Chapter Title: Thinking it Through

Author: Stargirl888

Word Count: About 1500

Spoilers: None

Pairing: Brittany/Santana, Rachel/Quinn, mention Rachel/Santana

Rating: T

WARNINGS: None

Disclaimer: Not mine, never has been and unfortunately never will be :(

Summary: Quinn is searching for explanations

A/N: Okay, so first I must say I'm rather surprised by how many people were on Quinns side last chapter, and how many people said Quinn should break up with Rachel over this! I also got quite a number of anon reviews, some of which I have posted replies to on my LJ account - so if you did review anonymously there may be a response there for you.

Otherwise, not much else to say in this chapter, so enjoy!

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Quinn stared out at the football field after afternoon practice, lost in thought when a shadow fell over her. Glaring up she saw the last person she wanted to see standing over her.

Santana had been watching Quinn throughout practice and it was clear she was distracted. Santana knew Brittany had spoken to her, but was not exactly sure what had been said; though whatever it was had clearly made an impression on their friend.

"Do you really think that's a good idea after this morning?" Quinn asked as Santana sat down beside her, not turning to look away from the field.

"Please," Santana scoffed playfully "It's not like you hit that hard."

Quinn fought back a smile before glancing sideways to Santana and losing her resolve, allowing a small smile out, which Santana mirrored.

"I don't know why Rachel worried about receiving a spanking from you." It was said teasingly, but the mention of the petite girl sobered them both up a bit.

"Rachel." Quinn repeated thoughtfully, with a sigh.

"I'm really not trying to get between you two." Santana murmured after a moment .

"Then why did you tell her? Why not just keep all your damn feelings to yourself?" Quinn hissed, finally turning to face Santana properly. "Your girlfriend says I'm selfish but she hasn't stopped to consider your confession. Rachel and I were in a good place, and somehow I'm the bad guy for wanting that to continue."

Santana didn't know the details of the conversation between Brittany and Quinn, but she was somewhat taken aback by this information.

"I've never really been one for putting others ahead of myself, and sometimes you have to be selfish to be happy." Santana replied "I spoke to Rachel because I wanted her to know. I didn't mean for it to hurt you in the process." Quinn knew it was as close to an apology as she was going to get. "And wanting things to stay the same doesn't make you the bad guy."

"I'm pretty sure according to Rachel and Brittany it does." Quinn replied snippily.

"I somehow doubt that. Brittany just gets irritated when things aren't thought through properly, and while I don't know about Rachel, I'll guess it's a similar reason."

"Would you reaction have been any different if our positions were reversed?"

"Probably not." Santana agreed. They were both distracted as they noticed their girlfriends heading towards them from the school building. "Well I guess I should go. Britt wanted to stop past the mall on the way home."

"Okay," Quinn agreed as Santana stood up and headed down the stands to meet Brittany. After a couple of moments, they left, leaving Rachel to wait for Quinn.

It was obvious from Rachels expression that she was still annoyed with her girlfriend, though Quinn took the fact that she was still willing to ride to and from school with her as a good sign.

They headed to the car in silence and Quinn was starting to find Rachels reticence quite irritating.

"You know you have no right to be angry at me." She finally snapped as they pulled out of the parking lot. "I'm allowed to be hurt that my girlfriend likes someone else."

"Wait, you think that's what I'm upset about?" Rachel asked in surprise, to which Quinn just shrugged in reply.

"I didn't expect you to be okay with my feelings for Santana right off the bat," Rachel explained, "I'm upset because you implied Santana was playing me and I was too naive to see it, and because I put a lot of thought into coming to talk to you and you wouldn't even give it two seconds of thought before forming a decision. I'm upset because you assumed to know what I felt better than I do."

"Oh." Quinn responded blankly

"Yes, oh." Rachel huffed, crossing her arms and turning her attention back out of the window.

"I didn't mean to do that." Quinn admitted after a second, to which Rachel didn't respond. "I just really didn't think I'd be finding out my girlfriend likes someone else when I woke up that morning."

"I know that." Rachel allowed, her tone softening slightly.

"Rach, I've never even considered any sort of relationship that is not monogamous before." They pulled into the Berrys drive but neither girl made a move to get out of the car, rather both turning in their seats to face each other properly. "Is it something I did?"

"No." Rachel assured her quickly "Quinn, I'm going to try say this in the kindest way possible, but it honestly has nothing to do with you or us. You're right, I love where we are right now, and this is not because something's missing or lacking or anything like that. I still love you in the exact same way I did yesterday, or last week, or before that. My feelings for you haven't changed."

Rachel could tell from the way Quinn was looking at her that she wanted to believe her, but was still battling with the idea.

"Rachel, I don't know if I can do this."

"I'm not trying to pressure you, but I'm also not going to lie to you Quinn. This is something I want to try."

"I don't even know what 'this' really is." Quinn interrupted "You keep saying you want to 'explore your feelings' or give it a shot, but what exactly does that mean? Sex? Dating?"

"Santana and I haven't really discussed that," Rachel admitted "but in my mind it does mean dating and spending time together - trying to move our friendship to the next level." Rachel bit her lip, not really wanting to mention the next bit, but not wanting to lie either "If things work out, then it is probable that things will become physical between us."

There was a moment of silence as Rachels words sunk in

"Quinn, I'm not saying you have to decide today." She continued "I just would like to know if you're considering it as even a possibility."

"I don't know yet. Its going to take more than a day for me to wrap my head around this."

"Okay," Rachel agreed with a hopeful smile, just glad that Quinn had actually started thinking about it properly. "I did find a few research sites on this sort of thing – I can email them to you if you're interested?"

Quinn nodded "So can we get out of this car now before your neighbours start wandering what's the matter with us?"

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"Maybe I shouldn't have said anything." Santana commented offhandedly from where she was sprawled out on Brittany's bed while Brittany put away the clothes she had brought in her wardrobe.

"Santana, you were just being honest." Brittany replied easily.

"And if that honesty screws up Q's relationship?"

"Then it's too late to change anything now." Santana frowned at the unusually uncaring response. Turning around Brittany gave her an apologetic smile "I'm sorry. I know this is a big thing deal, but I feel like all I've done since Saturday is talk about this, and if I'm not talking about it I'm thinking about it. I'm pretty sure I'll be dreaming it soon enough. And at the moment there's nothing more either of us can do or say; the balls in their court now."

"You're right, of course." Santana agreed, getting up from the bed "and I'm also tired of thinking about everything, all the maybes and what if's." Santana came to stand in front of Brittany, hooking her thumbs into the belt loops of Brittanys shorts and pulling her closer. "So I think what we both need is a distraction."

Santana kissed her way lightly along Brittanys jaw before finding her lips with her own, and kissing her gently.

Brittany moved with the flow of the kiss, and allowed Santana suck on her lower lip, while her hands wandered down to Santana's firm ass, giving it a squeeze, making Santana's hips buck into her in surprise. Breaking away from the kiss, Brittany moved her attention to Santana's pulse point.

Santana let out a frustrated groan as she pushed lightly on Brittanys shoulder to stop. "Coach will kill me if you leave a mark again."

Brittany reluctantly moved on, just allowing lips to roam over Santana's neck and chest and enjoy the experience. Santana's own hands had moved up and under Brittanys top to palm her breasts.

"Bed." Santana mumbled and they separated long enough to make it to the bed before tumbling down onto the mattress together and continuing to make out, their bodies pressed together in the middle of the bed.

They were interrupted by the sound of the front door slamming shut, startling them both as Brittanys mother called upstairs to see who was home and say she brought home some take outs for dinner.

"Cockblock." Santana muttered against Brittanys skin ruefully, causing Brittany to chuckle as she called back a greeting to her mom.

"Come on." Brittany coaxed, regretfully sitting up and pulling Santana with her "I'll make it up to you later."

"You better." Santana replied, as they got up to go down stairs for dinner.

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AN2: Shortish chapter but I wanted to write something and I wanted to do a bit of Brittana at the end just because I felt like writing something light after all these heavy discussions. Next chapter, I promise Quinn will have made her decision and things will be moving forward again.

I hope it didn't seem like Quinn suddenly did a 180. In my mind, last chapter she was in a sort of denial about the whole thing, jumping to conclusions and not acknowledging what it all actually meant, though we did see she was thinking about it a bit with the Brittany conversation, and this chapter she's actually focussed properly on what everything means, for herself, her friendships, and relationships

For anyone interested in learning more about poly relationships or having difficulty understanding why someone would be willing to be in this type of relationship, or what it means practically, in my research for this fic I've come across this one site (. ) which has quite an extensive amount of information on it, including some FAQ's and a conversation where a polyamorous person tries to explain poly to a strictly monogamous person (. ).

As I say at the end of every chapter – please leave me a note and let me know your thoughts