A/N: This is based off of the song by the same title by Death Cab for Cutie. I came up with the idea while listening to the album Plans. It's a very poignant and emotional song (roughly) about the same topic and I just had to make a Puckleberry dribble.
I Will Follow You into the Dark
Rachel Berry-Puckerman is a very responsible person. She flosses daily, always did her homework back in high school and collage, and she always gets regular check-ups, but Rachel Berry is not a hypochondriac, so when she felt a small mass in her right breast while taking a shower she thought nothing of it. But a few months later, when that mass didn't go away, and in fact got bigger, she began to worry.
Rachel was only 27 years old, she had just gotten married to her high school sweetheart only two years prior and had just began to work on having children. Her life was perfect. Nothing could go wrong... except for cancer. Rachel wen't to get her mammogram on October 12, 2020 and found out two days later that she had Stage 3 Breast Cancer.
Noah Puckerman was happy. He had a beautiful wife, a beautiful house, a beautiful life that was about to get even more beautiful as soon as he got his wife, Rachel Berry-Puckerman, pregnant. He didn't think anything bad could happen, but when she told him that she had Breast Cancer Noah saw his beautiful life crumble around him.
Three months after starting chemo, Rachel had to be moved to in-patient care... in the Cancer Ward. It scared her, and Noah. It meant that things were really beginning to get serious. It was bad enough that she felt like puking every second of her life, but now she had to do it in a hospital, not in the comfort of her own home with Noah there, and their big bed, and that familiar smell of them.
She hates hospitals, hates them with a burning passion. They're all white, and green, and other ugly colors that just make her want to puke more. They aren't familiar at all. The only familiar thing in her room is Noah. He sleeps in the chair next to her bed, and eats next to her, he even helps her use her use the bathroom when she doesn't have the energy to move, and when her hair started falling out he help her pick out a wig and a couple head scarves. He acts so strong, but she knows that watching her be so uncomfortable kills him and all he wants is for her to be healthy again. But that's to be expected.
But, when he comes back from work and throws his things next to his sleeping chair he gets on the bed, pulls her close, and begins to sing to her softly, like he did in high school when she was home, sick with the flu. And every night she would fall asleep to his singing and when she woke up in the middle of the night he was sleeping in his chair, talking... praying in his sleep to... whatever was up there (even she was doubting there was a God anymore) that his wife would get better so she could come home and they could be happy again... so that they could stop living in this hell. She would fall back asleep and wake up the next morning with tear stains on her cheeks before puking into the bed pan left at her side. She prays to get better as well, not for her sake, but for Noah's. She knows what will happen if she doesn't make it, what he'll do, and she can't have that, she loves him far too much.
A/N2: I dedicate this fic to all those who have, are suffering from, and have lost those with cancer.