A/N- Thank y'all for the warm reviews of chapter 8, special shout out to gleek462, immablackstar, gllover22, FanQuinn, and Weasleyswan, your feedback made my day! And Special Special shout out to Scorpion Gohma for the feedback+ helpful grammar lesson that I truly appreciated!
This chapter is the longest one yet so fair warning, get cozy and I hope you enjoy it.
I have updated it, changing some stuff at the end because after reading the initial reviews (Thank you so much for the feed back, I totally agree) I see that the end sort of fell apart with so much build up to fizzle out.
"Do you have to go? Can't you just call in sick?" Quinn whined for the fifth time that night.
"I wish! Right now it's better to just not rock the boat and do what they say. I'll be back before you know it babe. Zip me up?" Rachel turned around, pulling her hair over her shoulder and exposing her back to Quinn who stepped up to do as requested. The blonde let her fingers brush across the tan skin and just enjoy the connection for a moment.
"You look amazing."
"Really? I always hated this dress, I was hoping to look fat so Jesse would keep his nasty paws off of me."
"Well you failed. That dress is stunning." It was a deep bottle green and fell to just past above her knees, giving the illusion that her legs just kept on going, which for Rachel, was pretty accurate. "He better keep his hands off you."
"Well there's no way he will forget that I'm yours. No matter how much cover up I put on you can still see that mark from earlier today in the alleyway!"
"You're not the only one who likes to mark what's hers."
Rachel smiled, she loved moments like this, moments where the young woman was just completely carefree and genuine. It was simply adorable and the more time they spent together, the more often the moments came. "Well, I believe I have sufficiently stalled, I'm going to have to leave eventually."
She moved to leave the apartment, grabbing her phone, wallet, earrings, and jacket before making it to the door, "Phone, ID, what am I forgetting? Oh yeah! A gun to shoot myself with."
"Not funny!" Quinn punched her in the arm, "And I don't think you're allowed to bring one of those inside of a restaurant."
"Actually I have a concealed carry permit."
That earned the brunette a sideways glance, "I still have so much to learn about you Rach."
"As I do you. Have I got everything?"
"Shoes." Quinn replied, handing her a pair of black high heels, "Now you're good!"
Slipping them on Rachel straightened up, delighted to find she was almost as tall as Quinn for a change, "See you later babe."
"Bye you look amazing!" Quinn gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and watched her retreat down the hall.
Later that night
Quinn was sitting on the ridiculously large couch in Rachel's apartment, holding her cell phone tightly in one hand, just waiting for it to ring signaling a message from the singer.
Relax Quinn, it's just been-she checked her watch for the fifth time since her girlfriend had left- twelve minutes. She probably hasn't even made it to the restaurant left.
Finally, in the middle of a shampoo commercial the phone buzzed.
Rachel- He's late!
Quinn- But You were 15 minutes late before you even left!
R- Now it's 30 minutes into the date and he's still not here
Q- Jackass
R- Right!?
Q- How's the restaurant?
R- Super nice! I'm totally ordering the most expensive vegan friendly thing on the menu just to make Schuester pay for it. One of the only perks to these stupid dates.
Q- :) If you ate meat like a normal person you could get some super expensive steak!
R- No! We are not having the meat conversation again! Last time you almost snuck bacon onto my sandwich which is wrong not only on the vegan level, but also cause I'm Jewish!
Q- Fine, Fine. At least get some expensive wine
R- Naturally :)
R- He's here
Q- Joy
5 minutes later
R- I swear he just spent the whole last four minutes talking about his hair
Q- He has hair? I always just thought some sort of rodent died on his head and he was too lazy to take it off
R- That would explain the smell...
10 minutes later
R- Now he's flirting with the waitress!
Q- He's unbelievable, how did you get stuck with him?
R- According to Schue, he's the public's favorite of my fake boyfriends.
Q- You do look kind of cute together...
R- You're lucky I've already had two and a half glasses of wine or I would have to climb through this phone and throttle you... Not even kidding
Q- Sorry! I have a thing for adorable brunettes
R- And I have a thing for antagonistic blondes
Q- I am so not antagonistic!
R- Who said I had a thing for YOU?
Q- I think you made it pretty clear over the past few days that you do
R- ... You win :P
Q- I always do
R- Keep on telling yourself that
At the restaurant
"Can interest you in some coffee?" the waiter asked, clearing the last of their plates from dinner.
Jesse perked up, "Oh that sounds-"
"No." Rachel said flatly. "I told you St. James, no coffee, no dessert, no midnight walk in the park. I have fulfilled my minimum requirement and I am done!"
The waiter looked uncomfortable and just stood rooted to the spot, watching the melodrama play out before him.
"I'll just go get your check then."
Jesse nodded kindly, "That would be lovely."
"How can you be so two faced all the time?" the singer was fed up and ready to bolt.
"It's a practiced skill." Jesse replied easily, "And you have no right to lecture me about being two faced. You sat through this whole dinner and hardly said two words to me that weren't 'pass the wine' or 'you're late.' You just spent the whole time on your phone texting and smile like a loony toon!"
"First of all, I don't have anything TO say to you aside from pass the wine because there's no way I could have made it through this sober, and you were late. Second of all I spent the entire time tonight wishing I was with the person I'm texting instead of with you!" Rachel shot back, her voice slowly growing louder until she was nearly shouting the last bit.
"Lower your voice would you!" Jesse hissed, "The LAST thing you need right now is more attention."
"Don't you dare try to tell me what I need,"Now Rachel was furious; however, she did resign to her previous volume, "Let me tell you what YOU need. You need a real job aside from just dating gay celebrities. You need to grow up and stop flirting with everything on two legs. You need to stop talking so I can pretend you aren't here and make it through the end of this date. Got it?"
Jesse just sat there with his mouth hanging open and it was still open when the waiter returned with their check. The singer covered and pulled out her company credit card that they gave her for all musical related expenses. "Let me take care of that Jesse."
The waiter seemed a bit disappointed there would be no more drama and quickly processes the transaction while the fake couple just sat in silence.
Before long the two were outside the restaurant, ready to part ways. "It was a pleasure, as always Ms. Berry."
"As with you St. James." Rachel turned to go but before she could make it to the curb to call a cab Jesse grabbed her arm and spun her around so they were pressed together.
"I'll miss you Rachie- Bear." he said and pressed a quick kiss onto her cheek.
"What the he-"
"I know you hate surprises honey-poo but I couldn't help it." Jesse cut her off quickly.
"Are you out of your mi-"
This time Rachel's rant was interrupted by a high pitched squeal, "Aren't those two so adorable!?" and finally she heard the clicks of a camera that Jesse had heard the moment they exited the restaurant.
That sneaky bastard was trying to help me. She was almost more enraged at the thought of that piece of filth doing her a favor than she was at the reporter for following the two of them on their date.
Rachel scowled at the obnoxious reporter and shot Jesse a dark look before pushing away from him, not so gently, and hailing a taxi to get home.
I just need a hot shower and a couple of advil and then I think I'll sleep for the next week. Rachel thought when she got back to her apartment and was putting the key into the door. I wonder if Quinn waited up for me. The blonde hadn't responded to her texts since before the argument with Jesse.
The singer made her way through the apartment in search of her girlfriend and paused when she heard a deep grumbling from her bedroom. Inside she discovered a mess of blonde hair protruding from her covers.
"Aww, she's so cute when she sleeps. Even if she snores." Rachel said aloud, slipping out of her heels.
"I do not snore." Quinn mumbled from beneath the covers.
"Oh yes you do."
"No!"
"I'm in no shape to argue with you right now. I'm too tired and intoxicated. Now move your no good snoring butt over, you're hogging my bed."
The blonde groaned and shifted the smallest bit to the left and Rachel slid under the cover, still fully clothed. "How was your date?"
"Horrible, I would rather block the night from my memory."
Quinn rolled to face the singer with a goofy grin on her face, "Maybe I can make it worthwhile for you to remember."
"Go to bed, you're half asleep and I'm drunk. I refuse for us to have our first time together under these circumstances."
"Fine. But you still have to snuggle with me."
"Fine." Rachel pulled herself close to Quinn's back and snaked one arm around the blonde's waist and another tangled in her hair.
Things continued on in this way for thirteen days, eight hours, and forty minutes. Quinn counted the days and hours since the first date secretly to herself. Rachel needed to be convinced everything would be fine, she needed to believe that their relationship would survive, she needed to be reassured each day that Quinn was willing to sit at home and wait for her to get back after each date.
But it was a lie. Quinn couldn't stand the hiding, the sneaking, the wishing things were different. She hated Jesse St. James with all her heart because he spent more time with her girlfriend than she did.
On day thirteen, tragedy struck for Rachel.
It came in the form of a phone call during rehearsal one day. One of her fathers had been diagnosed with appendicitis. It was not a serious condition and actually quite common but he would require immediate surgery to remove the organ. Rachel was to fly back to Ohio to be with him before and for a short time after the procedure.
Quinn would be staying behind. She wasn't happy about it, "But what if-"
"It isn't a big deal babe, I'll be fine. Besides Tina needs you here." the brunette assured her for the third time while grabbing her things ready to rush to the airport.
"You need me there." Quinn persisted.
"Listen, I know you always want to protect me but I can make it though this. I'm a big girl and I'll be back home in three days, alright?"
"Are you-" the singer silenced her girl by connecting their lips. Any objection Quinn still held died quickly and she melted under Rachel's touch as she did every time they kissed. Even after being together in secret for nearly two months the brunette held immense power over Quinn with her touch.
"I'm sure. I'll call you when I land." With that Rachel swept out of the theater with everyone calling 'good luck' and 'I'll be praying for you's' to her back.
"Bye." Quinn whispered quietly under her breath even though the girl had already left.
"Appendicitis isn't serious right?"
"Do I look like a fucking doctor Q?" Santana asked, "For the fifth time, I don't know the survival rate, I don't know the procedure, I don't even know what the hell an appendix does!"
"You graduated from Columbia!" Quinn shot back.
"So? I didn't pay attention in anatomy. I was a bit more busy with studying my roommate's anatomy, if you know what I mean." the Latina tore her eyes away from the movie she was watching on the couch to look at her current roommate who had spent the last 25 minutes on her laptop trying to learn everything possible about the illness so she would be ready to console Rachel. "So stop asking me Fabray!"
"Be nice, San. She's concerned about her girl." Brittany said. The blonde was laying with her head in Santana's lap, every since meeting in the hospital those two had been spending a lot of time together and it had become that more often than not when Quinn would get home from the theater she would discover the other blonde was already inside the apartment.'
"Thank you Brit." Quinn said absentmindedly, still scouring webmd for her answers.
"But really Q, you need to just relax. Rachel promised she would call you when she landed, it's only been like 45 minutes since her plane took off, she's probably still in the air." the taller blonde reasoned, trying to calm Quinn down, "You don't need to be an appendicitis professional to support her, just be there."
"Fine I give up!" Quinn slammed her laptop closed and decided instead to obsess over her phone, constantly checking it for updates. She moved to sit in an armchair across form her roommate and Brittany, all the while she couldn't silence her inner monologue. She is supposed to land at 8:30 and it's 8:35 right now. If you figure an extra half hour for delay and getting luggage she should be calling me at 9:00 from a cab to the hospital.
A giggling from the couch distracted her obsession. Her eyes widened when she saw Santana lying back on the couch, tucked between Brittany's thighs. The blonde was currently straddling the Latina. Time to go. She thought as she promptly stood up and made a bee line to the shared bedroom.
Pacing slightly in the room, Quinn looked for something to do to keep her mind off the crisis her girlfriend was facing halfway across the states. She spied a stack of books that had been steadily growing on her nightstand ever since she arrived and moved in with Santana. After college she found that she didn't have nearly as much time or patience to read as much as she normally liked so she took this opportunity to do just that. The blonde flopped down onto the bed and grabbed the first book off her stack, flipped open to the dog eared page, and began to read.
Ring... ring.. ring... SMACK, a slipper connected squarely with its target, the back of Quinn's head... ring... "Q! Answer your damn phone! It's way too early for that shit!"
The blonde reached out blindly for her phone, her thin fingers scraped the edge of a page of the book that must have slipped from her grasp earlier that night, earning her a nice paper cut. Sucking the wounded finger into her mouth she located the offending phone and answered it.
"City Morgue?" she groaned into the cell.
"Hey babe, it's Rachel." Quinn shot upright in her bed and checked the time- 11:17- What the hell?
"Hey Rach, did you get stuck on the plane from hell?" the blonde's voice was raspy from sleep but a smile graced her face after hearing the musical laughter of the singer float through the cell.
"No, it was a surprisingly pleasant flight. I just got distracted." Quinn was nodding along absently, she had gotten out of bed to find a band- aid for her finger, "They lost my luggage and then the hospital was just, horrible, but Jesse got my suitcase from the airline and insisted I eat something so we went out to dinner and-" the blonde located the band-aids and was in the middle of dressing the wound when she froze, Jesse? What on earth is he doing out there? "He met me at the airport, Schue sent him."
"What?" Quinn asked.
"That's why Jesse's here, you just asked." Rachel explained, knowing that the blonde was normally slower when she was tired.
Oh crap I was talking out lout earlier. "Oh." Was all the surprised blonde could muster.
"Yeah, so he's here in Ohio. Staying on the couch. But I wish it was you babe, I miss you." the brunette practically whined the last bit.
"I miss you too Rach, how's your dad doing?" She finally snapped out of her surprise and finished applying the bandage.
"He's doing fine. They are taking him into surgery tomorrow morning. We aren't too worried, he's always been a fighter. One time when I was little I was throwing a fit over something- I don't even remember- and I threw my shoe at him and he got a bloody nose. But still carried me up the stairs to my room and watched me sit in the corner for a whole timeout before he even went to get advil or clean up." Quinn's smile grew even wider. She loved listening to the brunette talk about her past.
"Oh and then this other time he was playing football and-" there was a muffled call of 'Rachel' on the brunette's end of the line and Quinn could only hear half of the faint conversation, "Yeah?... Ok... I'll be there in a mine.." the Rachel was back on the line, "Hey Q, I have to go. I'll call you right after he goes in tomorrow."
"Ok, sleep well Rach."
"You too Q. I'll see you in one week, max." Rachel promised.
"One week," the blonde echoed, "I miss you."
"Miss you too babe."
Quinn wandered her way back to her room. She ungracefully plopped down onto her bed, once again lost in her thoughts. I can't believe that Jesse St Jackass is there with her, supporting her, getting her through this crisis. But it was my girlfriend! I should be the one standing by her. Now I am sentenced to a week of hell getting the second hand report of whatever Rachel was going through. Damn Jesse, and damn Schue.
She laid awake for a while, staring at her ceiling and thinking. Well trying not to think. After what seemed like an endless amount of time she spent with images of Rachel and Jesse flash through her mind Quinn gave up. She sat up and grabbed a jacket, her favorite pen, and her current journal, and headed out the window to their fire escape. Ever since she was young, when Quinn couldn't sleep she would venture off in search of fresh air.
Back in her childhood home she would climb out onto her roof through her window; one time she fell asleep during one of her late night excursions and she rolled off the roof into her mother's flowered, squashing the tulips and spraining a wrist but somehow still managed to climb back up the drain pipe so her parents wouldn't notice the transgression. In college she would sneak out of her dorm and take up residence on a bench in the quad near her favorite library. Now living with Santana in the city her hideaway was the roof of her building or on the steps of the fire escape between floors where nobody could see her.
The blonde would come out and write. Write anything and everything from short stories to poems to opinion essays and more. Tonight she cracked open the worn moleskin book and stared blankly at the lined page. She stared until the lines went wavy from her tears so instead she scanned the city. Red rimmed hazel eyes flew between the skyscrapers, the steam rising from grates, the insane number of lights, and the slow crawling cabs.
With a huff of mixed frustration and exhaustion Quinn clicked open her pen and began furiously writing. Her poem began with 'Roses are red' and ended thirty five minutes later with 'bipolar, hypochondriac, paranoid, bitch.' Quinn slammed her book she and as quietly as possible stormed down the fire escape and back in the open window. She shoved her journal back under her mattress and looked at the bedside clock- 1:46- and fell into a fitful restless sleep she woke from three hours later feeling even more tired.
The next few days passed in a pained daze for Quinn. She showed up to work, didn't talk much except to Tina, did her tasks quickly and detached, and went home each night to have small talk with Santana and Brittany before hiding out in her bedroom or on the roof to read or write. Rachel would call her two or three times a day. The blonde couldn't figure out if those were the best or worst minutes of her day. She loved hearing from the singer; she missed her girl like crazy. But the calls reminded her of how utterly useless she was stuck in New York while Jesse was in Ohio with Rachel.
The worst day for Quinn was two days after Rachel's father's surgery. The blonde was on her lunch break and Rachel was sitting on a bench outside the hospital with Jesse, she had called to let Quinn know her father was to be discharged soon and she would be back in New York sooner than expected. In the middle of the conversation Quinn heard the brunette shriek and yell, "How the hell did you leeches find me here?"
She heard rustling and muffled footsteps then the swish of an automatic door. There was a brief silence quickly broken by Rachel's annoyed ramblings.
"How dare they. Is nothing private anymore? No respect.." The singer had let her phone drop from her mouth so everything Quinn heard was muted and unclear but she could make out a male voice joining the brunette's.
"Rach sweetie relax." How dare he use my nickname. "Just shh and stop pacing and ugh!" Both voices went silent and the silence dragged on with Quinn pressing her phone tightly against her ear, her knuckles slowly turning white. A beep signaled the end of the phone call. What the actual fuck?
The blonde redialed Rachel and sat patiently waiting for five, six, seven rings and then voice mail. She hung up and stared angrily at her phone. Now she's rejecting my calls for that pansy!? Quinn made her way back to the theater to fin sigh her afternoon shift, duties. Speaking to nobody, her mind was solely focused on the conversation with Rachel. What happened that got her so worked up? Who was she yelling at? What did Jesse do to shut her up?
When she finally got back to her apartment that night all of her questions were answered by a brash Santana the second she walked through the door.
"Q! Since when do you let over-gelled, overgrown, twelve year olds horn in on your action?" the Latina yelled through the apartment.
Quinn was in no mood to put up with her friend's antics, "What on earth are you talking about San?"
"You don't know? It's al over that entertainment news you and Rachel always watch together."
"What is?"
Santana sighed from her spot on the couch, like filling her roommate in was a burden, as Quinn finally came into view from the entry way, "Well entertainment cops, Ohio precinct got deployed to find the latest on Rachel and why she's at another hospital in Ohio. For a while they thought she was preggers, hilarious right? Any ways they found her on a romantic evening stroll with Jesse and then they have this footage of the two of them kissing in the waiting room. It's pretty hot stuff." The Latina finished the whole thing by tossing up and catching a jelly bean in her mouth.
Quinn's jaw dropped and she floundered for a reply. Finding none she plopped down on the couch next to the brunette, "Just wait a minute, I'm sure they'll be playing it again after this commercial break."
Sure enough after some brunette celebrity speaking for the amazing properties of L'Oreal the now familiar boyish main anchor on the station came on screen to confirm Santana's reveal and display the footage of the kiss. Like it was now an official event.
The footage was blurred and shaky, shot long distance through the glass wall of a waiting room but Quinn could clearly see what played out. Rachel came pacing into view, speaking with her hands and stopping every few seconds to stomp in the adorable way she did when she got really mad. Jesse came in right behind her trying to console her and finally her grabbed her shoulders so she had to look him in the eyes and he covered her still running mouth with his own.
The blood drained from Quinn's face and she heard a buzzing in her ears. Already she was trying to rationalize what she saw, he just kissed her. Out of the blue. She didn't have a chance to pull away.
But the video continued to play and Rachel didn't pull away. Why didn't she pull away? Then she saw what she knew was coming next; Rachel moved but not to pull away, she moved to hang up her phone. To hang up on Quinn. Before she tangled one of her hands in Jesse's hair and melted into the kiss.
That she couldn't rationalize. Quinn stood up and brokenly walked across the room to the window which she threw open and exited without a word back to Santana.
Quinn climbed up to the roof and sat down in the beach chair found there on her first visit. The cloth was fraying and the metal rusted and she was sure if she tried to move the chair from where it sat it would spontaneously disintegrate. She pulled her legs up onto the chair and wrapped her arms around her knees.
She just sat there, not crying, not thinking, just numb to the world. After a couple of hours when it began to get dark and cold Santana showed up with a blanket and coffee. From experience she knew better than to try to talk Quinn down when she was unresponsive like this.
It didn't happen often- only twice when they were living together, once after a really bad breakup and once after she found out her mother had been in a serious car accident- but when it did the only cure was caffeine and time.
"You left your phone down there and you have four missed calls." Santana told her, placing the cell phone on the arm of the chair, not needing to tell the blonde who the calls were from. "I'll be sleeping if you need me." with that last out given she retreated down to the apartment to leave Quinn alone with her thoughts.
After much internal debate and a health pep talk Quinn picked up the phone and dialed voice mail
You have four new messages and no saved messages. New message BEEP-
Hey Quinn, sorry about hanging up on you earlier. Stupid reporters found me even out here so I had to put out fires but every things good now. The doctors say Daddy is healing well and he all definitely be discharged tomorrow which means I will be on a plane home tomorrow night! Miss you a ton babe.
Quinn deleted that message and moved onto the next-
Quinn. I guess I missed you again. I just wanted to call and say goodnight. I hope you had a good day and that Santana isn't being too over the top. Just stay patient with her and Brit, they are still in the honeymoon phase but soon they will grow out of making out on your couch. Sleep well, I can't wait to see you Quinnie.
The blonde smiled at the nick name and decided to save that voice mail and prepared herself to listen to the next-
I just saw it on TV. I'm so sorry Quinn. I didn't think the reports caught it so I didn't tell you about the kiss but it was nothing. Jesse just wanted me to stop freaking out and you know how I can't stop talking when I freak out which is probably why I can't stop talking now... But it didn't mean anything. Please call me back Quinn.
Now the brunette must have known something was up. Quinn could see in her mind's eye Rachel pacing around the hospital freaking out and not being able to stop thinking, she always did over think things when anything happened. It gave her a slight pang of guilt for making Rachel so nervous but it was overshadowed by her anger and hurt over the kiss. The last voice mail started-
... For a bit all that was recorded was sniffling and then a deep breath... Quinn. Please just give me a chance to explain. I'm just so stressed out here and Jesse is just here. I just made a mistake, a stupid stupid mistake. Please wait until I get home tomorrow night so I can explain everything to you. Quinn I miss you so much and I can't deal with the thought of losing you over something like this right now. Not with opening night coming up and missing rehearsals and Daddy just out of surgery. So you know what? No, you do not get to be mad a me right now. You owe me the chance to explain and make it up to you. When my flight gets in I hope you will be at the airport for me. Quinn I'm sorry but please call me back. I miss you so much babe.
Now the blonde was outraged. I owe her? I owe her nothing, she doesn't have the right for me to give her a chance. She goes to Ohio without me, she outright told me to stay here and then she goes and kisses that Jesse St. Jackass! Quinn couldn't stand the solitude any longer, she had been scrunched up with her knees to her chest for so long her feet had gone numb and she almost fell twice going down the fire escape but she eventually made it through the dark to their apartment and back in the window.
Throwing her phone at her bed she mumbled a hoarse, "Scoot over." to Santana before sliding into bed with her best friend. They had been friends for so long personal boundaries no longer held much value and they had spent plenty of sad nights squashed into the same bed with a tub of ice-cream or popcorn and a box of tissues.
Santana on her part just grumbled and moved a fraction of an inch out of the blonde's way and tried to form a coherent objection when Quinn's cold feet contacted her long legs and the blonde stole half of her pillow but gave up and fell back into a deep sleep.
"You can't ignore her forever." Tina tried to reason. She had pulled Quinn into the tiny ASM office the moment the blonde walked into the theater the next morning, trying to preemptively put out any fire started by the video on the news.
Quinn hit the reject button on her cell, sending Rachel's third call of the day straight to voice mail, "Not forever, just until she gets back in New York. And then as long as I can after that."
"Look, she texted me her flight information for tonight and asked me to pass it onto you. You should pick her up."
The ASM sighed, "I already told Santana this morning, I'm not going to pick her up. I would hate for her to get bad publicity for getting picked up at the airport by the 'mystery woman'. Especially when she has Jesse to look after her."
"You know that's not up to her Quinn. You saw her after the Schue Cassie conversation, she was really beaten up over that." Tina really cared for her young coworker but she also knew how different Rachel was when it came to Quinn.
"I know but that doesn't change the fact that she kissed Jesse."
"Just give her a chance Q."
"She has to earn a chance."
Tina just nodded and opened the door to let Quinn out, she knew it would be a long, hard road but she hoped the two would pull though. She had thirty bucks on it. But more importantly she cared for the two girls and could see how much better off they were when they were together.
"Well her flight has officially landed, and you are officially the worst girlfriend ever."
"Just put your earrings in and shut it Santana." Brittany elbowed the Latina in the ribs, "Are you sure you don't want to come to the club with us tonight Quinn?"
The shorter blonde was in her favorite old 'Yale' sweatpants and a ratty t-shirt, she was so sure she was practically deodorant. But Brittany had been kind to her through the whole drama so she just responded with a civil, "Yeah thanks Britt, I just want to stay in and relax for a bit tonight, but you two have fun."
"You know we will Quinneth." Santana said, dancing past her roommate while pulling on her ridiculously high heels.
"Worst nickname ever." Quinn shot back, "Make sure she doesn't get in too much trouble Brit."
"I can handle her. We're gonna go back to my place tonight so don't worry about waiting up for us." the dancer said, gathering her purse and moving to the door, "Have fun Quinn."
"Will do Brit. Bye San!"
The pair left and Quinn locked the door behind them before going back to the couch to resume her Molly Ringwald binge movie marathon.
Half way through Pretty in Pink Quinn got lost in her thoughts, was Rachel disappointed when she to to the airport and saw that I wasn't there? Against her better judgement she checked her phone, no missed calls, no new text messages. The blonde wasn't sure what to make of that as feelings of pain, disappointment, and anger flooded over her. How dare she not call me. What the hell, didn't she want another chance? Now she's not even trying.
She tossed the phone to the other end of the couch and nearly had a heart attack moments later when there was a determined pounding on her door. Cautiously and trying to remember all of the self defense classes she had taken as a freshman in college she moved to see who was trying to bang down her door in the middle of the night.
Why couldn't we have gotten an apartment with a fucking peep hole? The blonde looked over her shoulder into the kitchen and tried to calculate the number of steps from the front door to the knife block should she need to grab one.
Taking one last deep breath in she swung open the door to reveal a fuming Rachel. Without waiting for an invitation inside the short brunette pushed past a stunned Quinn and immediately began going off on her.
"I can't believe you! I asked you for one thing, to come pick me up at the airport but no! I was standing in the terminal like some tourist looking for you for half an hour! Jesse kept saying that we had to go but I told him, 'no wait, Quinn will be here.' And damn you, you made him right!" Rachel's hair was crazy and she was running out of breath.
When the brunette took a break to breathe Quinn jumped in with an assault of her own, "Don't you bring up Jesse! I expected one thing from you Rachel! One thing, I expected you to go out there as my girlfriend and come back as my girlfriend and while you were out there I expected you to act like my girlfriend!"
"Now your being unreasonable! You know why I have to act like I do with Jesse." The blonde turned away from the singer and looked out the window. She couldn't stand looking into Rachel's intense brown gaze right now, "You know that I would rather be with you all the time in front of everyone but that just can't happen right now. I was just doing what I had to."
"No! You have to go on dates with him and be civil with him." Quinn wheeled around to face off with the brunette, "You did not have to kiss him back the way you did!"
"I was overwhelmed Quinn! Do you understand the stress I am under with the show and my Dad. I just missed you so much so-"
"So you kissed the first thing on two legs that walked by?"
"It's not that simple Quinn!"
"Really? Not that simple, let me break it down for you Rachel. First you jet off to Ohio and leave me behind after I OFFERED to come with you! Then you go and kiss Jesse. And then you don't even tell me about it until you realized that you had been caught!"
Shame shone through on Rachel's dark eyes. "I mean you didn't even have the decency to come clean right after it happened. You waited like some kid who breaks their mom's vase and tries to hide the pieces and only tell the truth after he's been found out. That probably hurt most of all. That you would lie to me like that Rachel! I thought you were better than that."
Quinn's face was flushed from the yelling and her own eyes were turning pink again, stinging tears pricked the corners while hurt was evident in Rachel's eyes, "I was lonely and confused and my parents, god my parents. I told them about you. I told them I was happy with you and that my heart skips a beat every time you say my name and that your touch sets me on fire. And you know what they said?"
Quinn was struck silent, Rachel didn't really talk about her parents so this outburst was a surprise.
"They said, 'are you sure?' They were disappointed. They couldn't believe that their perfect little girl was gay. I was proving all the stereotypes that gay parents have gay kids. They knew about my past relationships with girls but they just thought it was a phase." Rachel got a far away look in her eyes, like she was no longer talking to Quinn, more just past her.
"They knew it was more than just a phase when I told them about you, they knew you were more than just a phase. My fathers, hypocritical jackals, were disappointed in me because I was happy with a person who just happened to not have a penis!" The brunette was near tears but she refused to let them fall, she needed to finish her explanation before she would be reduced to a crying mess.
"So yes Quinn, I was confused and I was sad so I kissed Jesse but it was the biggest mistake of my life and I regretted it right after it happened. I know nothing I say can make it up to you but please, just tell me what I can do to make this better." Rachel fell silent and refocused on Quinn's hazel eyes.
"Rachel I- I don't- I'm sorry, I had no idea." the blonde didn't know what to say. She was still mad at Rachel, she cheated and that was inexcusable, but she was clearly hurting too, "I was in hell these past two days. I didn't know what to think. In case you didn't notice I have never done this," she gestured between the two of them, "before so I just trusted you to guide me through this. I always had faith in you. Every night when you would be out with him doing the things we should be doing together, I had faith that you would come home to me and everything would be alright."
The brunette slowly shook her head, finally breaking down and letting the tears flow freely down her face. "You betrayed that faith Rachel and it's going to take a hell of a lot to fix that."
Seeing the tears track through the singer's makeup Quinn instinctually stepped forward to envelop Rachel in a comforting hug- hardly registering that she was the one causing Rachel's sobbing- but she was having none of it. With surprising strength the shorter woman pushed out of Quinn's hold, "No. I don't want your sympathy right now, you are supposed to be mad at me not feeling sorry for me. I'm going to go back to my apartment and maybe we can talk about this tomorrow when we have both gotten some sleep and I'm not a filterless emotional mess."
The brunette shook her head and turned to leave. But Quinn made a one hundred ant eighty degree turn in her approach. She couldn't lose Rachel, not when she just got her back home, "No Rachel, just stay here. It's the first time I've seen you in a week and it shouldn't be like this. We shouldn't be fighting. We can talk about this later but please, just stay here with me Rachel." Quinn was on damage control now. Taken unexpectedly from the offensive to the defensive by Rachel's outburst. Now she was just trying to pick up the pieces of what she had broken down.
The blonde moved forward again to hug Rachel and this time she didn't try to pull away.
"I'm so sorry Quinnie."
"I know." she whispered into the brunette head pressed against her chest. "I know babe."
They spent the night squished on the too small couch with Rachel half on top of Quinn. The crying stopped thankfully soon after it began and Rachel passed out, exhausted from the tears and jet lag. Quinn, for her part, stayed awake a while longer, running her fingers through the singer's soft brunette hair.
She didn't know how she expected to be able to stay mad at the girl for too long. Rachel let out an adorable, small snore in her sleep and Quinn smiled. She didn't know how she got lucky enough to be have landed a girl as amazing as Rachel but she knew that she sure as hell was going to fight for their relationship to work. The brunette was not totally forgiven, by any means. But this was something they needed to work through together, not by losing it and breaking the noise ordinances of Quinn's apartment.
They both had demons in their past and it would take both of their understanding and effort to make it through.
The blonde was still hurt. After what she experienced with her own parents she had abandonment issues which Rachel only served to enflame but the singer was also her cure. Right now lying together she felt safer than she had all week. Rachel was her Kryptonite and her therapy, her savior and her tormentor, her heaven and her hell. She didn't know what the future held for the couple but she did know Rachel had a long way to forgiveness.
Quinn nuzzled closer into Rachel's neck and fell into the most peaceful sleep she had gotten in a week.
A/N- This chapter was a lot of late night writing and random hits of inspiration so I expect grammar mistakes and someone may very well have turned into a dragon in the middle of the story so if you see something that doesn't make sense don't be afraid to bring it to my attention.
Reviews are love! Tell me what you thought!
Oh and I will be on break for a bit till the end of the holidays but hope to update once I get back in town after vacation.