Decisions
Title: Decisions
Pairing: Rachel/Quinn
Rating: PG
Length: ~2,000
Summary: Quinn reflects on the one decision that changed her life forever.
Author's Note: *Puppy-verse #4*
Preceded by:
Puppy | My Girl(s) | Perfection
Directory | Timeline | Original Character Bios
Anyone who knew of Quinn and Rachel’s life together would describe it as a fairy tale. It definitely wasn’t a stereotypical Disney fairy tale in that they were both women, they didn’t live in a forest surrounded by wide-eyed deer (except they had seen the second Mrs. Schuester, formerly Ms. Pillsbury, at one of Rachel’s shows and she did still look kind of like Bambi), there weren’t any magic spells or poisoned apples, and they weren’t cartoon characters. They did, however, spontaneously burst into song and perfectly choreographed dance and to anyone else they’d look crazy but their bodies never forgot the dance moves from their time in glee club.
They lived in a fantastic neighborhood. They had a beautiful daughter, Allie, who looked exactly like Quinn but had picked up a tiny bit Rachel’s diva attitude. She had been trained by Brittany since she was five to be one of the top dancers in the City of New York. She knew how to defend herself, her father was a cop after all. Santana taught her how to command presence and order in anything she did which led her to being class president throughout high school (minus sophomore year). Quinn and Rachel were proud because despite all of the success that Allie had already achieved in her life she was very down-to-Earth (minus the occasional diva-fit and an incident involving slushies her sophomore year).
Rachel and Quinn’s identical twin girls, Isabelle and Olivia, were almost too hard to tell apart by looks. If it hadn’t been for the freckle at the end of Olivia’s right eyebrow Rachel and Quinn would have almost certainly mixed the two up when they were infants (especially on days when they were too tired to really care which one was which, just that they were both fed and clean). It was overwhelmingly apparent whose egg they came from the second they were born. Dark hair. Dark brown eyes. And they were always short for their age.
Both women (although Rachel would never outright admit it) were thankful that only Olivia had inherited Rachel’s temper. She was dramatic, demanding, fiercely independent, and was already well on her way to breaking her older sister’s record of perfecting a diva storm-out before the age of nine. She was also ridiculously good at any sport she tried from the day she picked up a baseball. Much to Rachel’s horror she hated dance (Rachel did finally convince her to take lessons because it would help with balance and agility). But Olivia was on the go constantly. T-ball/softball in the summer, soccer in the fall and spring, basketball in the winter. Puck and Anna brought their two sons, Noah Jr. and Elijah, to New York for a while the summer after the twins turned five and Puck took everyone to a Yankees game and Olivia demanded he move to New York so they could go every single day.
No one was entirely sure where Isabelle got her personality. She was the opposite of her twin. She was quiet, obedient, very much attached to her mothers, and just generally content with the world. She wasn’t competitive (early on), she mostly just did her own thing and was just a happy kid. She was fascinated with any form of art from painting, to drawing to sculpting. Her request for her sixth birthday trip was to go to the city art expo. The refrigerator was literally covered with drawings and paintings that Isabelle produced on a daily basis. And according to her art teachers, they were always very good for her age. She also had a fascination with the History Channel which Rachel and Quinn quickly learned to closely monitor after the young girl stumbled upon “The History of Sex” documentary one late night when she was five when they’d all fallen asleep on the couch and the girl got a hold of the remote.
What most people didn’t know is that there was a possibility that it could never have happened. Only three people in the world knew that Quinn’s life could have been completely and utterly different from the one she was living now. And every time she thought about it she had the overwhelming urge to throw up because the thought of anything different than this was absolutely horrifying.
The decision (however clouded it was) to have sex with Puck wasn’t the one that could’ve screwed up her life. If anything, that was one decision that made her life better. No, the ultimatum she was given that decided the course of her life was one that was only known to her and her parents.
After Quinn was kicked out of Finn’s house she bounced around every couple of weeks to her friends’ houses. Rachel constantly offered a permanent place to stay but she still irritated the hell out of Quinn and the blonde was sure she would end up in prison for the murder of the diva because there was no way they would ever both survive as housemates. However, with a month to go in her pregnancy, she got tired of moving every couple of weeks and she reluctantly called Rachel from Santana’s house.
She was grateful to have her own room and bathroom (when she lived with Santana she had to sleep on the couch and share a bathroom with the rest of the family). There was a constant supply of ice cream and pickles in the house, and Rachel’s dads seemed to genuinely care about what happened to her.
--March 21, 2010 8:13a.m.--
Quinn was asleep in her hospital bed. Her three-hour-old daughter, Allison Violet Fabray, was in the nursery. Rachel and her dads were in the hospital cafeteria having breakfast after the long night they put in. A couple asked at the front counter where to find Quinn Fabray and they were directed to room 310.
Quinn jumped awake when she heard the squeak of the door and saw them standing there. Her parents. They weren’t even really her parents anymore. They were just two people who let her live in their house until she had sex and got pregnant.
“Quinn,” her father said sternly.
“Russell,” Quinn replied. He wasn’t her “Daddy” anymore.
“How are you feeling, sweetie?” her mother asked politely before brushing the stray strands of blonde hair away from her face.
“Tired considering I just went through twelve hours of labor and had to deal with Puck passing out when the baby crowned and Rachel throwing a fit when one of the nurses actually made a move to check and see if he was okay.”
“Rachel?” her mother asked inquisitively.
“I’ve been living with her for about a month. Rachel Berry.”
Her father snorted. “She’s the one with the two queers for dads, right?”
“No, she’s the one with the two loving fathers who took me in and have treated me like their own. They’re my family.”
“They haven’t turned you queer, have they?”
Quinn simply rolled her eyes. “What do you want?”
“Well first we need to know if you’re like them or not.”
“I’m not gay. Even if I were, what’s it to you?”
“Sweetie,” her mother spoke again, “we found a couple that is willing to adopt the baby right away. If you let them take her then you can come back home and things can go back to the way they were. You’ll be our daughter and everything will be just fine.” Her mother smiled that empty smile Quinn had always known.
“Why would I want that?”
“Financial support, for one thing,” her father said. “We’ll still pay for your car, your phone, college. We’ll take care of these hospital bills. Just come home and forget about this bastard child and that abomination you call a family.”
“Stop saying things like that about them! They took me in when no one wanted me! They’ve fed me, kept a roof over my head…”
“Do you forget that we did that for sixteen years?” her father growled. “They’ve done it for a month.” He pulled a stack of tri-folded papers from his jacket pocket and tossed them at Quinn. “Adoption papers. You have until tomorrow to sign them.”
Her parents left and Quinn stared down at the documents in her hands. She didn’t understand most of what was written, it was all legal jargon. She did understand that it would be a closed adoption and she’d never be allowed to contact the couple or try to find her daughter, ever. She was surprised at herself that she was actually considering signing them. But with what her parents had offered…she could be normal again. She could move back into her old room and stop bothering the Berrys and go back to being head cheerleader and on top of the world. She could go to college and get crazy drunk with her friends at frat parties. She heard Rachel’s voice echo in the hallway and quickly stuffed the papers under her blanket.
The next morning she told Rachel and her dads to leave when her parents showed up. Her father sneered at Rachel’s dads. They only nodded politely and left.
“So I hand her over and that’s it?” Quinn asked. “I come home and I’m your daughter again?”
Her father nodded. Quinn pulled the papers out from behind her pillow.
“I understand,” she said softly.
“Wonderful,” her father said. He reached his hand out and a devilish smile slid across his face when he snatched up the papers. “By the way, you’re going to live with my sister and her husband in London. They’ve already got you enrolled in St. James Catholic High School for the summer term. Until then I’ve hired a tutor to come help you finish up your work here.” He tucked the papers into his jacket pocket.
Quinn shook her head. “No.”
“It’s what’s best for you.”
“I’m not going.”
“Honey, just come home with us when they release you and we’ll talk about it there, okay?” Her mother smiled.
Quinn shook her head again. “I’m not coming home with you.”
A look of panic swept over Russell Fabray’s face and he pulled the papers out of his jacket. He threw them back at Quinn, every single line where her name was supposed to be was blank.
“Sign them!” he thundered.
Quinn shook her head again. “I’m staying with Rachel. And I’m keeping my baby.”
-*-*-*-*-*-
Quinn sometimes did wonder what her life would have been like had she signed the papers. She would have been whisked off to London in May to settle in with her Aunt Priscilla and Uncle Ian. Allie would have been adopted by a couple she would never meet but were probably just younger versions of her parents. She would have finished her last two years of school in London and probably been manipulated into going to college there as well. Because she was so vulnerable at that point in time she had a sickening feeling that she would’ve ended up molded, just like her mother, into this emotionless Stepford wife.
What would not have happened was just as scary as what would have. She wouldn’t have fallen in love with Rachel because she would’ve been in London. She wouldn’t have moved to New York with her and lived with Rachel’s cousins while studying furiously to be a teacher, getting her degree in only three years. She wouldn’t have been by Rachel’s side when the brunette dropped out of Julliard after one year to start work on a play they weren’t sure was going to succeed but did and was now shattering records and winning awards left and right.
Quinn never once, not when Allie refused to stop crying in the middle of the night before Quinn had to take the ACT or when she had to miss her high school graduation ceremony because Allie was in the hospital with pneumonia or when Rachel miscarried or when the twins both had the stomach flu at the same time when they were three, she never once regretted telling her parents off. It was the best decision she ever made.
Next: Baby Love
Pairing: Rachel/Quinn
Rating: PG
Length: ~2,000
Summary: Quinn reflects on the one decision that changed her life forever.
Author's Note: *Puppy-verse #4*
Preceded by:
Puppy | My Girl(s) | Perfection
Directory | Timeline | Original Character Bios
Anyone who knew of Quinn and Rachel’s life together would describe it as a fairy tale. It definitely wasn’t a stereotypical Disney fairy tale in that they were both women, they didn’t live in a forest surrounded by wide-eyed deer (except they had seen the second Mrs. Schuester, formerly Ms. Pillsbury, at one of Rachel’s shows and she did still look kind of like Bambi), there weren’t any magic spells or poisoned apples, and they weren’t cartoon characters. They did, however, spontaneously burst into song and perfectly choreographed dance and to anyone else they’d look crazy but their bodies never forgot the dance moves from their time in glee club.
They lived in a fantastic neighborhood. They had a beautiful daughter, Allie, who looked exactly like Quinn but had picked up a tiny bit Rachel’s diva attitude. She had been trained by Brittany since she was five to be one of the top dancers in the City of New York. She knew how to defend herself, her father was a cop after all. Santana taught her how to command presence and order in anything she did which led her to being class president throughout high school (minus sophomore year). Quinn and Rachel were proud because despite all of the success that Allie had already achieved in her life she was very down-to-Earth (minus the occasional diva-fit and an incident involving slushies her sophomore year).
Rachel and Quinn’s identical twin girls, Isabelle and Olivia, were almost too hard to tell apart by looks. If it hadn’t been for the freckle at the end of Olivia’s right eyebrow Rachel and Quinn would have almost certainly mixed the two up when they were infants (especially on days when they were too tired to really care which one was which, just that they were both fed and clean). It was overwhelmingly apparent whose egg they came from the second they were born. Dark hair. Dark brown eyes. And they were always short for their age.
Both women (although Rachel would never outright admit it) were thankful that only Olivia had inherited Rachel’s temper. She was dramatic, demanding, fiercely independent, and was already well on her way to breaking her older sister’s record of perfecting a diva storm-out before the age of nine. She was also ridiculously good at any sport she tried from the day she picked up a baseball. Much to Rachel’s horror she hated dance (Rachel did finally convince her to take lessons because it would help with balance and agility). But Olivia was on the go constantly. T-ball/softball in the summer, soccer in the fall and spring, basketball in the winter. Puck and Anna brought their two sons, Noah Jr. and Elijah, to New York for a while the summer after the twins turned five and Puck took everyone to a Yankees game and Olivia demanded he move to New York so they could go every single day.
No one was entirely sure where Isabelle got her personality. She was the opposite of her twin. She was quiet, obedient, very much attached to her mothers, and just generally content with the world. She wasn’t competitive (early on), she mostly just did her own thing and was just a happy kid. She was fascinated with any form of art from painting, to drawing to sculpting. Her request for her sixth birthday trip was to go to the city art expo. The refrigerator was literally covered with drawings and paintings that Isabelle produced on a daily basis. And according to her art teachers, they were always very good for her age. She also had a fascination with the History Channel which Rachel and Quinn quickly learned to closely monitor after the young girl stumbled upon “The History of Sex” documentary one late night when she was five when they’d all fallen asleep on the couch and the girl got a hold of the remote.
What most people didn’t know is that there was a possibility that it could never have happened. Only three people in the world knew that Quinn’s life could have been completely and utterly different from the one she was living now. And every time she thought about it she had the overwhelming urge to throw up because the thought of anything different than this was absolutely horrifying.
The decision (however clouded it was) to have sex with Puck wasn’t the one that could’ve screwed up her life. If anything, that was one decision that made her life better. No, the ultimatum she was given that decided the course of her life was one that was only known to her and her parents.
After Quinn was kicked out of Finn’s house she bounced around every couple of weeks to her friends’ houses. Rachel constantly offered a permanent place to stay but she still irritated the hell out of Quinn and the blonde was sure she would end up in prison for the murder of the diva because there was no way they would ever both survive as housemates. However, with a month to go in her pregnancy, she got tired of moving every couple of weeks and she reluctantly called Rachel from Santana’s house.
She was grateful to have her own room and bathroom (when she lived with Santana she had to sleep on the couch and share a bathroom with the rest of the family). There was a constant supply of ice cream and pickles in the house, and Rachel’s dads seemed to genuinely care about what happened to her.
--March 21, 2010 8:13a.m.--
Quinn was asleep in her hospital bed. Her three-hour-old daughter, Allison Violet Fabray, was in the nursery. Rachel and her dads were in the hospital cafeteria having breakfast after the long night they put in. A couple asked at the front counter where to find Quinn Fabray and they were directed to room 310.
Quinn jumped awake when she heard the squeak of the door and saw them standing there. Her parents. They weren’t even really her parents anymore. They were just two people who let her live in their house until she had sex and got pregnant.
“Quinn,” her father said sternly.
“Russell,” Quinn replied. He wasn’t her “Daddy” anymore.
“How are you feeling, sweetie?” her mother asked politely before brushing the stray strands of blonde hair away from her face.
“Tired considering I just went through twelve hours of labor and had to deal with Puck passing out when the baby crowned and Rachel throwing a fit when one of the nurses actually made a move to check and see if he was okay.”
“Rachel?” her mother asked inquisitively.
“I’ve been living with her for about a month. Rachel Berry.”
Her father snorted. “She’s the one with the two queers for dads, right?”
“No, she’s the one with the two loving fathers who took me in and have treated me like their own. They’re my family.”
“They haven’t turned you queer, have they?”
Quinn simply rolled her eyes. “What do you want?”
“Well first we need to know if you’re like them or not.”
“I’m not gay. Even if I were, what’s it to you?”
“Sweetie,” her mother spoke again, “we found a couple that is willing to adopt the baby right away. If you let them take her then you can come back home and things can go back to the way they were. You’ll be our daughter and everything will be just fine.” Her mother smiled that empty smile Quinn had always known.
“Why would I want that?”
“Financial support, for one thing,” her father said. “We’ll still pay for your car, your phone, college. We’ll take care of these hospital bills. Just come home and forget about this bastard child and that abomination you call a family.”
“Stop saying things like that about them! They took me in when no one wanted me! They’ve fed me, kept a roof over my head…”
“Do you forget that we did that for sixteen years?” her father growled. “They’ve done it for a month.” He pulled a stack of tri-folded papers from his jacket pocket and tossed them at Quinn. “Adoption papers. You have until tomorrow to sign them.”
Her parents left and Quinn stared down at the documents in her hands. She didn’t understand most of what was written, it was all legal jargon. She did understand that it would be a closed adoption and she’d never be allowed to contact the couple or try to find her daughter, ever. She was surprised at herself that she was actually considering signing them. But with what her parents had offered…she could be normal again. She could move back into her old room and stop bothering the Berrys and go back to being head cheerleader and on top of the world. She could go to college and get crazy drunk with her friends at frat parties. She heard Rachel’s voice echo in the hallway and quickly stuffed the papers under her blanket.
The next morning she told Rachel and her dads to leave when her parents showed up. Her father sneered at Rachel’s dads. They only nodded politely and left.
“So I hand her over and that’s it?” Quinn asked. “I come home and I’m your daughter again?”
Her father nodded. Quinn pulled the papers out from behind her pillow.
“I understand,” she said softly.
“Wonderful,” her father said. He reached his hand out and a devilish smile slid across his face when he snatched up the papers. “By the way, you’re going to live with my sister and her husband in London. They’ve already got you enrolled in St. James Catholic High School for the summer term. Until then I’ve hired a tutor to come help you finish up your work here.” He tucked the papers into his jacket pocket.
Quinn shook her head. “No.”
“It’s what’s best for you.”
“I’m not going.”
“Honey, just come home with us when they release you and we’ll talk about it there, okay?” Her mother smiled.
Quinn shook her head again. “I’m not coming home with you.”
A look of panic swept over Russell Fabray’s face and he pulled the papers out of his jacket. He threw them back at Quinn, every single line where her name was supposed to be was blank.
“Sign them!” he thundered.
Quinn shook her head again. “I’m staying with Rachel. And I’m keeping my baby.”
-*-*-*-*-*-
Quinn sometimes did wonder what her life would have been like had she signed the papers. She would have been whisked off to London in May to settle in with her Aunt Priscilla and Uncle Ian. Allie would have been adopted by a couple she would never meet but were probably just younger versions of her parents. She would have finished her last two years of school in London and probably been manipulated into going to college there as well. Because she was so vulnerable at that point in time she had a sickening feeling that she would’ve ended up molded, just like her mother, into this emotionless Stepford wife.
What would not have happened was just as scary as what would have. She wouldn’t have fallen in love with Rachel because she would’ve been in London. She wouldn’t have moved to New York with her and lived with Rachel’s cousins while studying furiously to be a teacher, getting her degree in only three years. She wouldn’t have been by Rachel’s side when the brunette dropped out of Julliard after one year to start work on a play they weren’t sure was going to succeed but did and was now shattering records and winning awards left and right.
Quinn never once, not when Allie refused to stop crying in the middle of the night before Quinn had to take the ACT or when she had to miss her high school graduation ceremony because Allie was in the hospital with pneumonia or when Rachel miscarried or when the twins both had the stomach flu at the same time when they were three, she never once regretted telling her parents off. It was the best decision she ever made.
Next: Baby Love