles. She became someone, she pursuit something she liked. She should feel very proud of her, but still something inside her aches. She pushes it aside.
Rachel looks at her and nods distractedly. "I know it's been a lot of time but... I think that job really suits you."
Lucy smiles shyly. Her phone beeps in her pocket and she picks it up.
"It's... my mother." She then watches the time. "Oh my... it's so late. I need to go home." She looks at her daughter. She didn't think she'll have so little time with her... Actually, she didn't think she'll get time at all, but it doesn't seem long enough. "Are you doing something tomorrow?"
"Actually..." Lux winces. "I invited my best friend and my boyfriend over..." Lucy looks briefly at Rachel as the b word is mentioned. "I was thinking about showing them town for the morning and maybe having some lunch with them."
"Oh..." Lucy says a little disappointed.
Rachel notes the disappointment. She's sure the blonde was going to suggest something.
"Hey." She intervenes. "Why don't you bring them home? I could cook something for Tasha and Bug." She tries to keep from laughing at the face the older blonde makes as she says Lux's boyfriend name. "And Lucy? Maybe you'd like to come, too?"
Lucy looks at her daughter and sees her expectant look. "Sure."