Summary: Sequel to Dirty Little Secret
Pairing: strong Rachel/Quinn
Notes: Happy birthday, Quinn! Rachel has a secret gift. Quinn's struck with an urge. Nothing is ever perfect.
Warning: read the author's note, I have some life experience that'll explain what I've done. Sort of. I don't know, just read the author's note lol
Disclaimer: I won nothings but the random rambling of which occur in my brain. Glee and any other copyrighted content used belongs to the respective owners.
Hazel eyes scanned the room, taking in all the people she loved. Puck stood with Mike and Matt talking animatedly, she guessed over the football game that'd be on TV the night before. Santana and Brittany were tucked away in a corner, looking as though they were desperately trying not to make out with each other. Tina was sat in Artie's lap while they talked with Kurt. Mercedes and Leroy seemed to be in deep discussion over something or other. Hiram sat happily in the armchair, Charlie held securely in his arms. Judy was chasing after a toddling Beth who apparently didn't feel the need to allow her grandmother to finish dressing her after a diaper change. Only one person was missing, the person she wanted to see the most.
"Hey."
"There you are," Quinn smiled, "I was just looking around and wondering where you'd got to."
"Well, I'm right by your side," Rachel nudged her girlfriend playfully, "right where I'll always be."
"I hope so."
"I know so," she replied with a nod of her head. "Do you think we can get away with slipping upstairs for a moment?"
The blonde turned to look at her partner with a quizzically arched eyebrow.
"Not for that!" She slapped her shoulder lightly, "Perv. You've been spending far too much time with Santana."
"Then, what?"
"Come upstairs and you'll find out."
"Ok..." apprehension sounded in her voice, she was uncertain as to what her girlfriend could possibly want that would require them leaving her birthday party.
Tan linked with light and gently tugged in the direction of the stairs, leading them up into Quinn's bedroom before shutting the door.
"Do you still want to move to New York after graduation?"
"New York? Rach, what's that got to do with anything?"
"Just answer the question, Quinn. Do you?"
"Yes, I mean so long as that's what we both still want?" She was beyond confused at this point, how had they ended up in her room discussing New York of all things when they were meant to be downstairs participating in the birthday party that was forced upon her?
"I know it's not your birthday until Monday, but your grandparents are here tomorrow so I won't get to see you and I didn't want to give you this at school." Rachel reached into the back pocket of her jeans and withdrew a folded up envelope, "Here."
"Rachel, what's going on?" She accepted the envelope, her brow furrowed in confusion.
"Just read it," her nerves carried in her voice, it had been so hard to keep this from everyone, especially her girlfriend and their parents.
With shaky hands she opened the envelope and retrieved the letter, scanning it word for word as she tried to take in what her girlfriend was trying to tell her.
"It's a tentative acceptance," she began quietly, "I still have to have a formal audition but they liked the DVD that I sent in. Artie made it for me. And I guess-"
Her words were silenced by the sudden urgent lips pressing against her own.
"You got in!" Quinn gushed.
"Kind of, yeah," Rachel admitted bashfully.
"You got in to NYADA!" The blonde threw her arms around the diminutive diva.
Rachel laughed, "I knew you'd be happy but I didn't think you'd be this happy."
"Are you insane? Do you have any idea how proud I am of you?" She pulled back to look at Rachel with disbelief.
"I wouldn't have even thought of applying if it weren't for you," Rachel admitted, "I haven't been able to stop thinking about it all since we talked in New York. Artie gave me the extra kick in the butt that I needed but mostly I couldn't get your voice out of my head."
Quinn studied Rachel's face, taking in every emotion that seemed to flicker in the chocolate orbs she'd often found herself lost in, the relieved smile, the relaxed brow. She had so much pride for the woman stood in front of her, no matter what life threw at her and it certainly had thrown a lot, she never stopped trying, never backed down, never stopped coming back with a renewed strength that was awe inspiring. Quinn didn't think it was possible to love Rachel anymore than she did in that moment.
Rachel laced her arms around Quinn's neck, "Get everything you wanted for your birthday?"
"Almost," she took Rachel's hands within her own and led her to the bed, "Sit down."
"Apparently now it's my turn to be confused?"
She smiled over her shoulder as she went over to her dresser. She had no idea why she was doing it, there were no grand gestures, no performances, no rose petal covered beds, it was just them, just her and Rachel and she supposed that was what made it so perfect to her because when it came to her and Rachel, it had never been about showing off and causing drama, it was just them, exactly as they were and they were perfect that way.
Turning round, she took a calming breath before crouching in front of the thoroughly confused brunette and placed the small black box on the bed beside Rachel's knee, remembering the last time she'd presented this box to someone.
Quinn sat opposite the two Berry men, both trying to understand exactly the young mother had wanted to talk to them about while Rachel was out with Artie. It seemed odd to them, Quinn and Rachel didn't keep secrets from each other, so to have Quinn specifically request to talk to them while their daughter was absent seemed a little strange to them.
"I need you to understand that what I'm about to say isn't meant to be rude or disrespectful towards you at all," Quinn started.
"Ok..." Hiram exchanged a look with his husband who just shrugged as if to say 'I have no idea'.
The blonde reached into her bag and retrieved a small black box before placing it on the coffee table between them, giving Hiram and Leroy an almost apologetic look as she continued, "I'm not asking for permission. Rachel has had far too many things decided for her and I won't let this be one of them. What I am asking for is your blessing, because I love this family, I love you two, in my eyes I have three parents and that is why I am asking for your blessing because I love and respect you too much to go around sneaking behind your backs."
"I think I might cry," Hiram uttered, dabbing at the corners of his eyes.
Leroy rolled his eyes, "You're impossible, Hir."
Quinn let out a nervous laugh, she honestly didn't know what she would do if the Berry's truly disapproved of what she was intending to do.
Hiram and Leroy looked at each, doing that annoying thing they'd seemed to have mastered where they communicated silently.
"When?" Hiram asked.
"Soon."
"Then I guess," Leroy interjected knowing that given the chance Hiram would demand a date and the man couldn't keep a secret for the life of him, "we're going to have a wedding to plan."
"Quinn?" Her brow furrowed in confusion as her eyes darted between the young woman in front of her and the box beside her knee.
"I always thought my life would be pretty boring, that I'd follow in my mothers footsteps," she began to explain, "I never thought I'd end up sixteen and pregnant, after that I never thought it was possible to love anyone as much as I love Beth but you and Charlie proved me wrong. I spent so long trying to gather the courage to apologise to you for all the things I put you through but I couldn't, Puck's right, I cared too much that you wouldn't forgive me because even then I loved you, I was just too stupid to realise it."
"Quinn..." she reached forward and cupped her girlfriends cheek.
A hand covered the one against her cheek. "My life is so far from boring because of you. I've known so much happiness and so much love, things I never thought I deserved but you give them to me anyway. I can't imagine a single moment of my life without you in it. I can't imagine watching our girls grow up with anyone else. I can't imagine a day where your smile doesn't instantly make my day so much better. There are a million things and I wish I could list them all but what it comes down to is this, I don't want to do any of them without you. I love you so much, I'm in love with you and I want to spend the rest of my life that way. Will you-"
Banging on the door interrupted Quinn's words as a voice shouted through the wood, "Q, get your fingers outta Berry pie! Beth fell-"
Both girls scrabbled for the door, the bubble they were in permanently shattered as they almost ripped the door off the hinges in concern for their daughter.
"What about Beth?"
"Is she ok?"
"Huh, guess your fingers weren't in Berry pie after all," the Latina smirked.
"SANTANA!" Quinn could honestly throttle her best friend at the best of times but right now she was extremely close to actually following through on that thought.
"Oh right, yeah, Beth fell and managed to grab hold of the table cloth as she went down and now she's wearing your birthday cake, it's fucking hilarious!"
The young mother saw red, she was on the verge of finally asking the question that had been burning a hole in her pocket for the last week or so and it'd been ruined for this?! She drew her fist back and punched the Cheerio in the arm as hard as she could.
"OW! What the fuck, Q?!"
Quinn didn't answer, she stormed past her friend and stomped down the stairs, trying to calm down as she went to check on the mess her daughter had created.
Santana looked at Rachel in confusion, "What the fuck was that all about?"
"Santana," Rachel patted the girl on the shoulder, "you really do have the worlds worst timing."
Author's note: Howdy doodle! Right, so I know a bunch of people are going to jump on me for this so I thought I'd best explain myself so you're about to get a bunch of information about myself that you don't particularly need or want but I have no other way of explaining this shit. So let's start with Rachel and NYADA, shall we? I have little to no knowledge of the American education system, you all know this, I've been honest about it from the start but here's the thing, there is such a thing as late admission and conditional acceptances. At least there is over here. I myself applied to uni about 4-5 weeks before classes were due to start, yeah I know talk about leaving it to the last minute, but here's the thing, I went for an interview, took a portfolio of my writing and I got in and started classes alongside everyone else. So yeah, missing application deadlines isn't always the end of the world and Rachel is more than talented enough to pull something like this off if I can do it with very little talent. Now, Quinn, I'm sure that there are people that are disappointed that the proposal wasn't some big flashy affair with never ending declarations of love and yada, yada, yada. I have both been proposed to and proposed. I did the big thing, it even ended in marriage, which ended in disaster but that's not the point. But I've also done simple. There is such a thing as looking at the person you are in love with and being struck with the need to spend every breath you have loving them and just asking them to marry you because in that moment it really is as simple as that to you, so yeah, that's basically Quinn for you. As for the interruption, life is not perfect, far from it. Especially when you have kids. So there's my explanation and you now know a bunch of stuff about me that you don't need lol in other news! I wrote 3 chapters for the sequel and my software crashed and I lost everything! *cries* I've been working on trying to remember them but it's proving difficult. For this story I've written up to and including chapter 44 and now I'm stuck. Not in the sense of not knowing what's happening next, I know exactly what's going to happen but I'm just struggling a little at the moment, it doesn't help that I'm sick, I'm going to blame that on my inability to write because my head feels like it's splitting. Right, shutting up now. If you're all really nice to me I might post again tonight, or I might flake out cos of being sick and post in the morning, but only if you're nice to me. As always please R&R because you guys unknowingly become the kick in the ass I need to get writing done and maybe you'll be able to get me past this block for chapter 45. Hope you're all happy and healthy. Be kind to each other. Bye!