You guys ever read or write a chapter that mirrored your brain? This is mine.

I know this is in the present tense. I realized it way too late to change it. The good news is, as insane as this chapter is, think of it as the Twilight Zone piece. Because that's what it is. Yes, Rachel overreacted. Yes, Quinn overreacted. Yes, Santana underreacted. And yes, LJ is a jerk.

These are things we learn today.

Love you all,

RCV

The next morning finds LJ, Tori, and Puck sitting on the bleachers. School didn't start for another couple of hours, but they needed the space.

LJ takes the bag of ice from Tori. "Thanks," he says.

Tori grunts as acknowledgement and walks over to Puck, who is staring off into the distance. She sits next to him, and he turns halfway.

"Thanks for not calling Rachel and the others yet," he says. "I'm not ready to face that music."

"Which music?"

"The one where Rachel tells me I should have gotten out of that house a long time ago."

Tori hums. "I know that one. The I Told You So Ballad my sister sings so often," she jokes.

Puck laughs and runs a hand over his head. "I genuinely don't want to tell them," he sighs.

"You're going to have to. And I'm going out on a limb and saying your Dad's the one that gave you that scar on your forehead."

"Yeah. It wasn't even for no reason other than to do it. He was day drinking, saw me driving past the gas station, and the rest is history. I'm lucky he got the worse end of it getting glass in his knuckles. Mom was not happy to have to tend to that wound."

Tori wraps her knees around herself. She catches LJ giving her a small smile, and she sticks out her tongue. Puck's phone rings and he holds it in the air.

"As if her ears were burning," he says.

"You gotta answer it."

"I know."

Puck puts the call on speaker. "Hello?"

"I told them about me sleeping in your bed."

"How'd that go?"

There was shuffling, and Puck heard, "You're very lucky she convinced me not to kill you."

"I am, Satan. I truly am," he teases.

"Fuck you."

Puck chuckles as Rachel takes the phone. "Don't antagonize her," she scolds.

"Okay, okay. Go enjoy the rest of your trip. We'll be here when you get back."

"Fine. Is everything alright there?" she asks.

Puck hesitates. "Nothing you need to worry about," he says softly. "Everyone's fine and in one piece."

"Why don't I believe you?"

"Go," he says. "I'll see you when you get back."

Rachel sighs and hangs up the call. Tori pats him on the shoulder.

"You did good, kid," she says. "Also, why were you sleeping with my sister?"

"Why, jealous?" he asks.

Tori winks and leans over. "Maybe," she whispers.

Tori gets up and hops down to where LJ is sitting. Puck watches her go and laughs to himself. He stretches out on the bleachers and throws his arm over his eyes, ignoring the pain in his side from where the broken glass scratched him.

Santana paces the hotel room while Rachel and Quinn watch.

"Okay, what I have to say is that I'm a hacker," she says. "A very good one. Leroy told me that I needed to tell you guys and I figure that since we're dropping secrets that I should do the same."

"You're a what?" Quinn asks.

"A hacker."

"Like with computers?"

"Yes, Quinn, like with computers."

Rachel frowns. "Why does Daddy know about your hacking?" she asks.

Santana winces. "Now that, I cannot tell you, but I will tell you that I've been doing some research. When we get back to Lima, remind me to take you all into my...room, I guess, and show you what I've learned."

"Sounds kinky."

"Quinn, the kinkiest thing you've ever done is let me-

"Hey!" Quinn interrupts. "Don't you dare! That was a one time thing."

"What was a one time thing?" Rachel asks.

Santana folds her arms and smirks. "Quinn let me finger her during a Glee performance while we were in the auditorium. She climaxed at the climax," she says, snorting at her joke.

"Interesting. Was I in Seattle when that happened?" she asks.

"Yep."

"So does this mean you guys are going to do it again anytime soon? Preferably with me involved?"

Santana and Quinn stutter through a response. Rachel smiles and picks up the remote for the television. She turns it on and stretches out on the bed, turning to cartoons.

"You're going to say something like that and then watch fucking Adventure Time?" Quinn exclaims.

"Duh. You two aren't going to do anything about it, so why not?"

Santana twitches and crosses the room. She snatches the remote from her and bends down to look her in the face. "Who says we won't do anything?" she whispers.

"Me," Rachel whispers back. "We all know you won't do it unless I ask."

Quinn gasps. "You wouldn't!" she exclaims.

"Oh I would. Consider it payback for the amount of ice baths you guys have given me," she teases.

"Oh yeah? Well how about I don't tell you what we were thinking about when we were in the auditorium."

Rachel shrugs. "I don't care."

"You sure?"

"Yep."

Santana leans over and whispers in Rachel's ear, "Fine. I won't tell you that we were thinking about you, and I won't tell you that Quinn came at the thought of you watching."

Rachel twitches, but says nothing. She glares at Santana's retreating form. Santana walks over at Quinn, who pretends to be reading a book, and sits in Quinn's lap. Quinn is flustered, red, but she wraps her arms around Santana out of habit.

"I hate you," Rachel sighs.

Tuesday Night

Rachel wraps her arms around herself as she, Santana and Quinn stand in the driveway. Leroy's car pulls up in front of the house, and out walks LJ, Tori, and Puck. Rachel runs over to Puck and jumps into his arms. He catches her on instinct, but grunts in pain.

"I'm alright, Rocky," he mutters. "I'm alright."

Rachel gets down and punches him repeatedly in the shoulder. "I told you!" she shouts. "I told you staying there was a bad idea. Why didn't you listen to me? You could've been killed!"

Puck glances over at Tori. "I thought you said she would go easy on me."

"This is her being easy."

Rachel huffs and punches him again. Puck grabs her wrists and gives her a half-smile.

"Can you stop hitting me?" he asks.

"No!"

Puck rolls his eyes. "I'm fine. You do know that, right?"

"So! Let me be upset about this," she huffs.

Puck sighs and pulls her into a hug. He looks over her shoulder at Santana, who glares at him. Puck whispers, "Is Santana still mad at me?"

"Yes," Rachel grumbles. "Very."

"On a scale of one to ten..."

"Nine," Santana growls. "You're sleeping with both of my girlfriends!"

"I slept with him one time and I was on medication," Quinn exclaims. "He was there to make sure I didn't fall out of the bed!"

"Is now the time to do this?" Rachel asks.

"Santana's right," Puck says. "I shouldn't have taken that role."

Rachel shakes her head. "But we both know it's not like that! We didn't sleep together. Well, we did, but we didn't have sex," she says.

Santana steps forward. Rachel remains where she stands. They have a minor stand-off; Santana looking at Rachel, and Rachel looking at Santana. For a moment, it's quiet, but something flashes in Santana's eyes.

"It's not that you've been sleeping with Puck," Santana eventually grits out. "It's where you've been sleeping."

"It's not that bad. Sure, sleeping there is very hard to do with him snoring or whatever."

"That's not what I meant, and you know it."

Rachel tenses. She folds her arms and looks down.

"What are we missing here?" LJ asks.

Santana and Quinn share a look. Santana bows her head and walks back to the porch. She sits down on the bench and pulls out her phone. Rachel looks at Quinn in confusion.

"Why did she walk away?"

(TW: please skip if need be)

"Because she can't listen to this conversation without getting upset. And I don't like having it around her. Honestly, I don't want to have it around your siblings either, but whatever."

LJ clears his throat and walks pass Quinn and Rachel. He joins Santana on the porch. Tori comes up to stand beside Puck, and Quinn runs a hand through her hair. She folds her arms and looks up the sky.

"I can see why you kept it from us," Quinn says. "I would've done the same thing."

"Meaning?"

Quinn pulls down her shirt and points to a scar on her collarbone. It's not a big one, barely an inch long, but it's bright red and stands out against Quinn's otherwise perfect skin.

"You guys have seen a glimpse of Puck's father, but what you don't know is that his father can get a little handsy once he has some liquor in his system. Long story short, I was over Puck's place after one of his parties and I had to use the restroom. His stepfather approached me when I finished, pulled out a knife, sliced my tank top, and told me that if he caught me there again, he'd show me how a real man takes care of a woman."

Rachel runs a finger across the scar. Quinn shivers under her touch and goosebumps rise on her skin. Rachel sighs and puts her hands in the hoodie pocket.

"Look. It's. My first night there, I made the mistake of falling asleep. I found him hovering over me and I screamed. Puck woke up and without even knowing what was happening, wrapped his arms around me and pulled me to the other side of the bed. He held on to me, and his stepfather laughed. The next morning, while Puck was in the bathroom, I looked down and saw that he'd drawn on my neck. It was a smiley face, nothing big, but it took me hours to wash it off."

"You didn't tell me that," Puck says, frowning.

"I didn't want to talk about it."

Puck rubs the back of his head.

Tori holds up her hand and asks, "Why is he still alive?"

(TW: OVER)

"You can't kill everyone," Rachel says.

"No, but I can sure as hell kill him."

Rachel looks at her sister. She holds out her hand and Tori reluctantly grabs it. Quinn looks over her shoulder. "You can come back now, you guys," she says loudly.

Santana and LJ jog down the steps. When Santana gets close, she wraps Quinn in a hug and does the same to Rachel.

"I'm sorry I made a big deal about it," she mutters.

Rachel kisses Santana's jaw. "Don't apologize. You were just looking out for me."

Santana glances at Rachel. "I'm still not happy about you not mentioning it before now."

"That's fair. I didn't mean to be sneaky, and I also didn't even think about it like that."

"Well start thinking about it like that. I'm not interested in either one of you getting hurt. I love you both way too much."

"Aww," Quinn coos.

Santana flicks Quinn in the nose. "Come on, let's go inside. It's dark out, it's late, and I'm sure Emma wants to hear about our trip."

"I don't see why you promised her a full breakdown."

"It was the only way she'd pay for the room."

Santana and Quinn walk ahead, Puck follows. Rachel stays behind with her siblings.

"Where's Dad?" she asks softly.

LJ folds his arms. "Lawyer's office."

"Of course."

"You think he'll get out of this unscathed?" Tori asks.

Rachel grabs her siblings hands and squeezes. "Let's not think about that yet."