Chapter 1: Nothing I Can't Handle

"I'm fine! Unhand me this instant or I will yell out for the authorities. And don't think I won't. I didn't win three Tony awards for mediocre performances."

Rachel Berry was furious; surely the incompetency of the medical system was something they had to be working on. Here she was, EGT on her way to an O award winning performer Rachel Barbara Berry, sitting in a hospital bed with IVs hooked up to her and surrounded by not the traditional Broadway curtain she had grown accustomed to, but instead a dull and entirely tacky blue one. This curtain didn't separate her from a standing ovation. No, on the other side of this curtain were bleeding patients, and doctors running around frantically. She couldn't stand hospitals and she wasn't going to stand for this.

"Ms. Berry if you will please just lay back down, you have to stay for observation it's-" The nurse began but Rachel was quick to cut her off.

"Observation? What is it you have to observe Nurse," Rachel strained to see the name on her nurse's tag, "Janet! I was just thrown against a wall, I'm in perfect condition. Who you should really be worried about is the condition of my attacker, because I know I'm doing a lot better than he is right now."

Rachel didn't take all those self-defense classes for nothing. At least she knew now that they didn't just work on overzealous frat boys and too close for comfort papparzzo.

Nurse Janet was beginning to get frustrated, she had never dealt with such an attitude before, but then again this was her first time meeting the Rachel Berry. "Ms. Berry if you would please just-"

Suddenly the separation curtain was thrown back and in breezed Kurt Hummel in all his designer glory. "Oh thank Meryl you're alright," Kurt exhaled as he saw Rachel looking very alert and ready to make a break for it.

"Sir you can't be in here." Nurse Janet told Kurt, who hadn't even looked her way.

"Just go alert the mall cops employed in this hospital, I'll handle it from here." He waved her off with a flick of his wrist and a beaming smile.

Nurse Janet huffed and walked out of the curtain with the words entitlement, damn, and celebrities on her lips.

"Finally she's gone. Kurt help me get out of here, I've been here for hours." Rachel went to pull out her IV.

Kurt slapped her hand away. "Oh no no no. You're not pulling a runaway diva on my watch."

"Please not you too. You're my best friend you're supposed to be on my side." Rachel cried as she stared at Kurt with angry eyes.

Kurt rolled his eyes at the pint sized woman. "There are no sides when your life is in danger sweetie."

Rachel groaned and threw her hands in the air. "But I knocked him out!"

Kurt took a seat on the bed next to her. "Be that as it may, you were still corned in a dark shady alley with no back up. What if he had knife?"

"He didn't." Rachel said matter of fact.

"But he could have." The voice of Will Schuester, her manager, rang out as he walked into her hospital "room".

Rachel could faintly hear Nurse Janet protesting due to another unadvised visitor. She didn't know what all the fuss was about. She was fine. Just hours ago she had been having one of the best nights of her life, and now she just wanted to erase the last few hours from her memory.

Rachel was having a marvelous night. High after winning her Grammy, that was long past due if she might add, and after a tearful speech and press conference she was finally getting to enjoy her win with her friends and family. She had been having a spectacular time at her after party but she was feeling a bit faint, either due to her third glass of champagne or the mass of people piled into the nightclub. Either way she needed to get some air, she was suffocating.

Rachel scanned the nightclub for her head of security and upon finding Jake had specifically told him that she was stepping out for a second. She should've seen that he was paying more attention to the models he was sandwiched in between than to her but the air was starting to get thick, her brain was short circuiting. She moved to walk out the front entrance but the flashes of cameras and the surge of the crowd waiting to come in as they spotted her had her retreating back into the club, instead opting for the side employee entrance.

Finally, some peace. Rachel took in a huge lung full of air and breathed it out with a smile. The night had been so surreal, she had accomplished three out of the four things she had wanted to accomplish during her career, and all before she was thirty years old. Rachel was flying. Now all that was left was that little statue of a golden man and she would have everything she ever dreamed of. Well almost everything, she could work on love and a family later.

Rachel had been so deep in thought that she didn't see him coming. And when she felt the presence of someone next to her it was already too late. Her hooded attacker threw her up against the brick wall of the club, his hands around her mouth and neck.

"You're in for a treat pipes." He snarled at her, fear trickled down her spine as his disgusting breath hit her face.

She swallowed shallowly trying to breath threw her nose since the hand around her throat was preventing her from effectively getting oxygen to her lungs. In that moment she had never been more glad she took her daily breathing exercises seriously.

Now Rachel might have had some champagne but he was drunk, she could smell the rancid liquid on his breath so she knew she would be quicker. She counted to three in her head then bit down hard on his hand and brought her knee up even harder into his crotch. He cried out in pain and released his hold on her.

"Fire!" She screamed at the top of her lungs.

Her attacker wheezed in front of her then made a grab at her dress, "You bit-" Before he could finish she brought her elbow down into his nose, then grabbed his hooded head and connected his face as hard as she could manage in her stilettos into the brick wall. He dropped like a sack of potatoes.

"The name is Rachel Berry." She had muttered just as the flustered bouncer and some passerbys rounded the corner to see her attacker unconscious on the ground and her almost in tears over her ruined one of kind Oscar de la Renta dress. The last thing she remembered was staring down at her blood spattered dress thinking Kurt was going to have a conniption. The events following were a blur of sirens, police officers, ambulances, faceless voices and camera flashes.

"Rachel are you even listening?" Will's voice pulled her from the memory of hours before. "This has gone too far, first the letters, then Miami, now this."

"You think the attack has to do with her circa 1970 creepy stalker?" Kurt gasped from beside her.

Will shook his head. "I really don't know what to think right now Kurt. But Rachel as your manager and friend I've looked into a 24/7 team to protect you."

Rachel looked alarmed. "A 24/7 team! Jake is doing just fine and I am very capable of taking care of myself while I'm not out." Rachel knew Jake was a horrible security guard, but at least he let her keep her privacy.

"Jake has been let go Rachel. His attention was too focused on some Victoria Secret models while you were being assaulted." Will said, disappointing in the man that he hired as Rachel's protection.

Jake really was as good of security as Kurt. And Kurt wasn't getting paid to make sure no one got too close to her while they were out on the town. But Rachel didn't need a whole team following her everywhere she went, shadowing her every movement 24/7.

"Plus I have spoken to your fathers and they both agree." Even her daddies too. Seriously, she was fine.

Kurt looked giddy beside her and she scowled at him. "What? This is all very secret service Mandy Moore-esque, it's exciting!"

"Traitor." Rachel said as she crossed her arms as best as she could with her IV. She then turned to Will, prepared to fight him but he held up his hand effectively shutting her mouth.

"The decision is final Rachel." Will then turned to leave. "And you will be staying until the afternoon for observation, so bring the diva down to a three." And with that Will left.

"Wow I really need to learn that silencing hand trick to prevent my ears from bleeding after your paragraph long retorts. That was amazing." Kurt stared after Will in awe.

Rachel sent him another glare and covered her face with her hands. All she wanted to do was go home, stare at her almost full award case, and fall into a blissful sleep with no memory of the last few hours.

Kurt patted her on the shoulder. "Look at it this way, now you get to be surrounded by delectable men all day long and you'll be safe. I say it's a total win win. Plus I'll be right there with you as an added bonus." Rachel could feel Kurt smiling at her through her hands.

This wasn't Rachel's idea of a win win. She didn't need a babysitter and especially not a whole team of them.

When she felt the bed dip Rachel dropped her hands just in time to see Janet entering through the curtain and Kurt walking out with a wave in her direction. She sighed and laid back so Nurse Janet could work.

Her life was out of her control right now.

Yes, of course she was terrified when she was thrown up against that wall and saw the look of evil in the eyes of that man but she had handled it. And she had done it before the so called security got their heads out of where the sun didn't shine and realized that the main event of the party was in an alley with a crazy man. She might be being a little unreasonable...okay maybe a lot. Her manager, daddies, and even her best friend seemed to agree that this was for the best.

But she could handle herself. She was Rachel Berry, and she didn't need a team of good for nothing imbeciles barging into her life. So if Will wanted to throw a team at her, he had another thing coming if he believed she was going to go down easy.

The phone rang loudly on her desk, taking her uninterested eyes away from the stack of papers cluttering her space. She really did need to refine her organization skills.

She took her glasses off then rubbed at her eyes, grabbing the phone on the third ring. "Fabray."

"The Cap wants to see you in her office, and make it stat." Becky, the Director's secretary, said into the receiver, hanging up before hearing a reply.

"On my way." She said to the dial tone. She need to pump herself up, and if speaking to no one did the trick then so be it.

Quinn Fabray stood up from her chair and smoothed out the lines that had formed in her suit. This was it, she was finally, after nine months of reading through other agents logs, going back out into the field. She was finally going to be an agent again.

Quinn turned and walked with a purpose toward her superior's office. Her posture was strong and her angelic face was as cold as ice, commanding the attention of the people she passed. She was a legend to her colleagues and as they saw the look on her face they knew the Ice Queen had returned.

Quinn had adopted the nickname during her training. The other trainees thought she was just another pretty face whose daddy probably pulled some strings for her to be there, not knowing that she hadn't spoken to her father since her high school graduation. With her long blonde hair and movie star looks they passed her to end up being a secretary after training. But Quinn set foot on the training rig and took down every single one of her opponents, most of them men, without a single emotion passing on her "pretty face". Then when she finished training at the top of the class without even a smile, the Ice Queen took roots.

Quinn still scoffed thinking back to her time at Harvey Point during training. People always underestimated her since she was a woman and even after proving her skill still some of the rookie agents upon first glance passed her off as a pencil-pushing lackey. She was far from that but since it had been almost a year since she was on a mission she felt just like what they all expected her to be. And now she was far past stir crazy, and had something to prove.

Quinn had almost reached the Cap's office when her journey was cut short.

"Looks like you're finally gonna stop being a sorry pencil pusher huh Fabray?" Santana Lopez smirked up at her. Even though they were both in heels Quinn was still taller.

"Move out of the way Lopez before I make you." Quinn was on edge and Santana was not helping.

"Retract the claws Q, geeze. We both know you can't make me do anything." Santana lazily said and Quinn rolled her eyes.

A look flashed across the Latina's face before she lowered her voice, "Look I was just coming over here to wish you good luck, you don't have to go all Kill Bill on me."

Santana Lopez was another agent people saw as a non-threat upon first glance. But her suspects and targets were in for a rude awakening when she caught up with them. And she always did catch her target. She'd known Quinn since high school, where they were both cheerleaders fighting for the top spot. Quinn had disappeared for awhile then surprised Santana by showing up next to her on the first day of training. They'd been mortal frienemies as kids, and now more than ten years later Santana would be lying if she said Q wasn't her best friend. And she'd also be lying if she didn't admit that she was nervous about what the Cap had in store for her.

"Aww does Satan actually care about me?" Quinn asked, giving Santana her own smirk.

"Oh cut the shit Q, I see the look in your eyes." Santana pushed, crossing her arms. She knew Quinn was scared, she had been dealing with the Ice Queen mask since they were fourteen.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Quinn deapanned, pushing past her friend toward the the marked door. She knocked twice and waited.

"Enter if you have a death wish." The voice said from beyond.

Quinn shook her head, took a deep breath, and opened the door. "You wanted to see me ma'am?"

Sue Sylvester sat behind a large oak desk with a large file spread out in front of her. "Oh yes Q, I thought you were Smythe for a second. But come in have a seat." Quinn nodded and walked in, taking a seat in front of Sue's desk.

Quinn was starting to sweat underneath her shirt, she didn't know what Director Sylvester had in store for her. She missed being a field agent, she missed the rush she got from being out on a mission. Being in a place where no one knew her name and she could do the job she was meant to. But she didn't know if she was going to have the opportunity to go out on the field again. It was up to Sue Sylvester and that's what made her nervous.

But Quinn reigned in her nerves and schooled her features. If Cap caught the sign of weakness Quinn definitely wouldn't see anything but the wood of her desk for another few months.

"Alright Q, based on your tests and course times even after nine months you're still one of my best agents, which really shows the lackluster skills within my so called special agency." Sue said, unsmiling. Quinn still was holding her breath, Sue could take this anywhere.

"Anyway a curly haired gerbil has called in a favor and I unfortunately owe him that much. But this is a covert mission Fabray, and an important one at that do you understand me?" Sue looked at Quinn hard.

"Yes ma'am." Quinn agreed, breathing an inner sigh a relief. She had no idea who this guy was but he must have done something big for Sue in order for her to agree to whatever this mission was and also to send Quinn in to do it. She sent a silent thank you to the curly haired gerbil gods.

"Good because you're heading the team. Agents Puckerman, Evans, Chang and Abrams are all coming back from their respective missions to work with you on this."

Quinn tried not to smile upon hearing the news. She was getting her old team back and she wasn't getting demoted to a pencil pusher like Santana voiced and she secretly feared. She was back on top. And after what happened on her last mission she was glad that Sue still believed in her abilities enough to put her into the field.

Quinn glanced down at the folder Sue was flicking through. It was marked "Dubai".

She loved Dubai. The scenery was marvelous and being back there with the guys would be just like old times. Hopefully whatever was in store for them was easy enough for her team to clean it up quick so she could have a few hours to spare and explore.

"Now Q don't think that this mission is for some tragic rookies I don't trust enough alright? I'm sending you out for this because I trust you the most. But after Paris I need to just get you running before you start soaring again." Sue explained as she tapped her fingers against her desk.

"Okay?" It came out of Quinn's mouth as more of a question. She was confused. She must have missed one of Sue's famous briefest of briefings while she was thinking about Dubai. She was no rookie agent, she had been with the agency for almost six years now, and they both knew her abilities were far from tragic. So what had she missed?

"Excellent. Formal briefing with the team will be at 1600 hours and you will be flying out to Los Angeles at 0800. Becky has all the information."

"Los Angeles?" Down the drain goes Dubai.

"Yes, Los Angeles Fabray. I'm surprised you passed these tests with flying colors Blondie. I knew you weren't paying attention but due to my ever giving donations to the Intellectually Inept Foundation I'll repeat it for you loud and clear. You will be heading the security operation in Los Angeles, California to protect one Rachel Berry." Sue said, slightly agitated that her top agent was off in Wonderland while she briefed her for her first mission in nine months.

Quinn blanched at her Director's words. Wait Rachel Berry?

What did the little Broadway starlet need a whole security team for? Granted Hollywood could be dangerous sometimes but Quinn didn't think that Rachel Berry was dealing in matters of national security. So what was the CIA doing sending special agents to be said security team? They had whole designated companies for that.

This curly haired gerbil must have a nuke hanging over Sue's head.

"Becky order me a new megaphone stat. I think I broke a Fabray." Sue barked into her intercom.

Quinn shook her head finally registering just what she was about to do.

No. No. No.

This was not her redeeming moment. This was not the mission that would make her and everyone else realize that she could still do this. She was not about to be a bodyguard for a famous little Broadway girl. Well Hollywood actress and Grammy award winning singer too but that was beside the point.

Quinn the Bodyguard was surely not on her resumé. She was Special Agent Quinn Fabray.

"You want me to be a bodyguard?" Quinn asked, she just had to be sure.

She had to be sure that Sue Sylvester, was asking her to actually be a bodyguard for a celebrity. The same Sue who had run her into the ground as her Captain when she joined the D.C. Police Department after dropping out of Georgetown after he first semester. The same woman who forced Quinn to finish school, then gave her no option other than to follow her when she got the call for the opening position in the CIA. The women who gave her no choice but to finish at the top in training, then become the best field operative in her class. Lastly, the same woman who was more of a mother to her than the one who birthed her.

It was like a slap in the face and Quinn had to be sure that Sue was doing just that.

Sue folded her hands on her desk and looked Quinn straight in the eye. "This is your mission and you will do it. As the Director of Special Operations of the Central Intelligence Agency I have the authority to make you search and shovel camel feces in the Sahara if I wanted you to. You follow my orders and protect Rachel Berry. Understood?"

"Yes ma'am." Quinn answered with a stony expression.

"Good Fabray, remember 0800 hours. Now scram the scent of your uneasiness is stinking up my pristine office."

Quinn stood and without another word left the office.

When Quinn closed the door behind her she let her shoulders fall. She couldn't believe this.

When Sue had called her into her office she never in a million years would have suspected that she would tell her they were a bodyguard service now. She was a special agent, and a goddamn good one at that. Granted her last mission didn't go as planned but that didn't mean she was now a glorified celebrity security guard, hell she would much rather be a pencil pushing lackey.

Quinn ran a hand through her hair and closed her eyes. Sue wasn't doing this because she didn't want her out in the field, Quinn knew that. She was doing it because just like everyone else they thought that she was still fragile. But she wasn't. And she now she had to show them that she was still Quinn Fabray.

She straightened her shoulders and plucked the file from Becky's hand as she passed, flipping it open to reveal a large photo of her mission.

Rachel Berry better buckle up.

"Broadway's Sweetheart Assaulted" was the headline Rachel was staring at as she sat on her living room couch and Entertainment Tonight's breaking news played mutely on her TV.

After leaving the hospital earlier Will had caught her up on what had happened to the man who had attacked her. Apparently his name was Patrick Masol, and aside from the broken nose, concussion, stitched hand, and bruised genitalia she had given him, he also got slapped with assault and attempted rape charges. She shivered at the thought of him trying to touch her and luckily for her he wouldn't be touching her or any other woman for a while.

But unfortunately Will didn't think that Masol had any connection to the letters she had been receiving during the past year. So it looked like she was still going to be under the watchful of the team of, she prayed, trained brutes Will hired.

"Alright Rachel the team should be here in the morning." Will said as he walked into the living room. Speak of the devil.

"I still don't see why I need a whole team of dumb fools trying to protect me."

Will crossed his arms, "They aren't dumb Rachel. I called in a favor with the CIA."

"The CIA!" Rachel shrieked. Was Will crazy?

When she meant trained she meant from one of the security companies in LA, not from classified parts of the government. This was the CIA they were talking about here.

Of course Rachel knew that she needed some sort of protection since over the last few months the letters went from crazed fan to psycho stalker, but really the CIA. She could think of a plethora of things that these CIA agents could be doing that didn't consist of running a muck in her private life. Plus she just needed a few guys for when she went out, she wasn't starring in a Tom Cruise movie.

"Oh this is going to be so Oscar special worthy, surely the CIA in on this will boost your chances with the Academy Rach. I have to get my camera." Kurt giggled as he walked out of the kitchen.

Rachel pouted in her spot, wishing that the oversized couch would just swallow her whole already. This was a disaster. She couldn't count on her best friend and after listening to her daddies repeat the same words as Will earlier, she couldn't count on them either.

How come they couldn't understand? She didn't need protection from the bullies who threw slushies in her face in high school, she didn't need protection from her insane teachers at Julliard, she didn't need protection from the gossip blogs and magazines, she didn't need protection from petty muggers, and she also didn't need protection from a psycho-babbling guy who called himself her biggest fan. She didn't need the CIA then, and she didn't need them now.

"Rachel this is for your safety. I'm not going to call any of the security companies; they'll just send us another Jake. I need people around you who take their job seriously." Will said, and Rachel could see he was beyond frustrated. She also could see he was very serious about this.

He looked exhausted and stressed out and Rachel realized that she shouldn't fight him anymore. If agreeing to this would get them all off her back then so be it. She was a twenty-eight year old Emmy, Grammy, and two-time Tony winning performer and she was set to be the youngest woman to win an EGOT. If she could accomplish that then she could take on the CIA.

"Okay." Rachel nodded at Will, happy that her pep talk was going to effectively end this conversation.

Kurt clapped and jumped on the sofa next to her while Will sighed in relief.

"Great the team is on the way and is being headed by a Quinn Fabray." Will said, looking down at the paper in his hand.

"Oh he sounds positively scrumptious." Kurt gushed next to her and gave her his best mooneyes.

Rachel tried not to crack a smile at her best friend's antics but failed miserably. She laid back into the coach and dissolved in a fit of giggles. This Quinn Fabray head bodyguard and CIA agent was nothing she couldn't handle.

But as she listened to Kurt gush about dangerous and hunky federal agents an odd sensation settled in the pit of her stomach. A feeling she had never felt before took hold.

Rachel couldn't put her finger on what it was but she knew that whatever team Will called was going to turn her properly arranged world upside down.