Quinn felt frozen as she stared at the girls on the floor. 'Come on, be the leader. You can do this.' Stepping carefully around the messes on the floor, she walked towards her friends, speaking softly to them. "Santana, Brittany, we're here. It's us, you're safe now. Nothing more is going to hurt you, no one is going to hurt you." She kept up the low level encouragement as her fellow Glee girls trailed in behind her, Lauren staying back and watching the hallway.
Brittany was the first to look up. "I... I'm okay, I just hit my head. It's Santana. She... Terence..." she couldn't finish it, she broke down into tears. Tina and Rachel both went to her, while Mercedes and Quinn focused on Santana; each pair getting down onto the floor with the other girl. Rachel grabbed a few paper towels and dabbed at the cut on Brittany's head, while Tina held her hand and whispered soothing things, both girls following Quinn's orders to not ask questions.
Mercedes and Quinn were trying to help Santana get re-dressed, but every time one of them touched her, she flinched and almost screamed. She didn't seem to see them there, only to sense hands on her, hands that weren't Brittany. "No no no no no go away, I won't tell, I'll be good, I'll be good, just don't hurt her, please can't you see I'll do anything, anything!" The stream of consciousness confessions and promises explained more to the group than she meant to, and Mercedes eyes got very wide. She'd presumed that Santana had been beaten up, but she hadn't realized the extent of the abuse, given the clothing the dark haired girl was wearing. As she looked more closely, she noticed the sizes were all wrong, and understood more.
"Quinn, this is... this is bad," she said under her breath, noticing that Quinn was biting so hard on her lip that she was starting to bleed a bit herself. A quick nod from the blonde confirmed that she'd known it would be. "What do we do?"
Before an answer could come, Lauren called softly into the room, "People coming... it's Mr. Shue, Coach Sylvester, Ms. Pillsbury, and what looks like cops and paramedics. Should I let them in?" She didn't get a response before it was too late, and the she was moved aside to let in the adults.
"All right, ladies, we need to get these girls to the hospital." Sue said. Her heart warmed as she noted Quinn's obvious leadership as the girls looked to her before hugging their respective charges and standing up. "You can give your statements to the police in a little while, with whatever you know. Right now, this is more important. William, you're in charge of keeping this room off limits so the crime team can do their work. Pillsbury, you're the guidance counselor, so give these children some guidance!"
Quinn stopped to talk to Mr. Schuester, explaining about the boys, the cars, and the items she and her friends had brought the pair. She transferred her arm of clothing to Brittany, who was being placed in the first gurney. "Make sure she knows we love her no matter what, Brit. You can get through this, but only together."
Knowing that she'd let her best friend be raped while she lay still was washing Brittany with waves of shame, regret, and anger. "I... I didn't stop them. I let them hurt her, she can't want me anymore, I don't deserve her." Tears once again started to flow as the paramedics began to push her down the hallway. "Tell her I'm sorry, Quinn! Please, tell her I'm sorry." She was gone, taken to the ambulance.
Quinn looked after her friend, wondering how this all became a clusterfuck so quickly. She didn't have time to ruminate on it long, because the paramedics were trying to get Santana on a gurney, and she wasn't having any of it. "NO NO NO NO NO NO don't, please don't, NOOOOOOOOOOO!" came the screams, as the EMTs did their best to gently extricate her from where she was clinging to the bottom of a sink. The fight was back in her at least, in Quinn's opinion, a better situation than the dull look she seemed to have when not being touched.
"Wait, let me try, please?" She stepped back into the room. Going down on one knee in front of her hurt friend, she pitched her voice into head cheerleader mode. "All right, S, you need to get on that gurney so we can get things DONE. We can't win if we don't get you to the hospital, and we want to win above all else, right? RIGHT?" Once again, obedience ingrained by years of cheerleading resulted in compliance. Quinn didn't let the EMTs help though. Taking the Latina's hand gently in her own, she helped her to stand and walk the two steps to the waiting gurney. The sweatpants were far too big, and were threatening to fall, but she couldn't bring herself to pull them up, knowing the touch might set Santana off again. She settled for just getting Santana sitting quickly. "There, now lay back, and let these nice people take care of you. Coach, can I go with her?" At a nod, she tossed her own keys at Mercedes. "Mercedes, can you get my car back home? I know you've driven it before."
"Sure thing, and I'll grab your books and stuff. We'll see you at the hospital." Mercedes stated that last as a fact, knowing that no member of the Glee club would fail to be there by the time the sun went down.
Quinn turned and followed after the now rapidly moving gurney, holding Santana's hand as the EMTs adjusted the wheels so they could carry her down the stairs. She saw Artie sitting outside the choir room as they came near and called out to him, "I'm going with her, talk to the girls," before he could ask her anything. Dismissing the boy from her mind, she focused all her attention on keeping up a running stream of encouragement to the girl in the gurney. "Okay, we're almost out of school... we're gonna get you in the ambulance, and I'm right here, no no, you don't need to get up. It's okay, shhhh, it's okay." Over and over she repeated herself, but the only words she could understand from Santana were 'no' and 'Brittany'.
"Brittany's already on her way to the hospital - no, she's fine! Just got a bump on her head, she'll be with you soon, I promise. Shhh, shhh." Never in her life had Quinn expected to find herself in this situation. But she knew she had to be strong.
As the ambulance pulled away from the curb, she whispered a prayer to the universe. 'Please God, whoever you are, if you're out there, they didn't deserve this. I'm sorry for all the bad things I've done, but not even Santana deserved this, please, make her better, and Brittany, she never hurt a fly! Please oh please...'
