Phantom (1/3)
Title: Phantom (1/3)
Rating: PG
Length: 2,000+ on this one
Summary: Ghosts and phantoms past and present.
Note: I intended to head in one direction when I started this, and it took a completely different turn. Hope you like it!
The summer air was heavy and sweet with the smell of wheatgrass and bodies and cheap beer. Everyone was dancing, celebrating the end of summer and the beginning of something new. Most of them would be heading to college in the next week, and this night felt especially bittersweet. Rachel would be leaving for New York the next day, flying out to chase her dreams at NYU. Quinn was heading north to Wesleyan, ready to start fresh in a new place. She promised herself that she would leave Lima and never look back.
Neither girl assumed that they would maintain contact once they both moved out of Lima. Their quiet friendship allowed them a warm comfort in each other’s presence, but they weren’t particularly close. Quinn always felt strongly towards Rachel, whether those feelings were negative or positive, but it seemed like there was always something that got in the way of them actually being good friends. Still, both girls managed to feel a great sense of calm around each other, completely comfortable in the silence between them.
Looking around the party at her friends, Quinn was struck with an overwhelming nostalgia. She was excited to have the opportunity to create a new life for herself away from Ohio, but these were the people who had come to be her family in the past few years and she would miss them terribly. Not wanting to bring anyone down, she decided to take a walk by herself.
The sounds of the party started to fade as Quinn walked through the tall grass, away from the house. She hummed along to the sound of bugs and owls and the light breeze rustling the leaves above her. The moon was bright enough that she could make out the path in front of her. She stopped in a small clearing, closing her eyes to let the sounds around her flood her senses. She was filled with nervous excitement, nostalgic sadness, and an infinite sense of possibility for the world before her. And then there it was - the silent calm that made her feel safer than anything else.
Quinn knew she was there before she even opened her eyes. In some strange way, she could sense her. She opened her eyes.
Rachel was standing in front of Quinn, quietly smiling at the taller girl. She reached out her hand to Quinn, who delicately laced their fingers.
“Dance with me.”
Quinn nodded once, gently pulling Rachel closer to her. They swayed together for a few moments, keeping time with their heartbeats, listening to the hum of crickets and the faint whispers of the party behind them. Rachel looked up at Quinn slowly, meeting hazel eyes. Time stopped. The rest of the world fell away. Their lips met gently, half way between them. They pulled back quietly, looking at each other with sad acceptance. There was no tension, no huge revelation- just a shared understanding of what was always unsaid between them, although neither realized it until then. Quinn whispered into the night air.
“This feels like a dream.”
The two girls walked back to the party, hand in hand, giving each other one last glance that seemed to be an unspoken goodbye.
The next day, Quinn finished packing her belongings. She pulled the last photograph off of her corkboard. It was a picture of the original glee club from sophomore year, taken right after they won sectionals. She scanned the faces of her teammates, some she knew would be lifelong friends, and some she would probably never see again. Her eyes stopped at Rachel. She exhaled slowly, calmly, and felt her chest tighten. She gently placed the photograph on top of her clothes and closed the zipper on her last bag.
Rachel sat on the plane, looking out of the window at the skyline of her new city. She wondered what parts of herself were going to change, and how much. She wondered what she would take with her and what she would leave behind.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Six months later Rachel spent an afternoon at the Museum of Modern Art. She was in love with her new city, her new life, and spent as much time as possible immersed in the arts. She had never felt so strongly about a place as she did about New York. The initial excitement never wore off. By this point her synapses were used to firing at double speed. She almost never thought about Lima, but when she did she was always reminded of Quinn’s face in the moonlight, on an evening that she wasn’t sure actually happened.
After spending a few hours in the museum, she emerged from the building onto the busy sidewalk to make her way home. Her mind was racing, thinking about Marina Abramovic and William Kentridge and Irving Penn. Her thoughts cleared when she caught sight of the leggy blonde standing on 53rd street, hailing a cab. Rachel’s breath hitched. The world continued to move in slow motion as Rachel watched the woman climb into the taxi. Rachel was running towards the curb as the yellow door closed and the blonde turned to look at her through the window. The world resumed its normal speed as she realized that the woman was a complete stranger.
She took a moment to regain her senses before she joined the surge of people walking towards the subway.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another year passed quickly. Quinn loved college life. She was pushed to grow up, intellectually and emotionally, and was happy to create her own life away from Lima. She spent her summer volunteering and taking classes, and was on track to graduate a semester early. She kept in touch with Finn and Santana, and Brittany by proxy, and intermittently heard about what the rest of her high school friends were up to. Mostly she succeeded in leaving Ohio behind her, and she was ok with that.
Her life was extremely busy, and she was happy in the chaos. It had been months since she thought of Rachel Berry - she was honestly too caught up in the swirl of life around her to get nostalgic or reflective about high school, or try to figure out what quietly transpired between them.
Spring semester sophomore year she walked into her Tues/Thurs Classical Lit class, distractedly typing out an email on her iPhone to the rest of the debate team as she dropped into an empty desk towards the back of the room. She pressed send and looked up around the classroom.
The periphery became an instant blur and her breathing slowed as she noticed the brunette two rows in front of her. Tanned legs, short skirt, wavy hair. Quinn could hear her heartbeat rushing through her ears, as she felt a familiar and all-encompassing calm. She opened her mouth to speak as the brunette turned.
“Hi, I’m Alex. Can I borrow a pen? Mine just died.”
Quinn exhaled and laughed at herself for being so illogical. Of course it wasn’t Rachel.
“Ummm, yeah sure.” She lowered her head to hide the blush that was creeping across her cheeks, pulled an extra pen out of her bad, and handed it to the girl. “I’m Quinn, by the way.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Quinn.”
The girl’s smile was absolutely luminous, entirely charming and more than a little reminiscent of a certain brunette Quinn used to know.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That summer Rachel went back to Lima for a week in between rehearsals for the off-off-Broadway show she snagged a minor part in. She hadn’t been back in a while, kept in New York by numerous auditions and minor acting roles. Her fathers didn’t mind visiting the city for holidays and special occasions, and Manhattan quickly became familiar ground for the family.
Walking down Main Street for the first time in over a year, a flash of blonde caught Rachel’s eye. She turned and noticed Quinn’s parents standing at the door of a restaurant, a younger blonde next to them. Rachel stopped in her tracks. She felt that familiar warmth that started in her stomach and extended to her fingertips.
The blonde turned and Rachel inhaled sharply. It was Sarah, Quinn’s older sister.
“Right,” Rachel said to herself. She shook off the feeling and continued back to her car.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Hey!” Quinn smiled broadly as she answered her phone, pulling off her winter hat as she walked inside from the February snowstorm.
“So I was stalking your Facebook since I never hear from you,” Santana’s slightly irritated tone had a hint of laughter to it.
“Yeah, sorry San. I just get so caught up in all the shit I’m doing at school. But it doesn’t mean I don’t miss you,” Quinn responded.
“I’m not trying to guilt trip you, Q. I just had a quick question.”
Quinn’s brows scrunched together. “Uh, ok. Shoot.”
“How long have you been banging Rachel Berry’s doppelganger?”
Santana could barely contain her laughter. Quinn blushed.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, S.” Quinn managed to get out shakily.
“Like hell, Q. There are like 10,000 pictures tagged of the two of you and you’re staring at her like she’s a prime piece of steak in each one.”
“I’m a vegetarian, San.”
Santana paused. Quinn felt momentarily relieved.
“But you aren’t denying it.”
Fuck.
Quinn stopped in front of the door of her room and gave a dramatic sigh.
“Ok. Her name is Alex. We met in English class last semester, became close over the summer doing Habitat for Humanity, and started dating about a month ago.”
“And…”
“And nothing, San! She’s nothing like Rachel Berry. She doesn’t wear argyle, she doesn’t talk incessantly, and she doesn’t have an overpowering personality.”
“But it looks like she has just about everything else.”
Santana really couldn’t hold back her laughter any longer. Quinn opened her bedroom door and quietly greeted Alex, who was reading in Quinn’s bed. Santana’s laugher tapered off.
“You’ll meet her when we come out there for spring break, S.” Alex smiled at Quinn.
“So you’re bringing her to LA for the spring break trip? How are you going to get here, a UHaul?!?” She started laughing all over again. Quinn rolled her eyes. “Hey, another question. When you lick her treasure trail do you think about Treasure Trail?”
Quinn scoffed.
“Just say hi to Britt for me. I’ll give you a call in a few days.”
“Love you, Q. Say hi to The Return of Stubbles.”
Quinn hung up as Santana continued laughing.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rachel loved spring in New York. To be fair, Rachel loved all of the seasons in New York. But spring was her favorite. A theater troupe at NYU was putting on a revamped production of Wicked and Rachel was sitting outside of the auditorium, waiting to begin her call-back audition. She was all nerves. Sure, she had some experience as a working actress. She won minimal roles in various small productions, and she had worked with a few minor Broadway celebrities, but she was still nervous each time she auditioned for a part she really wanted. She had wanted to play Elphaba since she was old enough to know what Wicked was.
A muscular guy in his mid twenties poked his head out of the theater door and called Rachel’s name. She stood up, brushed off her skirt, pushed her shoulders back, and walked up to the stage full of confidence. She breezed through Defying Gravity, the same way she had for years, and smiled as Daniel, the director, congratulated her on landing the role. He invited her to a party that night so she could meet the woman who would be playing opposite her as Glinda. Rachel, of course, accepted the invitation.
Rachel knocked on the apartment door and was warmly greeted by Daniel. He was telling a story about someone else’s audition as he walked her out onto the sizeable patio. Rachel stopped listening the moment she saw her.
The blonde was leaning against the railing, laughing with the muscular man Rachel recognized from auditions. She was absolutely breathtaking. Rachel’s eyes traveled from the woman’s impossibly long legs to the hem of her flattering black dress to her accentuated curves and the dip of her back, up to her toned arms and broad shoulders and the delicate slope of her neck. She turned to look at Rachel and Daniel as they approached, and deep hazel eyes met brown.
“Glinda, this is Elphaba. Elphaba, meet Glinda.” Daniel was smiling.
At some point Rachel must have reached out to the woman because she looked down and they were shaking hands. Rachel felt a spark running through her as the two touched.
Daniel stepped away to talk with the other man.
“You can just call me Emily.” She said softly, eyes sparkling as she looked at Rachel.
“Rachel. Rachel Berry.”
Rachel felt her heart jump into her throat. The way the blonde’s lips curled into a smile vaguely reminded her of someone she used to know.
“It’s definitely a pleasure to meet you, Rachel.”
Was she flirting? Was she just being nice? There was only one way to find out.
“The pleasure,” Rachel smirked slowly, “is most certainly mine.”
Rachel could have sworn that she felt the blonde shiver.
Rating: PG
Length: 2,000+ on this one
Summary: Ghosts and phantoms past and present.
Note: I intended to head in one direction when I started this, and it took a completely different turn. Hope you like it!
The summer air was heavy and sweet with the smell of wheatgrass and bodies and cheap beer. Everyone was dancing, celebrating the end of summer and the beginning of something new. Most of them would be heading to college in the next week, and this night felt especially bittersweet. Rachel would be leaving for New York the next day, flying out to chase her dreams at NYU. Quinn was heading north to Wesleyan, ready to start fresh in a new place. She promised herself that she would leave Lima and never look back.
Neither girl assumed that they would maintain contact once they both moved out of Lima. Their quiet friendship allowed them a warm comfort in each other’s presence, but they weren’t particularly close. Quinn always felt strongly towards Rachel, whether those feelings were negative or positive, but it seemed like there was always something that got in the way of them actually being good friends. Still, both girls managed to feel a great sense of calm around each other, completely comfortable in the silence between them.
Looking around the party at her friends, Quinn was struck with an overwhelming nostalgia. She was excited to have the opportunity to create a new life for herself away from Ohio, but these were the people who had come to be her family in the past few years and she would miss them terribly. Not wanting to bring anyone down, she decided to take a walk by herself.
The sounds of the party started to fade as Quinn walked through the tall grass, away from the house. She hummed along to the sound of bugs and owls and the light breeze rustling the leaves above her. The moon was bright enough that she could make out the path in front of her. She stopped in a small clearing, closing her eyes to let the sounds around her flood her senses. She was filled with nervous excitement, nostalgic sadness, and an infinite sense of possibility for the world before her. And then there it was - the silent calm that made her feel safer than anything else.
Quinn knew she was there before she even opened her eyes. In some strange way, she could sense her. She opened her eyes.
Rachel was standing in front of Quinn, quietly smiling at the taller girl. She reached out her hand to Quinn, who delicately laced their fingers.
“Dance with me.”
Quinn nodded once, gently pulling Rachel closer to her. They swayed together for a few moments, keeping time with their heartbeats, listening to the hum of crickets and the faint whispers of the party behind them. Rachel looked up at Quinn slowly, meeting hazel eyes. Time stopped. The rest of the world fell away. Their lips met gently, half way between them. They pulled back quietly, looking at each other with sad acceptance. There was no tension, no huge revelation- just a shared understanding of what was always unsaid between them, although neither realized it until then. Quinn whispered into the night air.
“This feels like a dream.”
The two girls walked back to the party, hand in hand, giving each other one last glance that seemed to be an unspoken goodbye.
The next day, Quinn finished packing her belongings. She pulled the last photograph off of her corkboard. It was a picture of the original glee club from sophomore year, taken right after they won sectionals. She scanned the faces of her teammates, some she knew would be lifelong friends, and some she would probably never see again. Her eyes stopped at Rachel. She exhaled slowly, calmly, and felt her chest tighten. She gently placed the photograph on top of her clothes and closed the zipper on her last bag.
Rachel sat on the plane, looking out of the window at the skyline of her new city. She wondered what parts of herself were going to change, and how much. She wondered what she would take with her and what she would leave behind.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Six months later Rachel spent an afternoon at the Museum of Modern Art. She was in love with her new city, her new life, and spent as much time as possible immersed in the arts. She had never felt so strongly about a place as she did about New York. The initial excitement never wore off. By this point her synapses were used to firing at double speed. She almost never thought about Lima, but when she did she was always reminded of Quinn’s face in the moonlight, on an evening that she wasn’t sure actually happened.
After spending a few hours in the museum, she emerged from the building onto the busy sidewalk to make her way home. Her mind was racing, thinking about Marina Abramovic and William Kentridge and Irving Penn. Her thoughts cleared when she caught sight of the leggy blonde standing on 53rd street, hailing a cab. Rachel’s breath hitched. The world continued to move in slow motion as Rachel watched the woman climb into the taxi. Rachel was running towards the curb as the yellow door closed and the blonde turned to look at her through the window. The world resumed its normal speed as she realized that the woman was a complete stranger.
She took a moment to regain her senses before she joined the surge of people walking towards the subway.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another year passed quickly. Quinn loved college life. She was pushed to grow up, intellectually and emotionally, and was happy to create her own life away from Lima. She spent her summer volunteering and taking classes, and was on track to graduate a semester early. She kept in touch with Finn and Santana, and Brittany by proxy, and intermittently heard about what the rest of her high school friends were up to. Mostly she succeeded in leaving Ohio behind her, and she was ok with that.
Her life was extremely busy, and she was happy in the chaos. It had been months since she thought of Rachel Berry - she was honestly too caught up in the swirl of life around her to get nostalgic or reflective about high school, or try to figure out what quietly transpired between them.
Spring semester sophomore year she walked into her Tues/Thurs Classical Lit class, distractedly typing out an email on her iPhone to the rest of the debate team as she dropped into an empty desk towards the back of the room. She pressed send and looked up around the classroom.
The periphery became an instant blur and her breathing slowed as she noticed the brunette two rows in front of her. Tanned legs, short skirt, wavy hair. Quinn could hear her heartbeat rushing through her ears, as she felt a familiar and all-encompassing calm. She opened her mouth to speak as the brunette turned.
“Hi, I’m Alex. Can I borrow a pen? Mine just died.”
Quinn exhaled and laughed at herself for being so illogical. Of course it wasn’t Rachel.
“Ummm, yeah sure.” She lowered her head to hide the blush that was creeping across her cheeks, pulled an extra pen out of her bad, and handed it to the girl. “I’m Quinn, by the way.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Quinn.”
The girl’s smile was absolutely luminous, entirely charming and more than a little reminiscent of a certain brunette Quinn used to know.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That summer Rachel went back to Lima for a week in between rehearsals for the off-off-Broadway show she snagged a minor part in. She hadn’t been back in a while, kept in New York by numerous auditions and minor acting roles. Her fathers didn’t mind visiting the city for holidays and special occasions, and Manhattan quickly became familiar ground for the family.
Walking down Main Street for the first time in over a year, a flash of blonde caught Rachel’s eye. She turned and noticed Quinn’s parents standing at the door of a restaurant, a younger blonde next to them. Rachel stopped in her tracks. She felt that familiar warmth that started in her stomach and extended to her fingertips.
The blonde turned and Rachel inhaled sharply. It was Sarah, Quinn’s older sister.
“Right,” Rachel said to herself. She shook off the feeling and continued back to her car.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Hey!” Quinn smiled broadly as she answered her phone, pulling off her winter hat as she walked inside from the February snowstorm.
“So I was stalking your Facebook since I never hear from you,” Santana’s slightly irritated tone had a hint of laughter to it.
“Yeah, sorry San. I just get so caught up in all the shit I’m doing at school. But it doesn’t mean I don’t miss you,” Quinn responded.
“I’m not trying to guilt trip you, Q. I just had a quick question.”
Quinn’s brows scrunched together. “Uh, ok. Shoot.”
“How long have you been banging Rachel Berry’s doppelganger?”
Santana could barely contain her laughter. Quinn blushed.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, S.” Quinn managed to get out shakily.
“Like hell, Q. There are like 10,000 pictures tagged of the two of you and you’re staring at her like she’s a prime piece of steak in each one.”
“I’m a vegetarian, San.”
Santana paused. Quinn felt momentarily relieved.
“But you aren’t denying it.”
Fuck.
Quinn stopped in front of the door of her room and gave a dramatic sigh.
“Ok. Her name is Alex. We met in English class last semester, became close over the summer doing Habitat for Humanity, and started dating about a month ago.”
“And…”
“And nothing, San! She’s nothing like Rachel Berry. She doesn’t wear argyle, she doesn’t talk incessantly, and she doesn’t have an overpowering personality.”
“But it looks like she has just about everything else.”
Santana really couldn’t hold back her laughter any longer. Quinn opened her bedroom door and quietly greeted Alex, who was reading in Quinn’s bed. Santana’s laugher tapered off.
“You’ll meet her when we come out there for spring break, S.” Alex smiled at Quinn.
“So you’re bringing her to LA for the spring break trip? How are you going to get here, a UHaul?!?” She started laughing all over again. Quinn rolled her eyes. “Hey, another question. When you lick her treasure trail do you think about Treasure Trail?”
Quinn scoffed.
“Just say hi to Britt for me. I’ll give you a call in a few days.”
“Love you, Q. Say hi to The Return of Stubbles.”
Quinn hung up as Santana continued laughing.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rachel loved spring in New York. To be fair, Rachel loved all of the seasons in New York. But spring was her favorite. A theater troupe at NYU was putting on a revamped production of Wicked and Rachel was sitting outside of the auditorium, waiting to begin her call-back audition. She was all nerves. Sure, she had some experience as a working actress. She won minimal roles in various small productions, and she had worked with a few minor Broadway celebrities, but she was still nervous each time she auditioned for a part she really wanted. She had wanted to play Elphaba since she was old enough to know what Wicked was.
A muscular guy in his mid twenties poked his head out of the theater door and called Rachel’s name. She stood up, brushed off her skirt, pushed her shoulders back, and walked up to the stage full of confidence. She breezed through Defying Gravity, the same way she had for years, and smiled as Daniel, the director, congratulated her on landing the role. He invited her to a party that night so she could meet the woman who would be playing opposite her as Glinda. Rachel, of course, accepted the invitation.
Rachel knocked on the apartment door and was warmly greeted by Daniel. He was telling a story about someone else’s audition as he walked her out onto the sizeable patio. Rachel stopped listening the moment she saw her.
The blonde was leaning against the railing, laughing with the muscular man Rachel recognized from auditions. She was absolutely breathtaking. Rachel’s eyes traveled from the woman’s impossibly long legs to the hem of her flattering black dress to her accentuated curves and the dip of her back, up to her toned arms and broad shoulders and the delicate slope of her neck. She turned to look at Rachel and Daniel as they approached, and deep hazel eyes met brown.
“Glinda, this is Elphaba. Elphaba, meet Glinda.” Daniel was smiling.
At some point Rachel must have reached out to the woman because she looked down and they were shaking hands. Rachel felt a spark running through her as the two touched.
Daniel stepped away to talk with the other man.
“You can just call me Emily.” She said softly, eyes sparkling as she looked at Rachel.
“Rachel. Rachel Berry.”
Rachel felt her heart jump into her throat. The way the blonde’s lips curled into a smile vaguely reminded her of someone she used to know.
“It’s definitely a pleasure to meet you, Rachel.”
Was she flirting? Was she just being nice? There was only one way to find out.
“The pleasure,” Rachel smirked slowly, “is most certainly mine.”
Rachel could have sworn that she felt the blonde shiver.