Chapter Text
Somehow the two of them ended up falling asleep together underneath the plugged in Christmas tree. It had come together rather nicely. They had managed to resist buying any other ornaments than the colored balls, and their friends had really come through. Russell’s bell ornament had now been joined by several others. There was now a gold star from Rachel, an Anderson Family decorated ball with Kurt, Blaine, Aubrey and Trayce’s picture on it, a ballerina dancing on top of a jellyfish that was from Brittany and Tamara, Santana and Quinn’s ‘Baby’s First Christmas’ ornament sent to them by Judy and Maribel, abuela had sent them a nativity scene, Judy’s ornament had been a lamb, an airman with a Christmas hat was Puck’s gift. And Sam had given them an ornament that was nothing but a sign that said ‘Gone Fishing’. Santana had also gotten half a dozen handmade ornaments mostly of the Popsicle framed picture variety from some of the kids at the Children’s Hospital.
The sleeping pair was awakened by the simultaneous sounds of knocking on the door and Santana’s cell phone going off. They scrambled from their position to go put something less revealing on before answering the door to let in their family.
They waited until after breakfast, when everyone was stuffed and nursing full bellies, to exchange gifts. When it came to their turn, Pedro mimed handing a box to Santana. Santana pretended to turn the invisible box over in her hands. “Um…thanks daddy. You shouldn’t have?”
Pedro laughed. “So, we meant to wrap up your gift, but we couldn’t figure out how to wrap it up, so we’ll just tell you what it is. Mami and I decided to cover the closing cost for your house, when you find it, and if it turns out that the seller is going to cover it, then you can use the money to buy yourself a nice housewarming gift.”
Santana looked back and forth between her parents as if expecting him to be joking. “Really, dad?”
Maribel and Pedro nodded.
“Thank you papa. Mami.”
“Thank you so much, Mr. Lopez!” Quinn trailed behind her.
“It’s Pedro or dad, none of that Mr. Lopez crap. You can’t call me that when we share the same last name.”
“Sorry, dad, thank you! Thank you, mami.”
“It’s just something small we thought we would do for our ladies.”
Both Santana and Quinn got up to hug the elder Lopezes and Santana remained cuddled up to her mom even after they broke back apart.
After all gifts had been exchanged, Santana and Pedro gave a rendition of Silent Night that brought tears to everyone’s eyes. Prudence, who had never heard Santana sing before, was blown away. They played board games, and watched movies, and knocked back mugs of Russell’s coco. Right as stomachs were grumbling, Mercedes family showed up, minus Junior, but with his wife and Mercedes’ niece and nephew. Mercedes brought with her a special gift that she and Santana had been working on. The duo had recorded all of Sam and Quinn’s favorite Christmas songs and made a Christmas album. They had made both a CD for everyone, and converted the music to digital media files so you could put them on your iPod or any MP3 player.
Quinn gave a glance about at everyone present, and was slightly saddened by the people who were missing. “Next year we should all agree to spend Christmas in Lima so that way we can all get together in the same place, at the same time. See all our family and friends.”
The CD was played, and while everyone was listening to the duets, Quinn excused herself when an unknown phone number flashed across her screen. “Hello?” Her voice sounded professional, and stiff, the way it did whenever she answered an unknown call.
“Quinn?”
Quinn recognized the voice, and then she really recognized it. “Beth?”
“Yeah. I can’t talk; we’re sitting down to dinner, but I wanted to call you really quick to say that you’re present was so amazingly incredible, and I’m going to wear it on my first day back from school. Thank you and Santana so very much!”
“Er…you liked it?”
“I loved it! You guys rock! I have to go, though, Bye!”
“Bye sweetie,” she said. When she knew the line was dead, she added, “I love you, baby.”
She stood there for a second, stunned, but then a smile spread across her face. My daughter thinks I rock! Santana gave her a look when she rejoined her family, but Quinn just flashed her an I’ll tell you later look, and she nodded.
Quinn watched fondly as she and Santana saw their moms, and dads, and the Jones’ from the apartment at the end of the night. She had a feeling that was strange, and felt a lot like contentment. She didn’t want to think too much about it because there was that part of her that still felt (and might always will) that anytime there was a good thing going on in her life, something would come about to ruin it, but the latter half of this year had been so full of good that Quinn didn’t know what to do about it. Not even a year ago, she had spent Christmas alone, avoiding home and family, and pretending she wasn’t lonely. Mercedes had gone home to Lima for Christmas so she couldn’t spend it with her, she and Brittany had been broken, Rachel had spent Christmas in London, and she was too full of pride to call Santana on Christmas because that would feel too much like wanting her. Life had change so drastically, and so quickly. She and Santana had only been married for half of a year, but that half of a year had been so much better than the last four years of her life. If she was being really honest, it had been better than probably every year of her life. So Quinn was allowing herself the indulgence of being happy and allowing herself the belief that things would continue to be that way.
Right before they retired to their bedroom for the night, Quinn stopped her wife. “I have one more gift for you.”
Santana stopped expectantly, her eyes darting over Quinn’s body before she smiled, sneakily. “What’s that?”
“Wait here.”
Quinn went into their bedroom ahead of her and came out with the box that Mercedes had brought over for her when they had come over earlier. The expression in Santana’s eyes changed when she saw the nicely wrapped gift. “I thought we said that we were going to limit what we spent because of the house,” Santana protested.
“I didn’t spend money, I bartered for this.”
Santana gave her a suspicious look, but she took the gift anyway, and started to unwrap it. Quinn watched her intently as Santana’s brow went from furrowed in confused anticipation, to annoyed as she tried to rip tape off that seemed unyielding, to expectant when she finally got the box freed, to curious when she was met with a plain brown box. She even shook the box as if it would give her some sort of clue. The best expression, though, was when she finally opened the box and saw the gift inside. It went from what is it, to ‘what the hell’, ‘to is this what I think it is’, to ‘Oh my God’, to ‘I love this woman’. Which was what Quinn was going for. Her eyes bugged out as she individually took the items from the box.
“This must have cost a fortune for you to get this!” Santana exclaimed, protested. “Quinn!” but she was hugging her wife fiercely. “Baby…you got this for me?”
“Just for you,” Quinn assured her.
“How much did this cost?”
“I told you, I bartered.”
“With who?”
“Frank Hancock. He said it was sitting in the attic collecting dust and I could have it we agreed to watch the kids on their anniversary.”
“Baby,” Santana said again.
It was an original Nintendo system. But not just the system, it was the game system, the running pad, the color cartridge, Track Meet, Duck Hunters with the iconic orange gun, Mario Brothers, and Legends of Zelda.
“You’re so awesome.”
Quinn nodded. “Yep.”
“Are you going to play with me?”
“I will, and I look forward to kicking your ass, but I just want to warn you upfront that we have to get a converter for it because it won’t hook up to our TV.”
“Oh, that’s no problem.”
“You already have a converter?”
Santana shook her head. “I’ve got guys.”
“You’ve got guys?”
“Tech guys, babe, and one total bad ass tech chick. Best in the country. Dude, wait till I tell Puck, he’s going to be jealous as hell!” Santana looked as if she was going to rush off to go call him up but he paused to give Quinn another kiss. “Love you, baby.”
“Love you, too,” Quinn said to Santana’s back. She turned to go back into the living room to clean up the leftover mess, and was stopped by the feel of Santana pulling her into her.
“Please tell me that you’re not going to Fabray the living room when your body is requested in your bed.”
“I thought you were going to go talk to Puck?”
“I was actually thinking more along the lines of thanking you. All night long.”
“How are you going to do that?”
“Well first, I’m going to strip you down. Then I’m going to place kisses all along your neck and shoulders, slooowly working you up until your hips start to move. Then I’m going to throw you on the bed, and tie you down, so that you’re completely at my mercy. And then I would take my time. Kissing over every inch of this skin,” Santana trailed her finger along Quinn’s collar bone. “Then I’m going to slowly kiss down to your stomach, slowly kissing downwards until your so wet and begging for it, and then I’m going to work you up with just my lips and my tongue, and even after I make you come, and make you come, and make you come, I still won’t stop, not until you pass out.”
“Really?”
“Well...no, but I’m going to cuddle the shit out of you.”
Quinn grunted. “I swear, San, we better be putting down an offer on the next house we go to look at! And just so you know, I’m writing all this shit down!”
“I hope so,” Santana whispered seductively, and Quinn wondered how a person who apparently seemed to be very good at withholding could still sound so damn sexy about it.
The best part about Christmas being on Sunday was that you had that Friday and Saturday to get last minute things done, or to travel, or to just prepare yourself for the holiday. The worst thing about it? Getting up on Monday morning because you have to work. The absolute worst thing about Christmas on Sunday is when you have to get up the next day to go to work, knowing your wife doesn’t have to go back into the office until that Monday, a week later. When Quinn got out of the bed, Santana made a half hearted effort to get up, too, but quickly gave up. Santana had been running herself ragged lately, so she didn’t really begrudge her her sleep, much, but she had to remind herself not to feel resentful as, for once, Quinn was the one to leave her wife behind and alone in the bed.
The day passed the way Quinn expected a Monday after a holiday to pass: slowly and tediously. Quinn could have taken her vacation days to cut out on the rest of the year like most of her coworkers, but she was still gunning for that promotion, and technically as long as the federal reserve was open, so was her company. Besides she’d rather save her vacation time for the summer when she was dragging Santana anywhere that had sun and the beach, for their long, long overdue honeymoon.
Apparently Cynthia went into the office, too, because midway through her day, Quinn received a call from her realtor about a house she wanted to show them that evening if they were free. Quinn passed the information along to her wife, and around quitting time Santana met up with Quinn at her office so they could drive over to the house together.
Santana looked so much better rested when she got to Quinn’s office; apparently a day’s worth of sleep had done wonders. Cynthia, however, could not boast the same, and for the first time since they hired her, she was actually late, and she looked slightly haggard. She offered a quick apology that both women waved away. “This listing pretty much just landed on my desk, because the offer on it fell through. Good thing for us, though; I think this listing is absolutely perfect for you two.” She talked as she walked. “As you can see, it’s only a fifteen minute commute, and the asking price is just a little more than that house that you guys liked in East Roxbury.”
They walked down the short drive behind Cynthia, and the second they caught sight of the white house at the end of the lot, Quinn knew that it was something she was going to like. It wasn’t a Victorian, so that was a little disappointing, but the manor’s design was just as stately, so that small detail could be overlooked. And there were trees. Lots of trees. Old trees. And no neighbors right up against the property line.
Their initial look at the front of the grounds, even in the fading winter light, made a mark on both of them. The yard, in both the front and the back of the house, was private and spacious, and once they put some work into the landscaping, it would be a very handsome lawn.
“Why did the offer fall through?” Santana questioned, obviously liking what they had seen so far, even though they hadn’t yet gone inside.
“The purchaser’s job moved to a different state, and they were no longer in the market.”
“How long was the house on the market before that?”
“200 days. And the house has since been marked down by another $20,000.”
“200 days?”
“That’s good. It means the seller is really motivated to sell.”
“But why has it been on the market for that long?”
Cynthia waved towards the house. “Let’s go look inside.” Cynthia led the way and they followed. “It was originally a single family home that was broken up into two separate units after the original owners passed. About two years ago an investor wanted to make it into a B&B, but then backing fell out, so the renovations to turn it back into a single structure were halted. Then almost a year ago, the house was bought by a flipper who got overwhelmed, and it’s been on the market ever since.”
Quinn couldn’t help herself when she walked into the front door. She already knew the house was big, but seeing it from the inside was something else. “How many rooms is this?”
“6 bedroom, 4 baths, and there’s, I believe, 17 rooms.”
Inside, the very first thing they saw was the staircase. It had a soft spiral, like a conch shell, and the steps kind of lazily glided upwards instead of simply circled. There was so much old fashioned charm to the stairs, really to the front room in general. There was crown molding not just on the ceiling, but on the floors and baseboard as well. Santana gave Quinn’s hand a squeeze, and she looked over at her, unable to help her smile.
“Off to the right, here, right beneath the arch is going to be your two piece powder room.”
They peeked at the space. There wasn’t much to it; it was like she said a powder room. It surprisingly wasn’t like a closet; there was space enough to move, to actually breathe. “And right across from the powder room, on the right, is going to be your library.”
The room was pretty close to perfect. It was just the right size, not too small, not too big. And it had three windows which, Quinn was sure, would let it plenty of sunlight. In her head she could already see the window seat that they would build underneath the window, for either of them to read at, if they chose. “The room behind the library is the downstairs master suite, or a mother-in-law suite, with a full four piece bath and walk in closet.”
A back hall took them to the other side of the bottom floor, where they saw the large and wide open kitchen, with a island, and bar counter seating, the pantry, and a space where they could put a table if they wanted to, but wasn’t a formal dining room, which the house didn’t have, having been eliminated by one of the earlier renovations. The master bedroom was practically identical to the suite downstairs, only it was slightly bigger, had a balcony, a fire place, and a window seat.
When they had made it back to the front hall, Cynthia questioned, “So what do you think?”
Quinn turned towards Santana. It didn’t take much imagination to see why this house had been on the market for so long. Every room needed work done. Some a lot of work. The kitchen was pretty much a complete shambles. It looked like it hadn’t been updated since FDR was in office, the appliances were all out dated, and there was even a hole in the floor. Half-assed projects had been started and never finished all over the house. There was drywall missing. All of the windows, in every room but two of them where brand new windows had been put in, would need to be replaced. And there was tacky wall paper everywhere, including n the front hall.
On the positive side of the coin, there were two rooms that had brand new windows, and except for the kitchen, the floors throughout were in near perfect condition. They had two functioning bedrooms, the master suite and the in-laws suite, and one and a half baths. It had also ticked off everything on their list: it had a mother in law suite, the basement was free space, it had a great backyard, there was privacy and yet they were still in the city, and only a few minutes away from both of their jobs so they wouldn’t be looking at long commutes. Which meant more time at home with each other.
There was an understated elegance to the house, too. Even though it hadn’t been treated well, the home still exuded grace. “It’s like you, babe,” Santana had even said, echoing the way Quinn felt about the place.
“I really like this place, San,” Quinn said in response.
“I can tell. Do you like it like you want to put an offer on the table right now, or you like it like you want to add it to the list?”
Quinn stepped closer to her wife, tugging on her. “I like it like I really can see this being our home.”
“Yeah?” Quinn nodded. “Even better than the Victorian?”
“That was nice, but I love this place.”
“We really are the same, huh? I completely feel the same. Well, of course not like about putting an offer down right now, right now. Actually,” she turned to Cynthia. “How late are you willing to stay?”
She was willing to stay late. Santana made a call and while they waited, they sat down on the bench in the front hallway idly chatting about their holidays. It turned out Cynthia had two six year old boys, which may explained her haggard look.
It took Sam 40 minutes to get out to the house and for good measure he brought Mercedes with him. Quinn stayed with Mercedes, while Santana, Cynthia, and Sam went walking through the house, room by room.
“Is this the one?” Mercedes questioned eagerly, once they were gone.
“Me and Santana are thinking that it could be, yeah.”
Mercedes crossed her fingers and sat on them. “I hope it is; this place is so you.”
They both looked up when the three of them retuned 25 minutes later. Quinn’s eyes automatically fell to Sam. “How bad is it?”
Sam shrugged. “Well, of course you’re going to need an inspector to come out, but I didn’t see any major structural damages-,”
“So you found some non major damage?”
Sam nodded. “An inspector will better be able to tell you more definitely than I can once he tests. Just from what I seen, though, you guys are looking at at least $200,000 in renos if not more.”
Quinn looked at her wife at this to see if this was a deal break. Even though the renovations didn’t have to be done overnight, the house was already on the higher end of their budget, it was in serious disrepair, and with a house that old you didn’t know what was hiding underneath the floorboards. All of that spelled even more money.
Santana turned to Cynthia. “Didn’t you say that there was a deal on the table that fell through?”
Cynthia nodded. “So has an inspector already come out to the place?”
“I’m not certain; I can check.”
“It’d be really great if they have. Following the inspector’s report, we’d like to put down an offer on the house. Can you do that tomorrow?”
“Of course. Are you sure?”
Santana turned to Quinn. “Are we sure about this?”
Quinn nodded. They smiled at each other. “We’re sure.”
Quinn crossed her fingers. They may have found their house!