MsLSpatz I'm glad you enjoyed it. :) Poor Quinn, she's a little clueless sometimes, isn't she?

Priscilla Thank you. :) I'm glad that you're enjoying the story. And, I think we all wish we had love like that, don't we? Except for the lucky few that have managed to find it.

HawaiiHapaAs long as it's a happy sigh, and not a sad one, I'll take it. :)

BlackShip007And I can't tell you how happy it makes me to know that you're enjoying the story and looking forward to each chapter. It makes me day. You have no idea. I'm glad you like it.

SuperGleek18I'm glad you liked it. Yep, that does like something that Rachel would be all for, as opposed to some celebs who are concerned/avoid attention like that. And, don't worry, you're fine. I know sometimes people get busy, they don't have time to review every chapter, or even read it right way. Although, I do appreciate the time that you take when you do have the chance. J It lets me know that I'm still on the right track, still keeping your attention.

simx48 I'm glad you approve. :)

DameonCain I'm glad you liked it. It seems like staying in is, in a lot of cases the easier, and probably more prudent choice, but I felt like they both needed to decide against that.

CarolineSC Glad you liked it. Got another Faberry one for you next as well.

FabraygronI'm glad you liked the plan. I thought it was a pretty good one also.

HarleyQuinnDavidson Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

gllover22I'm glad you're liking the progression. And, the Faberry-ness of it. The next chapter will have some more of the same.

icesk8erThank you. :)

Guest Thanks.

LaurenKnight13I'm glad that you liked that part. I don't have much…or well any, experience with relationships but I can't help thinking that it's the little things, those mundane moments that create the most closeness, and intimacy is more than just physical so, I wanted that to be important to the characters as well. Especially Quinn. And, that's sort of it, exactly. She's finally gotten herself together, is the person she wants to be, so now she's building the life she should have or feels like she finally deserves. Britt will be an important secondary character, but I'm probably not going to focus on her too much. She's really hard to write.

I feel like Rachel's fathers would have raised her to be proud of who she is, and her personality wouldn't let her shy away from things just because maybe society doesn't fully embrace them, so if she's with Quinn, she doesn't care who knows but she'll still try and protect their privacy.

ComegetitI'm glad you found the story. And, thanks for taking the time to leave a review now that you have an account here. :) I hope that you continue to enjoy it.

Chapter 35

"Are you hungry? Do you want something to eat?" Rachel asked as she unlocked the door of her apartment.

Quinn shook her head as she followed Rachel inside.

"No, thanks. I'm fine," she said, sliding onto one of the stools and leaning her elbows on the island as Rachel circled around it.

"I'm going to make myself some tea," Rachel said, reaching for the kettle. "Would you like one as well?"

Stifling a yawn with her hand, Quinn shook her head again. "No. I doubt I'd be able to stay up long enough to enjoy it," she said regretfully.

"Aww, poor girl," Rachel tsked sympathetically as she turned the burner on then turned and closed the distance between them. She leaned across the counter opposite Quinn and rubbed her hands lightly up and down Quinn's arms. "So I know it's late and you're pretty beat."

Quinn nodded her affirmation.

"But, I need bit of time to unwind. What do you say we put on a movie and curl up in bed? That way if you fall asleep in the middle of it, your sleep won't get disturbed having to wake up just to go to bed. Unless the sound and the lights would bother you? You don't strike me as a particularly light sleeper or anything but I know-"

"Hey," Quinn cut her off gently. "That sounds like a great idea. Perfect, actually."

"Yeah?" Rachel grinned broadly at her.

"Yeah."

"Okay then. Why don't you go pick out a movie and get ready for bed? I'll join you in there as soon as I'm finished out here."

"Sounds like a plan." Quinn leaned forward in her seat to brush a light kiss against Rachel's lips and then slid to her feet, stifling another yawn. "I'm sorry I'm not very good company tonight."

She felt a little guilty about basically just coming back her to Rachel's place to sleep, when they really hadn't gotten to see each other today. A quickie before she rushed out the door and a brief walk back to her apartment hardly qualified as quality time together.

"You've been great company so far," Rachel said. "Even if you don't make it past the opening credits, I'd still rather have you here than not get to see you at all."

"You're not just saying that?"

"I assure you, I'm not. I enjoy spending time with you, even if all we're doing is home or falling asleep together."

Quinn's lips tugged up into a broad smile. "I hope you know that I feel exactly the same way."

Rachel nodded. "I know." she said, smiling softly back at her. "Now, off with you. I'm going to make this tea and grab a quick shower. I'll meet you in there."

"A shower you say?" Quinn perked up a little at the thought of Rachel, wet and naked. "Hmm, maybe I'm not quite as tired as I thought."

Rachel pursed her lips, trying and failing, not to smile. "You're so predictable," she said with a shake of her head. "And, maybe you're not that tired. But I am. I don't know if you know this or not but, Broadway is exhausting."

"Really, you don't say?"

"Get going," Rachel said, leaning across the counter to give her a small push. "I'll be in in a few minutes."

"Try not to take too long," Quinn said over her shoulder as she crossed the room. "Or I might just start without you."

"Start what, falling asleep?"

Quinn didn't bother to dignify that with a response. She wasn't as disappointed as she thought she'd be at being so swiftly and summarily rejected. Rachel hadn't even entertained the thought for a second. And, normally that would be offensive, or disheartening, or something but all Quinn felt right now was warmth and affection and a sense that what they planned to share tonight was better than sex. Well, maybe not better, but equally if not more, important and meaningful.

She made her way into Rachel's room and immediately spotted the small pile of her clothes folded into a pile on the armchair in the corner. A smile crossed her face as she noted that Rachel had included the pajama sets she's worn for the last two nights amongst the freshly laundered items.

She shed her day's outfit and donned her newly commandeered pj's before heading into the bathroom to run through her nighttime ritual. She was just finished washing the makeup from her face when Rachel strode in.

"Hey, I'm almost done, just have to -

"Don't rush on my account," Rachel said as she stepped up to the sink and elbowed her to the side lightly.

Quinn shot her a sidelong glance as allowed herself to be edged sideways then went back to her task as Rachel reached for a facecloth. They got ready for bed together in silence, save for the sounds of running water, brushing, spitting. Their eyes catching in the mirror occasionally and their elbows bumping for space a few times.

Quinn finished first, and was actually a little disappointed about having to vacate the room after having drawn out her routine for a long as she possibly could, brushing, washing and moisturizing as slowly and methodically as she could until there were no more excused for her not to head to bed.

She pressed a kiss to Rachel's temple, receiving a toothpaste grin in reply, and headed back into the bedroom where she turned back the covers and climbed into bed. A few minutes later she heard the shower come on in the other room. As tempting as it was to join her under the spray, Quinn was actually feeling content where she was, laid out amongst the pillows and blankets, waiting for Rachel.

She was determined not to fall asleep before Rachel made it out of the shower, so she picked up the book on the bedside table as a distraction.

The glare of a flash going off startled her from the story and when she glanced up, blinking against the spots floating across her field of vision she realized just how distracted she had become. Rachel had finished her shower and now stood at the foot of the bed, hair still damp and dripping against the collar of her t-shirt, her cell phone held aloft in front of her.

"No fair," Quinn protested, putting the book down, being sure to take note of the page number she was on so she could pick up where she left off later. "I look a mess." She tugged at the stretched out collar of her t-shirt and finger combed through her hair, which was in definite need of a wash.

"You look beautiful," Rachel said, before snapping another photo.

"Hey." Quinn threw her hands up to ward off the flash. "That better not end up on Facebook," she warned.

"Aww, come on. You look adorable." Rachel continued to snap photos as she circled the bed. And Quinn continued to try and block her face from the camera lens.

"Can I please at least see the photos before you post them all over the internet? And veto any that I deem to completely horrible?"

"But, Quinn-"

"And promise to take some other ones, better ones, with you some other time?"

Rachel dropped onto the bed beside her. "I suppose that sounds reasonable," she said, holding out her phone and then snatching it back before Quinn could take it. "Promise me you won't delete any of them?"

Quinn held back a curse. She'd been intending to do exactly that. And from the smirk Rachel was throwing her, it appeared she knew it.

"Fine, I promise," she said with a sigh. After a moment's hesitation, Rachel handed the phone over.

Surprisingly enough, the first one wasn't too bad. Quinn's hair was a little messy and the lighting was a bit dim but it wasn't as embarrassing as she'd expected. The second one wasn't too bad either, the glare of the flash had given her red-eye but other than that was fine. The rest of them were horrible, blurry and out of focus as Rachel moved around the bed towards her and Quinn tried to block her. She was willing to concede the first two but first...Without warning she flipped the direction of the cell phone and snapped a picture of an unsuspecting Rachel.

"Hey." Rachel lunged for Quinn, trying to snag her wrists as Quinn scrambled away and continued snapping photos. "Not fair."

"But, you look adorable." Quinn threw Rachel's words back at her as she slid off the bed, avoiding the other woman's attempted grab. She hopped back onto the bed, standing over Rachel. She continued snapping photos of her as the other woman rolled onto her back. "That's it. Oh, the camera loves you. Give it to me," she called out, laughing and dodging Rachel's flailing attempts to take her down. Until, finally, Rachel hooked her legs around Quinn's and brought her onto her knees on the mattress.

Breathless and laughing she toppled over beside Rachel, not even putting up a fight as the phone was plucked from her fingers. She settled her head against Rachel's shoulder and wrapped an arm around her waist, snuggling in as the brunette wrapped one arm around her shoulder and pressed her cheek against the top of Quinn's head. She raised her other arm up, aiming the camera and snapping a photo of the two of them before pulling the phone back down to thumb through the photos.

Unsurprisingly, not many of them had turned out. They had both been moving around so much that most of the pictures was nothing more than a blurry flash of color or a partial limb. But, there were a few that simply took Quinn's breath away. The first one Quinn had taken, Rachel looked absolutely stunning, damp and tousled from her shower, smiling softly at the camera, because she hadn't yet registered that it had been turned on her. The next few were sweet and amusing, capturing Rachel's surprise then indignation in rapid succession before she'd lunged. The rest were a mess of limbs and bedding, except for one, Quinn had managed to capture a pretty good shot of Rachel, laughing and looking directly into the lens, hair haloed against the pillow behind her head.

"I like that one," she said softly.

"That's not going on Facebook."

Quinn nodded in agreement. It was too intimate, too special, for that. "No. But, I still like that one. Would you send it to me?"

Rachel turned to her, surprise displayed across her features. "Really?"

"Yes, really."

"Okay," Rachel said softly, and pressed a few keys. A moment later, Quinn's phone buzzed softly on the bedside table. "That one is my favorite," she said a moment later, landing on the photo the two of them had taken together.

"Mine too," Quinn agreed. "That one's not going on Facebook either."

"But-"

"I promise tomorrow we'll take some photos and become Facebook official, but I feel like these ones should be just for us. Okay? Please?"

"How can I say no to that?" Rachel squeezed Quinn lightly and then traded her phone for the remote, turning on the TV and scrolling through the movie listings.

Quinn awoke to the sound of her cell phone vibrating across the table, once again, indicating an incoming text. The device had been going off at odd intervals for the last little while, disturbing her sleep but not quite managing to fully rouse her, until now. With a groan she turned her head and peered at the clock, still forty minutes until her alarm was due to go off.

"Who the hell is calling me at not even six in the morning?" she muttered, reaching for the offending device to see who the message was from. "Really, Liv? Really?" She vowed that the next time she saw her friend, she was going to kill her. It clearly wasn't anything important, none the three missed calls had voicemails, and none of the texts had subjects. Her friend was just being a bitch and giving her a hard time for sleeping over at Rachel's once again. With a sigh she tossed the phone back the bedside table and rolled over onto her other side, hoping to at least doze until was actually time to get up.

She was surprised to find Rachel sitting up in bed beside her, her attention so captivated by her own cell phone that she hadn't even registered Quinn muttering and moving around beside her.

"Okay, new rule," she said, reaching for Rachel's phone. "No cell phones in the bedroom." She pulled her hand back with a hiss and shook out the sting of Rachel swatting her away. "Ow. What the hell, Rach?"

Rachel finally looked up from her phone, gazing blearily at her for a moment before shaking her head. "Sorry," she said absently, then her eyes widened as she seemed to realize what she'd just done. "Oh, Quinn, I'm sorry." She grabbed Quinn's hand and rubbed the fingers she'd just smacked before bringing them to her lips and kissing them lightly.

"Its fine," Quinn dismissed her concern with a shrug, but smiled at the lingering feeling of Rachel's lips against her skin as she laced their fingers together in Rachel's lap. "What's up with you and that phone?" she asked.

"Oh. That, it's..." Rachel's eyes widened once again and her gaze went back to the device she was still holding. "Uh, you know how last night, you said that some of my fans were recording us?"

"Yes," Quinn answered slowly, trying to figure out what was going on. "Wait, we didn't really end up on TMZ, did we?" she asked, sitting up and reaching for Rachel's phone again.

"Quinn. Manners. Jeez." Rachel held the phone out of reach. "And, no. Not TMZ. But, there are photos and a couple of videos making their way around the internet, mostly fan sites, some Broadway blogs and a couple of tabloid-y type sites."

"What? Seriously?" she asked, letting out a laugh. That must have been why Olivia had been blowing up her phone all morning. She'd seen the photos or the video and wanted to razz Quinn about it. "Let me see." She grabbed Rachel's arm and tugged on it, trying to angle it so she could get a glance at the screen as well.

"You have your own phone," Rachel pointed out, shaking her off. "It's right there. Besides, I'm not even looking at that right now."

"Then what are you doing?" Quinn asked as she rolled over to pick up her own phone. "Because I have a hard time believing that there's pictures of us all over the internet and you're up at six a.m. not looking at them."

"I'm answering the dozens of texts that I've gotten. Mostly friends of mine from school or workshops. We follow all of the same Broadway blogs and they've been blowing up my phone since the photos started appearing." Rachel's thumbs flew rapidly across the screen as she spoke, texting and sending, then scrolling down to the next message. "Oh, my God. I got a message from Kurt."

"Kurt? Our Kurt?" Quinn glanced up from her own search of the internet to see Rachel nod distractedly as she read.

"What's he have to say?" she asked as she tapped in a few new keywords and started another search. "What's the name of one of those sites, anyway?" she asked when it came up with a dozen results, not one of them relating to herself or Rachel.

"Rachel, a half dozen exclamation points," she began reading out the exact contents of the text. "What the, another half dozen question marks and explanation marks. Quinn, capitalized. Quinn Fabray, capitalized and with question marks. You have some explaining to do. Call me. Capitalized."

Quinn laughed. "That sounds like Kurt all right. Any of the other McKinley crew sent you anything yet?" she knew it was only a matter of time before they were all clamoring for an explanation and she was glad it was Rachel that they would be clamoring to, and not herself. Quinn knew that she wouldn't be getting out of this scott free, but the one advantage of dropping off the grid the way she had, none of the former New Directions would be able to get in touch with her in their time of shock and disbelief. She would deal with them once the dust had settled. If this little publicity stint brought them back into her life, she would welcome them with open arms. After Rachel had smoothed out their reactions.

"No. Well, Tina. But I got her message before all this. I'm guessing Kurt's the only one who even saw it. He's the only one who follows the Broadway blogs. Though I'm sure he'll be telling everyone else in due time. I expect a message from Mercedes as soon as California reaches a decent hour for gossip mongering."

"I can't find it anywhere," Quinn complained, handing her phone to Rachel. "Can you please pull up one of the sites?"

Rachel laughed and took Quinn's phone. She tapped a few buttons and handed it back to her.

"Thanks, Rach." Quinn brushed a kiss against Rachel's cheek before turning her attention back to her screen. It was just a small photo of them, dimly lit and of poor quality, with one of those cheesy headlines that gossip sites always use, star caught canoodling and all that, and a short blurb about how fans of Rachel's had caught the pair of them after the show. From there she followed a few links to other gossip sites and a couple of Broadway fan Tumblr pages.

Variations of the same video, the same cheesy headlines, the same comments. There were some debates going on, about who "the blonde" was and some mild speculating about Rachel's sexuality, all of it pretty tame, for which she was grateful. Nobody spouting hate, nothing to obscene or disrespectful. Nothing that looked like it was going to blow this up into something more than it was, which was a few eager fans catching a glimpse into a marginally private moment between an actor they admired and her girlfriend.

It was kind of sweet, really, the esteem in which the posters seemed to hold Rachel. Even the blog sites commented more on her talent and her rising star than they did on the context of the photos.

"You're loving this, aren't you?" Quinn asked. "This is the kind of moment you've been living for since high school, isn't it?"

"Since pre-school," Rachel corrected. "And, yeah." She nodded her head emphatically.

"You're adorable, you know that?" Quinn asked, and grinned at the blush that darkened Rachel's cheeks.

"Hey, look, I got a text from my father," Rachel said instead of replying.

"Yeah? What's it say?"

"Apparently Daddy has a google alert set up on my name, so he saw the photos when they first hit the blogs. He was at work at the hospital this morning when they first started appearing online and has been showing everybody."

Quinn chuckled lightly. She didn't know Rachel's parents well, but that sounded like Leroy.

"I guess we're pretty famous in Lima right now."

Rachel's comment caught her up short. She couldn't really mean all of Lima, right? This news couldn't have spread to that many people, only the select few that Leroy worked with. There was no way the photos of them had made their way outside the hospital walls. Was there?

Her cell phone rang loudly in her hand, an incoming call, and Quinn jumped, startled by the sound of it. The device fell onto the mattress beside her and she stared down at it in trepidation.

Rachel laughed and scooped it up, holding it out for Quinn to take, but Quinn just stared at it, heart racing with panic.

"Who is it?" she asked, unable to make herself reach out and take the phone from her girlfriend's hand.

Rachel turned the phone to get a glimpse of the screen. "Your mom."

"Shit," Quinn hissed, sliding from the bed, needing to put as much space as possible between herself and the woman on the other end of the line. It was an illogical thought, but she couldn't help it. "Shit. Shit. Shit." She ran a hand through her hair as she began pacing the room.

"Aren't you going to answer it?" Rachel sounded confused.

"Hell no."

The phone stopped ringing and Quinn let out a soft sigh of relief. But she didn't stop her pacing.

"Don't you want to talk to your mother?"

Quinn shook her head rapidly and continued her pacing. "No. Emphatically, no. I do not want to talk to my mother."

Her thoughts were a jumbled mess and she just wanted them to stop, just for a minute, so she could think.

"She left a voicemail," Rachel said softly. "Do you want to listen to it?"

"Why not? Quinn, why don't you want to talk to her?"

"Because, she's going to ask about the photos. Or the video. Whatever it is that she's seen or one of her church group cronies has told her about."

"And that's a bad thing, why?"

"Because, I've never told my mother I was gay."

Rachel slid to the end of the bed and reached out, trying to snag one of Quinn's wrists and stop her pacing, but Quinn evaded her and continued in tight circles along the length of the room. "Quinn, I'm confused. I thought that you told me you were out. That everyone who knew you knew that you were gay."

"I am out. In Connecticut. In Boston. Here in New York. My friends know. Your friends know. All of my colleagues..."

"But you've never told your mother?"

Quinn shook her head.

"Your mother doesn't know that you're gay? "Rachel spoke slowly, as if trying to wrap her head around it.

Quinn shook her head. "Oh, she knows. I've just never told her. We don't talk about it."

"And you don't think that now would be a good time?"

"No."

Rachel stared at her, brows drawn together in consternation, head cocked to the side as she studied Quinn, like she was trying to figure her out. "I don't understand how that works. How do you not talk about such a vital part of who you are as a person?"

Quinn shrugged. "We're Fabray's. It's what we do. We don't talk about the bad things. The uncomfortable things."

"So, what do you talk about?"

Again, Quinn shrugged. "Nothing, really. My relationship with my mother isn't like the one you have with your fathers. She doesn't call me up on a Sunday morning just to chat or send me emails, just to keep me caught up with her week."

"But...I mean you guys do have conversations, right?" Rachel asked.

"Yeah. We talk. About her book clubs and her church friends and...movies we've watched...and..." Quinn trailed off and shrugged helplessly. "About stuff."

"Okay. So, if she asks you if you're seeing somebody, do you just lie?"

"No. I don't have to. She never asks me about that."

"Never?"

"Not since college. Sophomore year, I started dating the girl who would become my first serious girlfriend. She invited me to come stay with me over the summer for a few weeks, to meet her family. The whole time I was there, every time my mom called, she asked me if I was having fun with my friend. Every time. But, she stopped asking me if I had met any nice boys." Quinn stopped pacing and leaned against the dresser instead, fiddling idly with the items strewn across the top of. "Senior year, I moved into a place off campus with the girl I was dating at the time. We were together for nearly two years. My mom referred to her as my roommate the entire time and kept coming up with excuses not to visit and reasons why she wasn't going to be around when I suggested coming home."

"Clearly, it means that she knows. So why don't you have a discussion with her about it?" Rachel asked, rising from the bed and crossing the room to stand in front of Quinn.

"I can't."

"You can. I mean, yeah, it will be difficult-"

"Difficult?" Quinn let out a laugh, but there was absolutely no humor in it. "I think it will be way more than difficult to tell my deeply religious, profoundly homophobic mother that I'm gay." She shook her head. "I know you're not that naive, Rach, to think that if I tell my mother it'll be all rainbows and unicorns."

"Well, maybe not at first. But eventually-"

"Eventually what, eventually my mother will stop looking at me like I'm going to hell for who I sleep with? Stop believing that my entire existence is a sin?"

"I mean, you said she already knows."

"She knows, but she refuses to acknolwledge it. The only reason she's even still talking to me is because I have never actually said the words out loud. I've never made her face it."

"Then it is really worth it to have a relationship with your mother if you have to compromise yourself to have it? " Rachel asked, her face screwed up in confusion. "There are whole portions of your life you can't even talk about because you're not being honest with her."

"Have you never dated someone your parents didn't approve of?" Quinn asked. "So, when they called you talked about other things, to minimize the tension?"

"That's not the same-"

"It's exactly the same thing," Quinn cut her off, even as Rachel shook her head in disagreement.

"But, why do you even care so much? If she's never going to accept who you are, then-"

"Because she's my mother. For better or worse, she's my mom and I love her," Quinn said. "I know you know a little something about that. How many chances did you give Shelby, even though-"

"Don't," Rachel hissed. "Don't even bring her into this. It has nothing to do with her. And besides, my relationship with my mother is none of your business."

"Right. And my relationship with my mother is none of your business"

"It's my business because what you're doing isn't healthy. And I'm concerned for you, as your girlfriend-"

"Is that fact that your my girlfriend contingent on the relationship that I have with my mother?"

"Well, no but-"

"Then, just drop it." Quinn strode over to the pile of clothes on the chair and began pawing through them, plucking out her clothes for the day. She wasn't prepared to be having this conversation right now. She just wasn't equipped for it. She'd just gotten up, she hadn't even had her coffee yet and her phone was ringing, probably her mother again. A month of radio silence but all of a sudden she was insisting on gaining Quinn's attention. And Rachel was staring at her, she could feel the other woman's eyes on her back as she dressed quickly, probably angry, definitely hurt and confused. Her own thoughts were a jumble and it was just, too much at her all at once.

"What are you doing? Quinn? Where are you going? We need to talk about this." Rachel followed behind her as she strode from the room, gathering her things as she headed for the door.

"I can't talk about this, Rach. Not right now," Quinn said, turning with one hand on the door. "I just got publicly outed. To my Mom," she said, hating the way her voice cracked and shook, but forging ahead anyway. "And instead of having my girlfriend there to hold my hand and support me though what is going to be an incredibly difficult conversation, she's standing there judging me and forcing me to defend my choices."

"Quinn I-"

"I have to go, Rachel. I'll see you later."