-Chapter 14-

Quinn slept a few hours before getting up and quietly packing the rest of what she'd need for a little while for the kids and then waking them. She growled at the sight of the shiny blue mini-van sitting in the garage but knew she really didn't have another choice. She caught Rachel's gaze from the kitchen once as she walked with Jasper's hand clasped in hers to the garage. The brunette's eyes were swollen and bloodshot and begging Quinn not to go. She lifted Jasper onto her hip and took the two steps down into the garage to load Jasper into his car seat.

"Beth, Noah, let's go."

Beth stood with her hand on Noah's shoulder in the doorway and shook her head.

"No."

"Beth, now is not the time for this. We're leaving."

"This is stupid, Mom."

"I don't wanna go. I wanna stay here," Noah whined.

"Get in the van, I'm not arguing with you."

The drive to Puck's mother's was silent aside from an occasional sniffle from Noah and a sigh from Beth. There were no questions asked when Quinn pulled up in the van, she just unloaded the suitcases into the bedrooms and took the offered cup of hot coffee. She was thankful that the kids were on holiday break so she didn't have to mess with trying to explain the situation to the school. She did, however, have to explain it to Beth and Noah. The reasoning was not well received.

"Sometimes things just don't work out," Quinn said. "People don't get along."

"That's crap, Mom. You were fine. You were happy and you smiled all the time. Are you like, afraid of that or something?"

"Why would you be afraid of bein' happy, Mom?"

"It's hard to explain…"

"Whatever," Beth growled. "All I know is that Rachel made you happy and now you're like, sulking all the time."

"I wanna go home."

It hurt. The look on her kids faces was killing her but the irrational part of her brain said better now than later. Better now than when Rachel picked up and left. The house was silent through two sleepless nights and tension filled days. Quinn tried to talk to her two oldest kids but they only shrugged away and mumbled dismissals. Noah had his first breakdown since May that ended up with a hole in the wall from a thrown book. When Quinn finally got him settled down and asleep for the night she perched herself on the couch in the living room with her knees drawn up to her chest and her face buried in her hands. She was unaware that she'd fallen asleep until something nudged her.

"You're in love with her."

Quinn looked up to see Puck's mother hovering over her with two mugs of tea. The old woman sighed as she sat down and handed one mug to Quinn and quietly sipped the other. She glanced at the wall clock to see it read six in the morning.

"Noah loved you," she said. "He loved you with everything he had, Quinn."

"I loved…love him. I still love him and that's why I can't do this. I can't put my kids at risk to lose someone else. I can't lose someone else."

"Do you know what Noah's biggest fear was, Quinn?"

"The Reds losing the World Series?"

Both women chuckled. "He once told me that his biggest fear was you having to do things by yourself if something happened to him. After you found out you were pregnant with Jasper he told me that if something ever happened to him he hoped you'd find someone that could take care of you and the kids that would love you the way he did and care for you the way you deserved."

"You're just saying that," Quinn said, shaking her head.

"No, I'm not. It was exactly what he said when he came over here to tell me that I was going to be a grandmother again. He was terrified because he was thinking about applying to work on the power line crew, you remember? He would've been working with live wires…"

"But he never applied," Quinn sighed. "He said it was too dangerous."

Before any more could be said Quinn's phone blared and lit up on the table. The blonde snatched up the phone and cradled it in her hands when she saw Rachel's number light up the screen. She hit 'ignore'.

"Be happy, Quinn," Mrs. Puckerman said, patting Quinn on the shoulder before scuffling back to the kitchen.

Quinn's phone beeped and she took a shaky breath before dialing to listen to the voicemail.

Quinn, it's Rachel…I suppose you already knew that judging by the fact that I'm fairly certain you rejected my call. I wanted to inform you that I'm flying back to Los Angeles. My flight leaves in four hours from Columbus. I can't say that I'm not wishing for a large romantic gesture in the middle of the airport where you declare your undying love for me in the most cliché and Hollywood-like scene possible but the realist in me knows it's not going to happen. I'm not putting the house on the market; I'm hoping you'll move back in. Please let me know your decision when it's convenient for you. I'm…I'm very sorry that things couldn't work out. Know that I do love you. I love you and I hope you're happy; that's all I've ever hoped for. Goodbye, Quinn.

Quinn shut her phone and stared at the floor until she heard the soft, slow padding of steps coming from the hallway. She looked up to see Jasper stumbling into the living room, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. The young boy crawled up on Quinn's lap and she cradled him.

"Hey sleepy boy," Quinn cooed, "what are you doing up this early?"

Jasper gurgled and reached for Quinn's phone; she smiled and let him have it. The young boy poked the screen a few times which brought up a picture of Rachel in the green dress she'd worn to the HRC dinner. Quinn quickly tried to snatch the phone away from Jasper but froze.

"Rachel!" he squealed, the brunette's name clear as a bell. "I wan' Rachel!" Quinn sat frozen as Jasper slid off of her lap and hurried to the coat rack to reach up and tug down Quinn's jacket. He whined insistently as he threw the coat toward his mother. "Rachel!" he said again. "Rachel, Rachel, Rachel!"

"Mom?"

Quinn's head snapped to the staircase where Beth and Noah were standing and staring at their little brother. Beth had her lower lip clutched between her teeth; Noah was fidgeting with the hem of his shirt.

"Ra-chel!" Jasper screamed insistently.

Quinn's eyes darted back and forth between her three children and to the coat that Jasper had thrown at her. Her kid's eyes were pleading. Her own heart was pleading. It was then that Quinn finally admitted she'd made the biggest mistake of her life in walking out of that house.

"Watch your brother," she instructed Beth and Noah. "I'll be back later. I'm going to the airport."

"Go get her, Mom!" Beth shrieked as she bounced down the stairs. "And don't screw it up this time."

Quinn nodded furiously as she grabbed her coat and slipped on her shoes. Noah dashed around the living room gathering her purse, phone, and keys and shoved them all to her just as she ran out the door. It was difficult to obey the traffic laws on the way to Columbus, especially since she was lucky that the roads had been recently cleared of the snow, but Quinn wasn't going to risk her life. She tried calling Rachel three times but got nowhere. She parked in a red zone at the airport and flipped off the security guard that told her to move. She checked her watch and if she knew Rachel like she thought she did then the brunette would be getting ready to go through security at that moment. Quinn raced through the airport knocking people out of her way to get to the terminal entrance.

The line at the metal detectors was huge; Quinn jumped up and down a few times to search for a tiny brunette but came up unsuccessful. She was going to have to make a spectacle out of herself but at that moment, she didn't care.

"Rachel!" Quinn yelled at the top of her lungs. "Rachel!"

The crowd started turning and looking but Quinn paid them no attention as she continued shouting. Her voice cracked when she got no response after her eighth yell and tears started cascading. She knew she had lost. Rachel was probably waiting at her gate. She gave it one more half-hearted try which turned out to be a half-sob before giving up. There was a tap on her shoulder and she wiped away her tears to prepare herself for the angry face of a security guard or airport personnel to haul her off.

"Quinn, while that was a lovely gesture," a soft voice said, "I'm afraid you were a bit early. I just got here."

Quinn spun around and looked down into big, brown eyes and a wide smile.

"I thought…"

"Car trouble," Rachel said. "Otherwise you would've had perfect timing."

"Jasper said your name," Quinn blurted out. Her train of thought was moving too quickly to explain how she arrived there but it was the only thing that was coherent. "He…he said your name."

"That's excellent."

"Yours is the first one he's said," she clarified.

"Quinn, I'm slightly confused as to why you would drive from Lima to Columbus to tell me that."

Quinn nodded. "I'm stupid. I'm stupid and I should never have walked out of that house. My kids love you. They really, really love you. They love you and while I was trying to be selfless to protect them I was just being selfish and not thinking that you made them happy. I was just thinking that I didn't want to deal with them being unhappy if something happened and then it just hit me, you know? It hit me that I was trying to put them in this bubble but that bad things are going to…"

Quinn was silenced by Rachel's finger on her lips. "Do you love me, Quinn?"

Quinn nodded.

"And your children love me?"

Quinn nodded again.

"And you know that I would never, ever do anything to hurt any of you. My love for you, for all four of you, knows no bounds and I would love nothing more than to spend forever with you. Are you aware of this?"

Another nod.

"Then do me a favor and stop rambling because I am capable of doing enough of that for the both of us. Plus, I can think of a better use for our mouths at the current moment."

Rachel slowly lowered her finger away from Quinn's lips and looked at her expectantly. Quinn let a smile form before cupping Rachel's face in her hands and pulling her in for a searing kiss.

"Rachel?" Quinn whispered against the brunette's lips when she pulled away.

"Hm?"

"Can we go home?"

"Yes."

Quinn smiled and slipped her arm around Rachel's waist to walk with her out of the airport to the sound of whistles and a few claps.

"Hollywood cliché enough for you?"

"I would've preferred more applause."

"Of course."

XXXXXXXXXX

Eight months later an invitation was dropped in front of Quinn and she smiled down at it lovingly and traced her fingertips over the raised letters. It was perfect. She sat with Rachel at their kitchen table and wrote out names on envelopes to their classmates and their families. Beth carefully slipped the invitations in their envelopes, Noah ran a damp sponge over the flap ("There's no telling what is in that glue!" Rachel had shrieked when he tried to lick it), and Jasper stuck a stamp on the corner of the envelope ("Who cares if they're crooked, Quinn. It will be excellent to help with the development of his fine motor skills.")

"Don't forget," Rachel said as she put a hand over Quinn's wrist after stacking the invitations, "you have homework and a final to study for. Just because it's a summer class doesn't mean you get to slack off."

Quinn playfully rolled her eyes at her soon-to-be wife. "I know. I've been studying, I promise."

"Rachel? What's Mom get when she gets good grades?" Noah asked as he reached for an apple on the kitchen table. "You give me 'n' Beth five bucks for A's on our report card, remember?"

Quinn turned bright red. Rachel matched. Beth fake-gagged.

"I-I'll cook her dinner!" Rachel spurted out.

"You always cook dinner," Noah said, eyebrow arched.

"Well, it'll be a special dinner for just the two of us."

Noah shrugged and hopped off of his chair. "I'd rather have the five bucks," he said as he walked out.

Beth rolled her eyes and took Jasper's hand to lead him to the living room with Noah leaving the two women at the table to finish the stack of wedding invitations.

"Do you really think we need to invite your former management team? I mean…they weren't exactly happy when you fired them all."

"I did not fire them all; I abruptly retired and was no longer in need of a team. I gave each of them excellent letters of recommendation. Having survived working for me they're all sure to get wonderful jobs."

"Okay, Rachel."

Rachel grabbed a sheet of stickers and Quinn rolled her eyes.

"I thought you outgrew the gold stars."

"Of course I haven't but I thought I'd use something a little more appropriate." Rachel flipped the sheet over to reveal a sheet full of gold hearts. "This is assuming I have your heart, of course."

Quinn smiled and leaned over to press a kiss to the corner of Rachel's mouth. "Yeah, sweetie, you do."

The pair stuck the gold hearts next to the return address labels on the envelopes for their wedding invitations. Quinn smiled at the sound of the kids laughing from the living room and Jasper babbling away. She pressed another heart sticker to an envelope and let out a content sigh as she looked into her future, for once, rather than her past.