Operation Glitterberries

Interlude 01: Quinn's Dream

** I ** II ** III ** IV **

Disclaimer: Daria and associated characters are owned by MTV and Viacom. This is fan fiction written for entertainment only. No money or other negotiable currency or goods have been exchanged.

** I ** II ** III ** IV **

"irs…thy"

It must have been one hell of a party; but for the life of me I can't remember where or when. The only reason I knew was because I was experimenting the worse of the aftereffects by myself; the sore muscles of dancing the night round, something I never allow anyone until the fifth date, and I never let them reached the third anyway, less problems that way; and the thirst and splitting headache of a massive hangover, which was even more impossible, I Always check that my dates don't do anything funny when bringing food or drinks; I'm not going to get preggers and have a big belly ever. No how, no way!

Trying to open my eyes let through my eyelids a torrent of light and the resulting pain convinced me to stay there with my eyes closed a while longer. It just wouldn't do to get rings worthy of a raccoon anyway.

"Quinn, did you say something?" It was mom, unlike most of the time, she doesn't sound as if she's running late. 'She only sounds like that when I'm really, really sick.' She thought.

"…ater"

Her answer was tender, one more reason to think I got the flu or something; usually she is almost as blunt as Daria, "Just a second honey…" Her next commands were louder, more than loud enough for the headache to flare, "nurse, she's awake, call the doctor and bring some water now!"

A few seconds later I can fell a straw touch my lips and I drink the water, the glorious fresh and delightfully wet water, avidly. I moved my hands to hold the glass or at least I tried; probably I had been tucked to the bed too tight.

Then I realized that mom ordered a nurse to call a doctor; this was definitely not home.

"'ere are we?" My voice wasn't as raspy as before, but my throat was still too dry to speak normally; luckily mom understood anyway.

"We're in the Oakwood General Hospital dear; we had an accident yesterday, you have a few bumps and scratches and they had to plumb our stomachs; also you're a little dehydrated."

"wat appen?"

It was then that another voice, this time male sounded, "Good afternoon Quinn, I'm doctor Hauser, I need to check a few things, so if you could open your eyes? I'll only take a few seconds." At the same time he spoke I could feel the bed righting itself until I was almost seated, but I was still tucked too hard to move; and shouldn't the bedding undo itself when doing that?

Before I could decide to either obey the doctor and risk more pain, or just stay there feinting sleep until he leaved, a hand force my left eyelid fully open and shove a light way too strong through it, and then did the same on the other one. Just as expected I could feel the dancers with those funny tap shoes get wild on top of my head.

After manhandling me in such a way the doctor ignored me completely and talked to my mom. "Okay her pupils are still a little dilated but within normal parameters, I think we can proceed with the rest of the questionnaire. Then finally remembering me he addressed me once more. "Can you tell me your name?"

"..uin... Quinn Morgendorffer. Is this a joke? I need a mirror; I bet I got some horrible rings on my eyes." At least my mouth was moist enough to talk normally again.

Then I heard the doctor whisper something to my mom but even if they didn't want for me to hear, they weren't nearly as quiet as they thought. "I'm sorry Mrs. Morgendorffer, I think that she's still under the influence." 'Under the influence of what?' I thought, I'm not one of those losers who take weird stuff at parties; and didn't mom toll me it was an accident?

My mom's answer sounded annoyed, and was kind of annoying, "She is like that all the time doctor. Believe me, I know."

"Okay Quinn, I'll release you after a short test. Okay?" It was then when I noticed that the sheet on the bed were actually very loose and the thing that was stopping me from moving were some kind of leather straps on my arms and legs.

"Is this one of Daria's weird jokes? Because it's not funny and I really don't want to take that weird test a second time." The mortified and suddenly very worried face of mom told me that this was no joke.

"No Quinn, its no joke, just answer doctor Hauser's questions as best as you can." I decided to shut up after that, she sounded scared and mom never sounded scared of anything.

"I'm going to ask you a few questions, please answer them honestly and as fully as possible…" He asked a lot of silly and useless questions, alongside a few more embarrassing ones that she thought of just evading, until a look of her mother told her otherwise. I knew of personal experience that lying to mom once her bullshit detector was on its impossible.

After a while the doctor was satisfied with his silly questions and I was released; and with a little bit of help I was able to sit down, even if I still felt more than a little sore everywhere, even with the Advil they gave me mid interrogation.

"She's still under the influence, not too much, certainly not enough to justify another session of hemodialysis, but she will be feeling a little whimsical for a while."

I still didn't know what was going on, but now that I was free I had some pressing business to attend. "I need to go to the bathroom."

The nurse who helped me to the bathroom wasn't too amused that instead of using the service I went there to check my image in the mirror. I don't know why, she should understand that us girls should always have our priorities straight.

"Mom, my hair is terrible, where is the suitcase with my beauty things?"

"Your hair is fine Quinn. Sit down, we need to talk." Now that the doctor finally decided that I'm not dying, her tender side was once again eclipsed by her businesswoman persona.

"Okay, okay, let's make this quick, if I got dehydrated then I'll need a humectant lotion. Do you know what kind of harm does lack of hydration do to the skin, do you?"

"Quinn listen to me this is important. Do you remember what happened yesterday?"

"Umm… yes? We went camping with dad, and after he messed with the tents and we had to raise them ourselves, we sat in front of the campfire telling ourselves horror stories, and by the way mom, you shouldn't allow Daria to tell that kind of stories anymore, hers are really disgusting. And then we went to sleep, I forgot just how annoying is to sleep with Daria anymore, I guess that was for us to remember the good things we have at home, like separate rooms with sturdy locks. Let me tell you that…"

"Okay Quinn, stop. Do you remember the next day what did we have for breakfast?" Now that's a weird question, and not would what I call important, maybe if I had a breakfast at Tiffany's, just like on that old movie…

"Yes, those berries my dad brought, I'll admit I was a little tiny bit skeptical about them, but they were really yummy."

"Quinn, they were hallucinogen berries. What else do you remember?"

"Well, after breakfast we separated and went for a walk in the woods, good thing that Daria always choses rock, if not I might have gone with Dad... Not that going to long walks with dad is bad or anything, but for some reason he always get that glassy look in his eyes whenever I'm talking about mode, and then sometimes he starts rambling about…"

"Quinn, I get the point, could you please continue?"

"Okay, okay. We were walking through the forest, and then You started rambling about buds and doors and maybe I should have stayed with Dad, at least his ramblings are somewhat predictable…" At this point I had to struggle a little with my memory to remember what happened next. "…then your pupils kind of grow as big as dishes and you started talking about leading the tribe or something and then you fainted, so I screamed Daria to come and then… then you woke up but you were talking all, I don't know, weird, weirder, weirdest? … and then Daria and I started thinking about how did this happen, but then, then I realized that the fault wasn't of the glitterberries, but that we just needed to? … fly away?" I stopped when I realized just how weird I sounded, fly away? Glitterberries? Even now on my mind it does sound like a really crazy dream.

"Do you remember something else?" A nice male voice asked from behind the curtain of the bed next to mine.

"Yes I remember running and then… Who are you?"

"Hi, I'm Eddie, and I'm investigating your food poisoning, don't worry about me, just continue with your story, it is quite interesting and I would be glad to hear the end." I saw my mother throwing him a dirty look, but he filled his suit so well that I couldn't care less about mom, and I bet I can earn a few more points with him if I told him some of my wacky dreams.

"Well yes, I remember that we were all running free dancing and prancing in the forest when suddenly a Hag called my name, my one true name, and then, when I got close to her she locked me on an iron cage kicking and screaming. I was just so mad, that I couldn't help but to sound the war horn inside, calling my cute animals from the forest to come to my rescue, they must have fought quite fiercely since the Hag came back and tied me, but it was too late, a couple of jolly green giants came and rescue me and the rest of the members of the tribe of the grey fox, letting me a place of honor inside their huge bumblebee alongside daddy and you."

"The hag was right, to fly inside the stomach of the bumblebee is better than my own wings, you can see the ground bellow without getting tired from flapping your wings like this…" I did a pretty faithful imitation of how I was flying before getting to the bumblebee but then Hauser interrupted me.

"I think that she's still a little too affected by the toxin. Maybe we could let this conversation for another time officer." I could tell it wasn't a question even if Eddie chose to take it as one. "No doctor, I believe that right now is the best time to continue, until now what she had told us match what the recue team wrote in their report." Then he went and faced mom and pleaded directly to her. "We need the information to help your other daughter Mrs. Morgendorffer."

I didn't care about their discussion too much, I was wrapped in the story already and I couldn't stop even if I wanted. "As I was saying, we were flying free, but then I remember the Hag, who until now was under a spell that made her sleep, wake up and take from the floor some of the small red and white hornets from the ground and use their poison to attack the beast riders who were at the reins of the bumblebee, all while saying stuff with a voice so cold and angry, and then…" Then I'm not in the hospital anymore, I'm there once more falling from the skies to my death.

"I remember how we were all falling down, how we were rushing towards the earth before hitting the ground with a bang… I remember that the vines that held me to the bumblebee cutting me for those seconds, and then… then I remember the hag crawling and skulking from one way to another, but then she got to the riders and took from her belt a wicked knife…" I saw Eddie and mom both tense up when I mentioned the last part, but by now I don't care anymore; I'm already lost too far into the memories.

"The hag was raising her blade, ready to cut apart the rider, when daddy screamed 'NO, KIDDO, NO!'" I was screaming the last part and both mom and the doctor jumped to the sound, I also saw Eddie holding his pen so hard that it was cracking. "Then we all started telling her no, and she just lowered her knife and told us 'I won't kill him' and she sounded so relieved and so tired that I thought she was going to kiss us with her ugly hag's lips and then set us free from the vines. But then she said something else and took some other vines which she used to bound the riders, and then she walked away. Just walked away..."

Eddie was already scowling, as if he hadn't liked my story, but what really worrying was that Mom was by now openly crying. I don't think that I have ever seen her like that, but then I realized that tears were slipping from my eyes too. Then I realize that this was all a crazy acid dream. Nothing was real. I'm so happy that for a moment I revert to my Texas accent, the one I worked hard to make disappear.

"Ohh Ghaud, wait 'til I tell Sandi and the rest of the Fashion Club how acid feels like, I won't even get in problems over it. It was such nice dream, shame that in the end it become a bad trip. But I can edit that later, not like they would realize." Once more mom's expression stops me, I have seen her angry, happy, worried, and in a couple of times deliriously happy, but never I saw such anguish on her face, or anyone else for that matter, before.

"Quinn, dear. I'm so sorry, but it wasn't a dream. It wasn't a dream at all."