Only The Good Die Young

Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Quinn, I don't own Rachel, I don't own their place of destination (if I did, that'd be very strange), I don't own the song that comes on the radio (which of course is the same song that this fic is named after), I don't own ANYTHING other than this plot.

Summary: Post-Comeback, Pre-BIOTA. AU starting at the latter episode. Quinn is down in the dumps about her break-up with Sam, and Rachel decides to take her for the week to have some fun. Of course, Quinn is still a pretty reserved Catholic, but with the help of Rachel, can she learn to open her mind—not only about loosening up and having fun—but also about her sexuality? Rated T because I feel it should be. Rating might go up to M in later chapters, but we'll see.

A/N: So I've been kinda busy with an English project (for Romeo and Juliet) and I didn't really have time to update until now; I'm sorry about that. I planned on updating earlier, like on Monday, but I ran out of time and then I left at midnight Thursday morning for a trip to Boston. I didn't get back until last night, and that was at like eleven. But anyway, I shouldn't be giving excuses. Actually, I plan to update this story quite frequently, since I pretty much already know how I want this to go, at least for the next several chapters.

Anyway, thanks you guys for the reviews! You really made my day. It's nice to know that you all are enjoying this story and don't think my writing is completely horrible. So, I don't really have anything else to say…enjoy the story and remember, reviews are love and also help me update faster ;)

~.~

Quinn woke up later that morning to a ray of blinding sunlight coming through the window. At first, she didn't know where she was—until she rolled over on her other side and found herself staring at the wall, which had big foam letters that spelled out, 'Rachel'. Slowly the incidents of the night before came back to her and she let out an instinctive scream at the thought that she had practically told Rachel her life story. You know, that and the fact that she had been sleeping in her bed.

Almost immediately, Rachel came rushing from the bathroom. A white towel was the only thing covering her short frame and her hair was wet. It was evident that she had just gotten out of the shower, and a look of panic shown on her face. "What's going on? Quinn? Are you alright?"

The blonde briefly shook her head. "I don't really know…" she trailed off, and as soon as she spoke the words, Rachel was right beside her on the bed.

"Well then, tell me what's wrong," the brunette said. "Or rather, what you think is wrong."

Quinn swallowed. "I just-I woke up here and-and I freaked out…and then I remembered everything from last night, and I freaked out again…"

Rachel looked slightly confused. "Why'd you freak out if you remembered everything?"

The former cheerleader sighed, and turned so she could bury her face back in the pillow beneath her. Her voice was barely audible as she spoke. "Because I remembered I told you everything about me, and I also remembered about falling asleep in your bed."

Obviously, although her voice was muffled, Rachel could still tell what Quinn was saying. "Oh, and don't forget that we're also going away for the week," the brunette added cheerily. A groan of remembrance came from the pillow, but she didn't even seem to notice as she patted the blonde's back. "Remember, we're leaving at twelve, so be ready. It's already ten-thirty."

With that, Rachel went to her drawers, retrieved her clothes, and instead of going back to her bathroom, she went down the hall to her fathers'. Quinn could barely hear as she called, "My bathroom's open now, so you can use that one! Towels are in the closet!"

Getting to her feet, the blonde walked into the bathroom, grabbed a blue towel from the closet, and turned on the water. She then discovered how normal yet weird it felt to strip in Rachel Berry's bathroom (don't ask how it was normal and weird, it just was). When the water was finally warm enough, she stepped inside.

I have a feeling that this is going to be a very long day, Quinn thought as she let herself sink into the warm stream of water.

~.~

After a long forty-five minute shower (it would have been longer but the warm water was beginning to turn into freezing water), Quinn stepped out of the shower, newly refreshed. For the first time in a few days, she felt fully relaxed—that is, until she remembered that she was going to have to sit in a car with Manhands for God-knows-how-long.

Sighing, the blonde took the towel off of her body, twisted her hair up, and put the towel on her head. She didn't even think about getting another towel, since she did this so often at home. When she was finished, she went back into the bedroom to get dressed. All of a sudden, however, she remembered that she hadn't brought any clothes. At that same moment, she also realized that she was completely naked and in Rachel Berry's bedroom.

Just her luck, Rachel appeared right that moment with a bright pink duffel bag in hand. "Quinn, I—" she stopped when she saw that the blonde wasn't wearing anything, blushed, and turned away slightly. "Umm…not to be rude or anything, but why are you…"

Quinn also blushed and scrambled to cover herself with the towel on her head. "I'm-I'm sorry, it's just that-well, I do that at home and I sort of forgot that I can't exactly do it here…not covering up when I go from the bathroom to the bedroom after a shower, I mean."

Rachel nodded and, seeing that the blonde had covered herself up, looked back up to meet the embarrassed girl's hazel eyes. "It's alright; I was just sort of alarmed, since it's not every day that people are in my bedroom naked, let alone head cheerleader Quinn Fabray."

"So, umm, Manha-I mean, Rachel," Quinn said, trying her best to be nice because obviously she had already been something of a nuisance. "I-well, you see-the thing is…I kinda don't have any clothes."

Instinctively, Rachel handed her the duffel bag. "Well, my timing couldn't have been better. You know, other than…well anyway, your mother brought this over. I called her earlier today because I remembered that you didn't bring any clothes last night other than the white sundress you were wearing, and she just brought this by. She said it was your emergency duffel bag, and that all the stuff you normally keep in there, like…well, I'm not really sure because I didn't look, is in there as well as clothing that she added like sundresses, sweaters, skirts, shirts, and jeans. Also, she put in your hairbrush, blow-dryer, curling iron, shampoo and body wash, some books, and your cell phone and iPod in there. Oh yeah, and I almost forgot. She said it's your emergency duffel bag, so whatever else—"

She was cut off by Quinn's audible gasp. The blonde froze for a second, but when she recovered and finally took the bag, she exclaimed, "Oh dear God, please tell me you didn't look in there!"

Rachel raised an eyebrow. "No," she said slowly. "I don't normally look through people's bags because I think it's rude. But anyway, if I had, what's the big deal?"

Quinn shook her head quickly and falsely smiled. "What big deal? There's no big deal! Who said it was a big deal?"

The brunette blinked a few times and sucked in a breath. "Umm…anyway, it's already eleven fifteen. Just be ready by noon, alright? I'm going to go put together some snacks for the road, and we can either eat lunch here or stop on the way. Let me know soon." With that, she turned on her heel, shook her head, and walked away. She wondered what was so big of a deal about the duffel bag…was Quinn hiding something?

Back in the bedroom, Quinn sighed audibly and sat down in relief. It's a good thing you didn't look, she thought, Because if you had, this trip would have gotten extremely awkward. With that one last thought, she pulled her blow-dryer and curling iron out of her bag and went into the bathroom to start getting ready.

~.~

Half an hour later, Quinn came down the steps to find Rachel sitting at the kitchen table reading a magazine. Next to her were plastic bags full of what she suspected to be the snacks that the brunette had mentioned earlier, and underneath the wooden table was a red suitcase.

The blonde had settled for a ruffled yellow tank top, dark wash jeans, and a simple white hoodie just in case she got cold. Normally, she would have picked out a nice sundress, but she didn't really know how long they were gonna be in the car for and she didn't want to be in any way, shape, or form physically uncomfortable. It was this reason, and the fact that it was pretty much useless, that she decided not to curl her hair. Instead, she just left it straight and pinned her bangs back.

Hearing her come into the room, Rachel looked up and smiled. "Hey Quinn," she said happily. "You ready to go?"

"Yeah, just let me use the bathroom first…oh and we're going to stop on the way, right? I'm kinda hungry but if we're going to do this, I want to do it as soon as possible before I change my mind."

Rachel nodded. "Yeah, we can stop wherever. I'll put the bags and stuff in the car." When Quinn walked away, she picked up the snacks and took them to the car. Then, when the blonde still wasn't out of the bathroom, she took their bags outside and, out of complete curiosity, began rifling through the other girl's duffel bag.

She didn't get halfway through it when she heard the door opening. Immediately, she zipped it back up, shoved it in the back, turned around, and put on the biggest, flashiest smile she could muster. "Hey, Quinn," she said quickly. "What's up? I was just putting the bags in the car so we can leave as soon as possible. I want to leave right this second, what do you think? Well, hop on in so we can stop wasting so much time!" With that, she turned around hastily and hopped in the front seat of the car.

Quinn stood there for a moment in complete shock, not really knowing what had just happened. She blinked a few times, recomposed herself, shook her head, and got in on the passenger side of the car.

After a few minutes of awkward silence, Quinn spoke. "So, umm, Manha-Treasu-Hob-Rachel," she started, trying her best not to call the brunette a rude name. "What was that about back there? You were talking really fast and acting really weird."

Rachel gulped. "Well, umm…I am just so happy that we are going on this trip!"

The blonde scoffed. "Yeah, well, whatever. Don't think that just because I agreed to go on this stupid trip with you, I'm going to be Little Miss Sunshine and be completely nice to you all the time."

"That's fine, Quinn. Eventually, you will see that it's better not to be so uptight and rude, but obviously you're not quite there yet."

Quinn rolled her eyes. "Whatever. And by the way, are you ever going to tell me where we're going?"

The brunette shook her head good-naturedly. "Nope. You'll have to figure that one out for yourself. And you can guess, but I'm not going to tell you if it's right or not. I'll probably just ignore you."

"So basically I have no way of knowing where we are until we're there?" the blonde asked, slightly exasperated.

Rachel smiled. "Well, either that or you'll know when we get in the area. Which you undoubtedly won't, since I know you haven't been where we're going."

Quinn immediately shot the diva a look. "How do you know that?"

The brunette shrugged. "Because you clearly stated once that you'd never been there yet you would love to go," she said simply. Then she quickly added, "Not that I really pay attention to these things. I just happened to remember it when I was deciding where we would head off to."

The other girl sighed. "Whatever. Look, can we just sit in silence for awhile? This trip is obviously going to be long enough and then I have to spend a week with you—no offense—and I really just need some time to process this."

Rachel nodded her head, although she was slightly disappointed that Quinn didn't want to talk anymore. Then, suddenly getting an idea, she turned on the radio. Immediately a new song came on and the brunette clapped her hands once she realized what the tune was.

"Oh my goodness, this is such a great song! Here, I'll turn it up." With that, Rachel reached for the knob and turned the volume up to almost full blast.

Well, come out Virginia, don't let me wait

You Catholic girls start much too late, ah

But sooner or later it comes down to fate,

You might as well will be the one

Well they gave you a statue

Told you to pray

They built you a temple and locked you away

But they never told you the price that you'd pay

The things that you might have done

Darling, only the good die young

Come out, Virginia

Don't let me wait

You Catholic girls start much too late

Ah, but sooner or later

It comes down to fate

I might as well will be the one

Well, they showed you a statue-

Told you to pray

They built you a temple and locked you away

But they never told you the price it would pay

The things that you might have done…

Only the good die young.

That's what I said!

Only the good die young.

Only the good die young…

As Rachel started on the second verse with Billy Joel, Quinn suddenly slammed her palms down on her thighs, reached over, and turned the radio off. The brunette turned to her with a confused and quite angry look.

"What are you doing? I was singing to that!"

The blonde rolled her eyes. "Yeah, but I specifically told you that I wanted peace and quiet. You singing is not exactly peace and quiet!"

Rachel looked down and softly said, "You said you wanted me to stop talking, so I did. I didn't know you meant radio, too…"

Quinn sighed and looked out the window. Of course, they hadn't even been in the car for fifteen minutes and she had already made the brunette sad. What was wrong with her? Why did she have to screw everything up? As the frazzled former cheerleader debated this question, she realized with a pang in her chest that this car ride, no matter how long it actually was, was going to be extremely long.

~.~

After an hour of driving through Ohio (it felt more like four to Quinn), they girls decided to stop for lunch. It was Rachel who brought it up, in an attempt to get the other girl talking. They had pretty much sat in silence since the whole radio incident, with the exception of Rachel pointing out landmarks and Quinn's quiet statement that she had full permission to go ahead and turn the radio back up. The brunette, giddy with anticipation of singing some more, turned the radio on and immediately began humming along with one of her favorites, 'Defying Gravity' from the Wicked soundtrack. Quinn immediately regretted her decision, because while she secretly loved the song, she didn't really feel like hearing the other girl sing it. Despite how beautiful her voice was, it brought to the surface feelings that were better left buried in the blonde's seemingly (but not actually) cold heart.

When asked, Quinn answered that she wanted to stop at Wendy's (I mean, the other choices included McDonald's, which we all know is fattening and has pretty illegitimate chicken, Quizno's, which sucks, and a shady café on the side of the road, which sold seafood that contained God-knows-what). Rachel nodded her head, aware that Wendy's sold salads that were Vegan-friendly, and she sent the blonde in to find a booth while she parked the car.

Quinn entered the building, and immediately something told her to go back outside. Ignoring her instincts, she went and found a booth next to the window, and began to wait for Rachel. When she didn't come, however, the blonde slowly but surely walked back outside to look for her. What she saw scared her, but did not deter her.

The brunette was huddled up in a corner of the restaurant, three guys with leering faces surrounding her. She looked scared out of her otherwise defiant mind, and it appeared as if she didn't get help right then and there, something terrible would happen.

Now, I know what you're thinking: there were tons of people around, so she wasn't in any real danger, right? Wrong. The

Now, I know what you're thinking: there were tons of people around, so she wasn't in any real danger, right? Wrong. They were in the middle of nowhere, and hardly anybody was actually in the Wendy's, anyway. Immediately Quinn realized, after thoroughly looking around, that she would have to save the girl herself.

Mustering that courage that had always been inside of her, the blonde sauntered over to the group of very drunk guys (yes, drunk at lunchtime, how sad), and tapped one of the shorter-looking ones on the shoulder. He immediately turned around, and a smirk spread across his face as he saw that his confronter was female. "Well, well, well, what have we here?"

Quinn rolled her eyes. She had encountered loads of creepy guys in her lifetime. "Let her go," she stated simply as the group erupted in laughter.

"No can do, darlin'," one of them said. "But if you want to join her, that's definitely not a problem. We can handle the two of you, am I right boys?" The others agreed cheerfully.

Sighing, the former cheerleader decided to try again. "I said, let my friend go." Almost as soon as the words came out of her mouth, she realized what she had said.

Friend.

She had said, 'let my friend go'.

Fortunately, Rachel didn't seem to notice the little slip-up. Her eyes stayed shut tight, as if she didn't want to see it when she and the blonde went down. Quinn, however, was not fazed. She kept standing there, waiting for the men to leave. Once they realized that she was not giving up, they began to laugh.

"Hey guys, whadaya say we take them and get outa here?" the only one who had not talked at all suddenly spoke up. "Blondie here's not gonna leave, let alone be silent, so why don't we just figure out a way to shut them up ourselves?" The other two men's chortles were the only sounds penetrating the warm spring air.

At that last comment, Rachel's eyes flew open and found Quinn's. Her look said, 'help us here, I'm powerless!' and immediately the other girl knew what she had to do. She informed the brunette through facial expressions that she was going to do something drastic, and at that Rachel started giving her the most horrified look ever.

But…it was too late. Quinn's plan was already in motion, and everybody knew that when she set her mind on something, it happens. So, with an ultimate sultry look on her face, she sauntered over to the first guy, who was closest to the wall, and spoke. She was pretty surprised as to how sexy her voice sounded, and apparently so was Rachel, for her eyes widened in alarm and she began to struggle from the other two men's grasps.

"Hey, big guy," she drawled to the first guy. The blonde found her hand roaming up his pants leg, and when he gulped she continued. "So you want a go at my little friend over there, do ya?" The man, who looked to be about college age, nodded his head and raised his eyebrows in a very creepy manner. From a few feet away, Rachel began protesting. The two guys holding her back made a move to clamp their hands over her mouth, preventing any future sounds from escaping. When Quinn looked over at her, she could see that the poor girl was shedding tears and shaking her head in complete fear. The blonde looked her straight in the eye to tell her it would all be alright, and immediately turned her attention back to the man in front of her.

"So, whatcha say?"

The man smirked. "Hell yeah, I do," he said enthusiastically. "But I think I want you to be first."

Quinn was completely unfazed, while Rachel was near an emotional breakdown and most likely also could not breath, due to all the sniffling she was doing. The blonde matched the guy's smirk. "Alright, more fun for me."

At this point, the brunette was literally about to explode from the fear, but of course for some crazy reason the other girl kept her cool. On the outside, at least. Because when the man pushed her up against the brick wall and began to shower her with kisses, it was all she could do NOT to puke. But, she acted like she enjoyed it on the outside.

Then, without warning, she looked up at Rachel, who was now crying uncontrollably. She shot her a look that said, 'start kicking and screaming NOW' and prayed that her message would be delivered. Luckily, after a minute of extreme confusion it was, and Rachel started throwing what was equal to a two-year-old tantrum. Quinn's plan worked, and, as soon as the brunette began to cause a scene, the man turned to look, and she ungracefully lifted her right leg and kicked him…well, where the sun don't shine. He was down in a second, and the other two guys, being as inexperienced as they were, left Rachel to go to his aid.

Quinn ran over to the brunette, grabbed her hand, pulled her up, and then they were running. Out of there and into the restaurant. They were laughing, despite their former situation, and Rachel put her hand on Quinn's arm to steady herself. "Oh my goodness, the way you had him fooled!" she said ecstatically. Then she added, her voice quiet, "For a second there, I really thought you were gonna let him…you know."

The other girl broke out in giggles and shook her head. "No! How could you think such a thing, I'm not that bad!"

Rachel shrugged, and, not knowing what else to say, walked over to the line to order. She turned back to Quinn. "Whatcha want?"

Quinn ordered a burger, fries, and a coke and went to go find a seat. Luckily, the same booth that she had had before was still open, so she slid in and began drumming her fingers on the table in slight boredom.

A few minutes later, Rachel found her and walked over, carrying the tray of their food. The brunette had ordered a simple, plain salad, and—after making sure there was no chicken or blue cheese inside—she slid into the other side of the booth and began eating. She motioned to Quinn's food and then pushed it towards her, trying to get her to eat.

But for some reason, Quinn refused. She looked as if she was debating something, and Rachel decided, so often as she did with the former cheerleader, that she was better left alone and would most likely speak when she felt the need to.

And as always, she did. When Rachel was about two-thirds of the way done with her salad, Quinn spoke. "Why aren't you upset?"

She said it both exasperatedly and curiously, and the brunette looked up from the piece of lettuce she was eating, put down her fork, and raised her eyebrow. "What are you talking about, Quinn?"

The blonde shrugged. "After all that earlier, when you were scared shitless, you're just completely and one hundred percent O.K.?"

When Rachel nodded, she sighed in frustration. "How do you do that? I mean, and please don't take this as too big of an offense, but you've always been a drama queen. It just doesn't make much sense that you are so calm now."

Rachel had been chewing on that piece of lettuce, and so she swallowed it and quickly took a swig of her coke before responding. "Alright, so I'm pretty sure you're familiar with the phrase 'sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me'. Am I right?" When Quinn nodded, she continued. "Well, for me, it's more like 'sticks and stones will break my bones but words will hurt me' or maybe 'sticks and stones will break my bones but words will break my confidence'. Basically, what I'm trying to say is, although it's not commonly perceived that way by society, I've always reacted more strongly to emotional lashes than physical ones. Meaning that, if one person punches me and the other tells me I'm a worthless Broadway freak, I'm more likely to that the latter one to offense."

Quinn raised an eyebrow. "OK," she said slowly. "But I still don't get why you didn't freak out afterwards."

The brunette sighed. "Because," she started. "I've always sort of reacted less strongly to physical threats."

"But you were scared out of your mind while it was happening."

"That's because I had virtually no idea how it was all going to end or what was going to happen. It's in human nature to react that way on instinct, but afterwards it no longer mattered. Because there was not a threat anymore, there was no reason to react. On the contrary, if they had insulted me, the jab would have stuck with me indefinitely."

The blonde considered this. "Alright, I suppose that makes sense…can I just ask you one thing?"

Rachel nodded. "Sure, but only if I get to ask you something back afterwards."

"Deal," Quinn said, overlooking the possibilities of what the other girl could ask. "Please don't get mad at me, but…say that those men…well, say they had actually gotten what they wanted. How much would it have mattered afterwards, when the 'threat' was gone? You still would have had to deal with something huge."

The brunette was silent for a moment while she considered the question. "Don't worry, I'm not mad. But yeah, I suppose I would be pretty upset. But that's different, because the effect is long-term. What just happened out there was not long-term. But if it was, yeah I'd be pretty upset about it all. Now can I ask my question?"

Quinn nodded. "I suppose."

"Alright. So do you remember when, earlier today, I came in to give you your bag?"

The blonde nodded again, afraid of what was to come.

"Well, I remember when I mentioned that the pink duffel bag was your emergency bag, you freaked out. Why is that? What exactly is in that bag?"

Immediately the other girl's eyes went wide. "Nothing, nothing at all is in that bag. You know, I think I'm full. You wanna go back to the car and keep driving? C'mon, let's go." She tried to pull the brunette up out of her seat, but she refused.

"No, I want to know! Whatever it is, it can't be that bad," Rachel reasoned.

Quinn sighed and turned away. "Rachel," she started. "Believe me, you do not want to know. And yes, it is a big deal. You don't know how big of a deal it is. This whole trip would become really awkward and I want nothing more than for it to be over with soon. So can we just go back to the car and keep driving? Please?"

After a moment of debating, Rachel stood up. "Sure," she said, speaking quietly. And so they walked back and got back in the car, Quinn thinking how glad she was that Rachel didn't find out her secret and Rachel thinking how she was going to find out Quinn's secret, whether she liked it, or not.

~.~

Alright, so there ya go. So, what do you think Quinn's secret is, and where do you think the girls are going? I've already decided both of those things, but you can guess. If you get lucky, I might just tell you if you get it right. Anyway, please review! The faster you review, the quicker the next chapter will be out. See you all soon!