Here we go again! Worked a little later than usual on this. Sorry it's so late (Myra, sorry you were bored, dear heart). I didn't edit this at all (not even my usual half-assed attempts), so I apologize profusely for all typos and weird missing words.
The chapter title is taken from Rosi Galan's "Hazy", which is my next I WANT as a duet for Puckleberry. The song is so mellow and dreamy and lovely.
Misfit Toy Hero Squad
Chapter 38 – "What if I Went and Lost Myself? Would You Know Where to Fly To Me?"
There are 12,421 songs in the world that were written in honor of friendship in the last 200 years. Although that is technically only 1% of all the songs written in the last 200 years, it is still an impressive number. Fun fact, friendship was beaten out by Love at 96%, and Sex in the Club and Gangster activities at 2%. The remaining 1% of the songs are about patriotism, Mary Poppins and whipping hair back and forth.
Back to the matter at hand, you don't have 12,421 songs written about one single subject unless that matter is of great importance.
Friendship is a tricky and tenuous situation though. It can snap with the slightest grim weight put upon it. It can twist and turn ugly with the simplest of words. It can fade in moments of slight neglect. But if properly cared for, and properly cherished, it will survive anything and be one of the most cherished of possessions in your entire lifetime. And any subsequent lifetimes after that.
"I KNEW IT!"
"You said that already," Kurt muttered to Sue in annoyance and clear boredom. She was trailing all the Gleeks with the rest of the adults while Puck carried Rachel back to their room, as she was still very unconscious. "You said it five or six times since we told you what we know."
"Look Porcelain, just because you all got your big boy britches on and did a little rescue mission, does not mean that you can speak with blatant disrespect to me," Sue insisted harshly. "Especially when all I've ever done is speak in complete and almost prophetic truths. I always knew that Schuester was evil and needed to be taken down. The fact that he is a psychopathic misanthrope that can never die does not in fact surprise me. One need to only take a glimpse of that hornet-rat's nest of a hairdo to understand that satanic powers are at work there. Did I just say hornet-rat? Yes, well yes I did, because his hair is so particularly atrocious that the meanest of insects and the most squalid of rodents had to mate in an unholy alliance in order to create something so disgusting as that bastard immortal's wiry strands of pure EVIL!"
"uhmmm…" Finn furrowed his brow. He looked to Mercedes and whispered, "Is she for real about that whole hornet-rat thing? That's creepy."
"Shut it Paul Bunyan," Sue snarled. "Paul Dumb-yan."
Puck placed Rachel gently in their bed and managed to tear his eyes off her unconscious form briefly as he stared at the other members of his team. Blaine and Kurt immediately busied themselves in trying to make Rachel more comfortable. Mike was hugging Tina tightly as she stared at Rachel in a state of shock. Artie's eyes were closed as he tried to focus intently on receiving any vision, anything that could help even the slightest bit. Brittany was still intently writing on her hand with her finger, working with what little information they currently had. Santana was openly rolling her eyes as Sue yelled herself into a shade of red. And Mercedes and Finn were staring at Sue in second hand embarrassment.
He looked back at Rachel and saw how pale her face was. And how tiny she looked in the giant bed. He knew that she had been seriously going on all cylinders for their rescue mission. But apparently she had found more cylinders and burnt through those too. And here Sue was, barking at them like a self-important dictator.
"SHUT UP!" Puck suddenly roared, a little surprised at his own outburst. He recovered from his shock quickly and realized that everyone had backed away from him a step or two as suddenly his hands and forearms were ignited in flame. He pointed at Sue angrily and said, "I don't give a flying fuck what you're spouting, Coach. We saved your god damned ass tonight, and you know who did most of the work? This girl right here."
He looked down at Rachel and felt the fire burning more, deeper, hotter, more violently. "She's constantly trying to make sure all of us are okay. She thinks about all of you more than you'll know. And she was so worried about making sure we got you back, Coach, and here you are ranting about shit-ass Schuester. We get it, you knew he was evil. Now what in the fucking hell are we going to do about it?"
"Well obviously I'm not going to rant anymore," Sue said stiffly, although with a measure of respect. "I'm very fair skinned and don't really want to get sunburnt from the mini-nova you're creating over there. Simmer down, Puckerman."
"Simmer down?" Puck shook his head bitterly. "Here's how its going to go down. Adults and community people?"
"Present," Jesse mumbled as he stared at Puck's flaming skin in fascination.
"Go to your little offices, your little magic bookshelves, your connections to the community, whatever, and you get every single scrap of information you can get your hands on about the Immortal and you report back to Brittany and Artie in the mess hall in half an hour," Puck ordered harshly.
All of the adults, plus Matt and Jesse walked out of the room with a purpose. Sue may have strolled a little too slowly, but it was progress that she wasn't opening her gigantically offense trap. Puck was going to take whatever he could at that point.
He looked to Brittany, Artie and Santana and his harshness slowly ebbed out of his voice as he continued, "You guys go and research it the fuck up. Everything you can get about anything that might help. We'll have a group meeting with everyone tomorrow morning at 8 am sharp."
"I'm going to be so good at research," Brittany said confidently, turning Artie's chair around as she took one handle and Santana took another as they wheeled out, ready to prepare.
"NO sexing each other up!" Puck called after them. "There's no time for multiple orgasms, Satan-a!"
"Psssh, there's always time for orgasms," Santana joked back. She gave him the middle finger as they rushed off and her voice faded as she continued to yell down the hall, "I'm fucking human, asshole! I care about my Sparkplug and Q and Sammy just as much as you do! Fucking bendejo…"
"What do you want us to do?" Finn asked, forcing as much niceness as he could into his words. He didn't want to upset his friend, and he knew Puck was still a little sore that he and Mercedes didn't want to climb aboard the Schue is evil train.
"I think you and Mercedes should go back up to the entrance and reinforce our security. Set up visions a plenty for anyone who might have followed the transport," Puck nodded. He looked to Mercedes questioningly and said, "Can you make it specific so that Sam can find his way back?"
"Don't worry matchstick, I got this," Mercedes nodded as she grabbed Finn's hand and headed out the door.
Kurt drew a sigh of relief as Puck's flames finally extinguished as he was left in the room with Mike, Tina, Blaine and himself. He looked at Puck and actually ventured putting a comforting hand on the inferno's shoulder sympathetically.
"I like it better when Rachel takes charge," Puck admitted quietly. "She makes it look easy."
"That's because it is easy for her and her little miss bossy pants," Tina smiled. "I never realized how much I really, really loved those bossy pants."
"Yeah, we all do," Kurt sighed. "Who knew that when she wasn't bossing us around about choreography and sharp notes that we would love it?"
"So…What do you want us to do, Puck?" Mike wondered. "I mean, what can we do?"
"Okay, I'm gonna need either Tina or Kurt to knock me out," Puck said shortly. He shrugged between Mike and Blaine and said, "No offense, but I'll probably try to retaliate against you boys."
"I can't hit people, violence breeds bacteria in my pores," Kurt held up his hands. "And I don't believe for a second that you wouldn't give me a wedgie or a noogie when you woke up."
"I gotta get to Rachel and help her," Puck explained. "She's freaking out right now, I know it. And she's got no energy. So…Tina, you're going to have to put me out again. Just like the first time. And then you guys hang tight in this room with us and just…I don't know…"
"Be your awesome battery packs?" Blaine offered. "Or feel you up while you're napping?"
"I'm still gonna hit you when I wake up," Puck smirked.
"All right, let's do this, kungfu fighting time!" Mike actually managed a humorous smirk, pushing Tina towards Puck.
"You're not allowed to be mad if I hit you!" Tina ordered.
"Hey crazy karate panda! I asked for it this time, just try to avoid the fa-"
Tina pulled her fist back very quickly and swung with all the strength in her body. Her arching fist his temple mid-rant and the effect was instantaneous. Mike began bowing down to his girl as Puck landed haphazardly on top of the bed. Kurt carefully placed Puck's arms so that they were around her shoulderes. He furrowed his brow as Blaine rearranged the unconscious Puck's arms again, letting the mohawked matchstick's hands cupping Rachel's derriere.
"I like it better that way," Blaine nodded in appreciation.
"Surprisingly, I do too," Tina nodded. "Okay…we're their battery pack. Can we nap too?"
Blaine shrugged before wondering, "Should we all cuddle on the bed with them?"
"You're kind of slutty," Mike accused. He looked to a mortified Kurt and reiterated, "Kurt, dude, your boytoy is a Puck-esque manwhore."
"I hate everyone," Kurt muttered bitterly.
"Aww honey, hate is bad for your pores too," Blaine smiled winningly at the blushing boy.
"SAM! SAM! LISTEN TO ME! JUST COME BACK, I NEED YOU BACK HERE AND THEN WE CAN FIGURE IT OUT TOGETHER."
Silence. Nothing. It was almost like Schuester's creepy mind, where Sam's happy, jovial, friendly and ridiculously upstanding thoughts and emotions had used to lie in her own brain was now an empty space, just like Schuesters.
Rachel felt the loss keenly. It was as if her mind were a musical. Sam's leaving and subsequent blocking her out was akin to a vitally important supporting actor just dropping out of the production with no replacement or understudy. Lines were left unsaid, dances were left unfinished, harmonies were incomplete.
She realized then that she needed all of them. It made sense now that she should die if one of her teammates died. She was having trouble functioning with just Sam shutting her out. She knew that her mind wouldn't survive losing one of her friends. Which was why it was so vitally important to force her way back into his brain and bring him back.
"Please Sam!" Rachel pleaded. "I understand why you're so upset, and you know that its so important for me to have you and Quinn back. You're my friends, remember?"
"Sparky?"
Rachel burst into tears and rushed into Puck's arms as he materialized into their special plane of existence. She felt her energy renew slightly and her desperation calm as he held her, stroking his left hand through her hair as he held her tightly with his other arm to his body.
"Baby, you scared me," Puck whispered.
"I'm sorry, Noah. Sam shut me out," Rachel sniffled. "And it was like someone just plucked one of my strings. I couldn't find the energy to stay awake. It felt just awful…like before, when you were shot."
They stayed quiet in their tight embrace for one of those blissfully long, timeless moments that had become one of the trademarks of this space they shared. Rachel finally pulled back and looked at him curiously, "How did you get here?"
"I let Tina knock me out again," Puck shrugged. He kissed her lips briefly, then let a playful kiss land on her nose, "I couldn't let you do this alone. By the way…how are you doing this if he blocked out?"
"It's a lot of screaming and hoping he decides to listen at the right time," Rachel admitted sadly.
"Then scream away, Sparky, I'm here for you."
Sam flew through the incredibly frigid air over Ohio, zipping through the skies with ever increasing speed. He passed a plane at one point, leaving it behind in his imaginary dust. He had no idea what he was looking for. He had no idea how he would spot a car with Quinn and that bastard from such a height. He also knew that his extremities were about to fall off due to extreme frostbite.
He wound up above the Lima Police Department and slowly descended upon the roof. He watched quietly as he saw the chaos play out down below. The rescue mission had abruptly ended not one hour ago, and the two block radius surrounding the police station was coated in official government cars, fire trucks, ambulances and squad cars from surrounding townships. People were shouting at each other and completely oblivious to the returned super powered teenager watching from above.
He watched and felt his heart go up in his throat as a coroner wheeled out a black bag that was presumably full of one Emma Pillsbury-Howell. He cringed as he saw a man who he recognized as Mr. Dentist Howell break down as someone obviously broke the news to him.
He didn't want to be Mr. Dentist Howell. He didn't want to have Schuester hurt Quinn. He didn't want to mourn Quinn.
Sam PLEASE.
Rachel snuck back into his brain and he felt his pulse skip as he realized that mourning Quinn meant mourning Rachel too. The combined potential loss was too much.
He took off like a rocket, far too fast for the people below to even see him as he flew fast through the night. It took less than a minute to arrive back. He zipped past a speechless Mercedes and Finn, who had been shocked out of a cozy embrace by his appearance.
He flew all the way to Rachel and Puck's door, opening it and feeling tears slide out of his eyes at the sight in front of him.
Rachel, Puck, Blaine, Kurt, Mike and Tina were a mess of tangled limbs. Puck's hands were still inappropriately placed on Rachel's derriere. He walked to the bed and threw himself down, reaching out and gripping Rachel's hand, feeling a little better when her mouth curved upwards into a small smile.
"I'm sorry," Sam whispered, before feeling his energy drain too quickly and succumbing to the sleep that had overtaken all of the other teenagers. Rachel was obviously charging her batteries and using her friends shamelessly. He didn't mind though. "Come up with a way to get her back, Rach. I know you can."
Thoughts? Theories? Questions?
Hopefully the weather is bad enough in my area tomorrow so that I can stay home and play on tumblr and write fanfiction all day. I think I feel a fever coming on (yeah right, I never call off, damn you responsibility!)
I hope you enjoyed this, and thanks as always for your awesomeness. Look tomorrow for-
Chapter 39 - "Berry-licious Definition: Make that Schue Go Crazy"
... ...BWAHAHAHAHAH!