Chapter 1

For Quinn Fabray it had been a long and tumultuous few years, from having the entire school at her feet, to having a baby, to going through an identity crisis. Her time with the skanks had led to smoking, less showers and even fewer friends. However, now, as a new school year started, she had moved on from all of that. She was no longer a cheerleader, no longer a skank, no longer pregnant and finally, no longer under the controlling thumb of her father.

Over the break Quinn had moved in with her favourite cousin, Jenna. Jenna knew that Quinn needed to move out of Russell Fabray's house or she would continue this downward spiral, so Jenna and her husband Dan welcomed her with open arms. That was pretty much when Quinn's life turned for the better. She became her confident self again, was more self-assured, became more aware of herself and started doing things for herself, rather than for others. Jenna and Dan encouraged her to be herself, and Quinn decided that, while she was still learning about herself, the freedom to be who she wanted to be was something she would never give back.

Quinn had made a conscious effort over the break to mend her broken friendships with those in glee club. She had realised that these were the people that were there for her in her time of need. Finn, Sam and Puck were easy to convince of her new happiness, all she'd had to do was have a shower and smile in their direction and everything seemed to go back to normal. Mercedes welcomed her back to glee with open arms and very few questions, and Kurt fell in line with her. Tina, Mike and Artie, who she had never been very close with, seemed excited to have her back. Brittany was…well she was Brittany. She went on about unicorns and rainbows before she finally hugged Quinn. Santana was a little more difficult; however over a number of lattes during the summer vacation, they had made up and were closer than ever, now that they weren't competing for anything.

There was one person in glee that she hadn't spoken with or acknowledged since she had gone through her positive transformation. That person was Rachel Berry. Quinn wasn't sure why she hadn't approached the diva, she had gone to the effort to talk to everyone else in glee, but for some reason she avoided Rachel like the plague. It wasn't that Quinn wanted Finn back, Rachel and Finn seemed to be happy with their on-again, off-again relationship, it was just that…well she wasn't sure what it was. Quinn had spent hours on end thinking about this and in the end decided that Rachel was known to be upfront and honest, so if she wanted to talk to Quinn, she would seek her out. It's not like they were being rude to each other, if anything, it was the most civil and neutral they had ever been with each other, so there was no real point of changing anything.

Anyway, it didn't matter. Quinn had Santana and Brittany back in her corner and nothing had felt better in a very long time. Quinn had known about Santana's feelings for Brittany years ago, and while she was raised to look down on people who chose to live that way, she grew up watching Santana struggle with her feelings. When the pair finally got together and made it official, she could not have been happier. Santana, for the first time, seemed happy with her life. So when Quinn opened the front door of her cousin's house at around dinner time that Thursday, she was shocked to see Santana looking like someone had kicked her dog.

"Quinn, Jesus. We need to talk. I need to talk to someone about this. And I have no one besides Britts and you…and I can't talk to her about this…because it's about her. And I don't want to freak her out coz you know how she ge…." Quinn cut Santana off before the Latina had a chance to burst into tears and let her into the house.

"Why don't you come inside." Quinn led Santana up to her room, and decided to wait for her to open up. Unfortunately, it looked like it wasn't going to happen any time soon and whatever confidence Quinn thought Santana had, seemed to have flown out the window. Santana sat there, twisting her fingers as if it was the most entertaining thing in the world. Finally, she spoke up.

"I'm in love with Brittany." She said with a hint of bitterness in her tone.

"Okayyy? And what's wrong with that? I thought you were past the self-homophobia. Everyone knows and we're all happy for you. So I don't see the problem here."

"It just….it hit me the other day. I mean. I've been in love with her for years. Before I started sleeping with half the student population. But it's never….I've never had the possibility of spending the rest of my life with her, ya know? And what if I'm reading into this more then she is? What if she still sees me as her best friend, when I'm looking at her as the love of my life?"

Quinn and Santana were sitting on opposite sides of the bed and at no point since they had sat down, had Santana looked at Quinn in the eye. The former head cheerleader felt a little sorry for her friend. She finally had what she wanted and she was still scared. Quinn moved over to Santana and put her hand on her back in an effort to comfort her. She wasn't sure how Santana would react to that, but it seemed ok for now.

"Santana, do you know how lucky you are? You have someone who loves you for who you are and you're sitting here because you aren't sure she knows how much you love her? Are you kidding me? Britt knows you better than anyone in this world. I know people don't think she's…you know…all there, but we know she's smarter then they'll ever know. She knows how much you struggled with your sexuality, she knows how you feel about her, and she knows how she feels about you. Honestly…I'm a little jealous of what you guys have. You need to stop overthinking everything. You have the girl, so instead of coming here, go talk to her about it. We both know she'll understand…."

Santana was silent for a few minutes. Quinn let her message sink in and continued rubbing her friend's back.

"Q you're right. Why am I here with your lame ass, when I could be getting my mack on with the love of my life? And stop rubbing my back! I always knew you were into the ladies." Quinn's hand retreated instantaneously and she was about to protest before Santana held her hand up.

"Before you say anything, it was a joke. But your reaction was interesting…maybe you should think about why you haven't spoken to the hobbit in months. You should talk to somebody about that. But not me. Not now. Thanks for the chat Q. I'm off for my Brittany time. See you tomorrow" And with that she rushed out of the room and out the front door, leaving an increasingly confused Quinn in her wake.


This is the first time I've ever written anything and posted it online. So let me know what you think. Good and bad!