Chapter 10

I couldn't wait to get home. I had to tell Rachel- Mission Accomplished. I not only spoke with Santana but i nearly peed myself meeting Rachel Weisz, my current celebrity crush after seeing her in Disobedience and The Favourite.

"Rachel, I called out," as I pull the door of the loft back.

"In the kitchen! Tell me everything!" I could see we were having veggie burgers for dinner. I set to making my salt and cinnamon sweet potato fries. We were a great tandem.

"I met her at Starbucks by accident. She was ahead of me in line. Okay, to be fair, she spoke first. God, Rach, she is even more gorgeous that I remember. She and Brittany are divorced. Mutually agreed upon. She stopped by with Rachel Weisz in the afternoon and she was amazing. As awesome as it was meeting her, I couldn't keep my eyes off of Santana. It was all there Rachel- the electricity; the fire. I felt as if the room could combust and I could tell that Ms. Weisz picked up on the sexual tension. She actually pulled me aside when Santana got a phone call to tell me that Santana couldn't stop talking about me! Rachel told me to go for it and she couldn't wait to hear what happens. She even followed my IG account so we can keep in touch. When she had to walk Rachel out, I asked Santana to come over of Friday night for dinner. I hope that is ok.

"I have a date with Ross so the loft is all yours."

Rachel gives me a big hug.

"Quinn, I have a feeling this is going someplace special. I've never seen you this happy. Santana, huh? Like Quinntana! I made you smashup!"

I laugh heartily at that. I'll have to tell Santana that on Friday.

"OMG, Quinntana. Well it's like they called Finn and I Finchel. Silly teenagers."

"Rachel, I hope you are right. Santana sets my soul on fire. And I know I love her. I never stopped loving her, ever since that Valentine's night. Friday was on 3 days away."

I made steak medallions with asparagus and red mashed potaoes. Santana supplied the wine and we caught up in each other's lives. We remembered our shared pasts. We talk of our future plans and our current goals. We talked all night. On the couch, I made the first move. I pulled her toward me and kissed her. It felt like coming home. We slept in each other's arms that night. I was hoping it was the first of many.

We had many more firsts together. It was different this time around. We still had a past to hang onto but we had a future we were building upon. There was our first Summer Solstice and Vernal Equinox. Our first National Pizza Day and International Nap Day. Ok, so we were silly and found reasons to celebrate anything together. With a past as rich and deep as ours, inevitably, we moved fast. Almost lesbian fast. There was one special person who needed to meet Santana. My Beth.

We took my lovely daughter to the Liberty Science Center in New Jersey. It was one of her favorite places to go and I knew that Santana had never been. It was just the three of us and I could feel my new family forming as the day wore on. We saw the ocean movie in the IMAX theater and I could see Beth cling to Santana when she was scared, even when I was sitting next to her too. We bonded in the touch tunnel, where we fumbled in complete darkness, feeling our way out of the tunnel. Santana spoiled her, buying her cotton candy and a stuffed turtle, to remind her of the ocean movie. By the end of the day, my daughter adored Santana. Seeing her with my daughter made me love Santana even a little bit more that I thought possible.

Near future

"Are we really doing this, San?"

"Well, I'm being serious, Quinn. Let's get married right now."

"Ok, babe, I love you, but you just proposed to me."

"And I don't waste another day not being your wife".

I turn around and see Rachel holding a beautiful white dress for me. I see my mom and her husband, a man I really adored. I see my daughter and Shelby all decked out. I see Santana's parents and even her abuela. The most important people were standing on a beach waiting for us to say "I do." So, I kiss my fiancee and let Rach lead me back to our suite.

"Did you know about this, Rachel Barbra Berry?"

"Of course I did! Who do you think helped Santana with the ring? And planning this ambush wedding?"

I give her the biggest hug in the world.

Santana picked out this simple Vera Wang dress. It was exactly my style, a simple shift dress with lace detail. I laugh at the light green garter belt, that she must have chosen to match my eyes. Rachel pulls my hair in a up-do. There is a knocking at the door. It's my mom, Shelby, and Beth. My mom has tears in her eyes. Frannie really wanted to be here but she couldn't with Matthew's schedule. She gives me a jewelry box and I see my grandmother's sapphire bracelet. My grandfather gave it to her for their first wedding anniversary since her birthday was in September.

"Your grandmother would want you to wear this. I wore it and Frannie wore it on our wedding day."

She places it on my left wrist as Rachel hands them all pink hibiscus wrist corsages.

"Let's get you hitched, Lucy Quinn Fabray."

So, in paradise, we got married.

I don't really remember my vows to Santana. I was a blubbering mess but so was she. God we were so in love. Thankfully Beth recorded our vows on her iPhone. Oh the technical savvy of my teenage daughter. Rachel was my maid of honor and Bethie a bridesmaid. Santana had Kurt as her best man. We got married at sunset in Oahu. It was a perfect day capped off my a perfect night. Our wedding night was actually the first night were together since that Valentine's Day many moons ago. We wanted it to be special. It was only 9 months since we met at Starbucks and what a whirlwind romance it has been.

As Santana and I made love, memories of that night together flashed through my head like photographs.

"Babydoll, we are making new memories for your box. We have our whole future ahead of us. Kids, of course, I mean, you do want kids?"

"I hope they look like you, I tell her. A boy, Santiago, and a girl Isabelle, after Beth. I dreamt about them already. They have your caramel colored skin. Santi has your dark hair and dark chocolate eyes. Isa has my blonde curls and hazel eyes. They are beautiful, Santana. Our children are magnificent."

"Well, my love, I hope they look like you," she tells me, kissing me all over.

We made love all night long and the morning of our first day as a married couple, we got matching tattoos. To commemorate our marriage in Hawaii, we got two turtles on our left ankles with a pink hibiscus, which was our wedding flower, with the saying we say to each other every night before going to bed, "I love you more." It was also engraved on the platinum wedding bands she got us. Every single day I knew I would love Santana more; more today than yesterday.

Further in the future

"Papa!"

Santiago exclaimed as Kurt walked through the door.

"Hello, my godson."

Isa smiles and laughs at seeing Papa Kurt. It was Isa's 1st birthday and basically the family that came to the wedding is here.

Our 3-year old son loves his little sister. He is so protective her like her guard dog.

So, Kurt was our sperm donor. Him and Blaine wanted kids and this was a perfect way to get them. They spend time with Papa Kurt and Daddy Blaine. I carried our daughter Isabelle and Santana carried Santiago. Their personalities definitely came from their mothers.

Santiago led Kurt to the floor to play jumbo legos.

Rachel and her husband, Ross arrived to the party soon after. She was expecting their first baby, a boy. They were going to name him Finnegan, obviously for our lost friend, Finn. I was happy our children would be close in age.

I had a surprise for Santana. I got her a small gift to tell her I was pregnant. We felt that we needed a 3rd child to make our family complete. Little did she know, I was pregnant with twins. Kurt knew I was pregnant but we agreed to wait until Isa's birthday to tell Santana. The gift was necklace that had bars engraved with Santi's and Isa's birth dates and their corresponding birthstones. There were 2 empty bars, waiting to be engraved by our twins.

After Isa opened all of her presents, I pull Santana aside and pull out present.

She opened it and after she realized what it was, she cried, kissing me all over. Then she saw that there were 2 empty bars.

"Twins, baby? Really?"

I was speechless, seeing the joy on her face. I did the only thing I could think of to confirm her suspicions- I kissed her hard.

"Can we tell everyone?"

"Yes, babe. I'm past the 1st trimester."

Isabelle's birthday party turned into a baby shower of sorts for the new little ones we would be welcoming in 6 months or so.

Life was pretty grand.

I had my wife and my kids.

I had everything could of ever wanted.

Sometimes, I still pull out that shoebox of old photographs. Someday, I will use it to tell our children the story of us. It is a road that we have traveled, long and winding with peaks and valleys. As long as we promise to love each other more with every passing day, I know that we had a bright future ahead.

Way in the Future

"Our boy is graduating from NYU today, San," I say as tears fill my eyes.

"I'm so proud of him, Quinn. High honors from Film School. We raised him right."

We are sitting in the audience, waiting to hear our son's name.

Isa is sitting next to me. She was a sophomore at Yale, studying biochemistry and French. She wanted to go to medical school and be a neonatologist. Issac decided to leave the nest completely by going across the country to Stanford, playing on their football team. He didn't know what he wanted to do but we assured him that he had plenty of time to figure it out. Our baby girl, Lucy, was quite an artist like her Mama Quinn. She excelled in photography but was also great in watercolors and pottery. Just like Isa, she was enrolled at Yale, since they had one of the top art programs in the country. Santana was upset that only one of our children went to her alma mater. I told her she could work on our grandkids. Santiago agreed that all of his kids would only be allowed to go to NYU. It made me laugh to hear how competitive they were. I would expect nothing less between mother and son.

"He's next, Mami," Issac tells his mom. We look at each other and give one another a kiss.

"Santiago Burt Lopez Fabray. Presidential Scholar, Summa Cum Laude."

We whoop and cheer enough to the point of embarrassment.

Afterwards, Santi and his fiancee meet us outside on the quad. He was going to grad school to further his film studies. His fiancee, a fellow NYC film student graduate would be following him. They were getting married one summer from now, after they both finished graduate school.

Santana pulls me away from the maddening crowd.

"One done, three to go."

"Can you believe this is our life, San? How did I get so lucky? Sometimes, i feel I don't deserve you."

"My Quinniebear. You deserve nothing but my unconditional love."

With that, I kiss my wife with passion, then I hear a click.

"Another one for the shoebox," Mama, Lucy says.

I look at the screen and see my wife and I, more in love than on our wedding day.

That old shoebox has been duct taped to hold it's shape. It is overflowing with memories of the life Santana and I created together. It is the story of us that has many photographs taken and many, many more memories waiting to be captured. When I pull out the box to remensince, I look at my favorite picture first: the one I took of Santana looking at me, coy and flirty, holding a cigarette, after our Valentine's night together. Her arm draped over her bosom and her eyes looking at me, filled with love. This is how I will forever remember my love.

My Santana.

Wow. Santana.