As soon as she gets back from Rachel's house, Quinn throws her bag to the floor and runs her hands over her face.

"It's okay," she whispers. "You're okay."

She sits down on the bed and inhales slowly. Before she's able to control it, she's hyperventilating and crying all over again. Just her luck, she's having a panic attack with no one around to help her.

She quickly grabs her phone to call Santana. She knows that her best friend would be able to calm her down.

"Fuck!" she exclaims when it goes straight to voicemail. She tries Brittany's cell, only for it to do the same thing. Quinn assumes that they're busy together.

She then tries calling Puck. He hasn't exactly been in the loop with what's been going on, but she really needs someone right now and she'll explain everything later.

The call keeps ringing and ringing and Quinn hangs up after a while and curses.

She calls the next person she can think of and sighs in relief when they answer.

"Hello?"

"Marley," she says with a shaky voice. "Hey. Sorry, I just –"

"Quinn? Are you okay?"

"N-not exactly," she stutters out.

"I'm coming over. I'll be there in five minutes."

The line goes silent before Quinn can respond. She tosses it aside and rocks her body back and forth on the bed.

The only thing going through her mind is the look on Rachel's face when she left. She's never hated herself more than she does in this moment. What the hell has she done?

The bedroom door opens and she doesn't even bother looking up.

"The front door was open. So I let myself in..." Marley explains carefully. She frowns and approaches the blonde on the bed. "Hey," she says softly as she pries her hands away from her face.

"It's done," Quinn breathes out as she finally makes eye contact. "I ended things with her."

"You did the right thing," Marley assures.

"Did I?"

"Quinn," the brunette starts rubbing her back. "I've told you a million times that you two weren't right together. And it sucks that you had to see that the hard way. But I'm proud of you for being strong enough to do this."

"Strong?" Quinn scoffs. "Look at me. I'm so fucking weak."

"You're not weak," Marley says sternly. "You know when enough is enough. That's a lot more than most people can say."

She nods. She just has to keep reminding herself why she did this.

"I just...love her," she whimpers.

"You're going to get over her eventually. Trust me."

Quinn frowns at her. "But how? I don't want to feel like this!" she cries.

"It just takes times," the other girl soothes. "The more time that passes, the easier it'll be. And I'm going to be here every step of the way."

"I'm just worried that I didn't think this through. Maybe I should've tried harder. Or given it another chance," Quinn rambles. "Maybe we could've tried to work through this and –"

"Quinn, stop. This turned into a bigger mess than you could handle. I mean, look," she holds out Quinn's injured wrist. "You don't know how much worse it could've gotten. And I'm so glad that you'll never have to."

"What if things were going to get better? What if we got better?"

"Don't think about the what ifs. You know that your relationship was going to be hard no matter what. It wasn't right from the very beginning and you know that."

What she had with Rachel had never felt wrong to her. It always felt like the right thing. Like maybe the only thing that was ever right in her life.

"Maybe we can be together one day, when we're ready," she says as a hopeful statement more than anything.

"You know it would have been impossible to be with her. Not with your situation."

Quinn looks away defeated, "We would have figured it out."

"Look," Marley cups her cheek and turns her head to face her, "I think that you're meant for other things. You and Rachel never made sense. You did the right thing, Quinn. You'll see that in time."

The blonde nods. She doesn't quite believe it yet. But maybe she just needs some rest for now.

"Thank you for coming by. I just needed someone and –"

"And you called me. I told you that I would always be there if you needed me," Marley smiles.

Quinn doesn't have it in her to say that Marley wasn't her first choice person to talk to tonight. But still, she was the only one who would talk to her at all.

"You're a great friend. Like, seriously...I don't know how you've been able to put up with all I've put you through."

"It's nothing," Marley gently strokes her hair. "You know I care about you."

Quinn carefully pulls away and curls up on the bed. "I'm just a mess right now."

"I understand. And like I said, I'll still be here for you."

The blonde exhales, "You know you didn't have to come over."

"You needed someone. You're only human."

Quinn smiles for the first time that night. "But thank you...for everything."

"Don't mention it." Marley lays down next to her. "You need to get some sleep."

"You don't have to stay here with me, you know."

"I know," the brunette scoots closer to her. "But I want to."

When she feels an arm wrap around her waist, Quinn stiffens. "Marley, you really don't."

"Shh, it's okay."

Quinn tries to relax, but she just can't. All she can think about is how she'd rather it be Rachel holding her right now. But she shouldn't be thinking like that.

And maybe Marley is right. Maybe she just needs to give it some time to get over her.

But who's she kidding? Because deep down, she knows that she will never stop loving her.

Quinn marches through the university library and carelessly tosses her bag on a vacant table, earning a glare from the nearby librarian. She ignores it and pulls out a couple books and plugs in her earphones, then gets to studying.

About half an hour later, out of the corner of her eye, she sees someone pulling out the chair across from her.

She pauses her music and smiles, "Hey."

"Hey," the brunette says back. "I haven't heard from you all day. Is everything okay?"

Quinn sighs. She knows that Marley had texted her throughout the day, but she hasn't responded at all to her friend. She was just having another one of those days. And after getting into it with the professor of her last class, she was in an even worse mood.

"Everything's fine. I guess I just need some time to myself."

"Oh, of course. I'm sorry. I'll stop bothering you then." Marley apologizes and quickly stands.

Quinn shakes her head, "No, it's okay. You don't have to go."

"Are you sure?"

She nods with a gentle smile. The other girl seems relieved and sits back down.

It's been a week since everything happened. And Quinn still feels this cloud of anxiety hanging over her. It can't be healthy.

"What brings you to the library?" she asks Marley, then frowns, "Were you looking for me?"

"No!" Marley answers quickly. "I was just going to do some research on the online database. But then I saw you sitting here by yourself so I thought I'd join you. You didn't want to study at home?"

Quinn shakes her head. "I don't really want to be at home. My parents have been working a lot, so I've been by myself for the past few nights. The house is so quiet and empty and it's kinda depressing."

"I've told you, you can call me if you're ever lonely or bored or just need someone to talk to."

"I know. I just don't want to bother you too much. And I need to deal with...everything on my own."

Quinn still very much thinks of Rachel. Probably every minute of every day. And that isn't changing, no matter how much she tries to distract herself.

"You never bother me. And is it getting easier being away from Rachel?"

Marley reaches across the table and takes her hand. Quinn stares at their conjoined hands, not sure how to feel about it.

She bites her lip. "I can't stop thinking about her."

"Well that's understandable. It's only been a week."

"I want to know if she's okay. I want to talk to her. I want to call her. Or maybe even go over and –"

"Quinn, stop. I'm sure she's fine. And if anything serious happened to her, you would probably hear about it right away."

She stops because that was very much true. She sighs, "It just kills me that she's hurting because of me."

"She's been through break ups before. I mean, she's had a divorce. She's going to be okay, and you will be too."

She knows that her biggest fear is Rachel hating her in the end. Quinn's terrified that she'll find out that she moved away again and out of her life forever.

"Trust me, you will be. And I don't care what it takes, but I'm going to help you get through this," Marley says without hesitation.

Quinn wants to ask her why she's so adamant about helping her. But she decides not to. She's lucky enough to even have someone with her at all. Her best friend was on the other side of the country and it was like Puck disappeared off the face of the earth. Marley was really all that she had now.

"Thank you," she says before packing her books back into her bag. "Hey, I'm starving. Do you want to go get something to eat?"

Marley beams, "I'd love to."

The days were starting to become easier for Quinn. She was trying to be positive and focus all of her energy on school, which was helpful. And before she knew it, it was already the week of Thanksgiving.

"I love this episode," Marley says from next to her on the couch.

"Mhmm," she hums in agreement.

Another constant presence in Quinn's life has been Marley as of late. When she wasn't texting or calling, the girl was constantly over. Quinn wanted to tell her that she feels like she needs a breather once in a while, but doesn't want to be rude. Marley's been nothing but nice to her so she doesn't feel like she has a place to say anything.

A knock at the front door sounds and both girls turn to each other.

"Were you expecting anyone?" Marley asks.

"No," Quinn says as she gets up to answer it.

The knocking turns into a loud banging.

"I'm coming! Jesus..."

The banging continues.

Quinn swings open the door. "I said I'm...Santana!"

Before Santana can get a word out, the blonde leaps into her arms and squeezes the life out of her.

"Surprise," she squeaks out.

"What are you doing here! What...how?" Quinn asks as she pulls back.

"I flew in this morning with Brittany. We wanted to surprise you and...are you seriously crying right now?"

"No!" Quinn wipes furiously at her eyes. "I'm just so happy to see you!"

"So am I," she says before pulling Quinn in for another hug.

Marley shows up at the door to see what was going on. "Oh, hi Santana."

"Hey Marley," she says back. She looks at Quinn to silently ask what the other girl was doing there, but it was futile since the blonde was still a blubbering mess.

"We weren't expecting anyone to come by today. Are you in town for Thanksgiving?"

Santana doesn't miss the possessive way she says "we". Like really...what the hell?

"Did I come at a bad time?" She looks between the two.

"Of course not! Come on, get inside," Quinn says as she starts pulling her best friend inside the house. "We were just watching tv."

Santana eyes Marley in her way inside.

"As I was saying," she continues as they sit in the couch, "We just flew in this morning. We'll be here for a few days. Brittany is out with her parents so I thought I'd come by. You've been a mess on the phone lately."

"Quinn is actually doing a lot better," Marley cuts in.

"I still can't believe you're here," Quinn smiles. "I thought it'd be months until I saw you again."

"I did too. This was all really last minute. But I was able to make it."

Quinn can't help herself and pulls Santana in for one more hug. She can't get over how much she's missed her.

"You been doing okay, Q?"

"I've had better days, but I'm good."

"You haven't talked to Rachel at all?"

Santana takes notice of the way Marley stiffens at the mention of her name and leans into Quinn's side.

"No, I haven't," Quinn says sadly.

"And that's a good thing," Marley adds. "She doesn't deserve the time of day from Quinn."

"Yeah, for sure," Santana nods along even though she doesn't mean it. At least now, she knows that something is definitely up. "Quinn, can I talk to you alone upstairs?"

Marley narrows her eyes, "There's nothing Quinn has to say that I don't already know about."

If she didn't just get her nails done, Santana would've ripped her throat out right then. "Oh, I know that," she says sweetly before turning to Quinn. "I've just been having some...relationship troubles with Brittany lately. And I really think you could help me."

"Oh!" The blonde stands quickly. "Of course, San. Let's go."

Santana follows Quinn up the stairs. And she honestly can't help herself when she flashes her signature smirk at Marley. Yeah...that'll make the girl squirm while she's waiting.

Once in Quinn's room, the blonde closes the door and goes to sit down on the bed. "So, what's going on with Brittany?"

"Nothing. Her and I are great."

"But you said -"

"I know what I said. Now, what's going on with you and Marley?"

Quinn furrows her brow, "What are you talking about? Nothing is going on with me and Marley."

"Bullshit."

"Okay, you're only here for five minutes and already giving me crap?"

"Because I'm worried about you. Just the other day, you're crying to me over the phone because of Rachel, and now you're banging someone else. It's not like you. So what's going on?"

The blonde rubs her temples. "I swear, I'm not doing anything like that with Marley. I don't even like her like that."

"But does she know that?"

"Of course she does."

"You've actually told her those exact words?"

"She knows, Santana."

"She knows?"

"Yes! I mean -fuck. I'm still in love with Rachel."

"I know you are, Quinn. I just don't want things to blow up in your face. Anymore than they already have at least..."

"I'm sorry." Quinn places her chin in her palm and shakes her head. "I know you're just looking out for me. And I get that Marley being around so much is probably weird. I just don't want to be alone."

"There's nothing wrong with being alone. It would probably do you some good after everything that's happened. Just take some time to get yourself together."

Quinn nods. "It's just being away from Rachel...really sucks."

"I know it does. But it's like me and Brit told you over the phone, if you and her are meant to be together, then so help me god, you will be. When you're ready."

"I think maybe it is meant to be."

"I know it is."

The blonde smiles at her best friend. "Really? Now you're rooting for us?"

Santana smirks, "I guess Rachel grew on me. It was a little weird at first given the...circumstances. But I've seen how you are together. She looks at you like she'd do anything for you."

Quinn feels her heart soar at the thought.

"Stop grinning like an idiot," Santana nudges her.

She purses her lips, "Sorry."

"Yeah yeah...enough of this emotional shit. We need to have a girls night out. And Puck can come too I guess."

"When are you leaving?"

"Friday morning."

Quinn nods.

"And anyway," Santana stands. "I'm gonna get going before Abuela gets mad. Oh, and I'm going to the mall tomorrow to get some early Christmas shopping done. Do you wanna tag along? Around one?"

"I can't," Quinn shakes her head. "I have work until five."

"I'll come by when I'm done then. Is that cool?"

She smiles, "Of course."

The two girls stand and embrace in another hug. One that's not as suffocating for Santana.

"You'll be okay," the girl says softly as she pats Quinn's back. "Things with Rachel will get easier."

"I just love her so much."

"I'm sure she loves you too, Quinn."

The next day, Quinn heads home right after work and sees that Santana and Brittany were already there waiting for her.

"Just let yourself in," Quinn mumbles to them in greeting.

"You've never complained before," Santana quips.

"I'm so happy to see you, Quinn!" Brittany stands to pull Quinn into a hug.

Quinn smiles and squeezes her, "I missed you, Brittany."

Brittany pulls back and sits next to Santana. "We missed you too. Santana was crying a couple weeks ago because she missed you so much."

Quinn can't help but snicker while her best friend's face turns beet red.

Luckily, Santana is saved by the bell as a knock sounds at the front door. "I'll get it!" she says before quickly hopping off the couch and making a dash for it.

"Oh, hello Marley," she says dryly as she opens the door.

"Hey Santana," the girl replies with even less enthusiasm.

"Marley!" Brittany calls out from the living room.

"Brittany," Marley smiles. "It's so good to see you!"

After hugging the bubbly blonde, she turns to Quinn, "Is everything okay?"

"Of course. Santana was just telling me how much she missed me," she teases her best friend.

"Whatever," Santana glares. "But anyway, guess who I ran into at the mall."

Quinn frowns at her friend's smirk. She glances at Brittany who's sporting a similar expression. "Who?" she asks.

"A certain hot midget..."

Her eyes widen. "You ran into Rachel?"

Santana nods, "Yeah. We talked for a bit."

Quinn leans forward from her spot on the couch. "How did she look? Is she doing okay?"

Santana opens her mouth to respond but is cut off by more questions.

"What did you talk about? Did she say anything about me?"

"Chill out, Q-tip. Have some patience."

"Santana!"

"Fine! Holy fuck. I went into the Calvin Klein store and she was working. Ya happy?"

Quinn furrows her brow, "She works there now?"

Santana shrugs, "Yeah, I guess so."

"Did she quit Breadstix?"

"I don't know?"

"What did she say?"

"Hmm," Santana brings a finger up to her chin in mock contemplation. Also to make an impatient Quinn squirm just a little longer.

"Well?"

"All we really talked about was you. That was like...the first thing out of her mouth."

"What about me?"

"She just wanted to know how you were doing and if you were okay. You know, the same shit you're asking me."

Quinn suddenly feels comfort in knowing that Rachel is thinking about her too.

When Marley nudges her, she looks up only to watch the girl subtly shake her head in disapproval, but she ignores it. "Did she say anything else?"

Santana purses her lips. "She asked me if I thought there was still a chance for you two."

Quinn sucks in a breath of air. "What did you say to her?"

Her friend meets her eyes. "I said that I really do. And I might've said that I'm rooting for you," Santana blushes slightly.

"So she wants us to be together? She doesn't...hate me?"

Santana rolls her eyes, "Don't be a dumbass. Of course she wants to be with you."

"Should I go see her? Or do you think it's too soon?"

"I don't think that's a good idea," Marley speaks up suddenly. "I mean, it's only been a few weeks, right?"

Santana sighs. She really hates to agree with her...

"She's right, Quinn. When you try to force things before they're ready, then you just run into the same problems all over again. Trust me, I know. You just have to let the universe do its thing. When the time is right, you'll know it."