4
By the time Rachel got downstairs her daddy already had the pancakes going. Rachel knew full-well what this conversation was going to be about, and she honestly could say she was dreading it. But better now than later, she supposed. She bit her lip and played with her thumbs, waiting for Leroy to make the first move.
Five minutes later a plate of steaming hot pancakes were sat in front of her, along with a glass of milk. It looked delicious, but Rachel couldn't bring herself to eat. One, it would be bad manners and two, she just wasn't that hungry after the whole episode with Quinn. But she still thanked him nonetheless and gave him a small smile.
"So, Rachel." Leroy began, staring directly into Rachel's eyes. "I do believe we need to have a chat."
Rachel felt her heartbeat pick up. Was she in trouble? She sincerely hoped not. It was a very rare occasion that she was in trouble with her dads. She couldn't even recall the last time one of her dads had shown any sort of anger towards her. Was she five? Three?
"I guess we do," Rachel agreed, taking a sip of her milk. "But where could we possibly start?"
Leroy pressed his lips together and thought. "Quinn seems to have taken a liking towards you." Leroy said finally.
Rachel sighed. "It's all so confusing! I mean, I was, like, a total jerk to her even though that's completely out of character for me and I'm still sort of appalled that I let myself get so jealous, but I guess it's kind of expected for one-" She realized she was babbling and stopped. "Anyway. I don't get why she likes me so much."
"There's a trusting and caring vibe about you. Anyone can pick up on it." Leroy replied with a smile. His smile slowly faded as he continued. "But you have to be careful Rachel. She's not your normal Lima-teenage girl. She's been through more in her short sixteen years than anyone should ever have to go through."
The brunette nodded her head. Yeah, yeah, she had heard it a million times already. Quinn was troubled, she had a dark past - Rachel knew all this and it was not what she wanted to hear. She wanted answers that neither of her fathers would be able to give her, that she was too afraid to find out herself. "I get that, daddy. But what am I supposed to do about it?"
"Look, Rachel," Leroy's tone was dead serious as he responded, "I know this is a lot for you to take in, and it's all happening so quickly. But for whatever reason, Quinn trusts you. You just have to be there for her, through the good days and the bad days."
A small smile tugged at the edge of her lips as she replied teasingly, "You make it sound like we're getting married."
Leroy chuckled and got up to refill his glass. Rachel fell silent and watched her daddy - though she would never admit it if someone were to ask her about it, she found just watching one of her dads to be comforting in stressful situations. It reminded her that no matter what it was they would always be right there for her.
"I'm scared," A voice admitted that Rachel barely recognized as her own. "It's all so much to comprehend..."
Leroy frowned at his daughter, walking over to place a hand sympathetically on the smaller girl's shoulder. "It'll be okay, kiddo. I promise."
Rachel leaned into his touch. "I sure hope so."
Her daddy sighed and retracted away from her, crinkling his eyes at the time. "Phew, time sure does pass slowly sometimes, don't it Rach?"
"Did it?" Rachel replied, twisting around to inspect the time herself. "Wow. It seems like it's been hours. Even weirder, Quinn's barely been here a complete forty-eight hours and already so much has happened."
Leroy chuckled. "You know Rachel, sometimes it wouldn't kill you to talk like a normal teenager."
"But when have I ever been normal, daddy?" Rachel grinned at him but her smile slowly disintegrated. It was true. She was never normal, and never would be. She was way more mature than half of her teachers, and had more talent than small town Lima could contain. It humored her to think that in a mere four years or so Rachel would be incredibly famous and suddenly you would see interviews of her teachers saying how 'great' Rachel was and how much they 'adored' her, but in actuality they all hated her guts. And most of the time, Rachel was quite fine with that.
Where would Quinn be in four years? her mind wondered before she had the chance to censor her thoughts from happening.
She'll be with me, something deep inside her answered.
The shorter girl blinked and shook her head wildly, dismissing her thoughts. The blonde was certainly messing with her head and mindset. After breakfast she reasoned that she needed to give herself some Rachel-time to unwind and just relax, something that normally consisted of dancing, exercising, and watching Funny Girl so many times in a row that her eyes burned.
The silence that had settled between the pair suddenly seemed deafening. "Perhaps I should go check on Quinn. She seems to be taking a while." Not even waiting for a response from Leroy, the brunette flew out of her seat and up the stairs to the room she was currently sharing with Quinn.
"Quinn!" Rachel yelled, banging her fist against the door, "I hope you're decent because I'm coming in whether you like it or not!"
She yanked open the door and turned her head to the side a little in case when she entered Quinn was, well, not decent. Instead, she found the blonde sitting up against one of her bedroom walls, staring intensely at her Annie poster. She didn't seem to even hear Rachel enter the room.
"Quinn?" Rachel whispered, crouching down awkwardly beside the girl. "Are you alright?"
Quinn slowly tore her gaze away from the mocking poster and toward the brunette who was crouching down next to her in what had to be the most uncomfortable position ever. "Your dad, Leroy, is he mad at me?"
Rachel furrowed her eyebrows. "Why in the world would he be mad at you?"
"Because of all the commotion I caused...I mean, he said he wanted to talk, so I just figured that..." Quinn shrugged helplessly and bit her lip.
Rachel smiled at her warmly and placed a hand over the blonde's hand and then quickly retracted when she felt the blonde stiffen. "Of course he's not mad," Rachel replied finally, "He's just...worried and concerned. But not angry. He just wants to help you adjust and start to..." Rachel fumbled for the right words to say next.
"Get over everything with Will?" The taller girl suggested.
"No, not get over, just to sort of...move on so you cant start being happy."
Quinn nodded in understanding and squeezed hey eyes closed to keep tears from falling. "I want to be happy so bad, Rachel. But I honestly don't think it's possible for me."
"Of course it's possible, Quinn," Rachel replied honestly. "Anything's possible if you believe."
Quinn chuckled. "Thank you, Ms. Polar Express."
"Wait, you've seen Polar Express?" The brunette questioned before her mind could even process how insensitive that sounded.
"Duh!" The blonde exclaimed and then suddenly both girls burst into giggles at Quinn's tone.
"Sorry," Rachel replied when she had caught her breath again. "I wasn't thinking, I just assumed that...well, I just assumed. And you know how great assuming is."
Quinn nodded in agreement and soon a comfortable silence had settled in the air.
"Girls?" A voice yelled up the stairs, slicing through the silence. "Are you two alive up there? Come on, time to come eat breakfast! I made my famous pancakes! Hiriam should be pulling up any moment."
Rachel groaned and leaned in close to the blonde seated next to her. "That's really all he knows how to cook, FYI." After a moment she added, "Do you know how to cook, Quinn?"
"Oh, yeah," Quinn nodded, standing up and smoothing down her favorite white sweater that had unfortunately been crinkled at the bottom of her bag. "I'm such a good cook that even the smoke detectors and fire alarms hoot and holler." Quinn blushed and twirled a piece of her blond hair around her finger, hoping that didn't sound as lame as it might have.
Thankfully, the shorter girl laughed and got up. "You'll have to show us your amazing kitchen expertise sometime."
"Ah, I would strongly advise against that if you like your kitchen not on fire."
"Well..." The brunette hesitated teasingly.
Quinn grinned and opened the bedroom door. "We're off to eat the pancakes..." Quinn sang to the tune of We're Off To See The Wizard from The Wizard of Oz.
"...The wonderful pancakes of daddy's!" Rachel sing-sponded as she danced out the door. The pair stood in silence before Rachel added, "You have a pretty nice voice, Quinn. You should join Glee when you start attending McKinley."
"What's Glee?" The blonde asked, genuinely confused.
Rachel gasped. "Only the best club in the entire universe!"
"Sounds endearing," Quinn replied with a smile as she started to step down the stairs.
Rachel beamed at Quinn's back and was nearly jumping up and down at the thought of Quinn joining Glee. She would be a great addition to the group, which was honestly lacking of some great voices. She was sure that Santana, Brittany, Tina, and Mike had somewhat decent voices since they made it in the club in the first place - or maybe not since Mr. Schue was so desperate for people to join he probably wasn't even listening if they had good voices or not - but they never opened up their mouths enough to let their voices actually be heard. And there was only so much repeating of her, Finn, Kurt, Artie, and Mercedes solos that he could give before it all just sounded...boring, used. Quinn would be fresh. She was probably a good dancer judging by her form - not that Rachel noticed or cared if she had good form or anything.
What was she doing? What had happened to her plan to rid herself of Quinn? Befriending her was not part of the plan. Caring about her well being and nearly driving herself nuts was not part of the plan. Quinn was supposed to be long gone by now, bugging some other family. Not here, practically making her dads go in circles because of her mental state. And what was she doing, recommending that she join glee? That was her club. Rachel's club, Rachel's thing. Quinn had already taken over her house, if she stayed no way would she let her take over glee, too. She didn't even have that strong of a voice.
"Rach, are you coming?"
Rachel snapped out of her thoughts and saw the blonde had stopped in the middle of the stairs and was staring right at Rachel. That sweet, innocent look on her face. How could Rachel even think such cruel things? Quinn was a sweet girl and likely incredibly talented. Rachel didn't want her gone. She actually wanted her to stay. Oddly enough, she wanted Quinn to stay with her, and only her. She felt a pang in her chest at the thought of Quinn going to school and ditching Rachel once Quinn heard all the nasty rumors the Cheerios spread about her. But Quinn wouldn't do that, would she?
"Yeah," Rachel replied finally. "Sorry, Quinn, I guess I just...spaced for a sec."
Quinn grinned at her, her right eye crinkling slightly in the corner. "I noticed. Come on, let's get this chat over with and then you can tell me more about Glee Club."
When the duo arrived in the kitchen, Hiriam was already at the table, worried plastered all over his face. Rachel felt Quinn stiffen next to her and without thinking Rachel reached out and gave the blonde's hand a reassuring squeeze. She expected Quinn to flinch away, but instead Quinn squeezed her hand back, and Rachel felt warmth fill her body. After a few seconds without either one letting do, Rachel hesitantly retracted her hand and awkwardly cleared her throat.
Hiriam immediately glanced up at the noise and smiled. "Oh, Quinny, honey." He got up and engulfed the girl in his arms, practically strangling her.
Strangling her. Rachel got a flash of a younger Quinn with what she always imagined Will looked like. She felt a strange surge of protection shoot through her veins. Even though she knew it was her dad and he would never ever purposely hurt someone, she still wanted to go and tear Quinn from him and scold him for no end. Gosh, if she was this bad now, imagine how bad it would be when Quinn started attending McKinely. Where guys will start checking her out, thinking she's hot, and pervs like Noah Puckerman and Jacob Ben Israel will look at her like a piece of meat. The very idea made her want to vomit. No, she liked it here where Quinn was nice and safe. But Rachel knew she couldn't contain Quinn here forever.
When Rachel tuned back into reality, she saw that her dad and Quinn had separated and were now giving each other awkward, sympathetic smiles. "Well, come on kiddies. Let's get to talking."
"We're not 'kiddies', daddy." Rachel pouted, crossing her arms. Quinn shot her an amused smirk, which Rachel returned with a glare.
"Well, when you pout like that Rachie, you have us seriously begging to differ." Hiriam grinned at his shorter daughter, who glared at him so hard in return it made him wish he had his camera so he could take a picture of it.
"Anyway." Leroy said suddenly, clearing his throat and gesturing towards the table. "Let's talk."
The worried look that crossed Quinn's face was enough to make Rachel stop acting like a three-year-old. She walked over and placed one hand on the blonde's shoulder, absent-mindedly swishing some hair off her neck so she could trace a few circles. She leaned in close to her ear and whispered, low enough for only Quinn to hear. "Stop worrying. They're not mad, I swear to you."
Quinn nodded a little, but not enough to where her dads would notice, just so Rachel would. She felt some of her tension dissolving at Rachel's circle-rubs. "I believe you, Rachel."
Rachel smiled and moved away from the blonde and took a seat at the table. Everyone else took their seats and looked around at each other, waiting for someone to start the discussion.
"So, Quinn..." Hiriam hesitated, looked to Leroy, who nodded at him, and then looked back at their new resident, "We don't expect you to tell us everything. We understand that there are memories that you don't want to relive, and that you just got here. But we need to figure something out so we can try to avoid things like this happening, for your sake. So can you tell us what happened, why you were screaming?"
Quinn looked down at her lap and sighed, "It was just a really bad dream. A nightmare, more accurately. It was of..." Her voice trailed off, unwilling to finish the sentence.
"Will," Leroy supplied. "It was of Will, correct?"
Hearing his name spoken so casually was like she had been punched in the gut, or worse. It reminded her that this all wasn't just a bad dream, and that Will was real. This all had really happened to her. Quinn. The cautious, smart girl, who always thought twice but never thought to carry around something like a rape whistle. She never thought something like this could happen to her. She was aware that it happened before, obviously, but who ever imagines it might happen to them? She certainly didn't. Quinn couldn't even remember the last time she saw her parents, and their faces were becoming blurs in her memory. Oh, God, her parents. Grief rippled through her. Where were they now? Did they think about her often? Did they think she was dead? Quinn realized everyone was staring at her and her face flushed. "Yes," she whispered, "It was about him. Something he had done not too long ago. And I was...I was watching it happen to me again, from the sidelines. I couldn't do anything to stop it. And then suddenly everything was gone. It was just plain black. And I felt so alone, so isolated. I guess that's when I started screaming."
Hiriam nodded, accepting this. Leroy had a look of deep concentration on his face. "But wait a minute. How does our Rachel tie into this? You were screaming for Rachel specifically. And then when you saw her after you woke up, you had this - this look on your face."
"Oh, that, um - I, uh, I remember their being some sort of, like, flash of the future, if you will, of me and Rachel in the beginning of the dream and then suddenly she was gone and I was with Will again." Sensing Leroy's next question, she added in a rush, "But I don't remember very clearly what the flash with Rachel was."
It was a lie. She remembered very vividly what happened in that dream. She hated the fact that she was lying to them, but she couldn't tell them what she had dreamed about their daughter. She couldn't risk losing the only people she had. Besides, these feelings were going to blow over soon enough. Rachel had nurtured her the first nights here, and so weren't the feelings natural? She decided they were.