AN- This story will be finished this month. As cliche as it is, it was always my intention to finish it in December.

Quinn could not believe she never saw it before her little journey through time. Maybe it was how she was raised, or maybe she wanted to ignore it because she was aware something was there all along.

The blonde could not deny that the first time she saw Rachel on their first day of high school that her heart fluttered a tiny bit at the sight of a tiny brunette. Rachel looked tinier then, and it did not help she had this adorably confused puppy dog look on her face. Her map was held up in front of her face, making it more than obvious that she was a freshman.

Quinn leaned against the living room wall with her arms crossed over her chest. She watched as her family- she loved the sound of that- decorated their Christmas tree. Rachel's face lit up with happiness every single time a new ornament was unwrapped. Each one had special meaning as Quinn quickly gathered by the amount of tears she had seen the brunette she in the last twenty minutes.

"Look Ave, this is your first Christmas ornament." Rachel held up a pink shoe with Avery Sophia printed on it. Avery crawled over to her mother and gingerly touched it. "I remember that daddy gave it to you. He was already your pops by then. He wanted to give you something special since you were his first grandchild." She kissed Avery's head. "He loved you so much."

January 15th, 2020

Today we buried Leroy. Rachel hasn't talked much since we received the phone call. She was prepared, but I don't think it fully hit her that her daddy was dying from cancer. Mostly she never addressed. It might be that for her, if it isn't in front of you, it can't exist.

Before me and our children, there were literally the only two people who constantly supported her. Her fathers were everything until the Glee club. They were her best friends for much of her life, and the very idea that she would be losing one of them was not something she could actually believe. She's visited often with the girls. I've only been able to go a few times because of my latest movie.

I can barely believe it myself even though I witness them lowering his coffin into the ground. I watched them seal it with his body, but yet I still don't fully understand it. He and Hiram were the first people to fully embrace me, to accept me as I am, faults and all. They always treated Avery like their granddaughter. They spoiled her and Athena with love and gifts.

Athena will barely have memories of him when she's older. I wish that weren't the case, but it is. I'll forever be thankful to him for many reasons, but I'll keep them to myself.

It's hard to see Rachel so completely devastated. She just lays in bed and cries. She hasn't sung in a week now, and I can count on my hands the number of times she's spoken. Her eyes hold emptiness, and it is difficult to see her like this. Her eyes should be sparkling with happiness and hope, but now, they are red and puffy. They constantly brim with tears, and she hadn't showered until this morning. I made all of the arrangements for us to come back to Lima. I didn't want her to have to be faced with it.

I don't know how to help her as hard as it is for me to admit.

-Q

This was the second Christmas without Rachel's other father. "He wanted you to know that just because there wasn't any shared blood between us that he still considered you very much his. Daddy may not have been biologically related to me, but blood doesn't make a family."

"Love does." Athena shouted. Rachel and Quinn exchanged smiles at that. "Can Pops see us from where he is?" Quinn watched as her wife squeezed their daughter's hand.

A few tears fell down Rachel's cheeks. "I like to think so."

"I remember when he and grandpa taught me how to make Latkes and pancakes. They kept arguing about which was better. We made a huge mess in the kitchen." Avery's lip turned up into a sad smile. Her eyes held a certain heaviness, but there was a tiny ray in her hazel orbs. Avery took the ornament from her mother and hung it on a branch.

Several more stories were shared as each ornament was plucked from boxes. Quinn listened intently because this would one day be her life. This would be her life, and the two girls in front of her would be her children. She didn't know someone could be so lucky.

She hung the last one herself. "It was meant to be a joke." Rachel explained to the girls. "Santana thought it would be hilarious if we had our own ornament because we acted like a married couple. We were raising Avery together, and we lived together. We finished each other's sentences and knew all kinds of weird things about one another. She decided to get a custom made ornament of two brides, a blonde and a brunette and then dubbed us Faberry."

Quinn choked out a laugh. It would be Santana that would do something meaningful and that mocked them all in one. "She always had her own sense of humor." Quinn muttered.

"I took it in stride. Before that I wasn't exactly sure how your Aunt felt about me, but I knew then." Quinn ducked her head guiltily. Memories of all the times she teased and taunted her wife flooded her brain. It baffled her completely that Rachel didn't hate her.

They spent the night decorating the house and hanging stockings. Things Quinn never experienced in her own youth as her parents hired a professional decorator to do it. Their house was stuffy and decorated for uptight, rich people. There weren't ornaments with awesome stories or handmade ones. Her parents kept those in a box in the attic.

She assumed when she was younger that she would be like her parents. It wasn't something that gave her a warm, fuzzy feeling, but it was all she knew. Now she knew differently. She forged her own path and made her own family. Maybe not the way she pictured when she convinced Finn he was the father or when she had sex with Puck, it was way better. It was the wish she never thought would come true. She had stopped wishing for it a long time ago.

All it took, she supposed was some extra encouragement. Life only stayed the same if you did nothing to change it. She spent the first few months of her pregnancy refusing to accept blame for her actions, but she was as responsible for what happened as was Puck. She should've never invited him over, and he should've used a condom. But as she experienced this life, she couldn't bring herself to regret the resulting pregnancy.

She found earlier that day an undated entry at the back of her completed journal from 2009-2010.

I wondered why it happened. I kept thinking it was only a dream, but even I can't predict things would turn out as wonderfully as they have. Maybe it was self-determination, I don't know.

All I do know is that something happened to me that gave me a new perspective on my life. I never knew my life could change in such amazing ways, but it has. Every day I thank God for the gift that he gave me. Without her, I don't think my life would be like this. She loves so purely and honestly that it inspires me. I'll make sure our life is exactly how I dreamed it.

Quinn wasn't exactly sure what all of that meant, but she knew that her future self was talking about Rachel. It seemed as if all roads connected back to the brown-haired diva.

And as she slipped her arms around Rachel that night in bed, she thought of only her family. Her future wasn't ruined. It was only just starting. Her dad was wrong.

JaSW~~~~~JaSW~~~~~JaSW~~~~~JaSw

Her eyes clenched tightly as consciousness started to hit her. She could make out the sounds of a faint beeping. There were hushed voices in the background. It sounded like an argument.

Where was she? What happened? Who was arguing?

Her eyes fluttered softly, but closed as the bright lights hit them. They were a harsh shock to the system.

"Quinn?" A voice softly inquired.

The blonde knew that voice. "Rachel." A sleepy smile formed. The beeping noise sounded again. She frowned thoughtfully. Her eyes still refused to open. "What's that sound?"

"Do you remember what happened?"

What was the last thing she remembered?

AN- Any theories y'all want to share?