Author's Note: So sorry for taking a while to update guys! I meant to do it earlier, but my computer broke down on me and I had freaked out thinking I had lost the story but thankfully I was able to get it back!

However, I bring good news. I'll be participating on NaNoWriMo this year, and I plan on finishing this story. So from Saturday on, you can count on more frequent updates! Although you guys should never forget that your reviews are my biggest motivation.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 24 - In another life I would make you stay

Quinn woke up to soft lips against her own. She smiled into the kiss and exhaled deeply, opening her eyes a few seconds later to find Rachel laying on top of her. She couldn't think of a better way of waking up. One hundred percent better than the yelling nurses.

"You wake me up like this everyday and I bet all my problems will be gone in a blink. I could even become a morning person, you know." Quinn whispered with a silly smile. "Happy Valentine's day, love."

"Happy Valentine's day!" Rachel said with the most excited squeal, spreading small kisses all over Quinn's face, and finishing with the sweetest one on her lips. "This is my first Valentine's with someone! I'm so happy it's with you…"

"This will also be my first, but my first with someone I actually love. Which will make it the best, without a doubt." Quinn completed, wrapping her arms around Rachel's waist to keep her right where she was. Quinn had never felt such comfortable weight over her body.

"So… What are we gonna do?" Rachel asked quirking one eyebrow up.

"I don't know... I was thinking maybe we could go shopping for presents for each other, and then we could go to the movies and head to a fancy restaurant afterwards, where we would have a delicious candlelit dinner." Quinn said, and watched as Rachel frowned in confusion. "But then I remembered we're stuck here, so… bummer." Quinn played, and got a nudge on the ribs from Rachel.

"You're no fun! You weren't like that, Quinn Fabray. You used to try harder to woo me!" Rachel crossed her arms and pouted playfully. Quinn just couldn't resist the pouted lips and immediately leaned for a peck.

"Yeah, but then I got you." Quinn said between pecks. "So now we're good, right?" Rachel shook her head in response, making her pout bigger and receiving even more kisses. "Well, I guess I've done enough! Shouldn't it be your turn now?"

"Maybe..." Rachel paused, considering it for a second. "Although, since when do you like romantic gestures?"

"I don't!" Quinn shook her head with widened eyes. "Well, it's not that I don't like them, it's just that I don't see the point. I don't need them to know that you love me. It's written all over your face. I can actually read my name written on your forehead. It's that obvious."

"Oh, you're so full of yourself" Rachel laughed, shoving Quinn's shoulder and getting up to start getting ready for the morning.

"No, in all seriousness now." Quinn sat up straight in bed, crossing her legs and watching as Rachel went through her clothes. "I thought a lot about what we could do, but this place just sucks. I couldn't think of anything. But in the end I think what matters is that we get to spend it together, right?" Quinn said, getting up and following Rachel to wrap her arms around the girl from behind, placing a kiss on the nape of her neck.

"Yeah, you're right. We could just stay in all day and it would already be my best Valentine's day ever!" Rachel said with a giggle, leaning her head back to rest on Quinn's shoulder.

"They're gonna have Valentine's day crafts for us to do today. We can do that if you want. Like, really make each other gifts. Although you should remember I'm not exactly crafty, so you can't wait for anything good to come from me." Quinn said with a shrug, trying not to sound too romantic – she just couldn't let her guard down.

"That would be perfect, actually" Rachel smiled, leaning for small kiss.

"Red velvet is by far my favorite cake" Rachel stated, licking the frosting from her lips.

"Your tongue is all red" Quinn said with a small chuckle.

"You're welcome to kiss the red away" Rachel said casually with a shrug, but looking down as her cheeks blushed. Quinn couldn't help a giggle, never ceasing to be amazed by how adorable and sexy Rachel could be all at the same time.

"If only we weren't in the middle of a full cafeteria…" Quinn sighed with a smile, handing Rachel a napkin and motioning to show her that she had frosting on her cheeks.

"Mhm" Rachel hummed, as she finished swallowing and wiped her face. "I was meaning to talk to you about something."

"About what?" Quinn froze momentarily, swallowing dry and bringing a frown up to her face.

"No, wait." Rachel shook her head with a chuckle when she noted Quinn's tension. "It's nothing serious. I just wanted to know if you have ever gone to the morning group session."

"Yes…" Quinn answered, still a little dubious. "Why do you ask that?"

"My therapist said perhaps it was a good idea that I started going, you know, to interact more with people and socialize and stuff. And I was considering it. I wanted to know what it was like."

"I didn't like it at all. I'm glad it's not mandatory." Quinn said with a shake of her head and a disgusted expression. "They make everyone talk about how they're doing, and like, rate their anxiety or depression. Which I find absolutely pointless because if my anxiety and depression were in a low rate I wouldn't even be here, right? Then they make you set a goal for the day, but most people just pick dumb things like "brush my hair" or "finish a book". But I don't know. That's how I felt, maybe you can like it." She ended with a shrug.

Although Quinn had tried not to discourage Rachel, she could see that the girl had quickly changed her mind. Anyone would. Quinn really couldn't see how someone thought it was a good idea to make people share their problems with people whom they didn't trust and who had more problems of their own in the first place.

They walked, hand in hand, all the way back to their room. Quinn was surprised by seeing how much decoration the staff had put up, and wondered what was their reasoning for agreeing to put those up while trying to ignore Christmas, like they had last year.

Quinn walked to the room to brush her teeth after lunch, but Rachel blocking her way surprised her as she came out of the bathroom. Before she could ask what was happening, Rachel stuck her tongue out and Quinn saw a pink tiny heart written "kiss me".

More than happy to abide, Quinn giggled before leaning in and taking Rachel's bottom lip in her mouth. She could never get tired of how Rachel tasted. Like cookies, cherries and love promises. Her tongue ran through Rachel's lips before entering her mouth and in a swift swirl she took the candy to her own tongue.

Rachel huffed and Quinn smiled into the kiss, turning them around so that Rachel's back would be against the wall. Rachel's hand traveled to Quinn's lower back, and Quinn lightly nibbled on the girl's lip. As Quinn tangled her hand on Rachel's hair, the girl snickered her tongue inside Quinn's mouth, trying to get the candy back.

Quinn felt a shiver running throughout her spine when their tongues crashed together again, and let out a small moan without realizing, as she pulled Rachel even closer to her. Rachel sucked on Quinn's lip, and Quinn felt her stomach doing a cartwheel. She didn't even realize they had finished the candy, until Rachel pulled away with a shy smile.

"We're gonna get late to crafts..."

Yes, that's exactly what Quinn was thinking about. Crafts.

"Quinn! You can't sit next to me!" Rachel exclaimed, and Quinn knitted her eyebrows looking at her confused and waiting an explanation. "You're gonna ruin your surprise gift!"

"Rach, please" Quinn said rolling her eyes and sitting next to the girl. "I promise I won't peek, alright?" Rachel looked suspiciously at her, but there's nothing she could do. No one would stop Quinn from sitting next to her girl on Valentine's girl, not even the girl herself.

Quinn looked around, at everyone doing their crafts. She wondered whom they were making stuff to. She felt bad for them. She knew, better than anyone, how awful it was to be lonely at that hospital. Quinn could spend whole days and nights thanking God for putting Rachel on her way, and still wouldn't be enough.

Although she definitely wasn't the craftiest person in the world, she knew Rachel expected some kind of gift and decided to give it a try. From all the material spread on the table, she picked red and pink construction paper and started working.

Quinn grabbed the scissors – and although they had blunt tip and were clearly made for toddlers – she felt her wrists tingling. It was almost as if they were calling the sharp metal and even though Quinn wasn't feeling sad at the moment she felt the urge to cut, just out of habit. She couldn't ruin the day for Rachel though, so she fought through it and started cutting heart patterns out of the construction paper.

Once she was done, she grabbed glittery pens and wrote her name on every red heart and Rachel's name on the pink ones. She shook her head at herself when she saw them all done. It was hard for her to believe that she had become such a dork – she would never have thought she would submit herself to such cheesy things.

Quinn grabbed a needle and a thread. Although there were a lot of instructors watching them and helping out who needed, she still couldn't get over how reckless the hospital was for leaving those at their disposal. If she wanted to, she could easily hide a needle and take it back to her room. But again, she wouldn't.

She couldn't remember exactly when was it that she started looking at everything with different eyes, but even though she was feeling better, she couldn't drop the habit of analyzing how she could use objects for her so wrong hobbies. She wondered if normal people felt the same thing when they looked at needles, rulers or even paper. Oh, how she liked the feeling of paper cuts on her fingers.

But she was done with that. Or at least was trying to.

Quinn passed the thread on the needle with an ability that only long well trained fingers could. It was another thing she had learned from her grandmother. How to sew. She passed the thread throughout the first heart and did the same with all the others, intercalating red and pink, Quinn's and Rachel's.

She had promised not to peek at Rachel's project, and she really didn't. Every time she looked to her side was to make sure Rachel was okay and feeling comfortable even surrounded by so many people. But Quinn understood why Rachel was okay with all the movement in the room. It was easy to get distracted while doing the crafts, and she found herself far, far away from reality sooner than she expected.

When she was finished, she put a bead at each end of the thread, and strained the string to take a final look. It definitely wasn't her best piece of work, but she was quite proud of it. She could see Rachel wasn't finished, so she laid her head over her arms on the table and watched quietly as the other girl worked.

She couldn't believe she had denied for so long. It was so obvious now how in love she was. It felt like every little tiny action, every little movement of Rachel – it was all perfect. She could watch Rachel working all day, and she would never get tired of it.

"Hey" Rachel said playfully, covering Quinn's eyes with her hands. "No peeking!"

"I'm not!" Quinn shook her head, taking Rachel's hand off of her eyes and holding it instead. "I'm just watching you."

Rachel smiled shyly and returned to her craft, trying to ignore Quinn's glare but blushing nonetheless. Soon enough, she was done with her project too.

"Alright! What did you make?" Rachel asked excitedly, hiding hers behind her back and trying to see Quinn's.

"I made us a heart garland. With our names and stuff. I was thinking of putting it over our bed, or something." Quinn said with a shrug. She definitely wasn't made for this. She hated being corny and felt her cheeks getting warm as the words came out of her mouth, making Rachel laugh.

"Oh, don't be shy! I love it! It's gonna be perfect!" Rachel reassured her, gripping her hand tighter with the biggest grin on her face. Quinn rolled her eyes and shrugged once more, but couldn't help the shy smile that insisted on being in her face.

"Okay, what about you?" Quinn asked, and Rachel handed her a card.

The card was shaped like a bear, and Quinn was impressed at how much attention Rachel had paid to every detail. The bear held a big red heart between his paws, and within the heart it was written, "I love you berry much". Quinn giggled but frowned in confusion.

"Rach, I think you mixed up things. Isn't it supposed to be "beary" much?"

"Of course not! It's Berry, like Rachel Berry!" Rachel explained incredulous at Quinn's lack of understanding, and Quinn broke down laughing.

"Oh my goodness, this is perfect. That's the most you gift that I could ever get!"

"I'm glad you liked" Rachel said proudly, and Quinn took her hand to drop a kiss there, since they still were trying to keep everything a secret between the staff.

As they came inside the room chatting, Quinn distractedly stepped on a piece of paper that seemed to have been pushed inside by under the door.

"Wait, Quinn. I think you stepped on something!" Rachel exclaimed, gently pulling Quinn by the arm and kneeling down to get the red paper on her hands.

"What's that?" Quinn asked curiously, leaning forward to see what it said.

"I don't know, it says it's for me." Rachel said, knitting her eyebrows together and turning the paper around to read a poem: "Roses are red, violets are blue, you don't like me, but I like you"

"Who's that from?" Quinn said in a whine much louder than she initially intended.

"I have no idea, I was about to ask the same thing to you!" Rachel said with a giggle. "That's the worst poem ever."

Quinn huffed and peeked her head out of the door, looking to see if there was anyone around with the biggest frown on her face. As she saw a nurse passing by, she called.

"Excuse me? Have you seen who shoved this here?" Quinn asked, clearly disturbed, but only got a chuckle and a shake of the head from the nurse. She huffed once more, before coming inside and finding a rather amused Rachel sitting by the bed. "What?" She asked.

"I ask you!" Rachel said, laughing lowly. "What's all of that about?"

"What do you mean?" Quinn answered with the frown still stuck in her face, as she handed the card back unwillingly. She just wanted to rip it apart and throw it in the trash, but it was Rachel's and she knew she couldn't.

"Could you… I don't know. Is it possible that you might perhaps be jealous?" Rachel quirked an eyebrow up with a smug smile.

"Oh, shut your mouth." Quinn replied rolling her eyes and sitting down on the other end of the bed.

Quinn had always been a jealous person. Even though she didn't exactly like any of her previous boyfriends, she was jealous of every single one of them. She didn't like sharing since she was a child, and she didn't ever change. However, it had never hit her so hard like it did at the time.

"You are!" Rachel squealed, poking her with her feet. "You're so cute! You don't have to be shy about it!"

"I'm not shy!" Quinn huffed, flinching away from the pokes.

"Yes, you are." Rachel mocked and Quinn rolled her eyes once more. "I guess it's not as clear as you said it was, huh? Apparently people can't read the Quinn Fabray written on my forehead that you talked about this morning."

"You're really enjoying yourself, aren't you?" Quinn asked, crossing her arms against her chest and rolling her eyes once more.

"I am!" Rachel confessed with the biggest grin. "Not only I have one person loving me on Valentine's day, I also got a mysterious card!"

"Good for you"

"Now, you don't need to be rude!" Rachel said sweetly, getting closer to Quinn and dropping a kiss on the girl's cheek. "You know I don't care about it, right? I love you, and only you!"

She dropped a few more kisses before taking Quinn's lips. Quinn sighed before giving in and kissing her back, and soon enough she was smiling again.

Although deep down she knew Rachel wouldn't ever be the one to cheat or leave her for anyone else, she still felt relief taking over when she saw the card on the trash by the end of the night.

Quinn shoved another sleeping pill inside her drawer while Rachel finished her nightly routines in the bathroom, and laid down to wait for her girl. She was happy to say that she had been without her sleeping pills for almost a month and she was already able to sleep on her own. She knew she didn't need them, and she was glad she was free. She considered telling her doctor she didn't want to take them anymore, but she feared he wouldn't agree and would start checking more carefully to be sure she took them, so she just kept hiding each one of them.

Rachel came out of the bathroom using one of Quinn's pajamas. It had become a habit of her, and Quinn didn't mind at all. She knew it was comforting for Rachel and helped her sleep better, and she felt powerful seeing Rachel wearing them. For a few seconds, she felt like they were a normal couple, just like the ones she always saw in the movies. It was the little things that made their bumpy life feel a little more ordinary, and Quinn loved every single one of them. Like brushing their teeth together in the morning, and sharing a cup of coffee while they each read one book. Like sleeping tangled each other's arms in a night without nightmares to any of them, and braiding each other hairs.

Rachel cuddled up by her side, and looked up to her with eyes that Quinn could swear shined brighter than any star. Knowing that perhaps she could cause a little bit of the brightness, made Quinn swoon.

"Thank you for today" Rachel whispered with a dainty smile.

"No need to thank me, Rach..." Quinn shook her head. "I'm sorry I couldn't do anything special for you."

"Being with you is already special enough. Is the best gift I could ever get for Valentine's Day!" Rachel purred snuggling closer, and Quinn just shook her head again.

"You deserve much more. I'm sorry I couldn't come up with anything…"

Quinn didn't want to say, but she really felt like the medicine was messing up with the creative part of her brain. It had been a while since she had a good idea, and even playing her instruments and drawing with Rachel were becoming harder each day. But she just hoped it go away soon.

"We can make it up for it next year, when we will be outside!" Rachel said excitedly, but it faded to a confused frown as she saw Quinn's sad smile.

Just another thing Quinn had meant to tell Rachel sooner. She was always rehearsing this conversation, but the moment just never felt right. Quinn figured it would never feel, though. And since Valentine's Day was essentially over, she thought this moment would be as good as it gets. She didn't knew when she would have a chance like that again, with Rachel starting the conversation so naturally.

"You know that I love you, right?" Quinn asked, and Rachel nodded in a worried frown.

"Yes, and I love you too. What's going on?" She would always be glad for how perceptive Rachel was when Quinn was trying to come up with a difficult topic of conversation.

"I won't get out, Rach." Quinn deadpanned, blurting the words out of her mouth before she could regret it.

"What do you mean?" Rachel's frown deepened and Quinn felt her heart breaking all over again. "You're getting better! You haven't cut in a really long time!"

"Yeah, I know. But it doesn't matter. I'm never getting out because no one wants me outside." Quinn could see in Rachel's face that she didn't get it, and Quinn explained herself further. "My parents are the ones paying so that I stay here, and they would rather keep it that way. It's easier to keep me in here than to face whatever I can cause outside."

"But they can't keep you in here if you're good! You're almost 18, you can sue than and get the judge to make them let you out! Or something!"

"No, love..." Quinn smiled, seeing how Rachel was trying to fight for her. "I don't think I'll ever be 100% good, and even if I were no judge would believe a crazy suicidal girl's words over a mental institution's one."

"What does this mean, then?" Rachel asked tear-eyed, and Quinn leaned to drop a kiss on her lips.

"I don't know. Maybe that we should make the most of the moments we have?" Quinn asked carefully.

"No." Rachel shook her head, wrapping her arms tightly around Quinn. "No matter what happens, I'll always be here for you. I won't leave you. Ever."

Quinn wasn't sure if Rachel understood the size of the promise she was making, but she thought they had talked about it enough for one night that should end happily.

She waited for Rachel to fall asleep, and silently cried as she watched her girl within her arms and imagined how long that would last for. If she could, she would have stopped time right then and there because as long as she had Rachel with her she knew she didn't need anything else.