It was her seventeenth birthday when Hiram surprised her with a fixed up black carriage and two suitcases. She had cried all morning. Hiram Berry was a poor farmer, and barely made enough to sow his crops let alone repair a breaking down carriage, but he had for his little girl. She wasn't suppose to have these dreams too big for tiny body, she was suppose to stay in Virginia and marry a nice man that like that Finn Hudson or maybe even the crippled Artie Abrams. However, Rachel was anything but average, and Hiram knew there was no life in the South for his baby girl to be happy so he did the only thing any father without a hidden agenda would do. He was gonna let Rachel follow her dreams.

She should have been married by now with a baby, but instead Rachel was chasing dreams like a cat chases a mouse. She had outsmarted and proven her way in the small town even with hard glares and icy words, and Hiram believed her hardened exterior would help when she took up her singing career. The South was no place for art, but the North held more promise and open heads. Rachel could be another slave the way she was pushed about, but she had a bite. Hiram smiled as he watched her fall to her knees in front of the carriage and cry happiness. She was finally getting out.

A friend of Hiram's from long ago had agreed to help get Rachel and her maid, Susan, safely to New York and Hiram was to meet up with them after he finished his business at the farm. The friend's name was Leroy, who was a free slave that was sired from a white man but born from a black woman. The twosome had grown up together, but had to part ways when Hiram's family moved. Hiram had learned about Leroy's whereabouts a few months ago, and they had been growing close once more, so Hiram felt safe leaving his daughter in his friend's capable hands.

It was bittersweet goodbye as Rachel took the run down house in for the last time. She walked slowly, but with purpose as she ran her fingers over the beaten wood with scratch marks that cataloged her growth. This was her home. Santana could have have her monster of a house but Rachel knew she'd never call it home, just like how she knew Quinn could have all of the men's fancy but never call it love. Quinn. A noise caught itself crawling out of Rachel's throat as she defensively wrapped her arms around her stomach. No, she couldn't think of Quinn today; this was going to be a good day.

Rachel hadn't seen Quinn since they were 12 years old. That's when Quinn left school to be privately tutored in art and music and how to be pretty, while Rachel continued her schooling until she was 15. She hadn't seen Santana since 12 and hadn't seen Brittany since 13. She had however still continued classes with Artie, Sam, and Kurt, and even that Finn boy. They were gone now though. Artie and Kurt were sent away for better schooling and Sam had left with his family to the West, even that no good Noah Puckerman had traveled off somewhere. Finn Hudson was still here though, he really never had much going for him except maybe Quinn. Rachel swallowed hard as she started walking through the house again.

Quinn was gone. She had moved to live with her Aunt and Uncle in South Carolina when she was 16, and that had been the last Rachel had heard about her fair faced angel. No one knew for sure if Quinn had been sent away in punishment or if it was true that she had a suitor in the other state. Rachel didn't like either options, but she knew it was never her place to have concern for Quinn Fabray. Quinn had never talked to Rachel with nice words, not even after she sang the Rosy song. Quinn was cold and bare like the trees in winter and Rachel feared Quinn would never grow leaves to warm her body.

She was standing outside her tiny bedroom leaning against the doorframe caught in memories when she felt Susan's wrinkled hand on her shoulder.

"You ready, baby?"

Rachel was going to leave it all behind. She was going to leave the taunting and the glares and the disappointment and the pain all behind. Rachel jerked her head in a hard yes. Susan gently guided her back through the house, and out the door to the carriage. The suitcases were loaded and her mare was hitched and ready to go. This was it.

"Thank you so much, Papa! I promise I will make you proud." Rachel whispered in voice roughed by emotion as she hugged her father. He wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted the small girl up onto her tiptoes.

"You already have." He whispered back, and tears brimmed in his daughter's eyes as she pulled back. "Go on now, you best get going if you want to reach a safe place before night. I'll meet you shortly."

Rachel smiled and nodded, "I love you." Then she was being helped into the carriage by Leroy, and followed by Susan.

Hiram waved as Leroy clucked to the horse to start the journey. "I love you too, my little star!" He replied, earning a blown kiss from a crying Rachel. She was going somewhere, she was going to be something, she was going to have everything her mother couldn't. Hiram smiled.

The carriage was cutting through town to get to the right road, and Rachel watched outside her window at all the people she was finally escaping. They would all be stuck here, just like she could have been. Her eyes lit up just thinking of the crowds that awaited her in New York, but she was yanked out of her daydreams by wisps of blonde hair. She couldn't stop the noise in her throat from burbling up this time.

Rachel squinted her eyes to get a better look at the flitting pale figure. She was wearing a white dress with a soft green lace that matched her eyes while she stared at the white carriage. Her eyes were wide as saucer-pans, and her hand nervously wringed her left wrist as she stared. Regret waited behind the closed door of the carriage and it was staring back with soft doe eyes at her. Rachel felt like she was drowning as studied the figure that was so close but too far away. She felt the wall of bricks thickening, and the invisible tether pull on her finger as the carriage slowly started to move again.

Rachel hadn't cleverly cut all the strings that held her in place