A/N: Thanks for the reviews and favorites guys! Please tell me what you think; I only have a vague idea of where I'm going with this!

I Can See For Miles

Chapter 2

"Ohmygod Finn! You said you could drive a minibus!"

"I can!"

"You just backed over your own damn mailbox!" Santana screamed at him from her seat at the back of the bus.

"Okay, we're switching." Mercedes stated, starting to climb out of her own seat and over the slightly pale-faced Kurt.

"What? No! I got this guys. Just hold on; it takes some getting used to."

The bus lurched ahead, shooting all the passengers forward.

"By the time you 'get used to it' we'll all be dead." Artie muttered.

"Ugghh it is too early for this." Quinn moaned. She had barely managed to drag herself out of bed that morning. People should not be up before the sun.

"Look, if we have any more problems before-"

"Whoa whoa whoa, what do you mean we? You're the one who couldn't make it out of the driveway without demolishing something." Mercedes accused Finn.

He plowed right on. "If I have any more problems before we get to the highway we'll switch, ok? Seriously guys, calm down." Finn said, grinning confidently. "I got this."

Everyone groaned; whoever chose to mix Finn Hudson with minibuses and mailboxes needed to have their head examined.

"Quinn, what are we doing? Did we really hit a mailbox?" Rachel whispered nervously from her window seat next to the blonde girl. She was tightly gripping the armrest between them.

Quinn pulled herself out of her own Finn-driving-induced-early-morning haze of annoyance and turned to Rachel.

"Yeah, Finn just kinda ran over his own mailbox, but we're on the road now. He seems to be getting the hang of it." Quinn assured her, glancing skeptically up to the driver's seat, and Rachel nodded slightly, loosening her grip.

Then Finn ran up the curb as he turned out of the neighborhood, jolting the bus around violently. Rachel shrieked and grabbed onto Quinn's arm.

Quinn tried to calm her own heart and ignore the angry outbursts from around her as the bus jolted again, returning to level ground; she reached for Rachel's hand with both of hers and squeezed tightly.

"It's ok! It's ok!" She heard Finn calling over the frantic yelling. "My flip-flop just got caught on the pedal! We're all good."

"Seriously dude? How does that affect the steering wheel?" Mike called back, rubbing his head from where he knocked it into the window. "We went up a curb! We didn't accidentally accelerate into a mailbox. Again."

Quinn barely registered Puck shoving his way past her up the aisle as she spoke softly to Rachel.

"Hey Rach, it's ok. We just went up a curb; I know it felt like we rolled over the edge of a mountain but we're fine. Ok?"

Rachel focused on Quinn's voice, squeezing her hand tightly.

"Puck's taking over now. We'll be smooth sailing and out of Ohio in no time." Quinn added, smiling, as Finn grumbled his way past her and the minibus started moving again.

Rachel let out a deep breath once she realized they weren't barreling down the road to their doom, and smiled at Quinn.

"Thank you Quinn. I'm just a little nervous I guess…about this trip."

"Yeah?"

Rachel nodded. "I've just never been away from my dads, like, at all…and these places are all new and I'm kind of…I know you guys are all my friends, but I'm kind of scared."

Quinn furrowed her brows and squeezed Rachel's hand tighter.

"What do you mean?"

"This is an amazing idea for team bonding and it's exciting and fun; I just don't want to get, you know, like left behind in the excitement."

Quinn looked at her for a moment in thought. God, she would be freaking out right now if she were Rachel. What if she ended up all alone, thousands of miles from home, without the benefit of sight…surrounded by manatees. Ok, worst case scenarios were back.

"Rachel. I will be your guide." Quinn stated sagely.

Rachel chuckled. "What?"

"I will be your guide." Quinn was smiling now. "I'll stay by your side, help you find things, make sure we don't leave you in Key Largo by accident. You know, those kinds of things."

Rachel was full-on grinning now. "Really?"

Quinn laughed. "Yes. You know you're not so bad when you're not spastically bossing us around. We probably need buddies anyway if we're going to make it out of this trip alive right?"

Rachel nodded brightly, "Yes, definitely."

She sighed happily and the two settled in for the twelve hour drive to Memphis, Tennessee.

-oooooooooo-

"Brittany! If I wake up one more damn time with Lord Fatso on my face, I will throw him out of this window!"

Brittany gasped and her head popped up over the seat to find Mercedes. She hurriedly climbed over the sleeping Santana and up the aisle to where her cat was now sprawled on Mercedes' lap. Brittany nodded curtly at the girl, grabbed Lord Tubbington and made her way back to her seat.

"It's ok Tubby; I know you could never fit out that window."

-oooooooooo-

"Okay everybody! I think now would be a great time to play a game!"

"Berry, if the next words you speak are 'I'll go first,' I will kick you off this bus."

"Rachel sit down! We're trying to sleep."

"Aarrghh no car games please. Kill me now."

"Lord Tubbington just peed on me!"

"Rachel, you might want to sit down, it looks like you're traumatizing Quinn there." Kurt smirked.

Rachel leaned back away from Quinn. The blonde, now that Rachel's chest wasn't pressed into her face, finally breathed again and returned to her normal color.

"Are you alright Quinn?"

"Mmhmm." She answered simply.

-oooooooooo-

"Puck!" Artie called out, "Get off at the next exit; I have to pee!"

"Seriously? Use a bottle or something dude, we've stopped like seven times and we're only in freaking Kentucky!" Puck yelled back.

Tina looked disgusted. "And we will stop seven more times as long it prevents people from relieving themselves on the bus!"

Puck sighed and got off at the next stop.

-oooooooooo-

They stopped again for a very late lunch in downtown Nashville, buying some food and settling on the banks of the Cumberland to eat, across from LP Field.

Rachel pulled out her sound recorder and turned to where she knew Mike and Tina were seated; Quinn watched curiously from next to her, batting away flies from Rachel's unattended food.

"So Mike, where are we today?" she asked brightly, sticking out the recorder in his direction.

Mike sat up immediately, grinning. "Well Rachel, we are in beautiful downtown Nashville, home of country music as you probably know." He said deeply, putting on a commentator's voice. "It is also the home of the wonderfully terrible Tennessee Titans, whose stadium we are sitting across from at this very moment."

"And do you have a favorite country singer Mr. Chang?"

"Hmmm. I have to say Johnny Cash is the man."

Rachel smiled enthusiastically before turning in Tina's direction. "And how do you feel about Nashville Tina?"

"Nashville is amazing Rachel! I am currently having a grilled cheese sandwich, which tastes like angels by the way, and to be surrounded by all this musical history is wonderful!"

"I definitely have to agree. Thank you Mike and Tina! Now Ms. Fabray," Rachel stated, turning back in Quinn's direction, "What are you doing? Anything you'd like to share about Nashville?"

Quinn laughed and reached out to guide Rachel's hand closer to where she actually was.

"Well, Rachel, right now I'm trying to keep the flies away from your food which you've so thoughtfully abandoned."

Rachel faltered for a second.

"But yes, Nashville is wonderful. Except for those old guys we walked past, who were dressed in bright pink bikinis and belting out Coal Miner's Daughter. I'm not gonna lie, I was a little scared for a second."

"Well…good. Thank you very much Quinn."

Quinn just nodded, smiling, and Rachel turned off the sound recorder. She then turned back to her perfectly clean and protected food and started eating.

"So Rachel," Mike started, "was it your idea to get a voice recorder?"

"No, it was actually my dads'. I didn't really want it at first."

Quinn looked up curiously. "Why not?"

"Mmmm, no reason. I just wasn't interested in it." She felt around for a fork which Quinn handed to her.

"Really? But it's pretty cool." Mike stated.

"Yes. I just…didn't want to have to want it you know. Besides, I won't need it in a couple months."

Quinn narrowed her eyes at that and Mike and Tina stopped chewing. "What? Why not?" Tina asked.

Rachel hesitated and Quinn swatted away more flies from the girl's food. "Just…you know, we'll be back in Lima then and there's nothing to record there. Right?"

Mike laughed and nodded but Quinn studied Rachel's face. She was definitely uncomfortable, maybe hiding something. She was also about to put an enormous fly right into her mouth.

"Wait, Rach. Here have this." Quinn held out half of her own sandwich in Rachel's direction. "There's a fly on that."

Rachel scrunched up her nose in disgust and let Quinn put the sandwich in her hand.

"Thanks Quinn."

Quinn smiled, brushing off their previous conversation as 'crazy road trip fever thoughts.'

"No problem."

-oooooooooo-

The other glee clubbers didn't seem too affected by the fact that Quinn had turned into Rachel's 'buddy.' They were just glad that the blind girl had someone looking out for her on the trip. The fact that this someone was draped over Rachel right now on the steps of the Ryman Auditorium just made the situation more interesting.

The group had just strolled down 'Music Row,' admiring the lights and the people, the restaurants and bars, music drifting out of every corner. They now sat on the steps of the Ryman as Finn went to get the minibus from the parking garage a few minutes away.

"That's it. It's been five minutes. He's crashed it and we're never getting out of here." Santana stated.

"Just give him some time. He probably, I don't know, got lost or something." Kurt said diplomatically.

"Lost? We can see the parking garage from here."

Kurt shrugged helplessly and turned back to everyone else. He caught Quinn drape her arms around Rachel from behind, before plucking out one of the smaller girl's iPod ear buds and putting it in her own ear. Quinn's smiling face turned to one of incredulity and Rachel burst out laughing, like she could tell what Quinn was thinking. Kurt was pretty sure he made out the words 'Lil Wayne' on her lips.

He smirked and shook his head, God they're going to be such a cute couple.

Just then the bus pulled up, not without two of the wheels hopping onto the curb of course, and Finn jumped out grinning triumphantly. His grin faded as Puck rushed past him and launched himself into the driver's seat.

"Good job Finn," said Artie, "I see all your lights are still intact and you're not dragging any mailboxes under your bumper. I rule this a success!"

The rest of the glee clubbers boarded the minibus, taking only small jabs at Finn's driving skills and shouting excitedly as they came down off the curb for the second time that day.

Kurt watched as Rachel showed Quinn whatever was on her iPod and the blonde raised her eyebrows, shaking her head and laughing. Rachel seemed to finally settle on a song as she rested her head on Quinn's shoulder and settled in for the five hour drive to Memphis.

-oooooooooo-

Seven and a half hours later, at midnight, the minibus turned into a hotel about half an hour from Graceland.

"Puck! This is one-way! You can't go this way!"

"Dude stop!"

"Ohmygod there's a car coming!"

"What? Where does it say-ohholyshit!"

So, after narrowly avoiding a head-on collision, the Glee Club all stumbled out down the steps, Kurt landing literally with his face in the gutter and Santana gracefully tripping onto him with her knees in his back. They traipsed tiredly inside and got two rooms, four double beds plus two fold-out couches.

Puck, who had been driving all day, collapsed immediately on one of the beds while the others dazedly hauled their luggage around.

"Brittany, just so you know, I'm putting Lord Fatso in here, ok?" Mercedes said calmly, gesturing to the small armoire that held the TV.

"What? No, why?" Brittany asked after figuring out that Mercedes was, in fact, serious.

"Because. That cat is going to suffocate me during the night… and I can't fit him in the dresser drawer."

Santana glared at Mercedes, who had collapsed onto another bed.

"Come on Britts, we'll put him in the bathroom."

"Uh, what if he drowns in the toilet?" Artie asked seemingly amused at the possibility.

Brittany looked horrified.

Santana groaned and looked back at Mercedes, who had fallen asleep. She smirked, "You can just let him free Britt; he'll be fine."

Brittany nodded as Santana pulled out a couch for the two of them. Kurt dragged himself into the same room, groaning, and dropped down next to Mercedes.

In the next room, Quinn and Rachel climbed into the same bed after arguing with Finn about what time their wake-up call should be. Mike turned the lights out and Rachel sighed.

Quinn tilted her head quickly to look at her. "Rachel?" she whispered.

"Hmmm."

"Did you know the light just went out?"

Rachel smiled slightly and tilted her own head in Quinn's direction. "I can tell if it's light or dark in a room Quinn, or if it's daylight or nighttime outside. It's a really small difference, and a lot of it is intuitive by now I guess."

Quinn made a noise of acknowledgement and waited a few more minutes. "Rachel?"

Rachel chuckled under her breath. "Yes Quinn."

"How did-I mean, were you born that way or…How did you go blind?...You don't have to answer-"

"No. I wasn't born this way, not that I remember ever being able to see. I was in a car accident when I was five. With my dad. We were both fine, of course, except my optic nerve was damaged by the glass.

Quinn looked at her through the darkness. Rachel had obviously come to terms with this, going by how matter-of-factly she was speaking. But then she spoke again, her voice softer.

"I dream though. I went five years before I lost my sight so I dream of things. Like my dads, I do know what they look like. I dream of our old house and the park and the movies we used to watch together. And…I dream of you."

Quinn's jaw dropped in surprise. "You…dream of me?"

Rachel smiled. "We were in preschool together."

Quinn still looked shocked, "We were?"

"Yeah. I think you're probably as beautiful now as you were adorable then."

Quinn blushed, listening intently.

"I dream of the big blue room we played in. And I picture this toy train, sometimes it's different shapes and sizes and colors, but it's always a train that goes around in circles. I also see these faceless….bullies I guess, who follow me around and around like the train." Rachel paused and smiled.

"But then this sweet little blonde girl comes in and chases away the bullies and sits on the floor with me and watches the train go round...I like having that dream."

Quinn smiled, seeing the happiness on Rachel's face. She remembers that train; it was her favorite toy, and she remembers the tiny little brunette girl who used to sit in the middle of the track with her where the bullies couldn't get to them.

The two lay in silence for a while, listening to Finn snore and Mike talk in his sleep, before Quinn spoke again.

"Rach, there was something you said today; I was just wondering…is there any chance you could…get your sight back?"

Rachel didn't answer and Quinn turned her head to see the girl breathing deeply, peaceful smile on her face. Quinn smiled too. "Sweet dreams, Rach." She whispered.