Simple Parts (from fanfiction.net)

Chapter Twelve- Multiply Divide

Simple Parts

Chapter 12- Multiply Divide

Push all the air out of your lungs
A year is a lifetime
When you're young
And clearly lifetimes will be spent
Wondering just where our time went

QFRB

Rachel came into awareness in that fuzzy space between wakefulness and deep sleep. She was warm and happy, and the pillow under her ear carried a steady beat into her brain that kept her calm and made her feel safe. It smelled good too.

It was only when her pillow shifted that she was forced to wake up a little more and she realized that her pillow was actually Quinn's chest. Now fully awake, she didn't remove herself from the situation, but curled closer and relished it. She didn't know how much longer she would get to enjoy that kind of closeness with Quinn and there was no way she was going to take it for granted.

Even if there was a creeping feeling of dread lurking around her belly.

It was familiar, that feeling. Frightening and close. She can easily remember the way the she felt on the day she arrived in the future. It was the same.

Her grip on Quinn tightened reflexively.

She scooted away a little so that she wasn't entirely on top of Quinn and shook her a little. Quinn groaned and her brow furrowed in an adorable attempt to stay asleep.

"Quinn?" Rachel tested in a whisper, trying to keep the smile out of her voice. She didn't want Quinn to think she was being teased. She was just so cute though, with her wild bed-head and blurry eyes and the tiny little squeak she made when she yawned and stretched.

When Quinn went limp again, still on her back, eyes still closed, Rachel thought she hadn't been heard and was about to repeat herself when Quinn breathed out a quiet "Yeah?"

For a moment Rachel chewed on her bottom lip and just looked at Quinn. "Today's the day."

Quinn shifted her left hand over her stomach, rubbing it in absent-minded concentration. Then she turned her head so that her forehead met Rachel's gently. Rachel's eyes were too close to focus on so she closed her own and breathed deeply. Rachel watched her, and out of the corner of her eye she saw Quinn's hand clench in the fabric over her belly. "Yeah," she whispered finally.

Settling in behind the nausea there was a profound sadness. A submissiveness that settled in them and between them like stone. Unmovable. It wouldn't have mattered if it was removable, neither of them had the energy for such an undertaking.

Quinn thought that must be the ultimate truth of humanity, knowing when to give up. Not like in the movies where the underdog fights back against unwinnable odds and somehow secures a victory. What was the use in fighting when there was nothing that could be done anyway and no one to prove a point to?

Her fist clenched tighter and then released. She reached out for Rachel instead and her hand met silky brown hair. She opened her eyes. "I'm glad all of this happened," she confessed in an almost light tone. She smiled a little at the way Rachel's eyes widened. "I don't entirely . . . well, I don't understand some of it, and it's hard for me to accept. But I've been happier here than . . . I don't think I've ever been this happy, and I guess part of that is because of you."

"Quinn," Rachel started, but Quinn shook her head.

"I just wanted to say thank you."

Rachel thought of several things she could say to that, but she didn't use any of them. She just nodded and smiled and leaned in to deposit a chaste peck on Quinn's perfect lips.

"We should get up."

Quinn pouted dramatically and tossed her head around. Then she abruptly flipped onto her stomach and wrapped her arms around her head. "No."