Chapter 3.

Rachel and Quinn didn't speak to each other for their remaining time at school. Quinn stayed, she had to for fear of blowing her cover, and Rachel watched as the blonde replaced her with Mercedes and Kurt, although sometimes she saw the blonde looking at her out the corner of her eye. Just looking, not doing anything to get Rachel's attention, just staring. As if she'd just come to Glee Club to look at her. Rachel tried getting over Quinn. God knows she tried. She tried dating Puck and Finn but neither worked. They both ended disasterously and Rachel actually almost reduced Finn to tears. But it didn't work. Nothing did. Not finding out who her real mom was. Not her real mom leaving her again. Not even when Jesse St. James came around could she take her mind off the blonde. It was as if Quinn was staying just to make it worse. That's what Rachel told herself anyway. But she knew her ex would never, ever want to hurt her that way, regardless of what went on between them. When school finished, completely finished, Rachel went to New York. She rented an appartment and got a job at a dry cleaners. She auditioned for musical parts in her spare time and was cast finally, after almost a years worth of auditions, for an off-Broadway musical. She thought that learning the choreography, her lines and the new songs would prove greater help in taking her mind off her ex-girlfriend but it proved just as useless as the other methods she'd tried.
Then Rachel got sick. And then, after a stint in hospital for a few months, she got better and was released. Then the pain came back. Although Rachel was used to pain constantly nagging her by then, her roommate, Thea, still insisted on taking her back to the hospital where they ran a number of tests for her bones and blood. After staying in hospital again for almost three weeks the doctor came back with a terrifying result. Cancer. Rachel had heard the word before but she'd never quite realised how much of an impact it would have on her life.

Quinn was working late one night at a bar where she worked. It was past closing time and she was in the proccess of wiping down the tables and bar. She reached the end of the bar with her cloth and found that someone had left their newspaper lying around. Again.
'Almost every night.' She muttered to herself angrily. The past year had not treated her well. Although Quinn had managed to deal with the pain and hurt splitting up from Rachel had caused her she'd never truly got over it. Even seeing the brunettes hair disappear through a closing door was enough to ignite the fire raging inside the blondes chest. And the result of her pain: a very bitter Quinn, a very bitter Quinn indeed. 'Surely these people must realise that not everyone's their mother. Not everyone will clean up after them.'
As she moved the paper a few of the pages spilled out onto the floor. 'For fuck's sake.' The blonde bent down to pick them up. She was about to put them with the rest of the papers when something, a name, caught her eye. Rachel Berry.
She skim read the article and her heart and stomach dropped like lead as she got nearer and nearer to the bottom. There had been quite a few articles about Rachel starring in plays and musicals about New York but none of them had bared bad news quite like this.
'She...wha...no. She can't. She can't possibly have...no. I've got to be seeing things.' Quinn read the article again as if she hoped the writing had changed but found it exactly the same as before. She pulled out a bar stool and sat on it.
'Quinn?' Freddie asked from the side of the bar. He was the landlords son and had become a rather good friend of Quinns. 'Quinn are you all right?'
Quinn pointed to the article. 'Read the...read the bottom left paragraph.' There was a moments silence in which Freddie read the article. Quinn was breathing as if she'd just run a marathon but the air wasn't helping her to get her head around what she'd just read.
'Rachel Berry? As in the Rachel Berry? The girl who's heart you broke when you were at high school?' Freddie asked after he'd finished reading the paper.
Quinn nodded. It was all she could do, if she opened her mouth she'd probably scream the whole place down. 'Wow.' Freddie said and he sat down next to Quinn on the stools. 'What do you want to do?'
'What do you mean, what do I want to do?' Quinn asked as if it was obvious. 'I need to see her. I need to tell her...I need to...'
'Quinn, maybe it's not such a good idea for you to go and see a girl you've not seen since-'
'I don't care.' Quin said, her voice deadly. 'I don't give a flying fuck whether I haven't seen her since high school. I don't care whether she doesn't recognise who I am. I don't care whether she slams the door in my face. I don't care! I need to see her. I need to tell her that I still...that I still love her! She needs to know!'
'Why? Why does she need to know? It says her the cancer's in her bones and it's strong because they didn't catch it quickly enough. Which means...Quinn, honey, it means that she doesn't have a very strong chance of survival.'
'I know what it means!' Quinn snapped. 'And I told you that I don't care. So you can either help me by getting my a cab or drive me to the hospital or you can stay here and watch as I ring a cab to take me to the hospital. Either way, Freddie, I am going to see my soulmate!' The blonde was so defiant, so unwavering that Freddie felt as if he had no choice. He sighed a frustrated sigh and said, 'Fine. If you're going to be so...so...Quinn-ish about it then I'll drive you. But I expect the same from you someday, remember.'
'Yes, yes. Whatever. Just get your keys and move,' then, when she saw the mans expression, she added, 'please?'
For Quinn it took too long for Freddie to find his keys and his car and when they finally got in the vehicle he obviously took far too long in pulling out of the spot he'd parked in. 'Hurry up! Hurry up!'
'I'm going as fast as the car will go without getting fined or killed.' Freddie snapped at her and Quinn was immediately stunned that Freddie, sweet little innocent Freddie, had lost his temper with her. The car was filled with silence in which Quinn looked out of the window at the passing cars and buildings.
'So...what's the plan?' Freddie asked after a while. He seemed to feel bad about snapping at Quinn. The blonde thought for a moment. The immediate answer was that she didn't have a clue what the plan was but she just knew that seeing Rachel was the best thing to do. Quinn shrugged.
'I dunno.'
'What about bursting in there and shouting that you love her?' Freddie proposed.
Quinn looked at him. 'I am not going to do a Ross Gellar, Freddie. As nice as that episode of Friends was.'
'What about giving her a heart-felt speech?'
'Can we just...you know, not talk about it for a while? I need to get my thoughts together.' Quinn asked him and Freddie nodded in understanding. The truth was that Quinn was nervous. She didn't have a clue what she was going to do and Freddie shooting suggestions at her was not helping sooth her nerves. She watched the life outside the car for the rest of the journey through New York City and all the while planned a little speech in her head she was going to say to Rachel if, when, she finally got up to Rachel's room.
They got to the hospital too soon, for all of Quinn's rushing, and the blonde felt a reluctance to go in. Her feet seemed to carry her to the building without her consent and pretty soon she was at the front desk asking for Rachel Berry's room.
'I'm sorry, that information is classified for Rachel's family only.'
'But I'm her girlfriend.' Quinn told the secretary before realising what she was saying. The words had just come to her so naturally that she didn't give it a second thought as she was speaking, but now that she'd said them she felt rather embarrassed. Though she didn't know why, the nurse didn't exactly know her and Rachel's background. 'You have to let me see her. Please.'
The nurse thought for what seemed like months and months to Quinn before finally saying, 'All right. She's in room 32 on the third floor.'
'Thank you. You're a pretty awesome person, for a secretary.' And Quinn raced off up the stairs. Not bothering with the life in case it was too slow.
'I'll just wait down here then.' She heard Freddie call up. 'You know, it's fine and everything.'
Quinn laughed, actually genuinly laughed, after what seemed like a lifetime. The muscles felt oddly still. Quinn got to the third floor and sped across the corridor, darting around staring patients, visitors and nurses and rounding corners at what was surely the speed of light but felt like the speed of a snail. She ran and ran and ran and ran until she felt like her heart was on fire and her lungs almost gave out. She didn't stop though. Not for anything. Her pain didn't mean anythng aslong as she reached Rachel...
And there it was: Room 32. It may have only been a door to some people but to Quinn it was like the gateway to the heaven she was never going to reach. Pausing outside for breath Quinn had only a few seconds to gather her thoughts before the door was wrenched open from the inside. Quinn jumped back into the shadow almost straight away. Like it was customary to.
'Okay, honey, we'll be sure to get you that magazine you wanted.' Both of Rachel's dad's were leaving the room. 'And make sure you get some rest, sweetie, okay? You're going to need it.' Her dad's closed the door and walked off with their arms around each other, Quinn thought they'd never looked so drawn and miserable.
Quinn took a moment or two to compose herself and then, after a long breath of fresh air, she opened the door and entered...

Blonde and brunette stared at each other. Tall and small. Patient and visitor. Rachel looked absolutely stunnned and Quinn couldn't get anything out of her mouth except, 'Hey, Rach.'
Rachel didn't say anything. The silence seemed to stretch on for years and years. The brunettes eyes had widened considerably and she looked rather like a goldfish. Her mouth opening and closing as she tried to stutter something. Anything. Eventually she manged, 'Quinn Fabray. You...you're...h-here?'
Quinn smiled. 'Yep. I'm here.'
'Wh-why? Why are you here? In m-my room? Sp-speaking to me?'
'I read about your c-ca...disease in the paper.'
'It was in the paper?'
Quinn nodded. 'They say your one of Broadways biggest up-and-coming stars so this makes a pretty good story, I guess.'
'Oh.' Another unhealthy silence. Rachel could comprehend what she seeing or hearing. Quinn Fabray was actually in her hospital room, Quinn Fabray had come to see her. She'd remembered her. After all this time. After all this time...
Anger exploded in the pit of the brunettes stomach and she was suddenly shouting at the blonde. She didn't know where the words were coming from all she knew was that a years worth of pent-up frustration, grief and anger was pouring out from her and forming words that she was throwing at Quinn like knives. She was yelling so loud she was sure the bottom floor would be able to hear her. She was yelling about pain, about how much the blonde had hurt her in high school. About how she had to try and get over the girl she knew she never would. About how she'd tried, she tried so hard, to get close to other's but the fact that Quinn had scarred her so badly had prevented her from ever getting close to another. Ever. 'And now you're here looking like those things never happened. Like you can just come and see me in hospital and everything will just be fine. Well it won't Quinn. Mother of fuck it will not be all right! Do you not understand what you've done to me?'
'And what about me?' Quinn had had it. She was yelling now. Yelling louder than Rachel had. 'I had to sit around and watch you flaunt Finn and Puck in front of me. Then I had to watch you break up with Jesse after he'd been a dick to you and go through pain again and knew there was nothing I could do about it because I'd sworn to myself never to allow you back in my life! I had to watch knowing that I was the main cause for your hurt and I could do shit all about that as well! There are two people in a relationship, Rachel, and just because I've lived for almost a hundred years it does not make me immune from emotions!'
Silence fell again and the two girls panted heavily. Quinn felt sick and wondered if she looked as nauseous as the brunette in front of her. Neither of them said anything and the unhealthy silence dragged on. As much as Quinn had yelled she didn't feel angry. She felt bright, brighter than she had in two years. She'd finally got those feeling off her chest and Rachel had finally yelled at her like she knew she deserved. She finally had closure. But...she didn't want it. After a full year of wanting to put a lid on her hurt she now didn't want that lid. She just wanted to be back in Rachel's arms again.
'Rachel I-'
'I love you.' Rachel blurted out. Quinn's eyes widened in shock and a dull flush crept up into the Jewish girls cheeks. 'Even now. I still love you. And I don't want to loose you again. So, if you're planning on sticking around, stay. If you're not then...leave please. Before we hurt each other again.'
Quinn thought. What did she want to do? Her heart was saying, why are you even thinking about this? Stay, idiot, tell her you love her! But her head was saying: She's dying. Do you really want to go through what happened with Liana again? She thought and she thought and she thought until, finally, and idea sprang up into her mind. It was crazy. Really, really crazy but people say that love makes you do crazy shit.
'Rachel,' Quinn said, reminding them both of when they used to makes speeches of their love to one another. Both girls smiled in remembrance. 'I love you still. Still more than water, or air and I want more than anything to be with you. But...you are dying.' Rachel winced and Quinn felt regret pang in her stomach. 'And you know what I am.'
'A Guardian Angel.' Rachel nodded. Quinn smiled.
'Just a Guardian, Rach. Just a Guardian. And...you know what I can do, right?'
Rachel seemed to think for just a moment and then her features contorted into watered-down anger. 'Quinn Fabray, are you telling me that, after all this time, you are now going to Change me anyway?'
'Does that mean you're accepting?' Quinn asked, momentarily stunned. Things had gone pretty fast since Rachel had said 'I love you' five minutes ago. Rachel nodded. It was all she could do not to scream. And Quinn felt her heart inflate so much that she felt like her chest was going to burst. She ran to the bed and didn't even think about what she was doing. Diving on top of Rachel the two embraced. They kissed so fiercely that both girls felt that they were going to explode with passion and need. It had been so long. Rachel felt like she was putting all she felt for the girl in the kiss. And Quinn felt the exact same way. And the result? Two seriously out of breath girls.
Quinn wrapped her arm around the girl and Rachel sunk into Quinn's upper-body like they had done so many times before.
'I love you, Quinn.'
'I love you too, Rach.'

The next day the two girls were woken up by Rachel's dad's bustling into the room. Quinn had slept overnight on the chair. The nurses hadn't let her stay in the same bed. The two girls had agreed that they would wait until Rachel's dad's knew Quinn was back until the Change happened. Both were nervous. Especially Quinn. The blonde had never Changed anyone before, she knew how it went. Gautier had told her. Rachel was more excited than Quinn was. The two girls had argued for a while over the fact that Rachel wanted to tell her parents what Quinn was, and what she was going to be, and Quinn felt that it was best if they just pretended she'd got better naturally. Rachel had won. That's why when Quinn was woken up by the two men entering the room she felt as if her stomach had fallen out.
'Hey, honey, we brought you the magazine you-' Kevin stopped speaking and looked from girl to girl. So did Phil.
'Quinn Fabray?' Phil asked. 'Is that you?'
'Hey Mr. Berry. And Mr. Berry again.' Quinn said, with a small smile.
'Quinn saw an article in the paper about how I'm ill and came to see me, Dad and Daddy. Isn't that nice?'
'Very nice...' Kevin muttered to himself. 'Are you two...are you I mean, back together again? Because maybe now isn't the best time with Rachel in hospital...'
The two girls looked at each other for a moment and then Rachel said, 'Dad, Daddy. I think you'd better sit down.'

It took almost an hour to convince Mr. and Mr. Berry that Rachel and Quinn were telling the truth. The men were strangely reluctant to believe. At the end of the conversation both men sat in their armchairs with ashen faces looking as they'd like nothing better than to throw up.
Finally Phil managed to mumble, 'So you...you're, er...you can't...age?'
Quinn shook her head. 'No, I can't age.'
'And you...you want to, erm...Change our daughter to being like...like you?'
Quinn nodded. 'Yes, but only with your consent.'
Kevin and Phil exchanged a luck. 'She is legally an adult.' Kevin said a small shrug. Phil nodded. Kevin looked at his daughter. 'If this is really what you want, honey, we can't stop you.'
Rachel nodded vigorously. 'This is what I want, Daddy, more than anything in the world.' She looked at Quinn as though to reasure her. 'Anything.' She repeated forcefully. 'And don't think you're going to change your mind.'
Quinn held up her hands in retreat. 'I won't! I won't. I've given you mind word. I will stick by it.'
'When are you planning to...er, do it?' Phil asked.
'Well...we really shouldn't wait long. Or else Rachel's condition might deteriorate to a point of no return so it's safer the sooner we do it.'
'And you're going to Change her here?'
'Yes.' Quinn looked at her girlfriend. 'When do you want to do it, hun?'
'Tonight.' Rachel said. Kevin and Phil looked startled. 'I'm sorry but I really don't see the point in waiting.'
'Me neither.' Quinn said, blowing out a breath and walking over to the window. 'You have thought this through, haven't you, Rach?'
'Quinn, it's been all I could think about since we split up. This "what if" has never been off my mind long enough. I'm ready.'
'And her career? You're not going to be on Broadway you know, honey.' Kevin said kindly.
'I know Daddy. But as long as I'm with Quinn nothing matters.'
Phil chuckled happily and Rachel realised that her Dad was almost crying. 'You two.' He said fondly. 'It's like a match made in heaven, I swear.'
The brunette and blonde smiled at each other.
Didn't they both know it.

Night had fallen. The curtains had been drawn. The visiting hour was almost up and Quinn had told Rachel's parents that everything would be fine. Rachel sat nervous and excited in her hospital bed and Quinn sat next to her pale faced and not saying anything. 'You're not having second thoughts, are you?'
'No, no.' Quinn said. 'This is going to cure you and as long as your healthy and happy then so am I.'
For what seemed like the millionth time that day, there was a silence.
'Quinn?' Rachel said after an hour. 'I think you should do it now.'
Quinn stood up. 'You sure?'
The brunette nodded.
'Okay...here goes. You have to trust me.'
'I do. Always.'
She touched Rachel's forehead with her finger tips and imagined. She imagined her Guardian qualities in liquid form and in a goblet. Then she imagined pouring the contents of the goblet into Rachel's mouth. She imagined Rachel glowing and getting hotter and she felt the sensation at her finger tips. Then she imagined the brunette going ice-cold and, like before, the girl went cool at the thought. Quinn knew the girl must be feeling fuzzy by now and she drew her finger tips away.
'I think I need to go to sleep, now.' Rachel muttered and her head slumped onto her shoulder. Quinn's nerves died down and she repeated the words Gautier had said to her when she was Changing.
'Goodnight, my beautiful Rachel. You will need your rest for the years that come.'

Rachel woke up. Her head was fuzzy and the light from the curtains didn't help. She cast a look about the room. Quinn was alseep on the chair across the room, her blonde hair spilling across her face and onto the arm and Rachel, like she used to when they were at McKinley, couldn't believe her luck. She noticed, with detatched surprised, that her bones weren't hurting. The usual aching in her back and legs had gone and in there wake had left the Jewish girl feeling replenished with energy and...well, alive. 'Quinn,' the brunette whispered across the room. The blonde stirred but then carried on sleeping. 'Quinn, wake up.'
'No...I don't wanna wake...' Quinn woke up. Lifting her head off the chair she looked up at Rachel. 'Rach, are you...do you feel okay?'
'I feel better than okay...I feel alive!' Rachel got up off the bed and walked over to her girlfriend. 'How are you? Are you feeling all right?'
'Me? I'm fine. It's you we should be worrying about.'
Rachel opened her mouth to say something when the door clicked open and both girls turned to face it.
'Rachel, my favourite patient, how are we doing...?' The Doctors voice trailed off when he saw Rachel stood in the middle of the room in no apparent pain. 'What's going on? Are you all right?'
'I'm fine.' Rachel said, with a big grin. 'Actually, I'm amazing.'
'Seriously?' The Doctor asked and then he coughed. 'I'm sorry, how unprofessional of me. Any aches? Any pains? How's your back?'
'It's fine, Doctor Kyle. Honestly I'm-'
'What about your appetite? Do you feel up to eating anything?'
'Actually,' Rachel said, the thought just occuring to the girl. 'I really could murder a grilled cheese sandwich.'
The Doctor looked from Rachel to Quinn, who said, 'Don't ask me, I've just been rudely woken up by her.'
'So...let me get this straight...do you feel ill at all?'
'Nope. Not at all. I feel right as rain.'
'Okay...' The Doctor looked baffled. 'I think I need to run a few tests. I'll be back in a minute.'
The man left and Quinn and Rachel ran at each other. They embraced quickly and then pulled apart, fighting for breath yet again.
'You're really fine?'
'More than fine,' Rachel answered, 'I get to spend an eternity with you.'
'I love you so much it's unreal.'
'I love you, too.'

A day and millions of tests later Rachel got the all-clear. 'I guess you must be one of those lucky few...' Doctor Kyle said, scratching his head. He discharged Rachel an hour later and the blonde and brunette left the building. 'Where to first?' Rachel asked when they got in a taxi. 'My dads' B&B they're staying in?'
'Oh, my God, Freddie!' Quinn cried, slapping a hand against her forehead. 'We can't go to your dads' yet.' Then to the taxi driver she said the name of an address quickly.
'And Freddie is?'
'The guy who drove me to the hospital two days ago. I'd completely forgotten about him. I need to...'
'Does he know about what you, I mean we, are?'
Quinn shook her head. 'No, does it matter?'
'So, you're going to walk into his house with your supposedly cancer ridden girlfriend and tell him we're off to travel the world?'
'Is that what we're doing?' Quinn raised her eyebrows.
Rachel nodded. 'Yep, I want to do everything, Quinn. All the things that you did. And that includes the festival stuff as well.'
'Do we have to?'
'Yes. Or are you too old to go to festivals nowadays?' Rachel taunted.
Quinn smiled. 'Oh, so that's how we're playing it, are we? If so, I can show you a thing or two about how to party at a festival, Rachel Berry.'
'I can't wait.' Rachel said.
And she couldn't. The thought of a festival may once have scared the brunette, the thought of leaving her family and friends and stability to travel the world would have made her go weak at the knee's but with Quinn with her, with her soulmate by her side, they could tackle anything. As long as she had her destiny solidly at her side.
And the everlasting life helped a little as well.