Disclaimer: These characters belong to the creators of Glee, I own nothing. If I did, Faberry would most definitely be a couple.

Authors Note: Thanks once again for the reviews and story alerts I really cannot tell you how much I appreciate them. I apologise for the slightly longer wait for this chapter but I had exams to do and apparently writing fan fiction isn't good revision but they're all out of the way now so hopefully back to weekly(ish) updates! Still in Quinn's point of view in this chapter and the next one. Hope you all enjoy it and as usual all mistakes are mine!

Chapter 10:

The day I decided to become a teacher, I was sure for the first time in years that that was the right thing for me to do. I've never really been sure about anything in my life other than a couple of things but becoming a teacher, that I was sure about. It's almost as if one day I just had this crystallising moment of clarity and I knew what to do. But now I'm sure about something else, two things actually. I'm sure that meeting Rachel was the best thing I could have ever done and I'm sure that I don't want to lose her.

When I opened up to her earlier, I thought that would be it. I thought Rachel would hear about my past and realise that she was right when she called me fucked up; I thought she would leave but she didn't.

She stayed with me.

And if I hadn't already realised that I was in love with her, her staying with me would have made me realise.

Before I met her, I couldn't see myself spending my life with anybody but she has this amazing ability to make everything seem okay no matter what the situation and I want her in my life. In the past I've always worked best alone, it's the only way I've known how to be but she makes me want to be her girlfriend.

I don't want to work alone anymore because I think with her, I'll be better than I could ever be by myself.

I take a bite of my bacon sandwich whilst Rachel gives me a playful look of disgust. I return the look as she pours soya milk over her cereal. "I don't understand how you can eat that."

"I don't understand how you can eat that," Rachel repeats as she gestures her head towards my bacon sandwich before sitting down at the table beside me.

We came down for breakfast about fifteen minutes ago after deciding that anything else I had to tell Rachel could wait until later. Rachel thought it would do us both some good if we took a break before tackling any more issues that I still had to discuss. I place my hand on her thigh, wanting to have some form of contact with her. She sends me a small smile before eating a spoonful of cereal. She turns to look at me like she wants to say something but she is still chewing. I smile softly back at her and wait for her to finish eating.

She swallows her mouthful finally. "Why is that when you want to say something it takes much longer to finish eating a mouthful?" She questions more to herself than to me. She shrugs her own question off, leaving it unanswered and brings her attention back to me. "Are you okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

She shrugs her shoulders. "I know you said you wanted to open up to me but now that it's happened I don't know how you feel about it. I don't want things to be weird between us."

"I don't think things are weird, do you?"

"No, I just want to make sure that you're okay," Rachel clarifies. "I'd hate for you to feel upset or sad because I made you tell me things about your past. I didn't mean to bring up bad memories; I guess you were right, I didn't expect the things you told me."

I cup her cheek softly. "You didn't make me do anything babe, I wanted to open up to you." Rachel nuzzles into my touch. "I'm okay, are you?" She nods slowly. "Then everything's okay for now. But like I said, once I tell you everything you might look at me in a different way."

Her eyebrows furrow at my statement. "You really haven't grasped the concept that there's nothing you can say to make me look at you in a different way have you? Quinn you needn't worry about that, I'm here, no matter what you say."

"I bet when you asked me to pretend to be your girlfriend this week you never expected this."

The corner of Rachel's mouth tugs up in a small smile. "No I didn't but I also didn't expect to look at you as my girlfriend rather than just my pretend girlfriend." I have to catch my breath at her answer and she kisses my cheek quickly. "We can talk about that later though. We're talking about you today."

I can feel my heartbeat quicken at her words and it swells with adoration. I reluctantly bring my hand away from her cheek and she pouts at the loss of contact. I can't help but smile before taking another bite of my sandwich before washing it down with some coffee.

"Thank you for telling me," she replies, bringing the conversation back on topic. "I know it must have been hard."

"I find that things are simpler than you first think," I say repeating her earlier statement. She laughs mid-eating causing some soya milk to dribble down her chin. She wipes it away furiously and blushes intensely.

"That was embarrassing."

"It was cute." I peck her cheek and her blush dissipates. "You're cute."

"I can sense the sickly romantic atmosphere from upstairs," Santana states as she walks into the kitchen with Brittany.

"Does this mean you've patched things up?" Brittany asks hopefully. "Quinn was a sad panda last night and I didn't like it. Sadness doesn't suit her."

"Patched things up, did you two have a fight?" Kurt comments as he follows the couple into the kitchen. He looks directly at Rachel, barely acknowledging me. "Why didn't you come and find me."

I may not have experience when it comes to relationships but I do know that after a couple has an argument, they vent to their friends about the other person. Last night, although I didn't vent, I had somebody to talk to, somebody to confide in. I'm guessing that Kurt is Rachel's go to guy so I'm curious as to why she didn't seek him out last night to vent about my sporadic behaviour.

"I wouldn't say we had a fight," Rachel states loudly enough for everybody to hear. "We had a disagreement but it's all resolved now. I mean what couple doesn't have arguments every now and again." She brings her attention to Kurt. "And I didn't come and find you Kurt because it was quite late and I didn't want to wake you. Needless to say if Quinn and I hadn't worked things out this morning, I would have been banging on your door venting about her behaviour," she says softly, winking at me in the process.

Santana raises her eyebrow at me as she takes a sip of her coffee, almost as if she's asking me whether or not Rachel's telling the truth. I nod my head at her, silently telling her that everything is okay and it seems to appease her because she easily falls into conversation with Brittany about her girlfriend's dream last night.

Kurt sits down on one of the free chairs and pours himself a cup of coffee from the pot. "It's nice to see you down earlier than yesterday Rachel," he says. "You're restoring some natural order back into the world, although I'm still surprised you haven't been down here at 6am."

Rachel laughs at her best friend's comment. "I will do my very best to wake up at 6am tomorrow morning, so that complete natural order can be restored."

"You're not serious are you?" I ask quietly so only Rachel can hear. "There's no way I'm getting up at 6am."

"Nonsense Quinn, you're a teacher, you must be used to early starts."

"Yeah during the school year, not during the summer vacation." I peer into my mug to see that it's empty before taking a sip of Rachel's orange juice before continuing. "I like to sleep in when I'm not working."

Rachel leans closer to me. "Well then I'll try and not wake you tomorrow morning."

I wrap my arm around the back of her chair and give her a devilish grin. "Or you could just stay in bed with me."

Rachel's eyebrows raise and I think we both realise that what I said meant that I would be sleeping in bed with her rather than escaping the confinement to sleep on the couch, away from her so I wasn't tempted.

"I could…" Rachel ponders the suggestion.

"I'm sure I can find a way to persuade you." Rachel's smile widens at my suggestion and her cheeks fill with a slight pink tint.

"What should the plan of action be for the day?"

Santana shovels a piece of toast into her mouth. "You're the host Hummel, shouldn't you be telling us?" Brittany smiles sweetly at her girlfriend before telling her off briefly for talking with her mouth full. Santana ducks her head down and swallows her food before apologising.

"Say it, don't spray it Santana," Kurt says and Santana surprisingly ducks her head down once more. "I have some ideas; I just wanted to open the suggestion to the floor."

"What are your ideas?" I ask and he seems pleased that his ideas are first to be listed.

"Well I say my ideas, really Blaine suggested this. Since it's a lovely day he suggested we have a day where we remember what it was like to be children and just relax in the backyard, be carefree. He suggested playing some sports and even though naturally I'm not sporty, he seemed so enthusiastic I couldn't say no." Kurt fiddles with his engagement ring. "Water polo is one idea. Since it's our bachelor party tonight we didn't want something that would tire us out so we thought a nice relaxing day would be lovely. Obviously you don't have to agree with me."

"I think that sounds lovely," I say and Rachel smiles at my answer before humming in agreement.

"As long as I get some sun I don't really care," Santana says.

Brittany smiles widely. "I love that idea; it's so simple and freeing. Plus I love being in the water because it makes me feel like I'm connecting with the ducks. Do you have any ducks here Kurt?"

"No we don't, sorry Brittany."

Brittany pouts for a second before shrugging it off and finishing her drink. "I still love being in the water so I might just end up staying there all day. I'm not very good at sports unless it's dancing but that won't be fun because I dance better than all of you, except for Mike, he's my equal." Santana laughs at her girlfriend before whispering something in her ear. "You're my second equal babe," Brittany replies.

"Fantastic," Kurt claps in happiness. "I'm just going to take this cup of coffee to Blaine and I'll let everybody else know when they wake up. I guess go outside whenever you want and when everybody is down we'll organise a game of some sort." He releases a small squeal of excitement before picking up the mug and disappearing upstairs.

Rachel picks up my plate along with her bowl and heads to the sink, filling the bowl with water. "I'm glad you two have worked things out," Brittany says from across the table.

"Not nearly as glad as I am."

"I may not be very clever but I can read people like books and the way you look at her is the same way San looks at me," she continues staring dotingly at her girlfriend.

"Is the way she looks at me the same way you look at Santana?"

"Of course it is, you're Brittana 2.0."

"Brittana?"

Brittany stares at me like I've just asked the stupidest question in the world. "Brittany and Santana, it's our names together. It's got a fancy name that has port in it but I can never remember what it is."

"Portmanteau babe," Santana provides the word her girlfriend is looking for and receives a grateful smile in return.

"What are you three talking about?" Rachel asks as she returns to her seat, flicking a small bit of water in my direction.

"Apparently we're Brittana 2.0."

Rachel chuckles softly. "Now there's a compliment if ever I've heard one, we'd be lucky to be Brittana 2.0. Nearly ten years together and you're still going strong."

Brittany squeals softly and whispers something into Santana's ear. Santana merely shakes her head before saying the word 'later' quietly but loud enough for Rachel and I to hear. Rachel stares at the couple before grabbing my hand and pulling me up. "You need to help me pick out a bikini."

"You don't need to make excuses Berry, if you're going upstairs to have sex just admit it." Santana sends a sly wink in our direction.

"Is sex all you think about Santana?" Rachel asks but like earlier she doesn't wait for an answer. "Besides I wasn't planning on having sex with Quinn, I genuinely wanted her to pick out a bikini for me to wear."

"How many did you bring?" I ask.

Rachel shrugs. "One can never be too sure what is going to happen. I like to be prepared therefore I brought an assortment."

We bid Santana and Brittany goodbye and I let Rachel lead me out of the kitchen. "But we're only here for five days, I find it hard to believe that you'd need more than one, considering its mid-week and you're only now about to wear one for the first time."

Rachel shushes me and leads me up the stairs towards our bedroom. "Well I was going to model them for you but now I don't think I will."

I grab her waist and pull her into me, making sure I have hold of her since we're on the stairs. She screams slightly at the sudden contact. "Clearly I'm wrong in thinking that you only need one bikini, I think you should show me how wrong I am by modelling them all for me."

Rachel laughs and moves out of hold, climbing the stairs two by two until she reaches our bedroom. For such a small person she can certainly move quickly. She grabs a bikini from her drawer and hovers by the bathroom door. "You change here and I'll change in the bathroom."

Before I can suggest that we just change in the same room, she closes the door behind her. I grab the hem of my t-shirt and throw it over my head before searching for my own bikini. I put my bikini top on and turn my head at the sound of a door opening.

Rachel places her hands on her hips and shows off the bright red bikini which accentuates her curves brilliant. "What do you think?"

I stare at her open mouthed, no matter how many times I see her; I'm still amazed at her body. "I think you should wear a bikini all the time."

Rachel laughs loudly. "This is only the first one," she says. "If you hurry up and get changed then maybe I can say that you should wear a bikini all the time. She shuts the door but leaves it slightly ajar. "Besides, I want to get into the pool so get a move on."

I lean back on my sun lounger and bask in the sunlight. Rachel's been partaking in water polo for the past fifteen minutes along with everybody else aside from me, Artie, and Tina. I close my eyes and lose myself in the occasional shouts of glee when somebody scores and the shouts of disappointment from the other team. I don't know how much time passes but I soon feel shade descend over me and water droplets landing on me at a rapid pace. I open my eyes slightly to see Rachel standing over me, shaking her wet hair at me.

"You're making me wet."

Rachel gives me a devilish grin. "Is that so?"

I laugh a little too loudly and the remaining people in the pool look over briefly. "You have a filthy mind Rachel; I meant it in an innocent fashion."

"Please, everything you say has some form of dirty meaning," Rachel retorts. I turn my head to the side at the sight of somebody else approaching the pool. My eyes narrow as I see Finn properly for the first time since he tried to kiss Rachel. "Don't do anything please."

I bring my eyes back to Rachel to see her staring at me pleadingly. "What would I do?"

She raises her eyebrows at me. "I don't know, maybe lose your temper or cause more problems."

"Why would I do that? I mean he only tried to kiss you when he knows about me," I bite back and I hate that he can wind me up so easily and he isn't even near us. "Sorry."

"It's okay, just please don't say anything to make things worse." She turns to look at Finn before shaking her head, silently telling him that now is not the time to come over. He nods but nervously avoids my gaze before jumping into the pool.

"Why did you do that?"

Rachel gives me a soft smile. "Because I know that you would have said something even though I told you not to so it's best if we just give it some more time to blow over." She pecks my cheek before taking a seat at the foot of the sun lounger causing me to sit up. "Can you put some sunscreen on my back please?"

I hum in agreement before picking up my sunscreen from the side of the chair. I pour some onto my hands and start rubbing it onto Rachel's back. She sighs in contentment as my hands run over her back delicately.

"Can I ask you some more questions?" Rachel asks quietly. "I mean if you want to answer more."

"Go ahead."

"When did you get your pink hair?"

My bottom lip juts out at her question; I thought it would be something heavier than that. "Once I came to New York, I wanted a change. I wanted to leave my past behind and that included my appearance. So I dyed my hair something that the old Quinn would never have had."

"So it was kind of a goodbye?"

"Exactly."

"Are you always going to keep the pink hair or go back to blonde?" She asks. "I think you'd look good as a blonde, although the pink hair does make you sort of badass."

I blow a strand of my hair out of my eyes and consider her question. "I haven't really thought about it, I guess when I'm older I'll probably change back to blonde."

"But for now…"

"The pink hair is staying for the foreseeable future."

"Good, I like the pink hair," she replies before fidgeting slightly.

"Is something wrong?"

She shakes her head before nodding a little. "No…I mean I don't think so; it's just something that I've been thinking about for a while."

"Rach, you're starting to worry me now." I grab her waist and spin her around slightly so she's looking at me. "What's on your mind beautiful?"

"This morning, I don't even know if you remember saying it, you probably don't…"

"Rachel," I say, cutting her off mid-ramble.

"Right sorry, this morning you said that before you met me you slept around." I nod telling her that I remember. "Does that mean that you haven't slept with anybody since we started doing whatever it is we're doing?"

"No," I say softly. "I haven't slept with anybody else since we met."

A look of relief washes over her face and she exhales heavily. "I just always thought that because you left mine in such a rush, you went to see another friend with benefits."

"I wouldn't do that to you." I examine her face to make sure she believes me and when her face softens I know that she does. "I left your apartment in such a rush because I don't know what would have happened if I stayed."

"What does that mean?"

I close my eyes briefly at her question before reopening them to see her staring at me intently. "Let's just say I didn't really ever want to leave."

"I never wanted you to leave either." She grins at me and its sentences like that that make me think Rachel Berry is perfect for me. I just have to brave and tell her. "I used to love it when you stayed and we just watched a movie or grabbed something to eat, it made things seem more real."

"I always thought things were real," I tell her, somewhat offended.

"I didn't mean it like that," she says quickly, spinning completely around so she's straddling the sun lounger. "Things were real, I just meant that when you stayed everything became more than just sex, it was like…"

"We were a couple," I finish for her and she nods slowly. "Is that what you want?" Rachel looks down nervously and stays silent, like she doesn't know what to say. "Actually why don't we save that question for another time, when we're alone?" I suggest and her eyes find mine again.

"I think that's for the best," she agrees. I don't know whether it's because she didn't answer straight away, whether the next time we talk about it she's going to say yes or whether she wants to wait until we're alone so she can reject me but my heart starts to beat faster at the prospect of her answering that question.

I mean she did say earlier that she looked at me as her girlfriend not a pretend one.

Surely that's a good sign.

I gesture for her to turn back around so I can finish applying the sun cream on her back. I place a gentle kiss on her shoulder when I'm done and she thanks me before moving to lie down on the free sun lounger beside me and lolls her head to face me. "What does that mean?"

"What does what mean?"

She grabs the base of her sun lounger and moves it closer to me before she trails her finger over the tattoo on my wrist.

"I got it in memory of my mom," I explain. "I used to buy her a bunch of pink carnations every year for Mother's Day, not because I liked them, hell I don't even think she liked them, but because they were the cheapest and I never really had much money growing up."

"It's the thought that counts," Rachel chimes in.

"One day I looked up what pink carnations mean and found out that they mean 'I'll never forget you'. I used to think these types of flowers were pathetic and cheap but when she died I realised that they weren't those things. They were the perfect flower and it seemed logical to get a tattoo of one because with this tattoo I'm telling her something that I can't say out loud. I guess it's something I would have told her had I gone to her funeral, if that makes sense."

"Yeah it does. When did you get it?"

"The day of her funeral."

"Then I guess you did tell her it Quinn, just not in the way you ever expected." She fingers my tattoo before removing her finger. "What about the tattoo on your lower back?"

"It's a name," I tell her. "But can I tell you what it means when we're alone; I don't want other people to hear. It's quite personal."

"Of course we can Quinn."

I feel water droplets land on my stomach once more and look away from Rachel to see Brittany staring down at me. "We need you on our team," she says. "I'm rubbish at the game and since Rachel's taking a break you have to take her place."

"I don't think I'll be very good."

Brittany shrugs her shoulders. "You'll probably be better than me; I think Santana needs somebody else on the team that can play because Kurt isn't very good either. She's losing her temper with Puck because he keeps scoring against her and I can't really help because I don't really understand the game."

"Q, get your ass into this pool right now!" Santana shouts from the edge of the pool.

"How can you decline that eloquent invitation?" Rachel jokes before closing her eyes. "I'll just stay and enjoy the sunshine."

I hold my hands up in surrender before standing. Brittany smiles and pushes me into the pool before I can even realise what's happening. I splutter as I return to the surface and Santana swims towards me laughing. "Thanks for that Brittany."

"You're welcome," she replies, either ignoring the sarcasm or failing to notice it. She has a short conversation with Rachel before she jumps into the pool and swims towards her girlfriend who points out where she should position herself.

"Are you sexy ladies re-joining the game anytime soon?" Puck shouts from the other side of the pool. "Or are you fed up of losing?"

Santana splashes the water angrily. "Game on Puckerman." Santana throws the ball in my direction and it lands in the water in front of me. "Look alive Quinn, I'm not losing to him."

"It's just a game Santana, a friendly game," Kurt chips in but quietens down when Santana glares at him.

So she's a sore loser and competitive.

This should be interesting.

"How do I look?"

I take in Rachel's appearance and my mouth opens slightly at her beauty. She's only wearing a simple black dress but she is stunning. "Breath taking." She blushes furiously but thanks me quietly before checking her appearance in the bedroom mirror.

She stares at me through the mirror. "You look pretty breath taking yourself."

"Stealing my compliment," I reply playfully.

"Sorry, you look absolutely beautiful. Is that better?" I smile at her through the mirror and she returns the smile before continuing to fix her hair. "I can't believe Santana gave you a bloody nose during what was meant to be a friendly game of water polo."

"Accidently," I clarify. "She got very into the game and I mistakenly got in the way of her elbow."

"Even so, she shouldn't get so worked up during games." Rachel looks over her shoulder at me. "At least it didn't ruin your good looks."

"Every cloud and all that."

We both laugh before a comfortable silence falls over us as I wait for her to finish getting ready so we can go downstairs for the bachelor party. Blaine and the rest of the guys had left about an hour ago with the intention of drinking for the rest of the night. Finn had approached Rachel to bid her goodbye but he stopped short when he noticed I was with her.

I know eventually they're going to have to have a conversation to clear the air but I kind of like how he seems to fear me ever so slightly.

Rachel and I were joining the rest of the girls to help celebrate Kurt's bachelor party in style. He had contemplated going out like Blaine but had decided to stay in and drink with the option of performing karaoke if people wanted to do it.

Rachel had immediately said that it wasn't going to be voluntary but mandatory and that she would be first to sing.

"Beth," I whisper quietly into the bedroom and I don't know why I decided to tell her that now when we're supposed to go downstairs within five minutes but for me, it seemed to be the right time.

She turns around and stares at me in confusion. "I'm Rachel."

I can't help but laugh at her response, as if I'd ever get her name wrong. "Really, I would never have known that?" I reply sardonically and she chuckles. "The Chinese symbols, they mean Beth."

"Was that your mom's name?"

I shake my head. "It's my daughter's name."

That's all it takes for the comfortable silence we had endured a minute ago to turn uncomfortable.