The Life of a Psychic
Summary: Rachel has been secretly psychic all her life. But after winning Regionals Junior year a violent vision comes to her that not only scares the Glee Club but also makes her decide to change things
Puckelberry
Other pairings will come and go and will definitely be side dishes for the story. The whole Puck chasing Lauren thing didn't happen for the purposes of this story.
Chapter 1: A Watershed Event
They won. They were going to Nationals in New York! The grin splitting her face as she hugged the nearest club members around her was almost painful. They'd taken a chance on original songs with good results. Rachel released herself from her hug with Mecerdes when she noticed Coach Sylvester making her way across the stage towards the Lieutenent Governor's lush of a wife. And when Sue's fist pulled back to slug the woman Rachel felt a vision coming, the familiar fuzzy vision washed over her doe brown eyes and she felt the warm tickling feeling in her nose the indicated a nose bleed was coming. The blood rushed in her ears dulling the sounds of the stage at Regionals.
Her vision cleared again but now she was on a very different stage with her arms splayed out. She was singing Defying Gravity on Broadway! BROADWAY! Rachel felt sheer joy overwhelm her and she expertly held her notes as she took in the darkened faces of the crowd. She briefly wondered how old she was in this future world but it didn't matter because she made it! All of her dreams would come true. And then it happened...
A gun shot and the worst pain she'd ever experienced radiating up from her abdomen. She stopped singing to look down at her abdomen and saw the blood seeping through her costume. She watched with morbid fascination and then she collapsed in a dead faint.
~-~-~* Present *~-~-~
Puck would have busted out laughing at the sight of Sylvester decking the annoyingly drunk broad if something very wrong wasn't happening. Rachel had just turned around away from Mercedes and was facing the crowd that was silently staring in shock at Coah Sylvester. She was acting strange and Mercedes seemed to be noticing as well. Rachel was lifting her arms out splayed and not making a sound. Then a piercing scream echoed from the crowd and shouts of "CALL 911!"
Puck looked around confused wondering what the big deal was when all of a sudden Rachel started falling towards the stage floor. Puck ducked around Mike and dived around Mercedes to catch Rachel before she busted her head open on the stage. And that is when he saw the blood staining her blue dress and her eyes staring off blankly into space. Blood dripped from her nose and down her cheek and Puck could only stare in horror. More shouting and clambering in the crowd was sounding far away in his ears..."She's been shot!" "The police are coming so nobody leave!" "Don't move her kid..."
Puck jerked his head up and looked at the competition staff that was crouched over him with a cell phone to his ear. The rest of the glee clubs stood back away from Puck and Rachel staring in mixtures of confusion and terror. "911 dispatch says to press on the wound as hard as you can. She's losing blood kid you gotta do something." The competition staff instructed. Puck shakily cradled Rachel down onto her back on the floor and started pressing down with both hands on the heavily bleeding wound on her stomach. She was so fucking small...Puck felt his eyes well up and even though it wasn't badass to cry one of his friends was dying right here in front of him. Any BAMF would cry in his place too!
We were never friends before.
Fuck! Was that the last conversation he was going to have with Berry? She can't go like this she was going to be a fucking star!
"You're doing good kid, keep it up." the man on the phone said and in minutes paramedics rushed in looked Rachel over briefly and then had her wisked away on a stretcher. Puck stood up staring blankly at his hands covered in blood...Rachel's blood...He saw his hands begin to shake but it didn't feel real it all felt like some kind of nightmare. Puck looked up towards the rest of New Directions. They were all either on the phone or staring at him with almost pleading looks...like they were asking him what the fuck happened.
Mr. Shue hung up his cell phone and turned towards the glee gang. "The Berrys have been informed and the school called. They are taking Rachel to the hospital we should go. Make sure you get your parent's permission. Figgins says we can use the bus..." The gleeks all nodded and some started fishing out their cell phones.
The drive to the hospital was relatively quiet and the first part of the wait was too. That is until Hiram and James Berry burst through the double doors at the front entrance of the emergency waiting room and started asking questions in rapid fire. Mr. Shue tried to answer them the best he could while the questions started making the gleeks turn to each other for answers.
"I didn't hear a gun shot...?" Mercedes murmured in confusion. "She just turned towards the crowd and held her arms up like she was hearing applause or something..."
"I didn't hear anything either and it was dead silent in the theater cause of Sylvester knocking out that woman." Quinn murmured back. She turned to look at Puck who was staring down at his hands. Quinn's nose scrunched up at the sight of the dried blood on Puck's hands and she turned to Finn nudging his side. "Puck should wash his hands..." she whispered to him.
Finn looked over at Puck and his eyes widened and he scrambled his tall form out of the waiting room chair. He went over to Puck and gave his shoulder a shake after calling his name didn't seem to get his attention. "Hey man com'on you need to wash your hands." Puck's head shot up and Finn's eyes widened when he saw the unshed tears there. But Puck quickly dawned the most angry scowl Finn had ever seen on his tentatively-best friend. Puck pushed out of his seat roughly and ran towards the bathrooms.
Finn went back to his seat hesitantly and Mike and Sam moved closer to him, Artie wheeled himself up to join the guys. "Puck's been acting weird."
Mike kinked an eyebrow at Finn's denseness. "He's acting weird cause Rach could be dead right now and he was the one with her before the ambulance came. I'd be freaking out with guilt and worry too...heck I kind of am freakin'!" He pulled Tina into his lap and she lightly ran her fingers through his hair.
The double doors burst open again and the entire Warblers group came in with Kurt and Blaine at the head of the pack. Kurt looked close to tears his face flushed as if he'd already been crying. "Is there any news yet?" he asked walking purposefully up to the gleeks. When they shook their heads no he collapsed into the nearest open chair and Blaine hesitantly sat down next to him and took his hand.
"They're searching all the audience members and staff for a gun but they've not found anyone yet. And some people left before they locked everyone in." Blaine said as he tried to soothe Kurt by rubbing a thumb over the other boy's knuckles.
Puck made his return known by grunting out harshly. "And they won't find one!" The gleeks and Warblers turned towards him in surprise and he crossed his newly cleaned arms.
"And what makes you say that?" Artie asked curiously.
"Cause she wasn't shot!" When they all gave him faces indicating they thought he was crazy he listed off his evidence. "First of all no one heard a gun shot right? Then there is the fact that there was no hole in her dress. It must be some kind of mother fucking ninja bullet to do that shit!" Puck had started pacing and the Berrys were making there way over to the group. "She just...She just started bleeding for no reason! And she looked like she was dazed or something! This is so not normal! Fuck!" His last explative was accompanied with him kicking over a table that had magazines on it. He stormed out of the waiting room before a nurse could demand he leave.
Mike and Finn stood up and followed him to make sure he was okay just as a small elderly nurse came into the room.
"Mr. Berry?"
"Yes?" Hiram and James answered at the same time and the nurse looked between them with mild confusion.
"Your daughter is in stable condition and is in no immediate danger but we would like to keep her overnight for observation." the nurse explained and a wave of relief washed over the large group. "Umm are you all here to see Rachel Berry?" the nurse asked in shock and when they affirmed her theory she puzzled for a minute. "Her father...s.. can go back to see her and ask her if she feels up for coming down in a wheelchair to see you all. But we can't have such a large group wandering through the halls especially after visiting hours." The nurse explained and then escorted the Berrys out of the waiting room.
While the Berry Daddies talked to Rachel Finn and Mike found Puck sitting against the outer wall of the hospital with his face in his hands and his knees propping up his arms. The two fellow glee jocks sat on either side of him in silence for a little bit until Puck's shoulders seemed to slump in defeat.
"What the fuck happened?" Puck murmured.
Finn and Mike exchanged looks from behind Puck and then each placed a hand on his shoulders. "We don't know man but right now it doesn't matter." said Mike.
"Yeah right now we gotta be here for Rachel." Finn finished with giving Puck's shoulder a squeeze.
Puck sat in silence again for about twenty minutes and eventually Finn and Mike took back their hands. Puck sighed. "I'm just so angry...and usually I'm angry for stupid shit like getting busted shoplifting from the 7-eleven but this...this is serious. She looked like she was fucking dead, man and we're like the Glee MEN ya know?" Puck looked up at each of his friends with a scowl because the looks on their faces showed they really had no idea what he was talking about. "Berry and the other girls are like...small and-and we are big athletic BAMFs that should fucking protect them! But looking back on what happened I couldn't do SHIT for her!"
Finn and Mike nodded in silent agreement. "But dude you did more than any of us. You practically saved her man!" Mike piped up. "We aren't doctors we can't do anything about a bleeding wound but we can be there for Rachel now right?"
Puck knew he was right it was just difficult to think of how he'd failed Rachel because the feeling was so much worse than one he was already familiar with. He always felt like he was failing his mother and sister. That because his dead beat dad left he should be the man of the house and often he was fucking up royally.
Puck sighed again feeling himself calm down the more the two knuckle heads on either side babbled about how awesome he was catching Berry. He stood up suddenly and started marching purposefully back to the hospital doors. "C'mon you lazy bastards we gotta find out if there is news!" Finn and Mike rolled their eyes and got up to follow their mohawked friend.
While the three stooges talked outside Rachel was wheeled into the waiting room by Hiram Berry. She was wearing a hospital gown that completely covered the bandages beneath and she looked a little hagard but she beamed up at her club companions. "Hello everyone!"
When the whole club burst into questions Mr. Shue stepped forward to lead the questioning after shouting down the club to be quiet. "How are you feeling Rachel?" he asked tentatively.
Rachel frowned...or maybe it was a pout? "They won't let me go to dance class tomorrow...and I feel perfectly fine!" she added over her shoulder to her fathers who were used to her dramatics and just rolled their eyes.
Kurt stepped and crouched forward to hug Rachel about the shoulders tightly. "Don't do that to me again diva or I'll take every animal sweater in your closet and make a pyre of tackiness!" Rachel rolled her eyes and hugged Kurt back.
The club then jumped into asking questions and Rachel and her fathers answered the best they could though doctors were not sure yet what caused her injuries. Rachel knew but she was not going to tell anyone. She hadn't told anyone ever in her entire 17 years and she was not about to start now. Who would believe she had visions from the past and future and that sometimes there were residual side effects like the bullet wound she'd acquired tonight? No one, they already thought she was crazy, no need to give them fodder.
"I'm rather surprised that I did not sustain a concussion when I fainted." Rachel said as she reached behind her head to feel for a bump.
Kurt got a gleeful grin on his face. "Well actually the reason for that is your knight in hideous mohawk caught you before you hit the floor! And then he pressed on your stomach to stop your bleeding!" Kurt was practically giddy to share this piece of gossip.
Rachel blinked in silent shock for a minute and then whispered tentatively. "Noah? He caught me?" At the affirmative nods around the room Rachel's eyes began to seek out the brooding teenage boy. "Where is Noah?"
And just as she finished her question Puck came back into the waiting room followed by Finn and Mike. He spotted Rachel and quickly strode up to her. He seemed to silently peruse her and she just stared up at him with a slow smile creeping onto her face. He seemed to come to the conclusion that she was okay and he nodded with a disinterested look. "Sup?"
Rachel rolled her eyes and then started to stand from the wheelchair, she ignored her father's begging for her to sit and she stepped up to Puck. "You saved me?" She asked looking up at him with an openly affectionate gaze. Puck felt a hot flush creep up his neck to his ears and he self consciously rubbed the back of his neck.
"Sorta...No big deal..." he grumbled embarrassed by the intense gaze of everyone in the room. Rachel grinned and then she shuffled foward to press a gentle hug around Puck. He blinked in surprise and looked down at the small girl who would probably normally throw her arms around someone in enthusiasm for a hug but was now acting like a meek mouse because of her injury. He wrapped his awesome guns around her petite frame and didn't put any pressure into the hug at all. 'So small and fragile...fuck what is wrong with me? What sort of shit am I thinking? It's from talking to those two homos outside about feelings it's gotta be their faults!'
Rachel looked up at him and all thought flew from his mind at her gentle smile. "Thank you Noah."
His mouth fell open but no words came to him. And he was saved from an awkward silence by a nurse. "Ms. Berry will need to go back to her room now. She will be released tomorrow for home care and you all may see her then if the Berry's approve. Now off with you lot!" The stern elderly nurse started to shoo out the two glee clubs. Puck helped Rachel ease back into her wheelchair and with a parting smile he left the hospital.
Chapter 2: Puck and Rachel develop a friendship through him volunteering to help get her to, from, and around school. The Glee gang begins speculating on what happened to Rachel at Regionals.