A/N: The call went out for more angst, so here you go. Don't say i never give you anything!

Disclaimer: I don't know why i bother with this anymore, i said like 36 times before! Same as it ever was.

Chapter 37

If summer had been crazy, the fall was crazy on steroids. Amidst the usual crazy in their apartment, the five school friends had more on their plate than usual. Kurt and Blaine were trying to cope with the seven or eight hours a day they couldn't be together because of Blaine's intense college schedule. He was fully taking advantage of Quinn's lifts to campus and was tempted by the swim team himself having racked up a considerable number of hours over the holidays with the ex-cheerleader. Let's face it, he wasn't cut out for the boxing team with his pretty boy face in danger of getting pulverized and ruining his good looks. He was introduced to the theater group, which started out a little awkward because Michael had barely gotten over his failed romance with Kurt, but the pair both realized they had other things in common besides that particular attraction and became friends.

Santana was caught up in both her college classes and her relationship with Julia, which was still going strong. She had already started in photography classes and was pretty hooked within no time, often seen lurking around the apartment taking pictures of random things. As it turned out, she had a great eye for unusual shots and was especially fond of black and white pictures. She continually hounded everyone to let her practice portrait shots and with four drama queens as roommates, she didn't lack willing volunteers.

Quinn had settled into her second year with ease. She might have been living off campus but she spent the majority of her waking hours there. Her swim coach had taken on the mantle of getting her ready for classification, having been in touch with the Paralympic swimming people and found out more about the process, they targeted the meet in Minnesota in January for Quinn to make her competitive debut and get classified at the same time. On top of that, with tons of rehearsals and her major declared in theater, she was buried under a ton of work and research as well as mounting pressure to try her hand at auditioning for roles outside the university from her professors.

Rachel had an agent. It was impressive to have her agent call her regularly with requests for interviews. The Broadway media outlets had jumped on her performance in Funny Girl and though it was exhausting, she was loving it. Admittedly she missed spending so much time with Quinn, but at least they were home together late in the evening and most of the weekends, but Quinn had her own ambitions now and them spending less time together wasn't solely Rachel's fault. They weren't any less devoted to each other, they just had to suffer more concentrated experiences, short spells of time to make the most of their relationship before one or the other had to go off to a commitment.

Often it was Kurt and Blaine who found themselves in support of their friends, Blaine letting Quinn know what was going on with Rachel while Kurt filled Rachel in with details about Quinn. Quinn had been to see the show several times and if she could make it to Quinn's swim meets, Rachel would make the effort every time.

Santana arrived home one evening as Thanksgiving approached with a strange request for Quinn who was sprawled out on the sofa with music playing and her nose in a book.

"So Q, I need a favor," she shifted her weight from one leg to the other.

"If you want to take more shots of Rachel for her portfolio, you have to ask her agent," came the sardonic reply.

"Funny, Q, but I said I need to ask you a favor."

Quinn folded over her page and dropped the book down with a sigh realizing she wasn't likely to get any peace now. "What's up?"

"I have to prepare a documentary series of photos on the everyday life of someone interesting and I wondered if you would let me take pictures of you."

Quinn's brow shot up. "Me? Why me?"

"Why not you?"

"Surely Rachel is more interesting than me, why not ask her?"

"Seriously? I love Rach, but you're more interesting from a visual perspective."

"Because of my reduced stature by any chance?" Quinn wasn't annoyed at Santana but didn't like the idea that she was going to become an object of curiosity.

"Honestly, yes." Trust San to be straight up about it. "I want to show you doing some of the stuff you have to do because of your disability, but I also want to show how you don't let it stop you from doing amazing stuff as well. I want to shoot some of it in black and white, like the negative stuff and the positive stuff in color. I thought it would make a great contrast. I have a week off regular classes for it, so I was hoping I could just follow you round for a week and see what I get. I can let you veto any picture you don't like and I promise it will be flattering."

Quinn didn't particularly like the thought of all the intimate details of her life being photographed, but she thought about how supportive Santana had been to her over the last couple of years and it was hard to turn her down as a result. So, somewhat reluctantly, she agreed. Then San gave her the list of things she wanted to photograph and a heated discussion took place about what was over the line and what wasn't. Quinn had her limits and the Latina knew how to push them, but figured if she went overboard with some, at least other would get through.

San had it all planned out in her head and had a long list of things she wanted to try and get from the moment Quinn woke up. She promised not to be too intrusive but when Quinn woke on the first morning to the sound of the shutter on the camera clicking away she already regretted agreeing to it, in fact she pulled the pillow from between her knees and lobbed it at her best friend.

"How are you even awake yet? You're so not a morning person!" Quinn mumbled grumpily and then heard the camera go off a few more times and she slid gracelessly to her chair and rolled to the bathroom and when Santana tried to follow her in, she turned, somewhat annoyed and added "we agreed in here was a no!" before slamming the door in her face.

"Come on," San whined, "it'll be tasteful I promise, besides I've seen you naked before and you have veto remember."

"I said no!" Quinn went about her morning routine and heard Santana leave from behind the door eventually. She was satisfied that the woman had left her alone for a bit of peace and quiet. Who on earth would want to see her stick the catheter in to empty her bladder or sit in the shower? Quinn liked art but that seemed distasteful to her and just too embarrassing. She didn't let anyone see some of those things, even Rachel. There were just some things you don't share with others, right?

When she was done, coffee in hand Santana trailed after her. She did let her snap away as she sat on the bed getting dressed, Rachel having left to occupy the bathroom. In fact that was what it was like all day, even through eating breakfast and getting in the car, then in each of her classes, theater group rehearsal and finally her evening swim session that day, San was everywhere.

"Surely you must have run out of battery or memory or something by now," Quinn complained as a couple of her swim team friends helped pull her out of the pool to sit on the edge and get her breath back before getting in her chair again.

"No, I have a ton of spares," she replied.

Quinn eyed her. "You are actually loving my discomfort aren't you?"

"Me? Why would I possibly want that?"

"Because you just love to cause trouble, Santana Lopez," the blonde replied.

Santana took a few quick shots of the empty wheelchair, which she had also been doing all day. Quinn was secretly impressed at her friend's grasp of what to do with the camera, she had only been in college a few weeks but seemed to constantly toy with the settings as though she knew what she was doing. She had spoken more about that than she had about the drama program and she seemed to be trying to form a band of all things.

Kurt and Blaine had both become very excited at the prospect, but she had been less so. Not that she didn't want to sing or anything, she loved it, but she was tired all the time as it was. She had thought that perhaps the year would be demanding with her extra swimming, two theater groups and increased pressure to go to auditions in second year. Rachel was keeping up okay despite her show requirements, but Rachel wasn't attempting athletic pursuits as well. So far Quinn's grades held up well, but she could sense that she would have to make a choice. Rachel had already been forced to drop out of the Bronx theater group and Quinn suspected she might have to do similar if she was going to audition for shows outside of school, which was an expectation she wasn't currently meeting.

It was a few days after Santana that events started to spiral out of the blonde's control. She actually fell asleep at the dining table one evening while she was supposed to be making notes from some research.

"Quinn?" Blaine shook her shoulder gently until she stirred. "It's late, you should go to bed." He had noticed she had looked pretty exhausted at dinner.

"Sorry," she brushed the hair out of her face. "I was trying to stay awake until Rach gets home. What time is it?"

"Eleven," he replied. "She's not going to be back for another twenty minutes," he didn't like telling Quinn what to do, it never seemed to go well when any of them got a little over-protective, but at the same time, he knew she had an early swim session in the morning and would be up at five. She swam twice the number of sessions a week that he did and he was finding it pretty tough so he couldn't understand how Quinn was still awake. She spent most of her time doing something now they were back in school and never seemed to just sit and relax with the rest of them. He hadn't realized just how competitive she was in high school but then he had only known her for a short time in comparison and she had been going through her crazy phase when he had arrived at McKinley; she was so driven now it was a little frightening. "Maybe you should go to bed, Quinn. You look shattered."

"Gee thanks," she replied, testily. "You think I couldn't work that out for myself," she pulled back from the table setting her books aside. She realized then what she had done as she met Blaine's slightly hurt expression. "Sorry, Blaine, that was totally uncalled for." She sighed and rubbed her eyes to make herself wake up a little.

He figured it was just the tiredness talking and his face relaxed. "It's alright, I just woke you up. I'm always a little grouchy when then happens."

"This is what happens when you burn the candle at both ends I guess." Placing her hands on the wheels of her chair she sucked in a big breath and just held it for a moment before releasing it slowly to calm herself down.

"You have been pushing yourself kinda hard these last few weeks, perhaps you should take it easy for a few days," he tilted his head with a little questioning glance.

She rolled her shoulders back and winced slightly. "I guess I have been."

"Are your shoulders sore, you looked like you were in pain just then." When she nodded a reply, he pointed at them. "Do you want me to give you a massage for a few minutes, it might help you relax and ease them off a little."

She nodded acceptingly. "That would be good. Normally Rach does that for me, but she'll be exhausted when she comes in and will probably just want to sleep."

As he stood behind and started kneading the tired muscles he heard Quinn hiss in discomfort but she didn't complain and as he carried on he felt her relax and her breathing normalized. "Thanks for this," she sighed, this time not out of frustration but relief. "I forget just how much I put my shoulders through each day, no wonder they are protesting now. I don't think sleeping on the table did them any help either."

"I didn't realize how hard this is for you either. I am exhausted today and you did twice the work in the pool I did with the same muscles you use for everything else. No wonder you are tired and in knots now."

"Yeah, I am supposed to take care of my shoulders too, if I wear them out or get injured I am up the creek without a paddle as they say."

"Then how about a morning off tomorrow and get some more sleep?"

Quinn thought about it for a moment but then shook her head. "I'm not going to fall apart, Blaine. I just need to go to bed now and tomorrow when I wake up, I'll be fine."

"I know, you're hard as nails, Quinn. The Ice Queen, right?"

"You got that right," she grinned and shrugged off his hands. "Thanks, that was awesome. Just what I needed and now I need sleep." She turned to roll out and then paused briefly. "Sorry again about the bitchy comment earlier. You didn't deserve that and I thought that I was better than that these days, so I apologize."

"Don't sweat it," he smiled and let her go.

Blaine wandered over to Kurt who was sat quietly reading on the sofa. "Don't fret about her, she'll be fine."

"Hm, probably but don't you think she's kind of taking a lot on?"

"What?" Kurt was surprised by the question. "No, she's like Superwoman. How do you think she coped with being paralyzed, competing at Nationals and graduating high school with a perfect GPA all within four months?"

"I get that, but she seems tired all the time and that's despite the changes to her medication that was supposed to make her less tired."

"She won't take kindly to being coddled," Kurt's half-smile broke as if to say he understood the sentiment but doubted Quinn would. "And if I learned anything about Quinn, it's that you can't assume that because she is disabled, she needs people telling her what to do."

"I wouldn't do that, but …" he looked over to the bathroom door which opened as the blonde briefly re-appeared before disappearing into her room.

"Goodnight guys," she waved.

"Sleep well," Kurt replied with a smile before turning back to Blaine. "What were you going to say?"

"Just that I see more of her during the day than the rest of you and I'm telling you, she just doesn't stop. She's not eating as much as she should for the calories she must be burning. She has to go the long way round campus all the time and loses out on break time because of that and when she does get a break, she spends a lot of it in the bathroom."

"I guess you could be right, she's out the door early every morning, even on weekends she's out on the bike before breakfast and she hasn't seen Beth in weeks."

"Maybe we should mention it to Rachel, surely Quinn would listen if she spoke to her."

"Mention what to Rachel?" They both turned suddenly at the sound of the brunette's voice, neither having heard her come in.

Blaine stood up. "Hi, how was the show?"

"Good, but what's going on here?" She looked worried.

"Come and sit," Kurt patted the sofa next to him and waited for her to join them. "We were just wondering if Quinn wasn't pushing herself a little too hard. She fell asleep at the dining table earlier and Blaine had to go over and wake her up. She seems really tired lately and we thought…." he shrugged, "we thought maybe she needs to slow down a little, but when Blaine suggested she ditch swimming tomorrow for a lie in she shrugged it off. Maybe you could talk to her and see if she's okay."

"She's just training really hard, this competition she needs to do in January is very important to her." Rachel looked a little surprised. She had been busy and was tired herself, but everything was so much fun that she hadn't really worried about it. For the first time since she had made her debut, Rachel actually stopped and thought about Quinn. She had been taking her for granted. Quinn was up before dawn and waited up every night for her to return and she was constantly training and trying to keep up her grades. Rachel had mentioned to Quinn some time ago that she was never still and the blonde had sought assurance from Rachel that she would remind her of that if she got that way again. "I'll talk to her tomorrow night, I have the evening off."

"You should take her out for dinner or something nice. She hasn't really been out in weeks either." Blaine seemed to be taking this all very seriously.

"I'll ask her in the morning if she would like to go out," Rachel agreed, thoughtfully, then added her thanks before going to bed.

Once she was in the bedroom and changed to go to sleep, Rachel looked across at the empty wheelchair and the completely still lump under the blankets on that side of the bed. There was something not quite right about Quinn's sleeping form. Rachel looked again and realized that Quinn had forgotten to put the pillow she always slept with, between her knees. She must have been so exhausted that she forgot.

Rachel moved around the bed and picked the spare pillow up from the corner of the room, where it must have been thrown that morning. She tried to get the blanket up without disturbing the sleeping blonde, but she had an arm wrapped over the top and was pinning it down, so she pulled the covers up from the bottom of the bed instead. Once she had the corner of the bed where Quinn's legs lay one on top of the other, she took the pillow and tucked it under the slender knee and ankle. At least Quinn wouldn't feel Rachel moving her legs around, waking her up as a consequence; the spent young woman never even stirred as her girlfriend carefully tucked the blankets back in around her and slipped under her side shortly after.

"Any chance you will be home early this afternoon?" Rachel had been half-asleep when Quinn moved off the bed and into her chair, but conscious enough to ask the question.

"I have theater group after class today," Quinn kept her voice down so she didn't disturb Santana sleeping in the next room. "I guess we'll be finished around six so I should be back by seven."

"Can't you ditch practice today? I have the evening off and I would love us to go out to dinner. We haven't done anything much for weeks."

Quinn thought about ditching but she didn't want to let anyone down. "I should go," she shook her head. "As tempting as it sounds, I haven't been giving it my best the last couple of weeks and I missed one a few weeks ago for that swim meet."

"They'll survive without you," Rachel pleaded.

Quinn stopped and looked at Rachel with a raised eyebrow. "What's brought this on?" Her sixth sense was tingling.

"Nothing, I …" Rachel sighed. She couldn't lie. It was just beyond her. Her shoulders slumped and she pouted. "Blaine and Kurt are worried about you because you feel asleep at the dining table yesterday evening. I promised I would talk to you but we've hardly seen each other the last few weeks and I wanted to spend my evening off with you, but I don't want you rushing around for me either so I thought if you ditched class, I could book a table and we could go for a meal together."

"You're rambling again," Quinn grinned.

"And you're exhausted again, doing that thing where you keep fidgeting all the time," Rachel looked serious and watched the normally ramrod straight spine of her girlfriend slump in disappointment.

"I'm fine, just working hard and there's nothing wrong with that. You're working hard too, but no one's trying to make you slow down and take it easy. How many times do I have to keep saying that I'm not fragile?"

Rachel sighed. There probably wasn't much she could say that would change Quinn's mind. For the most part, they helped by tinkering around the edges and she would carry on as she always had, keeping a tight rein on her emotions and sorting things out for herself. Sometimes people were too independent for their own good but all you could do was wait for them to realize for themselves that a change was needed. So Rachel gave her a nod. "Okay, I'll be here when you get home and I'll make something nice for dinner instead of going out."

Quinn thanked her and rolled out of the room to finish getting ready. While she was out in the kitchen getting food for the day, she heard footsteps behind her and found Blaine was up early too.

"Hi, what are you doing up so early?" she asked.

"Thought I would go in with you if that's okay. I felt like a little more punishment and I enjoy being beaten by you."

She grinned and replied, "yeah but not for long, you're getting pretty good for a freshman!"

They left a short while later, the sun was up but only just and peeked between the tall buildings as they arrived at the spot Quinn usually parked. It was always empty that time of morning. They walked the short distance to campus and changed before heading into the pool. There were just a handful of the most competitive team members around at that time every day and they were surprised to see Blaine but not Quinn. She slipped into the water effortlessly and set off, Blaine tracked her and kept pace even though she was normally a bit quicker at the start. He figured she was just going to have an easy session.

Quinn wasn't having an easy session at all, she felt like she was swimming in mud. Her arms felt heavy and her body didn't seem to slip through the water as easily as it normally did. She continued on but felt off her game and drained. Instead of stopping though, she just tried harder, pushing as much as she could to go quicker and with each turn, she found it got harder and harder. Eventually she just felt like she had to stop less than halfway through her normal session. She hung onto the edge of the pool and felt her energy just drain from her arms, they felt like wet noodles.

Blaine had just been keeping up with Quinn, which was unusual so when he saw her stop early and hold onto the edge, he suspected something was wrong and let himself glide in alongside her.

"You okay?"

She didn't turn to look at him or speak, she just shook her head and he saw immediately that she looked very pale. He was about to speak again when she just let go of the side and dropped down. He grabbed under her armpits and pushed her up against the side and looked around. Shouting over at another swimmer about to make a turn, the guy dropped under the lane marker and bobbed up right beside them.

"She fainted," Blaine explained. "Help me get her out!"

The guy bounced out of the pool and took Quinn's arms from Blaine who pushed up and out of the water, so that between them, they could hoist her up. She looked a little green. Between them, the guys pulled up on the usually strong arms and as they got her most of the way out, Blaine placed an arm around her waist and lifted under her knees so she was cradled against him. They laid her down on the mat as she started to come round. Blaine realizing she looked like she could vomit any second, quickly rolled her on her side with the other guy helping. "Be careful not to let her legs fall," he instructed him watching as the teammate whose name he didn't even know, gently placed Quinn's legs into the recovery position. "Quinn, sweetie, wake up," he spoke quietly into her ear and watched anxiously as she opened her eyes and looked at him.

Almost instantly, the tears started running as she came to. "What happened?"

"You fainted," he replied.

"Fainted? I don't remember," she sniffed, trying to get a grip on herself. She moved her arms under her to push up, but as soon as she tried, they buckled and Blaine put his arms beneath her while one of the girls brought a rolled towel to put under Quinn's head.

The girl looked at Blaine. "Shall I call 911?"

Quinn was aware enough to respond with a "no" so Blaine shook his head.

"Not yet."

"Lift my legs up, Brian, that should help," Quinn instructed the guy who was still kneeling by her legs.

"Are you okay?" Brian asked as he grabbed her feet and hoisted her legs up towards his shoulder.

She groaned a little and blinked. "I don't even know what happened. I just felt dizzy for a moment and stopped, the next thing I know Blaine's got hold of me here." She turned to him now. "Did I full on faint in the pool?"

"Yeah, I almost had a heart attack."

"I'm sorry I scared you. I didn't know that was going to happen or I would have stopped sooner." She held her hand out for him to take and he felt her squeeze it firmly. "Thanks for rescuing me, you too Brian. Sorry you got dragged into this."

"No sweat, Quinn. Are you going to be alright? Maybe we should get you to the hospital and find out why you fainted. I've never seen anything like that before and it's not like you to get sick or anything." Brian looked concerned. He like everyone else in the swim team was surprised when Quinn had shown up the previous year to the try-outs. She hadn't swum competitively before but had trained hard, impressing everyone. They had seen her exhausted at the end of a training session and sometimes after competition to the point where she would let them help her out of the pool, but he hadn't seen anything like this before and it had scared him a little. It made him think that it was lucky someone else was around. It was kind of weird, bearing in mind she was in a wheelchair and all, but they didn't really think of her as disabled anymore, in the pool she was just one of them, only on wheels the rest of the time.

"I'm okay, you can put my legs back down." She waited until he placed them back on the mat.

"You're pretty cold though," he pointed out.

"Someone go get some more towels or something," Blaine spoke to the group around them, growing in number by the second as more of the team joined practice. He watched her like a hawk as she pushed herself up into a sitting position, though she seemed fine.

"Can someone get my chair please?" she asked quietly, embarrassed that she was causing a fuss. It was beside her moments later.

Blaine was still hovering beside her and thanked whoever brought towels. He wrapped one around her shoulders and dropped another over her legs. "Will you take some help, just this once, to get in the chair?" he asked.

She nodded, recognizing that it would be more embarrassing if she tried to get in and couldn't manage. He crouched beside her and cradled her to him before standing and hoisting her into the seat.

"I'm okay everyone, thanks for the help, but I'm fine honestly. Go back to your practice, please."

The crowd dispersed and it was at this point, the coach arrived after one of the other swimmers had been to get her.

"My gosh, Quinn, what happened? They said you fainted in the pool," Coach Lynch looked worried and crouched down so she wasn't standing over the blonde student who was just removing her swimming cap.

"I'm okay, Coach. I did faint but I feel okay now. I just went dizzy and blacked out."

"Has this ever happened to you before?"

"Never," Quinn shook her head.

"In that case, we'll take you to the medical center. I think we should check your blood pressure and glucose levels."

Quinn groaned. "I hate the docs. You better take me to St Luke's instead. They have my records from the summer."

"Were you in hospital?"

"No, I just went to the clinic because I wanted to get weaned off some of my meds. They'll know what to do if my blood pressure is off."

"Coach, I can take her over there," Blaine suggested. "That's if it's okay with you Quinn?"

"Yeah sure. I would argue that I can go myself, but under the circumstances, I doubt you'd let me and if you did, Rach would kill you."

"Kurt too, though Rachel is scarier and I don't even want to think about Santana."

"You're right, she's kill us both." Quinn gave him a grin.

The coach looked her over and then took her pulse, which was steady and not too rapid. She had a look at her pupils and they seemed normal. "Okay, let's get you dressed and then Blaine can take you over the road to get checked out."

A couple of the girls offered to accompany her just in case she felt unwell again and though she let them follow her in, she changed without assistance, gradually feeling better as time passed.

The doctor saw her quickly after Blaine took her over to the hospital. He ran through some tests and then asked her to provide a urine sample so she went off to the toilet with a nurse, not willing to risk her being alone until they got to the bottom of her fainting.

Everything that might have concerned the doctor about the welfare of his paraplegic patient came back fine. Her blood pressure was no issue and she wasn't diabetic. What worried him was her weight and the fact that she had just hit the wall in training.

"You ran out of glycogen as far as I can work out. It's commonly called hitting the wall. As soon as you stopped, you began to recover because oxygen was able to start restoring the energy to your muscles, but we just checked your weight against when you were last measured in the summer and you are another twelve pounds lighter. Quinn that's just not enough meat on your bones for someone who is training this hard. You have increased the exercise but not the food intake. You need energy stores to be able to use oxygen when you exercise, no glycogen means your body uses fat and it's not able to provide energy fast enough for the pace at which you work. That's why you fainted. You need to eat more if you are going to stick to this regimen; without some energy stores, your body cannot make glycogen sufficiently. I'm recommending a week off training, you can do some light exercise but nothing hardcore. Next week you need to come in and speak to the dietician and work out a meal plan which you need to stick to. Go home this week and eat a lot of pasta, rice and potatoes. I want carbs in virtually every meal until you are at least back to your summer weight and then you need to at least stay there otherwise I am worried that you could get ill this winter."

Blaine was sat next to her taking in what the doctor had just said. This was exactly what they had been worried about the day before.

Quinn's head dropped. "I spent a lot of time in high school being worried about getting fat and now I find everyone worried that I am too thin. But if I get heavier, surely that's bad for my shoulders."

"Not as bad as drowning from what I hear. Take the time to stock up on food throughout the day, not just at mealtimes. You need to eat between classes." The doctor sensed that Quinn's relationship with food was not perhaps as healthy as everyone might have thought.

"It's a little hard. I don't get much of a break because getting to and from rooms often means I am in a queue for the elevator and it takes me fifteen minutes to take a pee. I just don't get that much free time to eat."

"Make a choice, Quinn. You cannot have it all. Talk to your professors about your ambitions and explain the situation to them. I am sure you having an extra five minutes to get to your next class is something that can be accommodated. My guess is you are reluctant to ask for extra time and extra help, but you are human and you need time to recover from training and eat as well as use the bathroom. I know you must be intelligent or you wouldn't be studying across the street so use that brain of yours to make the training work without damaging your health."

"Can I go back to class today?"

"No, you are suffering from exhaustion. Go home, eat and rest, watch TV, listen to music, even take a nap. No exercise for forty eight hours and only light exercise until you see the dietician." He ripped off a piece of paper and handed it to her. "I want you on multi-vitamins for the next few weeks, take that to the pharmacy."

She folded it and shoved it into her jeans pocket. "Am I okay to go home now?"

"Yes, do you have someone who can stay with you for the rest of the day just in case you faint again?"

She looked down at her hands, but before she could say anything, Blaine responded. "I'll stay with you today. I can email my tutors and explain later." He looked up at the doctor. "We have three other roommates so we'll make sure she's okay."

Quinn was lying down on the bed when Rachel arrived back from classes earlier than planned after Blaine had sent her a text. He directed her straight to the bedroom.

Quinn looked up and put her book down. She didn't want Rachel to give her a ticking off, but she suspected she was in for it anyway. "Before you start, I have done exactly what the doctor said. Blaine drove us home and he hasn't let me lift a finger even if I wanted to. I had a big lunch and I'm just reading."

Rachel had been worried, but now Quinn seemed relaxed and she looked fine. She was wearing jeans and a white T-shirt, there was a pillow under her knees and about three behind her shoulders. Her hair was loose for the first time in a few weeks: now that it was long enough to tie back again, she had worn it pulled tight so it didn't fall in her face all the time.

"The only thing I did when I got in was take a shower because I didn't get a chance after swimming and I smelled of chlorine."

"How are you feeling now?"

"Fine actually. I feel really stupid though. Everyone made such a fuss over me and no one will leave me alone now. I feel back to normal, apart from the fact that Blaine force fed me at lunch."

"Good. I wish I had tried harder to talk you out of going this morning."

"Don't, Rach. I was being stubborn and pig-headed, not for the first time. Blaine was beating himself up too, but this is on me. I didn't listen to my body even thought I felt terrible once I got in the pool. I just thought that if I tried harder it would feel easier, but I just wiped myself out. I've been burning the candle at both ends and not really eating enough. I said I wasn't fragile before, but it seems I might be after all." She wore a sad smile across her face.

"You are not fragile, but you are human and last night I had to put the pillow between your knees because you forgot."

Quinn looked up, surprise evident on her fine features. "I did?"

Rachel nodded and didn't need to explain what that meant.

"I forgot," she said it as a statement not a question. She sighed and looked down. "I could have ended up with a pressure sore if you hadn't noticed."

Rachel smiled sadly and nodded. "Forgetting to take care of yourself means you are working too hard. It's all very well wanting to make the national swim team, but if you have to spend time out of the pool for a sore to heal you won't be making the college team never mind anything else."

Quinn didn't speak at first. She straightened her shoulders though and took a deep breath. Pulling her phone from the pouch under the seat of her chair, she started to send a text message.

"Who are you texting?"

"My coach. You're right, Blaine's right, even the doc is right. I need some time off." She pressed the send button and put her phone away. "A week off isn't going to ruin my chances, but making myself ill might." She turned back to Rachel. "I'm having a week off everything extra, though not skipping classes. I'll let Mike know I'm going to miss theater practice as well so we can go out for a quiet meal and catch up on your next day off."

"You know I love crazy Quinn, but I'm glad you're willing to listen to reason. You are so competitive sometimes you forget to eat and rest properly." Rachel kicked off her shoes and went to lie beside her on the bed. "Just be still for a little while." She leaned into the slender body and rested her head on the blonde's shoulders for a while.