Two weeks passed. Two long weeks during which Quinn had to stay at the hospital reeducating her body before she could go back to school. She was going insane. Santana was coming to visit every single day but she couldn't let herself connect with her former best friend because of how much she was worried about Rachel. Santana would never talk about her, and Quinn wasn't really ready to share her feelings just yet. Blaine didn't know either, even though the blonde was being kind of obvious by calling him every day to ask if Rachel seemed to feel a little better. But she didn't care, Blaine was a great guy and she didn't know him that well but she trusted him. And she needed someone she could trust. Because it was time for her to go back to school.

She entered the McKinley hallways with Santana who was now being the over protective friend. It was cute but Quinn didn't want to get any attention, especially if she wanted to go talk to Rachel. But when Kurt, Brittany and Blaine came up to her to hug her and do their little gay happy dances, she knew that it was game over. She acted happy and pretended to like all the affection she was getting when it was really making her more uncomfortable than anything, and waited until lunch time to look for the brunette.

At the end of her last class before lunch, she stayed in the classroom talking to the teacher. It was easy since everybody wanted to hear the car crash story from the victim herself. When she knew that the hallways were empty, she ended the conversation and ran towards the choir room. Nobody could see her, nobody could come in her way. She slowed down when she arrived to the door and looked through the window.
Rachel was sitting in a corner, eating lunch, alone. Quinn took a deep breath and entered the room. The brunette instantly looked at her without an expression on her face. But what made Quinn stop was her eyes. They were empty, like if she was not there anymore. Without a word she knelt down in front of her and took her meal out of her hands to put it next to her. Rachel looked down and the blonde could feel that a break down was about to happen so she whispered:

"- Can I hug you now?"

Rachel nodded and Quinn wrapped her arms around the shaking brunette who let her tears run down the blonde's neck.

"- What's going on Rachel... I'm so worried."

Now that the first tears were out and proud, Rachel couldn't stop crying while burying her face into Quinn's neck. She had missed those arms and finally felt safe. But somehow she was feeling terrified. She couldn't move, she couldn't think, she just couldn't function anymore. When she felt Quinn's hands playing with her hair she lost it even more and the first sound that came out of her mouth since the accident were the sounds of Rachel sobbing and crying like a baby.
By the time lunch period was over, the brunette had managed to calm down a little bit and finally looked into the pretty girl's eyes. What was supposed to happen now? She couldn't go to class! Every body would start asking questions and it was now a known fact that Rachel didn't talk... Before she could even think of a solution to her problem, Quinn ended the hug, took her hand and said:

"- Let's get out of here."

She got up and Rachel followed her into the now empty hallways, then out of the building and they walked towards the bleachers, where the skanks used to hang out. The brunette was walking behind Quinn without asking herself any questions. When they arrived at their destination, the blonde girl let go off Rachel's hand and turned around to face her.

"- This is the only place where I actually feel safe. As weird as that might sound, every time I came here with a troubled mind the Skanks would listen to me go on and on about what was on my mind and never judged me once."

Rachel was looking at her, trying to understand where Quinn was going with that conversation but she just listened without any reaction.

"- I will never judge you Rachel.
- Then why did you torture me all these years..."whispered Rachel.

These were the first words she had said in seven weeks and the brunette didn't even act surprised of how naturally they came out. She didn't even realize she had said those words out loud until Quinn answered:

"- Because I was scared."

Rachel heard Quinn's voice break as she took a step closer.

"- I hated the fact that I was not..."

What was she doing? Now was not the right time to tell Rachel how she felt. She couldn't tell her, she needed to make her feel better not bring her something else to worry about. Now that the wedding was canceled there was no reason to tell the brunette the truth. It's not like she was ever going to feel the same way anyways and Quinn didn't want to face rejection. She was going to be there for Rachel for as long as she needed her and let her be happy without ever letting her know how deeply she loved her. Her role was to send the brunette towards the future she deserved, that was it.

"- I admire you.

- You... Admire me?

- Yes. I admire you. I admire how strong you are and how none of my insults ever came in your way. You are so determined to become a star that I never doubted one second that it wouldn't happen and still I was trying to make you give up on yourself to feel a bit better about my life."

Rachel didn't have an expression on her face, and her eyes were as empty as they were in the choir room. She was really good at letting no feelings through, because even though she had been crying in Quinn's arms earlier, the blonde still had no idea how exactly the brunette felt. But she had to bring those walls down and so she kept talking.

"- I can't stand seeing you like that. Just like I couldn't stand seeing you and Finn engaged.
- Why did you want to come to the wedding then?"

Quinn took a deep breath and let one of her hand run through her hair while she was trying to find an answer that would not reveal her feelings right away.

"- You told me Finn was making you happy. Even if it was hard to believe I just wanted you to be happy...
- It's all my fault.
- What are you talking about?
- What you went through... You know, on your...
- On my way to the wedding? How was that your fault?"

Quinn couldn't help but notice how Rachel started shaking. She took one more step closer to the brunette and slowly put a hand on her cheek.

"- It was never your fault. Do you hear me Rachel? Nothing was ever your fault and I'm not going to let you keep thinking that."

The brunette slowly nodded and looked down.

"- Do you have anything else you want to tell me?"said Quinn.

She moved her hand from Rachel's cheek to the back of her neck before she realized that she had to stop before she even thought about doing something stupid like kissing her. She bit her lip and put her hand in her pocket, it was a safer choice.
Rachel was still looking down, and took a moment before she finally let herself look into Quinn's hazel eyes. Then she just said:

"- I missed you."