I made a slight mistake in the last chapter by describing Rachel as "dependent" instead of "dependable." There's a pretty big difference between the two. I'm not sure if anyone caught this, but props to you if you did, and I apologize for this error. Enjoy this chapter!
It had been about a week since Rachel had visited Quinn in the hospital, and it also happened to be the day that Quinn was to return to school.
Rachel was wringing her hands nervously, standing by the school's entrance. It didn't matter that people were looking at her like she was a crazed lunatic, standing in the middle of the entryway, staring intently out the glass doors. She was going to make things right, even if it meant putting her relationship with Finn on the backburner for a while.
Her phone buzzed, and she glanced anxiously at the entrance. No Quinn yet. Calm down, Rachel. She's not going to disappear into thin air.
From: Finn
Hey. Can we talk im sorry bout our fight?
I'm sure you're sorry. Rachel thought. Sorry that you got yelled at and probably won't get to make out with me for a few days. But not sorry enough to spell out 'about.' Not to mention that you sent me a text instead of apologizing in person like a gentleman.
From: Finn
I also make up the breast puns u ever seen!
Rachel actually grimaced at that. "Always the charmer, Finn Hudson," she said to her phone.
"Now what'd Finnessa do?" It was Santana and Brittany, walking through the front door, pinkies linked.
"Oh, well," Rachel sighed. She couldn't believe that she had sunk as low as to vent her relationship problems to Santana, of all people. "He's mad that we called off the wedding. We're also still having issues with our conflicting post-McKinley plans. But I'm sure we'll work it out. We've made it through worse."
"Berry," Santana said with all seriousness. "I'm not sure what that boy's going to have to do for you to see the obvious. Finn's a douche. He cheated on Quinn when she was still pregnant with his baby," Rachel opened her mouth to apologize for that, because God, she was such at awful person. She kissed a guy whose girlfriend was pregnant, and then later on that pregnant girlfriend got paralyzed heading to their wedding. "Rachel, stop. If we went through every bad thing Quinn did, or believe it or not every bad thing I've done, we'd both sound like soulless baby killers too."
This was already turning out to be a weird day. Santana Lopez was comforting her—well, sort of. Rachel didn't feel much better, but it was a well-meaning comment from Santana Lopez. Rachel would take it. "Thank you, Santana."
"Yeah, yeah." Santana rolled her eyes. "Anyway. Finn's gone from girl to girl to girl over and over again in the past few years. Were you surprised when he immediately went after Quinn after breaking up with you? Were you surprised when he broke up with Quinn months after that?" Rachel couldn't even respond to that. "That's what I thought." Santana continued. "Do you want to be married with children with that man and have him cheat on you?"
"No," Rachel mumbled. She had to at least try to defend her finance, though. "But he hasn't done that recently—"
"What do you mean by recently? A year? It hasn't even been that long. And what about your dreams? Those dreams that one short year ago, were still very much alive? Are you going to give all those up for a guy? A guy that hasn't even treated you well over the past few years?" Santana swung her backpack over her shoulder in a sign of finality and added, "I expected much more from the Rachel Berry I knew."
"Are dreams really worth losing true love?" This wasn't rhetorical; it wasn't something Rachel was adding to the debate. It was an actual question that she had been asking herself for months now.
"Rachel, whatever Finchel," Santana wrinkled her nose, "is, it is not true love."
Rachel started to protest, but Santana started up again. "For God's sakes, Rachel. Choose Puck. Choose Jesse. Choose Quinn," Rachel's breath caught on the last name, and she couldn't help but look away. "But don't waste your time with Finn unless you're sure that he's who you want. And right now, it doesn't look like you are." Santana started walking away, but Brittany remained in her same spot.
"Hey, Rachel," Brittany whispered.
"Yes, Brittany?" Rachel asked. By this point she had nearly forgotten her search for Quinn, she was in such deep thought.
Brittany leaned closely as if she was telling a big secret. "I think you should choose Quinn. Quinn thinks so too. I can tell by the way her color changes when you're in the room."
Rachel wasn't sure what to say to this, but regardless she was still touched by Brittany's concern. "Thank you, Brittany. I'll be sure to consider Quinn's—um, color in my decision."
Brittany looked satisfied and walked away to join Santana.
Rachel sighed, and stared at a piece of gum stuck to someone's locker. She would work out her relationship with Finn. Just not right now.
"Hi, Rachel." Rachel looked down. It was Quinn, wheeling towards her with a small smile on her face.
"Quinn!" Rachel said loudly, her face lighting up. She didn't care that people were staring, because guess what? Quinn was alive, and she was back at school and her color changed when Rachel was in the room. "I missed you so much!"
SB-RQ-SB-RQ
Present Time
"Brit," Santana whispered. "You're confused. You're probably just daydreaming again."
"No!" Brittany insisted. "I saw it! A man in dark clothing grabbed her, and at first I thought that he was hugging her, but he wasn't! I could feel her, she was the same color Lord Tubbington is whenever he sees a dog!"
"Maybe Lord Tubbington likes dogs," Santana pointed out, rolling her eyes. It was easier giving Brittany this than questioning anything else that she had said.
"No!" Brittany stood up suddenly, her chair crashing to the floor. By this point she had everyone's attention in the room.
Well that's just great. Abandoning her math test, (she hadn't been doing that well anyway) Santana just focused on trying to calm her girlfriend down. It was rare that Brittany got herself this worked up, even with her vivid imagination. "Britt, calm down. I'm sure Rachel's fine. We would've heard something by now if someone were sneaking around the school kidnapping students." Why would anyone want Rachel, of all people, anyway? As far as Santana knew, her parents weren't rich or anything, plus Rachel was so loud it wouldn't be worth it anyway. She'd drive any kidnappers crazy within a day.
"No," Brittany whispered. Her fists were clenched at her side, and her blue eyes gazed into Santana's desperately. "Please, San. I just know."
Jesus. Santana really needed to get Brittany some sunglasses, because soon she was going to lose her reputation as a badass. "Fine, Britt. We'll go find Rachel." She stood up, handed her unfinished math test to her teacher wordlessly, and followed her girlfriend out the door.
RQ-SB-RQ-SB
Quinn sighed. Why finish her chemistry assignment? It's not like she was going anywhere after high school anyway. She was going to stay in Lima for the rest of her life, unmarried, eating Spaghetti-O's out of the can and playing checkers with her mother every night. And Quinn didn't even like checkers.
"Has anyone seen Rachel?" The plump Ms. Briggs struggled out of her chair, looking around the classroom through her spectacles. "It's not like Ms. Berry to miss—well, ever." Quinn had wondered that too—Rachel was her chem partner, after all. She had just assumed Rachel was off doing something for Mr. Schue, since Nationals was coming up. She didn't offer up this information to the teacher, and instead got back to pretending to work on the chemistry assignment.
"Hey, Ms. Big—" Everyone looked up to see Santana Lopez, standing next to a visibly upset Brittany. Quinn resisted the urge to roll her eyes. What was wrong with Brittany now? It wasn't like she was going to be stuck in a wheelchair for the rest of her life…
The teacher frowned. "Ms. Briggs, Ms. Lopez—"
"Sorry, Ms. Briggs," The lack of sarcasm in her voice caught Quinn's attention. Something must really be wrong for Santana to be trying to be nice to a teacher.
"Well? What do you need?" Ms. Briggs asked, the whole class watching the exchange.
"Coach Sylvester wants to see Quinn. Immediately." What would Coach Sue, or more accurately Santana, want with her? Quinn wasn't stupid; Coach Sylvester rarely pulled cheerios out of class that weren't the head cheerleader. Santana was up to something, and it damn well better be important. Couldn't she see Quinn was in the middle of her chemistry assignment?
Ms. Briggs looked cautiously at Santana, as if waiting for her to explode or shout "JUST KIDDING!" After Santana had passed whatever test the teacher had just put her through, Ms. Briggs nodded in Quinn's direction. "You may go, Ms. Fabray. Just finish the assignment at home."
After wheeling herself out into the hallway, Quinn didn't even bother to check to see if her class was still listening before saying, "What do you want, Santana?"
"Quinn!" Brittany said urgently. "It's Rachel! We can't find her anywhere. Neither Mr. Schue, Finn, or Kurt has seen her and she obviously wasn't in class! She's been kidnapped!"
This was a little unsettling, but Quinn turned to the more reliable source of information before letting herself panic. "Santana?"
"It's true, Q. Brittany had this weird…vision I guess, in math of some guy kidnapping Rachel and we've looked everywhere for her. I think she may be in real trouble."
"Well, what do you want me to do about it?"
Santana rolled her eyes. "Q, you guys are like, tight. I'm surprised you haven't made out yet, but not really because you've really been no fun lately. Although," she pondered, "Berry's really no fun either. So I guess you guys are a perfect match now."
Quinn ignored this last statement. "Well? What are we going to do about it?"
"Well, I guess I could take care of Finncompetent and you could hire a choir and declare your love for her—"
She gritted her teeth. "Not that," she hissed. "What are we going to do about Rachel?"
"I thought we just established that you need to get your lady balls together—"
"Santana!" This time the brunette was interrupted by her girlfriend. "This is not a joking matter! Rachel needs our help."
Santana sighed. "You're right. Sorry, Brittany."
"So?" Quinn continued. "Do we go to the police?"
"The police!" Santana scoffed. "The Lima Police are awful. I should know. My uncle's on the force."
"So what exactly do you plan on doing?" Quinn was starting to get frustrated by the lack of answers, and if it hadn't been Rachel in trouble, she would have seriously considered turning around and going right back to chemistry.
"I can see her trail." Both girls turned in Brittany's direction.
"You can see it?" Quinn asked.
"Yep. Right there," Brittany pointed to an invisible trail leading down the hallway and out the south doors. "She's golden like both of you, but her golden is more golden-y pink. Santana's more of a red golden, and Quinn's is sort of an aquamarine—"
"Britt, I really appreciate the effort, but I don't think imaginary pink trails are going to help us find Rachel," Quinn told Brittany. She didn't want to hurt her friend's feelings, but seriously. This was getting them nowhere.
Santana narrowed her eyes. "Listen here, Q. I get that your legs are worthless now and your secret lover has been kidnapped. That does not give you an excuse to mock my girlfriend who is just trying to help. And if that means seeing magical pink trails—"
"You're both wrong," Brittany interrupted.
"About what, Britt?"
"The trail is golden. With a little pink. And it's not magical, I can see it right there."
"Honey," Santana looked cautiously at her girlfriend. "Quinn and I are having a little trouble seeing Rachel's trail. Could you tell us how you're seeing it?"
Brittany shrugged. "It's like how I saw that Rachel was scared when the big man hugged her."
Santana turned to Quinn, smirking. "That's right. I almost forgot that Brittany here was the one who saw the Hobbit getting taken. That proves that we should follow Britt."
Quinn sighed. All this bickering was getting them nowhere, and for all she knew, Rachel was getting farther and farther away. At least this was a place to start. "Okay, Britt. We'll follow your lead."
SB-RQ-SB-RQ
They had been wandering through town for nearly an hour, which was no easy task considering Quinn's chair, and even Santana was starting to doubt her girlfriend's "gift." Not that she was giving Quinn the satisfaction of knowing this, because Santana had been defending Brittany for nearly forty minutes now. Still, if Berry really was in serious trouble, now was not the time to be killing precious time by humoring her (cute, but still a bit on the dull side) girlfriend.
"Britt, maybe we should talk to the police now. I'm not sure the trail is working anymore."
Brittany glanced back at Santana, who was currently struggling to push Quinn's wheelchair up a very steep sidewalk. "Yes it is. It's still bright too, which means she was here just a little while ago."
Thank God Quinn is letting me handle this. Santana thought. The last thing she wanted right now was to upset Brittany further. A pissed-off Quinn wouldn't do much good either. "Brittany, what I'm trying to say is that maybe," Santana paused, trying to choose a tactic. "maybe the bad guys are too fast for us. We need to go find the police, because their cars are really fast. Remember when Lord Tubbington got stuck in a tree?"
Brittany stopped right in her tracks, and Santana had to really dig her heels in to stop the wheelchair from careening right into her. "Britt," Santana gritted her teeth, struggling to hold the wheelchair still on the steep path.
"Santana, Quinn, someone is coming to help us! It'll all be okay!" Brittany sounded so sure of this that Santana almost didn't want to burst her bubble.
"Brittany, how do you know this?" Quinn obviously didn't care about bursting Brittany's bubble. Still, Santana didn't hold it against her; it was her girlfriend that was missing.
"I can see them coming! Don't worry guys, they're friends, trust me. They're like, our cousins or something!"
"Cousins?" Santana wasn't too sure about what was happening, but she sure as hell didn't like the sound of it.
"Look, guys! They're they are!" Brittany turned around with the biggest smile, nearly squealing in childish delight and Santana forced herself to look at what Britt was pointing out. A large black car with tinted windows was approaching quickly, and it slowed down as it approached the three girls.
Santana may have been from Lima Heights Adjacent, but she still found herself panicking. Okay, Quinn was pretty useless in this situation. In fact, she was more than useless. Santana was struggling just to keep Quinn from taking a one-way ticket down the hill to death. And since Britt was convinced that these guys were her cousins or something, that crossed her off the list too. That left Santana—as badass as she was—to fend off however many cousins were in the car by herself, with two other girls to protect.
Their chances were not looking good. The car full on stopped next to the threesome, leaving Santana about three seconds (possibly less) to get them the hell out of there.
"Britt," she said urgently, "I need you to get on Quinn's lap, and I'll hang on to the back, and then once we get to the bottom we'll make a run for that gas station back there—"
"Santana," Brittany looked at her like she was a class-a dumbass. "These are our friends."
Santana was still trying to get Britt to get on the freaking wheelchair when the tinted window of the car rolled down and Santana nearly gasped when she saw the familiar face. She really did gasp when she saw the second face, and Quinn did too—but Brittany stood there grinning. "I told you guys! See—cousins!" And although Santana wouldn't call them cousins, well, she definitely wasn't as afraid of them as had been moments before.
"Why don't you three get in the car, and we'll have a little talk about how to save your friend."
And another chapter done! Thank you all for your lovely reviews and story alerts. I might even update again later this week, since I'll be on vacation next week and unable to update. This was a sort of a filler chapter, but I ended up liking all the Fabrittana scenes. Surly Quinn and Insightful Brittany are always fun to write, and Santana is so funny that she needed no improvement. Anyway, PLEASE leave a review. It means so much to me, even if it's something like "PLZ UPDATE" or "SHORT CHAP NEED MORE!" Even (constructive) criticism is nice to receive. Please leave your thoughts they make me update faster!
PS-Expect some actual answers next chapter! I was going to include them in this one but this chapter is already much longer than I usually write, and so they ended up getting postponed. Also coming up, hopefully next chapter is Rachel's point of view in captivity.