Come Back Down

Quinn pulled up to the house the next Monday and smiled. Beth and Arthur were playing in the driveway, skating on the RipStick Beth had received for her birthday. "Hey guys!" she called.

"Hi Quinn!" Beth said, waving.

"Are you two playing hooky?" she asked, checking her watch. It was only a little after two, and from what Santana had said, Beth's school didn't let out until three.

"We're on half days this week," Arthur explained. "For conferences. But I have to get home. Mom wants me to start on my project."

"Call me when you figure out an idea!" Beth said.

"Okay. Bye Miss Quinn."

"So, what project was he talking about?" Quinn asked Beth once Arthur had skated off down the street.

"We have to do a family tree," Beth said, shrugging.

"Oh…."

There was a pause. Beth spun the wheels of her RipStick without looking up. Quinn kept her eyes on her daughter, but waited for her to speak.

"Did you find an apartment?" Beth asked finally.

"I did! That's why I was coming over. I wanted to see if you guys knew of any good furniture places. And I need to go normal stuff shopping, so I was going to see if you wanted to come with me."

Beth's eyes lit up for a moment. "Really? Could we go now?"

"Sure…I guess we have time. Is Rachel here?"

"No," Beth said, shaking her head. "She had an emergency rehearsal today."

"Oh, well…."

"But I'm sure it's fine," Beth said quickly. "They said I could see you if I wanted."

Quinn smiled. "Okay. You ready to go now?"

"Yeah! Just let me grab my Cricket, in case they call."

Quinn could hardly contain her happiness as she watched the girl race back inside the house. A minute later, Beth came out again, holding a small purse and a cell phone.

"Ready!" she said.

"Hop in," Quinn told her, opening the door to her Porsche.

Santana knew that one day she would get caught throwing darts at students' pictures, but it was stress relief. So long as it wasn't a parent who caught her, she should be fine…. Her phone rang and she smiled when she saw the caller I.D. "Hey Rae. How'd rehearsal go?"

"Is Beth there with you?"

"Umm…no. I'm still at work. Why?"

"I just came home and she's not here."

"What?" Santana asked, sitting up fully. "Is her stuff there? Maybe she went over to Arthur's house after school and forgot to call."

"Her backpack's here, but her purse and cell phone are gone. I tried calling her, but her phone is off."

Santana's heart hammered in her chest, but she took a breath and tried to calm down. Rachel sounded panicked as it was. "Okay…well, she could still be at Arthur's house. Call over there and ask. I'll see if I can get a hold of her."

"Okay. Bye."

"Bye, babe." Santana put her phone down and checked her watch. It was a little after four, so she wouldn't be taking that much time off. "Hey, Donna?" she called, grabbing her purse and pulling the darts from the board on the back of her door. She tossed them in the drawer and rushed into the next office over. "I need to leave early. Family emergency."

"Sure, do what you need to do, Santana," Donna said, nodding.

"Thanks."

"…so then Tony had to do fence time at recess and we were two short for kickball since Bethany was sick."

"I thought Cory brought the frog to school though?" Quinn said, desperately trying to follow the narrative. Was elementary school really this eventful?

"He did, but he just wanted to show people. Tony's the one who put it in Mr. Bradford's desk. Mr. Cillian had to come get it."

"Wait…Mr. Cillian? The Irish guy I met at your party?"

"Yeah, Aunt Brittany's boyfriend. He's the P.E. teacher at our school."

"Got it. How about this one?"

They were in the mall, wandering aimlessly after getting milkshakes from Coldstone. Quinn was trying to talk Beth into actually going into a store, but the little girl seemed quite content to just walk and talk.

"No…. It looks crowded. Can we go there?" Beth asked excitedly, pointing a few stores down.

"Build A Bear? Sure."

She was, however, completely unprepared for the explosion of…kidness, inside the store. Quinn had been forced to accompany her cousin into a princess store, once upon a time, and this place gave her the exact same feeling. The feeling of Care Bear induced revulsion. She sucked it up, though, as Beth looked utterly pleased to be there.

"Go ahead, pick one."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

Beth perused the bins carefully for a few minutes, finally settling on a tie dyed bear.

"That one's cool!" Quinn said, nodding.

"It's okay?"

"Yeah, if that's the one you want."

Beth beamed and headed over to the fluffing station, where an attendant was sitting.

"Alright, young lady," he said, holding out a box of cloth hearts. "Pick a heart for your friend here."

Beth chose a red and white checkered heart.

"Okay, you're going to rub it against your heart," he said, demonstrating with one of the others. "Then kiss it, and put it in your bear."

Beth did so, smiling the whole time so that Quinn and the attendant couldn't help but smile too.

"Okay, just pump the pedal there, and we'll fluff him!"

One blue and green tie dyed, rock star clad bear later, the two of them were headed out of the mall.

"I should get you back to your…to Rachel and Santana," Quinn said. "They haven't called?"

"I'll check," Beth said, reaching into her purse. "Uh oh."

"What?"

"Phone's dead."

"Oh jeez. They're so going to kill me. Here, use mine."

"I don't know their numbers," Beth admitted. "They programed them into my phone when I got it, and the school has them on file for when I'm sick."

"Let's just hurry home, then."

Quinn pulled in just as Santana and Rachel were exiting the house.

"Oh my god," Rachel said, clearly relieved.

"I'm sorry!" Beth said in a hurry, as Santana and Rachel pulled her into a hug. "We were at the mall, and I didn't notice my phone had died."

"Inside. Now." Santana led the way.

All four of them stood in the kitchen, staring at each other for a long moment. Finally, Rachel said,

"Beth, let's go upstairs." She took the shorter blonde's hand and marched her away without another word.

That was all Santana needed. The dam broke.

"What the fuck, Quinn?" she yelled.

"Look, I'm sorry. I just wanted to take her shopping."

"You nearly gave me and Rachel a heart attack! Did it even occur to you to call us?"

"Actually, no," Quinn admitted sheepishly. "I was so excited that she actually wanted to spend time with me that I didn't think about it. She grabbed her phone – I guess I figured you would call her before you left from work and it wouldn't be an issue."

"God, you're dumb, Fabray!" Santana griped, running her hands through her hair.

"Hey!" Quinn shouted back. "Don't give me shit for wanting to spend time with my kid!"

"After six years of no contact, I can give you shit about whatever I want! For god's sake, think about someone other than yourself for once! Call us and ask before you take Beth next time!"

"What did you think I was going to kidnap her?" Quinn asked with a snort.

"We didn't know where she was, Quinn! The only reason we didn't call the cops is because we asked Arthur if he'd seen Beth and we figured she was with you. But we were about to. Good thing you didn't stay gone another thirty minutes or we would've."

"You would've called the cops on me?"

"We didn't know where you'd gone!" Santana bellowed. "Because you don't have the basic human consideration to call—"

"So now I have to ask permission to see my kid?" Quinn shrieked. The"I'm her mother!"

"No! Let's get one thing perfectly clear, Quinn Fabray. That," she said, pointing to the picture of Shelby on the fridge. "That woman is her mother. And for the past few years, Rachel and I have been. You and Puck are biology – got that? And at least Puck comes around every once in a while."

The silence was engulfing after that. The two women stood glaring at each other, daring the other to say something else...

"We're not mad at you," Rachel assured Beth. "We were just worried. We didn't know where you were."

"I'm sorry," Beth said for the 85th time.

"I know. Apology accepted," Rachel said, kissing her forehead. She heard the shouting start downstairs and cringed. "Next time, just call us beforehand, okay?"

"I will."

"Good. And Santana might need a few extra hugs later to know that you're okay and safe. Put your earphones on and listen to music while I go…referee."

She paused in the doorway, spotting the Build A Bear "birth certificate". Her heart clenched when she saw what Beth had named the bear…. When she was sure Beth was occupied, Rachel quietly closed the door and stood in the hall, just breathing. It was awful to assume the worst of someone, she knew…but still, coming home to find Beth gone…. She took a few more deep breaths before heading downstairs. It seemed that Santana and Quinn were finished shouting at each other, so she stepped into the kitchen.

"Okay. Both of you need to look at me, and listen. I don't think either of you understands how much this is killing me."

Both of the other women looked suddenly stricken at that revelation, but didn't interrupt.

"Do you remember how I was before I met Shelby? Knowing who my mother was became an obsession. Nowhere near as bad as my Broadway ambitions, but that was just because for the longest time, I had no one to talk to about it. I imagined this beautiful, powerful woman who always regretted giving me up. Who would one day turn up on my doorstep and want to get to know me, and take me places and be proud of me when I had recitals and competitions. And then I met her…and I got about half of that fantasy. Because Shelby was just as amazing as I'd pictured, but she didn't want me. In fact, she wanted a baby. The baby of a girl who I was trying desperately to befriend. But then everything somehow turned up roses when all was said and done, even though you disappeared, Quinn. Beth and I were closenow…Shelby was in my life…Santana and I got married. And then Shelby died, and I lost a part of the family I'd built. So yes, I jumped to conclusions today and panicked a bit. But you have to understand that Beth is everything to us, Quinn. And this week has not been a walk in the park for either of us, but especially me. You have to let us know when you're going to spend time with her. We're her guardians. It's not fair to us, and it's not safe for us to not know where she is."

"I understand," Quinn said softly.

"Santana," Rachel said. "Quinn is Beth's mother. Beth gets to live what I so desperately wanted. We can't take that away from her if it might work out."

"Work out? But—"

"No, I'm not saying let's send Beth to live with her or anything," Rachel said, seeing where Santana's train of thought was going. "But she needs to get to know her, if Quinn is really on board for this, that is."

"I am," Quinn said firmly.

"Are you sure? You're not going to disappear again when she turns into a moody teenager?"

"No, of course—"

"Because as much as I want her to have it all in terms of her family, I will not put her through what I went through with Shelby. If you want to leave, if this isn't what you want, you better go now."

Quinn shook her head. "No. This is totally what I want. I want to be in her life," she said, looking at Santana now.

Santana nodded once, but didn't say anything.

"Good enough, for now," Rachel said. She went to the cabinet and grabbed a glass. It had a handle, and there had once been a gold star painted on it. She filled it with water and said, "I'm going to be in the office." Without another word, she left the kitchen.

Quinn and Santana watched her go, then looked at each other.

"Truce for now, Quinn," Santana said. "But you and I need to have a talk. And it needs to be sooner rather than later."

Quinn nodded. "I know. Lunch tomorrow?"

"Give me your number, and I'll call you. And I'll be able to call you if Beth ever goes missing again," she added with a tiny smirk, as Quinn added her number to her phone.

"I am sorry about that," Quinn mumbled.

"I know. I'll see you tomorrow."