So… hi. I've completely forgotten what was supposed to be happening in this story and I've lost the original version of this chapter – which of course I can't remember what I had managed to do. I think it's fair to say that I don't have much retention these days haha. This was supposed to be out before Christmas. I am ashamed at the amount of time it's taken me to do this.

Also, I'm pissed that a lot of fics had taken Santana's side with the whole Fanny thing because a few episodes before she called Kurt and Rachel's broadway dreams "old and stuffy" then all of a sudden slyly uses Rachel's signature song to get the role of her understudy and can't see what the problem is? Bitch move. She used to be a favourite of mine but I dislike at the minute because of that. Sure, Rachel was getting a bit of a diva but she worked for it, and when she has the errors of her ways pointed out to her she tries to fix things (see Kurt running for president), but no one seems to do this for her. Her 'friends' just attack her until she changes it. It's not fair dammit! Does no one else notice this?
Anyway with my rant over, here's my best attempt at an update.

DISCLAIMER : I don't own glee.

Previously…

"I went for a run- whoever said exercise is good for you, clearly wasn't doing the same as I was." The singer groaned.

Quinn chuckled at the sight of the normally mature diva, crashed out on the couch and whining away. It was strange to see, but it was also quite a welcome sight to know that Rachel could still be a teen since she had found out that her friend was responsible for herself and this house.

"Come on, I'll sort you out." Quinn murmured, carefully getting Rachel in her arms and carrying her to the brunette's bedroom. "I'll give you a massage."

-/MASSAGE/-

Rachel was dead.

That was the only explanation. She had died and gone to heaven.

She could feel Quinn's hands working the knots out of her leg muscles and sagged into the bed.

"You have magic hands," Rachel moaned as a particularly painful spot was gently soothed. She was pretty sure that she was floating now.
Quinn flushed at the compliment. She could hardly believe that Rachel was letting her help her out and the fact that she was finally getting to touch those goddess like legs was a dream come true. And the reality was much better. The tan skin was silky smooth to the touch and the blonde was essentially becoming a puddle of goo.

"Thanks, Rachel. Anywhere else sore, or is that it?" Quinn asked reluctantly, as much as she wanted to keep touching the singer, she had finished working the knots out. The brunette bit her lip and Quinn tilted her head, confused at the sudden shyness coming from the girl.

"Rachel?"

Rachel swallowed, flushing slightly, "My um… my shoulder is rather sore from karate. Could you-"

Quinn nodded, momentarily forgetting Rachel couldn't see, "Of course. Um... It would be better if you took your shirt off. I can still do it with it on bit it would be more effective if..."

Rachel nodded. Quinn moved to side on the side of the bed while Rachel sat up and tugged her shirt off, dropping it to the floor then lay down again. "This okay?" Rachel asked, slightly surprised by her own boldness. She wasn't embarrassed by her body, she was in damn good shape and she took care of herself but it was strange being shirtless in front of someone else.

"Perfect." The blonde mumbled. Rachel was going to kill her, that was for certain.

Quinn moved up the bed to straddle Rachel's slim waist. She took a moment to savour the sight of the expanse of unblemished, muscular sun kissed skin in front of her. It was a shame Rachel had a bra on or else she could have gotten a glimpse of her side boob. Then she internally chastised herself for sounding like Puck. Rachel was trusting her a lot with this and she was damn well not going to screw it up.

The cheerleader began to massage Rachel's shoulders, pulling a few groans and moans out of the smaller girl, and was shocked by how tense they were.

"Rachel, are you okay?"

The brunette was on another planet with how wonderful Quinn's hands were. "Hmm? Yeah, why? Is something wrong?"

"You feel really tense, and there's a lot of knots in your muscles, some of these are going to hurt to get out." Quinn blinked. Rachel seemed to be very zen about all this, she thought that she would be blitzed with questions as to why or how that was possible, would it take long, what were knots exactly, but Rachel was apparently dozing off.

"Do whatever you need to. I trust you." Rachel said it absentmindedly, then paused at the intake of breath behind her. She rewound what she had just said but couldn't find herself disagreeing. She found that she did trust Quinn. The girl had proven herself over the last few days and she was even taking care of her now when she would be justified in just hiding from everyone. Yes, she trusted Quinn.

"I..." Quinn didn't know what else to say other than "thank you." She timidly put her hands back on Rachel's shoulders and began to work. She felt much more confident in her actions but cautious of the fact that she had been given something precious and there was no way she was going to screw it up. "I trust you too. Although I don't know whether that means much to you, you've had it from day one. I knew you were someone different. You never cared about the 'done thing' you did whatever made you happy and I always wanted to be like that. Now my dad is gone, and hopefully for good this time, I can be myself. We're friends right Rachel? Friends tell each other things and there's something I think you should know, about me... I- I like girls." Quinn waited for any kind of response, she was straddling the girl's back while she was topless, she thought that may have triggered something from Rachel but all she got was a soft snore.

Quinn couldn't believe it. She had just spilled her guts and Rachel had fallen asleep. She chuckled quietly to herself. Just her luck. The run must have really drained her.

The cheerleader got off the singer and pulled the duvet from the other side over onto Rachel, essentially folding it over on her. Rachel sighed and rolled onto her back, flinging an arm out. Quinn shook her head and decided to lay down on the mattress for a quick nap.

Within two minutes Quinn was dead to the world.

-/WAKE UP/-

"This is bizarrely comfortable. Would you be adverse to becoming my own personal snuggle buddy?"

"Shh! Words are hurting my brain." Quinn mumbled into her soft pillow. She flapped her arm slightly to emphasise her irritation at being jolted from her slumber. One thing the Cheerio loved was her nap time.

Rachel smiled at the blonde's antics, even though the position of Quinn's head was rather embarrassing but she knew the other girl would react rather hilariously when she realised what she was laying on. "I apologise Quinn but it would appear as though it would be an appropriate time to get some sustenance."

Quinn merely groaned, shaking her head into her pillow.

Rachel jumped and let out a squeak of surprise. Prompting the Cheerio into action.

Quinn snapped her head up to scowl at Rachel for pulling her pillow only for her eyes to widen and her jaw drop when she realised her pillow was actually Rachel's chest.

She had been face down in Rachel's boobs!

Rachel watched a deep blush spread across Quinn's cheeks, down her neck and up to her ears. "Oh my gosh! Rachel I'm... Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! I'm so- crap!" The blonde had immediately began to scoot back across the bed and singer sat up to watch her as she spluttered out an apology. When she reached out for her, Quinn jumped backwards and did what Rachel had been trying prevent; and fell off the bed.

In a last ditch attempt to save herself, the cheerleader grabbed the duvet for dear life... only to tug it down on top of her when she met the floor with a dull thump.

Rachel crawled over the bed and looked down the side with a chuckle, "Are you alright?" All that could be seen was a lump under the covers and one foot sticking out.

"Yep. I think I'll just stay under here and save myself the embarrassment of coming out though."

Rachel smiled, shaking her head. She really liked this side of Quinn. It was cute. She reached down and pulled the sheet off the other girl and climbed off the bed to help her up.

"I told you, you were comfy." The blush reignited on Quinn's cheeks. "Now, first things first... Shirt, then food."

-/BREAKFAST/-

"Can you pass me the salt please?"

Rachel lifted the little shaker and passed it over.

Quinn took the salt from Rachel's hand, only to grab her wrist with her free hand. "What happened to your hands?" The blonde frowned as she saw the healing crescent shapes dug into the flesh of Rachel's palm.

"I, um, my nails... I was a bit upset with the whole dumpster thing and... I can't explain it but, after I lost it with you- which wasn't your fault, I just needed to calm down- I clenched my hands. It would have been worse if you hadn't called Dave. He found me when I'd broken the skin."

Quinn swallowed the lump in her throat. "You... You self harm?"

"No! No of course not. I'd never do anything to physically harm myself." Rachel was adamant in her denial.

Quinn was doubtful. "Rachel, you hurt yourself with your nails. You cut yourself."

"I'm not a cutter! I'm mean... We'll yes, I bled a little but... I'm mean I didn't do it to feel pain or anything. I was just so overwhelmed... I needed to focus. I didn't realise it hurt until I saw the blood."

Quinn frowned. "I don't... That's not healthy Rachel. I understand being overwhelmed but I'm sure there are other ways to deal with this." The blonde set down the salt and timidly moved her hand to hold Rachel's instead of gripping her wrist.

"Like what? I've kind of become accustomed to it. It's like a habit." Rachel knew it wasn't the best thing she could do but she had been on her own and she had needed to find some way to cope with everything. It was an easy thing to do. She squeezed Quinn's hand though, she knew she wanted to get over it. Break the habit.

Quinn smiled at the squeeze, and began rubbing her thumb over the back of her small hands. "I don't know. Maybe you could talk to one of us if something gets too much? Or better yet, you could talk to Miss Pillsbury. She's actually really nice when Mr Schue isn't around. She helped me a lot when my parents split. If it hadn't been for her I probably would have had a breakdown and joined the Skanks or something."

Rachel grinned a little at the image her mind conjured up, before sobering. "I guess I could go and see her. It might be good to offload on someone completely independent. Did she really help?"

"Yeah, she didn't just give me a lot of leaflets."

Rachel chuckled. "That does seem to be her go to method."

Quinn smiled. "Promise me, you'll go see Miss Pillsbury."

Rachel nodded. "I promise. I'll go first thing Monday. Now let's eat, I'm starving since someone refused to let me move."

Quinn blushed again and ducked her head to focus on her bowl and try to block out Rachel's laughter.

-/PICKUP/-

The rest of the weekend flew by, and the girls hung out with Puck and Dave for most of it, somehow ending up having a four-way gaming contest.

Soon, it was time for Judy to come back and Quinn was nervous about how her mother would react to seeing her. If she would be crying, fussing or angry that she had left her alone. Or all three.

"What did your mom say anyway, about staying with me?" Rachel had forgotten to ask with everything going on. They had decided to come and pick her mother up when her flight landed and were now just waiting for confirmation that it was currently being disembarked.

Quinn's face flushed as they stood in the airport. "She um… she said to make sure to use protection."

Rachel turned to the blonde in confusion, "She said what?"

The cheerleader rolled her eyes, "You heard. She thinks it's funny to make jokes about certain things considering other certain things." Rachel nodded, accepting what Quinn was saying but not fully understanding. "Because I'm gay." She decided to just toss that out there. She swallowed hard, shifting her weight slightly and trying to calm her flip-flopping stomach.

Rachel was surprised that Quinn admitted that, although she was impressed. "Well, at least she's supportive. I'm not entirely sure how my fathers would react to my appreciation of the feminine form."

"Wait, what? Y-you're…" Whilst it was normally against her rules of etiquette to interrupt someone, but to save Quinn from digging herself into a hole, Rachel decided to make an exception.

"Gay? Yes. Any questions?" Rachel smiled, jokingly. Although, she was also even more hateful towards Russell Fabray for essentially outing Quinn to her before Quinn was ready- even if she didn't know about it.

"Uh... Yes actually. When- how did you know?" Quinn turned to see Rachel more clearly. She was somewhat hesitant about actually discussing the subject but she was also glad that she was able to share something like this with Rachel. She also had to calm herself, just because Rachel was gay didn't mean that se would want to date Quinn. Their friendship was something precious to both of them and the blonde was reluctant to do anything to jeopardise it- especially with the new knowledge of the brunette's problem with destructive outlets for her emotions.

"Middle school. Everyone was talking about how cute Zac Efron was in High School Musical and I was admiring Megan Fox in Transformers. Noah was the one who said it out loud first, I always kind of felt like something wasn't making sense but couldn't pin it down. He can be quite smart when he isn't distracted by his other brain. What about you?"

"High school. Being on the Cheerios means you have to change with everyone with little privacy. I figured out pretty quickly that I was feeling differently to the other girls. Then I pretty much freaked out for the last year." Quinn shrugged, feeling embarrassed by how poorly she handled her feelings. "I'm sorry again, for how I treated you back then. You were the first person who was nice to me." The Ginger councillor had also been helpful in providing her with help on dealing with her guilt regarding her passed transgressions and she really hoped that she could help Rachel manage her emotions more positively.

"It's fine Quinn. You've apologised, and despite how I acted when you took me home after the dumpster incident, I do forgive you. I'm sorry for lashing out at you that night. You didn't deserve it. Thank you for being there, and for rescuing me."

"Quits?" Quinn offered, holding out her hand.

"I find that to be an acceptable arrangement, quits indeed." They shook on it before being startled by a tight hug that had them pressed really close to each other.

"Girls! What a lovely surprise!"

"Mom! I can't breathe!"

"Quinnie, always so dramatic. Just like Rachel I hear then eh? How have you been? Did you eat anything I left before he came round? Did he give you any more trouble? Was she a pleasant guest Rachel?" The elder Fabray was still wearing her navy business suit, with ridiculously high heels and her hair ensnared in a bun. It made Rachel wince at the mere appearance of how tight it seemed. Maybe she should talk to Judy about the raises chances of her experiencing a receding hairline... Or would that be one of those no-no topics that people avoid in social contexts? People were such confusing creatures…

"Judy, Quinn was a lovely addition to our household and you are both more than welcome whenever you want. I'm glad to report that there were no further altercations with Russell. Thank you for acknowledging my dramatic flair by the way, I take it you heard about it from Quinn?"

"Sorry for bombarding you there, but I do get in a bit of a tizzy when I leave Quinn alone, I'm ever so thankful that you rode to the rescue. Quinnie always talks about you. All Rachel this, Rachel that... I feel as though you are practically my step-daughter!" Judy and Rachel shared a laugh, although Rachel's was slightly awkward. If she and Quinn did date, then of course she would like that to be a possibility but they weren't even eighteen yet.

Quinn was just absolutely horrified. It got worse when her mom randomly pulled Rachel into another hug, so that she could wink at Quinn and give her a thumbs up. What had she ever done to deserve this level of torment, honestly? She would take a swimming pool filled with cherry flavoured slushy over this.

Rachel smiled nervously as Judy released her again. She was all for hugs but... Too much of a good thing and all that. "So... Are you ready to go?"

"Oh yes dear, just let me get my bags."

"Oh, allow me, Mrs Fabray." Rachel, quickly grabbed the suitcase before Quinn noticed what she was doing and rushed to grab the hand luggage, after being told she wasn't getting the case from Rachel.

"Thank you dears, and it is Judy to you Ms Berry." The older blonde smiled gratefully as her daughter and future step-daughter (because she would disown her blonde child if she did not cling onto the special brunette) led her out the car.

Judy had to admit that she did find it rather peculiar to watch the shorter teenager climbing up into the front of the large pickup, after opening the passenger door for her daughter.

-/RETURN/-

The drive from the airport to the Fabray household took around three quarters of an hour, and was relatively uneventful.

Judy mainly spoke about the trade fairs she attended and the weather, before gleaming as much information as she could about their weekend.

It was decided that she would purchase CCTV cameras to monitor the house just in case Russell came back as well as notifying the authorities.

Rachel stood in the kitchen with the Fabray women as they shared a drink. Orange juice of course.

Rachel had graciously taken Judy's bags from her when they pulled up and carried them upstairs for the woman, along with Quinn, before they convened in the kitchen. She was still found it fascinating to be inside the house that her friend had spent her formative years.

The current topic of discussion, besides changing the locks again, was redecorating the house.

"I just feel it will be the end of that chapter of our lives. Something to symbolise our fresh start." Judy stated, swirling the glass in her her hand. She watched the little loose bits of orange drift around in the liquid as they were swept up in the mini vortex the rotary motion of her wrist was creating.

Rachel smiled and nodded. She liked the fact that it was a metaphor for their milestone and was fully in support of the idea. "Well, I would love to help you guys out. I'm sure Noah and David would also be willing to lend a hand with the more physically demanding tasks- not that we wouldn't be capable but they could probably achieve the same result with much less stress placed on their body due to them being more muscular than us."

"That would be absolutely lovely Rachel. How about you and Quinn by the paint next weekend and we could get started." Judy found the brunette's enthusiasm for helping people to be rather refreshing, but from what she understood from Quinn, was that their teammates in glee weren't very appreciative of her kindness. She could she how the singer could come across as abrasive but it was clear that she had good intentions.

"Sure Judy, that sounds like a splendid idea." The girls beamed at each other, both excited that they would be speeding some more time together and that they would also have a project to do.

Now all they needed was to work out what they needed...

-/SKIP FORWARD/-

Nothing really happened through the week at school. People still picked on Rachel but it was much less common and it was never the sports teams. It was usually lower Cheerios and their words didn't really have much of an effect on her.

When you had been the target of the Ice Queen herself nothing much could faze you. Glee was boring. She still contributed but no longer pushed. If they didn't want her help then fine, her friends had gotten her to step back and let the gleeks try and do it without her expertise. Honestly, not even the gel in Schue's hair could get them to stick together. Practiseswas shambolic and Rachel knew it was a matter of time before something gave.

The only thing really different was the trips to Miss Pillsbury's office.

As promised, early Monday morning Rachel had stopped by to talk about getting sessions time tabled, much to the surprise of the doe-eyed councillor.

They had only had one session so far to talk about how the sessions would work and things that might be discussed. Rachel actually felt confident that she would benefit from this- not that she didn't trust Quinn- rather she was weary of the councillor. However, Miss Pillsbury had been nothing but kind and professional, it was nice. It was as if she had another person that cared, and for someone who had no one a few weeks ago, it was a big thing.

Maybe soon she would even be in a good place to ask Quinn out.

Anyway, soon enough it was the weekend again and Quinn and Rachel were out sourcing supplies.

(Which was proving more difficult than previously thought.)

"I find that to have the internal aesthetics of ones abode tailored to personal preferences allows the dwellers to feel much more at ease in themselves and therefore more positive slash productive individuals."

"Rachel, I just need to know if I should put 'glow-in-the-dark star stickers' or 'stickers of planets' on my ceiling." Quinn sighed.

"Technically the glowing ones are of structurally inaccurate stars, which are actually planets, therefore they fulfill your requirements most appropriately." Rachel nodded seriously, then added, "also they look cool."

Quinn rolled her eyes and got a few packets or the glowing star stickers.

This was going to take a while...

"What about colour scheme's?" Quinn asked, then immediately regretted it.

Two hours later, and they arrived back at the Fabray house.

Quinn still wasn't sure how the struggles of Audrey Hepburn in the field of dance were related to the various shades of purple, but she wasn't going to ask for clarification.

Or interior design tips of the smaller girl ever again.

Review?

Thanks to anyone who is still reading this by the way, and to everyone who leaves a review. It's really nice to get feedback, be it positive or negative.

Sorry it took so long!

Also the format has gone crazy on me, that's why I had to title each different section.