Chapter Text
In another universe Rachel Berry was an annoying girl with attention seeking tendencies and a huge heart. She was bossy and uptight and so very talented she could bring people to their knees with her voice alone .
In that universe she’d have been a high school loser, too obsessed with her future at Broadway, her goals and herself to care about making friends.
She’d have been mercilessly bullied by the Head Cheerleader, courted by the star quarterback, and achieved her dreams of glory once out in the world.
But this is not that universe.
In this reality Rachel Berry is still the beloved only child of Hiram and Leroy Berry, she is still crazy talented, she still loves too-short-to-be-appropriate-for-school skirts. But the major difference between the Rachels from those two universes?
This Rachel Berry has been promised since before her birth to marry Quinn Fabray, the heir to the Fabray empire, which includes both the multinational company of the same name and their... less legal endeavors.
This Rachel Berry was still as crazy about success as any and all versions of herself, with one noticeable difference: in this universe her definition of such is directly tied to her ability to make her future wife happy.
For this Rachel Berry, Quinn Frabray is success .
In an alternative reality Quinn Fabray would have been a bitchy, bullying head cheerleader, who was part of the statics regarding teenage pregnancy, who managed to attend Stanford Law School on a full scholarship despiste the many, many struggles she suffered through high school, who managed to always come out on top despite what life threw at her. She’d have been cold and cruel at times, bitter because of the feeling of never being good enough for her mom to quit drinking, for her sister to not abandon her with her parents at the first opportunity, for her dad who never saw past his prejudices for her even once.
But this is not that reality.
In this reality Quinn Fabray was born Quint Fabray, the beloved son of Russel and Judy, and heir to his father's legacy from the moment his beloved and overprotective big sister went off to marry Senator Willians.
And while Quinn was born Quint, she didn’t remain so for very long.
After a particularly awful case of stomachache when she was 11, her parents took her to the hospital only to find out that she was intersex and her pain was actually nothing more, nothing less than the cramps.
From then on, after many arguments, tears from her mom, screams from her dad and sad smiles from her sister, the youngest Fabray was given a choice: whether to be Quint or Quinn.
And she externalized something she’d always known on the inside: “My name is Quinn Fabray.”
Russell Fabray considered himself a lucky man. He had everything he could ask for, after all, a beautiful supportive wife, a lovely obedient daughter and a strong brilliant son. That’s not to forget his business which was flourishing under his command, since he took over from his father.
In another life he might've been bitter, or distant, but in this life he had everything he had ever wanted for himself and he knew it. And nothing and no one would take away the things he loved from him, not even himself.
Which is why he always worked diligently during his working hours but gave his family his all when he was home, he wanted to be there for his kin, to be the father he never had, to guide his children in ways he hadn’t been by his father.
And that often included teaching Quint to handle his family business, both venues.
Quint, for his part was everything his father had ever wished for: a male heir, smarter than any in his class at school, good at making sure his demands were met once he got past his shyness (and it was only a matter of time before his boy overcame his insecurities and started taking what he wanted, Russel was sure). The only glitch in the perfect image Russell had of his only son was the fact that the boy insisted he was a girl.
The amount of times he found him hiding with his sister in her room, trying out her outfits and throwing a fit whenever Russell or Judy would reprimand him because “why can only Frannie look cute? I’m your daughter too!”, was one too many.
Many of the therapists they took the boy to in his childhood said the same: “There are quite a few people like your child out there, Mr and Mrs Fabray. There is nothing wrong with what Quint is feeling, in fact transgender people...” that would be around the time Russell would storm off.
Now, he had nothing against those queer people, his best friend for life was homosexual and, after the initial shock caused by his catholic upbringing , he was a hundred percent supportive of Leroy relationships no matter who ir was with as long as the person was worthy of his best mate.
But... His own child? That’s a different story! Quint must’ve been confused, or trying to gain attention (which Russell tried to give him more of since this transgender nonsense started), but he simply couldn’t allow for his only son be like that.
Mr Fabray read things about those people, about how they would cut out their own genitals to turn into what they thought it should be, and what then? The Fabray name would be dead! And that’s not all, did Quint really think people would listen to him in their field if he was like that? That’s simply not how it worked. Sure, maybe at the legal branch of their business people would be more accepting nowadays (even though he thought it was unlikely to be a walk in the park either) but their other business? They would kill him for sure, but not before making an example out of the boy and shaming the Fabray good name. Who would listen to a tranny mob leader? No one, that’s who. At least not at the current time.
And the Fabray weren’t just any mob group, they were the mob which commanded most of America, quite a bit of Canada and even some African and European countries. The visibility and enemies their position brought didn’t leave space for such weakness as the boy was showing.
At least that’s what he thought for years, until the fateful day he took his boy to the hospital with a stomach ache only to find out Quint was right the whole time. He was his daughter .
Or at least he was to some extent.
Russell didn’t think he would ever grasp this whole thing, but God he was too tired of fighting his daughter on this, so when Quint chose to become Quinn after a year traveling with her mom to see the best doctors in the world about her condition, he accepted.
But not before making three demands though:
- Quinn had to keep her equipment to give him grandchildren as it was considering her uterus wouldn’t be suitable for carrying children, as more than one doctor pointed out. He wanted Fabray heirs after all.
- Quinn was still marrying the Berry girl. The girl had been raised for this and would make a fine wife, he was sure. She was after all the daughter of his best friend and most trusted ally outside of his family. The moment Quinn was born, he went to his best friend -who wanted to have a child with his husband but was hitting a roadblock at adoption- and offered to find a willing woman to carry their child for them on the condition that when the time came the girl would marry his heir, making them family once and for all and ensuring his child would have a proper wife to support her as he had her mother. So, it didn’t matter what Quinn wanted to call herself or which gender she identified with, she’d have a proper wife in Rachel Berry.
- Quinn would still be the one in charge of his legacy once he retired and, as such, she’d do whatever it took to garner the respect of her subjects. He didn’t care what she had to do. She’d always known her destiny and if this was what she chose for herself, fine, but he wouldn’t let it destroy everything he worked for or to let her waste the 11 years he spent grooming her into the perfect businesswoman and mob lider only so she could “be herself”.
With those stipulations came the resentment of his daughter towards him and the ridge between them, but there’s nothing he could do. He didn’t make those demands to punish his child, despite what she clearly thought, he just knew that it was the best way to ensure her survival in their world.
Russell couldn’t assure Quinn people would accept her for who she was, but he would teach her just how to deal with anyone who gave her crap for it, whether she liked it or not.
He was afraid for his daughter in their world, but he would toughen her up until he didn’t have to be anymore.
And he would get a few grandchildren along the way, of course.