Quinn slammed her suitcase shut and sighed, trying desperately hard not to cry. She looked at her watch 6:09 am. Her flight left at 10. She hauled the suitcase down he stairs and out to the taxi that was waiting. She checked the text she'd received once more just to make sure it was right, just to make sure it was real. She climbed into the cab and the driver pulled away from the kerb. She gently rested her head on the window and hoped her mother wouldn't go downstairs earlier than normal on Saturday. Hoped she wouldn't read her note till the plane was taking off because Quinn knew she would never go through with it if her mother tried to stop her.

As she watched the sun slowly rise above the houses she marvelled at how fast her plans had snowballed. Ever since prom, the moment she'd come home the happiness she'd semi felt evaporated, she'd gone on the web and looked up flights out of Lima she could take soon. At first it hadn't been real but then she'd seen one that left today to Mitchell, South Dakota. It was perfect. A completely random town nowhere near Lima. She'd looked for property and found a place that was up for rent, all on the net, at a good price. Quinn wasn't short of money, her father had made sure of that. Her father had poured money into her account, thinking it could make up for last year. She'd managed to get a transfer without telling the school where she'd gone, which had been hard but she had managed.

The last part of her plan was the part she hadn't thought was going to work, in fact she had been sure she would be shot down instantly but to her surprise it had been heralded as a good idea. She had wanted to take Beth with her. She had proposed this to Shelby over the phone and instead of the line going dead Shelby had agreed. They had met up and Shelby had explained that she had started showing Beth pictures of her and Puck, telling her how they were her real parents. It had been a shock but Shelby had explained that she had adopted Beth to make up for giving away Rachel but it wasn't the same. She believed that Beth should be with her real mother. She knew Puck would be pissed off but honestly she couldn't care less.

He taxi pulled over at the given address and she found Shelby on the front steps holding Beth. By her feet was a car seat. She had a case of things for her. All the other stuff had been sent ahead, to the house. Quinn had always been amazed that she had managed to sent a lot of her stuff away without her mum noticing but then again her mother was pretty cool with Quinn avoiding her for several days and shutting herself away in her room.

They put the car seat in the back and fixed Beth in, she was fast asleep still. Shelby gave her a hug and wished her good luck in her new life, wherever she was going. Quinn promised, if Shelby wanted, to send pictures of her. Shelby said that she would really liked that and that she looked forward to seeing her growing up with her real mother. She told Quinn to stay brave and strong no matter what people may say. She told her that running away didn't make her weak. The two women embraced again and Shelby stood on the pavement and waved Quinn off with a single tear rolling down her cheek.

Beth woke up when they had checked in their bags. She was a very quiet girl and just dozed in her mothers arms, perfectly content. Quinn ignored all the looks the people were giving her, judging her. She couldn't care less. Beth only made a fuss when they went through security and they had to take off their shoes. She seemed quite attached to her little shoes and it took a couple of minutes and a hummed lullaby to calm her down, all the while people judged her but she felt satisfied when Beth stopped and allowed her to take her shoed off especially when a mother of 34 was trying unsuccessfully to get the shoes of her two year old son. At 10 o'clock the plane actually left on time. She settled back and prayed that her next life would be good.

Quinn's mother didn't notice the envelope on the table because she had knocked it off and under the surface. When she couldn't find her daughter she assumed she was spending the weekend with one of her friends from her singing club. So it was said singing club that were the first to discover Quinn was gone.

The glee club were sitting down in the choir room when Will came in all asking the same thing "Where's Quinn?" She'd seemed off since the prom but that was no surprise because her prom hadn't been the happiest. Then not a word over the weekend. Quinn was the most withdrawn of the club but they were still 'friends', well not Rachel but the rest definitely. However they were all worrying about why she hadn't come to school on Monday and why she wasn't answering her phone.

When Mr Schue came through the door there was an explosion of questions.

"Do you know where Quinn is?"

"As anything happened to her?"

"Is she alright?"

"Is she pregnant, again?"

"Is this because of Prom?"

Mr Schue held up his hands to stem the flow of questions. In his right hand was an envelope.

"I don't know where Quinn is?" There was a sigh of disappointment from the club. "But I do have this letter from her." Everyone straightened up. "I haven't read it just the note that came with it. She wanted me to read it to all of you. I think she's written something to you all." There was a silence. Then Kurt said

"She's gone hasn't she."

"It would seem so." Another long silence. Finn could feel his eyes stinging with tears.

"Could you read it then"

"Of course." He opened the envelope and opened out the letter.