It was a Friday afternoon at McKinley High. Glee club had just begun. Nationals were coming up soon so everyone was anxious and excited as the days grew nearer. Of course, Rachel Berry was excited. But something was off, not necessarily wrong, just off. She felt like she wasn't as excited as she should have been. Nationals were in New York City this year, she should've been ecstatic about going to her city of dreams. She just couldn't shake this weird feeling.
She approached Kurt after Glee club and invited him over to her house for snacks, movies, and just to hang out. She had been feeling somewhat lonely lately. She couldn't understand why that was. She spent almost any free time she had with Finn, but it's like that wasn't enough. She needed more. More of what, she didn't know.
Kurt came over later that afternoon and soon they began talking about Nationals.
"Aren't you so excited to be going to NYC?" Kurt squealed.
"Yeah, of course" she replied, not as gleeful as Kurt would have liked.
"Ok, Rachel, what is up with you lately? You haven't been yourself at all. You didn't even fight me for a solo today in Glee club. Now, we're sitting here talking about how we're going to NEW YORK CITY in TWO WEEKS and you couldn't care less."
"Don't be silly Kurt. Of course I care. I don't know what's wrong with me. I mean I should be jumping up and down, not sleeping a wink. I'm finally getting to go to the city of my dreams and I can't shake this feeling of emptiness."
"Rachel, you are seriously oblivious to your own feelings."
"What are you talking about?" Rachel replied, intrigued that Kurt knew something she didn't.
"You've been acting this way since you found out Quinn isn't going with us."
Rachel's heart pounded as she heard Quinn's name.
"Don't be silly, Kurt. Of course I'm disheartened that Quinn won't be joining us but I highly doubt she's the reason I'm feeling this way."
Kurt arched an eyebrow, "Alright, Rachel, but just do me a favor. Tonight do some thinking. Take a walk and just think. Think about the way you feel when you're with Finn. Then think about the way you feel when you see Quinn. Maybe I'm wrong. But I doubt it, because when it comes to matters of the heart, I'm usually right. See you Monday."
And with that Kurt left the Berry residence. Rachel's face was surely red with embarrassment. How did Kurt know? Well, duh, he's Kurt, of course he knew.
Rachel took Kurt's advice and went for a walk that evening. As she passed by her favorite spot on the river, she took a seat on the bench nearby.
She thought about Quinn. How her blonde hair was always styled perfectly and how it fell in all the right places when she bent over her notebook. How her amazing smile lit up a room. How good she looked in her cheerleading uniform. How her laugh made Rachel's heart beat a million times per second. How, sometimes, Rachel caught Quinn looking at her from afar. How Quinn would always smile and look away. How, one time, Quinn's hand accidentally touched Rachel's and how it seemed to set a spark on her delicate skin.
And then Rachel began to cry. She cried because she knew Kurt was right. She cried because she knew she was in love with Quinn. She cried because she had tried to hide her own feelings from herself by dating Finn. She finally gathered herself together and walked home.
The next night, Finn came over to take Rachel out to dinner and a movie. She didn't want to stand Finn up, that would be rude. But she also didn't want to go out with him either. She sighed as she heard the doorbell rang. She had decided to suck it up for one night and go out with him since they had already made plans.
They went to Breadstix for dinner. Finn did most of the talking. Rachel just nodded and smiled as Finn talked about football and video games, wishing she were anywhere else. Well, anywhere else with Quinn, to be precise.
As they were driving to the movie, Rachel started to cry. She promised herself she wouldn't cry, but as soon as Finn mentioned Quinn not going to NYC with the glee club, she couldn't help it. Finn pulled over the car and put his arm around Rachel, "Rachel, why are you crying? What's wrong? Did I do something?"
"Just…take me…home…please…Finn", Rachel choked out between sobs.
Finn turned the car around and drove Rachel home in silence.
As soon as they arrived at her house, Rachel bolted out of the car and up to her room, not even bothering to tell Finn goodnight.
When Monday rolled around, Rachel was not too happy. She was happy that she would see Quinn in glee club that day. But she was not happy that she would have to deal with Finn and all his questions.
She had managed to avoid Finn all day. She had ducked into the girl's bathroom when she saw him coming down the hall, she skipped lunch and hid out in the library, she had faked a stomach ache to get out of the class they had together. But she wasn't going to be able to avoid him in glee club. She would be damned if she missed glee club, knowing Quinn would be there.
She made a point to arrive late to glee club, hoping there would be some seats away from Finn, maybe next to Quinn, perhaps. She was perplexed as she arrived 10 minutes late and noticed Quinn was not there. She chose a seat next to Brittany and quickly wrote the blonde cheerleader a note, asking where Quinn was. Brittany wrote back saying Quinn had gone home because she wasn't feeling well.
Rachel felt immediate concern for Quinn and quickly gathered her things and left glee club. She could feel the stares of her fellow members as she exited the room. But she didn't care; she had to make sure Quinn was ok.
On her way to Quinn's house, she stopped by the store and loaded up on things to take to Quinn.
Rachel drove to Quinn's house and rang the doorbell. Judy Fabray answered the door, albeit surprised to see Rachel on her doorstep, but let her in anyway as she was always glad to have Quinn's friends over.
Rachel went up to Quinn's room and softly knocked on the door.
"Come in", Quinn said hoarsely. Rachel could tell her voice was going, a sign of infection.
Quinn's eyes widened as Rachel Berry opened the door and stepped into her room. Rachel took in a breath and quickly let it out. She had never felt so nervous in her life. Even in her sickly state, Quinn looked beautiful.
"What are you doing here Berry?" Quinn asked.
"Brittany said you were sick, so I came over to see if there was anything I could do for you. Here, I brought some different home remedies for different types of sickness. Since your voice is hoarse, I'm assuming you have strep throat or maybe even some kind of flu. No matter, all of these are very good for getting you back to health."
Maybe it was because Quinn had a fever of 102 degrees, maybe it was because she thought she might have been dreaming or hallucinating, but she let Rachel Berry stay and make her some kind of crazy tea that actually helped her throat, and watch movies in her room.
Quinn had fallen asleep half way into the movie and Rachel smiled as she lightly snored. But she was faced with a bit of a dilemma, should she stay and wait for Quinn to wake up, or should she leave and let Quinn sleep? She desperately wanted to stay. She wanted to crawl into Quinn's bed and snuggle with her and keep taking care of her until she was well again. She thought that might be a little too much since she was technically still dating Finn and she didn't want to take advantage of Quinn in her state.
There wasn't much she could do at that point, so she got some blankets and pillows out of the hall closet and made a pallet right beside Quinn's bed. She decided to stay because she couldn't bear the thought of leaving Quinn.
Quinn woke up a few hours later, dazed and confused. She felt her forehead and was pleased that it seemed like her fever had broke. That crazy tea might have actually worked. She then noticed one Rachel Berry, asleep, on her floor. She couldn't help but smile at the little pint sized brunette.
Quinn whispered Rachel's name, and Rachel shot straight up off the floor. She had forgotten where she was for a second. Quinn smiled even bigger at the sight of Rachel looking surprised.
"Hey guess what? I think my fever is finally gone", Quinn said.
"Oh, that's great Quinn!" Rachel replied enthusiastically. She was happy that Quinn was feeling better, but not so happy that Quinn probably didn't need her anymore.
"I guess I better get going, sorry for falling asleep on your floor."
As Rachel folded up the blankets and gathered the pillows and was preparing to put them back in the hall closet, Quinn said, "Rachel, do you think you could come back tomorrow after school? My mom probably won't let me out of the house until I'm 100% better" she paused before adding, "I liked having you come over to see about me. No one else did that but you."
Rachel's heart was beating right out of her chest as she replied, "Of course I will, Quinn."
As Rachel turned to leave she swore she heard Quinn whisper, "Don't be sorry."
The next day Rachel returned to Quinn's house armed with more movies and more tea. She went to Quinn's house everyday after school until Quinn was well enough to come back to school. They talked a lot and grew to know each other better. Rachel loved how Quinn was gentle and sweet, not how most people saw her because Quinn was an expert at putting up a wall. Quinn loved how Rachel was able to tear down those walls just by being herself.
Finn finally approached Rachel about how she never returned his calls or texts and how she hardly spoke to him ever since that one date night.
"I'm sorry Finn. I should have talked to you about things earlier. The truth is we need to break up because I'm in love with someone else. I know this is hard to hear but believe me when I say I truly am sorry. I never wanted to hurt you."
Finn exploded into a rage, "How could you do this to me, Rachel? You're in love with someone else? Who is it? What about Nationals? What about our duet? You're just going to throw all that away?"
Rachel replied calmly, "We can still do our duet. I still want to. I think it's a great piece that might give us a chance to win. But you need to calm down, Finn."
With that, Finn slammed his fist into a locker and yelled, "You're telling me to calm down? After what you just told me? Alright, Rachel, we'll still do the duet because we already planned and rehearsed for it. I want us to win Nationals. But after that, we are done!"
Finn quickly walked away into the crowded halls. Rachel felt like she should want to cry, but she didn't. In fact, she smiled. She and Finn were still going to sing together at Nationals so she didn't have to let the glee club down. She was positive Finn would get over it, he might be hurt for a while and Rachel did feel bad about that, but she had to break up with him. She wanted Quinn to know she was in this for real.
But she didn't exactly know what to do about Quinn. She wanted desperately to tell Quinn she loved her, to be there for her always and forever. But she couldn't exactly do that if Quinn didn't even know how she felt about her. Rachel hadn't even asked Quinn about the reason she wasn't going to Nationals. They hadn't been friends for that long and Rachel was sure Quinn didn't want her nosing around in her business.
That was when Rachel Berry decided to do some digging. She began sitting a table over from the cheerleading squad at lunch, trying to hear if they said something about Quinn. Nothing there. She then hung around the celibacy club meetings door, eavesdropping on Quinn. Again, nothing.
Rachel happened to be walking past Ms. Pillsbury's office when she heard her and Mr. Schuester talking about Quinn. She quickly ducked around the corner and strained to hear what they were saying. From what she could hear, Quinn's mother was running low on money ever since she and Quinn's father divorced. Quinn's father was behind on his child support payments, and her mother simply did not have the money for Quinn to go.
No wonder Quinn didn't say anything, Rachel thought. She must have been embarrassed that she didn't have the money. Well, if Rachel Berry had anything to do with it, Quinn would be on that bus to NYC. She felt empowered at the thought of helping Quinn, but at the same time, she felt powerless because she knew she had the money to give to Quinn, but Quinn wouldn't take it. Quinn had too much pride, just like her father.
The next best thing Rachel could do was to write Quinn a letter.
Rachel dropped off the letter in Quinn's mail box, the morning the glee club left for NYC.
Dear Quinn,
I am overwhelmingly sad that you will not be going with us to NYC. I want you to know that I know why you aren't coming with us. I desperately wanted to give you my savings so you would come with us. I didn't want to bring it up, though, because I know you have so much pride and I didn't want to hurt your feelings or anything of the sort. I just really wish you were going to be on that bus, sitting next to me. I would bring my portable DVD player so we could watch movies. I'd even bring my iPod and share my ear buds with you. I hoped we would wind up in the same hotel room, so we could talk and laugh into the wee hours of the night. I thought maybe we could wake up early and go explore the city together, just you and me. You may be thinking to yourself why I am saying all this to you. I'm saying it because I'm in love with you, Quinn. I've loved you for so long but I never let myself feel it because I was scared. I broke up with Finn for you. Everything I do is for you.
Love,
Rachel
Quinn had tears pouring out of her eyes and streaming down her cheeks as she read the letter. She had seen Rachel stick something inside her mail box and quickly drive away.
Quinn called her father and read the letter to him. She breathed a relieved sigh as he agreed to pay for her to fly to NYC. Through some intensive counseling and AA meetings, her father had softened up quite a bit and she couldn't have been more thankful for that.
Quinn quickly threw some bags together and headed for the airport.
Rachel sighed as the bus departed from McKinley High. She had hoped Quinn had gotten the letter and she hoped Quinn wasn't totally freaking out that Rachel Berry loved her. She pulled out her portable DVD player and put in Funny Girl as she looked at the empty seat next to her. A few tears dripped down her cheek as she thought of Quinn.
The bus ride to NYC passed quickly and before Rachel knew it, the bus was pulling up to their hotel. Rachel put a smile on her face. They were in NYC, for goodness sakes. Rachel wanted to at least try to have fun, but knowing Quinn wasn't there made it difficult.
As they walked into the hotel lobby, a familiar voice said, "I've been waiting for you."
Rachel turned around to the other side of the lobby where one Quinn Fabray was sitting.
Rachel had no words as she ran to Quinn and embraced her.
"I can't believe you're here. How did you get here? When did you get here?" Rachel asked in a hurried breath.
"I'll tell you everything later, Rach. But there's one thing I need to tell you right now. I love you, too", Quinn smiled.
Rachel's lips crashed into Quinn's as the glee club erupted into hoots and applause. Even Finn gave a half hearted smile.
For the next few days, Rachel and Quinn explored NYC together. They didn't win Nationals, but that wasn't exactly the first thing on either of their minds.
As they were walking along the Brooklyn Bridge, Rachel said to Quinn, "You know, Quinn, I used to think New York City was the city of my dreams. I used to think I would come here after graduation and live my dream of going to college here and eventually star on Broadway. But I know now that this city is grand, amazing, special, and full of life but it's only the city of my dreams if you're here with me."
Quinn had the breath taken right of her as she realized she loved Rachel even more.
"We'll move here after we graduate. We'll go to college together and when you star on Broadway, I'll be there every night to see you perform. My city of dreams is wherever you are."
Quinn and Rachel were together ever since that one fateful day. Quinn kept her promise to Rachel and they moved to NYC a few months after graduation. Rachel went to Julliard and Quinn went to NYU. They bought a small apartment in-between the two colleges.
The first night in their new apartment, Rachel went to the window and looked out at the beautiful New York City skyline. She turned around ever so slightly to look at Quinn, who was making dinner in the kitchen. She turned back around with a smile on her face and whispered, "City of dreams."