This is a collaboration story with BroadwayBabeWA. William Schuester runs into April again, 3 years after the current Group of New Directions has graduated from McKinley. He also faces another challenge, Rachel Berry's return to Lima.
DISCLAIMER: We own none of the recognizable material used in this story… unfortunately. BUT we do own the plot of this story… just not the characters.
GREYHOUND BUS STATION
DAYTON, OHIO
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2014
Rachel Berry, who is now twenty three, sighed as her bus pulled into the station in Dayton. She'd been on the bus all night and was ready to sleep in a real bed. She however, was terrified to go home to her Daddies so she began contemplating who to call.
Kurt had moved to California, Quinn and Finn were together and had a daughter, Puck was seeing someone. Mercedes was also in California, and Artie and Tina were on their honeymoon.
She scrolled through her address book and stumbled upon a number of someone who might actually be helpful to her, William Schuester.
She nervously pressed call and prayed he'd answer, she was terrified as the phone began ringing and a very familiar "Hello," answered.
"Mr. Schue?" the young woman timidly asks.
"Rachel? What's up?" he asks, becoming a tad bit worried.
"Can… can you come get me? I'm in Dayton, at the Greyhound station…" the Broadway Actress replies, afraid of his response. She doesn't want him to turn her down because she wouldn't have anywhere to go that wasn't her Daddies' house.
"What's wrong? Are you okay?" the man asks, beginning to think about how April would react when he explained to her that he'd have to go pick up Rachel from the bus station.
"Uhm, we'll talk about that later. Just please come get me, I'm scared someone's gonna recognize me." the woman timidly answers.
"Don't worry Rachel. I'm on my way, hang in there for about an hour okay?" the man replies.
"Thanks Schue…" Rachel quietly whispers and hangs up.
WILLIAM SCHUESTER'S APARTMENT
LIMA, OHIO
12:45pm
Will walks into his living room and looks at April, who's reading one of her textbooks. She'd recently come back from another failed journey to New York City and wanted to really finish her diploma. He smiles and sits down.
"April, I have to go run an errand…" he says, carefully choosing his words.
"What do you need? Can I come? I hate studying," the blonde woman asks.
"Hey, it would be better if you stayed. Rachel's back in town. She called me and sounded really scared, she's at the Greyhound station in Dayton and doesn't want to go to her Daddies. She asked me to come stay for awhile. And I'm not leaving her at a bus station all afternoon if something's wrong with her, I just want to make sure she's okay," the man explains.
"Oh, poor thing. Well, I hope she's okay. I guess I'm gonna stay here and make myself somethin' to eat," the woman replies.
The man grabs his keys and coat, an extra one for Rachel just incase, and smiles back at April when he walks out the door.
45 MINUTES LATER
GREYHOUND STATION
DAYTON, OHIO
William pulled in the parking lot and got out of the car. He dug in his pocket for his phone and dialed Rachel's number, hoping she was still okay.
"Mr… Schue?" the troubled actress answered.
"Rachel? I'm here, where are you?" the man calmly tells her.
"I… I'm sitting on the bench right inside the door. I'll walk outside and meet you…" the black haired woman tells him.
"Okay. Try to calm down okay? I'm here now." the curly haired Spanish teacher replies.
He hears the young woman take a deep breath and then the phone clicks, telling him she'd hung up. Five minutes later he is greeted by a woman wearing black sweatpants, an old McKinley Glee Club shirt, but no coat. This makes him wonder if she left in a hurry to get out of a bad situation. He notices that her eyes are tear stained.
"Rachel?" he calmly greets her.
"Mr. Schue?" She replies, biting back a fresh wave of tears. He smiles, and hands her the extra coat he'd brought. "Rachel, put this on. It's freezing. Are you alright?"
"Let's just get out of the cold. I'm really, really tired," the woman says, taking the coat and walking towards his car.
"Okay Rachel…" he replies, smiling when she gets to his beat up car faster than him.
~•~•~•~•~•~
The ride to Mr. Schue's apartment was pretty quiet except for a bit of small talk and the humming of the engine and the radio. Rachel fell asleep shortly after they left the station, but was pretty restless in her sleep and he was getting worried.
The majority of the ride was okay, until they were about five minutes from the apartment complex. Rachel had been pretty restless throughout the ride and was whimpering.
All of a sudden, she screams, "NO GET OUT! STOP HURTING ME!" but much to Mr. Schue's surprise she doesn't wake up.
Thankfully they are at a red light and he is able to reach over and put his hand on her shoulder.
"Rachel? Hey, you're having a bad dream. It's okay," he comfortingly says.
The girl's eyes flutter open and fresh tears fall again. She flinches when he feels his strong hand on her shoulder. He calmly puts his hand back on the steering wheel and doesn't say anything more because she had gone right back to sleep.
Within three minutes they have pulled in the parking lot of the apartment complex and Will shuts off the car. Rachel doesn't budge so he gets out as quietly as he can. He walks around to the passenger side of his car and gently opens the door.
"Rachel? Hey, we're here…" he calmly explains, not touching her this time.
Her eyes slowly open, and look around. She realizes how close he is to her and scoots as far into the car as she can.
"What's wrong, Rach?" Mr. Shue asks.
The woman doesn't respond, instead she buries her head in her hands and tries not to look at him.
"Come on, I don't want you out in the cold all afternoon okay?" Will encourages.
"DON'T TOUCH ME!" she screams, starting to cry.
"Hey, I'm not going to. It's okay. Just hang tight right here for a few minutes alright? I'm going to go get April. Everything's okay…" the curly haired man explains, trying to comfort her.
Rachel doesn't reply, but continues to cry as Will shuts the car door and walks towards his apartment.
