A/N: This takes place about six years in the future in the JOTKOR/SOTKOR universe. Please do not convert this fic.

Hippos are Born Underwater

Rachel pressed her eyes closed and scrunched up her nose when she felt movement on the bed. She figured it was an animal. Maybe a child, maybe her wife. Hopefully nothing beyond that. She'd had a show last night so she was sleeping it off and ignoring all disturbances. If there was a boa constrictor slithering up the mattress, let it compress her. Wind her up, squeeze her out. Maybe a pigeon bouncing around on her legs? Or a killer crawling up the covers.

Rachel had learned to cling onto sleep as long as possible. She gave up when she heard whispering coming from whatever was sitting on her legs. Her mouth curved automatically into a smile and her eyes fluttered open.

The whispering stopped abruptly. The weight on her knees pitched forward and blocked out the sun. Rachel blinked. She saw two fluffy blonde heads. She couldn't discern who was who yet. Both had tangled bed hair. Both were wearing fuzzy red pajama pants.

But then Quinn tipped even further forward to kiss Rachel's mouth, and Rachel ran a hand through her messy hair so that she could see those lovely hazel eyes. She laughed when the four-year-old sitting on her knees clambered up her body to pry Quinn away from her.

"Happy Mama's Day!" He proclaimed, giggling when Quinn wrapped her arms around him and rolled them both into the middle of the bed, careful not to squash him.

"Is it Mother's Day already?" Rachel asked loudly, eyes wide, feigning ignorance.

Quinn smiled sweetly at her and released her hold on their son. "Give mommy a big kiss, Jimbo." She instructed, tickling his bare back.

Rachel turned her cheek towards James expectantly. He kneed her in the stomach in his haste to reach it. Then he draped all of his hair in her mouth when he kissed her cheek. Quinn watched and laughed. Rachel rolled her eyes and tried to pat down James's hair.

"Maybe somebody needs a haircut." She mused, eyeing Quinn. She wasn't sure who she was referring to. Probably everybody in their household could use one.

Quinn puffed out her cheeks. "I love your hair, little bear. You don't need to cut it."

Rachel snorted. James clamped a hand over her nose. "I cut-I cut Seal's hair once!" he offered enthusiastically.

The statement almost triggered some kind of traumatic flashback in Rachel's mind. Black and white fur. Absolutely everywhere.

"Mmm." Quinn nodded sagely. "That went well."

"Where's your shirt, Jimbo?" Rachel asked, tugging on him until he draped himself sideways across both Rachel and Quinn. He kicked his feet in the air and Rachel wasn't surprised at all when he pointed right at Quinn.

"Me and-me and mommy are making you breakfast, and mommy dumped a-a bowl of cake on me. A bowl of cake mix!"

Quinn stared nonchalantly at the ceiling. Rachel's eyes were fixed onto the side of her face, watching as Quinn tried not to move her lips. Rachel reached out to tap her cheek and Quinn turned and smiled innocently.

"I love you, little bear." She whispered. "So much. Happy Mother's Day."

Rachel just shook her head and tugged on the wisps of blonde hair at Quinn's neck. Since when did breakfast require bowls of cake batter? And where was their daughter? Two-year-olds probably shouldn't be allowed to wander freely around the house. Rachel was actually surprised Em wasn't screaming right now. She seemed to spend a good majority of her time being as loud as possible.

Rachel approved.

"Can I go look through the window at the cupcakes?" James asked excitedly, already climbing over Rachel to slide off the edge of the bed. She steadied him before he rolled right onto the bedside table. He kept flipping his head around to get the fluffy blonde hair out of his eyes.

Quinn sat up and looked at him seriously. "Just don't touch the oven, Jimbo. Remember when Thomas the Tank Engine overheated and he looked really sad and they had to fill him with water?"

Quinn waited for a nod from their son. Rachel remembered watching Thomas the Tank Engine before their children were even born. Maybe Quinn had just been preparing all along.

"It's like that inside the oven. Really hot." Quinn explained lowly. Ominously. James's eyes were fixed on her. Then Quinn brightened and sat forward, remembering something else. "And make sure none of the dogs have jumped into the playpen!" She added urgently.

They liked to do that. Mostly to lie with Em when she was sleeping, or to get her to pet them if she was calm at the moment. But then she'd pull their tails and chase them around and they'd whine to be let out because, oh fuck, we've trapped ourselves in the playpen with a monster.

Quinn fell backwards on the bed and scooted right up against Rachel.

Rachel hoped James wasn't now under the impression that there was a cartoon train living in the oven. Because Rachel kind of was. Quinn had intrigued her. It might be more effective to say that the oven was where demons came from. Or ghosts. Creatures of the night. But that was a little terrifying, even for Rachel. Go in for some cupcakes, set the devil free.

Quinn's way was nicer. Quinn rolled so that she could raise herself up on her elbows and kiss Rachel's cheeks. And then her lips. Rachel hummed and chuckled when Quinn nuzzled her neck.

"You know, mommy elephants have to endure a twenty-two month pregnancy." Quinn informed. "And then the calves weigh two hundred pounds and they're born blind. Like puppies. So they navigate with their trunks. And a lot of help."

Rachel ran both hands through Quinn's hair, smiling when Quinn scrunched up her face as her fingers got caught in the tangles.

"I'm glad we're not mommy elephants, then." Rachel remarked.

Quinn hummed. "Swazi's due in a couple months. You could come to work with me and watch her have her calf if you'd like."

Rachel didn't know how to feel about that. Sure, she'd love to see a baby elephant. Who wouldn't? But to watch one being born…One of their dogs had puppies a few years ago and Rachel had nearly passed out. She had passed out, only for a minute, when Quinn had James. She'd been in far too much pain to pass out when she had Emma.

Quinn smiled at her knowingly. She pulled on Rachel's ear. "Or you can stay in the field house until the baby's out and I'll come and get you when it's clean and walking around."

Rachel nodded easily. That sounded like a better plan.

"Also, hippos have their calves underwater." Quinn added, eyes twinkling. She pressed her cheek against Rachel's and shut her eyes, moving her head around like Rachel was a stuffed animal.

Rachel chuckled. "You've told me that before."

Quinn nodded and snuggled deeper into the puffy white comforter, head on Rachel's shoulder. Rachel rubbed her back. "Hippos are born underwater." Quinn whispered.

Rachel sighed contentedly and closed her eyes. She smiled when Em's laughter drifted through the door. And then the laughter turned to crying, and she groaned. The loudest crying in the world. Quinn pushed herself up and kissed Rachel's forehead before climbing off the bed.

"Looks like your mini-me's awake." Quinn said with a wink.

Rachel lunged to slap her thigh, grumbling over Quinn's laughter. "I was never that loud. Ask my dads."

Quinn turned and leaned back over Rachel, hands on either side of her head. She tilted forward until their noses brushed together. "I have. And you were. And you're perfect. Like our babies."

Rachel couldn't really contradict that. She scrunched up her nose, and Quinn did the same. Quinn kissed it and returned to the kitchen, and Rachel was wholly unsurprised when the smoke detector went off five minutes later.

~ooooooooo~

Fortunately, a few of the cupcakes were salvageable. The pan had to be disposed of, and Quinn burned her hand trying to rescue it, but the cupcakes were saved. Everything was alright. Rachel added them to the macaroni and sandwiches and Fruit Roll-Ups that were already in the picnic basket. Plus cookies, always. Peanut butter for Quinn and Em, sugar for Rachel, and chocolate chip for James.

The beach was as crowded as any other spring Saturday in New York, but it wasn't swarming. Rachel settled everybody down on one giant towel in the sand. James struggled to get his shirt over his head and then dropped it in a twisted lump at Rachel's feet before turning to take off for the water.

Rachel seized his small ankle gently and pulled him backwards so that he tumbled into her lap.

"Proper sun protection, James!" Quinn called in a perfect imitation of Rachel's voice. A little higher-pitched, more clipped speech. She was struggling to get her own shirt over her head.

And then Emma flung some sand in Quinn's face and Rachel laughed loudly, faltering in her careful application of sunscreen to James's small shoulders.

"We don't throw sand, baby girl." Quinn chided, dropping her shirt on the blanket and flipping up the brim of Emma's floppy hat so that she could see her chubby face. She pulled Emma into her lap and pointed one of her small fists at Rachel. "And Mama, we don't laugh when people get sand thrown in their faces. That's mean."

Rachel hummed. "Emmy's a meanie." She patted James's butt when she was finished with the sunscreen and reminded him to not go in the water until she or Quinn joined him. He ran off to build a castle in the wet sand, holding onto his dinosaur swim trunks because they were a little too big for him.

Rachel moved to sit next to Quinn. They watched Emma's curious brown eyes as she played with a big plastic polar bear that Quinn had brought home one day. It really wasn't a choking hazard. Em would have to be a python to swallow it.

But she was pretty talented, so Rachel watched her closely anyway.

Quinn bit off the yellow end of a gummy worm and held the blue end in front of Rachel's mouth. Rachel accepted it. She put a hand on Quinn's bare thigh and squeezed. She knew somebody who would be a lobster by the end of the day.

"Mommy?" Emma blurted, staring up at Quinn with wide eyes.

Emma had taken to speaking in a very high-pitched voice, trailing it up in the sentence so that everything she said sounded like a question. It was charming. Even though most of her "sentences" only consisted of two or three words. Rachel was proud. Her child was a genius.

Emma also liked to sing unintelligibly and incredibly loudly, which could only be a positive sign.

Quinn leaned forward and grinned, eye level with their daughter. "Yes, baby bear?" she asked.

Rachel smiled to herself. Emma puffed out her cheeks and pointed at the picnic basket, watching Quinn expectantly. Quinn played with Emma's tiny toes and raised her eyebrow. "Juice, sweetheart? Or do you want your circus crackers?"

Emma just stared. It looked like she'd gotten lost in Quinn's eyes. And then she started laughing, and Quinn started laughing, and Rachel rolled her eyes and pulled a cookie out of the basket. She handed it to her giggly daughter and steadied her with one hand because she was about to roll backwards into the sand.

Quinn turned and lay back so that her head was in Rachel's lap and her arms were wrapped around Rachel's waist. Rachel smiled down at her, one eye on James at all times. He sat by himself in the wet sand, conversing with nobody in particular and building a mountain.

"Are you having a good Mother's Day, baby?" Quinn asked, reaching a hand up to tweak Rachel's nose.

Rachel grabbed the sunscreen to apply it to Quinn's pink cheeks while she had her trapped. Quinn puffed them out to make it easier. And because it guaranteed her a smile.

"Yes. Of course." Rachel replied. "Are you?"

Quinn nodded. "I bought us your favorite mint ice cream for tonight. You know the kind with the chocolate racecars? And I think we should have another baby. And I got you a present for tonight as well."

Rachel smiled absently, and then her hand froze on Quinn's shoulder and she narrowed her eyes to try and figure out if she had heard correctly. Quinn had slipped something suspicious right between "mint ice cream" and "present."

"I-what?" Rachel asked, voice assuming an unnatural pitch. There was an irrational picture in her mind of Quinn pulling a baby out of nowhere and handing it to her. Surprise!

"Mint ice cream." Quinn repeated slowly, eyes closed. "Your favorite."

Rachel leaned over her and patted Quinn's red cheeks. "Quinn! Open your eyes! You want another baby?"

"I-not-I mean, not today." Quinn assured hurriedly, blinking her eyes open before sitting up and shaking out her hair. Rachel had to smile when Emma tried to shake her head like Quinn did. And tumbled sideways into the picnic basket. "But-I-I-we had-there are-"

Rachel tilted forward and tapped Quinn's lips.

Quinn took a breath. "I think-I think three would be a good number. And Emmy's already two, and…we don't want a huge age gap, right?" Quinn explained stiltedly, watching Rachel with honest eyes. "And it would only be more to celebrate on Mother's Day."

Quinn scrunched up her face. That last argument wasn't very substantial. Rachel stared at her, biting the inside of her cheek. Of course she'd thought about this. The closer her family could resemble the von Trapps in number, the better.

"I'm open to discussion." She offered vaguely, smiling when Quinn's eyes lit up. "But not right now. Because Jimbo wants us to go play with him."

Or that was what Rachel interpreted his wildly waving arms to mean. Quinn jumped up immediately. She grabbed the plastic buckets and the sand castle mold and the little shovel, and then she leaned down clumsily and kissed Emmy's head before seizing the skim board and running stiltedly out to join James.

Rachel followed slowly. At a normal person's pace. She was bending over and holding both of Emma's hands so that her daughter could toddle over there. She admired Emma's bathing suit choice. Bright pink with a frilly skirt. And a big floppy hat with Tigger on it that Quinn had insisted on to protect Emma from the sun.

Quinn was perfecting the walls of James's castle when Rachel reached them. Flattening the top and adding what looked like tiny little windows. She whispered to James, explaining how to do it. Rachel put Emma in the hole James had been digging and she screamed delightedly.

Rachel was an expert at the different tones of her screams.

"Mama!" James yelled, waving his plastic shovel dangerously close to Quinn's face. "Was Pooh Bear really a boat captain? Mommy says he was but I don't believe her because she also told me that the pig at the zoo is Piglet but the pig is white and Piglet's pink."

Rachel glanced at Quinn, who was smiling brightly and writing "King James" in the sand with a stick. What kind of stories was she telling their children? Lies. All of them. Or lovely, fantastic tales. Rachel had no idea if Pooh was ever a boat captain. Probably.

She nodded. "Yes. Yes he was, James."

James shook the blonde hair out of his face. He looked awed. Quinn looked proud. Rachel crawled into the hole with Em and pretended to eat the mud pie that Quinn brought them a few minutes later. She had a lovely twenty-minute long conversation of garbled nonsense with her daughter while Quinn and James tried to see how tall they could make their towers.

Rachel was standing up to take Em for a diaper change when James came running up to her, face lit up, stumbling a little bit through the sand. He looked delighted at something.

"Mama!" He cried excitedly, pointing down the beach. "Mommy-Mommy-she-we were-she-"

Rachel crouched down and tugged on his ear. "Slow down, hon."

James jumped up and down and shook his hands out. "Mommy fell-she fell off the skim-skimmer and she's laughing and she told me to get you."

So that's what the lump was a little bit further down the beach. Lying in the shallow water a few feet from an abandoned skim board. Of course it was Quinn.

Riding a skim board was just dangerous. Like gambling with your life. Rachel had ridden one once, only because Quinn said it was fun. She was never falling for that again. She'd fallen backwards and felt like her back had snapped in half.

Rachel hurried down the beach with Em in her arms and James running circles around her.

She couldn't stop her laugh from escaping when she saw the state Quinn was in. Quinn had collected herself enough to sit cross-legged in the sand, but she looked confused and her bikini top was askew, and Rachel was concerned that the beach was getting a free show.

She dropped to her knees next to Quinn, trying not to smile. "Oh, baby." She said sympathetically. Quinn stared at her with a lop-sided smile.

"I think I hurt myself, Rachel." She stated plainly, swaying a little bit.

Rachel put Em softly in the sand and kissed Quinn's cheek. "Let me help." She requested, pulling the bikini top so that everything was covered and then retying the back.

Rachel ran her eyes over Quinn's body. There was a pretty nice raspberry on her thigh and a scrape on her elbow, but no bones were visible. So…that was good. Rachel's gaze lingered on her legs a little too long, and Quinn smiled at her dazedly.

"You like, little bear?" she asked, holding out an unsteady hand for Rachel to help her up.

Rachel laughed. "You know I do. Please be more careful."

"Yeah, mommy." James admonished, wrapping his arms around Quinn's legs. "You're not good enough to ride on that yet but maybe you will be if you practice because Mama says practice makes perfect."

Rachel nodded sagely. Wise child, that one.

"Mama?" Emma called, waving her fists in the air. It was followed by a bit of nonsense, but Rachel picked out the word "cookie." Phrased as a question, of course. So Rachel responded with a "yes." She scooped up her daughter and looped an arm around her sunburnt wife, and then followed her son back to the mountain her family had built on the beach.

~oooooooooo~

Later that evening, Rachel and Quinn had old Scooby-Doo movies playing on the television for a "family night" in the living room. But nobody was watching the TV. Rachel sat on the couch with Em on her lap and a "touch and feel" book in her hands. It was about animals. None of the textures in the book actually felt like animals, but Em didn't need to know that yet.

Rachel pointed to the bright pink plastic on the page. "Pig." She stated, watching her daughter.

Em used both fingers to point at the pig. She looked up at Rachel, brown eyes wide and curious. Maybe a little devious. "Cow?" she asked, blinking expectantly.

Rachel flipped back through the book and found the cow. It had a velvet swatch for one of its black spots. She gently took one of Em's chubby hands and placed it on the fabric. "Cow." She stated.

Emma grinned. "Cow?"

"That's right, baby bear!" Rachel kissed the top of her head and combed through her dark hair. She flipped back to the pig. "Can you tell me what this one is?"

Emma scrunched up her face and shook her head around. She made herself laugh and leaned further backwards into Rachel. Rachel chuckled and bounced her legs.

"Cow?" Emma guessed, pointing at the pig again.

Maybe she just liked saying the word "cow." Rachel had said it so much in the past ten minutes that it had lost all meaning to her. She turned the page as Quinn and James came galloping back into the room. Quinn was on her hands and knees, running along like a dog, and James was on her back, swinging his legs and laughing loudly. They were both flushed and breathless and disheveled.

A couple dogs ran along beside them. Cornelius watched from his bed in the corner, tail thumping slowly.

"Quinn. Do you know what you're doing?" Rachel called, letting Em have the book for a minute.

Quinn looked up, smiling brightly. She shook her head so that she could see Rachel through her hair. "Rarely, if ever." She replied breathlessly.

James kicked her sides with his heels. "Never!" he cried. "Giddy-up horsey!"

Quinn neighed loudly. She reared up slightly and held her hands out behind her in case James toppled backwards. He laughed delightedly and held tightly onto the back of her collar, stretching it and strangling Quinn. Quinn made a garbled noise and pulled at the front of her shirt.

"Don't choke mommy!" Rachel called with a smile.

Emma pressed her little fists into Rachel's legs and pointed at Quinn. "Horsey?"

See. She was still a genius. So what if she didn't like the word "pig?" Rachel nodded. "Yes, baby, that's a horsey. Or just mommy being crazy."

Emma kept pointing. She scooted to the edge of Rachel's lap and held both her hands out towards Quinn and James. Quinn caught sight of her and plodded over. She seemed to be wheezing a little bit. And she'd just hurt herself on a skim board. So she decided to run around on her hands and knees with a child on her back.

Sound logic.

Quinn stopped right in front of Rachel. She exhaled sharply and flapped her lips around like a horse, nudging Rachel's knee. Rachel laughed at the ridiculousness of it.

"Mommy?" Em questioned, reaching out to pat the fluffy blonde head.

"No." James interjected, shaking his head. "She's a horse, Emmy."

Emma clapped her hands together. "I want?" she pointed at Quinn's back and shifted around on Rachel's lap.

"Uh-oh." Rachel drawled, standing up with Em in her arms. "We've got another rider. Hold still, horsey." She instructed. She settled Emma in front of James and told him to hold on to her. He obliged. Then she tickled the back of Quinn's neck and kneeled down so that she could see her eyes.

"You okay, babe?" she checked. She palmed Quinn's warm cheeks and brushed the hair out of her face, eyeing the red marks on her neck.

Quinn smiled and nodded, picking up various limbs to give them a break from the carpet. "You should join us, little bear."

James bounced on Quinn's back. "Yeah, mama! There's room! Come on!"

Well that could only lead to disaster. Medical emergencies, holes in the drywall. Quinn wiggled her butt around and head butted Rachel's shoulder. "Yeah, come on, mama." She requested sweetly. "Let's go."

Rachel shook her head at this nonsense. She stood up and moved over to swing a leg behind James. She bent her knees and grazed Quinn's back, but kept her own weight on the ground because she really wasn't looking to break her wife tonight.

She slapped Quinn's butt and laughed at the yelp she received. "Giddy-up!"

Quinn twisted her neck around and met Rachel's gaze, eyes twinkling. Rachel smiled at her. And then she was jolted forward, and her chin hit James's head, and she focused on not crashing into the TV while Quinn trotted them around the living room.

Quinn collapsed only a few minutes later, halfway through singing the Scooby-Doo theme song. James was laughing so hard he wasn't making any noise. He picked himself up to go and play with the dogs and Emma crawled after him. Quinn sat up and leaned back against the coffee table and Rachel sat next to her.

She put a hand on the back of Quinn's neck and rubbed lightly. "Good job, horsey."

Quinn laughed breathlessly. She ran a hand through her hair and rubbed her knees through her jeans. "I'm glad we're not horses." She remarked. Then she scrunched up her nose and looked at Rachel. "Well, no. At the moment, I'm glad. But it would be cool to be a horse for a while."

Rachel nodded easily. She imagined that would be quite an interesting experience.

"You'd be a miniature horse." Quinn continued, smiling at Rachel. "One of those fluffy ones. Perfectly proportioned, just tiny. And adorable."

Rachel scoffed. She slapped Quinn's thigh and crossed her arms. They still didn't have a herd of mini horses yet. That was one of the things on Quinn's bucket list. It would happen eventually. And it would be absolutely insane.

"And I'd be a really tall Thoroughbred." Quinn mused, rubbing her thigh. "You could stand under me and I could protect you. Like stall-mates. You know Seabiscuit had a goat as a friend."

Rachel's arms came unraveled and her lips quirked up. She took one of Quinn's hands and turned it over to see how raw her palm was. It was very red. She kissed it and held it with her own to cool it down.

"So I'm the goat?" she questioned, eyebrow raised. Quinn just grinned. "You'd be a pony too. Not miniature, just one with a super thick mane so you can't see your eyes."

Quinn lolled her head around before nodding. She could roll with that idea. Rachel wondered how a horse would behave if it had a human's body. Would it wonder why it was moving so slowly? Would she be able to tell if her neighbor was a horse in a human's body?

"Mama!" James cried loudly, crawling over on his hands and knees. "Did you get-um, did you get your mommy a present today?"

Rachel's mouth dropped open slightly to answer, but she took a second to think about it before any words came out. Which was rare. She needed to clear her head of horse-people first. Quinn watched her carefully. James was lying on his back, tilting his head backwards to watch Rachel upside down.

"Jimbo, you remember last summer when Grandpa Hiram and Grandpa Leroy came to visit?" Rachel asked slowly. James concentrated for a moment and then nodded eagerly. Rachel reached out and ruffled his hair. "Well those are my daddies. I didn't grow up with my mommy. But Father's Day is twice the fun."

Rachel had met Shelby multiple times. She even called her occasionally. But James still thought Scooby-Doo was real and didn't understand how his Pooh Bear stuffed animal climbed into the TV, so oversimplification was probably the way to go.

He nodded easily enough and pointed at Quinn. "What about your mommy, mommy?" He made himself laugh with that and rolled around on the floor a bit before straightening up and looking at Quinn.

Quinn licked her lips. She glanced discreetly at Rachel, and Rachel nodded encouragingly at her and then squeezed Quinn's warm hand. James may be able to grasp this concept.

"I-my mommy isn't…with us anymore, Jimbo." Quinn said slowly.

James blinked. "Did she get lost?"

Quinn chuckled. She reached out and pulled Emmy into her lap and kissed her dark hair. "No. But she's in…she's in a nice place. With Barnaby. Do you remember him? The big golden dog?"

James scrunched up his face. He sighed a moment later and shook his head sadly. "No."

Rachel smiled at him. She could tell Quinn was tearing up, so she got on her knees and pushed James backwards to tickle his sides. His frown turned upside down and he laughed wildly. She blew a raspberry onto his tummy and narrowly avoided being kneed in the face. She let up for a minute so that he could focus on what she was saying.

"Mommy's mama's name was Mae. Do you know where you've heard that before?" she asked, nodding behind her at Em and Quinn to give him a hint.

James gasped. He twisted around to look at his sister. "Emmy Mae!"

Rachel laughed and kissed his cheeks. "Clever boy." She proclaimed. She tickled his sides again until he managed to squirm out of her hold and run over to the other side of the living room

Rachel contemplated chasing him, but she turned around and saw Quinn's small smile and decided to give her wife a kiss instead.

"Where-where does mine come from?" James called out, unwilling to get close to Rachel again.

Quinn sat up on her heels to answer but Rachel cut her off with a laugh. "Jimbo, mommy almost called you Christopher Robin." She explained, smiling eyes on Quinn. "You're actually lucky she didn't call you Winnie the Pooh."

James's mouth dropped open.

Quinn puffed out her cheeks. Rachel had barely been able to veto "Winnie" for one of their children's names.

"James Christopher Robin was the closest I could get." Quinn muttered.

James stared at her. "So, like Pooh Bear? My name's from Pooh Bear?"

Quinn smiled and nodded. "Like Pooh Bear."

The doorbell rang a few minutes later and Quinn stood up to answer it. When Rachel heard the front door shut, she got up to meet Quinn in the kitchen. James and Emma were now thoroughly engrossed in Scooby-Doo. Even Rachel had a hard time tearing herself away.

Quinn stood next to the island holding a bouquet of puffy yellow flowers. She was biting her lip and smiling, and her eyes were shining. Rachel just leaned against the counter and watched her for a minute.

Quinn glanced up at her and read the little card out loud. "Big bear…you're still my sweetheart. And the best mother I know... So much love, your secret admirer."

Rachel smiled and sidled up right in front of Quinn.

Quinn glanced at her and then back at the card. "And then there are lots of kisses and hugs at the end. Lots."

Rachel hummed. "A secret admirer, huh?" She sang quietly.

Quinn gave her a watery chuckle and held the flowers up in front of her face. "I guess so."

"I wonder who it is." Rachel put her hands on Quinn's hips and nudged the flowers down so that she could see her face. Quinn was pressing her lips together to contain her smile.

Quinn shrugged. "I don't know." Her voice was watery. A little off-pitch. " They called me big bear, though. And they know my favorite flowers. The-the big yellow ones. So obviously they're the love of my life."

Rachel scrunched up her nose, feigning disappointment. Her eyes sparkled. "I guess you'll go be with them now..."

Quinn hummed and sniffled. She put both her hands on top of Rachel's head and lolled it from side to side. "For the rest of my life. A hundred minus a day."

Rachel smiled. She moved closer and hugged Quinn tightly until her wife stopped sniffling. She still smelled like gummy bears. Quinn kissed the side of Rachel's head.

"It's true for you too, though." She whispered right next to Rachel's ear. "You're the best mother I know."

Rachel pulled back enough to lean up and kiss Quinn. She could see the drawings of elephants and cows stuck on the fridge over Quinn's shoulder. There was a Snow White sippy cup filled with chocolate milk on the counter and a stuffed panther sitting next to the cookie jar on the island. Quinn's own Pooh Bear sat in the sink where he was soaking because he was too fragile for the washing machine now.

And tomorrow Rachel would be on stage, and Quinn would go to work at the Bronx Zoo, and James would go to Kindergarten, and Auntie Brittany or Uncle Blaine or Uncle Puck would watch Em for the two hours between when Rachel left for her show and Quinn got home.

"Better than an elephant." Rachel whispered, forehead against Quinn's.

Rachel realized that human motherhood couldn't really be compared to that of an elephant, but she was just a little lost in the moment.

Quinn's lips quirked up. She tapped behind Rachel's ear. "The best."

Rachel kissed the corner of Quinn's mouth. She watched Quinn's eyes and nose crinkle with a smile when Emmy's laughter floated into the kitchen. "Because we have the best babies." Quinn murmured.

Rachel nodded and let Quinn tuck her hair behind her ears. Quinn ducked down a little to catch Rachel's eyes.

"Because we're like hippos." Quinn stated with a fond smile. "Not elephants. Like hippos born underwater. And we left the water, even though it may have been frightening, and we had our own perfect babies. And now we're gallivanting with them through the river and making friends with the crocodiles and zebras, and playing with the lions, and-"

"Bear." Rachel laughed. "Oh, baby."

Quinn wrapped her arms around Rachel and squeezed. Rachel's delighted screams joined Emmy's, and James ran into the kitchen to see what was going on. Quinn kept hold of Rachel with one arm and grabbed James with the other, and she shuffled them all back into the living room yelling for help from Emma.

Rachel was finally released next to Cornelius. She sat next to Seal with a smile on her face and patted his fluffy head and watched Quinn pretending to be a dinosaur as she chased their children around the room.

Quinn would catch her eye every few seconds. And Rachel would laugh at every move the t-rex made.

All because hippos are born underwater.