LbN: Thanks again for all of your awesome reviews! The restaurant in this chapter isn't real (though I wish it was), but the series mentioned is. If you haven't read The Mysterious Benedict Society, you definitely should! Super long chapter (for me at least) this time. Happy reading!

The bed and breakfast was a large castle that had two expansive gardens on either side. Out of the room's window, Rachel could see a hedge maze and a large gazebo. She went over to the bed and flounced down on it. "This place is beautiful," she said in a dreamy sort of voice. "How did you find it?"

"Google," Santana said, climbing onto the bed next to her. She leaned over Rachel, propping herself up on her elbows. "I just wanted somewhere quiet. There were great reviews," she added, lowering just a fraction.

Rachel made up the distance, kissing her gently for a moment. "There's a Jacuzzi tub in the bathroom," she said, voice lowering in a way that ran straight through Santana's psyche and kicked her in the libido.

"Yes, there is," she said, kissing her again before scooping Rachel up into her arms and carrying her through the suite.

"Here's your room," Quinn said, pushing open a door.

"Wow," Beth said, slightly awestruck. "This is…really cool."

It was a small library-office. Quinn had decorated this room in what she thought of as Steampunk chic. There was a large gear work clock above the desk, and computer was done to look like antique brass. The bed that stood opposite of the floor to ceiling bookcases had a rounded brass front that acted as another shelf. You had to stand at a certain angle to see the head of the bed.

"Thanks. I really like Steampunk," Quinn added, tapping the books on the bed's shelf.

"That's kind of like…reverse time sci-fi, right?"

"Yeah…that's actually a good way to put it."

Beth nodded and lapsed into silence, sliding her bag into the compartment at the end of the bed.

"So!" Quinn said cheerfully. "I've got a pizza in the over, and I figured we could decide what to do this weekend over dinner."

"Okay."

Quinn tried not to sigh. She wasn't sure what to do now. "Come on. I'll show you the rest of the apartment and then we can eat."

"What kind of pizza is it?" Beth asked, following Quinn into the hall.

"Hawaiian with spicy peppers." She smiled at Beth's stunned face. "I might have asked Finn for a few pointers. I didn't know what you liked to eat."

Beth nodded…and then burst into tears.

To both women's slight annoyance, there was only time for a short bath. Santana had made reservations at a fancy restaurant about twenty minutes away, and they had to get ready. Santana put on her earrings and wandered back into the bedroom to find Rachel pulling on her shoes. She stopped ans stared for a long moment. Rachel could pull off any look (with the noted exception of the "Sad Clown Hooker" outfit, and even that wasn't terrible…) but when she wanted to, she could flip a switch and become absolutely breathtaking. It was times like these – her hair down, falling in ringlets around her shoulders, strapless black and green dress, with smoky makeup – that Santana remembered the nickname Rachel got during her first week in Wicked – the Goddess of Broadway.

"You're drooling, love," Rachel said with a smile as she put on her earrings.

"Hhhhmfndiughhh?"

"Santana! Earth to S. Lopez!"

"We're married – I'm allowed to ogle if I want."

Rachel laughed and grabbed her phone off the bedside table. She stared at it before slipping it into her purse.

Santana walked over and kissed her shoulder. "You want to call her, don't you?" Santana asked with a smile.

"Yes," Rachel admitted with an apologetic look.

"I know. I get it. But let's wait a while – give W a chance to make some headway with her before with interrupt. We'll call her before bed."

"Deal. So," Rachel said as they walked out into the quiet hallway. "Where are we off to tonight?"

"I got us reservations at Trilogy," Santana told her with a smug smile.

"No way! That place is supposed to have a five-month waiting list."

"You should know by now that I knows peoples."

Rachel just laughed and followed her through the lobby.

When they got into their car a few minutes later, she asked, "What do you think's up with Beth? I know we'd had a rocky couple of weeks, but it seemed like we were making progress. Do you think something happened?"

"No…" Santana said slowly, thinking about it. "Maybe it's just going to be like this for a while. You know…good weeks and bad weeks."

"But she seemed so…sad. When we left, you know? Not scared or anything, just sad. She acted as if we were leaving her for…ever…"

Like the knock-out kick of an MMA fighter, realization smacked into Rachel, and she groaned.

"She thinks we're giving her to Quinn!"

"What?" Santana asked as they drove down the highway. "Why would she think that? We said we'd be back tomorrow."

"Not right now, but…think about it…. We've been pushing her to spend more time with Quinn and get to know her, and now we're having Quinn babysit while we go off on our own. She probably thinks it's some sort of trial run."

"It's a special occasion! We normally leave her with someone on our anniversary."

"Normally that someone is Brittany and Cillian, or Finn and Abby. But now we're leaving her with her bio-mom right when she comes back into the picture?"

"But Q told us she's not here to –"

"She told us that, but we didn't relay that to Beth. And Quinn's been so focused on getting Beth to believe that she's back for good, she probably hasn't even thought about it."

"Crap," Santana said, slamming her head back against the seat's headrest. "Text Q and give her a heads-up."

"On it," Rachel said, already typing.

As it turned out, Quinn didn't need the text to get the message. She'd spent the past twenty minutes trying to console a distraught ten-year-old through the bathroom door. She was just debating calling Rachel and Santana (or at least Brittany) when Beth finally emerged from the bathroom.

"Hey," Quinn said gently, pulling her into a hug. "You okay? Ready to tell me what's wrong?" she asked leading the girl to the couch.

"I'm…I'm glad you're back," Beth said, still hiccupping slightly. "I am. But I don't want to live with you. I don't want to leave Santana and Rachel!"

And like a bolt of lightning turning a tree to splinters, a whole lot of understanding hit Quinn with earth-shattering force. She groaned, swore to herself in Arabic, and pulled Beth into another hug.

"I'm so sorry, Beth! You were thinking – and we totally just – god…. No one's planning on you moving in with me," she assured her. "I want you over here as much as you want to come over – weekends, holidays, random school nights, whatever – but I know you're happy with Rachel and Santana. I would never pull you away from them, and frankly, Santana would kill me and bury my body in a field somewhere if I tried."

Beth gave her a watery smile. "Sorry I freaked out," she said.

"Don't be sorry. I understand. Come on – let's get that pizza."

Beth nodded and followed her to the kitchen. "What was that language you spoke just a second ago?"

"Arabic."

"Do you know any other languages?" she asked as Quinn handed her a plate.

The older blonde nodded and sliced up the pizza. "French, German and enough Portugese to find a train station and order food."

"Wow! How come you know so many? Mrs. Greer is the language instructor at our school, and she only knows French."

"When I was in college, I thought I might want to go into the Peace Corps."

"That's what Uncles Blaine and Dave did!"

"Really?"

"Yeah! They were in Azerbaijan together for two years."

"Oh…cool! Well, I didn't end up doing that exactly, but I did travel a lot."

"Do you have pictures?" Beth asked, except she had a mouthful of pizza so it sounded more like, "oo um am iguts?"

"Yes, I have pictures," Quinn said, laughing. "Tons of them. Probably enough to cover every wall in this apartment."

"Oh my god, you totally should!"

Quinn laughed again, then noticed that her phone was buzzing. She picked it up with her non-greasy hand and read:

Beth may be worried about potential abandonment on our part. Please reassure her as best you can. Only an hour and a half away if we need to come back. –RBB

Quickly, she typed: Yep. Covered that already, and we're good for now. Maybe call before you head to bed? Xo, Q

"This pizza," she said, returning her focus to Beth, "isn't half bad. Peppers for the win!"

"Told you!"

The text came through just as they were pulling into the parking lot.

"Quinn says they're good," Rachel said, "but wants us to call before bed."

"Cool. Glad it's going okay."

Trilogy was a three-story restaurant that was, as the name suggested, obsessed with the number three. All of the menu items came in three parts, and there were "fusion" options at each level. The first level was American food, but you could get American-French or American-Japanese (PB&J sushi, Meatloaf-Fromage, etc.). The second level was German, fusion options African (beef and beans over bratkartoffeln) and Indian (lamb schnitzel). Rachel and Santana headed up to the third floor, where they were seated in a private booth.

"Around the World in Thirty Tastes?" Rachel read off her menu. "I'm scared," she said, looking positively delighted.

"I know, right!"

"Good evening, ladies," their waiter said, giving a courteous nod. "My name is Carson, and I'll be assisting you tonight. I'll go ahead and explain our menu for this level, and then we'll get you started with some drinks," he told them, handing each a small booklet. "This is a three-course dinner, each course consisting of a sampler platter of ten items. Sounds like a lot, but it's designed to be enough for the number at the table. You can choose any of the foods regular style, or their fusion options which are listed next to them. I'll give you a moment to look over the menu, if you'd like to place a drink order now."

"We'll have a bottle of the Moscato," Rachel said. "And two waters."

"Perfect! I'll have those right out."

They talked about anything and everything over the first course – Rachel's non-for-profit that was just starting up, Santana's fitness center that she was planning, the weather – but when the main course came out, Rachel caught Santana giving her a Look.

"What's up?" she asked.

"What with all that's happened tonight, I'm sure you don't want to raise…the subject from a few weeks ago…do you?"

Rachel's brow furrowed for a moment, then the penny dropped. "Oh! San, we can always talk about things. It's okay."

"But do you still want to?" the older woman asked as she tried to figure out how many tentacles they put in her calamari-grilled cheese sandwich slices.

"Adopt a baby? Absolutely!" Rachel said, earning a broad smile from her wife. "I just think…well, six months ago, we could just sit Beth down and say 'Hey guess what? The family's growing by one!' But now I think we'll need to be a bit…er…more careful. And I think we should wait a year. Just to see how things progress."

Santana nodded. "You're probably right."

Rachel smiled and took her hand. "I know we both want a big family, but right now we have to take care of our little family first."

Santana smiled. "I miss the tiny blonde one. Want to call her right after dessert?"

"God, I thought you'd never ask. And speaking of dessert, we're trying that flaming chocolate eggplant thing."

"Fine, so long as I gets me my cheesecake Knickerbocker Glory."

"You'd better not have a coronary tonight while we're fucking."

"Language, Miss Berry! I believe I've had a bad influence on you."

"Oh, hush!"

"That one?"

"Paris – I really liked the fashion week copycats, so I spent a few weeks there."

"And that one?"

"Vienna. I was on an architecture kick."

They'd finished dinner and Beth had begged to see Quinn's pictures.

"Why aren't you in any of them?" she asked.

"Well, I was by myself. Plus, I know I was there – I don't need to see me in them. Except…" she said, flipping through some slides on the computer. "Except that one."

Beth took one look and slid off the couch in a fit of giggles.

The picture showed Quinn atop one of the Trafalgar lions, brandishing a plastic sword and holding up a sign that said "For Narnia!" She was also sporting a fabulous battle face.

"That's…amazing!" Beth laughed.

"I was quite proud of it."

Her phone rang, and she handed it over to Beth. "It's for you."

"Hello?"

"Hi Beth! How's everything going?"

"Hi Rachel! It's great! We had pizza, and Quinn's showing me all of her pictures from around the world. She's been to like a million and two places!"

"Really? That's awesome! You'll have to fill us in when we get back."

"Okay! Can I talk to Santana too?"

"I can hear you, Baby B. You're on speaker."

"Santana! Quinn said she'd teach me Arabic if I wanted!"

"That's cool! Wait…does that mean the two of you will be able to come up with all sorts of schemes without me and Rachel knowing?"

Beth giggled. "Yep!"

"Rachel, we're stopping at Best Buy for a Rosetta Stone on the way back!"

"Are you guys having fun?"

"We are! Santana planned a great dinner for us. I had a chocolate eggplant sundae for dessert."

"Okay, that's just so wrong."

"Surprisingly enough, Baby B, it actually worked. Still think my Knickerbocker Glory was better though. I'll have to make it for you when we get back – it wasn't that hard."

"Yeah!" Beth agreed, then she yawned.

"Oh, I heard that. You get to bed, Baby B. Put Q on the phone okay? We miss you."

"I miss you too," Beth said quietly, a touch of sadness coming back into her voice.

"You're going to have a great time with Quinn tomorrow, Beth. We'll be back before you know it! Goodnight."

"Goodnight," she said, then held the phone out for Quinn. "They want to talk to you," she said.

"Hey guys!"

"Sup, Q? All good?"

"Yeah, we're good. Though, you failed to inform me that you were raising an ice cream addict…." She held the phone away hearing Santana's loud cackle.

"Oops…should've warned you. She go through a whole pint?"

"Nearly. Good thing I bought enough for a small army."

"Please tell me you're not letting her eat ice cream all weekend!"

"Calm down, Rachel. We had pizza and salad with it."

"We'll let you go. Just wanted to check in. Thanks again, Quinn."

"Yeah, thanks Q. Glad you're both doing okay."

"No problem, guys. See you Sunday."

"Bye!"

Quinn hung up and smiled at Beth, who was swinging her feet back and forth. "So…I've got some stuff planned for tomorrow. We should get to bed."

"Really? What kind of stuff?"

"It's a surprise," Quinn said with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. "You go put on your pajamas. I'll be in in a second."

Beth darted off to the guest bedroom and Quinn went to the kitchen. As she put away the leftover food, she found she couldn't get the dopey grin off her face. It had started out rough, but the weekend would be awesome, she knew. And it seemed like she was making progress – real progress – with Beth after easing her fears about San and Rachel. She hummed a little as she rummaged through one of the shopping bags still out on the table. She finally found what she was looking for and headed to the guest room.

Beth was dressed and had already climbed into bed when Quinn knocked. "Come in!"

"Hey," Quinn said, sitting on the side of the bed.

Beth slid over and tugged on her arm to pull her closer. "I snuggle when we read," she said, nodding to the book in Quinn's hand, and leaning into her.

"Got it. Well, I know Harry Potter is sort of you and Santana's thing…so I figured we'd start our own series."

"The Mysterious Benedict Society. Sounds cool."

"It's one of my favorites. Up for it?"

"Yep!"

"Okay then…. Chapter one: Pencils, Erasers, and Disqualification. In a city called Stonetown, near a port called Stonetown Harbor, a boy named Reynie Muldoon was preparing to take an important test…."