AN: This is the last main chapter of this part of the story. My goal is to express the processes and the shock of a tradegy such as this and I feel I have done so and would feel fine leaving the story as it is. I have written stuff that continues on with the healing and moving on parts. It is a strong Pezberry friendship and continues directly after the end. Let me know what you think.

Disclaimer: I don't own it.. If I did, Shelby would be there forever and they would NEVER graduate. But I don't and they will... ))

The next couple of days were a real blur. The school let us miss the last five days of the school year. I spent most of it in my room unable to bring myself to deal with the horrible guilt I felt. All these what if's playing around in my head over and over again.

What if I just talked to her a little more? Would I have been able to tell something was wrong with her? If I had just took the moment to stop thinking about my need to escape the lightening… I should have at the very least set myself up and took a moment to try and see the lightening the way Brittany did. We had the moment to share something together and I blew it.

Day three I sit on my bed staring at the floor. My dads said that we were going to the Peirce's house to express our condolences toward them. It was only right. I needed to do that and I wasn't getting out of it. To not show up would be rude.

"It's time to go, Rachel…" Daddy said, softly but firmly from the hallway.

I stood up and fallowed my dads downstairs and into the car.

I looked at the sky for a moment. For the first time in weeks there were clear blue skies. There wasn't a single cloud in the sky as far as the eye could see. It was warmer, but I still couldn't get the chill out of my bones that had been there for over 72 hours. Back when this weird nightmare started.

I imagined that Brittany was up there in Heaven, convincing God that today of all days it needed to be a clear day. People were coming to her parents' home and they didn't need all that mud being tracked through the house. At least that was the excuse my brain made up. Knowing Brittany she would say something about the fact that if it was clear then butterflies would take messages to the mice in the basement to take out the trash or something equally absurd.

We entered the Peirce home and I made sure to wipe my shoes really well, just in case.

I fallowed behind my dad as they hugged both of Brittany's parents and expressed how sorry they were.

Without meaning to do it, I glared at them. Maybe they were sorry, but everyone knew that our parents were thinking the same thing. We're just happy it was your child and not ours.

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. That wasn't the way to think. My dad's weren't like that. At least that's not how they taught me to be.

"Rachel…" Mrs. Peirce said, softly. She wrapped me into a tight hug. "How are you, doing?"

I looked at Mrs. Peirce a little in shock. Why would she care about how I was feeling? I was just a semi-friend of Brittany's… Brittany was her daughter.

"Lost…" I answered honestly. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

It was a lame reply, but my brain refused to work for me at the moment.

"There is actually." Mrs. Peirce said. "I would enjoy it if you would come and talk to me alone for a minute. Do you mind, Leroy?"

"No of course not… I'm sure Rachel could use it."

Dad gave me a gentle push toward Mrs. Peirce. I fallowed Brittany's mother into a large office looking room. I sit in a large chair next to a desk.

"I'm taking all of Brittany's friends aside and talking to them. I hope you don't mind."

"No, Ma'am…" I replied.

I looked at my hands. "I'm not sure if I can provide much help, Mrs. Peirce. Brittany and I were never all that close."

"Call me Susan… Mrs. Peirce is my mother-in-law." Susan sat in the chair across from me. "And… I think you would be surprised on how much Brittany thought of you…"

I looked up as Susan handed me an envelope with my name on it. "I've been looking through some of Brittany's diaries the last few days… For some reason, I felt like I needed to type these up and give them too each of her friends that she mentioned. It has helped to put some… Sense to her nonsense, I'm sure you know what I mean?"

I smiled my first real smile in nearly four days. "Yes. I think I know what you're referring to."

"I asked your dads to bring you over because there is something else I wanted to talk to you about."

Suddenly my daddy's telling me I had to come here today made a little more sense than it had. Susan had asked me to show up and talk to her.

"You were the last one to actually talk to Brittany… If you don't mind, I would love it if you can tell me what those last moments were like? Was she happy?"

I nodded. "Oh yes! I think she was." I answered, eagerly.

I told Susan about our last conversation word for word. The whole thing had played many times over and over in my head. I had analyzed every word, sentence… Everything. For the most part I wanted to make sure and see if there was anything that could have clued me into the events that were about to unfold. Another, more important reason was the fact I didn't want to forget any second of it. As I relayed the story to Susan I could slowly feel my bones start to warm up, slowly the cold ebbed away. It didn't go away fully, but the cold weight on them started to lift little by little.

"Rachel." Susan said softly, putting a hand on my knee. "You know how much Brittany loved dancing?"

"Of course. She was the best dancer I ever knew. I just wish I had half the talent as she did."

"Well… When someone she looked up too, like she did you, tells her that she was the best of the best… I would like to think that made her happier than anything else you could have said. Don't you?"

"Brittany looked up to me?" I asked.

"Yes. She said you had the best voice she ever heard. She liked the songs you sang better than all the other's out there. I think she called you a short loud Jewish little angel. With a voice like yours you had to be an angel of some kind."

"Thank you…" I replied, crying again.

"No… Thank you. You made her last moments happy, that's all I could ever ask for." Susan paused. "Do you want to know what happened, why Brittany died?"

"Is that something for me to know?" I asked. Of course I was curious. But that seemed like information that would be privet.

"It's called a Duret Haemomorrage. A blood vessel burst open in her brainstem. If she was awake she might have had a headache for a few seconds then she lost consciousness. There was nothing you or anyone could have done. The doctors said she was gone before she had time to realize she was in pain."

"What caused it?" I asked.

"It could have been something she was born with. Maybe she hit her head riding those silly motorcycles or while she was dancing. There's no way to know."

I just nodded.

Susan squeezed my knee. "Don't blame yourself. There was no way you could have done anything. No one could have. Alright?"

Again all I could do is nod.

Susan released my knee and sit back. "Now… Have you thought about what songs you and your friends would like to sing at the funeral?"

"I'm sorry but I don't think any of us would be up for preforming…" I started.

"Nonsense, Rachel. This is to celebrate her life. It wouldn't be the same if you didn't sing something."

"I'll think about it." I whispered.

Susan stood up. "Good, I expect nothing but the best."

I stood up as well. "Susan? How are you handling this so calmly?"

Susan thought for a moment. "Honestly? I'm not… I will soon. After everything calms down. Right now I just can't think about everything. I just have to keep on moving."

I fallowed Susan out of the room. We stayed for a little while longer and went home.

At first there was no way that I was going to sing anything at that funeral. Then after calming down, there was no way I couldn't. Brittany would expect nothing less.

Now… I just had to go through my extensive music library to find the perfect song. When that didn't happen, I did a lyrics search for "Goodbye" and "Friend."

I clicked on the first song that came up. A song from 1998 by the group Spice Girls called, "Goodbye My Friend." I listened to the words closely they seemed to fit.

Just then I got a text message from Quinn.

"Brit's mom wants a song if you're in my house at 4" The message said.

I was at Quinn's house at 3:55. We decided that the boys would do their own songs and we girls would do ours.

Several song ideas were tossed around before I decided to open my mouth. I found the Spice Girl's song easily on YouTube. The girls listened to it and after it was done, no one said a word for a good long time. I assumed that no one liked it so I shut the laptop.

"I think it fits…" Tina said softly, looking around the room. There were nods among the girls.

There was only one person who was against it.

"No… We do that song. But then we do it Brit's way." Santana said. "The only way Brit would have it. She wouldn't want this sappy shit. We do this fully Brittany style."

Santana opened the laptop, looked for a moment or two. We all sit listening to the second song.

"Is that appropriate?" Quinn asked, once the song was finished.

"Who gives a shit?" Santana said. "It's Brittany. What about her was ever appropriate?"

Even I had to admit that Santana was right on that part. We spent the rest of the afternoon and all of the next day working on the two songs we were going to sing for Brittany. By the time Monday rolled around, we were as ready as we ever could be given the situation.

The church was literally packed as full as it could have been. So many people had been touched by Brittany. Family, Friends, people I didn't recognize. I had expected Mr. Shue to come, but I hadn't expected Coach Sylvester to show up. The fearsome cheerleading coach didn't look so scary anymore. She looked as sad and upset that such a wonderful person was gone as we were.

The boys sang their song, The Dance by Garth Brooks. It was sad, but fit and the boys did well at it. Then it was our turn and we stood at the front of the church.

This time, Santana was our leader. We put her in full control over the whole thing.

"Um…" She said, standing in front of the overly packed church. "We actually decided that there would be two songs. The second one… We know the second song will shock some of ya'll… But we decided that this was more for Brits than anything. It was her favorite song. So… Yeah… If your offended, sorry or whatever."

I looked at Quinn, who looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

The first song went off without a hitch. We had worked out all the problems. The second one, we had to sneak into the church to make sure we knew exactly how much room we had to do some of the chorography we added to the second song at the last moment.

We even took the extra steps to make sure our skirts matched as well as the blouses even though they were different colors. Of all the shows we were going to ever preform… I doubt that the one song we did for Brittany was ever going to be more important. It HAD to be perfect down to the movements. This time, it was more than just a performance, we were saying goodbye to our friend. Word could never express how much was riding on just this one song.

For all of us.

Santana nodded to the person in the back of the room who controlled the music.

The music started and Santana's clear calm voice filled the church.

"Made a wrong turn, once or twice. Dug my way out, blood and fire. Bad decision, that's alright. Welcome to my silly life…"

Up until that part the rest of us hung our heads and stayed still. Then started the carefully rehearsed arm movements as the music became livelier.

Quinn and I split the second verse. Santana came back and did the rapping part. Mercedes took over the last part of the chorus where the original artist, Pink, belts out the most important parts. It ended with us standing still once more and Santana singing the very last line.

We stood there for a few seconds after the song ended. Personally, I was waiting for God to strike me down for dropping several F-bombs in his holy place.

Then I heard a clap and dared to look up. Susan was standing in the front pew along with Mr. Peirce.

"Thank you! That is exactly what I wanted." I heard Susan say to Santana, hugging her tightly. Susan hugged and kissed each one of us, thanking each one of us.

Susan got back to Santana. Santana shook her head put her hands up in front of her.

"I'm sorry… I can't deal with this." Santana took off out of the front door of the church.

I went to chase after her and Quinn grabbed my arm. "Let her…"

I listened to Quinn and met up with my fathers.

"Interesting song choice." Daddy commented.

"How much trouble am I in?" I asked, solemnly.

"Did you think that was a right song?"

"For a church, no… For Brittany, there wasn't a better one. At least not one that I could come up with."

"We can't punish you for that then." Dad said.

I didn't reply because I spotted Santana walking slowly down the street. "Daddy, can you pull over please?"

Daddy did as I asked. I exited the car and poked my head back in. "I'm going to walk from here."

My dads nodded and I shut the car door.

"Santana!" I called out. I ran to catch up to her.

Santana stopped for a second, looked at me then started walking again.

"Please, just go away…" Santana said softly. I had never seen the girl so broken and sad.

"I can't do that…" I said, walking along side of her. "You shouldn't be alone, either."

Santana looked at me then shook her head. "Don't talk then. The last thing I want to hear is your voice."

I nodded. Instead of talking I just circled my arm into hers, linking our elbows. Together we walked back to Santana's house.

(AN2: Remember read and review. Tell me if you think I should write abount what happens next.)