Down the Rabbit Hole

"Quinn?"

"Quinn?"

"Quinn?"

Dianna opened her eyes a notch and squinted up at the little brunette shaking her shoulder vigorously.

"Huh? Whassit?"

She groaned and raised her head, brushing her golden locks from her face with her arm.

"Hey baby", she said groggily. "What time is it?"

She was surprised to hear a girlish giggle. She looked up to see a round face with a big smile and expressive brown eyes looking at her.

"You called me baby!"

Dianna looked at her nonplussed. "What's with you?" she asked.

"How can you ask me that when you're the one behaving strangely, Quinn?" the girl asked with a solemn expression.

"Why do you keep calling me that?" Dianna frowned

"Calling you what, Quinn?" asked the girl, looking confused.

"That. Quinn."

The girl looked a little worried now. "Quinn, are you feeling quite alright?"

"Lea…" Dianna began

"Quinn, it's me, Rachel."

"Ha, Ha. Very funny. What the hell are we doing on set and where's everyone else – and why are you in costume?"

Rachel looked down momentarily at her argyle sweater then back up at Quinn with concern. "Quinn, are you still dreaming?"

Dianna looked at her, exasperated. "Stop it, Lea, this isn't funny anymore."

Rachel shifted nervously. "Quinn, I think you need to see the school nurse. I think you're unwell."

The internal voice that had been bothering Dianna suddenly grew sharper and more focused.

"Where are we?" she said looking around before realizing with a shock that they were on the choir room set.

Except it wasn't a set. And there were no cameras. Or a cast or a crew. This actually was a choir room. One that looked exactly like the one they had on Glee. And all of a sudden, the walls were closing in on her. Dianna felt her knees give as she crumpled. Her last memory was of Rachel gasping and trying to hold her up as she went down like a sack of potatoes.

Dianna awoke on an unfamiliar bed in an unfamiliar room – that was still swimming a little bit. Her head was splitting and her body felt a little warm. She screwed her eyes tight shut, willing it to stop. She could hear voices whispering, seemingly floating somewhere above her. She opened her eyes again, silently praying that she would wake up and find that she had been dreaming.

Nope.

Still dreaming.

In vivid color, featuring Rachel Berry in maroon argyle, to boot. Rachel Berry, talking to someone with a very concerned expression on her face. Wait, who's she talking to?

As if in response, the stranger – was that a nurse's uniform? – turned to face her.

"Je…Jessalyn?" she managed to stammer out, gaping at her.

She felt a hand on her shoulder. "How are you feeling dear?"

"Great" she lied. "What's going on? Are you back on the show?"

She watched the nurse exchange a glance with Rachel.

"Quinn" she said, "I'm afraid you're not well. You have a slight fever which seems to be making you delirious."

She paused "Do you know who I am?"

"Mrs. Schuester?" asked Dianna hesitatingly.

The nurse frowned. "I'm the school nurse, Quinn. Mrs. Liddell. Mrs. Schuester was fired last year for handing out pseudoephedrine like candy."

Quinn closed her eyes again. Great. Her mind was recycling faces now. Come to think of it, she couldn't really remember seeing anyone other than Jessalyn in the nurse's role, maybe that's all it could come up with it?

Mrs. Liddell?

Now why does that name sound familiar?

"Can I go now?" she asked finally.

She felt a hand touching her lightly. Ms. Rachel Berry, presumably.

"Quinn, Mrs. Liddell and I agree that you need to go to the hospital for a CT scan. Since she can't leave her post and my daddy works there, we decided that it's best if I take you."

Wait. Berry's dad is a doctor? Huh. Why isn't she rich then?

"So your dad's a doctor?"

She could see Rachel frowning slightly and biting her lip. It clearly wasn't the right thing to say.

"You know that my daddy had to drop out of med. school because his parents disowned him when he came out."

"Why would I know that?"

Rachel was fairly glaring now "It was *your* dad that outed him, remember?"

Dianna almost groaned out aloud. Really, Ryan? Is there a writer's strike on that I don't know about? Who writes this crap?

"I'm sorry" she mumbled. "I'm clearly having trouble remembering things. What does your dad do at the hospital?"

"He's currently a nursing assistant, but he's doing night classes to put himself through med. school. He's graduating this year" she said, with a hint of pride.

"I'm sorry … and… glad he's finally getting to do what he wants, I guess…" Dianna offered.

Rachel beamed at her. It really didn't take that much with this girl, did it. Regardless, she was quite adorable thought Dianna before frowning at herself.

Dianna could see that Rachel was wresting with herself about something. She finally appeared to make up her mind. She cleared her throat "Quinn, can I ask you something?"

"Yes, Rachel"

"In your dream", she continued, haltingly "did we… I mean, were we…"

"It's okay, Rachel, you can ask me anything" Dianna said reassuringly

"Were we friends?" Rachel blurted out, blushing.

"Yes" Dianna replied, and then added "and more."

She watched closely as the little brunette looked perplexed for an instant before emitting a small gasp and turning beet red.

Adorable.

If she had to spend any amount of time in this place, it had better be with this girl.