So a couple of caveats, I've only written Chuck fanfic so this is completely out of left field at least for me. This is my first Glee fic and first non canon pairing (Rachel & Quinn). It's a slow build of what it would take for someone like Quinn to befriend someone like Rachel.

Its future fic and the idea popped in my head and would not leave. Tell me if its any good. I will finish it but cannot promise when. It's a stretch to write but the premise was challenging for me and surprisingly triggers my writing muse.

My Future In Your Hands

You must think that something is happening with you, that life

has not forgotten you, that it holds you in its hand; it will not let you fall. . . .

Rainer Maria Rilke

Quinn comes awake relatively quickly, a skill honed by years of practice. Her hand shoots to the side table and grabs the pager, silencing it before it wakes up her sleeping companion. She can feel his arm slung over her back and regrets the last three drinks she had consumed at the bar before accepting his invite back to his place.

"Hhunnh, what's going on?" She hears him slur and winces at the fact that once again, she hasn't taken the time to remember his name before answering him.

"It's the hospital. I have to go in. Um.." She trails off as she sits up, her back to him. She's not ashamed but she can still feel her cheeks tinge red as she tries to gather the sheet around her while trying to find all her clothes discarded from last night.

"Quinn, will I see you again?" His voice is sweet and has just the right amount of uncertainty that she feels her heart melt a little. However, try as she might, she can't bridge the physical connection with an emotional one. Perhaps it's just her but all her relationships have never had a spark beyond the physical. She used to think it was just a matter of time. Time not spent at the hospital on 36 hour shifts or in bars after, trying to forget. She knows that her emotional connections with her patients won't be enough but at least it helps.

"Charlie..you're a ..you're a good guy."Her voice is low and she sees his smile falter at her words and she's glad she at least got his name right.

"And you just don't have the time or inclination to even just be friends?" She can hear the slight hurt in his voice and she takes the time to button her shirt before answering.

"I..I have to go. I'll try and call you."Quinn knows it's a copout but her patients have always come first and she's perfected the art of compartmentalization so well that she's already talking to her service to see what medical emergency needs her attention, even before she can hear Charlie's reply. With double board certification by The American Board of Plastic Surgery and The American Board of Otolaryngology, she wondered which one of her specialties was needed tonight.

#$#$#$

Rachel takes her third bow before blowing her final kiss towards the audience and rushing back to her dressing room, the applause still ringing in her ears. Though she's always known that she's lived for the applause, she's come to realize that she loves to sing regardless and that's what scares her the most.

"Hey, Rach, you were magnificent tonight. But you're magnificent every night." She feels Tony's hand around her waist and his breath as he whispers in her ear. "You want to come over to our place and watch I Love Lucy Reruns? Tina specifically asks me to tell you that you're not allowed to wallow." Tony Price, choreographer and Tina's husband followed her into her dressing room.

"I am not wallowing." Her words lack conviction as her eyes fall on the plain manila folder on her table. She cannot grasp how something so innocuous could contain something that could silence her forever.

Rachel knows she's prone to over-exaggeration. It's a pre-requisite for any diva but she wishes that for once it was just that, her penchant for drama magnifying a problem that was in effect not that serious. However with words like Lymphoma, vocal nodes, pre nodules and the rest of the medical jargon, she knows that she's actually at a stage where she's probably not reacting enough. Even Tina, her oldest friend from high school was worried so much so that she sent Tony back stage every night this week.

"Hey, where did you go?" Tony's never been perceptive except with Tina and even then, it had taken the eight years they had been together to finally be able to read her moods. With Rachel, he never really had to as she would always, and he really meant always, tell him what she was feeling or thinking and more times than not, she would do it in song. The first time they met over ten years ago at an off, off, off Broadway open call, she had already told him of her life story and thirty year plan in the span it took them from their first cattle call on stage to being the last of a group of ten to remain at the end of the day.

He had been the aspiring triple threat then, actor, singer and dancer only to be put to shame as soon as she stepped into the spotlight. Even then, barely twenty one, she had that poise that would earn her that first Tony when she was twenty three and her next two before she hit thirty. Her career taking off like a rocket, movie and TV roles and two albums as other awards piled up. Always using her voice to convey every emotion she could. It scared him to think that it could all vanish.

"She lets out a ragged sigh, not wanting to put voice to her greatest fear. Using her doctor's advice, for once, she just shakes her head as she walks towards the bathroom, hoping that her tears will not fall until she gets the shower running.

"I'll wait for you." She nods at his words, comforted by the fact that he's not going to push. She knows that he and Tina will be there for her tomorrow if she asks them and she wonders if they will be enough to help her through her greatest fear. She had prayed so hard that the voice rehabilitation therapy would work until she finally had to face the truth.

The appointment had been set for tomorrow, one of the top three Otolaryngologist in the country was working at New York Presbyterian Hospital and by some miracle, not only did her manager get her an appointment but she had also ensured that Rachel's name wasn't even used. No one would have to know that she was going to lose her voice, at least not yet. She can't even face it herself and wonders what she'll do when it finally occurs.

It's been her one defining feature and without it, Rachel Berry really does not know who she is.

#$#$#$#

"You have got to be kidding me!" The exasperation in Quinn's voice is palpable as she places her hands on her hips, takes a deep breath before heading to the Chief's office. There had to be a good reason why two of her surgeries had been removed from the board. She does not want to jump to any conclusions but she knows that despite her accolades in her fields of expertise, she's still the youngest attending at New York Presbyterian and that meant sometimes being at the bottom of the food chain compared to the more established Attendings or Heads of Departments.

"Chief Young, can I talk to you." She can hear the slight confrontational tone in her voice and forces herself to take another deep breath before approaching the man standing next to the elevator.

"Dr Fabray, Quinn, just the person I wanted to talk to as well." Alex Young despite his surname was in his mid fifties and had been chief for the past ten years. He was a Cardiothoracic surgeon and a legend with a scalpel. He was also the father than Quinn no longer had, at least for as long as she worked in the hospital, starting out as a lowly intern.

"Chief, I know I've been here since two this morning but I took a nap in one of the on call rooms and I can handle an adenoidectomy and a tonsillectomy in my sleep so I cannot understand why they've been removed from the board." If she had her hair up in her old trademark ponytail, she was almost sure, she would have given it a flip for added emphasis.

"They haven't been canceled as much as postponed." He holds up his hand proffering a file, silencing her next words as she takes it, her eyes questioning. "You've been requested on a special consult, the scans and partial anamnesis is in that folder, along with the clinical report from the patient's current personal physician."

Quinn takes the file and flips through the pages absorbing specific pieces of information before asking her next question. "Why a special consult? It's relatively minor surgery. Just general anesthesia and a few snips that even a resident could perform it?" She does not see a name attached to the patient's history and reads through the report of the vocology therapy that the patient had undergone, finally realizing that all the treatments thus far pointed to surgery as a last resort.

Alex sees the comprehension dawn on her face and marvels at how quickly she's put everything together. He almost does not want to ruin her mood but knows that she values honestly above all else. "The consult is special because it's offsite at a private clinic, address is in the file and because.."

"He or she is someone famous." Quinn finishes the sentence.

"One of the Hospital Trustees called in a favor. And before you ask, I don't know who it is. Just that it has to be kept secret and they really need the best." He's not flattering her because it's the truth. From an ENT perspective she is one of a handful considered brilliant in the field. The fact that she also passed the boards for Plastics and focused mainly on reconstructive surgery and not cosmetic surgery showed her dedication to improving the lives of her patients when they needed her most.

"Fine. But you owe me and that means another free two hours use of the operating theatre next month." She donates her time every now and then at a free clinic downtown but it was never nearly enough and usage of an operating theatre would allow her to do so much more. She does not wait for Alex to answer and checks her watch as she turns to walk to her office and study the file. She does not like treating people who tend to feel that they warranted extra special treatment because they were famous or rich but she stands by the Hippocratic oath and knows that she'll at least be able to help Mrs Sanchez's daughter with her cleft palette next month.

#$#$#$#

"Please, come and sit down before you wear out the carpet." Tina's voice is the epitome of patience because she understands the immense fear that Rachel is experiencing. She can empathize even though her voice had never been in the same league as Rachel, it was still how she made a living. However, she knows that with Rachel, it was more than that and that was why the brunette was so scared. "You don't know what the doctor's going to say and worrying about it only leads to stress and possibly buying new shoes for you because you're wearing them out."

Rachel opens her mouth to answer, only to snap it shut because she really does not know what to say. Tina was right but the problem was that when she was worried, she sang and talked and sometimes on occasion, shouted. All stress relieving activities that she could not partake of because the nodules on her vocal cords were getting worse and every time she sang on stage, she could feel her voice lose just a little of its luster.

Both Tony and Tina swore that she sounded the same but she knew. She knew she didn't and eventually other people would know as well. She's facing Tina when she hears the door open and it's the expression on Tina's face that gives her pause. But it's when Tina says the name, that she feels like she's been hit by a two by four.

"Quinn?"

End Part 1