There's something to be said about the friendzone. To the friendzoned person, it's frustration, always watching the one you want out of the corner of your eye, knowing that when they look back, when they say, "I missed you this summer!" when they express fondness, they mean, "You're a really good friend." Honestly, it sucks.
But although it sucks consciously for that person, it sucks in a whole other way for the other person… because they're missing out on something so much more.
Rachel loves Quinn. She's known this for a while, since they started hanging out after Glee club, since Quinn started driving her home from school and since they realised they could be really good friends if they gave it a go. Rachel loves Quinn as a friend. A really, really pretty friend.
When Quinn doesn't come to school in the middle of the week, Rachel assumes she's sick, so she texts her:
Get well soon, Quinn! We need your Belinda Carlisle glamor! It's Regionals next week!
When she doesn't get any sort of reply, she texts, Ihopeyou'reokay.
When she still doesn't get a reply, she finds Judy Fabray in the phone book and it's not her that answers.
"Who is this?"
"M-My name is Rachel Berry. I'm a friend of Quinn's. May I please speak to her?"
"Ah. You should know… Quinn's in hospital. Her car ran off the road."
Rachel's whole body goes still, her blood freezing within her and her mind reeling. Quinn's in hospital? She writes down the ward number and gets a lift with Kurt. The whole way there, her mind keeps saying, "No. Not her. You can't have Quinn. I'd be nothing without her."
She has visions in her head; Quinn lying in a hospital bed, bleeding internally. Alone. In her mind, it's also the apocalypse. Zombies are battering down the doors and there's no one there to protect her.
"Kurt!" Rachel snaps, suddenly. "Drive faster!"
Kurt all but jumps out of his skin. "It's an eighty limit, Rachel, and I'm going ninety! Calmdown!"
She slumps down in the seat, makes sure her belt is still on and sulks. The zombies will get Quinn and it's all because Kurt won't hit a hundred. Quinn needs her.
By the time Kurt finds a parking space at the hospital, Rachel's realisation has dawned and she's rehearsing her bedside speech. Quinn will be lying in a coma and she'll hold her hand and recite her speech word for word. Quinn's eyes will open and they'll live happily ever after.
They can't not.
She takes the stairs two at a time because she doesn't trust the elevators now she's terrified herself with ideas of zombie apocalypses and bursts into the ward without preamble, already reciting her speech as she strides at Quinn's bed.
"Quinn Fabray, you are the light of my life," she says, "I want nothing more than to be with you forever. I will keep you safe, protect you from more car accidents and zombie apocalypses and I will be there for you every—"
She grinds to a halt: Judy is standing by the bed and Quinn is packing her belongings into a bag. She has a large bandage around her head, but she's alive, awake and staring at Rachel like she's grown a third head.
Without even missing a beat, Rachel says, "—day without fail and I will be by your side for the rest of our lives if you'll have me because I love you. I love your hair and I love your scent and I love your crazy and I love you. You. So… please wake up. Come back to me."
Quinn raises an eyebrow. "Rachel, what…?"
Rachel rearranges herself a little. "I rehearsed that in the car," she says. "I realise now that the final lines are moot, considering you are standing, walking, talking and looking particularly unimpressed and confused, but I'm never one to miss the chance for a monologue."
Judy looks disturbed but meek as always, while Quinn looks interested. "What would you have done if I hadn't woken up?"
"I… may have resorted to more physical attempts to wake you."
"Rachel!" Kurt stomps into the ward, looking annoyed. "You left me to pay the meter."
"Kurt," Quinn says, quietly, "would you please take my mother to the canteen?" She meets Rachel's eyes. "I need to pretend to be in a coma."