Quinn awoke later that evening to the image of Rachel standing over her and holding a large mug.

"Rachel!" Quinn half-yelled in surprise. Rachel blushed apologetically.

"Sorry Quinn, I wanted to see if you were awake yet. I brought you some coffee," she said, holding out the steaming mug to Quinn.

Quinn took the coffee eagerly and set it down on the bedside table, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

"Thanks," she mumbled.

Rachel hesitated. "How are you feeling?" she asked quietly.

Quinn looked up into Rachel's eyes. "Better," she said earnestly. "Not brilliant, but better."

This seemed to satisfy Rachel and she sat down on the bed with a smile, carefully keeping her distance from Quinn.

"My daddy said dinner's ready right now, so we should go downstairs soon…"

Rachel trailed off and stared at the bed. Quinn could tell Rachel had something on her mind and sighed.

"What is it, Rachel?"

"What happened this afternoon? I don't understand why someone would do that to you. Who even did that to you in the first place? I just… I don't understand," Rachel said softly, her eyes flickering, deep in thought and confusion.

Quinn swallowed. She had known that this was coming. But she also knew that she wasn't ready.

"I can't tell you Rachel, I really can't."

"Why not?" Rachel asked almost inaudibly.

'Because I wouldn't be able to take it if you left me,' Quinn wanted to say. 'Because I'm scared of losing what little I have left, because I'm already so alone.'

But the truth was too difficult to say. So instead, Quinn placed her hand on Rachel's and whispered,

"Please, Rachel. I can't, not yet. I need time."

Rachel nodded in understanding, her brown eyes meeting Quinn's. She got up off the bed and walked to the door.

"As long as you need," she whispered and she slipped out of the room, the door closing behind her with a soft click.

oo***oo

It was later that evening and Rachel's daddy had taken her to the shops to rent a movie. Quinn walked down the stairs to the entrance to the Berry's living room, stopping at the door and knocking it.

Rachel's dad jumped a little and turned, surprised to see Quinn standing there.

"Hi Quinn," he said, getting up off the sofa. Quinn hesitated.

"Hi, Mr. Berry. Can I talk to you?" she asked to the floor.

"Sure, Quinn. And please, call me Michael." Michael motioned to the sofa and they both took a seat.

Quinn took a deep breath and looked at him. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course," he said with a smile.

"How did you… how did you come out to your parents?" she asked.

Michael looked taken aback for a moment before he smiled gently at her.

"I came out late in my second year of college after a year of dating Paul. I was terrified because I knew that my parents were not going to be happy about it. I sat them down in their living room and just told them."

He paused to look at Quinn, who was staring back at him, engrossed, so he continued.

"They didn't take it… well, at all. They were both angry with me and they were yelling while I tried to reason with them. The last thing I remember from the conversation is my dad telling me just how disappointed he was in me because I wasn't what he wanted as a son. My mom was crying and she couldn't even look at me,"

Michael swallowed hard, his voice shaking a little at the painful memories.

"My dad told me to leave and so I did. I haven't seen them since." Michael looked at Quinn again and saw that she was trembling slightly.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered, her hazel eyes glossed over and unreadable.

"I'm not sorry. I felt guilt, I felt anger, I felt disappointment in myself. But at the same time, I knew that it was the right thing to do. It's who I am, and they had to accept it. I didn't want to hide myself any longer or act how they wanted me to be and pretend that I wasn't in love. Coming out to them was painful, but at the same time, it was one of the most wonderful things I've ever done. I finally felt like I was living, fully. Not just half-living, or carrying a huge secret around with me. It was off my back, I was free to be with the man I loved. And that's why I'm not sorry. I realized that I shouldn't be sorry for being who I am."

"Thank you," Quinn said. She was grateful for the honesty; she could see from where Rachel got it.

Quinn stood up and nodded at Michael and was about to leave when he touched her arm lightly.

"Quinn, do you want to talk about it?"

Quinn stared back at the man before her and saw a genuine concern in his expression, a willingness to listen to her.

Quinn nodded and breathed, "Yes."

Quinn sat back down and told him, told him everything that had happened, right up to that moment that afternoon. Her voice cracked as she told Michael about what Karofsky and Miller had done, as the images flashed through her mind and didn't seem real. Quinn looked up from the floor to glance at the man next to her. His face reflected empathy and grief but also an anger at what had happened to her; he was speechless.

"And I don't know what to do about it. There isn't much I can do, anyway. I know that. But, I'm so angry that they're doing this and that they're forcing me to come out. I'm just so scared. I can't deal with losing more people, losing my parents, losing-" Quinn stopped herself before she said Rachel's name.

Michael nodded back at her in understanding.

"Quinn," he said, leaning forward to look her directly in the eyes.

"This situation is horrible and I feel so sorry that you have to go through this. These bullies are evil, pure evil. But I want you to know that you aren't alone, okay? I'm here for you, Paul is here for you and I know that Rachel is too. I know you don't feel ready, and you aren't entirely, but this is happening, right now and you need to take control. Don't let those bullies be the ones to tell. You empower the situation and you come out on your own terms, before they get the chance. You can come out how you want to and then those monsters won't have the thrill of scaring you any longer."

"I don't know if I can."

Michael gently placed his hand over Quinn's.

"You're strong, Quinn. You really are. I can see it in you; in the way you've handled all of this. And I know that you can do this. And we'll be here, we'll be with you through everything, I promise."

Quinn swallowed hard, tears filling her eyes.

"I need to tell my parents," she whispered with a shaky voice. Michael nodded.

"But I'm going to need your help; I… I really don't know how I'm going to do this."

Quinn leaned forward as the tears began to fall and Michael carefully wrapped his arms around her.

"I'm here to help. We all are."

oo***oo

Quinn sat on the floor of the Berry's guest room, rummaging through her backpack. After picking up a movie, Rachel and her dad had stopped by Quinn's house to pick up a few of her things. Quinn found what she was looking for and pulled it out from the bottom of her bag. Her journal.

She smiled as she saw it, as she always did. No matter what the entries contained, Quinn always found comfort in reading through her journal, reading little things that had been pushed to the back of her memory, recalling the days when things were simply… better.

Quinn flicked back to earlier months, where the most she had to worry about was whether she was overtly staring at Rachel in class or why she was even doing so in the first place.

Dear Journal,

Today something really strange happened. Like really strange. You know how I said I'd try and be nice to Rachel now? Well, it's been easier than I thought, much easier. I actually enjoy talking to her, as crazy as that sounds. I don't know if it's because I don't talk much to anyone else or if she's become less annoying but I actually kinda like her. It's really weird.

But it gets so much worse than that. She handed me back my essay in history today and our fingers touched and I felt sparks. SPARKS. What is that about? I mean seriously? It was like that feeling when you jump around on a trampoline with no socks on and then touch someone else whose been doing the same. It was like an electric shock. And I don't think she even noticed. So yeah... that was really strange and unexpected. I'm still trying to make sense of it… kind of. Part of me doesn't really want to think about it. At all.

Quinn.

Quinn chuckled at herself. It was interesting to say the least. As she traveled through days, weeks and months, she could see her progression from wondering what on earth she was feeling, to her realizing that she was enamored with a certain brunette.

Dear Journal,

Today was horrifying, seriously horrifying. I realized something and… wow. It's painfully obvious now that I look at it but…wow.

You see; Rachel looked really pretty today. Beautiful. And for the whole of Glee I couldn't get that thought out of my head. I'm pretty sure I was out of time with everyone else because Rachel was all I could focus on. It's okay though because Mr. Schue was busy trying to teach Finn how to dance and no one else pays much attention to me, so I was free to mess up. But, I couldn't stop looking at her. I suppose I could if I really wanted to, but I didn't want to look away.

And then the worst thing ever happened. Rachel turned to face me and smiled directly at me. We were partnered up for the next exercise. She walked up to me and then she was right there, she was so close. And then I had to look away. The thing is that the moment our eyes met, my whole body got really hot. My face felt like it was on fire and my heart went out of control; it was so embarrassing. So I looked away from her and she looked really concerned, probably because my face was bright red. I didn't know what to say or do; all I knew was that I had to get away from her and calm down. So I mumbled something about not feeling well and then ran outside for air. I stayed outside for ages until my body temperature felt normal again. I had to come back, eventually. She kept on asking me if I was okay and kept on looking at me funny but I basically ignored her the whole time because I didn't trust myself if our eyes met again. I'm pretty sure she thinks I hate her now since I kept on moving away from her and I wouldn't look at her.

So, um, I think I have a crush on a girl. On Rachel Berry. My life sucks.

Quinn.

But as Quinn went through the entries, she also noticed her loneliness increasing each month, her deepest worries spelled out in ink. And then the loneliness reared its ugly head again, taunting her. She was risking it all, the little that she had. No. Stop thinking like that. You have to do this. You need to tell.

Quinn stood up and put her journal back into the bottom of her bag. The first person she needed to tell? Rachel Berry.

oo***oo

Quinn took a deep breath and knocked on Rachel's door. The door swung open and she was greeted by the animated smile of Rachel.

"Hi Quinn!" Rachel said warmly.

"Hi, are you busy? Because I was wondering if I could talk to you."

"No, not at all. Come on in," Rachel said, extending her arm backwards.

Quinn smiled at her and walked inside, going straight for the bed because she knew she'd need to sit down for this. Rachel sat down next to her and looked up at her expectantly.

Quinn let out a long breath, the seriousness of what she was about to do hitting her like a brick. Her heart rate began to elevate and she felt an uneasy motion in her stomach.

"Um. Okay," she mumbled.

Feeling ridiculous, Quinn tried to take control of her breathing and calm down. She felt Rachel's hand on her thigh.

"It's okay Quinn," Rachel said soothingly.

But Quinn couldn't get the words out. Quinn's hands held onto her knees tightly as she willed the words to come out of her mouth.

Quinn looked down and stood up quickly. "This was a bad idea," she muttered.

"No!" Rachel said loudly. She cleared her throat.

"Please stay. You can take your time, I don't mind," Rachel said quieter.

Quinn looked into the truthful brown eyes and felt a reassurance in them. She sat back down on the bed, her legs a little shaky. 'Quinn just spit it out. Just do it. Do it,' her brain chanted at her.

"I think I'm gay."

Quinn heard a sharp intake of breath and looked up at Rachel. Her eyes were wide but other than that, her expression was inscrutable. Quinn sat there for a few moments in the painful silence, a million words racing through her head.

She looked up again and saw that Rachel appeared to have stopped breathing. Quinn waited for a couple of seconds and was thinking about poking Rachel to check if she was still alive when Rachel finally spoke.

"You think you're gay?" Rachel asked, her voice hushed and low, incredulous even.

Quinn winced at the words. "Well, actually I know I'm gay," she admitted, staring at the brunette again for a reaction.

"Okay," Rachel breathed and then she smiled. "Thanks for telling me."

"Is that it?" Quinn asked in amazement.

It was then that she realized that she had just come out to Rachel. She actually did it. Suddenly Quinn felt light headed.

"Well no, actually. I have so many questions I want to ask you but I figured you wouldn't appreciate that," Rachel admitted.

"You can ask me, I don't mind," Quinn said, still feeling a little dazed.

She almost laughed as she saw Rachel's expression light up.

She cut in, "But not right now because I feel a little dizzy and sick."

Rachel's expression switched to one of concern. "Are you okay? Shall I get you a glass of water? Do you need a doctor? Okay, I'm calling a doctor," Rachel said getting up.

This time Quinn did laugh. "No, it's okay Rachel, I'm fine. I was really worked up over telling you and now I have; you took it so well and it's very overwhelming."

"Okay," Rachel said, clearly not convinced.

"I'm just going to lie down a while before we all watch the movie you got," Quinn said, slowly standing up and walking to the door.

"Feel better!" Rachel called as Quinn left her room.

oo***oo

A swift knock on the door pulled Quinn out a very strange dream.

In her dream, she'd been drifting through scenes with people she didn't know in them. She watched from afar as a young woman had dinner with her parents when a man walked in and leant down and kissed the woman's cheek. The parents beamed at him and they all laughed, the noise echoing through the room. And then Quinn was watching a different couple get married, large smiles fixed upon both their faces as they stated their vows. Quinn turned and saw the woman's parents in the front row, the wife crying into a handkerchief, the husband beaming at his daughter with pride. She was then dropped into a hospital waiting room where a different old couple sat with their hands tightly clasped together. A man with messy dark hair and tired but excitable eyes suddenly burst out of one of the doors, running to the old couple and exclaiming, "It's a girl! We have a baby girl!"

But before Quinn could move onto whatever scene was next, she was wide-awake from the knocking.

"Come in," Quinn mumbled into her pillow.

The door opened and Michael stood at the doorway with a smile.

"Morning Quinn! Did you sleep well?" he asked.

Quinn muttered something resembling a 'yes' into her pillow. Michael chuckled.

"Alright, well you have to get up soon so you have enough time to try my incredible pancakes. I made bacon too."

Quinn was alert at the sound of bacon and sat up, yawning.

"I'll be down soon," she said. "Is Rachel awake?"

"She's already downstairs," Michael said. "She wakes up early every day to go on the elliptical before school. She always works up a huge appetite so be down soon before all the pancakes are gone," he said with a laugh, closing the door behind him.

'Oh right. School,' Quinn thought with a groan.

She still had school to deal with. And even worse than that, Quinn still had the football team on her back too. Great.

Quinn jumped out of bed and sighed, stretching her arms above her head. You can deal with this Quinn. You know you can.

oo***oo

Just before Quinn was about to leave with Rachel for school, Michael pulled Quinn into the living room.

"Quinn," he said, looking at her with concern, "Are you sure you want to go in today?"

Quinn thought for a moment before she answered.

"Yes," she says, looking up at Michael confidently. "I'm not letting them scare me away, I think I'll be okay."

Michael gave her a reassuring smile. "Okay. But if you need anything, please call me or Paul."

Quinn nodded at him, feeling more supported than she had in a long time.

oo***oo

The moment Rachel and Quinn got to school, Rachel threaded her arm through Quinn's elbow. Quinn looked at her in confusion.

"I'm not leaving you alone," Rachel asserted.

Quinn felt her heart flutter a little at the concern but laughed. "Well, that's sort of difficult considering a lot of our classes aren't the same."

"That is true, however, I figured that the times you are most likely to be in danger is between-classes and after school and so I shall wait for you after each of your classes and walk you to your next one," Rachel said breathlessly.

Quinn smiled at Rachel, "That's very nice of you but you don't have to do that."

"Nonsense, Quinn, I cannot afford to take any chances. Whoever is bullying you is clearly incredibly malevolent and there is no predicting what they might do next. I will be on full guard, of course."

Quinn tried to protest but then Rachel was talking again, her eyebrows furrowed and her grip on Quinn tight.

"I already took the liberty of photocopying and memorizing your timetable and so I know that your first lesson is English. Do you need to go to your locker first or shall we proceed?" Rachel asked, shooting a glance at Quinn.

"Can we go to my locker first?" Quinn sighed, acquiescing. Rachel nodded and they headed off in the direction of Quinn's locker.

Rachel kept to her words the whole day, walking Quinn to each of her lessons and then collecting her at the end of them. While Quinn felt comfort in Rachel being there for her, she couldn't help but worry for the brunette; if Karofsky was to do something to her, who's to say he wouldn't hurt Rachel too? Quinn was constantly vigilant, looking over her shoulder to make sure the football team weren't close behind.

oo***oo

Quinn was lying on Rachel's bed, a book tucked under her chin with her feet tapping to the Wicked soundtrack currently playing. She glanced over at Rachel, who was hunched over her desk, clearly concentrating very hard on the pieces of paper before her.

"Rach?"

"Mmm?"

"What are you doing?"

Rachel spun around in her chair to face Quinn and held a map up in front of her.

"I'm planning the safest routes for us to walk tomorrow. I'm currently trying to figure out which areas to avoid in school as I do not know who is tormenting you but-"

"It's the football team," Quinn stated quietly.

"The football team?" Rachel said in disbelief.

"Well Karofsky and his friend Miller specifically. I don't know if the whole team is involved, but they definitely are."

Quinn answered Rachel's unspoken question.

"They found out about... about me being... gay," the last word came out hushed, as if too controversial to say out-loud.

"How did they find out?"

Quinn blushed. "I left my journal behind after class one day and they read it."

"Oh."

"And since then they've been pressuring me to come out. They keep on calling me and sending me emails but I ignored them because I didn't know what to do. And then that day, when I was taking a breather before Glee, Karofsky and Miller cornered me and...You know," Quinn trailed off, bowing her head.

"They did this to you because you're gay?" Rachel gasped.

"Yeah. I think they were angry that I wasn't coming out, it was another way of pressuring me I guess." Quinn heard Rachel take a huge intake of air.

"Those imbeciles, those Neanderthals, those bullies! Those disgusting horrible little boys!" Rachel said, swiftly getting up to storm around the room, her voice considerably higher than normal.

"Rachel-"

"Those monsters. I am going to have the ACLU on this so fast-"

"No, Rachel!"

Rachel stopped stomping to look at Quinn.

"I don't want to tell okay?"

"We have to, this is simply atrocious; they cannot get away with this."

Quinn stood up, grabbed Rachel's arm and pulled her to the bed.

"Rachel, please listen to me. I don't want anyone else finding out yet. Please."

Rachel sat there, breathing deeply and nodded. "I'm sorry, I'm incredibly outraged right now. I can't believe this."

"It's very hard to take in," Quinn admitted. Rachel leaned closer to Quinn and rested her head on the blonde's shoulder.

"I'm sorry you have to go through this," Rachel whispered.

They sat there for a while, deep in thought before Quinn spoke again.

"How about we talk about something else?" She paused for a moment to think. "You can ask me some of the millions of questions you had for me," Quinn said with a smile.

Rachel looked back at her with a grin. She leaned over to her desk and picked up a notepad, flicking through it quickly until she reached the page she wanted.

"You wrote down the questions?"

"Of course," Rachel stated. Quinn grinned again.

"How did you realize you were gay?" Rachel asked, staring at Quinn.

"Well," Quinn said, feeling a little uncomfortable. "I got a crush on a girl, that's how I realized I guess."

"Who?"

"You don't know her," Quinn said quickly

"Oh," Rachel said with disappointment. She shifted towards Quinn eagerly as she asked the next question.

"But how do you know you're not bisexual? How do you know you're gay?"

Quinn took a deep breath; she'd thought a lot about this.

"My attraction to girls feels different to what I feel for guys. I like, I can appreciate if a guy is good looking or something, but I don't feel anything. Nothing at all. When I used to kiss Finn it didn't feel like much at all and I thought that was supposed to happen. But other girls would talk about these weird feelings in your stomach, like you were nauseous almost, and sparks when you kissed and touched someone and I never had that with a guy. I got that for girls but I interpreted it as jealousy or hatred because I didn't know how to deal with it. Part of me knew for a while I think, but I always ignored the feelings. But when I stopped denying my feelings, I realized that I did have them, but not for the people I expected to have them for."

Rachel studied Quinn with interest before proceeding to her next question. "So what is it that you find attractive in girls?"

Quinn squirmed a little and raised an eyebrow to Rachel. "Really?"

Rachel shrugged. "I'm very curious about this."

"Um… I don't know, everything?" Quinn felt a blush rising on her cheeks. "Like the same stuff I guess you'd like on a guy: their eyes, their smile, their legs…" Quinn trailed off as she felt her face burning.

Rachel smiled at Quinn, clearly oblivious to how embarrassed the blonde was getting.

"So, do you have a particular type of girl who you are most attracted to?"

"Okay, I think that's enough questions for now," Quinn said quickly, standing up.

Rachel looked disappointed but got up and walked over to her desk to pick up a leaflet.

"I got this for you," she said, handing it to Quinn.

Quinn looked at the leaflet and read out "Kaleidoscope Youth Centre."

"I was thinking we could go there this weekend," Rachel said enthusiastically over Quinn's shoulder.

"My dads volunteer there often and I thought we could all go together."

Rachel leaned back to her desk again and handed Quinn another leaflet.

"And there is of course Columbus Pride but that isn't for months yet unfortunately," she said with a sigh.

"Pride? I don't think I'm ready for that yet."

"Why not?"

"I'm not exactly bursting with pride right now, Rachel. I've accepted who I am but that doesn't mean I like it," Quinn said in a low voice.

Rachel walked over to her and wrapped an arm around Quinn's waist.

"Quinn," she said gently, "There's nothing to be ashamed of. Being gay is something to be proud of. We can go to the centre on Saturday so you can see that; you should celebrate your sexuality Quinn!"

Quinn laughed at Rachel's enthusiasm and rested her head against the brunette.

"Okay, we'll go. Thanks Rachel."

Rachel turned to look at her. "For what?"

"For helping me," Quinn stated.

"That's what friends are for."

oo***oo

Thanks for reading! I love hearing your thoughts and comments :D