Guest Thank you.

flyingpinguin You got it. The song has always struck a chord with me. And when I was re-watching the show and got to the Dianna episodes I was like "this needs to become a Faberry fic." I'm glad you like the progression. :)

LaurenKnight13 I'm glad you liked it. The domestic stuff is much fun to write, it's just so cute and playful and sexy all at once. And I'm working at making them better at reading each other, relating, communicating so, I'm glad you enjoy that part as well. Yes, that is a good reason for her to movie in, but it's not a good enough reason, at least not yet. I'm sorry for testing your patience. But I assure you, I'll make it worth your while in the long run.

gllover22 I'm glad you liked it. I'm trying to write them as mature, rational adults and avoid some of the common problems that occur in relationships and fiction due to lack of communication. Rachel has always been very forward, I can't imagine that would change when it comes to relationships, so I'm glad that you think it's working in this scenerio.

Fabraygron I'll take it as a compliment that you're stumped. :) I'm glad you're enjoying the story.

CarolineSC lol. Yep.

DameonCain Thank you,

Harley Quinn Davidson Thank you. I'm glad you liked it.

priscilla I'm glad you're enjoying the story. And, the way I look at it is, if you're taking a bit of time out of your day to not only read the story but to leave me a comment letting me know what you think of it, the least I can do is leave you a little note to let you know I appreciate the time you're taking to read/review. It means the world to me that people, like yourself, enjoy my work.

helly1bradleywyatt Thank you.

Denethion I find it easier to write from only one character's point of view. Yes, she does get a little flustered on occasion. But, she's learning. I'm glad you enjoy that part.

wkgreen They'll definitely have their moments. But, they're a solid couple. It'll never be long before they're back to good.

samdarls Thank you. I'm glad you like it.

SalGersGirl :)

Chapter 33

Quinn made it to the auditions with seconds to spare. She slid into her place beside Lara as their casting director, August, strode into the room behind her and announced that today's group was ready. She could feel eyes on her as she busied herself pulling the file of resumes and headshots out of her bag. Without even turning, she knew that Lara and Olivia were giving her a once over, taking in her pulled back, unstyled hair, make-up less face and yesterdays clothes. And she knew that her friends were smirking at her in amusement. The upside of running late and barely making it in time, not having to put up with teasing comments. She'd get it later, for sure. When they broke for lunch Quinn was certain that she'd never hear the end of it but for now her friends could do nothing more but cast sidelong glances and smirk. Quinn pretended not to notice as she flipped open her folder and scanned the resume of the first auditioner.

They broke for lunch around noon, and Quinn was decidedly greatful. She'd happily accept the ribbing that she knew was coming if it meant getting food into her stomach. The muffin that Rachel had given her to tide her over had been delicious when she'd eaten it in the taxi on the way over, but was also long gone, leaving her stomach feeling hollow.

She put August between herself and her friends as they rose from their seats and filed up the aisle, hoping that her friends would have enough sense of professioinalism to at least wait until they were away from him before she started teasing. She had accepted her fate, but she'd really like to have a meal in front of her before she had to face it.

"Quinn. Hey."

She turned towards the voice. "Britt? What are you doing here?" She managed to get the question out before being engulfed in a crushing hug that sent her reeling backwards a couple steps. It would have knocked her over completely if not for the fact that she'd learned how to accept a tackle-hug from Brittany back in seventh grade. The only reason that she lost her balance a little this time was because she was a little rusty, being out of practice for so many years. That, and Brittnay was probably a lot stronger now than she had been in their teenage years. She could feel the lithe muscles in Britt's back shifting under her touch as she pressed her hands against her friends shoulder blades. And the arms wrapped around her waist, while always capable of squeezing like a vice, felt tighter and more firm.

It was kind of like riding a bicycle though, you never truly forget. She'd always loved how Brittany hugged, the way she'd wrap her arms around Quinn and surround her with her entire body. Whether it was after a few weeks, a few days or even a few hours apart, Britt always approached each hug with the same level of enthusiasm.

When most people would have released their grip and let go, Brittany tightened hers and leaned back, lifting Quinn's feet a few inches of the ground and swinging her back and forth lightly.

"Put me down." She laughed as she clung to her friend and kicked her feet. "You're going to hurt yourself."

"Oh, please. You weight like, nothing." But she put Quinn down anyway, then released her, though she didn't go far. She kept one arm around Quinn's waist as she turned and introduced herself to their small audience. She charmed them easily and instantly, without Quinn having to say a word to facilitate anything. By the time the group had made it to the door, Britt was chatting and laughing with them like they were all old friends.

August held the door open for them and gallantly ushered them all through with a bow. Quinn smiled her thanks as she stepped past him and out into the blinding noon sunlight. She blinked rapidly, trying to force her eyes to adjust to the sudden brightness and cursed herself for not remembering her sunglasses on her rush out the door that morning.

"You look like a gopher," Britt laughed and blinked her eyes rapidly in mimmicry of how she thought Quinn looked, then shaded her eyes carefully. Holding her hand against Quinn's forehead until her pupils had properly adjusted. It was a sweet gesture. One that nobody had performed for her in years.

"Thanks, Britt." She reached up and grasped the hand over her eyes, pulling it down and tangling their fingers together with a gentle squeeze. She pushed herself up onto her toes and brushed a soft kiss against Brittany's cheek. "So, not that I'm complaining or anything," she said, once she'd dropped back down to the flats of her feet. "But, what are you doing here."

"Don't be mad but, when I found out yesterday that you and Santana went for coffee, I got all jelly-"

"Britt..."

Quinn hadn't thought that her and Santana interacting would be a problem. They were friends, nothing more. The night they shared had been intimate and special but also, strangely, purely platonic. She wasn't a threat to Brittany and Santana's relationship. And she'd thought that Brittany knew that. She'd seemed okay with them spending time together on the weekend. Had even sat there and joked about their night with Santana over breakfast.

"I mean, why should San be the only one to get some quality Quinn time?"

"Oh." Quinn let out a sigh of relief as she realized that her friend hadn't meant the words the way she had taken them.

"I thought we could go for lunch."

"Aww. B. You know I'd love to have lunch with you. But..." she cast a glance over at the others. They had a lot to discuss about this morning's auditions and a working lunch was really the only chance they'd get to whittle down their list of potentials before this afternoon's sessions started.

"C'mon. We all know you're going to cast that ginger kid. And the girl with the nose piercing."

Quinn blinked at her friend in surprise. Realizing that, really, she shouldn't be surprised at all that Brittany had somehow managed to intuit what Quinn had been contemplating. A quick glance over her shoulder revealed that the others looked equally stunned. Apparently, they had been thinking along the same lines.

"Well, I guess that negates the need for that disscussion," Lara said after a moment with an awkward laugh. "Looks like you guys have time for lunch after all."

"Yay." Brittany bounced up and down lightly, tugging at Quinn's arm in the process. "So, Quinn?" she turned large, doleful eyes on her.

Quinn shook her head, laughing. She had never been able to say no to that gaze. "Come on then. I'm buying." She tugged a few steps down the street before remembering herself and turning to face the others, who where heading in the opposite direction, towards the diner that they'd discovered yesterday and absolutely fell in love with.

"Don't worry about it, Quinn," Olivia called back over her shoulder "Just don't be late."

Quinn's apology, for ditching her friends once again. And her thanks for being so understanding about it, died on her lips at Olivia's words. She flashed a smile, got one in return, and then felt herself being tugged back around and guided in the opposite direction.

Quinn played with Brittany's fingers as they walked, silently debating whether or not to mention what was on her mind. She didn't want to make an issue out of it, if it was really nothing. But she didn't want to leave anything unsettled either. If Britt and Santana were going to be a part of her life from now on, she didn't want any underlying tensions lingering.

"Hey, B?" she tugged gently on her friends arm to catch her attention. She wanted the other woman to be looking at her when they had this conversation so she would know that she was telling the truth. If she was lying, even just a little bit, or even if she was just saying what she thought Quinn wanted to hear, Quinn was certain that she would be able to read it in the other woman's eyes.

"Hmm?" Brittany lolled her head to the side to look at Quinn.

"About what you said, earlier. About being jealous of me and Santana spending time together..." She wasn't quite sure how to complete the question. "I mean, does it bother you? With what happened?"

Brittany's eyes went wide at the question. "What? Quinn. No." She came to a stop in the middle of the sidewalk, pulling Quinn to one as well. "I'm glad that you and San are friends again," she said, ignoring the jostles and the mumbled insults as the sea of people moving around them were forced to skirt aside to avoid them, sometimes missing in their attempts.

Quinn used their joint hands to guide Brittany to the side, pulling her into the head of an alley.

"Did it bother me when it happened? A little, yeah," Brittany continued. "But, I was with Sam at the time. And you and San were both single..." she gave a small smile and a shrug.

"Britt-"

"San and I weren't ready for each other then," Brittany continued, speaking over Quinn's objections. "Even though we're totally perfect together now. So it's like... everything that happened to get us here made us that much more perfect for each other. You and Santana getting together was just one more step towards getting us ready for each other."

Quinn swallowed against the lump in her throat at her friends words. "Thank you, Britt," she said, her voice coming out embarrasingly husky. She couldn't quite believe that she had her friend's...well not quite blessing of her night with Santana but her acceptance.

It was certainly an evolved viewpoint on the situation. She didn't know too many other people that would be so forgiving, so accepting of how things had played out. Even back then, Quinn had known that Brittany and Santana were made for each other. She'd just been too drunk and lonely and caught up in the moment to actually care about the fact that she was betraying one friend by sleeping with the other. And, despite some of the blase comments Brittany had made about sex over the years, she knew that she didn't actually feel all that laisse-faire about it. She'd spent many a night consoling her fellow Cheerio over Santana's apparent lack of feelings back when they were still operating under the pretext of "sex isn't dating" and no strings attatched.

"You're kind of awesome, you know that?" she asked, squeezing her hand.

Brittany nodded. "Yeah. I know."

Quinn huffed out a laugh. "God, I've missed you," she breathed, then pulled the other woman into a hug.

Brittany easily and readily acquiesed the action, stepping up and wrapping her long arms around Quinn, squeezing lightly and rocking them back and forth lightly. Quinn buried her head in Brittany's shoulder until she had composed herself.

Once she had she stepped back and resumed their previous hand-holding as she gently tugged Brittany back into motion.

"You're kind of awesome yourself. Did you know that?"

Quinn's first instinct was to scoff and play it off. To jokingly downplay her friend's words and let the moment pass. But before she could wave the comment away, she felt Brittany tug sharply on her arm.

"Yeah, Britt. I know. I love you. Did you know that?"

"Of course you do. I'm awesome." Quinn chuckled softly and shook her head. "I'm so proud of you. Everything that you've accomplished since McKinley."

Quinn had always worried so much about Brittany, had wondered how she would fare outside the high school hallways, without Santana and Quinn clearing the path for her, without Mr. Shue and the rest of Glee club interpreting the world for her. She really shouldn't have worried. While Britt may have struggled academically she was a different kind of smart, she could read people and situations and intuit what others needed. And she was one hell of a dancer.

"Do you like dancing, professionally?" she asked. "Is it still fun now that it's a career?"

She'd seen a lot of people who'd tried to parlary their hobby into a profession and end up hating it. And it pained her to think that the spark, the passion that Britt had once held for dancing might be diminished by the pressures of the job.

Brittany's head bobbed up and down emphatically, erasing her worries. "Oh, yeah. It's awesome. I get to dance everyday. And people pay me for it." She shot Quinn a wide-eyed look of wonder that made them both laugh. "Serious though, it really is awesome. It was tough, for awhile. After McKinley when I got here to New York. I was at Julliard, you know."

Quinn shook her head. "What? No. I didn't know that. Britt, that's amazing."

Brittany shrugged. "That's what everyone kept telling me. That Julliard was just this epic, amazing thing. But I went to all these classes and the teachers were just...they were all so mean. And everything was so...technical. And I hated it. Not bragging but, I can move my body and it's like...wow."

Quinn nodded. It wasn't bragging because it was true. Watching Brittany dance was like poetry in motion.

"But I'd go to class and the teachers would just yell about everything. And it was like, I already know I'm good. That's why I'm here. So, why are they trying to make me feel like I don't know how to do anything? I just wanted to get better."

Quinn gave Brittany's hand a gentle squeeze.

"I was going to drop out. I was afraid that if I kept going there, I'd hate dancing. And I never, ever, want to hate dancing. So I started teaching classes to kids at the community center nearby. And I started auditioning."

"Good for you."

"And my teachers hated it. Because they were stuck teaching and I was in a music video with Beyonce."

Quinn laughed at the smirk that graced Brittany's features momentarily.

"You, go girl."

Brittany pulled to a stop just outside of a small deli and turned to face Quinn, eyes wide and serious. "Please, don't ever, ever say that again," she said. "It's just sounds weird and so totally wrong."

Quinn rolled her eyes but nodded. "Okay. Fine. Go on." She gestured with her hand as she ushered Brittany ahead of her through the door.

They ordered and then made their way over to their table with their food. As they setttled into their seats, Quinn listened as Brittany told her more about the slow build of her career, about long hours in the dance studios at school trying not to feel frustrated by her performance grades and the sheer joy she experienced working with the kids at the center and the name she started earning for herself outside the school enviroment. Commericals gave way to music videos and the occasionl movie. She started getting choreography jobs and even did a tour with dance company.

"I'd just come back from that tour when I ran into Santana again," Britt continued over soup and sandwiches. "For a long time, we were just friends. She was with someone else...Dani...and as hard as it was to see her all happy and in love with another woman. I was happy that she was happy and in love. You know?"

Quinn nodded, even though she didn't really know. She'd never been in love the way Santana and Brittany had been in love. Their relationshp was one of those epic, romance novel type love stories. Separated by time and circumstance, brought back together by fate or whatever.

"And I think it was good for us, just being friends for awhile. Getting to know each other again before we got together. So, when we did get together, we could do it right."

Again, Quinn nodded. That part, she did understand. She'd been in her share of relationships. She'd made her mistakes and faced her hardships and she couldn't help but feel like it had all led up to this moment in time, with her and Rachel. The two of them finally ready for each other.

Maybe, she mused, her and Rachel's love story was a little bit of an epic romance as well. She'd played it off when her friends had brought it up the other day, but sitting here talking with Brittany about her relationship and comparing it to her own, she couldn't help but see the parallels.

"Oh, God. We're living a Nicholas Sparks novel, do you realize that?" she asked in a lull in Brittany's narrative.

Brittany just nodded sagely. "Only much, much hotter."

Quinn bit back a laugh, but she had to admit, she agreed.

"You know, San and I once tried to recreate that kissing in the rain scene from-"

Quinn held up her hand. "You know what? I'm going to stop you right there. I'm all kind of happy that you and Santana are together and in love but I don't want details."

"You should. You could use them as pointers for when you and Rachel have your sexy times."

"I don't need pointers," Quinn hissed.

Brittany arched an eyebrow at her.

"I don't."

The eyebrow remained stubbornly arched.

"I've been with women you know. Before Rachel. I do know what I'm doing." Quinn huffed at her own words. Why was she defending her sex life to Brittany?

Brittany's stoney expression softened in to laughter. "I'm just teasing. You're still fun to get all riled up."

Quinn rolled her eyes and pursed her lips before turning her attention back to her food.

"Aww, don't be mad."

Quinn sighed softly. "At you? Never."

Brittany beamed and Quinn shook her head and it was like no time had passed. It was like they were 16 and teasing each other in the cafeteria all over again

As if reading her mind, Brittany smiled, winked, then reached across the table to swipe Quinn's pickle, just like she used to do when they were kids. She tried to snatch it back but her reflexes just weren't quick enough and she watched, dismayed, as Brittany took a big bite out of it.

"You suck," she muttered, turning her attention back to her soup.

"You love me."

"Do not."

"Do too."

Quinn caught Brittany's gaze across the table and offered up a grin. She really was an idiot for letting this girl go. For letting all of her friends go. But, she was going to do everything in her power not to let it happen again.