Rachel laid awake, the only light in her room was from the street lights and the occasional passing car. Sleep seemed like a far-off concept at this point, her mind racing and pulling into 50 directions. All which lead her back to quick flashes of what happened to her with the past 72 hours.
When the police took Bryan away a detective handed Mr. Schuester a card with his information and asked for Rachel to come down to the station to give a formal thought of it made her sick, she would have to tell them everything. She would have to tell Mr. Schuester everything.
Rachel sat up tiredly in her bed desperately needing a large glass of water, she looked over at her neon tony award clock, A gift from her dad's and saw it was 3:17 in the morning. Mr. Schuester sent her off to bed at midnight after they finished Breakfast at Tiffany's and took the downstairs spare room.
Rachel quietly padded from her room to the downstairs kitchen, trying to quietly descend the wooden creaky stairs. She made her way to the kitchen and turned on a small light over the oven, giving just enough light to move around and not too much to wake a sleeping glee teacher.
As Rachel grab her glass and began to fill it she couldn't help but look over at the room that her teacher was currently occupying, she was so grateful to him for so much already, but this was so much more than she bargained for. Rachel shivered as her brain tried to venture into what could've happened to her if Mr. Schue never came to look for her. The thought made her chest tighten and before she knew it she gasped and had to sit and fast.
Rachel was on her dark kitchen floor taking shallow breathes, her water abandoned on the counter. She recognized she was having a panic attack and tried to breathe but found it so hard to. Her heart was racing, and her fingers became numb, soon her lips were numb and all she could do was smash her eyes shut desperately trying to calm down but when she shut her eyes he was there and all she could was let out a frustrated cry.
Suddenly a shadow cast itself beside her and she screamed aloud trying to back away, trying to get away from Bryan.
"Rachel honey its ok it me, it's just me. Hey... hey you're ok. Rachel honey you need to breathe ok."
She looks to see Mr. Schuester next to her on the floor obviously disheveled from being awoken. This made her cry more out of embarrassment as she felt his hand make small circles on her back.
"Its ok, you're safe Rach. You hear me, I won't let anything happen to you. I just need you to let out a big breath and slow down, ok? Can you do that for me Rach?"
Rachel could only nod as she began to breath in through her nose and out through her mouth, her eyes transfixed on the floor beneath her. She tried to focus on the slow circles he was making on her back, she slowly felt anxiety dissipate away and her tears slow.
Finally, after 10 minutes or so she finally raised her head to meet the concerned eyes of Mr. Schue, she could see the softness and care in his eyes as he gave her a small smile of reassurance.
"Thank you, Mr. Schue, I'm so sorry I woke you."
Wil shook his head furiously, " No Rachel don't apologize, I wasn't really sleeping to begin with. I could only imagine you also haven't slept."
Rachel nodded her head in agreement, "I came down for some water, my dad's always gave me water when I was sad and I just really wanted a glass."
Will remembered and shook his head in acknowledgement, he then shifted his body and sat up. Grabbing the glass on the counter above them before sitting back on the floor next to Rachel. He quietly handed her the glass and watched as her small hands took the glass and began to drink the water quickly.
They sat there in a comfortable silence until Rachel finally looked over at Will, " I think I'm ok now, thank you Mr. Schue. "
Will sat up and helped Rachel off the floor, " Not a problem Rachel, I'm here for you. It's pretty late, or early if you want to get technical. " Will slightly chuckled which made Rachel chuckle with a small smile. "How about we go sit on the couch for a bit and turn on some tv?"
Rachel nodded and placed her empty glass on the counter, she could feel Mr. Schuster's hand on her lower back in a comforting gesture as they made their way into the dark living room. Rachel grabbed a blanket off the back of the couch as she turned on the tv and Will turned on a lamp beside the couch.
Rachel looked through the dvr list before finally settling on Pillow Talk, she heard a chuckle come from the arm rest next to her, Rachel looked over concerned. "I'm sorry its rude of me not to ask what you would like to watch."
Will shook his head, "No Rachel this is perfectly fine, one of my favorites actually I just didn't think anyone your age would know so many classics."
Rachel gave a small smile in response, " Well my Daddy's dad my Grandpa Bob loved old movies. So, during the summer when my dads traveled for work I would go stay with Grandpa Bob and watch Tuner Classic all day with him. My grandpa was a man of very few words but knew every single movie that would come on and could name almost every actor and actress. We really bonded over it. "
Will couldn't help but smile sincerely at the sweet memory Rachel shared with him, "My mom loved old movies, it was our thing too. It seems we were raised properly huh?"
Rachel laughed and nodded in agreement before finally turning to watch the movie play out in front of them, they weren't far into the movie until finally Rachel could feel her eyes open and close sporadically.
It wasn't until a few hours later that Rachel finally awoke to a sun-bathed room, the tv remaining on the dvr list the movie long done. The last thing she can remember is Doris Day berating Rock Hudson on the phone before suddenly sleep over took her.
She felt very warm and content, but she also felt a small pain in her neck, she looked up to see a sleeping Mr. Schue his arm thrown over the back of the couch and her head was leaning on his shoulder. "That would explain the crick in my neck" she thought as she embarrassingly sat up and moved away.
Suddenly Will felt his left side grow cold and began to stir awake he looked over at a stretching Rachel who was rubbing her neck when last night flooded back to him. He remembers tossing and turning, his thoughts on Rachel and what had happened in the day. He kept looking at his bruised and scraped knuckles thinking about how close he was to killing Bryan Ryan and how he would have felt no remorse.
He couldn't imagine anyone wanting to hurt Rachel, and he couldn't help but feel his heart race at the horrible thought of what if he never went to check on Rachel. He heard the stairs creak and knew it must've been Rachel, he looked over on the night stand and grabbed his phone seeing it was 3:20 in the morning. He laid there listening to Rachel pad across the kitchen floor and open cabinets, he heard the tap running and suddenly there was silence, deafening silence. Will sat upon when suddenly he heard a loud gasp followed by a loud cry.
Will rushed from his room and made his way into the kitchen, as he rounded the center island he saw Rachel on the floor, her breathing erratic as her hands and body shook. Will didn't want to scare her and tried to whisper her name. He could tell Rachel was so far off she didn't her him, so he slowly made his way to her shaking body he was inches away when she noticed his presence and let out a terrified scream and tried to back away from him.
Will quickly sat next to her and began to speak in a calm tone, he remembers getting her to calm down, and explaining that he too couldn't sleep, he remembers suggesting they watch tv. He then remembers feeling a shift on the couch and then a warm body against his about halfway into the phone call Doris Day was having with Rock Hudson. He looked down to see a sleeping Rachel, her hair draped across her face as her head and body came to rest against his upper shoulder.
Will couldn't help but let out a smile, he was so happy Rachel was finally able to find some peace enough to sleep. It made his chest swell to know he was the reason for her peace, he couldn't help but take his free hand and move it to her face, pushing her long dark hair out of her face and behind her ear. Moving slowly as to not wake her from her much-needed rest. He continued to look at her peaceful face, she looked so unbothered until he focused in on the bruising and cuts on her face where Bryan had hit her. Will could feel his anger bubble to the surface with every glance at her blemished skin.
Will knew he was a liar if he said he never thought Rachel was beautiful, he had always thought Rachel was beautiful but as time progressed so had her looks. She was shedding her girlish features more and more every day. She had striking chocolate eyes that held you to the spot, always finding and maintaining eye contact to make sure you took in every single word. Eyes that lit up when she sang and became brighter than any spot light that focused in on her when she performed. He now looked over her closed eyes and her left eye held a sizable bruise. Will couldn't believe someone would ever want to tarnish something as beautiful as Rachel. Will shook his head, he knew he was traveling down all too familiar and inappropriate thoughts.
Soon he felt his eyes grow heavy, the warmth of Rachel next to him had brought him comfort he didn't realize he needed.
Will shook away the nights events and watched as Rachel sat up slowly from the couch, her shirt riding up her toned stomach as she stretched up on her tippy toes. Will looked away and cleared his throat to get Rachel's attention.
Rachel looked over seeing her teacher shift forward finally awake, she came out of her stretch and tugged down on her shirt "Good Morning Mr. Schue, um sorry I kind of knocked out on you. I guess I was really tired. "
Will could see Rachel fidget as she made nervous eye contact, her dark eyes soft. "No, its ok Rachel I think we both needed that sleep." Will then stretched and looked over at the clock on the wall noticing it was 11 am. He let out a rough breath and was very thankful that it was Saturday.
"Mr. Schue, I knew we have to go to see the um detective today but uh do you mind if we eat something first. I'm sure you'd probably want to get changed and shower at your apartment as well. I can't imagine your dress shirt and jeans were very comfortable."
Will nodded as he sat up, his stomach making a small rumbling noise. " That sounds great Rach, how about you go get ready, we can stop and grab some breakfast. Go to my place and I'll get ready and we can go to the station."
Rachel nodded as she walked away, he could feel the nervousness radiating off her and into the air of her living room. "Hey Rach..."
Rachel turned around her right hand near her neck where her star necklace used to hang.
"It's going to be ok, I promise you. Do you trust me?" Will asked as he walked toward Rachel taking her hands in his and staring into her dark eyes.
He could see a sadness cross her eyes, unsureness but as she looked longer into his eyes he finally saw it. Trust. "Yes, of course I trust you. Thank you." Rachel moved forward taking her hands back from his larger ones and instead wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him.
Will wrapped his arms around her small frame careful not to encircle her with any strength since her ribs were very from the day before. Will couldn't help but smell her hair, coconut with a slight floral mix.
Rachel pulled away with a smile and began to make her way to the staircase that lead her to her room.