A/N: Wooh. It's done. I can't thank you enough for sticking with the story. Thank you for all the reviews (especially those who zealously commented), alerts and favorites.

To Anonymous27 and Mel: You both had the same correction. Mea Culpa. I will change it as soon as I start re-editing this fic.

I take prompts. Just PM me, and I'll see what I can do :-) (just no g!peen or gender swap, because I don't know, I just find it hard to write about it and I might just do some serious injustice.)

If it takes my whole life

I won't break, I won't bend

It will all be worth it

Worth it in the end

'Cause I can only tell you what I know

That I need you in my life

When the stars have all burned out

You'll still be burning so bright

Answer

"Hi—"

"Hello, I'm Duncan and this is my wife, Liz. Where the hell is Lucie?"

"Nice meet—"

"Da! Ma! Meet Santana Lopez. She's Emily's girlfriend, Em has a girlfriend!"

"I—"

"I am so pleased to meet you, Santana. You're such a lovely girl!"

"Oh my dear, you don't know how happy I am to see you. I can now die peacefully"

"Stop saying that, Da. You scare Ma. I'm Ollie, I'm Em's big brother and my wife, Sadie and my boys. Come here, you three. Meet your Aunt Santana"

"Aunt?"

"So when are you marrying? I'm old you know, I want to see my Emmie settle down."

"Da, we're not—"

"This is our little one, Jacob"

"Hi Jacob, how are—"

"Sadie, your son's drooling at my friends."

"Zachary, don't stare at Rachel! Tobias, step away from Quinn. Now"

"Oi! Stay away from my girlfriend, you little creep! Ollie, your sons are perverts"

"They're not that—Jacob, stop kissing Santana's cheek. Now."

"Holy crap", Santana muttered under her breath while subtly wiping her cheek. "He licked me."

Emily rubbed the Latina's back and smiled sympathetically. "I'm sorry. This is why I don't like exclusive schools. Their system goes haywire when they see girls."

"Your family's a bit…high-strung."

"You still love me, don't you?", Emily chuckled.

"Well, yeah. Just, if your nephew tries to lick my cheek again. I'm gonna go Lima Heights on him.", Santana warned with a disgusted look on her face.

"I told you to brace yourself", Quinn interjected. "They'll be breathing down your neck since you're Emily's girlfriend. They backed off when they realized I wasn't", the blonde chuckled. "Well, except for Tobi—Sadie, your son's still staring at my girlfriend."

"Shh, he's just a boy, Quinn", Rachel stated calmly and smiled at the boy.

"He's a teenager. With raging hormones. God knows what he's thinking right now."

"Oh, you're just being malicious"

"Zachary", Sadie frowned then pinched the boy's ear. "That's very rude."

"But Ma, she's a real bonny", the boy protested and continued to stare at Rachel.

"Yes, but she's Quinn's girlfriend. You remember how your Aunt Layla trembled at Quinn, don't you? You want to go through that?"

"Erm, no", Zachary mumbled then slowly retreated but stole glances at the diva.

Both Santana and Rachel's gaze snapped towards Quinn's direction. "What exactly did you do?", Rachel asked in wide-eyed wonder.

Quinn glanced at Emily and both laughed. "Nothing, I didn't do anything.", the blonde chuckled.

"Nothing my ass.", Santana said with a proud smile. "You turned on your HBIC persona, didn't you?"

Quinn shrugged. "What's with the frown?"

Rachel huffed. "Well, don't be all HBIC on Zachary. I don't want to lose my fan base."

"Hey, I'm your biggest fan. In fact, I should be—"

"Quinn!", a familiar voice of a small girl emerged and ran towards the blonde.

"Lucie!", Quinn stood up and hugged the little brunette. "You've grown", she said while ruffling the girl's hair.

"Yes! I grew several inches, and Da says I might be as tall as Aunt Emily. That really pleases me. And—oh, hello, I don't think I've met you. I'm Lucie, with an I and E.", she smiled then extended her hand at Rachel then Santana.

Rachel smiled widely. "Please to meet you, Lucie. I'm Rachel and this is Santana."

The girl's eyes brightened. "You're Aunt Emily's girlfriend!", she exclaimed then hugged the Latina before turning her attention back at Rachel. "Are you Quinn's girlfriend?"

"Why, yes I am", the diva grinned then took Quinn's hand.

Lucie's face turned somber. "Are you taking good care of her?"

Rachel's mouth hung. "I…think so?" She glanced at Quinn who in return nodded and winked at the little girl.

"Hmm. Good. Then, I like you."

"You like Quinn very much, huh?"

"Yes! I want to be like her when I grow up. I'm taking up gymnastics just like Quinn, and Da finally agreed to painting and drawing lessons."

"That's wonderful, Lucie. Quinn is really a good role model.", Rachel said before leaning closer to Quinn and spoke through her grin, "I certainly hope she won't end up making pornographic drawings on bathroom walls."

Quinn chortled then spoke after Lucie lost interest in them and paid careful scrutiny at her Aunt Santana, "Please don't remind me of my darker days."

"Why? It's actually quite endearing, now that I think about it."

"What's so endearing about that?"

"The fact that you resorted to all childish methods to get my attention is charming. In hindsight, of course."

"Or maybe I'm just charming in general."

"Well, that goes without saying"

They made a pit stop to Newcastle and met up with Santana and Emily. It was right after the diva and the Latina's respective graduations; as promised by Emily, Santana had been treated to a five-star everything while Rachel and Quinn went backpacking. They didn't even intend to drop by. But Santana endlessly pleaded for them to be with her when she got introduced to the Carrs. There's always a heavy weight attached to meeting the parents, and more importantly, getting their approval.

Quinn and Rachel, of all people, understood that very well.

Hiram had finally warmed up to the blonde.

Judy had promised a good chastising and Rachel took it like the honorable woman that she is.

Russell, well, the couple could not be bothered getting his acceptance anymore. Quinn made a last attempt, before leaving for England, to talk about her relationship with Rachel, but the man declined. There's always that certain point where one has to accept the limitations of another person. It's only when that happens that one would feel at peace with herself. She had finally stopped longing for her father's support and simply reconciled the idea that Russell's beliefs do not match hers.

So it felt good; that despite the absence of her father, Judy showed up at Rachel's graduation and got along with the Berry men quite well. She still had a hard time processing the dynamics of a gay relationship, but it's the effort that counted.

And once again, if there are people who know the importance of effort, that will be Rachel and Quinn.

They try. Lord knows they try.

Quinn wanted to be pushed to open up, well, she got it. Talking was hard for both of them, mainly because there were a lot of painful things that needed to be brought up. Neither wanted to hurt the other, but sometimes, it was necessary. Not talking about it is like covering a wound with Band-aid for an unnecessary period of time. It actually does not contribute to healing, but could lead to infection. Airing it out was healthy and vital for the wounds to mend completely. It was, once again, striking a delicate balance between a dialogue to move forward, and indulging in guilt and self-pity.

It's also continuing process because it was inevitable for them to unintentionally hurt each other. That's a consequence of love that they would have to accept along with the good.

And there was a lot of good.

More importantly, there was recognition of the good.

Quinn appreciated the fact that Rachel was a dreamer. There's something that needed to be said about the brunette's one-track mindedness in trying to reach for her goals. She constantly made mistakes—which are to be expected for someone with a tunnel vision—but never gave up on winning Quinn back. And she's not giving up on trying to be the best person for the blonde.

On the flipside, Rachel was grateful that Quinn was a believer. That she was the type of person who would die fighting for her faith. She didn't have ancient scriptures and texts to guide her relationship with Rachel. And it certainly wasn't easy navigating through life. But she had, and don't ask how, confidence in the diva. It was unwavering. She may have let go at a certain point, but she never lost her conviction that Rachel would seek her out once more. Because the diva always did. Whether it was in the bathroom or hallway of McKinley high, or the boroughs of New York City, Rachel simply never stopped.

Emily called her a "hopeful" romantic. That the blonde was not at all naïve in the ways of love and romance but continue to believe in it anyway. She wasn't in love with love. She was in love with Rachel. And she was in love with loving Rachel.

It's what kept her from fainting inside the subway for three years.

It's also what drove her to rudely request Emily for solo photos in England.

Because it didn't seem right that it wasn't Rachel beside her.

And boy, was it the best decision she had ever made in her entire life. Rewards galore from the diva when she found out.

They pretended to be on their honeymoon because by original schedule, they should have been married by now. And when they do decide to really get married, Rachel may be too busy with sold-out performances (or more realistically, Rachel and Quinn would be a struggling Broadway artist and academic respectively). Might as well fast-forward whatever they can while the graduation money and some savings still could take them somewhere.

It was the correct decision because they got married anyway the year after.

Or more accurately, they eloped.

Maturity, evidently, can't be bought wholesale.

But they were shameless in showing, and unsuccessful in hiding their love for each other's antics, anyway.

Like the time Rachel withheld sex for a week because Quinn refused to let the diva take on an off-Broadway understudy role that required partial nudity.

Or the time Quinn threw a hissy fit in a pub because some college guys happened to have recognized Rachel precisely for that role and asked for a photo with them.

Or throwing dagger glares at poor young Zachary simply because he had developed a crush on Rachel.

It was a good thing they were only set to stay for a couple of days, or the lad would have been traumatized for life.

They were on the last leg of their vacation in Ireland and Rachel was literally being dragged by Quinn to St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin. The moment they entered the church, Quinn searched and found a wooden door with a rectangular hole in it.

"What's this?", Rachel whispered.

"It's the Door of Reconciliation"

"Interesting", the brunette smiled.

"You know why it's called that?"

Rachel shook her head.

"There were two warring families and one of them hid inside the church, while the other attempted to negotiate. When the one from the other side got sick and tired of waiting for the guy hiding here to open up, the man outside cut this hole and stuck his hand inside."

Rachel nodded slowly. "That was a huge risk, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, the guy who's inside the church could have easily cut off his arm. But I guess it's that valor and sincerity that moved the other guy. So instead of permanently injuring his enemy, he shook his hand for reconciliation."

Rachel looked at her wistfully. "Kind of like us, huh?"

"Yeah, pretty much. Except, I probably would have nibbled your arm, first."