Authors note: So a little surprise for you all in the last chapter? I am surprised at how many of you think that this is going to be a major change of track.. I guess we'll have to see. I do know I've lost some followers after that one but you can't please all the people all the time. For those who stick around, thank you and expect more of what you've already had. And to the anonymous review that said I only brought Beth in because I had no idea where to take the story, sorry but your wrong. Did you not notice the references to Beth and her picture throughout?

sol goddess: Oh ye of little faith, never think anything's been missed till the story's over :) (j/k)

When the sun rose over Lima the next day it illuminated Quinn sitting on one of the swings in a playground a few blocks from her home. Truth be told she hadn't really slept at all that night. When the initial shock had worn off, her mother and aunt had sat her down and told her how everything had turned out as it had. She'd gone to bed but hadn't been able to sleep and finally giving up somewhere around 5am. She had snuck out of the house to get some fresh air and her feet had automatically taken her to this spot where she'd come so many times as a child when she wanted to escape the house that Russell had ran. She'd sat on the swing in the dark and then watching the sun rise and still couldn't fully comprehend how her life had changed in the last few hours.

"Quinn?"

She looks up and finds Rachel crossing the grass towards the swings. Quinn nods and forces a half smile before her eyes are dragged down again. She sees Rachel's feet arrive before her and a few moments later disappear as the other girl takes a seat on the only other swing.

"Well, I stopped by your house this morning to have a serious talk about exactly what you'd told Santana …" she begins.

"You stopped by my house?"

"Don't worry Quinn, I was going to tell your mother that I needed to talk to you about something for Cheerios" Rachel assures her, "and anyway she didn't answer the door, someone who looked a lot like her answered. A relative?"

"My Aunt Jane."

"I didn't know you had an aunt." Rachel said.

"Apparently my father chased her off when I turned eight."

Rachel waits a moment but Quinn doesn't elaborate so she continues, "Anyway, I was going to talk to you about your conversation with Santana, but it looks like you have bigger problems."

"How did you find me?" Quinn asks.

"I called Santana. She said you used to come here when you needed to get away from things."

They sit for a few minutes in silence before Rachel gets up the courage to ask the question she's been dreading since she saw Quinn looking so dejected. "Are you… are you having second thoughts about us?"

"God no Rach" Quinn blurts out reaching a hand out to Rachel, "It's not about us."

Rachel sighs with relief but she's still concerned about the other girl, "Do you want to talk about it? Having someone to listen might help."

Quinn nods and takes a moment to collect her thoughts, "You've met my Aunt Jane." Rachel nods so she continues, "Dad chased her off at my eighth birthday party. She brought a friend who was, as it turns out, her girlfriend and Dad didn't like that. After he chased them off and refused to let them visit they moved to Columbus and got married."

"Well that's good isn't it?" Rachel asks, "You have someone who you can talk to who'll be able to understand what you're going through."

"That's not the problem" Quinn says, "They might be coming back to Lima."

"Might?"

"It's sort of my decision. They have jobs and everything lined up and Aunt Jane's visiting this weekend to look at houses, she's staying with Mom and me for the visit. But if they actually come back is up to me."

Rachel looks a little confused, "Did they think you might have problems with them being gay?"

Quinn takes a deep breath to calm herself, "The reason they might be coming back is so I can get to know their child, their adopted baby girl." She looks up at Rachel who's looking back at her blankly and says the one word that explains everything, "Beth."

They sit for a few minutes as Quinn lets that last piece of information sink in. She hears a young boy shouting "I want to play on the swings mommy" and looks up to see the little boy towing his mother across the park. Since they are sitting on the only two swings on the playground, Quinn and Rachel stand and Quinn leads the way over to a nearby bench.

"So your aunt and her wife adopted Beth and now want to move back to let you be part of her life?" Rachel asks. When Quinn nods, the brunette asks "I thought the adoption was closed."

"Apparently not. My Mom had told Aunt Jane about everything when I was pregnant and Aunt Jane and her wife talked it over before suggesting to my Mom that they adopt Beth. I wasn't too keen on discussing things with social services and since I was still technically underage, they talked to Mom when she approached them." Quinn said.

"Isn't this a good thing? You'll get to be a part of Beth's life." Quinn just shrugs and shakes her head so Rachel asks "If I'd asked yesterday if you would like a chance to be in her life, what would you have said?"

"Yes" Quinn says without a moment's thought.

"So what changed?"

Quinn is silent for a while "Yesterday there was no chance it would actually happen, it was a dream. Today… today it could actually happen, it's my decision and…" she trails off.

"And you're scared." Rachel finishes, it's not a question.

Quinn nods, "What if she hates me? What if she's better off without me? What if she doesn't want to know me? What if I'm bad for her? I mean look at me, a teenager in high school that got drunk and knocked up. What kind of example is that?"

Rachel reaches out and takes one of Quinn's hands in her own, "You're so much more than that Quinn and you can't let one mistake define you especially when you're this young, you still have your whole life ahead of you. Who knows what you might achieve or become? And yes it might have been a mistake getting pregnant, but look what came of that. You brought a life into this world, a beautiful perfect little girl that wouldn't have been here without you. That's something to be proud of Quinn."

"You think?"

Rachel nods, "And Beth won't hate you either, she's only a few months old and doesn't know how to hate right now. And if you choose to be part of her life, she'll grow up knowing that you love her and did what was best for her at the time."

"You think I should do it?" Quinn asks.

"I can't answer that for you Quinn, but if I were you? Yes, I'd do it. Isn't it worth taking the chance?" Quinn nods and there's a few moments silence before Rachel asks, "What about Puck?"

"I never even thought about him. But I guess if she's going to be in Lima, he can decide for himself if he wants to get involved." Quinn says.

"So you're going to agree to them moving back?" Rachel asks.

"Yeah, I think so." Quinn nods, "Thanks Rach." She adds giving Rachel's hand a squeeze. "Will you come with me and tell Aunt Jane?"

"I'd love to." Rachel smiles.

They arrive back at Quinn's house and open the front door to the smell of breakfast, bacon to be precise and Quinn's mouth is already watering at the smell. She hears Rachel sigh and mutter something about "poor baby pigs" and grabs her hand before leading her towards the kitchen.

"Mom? Aunt Jane?"

"In the kitchen Quinn." Jane calls out to them, "Judy's out for breakfast with some of her friends, but you're just in time for bacon."

Quinn rounds the door into the kitchen, Rachel still in hand. "Did Mom tell you I like bacon?"

"She said if you ever went missing, just stick some bacon in the pan and you'd be in the kitchen before it was done." Jane looks up smiling and see's Rachel, "Ah, your little friend found you then?"

"Rachel, this is my Aunt Jane. Aunt Jane, this is Rachel. She's my…"

"Girlfriend?" Jane interrupts with a smile and then she looks a little surprised when she sees both girls turn pale and their jaws drop. "OK, that was supposed to be a joke, but I presume I was close to the truth?"

"Yeah" Quinn recovers, "We've only been together for, well not even a week. Last night was our first official date to be honest."

"And Judy doesn't know?" Jane asks, when Quinn just nods she adds "Well she was wondering why you were taking flowers on a date, usually that's the boys job."

"She knew it was a date?"

"She may be your mother but she's not an idiot Quinn. She said you were all done up and had a large bouquet of flowers in your car. Two and two does occasionally make four, even for these old heads" Jane says tapping the side of her head. "And don't worry, I won't tell her anything if you don't want me to."

"I – I just don't know how she'd take it." Quinn says

Jane nods sympathetically, "Understandable Quinn, but I think you're underestimating her. You don't know how much it hurt her when your father kicked you out. And like she said last night, she's never had a problem with me."

"You're her sister, not her daughter." Quinn observes.

"Well it's up to you, as I said I won't let anything slip. But if you need someone to talk to, you know where I am." Jane says.

There's silence in the kitchen apart from the sizzling of bacon and Jane asks, "Bacon for you too Rachel?"

"Thank you Mrs.. um…"

"Just call me Jane."

"Thank you Jane, but I'm vegan so no thank you."

"Ah OK. How about some pancakes then? I think I saw some soya milk in the fridge."

Rachel agrees eventually. Even though she claims to have had breakfast already Jane doesn't like the two of them sitting eating while Rachel looks on, so she accepts some vegan pancakes, impressed that Jane even thought to use a clean pan and utensils to make them. Once they are all sitting down eating, Quinn decides it's time to tell Jane what they came to tell her.

"Aunt Jane, I've been thinking a lot about what we talked about last night. And I talked it over with Rachel too" She smiles at the other girl who reaches out and takes her hand, "I think I'd like to be involved in Beth's life, so yes, I'd like it if you'd move back."

Jane smiles and nods, "Good. I wasn't going to force you Quinn, but I think you're making the right decision. I think it'll do you both good to be able to spend time together and to be in each others lives. And Kirsty will love having a babysitter we can trust for some nights."

"When will you be moving?" Quinn asks.

"If everything goes to plan and we find a nice place to live, about a month." Jane says, "We'll be here for Christmas. But we can bring her to visit sooner if you'd like, maybe for a weekend in a couple of weeks?"

"Yeah, I'd like that" Quinn says, then asks nervously "Do you have a photo I could see?"

Jane nods and leaves the kitchen only to return a few moments later to hand Quinn two photos. One is of Jane, another woman who Quinn assumes in Kirsty and a little blonde girl. The other is a close up of the baby herself, still being held in the two women's arms.

"You can keep those ones if you want, we have plenty of copies." Jane says, "We have better shots but those are the ones I happen to have with me."

Quinn can't believe the little girl in this photo is the same one that is in her arms in the photo Rachel took, she's grown so much in so little time.

"She's beautiful" she says, showing the picture to Rachel.

Rachel agrees, "Yes she is. Just like you."

Authors Footnote: So I thought I'd mention why Beth is with Aunt Jane and not Shelby. The simple fact is that I wanted Beth in the story, but didn't want to deal with the whole Rachel/Shelby thing, that's been done to death as far as I'm concerned. And it let me introduce a gay couple for Quinn to talk to if she needs to (other than Rachel's Dads who she still can't look in the eye).