Author's Note: So here we are at the end, my friends. I think, for my first serious attempt at fiction writing, that this has ended up pretty well but one thing I do know is that it wouldn't have been the same without everyone who reviewed and gave feedback. This is the longest thing I've ever written, almost 97 thousand words (the discrepancy with FanFiction's count is due to authors notes) and I doubt I would have finished it without your help and encouragement, so thank you all.

To those who have read but never reviewed, thank you as well and please take this chance to let me know what you think, but please keep your comments nice, I don't mind constructive criticism but if your just going to be unpleasant then keep it to yourself.

I think I've wrapped up all the loose ends in the following epilogue, but if you have any questions you can submit a question to my new tumblr blog at:

talwynfanfic -dot- tumblr -dot- com

Just click the "Ask me anything" link. The only other thing on there right now is a list of my fiction that are completed or in progress, there might be more interesting stuff later.

Quinn was exhausted when she arrived home after her shift at the café but she couldn't help but smile when she found Rachel sitting on the sofa in their living room.

"Hi Baby." She says greeting Rachel with a hug and kiss, "I wasn't expecting to see you here yet, did they let you out early?"

As Quinn settles down into the sofa, Rachel snuggles up into her side, "Yes, they want us rested for the opening day tomorrow."

Rachel had graduated from NYADA and, to absolutely no one's surprise, had easily landed her first role as the leading lady in an off-Broadway play. There were already rumors that it might be transferred to Broadway itself if the first few weeks went well but it has almost ended before it started when only a couple of weeks ago the lead dancer had gotten hurt in a car accident leaving too little time for another dancer to learn the role.

Well, too little time for most dancers, but Rachel had taken Brittany along and persuaded the director to give her a go and the blonde had picked up all the dances with astounding speed, much to the delight of everyone involved.

"So Brittany's home too?" Quinn asks.

"With Santana in their room."

The four had spent a miserable first year in New York separated in dorms for their various schools and had sworn they weren't going to do that again. The four families had gotten together, after a lot of pleading, and found them a nice apartment in a good neighborhood with easy access to both NYADA for Rachel and Brittany and NYU for Santana and Quinn and the four girls had moved in together. It had certainly been an interesting experience that quickly resulted in a request to Rachel's fathers to get Quinn and Rachel's bedroom be sound proofed, not so much to allow Rachel to practice her singing without disturbing her neighbors as had been claimed, but to give the girls somewhere to retreat to when Santana and Brittany started getting noisy.

"You're still going to be able to come tomorrow?" Rachel asks.

"Of course" Quinn assures her girlfriend, "Even if I have to quit I'll be there, but Cherry is going to cover for me."

Rachel didn't know it yet, but both her fathers, Quinn's mother, Quinn's Aunts and Beth had all come to the city to see Rachel's first performance.

"Oh" Rachel says, remembering something from her mail check on the way back home earlier that day, "There's a letter for you from a publisher."

"Probably another rejection." Quinn says glumly as she watches Rachel fish out the letter from the stack of mainly junk mail on the coffee table.

"Don't say that Honey, You have to stay positive."

"I know, but you know how hard it is to get anything published if you don't already have a contract."

She takes the envelope from Rachel and rips it open without any ceremony, unfolding the letter and scanning the text on the page quickly. Then going back and reading it again and again, her mouth dropping open in surprise.

"What?" Rachel demands, ripping the letter out of Quinn's hands and scanning it herself. Her squeals of joy bring Santana and Brittany running from their room wrapped in sheets.

"What's going on?" demands Santana

"Quinn's getting published" Rachel almost shouts, "And they've offered her and advance for her next book."

"Oh, is that all?" Santana says, "Congrats Q"

"Is that all?!" Rachel eye's Santana, "Couldn't you at least pretend to be happy for her?"

"What? Have you read that book?" Santana asks with a shrug as she heads back to her bedroom with Brittany, "It was pretty much inevitable."

After a few drinks to celebrate, they decide to go out to celebrate properly at some point when Rachel isn't about to make her debut the next day, they collapse back onto the sofa and Quinn notes another letter addressed to both of them that is sitting unopened.

"Hey, this is addressed to you too, how come you haven't opened it?" Quinn asks.

"I thought I'd gotten them all, what is it?"

Quinn opens the letter and scans it with a sigh. She's not exactly sure how she feels about this. "It looks like St. James finally woke up, that's what? Five years."

"About that." Rachel says worriedly, "Does it say anything else?"

"He can't remember anything for a couple of months before he hit his head they think." Quinn says reading on, "He doesn't remember anything about being at McKinley and they say it's going to take him months to be able to get about on his own again after being stuck in bed for so long."

"I guess that's about the best we can hope for."

Quinn nods, "And if he tries anything now, at least the law is on our side."

Rachel and Brittany's show had went off without a hitch and when the final curtain came down the whole theater were on their feet giving them all a standing ovation. Quinn and Santana had tried to sneak back stage to see their girls after the show, but had been stopped by a rather large security guard that hadn't been phased in the least by Santana's claims to have "razor blades all up in" her hair.

Eventually Rachel and Brittany made it out to meet the others and Rachel wasn't surprised to find her parents and Quinn's family since she'd spotted them in the audience during the first act.

"And I almost missed my mark." She complains to Quinn, "You should have told me."

They all retreated to a nearby restaurant for a celebratory mean and their waiting for their main course when Quinn's Aunt Jane speaks up.

"Quinn, Rachel, we have a little bit of a surprise for you."

"What?" both girls ask together.

Kirsty and Jane swap nervous glances then Jane continues "Kirsty, Beth and I are moving to New York."

It takes a moment before Quinn can actually reply. She had been dreading not seeing Beth as much as she had, it was bad enough when they were at university but Rachel accompanied Quinn back to Lima at every opportunity so all three of them could spend time together. But with the need for Rachel to be in New York if she wanted to get onto Broadway, Quinn had been dreading having to choose between the woman she is in love with and the daughter she loves.

"You are?" Quinn asks, swallowing the emotion building in her chest, "I thought you were happy in Lima".

"We are but the reason we moved to Lima isn't there anymore, you're here in New York. It would be rather pointless to move to Lima to let you be in Beth's life and then stay there when you move to New York."

"So you're just going to move? What about all your friends? What about Beth's friends? Are you sure this is the right thing to do?" Quinn questions, more than a little shocked that her Aunts would be willing to root up their lives not just once but twice just to give her a chance.

"We always knew you wouldn't want to stay in Lima, especially when we realized you were in love with someone whose dream was Broadway. So even back then we knew we'd be moving again." Jane points out.

"My contract at the hospital was specifically time boxed" adds Kirsty, "And I had no problem finding a new contract out here."

"And you even helped us find a place to stay." Jane says.

It takes a moment but it's Rachel that understands, "The apartment next to ours?"

Jane nods, "When you mentioned it was empty a few months ago we called up the superintendent. He was happy to let us have it since we had already been involved in arranging your apartment."

"So you're moving to New York and are going to be living next door?" Quinn asks still slightly shocked. She feels Rachel's hand slide into her own and they both give the others hand a little squeeze.

"Well we can find another apartment if you'd prefer" Jane says uncertainly, "We just thought you'd want to be closer to Beth than further away and there happens to be a good school covering that area."

"No, no I'd love that" Quinn says bringing her free hand up to wipe away the tears that had started to roll down her cheeks, "It's just so much of a surprise."

Indeed it was so much of a surprised that Quinn forgot about her final surprise for Rachel until they were sitting with their after mean coffee, which was find because that was when the blonde was intending to spring the surprise anyway. She extracts what she needs from her purse and waits for a pause where she can get Rachel's attention.

"Rachel" She swallows nervously but continues anyway, "We've been together for over five years now and some of that time has been hard, some terrifying but a lot of it's been the best years of my life and you've always been there for me through the good and the bad…"

Quinn swallows and chuckles when she realizes she's forgotten pretty much everything she wanted to say. "Well I had this whole speech worked out but I can't remember it so I guess I'll do it the old fashioned way."

She slips down on to one knee, totally missing the fact that the rest of the restaurant seems to have gone quiet around them. She opens the little box she retrieved from her purse and looks at the contents, "Rachel, I love you do much that I don't even want to imagine the rest of my life without you." She turns the box towards Rachel and looks up, finding the diva sitting with her hands covering her mouth and tears already rolling down her cheeks.

"Rachel Barbra Berry, will you marry me?"

There's a moment of silence as the whole restaurant seems to be holding its breath. Rachel opens and closes her mouth a few times but for the first time ever she seems to be speechless so she reverts to nodding frantically. Quinn smiles in relief and reaches for Rachel's hand, slipping the engagement ring into her finger then Rachel pulls the blonde up into her lap and they kiss, totally oblivious to the applause coming from the rest of the restaurant.

FIN