Chapter 10
Struck
Rachel and Quinn were heading off to lunch when word of a bank robbery in progress came on through their car's walkie-talkie unit. Quinn was driving and at a red light when it came to life calling all available units and so Rachel answered it.
"This is unit one eight responding to the call with Head Detective Fabray and Detective Berry here. What is the situation?" There was static as another voice came on.
"This is unit three five calling from the location of First Niagara Bank on West Point Road, building address 432, West Point, Lima. How far away are you unit one eight?" The voice spoke through the static of the speakers.
Rachel quickly checked the surroundings before responding to the question. "We're about a mile and a half away from the bank. We can be there in five minutes." Rachel paused for just a second before she asked a question, "Do we have a hostage situation?" There was tension in the car as the static came over again and the other officer spoke up on the walkie-talkie unit.
"Yes … we have about twenty hostages in the bank because it is afternoon. We are waiting for someone to come to start negotiations with the masked and armed robber, who we have yet to identify. We are watching the situation closely and we currently have five troops here and the S.W.A.T team is on the way right now. You will be the sixth troop. We're all already suited up and ready to go. Is your partner able to run the negotiations until the S.W.A.T team arrives?"
"Quinn?" Rachel asked softly into the air. Quinn nodded tersely in response. "Okay. We're here." And with that they quickly left the car and went to one of the vans on the scene with all of the equipment necessary for an emergency situation. They put on protective vests, tactical boots, tactical gloves, and a protective helm. Quinn went to one of the officers standing by to ask him about what the situation was now. After conversing for a single moment, Quinn immediately went to another officer with a disposable cell phone to call into the building to start the negotiation process with the robbers to stall for time. Rachel looked around to see that there were people lined up around the police tape, looking into the scene of danger right in front of their eyes.
Rachel felt a feeling of dread come over as she moved so that she was the closest person to Quinn but still far away enough so that she wouldn't be a distraction to Quinn's negotiation process. She could hear Quinn's voice, cold and unyielding and yet somehow still soft, as she spoke to one of the robbers. It was only a few moments after Quinn had started negotiating with them that the S.W.A.T team pulled up onto the scene. It was then that Rachel heard something change in Quinn's voice. She looked over to see that Quinn's entire body language showed tenseness and stiff anxiety. Rachel looked over to where all of the S.W.A.T team members all got into position to shoot if any shot was available. They were positioned in various places with views of the glass windows and doors taking aim with their guns. The robber who seemed to be in charge of the group immediately grabbed an available hostage to shield himself with and hung up the phone, "negotiations are over Head Detective Fabray," and without warning shot at the closest person to the building.
The feeling of dread Rachel felt intensified in that moment. Her uneasiness was her sixth sense and she just knew, in that moment, that something terrible was about to happen and she was not wrong because only moments later something did happen.
Quinn felt a sharp, searing pain in her lower abdomen and upper arm before she was on her knees. Just at the moment the hostage, Blaine Anderson, elbowed the masked robber sharply and efficiently in the stomach taking all of the breath out of him, and ducked somewhere. At that exact moment a S.W.A.T team member shot the presumed leader and another one threw tear gas into the building where the glass had broken and completely shattered off after Quinn was shot. Quinn was falling forward when Rachel surged forward passed the few feet separating them and gently grabbed her uninjured arm, preventing her from falling to the ground.
Blood was gushing out of her wounds and some blood was seeping out of her mouth as well. Rachel knew that meant that Quinn had internal bleeding somewhere. Quinn had been shot under the vests reach from what Rachel could see and her heart was hammering in her chest seeing her partner so injured. Rachel was in a panic. "Somebody, get help! I need a medic over here! Now!" Rachel was frightened to see all of the blood loss accumulating on the ground and in her hands. A few officers broke into action after seeing the Head Detective fall to her knees.
"Officer down, officer down! We need a medic over here now! Hurry!" Someone shouted into the walkie-talkie. There was an ambulance with medics at the ready not far from where the chaotic scene was unfolding. They had arrived on the scene sometime before the negotiation turned sour and shots were fired.
Everything was happening in a blur around Quinn. One moment she was in severe pain and in the next moment she found herself in Rachel's arms as she screamed something over her shoulder. It seemed like everything was happening slowly and the words and sounds all jumbled together to form an incoherent mess. Quinn couldn't understand any of the words being spoken or what was happening around her and before she knew it she was being driven somewhere. Quinn was strapped into a stretcher and there were various machines hooked up to her. She heard a loud beeping noise and could feel her heart thudding in her chest painfully as she was being driven somewhere. The one thing that gave her relief throughout all of the chaos was the feeling of someone's warm hand holding her own and the softly whispered words of reassurance. Quinn couldn't remember anything after that and she was sure that it must have been because she lost all consciousness. The warm feeling of someone holding her hand stayed with her though even through her unconsciousness.
Throughout all of the havoc that followed the sound of bullets coming out of their shells and screaming hostages Rachel felt herself lose her professionalism. She ran straight for Quinn and stayed with her even as she was being carried to the ambulance on standby and at the ready and as she was being driven to the nearest hospital. She didn't see the S.W.A.T team, geared up with masks, entering the fray where the tear gas had been let loose to subdue the robbers. Rachel didn't see the S.W.A.T team coming out of the smoky bank with three men cuffed and other hostages being helped out of the building. All Rachel saw was Quinn and how frail, pale, and so weak she looked.
It was a sickening sight, all of the blood still gushing out of her. The medic team was working hard to stem the flow of blood still flowing out of her fresh wounds. Quinn's eyes were barely open and she looked so broken and small on the stretcher. Quinn was paler than Rachel had ever seen her before and it was frightening to see her in such a fragile state. Rachel was asked several questions about Quinn and she answered as many as she could while forcing herself to remain as calm as possible.
Rachel kept hearing phrases like "she's losing too much blood," and, "try to bring her blood pressure down," and, "we need to give her something to calm down her heart rate before she dies!" And the more she heard the more worried she became for Quinn because Quinn had been so kind to her already. Quinn had gone through so much in her life and done so much to help others. She didn't deserve to have it all end here and now, not when she still had so much more life to live. Everything she heard was making her worry and her anxiety spiked even further when she had to let go of the hand she hadn't even realized she had been holding onto so tightly.
It was just out of nowhere that this bullet came and struck Quinn and Rachel felt like she should have known to do something. She understood that there was no way of her knowing that something terrible was going to happen to Quinn but she still felt like she had been powerless to stop something from happening to her. Quinn was her partner so she should have done something more for her. Quinn wasn't just her partner … Quinn was her friend too and she was becoming the best friend she had been missing in Jesse. Quinn was an even better friend than Jesse was to her sometimes even though she had known Jesse longer. Quinn had many similar interests in music, movies, TV Shows, and she even enjoyed Broadway! How many other people in this city could she actually find that enjoyed Broadway? She knew that Kurt was a fan of Broadway and Quinn was just a casual fan of Broadway but it still made Rachel ridiculously happy to know that Quinn enjoyed some Broadway too. She could gush to Kurt about all things Broadway musicals and talk to Quinn about other things. That was how it went the last few weeks since she had gotten to know everyone at the station better little by little.
The one thing that Rachel still could not do somehow was avoid Santana's dislike for her. Sure she was civil most of the time but she still had her cutting remarks, as witty and sometimes amusing as they were they were still insults. Rachel could go without that, without the insults. And on occasion Santana looked like she was just a few seconds away from bolting after Rachel when she was being particularly OCD, perfectionist, or too much of a diva for her taste. Overall though, they were okay around each other and they usually weren't on the verge of fighting to the death. Rachel knew that a large part of that was thanks to Quinn and her fondness of her. She was grateful for Quinn's presence in her life because she was always defending her and protecting her from other people who weren't kind to her for one reason or another. The most trouble Rachel usually encountered was on Friday nights when their group of friends from the station all went to the karaoke bar where many of the patrons who were female would boo her while she was onstage and then, sometimes, further antagonize her after she stepped off. Quinn always made sure that she was near the stage after the first few incidents happened and make sure they didn't get to say very much to her. If she saw the ones who usually bothered Rachel approach she would glare and if that didn't work she would then state that she was very much capable of filing harassment charges against them. They would usually back off after that but it was the same routine every week because those women were always drunk when they went after Rachel.
Many thoughts kept running through Rachel's mind about all of the things Quinn had done for her ever since she met her. All this time she had been taking Quinn for granted and just enjoying the time they had together instead of showing her appreciation for Quinn and everything she did for her. Quinn had started learning how to cook vegan food the first week Rachel moved in. She even took the time to research vegan friendly restaurants for her after she first found out about Rachel being vegan. She had been surprised because she had never met a person who was vegan before and so it began with just looking through a phonebook to buying a recipe book. Rachel had never been so touched by another person's kindness before because no one had ever done something like that for her in her life. One of her own fathers was vegan and so it wasn't much of a sacrifice for him to cook for her and for her to eat homemade vegan food. Quinn though … Quinn was an average person who was part of the Christian faith and so … she was the opposite of vegan in every way … and despite that she still attempted to learn. Quinn was trying so hard to help Rachel feel like a guest in her home and she was doing everything she could to make sure that Rachel felt like she was home in that condominium and not … a stranger encroaching on her privacy. Quinn was making every effort she could to ensure that Rachel felt like a welcome person and not an unwanted guest.
Rachel continued to pace in the room they had placed her in after Quinn had gone into surgery because it had been established that there was no exit wound and the bullets would have to be removed from her body. Rachel shuddered at the thought that there was need of such a thing because Quinn had been losing so much blood as it was and now they would have to remove bullets from her body. Time was moving by so slowly, oh so very slowly, and Rachel's anxiety and worry was mounting to a ridiculous high when someone finally came from surgery to tell her about Quinn's condition was and Rachel stopped pacing long enough to hear what they had to say.
"Detective Berry?" Someone covered in blood asked and Rachel blanched at the amount of blood smearing the doctor's operation garb. Rachel nodded her head and moved as close as she dared. "We managed to remove the bullets successfully from her body and though she had some internal bleeding we believe she will be okay because we gave her a blood transfusion. Her condition is stable now but she will have to sleep here overnight and stay here for a while because we would like to keep an eye on her. With blood transfusions there are some cases of the recipient actually rejecting the blood transferred during the process and so we will have to keep an eye on that. If the blood transfusion is unsuccessful and she starts to reject the blood we will know within six to twelve hours after the transfusion has occurred." Rachel was following along as best as she could and trying to keep herself calm enough so that she didn't just started running passed the doctor in search of Quinn's room. The doctor seemed to anticipate this and told her directly about visiting. "You can visit her for a few minutes now because she is awake but she should rest as soon as possible and we do have her on some very strong pain medications. We'll have to see how long she will be here before she's moving again because we don't want her to tear up the stitching on her stomach and have to stitch it again." There was a pause before Rachel just nodded her head in acceptance and she thanked the doctor for saving her partner, for saving Quinn.
Rachel then rushed to the room number he had yelled out to her as she jogged passed several rooms before reaching her destination. Rachel just stood at the door, anticipation and anxiety coursing through her body in waves, before she finally felt herself gather enough courage to knock on the door softly. A soft voice beckoned her forth and she found herself standing next to a bed with a very weak and pale Quinn looking up at her with dazed eyes. "Does it hurt a lot?" Rachel asked in a gentle whisper, voice barely audible over the sound of beeping machines. Quinn was silent and she just shook her head very slightly before looking up at Rachel again. Quinn's hand, which had a pulse reader clamped to it, moved from the bed until she was holding Rachel's hand in her own causing the tears that had been welling in her eyes to fall before she could blink her eyes. She bent down to Quinn so that she was holding her as best she could while Quinn was lying in this stark white bed.
After a few moments Rachel pulled back and tried to keep herself from crying any further, taking a few deep breaths to calm down. "Don't cry Rachel … I'm, I'm okay. Really I am. Don't worry about me. Everything's okay now because they … they were able to remove the bullets and … and give me more blood to make for the fact that I lost so much. I'll … I'll be okay Rach, so don't worry about me too much. I'll be home before you know it and I'll be as good as new and it will … it will be as if this day never happened." When Rachel didn't look reassured by anything Quinn said Quinn tried a different tactic. "This isn't the first time I've been injured on the job and it won't be the last either. This is all a part of what being in the police force is and I know that you're new to it so … you're just in shock over it right now but … it will be okay. I will be okay and I promise you that." Rachel nodded her head in acceptance of what Quinn was saying but she was still worried nonetheless.
"You promise … you promise that you'll be okay?" Rachel had never had to deal with someone getting seriously injured like this before and so it frightened her greatly to see Quinn looking so pale and weak in a hospital bed amongst stark whiteness. Sure, Sam had gotten injured once early on but a broken nose couldn't compare to the seriousness of being shot multiple times. "You're promising me that … you'll … you'll be moving around again a-and that … that you'll … soon you'll be back on your feet and at 100% okay?"
Quinn looked up and saw all of the vulnerability in Rachel did the only thing she could to reassure Rachel: she was honest. "I … well right now I don't really feel too much pain because I've been numbed by the pain medication but … honestly I … I will be okay. I know I will be after a few weeks of bed rest. I'll be good as new and we can go back to working and hanging out in our free time. We'll be singing on karaoke nights every Friday like we used to and we'll sit around and talk or watch movies or … or just do whatever! This is just temporary because before you know it … I'll be walking around and sleeping in my own bed before you know it." Quinn squeezed Rachel's hand, the hand she hadn't let go of yet and was unwilling to part with, "this I promise you Rachel Barbra Berry." And that had Rachel crying again. Rachel was an emotional being and seeing someone she cared about so much in this state had her severely sensitive.
Rachel nodded her head in acceptance and squeezed Quinn's warm hand back. She was glad to know that Quinn's hand was warm because warmth meant life. "Okay … thank you Quinn … I'm so sorry that this happened to you." Quinn attempted to move herself so that she was upright but before she could do that Rachel's free hand was on her shoulder, preventing her from moving any further. "Quinn you can't possibly move right at this moment because you'll tear the stitches on your stomach open if you attempt to sit up and I would rather not have you do that. You are already injured enough as it is, there is no need to do further damage to yourself by moving too soon."
A nurse came into the room and broke the trance they were both in from looking into each other's eyes so deeply. "Detective Berry? I'm sorry but I must ask you to leave now because we need to let Head Detective Fabray rest now and monitor how well she is taking the blood transfusion." Rachel nodded over to the tall blonde nurse and looked back at Quinn one last time, squeezing the hand that neither had been able to let go of.
"I'll visit you every day … every day until I can take you home and … and when you come home I will take care of you for a change." Rachel looked down at Quinn meaningfully, causing Quinn to chuckle and then gasp from slight pain in her abdomen. "Okay, no laughing Quinn … that's an order from me!" Rachel said sternly causing Quinn to smile that little, small smile of hers that was always a little mysterious.
"Okay … whatever you say … momma Berry." Rachel rolled her eyes at Quinn's antics but was glad for the fact that Quinn seemed okay and her calm behavior helped ease Rachel's worries more than anything else did. "I better see you and the others tomorrow because if I don't … I'll … I'll … I'll think of something witty when I'm not so drugged up! That's what I'll do!" And that had Rachel giggling.
"I'm sure … I'll tell the others your exact words for sure Miss oh so very threatening and scary." Rachel looked at Quinn fondly once more before she bent down and gave her a gentle kiss on the forehead. "You know … there's this saying that my parents always told me … and that is that all kisses have different meanings … and the one I just gave you, on your forehead, means friendship."
Quinn's eyes widened in surprise and only a moment later the tiniest bit of sorrow crept into her expression before it was quickly masked. "Thank you Rachel." Rachel was sure she had imagined that trace of sorrow and so she shrugged it off and smiled and waved as she left.
Over the next week Brittany, Santana, and Rachel all visited Quinn daily to see how she was doing. Finn visited one the entire week, the day after the incident, while Sam and Puck visited every other day. Sue and Will made an effort to visit her when they could and when they couldn't visit they would send things in with people they knew were visiting, things like food, flowers, cards, and plush toys. The gossip whores, Kurt and Mercedes, often came in with the Asian lovebirds in tow.
Kurt had squealed over the fact that he had spoken to a witness at the bank who was a real "hottie" as he put it. Kurt had gone on about how there was no way this hunk was not gay and that he would give anything to do sinful things to him if he couldn't date him at the very least. He had mentioned that he was in the music industry and was only back in Lima to visit his family. Kurt was crushing on this guy big time and he wasn't afraid to show it. He kept going on about some guy named Blaine Anderson and he was showing no sign of letting up. Mercedes was very supportive for the first few days of Kurt's constant simpering but eventually it got to the point that she lost interest because Kurt wouldn't ask him out directly. Mercedes had her eyes on a guy anyways and she was focusing on getting him to notice her now more than listening to Kurt's rambling. The guy she liked was … Sam Evans, partner of Puck and suspected gay man. She kept saying that if he was suspected to be gay there was no guarantee that he was at all. She'd been trying to give him some subtle hints for a little while now but Sam was one of the densest guys in the group of friends … only third after Finn and Brittany.
Mike and Tina would just roll their eyes at Kurt and Mercedes' antics but Quinn understood that it was all just to cheer her up. They were the kind of friends who would act like nothing was wrong so she didn't have to feel sad about what was going on with her. Their gossiping was a form of medicine in and of itself because it made even her cold façade melt a little and she would just smile and shake her head in amusement at the pair being silly. Mike and Tina would talk about their day and how much everyone at the station missed her and wished her well.
"Rachel has looked pretty miserable working with her temporary partner. The person filling in for you is … well, as Rachel put it when she complains, 'incompetent and absolutely nothing like Detective Fabray!' She has been rather … well … more forceful than usual and it's a shock that Santana has yet to throttle Rachel. She keeps shooting looks her way and muttering under her breath and we can all imagine what it is Santana is muttering under her breath. Brittany is always saying something to her while looking at her disapprovingly." Tina said animatedly. "Rachel has been really, really anal and controlling and well … very demanding … just a big diva since you've been cooped up in here. Just the other day Santana had a screaming match with her about her being incessantly annoying and Brittany and Sam had to hold her back from hurting Rachel. Rachel actually screamed, but I'm still not quite sure if she was screaming because she was scared or frustrated. Either way it got pretty heated around there."
Mike nodded his head and inserted his piece about it, "I seriously thought that Santana was going to hit Rachel because she was saying some stuff in Spanish … her angry sounding Spanish, too!"
"We were all, 'dayum girl! You need to cool it," Mercedes jumped in with serious eyes.
"You know that Mercedes and I are pretty chummy with her but she has been annoying us lately too with her diva attitude." Kurt said, brushing something off of his very expensive looking coat. "The thing is … well, I think she's acting this way because she's really worried about you and she's handling things the only way she knows how to … her coping mechanisms are really annoying though." Kurt rolled his eyes and went back to exchanging gossip with Mercedes and talking about his manly man crush on the very sexy Blaine Anderson.
Needless to say Mike, Tina, and Quinn tuned them out as they continued to talk. "So the other day I saw Santana glaring daggers at Rachel and she even went as far as to crack her knuckles and crack her neck. She looked like she was getting ready to get out of her seat and just lunge but then Brittany intercepted her and whispered something into her ear that I'm sure none of us want to know from the smirk that appeared on her face afterwards." Tina said with a slightly disgusted look on her face, her nose even wrinkled slightly in distaste reminding Quinn of Rachel's face after she tried eating fake shrimp once. Needless to say she never tried it again and often her nose wrinkled in disgust when Quinn ate real shrimp in front of her even though Quinn protested that the real thing tasted so much better. Rachel could be snooty but it didn't bother Quinn one bit. She actually thought it was rather cute when Rachel showed that side of her when they were alone together in Quinn's condo.
"I'm pretty sure everyone in the room had that same expression as you Tina … Mike has that face right now, too I can see." Quinn was smiling her small smile at them and they just shook their heads to rid those rather unpleasant thoughts from their heads. It wasn't actually unpleasant so much as disturbing for them considering they didn't like to think about the possibility of what Brittany and Santana got up to at night … or any other time during the day. That was private and private things should stay private. "Let's … let's talk about something else now since that subject is rather … private and I would rather not think about that … or imagine it for that matter." Quinn was probably the most uncomfortable out of the three because she had seen far more than she ever wished to because they were her best friends after all and she spent most of her free time with them. She already saw them do things like kiss, make out, and sometimes they would grope each other when she wasn't expecting it and she would walk in on them doing something serious, forgetting where they were at the moment. Quinn supposed she could understand that but sometimes she wished she could bleach certain memories from her mind because of what she had been witness to over the years between them.
"Oh … well do you know when you'll be let out of the hospital Quinn?" Tina asked with a hopeful tone of voice. Mike nodded his head in agreement; also curious about when she would be getting out of the hospital.
"Yeah you've been in the hospital for nine days now I think … well I'd ask Rachel but she'd probably freak out or something. She might have a stroke or get an aneurism if I asked her how long you've been in the hospital because her major freak outs happen when someone mentions you." Tina nodded her head vigorously in agreement to Mike's statement. "You'd think she was acting that way because she thinks you're dying or something." Those words struck something in Quinn, a feeling, that gave her an idea as to what was potentially bothering Rachel so much. It was just a theory she had anyways and nothing necessarily concrete.
Just then someone else walked into the room, "Quinn. I brought you some soup so you'd better be grateful because I nearly busted my ass going through security!" Santana yelled into the room, causing everyone to shush her because they didn't want to get kicked out.
"You're going to get us all kicked out if you keep that up Santana!" Kurt hissed indignantly. Santana narrowed her eyes at him.
"You hissing, like that, isn't any better than me talking loudly like the fierce Latina that I am." Santana snapped back, "and anyways Aretha Franklin, Chang squared, or you, dancing Queen, have to leave so that Brits and me can gets into the room. They don't want more than four visitors at a time or whatever." Santana sniffed, looking at her nails with a bored expression on her face. It was so typical of Santana that everyone in the room just rolled their eyes at her slightly offensive, but mostly accurate, terms of endearment for the four. "We wants to actually visit Q any day now … preferably before I become a seventy year old virgin if you don't mind."
This had everyone rolling their eyes, "I'd tell you to quit with the sass but I think you were born that way so I'll just let it slide." Kurt sniffed with only slightly rosy cheeks and a raised eyebrow. "Mercedes …" he waited for her to look at him, "let's be off before she starts insulting the magnificent hair that is entirely ours or worse … our fashionable sense." Kurt turned on his heel and walked out with diva swag and a slight huff as Mercedes followed with a strut of her own.
Santana chuckled into the silent room, aside from the consistent beeping of the machines, "well that was easier than I thought." There was a distinctive smirk on her face, and it was even evident in her voice that she was smirking, her trademark smirk of triumph. She turned around, her hair whipping around with her, and she acknowledged Mike and Tina by saying something that was a stereotyping quip. "Open your eyes Chang squared," and they responded exactly the way she had anticipated.
"They are open!" Tina said it with a little bit more attitude than Mike but it still served to amuse her without fail every time she said it. Quinn even gave a breathy chuckle at how predictable they were with their automatic response to such a statement. "Ugh … every time you do that … I just want to face palm so very terribly Santana … I really do." Tina said with an arched eyebrow and a hand on her cocked hip, a sassy stance that Santana definitely took notice of immediately.
"My, my, my someone is being rather … sexy …" Santana's look was definitely predatory as she looked at Tina and without blinking she started saying something that had Tina shivering slightly. "Hey Mike, do you thi—" but she was interrupted rudely and swiftly.
"No, absolutely not! Never going to happen Santana!" Mike said with a slight glare in her direction without having to hear her finish her sentence he knew, instinctively, what Santana was going to ask him and he did not like it. "You already asked about that before and I'm going to say it again, Tina is my girlfriend and I am not sharing her even if you offer me 'the night of my life' as you put it." Mike said with air quotes included. Santana only chuckled in mirth and amusement over his protective stance in front of Tina now. The only reason Santana persisted in asking was because Tina had always wanted to try a threesome with another girl but she didn't know how to tell Mike about it. Tina had her fantasies too and they included making out with another girl and then some. Tina only looked slightly disappointed behind Mike's protective towering frame but she managed to hide it when he peeked over his shoulder to look at her. "We should get going Tina. It's already almost 8:30 now and we need to go over to your mom's for dinner. We're already going to be cutting it close since she lives on the opposite side of town from where our apartment is." Tina nodded and they both said their goodbyes to Quinn, Brittany, and Santana, Mike was looking at Santana warily because she was still giving Tina a look.
"Tina really needs to tell Mike the real reason I keep asking them that. Oh well, it's not my problem anyways so what does it matter to me." Santana said with a shrug and a smug look still on her face. "Hey Brit?" Santana called softly, linking her tan pinky with Brittany's much fairer complexion. Brittany looked up with a bright smile.
"Yeah San?" Brittany's innocent, soft smile was always contagious and Quinn could often be seen smiling when Brittany looked at her like that. It was no wonder though considering how sweet Brittany was and how naïve she was still even now despite the fact that a great many things she did were not considered innocent at all. Brittany was also a Police Detective too so … it was a wonder Brittany still managed to have the bright and innocent outlook on life like she did. Either way Brittany's innocent mind was something that Quinn and Santana both tried to protect.
"Did you bring in the soup from the car? I'm pretty sure Q has had every soup imaginable on earth but she's still not allowed to eat solids yet." Santana shook her head, "I don't know how you're doing this Q … seriously living on soup can't be that easy." Brittany nodded her head in agreement to the statement.
"I remember when my dad had a surgery for his stomach once he couldn't eat anything heavy so all my mom made was soup everyday and I had to eat it too. I didn't like soup after that for a while." Brittany said with her innocent voice that was sometimes just too childish in a cute way that had the tough Latina and cold detectives swooning a little bit.
The peaceful moment between friends was broken when another person entered the room, one that immediately soured Santana's mood. "What are you doing here hobbit from hell?" Santana asked snidely causing Quinn to yell out a protest and Brittany to nudge her gently.
"Santana! I thought we talked about this!" Quinn said angrily, attempting to sit up straighter and hissing in pain from the effort. "Damn it!" Quinn cursed under her breath when she felt the stitches in her stomach stretch more than they should.
Rachel was immediately by her side, "are you all right Quinn?!" Rachel's package for Quinn lay forgotten on a nearby chair and she was gently holding Quinn's shoulders to help her sit back against the angled upper half of the bed. "You need to be careful with how you move because in case you've forgotten you have two stitched up bullet holes in your body." Quinn understood why Rachel said what she said but Santana on the other hand took it very personally and in the wrong way.
"Hey dwarf, why don't you back off a little huh? She's, like you said, got two fucking bullet holes in her fucking body so lay off of her will you?" Santana's stance was one of authority with how her hands were placed on her hips and how she seemed to be looking down at Rachel from where she stood, several feet away from her. "She doesn't need a reminder of why she's here."
"San," Brittany whispered softly, shaking her head in disapproval of Santana's entirely uncalled for reprimand.
Just when Rachel looked like she was about to give a retort of some sort Quinn's hand covered Rachel's arm gently, causing Rachel to look over at her. "Don't," she whispered softly while shaking her head. Rachel just nodded her head in agreement after looking into Quinn's soft golden green gaze for a moment. "Santana … there was no need for you to say those things even if you were upset. I know that Rachel isn't your favorite person but she's my friend too so please … just for my sake don't say things like that anymore even if I'm not around. I've heard about you two fighting like mortal high school enemies … or petty Chinese mythological gods do according to Mike and Tina. From what I've been told Rachel has been … less than pleasant to work with but if you just ignore the fact that she is someone you dislike things like this wouldn't happen. So, please, for my sake stop fighting with her." Quinn looked so exhausted, and she really was, despite being in a hospital and resting most of that time. Santana softened around the edges immediately and she nodded her head once, looking more like she was inclining her head. Quinn sighed in relief and then turned her attention to Rachel, "as for you Rachel … don't think you're getting off the hook just because you're a tiny little thing. Please don't try to antagonize her … or at the very least ease up a little at work. I've heard that you've been a tyrant worse than Sue even and the only reason she has been tolerating it is because she 'sees a young, prettier Sue Sylvester' in you as I've been told by several visitors from work." Rachel looked away from Quinn's gaze for a moment, sheepish looks gracing her features. "I know this has been hard on you but always remember that I am here if you need to talk about whatever it is bothering you."
"I … I'm sorry about my behavior at work Santana." Rachel was looking over at Santana as she spoke and Santana just nodded her head in acceptance again, making it look like it was merely a head inclination once more. "I promise that I won't be as … unreasonable as I have been at work. I really haven't been easy to work with and I … I will make sure not to be that way anymore if I can help myself." Santana rolled her eyes at the last part but managed to hide it turning her head to the side a little bit as she prepared herself for her apology to the aggravating midget in the form of Rachel Berry.
Looking at the wall to her right Santana stumbled through her apology … well sort of apology anyways considering it was her. "I know that I said a lot of mean things and that most of it was … undeserved … but you still pissed me the hell off so … you can't really blame me for that. I know that most of it was just me losing my cool because I dislike you … and all that but I'll try to keep myself from ripping your head off one of these days because you're so damn annoying you piss me off so much." Rachel actually sat where she was, jaw hanging open slightly, silent with incredulity because what the heck kind of an apology was that? Rachel had never heard a more backward apology in her life … a more insulting apology than the one she just had to sit through and remember for the rest of her life with her memory being the way it was. Quinn herself cringed internally but externally she gave Santana a disapproving glare, hoping Santana would look over to see it any moment now. Santana finally looked over after the silence lasted too long, "what?" she asked, noticing the look on both Quinn and Rachel's faces. Quinn she was more worried about than Rachel.
"Santana … I know there isn't exactly an apology class or anything like that but … who taught you how to apologize?" Rachel asked her voice full of shock and wonder at how very insulting apologies could actually be. Rachel had never been more offended by a peace offering like the one just delivered by fierce Latina Santana Lopez.
"I … I …" Santana looked at the floor before admitting, through a nearly mumbled explanation, "I was never told to apologize for things when I was younger. The attitude was that a Lopez never apologizes for anything because even though we were poor we still had our pride."
Quinn felt her jaw drop open because Santana admitting something like that was so drastic the world might as well have been ending. Bring on the apocalypse now! It was an extremely private and personal thing for Santana to admit and for her to admit it was a big thing to begin with. Santana admitting it to Rachel Berry, who she detested very much so?, that was like the sun imploding and all of the natural light in the world dying for good. That was just unheard of and most importantly unseen.
Rachel was stunned as well by the admission. "It's … it's okay Santana … I … I understand and from now on you don't have to apologize to me for any reason short of you murdering me. I understand what it's like to grow up being different from other children … from other people; I suppose that's the better word for it."
And just like that, that was the end of the matter. And a week and a half later when Quinn was finally allowed out of the hospital Quinn swore she was never going to order soup to eat for at least a year because she was so sick of all of the soup she ate in the last two and a half weeks. She was swearing off soup for at least a year to recover her taste for them and those stitches would have to be removed at a different time according to the doctors. Quinn was just glad to be out of the hospital and back in her own home as well as having the privilege of having solid foods again. That was a definite plus in her book.
So sorry it took so long for me to update this story but I've been such a busy bee and then I got fired last week and I was really very upset over that and so I just took some time off of writing. I tried but I was just so upset about the entire situation because the reason for me being fired was quite unfair and I just needed to cheer myself up from all of that drama. Please tell me your thoughts on the chapter and I hope I receive a lot of love from everyone! Until the next chapter my lovely readers!^^
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