A/N: Sorry for the delay for this post guys, its probably more likely that I update every couple of days rather than everyday. But as a bonus you get a longer chapter. Yay.

So how Rachel 'died'/got amnesia is covered in this chapter. Im still holding back on the specifics of Rachel's occupation for good reason, as you will find out later, but I think you get the general gist.

Oh and i apologise in advance for errors/typos.

Disclaimer: Glee, not mine, nor is the Journey song, just nicking it because im lazy

Chapter 3

Tucked away in a warm nearby coffee shop, Quinn settled comfortably in a seat with a coffee mug in her hands trying to reawaken her cold hands. Her fingers were beginning to tingle with the extreme temperature difference, she welcomed the feeling.

She glanced over at Rachel for what might have been the 100th time since leaving the alley. Yet each time she couldn't stop herself being awe struck. She ran her eyes over Rachel's features again and again, memorizing them all over again. The softness of her skin, her dark chocolate eyes and every little nuance of expression that flickered across her face, captivated her. Quinn was torn, part of her desperately wanted to believe her eyes, the other part was reminding her that she had dreamt of Rachel almost every night, each dream (sometimes nightmare) feeling as real as it did now. Either way, every time she looked at Rachel was had to restrain herself from reaching out and touching her, running fingers through her hair, brushing her hands against her skin, holding her and inhaling her sent. She had to know she was real.

Rachel, in the meantime, was wondering what she was doing here. She had been a little surprised when the blonde had put up no resistance to Rachel searching her in the alley. Finding no weapons (no surprise there), she preceded to check her ID, making a mental note to check the government listings for 'Quinn Fabray' when she got to headquarters. If it was an alias, she'd be quick to uncover it, but she had paused when she saw a hospital ID, 'Dr Quinn Fabray, Paediatrician, Lenox Hill Hospital, Manhattan.'

It would be difficult to fake that kind of ID as a quick visit to the hospital would easily confirm or dismiss it. There was actually a part of her that thought the title really suited the blonde, and she could already picture her in her element, treating kids with a permanent kind smile, dishing out instructions to staff, looking cute in scrubs…whoa, what? Where did that come from? Focus, Rachel, treat her like any other suspect. Well technically you should have hurled her into headquarters for questioning already. Why are you even here? That picture could easily be a fake, the nostalgia thing is probably because you've been to that park before, and it could mean nothing. And if she's not a spy, she is clearly suffering from some mental affliction, maybe due to a high stressed job…?

Looking up from stirring her coffee cup, Rachel caught Quinn staring at her again. She gave an exasperated sigh.

"Why do you keep staring at me like that?" Quinn snapped her eyes to Rachel's.

"I'm sorry, it's just…" unable to stop herself anymore Quinn reached out to tuck stray strands of hair behind Rachel's ear letting her hand linger cupping the side of head. "I can't believe you're really here, sitting across from be in a coffee shop when ten months ago…" she trailed off, tears filling her eyes. "How are you here? I mean…how? Y-you should be dead." The last part was merely a whisper from Quinn's lips.

"Whoa whoa whoa," Rachel backed off, removing Quinn's hand none too gently. Guess I was right on the mentally ill part. "Ok I think I'm going to leave because I don't think you're well, Quinn. Seriously, I don't know you; I'm not going to pretend I know you and play into this…delusion because I don't think it's healthy."

"Rachel-"

"I don't know how you know that stuff about me, and you must be very good at photo-shop, but I must ask you to desist this intrusive behaviour immediately. I have been very lenient not to get authorities involved in this and I work for some very powerful organisations that wouldn't be as lenient if they knew about you."

"Rachel-!"

Rachel was frantically grabbing up her things, struggling getting her arms through the sleeves of her coat in her haste to leave but never missing a beat in her verbal tirade.

"So I think it best for you to go home, seek some help or something. And I never want to hear from you again, do you understand?"

Quinn grabbed her arm as she turned to leave not waiting for an answer. Tears were spilling over Quinn's cheeks now.

"I'M NOT CRAZY, RACHEL!"

The café and everyone in it ground to a halt to stare at them. The silence was deafening. Rachel glanced around quickly not liking the feel of all pairs of eyes watching them. Feeling embarrassed and angry at the blonde for making such a spectacle, she grabbed the thumb of the offending hand bending it backwards to release woman's grip. As she did so, she stepped right into the blonde's personal space, trapping their hands between them. With a quick twist of her hand, she twisted the blonde's wrist into a particularly uncomfortable position, all the time shielding the act with her body from the rest of the customers still eyeing them.

Quinn's face twitched in pain. Rachel couldn't quite understand the pang she felt in her chest as she saw it. Pushing that feeling aside, she leaned further into the blonde as if giving her a comforting hug and started whispering in her ear, although her tone was less than comforting.

"Don't go down this route, Quinn. You won't like where it goes. Against my better judgement I have humoured you and been patient, but as of right now you are a threat to me, and that is something I can't afford. So, Quinn, you are going to step outside with me and round the corner. Once we do, you will go home and forget about me as I'm not the type of person you want to follow round. I don't want to hurt you Quinn, so let's go."

As Quinn didn't want to prolong the pain in her wrist for any longer than necessary, he put on a fake smile and walked with Rachel out the door, the occupants in the café quickly turning back to their conversations as they left. Once round the corner, Rachel dropped Quinn's arm, and turned to walk off.

"Goodbye, Quinn."

Oh hell no! I am not going to see a resurrected Rachel turn her back on me after ten months of being 'dead'.

"March 22nd." Quinn blurted. Rachel barely paused in her stride. "What do remember about March 22nd? Just answer me that." She pleaded.

Rachel, hesitated, purely because the question was so out of the blue.

"How am I supposed to know what I was doing on a specific day months ago? Why are you asking?"

"Just think, Rachel. What can you remember? What do you know about your life before then?" Quinn was grasping for straws, trying a different approach. All her training on amnesia being chucked out the window at this point, she needed Rachel to remember something, anything to make her stay.

Rachel, again questioning her motives for humouring the tall blonde, shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't know, probably working, my job is not just a job it's my life now."

"So you don't know, you're just guessing because of what you do now."

"I guess yeah." Rachel bit out, "how can anyone be that specific about a random day?"

"Ok so where were you living before March? You can be specific on that surely?" Rachel was not appreciating the patronising tone, Quinn was doing it on purpose she knew it.

Sighing she said "In Manhattan."

"Where in Manhattan? What apartment building? Who did you live with? Specifics, Rachel."

"Now why would I tell my stalker that?"

"Urgh! Then don't tell me, just think about it!"

This is ridiculous. Of course I know where I lived, it was on… … oh what street was it?... it was an apartment right?... I liked that apartment… I think…cosy! It was cosy…I was on my own…no wait…why were there kids toys in my apartment?... This is silly, I'm just confusing myself with the other apartments I've visited in this city.

Rachel had been quiet for nearly a minute, while Quinn was reading the concentration and confusion flicker across her face.

"You can't quite remember right?" Quinn's voice was much softer now, she was also much closer to Rachel. When did that happen?

Suddenly Rachel was feeling a lot less confident,"I guess I just spend way too much time at work, plus I travel a lot so I probably wasn't sleeping much there anyway…wait why is this so important? What's March 22nd?"

Quinn took a deep breath to steady herself, preparing to state the events matter-of-factly; she hated thinking about that time.

"On March 22nd there was an accident out of town on a country road. There was a man and a woman driving north. There was some kind of altercation with another vehicle and their car came off the road and crashed into the river. The man managed to get out of the car and searched for the woman but the windscreen was smashed through and she wasn't in the car. She hadn't been wearing a seatbelt. Rescue services dragged the river for days but never found her. She was declared dead five days later…"

Though she didn't think it needed saying, she took another breath and said, "The woman was you, Rachel Berry."

For a long time Rachel didn't say anything she just stared of into space. Random flashes kept entering her mind in a jumbled fashion, feeling like she was an outsider hitting a shuffle button on her memories.

Flashback

It was raining heavily, the evening sky was dark with clouds even though the sun hadn't set yet. The only sound was the constant hum of the car engine and the rhythmic squeak of the windscreen wipers. There was a tall, kind faced man, with brown unkempt hair sitting in the driver's seat next to her. The silence was comfortable.

End flashback

Rachel's brain was working overtime trying to find the context to the memory. Who was the man? A taxi driver? Chauffer? She didn't recognise him.

Flashback

"Come on, Rachel. We've been signing to the radio for hours. My throat hurts."

"Oh stop whining, you know if you had taken the vocal coaching I had offered you wouldn't have this problem. Much like me, I could sing all day and not worry about straining my vocal chords with my habitual warming up and cooling down routine after every hour."

The man next to her groaned.

"Alright, we can stop practicing after just one…more…song" Rachel said as she heard a Journey song come on the radio, and with an evil smile, wacked up the volume and began belting Don't Stop Believing.

The car was gradually climbing around a mountain side. The view of the river to their side was becoming increasingly clouded due to the heavy rain.

Rachel was part way through the second verse when she spotted the man next to her glancing every so often into the rear-view mirror. Glancing to the wing mirror on her side she saw a black 4x4 coming up to their rear at speed.

"What's this guy doing?" The man next to her muttered.

Suddenly the 4x4 went for a quick overtake and started pulling along side. The tinted windows rolled down on either side of the vehicle, suddenly machine guns were pointing at them.

"Shit!" the man said and slammed on the brakes hard, dropping behind the other car as they open fired.

"Rachel! Radio headquarters and there's a gun under your seat."

Rachel did so quickly, leaving the radio on speaker as she pulled a hand gun out of its hiding place.

Undoing her seat belt, she then rolled down the window to lean out in order to get a couple of shots at the 4x4's tires. She hit the rear right tire on her second shot ducking quickly back in to avoid the returning gunfire.

The 4x4 swerved dangerously for a moment before regaining control after the blown out tire. Once again the car dropped back to pull alongside them. This time it swerved purposefully to ram them.

The man next to her struggled to keep control of the vehicle as Rachel lent out again to get a shoot at the driver. The driver acted on instinct and hit the breaks, dropping back further out of Rachel's line of fire then rammed them once more, this time catching the back corner of their car.

"FINN!" Rachel screamed as the car spun, once, twice then crashing through the barrier.

Rachel experienced a few seconds of weightlessness, then the gut wrenching feeling of falling kicked in.

Dread punctured every fibre of her being. The river swelling larger in through the windscreen. Rachel tensed and braced herself against the dash waiting for the inevitable impact.

The car slammed into the water as if the water had turned to solid before impact. The car stopped abruptly but Rachel kept going. The last thing she saw was the murky brown water coming to meet her. Then there was nothing.

End flashback

Rachel teetered on her feet for a second as her world tunnelled then faded to black. The last thing she remembered were soft strong arms wrapping around her body, as her conscious mind followed her memory.

"Rachel"

So be honest and tell me what you think. If you want be to speed up on the story line I can do. This will be a gradual lead up to Faberry, but will have plenty of Faberry moments in the meantime.

Lots of love to all those who read and/or reviewed