Jesse reached over to pick up his cup of coffee and grasped air. He frowned, and looked up from his book to check why his coffee was gone.

Instead of finding his coffee, he saw the startling sight of a fierce-looking blonde, his cup of coffee in front of her. He forced a smile. "Quinn Fabray."

"Jesse St. James."

Jesse didn't like Quinn. Sure, he understood a lot of what she had gone through as the most popular and powerful person in the entire high school student population, but he could never quite get why she could get so vindictive with the people around her. Rachel had tried to explain to him why she continued to try and befriend Quinn, and why Quinn was far more than just the mean cheerleader everybody saw, but Jesse couldn't quite buy into her rationale.

But he had to admit, if everything Rachel had told him about Quinn was true, she at least had the courage to tell Rachel the truth.

It still didn't mean he had to like her.

Jesse smirked, knowing the only reason why Quinn would come and find him. "Rachel told you."

"Rachel told me." Quinn confirmed.

He leaned back in his seat and scrutinized her. "How did you know?"

Quinn lifted an eyebrow. "That you're a student? That you study here? How did I know what, Jesse?"

"Where to find me."

"Sorry to disappoint your ego, St. James, but I was across the street when I noticed your giant ego. I thought it was time we have words."

Jesse nodded his comprehension of what Quinn was trying to establish in regard to her sudden appearance. "So this is your way of, what, telling me that you're watching me?"

Quinn gave me a cool smile. "This is my way of telling you I know where you are and I know everything there is to know about you."

"I doubt that."

"It's amazing what you can find off the internet, these days." Quinn remarked, as if making a random comment.

They both knew better.

"All my profiles are private, so I doubt that." Jesse returned.

"And Yale accepts an interesting variety of Comp Sci students." Quinn volleyed back.

Jesse had to figuratively tip his hat to the former cheerleader, understanding her mild insinuation. "You hacked my accounts."

"'Hack' is a harsh word."

"Which is right up your alley." Jesse replied. He chuckled lightly. "I can't say I'm surprised, coming from SkySplitz."

Quinn shot him a glare. "It was a workaround, not a hack, but that's not the point. We need to talk about Rachel."

"We really don't."

"Guess again."

"Quinn," Jesse said her name in the most neutral tone he could manage, "Contrary to what most of your Glee Club like to believe, Rachel Berry is a grown woman capable of making her own decisions. And she doesn't need you, or your misplaced sense of righteous protectiveness, to make threats on her behalf."

Quinn's cold gaze upon him didn't soften any. "You've upset her recently."

"I upset a lot of people." Jesse replied. "And in respect to fairness, let's acknowledge the fact that a lot of things tend to upset Rachel."

"And you have a track record in doing exactly that." Quinn reminded.

Jesse inclined his head in acknowledgment of that accusation. "That might be true, but even you can't deny that even at my very worst, I never doubted, and there was never any doubt, that she was strong enough to come out of it."

"That doesn't excuse you."

"And it certainly doesn't excuse you." Jesse retorted. "You can't seriously sit there pretending to be here protecting Rachel by trying to intimidate me just because the two of you are finally in a somewhat-friendly relationship. I did a very bad thing regarding Rachel once, I admit that, but that was a long time ago and you know as well as I do that in the grand scheme of things it wasn't really that bad, had it not been for the circumstances involved."

Quinn shook her head. "I can't believe you're trying to talk your way out of this."

"I'm not. I'm merely pointing out that whatever it is you think you can say to intimidate me won't work, as I probably have heard it before and have previously thought it myself." Jesse explained. "Not to mention, heeding whatever you have to say to me requires me to care about what you think, and let's be honest, Quinn: you're not exactly the person I would look to for advice on how to handle any of my relationships, friendly or otherwise."

That stung, but Quinn had to admit he had made a fair point. Save for her relationship with Rachel, she really didn't handle any of her friendships well. She certainly screwed up a lot of her relationships (ill-advised wine coolers, for one, and fist fight in school hallways, for another).

"Especially when it comes to Rachel Berry." Jesse finished, smirking when he saw Quinn's slight recoil at the statement. Yes, he knew her weakness; he knew that for Quinn Fabray, Rachel represented a life outside of Lima, to be something beyond being a Lima loser. He also knew that for Quinn, like him, maintaining their individual relationships with Rachel was a representation of the part of them that was good, beyond being a the evil HBIC Cheerio captain and a soulless automaton from Vocal Adrenaline.

Jesse studied her. "I'm going to go out on a limb and assume you're didn't tell Rachel you wanted to talk to see me. Has she told you we're not meeting lately?"

Quinn met his gaze evenly. "She told me."

Jesse smirked, as Quinn's statement left room for interpretation as to whether or not Rachel had told her more than just that, or if the brunette had told the blonde the whole story. Regardless, he wasn't going to tell Quinn anything.

Quinn, for her part, kept a steely silence. Rachel had told her what had happened between her and Jesse over breakfast, and Quinn had had to keep her silence, worried that the wrong word would tip Rachel's already-volatile emotions. What she had taken from the conversation was that Rachel was deeply hurt that Jesse could dismiss how she felt so easily, because of her actions in the past.

It had been that sentiment that had compelled Quinn to come and see Jesse, because it was in such stark contrast to how Rachel usually responded to things. Quinn had been mean - okay, cruel would be the more accurate term - towards Rachel for the early years of high school, and still Rachel never gave up on becoming her friend. Rachel never gave up on their friendship.

Rachel never gave up on her.

And yet over breakfast, after Rachel conceded that she still wanted Jesse but knew there were a lot of unspoken truths in their past, Rachel had wondered aloud how she and Jesse could still be friends even after she had told him she wanted more from their relationship. Rachel had been talking about a future where she and Jesse were co-stars, best friends. That it was probably "might as well" that they were never going to be married with children and collecting award trophies left and right and conquering musical theater as Broadway's first couple.

It was such a defeatist tone that Quinn had decided she needed more than just Rachel's side of the story. She loathed Jesse St. James - he was too smooth to really be a sympathetic human being - but Rachel admired and respected him even if Quinn couldn't really see why (other than the talent - that was obvious).

Quinn exhaled. "Finn wants her back."

Jesse scoffed. "Of course he does."

Quinn shot him a glare. "Why aren't you more worried?"

Jesse rolled his eyes. "Rachel is a creature of habit. Unfortunately, giving that lump of coal undue notice is one of hers. I may not agree with her choices, and I certainly cannot stand his expression of constant constipation, but I won't force her to do anything one way or another when it comes to Hudson. She's never listened to me when it came to him."

"You and me both."

"And yet you insist."

"He barely graduated high school and right now he's one of those creepy guys who graduated McKinley but still hang out with the high school kids." The disgust in Quinn's voice was palpable. It was hard for Jesse to imagine that the same girl had previously dated the same guy she was talking about. "He has no direction, no college ambition, and no job prospect."

"Supposedly he's helping coach your glee club." Jesse reminded.

Quinn rolled her eyes. "And spectacularly failed to repeat last year's success. I stand by what I said."

"I think it's a fair assessment to say with Rachel gone there was no chance for the New Directions to repeat last year's success." Jesse pointed out.

Quinn conceded that point. "Point is, he wants her back and you're avoiding Rachel while she thinks you don't want her. What do you think is going to happen?"

"Why do you think I'm avoiding Rachel?" Jesse queried, curious.

The question surprised Quinn, given the state Rachel had been when she'd told the blonde about Jesse. Still, Quinn revealed nothing. "Aren't you?"

"I told Rachel to focus on her midterms for the week. I have my own projects to attend to, which is why she's supposed to wait for me to give her an update on when we'll next meet." Jesse recalled.

"She feels you've been ignoring her."

"I have little to contribute to her midterms, beyond the rehearsals we've already been doing. If our work hasn't paid off, it's too late to work on it now. And more to the point, why would I be ignoring her?" Jesse asked, confused.

"Maybe something about your last conversation?" Quinn prompted.

"Our last conversation was personal and straightforward. We agreed it wouldn't affect our working relationship, even though I know that's not really possible; It's why I figured she'd want some space, and she didn't argue."

Quinn scowled. She was going to wring Rachel's neck, that little drama queen. Clearly Rachel had been exaggerating some of the details of Jesse's radio silence.

Opposite her, Jesse found himself considering Quinn's words, realizing his interpretation of the events since coffee with Rachel the other day was vastly different from that of Rachel's, and that he might, at that very moment, be in the process of being cast as the villain in Rachel's life once more. He could be the villain, all because he had refused to start dating her the day after she dumped her dancing non-boyfriend. (Whatever his name is.)

Jesse shook his head, his agitation towards the situation with Rachel overruling his icy calm towards Quinn. "She needs time to focus, to concentrate. She didn't come to New York to pine after anyone, and she didn't get into NYADA or win their Winter Showcase waiting for her phone to ring. She's better than this, and I'm not going to-"

"Why don't you want her?" Quinn asked suddenly, breaking into his tirade.

Jesse's indignation died instantly, the question interrupting his very train of thought because he had not seen that question coming. "What?"

"I watched you, the moment you stepped into her life, and you're despicable and vile, but you can't deny you've always wanted her. I don't know why, and just what context that want was, but it was always there. Even after Nationals our junior year. So she's free, you're in New York while Finn's in Lima, and she said she wanted you. Why would you say no?"

Jesse regarded the blonde thoughtfully, gauging Quinn's motives for asking the question. He didn't trust her - he knew enough about Quinn Fabray to know trusting her was a grievous error in judgment - and the answer to her question was something he would rather not provide, but he knew Quinn had Rachel's ear more than even Kurt probably did. And with that in mind, he needed Quinn to trust him.

So. Deal with the devil, then.

"That's not exactly what's happening." Jesse finally said.

"Enlighten me."

"She doesn't trust me."

There was a twitch in Quinn's eyebrow, enough for him to know she was confused by the statement.

"You can't be in a relationship with someone you don't trust. That..." Jesse shook his head. "And that's fair, I probably deserve that. I've done things in our mutual past that may be construed as... treacherous."

"You threw an egg on her head." Quinn reminded. "You spied on her."

"Details." Jesse waved off her interruption, because he wasn't going to defend himself to Quinn Fabray, Rachel's ear or not. "Fact is, there are still some things between me and Rachel that need to be resolved without attempting another shot at romance. She likes being in a relationship, and I would very happily be willing to be that guy. But there's still a lot for us to work through, and she wants to just gloss all over that."

"So you want her, but you..." Quinn's voice trailed off, and she lifted an eyebrow as if prompting Jesse to finish the sentence.

"Can't."

"Can't?" Quinn echoed, confused, before her confusion gave way to another one of her scowls. "Are you just stringing her along, because I swear to God, St. James, I know people. I will hurt you."

"Why does everyone think my motives are always evil?" Jesse asked.

"Because you are."

Jesse shook his head, as if to clear it, before he returned his attention to the matter at hand. "I can earn her trust back, I just need to keep working on that. Ironically, that's the easy part. But the part that's beyond my control is that the reason I have to earn it in the first place? The fact that her instinct is to question my motives, that even now, after all this time, even with someone as seemingly-detached as you seeing it, she still doesn't believe how I feel about her."

Quinn visibly hesitated. Feel. He said 'feel'. Present tense. She understood Jesse St. James in a way she loathed herself for, because she knew they were on the same boat: as leaders of the most ruthless group of students in their respective high schools, they couldn't afford to be careless. They knew the consequences of being careless, which was why so much of their words and actions were deliberate.

Jesse's words and actions were deliberate.

She looked at him. "What isn't Rachel telling me?"

"A lot of things, Quinn, some of which, even with your surprising loyalty and friendship, you cannot be privy to." Jesse exhaled. "And an ogre of an ex that refuses to go away."

Quinn frowned. "This is about Finn?"

"This is about Rachel." Jesse corrected. "Her lack of trust, and her seeming lack of self-belief that she can stand on her own."

"You can't expect me to sit here and not think you had something to do with that."

"My part in that? I accept." Jesse replied. "But I wasn't the only one in her life, and you can't expect me to sit here and not think that her so-called friends have a lot to do with that, too."

"We've all made mistakes."

"My point."

"So why..." Quinn couldn't help but try to get an answer on the question she couldn't stop asking: why did Jesse say no?

"Because she doesn't trust me." Jesse repeated, as if reading her mind. He paused, and let out a heavy sigh. "And I don't blame her. And when I stop and think about it, she has every reason not to."

"But you've learned your lesson." Quinn pointed out.

Jesse shrugged. "Sure."

"But." Quinn prompted.

"You get burned enough times? You stay away from the flame." Jesse admitted. "I don't have a whole Glee Club of friends who'll sing me a song to feel better, or parents who'll sit with me while I get over my problems. Around here I don't even have someone who can take my tests for me. The only one I can rely on is me, and setting myself up for that kind of disappointment again isn't something I think I can handle while paying rent and getting passing grades."

Understanding dawned on Quinn, and she found herself respecting what Jesse was telling her. "You think she'll do it again."

'It'. The proverbial 'it'. When it came to Rachel, as Jesse pointed out, a creature of habit, Rachel tended to do a lot of things repetitively.

"Why wouldn't I?" Jesse asked. "You do."

Like choosing the most inopportune moment to assert her ruthless personality. Or trusting the wrong people. Saying she would be a strong source of support then disappearing because of unfathomable reasons, mostly pertaining to guilt (okay, Quinn might still harbor some ill feelings about Rachel's promises about the possibility of their friendship, all only to be thrown away, like what had happened in the aftermath of her car accident).

Like choosing Finn over everything else.

Even without saying it, Quinn knew she and Jesse were thinking of the same thing. After all, they had both believed in Rachel's dream of becoming a star on Broadway, and she had still chosen to accept Finn's wedding proposal and the possibility of staying stuck in Lima.

So it wasn't that Jesse wasn't worried, about Finn wanting Rachel back. He had simply resigned himself to the likely outcome of that scenario, and refused to set himself up for the inevitable crushing disappointment.

"She deserves an explanation." Quinn said softly.

"And she'll get it." Jesse assured her. "After her midterms."

"She's distracted."

"Then she'll need to figure out that not everything can be resolved by pretty words and sad eyes."

Quinn shook her head in exasperation, but she had to admit, Jesse St. James wasn't the devil incarnate she often thought of him as. "If it wasn't for your voice I wouldn't know what Rachel sees in you."

Jesse grinned at her, acknowledging her comment for what it was. "I do believe that was a compliment. See, you're liking me already."