Still off the Key of Reason

Chapter 4: Sunshine, I'm Beginning to Like This

Quinn was a huge fan of road trips. She loved the food and the scenery, and being able to just sit in one place for hours upon end, thinking and listening to music. So she was very excited for the drive down to San Diego. With her wife and her friends. And it would all culminate in a meeting with a killer whale, so Quinn was vibrating with energy in the passenger seat when they set off in Rachel's car at eight a.m.

But that was four hours ago.

All she could really comprehend now was that her knees were essentially bending backwards, and Santana had gone off on some kind of power trip, currently road-raging them through the mountains of central California.

Rachel and Quinn had been relegated to the backseat after Rachel refused to stop singing along with the radio. Quinn had defended her by joining her in song. Santana hadn't appreciated that.

Quinn thumped her head against the window and stretched her legs out diagonally in the backseat. She whined in frustration. Rachel didn't notice because she'd been dying for a bathroom break for three hours.

Quinn watched her wife's knees bounce up and down. She twisted a little and pressed one of her cramped legs against the back of Santana's seat.

"Santana, can we please stop?" Quinn asked for the twentieth time. She bounced her knee lightly to make the driver's seat shake.

"Whose fucking idea was this?" Santana complained, ignoring the question and eyeing a sign that said they had three hundred and fifty miles to go. "Why is California so god damn huge? I didn't sign up for this mountain shit."

Quinn frowned. She assumed those questions were rhetorical.

Rachel put a hand on Quinn's thigh to get her to take her foot off the back of the seat.

"I can hold it." Rachel assured, voice wavering slightly, unnaturally high-pitched.

Quinn unbuckled her seatbelt and shifted to the middle seat. Her legs were basically inverted back up inside her body, but she was next to Rachel.

"Let me distract you." She suggested. Distracting Rachel was always easy. All she had to do was puff out her cheeks and look sweet, or tell her she's short, or enlighten her about animals.

So many options.

Quinn pushed Rachel back against the door and covered her mouth with a kiss. Rachel squealed happily in surprise and wrapped her arms around Quinn's neck, letting their lips glide together sloppily. Rachel tasted like coffee. She must have snuck some in somewhere along the way.

Quinn cancelled it out with the Fruit-by-the-Foot on her own tongue. She flicked Rachel's cheek because coffee was not allowed.

"Whoa! Whoa! No! You-Don't do that shit back there!" Santana sputtered from the front seat. She twisted around and Quinn felt the car swerve. Santana would probably send them off the edge of the mountain.

Brittany's blue eyes peered through the crack between her seat and the head rest. She smiled brightly at them. "Awww. They're just passing the time."

Santana half-scoffed, half-groaned, half-sped-them-over-a-cliff in her frustration.

Quinn kept herself braced on the door, lips attached to Rachel's.

Rachel pulled back about an inch and looked up at her curiously, breathing lightly against Quinn's neck.

"Do you remember what you said last night, bear? Or were you…sleep-talking?" Rachel asked, amused.

Quinn puffed out her cheeks as she thought.

"Oh my fucking God, drive faster!" Santana yelled in the front seat.

"Santana." Quinn murmured, probably only loud enough for Rachel to hear. She didn't like tension. Or aggression. It made her bounce and rock and pull at her rubber band until everything was quiet again.

Rachel reached forward and shoved Santana in the shoulder, ignoring the glare she was sent. Then she collapsed back against the door. Quinn ducked away when Rachel tried to ruffle her hair.

She watched the scenery go by over Rachel's shoulder. "It would be cool to live at the top of a mountain." Quinn remarked honestly.

Rachel chuckled and put a cool palm against one of Quinn's flushed cheeks. "You didn't answer my question, bear."

Well. Now Quinn was fascinated with the idea of jumping off the balcony of her future mountain house and hang-gliding into the valley. She could strap Rachel onto her back. Rachel would probably love that.

Quinn refocused when Rachel tugged on her ear, watching her with smiling brown eyes.

"I remember." Quinn stated. She added a wink for good measure. Her memory was a little blurry with sleep, but she could recall their conversation.

Rachel seemed surprised. "You-So…So, toys, huh?" she said lowly, obviously trying to keep this conversation away from Santana's ears. Her voice cracked halfway through and Quinn grinned delightedly.

"Only if you want. I like to make up games. But I'm not-I don't…" Quinn trailed off and scrunched up her face, trying to come up with the right words. Rachel tapped her cheek patiently.

"It'll be fun to make up sex games." Quinn said bluntly. Words just tumbled out sometimes. She just could not think of a different way to phrase that. But she was pleased when Rachel turned bright red and pressed her face into Quinn's shoulder with a laugh. Or a groan. Quinn couldn't hear much over Brittany's singing right now.

"But I'm-I don't know what…people do… with toys." Quinn admitted uncertainly. "Or-You're my-my only, so…"

"Quinn." Rachel interrupted with a smile. "Do you think I've been to a sex shop before? That I have…a suitcase full of cuffs and lube and vibrators and-"

Quinn's eyes widened. "Cuffs? People use-they-they handcuff each other?"

She really thought that was just in movies. She'd be too worried about Rachel's soft wrists to do that.

"Okay." Santana called from the front seat. "I just heard the word cuffs. So you two need to spin your little conversation in a new direction before I vomit all over myself and crash your god damn car."

Rachel just smiled fondly at Quinn. Quinn was waiting for confirmation that people actually handcuffed each other in the real world.

"It's pretty popular." Rachel said with a shrug. She grabbed both of Quinn's ears and pulled her forward to kiss her nose. "But we'll start really slowly. Learn together, right?"

Quinn nodded. She pulled on Rachel until she was leaning into her side. Quinn noticed that Rachel's knees had stopped bouncing. She smiled to herself. She was a wonderful distraction. The best. Even if the subsequent conversation had blown her mind a little bit.

"We should hang-glide off a mountain." Quinn commented, staring out the window again and ignoring Santana's complaining about how the distance on the signs kept increasing as they got closer to San Diego.

"Strap me to your back and jump, baby." Rachel remarked, hugging Quinn's arm to her chest.

Quinn smiled. She knew it would probably never happen, but Rachel always gave her hope. That she could jump off a mountain and hang-glide over the valley, or visit the polar bears in the Arctic. Rachel always left hope for her that she could actually do those things. She rarely treated them like jokes.

And for that, Quinn was thankful. She stretched out her legs, wincing at all the cracking noises, and pulled Rachel further into her side. She had so many plans to share and three hundred and fifty more miles to do so.

~oooooooooo~

Unfortunately, Quinn only got as far as "go rock climbing with mountain goats in Colorado" before she fell asleep with her head on Rachel's shoulder. They showed up in the dark, four hours late, to Sam's little house on the outskirts of San Diego. Quinn was the first out of the car to greet her friend, and she gave Rachel a piggy-back ride inside to the guest room.

Rachel groaned and buried her face in Quinn's hair when she saw the giant stuffed seal on the bed. Quinn almost dropped her wife in her rush to pick it up. It was literally half the size of Rachel. Quinn could not fit her arms around it.

She was delighted.

"Rachel!" Quinn exclaimed with a huge smile, pushing the face of the seal into that of her sleepy wife.

Rachel shoved it away with a laugh and collapsed on the bed. Quinn heard a chuckle from the door and turned to see Sam standing there with an easy smile on his face.

"I thought it'd be a nice start to your SeaWorld experience." He explained. He twisted when Santana came up behind him, looking tired and annoyed.

Her jaw dropped and she held up both hands to point at the giant seal. "Oh no! We are not shoving that fucking thing in the car for the drive back!" She stated loudly. "You'll have to air-mail that shit!"

Quinn hugged her seal to her body protectively, half-obscuring her face.

"Go to sleep, Santana." Rachel slurred from the bed with a sloppy glare. Quinn could see she was seconds from rolling over the edge, so she gave Sam a thank you hug and bopped his face with the seal before shutting the door and tending to her wife.

Rachel tended to lose all control when she was tired. If she had any to begin with.

Quinn tossed the massive stuffed animal on top of her, and then tugged her more into the middle of the bed.

"It's crushing me." Rachel whined jokingly.

Quinn pulled the seal away so that she could take its place, draping herself over Rachel and resting her chin on Rachel's chest.

"Oh no, that's even worse." Rachel chuckled softly, deepening her breathing so that Quinn was lifted up and down.

"Name my seal." Quinn demanded quietly, moving some of her weight to her elbows so that she didn't give Rachel respiratory problems.

Rachel hummed quietly. Quinn ran a hand through her dark hair and kissed her chin.

"I think…Rachel Barbra Berry is a good name." Rachel suggested quietly. She tried to wink, but it only made it seem like half her face was spazzing.

Quinn nodded against her chest. "The best."

"But he's from SeaWorld, so call him…Shamu." Rachel continued.

Quinn shook her head in veto. "I'm getting an actual Shamu to call Shamu."

Rachel snorted lightly, bouncing Quinn around. "A real whale, bear? I don't know if that'll fit in the car."

"I'll ride him home up the coast."

And that was the moment Quinn added "ride a whale" to her bucket list. Any type of whale, really. Even if she was just dragged around by the dorsal fin like they did at SeaWorld.

"Good plan." Rachel commented, yawning widely. "Call him Dolphin."

Quinn grinned and moved up Rachel's body until she could see her tired, brown eyes. "You like that name?"

Rachel lolled her head around. "A seal named Dolphin. It's perfect for you."

"Okay." Quinn agreed, rolling herself to Rachel's side and cuddling up behind her.

Then tomorrow, when she got a stuffed dolphin, she could name it Seal. It would be glorious.

~oooooooooo~

Standing at the boarding zone for Journey to Atlantis, Rachel looked she was about to embark on an Arctic expedition. She wore Quinn's sweatshirt, Sam's jacket with the hood pulled up, and two extra ponchos.

It was a flume ride. They were not jumping off a waterfall. But Quinn thought she looked adorable so she didn't say anything.

"It's like jumping off a waterfall." Rachel complained, though she moved to the front of the line without Quinn having to drag her.

Quinn was rocking on her feet. She put an arm around Rachel's shoulders excitedly. Rachel put her foot on top of Quinn's, anchoring her flat on the floor.

"You have to sit in the front, Rachel." Sam instructed with a grin. Santana laughed from somewhere behind him.

Rachel looked horrified. "Why? It'll be like-like-"

"Jumping off a waterfall." Quinn supplied with a smile, now swaying because she couldn't bounce on her toes.

"You're tiny." Sam said simply. "We'll be more aerodynamic."

Quinn stared at him. They were not flying. "Or…streamlined." She said, nudging Rachel in the ribs. "Because you're smaller."

Rachel huffed and tried to cross her arms, but got tangled in all her ponchos. Quinn chose not to say anything else. She worked on waterproofing her wife until the boat came up, hitting the bumpers and sloshing around in the water.

Quinn climbed in, almost tripping over the edge in her excitement, and she held a hand out to help Rachel. Rachel settled in the front, whining unintelligibly at the feel of the water on her butt, and Quinn sat down, flush against her back. Santana, Brittany, and Sam stumbled their way in after her.

Quinn was wondering how in the world Sam's legs were long enough to reach her from his position at the back when the boat started moving. She wrapped her arms around Rachel's waist and made sure the hoods were up on her ponchos.

"Ready, little bear?" she checked happily.

She received a shriek in reply when their boat rounded a corner and took on a load of water.

Quinn thought it would be fun to capsize. It was just a little boat, and the water was totally clean. Or so it seemed. Then they could freestyle the rest of the ride. Except somebody would probably get their legs trapped in whatever contraption ran the flume at the end. And drown.

Quinn clutched Rachel tightly and watched their "journey through Atlantis" in awe. The closest she'd come to this was some crappy coaster at Coney Island.

And she had to admit, she was a little bit scared. But she focused on making sure Rachel didn't get soaked or frightened, and that made it better.

"Alright. I'm pretty sure that last curve snapped my back." Santana commented loudly. Quinn jumped a little because it was right in her ear.

Santana laughed and sloshed some water up the back of her jeans. "Whoa, no jumping ship, Sunshine!"

Rachel twisted her body around in a panic. "Quinn Fabray! You keep your arms inside this boat!"

Quinn ignored Santana's cackling and kissed the side of Rachel's head. "I'm not going anywhere, baby."

Purposely. She might accidentally tumble out into the water, and Santana would probably be to blame for that.

"I think we're going in circles." Brittany called absently from somewhere in the back.

Rachel leaned back into Quinn and looked up at her face. "You okay, bear? Ready for the drop?"

Quinn opened her mouth to respond, but faltered. She hadn't thought that far ahead. But really, that's why Rachel was prepared for such major soakage. Quinn wasn't prepared. What the hell had she done to prepare?

Absolutely nothing.

It was a high drop. Completely new to her.

Quinn eyes widened as Rachel watched her. Her words got stuck in her throat. She was surprised when a hand reached up behind her and tugged on her hair.

"We got this, Sunny Delight." Santana said loudly over the sound of rushing water. Quinn flinched away because she was yelling in her ear. "Berry will be your airbag. Just don't jump out."

"I'm not an airbag!" Rachel yelled, leaning around Quinn to catch Santana's eye.

She settled back down as the drop approached and wrapped Quinn's arms around her waist. "Just hold me, bear." She said quietly, reaching behind to tap Quinn's cheek.

Quinn could do that. She curled her toes in excitement and anticipation and little bit of fear as they loomed at the top of the drop.

The last thing Quinn heard was "holy fucking hell" from Santana, and then they took the sixty-foot plunge. It was exhilarating. Rachel's scream was carried back to the other riders on the boat. Probably to the rest of the world. And Quinn was deafened by Santana's.

They were stopped by sheer force of water, which Rachel took the brunt of, and they spent a good silent minute shaking and gasping at being so cold.

"Chiropractor! I need a chiropractor!" Sam shouted from the back.

"Yep! Yep!" Santana cried out, obviously a little high on adrenaline. "I went a little Exorcist on that last turn. I think my neck got shorter."

Quinn pulled the poncho hoods off Rachel's head and kissed her wet cheek. Rachel half-laughed, half-cried out helplessly. When they pulled up to the boarding zone, Quinn stood up and held Rachel by the hips to help her out of the boat.

She fought the urge to laugh at the sight of Rachel's soaked jeans, and settled for slapping her butt lightly.

"These were absolutely useless!" Rachel shrieked, tearing the ponchos over her head. "What about-what about peoples' lower halves? That's the fucking problem!"

"Rachel." Quinn chided softly, half-scolding, half-smiling. She took Rachel's wrist and guided her to the edge of the exit path. She tried to ignore the hilarity of the situation. And the statement "what about peoples' lower halves."

Rachel really was drenched. It was like she'd jumped in a pool. She'd effectively acted as a shield for everybody else, and Quinn felt a little bad.

Rachel exhaled deeply and looked up at Quinn. A little of the intensity left her eyes. Quinn pushed the wet hair back off her face and kissed her forehead. "Calm down, baby. This counts as stress."

Rachel took another deep breath and smiled up at Quinn. "God. That was-that was fun. Really. Just shocking. And really, somebody needs to design poncho pants. I'm just…" Rachel looked hopelessly down at her jeans.

They were slipping off her hips because they were weighed down with water. Quinn eyed the skin visible between them and the bottom of Rachel's shirt and smirked.

Rachel shoved her lightly in the chest.

"You'll dry." Quinn assured. "But…um, not-not until after the Shamu show because that will just soak you again. Please."

Quinn was very excited for the Shamu show. Orcas always seemed like they were smiling. If she could have her own whale, it would be a blue whale, though. Just for the sheer size. She could use it to rule the seas.

Rachel chuckled at something, probably Quinn's expression, and tugged on the front of Quinn's soaked shirt. "Did you have fun?"

Quinn grinned brightly. "Can we do it again?"

"Can we go see the polar bears without spending five hours watching them?" Rachel countered, raising an eyebrow.

Quinn hesitated. She didn't know. She couldn't make any promises. She puffed out her cheeks and refused to answer, laughing when Rachel ruffled her wet hair and dragged her after their impatient friends to see Sam swim with Shamu.

~oooooooooo~

If Rachel wasn't soaked before, she definitely was after the Shamu show. But so was everybody who sat in the "soak zone." Quinn was thrilled when the whales came around splashing water out of the arena. Santana told her it was whale pee, but Rachel told her Santana was just being an ass.

Quinn didn't know what to believe. But she was being splashed by killer whales, so she didn't really care.

Sam wasn't at the level yet where he was standing on Shamu's nose as he flew through the air, but he was in the water being dragged around while holding onto the big, floppy dorsal fins.

Quinn was very proud of him. She stood up and clapped loudly when he got the whale to splash them.

Now she was standing with him and their friends on the wet deck after the show, inches away from one of the smaller killer whales.

Sam stood in front of the whale holding some raw fish and keeping his other hand in the air. Probably to control the beast. Santana and Brittany stood off to the side in case it flew off the handle in a rage, and Rachel only stayed close to stop Quinn from impulsively climbing onto its back and riding off into the sunset.

Sam smiled at Quinn and gestured to the whale. "You can touch him. Go ahead."

Quinn looked at him with wide eyes. That had to be too good to be true. He was tricking her.

"Uh, wait a second." Rachel interrupted, looking very concerned.

"It's okay." Sam said, nodding easily. "He's on the deck, he's our best behaved, and I've got fish. We do this all the time."

Oh my God. All the time. How could Quinn get this job? Maybe she could moonlight as an animal trainer when she became a vet.

She reached her hand out slowly and pressed her palm against the whale's head, a little bit behind his eye. She gasped and stared at where her hand made contact. It was smooth, like the sting rays they'd touched earlier, but not as slimy.

Quinn looked up at Rachel with wide, smiling eyes, completely awestruck. "Rachel." She whispered.

She needed to share this feeling. It was unbelievable.

Rachel smiled and nodded at her. "I know, baby. What does he feel like?"

"It's-it's-I-" Quinn shook her head because she couldn't think straight at the moment. She gently grabbed Rachel's arm with her free hand, pulling her closer. Rachel inhaled sharply in surprise when her small hand was pressed next to Quinn's on the whale.

It was much more exciting than the turtles that had mobbed her in Hawaii.

She shuffled away after a second, smiling brightly, but probably still a little afraid of the huge animal. Quinn pulled away too and bounced on her toes in the shallow water. These were the kinds of things she lived for.

"Rachel!" she exclaimed more loudly, backing up to wrap her arms around her wife. "We touched a whale!"

Rachel raked a wet hand through Quinn's hair, creating temporary spikes. "One more thing to cross off your list, bear." She said with a smile.

The whale slid back off the deck and into the pool, and Sam said that he'd meet everybody at the polar bear enclosure. It was called Arctic Adventure, and it was freezing. And everybody was soaking. Quinn pouted and puffed up and whined until she got everybody to stay for at least twenty minutes to watch the bears.

They'd driven eight hours for this. It was worth it. And so she sat happily with her friends and watched the bears sleep.

It was only when Rachel started shivering violently that Quinn realized it probably wouldn't be fun to catch hypothermia at SeaWorld. They stopped at the gift shop before they left, and Quinn bought Rachel a sweatshirt to warm her up and a giant stuffed dolphin that she named Seal. Rachel got her an enormous stuffed Shamu.

Sam blasted the heat in his truck as he pulled out of the parking space in the dark.

Quinn sat between Rachel and Brittany in the backseat, rubbing Rachel's arm to warm her up.

"You're rubbing all my skin away." Rachel said quietly, smiling and stilling Quinn's hands.

Brittany frowned, leaning against the door with her eyes closed, trying to fall asleep. "Ew."

Quinn frowned and hugged Rachel's arm to her instead. She wanted to keep her warm. All the time. Rachel leaned into her side and closed her eyes. They seemed to be trapped in the parking lot. Gridlocked by the masses fleeing from SeaWorld at closing time.

Rachel hummed some random tune. Quinn was seconds from falling asleep when she felt the weight lifted off her shoulder.

"Whoa. What's happening?" Rachel whispered, leaning in front of Quinn's face.

Quinn opened her eyes and focused on Rachel's head in the dark. She looked out the window to see an ambulance and a fire truck pulled up in front of the park, lights flashing. Several people in various uniforms scurried around.

"Oh shit." Santana murmured from the front passenger seat. Brittany looked concerned. The traffic still hadn't budged.

Quinn twisted her fingers in Rachel's shirt and stared out the window with wide eyes. Rachel played with her fingers. She was sort of ashamed to admit that her first thought was "Oh no, one of the animals is hurt."

Because animals ride around in ambulances.

"Maybe the whales got someone." Santana speculated lowly, obviously invested in only the most extreme cases requiring an ambulance. Heart attacks would be too boring. "Or maybe someone toppled out of Atlantis like Berry predicted this morning."

Quinn whined and shook her head vigorously. God. Never. It was heart-wrenching to think like that.

"I didn't predict that, Santana." Rachel denied, watching Quinn knowingly. Quinn could feel her own breathing pick up.

"I'm sure it's something minor." Rachel continued, taking Quinn's hand and squeezing it.

It was like being forced to watch a terrible movie. Sam's truck had front row seats. The ambulance was right to their left when paramedics came rolling up with somebody in a gurney. Quinn twisted away from the window as soon as she caught sight of it.

"Oh. He looks fine." Santana said easily, observing the scene. "He's sitting up and everything."

Quinn bounced her knees. Rachel just nodded slowly, watching Quinn carefully.

Quinn knew her thoughts got caught and tangled in her head a lot. That's why her words came out jumbled quite often. When she voiced them at all. When she didn't, they swam around in her mind and took shapes and colors and mashed together until she didn't know what they were anymore.

Then, bam. Panic attack.

Quinn's mind was a blur.

"Quinn, everything is okay. Everybody's alright. Focus on that." Rachel insisted quietly.

There was vague yelling in the background. The paramedics seemed to be dawdling, so Quinn was sure that whoever was sitting up on the gurney was fine. The lights kept flashing though, and she pressed her hands over her eyes to block them out.

"We okay back there?" Santana called uncertainly, twisting slightly in her seat. Her eyes moved to Rachel, who nodded just slightly. Quinn nodded as well, eyes still closed. Except all she could see now was Sam getting hurt by a whale and Rachel falling out of a flume ride. It was a little ridiculous.

It just wound her up some more. Quinn opened her eyes and focused on the lovely brown ones in front of her. She pictured the bears she just saw, annoyed at herself.

Bears. Bears. Lions. People getting hurt. Bears. Penguins. Flashing lights.

"Rachel…help." She whined when she knew she couldn't stop this.

She started shaking her head around because she just could not get rid of the pictures. Her hands tapped against her thighs and she rocked backwards into Brittany.

"Hey, Quinn, you okay?" Sam called, watching them in the mirror. Brittany put a hand on Quinn's back, but she flinched away. Santana leaned around the front seat and caught Brittany's eye. She shook her head and nodded in Rachel's direction. Brittany nodded in understanding and gave her a thumbs-up.

Quinn tried desperately to stop this from devolving into a panic attack. She was whining in her attempt to hold on to the good pictures in her mind.

And then she heard that voice, and she knew it would make everything better.

Rachel wrapped her hand around the back of Quinn's neck and rubbed. "So, big bear, I touched a killer whale today. Can you believe it?" Rachel asked quietly, conversationally, tilting Quinn's head until she made eye contact.

Santana stared straight ahead in her seat, reaching back and holding Brittany's hand, giving Rachel and Quinn some privacy. Or giving the impression that they were getting some privacy. It was a truck trapped in a parking lot. There was not much privacy to be had. Sam did the same, avoiding his mirror and focusing on messing with the heat.

Rachel focused on Quinn. Quinn focused on the whale. She nodded at Rachel's question. Rachel was very brave. Of course Quinn would believe she'd touched a killer whale, even if she wasn't there to witness it.

"Yeah?" Rachel said, lips quirked up. She turned her head a little to meet Quinn's eyes. "What was your favorite today?"

Quinn's mind pushed the blurry, scary images away to shuffle through the animals and rides she'd seen that day. Her chest relaxed and she breathed deeper. She squeezed Rachel's thighs and felt the hand on her neck squeeze back.

"Bears." Quinn said, voice wobbly.

Rachel shook her head immediately. "Veto. You've used that too many times. Pick something else."

Quinn huffed and furrowed her brows, slowing her rocking. She sat up straighter when she had a new answer. "Penguins." Her voice was a little bit more determined.

Rachel scrunched up her face like she was thinking, then shook her head. "Nope. Next."

Quinn stared at her. She ran her hands up and down Rachel's legs as she thought. "The-the sea lion show."

Rachel shrugged and lolled her head around. "Eh."

"Dolphins." Quinn threw out, lips quirking up.

There was a wonderful slideshow in her mind right now, which Rachel had created. Her whole body relaxed.

Rachel smiled at her. "Nope. Give me another."

Quinn leaned in until her nose brushed against Rachel's, bracing herself on Rachel's thighs. "Seeing-seeing you soaking wet was fun." She said it like it was a challenge. A dare. She knew her wife would take that euphemism and run with it. It was so barely disguised. Quinn just wanted to see where it would end up.

Rachel breathed deeply and shook her head with a wry smile. "I know what you're doing."

Quinn raised her eyebrows. She was centered again. Rachel had centered her. Brought her back down when she'd spun away for a moment. She raised her eyebrows cheekily.

"I know what you were doing." Quinn countered. "And…thank you. But you can't veto bears. You can-you can never veto bears."

Rachel chuckled and nodded along. Nobody could live in their household and veto bears. Rachel slowed her laughter and bit her lip, eyeing Quinn carefully. "Are you alright?"

The ambulance and fire truck had finally driven away, so the flashing was gone. It was quiet in the car. And God, so hot. Sam had taken playing with the heat very seriously.

"Sorry, I, um…" Quinn scrunched up her nose.

"Flew away?" Rachel said with a soft smile. "Never apologize, baby."

Quinn put a hand on Rachel's cheek. "We're both really warm." She observed.

"Taking care of it!" Sam called out, grinning in the rearview mirror. Proving that everybody in the car could hear every word of the previous conversation, no matter how much they ignored it.

"San, give Rachel your water." Brittany commanded, tugging on Santana's hand.

Santana sighed like it was a huge hassle and dug through her bag for the bottle. She twisted to hand it to Rachel, and fluffed Quinn's hair with a wink before spinning back around.

"I'll make you cookies when we get home." Quinn said softly, tugging Rachel back into her side.

It was a brilliant day, and cookies were the logical way to end it. Especially because Rachel was such a wonderful human being.

Rachel chuckled lightly. "In the middle of the night?"

Quinn nodded resolutely. Middle of the night. Hurricane, tornado, tidal wave, fire. Amidst a swarm of bees or sheep or lions. She'd find a way. It was in her vows.

"Your favorite kind." She assured, kissing Rachel's cheek.

Rachel fingered the fray on Quinn's shirt. "Make your favorite kind. You'll feel even better."

"Okay." Quinn said quietly. "I'll make sugar cookies with lots of frosting."

Quinn had a plan. Rachel bumped their shoulders together.

"No, bear, that's my favorite kind. Make yours." Rachel remarked.

Quinn shook her head. "That's my favorite kind too."

Peanut butter would always be number one in Quinn's book. They were unbeatable. Sugar came somewhere around third or fourth. She kept up her poker face.

"Since when?" Rachel asked with a knowing smile, looking up to watch Quinn's eyes.

Quinn shrugged, bobbling Rachel's head around. "I dunno. Um, a week?"

Rachel snorted. "Or…three seconds."

"No." Quinn shut her mouth and closed her eyes like she was asleep.

"Quiiinnn." Rachel called quietly. Quinn listened to her voice, along with the sound of the heat blowing and the cars on the road. She didn't move.

Rachel kissed her cheek. Quinn could feel the smile on her face.

"Love you, bear." Rachel murmured.

"So much." Quinn breathed out.