After the accident, strangely, everything just seemed to fall into place.
Finn and Rachel broke up, Quinn found her voice and the friendship between the two just bloomed into something honest and beautiful.
Coming clean felt like a new slate, a fresh start, which was most definitely needed after Quinn battled her way through her injuries and temporary paralysis.
Neither of them can remember who finally closed the gap between them, all they know is that they did and colours burst all around them and a cool room suddenly became stifling as years of lust and undeniable chemistry resonated via tentative touches of their lips.
Now they were a couple, a couple who intended to make every second of their summer together count.
It was one of Lima's breezier days so they were taking a break from the great outdoors and helping Rachel's dads clean out some of Rachel's old things, things that she most definitely wouldn't be taking with her to New York.
"Okay, please tell me there's photographic evidence of her in this" Quinn said as she held up a mustard yellow dress that was a complete eye sore, Rachel blushed and internally cursed her fathers for never throwing anything away.
"Damn hoarders" she muttered under her breath as she kept rifling through the open chest.
Leroy laughed and crossed the musty attic to take the dress from her, sighing at the memory of their little girl racing around looking like a sunflower.
"Oh there's evidence alright" Hiram grinned. "I'm sure you'll find the photos around here somewhere, though the dress is more dirt than yellow let me tell you"
"That's right!" Leroy exclaimed, "that was the summer little Rachel discovered that mud could be slippery after rain"
"I'm glad you two are having fun with this, and I hope you have fun cleaning this attic without me" Rachel told them matter of factly before making to move towards the fold down stairs.
Quinn giggled and wrapped an arm around the smaller girl's waist.
"You're adorable" she told her with a quick kiss to the top of her head.
"I think we could all use a break from all this dust any way, we've been up here for hours. Who's for lemonade?" Rachel asked with a smile.
Her dads voiced their agreement and they started down the stairs, Rachel got half way before realizing her girlfriend hadn't moved.
"Quinn, are you coming?" she asked.
"I'm just going to look for those photos" Quinn smiled, "I'll be down soon"
"Okay" Rachel said returning a smile before disappearing from sight.
"Hmm, if I were a cute picture of Rachel where would I be?" she said aloud as she absentmindedly ran her hands over various boxes and crates causing the dust particles to dance in the air around her.
She coughed and waved her hands around a little before noticing a smaller chest behind a few of the boxes, she set about moving them before dropping down to her knees to open the lock.
She leant up as she rested a hand inside the lid. Looking down she saw dozens of photo albums and a few escapees scattered around, she smiled to herself as she began to lift them out.
"God bless the Berry men and their incessant need to photograph every living moment" she sighed as she thumbed through dozens of pictures of the Berry men holding Rachel, feeding Rachel, teaching her how to ride a bike.
She barely held back her tears as she came across a picture of Rachel holding her very first trophy.
God, she was just so in love with this girl that she didn't know how on earth she'd ever managed to stay away let alone call her names and berate her.
She collected herself after spending a few more minutes smiling and laughing at pictures of her girlfriend in the bath and on a swing set and with chocolate ice cream smeared all over her toothy grinning face.
She was putting everything away when she noticed it, the sleek silk ivory material calling to her.
Curiously she lifted it out of the chest, gasping as the suns rays from the skylight illuminated it revealing it's full beauty to her. She held it against her body and glanced down at it, it was perfect.
Before she knew it she was pulling it on over her own outfit, it fit her like a glove.
It was simple yet elegant. Plain ivory silk flowed down to her ankles, delicate lace detail on its cups and slight beading running beneath her chest. It was like a dream.
She wiped dust off the old Berry mirror stored in the attic and felt her heart grow as she saw her smiling reflection staring back at her, the dress made her feel like a princess and she could only imagine how amazing it would feel against her skin.
In that moment she realized how much she one day wanted to get married, and hoped with all her heart and soul that it would be to Rachel.
Her face wore a smile as she gracefully danced around, in her head wondering if Rachel wanted to get married at all after the Finn fiasco and debating who's name would come first in the double barreling of their surnames.
Would Rachel want to remain a Berry? Berry-Fabray? Or would she become a Fabray?
"Quinn baby, what are you doing?" Rachel's voice called as she made her way back up to her girlfriend.
"Oh god" Quinn said quickly stopping mid twirl, freezing before rushing to fiddle with the zipper, which of course was stuck.
Upon seeing Rachel she stopped her failed attempt and let her arms hang by her sides, she crossed her legs and blew her bangs away from her face.
Rachel's eyes were wide.
"I'm sorry" Quinn said taking a quick breath, "I-"
"What on earth are you sorry for?" Rachel asked softly, her eyes searching as she took a step closer to the blonde.
"I couldn't help myself, it just looked so pretty and-"
Rachel chuckled causing the girl to stop her rant. Clearly her girlfriend's behaviour had rubbed off on her.
"You look beautiful" she told her lowly.
Quinn blinked as those pools of chocolate brown bore into her own hazel orbs.
"Who's dress was this?" she asked as Rachel's fingers tenderly reached out to briefly dance across the fabric just beneath her left breast.
"My grandmother's" the brunette told her with a smile, "before that it was her mother's and her mother's mother's, so it's rather old. But it doesn't seem to have lost an ounce of its charm"
Quinn smiled before looking to the ground, nervously wiggling her toes around in her shoes.
"Do you ever- Do you ever think, about marriage? I mean y'know, after you and Finn.."
Rachel bit her lip thoughtfully, only breaking their eye contact briefly before staring right back at her again.
"After my mistake and your consequential accident I didn't think I'd ever even consider marriage again" she told her honestly, noticing as Quinn anxiously picked at her fingernails.
She reached out to still the girls hands and clasped pale between her tan.
"And then I saw you in this dress" she said, barely above a whisper.
The blonde blinked and felt her stomach fill with butterflies.
"Rachel" she uttered in a single breath, almost like the air was being stolen from her lungs.
"I know we haven't been together very long, Quinn, but..right now I feel like I might die if someone else gets to call you theirs, especially dressed as a bride"
Quinn closed the gap between them, hugging Rachel tightly to her chest as she buried her nose in the thick luscious locks and sighed happily.
"I love you so much" she whispered, "sometimes I feel like my heart could just burst you make it that full"
"Then it's a good job I love you too" Rachel said smiling before pulling back to place a sweet kiss to the tip of Quinn's nose.
"Could you help me out of the dress?" Quinn asked, "it's sort of..stuck"
"You sure you don't want to just hop on a plane to Vegas right now, seal the deal" Rachel joked wiggling her eyebrows.
"I somehow don't think your dad's would approve, and we'd be murdered if we ever even thought about getting married without them being there"
The brunette chuckled before turning her attention to the zipper, the porcelain skin of the top of Quinn's back on show to her through the dress's open back and the girl's own.
She hummed as she pressed sweet kisses to all the skin she could see before finally releasing the zipper and helping the blonde step out of it before putting it back neatly in the chest.
"How do you feel about ice cream?" Quinn said as she threaded their fingers together.
"That sounds heavenly, as long as we're sharing, but if that busboy stares at you again I'm going to take Santana up on her offer of teaching me how to beat some nosey boy ass"
Quinn snorted before nudging her with her hip.
"Okay, Rocky. You got it. I'll text Britt and San to meet us there"
They told Leroy and Hiram of their plan and promised to be back in time for dinner, hands swinging between them as they approached Rachel's car.
Quinn took a deep breath before taking the final step and getting in the passenger's side.
She hadn't driven since the accident, for the first three months she couldn't even be in the backseat of a car without crying or shaking so violently that Brittany held her hand and shook with her just so she felt less alone or damaged.
It frustrated her but she knew the fear of getting back behind the wheel wasn't something that was just suddenly going to go away. It was going to take time and courage, courage that she'd one day have again and hopefully Rachel or Brittany or Santana or all of the above would be right there with her. She'd even sold her car, explaining that it would make her feel better to not have it staring at her from the driveway every day as she passed it to walk, something she still considered a miracle and a blessing, to Rachel's or wherever else that day was leading her.
She buckled up and Rachel did the same, leaning over to peck her cheek.
"I'm so proud of you" She told her as she turned on the radio and lowered the volume, some soothing indie-folk playing on one of Quinn's favourite stations.
Quinn blinked back a tear and stopped Rachel's hand as it moved to put the car in drive.
"Marry me?" she rushed out as more tears managed to sneak their way out, little devils.
Rachel opened her mouth to speak, no words coming out.
"I don't mean right now, just..someday" Quinn explained. "Rachel, you make everything so much better. You always have and I hate that it took me so long to stop being so stubborn and ashamed of the feelings I was hiding from you. But now that I have you..I" she paused to swallow thickly, "I can't ever think of not having you, and I know we're going to different colleges but we're only going to be 69.7 miles apart and I put my car money aside so I know that we'll be okay for a while and-"
The brunette silenced her sweetly with her lips, savouring every moment and every trace of cocoa flavoured balm and pineapple hard candy that she tasted.
Their salty tears melded together just like their hearts had done the first time they said the l word.
"Yes" Rachel breathed against Quinn's mouth as a hand disappeared in her hair; the blonde didn't register this and ducked her head to breathe hotly on the tan skin of her neck before kissing it lovingly.
She pulled back with slightly glassy eyes to be met with the adoring eyes of her soul mate.
"You're so beautiful" Quinn told her in a hushed voice, "I'm going to tell you that every damn day until you're sick of me"
Rachel rolled her eyes in good nature and smiled.
"I'm never going to get sick of you, it's just not possible"
"How about when I get tired of watching Funny Girl with you?" Quinn teased as Rachel's mouth fell open in a predictable fashion.
"Not that it will ever happen with such a classic but..if it were to happen, then we'd just find another movie to fill it's void" she said with a shrug.
"What about when I eat half of your food without asking?"
"I like sharing with you, next example?"
Quinn paused to think as she leant on her side.
"What about the days when I won't stop complaining about how I don't want to dress up for your show because of my scars?" she asked more seriously.
Rachel sighed as she saw her nibble her lip in frustration, she'd still cry occasionally when she caught sight of the various scars from the accident and from surgeries to save her.
The same scars that Rachel had grown to know by finger tip and tongue. And Rachel still thought she was the most beautiful person she'd ever met.
"Then I'll tell whoever's escorting you to your seat to look out for a beautiful blonde wearing jeans and a Yale sweatshirt" she answered as she thumbed the tiny almost invisible scar under the girl's chin. "I don't care what you wear, Quinn, and I think it's probably obvious just how much I prefer you out of clothes" the blonde blushed slightly, "you're still the prettiest girl I've ever met, and no amount of scars will change that, nothing will change that"
Quinn welled up as Rachel gently traced the small scar left where her chest drain had been, Rachel had been so good to her that day letting her squeeze that little tan hand with all her might as she cried and hissed in pain as she felt the tube being pulled free of her body now it was no longer needed.
"I love you, Quinn Elizabeth Fabray. And one day, on the night of our wedding, I'll get up and toast to everything we've survived and then you'll drive us back to our beautiful New York home where we'll drink champagne in our bath before tripping over our dog as we fight to get to our bedroom to make love until the morning"
The blonde giggled at the picture Rachel had painted, it was perfect. She was perfect.
"Does this dog have a name?" she asked with a smile.
"Didn't get to that part yet" Rachel winked.
Quinn snorted, Rachel did always run before she could walk, the home movies she'd seen of Rachel rushing into immobile objects before laughing or calling out in pain had confirmed this.
"How about our last names, are we hyphenating? Do you want me to be a Berry?"
"My dad's already think of you as a Berry" she smiled, "but I think hyphenating would suit us best, after all we are both strong personalities, even stronger together. Berry-Fabray does have a certain je ne sais quoi"
"I thought you flunked French" Quinn teased as Rachel narrowed her eyes and prodded her arm playfully.
"I know a few useful phrases" she muttered.
"What like, voulez vou coucher avec moi?"
"Yes, and see, useful" Rachel smirked.
Quinn laughed.
"I'll hold you to that, but maybe first we should get that ice cream? We did tell your dads that we'd be back for dinner"
"We will be" Rachel said as she carefully started to back out of the driveway, "besides, there's a bathroom at the ice cream parlour"
"My wifey, the romantic" Quinn drawled sarcastically and Rachel snorted slightly.
"Says the girl who just a week ago told me to shut up so she could fuck me"
The blonde turned slightly pink, she had said it in the heat of the moment and still couldn't believe she had, but Rachel just wouldn't stop talking and all she'd thought about all day was taking her clothes off and burying her face between her girlfriend's strong tan thighs.
"You weren't complaining" Quinn pouted.
"Duh! You're amazing. Now quit distracting me, I need to concentrate on the road"
Quinn smiled and placed her hand on top of the one Rachel had on the shift lever.
"On my best behaviour m'lady"
"Good, at least we are. The way Santana and Brittany act in public makes me picture having to chastise our children, between a child and those two I actually don't know who is worst"
"Marriage and children? We're really going to have it all" Quinn smiled happily.
Rachel was about to respond when her cellphone bleeped from her lap, Quinn picked it up and clicked the menu key.
"Is that B?"
"Yep, San is whining"
"Cool, tell them we're on our way"