Disclaimer – I own nothing of Glee. It belongs to its respected owners. I also don't own the song Will I from RENT. 'Nuff said.
Italics are song lyrics.
A/N: I got this idea from watching the Glee winter finale.
Summary: AU: Takes place during "On My Way". Quinn is in a coma due to the accident. Her friends visit her in the hospital. Set to the song Will I from RENT. One-shot. Rated T because I'm paranoid and character death.
Genre: Friendship/None
Rating: T
Quinn Fabray didn't notice that she had ran the intersection until she felt the car hit her on the driver's side. She didn't even have time to breathe after she sent the text to Rachel.
She coughed and looked at her hand – it had blood on it. There was blood on everything in the car. She prayed that she would make it until the paramedics arrived.
Will I lose my dignity? Will someone care? Will I wake tomorrow from this nightmare?
"Where the hell is Quinn?" Burt questioned angrily.
"I'm sure she's on her way." Will assured Burt.
"Is everyone here?" the Justice of the Peace inquired, smiling at everyone.
"No – we're still waiting on one other person." Finn told him.
"Finn, we can't wait too much longer or we're gonna lose our spot." Rachel told Finn, a bit of an edge in her voice.
"Guys, we're gonna have to cancel the wedding – there's been an accident." Shelby told everyone. They all turned and looked at her.
"Shelby, what's going on?" Rachel inquired.
"There's been an accident." She repeated, tears in her eyes.
"What? Who is it?" LeRoy asked, producing a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to her. Hiram looked at his partner and sighed.
"You're doing it again." Hiram told his partner. As always, LeRoy ignored him.
"Hiram, not now." LeRoy warned.
"Quinn was texting that she was on her way to meet us and she ran an intersection. A car hit her on the driver's side." Shelby told everyone.
"Oh God." Santana wailed. Quinn was her best friend and she would absolutely die if anything happened to her.
Will I lose my dignity? Will someone care? Will I wake tomorrow from this nightmare?
"How much damage was there?" Artie spoke up. Even though he and Quinn never spoke to each other, that didn't mean that he didn't care.
"She's in a coma." Shelby said, wiping the tears away with her sleeve.
"Rachel, now we really need to cancel the wedding." Finn told Rachel. She sighed and went to talk with the Justice of the Peace. She returned a short while later.
"Let's go see Quinn." She told the others.
Will I lose my dignity? Will someone care? Will I wake tomorrow from this nightmare?
Rachel, her dads, Finn, Burt, Kurt, Carole and Shelby were the first ones to arrive at the hospital.
"Hi, we're here to see Quinn Fabray." Carole told the nurse.
"You family?" the nurse asked.
"No, but we're the closest thing she has." Carole answered before anyone could say anything. The nurse sighed and led them down a long hallway. Burt said he would say behind and tell the others where Quinn's room was.
Rachel burst into tears when she saw Quinn hooked up to all sorts of machines. Shelby comforted her and averted her own eyes.
"There can only be four people in the room at a time." The nurse told everyone. Rachel, Finn, Kurt and Shelby stayed in the room first.
"Should we contact her parents?" Shelby wanted to know. Rachel shook her head.
"They kicked her out of the family when she was expecting Beth." Finn answered.
"But they should still know that she was in an accident and is in a coma." Shelby pointed out. Finn sighed and went to call Quinn's parents.
"Kurt, you're awfully quiet. You okay?" Rachel asked her friend.
"Yeah, this kind of reminds me of my mom a bit." Kurt answered, his voice hoarse. Rachel rubbed Kurt's back and rested her head on his shoulder.
"I have an idea, but we need to wait for the others." Rachel told Kurt. He nodded and sat in a hospital chair.
It wasn't long before the rest of New Directions arrived. Rachel pulled Kurt and Finn into the hallway and had the kids in glee club follow her to the cafeteria.
"What is this about, Berry?" Santana asked, her tone bitter.
"I saw a movie on Lifetime about a girl who was in a coma and woke up when her friends sang to her. Maybe it'll help us." Rachel suggested.
"That sounds like a good idea and I know the perfect song." Blaine announced. "Is anyone familiar with the song Will I from the musical, RENT?"
Everyone except Santana, Brittany and Artie raised their hands.
"It's a simple round that I can teach you guys." Blaine said. He looked at everyone to try to figure out how to divide up the groups. "Let's have Rachel, Sugar, Artie and Mike be group one. Mercedes, Tina, Finn and Sam are group two. Santana, Brittany, Kurt and Puck are group three. I'm going to be the soloist that starts the round." Blaine told everyone. Surprisingly, no one protested and there weren't any arguments over who was in what group.
"How does this round-thing go?" Artie asked.
"Let's just speak it first. Everyone repeat after me." Blaine instructed.
"Everyone repeat after me." Brittany repeated. Despite this being a serious situation, there were a few giggles.
"Will I lose my dignity? Will someone care? Will I wake tomorrow from this nightmare?" Blaine spoke. Everyone repeated the words.
"How many times are we going to repeat this?" Rachel inquired.
"Twice in unison, then three times in our groups." Blaine answered.
"Sounds good." Artie piped up. Blaine smiled and had everyone get into their groups. He wrote down the song lyrics for everyone and handed it to everyone in the groups.
A short while later, everyone was ready to see Quinn. The adults were in with her, but quickly moved aside when the kids entered the room.
"Where were all of you?" Will questioned.
"We were in the cafeteria working on something for Quinn." Kurt answered. Blaine smiled at his boyfriend and looked at the others. They all gathered around Quinn's bed, in their groups.
"Will I lose my dignity? Will someone care? Will I wake tomorrow from this nightmare?" Everyone sang twice. Blaine then sang the round, then indicated for the first group to start. The second group started a bar after the first, and the final group after them. Soon, the room was full of music.
The music stopped and the kids exited the room, followed by a whirl of applause. They smiled and walked back to the cafeteria.
Will I lose my dignity? Will someone care? Will I wake tomorrow from this nightmare?
Three months later
Everyone gathered back in Quinn's hospital room, this time to say goodbye to her. She hadn't had much brain activity and the doctor decided it was time to pull the plug.
"Goodbye love, goodbye love. Just came to say goodbye love, goodbye." Santana crooned into Quinn's ear before kissing her cheek. Brittany sobbed and squeezed Quinn's hand before letting the other Glee clubbers say goodbye to her.
"Will I lose my dignity? Will someone care?-" Rachel tried to sing, but got choked up. Finn gently rubbed her back and drew her close to him. She sobbed into his shirt.
"I wish Quinn's parents were here." LeRoy said sadly.
"I know. It's like they don't want anything to do with her." Shelby said. Both of them turned to Hiram, who would usually say something about this, but he had nothing to say.
"At least she's in a better place now." Hiram finally said after a long silence. They listened to what was going on in the room. The three of them, plus Will, Carole and Burt, were out in the hallway while the kids were in the room, singing to Quinn as she passed into the next world.
All of them knew that they would see Quinn again someday.