A/N - So its my birthday and this is a present for all my readers but it's also the last chapter. Thanks so much for reading and reviewing.

Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love

When I see your face

There's not a thing that I would change

'Cause you're amazing

Just the way you are

And when you smile

The whole world stops and stares for a while

'Cause girl you're amazing

Just the way you are

Bruno Mars

Her room is finally quiet, Santana and Kurt being the last to leave. It had been the reunion she had not expected but had wanted for some time. A gathering of old friends, sharing of stories and lives, validating their past and reinstating friendships long dormant. She had needed it but not as much as needing to hold Rachel, to feel her in her arms and breathe her in.

Quinn knows how lucky she is, not only in her recovery but in having Rachel in her life. Santana had been the last to leave her room, not because they had the most catching up to do but because her old rival had been looking for some direction. They were always two sides of a coin in High School, rivals and best friends, competing for everything not to win but to make the other lose. It had been childish but it also fueled their connection like nothing else could.

So she could not deny Santana an answer when she stood at the door looking directly at her and asked why Rachel. Quinn knew she could have pretended to not understand the question but she could never deny her feeling s for Rachel.

"Because she makes me want to be better. Because I like me when I'm with her. Because she loves me regardless." She could have gone on but her point had been made when Santana had nodded at her words, her features transitioning from reflective to understanding. Her mind not on Quinn and Rachel but on her own missed love. It was difficult to see because Quinn understood that if Rachel had not been so forgiving, she would be in the exact same position Santana was.

"It wasn't difficult recognizing love; it was just difficult accepting it sometimes." Sometimes she wished that she had seen Rachel's true worth in High School but she hadn't been worthy then and even now she still thinks she's the lucky one. Quinn wants to tell Santana that it'll work out for her and Brittany but she doesn't not because she does not believe it but because it has to be what Santana wants to believe.

Quinn just hopes that they won't waste as much time as she and Rachel had. In the end, it had been cathartic to hear of how everyone's lives had turned out. She never really expected that they would all be relatively happy in their own right but she always hoped that it would be the case despite the odds being stacked against them.

It was something Mr. Schue had instilled in them from the beginning. Despite his own flaws, he always believed in them with all his heart. Even when they didn't have faith in themselves, he always believed in them, individually and as a group. Quinn doesn't know if she'll ever be able to fully forgive herself for his death but she knows that he would never have blamed her.

Likewise, she does not know if she would ever be comfortable with the knowledge that she had the uncanny knack to hurt Rachel even if she never meant to. It scared her and frustrated her in equal measure. Knowing that she needed Rachel by her side, that her presence made her life complete but it also exposed the brunette to getting hurt.

Quinn glances down at Rachel curled into her side, her breaths even and understands that it's probably the first real rest Rachel had since she went into her coma. Her presence almost expected and the comfort it brought immeasurable.

It's been two days since she regained consciousness. Two days undergoing a flurry of tests each time only looking forward to going back to her room because she knew Rachel would be there waiting, like she had been the moment Quinn had slipped into a coma.

Her mom had filled her in on everything even as Rachel bowed her head, not wanting Quinn to see the unshed tears sparkling in her eyes. She just held Rachel's hands tightly in hers as she heard of how she had refused to leave her room, instead, singing to her for hours on end, leaving her voice slightly hoarse now but still beautiful because it conveyed everything that Quinn had felt deep down, a beacon that brought Quinn back.

She's so caught up in her musings that she does not realize her father being wheeled into her room until he clears his throat and calls her name. "Quinn."

He looks better but still so much older than she remembered, only to accept that ten years had gone by and she had changed as much as he had. In her mind, only Rachel looked the same like she did all those years ago. She had been perfect then, a dynamo wrapped up in talent and overflowing with passion. It had taken Quinn years to realize that fact but once she did, there was no denying that she was miraculous and perfect.

"How are you feeling?" Her voice is soft, not wanting to wake Rachel and break the rest she needed.

"I should be asking you that." He stares at his daughter, her hands possessively holding the brunette in her arms and it surprises him that he's come to expect it, his daughter's overt show of affection for the woman in her arms. "How is she?" He nods towards Rachel, smirking when he sees Quinn's eyebrows rise and her expression turn to surprise.

He can come up with so many reasons why their relationship should be condemned but in the end, he's realized that he only needs one reason for its validation. He loves his daughter, even when hate coated his every action, he still never stopped loving Quinn, he just refused to acknowledge it. And by extension, he didn't have to understand all her actions but accept them because it was who she was and he didn't want her to change. "She never gave up on you. Ignoring the doctors…Telling me to go to Hell, if I didn't believe that you would be ok." He chuckles as he remembers her warning to him.

"She's my life." Quinn sees him nod at her words as if accepting them only she cannot take his actions at face value. He's disappointed her too many times for her to believe despite the feelings that his words invoke within her. "She's my family and I would do everything to ensure that she's never going to get hurt." Her conviction comes through even as she sees his features turn into a frown.

"You can't guarantee that." He holds up his hand when he sees her start to protest, not wanting to instigate a fight but needing her to listen to him and learn from his mistakes. He had made so many throughout his life that it seemed like such a waste not to benefit from his shortcomings.

"You loved speed." He uses the past tense even though he knows that she would always like the feel of going faster than she should. "Even when you were young, you would ride your bike as fast as your little legs could pedal." His smile is familiar even as his eyes take on that faraway look as he reminisces. "Each time, I would be so afraid that you'd go too fast and not stop in time or hit a tree."

"Which I did." It had been a really hot summer when she was ten and the only thing that made it remotely bearable was riding her bike as fast as she could, wind whipping through her hair. It was the last week of the summer when she finally managed to ram her bike into the large oak tree bordering their property, fracturing her arm and opening a large gash at the side of her forehead. She had laid on the ground crying and she distinctly remembered her father had carried her in his arms, running to their car, all the while his voice calm as he told her that she was going to be fine. "You drove me to the hospital and I got to wear a cast for two weeks."

She feels Rachel move slightly as she gazes down, torn between wanting to finish the conversation with her dad and needing to be with Rachel, only she does not wake up as she snuggles even closer to Quinn. "So I like to drive fast." She shrugs her shoulders.

"It made you so happy even if it could get you hurt." It was why he had acquiesced when she choose the little red sports car as oppose to the sedan he had offered when she got her driver license. He could never stop her from getting hurt, not unless he wanted to limit her happiness and he's glad to see the realization dawn on her face.

"All I could do was to be there for you when you did." She turns away, because she has tears in her eyes and instinct takes over as she tries to hide her weakness from him. "Only, I was a stupid old man who forgot that fact. I am so sorry that I forgot to be there for you when you got hurt." He cannot say it any clearer. "I won't forget again and neither will you." He looks pointedly at Rachel's sleeping form as he says the words.

She still won't look at him and he does not expect her too so he wheels himself out of the room, seeking Judy out, knowing that she was next on his long list of people he needed to make amends to.

#$#$#$#

She's perfected the art of crying silently, no overt sniffling or sound but just tears coursing down her face. Years of hiding her emotions, pushing them down, keeping them locked away, only to be released infrequently; something never to be shared or revealed. Quinn knows she does not need to hide her emotions from Rachel but she's too much a creature of habit such that she bites down on her lip, not letting any sound escape.

Rachel feels she deserves an Oscar, her caliber of acting on this trip far outstripping her Tony Award winning turn as Maria on stage but there was no way she could pretend to sleep when Quinn was hurting even if it was considered a healing type of hurt if there was such a thing.

The first thing she does is tighten her hold on the blond as she shifts their position, causing Quinn's body to lay on top of hers, their noses almost touching, their eyes finally focused on each other. An understanding passing between them where no words are needed because they're connected on a different level both physically and emotionally.

"Marry me." It wasn't the words that she had planned on saying, at least not in a hospital room in Lima but at that exact moment, looking up at Quinn, her eyes red and puffy, tears falling from them, onto her cheeks, it was the only words she could utter that made sense.

"What?" The word, proving an undeniable fact that Rachel Barbra Berry had the most amazing ability to turn Quinn Fabray into a monosyllabic idiot at the most inopportune times. A fact that she acknowledges and therefore does not take offence at Quinn's initial response, knowing that the answer she wants will eventually reveal itself.

"For the sake of clarity and subscribing to the fact that reiteration is good for the soul.." She smiles when she sees Quinn does. "I, Rachel Barbra Berry am asking you, Quinn Fabray, MD, to marry me. To accept me as I am and to never change the way you are." The drawn out second proposal finally igniting Quinn's slowed senses, allowing her to catch up.

Her lips crashing down on Rachel's, their hands clasped together, the only answer Rachel could accept. But Quinn wanted to say it too. Their kiss lasting as long as possible before she finally pulls back.

"Yes."

Matching smiles, clasped hands and breathing in tandem, they're forever pledged to each other. Even before ceremonies and picking out China patterns or fights on who gets to walk whom down the aisle or what flowers or colors to have, they're already eons ahead in keeping their promise to love and grow old together.

The End

So don't be shy, tell me if you enjoyed it or which parts you didn't. And to be honest, I always planned on killing a character but didn't decide which one until I started writing Ch 7. Quinn was always more in danger here than in DADT and it was weird seeing the worried responses from that story about Quinn's well being! Anyway, thanks for reading, reviewing, pms, favoriting etc. Maybe I'll write an epilogue. I think I did promise one to thefrick.