After searching all the rooms in hope to find her mom, Beth finally located the blonde in the recording hut. She was currently in the booth, sitting on a stool with her laptop balanced on her lap. Sometimes, when the house was busy, she'd come out here and write for a few hours.
The microphone was on and Beth could hear Quinn talking to herself out loud as she hadn't noticed her daughter standing on the other side of the glass.
"Stupid Finn better not try anything when we get out of here. Rachel is mine now" She grumbled as she scrolled down his facebook page. Even being deployed in a different country, he still posted a message to Rachel's wall saying "Miss you babe" and attached a picture of the two of them. The green eyed monster paid a visit to Quinn often when the topic of Finn Hudson came up.
"Who's Flynn?" Beth asked over the intercom and then released the button on the sound board. It was the only button that she was allowed to touch in the hut except for the light switch and even then, she was usually yelled at when she played with it.
Quinn jumped and in the last second was able to prevent her computer from falling to the floor.
"Jesus Beth! What have you been told about sneaking up on people!" She said, clutching her heart with her free hand.
Beth did that alot, sneak up on them. Not on purpose though because she had been asked very early on not to do it. She had a sort of grace about her in movement that sometimes made it impossible for Rachel or Quinn to hear her when she came into a room. This time though, it was just that Quinn had been too busy with her laptop to see the girl.
"Sorry. Who's Flynn?" She asked again.
"No one"
"No tell me! You said that Flynn better not try anything cause mom is yours now. Who's Flynn?" Beth demanded to know.
"No one. Go play" Quinn tried to brush the question off and mention playing to hopefully distract the child.
"Fine! If you won't tell me, than I'm just going to ask mommy!" She said and than ran for the door. Behind her she could hear Quinn calling and her the sound of the studio door opening when she pulled the garden door.
"Mooooom, mooommy!" Beth called running to the kitchen. She heard the garden door open and close as she slid into the kitchen where Rachel was standing at the stove, finishing dinner.
"Who's Flynn?" She asked.
"Beth, no!" Quinn yelled, running into the kitchen.
"Why do you want to know who Flynn is?" Rachel asked, looking from mother to daughter suspiciously.
"Cause mommy said that -" But Beth was cut off when Quinn placed her hand over Beth's mouth and then bent down to whisper in her ear. "I'll give you candy if you keep your mouth shut"
Beth held out her hand and raised her eyebrow. Keeping her hand on the childs mouth, Quinn leaned up to the cabnit behind her and got down the candy box. She took out a lollipop, a packet of chips and a chocolate bar and placed them in Beth's outstretched hand. Beth smiled and ran from the room.
"Quinn she's going to ruin her dinner! And did you just bribe our daughter?" Rachel asked, hands on her hips. She had been slaving away for most of the day in the kitchen preparing dinner and Quinn just hands Beth junk!
"Um... It's for a good cause?" Quinn said, trying to sound innocent.
"And what cause is that, the 'I did or said something that I don't want Rachel to know and Beth over heard so now I have to bribe her AGAIN' cause?"
"You know I'm a big supporter" Quinn replied, making her way around the breakfast bar until she reached Rachel. With the divas hands still on her hips, it made it easier for her to snake her hands around the diva's hips and kiss her neck.
Rachel gave into the blondes kisses. She couldn't stay angry at the girl.
Once Beth had successfully hidden her treats away in her room where she knew neither of her mothers would find them, she came strolling into the kitchen. She stood watching the two women sway side to side as they held each other in an embrace before she called out "MOM SAID THAT FLYNN BETTER KEEP HIS HANDS OFF OF YOU CAUSE YOU ARE HER'S NOW" and then legged it back to her room before Quinn could catch her.
"Quinn Fabray. Are you serious?" Rachel asked, quickly turning in Quinn's arms. "She's talking about Finn!"
"She overheard me talking to myself, no big deal Rach"
"Baby, are you seriously jealous of Finn?" Rachel cooed.
"Not jealous... just very much prepared to punch him in the face if he tries to claim you as his whenever we get out of here"
"Quinn"
"Okay, so he left another stupid message on your page and it's KILLING me that I can't comment to tell him to back the fuck off"
"Baby, I love you. Nothings going to chance that" Rachel pulled Quinn into a kiss, linking her arms around the blondes neck to pull her closer.
"You won't love her anymore if she kills me, right? That way she wont hurt me now!" Beth called out from where ever she was hiding in the house. Rachel and Quinn laughed in each others embrace, ignoring the child when she repeated the question, worry evident in her voice.
###
June came, bringing a mark to 3 years since the girls had been taken, a year already for Beth.
"Mom! Mom!" Beth yelled running in from the garden. She stopped just in time to pause and open the glass back garden door.
"Mom!" She called again. Rachel stepped out from the library, right infront of the child stopping her in her tracks.
"You're not mom" Beth said.
"No I'm not mom, but she's sleep and you're making far too much noise little miss. What's up?"
"Mommy I found a treasure!" The child said, holding up a box and opening it showing Rachel a diamond ring. Rachel's eyes widened and she grabbed the box from her daughter. She turned from the child and marched her way into her bedroom where Quinn was sleeping.
"Wake up" Rachel demanded.
"Quinn. Wake up right now"
"Mmmm sleeping" Quinn mumbled, covering her head with her blanket. Rachel yanked the fabric from the bed and dropped it on the ground, out of Quinn's reach.
"Quinn. Wake up this instant!"
"Rachel. Sleeping. Head ache, remember?"
"Quinn. I said get up. Remember?" Quinn opened one eye and looked at her fiancee who was standing infront of her with her hands on her hips. She spotted Beth behind her and then her eyes landing on the box clutched in Rachel's hand.
"Oh. I guess she found the ring. You know how hard it is to hide stuff in this house with Beth getting into everything?" Quinn mumbled.
"Quinn, what is this?"
"A ring, duh!" Beth giggled behind Rachel.
"Yes smart ass, I know it's a ring. Is it for me?"
"No it's for my other fiancee. I noticed that she doesn't have an engagement ring so I got her one. Hope you don't mind" Quinn replied, sarcastically. Rachel let out a high pitched squeal and then jumped on top of Quinns' back and straddling the girl, tickling her until she turned over.
When Quinn was finally on her back, Rachel leaned down and peppered her face with kisses. Beth decided to join in, jumping on Rachel and blowing a raspberry on the womans cheek.
"Wait" Rachel said, pulling back from Quinn. "This isn't because of the Finn thing is it?" She wondered aloud.
"Why do you gotta ask so many questions mommy? Can't you just play and zip it!" Beth sighed. Quinn broke down in laughter, unable to breathe especially when Rachel decided that her girls needed to be attacked with tickles, rendering them both unable to breathe and the 3 of them spent of remainder of the day laying in bed together, Rachel admiring her ring, Quinn trying to sleep while Beth continuously poked her face, waiting for a reaction. She didn't get one. Quinn was out cold for the remainder of the day.
###
"Quinn?" Rachel whispered, shaking the blonde a little.
"Mmm"
"Are you awake?"
"Now I am" The blonde whined. She'd had such a peaceful day of rest once they had allowed her to fall back to sleep. Now Beth was in her bed, having fallen asleep between them before Rachel tucked her in.
"When we leave here, we're really going to be married, right?" Rachel asked, her left hand above her face as she admired her ring.
Quinn turned over to look at her lover. The doors between their room and Beths were wide open, the nightlight behind Quinn illuminated the brunettes face.
"Of course we are baby, why would you ask that?"
Rachel ignored the question. "And you're going to tell your mom about us, right? You're going to come out to your family?"
Quinn didn't have an answer right away. If asked how much she thought about her family, she'd say 'everyday'. But honestly, it was only maybe once a week, a passing thought. When her and Rachel began their relationship, it had been a nagging thought in her mind. But that voice had been silenced as she fell more in love with the other girl. Now when she looked at Rachel, looked at Beth and the family that she now had, those thoughts disappeared.
"Baby, your my family. I'll tell my mom, I'll tell the world. I love you Rachel Berry, you know that"
"I know, I just wanted to hear you say it"
"How about I should you" Quinn said, leaning in to kiss Rachel before she got up to close the doors between theirs and Beths room.
###
"Mom, can I have a hug?" Quinn turned around where she was stood in the library, book in hand and eyes squinted. She really needed an eye test. When she turned around, she found Beth standing in the doorway, her Blankie grasped tight in her hands. She bent down, opening her arms and waited for her daughter to walk over to her. When she did, Quinn lifted her daughter up into the air as they clung together, Beths legs wrapped around Quinns waist.
"I miss mommy Shelby" Beth whispered into Quinns neck. Shelby had been dead over a year by now, but this was a regular occurrence in the house. Both women still tried to openly talk about the women, fearing that Beth would get upset if she eventually 'forgot' her mother like they had heard Kurt talk about before. He'd opened up one night to the group while they were having a get together that was being held the same night as his mothers anniversary.
Even though Quinn struggled with her religion, she still sat Beth down and explained that if there is a God and a heaven, then Shelby is watching over Beth everyday. That she was watching to see if she is okay and that Shelby misses her just as much as she misses her.
In her embrace, Quinn assured Beth that Shelby will still always be part of their lives because she was her mother.
"One of them" Beth replied, pulling Quinn closer, if possible.
###
"Hey Beth, when you're around strangers and someone offers you candy, what do you say?" Quinn asked. It was raining outside and they were both stuck inside to have 'english class' but neither really wanted to be there. Beth wanted to be running outside in the rain, even if it was raining. She liked the rain and mud! Quinn wanted to be out there too!
But Rachel had put her foot down, pushing them both into the bedroom saying that Beth was getting dumber by the minute. It'd taken Beth a couple of seconds to realize that Rachel had made a rude comment about her before she let out a "heeey!" and crinkled her face, unamused.
"See" Rachel had chuckled before she left them in the room. That was over an hour ago and the brunette had yet to return, leaving Beth to work on writing her letters while Quinn read some of those parent and teaching forums that Rachel had book marked. There was a big section about child safety when it came to talking to strangers. Even though it wasn't a problem for them in here, it didn't hurt to prepare her child. So she spent the last half hour of their 'english class' talking about road safety and stranger danger.
"So what do you say when a stranger offers you candy?" Quinn repeated the question, just as the clock on the wall turned to 2:00.
"NOOOOO and then I run away to someone I know!" Beth answered, smiling. Quinn couldn't help and let out a giggle when she spotted the gap in the front of Beths mouth. She'd lost her first tooth earlier in the week and was now supporting a gap where one of her bottom teeth would have been. They'd found that it caused a whistling sound when she slept or breathe through her mouth.
"Good girl" Quinn ended the class with giving Beth a sugar free lollipop and sent her on her way while she cleaned up the exercise books and pencils they had been using.
Beth made her way our to the kitchen where her other mother was sitting on the ground, leaning up against the glass wall. Rachel had her computer on her lap and was reading the news online. She'd actually gotten rather bored herself while the other two had been in class, but she hadn't wanted to disturb them so she'd tried to busy herself. That was something about living in this house for so long. You eventually run out of things to do and die of boredom without the entertainment of others. There was only so many times you can clean kitchen appliances before they start to fall apart and she didn't want to have to bother the voice if they needed a new oven just because she'd scrubbed it one too many times.
"Hey mommy" Beth took a seat next to her mom on the floor, leaning over to rest against the other women as she sucked on her lollipop.
"Did mom say you could have that?" Rachel asked. They'd hidden all the candy from Beth but she still sometimes randomly showed up with a piece of it.
"Uh huh" Beth said, before biting into the treat. "Hey mommy, what do you say when someone offers you candy?" She inquired.
"No thank you" Rachel answered, scrolling down the page of the site she was on and beginning an article about the solider over seas. She always kept an eye on what was happening over there since Noah was currently serving in battle. No updates had been posted on facebook about him, only just that Finn was somewhere in Europe helping in a recruitment center.
"MOM! MOM! MOMMY'S GONNA GET ROBBED BY STRANGERS!" Beth yelped, getting up and sprinting from the kitchen.
"STRANGER DANGER! STRANGER DANGER!" Rachel sat on the floor in her kitchen, watching as her daughter ran circles around the living room couch yelling 'Stranger Danger'. Her fiancee was stood at their bedroom door, biting her lip with a guilty look upon her face.
###
Quinn shifted upwards, and pressed her lips against Rachel's cool thigh before she slowly kissed her way up to her hip. As she approached the apex of Rachel's legs, she dragged her nose over the thin fabric of her lover's panties, inhaling deeply as she did.
"Mommy!" Beth's voice called from her bedroom, the door just feet away from where the two women lay. Their sex life had been hard in the house as they were surrounded by cameras, but now even more so with a child in the house.
"I'll go" Quinn said, kissing Rachel's abdomen and then crawling out from under the covers in which they had buried themselves under.
Entering the childs room, Quinn flipped on the over head light but failed to see the toy soldiers on the floor before she stood on an entire platoon and yelped out in pain.
"Fuuu-dgeee" she grumbled, her foot clutched in her hand as she hopped on one leg until she lost her balance and came tumbling down on top of the Barbie dream house that had been surrounded by the toy soldiers.
"What's going on?" Rachel asked, running into the room tying her pajama pants. Quinn had only been gone no less than 10 seconds before she heard the crashing noises.
"Oh Quinn" Rachel said, trying to hold back her laughter at the sight of her fiancee laying on the ground, clutching her ribs and spitting and spluttering on the dolls hair in her mouth. Her focus was quickly distracted when she heard Beth's squeal of laughter.
Looking up at the child who was sitting on top of her bunk, blankie clutched in her arms, she saw the bright smile upon her face as her laughter rang out, but she also saw the tears which must have been the reason for her cry earlier. Stepping over the blonde who continued to roll about upon the floor, she climbed up the few steps to stand eye level with the girl.
"Nevermind her, she'll be fine" Rachel dismissed Beth's look of worry that came across her face when Quinn gave out a moan of pain. "Lay down and tell me what's wrong?" She asked, running her hand over the blonde haired girls forehead.
"Bad dream. You were old and mom was old and I was bigger and we were still here" Rachel raised her eyebrow in worry.
"And then the food stopped coming"
"Oh Beth. That's not going to happen. We'll get out of here. Someday soon. I promise" Rachel didn't believe the words she spoke, and neither did Beth who nodded anyway and laid back down.
"Sing to me?" Beth requested. "And don't leave me till I'm asleep?"
"Yeah" Rachel whispered.
'Close the door, I don't wanna let the cold in. Cause the night is getting older and I'm tired. Hold me close, And I won't let another soul in. Cause you are everything and all I need tonight' Rachel began. It was a new song she had wrote and had yet to let either girl here.
'You have my heart, Yours for the keeping. You are the first thing I believed in And now I'm yours and you are mine tonight. Take my hand' Rachel reached out to the small hand that clutched the comfort blanket
'Cause I don't want to be without you. You're my anchor and my lighthouse in the storm. Lead the way, Cause I don't want to walk without you. You're a the rose amongst a bitter world of thorns' She turned her back and looked down towards Quinn, who was finally on her knee's attempting to get up. Dramatically.
'You have my heart, Yours for the keeping. You are the first thing I believed in, And now I'm yours and you are mine tonight. My heart is yours, It's clean and healing. You've closed the wounds and stopped the bleeding. I'll give you all I am, give you my life' She ran fingers across Beth's forehead, the child's eye fluttering closed. It was a quick trick that they had learned early on when Beth often needed comforting throughout the night. A guaranteed way to ease the child into slumber.
'You have my heart, Yours for the keeping. You are the first thing I believed in, And now I'm yours and you are mine tonight.' As Beth's eyes closed and stayed closed, she turned to look at the bedroom door, where Quinn stood leaning against the frame. They smiled at one another.
She turned back to Beth, who scrunched her face up at the silence. 'My heart is yours, It's clean and healing. You've closed the wounds and stopped the bleeding. I'll give you all I am, give you my life' She finished in a whisper, leaning over and leaving a kiss upon the childs forehead before making her way down the steps. She made a show of stepping over the remains of the poor flattened platoon and barbie dream house, while keeping strong eye contact with her love that stood watching her, rolling her eyes.
###
The song I used for this chapter was 'For The Keeping' by Wayward Daughter. You can find it on youtube on LydiaEvangeline's profile or else just google 'For The Keeping' :) Also I have been informed that my Italics aren't showing up even after edits! Italic was being used for some thoughts and also whenever the voice speaks. Only a couple of months left until our ladies return to the outside world! Hope you enjoyed this chapter and please review!