AN: So the dinner scene, with a bit of tension between the couple.
Dinner was awkward, making Quinn wonder why she had agreed to have dinner with her twin and Norah. It probably was because Rachel had insisted on getting to know Charlie better, and suggested that she take an interest in Charlie's love life and get to know Norah a bit better. She should have informed Rachel then and there that Charlie didn't like attending dinner parties. Rachel would have had more luck walking over to Charlie's apartment and asking to play video games with her. Truthfully she just wanted the tension between the two of them to stop. Rachel hadn't been secretly pleased with the fact that she had broken Finn's nose, or sent him back to training.
Rachel may have been right about her lack of interest in Charlie's love life. She knew Charlie loved Norah, but Norah was a mystery to her. Truthfully she was grateful that Norah had managed to successfully reign in her twin. But instead both couples were here, Charlie poking at the tofu on her plate like it was some sort of alien creature. Rachel seemed more interested in eating and shooting Norah looks and she was just watching her twin play with her food.
Norah's sigh broke Quinn out of her thoughts and she looked over at the bartender who shot her a tense smile, "How's work Quinn?" she finally asked.
"Good, business is good," Quinn answered immediately. "A few new accounts, some older accounts increased what they wanted. It's been a good year so far." There was only so much that they could say to them but war was good for business. "How's—work?" she asked flicking her eyes to her twin who was still playing with her food. She shouldn't have mentioned that they were going completely vegan for this meal and just pretended that it was meat.
"People order drinks. I serve drinks," Norah responded with a shrug. "It's the same thing every day," Norah said with a shrug.
Rachel frowned at this response before speaking up, "Norah's been working on getting a bank loan so she can open up her own bar. She's taken some business classes online so she can look a bit better," Rachel said looking at Quinn.
"A bank loan?" Charlie echoed looking at her girlfriend a curious expression on her face. At least she had stopped playing with her food. "Online classes?"
Norah shot Rachel a dark look, she hadn't actually told Charlie what she was doing, and surprisingly Charlie, who was naturally suspicious, was giving her privacy and attempting to be understanding. "It's been what I've been working on lately," she admits.
Charlie studies Norah for a moment, and for a moment even Quinn can't think what she's thinking, "If you need anything Norah," Quinn said with a smile as Charlie shoots her an annoyed look.
Norah studies Charlie for a moment and she knows that Charlie's trying to find the right words to offer her the money. She shot Rachel a look, she needed to fix it. Charlie would basically write her a check the moment that they walked across the hall. It was why she hadn't told Charlie what she was dong.
"How is work going? I hear from Quinn you've gone a few months without an incident," Rachel spoke up hoping to distract Charlie. When Charlie turns to her and then her twin she knows that she's saved Norah a reprieve for now.
"Fine. How's your musical?" Charlie asks only to have Quinn slam her foot into her shin underneath the table. Charlie winces and glares at her twin, who shoots her a look. Charlie stares at Quinn for a moment as both Norah and Rachel look at them. Charlie slaps a tight smile on her face as she looks at Rachel. "How is Funny Girl? Quinn constantly goes on about how amazing you are. She's very proud of you."
Rachel beams and smiles at Quinn who grins back at her. "The show opens in a few more weeks. Norah said that you'd be in town on opening night and while I know that you aren't a fan of going to musicals, I hope that you will accompany Norah on opening night."
"Lovely—" Quinn kicks her again and Charlie turns to glare at her. She had already sold her twin up, she didn't understand what Quinn wanted from her. Norah had already asked her if she wanted to go and even though she really didn't want to, she was going. "Of course I'll be there."
The conversation stilts after that and Charlie goes back to playing with her food. "Where in Asia were you?" Rachel says trying again to start a rapport with Charlie.
"Mainland China, I had some business to attend to. A series of very important meetings that turned out rather favorable for me." She had dealt with the Triad situation without a drop of blood but at least the Wah Kee had decided to back off. "
"I wouldn't think that China would be in need of what you transport," Rachel said.
"War in the Middle East is good for business everywhere," Quinn informs her immediately.
Rachel makes a face, "And you two are perfectly alright with this? Arms dealing?"
Charlie stops picking at her food and Quinn sighs inwardly, stepping in before an argument that would simply delve into the ethics of what they do. "We just deliver the weapons we're a shipping service."
Norah frowned, "You both talk about accounts and clients, these people are coming to you to ship weapons and receive them, so it's not like you're unaware what they're packages is and you're you are paid for it."
"There is nothing inherently wrong with being an arms dealers. You have a gun—a terrible gun, but you have a gun nonetheless," Charlie states in a bored tone.
"We have a gun to protect ourselves in case anything goes wrong," Rachel argues immediately. "If our home is invaded or something else entirely."
"And you went to a shop and you purchased it, that gun wasn't made in that shop, it was shipped like everything else," Quinn said pushing some of the bread rolls to her twin who took one gratefully. "You owning a gun isn't a bad thing. The person who sold you a gun probably isn't a bad person, the company that manufactured the gun isn't evil. We ship arms, we make deals with clients who want to purchase weapons and they use our ships. We have contracts with them."
"There isn't anything unethical about selling weapons," Charlie continues smothering her bread roll with butter.
"You're not selling normal weapons you're transporting tools of war. The guns that you transport, the tanks, the weapons that you transport end up killing innocent people. Doesn't that bother you?" Norah pressed.
Both twins looked at each other, "No?" Charlie says with a shrug. "It's a business we aren't responsible for whatever our client does with the weapons. Just like the owner of the gun shop isn't really responsible for any of the mass shootings that happen. The responsibility lies on the person who has the gun. If they're irresponsible with the weapon, then it's not our fault."
"Humans have been fighting for centuries. The reasons why we fight, why there is conflict in the world, haven't changed, we've just gotten better at killing people. It's not our job to judge what our clients do with the weapons that we give them," Quinn takes a sip of her wine.
"So you turn a blind eye?" Rachel asks suddenly wary of how callous the twins were being. Like they were justifying their job.
"The thing is we really don't care why you fight. Maybe it's justified, maybe it isn't. Maybe you're going about it the wrong way, maybe you aren't. Maybe people call you a terrorist when in reality you're just fighting for your freedom. We really don't care. We just deliver weapons," Charlie states simply.
Quinn studied Rachel and then Norah, "I thought you two were okay with what we do, we're a shipping company. We ship weapons to countries we're allowed to ship to. We're like any other shipping company."
Rachel nods and takes a sip of her wine, they presented themselves as simple sales people. Like it wasn't their fault. "Violence is never the answer," she says after a moment.
Charlie was about to open her mouth to protest but Quinn kicked her again because she knew that Charlie was close to mocking Rachel's ideals. "It's a nice sentiment, in a perfect world maybe, but we don't live in an ideal world," Quinn responded taking Rachel's hand.
"Well—I don't think I'm capable of that," Rachel says with a simple shrug. Even though they'd been trained they had never taken the life of another human being. They'd never been in a situation where they needed to.
"The things we do to protect the people we love," Charlie states simply drawing all attention to her and she smiles. "I was promised desert—so?"
Quinn looked down at Charlie's plate her twin had spent most of the evening playing with and shook her head. If they had wanted her to eat they probably shouldn't have begun the evening saying that everything was vegan. She got up and began to pack the dishes up.
"I don't want you to do violent things just because you think you're protecting me," Rachel says after a moment as she presses her body against Quinn's keeping her voice low. "Finn wasn't some threat—you said so yourself he wasn't a threat. You didn't need to break his nose after he had finished saving me or thrown him back to basic training."
Quinn made a mental note to have a serious conversation with Kurt about what he chose to discuss with Rachel. "I can't trust someone with my life if I think they're going behind my back to seduce you, and Charlie didn't want Finn—so this way he's still getting paid he's just not charged with protecting me anymore. And if I don't trust him with my life. I certainly don't trust him with yours."
"He saved me," Rachel repeats again.
"Because he was getting very close to stalking you. You told him no over and over again, and he didn't listen. He showed up uninvited when both you and Norah have had a discussion with the two of us with just showing up at your place. And you're still defending him," Quinn said as she put the dishes into the sink and looked over at where Norah and Charlie were currently talking to themselves.
"He saved me Quinn—that's something that doesn't deserve to be punished. I'm not asking for you to trust him again because I agree with you, I'm just saying that you assaulting him was not your finest moment. You broke his nose."
"I'm not going to apologize to Finn freaking Hudson," Quinn snapped at Rachel. "He was stalking you, the fact that he saved you doesn't change the fact that he refused to respect your boundaries. That he showed up when he was unwanted. Yes I was furious for him for trying to seduce you, but I was even angrier with him for stalking you. "
The moment that Rachel and Quinn were out of earshot, Norah turned to her girlfriend. "Charlie, I'm not going to take your money. I wanted to do this on my own, maybe with a bit of help from Rachel."
Charlie was quiet as she studied Norah for a moment, "I get you wanting to be independent but going to a bank where you're going to have pay some ridiculous interest rate because your credit isn't the greatest will cut into your profits. If you want to pay me back then that's fine, but let me at least cover the start-up costs. I'll be a silent investor. I've invested wisely in several companies Norah. I can help without stepping on your toes."
Norah sighed, "I thought about getting an investor, but apart from you and Quinn who can I go to invest in my company? The startup costs themselves are like half a million dollars Charlie. Sure that's spare change to you but—I don't want our relationship to be about money. I need to do this for me."
"So let me co-sign on a loan with you, people at banks generally kiss my ass anyway, they'll give you an excellent deal to try and get some of my business," Charlie offered, "I want to support you Norah—I want to be there for you so let me do something. Even if it's that?"
Norah groaned. "Charlie we don't even live together yet, we don't share finances—we have a lot of sex and we have fun together. That's our relationship in a nut shell. I care about you, you care about me but—"
"I love you." Charlie states plainly tapping her finger along the table an annoyed expression on her face. "It isn't just about sex and having fun to me, and I know it isn't just about sex and having fun with you. We've been together for nearly seven months now. And it's not the money that's bothering you. The only reason, or at least the main reason, you don't want my help is because you don't want to make that commitment. Moving in with me, sharing finances, letting me help you are things that mean you've made a commitment to this relationship."
"He had a crush on me Quinn—you can't go around punching everyone that has a crush on me," Rachel says still keeping her voice low even though her tone was angry.
"I told you to tell me when he crossed the line and you didn't, and you keep defending him even though he was stalking you. Do you want to date Finn? Because I can bring him back and you can date him, see that he's boring as dirt and you're more likely to have a more fascinating conversation with a brick wall. But please go ahead keep telling me about how Finn saved you, and how I'm the bad guy because I punched your stalker in the nose," Quinn snaps at Rachel her voice raising. She was going to kill Kurt Hummel.
"Don't you dare turn this around on me, I don't believe that you should have assaulted him. I thought you were better than that Quinn," Rachel says as she pulls away from Quinn heading to the bedroom.
Quinn blinks, "Where are you going?"
"I'm going to get my things and I'm going home, when you're ready to be a bit more reasonable and see my point of view, then we can talk,"
"You can't be serious," Quinn says following Rachel. "Finn got exactly what he deserved."
"He didn't deserve to be hit in the face. You assaulted him and then you shipped him off to Siberia," Rachel said as she went around the room grabbing her clothes and dumping them into her overnight bag which was useless because
"He's in the Hamptons, there are plenty of things to do there. I didn't ship him off to the middle of nowhere, I wanted to separate the two of you because if you think for one second that Finn would have stopped trying to seduce you even though I was aware of his intentions then you are grossly overestimating his intelligence," Quinn says watching Rachel packing her things, she was being dramatic and all she needed to do was wait out this particular storm out so they can talk like adults about this.
Norah stared at Charlie for a moment, surprised that Charlie had stated the words so simply. "All because I'm happy having my own space, and I don't want your money doesn't mean that I'm running from this relationship Charlie, it means that I don't want to move in with you and I don't want your money. I'm not going to ask you for half a million dollars—"
"I know you're not going to ask for it, which is why I offered it to you. I want to help you, and you never let me help because you have some need to prove your independence. I get it you don't need or want my help, but you aren't letting me contribute anything to this relationship. If you want to open a bar then let me help you Norah," Charlie said.
"It's not like you want to move into my apartment, you want me to move into yours. You still want to pay for everything, hell you insist that I get driven everywhere when there is a perfectly good subway system. You don't think you're controlling me, but you want me to move because you bought this fancy place. You buy me things all the time without a thought and I didn't grow up like that."
Charlie frowned, "If you want to make it a loan, then I can have my lawyers draw up papers. If you want to cosign a loan, then we can go to the bank tomorrow. But this is your life, it's not like I'm telling you to quit your job and be my trophy wife. I want you to work and have a life of your own. God knows what not having her own life has done to my mother. It's supposed to be a partnership. It shouldn't matter if I have more money in the bank than you do, I just want to help you."
Norah studied Charlie for a minute wondering how she had figured out that she was allergic to commitment and financially tying herself to her girlfriend was like marriage. Sure she spent the nights where Charlie was in town at Charlie's place and she had some of her things there, a few clothes and such. But she spent most of her time in Bushwick with Rachel. "Charlie, the answer is no."
"You're being unreasonable Norah. This isn't just sex to me, I'm not asking you to have a joint account with me, and I'm not asking you to move in with me, though if you want to you can. I'm saying let me help you figure out your dream, I can talk to some bank guys for you make a few calls make sure you get the best deal available."
"Look Charlie—I do fucking care about you a lot but if we bring money into this, then it isn't going to be fun anymore. Your opinion of me is going to change. I don't want to start a relationship where I need you to come bail me out or I depend on your money that I didn't earn. And then you'll get bored of me just like you get bored with nearly everyone else."
Charlie opens her mouth to say something when Quinn reenters her peripheral vision and Charlie frowns when she looks at her, "I'm pretty sure I was promised the best desert in the world if I attended this dinner party."
Quinn shoots Charlie a harsh look because she's not in the mood to play hostess anymore and she simply wants to be alone or for Rachel to snap out of it. At least she's not alone in the one having relationship problem's when Norah pulls her hand away from Charlie's who had tried to reach for it. "Rachel is leaving," she states simply.
"Like leaving you?" Norah asks disbelief in her voice.
"No, as in she's going home," Quinn responds getting slightly irritated.
"And you aren't trying to stop her because?" Charlie asks confusion sweeping across her face.
"She's being unreasonable," Quinn hisses, "All of you would have done and wanted to do the same thing to Finn. He was stalking her, I broke his nose."
Norah sighed, she was firmly with Quinn and Charlie on this, though she personally suspected they did a bit more than break his nose from the way that Kurt was yelling on the phone. "She'll calm down and I'll talk to her," Quinn shoots her a grateful look.
"So once again—no desert?" Charlie asks tapping her finger against the table as Quinn glares at her. Charlie stands up sliding her hands into her pockets. This night had been horrible and she should have escaped the moment they said it was all vegan. Now she was hungry, angry and hurt.
"If you want some desert so badly—" Quinn begins angrily, because at this point she really doesn't want to deal with her twin.
"Who is Beth?" Rachel asks holding up the locket as she enters the dining area and both twins turn to look at her, Quinn freezing for a moment and Charlie tilting her head curiously before looking at her twin.
"Where did you—do you just go through my things?" Quinn asked taking the two steps to Rachel and pulling the locket from her grasp. "You had no right—"
Rachel frowned a bit she hadn't been snooping. "It was on your dresser and I accidentally knocked it over when I was looking for my favorite skirt. I didn't mean to peek. Is she your sister or something?"
"No," Quinn says in a tense tone. She glances over her shoulder at Charlie who shrugs because she has no idea what to say to help. It's not like either of them planned for this. This was her fault she should have put it back in the safe and now Rachel knew that Beth existed. "She's my daughter."
Confusion sweeps across Rachel's face and then anger and finally hurt, they were supposed to be honest with each other. A daughter was a big thing, it was one of the first thing you told a potential partner. They were seven months into a relationship and Quinn had never mentioned anything about to a daughter before. She opens her mouth to say something.
"Not now, she'll tell you about her—about Beth when she's ready," Charlie interrupts before Rachel can start another argument. She watches as Quinn ignores Rachel and walks to her bedroom. "You were about to leave. Both of you." Charlie says glancing over at Norah. "I need to see to my sister. Have one of the men drive you home." She takes a few steps to follow her twin before stopping beside Rachel studying her. She opens her mouth to say something to the diva before closing it for a second. "The things we do to protect the people we love. When she does finally tell you about my niece, then you need to remember that. Don't judge her for her decisions."
"Where is she?" Rachel asks, there were no pictures of a happy family anywhere on the walls, there were no photos, and the girl in the locket had looked nine.
"With our father," Charlie responds, "Anything else you're going to need to find out from my sister." Charlie states as she walks to Quinn's bedroom knocking on the door and entering the room, leaving a stunned Rachel and Norah standing in Quinn's dining room.
AN: The pregnancy flashback which will end with an impossible decision. Please Read and review.