So Wheelie91 and I have been mapping out ideas for the story for the past few days. I'm sure we'll be discussing more ideas as the fic progresses but for right now it's my job to not screw it up!
Thanks for the reviews since the previous chapter: boston blue, Monichanz, Guest, anon, Omni-Obiter, Ilianalovee, Broadwayfreak5357, crzy4anime, mamastei, fussyviolet, VickiiMadd, invisible ninja57, ToastedMarshmellow08, Mikk, NZgleek91, conventgirlvampire, Gardenia2, emmacancook, General Mac, LoveSKINS94, faberryloving, Guest and vanu.
(Also quick apology to BonesFABERRY for misspelling your pen name in the previous chapter's thank yous, I've now fixed it :/ )
Posted: 2/11/12
Friends
Early December
The Latina head cheerleader and her blonde second in command, amongst other things, were the last to join the glee club table for lunch. Maybe you're thinking 'Why didn't they sit with the rest of the Cheerios?'. There were various reasons, but mainly it was because they liked hanging round with the glee club, they completed the rag-tag bunch of misfits and if it wasn't for Finn's moping right now Santana would actually be enjoying her lunch.
But as she and Brittany had been the last to get to the group they'd been left with the seats opposite the pouting Finn.
Rachel had broken up with him months ago so why was he still like this. Santana because increasingly aware of Finn looking at her, she was about to burn him with a glare and some snappy words when she realised he was looking straight over her shoulder. She looked back over shoulder and rolled her eyes as soon as they landed on a certain brunette sat with a certain single mother at a mostly empty table behind her.
"Give it up Finnept" she snapped harsh enough to get the entire glee clubs attention "She doesn't want you, stop sitting there like someone killed your dog". The glee club looked to wear Finn was still staring then back at the boy. They'd been deliberately ignoring this, it was so boring.
"I don't get it" he watched as Quinn and Rachel happily chatted to one another, smiling as they talked... all by themselves. No one sat with them. Other people sat at the ends of the same table away from them so they were essentially alone. But they looked perfectly happy just sitting side by side, talking. "Quinn was a bitch to Rachel, why are they friends now"
"Because Rachel's decided to be all freaky since her accident" Kurt answered dryly from a few seats down from the tall boy as he watched them suspiciously too.
"Just forget her, she's doing it for attention" Mercedes waved dismissively and tried to get back to her discussion with Kurt
"But why is she sitting over there with Quinn. I don't get it"
"You don't get a lot of things Finn" Santana sighed
"Maybe Rachel's hanging round with Quinn because she's the loser now" Brittany chirped in innocently
"Rachel's still a loser too" Sam didn't mean for it to out slip so harshly "And she's made herself an outsider"
"I agree with Finn, they don't need to sit over there. They should sit here with their team mates"
Tina scoffed from the far end of the table making Santana's head snap towards her "You got something to say?"
She avoided eye contact with the fiery Latina "Well-" she stumbled until Mike put his hand over hers on the table top "None of us gave Rachel the most welcoming reception when she came back... none of us even visited her in hospital-"
"I did" Finn tried to cut in
"You don't count" Santana casually commented, hoping to cut the boy off before he started a ramble just like his ex girlfriend used to.
"And, only Puck had contact with Quinn over the summer. Can we really blame them for not wanting to sit with us" Tina pointed out guiltily, making everyone think. Even Puck, he'd only had contact with Quinn so he could take Beth every Saturday after he'd finished with his pool cleaning appointments in the morning
"I guess... but I don't get why they're friends all of a sudden" the tall man child continued to whine as he watched them
"You're so dumb" Brittany told him matter-of-factly "Rachel was the school loser but now Quinn kinda is, Rachel always wanted to be her friend. So now she's just being there for Q like she wanted someone to be there for her" she stated like it was the most obvious thing ever.
After giving the blonde cheerleader a curious look they all tried to discretely look over at the odd couple again.
.
"He's staring at me again" Rachel sighed as she avoided eye contact with Finn. She even turned slightly in her seat so she couldn't see him being so obvious.
Quinn looked over in time to see the rest of the glee club avert their gaze from watching her and Rachel "Just ignore him"
"He thinks I've gone crazy or something" she muttered "I'd say he's gone crazy, following me and stuff" she kept her head down too, really not wanting to look at him, he might take it as a sign. She could understand some of his confusion but not the way he was acting.
"You did spend a year obsessed with him" Quinn muttered back trying to reason with her
"I know, but I didn't think he'd become this..." she hesitated to say, not wanting to sound big headed.
"Obsessed with you?" Quinn filled in the blank
"Kinda, yeah." She admitted cautiously "We only dated for 6 weeks... I think" she shook her head slightly as if dismissing that from her head before she started thinking about it too much "Why can't he understand I've changed my mind without him just thinking I'm crazy?"
"Well you have been different person lately, you haven't been, um, as..." she looked to Rachel who raised an eyebrow expectantly "you haven't been as loud, or head strong... kinda reserved and quiet lately"
"I guess I am different" she shrugged "Since..." she trailed off for a moment thinking about what really did happen. she wasn't even sure she knew, if anything was different, she just decided on different goals now "I do feel motivated to do things... like, I want to make a difference now, make a change, make an impact. I don't really know for what reason or why?"
"But you've always been motivated, with Broadway and stuff"
"Yeah... just all that doesn't seem to matter now. There are worse things in this world we should deal with first"
"Maybe the – um... never mind" Quinn stopped herself before she lost her only friend with a bad choice of words.
At Quinn's sudden stumble over words Rachel looked straight to her concerned and intrigued "No, what is it?" she encouraged
"Nothing I feel like I keep over stepping anyway" she shook her head and kept her eyes down at her lunch that had quickly become forgotten since her and Rachel had started a pretty normal lunch time chat. The subject had quickly changed though.
"Quinn, you're my friend aren't you? You can ask me anything"
"I guess. It's just its still weird that we're sitting here, talking like we've been friends forever"
"And I still find it weird that you're letting me talk to you and call you my friend"
"Well I guess I realised there are more important things in life than petty reasons for hierarchies and excuses for not talking to someone" she offered with a half smile
"So you understand what I mean... you know there's more to life than the walls around us, that both shield us and trap us from the real world"
"Don't go gettin' deep around me Berry or you'll have no friends again" Quinn joked
"Okay sorry" she conceded but with a smile, to keep the whole thing light hearted "But you get it? So just say what you were gonna say" she encouraged
"Well" she bit her lip, worried that what she was about to say might upset the brunette anyway "I was just gonna say, that maybe your... accident made you look at life differently"
"Maybe" she agreed with a small soft smile to let Quinn know she'd done nothing wrong.
Quinn was right though. She was looking at life differently. Very differently.
She'd perfected the talking computer system in her suit last night and had the booster system in the boots partially complete. Really she needed somewhere secluded to test it. But she'd worry about that later. The point was she'd changed and she was going to get worse, when she found 'them' and stopped 'them', so they couldn't do to anyone else what they tried to do to her.
She needed time though, time for her weapon to be ready and time to get the answers she needed to end this... whatever 'this' was.
"I'm sorry" Quinn muttered into the sudden quiet as Rachel's mind had wandered "I shouldn't have talked about it, it's none of my business"
Rachel still wasn't used to this Quinn, the nice one. "No it's okay" she assured her with a soft smile.
"But it's not right to talk about this when I... well I didn't visit you at the hospital"
"We weren't friends then" Rachel told her
"I am sorry though, you were there for some time... you must have been bored" She avoided the actual mention of the injuries
"You had Beth to worry about and your two jobs and school. Don't worry about me, it wasn't so bad" the time alone had given her time to think and map out her life once she returned to the outside "when I got bored I'd just go for a walk. The doctors said I should exercise after the time in the bed. I know they meant just round the ward I was in, but that was boring too, so I used to just wander around the hospital"
"Rachel you don't need to talk about that sort of stuff if you don't want" Quinn let her know, not that she wasn't curious to know anything she could about Rachel's absence, but she didn't want to push
Rachel had other ideas anyway "No, this is funny, in the way where you feel you shouldn't laugh"
"Why, what did you do?" Quinn asked cautiously. She hadn't been expecting something funny from Rachel's storytelling, as it was about her time in the hospital
"Nothing, on one of my walks I ended up walking through the psychiatric ward. I saw this man throw his drink at the wall and I heard his doctor, who was standing next to him; ask 'Why did you do that?' He said 'because god told me too' and this guy in a hospital gown sitting across the hall said: 'I said no such thing'"
Quinn laughed, a little louder than she intended to "No way" she said still giggling "you're joking, right?" she hushed herself, realising that if Rachel wasn't telling a joke that maybe wasn't an appropriate thing to laugh at
"Nope" she said with a mischievous smile on her face "I mean it, it really happened" she chuckled too as Quinn couldn't hold back another small giggle. Rachel was also enjoying seeing Quinn smile and laugh, she was normally so reserved and quiet lately.
It was all cut short as they both froze in shock at the feeling of icy cold drink being tipped right over their heads.
"Losers" was sneered right between them, making Rachel flinch. It was just because it wasn't expected, she didn't hear or sense Karofsky move closer to them to say the word.
Sniggering and murmured words echoed round the big room full of witnesses. Quinn and Rachel automatically hung their heads down, not wanting to meet any of their smirking faces.
Quinn shuddered as the icy liquid slipped down her back. It hurt, the shock of the cold and the reminder that she had been the one to do this to others. No wonder they laughed at her now, she had fallen from the very top to the very bottom. All she had in this high school hell was the girl who sat next to her. The very one she'd tortured. How had she got lucky enough to still have someone she could call friend
Quinn thought there must be a god, and he must be listening. Maybe Rachel was her guardian angel, because without her sitting there next to her she would have broken down into tears. Was that selfish? To think of only her, Rachel had been slushied too... maybe she should tell Rachel to sit with the others in future.
Karofsky and Azimio's laughter faded as they left the cafeteria with a few of their football team mates and some of the Cheerios.
Rachel just looked to Quinn slowly. The way the blonde just hung her head low hurt Rachel. Quinn had quickly become her friend in the 2 and half weeks she'd been back at school. She was a better friend to her than anyone had ever been. She didn't want to see her hurt, not the ex head cheerio who had ruled this school with an iron fist. It was too scary to think of how far she had fallen, so far that she now sat next to Rachel Berry of all people. Rachel tried to shake her head of her self-dislike but she couldn't because the guilt from seeing Quinn like this because of her was too heavy.
She slammed her fists down on the table wither side of her slushy splattered tray. She shot up out of her seat and stormed out of the cafeteria after the jocks. She left everything behind; her bag, her tray, and Quinn.
Quinn wasn't the only one watching the natural Rachel Berry 'storming out of a room' behaviour as she tore out of there covered in red slushy, red to match the colour she was seeing.
As she stepped out the door she yelled "Hey Karofsky!"
Realising there was about to be some sort of showdown people nearer the cafeteria door started to get up and rush to the door too. Quinn grabbed her and Rachel's bags to follow too. She easily pushed through the quickly gathering crowd as no one wanted to be get contaminated from the slushy stained ex-head-Cheerio.
She got to the front to find Rachel standing up to her bullies. The Cheerios involved stood at the edge of the forming circle of students, watching and smirking at the tiny girl. The footballers stood back too, except Karofsky who was in Rachel's line of fire.
Rachel glared up at the boy, clenching her teeth as she angrily said her words "You think it's okay to do that?" she stalked forward making Karofsky back up but with an entertained smile on his face
"Yeah I do, you're both jokes, the losers of McKinley" he was still backing away but not in fear, just in amusement
"You're weak" she spat "You just chuck a drink at someone and say a word and you think you're the shit" She then roughly shoved his shoulders
"What the hell?" he let out with a slight chuckle as she shoved him again and he let his feet back him up slowly as he raised his arms in protection
"Karofsky, why are you backing down dude?" Azimio cackled as his friend was trapped between a fierce Berry and the lockers lining the hall
"I can't beat up a girl" he laughed looking at his friends confused, as she continued her considered weak shoving.
"Last time I checked you didn't consider me a girl" Rachel spat as she shoved him again, her hands just kept pushing the shoulders of the far taller boy.
A still slushy covered Quinn winced at Rachel's snappy remark
"She's got a point bro" Azimio cackled
"You want to push me around do what you want" she stood right in front of him now "I'm sick of you and your friends thinking you can do whatever you want to other people" she meant Quinn obviously, but not many picked up on the fact she was actually more upset with what had happened to the blonde than herself.
"What are you gonna do Berry?" he sneered down at her "You and your girlfriend are nothing"
"Girlfriend?" one of the nameless Cheerios asked
"Yeah haven't you seen them" another said, looking straight to her old leader "Queer Fabray and Gaychel Berry, the ultimate loser dyke couple"
By now the glee club, led by Santana, had joined the crowd. Santana had easily pushed her way to the front in time to hear that comment and it hit home. It was even worse when she saw broken slushied Quinn standing next to her with her head hung low yet again.
"We're just friends" Rachel snapped at them, turning her back to Karofsky. She wasn't sure why she felt it was necessary to tell them that anyway, they all ready knew their remark wasn't true.
"Whatever Gaychel" Karofsky said, joining in with the others on the new nick name "Is this why you broke up with Hudson, you were too butch for him" his group continued to laugh encouragingly.
Rachel did feel self conscious at that comment, it was true she had been working out more, but she had needed to improve her physical strength, it had started as part of her recovery and then she'd gone beyond in building back some muscle so that she could use the suit with ease. Even with the power it was still heavy... she'd need to work on that some more
"You wanna pick on me fine but don't start on everyone else" she realised she'd just defended Finn, but as much as he irritated her she couldn't let him be made a joke of too. He was still technically the football captain.
"Don't worry Berry I'm just getting started" he said lowly "When we're done you'll wish you'd died in that car accid-" his words were cut short by a real sucker punch. Not their understanding of one, better known as a surprise attack, but a real one, a sharp blow in the upward direction on the lower abdomen, like a jab to the boys diaphragm
It left him winded open for another tack. The sound of a fist cracking his nose and 'ooo'-ing and wincing from the crowd was all that was heard when she delivered her next blow, a sharp punch to the face obviously.
She let him fall back, hit a locker and slide down onto the floor. She'd made her point, she knew that as she stood triumphantly over him. Rachel went to walk away, with her head held high but unfortunately she didn't get far before Karofsky was crawling off the floor again
"Grab her" he told his and Azimio's followers. Two boys Rachel didn't recognise each grabbed an arm and held her in front of their apparent leader.
Without warning he punched her in the stomach and the boys dropped her to the ground, wincing and stifling a groan as she clutched her abdomen and knelt on the floor.
He bent over to threaten lowly in her ear "Let that be a lesson to you Berry, or you'll get another taste of the fury" he then stood up straight again "let that be a lesson to all of you" he yelled before he made a quick exit, his group following closely behind
Rachel kept her eyes closed as she heard the shuffle of feet around her travelling in all directions. She didn't want to see them, see their smirking or perhaps even worry from one or two, so she stayed still and waited for the area to get quiet again
Once it did she looked to where she knew Quinn had been standing. All she found was her own bag on the floor waiting for her.
When she got her bag and picked up a change of clothes from her locker she went to the girls bathroom that usually her and Quinn often met in after a slushy attack. Sometimes it was a coincidence that they ended up in the same one but recently they had gone to that one in particular because they knew they were more likely to meet the other person
This time however, Quinn wasn't there. Rachel was only confused for a minute before she remembered all the words spoken before the fists flew.
By the time she'd cleaned herself up from the slushy attack she had to head to home room. She didn't see Quinn for the rest of the day
.
Rachel needed her sanctuary after the day she'd just had. How could she have let that happen, with confronting Karofsky. Rachel Berry was not one for going after her tormentors, she should have done the same as she did the year before, hold her head high and pretend it didn't affect her.
But no, she'd had to confront them. And now Quinn was avoiding her, because of their stupid comment. If she was gay then so was Karofsky, I mean it was ridiculous to even think it. But of course that sort of comment had got to Quinn, and now she would avoid Rachel and both of them would alone.
She searched through her bag for her keys to the front door of the Berry house. Once she was inside her house she could get inside her home. She undid the several locks on the door to the basement before she could finally get. Once the door was closed behind her she slid all the internal bolts across, securing it behind her. She was then finally free in her most comfortable environment.
There was a small shower room down there so she could properly clean the rest of the slushy off before she got back to work.
Her project was perfect, not only was building and modifying it actual progress in herself certified mission but it also cleared her mind, surprisingly, simply because she was able to escape from everyday life and focus on something solely about her... which she'd always liked.
She flicked the light switch on once all the looks were in place before she stepped down the stairs. She dropped her school bag at the bottom as she wandered over to her computer. She turned it on to start the systems up, while she waited she went over to her suit.
She immediately stopped however when she saw something clamped where the face shield joined with the rest of the helmet. She looked around her first, there was no way any one could get in here without her knowing; well not her dads and they were the only ones who might try to come down here.
Here were no signs of life just a little card on her suit that she'd quickly noticed. It wasn't hard to notice if anything was out of place when she was the only one who used the space.
She pulled the card out and read it. She found an address in a printed hand writing on one side. She flipped it over to see the back where a less legible writing had been used. The words:
A place to practice
NF
Were scrawled across the small white rectangle.
How had someone got in? That was her first thought. And even if they had got past the primitive locks, why had they done it? How could they have known what was in her, and why didn't they take anything?
She sprung to action, searching through her computer to see if it had been hacked or if files had been copied.
She didn't care who this 'NF' was, if he'd touched her stuff she would find out, then she would find him and lecture him on respecting others privacy... or just destroy him like she planned for the others
.
Quinn wished she could savour her evenings. The time she had after working, when it was just her and Beth. It wasn't always easy, there was still so much to do. The 6 month old was a handful but she was getting cuter every day.
It sounded bad, but at first Quinn didn't know how to be round Beth, why would she, she was a very young single mother. At first with Beth, when she was nothing but a fragile baby Quinn was unsure of how to do anything. It wasn't until Beth was about 3 months old, when she started to react to Quinn that the young mother started to feel like it was all real, that she really had a daughter... and that she was really starting to like her
She didn't mean it as bad as it sounded, she just meant that they had started communicating; Quinn was learning how to speak Beth.
After dinner and bath time; Beth fell asleep as Quinn dressed her in a fresh onesie. As she carried her to her crib she felt Beth stir again. She gently kissed her child on the forehead before laying her down and pulling the side of the crib up to keep Beth safely inside
"Hey Beth" she cooed softly down at her little girl "You know momma loves you"
Of course Beth knew that, but she couldn't exactly tell her mother that.
"Momma's going to get us out of here one day" she continued to coo "I want the world for you my baby girl" she whispered soothingly as she watched her baby's eyes drift shut "Good night Bethy" she said finally before backing away slowly to leave the room.
.
Quinn fell asleep so quickly after having put Beth to bed. The emotional stress of school and physical exhaustion from work after, before she could bring her daughter home had made it easy to fall into a deep sleep.
And in that deep sleep her mind drifted, drifted far from her to another place. She saw nothing, felt nothing, only her ears were alive and sensing things around her
"No mere child can over throw me" a voice boomed but like a distant echo.
Then again, closer and like a growl, words were said next to her ear "The throne is mine"
"Thora" was whispered with such fear yet such anger "Liten Babyen Thora" was said in an under tone, a second voice. It belongs to the same person as the first but it was different. Those words held more power as they were uttered "Your father will not stop me and neither will you"
"You will forget" another whisper "You will cease to be" a closer whisper "Thora will be bound"
"Only with..." There was a pause, the next words weren't heard plainly "...avrette elske..." instead they were echoed in the secondary voice "...True love..." then those two words were uttered between other muffled ones "...and ettall kyss..." again in the secondary whisper.
"Only then..." These words all surround her, wrap around her like chains holding her down "...Will Mjölnira find its way..." the broken sentences continue to form and snake around her "...And can you be unleashed from this cage..."
"Now I send you away, far away from here, where you have no hope" the whispers drift further away "No life like this" the tone grows more sinister as the voice makes its final remark "And no way to unite with your intended love, for he is not of that place..."
Quinn didn't wake, her mind had been in another place when she felt those whispers. As it returned to her natural sleeping state she held onto the noises she'd heard and stayed in a state of peaceful slumber until her alarm clock would wake her the following morning.
Sorry about spelling and stuff
And Sorry Wheelie91 if I've messed anything up
Let me know what you think...