A/N: Another St. Berry. This one came to me after listening to the song Dance So Good by WakeyWakey, one of the only good things about the recent seasons of OTH but this is glee so lets not talk about that =].
I don't own. Obviously.
It had been a tough year for Rachel. She and Finn had been broken up since Christmas and it seemed that there was nothing she could do to make it up to him. It had been especially difficult when he began legitimately dating Santana. They became the power couple that Rachel had always hoped she and Finn would be.
Losing Finn also meant that she had no one in glee club, so no one really at all she could talk to. She remembered how it had been before glee club had begun but it was harder to go back once she'd experienced actually having someone there to talk to, even if they weren't really paying attention. Finn hadn't been outright mean to her since they had broken up, but he hadn't been nice and he definitely didn't defend her when Santana and Quinn hurled insults at her.
Glee club began to feel like a chore; something she didn't want to, but felt like she had to do. After the "success" (Rachel preferred to think of it as mediocrity) that was sectionals, Mr Schue had continued to divide the solos between the group, and since she had gotten all the solos in the competition the year before and Finn no longer really wanted to sing with her, she didn't get any solos. They came second to the Warblers at Regionals but Mr Schue only saw this as an improvement on the year before, even though Rachel was sure that if they had even considered any of her ideas for the set list and even just given her a voice of solo they might have done better. It was arrogant but this was what she did, what she knew and she thought that they knew and appreciated this. The one thing that Rachel felt gave her a little bit of worth in school seemed easily replaceable to them.
Rachel had spent a lot of her time for the rest of the year practicing solos alone in the auditorium. She was used to her own company as she had spent a lot of her life along but it got her down. She started using her free time to do more dance and voice training. She had told her Dads that she was hanging out with friends, she knew that they would worry with the amount of training she was doing. She hated to admit that she didn't have any friends anymore. Occasionally Puck would back her up in Glee or sit and talk to her but they weren't that close and he and Finn were back to best friends, which she found incredibly hypocritical of Finn, who still hadn't forgiven her.
It was now summer vacation and Rachel had no idea what to do with herself. The summer before she had spent most of her time with Finn, only going to sleep. The glee club had had a few parties and they'd gone, all enjoying themselves and each grateful that they had at least another year. This year she was alone. She knew they'd had a few partied this summer as well but she hadn't been invited, she had seen the pictures on facebook. It had made her cry the first time but she decided to not let it bother her. However, this was easier said than done.
Rachel was currently sitting in the new car that her fathers had bought for her for her birthday. Usually you would get a car for your sixteenth birthday and Rachel didn't know why her father's had waited an extra year. She didn't really mind but she was grateful that now she could just drive around for a few hours. It was better than being cooped up in her bedroom for the whole holiday.
She was tempted to transfer schools like Kurt had done. Without Finn on her arm she had been getting slushie facials more often and glee club wasn't even enjoyable anymore. She was sure that most of the old Vocal Adrenaline would have graduated this year and the spiteful part of her would love to see her former teams reaction if she were to join the opposing team and to win against them would be so satisfying but there was no way she could tell her dads just how bad it was at school, especially when she had been pretending like everything was fine.
Rachel didn't even realise that she was crying as she drove and she tried to control her emotions, at least until she had stopped somewhere private to let it all out. Rachel slowly pulled into a lookout point the was deserted apart from one car. She turned the radio off, not even music could help her right now. Rachel just let it all out, she cried for everything that had happened in the past two years, everything she hadn't dealt with yet. Finn, her mother, Jesse, losing time and time again, Finn again, not fitting in, feeling so alone that she didn't know how to cope, hating herself for not being prettier or easier to get on with and deal with, for not being a better girlfriend, for not being someone people wanted to be friends with, being someone that people can't stand, wanting so desperately to get out of Ohio and begin a life that she would be happy with.
Rachel didn't know how much time had passed since she had been sitting there but eventually she dabbed her face to rid herself of the evidence of her private breakdown. Although she felt some form of catharsis, she still had no idea what she was going to do.
She heard a screech of tires and suddenly everything went black.
xoxo
Jesse had stayed in California for the first month of his summer break. He had finished at the end of May and decided to enjoy some time with his friends in L.A. He really only planned on staying in Akron for a couple of weeks before heading back. He had to check in with family and probably see some friends but he didn't want to spend a lot of time there, he didn't really see the point. After briefly seeing his parent, who quickly headed off for their next exotic destination, he went to see Shelby. She was enjoying motherhood and he was happy for her but it was different for him with her now. He had always thought that she thought of him like a son, but he realised that although they were close for a student and teacher, they weren't as close as he thought. She had barely been able to make time for his visit and although he kind of understood, it still stung.
Seeing Shelby had also brought back memories that he had done quite a good job of avoiding since he had moved to California. Seeing Shelby was the first time that Jesse had thought of Rachel since he left Ohio. He thought back to that day in Shelby's car when she pushed him to get Rachel to listen to the tape even though she had said she wasn't ready. Jesse had done what Shelby wanted because he honestly thought it was for the best. There was also a slightly selfish motive mixed in, if Rachel found Shelby then maybe she would transfer to Carmel and they could be together without the secrets and ulterior motives and he could see if they would truly work as a couple. He had told Shelby that he kind of liked her but he knew that was an understatement, despite the Run Joey Run incident, he was falling her. It was actually the video that helped him see that he did truly care for Rachel and this wasn't just an acting exercise for him. It had taken him a while to realise why it had upset him so much and why he had reacted the way that he had, and why her heartbroken performance of Total ecplipse of the heart actually had him falling apart inside.
When he had found out that Shelby had decided that she didn't want to be a part of Rachel's life anymore he had been more angry than either he or Shelby had expected. He had stormed into her office absolutely livid. What followed couldn't even be described as an argument, it was simply Jesse shouting at her. He couldn't believe that after everything that had happened she had turned Rachel away, he reminded her that he had told her that Rachel didn't feel that she was ready to find out who her mother was but that she had asked him to get her to listen to the tape.
He had been so angry that he had trusted Shelby so explicitly and that she had let him down, even if it wasn't actually him that had been the most disappointed. He hated how much Rachel would be hurt by this and then she would find out that he had gone back to Vocal Adrenaline. He had thought that he would be mostly forgotten in comparison to meeting her mother, and maybe even Shelby could help her through the inevitably break up, but Rachel had just ended up with double the hurt. Then it was time for the annual funkification of the opposing teams and he still couldn't even really think about that.
Once he had gone away to college he immersed himself in his course, his new friends and a busy social life. He hadn't had a girlfriend but there had been plenty of girls hanging off him and a considerable amount of one night stands. He genuinely hadn't thought of Rachel until he came back to town. He debated going to see her or not but decided against it. She was probably happily coupled up with Finn Hudson and she wouldn't need a reminder of him and all the pain that he had brought into her life.
It was a warm day when he and a few Vocal adrenaline friends went to a hidden creek not too far from them. He parked his car at the lookout point and made his way down there. They hung out, drank, swung into the cool water like they had done every summer since he started high school. He was surprised that he actually enjoyed it again. He caught up with a few of his closer friends but mostly they all just a laugh, like old times. As early evening dawned they all decided to go home to get ready for the party that Giselle was having while her parents were away.
Andrea, who Jesse had given a lift to on the way along with Chris and Damien headed back up to the lookout point where his car was parked. As they turned off the twisted footpath that led up from the creek they all noticed that something was wrong. Jesse's car was now at a slight diagonal even though he'd parked it perfectly.
"What the hell?" Jesse muttered.
"Shit, a car's gone into you Jess." Chris said as they saw a car on its side next to his. Observing the dent on the side of the car that was now facing upwards Chris continued "I think another car hit into this one and then drove off. That's what it looks like anyway."
"There's somebody in there guys." Damien told them.
"What?" Andrea asked, shocked.
"Yeah there definitely is, look." He told them. Andrea and Chris went over to peer into the passenger window that was facing the sky. Luckily it was a small car so the could see in, although they doubted it helped if you were to get smashed into by another car. Jesse reached into his pocket for his phone without even bothering to look at the person in the car but Andrea's voice stopped him.
"Jesse, I think it's Rachel Berry." She spoke uncertainly, unsure of what his reaction would be. The two boys also froze, having been at the egging they knew who Rachel was but they hadn't recognised her like Andrea had. Forgetting his phone, Jesse ran to the car and peered into the window. He almost wanted to cry at what he saw; Rachel's head was on the gravel where the window had smashed with the force of the crash, she was unconscious and covered in cuts from all the broken glass. He saw that she didn't have a seat belt on and it made him gulp, he didn't want to think of all the different types of internal injuries she could have, the external ones were bad enough.
He heard Andrea calling an ambulance behind him. He walked around the front of Rachel's car to where there was a slight gap. He was able to move up right next to her, he knew it wasn't safe to move her but he wanted to check her pulse and at least be near her. He saw a pool of blood gathering around her head and the feeling in his stomach worsened. She couldn't be dead. Rachel Berry was destined to be a star, she had to go to New York, be on broadway, win a tony, be happy, live her life. She was not going to die at sixteen, not like this. He wouldn't let it, even if he had to sell his soul, he wouldn't let it. He reached out and felt her neck. It took a while to find it but there was a pulse but it was very faint.
Soon enough, the ambulance arrived and so did a few others who had been down in the creek. There was also a fire engine to help remove Rachel from the car as they couldn't move the car or Rachel with injuring her further, they had to cut her out. Jesse was pushed out of the way, back over to Andrea, Chris and Damien who all silently offered their support. Jesse hadn't even realised that he tears pouring down his face. He assumed that he looked absolutely terrified because that was how he felt.
Jesse was getting frustrated with how long it was taking them to get Rachel out, her life was on the line but they seemed to be taking their sweet time. He knew that rationally this probably wasn't true, but each minute that passed he was worried would cost Rachel more. They didn't even know how long she had been there before they had found her. It wasn't a busy road but it was quite a popular area in the summer so he hoped that since she hadn't been found that it just hadn't been that long, but that could just be wishful thinking. He was clinging to the feel of her faint pulse beneath his fingers, he honestly believed that nothing would feel better than that. The knowledge that her heart was still beating at his fingertips.
"Excuse me." A paramedic interrupted. They then went on to the details off of Chris and Andrea. Then it came to more personal details and they directed the paramedic towards Jesse.
"Do you have contact details for her parents?"
"Um, no. I have her birth mother's number but it's kind of complicated so I don't think that will count-"
"We'll just take that as a no, we'll be able to sort it out at the hospital, don't worry." The paramedic told him consolingly.
He looked over to the car and saw that Rachel was now being lifted out and placed on a gurney.
"Can I go with her?" He asked.
"Are you immediate family?"
"No, but they're not here are they? I don't want her to be alone." He pleaded.
"Okay." The paramedic gave in.
Remembering that his friends were still there he turned to them but they motioned for him to go.
"We'll follow you there." Andrea told him and Chris and Damien nodded.
Jesse accepted it and climbed into the ambulance behind the paramedic who was pushing Rachel in.
The doors closed and for the first time in his life Jesse St. James found himself praying.
A/N: This isn't at all where I expected this to go and I didn't plan on it being multichapter but I guess it is now lol. Let me know what you think.
