Simple Parts
Chapter Four- I Think I Love You
I think I love you.
So what am I so afraid of?
I'm afraid that I'm not sure of
A love there is no cure for.
QFRB
Rachel didn't tarry long in Carmen's room. It felt awkward and very much like she was invading someone's space. Once out in the hallway though, she took pause. The upper floor of the house was quiet. Alex's door down the hall had been closed so she was faced with no opportunity for safe further exploration. She didn't want to accidently walk in on the two Quinn's during their discussion. After deciding that downstairs would be a safer option she started down the hall in the direction of the stairs, and in doing so, passed a picture frame.
She paused and debated if she should look at the photo it contained or not. She determined it couldn't really hurt anything and turned her whole body so that she was facing the wall, her eyes though, focused on the wall under the black frame. Clenching her fists and giving her nails a good dig into her palms, she psyched herself for what she was about to see. Then she looked up.
The picture frame was digital and apparently set to shuffle through the pictures on it at intervals because as soon as she looked up the image changed. She didn't have time to absorb anything about the previous picture, but the current one was a formal family portrait. Older Quinn and Rachel, somewhere in their mid-twenties she guessed, sat in front of a blue backdrop with a rather unhappy looking baby boy in a red sweater between them. They were both wearing matching sweaters and smiles. The picture changed again and she was looking at the same set up, but instead of looking at the camera, both of the women in the picture had their eyes on the little boy. The smile on Quinn's face made Rachel's heart stop.
The pictures continued to change, the passage of time evident in the aging of the little boy and the addition of other children and changing sweater colors. She wasn't sure how long she stood there, but it wasn't until her eyesight became too blurred with tears that she looked away.
She didn't know what to feel. It shouldn't be so easy to fall into such deep emotion so suddenly, to understand things about herself out of the blue, to understand things about another person out of the blue. It was like seeing this future had put every action Quinn had ever done into startling perspective. She didn't want to assume though. Assuming was dangerous. There were so many possibilities and she could easily be wrong.
For the first time since she entered the future, Rachel thought about Finn. She wondered where he was, if he was scared too, if he had found himself, if he was married with kids. If he was in love with some other woman. If he had forgotten to think of her at all too. She felt guilty, but only briefly. It wasn't like he could get mad at her, she reasoned. She hadn't done anything wrong and neither had Quinn. All of this was just a possibility. The world changed with every decision made.
Giving one last lingering look at the photo currently on display (there were four children in the photo and all their sweaters were green) Rachel decided to just go with the flow until she could formulate some kind of plan. She would need a better grip on this future first.
First she needed more information.
She didn't bother to explore, not wanting to get sucked into another emotional hurricane. Instead she blindly followed the sounds of humming and clanking pans and the closing of drawers. It was in this way that she found the other Rachel in the kitchen, standing at the stove with a skillet in each hand.
"What's for dinner?" she asked, stepping more fully into the room.
Older Rachel turned to offer her a smile. It was surreal to see her own face looking back at her from somewhere other than a mirror. "Seitan Fajitas, with a side of real bacon for the Quinns." Young Rachel could feel her expression morph from delighted interest to horror in the few short seconds it took for that sentence to come into being. "Don't look at me like that. When my lady is upset or stressed she gets bacon, and I personally can't fathom a situation more stressful than the one we're all in now."
With a simple pursing of her lips and no further comment, Young Rachel approached the counter to stand beside her older form. She accepted the cutting board and knife that was handed to her with mild trepidation. Her family was fully devoted to take out so she hadn't really learned to cook very many things from scratch and being handed a knife while in her tense emotional state probably wasn't the best idea. She was likely to cut off her own finger.
That definitely wouldn't be vegan.
Older Rachel knew this, thankfully, and gave her very specific instructions. "Cut the bell peppers into even slices. Leave off the stems and get all the seeds out." She held a red pepper out and Rachel moved to take it, but the older woman kept it gripped in her hand. "Before you start, why don't you tell me why you were crying so you can't blame the peppers and onions?"
"I was looking at the pictures upstairs and I…" she stopped. For all of her ridiculous vocabulary, there were no words to describe what she felt. She swallowed and decided not to try.
But then Older Rachel prompted, "Go on."
She chose to continue with an easier topic. "I'm just…perplexed."
"Oh?" Older Rachel asked, amused. "By or about what?"
Young Rachel took a moment before answering, using the time to carefully cut one of the red bell peppers into even slices. On the stovetop the meat popped. "I've never even really liked Quinn but somehow-"
The older diva cut her off quickly. "Rachel, let's just pause that train of thought for a moment," she ordered with a stern look. "We've always been very adept at being honest with ourselves. I don't know why you're trying to take a leaf out of Quinn's book now after all these years of being uncompromisingly unique."
"I don't know what you mean." She pushed the sliced peppers aside and swept the stems and seeds into the trashcan that was pointed out to her. Once finished she pulled the flat yellow onion onto the chopping board.
"Oh, don't you?" Older Rachel sighed. "Quinn has always been magnificent at lying to herself." As an aside she added, "I need the whole onion chopped."
"I still don't see what that has to do with-"
"You think Quinn is beautiful."
Rachel scoffed. "Everyone thinks she's beautiful."
"You tell her she's beautiful," the older woman rebutted with a tilt of her head.
The younger huffed. "I'm sure she hears it all the time," she groused, giving the onion under her hand a particularly vicious chop.
"Not really. Everyone just assumes that she knows she's beautiful and that she hears it from everyone she has ever met, and thus, they don't say anything. She's an insecure little girl; you've known that for a long time too."
"Yes, bullies are in general."
"She was never the worst," Older Rachel pointed out and the younger had to concede this. Kurofsky and the other hockey boys had probably been the worst. They were equal opportunity bullies, no taking it easy on someone just because they were a tiny little girl. So in the case of physical violence and intimidation, he would always be the winner.
"She wasn't the least either." That would probably be Tina or Mike. They were the only two people she could think of who hadn't said or done anything mean to her face.
"No, she wasn't."
"All I ever wanted was for us to be friends."
"You're getting closer, but you aren't quite there yet."
Rachel's sigh was heavy with annoyance.
"I'll make it easy for you. The least we ever wanted was friendship."
Young Rachel hesitated, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand, not noticing that the sharp point got dangerously close to her face. She could honestly say that the tears clouding her vision were from the onion. "When she took me upstairs she said…"
"Yes?" The older woman tipped four pieces of cooked bacon onto a plate and put four more in the skillet. The noise made by the cold meat on the hot pan caused Young Rachel's skin to crawl.
"She said that she's always liked me."
"Yes."
"Do you really believe that?"
"Yes." Her voice was firm with absolute conviction. Young Rachel didn't question it. She knew how her own brain worked. Once she accepted something as truth she was unshakable. She didn't try to analyze why she believed things, deciding to simply trust her gut instinct.
"How did we get together?" she decided to ask, it was something that had been burning to escape her lips along with a thousand other questions.
"Yet another long story full of sighs and it's not just mine to tell, of course. You'll hear the rest of the story soon enough. For now the short story will have to suffice." Their stances shifted automatically as one prepared to tell a story and the other to listen. "We met during the winter break of our first year of college at a party. It was…Quinn hadn't done very well at OSU. She fell in with the wrong crowd and had no one to help her out. She was vulnerable and I ended up in a position of power over her. For a long time that power kept me from trying to form any sort of relationship beyond friendship with her. I was in love with her, honest, true love, but I felt that it couldn't be real because not only did it not feel like anything I'd ever felt before, but she was so dependent on me that I felt like I was taking advantage of her weakness. She needed a lot of help and I was determined that if anything was going to happen between us, she needed to start it."
"Did she?"
"Eventually, yes. It took her about seven months of intense therapy before she was even able to feel like herself again, but during that time we were more than best friends and less than lovers." She laughed. "It was actually kind of silly how long it took me to realize she wanted me. My roommates and I put on open mic nights every Sunday night and for the last three months of the year Quinn would sing a song to me every week without fail. It should have been clear sometime between Shattered and I Think I Love You."
"She really sang I Think I Love You?"
"Yes, it was adorable."
"And you didn't realize she was trying to tell you something?"
"No, I thought she was singing to one of my roommates. I mean, she and Kenny were practically glued to each other whenever we weren't acting like two puppies in a box. It didn't really occur to me that we were all over each other all the time and that I was just jealous." Four more pieces of bacon added to the plate and then new ones added to the skillet. Young Rachel had finished with the onion and was instructed to dump all of it in the other skillet along with the peppers. She did as directed and was then handed a bowl with three avocados and a spoon.
Young Rachel sighed again when she had returned to her station with her new task. "I had a crush on Quinn Fabray the moment I laid eyes on her."
"There you go. Was that so hard?"
"It was extremely taxing. I'm not sure I can go on."
"Well at least try to pull through. We're not done yet."
"I will make an attempt."
"Such a trooper."
They worked quietly for a while until more bacon had been added to the plate and the three avocados had turned into a bowl full of green mush. When the older diva put down her spatula and turned to face the younger, Rachel knew that something serious was about to pass through the air between them. When the older woman just looked at her for a silent moment she felt anxiety start to rise up in her.
She better not tell me we have cancer or some other terrible disease.
"I don't know if what I'm about to tell you will impact you or not. I know you won't remember it when you get back, but I feel like it might stick to you subconsciously. It's important, so important. In fact, it's life or death. You're going to have a choice one day Rachel. You're going to be at a party and you're going to have to decide whether to use the bathroom there or just wait until you get home. Don't wait. Use the bathroom."
"O-kay." Wait. What?
The older diva's face was grim. "I don't want to think about what would have happened if I hadn't gone to the bathroom, Rachel. I'm sure my life would have been perfectly fine, but so much is different because I made that choice."
The heaviness of the conversation dissipated and Rachel steered it into safer waters by asking about the children. It turned out to be a good move. If there was one thing Rachel Berry was more passionate about than musical theatre, it was her children.
"Five! I mean, I knew there were four at least, but five!"
"Quinn is an addict, she still wants more. I had to cut her off. I refuse to let her turn us into the Brady Bunch."
"What do they all do? I know Alex is in middle school and Alice is in high school, but what about the other three?"
"Morgan is a struggling actor in L.A. which actually means that he's a waiter. He does stand up on the side but most of his energy is dedicated to finding auditions. He's twenty-three graduated from Juilliard last year. Carmen is currently at Juilliard and loving it. She's majoring in Drama just like her brother and I did."
"We made it to Juilliard?" She was glad she hadn't been holding the knife because she surely would have sliced her hand open.
"Of course. I only settle for the absolute best."
"When did we learn to cook?"
"We didn't." Older Rachel laughed at the display of confusion on her younger face. "I've picked up a few things here and there, in college and from watching Quinn mostly. She usually does all the cooking."
"Quinn cooks?"
"Like a dream. You have to remember that Quinn grew up in a very old fashioned and conservative home. The woman's place was in the kitchen. She cooks, she cleans, she can sew and knit, she does the laundry…she's just good at household type work."
Their conversation was ended by the sound footsteps in the hallway outside the kitchen. "Are we interrupting anything?" Older Quinn asked, ducking into the room with her younger counterpart trailing behind her.
"No, finish your talk?" Older Rachel replied without looking at their new company. Young Rachel had turned, though, and could clearly see that her fellow time traveler had been crying. She looked miserable and Rachel's heart ached for her.
"We smelled bacon," Older Quinn explained, avoiding the question.
"I knew it would tough on you," Older Rachel said, turning with a plate of hot pig meat to present. It had been stacked artfully. "I made it in the shape of a log cabin."
Older Quinn gave her wife a hungry once over. "I love you so much right now. I'm not even going to try to explain how glorious you are."
Older Rachel arched an eyebrow so perfectly that her younger counterpart just knew that she had taken lessons from Quinn at some point. "Your fetishes are weird."
"Shut up and kiss me before I'm no longer kosher."
Young Rachel looked away in time, her eyes landing on a very interesting piece of the textured beige wall. Young Quinn hadn't raised her eyes from the general height of Rachel's knees since she entered, so she also missed the action but her cheeks pinked at the very thought of it.
"Kosher," Older Rachel began once her lips had separated from the older blonde's, "I would break for you. Veganism? Not so much."
"And here I was, thinking I was special."
"Sit down and eat you crazy bitch. It made my soul darker to cook it, so the least you can do is enjoy it."
Older Quinn chuckled and carried her plate of log cabin bacon away to the six-seater table in the breakfast nook.
"Come here, Little Quinn, I made some for you too." When the younger blonde didn't immediately leap at the offer of a plate full of her favorite meat Older Rachel finally looked at her. "It's ok, I won't kiss you anything."
"That would be interesting actually. We could time how fast the gay panic sets in," Older Quinn quipped from the other side of the room. Every one ignored her.
"That's not-" Quinn started in response to Older Rachel's comment, but she was cut off.
"You've been crying! Did she upset you?" She didn't wait for an answer before rounding on her wife. "Did you upset her? You did, didn't you? Give me back that bacon."
"No," Older Quinn resisted, hunkering her body over the plate. "It's mine, and you can't be mad at me for making myself cry. And I didn't anyway, we were having a moment."
Quinn tentatively touched the older diva's arm to draw attention back to her. "It's ok, I'm fine."
Older Rachel pouted at the sight of Quinn's sad face. "If you're sure. Here," she fetched the other plate of bacon, "this will make you feel better."
Young Rachel thought she might have heard the blonde mutter something about a diet.
"Nonsense," Older Rachel replied to whatever Quinn had said. "You've had a terrible day, go sit with Quinn and eat your bacon."
The young blonde sniffled and accepted the plate along with an affectionate squeeze of her bicep.
"Rachel, you can go ahead and take a break too. I can finish up here."
She approached the table behind Quinn, sitting on the opposite side so as not to crowd her. Neither of the blondes paid much attention to her, they were both occupied with their food.
"Well," Older Quinn began around a mouthful of the pork, "we need to talk about what we're going to tell Shannon. The little chatterbox is too young to understand that she can't go spreading around that her parents traveled through time. What if the aliens find out and come take them away?"
Both of the time travelers felt their eyes pop, because Older Quinn was not joking. Her dour expression was focused on her wife's back but turned to them when a green faced Quinn squeaked, "Aliens?"
"Quinn!" Older Rachel squawked, rounding on the older blonde with a spatula. "You stop that this instant."
"But Nuggy-"
"Don't even start." She waved the spatula very close to Quinn's face, nearly smacking her on the nose with it. "There are no aliens," Older Rachel informed the time travelers. To her wife she added, "I can't believe you would put them through that when you know very well how scary it was."
"And now I know why I did it! The looks on their faces…" she trailed off in evil laughter. "Oh, God, I can't breathe."
Young Quinn, her face changing from green to red faster than a traffic light, slammed her closed fists down on the table. "That wasn't funny!"
Older Quinn just laughed harder. "Oh, it was."
"Not the point," Older Rachel cut in before any blood could be shed. "You were saying about Shay?"
"Oh right, we need a story, that's all. We can say they're family or something. But you will need names we can call you so she doesn't get suspicious. Rachel is a common enough name, and I don't call you that anyway most of the time so…"
"No, we shouldn't change anything from the way it happened to us. I don't know what it would change since we didn't remember anything anyway, but we should stick to the script."
The older blonde nodded and turned her attention back to the teens. "Ok, Barbie and Charlie."
Quinn scowled so deeply that Rachel was worried the wrinkles on her forehead were going to be permanent.
"Well I understand Barbie, as it is a diminutive of my middle name. I just don't understand Charlie," she said, trying to break the spell of tension that had floated up between the two Quinns.
"When I was a little kid-" Older Quinn began to explain but the younger cut her off.
"You can't tell her."
"I can tell her whatever I want, as we are the same person."
"I hate you."
"Quinn, hating yourself is going to get you into a lot of trouble someday. You might want to start employing a new tactic."
Young Quinn felt a vile sort of anger stick in her throat. That had been a low blow, she could tell by the look on her older form's face, but she didn't understand why it was so hurtful. It was an instinctual feeling. She just didn't want Rachel to know about her childhood invisible friend. It was embarrassing to even remember it and she didn't want to feel that way in front of the girl she…the girl she loved. She tried not to wince at the thought.
She didn't want to see the look on Rachel's face when she found out that Quinn had made up her own friend because she didn't have any. The pity, the sympathy, would kill her. Not literally but metaphorically. She thought that her older self would understand that.
She seemed to, at least a little, because she continued with, "I'll leave you to tell the story if you ever feel like it. Rachel will just have to struggle with her curiosity."
The conversation bottomed out when Older Quinn rediscovered her bacon. The younger blonde did the same, enjoying the pleasant greasiness. She contained her hum of pleasure at the thought that Rachel (it didn't matter that it was the older one) had made it for her, despite being a Jewish vegan, just because she loved her.
That kind of love was all she'd ever truly wanted out of life.
"By the way, what's Nuggy?" Young Rachel asked during the lull. Older Quinn's face lit up in amusement again but she didn't get to reveal anything before Older Rachel cut her off.
"It's short for Nugget and we will not be telling that story because it's embarrassing."
"It's endearing," her wife argued.
"It's terrible and you will not tell it."
Older Quinn nodded meekly, but as soon as her wife turned away she winked at the time travelers. "I'll tell you later," she mouthed.
Rachel didn't know whether she should be pleased that she would get to hear the story behind the pet name or upset that Quinn obviously ignored her wishes sometimes…or if she should be kind of turned on by the winking.
The sound of a slamming door and scampering feet on the hardwood floors ended any further conversation quickly. An eager voice called out, "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!"
Older Rachel chuckled before replying. "In the kitchen!"
A little white and brown blur streaked into the room and slammed into Older Rachel's back. The older diva had been expecting this and had braced against the counter. Once the motion had settled, the time travelers could see that the blur was a little girl with long dark brown hair wearing an immaculate gi. She tipped her head up, focusing wide brown eyes on her mother's face. "Mommy, guess what."
"What?" Rachel asked dramatically.
"I got my purple belt!" the girl informed her in shrill excitement, jumping in place and pulling at the ends of the purple belt around her waist.
"My daughter is a ninja!" Older Quinn cheered, drawing the girl's attention away from Older Rachel.
"Momma! You're home early." She climbed onto her mother's lap and leaned back against her.
"No, you're home late."
"Nuh uh!"
"Yuh huh!"
"No!"
"Ok you're right, I'm home early."
"I know!" The little girl threw her hands up in exasperation and rolled her dark brown eyes.
"Where's your sister?" Older Rachel broke in.
"Car," the little girl replied, she looked around table and saw the time travelers for the first time. "Who are they?"
"They are Charlie and Barbie. What do you remember about Grampa Fabray?"
"He's a jackass," the girl replied with the distinct air of parroting back facts she had memorized.
"That's right. Well Grampa had a sister and his sister had a few kids and one of those kids had Charlie. That makes Charlie your second cousin, or something equally difficult to understand. Barbie is related to your mother somehow. She explained it but I stopped listening after about five minutes. It got complicated."
Shannon nodded sagely and it caused adoring smiles among the three others. "You're really pretty," she told Quinn. "But you look sad. Do you need a hug?"
"I'm ok, but thank you," Quinn replied with a gentle smile. Rachel felt her chest clench with feeling at the sight. She looked so beautiful, angelic almost.
"Ok, little ninja, you need to go get changed for dinner."
"I want to wear my gi!"
"You will get your gi dirty!"
"I won't!"
"You will."
"Won't!"
"Will."
"UGH!" Shannon crawled out of Older Quinn's lap and stormed out of the room with a little angry huff.
"She gets that from you," she pointed out to Young Rachel.
In the front hall the door slammed.
"Took you an awful long time to come in, Princess," Older Rachel called out.
"Nicole called and I didn't want my nosy mothers listening in on our conversation." She walked in, still in her uniform and a very neutral expression on her face. "Oooh, bacon!" She chirped happily, swooping in and snatching a piece before her mother could get it away.
"Hey! Hands off you little brat."
"What are you gonna do about it Grandma?" Alice teased with a wink.
"Hold on, let me get my cane so I can give you a proper walloping," Older Quinn snarked right back, swatting her daughter's behind.
"Ow! Jerk," the teen groused, jumping out of the way so her mother couldn't get another swing in. "I'm going to go change and you can tell me about our guests."
"Actually, we need to tell you now, while Shay is busy."
The conversation with Alice was quick and painless. She didn't wail about wail about how she thought they were hot and she didn't get excited about how much fun it was going to be. In fact, she barely seemed interested in the time travelers themselves. Instead she asked questions about the event itself and the story they were telling Shay.
"Well," Alice chirped (she did that a lot, like a bird) when they were finished and all her questions had been answered, "I'm going to go change now. Nice to meet you, distant family relations who I've never heard of before." She winked and twirled, sending the pleats of her Cheerios skirt into a dance (those uniforms had barely changed at all), looking every bit like a much happier Young Quinn with brown hair.
"Dinner will be ready in fifteen. Make sure Shay is actually cleaning up, will you?"
Alice's reply was a wave as she left the room.
Older Quinn turned her grinning face to the teens. "Well, that went well."
QFRB
Setting up for dinner was a shared job between the three Fabray children. Shannon put out the placemats and plates, Alex set up the silverware, napkins and glasses, and Alice helped bring the food in from the kitchen.
While they were busy Older Quinn disappeared to pull one of the chairs from the dining room into the kitchen.
They all sit down in spots that have clearly been assigned by custom, and Rachel ends up between Shannon and Quinn and Quinn wonders if God is punishing her or torturing her by putting her between the two Rachel's.
"Who's turn is it to pray?" Older Quinn asked from the head of the table.
"Alex's," Shay answered, happy to please. Alex scowled at her but held out his hands for Alice and his mother to take.
Rachel took Quinn's hand hesitantly, but when the blonde didn't try to tear all her fingers off immediately she relaxed and allowed herself to reveal in the softness of the blonde's skin.
"Dear Jesus of Nazareth-" Alex didn't get any further before he cried out in pain as two hands smacked the back of his head in succession. "OW! Alright! It was just a joke, sorry." The commotion at the table calmed quickly and he started over. "Daddy, bless this food so that it might nourish us and take us through the world to spread your love, and bless this company with whom we already share it. Amen."
A chorus of 'amen' led into the sharing of food around the table. No one spoke beyond requests to pass items around the table.
"Are you going back to work tonight, Momma?" Shannon asked around a mouthful of fajita.
"Don't talk with your mouth full," she replied, ignoring the question.
The little girl swallowed and asked again.
"No, I took the day off."
"Will you read at story time?"
"Is it your turn to pick the story?"
"No, it's Alice's."
"Then I think that will be left up to Alice."
Shannon turned her large brown eyes to her sister.
"I'd like you to read. We're starting Hitchhiker's again and you don't get the words wrong like Mom does."
"Offended," Older Rachel chimed from the other end of the table.
"Hello, Offended, why don't you tell the babies about their jobs tomorrow?"
"Jobs?" Alex whined.
"Tomorrow's a busy day. We have to get ready for Thursday. Morgan's renting a car and should be around by supper time. What time are you taking off, Quinn?" The older blonde, caught with her mouth full just held up five fingers. Her wife accepted this with a nod. "Alex, you and Shannon will be helping me with the house work. Don't you groan at me, young man. Alice, Carmen's plane gets in at 1:15 so don't stay up too late tonight," Older Rachel directed all in one breath. Alex was stabbing at his fake meat with a mutinous face and Shannon was pouting. Alice just nodded and looked back at her food.
"No complaints? You must want something. I know you would rather eat broken glass than go pick up your sister," Quinn said conversationally.
"It's not like it would do any good. Why bother?" Alice shrugged and twirled a tortilla chip through her guacamole.
"While your argument is valid, that's never really stopped you before."
She shrugged again. "I don't know, maybe I'm growing up or something."
"Or maybe," Alex piped up from beside her with a devilish smirk; "she's dating Puckerman and doesn't want you to find out about it."
Several things happened at once.
Every eye at the table snapped to Alice, while Alice had her full attention focused on Alex. The boy sank down in his seat and his sister clenched her fist around her fork so hard that her knuckles turned white. Silverware clanked on glass and several chairs scrapped on the wood.
"You little toad, have you been going through my phone?"
"There is no way you're dating Puckerman, it's unacceptable."
"His hands were all over your ass at rehearsal this afternoon! How long has this been going on?"
"I didn't have to go through your phone, Shay told me."
"Shannon!"
"You didn't say I couldn't tell him."
"See if I tell you anything ever again."
"Okay, that is enough!" Older Quinn roared casting silence around the rest of the table. "Alex, switch seats with Charlie. Alice, sit down."
The red faced girl fell back into her chair with a huff, crossing her arms over her chest, while her little brother and the younger version of the woman that was about to blass her out switched places. She scowled at the younger blonde just because she could.
Older Quinn reclaimed her chair as well and sighed, running a hand through her short locks before meeting Alice's defiant gaze."You are not dating Jericho Puckerman. That boy is his father made over, and while Puck has made something of himself, at that age his brain was in his dick, and never again will a Fabray go near a Puckerman's downstairs area. So whatever is going on between the two of you ends tonight. That is final."
Alice had swelled up with rage and indignation through her mother's speech and by the time she had a chance to speak she looked like an angry cat. "In the first place, I'm not dating him, he just asked me out today and I haven't even agreed yet. In the second place, it was Seth Puckerman, not Jericho. And in the third place, I'm going to say yes because he's sweet and he's not in Glee Club or on the football team so I won't have to deal with anymore drama than I already do."
"Seth? Which one is Seth?" Quinn asked her wife.
"The black one," she replied. "When did he ask you out?"
"This afternoon while he was waiting for his advanced class. He and Shannon go to the same dojo."
"Isn't he a freshman?"
Alice colored. "Yes."
"He's cute," Shannon added, "and really nice. He always helps me with my katas."
"Well…" Older Quinn paused and gave her daughter a searching look. "I guess as long as it's not Jericho…" Alice relaxed a little.
"Are meal times always so eventful around here?" Young Rachel asked when the current Fabrays had gone back to their dinner as if nothing had happened.
"Yes," everyone chorused, except little Shannon who added hers just a few seconds later.
"So Momma, did you get any crazy requests today?" Alex asked before shoving the entire fajita he was holding into his mouth.
"Not much went on today, but I left early. Most of the weird stuff comes in when the bars are closing."
"What is it that you do, Quinn?" Rachel asked. She had been wondering ever since the older blonde had mentioned having an in-home studio but hadn't had a proper opening to ask before that moment.
The older blonde hesitated briefly before answering, just long enough to glance at her younger self and then back to the younger version of her wife. "I'm a tattoo artist." She allowed herself a moment to wallow in delight at the widening of Young Rachel's eyes.
The younger blonde at the table was staring with equally wide eyes, her eyebrows nearly at her hairline. "How does one go about…how did you…what?"
Older Quinn couldn't help but laugh. "I got an art degree and near the end of my senior year I went to my tattooist and asked if he would take me on as an apprentice. He gave me a bit of trouble at first but I showed him my portfolio and he took me on for a year. After my apprenticeship was over he hired me as one of his artists and I stayed with him until we moved here. I have my own parlor and three artists that work for me."
"You have tattoos?"
"Yes, several."
"Understatement of the century," Alice scoffed. "You're like a coloring book."
"Oh not even," Quinn rebutted. "The majority of my body is ink free."
Rachel let the subject drop, but she was now nearly driving herself insane with the desire to see the tattoos that were hidden under all that baggy lounge wear. So consumed, she was, that she didn't add much to the rest of the dinner discussion. She felt like she was sitting at the table for hours before one of the adults, she didn't really pay attention to which one, ended the dinner with, "All right you little brats, time to clean up all this mess you made. You need to get some homework done before story time."
"Aww, Mom, we have all break to do our homework," Alex whined.
"And if you get it done tonight you won't have to worry about doing it all on Sunday night."
They all helped to clean up the dishes and put away the leftovers. And when Shannon tried to rope Young Rachel into going to look at her Barbie Dream House, Alice recued her, saying they were all the same age and thus they were going to hang out. Shannon wailed about not being invited and both Quinn and Rachel had to placate her with promises to look at her Barbie collection later.
Alice led them out of the kitchen, Quinn taking up the rear.
As she left the room the blonde barely caught the whisper of words that passed from Older Rachel to Older Quinn, but she did hear them and they sent a thrill of fear and excitement through her. She knew that she had a chance to do things right while they were stuck in the future and she didn't plan on mucking it up.
"I can't believe I forgot our first kiss."
QFRB
Believe me,
You really don't have to worry.
I only want to make you happy
And if you say,
"Hey, go away," I will
But I think better still,
I'd better stay around and love you.
A/N:
Several things about this chapter:
I hope everyone remembered that Puck got a vasectomy. His children are all adopted. He has three sons. I don't have ship in mind for him. He probably just met some nice girl and settled down after college.
The only set ships in this story are: Faberry, Brittana, and Tike. I don't care about the rest. I don't have a preference for Klaine or Kum, so you readers can decide it for me if you feel like it. If you don't, then I'll probably just say he married some random, cause I mean really, the likelihood of Gleecest continuing post high school is ridiculous.
Everyone always paints Quinn as Rachel's worst tormentor. I feel that someone the size of Rachel, and with as much confidence in her personality, would not be the type of person to take verbal abuse to heart, even if she thinks that person is super hot and therefore has some sort of attachment to them or whatever. It is my belief that she would be more traumatized by the physical intimidation and abuse that she suffered from Kurofsky and his goons, as well as from the football team.
I don't even care that the chapter song is super corny. I love it.
Quinn was raised to be a homemaker. Don't try to contest it. As someone also raised to be a homemaker, you will lose that argument with me…just sayin.
A note about the last chapter:
I hope I didn't offend anyone with the discussion of religion. I'm a Jewish/Christian/ Buddhist and my religion is a really big deal for me. My God and my belief system were major hindrances to my coming out. It took me years to reconcile my faith with my sexuality. It was only through exploration of other religions and an understanding of what the Bible was written for and who it was written for, that I came to accept myself fully.
I identify with Quinn a lot. Even though on the show she is likely never going to just admit that she super gay for Rachel, she's still a repressed Christian girl that has sinned and probably believes she's going to hell. I too was raised with the understanding that abstinence until marriage was the only way for sex to not be dirty and sinful. We aren't expressly told what faith background Quinn comes from, but I know that in my extremely conservative background, the conception of a child, not only out of wedlock, but also not out of love, means that the child has no soul and is damned to hell. I don't know if Quinn's faith background is quite so extreme, but that's just one more thing that people need to think about.
All of the above aside, I feel that in a discussion of sexuality with a Christian character, it would be remiss of me to exclude the discussion of religion as well.
Essay over.
How did you all like Quinn's profession? Be honest. In a review!
Next chapter: Young Rachel, Young Quinn and Alice in one room. Young Quinn and Young Rachel alone for the first time since their arrival. A scene that I'm honestly worried about because it deals with the events surrounding Rachel and Quinn getting together. Maybe more!
Chapter song: I Think I Love You by The Partridge Family/ David Cassidy