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The fact that Rachel and Quinn had to pick up little Tracy Anderson-Hummel from a harried Kurt and Blaine spoke volumes of how much the men trusted them.
“… and don’t give her soda in the afternoon, she gets hyper. Um, is that everything?” Kurt was listing, counting things out on his fingers, except that he had to reuse fingers so many times that Quinn had lost count of the actual number of things she was supposed to remember.
“No sugar, basically.”
“Yes! And for the love of God don’t let her get into Blaine’s bowties,” Kurt mumbled. “She loves those things so much that she scatters them around the house.”
“It’s adorable!” Blaine called out, in mock outrage.
“When she does you lose, like, 5 bowties, tops!” Kurt hollered back, dragging a hand down his face in frustration. “I’m so sorry to just dump it all on you guys so suddenly but Santana and Brittany are unreachable right now and Parker and Marley won’t be here until later- the last person we could try was Sebastian but-“
“Sebastian would break every rule we have in this house!” Blaine shouted, and Kurt sort of shrugged and nodded at that.
“That. It’ll just be for a couple of hours, Blaine and I are at the offices for the whole day, but usually Parker and Marley come over to babysit since they’re usually free… but they’re not until later so…”
“Relax,” Rachel laughed as Tracy grabbed a sheet of paper and a box of colour pencils. “We got this until the usual babysitters arrive!”
“I’m not a baby!” Tracy pouted, huffing. “Come help me make this family tree!”
Kurt slapped a hand to his forehead. “Right! I almost forgot. Could you help her do her homework? She has to present it in school tomorrow.”
“Sounds easy enough,” Quinn shrugged. “Just you, Blaine, Burt, Finn, Carole, Cooper…”
“Actually,” Kurt cut her off gently. “She wants all of us in there.”
Rachel snorted. Quinn did a double-take.
“ What? ”
He raised his hands defensively. “I don’t know?! She says it’s cause she calls you all aunts and uncles.”
“Lord have mercy…” Quinn could only imagine the face the teacher would give at the family tree they would be presented with. A very complicated family tree indeed. Oh no.
“Hey we have to go. Call if you need anything!” And just like that, Kurt and Blaine were gone, leaving Quinn standing with Rachel and Tracy, who was already beginning to scrawl her name on the paper with a black colour pencil.
Plopping down beside Rachel, she saw the other girl give her a soft smile of fondness, one that made Quinn’s heart thud loudly in her chest and made the corners of her own mouth twitch up in response. Rachel only beamed wider at that, reaching out to take Quinn’s hand and squeezing it for a moment, before pulling back.
“Okay so!” Tracy held up a red colour pencil. “Red is for married. Green is for brother and sister. And- and blue is boyfriend girlfriend. But what should I put you, Aunt Rachel? Daddy and papa said that I came from you.”
“How about…” Rachel reached out for yellow, Quinn reached out for pink. “Yellow is for you being born to that person, and pink is for adoption.”
Their family dynamic was a lot more complicated than that, but it was easier to just simplify it into the different colours. Tracy scrunched up her face at that, then seemed to take it as it was and turned to her family tree. “So daddy and papa are married. So that’s red!”
She drew a wobbly straight line joining Kurt and Blaine’s names, then the three of them wasted no time writing everybody else’s names down without joining people’s names yet (“Just to make sure we didn’t forget anybody!”) and Quinn was rather amused to see Rachel’s name next to hers.
The next line she drew was a green line between Carole and Burt, then she paused as she remembered something.
“But Grandpa Burt and Grandma Carole didn’t born daddy and Uncle Finn together,” Tracy murmured, brow furrowed in concentration. “Daddy said he came from a different mother.”
“Well…” Rachel looked at Quinn helplessly, floundering on what to say to Tracy. How could someone explain death to a child? Nobody had died yet (though Shooting Star was a very close call) and honestly, Rachel wanted to keep it that way. It was kind of hard to remember that people have already died beforehand. “Some people, when they get married, they have a child. But then sometimes, one of the people in that marriage dies. The other person can go on to marry another person. They become the kid’s step-parent.”
“So… Grandpa Burt and Grandpa Carole replaced daddy’s mommy and Uncle Finn’s daddy?” Tracy asked, alarmed with wide eyes. They were already moist and her bottom lip was jutting out in a pout.
“No! No, no, no. Not like that. Sometimes, you can love more than one person. Even though Grandpa Christopher and Grandma Elizabeth aren’t here, your Grandpa Burt and Grandpa Carole still love them very much.” Quinn allowed the little girl to cling onto her, on the brink of bursting into tears. She tried not to think of the last time she held a child (Beth) and instead focused on rubbing soothing patterns on Tracy’s back.
“Really?”
“Yes, really.” Rachel lifted Tracy from Quinn with a small grunt of effort and sat her on her lap. “Your daddy and Uncle Finn love both your Grandpas and Grandmas, even if they came from different families.”
“We have some strange families…” Quinn mused. “Like one of the current Glee members I think. Weird family.”
“Nini Parker and Aunt Marley said that they came from weird families too, once,” Tracy frowned. “They never said it to me, but I’m confused. What does that mean? Don’t they have a papa and daddy or mommy and daddy or mommy and mama like other people? Aunt Rachel, you have a papa and daddy like me, right?”
“Yeah little bug, I do!” Rachel pressed a kiss to Tracy’s forehead and scrawled Leroy and Hiram’s names above hers. With some consideration, she also wrote Shelby’s name, connecting them all with their respective colours. “I’m like you, see. I have two dads and I came from someone else who’s friends with them.”
Friends was kind of stretching it a little. Quinn was pretty sure Hiram never forgave Shelby for going to see Rachel really early, but she kept mum for the benefit of the little girl who was nodding resolutely now, not sad anymore. Quinn wrapped an arm around Rachel, allowing Rachel to lean into her and Tracy to hop off and continue looking at the family tree.
“But I still don’t understand the weird family thing Nini and Aunt Marley were talking about,” Tracy sighed, causing the two women to give each other panicked looks over her head. It wasn’t quite their story to tell, and they were pretty sure telling Tracy would probably destroy her faith in humanity.
“How about… when they come later, you ask them?” Quinn deflected, mentally hoping Parker and Marley would be able to take the kid’s questions. “We still have a lot of people to connect.”
“Oh yeah!”
And at the very top of the paper, Tracy wrote ‘Grandma Emma’ and ‘Grandpa Will’, and both of them resisted the urge to snort and snicker, before their jaw dropped as Tracy drew pink lines connecting all the New Directions to Will and Emma’s green link.
“Why…” Quinn resisted choking. “Why are we all adopted by Grandpa Will and Grandma Emma?”
“Because you are!” Tracy answered cheerfully, finishing the lines. “He’s like your dad!”
“Little bug, I’m pretty sure we’re not-“ Rachel was slowly protesting, pulling away from Quinn.
“No?” Tracy looked between them. “But Uncle Sebastian and Uncle Jesse said-“
They shared murderous looks over Tracy’s head.
(Jesse and Sebastian were called a week later to clean Tracy’s explosive diarrhea because of this. And then made to sit through several lectures of not feeding children wholly untrue information.)
“Honey, we’re not actually adopted by Grandpa Will and Grandma Emma. They are our teachers.”
“So does that mean they don’t love you?”
“No,” Quinn floundered, “they love us, but not like parents. They’re our teachers, teachers love us a different way.”
“Ohh…” Tracy stared sadly at the lines already on the paper. “I’m wrong.”
Perhaps seeing the tears in Tracy’s eyes, Rachel leaned forward. “You can leave those there, it’s okay. Our relationship with Mr. Schue is similar to it anyways.”
Tracy brightened slightly at that, but Quinn frowned at Rachel, who pointedly ignored her gaze, instead focusing on calling out the New Directions in a relationship and providing at least the names of the good parents. They pointedly avoided certain families and definitely avoided Beth.
(“Tina has two dads?!”
“Don’t worry Aunt Quinn, I didn’t know either.”)
(“I didn’t know Aunt Kitty and Uncle Artie are together. Is this why she’s always riding his lap? Why are you coughing like that?”
“N-nothing… never mind.”)
(“Can I meet Uncle Sam’s brother and sister?!”
“Uh…”)
(“I heard Uncle Mike is going to marry Aunt Tina! Their line has to be red!”
“U-uh… I don’t think Aunt Tina wants her proposal spoiled by the family tree…”)
(“Aunt Unique and Uncle Ryder? Ew. Can it be Uncle Jake instead? Uncle Jake treats Aunt Unique nicer.”)
(“I miss Uncle Matt and Uncle Oliver. Uncle Oliver taught me how to shoot a bow!”
“Kurt’s gonna kill Oliver.”)
(“I love Aunt San and Aunt Britt!”
“Why do they get shortened versions of their names?!”
“Because, Rachel, our own names are short.”)
(“I wanna play with Daniel soon!”
“We’re going to have to call Grandpa Will.”)
Beth, or the lack of Beth, was a fact that Tracy frowned at when they looked over the family tree again.
“Why isn’t Beth here?”
Quinn coughed awkwardly.
“Beth is…” Really complicated, she wanted to say. But she glanced at the really obvious holes in the family tree, with Sebastian and the Puckermans and Marley and Parker. It wasn’t like she was explaining the shitshow that was sophomore year. She also couldn’t put that on Marley and Parker to explain. “Beth was my daughter.”
“But…” Tracy looked between the family tree and Quinn. “But Miss Shelby’s daughter is Beth.”
“Beth to me is like how Miss Shelby is to Rachel and how Rachel is to you. Beth came from me, but I’m not actually her mother. Does that make sense?”
Tracy nodded intently, rapt concentration on Quinn. Rachel had a bit of a pained look, knowing that the whole Beth incident was a bit of a sore spot for both of them.
Quinn kinda deserved it for cheating on Finn. Finn had said the other day that he had let bygones be bygones, but they all knew that if it weren’t for Marley rubbing off on him, he wouldn’t have forgiven her.
Tracy was also well aware that Quinn was dating Finn at that time, since the New Directions loved to embarrass each other by telling Tracy stories from back then. Of course, the stories were all PG, so as to not incite Kurt’s wrath upon them for corrupting her too early. (“THAT MEANS YOU, PUCKERMAN!”) Her confusion was growing more palpable by the moment, and Rachel had no idea how to explain the concept of cheating (or the fact that her dear papa did it to daddy once) to a little girl.
She tugged on Rachel’s dress, frowning. “But Aunt Quinn was Uncle Finn’s girlfriend. Does that mean the baby was his also?”
Quinn sucked in a breath, which in turn led her to choke on air as Rachel probably turned bright red, enough to match one of Blaine’s bowties.
“How did… how did you know where babies come from… that… that it requires… a boy and a girl…” Rachel’s face was heating up with every word. God forbid, someone could cook an egg on her face. Honestly, they tried that when Matt blushed so hard he resembled a tomato and they put a slice of bread on his face just to see if it was hot enough to toast it.
(No it wasn’t.)
“Uncle Puck told me!”
Quinn honest to goodness snorted, disguising it with a fake cough before actually having a real coughing fit again. There was a mutter of, “Puck’s gonna die by Kurt again,” from behind her hand as Rachel suppressed a laugh, a snort and her displeasure by biting the inside of her cheek. “Did he tell you anything else?”
“Something about…” Tracy looked around, as if Kurt and Blaine were about to come out of the shadows like ghosts, before leaning towards them and in a hushed whisper, said, “S-E-X.”
Rachel groaned, as Quinn began to maniacally laugh, both at Tracy’s confused expression and Rachel’s pinched face looking like she had just eaten an expired lobster. Oh and Puck being the corruptor he is. But she couldn’t focus on just that.
Honestly? Rachel’s face was priceless. Quinn could immortalize that face forever and laugh at it. Too bad she didn’t have her polaroid camera, but she did have her phone. A picture of Rachel’s crisis face as she tries to decide what to do next.
“Okay… well… Beth’s other ‘parent’,” Rachel used air quotation marks here, “was your Uncle Puck.”
Here, Tracy got way more confused. “But Uncle Finn… Aunt Quinn, I thought you loved Uncle Finn then.”
“I don’t love you anymore!” Quinn yelled back. “That’s why!”
“You can’t be serious.” Finn’s face was suspended in disbelief. “You CHEATED on me! With HIM! You should have just broken up with me! Not trick me into thinking that was your- OUR baby!” He ran his hands through his hair, stressed as all hell. “You… you wanted me to pay for the baby!”
“I was scared!” Quinn grabbed his arm, seeing Rachel out of the corner of her eye. “I was scared you’d leave.”
“Well congratulations, you made me do exactly what you didn’t want me to do.” Finn stormed off, leaving Quinn in his dust. And Rachel- Rachel just watched Quinn cry.
“I did. But I made a very big mistake.” Quinn ran a hand over Finn’s name, and then Puck’s. “I said sorry to your Uncle Finn, but he didn’t forgive me for a long time. When Beth came…” Idly, Quinn finished up Beth’s family tree, connecting Beth to her and Puck with a yellow line, but connecting Beth to Shelby with a pink line. “I was not ready for Beth. I was very young, like you. So I gave Beth to Miss Shelby who could take care of her, unlike me.”
“But why?” Tracy demanded. “You can do anything.”
“My own daddy and mommy didn’t like that I had Beth,” Quinn explained, writing down the name Judy Fabray and then catching herself writing Russell… Russell Fabray. Thinking quickly, Rachel cancelled out the beginnings of Russell’s name. “My daddy didn’t want me to stay with him, so I…”
Tracy hugged Quinn with such sudden force that she yelped and almost toppled backwards.
“I’m sorry,” Tracy said. “Your daddy sounds like he’s a not very good daddy.”
“No, he wasn’t,” Rachel hummed, carefully lifting Tracy off of Quinn and helping her up with a gentle hand. “Listen, little bug. Some people just don’t have very good parents. Like your Aunt Quinn. Aunt Quinn didn’t have a very nice daddy. Did you know he came to school to shout at your Aunt Quinn once?”
“That’s not very nice!”
Quinn remembered that very well. It was her junior year, Finn had forgiven her, Sam and Santana trying to help her be more herself, the introduction of Blaine, Marley, Sebastian… Yeah, that was eventful.
“I want to see my daughter!” Russell shouted down the hallway, students parting like the red sea for him, only to be blocked at the entrance of the choir room by Finn and Puck, who were both just as tall as he was. “Let me go.”
“With all due respect sir…” Finn stepped up to him, Puck backing him up. “No.”
“How dare you,” Russell seethed, getting in Finn’s face. “You knocked up my daughter. You and that Jewish rat!” He jabbed at Puck, almost poking him in the face, but neither moved. “Do you know what I can do to you?!”
“And with all due respect, not that you deserve it, SIR,” Santana snarled, appearing behind him with Parker, Sam, Will and Figgins in tow, “do you know what WE can do to YOU?”
Will and Figgins’ faces were set in a hard line. Sam and Santana looked awfully pissed. Parker was just smirking, but it was a cold smirk.
“I suggest you leave the school grounds, Mr. Fabray,” Figgins carefully enunciated. “Coach Sylvester has already called for security. If you do not move, we will be forced to take action against you.”
“Or you’ll what?” Russell sneered, but paled when both staff members put a palm up to their right eye and the boys and Parker got even closer. “You can’t do this. I will ruin your lives.”
“So can we,” Santana sneered. “The question is, who’s going to ruin who faster? You have your connections, we have the literal devil on our side.”
There were four security guards coming down the hallway, flanking Sue Sylvester as the boys backed away. Santana and Parker still stood there, unflinching.
“Back away from the students,” Sue ordered Russell. “Lay one hand on them and they will be forced to arrest you.”
“You’re school cops. I have the legal right to see my daughter-“ Russell looked down the hallway only to see Quinn, Rachel and Tina rushing away, using their friends as a distraction to get away from Russell. “Come back here you ungrateful slut!”
Russell turned, only for Parker to stick her right foot out and trip him, sending him sprawling onto the floor as the security officers restrained him.
“Oops,” Parker mocked. “I found your IQ, sir.”
“This is bullshit!” Russell shouted back, yelling after Quinn. “Come here! You stupid whore! You little-“
“I do believe that’s quite enough,” Will snapped, blocking Russell’s view of the escaping girls. “Nobody should speak to young people that way, especially their own daughter.”
“Which, legally, isn’t his daughter.” All eyes fell on Puck, leaning against the doorway and glaring holes into Russell. “You lost your right to call her your daughter the minute you decided to kick her out. Ms. Fabray just made it official when she divorced you.”
“We’re her family now,” Finn told him firmly. “Get out of our faces.”
“You…” Russell’s face was red. “I guess that’s what she is. A filthy whore with the likes of heathens like you!”
“Please, it’s 2010, who uses the word heathen anymore?” Parker clapped Russell on the back, hard enough that he wheezed. “Take care of yourself old man, don’t worry about your daughter. She’s in a far better place with us than with you. Ever.”
“I remember that,” Quinn said softly. “I was so scared. I thought he was going to hurt me or your uncles and aunts. But your Uncle Finn and Uncle Puck were very brave. They followed him to the principal’s office and made sure he didn’t try to get me or continue talking bad about me. Nini Parker drove me home to my mom with Aunt Rachel and Aunt Tina. There I felt like I was super safe, and then your aunts and uncles came over and had a sleepover with me.”
“Why did he want to hurt you?” Tracy asked sullenly. “I get that he’s not a very good daddy, but he’s your daddy. He’s not supposed to hurt you.”
Quinn and Rachel exchanged looks, from when they overheard a very loud conversation between Santana, Marley, Parker and Finn. It was the first time any of them had even remotely heard Marley raise her voice, and it had shocked all of them into silence. It then devolved into an all-out meltdown when Santana pushed the wrong buttons and Finn had to keep Parker from strangling Santana outright.
It was just a very simple question of, “why do the ones we love hurt us?” and people have different opinions on it. If the logical ones couldn’t think of a proper answer without bursting into tears, how would they?
“I don’t know,” Quinn mused, saving Rachel from answering. “But your Aunt Mercedes was very wise. She said that sometimes people are very hurt, and so they hurt other people because of it.”
“That’s so weird,” Tracy muttered, crinkling her nose.
“It is,” Quinn agreed. “You know, there was a good thing about that time.”
“What?”
“It showed me that your aunts and uncles really cared about me, and they loved me even when my daddy couldn’t.” Quinn shot a small, thankful smile at Rachel.
It had been Rachel’s idea after all.
“Quinnie?” Judy’s voice drifted from downstairs. “Your friends are here.”
When Quinn didn’t reply, she heard her mother sigh and open the door to the gaggle of kids who declared themselves their family in the hallways of McKinley High to her dad’s face after threatening to ruin his life. She knew it was them because she heard not-so-subtle whispering, the familiar squeak of Artie’s wheels. She could hear Tina and Mike lightly flirting, Finn talking to Sam about alphabet soup and Santana telling everybody to stay put in the living room and start assorting themselves. There was an added, softer voice, Quinn couldn’t tell who, reminding them not to make a mess. Probably Kurt.
She heard light footsteps coming closer and she tensed, bracing for her mother…
“Quinn?”
Rachel.
Rachel who stood there with a concerned look, but a soft comforting smile. In her hands is alphabet soup, a contribution from Finn that was probably made by Carole. Quinn remembered that most of the New Directions swore up and down that Carole’s alphabet soup was a gift from God in their darkest times. It was like a magic potion that made you feel so much better.
Quinn had yet to try it. Even Santana, who was ever the hardass, had melted under Carole’s alphabet soup. Tina had tried to recreate it with only minimal success.
“… is that the infamous alphabet soup?” Quinn asked, in lieu of asking, “what are you doing here” which she had no energy to ask at the moment.
“Carole’s alphabet soup,” Rachel laughed as Quinn pushed herself upright from her bed, allowing Rachel to sit on the bed comfortably with the soup in her lap. “We’re crashing your house for a sleepover.”
“I know.” Quinn watched Rachel stir the soup. She could see the word love spelled out with the letters, and she had to laugh when she realized it said, ‘we love you quinn’ in alphabet soup form. “Sorry about Santana, she’s awfully protective.”
“Oh Santana didn’t put us up to this.” Rachel ducked her head bashfully. “I came up with the idea and organized everything. Your mom is wonderful, by the way.”
Quinn blinked at Rachel, not expecting that. “And everyone agreed?”
“I think a part of them agreed because they knew I was going to annoy the shit out of them if they didn’t… but everyone agreed because we do care and love you, Quinn. Even if you don’t feel like you deserve it.” She smiled shyly at Quinn. “You are our family, whether you like it or not, and we’ll be here for a long time. Your biological family may not be there, but we’ll be.”
And Rachel offered the soup.
Quinn stared at the soup, knowing it was more than just soup. It was an offer to join them downstairs, an offer not to be alone, a chance to actually live the life she really wanted and make mistakes and not be disowned for it.
A chance to be loved.
So she took it, and let Rachel lead her down the stairs, to the cheers of her friends who were setting up a mass game of Uno. And so the round of bickering began with several people being banned from dealing the cards (Parker, Santana and Puck) and from playing altogether (Marley).
She smiled, catching Rachel’s eye, and tried the soup.
Quinn now understands the appeal.
“We do love you,” Tracy pouted. “Your daddy isn’t a daddy.”
“Yeah, I know.” Quinn swallowed the worst cases they encountered with other parents much later. “He’s not the worst daddy though.”
“But he shouldn’t be a daddy,” Tracy argued, and Rachel discreetly shook her head, silently urging Quinn to drop it. The little girl looked between the family tree and Quinn, then Rachel for a moment, gears turning in her little head. “Is this why Uncle Jake and Uncle Puck’s parents aren’t there also? And Nini Parker’s parents and Aunt Marley’s dad and Uncle Sebastian’s parents and Uncle Joe’s parents?”
Sebastian hadn’t given much insight or news about his parents, which was either a good or bad thing. Sebastian’s brother, Adrian, had done a lot of damage on them, and nobody could speak his name out loud, for fear of the events happening again.
The Puckerman family was distant and abusive. Luckily, they didn’t really cause trouble for the group, not like some of the other parents, so nobody apart from the Puckermans themselves (or Parker and Santana because paranoia and revenge blackmail respectively) really knew their status. And anyways, by the time the Glee club had formed the head Puckerman himself had pretty much vanished into a cloud of smoke. It was a good thing, but that meant they had already left their mark on the brothers.
They told as much to Tracy, who of course asked a lot of questions, but couldn’t really get any answers because none of them really knew. They, of course, omitted all traces of Adrian in regards to Sebastian.
Joe’s parents was a shitshow nobody else was expecting. It was hard to explain Joe’s parents without needing to explain Adrian and his actions, but the other two candidates were also just as hard to share, mainly because they weren’t there and a lot of their stories were forced out into the light by circumstance.
Even now, Quinn can’t look at them without feeling a stab of pity nor recall their stories without feeling the need to throw up. Rachel squeezed Quinn’s hand again, and they met eyes.
Tracy, who had been staring between them, and then at the family tree, finally spoke up.
“I know Uncle Sebastian has a brother.” Both of them froze at that, but Tracy kept talking. “I hear it when I hear papa crying at night sometimes. I hear papa talking about something bad that happened. I hear daddy saying no-no words about Uncle Sebastian’s brother. When I asked Nini Parker she said I was too young to understand.” She wiggled angrily. “But I understand he did something bad! I don’t know why you don’t want to tell me.”
“It’s really bad bad, little bug,” Rachel said softly, thinking back to those nights where Finn is up and pacing the common house floor, or Kurt running out of the house to find Blaine because he ran away and had a meltdown somewhere else, or the days where Artie would just sit and face the wall and stare into nothingness, or Tina going around to check on everyone repeatedly or follow one particular person around the house because she’s scared they’re going to disappear while she’s not looking.
Oh God, then there was Santana who was blowing up at every little thing, picking a fight with every nurse who dared to get between her and Brittany, screaming and yelling her head off to let her see Brittany. Or on the flip side there was Parker who was quiet and deadly, who left blood trails in her wake as she beat up a guy who had simply touched her on the shoulder on the street, who refused to leave Marley’s hospital room and always snuck back in when kicked out.
Quinn remembered those nights too.
“Was it connected to Uncle Joe’s mommy and daddy?”
“Sort of. Uncle Sebastian’s brother did something very bad, so Uncle Joe’s parents came to pick him up at the hospital, but he refused to leave us. His parents said a lot of very mean words to us and kicked Uncle Joe out of the house like me. It was very bad because they managed to hit Aunt Santana.”
“Did they go to jail?” Tracy asked, looking upset that Aunt Santana was hit.
“No, they paid a lot of money for hitting Aunt Santana. Uncle Joe got his stuff and moved in with us… you know that big house we stay in whenever we visit Grandpa Will?” Tracy nodded. “Uncle Joe lives there and he looks after the house.”
“Cool!” Tracy’s eyes sparkled as Quinn laughed, then sighed when she realized she still had to explain what the bad thing was. She let Tracy curl into her, completely missing the way Rachel had stared at her when she did that.
Something about Quinn being oddly domestic made Rachel smile. She had had thoughts about family, of course. With Finn. But after a while she realized he wasn’t the person she was in love with. The idea of settling down was very appealing to Rachel, who envied everybody else that already was settling down.
I could get used to this.
The wholly (not) unwanted intrusive thought was interrupted by the doorbell ringing, signifying the arrival of Tracy’s actual babysitters. Rachel had gotten up to answer the door, content to let Quinn with Tracy in her arms.
“Here we are!” Parker crowed, as Marley came in tow with something that smelled oddly familiar in a medium-sized tupperware container. “We’re early because Mr. Finnegan Hudson forgot and then promptly the date again. Honestly, how did he ever remember your anniversaries?”
“He didn’t,” Rachel laughed, as she caught sight of the tupperware. “No way.”
“Yes way.” Parker had a shit-eating grin. “Finn called it his apology gift.”
Considering what Tracy was going to up and ask both of them, Rachel was very welcome for Carole’s alphabet soup.
“Plus he was saying something about how Tracy should finally try it,” Marley added.
“Took him forever to decide that,” Parker snorted. “I still think Tracy should have tried it the first time she met Carole and was old enough to eat alphabet soup.”
“But then she wouldn’t have appreciated it!” Marley pouted, and Parker quickly backed down within 10 seconds.
“Okay, okay. Fair enough. But today is the day of reckoning.” Parker presented the soup with a flourish, finally turning to take a look at Rachel. “You look terrible.”
Great. The conversation must have taken a toll on her. Then again, Parker was always very observant.
“Thanks,” Rachel huffed sarcastically, as Parker laughed a little harder and shot her two fingerguns with a snap of her fingers.
Marley was a little more sensitive to Rachel, gently directing Parker to go find and entertain Tracy with Quinn while she talked to Rachel.
“You okay? You look like Finn when he talks about…” Marley let the end of the sentence hang and Rachel knew she wasn’t going to get out of this conversation.
“We were, kind of.” Rachel hastened to add the last bit when she saw Marley’s face turn pale. “She’s making a family tree and she’s grilling us on our past and our parents.”
If anything, Marley’s face turned whiter.
“You didn’t tell her anything about me or Parker, did you?”
“No, no, no. It wasn’t our place to tell. And even if she bugged us further we would have given a very very non-detailed PG-rated version. Really clean.” Marley relaxed a little at that, then sighed when she saw Parker with Tracy on her shoulders with her little arms stretched wide, mimicking an airplane while Quinn was taking a video. “She does know about Adrian.” That gets Marley to freeze. “She says she hears Blaine crying at night and Kurt cursing Adrian. Is… is everything okay?”
Even today, Rachel could still feel the effects of Adrian. It’s in the wariness they carry in their shoulders, flinching at every loud noise, nightmares every time there’s a sleepover and so on. It’s horrible, because Blaine still leans against the wall every time he’s in a crowded room so nobody could sneak up on him. Nobody, not even Parker, dares to wake up Marley because she was taken in her sleep by Adrian and waking her would have a fear response immediately. Sebastian jumps at every phone call, expecting Adrian to be the one calling.
Adrian was caught now however, and they were miles from when they were first freshly traumatized, but still. Still.
“I don’t want to tell her how really evil people exist in the world because it ruins her innocence,” Marley said slowly, avoiding the question entirely. “But I have to, because she has to know that these people exist otherwise she’ll end up just like us. Naive and yet we end up unprepared and running.”
“You learned that pretty early on and you still ended up unprepared,” Rachel countered.
“At least it’s not firsthand.” Marley’s eyes were unfocused now. “That’s the one we learned from.”
Before Marley could say anything else, Rachel pulled her into a tight hug. A squeeze, letting her know that she was right there for her, and that she was not alone. Marley squeezed back, and Rachel let go.
“Do you really want to tell her?”
“Not everything,” Marley decided. “But enough. Besides. It’s time I tell the story.”
It was true. Over the years, Marley had been pretty tight lipped about what she had experienced, even if details of her past came out without her consent. Nobody apart from Parker and some authority figures had ever heard Marley’s version of events, and even they didn’t have the whole story. When asked to corroborate whatever leaked facts, she had stayed silent, never giving verbal confirmation. The only reason why they knew everything to be true was because Marley’s dad caused a lot more trouble than Russell Fabray.
When they both entered the living room, Parker had materialized by Marley’s side, putting an arm around her shoulders, as if knowing what was about to happen. Their eyes met in some silent agreement, and Rachel wondered if she’d ever have what they have. Or maybe she’d never.
The room was tense.
They all sat around the table, Marley leaning her head on Parker’s shoulders as Tracy finally asked them the big question, something that had been on her mind for a long, long time.
“Where are your mommies and daddies?”
“My biological parents aren’t around anymore, bucko,” Parker hummed, when she realized Marley was trying to answer but couldn’t. Upon catching Tracy’s confused expression, she clarified. “My biological parents are the people I was born to.”
Tracy nodded in understanding, frowning. She also looked sad, though. “But who took care of you?”
Rachel could see Parker struggle for a moment, clearly resisting her answer to say herself because that probably wasn’t the best answer to say to a kid.
“When I was a little older than you, my biological parents died,” Parker explained softly. “They were the kindest, nicest, sweetest people I remember. I still remember mom’s sour soup and chocolate sticky rice porridge. And dad, he used to read me books. Big thick books. The first full book he read me was Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. He got excited over little things, like you.”
Quinn and Rachel’s eyes bulged. This was the first time they had ever heard Parker talk about her biological parents in detail. They know that while Parker did learn to be tough from a very early age, they actually didn’t expect this.
Then again, Parker had off-handedly mentioned that her school was a nightmare.
Marley didn’t look very surprised, so she must have known beforehand. Tracy was very captivated by Parker’s storytelling, and Rachel remembered idly that one of Parker’s many tricks was to know how to hold an audience’s attention. Her hand grabbed Quinn’s. Eyes flickered down to their joined hands, then back at Rachel, before focusing on Parker again.
Parker for the most part, kept the story as engaging as she could, because Rachel realized she was glossing heavily over a lot of the details, especially going into the parts that they were finally part of. Parker told of being kicked out of her fosters’ house, but told it in a way that seemed like they just asked her to leave and she complied, came over to Finn, Kurt and Sam’s and had a sleepover, and Rachel just so happened to be there too.
The truth was much worse than that.
Rachel and Finn had not been expecting slow, heavy thumps on the door. The first thump was shocking and startling, as if someone had swung with all their might into punching the door open but failing. The second thump was much later, a much softer knock, but insistent. Eventually it petered out into lighter taps and then silence.
Sam had opened the door.
She could remember it clearly. It was storming outside. Raining hard and wind blowing so heavily to the point where Rachel was convinced the rain was going sideways. She remembered being barely able to hear the other knocks because of the pattering rain on the window panes and thunder crackling every few seconds. Kurt had been in the living room texting Blaine after having ranted to Finn that Mike cheated in the thumb war they had in the choir room. Rachel was curled into Finn, his arm around her as she snuggled closer, trying to get a bit of his body warmth and texting Quinn something about bacon and the perks of veganism.
Sam had screamed, causing the house to fly into an uproar, because he left the door wide open. A puddle was already forming at the front door, and there was a person face-down on the floor, staining the growing puddle red.
Rachel didn’t even recognize Parker at first. Carole had, upon coming out of the kitchen. She screamed, barking orders at Finn and Sam as they helped carry Parker into the spare guest room. All Rachel could do was meekly close the front door and stare at the blood diffusing into the puddle.
Without blinking, Tracy connected a pink line from Parker’s name to Burt and Carole. To the devil’s credit, she nodded at the line, giving a small shake of her hand to show that was more or less her relationship with Burt and Carole.
“What were their names?” Tracy asked suddenly.
“Whose names?”
“Your mommy and daddy.”
“My… biological ones?” Parker asked, confused, and Tracy beamed, nodding. “Why do you wanna know, kid?”
“Because they’re nice and they’re your mommy and daddy.” Parker blinked, then her eyes softened at the request.
“Barry Booker and Maricel Booker.” Marley lifted her head to whisper something in Parker’s ear, and she reached out to squeeze Marley’s hand and lean her head against Marley’s. “Thank you.”
“Grandpa Barry and Grandma Maricel!” Tracy crowed, finishing Parker’s family tree. As if the troubled childhood with the fosters wasn’t there at all. “I made special stars for them and Grandpa Christopher and Grandma Elizabeth because they’re all in heaven!”
Parker’s smile does freeze on her face, something that all the adults catch. Quinn shook her head, willing Parker not to say anything about it. Thankfully, the devil got the hint and allowed Marley to tell her story.
“My dad was… not a good person. Like Mr. Fabray,” Marley chuckled, eyeing the crossed out name of Russell Fabray on the paper. “He hurt me a lot when I was younger.”
Seeing the tears well up in Marley’s eyes just from that beginning, Tracy threw herself at Marley, who allowed the girl to hug her. Parker didn’t move just yet, pulling Marley closer and giving a little squeeze to show support. Marley looked a little lost for the moment, and Rachel decided to save Marley a little by telling another bit of the story.
“When Aunt Marley was about the same age as you, he left her,” Rachel explained softly as Marley nodded, rubbing soothing patterns on Tracy’s back who was hugging Marley for dear life.
“Yeah. It was just me and my mom for a while. She would have loved you.” Her voice wavered slightly when she saw Quinn write Millie’s name on the paper, followed by the star. “Then one day, a really bad person that you know as Sebastian’s brother… he hurt me and some of your aunts and uncles really badly, but especially me. He really disliked me.” This time it was blatantly obvious, the way Parker growled at the mention of Adrian and the way she held Marley more protectively. “He… he took my mom away before he really hurt me. I didn’t know until later. I was so sad.”
Quinn remembered that.
It was a tag-team battle to try and get Parker out of the hospital room. The next one to try was Jake, but he requested to try to coax Parker out alone, which was impossible.
It was also Quinn’s excuse to check on the three people she wanted to check on the most: the one in the hospital bed (Marley), the one who refuses to let anyone go near said hospital bed except herself (Parker) and the harried mother hen who barely had time to process anything and avoid anything remotely related to her own wellbeing despite going through a rough patch before being called back to Lima (Rachel).
She got first-hand experience of Parker brooding in the corner of the hospital room, watching the nurses come in and flinch at the sight of Parker in the corner staring them down like a hawk.
Marley had stirred, just for a tiny bit and Parker practically teleported to her bedside, crouching at the side, holding her hand, waiting intently for her to wake up.
Rachel was just staring at them blankly, until Quinn nudged her.
“You’re zoning out.”
“Sorry, I haven’t had much sleep lately.”
“We all haven’t.”
In the common house everybody woke up screaming. It wasn’t common to find someone having a panic attack in the living room or whimpering in their rooms.
Rachel was exhausted, and Quinn realized it was taking a heavier toll on her for some odd reason, since she had been running around and repeatedly checking on Marley, allowing Parker to stay only because there was someone there to keep an eye on her.
“Her mom’s dead,” Rachel whispered, and that hung in the air for all of them. “Adrian hit the kitchen.”
“Don’t say that name,” Parker snarled, not looking at them. “It doesn’t deserve to be a person.”
They both flinched at the sheer malice in those words, promising more than just death if she laid her hands on Adrian. But the words just made Quinn confused. Why was Rachel so worried?
“I’m the emergency contact #2, after Parker. And Parker’s not in a good state right now…” Rachel almost said number 3, but then realized belatedly that Sebastian wasn’t quite of age yet. Parker was, but, like mentioned.
“Oh.”
“Yeah, oh.” Rachel swallowed hard. “But what am I going to tell her? I-“
Quinn, sensing another rant or ramble induced by stress, quickly hugged Rachel, giving her a tight squeeze to bring her back to the present.
“You’re okay. It’s okay. We’re right here. We’re not going anywhere. We’ll figure it out.” She pulled away and looked intently into Rachel’s eyes. “Okay?”
“Okay.”
Marley stirred at that moment, Parker perking up at the movement as Marley’s eyes fluttered open and tracked tiredly across the ceiling, before she looked down at the person holding her hand, mumbling some version of Parker’s name, then… “Mom? Where’s mom? I want my mom.”
They couldn’t see Parker’s face from where they were standing, but they could see her shoulders slump and her head bow. No words were needed to be said, before her face twisted into distress and ugly sobs and mumbling words, hyperventilating.
“I’m so sorry…” Parker mumbled, allowing Marley to bury her face into her neck. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there, but I’m here now. I’m here now, I’m here now... I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”
“I want my mommy,” Marley blubbered, clutching onto Parker tightly. “I want my mom. I want my mom!” With an abrupt change in mood, Marley let go of Parker, screaming those same four words over and over as she weakly pushed Parker away, slamming her hands into Parker’s chest over and over. It shouldn’t be able to move her, Quinn and Rachel had seen her stand immovable to far worse, but watching her stagger backwards as if hit by a truck, hurt hard.
Tracy moved away from them, finishing the family tree, out of the line of sight of the four adults, before flinging herself between the two pairs.
“Can you tell me about before?” Tracy asked. “Back then? Daddy and papa don’t tell me a lot. They always tell me it’s full of scary and bad things.”
Rachel took the opportunity then. “That’s not true, little bug. It was full of scary and bad things but it was also full of happy things.”
“But everyone was hurt!”
“That’s true,” Quinn tacked on. “But without the scary and bad things we wouldn’t have found the really good things.”
“That’s right. For example, if I didn’t get kicked out of my fosters’ house, I would have never been living with Burt and Carole, I would have still been sad at my fosters’ house.” Parker ruffled Tracy’s hair.
“You okay, kiddo?” Burt asked at the dinner table, where everyone sat. Blaine and Rachel had dropped by for their significant others, and Marley had dropped by to visit. Sam, Finn and Kurt, the other resident kids of the house, were suspiciously quiet. Carole was looking between her meal and Parker, who was silent.
“Yeah, Mr. Hummel-Hudson…” Her voice was subdued and quiet, formality astonishing both the adults at the table. “I’m good.”
“Does anything hurt, honey?” Carole asked, and Parker looked away, Marley beside her reaching out for a moment, before retracting her hand.
“No, ma’am.” Parker answered after a moment, then froze up a little when Marley put her hand on her shoulder.
“You don’t have to lie to us, kid.” Burt leaned forward and looked concerningly at her. “You’re not there anymore, you don’t have to hide anything.”
She sank a little in her chair, fumbling for an excuse that everyone at the table could easily see through.
The devil, the prince of lies, the… whatever whatever of McKinley. The person who carried blackmail on half the town and could beat up people no sweat. That was a lie, and everyone could see that that person was only a kid.
She mumbled something that only Marley could hear, and she vocalized it to the whole table.
“She says her ankle hurts.” Parker sunk a little deeper in her chair at that, leaning into Marley’s side.
Finn was the one to stand, excusing himself from the table to get an ice pack. Everybody was quiet, only broken by the knocking at the door.
“It’s us!” Sebastian was yelling. “We have rescued the property of one Parker Maxwell Booker.”
Kurt and Blaine were the next ones to stand and greet the three interlopers at the door. Quinn, Mike and Sebastian, each carrying a box.
Parker looked between them and Burt and Carole, who looked like they were expecting them. She mumbled something to Marley, who in turn, spoke up for her.
“She’s asking if this is some sort of trick.”
“No,” Sebastian said, panting. “We literally ran away from them. Here, take the box Blaine. Puck said he was two minutes away.”
“Did you… literally break into their house?” Rachel asked, in disbelief.
“Not me- they did,” Quinn defended, pushing past Kurt and Blaine who were both now toting boxes. “I just distracted them.”
Sam was the one who stood next, startling Rachel next as they moved like they’ve been planning for this. Marley didn’t look too surprised by what was unfolding as Finn returned with the ice pack.
“Did you all plan this?” Rachel asked, saving Parker the question.
“First step, talk sense into fosters, failing that, steal things and run here.” Sebastian was tapping away on his phone and shook Mike a little. “Send Tina the go-ahead.”
“It’s a mass sleepover,” Finn explained. “I planned this with Burt and mom.”
Parker looked utterly confused as Mike stationed himself at the door and Sebastian and Sam went outside. Kurt, Blaine and Quinn made themselves busy with carrying Parker’s things, which Carole directed them to the guest room. Burt had stood by Mike. The devil looked at Marley, mumbling something inaudible, but Marley shook her head.
“I knew they were going to do something, but they didn’t tell me because I wouldn’t have been able to lie to you.”
“Why?” Parker rasped, then failing to get an answer, directed her attention at Finn. “Aren’t you supposed to be out there?”
“I would have destroyed them on the spot,” Finn admitted. “Plus someone had to block you from confronting them.”
Rachel spoke up. “I had no idea what was going on.”
“Because you’re bad at keeping secrets,” Santana declared, stepping in. “The others are on their way Mr. Hummel.”
“It’s Burt,” Burt corrected, giving her a warm smile. “Rachel?”
“Yes?”
“Could you help get the living room organized? A lot of people are going to be there tonight.”
She was certainly glad to be of help in something. There was a lot of commotion as a lot of other people came. More than the New Directions and Sebastian. The police were there, red and blue lights flashing.
“You’re not going back there anymore,” Burt told her, firmly. “You’re going to stay with us.”
“Really?” Parker asked, in the wake of all the chaos when everyone was settled in the living room with their own sleeping bags and bowls of alphabet soup. “Really, really?”
“Yeah!” Finn cheered. “You can help me with homework now.”
“Are you only onboard with this because of homework?” Santana snarked back as Artie began dealing the Uno cards. “Really?”
“And it means less chores for me,” Finn shrugged, and Sam laughed.
“He’s learning how to be a real sibling.”
“He already is because he leaves all the dishes to me,” Kurt huffed, placing a 4 on the discard pile. “PUCK! Draw 4!”
Parker won Uno, mainly because she and Marley teamed up and cheated and got themselves banned from playing Uno.
“No hanky panky!” Burt scolded as everyone settled for bed after a round of monopoly that had everyone screaming at each other. Oddly enough, Quinn and Rachel had teamed up in monopoly, with Finn discreetly passing them money as the banker and Parker and Marley distracting the other teams from noticing by making the worst financial decisions in the history of monopoly.
“You cheated!” Puck yelled, throwing fake money at Finn, who was laughing.
“I can’t help my girlfriend and ex win?”
“Objection! The banker is clearly biased!” Sebastian pointed. “I demand a rematch!”
“Me and meerkat had that in the bag after these two idiots got bankrupt,” Santana growled, waving a hand at the cackling Marley and Parker.
“I think we should make peace, not war,” Joe preached, and Sugar threw her money at the board and pointed at Finn.
“He should be replaced from banker!”
Finn held out his hands in a universal gesture of surrender. “Would you want a game that lasts until morning?”
“BET!” Santana cried, grabbing the top hat avatar again, but Quinn was quick to swipe the board from her.
“Alright! I think we should go to bed.” A chorus of displeased murmurs rippled but she quickly hushed them up by raising an eyebrow. “Like Joe said. Peace, not war.”
She caught Parker’s eye, who only smiled and mouthed, ‘thanks’ in return, before leaning against Marley, who pressed comfortably against her side.
“We had a lot of sleepovers,” Rachel began, “mass sleepovers that happened when something really bad happened. Sometimes we had sleepovers where we just came over for fun. Other times we needed company. Some of the parents you see here-“ Rachel suddenly choked. “Little bug, why are mine and Aunt Quinn’s names linked by a blue line?”
Tracy frowned at Rachel. “I thought you and Aunt Quinn were dating.”
“We’re not- dating-“ Quinn spluttered, and Tracy looked between the family tree and them.
“But you look at each other just like Aunt Santana and Aunt Brittany, and then you act like them too.”
Parker was trying too hard not to stifle a laugh. Marley was smiling, grinning too hard.
“We’re just friends, little bug…” Rachel said, confused.
“No you’re not, you act like Nini Parker and Aunt Marley whenever they take care of me.”
The two started laughing, the two devils. Rachel had the urge to throw something at them. Preferably Carole’s alphabet soup… actually, no. It’s a waste of good food.
“I thought you were married,” Tracy added, directing this to her usual babysitters. This time, Parker was choking and Marley was staring at Tracy in shock.
“Your Nini… and I… aren’t…”
She began to pout. “Am I… am I wrong? I thought you were… even when you were talking about before… all of you…”
Rachel had to stare at Quinn. In the way they talked about the past, had they really looked like they were dating? Studying Quinn properly, she came to a final conclusion on what to say, effectively halting the tantrum right in its tracks. She had known for a long time that she had liked Quinn, and she had to take that chance now- had to know now that Tracy had pointed out their behaviour.
She needs to know.
“Can I tell you about the time I realized I was in love with your Aunt Quinn?” Rachel asked, turning Tracy’s attention from Quinn, Marley and Parker to her. “It was in school, when your papa, Nini Parker, Aunt Tina, Aunt Brittany, Aunt Sugar, Uncle Joe, Uncle Artie, Uncle Sam and Uncle Sebastian graduated, and me and your Aunt Quinn were cheering them on.”
Rachel could feel Quinn staring at her, but she soldiered on.
“Your papa gave a speech about love and acceptance, then Sue Sylvester let Nini give a speech about finding yourself and finding your real family, finding the real people who love you. So I looked at Aunt Quinn at the moment, who was talking so excitedly for your aunts and uncles.”
“They’re finally graduating!” Quinn laughed. “I thought they would never.”
“Weird huh? That about a year ago we were the ones graduating?” Rachel joked.
“Yeah… the time when I didn’t think I was graduating,” Quinn smiled, but there was now sadness in it. “A lot has happened in one year, it feels like forever.”
“Don’t be silly, you were always going to graduate.” Rachel reached out for Quinn’s hand and squeezed it. “I didn’t know if I was going to stay with Finn or go out there.”
“You’re more than the relationships you make, Rachel. Finn and I agreed on that when we saw you considering it. You’re beautiful, brilliant and talented. I always thought so.” And Quinn smiled, smiled as if Rachel really was beautiful, brilliant and talented, and was the only one she ever thought so.
She wanted to kiss her.
But then Ryder, Unique and Jake were on their feet whooping because the seniors threw their hats in the air, and the moment was broken. But she couldn’t stop looking at Quinn, looking at her in a new light.
“Thank you.”
“So you realized you loved Aunt Quinn because she called you pretty?”
“I realized I love her, because through all the hard times and bad times like we mentioned, when she was hurt or when others were hurt, she didn’t give up. She’s a good person and I fell in love with her for it.” Rachel looked up at Quinn then, smiling. “I always have.”
And Quinn was giving her that same smile, that smile from long ago, gentle and loving, that she realized that maybe she was a little slow on the uptake and that maybe Quinn had been in love with her the whole time too.
“You know…” Quinn drawled, leaning forward and closer to Rachel. “I loved you the moment you came up to my room with alphabet soup.”
And then they were, metaphorically, free-falling.
Their lips met, and Tracy cheering and Marley and Parker’s whoops were drowned out by the rush of blood in their ears and the happiness surging within.
“I knew it! I knew they were dating!”
With one last peck to Rachel’s lips and leaving her dazed, Quinn grinned at Tracy. “Now we are.”
Parker groaned. “I owe Santana $50.”
Rachel snapped out of her love induced haze at that, narrowing her eyes at her friend. “You BET on us?”
“I told her you were never going to figure it out…” Parker huffed, folding her arms like a petulant child. “I didn’t think Tracy would intervene.”
“Your faces were rather funny though,” Marley joked, and Rachel gaped at their two friends laughing at her and her- Quinn?
“Yeah, yeah…” Parker grumbled. “Congrats on being girlfriends now.” There was no real bite to her words.
“But what about you?” Tracy asked. “Don’t you love each other?”
Her babysitters kind of froze at that, coughing awkwardly. Marley was the first to recover, looking away.
“Kid, love doesn’t mean we marry- I don’t- I propose-”
Rachel and Quinn shared a small glance.
“We thought you were engaged when you graduated, we figured you weren’t because there wasn’t any ring. Sad because it’s not the New Directions style to propose outside of the Glee club,” Quinn laughed at Parker’s face.
“I wanted to see your proposal too. I thought it would be some grandiose thing like in front of the school.” Rachel was now enjoying the tables turned on Parker, who was actually looking away from Marley, acting innocent.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Funny that you made a bet with Santana on me and Rachel, I made a bet with Sebastian on both of you,” Quinn snorted, laughing even harder at their offended faces. “Although, dammit, the bet’s off now that you know about it.”
“You’re a monster, Quinn Fabray.”
“Tit for tat, Booker.”
Marley was the first one to break her mock-offended stance, turning to poke Parker in the cheek, smiling lovingly. “So you love me, huh?”
“I loved you since I first met you,” Parker huffed, softening a little to turn her head to look at Marley. “And I still do.”
“Funny, because I realized I loved you when you watched all those Julie Andrews movies with me because those jocks made fun of my mom.”
“You’re so sappy,” Rachel laughed.
“SHUT UP. Finn wanted to crash one time you both were going to Breadstix because he thought you were dating,” Parker pointed out. “He wanted to come in and embarrass both of you in public.”
“It was NOT A DATE!” Both Quinn and Rachel shouted, and Tracy clapped her hands in glee.
“I wanna hear what happened!”
“No, how about I tell the time when Marley was dating Jake, and you said you would never do an emotional solo and become like us, but you DID, you did and you Rickrolled everybody in the process,” Quinn laughed evilly as Parker groaned, covering her face with her hands. “Everybody but Marley realized it was dedicated to her.”
“You sang that song for me?!” Marley asked, confusion lacing her features.
“I did and it was not my proudest moment,” Parker pouted, then sighed. “It really wasn’t.”
“Nini Parker?” Tracy asked, breaking the light-hearted teasing for a moment. “How did you know you loved Aunt Marley?”
“Well, I-” Parker glanced at Marley, then smiled. “I don’t think there was a moment that I didn’t know I was in love with her. And that was very scary, because when I grew up, all the love I got was either fake, or torn away or something. So I didn’t do anything about it. But when I truly, finally realized it, she was in the hospital bed, and I didn’t know if I was gonna lose her. I realized that… I couldn’t really bear to live in a world without her. I was worried that if I said it, she’d disappear like some other people in my life. So I’ve always been trying to show her that I love her even if she doesn’t feel the same.” Parker turned to face Marley, pressing a kiss to the back of her hand.
“Is this really happening?” Rachel asked Quinn out of the corner of her mouth.
“Yes. it is.”
“Shut up, I'm trying to confess my love here,” Parker hissed, and Marley laughed.
“You’re fine, keep going, even though we’ve already done this once before.”
“Clearly they aren’t satisfied with just one.”
“Always hamming it up for the audience, huh?”
“SAY IT!” Rachel crowed, and without looking at her, Parker flipped her off.
“I love you, Marley Rose. And even if I’m the most fu- err… fudging hard-headed person on the planet, even if I’m difficult and cold, even if I am prone to violence, I have always and will always love you. Through good and bad. I just want… I just want to spend forever with you… that is, if you’ll have me?” Parker looked hopefully at Marley, who was staring at her in shock because this was a lot more than she expected from her partner.
“Are you… are you proposing to me?”
Parker sort of winced at that. “If I said yes, what would you say?”
In lieu of giving an answer, Marley grabbed Parker’s leather jacket and pulled her into a deep kiss that made Tracy bounce happily and clap a lot. Rachel squealed, grabbing Quinn’s shoulders and practically vibrating while Quinn mentally sighed at the $100 she would have to give Sebastian later.
“Yes,” Marley grinned. “A million times yes. I love you with all my heart and soul, and I will love you through the good times and the bad, as we’ve always done. Yes, my love, I want to spend forever with you.”
Parker laughed, scooping Marley off of the floor as she squealed, clinging on to the other woman as she spun them both around.
“Nini and Aunt Marley are gonna get married!” Tracy yelled, jumping around them excitedly as Parker put Marley down and turned red.
“Well- I didn’t even have a ring, kiddo-”
“Those were practically wedding vows already,” Quinn sighed as Rachel and Marley laughed at Parker’s impression of a tomato. “You guys have been as good as married since she graduated.”
“OH HEY!” Parker blustered, picking up Tracy and blowing raspberries into her stomach as she giggled. “Look at the time! You know what time it is? Alphabet soup time! Yum yum for the tum tum!”
“Nini!” Tracy cried. “Put me down!”
“Never! I hear that little stomach rumbling!” Parker practically fled to the kitchen with Tracy cackling in her arms, Marley trailing after them, telling them both to be careful as that left Quinn and Rachel alone.
“So…” Rachel started, intertwining their fingers together. “We’re now girlfriends.”
“Yeah…” Quinn swung their joined hands. “So, I guess all the bad times really made us see the good. I wouldn’t have found you.”
Rachel hummed. “I still want to box your dad sometimes.”
Quinn laughed. “Trust me, there was a reason why Finn and Puck followed him all the way to the police station that time.”
Rachel glanced at her, almost disbelieving. “They didn’t.”
“They did. Judy bailed them out when she heard what happened. Sam almost joined in but it was overkill.” Quinn glanced at a picture of the New Directions hung on the wall, listening to the laughter coming from the kitchen. “We found a good family.”
“Yeah.” Rachel pressed a kiss to Quinn’s cheek, before suddenly getting an idea. “I wonder how Blaine and Kurt would feel about a mass sleepover?”
BONUS:
The teacher gaped at the gigantic family tree Tracy Anderson-Hummel was presenting to the class, recognizing a few of the names in it. Some of the children were particularly excited to see that Tracy knew Mercedes Jones the awesome celebrity from television or Brittany S. Lopez-Pierce, Mike Chang, Matt Rutherford and Jake Puckerman the absolutely amazing dancers to her that every aspiring dancer looked up to or Rachel Berry the super famous Broadway star that one girl wanted to mimic in the future.
Everybody was buzzing as the teacher pulled himself together. Pretending to know celebrities for attention was a serious offence, and he had to make sure Tracy knew that. He stood, marching over to Tracy who was waiting at the gate for her parents.
“Tracy, it’s not nice to pretend to know famous people.”
“But I know them,” Tracy frowned at him, “they’re my aunts and uncles and nini.”
“I know you’re upset that I caught you lying but-”
“What’s she lying about?” Someone asked from behind the teacher. “Tracy, is he bothering you?”
“Aunt Rachel!” Tracy beamed, running up to Rachel and practically flying into her arms.
“Hi little bug,” Rachel laughed as all of the New Directions appeared behind her, glaring absolute daggers at the terrified man. “How was school?”
“It was great! I got all correct for Math!” Tracy beamed as the resident nerds of the group cheered and traded high fives with her.
“See? I told you it was easy, kiddo!” Parker grinned, ruffling her hair. “Anyways, we’ll be going now, teach. Thanks for looking after her!” She sent a sharklike grin to the spluttering teacher, who was staring at them with his mouth open. Blaine and Kurt broke free of the crowd, Kurt grabbing Tracy’s hand and letting her chat his ear off.
“... you can’t… you’re not on the list…” The teacher trailed off as Blaine sidled up to him with Parker, Puck and Finn in tow.
“Place these people in the list of guardians allowed to pick Tracy up,” Blaine grinned smugly as the other three looked like they were going to burn holes in the teacher. “We have quite the unconventional family.”
The teacher dumbly nodded, taking the list as they rejoined the group, who were excitedly praising Tracy and promising her the best birthday ever.
In the list were all the names in the family tree allowed to pick Tracy up, listed as aunts, uncles, nini or grandparents. He sighed and took a seat at the security counter.
He has a lot of paperwork to do.