Title: Truth Can't Hide, Chapter 2/?
Author: Bladed Darkness
Category: Glee
Summary: Whenever Santana gets mad or frustrated she always takes it out on Rachel. After Santana and Quinn have the fight in the hallway Santana takes what's left of her anger out on Rachel. Rachel feels like she deserves it, after what she did to Sunshine (Rachel always think she deserves it, from years of slushies and verbal abuse). Brittany is the one that finds out when she notices some bruises on Rachel's wrists and when Rachel yelps in pain when she gets a Brittany hug, she pulls Rachel's shirt up to see fresh bruises on her stomach. Prompt at the Glee Feme Meme. Title comes from the song Truth Can't Hide by Karen Therese off her album, Warrior of the Heart.
Pairing: Hints of Brittana and Finchel, possible Pezberry and/or Pieberry (Brittberry).
Length: 1000+
Rating: PG-13, possible NC-17
Brittany doesn't know a lot of things. But when she hugs the short singer in glee club at just the same moment that she's reaching forward to grab some sheet music and sees the bruises on her wrists previously hidden by her sweater, Brittany knows something's wrong with Rachel.
Rachel has put up with a lot. She's withstood verbal assault, slushies, egging, insults, general harassment, and disappointments from people who are supposedly her teammates, fellow outsiders. She's put up with the occasional threats from Quinn or Kurt, and watched as Mr. Schuester gave away solos he had previously given to her, in the name of confidence-building.
What Rachel cannot put up with is secrets. Nothing good has ever come from secrets; her whirlwind romance with Jesse, her fathers' secrecy about her birth mother, Shelby, Kurt's sexuality – although that was the worst kept secret in Lima since her fathers, Terri Schuester's fake pregnancy, the truth behind the paternity of Quinn's baby – all of them have caused nothing but trouble. It's part of why Rachel has such a brutal honesty policy. There's less chance of something coming back to hurt you at a later date.
So Rachel can't help but loathe her own secret. Perhaps it would be better if it was always lurking in the back shadows of her mind, but even Rachel can't escape the physical evidence of her transgressions. As much as secrets have hurt herself and the people around her, Rachel's learned that the truth can hurt as well. The blow-up right before Sectionals last year thanks to her interference is proof of that. She got involved in the mess with the baby, something that had nothing to do with her, and hurt everyone around her, as well as their chances for winning. Quinn deserved to hit her for opening her 'trout mouth'.
And maybe Rachel is tired of telling the truth and always being attacked for it. Her blunt comments have earned her nothing but alienation, even from those who are almost, almost outcasts just as much as she is. They are nothing but the truth, although sometimes burnished with a bit of melodrama or over-exaggeration, but they are nothing like the little white lies Rachel hears told everyday. Maybe she's not cut out for high school. Everyone else has managed to quell their quirks enough that they've found acceptance somewhere, and quarrels during glee about glee have become almost nonexistent. So why can't Rachel find her place?
Even Quinn, with her multiple sins just last year, has managed to reclaim her position in the social hierarchy – though Rachel is not yet quite sure how she managed it, she's almost certain that knowledge will reach her later – and is once again surrounded by people who accept her. Or rather, worship the facade she puts up. But Quinn still has New Directions in her corner should it ever come to that again. Quinn has befriended many of those that she once tormented.
Rachel's not foolish enough to say no one cares as much as her. She knows passion when she sees it, can recognize it in its many forms; singing, dancing, sports, cheering, and a multitude of other way that Rachel never thought to consider before New Directions existed. Perhaps that's why Rachel hasn't opened her mouth yet; passion never hurt anyone, after all.
Except Rachel's passion for singing is hurting her, socially. She's so driven, so determined to make it out of this cow-town where ambition for your dreams is frowned upon. And opening her mouth is why this happened the first time, and again, and again.
So Rachel keeps her mouth shut, just this once. She talks so much about everything else that no one would ever notice if she's silent about this, right? Except one person seems to have noticed, and it's completely the wrong person. Sweet, affectionate Brittany, with her own penchant for speaking her thoughts, in a random, nonsensical way, seems to have picked up on Rachel's discomfort. And it's not anything Brittany has done, but the blonde is determined to fix whatever she thinks is broken. It makes Rachel nervous, because Brittany with her tight, squeezing hugs and her habit of hanging out with violent, passionate Latinas makes her way, way too close to the situation. If Brittany notices the dark, mottled skin around her wrists and how Rachel flinches in her grasp, she doesn't say anything and it gives Rachel hope that maybe Brittany hasn't quite picked up on what is going on.
And then Rachel is hearing how Quinn managed to climb back up to her throne so quickly, and all she can think is, no no no no, because this is not happening. But it is, and Rachel can't even question her source because that fight between the two cheerleaders and Brittany's pleading on the sidelines is all over school in addition to Jacob Ben Israel's 's not that she isn't, well, happy for Quinn isn't exactly the right phrase, and neither is proud, and even Rachel with her large vocabulary has trouble looking for the right combination of words that express her sentiments over the blonde's return to her proper rank. She's wary, of course; Rachel has plenty of reason to fear that Quinn is once again going to directly complicate her life.
If Santana shoots her an extra glare at lunch in addition to the one she's aiming at everyone else just to see Rachel wince because Brittany spends the period talking to Rachel instead of comforting her best friend's smarting pride, it's not because Rachel wanted it to happen. She spends the last two classes before glee placating Finn's panic that he may not be enough for her now that he's been kicked off the football team, even when he points a finger at her and raves, blaming her for ever getting him involved with singing and Artie and teamwork in the first place, not bothering to point out that she had nothing directly to do with recruiting him for New Directions. And Rachel takes it, like she takes everything else, because no one can ever say that Rachel Berry with a gold star didn't accept her punishments without complaint, unless they involved the redistribution of solos.
She gets slushied for the first time that year in between last period and glee. It's when Rachel is in the bathroom in the process of changing her sweater out for another top that she hears the gasp and wrestles with the cardigan impeding her sight to see who the intruder is.
Brittany. The blonde rushes over and helps her further situate her shirt, brushing back her wet hair, before encompassing Rachel in a hug. It's warm and reassuring, but Rachel lets out an involuntary hiss as the pressure on her ribs causes the injuries formed earlier that day to ache in protest. Brittany pulls back, confused before grasping the bottom of her top. Rachel moves her hands to cover the tall blonde's, but Brittany is faster than Rachel and pulls up. Sickly, purple flesh is revealed and the cheerleader lets out a choked sob before narrowing her eyes and bolting out into the hallway, muttering to herself.
Rachel darts after her in the direction of the choir room, always, always, too slow and doesn't catch her bathroom companion until Brittany is ranting unintelligbly in a bewildered Finn's face. Her fists are clenched impossibly tight by her sides, and as Rachel reaches out to either embrace Brittany or hold her back, she's thankful that the Dutch girl didn't see the scratches marring her back.
Rachel may have put up with a lot in her life, but it only takes one person finding out her secret for it all to come crashing down around her.