They had finally made it... Nationals in New York City. Piper couldn't be happier since everything was starting to look up for her. Sure, her mom had really gone through with her idea of leaving Piper behind, but at least that meant she could go back to living her great life with her dad. And sure, her eating disorder still wasn't 100% under control, but she wasn't skipping meals anymore and she hadn't thrown up in days, so that was good. And sure, Quinn and her weren't actually anything official yet, but Quinn was finally single now and she was constantly making a point of being near Piper at all times, so that was great.

Piper was in such a good mood that day that she had even pulled out her sketchbook again that she hadn't used in weeks due to her fragile state of mind and as she drew the Times Square in front of her, trying to capture the bright lights of the city and the excitement of being there with all of her friends. She smiled a bit when Quinn sat down beside her with pink cotton candy in hands.

"Is that a picture you have there?" The blonde asked with a small smile as Piper rolled her eyes with a small blush to her cheeks.

"Stop it."

"It's beautiful." Quinn said. "It's nice to see you doing it again. It's been a while, hasn't it? But I still don't understand how you can draw so well."

And, at that, Piper looked up from her work to look at Quinn instead, surprised at the fact that she had actually noticed it as well. With a smile, the freckled girl shrugged a bit, grabbing a bit of Quinn's cotton candy and stuffing it in her mouth instead.

"Thanks." She smirked, giggling a bit when Quinn sent her a playful glare.

The two girls were snapped out of their conversation, however, when Tina spoke up.

"I want to hit up Central Park, get my frolic on." She said.

"I want to throw stuff off the Brooklyn Bridge." Mike added.

"Guys, hold on." Finn said, as everyone turned to look at him. "I mean, we still have two songs to write."

"Okay, Mr. Bossy Pants." Kurt teased his half-brother. "But I think we have some time for a tune before we leave."

And just like that, he started singing New York, New York as everyone joined in. They hadn't even gotten into the groove properly when Rachel interrupted them, rushing back to the group from God knows where with an excited smile on her face.

"Guys, I have news." She announced, as everyone turned to look at her. "To celebrate our impending win at Nationals I got us all 14 tickets to Broadway's longest-running show ever Cats."

At that, some of the kids cheered. Quinn frowned, however.

"You might want to check the dates on those tickets, Rachel, because Cats closed about 11 years ago." She said, as Piper chuckled quietly when Rachel looked down at her tickets and sighed.

"He did seem crazy." She admitted then. "He charged my credit card by swiping it through his butt crack."

***

"Do you know that I can get an ahi tartare and a steak sandwich at 3:00 in the morning from their all-night dining menu?" Kurt asked, as he sat beside Piper in one of the beds of one of the two rooms that Mr. Schue had managed to get them all. "I feel like Eloise."

"I have pills for that." Brittany offered and when Kurt sent her a glare, Piper snorted a quiet laugh.

"All right, guys. This is your time." Mr. Schue said, as he clapped his hand once trying to get the kids' attention. "Now, you are all on lockdown till you finish writing our songs for Nationals. I want at least two solid verses by the time I get back."

"Aren't you gonna help us?" Tina asked.

"I, hum... I will be back and read your amazing creations and give notes." Mr. Schue stuttered a bit as Piper frowned. "But right now I have to head to the theater to, hum, fill out some paperwork."

And with that, Mr. Schue was out of the room, leaving all the kids cramped around inside as they all found a place or another to sit or laid down as they all tried to come up with a verse or two of a decent song. Piper was blanking, though, and the whole forty five minutes that the kids stayed in silence as they tried to write a song she got nothing. A spark of hope appeared in her chest, however, when Brittany and Artie announced they had something so, wrapping Puck into the performance with them to play the guitar, everyone gathered in the beds to see what they had come up with.

What they did perform was not what they were expecting at all, considering Brittany had just spent a whole minute singing about...

"Hold on." Tina was the first to break the stunned silence that followed after Britt's performance. "Are you singing about a cup?"

"Yeah. Totally." Brittany confirmed, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. At that, Quinn shook her head.

"We gotta get out of here." She said, already standing up from the bed as she went to grab her coat.

"Wait. No, no, no." Rachel protested. "Mr. Schue gave us explicit instructions."

"To write a song." Quinn argued back, handing Piper her own coat in an almost subconscious move. "And our problem is that our only inspiration are mattresses and bathroom cups."

"Quinn's right." Puck said. "We're in the artist capital of the world. Poets, musicians, actors, playwrights... Every dreamer that's ever lived has passed through this city. If we want our dreams to come true, we need to be out there with them, not stuck in here."

"Guys, I don't think this is a good idea." Rachel shook her head. "I mean, we still got those songs to write. If we don't write them, we're gonna lose."

"No, they're right." Lauren said. "Can't you hear the city calling to you?"

And when Quinn extended a hand toward Piper, the girl smiled, quickly grabbing it hers as she allowed Quinn to pull her up to her feet.

"We don't need to write songs for Nationals." She smiled then. "New York's gonna write them for us."

***

After a much needed and very fun break for them out in the wild of New York City, the kids had all come back from the hotel and were now, again trying to figure out some songs for them to sing at the competition. And sure, they were all a bit more inspired, but coming up with two songs wasn't an easy task. And Piper was trying, she really was, but writing songs was not really one of her strengths so, growing a bit frustrated, Piper groaned quietly as she stood up to slip away from the girls for a second.

Noticing her absence, Quinn frowned a bit, but was quick to stand up from her own place at the floor to follow Piper to the small dressing room they had. Quinn was fully prepared to barge into the bathroom if needed, but before she could even start to worry, Piper giggled as soon as she noticed the blonde on her way there.

"Don't worry, Fabray." She said, as Quinn jumped a bit, alarmed, but relaxing as soon as she spun around to see Piper standing by her travel bag. "I'm not puking in the bathroom."

"You just seemed a bit overwhelmed when you left." Quinn shrugged as she started to make her way toward the other girl. "You okay?"

"Yeah. A bit stressed out considering Nationals is tomorrow and we have absolutely nothing ready yet, but... I'm okay."

"We'll get there. We always do." Quinn assured, as Piper nodded, before looking away from her and back into her bag. At that, Quinn frowned a bit, biting her lip as she debated asking what was going on or just letting it be until after the competition. "Hey, is everything okay? Like... Really?"

"What, with me?" Piper asked, still refusing to meet Quinn's eyes.

"No." She said, reaching for Piper's hand and grabbing it in hers to get the girl to look at her. "With us."

"With us?" Piper repeated then, with a sigh. "See, the problem with this question, Q, is that there is no us, is there? I mean, I'm really happy that you're truly available now and having you tell me that you're in love with me at prom was, quite literally, the best feeling I've ever felt in my whole entire life, but we... We're not anything. And my point is... I'm ready to give you everything I have and everything you could possibly want. But I want to know if you're ready for this too. Because I'm not about to dive into this only to have you pull back from me again because I don't think I can handle having you..."

And before Piper could continue with her ramblings, Quinn smiled sweetly at her, before tugging her closer by the waist as she leaned down to press a kiss to her lips. Piper melted into her again, wrapping her arms around her neck again as she deepened the kiss. And as soon as they pulled apart from each other, Quinn could see Piper was about to speak again, but, before she could, she laughed, pressing another quick kiss to her lips to get her to stop talking.

"I want to be yours." Quinn whispered, and those words alone made Piper's knees buckle from beneath her. "I want you to be mine and I want to be yours. I want us to be a thing. I want you to be my girlfriend."

"Y-You do?" Piper stuttered a bit as Quinn rolled her eyes affectionately.

"Yes, I do, you moron." She laughed when Piper blushed a bit. "But... But you need to be patient with me, okay? I... I want to be yours and I want to be able to kiss you when I want to and wherever we are because I love you, but I..."

"Wait, wait, wait... You love me?" Piper interrupted Quinn's speech, gasping in pure delight when Quinn widened her eyes, realizing what she had just said. "You said you love me."

Quinn laughed then, biting her lip for a second as she sighed.

"I do." She admitted again, as Piper's eyes started to water a bit. "I love you, Piper."

"I love you too." She giggled, leaning up in her tiptoes to press another kiss to her lips. "I love you too, Quinn. And I'll give you some time, okay? I just... I just want to ask you one thing... Can we... Can we not hide this from the glee club? Cause... Cause you know they'll be fine with it, right? And then... Then we see how and when we tell your mom and what we do at school next year... But right now, with all of those that we love and that love us just as much... I want to be able to hold your hand. I want... I want you to sit beside me and I want to lean over to you while we watch the performances of the other teams tomorrow and talk shit of the competition. Can we, please?"

And at that, Quinn hesitated, but when she noticed the pleading eyes Piper was sending her, she gave in. After all, she knew she had put Piper through quite a lot so it was only fair she'd give in to her wishes a bit at the start of their new relationship. So, she nodded.

"We can." She nodded and, in that moment, Quinn realized that the smile Piper sent her was sure to erase all her fears and insecurities about this whole thing.

"Really?" Piper asked, bouncing in her feet excitedly as Quinn giggled.

"Really."

"Oh, my God!" She squealed, tugging Quinn down again to kiss her lips quickly one more time. "Thank you."

With a nod of her head and quick peck to her lips, Quinn smiled as she looked at Piper for a second.

"So... How are we gonna do it, then?" She asked, and, before Piper could even say anything, the two of them heard Santana calling out their names from the other room.

"Come on, Fabray... Snow!" She yelled out as the girls laughed. "Stop making out and come here. Artie says he's got something to tell us!"

And, with that, Piper blushed a bit, grabbing Quinn's hand in hers as she laced their fingers together.

"I don't really think we need to make an announcement out of it." She shrugged as Quinn laughed, allowing her girlfriend to tug at her hand a bit to walk back into the girl's bedroom. "I think they can figure it out by themselves."

***

The news Artie had told them were not good ones and now, as everyone reunited in the girl's room, none of them seemed to be in the mood to write anything anymore.

"All right, guys." Mr. Schue said, excitedly as he walked into the room, causing all the children to look at him. "Who's up for some real New York City... Pizza?"

Putting the pizzas down, Mr. Schue frowned when he noticed the frowns in everyone faces. Before he could even ask what was wrong, Artie spoke up.

"We heard." He said.

"Heard what?" Mr. Schue asked.

"About you leaving to be on Broadway." Piper said, as Quinn played with her fingers from her place beside her.

At that, Mr. Schue sighed.

"Look. I haven't made up my mind about anything."

"We get it. And we're happy for you." Rachel said. "You've inspired us in so many ways, so this is just another."

"I don't understand." Mr. SChue frowned. "Who told you guys?"

"Goolsby." Mercedes shrugged.

At that, the teacher sighed again, but suddenly, his frown turned into a smile and everyone watched him, confused.

"Are you okay, Mr. Schue?" Mike asked.

"I'm not going." The teacher decided. "I'm staying with you guys. I had my moment on that stage, and it was glorious. But you and I have some unfinished business to take care of. Now get out your notebooks. Time to get to work."

***

And so, they were there: Nationals. All dressed up and ready to go with two songs that they were actually very proud of. And, surprisingly, Mr. Schue seemed to be one most excited about this, as he turned to look at his students, practically bursting in excitement.

"We made it." She squealed. "We're one of the top 50 show choirs in the nation. Tomorrow only 10 will move on to showcase, where they'll vie for the national championship. We've so got this!"

And at that, everyone cheered and, when Mr. Schue noticed the smiles on their faces, he knew he had made the right decision.

"Okay. Usually I'm pretty cautious about getting your hopes up but honestly, guys... I think we got a really good shot at winning this thing." Mr. Schue said. "All right. Everyone put your hands in the middle."

And, with that, they all smiled and cheered, doing their usual show circle in the middle of the hall and not really caring about all the eyes watching them this time.

"One, two, three! New Directions!"

***

So, their performance had been great. Sure, the other teams had been amazing too, but their performance had been great. Piper could say it had all gone smoothly if it wasn't for one tiny little detail: Rachel and Finn had apparently kissed on stage after their duet and, according to Jesse, it had been a rather dramatic kiss that could cost them Nationals. And, honestly, Piper wasn't really sure if he was just messing with them or if he actually meant it, but when the top 10 was posted and everyone started to rush to it to see it, she decided to let it go and just accept whatever result might come their way.

"What's happening?" Rachel asked, as soon as everyone started to move toward the top 10 plaque.

"They just posted the top 10 for showcase." Finn said.

"Okay, come on, everybody. Gather around." Mr. Schue called, as all the glee kids approached him, nervously. "It's a moment two years in the making!"

"Okay, okay." Rachel said. "What should we do?"

"Let's go look at it together." Mr. Schue said. "Come on. Come on."

And as they moved closer and closer to the top 10, Piper could feel the nervous energy around her growing and growing and she only calmed down a bit when Quinn — clearly just as nervous as her — grabbed her hand for reassurance.

Before they could all take a proper look at the ranking, however, Rachel bailed, as she spun around in her heels.

"Oh, I'm too nervous to look." She said, and when Mr. Schue noticed all the kids in similar states, he decided to take the fall.

"I'll go." He said.

And so, he did, walking closer to the ranking as he felt his whole world crumbling down when he looked over all the names in the top 10 while not seeing New Directions written there at all.

"What did we place?" Finn asked, but his voice sounded kind of muffled in the teacher's ears. "Well, Mr. Schue? Say it. What did we rank?"

And with a long sigh, Mr. Schue broke the news to his kids.

"We didn't." He said, turning around to look at them and noticing their disappointed faces. "I'm so sorry, you guys. We aren't in the top 10."