Chapter 7

"I think I'm going to tell him that Mercedes and Kurt keep sneaking out of here constantly to ogle Madison Avenue fashion," Quinn says blowing past Santana and Brittany.

"You can't do that," Brittany says, "He'll have to suspend them."

"And then there go our chances at Nationals," Quinn says, adding a mocking, "Darn!"

"You know what, we get it," Santana says, "You're pissed about Finn dumping your sweet ass. Get over it!"

"I DON'T WANT TO GET OVER IT! OKAY!?"

"The only person you're sabotaging here is yourself," Santana says surprisingly calm for having someone yelling in her face.

"I DON'T CARE ABOUT SOME STUPID SHOW CHOIR SINGING COMPETITION!"

"Well, you should," Santana counters, "This is the one chance we have to actually feel good about ourselves."

"Brittany, Santana," Rachel speaks up from the doorway startling all three of them, "Can Quinn and I have the room, please?"

Santana looks at Rachel like she just offered her a shopping cart full of breadsticks. "You want to deal with this emotional train wreck, be my guest, please."

Rachel steps into the room out of the doorway and waits for Santana and Brittany to exit before moving to settle herself and Quinn down onto the bed near where Quinn was having her outburst. "Quinn, tell me what's going on, please. What's got you so worked up that you're ready to sabotage our performance?"

"They have each other, Tina has Mike, Zizes hooks up, you have two guys chasing after you," Quinn says softly, "Call me crazy but I think there's something going on with Mercedes and Sam. What about me? Am I not the pretty, popular girl? When is it my turn? I…" Quinn stops to wipe away streams of tears. "I just want someone to love me, Rachel."

Rachel shifts off the bed to kneel in front of Quinn, placing her hands of Quinn's knees. She looks up at Quinn and waits until Quinn's looking back at her before saying, "Someone does."

"What?" Quinn says quickly followed by, "Who?" Rachel doesn't answer, just bites her lip and raises her eyebrows and lets Quinn work it out for herself. "You?" Quinn asks and Rachel nods ever so slightly. Quinn shakes her head and says, "Rachel, you know what meant."

"Yes, Quinn," Rachel replies, "I do know what you meant."

"You…" Quinn stared at Rachel open-mouthed for a long minute processing everything, "…love me? You love me?" Rachel nods again. "You love me love me?" Rachel nods. "I… Rachel… I..."

"You don't have to say anything, Quinn," Rachel interrupts, "I know you aren't gay… or into girls. I'm not telling you this as some pained confession of love hoping to have some hot make out session here. I know you'll never love me back, not in the way I do you, anyway and that's okay." She pauses momentarily to reflect on her own words. "Actually that's not true, it quite sucks, but it's well beyond your control so you don't need to apologize for it. I'm getting off track here, what was I saying?" She pauses again to think for a minute and Quinn slides off the bed to sit with Rachel in the floor. "Right, I don't expect you to say it back. I came to terms with that awhile ago, okay? If my options with you are friends or nothing, then friends is an easy choice to make. I'm only telling you all of this because I don't want you to slide further into this hole you're already in and start thinking that there's something wrong with you, like you're unlovable, okay?" Quinn nods her head a little while looking away. Rachel brings her hand up to Quinn's face guiding her looking Rachel in the eyes. "I'm going to need to hear the words here, okay? You are not unlovable, Quinn. You are very, very lovable."

Rachel is blinking away tears, which causes a mirror reaction in Quinn. "I am…" she pause to take and release a deep breath, "…not unlovable." Rachel smiles at her and leans forward to wrap Quinn up in a hug. Quinn buries her face in Rachel's sweater and breaks down crying, big ugly sobbing. Rachel just holds her and strokes her hair while trying to reign in her sympathetic tears.

After a few minutes in this awkward position, Rachel adjusts them to where her back is against the foot of the bed and Quinn's body is positioned between her legs and her head is resting against Rachel's collarbone. Rachel continues running her fingers through Quinn's hair gently and they stay like that for a while, Rachel doesn't really pay attention to how long exactly. Eventually Quinn, face still pressed against Rachel's chest, mutters, "Rachel, I need help."

"I know, honey," Rachel says softly as a stray tear escapes down her cheek, "We'll get you all the help you need. I'm sure my dads will be happy to assist in any way they can." Quinn buries her face once more and resumes crying. Rachel cradles Quinn's head and presses her lips to the crown. "Hey," she says softly into Quinn's hair, "Hey, Quinn, you know just you asking for help is a huge step, right?" Quinn nods her head against Rachel's chest and sniffles several times getting herself composed. "I have an idea," Rachel says. Quinn sits up still dabbing at her eyes and nose. "Let's get out of here and go do something hugely irresponsible and fun."

Quinn smiles at her and says, "What did you have in mind?"

"I don't know," Rachel says, "What about if we, like, went to a salon and got mani-pedis and cut off a bunch of our hair off or something?" Quinn scoffs at first and then starts laughing in earnest, to the point where she almost falls over laughing so hard. "What? What's so funny?"

"You are so vanilla," Quinn says, "and that's coming from me. Your idea of 'hugely irresponsible' is spending too much on a haircut? I thought you were more creative than that. I was expecting something like full on mad, like… didn't you once send a girl to a crack house?"

"Is that what you want to do, Quinn? Drugs?" Rachel asks, "Because I..."

"No," Quinn interrupts, "but I just meant that insane, Rachel Berry spirit. Like I think I was expecting you to say that we should sneak into the Gershwin and perform a Fabray-Berry duet on a Broadway stage."

"Quinn! I am appalled!" Rachel folds her arms across her chest. "I would never in a million years suggest such a thing!" Quinn looks at her confused and Rachel's face breaks out into a bright smile. "Now a Berry-Fabray duet, on the other hand, might be just exactly what Broadway needs." She uncrosses her arms and pushes herself up to her feet and offers a hand up to Quinn, which she accepts. "Up, up. Rehearsals start right now and run through our makeovers. Ready, good!" In typical Rachel Berry fashion, she breaks out into song with only a moment's notice. "I'm limited! Just look at me - I'm limited!" She smiles at Quinn. "Do you know it?"

"I've heard it said," Quinn sings in answer, "That people come into our lives... for a reason." There's a tremor in Quinn's voice at the end of the line and her eyes well up once more.

"Oh God, I'm so sorry, Quinn," Rachel says grabbing one of Quinn's hands. "We'll sing something else."

"No, we will not," Quinn counters quickly. There's a heavy silence between them while Quinn steadies herself once again. "Rachel, I know it doesn't mean what you may wish it means, but you know I do love you, right?" Rachel bites her lip again, smiles, and nods. "I do, I seriously thank God for you every day. For as messed up as my head is right now, I don't even want to think where I'd be without you in my life."

Rachel takes the two steps towards her and wraps her arms around Quinn's waist as Quinn wraps hers around Rachel's neck and shoulders. They both squeeze the other for all they are worth. Rachel rests her chin on Quinn's shoulder where is it just so happens to fit, perfectly. She takes in the scent of vanilla body scrub that feels so much like home to her and sighs.

Quinn presses a kiss against Rachel's temple and to Rachel it is both heartwarming and heartbreaking. It's hard for her to be this close to Quinn without wanting to be closer, but at the same time it's easier than to not have her at all. She feels like she needs to say something to break the tension to keep herself from crying, "Hey, Quinn, just this one time, really quickly, can I feel your butt?"

"Are you obsessed or something?"

"Little bit," Rachel answers so quickly that she had to be expecting the question.

Quinn sighs and says, "Just this once, very quickly." Rachel doesn't hesitate to grab hold with all ten fingers. "Okay, that's enough," Quinn says after only about fifteen seconds. Rachel lets go and they break the hug, both reaching for their coats. "Was it everything you hoped it would be?" Quinn asks.

"It was glorious!" Rachel announces, before quickly breaking back into song, "Because I knew you…"

Quinn can't help herself but laugh at her ridiculous friend. She may be depressed as hell, New Directions is most likely screwed at Nationals because they don't have a setlist, but with company like this, it's hard to doubt that things are going to be okay.

A/N: So this was the original end for the story but I've got a Coda written that I haven't yet decided if I'm publishing or not. I'm not sure if it adds anything to the story or not.