A/N: The last chapter seemed to go well, so i might throw in some more angst. Plenty more storytelling up my sleeve, not entirely sure how many more chapters, but i would think it will run to at least 50, so please keep throwing me ideas and opinions - i do read them all and i do include ideas people send

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Disclaimer: I am just borrowing Glee and fully intend to give it back when I'm done

Chapter 38

"What the hell, Q!"

The blonde groaned under the covers on the bed as her best friend stood in the doorway with a massive frown on her face.

"How come I got to hear about this from Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee when I get in. Why didn't you tell me you were in the hospital? What happened?" She strode into the room and dropped into Quinn's wheelchair by the side of the bed.

"I thought you said the boys told you," Quinn turned herself over and sat up. "Hand me the spare pillow please," she nodded down beside the bed and waited for Santana to grab it for her. She placed it down beside her and threw back the covers revealing her tangled lowed half. She was about to lean forwards and straighten her legs out but found Santana nonchalantly pulling her right leg free of the left. "Thanks."

"No sweat, Q. And they did tell me, or rather Blaine told me but I want to hear it from you in case he was paraphrasing."

Quinn sighed and tucked the pillow under her knees to take the pressure off her hips and lower spine. "I was tired last night and fell asleep at the dining table whilst I was working." Santana hadn't seen it because she had spent the evening with Julia at a club and hadn't come home until after midnight. She was fully intent on leading her girlfriend astray even mid-week. "Blaine and Rach both tried to get me to take a day off training but I didn't listen and so he came with me this morning but about an hour into the session I felt really dizzy, stopped at the side of the pool and as Blaine swam up to me I fainted. He pulled me out and then once I had come round, took me to St Luke's to get checked out."

"What did the doc say?" She held out a hand and found Quinn took it.

"I was exhausted and need to have a week off heavy training, plus he said I lost weight and had to put it back on and maintain it. He is making me see a dietician."

"Good, I keep telling you that you're too skinny."

"I know, it's just that I don't notice the same way I used to. I can't use normal weighing scales and I tend to wear looser pants now so I don't notice if they appear a little baggier than they were. It's not like I'm trying to lose weight or anything."

"Sorry, I keep forgetting that you have to go to the clinic to get weighed. Surely we can do something to make it possible." She thought for a moment. "I know what to do," she jumped out of Quinn's chair. "Get in," she waved at the chair and rolled her eyes when Quinn didn't move. "Come on, get in. Trust me I know what to do."

Quinn shook her head and slid into her wheelchair. "I'm not supposed to do anything energetic, doctor's orders."

"Relax, I'm not going to make you do anything stupid. I just figured out a way we can weight you on the bathroom scales."

The blonde followed the brunette out of her bedroom to the bathroom. Rachel was busy cooking dinner and looked quizzically in their direction but Quinn just shrugged at her as they rolled past. Santana pulled the bathroom scales away from the wall but beside the handrail so she could reach out and grab it if necessary. Quinn watched on, bemused at Santana's shenanigans.

"Right, I'm going to weight myself," she stepped on the scales. "One thirty two," she muttered and stepped off again. "The scales are good for three hundred pounds so I think we're okay." She looked expectantly at her friend. "Okay, piggyback time." Santana crouched in front of Quinn and waved her forwards.

"You must be crazy. I'm not climbing on your back, you'll drop me."

"I'm not as weedy as I look." She looked put out at Quinn's doubt. "Come on, live a little."

Quinn sighed again. "The things you make me do," she shoved forwards and dropped her feet to the tiled floor. Santana backed up to her so she could place her hands on the narrow shoulders. The Latina took Quinn's hands and pulled them around her neck so she had a firm hold. Quinn tightened the grasp and felt her chest move forwards as the shorter girl pulled under her legs to lift her out of the chair. Standing, Quinn felt a small lurch as she was hoisted up. Santana had a good grip on her legs and Quinn had a good grip on San's shoulders so she was safe. Santana stood on the scales and hoped their combined weight wouldn't make the springs jump out of the scales and make them explode.

Looking down at the dial, Santana read off their combined weight. Two hundred and thirty six, that makes you one-oh-four. Shit Q, that's way too skinny." She huffed and puffed backing up to the wheelchair and dropping her back in. "No wonder the doc is pissed."

"I know, it was a hundred and three earlier so I put on a pound after Blaine's massive lunch he made me eat."

Santana turned to look at her. "At least we know how we can keep an eye on it now though. You should go for like a couple of pounds a week until you are like a hundred and twenty maybe. That would be much better and I'm taking the skinny pins into account here as well. What did you weigh back in high school before you got injured?"

"It varied a lot, pregnancy and cheerleading played havoc but I guess between one thirty and one forty."

"That's pretty healthy, so I reckon with less weight in your legs now, around one twenty would be good."

"Yes, Mom," Quinn pulled her legs back into her chair and turned to go out. Her mood shifted slightly/ "Thanks, San. You always make me feel as though there's a solution to every problem."

"That's 'cause there is," she grinned at the blonde.

"Yeah, but you never make a big deal about it either."

"Why would I make a big deal out of helping you? Haven't you managed to work out that I care about you and I don't want you to get ill over something stupid like not being able to stand on the scales."

"I know, I just thought that life would get easier as time went on but it doesn't does it?"

"I guess not, but look at it this way, you are still alive and we love you. The small inconveniences we put up with are nothing in comparison to the ones you have to deal with and we will do whatever it takes to make life easier for you. When you let us of course!"

Quinn rolled her eyes. "I know and I'm really grateful that you guys are here for me when I need someone but you don't smother me either. And I love you too by the way, you are my family. I think about my father sometimes and I just wish that he felt the same way about me that you guys do."

Santana's smile faded. "Don't waste your time waiting for that douchebag. How in hell that man sleeps at night I don't know."

Quinn couldn't argue with that logic. She thought about him less now than she used to, but she still wondered how a father could turn away from his own flesh and blood. She had always sought an answer from him, but just hadn't gotten up the courage to ask him the question. Maybe the next time she went home she would.

3 Months later in Minneapolis.

Quinn's cheer squad, namely Rachel, Santana, Blaine, Kurt, her mom and Scott were sat nervously amongst the crowd. There was media present, though it was hardly the Olympics. They had left Quinn an hour ago and waited anxiously for her to appear. Her registration had gone well and she was now entered into the fifty meters freestyle race which was next on the cards.

Santana looked over at Blaine and pointed at the woman who had just won the previous race. It had been painfully slow and in her head she was debating saying that it should have been called a drowning race rather than swimming, but she hadn't watched the start of it, tuning in about halfway through and as she saw the competitors being lifted out of the pool at the end, she realized they were all much more severely disabled than Quinn. The winner had no arms and was missing most of both legs as well. "How do you even?"

Blaine made eye contact and shrugged. "I have no idea. This is the S1 and S2 class apparently. I guess they must have impairment in all four limbs."

They all watched on in awe as the second place swimmer was lifted into wheelchair and it was obvious she was a quadriplegic with only some use of her arms, which meant the vast majority of her body was a dead weight. They thought Quinn was pretty inspiring but the women in this race were something else. Santana brushed a tear away hoping no one else saw it. It wasn't as though she was upset or anything, it was just so damn emotional.

There was quite a gap as all the competitors from that race were escorted out. They then called Quinn's race, the S5 and S6 fifty freestyle. "I don't get the numbers thing," Rachel muttered to no one in particular. "Why do they have the numbers mixed up?"

"I guess they don't always have enough people in each category to make a viable race so they put them together." Blaine had been doing some reading.

"That doesn't seem fair, Quinn's racing against people who are less disabled than she is. Isn't she S5?"

"The winner doesn't necessarily win," he started.

"That makes no sense," Santana interrupted.

"No I mean the first to finish doesn't win, like Quinn's times get adjusted when she competes against able bodied athletes."

"How do they work it out then?" Rachel asked.

"They compare them to the world record for the classification and then it's the one who gets closest to that time that wins."

"God, it's complicated," Santana muttered.

"Here she comes," Rachel got very over-excited and jumped up and started waving. "Do you think she's nervous, she doesn't look nervous."

"Of course she is, but she's the Ice Queen, remember. She won't show it even if she is."

Judy laughed at her friends chatter and waved at her daughter too. They were met with a wave and smile as she shrugged off her Columbia robe and left it sat in her chair as she slid onto the box from the seat.

Quinn's dive was always interesting. She had started out in early races the year before from the wall, but she got no momentum from that at all and struggled to keep up with other swimmers, so she had practiced starting on the blocks. She couldn't stand up, even though she had tried many times to tuck her feet under her and push a little from her hips, it was often borderline disastrous. She had eventually gone for a sitting dive in from the blocks. She got some momentum and although it was nowhere near as streamlined as her able bodied teammates, it was about as efficient as she had been able to manage. Her PB so far this year was down massively from fifty three seconds last year to forty two. No one else on her team came close to that level of improvement. She was now working with her coach on a tumble turn, if she could get that, she could increase her race distances, because she was arguably better at the longer swims, but without a quick turn, she didn't have a chance. At least in this race, the turn was irrelevant.

That said, the world record was a shade over thirty seconds which seemed crazy quick.

She adjusted her goggles and shook out her arms, then ran her hands under the straps of her swimsuit one time to make sure they were in the right place. She inhaled deeply a couple of times just to take in as much oxygen as she could. The other competitors did likewise, but she didn't even look at them. Shame she was out in lane seven, but the others had probably all swum better PBs than her to get the best lanes. She was used to being stuck on the outer lanes anyway so she didn't care. She felt the surge of adrenaline rush through her body as they were called to attention.

The buzzer went off and she dove in.

The crowd quite rightly sensed a close race. These swimmers were much quicker than the race before and the gaps between each were much smaller.

Rachel could hardly contain herself as Quinn started. She was one of the most disabled in comparison to the other competitors in the race, a number of whom had started pretty normally, standing on the blocks. That meant with almost half the race gone, Quinn was back in sixth place. There was a reason this race was called the splash and dash.

With around fifteen meters left, Quinn had moved up to fourth place and seemed to be in close proximity to third as she reached out to touch the wall at the end. Her fans all seemed a little disappointed, expecting her to win. They had perhaps underestimated just how strong the competition would be.

Looking up at the clock though, they saw Quinn's time. Two seconds off her PB and just under forty for the first time.

It was Blaine who realized what that time meant. "You realize that if she is the quickest in her category, that time will qualify her for the Paralympics, I checked the times and its miles under."

It took a while longer for the race results to be posted, but there were several loud screams from some familiar faces when Quinn looked up and found she was listed as the winner.

The other three finishers were all from the S6 category and their times weren't as close to the world record as Quinn's which made her feel amazing. She was pulled from the water and onto the mat at the side of the pool. Her arms were shot for now, but she had a better grip on the recovery process than she had earlier in the year. She had to try and get ready for another race late the same afternoon. The woman who came first walked up and shook hands with her, she had full use of her left arm and leg but her right side was affected by cerebral palsy. Quinn was a little unsure of the protocol so she held out her right hand but turned it upside down so her fellow competitor wouldn't feel awkward.

"Great swim. Haven't seen you before so good to meet you."

Quinn grinned. "Thanks, you too. It feels wrong to come fourth and be declared the winner. Sorry about that."

The other woman shrugged. "That's how it works." She introduced a couple of other swimmers to the blonde and they chatted as they left the poolside. "So you must be spinal cord injury?"

Quinn nodded. "Yeah, almost two years ago, car crash. I just started swimming competitively last year."

"You're pretty talented, and I think the scouts will be taking a good look at you, we didn't do that well in the S5 category at the Paralympics, we don't have that many swimmers in the lower categories."

"Really? I didn't think I'd get a shot this soon. I figured I would have to earn my stripes."

"They have a target group of athletes in development when they are young or newly injured. I would say you have a good shot at getting selected."

Quinn opened the package posted in Lima after she had checked the sender's details; it was from Coach Sue. Inside she found a pair of miniature red and white pom-poms with a WMHS Cheerios tag, a notecard and what looked like folded newspaper.

She smiled at the pom-poms and set them aside to hang on the rearview mirror in her car later, then opened the letter in Sue Sylvester's inimitable style of writing.

Dear Q,

I hope you'll forgive me from breaking into your mother's house at the crack of dawn to steal your address. I was asked about your recent good news by one of the local hacks and so I figured you might not have seen the article. Sadly it has more of your comments in there than mine, but I thought you would like a copy for your scrapbook anyway.

Glad to see you are still listening to my advice rather than Schuester's.

Keep well.

Yours,

Sue

Quinn pulled out the newspaper and unfolded it. They had used a photo of her in her Cheerios uniform and another from when they had won the show choir championship, so a before and after. Sue had obviously colluded with the reporter. She turned her attention to the article itself.

The Lima News

January 15th 2014

Former McKinley student selected for Paralympics squad.

Lima native Quinn Fabray, 20, now a sophomore at Columbia in New York was drafted to the US Paralympics Swimming Team last weekend in Minneapolis. Fabray, who represented William McKinley High School at both cheerleading and show choir, winning national championships in both during her time at the school, was heading to Yale in her senior year, when she and a fellow classmate were severely injured in a road traffic accident. At seventeen Fabray thought her life was over after she suffered a spinal cord injury which left her paralyzed from the waist down. Told by doctors that she would never walk again, she was left to pick up the pieces of her life and start again.

"I never expected to be as good at anything as I was at cheerleading and when I realized that I would never be able to do it again, I was devastated," the young woman admitted.

Sue Sylvester, legendary cheerleading coach at McKinley spoke about her former protégé at the weekend saying that everyone at the school was "Exceptionally proud of Quinn. We always knew she was talented and would go on to do amazing things." In a rare moment of sincerity from the veteran coach, she said "Quinn Fabray is an amazing young woman who deserves everything good in life after the way she fought back to recover from her injuries. I spoke to her last summer and suggested the Paralympics were well within her sights."

Fabray went onto the Show Choir National Championships just three months after the accident and came away a winner. "I loved performing and realized that a wheelchair couldn't stop me and so I set about finding a new athletic pursuit and chose swimming. I worked hard to learn how to swim without the use of my legs. Yale was just not quite right for me after the accident and so I chose Columbia instead. When I started, I decided to try out for the swim team and was surprised when they let me in. It was Coach Sylvester who gave me the idea of trying out for the Paralympic team. If it wasn't for the awesome teachers and friends I had at McKinley I would never have gotten through the hard times."

Quinn had, until last weekend, only competed in college events against able bodied swimmers and her first attempt at competing against other disabled athletes saw her set a new PB in the 50m freestyle, a time that would have gotten her into the final of the event in the London Paralympics. She also set a new PB in 50m backstroke. Fabray, who swims in the S5 category was immediately spotted as a prospect for the national team. The USA currently has few swimmers of international standards in her category and rather than the development squad, she was placed in the full national team. She will continue to work with her coach at Columbia but will also attend specific training events and competitions with the national team, where it is hoped she will eventually move on to swim in longer races.

"I am still working on technique all the time. I first learned to swim when I had two working legs, so it's been quite a challenge, but my next goal is to perfect tumble turns then I can swim in the medley as well as the 100m and 200m freestyle."

Fabray now hopes to maintain her place in the team and achieve selection for the 2016 Paralympics in Rio.

"I will continue to work hard on improving my performances. My PBs are still a few seconds off the time of the medalists at the last Paralympics, but I have great support and time on my side."

The 2012 Valedictorian at McKinley is currently majoring in theater and hopes to go into acting or presenting eventually and if her previous academic and athletic pursuits are anything to go by, the rest of the swimming and acting world had better watch out.

Quinn left the article on the table and took out her phone. She fired of a quick text message to a certain cheerleading coach with the simple words, 'Thanks for the article, Sue. Love Q.'

"Hey, Rach. Come look what Coach Sue sent me, fame at last!"

The brunette appeared beside her and looked at the notecard Quinn held out and then read the article. She was smiling throughout. "I'm so proud of you," she reached out and squeezed Quinn round her shoulders, then a sudden thought struck her. "You don't really think she broke into your Mom's house do you?"

Quinn looked at Rachel as if she was the most gullible person in the world, then she thought about it a little more and doubt crept into her. Quinn quickly took her phone out again and dialed a number.

"Hi Mom, how are you?" there was a brief pause. "Yes I saw it, that's why I was phoning. Did you give Coach Sue my address?" another pause and then a look of relief washed over Quinn's face. "Yeah sure, thanks Mom. Say hi to Scott for me." A thumbs up followed as the blonde nodded her head, which was bizarre as Judy wouldn't be able to see that. "Of course, bye Mom, love you too."

Hazel eyes met dark chocolate ones and both crinkled around the edges as they burst out laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation.

"Can you actually believe it yet?" Rachel asked.

"I was struggling but there it is black and white. I guess when the team kit arrives I'll believe it more."

"You are going to represent the country, Quinn. That's just so amazing." Rachel dropped into Quinn's lap. "I think I like the Lima article better than the Columbia one. Although Coach Sue somehow seems to steal the glory every time."

"It was kind of her idea though, I don't know I would have thought about it if she hadn't suggested it."

"I'm not so sure, but you are allowed to be generous because you are amazing."

"I wish Shelby and Beth could have been there to see it thought, reading an article isn't the same thing."

"I am sure there will be plenty of other opportunities to see you swim in competition. Besides Beth is more focused on her birthday next month. She wants a Barbie doll and lots of clothes to dress her in apparently. Do you think we should offer to organize a party for her, I am sure Shelby could use a hand with that and we haven't spent much time with them lately."

"Yeah, let's do the whole thing."