Warning: violence and character death.
Chapter 8
Early the next morning, Russell was woken with a start. At first he thought the horrible events from the day before were all just a bad dream, but after looking around, he found himself still in the diner. Clothes covered in dried blood, his daughter curled up against his side sleeping like she used to when she was younger and had a bad dream. He knew it was all real. That his Judy had been taken from him.
Just as he was about to burst into tears, he heard something coming from the back. He thought it was his name. He gently got up as to not wake his daughter and followed the sound. It lead him to the door of Will's office. He opened the door and saw the desk that Will and Puck pushed against the back door that lead to outside. Whatever the sound was, he heard it again. It was coming from outside.
"Judy" he whispers.
He stepped up on the desk to look out the window. His eyes widen. Outside he saw Judy was attached upside down to a wooden cross. There were boils and blister around her arms, hands and exposed stomach.
"Russell! Help me please!" Judy screams in terror and agony.
"Judy!" Russell yells.
He jumps off the desk and tries to pull it away from the door. Puck comes into the room and tries to stop him, but ends up being punched in the face by Russell, making him fall into the wall. The sound of the commotion wakes Katy. She goes into the room finding her father trying to get out the door.
"No dad, what are you doing?" she tries to stop her father.
"Katy, it's your mother. Your mother she's alive. She needs us." Russell says eagerly.
"No dad she's not." Katy continues to fight her father until Russell pushes her back and goes back to the desk. He was finally able to move the desk enough for him to get through. Leroy comes in just as he was running out.
"Wait, NO!" Leroy chases after him.
Russell tries to get to Judy. As soon as he got close to her, Judy's body explores, sending acid, blood and body organs, burned from the acid, flying into the air. Leroy covers Russell just in time. He manages to pick him up and carry him back in to the office.
He tosses a hysterical Russell inside. Katy and Puck came rushing to his side.
"Daddy" Rachel says as she watched her father stay by the door. Her voice filled with concerned and fear.
Leroy looks up at her, there was something in his eyes that scared Rachel. He smiled a small smile at her.
"Rachel" he utters before fainting, falling on the floor. Dead. The acid had burned into his back.
"Daddy!" Rachel rushes over to her father. She turns him over, careful of the burns. "No no no daddy, please." she cries. "Please don't leave me." she cries over his body.
Quinn goes over to her and pulls her into her arms. Rachel sobs into her chest. Quinn looks over to find Santana doing the same for Brittany.
After a while, Quinn looks to Puck and a lost looking Will. You can tell he was trying to hold back tears.
"We…we need to move the body." she says. Puck nods and looks ready to move the body. Will snaps out of his trance and does the same.
Quinn lifts Rachel off the ground and sits her on the couch that was near them. Brittany pulls from Santana's arms and goes to her side and they cry together. Quinn helps the guys take Leroy's body out. They took him to the supply closet, in case Rachel, Brittany or Will might want to visit him and say goodbye. After covering up the body, Will and Puck went to tie a traumatized Russell up to a chair.
"Is that really necessary?" Katy asks them.
"Yes. We can't have him going all crazy again." Puck answers. Will has yet to say anything.
Once they're done, Puck heads over to the radio to see if there was any news. Will stays put. He stares at a void looking Russell before cocking back his fist, punching Russell in the face. He punches him a few times before Quinn pulls him off.
"Let me go! Let me go, he got my best friend killed!" Will shouts.
"This isn't going to help." Quinn says pulling him away.
"Get off of me!" Will shouts pushing Quinn away. He walks away and goes back to the supply closet where Leroy's body was, and for the first time he cries. He cries for his fallen friend.
Quinn sighs before going over to Puck.
"What are you looking for?" she asks.
"I'm trying to see if they're saying anything." Puck says messing with the radio. Soon he hears something. "Hey, I think I have something." There was apparently a group forming somewhere in Red Ridge. "Red Ridge? Isn't that like an hour away from here? Can't we make that?" he asks looking at Quinn.
"No." Quinn says. "We're not going anywhere."
"The fuck you talking about? I don't know about you, but I got to get the fuck out of here." Puck says.
"It's not safe. We can't risk being on the road when the baby comes. It's too dangerous." Quinn says.
"Too dangerous…what the fuck is that suppose too mean?" Puck asks.
Quinn ignores him and walks away. She goes to look for Rachel. She finds her in the office, staring blankly at the spot her father fell to his death.
"Rachel" Quinn says softly approach her as to not startle her.
"He's gone." Rachel says. Her voice hollow and strained from crying. "He's…he's really gone." Quinn steps closer. "He was…all that I had left and now he's gone." she says. Tears start to once again fall from her eyes.
"Rachel…I'm so sorry." Quinn says. She places her hand on Rachel's shoulder and turns her to look at her. What she saw broke her heart. Rachel's eyes were puffy and red from crying. Tear stains ran down her cheeks. She wanted nothing more than to take the pain away, but she knew she couldn't. She felt helpless to Rachel's pain. All she could do was pull Rachel into her arms and hold her while she cried.
They stood there for a while, Rachel crying over her father while Quinn held her. Soon the crying stopped. Rachel slowly lifts her head to look at Quinn. Quinn looks back at her. She uses her thumb to wipe the tears from her face.
Without thinking, Rachel reaches up, merging her lips with Quinn's. Quinn was surprised by the sudden kiss, but it doesn't take her long to kiss back. Rachel's lips were soft and Quinn couldn't deny there was a spark. The kiss tasted salty from Rachel's tears but was so sweet. When Quinn feels Rachel's tongue asking for entrance, who was Quinn to deny her. Both girls moaned when their tongues met.
The kiss intensifies. Rachel slides Quinn's coat down her arms before placing her hands back in Quinn's hair.
Quinn realized this was getting out of hand when Rachel cleared off the desk behind her before sitting on it and bring Quinn close to her, wrapping her legs around Quinn's waist. The only thing separating them was Rachel's pregnant belly.
This all alarmed Quinn. She knew what Rachel was doing. She was trying to numb the pain by feeling anything else. She knew she should stop, but kissing Rachel was something she never wanted to stop doing. It was going to take all of her will power to stop.
Reluctantly Quinn pulls back, but Rachel just moves her kisses to Quinn's neck.
"Rachel…we have to stop." Quinn says, but Rachel ignores her. Quinn groans before fully backing away. "Rachel, I know what you're doing and it won't help." Quinn says. "You're hurting, I know that, but this…" she points between her and Rachel. "…it won't help." Quinn says.
Rachel looks at Quinn before roughly pushing her away. She of course didn't go very far.
"You think you know what I'm going through? You think you know how I feel?" Rachel spat. "Have you ever lost someone? Someone so important to you? Someone who meant everything thing to you." Quinn stays silent. "Then you have no fucking idea how I feel, Quinn. Just because you have some Angel guiding you around doesn't mean you know shit." Rachel hisses. "My father is dead Quinn. He's gone and he's never coming back. Both of my fathers are gone. And now…I'm alone." Rachel says tears raining from her eyes. Quinn steps forward to hug her but Rachel pushes her back. "Just…Just get out…GET OUT!" Rachel yells when Quinn doesn't move.
Quinn stands there for a moment before grabbing her jacket off the floor and walking to the door. Before leaving she turns back to Rachel.
"…I'm sorry." she says before walking out. Once she is gone, Rachel breaks down in tears. Though now she's not sure if it's just for her father.
Quinn walks back into the main area of the diner. Though Rachel's outburst hurt her, she couldn't show it. She had to get over it because she had more important things to worry about than some school girl crush hurting her feeling. It still really hurt though.
It get her mind off of what just happened, she takes a look around the dining area where everyone was. First she saw Puck still messing with the radio, then in a booth she saw Santana holding a still weeping Brittany. Santana looks up to find Quinn. She raised an eyebrow with a smirk observing the blonde's appearance. The smirks disappears when Quinn shakes her head. Something had obviously went down between her and Rachel. And it didn't end well. Santana looks like she was about to move, but Quinn once again shakes her head. She knew Brittany needed her more right now. Santana settled back with a nod, which said that they would talk later. Quinn nods back.
Her attention was brought to the other patriots in the diner. She saw Katy and Russell not far from Santana and Brittany. Russell was tied up and Katy was in front of him trying to talk to him. Quinn looked at them. She knew she should feel something for them. They were technically her family, but she doesn't or well couldn't. She felt more pity for the young girl that just lost her mother, but not so much for herself because technically, she too had just lost a mother.
"…this is all your fault." she heard. She looks back over and finds the father yelling at the young girl. "You ruined everything. We were only moving because of you. We were fine where we were, but you just had to ruin it. And now, your mother is dead because of you. You know sometimes I wish it was you who died in the car crash not your sister." Russell spats.
"Hey!" Quinn shots. She storms over to the father and daughter. She saw Katy had tears running down her face.
Russell looked like he had just seen a ghost looking at the blonde. He couldn't believe he didn't see it before.
"Lucy?" Russell says in shock.
"Yea. Nice to see you, dad." she hisses. She pulls her sister to her and walks away. As she leaves, she doesn't notice Rachel watching from the back.
End of Chapter 8