At thirty five thousand feet, you lean back in your seat. You said goodbye to Brittany and Santana at the airport before they took off for Italy. You're ridiculously tired so you look next to you to see if Rachel is as tired as you are.
She's flipping through a magazine that she got at the airport. You wonder how long it will take for her to read the interview she did for that magazine and trade it for the SkyMall in front of her. It was a short interview. You know because you bought that magazine the day it came out.
You lean over and kiss the side of her head. She lets out a content smile and rests her head on your shoulder. "You should get some sleep. I can see that you're tired and Noah told me that I'm the most fun person he's ever taken to Vegas."
"Fuck yeah she is," Puck leans forward from his seat behind you, "Of course I've never been to Vegas with my girl." He looks next to him at Lauren who is searching through her iPod. You glance across the aisle at Mercedes and Sam then behind them at Finn and Mike. You don't know how your return trip to Vegas to get Rachel's purse and phone became a glee club venture.
"I bet you are," you rest your head on hers. "Where are we staying?"
"Bellagio," she answers, "They gave me a choice of having an Executive Suite overlooking the mountains or a regular suite facing the fountains." She sits up and grins, "The fountains play 'One' from A Chorus Line. It was an easy choice."
You shake your head and smile. She just so…Rachel. You check behind you and ask Puck, "Mind if I recline my seat?"
"Nah," he shakes his head, "You're good."
You lean it back a little bit and as you lean back, Rachel lays her head on your chest. "What do you want to do in Vegas? Drinking and gambling are a given. If you really want to you can go into the largest strip club in the world, but I'll we outside with you."
"You can Puckerman can go in," Lauren adds to you, look at you in between the seats, "I'll take the midget with me to steal another pirate hat."
"You can have mine," Puck offers her.
Your eyes nearly bug out. God he is so whipped. Although when Rachel picks up your arm and puts it around herself you figure that you don't have any room to call anyone else whipped.
She smirks, "It's not so much about the having the hat as stealing one."
Puck smiles and looks to you, "You can go in the strip club with Hudson and Chang. We're going to steal a pirate hat."
You look at Rachel questioningly, "Steal a pirate hat from where?"
"Well…" her cheeks tint pink and she bites her bottom lip, "Brittany and her sister were watching the pirate show on Treasure Island and Noah who was slightly intoxicated said that he wanted a pirate hat. But not the ones from the souvenir shop. He wanted one of the ones that the pirate was wearing. I got distracted but Brittany and Noah managed to get aboard the ship. Brittany was dancing long with the characters who didn't seem to notice she wasn't one of them even though she was wearing a very modern green dress. Noah snuck up behind one of the pirates and took his hat then ran off of the ship. Brittany ran after him and we all took off down the street. Luckily the actors adhere to the strict 'The show must go on' mantra and no one followed us."
You're speechless. That's not really something you picture Rachel doing, but you guess that Vegas has that effect on people. You're actually looking forward to seeing this wild child inside of your girlfriend.
She grins at you and gives you a kiss, "Have you ever been to Vegas Quinn?"
You nod. "The Cheerios went one time, but we were competing and underage so it wasn't really fun."
"Well this time," she glances behind her at Puck, "Will be the most memorable time yet."
"I don't know," you take her challenge with a smirk, "Vegas was where Santana pantsed Brittany on national television."
"What was it with you Cheerios and being mean to people you liked?" Lauren asks.
You shrug. It does actually seem like you and Santana were both stuck on the emotional level of a five year old boy for a while. She advanced faster than you did, moving on to thirteen year old boy with all the groping and making out she and Brittany did in the hallway at school during your senior year.
You glance out at the endless desert under you and look back at Rachel, "Are you sure that you didn't want to go to Italy instead?"
"Can you do anything without Brittany and Santana?" Mercedes asks playfully from her seat.
"I think Quinn and Santana's codependence is charming," Rachel defends you, albeit weakly.
"I am not codependence on Santana," you also defend yourself weakly.
Rachel looks at you with a get serious eyebrow, "Who were you texting for thirty minutes while we were waiting to board our plane?"
You pause for a moment before yawning as you answer in a weak attempt to cover up that you did just say Santana.
"It's okay," Mercedes reached across the aisle and puts her hand on your arm, "She's been your best friend since I can remember. We all went to the same elementary school. Then you got pissed at her in middle school because she had a new blonde lady in her life."
"I was not pissed," you defend again.
Rachel again uses her very expressive expressions to agree with Mercedes. "Quinn."
You sigh," Fine I was mad at her now I'm not. Brittany's like my sister and-"
"No one is accusing you of not liking Brittany and we all know that it's in the past," Rachel nudges you with her arm, "We're just messing with you."
You feel a little foolish for taking the defensive so quickly. It is in the past you and you that everyone knows you love Brittany because who can't not love Brittany?
"You can tell me if I need to stop saying this, but I feel like I'm buggin' when I see you guys kiss and stuff," Mercedes says. She looks behind her at Finn who is acting as a giant human pillow for Mike who fell asleep on his wide shoulder.
Finn gives you an understanding smile, "It was a little weird at first, but it's nice. You guys like…fit."
"Thank you Finn," Rachel smiles back at him. She looks at you with her loving eyes and you completely melt in your seat.
The captain announces that you're landing and you have to put your seat up. The descent is a little choppy and the vice grip Rachel has on your hand is starting to hurt. So you decide to distract her a little bit. "Rach," you whisper into her ear.
She turns and looks at you, questioningly and panicking. You dip your head down and capture her lips. Your force surprises her and she lets out a light gasp before losing herself in the kiss.
You don't immediately register Puck clearing his throat next to you, but Rachel seems to. She leans back with a smile, giving you one last peck, "Thanks Quinn."
"No problem," you smile at her.
You take a very interesting cab ride to the hotel. When you say interesting you mean terrifying. And you thought cabbies in New York were bad. You're pretty sure that Mike fell out of the van and kissed the ground.
Everyone gathers in Rachel's free room with the very little luggage everyone brought. For you it was your purse. "Alright so what's the plan?"
"Uh it's Vegas. Drink and gamble."
"And strippers," Mike adds.
Finn smiles his perverted grin, "Lots of strippers."
Rachel and Mercedes roll their eyes and Puck and Sam try to suppress a grin.
"Hey," Lauren looks up from her phone, "It says right there that there's a 7000 square foot strip club like a block from here."
"Okay," Rachel claps her hands together taking charge like you're all sitting in the choir room again, "The boys and whatever girls want to go," she glances at you, "Head to Sapphire. The women that don't want to go will walk the strip until we find something to do."
"Where are we meeting afterward?" Finn asks.
Rachel picks up her phone and looks at it for a moment before answering, "Whitney gets off at ten so we can all meet up then at the Imperial Palace."
"Who is Whitney?" you quirk an eyebrow.
"Rachel's stripper friend," Puck loops his arm around your shoulders, "Let's get out of here. It's Vegas and I'm getting bored."
"Hold on," you plant your feet to stop him from leading you to the door, "I'm not going with the guys."
"It's okay Quinn," Rachel assures you.
You shake your head, "Why would I want to look at naked women?"
"Because it's a bonding experience," Puck states. He looks back at Lauren, "When we went to that strip club what did we do that whole time?"
"We played are they fake or not," Lauren smirks, "And by the by won. I know the difference between some sand bags and the real deal. Ya know that I'm sayin'?" Puck gave Lauren a high five then a quick kiss.
"So men and Quinn," Puck announces, "Let's go."
You have no idea how Puck and Finn talked you into going to the strip club instead of drinking with the girls, but you can't say that it's all that bad. The drinks here are good and the strippers aren't all that terrible to look at. You can't say you're turned on very much because so far in your life you've only been turned on by one person.
"Having fun?" Finn asks, setting a drink in front of you.
You nod and look up at the stripper right in front of you, "I like her shoes."
He laughs, "You're such a girl."
"You'd think after five years of marriage you would have figured that out sooner," you playfully bump shoulders with him.
"Hey," Puck appears behind you, putting his hands on your shoulders, "Me and Mike got us a sweet VIP booth. C'mon."
You and Finn follow him to a booth in the back. "How did you do that?" Finn asks.
"I showed the manager my badass biceps and Mike showed her his abs," he states.
You slide into the booth between Sam and Puck. It's a crescent shape with a small stage with a pole in the middle. You finish off your drink and Mike runs off to get more. Her returns and you all toast. To what you don't know, but it's fun.
"Hey," you look around at the guys, "Where are the strippers?" You gesture to the pole in the middle of you.
It's like you said a magic word because two girls appear at the opening to the booth and step up onto the stage. One of them is blonde and the other a brunette. They're wearing heels that hurt your feet and you're not even wearing them.
After a few minutes of watching them dance you decide that the blonde got her outfit from Victoria's Secret and the other one had to get it from a department store of some kind. You're usually really good to knowing where clothes come from. So you squint your eyes and tilt your head. You catch sight of a tag of the brunette's clothes. "Damn," you whisper to yourself. Not a department store. Frederick's. You should have known.
"Is this doing anything for you?" Sam leans over and asks you, his eyes never leaving the strippers.
You shake your head, "Not really."
"Maybe a lap dance will," Puck holds up a fifty and points to you.
You're completely mortified when the stripper steps from the stage and starts to give you a lap dance. The glitter on her skin shimmers as she moves and you can smell her perfume. "Are you wearing Enchanting?"
The stripper looks at you for a moment like you're nuts before smiling, "Yeah. Do you wear it to?"
"No, but my girlfriend is kinda in love with Celine Dion so if Celine endorses something I tend to know," you explain like she's a stranger in a coffee shop and not giving you a lap dance, "Do those shoes hurt?"
"Like hell," she answers grinning at you.
You continue the conversation for a few minutes until she was done which you didn't really notice to begin with. Finn's looking at you with an amused smirk. Puck rolls his eyes and Sam and Mike are laughing.
"What?" you ask them.
"You're supposed to stare and drool," Sam puts his arms around you, "Not become her best friend."
You chuckle a little a nod, "Sorry, but you guys have no idea how sexy Rachel is when she wants to be. This all," you gesture to the club, "Does nothing for me."
"I hear ya," Sam nods. Puck seems to agree as well.
Finn and Mike also look kinda bored. Mike shrugs, "How about we go do some gambling before we meet up with the girls since no one really seems interested in this?"
You all agree and not long after you're standing at a craps table between Finn and Mike. Mike has his arm around you, deciding that you're his lucky charm because when he put it there he started winning. You smile as you look around the table. You consider all these guys your brothers. You always kinda wanted a brother because in high school Frannie cried a lot over boys or whatever and you just wanted someone who wouldn't cry. Also having someone who would protect you wouldn't have hurt either. Anyway, even though you were married to one of them and had the other one's baby, now these are your brothers.
Mike wins a surprising amount of money and buys everyone one of those giant yard long margaritas. You all stop outside the Pink Flamingo so that Finn and Mike can go to the bathroom and grab another drink. You're absently sipping your drink. You're looking up and down the strip at all the signs as the sun's going down. You feel a little weird because you watched the sun start to set at the airport in Lima before chasing the sun all the way back up, but you can't wait until it's dark. You love bright lights against the night.
Some guy grabbing your ass brings you out of your thoughts. You turn around and shove him away. He looks like a drunken frat guy, "What the fuck?" you demand.
Puck and Sam are immediately at your side, Puck with a hand on your shoulder, "What happened?"
"I was just having some fun," the guys shrugs, then he looks to you with glassy eyes, "Nice ass."
Before you can say anything, Puck flies at the guy, hitting him one on the cheekbone. The frat guy falls to the ground with a thud.
"What happened?" Finn asks, as he and Mike trot up behind you.
"He grabbed Quinn's ass," Sam answers, looking at angry as Puck.
Finn starts to move in on the guy that's scrambling to get up. You grab his arm with one hand and Puck's with the other, "Stop."
They both look at you and then behind you at the retreating guy. You pat them both on the chest as they calm down, "I appreciate it, but I don't want to have to bail anyone out of jail."
They both nod and Mike asks, "Are you okay?"
You nod with a smile, "I'm fine. He just grabbed my ass. Not a big deal."
"It is a big deal," Sam states and you can see his eyes scanning the crowd for the guy.
"Okay, it is a big deal, but Puck hit the guy to the ground so I don't think he'll be doing it to anyone else anytime soon," you smile and pick up Puck's right hand. The skin is broken over his knuckles and a tiny trickle of blood makes its way out, "Are you okay?"
"Of course," he takes his hand back.
Sam bends his knees a little in front of you, "M'lady."
You smile and hop onto his back. You sip your drink as you decide to look for the next place to win some money.
"There," you point with your drink, "Let's go in there." If you're completely honest with yourself, it looks just like a place where Rachel would be and that's why you want to go there.
Inside, you slide off of Sam's back and straighten out your dress. With a quick look around, you see a slot machine that's calling you. You walk over to it and sit down in the seat.
"Fancy meeting you here," a familiar voice says from the slot machine next to you.
You fight a smile and answer, "I know right?"
Rachel leans over in her chair and brushes off your shoulder. "You got glitter all over you."
"Puck bought me a lap dance," you say feeling a little guilty. You look over at her and remove her pirate hat, placing it on your own head, "You stole another one?"
"To be fair Lauren stole it," she grins widely at you before pushing the hat up a little on your head so that she can kiss you.
"Hey guys," Mike walks up to you and Rachel, "We're going to get something to eat? Wanna come?"
"Definitely," Rachel stands up and takes your hand. She presses one last button on the machine, "Let me just use this last dollar on here."
You all watch the machine spin around before stopping. You laugh and shake your head.
Rachel prints out her ticket for five hundred dollars, "It looks like I'm buying dinner."
You all congregate at a restaurant sharing stories of what you did while apart. When Rachel hears about the guy grabbing your ass, she puts a protective arm around you, completely incensed. Lauren kisses Puck when you explain that Puck defended your honor and Sam got one from Mercedes for carrying you around chivalrously.
"Shall we?" Rachel asks offering you her arm after she paid for dinner, "Whitney just texted me."
You take her arm and kiss her cheek, "Let's do this."
She smiles at you and leads the way out of the restaurant. The second you step outside though there are flash bulbs everywhere.
You look at Puck who is moving forward, but before he can, Lauren steps between you and the cameras, "Move along. Nothing to see." She makes some mean faces and gets most of the photographers to leave.
"Holy crap," Sam blinks rapidly trying to get the white orb out of his eyes just like you and everyone else, "Does that happen to you guys a lot?"
"Yeah," Rachel nods, "You get used to the flashes." She kisses both of your eyelids before quietly asking, "You okay?"
You nod and then let out a sigh, "I wonder how long they've known we were here."
She shrugs, "Let's not worry about it. Let's have fun. Now c'mon. Whitney is waiting on us." She turns around and grins, "Thank you so much Lauren."
"No problem," Lauren nods.
"That was so hot," Puck leans in and kisses Lauren.
You laugh and lace your fingers with Rachel's. "So let's go meet your stripper friend."
She smiles and nods, "I'm sure you're going to be great friends. You seem to like strippers judging by the amount of glitter on you."
Your mouth drops open and she just laughs, pulling you behind her.