Chapter 8
Rachel and Mercedes were sitting at Lima Coffee Bean waiting for their friends.
"I wonder where Quinn was been these last twenty years, Rach. I mean she just vanished."
"Yeah, Mercedes. I think it has something to do with her degree. She graduated with a Bachelors in Global Affairs and Middle Eastern Studies. Santana is convinced she went to graduate school at Yale too."
"No drama degree then. Santana took it pretty hard- Quinn leaving, huh?"
Rachel knew it wasn't her place to say anything about Santana and Quinn. She figured they would tell Mercedes when they were ready. She was the only one who knew about them and she was going to keep it that way. It was their news to tell, not hers.
"I think Santana and I both did. I have missed her so much."
"Me too, Rachel. I've missed Quinn too."
In the car, in the parking lot of the Lima Bean, Quinn turns to Santana.
"Obviously, Rachel knows about us. Does Mercedes?"
"No, only Rachel."
"Well, do you want to tell Mercedes? What is there to say?"
"I think that we don't know what we are. It is a conversation for tonight, over dinner? But, yeah, let's let Mercedes know," Santana says.
Santana leans over the console and kisses Quinn. "You know that you are gonna get grilled. They know all about me and my life."
"I'm ready. Let's go."
The bell rings as Quinn opens the door, holding hands with Santana, leading her to Rachel and Mercedes. That small gesture of intimacy catches Rachel's eye and she beams at Santana. Mercedes wonders what that is about. Hugs are exchanged between the friends.
"Your usual, Quinn? I'll go get our drinks."
"Yeah, that would be great, San. Thanks."
When Santana is out of earshot, Mercedes launches her interrogation.
"San, huh? What's with the hand holding, Quinn?"
"Wow, you cut right to the chase, Cedes. Santana and I…well…it's complicated."
"But, you guys are together?"
"I don't know about that, Mercedes. But we were last night," Quinn admits, blushing.
At hearing that, Mercedes is speechless, which is a rare occurrence.
Rachel jumps in. "I'm so happy for you, Quinn. Santana must be over the moon. Twenty years is a long time."
"Wait, what? Twenty years? What am I missing here?"
Santana comes back with their drinks and takes a seat next to Quinn.
"Yes, Mercedes. Quinn and I were first together the night of Mr. Schue's wedding."
"I had no idea. I did wonder were you two disappeared to. And you knew about this, Rachel?"
"I found out later. I was busy with Finn myself."
They all got quiet for a moment, remembering their lost friend.
"Quinn texted me the morning after, asking me to take care of Santana for her. And I did, Quinn. I took care of Santana, my best friend. Gosh, my high school self wouldn't believe that I could be best friends with Santana Lopez."
"You have been so good to me, Rach. I don't know if I could have made though Quinn leaving without you."
Quinn noticed how much more open Santana was in expressing her feelings. She had changed a lot. The old Santana would never say something like that, to Rachel no less. It made Quinn want to learn more about this Santana.
"Speaking of which, where have you been Quinn?"
"I work for the CIA, Rachel. I had to disappear because I was in the Clandestine Service. I am a Senior Directorate of Operations Language Officer. I am fluent in Farsi, Chinese, Latin, Spanish, French, and American Sign Language. I was stationed overseas, mainly in Iran. Only my mom, Frannie, and Shelby knew where I was. I didn't want to risk any more people knowing because I was dealing with very dangerous people. It was why I had to leave the way I did. I am so sorry, Santana, for leaving you like that. I can talk about my job now because I was promoted to faculty at the CIA Academy. I will no longer be in the field. I will teach new recruits, since I recently completed my Ph.D in Education. I can still be called upon when my expertise is needed. I miss home too much and was tired of traveling. When mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, I knew that I wanted to be closer to her. DC is only a couple of hours away from Lima, as compared to Tehran."
Santana just nodded as she listened to Quinn. There were so many questions she had for her. For now, she would let Mercedes and Rachel ask their questions. They had dinner tonight.
"Wow, Quinn. It sounds very exciting. It also sounds very lonely."
"It was, at times. I had my best friend, Bene, who was my roommate my first summer at the CIA. We were always stationed together. I had a couple of relationships, with women and men. The only serious one was with Scott. We were engaged but we didn't marry. I left him at the altar. I couldn't go through with it when I was in love with someone else."
"You love Santana?" Mercedes asked.
"I do love her, Mercedes. Enough about me, tell me about you and Matt Rutherford. And Rachel, I want to hear about you, Jessie, and your kids."
Quinn was ready to have the spotlight off of her and genuinely wanted to hear all about Mercedes' and Rachel's lives.
"Well, Quinn, obviously you know Jesse. We reconnected after we played love interests in Spring Awakening. He was so romantic when he proposed. It was our last show and at curtain call, he asked me to marry him. We have been married for 15 years. Our oldest, Idina Barbra, is 10 and Michael Finn is 8. Actually, I am 3 months pregnant with twin boys. They will be named Jesse Hiram and Christopher LeRoy, after Jesse, my dad's and father-in-law. Jesse and the kids are at my dads' house. Maybe you can swing by later to meet them, Quinn?"
"Sure, Rach. I'd love to meet your children," Quinn answers.
"Matt and I reconnected at UCLA. He was in my Music Theory class during my sophomore year. At first, we were just friends. He asked me to out when we were Seniors and we have been together ever since. We have a daughter, Malia. She is 6. Matt couldn't come out for the reunion because of our's daughter's soccer game. He is the coach of her team. We are very happy living in Los Angeles."
Rachel then asks Santana, "Have you told Quinn about your life? Or were you too busy having sex?"
Quinn, again blushes, while Santana waves her off. "I'll have plenty of time for that. Quinn, why don't we get going. I want to spend some time with my mom. I don't see her often enough.
With that, the old friends hug and say their good-byes. Quinn makes plans to meet at Rachel's for breakfast in the morning.
In the car, Santana lets out a big sigh of relief, as she starts her car.
"What's that for? You weren't actually worried about Mercedes, were you?"
"Just a little. I wonder how the rest of our friends will react. Well, we have that farewell dinner at Mr. Schue's tomorrow, so we will find out then, I guess."
"San, they won't care. I promise you. They will just see how happy we are and that will make them all happy too."
"I know you are right, Q. Let's get you home."
Santana drops Quinn off and picks up her mom. She will be there at 7:00pm for their real, first date. They did things so backwards.
Once inside, she knew that her mom would be buzzing with excitement.
"Lucy, tell me. How was it last night? Spare me the sexy details, obviously."
Quinn rolled her eyes at her mother. As if she would tell her about her night together with Santana.
"Well, I found Santana at the bar. When she first saw me, she slapped me. Immediately after, she hugged me so tight, like she was afraid if she let go, I would disappear again. Mom, she took my breath away. We didn't get a chance to really catch up yet, since we were at the reunion. I will do that tonight, on our first, legitimate date. Oh god, Mom! What am I going to wear?"
Judy chuckled at her daughter. "Lucy, there is plenty of time to figure that out. Seeing the two of you together, earlier, made my heart so happy. Maribel has kept me up-to-date on Santana and she was turned into a fine woman. She is all I could ever hope for you."
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, Mom. First date's first. Let's keep it at that."
Quinn prepared lunch for them. Her mom's appetite had lessened since she started chemo. She only really enjoyed soup. Maribel's was a favorite of Judy's. She always ate a bit more, which Quinn was grateful for. After making sure her mother was in bed for her afternoon nap, Quinn decided to go her room to lie down too. She didn't get a lot of sleep last night for a very good reason. As she lay there, waiting for sleep to overtake her, she thought of the last 24 hours and how dramatically her life had changed. She was actually nervous for her date with Santana. It was a good nervous. She was excited to learn all about Santana and everything she had missed. A lot can happen in someone's life in twenty years. Quinn closed her eyes and thoughts of Santana were on her mind and in her heart.
