READ THIS!... Please?

Okay, I don't know how to explain how sorry I am, but on the flip side of that, I warned everybody last chapter about the delay. With the new promotion at work, my birthday was this past weekend, stress over some bills... and I got a new bombshell dropped on me on Friday... My grandfather has oral cancer. We don't know how bad it is yet, or if it's spread to any other parts of his body like his throat or up into his brain, but still... My grandmother's pissed because he's still smoking. But my grandfather's almost 79 years old, he served in Korea... let the man smoke if he wants to smoke damn it.

Anyway... I don't know when the next chapter will be up for you all to read.

And let me just warn you too, this isn't beta'd, I literally finished the chapter like 5 minutes ago. I wanted to get this up for everybody to read. Next chapter will be posted whenever it's finished, I promise. I'm predicting this story to be approximately 40 chapters. I have it planned out right now through chapter 33 I believe. There will start to be some more distance between the dated scenes in each chapter, or between chapters I should say, because I really don't think you want to read a scene from every day Quinn's pregnant. That would be boring, and it would have a lot of the same things in it.

One last thing. People haven't been voting for the gender of the child. Is it safe for me to go ahead and announce it'll be a girl? Since the last time I counted, girl was winning by a landslide.

Enjoy the chapter!

Forgot to post in the last chapter, Thank you to olacindy for the idea for Beth being introduced into the story.

One more thing, then I'll be done rambling. Apparently fanfiction decided to change a lot of my settings on me, so if anybody had been trying to PM me for whatever reason and couldn't... that's why. I just noticed that the messaging was disabled. So if you tried to send me a message, now you can send it lol

The First 24
Chapter 22

March 1 – 1:25AM

"Ignore it." She whimpered. The pressure in her lower abdomen was too much for her to handle. Her body felt as if it was going to explode at just the simplest of touches. A touch she'd been craving for weeks. Nothing would get in her way of getting what she so desired.

"But what's that noise?" Rachel giggled as she kissed her way back up Quinn's stomach, then chest.

"Baby, don't stop." The blonde whimpered again. She was trying to ignore the grumbling in the pit of her stomach. "I need you."

Rachel placed her hand on Quinn's stomach as it started expanding. "You need to feed our baby Quinn. Wake up."

The blonde shook her head, she refused to give in to what her body craved, she just knew what she craved, and it currently wasn't food. It was Rachel's tongue inside of her. "I don't want to."

The brunette continued to caress the swollen skin on Quinn's lower abdomen. "If you don't feed that child I'm not going to finish."

Quinn pouted before trying to reach down to rub herself. Sadly, her baby bump got in the way and she wasn't able to reach much past the top of her own thigh. "Please."

"As much as I love hearing you beg, it's not going to work."

Quinn let out a whimper as she rolled from her side onto her back. It was such a nice dream too. She tried to force herself back to sleep but the constant growling and rumbling in her stomach was too much. "Rach…" She never opened her eyes as she reached over to shake her wife gently. "Baby?" She called out again after receiving no answer.

"Hmm?" The brunette shifted to face her wife before her eyes slowly fluttered open. "What's wrong honey?" Her voice was deeper than usual – thick with sleep that she was now being deprived of.

Quinn bit her lip, she hated asking for help. She hated asking for anything, but she knew she should. She wanted to include Rachel in every step of this pregnancy. "I'm hungry…" She spoke sheepishly.

Rachel couldn't stop herself from laughing softly as she started to sit up. "That's all?" Quinn nodded before biting her lower lip again. "Well, what do you want?"

Now Quinn was embarrassed, she knew what she had a taste for, but was too afraid that Rachel would laugh at her for it. "Pickles…" it was so cliché. A pregnant woman asking for pickles.

"Anything else?" Rachel was already sliding on her robe.

"Chocolate milk maybe?" Quinn's timid voice only drew more laughter from the brunette. "Glad you find this so damn funny."

"I'm not laughing at you honey. I swear."

Quinn pouted. "This isn't easy Rach."

The brunette cupped Quinn's cheek before placing a tender kiss to her lips. "I know it's not easy sweetheart. But, I'm here for you every step of the way."

After a moment of silence, Quinn allowed herself a small smile. "Can I have some peanut butter too?"

"So… pickles, chocolate milk and… peanut butter?" Rachel's eyebrows shot up at the mere thought of the combination. A smile crept to her face when Quinn's eyes lit up with excitement. "Okay, but you're not kissing me after eating all of that."

"But it'll be so good." Quinn could feel her mouth begin to water.

"Whatever you say. I'll be back in a few minutes." Rachel stole another kiss before she walked out of their bedroom.

The blonde smiled to herself as she sank back into her pillows. Oh how she wished she had someone to deal with her cravings when she was pregnant before. She began to think back to all the times she woke up in Mercedes' basement at three or four in the morning. The first time she simply tried to ignore the grumbling in her stomach. It could easily wait until breakfast. Or so she thought. The longer she remembered laying in bed, the louder she remembered the noises getting. Until finally, she had made her way to the kitchen.

Quinn gently covered her mouth to gasp as it dawned on her. It was the same. That first morning at Mercedes' house when she gave into her cravings, she had four pickles dipped in peanut butter, with a tall glass of chocolate milk. The craving was identical. Everything about this pregnancy seemed to be the exact same as with Beth. She remembered hearing women talk about pregnancies while she was going to her various appointments. It seemed to be a steady tread of coincidences that the gender of the baby determined the symptoms. Deep down, Quinn knew there wasn't much proof to that, but it gave her a little bit of hope that she might just be having a girl.

A smile dared to break out on her face as her fingers began caressing the skin of her lower abdomen. Her and Rachel would finally have the child they'd desired for years.

Quinn paused for a minute to let her thoughts wander. What if she'd never gotten pregnant in high school? Would her and Rachel had ever started talking? If she'd had the courage to talk to Rachel sooner, would she have still slept with Puck to try to make herself straight? The biggest question of all lingered in the back of her mind though. Would Beth be happy if Quinn never gave her away? In her letter, Beth explained how she was happy. She'd even said 'thanks.' Rachel insisted it was a thanks for a chance at life. But Quinn still had this doubt in her mind about the true meaning of Beth's words. The only way she'd find out though, would be to talk to her. But that thought scared her. She had no idea what she'd say to her. She had no idea what Beth might say to her either. Based on the letter though, it seemed as if she wanted to establish some kind of relationship with Quinn. With her birth mother. It was decided at that point… Quinn was going to call Beth.

March 3 – 8:00AM

"Well isn't this a surprise?" Emily smiled softly when she popped her head through the doorway. "Come on back Rachel." She clutched a folder to her chest as the older brunette made her way past her and down the hallway. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

Rachel though, didn't speak until she was safely in Emily's closed office. "I don't know what to do!" Rachel's exasperated voice filled the room. "Everything I try, fails."

"What do you mean?"

"Everything with Quinn. It's like one step forward and two steps back with her."

Emily began making notes. "What exactly do you mean?"

The older brunette let out a heavy sigh. "She's been great lately. Her morning sickness is nearly gone. She's started her new job and she's surrounded by people who don't judge her. They accepted her into their little 'family' almost immediately. I suppose all of them are aware of what happened to her. But I know she was afraid. Since the incident had become national news and everything." Rachel took a moment to recapture her own thoughts before speaking again. "But when it's just her and I… I don't know what to do."

"When you say 'just her and I, do you mean intimately?"

"Quinn's still having problems every time I touch her. She hardly ever lets me see her naked. I feel like we're right back at the beginning of our relationship. All I'm seeing is the same self-conscious Quinn from 22 years ago. The same girl who didn't have an ounce of fat on her but hated her body. Every time I tell her about how beautiful she is, she just smiles softly and says 'if you say so.' I'm being patient with her, I know everything will take time, but lately it's felt like we've been going backwards."

"You know I can't discuss much about my sessions with your wife. That's her responsibility to share what she wants to." Rachel nodded. It was something she already knew. "But I can tell you that Quinn is terrified. She told me that she let you read her letter. So you already know what I'm about to say. Quinn is a broken woman. She fears she'll never get better and that you'll leave her because of that. You say you're being patient with her, but what would she think if she knew you were here with me right now?" The expression on Rachel's face spoke volumes to Emily. "She would probably think that she's not enough for you. She would feel weak. Quinn would think that you seeking help is a sign that you're starting to give up on her. Or a sign that you want to push her into something that she's not ready for yet."

Rachel remained quiet for several minutes after that while she thought. She thought about what Emily said. It had never occurred to her that if Quinn knew of her seeking help, she'd get upset. That was the last thing she wanted. She didn't want her actions to push Quinn further away. In reality, all she wanted was to bring her closer. "What do you suggest I do?"

Emily laughed softly. It was common for her patients to ask for some type of advice. "I can't tell you what you can and cannot do Rachel. Each situation is different. Quinn's got a lot on her shoulders right now so that undoubtedly is just adding to her emotional stress. She's handling things her own way right now."

Rachel simply nodded. Everything Emily was saying was true. It all made sense to her. But deep down, Rachel knew all of it already. She just didn't want to really admit it. She wanted to be the one to fix her wife, but in reality, the only person who could fix Quinn… was Quinn. Even after all this time, she just wanted things back to normal. Things were frustrating. Granted, it had only been three months since the incident, but Rachel missed everything about her old Quinn.

"If I hadn't have forgotten my book all those years ago, I don't know if any of this would have happened."

The small, random statement made Emily laugh. She'd already known about how Quinn and Rachel got together from her sessions with the blonde.

October 10, 2010

It was completely unlike her to forget something. She attributed it to the fact that Coach Beiste made her run an extra lap for voicing her opinion. That sparked a chain of events which caused her to run out of the locker room in order for her not to be late for class. Now, as she was packing up her back to go home, she realized her math book was still in her gym locker.

"Fuck."

She heard the voice, followed by a breathy moan coming from the locker room. A room she'd thought to be empty. Rachel carefully pushed the door open. Her curiosity had gotten the better of her. What, or better, who was making that noise?

"Fuck, don't stop. I'm right there!"

Rachel peeked around the last row of lockers to see Quinn laying on her back on the bench. Hovering above her was Brittany. Nestled between her naked legs was Santana. She knew she should turn away, to give them some kind of privacy. But the entire scene was too erotic for her to turn away. Especially when Brittany would kiss Quinn, or Quinn's back would arch up off of the bench.

The brunette watched as Santana's mouth worked Quinn over the edge. What caught her attention was the sound of her own name leaving Quinn's mouth.

"When are you going to tell her?" Brittany helped her friend get her shirt back on.

Santana smirked as she moved to sit beside Quinn on the bench. "Yea, seriously Q. As how as this is, I really don't like hearing someone else's name. It like… deflates my ego and shit."

"I can't tell her Santana." Quinn's voice cracked at the admission. "I'm too scared."

"Quinn?" Rachel finally decided to make her presence known.

Quinn's eyes shot open and she stared blankly at the brunette before her. She couldn't say anything. How could she? She didn't know how long Rachel had actually been there, or how much she'd heard, and honestly… she didn't want to stick around to find out. She grabbed her discarded Cheerios bag from the floor and bolted from the locker room as fast as her legs would carry her.

"Quinn wait!"

March 5 – 4:30PM

Work was just another day for her. She was already starting to fall into the routine of the new law firm she worked for. The people were so helpful to her. Nobody looked at her oddly or doubted her abilities whenever she asked a question or had a concern. But what she wasn't quite used to yet, was being home before Rachel. Quinn wasn't used to actually having an 8-4 job. She was used to being at the office until she was done. Sometimes staying there until 8 or 9 o'clock at night.

But none of that mattered right now as she sat on the sofa staring at her phone. Beth's number had been typed into it for nearly five minutes. Why was it so hard to hit call? Quinn hadn't felt such a fear in months. This fear was different. It wasn't a fear of her life. No, it was a fear of rejection. There was no way of knowing how the phone call would go.

"Do or die Quinn." She gave herself a small pep talk before hitting the call button.

"Hello?" A soft voice filled Quinn's ear after the third ring.

The blonde's breath caught in her throat. "B-Beth?"

"Yea, this is her." Quinn couldn't find words to speak. She'd finally heard her daughter's voice and was in awe over it. "Hello?" Quinn still couldn't find her voice. "Is… this Quinn?"

"Yea." The attorney was able to find a small amount of her voice.

"You got my letter then?"

Quinn relaxed slightly back against the sofa cushions. "I got it a few days ago."

Beth's soft laughter came through the phone. "I sent it back in January."

"To my New York address." Quinn added softly. "It had to be forwarded back across the country. Rach and I are in LA now."

"Post office sucks, huh?"

Now it was Quinn's turn for a small bit of laughter. She was making small talk with her daughter. A woman who was basically a stranger to Quinn. The small talk though, was helping to ease all the tension that Quinn felt. She was sure that Beth was feeling it as well. "But I still got it. That's all that matters."

There were a few seconds of silence before Beth spoke again. "I'm really glad you called me Quinn."

"I'm sure you have a lot of questions for me." Quinn tried to prepare herself for the inevitable. She'd been expecting the worse. Ever since deciding she'd call Beth, she'd been attempting to run through all possible scenarios in her mind. But even with all that preparation, it was nothing compared to the real thing.

"I do… but it's nothing like you're thinking though. All of that can be dealt with later. If that's alright with you."

The older woman let out a relieved sigh. "That's what I was hoping you'd say."

"No need to stress out. Sure you've got a lot on your mind with the trial." All Beth got in response was a sharp intake of air. "I didn't mean… oh my god I'm so sorry Quinn."

Beth's panicked voice aided in calming the attorney some. "It's alright. Really, it is. There's just times I forget that it's national news."

"Just comes with being married to an upcoming Hollywood star huh?" Quinn just laughed softly at the remark. "How long have you and Rachel been married anyway?"

"18 years in July. It still feels like yesterday when she proposed to me because she got tired of waiting." Another soft laugh echoed through the phone's receiver. The sound made Quinn smile. She wasn't as nervous as she was when the whole conversation started. "When I was preparing myself for this phone call, I actually wasn't expecting so much laughter."

"That's how you ease the tension. It helps make it a little less awkward."

"It's still awkward as hell though. Talking to you. I never thought I'd have this opportunity again." Quinn paused for a moment to think of her last session with Emily, when she'd told the woman she planned to call her daughter. Emily told her a lot of the same. That she should try to keep the conversation light for a while, to ease into the harder topics. Which were bound to come eventually. "So you grew up in Dayton?"

"Yea, I really hated it there. I couldn't imagine how you and Rachel handled living in Lima. I had visited there a couple of times with my parents when I was a kid, and that place was so small. It was like farm country."

"That's why when we moved to New York, we stayed there. We only ever went home for major holidays and random family gatherings. We've been a part of big cities for 20 years now."

"I do know what you mean. Dad got a promotion and had to move all of us to San Diego during my sophomore year in high school. It was kind of bitter sweet. I didn't want to leave all of my friends, but I didn't want to stay in Dayton either. But once we got here and everything settled, I knew this was where I belonged."

Quinn couldn't help but agree with the young woman. She knew she never really belonged in a small town like Lima. It wasn't in her. When the glee club had gone to New York City for Nationals her Junior year, she knew that was where she belonged. It was where her and Rachel belonged. It even ended up being where they spent 20 years of their lives before relocating. "You know… you can ask me what I know you want to." There wasn't going to be any better time to get the hard questions out of the way.

Beth sighed softly. "Like I said in my letter, I don't hate you. I can't even begin to imagine what that kind of decision did to you emotionally… I guess… what I want to ask… is why?"

"Why did I get pregnant? Or why did I give you away?"

"I think I can figure out the why you got pregnant part Quinn." Beth laughed, drawing even more from Quinn.

"I see you've got a sense of humor. How about this… I answer both of them for you."

"Ok, but like I said, I know the pregnancy part." She giggled again for a moment before calming down to let her biological mother speak.

"The man who is your father, his name's Noah Puckerman. I'm not sure if you know that. He's Jewish, and was in the same grade as Rachel and I. It was my sophomore year of high school. I was 15 years old when I started having these… feelings." Quinn paused for a moment, allowing her eyes to close to think back to why exactly she did sleep with Puck. "I started having attractions to Rachel. But living in a town like Lima and coming from a highly religious, conservative family like I did, that was unacceptable. There was one night, Puck had a party at his house. He kept offering me wine coolers, and I kept taking them. I wanted those feelings for Rachel to vanish, there was a rather attractive man who was interested in me. So I kept drinking, trying to drown away my unnatural thoughts… I had to be completely drunk to even stomach the idea of him touching me. I slept with him in some twisted attempt to prove to myself that my feelings for Rachel were just a phase and that I was still straight as an arrow Quinn."

"And that backfired apparently?" Beth threw in, showing she was paying attention.

Quinn chuckled dryly. "Yes, it did. Big time. Which led to a huge confrontation between my then boyfriend Finn-"

Beth's laughter cut her off. "Hold up, you dated a guy named Finn? Like shark 'fin,' dolphin 'fin,' etc? Who in their right mind names a child Finn?"

The younger woman's laughter became contagious, soon Quinn was joining her at laughing at the name. "I never really looked at it like that before. He did have an odd name didn't he?" Beth made a soft sound of agreement before Quinn continued. "I dated Finn to keep my image. I was head cheerleader and he was captain of the football team. It was typical for that pairing to date. I was able to convince Finn that you… were his. Even though him and I had never slept together."

"Oh this just keeps getting better. You didn't actually see anything in that guy did you?"

"No, trust me, it was all for my image. He was dumber than a sack of potatoes." Quinn's eyes opened when she heard the front door open. She peeked over her shoulder and smiled when she saw Rachel shrugging off her jacket and kicking off her shoes. "Hold on a second."

"Sure."

Quinn pulled the phone away from her ear before she stood up to greet Rachel. "Hey, how was the shoot today?"

Rachel scoffed. "I hate Jason. But I'm sure you're well aware of that by now. He kept making faces at me during a scene, then insisted on telling me that my laughter didn't sound real enough. Can you believe that!"

The blonde grabbed Rachel's hip before she could make her way into the kitchen. She pulled their bodies flush against one another to give her a lingering kiss. "Can you get us pizza for dinner?" Rachel's eyebrows rose in mild shock, but before she could get her question out, Quinn held up her phone, showing it was connected to a call. "Please?"

"Is that…?" Rachel trailed off as she pointed to the phone. Quinn nodded, confirming her suspicions. "Alright, I'll be back in a little while." Rachel stole another kiss before heading back toward the door to grab her purse, jacket, and slide on her shoes. "Love you!"

"I love you too Rach." Quinn called back just as the front door closed. She let out a heavy sigh, knowing she'd have to thank Rachel later for leaving her alone with her conversation. "Sorry about that, I'm back." She spoke into the phone once it was back up to her ear.

"It's fine, so that was Rachel huh?"

"Sure was."

"And you kicked her out just to keep talking to me?"

"No! I mean… maybe? Yes? I was hungry?"

Beth let out another loud laugh at Quinn's attempt to cover up the truth. "It's fine. I'm just picking. She seems nice."

A fresh smile overtook Quinn's face. "She's amazing… Now, where was I with my story?"

"Finn was dumber than a sack of potatoes."

"Ah yes. I was able to convince him that he got me pregnant in the hot tub. When I was about 3 months along, Finn decided it would be a great idea to announce it to my parents that I was pregnant. They gave me an hour to pack my things and get out of their house. But that's a story for another time." Quinn left no room for discussion on that one, she really didn't wish to talk about her parents and the rocky relationship she had with them for years.

"How did Finn find out he wasn't my father?"

"That was actually Rachel's doing. She did what I didn't have the courage to do. She told Finn the truth about what happened between Puck and I. At first I wanted to hate Rachel, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't. I admired her for being able to tell the truth when all I could do was get lost in a web of lies."

"In a way, I can understand being scared to tell the truth after you're in so deep in something like that."

"Yea… After that I ended up bouncing around between a few of my friend's houses. Near the end of my pregnancy, I actually ended up staying at Rachel's with her and her dads. That's how our friendship actually started to form and grow strong. I still couldn't tell her how I felt though, because I still hadn't fully accepted it." Quinn paused to gather her thoughts again. "Explaining why I gave you away is actually a little bit easier than the story as to why I got pregnant."

"Alright, I'm all ears."

"I was a 16 year old girl Beth. I was a girl who was bouncing around from house to house, with no job, no car, no insurance. I had nothing during my pregnancy with you. I barely had food in my stomach and a roof over my head. I didn't want that for you. It was the hardest decision I've ever had to make in my entire life. But, if I had to do it all over again and the circumstances were still the same, it's the same choice I'd make every single time." Quinn felt a tear roll down her cheek at the memories of her sleepless nights. "I wanted you to have a life with a loving family. Not a broken one like mine was. I wanted you to have a chance to truly experience life, instead of struggling through everything which I know I would have. Puck and I gave you life, but we're not your family. We both decided to give you up for adoption. We both knew we couldn't give you the life you deserved. It was such a hard decision Beth. And I hope you're never faced with having to make a choice like that. Let alone twice."

"What do you mean twice?"

"Don't worry about that right now…" Quinn silently cursed at herself for letting it slip out like it did.

"Alright. Hey… I really hate to cut this short, because I'd love to talk to you more Quinn, but I have a class in 20 minutes that I have to get to."

"Oh I remember having a tight class schedule. Been there, done that. Spent 6 years in law school."

"Maybe we could talk again… like this weekend?"

The hopefulness in Beth's voice was evident to Quinn. It even caused her to smile. This wouldn't be the one and only time she'd ever talk to her daughter. "I'd like that. Just call me or text me. Whichever you prefer."

"That sounds good. Thank you for calling Quinn."

"Anytime." Quinn let out a shaky breath before continuing. "Enjoy your class Beth."

It was the last thing either of them said before the call was disconnected. It was at that moment though that all of Quinn's emotions caught up with her and she slumped over crying. Her phone remained tightly gripped in her hands as all of her emotion escaped through her eyes. It felt as though this was the last thing she needed for her life to feel complete. This… connection with her long lost daughter. A connection she was finally able to get back. Suddenly, Quinn was looking forward to the weekend, not just because of Rachel having off, but also because she'd get to talk to her daughter again. Only the next conversation, Rachel would be included. She wasn't sure she could do it again without any kind of support, because right now, all she wanted was the comfort of her wife's embrace.

Don't forget to hit that little review button at the bottom and say a few kind words :D