Truth Rachel is annoying and loud and over-confident. But she's always strong. At least that's what they'd always believed. So it shocked them really when she broke. The day would always be remembered.
Brittany's "I'm sorry, I. . .I didn't mean to," still rings in their ears as they watch Rachel run off stage, the musicians halting abruptly.
Brittany looks like she's about to cry and Artie looks petrified, so Santana approaches her friend, "Brit, what happened?" she asks. Then thinks about congratulating her, for doing what the rest have failed to, but Brit seems distressed not pleased.
"I. . .I. . .you and Quinn never yelled at me if I was nice to Ra. . .Manhands while we we're performing. I like to stand next to her it helps me remember the words because of how much she feels them. . .and her hands are soft. So I started to hold it, or hug her if I thought I could get away with it. I. . .it. . .it was sorry but not."
Santana winces a bit at hearing how Brittany had to hide in fear of what her or Quinn would do. That she'd made her best friend feel like there was something she couldn't tell her in fear that she would have told her it was wrong (the fact that she would have, doesn't escape her.)
"It's okay, Britt. That was a nice thing to do," Artie says now that Brit's tears seem further away.
"Thumper told me to."
"What?" just about everyone asks.
"Bambi," surprisingly Puck explains to which the whole club gapes at him. "Younger sister, remember?" When they still just stare, he sneers," Rachel? Ran off crying? Weren't we finding out why?" And finally their gazes are away from him and he can stop pretending not to care.
"I just hugged her," Brittany says, and sounds heartbroken. "Then she shattered. . .do you think Rach. . .Treasure Trail is a vase?"
"You can call her Rachel, Britt, we won't yell," Quinn reassures the upset girl.
"Rachel doesn't cry, not real tears" Tina interjects, sounding somewhat dazed.
"Where we can see," Kurt supplies resigned.
There's a moment of realization. Whatever's going on. . .whatever's happening that it's caused her to. . .to let them see—it's bad. It's bad and none of them have paid enough attention to her to have any idea what to do.
"Maybe someone should go. . ." Sam begins but then dwindles off, afraid that he'll be sent after the girl.
"I'll go," Finn eagerly volunteers.
"No," Santana, Quinn and the rest are quick to say except for Brittany who says instead, "I thought we wanted to stop her crying?"
It's Brittany's words that make Finn not question the group decision.
"Who then?" Mike asks.
And they all shrug and think. No one wants to volunteer that might mean that ::gasp:: they like Rachel. Brittany's still sure she did something so is reluctant to go, that doesn't stop her recommending someone, "Noah."
"Who?" Sam questions, not having seen enough of the groups' interactions to know of Rachel's insistence on using Puck's real name, but the group ignores him.
Puck is already shaking his head. When Santana who always seems to speak 'Brittany' a little better than the rest asks, "B, you never call Puck that, why now?"
"Because Puck is a boy obsessed with being a badass, and a jerk and may even hate Rachel. He belongs to us. But Noah, the man Rachel brings out, is kind and loves her. He can comfort her, he belongs to her."
"You know they're the same person,Brittany?" Artie questions not following.
Puck meanwhile, " I don't. . .I'm not in . . .I don't love her," he finally forces out.
"Then be Noah," surprisingly Quinn speaks. And Brittany nods glad to be understood. But the boy still struggles. "Noah is a good man. I couldn't see that, but Rachel does. And she needs you, the rest of us. . ." and then she stops unsure of the words.
"Back-stabbing witches," Mercedes fills in, and they would be angry if weren't clear she was including herself. "We've all taken our turn."
"She forgave me for the slushies, you know? Easy. . .like one I'm sorry, made up for a year and a half of . . .of torture."
"The words mean a lot," Kurt smiles sadly. "But what matters more is you haven't thrown once since you've known her. You put actions to those words"
"I. . .dude, I had to know her to throw them at her."
"No, you had to be aware of her existence. You're the only one that once you joined glee and knew our names, sort of, stopped bullying us. One day you did, and the next you just didn't. When she became Rachel instead of freak, you stopped. No one else drew that line in the sand. Finn slushied me when the team demanded it. We all know San and Q would still do anything to bring down Diva," he says then winces because though it wasn't malicious that time, it had been plenty of times before. "Mercedes and I fared better after our stint on the Cheerios. Artie keeps his head down as does Tina. And we. . .we've obviously had our own hurtful words to Rachel instead of uniting with her," he ends feeling convicted himself.
"You're the only one who's ever spoke up for her, man. To her face and to ours," Finn whispers. He's feeling resigned to the idea that he and Rachel may not be destined for eternity. Finally seeing that he only ever helped tear her further down.
"Finn?" Noah questions.
"They're right, man. Go to her."
And with that release he leaves them to find the girl.
"So how long have you've been secretly hugging on Ms. Thang?" Artie asks Brittany to lighten the mood.
"Lean on Me," Brittany answers.
"Seriously?" Santana can't help but be shocked at just how much she missed especially about the girl who's supposed to be her best friend. If she missed this about Brittany, does she really know anyone?
"We all missed it San," Quinn is telling her. But she's consumed with questions, one of which breaks free.
"Did everyone else treat her like you and I, Q? Because we were bad, but. . ." and suddenly profanity is all she can think of to describe the situation and Rachel doesn't like profanity.
Quinn can only shrug. So desperate she looks to the gleeks, "Was it everyone?"
"I don't know. . .I think we've already established that we failed her as well. But. . ." and here Artie hesitates knowing that the next word is going to hurt, "probably. Maybe not everyday. Maybe not as bad, then again someday's probably worse." And at that everyone flinches.
Santana recovers first, "Get JewFro," she orders Mike.
"Why?" he questions.
Her, "Now," leaves no room for debate.
The terrified boy is soon brought before them.
"You will have for me the name of everyone who ever tormented Rachel Berry, typed tomorrow. Preferably with how, but if you can't remember, names with suffice," she wastes no time in ordering.
When the boy merely looks back at her she adds, "." Then she seems to stop and becomes totally still, closing her eyes. She breathes deeply and in a nicer voice, she adds, "Please Jacob."
This seems to only terrify the boy more as he scurries off.
The club is looking at her shocked.
"Bullying is ending in this school. If the teachers are too big of pansy's to do it, we'll do it for them. Q-mandate it, any Cheerio's caught will be off. Finn talk to Beiste. Everyone make a log. If you see it, if you experience it, if you do it- report it in the journal which you'll give to me at the end of each week. I want names-bullies, and bullied, where and how. Kurtofsky and Azismo will be our first examples," Santana mandates, and they all nod. For the first time the glee kids realize who's really in charge and are surprised to find it isn't Quinn.
"You can't actually enforce that Santana," Rachel speaks bringing their attention to the fact that she came in sometime during that speech. She it seems is the only one willing to speak against the scary and fiercely determined Latino. Everyone notices the weariness in her voice and how she seems to be leaning on Puck to even be able to stand there.
"I can and I will. I'm glad you're here. Until the plan takes over, you'll be escorted to and from classes. You'll have a choice in which Gleeks of course, but Mercedes, Tina, Kurt and Artie are excluded. They'll have their own escorts as can be managed. Though Puck may want to be your primary escort so that may not be so difficult to orchestrate," she spoke obviously thinking on her feet. "Okay, Monday morning, you're walking in between Q and I with Brittany of course, just to ensure they get the message fast how serious I am."
Rachel looks like she's about to argue, but then she looks to Noah and he shakes his head, so she doesn't. All is quiet. Then Brittany cheers, "Yay!" She rushes towards Rachel before abruptly stopping in front of the girl, "Can I hug you again? Or is that still not okay?"
A soft, "Of course you can," is heard before the blonde tentatively asks "Will you cry?" so Rachel throws her arms around Brittany. While Brittany tightly hugs her back, Puck's left standing looking like he's not sure he wanted to let go, even for a moment.
When Kurt comes down next, he does actually pull her back and growl, "Mine."
She burrows into him, as Kurt laughs and commands, "Share, or I'll hug you both." Puck lets go but looks on protectively.
In that moment, Santana looks at those left on stage and says quietly, "You are in this with me right?"
"Always," Quinn replies.
"Happy to be so," Mike replies, pulling Tina close.
"Just tell us what we need to do," Sam responds and they all remember that's he stood for the Gleeks before, where others (Finn) had hesitated.
McKinley will never be the same again, and they're all really glad. Some of them knew a change needed to occur; they experienced it daily after all. But they never expected the change to originate at Santana and they definitely didn't see the catalyst being Rachel shattering.
