Disclaimer: I own neither Glee nor any part thereof. No money is being made off of this story and is intended only for entertainment purposes; therefore it falls within the parameters of "Fair Use"

A/N: Okay, so there will be one more chapter after this one. I thought I might do it all was one but this one was already getting a bit long, so one more for sure. Hope everyone's still enjoying.

Christmakkuh in New York Part 4

December 21st, 2012

The arrival of Hiram and Leroy Berry ate up the majority of the following day… or at least Rachel seemed to believe that it should. She set out to clean the whole house, room by room. The problem with that plan was that this was Rachel Berry's apartment; it was already clean and not just clean but spotlessly so. Therefore Rachel's insistence otherwise couldn't really be seen as other than the least artful attempt at dodging and deflecting ever conceived. And yet it worked… strictly through sheer determination on Rachel's part, of course, but it worked.

Quinn tried her best to assume that Rachel's manic behavior was more to do with the impending arrival of Rachel's dads than anything to do with things that were said the previous night. Unfortunately for Quinn, she knew the Berry men. She'd gotten to know them some senior year of high school and had attended a Thanksgiving dinner at their house only about a month ago. Quinn knew that all of this hyper-scrutiny over the cleanliness of the house wasn't necessary. The Berry house wasn't even as clean as the apartment was before Rachel started, which was not to say that the Misters Berry were messy, just that Rachel was verging on Emma Pillsbury levels of cleaning.

Okay, so Rachel was avoiding her or at least avoiding talking to her, Quinn could see that but she figured everyone had the right to a little privacy with their thoughts when they wanted it. Quinn knew from personal experience that avoiding the thing that's bothering you wasn't really the best way of dealing but she also knew that explaining that to Rachel wasn't likely to help. Strictly speaking, Quinn didn't even know for sure why Rachel was avoiding her. Of course it had something to do with things that they had said the previous night under the influence, but kind of a lot had been revealed and Quinn didn't know if it was any one thing that had been said or a combination of things. Hell, for all Quinn knew it was the fact that they got high at all that had Rachel so upset.

Quinn also knew that she couldn't force Rachel to talk about what was bothering her. You couldn't, in fact, force her to do anything she didn't want to do, talking least of all. It was ironic, of course, given how much time Quinn had spent in her life wishing that Rachel would stop talking.

Their flight was scheduled to arrive at JFK at 1:30, so of course Rachel insisted that they arrive no later than 1:00. They made it there just slightly ahead of schedule at 12:57 only to find that the Berrys' plane had been delayed by an hour, so now they had some time to kill. "Coffee?" Quinn asked as she spotted the Starbuck's kiosk just down the way.

"You read my mind," Rachel replied.

Moments later the girls were in line waiting for their turn to order when Quinn thought maybe it was time to broach the subject of the awkwardness. "So do we need to talk about last night?"

Rachel shook her head dismissively, "There's nothing to talk about."

"Really," Quinn asked, "because I'm pretty sure you spent all morning cleaning an apartment that didn't need cleaning in the first place. You've barely said ten words to me today. I usually get that many before we even get out of bed in the morning, so are you really sure there's not something we need to talk about?"

Rachel studied the threads of her scarf at length not talking for several minutes. "You know me, Quinn. With the exception of my fathers you know me perhaps better than anyone… maybe even better than them given the nature of our early relationship and your own history with bullying. Unlike them you do not know every detail of the formative years of my life but you know and to a large extent you understand my patterns of behavior."

"I do," Quinn said.

"Then you know that I have to prepare for everything," Rachel said, "I never perform without rehearsing. You've lived with me for almost two weeks now. You know I sing all the time, I take voice lessons, and I'm going to school all in the service of being on Broadway. Please pardon my ego in asking this but aren't I already an exceptional singer?"

"Of course you are," Quinn said and then pointed to the barista in front of them. The girls quickly ordered and found a seat. "You know you're an amazing singer, Rachel. What's that got to do with last night?"

"My voice, my talent is the thing in my life that I feel most secure about," Rachel said "and even at this I feel that I need to work very hard to be completely prepared. The things that were said last night I am not even close to certain about and yes, obviously, there are some things we need to talk about… after I have prepared myself for that particular conversation."

"So all of this is your extraordinarily roundabout way of saying that you're not ready to talk about it yet?"

"Yes," Rachel said simply.

"You know you could have just said that, right?" Quinn said. Rachel just nodded. "And whatever it is that's on your mind, you can tell me, okay?" Rachel cast her eyes down again but Quinn tipped Rachel's chin back up silently asking Rachel look at her. "Whenever you're ready," Quinn said, the significance of those words wasn't lost on Rachel.

"Thank you, Quinn."

December 22nd, 2012

"Back in Lima, the Hudson-Hummel house was 1.1 miles from my fathers' house," Rachel said. She and Quinn were lying in Rachel's bed in the early light of day. Nothing more had been said of the previous day's discussion or the confessions of the night before. Usually Quinn would be up making coffee by now but she'd found herself wrapped up by Rachel's deceptively strong arms so she'd laid there for almost fifteen minutes watching her sleep peacefully. When Quinn had reached down to brush some of the hair out of Rachel's face, she'd accidently bumped her and Rachel's eyes popped open and out had come this factoid.

"You can be very random in the morning," Quinn said.

"It's not random," Rachel said, "It's a fact that is important for you to know in order for you to fully understand something."

"Okay," Quinn said.

"The Hudson-Hummel house was a very nice house, very well appointed as you would expect having been largely decorated by Kurt. The couches and chairs were all very comfortable, they had a nice entertainment system on which to watch movies or TV. Burt and Carole are wonderful people, very inviting. And both my boyfriend and my best friend lived there," Rachel said.

"Right," Quinn said.

"A single dwelling contained two of the most important people in my life, it was just over a mile from my home, and I almost never went there," Rachel said. "They almost always came to me, to my house to hang out or in the case of Finn to go on dates. From these facts we can determine that I am selfish and self-centered."

"Rachel," Quinn said.

"Less so than I once was," Rachel conceded, "but still I am."

"You are not," Quinn said.

"I am," Rachel said, "you just don't see it anymore because I'm on my best behavior around you. Now, I wouldn't drive just over a mile to see both Finn and Kurt, but now that Kurt and I live together once a month I drive almost 140 miles round trip to come see you and do so gladly. I mean, these trips were my idea."

"We don't see each other every day at school anymore," Quinn said. "Things are different when we scatter all over for college. You have to make more of an effort to see your friends all the time."

"Which is almost exactly word-for-word what I told myself for the last five months," Rachel said, "however, now I think it is something else… actually I'm quite sure of it. We frequently make long road trips to see each other. We sleep in the same bed cuddled together. For over a week now you've slept in my bed when Kurt's is empty right next door."

"Do you want me to go sleep in Kurt's bed?" Quinn asked.

"No," Rachel replied quickly, "and that's my point. I think I just got the wrong idea about what it meant."

Quinn gave her a quizzical look, "What did you think it meant?"

"I thought… I mean we spend so much time together and we have all this fun. You gave me this wonderful birthday at a great restaurant. You said that you quit arguing with Leah about whether or not we're together because you said you could do much worse. We sit cuddled together all the time and we hold hands. Is that just something that girl friends do? That is to say something female friends do. I obviously know that girlfriends do it," Rachel said. "I'm asking, honestly because I don't know. I've never had a platonic female friend like you before, Quinn."

"I, um, I don't know either," Quinn said, "I think my perception of what platonic friends do might be massively skewed because of who my friends were. So you…" Quinn was pretty sure she knew where this conversation was headed but it was far too early to be making assumptions.

"I just can't help but look back to high school and think that no matter how mean you were to me I never hated you. I never even disliked you for any length of time. Nor did I ever get the sense that you truly disliked me. All of your hostility towards me always seemed, I don't know, forced I guess, like it was part of the image that you tried so hard to project, top girl picks on outcast, so to speak. I'd be mad at you when you said something horrible but I still didn't dislike you. I still sought your friendship. I was elated when I finally got it. That conversation outside the principal's office after Sectionals last year I was sort of secretly jumping for joy that you were going to be nearby. You said that being nearer to me was a big part of your decision to move to New York. I thought that we were on the same page that we were both developing deeper feelings for one another but we weren't quite ready to act on them yet because of the distance, because we wanted to make sure it wouldn't ruin our friendship, and… because it was both of our first times with other girls. I thought we were building up to taking that step together."

"And then I told you about Kat," Quinn said.

"Yes, and I'm sorry for getting upset at you about that," Rachel said, "You didn't deserve that. You did nothing wrong and I should have seen the evidence in front of me but I think I latched onto what I wanted to hear, like I always do. You said that you would have let me kiss you on Prom Night, and well, more than that too, but I just fixated on that and ignored the evidence of your true feelings and again I'm sorry."

"What? True feelings?" Quinn said confused, "What evidence?"

"As I said I should have seen it, you said you didn't want to live with me, you said you didn't want to stare at my chest, you said that kissing me would have been a mistake. You were telling me that you like girls but not me, not like that anyway. I should have realized that. It's not like you've really shown any indication otherwise. I just kept cherry-picking things that I thought meant something but now realize they don't and I get it. I know I'm not pretty like you and I'm obnoxious…"

Rachel was suddenly cut off by Quinn's hand over her mouth. "Rachel, stop," Quinn said, "I know you made me promise to stop saying this but I'm going to have to go back on that promise for your own good. I am so deeply genuinely sorry for all the things I said and did to you to make you feel like you are not pretty, because you are. You are beautiful and talented and amazing in every way and any guy or girl would be lucky to have you." Rachel smiled and blushed but said nothing. "Secondly, let's get some facts straight. I don't want to move in here because your apartment's not big enough for three, certainly not for me, you, and Kurt. I never said kissing you at Prom would have been a mistake. I said that if you hadn't found me I might have done something I regret. In this case the thing I would have regretted would have been having sex out if despair to try to make myself feel better, instead of as an expression of love or affection like sex is supposed to be. I didn't want to stare at your boobs because I didn't want to be creepy. We were having a conversation. I didn't mean to imply that you were not worthy of being stared at. You have very nice boobs, better than mine."

"Thank you," Rachel said blushing hard.

"I'm sorry we got our lines crossed," Quinn said, "I honestly never got the impression that you felt this way. I usually have better gaydar than that."

"You never thought that the child of two gay men would have been raised to be open to sexual fluidity?"

"Being raised to be open to something doesn't mean that you actually are, and I don't know… you were always so boy crazy in high school," Quinn said.

"I could say the same about you," Rachel countered.

"The difference," Quinn said, "is that you actually cared about the boys. I cared about status. Finn, Puck, and Sam were all on the football team. That's why I dated them. You actually cared about the person under the letterman jacket. You didn't care when Finn was off the football team junior year. I'd have been pissed."

"So are you saying that you don't like boys at all? Are you gay?"

"You don't mess around with the tough questions, do you?" Quinn said.

"I generally see no point in beating around the bush," Rachel said with a smile.

"Clearly, since we're having this big serious discussion before either of us have had their morning coffee," replied Quinn. She inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly before continuing, "My honest answer, Rach, is that I don't know. I've had one bad encounter with a guy and one good one with a girl. I don't think either experience is enough to define my sexuality."

"A perfectly valid answer," Rachel said, "I suppose then the question to ask is, are you… would you be willing to explore it further… with me?"

Quinn took a minute to try to read Rachel's intentions. "I don't want to just hook up with you, if that's what you're asking. Our friendship is too important to me to risk for sex."

"But you would consider dating me?" Rachel asked the hope in her voice evident. "You said that any girl would be lucky to have me. Were you including yourself in that statement?"

"I was and I would," Quinn said, "but I need to consider it, okay?" Rachel looked like she was starting to deflate. "It's got nothing to do with you. Like you said, I have to know that this won't ruin our friendship. I've never had a friend like you, either and I have to be certain that this won't change that. You've had some time to get your head around it. I've had twenty minutes."

Rachel took her words in and thought them over for a couple of minutes. "That's reasonable," she said at last, "Although when you do eventually cave and we tell people how we got together I'm going to edit this part of the story to say that you accepted immediately."

"Fair enough," said Quinn with a smile.

Rachel finally sat up and said, "It occurs to me now that there was something I neglected to do this morning before I launched into the speech I spent most of yesterday composing in my head."

"Coffee?" Quinn asked also sitting up.

"Well, yes, that too," said Rachel, "but also this." Rachel swiftly crushed her lips against Quinn's pushing her back down to the bed. The combination of surprise and admittedly very enjoyable sensation knocked the breath out of Quinn and for a long moment she simply lay there limp allowing Rachel to kiss her. Rachel's lips were soft yet strong and Quinn couldn't deny that they felt good pressed against hers. When Rachel didn't let up Quinn finally surrender to the feeling and kissed back one hand finding the nape of Rachel's neck the other the small of her back and pulling Rachel against her hard. Rachel let out the most adorably sexy little sigh Quinn had ever heard. She broke off the kiss and smiled as Rachel's lips continued to press against hers for another minute. Quinn let go of Rachel as she sat up struggling to suppress a smile. "I'm sorry," she said.

Quinn couldn't help but smile as she said, "No, you're not."

"No, I'm not," Rachel said no longer fighting it, "Not even a little."

"Nor should you be," Quinn said, "but it doesn't change the fact that I need to think about this."

"I didn't expect that it would," Rachel said, "I just wanted to see what it was like."

"Kissing a girl?"

"Kissing Quinn Fabray," Rachel corrected, smiled and added, "I'm overdue for some coffee."

Rachel quickly climbed off the bed and headed for the door. "Hey, Rachel," Quinn said, "One more thing." Rachel looked back at Quinn. "Selfish, self-centered people don't spend several days baking thousands of cookies and then give all of them away to the less fortunate." Rachel just blushed in response.

The girls had their morning coffee along with a light breakfast. They were due to have brunch with Rachel's dads before the Berry men went to go explore New York City. They'd only been out once before when they'd helped Rachel move back in the summer and hadn't had time to do much in the way of sightseeing. They'd only had two days in town and spent most of it getting Rachel unpacked and set up in their apartment. The rest of the time they'd spent exhausted from helping Rachel unpack and set up. This time they were out to enjoy the city.

After breakfast, Rachel went to get in the shower and Quinn returned to Rachel's bedroom to locate her cell phone. She found it, of course, right where she'd left it, in her new charging station that she'd gotten from The Berrys for Hanukkah last night. Quinn punched out a quick text that said: Time to talk?

Thirty seconds later her phone was ringing. She answered and before she could even say anything the voice on the other end came over, "What up, bitch? Tell me how bad Christmas in Lima sucks," Santana said, "cuz me and Britts were thinkin bouts doing Christmas on the fucking beach. It's 75 fucking degrees three days before Christmas, Fabray. What do you got a foot of snow it looks like."

"More, actually," Quinn said, "since I'm not in Lima. I'm in New York."

"With Kurt and Berry?" Santana said, plainly jealous, "And ya'll are probably going to Times Square on New Year's Eve, I bet. Damn it, Q, I was trying to gloat and now you've got me all jealous and shit. So what's up? You just calling to wish your oldest and dearest a Merry Christmas?"

"Actually, I need some advice," Quinn said, "and by advice, I don't mean snarky sarcasm."

"You called the wrong bitch then," Santana said, "Cuz Auntie Tana's gots the advice but the snark comes with it, so you can suck it up and deal with all the awesomeness that is me or you hangs up and call Tina and listen to her whine about Mike, your call, Q Ball."

"Okay, fine," Quinn said, "I need… What's it like to date your best friend?"

"It kicks fuckin ass," Santana said, "Britts and me… Wait, you're not asking about us. No. Fucking. Way. You and Berry finally decided to stop fighting it?"

"Fighting it?"

"Q, Q, Q," Santana repeated, "Come on now. Don't act like I didn't figure you out years ago. With the drawings in your notebooks and the looks when she was singing in Glee and the looks when she was singing to Finn in Glee Club and you two getting into the epic fights over this thoroughly mediocre guy. Wake up, Quinn. And, okay, between you, me, and the wall, I kinda get it, a little bit. I mean she's kind of secretly hot and if she's at all like me, getting the hell out of Lima has done wonders for her self-esteem and she probably calmed the hell down by like a thousand percent."

"Who are you trying to convince to date her, me or you?" Quinn said.

"Fuck off," Santana said, "Alright, listen up. You want to know how to date your best friend without ruining your friendship in the process? I got you some advice and it's probably the last thing you ever expected to hear from me, but here it goes. You gotta talk about shit, like all the fucking time. You and me, Q, peas in a fucking pod and talking about our feelings doesn't come naturally so you gotta make yourself. Me, I'm lucky. I got Britts, the most easygoing, forgiving, understanding supportive person in the world. No matter have bad I've treated her she'll always forgive me anything. I know how lucky I am. I don't presume to know Rachel anymore. I know we all change a lot when we move away from home, but I doubt she's as easygoing as Brittany is… or even anywhere close, really so you're gonna have to work that much harder to deal with shit. It took me a long, long fucking time to figure this out so take my word for it. Just, basically, don't be afraid to feel the way you feel and don't be afraid to talk about it with the girl you love."

"I think it's a little soon to be throwing that word around," Quinn said.

"Fucking whatever," Santana replied, "Like you two weren't put on this fucking Earth for each other."

Quinn smiled and said, "That's… actually really sweet of you to say, Santana."

"Yeah, well," Santana said, "tell anyone but Britts I said it and I'll deny it. Speaking of, she just walked in. Hold on a sec. I'm sure she'll want to say hey."

Quinn waited patiently for several minutes hearing muffled bits of a conversation between her friends before presumably the phone was handed over and Brittany said, "Q?"

"Hi Brittany," Quinn said.

"Merry Christmas, Q!"

"Merry Christmas, Britt," Quinn said.

"So you and Rachel are finally getting together?"

"She wants to," Quinn said, "I'm still thinking about it."

"Did you kiss her yet?" Brittany asked.

"Actually, she kissed the hell out of me this morning," Quinn said.

"Was it awesome?" Brittany asked, "I always thought Rach would be fun to kiss. Her lips always looked so soft."

Quinn found herself smiling yet again. It seemed to be a common occurrence when she thought about kissing Rachel. "I think it may have been the best kiss I've ever had."

"Awww," Brittany said, "So dating a friend, it can be like really scary because you don't want to screw it up and lose your friend, too, but if it works out then it's like really, really great cuz you get to wake up with your best friend for the rest of your life." Quinn contemplated what Brittany said for a minute. "I think you and Rach would be really great for each other, Quinn, y'know if you decide to go for it."

"Thank, Brittany," Quinn said.

"You're totally welcome," she replied, "It's always great to hear from you, Q, but San's itching to get her sexy times on so unless you want to listen in, I'm gonna have to go."

"No, that's okay," Quinn said, "You guys enjoy yourselves and I'll talk to you later."

"Oh we always do," Brittany replied, "Tell Rach we said Happy Hanukkah."

"Bye, hon," Quinn said.

"Bye, Q."

"Hon?" Rachel said.

Quinn nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of Rachel's voice. She hadn't even noticed the shower shutting off nor heard her come in the room. "Brittany and Santana," Quinn said.

"Oh, how are they," Rachel asked retrieving clothes from her closet.

"In the process of getting naked and sweaty," Quinn said, "so, you know, must be going pretty well."

"Indeed," Rachel replied.

"Sooooo," Quinn drew the word out, "This hypothetical date. What did you have in mind and when?"

"When would be the day after tomorrow," Rachel said with a smile.

"Christmas Eve?"

"Yes, my dads have plans to have a romantic dinner at a nice restaurant in the early evening," Rachel said, "I think they really just want to be able to be an out couple on a date and for once not have to deal with peoples' dirty looks. It would seem logical that you and I could do something similar at more or less the same time. So Christmas Eve, 6 pm. As to what I have in mind, hypothetically, you would just have to find out when we got there."

"Okay, then, I'll do that," Quinn said.

"You will?" Rachel said, the excitement in her voice was adorable and Quinn couldn't help but smile at it.

"Yeah," Quinn said, "I'd love to."

A/N: So apparently I cannot help but put Santana in everything I write.