A/N: firstly, an apology to everyone who's been waiting ages for an update on this fic. I hit writer's block for quite a long while there. So, for all that, I do hope that you enjoy it! Any comments you may have are greatly appreciated!

"I've got something for you," Quinn grinned, holding her clenched fist out to Rachel, who curious, held out her hand to receive whatever Quinn was holding.

"What is it?" she asked, glancing down at the paper Quinn had given her.

"Open it."

Kissing fingertips,
Matching mouths,
Tracing tongues -
Meeting, again and again
For a taste of perfection.
If I should name it,
I would call it Heaven.

"A poem? Did you write it?" Rachel quizzed, looking at the pink haired girl with curiosity; she had no idea that Quinn wrote poetry.

"What? No, of course not. It's an Errant piece," Quinn stated, abashed at Rachel's question. She stared at the paper, scrunched and tattered in the other girl's hand. Rachel too stared at it; at least it made sense now - Errant wrote it, not Quinn. Rachel was touched that Quinn would give this to her, considering that most people thought her wanting to find Errant was a stupid obsession not worth any time or effort.

"Thank you, Quinn. I appreciate it. But where did you find it? I've never heard anything about this poem."

"Boys' locker room. I was trying to find Puck, and it was written on one of the lockers, so I wrote it down for you. I remember you're still trying to figure out who it is. Any closer yet?"

"Not yet. But I feel like I should know by now. I feel like at some level, I do know, but just haven't realised it yet. Am I making sense?"

"Not at all," Quinn teased, laughing at the brunette who was still frowning at the paper with the poem on it.

"Hush, you," Rachel mock glared, before letting her face fall into seriousness, "sounds like Errant's in love."

"Yeah, it does. Good for them, I say," Quinn stated, and Rachel nodded. While she was glad to hear that life was working out for Errant, she wasn't delighted that this new piece was giving her no information about who Errant was. It was an identity crisis more problematic to her than the wizard's in Wicked, and that had been problematic; she'd almost fainted in despair when she found out that he was Elphaba's real father, because he was the reason she was ostracised. Rachel was eleven years old at the time and had a very strict sense of what how a parent should treat their biological child, not to mention she related to Elphie more than any other character in a Broadway show. And now she had her own wizard of Oz, ostracising her from her peers because she was so intent on discovering their identity. Thinking about it made her head hurt.

"Rachel. Hey, hello! Is there anyone home in there?" Quinn asked, waving a hand in front of Rachel's face.

"What? Sorry, I wasn't listening."

"Yeah, I noticed," Quinn said with affection, "I asked you if everything was ok, you know, between you and Finn."

Rachel thought. Was everything ok with Finn? They hadn't spoken since she broke up with him. He'd avoided her during class, avoided her in Glee, made sure not to look at her in the hallways, even though she was trying to catch his eye, just to make sure that they were ok, that he didn't hate her; she couldn't stand it if he hated her. She guessed that meant that they weren't really ok, but that maybe, just maybe, they would be. Looking at Quinn, she shrugged. The pink haired girl nodded. That was all; no pushing for a proper response, no words of sympathy, no jibs at the boy - just a nod to show that she understood. Rachel didn't need anything else, she realised. She leaned forward and kissed Quinn on the lips. Quinn wrapped her arms around Rachel's waist.

"Public displays of affection already?" she whispered into the brunette's ear. She could feel Rachel's breath tickle her cheek as she let out a nervous laugh.

"Yes."

"I'm glad," she smiled, and reciprocated the kiss. She felt something jab her hard in the back, right between her shoulder blades, and she lurched forward, Rachel's body slamming against the lockers.

"Take that, Homo Explosion!" she heard as she extracted herself from the smaller girl. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a jock hifive his friends and swagger off down the corridor. People stared at Quinn and Rachel, attention drawn to them and what they obviously must have been doing to elicit such a response from the football player.

"Shit," Quinn muttered, "hey, are you alright? Nothing broken, right?" She stayed just long enough to be assured that Rachel was fine, before striding after the boy who'd pushed them. She could hear the scuffle of Rachel's shoes behind her, heard the plea for her to stop, that the boy wasn't worth it, but she had set her sights on him. He had no right to treat them like that.

"Hey!" she called to him as she approached and he and his friends swung around, smirking at her.

"Watch out bro, the dyke looks pretty mad," one of them whispered, loud enough for the whole hall to hear.

"One, it's not ok to call me a dyke," she fumed, "if you want to keep your balls, you'll remember that. Two, it's not fucking ok for you to physically or verbally abuse me, Rachel, or in fact, anyone, because of their sexuality, whatever it might be. Have you got that?"

The jock laughed and stepped forward. He towered over Quinn, and she looked tiny compared to him. Rachel feared for her safety. He lowered his face to hers, smirking. "I'll stop when you stop gaying up my school. Have you got that, dyke?"

He backed up, laughing, the sound ringing in Rachel's ears. Quinn's hands darted out, grabbing either side of his open McKinley jacket. She jerked him towards her as she simultaneously threw her head forward. With a heart shuddering crunch, her forehead met his nose. The hall immediately fell silent. The jock staggered backwards, blood spurting from his nose. It ran down his chin in bright red rivulets, dripping off the end, sending splotches crashing to the linoleum floor of the corridor.

"You crazy fucking bitch! What is wrong with you? You broke my damn nose!" he cried. Quinn cocked her head to one side.

"You pushed me and my girlfriend, you threatened me and you used my sexuality as an insult. I think it's fair payback," she replied, crossing her arms, holding her head high.

"Jesus, Quinn. C'mon, go, let's go," Puck said, appearing beside her, pulling her by the arm and leading her down the corridor, with the stares of the other students following them as they passed. Puck's hand shot out and grabbed Rachel too. The three of them walked, eyes staring straight forward, ignoring the people who had just witnessed the entire scene. They burst out into the sunlight. Quinn blinked against it; it was too bright, and it hurt. Her forehead hurt a little too, but it was a good kind of pain; it represented her standing up for herself and for Rachel.

"Nice work, Zombie Apocalypse. You know Blake's going to have the whole team try victimise you now. And Beiste is not going to be happy you broke his nose. We have a game on Saturday," Puck growled, pacing back and forth in front of her. She didn't even raise an eyebrow at him. She was staring at the sky. It was so blue; it made her forget for a second about what just happened. She closed her eyes, letting the sun burn her eyelids, and took a deep breath. As the air filled her lungs, she almost imagined she was floating. She almost imagined that she was happy, that things worked out for her, the way she'd always wanted them to.

"He deserved it," she said, opening her eyes, cutting Puck off mid-stride. He wheeled to face her, eyebrows drawn together, jaw clenched tight. For a split second, she thought he was going to hit her, but then his jaw loosened and a smile broke out.

"Yeah. He did. Nice headbutt dude!" he said, extending a fist to her. She bumped it with her own, laughing in return. Rachel stared at the two of them. It was no wonder they were close. They both revelled in violence and didn't seem to care that Quinn had actually just hurt someone. Sure, it was for her and Quinn's benefit, but it wasn't right.

She sighed. The scene still played in her head. Quinn, the way she headbutted the jock, the sound of his nose breaking. Quinn calling her her girlfriend. Her mouth twitched. She wanted to smile. Her girlfriend. It sounded nice. Natural. Never mind that they had only been on one date. And the kiss in the corridor had come naturally. She hadn't even fretted about it. Quinn made her feel safe, so safe that she momentarily forgot that their school was full of homophobes who would gladly see them flayed for their sexual preferences. Rachel stared at Quinn, the way her hair turned into a halo of pink as the sun entangled its rays within its strands. This time, she did smile. Her girlfriend. It was odd, but it was true. And maybe she wasn't that sorry that Quinn had broken that guy's nose. Maybe it wasn't right, but it wasn't right that he'd insulted and bullied them either.

She stepped forward, fingers reaching, grabbing a hold of Quinn's. The pink haired girl's hand was warm in her own. They curled around hers in reassurance. Rachel placed a kiss on her cheek. That was her thank you. She didn't want to say the words - they would mean that she condoned the violence, which she didn't, but she was thankful for Quinn standing up for them all the same.

"Zombie Apocalypse, what are we going to do with you?" Puck said, shaking his head, running a hand over his mohawk, making it stand straighter. Quinn shrugged, letting go of Rachel's hand and instead wrapping her arms around the smaller girl from behind. Rachel could feel Quinn's chin resting atop her shoulder. She suppressed a jump of surprise when she felt lips being pressed to her neck.

"Q? Figgins wants you in his office. Now," a voice said. Three heads turned to see Sue Sylvester standing in the doorway, holding the door open expectantly. She indicated with her head. Inside. Quinn let out a breath. Rachel felt the other girl's chest deflate, as it was pressed against her back. Then her lips were being pressed to Rachel's cheek, and she was gone, slinking into the school, ducking under Sue's arm. The door closed shut, cutting Rachel off from her.

"It's not good, is it, if Figgins wants to see her?" she murmured. Puck moved closer to her, putting his arm around her shoulders.

"No. It's not. Get in there Rachel. She might need you."

And before Puck could even take another breath, Rachel was off, pulling the door open, running down the corridor. She took a sharp right, almost falling over as her feet slipped on the floor. She scrambled, bumping her shoulder hard into someone as she went.

"Ow! Rachel! Rachel?" she heard. Another pair of feet were running through the corridor, chasing her, "hey, Rachel, hold on. What's wrong?"

It was Kurt. She tried to break free, but the grip on her arm was strong. Kurt was a lot stronger than people thought he was.

"I have to go. Figgins is talking to Quinn. I have to be there!"

"Yeah, we heard. She broke that guy's nose. What's his name?"

"Blake," Santana offered, popping up beside them. She had a smirk on her face as she looked at Rachel. "So, Berry, you unpressed Quinn's lemon. Good for you. And now, as rumour has it, Figgins is going to expel her for breaking that asshole's nose as she tried to defend the two of you. Too bad she's going to get kicked out for doing something this school needed done."

"She only did what everyone else was too afraid to do!"

"Rachel," Kurt began, "violence isn't the answer. It never is. You saw what happened with Karofsky."

"Stop the violence," Brittany said, coming from behind them and linking her pinkie with Santana's. Rachel bit her tongue. She needed to get to Quinn, but now there were people blocking her way. Her heart was hammering in her chest. Would they really expel Quinn? People had done much worse than her.

"But she was justified! It's not like she attacked him for nothing! He bullied us!"

"We know," Santana said, smiling, "which is why we're going to Figgins' office right now and protesting. Figured you might need some support."

"Oh. Um, I don't know what to say. Thank you."

"We're a family. And family means no one gets left behind," Brittany grinned. Santana looked at her, corner of her mouth upturned as she tried not to smile. But she couldn't help it.

"Babe, you're quoting Lilo and Stitch again," she said. Two pairs of eyebrows shot up. Santana frowned at them. "What? If you and Q can be out, then I can too," she shrugged. Kurt giggled and bounced up and down in excitement. Rachel smiled, despite herself. It felt like all the loose strings were finally coming together.

"Ok. Let's go!" she cried, starting to move down the corridor. But Kurt pulled her back by the arm.

"Not so quick."

"You wouldn't want to leave without us, would you?" Mercedes said, the rest of the Glee club in tow. They were grinning, each and all. Rachel felt a wave of pride swell through her, only for it to be dampened when she realised one member was conspicuously missing. She turned to Kurt.

"We couldn't convince him," he muttered, knowing what the question would be before it even left Rachel's mouth. She bit her lip, and nodded. It made sense.

"Cream pie pastry's too busy wallowing over another failed relationship. Now, can we go, or are we going to let Fabray get her stupid self kicked out?" Santana urged, pulling Rachel along. Rachel took the lead, striding down the corridor, the rest of the Glee club following, like a processional march. People's eyes followed them as they walked, Rachel in the front, followed by the two cheerleaders, Kurt and Mercedes, then Mike, Tina, and Artie, pushed along by Puck. No one dared to join them. They were from the Glee club. No one would dare be caught dead with them. But they had each other. Like Brittany had said, they were a family, which was why they were walking to Figgins' office, ready to support Quinn and her actions.

They burst through the glass doors, filing into the anteroom before the principal's office, glaring at him through the glass wall. Rachel could see the back of Quinn's head. There was someone sitting next to her, Mr Shue, she guessed. Figgins was talking, but they couldn't hear the words from their side of the wall. Steeling herself, Rachel pushed open the door to his office and strode in, chin held aloft, eyes trained on Figgins in defiance.

"Rachel, you can't be in here," Mr Shuester said, getting to his feet. On the other side of the desk, Figgins looked absolutely petrified at this suddenly bombardment of students in his office, most of whom had been there before. "Guys. Guys! You can't just come interrupting an important meeting like this! You all have to leave."

"Mr Shue, we're not leaving. Now, I think I speak for us all when I say that we think Quinn's being here is unfair and that she shouldn't be expelled for breaking a guy's nose when he was being a bully," Rachel said, and her statement was followed by nods from the rest of her friends. "Mr Shue, when the school can't stick up for us, then we have to stick up for ourselves. Quinn should be applauded for what she did, not condemned."

"Yes, Mr Shue, I have to agree with Rachel. When I was bullied, no one could do anything to help me, and I couldn't do it on my own. I had to move schools. That wasn't fair to me. I could only come back when it was safe for me, and what made is safe wasn't the teachers, or any of the staff, but the students, the Bully Whips," Kurt added, getting more nods from the group.

"You're welcome," Santana preened.

"Yeah, and San and I can't come out as girlfriends because it's not safe," Brittany piped up, causing several pairs of eyes to swivel to her and Santana. Santana leaned in closer to Brittany, quietly slipping her hand into the blonde's.

"And we want to," she muttered.

"Basically, Mr Shue, we want this to stop, and we aren't going to let Quinn get kicked out because she gave some guy what was coming to him," Puck said. Mr Shuester sighed, and looked to Figgins. The principal was staring at them, gripping the edge of his desk. He coughed before he spoke, and when the words came out, they were a splutter at first, as though his tongue wouldn't cooperate.

"The fact of the matter is that Quinn has physically abused another student, and he has had to be hospitalised to have his broken nose tended to. His parents are threatening to sue the school. I have no choice but to expel her!"

"I'm not going to apologise," Quinn growled.

"You shouldn't have to apologise. He should have to apologise! Can't you see that what he did was wrong! He had no right to push us around, nor did he have a right to verbally insult Quinn. Mr Shue, can't you do anything about this?" Rachel asked, turning to the man. He threw up his hands, shrugging and shaking his head.

"I don't know what you want me to do, Rachel. It's not my decision."

"I'm sorry, but my hands are tied. She has to go. It's that or the school has to pay money to that boy's parents that it doesn't have! Do you know what that means? It means no toilet paper, it means worse food and it means we'll have to fire the janitor! It means no more Glee club!"

All eyes were on Figgins now, narrowed at him in anger. All except those of Shuester and Quinn; the former were downcast in resignation, and the latter were hard, but not angry. She got up, pushing the chair back so that it scraped across the floor. Figgins winced at the piercing sound.

"Fine," she said, "I'll go."

"No, no! Quinn, you can't just give up! If you give up now, things will never get better for us here!" Rachel exclaimed.

"Quinn, if I may, you're throwing away a chance at changing this place. Think it through before you walk out of this office and lose it forever," Kurt interrupted, placing a gentle hand on Quinn's arm. She smiled at him, but shook her head. Rachel looked at her, this pink haired girl, about to take the fall for something she didn't deserve to take the fall for. She grabbed her hand.

"Quinn. Please. Please!"

"No. Rachel, weren't you listening? If I stay, you lose Glee. I'm not letting that happen."

"But Quinn!"

"No! That's not something I'm letting any of you sacrifice. It means too much. Without it, none of us would be standing here. Puck would still be throwing Kurt into the dumpster and locking Artie in the portable toilets. Tina would still be quiet. Mike would never have danced. Santana and Brittany would never have found the courage to admit out loud that they loved each other. And you, you would never have gotten to New York if it weren't for Glee. So don't you dare think about giving it up just so I can stay at this school," Quinn said with such passion that for a moment, they were all taken aback. "Don't do anything stupid," she added.

"Like what?"

"Like get yourselves expelled. Or follow me out."

"Quinn," Rachel began.

"No, shhh. Listen to me," she said, tugging the brunette's hand. She lowered her head a little so that her hazel eyes met Rachel's brown ones. "You do me a favour. Win Nationals this year. All of you. Practice harder than you ever have before. Don't leave it to the last minute like you did last year. And Finn, keep your tongue out of my girlfriend's mouth."

All of them swung around to see Finn, his tall frame leaning against the door, arms crossed over his chest. He nodded.

"Finn! You came," Tina said, voicing the thoughts of everyone in the room.

"Yeah. A good leader doesn't abandon his team when they need him."

"Glad you finally realised that. Remember it," Quinn commanded, her voice full of the authority she perfected when she was in the Cheerios.

"I will."

"Kick butt at Nationals, you guys. I'll be there to cheer you on. I promise. Anyway, I have a locker to clear out, a school to leave and a job to find, so I'd better go," Quinn finished, the finality in her voice apparent. And with that, she pushed past the others and walked out into the corridor. They watched her from behind the glass wall as she went her own way, yet again. There was a collective slump, the fight going from each of them as they realised they'd lost. Rachel wasn't going to let Quinn go on her own, so she pushed through her fellow glee clubbers, and rushed towards Quinn's locker, where she found the girl, pushing the contents of the metal box into her backpack.

Rachel leaned her shoulder against the locker next to Quinn's, watching her pack. Neither of them said anything. Rachel felt as though she should, but couldn't quite find the right place to start. Instead, she reached out, and put her hand over the pink haired girl's. Quinn paused in her ministrations and looked at her, hazel eyes glossy with unshed tears. She blinked, and one escaped, landing on her cheek. Rachel reached up with her other hand and wiped it away with her thumb. Then she kissed Quinn on the forehead. Not a quick kiss, but one where she pressed her lips into the taught flesh, communicating her feelings through it. Quinn sighed when Rachel moved away. She rested her head on the shorter girl's shoulder, letting her hold her in a comforting embrace.

Rachel wrapped her arms around the back of the other girl's neck, her face finding the crevice between Quinn's shoulder and neck, and nestling there. She could smell the other girl there; not the perfume or the deodorant, but Quinn, free of artificial fragrances. She smelt clean, like soap, and Rachel let the fragrance fill her nostrils, knowing that it was the last time she was going to get to do that on school grounds.

"I miss you already," she murmured.

"But I'm still here," Quinn whispered back, hugging Rachel tighter.

"Not for long."

'No. Not for long."

The bell rang, but they ignored it. Students pushed past, but they ignored them too. This moment wasn't about all those other people, it was about them, two girls floating in the wide, wide universe, tethered to each other while they had nothing else to hold on to.

"How about," Quinn began, pulling back and wiping her eye, "we go on another date tonight?"

"I think I'd like that. But wasn't I supposed to plan the next date?"

"You were, but we'll ignore that. It's not any fun if we're not spontaneous."

Rachel laughed, nodding her head. She agreed, and they planned to meet later that night. Quinn slammed the locker door shut, sending the rows of lockers vibrating from the force. She'd taken everything worth taking, leaving the stickers on the inside of the door; they didn't mean anything to her anyway. Not really. She grabbed hold of Rachel's hand, entwining her fingers with the brunette's.

"Walk me to Kurt?"

"You mean that as in Cobain, Kurt, don't you?"

"Yep."

"Then yes. I shall."

And so, escorted by her girlfriend, Quinn walked out of the halls of McKinley, her days of being a student ended, and the future enticing and vague and full of possibility opening up before her. She swung Rachel's hand between their two bodies; the gesture was full of joy. Strangely, she didn't feel disappointed at leaving, but elated. A weight had been lifted off her, and she was glad for it. She was going to miss some things; there were always going to be things to miss - but mostly, she was just glad to have it over. Some things were better when they were over.