Sorry for the wait!
Michaels pulled into the driveway of a large two story town house. It was of a nondescript tan color but the front garden seemed to be over-flowing with rich colors of roses, lilies, violets, and other flowers he knew not the name of. It was all very well kept, and created quite a pleasing affect to the house. Roberts, after he had finished changing out of the coffee stained shirt, joined him and they walked through the slightly winding stone pathway to the front door. The door was itself made of a rich, dark mahogany, two frosty glass windows with black lines swirling around them in amazingly intricate swirls. It screamed of wealth.
With a gentle and slightly hesitant hand, Roberts knocked on the door, careful of the glass. They waited a few moments before hearing footsteps. Roberts, having partially expecting a maid or butler to answer, was surprised to see a middle-aged pleasant-looking woman answer. She was wearing a simple white dress with a light yellow cardigan over it, her hair tied back in a simple bun at the bottom of her head. She smiled beatifically at them, either ignorant to why they were there or simply not caring.
"Can I help you gentlemen?" she asked politely, smile not quite leaving her face as she stepped aside to allow them access to her home. The inside of the house was just as rich as the outside, warm colored wooden floors led them into it, a chandelier of cascading glass crystals casting the foyer with a warm and pleasing light. In front of them stood a swirling staircase and on either sides of them sat two rooms, one was closed off with double wooden doors with large glass panels and another was opened up to create a pleasing effect of an open layout.
She seemed unperturbed about their lack of response, instead leading them into the opened area of the house. It ended up being a living room of a surprisingly light and bright yellow color. It had none of the heavy feeling the foyer had but instead, the floor was a light wood paneling with a large white and black rug spread across, the couch and chairs were white with yellow pillows that matched the walls holding as accents. Black painted wooden side tables, a coffee table centered in the middle, and an entertainment center completed the look. Large bay windows allowed the pale yellow light of the morning to cross through the room.
"My daughter did it." The woman explained, gesturing for them to sit across from her. "After her father left, and she moved back in she wanted the house to have a more homely look. She's mostly finished the entire house now; the foyer is all that's left. She was supposed to start working on it a while ago but after that horrendous attack on her friend, she's been much to distracted." She smiled sadly.
"You, are you talking about the accident of Rachel Berry?" Roberts questioned, papers shuffling as he flipped over a few pages onto a fresh one. The woman bore down on him, her azure eyes seemingly penetrating him as she stared. He coughed uncomfortably and the woman started.
"Yes, it's rather odd actually. Before the accident Quinnie was rather indifferent to the girl, but after it all happened, she was so much warmer about her," she looked across at the both of them as she spoke.
"What do you mean? She just realized how much more she felt for Miss Berry?" Michaels knew it didn't really pertain to his case but from the way Mrs. Fabray spoke, it was as if something so much more than Rachel falling down the stairs had occurred. Mrs. Fabray laughed lightly.
"No, no. I'm afraid it didn't, but –" she cast them a look of polite bewilderment, "surely you know if it?" Roberts and Michaels looked at each other, both rather confused. "You don't?" her tone was surprised and her eyes had widened somewhat.
"Ma'am, all we know about the accident is from the principal of the school. He says that Miss Berry fell down one of the school's longer staircases after some sort of altercation with the football team. One of the Glee Club members later named David Karofsky as to blame but Principal Figgins assured us that the accusations were unfounded." Roberts explained almost nervously. Mrs. Fabray's eyebrows shot up.
"You seem to be missing some crucial information, sir." she stated quietly, "Rachel was pushed from the stairway after interceding in a vulgar hate crime against Brittany Pierce." She stated, her tone slightly cold as she regarded the two extremely surprised police officers.
"What type of crime was this?" Michaels demanded.
"Sexual. David Karofsky was assaulting her to the cheers of his fellow football players. Rachel intercedes, said some things that he didn't quite like, and when she turned to walk away with Brittany he pushed her down the stairs. None of the girls saw it coming." She finished, staring intently at the two shell-shocked men.
"Why have no charges been brought up?" Roberts asked as he was the first to overcome his shock.
"Rachel's been extensively injured. She can't even speak in full sentences any more, according to Quinn, and she was quite the eloquent speaker. She has been diagnosed with something called expressive aphasia which is called by a severe collision to the Broca. Not to mention the numerous surgeries she's had to go through." She ticked them off on her fingers as she spoke, "She had emergency surgery to remove loose bone chippings from around her lungs immediately upon entering the hospital, shoulder reconstruction and leg reconstruction including a bone graph. Why, she's in surgery today to replace the missing chips in her ribs."
"I-I didn't realize," Michaels said rather quietly. Roberts wasn't sure if he was speaking to him or to himself but his partner seemed too lost in thought for him to ask.
"I believe," Mrs. Fabray started, "that I have been rather courteous to you both and I would like if you now told me why you are here?" she posed it as a polite question but by the suddenly chilly tone and posed look of indifference, she was no longer as warm to them as she had been.
"Yes, we were told that your daughter's boyfriend, Noah Puckerman, would be here?"
"You've missed them." She stated calmly, "they left about an hour ago together, for the hospital. They and the glee club made plans to wait for Rachel's surgery to end together there. Why do you need him?" She asked them suspiciously, arms folded across her chest.
"Well, we need to question him about the attack of David Karofsky, but as he's not here, we will just be going. " Roberts spoke quickly and rather nervously as the look in Mrs. Fabray's face darkened considerably. He put a gentle but firm hand on Michaels and pulled him to his feet.
"I believe you can find your own way out?" Mrs. Fabray asked coolly, her eyes now the color of steel.
"Yes, thank you for your time ma'am," she nodded, lips pursed, her eyes following him as he made his way from the room, out the foyer, into the garden, down the path, and finally into the car. He and Michaels shared a look of deepest confusion.
"What was that about? Do you think she's right, that Karofsky did that?" Roberts asked almost fearfully. He could tell that the boy was homophobic and obviously from the complaints filed against him by the Hummels, not the kindest of people in the world, but to be capable of pushing someone down a flight of stairs in cold blood?
"I can believe it." Michaels stated darkly, eyes glaring holes into the steering wheel before him. "Ignorance and fear of something can bring out the worst of people. I know that well." Roberts winced at the man's tone, remembering all too well, the man's son, his godson's, demise. "It wasn't all of his creation either; it's become apparent that David Senior has also shown uncomfortableness around gays." At Robert's questioning look, he reached over and pulled out a slightly older file and tossed it at him.
Curiously, he opened the file and let out a soft intake of breath. Michaels watched with grim eyes as Roberts quickly glanced over the police report, his face darkening more at each sentence he read. Finally, he closed the file and threw it away with from him with evident disgust.
"I can't believe someone would do that! Just because they were gay?" Michaels nodded and Roberts let out a low string of curse words angrily. To take away a child from a family at that age, not because of any evident abuse or discomfort shown by the child, but because of having two fathers, it was wrong.
"I think," Michaels started the car and pulled from the house, "It's time to pay the Karofsky family a visit before we continue this investigation." He turned and headed east, intent on reaching the outskirts of the town and heaving a rather long discussion with David Karofsky and his father. It was going to be off the table.
Finn paced the floor impatiently, awaiting any news. The rest of the group would have lectured him on making everyone else nervous but they were too worried themselves to do so. Rachel had been scheduled for surgery earlier this day and had gone under the knife, but that was hours ago and they were supposed to hear from the doctor or somebody by now and it was putting everyone on edge. They were told that out of all Rachel's procedures (excluding the initial one) this one was the most risky and by not hearing anything, they were all dreading the worse.
A pale, dark haired nurse appeared and approached them quietly. She seemed most indifferent walking over and when she spoke it was in a monotonously bored voice. "You Rachel Berry's friends?" she asked, popping her gum. Finn nodded and immediately asked if there was any news. The girl rolled her eyes, "How would I know? I was just told to come get you," she rolled her eyes as if Finn was the biggest idiot she'd ever had to deal with. Puck and Brittany both immediately grabbed Santana to stop her from attacking the girl. As it was, she was angrily muttering things in Spanish that sounded most threatening.
They followed the woman onto the surgery floor and she led them into a room just off Rachel's surgery room. Mr. and Mr. Berry were already there, backs turned to them so they had no idea what they looked like. The woman left them, Santana still murmuring threats as she passed. She fell silent as the woman left the room but it was Finn who broke the silence first.
"Mr. and Mr. Berry? What's happened?" Finn spoke quietly and still neither man turned as if they hadn't heard the boy. Time ticked and the silence bore on. It was in this moment, the moment that the quiet peaked onto never reached heights that Finn felt a crashing realization. Something was horribly wrong; something had gone wrong in the surgery. He could already feel the tears fall even as the Berry's explained in hush, shaking tones.
"Something's gone wrong. The rib the doctors were working on splintered and a –" tears gushed from Hiram Berry's eyes and his voice broke off. He turned towards his husband and began crying into his chest earnestly. For several long and unbearable moments the glee club watched the man sob, tears falling down their own faces but no one bothered to acknowledge them.
"A piece of the rib cut through her lung's pleura causing a condition called 'pneumothorax' to happen. Basically it is a collection of air in the pleural cavity. For Rachel, it is extremely serious, her blood pressure dropped significantly and she nearly went into cardiac arrest again." Gasps, loud and horrifying, escaped from several people's lips as Leroy Berry spoke those words.
"They've placed an emergency chest tube in place to lower the amount of air going in but they've said that the state of Rachel's lung might mean that they have to use negative pressure suction, if air is still leaving after 3 days." Silence followed this announcement, then, in an extremely shaky that mirrored his hands swaying on either side of him, Finn spoke.
"Is it deadly? I mean, is Rachel going to be okay?" Hiram sobbed even harder into his husband's chest and Finn's heart dropped. Leroy looked at him with his dark eyes, unshed tears threatening to spill over as he surveyed the group of children before him. They all stared back at him with sad, yet hopeful eyes and his heart broke.
"We don't know yet." Finn felt his world break away at that moment, his heart dropping as he himself sank to his knees. The world spinned before him as the words reverberated around his head and tears blurred his vision beyond any distinction. Rachel might not make it. The world felt like such a cruel place, giving him back Rachel for two precious, amazing weeks just to take her and bring her on the brink of death, a breadth away from him and the world of living once again. His hand reached instinctively into his pocket and encircled the small, velvet covered box that sat there.
I'm too late.
So, umm,you all probably seriously wish to kill me right now for creating yet another horrible enormity for Rachel and Finn and in precaution of this, I have constructed a small but useful list on why stalking where I leave and murdering me in my sleep (probably in some cruel twist of irony of pushing me down stair or something)
1. I really didn't mean for it to happen. I was seriously going to write about bad-ass Puck and suave yet bitchy Quinn powning out an awesome alibi to the cops but when I sat down, I wrote this.
2. It's created a plot for this story. I never really had one, but I had a bunch of different ideas that I wanted to carry out at some point but had no deciding factor in which to use and now this has created an area in to which I can encase all of these ideas without having an over-active plot.
3. It's more realistic. She's not getting a miracle recovery (obviously) which a lot of you were complaining about *am now hiding as you people read how I am twisting your words in some sort of twisted irony*
4. If I die, you don't get to figure out what happens next. Does she live? Does she die? If you kill me you can never find out as I am a sporadic and totally unorganized writer and have rarely if ever written a single word on a word document unless I've planned on updating that day. I mostly update two to three days apart.
5. You all love me too much to resort to horrific violence.
I am also slightly hyper at this moment so sorry. I'll update soon and I promise you get to find out if Rachel lives or dies in the next chapter! Until Next Time!
*now runs and hides*