Quinn gripped the comfortable pillow that was under her head and moved it, so she could block out the loud screeching noise that was coming from her phone. Her head pounded unbearably, she'd drank to much and her breath smelt like stale cigarettes. She was usually smarter than this, better. But she had wanted to be around people that weren't Templars, and she had desperately wanted to feel intimately close to someone which was why she was currently naked under Rachel's high thread count sheets, she needed to make a note of where Rachel had bought them for her own—

"Quinn. Turn it off. You'll wake my neighbors and I like this apartment." Rachel said jabbing Quinn in the side with an elbow.

Quinn sighed and stretched her arm out to nightstand, blindly trying to find her phone until her hand finally lands on top of it and she brings it to her as she sits up and rubs her eye. Her phone had never made such a noise before and she was certain that she hadn't set an alarm that annoying. It's only then that she realizes that her phone is flashing a bright red and then white, with the words Alert in bold. It had been the first time she'd ever seen that message. "Shit."

"That's not very templar-like aren't you supposed to be above curse words?" Rachel questions. She stirs when she realizes that Quinn has rolled out of bed and was currently searching her one-bedroom apartment for her uniform. "I was going to eventually make some tofu omelettes with some chickpea pancakes."

Quinn turned to her, tempted to simply point out how disgusting that all sounded, "Maybe next time."

"You say that all the time, I'm beginning to think you don't appreciate my delicious vegan recipes."

Quinn pulled on her pants and shuffled over to Rachel's side of the bed to give her a small kiss on the forehead, "I don't. But right now, I have to go there's some sort of emergency and it's all hands-on deck."

Rachel crinkled her nose a bit and watched as Quinn dropped down to look under the bed for her jacket. "When am I going to see you again? Because as fun as last night was, you dropping by near midnight is not acceptable."

"It'll be easier to see you once I have my own place, I can do that now. Just got to get a few things square first," Quinn said finding her jacket.

"You say that all the time as well," Rachel pointed out struggling to keep the bitterness out of her voice. When Quinn turns to look at her, she shrugs. "Go and save the world or whatever it is you do."

Quinn sighs as she puts on her jacket, buttoning it up and making sure that there were no creases as she reaches for her earpiece, "We've talked about this."

Rachel shrugs, "Be safe Quinn, I'll see you in a few months."

"Months?" Quinn prompts, hesitating slightly. What was Rachel talking about.

"I have practice Quinn, I got into a new Broadway show, which you would know about if you ever spent more than a night every couple of months. You can't keep coming into and out of my life leaving me for Templar business, or playing house with your fiancé." There was no hiding the bitterness in her tone.

"I—"

"We'll talk about it later, you're probably late, and you want to be promoted, again don't you?" Rachel informed her, getting the last word in like always. She watches as Quinn's mind races before she turns, and leaves grabbing her things and heads out the door. "Damn templars." Rachel mutters mostly to herself as her front door slams shut.

"All this because no one decided to check the wear on the damn tires?" Russell's voice bellowed through the hallway. "Why was she even being moved to a new facility to begin with? I never signed off on that."

Sue rubbed at her temples, this was not what she needed this morning, Russell Fabray's rage was not good. "No one told you because, there was no time to inform you. According to the incident report, she destroyed the facility. The subject claimed it was an accident but was punished swiftly. The subject isn't a child anymore, accidents like that shouldn't happen. They had no choice but to switch facilities."

"There is protocol for such a move, and you know it, a solitary van carrying her isn't sufficient, you know that. I know that—" Russell inhaled sharply and turned at the knock on the door, maybe it was news. "Enter." Russell frowned when he saw that it was only Quinn. "You're late."

Quinn winced, she had heard her father's voice from down the hall. Which meant he was in some sort of mood, which meant that someone somewhere had fucked up. "My—"

"Is this how you plan to rise through the ranks? Being late and coming in smelling like stale beer?" Russell said coldly, he turned his attention back to Sue. "This is unacceptable."

Quinn swallowed, she was supposed to be house hunting today, but alerts came first. "I'm sorry—"

"Apologies are useless, what if this had been an attack? Would you apologize to your dead brothers and sisters in arms?" Russell said turning on Quinn.

Quinn stood her ground, years ago she would have flinched, but her father had more than beaten that out of her. She looks at Sue who was watching from where she was sitting in her chair. "Once I have the proper information—"

"I agree with your father on this one Quinn," Sue said plainly. "I understand you just got promoted but this is unacceptable, you'll be benched until further notice," Sue said. "You can start by filling out your report from last night."

Quinn gritted her teeth but forced a smile onto her face. This was not the foot that she was hoping to stand on, "Of course, it will never happen again." She moves to leave the room.

"Quinn. You can still get demoted if you don't shape up."

Quinn stops at the door, it was a threat and she nods. "It won't happen again."

"See to it that it doesn't." Russell said. "Close the door on the way out."

Quinn straightens herself out and walks out closing the door, keeping her face neutral until she was alone for a moment before the neutral look on her face morphs into one or anger. She wasn't even supposed to be here, and she'd seen others get promoted who were nowhere as dedicated as she was. She runs a hand through her hair pushing it out of her eyes. She was going to go shower and get a clean uniform and then she was going to find Finn to tell her what she was missing. He outranked her and Seneschal Schuester seemed to favor him. She's about to head toward the dormitory when she hears her father's raised voice again, whatever it was that had happened it had him fuming.

If she fixed the problem perhaps her father would get off her back, and she'd finally prove to most of the men in the organization that she was not only their equal, she was better than all of them.

"Thanks for the coffee," Finn said as he took the container from Quinn, he flashes her a smile and leans in to kiss her forehead chastely. "I'm glad that we're finally able to work together and go on missions again."

Quinn felt a twinge of guilt as she nodded, it hadn't been right to trick him, but all she had asked was where he was. It was hardly her fault, that Finn had said exactly where he was. She had always worried that he was a bit slow at times, but he didn't seem to notice as she followed him to a large templar transport vehicle that was currently flipped over. It had been a wreck, but was more concerning was the fact that the doors of the back of the transport vehicle were several feet away of from the van, and the weird lumps and convex looking dents on the side. "Our people?"

"Dead, we believe they died on impact, we'll know more later," Finn said nodding towards the body bags, where a priest was standing over them.

Quinn quickly made the sign of the cross, after saying a quick prayer for their souls. She turns her attention back to the back of the transport vehicle, heading over to take a look. "Finn?"

"Yeah?"

"What were they transporting that could do this much damage?" Quinn said looking at the burn pattern on the insides of the transport vehicle, it had made huge dents all over the inside of the car, that explained the large dents on the transport truck.

Finn nods, "Yeah, we don't know. But whatever it was, it's definitely loose. I mean some of us believe that it was a magic-touched."

"Do you think—" Quinn nodded towards the transport truck.

Finn followed her gaze and shakes his head, "We ruled that out pretty quickly the tires were worn, and the roads were slick, it rained two nights ago. We saw the tire marks, but other than that it looks like it was just a normal accident. We did find some vomit on the outside of the van. The bodies were found nearer to the trees." Finn sighed.

"The bodies weren't in the van?"

"No, they weren't inside the van, all three of them were placed a fair distance away from the van."

"Okay so maybe whatever was in the van didn't cause the damage, but did it kill the guards? Or did it attempt to save them?"

"We're unsure, they will do a check, there does seem to be foreign magic coming off some of the bodies. But none of it looks like it was lethal. It's looking like it was a magic-touched, maybe a prisoner or a recently captured one. It's weird, the higher-ups have kept this really quiet."

"I know," Quinn said bitterly.

Finn looked at her, "You okay?"

"I was late, spent the night at friends house you know celebrating. He got upset that I was late, I'm not even supposed to be at work today. I was supposed to be looking at apartments and you know shopping for stuff to go inside the apartment."

Finn winced, he knew all about Russell Fabray's legendary temper. "So, we solve this case and he'll lay off you right?"

Quinn laughed, and shook her head, "Here's hoping," Quinn said with a shake of her head. "It's templar protocol to put tracking—"

"Gone. By the time they realized what had happened, was late this morning. We have people scouring the woods as we speak—but it's had a two-day head start Quinn"

"The last location that it—well whatever it did. Ping? I don't know how trackers work," Quinn grumbled. She frowns, runs her hand along one of the blown off doors, something didn't feel right. Her gut was telling her something, that this was important, but she couldn't place why. It was just an escaped magic-touched.

"Two days before anyone checked, Quinn—" Finn repeated.

"Food, water. That's where they would head, maybe it would seek medical attention. Check every hospital in the nearby area, we'll start looking at restaurants that are nearby, humans can travel around thirty miles a day. If she was injured it might be fifteen so that's where we'll start."

"Do you know how many restaurants and bars are in that radius?" Finn sputters.

"Look at what it did to this van, do you really want to let this wait?" Quinn asked. "How many innocents will be killed by this thing?"

Finn sighed, "Why can't there ever be any nice magic-touched individuals," he whines as he follows Quinn.

Quinn smiled at him, "We wouldn't have our rather high paying jobs if there were nice magic-touched individuals." She nudges him as he trudges along.

"Can we at least stop for something to eat? Breakfast? Brunch?" Finn asked as Quinn pulled open the door, to the tenth place that they had visited that day. He looked at the sign, Lost Saint. "They serve drinks all day Quinn."

"Focus Finn," Quinn said as she heads to the bar, pulling out her wallet and placing a ten on the bar counter, and nods towards the tray of muffins. "He'll have a chocolate chip one, with a glass of water. Keep the change—" She looks at the nametag. "Marissa."

The blonde nods her head and sweeps up the bill, and grabs some tongs to put it in a small paper bag, "Anything else?" She asked going to the mini-fridge and pulling out some water.

"Information if you have any?" Quinn says taking a seat at the bar as Finn bites into the muffin. It would tide him over until the next place at least. She notices the frown on Marissa's face. "We're Templars, not cops."

"As if that makes it any better," Marissa says plainly.

Finn frowned, "We save people like you."

"Sure, you do, what do you want?" Marissa asked.

Quinn places a hand on Finn's leg to stop him, "Let's start over. My name is Quinn Fabray and we are investigating an accident that happened nearby, we believe a magic-touched escaped. Did you see or hear anything? We believe it killed three people and caused the accident, we need to find it. Maybe it needed some medical help. It's possible it showed up here—"

"Please my boss is a cheapass, she doesn't give away food. Or drinks, and if she certainly doesn't pick up strays."

"It's a magic-touched—" Finn began. It wasn't some stray cat.

"She would have called the cops or something," Marissa said plainly. "She hasn't given me a raise in two years, and I've worked here for four."

"Mind if we look around then?" Finn asks.

"I may bitch about my job, but my boss would fire me on the spot if I let a bunch of Templar's snoop around her place without a warrant or whatever it is you need to look around. Her mother's a lawyer or something." Marissa said. "We get a few of that crowd."

Quinn watched as Finn grew agitated, his father had died fighting a magic-touched, he felt that this was truly a noble cause. To have anyone put it down, pissed him off. "Three people are dead, maybe more that we haven't found yet. If you know anything and it kills again, it's on you."

Marissa rolled her eyes and snapped her gum, "I don't work at nights. I work the morning and lunch shift. And nothing came in or came by. Look leave your card or something in case my boss knows something. She works the night shift."

"Finn, give her a card. Tell your boss, to give us a call if she suspects anything—" Quinn pauses for a second. She'd seen a garbage truck recently. "Do you know when the trash gets picked up?"

"It got picked up this morning," Marissa answered.

Quinn nods and looks at Finn, it would be easier dumpster diving than it would be approaching strangers and hoping on human kindness. "Let's check to see if the sanitation workers have noticed anything odd."

Finn nodded and pulled out a card flicking it onto the bar and grabbing the water. "Remember to tell your boss," he said gruffly.

Quinn swats him, "Not everyone is going to like us," she reminded him gently.

"Three of our own are dead, and all she cares about is political correctness. It's a world gone mad," Finn sniffed as they exited the bar. "Then she'll need our help one day, and we'll give it to her and she'll still bitch about the templars."

Quinn sighed, "Fine next place, we'll get some food before we continue the grid search." She stopped and looked at the bar once more, it looked like people lived above it, which had to be annoying. She was tempted to stop and ask a few questions, but it didn't seem like it was something that the magic-touched would do. Staying out of sight and hunting for food from garbage bins would be better.