Thank you for the kind reviews and feedback. I will try to write longer chapters.

Chapter 4

Rachel woke after a very restless night. Midway through she gave in and booted up her laptop again, but refrained, just barely, from googling Quinn. Instead, she researched everything she could about spinal cord injuries. She had a rather large binder full of research. Consequently, she slept horribly and went without her morning elliptical routine; a rarity for her.

"Good morning star." Hiram kissed Rachel's forehead as she plopped heavily onto a stool at the kitchen counter.

"Daddy. Dad," was her mumbled greeting.

Leroy stopped mid-flip of his award-winning vegan pancakes at the despondent response. It flopped heavily onto the kitchen floor.

"Is your throat still bothering you?" He asked. She'd been mopping around for days. "We can always seek a second opinion, star."

She shook her head. "It is feeling much better."

Hiram and Leroy gave each other looks. She always loved his pancakes, after all it was the 'Rachel Berry award for excellence in vegan cooking' that made the fluffy breakfast item award winning.

She was staring at her hand that held a fork as if it was a foreign object.

Rachel was lost in thought thinking about all the different neurological synapses that told her hand to hold the fork. And it all happened without her having to think about it.

"Star are you listening?"

"What? Yes."

"Did something happen at school?"

"No, there's this new boy at school and.."

Hiram rolled his eyes. Somehow his precious little baby girl had turned into a boy-crazy teenager without his permission.

"...and I am not interested in him, daddy."

"Did the other kids bully him?" That was Leroy. The Berry's had threatened to enroll Rachel in a private school if McKinley didn't get their act together. Too many tears were shed at that school.

"No. Sam's really nice. He joined Glee or Puck tricked him into joining, but he was really nice to me when everyone was angry with me though I think he was put out by my reasoning and in hindsight I don't blame him." It was said in one long breath leaving the Berry men bewildered.

Rachel looked at her watch. She was going to be late.

"Bye Dad. Daddy." She stood on her tippy toes, kissed each father in turn, grabbed her backpack from the closet and ran out the door.

Hiram looked at the clock. Rachel had a good hour and a half before she was to report to school.

-GLEE-

His blue eyes were locked on his sister's sleeping face when Rachel peaked through the windows to Quinn's room. He was just staring at her, unmoving, his eyes were haunted.

Rachel had never seen pain so prominent. Her family had never felt the type of pain this family had obviously felt.

She was just about to head out, when he turned towards the door. His eyes locked on hers for the briefest of moments.

Sam turned back to his sister. She was still asleep and he was beating himself up. Not a day went by that he didn't bear the weight of the world on his shoulders.

He leaned down and kissed her brow. "I'll catch you later, Quinn."

He failed to notice that his mother was now awake and watching.

Sam shut the door behind him quietly. The nurses would be around any moment to start Quinn's day.

"Hi Rachel. What are you doing here?" His voice was pleasant despite the turmoil still present in his blue eyes.

"I wanted to wish Quinn a good day." She admitted. Despite his reassurances last night, Rachel was unsure if the early morning visit was appreciated.

He motioned to the room. "Quinn had a bad night. She's still sleeping."

"Is she alright?"

That was a loaded question, if ever there was one. "I suppose. She started sweating badly after we left and her blood pressure kept dropping."

Rachel let out an involuntary gasp.

"The doctors call it autonomic dysreflexia, and I guess it's her body's way of saying that something is wrong." His mother called to tell his Grandmother what was happening. He'd rushed back only to not be allowed into the room.

"Is... Is it better now?"

"Yeah. It was her catheter, I, um..." He took a deep breath. "Quinn wouldn't want me to talk about it. Anyway, mom, she's..." He bit out a big sigh.

Rachel saw, the night before the big round bag that was attached to the bed rails, but it was only after she researched in the middle of the night, that she learned the bag and the tubing that ran from it under the blankets, drained the blonde's bladder because her body was no longer able to do it on its own.

They were at his car and Rachel climbed into the passenger side. They road in silence for a bit until he pulled into the parking spot near the doors of the high school.

"My mom, she just stares at my sister while she's sleeping. She just stares at her and I get so mad."

"Why?"

"Because. It should be me. It's all my fault."

With that he stormed off towards the school, leaving her bewildered, and a little bit speechless.

-GLEE-

Rachel's plan to not succumb to her curiosity lasted until right after lunchtime and her free period. She holed up in the back corner of the library. Moments later she opened her web browser and seconds after that she hovered the mouse curser over a news video link.

Rachel breathed deeply through her nose and pulled out her headphones. She did not know if Quinn was going to be a student at McKinley. Could McKinley even accommodate the blonde?

She didn't know, but just in case she wanted to protect her privacy.

Two news anchors appeared on the screen and behind them in a little box was the same photo of the Fabray-Evans family that she looked at the night before.

"This is Action 5 news at 9 with an incredible story of one family's triumphs that turned tragedy. What you are about to see is hard to watch." The female news woman spoke into the camera.

The video footage was from behind, but Rachel recognized Quinn's blonde hair pulled into a high pony. She felt a rock settle in her stomach at the thought that what was about to happen would leave her new friend unable to move from the neck down.

The males prepared to hoist the cheerleaders up into the air, one for each of the girls. She saw the two spotters move into position at either end. The rock grew larger. She knew nothing about cheerleading, except that until she met Quinn, she would have called every cheerleader ruthless. Rachel found herself whispering no out loud as the cheerleaders were hoisted high in the air, their arms raised above their heads in a high V. The one next to Quinn began to twist for her dismount and the male stumbled slightly sideways.

What happened next left Rachel gasping for air. It was so quick, if she blinked, she would have missed it.

The cheerleader's leg as she twisted clipped the male's arms that was holding Quinn high above his head pulling his arm and hand out from under Quinn's feet. In an instant the blonde fell landing sideways on her head, her body's inertia kept moving. Panic broke out on the court at the two downed cheerleaders. The male holding Quinn was pulled away, Rachel could hear his sobs over the video camera, he broke from the hold and as someone turned him away again, the crowd surrounding Quinn parted to let the emergency workers in, Rachel gasped.

It was Sam. Sam was Quinn's lift partner. Sam was holding Quinn high in the air, it was his arm that was pulled out from under her. Rachel felt like she'd been punched in the gut. His confusing words earlier about being to blame came back to her and made more sense then.

Rachel felt nauseous and shaky as she turned her laptop off and headed towards Glee.

-GLEE-

She never made it to Glee, instead, she walked to the nearest bus stop and road the city bus towards the hospital.

She wouldn't know what to say to Sam and she wasn't sure she could pretend that she didn't know what happened around him.

It was only after she entered the elevator to ride to the rehab floor, that she remembered he was in detention and not Glee.

She shook her head at her silliness. What was it about this Quinn Fabray-Evans that worked her way into every thought and action?

TBC

Up next Rachel and Quinn's friendship take off. Quinn's recovery kicks into high gear.