I Can See For Miles

Chapter 4

Quinn woke up the next morning wholly under the impression that the bed had shrunk. Really, it could not have been this small last night when she and Rachel had first climbed into it. Or maybe it was that small, and they had just been too deliriously tired to realize it. Maybe it was the fact that Rachel had Quinn pinned against the railing that was making it seem small. Whatever it was, it felt nice, like she was wrapped up in a warm cocoon, and she lay there listening to the others leave the room before she decided to wake Rachel up.

Rachel stirred as Quinn gently shook her, opened her eyes a fraction, and paused for a moment, seeming to recall where she was and what she was doing, before she shot up in bed, knocking Quinn's jaw in the process. Quinn groaned and collapsed back into bed.

"Oh Quinn! I'm so sorry! Are you okay? Was that your elbow? Why was your arm there? Let me see!" Quinn had to smile at that, and settled her chin in Rachel's outstretched hands. Rachel looked confused.

"You whacked my face."

Rachel gasped and moved her hands around, feeling for injury. Quinn managed to pull herself away a moment later and shuffled over to the top of the ladder, leaving Rachel's hands grasping at thin air.

"I'm good, Rach. Come on, I smell breakfast!"

Rachel grinned and allowed Quinn to help her climb down, before the both of them got dressed and headed out to the living room.

Kurt stepped in their path and greeted them enthusiastically. They could see the other glee clubbers behind him, in various states of undress and bed-hair.

"Good morning Rachel! Quinn! How did you sleep?"

"Great."

"Wonderfully!"

"Good! Good. So, Brittany's making breakfast-"

"Wait, what?" Quinn looked a little skeptical at this. Brittany had tried to make toast at her house once and the fire department had to be called.

Kurt nodded. "After she set the curtains on fire Gram started helping her, so… it should be good!" He seemed like he was trying overly hard to believe this himself.

"Some people went down to the beach. You can join them if you want. You know, before it gets too crazy hot and stormy."

Quinn glanced at the girl next to her. "Rach?"

Rachel nodded excitedly. "Yes! Let's go swimming!." She stuck her arm out expectantly and Quinn took it, leading them out the back door, down some steps, and into the sand.

"Someone grab the fire extinguisher!" They heard as the door shut behind them.

Quinn saw Puck and Finn playing out in the waves, while Mike and Tina were in shallower water, looking like they were trying to convince Mercedes to come in deeper than her ankles.

"Come on Mercedes!" Mike pleaded. "Look, the water's so clear, you would see anything that tried to attack you. You have the upper hand here."

"Oh yeah, that makes it so much better. When I see the shark coming to kill me, my first thought will be, 'Wow, there's a shark coming to kill me, I'm so glad I saw this.'"

"We're only waist deep, and look at them!" Tina gestured to Finn and Puck tumbling through the waves. "They're fine, it's fun!"

"Girl, sharks can attack you in waist deep water. It's Shark Week. I know these things. And of course they're fine, they don't have alluring chocolate behinds to attract the sharks with. You know he wants a bite of this."

"Fine. Fine. Go back to Lima never having been in the ocean." Mike sighed, feigning disappointment and turning away. Mercedes froze at that and then groaned a moment later, kicking the ankle deep water.

"Fine! Three minutes and you don't go anywhere! When a shark comes, he's taking your skinny ass, not me."

Mike whooped excitedly and Tina grabbed Mercedes' arm, pulling her into the ocean. Quinn stopped on the dry sand to take her sundress off, bikini underneath, and Rachel did the same. She then took Rachel's hand and followed Mercedes' footsteps.

Mike and Tina greeted them happily, still flanking Mercedes, who was too busy studying the shadows under the water for killer predators, to say hello.

The water was cool and clear, and Quinn kept her gaze on Rachel to make sure the smaller girl was comfortable. She seemed ecstatic, beaming brightly and plowing through until they were a little over waist deep, where she sunk onto her back, dragging Quinn down with her.

"This is so amazing! Hearing the birds and the waves…I can smell the fish!"

Quinn laughed, "Not quite Lima, right?"

Rachel just smiled and shook her head, pulling them along and drifting through the swells, listening to Mike and Tina have a splash fight.

"Let me go Quinn." Rachel said, tugging on her hand.

Quinn looked dubious. So many things could happen. What if she got sucked into a riptide and dragged out to sea never to be seen again? What if she got mobbed by a…flock… of manatees? Herd? Mob? Gaggle? Pod? Attacked by a shark? Crushed by a massive wave? Abducted by a fleet of Spanish pirates?

Her grip on Rachel's hand was tightening and the smaller girl seemed to realize this. She squeezed Quinn's hand. "I'll be fine. I'm an amazing swimmer." Rachel said, beaming.

Quinn had to smile, rolling her eyes. "Of course you are."

After swimming happily for half an hour, Quinn bracing Rachel for the waves and currents, they headed back inside, leaving Mercedes swimming happily about like a professional athlete.

They dried off, picked up some surprisingly non-flaming breakfast from the kitchen, and sat in the living room with the rest of the glee clubbers.

"So Santana," Kurt started, "you're hair looks like it's grown about four sizes since we got here."

Santana scowled and Brittany patted her head like a puppy. "Damn humidity." She muttered.

"I like it. It's almost…Rastafarian." Artie commented. Everyone studied Santana's hair and nodded thoughtfully.

"I can totally see it."

"Dude, you don't even know what that means."

"So, what do you kids have planned for today?" Mrs. Hummel asked, striding into the room and settling down on the couch.

Kurt spoke up when everybody else looked unsure. Finn looked like he was still trying to figure out what 'Rastafarian' meant.

"I thought we'd just hang out here today. Get our bearings before going, like, snorkeling, wake-boarding, whatever you guys want."

Everyone nodded agreeably. Puck shrugged his shoulders, "Jet-skis can wait."

-oooooooooo-

An hour later, Quinn walked back outside, this time with the whole Glee Club. She was hit with a blast of heat as soon as the door opened, but she took it in stride and settled on a blanket near the water with everybody else.

Finn thrust his skim board into the shallow water, hopped on top of it, and landed promptly on his back as the board went shooting violently at Puck. A minute later, Puck did exactly the same thing. Both boys swore they would get the hang of it before they left. Quinn swore they would need to find a chiropractor within the next twenty-four hours.

"Quinn, please don't feed the sea gulls. I narrowly avoided a shark attack this morning, so, karma-wise, I wouldn't be surprised if I was swarmed by a flock of birds."

"What do you mean you narrowly avoided a shark attack this morning?" Mike laughed.

"Don't mock! I know they were out there."

"Quinn, are you feeding the sea gulls?" Rachel asked.

She actually wasn't feeding them, she just wanted to shut them up because they were being so damn loud. She was allowing them to covertly steal small piles of her food, which seemed to appease their leader. She told Rachel "No," however, and ate the chip she had been contemplating in her hand.

"Good. Because they will attack you." Rachel stated matter-of-factly. Quinn just looked at her, eyebrow raised; Rachel seemed to sense this and continued. "Really, they have no souls. They will do everything in their power, including strategically planning aerial attacks, to steal your food."

Quinn imagined what a strategically planned aerial sea gull attack would look like.

"Awww, so we can't feed the birds?" Brittany asked disappointedly.

"Brittany, you don't need those birds. You have your own Amazonian Puffy-Haired Bitch bird right next to you." Remarked Puck as he walked up, rubbing his back and limping slightly. Quinn could see Finn lying face-down in the sand at the water's edge, his skim board drifting through shallow water.

"Shut up Puck. At least I'm not maiming myself trying to walk on water."

Puck scoffed. "Skim boarding is an awesome sport Santana. It-"He cut himself off as he glanced back at Finn, doing a double-take and leaping up to make sure the guy was okay.

After a few hours of swimming and lying in the sun, the heat was starting to get to Quinn. It was two o'clock and the air had turned oppressive and muggy, so that breathing was becoming an issue. She could tell everyone else was feeling similarly. Rachel kept exhaling loudly next to her, and she had heard the phrase, 'It's so hot,' about four hundred times already. Puck and Finn had gone inside to tend to their injuries while Santana's hair had grown so large she could barely see the girl's face. It really had a mind of its own. Kurt had retreated inside when he realized he was bright red and breathing was physically hurting his fantastically sunburned skin.

Finally, when thunder started rumbling in the distance, everyone who had stuck it out in the heat went inside. Not five minutes later the skies opened up and hot rain poured down from the clouds.

-oooooooooo-

The storm lasted through a dinner of spaghetti and meatballs, which Mrs. Hummel made, and was still raging at nine o'clock that night. The glee club was gathered around the TV watching old movies on the VCR when, all of a sudden, the power went out with a whoosh. The room was plunged into blackness and the fans slowly stopped rotating. It was silent for a few seconds.

"Whoa, I can't see anything." Rachel commented. The room processed that for a moment and then burst into laughter

"Oh my God, Rachel. I think you just made my day." Mercedes remarked.

Rachel grinned brightly.

"So, uh, what happened? Is there a generator or something?" Tina asked.

"It's just a power cut. Happens all the time. It should be back on in a couple hours, right Gram?"

Mrs. Hummel nodded. "Maybe you all should head to bed now…There's not much you can do in the dark."

Quinn smirked and looked in Rachel's direction. Or where she assumed Rachel was; for all she knew there could be a dragon sitting there right now. There was nothing that girl couldn't do in the dark.

"Ow, Puck, that's my hand!"

"I'm not Puck."

"Who are you?."

"Shit, I just walked into the coffee table."

"Me too. Oh wait, the kitchen table. What room am I in now?"

"Puck! That's my hand!"

"I'm not Puck!"

"I think there's a stranger in here. It's mildly terrifying."

"You're standing on my flip-flop."

"Okay, someone smells like hot sauce."

"Someone's molesting me!"

"Britts, it's just me. Hush."

"Where's the door?"

"Over here. Shit no. I think I broke my nose."

"I think Lord Tubbington is peeing on me."

"He's locked in the bedroom."

"…oh God…"

"You just rolled over my toes."

Crash.

…

"Finn?"

"Finn, was that you?"

"Finn?"

"Finn?

"I'm good. I'm good."

"The door!"

"You found it? Keep talking."

"Marco."

"Polo."

"Marco."

"Marco."

"Britts, only Kurt says Marco."

"Polo."

"I just sat in a plate of spaghetti."

"Oh God, is that what that was? Me too."

"Marco."

"No, wait, mine was chocolate pudding."

"Puck, that's my ass."

"I'm not Puck."

"Polo!"

"Yes! Made it to the hallway!"

-oooooooooo-

Rachel was already changing into her pajamas when Quinn made it out of that mess and into the bunk bed room. She left Mike, who was cleaning the spaghetti sauce off of Tina's ass, and she hadn't seen Artie for about twenty minutes. He was probably rolling about the house in the dark; he'd find them eventually, as would Finn, who was picking up the shards of the lamp he had smashed.

Now that the fans and A/C were off, it was about ninety degrees throughout the house. Quinn was sweltering; she wanted to just take off her pants and slide into bed, but that would be…awkward. She stubbed her toe on the dresser, then grabbed her foot and hissed in pain for about ten minutes, after reassuring Rachel multiple times that she was fine.

Finally, she changed into pajamas and climbed blindly up the ladder, registering Mike and Tina entering the room as she did so. She laughed when they both stubbed their toes on the same dresser, swearing loudly and, apparently, tripping over one another to reach the bed.

Quinn climbed up next to Rachel, well, where she thought was next to Rachel. So, actually, on top of Rachel.

"Oomph. Quinn, you just kneed me in the stomach."

She shifted to the right.

"Your hair's in my mouth."

Quinn mumbled unintelligibly.

"What was that? And your elbow's in my eye."

"This bed is too freaking small."

Rachel shrugged. "I kind of like it. It's like a slumber party. In really close quarters."

Quinn chuckled, finally settling in and lying still. "Yeah. I think I only ever had one slumber party. My parents embarrassed me so much that I was permanently traumatized."

Rachel laughed lightly. "I only had one too."

Quinn turned to look at her, finally being able to see Rachel's eyes shining in the pitch black.

"Parental embarrassment?"

"Mmm, no."

Quinn raised an eyebrow, but waited for Rachel to continue.

"It was in middle school. I had these two girls over because they wanted to give me a makeover, but then my dad walked in, saw my face, and made them leave. He still won't tell me what I looked like. It took like an hour to wash it all off…I never really had anyone over after that; my dads wouldn't let me. It seems funny now though."

Quinn pursed her lips. Bitches.

"Quinn? You seem really tense."

"Bitches."

Rachel laughed. "It was middle school. Everybody was dealing with their own adolescent end-of-the-world issues. One day I saw this girl having a meltdown in class because she got a locker on the bottom row."

"Oh God. That was me." Rachel couldn't contain her snort of laughter at that. Quinn just nodded. "I need to erase middle school from my life. Seriously, those three years of horror benefitted nobody."

"I try to just block them out. Not as easy as it seems, even though it's just sounds. I find it hard to believe that you had such a hard time. Smart, popular, talented. Gorgeous."

"Mmmm." Quinn blushed. The heat was really getting to her now. They had long ago kicked the covers off and the warm, still air was pressing down on them. Quinn didn't move away when Rachel moved closer though. That was good warmth; she could die in that warmth.

God, she could die in this bed. This freaking, obnoxiously tiny bed. Really, her body felt like it was only moments away from suffocation, asphyxiation, heat exhaustion. Whatever. And Rachel just kept scooting closer.

Quinn felt herself growing tired. She hoped it was from fatigue and not lack of oxygen. She heard Finn mumble something about "fucking oven in here." She looked over at Rachel cuddled up to her side, eyes open, and pictured the five year old Rachel Berry from preschool. The little girl who'd play trains with Quinn in the big blue room; who she'd sit with in the playground, building castles out of wet sand. She pictured an adorable middle school Berry in animal sweaters being picked on by immature kids, and she pictured the sweet high school Berry lying right next to her. The one who was her buddy. The one who was sharing this tiny bed with her, radiating so much heat they would surely both combust, staring unseeing at the ceiling with a small smile gracing her lips.

Quinn picked her head up slightly, leaned in slowly, watching for Rachel's reaction, and kissed that Berry, her buddy Rachel Berry, softly on the lips. Rachel moved her head a little at first, in surprise, but kissed Quinn back after a moment and pulled away with a shy smile.

"Sweet dreams Rachel." Quinn fell asleep thinking the heat had made her insane.