Simple Parts
Chapter Two- Trouble
I'm in trouble, I'm an addict, I'm addicted to this girl. She's got my heart tied in a knot and my stomach in a whirl. And even worse I can't stop callin her, she's all I want and more. I mean damn, what's not to adore?
QFRB
After what felt like forever but was actually only thirty very tense seconds, the older Rachel regained control of her legs and pulled herself from her son's arms, breaking eye contact with her younger self for the first time. She took a shaky breath.
"Mom?" Alex asked, rubbing her back gently with one of his big hands.
"Would you go get some water, Puppy?" she asked once her breathing had calmed.
"Yes ma'm." The boy ran off towards the stage with no further instruction.
Both girls took the time he was gone as an opportunity to openly observe this older Rachel. She seemed taller, somehow, though they could both see that she hadn't grown any more after high school. They both guessed that she was at least forty and probably a little older, but she looked good. There were no signs that she had had any cosmetic work done and the only real change in her appearance was that she had lost the roundness of youth.
She probably dyes her hair. Quinn ruminated with a thoughtful tilt of her head. She didn't feel hypocritical at all.
Rachel was beyond pleased with what she was seeing. I look so professional and...and sleek. I knew that my rigorous diet and all those hours on the elliptical would pay off in the long run, but to see it so clearly is definitely heartening. I'm glad I never allow myself to slip in my schedule.
He arrived back just as quickly as he left with a bottle of water. "Are you ok, Mom?"
"I'm gonna be fine. I just had a rather intense flashback."
Alex tilted his head to one side and both younger girls immediately understood the nickname Puppy. "Huh?"
"Nothing, I'll explain later."
The buzzing of a phone interrupted any further conversation. Older Rachel snapped up the phone lying on the table and checked the display. "Kurt," she answered breathlessly but she didn't have time to say anything more before the man on the other line started speaking. "Oh, thank goodness, he's alright?" More chatter from the other side occurred. "No, I haven't heard from anyone else yet. I have Rachel and Quinn," she paused, "yes, we were together, I think it's because we were touching when the shift happened." The man on the other line spoke some more. "Ok, you get in touch with Mercedes and Finn. I'll get Santana and Brittany...well of course I'll call Quinn." She rolled her eyes. "Yes, tell them to spread it to the others. Ok, bye."
She ended the call but scrolled over her screen in search of a number. She didn't look up at either of the girls or her son.
Rachel and Quinn had listened to the call with mixed feelings. On the one hand, it was apparent now that they weren't the only ones that had been dragged into the future. On the other, it was clear that this older Rachel knew what was happening and she had yet to try and explain anything to them. Quinn was, in fact about to point this out, but Alex got his mouth open first.
He looked warily between his mother and the two girls he'd led to her before speaking. "Mom, what's going on?"
"I'll explain in a minute, baby boy. I have some phone calls to make first." As she said this she brought the phone to her ear. "Hi, Donny, is Quinn in?...I see, is she expected back?...No, no message. Thank you." She ended the call and chose another number. The other end was apparently ringing for a long time. "Quinn, call me back, it's important," she said eventually, apparently leaving a message before she hung up again.
She dialed another number. "Santana, don't hang up! I have some really important- oh, oh ok good. Yes, that's what I...I see. Very well. You should find Brittany before Brittany does. Cheerios practice starts in half an hour so she's probably in her office. That means Brittany could be wandering around the school. Do you want me to send Alex to- no that's fine. Ok, bye."
Another number was dialed.
"Damn it Quinn!" Rachel snapped at her phone before tossing it back on the table. Quinn jumped but then realized that Older Rachel hadn't been speaking to her. The brunette ran a hand through her hair and huffed, her mouth taking on a familiar pout. She turned to look at the three teens that were watching her every move with wide eyes. "Ok, we've got two minutes before my kids get back on stage, assuming I've raised them right, and I know I have. What do you know so far?"
"We're in the future," Quinn supplied immediately.
Older Rachel nodded. "November 20th, 2040 to be exact."
"Wow."
"And you're...me and he's..." Young Rachel cut in with some confused gesturing between herself, Alex and the older version of her.
"I'm Rachel Berry, you're Rachel Berry, someday you'll be me and Alex is my son. Yes." She nodded distractedly and rounded on Alex. "You are going to keep this to yourself. Do not tell any of your friends or siblings until I have this all worked out."
Alex agreed.
"Ok, there's no real time to explain it all in full detail. Just know that until I saw you I had no idea that this was going to happen and then I looked at you and it all came flooding back. I saw my life flash before my eyes."
"Was it depressing?" Young Rachel asked, looking around the auditorium.
"No, it was incredibly marvelous actually. Most of it, anyway."
"I can't wait." The hungry look in Rachel's eyes was something that Quinn had gotten used to. It meant she was thinking about her future, a future that she was 100 percent certain would turn out for her. Even as she stood here in the crappy (well, less crappy than it used to be actually) William McKinley High auditorium right in front of what would be her in some thirty or so years, she was completely confident in her ability to make it big.
Quinn hated it.
The quiet sounds of talking that had been a backdrop for their conversation grew louder as the glee club drifted up from backstage and took their marks right on time. Older Rachel directed Quinn and Younger Rachel to the row behind her.
"Alright everyone, from the top."
QFRB
The next twenty minutes felt like an eternity to both girls. They sat behind Older Rachel and Alex, and watched the practice in an intense awkward silence. Alex sat at the director's table with Older Rachel, playing games on his phone most of the time. He would occasionally glance back at them but then look away quickly.
Rachel couldn't help but to automatically critique the performance and every time she had a thought Older Rachel would verbalize it to the dancers. It was a little freaky how similar their thoughts were, but it also made a little sense. They were basically the same person.
"Well," she said finally, drawing all attention to her, "I guess it doesn't get better than that today. We still need a lot of practice but you all did very well this afternoon. Remember, Showcase is in three weeks and Sectionals are in five! Now go away and don't come back until Monday."
This order was met with cheers and whistles and a few "You're the best, Coach"s. The stampede of teenagers exiting the stage was almost enough to drown out various calls for their coach to "have a good Thanksgiving."
"Fabray," Older Rachel called out over the mike, "stay behind. I'll write you a note."
The girl nodded, spoke to the other cheerleaders briefly, then turned and approached her Coach. Quinn was watching her like a hawk, and Rachel was similarly interested in the girl. She was of average height, probably around the same as Quinn. Her plain brown hair was up in the tight ponytail required for Cheerios and she had dark brown eyes.
It was when Quinn looked into the girl's eyes that she noticed she was getting a similar once over. When she got caught looking the girl looked at Alex instead.
"Hey Puppy," she greeted the boy with a grin.
Alex scowled. "Don't call me that," he demanded, his eyes hardening.
Alice rolled her eyes. "Whatever, did you need something Coach?"
"I need to know if you're free Friday or Saturday to work on your piece for the recital. I need to book the studio this afternoon."
"Oh uh," her eyes slid back to Quinn.
"Focus Fabray," Older Rachel directed, tapping the table to draw the girl's eyes back, "I'm sure you'll hear all about it at home."
"Sorry Coach, I can do either."
"Alright, let's shoot for Saturday around ten. I already talked to Coach Pierce about it."
Alice nodded and waited while Older Rachel wrote her a note, her eyes occasionally straying to Young Rachel and Quinn. Older Rachel waited until the doors to the auditorium were completely closed before she would even acknowledge the questions in the time travelers' eyes.
She sent Alex to hit the lights and finally, after what had probably been an entire hour that they were in the future, someone was about to tell them what was going on.
"I don't remember everything yet, but it's coming back to me in pieces."
"The others are here too though? Isn't that what the phone calls were about?" Young Rachel asked, she leaned forward in her seat. Quinn frowned. She was probably just eager to find out where her boyfriend was.
"Yes, I have no idea how or why though. I'm sure Mike or Quinn would have some theories."
"Are we close or something, like friends? You've been mentioning me a lot and that girl, you called her Fabray, and she looked comfortable with you." Quinn didn't mean for it to come off accusatory, but she was confused and sore and not at all liking the way that this poised Older Rachel was doing something funny to her belly.
"Alice," Older Rachel supplied. "She's your daughter." The tenderness in those big brown eyes made Quinn want to cry a little bit. She wrapped her arms around her waist and closed her eyes.
"Is she...Am I not married or something?" she asked, forgetting that her first question hadn't been answered.
"No, you are but...you know, I'm probably not the one that should be telling you this."
"Mom?" Alex piped up suddenly, "all this stuff you're saying...I mean, she's really you?" he pointed to Young Rachel.
"Yep," she replied, ruffling his hair. "I'm sure that's weird for you."
Alex actually kind of whimpered at the affirmation. He gripped his hair in both hands and shot frantic looks between the two Rachels. "God that's so creepy!" his voice screeched at the end. "I totally thought you were hot!" he informed his mother in complete anguish.
There was nothing on earth that could've stopped Quinn's stunned guffaw or the subsequent peals of laughter that had her bending at the waist from their force. Her forehead hit her knees and she decided to just stay bent like that until she could breathe normally again.
"My poor baby," Older Rachel managed, hiding her smile behind a hand.
Young Rachel was just embarrassed, for herself and for Alex.
When Quinn sat up there were tears in her eyes. She took one look at the boy and had to bite her lip to keep from bursting into laughter again.
"I'm going to go bleach my brain now, thanks," Alex informed them, looking every bit like his mother as he stormed out of the auditorium. The women watched him go, all three of them giving him marks out of ten for effort.
"Wow," Quinn choked out through a laugh, "he's definitely your kid, Berry." She sat forward in the faux-velvet lined chair and leveled Older Rachel with a smirk that bordered on superior. "So, you're a show choir director. The irony is almost too much."
Young Rachel's cheeks burned with hot anger at this sudden turnaround in attitude. She opened her mouth to retort with something biting but the older her got there first.
"Oh, Little Quinn, you don't want to go there with me. I don't know why you're trying to hurt me, especially when my only goal right now is to make sure you stay alive until you get back to the past."
This time Quinn flushed and she looked down. "I didn't mean for it to come out like that."
Older Rachel sighed. "I know, and we need to get that discussion out of the way now anyway."
"What discussion?" Young Rachel asked.
"I can feel the curiosity pouring off of you. I know you've been wondering why we're in Lima."
"I did...give it thought."
"It's a long story full of sighs, but I'm going to keep it short." She ignored Quinn's unladylike snort. "The details won't really matter and you're going to forget all of this when you go back anyway. Four years ago Daddy had a heart attack," she paused for the expected reaction. Young Rachel's gasp, her hands flying to cover her mouth, the tears that filled her eyes, she had expected it. She remembered how it felt. "It was his second and he didn't make it." She had the air of someone that had relayed bad news so much that it didn't mean anything to her anymore. It was just a fact. "Dad was..."she trailed off with a shake of her head. "For about a month afterwards I was unbearably tense. The play I was in at the time ended its run and my agent had a few things lined up but nothing I was really desperate to do. It was about that time that I got a call from Mr. Shue. He was just calling to tell me he was retiring. I sat down with my wife and I discussed—" she was cut off abruptly by the blonde who had been listening passively until that moment.
"Oh my God! You're gay?" The look on Quinn's face wasn't disgust, the Rachels were both extremely adapt at recognizing Quinn Fabray's disgusted expression, no, it was complete and utter shock. She was flummoxed and the look on her face was akin to someone that had just been slapped with a wet sock. She was also halfway out of her seat and leaning away from Young Rachel at an unstable angle.
Young Rachel pouted and crossed her arms over her chest. "Sexuality is fluid, Quinn. While I confess to having an affinity for men, I have never ruled out the possibility of a relationship with a woman, were the right one to come along, as is obviously the case," she lectured with her nose firmly in the air. When she cut a glance at the blonde and saw that she hadn't moved in any significant way her lips pressed into a thin line. "You can sit down now; I'm not going to jump you. You are so not my type."
Quinn squeaked in offence and plopped back into her seat. "I am everyone's type."
"Well you aren't mine. I'm sorry if I don't have a predilection towards frigid bitches."
"Okay," Alex broke in suddenly, clapping and standing up. "This is getting intense. Can we go home yet?"
All the women jumped at his sudden appearance. "Not yet, Pups," his mother answered when she found air again. "Anyway, we decided to move here to be closer to Dad and I was feeling like taking a break from Broadway anyway. I got the job as choir director. I also teach the theater classes."
Young Rachel still had tears in her eyes but she didn't feel like her life was ending. It wasn't real to her yet, and it wouldn't be, she rationalized, for some twenty years. She had many years left to spend with both of her fathers.
"I'm hungry, can we go home now?" Alex asked again.
"Yes, yes, we can go." Older Rachel checked her phone. "And since I haven't heard from Quinn I'm just going to take you home with me," she told the young blond.
QFRB
Older Rachel led them out to the staff parking lot, after she locked up the auditorium, with Alex practically skipping in excitement beside her. "This is so cool! I mean, once I got passed the whole thinking you were hot thing," he directed to the younger version of him mother, "I realized how awesome this is gonna be. I mean," he turned to his mother, "you used to be human!"
"Hey!" Older Rachel reached up and yanked one of his ears. He bounced away laughing and rubbing the offended area. He ran from them and jumped into the air, tapping his heels together and then landing neatly. He stopped in front of a shiny black SUV type car that gave the time travelers pause. It was the only car left in the lot so it obviously belonged to Rachel, but it was just so...futuristic that it caught them off guard.
"Unlock it Mom," Alex whined. "Let's go, I wanna hear what Momma's going to say."
"Open," Older Rachel enunciated. She grinned when the younger versions of herself and Quinn both jerked with surprise when the doors swung upward smoothly. "It's fully voice automated. The only thing I have to do is steer and break." When they both just continued to stand and stare at the vehicle, she gently shepherded them along with a chuckle.
They clambered into the back seats, Quinn behind Older Rachel and Rachel behind Alex.
"What's in the player?" the boy asked as soon as he climbed into the passenger seat. "Can we listen to Mo's Scan?"
"I'm not sure, and no. That's way too much for our guests to handle right now," his mother replied without looking at the girls in question.
Alex saw their vaguely confused faces (Rachel was more open about her feelings than Quinn was) and wholesale turned around in his seat to address them. "My big brother, Mo, he's an actor...or he's trying to be an actor anyway, but he does stand up on the side and he sent me a Scan for my birthday. It's really funny."
"It's really inappropriate for thirteen year old boys. Here I am, trying to raise you to respect women and not treat them as sex objects, and he's talking about how bitches need to learn to swallow cause people are dying in Africa." Older Rachel ranted indignantly.
Alex snorted with laughter but cut himself off abruptly when his mother glared at him. "Oh come on Mom, he does satire. Besides, it's true...well, not the part about swallowing, and I don't really fully get that one anyway. Everybody tells me to Google image it but Alice told me not to if I don't want to be scared for life." He paused. "So I guess that means she did it, huh?"
Older Rachel couldn't help the snort that burst out of her, especially with the look on her younger counterpart's and Quinn's faces. Quinn looked so overwhelmed by everything that had been said since she climbed into the back seat of the SUV that Older Rachel wasn't sure she'd ever recover. She turned back to her son.
"You don't need to worry about what Alice has been doing. Turn your ass around Puppy. I'm not moving this car until you're buckled up."
Alex turned around with a grumble and made quite a show of pulling his seat belt around him.
"And anyway," Older Rachel continued once he had obeyed her orders, "they're probably wondering what a Scan is, not who Mo is. We didn't have Scans when I was young Puppy."
"I always forget that you're super old Mom," Alex replied with a charming grin. Older Rachel smacked him over the head. "Ow," he cried and then cackled, "abuse! Abuse! Someone call CPS!"
Quinn watched all of this interaction with a little fuzz in her brain. She was so beyond confused and conflicted that she couldn't really help but stare blankly at everything around her. She wondered if she might be going into shock. It wouldn't be surprising really. She had seen her daughter. The daughter she would have someday. The daughter she would keep.
Her chest was tight with emotions she couldn't name even if she routinely allowed herself to feel them. Years of emotional stunting had taken away even her ability to categorize the way she was feeling as good or bad. All she knew was Alice.
Alice.
She was beautiful. A cheerleader too, but without the cocky bitch attitude that Quinn herself had carried around. She had seemed to be very aware of who she was, and she was apparently close to both this Older Rachel and Brittany. She was also a little stunned at how mellow Rachel would apparently become. Of course, she was still an insane perfectionist with a tendency toward the dramatic if the routine they had seen earlier was any indication, but she was actually funny and kind of likable. And she swore too which was literally mind blowing for Quinn and apparently traumatic for Rachel if the look on her face was anything to go by.
Getting anywhere in Lima usually took all of fifteen minutes, and that seemed to still be the case. The car ride had been void of conversation but not uncomfortable. Radio was apparently still a thing so Older Rachel put on an "oldies" channel which turned out to be music from the 90s to 2020ish. Alex complained a little but then ended up singing along to all of the songs under his breath.
Before long they pulled into a double driveway alongside an older looking red car, at least older than the one they were currently in. The house attached to the driveway was large but not ostentatious. There was nothing entirely remarkable about it. It was brown brick and had a shallow front porch. There was a nice sized balcony on the second floor over the front porch.
"How big is this house?" Quinn asked, peering around Older Rachel and Alex.
"Seven bedrooms, four and half bath, there's an office, and a mudroom separate from the laundry room. There's a garage in the back but we use it for storage."
"Wow, Berry, you've done well for yourself."
"Come on then, might as well get this over with."
They were herded out of the car and they followed Alex and his mother onto the porch.
Older Rachel stopped at the front door and turned to face the three teenagers behind her with serious eyes. "Before we go in I'd like to talk to you about what's going to happen. I want you both to recognize that my wife and I are incredibly in love. She's the light of my life and I'd be lost without her. We're an exceedingly affectionate couple. We're almost always touching in some way, and while I don't want either of you to feel uncomfortable at any time, I also refuse to stop being affectionate with my wife."
"So..." Quinn started, quirking her expressive eyebrow, "you're saying we just have to get over it?"
"Essentially," Older Rachel agreed. "She might curtail the affection a little to make you more comfortable, but I won't unless she asks me to."
"Well you don't have to worry about me," the younger diva insisted. "I'm actually quite looking forward to meeting the woman that will someday hold our heart and I won't be at all uncomfortable with your displays of affection. This might sound odd, but it will give me something to look forward to."
"It makes perfect sense and it isn't at all odd. That might just be because I can remember feeling that way. Just trust me," Older Rachel said, laying a hand on Young Rachel's shoulder, "you're going to be uncomfortable, I remember that too. " She glanced quickly at Quinn and then away but her younger counterpart saw the action.
The younger brunette's brow furrowed in confusion. It hit her harder than Finn had when he'd accidently broken her nose the year before, and just like that time she felt tears stinging at the corners of her eyes. A sort of horrified realization filled her.
"Oh no!" she looked into identical brown eyes, horror shining plainly in her own. "Please, please, please tell me it's not...oh God!"
"What?" Quinn demanded, looking between the Rachels. She didn't like feeling left out.
"Nothing," Older Rachel was quick to assure her. She turned on her younger self and hissed into her ear. "I need you to stay calm, please. We'll discuss this later. There's nothing you can do about it right now except accept that some things have changed."
Young Rachel nodded stiffly, her jaw clenched tight. Her stomach was rebelling and she felt as if all the air had been squeezed out of her lungs. She didn't want to accept it, but what else could she do? There was nowhere to run. She didn't know how to survive in this strange future.
"Ok, stand right here," Older Rachel directed, pulling them gently in from the foyer after she led them in, and directed them toward the staircase. She put them at an angle where they would be able to see who was coming down the stairs but where the two of them would not be visible until actually looked for. "And for the love of God, just be quiet," she directed this last statement more towards her younger self than to Quinn. The blonde couldn't help the small smirk that got through at the sight of the young diva's pouty frown.
Despite her seeming unhappiness with the order, Rachel nodded her agreement to her older counterpart's instructions and Quinn mimicked the action.
Alex grinned toothily at his mother when she turned to him. "This is gonna be great," he whispered with an excited bounce, glancing between the three of them with glee.
Older Rachel frowned at him. "You can be quiet too, young man."
Alex wiped the smile off his face quickly and nodded. He broke into a beaming grin again when his mother turned away.
The two other teens watched as Older Rachel shook herself and took a few deep breaths before closing the door with just enough force so that it made noise. She turned with a bright and genuine smile and bounced happily over to the foot of the stairs.
"Lucy, I'm home!" Older Rachel sing-songed loudly in a mockery of Ricky Ricardo, an expectant look on her face.
"If you don't stop calling me that I'm going to divorce you!" a voice from upstairs floated down, full of false cheer.
Older Rachel's expectancy turned into a bright smile before she scoffed playfully. "Oh please, you've been saying that for twenty-five years now."
The woman's voice was closer now. "And every time it happens I get a little more serious."
Rachel and Quinn could both tell the second Older Rachel saw her wife. A change swept over her visage and it was so startlingly warm, so raw and emotional, that Quinn suddenly felt uncomfortable. A different kind of uncomfortable than what she was feeling about this whole situation. She felt like voyeur. There was a wellspring of jealousy licking up from her belly too. She wondered if she ended up this happy, or if this fairy tale was only for people like Rachel Berry.
Rachel just felt a sudden swell of longing fill her up. Even through her horror at the knowledge that it was almost certainly Quinn Fabray that her older self was looking up at, she just wanted that feeling that was so clear on the older woman's face.
"I'm going to cuddle the shit out of you."
"And you've been saying that for twenty-five years," came the laughing reply. The world seemed to slide into slow motion for the two girls in the hallway. A bare pair of feet became visible through the railing and then legs clad in baggy navy track pants. Then a hand on the railing, a diamond glinting on a manicured finger, slid into view. She was wearing a sweatshirt that looked like it used to also be navy but was so well worn that it had turned into a weird blue-gray color.
"Honey, I've got some news," Rachel told her wife in an exaggeratedly gentle voice. The woman on the stairs stopped descending.
"How much did you spend?" her posture didn't change but her tone was stern. Older Rachel rolled her eyes.
"Nothing, we just have some unplanned guests for the next few days."
"Oh, is that all?" the woman continued the last of her decent. A mop of short, wildly messy blonde hair and a delicate facial profile completed the picture of Wife of Rachel Berry. She bounced on the last step and then threw her arms around the shorter woman's neck, immediately moving in for a kiss.
The younger blonde, standing off to the side, felt her knees lock just as awareness stole over her. She was looking at her own profile. She was looking at an older Lucy Quinn Fabray, and everything that had happened over the past few hours suddenly made sense.
Older Rachel didn't exactly dodge the affection so much as redirect it.
"Something wrong?" Older Quinn asked, tilting her head.
"No, I just don't want to get caught in your little trap when you have guests to greet," Older Rachel teased, wrapping her arms loosely around the body pressed tight against her. The older diva nodded in the direction of the two girls.
And then Older Quinn turned, eyes full of good humor that quickly turned to shock.
Quinn wanted to run. Everything in her being told her to flee. She couldn't though. Her eyes were glued to an identical pair, tied together as if by an invisible string. When this older her slumped backwards into Older Rachel's arms, their eye contact didn't break.
She didn't know what was causing this other Quinn to shake and jerk the way she was, but she was having her own freak out.
She had buried it so long, and she had been so successful. Just one more school year and she would have been free from the feelings that Rachel Fucking Berry had inspired in her. The feelings that had coiled in hot tight circles in her lower belly would have ended, but now, seeing that she was going to apparently be tied forever to the one person that had caused her perversion...it was too much.
She wanted to cry, to scream, to run far away from these feelings. From this girl that was now holding her arms the way she had held hers earlier. From the heat that those warm hands on her arms was causing. She couldn't though, her feet were nailed to the floor, and as terrible as it all way, it was strangely wonderful too.
She was in so much trouble.
QFRB
I'm playing too much guitar, I'm listening to jazz. I call so many times I swear she's going mad and that cellular will be the death of us, I swear, I swear.