A/N - Thanks so much to ryiah03 for an amazing turnaround on betaing this chapter. And if you have time, go check out her fic especially if you like Burn Notice :). Anyway, I was quite worried about this chapter but hopefully it makes sense and you ejoy reading it.

Wisdom, Power, Fame & Love

And I tread a troubled track

My odds are stacked, I'll go back to black

We only said goodbye with words

I died a hundred times

Adele

It starts as a niggling worry at the back of her mind as she looks at their house from the car's rear view mirror when she pulls away from the curb that morning. Her focus is split partly on the surgery she has before her and that tiny shred of worry that has already to grow its roots in her mind. Quinn knows it's not a difficult procedure but with Taylor being so young, she does not want anything to go wrong and end up disfiguring the little girl.

So Quinn tamps down on the feeling, knowing that the doors are locked and Rachel's still asleep. She smiles as she remembered her wife looking like an angel when the blonde kissed her brow that morning, trying not to make a sound as she left their room.

She reaches out to turn on her stereo, the song that comes on, one of the old ones that she's almost sure she's heard Mr. Schue sing to them years ago. She didn't like the sentiments it engendered then and can hardly enjoy it now as the lyrics hit too damn close to home.

'Every single day

Every word you say

Every game you play

Every night you stay

I'll be watching you'

Quinn switches off the radio, Rachel's name on the tip of her tongue as her finger hovers over the phone button on her steering wheel. She's barely left Rachel for ten minutes and already she feels like something's not right. And she hates feeling like this because she knows it affects Rachel as well.

Just because she had some kind of post-traumatic issue with having Troy die in front of her didn't mean that she needed to trouble Rachel with her worries. She needs to believe that things would get back to normal. So instead of calling Rachel or turning the car around, she takes a deep breath and continues her drive to the hospital.

She gets through her rounds without any issue. The bad feeling only coming back in full force after she's gowned and masked and she's scrubbing her fingernails with the wire brush. The sound of water sluicing over her hands normally soothes her and allows her to think about the first incision she needs to make and all the steps that come after that. But right now, that feeling seemed to have vanished completely.

She can't picture anything in her head except for Rachel's face, looking terrified. That image slams into her so fast that she drops the sponge, her hands gripping the side of the sink.

"Dr. Fabray? Is everything alright?"

She hears Julie's voice but like it's from a distance. Because echoing in her head are words that she remembers hearing a couple of years back. Rachel's voice, a hint of merriment attached to each word as she whispered them in her ear,' So personality trait transference via proximity works'

But she's always been ruled by science and logic. She's learnt over time to compartmentalize such emotions especially when she has a patient depending on her. So Quinn swallows down her fear, picks up the brush to finish her scrub before she turns to nod at Julie.

Each time she enters the OR, she makes the sign of the cross. It's not obvious to anyone unless you look for it as her hand goes to her chest and her thumb slowly traces a small cross just below her collarbone. It's over in a second and she nods to Julie who switches on her music. The play list pre-selected and actually made by Rachel. It's another way that they keep in each others lives. Each song picked was meant to convey something special to Quinn.

Quinn looks at Taylor as the first song starts and the strain of 'Baby Mine' comes on. It's perfect, and she does not hesitate as she makes that first incision. Her concentration was solely focused on the procedure she has to get through and all the rest of her thoughts relegated to the background until one of Rachel's songs come on.

She feels it then, that cold sense of dread as she thinks of her wife. It's not constant. It ebbs and flows. Although each time it hits her, she feels it so much more strongly. She remembers Rachel talking about that feeling she would get from time to time. It was never anything specific but just something that made her feel that all was not right or that she needed to do something. And Quinn recalls with great clarity waking up from her coma, opening her eyes just as Rachel entered her room.

She never questioned how Rachel just knew to be there and how seeing her there made all the difference in the world to Quinn. She had come to consciousness slowly, her body aching and her mind just trying to piece together so many fractured memories. But the one thing that shone through was this absolute need she felt to open her eyes because she just knew that when she did, everything would make sense.

And it truly had, the second she saw Rachel, her chestnut hair flying around her face, her legs skidding to a stop next to her bed. Everything coalesced in her mind and she just knew that she would always be there for Rachel because even in her comatose state and drugged out of her mind, she had been searching for her.

Likewise, Rachel's sixth sense or latent psychic powers, which Quinn realizes she can actually allude to without rolling her eyes because she believed wholly in her wife, was something she did not question. Rachel Berry was many things, she sang with all her heart and her voice was extraordinary. She was selfish with her time only because she had so little of it to share with Quinn. She was passionate and loyal. And most of all, Rachel Berry was pure love.

And all Quinn can ascertain right now is the feeling of a vise grip on her spine as she tries to fill her lungs with air. The sense of utter dread was flooding her veins like some kind of drug, gripping all her senses such that the only thing she can truly discern is that she needs to see her wife. She needs to actually see Rachel because there was just no other way.

"Julie" Her voice is surprisingly firm even as she takes a step back from Taylor, her scalpel held away from her. The anesthesiologist and assisting nurse looked at her in surprise.

"Dr. Fabray?" Julie does not hide the utter surprise in her voice. In all the years she had been assisting Quinn, she's always known what to expect. Even as a novice surgeon, Quinn always handled herself so professionally, taking everything in stride. This though was unprecedented but she believes in the young doctor so she does not voice her confusion, instead, she waits for Quinn to tell her what she needs.

"I need you to get Dr. Wilkes. He should be doing his rounds. I…I need you to bring him here to take over this surgery right now." She can see Julie wanting to ask more questions and even Dr. Wong stands up from her seat by the monitors. "Julie, just go. Dr. Wong, I trust the patient...Taylor will still be under while we wait for Dr. Wilkes?"

The anesthesiologist nods, her eyes questioning but Quinn knows she needs to remain a professional within her operating theatre. Every fiber of her being is telling her to run but she takes a deep breath, checks the skin graft on Taylor, ensuring that the blood supply underneath the new skin is unblocked.

She can't help her audible sigh of relief when she sees Dr. Adam Wilkes start his scrubbing in ritual and Julie helping him along. It takes her another ten minutes to explain the exact place where she had stopped and what he needs to do. She sees everyone looking at her. The blonde knows she does owe them an explanation, not an excuse but a good reason why she would abandon a surgery especially on someone as important to her as Taylor.

"I'm…I'm sorry. I don't think I can finish up here because I..I need to see my wife" She sounds unsure for the first time since she started the surgery but the certainty that she has to leave is so strong that she takes off in a run as soon as she sees Dr. Wilkes nod his head even if he cannot understand her motivation.

She does not stop as she tears off her and mask. The only impetus she feels is to run towards her office to get her keys. She forgoes waiting for the elevator and takes the stairs instead in order to get her car. Quinn drives as fast as she can, weaving in and out of traffic, her finger hovering on the call button but she knows she does not want to call Rachel just in case.

Believing in something didn't make it real. And she does not want to break the fragile hope they had built last night. Quinn realizes that this could all be in her head, her own fears and stress getting the better of her and she had no right to scare Rachel. So she does not call, instead she prays that it really is just her and nothing has happened to the love of her life. All she needs to do right now was to see Rachel in the flesh.

#$#$#$#$

Josh never wanted to hurt Rachel. He had loved her for so long that he abhorred even thinking about anything untoward happening to her. Except that she continued to ignore the chances he had given her. She never acknowledged what he had done for her, not once. He had specifically written a role for Rachel, ensuring that her star would always shine bright.

He even endured her relationship with Troy, always hoping that she would see that there was only one person she was meant to be with; patiently waiting in the wings for her to notice him. And every little thing Rachel did, every look, every word she uttered showed that she did love him even if she never overtly showed it.

Even when Rachel had cancer, she had always been on his mind but he kept it all inside. He knows now that that was his mistake. Because he hadn't come to her, offered himself as her savior, she had turned to that woman, that doctor.

But he could never get angry with Rachel, seeing her happy, smiling, and alive meant that he would eventually have a chance to be with her. He just knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Rachel Berry belonged to him.

Only, when he finally gave her the chance to acknowledge him, to accept what he was offering to her, she had rejected everything he had worked so hard for. Rachel left him without a word, not even saying goodbye. The pictures of her at the airport, hand held firmly in someone else's and not his, that smile directed at that woman and not him. All of it became too much to accept.

So Josh knew what exactly he needed to do. If Rachel truly couldn't see that he was the only one she was meant to be with, then maybe, she didn't deserve him after all. And that maybe, he just needed to get rid of her, once and for all.

He's standing over her, not exactly sure what he wants to do next. He sees her eyes are closed and she looks almost angelic, her brown hair spread on the floor. But she's just not the person he thought she was. He knows Rachel went to Julliard but the Harvard sweatshirt she's wearing just proves that she's not his any longer.

He lets his anger flow as his hands fisted at his side. Josh had wanted this over quickly. But looking down at her, wearing clothes that he knows belong to THAT woman, it makes him angry and he wants Rachel to suffer like he has.

All those years of waiting patiently by the sidelines expecting that eventually she would see him was for naught. He bends down grabs a fistful of her hair and pulls her by it, smiling when he hears her groan in pain. Getting bolder, he lashes out with his left leg catching her in her side such that she convulses even in her semi unconscious state.

The sound she makes is actually spurring him on even more than the joy he use to get by just watching her. He drags her towards the back of the house. His familiarity with it would surprise her. He had thought they were friends but she never invited him there. His only entry granted was by Nick. Poor stupid Nick who thought he could help his career by betraying Rachel Berry.

He's so caught up in his thoughts that he does not hear anything until he's unexpectedly tackled. Strong hands going around his waist, pushing him forward. His legs suddenly losing their footing and his body crashes into the wall.

#$#$#$#$#

Quinn spent two and a half years of her life on the sidelines of every single football game the McKinley Titans ever played. Cheering through rain and sleet and once with a fractured elbow because Coach Sylvester told her to push through the pain as only losers gave up. She's seen Karofsky sack a guy twice his width. She had been privy to the play by play after, when Puck would regale her on the finer points of a football tackle while he played his Xbox.

Those were things that Quinn knew she could forget as soon as she heard them because she never thought knowing any of it would come in handy. But it's only when she had seen the door to their house ajar, the same second she noticed Rachel's limp body, that every seemingly vague football play came rushing back at her. And at that very moment everything else didn't seem to matter. She just had one singular thought that superseded everything else.

She does not think about her oath to respect all human life. She does not think about her own safety. She does not even think about what she can actually accomplish in the situation. Her entire focus is reduced to seeing Rachel's body being dragged away and knowing she just needed to do something.

She does not even consider that maybe Rachel is hurt or worse, beyond hurt. It's something that she knows will cause her to shut down if it were the case. So in her mind, she prays that Rachel is still with her and all she needs to do is to stop this once and for all, regardless of her own safety. She needed to stop the man from taking away her one reason to exist.

Quinn barrels through the door, her body low as she tackles the man dragging Rachel away. She only recognizes Josh at the last second when her arms wrap around his middle and her momentum pushes him into the wall, her body colliding with his. And the only thing that keeps her conscious and centered on the task is the fact that she hears Rachel moan.

She feels Josh's elbow connect with her jaw. The pain is blinding and she blacks out for a few seconds only to come to and barely avoid his fist as it comes crashing down, just glancing off her temple, his ring cutting her skin at the side of her head.

She kicks out, one foot hitting him in the kidneys and is rewarded when she hears him curse in pain even as she tries to scramble back. But he reaches out and grabs her foot, twisting wildly and turning her on her front such that she finally faces Rachel's still form.

She can almost touch Rachel, her hand reaching out only to feel Josh's full weight come down on her, one knee digging into the small of her back while his hands tighten around her neck, his finger squeezing.

It hurts and Quinn can feel him squeezing so tight that her eyes almost bulge out. But then she sees Rachel's eyelids flutter. The tiniest of movements that she would have missed if she had blinked but it's enough to spur her on. Gritting her teeth against the pain, she realizes Coach Sylvester would have scoffed at her initial feeble attempts to attack Josh.

Quinn braces her hands on the floor and pushes her body up, toppling Josh again into the wall but she does not stop there. She flips over, pushing herself forward, her thumb aiming for his eye. And she's rewarded when he screams expletives at her, his hand tries to grab hers but she persists and only stops when he manages to push her violently away. Her hip connects with a side table, the vase of flowers crashing to the ground sending splinters of glass everywhere.

Josh does not give up despite his bloody eye as he staggers forward again and Quinn realizes that he's crazy, the embodiment of the psychological definition. She keeps her body down and barrels into him again, the both of them falling onto the glass shards, pieces embedding in their skin, drawing blood.

Quinn feels him struggling beneath her as his hands hit out catching her on the face and shoulder. However, her hands are steady. Even cut and scratched, they do not shake as she goes for his neck. Knowing exactly what to do, her fingers press down on his carotid artery, stopping the flow of blood.

Josh's last blow again connecting to her jaw but there is not much strength behind it as he finally loses consciousness. Only Quinn does not stop the pressure as she continues to press down knowing that she could kill him. It would go against everything she worked for, her oath, her promise to make a difference, to do the right thing.

But he had hurt Rachel and Brittany and she's not sure she can stop until she hears the softest of sounds.

'Quinn'

She relaxes her fingers and finally let's go, almost collapsing until she stops herself, her hands splayed on the ground as she finally glances at Rachel. Her breathing is ragged and she can feel tears coursing down her face, her body aching from the fight although it does not hurt as much as still not knowing if Rachel is actually ok.

She can see the rise and fall of her chest. But it's only when her gaze locks onto dark chocolate eyes blinking open and shut, each movement in time with her own beating heart that she cries out loud. Her voice is hoarse and strangled but the name so recognizable.

"Rachel."

End Part 13

So this chapter was difficult to write so I hope it met with your expectations. On a different note, I can"t believe we have to wait another two weeks for a new episode. Oh well, I guess I can rewatch Born This Way