December 18th 2014

Quinn is tired. Oh so very tired. She took her last final mere hours ago, and she worries that she may not have done well because her mind has been on today and Rachel and getting to New York.

But now she's here even if it is only half past midnight.

She has many plans for the day, though she's starting to worry that she will run out of ideas for Rachel's birthday within a few years. She has aimed so high these last few years that she wonders what will happen if she doesn't have anything so extravagant planned.

She makes her way to Rachel and Kurt's apartment, sending Rachel a text when she's in the elevator on her way up.

A tired-looking, but happy Rachel opens the door, pulling Quinn in for a kiss. Quinn melts into Rachel. It has been far too long since they've been able to see each other. Sure it has only been about a month, but for them it's still far too long.

"Happy birthday, darling," Quinn says when the kiss breaks, leaning her forehead against Rachel's.

"Happy anniversary, baby," Rachel says.

Quinn smiles dopily at Rachel. She feels so lucky to have such an amazing girlfriend. In the back of her mind she can't help but wonder how she got Rachel. "Happy anniversary."

Quinn leans in to take Rachel's lips in her own once more before she says, "It's been such a long night, and all I really want to do is fall asleep holding my beautiful girlfriend."

"Sounds like a dream come true, baby," Rachel says. "I've missed you so much."

"I've missed you, too. It's so hard being away from you so much. But all that's going to change soon."

Rachel looks up in confusion. They still have a year and a half left of college. She wonders if Quinn is planning to transfer to a school in New York. She hopes she isn't. As much as Rachel would love for Quinn to be around more often, she knows that Yale is Quinn's dream school, and she doesn't want Quinn to leave it for her.

"I was going to wait to tell you," Quinn says. She kicks her bags into the loft before closing the door behind herself and Rachel. She pulls an envelope out of her purse and hands it to Rachel.

Rachel takes out the letter and sees the heading from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. We are pleased to inform you that you've been accepted

Rachel is torn between being proud of Quinn (and she is so incredibly proud of her), being happy that she is willing to transfer to New York just to be with her, and being mad at Quinn for leaving Yale behind.

"Quinn," Rachel says, uncertainty plastered across her face. "As much as I would love for you to be close to me, and I would, baby, I really would, Yale is your dream school. I don't want you to leave it. You deserve to get your diploma from the school of your dreams."

"Rach, baby, did you read the letter?" Quinn asks, a smile playing at the corner of her lips. Quinn's quite sure that Rachel hasn't read it, at least not all of it, else she would know her statement doesn't quite make sense.

"Yeah, it said you've been accepted into Tisch."

Quinn smiles at Rachel, chuckling softly.

"Rachel, read it again, all of it."

Dear Ms. Fabray,

We are pleased to inform you that you've been accepted as a Master's Degree candidate to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

"Master's Degree?" Rachel asks, confused.

"With all the AP credits I had, as well as a few college courses my parents forced me to take in the summer, I have enough credits to graduate at the end of the year." Quinn explains.

"Oh my God, Quinn, that's so amazing!" Rachel screeches, waking a disgruntled Kurt in the other room. "Why didn't you tell me you were graduating this year?"

"I talked to my academic advisor at the beginning of the semester, and she told me as long as I passed my classes, I'd be eligible to graduate at the end of the year. So I applied to a couple graduate programs here in the city. I was going to tell you, but I wanted to wait and see if I got in. I figured if I didn't get in, I could stay at Yale for an extra semester and try to build up my resume and reapply."

"Oh, Quinn, I'm so proud of you," Rachel says.

"Thanks Rach, but I'm so tired right now, and I have a big day planned, can we wait until your birthday's over to celebrate? I just want to hold you while I dream of you tonight."

"Let's get you to bed then," Rachel says.

Rachel wakes to the smell of the very strange combination of Strawberries and Sweet Potatoes. She walks out of the room to find Quinn cooking up a storm.

"Good morning, love," Rachel says. "It smells…interesting, what are you making?"

Quinn smiles at Rachel. She flips the pancake one last time, before placing it with the others on a plate. She takes a dish from the oven and turns everything off before walking over to Rachel and kissing her chastely.

"Every morning with you is a good morning," Quinn says causing Rachel to blush.

"I found a few recipes I thought you might like. We have Strawberry Shortcake Pancakes complete with Extra strawberries and a strawberry banana cream sauce. There's Sweet Potato Oatmeal Breakfast Casserole. And just in case those recipes are horrific, there's tofu scramble and fresh fruit."

Rachel stares at her girlfriend, wondering how she got so lucky. In high school, she never would have dreamed that she would be in love with Quinn Fabray, or more surprising than that, that Quinn Fabray would be in love with her. She thinks back to her eighteenth birthday; the one where everything changed. She thinks Quinn must have felt something for her long before then, else things wouldn't have turned out the way they are. Rachel makes a mental note to ask Quinn exactly when she fell in love with her.

"You're too good to me," Rachel says.

Quinn's face becomes somber.

"I'll never be good enough for you," Quinn says under her breath, not intending for Rachel to hear, but Rachel hears it.

Before Rachel can say anything about the mumbled comment, Quinn says, "You deserve it, Rach. You deserve every good thing that comes your way and so much more."

It isn't the first time Quinn's said something like that, but Rachel feels herself fall a little bit more in love with Quinn at the statement.

Rachel leans in to kiss Quinn, before Kurt comes out and joins them for breakfast. Quinn's original comment forgotten for the moment. Even Kurt, though disgusted by the idea of it, enjoys the Sweet Potato Oatmeal Breakfast Casserole that Quinn had made, as well as everything else.

Kurt gives Rachel her birthday present. He says it's from both him and Blaine. Rachel wonders when that happened again, but decides to save her questions for tomorrow.

Rachel gasps when she sees the little black strapless dress that she had tried on when she had visited Kurt at Vogue a couple years before. She knows how expensive this dress is even though it is a couple years old.

"Kurt," she says.

"Isabelle sends her regards and says to wish you a happy birthday on her behalf."

"I…thank you."

Rachel opens the rest of her presents from her friends, which consist mostly of gift cards. She receives a royal blue peacoat to match her red one from her fathers. She sighs in contentment when she finds she only has her birthday gifts from Quinn left. Quinn always gives her the best presents. And Quinn always makes her open everyone else's first.

"Oh my God, Quinn," Rachel says when she opens the first of Quinn's presents. Nobody else would think much of it. To the untrained eye, it's just a bottle of perfume. But it isn't just any old bottle of perfume. It's Rachel's absolute favorite perfume. It was a limited edition that very few people even knew about that had been discontinued when they were just infants.

Rachel doesn't know how Quinn knows about this particular perfume and how much she likes it. She doesn't have the slightest idea where Quinn managed to find it, but she knows it must have cost her a fortune.

Rachel also isn't aware that Quinn has purchased multiple bottles, so that Rachel will never run out.

"How did you…?" Rachel looks up at Quinn. Tears threaten to fall from Rachel's eyes.. Rachel feels acutely aware of how lucky she is to have Quinn. How every gift from Quinn shows just how much Quinn loves her and how much thought goes into every single one of them. She loves how every day with her girlfriend feels like a dream.

"You keep the empty bottle on your dresser still. I don't know how long it's been empty, but it must have meant a lot to you," Quinn says.

Rachel takes Quinn's face in her hands and pulls her closer. She kisses Quinn slowly, but with so much passion that Kurt can feel it two feet away with his eyes diverted.

When they break for air, Quinn says, "There's more, you know?"

Rachel laughs lightly her forehead resting against Quinn's. "I love you."

"I love you, too superstar."

Kurt fakes a cough effectively capturing their attention. Quinn rolls her eyes, but tells Rachel to finish opening her presents.

Rachel opens the next present. It's a CD. Rachel can't remember the last time somebody gave her a CD. Everyone has iPods now, so CDs are, unfortunately, becoming a thing of the past. The cover is rather plain, it's black with a small gold star in the center and the title of the album in white across the top. It's called My Favorite Star. Rachel turns it over to see what's on it.

She shocked to find it's all recordings of herself singing. It had "Get It Right" the song she had written and sung for Regionals junior year, "It's All Coming Back To Me Now" the song she had sung at Nationals senior year that had gotten her into NYADA, "Defying Gravity" from the diva-off with Kurt sophomore year, even songs that Quinn must have stolen from her Myspace page because she was sure she'd never sung those songs in front of her before. There was a song from her sophomore showcase, and a song she's sure she has only ever sang once when Quinn had asked her to.

The last present is in an envelope and Rachel can already tell that they're tickets to a Broadway show, though she isn't sure which one.

Quinn's smile gets bigger when Rachel's eyes bulge out seeing the tickets to "If/Then" the new Broadway musical with Idina Menzel in it. Rachel has been dying to see it despite the creepy resemblance the actress has to Shelby.

Rachel launches herself into Quinn's arms as they wrap around her waist.

"You spoil me," Rachel mumbles into Quinn's neck.

Quinn chuckles. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

Quinn's plans for the day change immensely shortly after Rachel leaves for classes. She gets a call from Kelly, one of her friends from Yale who says that her father is working on a revival of Funny Girl on Broadway and the lead actress just dropped out. Kelly had heard Rachel sing on many of Rachel's visits and says that she's convinced her father to audition Rachel for the role. If he thinks she's good enough, the role is hers. The catch is, she has to audition today.

Quinn makes a few phone calls and sets the audition up for Rachel. She's smiling all day because she knows this is better than what she had planned anyway.

Rachel finds Quinn waiting for her outside her last class. She runs into Quinn's arms. Quinn gives her a quick peck and tells her that she has a surprise for her.

Quinn leads Rachel back to the Gershwin theater, and they're let in by a man on the inside.

"Quinn," Rachel gasps. "How did you manage this?"

"I have my ways," Quinn replies. Quinn peaks behind her and sees Kelly's father, Sterling, on the mezzanine. She brings Rachel on the stage and says "Baby, will you sing for me?"

Rachel beams at Quinn. "For you, anything."

Rachel feels like she should sing something from Wicked, simply because she's at the Gershwin, like she was senior year with Kurt, but she decides to sing something simply for Quinn, because, well it was Quinn and she knows that Quinn is her dream come true, even if God forbid she never makes it as a Broadway actress, she has Quinn. The dream she never realized she wanted until it became a reality.

Rachel sings Hall and Oates "You Make My Dreams" to Quinn. Sterling can feel Rachel's passion, and her talent is obvious. He's glad he let Kelly talk him into this.

"How long do we have?" Rachel asks Quinn. "Do I have time for another song or do we have to be out of her now?"

"You have time, baby. Sing your heart out."

Rachel sings "I'm Not That Girl" from Wicked, "Don't Rain On My Parade" from Funny Girl" and "Never Can Say Goodbye" by the Jackson 5 in tribute to Quinn before dragging Quinn onstage to sing their mash-up of "I Feel Pretty" and "Unpretty" that they had sung when Rachel was considering a nose job.

Rachel and Quinn are out with Kurt, Blaine, Brittany and Santana when Quinn gets a phone call.

"Quinn Fabray."

"Quinn, this is Sterling Harper."

"Hello, sir."

"I'm very impressed with your girlfriend's abilities."

"Thank you, sir."

"And yours as well."

Quinn's eyebrow lifts.

"Thank you, sir."

"I'll be calling Ms. Berry shortly."

"That's great, sir. Thank you, sir."

"She wasn't aware she was auditioning, was she?"

"No, sir."

"I thought as much. Well, Miss Fabray, I do have one final piece of business with you."

"Yes sir?"

"Would you perhaps consider being an understudy for the role of Glinda?"

Quinn's jaw drops.

"I don't know what to say sir."

"Well I was hoping for a yes, but think about it."

"Yes, sir."

"I'll be in touch."

"Yes, sir. Thank you so much, sir."

"Goodbye Quinn."

"Goodbye Mr. Harper."

When Quinn hangs up everyone is looking at her.

"What was that all about?" Santana asks.

Before Quinn even has a chance to answer, Rachel's phone rings.

She stares at her phone for a moment because she doesn't recognize the number.

"Rachel Berry speaking."

"Hello Miss Berry, this is Sterling Harper calling."

Rachel is confused. She doesn't know anybody named Sterling Harper.

"Your audition was quite impressive and I would like to formally offer you the part of Fanny Brice in our upcoming revival of Funny Girl."

Rachel is speechless. Her eyes widen and she turns to look at Quinn who is grinning ear-to-ear at her.

"Miss Berry?"

"I, I don't know what to say sir, this is an honor, but I'm confused. I haven't auditioned."

"What did you think you were doing at the Gershwin this afternoon?"

Rachel's jaw drops. "That was…Oh my God."

"I don't mean to pressure you, but I am rather short on time and I will need an answer within the next few days."

"It would be an honor, Mr. Harper."

"Fantastic, I'll send Quinn all the information, and if you would be so kind as to tell her to consider my offer as well, I would be most thankful."

"I, thank you."

"You deserve this, Miss Berry. Congratulations. Have a wonderful day."

"Thank you."

Rachel hangs up the phone, still in shock.

"I'm gonna be on Broadway…" Rachel breathes.

"I'm gonna be on Broadway!" Rachel screams excitedly.

Congratulations are shared as well as hugs and in Quinn's case kisses.

Rachel walks in to find an unlit Menorah on the counter. Quinn smirks behind her. "I thought you could lead us in the prayer."

"Quinn," Rachel says turning around to face her girlfriend.

"I know your faith is important to you, Rach."

Rachel teaches Quinn all about Hanukkah and lights the Menorah, saying all the Hebrew prayers. Quinn listens intently to Rachel, hanging onto every word, knowing one day they'll be teaching their children all this. Quinn grins at the thought of their children. She knows Rachel will be a fantastic mom.

"This is your present from yesterday," Quinn says as she hands Rachel a small box. Inside lay a hand-stitched bracelet that read "Destined for Broadway."

"I know your family has a tradition of not spending any money on Hanukkah presents, so I made it myself."

Quinn gives Rachel her next Hanukkah present, a hat that Quinn hat knit for her, and they play a few games of spin the dreidel before Rachel drags Quinn into the bedroom.

Rachel had decided that she was going to surprise Quinn this year and plan something for their anniversary. And she did. Her only flaw was in all the excitement that had happened, she had forgotten to set it up.

Quinn gasps as she enters the bedroom now filled with rose-petals and fake candles. She wonders when Rachel had time to do this.

Rachel sighs quietly in relief. She's happy she mentioned to Kurt what she wanted to do, and makes a mental note to thank him next time she sees him.

"Happy anniversary, Quinn."

"Happy anniversary, Rachel."

Rachel rushes to the closet where she had hidden Quinn's presents.

She hands one to Quinn. It's a book and Quinn doesn't recognize it. There are no marks, no designs, no words on the cover. Quinn looks up at Rachel whose knee is bouncing up and down impatiently. Quinn opens to the middle of the book and starts to read. She immediately recognizes the words and looks up at Rachel again. Tears in her eyes.

"I had them bound for you. I have no doubt you could be a successful writer if you wanted to."

"I love you," Quinn says. "So much. Thank you."

Quinn leans in to kiss Rachel. When they part, Rachel says, "That's not all."

Rachel gives Quinn her next present. It's another book, but this time when Quinn opens it, it's empty.

"For the next hundred poems," Rachel says.

Rachel gives Quinn one last present. It's another book, but this one is Quinn recognizes. Pride & Prejudice another old tattered copy like the copy of Romeo and Juliet Rachel gave Quinn last year. Quinn predicts this will be a tradition and she doesn't mind one bit.

Quinn gives Rachel her present. It's a silver frame with the word forever in elegant script written across the top. On the left there's two pictures. The top one shows Quinn and Rachel hugging after winning Nationals in Chicago. The bottom one shows Quinn holding Rachel around her waist. They're both smiling. Rachel's eyes are on the camera, and Quinn's are on Rachel. Quinn's chin rests on Rachel's shoulder and snow is falling around them, but they couldn't care less. On the right is one of Quinn's poems, titled "Forever."

"Quinn, it's beautiful," Rachel says. "I love it."

"And I love you."

"I love you, too."

Rachel and Quinn eventually find their way into Rachel's bed and Rachel turns on "The Avengers" because she knows it's one of Quinn's favorite movies.

Rachel's thinking about how awesome today was and how much everything has changed since two years ago when Quinn decided to surprise her and hijack her birthday which nobody else had remembered.

"Quinn?" Rachel says.

"Yes, baby?"

"Thank you for setting up that audition."

"You're welcome, but you should really thank Kelly. She thought of you when she heard the actress dropped out."

"I'll make sure to do that."

Silence.

"Quinn?"

"Yeah?"

"What was Mr. Harper talking about when he told me I should tell you to consider his offer?"

"He told you to say that?" Quinn asks. "I completely forgot he even offered me…"

"What?"

"When he called me to say that he was going to offer you the part, he told me he wanted me as an understudy for Glinda."

"Quinn! That's incredible!"

"I haven't really thought about it," Quinn says. "Broadway has always been your dream, not mine."

"Just know that whatever you decide, I support you."

"It would be kind of cool to play opposite my incredibly talented girlfriend."

"It would be, wouldn't it?"

"I just don't know if that's what I want to do right now, you know?"

"That's okay, Quinn. Take some time, just think about it?

Rachel kisses Quinn and says "I'm so proud of you."

"Not as proud as I am of you. You're incredible. I love you so much."

"I love you, too, Quinn. Always and forever."

"Always and forever."

Rachel snuggles closer into Quinn as they finish watching the movie. They fall asleep just short of midnight while the credits roll.