I still don't own anything, sadly.
After Alex calmed down, Rachel invited her over to the house for dinner, knowing that her, along with her dads, were the only ones who could keep her from thinking about everything. When she accepted the offer, Rachel froze.
"What is it Rae?" Alex asked softly lifting her head from the shorter girl's chest.
"Quinn lives with me, and she is going to want to know what's wrong." Rachel looked down apologetically.
"So we'll tell her. I'm okay now, I promise. If she asks, we'll tell her. If she doesn't, then we won't." Alex looked sincere and Rachel nodded.
"Give me your keys. You aren't driving." Before she even finished, the keys were in her hands and Alex was standing with her left arm out to help her off the floor. Smiling she took the offered hand and stood wrapping her arm around the taller girls waist as she felt an arm draped over her shoulders.
They pulled into the Berry's driveway ten minutes later, and Alex looked nervous. "Bees are stinky." was all she said before giving the older girls hand a gentle squeeze, and getting out of the car.
"Dad, Daddy, Quinn, Anyone?" Rachel yelled as she opened the door.
A tall skinny, lanky, man walked out of the kitchen, "Welcome home sweetie." he said and then he saw Alex standing behind his daughter. He smiled widely before yelling "Liam, your favorite person has graced us with her presence!" They all laughed when they heard him yell "ALEX!" and what sounded like a stampede as he ran down the stairs. "It's good to see you again sweetie, but you might want to hide, he's going to crush you." he smiled and pulled her into a hug.
"It's good to see you too, James." Alex smiled.
She was then pulled into a bear hug, and Rachel was certain she heard Alex's back crack.
Twenty minutes later Quinn and Santana walked in the house and joined in the conversation. When Rachel's fathers and Alex, went into the kitchen to cook, Rachel looked at Quinn involved in a deep conversation with Santana and pulled out her phone sending the girl a quick text.
Quinn jumped when her phone vibrated against her, checking to see who was texting her. When she saw Rachel's name she was quite confused but read it anyway. 'Her dad was in Iraq, he was supposed to come home next weekend. He died on Saturday.'
Quinn gasped and covered her mouth in shock, she quickly replied 'Omgosh! Is she okay? -Q' followed by a second text 'Nrm, stupid question' -Q.
Rachel didn't respond to either message; she didn't want to think about any of it. What was she supposed to do? How was she supposed to fix this? She was brought out of her thoughts by another text from the blonde 'Wait, she's related to Shue? -Q' She didn't reply to that text either, she felt the blondes eyes on her, so she simply nodded.
"Hey ladies, set the table for us please? Oh and Santana, I was told to tell you that you are staying for dinner, no questions, no comments, no debates." Alex smiled and went back into the kitchen to finish helping with dinner.
The three girls laughed and got up to set the table. Dinner passed without much drama, (read in silence) and the four girls were sitting on Rachel's bed when Alex spoke up.
"I want to see those tattoos Rae." Quinn and Santana quickly agreed. Rachel sighed and sat up. She lifted the old t-shirt that she had changed into up over her head. She paused when she heard Quinn's breath catch in her throat, smirking she turned to Quinn.
"See something you like, Fabray?" She was teasing her, and they both knew it, but that didn't stop the blonde from turning bright red. Santana answered the question, not noticing the interaction between them
"Hell yeah Berry! Why are you hiding that" she gestured towards her "from everyone?"
"She hasn't hidden it from everyone Santana, just from horny teenagers, such as yourself, and Quinn here." Alex smiled, knowing that Rachel has had a crush on Quinn for the past two years.
"Quinn, you're drooling." Santana stated rather bluntly. Quinn just blinked and looked Rachel in the eyes.
"I only count four" she stated simply. Looking over the tan skin once more, appreciating the white dove right above her left breast and the three gold stars on her left hip.
"Actually Quinn, you count two." Alex informed her. "Which by the way, why a dove?"
"It was my grandma's favorite bird." she smiled sadly. She turned around so the girls could see the tattoo the back of her shoulder, 'A.M.C. 61208' in green, outlined in black in a classy script. Alex smiled went she saw that she had gotten it filled in, the last time she saw it, it was just the outline.
"You got two more to show us Berry." Santana stated. Rachel just nodded putting her shirt back on, and taking off her left sock, showing off the rose that was wrapped around her ankle. Only Alex noticed the words on the stem of the flower since she was sitting near her feet.
"Bitch say who's ya momma?" Alex blurted out before she could think about it. Quinn and Santana were looking at her like she had two heads and Rachel just replied with a smile "Who's ya momma." Alex screeched and clapped like a three year old being told she could have ice cream. "How about we toast some jelly?" The shorter brunette nodded and Alex just got more and more excited, as Quinn and Santana got more and more confused.
"Would one of you please tell us what the hell just happened?" Santana asked seriously.
"Sorry San, we sometimes forget we can't talk in code all the time." Rachel apologized without explaining anything.
"Yeah we used to talk in Spanish, but we kept getting yelled at to 'speak English' so we came up with a code only we would understand." Alex elaborated, before turning back to Rachel,
"You gots some 'splaing to do later." The shorter brunette nodded and pulled her other sock to show the girls the rainbow music note on her right ankle.
"I like that best Rae, it's very you." Alex said seriously with a smile.
Rachel smiled, "Thank you."
Santana looked confused, mainly because of the look on the older girls face, but also because of how quite her best friend is being.
"Q? You alright?" she nods, and the Latina is not convinced. "Okay then. Um, do you mind helping me with that Geometry homework Wertz gave us?"
"Sure, but uh, Rach, can I talk to you for a sec?" Quinn answered hesitantly.
Hearing the request Alex walked to the door knowing the blonde wanted to talk in private.
"Hey Santana, why don't we leave them alone for a second? Oh and Rae, can I use your iPod?" Rachel nodded and pulled it out of her pocket handing it to her best friend.
Once Santana and Alex got into Quinn's room, the Latina turned to Alex, "Berry's iPod? You obsessed with show tunes too?"
Alex looked offended "Actually, she has impeccable taste in music." she handed the other headphone to the girl and hit play. Santana was pleasantly surprised when 3oh!3 blasted from the small ear bud. When the song ended Alex hit the random button on the touch screen, followed closely by the next button, and the Latina looked at Alex confused "Who is this?"
"Me. It's Romeo and Juliet by Edwin McCain." Santana nodded. The girl sounded really good.
"So, what song are you going to perform for the audition?"
"Uh, I was thinking about either doing a song I wrote, problem is, I can't make up my mind as to which one. And before you ask, no there isn't a recording we can listen to, but thanks for trying to help."
Santana looked shocked "How did you know what I was thinking?"
"It's all in the eyes. Yours are very expressive." Alex shrugged.
Quinn opened the bedroom door and walked over towards the bed "Rach said to tell you, 'Cathouse jukebox rat race.' what the hell does that even mean?" Alex laughed at Quinn's obvious discomfort
"She wants to talk, and for me to bring the iPod back, quickly. If she wanted to talk about whatever just happened she would have added 'silently' to the list, stop worrying, you're going to give yourself grey hair." she smiled at the blonde and left the room.
As she entered the brunette's room, she closed the door and sat next to her best friend, "So you going to explain the flower?" knowing Rae wasn't ready to talk about what just happened between her and the blonde.
"It was with a girl from Carmel High, while I was dating her brother." Alex looked shell shocked,
"Siblings nice, how was she?"
"Okay, she's 20, hot, blonde, what can I say, you know my type." Rae laughed.
"You going to tell me what that was about?" Alex asked seriously.
"She wanted to know if she could do anything to help us, well you really." she answered laying her head in the taller girls lap.
"So you told her?" Alex asked softly.
"Yeah, she was worried." Rachel smiled. Alex nodded.
"Will you stay here tonight?" Alex nodded and started playing with her hair, laying back, resting against the head board.
"I think I'm going to audition with Elizabeth." Alex finally broke the comfortable silence, Rachel gasped but didn't get to protest "I want to, and I was wondering if you'd mind playing it for me?" Rachel would have sworn, had she not known the taller girl for so long, that she was nervous, but she knew, Alex was scared. All the younger girl could do was nod.
-T