Disclaimers: I do not own Glee or its characters. If I did, the Unholy Trinity's relationship with Rachel would have be much better than what it was at this point.
Spoilers: spoilers for season 2, Sectionals. Also teensy bit spoilers for current chapters of Is It Worth Giving Up?, as of chapter 34 and before.
Rating: K+ (fluff!)

Notes: This is a future outtake from Worth Giving Up. Like, waaay in the future. It is Sectionals of season 2. It's a glimpse into the future, showing all the hard work Quinn and everyone has put into building up her confidence, bravery, and working on her anxiety/stress levels.

Notes 2: If you are caught up on Glee and/or my story, you can read this without spoilers.

Enjoy! :)

March 2011

*10 minutes before showtime*

"Hey, LuLu."

Rachel makes her way to the curtained area where Quinn and Sam are set to enter once their song begins. Sam looks up at her but finds himself quickly turning to Quinn, because he just loves to see the way she lights up at seeing Rachel.

It never gets old to him.

And, of course, it happens this time.

The Diva gets a whispered, "Hello." back, and it really is amazing just how far they have come from last year, when Quinn was literally not speaking at school. And to go from that to this? To agreeing on, working for, and actually (about to) singing her part of the duet, in front of hundreds of people, – the majority of which are strangers?

That is amazing in and of itself.

"I just wanted to check on you – on both of you – before we went on." She looks to Sam at this and he smiles back, nodding, to which she returns the nod, before looking back to Quinn. "You good?"

It is barely there but… Quinn still nods, that smile she cannot seem to get rid of lighting up her face even more.

"Okay." Rachel reaches forward with one hand, in a silent question that Sam has come to know as something that is frequent between her and the Gleeks. He does not see it, but then again, he never does. Quinn and Rachel are able to have multitudes of conversations with their eyes.

And even though he does not see it, this conversation consists of Quinn giving her permission to touch. Rachel continues forward, doing something with a strand of hair, and then just resting her palm against Quinn's cheek.

"I am so proud of you, Angel," She whispers. "Of both of you. You have worked so hard, and you both deserve every moment of this." She then steps back. "Ok. I have to go now. I am not supposed to even be here, so I need to go before Mr. Schuester finds out I am gone."

Quinn smirks at that.

"Rachel Berry breaking the rules."

"Yes, well…" She is backing away now, return the smirk with a smile "You are worth it." And with that, she is turning and hurrying away.

:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/

*8 minutes later*

They are out now.

She can hear Sam begin his part and moments later, Quinn is singing, as well. The rest of them are behind the curtain, and Rachel looks to Santana, then Britt, and finally, to Noah and Finn.

She cannot even begin to describe how proud she is of her little sister.

And she sees that same proudness shining on all of their friends' faces.

They finish the song, and are amazing, of course. The music starts up for Valerie. Brittany and Rachel take their place beside Santana.

Rachel does the little movements with her hair on one side and Britt does it on the other. Santana starts singing, and is absolutely amazing.

As they finish their group song, and the crowd cheers, and they bow, and leave the stage…

Rachel waits for it.

The hug – tackle, really – from either Quinn or Brittany, which is why she steps to the side as soon as they enter their dressing room, and waits, with an arm held slightly out, their universal, silent way of giving permission.

She does not have to wait long, because Quinn is sliding into her, almost knocking her over, and Sam saves them at the last second.

"Woah there!"

He waits to make sure they are not going to fall over before leaving them to go talk to one of the other Gleeks.

"I am so proud of you, Angel," Rachel whispers as Quinn presses her face against the top of her head, trying to calm her racing heart. "You deserved every moment of this, you know it? Every single bit. This is what we have worked towards, and I am so, so proud of you."

As she feels the nod from Quinn, Rachel's eyes roam around the room to different people – Mike, Finn, Santana, Noah, and finally, Britt, who is doing some kind of dance with Kurt.

Rachel smirks as she sees that the boy may not be a 100% willingly participant in this dance, but she can tell by the smile on his face that he isn't going to ruin this for her.

Britt is allowed to be happy, and he knows and understands, and he deserves to be happy.

He meets her eye, a silent question as she sees his gaze flicker to Quinn and back to her.

Rachel nods once. Letting him know that Quinn is ok, and he smiles, wider.

Because he understands.

They worked so hard to get her to this point.

And he is as proud of her as every other person in this room.

I am so excited to get Sam introduced! It won't be until my "version" of season two, but still. He is going to have lots of siblings, and a very interesting backstory, and I am sooo psyched for it.

So, this was a sneak-peak into the future, revealing a lot of things – Quinn is speaking! She sang a duet in front of hundreds of people! And Kurt is finally nice. See? We're getting there lol. Just some things to take care of before we get to ^ this ^ version of Kurt (and Mercedes).

Please review and let me know what you thought! :)

ETA: I keep forgetting to say this! But I have a poll up on my profile for the future of Worth Giving Up? It is who you would like Kurt to be paired with. So please go and vote, and let me know! :)