Quinn walked the halls of McKinley with the girl she loved by her side. In another lifetime, maybe they would have even been holding hands, but in this lifetime that wasn't so, instead that hadn't seen each other in four long years and Quinn was internally fretting about what to say, what could she say to make things right? To apologise for leaving for so long? There was nothing she could think of to make things right, but she hoped Rachel would be able to forgive her one day, seeing her again confirmed what Quinn had always known, that she didn't want to not have Rachel in her life anymore, even if that meant having her only as a friend.

They walked in silence until they reached the closed doors to the auditorium,

"Welcome home, Quinn." Rachel said, smiling and opening the door. As soon as the door was open, Quinn could hear music and an old familiar tune reached her eyes. Quinn felt tears come to her eyes, she really had come home. Following Rachel into the auditourium, they both stood at the top of the stairs and watch they're old friends on stage, singing and dancing to the opening notes of Journey's, 'Don't Stop Believin'.

"A singer in a smokey room, A smell of wine and cheap perfume." Rachel sang, causing the people on the stage to look up at them, they all smiled, as Quinn looked down on the faces of all her old friends. Quinn felt Rachel grab her hand and the two of them heading down the stairs towards the stage just as the chorus started and Quinn joined in. It was corny, she knew it was, an yes once upon a time a younger version would have balked at all the corniness in the room right now, but older wiser Quinn knew that sometimes the best thing about old friends was the ability to be completely corny with them, and know they loved you anyway. Yes, Quinn thought, it was good to be home.

-xXx-

The song came to an end and Quinn found herself in a sea of hugging as she greeted her old friends. Santana squeezed her tightly around the neck and whispered in her ear;

"Don't disappear again Fabray, or I'll release Snixx on your ass." Quinn snorted at the ridiculousness of Santana and her alter ego.

"I won't." She promised, she already knew she couldn't, not again.

"Hey Baby Mama." Puck greeted, pulling her into a hug.

"Hey Puck." She laughed, only Puck would greet her with a reminder of her biggest mistake. Not that she regretted in, not anymore, not since she'd met Beth.

"I've missed you Girl." Mercedes greeted her, hugging her as soon as Puck stepped back.

"Mercedes, it's good to see you, I've missed you too." Quinn said, and it was true she had missed Mercedes, more than she had realised before seeing her again. Sam came next, their brief relationship hadn't ended well, but Sam had been what she'd needed for awhile. As Sam stepped back from hugging her, Quinn saw of the top of Brittany's shoulder, who was now hugging her, that Sam was holding hands with Mercedes, what? when did this start happening again? Quinn wondered.

After all the hugging had ended, Quinn located Mercedes and quickly moved into the spot Sam, who had gone to speak to Blaine, had just vacated.

"Mercedes Jones, are you dating Sam Evans?" She asked, cocking her eyebrow at her friend.

"We sure are, a fact you'd know if you ever bothered to call."

"I'm sorry Mercedes, I really am." Mercedes sighed and pulled her into another hug.

"I'll forgive you this time, just don't let it happen again." Mercedes said, her voice teasing. Quinn smiled.

"I promise." Seems like she making a lot of promises today, but they were all ones she intended to keep.

"Wanna know a secret?" Mercedes asked, a devious little grin on her face.

"What?" Quinn asked, leaning closer so Mercedes could whisper in her ear.

"Sam asked me to marry him."

"What?!" Quinn squeal, drawing looks from her friends that were closest.

"Shhh." Mercedes hushed, hands flapping in the air, as if she was squashing Quinn's noise down.

"I'm sorry." Quinn said sheepishly.

"That's ok, we're just keeping it quiet till after Tina and Mike's wedding so the limelight's all theirs." Mercedes grinned.

-xXx-

Half an hour later found them sitting around the auditorium stage in a circle, gossiping and catching up between them. Mr Schue, or Will as he kept reminding them to call him, was passing around a picture of his newborn daughter, his and Ms Pillsbury or Mrs Schuester's second child.

"Rachel say chatting with Tina beside her. Too close and yet too far for Quinn, as she was itching to reach out and touch Rachel's long brown hair, or hold her hand.

"Have you heard from Shelby lately?" Puck asked from beside her.

"Not recently.

"She's in town for the holidays, wanted to know if you, me and Rachel wanted to come around for dinner tomorrow night?"

"She wants all three of us to come to dinner?" Quinn asked disbelievingly.

"Well, she invited me and Rachel, but that's only because people were still doubting you'd show. I'm sure she'd love for you to come." People doubted she would come? Well, she supposed, it wasn't as if she hadn't given them good enough reason to think so.

Quinn was pulled from her musing by the sound of laughter, it seemed she'd missed the beginnings of a trip down memory lane.

"And we dressed up in those ridiculous outfits to show them we had funk and they didn't" Kurt giggled, speaking of New Directions old rivalry with Carmel High's Glee Club.

"I'll come, if it's alright with Shelby." Quinn told Puck, before turning her attention to Finn who was reminding everyone of the Glee club's original dance moves.

Quinn laughed along with the rest as Mike got up and joined in Finn's dancing, though Mike had too much rhythm in his body to make any dance move look as bad a Finn could. Not for the first time that day, Quinn was struck with the realisation about how good it was to be home.