"Kurt, what's going-"

"No, Quinn, lie down, she'll be fine, just go back!"

"Kurt, what is-"

It was then that the flashlights arrived, lighting up the scene, and showing Quinn the unconscious form of a battered and bruised Santana.

It was the last thing she saw before passing out herself.

"Oh God, I can't stand this anymore! What's taking them so long?!"

Wha? What's going on?

"Kurt, shh, be quiet. Hospitals don't like loud people. It scares the healing fairies. And besides, Quinn's still asleep."

Britt? Wait, what's happening? Am I asleep?

Quinn's eyes were still closed, but she slowly squeezed them open. Her entire body felt so heavy, that even the little attempt at moving her head in the direction of the voices caused her to groan.

"Oh my god, Quinn!"

"I told you you should've been quiet!"

The blonde's eyesight was rather blurry, but she could see two faces suddenly coming closer to hers, and she felt her hand being grasped by one of them.

She tried to talk, but her voice was raspy and all that came out were separate sounds.

"Q, hold on, I'll get you some water."

She felt a straw being pushed at her mouth, and slightly lifted her head to swallow. When her head hit the pillow again, she still felt tired, but at least her sight was better and she felt like she could talk again.

"Is that better sweetie?"

She could see Brittany's worried face clearly now. The girl was still holding her hand. Kurt was sitting at the edge of her bed, an equally worried look on his face.

Quinn nodded and smiled softly. "Yeah…", she husked out, "better."

Kurt and Brittany both smiled, before the boy started talking.

"Good, the doctor said you should be feeling a bit woozy. You have a serious concussion, but the wound just needed stitches so that's okay. He also said your body temperature dropped too low from being in the water too long, and then the exhaustion from the day as well would make you feel extremely tired and your body feel really heavy, so you should really lay still and rest. The others weren't allowed in because of that, by the way, the doctor said you should rest and that only two people at a time were allowed in. Coach Sylvester wanted to come in first, together with mister Schue, but we were pretty sure that that wouldn't exactly help you rest, so they stayed out in the waiting room. Puck and Sam wanted to come in with you as well, but I mean we couldn't exactly let those boys near you whilst you were unconscious, I mean seriously, that would be like-"

"Kurt!"

The boy stopped and looked up sheepishly. Quinn had listened to his nervous babble for a while, but the moment he had talked about the water, her heart had stopped.

She couldn't believe she only thought about it now, and seeing the way Kurt was looking at her, she was afraid to ask him about her.

"What about… Santana? How is she? Is she…?"

Both Kurt and Brittany looked down at her question. Quinn tried to sit up, even though her body was protesting. The taller blonde helped her and pushed her backrest up, but still refused to meet her eyes, although Quinn could see the sadness even without direct contact.

"Guys? Is she…? Did she…? Wh… Ho…?"

Her breathing was getting ragged. She could feel tears streaming over her cheeks, and she was pretty sure she was hurting Brittany with how hard she was squeezing her hand.

No! No no no no no no NO! This can't be happening! Not her!

She felt like she was hyperventilating. She could see that Kurt was trying to talk to her, tears in his eyes as well, but nothing came through to her. All she could hear was a buzzing sound in her ears.

This can't be! She saved my life! She was going to get better! We were going to have a future together! I loved her! Why did she have to go? Why did-

"QUINN, stop it!" She felt herself being pushed back against the bed roughly, and noticed that her feet were hanging off the edge. She had unconsciously tried to get out of the bed.

"I can't… Let me go! I have to go see her!"

"Quinn, you can't! You can't go see her, she's still in surgery!"

The blonde froze at that last word.

Surgery?

"Wait.. What do y-"

"She's not dead, Quinn!" Brittany quickly said, before Quinn could go back into her head. "She in bad condition, but the doctors are trying to make her better!"

Quinn relaxed back into the bed, although her muscles were still pretty tensed up.

"So she's… alive?"

Brittany sat down next to her head, running her fingers through her hair in a calming movement like only the blonde could do.

Kurt sat in front of her, taking Brittany's place holding her hands. He nodded at her question.

"Yeah, sweetie, she's alive, but… it was pretty bad when they brought her in. She'd fainted right after she dragged you out of the water… The ambulance doctors had to treat her for hypothermia right away, but when we got to the hospital after your ambulance, they told us that that wasn't all she had…"

He paused a bit to see how Quinn was taking in all this information. The blonde had gotten over her initial shock slash happiness about Santana being alive, and was now intently listening what exactly was wrong with her girl.

"She… Well, being hit by a car apparently had a worse effect on her than it seemed. I mean, she stood up and ran off, for crying out loud! And she jumped after you and was able to rescue you and keep you up the whole time!"

He was running his hand through his hair, pretty much ruining it and trying to fix it with each move. His frustration was clear, although Quinn wasn't sure if he was frustrated with Santana for putting herself in such danger, or with himself for not noticing it sooner.

She squeezed his hands in comfort, and when he softly smiled back at her, Brittany decided to continue.

"The doctors said it was crazy that she was able to do that. She must've wanted to run away from her problems so badly, that she even was able to ignore the pain coming from every movement she made."

Quinn started to look glum at that bit of information, but Brittany didn't give her the chance to do so.

"What was even more crazy, though, was that after that she was even able to jump after you without thinking about that pain." She turned Quinn's head below her a bit so she could look her in the eyes. "She did that because she loves you, Quinn. She ignored her pain because her feelings for you were greater than her feelings of pain. So don't beat yourself up over this. It's not your fault. In fact, if you hadn't been there, and maybe even if you hadn't fallen into the water and bumped you head, she would've probably jumped in to die, not to live, and who knows how that would've ended."

She put her hand on Quinn's cheek. "She's alive now, Quinn. And she came back to you right before she fainted. The real her. So don't hate yourself, and you either Kurt." The boy looked surprised, but also sort of comforted that she had mentioned him as well, "All we can do now is wait. Wait for the doctors, and wait for her to wake up."

Quinn was crying by the time Brittany stopped talking. She felt better, though, and softly smiled up at the girl.

"Thanks Britt, you're a genius."

Brittany smiled brightly at her words, scooted down on the bed and hugged her tight.

Kurt nodded as well. "Yeah, Brittany, you really are." He patted her on the shoulder in thanks, and grinned a bit afterward. "I'd come and join you on the bed, but I'm afraid my pants are still wet from when Santana used them as a life raft, and I don't think you'll like the way they feel right now.

The other two smiled at his words, and Quinn just grabbed him by his collar and pulled him next to her.

"I don't care, come over here, mister wetpants. I need some cuddling while we wait."

"While we wait for your favourite cuddler?"

"Exactly."

"Fair enough." Kurt laid down next to her, but immediately jumped up.

"Oh God. The others! Your mom! The coach! We didn't tell them you woke up yet! Crap, they're gonna kill us!"

He hurried out of the room, leaving Brittany and Quinn to chuckle softly before they fell silent again.

In the silence of the hospital room, surrounded by Brittany's comfortable warmth, Quinn felt safe again.

If only these arms belonged to someone else... What's taking these doctors so long? If they mess up, or if something happens to San, I'll-

"Ouch!"

She was pulled out of her thoughts roughly when the taller blonde flicked her nose. Quinn scowled at her.

"What was that for?"

"You were thinking badly again, Quinnie. Just believe in San. She's remembered how much you mean to her, how much life means to her. She'll fight to be with you again, trust me."

Quinn smiled. It never ceased to amaze her how smart Brittany was when it came to people. Almost like she could read her mind.

"You're right, Britt, I just… really wish I could be with her right now…"

From the corner of her eye, she could see the other blonde smile at her.

"What, so my cuddles aren't good enough for you?" Brittany poked her playfully.

Quinn smiled back and decided to play along. "Well…"

She pretended to think about that, causing Brittany to sit up straighter, putting her mock-hurt-face on, clearly channelling her inner Rachel Berry.

"Lucy Quinn Fabray, I am shocked! How dare you! I hope you realise that this kind of behaviour will not go unpunished!"

Just as Quinn was about to apologize, a mischievous glint came into Brittany's eyes, and she started tickling her. Quinn was laughing like crazy, all thoughts of Santana pushed to the back of her mind as Brittany pretty much tortured her into laughter.

The thoughts came back pretty quickly, though, when a doctor walked in the room and coughed loudly to get their attention.

When they heard the cough, Britt immediately jumped off the bed, and Quinn tried to sit up even straighter, ignoring her tired muscles and pounding head ache (- the tickle fight might not have been the best idea, in retrospect).

"You're… Santana's doctor, right?"

Quinn looked at him with fearful eyes. She pretty much guessed he was Santana's doctor, judging by the many people that were following him into the room. Judy immediately came up to her, standing on the other side of her bed and putting an arm around her shoulder. The woman didn't try to talk to her, but just redirected her attention immediately to the doctor, who was standing in front of the bed, just staring at his file.

The others filed into the small room as well, giving Quinn small encouraging smiles she didn't even notice, before they as well gave the doctor all their attention.

Even Sue and Will were quiet for a change, giving the room an eerie quality as they waited for the serious-looking doctor to start talking.

He was apparently waiting for everyone to come inside the room and get settled down a bit, or something like that, because he looked pretty hesitant. After the long minutes of silence, Quinn seriously just wanted him to start talking. Her mom could apparently see that the girl was ready to jump out of bed and pull the information out of him, so Judy decided to act before her daughter could.

"Dr. Myers, we're all really worried about Santana, so could you please just start talking?"

The doctor looked up in surprise as the woman opened her mouth, but as he saw the worried faces throughout the room, he sighed and looked at Quinn and Judy.

"Right, I'm sorry about that… It's just that this situation is rather… difficult. Normally, the information about a patient should only be disclosed to his or her family, and in this case-"

"In this case the bastards that should call themselves their family and should have been there for her are not around." Everybody looked in shock at Quinn as she said it, but most gleeks pretty much nodded and went back to staring at the doctor, who continued to look shocked. Because he didn't continue speaking, Quinn quickly added: "We're the closest family she has here, and we are not waiting to know about our friend's health until those deadbeat idiots come back from Florida or wherever they are right now, if they would even care enough to actually come back for the daughter they abandoned."

She could see the doctor swallow clearly, but nod afterwards.

"R-right, th-that's what miss-" he looked shiftily at coach, who smirked and said her name, "Sylvester, right, miss S-Sylvester was telling me just now as well… So, indeed, uhm, you are the closest family she has and… yes, I talked about it with some people and it should be alright if I-"

"Oh stop the blabbering and get on with it!" Coach Sue interrupted him, looking angry, but also more nervous than Quinn had ever seen her.

"R-right! Yes, of course, I'm sorry." He finally looked serious again when he said that last phrase, and Quinn felt that he was genuinely sorry about everything. His voice was a lot calmer when he started talking next, and he looked her straight in the eye with a soft look as he continued.

"Ms Lopez was unconscious when she was brought in. At first look, the problem seemed to be a severe case of hypothermia and exhaustion, suggested by the fact that she had been in the water for too long. The description of the facts given by mr. Hummel here seemed to suggest that that was the worst to it. He had told us she had been hit by a car earlier today, but judging by the fact that she had been able to stand up and run away after that, we believed that this accident could not have had too much of an effect on her."

He paused for a bit, taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes in a tired motion before he continued.

"Unfortunately, we hadn't taken into account the girl's tenacity. Her body had suffered a lot more from the crash than we had anticipated. Some of her ribs had cracked, and –"

Quinn zoned out as he continued talking. She felt like she was drowning, and all she could do was sit and stare at his mouth.

Hypothermia

Exhaustion

Believed

Unfortunately

Suffered

Cracked

Unfortunately…

She felt like she couldn't breathe anymore, like she didn't remember how to do it, and her body was just struggling to breathe in and breathe out at the same time.

Her ragged breaths caught her mother's attention. Judy took her head in her hands and made Quinn focus on her face, not on the doctor.

"She'll be fine. Relax. Breathe. Breathe, baby, breathe."

She kept talking to her, and after a while her mother's soothing words actually got through to her, and she could breathe normally again.

When Judy stepped back, concern still evident on her face, Quinn looked at the doctor again, and saw that Sue was suddenly standing next to him, whispering things into his ear, like her mother had done to her, only she could see from a distance that instead of calming him, the things Sue was whispering weren't doing that to him.

At. All.

So when Sue saw that Quinn was okay again, she gave a final glare at the doc, gave him a pat on the shoulder that caused him to jump up violently, and she went back to her place in the corner.

"I… I…" The doctor chanced a glance into the menacing corner, before he took a deep breath and tried again. "I believe apologies are in order. You obviously did not need an enumeration of everything the patient has suffered, I believe you already understand the… gravity of her condition."

He glanced up at Sue again as he went on, noticing the woman give him a look that clearly meant 'no more allusions to how bad her situation was (or I'll kill you)'. "*cough* I suppose I should skip to the conclusion then… After long hours of surgery, with the necessary… troubles, I can say that ms Lopez's condition if now more or less stabilised. She is still rather fragile, and has lost a lot of blood, so we will be keeping her under narcosis for a little while longer, but…"

Again, Sue was making a hand movement that told him to get on with it, and this time, finally, he could look Quinn straight in the eye and gave her what she had wanted to hear all along:

"Ms Lopez, Santana, with a lot of rest and good care, will be fine. She'll make it through."

And that was all she needed to put a smile on her face again.

She was going to be fine!

A/N: Thanks for the wonderful reviews! No cliffhanger this time, hope you like.