A/N: It's been a realllllllllly long time. Sorry it's taken me forever. Don't worry - even if it takes me a while to update I'm still going to finish. It's impossible for me not to. :)
Until 53-enjoy! xox-G
Chapter Fifty-two
Billie pulled into the driveway and put the car in park. She sat there for a moment and sighed. She couldn't believe that this house was finally their home.
She couldn't believe that in a few short weeks Quinn would finally, officially be Ty's father. Her fingers were crossed that this time there wouldn't be yet another thing to postpone it. The length of time it was taking to get their life settled was making her nervous. It was amazing to her that she finally was living the type of life she had always dreamed of.
As she slung her book bag over her shoulder her curiosity was running wild. Quinn was up to something, she just knew it. Otherwise why would he tell her to meet him here when they were weeks away from really moving in?
Billie opened the door, the scent of garlic and tomato filling the air. She left her bag in the entry way and let her nose lead to the kitchen.
Silently she stood behind Quinn and curled her arms around his waist giving him a squeeze. He smiled slowly as he felt her pressing into his back.
"Hi there." He whispered.
"Hi." She murmured in reply. "That smells delicious." She commented as he turned to face her, holding a wooden spoon to her lips so she could take a taste.
Billie kept her eyes closed as she swallowed. "It tastes as good as it smells." She whispered as she licked her lips. As Quinn watched her he reached for the knob on the stove, turning the flame down and bringing the sauce to a simmer.
"It's not done yet. It needs to sit awhile." He said softly as he took her in his arms and bent his head close to hers. "And I need to kiss you."
"Oh alright." Billie said with a roll of her eyes. "I thought you might be tired of that by now."
"Never." Quinn replied as he touched his mouth to hers.
She sank into him, her hands reaching up to his shoulders, her fingers curling into the soft cotton of his shirt. When he tried to ease away she pulled him back, her kisses slightly desperate as she tightened her hold.
"Hey." Quinn whispered as he finally was able to tear his lips from hers. "Hey…" He said again as his hands moved to frame her face, making her meet his eyes. "Are you alright?"
"Mmm hmm." She nodded, not very convincingly.
"Are you sure?" He asked her then.
One thing Billie was working very hard at was to make sure Quinn knew how happy he made her. She had messed up more than once when they first fell in love, second guessing his intentions or his feelings for her. She had made a promise to herself that she wouldn't let him ever feel as if she wasn't sure about her feelings for him. She wanted him to be sure that she loved him, more than anything.
"I'm fine. I love you…" She whispered as her mouth sought his again.
She said she was fine but Quinn knew better. Before he would let her kiss him he wanted her to tell him the truth. "I love you too. Billie – c'mon. What's the matter?"
"It's silly." She answered as she eased from his arms and moved to gaze out the window.
Puzzled, Quinn followed behind her. He wasn't going to let this go. "Whatever it is you can tell me."
He wasn't going to get his answers so easily. "The backyard is so big. Ty, Aidan and Ella will have plenty of room to run around." Billie said softly.
Quinn nodded. "Yeah. It is. That's one reason why we bought it."
Billie turned to face him. "We can get Ty a dog now. He's waited so long. I always told him he couldn't have one because we lived in an apartment."
"I know." Quinn nodded again, still confused by her mood. "Bill – we've talked about this. We were going to take him the day the adoption goes through. What's going on with you?"
Instead of replying she walked back over to him and pulled him close. She nestled her head on his chest and held tight.
"Billie?" Quinn whispered as his arms curled around her and pressed his lips to her hair.
"Just hold me for a few minutes." She whispered back as she snuggled closer.
He did as she asked, his mind racing to figure out what could possibly have upset her - Except she didn't really seem upset. Just, slightly - clingy.
"You smell good." She remarked as she inhaled deeply.
"Thanks. I think it's just the fabric softener though." He said with a laugh. His voice softened as he stopped laughing. "You sure you're alright?"
"I'm sure. So." Billie cleared her throat and leaned back to look at him. She was just being a little irrational, she cautioned herself. She had to get over this. She had to stop worrying that every time she was happy something would go wrong. She gave him a dazzling smile."What's the occasion? Why are we here?"
"I can't believe you don't remember." Quinn replied, pretending to be hurt. "It's our anniversary."
Her brow wrinkled. "Our anniversary of what?"
"I'll give you a hint. It's not the anniversary of our first date." He said with a grin.
She gazed up at him and burst out laughing. "You're telling me…"
Quinn's face fell. He couldn't imagine what was so funny. "What?"
"Of course that's not it." She replied, still trying to control the fit of giggles she suddenly found herself in.
"What?" He said again, still not understanding. "I mean – you're right it isn't but it could be…"
Billie's eyes widened with disbelief. "Oh no. It could not."
"Of course it could." The look on Quinn's face was incredulous.
"No honey, it can't be." Billie replied. "Due to the fact that you haven't ever taken me on a date."
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Alison sat in the den, busy at work on her laptop.
"What are you doing?" Rafe called out from the doorway.
"Research." She replied, not looking up from the screen.
"What kind of research?" He asked completely suspicious.
She gazed up at him and blew a stray hair out of her eyes. "It's for you. I'm trying to help you." She gave him one of her sweetest smiles.
"Well that is a disaster waiting to happen." Rafe mumbled under his breath.
His voice wasn't quite low enough. She had heard every word. "EXCUSE ME?" Her gaze turned into a glare cold enough to make ice.
Rafe sighed. Sometimes he forgot just how easy it was to make her angry. "Angel…" He began his voice soft. "You have to admit – you – working on your own? Not always the best solution to a problem."
His words did little to keep her anger at bay. "I beg your pardon." Alison replied, still furious.
Rafe swallowed and tried again. "I just meant that maybe we should work together…"
She snapped the laptop closed and stood, squirming when he reached out to catch her. "Nice try. That is so not what you meant." She glared at him and shook her hair back; her eyes were now on fire. "And here I was, just trying to surprise you and maybe find something out about your mother."
His face fell when he realized what she was up to. "My mother is dead, Alison." He whispered.
Her anger drained away as she caught the look on Rafe's face. She shook her head at him and reached out to gently place her hand on his arm. "You don't know that."
"Yeah. I do." Rafe replied. His eyes pleaded with her as he added, "Alison. Don't do this…"
Alison wasn't sure if this was the right time or place but she couldn't stop herself. It had been months since they had been in Romania and though she knew he was trying to hide it from her, it was clear the trip had sparked feelings that Rafe had long since buried.
She stood before him and spoke softly. "Don't do what? Help you find her? Rafe what would you do if you found out she was still alive."
"That is not the point." He replied. "The point is – she's gone Alison."
She tugged on his sleeve and made him face her. "People told me you were gone. I didn't believe them."
Rafe shook his head. "It's not the same…"
Alison would not be deterred. "Not only that – I watched you leave me, more than once. I held you in my arms and watched you die, I physically felt you leave me. And you came back to me. You came back and we got married and had Katrina and Grant and Becky and Ella – we had our family, Rafe."
"I know…"
Alison's eyes bore into his as she gently shook him. "So don't tell me you know she's gone. Don't you dare think for one second you can convince me it's not possible that she's out there – somewhere – thinking you're the one who's dead? Because that's exactly what I think happened. I know how it looked. And I believe that something terrible happened there. But I also think that maybe it's not how it seemed. Maybe someone came there and made her believe you were gone..."
Her words finally registered and as much as it pained him, Rafe knew what she proposed could actually be true.
Alison was still talking, not at all willing to give up before she could convince him. "She might have just run off, the idea of living in that house without you might have just pushed her over the edge, Rafe. She could be out there, grieving for you. You know what it's like. I know what it's like." She gazed up at him, tears slowly spilling from her eyes now. "Any way you look at it, don't you think you both deserve to know the truth?"
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"I have so." Quinn replied, his mind racing.
"Oh yeah?" Billie smiled. "When?"
He wracked his brain for an answer. "The first time I kissed you – it was after the game…"
"…where we went with ten eight year olds? Yeah. No. Try again." She laughed.
"Ummm." He continued to struggle. "Then the next time…"
"I had invited you over for dinner. Ty was there. He fell asleep on the couch." Billie finished.
Quinn was beginning to see the truth. He grasped at straws. "I had you over here for dinner a few weeks before you moved in…"
"You did – and it was lovely. Still doesn't qualify as us going out on a date." Billie shook her head at him. "Quinn. It's a simple fact. Not once have we gone out together alone."
"We go out with Grant and Chloe all the time." Quinn interjected.
Billie inched closer and ran her hands up his chest. "Name one time that we went out – alone. Where I wore something that wasn't machine washable and when we didn't go to a restaurant where there were chicken fingers on the menu." She challenged him.
He couldn't do it. Quinn couldn't believe it was true. "How is this possible?" He looked at her dumbfounded. "How did you agree to marry someone you never even went on a date with?"
"Ummm." She said with a laugh as she leaned up to kiss him. "Maybe because I fell in love with you?"
"I'm serious Billie."
"Me too." She smiled wider. Noticing the look in his eyes she hastened to add. "Quinn, sweetie. I don't want you to feel bad about this. I don't care at all…"
"I care." He insisted as he grabbed herhand and moved towards the door. "C'mon. We'll go out right now."
As hard as she tried she couldn't keep from laughing. "Quinn, stop it. I don't want to go out. You made such a nice dinner."
He stammered and tried to convince her. His hands gently moved up and down her arms, his voice was soft and sweet. "I've been careless with you. I didn't mean it. I can take you out. I was good at it back in the day. I know for a fact that I used to take women on pretty great dates. There was this one place that – I don't know what it was - maybe the food or the lighting or something about it… all I know is that by the end of dinner whichever girl I took there was all over me…" He promised.
"OK." She shook her head at him. "Seriously? Note to Quinn…reminding your fiancé that you once had a little black book the size of the Yellow Pages is a surefire way to ruin a romantic evening at home."
"It wasn't a little black book…" Quinn sighed loudly.
"Oh. My apologies. It was brown." Billie voice was full of laughter.
This conversation was by far one of the oddest they had ever had. Quinn kept thinking Billie should be angry or hurt or upset but here she was, laughing almost hysterically while he clamored to save himself.
"We've gotten off track here." She wiped tears of laughter from her eyes. "OK, so. You brought me to our mostly unfurnished house to make me dinner to celebrate the anniversary of anything else but our first date. So what is it? The day I moved in? The first time you kissed me?"
The whole mood he had been trying to set had been severely altered. "The day I first met you." He whispered.
Billie blinked at him. "You mean at the baseball field?"
"Yes." He nodded.
"OK…" Billie bit her lip and tried to contain herself. The poor guy was trying so hard. She tried her hardest to resist but in the end failed miserably. "Quinn? Honey? That's not the first time you met me."
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"I know you're trying to help." Rafe said slowly, touched that she'd put so much time and effort into this.
"Yes. I am. And you should let me. We're a team you know." Alison replied.
"Yes." He smiled as he lifted a lock of her hair and let it slip through his fingers. "I know."
"I know you've been trying to ignore all of this – but the truth is you're a lousy liar Rafe. I know that even though you've been telling me you're over this but you're not. Everything that's happened in the last few months has really gotten to you. You're so quiet lately and I know that if you do this it could go a long way to getting you back to normal." She laughed softly as she added. "Well…normal for you."
Rafe glared down at her. "What's that supposed to mean?"
She stifled a giggle. "I know how hard you've tried, but honey you've never really mastered normal."
"Alison…" He sighed.
"Rafe…" She laughed louder.
He was trying to stay mad but couldn't do it. He began to chuckle back at her. "I've come pretty close though right?"
Not wanting to hurt his feelings she nodded before she kissed him. "Yes. You've come pretty close."
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Quinn took a deep breath. "OK. You're beginning to annoy me now."
Billie shrugged. "I'm just speaking the truth. The first time we met was almost ten years ago, my first day at college."
"I don't remember that." Quinn replied.
"Obviously." She giggled. "In your defense we didn't really talk that day, although I do remember thinking at the time that Lia's brother was kinda cute." She added with a wink.
Quinn looked around the room feeling defeated. His eyes fell on the small table he had set with the first of their engagement gifts. He had lit a fire, there was still enough of chill in the air at night and thought it would add to the romantic evening he had planned. He had been planning to pull out all the stops tonight, to steer the conversation to their wedding and finally, officially starting their life together. Instead he'd screwed everything up by trying to mark an occasion that he guessed wasn't really an occasion after all.
He hung his head as he moved back towards the kitchen. "I guess we could just have dinner then. I made your favorites…" A thought flew through his mind and he began to second guess himself. "…but maybe they're not really your favorites after all."
All at once Billie stopped laughing. Things had gone one step too far it seemed. "Quinn. I'm sorry."
"It's alright." He shrugged as he lifted the lid on the pot and began to stir.
Billie took a steadying breath. Seeing him so upset made her feel like the wind was knocked out of her. "No. I am. Quinn – I didn't realize…"
"It's OK." He replied, his voice tight. "Grab the wine from the fridge will you?"
Suddenly Billie felt like her prophecy was coming true. Things had been going so well – and now she was ruining it. "I am so sorry I've made you feel this way but at the same time I have to tell you it's nice – for once to see this side of you. I've been so worried, for so long that the other shoe would drop. That one day you'd wonder what the hell you were doing with me."
In the state he was in, Quinn did not have the strength to deal with her insecurities right now. He was too bogged down in his own. "Billie. Please. Don't start this again."
"I'm not starting anything. I'm just trying to explain something." Billie insisted. "Tonight as I drove up here I was so happy, just imagining when we finally get married and move in here. That's why I was so quiet earlier…" She explained. "…because part of me is afraid that I'll wake up one day and it'll all be a dream."
Quinn had no idea what this had to do with the fact that he had single-handedly screwed up the whole evening.
Billie tugged at his shirt and made him face her. "I said I'd marry you, because for the first time in my entire life I feel safe. For the first time I have a real family. So really – honestly - I don't care that you've never taken me out or wined and dined me. I don't care that practically every place we've been to dinner has a drive-thru." She said with a smile, blinking back the tears that suddenly flooded her eyes. "I'm here because you love me and you love Ty and the fact that you do makes us both the luckiest people on earth."
Quinn tried to find the words to reply to her. When he didn't speak she just kept explaining.
"Quinn. I'm sorry I laughed at you. Please. If you want we can make this the anniversary of the day you cooked me my favorite dinner in our brand new house…"
"Now you're just making fun of me." He pouted slightly. He was trying to keep up the pretense of being annoyed with her but it was no use. Being this close to her, seeing the look in her eyes…he was lost.
"Quinn…" She pleaded with him right before she realized that he was teasing her. She rose on her toes and whispered against his lips, her own curving into a smile as she did. "If you don't want me to make fun of you you're going to have to stop making it so easy."