Serendipity

CHAPTER 3

Rachel licked her lips as she listened to Quinn explain the film's shooting schedule. Part of her wanted to tell the blonde that she was more than capable of reading the paper herself, but that was just a small part. A teeny, tiny part. Most of her was just enjoying being in the company of this new Quinn Fabray. She had initially been apprehensive about being alone with the blonde, but now, after a little more than an hour with her, she felt confident in her earlier observation that the Quinn she was looking at now was most definitely a different Quinn than she remembered.

Realizing that Rachel wasn't quite with her, Quinn looked up from the page she was going over aloud and chuckled as she noticed the far-off look in the brunette's eyes. "You still with me here, star?" she teased.

Rachel looked up into smiling hazel eyes and felt her breath hitch in her chest. She really is beautiful, she thought to herself as she cleared her throat softly. "I am. You were saying that for the next three to four weeks we'll be here at the studio, doing some of the interior work that they needed the sets for, and that after that we'll be going onto location for the rest of the filming with some occasional set work thrown in where needed."

Quinn laughed and nodded her approval. "Very good. Do you have any questions?"

"Actually, I do," Rachel said, sitting up straighter in her seat as she studied the blonde across from her. While she was certain that Quinn had changed, there was a part of her that couldn't believe that the blonde was actually comfortable with her character's orientation. And, in true Rachel Berry fashion, she decided to address the matter directly. "Are you seriously okay with this role? With playing a lesbian and kissing another woman?"

Quinn's stomach flipped at Rachel's question. She had known she would have to tell the brunette about herself and her life-altering epiphany eventually, but she certainly hadn't figured it would be quite this soon. She bit her lip nervously as she took a second to think about the different ways she could answer the brunette's question and, for the briefest of moments, she considered deflecting it with a 'Sure, it's just pretend'; but she knew that since she would be kissing and touching and doing simulated sex scenes with Rachel over the course of their filming that she should tell the brunette the truth. Not the whole truth, of course. Rachel didn't need to know that she was actually in love with her. Now that she finally got the brunette here, she didn't want to send the poor girl running back to New York as fast as her luscious legs could carry her.

Rachel watched curiously as a million thoughts seemed to flash through Quinn's eyes and tilted her head questioningly as the blonde chewed her lip nervously. "Quinn?"

The sound of her name pulled Quinn from her thoughts, and she shook her head and rolled her eyes. You're being an idiot, Fabray. Just tell her, she chastised herself as a horde of butterflies took off in her stomach, leaving her feeling as if she were coming out for the first time again. "I'm gay, Rach."

Rachel's jaw dropped in surprise. "You're... oh."

"Yeah, oh," Quinn muttered as she studied the brunette's face carefully, trying to get a read on what the other woman was thinking. After staring at each other for a moment where it became clear that she had just managed to render Rachel Berry completely speechless, she cleared her throat again. "Sorry, I could have done that a little more smoothly, or something, but I was just... I really hate..."

"Shh," Rachel shushed, leaning into the table and reach across to cover one of Quinn's hands with her own in what she hoped the blonde saw as a reassuring gesture. "You just caught me off guard. You're gay?"

Quinn felt her breath hitch in her throat at the feeling of Rachel's hand over her own. God, that feels good. "Yeah."

Hundreds of questions for the blonde immediately came to mind, which Rachel knew that she had no right to vocalize, but she couldn't help asking, "When did you know?"