Note: I'm sorry for taking more time than usual to upload a new chapter. College's activities have begun so maybe now it will take me a few days. I do promise one thing, though: big things coming to the next chapter. Hint: rudebox. Also I'm happy to finally write everyone out of the hospital.
Once again, thanks everyone that's motivating me to continue writing to the story that should've ended 3 chapters ago.
"Don't you think it's time to tell them to go home?", Dr. Spencer's voice was just above a whisper. He watched carefully the three girls who were messily sleeping over each other in the couch. Brittany and Santana fell asleep holding hands. Santana's head was resting over her girlfriend's shoulders, who had let her head fall behind, touching the wall. As for Rachel, she had her head against Brittany's lap, both hands used as a small pillow.
"I've already said so, but they said they won't leave until they hear the news", Judy Fabray was holding her daughter's hand and didn't let it go to look at the girls as well. "I've talked to their parents, they said they could stay."
"They're very dedicated, then", he smiled, his body against the door frame. "Your daughter must be pretty special."
"She is", she smiled back, looking at Quinn again, "She doesn't deserve any of this. She was just accepted in Yale, you know?"
"Really? That's impressive."
"Yes. And I don't think she had told anyone yet, but she was going back to the cheerios", she said, her voice becoming uneven, "And she was determined to win the national championship again."
"I'm really sorry to hear that, Mrs. Fabray", he ran his fingers through his golden hair, "If it helps, I don't believe her condition is permanent."
"You're just saying that so I can feel better", she said, shaking her head.
"No, I'm not. I can't be sure, but she really doesn't seem like she had serious brain damage."
"She can't feel her legs! It sounds pretty serious to me", she said, making a huge effort not to raise her voice.
"Yes, I know. But what probably will happen is that she'll start to feel her legs again with time. Afterwards, small movements should come, until she can stand again and then walk. It's possible."
"You shouldn't give me false hopes, doctor."
"I'll be really sorry if this doesn't happen, but I can assure you that there's a big chance. A small percentage of our patients would wake up from a coma already recognizing voices and speaking their girlfriend's name", he said, trying to sound reassuring. He had seen the results they already had and it looked pretty good.
"What?", Judy glared at him.
"Well, Quinn woke up with Rachel's voice and she called out for her", he had explained that to her already and didn't understand the surprise, "And she reacted very well to all her friends presence earlier."
"I know that, but why would you call Rachel her… girlfriend?", she looked at him with her eyebrows furrowed, a sudden wave of thoughts coming through her mind. She didn't even bother to keep her voice low this time.
Rachel woke up, slowly trying to realize what was going on. She saw Dr. Spencer by the door and Judy by the bed, it seemed like they were talking. She didn't want to intervene so she closed her eyes again.
"Well…", Dr. Spencer suddenly felt a little insecure about what he was saying, "I… simply assumed she was."
"And why would you think that?"
"Uh… She was here everyday, Mrs. Fabray. Singing songs, dropping by flowers and holding her hand….", he sounded just as confused, not sure if the girls had a secret or if there had been a huge misunderstood, "But I'm sorry if I offended you."
"Don't be. You're simply wrong", she smiled, "My baby girl has a lot of guys fighting over her."
"I'm afraid that's not the point", he said, lower this time. He regretted as soon as the words left his mouth and Judy dropped the smiled instantly.
"What?", she said again.
"Nothing. It's none of my business", he replied, looking over at Brittany and Santana's laced fingers. He was sure they could have any boy they wanted as well. "I should go. I'll be back when the MRI results are ready."
She simply nodded and he left the room. She had followed his gaze to the girls she almost considered as her own. But they weren't. She looked Quinn again. She could deal well with the fact that they were dating, but she wasn't so sure she could feel the same way if… If Quinn did the same. Quinn dating a girl was a thought that had never even crossed her mind.
Rachel watched as her face showed the exact emotions she was feeling. She wondered if Quinn knew about how her mom felt about this. She couldn't help but wonder what would happen if she ever really dated Quinn. Judy had seemed to have liked her so much. Would that change?
Dr. Spencer was right. After the results came out, it was clear that the damage done to Quinn was only temporary. After another week, she could already stay awake during hours and even make full movements with the upper part of her body. Rachel couldn't put it into words how amazing it was to feel her hugging her back again. Judy now always gave her a strange look whenever that happened, but she never touched the subject and Rachel surely wouldn't be the one to bring it up.
Specially because she couldn't get Quinn alone since the day she woke up. She had a lot of physiotherapy since then and she needed to rest a lot. Even when she was free to talk, there would always be other people in the room: doctors asking how she felt, always surprised at her fast recovery, Judy being more present then ever, spending her time specially reading her magazines and their friends, who moved their meetings from the café to Quinn's room, never let them. She wasn't particularly bothered by that. She still didn't know exactly what to say or do.
It was her last day at the hospital. It was a particularly good day because Quinn was given this kind of pain medication that should be slowly released in her system for days, so it was pretty strong. The first hours left Quinn be pretty high and neither she nor anyone around her had never gotten so much fun on a Friday without drinking.
"Britt, your ponytail looks like a horn backwards", she suddenly changed the subject (again) when everyone was telling her their Nationals plan.
"I should have ponytails then, because I'm a bicorn", Brittany smiled at her.
"No, Britt, I'm pretty sure you're an unicorn", she said, smiling nodding her head, as if she was telling her big news.
"But Q, I-", she was still smiling, trying not to laugh.
"Shhhh, Britt, it's okay…", she put one of her fingers on her own lips, "You are the unicorn. San told me. YOU ARE THE UNICORN!", she suddenly shouted, like if she was louder it would make more sense. Everyone started laughing because Quinn actually sounded pretty lunatic. "NO, seriously… Britt, can I ride you?"
"No way!", Santana said, still laughing. "You can't ride my girlfriend, Quinn Fabray, it doesn't matter how high you are."
"But… the rainbows are telling me to, San", she shook her head like Santana was getting in the way of her getting to the core of the universe.
"Look lady, John Lennon could be telling you to and I'd still say no."
"But he's dead, San. DO YOU SEE DEAD PEOPLE?", she asked, suddenly looking around. "WHERE?", she sounded scared and Puck had to sit down from laughing because she was looking like she was in a trash version of The Sixth Sense.
"No, Q, I don't", she patted her head, trying to calm her down, "And there are no ghosts in here, okay?"
"But then why Finn is so white?", she said, turning her attentions to Finn, who was smiling in the couch. He smiled broader but didn't say anything. He wasn't feeling so good about his relationship with Rachel and every time he came here it just looked like he was reminded them of that.
"Oh my God, Quinn, you can't just ask people why they're white", Kurt said, changing his tone before the air became thick.
"OH KURT! You are SO. FUNNY", Quinn started laughing hysterically, like this was the best joke there could ever be. Everybody joined her. "Because I'm Karen! That's so funny!", she kept laughing, "No, no! THAT'S SO FETCH!"
"Oh Quinn", Rachel smiled at her, "Please forgive me for this, but I'm filming you right now"
"It's okay my precious little golden star", she said, smiling back. Everyone just stopped and stared at her for a second. "Because I'll be a great actress. My fans", she looked directly at Rachel's iPhone camera, "My dear fans, I love you. Shhh, I know, I know, you love me too."
"I can almost hear the sound of applause", Brittany said as she was trying to concentrate really hard to hear something.
"It's actually the coffee machine working outside", Sam shrugged.
"SAMMY!", Quinn said, as if she had just seen him, "Sammy, you should make gum out of your lips"
"Damn", Santana said, almost snorting, "I should have thought of this one first."
"Check it Trouty, I can handle that!", Sam rapped, making Santana roll her eyes.
"That was a good performance", Quinn said, "My heart's stereo, it beats for you so listen close, oh oh oh oh oh oh ohhhh", she started singing in a very high tune and just started babbling the rest.
"Nailed it", Brittany gave her a high five, "Definitely winning us Nationals."
"So Quinn", Rachel turned her interviewer mode on, "Anything you'd like to say to your future fans?"
"Please start a petition to have Meryl Streep playing me in my upcoming movie", Quinn was staring at the camera again, "Or don't, because I might believe her."
"Good to know she's well enough to watch the Oscars", Sam smiled. There was a lot of smiling going on that day.
"I did! With my mom!", Quinn sounded like she was telling big news, "Everything was beautiful and golden. It reminded me of Rachel", there was a silence that Kurt didn't know how to break this time. Rachel felt like someone had set her heart on fire and couldn't even bother enough to feel the awkwardness in the air, specially when Finn was staring at her from behind. "But I've tried to watch The Artist, but I couldn't hear anything so I gave up."
They all smiled again and proceeded to explain to her that she wasn't supposed to hear the dialogue. It seemed like this was big news as well and the very fast changing subject moved on.
Half an hour later, they had to go. Fortunately, they were still around when Quinn received the news that she could go back to school, even if partially, next week. She was more than excited to hear that, saying that "All this hospital scenario is beginning to give me Grey's Anatomy allergy."
The silence finally hit Rachel on her way home, when she was alone in the car with her boyfriend. It was silence all the way because she had never been so confused in her life. She loved Quinn but she also had this huge love for Finn. She just couldn't figure out if this was romantic or not. The scariest thing, she had thoughts months ago, was admitting to herself that he was the one she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. She was wrong. The scariest thing was admitting to herself that maybe he was not.
"Hey Rach, hold up", he said as she was about to leave the car. She let the door hung open, but did no motion to leave. "What's going on?"
"What do you mean?", she smiled nervously.
"Ever since Quinn's accident, we're not... Finchel, anymore, you know?", he smiled sadly, "We don't hug, we don't kiss, we don't… You know", he made a suggestive face. Yes, she did know what they didn't do. "The few times I've tried, you've always said that you were on your period, but I looked it up on Google and Yahoo Answers said that you only get your period once a month. So what's going on?"
"You had to-", Rachel stopped herself from asking him if he really did have to look it up. But again, if he really had bought it in 4 different weeks she should've guessed. "Finn, it's nothing. I was really worried about Quinn, okay? And it had me thinking a lot about life and, and decisions, and everything else."
"You mean about our wedding?"
"Yes. I mean, yes, I also thought a lot about our wedding. And I think maybe that wasn't such a good idea. Maybe they were right, Finn, maybe we're too young. And I didn't know how to say that to you without hurting your feelings", her voice was soft as she looked at him. She never meant to hurt his feelings, which made everything worse.
"You're hurting them now anyway, because finding out your almost-wife had been hiding this from you hurts a lot too", he said, looking away.
"I'm sorry", she whispered. She didn't know what else to say.
"We're too young for what?", he sounded as frustrated as he felt, looking at her again.
"To get married"
"Why?"
"Because it's a commitment for life, Finn, it's a promise that means something. You're promising forever and how can we know what we want forever… now?", she knew that if they kept this path, she wouldn't have many ways to avoid telling him what she really felt.
"I know I want you. You knew you wanted me. What happened?"
"I don't know", she sighed.
"You don't know what happened or you don't know what you want?", his voice was suddenly hurt again. He didn't even get to the point of getting mad, he was simply hurt.
"I don't know what I want, Finn", she finally let it out, after taking a deep breath.
"Wow", he said, furrowing his eyebrows, "You were planning to tell me this sometime?"
"Yes. Of course I was, don't be silly I still lo-"
"Don't say you love me. You don't know that", he felt tears blurring his vision. He blinked a few times, refusing them to show.
"No, it's not like that, listen-"
"No, Rachel. You listen to yourself. When you know what's going on, you tell me", he said, gathering his rationality together.
"Wait. Are you breaking up with me?", she felt like being slushied. She might not be absolutely in love with him anymore, but being so sure that she had a boyfriend that was there for her, at least most of the time, gave her a very secure feeling. And she wasn't really ready to let this go yet.
"No. You broke up with me."
Rachel stared at him for a few seconds. He looked away, outside his window, refusing to let his eyes meet hers. She was still in shook, but couldn't deny that she had said nothing but the truth. And it wasn't fair to him. So she simply got out of the car, closed the door and whispered "Goodnight". He didn't say anything and drove away.