Omigosh I didn't think anyone would actually read this! So.. Shelby's not adopting Beth in this =p And also, I actually got this injury, the same way Rachel did.=p
Disclaimer: I don't own glee. If I did, Rachel would be with Puck, and Shelby would be in every episode.
After checking in, someone had found Rachel a wheelchair, and they were now sitting in the lobby, filling out various forms. Rachel hadn't spoken in awhile, and it was beginning to concern her. Shelby capped her pen, and flipped over the paper before looking over to where her normally talkative daughter was currently staring at the typically horrendous hospital art.
"How's it feeling?" She asked tentatively. I'm a horrible mother. Shelby thought to herself. She couldn't understand her own daughter. Rachel looked up, big brown eyes red and bloodshot. "Not to bad." She broke off to silence and cast a look at the pile of forms her mother had just finished. "How did you know all that?" She gestured to the papers. "I mean, you didn't even have to ask me any questions." Shelby ran a hand through her hair, trying to figure out a suitable answer. In reality, she had spent hours Googling and listening, trying to find any fact about her daughter. She actually knew quite a lot about her, but none of the important stuff, like what her favorite ice cream was or what made her laugh. She decided to keep it simple.
"Curiosity." She answered with a shrug. Rachel gave her a funny look, but let the matter go. The pair fell into comfortable silence.
"Berry, Rachel?" The doctor, a man with black hair and glasses looked around the waiting room expectantly. Shelby hurriedly picked up her purse and Rachel's shoes, before following the man through a heavy oak door. He led them down a tan tiled hallway and into a blue room, number 143, before saying someone would be with them shortly. In the silence, Shelby awkwardly tried to start a conversation. "I thought you should have placed at sectionals. I was actually worried you'd beaten us for a little there." To Shelby's surprise, Rachel actually smiled. Feeling slightly more confident, she continued. "You did very well. I was proud." At this, her daughter turned to look at her. For a second, Shelby thought she'd offended her. "I've always wanted to hear you say that." Rachel said simply.
There was an abrupt knock on the door, running the moment. Both hurriedly turned to look at the same doctor who'd led them here. He smiled cheerfully at them, opening his mysterious doctor's folder of papers. "I'm Dr. Goldman, how'd you hurt your knee little lady?" Shelby stifled a giggle at how Rachel wrinkled her nose at being called little lady. Rachel explained her story, and the doctor nodded along, before telling her to scoot back on the bed. The doctor turned to her, and bobbed his head. "Mom, you might want to go by her." Shelby felt her stomach do the happy flip at being known as Rachel's mother, and moved her chair up to where Rachel was sitting. The doctor gently began to push on the inside of Rachel's leg, moving up to the knee. When he got there, Rachel gasped and slammed her eyes shut. Without thinking, Shelby grabbed her hand and gently squeezed. Rachel opened her eyes enough to give her a grateful look, before slamming them shut again and squeezing her hand when the doctor pressed again. He let up. "So there's some pain in the knee." He made a note on his clipboard. Shelby looked at him incredulously. Obviously there was pain in the knee, and he was causing it. She felt some unprecedented animosity towards him. He looked up toward her daughter.
"Okay, I'm going to bend your knee, and feel the joint." Shelby could see Rachel swallow before she nodded. She began to trace circles on her daughter's hand, as Dr. Goldman moved it up ward, and began to push. He wrote something on his clipboard before moving it back down straight. Shelby looked at her daughter proudly. There were tears in Rachel's eyes, but she smiled back at Shelby. Dr. Goldman sat down in a rolling chair, and wheeled over to them. He looked in between Rachel and Shelby. "Okay, so here's the deal." Almost imperceptibly, Rachel squeezed Shelby's hand. She returned it. "There is noticeable looseness in Rachel's knee, and considerable pain on the inside. This means that you've torn your Medial Collateral Ligament, or MCL. I want to do an MRI to see how badly, but I'm going to guess it's probably a Grade two." Shelby shook her head. "So what does that mean?" She asked for clarification. The doctor stood up, resting his hand on the metal door handle. "Well, the worst case scenario is that you need to completely rest it for three to four weeks, and then work back up to your regular dance schedule." Rachel looked horrified at the thought, something that the doctor seemed to notice. "But that's just worst case. I'm going to be back in about fifteen or twenty minutes to take you to get an MRI." The doctor nodded at both of them and walked out of the room. It took about one minute of silence before Rachel burst into tears.
Shelby wasn't entirely sure what she was doing, but before she knew it, she was sitting right next to her daughter, hugging her and rubbing gentle circles on her back. Surprisingly, Rachel didn't pull away; she just fell into her mom's arms and started crying. "Shh, baby it'll be okay. You'll be fine." Shelby comforted, feeling something weird. She would rather be hurt than have Rachel cry like this. Is this what it's like to be a mother? She thought to herself. It's not bad. She amended in her mind. Rachel's sobs began to slow down, but she didn't move from her mother's arms. "I'm scared Mom." She said slowly. Shelby hugged her daughter and kissed the top of her head, wondering the whole time where the hell this mothering instinct had come from. "Don't be scared, you're going to be okay." She assured her. Rachel had stopped crying, but was going in to typical diva overdrive mode. "Mom, what if I can never dance again? I have a recital in a few weeks! What if I can never be on Broadway because of this? What if I can't even walk? Oh my gosh, this is horrible, my life is over!" Shelby smiled to herself. "You're just as big a drama queen as me." She said quietly, before beginning to reassure her daughter. "Your life is not over, and you will definitely be able to dance and walk again. Just take a deep breath. The doctor hasn't even told you how long you will be out yet. It will all be okay, Rach." Rachel took a deep shuddering breath and slowly sat up. Shelby watched her take a deep breath and put on a brave face. There was a beat of silence before she smiled slightly. "Are you really as big of a drama queen as me?"
Shelby laughed and nodded. "Maybe more. I can remember this one time when I was in high school, my hairdresser had cut off an inch more than I wanted off my hair. It wasn't even noticeable. I totally flipped, and locked my self in my room, saying how my life was ruined and I may as well be bald. I threw this huge fit about not being able to go to school the next day, and when I got there no one even noticed. It was horribly depressing." Rachel was laughing at her, and Shelby couldn't help but smile. There was another beat of comfortable silence before Rachel looked at her mom. "That doctor was totally checking you out."
Shelby blushed red, and was about to argue this point, when the door opened again with a wheelchair to take Rachel to the MRI room and a doctor who was obviously looking south of her face. Rachel was giggling and Shelby uncharacteristically stuck her tongue out at her. The group went up two floors and down several hallways, before going in to a room with a huge white tube and a table by it. Rachel listened to instructions and sat on the table, only her legs in the machine. Shelby stood outside the room, watching without sound. The machine did one scan, but then the doctors came together with confused expressions on their faces. They talked and then went over to Rachel. The said something, and her face drained of color and she started rapidly shaking her head. Finally she said something, and one of the doctors walked over through the door to where Shelby was standing, with increasing panic. "She'd like to speak with you." The doctor, a lady this time said, holding open the door. Shelby hurried through the door and walked over to Rachel who was now sitting alone, the doctors off in the other direction. "What's wrong, Rach?" She asked, trying to hide the nervous note in her voice.
Rachel shook her head. "They can't see it well enough. They want to give me a shot." She sounded appalled at the very suggestion. Rachel looked up at her mom. "This also might be a good time to mention that I'm exceedingly frightened of needles." Shelby sat down next to her and sighed. "I am too. But if you just try to close your eyes and focus on something else, then the doctors can help you." Rachel gave her a dubious look." I promise." Shelby offered up. The female doctor from before approached with the injection. Rachel grabbed Shelby's hand, and her mother could hear her breathing increase. The nurse cleaned the area for the shot, the vein by her knee, and when the needle hit skin, Rachel began to hyperventilate. Shelby began to talk to her, with a note of urgency in her voice. She knew what it was like to have your blood pressure drop and faint, just because of a little needle. "Rachel sweetheart, I need you to calm down." Rachel gave no response, or even an indication that she had heard, and kept breathing faster.
Shelby tried again with no response. Using her last resort, Shelby tried to sing to her. It always helped when she was getting shots. Shelby picked up in the middle of a random song. "If this is the moment, I stand here on my own. If this is my rite of passage that somehow leads me home. I might be afraid, but it's my turn to be brave." Shelby looked up at Rachel. She had her eyes clenched shut, but her breathing was slowly slowing down. The doctor looked at her and shrugged. "It's working." She smiled, and grabbed some more lyrics. "All along all I ever wanted, was to be the light, when your life was daunting. But I can't see mine when I feel as though you're pushing me away." She continued. Rachel's breathing continued to slow, even if she still looked like someone was going to punch her in the face. "Well who's to blame, are we making the right choices? Cause we can't be sure if we're hearing our own voices. As we close the door even though we are so desperate to stay." Shelby stopped singing and gave Rachel a little hug. "See? You did it." Rachel smiled a little and put her leg in the machine, and looked over to the doctors. "Can we please continue? I do not want to spend my entire night in this room." She asked, and Shelby smiled as she walked outside the room. It didn't take long after that until they were escorted back to their room to wait for a prognosis. A thought hit Shelby and she swore under her breath.
"Shit Rachel! You need to call your dads!" She scrambled in her purse for her cell phone, handing to it her daughter. Rachel began to dial, and as she held the phone up to her ear, tapping her fingers while waiting for her Dad to answer. Shelby felt momentarily jealous when she saw the look of happiness when her dad answered. Unable to help herself, she listened in on the one-sided conversation between her daughter and one of her fathers. "Hi Daddy… Well, kind of. I'm actually at the hospital… No daddy! Relax. I just landed unfavorably at dance and manage to injure myself… No daddy, I can handle it…. Mom's here with me." Shelby smiled at the frustrated faces Rachel made while talking on the phone. Everything that girl did was theatrical. "She's wonderful…I'm not sure.. No, Daddy, Noah will not be over!..I'll talk to you later okay?.. I'm Fine Daddy, relax!...Love you too. Bye." She hung up, and handed the phone back to Shelby. "My fathers refuse to believe that I'm in perfectly capable care." Shelby smiled at this compliment, and picked up on one thing in the conversation. "Who's Noah?" She asked.
Rachel blushed a little and looked like she was about to elaborate until they were again interrupted by the Dr. Goldman, this time he was carrying a brace and a pair of crutches. Rachel's face fell when she saw this. He set the items down and sat down himself to talk to them. "Okay Rachel. You did indeed tear your MCL, but it's not horribly bad. I'm going to write you a prescription for pain medication, and I want you to listen to this next part carefully. For the next five days, don't put any weight on it." Shelby had taken out a notepad and was dutifully taking notes. "Use the crutches when you walk, and try and take baths instead of showers. After that, you can put some weight on it, but still use the crutches for things like school. After ten days from today, you are free to stop using the crutches, but I want you to keep the brace on for four more days. If the pain stops, you can feel free to stop using it after that."
Rachel took note of all these instructions, and looked to see if the doctor was finished. "When can I dance again?" She asked Dr. Goldman. He began scribbling on his prescription pad while answering. "I'd say about three weeks, but come back slowly, or you'll hurt yourself again." Rachel nodded, and the doctor handed Shelby the prescription. Her knee brace was attached, and a very unhappy Rachel limped with her Mom out the door, and back to her car.
Rachel sat in the front seat this time, still wearing a leotard. Shelby started the car, and pulled away. In the silence that followed, Shelby looked over at Rachel, whose face was illuminated by her cell phone screen. "Rachel, I'm going to be frank." She said in a voice sounding very much like her special 'Coach Corcoran' voice. Rachel looked up, seeming almost afraid. Shelby looked back to the road. "I don't want you to be alone while your injured. So, " Shelby took a deep breath. She was taking a big leap here. "Do you want to stay at my place, or do you want me to stay at yours?" To Shelby's surprise, Rachel actually smiled. "You can stay at mine." She smiled as she pulled into the Walgreens drive thru pharmacy.
"So Rachel.. Who's Noah?" Shelby smiled mischievously, and Rachel burst into giggles.
-So… I dunno.