A/N: I already had this written on my computer (it was actually one of the first parts of this story that I wrote) so I couldn't wait any longer to update. The next part is written too, so should be up tomorrow.
Thanks to Artie Tina Gleek (I'm glad I made your night :) Stories to that to me too and I'm glad I could pass on the happiness :D), Average Everyday Sane Psycho (I've always imagined Rachel being someone who took lots of mental notes and then checked them off later lol. Maybe that's just me...) and CarmenMauri (for when you get to this chapter :P).
It gets a little more dramatic here... Insanely long author's note over, and here's the chapter :)
Although he did enjoy seeing the hockey players get a taste of their own medicine, and found the way that the football team had joined in so wholeheartedly funny; Mike hated the fact that he was one of the biggest targets of the hockey team. And, as they say, it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt. He had a horrible feeling that somebody was going to get hurt.
Mike was leaving Glee rehearsal when the hockey player approached him.
He and Rachel, of all people, were the last to leave today; she seemed reluctant to be anywhere near Finn (something about how she had turned Finn down again) and he had wanted to talk to her about the dance that he had been doing during Tina's song. She had asked him for help on a particular step and so they had spent the next ten minutes going over it. It shocked him that the great Rachel Berry had actually asked him for help. And taken it too.
They were halfway down the hall, and he was listening to her ramble about her ballet class, of all things, when the hockey player ran around the corner, nearly colliding with them. He stopped and then said, "You're in Glee." Rachel nodded her head slowly, looking at Mike with a 'what does he mean?' look.
"The girl from Glee, the goth one, she's hurt." He said.
"Where is she?" Mike asked, worried immediately.
"Around the corner and down the hall." The hockey player pointed. Mike was off, with Rachel on his heels, in a second. He turned at the crossroad of the corridors wondering which way to turn. The hockey player hadn't exactly been precise in his directions. Rachel stopped at the same time Mike did; and pausing, they heard a dull thud and then a small groaning noise. Rachel turned to him, and whispered, "Did you hear that?" He nodded and they hurried around the corner.
And there they found Tina. The figure on the floor would have been unrecognisable, if not for the purple streaks in her hair, which was fanned out over her shoulders. Her knees were pulled up to her chest, and she was leaning against the door of the janitor's closet. She was sitting in a puddle of purple ice, and Mike couldn't help the wave of anger that ran through him. He was sick of the slushie attacks.
Rachel leaned over, putting a hand on her shaking shoulders.
"Tina?" She asked gently, and Mike was surprised that Rachel could be so calm. Then Tina looked up at them.
Rachel had to bite her lip to stop the scream from escaping through her teeth. Mike's eyes widened and he was immediately kneeling next to her, tilting her face gently up in his hands.
"Who did this?" He asked, unable to stop the horror that crept into his tone.
The right side of Tina's face was swelling, her eye almost closed already. There was a thin line of blood trickling from a small cut above her eye and purple and blue bruising was beginning to show around her eye. Tina swallowed.
"I feel dizzy." She said in a light, faraway voice. Rachel looked at Mike, clearly unsure of what to do. This was weird to Mike. He never thought he'd see Rachel lost for words.
"Tina, do you think you can walk?" Mike said gently, but Tina only looked at him, and her good eye seemed to be out of focus.
"I think she's in shock." Rachel said. "I read about it –"
"Keep her talking. Keep her awake." Mike cut Rachel off as the start of a Rachel-ramble seemed obvious. "We need to get this checked out. If she's dizzy, something could be wrong." Rachel nodded. That was the good thing about Rachel – give her a task, and she'd do it.
Rachel picked up Tina's bag as Mike assessed the easiest way to get Tina off the ground.
"Tina, what happened?" Rachel asked as Mike slipped his arms around Tina's huddled form and pulled her up. Tina froze as he adjusted her in his arms. Then she twisted frantically.
"Put me down." She said, panic obvious in her tone.
"Tina, it's just me. It's just Mike. I'm going to carry you out to my car, okay?" Tina took a long look at Mike's face and then relaxed. Mike took this as the cue to start walking, Rachel at his side.
"Tina?" Rachel said again, nudging her shoulder. "Who did this?" Tina looked at Rachel.
"Um..." She blinked, then winced. "It hurts."
Rachel pulled Tina's phone out of her bag and pushed a few buttons. Mike didn't really know what she was doing but just let it go as he concentrated on getting Tina to his car. She wasn't heavy, hell, she was tiny – about the same size as Rachel – but he didn't want to bump her on anything.
As they reached the car, Rachel murmured, "No one is answering."
"Who?" Mike asked. Rachel opened the back door of the car and helped Tina with the seatbelt. Tina just seemed to have given up doing anything at this point. It made Mike think something was wrong.
"Her house." Rachel said and pulled out her own phone. "I'll try Artie." Mike nodded in understanding, looking at both girls in the back seat in the rear view mirror as he pulled out of the car park. Tina's eyes were shut tight, her hands gripping the seat.
"Tina, we do need to know what happened." Rachel said hesitantly, as she pushed the button on her phone again and put it to her ear.
"I slipped." Tina said, as though she had just realised the most obvious fact in the world. "In slushie."
"Who threw the slushie?" Rachel kept talking.
"It was a hockey player." She finally said, as Rachel pushed another button and looked frustrated. Artie obviously did not want to speak to Rachel. Rachel tried again, with Tina's phone, but groaned, saying, "Her battery just died." Mike passed his phone over to Rachel to call with.
"Which hockey player, Tina?" Mike pressed, as he turned the corner.
"That one who is tall. Um... Jesse...Jason..."
"Joseph? Joseph Allan?" Mike asked. Tina nodded. Mike clenched his fists against the steering wheel.
"I was leaving after Glee." Tina started, still sounding kind of distant. "And then they came out of nowhere. And they..." She trailed off, looking out the window again. Rachel made an annoyed sound and handed Mike his phone back.
"Maybe he's busy?" Rachel wondered, pushing more buttons on her phone.
"Who is busy?" Tina sounded so much like Brittany that the situation would have been funny, if Mike wasn't worried that Tina might collapse at any given moment.
"What happened next, Tina?" Mike asked, but Tina just blinked.
"Mercedes? Hi, it's Rachel. No, don't hang up, Tina's hurt." This seemed to stop Mercedes from hanging up effectively.
"We found her in the corridor. She won't tell us what happened other than she slipped in slushie and it involved some hockey players." Mercedes said something.
"Yes, I tried, but he's not answering. I don't know his home number." Mercedes said something, and then he heard her say, "Is Tina okay?"
"Not really." Rachel said. "If you get hold of him, can you get him to call me please?" Rachel hung up the phone.
"It hurts." Tina whimpered suddenly.
"It's okay." Rachel soothed, "Where does it hurt?" Mike saw the hospital sign and sighed in relief.
"Here." To Mike's surprise, Tina didn't point to her swelling face, but side of her head, at the top. Rachel turned Tina's entire body towards her and pulled herself around in her seat to see what was hurting. Mike's blood ran cold as Rachel emitted a tiny gasp. He pulled into a car park and wasted no time in getting out of the car. Defying Gravity suddenly rung out of Rachel's pocket.
"Artie?" Rachel answered her phone as Mike pulled Tina out of the car. Tina didn't put up a fight this time, wrapping her arms around his neck and leaning her head against his shoulder as though she couldn't hold her head up any longer. Mike could hear Artie speaking frantically on the other end of the phone. "We're at the hospital. We found out that it was some hockey players, but we haven't been able to get anything else out of her. I called her house but nobody answered." Rachel was walking by Mike's side again and Mike could hear Artie say, "Her parents are away. I'll be there soon." They were pulled into a waiting room by a nurse as they entered the hospital. It was Lima General, not particularly big, and as usual, pretty full.
Mike hoped that they wouldn't have to wait very long; he was seriously concerned. The nurse took one look at Tina's face and led them through to a small room. Mike sat Tina down on the hospital bed. When Rachel said, "she's got a deep cut, and I think she hit her head," the nurse disappeared off, returning with some ice, which she directed Rachel to hold against Tina's swollen face. Rachel handed him the ice and tried to fill out the form that the nurse had given her. She filled it out the best she could, with Mike's help, but neither of them even knew Tina's middle name, and Tina was just staring at the wall now. It wasn't very long, maybe a couple of minutes, before a doctor came through the door. Tina seized and then wouldn't release Mike's hand, so he left it in hers.
"Hello." The doctor said, "I'm Dr. Ashworth. What have we here?"
"We found her in a school hall like this." Rachel began. "I think she's in shock. She's being really unresponsive."
The doctor asked a few more questions, "Did she hit her head?" and "How unresponsive?" were included; before he examined Tina's face and then shined a light into her eyes. Well, the eye that wasn't now swollen completely shut.
"Where does it hurt?" He asked as he was looking at the swelling. Tina pointed at the same spot on her head that she had previously, and Mike sucked in a breath as he realised what he hadn't seen.
Because of the slushie coating her hair, and because her hair was so dark, you wouldn't immediately notice the blood on the side of her head, leaking from a cut just below her hairline. He remembered the blood from the cut above her eye, but hadn't thought that it was anywhere else. The cut looked deep.
As a nurse was cleaning up Tina's face and gently wiping slushie away from the cut, Rachel's phone went off. "Artie? Yes." She hung up and headed out of the room, saying over her shoulder, "Artie's here." Tina turned slowly to face Mike.
"Artie?" For the first time that afternoon, Tina seemed truly aware of what was happening. As the doctor returned, Rachel did too, with Artie in tow.
"Tina!" He exclaimed. Mike had to give the guy credit; he only paled slightly as he saw her face. "Were you wrestling with the ironing board again?" It was a weak joke, but it made Tina smile. Then wince as the side of her face was pulled. Mike noticed how Artie's gaze lingered on their linked hands.
"Hey Artie." She said quietly.
"Okay guys, I'm afraid there's not going to be enough room for all of you." Dr. Ashworth moved to Tina's side. Mike nodded, gently pulled his hand from Tina's and stood, pulling on Rachel's arm to move her out of the room.
"We'll be in the waiting room." Rachel said.
Artie had been shocked when he'd taken in Tina's face, but tried to hide the reaction for her. He doubted she would have had the chance to look in the mirror yet and he didn't want her to freak out. Knowing how scared of hospitals she was, he held her hand and distracted her from the stitches being applied to her head. The doctor had given him Tina's paperwork, saying that Rachel had done her best but she said that he would be able to do better. Artie filled out the rest of the form, asking Tina gently when he didn't know the answer to questions.
"Tee, how did this happen?" She shut her eyes. "I slipped in slushie." She finally said. "And hit my head on the janitor's closet doorknob on the way down." Artie knew that this wasn't the whole truth, but let it go for now, writing 'Slipped and hit a doorknob' in the part of the form that asked to explain the accident. Talking to Tina distracted him from his anger at the people in the hockey team who had done this to her. He was glad to hear, for now at least, that they hadn't actually hit her. That would have been too much.
Finally, the doctor said he was done, prescribing painkillers and instructing Artie, (Tina was now groggy and trying, but failing to pay attention) on how to take care of the cut and the swelling. He talked about signs of concussion and made Tina drink a glass of water before she left. As they left, and met Mike and Rachel in the waiting room, Artie turned to them.
"Thank you for calling me Rachel." He said. Tina smiled in a sleepy kind of way and said, "I owe you guys. Sorry you had to lug me around Mike." Artie realised that Mike had obviously been carrying her around. This made him feel strangely jealous. He then kicked himself for being irrational.
"Do you guys need a lift?" Mike asked, rubbing the back of his neck as they walked, rolled and shuffled (in Tina's case) out to the car park.
"No, my mom's here." Artie said. "Thank you, really for everything." Mike nodded, and he and Rachel waved before heading back out to his car.
"Tee, mom couldn't get a park so she drove round the block." Tina nodded, allowing Artie to take her hand again as he pulled his phone out with the other. A few minutes later, Mrs. Abrams pulled the van over to the drop-off zone.
Mrs. Abrams, when she saw Tina's face and heard the doctor's warning about concussions was adamant that Tina stay with them for the night. She called Mrs. Cohen-Chang and explained the situation, and when it was all sorted set up the bed for Tina in the guest room. She fussed over Tina, making sure she ate, changed into a pair of Artie's old pyjamas and took her painkillers before saying goodnight. Artie brought Tina to his room to watch a movie (she said that she didn't want to go to sleep just yet), but, not surprisingly within the first twenty minutes, Tina was asleep.
Artie didn't know where he stood with his best friend. They were past the awkward stage after the whole stutter thing, and although they were definitely friends again, Artie didn't know if Tina wanted to try dating again. He knew he wanted to; having his best friend sleeping beside him felt so right. Her bandaged head was tucked on the pillow next to him, her face close to his. He could see the injured part of her face in the half-light of the television, and the anger that began to boil in him was strong. Even if they hadn't hit her, they'd left her, clearly hurt. He was yet to get the full story out of her, but he would eventually.
As Artie was about to move to the spare room, Tina rolled from lying on her back onto her side; one of her arms bumping against his shoulder. She moved into his chest in her sleep, wrapping her arm around him and exhaling deeply. Not wanting to wake her, (and honestly pretty happy just where he was) Artie switched off the television, pulled off his glasses and settled down to sleep.
She could tell him what had happened in the morning.