-Chapter 28-
Quinn's phone blared "My Life Would Suck Without You", scaring her out of her desk chair and breaking her from glancing through her Marketing 101 textbook. She smiled and picked up her phone.
"Hey you," she said excitedly.
"Hey," Rachel's soft voice responded from the other end.
"How was your first day of class? Tell me everything!"
"Normal, nothing too exciting. Just talking about course outcomes and syllabuses and scheduling audition dates for the fall musical. They're doing Little Women."
"Which part are you going to audition for?"
"I haven't decided yet." Rachel's voice was still soft and melancholy.
"Rach, is something wrong?"
"Just tired, I guess. Tell me about your day. Have you heard from Brittany and Santana at all?"
"Well I made sure I had everything squared away for all of my classes to start next week and I bought all of my books. I was just going through my marketing class book and it looks really interesting. Santana called yesterday and said Brittany is doing really good, she's walking without a lot of pain and Santana finally convinced her to enroll in some classes at one of the community colleges."
"How's Elizabeth?"
"She's downstairs with your dads right now, probably making a mess in the kitchen trying to get dinner ready. She asked me twice today where you were."
There was a silence and Quinn heard Rachel let out a quiet sob.
"Rachel…"
"I-I can't do this, Quinn. I just can't!"
"Yes you can, Rachel. You can do this. Thanksgiving isn't that far away, alright? You just need to get out there and make some friends, make the time go by faster by having fun."
"I just feel so…so empty. I wake up in the middle of the night thinking I can just roll over and wrap my arms around you and then you're not there and it just hurts. I miss you so much…November is too long to wait."
"Well unless you miss class there really isn't another option, babe. It's a ten hour drive, don't forget. That's not exactly a weekend trip."
"I shouldn't have come here."
"Sweetie…"
"No, Quinn! You're the one that pushed me to come here! I would have been fine going to OSU in Columbus or even staying in Lima!"
"I didn't want you to throw your life away for me!"
There was more silence and Quinn finally sighed.
"Please Rachel…please do this for me. For me."
"For you," Rachel whispered.
"And try to make a few friends, yeah?"
"I'll try." Rachel sniffled.
"Hey you know I love you, right?"
"I know," Rachel whispered. "I love you, too."
Jim called up the stairs that dinner was finished and Quinn sighed.
"I've got to go, your dads just called that dinner's ready. Maybe after I get Lizzy down for bed tonight we'll Skype, okay?"
"Okay," Rachel said with a considerably lighter tone. "Tell everyone I said hi and that I love them."
"I will. I'll text you after dinner."
November couldn't come quickly enough. Quinn worked full time during the day while Elizabeth was at the babysitter and then one of Rachel's dads would take the toddler for the three evenings a week that Quinn had class. Puck took the baby almost every weekend so Quinn could get in more hours at the store and catch up on her homework. She and Rachel talked every single day and Quinn was finally starting to hear a change in Rachel's voice that signaled the brunette was adjusting and maybe just a little happier.
Quinn stood alone at the train station the Saturday afternoon that Rachel was suppose to come in. She'd given Elizabeth to Puck for the evening so she could meet Rachel. Quinn grinned when the announcer stated that the 5:15 from New York City had arrived and the blonde stood on her tip-toes to search for a short brunette. It took a few minutes but then there she was. Everything in Quinn smiled when Rachel spotted her and shrieked and ran toward her. Rachel didn't have to say anything, she just wrapped her arms around Quinn and settled her head on the blonde's shoulder. The pair stood in their embrace for a few minutes before Quinn pulled away.
"I missed you," the blonde whispered as she pressed a kiss to Rachel's forehead.
"I missed you too," Rachel sniffled. She stretched up and pressed her lips against her girlfriend's quickly before she smiled. "Let's go home."
Quinn nodded and picked up Rachel's bag and took her hand and took her out to the car. Rachel's dads met her at the front door with hugs and smiles. Jim took her bag upstairs and dropped it in Rachel's room and then the girls drove to Puck's apartment to pick up Elizabeth. Quinn held her breath when Elizabeth walked into the living room from the bedroom and looked up at Rachel.
The toddler's eyebrows furrowed and then her eyes lit up and she gasped.
"Rachel!" the tiny blonde shrieked. "Rachel! Rachel!" She ran to the brunette and Rachel picked her up and swung her around, holding her close to her chest.
"My little gold star, look how big you've gotten!"
"I'm big girl!"
"You are! You're so big!"
"Rachel no more bye-bye."
Rachel sighed and kissed the toddler's forehead. "Not right now."
Elizabeth settled her head on Rachel's shoulder and let out a content sigh.
Rachel jumped up and down the second she saw fresh cranberries in the refrigerator at the Berry house.
The week was spent with Elizabeth refusing to let Rachel out of her sight which spelled disaster for the pair when bedtime came and Rachel and Quinn really wanted to spend their night together but Elizabeth insisted on sleeping in their bed right in between them. The second night they did convince her to sleep in her own bed and Quinn welcomed Rachel home properly.
"God I've missed that," Rachel gasped when Quinn snuggled up against her.
"You and me both."
"This is a perfect example of why I should move back ho-"
"I don't want to get into this right now, Rachel."
Rachel groaned and Quinn pulled away a little.
"I'm sick of this!" the brunette growled. "I can make my own decisions, Quinn! If I want to move back here then there's nothing you can do about it."
Quinn sighed and sat up and reached for her shirt. "I don't want you giving up…"
"What I am giving up," Rachel snapped as she threw back the covers and started searching for her own clothes, "is time with you and with Elizabeth. Time I'll never get back because you think I can't make my own choices! I'm not a child!"
Once dressed Rachel grabbed her pillow and stormed out of the bedroom. Quinn groaned and dropped her head back to her own pillow. She waited a few minutes to give Rachel a chance to calm down before she got out of bed and followed the brunette's trail downstairs. Rachel was curled up on the couch, her form illuminated by the TV on late night infomercials.
"That blender sucks," Quinn said from the bottom of the staircase, nodding to the TV. "Finn had one at his house. I put a banana in there for a smoothie and it barely turned it into mush."
"What do you want?" Rachel muted the TV and looked over at the stairs.
"You're not a child," Quinn sighed. She crossed the floor and dropped to the couch next to Rachel. "You've wanted New York a lot longer than you've wanted me."
"I hate New York. It's filthy and everyone is extremely abrasive and you're not there."
"You made a promise to me, Rachel. I…I can't stop you from moving back here whenever you want but I'll never think that you don't resent me if you don't stick this out."
"I won't resent you, Quinn! If I want to do something then I'll do it. No regrets."
"You'll regret it, Rach. Maybe not for a while. But you will."
……………
The month between Thanksgiving break and winter break was hell for Quinn. She had her finals and of course everyone and their brother wanted to buy furniture that year for Christmas so she was working overtime at the store and barely saw Elizabeth until the day after her last final. Quinn completely lost track of time after that trying to work as much as she could and also get Elizabeth's Christmas shopping done. She got so lost that she forgot which day Rachel was coming home and when she was tackled upon entering the Berry house she was so startled that she immediately punched at the offender and Rachel shrieked and hit the floor.
"Oh my God, Rachel!" Quinn gasped and knelt down next to the brunette. She covered her mouth with both hands when she saw the pool of blood in Rachel's cupped hands.
