The speeches had been made, the roses had been thrown and the last of the dirt was being shoveled over the casket.
The rain had been pelting down throughout most of the service and there were faint flashes of thunder in the Lima sky, at least she'd appreciate the dramatics of it.
Everyone had left, or so she thought, yet the blonde just stood there letting the rain pour down on her relentlessly.
Her face was wetter from her own salty fallen tears and she didn't care that make up had created tracks on her cheeks and her shoes were sinking into the mud.
"Quinn" she heard a voice call, she didn't turn around or make any attempt stayed staring at the patch of earth where Rachel Berry's tombstone would soon be.
She heard approaching footsteps in the sloppy wet dirt and the snap of a twig underfoot pierced her ears like a gunshot.
"Quinn" the voice repeated, female and easily distinguishable with it's smoky quality. Santana made no move to get any closer to the blonde, Quinn shivered as a cold breeze passed over them and she wrapped her arms around herself.
"You're going to get pneumonia out here, you're missing the wake" Quinn kept her eyes focused on the now sodden ground under which a body lay,"I'm not going"
"Well you can't stay here, come on lets-" Santana stopped speaking as the blonde's body started shaking with a fresh set of tears.
"She's gone, San. She's gone and she's not coming back"
"I know"
"She's never going to sing again or pep us up or-"
"Quinn, don't do this to yourself" Santana said gently putting a hand on her friend's shoulder, Quinn reached up to grasp the hand in her own.
"She never got out of Lima, she's in the ground beneath us right now. Santana how is that fair?" she sobbed, "how is that fair?"
She turned to fall easily into Santana's petite but lion-strong frame, the smaller girl's arms wrapped around her friend's waist letting her cry into her neck and clutch her desperately. She rubbed her back as best she could given that the girl was soaked to the skin.
"Come on, let's get you home" she said trying to pull the blonde with her.
Defiant Quinn was stronger than she looked and normally it would piss Santana off, but this wasn't just defiance, it was pain and sorrow and Santana felt her own heart breaking for the girl she'd been on-off friends with for so long.
"I never got to tell her" Quinn whispered against her wet skin ,"I never got to tell her"
Santana gently pried the taller girl's face away from her body so she could look her in the face, she held her face delicately between her palms fighting the urge to cry.
"You told her you were sorry. She knew, she knew we all were"
Quinn shook her head frantically and sniffed.
"I'm not talking about that" she whispered, she looked up to meet Santana's gaze and suddenly everything made sense to the Latina.
"Oh Q" she whispered before pulling the girl tightly to her.
"I love her" Quinn croaked, "I loved her and I never told her, now I'll never get to. San what am I going to do?"
Santana's tears were now falling as hard as the blonde's and the rain pounded their faces almost painfully.
"I don't know, fuck,I don't know" she told her as she her hands knotted in damp thick curls.
"But we'll get through this, okay? You, Britt and me, together, the three of us" Quinn nodded against her shoulder before pulling back to look at her friend again.
"Can we go to the wake now? After we change" Quinn asked gently. Santana didn't even answer she merely took the pale hand in hers and ran them to her car.
"I loved her" Quinn repeated as she stared blankly out of the window.
"I know sweetie"
"Why aren't you surprised?" the blonde asked.
"I saw the way you looked at her, Britt told me it's the same way I look at her"