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Rachel could admit that her family was not the standard for normal, but it was normal for her. It wasn’t always. Because when she fell in love with Santana Lopez she hadn’t expected to open her heart to three more people.
Sure at first she’d been hesitant because it was a huge thing. She could deal with Brittany because she and Santana were a package. It had been that way for them since they were kids.
It was the Quinn factor that had made Rachel worry. Just the fact that Santana and Brittany had formed a trio with Quinn and she’d wondered if there was any room for her. They'd had years together whereas she and Santana only had a few months and she'd been just starting to get to know Brittany enough to date. Quinn had been something else entirely.
And then of course there was Miranda Fabray and the fact that there was a child involved had made it all the more treacherous, in Rachel’s mind.
But they’d somehow made it work. It hadn’t been easy and she sometimes still dealt with insecurity but it was working. They were working.
They were happy.
It had been three years since then and Rachel’s star had finally risen and she’d landed the lead in a pilot that had gotten a lot of buzz and had been picked up for a full season on FX. There wasn’t any singing and of course no dancing but Rachel loved it all the same.
The best part was that it shot in New York so she didn’t have to be bi-coastal.
Rachel now actually felt that she was pulling her weight. Bringing home the bacon and fabulous gift baskets from all the parties she was invited to.
That was another thing. All the parties. She'd thought all the Broadway babies had been party happy but these Hollywood types put them to shame.
She’d never known that you could have so many parties for every little thing. Someone got a new puppy? Party! Someone fired their maid? Party! Someone found the best plastic surgeon ever? Party!
There were other parties with a more serious tone and then there were the charities that threw parties. Parties happened almost every night it seemed.
Going to parties meant she needed a date.
She’d managed to suggest her chart idea before Brittany had laughed herself silly and Santana had looked at her with such fondness, which always got to Rachel, that she’d gotten side tracked with kissing Santana silly, and Quinn had been the one to get things back on track. There may or may not have been spankings. Which led to them all being side tracked to the bedroom.
But the chart idea had merit and she’d divided up the invitations she got by genre and had split them between her three ladies.
Brittany got to go to all the parties that dealt with being in the business. Studio parties, co-star parties, any parties that Brittany had the chance to spread her cheer and awesomeness to anyone who might be interested in her dancing portfolio.
Santana got the charities because she was badass at mingling and making connections that led to lucrative deals for her and the advertising agency she worked at.
Quinn had called shotgun on awards shows(which had led to an argument about how calling shotgun didn’t make sense and it should be dibs), Quinn won that argument, and if Brittany didn’t want to go to a party then usually Quinn was up for it.
This hadn’t been a problem.
Until now.
Page Six had gotten it in their heads that Rachel was some kind of player and had numerous girlfriends who didn’t know about each other.
Which, really?
In the age of the internet and instant updates on people’s lives how could she keep all these women from finding out about each other? And, yeah, she now had some Paparazzi who would sometimes follow her around. So Page Six didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but was writing things up anyway.
Rachel didn’t worry.
And then E! News got a hold of her at some party to honor some producer who painted stick figures and called it art and was trying to sell it for condo renovations and a Bentley Continental.
The woman with the teeth and the horrible tan whose name Rachel could never remember grabbed her, and tonight she had Quinn in tow, and started talking.
About how amazing it was that Rachel was out and proud and wasn’t it fantastic that she still had a job and people hadn’t picked up their pitch forks to hunt her down, yet. And she was so believable in the show playing a heterosexual woman in a relationship with a man. It was all just so fabulous and then—
“And who do we have here? Is this your girlfriend? I thought she was taller and was a dancer? Honey are you a dancer?”
They’d prepared for this. Had actually practiced for this because Rachel wanted to be prepared and she wasn’t ashamed.
But her mind froze and she couldn’t speak, the camera’s light blinding her.
“That would be Brittany. She’s the dancer. She was just in the new U2 video,” Quinn filled the short silence smoothly while wrapping an arm around Rachel’s waist.
“That was her?” The woman asked, astonished. Or impressed. Rachel couldn’t tell.
Brittany had been magnificent in the video that was reminiscent of Bruce Springsteen's Dancing in The Dark video, but with you know, actual dancing. Brittany's agent had been calling her non-stop since the video had come out in the spring.
“Yes. That was her.” Rachel finally found her voice as she glanced at Quinn for reassurance and found it in the amused smile Quinn gave her. “This is Quinn. Brittany’s actually out in LA preparing for Beyonce’s upcoming tour. And Santana she’s in Hong Kong on business.”
“Santana?” This time Rachel could tell she’d shocked her. “The black haired one?”
“Yes.” Rachel forced herself to nod only once.
“So you’re all one big happy family, then? Quite amazing but then again you’re an amazing talent Rachel Berry and if you could just say you’re watching E! News with Giuliana Rancic, we’re good.”
“You’re watching E! News with Giuliana Rancic!” Rachel said enthusiastically with a wide smile.
The camera man turned away and Giuliana lowered her microphone.
“Hey, great bit about the girlfriends. Makes you look edgy. And the men will eat it up like candy, hon. Oh… I see Natalie Portman. Let’s go, Franco!”
And off she went.
“That wasn’t so bad,” Quinn murmured.
“No,” Rachel said and gave a sigh of relief. “It wasn’t bad at all. Now we just wait for the fall out.”
“That’s why we have a lawyer on retainer, Rach. Now I’m just going to warn you now that Santana’s going to be pissed.”
Rachel stopped walking abruptly.
“Why?”
“Because she was referred to as the black haired one and you didn’t get in a plug about her firm. And because you didn’t mention all the sex we have,” Quinn answered with a smile, which turned into a laugh at Rachel's expression.
Rachel groaned.
“She’s gonna kill me!”
“I’ll stand by and watch. I promise.”
“Well if you promise.” Rachel rolled her eyes and kissed Quinn.
Whatever the fallout was Rachel knew they’d get through it as long as they were together.