Stefan rushed backstage to find stagehands fussing over Quinn's unconscious body. The very sight of which is enough to throw him into a frenzy. He pushed past unfamiliar faces and all but snatched her out of one of the stagehand's arms. "What happened?" he demanded of no one in particular.
"She collapsed right at the beginning of the second number." the stagehand replied, his gaze flickering away as someone reports into his headset. "The paramedics are on their way." he reported to Stefan.
That was about twenty minutes ago. By now Stefan was seconds away from ripping some throats out. He should have just taken to her to the hospital himself; it would have been a hell of a lot faster. Thankfully before the ripper decided to make an appearance, the paramedics finally came rushing to Quinn's aide. Seeing them was almost enough to get him to calm down but then his temper flared up again when one of the paramedics tried to keep him from riding in the ambulance with her because he wasn't a blood relative. It took all his willpower not to just snap the guy's neck right then and there. He had to instead settle for compulsion.
—
He's in the middle of pacing around the waiting room like a madman, waiting on any news from a doctor, when the double doors burst open and the entire New Directions comes charging in with Rachel leading the way. Surprised, he asks, "What are you guys doing here?"
"You really think we would be anywhere else, Salvatore?" Santana scoffs, folding her arms across her chest.
Rachel walks up to him, concerned. "Where's Quinn? Is she okay?"
He shakes his head. "I don't know. I haven't heard anything from anyone yet." He turns away, frustrated. He was this close to compelling the next doctor he saw for answers.
"Yeah, well that's about to change." Santana states, handing Brittany her purse before walking over to the nurse's desk.
Stefan watches as Rachel follows the Latina, the smaller brunette muttering something along the lines of, "Santana, don't get us kicked out of this hospital."
"Excuse me, Miss." Rachel says politely to the nurse before Santana can get a word in. "Our friend Quinn Fabray was admitted here about twenty minutes ago and we would really like to know if she's okay."
"A doctor will be with you shortly." the nurse replies curtly before taking a phone call.
"That will not fly lady." Santana retorts, snatching the phone out of the woman's hand and slamming it down on the receiver. "We've been waiting for twenty minutes for someone to tell us what's going on and we haven't heard shit. So I suggest you get up off your ass and find a damn doctor to tell us if she's okay otherwise you will have a entire fuckin' glee club going all Lima Heights on your ass!"
"Young lady, lower your voice or I will have security forcibly remove you." the nurse warns sternly.
Unthreatened, Santana disregards the woman's warning. "For your information you damn spinster - and yeah the cat paraphernalia is a total give away - " she gestures to the excessive amount of cat related items on the nurse's desk. "My name is Santana Lopez. My father works here. You've probably heard of him, Dr. Hector Lopez. Yeah, you better have that look of surprise on your face, because if he hears about the way you've been treating me and my friends, I guarantee that he will have words about it. I get my temperament from him by the way. So if you don't want the best doctor in this damn place going off on you - and be warned when he goes off, you will be terrified - I suggest you find us a doctor that can tell us what the hell is going on with our friend, Quinn Fabray."
Rachel looks back at the nurse anxiously to see if Santana's threat had worked. A satisfied smile worms its way onto Santana's face as the nurse reluctantly rises from her seat. "Let me find you a doctor, I'll be right back."
Stefan watches from a few feet away as the nurse disappears behind the double doors, impressed that Santana's ranting had actually worked on her. Santana and Rachel make their way back to the group, proud smiles on their faces. "A doctor should be out any minute." Rachel informs him even though he had heard the conversation perfectly.
Regardless he thanks them both and together they wait for a doctor.
—
Stefan leans forward in his seat, his foot tapping incessantly. He had long stopped pacing the room after Santana threatened to throw her heel at him if he didn't knock it off. The waiting room was mostly quiet as everyone anxiously awaited some news on Quinn's condition. Mr. Schuester and Quinn's father (who had arrived shortly after the group did) were down the hall getting some coffee.
"She's probably just suffering from a little over exhaustion." Rachel starts gently, taking the seat next to him. "Lots of performers get that way after a performance. It's really common."
He can't help the bitter scoff that escapes him then. If only it was just over exhaustion. If only.
Though he knows Quinn was keeping her illness from them for a reason, he figures now is as good a time as any to let them in. They deserve to know the truth.
"Quinn is sick, Rachel." he sighs, reluctantly lifting his head to meet her gaze. "She has leukemia."
Santana, who was sitting a seat over, snaps her head toward them. "What did you just say?"
"Quinn has cancer." he reports simply, his throat constricting painfully. This admission gets the attention of the rest of the group. "She found out during the summer and since then has stopped responding to treatments." he continues, doing his best to ignore the astounded expressions of her closest friends. Santana looked like she was on the verge of tears, something he really didn't think possible.
"It makes sense now, why she abruptly changed over summer." Tina says quietly.
Rachel shakes her head and promptly gets up from her seat. "Why didn't she tell us? I mean we're her friends, right? Why wouldn't she tell us?"
"She didn't want anyone to be weird around her." he explains calmly.
"This is not happening." Mercedes shakes her head, her voice cracking. "It can't be."
Santana glances over at the clock on the wall and huffs, quickly masking her feelings with anger. "We've been waiting in this god damn room for nearly an hour. That's it, I'm going to find a doctor myself."
But just as she rises from her seat, a doctor walks into the room. "I'm looking for the family of Ms. Fabray."
"Right here." says everyone in the room. The doctor looks at them oddly.
"We're her brothers and sisters." Rachel explains, turning to him. It was true, to some extent.
Santana raises her eyebrow, daring him to say otherwise. "Yeah, got a problem with that?" she challenges.
"No, but I need to talk to her legal guardian." the doctor responds.
"I'm right here." Mr. Fabray steps forward. "How is she?" he asks expectantly.
"She's still unconscious but stable, the paramedics tell me she was in a singing competition when she collapsed?" he clarifies, glancing over his clipboard again.
Mr. Fabray nods. "Yes, she's in a glee club."
"Well there was no serious damage was done. She just overworked herself is all. She'll be fine. Well as fine as she can be considering her condition." he adds softly.
"Can we see her now?" Stefan asks almost impatiently.
The doctor nods, looking to them all. "But at the most, three at a time." Everyone shakes their head compliantly, relieved that Quinn was okay.
—
Stefan waits outside Quinn's room to give her father some privacy with her. He could clearly hear her heart beating steady which put him more at ease. After a few minutes, her door opens and he automatically straightens up, pushing himself off the wall he had been leaning against. "You can come in, Stefan." Mr. Fabray says quietly; Stefan doesn't hesitate in doing so.
The room is silent save for the beeping of Quinn's heart monitor. When Mr. Fabray finishes closing the door behind him, Stefan takes a seat beside her bed. He hesitates for a moment before gently taking her hand in his. His heart clenches painfully at the sight of her hooked up to so many wires. He's known for weeks that she was dying but sitting here, watching her like this, made it all so much more real. He swallows hard and before he can even try to stop it, tears prick the corners of his eyes. He tries to will the tears away but is unable to. The emotion is just too great to suppress.
After a while of sitting and watching her, Stefan reluctantly rises to fetch the others, knowing they wanted to see her. They visit in pairs, allowing a few minutes for each before swapping. Kurt even showed up with Blaine after Rachel informed him of the news. It isn't long before the hours pass and the others leave for the night, leaving Mr. Fabray and Stefan alone together. "It's getting late son." Mr. Fabray brings up, walking back into Quinn's room where Stefan sat by her side. He clasps Stefan on the shoulder. "You go on home. I'll call you when she wakes up."
Stefan shakes his head, his gaze never wavering from Quinn. "I'm not leaving."
—
Two days came and went and Quinn was still asleep. During that time, the glee club visited her and showed her with her flowers and balloons, bringing a much needed lively-ness to her room. Stefan was currently with Santana and Brittany who had ditched school to come visit Quinn. Brittany was mindlessly organizing Quinn's flowers and get well cards so that the card she had brought Quinn - which looked like a five-year old had drawn it in Stefan's opinion - was front and center. Sitting on the small loveseat near the window was a giant teddy bear in a Cheerio's uniform, a gift from Brittany and Santana as well.
"She's the toughest girl I know." Santana says quietly, the two of them looking at Quinn, who was still peacefully asleep. "She'll make it through this."
He wordlessly nods his head. "You seriously haven't left her side since sectionals?" Santana questions, looking back at him and realizing that he was still wearing his suit from that night, although he had rid himself of the blazer and his tie was gone. "No wonder you reek so bad."
"Do I really smell?" he asks, amused.
Santana nods with a grimace. "I wasn't gonna say anything but when Quinn finally does wake up, I don't want her to pass out from your god-awful stench and slip into a coma or something."
"She's waking up." Brittany gasps, causing Stefan and Santana to whip their attention over to Quinn. Stefan automatically gets up and walks over to her side, watching with bated breath as her eyes fluttered open.
Quinn blinks a few times before asking groggily. "Where am I?"
"In hell." Santana retorts, smirking. Stefan shoots her a disapproving glance.
"If I was, Brittany and Stefan wouldn't be here." Quinn mumbles tiredly, a small smile playing on her lips. Taking notice of Stefan, her weak smile broadens. "Hey you."
Stefan finally releases the breath he'd been holding for these past two days and leans down to kiss her forehead. "Hey." he greets back quietly. "How are you feeling?"
"I've had better days." she sighs, shrugging. "How are you?"
"Much better now that you're awake." he says honestly, his hand coming up to cover hers when she touches his cheek. "You scared the hell out of me."
"Sorry." she apologizes before he leans in for a soft kiss. They kiss for a few moments before someone clears them throat, causing them both to pull away.
"Me and Britt don't do the whole voyeur thing you know." Santana remarks.
"I like boats." Brittany says absently; Santana decidedly ignores her comment.
"Sorry, guys." Stefan steps aside so that Santana and Brittany could give her a double hug. "You were sleeping an awful long time, Quinn." Brittany comments, letting Quinn rest her head on her shoulder. "You slept a lot more than Lord Tubbington does. "But I'm glad your awake now."
"That makes two of us." Santana smiles, sitting down on the other side of Quinn. "It's no fun insulting you and making witty remarks if you can't respond to them. Although drawing on you was pretty fun…"
Quinn's eyes widen and her hands automatically go to her face. Her heart monitor begins to speed up a little in response. "What did you do?" she demands. Santana and Brittany just laugh.
"Just kidding Q." Santana chuckles, kissing Quinn's hair. "Glad to know that having cancer hasn't gotten rid of your gullibility."
"You know?"
Stefan shifts uncomfortably and responds before Santana could. "They all know. I was the one who told them. I know you were waiting for the right time but I just thought -"
"It's okay, Stefan." she interrupts, smiling reassuringly. "I'm glad that you did."
"But you should've been the one to tell us, Q." Santana interjects gently. "We're your best friends. We have a right to know this kind of stuff."
Quinn reaches for her hand and nods. "I know. I was going to tell you when the time was right, but I could never figure out when that was. It's really hard to find the right time to tell your friends you're dying." she chuckles bitterly.
"Wait, what?" Santana, Stefan, and Quinn all look to Brittany who looked like she had just gotten news Lord Tubbington had been run over. Stefan figures it was due to the fact that the blonde didn't understand what Leukemia was. Before any of them could even begin to explain things to her, Brittany breaks down throws her arms around Quinn, squeezing her tightly. "Don't die Quinn, don't die! I don't want to lose you. Please, Quinn, don't die!" she cries. "I'll miss you too much. I'll make you chicken noodle soup everyday and let you cuddle with Lord Tubbington, he always helps me when I'm sick."
Fighting back her own tears, Quinn rubs Brittany's back in a soothing manner. She could tell by the way Santana was sniffling that she was trying to do the same. When Brittany finally releases Quinn from her hold, she turns and rests her head on Quinn's shoulder. By then all three of them had done a substantial amount of crying.
"Let's talk about something else, anything else." Quinn says, wiping at her eyes with a tissue. "Did we win sectionals?" she asks curiously.
"We tied for first with those damn Warblers." Santana huffs, shaking her head. "Which I don't even understand, I mean we totally owned those choir boys. But whatever, I still consider it a win…thanks to you."
Quinn's eyebrow quirks. "What are you talking about? You killed it with Valerie."
"I did, didn't I?" Santana smirks. She stops, then frowns. "Wait, you heard?"
Quinn nods, chuckling. "Like five seconds of it, but I know you did fantastic. You always killed it in rehearsals. You too, Brittany."
Brittany smiles proudly. "I was the best performer out there. Britney Spears wishes she could dance like me." she says casually.
"I have no doubt about it." Quinn agrees.
Glancing up at the clock on the wall, Santana sighs. "We better be going, Britt." she says softly. "Sue will be up our ass if we miss Cheerio's practice."
"I want to stay with Quinn." Brittany pouts, curling into Quinn's side.
"It's okay, Britt, I'll see you later." Quinn assures, squeezing the other blonde's hand. Brittany sighs and reluctantly slips off her bed.
Quinn's gaze falls over to the loveseat by her bed. "Thank you for the giant Cheerio teddy bear." she says, assuming it was from them. "Did you guys make the uniform?"
Santana rolls her eyes. "Yeah right cause we totally sew." she scoffs, picking up her bag off the floor, "We just stole Becky Jackson's uniform. It was the perfect fit."
Quinn shakes her head in disbelief. "Bye guys." she says to them on their way out.
"Bye, Q." they reply in unison, walking around her bed to give her one more hug.
When they pull away, Santana looks to Stefan. "Boy do us all a favor and go shower before you start to grow mold."
Rolling his eyes, Stefan discreetly ushers the two cheerleaders out of the room. "Goodbye Santana. Goodbye Brittany."
Once the girls were gone, Stefan walks back over to Quinn and takes a seat at the edge of her bed. "How do you feel?"
"A little tired." she admits, resting her head back against her pillows with a sigh.
"Take a nap if you want, don't mind me."
Quinn shakes her head and straightens up against her pillows. "No I want to talk to you. I've missed you."
"I've missed you too." he says in return, taking her hand in his and holding onto it.
"So how did you like our performance?" she wonders. "Before you know I passed out."
"Everyone was amazing, but you, you were spectacular." he smiles, meeting her eyes. "You were radiant, you just looked like you were having the time of your life."
"Even though I was singing to Sam, I imagined myself singing to you the entire time." she whispers, squeezing his hand gently.
"God I love you so much." he breathes, leaning forward and kissing her once more.
"I love you too." she murmurs against his lips.
When he pulls away, he sits back down and looks at her unsurely. "Can I ask you something?"
"Of course." she nods. "Anything."
"When were you going to tell me that your first name is Lucy?" he asks curiously. "I only bring it up because while you were sleeping I looked at your chart."
"Oh." Quinn smiles sheepishly. "Sorry, I meant to tell you."
"Don't be." he assures. "I was just wondering why you don't go by Lucy. Do you not like it or something?"
"No, it's a wonderful name." she shakes her head. "It's just, well I stopped going by Lucy after my mother passed away."
His brow furrows, not understanding the connection. "I was named after my mother." she explains. "And when she passed, whenever my father called my name, I could just see the heartbreak. Constantly saying my name, her name, just reminded him of her and I felt like I was forcing him to reopen an old wound every time he said my name. He never said anything of course, but I could tell. I couldn't handle seeing that sad look in his eyes whenever he said my name, so I asked him to start calling me Quinn, my middle name. I hoped that it would make it easier on him since I knew he was hurting so much as it was." She turns away and sniffles, eyes welling up with tears. Once she recomposes herself, she turns back to him.
"I got used to being called Quinn from then on and when I moved to Lima, I just said my name was Quinn Fabray. I think you're the only person, besides my dad, that knows that my real name is Lucy."
Stefan just smiles at her. She notices his expression and chuckles, "What?"
He shakes his head, still smiling. "It's just, well you look like a Lucy."
"Well my dad says I look just like my mom." she says smiling at the compliment.
Stefan pauses for a moment, unsure, before asking, "How old were you when she passed?"
"Eight." she replies, a sad expression coming across her face. "She had been fighting cancer too."
He swallows hard at that piece of information. "Do you remember her?" he asks, his voice a little rough.
Quinn nods eagerly, smiling like no other. "Clearly. She was the most amazing person I've ever known. She had this laugh," she chuckles at the memory, "this contagious laugh, that the moment you heard it, no matter what you were feeling, you just had to laugh too. She always had a smile on her face and always knew how to cheer people up. I remember her always singing too." she recalls, tears welling back up in her eyes. Stefan's smile falters a little at the sight. "She liked to play her records whenever she cleaned and she always sang along…" her voice cracks and her bottom lips trembles. She shuts her eyes tightly in attempt to will her impending tears away.
Stefan moves closer to her and takes her in his arms, kissing away the tears that started to leak out of the corners of her eyes. When she settles down, Stefan reaches into his pocket. "I have something for you." he begins quietly, figuring it might cheer her up.
Wiping her eyes, Quinn lifts her gaze from his chest. "What is it?"
"A little gift." he explains, handing her the small box. "I was going to give it to you after sectionals, but obviously we got a little detained."
"But you already got me a gift" she reminds, weakly lifting up her wrist to show him her bracelet.
"Well I have something to add to it." he responds, shifting when she straightens up. "It's another charm." he explains when she opens to the box to reveal a small silver whistle. "On the final day on set of To Have and Have Not, Humphrey Bogart gave Lauren Bacall a gold whistle. The inscription read, If you need anything, just whistle. I just thought since that's one of our favorite movies and we kind of are like them, I don't know…" he drifts off sheepishly, suddenly second guessing the idea.
"I love it." she sniffles, meeting his gaze with watery eyes. "It will always remind me of you. Of us and our love."
Stefan smiles and nods, not trusting himself to speak in that moment, not when he couldn't guarantee that he wouldn't break down. Wordlessly he attaches the charm to her bracelet, then kisses the inside of her wrist.
"I have something for you too." His brows hike in surprise. "You do?"
She nods and points to her bag that was on the couch. "Could you hand it to me?"
He retrieves her bag and hands it over, watching curiously as she rifles through it before pulling out what looked like a book. "Don't worry, it's not a bible." she assures.
He looks at the cover as she explains, "It was my mother's. It's full of quotes from her favorite books and just quotes by different people, her thoughts too."
He nods and opens the book to where the bookmark resided. "Okay. What is a friend? It's a single soul dwelling into bodies- Aristotle." he reads aloud.
"This one." Quinn points to a specific one on the top of the next page.
"Find out who you are and do it on purpose- Dolly Parton."
"I always thought she was smart." Quinn nods, leaning back.
He flips to another random page and reads the first quote that catches his eye. "Love is always patient and kind. It is never jealous. Love is never boastful or conceited. It is never rude or selfish. It does not take offense, it is not resentful."
Halfway through it, Quinn begins reciting it with him from memory. He lifts his gaze and smiles gratefully. "Thank you."
"It's always helped me and I just wanted to share it with you." she responds, smiling softly. He leans forward and kisses her once more. "You know what I figured out recently?" she asks suddenly, her green eyes flickering with emotion.
He shakes his head, not having the slightest clue. "What?" he asks, a smile spreading across his face.
"Maybe God has a bigger plan for me than I had for myself." she begins pensively, "Like you were sent to me because I'm sick, to help me through all this." Her entire face lights up with her realization. "You're my angel." she beams.
He nearly scoffs at the very idea but thankfully he refrains from doing so. "No, you're my angel." he tells her. "If it hadn't of been for you, I'd still be a ripper. A monster. You saved me from the darkest parts of myself that I've let consume me for over a century. Quinn, you're the angel."