an - I know you can't get trains from Lima to Dayton, but just go with it.

Quinn's hated trains for as long as she can remember, but honestly, she has no idea why.

She remembers travelling to watch the Bengals play by train aged six, her cardigan clad arms wrapped tightly around Grandpa Fabray's chubby waist, Frannie smirking at her from the seat opposite.
(She can also remember her father's disapproving face as he mutters under his breath, something about "pathetic Lucy".)

When two of the girls from Cheerios, Santana and Brittany, ask her to go shopping with them in freshman year she's totally up for it – when they tell her to meet them at Lima train stations so they can go to the mall in Dayton, she quickly comes up with an excuse to bail on the shopping trip.
("I totally forgot – my mom needs me to help move my great-aunt into a retirement home this weekend; maybe next time?")
(They don't seem to care, they shrug and walk away, pinkies linked and giggling privately to each other.)

So, when she finds herself (not so) casually googling the methods of transport between New Haven and New York, she completely forgets about her fear when she (not so) absent-mindedly pays $150 for two metro-north passes.

(For leisurely visits to the city and nothing else.)
(Really, who is she kidding?)

When news gets around that Rachel choked on her NYADA audition she just about has a heart attack – she did not spend one hundred and fifty dollars on damn train tickets for her plan to backfire so early.
But then she realizes that this is Rachel Berry, she sings like a dream and Quinn knows that the girl will get to New York, one way or another.

In an attempt to lift Rachel's spirits, she gives her one of the passes a week before graduation, before Rachel even knows if she got into NYADA.

So when she's at home getting ready for the glee club graduation party at the Hummel-Hudson's the evening after graduation and she hears her mom answering the front door to the bubbly sound of "Hello, Mrs. Fabray! Is Quinn almost ready?" her heart beats ten times faster – Rachel's excitement could only mean one thing. Rachel got into NYADA. Rachel's going to New York.
(Of course, it may have something to do with her second attempt at getting married to Finn in three days, but Quinn would much rather forget about that.)

On the car ride to Kurt and Finn's house, she's sitting in the front passenger seat of Rachel's silver Chevy, with Santana and Brittany leaned up close together in the backseat beside Mercedes, who's complaining to them about how disgustingly adorable they are. Rachel turns down the radio and smiles broadly as she announces "I got into NYADA!" Brittany woops and fist bumps as Santana and Mercedes smile and congratulate Rachel happily and Mercedes tells Rachel how proud of her she is. Quinn reaches over the console and squeezes Rachel's right hand, who then turns to her quickly and smiles, "We can definitely use those metro-north passes now!"
(-and that's when it hits her. She's afraid of trains.)

She's never used Skype more than in her first week of college – more often than not she's online to a drunk, hysterical Santana at 1am crying over her "fucking dumbass mistake" to leave Brittany back in Lima.

When she's not attempting to console her intoxicated best friend, she's attempting to console a distraught Rachel, whose times at NYADA is the complete opposite to what she'd previously expected. According to Rachel, her talents are being harshly demeaned by the professors there, something Quinn finds appalling – have they not heard the girl sing?

She decides to make use of her metro-north pass one Friday in September and shoves her fear to the back of her mind, dragging her faded Cheerios duffle bag onto the platform and waits for her train to arrive.

As soon as the train pulls into the platform she's immediately reminded of why she's afraid of them – the screeching sound of the brakes as the train falls to a halt, the questionable middle aged men, and sometimes she wishes that she hadn't been so up for watching Final Destination 3 at Brittany's 15thbirthday slumber party, because she's knows exactly how that train journey went down.

Gripping tightly to the red strap of her bag, she steps into one of the carriages and finds a seat more or less secluded from the other passengers and pulls out her cell phone.

on the train now, see you soon!
(16:18pm)
—-

She's about to read Rachel's reply when she's lurched forward as the train starts and she swears her heart stops for a few seconds. Gripping even tighter to the strap, she calculates in her head that this was going to be a long journey.

When Quinn steps off the train two and a half hours later, Rachel's waiting for her clad in a red dress and black tights, her arms outstretched to a very much shaken up Quinn. Rachel laughs warmly at Quinn's state and pulls away to look into hazel eyes, "Who knew, Quinn Fabray is petrified of trains," she giggles jokingly and Quinn rolls her eyes, linking her arm with Rachel's.

They take a cab from the train station to Rachel's dorm and Rachel takes the whole fifteen minute journey telling Quinn about how much college is sucking – her dance teacher is out to get her, her roommate is unsociable and a sex-addict – and how the only good thing so far is that one of the upperclassmen is becoming friendly with her and he's extremely cute.
(Quinn's not sure why she freezes up at the mention of the guy.)

On reaching Rachel's building, Quinn insists that she pay for the cab ride and Rachel takes her hand and leads her to the lobby and into an elevator. Quinn waits patiently beside Rachel, their hands still linked, until the elevator dings at Rachel's floor and the two continue to her dorm.

In Quinn's opinion the weekend passes too quickly and before she knows it it's Sunday evening and she has to go home to New Haven. At the train station in New York, Rachel squeezes her in a hug and pulls away to quickly kiss the blonde on the cheek before pushing her lightly towards the train and stepping back, smiling warmly. Quinn turns to face the brunette and thanks her, stopping for a moment when they lock eyes and then taking a seat on the train. She waves back at an excitedly waving Rachel through the window, raising her hand to the tingling sensation where Rachel kissed her cheek and holding it there.

She'd gotten really good at this train thing by her third year of college. She skips onto the metro-north train now, a hint of excitement in her step and sits in the seat she's sat in during every uncountable journey to New York, unlocking her phone and sending the "On my way!" text like clockwork. She slips in her earbuds and listens to music as she replies to Rachel's text messages, almost certain she's already well past her monthly allowance.

Two and a half hours later she almost leaps off the train and into Rachel's arms, gripping tightly to the brunette's yellow pea-coat and pulling away to straighten Rachel's woolen hat before leaning in to kiss her hard and long on the lips. Rachel giggles and laces their cold fingers together as they make their way through the chilly November air and towards Rachel's apartment, now only a five minute walk from the station.

Quinn is one- hundred percent certain she made the right choice to not so absent-mindedly pay one hundred and fifty dollars on damn train tickets, just like she's one-hundred percent certain she's head over heels in love with Rachel Berry.