Chapter Eleven:

Our paths were destined to cross always

However long, weeks years or days

"You guys don't need to do this you know."

Quinn watched as Santana threw Rachel's last suitcase into the back of the car, the little brunette standing behind Quinn as she talked to her father's on the phone.

"Please Q, little Large-Lungs over there wouldn't dare let you go without a date." The girl replied, rolling her eyes as she slammed the boot closed. "Besides, I'm coming for the free food."

The blonde chuckled along with her before trailing off into a small thoughtful silence.

Judy Fabray had passed not long after Quinn first reconnected with her parents. It was quick, decidedly painless; she was carried through a deep sleep and unfortunately didn't awake on the other side. To say Russell was devastated would have been a peculiar observation.

He was upset, that much was evident in the way he had actually been trying to communicate with his daughter again. The way in which he conveyed his grief, in true style of most other emotions he possessed, was through deliberate silence and passive features. He addressed most people shortly and curtly, Quinn would sometimes benefit in the respect of receiving a delicately worded and thoughtful statement or query, but otherwise, Russell Fabray had become even more of a resolute stone.

Quinn was knocked from her reverie when small tanned arms wound around her waist.

"I resent these nicknames Tan, are they supposed to be terms of affection?" Rachel whined as she just managed to rest her chin over Quinn's shoulder. Santana and Quinn exchanged eyebrow twitches and small smirks before the darker girl chuckled.

"What would you rather? Pipes or large-lungs?" Quinn rolled her eyes as Santana cocked a hip and rested a hand upon it.

"Neither." Rachel replied defiantly. "I choose neither; you can't expect me to pick a proffered nickname from two horrible references."

Santana's smirk widened into a smile and Quinn resisted the urge to press her palm to her forehead in exasperation.

"Pick one, or I make up even worse ones."

Quinn tensed when she felt a huff of exasperated Rachel Berry breath hit the back of her neck.

"Tan…" Rachel whined again but silenced herself when Santana inclined her head.

Another huff of breath and Quinn began to think passing out was a more preferable option to this sensory overload.

"Fine!" Rachel growled affectionately, removing her arms from Quinn's waist and stepping around her to come closer to Santana. She offered her own defiant stance, fist clenched, and the other hand pointing up at the girl.

"Pipes. And that's only because large-lungs isn't remotely affectionate at all, it sounds marginally annoying to be frank…" the little brunette narrowed her eyes and Santana reached out, ruffling her neat hair.

"Marginally annoying, Rachel. Why do you think it suits you so well?" she chuckled and Quinn let out a peal of laughter at the indignant look on Rachel's face, as Santana moved to get into the driver's side of the car.

"Santana!" Rachel tried to call through the glass. "You won't be calling me that because…oh, never mind." She gave up, letting her palms hit her thighs as Santana mimed not hearing the girl through the windshield.

Quinn cast her chin to the sky in amused exasperation before moving to grasp Rachel's arm.

"Come on, she's just fucking around." She pulled the other girl to the side of the car and opened the back door.

"You're not riding in the front?" Rachel asked as Quinn slipped into the other side of the car beside her in the back seat. The blonde shrugged and Santana eyed them in the rear view mirror before starting the car and revving the engine.

"Right, let's get this show on the ro…oh for fuck sake Fabray!" Santana groaned turning in her seat as Quinn fumbled with the lighter, holding a cigarette between her lips.

"What?" she asked innocently as she removed it from her mouth before sighing. "I'm just a little stressed, okay?" she added and Santana arched an eyebrow before waving her hand.

"Fine, just, open the goddamn window, okay?" she dismissed and turned back to the steering wheel.

Quinn unwound the window down and Santana pulled out of the lot, taking the road outbound of New York as Rachel watched Quinn inhale and exhale the smoke.

"You think its dirty right?" Quinn winced as Rachel sighed when she threw the nub of the cigarette out of the window.

The blonde turned to see Rachel staring at her hands pointedly, as though she were trying to steady herself. The other girl took a deep breath and looked up at her.

"No, I guess. I find it ironic, the whole thing with your mom and…sorry. I shouldn't have…"

"Rach." Quinn reached out and placed a hand on the back of her head, her fingers unconsciously burying themselves into the long locks. Rachel seemed to lean into her touch and Quinn held the silence for a second longer before continuing.

"Mentioning her isn't going to bring her back, that's true. But it's not going to make her any deader, okay? Her funeral is on Sunday, then it's over, done. Got it?"

Rachel nodded.

"I meant it. When I said you guys really didn't have to come." Quinn added quietly as she let her hand fall to Rachel's lap, clasping a small hand in her own palm.

The owner of the hand just shrugged and leant into Quinn's shoulder, resting her chin on the side of her arm. Quinn sighed and wound up the window, running a hand through her hair. She made a mental not to get it cut before the funeral.

Quinn hadn't expected an invite; she was ready to sink back into the state of non-existence between herself and her father. She had given it a week after her mother had actually passed before Russell went back to ignoring her.

Contrary to her assumption though, he had talked about the event and asked her opinion on mostly everything. Quinn figured that it was because her sister wouldn't be able to make it back from her new job in L.A to attend the funeral and was going to pay her respects the following weekend but it seemed her father was actually really interested in what she believed her mother would have preferred.

They drove for hours, getting caught in traffic, Quinn wove in and out of sleep, conscious nightmares of what was to come, sweet dreams of bliss and brunette hair, melodic voices keeping the angst at bay as she laid her head against the window.

She was vaguely aware that Rachel had finally passed her driving test when Santana and the smaller girl traded places. Santana didn't desire the back seat though, and sat in the passenger side, keeping Rachel quiet company as they tried to let Quinn relax.

It was dark when they finally arrived in front of the large Fabray house.

"Sorry Q-tip." Rachel chuckled as she opened the door and caught her as she all but fell out of the car.

"Swasn'tyourfault." Quinn mumbled as she pulled herself up and shook off her reverie. She looked up at the house and sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

"The bed at my father's is still very much obtainable." Rachel whispered as Santana popped the lock on the boot and dodged it as it swung open.

Quinn turned and looked down at her with a sad smile.

"Thanks Rach, but. I owe it to my dad to keep him company."

"You don't owe him shi…" Santana stopped her angry tirade before it went too far after Rachel shot a look her way. She mimed zipping her lips and busied herself pulling Quinn's suitcase from underneath Rachel's paraphernalia of weekend bags and toiletries.

"The offer still stands Quinn." Rachel rested a cautious hand upon the blonde's cheek as she peered through her fringe up at the taller girl. "If anything happens, he starts giving you a hard time or you feel lonely or…"

"If there's a spider on your wall he won't kill, god forbid even if you get scared of the dark!" Santana jested but fell silent when Rachel gave her another look.

"Just, you know where I am, where the both of us are." Rachel finished as Quinn felt the girl's thumb trace her cheekbone swiftly before falling away from her face.

Quinn caught the hand before it completely moved away and pressed her lips to the soft skin on the inside of Rachel's wrist, watching the girl's eyes as their lids fluttered but otherwise kept an intense stare into her own.

"Thank you."

Santana cleared her throat and Quinn let the hand drop, sending a small smirk to Rachel before turning and moving to the Latina.

"Don't worry; I won't be calling you at midnight to kill anything crawling along my wall, unless it's that stripper you hired that one time…"

Santana rolled her eyes as Rachel frowned.

"What stripper?" came a confused voice and Quinn turned as Santana chuckled.

"She's kidding Pipes." Santana smirked and turned back to Quinn.

"Listen Tubbers, I know you don't want me to say this but I'm gonna. Thing is, preacher man up there hasn't changed just cause he's missing your older clone, hmmkay? Now, I know exactly what the goings on have been in that house since we were knee high, he starts that shit again? Tell him I'm taller these days, and that fingernail scar on his thigh could be a lot higher, right?"

Quinn arched an eyebrow and Santana put her hands on her hips.

"Jusssaying." She clicked her tongue and Quinn laughed, patting her on the shoulder.

"Down girl, down. What a great guard dog you've turned out to be." She shared a chuckled with the girl before bending to sling her bag strap over her now broad shoulders. She thanked god for those morning sprints around the block and those Saturday weight sessions.

Rachel moved to Santana's side and Quinn noted the way their hands slipped together in silent and comforting support. She sighed mentally at the gesture and how the closeness between them made her heart warm.

Sending them a quick sad smile, she made her way up the path towards the house, pausing at the door to turn and see her best friends again before they disappeared. She bit her lip when she saw Rachel's face upon Santana's shoulder and a comforting hand stroking her back. With her free hand Santana made a gesture in the air, waving Quinn away.

She nodded and quietly slipped the key from her pocket. She had been shocked when her father had cut it for her after discarding her other key when he kicked her out.

Russell had moved back in to their shared family house when Judy had fallen sick, he had since been staying there, even after his late wife's death. It made Quinn's skin crawl to think of him being in their room without that familiar dash of blonde hair and scent of floral perfume, but such was life after a close one's death was it not?

"I didn't expect you to be this late."

Quinn jumped so high she expected to hit her head on the ceiling and leave her skin behind. The door fell shut as she turned to inspect the dark hallway. The voice was deep, unmistakeably Russell-like tones resonating against the dark laminate floor.

"Sorry." She managed to stutter.

He nodded in the moonlight coming through the window in the door.

"I left your bedding in the basket on the landing, make sure you change it properly before you sleep." He replied softly before nodding and turning to walk down the hall.

Quinn let out a breath as he disappeared around the corner. At least there were only a few days to go until she cut herself off from the man once and for all. She had done what her mother had asked, tried to at least. That was all she could do, it was all her father (and admittedly her bitter conscience) would let her do.

She turned and stared at the front door, pleading for it to convince her she could just walk right back out of it.

"Hey, no Tana that's heavy!"

Santana chuckled as she lugged all four of Rachel's bags up through the hallway of her father's house and into her old bedroom.

"No probs." She shrugged as she dropped the luggage beside the bed in her room.

Taking in a breath she surveyed Rachel's room for the first time in her life. Puck had mentioned it was yellow before, but she had expected it to be gaudy and bright.

It was pale, though a lot of the spare wall space was filled with Broadway posters and other fanatical visuals. It wasn't actually that bad.

She smiled when Rachel huffed in disapproval as she moved in through the door.

Santana dropped herself down upon the bed, catching herself from falling off again when she didn't realize how bouncy it was.

"Holy fuck Pipes, what is your mattress made of, Tigger's tail?"

Santana reset herself down on the bed as Rachel sniggered, dropping her hand luggage beside her other bags.

"What?" she scowled at the brunette as she continued to chuckle.

"Tigger? Really?"

Santana sniffed and shrugged in disdain at the comment.

"Whatever, don't tell me you didn't have an affinity for Piglet."

Rachel coughed and moved to organize a few things on her desk.

"Actually I…I felt the most familiarity with Rabbit…as it were." She all but whispered, Santana noticing her tuck her hair behind her ears nervously as she nodded.

"Makes sense." She shrugged and Rachel turned around, before they both burst out laughing.

When it fizzles out they find themselves staring at each other for a while.

"What are you thinking?" she asked Rachel quietly as the other girl moved to the bed, sitting down next to her.

Rachel opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by the sound of knocking.

They looked at each other and frowned.

"Did you hear that?" Rachel whispered and Santana nodded, frowning.

It sounded again, louder this time, causing Rachel to jump. She flinched and Santana's heart leapt at the sudden move.

"Fucking…Rach." She groaned quietly, holding her chest as she peered around the girl towards the open bedroom door, the shadows of the hallway shifting restlessly back at her.

"Wait, it's late, I expect they'll go away." The brunette whispered and Santana nodded, steadying her breathing as they waited in silence.

Just when they thought the mysterious visitor had gone away, there was another knock. It was tentative this time, almost as though they were losing hope.

Santana's nerves twitched, becoming irritated. She stood from the bed and moved across the room, shrugging off Rachel's hand.

"What are you…Tana!" Rachel all but squealed as Santana turned.

"I'm gonna give this jackass a piece of my mind, it's like fricking eleven thirty, everyone knows after nine o clock the only reason you go round someone's house is for a party or a booty call." She shrugged and Rachel smiled in spite of herself.

"You would know." She muttered and Santana flipped her the bird before disappearing out of the door. Rachel moved from the bed to lean out into the landing hallway, watching Santana's shadow move through the darkness.

"Just be quiet, don't wake my dad's up when you dig the grave!" Rachel whispered and she heard a light chuckle join the sound of creaking stairs.

Santana padded down the hallway, cracking her knuckles as she saw the shadow thrown up against the porch. She approached the door and took a deep breath, slinging the latch across and opening the door.

She gasped as she just caught Quinn, turning and moving to walk away with her bag on her shoulder.

"Q!" Santana gasped causing the blonde to stop. She unlatched the door and opened it wide.

"Santana?" Quinn replied, turning and seeing her in the doorway, hugging her stomach as she shifted her bag.

"What are you doing here?" they asked each other and chuckled a little before Santana replied.

"I was just keeping Pipes company. She was acting kinda sad, probs 'cause she won't be able to wrap her koala like arms around you tonight."

Santana caught the small sad smile on Quinn's lips and sighed.

"I guess you're here for the same reason, right?"

Quinn swallowed and looked up.

"I can't stay in that house any longer Santana. I just can't. It's like…" Santana stopped her with a dark tan hand.

"Save it. I know what it's like." She shrugged, knowing what Quinn meant.

She sighed and turned, pulling her jacket from the hooks behind the door.

"I was just leaving anyway…"

She stepped out, slipping in to the clothing. She left the door open as she passed Quinn on the front path. The blonde turned and watched her.

"Wait, I'm sure Rach wouldn't mind if you stayed too."

Santana laughed, waving her hand.

"Three in the bed, what would the little one say?" she raised and eyebrows and smirked. "Go and settle in. The more time you spend out here, the less time you get to spend watching her sleep… you creep."

With that, Santana shoved her hands in her pockets and walked down the path towards her car, Quinn finally moving towards the door as she got in and shut the door. She started the engine and sighed, pulling out into the road and driving to the bed in the basement of her family's house, and bed sheets that still, after all this time, and many washes, smelt like a certain blonde.

"Who was it?" Rachel as she heard the front door shut and the stairs creaking again.

"Just some idiot wanting a bed for the night." Came the reply and Rachel nearly fell off the bed.

"Quinn!" she gasped, moving towards her and taking her bags, turning her and checking over her.

"What happened, did something happen? Are you hurt, was he giving you a hard time? Good lord did he hurt you? I swear to god Quinn if…"

She was silenced by smooth, pale hands coming down on her shoulders and the small smile on perfect lips just in front of her.

"Rach." The smoky voice chuckled as she moved away and stacked her bags more appropriately next to Rachel's and stretched. Rachel squirmed at the small expanse of pale flesh that was exposed of the girl's navel when she did so. She backed up and sat back down on her space on the bed.

"So, why are you here? Not that I don't want you here, which I do, but I mean you don't have to be here, I just…"

"Oh my god."

Rachel was stopped when Quinn's hand clamped down on her mouth as the blonde moved to sit down next to her.

"You." She smiled very close to Rachel's face. "Need to stop asking people questions and then answering them yourself."

Rachel was only half listening. The last time she'd been this close to Quinn's face was that time on New Year's eve. Okay, so maybe she had been pretty close that time they danced together, and whenever they fell asleep on the couch together, but this time, Quinn's undivided attention was on her. There was nothing stopping each other from looking deeply in to one another's eyes.

Well, until Quinn smiled sadly and dropped her hand from Rachel's mouth, sighing dejectedly and kicking her shoes off.

Rachel swallowed and crossed her legs, turning to look at her companion more closely.

"Are you going to answer my question?" she asked quietly and saw Quinn arch an eyebrow at her.

"Are you going to let me?"

She rolled her eyes and Quinn nodded, biting her lip.

"I got scared."

She frowned and looked at the blonde before her.

"Of what?"

"I don't know. I just felt it in my chest; I couldn't sleep in that bed knowing he was alone in his. It was okay when she was alive; there was a chance she'd be coming home. Now she's gone and, it's just going to be him. No one to balance him out, as much as I hate what he did to our family, I feel as though me being there is intruding. If I was him, I'd want a while to be able to get used to the idea that there would be a space next to me for the rest of my life."

"But, I thought you said they divorced a while back."

"Yes, for like seven months. But that amount of time against the rest of your life? It's nothing."

Rachel heard the strain in Quinn's voice and pulled her into her arms. They stayed like that for a while; Quinn's body nestled in Rachel's loving and deceptively strong arms.

"Come on." Rachel coaxed quietly as she lifted Quinn's head with a finger, smiling what she hoped was a caring smile at the girl.

Quinn smiled a small smile back and leaned back to sit up properly. Rachel stood, switched the bedside light on and moved to turn the main light off. When she turned she saw Quinn stumbling around, trying to open her bag to retrieve her pj's.

"Hey." Rachel said softly, grabbing the blonde's upper arm as she nearly fell over her own suitcase.

"Come, I'll let you borrow some of mine." She smiled and Quinn grimaced weakly back as she stubbed her foot on her suitcase.

Rachel took Quinn to her walk in closet and gestured to the shelves.

"Pick anything."

She herself opted for her grey sweats and a white vest top, ignoring the urge to turn and catch sight of more pale skin than she could handle as she toyed with the strings of the sweats. When she was pretty sure Quinn had finished she turned to look at her.

Swallowing her words (or rather groans) of appreciation, she took in the site of the blonde girl wearing her tiny black shorts and a loose fitting white top with the gold star on it. The top fell over one of her creamy shoulder's revealing a pink bra strap, unable to stop herself Rachel frowned.

"You wear your bra to bed?" she inquired and Quinn looked at her shoulder, blushing.

"Um I…not usually but…when I stay at someone's house…"

"You don't, wear it all the time when we're at home do you?" she asked, probing lightly for fear of going too far.

Something inside both girls quivered at that. It wasn't something they'd fully realized yet; that they had a home with each other. Granted, Santana was always present too, but they had always just been living together. Rachel had referred to it as home and Quinn's heart had melted at that statement, when we're, meaning Rachel and herself, are at home.

"No, not always, only when I think Santana's left her jacket on the door and you're gonna come creeping to check if I'm a monster." Quinn's blush deepened as Rachel nodded, both smirking.

"Well." Rachel drew herself up to her full height and nodded to herself. "Don't make yourself uncomfortable on my account." She nudged her bra on the floor with her foot, succeeding in her quest to make Quinn chuckle, her skin fizzing at the sound.

"Feminism it is then." Quinn sighed elated and reached up the back of her top, Rachel looked away and when she turned back Quinn was dropped her pink bra to the floor next to Rachel's own white one.

"I can burn it if you like." Rachel offered and they both burst out laughing.

"I'm sorry, I'm a mess." Quinn replied in a whisper as the laughing bubbled out.

Rachel shook her head as the blonde avoided her eyes, favouring to look at the floor as she tucked her blonde mid-length locks behind her ears.

"No. You're perfect." She replied and they looked at each other quickly before looking away, recognizing the strange in look in the other's eye as the same feeling in their hearts. Rachel led the way back into the bedroom, leaving their previous clothes piled on the floor of her closet in a less than innocent kind of way.

Rachel pulled back the covers and slipped in first, moving to lie against the headboard. She looked up and patted the bed, just like Quinn had that night she found her apartment burgled. The blonde climbed upon the bed and crawled haphazardly into Rachel's arms, lying on her stomach.

The role reversal of the situation seemed to balance out the atmosphere in the room. Quinn muzzled her forehead in to Rachel's neck and the brunette all but sighed at the feeling of blonde hair tickling the column of her throat. She absently began to run her fingers through it, feeling Quinn's elated sigh. Quinn's hand's snaked its way over Rachel's navel as she slung her arm habitually over the girl's hip, Rachel leaning her head back on the board, taking in the warmth of the blonde's body.

Rachel was undeniably rather on the short side, so it didn't surprise her that being farther up the bed than Quinn, meant that the brunette's legs stopped shorter than when they usually lay next to each other. Both girls noticed this with a chuckle when Quinn shuffled and her bare knee fell over Rachel's shin.

"G'night Rachel." Quinn managed to yawn from her space at Rachel's collarbone. Rachel ran her fingers through golden hair again and smiled.

"Sleep tight Q-Tip." She whispered and leant her head back, her eyes closing, knowing she would pay for the awkward position with severe neck pains the next morning.

She couldn't find it in herself to care.