When she first wakes, nothing makes sense. It's not that she can't remember things, she can. She can remember names and see faces, but she can't match them together. Everything is fuzzy and out of place.
The only clear things are the feeling of holding her daughter for the first time, and seeing the most beautiful woman she's ever known in a wedding dress.
She wakes up properly, and panics when there's no sign of her little girl or the woman in the dress. Her panic is short lived.
There's a sudden explosion of pain in her side and back that causes her to forget about everything but screaming for help. But when she opens her mouth, no sound comes out, and she becomes aware of something in her throat, choking her. The panic returns.
She falls back into unconsciousness before the nurses arrive.
~S~
The next time, she wakes slowly. She feels heavy and groggy, as if she's hung over. She blinks her eyes several times, trying to focus on the shape in front of her. It looks like a person.
A few more blinks reveal a woman with long dark hair standing with her back to Quinn. Rachel.
"Rach," Quinn croaks. Rachel turns around, and Quinn notices for the first time that she's holding a sleepy little blonde girl in her arms.
"Quinn! You're awake." Rachel steps closer to the bed. The movement and the voices rouse the little girl, who is about to cry when she takes notice of Quinn and begins babbling happily. "You scared us." Rachel looks down at the child, lightly tickling her, which causes her to giggle. "Yeah, mommy scared us, didn't she Bethy?"
Quinn sits up a little and stretches her arms out towards Rachel.
"Come see me, Beth?" Beth leans over, almost falling out of Rachel's arms.
"Mommy!" Rachel passes Beth over to Quinn, and the girl grabs on tightly and continues to babble. Quinn laughs, which leads into a coughing fit caused by her dry throat. She's about to ask Rachel for water when a cup with a straw in it is held in front of her.
When Quinn is done drinking, Rachel sets the cup on the bedside table and places a hand on Quinn's shoulder. Quinn nuzzles the hand with her cheek, then adjusts her grip on Beth so she can take hold of Rachel's free left hand.
Rachel grips Quinn's hand tightly, and Quinn runs her thumb over the gold band on her ring finger.
"I was so scared, Quinn. I thought we were going to lose you," Rachel says tearfully. She's careful to keep her voice quiet enough to not disturb Beth.
"It's okay Rach. I'm here. I'm fine." She frowns. "I am fine, right?"
Rachel nods.
"You broke a leg, and a couple ribs, and they want to keep you a while to check for a concussion, but you'll be okay." Rachel starts to tear up again. "I don't what we'd do if anything – "
"Rachel. Stop, I'm okay."
Beth, who had been hiding her face against Quinn's shoulder, looks up and sees Rachel crying.
"Ma!" she calls to Rachel, holding her arms out. Rachel picks her up, while Quinn watches with a smile on her face.
"It's okay, baby. I'm just happy mommy's okay."
Quinn's eyelids begin to droop, and she feels the warm sleepy feeling envelop her. "Go back to sleep, Quinn. We'll still be here when you wake up." The last thing Quinn sees before sleep reclaims her is Rachel rocking their daughter back to sleep.
~S~
When she wakes up again, something is different. The room feels colder and emptier. She can hardly move, and hungover feeling is back in full force, as is her dry throat.
She manages to turn her head slightly, and sees Rachel asleep in the chair beside the bed. She looks different, tired. She's wearing sweatpants and an oversized Cheerios sweater, and has her hair in a messy ponytail.
Something isn't right.
Quinn calls for Rachel. Well, she tries. It comes out as more of a gasp.
Rachel doesn't wake up right away, she just shifts in her chair. In doing so, her left hand becomes visible. On her ring finger, instead of the gold band that Quinn thought should be there, is a thin silver ring with a small diamond on it.
Then everything clicks into place. The dream her mind created out of jumbled bits of memory unravels. The cold hard reality of the situation settles on her, and it's even worse than before. She had accepted that neither Rachel or Beth would ever be hers. But after that brief golden moment when she had her perfect little family, it feels like she's lost them all over again.
Rachel notices she's awake and begins to fuss over her. Quinn squeezes her eyes shut, so she doesn't have to look at Rachel, and so Rachel doesn't see her tears.