Getting back into the rhythm of school was actually easier than Rachel thought it would have been. Even the cruelest of her former tormenters were leaving the bereaved Glee club alone in the aftermath of Quinn's death. That combined with the fact that she was back to spending a lot of time with Noah meant that people were steering clear.
What proved sadly harder was getting back into her singing. For someone who had been singing virtually every day of her life for seventeen years, going more than a week in musical silence had left her more than a little rusty. So Rachel was babying her voice, but its strength was coming back more and more every day.
What was potentially the strangest about her new routine and new life was how much time she was spending with Brittany and Santana. She and Kurt rarely saw each other now unless they were working together on their NYADA auditions. It was just too hard for both of them with Finn. The result of this left Rachel and Noah spending a ton of time with people firmly on their side of things, and that meant the cheerios and girlfriends more often than not. The other Glee club members were doing their best to stay neutral, but Santana was vehemently in support of Rachel and Britt didn't like that Finn was 'being so mean.'
So many afternoons in the weeks following Rachel's return to McKinley were spent sitting in someone's bedroom or basement with Rachel, Puck and Santana kibitzing and Brittany waxing poetic about Lord Tubbington. Either that or they sat and pretended to listen to Rachel freak out over her choice of song, and talk about her song, and worry about her song until one of them got sick of it and forced her to stop. Granted that usually came in the form of something like a pillow flying at her head, but it was effective and usually made her laugh after a moment's indignation.
One day about three weeks after her return the four of them were lounging in Puck's basement on a Friday afternoon. Rachel worked on homework while Santana and Noah played some ridiculously violent video game and Britt regaled them with the story of Lord Tubbington's date with the neighbor's tabby. Suddenly, the question that had been nagging at Rachel burst out unbidden.
"Why are you on my side?" The exclamation seemed to echo through the room like a gunshot, stunning all of them.
For a moment they just stared, but eventually Santana shrugged it off. "Finn's an idiot; pretty simple."
Rachel set her book aside and twisted her fingers together, staring at her crossed legs. "Please don't brush it off." Finally she looked up, brown eyes meeting brown. "Why are you on my side?"
It seemed briefly as if she would refuse to answer, but then she appeared resigned. Handing her game controller to Puck, she turned to fully face the other girl. "I wasn't screwing with you when I told you Finn is being a complete ass; he is. But I also know that Quinn…" Santana broke off as tears caught in her throat and blurred her eyes. "Quinn wouldn't want you to beat yourself up over this, and she would hate the way that Finn is treating you."
Puck nodded before speaking quietly. "She's right you know. Quinn may have been a lot of things but she wanted to be there for you that last day. She would've hated to see everything the way it is now."
Brittany nodded. "Quinn wasn't just mean… Well, not always anyway."
As always Brittany's slightly ditzy interjection brought the smiles back to their faces. With the mood light again Rachel felt as if it would have been in poor taste to bring it back down, but she couldn't just leave it where it was.
Her eyes met Santana's again and she smiled softly. "Well however it happened I'm glad to have you as a friend."
And then the moment was over. Britt went back to chatting about cats, Puck and Santana went back to kicking each others' asses via game controller, and Rachel just felt her heart lighter than it had been in weeks.
