April 2012, Lima, Ohio
The Fabray Residence

Sitting in her kitchen, Quinn sat with her body half turned, watching and listening to the clock tick away the seconds. She wasn't waiting for anything, she just didn't have anything better to do. Actually, she didn't really want anything better to do. It was 7:47 on a Friday night, she was bored and she loved it. If she were to receive a text, inviting her to some crazy party, she was going to pleasantly decline because tonight, Quinn had a date with her pajamas, some popcorn and the Netflix on her BlueRay player.

After taking a quick peak at her phone, she put it back on the table and left it behind to change into those PJs that she planned a date with. Just as her foot hit the bottom step, "Till the World Ends" started playing from the table. If it were anyone else, she would have kept walking up the stairs, but for some reason she just couldn't ignore a call from Brittany.

Hoping that she wasn't going to get another story about Lord Tubbington, Quinn answered, "Hey Britt."

"Hey Quinn," an unusual, melancholy voice came in through the ear piece.

Since she gave her phone number to Brittany three years before, never had one of her greetings been like this. She was always too excited to tell Quinn something and completely forgot that a greeting was even necessary. Immediately after hearing those words, she knew her perfectly boring plans for the night were completely lost and she knew the exact reason why, "Is she okay?"

"I don't know. You know how she is, she just told me where she was and to come and get her," a sniffle was heard, "I'm scared for her, Quinn."

"I know, Britt," Quinn said power walking her way to her front door, keys in hand, "I'm coming to get you, okay? And we'll go together."

"Okay," Brittany sniffled, "Quinn?"

"Yeah, Britt?" she answered the wobbly voice on the other end.

"How did you know I was calling about Santana?"

There were two reasons why Quinn instantly knew Brittany's call was about Santana. The thoughts came in quick succession and sent her directly into empathetic friend mode. First was Brittany's greeting. Not a lot of things bothered the usually bubbly blonde. She was well aware that people said some not so fantastic things about her, but she rarely ever let them get her down. Brittany felt for other people, especially the ones she cared about. Out of everyone, the person she cared for the most was Santana. Enter thought number two: Santana. All week she had seemed kind... out of it. She barely had anything to say to anyone in Glee Club when they expressed an opinion and even if she did, she simply agreed. It was like she was somewhere else all week. When Quinn finally asked her what was wrong after Glee on Thursday, Santana simply told her she had a lot on her mind and that she didn't want to talk about it.

Of course she didn't want to talk about it.

"I just knew," Quinn answered, knowing that answer would suffice for Brittany, "I'm leaving now, Britt, I'll be at your house in a few minutes."

"Will you stay on the phone with me until you get here?" the still sniffling blonde asked.

"Of course I will," Quinn answered and switched her phone to speaker before she put her car in reverse. Brittany only lived a couple of blocks away so it wouldn't be long before they were speaking in person, but Quinn wanted to help and be the friend she should have always been.

"I think she might have done something..." Brittany said slowly. Quinn could hear a door opening in the background and she assumed Brittany had walked outside.

"Like what...?" Quinn asked. She had her own suspicion, but she wondered if Brittany might have gotten a little more out of Santana than she had on Thursday.

"Well she was acting weird all week."

"Yeah, I think you and I are the only ones that noticed," Quinn sighed and put her car in park in front of Brittany's house. She watched as a sullen Brittany S. Pierce jogged over her front lawn to Quinn's Beetle.

"Of course no one else noticed!" she exclaimed as she sat down in the passenger seat, "Everyone was so happy that she wasn't making their lives hell that they didn't bother to say anything. Why would they want it to change? God forbid something's wrong! You know, everyone is so quick to say that I'm stupid and yeah, maybe I'm not the brightest but at least I'm not selfish. I notice when people aren't themselves, even when they aren't my best friend! Why aren't you driving?" Brittany's rant ended in a huff. She was out of breath and tears were forming in her eyes as she looked over to Quinn.

"I..." Quinn hesitated as she found herself wading in the uncharted waters of a near hysterical Brittany, "... I don't know where she is."

"Oh. Right," Brittany said shaking her head slightly, "when she called she was walking and she said she'd stop when she got to the elementary school."

"Where was she walking from?" Quinn asked as she put the car in drive.

"Her house," Brittany said flatly as the car started moving forward.

Suddenly, Quinn felt the pang of her suspicion becoming reality and as her car approached the last stop sign before the elementary school, she turned her head and asked Brittany, "Do you think she...?"

"Told her parents about us? Yes! The other day she mumbled something about 'getting it over with.' Then today, after school I said something about wishing I could kiss her goodbye and then instead of getting mad like she usually does, she said, 'Soon,' and ran out to her car. That was the last thing she said to me before she called me a half an hour ago," Brittany said, ranting again and leaving herself out of breath.

"A half an hour ago?" Quinn questioned as she pulled into the elementary school's parking lot, "her house is two miles away from here. Do you think she's even here yet?"

"Yup," Brittany answered pointing out her window towards the playground.

Quinn followed Brittany's finger to the barely lit playground and sure enough, there was Santana sitting on top of the jungle gym with her legs dangling between the bars and her face lit up by the light of her cell phone.

"I'll be right here," Quinn said assuming her presence was probably unwanted. As much as she wanted to be there for Santana, she figured it was best she stay behind.

"You aren't coming?" Brittany asked with a pout. Between that and the tears, Quinn couldn't even imagine saying no to her. She actually wondered how Santana, who was head-over-heals in love with Brittany could have possibly held out on coming out for this long.

"Okay, I'll come," Quinn answered, turning off her car, "but I'm hanging back."

"That's fine," Brittany responded and popped open her door.

Quinn waited until she made it to the gate before she opened her own door. Even with the fifteen paces between them, she took slow steps forward towards the gate. By the time she got there, Brittany was almost at the jungle gym. As she walked she kept her eyes on Santana who never looked up from her phone. She had to know they were there, Quinn thought, it wasn't like her headlights were out when she pulled up and the gate was definitely in need of some WD-40. Quinn stopped at the far post of the swing set, which was at least twenty steps away from where Brittany had stopped, but most likely in complete ear shot of both her and Santana.

"San?" Brittany's wobbly voice uttered the nickname that only she was allowed to use.

In the light of her phone, Quinn was sure she could see a half smile on Santana's lips. Without looking up she answered, "I did it, Britt."

"You did what, San?" Brittany asked, stepping closer to the metal structure underneath Santana.

"I told them," Quinn was positive Santana was smiling now. She could hear it.

"What did they say?" Brittany asked quietly.

"It doesn't matter," Santana said happily and then looked up, "They don't matter... wait what is she doing here?"

Quinn didn't know what to say. She also didn't know how she had gotten half way between the swings and the jungle gym.

"I called her. I was scared and you need more than just me, San. Will you come down? Please?" Brittany pleaded.

Santana gave Quinn one of her glares before putting her phone in her pocket and pulling her legs up from inside the jungle gym. When she turned around, Quinn noticed that she only used her left hand to maneuver her way back down the bars and despite that being her dominant hand, getting down from a dome of metal bars calls for the use of both.

"What's wrong with your hand?" she questioned once Santana was safe on the ground.

"Nothing-"

"San, your lip is bleeding," Brittany said, tracing her thumb just under Santana's lower lip.

"It was, it's fine now," Santana snapped, pulling her head away from Brittany's touch.

"Will you stop this!" Brittany yelled, "Two minutes ago you were so happy."

"Yeah well, two minutes ago no one was pointing out the side effects to my happiness," Santana huffed and blew past both Brittany and Quinn walking towards Quinn's car.

"We care about you!" Quinn yelled out to her. As the words left her mouth she knew they weren't enough and instantly she yelled out what she really meant, "We love you!" She waited until Santana had stopped until she continued, because she felt the need to continue... because she needed to... clarify... "I mean, of course I love you in a different way than Brittany," not helping, "you know what I mean."

Santana laughed slightly and as Brittany and Quinn approached her said, "Yeah, I know. Thanks. I love you, too, Q. Just not the way I love Brittany."

Quinn let out a tiny, breathy laugh that she hoped didn't sound as nervous as she felt and watched as Santana and Brittany exchanged the same puppy dog look they'd been giving each other as long as Quinn had known them.

"Umm..." Quinn broke into their 'moment,' "we can go back to my house if you guys want. My Mom is away for the weekend with her friends, so I have the house to myself."

"That's probably a good idea, everyone is home at my house," Brittany sighed, linking her arm into Santana's and turning to lead the way to Quinn's car.

"Well, I got kicked out, so my house is definitely out of the question," Santana laughed out. Brittany whipped her head to the left to look at Santana and Quinn's jaw popped open out of shock. She wasn't shocked that Santana had been kicked out of her house, she had already figured that. What was so shocking was Santana's lax attitude. "What? I'm not going to cry about it! I knew it was going to happen and I can't change it, so why not laugh about it?"

"Because they're your parents," Brittany said softly as they approached the car. She offered up the front seat but Santana had already opted for the back.

"Whatever."

After that, not another word was spoken the entire drive to Quinn's house. Despite knowing exactly what it felt like to be thrown out of her own home by her own father, she didn't know what to say. She didn't know it was going to happen when it did, so she never got the chance to prepare. Someone else made that decision for her.

Luckily, Quinn's house was less than ten minutes away from the elementary school, so the somewhat awkward silence of the ride was short-lived. The silence between them ended as they were walking into the house when Brittany revealed that she'd already solved Santana's homelessness situation, saying, "My Mom said that you can stay with us and she wants you to know that she loves you and that she hopes you're okay."

That's when everything hit Santana. Quinn could only watch it happen. Santana had barely gotten in the doorway when she fell to her knees and then all the way to the floor, sobbing. Brittany followed her down, wrapping her arms around her and pulling her into her tight enough that Santana's loud sobs became almost inaudible.

"It's okay," Brittany whispered, "everything is going to be okay."

"I know," Santana said into Brittany's shoulder. She pulled back, revealing that her crying had backed off slightly, "It's just... my Mom... she just... ugh... she just stood there while my father..."

"Did that?" Quinn asked pointing to Santana's right hand. She looked back to Santana's face, noticing for the first time that she also had a bruise forming under her eye and a few other smaller cuts on her cheek.

"No, he made whatever mess is on my face," she said, licking over the cut on her lip. "This is from tripping over the coffee table trying to get away from him," she winced as she lifted up the hand that definitely looked worse now that it was well lit.

"Shit!" Quinn scrambled down to the floor, "This is bad!"

"No it isn't-"

"Yes it is! Bend your wrist!" Quinn demanded, looking between Santana's eyes and her swollen and purple wrist.

"It's fine!"

"Bullshit!" Quinn called out as she shot her hand out and grabbed Santana's forearm.

"HOLYJESUSFUCKINGWHATTHEFUCK!"

"Maybe we should take you to the hospital," Brittany suggested in her usual deadpan.

Still reeling from the pain Quinn's grab had caused, Santana looked back and forth between Brittany and Quinn, receiving stern looks of concern from both, "Fine. But we're saying I fell off of that jungle gym."

"But-"

"I fell off the jungle gym, Quinn!"

"Okay," Quinn quietly agreed.

"I am one hundred percent done with them. They're never going to see me again. At least not in a place where this could ever happen again. I figured everything out this week. I called my Tía and she's going to help me with everything. I'm getting out of here," she took a deep breath and then looked between Quinn and Brittany again, "I got into UCLA. I'm going."

Brittany's mouth popped open, surprised, "But you said you were-"

"I'm going to UCLA, Brittany!" Santana snapped.

"Oh," Brittany said quietly. She looked so hurt. Santana finally came out to her parents so they could be together, but then decided she was going to move to a completely different part of the country. She should be hurt, Quinn thought.

At the same time, Santana should have looked a lot more sorry.

Clearly, Quinn was missing something and she would probably never find out what it was, because despite the fact that they were all "best friends," she was always the third wheel. And it would always be that way.

A/N: Ahh... who doesn't love a good flashback? I'll be completely honest, I wrote this chapter mostly for me. I've wanted to write this ever since I mentioned it happened way back when in WLJALTL. Hopefully I did it justice... well, I think I did, so... Anyways, let me know what you think! Your enthusiasm keeps me in the writing spirit.