Second Chances

Chapter 5

When Rachel left high school she'd promised she would never lose contact with anyone. And she kept that promise. She lived with her best friend and had friday night dinners with some of the other members of glee club, Sam and Mercedes. Santana and Brittany normally came too, unless they were busy. She'd even kept in contact with her ex boyfriend Finn Hudson before he sadly passed away. She had even been able to keep in contact with Quinn for about a month after graduation. The only person she didn't talk to was Noah Puckerman, more commonly known as Puck. Quinn had stopped talking to him before Beth was born and when she did talk to him she mostly just yelled at him. Rachel wasn't sure why Quinn hated him so much, but Quinn could be very intimidating, so if Quinn didn't like him then neither did Rachel.
Rachel hadn't been able to stop thinking about Quinn's storm out, and to say she was surprised when Quinn called her to babysit Beth a week later was an understatement. But nevertheless, at 7:30 on that Monday morning, she opened the door to Quinn wearing nurses scrubs and Beth, who was still in her pajamas.
"I'm really sorry, I just don't think I can afford to send her to daycare for that much longer," Quinn admitted.
Rachel nodded, then picked up Beth and walked her inside.
"Well Beth is welcome here any time," Rachel said and forced a smile.
It wasn't that she didn't want to watch Beth, it was that she knew unless she brought it up, that Quinn would never talk to her about the things they had said a week earlier.
"I better go, my shift starts in half an hour," Quinn said and sighed. "I love you Beth, I'll be back before you know it."
Quinn kissed Beth on the forehead then quickly left the apartment. Rachel turned to Beth and smiled.
"We're gonna have fun today," she said.
"Sure we are," Beth replied sarcastically.
"Has anyone ever told you you're just like your mom?" Rachel asked.
After about an hour of sitting in awkward silence, Beth asked if she could watch Frozen. Rachel was fine with the idea, and she even thought it was cute when Beth tried to sing along to both Anna and Elsa's part, but about an hour in, in when Rachel tried to sing with her, she didn't think it was cute that Beth yelled at her. After that Beth asked if she could give Rachel a makeover. She'd forgotten for a minute that Beth was only four and had hardly any sense of direction, hand eye coordination or what looks good. But Beth insisted she knew what she was doing.
"Beth, thats eye shadow not blush," Rachel said.
Beth shushed her and used Rachel's new makeup brush to wipe pink eyeshadow all over her cheeks.
"Close your eyes," Beth demanded, in a few years she would be as intimidating as Quinn.
She used her finger cover all over Rachel's eyes and up to her eyebrows with blue sparkly eyeshadow. Then she took the brightest red lipstick she could find and smeared it across Rachel's lips.
Rachel looked in the mirror, and almost told Beth she was going to take it off, but then decided against it when she saw Beth's hopeful smile.
"Do you like it?" She asked with wide eyes.
God she's just like Quinn. Rachel thought to herself.
"I love it, you did great Beth," Rachel replied and hugged the little girl.
"Can you take a picture and send it to mommy?" Beth asked hopefully.
"Of course I will," Rachel answered.
She couldn't deny Beth anything. She couldn't deny Quinn anything back in high school and Beth was like a carbon copy of her, except three feet tall and with baby teeth of course.
Rachel let Beth watch cartoons while she washed her face. When she came back she sat next to her on the couch.
"How come you never came to visit?" Beth asked randomly without drawing her attention from the screen in front of her.
"What are you talking about?" Rachel asked back. But she knew exactly what Beth was talking about.
A few weeks before graduation, Quinn gave Rachel a train ticket from New York to New Haven. She'd said she hoped they never lose touch. Ever since graduation Quinn had called Rachel and asked when she was going to visit. Rachel had told her she would come visit the week before Christmas break. But a week before Christmas Rachel booked the broadway show Funny Girl. She'd cancelled on Quinn the day before she was supposed to arrive because she thought Funny Girl would be a huge success. Funny Girl closed after two months and Quinn hadn't made any effort to contact her since. When Rachel asked her friends about Quinn they always said they hadn't talked to her since graduation. But Rachel couldn't be sure if they had even made the effort to reach out to her.
"Everyday mommy used to say Rachel's coming, and when Rachel comes things are gonna be happy again," Beth said.
"Happy again?" Rachel said quietly.
Beth didn't reply, she was to fixated on her cartoons. Rachel could only imagine what it had been like for Quinn and Beth. Quinn had mentioned not being able to afford to send Beth to daycare, but this was New York. Everything is overpriced in New York. Rachel had never really thought what Quinn had went through. After spending one afternoon day with Beth she was as tired as she felt after doing eight shows a week. And she felt selfish because she was just now realizing how much her visit meant to her. Quinn never got a break, she was always working to support herself and Beth, and Rachel didn't even spend the weekend with her.

AN: I hope you liked that I added a Beth/Rachel scene, Beth/Rachel's relationship is going to help bring Quinn and Rachel together