Thanks for reviewing the previous chapter: SilverfoxCFL, NZgleek91, ReelAsh, chev17j, alicja, Nightlancer600, nightcuddler and celicm
Posted: 30/9/12
Damage
Rachel stood with her arms folded as she watched through the one way glass, Puck stood to her left doing the same, just watching. Quinn was rather incredible at her job. They didn't have much to go on but just through a series of making the suspect wait, then her tone of voice, and the way she stood, she could get all the information she wanted.
She was interrogating Caine now, the victim's wife had an alibi but the alibi was that she was with their other suspect all night, the same as his alibi. So it was quiet obvious they could just be covering for one another. Caine had cracked just as easily as Mrs Moore, about their affair. Rachel had enjoyed watching the smirky confidence when he saw he'd be interrogated by a woman, wiped off his face with the fewest of words and questions delivered with a steely attitude.
The door to the observation room opened letting light and Santana in before it was quickly closed again.
"She cracked him yet?" she asked as she walked up to the glass, she stopped on Rachel's right
"What do you think?" Puck asked sarcastically
"Oh right, stupid question" she mumbled back as she watched.
"How does she do it?" Rachel asked in wonder
"She doesn't rile them up like you" Puck smirked
Santana leaned back to look at Puck with a raised eyebrow "What did Berry do?"
He chuckled softly and explained as he looked back though the glass "She was a little tactless when we went to talk to Runion, insulted him. I think she wanted him to throw a punch so she could arrest him"
"Hey" she exclaimed in a hushed tone "I did not"
Puck scoffed, that was her best defensive come back? Before he could open him mouth the door in the interrogation room was opened abruptly. The team in the observation room all held their breath as their eyes widened.
Quinn kept her cool, as she stood still, leaning over the desk in the middle of the room. She slowly looked over at the blonde in the lab coat who'd just walked into the room and closed the door behind her "Brittany, Rule 22"
"Rule 22?" Rachel whispered asked, suddenly feeling vulnerable and more like Quinn would be able to hear them
"Never, ever bother Quinn in interrogation" Puck whispered
"I thought that was just common sense" she whispered back
Mean while the serious pouting Brittany on the other side of the glass retorted with "Rule 3"
Rachel leant towards Puck slightly as if silently asking what that one is, he didn't notice, as he was too distracted the tense scene in front of them
"Rule 3" Santana whispered "Is: never be unreachable"
"Thanks" she whispered back briefly never taking her eyes of the starring contest the other side of the glass, and the way Caine sat there looking as awkward as he felt in the silence
"Agent Lopez" Santana actually flinched when she heard her name; she then marched straight out of the room. Seconds later she was in the interrogation room as Quinn walked out, Brittany trailing her. Rachel noticed the small smile Santana gave the scientist.
Out in the corridor Quinn was irate at being interrupted, but there was no way she could say that or act like that to Brittany
"Brittany, you can't interrupt me during interrogation" she felt like she was chastising a small child... like how she'd tell Beth off... if she ever had to tell her adopted child off.
"I know Quinn, but this was really important" she smiled that 'I know something you don't know' smile with shiny eyes
"Well?" Quinn asked urgently "Who?"
"I can't tell you, I have to show you" always a game with Brittany
Quinn sighed but went along with it, because it was faster "Okay Britt, lead the way" She wasn't surprised when Brittany grabbed her hand and dragged her all the way to her lab in the basement.
"So, do you remember the camera you found for evidence?" she asked as she let go of Quinn's hand and started unlocking her computer
"Yes" Quinn said flatly, of course she'd remember it was only 2 days ago.
"Well the memory card was damaged... I fixed it, and look what I found" she hit play and Quinn leaned in curiously. It was the clip, a clip Quinn hadn't seen yet but had been filled in on by Agent Berry, of the moment Marine Sergeant Moore tumbled of the rock edge, the camera bounced and faced nothing, just the scenery, and they could hear moaning in the back ground.
Nothing was happening now, the screen just showed the same scene and the constant moaning. The shot was jittering, probably because of the camera damage. Quinn glanced at Brittany curiously but the blonde just held onto that knowing smile and nodded her head back to the computer screen.
Suddenly they heard footsteps, and then the sound of wood beating against bone... the groaning stopped. Quinn couldn't believe what happened next, a face came into view on the screen, clear as day, Runion looked curious and drunk down the camera lens
Quinn's eyes widened as she shot into action "Thanks Britt, I owe you an extra cupcake" she yelled as she ran out of the room, leaving the blonde scientist with a satisfied smile.
.
"Lopez" the Latina was startled again as the door to the interrogation room was swung open and Quinn called in "Get someone to escort Caine and Mrs Moore out of the building, then grab your gear" she then looked to the one way mirror and glanced at two different spots as she said "Berry Puckerman, you too" with that she was gone again.
Inside the observation room Rachel and Puck were frozen
"Is it me or did she look straight at us?" Rachel said shakily
"Yeah... you think you'll get used to it... you don't" Puck swallowed "We better go"
...
"Where are we going boss?" Puck asked eagerly from the back seat, he'd tried arguing with Rachel for the front passenger seat but she'd won it with her constant talking. Santana had been last to the car so she didn't get a chance to fight for the front. Although with Rachel appearing as favourite lately she didn't think there was a point in arguing over it, Quinn would end up deciding for them like a parent and she was sure Rachel would win.
"We got our man, Runion, Brittany got more footage off the damaged memory card, showed Runion plain as day, after the soundtrack to Moore's death" she explained now that it was just the four of them and no prying ears around.
At the speeds Quinn drove it didn't take long until they were back at the trailer park, and just as before his trailer stood out from the crowd. It seemed even more trailers had moved away from his leaving a lot of empty space around him. The four got out of their car and one standing next to the other, they walked across the park ready to make their arrest, when Runion stepped out.
All five: the agents and their target froze. Quinn slowly reached for her gun, ready in case he tried something stupid. Like a startled rat he dove back into his trailer, breaking the screen door off its top hinge, so it hung open.
The team all grabbed their guns and tried to rush toward the trailer but shotgun shot out of the window cautioned them to take cover. Where though? There were nothing nearby.
Down on one knee Quinn kept her cool and calm temperament as she fired a few rounds at the trailer and where she suspected Runion to be. He appeared in the window and fired again, before disappearing.
The rest of the team tried to back up a little as they copied their boss and started firing too. They then heard barking inside and Quinn remembered Rachel telling her he had a 'horrible little mongrel'. Quinn may have killed more than a few people in her line of work but she didn't shoot innocent people... or dogs. She whistled out, getting strange looks from her team.
It wasn't long before the little jack Russell was running out of the trailer and taking cover behind the alpha human who'd whistled to it. After some resumed failed firing from her team Quinn noticed the gas tank on the back of the trailer... they were far enough away.
As she raised her gun Runion fired another random shot, Quinn heard a cry on her right, only one person was on her right, she couldn't let it get to her yet though, she fired the gun three times and on the third shot the gas tank ignited blowing up the trailer spectacularly, destroying the threat inside.
Now it was time to take care of her team, she looked to her right, to Rachel who was laying on her back clutching at her bloody right bicep as she tried not to cry at the pain.
"Lopez, call an ambulance" she yelled to the shaken up Latina... Quinn had never let one of them get hurt before, not that she let this happen, but, Rachel was hurt "Lopez I said now" she said even more forcefully as Santana just stood there in shock "Puckerman"
"On it boss" he had already grabbed his phone out of his pocket and was dialling 911, for an ambulance and a fire truck.
"Sorry Q" Rachel forced the words out
Quinn smiled a little "Rule 6 Probie" she took off her NCIS jacket and folded it up before placing it under Rachel's head "Don't worry, you're going to be okay" she reassured her, more shock for Santana who in her two years working with Quinn, had never heard her so supportive.
...
"Hey probie you're awake" Was the first thing Rachel heard when she briefly opened her eyes before shutting them again quickly and groaning slightly.
She cautiously opened her eyes fully to the bright room and her visitor. She managed a smile when she saw Puck standing by her bed side "Hi Noah" she croaked from her throat being dry "What happened?" she asked as she creased her brow
"You don't remember" he sounded worried, she didn't suffer a head injury, well that's what the doctors had told him when he'd said she was his brother.
"I remember being shot..." as she stopped her eyes seemed to search for something as she flickered over the ceiling as if there was a map of her memory up there "was Qui- Q being nice to me, or did I dream that?"
"No she was being nice to you" he chuckled as he pulled up a chair closer to her bedside "How are you feeling?"
"Sleepy" she muttered
"Well that's probably all the painkillers they've got you doped up on" he chuckled again
"What's the damage?" she groaned and let her eyes drift shut, dismissing that Puck had already been too informative for a colleague.
"Barely a scratch really Rach, Your arm caught the edge of the gunshot wound"
"Oh I see" she laughed lightly "my arm caught the shot, not his shot catching my arm"
"Yep" he agreed with a smile. She wasn't too 'doped up' then. "They, cleaned the wound, took out a load of pellets... so yeah, you're gonna be fine"
"Remind me not to get you to tell the next Vic's wife their husbands dead Puckerman" Rachel looked over to the door way and to the owner of the new voice to the room
"Santana?" she sounded more than a little surprised "You came to visit me... and you bought flowers"
"No" she hid the bunch behind her "Well I guess yeah" she pulled them back out
"Who are they for?" Rachel managed to smirk a little bit despite her tiredness. She had a feeling Santana had a plan that hadn't gone too well
"They were for Brittany" she muttered. Puck and Rachel shared a smirk
"But?" Puck urged her to continue
And with a sigh she did "But when she saw them she thought they were Rachel... and I said they were so I came by to drop them off so when Brittany comes to see you later... yeah"
Rachel chuckled while Puck laughed at his colleagues misfortune "Why didn't just tell her the truth, and give her the flowers?" The patient asked
A pain look flashed across the Latina's face before she forced out an equally painful sounding "I can't" she put the flowers on the table by the door "anyway I got to go... back to the office. But it's good to see you okay Berry" she said lowly before leaving again
Rachel realised Santana had barely taken a step into the room when she was there for that short amount of time. "What's up with her?"
Puck scoffed dismissively then paused in thought. Rachel saw his expression turn more serious "Just her past and... shit"
"Wait a second" something else occurred to Rachel "What day is it?"
"Thursday, you were bought in yesterday" he told her, worried her memory was messed up. She just wasn't aware that an evening had passed since she'd been bought in
Rachel tried to sit up suddenly but winced at her dead arm
"Whoa calm down probie" Puck leapt up and helped her to sit up more slowly and adjusted her pillows
"What happened to my kids?" she asked frantically
Just in time before the heart rate monitor exploded thanks to Rachel's panic two little voices yelled "Mommy" as they ran into her room.
"Hey guys" Rachel grinned as the two little brunettes tried to climb onto the bed, luckily for Rachel it was too high or they might have climbed right onto her injured arm.
While her two children started telling her several things at once Rachel noticed two more people standing in the door. She glanced over to see two blondes standing there: Beth and Quinn. Rachel couldn't help but smile instantly
"Quinn" she then faltered "Sorry, I mean Q" she bowed her head shyly
"Quinn is fine Berry, you are injured I'll let it slide for now" the blonde adult smiled as she approached the bed, the opposite side to where Puck sat. The Mohawked man watched curiously, his focus fell on the little girl walking over next to Quinn, clinging to the taller woman's side
"Then you can call me Rachel" the patient replied "What are you two doing here?"
"Just checking in on you" Quinn shrugged as she stood by the bed "Good morning Puckerman, I just saw Lopez too, downstairs, I was wondering where my team was"
"Just checking in on Rach too" he stood up and noticed the little blonde looking up at him curiously, he just smiled friendlily down at her "Hi" he greeted softly "I'm Noah, but everyone calls me Puck" he introduced himself to the little girl attached to his boss's side
"Hi" she smiled shyly "I'm Beth"
"Well nice to meet you Beth" he grabbed his jacket of the back of the chair he'd been sitting on and slipped it on. Matt was quickly taking the freed chair for himself, standing on it so he could see "I better go back to work before your..." he quirked an eyebrow at his boss before choosing a title "Aunty tells me off"
The little girl giggled as the other adults in the room just watched, however Lisa was the one to point out "She's not her aunt, she's Quinn" in a similar tone Beth had used when introducing her new friends to her guardian.
"She's my best friend, silly" Beth corrected the mohawked man
"Hey, I thought I was your best friend" the boy standing on the chair protested to his friend over the bed.
"Nah, I thought I was your best friend" Lisa pouted to Beth as they stood next to each other
"Lisa, matt, you're both my best friends too, but Quinn is my bestest friend" she tried to explain, as Quinn and Rachel watched their children amused
"I see I've made enough trouble" Puck muttered as he started making his exit "it was nice to meet you Beth, and Matt and Lisa too"
"By Mr Noah" Beth called after him as he slipped out of the door, the twins echoing the same words a moment later.
"So..." Rachel started "You bought my kids"
"Beth and Quinn slept over while you were at the hospital" Matt felt he should inform them before Quinn, the person being spoken to by his mother, could speak
"I spoke to Mercedes, your nanny, she wasn't able to stay all night. So Beth and I stayed, I hope that's okay"
"That's fine" Rachel smiled at Quinn's caring nature "Thank you of looking after them"
"We had fun, we stayed up late and watched cartoons and ate pizza, Beth told us she does that with Quinn, so we wanted to too" Now Rachel felt like she'd been missing out, her children didn't even seem phased that their mother was in a hospital, with a bandaged arm she couldn't and didn't want to move.
"So you had fun?" she asked Matt and Lisa who stood either side of her, matt still standing on the chair and leaning on her bedside.
"Yeah, we had loads of fun" Lisa nodded.
"I thought it might help them cope better if they were distracted" Quinn shrugged "Is it okay if I go find some coffee, I haven't had any yet"
"Sure"
"You'll be okay with these three here?" she checked
"I'm fine really, I'm not really sure why I'm here at all" she was playing a brave soldier for her children's sake and for Quinn's amusement.
"Okay then" She picked up a distracted Lisa making her giggle and placed her at the end of the bed, leaving a good space between her arm and where the girl sat "Mind your mommy's arm Lisa" Quinn told her softly, the little girl nodded shyly in understanding. "Matt, sit down, I don't want you getting hurt too" he smiled at the boy as he pouted but obediently did as he was told. She then went to Beth and picked her up and put her on the chair, She looked up at Quinn worried "It's okay Beth, I'll only be a minute, I need you to look after Rachel, Matt and Lisa, okay?"
"Okay" she mumbled with a little smile "Can you get me a juice?"
"I'll see what I can get" she squeezed the little blondes shoulder gently "okay, everyone behave" she warned the children before adding with a smirk "I'm looking at you Probie".
...
Quinn found a cafeteria a floor below Rachel's she picked up what she wanted and paid, as she was leaving again she noticed a certain someone waiting by the elevator with his own paper coffee cup in hand.
"You still here" she said, startling him as she stepped up next to him
"Q? Getting coffee I see" he noted "While you visit Berry... with your kid"
She didn't say anything
"You have a kid... who calls you her best friend... so she's adopted?"
Again nothing, she just let him assume he was correct
"I know you're my boss, but you can talk to me you know? And Santana. We're your family too" he sounded genuinely hurt that he hadn't been included, that he was never included. He did worry about her though, it was a lonely job and just like in the marines your fellow troops became your brothers in arms, when your job was so full on your colleagues became your family "... and you seem to be okay with Berry being like family, you brining her kids and everything... is there something going on between you and her"
"What?" she snapped irritated, hating herself for answering at all
"I'm just asking" he stated innocently while the elevator doors opened, he went to step in but she pulled him back so they could talk instead
She dropped him onto a chair that was by the elevator door "Why would you ask that?" she glared down at him
"Well you two are close, you don't let anyone close Q, and we've known each other 8 years. Also normally someone like her would have been running out the building 3 days after she started with us. Something's different for you with her" funny how she was the one standing over him trying to interrogate yet he was the one sitting their analysing things. Who was the cop right now? "And I get it, I can't help but be soft round her, and she even get to Santana even if she won't admit it, but you never break Q, and all of a sudden you have a kid too... so I just wonder if there's more between you" she kept her glare strong some of his words were true, she had softened round Rachel but that was because of Beth being friend with her kids right? "Besides you know how she looks at you"
"What are you talking about?"
"You know, the way she looks at you" he said incredulously "Q... I think she has a crush on you" and he wasn't just saying it because of the bet. It was just how Rachel looked at her a minute ago when he saw them in the room together earlier... the way Rachel watched between Quinn and the children in the room as their kids took over any conversation
"Don't make me head slap you Puckerman" she threatened lowly
"What? I mean it; didn't you see her she was all blushy and fluttery with the eyelashes when she was talking to you in there?" No Quinn didn't see those things, because there was no way they'd happened "And then the flirting, with you all 'Quinn is fine Berry'" he put on a slightly higher pitched tone "and her all 'then you can call me Rachel'" another, even higher pitched forced girly voice
She just looked at him with a dead steely glare as she said dryly "If that's how you flirt, no wonder you haven't gotten laid in a while"
"Ouch" he couldn't help but smile, she'd actually used a verbal comeback, so he knew he was getting to her "But seriously Q, would you ever go out with a woman?"
"Puckerman" she warned sternly "that is none of your business"
"That means you would; or you would have just said no" his eyes brightened thinking he'd got to her again
And just like that he'd earned himself a swift slap to the back of the head "And despite the rumours that go round the office, I'm not a lesbian, and would not go out with a woman"
Puck tried to hold back his smirk, Quinn wasn't breaking in tone of voice or eye contact but the fact she was saying anything to defend herself instead of depending on scary silence let him know he'd still got to her.
"Okay Boss" he faked his backing down, he picked up his coffee cup "So, when will we expect you back at the office"
"Just go Puckerman, call me if something comes up"
"But you will be in right because I don't want to have to explain to the director" he was cut off with another head slap
"I got it covered, now get going" she glared "Or you'll be cleaning out the truck, later" she threatened
"Okay boss" he yelped standing up again just as an elevator arrived for him to make his escape
She shook her head to herself, there was definitely no way anything was even verging on going on between them. Rachel may be... but Quinn wasn't. Besides Quinn didn't get involved with people like that, it hurt too much when they left. She was sure she'd never be ready for anything like that ever again.
Beth was all the progress she'd ever be ready to make when it came to family and feelings; a substitute daughter who saw her as a best friend.
But what if Rachel read too much into her having shown her soft side... no Rachel wouldn't do that, would she? Besides she hadn't been here two weeks yet, she still hardly knew any of them.
...
When Quinn was gone Matt and Lisa started telling their mommy all about their time without her, she could barely actually take in what they were saying, as usual. She did hear another little voice though "Does it hurt?"
She looked down on her right side and saw Beth staring at her bandaged still arm "No" she said quickly "No, the doctors will make sure it doesn't hurt" she reassured Beth, Matt and Lisa went quiet too, remembering why they were here
"Okay... I heard Quinn talking on the phone... to someone called director... I think that's a funny name" she noted
Rachel laughed slightly "The director is the big boss where we work" she explained
"Oh" Beth nodded "Quinn told director why you were in the hopital" Beth told her "she esplained that you got hurt... are you gonna be okay?" Beth's mind was wandering, she didn't know who had hurt Rachel, she didn't know that this wasn't like her former parents. Rachel wasn't going to turn on Matt and Lisa. But Beth worried about people who got hurt and what happened to them.
"I'm going to be fine, in fact I'm sure I'll be okay for all of us to go to the park on Saturday"
"Getting a little ahead of yourself, don't you think Probie?" Quinn was already back, with a paper coffee cup and three juice boxes in the other hand "Is grape okay?" she asked Beth who nodded. Quinn put her coffee down so she could put the straw in the carton. She then offered Beth the juice box
"Thank you" she took the carton eagerly,
Quinn then did the same with the other two juice boxes and gave them to the twins "Don't squeeze them" she warned gently. Rachel smiled at Quinn's instinct to stop a mess happening in advance.
"Where's mine?" Rachel pouted
"You're a patient Probie, water for you" she poured some from a jug into a glass that was on the table next to Rachel's bed. She offered the glass to her then realised one arm was out of use and the other had several things stabbed into it like the IV. Rachel winced as she tried to raise her left arm, but Quinn stopped her "Wait, I got it" she stopped Rachel and stepped closer to the bed. She raised the glass to Rachel's head, letting the brunette lean forward so her lips connected with the edge of the glass. The Quinn gently tipped it letting Rachel drink a little at a time. Rachel let out a little whimper to let Quinn know when she'd had enough.
Quinn wasn't sure why she did it, it was just automatic to wipe the line of water of Rachel's top lip with her thumb. When she realised what she was doing and how quiet the room was, and the way Rachel was looking back at her, she quickly took her hand away.
"Thank you" she muttered shyly as Quinn placed the glass back on the side
"That's okay" The blonde felt compelled to verbally reply, worried that saying nothing was more awkward after that moment there, if there even was a moment. Rachel had kept eye contact with her until just before the whimper as she helped her drink. And now? Quinn glanced back over her shoulder only to meet Rachel's gaze and a friendly smile again. She shot her head back to the water in front of her as she processed.
Puck wasn't right... there was no way Puckerman could be right about that. They were colleagues and perhaps in a moment of loneliness Rachel felt she could trust Quinn with her biggest secret: her sexuality. And Rachel probably only felt like that because Quinn had been the only one to be the littlest bit welcoming to her... minus Brittany but she wasn't someone to have a meaningful conversation with, not unless you wanted the whole world to know a few minutes later.
And She had only been the tiniest bit more approachable to Rachel because Rachel had seen her with her walls down around Beth when they just happened to meet outside
So yeah, Puck was definitely thinking about this too much... he wasn't the only one.
Let me know what you think...
