A/N: Sorry this chapter took so long, I had an extra busy week.
Enjoy
Disclaimer: I dont own Glee
Chapter 51
Rachel looked like she had been hit by another truck when Quinn found her.
They had been forced to navigate by phone to reach each other, there were just so many people wearing light blue and Quinn was just about the shortest and Rachel probably a close second. Santana was stood on her seat trying to spot the blonde make her way through the swarm of graduates. Quinn couldn't see anything except people's butts, plus she was held up by anyone she knew and a lot of people she didn't know, all offering congratulations either on a great speech or the fact that Rachel had agreed to get engaged.
"Quinn!" she heard her name being shouted but still couldn't see anything.
"Quinn!" it was louder this time and familiar.
"Mike?"
"Behind you," she heard him sounding a little breathless. "I was trying to catch you all the way through. Rachel's over that way." He pointed away from where she was headed.
"Shit, I can't see anything, can you? And where's Joolz? I have no idea where anyone is."
"Come on, I'll get you to Rachel; Julia will find Santana at some point and she's with Rach isn't she?"
"Yeah, you're right. Once the crowd starts to move everyone will migrate towards each other."
Michael was able to get her over to where the guests were sat and they made their way along to where Rachel was sitting with Santana, her Mom and Dad, Fran and Beth. Shelby had to work but Rachel had made sure Beth got to go along. Rachel had wanted her at her own ceremony but the numbers were much more restricted compared to the massive ceremony she just sat through.
Rachel caught sight of Quinn before the blonde spotted her. She jumped down from the temporary bleachers that had been erected for the ceremony and literally jumped on her. There were squeals of excitement from the whole group. Only Russell was more muted in his enthusiasm. He grinned at his youngest daughter without actually leaping all over her like the rest.
Beth seemed a little bewildered by what had gone on. She was a bit confused by most of what was happening, from the funny outfits everyone was wearing. She thought of Quinn's 'school' as she always referred to it like her own school, a couple of hundred elementary kids, but there were more people there than she had ever seen in her life. She was mostly confused by Rachel who was in tears but not sad and Santana who was trying to be cool, but she had tears running as well. Grandma Judy was more excited than she had ever seen her and even Aunt Frannie was acting all weird. The only person who wasn't acting a bit strange was Quinn's Daddy, who was a bit quiet most of the time and looked at her oddly sometimes.
Michael stood by watching, realizing who Russell was. He introduced himself to the man. "Hello, sir. I'm one of Quinn's classmates, Mike." They shook hands firmly. "I took it upon myself to run interference. Quinn couldn't see where you guys were for the crowd."
"Congratulations, son. You graduated too?"
Michael nodded. "Not quite at the top of the heap like your daughter. I'm really going to miss her, we've been friends since freshman year."
Russell nodded. "Thanks for befriending her, Mike."
"I'm the one who should be saying thanks, sir. She's amazing and has taught me more about life in the last four years than I ever learned before. I'm lucky she chose to be my friend."
"It's not me you should be thanking then, son. She's the one who taught you."
"I already thanked her a bunch. I just thought I would tell you how much she is admired here, sir."
"Thank you, son. I'm beginning to realize that."
"You must be very proud of her," Mike eyed the man carefully. He knew that Quinn and her father hadn't always had a good relationship.
The older man turned to him and with a genuine smile, Russell clapped him on the shoulder. "I am young man. Do you have your family here?"
"Yes, sir."
"Then go join them, son. I got mine from here."
Michael gave him a grin and they shook hands. He made a 'call me' sign to Quinn who gave him a thumbs up in response; she was buried under Beth at present. His chivalry no longer required, the young graduate scoured the crowd for his family and found them higher up and he ran up the steps to greet them.
Russell strode over to where Quinn was buried and gave her and Rachel a squeeze of the shoulders at the same time. "I believe congratulations are in order."
Quinn looked up and saw the kind of approval she had been seeking in her father for a long time and relaxed under his grip. "Thanks, Daddy."
Two days later Rachel and Quinn descended on the diamond district near the Rockefeller Center to choose rings. They scoured so many shops, their heads were spinning. The displays were of the biggest rocks either had ever seen and a little ostentatious for both their tastes. In the end they found a small shop with just a handful of rings on display in the window. It helped to not see quite so many to choose from.
"I like these, they are all similar to each other but nothing like I have seen anywhere else."
They went inside and found a man at the counter but they could see a woman working behind him. The shop sold hand-made rings and had a limited number of designs. The man invited them to sit at a desk and try something on, but then looked a little guilty.
"Sorry, there's a step here."
"One step is no problem," Quinn rolled up to it and wheelied the front wheels onto the step, while Rachel grabbed the bar at the back of the chair and hoisted it up. The man quickly pulled a redundant chair away for Quinn and they sat as he took out measuring rings. He took Rachel's hand first and guessed at the right size first time. Then he took a slightly larger size for Quinn but it was a little small, so he tried the next one up and it fitted nicely. A minute later he brought over a pad with half a dozen rings in each size.
"See any you like? If you like the design but want a different stone we can make that for you."
Quinn picked up one she liked. It was a plain platinum band with a square, princess cut diamond and claws holding it to the mount. "I like this," she said to Rachel. "What do you think?"
"It's simple but really beautiful."
The man watched Quinn slip it onto her finger. "You know claw mounts can be a little delicate."
"Really?" The blonde looked up at him with a quizzical expression.
"Yes, easily damaged and I was thinking that you probably do a lot with your hands so maybe a solid mount would be better for you, then if you catch it, you won't lost the stone. We can do this for you," he took out a pad of paper and started drawing, a quick sketch formed to show what he meant.
"That would be great," Quinn agreed.
Rachel was caught with a solitaire ring that was half in yellow and half in white gold. The design was more ornate, with a good sized single diamond in the center, flanked by a small one on each side.
Quinn glanced at Rachel's finger. "I think that's perfect."
Rachel nodded. "Me too, do you think we can have wedding rings to match?"
The man looked over at the woman who was working and she stood and walked over to them.
"I can make the band the same for this one, but a little thicker and it will sit next to the engagement ring perfectly. A tiny diamond in the center would be nice also." She indicated Quinn's ring was easy. "The other one is more difficult and will have to be shaped, I would make it half and half also so that it matches."
The couple looked at each other and tentatively asked how much each would be. "A lot, but not as much as if you went next door." The man laughed.
He wrote out the order details and the cost of each. It was a lot of money, especially Rachel's engagement ring, but Quinn just shrugged and gave him the okay.
Three days later, Quinn took the call to say the rings were ready so she went to collect them after training in the morning. Rachel met her later that afternoon and they went for lunch, then took a ride up to the top of the Rockefeller Center to the observation deck.
"Remember the first time we came to New York?" Rachel squeezed Quinn's hand as they looked out over Central Park. "How can I forget, finals in junior year. I was utterly depressed that Finn broke up with me." Quinn grinned at Rachel. "That seems so ridiculous now."
"I know. I was just thinking about that too. We've come a long way since we left Lima."
"We have. I'm so glad I decided not to go to Yale."
Rachel laughed. "Oh my gosh, remember that visit? It wasn't the best experience. It's so weird thinking that you might have gone there now."
"I'm glad we had such a lot of time together to know how we really feel about each other." Quinn took the boxes from her pocket. "Here, I picked them up before we met for lunch."
"OhmyGod!" Rachel took them and opened both, handing her one back to the blonde.
Quinn smiled, tears glinting in her eyes. "Promise me you won't burst into song just this once?" Rachel nodded. In truth the petite brunette was a little dumbstruck. "So I was thinking about this for nearly a year now and I wanted it to be somewhere that we could look down on everything. We both spent a lot of time looking up at other people and what we wanted, so I thought it only fitting that now we sort of have what we want out of life that this place seemed pretty good. I did think about the Empire State Building, but it felt a bit too cliché. Anyway, Rachel Barbra Berry, I have loved you since I was fifteen and pregnant and now I finally get to ask you properly. Will you marry me?"
"Technically I already said yes, so this is just a formality, but yes, I will."
Quinn slipped the ring from the box onto Rachel's finger and admired it for a second before pulling it to her lips.
Rachel took Quinn's hand in hers. "I didn't know how I felt about you for much longer. I thought my constantly seeking your approval was a need for friendship, but as soon as I recognized it for what it was, the knowledge that it was you that made me happy, your smile and your laugh, your touch." Rachel squeezed the hand she was holding on to. "I love you, absolutely, with all my heart and I can't wait to make this official." She took Quinn's ring and pushed it along until it sat glinting in the sun. Rachel felt Quinn tug her hand, so she allowed herself to be pulled into her favorite position, sitting on Quinn's thighs, her arms around strong shoulders. They sat for ages just holding each other and ignoring the surprised glances of others around them.
The roommates sat around the dining table to celebrate a summer of success. Kurt still had a semester left at NYADA, while Santana and Blaine still had a year left to do, but for the remaining three, all had something to do for the foreseeable future. Julia was now a trained teacher and had a job teaching high school English in Oceanside, Quinn was going to work for ESPN and Rachel had just been cast as Elphaba in Wicked.
Discussing their plans had left Rachel and Quinn feeling a little guilty. They were planning to move out of the apartment but didn't really know what to say to the others yet. Particularly as it would mean a rent increase for all of them. After dinner they made an excuse to retreat to their room and enjoy a little quiet time alone.
"I've been thinking," Quinn shifted herself onto the bed with a wrinkled brow.
"Go on," Rachel encouraged.
"Well, this place was pretty ropey when you and Kurt first moved here. Basically a giant empty room and a small bathroom and kitchen. It's turned out to be pretty much perfect though for all of us and I like it, just want us to have more space and not live on top of each other, besides when we get married, you know…"
"We might need a spare room?"
"Exactly. You do like kids don't you? We've never really talked about it and I just sort of assumed that at some point we would do something about that."
"Of course, I know how hard it was for you to give up Beth and although it wouldn't be replacing her, I sort of knew that you would want to have a family eventually."
"But what about you? Do you want a family?"
"I do, not just yet. But once we have our lives organized, I would like be a parent too. I think we will have to be careful with Beth though. I think she will like a baby around, but you have to make sure she understands that it doesn't change how we feel about her."
Quinn nodded thoughtfully. "Getting back to our original topic, what do you think of buying a place like this only maybe somewhere a bit more central. I was thinking that we could perhaps invest some of my insurance money into buying a place, maybe start by renovating one floor for us, then another floor for the others if they want it. We could have our own place, no rent and a small income from the rent. And then these guys would have a nicer place to live. I kind of like having them around, especially if you are going to be working pretty much every evening."
"I guess we just need to try and find the right building for sale. It might be a better investment that just leaving the money sat in the bank."
"I don't want to blow everything, but your Dad told me investing was probably better than just banking the money. We should go see some places, speak to some agents."
"I don't know the first thing about property." Rachel looked a little unsure about risking so much.
"Neither do I but I know a few people who might be able to help. You speak to Hiram and I'm going to talk to Scott. He buys and sells all the time even if it's cars, he deals with finance and stuff."
The following day, Quinn and Rachel called into a real estate agency in the area they were interested in moving. They like the Upper East Side so they could be close to Shelby, but there weren't many building of the type they were after around there. The agent showed them some nice brownstones for sale with three or four apartments on the border with Harlem. Rachel thought they looked great, but each one had at least ten steps up to the front door. Quinn just shook her head. She didn't want to start fitting an external elevator to the steps.
The agent was helpful though and showed them a number of nice apartments not too far from Grand Central that were accessible, but they were in large maintained apartment blocks and they didn't like the idea of living in some anonymous apartment building either.
Quinn moved away from the desk to the properties listed on the walls to see if anything else caught her attention. Leaving behind the residential buildings she looked over the commercial properties and a couple caught her eye.
"What are the chances that we could get permits to convert a commercial property into a residential one?"
"Sometimes pretty good especially if you have a genuine reason for wanting to do it." The agent turned with a curious glance to face the blonde.
"Like wanting somewhere to live without a flight of stairs to climb?"
"That might just do it, but it depends where. Zoning laws are pretty tight in Manhattan. It would be a risk. You might want to talk to the zoning people before you commit to anything."
Quinn nodded thoughtfully. "Maybe I will," she looked up at the wall but she couldn't quite see what she wanted in detail so she turned to the realtor and asked him to look it up for her.
Rachel was curious. "This is a medical clinic," she gave Quinn a look.
"Exactly," Quinn grinned at her. "It's in a residential area and it is accessible. It has an elevator, wide doorways, there are four floors so we would be in a good position to do what we wanted and convert those to apartments too, there's even off-street parking. Rach, all we would need to do is convert it."
"I guess we wouldn't have service charges each month either then. Let's go take a look at it." Rachel was curious about the idea forming in Quinn's head.
Quinn, Rachel, Santana and Kurt arrived outside the building they were there to see. The realtor was waiting for them as they arrived and stood by patiently while Quinn shifted from her car to chair. He shook hands with them all, unsurprisingly he was very pleased to see them, the idea of commission on a sale of nearly two million dollars would make anyone happy.
He led the way into the medical clinic which had shut down six months previously. The property was in a good location, but it was surrounded by any number of similar practices in that part of the city, just a stone's throw from Cornell and Rockefeller Universities both with medical schools. The ground floor entrance was on First Avenue in the Upper East Side and opened into a large waiting room and reception area. There were some offices there and a kitchen and restrooms as well as the elevator and stairs to the floors above and a couple of consulting rooms. Each of the three upper floors also had balconies opening out onto the street side with enough room for a little outdoor furniture. They took the elevator up to the second floor which had treatment rooms and more restrooms, similarly the floor above had the same, the top floor was largely office space, another kitchen, a conference room and yet more restrooms.
"What do you think guys?" Quinn looked at her friends.
"Well sterile is the word that springs to mind, but tons of space. Did you say it had parking as well?" Kurt thought it was an excellent idea when she had suggested it to him a few days earlier. "Not that I plan on owning a car in this city or anything, but some outdoor space would be nice."
"There's a small alleyway down the side road. It has gates that are locked right now, but the alley leads to a car park behind the building. Space for around ten vehicles I believe." The agent was particularly helpful. "You might want to consider a few investment opportunities. With the elevator situated in the rear corner, you could block that off from the rest of the ground floor and let it out for retail, a coffee shop, hair salon, beauty treatments perhaps. They would all go down well in this area and would bring in additional rental income. The elevator also goes down to the basement which was used for medical storage so its damp free and secure. We can take a look there next if you like?"
The group went down to the basement. It wasn't very fancy, but as he had said, it was dry and well lit, just without windows. The aircon was fixed up though, another benefit of it being used for a medical facility in the past.
Quinn had made some enquiries. The ground floor probably wasn't going to be suitable as a residence on such a main street, but the three floors above would make ideal apartments. The basement would be great for a gym, maybe Rachel might like a home recording studio, somewhere even for the band to rehearse. It was about as perfect as they could get for what they wanted. The asking price was $1.9 million. That was a sizeable chunk of her settlement, but as she hadn't actually spent much, it had just been gathering interest in the four years since it had been awarded. She also had a job to go to now, so that alleviated some of the concern she might have felt. Besides, it was an investment and the rent would cover the costs of maintaining the building.
The agent left them after the tour, leaving the four friends on the sidewalk talking about it.
"Its an amazing idea. You think you can afford it?" Santana asked.
"I think so, so long as the zoning people are happy to have the conversions made to the three top floors. Would you be interested in renting them once we get it done, I was thinking the basement would be great for storing stuff but also putting in a small gym and maybe somewhere for the bad to rehearse."
"That would be so cool," Kurt's eyes lit up.
"Plus you can keep your car here," San grinned. "Not that it's a convenience we all enjoy of course."
"It would be amazing to be able to still live in the same building but each have our own place."
San shrugged. "I'm not sure I can afford to live in this neighborhood."
"I would charge more than you could afford. This is an investment for me and like he said, we could rent out the ground floor. A coffee shop downstairs would be great."
"I guess it's a great idea in principle, but you could get a lot of rent around here and I would feel bad if we took advantage of your generosity."
"San," the blonde grabbed her friend by the arm. "Rachel is going to be working late in the evenings. As much as I can live independently, I would feel a lot better having my friends in the apartments around me. This is about having a great place to live, not making money."
Santana nodded. "I guess that would make me feel better."
Kurt was already nodding approval. "I love the idea, please let me help you remodel and decorate though. I would love to start some mood boards."
"Easy Kurt, we don't even know if we can do what we want yet." Rachel tried to get him to tone down the enthusiasm.
"I'm going to phone the zoning people now and see if I can get someone to come out here and meet later this week. If they think we can do what we want to it, I'm going to put in an offer."
A week later Quinn met with a woman from the city authorities and the realtor at the clinic. She explained why she wanted to convert the building and how it would be done. The zoning officer seemed comfortable with the outline and thought there would be no local objections. She agreed the ground floor wasn't suitable for residential conversion but the planned use for a commercial letting would be in keeping with other businesses in the area and the building itself had utilities on each floor already so there was no major construction for anyone to oppose, in fact with the car park out to the rear, any building work would have little or no impact on the neighborhood. There were still no guarantees until the sale went through and a planning application was submitted, but the news was good. The outline plans were completely in keeping with the other buildings in the area.
Quinn put in a lowball offer of one and a half million the following day. She was expecting an outright rejection and it came soon after, but as a cash buyer, she had the upper hand. She upped it by another one hundred and fifty thousand the following day and after a little further negotiation backwards and forwards, eventually settled on $1.75 million. There were any number of legal processes to go through, but the sale went ahead and fourteen days later, the property was hers.
With Rachel in lengthy rehearsals during the day, Quinn had plenty of time to meet with planners and architects to submit plans and by the end of July she had the permits approved for remodeling the building. It helped to take her mind off her training schedule and preparations for Brazil. She also had her help from her other roommates, all keen to help move the project forwards.
The first work carried out was to strip away the fixtures and fittings from the upper floors, taking down stud walls and removing remnants of the clinic. The architect had helped draw up plans for each floor to be converted into a three bedroom apartment, each with two bathrooms and a kitchen diner, plus living room. The basement was left empty for the time being and would be used as storage for building materials until it was complete. The only major construction work required initially was walling off the side entrance, staircase and elevator on the ground floor to make the apartments inaccessible from the retail space. The elevator had some work done on it too, with a swipe card system put in so that no one could get to the apartments via the elevator without a card. Finally an intercom and security system was put in place so visitors could announce their arrival and be seen by those in the apartments above. Bearing in mind the work some of them were getting into, it seemed prudent.
As August progressed, Quinn had less time to spend on the building and had to turn her attention to the final phase of training for Rio. Her schedule got crazy for a couple of weeks, then she had a period of very light training in the week before departure. They had a week to acclimatize in Rio before the games started. The nerves were finally catching up to her.
The realtor meanwhile started looking for a tenant for the ground floor. Quinn was hoping for a coffee shop maybe or a salon, but it was a company who ran several physical therapy centers who took it over. With the heavy work out of the way on the ground floor, Kurt took over managing the work on a day to day basis until Quinn returned from Brazil.
Quinn was sat in her chair beside the bed. The room was a bit of a mess. Her clothes were in piles all around and she was looking at her kit bag thinking it was no way big enough for everything she needed to take. She had her official kit on one side of the bag and the things she wanted to take on the other. Rachel peeked her head around the door.
"Is it safe to come in?"
"It's never going to fit," the blonde sighed and puffed hair from her eyes. It immediately fell back in her face so she tucked it behind her ear.
"Can I help?"
Quinn nodded and started piling things inside. It didn't take long to fill it up, leaving a number of extra items still on the bed.
"Why do you need so many swimsuits? They dry off so quickly and you will be wearing the official ones most of the time. There's laundry facilities there as well, I read it in the info."
Quinn gave in and realized she simply had too much stuff. She pulled out all but a couple of favorite items and stuffed them into the last bit of space. Rachel started putting away the extra items that had been rejected.
"Oh, bikini for the beach. I am totally going to Copa Cabana."
Rachel threw one back at Quinn. Her own case had been packed for a few days already. She glanced around the bedroom. When they came back, they would have to pack everything away ready to move into the new place and a wave of sentiment washed over the brunette. She had found herself in this apartment. She and Quinn had made love there for the first time. It was decorated with all the little reminders of things they had done, places they had been and people they had met. She was going to miss it, even if the new place was in a much more upscale neighborhood.
"Rach?"
"Sorry, I was just lost in thought for a moment. What did you ask me?"
"Bikini?"
"Right, which one?"
Quinn wrinkled her nose, yellow I think. What were you daydreaming over?"
Rachel shook her head as she pulled out what was barely more than two bits of string. "Nothing important, just thinking about having to pack up and leave here. Lots of happy memories were made in this building."
Quinn smiled at her and nodded. "I think I will miss it too, but the new place is going to be amazing and I promise you and Kurt can decorate it to your hearts content."
Rachel returned the smile. "I know, just still going to think fondly of our time here." She shook her head and brought the task in hand to the front of her brain again. "Is that everything?"
"I think so. Just need to pack the important bits into my hand luggage. Passport and stuff."
Rachel gathered herself and went over to sit beside Quinn. Dropping down on the bed, Rachel took Quinn's hand in hers. "Are you ready?"
"You mean to leave tomorrow?"
The brunette nodded. "I wish I could go with you."
"I wish you could too, but I will pretty much be preparing to compete so it will be eat, swim, eat, sleep, eat, swim, eat, sleep." A chuckle followed the description.
"I'm still going to miss you until we get there next week." Rachel had a small pout on her face.
Quinn thought it was adorable. Rachel, Santana and Julia were flying down the day before the opening ceremony and her Mom and Scott the day of the ceremony. Shelby couldn't take the time off and though Rachel would willingly have taken Beth with them, she was only six and they all felt perhaps it was a bit of a stretch to keep her away from Shelby for a week and a half. Kurt and Blaine promised to keep their eye on the building works for Quinn and told her they would watch her races online instead. She considered herself a very fortunate person to have such dedicated friends and family.
For Quinn it would be three weeks away, but the chance to achieve something she wouldn't even have dreamed of when she started. The last four and a half years had been a crazy ride, one she would never have volunteered for, but now with no regrets about the way life had panned out for her. She was about to fly to South America and fulfil her destiny.
