So, here's the next chapter. Sorry it's been a bit of a wait. Thanks for all the reviews, do keep them coming - I really appreciate your comments or ideas.

It had almost been a week since school had restarted after summer break and Quinn was feeling more defeated than ever about the state of her friend lying in the hospital bed next to her. When Rachel first slipped into her coma, Quinn had placed bets with herself; she'll wake up tomorrow, then; she'll be awake by the time school starts, and now; she'll wake up. Period.

The truth was that Quinn didn't know whether she believed these things that she told herself or not. Part of her looked at the evidence staring her in the face and knew in her heart that she had no hope. Whenever that thought found its way into the forefronts of Quinn's mind, however, she pushed it away. The other part of her was blinded by the optimism she had learnt from Rachel herself. Rachel would wake up and that was what she told herself until she could think of nothing else.

With Rachel's hand in her own, as it always was when she came to visit, Quinn looked at her sleeping face. "Rachel," she said, determination lining her voice, "I was doing some research last night to see if I could help fix this. I know the doctors are doing everything and I'm sure they know exactly what they are doing but I'm getting desperate here. Anyway, I read an article that said that the patient has to choose live if they are going to survive. They can't give up. So Rachel, I need you to choose life. I know that Finn broke your heart and maybe you weren't in the best place before all of this," Quinn gestured to all the medical equipment occupying the room, "happened but you have so much to live for. Your Dads love you – they come here to see you all the time, the glee club is here for you… And I am here for you. So, please choose life now. We've tried everything else and now we need you to do this. Please wake up."

She looked back to Rachel's face, hopeful, but nothing had changed. Quinn instantly felt stupid for thinking anything would have. She sighed, defeated. The only sound that filled the room was the regular beep of the heart monitor and the gentle but synthetic sound of the machines breathing as a substitute for Rachel.

The sound of someone entering the room made Quinn snap out of her thoughts and turn to look at who it was. Hiram and LeRoy, Rachel's dads, entered the room. "Hey, Quinn," Hiram said as he walked towards the blonde and put a hand on her shoulder. "How are you doing today?"

"I'm okay, thank you," Quinn replied, thinking about how grateful she was to have gotten to know Rachel's parents better during all of the events that had passed. They had so kindly taken Quinn under their wing despite everything they were going through.

"And how is our Shining Star today?" LeRoy asked as he walked over to take the hand of Rachel's that wasn't already grasped by Quinn.

"She's good too," Quinn replied looking into her friend's face. "Well, she's as good as she was yesterday I supposed," she continued, sighing.

"I think what Rachel really needs right now," Hiram began, "is a sing-a-long. Who's up for it, hey?" he said, looking expectantly around the room. "You can't go wrong with a Streisand rendition, right?" he added with a smile on his face, only slightly joking.

This put a smile on Quinn's face. "You know I'd love to but I really need to get to school."

Hiram laughed, "I'll let you off this time Quinn but only this once!"

Quinn smiled back at him and laughed at the joking around. Once she had put her jacket on she made her way towards the door. "It was nice seeing you again," she said to them both. "You'll –uh- call me if anything changes?"

"Of course, we'll let you know as soon as she wakes up."

On the drive from the hospital to school, Quinn's cellphone began to vibrate. She urged herself to ignore it; she had to concentrate on her driving. As she approached the strip of highway that she had to drive on to get to school she noticed there was a sign blocking the entrance and as she drew closer she realized the highway was under emergency construction. "Damn it," she muttered to herself, hitting the steering wheel. She was already running a bit late and this detour was going to cost her even more time. She decided to pull her car to a stop and check her phone before it decided to persistently remind her again and again that she had a message and, as a result, distract her from her driving.

I'll be out late tonight. Lasagna in the fridge. Mom.

This text didn't surprise Quinn. Judy was often leaving her daughter alone in the house and Quinn couldn't say she was particularly cut up about her mother's constant absence. Wherever Judy happened to be – whether it be on a Christian wine tasting boat or at a boules tournament – it meant they could have some time apart which was only good when it came to Quinn and Judy's relationship.

Putting her phone down, after putting it on silent, Quinn turned her car around and took the first left so she could drive on the back roads to school. She drove in silence for a few minutes on the relatively empty road. When the sound of her own thoughts piercing the quiet became too much for her, Quinn reached to turn on the radio. She looked away from the long stretch of road ahead of her for just a second and when she looked back up she was heading directly for a lone rabbit sat in the center of the street. She watched in slow motion the eyes of the rabbit widen in terror as it sat rooted to the ground. Quinn slammed on the breaks with lightening reactions as she was snapped back to regular time. The rabbit found in itself the ability to jump out of the way of the car just milliseconds before it was hit and Quinn breathed a sigh of relief as she observed it scurry off into the trees.

As Quinn sat in the aftermath of a normally very small event, she tried to slow her breathing. She kept telling herself that it was nothing but the sound of the screeching tyres just moments before were bring back haunting memories of that day.

Before she really knew what her body was doing, Quinn found herself climbing out of her car and following the path the rabbit took. She searched for nearly a half hour for the rabbit. She didn't know why she was looking for it. She was pretty sure she had not harmed it and it wasn't like the rabbit was going to come running back to its almost-murderer but she just felt like she had to find it. Not surprisingly, she did not find the rabbit and she begrudgingly made her way out of the tree cover and back to her car which she had left in the middle of the road. With wet leaves and squidgy mud (a gift from the classic Ohio weather) covering her shoes, she climbed back into her car. Quinn purposefully tried not to think about the fact that she just spent half an hour wandering around the forest looking for a rabbit. A rabbit, for God's sake. If she thought about it then she'd have to admit to herself that she was making some questionable choices and maybe that she wasn't coping as well as she thought.

Quinn finally made it to school. By now it was second period; Spanish with Mr. Schue. She walked into the class with the weight of the new day already pressing down on her shoulders. The students were working in silence and Will was sat at his desk marking papers. "Quinn, you're late," Mr. Schue said as soon as he saw her walk through the door.

"Sorry, the highway was blocked off," she nonchalantly replied and she walked away from Will's desk to her seat at the back of the room.

"Miss Fabray! I'm not done."

Quinn swung herself back around to look at him and raised an eyebrow.

"You're late," he repeated.

"Yeah, I told you that the highway was blocked," she said again whilst looking at him incredulously.

"Detention," Will stated. He stared at her as he said it and then went back to marking the work on his desk.

Painfully aware that the whole class was watching and hearing this whole thing from behind her, she took a step forward. "You're serious?" she asked.

"Yes." Will did not even look up from his work.

"But why?! I didn't do anything; the highway was blocked off!" When she didn't get a response she decided to continue speaking. "Mr. Schue, I have somewhere I really need to be after school. Please can you make an exception?"

"No I cannot because rules are there for everyone and that includes you. Now, please sit down and get on with your translating your verbs. I will see you in here after school."

Quinn let out a big sigh of disbelief and sat down in her seat all the while trying to ignore the eyes of her classmates following her every move. As she pretended to do her work she thought about what had just happened. She had thought that Mr. Schue, off all teachers, would let her off. She just couldn't understand why he was being so hard on her.

Quinn grabbed her books and bag as soon as the bell rang and she instantly swept out of the room. Every day at school was nearly exactly the same since the beginning of the semester a week ago and today was no different. For nighty percent of the time she would her walk in and out of all her lessons without having a social encounter with anyone. Breaks between lessons and her free periods were spent 'studying' in the library. The only times when she really spent any time with anyone was lunch with Puck, which seemed to be becoming a daily occurrence, or when she would catch him in the corridor between classes.

As she exited Spanish class, Puck was leant against the wall next to the classroom door waiting for her. "I didn't see you this morning?"

"The highway was blocked off." Quinn wondered how many times she would have to repeat that excuse today.

"Yeah, I know," Puck began, "I drive that way. I still made it on time though."

"Well… there was a rabbit," Quinn inwardly kicked herself. Why was she telling him this?

"A rabbit?" Puck mused on that for a moment. "You didn't, like, kill it did you?"

"No I didn't kill it!" she replied, gently hitting him on the arm. "It was a just a rabbit, okay?"

Puck decided to let it go. "Okay, a rabbit. That's cool."

The two were making their way towards Puck's locker. Quinn listened as Puck changed the subject to the video game he was playing the night before and she attempted to appear interested. "So anyway," he was saying as Quinn zoned into the conversation, "it was totally stupid because I got vaporized on level six."

She smiled and nodded at him in response. It was all the encouragement he needed before delving into the next stage of his description as he threw books into his locker. Suddenly, Finn appeared out of nowhere and joined them.

"No way! You died on level six? Dude, even I can do better than that," Finn contributed. Puck told him to shut up and Finn gave him one of his gloating smirks.

Finn then turned his attention to Quinn. "Hey you," he said, "I haven't seen you in a while. How are you?"

"I'm good. How are you?" Quinn smiled at him.

"I'm good too." Finn paused. "I was wondering if you were going to come to glee today? We all really miss you…" Quinn was surprised by how genuine Finn seemed when he said that. She had been convinced that him – and the entire glee club – never wanted to speak to her ever again seeing as the whole Rachel thing was basically entirely her fault. Even though she was touched by Finn reaching out her and inviting her to glee club, Quinn still felt nervous about going back into the choir room and having to look all of them in the eye.

"Maybe some other time," she said, "But, uh, thanks."

Finn gently touched her arm for a second. "Cool. See you soon," he said and walked away.

Quinn just stared into the distance for a moment trying to comprehend why he was being so nice to her. Puck broke into her thoughts with the sound of him closing his locker. "You should come to glee club you know. If I have to endure all their stupid comments for an hour after school, so should you," he joked as they walked down the corridor together to Quinn's next class.

"I don't want to yet," she said whilst looking down at the floor. She then looked up at him. "Besides, I can't go because I've got detention after school."

"Detention, eh? What you do?"

"It was the rabbit," she said, smiling.

"Oh, I see. That damn rabbit." Puck laughed. They had reached the door of Quinn's next class. "See you at lunch?" he asked. She nodded and went to face another hour of isolation.

It was the end of the day and Quinn was sat alone in the Spanish classroom for detention. Mr. Schue, or any other teacher for that matter, had not come yet but Quinn figured she'd stay and wait to see if he turned up rather than leaving and risk experiencing yet more wrath from Will. The regular tick tock sound of the clock filled the room and Quinn watched every second pass, willing the minutes to quicken. When she had been staring at the clock for ten straight minutes, Will walked into the room in an entirely different mood than he had been before.

"Hi, Quinn," he said, his voice pleasant. He went to his desk to pick up a folder and then went to leave the room again. Telling her to follow him, he left. Quinn picked up her bag and swung it on to her shoulder.

"Where are we going?" As soon as she said it, Quinn knew exactly where they were going. She kicked herself for not working it out sooner. She followed a few paces behind Will and once they had almost reached the door to the choir room her steps slowed. She could hear the laughter of the members of the New Directions filtering out into the corridor. "No…" she said quietly.

"Come on," Will said, waving her closer to the door. She shook her head adamantly and looked right at him. "This is detention so you have to do what I say. Detention happens to be in the choir room today."

When she still didn't move, Will walked towards her. "Come on, Quinn. We've really been missing you in there. The glee club needs you."

"The glee club needs Rachel," she said, looking down at her shoes.

"We need both of you." Quinn looked up at him and he smiled. "Now, are you coming?"

She nodded and wiped away a small tear that was making its way down her cheek and she walked into the choir room. Everyone in the room stopped talked and turned their heads to look at her when they entered. After just a second of silence, Tina stood up and ran over to her with a big grin on her face. "Quinn! You're back!" Quinn found herself embraced in a hug before being led to an empty chair between a seemingly excited Tina and Mercedes. For the first time in a while Quinn felt safe and for once, she felt like she wasn't being judged by everyone. She looked to her left and saw Puck smiling at her. He gave her a quick wink and she smiled back and then she left the smile lingering on her mouth for a few moments because being back in the choir room felt good. Even if there was one thing missing.

Part way through the hour, Mr. Schue left the room for a few moments and some of the guys began talking about their plans for Saturday night. "I got y'all some fake IDs," Puck began, "Let's go to that new club that opened in summer. After Life! That's what it's called."

Quinn knew exactly which club he was talking about. She had been there in the summer with Rachel. Things she had never expected to happen happened that night. As the boys eagerly agreed to Puck's weekend plans, memories of what happened early in the summer came flooding over Quinn.

There are some important flashbacks coming in the next chapter which might give some answers as to what happened in the summer so hold tight. Thanks for reading!