Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 48th cycle. Now cycle 49!

"How Did We Get Here?"
Rachel, AU!Jesse/AU!Quinn - World: Canon
Berry-St series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

To say she was surprised would have been a lie. Honestly, she was surprised they'd held off this long. Still expecting it and seeing it were different things. Not too long ago, maybe it still would have affected her, but not the same way, to see Jesse and Quinn as a couple, a real couple. Sure, they weren't the ones who belonged to her world, but they had their faces, so what did it matter whether they were hers or some other world's?

When this had all started, they were not set to get along too well. After what he had done, she was disappointed, angry… But she knew seeing him on Quinn's arm would still have done something to her.

Only now things were different. Her and her Jesse, when they'd been in the other world, they weren't exactly a couple again either, but it was fair to say they had been close to being one. They were actually becoming better to one another than they had ever been… Things were good all things considered. But then she had been sent home… and he was still over there, while she had to deal with his double, who was all about his Quinn, even if they'd had to keep this secret.

Now they had opened themselves for all to see, letting everyone know they were a couple. It had caused some mixed reactions, but as for Rachel, she was surprisingly quiet. It felt like a proper nightmare, everything was wrong.

They had to go home. She needed to find a way to get her own Jesse and Quinn back, before this got out of hand and she ended up… singing at their wedding or something.

So she'd called them in. She kept Santana out of this. Even if the other her had brought the girl into this, it didn't concern her in this case. It wasn't the first time any of them addressed the old 'how did this happen to us?' question, but it didn't feel to her like they had gotten to the bottom of it. If they had, then they'd probably be home, right? She knew there were some aspects of their lives, some parts of the matter, they never really touched on like maybe they should.

"Okay," she took charge as they sat there. The other two didn't blink on that by now. "We're going to get to the bottom of this, one way or another."

"We've tried…" Quinn insisted.

"Clearly not hard enough."

"What, because you made it back, you found the magic words?" Quinn frowned. She may have been softer than the other one, but she was still Quinn Fabray.

"I don't know, maybe. Look, let's just go over the facts. The day I was sent to the other world, I was suddenly very tired, and I went to bed, and when I woke up, I was there. Same thing happened when I was sent back."

"Same here," Jesse nodded, though this was common knowledge. Quinn was silenced at the thought of her travel. Jesse knew all about it, though this Rachel was not as aware. Still, when the brunette looked to her…

"Yeah, me too." She didn't want to go into the whole 'I was swimming in the pool and nearly drowned' story.

"Also, I'm about positive this was because of my group," Rachel carried on. "Jesse and I were swapped first, and you didn't know the other me, did you?" she asked the one sitting across from her.

"Not specifically. I mean I knew she was a Vocal Adrenaline girl."

"Right, so you and her would have been sent here to take our place once we were gone," she went on.

"Then that would mean we're not real?" Quinn looked to her. "If all we are is a place holder."

"Well…" Rachel hesitated; that was a scary bit of a concept for her, too. "I don't know, I mean… for all we know there's always been two of us and we didn't know… Maybe there are even more out there… somewhere…" she gestured.

"Anyway," Jesse brought them back on track. "Suppose you're right, the question is still why… and how… but mostly why." Rachel felt almost shy.

"I've been asking myself that exact question for so long, especially since I've been back here. When this started, I was still so upset with him. That seems like the best word, upset… I was angry for what he'd put me through, but I was sad to lose him, too, I wasn't ready to let him go, no matter what… Put all that together, and… upset." She paused, thinking of the whole experience. "And then before I got back here, it wasn't the same anymore. I wasn't upset anymore, I was actually feeling like we were finally getting somewhere, without the secrets and the lies that got in the way the first time…"

"Maybe it's like a final test," Quinn stated, and the other two looked at her. "We've been so locked on how we got here, we should be looking at it like this, if you ask me. It's the first time this whole thing kind of made sense to me. The two of you, if that's really what it's about… Before you got here, you'd become… emotionally separated. Now all you have to fight is distance, physical distance."

"How do we do that?" Rachel shook her head, feeling so close and so far.

"Did something change, not long before you were sent back here?" Jesse asked. The way she clammed up then, they knew there had been something that came to her. And by the look on her face they could guess she wasn't too keen on discussing it in 'public.' "What, did you sleep with him?" Her head snapped up.

"What? No, no! I… Well we… I mean, we slept… slept together, you know, not… not sex 'slept together,'" she was quick to clarify, paused. "It's just… when I was over there, when things with my dads were bad, I'd go to him, sometimes I'd stay at his house… The night before I came back, I was there, spent the night at his house. He would put his arm around me, to help me fall asleep… We didn't do anything, but I think it was the first time we came close to… anything."

"So you opened up," Quinn established.

"Guess we did," Rachel nodded.

"And then you got split up. It's like I said: your final test," Quinn told her. Looking from face to face, it was clear: they were actually getting somewhere for once.

"Okay, well that's one thing, but that's not where it started," Jesse went on. "That's when you guys went to our world, the first time. What happened then?" Rachel thought, slowly shrugged.

"I'm not sure…" she had to be honest. "I hadn't seen him since Regionals, hadn't really thought about him, more than just in passing, since…"

"Since when?" Quinn asked. Rachel looked to them.

"Couple days before, standing in our auditorium… There was just something, can't explain it… Sang a Bon Jovi song, too…"

THE END

A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!