A/N: No, I haven't disappeared. Just busy, busy, busy. I hate to say it but I feel updates may be this slow until December at least. They may take time, but they will come.

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Quinn was happy. Not just because she had a dozing Rachel in her arms as they sat in the taxi on the way to their new apartment either. Sure, she was working hard; harder than most even. But she was at least feeling, if not being rewarded for it. Not physically or mentally of course; her body was falling apart and she knew she was getting tired. She was being rewarded with the knowledge that she was doing something good for Rachel and to a lesser extent Brook.

Quinn rested her cheek on the head of her sleeping girlfriend and looked straight out of the windscreen to the night. Her eyes felt heavy and her vision wasn't really focused, but she wouldn't let herself sleep. With both Rachel and Brook already taking the honours, Quinn felt one of them should stay awake for safety reasons. The taxi driver seemed nice enough, but you never really know.

"So you three? Are you friends? Sisters?" Quinn caught the taxi driver's vision in the rear-view mirror.

"Rachel's my girlfriend. Brook was my roommate before I needed to move, and she decided to tag along." It wasn't something that came up much. There was rarely anyone asking her about what Rachel was to her. Most people either just already knew or didn't care. Telling someone she was romantically linked to Rachel wasn't a bad feeling, just different.

"So the three of you are moving into the same place? Why so far away from Yale? I assume you go there, yes?"

"Brook and I do, yes. How did you know?" Quinn started looking at her clothes to see if she was wearing something to give it away.

"I picked you up from the dorm rooms." Quinn felt her cheeks flush with heat in embarrassment.

"Ahh, right."

"So again, why so far from Yale? There are many places closer."

"Rachel goes to NYADA." The driver started to laugh. "What?"

"I'm not awesome math person, but one usually beats two correct?"

"This isn't a matter of winning." Quinn pointed out.

"Says the loser." The driver followed this up with a whip sound.

"Just shut up and drive." Quinn snapped. To his credit, the driver only flashed her one more quick smirk through the rear-view mirror before turning his attention back to the road.

Quinn looked down to the girl who was still sleeping on her shoulder and couldn't help but wonder in what kind of a universe having Rachel as her girlfriend meant she had lost. If there was such a place, a thought that she seriously doubted, Quinn knew that it wasn't the place for her.

Again, Quinn turned her focus to out the windscreen. The night-time had always fascinated her in a similar way to rain. Everything always looked cooler at night or when it was wet. It was all darker, there was mystery. There was also the way that everything felt different. The air, the sidewalk, people's emotions; it was all different. It was all exciting.

She watched as the people walking around all seemed so confident, so self assured. New York was a place of certainty, that much had always been obvious. In New York, you had to be sure of yourself or you would be chewed up and spat out.

Quinn of course knew that being in the new city would call for a slight tweak to her personality. Not as much of a whole new change than a small reversion. Since she had been with Rachel, she had realised that the world wasn't all about her. Sure, she had had a rough couple of years, but there was always someone worse off. She hadn't lost all confidence in herself, but she had started to let other people have a say. Quinn knew that to keep Rachel and herself happy she would need to regain a bit of fire and assertiveness that she had lost.

"Are we there yet?" Quinn looked down to see Rachel yawning. Quinn let her stretch for a bit before wrapping her arms around her.

"Almost. Just a few minutes." Quinn promised. She watched as Rachel closed her eyes and rolled her head around to stretch it. She also watched as Rachel then opened her eyes, looked out the window and smiled for a second, before her face took on a confused look. "What's wrong?"

"I..." Rachel started looking through all the windows as though she was looking for something. Quinn tried to see what she was looking for, but all she saw were buildings and people in suits. "We're in New York." It was asked, not stated.

"And...?"

"Why are we in New York?" It sounded accusatory, but then again, it probably was.

"Because that's where we are going to live?" Quinn knew that Rachel wasn't going to like that. She did her best to sound innocent, but she had known from the get go that Rachel would have preferred that they live closer to Yale.

"No, no, no, no, no. You're already moving for me, you shouldn't be moving closer to my school than your own."

"Hate to say this, but it's a little bit late for that sweetheart."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because she knew you would go all whatever you call this is on her." Rachel's panicked voice had woken up Brook. Quinn watched as Rachel's gaze flicked from Brook back to herself. She knew Rachel wanted her to answer.

"Look, me and Brook both agreed to it so I don't really see any problem. It's a great place that we won't be able to find anywhere else. So how about you just calm down and stop worrying."

"The problem is that you are already working yourself to death and now you have to catch a train to do the same. It matters because you already do so much and you shouldn't need to go on a journey every day to go to school. It's important because it makes me feel useless and like a bad girlfriend when you are doing everything." The only thing that actually made what Rachel had said hit home was the tears that were now cascading down her cheeks.

"Oh Rachel." Quinn cupped Rachel's face and started wiping away her tears. "You're a great girlfriend." Rachel shook her head.

"No I'm not. You give up everything for me and I do nothing for you."

"If I may interject. If you were a bad girlfriend do you think she would be working so hard for you?" Brook asked.

"Exactly. You love me don't you?" Quinn asked.

"Of course, I'd do anything for you." Quinn smiled as she felt a swell of pride.

"And I'd do anything for you. I just beat you to it." She looked out the window. "Now stop frowning. We're here." Quinn had to give it to Rachel; she had packed their things well. She had organised the things into bags so that they all just had to carry two bags and pull one each for them to bring all their things into the apartment building. Quinn shouldered her two carrying bags as she started looking for the key.

"Quinn, what are you doing?" Rachel asked, following closely behind as Quinn looked behind the rocks of one of the two planters out the front of the building.

"Looking for the key. It's supposed to be behind one of these rocks." Quinn dropped her bags and pulled out her phone. "I can't see." She started using her phone's light to try and find the key.

"Do you know how incredibly unsafe it is to have a hidden key on the property. I could tell you many statistics but I am sure that you are already aware of how dangerous and possibly life threatening this is." Quinn just went on looking for the key.

"How is it dangerous? We haven't actually lived here yet. Oh, here it is." Quinn rubbed the dirt off the key using her shirt.

"How do we know that someone didn't take the key and get a copy of it before bringing the key back here with the intent to attack us after we have moved in." Quinn looked at Brook. Brook just shrugged. They decided to just ignore Rachel. Quinn pushed the front door open and walked into the elevator. She was too tired to really take anything in. When they reached their floor, Rachel covered her eyes with her free hand.

"I don't want to see anything until tomorrow when I can actually look. I don't want to half see things." Quinn rolled her eyes. She put her free arm around Rachel's waist to guide her through the hall.

"Brook, take the keys and open the door." Quinn ordered when they had made it to their door. It was only one of two on the floor. Although she thought Rachel was being silly before, Quinn also avoided seeing as much as possible. She made her way to her and Rachel's room only looking at the floor; she had remembered where it was from the photos.

"We're in the room; you can open your eyes." Quinn told Rachel. The brunette complied, and immediately started setting up their sleeping bags. It was a temporary arrangement because they were set to go out and buy beds tomorrow.

"Night Brook." Quinn called through their new apartment.

"Night guys." Quinn looked at Rachel and kissed her nose.

"Night baby."

"Goodnight Quinn. Sweet dreams." They were asleep in minutes.

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A/N: Short chapter. I know. Busy.