Author's Note; Finn. x. Rachel pairing. Enjoy this story. It's different. I think the first chapter pretty much hints it all. It's actually set kind of in their Junior Year, in season 2. But I just kind of am flashing back to before. And I didn't make anything up at all. Research was involved.

Bring Me Charcoal Flowers

Prequel

'What am I without my hair?'

Rachel Berry knew very well that without her voice, she could take up other professions such as acting or dancing. She knew that because of Finn. (The time he took her to his friend Sean's house.)

She sighed, and was sitting in the mirror in her room. Kurt was right. It did resemble a hook up between Strawberry Shortcake and Holly Hobby hook-up. She laughs bitterly and looks back in the mirror, with tear stung eyes.

She could be still talented without her hair, she knows that. But would people look at her the same? Would they still slushy her? Would it be a constant reminder of what she was going to go through?

Two Weeks Earlier

"Til all my sleeves are stained red, from all the truth that I've said." Rachel sang drawing it out, nice and steady, along with the rest of her fellow Glee members, who were all beside her huddled around the piano, like the family they are. "Come by it honestly, I swear. Thought you saw me wink, no I—" She's stopped from a rising in her throat that causes her to cough multiple times in a row. She reaches for the water that is sitting atop the piano, and they all look at her worriedly.

"Hey," Finn says gently, placing a hand on her back gently. "You alright?"

She smiles widely at her boyfriend, "Yeah, I just must be coming down with a cold."

Hah, if only she knew. Of course, being Rachel, she'd become paranoid about being sick. So she went to the doctors, with her fathers and they told her it wasn't an average cold, because she had no mucus or fevers, so it ruled out a flu as well. They decided to look into it more.

Her Dads shared had shared a worried expression, and she couldn't help but notice that this is why they were made for each other. They're faces (besides their actual physical appearances) looked exactly the same.

She should have known that when she coughed up blood several days after the incident in the Glee room, something was wrong. And she did. So she went to her dads and told them that she had a really strange cough. (Her dream is to be an avid performer on Broadway, she doesn't focus too much on doctorates.)

Rachel also should have seen why it was heavier for her to breath in her ritual morning exercises, she just assumed (again) that her cough wanted her to take it easy. Or when she got her period, 10 days early for 3 days, and got it on her scheduled day again.

Yes, so how would she look without her hair?

Rachel Barbra Berry had been diagnosed with Leukemia. Specifically Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. But there's was no way in hell she wouldn't go down without a fight. That's where chemotherapy comes in. Her first session was scheduled in about two weeks.

The doctors came in, with a needle, and a grim expression.

"We have some theories, on what it may be. But first we have to take a blood sample." She remembered Dr. Hilaregro saying to her fathers and her.

After hearing two voices go back and forth, protesting her dads, she said, "Sure. Go ahead."

That stopped her fathers' rambling. "Look, I just want this thing to go away, okay?" She asks both of them. They nod quietly in response.

Then the doctor comes back. Says that she has leukemia, but it's only started so there's still hope.

It didn't feel like that though.

Her hair would disappear soon enough. Wigs would have to be worn. She'd finally landed a role to act. But it was on her own life. And who would want that?

She manages to stand up, and walk away from the mirror, and Rachel knows that all of the sudden…

Everything will change.