She woke to the sound of Beth crying. She knew it was Beth, because her fiancee was sleeping soundly beside her. She got up, taking one last look at Rachel before heading in the direction of the library where the sound was coming from.
"Beth?" She called out, opening the door wider as she walked in. She switched on the light, momentarily blinding herself as the room illuminated and spotted her daughter once her eyes adjusted.
The child was huddled in the corner of the room, her view almost blocked by the comfy armchair that Beth had only been sitting in hours ago, snuggled into Rachel as the two of them read Quinn's latest childrens book. She was holding what looked to be a frame in her tiny hands.
"Honey?" Quinn called out, talking steps towards the crying child. Beth looked up, startled. She must not have realized that Quinn was in the room until now. The look of anger suddenly took over the child's face as she jumped to her feet, strode across the room the rest of the way to meet Quinn in the center and then trusted the frame towards the older blondes face, stopping an inch short of hitting Quinn's nose.
"Don't call me honey. Only my mom calls me that. You are NOT my mom. I want my mom! I hate you and I hate it here" She screamed, her voice laced with venom, words aimed at Quinn.
Shocked at Beth's outburst, Quinn's eyes caught the sight of the image that was being held to her.
Shelby.
Quinn guessed that The Voice had finally supplied Beth with a picture of the woman after the many letters that the girl had slid under the door had gone unanswered for the entire time that she had been here.
"Beth, I'm not trying to replace your mom" Quinn began, but was cut off when Rachel stumbled through the door.
"Hey, what's going on in here? I heard shouting"
Beth ran to Rachel and wrapped her arms around the brunettes waist. "I just want to go home" She cried into Rachel. Quinn met the questioning eyes of her fiancee and shook her head, telling her to leave it. Defeated, Quinn passed the two girls and left the room with her head hung.
###
Once Rachel had calmed Beth down, she pulled her over to the chair and sat the child upon her lap.
"Beth, what happened?"
"I got sad"
###
Quinn had eventually cried herself to sleep.
She was woken up the following morning by a constant poking in her face.
"Mmm Rach, not now" She said, shifting. But the poking continued.
"Quinn" A shaky voice whispered, poking her a couple more times. Quinn turned over in her bed and saw that it was Beth who had been trying to wake her. The young girl turned around and bent down. Turning back around, she lifted up a tray of food.
"I made you breakfast" She said, stepping forward and placing the tray on Quinn's lap when she shifted into a sitting position. "Well, Rachel helped me. She let me chop up the fruit and butter the toast" Beth next to her on the bed.
Quinn felt uneasy, not sure what to say to Beth after she screamed at her last night. So instead of talking, she lifted a piece of toast to her mouth and took a bite, looking around the living room over to the kitchen where she could see Rachel's head was poking out, watching them.
They sat in silence, Quinn munching on her food, Beth watching her eat.
"Oh for heaven's sake, Beth say sorry and explain yourself. Quinn forgive her so that we can all move on with our day!" Rachel yelled from the kitchen.
"I'm sorry" Beth whispered.
"It's okay. You were just upset. I understand" Quinn comforted the child. They sat on the bed awkwardly, listening to Rachel load the dishwasher. Beth was busy looking at a bird that had just landed on the table outside the window when she jumped from the sudden hand on her shoulder. She looked at the hand and then to Quinn, who was smiling and holding out a slice of toast for Beth to take. The child smiled back, took the food and began munching into it.
"Beth, I'm not trying to replace your mom. Shelby is always going to be your mother. But I'd like to be something in your life, If you'll let me"
"I'd like that" Beth answered and then stood up to lean over the tray so that she could give Quinn a hug.
"LET'S GET SOME SUN!" Rachel shrieked from the kitchen. She heard the door in the storage area open and personally wanted to be out of the house right that second.
###
They settled into a nice pattern over the 4 weeks that Beth had been in the house. They were close of course, with them only being the 3 people in the house and also the fact that the bedroom had yet to be opened. The Voice had been quiet, only interacting to drop off food in the storage room. And the noises.
Starting at 9 am each morning, construction work could be heard from the other side of the wall and also when they were outside. Quinn's theory was that The Voice was building an extension. From 9 to 4, Monday to Friday, they were asked to stay indoors and keep quiet. They guessed it was so they didn't attract suspicion from the workers. Rachel and Quinn had discussed making noise, crying for help. But that thought was soon eliminated when they woke to a letter on the kitchen table one morning warning them that if they caused any commotion then they would be punished. In fear of the unknown punishment, they spent their days trying to avoid making loud noises and causing attention to themselves.
###
On Beth's 5th week in the house, they awoke that morning when the shutters (which had been closed yesterday and followed with loud crashes that shook the entire house) arose from the ground and illuminated the room. Beth was the first to notice the ajar bedroom door and jumped from her bed to theirs in excitement.
"The door is open! It's open!" She cheered and then pulled them both by their hands to the door. Once they stood in the frame, she hid behind them though, suddenly nervous as to what they would find. They entered the room together and found that it had been altered only slightly. The change, was the double doors that opened into the extension that had been built.
The doors opened into a wide room that had blue walls and wooden floor. On one wall they found a large bay window that looked out into the garden.
"I guess they were knocking the wall yesterday" Rachel observed.
On the other wall they found a white board and an overheard projector. In front of the wall sat a desk and chair.
"I guess we have schooling sorted" Quinn said, walking over to the book shelves and finding many childrens books along with school workbooks for both Beth and them to help her.
"I have bunkbeds!" The child announced, running over to the bed frame and climbing up to the top bunk. "Look look! I have bunkbeds!" She cheered, standing up and then quickly sitting down when she bumped her head on the roof.
"Yes we see. And look at all these toys" Rachel said, turning to the areas surround the door frame into their room. She was genuinely happy that Beth would now have more to entertain her and have her own space. The child was quickly growing bored of all their attempts of entertainment and it would be nice for her to have somewhere to relax when she was having a rough day.
The rest of the day was spent with Beth making a mess of her new room and the two women sitting on the floor with her as she showed them each and every toy. They ate home made pizza while sitting on the floor and watching a movie on the over head projector that was hooked to Quinn's laptop.
####
"Well Santana... she... lets just say that Santana was the kid who always got a lot time outs" Quinn said, struggling to find the right words to describe her friend. They had sat down for the afternoon and told Beth stories of New Directions and filled her in on each member from their pictures and Facebook profiles.
"And would still have gotten them in highschool" Rachel added "Probably even now"
"What about Brittany?" Beth asked, pointing to the blonde woman dressed as a sexy elf in the picture with Santana, who was dressed as a sexy form of Santa. It was their Christmas card apparently.
Rachel and Quinn shared a smile. "Brittany would get a time out just to be with Santana"
"One time, she threw an apple at our kindergarden teacher just to get detention. Then it repelled off the teacher and hit Rachel in the face" Quinn said, unsuccessfully trying to hold back laughter. Beth laughed at the look on Rachel's face. She knew what that meant, her mom was going to be sleeping on the couch tonight or in her bottom bunk.
Rachel released an angry sigh when Quinn doubled over.
Quinn was going to be doing all the cooking and cleaning as well.
###
Their first Christmas together was rather uneventful, except for the cruel fact that The Voice ruined the illusion of Santa for Beth. Well he didn't do it himself. Beth had been so upset at the thought of someone coming into the house in the middle of the night, that Rachel and Quinn had to sit the child down and explain the truth to her. Christmas was kind of ruined... until Beth saw all the toys under the Christmas tree and her thoughts went elsewhere.
"Quiiiiinnn" Rachel called from Beth's room where she had just entered to get the girl for dinner. Quinn came running in and stopped at the door where Rachel stood when she spotted what her fiancee had been looking at.
Beth was standing in the corner of her room, now hiding her hands with a mischievous look on her face. Behind her, the wall was covered in fresh painted hand prints, curtsey of the child who had just received a set of paints for Christmas.
"Beth Corcoran. Did you do this?" Quinn asked.
"No!" Beth answered. "It was Agi!" She insisted.
"Who's Agi?" Rachel asked Beth, quickly looking at Quinn.
"Agi's my friend. She's right here" Beth said, pointing to the empty space in front of her.
Rachel's eyes shot open wide as she began to take steps back from the room. Quinn turned and chuckled at the brunette.
"You're seriously afraid of an imaginary friend!"
"Quinn they're creepy!" Rachel huffed, the back of her legs finally hitting the side of the mattress and she sat down, crossing her legs.
"I think Rachel is a bit afraid of Agi, but Beth, I don't think it was Agi who did this" Quinn said, pointing to the mess on the wall.
Beth huffed. She knew she was in trouble.
"I think we need a time out for lying little miss, and for the paint. I already told you this morning that if you made a mess, we'd have to take it out of your room" Quinn said, moving forward to take the paint set and blank canvas out of the room. Beth screamed "Noooo" and then pushed Quinn.
"My paints!" The child screamed again. "You're stupid"
"Hey, young lady. That's not very nice" Rachel said, jumping off the bed and walking into Beths room.
"You're stupid too! I hate you!" Beth screamed.
###
Beth spent the rest of Christmas being put in time out for 10 minutes and then being allowed out. Then she would have to put back in repeatedly throughout the day for acts of constant trouble making.
It continued for a full week. Getting to the stage where toys were taken away from the child. Beth cried nonstop, resulting in both Rachel and Quinn to eventually cry because they honestly did not know what to do to help Beth.
Early on New Years Day, Beth had woken up and for the first time since she had gotten her new room, crawled into bed with the two women. She shook Rachel awake to turn her over so that the two women were facing each other with Beth between them.
"Beth?" Quinn asked. The child had buried her face in her blankie.
"I'm sorry" she said, the sound muffled by the fabric.
"What sweetheart?" Rachel asked, rubbing the childs back. Beth turned over and removed her blankie from her face.
"I'm sorry. Agi was telling me to be bad. I'm sorry" She was crying now. They were quick to comfort her, pulling her into their embraces and kissing her forehead repeatedly.
"Baby girl, why was Agi telling you to be bad?"
"She said that you didn't love me, that if I was bad you'd send me back to mommy. But mommy's gone"