Rachel's mouth was dry and her heart was racing. The only similarities between this place and the one in her dreams, really, were the dark doors leading off either side of the corridor. There were no lockers, no mist, no snatches of music, but she had felt strange the minute they had walked in, like walking into a memory.

And now the memory was walking towards her.

"Hello Rachel." His too confident voice rolled down the corridor towards her.

"You have got to be kidding me." Santana practically growled in front of her, her shoulders dropping. Rachel could feel her eyes on her. She swallowed thickly.

"Jesse." She said weakly.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Santana yelled, spinning around to face him. "Is this really happening right now?"

"Hello Santana." Jesse smiled at her smugly. "How wonderful to see you again."

"Bullshit." Santana scoffed. "What the fuck are we doing here?"

"Oh, I'm sorry." He smiled again, his eyes narrowing, hands clasped in front of him. "I assumed Marley had explained everything to you? Why else would you have come?"

"We came because that little bitch told us that we were in danger and that there were people here who could help us."

"So...oh, of course." Jesse folded his arms and stroked his chin. "I can see how that would be confusing for you, you never were the brightest bulb on the stage."

Santana's body tensed, her hands clenching into fists at her side, then she relaxed and let out a tired, sad laugh. "You know what? My mistake. It was stupid to think that there was ever a chance that I would be that lucky." She turned on her heel and started walking back to the door. "Come on guys, let's get out of here."

"Santana…" Rachel reached out and put her hand on her arm as she passed. "Wait. Can't we just hear him out?"

"What for?" Santana gave her a look of such disgust that Rachel drew back her hand. "Why would you, of all people, trust a single word that comes out of this guy's mouth?"

Rachel wrapped her arms around herself and squared her shoulders. She didn't know where her anger was coming from. "People change. You, of all people, should know that."

Santana narrowed her eyes and went to speak, then seemed to think better of it. Her mouth set in a tight line as she turned and walked away.

"Santana." A new voice called from the door. Rachel's heart clenched. She couldn't bring herself to turn around. This was all too much.

Santana stopped dead in the hall, her body tensed again. She didn't turn around either.

"If you walk out that door they will find you. I know it's difficult for you to trust people, God knows I wouldn't if I had been through what you have been through, but please try. I let you down once before when you needed my help. This time I'll do better." The voice moved closer to Rachel, a voice she remembered all too clearly, one that raised a multitude of emotions within her. A voice that had still not acknowledged her presence.

As the woman walked past her Rachel took in a sharp breath. Her mother's face was almost unrecognisable. Her right side was completely covered with scar tissue, her ear shrivelled away and her eye covered with a patch. She reached out and touched Rachel's arm gently, her face still turned to Santana.

"Marley told you the plan and I know you think it's solid or you wouldn't be here. So please, come back in and we'll talk about it."

Santana's shoulders dropped and she turned slowly. She looked at the woman in front of her, her face betraying no emotion, then over to Puck and Cara, eyebrow raised questioningly. Rachel followed her gaze. Puck looked like he had just seen a ghost and offered no response. Cara just shrugged and moved her hand to her belt.

"Jesus, Shelby," Santana muttered, shifting her gaze back to the older woman. "You look like shit."

After Shelby took Santana into the room Jesse turned back to Rachel.

"Come on, I'll give you the tour." He smiled. "You guys want to grab your stuff?"

Cara glared at him but was cut off from whatever she was about to say by Puck grabbing her arm and dragging her out.

"Alone at last." Jesse grinned, throwing his arm around her shoulder and leading her further down the corridor. "So, that was Shelby's office. It also doubles as her room most of the time as she can't really walk that far since...well, I guess she will probably want to tell you about that."

Rachel looked up at him just in time to see the flicker of sadness cross his face.

"This is the dining hall. We have a fairly decent supply chain set up so there's always food." He grimaced a little. "It's not great food, but it does the job."

"How long have you been here?" Rachel asked, finally finding her voice.

"In this building? About a year." Jesse walked them over to the fridge and took out a couple of bottles of water. "I've been in Columbus since just after I last saw you. I decided it would be better to operate the business from here, you know?"

"And Shelby?"

"She, ah, she moved out here about a year later. Just after she left Lima." He took a sip of his water and stared off thoughtfully. "We used to meet up quite a bit. You know, before all of this. Thankfully we had arranged to meet the day they...well, I found her and managed to get her help."

"What happened to her?" Rachel asked him.

"It's not my place to say, Rachel." He shook his head and grabbed hold of her hand, leading her out through a different door and down another corridor with numerous doors off either side. "So, these are the bedrooms. Yours will be down the far end, as our newest recruits."

"How many of you are there?"

"Around fifty at the moment, in this cell at least."

Rachel's head reeled at this information. "Fifty? Cell?"

Jesse chuckled and threw his arm around her again. "Of course. You didn't really think you were the only ones who don't like what Sue Sylvester has done to this country, did you?"

"Well, no, but no one seems to be doing anything about it."

"Oh, I can assure you that they are." He smiled at her as they stopped outside a door. "There are still those that believe this can all be fixed with democracy and are still trying to go down those routes, then you have others who believe that more drastic measures are needed. This is you."

He pushed the door open and walked in.

"And where are you?"

"I'm just down the hall." He replied quietly, shooting her a grin.

"Oh, no," Rachel said quickly, blushing furiously. "I meant on the scale?"

"Oh." Jesse cleared his throat and straightened up quickly. "Well, we're somewhere in the middle I guess. So, your room. It's not much but it's safe."

Rachel glanced around and took in the sparse decoration. One very important feature stuck out. "It's a single."

"Yeah, sorry." Jesse laughed. "We don't really have a great line in double beds. You'll just have to lie still."

"No, sorry, I just meant...well, Santana…"

"Oh." He looked slightly confused. "Her room is right next door."

"Oh."

"What?"

"I, uh, I just thought you knew." Rachel looked at her feet. She could feel the heat in her face and didn't really know why it was there. "Santana is, uh, well she and I are…"

Jesse leaned against the door and folded his arms. He raised his eyebrows expectantly. He was really going to make her say it.

"We're together."

"Oh." He said, his face impassive. "Well okay then. I'm sorry but that doesn't change the fact that all we have are singles. I guess you'll just have to, uh, make it work."

Rachel nodded and looked around the room. Jesse stayed where he was and she could feel his eyes on her. Why did she feel like this? She had never been embarrassed about what she had with Santana, not even when her friends had found out the way they had. Guilty for lying to them, sure. Embarrassed? Not at all. So why now?

"Well, I, uh, I guess I'll leave you to get settled in then." He said after clearing his throat. "Breakfast is at 8 but if you haven't eaten yet there are some leftovers in the dining hall. I'll see you tomorrow, Rachel. Sleep well."

"Thanks." She said, willing her tone to be normal. She felt awful. Why did she feel awful? She watched the door close behind him and didn't know whether to follow him out or wait til he was gone. She had no idea why she was suddenly in such a state. There was a lot going on, certainly, she wasn't about to say otherwise, but why was it making her doubt herself?

Why was he making her doubt herself?

Rachel sat down on the bed. She didn't want to think about this at all. It was ridiculous. She was in love with Santana. Jesse was...well, he was from the past, and he had not treated her well. Although when they had been together he had treated her extremely well, now that she thought about it, and afterwards he had tried to win her back but...Really the only thing she could think of that had been bad was the whole egg incident.

Why was she even thinking about this? She loved Santana. That was why they were here. And regardless of how closed off and reckless Santana had been recently, Rachel knew that she loved her back. She would do anything for her, she knew that. Right? Except be open with her.

Okay, stop it.

Rachel dropped back onto the bed with a loud sigh. This was really not what she should be focussing her energy on.

She should be focussing her energy on getting them all safe, not having a personal crisis.

And really, where was this coming from? She had known Santana long enough to understand how her coping mechanisms worked. With everything that had happened to her, to both of them, over the last few years and particularly the events of six months ago, it was completely understandable that her girlfriend would be having difficulty. Rachel was struggling herself, and her ability to process had always been much better than Santana's.

It's just that this time she felt so alone.

The two people she usually confided in were dead. Even though she had never told Kurt and Finn about Santana, they were still her sounding board for every other issue she was having, and even when she was initially scared and confused as to what was happening with Santana she had had Puck to turn to. But after his betrayal of her confidence in the choir room that day she was having a little difficulty trusting him completely. She knew it was stupid, he had put himself in danger repeatedly to try and atone for his outburst, but there was something within her that held her back and she didn't know what it was.

She sighed again and made herself get up. She needed to get back to Santana and Shelby. She had let them have their little bonding moment but she would be damned if she would let her girlfriend and her mother plan their attack without her. She was Rachel Berry. Planning was her forte and she was tired of being treated like a delicate little flower that needed to be protected.

She squared her shoulders and pulled the door open, quickly checking the corridor for any sign of Jesse before she made her way back to Shelby's office. She knocked on the door and entered without waiting for a response. Santana and Shelby looked up from their plans, surprised by her sudden entrance.

"What did I miss?"