author's note: I hope you enjoy this chapter if you have any ideas to improve the story please let me know. Also I do not own the glee characters Ryan Murphy does I am just borrowing them. Also I am still looking for a co-author and a beta reader if anybody is interested please PM me. Kelli
Peeling Back The Layers
Chapter 2
Quinn saw the slushy attack as she was walking down the hall in her newly reclaimed Cheerios uniform. She had worked hard after the birth of Beth to claim her old life back. As she watched she saw Rachel freeze up and get a lost look in her eyes as if she was no longer in the present and that scared her as soon as the person that initiated the attack walked off she approached Rachel. She reached out and touched Rachel 's shoulder and she felt her flinch and try to shake off the contact before collapsing on the floor and curling into a fetal position.
Quinn was in shock at Rachel's reaction but to not draw any further attention to her she sat on the floor next to her hoping that she would snap out of it. Rachel began to cry gut wrenching sobs that was shaking her little body. Quinn did what she thought was best she began rubbing slow circles on Rachel's back to get her to calm down.
"Shhh Rachel it's okay you're okay take slow deep breath for me okay."
At some point of Quinn trying to calm her down Rachel's head had ended up in Quinn's lap. Truthfully she didn't mind she was just glad that Rachel was calming herself down and coming out of the state she went to.
"Hey Rachel why don't we go get you cleaned up."
Rachel knew she couldn't trust her voice right now so she just nodded slowly in Quinn's lap. Quinn slowly helped her up as grape corn syrup dripped off her sweatshirt. Quinn led her to the closest girls restroom just before the bell rang to start the school day.
Rachel stood in the center of the bathroom just staring at herself in the full-length mirror. Her makeup was running you could see the bruise is that had yet to fade show right through her streaky makeup. At the sight of what she was so hard to hide from she started to cry again. Without thinking Quinn wrapped Rachel in her arms and once again waited for her to calm down.
"Shhhh Rachel it's okay we can reapply makeup lets just get you cleaned up."
Rachel let her begin the slow process of cleaning her up. Quinn slowly lifted Rachel's shirt and gasped at what she saw. Rachel's stomach was covered in yellow, green, blue, and purple-black bruises Quinn slowly lowered her sweatshirt and stepped away in shock.
"What happened to you Rachel?"
Rachel shrank away in shame she felt exposed but she couldn't bring herself to speak about the horrible night in the city of her dreams. Quinn recovered quickly and gave Rachel a small smile and Rachel realized she couldn't hide what had happened and Quinn could figure it out by her reaction.
Quinn's heart broke for her no girl deserved to go through what Rachel was. She quickly finished helping her to clean up without saying a word after that Quinn and Rachel left the bathroom with a new understanding with each other.
Quinn watched Rachel the rest of the day making sure she wasn't the target of any more harassment without Rachel really telling her what had happened Quinn had come to a conclusion on her own that left her with a resolve that Rachel needed a friend more than ever now and she was going to be what Rachel needed no matter what the student body thought.
Truthfully, she had wanted to be closer with Rachel ever since she had offered her friendship during babygate happened . She knew that it was going to take hard work to get Rachel to trust her but she was going to prove to her that she had changed.