Quinn was in the Berry's front hall, pulling on her boots. When she had finished that, she grabbed her coat and messenger bag off of the bench. She was slinging the bag over her shoulder when she heard Rachel behind her.
"Did you get all of your sheet music?"
Quinn nodded and patted her bag. Rachel took a few steps closer, causing Quinn to bite her lip nervously.
"Rachel, I – thank you."
"It's nothing. You know I like to take any opportunity I can to share my musical talent, especially when it can benefit the glee club," Rachel said.
"No, I didn't mean for you help with my song. That too, but –" Quinn paused to collect her thoughts. Rachel nodded encouragingly. "I mean, well, for everything."
Rachel smiled at her.
"Quinn, you've already thanked me, several times. And I've told you each time that you don't need to."
"No, I don't just mean the stuff in the last few weeks with Shelby and Beth, although I don't know what I would've done without you. I mean everything," Quinn said. Rachel frowned a bit and looked at her quizzically, so she explained. "You're the only person that has ever believed in me. Even last year, when we weren't even really friends, you were always supporting me and pushing me to be better. At prom, when you told me 'You're a lot more than that', for the first since I got pregnant I thought I might have a chance at getting out of this town. Remember after that, when you asked what I wanted to be, what my dream was?"
Rachel nodded.
"I didn't have an answer for you because no one had ever asked me that before," Quinn said. Rachel moved a bit closer and grasped Quinn's hand. "Before that, I never looked forward to the future. I never let myself dream about what I wanted. So, thank you."
Quinn smiled at Rachel, who was looking back at her with watery eyes. "I'm going to hug you now," Quinn said.
Quinn wrapped her arms around Rachel. The smaller girl was too shocked to respond at first. Quinn almost pulled away, but then Rachel threw her arms around Quinn and stood up on her tiptoes so she could rest her head on Quinn's shoulder. She held on to Quinn tightly. They stayed there for almost a minute.
"You know, Quinn," Rachel said as they broke apart, "you don't have warn me when you're going hug me."
Quinn shrugged.
"You do it all the time. I thought – I don't know, maybe that you didn't like people touching you or something?"
"Oh, no. Quite the opposite, in fact. It's just that my fathers have always taught me that it is best to give people fair warning before I invade their personal space."
"Well," Quinn said with a smile, "we are friends now, so you can hug me whenever you want."
Rachel squealed. She launched herself at Quinn so fast that they almost fell over, only saved by Quinn's quick reflexes.