3 months later. Around August. About 7 months after surgery.
Santana was driving Rachel home from one of her appointments, today was the worst. Rachel was having aftershock from the radiation therapy and she ached all over. Dr. Moretti told her before they started radiation almost a year ago that she would have pain afterwords, but it's never been this bad. Santana's right hand was numb from Rachel squeezing it so hard and she was using all her energy to not turn around and go back to the hospital. She hated seeing Rachel in so much agony, but there was nothing she could do for her. So she kept driving and let her hand continue to numb. When she stopped at the light, she turned her head towards Rachel and let her eyes drift over the worn body of her girlfriend. Even with all the treatments and therapy, she still thought she was beautiful.
"You're beautiful," she said softly. "And when we get to your house, I'm gonna get you a nice warm bath going and you're gonna relax, and hopefully not feel so rotten."
"Ughh, I hate cancer," the shorter girl groaned. "But can we go to your house? My dads had to go on that business trip."
Nodding her head, she flipped her turn signal on. "Sure, do you want to stay or just hang out for a little bit?"
"Can I...can I stay?" Rachel asks as another sharp pain coarses through her body. "I don't want to be alone, especially since Quinn left for Yale yesterday, hardly anybody is still in town."
"Well, I'm still here, so you won't ever be alone. Don't forget that," Santana stated as she turned into her driveway. Cutting the engine, she turned to her girlfriend. "If you want after your bath, you can take a nap and I'll go get you some clothes from your house. Does that sound alright with you?"
"You don't have to do that, will you just nap with me? I kind of want you to cuddle with me."
"That's an offer I could never refuse," the Latina said as she leaned over and gave Rachel a quick, gentle kiss. She was worried she'd hurt her, if she wasn't gentle. "Give me a second and I'll help you out of the car and upstairs."
"Thanks." With that Santana got out of the car and managed to get Rachel inside and upstairs in the tub before she went downstairs to get a bottle of water and a snack. Rachel said she wanted to relax in the tub for awhile.
When Leroy and Hiram Berry walked into Dr. Moretti's office and saw that both Dr. Lopez's were there as well, their stomachs dropped. Rachel was fine when they started their drive to Cleveland this morning, they know because she was downstairs eating breakfast happy as could be. They got a phone call as soon as they pulled into the hotel they had to stay at for the week. They turned their 4 hour trip into a 2 and a half hour trip once they got off the phone with Dr. Moretti. Sitting down they braced themselves for the worst.
"I'm sorry for cutting your business trip short gentlemen, but we have some things to discuss," Dr. Moretti said as he pulled Rachel's file out of his filing cabinet. Sitting down in his seat he took a moment to gather his thoughts, it hurt him just as much as it hurt the four individuals sitting in his office, given two of the four already knew what he was about to tell the Berry men. "I just got a look at Rachel's panels from her radiation treatment today and gentlemen, I'm afraid I have bad news. Her cell counts are worse than before."
"What do you mean by worse?" Leroy asked taking his husband's shaky hand.
"I'm afraid the treatment and surgery have had no effect," he stated looking to Antonio for help.
"So how long does she have, Jonathan?" Hiram asked with remorse.
Antonio spoke for Dr. Moretti. "With the numbers she has, we don't know what's keeping her alive, she cou...she could very well go tonight," he softly spoke, trying to break to them as gently as he could. "There's really no way to be sure."
"Right now though, she's with Santana at our house," Maribel stated. "She texted me, saying that since you had that business trip that Rachel was going to stay with us, which is no problem, but since your back, you probably want to have her home."
"Does Santana know?" Leroy asked.
"No, we haven't told her yet," Antonio said. "While she is her girlfriend and our daughter, you have the right to know first. The only reason we know is because Dr. Moretti asked for our opinion, like I said, between the three of us, we have no idea what is keeping her alive."
"Santana also told me that Rachel was having really bad aftershock from treatment today, said she was napping the last I spoke to her."
Running the palm of his hand over his face, Leroy took a breath. "We need to tell Santana," he declared. "But I don't think we should tell Rachel, I mean we can just tell her that our business trip was canceled at the last minute. There is no need to tell her, she should live however long she has left being happy, right?" he said more than ask. Looking around the room to the other occupants, they seemed to ponder over what he just said.
"But how do you expect us to tell Santana and then have her not say anything to Rachel? It doesn't seem right, Leroy," Hiram finally spoke. "No matter what we tell her, she's going to take on look at Santana know something is wrong. Santana's going to be a mess if we tell her."
"She's going to be a mess either way," Leroy snapped. "The girl she loves, OUR DAUGHTER, is dying Hiram!"
"You don't think I know that?" he asked incredulously. "Rachel has been the one constant thing on my mind since the day she was born. She's the only thing, only person that's been on my mind for the last year. So don't try to tell something I already know! I know she's dying Leroy," he cried. "An-and I understand that you want to tell Santana, if I was in her position, I would want to know as well, but you know Rachel, she can read people, especially people she's close to. There's no way that she won't know something's not right once we tell Santana."
"So what do we do?"
"If I may," Antonio started. "Maribel and I took the rest of the day off, we thought that Santana should know. You're more than welcome to come with us, seeing as Rachel is at our house. The both of you should be there when we tell her."
The drive from the hospital to the Lopez residence was a long quiet ride in both cars. The Berry's were trying to keep themselves together and the Lopez's were trying to figure out how to tell their daughter the devastating news. Maribel texted Santana before they left the hospital to let her know they would be home within the next 15 to 20 minutes. That's why Santana is sitting on the couch when her parents and the Berry's walk into the house. She was confused, her parents weren't suppose to be home until late that night and the Berry's were on a business trip until Friday.
"Hey guys. Why are you all home so early? Especially you guys, I thought you were suppose to be gone all week," Santana said looking up from the magazine she was looking at.
"Santi, where's Rachel?" Maribel asked sitting down next to her daughter.
"She's upstairs in my room," she said looking at her mother curiously. "She's still napping. Today was really rough on her. Seriously though, why are you all here?"
"Santana, we need to talk to you," Hiram said from the chair.
"Santi, there's no easy way to say this, so we're not going to beat around the bush with it," Antonio said.
"Honey, Rachel's panels came back from this mornings session. The easiest way to explain it to you is that, her treatments and the surgery, they had no effect. With how high her cell counts are, we could lose her tonight," Maribel spoke softly. "We understand that it's hard for you to understand, but we thought you should know."
"So, what you're saying is," Santana paused mulling over what she was just told. "After all the shit that she's gone through to beat this, she's still going to die?" she said as she stood from the couch. "No. I-I don't believe you, this is just some sick dream. I'm still asleep or or you're just playing a prank on me. You guys have a sick sense of humor!" She screamed.
"Santana, we're not lying and we're definitely not playing a prank on you. A prank is short-sheeting your bed, not telling you that the one person that means more to you than anything in the world is dying," Leroy said with furrowed brows. "We know that it's a lot to take in, but there's nothing we can do anymore."
"It's not fair."
With that she left the living room and went upstairs to her room. Quietly shutting the door behind her so she wouldn't wake her slumbering girlfriend she pulled the chair over to the bed from her desk and sat. She looked at Rachel's face and with a shaky breath started softly speaking. "You know, I've always loved you. Ever since I first saw you in second grade when I moved here. I'm sorry I treated you as badly as I did for so long. I di-didn't want to deal with the harassment from everyone for being gay, for loving you. It was selfish Rachel, and you didn't deserve it. You didn't deserve any of the bad things that have happened in your li-life." Taking a moment to calm herself and wipe the tears from her eyes, she looked over the eerily still body of her girlfriend. No movements of her chest from breathing, no slight noise from her inhaling or exhaling. Shaking her head, she reached out with blurred vision and touched Rachel's face. Nothing. She didn't even stir when she started gently shaking her arm, with a choked sob she started yelling.
"Rachel? Rachel wake up, Rachel wake up!" Running to her bedroom door she pulled it open and yelled for her dad. Hearing the scream all four occupants of the living room ran for the stairs. When they got to the bedroom door they knew. From the moment they saw Santana hunched over the limp body of her girlfriend, crying, begging her to wake up, they all knew she was gone. Leroy turned and buried his face in his husband's chest, while Antonio and Maribel pulled their daughter away from the bed towards the door. It wasn't without a fight though, Santana was slapping her father's chest and screaming, begging them to help her even though she knew it was no use. Rachel Berry had lost her battle.
When Antonio finally got Santana out of the room and in her mother's and the Berry's arms, he went over to the bed and checked her pulse, he guessed she had passed away within the last ten minutes.
So obviously from the lack of an author's note at the beginning, you knew something bad was going to happen didn't you? I would say R&R, but I figure the only reviews I'm going to be getting are some extremely upsetting ones. The only thing I can say is, don't stop reading it now, I'm not finished, because this does have a ending, but it's not this. So, if you want to send me upset reviews, I won't take them to personally. Just know, it was harder for me to write it than it is to read it, and like I said, this isn't the end.