So I've decided to continue this little saga. I'm going to try to put up a chapter or two a week. I haven't figured out a schedule yet, but I have a rough idea of where this is going. We're looking at a slow burn Faberry story filled with lots of fluff, fun, lightheartedness, and dialogue (because that's what I'm good at) and maybe a little bit of angst along the line but not too much.


Rachel had been staying with Quinn for almost three months and honestly was surprised how smoothly it was going. God knew it had been a fight and a half living with Kurt and Santana. Granted, they lived in a hovel compared to Quinn's ocean side condo but it was more than just the space. Rachel never felt the stress she did with any of her previous roommates. Rachel and Quinn just seemed to mesh. which was surprising given their history. They learned each other's routines fairly quickly, often cooking for each other and doing one another's laundry when the other was having a long week. Sometimes they enjoyed movie nights, curled up on the couch; and other nights Quinn would drag Rachel out to a movie premier. It didn't matter as long as they got to hang out. Rachel realized what she had missed out on her entire childhood as they spent late nights drinking wine, catching up on their days, even going as far as doing each other's nails like they were in middle school. She knew they were good friends, and would even hedge to say best friends, before she temporarily moved in, but she enjoyed getting closer to Quinn, getting see a little more of the woman who hid behind so many walls.

Her favorite part of staying together though was dinner nights. Quinn loved food, be it cooking it, or eating it. And while Rachel still revolted at the massive amounts of bacon the woman consumed, she had to admit Quinn was a talented chef. As much as they both enjoyed cooking together, sometimes they were just too busy but they both tried as best as they could to make their weekly lunch and dinner quota. Rachel had even started going as far as stopping by the set of Quinn's hit TV show to force her to have their dinners together when the blonde couldn't get away, laughing at the teasing Quinn would get from her co-workers. All in all, she couldn't be more pleased with how things were going.

"So I have one more day of shooting Dr. Kildare and then two more series lined up." Rachel said as she leaned over and snagged a spring roll from Quinn.

"Hey! That's mine." Quinn grumbled good-naturedly around a mouthful of food. "How long will those tapings run?"

"Two months off and on between the two I believe. And I have a few auditions lined up for those movies I told you about last week. I'm really hoping to land the Gypsy roll. Could you imagine? Getting to work with my idol? To have her be my show business mother? Learning first hand from the great Babs herself?"

"Just don't drool over her and you should be fine. Seriously, they'd be insane not to cast you. You're perfect for the role! I mean it's Stephan Sondheim. You were born to sing his music."

"Wouldn't be the first time I've lost role I was born to do. I'm debating singing Everything's Coming up Roses. Do you think that would be too much?"

Quinn grimaced and shook her head. "Kurt was right the first time around, don't so Streisand. Everyone's going to be doing Streisand songs. Go original. You're good at that. Or at least much improved over high school." Quinn laughed, remember standing by the piano, pushing Rachel to follow her dreams. The stubborn diva hadn't listened to her at the time, but Rachel finally did what she was born to do. She became a star.

"Hey!" Rachel laughed too, pushing her friend's should from across the table. "Just much improved? I won a freakin' Grammy with that talent, thank you very much!"

"I know you did. And you deserved it." Quinn softened and smiled. "You've made your dreams come true."

"I had something to prove."

Quinn shook her head. "Not to those of us who know you. We all knew you were going to be a star." Quinn held back a sigh as Rachel just shrugged off her response. She knew the woman really didn't believe her and she hated that Rachel could still seem like the somewhat insecure girl in high school, who yes, was confident in her talent, but so unsure about everything else. She knew there would always be the hidden scars, some she helped inflict herself, lying beneath Rachel's thick skin. She hid it so well in high school, but Quinn knew her now, really knew her, and some days she could see the scars more than others. As much as they'd moved passed it, it was something Quinn would never forgive herself for. Quinn shook her head and cleared her throat, knowing bringing up those hurts wouldn't do any good for either of them.

"So, thank you for bringing me supper. I'm sorry I missed our date a few days ago." Quinn stopped when she realized what she had just said. "I meant, our, our scheduled dinner."

Rachel just waved her off, distracted. "I was thinking I should start looking for my own place."

Quinn sat back, feeling like she'd just been punched in the chest, wondering where this conversation came from. How did they transition from movie roles to Rachel leaving in a few sentences? Quinn swallowed hard. Did she make Rachel uncomfortable? Nothing had seemed to change between them after Rachel found out about Quinn's sexuality, but maybe Rach thought she wanted more? Quinn just stared at her friend, dumbfounded, but unable to think of any other reason that Rachel would want to leave. Quinn shook her head sadly. It would make sense. Of course she'd want to leave, she always made everyone leave, she should be used to it by now.

"You –you want to move out? I thought things were going well." Quinn asked, unable to keep the shock and hurt from her voice. "Did... did I do something wrong? Was it because of what I just said?"

Rachel's eyes snapped up, catching the pain in the two hazel ones looking at her in confusion. "I'm sorry? What are you talking about?"

"I called our dinner a date?" Quinn asked, confused. "Did that offend you or…"

"Of course not, Quinn." She hesitated as she cocked her head to the side. "Really, if that's the easiest way to characterize our get togethers, by all means. They are, basically, platonic dates. Call them whatever you like." Rachel said simply, like it was no big deal to her one way or the other. Honestly, it really wasn't.

Quinn shrugged, still fighting off the hurt. "I love hanging out with my best friend." She knew she sounded small and pathetic, but she really didn't want to be alone again.

Rachel smiled and reached for hand, holding it in her own. "So do I. Call it whatever you like. It's not a big deal." To prove her point she gave Quinn's hand one last squeeze before snagging another one of her friend's spring rolls.

"Ok-ay." Quinn drew out the word, more relieved, but still just as confused. She honestly enjoyed having Rachel around. They got along so well, such a huge contrast to how they were in high school. Living so far away from everyone she cared for was difficult, and she had so few true friends on the West Coast. It was hard finding someone real in Hollywood, someone who wasn't putting up a front, or trying to get a leg up in the industry. It was nice having someone who knew pretty much everything about you and still cared for you regardless. No games. No pretenses. Just a strong bond and a great friendship.

"So..." Quinn swallowed hard around the lump in her throat and tried again. "So if that isn't it, why do you want to move out?"

Rachel shrugged as she looked down at the small table. "It's not that I want to. I just… I figured you'd want your space back soon and seeing as it looks like I'm going to be on the west coast for a while, I just thought..."

"No, you assumed." Quinn grinned, trying to quell both of their doubts. Rachel didn't want to leave, she felt like she was obligated to. Quinn felt her smile grow into a full grown, ear to ear grin as she reached over and snagged a piece of broccoli from Rachel's plate. "And we've covered why you shouldn't do that."

"Right. So is this your way of telling me you don't want me to move?" She teased back, leaning over the table, smiling.

"This is my way of telling you I'll support your decision either way. If you decide to move, I'll help you look for a place, and make sure you don't get completely screwed by some money hungry, wanna be actor, waiting on his big break." It was Quinn's turn to reach for her friend's hand. "But, if you want to stay, we can go shopping, redecorate. Maybe even have some of your stuff shipped over to make it feel a little more like home. Your choice, but I would love for you to move in." She gave Rachel her patented Quinn-Fabray-smirk as she leaned back, "Besides, I've finally gotten you trained. Who else is going to make sure I have clean clothes and don't sleep through my alarm?"

"I see how it is. You're just using me for my vast array of talents."

Quinn was getting ready to respond when the PA banged on the door to tell her they were ready to start shooting again. Quinn sighed. "We will talk about this later. But think about it. I wont be back until late tonight and we have an early morning cast meeting so I probably won't see you for a few days. But let's do lunch sometime this week? Just send me your schedule, k?"

Rachel smiled to herself as she watched her friend walk out the door. "You'll see me much sooner than that."


Quinn rubbed her tired eyes as she slumped down in her chair. She hated read-throughs and to make things worse, the cast didn't even get the script in advance like normal. Some hush-hush, surprise, big guest star and a huge plot twist that they didn't want leaked. She'd heard around set that everyone's confidentiality agreements had been updated, though she hadn't saw her own yet. She was sure their producer, Shara Mitcheson, would get to it before the end of the day.

"Yo, Fabray, you look like something the cat dragged in." Quinn rolled her eyes and groaned.

"Shove it Paden. We were on set until 2:15 this morning, I didn't get in bed until almost 4, and I had to be up at 6 to get here. I'm awake, semi-coherent, and haven't killed anyone yet. Don't talk to me." Quinn really didn't mind her cast mate. In fact, they usually got along pretty well. April Paden was like some weird combination of Santana and Brittany, a combination of snark and innocence that only the redhead could pull off.

"Snippy. You need to get laid."

"Yeah, well, there's that too."

"You know if you stopped dating your roommate, you might actually be able to get to have some sexy times."

Quinn rolled her eyes. It was official; she was back in high school. Quinn dropped her head to the table and groaned. It wasn't even worth the effort to argue with the woman. They'd just end up going round in circles, with Paden teasing her about the way Rachel would come to set every other week to share dinner with her.

"Aww, come on, it's cute!"

"Seriously, fuck off April."

Quinn jumped when a script landed heavily beside her head. She looked around the room, realizing she must have dozed off.

"Welcome to the land of the living Fabray." She glared up at their producer as the PA moved around the room, handing out scripts. "Alright folks, if we could get started?" Shara called everyone to attention. "As you know, sweeps week is right around the corner and we need to start getting ready. Our ratings have been steady but the higher ups are hoping to boost our numbers this fall. As such, they're calling in the big guns. We have two rather big name guest spots for our next arc. Raymond Luke Jr. will join the cast as a teenage runaway. He'll be on set in two weeks. Our second guest is someone I'm sure you've all seen around set lately, but she seems to be running late today. We'll go ahead and start with a quick rundown of the current case and then begin the read through. Hopefully by then our missing star will show up."

Twenty-five minutes later Quinn had given up caring who was supposed to be coming and was just trying her hardest to keep her eyes open. She was trying to pay attention but she just really wanted to sleep. Seriously, whose brilliant flippin' idea it was to schedule a read-through after a late night shoot? Granted, it wasn't supposed to go as late as it had, but one of the newest cast members to their ensemble repeatedly missed his mark or forgot his lines. Quinn glared over at the young man whose name she couldn't be bothered to remember at the moment as the door swung open and a familiar, frazzled looking woman floated through.

"I'm sorry I'm late. Apparently traffic is a lot worse than I expected it would be and the barista messed up my soy latte twice."

"Rae?" Quinn stared as her best friend's presence filled the room, wondering what the woman was doing there… and then it hit her. Quinn's jaw dropped in shock. How did she not know about this? If her sleep-addled brain was working properly she may have figured it out sooner. THAT was what her boss meant when she said everyone had probably seen the guest around set. Rachel had been by set more than a few times in the weeks she had been staying with Quinn. Why hadn't anyone told her that she was going to be on Quinn's show? It was the only reasonable explanation of why she was here. It was only moments later when her suspicions were confirmed.

"For those of you who have been living under a rock the last few years, please allow me to introduce our special guest, Tony- and Grammy- award winning, Broadway superstar, Rachel Berry."

It was official. She was going to kill Rachel. She glared at the small woman as their producer ranted on. She was sure that Shara was filling in everyone on Rachel's background, how she'd bring a new set of viewers, blah, blah, blah. She couldn't bother to listen, she was too pissed. Or hurt. Or just fuckin' surprised. She felt like the girl whose boyfriend was stole from her in high school, the girl whose parents had kicked her out, the girl whose friends all turned their back on her. She was just utterly confused and couldn't make heads or tails of what she was thinking or why. Quinn growled internally. Or not so internally she figured as she heard April snort and mumbled something about getting laid. She flipped off the actress as the woman stood and smiled at Rachel, moving two seats down to make room for her. Rachel thanked her as dropped her bags into one of the two empty seats, and herself into the other, placing a cup of coffee in front of Quinn in the process.

Okay, maybe she wasn't going to kill her, just maim her a little bit. "Oh, thank heaven." Quinn groaned as she pulled the lid from the cup and inhaled deeply. Or marry her. Quinn couldn't decide. "You," Quinn paused to take a drink, "are an angel."

"So if everyone could please welcome Ms. Rachel Berry." Shana's voice brought her back to the room at large. Her cast makes clapped as Rachel smiled at each one of them.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Quinn whispered loudly over the applause.

"Confidentiality agreement." Rachel whispered back. "And I wanted it to be a surprise."

"Well, guess what? It worked. Consider me surprised." She tried to keep the bite out of her tone, but apparently lack of sleep, and according to April, lack of sex, caused her filter to fail her. She watched as Rachel's face fell and wanted to kick herself.

"I'm sorry, Quinn. I really wanted to tell you but I wasn't allowed to."

Quinn sighed. She knew it wasn't like Rachel to keep something from her and she knew how their contracts worked. Even if she was completely blindsided, she had to admit it wouldn't be too horrible to work with Rachel again. Yes, she still talked a lot, and thought she knew better than everyone else; but she also had such a passion that Quinn couldn't help but admire, even when they were at each other's throats in high school. She laid her hand on Rachel's knee. "I'm sorry, Rae. I didn't get much sleep. I get it, really, it's fine."

The smile that filled Rachel's face was worth it. She laughed as Rachel did a happy dance in her chair. "We get to work together!"

The rest of the cast hid their smiles as the little diva squealed and hugged Quinn's arm. Quinn was generally a nice person, but she could always be a little hard and cold at times. She kept a wall between her and anyone else so they all got a kick of seeing her soften a little bit around the vivacious brunette. They all agreed that while the rest of the morning dragged on, it was just a bit more bearable for everyone in the room thanks to Rachel, and in turn Quinn, keeping everyone entertained. More than once Rachel randomly broke out into song, delighting everyone.

"As much as we love your singing Ms. Berry, we have three more scenes to get through today." Shara laughed from the front of the room. "Now, does everyone understand where we're going with this?" Everyone around the room nodded but Quinn. "Alright Fabray, what are you missing?"

"I guess, it just seems like Detective Riya is getting very close to a character that will only be around briefly." Quinn worried about what it would do to her character. She could do angst if she had to, she'd lived through enough of it in her lifetime, but it wasn't her forte. She liked getting the laughs and pushing through the drama, which made the show perfect for her. It was why she had such success with it. Critics heralded it as a "30 Rock meets Cagney and Lacey." She could have come up with a better description but it seemed to work. They walked the fine line between a serious police drama and an off-the-wall comedy well and while she hated thinking it, she was a little worried that the often serious and over-the-top Rachel Berry might destroy the balance.

"Actually, Berry has already signed on for four episodes with the option to extend her contract at a later date. More than enough time to adequately flush out the relationship between the two characters."

Quinn looked at the diva next to her, surprised. "Really?"

"Quinn, I am positive that you and I had a conversation where I informed you of my intent to do guest appearances. I have done two so far, but none with the caliper of Steel. This show is has a strong, award-winning cast. Its writing staff has already received numerous nominations. You, yourself, were nominated for an Emmy last year." Quinn blushed at the mention of her Emmy nod. "Not once in the last three seasons has the show not been nominated in more than one category. I find the dynamic of the show highly enjoyable and am looking forward to the challenge my character will bring. It will open a few doors for me and push me into comedy, an area that, while admittedly, I have very little experience in, will allow me to show potential future employers the wide array of my talent. Over all, I felt that this guest spot was a very prudent career choice move."

Quinn nodded along with her friend's reasons, feeling more than a bit guilty at her initial reaction. She realized that Rachel was the type of person to arise to any challenge and conquer it, and comedy would be just one more thing she'd end up excelling at. The choice to join Steel was, of course, thoroughly well thought out, not that Quinn would expect anything less for Rachel. Her fervent speech had Quinn convinced she was up to the challenge, but it was Rachel's closing words that made her absolutely melt.

"When they approached me, I couldn't say no. I wouldn't have even if it all of that weren't true, which it is. I still would have said yes for the simple fact that this guest appearance has given me the opportunity to work with my best friend. I was humbled to be asked to work alongside you. I loved performing with you in high school, but with our stronger friendship, and this new media... I've sat in on a few of your tapings Quinn, and you are amazing. Why would I say no to that?"

Quinn couldn't help the smile that lit up her face and was happy to see an answering one of Rachel's. Quinn shook her head internally and was reminded again of what a sap she'd turned into as she reached under the table and took Rachel's hand in her own, hoping to convey her apology and gratitude for Rachel's passionate words. All of her doubts were gone and she couldn't help but fall a little bit in love with Rachel at that moment. Rachel was always the one to tear down the walls Quinn built in high school, and apparently she could still do it today. No one had ever made her feel as special as Rachel did.

Quinn swallowed back her emotions, knowing every eye in the room was on them, she did her best not to shift uncomfortably under the scrutiny. She squeezed Rachel's hand again before she donned her well-practiced mask of indifference and looked to the head of the table with a shrug. "She does have a point. I am pretty amazing." She said with a smirk. The table chuckled and she ducked as April tossed a napkin at her and pretended to gag.

Rachel shook her head and leaned closer to Quinn. "Doesn't she remind you of…" Rachel whispered as the rest of the cast moved onto another scene that didn't contain either of them.

"Oh yeah." Quinn said with a laugh, throwing the napkin back.

"Should I be worried?"

"Na, she's got enough Britt in her that she's mostly tame. It's kind of funny actually."

Rachel nodded. "I miss them." Brittany was so loving and innocent that she was easy to grow attached to. She was honestly shocked at the odd friendship that had sprang between her and Santana while they were roommates, though the Latino woman still swore up and down that she couldn't stand Rachel, everyone knew better. She'd probably gotten more calls from her than Kurt, Brittany, and Blaine combined since she'd been on the West Coast.

"I do, too." Quinn took another drink of her coffee and sighed with pleasure. "Do you know when B's show ends its run?"

Rachel shook her head and sighed as she realized her coffee was gone. She really needed to kick the habit but it was her one vice and one she wasn't willing to give up at the moment. "No. When I talked to Tana a few nights ago she said that some other shows have been trying to buy out her contract but nothing has been decided. Britt feels like she's betraying her cast by even thinking about going to another show so knowing Brittany, she might be with the show until the end of time."

"Yeah, B doesn't like to let people down. She'd feel horribly guilty." Quinn cocked her head to the side, trying to think of a way to get their friends out to the west coast, but nothing was coming to mind. "We might need to fly out soon then and see everyone."

Rachel hummed, noncommittally. As much as she wanted to see everyone, she also didn't want to burst the little bubble that Quinn and her had created. It was nice just being the two of them. She had honestly worried for a moment that Quinn would be upset that with the surprise of her being on the show. She had even had it written into her contract that if any of the lead actors had any issue with her being on the show that she would be able break her contract without any penalties. She was honest when she said that her big reasons for joining the cast were due to the possibility of Emmy contention, but if she were being honest with herself, it was more the possibility to work with Quinn.