Author's Note: This chapter took me a little longer because I went home-home and was pretty busy and then I got tensing issues from reading "The Hunger Games" but now it's here. I can't give you a date yet when the next chapter will be up but I'm trying for some time next week. Thank you for your patience and support, I love all of you!

Chapter Nine

Quinn Fabray was sorting through a folder of precedents for one of her cases – a custody battle, one of the nasty kind which were somewhat of her specialty. She told herself to find that once similar case that would help her with the current one and then she could head home. She'd be out a little before five but she'd done her paper work earlier so nothing was really left to do. She smiled triumphantly when she found the right folder quicker than anticipated and put it on her desk to work through the day after. Her work was done for then.

As she grabbed her brown suit jacket her eyes fell on the photo of Beth that sat on her desk. It was almost a year old, her daughter's chubby cheeks reminding her it was time to snap a new, a more accurate picture. Beth was growing so fast. Every day when Quinn got home from work she felt a little jab, seeing her baby play with Blaine like he was all the family she needed while Quinn missed most of her daughter's life sitting through endless meetings, working in the office or pleading cases in court.

She sighed and pitied herself for a couple of moments before she swallowed it down and reminded herself that she would go home and see her baby soon. She was quick on her way out, wishing Grace, the secretary, a nice evening and before she knew it, she was out of the building and on the subway, headed for the Village.

Finally at home she arrived to Blaine and Beth playing tea time on her little set of chairs around a half high table, Blaine sitting hunched opposite of her daughter pretending to drink hot tea from a miniature cup.

Beth immediately dispensed the game and came running to her on her short legs, her momentum still nearly knocking Quinn off. She laughed at the impact and lifted the child up to kiss her hello. Blaine gave them a little space before hugging her briefly and then, like he had the days before, signed off and retreated to his room. To skype.

Quinn was a little annoyed. Not because she wasn't happy that Blaine had met someone, lord knows it had been about time for him to find a girl to rip him out of his excessive dating routine but she was aware of the mess attached to his new found love. Rachel was in London and he was in New York and a thousand video calls couldn't change that reality but Blaine held on, stoically and stubbornly.

The reason why she was annoyed was that it still felt like Blaine was gone, sure, he cared for Beth the way he always did but as soon as Quinn was home he disappeared to live in his dream world with Rachel like she was some shiny new toy and Quinn was left to missing her friend.

She'd been looking forward to having an adult in the house again but for the last five weeks she could be lucky to even see him after his initial hello. The first few nights he'd met her after talking to Rachel to tell her about it but soon, he stayed up talking longer than Quinn was willing to wait around in the living room and so she hardly ever saw him anymore.

She wondered if Rachel never went to bed at all at the other side of the ocean and if her friends were as fed up with it as Quinn was. Mike as well, he'd started calling the apartment rather than Blaine's cell because he kept dodging his calls, their weekly basketball date apparently of lesser importance to Blaine. Frankly, Quinn was tired of dealing with all the fall-out, making excuses and trying to make Blaine not seem like a huge dick who ignored his friends. When really, this was all he was doing.

It had been going on for five weeks total now – five weeks in which Blaine was either on the computer or sulking in his heartache. If he turned up at all, the only things he still talked about were how he missed Rachel, what a fucked up situation they were in and occasionally stuff about Beth. That was the only thing that hadn't changed, his care for the little one.

He also hadn't been to the newspaper in the mean time, working from home and dodging his bosses calls to please come in the way he avoided Mike. Quinn took most of the after hour ones, making up apologies because she could hardly admit that Blaine was most of the time reluctant to even get out of bed when he wasn't at the computer.

Six weeks in, when she had her first day off in ages, she stomped into his room and made him get out by force. She'd just gotten off the phone another time with Jack Miller, Blaine's boss at the Times.

He was protesting but she was insistent, ripping his curtains open, letting the midday sun in, should it burn his pasty skin, what did she care?

"You gotta get down to the office", she commanded urgently, "This is the seventeenth time Miller has called for you and I'm tired of making up excuses"

"I don't feel like it", he whined and turned over in bed.

Quinn let out a fuming breath and ripped the blanket off of Blaine's body. He was only wearing briefs and so the rush of air hit him harshly. As it should.

"I don't give a fudge, Blaine", she said, "It's my day off, I'm staying here with Beth so you can might as well go downtown and get your butt back on the horse. Also I'm cooking tonight, Santana and Brittany are coming over and I expect you to be there. No cell phones, no girl waiting on your computer screen, do you understand me?"

Blaine muttered something incoherent and she felt very much like she had a second child.

"Come on", she repeated, "You've been sulking long enough"

"It's never gonna be enough", he murmured and Quinn rolled her eyes at his dramatics – but at least he was getting up.

She lingered for a while, to make sure he really was getting ready, her eyes falling on the total mess that had become of his room.

"Do you mind?", he asked with a spiteful edge as she was blocking his way to his closet and she retreated.

"Look, I'm sorry Blaine", she tried at the door, "I know it's hard for you. But she's not here and your life still goes on, you can't hide away and spend all your time on a computer. People need you outside, we need you outside"

Blaine didn't talk much with Quinn over breakfast, retaliating for her bossiness. His attention was focused on Beth. Of course Beth hadn't forced him out of his hermit crab lifestyle so she hadn't fallen from grace.

But Quinn was fine with it, he'd be mad at her for a day or two and then he'd come around and realize she was right, as she always was. Of course loving someone on a different continent sucked but he had to see that things with Rachel weren't going anywhere for precisely that reason.

He bid her a curt goodbye before taking off into the city and Quinn distracted herself from his hostility by playing dress up with Beth until her babysitters came over.

Beth was always so excited about the door buzzer and this instance was no different, she dropped her big plushy red hat to her feet and darted out of her room.

Bopping, nearly tripping over her little feet, she got her little kids chair and propped it against the wall, clumsily climbing up to hear the buzzing sound through the intercom, letting her aunts in.

Quinn opened the door as she caught up with her daughter so that she could greet their guests by the elevator and soon, she heard a big hello in the hall, followed by friendly inquires about Kindergarten life and echoing footsteps.

Quinn's college friends Santana Lopez and Brittany Pierce had been an item since graduation year and had gotten engaged the weekend after New York made same sex marriage legal. They loved and adored Beth, like everyone did, and wanted to take her to the park for a couple of hours so that Quinn could clean up the apartment a bit since Blaine had been in no mood to do so the previous weeks.

"Hey Fabray", Santana greeted her, enveloping her in a tight quick hug, Brittany kissed her on the cheek as her hands were full with Beth.

"Where's Blaine?", Santana asked, pushing her long dark hair over her shoulder.

"I sent him to work, he was getting too miserable here"

"The British girl?"

"Of course"

"Still?"

"He's stubborn"

"If he really loves her, the distance doesn't matter", Brittany said with the conviction of a true romantic. She was heartbreakingly naïve sometimes and while Quinn knew this was why Santana loved her so much, her childlike beliefs in true love and destiny, Brittany was hardly the one to give the right kind of perspective on Blaine's situation.

Santana padded her girlfriends arm patiently, before turning back to Quinn, "He's a big boy, he'll see what good it does him, pining over someone three time zones over. Anyway, we'll be back in two hours or so"

"Sure", Quinn smiled and handed her friend Beth's little backpack, "You're still staying for dinner later, right?"

Santana nodded and then they were already gone, Beth waving happily at her Mom before disappearing around the corner.

Quinn leaned against the door for a while and looked over the living room, it was decked with Beth's toys and the kitchen was packed with plates and pans Blaine had not managed to put into the dish washer, depressed as he was. She scoffed, he really was like a love-sick teenager but she wouldn't let this excuse count for much longer. He couldn't go on like this, he was ruining himself beating a dead horse. Or better a horse that had never been alive in the first place.

She got through cleaning the living room area fairly quickly, even quicker through Beth's room, however the real piece of work was Blaine's trashed cave for a room.

First, she cranked the windows open and started stuffing his scattered clothes into a laundry bag. Really, she shouldn't have been the one to clean up his stuff but he was never gonna do it, bathing in self-pity like that.

Once again her eyes fell on the computer sitting on his desk and she walked over, shaking her head at it. This ghastly machine was stealing one of her best friends from right under her nose and there was nothing she could do about it other than hope Blaine would get to his senses before it was too late.

Accompanied by a frustrated hiss, she jammed the keys, a silly attempt of getting back at the thing but instead of apologizing or vaporizing, it stirred to life and showed her the last website Blaine had been scrolling through.

"Oh no, you don't", she gasped in shock at what she saw.

Jewelery. And not just any kind. The whole site held nothing but images with horrendous price-tags for one doomed item only; engagement rings.

"What the hell?", Sam Berry muttered incredulously, sitting with his mac book at his kitchen table, and went to read the latest message on his facebook once again, this time he tried not to get distracted by the tiny profile picture that, despite its size, showed how incredibly beautiful its owner was.

At first he'd been convinced the message was some sort of spam, women like that seldom found their way randomly to his profile, even with him being somewhat famous. Soon though, it was sure that the fact Quinn Fabray had sent him a very urgent message was no accident.

Quinn Fabray – June 2nd

Hi Sam, my name is Quinn. You don't know me but I'm Blaine's room mate. I don't know if Rachel has told you about him but he tells me you two are living together so I figured she might have.

The reason I'm writing is that I've just found something on Blaine's computer. It was an accident, I wasn't snooping.

However I feel like I can't ignore what I saw and I'm inclined to think you'll agree.

He was looking at engagement rings. And I figure it makes sense if he and Rachel are so in love as he says.

I'm guessing he might want her to move over here or move to London himself to be with her and to do that swiftly they would have to get married. It probably seems as rash and idiotic to you as it does to me but Blaine is capable of going through with it!

And I just think it's a horrible idea – they don't know each other halfway enough to make this decision. And you're her big brother, so you must think the same, right?

I just hope you can find a way to knock some sense into her while I try the same with Blaine.

Please get back to me if you have different thoughts on this or an idea how to sort it out?

All the best, Quinn

Sam rubbed the bridge of his nose in between his index and middle finger, trying to concentrate.

How could Rachel even consider getting married at her age and to someone she barely knew?

More importantly, how could she consider it for a second time? She'd been through this, she knew how stupid it was. Just because she wasn't seventeen anymore didn't mean she was old enough now.

And then to marry a total stranger? She couldn't possibly believe she knew him well enough for that kind of commitment. A drunken one night stand and five weeks of marathon skyping didn't mean you knew someone well enough to get married and live in a strange country with them.

Because she would go to new York, so much was sure, it was her favorite city. Sam had a terrible thought, that maybe Rachel would say yes just for that, just because Blaine was from her dream city and while that seemed a little more like something his stupid little sister would do, it didn't make anything better. Quite the opposite.

But maybe he wasn't being fair at all, he thought, pausing. Quinn had only said Blaine had been looking at rings, not that he'd proposed and not that Rachel had agreed to get married. And really Sam couldn't believe that she would. Her thirst for weddings must've been satisfied for ages after what had happened with Hudson, that sorry excuse of a man.

Still, Rachel had been out of it the last couple of weeks. She'd graduated from college with a good score and while all of her friends were partying and their parents were so proud, asking to take her out for dinner multiple times, Rachel was just sulking whenever she left the room.

She stayed up into the wee hours of the morning to skype with Blaine and then slept the whole day.

When she woke up she was either miserable or hyper, waiting for Blaine to come on again. It was almost sad how her life had started to revolve around her lap top.

Outside summer was beginning to creep over London but his sister was inside, staying pasty. She hardly left the house at all anymore and had even stopped singing around the flat. Sure, the first week it was a nice break because, god, could she be annoying with her Broadway tunes but now he missed her stupid songs and it just wasn't right.

Plus Rachel had planned to start prepping for her acting school auditions but she never even mentioned any of that anymore. If he only had a way to cure her from that stupid Blaine idea before she would throw her entire future away in favor of a blind romantic longing for a love story.

He stopped in his tracks, sucking in a breath. Because he had.

Of course, he had a way to do just that. If Rachel was so keen on spending her life with someone she barely knew she could as well try it. As a dry run, a dress rehearsal. With him around at least for a bit.

Like a laboratory trial under close monitoring. Hell yes, Sam Berry was a genius.

He turned back to his laptop and composed a quick reply to Quinn, telling her he'll handle it but asking her for her phone number and a time when he should call her. Because for the growing plan to work out, he needed her go.

When he had finished making the necessary calls (all to his satisfaction) he went back to check if Quinn had already answered. He hadn't expected her to but there it was, her number and a plea to call her any time. He was glad this woman obviously cared about the matter as much as he did.

His phone was still warm from talking earlier when he called the third New Yorker cell phone in a day.

"Yes?", said a smokey and quite sexy female voice at the other line after four rings and Sam was a little shocked.

That voice, along with the face from her facebook page (that he just briefly looked at, he was not stalking her at all) made quite the impression on him. And he didn't want to be mean because he loved his little sister but that Blaine dude was living with her, with Quinn, that bombshell of a woman and he had fallen for Rachel instead? Weird world.

"I can hear you breathe, who is this?", Quinn huffed, impatiently and also possibly a little weirded out.

"Oh, um, sorry", Sam hurried, stumbling over his words, "This is Sam, Rachel's brother"

"Oh, hi", she said, relieved and friendlier than before, "Did you think of something?"

"Yes", he began, "But it involves a little action on our parts"

"Go on", Quinn encouraged and then Sam went on to lay out his plan for her.

He would have thought she would take longer to persuade but he had her on board after just ten minutes.

If he was honest, he couldn't quite believe it when they hung up; the things he had started, what he had organized in just a day. It was kind of an elaborate endeavor but it was the only way he could think of to keep Rachel from doing something terribly stupid – again.

He would have to figure out a few other things before he could be absolutely sure everything would work but he still had three weeks to do that so there was no rush.

The only thing he had to get out of the way first was telling Rachel. But he thought he had a pretty good shot that she would be thankful. It all depended on how set she was on getting married – or if she even knew about Blaine's plan.

He actually didn't have to pry her away from the computer this time, barging into her room with excitement.

When he found her reading on her bed, asking why she looked so down, she told him Blaine had texted that he wasn't gonna be on until later and Sam could see she didn't like that much. She had cried a little but he hoped it was from a sad scene in the book. He hated the thought that his sister was working herself up so much over a boy at the other side of the world.

"Do you have a second?", he asked her, lingering in the doorway, hoping mostly to cheer her up quickly with his surprise of sorts.

"Of course, come here", she smiled a little and put her book away, padding the right side of her bed.

"So you're a Publishing BA now, huh?", Sam began, sitting down next to her, thinking of a good strategy to go on. He was gonna make this about her job, her career, no need to mention Quinn or Blaine's engagement plan. If she didn't know already he didn't want to give her any ideas.

"I guess so", she agreed with little enthusiasm, buying into it completely.

"Well, do you know what newly graduated Publishers do?"

"Enlighten me", again, she seemed not very curious at all.

"They try and get work experience and I think you should do that too", Sam explained patiently.

"But I don't even want to be a publisher, Sam", she protested meekly.

"Listen, you know how my American publisher wanted me to get over there for a promo tour for ages?", he went on, ignoring her.

"Ah-huh?", if it was possible she was even less interested than before, which seemed odd since he'd imagined her to jump when he only uttered the word 'American'.

"I told them I would be there in three weeks, under the condition that they would give my little sister a spot as an intern"

Rachel sat up straighter and a mix of emotions raced across her features as she processed what he was saying.

He thought one half of her was upset that he had just arranged something big like that without asking her first and the other half was wondering where this internship would take place. The last musing proved to be the one stirring the most urgent question.

"Where?", she almost whispered, now on her knees and tense.

"New York City", Sam grinned and relished the one second that Rachel's face spasmed in joy, like it always did when she got a gift she'd wanted so so badly.

Then, with little time to brace himself, she squealed and darted onto him, arms open, with such force that nearly knocked them both off the bed.

"I'll get to see Blaine", she muttered by his ear.

"Exactly", Sam smiled as he set her back and she looked at him wide eyed as he went on to explain, deciding that now it was safe to bring up Quinn, even if his sister flinched at the name, "I talked to Quinn, Blaine's room mate, you know? This was actually sort of her idea. She says Blaine is miserable without you and you're miserable without him so I thought, why not get you working and the two of you together and kill two birds with one stone? She also says it's alright if you stay with them, for the six months of your internship"

That made Rachel's smile twitch slightly, irritation mixing in with elation.

"So I would be...living with Blaine?", she asked and Sam was relieved to see at least a little bit of concern there – a good sign that she probably had no idea about the wedding plans but not enough to reassure him she wouldn't say yes anyway.

"I mean I will be there in an other apartment too, so if anything blows over you'd have somewhere to go", he reassured her calmly.

"You're coming too?", she asked as he got up from the bed to go back to organizing, mostly their visas and tickets still needed sorting out and he figured Rachel would need some time alone to digest the new direction of her immediate plans.

"Of course", he nodded, nearly out of her door, "I'm gonna do the promo tour and try to find someone willing to publish my Sci-Fi saga. Also, I have to make sure my baby sister doesn't do anything stupid, like trying to get married. Wouldn't be the first time"

The pillow she threw against the closing door came with lesser force than he had imagined.

Prove enough that she was very satisfied with him over all and even though he felt like he was half on a mission to get her to stop fawning over someone who clearly made her happy, he was sort of proud of himself.

He was being a good brother, clearly. He was just looking out for her. And who knew, maybe she and that Blaine kid could make it work. He just preferred them to figure that out with different last names.

On the other side of the world, Quinn couldn't quite believe that Sam had been able to deliver a pretty good solution to the problem at hand in the matter of hours. That guy was really determined and smart as well. She'd planned to merely tell Blaine he was an idiot but something Sam said about Rachel was also quite true about Blaine, now that she gave it more thought.

"You know, Rachel – bless her soul", he'd said, "– when she has her mind set on something she's not backing down, like even an inch and the more people try to tell her she can't do it, the more she will want to, so I think we should let them make their own mistakes, or figure it out on their own – just without wedding bands"

Blaine was determined as well, that was what made him a great political journalist, when he was onto something he didn't let it go and Quinn realized now that approaching him with no alternative would have been a stupid idea.

So, when he got home from work, Quinn bent over her pans, knowing she had something to offer, something to keep him from visiting the engagement ring site for a while and enough for him to stop being mad at her.

"Hey Quinn", he said, putting his bag on the couch, lingering around instead of heading straight to his room as she would've expected, "Listen, I just wanted to apologize, I know I've been a pain the past few weeks"

"It's fine", Quinn smiled sincerely, a little surprised that he was already coming around, sort of, "I know it's not easy"

"It's just that I've thought about it and I might have found a way to...make it better", he tried and started chewing on his bottom lip, looking very much like a little boy who'd trashed a valuable vase, "But it's a pretty big step"

Quinn held her breath, even though she knew what was coming. She had seen the rings, she just hadn't known that the idea had formed to such prosperity in his brain that he was already going to tell her about it. He must feel a little guilty, knowing it was a crazy idea and that was also why he was apologizing, to calm her down before dropping that bomb on her.

She wondered how she would've reacted if she didn't already have a passageway out prepared for him – if this was the first she would hear about him wanting to get married.

She would probably not believe it, and that's how she acted, deciding not to tell him that she already knew.

"Blaine, are you saying what I think you are saying?", she asked, playing up shock and surprise, "You can't be saying that you're thinking about asking her to marry you?"

"Actually, well, actually I do...I do want to ask her", Blaine said and suddenly seemed defensive, "I mean, what else am I supposed to do, Quinn? I can't stand being without her, I love her"

"You don't even know her, Blaine", Quinn said, because that's what she would say if she would hear of this for the first time – and also because it was true and she still kinda wanted to say it.

"But I do", Blaine insisted stubbornly, "I do know her, I talked to her almost every day for the last month and you cover a lot of ground when you can't touch each other"

"But you don't have to marry her to get to touch her", Quinn said, wanting to calm him down before he got so aggravated with her that he would book a chapel just out of spite.

"And how is that going to work? I can't beam myself down there as I please", he was not getting it.

"No, Blaine, listen to me, you don't have to marry her to get her here because she's coming here anyway", she said, slowly to make him understand.

"What?", he said after almost a minute of letting it sink in, probably failing to make sense of the implications.

"Sam just gave me a call", Quinn said as if the call had come totally out of the blue and absolutely unprompted.

"Who's...wait, Rachel's Sam, as in Rachel's brother Sam?", Blaine asked dumbfounded.

"Yeah, I talked to him on facebook a couple of times and he just told me that Rachel landed an internship with his American publisher, here in New York", Quinn said in a chit-chatty voice while still scanning him for his reaction, "She'll be here in three weeks"

Blaine took a second to stomach that before his face lit up like the fourth of July and he couldn't say anything through his obnoxious grin for a while, making Quinn feel almost bad about doubting this great big love he claimed to have for Rachel. Quinn had never seen him this happy ever.

"I told him it was fine if she stayed with us, we have room for one more, right?", Quinn said when Blaine didn't seem mighty of words yet and that new information sent him into a new spin of speechlessness.

"Like...in my...room?", he finally asked, holding on to the kitchen counter as if to help support his weight, "In my bed, with me?"

"Well, she's certainly not staying with me and Beth's bed is not big enough for two"

The first thing Blaine did when Santana and Brittany returned with Beth from their playtime in the park, occupying Quinn, was to rush to his computer. He couldn't control his features anymore when he found Rachel online and called her immediately.

She greeted him with a wide grin of her own, the first really happy one he'd seen on her for weeks.

"Quinn just told me", he blurted out.

"Sam just told me, he took care of it all", Rachel said and laughed, "My visa date at the embassy is in two weeks and Sam already bought the plane tickets"

Then they were silent, just starring at each other for a while, beaming, so happy, both of them.

The concept was almost unfathomable, in three weeks she would be with him. Totally out of the blue, just when he'd resolved to try his luck to ask her.

He wouldn't need to anymore and he was admittedly glad, not because he didn't want to marry her, he knew if he was ever gonna marry a girl it would be her but because he had a feeling Rachel wouldn't have said yes, maybe. With her past and all. He decided not to tell her about the tiny silver ring he'd ordered for her, the one that would arrive at his place in a couple of days. No. She would come anyway – no need to scare her. He'd hold on to the ring though, you never knew.

"I can't believe this is happening", Rachel laughed, "Three weeks, Blaine! I'll be with you in less than a month"

"I can't wait", he said and just allowed himself to fall deep into the joy of it all.

Three weeks and he would be with the most wonderful woman in the world again, and have her and hold her and never let her go, if he could.

As always, the next chapter will be up any time after ten reviews :)