Tuesday Morning Quinn woke up to find herself in pain. Her initial thought was along the lines of crap Rachel broke me again. After their hook up in the choir room the two had gone back to Rachel's and gone either four or five more rounds, Quinn couldn't remember exactly. Rachel was just so godamned persuasive, the blonde blamed a lot of it on the fancy condoms. That's not to say that the blonde didn't enjoy every second of it. Rachel's abilities were increasing in leaps and bounds. Every time the two did it the brunette seemed to learn something new that drove the blonde crazy. Quinn was just having a difficult time keeping up with Rachel's never ending stamina. The blonde was also starting to worry that whatever it was she had with Rachel was turning into something that was purely physical.
However it slowly dawned on the blonde where her pain was coming from. Quinn realised that no matter how over enthusiastic Rachel may have gotten there was no way she could have been the culprit. Quinn reached over to the night stand and looked at the date on her phone which confirmed her suspicions. Being a girl really fucking sucked sometimes.
Early morning Cheerios practice had been hell that day. Quinn didn't know how she did it but Coach Sylvester had managed to get the entire squad in sync with each other. Quinn had to put up with a lot of complaining, anger and tears. However most of the anger had belonged to Quinn herself and the tears all belonged to Santana. Coach Sylvester had put her through the ringer for skipping practice the previous morning. It was a particularly sadistic move on behalf of the tyrant coach; after all she could have punished Santana yesterday at their afternoon practice. Instead she'd waited until she knew the Latina girl would be at her weakest. Quinn was too annoyed to really care though; in her opinion Santana should have known better than to skip practice without any sort of excuse. Although Quinn suspected that Santana could have missed practice because of a flesh eating virus and coach Sylvester would have still been pissed. The only member of the squad who never seemed to go completely to pieces was Brittany. It was odd but the usually vague cheerleader always managed to keep a clear head. She was also the best at dealing with weepy Santana something that Quinn was rather grateful for as in her current state Quinn just wanted to slap the girl. The only thing that was keeping Quinn from completely losing control was that they had glee first thing this morning and glee meant she got to see Rachel.
As the unholy trinity were making their way to the choir room Brittany reached into her bag and pulled out a handful of lollypops. It had become a bit of a tradition with the girls, she handed a cherry flavoured one to Santana, a strawberry one to Quinn and popped a blue raspberry flavoured one her own mouth. Brittany had worked out that giving Santana candy usually distracted her enough to keep her from crying and it gave Q something to crunch on when she got angry. As for Brittany, well she just really liked lollypops. The girls entered the choir room to find Rachel already there by herself. Brittany skipped over to the brunette and handed her the last remaining lollypop, it was grape flavoured. The brunette looked a little puzzled but accepted the gift with a smile. Brittany then went and sat at the back of the room, Santana sat beside her and gently rested her head on the blondes shoulder. Quinn took a seat near the brunette.
Rachel could tell that there was something up with Quinn, she was about to ask her what when the rest of the club started to file into the room. All the usual suspects where there but Rachel was shocked and a little terrified when she saw Lauren Zises enter the room. She was supposed to be suspended. Rachel shot a scared look over to Quinn who looked like she was ready to bust some skulls. Before anyone had a chance to say anything Mr Schuester walked into the room.
"Okay now before we start today there are a couple of things I want to address. Firstly I want to welcome Lauren back. Now I know some of you" Schue looked at Rachel "might have a problem with this but here in new directions we're a family and we work through our issues together here in this class room. Not by getting one another suspended"
Rachel rolled her eyes, once again Mr Schuester was creating another great teaching moment for himself at her expense. At this point Quinn had, had about enough. Mr Schuester only ever referred to the New Directions as a family when he wanted to make himself look like a hero. She looked around the room and felt her blood boil when she noticed that just about everyone seemed to agree with the man.
"We need all of us working together if we want to win Nationals this year and that means that no member can be left behind. We're at our strongest when we're all together"
It was Quinn's turn to roll her eyes, she couldn't believe what she was hearing. It was like if Schuester said the word together and team enough times it would magically make them one.
"Mr Schuester with all respect I don't think you understand the nature of what Lauren did to Rachel, she deserved that suspension."
"Look Quinn I'm just doing the right thing here. The suspension was unfair and there's a precedent, Santana wasn't suspended that time she did the same thing to Brittany. Also I think that this matter is really between Lauren and Rachel so I'm not sure why you're so concerned in the first place. Besides I know Lauren is sorry for what she did and that should be enough"
"Yeah no hard feelings, hey Berry" Zises piped up from the back of the room. The jab went completely over the head of Schuester but Rachel felt her stomach knot and her face burn with embarrassment.
"Mr Schue how the hell is what I did to Brittany a precedent for this? That was completely different anyone can see that"
"No its really not Santana and I don't appreciate that tone of voice"
"The hell it is. I love Brittany I would never do anything to hurt her. Zises did what she did to hurt Berry. That is how they are different" The Latina was too worked up to notice that she had announced to the room that she loved Brittany. But the ditzy blonde did notice and felt all warm and happy on the inside, she was so proud of her best friend.
"Look as far as I'm concerned this matter has been dealt with" He gave the class a look that Quinn supposed was supposed to be threatening. "The second thing we need to talk about is a little more...awkward." The man blushed.
"This morning when I came in I found this on the piano" Schuester held up the empty Trojan wrapper. Quinn and Rachel put on their best poker faces but both girls were silently praying.
"Now I get that your all young and curious...but there's a time and a place for these kind of things and school isn't one of them...I'm not going to go to Figgen's with this and I'm also not going to ask who the culprits are but if it happens again I'm going to have no choice" Schuester was trying to look like a serious educator. Quinn rolled her eyes again when she saw the man shoot Finn that look that guys give each other when they're impressed that the other one got laid. Of course if Schuester thought Finn was the responsible then there would be no punishment, hell the blonde was surprised that the man didn't just high five him and hand him a beer.
"Now I want you all to break off into groups and talk about this weeks assignment" Schuester walked over to talk to a confused looking Finn.
Rachel and Quinn relaxed a little knowing there was no way Schue would ever figure out that it had been them defiling the piano yesterday. At the back of the room Santana buried her face into Brittany's shoulder to hide the fact that she was on the verge of breaking out in hysterical laughter. Brittany was confused Mr Schuester looked like her thought that the condom had belonged to Finn but that couldn't be right. Brittany had enough experience with condom's and had heard enough from Santana about Frankenteen to know that the one Schue held up was way too big for the boy. She also knew enough about the other boys in the class to know that it didn't belong to any of them. Then Brittany noticed Rachel at the front of the room the girl was being incredibly silent and was sitting as still as stone. The blonde sucked on her lollypop well that made sense from the short glimpse she'd gotten the other day Rachel could defiantly fill a Trojan magnum but that still didn't answer who the girl had been with. Brittany thought for a moment then it occurred to her why Santana was laughing into her shoulder. San only laughed that way when something embarrassing happened to Quinn. Brittany watched the head Cheerio as she leant over to whisper in the brunette's ear. Something had definitely changed between the two. It made Brittany happy to know that Quinn had met someone that she liked. She was also happy that something nice was happening to Rachel for once. The tiny brunette was often very annoying and used far too many words but she was a good person who never hurt anyone. Well she did send that girl to a crack house that one time but Brittany knew very well that everyone makes mistakes sometimes. Brittany moved to look at Santana for confirmation. The Latina had calmed herself down and when the two made eye contact she just nodded. They knew each other well enough to have conversations without words. It was something Brittany had been missing lately. She liked Artie, she'd gotten back with him because he seemed like he had changed for the better. Now she wasn't so sure, she'd told him what happened in gym class not to be mean to Rachel but because she trusted her boyfriend. But then Artie and his friends just kept making jokes about it. Brittany didn't understand why they felt the need to be so mean, especially Artie. The blonde thought the boy would have some sympathy for the girl. Brittany had been in more than a few awkward situations with the boy. She knew if she told anyone about them Artie would die of embarrassment.
Quinn decided to take advantage of the distracted class to talk to Rachel.
She leant over and talked in a soft voice so that they wouldn't be over heard.
"Are you okay?"
"I don't know, I mean I shouldn't be surprised but It always feels like he goes out of his way to make me feel like a bigger outcast than I am" Rachel looked at the blonde as was reminded about what she was going to ask before they got interrupted. "What about you? You seemed different today"
The blonde could feel the sadness in the brunettes voice and it made her heart hurt. She was still angry at everything in the world but in comparison to what had just happened to Rachel her own problems didn't seem as big.
"Its nothing really...just girl stuff"
Rachel didn't really understand what the blonde was saying.
"I just have my period" The blonde explained in an even quieter whisper. Rachel's eyes widened a little in response, she'd never experienced one herself but she had read enough in cosmopolitan to guess what the blonde was experiencing now. At the very least the revelation explained the blonde's current demeanour.
The bell rang and the glee kids filed out of the room, Quinn and Rachel hung back.
"I'll try and make it to lunch today, I have to go and talk Sue out of adding some weird protein powder she imported from Malaysia into her master clensers"
"I'll look forward to it" The brunette looked around to make sure they were alone and pressed a quick kiss to Quinn's lips. "I hope you're not feeling too bad, let me know if there is anything I can do to make you more comfortable"
Quinn smiled she felt fuzzy thinking that the brunette wanted to fuss over her. When any guy she had ever been with even suspected she had her period they avoided her like she had leprosy.
Unfortunately for Rachel Sue was being especially stubborn that day and monopolised Quinn's lunch hour for the second day in a row. Rachel was sitting alone at her table trying to focus on the positives of the day. Like the fact that whoever had broken the slushy machine had done so in spectacular fashion. It looked liked that it was going to remain broken for a few more weeks. Rachel was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't realise that someone had joined her at the table.
"You should take her out on a date"
Rachel looked at the spot next to her and saw Brittany. The girl sat there eating her lunch looking like it was the most natural thing in the world for her to be sitting next to Rachel Berry.
"I'm sorry Brittany I'm not sure what you're talking about"
"Quinn, you should take her out on a date or something. She's really girly she loves those old romantic movies that are in black and white you should do something like you would see in one of those"
Rachel was dumbfounded now not only was Brittany sitting with her, in public, at lunch, but she was also dispensing love advice to her about Quinn.
"Brittany what would give you the idea that I should take Quinn out on a date?"
"You're having sex right?" Rachel went pale, how could the blonde know and more importantly who had the blonde told "I know sex isn't dating but I can tell you from experience that, that never works out well just look at me and San...and besides Quinn isn't like us, sex isn't just about sex with her it's about feelings too and she's my friend I don't want to see her get hurt again like she did with Puck. So I think you should take her out on a date."
Rachel couldn't believe it, every time she thought her life had gotten as weird as it was going to get something new would come along and blow her away again. She was also certain that this was the most she had ever heard the blonde say and was shocked at how accurate it all was.
"Brittany, how do you know that something is going on between Quinn and I? Did someone tell you?"
"No I figured it out in glee this morning when Mr Schuester held up that condom wrapper; you're the only one big enough to fit that type. Then I noticed Quinn talking to you and it all made sense. Santana always used to say that she had a crush on you that's why she spent all that time being mean to you"
It was one of the first times in Rachel's life where she felt truly speechless. She couldn't believe how unfazed Brittany was by this whole situation. Rachel's first instinct was to assume that the blonde didn't understand what she was talking about, but she knew better than that.
"Brittany I think you might be a secret genius"
"That's what my cat says, he wants me to take the Mensa test"
For the second day in a row Quinn stood on the opposite side of the Cafeteria looking at Rachel smiling and talking to another girl. Quinn tried not to feel jealous she knew that it was probably all completely innocent. The blonde swore aloud as the bell rang. She'd have to wait to after school before she got to talk to the brunette again.
AN: Thanks again for all the feedback and to those of you who have made suggestions. They are all very much appreciated. I'm starting to get an idea as to how I'm going to resolve this story. As much fun as I'm having writing it I don't want it to turn into some monster of a text. I'm keen to write another one to see if this hasn't been a total fluke.