The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone.

Only Human

The moon. Crisp, white and shining, the moon's light illuminated the pale face of the hazel eyed young woman crouching on the earth. The wind swept noiselessly through the waves of her golden hair, whipping it gently at her neck, face, shoulders. She dug her fingers into the soil, head flung backwards and eyes shut tight as she rooted herself to the planet and familiarised herself with the core energy of her new location of work.

For God had sent her here, and here she must fufill her purpose.

Monsters were on their way, darkness was destined here. Her job is to eradicate that, protect the innocent and prevent evil from seeping into the homes and hearts of the mortals.

It's her destiny. It's her job.

It's her.

Quinn Fabray wasn't any ordinary teenage girl, even though she blended in with the young mortals she resembled. She was different, because she was an angel.

She never drew too much attention to herself, and she tried to remain in the background for as long as she possibly could. Silently watching, waiting. Keeping the darkness from hurting them. This was how she worked, how she liked to work. Alone, secluded. Focused.

Poised to attack any predator inching toward the ones she protected. Her routine had been the same for years, clean, precise and perfect. Careful. Exactly exact for decades.

But something isn't right here. The energy is...cracking. It's not how it should be. It's off centre and incorrect, and Quinn doesn't like that.

With a gasp she fell forward, her fingers now covered in dirt pry themselves free and she looks around, the wind growing rough and harsh against her.

She stands and looks down at herself, a small sigh escapes her with disappointment as she examines her body another time.

She misses her true form and she hates feeling so weak and so unprotected. So vunerable.

But she must continue, move on and power through it because she was called here for a reason and that reason is important.

She wears a short white dress with white dolly shoes and woolen beige shawl across her shoulders, protecting her from the weather.

There's two pockets by her hips in her dress. In one is a cream slip of card, on which dark blue ink is printed an address, the address of the hotel she'll stay at whilst she works here, and it's ready and waiting for her to check into.

But she's concerned, worried. Something just isn't right. She wants to shake it off, forget about it but she's more clever than that, more careful. She'll investigate when the sun is up as the warmth allows her to think clearly and she feels comfortable.

Her eyes flutter shut and she takes a deep breath, extending her arms and a tingling sensation shoots through her veins, and she absorbs the last of the available positive energies she can harness.

Then she starts walking, and doesn't stop until she reaches a big building, set among several others along a road. It's quiet, dark. The moon is full, the stars are visible, and it's so silent.

She strolls inside, and the woman at the desk welcomes her. Quinn checks in and is shown to her room, where she walks in and then shuts the door slowly behind her.

Home, she thinks, this is my home right now.

For how long, she doesn't know. She doesn't even know how long she's booked in for, but it doesn't matter. She'll reside here until her job is done and Lima Ohio is clear of the fallen.

But she has to blend in, she has to go outside to keep watch and as she's a teenage girl she needs to go to high school. She likes high school, it's a nice place to watch the mortals, because they're fascinating.

Just watching them live happily, seeing them smile and laugh. She gets to absorb the positivity and blend in.

She hoped it would be like that, like it was before and all of the other times, but the crack in the energy she felt is haunting her, her fingertips burned and it reminded her of the oddity that irked her. The crack in the energy.

Everything's already set and ready to go at this new school, she just needs to arrive and be handed her timetable. Easy.

It comes in handy when your boss is all powerful.

For the remainder of the night she slowly and quietly examined every aspect of the hotel room. There was a spacious living area, with a television, a coffee table, couches. A small kitchen. A very clean bathroom, and a bedroom with a double bed and a chest of drawers filled with different dresses, skirts, jeans, t-shirts, jackets, towels, underwear. Everything needed to live as a human.

It was very plain, But Quinn liked it. It was very normal.

She loved feeling like a human, like a normal girl.

Not someone special and different and unique. She wants the ordinary, because unlike the others of her kind she hates what she is. She hates it but she can't stop it and she can't change it, because she was chosen and it's her duty to help battle the darkness.

Once she's inspected her hotel room she prepares for her first day of a new high school. Things are different in every high school and to blend in properly she needs to be prepared.

Before any undercover work she does her research, spends a few weeks just watching so she knows how to act and what to do.

She wants everything to be exactly right, it's why she's so good at her job because she fits in so well, because she is so precise. And she fits in because it's where she truly belongs, with the other humans. She adores the mortals and wishes she could just live amongst them for all eternity.

One of her favourite parts was making friends. But she tries to prevent herself from doing so anymore. It hurts, when she has to go. When her job is complete she moves on, just as she's settled she has to go and leave everything and everyone behind, no contact and no goodbyes.

She gets to travel the world and meet new people, see the most amazing sights, she looks amazing, pure and beautiful all of the time and she lives a great quality of life with routine and uniqueness, protection, and she's so special, and she's considered a hero.

And she hates it.

Rachel Berry rolled her eyes and sat back down in her seat with a defiant sigh.

Mr Schuester had (yet again) refused to listen to her ideas, and her presence had basically been ignored by the entire glee club. All of her well thought-through and researched options for the upcoming show choir competition were brushed off with a single groan of annoyance.

Everyone ignored everything she said usually, but these late night glee rehearsals made it ten times worse, because no one listens to her anyway; especially now when no one wanted to be there, and everyone was tired.

She flattened down the creases in her burgundy, knee length skirt before perching slightly forward and glancing up at her maybe only friend, Finn, who was sat beside her.

He was popular and loved, and he had told her that she was his friend, which to Rachel meant a lot - Even though Rachel constantly dreamed of being in a relationship with him, having him as a friend was something she was happy with.

He was glaring forward, his eyes seemed blank and it was pretty clear that his mind was somewhere far away. Disappointent crossed her features as she ran her eyes over him. It was obvious he showed no sign of supporting her in front of the group.

But, This was nothing unusual for Rachel Berry. Her enthusiasm and love for perfoming came across as irritating and she was judgementally branded as a selfish freak.

As a performer, and as a person in general she was very under appreciated. Even when she put all of her efforts into helping her fellow glee club members - in getting them out of any trouble they had got themselves caught up in - they were only grateful for a matter of minutes.

Then it went back to being looked down upon, bullied and being insulted left, right and centre.

It never phased her, really. She had ambition, dreams and a bright future and she knew she was better than all of this. All of them. Yes, it was hurtful, but she had the courage and will power to battle through all of the bullshit.

But lately, it had been getting to her. Not because it hurt her feelings, but because it was boring.

She was so bored.

Her life seemed so bland, so pointless, and even though she loved to sing more than anything else, she didn't enjoy being in the glee club anymore. Nothing exciting ever happened, and she had become so bored.

She never got the solos she needed to shine, she didn't have the friends she believed she deserved and she didn't get the attention or love that she craved.

Everyday she marched through the same halls, dodging the same jocks who threatened her with a cold slushie facial, Avoiding the same cheerios who threw her judgemental sneers and mocked her every movement.

She was tired of being mistreated, tired of being offended and tired of everything in this run down, insignificant town.

She wanted things to change, but everytime she spoke out about it she was put down or ignored. Or both.

She just wanted someone to appreciate her for who she is, someone who would understand why she acts like she does and why she wants what she wants.

Her thoughts were suddenly interuppted by Mr Schuester dismissing them, and she was out of her seat and gone before anyone else and before anybody could stop her. It's not like they would, anyway.

It was a regular occurance for Rachel to march out of the club during a 'diva tantrum' but it was however unusual for her to leave at the end so quickly. She'd normally linger behind to try and get Schue to listen to some of her ideas when they were alone so there were none of the other students to interupt or express how much they dispise the suggestion that she put forward.

She'd compromise and allow the opinions of others but it's so irritating because despite their judgement she knew what she was doing, she knew what would work and what wouldn't yet all she ever got...was nothing.

She was fed up.

And she just wanted things to change.

Quinn didn't need to eat, she gained her energy from the positivity in her environment. She could eat, though, but it wasn't necessary. However it was necessary if she was to blend in. So here she sat, eating her way through a salad.

Even though she vowed she wouldn't, she had made some friends. Well, she had met people who wanted to eat lunch with her and she had said yes when they offered.

She could have human interaction, she just wouldn't get attached.

She couldn't say no, She loved having humans around her. Even if they were people she didn't really like.

She sat in the cafeteria with them as they ate their lunch and she nibbled through her own.

There were three boys and two girls. The girls were called Tilly and Dana, and they both wore cheerleading uniforms, and all three of the boys were on the football team. Quinn didn't know why they were being so nice to her, from what she had seen they were awful to everybody who didn't wear a uniform here.

Yet here they sat with her, chatting away, even though she wasn't wearing any uniform.

"Quinn, Why'd you transfer?" Said Dana before she took a bite of a bright green apple.

"My Dad's job. We always have to move around a lot." Quinn replied, poking at her salad with the fork in her hand. She began to regret agreeing lunch with these people, their energy is negative and it's very draining.

"Cool. But why McKinley? This place is a total dump." Tilly questioned.

"I don't know." Quinn murmured, shrugging.

Ugh, Negativity.

She felt bad vibes from these people, she knew they liked to hurt other people's feelings and Quinn didn't like that at all. She was considering making up an excuse to leave. She wanted friends, but these people didn't seem like friends she would want to have.

At that moment two of the boys sat with them started laughing, poking at the third boy who's named Quinn had picked up as Finn.

"Look, Finny boy! It's your girlfriend from glee club!"

The two girls looked in the direction the boys were pointing in and started to giggle themselves, and Dana managed to squeal, "Oh damn, What is she wearing today?"

Tilly joined in. "She is not coming over here is she? I'd rather be dead than seen with that freak, Oh my gosh, I would kill myself if I was her, she's so embarassing..."

One of the boys stood up and yelled, "Hey Berry! Why don't you come over and give your boyfriend Finny a little kiss, huh?"

Finn shuffled uncomfortably, and said "She's not my girlfriend...Cut it out."

"What was that Finn? You've got...Oh! Finny's got a little problem in his pants!"

Quinn sat there in silence, just watching them as people on near tables erupted into laughter. It felt wrong.

She wanted to stop this, but she had to blend in. If she caused a scene she would draw attention to herself, and it would make everything a lot more difficult.

"Finn's got a boner! Rachel, maybe you shou-"
"Shut up! Cut it out!" Finn protested, looking distressed.

"Berry!" Yelled one of girls in a cheerleading outfit from one of the other tables, "Maybe you should come and help out Finn's little problem with your big hairy man hands!"

"I've heard you like a tranny every now and then Finn, she's just your type!"

More laughter followed.

Dana and Tilly had tears of laughter in their eyes as they watched Finn try and pull down the other two guys yelling things across the room at Rachel, and they turned towards Quinn.

"Why aren't you laughing? Berry is such a freak and she's like, totally stalking Finn!"
"Yeah and Finn likes her, I mean that's so crazy she's so creepy, ugh..."

Quinn pulled a fake smile, she just wanted to blend in. But she didn't want to hurt anybody's feelings. They kept saying mean things about this Rachel girl.

Surely, her job is to keep people from being hurt...shouldn't she do something to help this poor girl? Or was she taking this too seriously?

The two guys had eventually shut up and sat back down but the laughter was still loud and other cheerleaders from the tables were speaking loudly about Rachel.

She felt bad, really bad. She didn't want to look at her.

But eventually Quinn looked over to where the boys were pointing at before.

She saw a tiny, brunette girl sat on her own at a table and she was slowly picking at a pasta salad, her head down.

Quinn swallowed, and her heart dropped. Maybe the evil here wasn't what she had expected, maybe it was just a kind of evil that mortal's inflicted on each other and their own world because this girl she was watching looked heartbroken. Everyone kept yelling things at her.

Why?

This girl...from what she could tell was beautiful. Why were they being so mean?

She couldn't take it anymore, she had to leave.

Quinn exclaimed, "I gotta go. I'll see you around...sometime." And got up and walked over to the door.

Dana and Tilly looked at each other and laughed, shrugging off Quinn's sudden exit. The other two boys were too busy teasing Finn to even notice, and Finn was hesitantly laughing along, trying to change the subject.

As Quinn walked towards the doors, a cheerleader yelled "What's the matter Berry? Nose weighing you down?"

More laughter.

Rachel slowly stood up and began to walk away, leaving her uneaten lunch on the empty table she was sat at.

Quinn reached the door, and held it open for Rachel.

Rachel looked up at the blonde girl and said "Thank you."

Quinn nodded, and smiled softly.

Rachel's eyes were tearful, and Quinn could tell she had been blinking back her tears and trying not to cry. If she did it would just give others more ammunition to torture her, so she understood why she was trying to keep it together.

Rachel then returned a small smile before walking away, and then their eye contact fell apart and Quinn watched her leave.

"I'm sorry..." Quinn whispered. Before leaving the cafeteria herself.

Rachel walked down the hall. Her walk turned to a jog, then a run as she made her way to the girl's bathroom.

She rushed into a cubicle, locked the door and just sobbed.

It wasn't fair. Why her? What had she done for them to be so cruel?

Nothing. There was nothing she could think of.

So what, she was determined? She dressed the way she wanted to and she sang, she did her homework, sometimes she didn't get on too well with people...but she didn't deserve this, did she? No friends, no happiness. Just torture.

And the worst thing was that no one ever stood up for her.

She so tired of the harassment, fed up of the same abuse she gets every single day she's at school.

She has nothing upcoming to look forward to, just another late night rehearsal at glee club where Mercedes will get her solo because Mercedes feels so left out and never gets any songs. Like always.

One day she'll prove them wrong, one day she'll be famous and loved and successful. She knows it, it's going to happen.

But that's then, and this...is now. And now, she's in pain and she hates it.

Thinking of the future doesn't help any more.

Rachel wiped at her eyes with some tissues and took a deep breath, unlocked the cubicle and walked out to face herself in the mirror.

She looked at her puffy eyes, and dabbed at them some more.

Then something caught her eye. In the reflection the blonde girl from earlier was standing behind her.

"Hey." She said.

"...Hi." Rachel replied.

Who was this girl? Why was she here?

"I've never seen you here before." Said Rachel, dampening her tissues some more so she can wipe away the mascara that ran down her face.

"I just transferred."

Rachel sighed. She looked at the blonde girl in the mirror.

She was stunning. Why was a girl like her talking to a girl like Rachel?

"Oh." Said Rachel, she didn't want to talk to this blonde girl. She was sat with Dana at lunch, and when Dana makes friends with somebody, they become a somebody. And somebodys don't talk to Rachel.

She wasn't surprised Dana had chosen this girl, she's gorgeous. The pretty girls are always the popular girls.

"My name is Quinn." She said softly, and she smiled.

Rachel turned around and faced her.

"Pretty name."

"Thank you."

"I'm sure you're aware of my name..."

"Rachel, right?" Quinn asked, and she flashed a bright white smile.

Wow. This girl really doesn't have any flaws.

"Why are you talking to me? Did Dana put you up to this? Because I'm honestly not in the mood to deal with any more cheerios."

Quinn was too friendly to be anything decent. Too good to be true.

"I'm not a cheerio. And no, this has nothing to do with Dana. I just saw how upset you were and I wanted to see if you were okay."

"Right." Said Rachel sarcastically. She's heard that one before.

"Honest. I don-"

"Okay. I have to go. I can't deal with any more. I just...I need to be alone." Replied Rachel, and she took one more glance at perfect, pretty Quinn before storming out of the bathroom.

Quinn leant against the counter and bit her lip.

Rachel is in a lot of pain. But...her energy, even though she was so upset, was still...so positive. So optimistic.

How? She must be very, very strong. She's very special.

Quinn liked Rachel. And it broke her heart to think that Rachel can't trust anyone, in fear of rejection or humiliation.

There was something about Rachel...Quinn admired her. It was strange, she hardly knew her.

Why did she feel so...protective?

Quinn put it down to instinct, to aid someone who needs help.

Rachel was hurting, and she doesn't deserve to be. This is wrong. Quinn turned, and looked at herself in the mirror.

And then she swore to herself that whilst she's in Lima she'll try and make Rachel Berry's life a little more manageable.

Obviously this story has far to go, lots to reveal. But how is it so far? I'd really appreciate your feedback.

Thank you so much for reading! Update will be soon if anyone wants another chapter.