Author's Note: Just want to say thanks to everyone for reading! I super glad you are enjoying this!

Please note, I am not a doctor or have any medical training or knowledge whatsoever. I also failed Anatomy in college, so please don't criticize my medical jargon.

Also, I do not own Glee…although, Ryan Murphy should take notes from some of the amazing P/R stories on FF

Chapter 9 – Surprise

Rachel woke up to hushed voices. Her eyelids were heavy, tempting her to close them to go back to sleep. She listened to whomever was speaking making sure not to alert anyone that she was awake.

The first voice she recognized to be Finn.

"Jacob's claiming it was all Lauren's idea. He claims he would never hurt Rachel or do anything to make her sad."

Puck snorted, "Yeah right. You know he's been planning this. He just needed to some muscle to help carry it out."

"That's the most logical theory. I think they are going to attempt a plea deal with Zizes. Get her to confess that the idea was his. She would get off on assault and battery, no kidnapping charges."

"You should have seen his room, dude. Pictures, articles, playbills. I don't even want to know what he had on his computer."

"Let's just hope he learns something from all this," the voices seemed to get louder and Rachel closed her eyes so they thought she was still asleep, "She hasn't woken up yet, huh?"

"Yeah, I hate her like this. I miss my Rachel. Full of energy and spunk," her heart leapt yet broke at these words. Maybe it was time for her to 'wake up.'

"Water?" she choked. She opened her eyes to see Puck quickly fill a plastic cup and hand it to her.

"How ya feeling?" he asked as he brushed her forehead and then cheek softly.

She leaned into his touch and smiled, "Sore, but not bad."

At that moment there was a knock, "Miss Berry," a man who seemed to be in his late thirties entered the room, "I'm Dr. Bryan Ryan, I performed your surgery."

"Oh, yes! Hello Doctor," she attempted to move her hand to shake his, but winced in pain, "Oops," she said meekly.

"Don't worry about it. My partner is a big fan of yours. He will be jealous just knowing I was in the same room with you."

"Also the fact that you operated on her for two hours," joked Puck.

The doctor looked at Puck and laughed, "He says it doesn't count when they are unconscious."

"He makes a good point," laughed Rachel, "But please make sure I give you my autograph for him before I leave."

"That would be wonderful Miss Berry. Now, your surgery went wonderfully and luckily, the glass didn't hit to deep. But there were some muscle tears and she hit a pretty big artery. You lost a good amount of blood. The cuts on your stomach are thankfully not too severe as well. "

"I'm sorry, did you say cuts on my stomach?"

Rachel noticed the looks that Puck and Finn shared and then the doctor spoke again, "Yes, they are dressed with bandages right now, but you may see them if you would like."

Rachel looked to Puck, "Is it bad?"

He seemed to struggle with what to say. He took a seat next to her and put his hand over hers, "You're gonna freak out. But, with time, the scar can go away."

"But he said there were multiple," Rachel was confused, "Why wouldn't I want all of them to go away?"

"Why don't we just have a look, alright?" said Dr. Ryan.

Rachel nodded cautiously. She pulled the blankets to just above her pelvis and hiked her dressing gown to below her breasts. She had several pieces of gauze taped on her stomach, one larger than the others. The doctor proceeded to remove the smaller one's first. They weren't terribly large but she still felt the tears in her eyes.

When he reached for the last bandage, the largest she stopped him, "Wait, can…can I do it?"

Rachel could feel the tension rolling off of Puck and the look on Finn's face wasn't any better. She took in a deep breath letting it out slowly as she tore softly on the tape. Pulling up slowly, she saw what was making the guys so intense.

The tears fell instantly and Puck instantly wrapped her into his arms, "I'm so sorry," Rachel turned into him, sobbing into his chest. She couldn't look at her stomach. When would she be able to again?

All she would see is the letter 'J' branded to her skin.

"This is my fault Rachel. Please, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have taken that shower, than this wo-"

He was cut off by Rachel kissing him, and pulling back, "Stop it," she whispered, "Don't blame yourself, please don't."

"But-"

"No," she said louder, "Jacob and Lauren are sick individuals who obviously need mental help. I could very well blame myself for not looking in the peep hole. I was just so hungry and my mind was on, well," she stopped and lowered her voice, "I was going to come join you after the food came. So I was in a bit of a hurry to get the food before you got out."

Puck grinned, "You were?"

Rachel smiled and kissed him harder. A clearing of the throat alerted them back to the other two men in the room.

"I'm sorry to interrupt," the Doctor ignored the small glare from Puck, "We will need to keep you a few more days to see how everything heals. You will need a few weeks of physical therapy to get your shoulder back into shape. This," he held up a white tube of medication, "is for the scars. Apply it three times a day and change the gauze each time as well."

"Thank you," she smiled.

Quinn suddenly appeared in the room in her scrubs, "Rachel! You're finally awake!" she made her way to Rachel's bed and hugged her, "I tried to get out of work, but they were short staffed."

"It's okay Quinn, I'm fine."

Quinn smiled at her with tears in her eyes. They moved over her stomach and she gasped. Rachel covered it back up, "Let's just hope it goes away quickly."

"Maybe you can look at it like, J for Jewish," spoke Finn.

The others laughed lightly at his attempt to make a joke.

"Or, J for joyful," suggested Quinn.

Rachel gave Quinn a small grimace, "Quinn, I know that it was Jacob that did this but, I can't help but think of well," she didn't want to say it. She didn't need to.

Jesse

The blonde nodded and kissed Rachel on her head, "It will go away. Even if I need to apply the ointment myself, I promise it will. I'm just so glad you're gonna be okay."

(~*~*~*~*~)

Rachel was able to return home a week later. Puck and Finn had returned to their normal patrol, so Quinn was able to take the day off to help.

Rachel was putting some clothes away when she heard a knock on the door, "I'll get it," shouted Quinn.

Rachel could hear two new female voices, "Rachel, the physical therapist is here."

When she made it to the living room she saw there were in fact two females. One a gorgeous Latina dressed in khaki pants and a polo. The other, a tall blonde who was also very beautiful.

"Hello, I'm Rachel Berry," she put her hand out which the Latina girl took quickly, Santana Lopez and I hope you don't mind but I brought my girlfriend along. We are going out to dinner after this so she just tagged along."

Rachel didn't hear anything past the woman's name, "I'm sorry, did you say your name was Santana?"

The girl seemed a bit annoyed but smiled, "Yes and this is Brittany."

Quinn was looking at Rachel curiously, "Is something wrong Rachel?"

"Do you know Sam Evans?" Rachel blurted out.

The blonde gasped while the Latina just looked at Rachel like she was about to cut her, "Yeah, why?"

"Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry, I really don't mean to be rude it's just, well. Quinn here is Finn's girlfriend and I'm dating Noah…Puck."

The blonde clapped excitedly, "That's so awesome!" she pulled a shocked Quinn into a hug, "You are so lucky, Finn is such a nice guy! He was my first kiss!"

"You've got to be shitting me," Santana seemed to be speaking to herself, then she looked up at Rachel, "They told you about me and Sam?"

"Well, it's all a very, very long story."

Okay, don't throw anything at me! I know this chapter is super short, but I've been pretty busy. My two year old has been the definition of 'terrible two' lately.

How about bringing in San and Brit? I love writing them, especially Santana.

Let me know if you liked the chapter!