A/N: This is not my first story, but this is my first attempt at writing Rachel/Quinn pairing. I hope to write more, but that depends on the feedback I get. All the writing mistakes are mine because I don't using beta's. R&R (:
A Miracle in Disguise
Chapter One: It's a Strange Little Feeling
Quinn wakes to a strange little feeling flowing over her head, it feels like a cool breeze on a warm summers day and she just can't shrug the feeling away. Quinn opens her eyes slowly and everything's a blur, after blinking a few times the room becomes clearer and she realizes what's happened.
"I'm dead." Quinn whispers into the room. The walls are pure white and the only thing in the room she could make out was the table next to her with a vase full of sunflowers sitting directly in the middle.
Quinn flinches as a knock comes upon the door of her room. "Hello?" She sees a few shadows pass by the hall window and she stiffens up as the open cracks open.
"Knock, knock…. Oh I see someone's awake in here!" A cheery nurse slowly opens the door to Quinn's room and grabs a tray of food off the trolley cart outside.
"How are you feeling?" The nurse sits the tray on the stand by Quinn's bed, as she gives Quinn a small polite smile and checks the monitors behind Quinn.
"I feel fine, a little bit chilly and my eyes are kind blurry. Where am I?" The nurse flick the IV drip a few times before looking down at Quinn with the same smile she worn since she walked into the room.
"You'll get used to the chilly feeling and your eyes are trying to adjust to the light. I can't really explain everything to you, so how about I go get your doctor for you?" Quinn nods her head in understanding as another knock came upon the door.
When the door opens Quinn's surprised to see who's standing on the other side. "What are you guys doing here?" A smile overcomes all the glee members' faces as they rush into the room and all start talking at once, Quinn closes her eyes tightly as the pain in her head increase from the noise around her.
"Whoa! You guys can't come barging in here like this. Miss. Fabray just woke up and the strain could make her lapse." Everyone stop and sighs sadly which makes Quinn smile a bit before the realization of the nurse's words set in, making her very confused.
The nurse looks at all the young adults and smiles her cheery smile. "How about we try and make this as simple as possible. Only three people in the room at a time, so I need you all to go outside choose among yourselves and then send three and only three in at a time." The glee members all nod there quickly and mumble their apologies as they leave the room reluctantly.
"Could you call my mother please?" Quinn says quietly to the nurse as the doctor enters the room and takes a look at Quinn's chart.
"Well, well Miss. Fabray I'm glad you could join us." The doctor looks up from the chart and smiles happily at Quinn. The doctor's dimples in her cheeks pop out as she smiles wider at, Quinn can't help but to smile in return.
The doctor was a short blonde haired woman with warm smile and very bright pink scrubs on. "I haven't formerly introduced myself I'm Dr. Robbins." The doctor extends her hand and Quinn returns the jester shaking her hand lightly.
"So Ms. Fabray now that we've introduced ourselves you probably want to know what's happened. Would you like to wait for you mom before I tell you?" Quinn shakes her head and mumbles 'no'.
"Well Quinn let's start with what you can remember." Dr. Robbins sits down on the edge of Quinn's bed and sets her clipboard in her lap.
"I remember driving to the court house. My phone kept going off and I knew it was Rachel telling me to hurry." Then like a flash of light Quinn saw it all once again. Tears start to well up in her eyes and Dr. Robbins puts her hand over Quinn's in comfort.
"I was in an accident.. A truck... A truck hit me while I was answering Rachel's text." Dr. Robbins nods her head and takes a deep breath.
Quinn looks at her doctor in confusion as Dr. Robbins looks away trying not to worry Quinn, but she already saw the sadness flowing out of the doctor's eyes. "There's more isn't there? I'm missing something." Dr. Robbins squeezes Quinn's hand and nods her head slightly.
"When you were brought into the hospital you had internal bleeding in your brain." Tears spill down Quinn's face.
"We did an MRI and her found tumor clusters in your brain." Letting out a sob Quinn covers her face with her hands.
"We were able to get all of the clusters extracted and we stopped the bleeding in record time. Quinn you are a very luck girl." Dr. Robbins wraps her arms around Quinn and holds her tight as Quinn continues to sob uncontrollably.
"I'm not.. I'm not..." Dr. Robbins pulls back from Quinn and smiles through her own tears.
"You're not going to be dying anytime soon. At least not on my watch you aren't. After a little bit of chemo you'll be free to go back to your normal life." Quinn lets of a sigh of release and wipes her face.
Quinn feels that strange feeling once again as she sits up in her hospital bed, she goes to run her fingers through her hair and gasps as her fingers meets her scalp. "I'm sorry, we tried to salvage your hair but we had to shave most of your head to perform the surgery." Quinn's fingers slowly glide along her scalp feeling the new hair that already has grown.
"It'll grow back and be just a beautiful as before." Quinn's eyes shoot up and she sees Rachel standing outside her hospital door with a mournful look on her face.
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"She's right you know." Dr. Robbins smirks as Quinn and Rachel stare at one another not caring there was another person in the room. Dr. Robbins lets this go on for a few moments before she clears her throat, snapping them both out of their fog.
"Well Ms. Fabray I think you've been brought up to speed on everything that's happened. I'll be going now, but if you think of any more questions the nurses know where I'm at." Dr. Robbins smiles at both the girls before leaving the room and disappearing from their sight.
"Come in.. I promise I won't bite." Rachel walks into the room with a jump in her step and sits in the chair next to Quinn's bed.
"I'm so happy you're awake. I got so worried. Everyone was so worried. We've been hoping you'd wake up soon. I'm so happy you're awake." Quinn smiles at Rachel and tries not to laugh.
"What? Is there something on my face? I had something to eat before I came back upstairs." Quinn shakes her head and keeps smiling.
"You were rambling and you repeated yourself twice." Rachel blushes slightly and bows her head.
Quinn reaches out and takes Rachel's hand in hers as she hears Rachel sob quietly. "Rachel I'm going to be fine. Please don't cry." Rachel raises her head and locks eyes with Quinn.
"I'm just so happy you're awake is all." Rachel smiles her bright smile and Quinn wipes Rachel's tears away with the back of her hand.
"Me too." Rachel giggles softly and squeezes Quinn's hand. Quinn goes to run her fingers through her hair again and sighs sadly when her fingers touch scalp instead of smooth straightened hair.
"It'll grow back, it might take a couple of years to get it back to its normal length but it'll come back just a pretty as before." Rachel gazes at Quinn's head and Quinn looks at Rachel confused.
"You want to touch my head?" Rachel's eyes dart away from Quinn as the blush returns to Rachel's cheeks. Rachel hadn't meant to stare but seeing a bald Quinn Fabray clouded her brain.
"No, I.. It's just weird seeing you awake and I was just staring… I mean glancing at your incision and it's almost healed." Quinn raises an eyebrow and looks around the room for a mirror. Rachel watches Quinn and realizes what she's looking for.
"Quinn would you like to see?" Quinn nods frantically as Rachel pulls a mirror from her purse. She hands the mirror to Quinn and Quinn slowly examines her incision.
"It's mostly healed! How long was I asleep?" Quinn looks at Rachel with a serious expression.
"Rachel I said how long was I asleep!" Rachel flinches slightly and avoids eye contact with Quinn.
"You've been asleep for a month three weeks six days and seven hours…" Rachel barely gets out the last bit of information as she bows her head.
Quinn takes a deep breath and closes her eyes trying not to cry again. "So I missed prom and Nationals. Oh my god, I missed my own graduation.." Rachel nods her head not trusting herself to talk.
"I'm going to have to repeat Senior year all over again aren't I?" Rachel takes a deep breath and moves from the chair to sit of the edge of Quinn's bed.
"No, you don't have to repeat Senior year." Quinn looks at Rachel in confusion once again and Rachel takes her hand in hers.
"You had prefect grades and we only had a couple of weeks before we graduated. All you have to do is attend summer school and.." Quinn scoffs and pulls her hand away from Rachel's. She crosses her arms in anger and clenches her jaw.
"How long will is summer school these days?" Rachel shrugs.
"So I go to summer school. Then what? I just go to Yale like nothing ever happened? People will look at me like I'm freak!" Quinn throws the mirror across the room and it slams against the walk.
Quinn covers her face and the tears spill into her hands. "You're not a freak.. You are amazing, you're a survivor. People will look at you, but it's not because you're a freak. You'll different to them, you'll be unique and people will respect you because of it." Quinn sniffles and removes her hands from her face.
"You really think so?" Rachel cups Quinn's cheeks with her hands and wipes Quinn's tears away with her thumbs.
"Yes I do and I'll be with you every step of the way." Quinn eyebrows furrow and she rests her hands on top of Rachel's.
"What do you mean by that?" Rachel smiles and takes one of her hands from Quinn's face. She rummages through her purse and smiles brighter as she pulls out an envelope with the Yale stamp in the top right hand corner.
"Is that mine?" Rachel shakes her head 'no' and Quinn looks at the envelope. It's addressed to the one and only Rachel Barbra Berry.
"I tanked my NYADA audition. I knew I needed a backup school and this came in the mail about a week after.. Well anyways I'll be attending Yale in the fall." Rachel's eyes brighten as Quinn gives her a small smile. Quinn takes the letter from Rachel and studies it carefully.
Quinn looks up at Rachel and smiles happily for the first time since she woke up. "So we're going to Yale together?" Rachel just smiles as Quinn pulls her into a hug.
"So what'd we miss?" Brittany and Santana walk into the room hand in hand and Quinn's smile gets exponentially bigger.
"Oh yay hugs!" Brittany breaks away from Santana and hugs Rachel and Quinn tightly.
Santana walks over to Quinn and rests her hand on Rachel's shoulder. "Brittany not to tight you're going to suffocate Berry and Tubbers." Quinn sighs as Brittany pulls away from their group hug.
"It's nice to see you too Santana." Santana flashes Quinn a smile and sits down on the chair next to the bed; Brittany happily sits on Santana's lap intertwining her fingers with Santana's again.
"So has Rachel filled you in on all the details?" Rachel shrugs and Quinn nods as she sits up in her bed more.
"Oh so you know that Rachel dumped Finnocences!" Quinn's jaw slacked slightly and Rachel gave Santana the death stare of a life time.
"I didn't dump Finn. It was a mutual decision we made together." Rachel glared at Santana as Santana opened her mouth to call 'bull shit'. But Santana saw Rachel's face and let it go as quickly as she thought about calling Rachel's bluff.
A short knock came upon Quinn's hospital door and Rachel got up to answer it. "Quinn!" Quinn's mother Judy rushed passed Rachel and enveloping Quinn in a close hug.
Rachel watches as Quinn's mother sits were she once was sitting and starts talking to Quinn. Santana looks over at Rachel and see's the sadness gleaming in Rachel's eyes.
"You know what I'm saying?" Santana glances at Quinn and smiles then back towards Rachel, but Rachel's already gone. Now there's only an empty doorway where Rachel once stood.
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Quinn couldn't shake the odd feeling in her stomach as she glances at the door for the third time since her mother's been there, Quinn just couldn't understand why Rachel just left without saying goodbye. "Are you okay Quinn?" Quinn smiles at her mother absentmindedly.
"I'm fine. Just a little thirsty is all." Quinn's mother hastily stands up from the edge of Quinn's bed and walks towards the door.
"I'm going to the cafeteria. Does anyone else want anything?" The two girls in the chair shake their heads and Quinn's mother leaves the room.
"Thank god she's gone." Santana raises an eyebrow in surprise and look at Brittany as she cocks her head to the side in confusion.
"What? She's suffocating me!" Santana chuckles as Brittany gets up from Santana's lap and stands beside Quinn.
Brittany takes Quinn's hand in her and smiles happily. "She's just happy your awake now. We all missed you so much." Quinn squeezes Brittany's hand and tries to hold back her tears.
"Quinn I can see your hair growing!" Santana starts to laugh as Brittany lightly runs her hand over the prickly hair that standing straight up on Quinn's head.
"I know Brittany. I can't wait for it to grow out some more. My head is freezing!" Brittany smiles big and grabs her back pack that lies on the floor by the chair. She pulls out a hat that has a monkey face and long tassels with huge cotton balls on the end.
"Here you can wear this!" Quinn's eyes go wide and she stares at Santana, Santana smirks at Quinn and mouths 'Take the hat' Quinn shakes her head slightly and Santana gives her a stern look.
"That's nice of you Britt but I don't think..." Brittany's expression saddens and Quinn snatches the hat from her quickly.
"As I was saying, I don't think it'll match my outfit but I'll happily wear it!" Brittany grins from ear to ear as she sits back down on Santana lap.
"So Rachel…" Santana smiles knowingly at Quinn.
"What about her?" Quinn looks over at the door again and watches as random people walk passed, Quinn stares hoping that maybe one of them will be Rachel.
"She's not going to walk back through that door anytime soon." Quinn looks back at Santana and sighs. Brittany smiles sadly and takes Quinn's hand as if to comfort her.
"She just left. She didn't even say goodbye." Santana shakes her head and wraps her arms around her girlfriend.
"She'll be back tomorrow. Berry and your mom watch you in shifts. But I guess that now you're awake they won't have to do that anymore…" Quinn looks at Santana in disbelief as Judy walks back into the room.
Judy sets Quinn's water down on the stand along with some sandwiches. "So what'd I miss?" Quinn takes her water off the stand and starts gulping it down.
"Well apparently Berry didn't fill 'Q' in on all the details that have been going on around here." Quinn's mother takes the hat from Quinn's lap and places it on her daughter's head.
"There now your head won't freeze. Rachel took the hat that's usually on your head last night. It needed to be washed it smelled like ointment." Quinn puts her glass of water down and sighs.
"Aww! Quinn you look so cute!" Judy and Santana push down there urges to laugh as Quinn blushes slightly in embarrassment.
"Thanks Britt." Quinn shift uncomfortably in her bed and tries to adjust her pillows.
"So back to what Santana was saying. What about Rachel?" Quinn's ears perk up to the sound of Rachel's name and it doesn't go unnoticed by anyone in the room.
"Rachel didn't tell Quinn that's she dumped Finnocences and she also didn't tell her how she was taking care of her while she was asleep." Judy rubs her hand over her mouth as she tries to explain to Quinn why Rachel had to be here on a daily basis.
"Well it's not my place to tell you why Rachel and Finn broke up. But I needed someone's help, I was here 24/7 taking unpaid time off of work. Rachel knew I couldn't be here all the time much longer so she volunteered to help me take care of you." Quinn nodded her head in understanding and slump into her bed.
"So I was an obligation to her. She thought she had to help you because of what happened." Quinn's mother grabs her hand and holds it tight in hers.
"No, Rachel didn't do anything out of obligation. She was here because she is your friend. She took care of you because she loves you. You were no one's obligation, you hear me?" Tears flow down Quinn's cheeks as her mother wraps her arms around her in a tight hug. Quinn holds onto her mother tightly, just as Quinn calms down a loud knock on the door breaks their tight embrace.
"Visiting time is almost over ladies." Santana and Brittany look at Santana's phone and sigh sadly, Quinn smiles slightly at the nurse and she smiles back quickly before walking away.
Brittany stands up then leans down to give Quinn a quick hug as Santana gets up from the chair. "We'll be back tomorrow. You get some rest and make sure to be good to Franklin, he's afraid of the dark." Quinn scrunches her face and mouths 'Franklin?' to Santana, Santana points to the hat and Quinn smiles in understanding.
"I'm going to give these two a ride home and then I'll be back." Quinn's mother squeezes her hand and smiles.
"Mom you don't have to come back just to watch me sleep all night. Why don't you just go home, sleep a little and come in tomorrow morning?" Judy takes a deep breath and looks down at her daughter.
"If that's what you want." Quinn nods her head 'yes' and her mother just smiles through the pain that's developing in her chest.
"Okay then I'll be back tomorrow morning, with breakfast!" Quinn smirks at her mother as Brittany and Santana shake their head and walk towards the door. Quinn's mother walks slowly behind them and turns around as she reaches the door.
"I love you Quinn." Quinn smiles brightly at her mother.
"I love you too mom." Judy waves to her daughter before walking out the door and disappearing into the hospital. Quinn sighs in relief as she stares up at the ceiling and then a light knock comes upon the door.
"Now what?" The cheery nurse enters Quinn's room equipped with a needle and a new IV bag.
"Good evening Ms. Fabray. I just have to change your bag and give you your night meds." Quinn closes her eyes and takes a deep breath as the nurse changes the IV bag and empties the contents of the needle into her IV.
"Don't you ever leave this hospital?" the nurse just smiles brightly and shakes her head 'no' as she takes the trash can and sets it outside the door.
"I'm a nurse. We never leave and we're always here to help." Quinn yawns and stretches by bringing her arms over her back and resting them behind her head.
"Have a good night Ms. Fabray. I'll be seeing you in the morning, bright and early as always!" Quinn smiles sleepily as the nurse turns off the main light and leaves the room, her eyes slowly start to droop as the darkness of the room envelopes her sending her into a deep sleep.
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