Island Bonding

Morning came and, luckily, everyone slept soundly through the night. The fire had kept going and everyone was re-energised and ready to start a new day. Well, as energised as you could be in their situation. When everyone was awake, the glee club sat around the fire in a circle to eat their breakfast of coconuts.

There was a mutual agreement that there should be set duties and a weekly-changing rota set around them. After a bit of discussion, it was decided that there would be three jobs. One of which - fire and sleepspace - would be slightly easier than the other two so that, should people need it, they could have time to relax. If they didn’t need that, they could help with those on the on food and water tasks as they were the most important and most challenging.

The groups were decided through pulling sticks. The people who pulled the shortest sticks got water, the longest got food, and the medium length sticks got fire and sleepspace. It worked out so that Quinn, Rachel, Puck and Sam were on food first; Kurt, Santana and Brittany were on water; Finn, Mike, Tina and Mercedes were on fire and sleepspace. The latter group split it so that Mercedes was on the fire and the other three worked on their sleeping space and shelter.

For the rest of the day, people split into their groups and decided on plans for their part of the rota.

Those on food decided it was best to split in half so that they’d get both meat and vegetation for food. Sam and Puck were quick to call shotgun on hunting. They high fived and set off to set some traps and to see if they could catch anything with their bare hands. That left Rachel and Quinn forced together.

Initially, the both of them winced slightly. They were sure it would be nothing short of awkward. Then, the pair of them realised that it most likely wouldn’t. At school? Most definitely. But on the island? The probability was slight. There was no-one else around who would force them to keep up the images they held at school. Quinn could be nice to Rachel - the brunette knew Quinn had the ability. It was just a matter of whether or not she wanted to carry it out.

“We’re on the plants, then.” Quinn attempted to start a conversation.

“Looks like it.” Rachel started walking up the beach towards the trees. “Let’s start with what’s on the floor.”

And so the girls began collecting all the coconuts they could find on the floor in silence. It was better to eat them first before they rotted.

“I think we’ve got enough!” Rachel shouted as she added a coconut to the pile. They now had a pile of twenty or so. “Let’s take them back to camp and check if they’re fresh enough and we can be in the shade.”

The next ten minutes were spent in silence, checking the coconuts over to check if they were ripe and suitable to eat. That was done by shaking it by the ear to check they could hear some water, giving it an overall check for any cracks or mould. If needed, it was smelt to detect any mould or tapped to see if it was shallow enough. Those that were useless were thrown to the side to be cut and used as bowls, and those that were edible were put in another pile just in front of them. In that pile was a mix of fully ripe coconuts, along with a few which were a few months short of ripe. They’d still be fine to eat but the meat inside would just be a bit softer.

“Hey, Berry?” Quinn said.

Rachel resisted the urge to roll her eyes. So she was no longer referred to by her first name. It had been fun while it lasted. At least Quinn hadn’t returned to her cruel nicknames. Yet. “Yes, Quinn?”

“Should we try to get down a coconut that isn’t ripe? It’ll have water in it and I think coconut water is supposed to be full of nutrients.” The blonde suggested. “I’m not sure how we’d get one down though.” She pushed her glasses up her nose and mashed her lips together in thought.

Rachel nodded enthusiastically. “Great plan.” She hopped onto her feet and motioned with her head for Quinn to follow her.

“It’s all well and good you agreeing to get a coconut, but we still don’t have a way to get them down.” Quinn sighed, annoyed.

“How good is your hand-eye co-ordination?” Rachel asked.

Quinn raised her eyebrow. “Pretty good. I used to play softball with San and Britts in summer.” She smirked at the memory of their dream team. They’d won every game they played together. “Are you wanting to throw things at them until one falls?”

Rachel shook her head. “Are you any good at catching?”

This time Quinn’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. She mashed her lips together again, trying to work out where Rachel was going with that.

“I’ll throw it to you.” The brunette explained.

Quinn snorted.

Rachel huffed indignantly and put her hands on her hips. “I am perfectly capable, Quinn.”

The blonde laughed. “Yeah and I’m the president. Come on, Berry. You can’t be thinking of reaching it from down here. No-one’s tall enough for that - least of all you. There’s no way you’re climbing either. I doubt your ability and even if you could climb, your nose would get in the way of you getting anywhere.”

Rachel winced. Maybe Quinn hadn’t changed. Yesterday’s Quinn was kind and seemed like a dream compared to how she was at that moment and how she was normally.

There was nothing that pleased Rachel more than proving people wrong and so she was going to do just that. Instead of retaliating or commenting on Quinn’s insult, Rachel just turned her back to Quinn to face the tree. She took a few steps until she was right up against it and wrapped her arms and legs around the trunk as best she could. And with that, she scaled the tree. In no time at all, she reached the top. “Ready to catch it?” She called down to Quinn.

Quinn nodded yes, amazed not only that Rachel had managed to climb the tree, but also the speed at which she scaled it. The cheerleader held her arms out and caught the falling coconut. She thanked god she hadn’t dropped it. Quinn could think of nothing more embarrassing than having butterfingers just after Rachel had scaled a whole tree. She put it on the floor, caught another two, and then watched as Rachel descended the tree.

At about seven foot from the bottom, Rachel jumped and landed in a crouch. As she stood up, she brushed the sand off her hands by rubbing them together. “What was it you were saying, Quinn?” She asked with a smirk before walking past her back to camp.

Quinn followed behind, still slightly in shock. Her mouth was opening and closing in search of a solution, looking a little like a goldfish. Picking up to a jog, she managed to catch Rachel up. “Where did you learn that?!” She demanded. Not in a cruel manner but rather asking as if she couldn’t believe her eyes.

“As I’ve said before, my fathers saw childhood sports and other activities as very important things. Gymnastics was one of my best. It helped with my dancing. Until my dancing and singing took over everything anyway.” She stopped suddenly, making Quinn stumble in the sand. “So it was pretty easy, despite my nose.” Rachel walked on, watching what Quinn did in her peripheral vision. Quinn had no image to uphold when it was just the two of them. Rachel was curious if she would let it drop or not.

“Sorry.” Quinn murmured incoherently.

“I’m sorry, what was that?” Rachel asked, perfectly aware of what Quinn had said.

“You heard me, Rachel.” Quinn grumbled.

Rachel grinned. Her name was back. Maybe she had to earn it. If that was the case, she was up to the challenge. “Lunch time?” She offered.

“Lunch time.” Quinn nodded back and the two shared a coconut between them and drank some of their water, making sure they saved some for later if they desperately needed it.

A few moments after they’d finished, Quinn turned to Rachel. “I hate to suggest this, but I know what the boys are like. Would you be okay going fishing? I know you don’t agree with it but the boys’ll just be out setting traps that probably won’t catch anything.”

Rachel hummed in thought and tilted her head to the side. “While I do not agree with this in any way, I care enough for my peers’ lives. So I will go fishing with you but I refuse to do any of the killing.”

A shiver ran down Quinn’s back. She’d forgotten the killing part. She’d have to do that quickly. “Let’s get these rods set up.”

Their fishing rods were incredibly basic. They’d found two long sticks, tied thin rope around them in a way that they wouldn’t fall off, and tied the hooks to the other end of the line. For bait they’d found a rotting log covered in bugs - they’d, rather squeamishly, caught and crushed some. A plastic bag was also picked up from the beach so that they had a place to put any fish if they caught them.

Now, they needed to decide on the best place to go fishing.

They agreed to fish off the rocks. There was a small outcrop at the left side of the beach as you looked to the sea. If you didn’t quite go all the way to the end, there was a sheltered area thriving with fish. The only issue was whether any would bite or not.

They didn’t.

Not for the first hour and a half. Being honest, both the girls were pretty glad they hadn’t caught any. They wanted to bring back food for their friends, of course, but that didn’t stop their feeling of relief when they spent so long without having to kill anything.

Then Rachel felt a tug at her rod. At first she thought she’d imagined it so stayed as she was. Next thing she knew, she was yanked forward.

Rachel’s scream caught Quinn’s attention and the blonde’s head whipped around to check if Rachel was alright. She was. But the tiny girl was struggling to keep a hold on her rod. “Don’t fall in!” Quinn exclaimed, rushing to help and grabbing the rod to add some strength.

Between the two of them, they managed to work something out. Stood side to side, it wasn’t really working. Quinn noticed and, focused on catching the fish, moved behind Rachel so her front was against the brunette’s back with her arms wrapped around Rachel to hold the rod. She set her feet wide, creating a larger base to hopefully keep them more stable. “Step back your right foot back with me in three.” She gritted through her teeth. “One. Two. Three.”

Their feet moved back in unison.

“Okay. Well done.” Quinn praised. “Now after another countdown we’ll move our left foot then right foot.”

“Okay.” Rachel nodded, breathless. She had no idea what could be on the end of the rod. She hoped to god that it was worth it.

“Three two one. Left.” One step back. “Right.” Two steps back. “Left.” Three steps back. “Okay. We don’t want to break the line.” Quinn paused as they caught their breath. “We need to do one big pull. After three.” She felt Rachel nod. “One, two, three.”

They tugged.

The rope snapped.

They tumbled.

Quinn landed with a thud, Rachel on top of her.

Immediately, Rachel rolled off the blonde and scrambled to her feet. “Oh my god, are you okay?!” She exclaimed.

“Yeah, you weigh nothing, hobbit.” Quinn waved Rachel’s concern away. She was still breathless though. “Just a bit winded from hitting the rocks, that’s all.” She waited a few moments to catch her breath before getting up and ignored Rachel’s extended hand intended to pull her up. “Let’s head back to camp.” As soon as she was back on her feet, Quinn brushed her hands on her front, picked up her rod, and started walking back to their current home.

Rachel followed quickly, following suit and watching the blonde with worry because she spent a fair few minutes cracking her neck and circling her shoulders. It was clear Quinn didn’t want to speak with the way she stormed off in front, but Rachel’s priority was checking if she was okay. “Are you sure you’re not hurt?”

“I’m fine.” Quinn’s response was short and stubborn.

Rachel shook her head in despair. “Honestly, Quinn.” She huffed. “This isn’t school anymore. Coach Sylvester isn’t yelling at you to get up and at it again. We’re on our own here. We need to be more careful than ever now.”

Quinn’s pace slowed.

Rachel took that as a sign to keep going. “Just let me have a look. Then we can leave it be if you’re okay.”

Quinn slowly closed her eyes in defeat. “Fine.” She mumbled.

“Thank you.” Rachel replied equally quietly. “Am I okay to~” The brunette tugged on Quinn’s shirt in permission to lift it. The blonde’s hair shook with the motion of her nodding her head. When Rachel proceeded, she sighed a sigh of relief. “It looks like it’s bruising a bit but nothing looks swollen.” She let Quinn’s shirt drop and the pair started walking back again.

“I knew I was fine.” Quinn smiled. Her tone was relieved rather than snarky because she’d been right and Rachel had been wrong. “Sorry for snapping.”

Now it was Rachel’s turn to smile. “I forgive you, so long as you don’t do it again.” Rachel wasn’t expecting that to happen but a girl could dream.

“I’ll try not to.”

Quinn’s response surprised Rachel. It sounded sincere. She was expecting for Quinn to just laugh in her face. “Let’s start with the simple things - calling me by my own name.” She gave a friendly jeering nudge to Quinn’s side with her elbow as she added, “Which I know you can do because you did it yesterday.”

Quinn snorted. “I think I can manage that, Rachel.” Quinn said, stressing the name at the end.

“Pleased to have made a deal with you.” Rachel quipped.

The following ten minutes completed their walk back and both girls took their time to think.

Rachel’s mind was on Quinn. She was baffled how far their relationship had come in the past few days in comparison to the last few years. They weren’t exactly friends. But they were well on their way. If Rachel had pushed Quinn like she had a few moments ago, two or three years ago, Rachel wasn’t sure if she’d still be alive today. That was a slight exaggeration but Quinn would have torn her apart word after word. Now, here they were and Rachel had been allowed to push the blonde and get her way. It was for the Quinn’s benefit but it was still surprising that Rachel had been allowed to do check her back.

Quinn’s mind was on Rachel. The blonde wondered why she was spending so much time thinking about Rachel while they’d been on the island. Granted, they’d only been there a few days but every moment she had to think seemed to go towards the brunette. Quinn was sure it hadn’t been like that before. Or perhaps it had been. She hadn’t thought about it before. Maybe being on the island just gave her more thinking time in which to think about Rachel. Making a person’s life miserable did mean that you thought about them quite often. Even though she’d stepped back a bit in the last year after Beth, Quinn had still done a lot of thinking about Rachel. The blonde decided it was best to try not to dwell on it too much for now. Too much thinking was dangerous and in their situation she had a lot of time to think. It was better to focus on surviving the trip.

When they got back, they praised Finn, Mike, Tina and Mercedes on how they’d sorted out their living space. It was right at the top of the beach, just covered by the trees. The sand had been dug into slightly so there was a flat area to sleep in, with eleven slight wells for the club to sleep in and there was a small cover over the fire. It was a first come-first served situation regarding where people would be sleeping so Rachel and Quinn grabbed their bags to put by the well they’d picked as their own bed. After that, they decided they’d go off for some alone time. It was draining to spend the entire day with people. Everyone was due to reassemble at dark so they could have some sort of meal together and then sleep soon after.
After their dinner, everyone was still pretty hungry. They’d eaten half of the coconuts Rachel and Quinn had found, and tried to fill up their stomachs on their water supply. It really wasn’t enough. Sam and Puck’s traps hadn’t caught anything that day so they were just left with the coconuts. Hopefully after a sleep everyone would get a little rest for a successful day tomorrow. Everyone retired to their beds, stomachs still grumbling, and tried their best to go to sleep.
There had been a storm overnight. A bad one. The glee club went from sleeping under the stars to sleeping under howling gales. Everyone had got soaking wet and cold from the wind blowing both the rain and the sea under their shelter.

After a very uncomfortable and broken sleep, the group woke well after sunrise.. Tina was the first to wake. When she noticed how high the sun was in the sky, she walked around her friends, waking them one by one. Rachel was the second to physically get up. Everyone else was still sat up in bed, rubbing their eyes and stretching trying to wake themselves up faster. Rachel split enough coconuts in half so that everyone got some and there were still a few left in case they found no more substantial food that day.

The food was eaten in silence. They lacked too much energy to even complain. Everyone knew their jobs and so got on with what they needed to do after a quick dip in the sea for a wash.

Rachel and Quinn wordlessly collected twelve healthy coconuts between them and took them back to camp. They refreshed themselves with some water before heading onto the beach again.

The beach was a mess. The storm had washed up piles of rubbish onto the sand. The glee clubbers on water duty were searching through it all to try and find themselves some water bottles to expand their storage of drinking water. They could only boil so much at a time to purify it so there was a limiting factor there. But once it had been boiled, it could be put in water bottles. That way one jerry can could be used for boiling and one for newly found water at all times. The drinkable water was stored in bottles that were buried under the sand to keep them as cool as possible under the hot sun.

Rachel turned to Quinn. “Do you think it’s unrealistic to try and look for some food in all this stuff?” Rachel gestured towards the washed up matter.

Quinn scrunched up her mouth in thought. “Not unrealistic. It’s unlikely but it’s possible.” She walked forward and kicked a piece of driftwood out of the way in the hope there’d be something underneath it. There was nothing. “There’s no harm in looking, though. We can do a comb of the beach. We’re more likely to find something like an old fishing net which will at least be of some help.”

And so the pair walked to the far end of the beach to start their search. They were going to snake along the beach, starting at the water’s edge and walking towards the trees, then back down again a metre further along the beach. They’d cover two metres of the beach in one direction working at it together. Hopefully it wouldn’t take them too long. The sun beating down on them made it hard work.

After several trips back to camp for a small snack and a drink of water, Rachel and Quinn were a third of their way up the beach. Luckily the tide didn’t change too quickly and the girls had managed to get this far without the sea coming in too much.

Rachel wanted to give up. The sun was really strong and she was struggling to cope. The hair on top of her head was boiling hot. She needed to cover her head with something. Maybe a t-shirt would do the job. The brunette had caked herself in plenty of sunblock before she and Quinn set out. She was covered so it was safe to strip down to her bikini. Rachel decided to use the top she was wearing to protect her head.

As Rachel pulled her shirt over her head, she heard Quinn snort. “What on earth are you doing?”

Rachel lowered her top again to speak to the blonde. “I’m using my t-shirt as a hat. The last thing I want is to get sun stroke.”

Quinn just shrugged with a smile. “You do you, Rachel.”

And so Rachel began to lift her shirt. As it was over her head, she lost her balance. She stepped forwards but her foot got caught on something.

Rachel fell flat on her face.

In a flash, Quinn was by her side. She removed the shirt from Rachel’s head to see if the brunette was okay. Thankfully she was. She was just a bit dazed.

Quinn breathed a sigh of relief. She went to check what Rachel had tripped on. “Oh my god.” She breathed out in surprise.

“What?!” Rachel asked, sitting herself up and putting her t-shirt back on. Properly this time. She’d have to work out how to fashion a sun protector later when she was more stable.

Quinn shook her head in disbelief. “You managed to fall over a fishing net.” The blonde moved onto her knees to uncover more of the net. “It looks really tangled but we could spend the afternoon sorting it out.”

Rachel shuffled on her backside to get to where she could see the net properly. “It seems like falling has served us well this time.” She got to her feet. “Let’s go back to camp. We can untangle it there.”

To their surprise, when they got to camp, everyone was there. The fire and sleeping stations people were supposed to be there but both Quinn and Rachel were confused as to why the rest of the food group and the whole of the water group were back too.

Rachel sped up towards them and stopped, putting her hands on her hips. “Why is no-one doing anything?”

Puck was the one to speak up. “Babe. Chill. Me and my boy Sam have just got back from setting more traps. The water losers were back just before us.”

Finn tilted his head, trying to work out what Quinn was carrying. “What’ve you got there?”

Quinn brought it out from behind her back. “A fishing net!” She told them with a grin. “We can catch more fish this way!”

Everyone looked skeptical. Apart from Brittany. But she was soon elbowed by Santana so she copied everyone else.

“The net’s a mess, Fabray.” Santana pointed out.

Quinn rolled her eyes. “Which is why we’ll spend this afternoon untangling it.”

Kurt raised an eyebrow. “It’s going to be full of holes.”

“Yeah, you’re better off using a hook.” Puck criticised.

“Like you’d know.” Quinn bit back. “You and Sam have been off like school boys setting useless traps. If you’d done something helpful, you’d know that the fish don’t bite.”

Puck threw his hands up in mock surrender. “Okay, Q. You won’t be saying that when me and Sam catch us a monster meal in one of our traps.” He held his hand up for Sam to high five.

Quinn’s icy glare cut them off from bragging about possible future catches anymore.

Sam cleared his throat, not wanting to be the one to piss people off so early into the trip. “I’ll go fishing with the hooks with Puck in a bit. We’ll collect some things from the rock pools too.”

“Does anyone else have a problem with the net?!” Quinn demanded.

No-one dared point any issues out with it.

“Good.” Quinn picked up a couple of recently filled water bottles, held the net under her arm and dragged Rachel further along the beach in the shade. “We’ll show them, Rach.” She muttered. “Let’s go.”

Rachel followed her like a lost puppy.

When they were out of earshot, Santana cracked a joke to settle the waters. “Wow, Q’s spent too much time with the hobbit already. The dwarf’s storm out habit has rubbed off on her already.”

The glee club laughed at the slight dig. This small feud would be over by dinner time. Quinn and Rachel moving elsewhere would just speed up the process.

In the shade, Rachel and Quinn were sat next to each other with a split coconut between them, tackling the fishing tet. Rachel had one end and Quinn had the other.

“Are you okay?” Rachel asked tentatively. She didn’t want Quinn to bite her head off.

The blonde nodded, thinking for a moment. “I’m just annoyed they didn’t even give us a chance. They’re perfectly happy with Puck and Sam setting traps that haven’t, and probably won’t ever catch anything. And they just go and shut us down straight away. We’re trying our best.”

Rachel smiled. “All we have to do is prove them wrong.”

Quinn sighed in agreement.

“You don’t have to be that angry Quinn when you’re here.” Rachel looked up to make eye contact with Quinn. “We all know that’s not really you.”

The blonde turned away defensively. “You don’t know that.”

“I do.” Rachel softly put her hand on Quinn’s knee to get her attention. “You always try to do the right thing when it matters. It doesn’t always work out right but you try your best.”

Quinn snorted. “What, like messing up by getting pregnant and deciding to give my child away?” Her tone was an attempt at being malicious but it came through as sounding almost helpless instead. “I had no other choice. I do things like getting with Puck while I was with Finn. That wasn’t the right thing to do.”

“You can’t let one mistake define you.” Rachel spoke gently. “And even during your pregnancy, you were always thinking about the baby. I know you wanted to give it to the Schuesters because Mr Schue would’ve made a good dad. One that your child would be safe with. You’ve continuously shown support for women’s rights when the glee boys haven’t been acting up to standard. Plus you really helped Mercedes when she was feeling low about her size and appearance. Then, while you’ve been here, you helped Finn actually get onto the island. And you calmed me when the boys were lost. You’re not all bad, Quinn.”

The blonde was silent. She stared intently at the part of the net she was untangling.

“If it means anything at all,” Rachel continued in the same tone. “I think you’re a good person.”

Quinn ducked her head. She murmured a barely audible thank you.

It was clear to Rachel that Quinn didn’t want to talk anymore. Well, she hadn’t talked much. Or at all. But she needed a change in subject. “Now let’s get to work at proving them wrong.” She grinned.

Quinn grinned back. They were going to be right about this one.

Wanting to keep up conversation, Rachel took a bite of the coconut and asked Quinn the first thing that came to her mind. “So what are your thoughts on Mr Schuester’s dancing?”

As the dusk reared its head, Rachel and Quinn were relieved to have had enough daylight to last them untangling the net. It was too dark to take it out to sea now. They could have done it but there was an increased risk of sharks at dusk and neither of them wanted to risk meeting a hungry shark.

They returned to camp arm in arm with smiles on their faces. There had been no prior agreement but no-one mentioned the net squabble and everyone acted as nothing had happened. The glee club sat around the fire eating a mix of yucca and limpets that had been scraped from the rocks. It wasn’t much but they were all content in that moment.

Once their food had gone down, everyone retired to their beds to get some rest for the following day.