A/N: Sorry I neglected to update yesterday. I was distracted and forgot.

Chapter 5

The girls at sat side by side in the waiting room of the doctor's office, Quinn flipping through a gossip magazine that is, shockingly not out of date, while Rachel just sits nervously. Things are still weird between them. There's more space between them than is necessary and it's too quiet. Rachel hates any silence, much less awkward silences to say nothing of awkward silences between her and Quinn. Rachel's never been especially good at small talk. She and Quinn have never needed it before. Prior to the last few weeks their relationship has vacillated between getting along great and talking about everything and not speaking at all so this in between thing is weird. "So anything new in the world of celebrity gossip?"

"Taylor Swift is researching her new album," Quinn comments.

"Meaning she's dating a new guy?" Rachel smiled.

Quinn nods with a smile, "I keep waiting for one of these guys to record a song called 'Maybe You're the Problem'."

"Or perhaps a friend of hers to make one called, 'You're Famous Now, It's Okay for You to be Picky About Who You Date.'"

Quinn scrunches up her face and looks at Rachel. "That's a bit of clunky title," she remarks.

"Not for a Fallout Boy song," Rachel smiles sticking the tip of her tongue between her teeth. Quinn laughs softly at her dorky friend and turns back to her magazine.

"Thank you for doing this," Rachel says.

"Don't thank me," Quinn says, "I have no intention of actually letting you go through with this."

"Then why are you here?"

"Because you're my friend and you asked for my help," Quinn says, "because if it wasn't me, you'd just pester Santana or Brittany or Tina into it or just bring a picture of me, because there's nothing wrong with knowing what your options are so I'm fine to take pictures and let a doctor show you what you'd look like with my nose, and because you're going through something and this is where I'm supposed to be when you need me, by your side like you've always been with me. It also gives me a chance to talk to you about this. Rachel, you don't need a nose job."

"Easy for you to say," Rachel replies, "I have no doubt that those in this world with perfect faces and beautiful, flawless skin and bootylicious backsides think that physical things don't matter but I assure you that your warped view of the world is no reflection of reality. I suppose you just naturally assume that everyone is nice and accommodating, right?"

"Well, you're certainly doing your best to disabuse me of the notion of everyone being nice," Quinn says.

"Good," Rachel huffs.

"No, Rachel, I'm not under any such delusions. As you may recall, I went through a pretty rough time last year when most of the town looked down on me. You know what made it all suck a little less? Having a friend there to talk to, who was there for me when the world got to be too much."

"Yes," Rachel replies, "It must be nice to have someone like that in your life. It's really unfortunate that I don't."

Quinn flips her magazine shut and tosses it lightly onto the table where she found it. "Alright, Rachel, I'm going to tell you something that I've never told anyone. When I was little…"

"You know what, Quinn? I don't want to hear it!" Rachel snaps, "I'm not interested in any story about something from your idyllic childhood where everyone oohed and ahhed over perfect little Quinn, the human Barbie Doll. I don't care! I don't know how that hasn't gotten through to you yet."

Quinn is about to reply when the girls are interrupted, "Is everything okay over here?"

The girls look up and it's the doctor. Rachel immediately smiles at him and says, "Yes, I'm very sorry. We were just having a minor disagreement that got out of hand. Again, I apologize."

"No problem," he said, "So we, uh, ready to pull the trigger?"

"No, not… not quite yet," Rachel says, "Um, I was kind of hoping that I could get an idea of what I might look like after the procedure. Um, this is my… friend, Quinn."

"Nice nose."

"Thank you."

"Very nice."

"Yes, well," Rachel says, "I think I'd like it."

"No problem," the doctor replies quickly, "So I'll click some pics, make up some photo composites. We'll be ready to rock and roll."

"No," Quinn says abruptly, "No, I'm sorry, Rachel. I said I'd do this for you but I can't. I'm just enabling you."

"Quinn…"

"Rachel, you can butcher your face until you are completely unrecognizable," Quinn says, "It won't make your insecurities go away. Trust me on that." She quickly looks to the doctor and says, "And you, what kind of a doctor are you who's ready to operate on a girl whose parents aren't even around? Have you even consulted them?"

"Quinn, please," Rachel says.

"No, screw you, Rachel," Quinn says quickly, "You don't get to beg for my help and then berate me when I say something that you don't like."

Quinn bolts out of the classroom leaving Lauren to gloat to an empty chair. She takes off running down the hallway thanking God that she wore flats today. Her stomach lurches as she sees it taped to the wall, her seventh grade yearbook photo blown up with the words "Vote for Lucy Caboosey" framing her chubby, zit covered face. She tears the thing down with some feral animal noise and then takes off again only to find another one less than five feet away. She rips it down and tears it in half before continuing on.

She finds another and another and another, realizing that it's no use ripping them down. Everyone will have seen them by now. Lauren has undoubtedly told everyone who Lucy Caboosey is, so it's over. She's going to vomit. It's not a matter of if, just where so she runs for the bathroom and makes it to the toilet in time.

When she's cleaned herself back up, Quinn walks back into the hall, there she finds a very determined Rachel Berry yanking at one of the posters with all her might. It seems quite well affixed to the wall. Lauren and Puck had glued some of them, apparently. Then she sees the trash can that Rachel has dragged with her down the corridor, stuffed full of ripped bits of poster board.

"Rachel?" Quinn says.

Rachel lets go with a growl and manages to rip the finish off the lower half of Lucy's face. The force of her tear spins her around quickly and the ever graceful Rachel Berry loses her balance and falls to the floor on her butt. "I'm so sorry, Quinn. When I saw them, I knew it was you, you have very distinctive eyes after all, and I tried to get them down, but they're just everywhere and some of them are hung up too high for me to get a grip on them."

"It's okay," Quinn says settling down on the floor next to her, "It means a lot that you tried this hard." Rachel examines the piece of the poster in her hands before balling it up and throwing it towards the trash can. It goes in easily.

"You going to join the basketball team next?" Quinn teases.

Rachel chuckles humorlessly and they sit in silence for a couple of minutes. "This is what you were going to tell me in the doctor's office, wasn't it?" Quinn nods silently. Rachel catches the motion out of the corner of eye. "You were trying to open up to me and I wouldn't listen. I'm such a brat. I'm so sorry, Quinn." Quinn doesn't answer but instead scoots herself further down the wall so she can lean her head on Rachel's shoulder. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No," Quinn answers quickly. They sit there for a few more minutes without speaking again. Rachel begins to play with the ends of Quinn's hair which makes Quinn sighs and smiles a little. She's got her friend back and all it cost her was… "I guess it's over," Quinn says.

"Hiding your past?"

"No, my campaign for prom queen," Quinn says. "I doubt Lauren will win but this will probably cost me enough votes that Santana will get the crown."

"Quinn, being crowned prom queen is your dream," Rachel says, "And, for as myopic as I personally think that dream is, you can't give up on it at the first sign of adversity. How on Earth did you ever become head cheerleader with a defeatist attitude like that? Twice, no less."

"Rachel, you saw the posters," Quinn says.

"Yes, many of them and it's a setback," Rachel admits, "But that's all it is. There's still two weeks until prom. In teenager time, that might as well be several months. We just need a new plan."

"We? Does…"

"Yes," Rachel stands up effectively shutting down that conversation, "And step one is we get rid of the rest of these Lucy posters, covering up the ones that won't come off. Step two is we go to my house to devise the rest of the steps. I'm sure my dads will be glad to see you again."

"I'd really like to see them, too," Quinn says. Rachel offers her a hand up, which due to their strength disparity has Quinn nearly pulling Rachel back to the floor instead. When both girls are back to a standing position Quinn says, "I suppose one of those steps is going to be another Fabray-Berry duet."

"I'm not so sure about that," Rachel says linking hands with Quinn and leading them down the hall, "However, a Berry-Fabray duet would be a wonderful idea." Before Quinn can respond to that, however, Rachel drags them both to a stop. "Quinn, before… that is, the other day in the doctor's office, I want to apologize if I, in any way, made you feel bad about yourself or the way you look when I called you bootylicious."

The bit back smile on Rachel's face makes Quinn laugh, hard. "Shut up," she says playfully.

"I meant it as a compliment. Your backside is very pleasant in both shape and mass," Rachel says, still straight faced which only make Quinn laugh harder. "I'm serious, Quinn. Have you seen you? From the back?"

Quinn is red faced with laughter but manages to get herself under control after a minute. "Shut up and tell me what we should sing for the Fabray-Berry duet."

"Berry-Fabray," Rachel mutters under her breath before speaking aloud, "Now I know they're a little before of our time, but tell me, Quinn, are you familiar with the works of the 90's hip-hop/R&B trio TLC?