"Fucking Hell Fabray!" Santana yelled at the sight of Quinn and Rachel kissing. Brittany grabbed her arm before she could get to them, because they both knew that if Santana got a hold of Rachel now then there was a very high chance that she would end up in jail. She turned to see her true love's glimmering blue eyes, her anger quickly began to fade although there was no way she would let this go.

When she had moved to New York it had been mostly out of selfish reasons; to escape her past, to find a future, to work out what exactly she was without Brittany by her side. But the deciding factor was Quinn's pleas for her to look after Rachel for her, she'd never seen her former rival so vulnerable as when she asked her.

Brittany was also a major reason she left. When they'd agreed that long distance wasn't working she'd honesty just assumed they'd wait for each other anyway; so when she'd found out that not only had Brittany had moved on but was actually in love with someone else, she was hurt beyond belief. She just needed to get out of there, out of Lima and into a ridiculously rushed and meaningless relationship with Dani but that was a whole different story. Rachel had been there for that, she had took Quinn's place as a non-judgemental shoulder to cry on and that was a turn of events she'd never stop regretting.

The thing is, Santana had looked up to Quinn her whole life. It was always Quinn that pushed for better, even when she was Lucy and that was what she had always admired most about her. Though when puberty had been considerably kinder to her than it had Quinn in middle school she'd refused to be seen in public with her. They hadn't really talked after that until she saw the bruises that marked Quinn's body in gym class, until then she had believed that Quinn's father had stopped hitting her years ago. It was then that she realised just how cruel she had been to abandon her.

(FLASHBACK)

As the rest of the class filtered out the locker room Santana lingered behind, determined to find out what had happened to her old friend.

"Lucy?" Santana had asked timidly, her voice was uncharacteristically shaken and nervous considering her long running habit of loudly announcing whatever the hell she wanted. She placed a cautious arm on the young blondes shoulder to get her attention but recoiled when she winced. Lucy turned to look at her with those expressive green eyes.

"What do you want, Santana? I'm not in the mood for this right now." Lucy had always been a sweet girl, she'd never said anything hurtful towards anyone, so to hear this pained, cold voice come from her lips was entirely alien to Santana. Sure they hadn't spoken in a while but they were surely still friends?

"I- your bruises." She stuttered, entirely aware she wasn't making sense. " How did you get them?"

Lucy shot her a cold look. "I fell down the stairs, not like it's any of your business."

Santana sighed and took a step closer to the girl. "Don't give me that Lucy Q. We've known each other far too long for you to get away with bullshitting me like that."

"If we know each other so well then why the hell is this the only time you've spoke to me in public since we came here? In fact what even makes you think you know anything about me? All you know is the pathetic, fat little kid who was naïve enough to think that her best friend would stick by her no matter what but it turns out It only takes one ditzy cheerleader to make you want nothing to do with me!" Lucy began to yell as she ended her rant and tears fell down her cheeks. She couldn't see the fury that had taken over Santana's features.

Santana grabbed her by the shoulders and shoved her into the lockers, pinning her there with her arm around her neck. "Don't you dare turn this onto Brittany, I'm trying to be nice to you but you're too busy feeling sorry for yourself to let me. Now, I'm going to make this clear so don't even try messing with me." Her voice was dripping with venom although it began to soften as she saw the fear in Lucy's eyes. "Who hurt you?"

"I don't know but it looks like you're about to." Her voice was cold and emotionless; Santana knew in that moment that she'd do anything to get her Lucy back. She let go of her and immediately regretted her anger when she winced in pain. "Don't call me Lucy anymore."

"What?" Santana asked, confused as to why she'd want to drop her name.

"As soon as summer starts I'm Quinn. If you want to stay friends with me then you'll help me turn this around." Lucy explained.

"What makes you think I want to be friends with you? You'd only damage my rep anyway." Santana replied defensively.

"Because you and Brittany are transferring to McKinley too and I'm trying out to be a Cheerio. We could all go together and I'm pretty sure we'd rule that place with Britt's talent, my brains and your looks. I'll get to the top anyway Santana: it isn't that selfish to want my best friend to be there with me." Lucy's voice was still harsh although some of her old vulnerability still shone through, the sound was enough to break Santana's heart.

"Ok, I've got your back. " She sighed dejectedly, she turned to leave the locker room but before she left she faced Lucy once more. "If you ever trust me again to tell me about those bruises then know that I'll be with you if you want to do something about them." With that she left Lucy for the last time, from that point Lucy was dead; Quinn was born.

(END FLASHBACK)

"Please don't do this Sanny." Brittany begged, still clutching her arm.

"You didn't see what she did, you didn't watch the light in her eyes dim until they were just as dark as she was; you know how I feel about you Britt but at the moment Quinn is my priority." Santana hated herself as she admitted that Brittany was no longer the most important person in her life. Even though their actual break up had been surprisingly amicable it was still hard to think about how quickly the tall blonde had found another love of her life, especially since Santana knew that she herself never moved on.

Brittany's eyes watered in hurt and dated away from the dark, intense orbs that bore into her soul. "If you don't trust my judgements with this then trust Quinn's. If she can forgive her why can't you? I didn't see Quinn after you left but I saw Rachel. I saw her shut down. Do you remember that megawatt smile that used to annoy the hell out of everyone? I haven't seen it since I moved in with her, and I think if you remember you haven't seen it either at least not after Finn. She isn't unaffected by this so please don't make her into a villain. Why can't they just fix each other?"

Santana looked back to the pair who were still too lost in each other to even notice they had been found. "Fine, I'll let them be but if she so much as annoys my girl then I'm feeding her to the wolves."

Brittany's eyes light up as she crushed Santana in an excited hug. Santana was about to broach the subject about their own relationship, knowing that after being so hurt by Brittany once she needed some reassurance she wasn't setting herself up for it to happen again; but seeing her love so happy and carefree she decided to wait until another time. After all there was no reason why they couldn't have fun while they had so much time together before they got to the serious stuff .

"I think I just heard Santana." Rachel murmured between kisses, too addicted to the new sensation to stop.

"Don't care." Was Quinn's blunt reply as she fisted her hands into soft brown hair, pulling the other woman impossibly closer. Rachel shook her head and pulled away, thankful for the opportunity to breathe.

"I hope you're not under the impression that kissing me will be the answer to everything Quinn Fabray because that is an idea I'll have to nip in the bud." Rachel's eyes sparkled with mirth when she was met with an adorably confused Quinn.

The blonde looked exaggeratedly to where she found Santana and Brittany in the middle of some intense conversation. Concern flashed on her features though it disappeared almost immediately after. She was worried that Santana may throw herself into another damaging relationship so she wasn't as lonely anymore but Quinn knew she could trust that there was something genuine between her and Brittany; after all she'd watched it grow since they were kids. The only question was if it was still there.

"Don't worry about them Quinn, I know you and Santana have gotten close but you two need to trust each other to take care of yourselves." Rachel seemed to be able to read her thoughts; the jest in her tone gone to allow a cautious concern, like she was afraid that she didn't have the right to give her advice. In her own opinion she certainly didn't.

Quinn looked at her blankly; it still felt odd that, even after years of gently prying her walls down, someone could not only see into her mind. She felt vulnerable in a way she hadn't experienced since she was a child at the cruel hands and words of Russell Fabray; her immediate response was to defend. "You don't know anything about Santana and I. We've always been close, since we were kids we've looked out for each other." As soon as she said it she regretted the icy, superior tone that so reminded her of her mother.

"Oh". Rachel knew that navigating the minefield that is Quinn Fabray's emotions would hurt her at some point she just wished it wasn't so obvious.

"Rach, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you, it's just…" Quinn paused she still struggled with articulating her thoughts especially when the haze of guilt was addling her eloquence. "It's just I haven't let anyone see who I am, like underneath all this, apart from you and Santana. I haven't wanted to. And for so long I haven't wanted you to either and I guess that's something I need to work on because you can obviously see right through me anyway." She couldn't look at her as she mumbled the confession.

"It's ok, I shouldn't have pried. I guess we should do what we said before, get to know each other. I mean we've had a pretty big gap between we were on that level of closeness that we could talk to one another so it's not a surprise we're a bit out of sync." Rachel tucked a stray blond hair behind blushing ears, utterly endeared that Quinn found it so embarrassing to say what she was feeling. "So for now, I suggest we head out to do that hike Brittany was talking about and while we're out we can just ask each other stuff. Find out who Rachel Berry and Quinn Fabray are circa 2020 and if one of us asks something the other doesn't want to answer we can veto it. That sound good?"

Quinn couldn't help the shit eating grin that tore through her face as she kissed the tiny diva soundly on the lips, suddenly overcome with just how much she had always loved her. "It is beyond me how I ever let you go."