AN: So this is what I want to happen after that intense winter finale. It was inspired by my need to have Puckleberry endgame, pictures I've seen from the next episode, which (if you don't want to know what happens to Quinn, look away now) show Quinn next to Artie…in a wheelchair, and randomly Pocahontas, mainly the scene with Grandmother Willow talking about the ripples in the water and that the right path isn't always the easiest (I'm kind of obsessed with Disney movies). Anyway, you have no clue how flippin' excited I am that Matt Bomer will be guest starring in that next episode :) Hope you like it.
Pairings: The main pairing will probably change depending on the chapter, but as a whole it will mainly focus on Puckleberry & Quartie with Faberry, Brittberry, Raine, Puck/Blaine, Quick friendship (some others may be added as I go on, who knows really). Chapter 1 is focused on Puckleberry and the Brittany/Rachel, Puck/Blaine friendships.
Disclaimer: I don't own Glee or the song "It's Not Your Fault" by New Found Glory or St. Rita's Medical Center, which is an actual hospital in Lima, I looked it up. Nor do I own the nurses in this story, Sylvia & Lena, who are actual people I know & you can't really own people anymore so yeah.
Chapter 1-It's Not Your Fault
Quinn was just about to hit send on her text to Rachel when she felt the impact. She couldn't remember anything after that, just darkness.
"Rachel, come on let's start," Finn pressed.
"Just wait, she said would be here. She just had to go get her dress." Rachel didn't want to start without Quinn, he being there meant a lot to Rachel. Finn just gave a curt nod and sat down. Hiram, Leroy, Burt, and Carol were all silently thanking Quinn for postponing the ceremony. They waited ten more minutes before Finn spoke up again.
"Ok we need to start…I'm sorry, Rach, she's not coming."
Rachel sighed and took a deep breath, she didn't want to cry. She set her phone down and everyone started get lined up. They were just about to open the doors when her phone went off. Rachel was too concerned and the others were too busy talking that they didn't hear the quiet "yes" that came from Hiram Berry, grateful for the additional delay. However, it did not go unheard by Puck who looked at her fathers and chuckled under his breath.
"Quinn, where are you?" Rachel figured this one time she had the right to skip the pleasant greetings.
"Miss, this is St. Rita's Medical Center. May I ask your name and how you know Miss Fabray?"
Not any of the others, besides Puck, Brittany, and Blaine, noticed how Rachel's face fell, "R-Rachel Berry. I'm her friend. What happened?"
"Miss Berry, we were unable to get a hold of Quinn's parents. Miss Fabray has been in an accident. She's in surgery now and she was in critical condition."
All the air that had been in Rachel's lungs suddenly felt like it was vacuumed out, "No, no, no. This isn't happening." Everyone's gaze had turned on Rachel just as she dropped her phone. Rachel stood frozen for a moment before spinning around and running for the door.
The glee club stood in shock. Puck looked to Finn who made no signs of moving, then to her fathers who nodded at him and he took off after Rachel. He finally caught up as she neared the exit, "Rachel! Rachel, hold on. What's wrong?"
Rachel paused and faced the boy who had followed after her. The look of complete worry made the tears that she had been holding came falling down. "Quinn…car accident…St. Rita's." was all Puck could understand through her sobs and he felt his stomach drop. He grabbed her hand, dragged her out of the building, and they ran to his truck. Rachel's veil came flying off; anybody else had seen them they might think it was like scene from a movie, the bride running away with one of the groomsmen. Unfortunately, for them at the moment it wasn't one of those types of movies.
As soon as Puck had run out, Mr. Schue had picked up Rachel's phone after he heard a faint, "hello, hello, Miss Berry?"
"Hello," He answered the phone slightly confused. The nurse informed him what was going on once he explained he was there teacher. When he informed the kids he was met with a mixture of reactions. Some of them stood there in shock and others burst into tears. It took a short while to get everyone organized into cars before they left for the hospital.
At the hospital Rachel and Puck ran to the nurses' station, Rachel was still clinging to Puck's hand like it was her lifeline. During the car ride she had managed to stop the sobs that had racked her body. Her voice was a lot stronger than how she felt at the moment, "Quinn, Quinn Fabray where is she?"
A friendly-looking nurse with dark brown pixie cut hair came up to the two teenagers, "You must be Rachel Berry?" Rachel just nodded her head, "Hi my name is Sylvia; I'm the one you talked to over the phone."
The brunette was thankful to have a kind nurse instead of a bitchy one like she had when she got laryngitis. "This is Noah." Puck didn't have the energy to correct her, he just nodded his hello. "Where is Quinn? Can we see her?"
"Well, Miss Fabray is in surgery still so you can't see her at this moment?" Rachel squeezed Puck's hand tighter.
Puck finally found his voice, "Do you know what happened? Is she going to be okay?"
Sylvia gave them a sympathetic look, "It seems Quinn was texting and driving and she ran a stop sign. She was hit by a truck on the driver's side. I won't be updated with her condition until she gets out of surgery. If you go sit down over there, I'll come find you and let you know as soon as I find out."
The pair muttered "thank you" and the nurse walked away. Rachel turned to Puck and looked at him, "This is all my fault, Noah. If I hadn't had the wedding today or been texting her, she would be okay." Rachel looked down, not able to see the blame that would surely be in his eyes.
Instead Puck lifted her chin so she would look at him, "Rachel, look at me. This is not your fault. It is just a horrible set of circumstances. You did not make this happen." That's when Rachel collapsed into him, sobbing. He picked her up bridal style and carried her over to the chairs. He was about to set her in her own seat, but she clung to him tighter so he sat down and situated her on his lap. He held her while she cried and every time he would hear her say "it's my fault" he'd reply "no it's not" and rubbed circles on her back. And that's how everyone found them when they arrived. Finn made no move to go to his fiancé; he simply stood by his mother while the rest of the club took seats and huddled around Puck and Rachel. Surprisingly, Brittany took one of the seats next to the pair and grabbed one of Rachel's hands. Brittany may not be the smartest, but she could read people and she could tell Rachel was hurting the most out of everyone.
The kids sat there in silence. They didn't know how long they sat there before the nurse came walking towards them, but to them it felt like an eternity. When Puck saw Nurse Sylvia walking up, he nudged Rachel to get her attention. By now she had stopped vocalizing her mantra of self-blame and they had turned to silent sobs. Sylvia looked around the group of children and the few adults before settling her gaze on the pair she met first, "Quinn is out of surgery. She's going to make it. However, she is still unconscious at the moment and it is very unlikely that she will wake up anytime tonight. I would suggest going home and getting some rest and coming back in the morning to check."
There was a collective sigh of relief as the woman walked away. Mr. Schue began organizing when everyone would meet up again and slowly everyone began to trickle out of the building. Finn left without sparing a glance at Rachel. Finally the only ones that remained were the Berry's, Puck, Blaine, Brittany, and Santana. Rachel finally spoke up, "I'm not leaving."
"Rachel honey, are you sure you don't want to go home and rest?" her father's asked. Sylvia who had heard the girl's declaration made her way over again.
She vigorously shook her head, "No, I can't leave until she wakes up. I won't leave her here alone." Her fathers looked to the nurse for approval and she nodded her consent. Then they asked if anyone else was planning on staying. Puck told them he would stay with her and asked if they would call his mom. The men agreed and they left to go get them some extra clothes.
When they came back, Rachel refused to get up from her spot. That's when Brittany decided to step in. She stood up and pulling on Rachel's hand, "It's ok to get up. I'll go with you to help and you can pretend I'm Puck for a little bit. I'm really good at pretending." Rachel looked up at the girl and let a small smile creep onto her face.
She let Brittany help her out of her spot and she looked to Puck. He nodded, "I'll meet you right back here." Puck grabbed his bag of clothes, Santana grabbed Rachel's bag and her dad's said their goodbyes. The girls headed to the women's bathroom.
Once in the bathroom Santana reached in the bag and pulled out a pair of black yoga pants, a pink V-neck, and a pair of comfortable-looking shoes. After Rachel got changed Santana grabbed her wedding dress and told her she would drop it off at her house for her. Then she started helping Rachel remove her make-up and clean her face, while Brittany took the clips out of her hair and gently brushed it. After they were done Rachel got up and hugged both of them, "thank you so much."
Meanwhile, Puck had made his way to the men's bathroom as soon as Rachel was out of sight, with Blaine following after him. Blaine had stayed seeming to know that if Puck got the chance to be away from Rachel he would need someone. This proved to be true once they got to the restroom. Puck braced himself against the wall and started breathing heavily like he had just run a marathon. Blaine walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. The taller boy looked at Blaine and slid his back down the wall until he reached the ground. Blaine sat down next to him, "I promise I won't tell anyone if you need to cry."
Puck chuckled in spite of himself, "Thanks man." Puck wasn't as close to Blaine as some of the other guys in glee, but he thought he was a cool dude and was glad it was him that had stayed behind. Despite not knowing him long, Blaine seemed to know that Puck needed someone to lighten up the atmosphere at the moment or else he wouldn't be able to keep it together for Rachel. "Do you think we should be worried with Brittany's new fascination with Rachel?"
Blaine smiled, "I think everyone should. Now that Britt and Santana are dating, I think Brittany is looking for another best friend that she can talk to about relationship stuff."
Puck nodded, "Better get changed so I can go to Rach."
"They won't get married, you know. And you'll get your chance someday soon." Blaine looked at Puck judging his reaction.
"What are you talking 'bout?" Puck asked, knowing exactly what he was talking about.
Blaine scoffed, "I haven't been at McKinley long, but I notice thing plus Kurt tells me things. It was easy to piece together that you like her, a lot. I heard Pretending and I know there is no way in hell Finn could write that. You were dating Lauren at the time so the song couldn't have applied to that relationship. You are one of the only people who sticks up for her even if it's in a small way. You "fell in love" with Shelby basically because she has your daughter and she's pretty much just an older version of Rachel."
Puck was kind of shocked that Blaine would know all of that, so he didn't deny that he had feelings for Rachel, "She's in love with Finn. If it weren't for…all this stuff, they would be married by now."
"Yeah, they would, but it wouldn't last long. This accident just set off the ripple effect sooner rather than later. Something would've gone wrong. Finn would want to stay in Lima; she is going to New York. He would get bored or have another change of heart, like I'm pretty sure he is having now. And then she would come to you for comfort, because in the end she always comes to you. You are a constant. She loves you back; she is just confused and scared."
Puck turned to Blaine and just stared at him for a while, not knowing what to say until something he had said stuck out, "Wait what do you mean Finn is having a change of heart?"
Blaine sighed, he had kind of hoped Puck would have missed that comment, "He didn't speak to her the whole entire time we were here. Hell, I don't even think he looked at her. When the nurse said Quinn was out of surgery, he got this look on his face. Finn likes to go from Rachel to Quinn and whenever he feels like he's about to lose the one's he is not with attention he switch. I have a feeling that almost losing Quinn made him feel like he loves her again. And this time once she has time to realize she's done with Finn's shit, which I don't think will take that long this time, don't let some stupid promise you made to Finn hold you back."
"How the hell do you even know about that?" Puck was seriously in awe of Blaine's knowledge of things that happened way before he showed up.
Blaine smirked, "Please, I'm dating the biggest gossip in all of McKinley, who also is the stepbrother of Finn, who can't keep his mouth shut. Finn's just lucky he didn't say anything about it in front of Rachel or that Kurt hasn't said anything to her. Actually you're both lucky."
"Why is that?"
"Well, Rachel would be pissed at Finn for making you promise something like that and she'd be upset with you that you agreed to it."
Puck thought about it and decided Blaine was right then got up, "ok I really do have to change now. And no trying to check me out."
Blaine laughed, "Don't flatter yourself, you are not my type."
"Anderson, I'm everybody's type." Both of them laughed and Puck got changed into the sweatpants and white tee that Rachel's dads brought him. Before they left the restroom Puck splashed some water on his face and ran his hand over his Mohawk. "Ok, let's go."
When Blaine and Puck got back to the waiting area the girls were already there. Brittany was talking animatedly and the other two were listening with smiles on their faces. Britt noticed the boys first, "Puck, Blaine, I was just telling San and Rae about the time Lord Tubbington robbed a bank."
"Awesome, Britt." Blaine smiled at the girl. A little bit later the other three said their goodbyes and left, not before Brittany made Rachel promise they would have a sleepover soon. Sometime during Brittany's story Rachel's hand had found its way into Puck's. The two sat in the chairs with Rachel's head resting on his shoulder.
She was just falling asleep when Nurse Sylvia came over to them. "If you want I can get you somewhere more comfortable to sleep."
"If it's not too much, that'd be cool." Puck told her being polite as possible, she had been really nice to them all day.
Sylvia smiled, "It's nothing. Just follow me." She led them to a lounge of some sort that had a couch. "I would let you use one of the beds, but we can't just in case we need it for a patient needs it. Hardly anyone comes in here so it should be okay. Here's a pillow and a blanket." She grabbed the items from a cabinet in the corner.
"Thank you," Rachel said.
"No problem, sweetie. Just try and get some sleep. Come find me in the morning and I'll take you to Quinn. If you can't find me just ask for my sister Lena and she can take you. Goodnight."
After she left, Puck and Rachel got settled on the couch. Puck laid down first, pulling Rachel down letting her use his chest as a pillow before he maneuvered the blanket over them. Once they were settled they just laid there in silence while Puck ran his fingers through her hair like he had seen Brittany doing earlier. Puck felt a wet spot forming on his shirt and realized Rachel was crying again. "What's wrong, Rach?"
"I'm just so happy she's alive. But what if she blames me, we were just starting to be friends, I don't want her to hate me again."
"She won't blame you, I know it," Puck assured her.
Rachel yawned, "Noah, sing me a song."
"Sure, give me a sec to think of one." Puck thought about it for a moment before thinking of a good one. He sang it quietly to her like a lullaby.
It was a cold California, even in the summer. She was wrapped in a blanket by the pool. There were rapid statements about life commitments. A sense of heat that I couldn't bare to touch, I couldn't bare it.
It's not your fault so please stop your crying now. It's not your fault so please stop your crying now. Please stop your crying now. Woah, woah.
There was staring and seclusion, a fine tuned way of motion, a face wrapped for a suitor. The sound of hearts pumping at the same beat coming 'round the corner, in almost all directions. A sense of heat that I couldn't bare to touch, no, I couldn't bare it.
It's not your fault so please stop your crying now. It's not your fault so please stop your crying now. It's not your fault so please stop your crying now. It's not your fault so please stop your crying.
Now you wait for something to cure this. Well, I'm here under your downpour. No, woah.
It's not your fault so please stop your crying now. It's not your fault so please stop your crying. It's not your fault.
It's not your fault so please stop your crying now. It's not your fault so please stop your crying now. It's not your fault so please stop your crying now. No, woah. It's not your fault so please stop your crying now. No woah, no woah. It's not your fault so please stop your crying now. It's not your fault so please stop your crying now. No…
"Beautiful. Thank you," Rachel sleepily muttered before falling asleep seconds later. Puck kissed the top of her head before closing his eyes and drifting off almost immediately.
AN2: Keep in mind that I wrote this and for some reason proof read it in the very late hours in the night so sorry for any mistakes. :)