AN: Present! Two chapters left!
There were certain things about being with Rachel that Quinn had made peace with. Yes, she was constantly singing, or humming, or drumming her fingers on whatever available surface. Yes, she still ranted on and on about whatever was on her mind and Quinn would have to sit there and marvel at the fact that she could go that long without a breath. Mostly, Quinn had come to think of all Rachel's quirks as adorable - and would admit that in high school she had thought so too. However there was one thing Quinn had yet to grow accustomed to...
And that would be the way that Rachel woke up.
No matter how many times it happened, Quinn was never quite prepared for how Rachel would come out of her dreams. Sometimes it was gentle; she would be groggy and sweet and barely coherent.
Then there were the other times.
The morning after Rachel's adventure to the comfort station Quinn was very rudely awakened when a small hand limply struck her in the face.
Shocked and immediately on full alert, Quinn's eyes snapped open to find Rachel, complete with grumpy face, still sleeping. Actually, once Quinn took a moment to relax and regain her bearings she decided that Rachel looked completely adorable, almost like grumpy cat, with her frown and furrowed forehead. With her hair all mussed and that cute pout...
"Rachel," she singsonged, deciding to wake Rachel a little more gently than she had been. It wasn't difficult to ascertain who the face-slapping culprit had been; she didn't need to be an FBI agent to figure that out. No mystery there. "Rach, are you ranting at someone in dreamland? Will you sleep talk for me?"
"Don't tickle my Elmo; it hurts," Rachel mumbled, pout deepening and hand flailing about again.
Quinn dodged the wild hand and then caught it with her own, holding it captive against her chest. "I would never tickle your Elmo... unless you asked me to."
Giggling at her own cleverness, Quinn leaned in to kiss that scrunched forehead.
"Noooo," Rachel moaned, tugging at Quinn's hand. "Drive faster, Q, drive faster! There's gummy bears in the backseat!"
"Wait, are we trying to get away from the gummy bears? Am I protecting them?" Quinn pondered, lifting an eyebrow. She wished she could see exactly what it was Rachel was dreaming - Rachel seemed to have the best dreams. "Tell me something else."
"Lucy Q, where are you?" Rachel grumbled, head jerking on her pillow. Quinn could see her eyes flickering back and forth under her closed eyelids.
"Rachel, if you're having a Scooby-Doo dream again in which I am the dog and you are Daphne, we're going to have words when you wake up," Quinn warned with an ineffectual glare.
Rachel hummed and acted like she was about to respond when suddenly the entire tent started to shake and a low, rumbly, animal type sound that was clearly Ryan reached Quinn's ears.
Rolling her eyes, Quinn twisted to tell him to go to Hell, right as Rachel woke up.
"There's a bear!" she wailed, fighting with the blankets. Quinn barely managed to grab her and clamp a hand over her mouth before she could scream.
"There's no bear. I repeat, no bear. Stand down. Situation normal. It's just Ryan who is about to be shot by my terrified girlfriend," Quinn warned, loud enough for her partner to stop his antics.
The tent ceased its shaking and the growls petered out. "Don't shoot! I come in peace."
"Ryan Allen Peterson!" Rachel scolded once Quinn removed her hand. "So help me..."
"Sorry, um, I got the fire going and do you guys want breakfast?" Ryan asked timidly.
"We'll make our own breakfast when we feel like being awake and aren't being forced into it by an idiot pretending to be Smokey," Quinn snarled, pulling Rachel back down into their blanket nest.
"My bad... back to dreamland," Ryan said, heavy steps clomping away from their tent.
"That is not a good way to wake up," Rachel huffed, burrowing back into Quinn.
"Hm, might be better than a slap to the face," Quinn commented, threading her fingers into dark hair and nuzzling against the crown of Rachel's head.
"That would be awful," Rachel agreed sleepily, already warm and happy again.
Quinn tried not to laugh, she really did, and she held as still as possible, eventually feeling when Rachel put two and two together because she inhaled so hard her whole body moved.
"I didn't."
"Well someone was trying to tickle your Elmo, so I totally understand," Quinn teased, arching away from Rachel and choking on a giggle at Rachel's horrified expression. "I'm teasing you. It didn't hurt; I was just surprised."
"I'm so sorry!" Rachel cried from behind her hands. "Oh my God!"
Unsurprised by the dramatic reaction, Quinn laughed, gently pulling Rachel's hands off her mouth. "Rach, see how I'm laughing? Not mad."
"But I - "
"What I really want to know," Quinn interrupted, tugging Rachel back into her chest. "Is what gummy bears were doing in the back seat?"
Rachel groaned, knocking her head against Quinn's sternum a couple of times. "At least I didn't sing this time."
"I love when you sleep sing to me," Quinn said, fondly recalling the various garbled love songs she'd been serenaded with. "Even when you're unconscious you have things to say to me."
"Stop," Rachel whined. "We don't talk about it."
Quinn snickered and ducked her head to lightly kiss the ear peeking out from Rachel's hair. "You didn't even believe me when I told you - I was forced to record it."
"It's not the singing! It's the fact that I sing the wrong lyrics. That's as bad as forgetting them!"
"It's so cute though," Quinn argued. "You're so earnest about it and the power ballad fist that one time... I love it."
"So embarrassing," Rachel mumbled but tilted her head up to kiss Quinn's chin. "Promise you won't ever tell anyone else?"
"I promise that, just like skinny dipping, your adorkable habit of sleep singing to me shall remain for my eyes and ears only," Quinn vowed. "However, we are about to have a talk about something very serious."
"Now what? I didn't bite you again, did I?" Rachel paused after she said it, wondering if maybe she should start writing down her dreams. The vampire one had most likely been caused by the True Blood marathon she and Allison had. It had ended with Rachel having a very nice dream about Quinn starring as Sookie... and then she'd been pulled from that dream when Quinn started shrieking. Shrieking because Rachel, caught up in said dream, had bitten Quinn's shoulder. Not hard enough to draw blood, thank God, because that would have been unbelievably gross and horrifying and Quinn would have been furious. Still, she'd left a nice indentation of her teeth behind in Quinn's skin and the bruise had been, for lack of a better way of describing it, spectacular.
"No," Quinn shook her head, also remembering waking up to the searing pain of Rachel's teeth digging into her bare shoulder. "But thank you for reminding me of that traumatic incident."
"It was an accident!" Rachel defended shrilly. "You know how active my imagination is!"
"Yes, I am very aware. I could list evidence to prove how well I know," Quinn sighed. "But what I was going to ask is if you're going to make up for the fact that you semi-smacked me?"
"Hm..." Rachel hummed, narrowing her eyes as though deeply pondering the suggestion. "I believe I also owe you for your bravery in coming to rescue me from the clutches of the cave dwellers or cannibalistic forest-dwelling hillbillies."
"Is this a 'My Hero' moment?" Quinn asked, slipping her hands under Rachel's sweatshirt.
Rachel giggled and leaned up to whisper directly in Quinn's ear. "My Hero."
Quinn shivered, rolling Rachel with a growl. "Again."
"Mah Hero," Rachel rasped again, this time complete with a Western accent.
"Just doing my job, Ma'am," Quinn responded, more than happy to play along. Dipping her head, she kissed the smirk right off Rachel's face. "I am so buying you one of those ridiculous cowboy hats from the gas station on our way back."
"Shut up and let me get back to making up," Rachel ordered, yanking Quinn back down.
The hand slapping incident was practically completely forgotten; in fact Quinn could barely remember her name when Rachel was doing that. Quinn squealed when Rachel flipped them, laughing at the triumphant look on Rachel's face. Her laugh was short lived, however, as Rachel wasted little time in attempting to fuse their mouths back together. One hand snaked it's way under the open collar of Quinn's shirt, nimble fingers quickly finding the puckered scar on her chest.
"Hey!" Ryan bellowed, shaking the tent again. "If I'm not getting any this weekend - which is a travesty bee-tee-dub - I'm not going to sit out here and listen to you two!"
"Busted," Quinn snickered, lifting her head up for a chaste farewell kiss.
"Ryan, I have two dads, I do not need another one," Rachel huffed, slumping back down onto Quinn's chest. "Go away."
"No," he pouted and kicked the tent. "It's breakfast time!"
"You're a toddler," Rachel shot back indignantly.
"Come out and join the rest of the sexually frustrated world!"
"Oh my God, can you please stop," Quinn groaned wondering what had happened to her morning. One minute she was happy and warm and rolling around with Rachel and the next... "I have a headache in my eye."
"Ryan, leave them alone!" Allison shouted from somewhere in the distance.
"I'm not coming out unless you make me," Rachel shouted, ignoring Allison's help. Really, she didn't mind the idea of eating some breakfast, but she was enjoying 'playing' with Ryan. "There's nature out there and Quinn in here. No contest."
"Ugh, next time I'm hiring a sitter for you two and Allison and I will go camping without you," Quinn muttered, still trapped under Rachel.
"You leave me no choice," Ryan warned as the tent door started to open.
Rachel shrieked - loudly - and clung tightly to Quinn, expecting him to reach in and try and pry them apart. "No! You can't make me!"
But it wasn't Ryan who suddenly entered their tent, oh no; it was eighty pounds of wiggly, happy German Shorthaired Pointer. Semper jumped right on top of her other two favorite people in the whole world, her giant paws stepping on hair and faces and bodies, slobbery mouth and cold nose assaulting cheeks and mouths... and one unfortunate eyeball.
"Ryan!" three voices chorused.
Having been forcibly removed from their cozy 'black hole tent' as Rachel called it, Rachel sulked a little in her camp chair, but brightened considerably when Quinn presented her with vegan pancakes.
"So what's on the agenda today?" Allison questioned around a mouthful of real pancake. She side-eyed Ryan, who was in "time out" sitting on the other side of the fire from her, pouting over his breakfast like the giant toddler he'd been accused of being.
"You mean after the temperature returns to normal?" Rachel asked, cuddling up to Quinn as best she could with her plate of food.
"Spoiled," Ryan teased, unable to resist continuing to bait Rachel. "A hike to the lake and some fishing? Catch and release of course, so I don't offend certain people, and then ribs for dinner!"
"A hike to the lake? The lake that is right here?" Quinn pointed, gesturing to the body of water in question, just down from their tents.
"I fail to see how releasing the poor fish is going to make me feel better when you're going to be consuming dead cow... or piggies, for dinner," Rachel grumbled.
"Rachel, you promised," Quinn scolded lightly, unable to keep from smiling.
"Fine," Rachel sighed heavily, producing the most frightening fake smile Ryan had ever seen. "Yay, hiking."
Allison, having seen that smile before, started to laugh at Ryan's horrified expression and Quinn had to smother her own laughter behind a hand.
"Demon!" Ryan cried, so loudly that it echoed off the trees. Dipping his fingers into his orange juice he flung the drops of citrusy liquid in Rachel's direction, only to repeat the process when she screeched in response. "The power of Christ compels you!"
"Ryan!" Rachel and Quinn yelled, struggling to get away from the orange juice.
"Not in my hair!" Rachel continued, shrieking in panic when her frantic movements tipped the chair back.
Allison doubled over in laughter as the chair upended, two pairs of legs kicking up in the air, empty plates flying. "Stop, oh my God, I can't!"
Ryan ceased tossing droplets and grinned roguishly down at Allison who was wiping tears out of her eyes. "Don't worry, babe, I saved us."
"Mah hero," Allison lisped in a fair impersonation of Rachel earlier and batted her eyelashes over at him.
"Hey!" Quinn cried, as indignantly as she could flat on her back with her feet still in the air.
"Plagiarism!" Rachel squeaked, her head popping up over the upturned chair with a glare. "I also find it rude that you were eavesdropping!"
"It's not eavesdropping if you nearly shout it from your tent - tent walls are not actual walls," Ryan quoted smugly.
"I whispered it," Rachel hissed, blushing bright red.
"Rachel, honey, I love you, but you don't know how to whisper. You stage whisper every time," Allison chuckled.
"Well..." Rachel huffed. "I have been training for the stage since I was a child; apparently some lessons are hard to forget."
"I'm dying to know about the Scooby Doo dream," Ryan said, quirking an eyebrow over at his friends.
"We don't talk about it!" Rachel denied.
"Ryan," Quinn warned, getting to her feet and hoisting Rachel up with her.
"All right, all right, no need to go all Mommy Bear," Ryan said, holding his hands up in surrender. "We'll attempt to ignore the pillow talk and make no mention of it again."
"We're only teasing," Allison told them. "We don't mean to upset you."
"Just remember," Rachel said, shaking a finger at them. "Payback is a bitch."
"And I'm head bitch," Quinn added with a wolfish grin.
"In Charge," Rachel included with a somber nod.
TBC...