Come Back Down
The rest of the summer passed by in a flash. Before anyone knew it, it was time to go back to school for Santana, and then for Beth.
Rachel answered the door on August 31st to find Quinn there, smiling brightly. "Hey Quinn! We didn't know you were coming by today."
"It was sort of a last minute idea. Is Beth still up?" she asked.
"Yeah, she and Santana are making lunches."
They walked into the kitchen to find Beth chasing Santana around the island and yelling at her in broken Arabic.
"I'm going to kill you for teaching her a language we don't know, Q!" Santana yelled.
"What are you two doing?" Rachel asked.
"She took the last package of Oreos!" Beth said. "I need those!"
"There's a difference between 'need' and 'want', kiddo," Santana said, tossing the cookies in her lunch bag.
"But it's my first day of school," Beth pouted.
"Speaking of," Quinn interrupted. "I have something for you, Beth."
"What's that?" the little blonde asked.
"Here," Quinn said, taking something out of her purse.
Beth unwrapped it carefully, to find a personalized leather diary. "Thank you!"
"I remembered you said you had to bring your own agenda, so I got you a cool one. And the pages are blank, so you can write your schedule and anything else in there as well."
"Thanks, Quinn," Beth said, hugging her.
"You're welcome. I have to run now, but have an awesome first day. And call me tomorrow afternoon to let me know how your first day went."
"Okay, I will. But do you have to go?"
"Yeah," she said apologetically. "I'll talk to you tomorrow, though. I want to hear all about your first day!"
"It's time for you to go to bed anyway," Rachel said.
"Goodnight," Beth told them, hugging each woman one more time before going upstairs.
"Where are you running off to, Q?" Santana asked, taking the stolen Oreos and putting them in Beth's lunchbox.
"I'm having a late dinner with Abby."
"Abby Hudson?" Rachel asked.
"Yeah," Quinn said. "Why, what's wrong?"
"Nothing."
Quinn quirked an eyebrow at her. "You have a look on your face."
"Nope. You're hallucinating," Rachel said, smirking.
"Right," Quinn said. "Okay…um, well, I'll see you guys for coffee tomorrow then?"
"Yeah, Q, we'll be there."
"Okay," Quinn said, smiling. "See you guys tomorrow."
"So what was that about?" Santana asked Rachel after she showed Quinn out.
"What?"
"And to think, you're an actress... You're a horrible liar. You were giving her a look…when she was talking about hanging out with Abby."
"It's just…I didn't know they were hanging out."
"I think they've been meeting for coffee and stuff," Santana said with a shrug.
Rachel smirked. "Now who's got a look."
"Fine, I'm big enough to admit it. My bestie is hanging out with other people, and I'm slightly jelly."
Rachel laughed. "Okay, me too I guess. But…if you think about it, it's good that she's making connections besides us. That means she really is serious about sticking around."
"Yeah. Come on, we should get to bed too."
Abby was a badass. Plain and simple. Not the boisterous kind, like Santana, but the secret type. The kind that seemed so sweet and caring and chill…until you fucked with them, at which point they became a wall of cold steel. Quinn had met the redhead at Finn's Fourth of July barbeque, and the two had clicked like Legos right off the bat. Maybe it was something in how she carried herself, or how good she was with Beth. Maybe it was the way she could shut Finn's infrequent but still present whining off with only a Look. Or maybe it was just that Quinn had finally met someone who could keep her on her toes, but at the same time didn't make her feel insecure in some way. Who knew? But she and Abby were officially BFFS. It was good to make some more friends, and Abby was the kind of friend who made you want to go out and be fun and crazy….
Which is how Quinn found herself in a strip club at eleven o'clock on a Sunday night.
"Abigail, I have two important questions for you," she said without taking her eyes off the woman on stage who was currently upside down. "Make that three."
"Yes?" Abby said, making it rain.
"Number one – don't you have work tomorrow?"
"Not until six p.m., babe."
"Okay, next… Finn's cool with you going to strip clubs?"
"So long as I stick to girly bars. He thinks it's hot."
"Right. Third, what the fuck is in this drink you ordered me?"
"Vodka, gin, rum, blue curacao, triple sec, Sprite, and Chambord."
"You're trying to get me drunk, aren't you?"
"Yep! I have a feeling you're a hot mess, but a fun one, when you're toasted."
Quinn rolled her eyes but took another sip. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Abby make a hand gesture across the room, and suddenly one of the dancers was walking their way. "What's –"
"You have a lap, she likes to dance."
"Why do I get the feeling you're living vicariously through me?"
"I am," she said with a cheeky grin. "Relax, Fabray. It'll be fun."
"Lopez! How's it going?"
"Fine, Tommy," Santana said, nodding at her boss as he entered her office. "What's up?"
"I wanted to talk to you about your territory. Now, you've been doing some great things in the Midwest, but with Kelsey and Brandon leaving, we're going to have to switch the game up a little."
"I'm listening," she said slowly.
"I want you to take over the east coast," he said with a smile.
"All of it?" Santana squeaked.
"All of it. From Maine to Florida. It's all you. Think you're up for it?"
"Definitely!"
"Fantastic! I'll have Brandon meet with you and fill you in on anything important this week before he leaves. Then you can start planning your travel schedule. Thanks, Santana."
"No problem."
Santana waited until he'd closed the door and walked off before letting out a whoop of joy and picking up her phone. Her finger hovered over the screen for a long moment, debating between calling Rachel or Quinn. She finally picked, and hit the call button….
Quinn had been counting her blessings quite a lot lately. Right now, yeah, she could go on about her forgiving friends and getting to be in Beth's life and whatever, but really at the moment she was grateful for two things above all. First is that she didn't have to work on Mondays, and second was that her mom was an alcoholic. True, this had added to the turbulence of her adolescence, but without it she wouldn't know the surefire hangover cure she was currently sucking down.
"Fuck, never again, Abigail Hudson," she vowed to the empty kitchen. She jumped when her phone rang. She'd sent a drunk text off early that morning when she'd come home, saying "No codffeee, Aabee fuckkeddsaz me up" and had hoped that that would be enough to keep phone calls at bay. She should have known better. "Hey, Santana."
"Jesus, you sound like hell. Are you okay?"
"Abby is a bad influence." She had to hold the phone away from her ear at Santana's cackle.
"Oh, poor Quinnie. You learned the hard way that homegirl goes hard when it comes to booze?"
"Have you ever had something called a Black Superman?" Quinn groaned.
"Hellz no. After she got me drunk off of Incredible Hulks, I gave up anything named after a superhero – black or otherwise. I was going to suggest that maybe lunch would be a better option today."
Quinn's stomach churned at the thought of food. She must've made a noise, because Santana sniggered. "Shut up. Lunch is fine. I'll just go back to bed until we meet up. One o'clock?"
"Sure, sexy. See you then."
Quinn dropped her phone back onto the counter and slunk back to her bedroom, Fabray Hangover Smoothie in hand.
Much to her surprise, she wasn't feeling too bad when she walked into the sandwich shop later that afternoon. She smiled at Santana, who had already order her a XXXBLT – a bacon, lettuce, bacon, tomato, bacon and avocado monstrosity, and the sexiest sandwich in America, according to the owner.
"You're a goddess," she said, taking a small bite.
"Don't I know it? You caught me in a good mood, so I thought I'd feed your bacon addiction."
"Yeah? What's got you in such a good mood?"
"I got the east coast for my recruiting territory," Santana said, bouncing up and down a little. She ate a couple of her sweet potato fries before continuing. "I get to travel all of the east coast states. Which, by the way, means Rachel will probably be calling you on the regular. She gets super lonely when I'm not here."
"How long will you be gone?"
"A few days out of most weeks from the end of this month through the end of November. I'll probably have to spend a week in Florida –"
"Life is hard," Quinn said, grinning.
"- and a week in Pennsylvania."
"Don't worry, I'm totally here for your ladies while you're gone. Have you told Rachel yet?"
"No, I'm going to tell her and Beth tonight. Want to come over for dinner? I'm sure Beth's going to want to tell you all about her first day."
"Sure! But how about you come over to my place. I'll even cook for you guys."
"You don't have to do that, Q."
"Too bad, I want to. I'm going over your head and texting Rachel."
"Not fair!"
Quinn grinned and picked up her phone. She stopped dead when she saw a call coming through. She sort of hated Verizon at the moment – or at least, the idiot guy at the store. He'd told her she couldn't change her number until this contract ran out, which meant she was stuck for another three months. She declined the call, and sent her text to Rachel.
"What's wrong?" Santana asked.
"Nothing."
"Come fucking on, Q. You were all gleeful trickery a second ago, and then you looked like you'd seen a ghost. Who was calling?"
"No one important. So, what do you guys want for dinner?"
Santana stared at her for a long moment. "Fine…I'll drop it. And anything vegan is fine."
"Got it," the blonde said cheerfully.
"So," Santana said, knowing there needed to be a subject change. "Tell me what shenanigans you and Abby got up to last night…."