A/N: hi guys, I'm so incredibly sorry. I know it's been like 5 months since I last updates but things in life haven't been that good at the moment. But anyway, here is the next chapter. Sorry if it's a bit pants - heads all over the place.

Months had passed and now it was Christmas time, Rachel and Santana had been together for 7 months and were very happy together. Santana and Rachel had gone camping with Shelby and her family and only had a few minor altercations with bugs... Rachel still worried for Hiram, he had started drinking a lot and was constantly angry, so Rachel spent a lot of time at Santana's house. She had gone home to pick up some stuff to take to Santana's - promising to meet up with her girlfriend later. As she entered her house, it was cloudy from cigarette smoke and Hiram was in the kitchen, with empty pizza boxes and Chinese containers.

"Look at the mess in here! Daddy why are you smoking in the house? You don't eve-"

"Shut up Rachel! No one cares about what come out of that slutty mouth of yours!"

Rachel was stunned into silence, she'd never been spoken to that way before by anyone - let alone her father.

"That's been my whole fucking life! Listen to you talk about yourself and your fucking horrible singing! No wonder my husband wanted to die to get away from you."

Tears welled at Rachel's eyes, but she willed them away, forcing herself to stay strong.

"That's not fair..." Rachel started "I know you're upset about Dad and I still am too! But you shouldn't be taking it out on me!"

"It's not always about you Rachel!"

"No! But dad loved me just as much as he loved you and he would not be happy that you are ruining your life like this!"

"You disgusting piece of shit!" Hiram swung his arm back and punched Rachel square on the nose. Causing it to instantly bleed. "Don't you dare tell me what my husband would want!" With that he lay another punch to her stomach, causing Rachel to fall to the floor. He then laid kicks into her ribs.

"You better be gone by the time I got back!"

With that he stormed out the door and drove off.

Rachel felt winded and had blood running into her mouth, she didn't know what else to do so she climbed up to the breakfast bar in the kitchen where she dumped her bag and pulled out her cell phone. She called the one person she knew she could trust.

"Hey baby, are you ok?"

"Santana" Rachel cried as she felt a wave of pain run through her abdomen

"Rachel? What's wrong are you ok?"

"Can you please come and pi-pick me up. I...I can't d...drive."

"Sure. Stay where you are."

Hours later it seemed, Santana came rushing into the Berry's home. She brought her older brother Nico as he insisted on coming incase Rachel was in trouble.

"Oh my god Rachel!" Santana rushed into the kitchen to see Rachel curled up in a ball on the floor.

"Santana be careful! Rachel are you ok? Who done this?"

"My... My dad. He... He's angry."

"Where is he?! I'll kill him!"

"Santana calm down! We need to get Rachel to a hospital. Call Dad and tell him we're in our way in" Nico carried Rachel bridal style to the car, Santana getting into the car first so Rachel could lay her head on her.

"Don't worry baby, we'll get you to a hospital soon. Don't worry." Santana said through her own tears.

"'Tana... Hurts." Rachel said breathlessly

"I know baby, I know. I promise it'll be ok. You'll be fine. I love you Rach."

"I love you" Rachel said just as she lost consciousness.

"Rachel? No come on honey, wake up for me ok! Rachel please don't do this... Put your foot down Nico!"

They got to the hospital in record time, Dr Lopez waiting for them at the front desk. Rachel got rushed into resus.

"What's happened Santana?" Antonio asked his daughter as he examined Rachel.

"I don't know! She went to pick up stuff at her dads and she called me to come pick her up and when I got there she had been beaten up. She said her dad done it!" Santana said through her tears.

"Is she going to be ok dad? Please tell me she will be."

"We'll send her for an x-ray, I suspect she's got broken ribs. But Santi, you're going to have to wait outside, Nico call your mother, explain what's happened."

The next hour went past in a blur. Santana called Shelby, who then told Quinn and Puck. The 3 arrived at the hospital minutes apart.

"Shelby hi, I'm Dr Lopez. I'm Santana's father and I'm also your daughter's doctor."

Shelby held her hand out to shake Antonio's hand, still quite unaware of what had happened, only knowing that Hiram Berry has beaten up Rachel.

"So upon further examination, it's been discovered that Rachel has 4 broken ribs, the boot marks on her body indicate that she's been kicked repeatedly. Broken ribs usually heal within in a couple of weeks but in Rachel's case, it's punctured her lung and it's making it difficult for her to breathe, so we need to operate."

"But she's going to be ok won't she?"

"We're confident that the surgery will go 100%"

"Ok."

"Shelby, you being Rachel's Mom we need you to sign these forms, also Hiram Berry hasn't paid any insurance so you will be responsible for the cost, I'm afraid"

"The cost isn't an issue, I'll pay however much I have to."

"Okay, we'll start preparing Rachel for surgery now. It should only take a few hours, we'll let you know once it's over."

Santana felt overcome with anger, her mother Maribel had arrived a short while ago and tried to calm her daughter down. Puck and Quinn had also tried, with the promise of helping her make sure Rachel is ok.

"This is my fault. I should have been there."

"Santana sweetheart, it's not your fault. Why do you think that?" Maribel Lopez asked her daughter

"Because if I had been there, Rachel would never have gotten hurt! I would've taken a thousand beatings for her!"

"Everyone knows that Santana. And I'm so thankful that my daughter has someone like you to protect her, and love her. This isn't your fault. It's Hiram's fault." Shelby said, acknowledging Santana for the first time since she arrived at the hospital. "And don't worry, Hiram's day will come, I promise you that."

A woman walked towards the group and asked for Shelby.

"I'm looking for Shelby Corcoran?"

Shelby crossed her arms to look at the woman: "I'm Shelby, who are you?"

The woman stretched out her hand "hello, I'm Andrea, I'm from child protective services, the police should he here shortly."

"Uh ok, I guess we need to talk about where Rachel will be staying from now on? Because there's no way she's staying with that animal."

"No I know, until Rachel is able to give a statement and we catch Mr Berry, Rachel will have to stay elsewhere, normally in cases like this, we would try to keep the child in the family."

"Can she stay with me? My daughter is not going into some group home, or foster home."

"Of course she can stay with you, you will need to sign these forms to make everything legal, but there isn't a problem from my end."

2 hours passed until Dr Lopez returned with news of Rachel. Santana has fallen asleep against her Mother's arm but was awoken by her mother when she saw her husband.

"What? What's wrong? Is it Rachel?"

"She's out of surgery and in recovery. The operation went well, we're keeping her in for a few days for observation. She has a few artificial wounds, her nose is broken so she has 2 black, she's also got bad bruising around the stomach area and we've bandaged up her ribs."

"When can we see her?" Maribel asked, in behalf of everyone else.

"Now if you like, only 2 at a time though. But she is asleep."

"Santana, are you coming?" Shelby held her hand out to the upset teen.

"Yeah."

The room that Rachel was in was dimly lit and Rachel was lying on a bed, with an IV drip coming from her arm, her nose was swollen and her 2 black eyes were very clearly black.

"Hey sweetheart." Shelby kissed her daughters head.

"Hi baby." Santana whispered kissing the same spot.

Santana and Shelby sat across from each other as Rachel slowly started to gain consciousness.

"Oh ow! Oh my god..."

"It's ok Rach. You're going to be ok."