Thank you to everyone who had read and reviewed! I am glad you seem to be enjoying my experiment in Future!Fic (and, really, fic writing in general). Hopefully this continues to not disappoint!
Rachel and Quinn developed a pattern over the next few days. They watched movies in Rachel's basement, walked around their neighborhood, and caught each other up on the time they had been apart. They talked extensively about their pasts, both together and apart, and each woman began to understand where the other had been coming from. Rachel, for her part, saw the true pain that Quinn had been in during high school - first to conform to the impossibly high standard set by her parents and, after Beth, to simply survive. She had had enough therapy around her own issues from those four years and could only imagine how hard it had been for Quinn. While Rachel did not appreciate that she had often been Quinn's outlet for anger, ten years had given her enough distance to give the woman a chance to have grown up.
They either actively or unintentionally (Rachel wasn't sure) avoided the topic of past relationships. Quinn wasn't asking and Rachel wasn't telling. She was definitely interested in Quinn's past relationships, but given Quinn's tears the last time they talked about it, she chose to tiptoe around the issue. Being a fantastic internet detective, Rachel had tried to figure out just who was stupid enough to push Quinn aside for herself. On Facebook, Quinn had plenty of photos of herself with her college boyfriend but, after that, there was a relative drought of photos of the blonde anywhere online. While Rachel was becoming comfortable with the fact that she would have to ask Quinn directly about her love life, she wasn't at all comfortable with, or ready to address, the reasons why she wanted to know.
On Friday morning as they were walking, Quinn blurted, somewhat out of the blue, "What are you doing tomorrow?"
Rachel smiled. She had been enjoying distracting Quinn and getting to know the woman she thought she had lost. "What did you have in mind, Q?"
Quinn looked nervous which made Rachel's heartbeat speed up rapidly. Her hands picked at the lint in the bottom of her pockets as she waited for Quinn to follow up. The blonde spoke quietly, her voice nearly a whisper. "Come with me to my sister's wedding? I don't think I can be there alone."
Rachel hesitated, only because she really didn't know how her presence would complicate matters at the already-messy Fabray house. She knew that Judy would be fine, but had gotten no indicators from Quinn how Russell was dealing with matters, let alone how he would feel about a Berry being in his home. Add to that the stress of a wedding being held under less than ideal circumstances and the whole thing sounded like a giant nebulous mess.
Quinn must have sensed Rachel's hesitation because she reached down and grasped her friend's hand. "I don't care what anyone thinks, Rachel. You are my only friend here and I have a feeling tomorrow I am going to want someone in my corner."
Rachel knew there was only one possible answer. "Ok."
Saturday morning found Rachel standing next to Quinn outside the Lima Lutheran Church tugging at the sleeves of a dress she wasn't entirely sure was even appropriate wedding attire. The wedding was to begin at 10:00 and the clock was pushing dangerously close to that hour, spurring Rachel to action. She glanced at Quinn who looked like she was either going to pass out or throw up and tentatively touched the back of her hand. "Quinn, I know we have to be here, but you are not alone. If it gets to be too much, just let me know and we can...oh, I don't know...flee or something."
Quinn sighed and the two of them made their way into the church and up the aisle to the front row where Judy Fabray was already sitting. If the older blonde had anything to say about their late arrival she kept it to herself, merely gesturing for them to take their seats as, almost simultaneously, the organist began to play. This hodge-podge second wedding had no wedding party so as Rachel turned to the back of the church she audibly gasped at the image of a very gaunt, frail, almost shrunken Russell Fabray clinging to his eldest daughter's arm. It was clear she was holding him up as they made their way slowly toward the altar. Rachel didn't falter when Quinn, with a visible tear rolling down her face, grasped her hand and squeezed. Quinn held her hand through the entire ceremony, intertwined their fingers as they exited the church, and only severed their connection when forced to do so in order to drive back to the Fabrays' for the reception. When Quinn let go, Rachel felt an emptiness that she opted to push aside for the time being, focusing instead on the long afternoon she had in front of her.
From the moment that Rachel and Quinn entered Judy Fabray's parlor it was clear that the afternoon was going to be anything but pleasant. Quinn's sister and her new husband stood to one side of the room, smiles plastered on their faces, flanking Russell's armchair. Judy was on the other side of the room, moving frenetically up and down a long table, adjusting cruditè platters and constantly realigning rows of plastic wine cups. Between the two, a small number of stoic guests mingled and made small talk, nobody daring to approach either host. Quinn paused in the doorway and reached, again for Rachel's hand. She leaned close to Rachel's ear and whispered, "Ten minutes and we are so out of here. I will buy you all the drinks in the world if we don't have to stay." Rachel nodded, tightening her grip on Quinn's hand, and shivered at the proximity of the other woman's lips to her ear.
They ended up at "oe's" and three shots in, Rachel was ignoring the steady vibration of her phone in her purse while being incredibly tuned into the vibrations of her body she felt pulling her toward Quinn. Her hand kept drifting to the blonde's arm, brushing against it occasionally resting on her bicep. Rachel could not help but notice the goosebumps that appeared on Quinn's arm with every brush. They leaned close together to hear each other over the blaring country music in the background and Rachel was incredibly glad for the excuse for the proximity she was currently enjoying. She held in a gasp when Quinn, animatedly recalling the time Puck had stolen an ATM from a convenience store, placed her hand squarely in the middle of Rachel's thigh, laughing out, "Don't you remember how completely STUPID we all were back then?!"
Ten minutes later, Quinn had not removed her hand and, in fact, had started idly stroking just above Rachel's knee with the inside of her thumb. As Rachel tried to stay present in the moment, to follow the conversation, she felt herself getting lost in the other woman. Rachel's gaze drifted between Quinn's eyes and her lips, her eyes and her lips, her eyes and her lips … eyes … lips … eyes … "Rachel?" Quinn had clearly noticed that she was no longer paying attention.
Rachel tried to ignore the smirk on Quinn's face and the blush she felt rising in her own cheeks. "These … shots are really affecting me, Q. Or maybe I am tired. Or …"
Quinn's signature eyebrow raise accompanied her retort, "Tired, huh? Well maybe we should get you into bed."