Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 53rd cycle. Now cycle 54!


This is a double shift day. There will be one more upload today: Siren Call, chapter 3.


"Technicolor Wishes & Hi-Def Dreams"
Rachel/Puck

1. Slip Into the World Of…

(A/N: This story is a wedding present for dearest mag721, who got married
*gasp* ten days ago already! I wanted to do something very special for that occasion,
so this is how this story came to be. This plot and many of its elements were requested
by her, for her, so I ask that you keep that in mind as you (hopefully) read on.
Come on, it'll be fun ;))

When she'd come to him with the request, he thought for sure that he must have heard wrong. He never could imagine Rachel Berry asking him, for all intents and purposes, to commit a crime. But she had shown up at his house one night, asking him to break into McKinley High with her. She wouldn't say why, which made him ready to shut the door in her face, so finally she had come clean. She explained how she had overslept and missed a deadline to hand in a paper, already something unusual for her. She wanted to get in to the school so she could slip it into the pile, like nothing had gone wrong.

"Isn't that cheating?" he asked. She tried not to break her stare, though he could see her conscience fighting against her.

"It's my own paper, so it's not like I copied it or had someone else do it under my name," she reasoned. "Look, if you don't want to do it, I'm sure I can figure out a way on my own," she got up and turned to leave.

"Rachel, wait…" he sighed, getting hold of her arm before she could get very far. She turned back to him. "If I can't stop you, then I should probably help make sure you don't land in jail or something. You wouldn't last the night."

"I'll… take that as a compliment?" she frowned.

"Let me just grab a couple things," he told her, heading out to the garage. When he returned, he had a bag slung over his shoulder. "Come on," he motioned for her to follow.

They had driven up one block away from the school, in case someone saw the car and decided to go check on the school. When they got out of the car, he put the bag on the hood and took off his jacket before holding it out to her. "What are you doing?" she asked. "I have a coat…"

"Yeah, a red one. They would have caught you in a second if I wasn't here," he told her. "Now take it off and put mine on." She tried not to look so annoyed before doing as he told her.

"Guess it's a good thing you changed your mind." She gave him her red coat and he tossed it in the back seat before shutting the door, turning to find her pulling her hair free from inside the jacket collar. "I'm swimming in this…" she pulled up the sleeves while he tried not to laugh.

"Got your paper?" he asked, and she patted at her bag. "Let's get this over with." He took her hand and pulled her toward the building. When he felt her resist this, he looked back to her. "I'm not letting you out of my sight. This is how mistakes happen, so we do this my way or I'm taking you home." As a response, she squeezed his hand. He sighed. "Alright, here we go."

They had gone up to a side door he knew to have a bad lock. He didn't want her thinking this would be easy, in case she'd come ringing at his door again for something like this, but if he did it right, which he intended to, then he could get them in and out of there, no problem. Maybe he could give her a scare while they were at it, discourage repeat offenses…

"I think I…" The lock clicked after he'd been working at it for a few seconds, and he heard Rachel gasp at his side. He put the tools back in his bag and opened the door. "After you," he stepped aside and she walked in, easing along at a snail's pace. "Are you trying to get us caught? Walk faster," he told her.

"Right, sorry…" she whispered and hurried up. He stuck behind her, following as she headed toward the teacher's office. When she got to the door, she stopped and turned to him. He made her step aside, once again crouching to work the lock. Once it was open, she took a few breaths and stepped in. He stayed in the hall and, when she had busied herself with locating the pile her paper was to be added to, he quietly backed away, easing down the hall. If he could just get her to be scared, then she wouldn't try anything like this again.

Rachel had sat in front of that desk a couple of times, though standing behind it was different. Not wanting to psych herself out, she reached to pull drawers open. The first was office supplies, but in the second she recognized the folder where her teacher would carry their assignments. Her hand trembled, but she pulled it out and opened it… There were the other papers. She let out a breath, pulling her own paper from her bag, picking a spot somewhere in the middle of the pile to stuff it in… It was done. She closed the folder, taking care to replace everything as she'd found it. She was just shutting the drawer when she heard a strange noise and she jumped with a squeak.

"Puck!" she whisper-screeched. He didn't answer, so she went out toward the hall. "Puck, what was… that…" She froze.

He had ended up going to his locker. He was getting hungry, and he was sure he had a half-eaten bag of chips in there, which was proven correct. He was munching away when he heard a scream… her scream. The chips hit the floor as he took off at a sprint back toward the office.

"Rachel?" he called, but she wasn't there, not in the hall or in the office. Now he regretted having left her. "Rachel?" he called again, louder. He could hear a noise, and when he turned there was a light from around the corner.

"Puck, help!" he finally heard her, and he dashed around the corner, toward the AV Club office. When he got in that corridor, that was when he saw… everything.

The light, like a big sucking void – that had been the noise – and Rachel… who was gripping on for dear life to another office door as the gaping light tried to pull her in. When she saw him, seeing her pleading eyes was all he needed. He leapt for her, which came off as a miscalculation, as it left him prey to the sucking force. His hand had found the flapping too-big sleeve of his jacket, but that made her let go, and as she slammed into him, they had no way to stop being pulled into the void.

X

Rachel felt like someone had hit her in the head with a frying pan. She didn't know just how it was that she was standing, but she was, or at least she was bent forward, holding her head.

"Are you okay?" a woman's voice asked, and she was startled.

"I think so, I…" It suddenly dawned on her that, beyond all the odd things that had happened in the last few minutes, she knew where she was supposed to be, and she also knew there was no woman. She pulled her head up, and then she saw the woman… and gasped.

"Brennan, sweetie, are you feeling alright?"

"I… What'd you c… I…" she looked around.

This place, it looked familiar, she was sure, and with the woman she saw there, her mind could only go one place, only it was impossible, because if she had to take a guess, it would have been that she was… in… that 'Bones' show.

"I think I need to sit."

TO BE CONTINUED (NEXT TUESDAY)