6.7.12

A/N: Wow guys you sure do know how to make a girl feel good! Thank you so much for your support, please keep reviewing. I am glad that you like what I have given you so far! The journey continues….

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or any lyrics used in my story ( I wish) I try to use things accurately from the TV show or real locations in the Lima, OH & New York, NY. But I am human and do make mistakes.

~~ Loose editing, I can't keep my eyes open. ~~

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Rachel quickly drove the rest of the way home. Quinn was very quite and

Rachel was worried that the paparazzi that followed her around might just

be too much for her to have been able to handle and that was normal. Rachel

while she did live quietly for the most part could on occasion get caught

in the middle of a shit storm. "I am really sorry that happened Quinn."

"It's ok Rachel your a famous person I understand that. It isn't my place to

judge the way you choose to live your life. Just like I would hope that you

wouldn't judge me."

"No I would never make a judgment on anyone else, not only would it be

wrong, but it isn't the type of person that I am. Rachel smiled as 79th

street came into view. She quickly parallel parked into her assigned spot

came around ripped open Quinn's door and pulled the blonde out of the car.

"If we hurry we can get inside before they round the corner."

"You mean they followed us?" Quinn looked watching as indeed there were four

cabs pulling around the corner people with camera jumping out. "I can't

believe they followed us."

"Quinn i haven't been caught out and about with another women for over a

year. With Xiomara out of the country, this is first page news. Please hurry I

don't want them to figure out who you are and start to hound you too."

Rachel snagged the document holder slung her purse over her shoulder, and

handed Quinn her own messenger bag, slammed the car door and started to

drag Quinn to the door that sat on top for the 7 stairs stoop. Quinn followed Rachel . " I am on the 4th floor." she glanced over her shoulder as she carried on up stairs preceding the blonde. " Fair warning the house is a mess. I haven't had a chance to rearrange anything since the movers yet. So it is slightly dilapidated." Rachel her Quinn stifled a laugh, and fought a need to smirk in answer as well. Rachel put the key into her lock and quickly stepped inside, She hung her purse on the coat rack and hung her keys on the wall, "Come on I'll show you around before we go upstairs were there is still furniture." Rachel laughed. "Ok here are the two guest rooms, but one is really too small to be called that I use it for storage, it is currently housing packed boxes." she opened to the two opened doors. " This was the guest room, but I just gave the bedroom set away." she shrugged her shoulders and headed down the hall. "Downstairs bath, its small it functions and the laundry is in here, as well." she lead the way to further down the hall. "This is the kitchen and the living room."

"Wow nice kitchen!" Quinn said running her eyes roaming over the open chef's kitchen. Admiring the custom cherry cabinetry, black honed-granite countertops, and Sub-Zero, Viking and Miele appliances. "You put this in?"

"This was one of the few things that I remodeled when I bought it 6 years ago. " Rachel nodded opening the subzero fridge and grabbing two waters and a bowl of fruit.

"You did an excellent job. The living room has a spectacular view." Quinn looked around the apartment, it also had boxes every where." she looked back at Rachel who she noticed was watching her. "If you not moving for two months why are you packing now? I mean I am all for packing early, but aren't you going to need any of the items in the boxes?"

"Well most of the things in these boxes are Xiomara's. She left a few things behind when she left on her tour and since I will be moving I have packed her things."

Quinn nodded and followed Rachel up the stairs. She really hadn't been kidding the house really had very little furniture, until you came to the second floor. Which lead right into the Master bedroom, there was an small en suite to the right and a door that seemed to lead to a terrace.

"This is the master, en suite, and the south terrace. And then this here was originally was the north terrace but I converted it into a solarium."

"To house your baby grand piano?" Quinn muttered in shock, stating at the black beauty sitting off to the left of the room. "Rachel who has a baby piano in their solarium?"

"Where else would I have put it? The living room isn't big enough. I had to have the glass specially designed to slide so that they could hoist her up there, and into the room. Which was a good thing because when I move it would have been a bitch to have it moved."

"It is still going to be an issue. Do I need to redesign your apartment for the piano?" Quinn looked at her with pursed lips.

"No I plan of having it in the music room on the 3rd floor. You might want to hold off installing the new windows on that floor until then." Rachel shrugged her shoulders, and smiled. "We can sit in here or go to the terrace to talk about the design." she nodded her head to the two small sofas that were clustered together in front of a flat screen on the wall.

Quinn shook her head, seeing that there would be no place to lay out the designs. 'Do you have a large surface to lay out the designs?"

"Ok no problem we can go upstairs." Rachel left the solarium, treaded threw the bedroom, out of to the south terrace and then headed up a spiral staircase.

Quinn rolled her eyes and followed the diva up to yet another floor. No wonder Rachel was in such good shape, with all these damn stairs. The roof top terrace took Quinn's breath away. Rachel had an enchanting view of Central Park on one side and lights of the City and water on the other. There was a gorgeous well manicured flower garden, and high quality designer outdoor furniture. There was a large old rustic table that sat 8 on the far right near a large stainless steal grill, which she found odd for a vegan.

"How about we set up on the table? She set the two water bottles and the fruit down in the middle of the table. She nodded for Quinn to sit down as she lit a few outdoor tiki candles. Quinn inhaled the citronella sent.

"Perfect. This is a beautiful view, are you sure you want to part with this place?" she watched as Rachel slowly headed back to sit with her at the table.

"While I do love this place, it holds a lot of history and not all of it was memorable in a good way. " she smiled sadly and glanced out into the colorful night.

Quinn felt herself reaching out and holding Rachel's hand. "I know what you mean. I am sorry for my part in your unhappy history. I know that I was very harsh, and overly mean to you, especially when you were just reaching out to me to help me. To let me know that I wasn't alone. I never did thank you for that, I hope that is isn't too late now."

Rachel wanted to rush forward with her ever ready forgiveness, but Xiomara had taught her that sometimes you couldn't just faithfully give forgiveness blindly, it needed to be earned. Rachel wasn't willing to put herself back into a position that she had been all of 8 years ago. The only person that could do that was, Rachel Berry, if she didn't believe in herself or know her own self worth. But Rachel also saw that Quinn was trying and she was sincere, Quinn truly believed what she was saying was true. But Rachel had been burnt by good intentions in the past. Again she wasn't ready to follow the white rabbit down into the hole blindly. " I hope so Quinn." she simply said and smiled. "I hope so. So these designs are we going to talk about them?"

Quinn headed down the block, after sneaking out the back fire escape from Rachel's catching a cab back to the her co-op rather then taking the train. It was 11 she , if she took the train it would be well after midnight by the time she got home. Rachel had decided on one the plans already tonight like the feeling of having three bedrooms on the top floor 2 bath rooms. A spacious kitchen, dining, family and a small office/library on first floor. Quinn would have to crunch numbers for at least a week to get a proper quote together. But the apartment wasn't going to be difficult at all. Knowing that construction wise she would be able to keep the construction cost under 30 thousand, Rachel's expensive taste for material and furnishings would be another situation all together.

Quinn let herself into her co-op, dropping her backs at the door and headed straight to her kitchen she needed a drink. It had seen a long night, though a pleasant one, a long one. She sat heavily on her plain brown sofa. She looked at her place she had bought it 2 years ago to years ago. She thought it funny that even with the boxes and lack of furniture Rachel's place looked more lived in then Quinn's had. If she was honest Quinn just slept here and went through the motions. Although she owned the house, she didn't feel as if it was hers. No need to decorate. The little apartment was lonely. Quinn had never noticed that before. There were pictures of Beth on her walls, and that was it. Maybe it was because she was so far away from Beth, Santana and Brittany. But she left alone, she felt adrift. Quinn didn't know when being that way had started bothering her, but being alone just wasn't ok anymore. She hadn't dated in the last 3 years. That was one hell of a dry spell. Worse was that her relationship with Larry hadn't even ended bad, so it wasn't hut feeling that had kept her away from dating. She just didn't want to, for quite some time. Maybe it was time for her to learn how to live again.

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**Two weeks later**

Quinn hadn't seen Rachel in person for two weeks, which she found odd because the Diva had made a point to tell her that they needed to hang out, but every time Quinn called Rachel wasn't able to talk, and Yarin fielded the call. She finally gave up and asked Violet to do her dirty work to see if Rachel would talk to her. She only hurt her own feelings when Violet had indeed spoke to her, and managed to get the apartment contract signed and faxed back over in a matter of minutes. She kept running through everything that happened or was said that evening and wondered what had gone wrong or what she had done that set them backwards.

Annoyed that she cared so much she just pushed herself further into work. She got together the material, labor, time projections and design ideas together and put together a presentation that she wasn't able to email to Rachel because they hadn't even exchanged personal information. She only had Yarin's cell phone and the office number, that was never answered. "Diana?" she called into the intercom.

"Yes Ms Fabray?"

"Can you please have a courier sent up I have a package that I need delivered this afternoon." Quinn knew through Violet that Rachel had been operating on the property in a temp office that she had set up for Yarin and herself. Quinn also knew that Yarin had requested a list of contractors that Quinn worked with and that Rachel was interviewing each of them to see who she was willing to work with. Apparently she had also found an exterminator that agreed with her terms, all thanks to Violet.

Getting to her feet she decided enough was enough. She put together the package and headed to the door, noticing that Violet was not sitting at her desk. Diana was at here typing up some documents. "Never mind that courier I am going to deliver it myself check out the progress on the property myself."

"Yes Ms Fabray, I'll cancel the courier." Diana smiled picked up the phone as she continued typing her memo. Quinn smirked when the elevator closed. Quinn headed over the 42nd street, stopping at a little deli, grabbing a few vegan selections and then continued on her way. She rounded the corner on 42 and was surprised to see so many work trucks parked up and down the streets. There were three metal dumpsters out front of the theater half full. Quinn skidded to a halt. Shit there was construction or at the least demolition going on. Had Rachel changed her mind and gone with another designer? Quinn mustered her courage, if that was the case Rachel should have told her, and if it was then Quinn would do an about face and crawl off somewhere and lick her wounds privately.

Quinn straightened her shoulders, took off her sunglasses and strode into the theater. She was stunned, the place was a shell of its former self. Everything had been stripped down and was bare bones. What she knew could take a month and probable more had taken two weeks. The chairs had all been removed, it appeared that there was a salvage pile and she watched two men loading them into a large moving truck. All the glass had been removed from the windows again Quinn noticed a salvage pile, with a trio of men loading the undamaged panes carefully into the truck. That was when she noticed Rachel. She was on the stage sweeping chunks of plaster into a large pile as she did so she was singing a loud verse of "I'm going to wash that man right out of my hair." from South Pacific.

It was then and only then that Quinn realized that while everyone was working on their own projects that their attention was directly focused on her as she sang, oblivious to everyone. Quinn decided to stay back and watch the work going on before she revealed herself. There was easily 15 burly construction workers in the theater. Two working on pulling the ceiling down standing of rafters. The two men working on the seats the 3 on the windows. Two pulling down the drapes from the stage. There was a four man crew pulling up the carpet, and the last two where teenagers who seemed to be in charge of gathering the planks from the stage, or helping sweep the stage. When Rachel was came to the end of her performance Quinn wasn't able to stop herself from clapping. "The amazingly talented Rachel Berry everyone."

"Quinn!" she smiled and then blushed when everyone joined in on the clapping. "Oh stop that !" she laughed and hopped off the stage. " I'll be back, think of another one. I tell you I can not be stumped." she promised and the men all laughed. Rachel came even with Quinn. "Hi!"

"Hi. What is going on here?"

"Here you mean the clean up crew?"

"Yes I thought you were hiring someone for this ."

"I am, I mean it isn't a big deal is it?" Rachel seemed confused. "I mean I just thought this would help you."

Quinn was now the one confused. "What? We don't have a contract for the theater yet. We have a deal on the apartment.'

"Quinn I already told you that I wanted you to do it." Rachel smiled and led her out of the theater back pass the concession stand, and into her small temp office. Yarin was on the phone in the corner yelling about "No comment, and no Interviews!" on multiple lines. She followed Rachel even further to find another small office with a desk and two chairs surrounding a small round table. "This is such a nice surprise!" Rachel motioned for Quinn to sit down. "I'll be right back I have to freshen up a bit."

Rachel hastened to the bathroom in a panic. She cleaned her face and her hands. How Quinn had slipped pass Violet and Yarin? Rachel didn't know. The all three were in the middle of a mission. This mission was to keep Quinn safe. Rachel had been avoiding her like the plague after all the paparazzi publicity had hit. Luckily no one yet knew who Quinn was. But that didn't stop it from bring on all the star magazines, or national enquirer. Didn't stop the phone call , especially thee irate one from Xiomara. Rachel had pulled a few strings to avoid making things too much of a splash , her publicist was working over time. The only blessing it seemed was that Quinn somehow was completely oblivious.

As much as she wanted to protect Quinn, she couldn't help how happy she was that Quinn had just showed up. Having enough of being ignored, it appeared and came in temper blaring to find out what was going on. Rachel smiled ruefully at herself, she just caught the tiger by the toe. Would she holler , to be let go?

"Did you bring lunch? How sweet of you." Rachel sat down across from her. Watching Quinn carefully.

"Yes I did I also brought by the contract and the mock numbers ( which are now going to be inaccurate) and a few design ideas."

Rachel nodded and pursed her lips. "I am sorry about stepping on your toes. That wasn't my intention. These workers are part of a daily work daily pay program, I meet them when I volunteered at the W.I.N. soup kitchen last week. It seems that they were all laid off. So I offered them jobs for demolition, they all had precious experience and I checked references. I thought of all the jobs that demolition would be the most sound. They are honest men, work very hard, and want to be able to provide for their families."

"Well , now I feel like a selfish ass. If that is the reasoning, I can't argue with your results. Just don't hire a plumber or electrician without me just to be safe."

"Deal. Can we eat I am starving."

"Yes just as soon as you tell me why you are ignoring me."

Damn! Shoulders slumped Rachel sighed "Noticed that did ya?"

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Sorry about the short chapter, working double shifts every day this week . It's midnight my time and I have been up since 6am after staying up until 4:45am writing yesterday…

Hope you enjoy….

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