A/N: Wow, really great reviews, they make me smile, they really do. This chapter is considerably lighter than the last few. I hope you all like it, and as always, feedback is greatly appreciated.
Rachel's eyes felt heavy, but she refused to close them, she would not miss the moment Quinn woke up. It was now 2:00 am, and Quinn had still failed to show any signs of emerging from her unconscious state. Rachel's fathers waited out in the waiting room, they were just as worried about Quinn as Rachel was, both of them feeling equally guilty about allowing the girl to leave their home. Kurt, Santana, and Brittany had taken Beth home, all of them volunteering to attempt to work together and babysit her. Rachel almost did not allow it, knowing how difficult it would be for Santana and Kurt to find a way to work together and watch Beth, knowing Brittany probably required as much watching as Beth did.
Quinn's hospital room was quiet, except for the sound of the ventilator. Quinn's sister had left a few hours ago, taking Quinn's mother home, she was a wreck, of course. But Rachel did not feel sorry for her; she had allowed this to go on for sixteen years so part of the blame fell on her. Rachel was relieved when they left; she hadn't been able to talk to Quinn like she wanted to or place soft kisses on her forehead and hands, hoping that the loving actions would rise her from her deep slumber, just as it did in the dramatic musicals Rachel loved so much. Rachel allowed her thoughts to wander to Beth and hoped Kurt, Santana, and Brittany would manage alright with her.
At the Berry home, chaos ensued. "Lay her down." Santana instructed Kurt, who was dangling little Beth in front of him after what could only be described as a bowel explosion. "No, no hold her up." She barked as Kurt began to lay the baby down on the changing table. "No, no lay-"
"Santana." Kurt warned. "I am holding a baby covered in poo, make up your mind about where you want her, so you can clean her off."
"Me? Why do I have to clean her off?" Santana scowled at him.
"She's your Lil Bit, remember? I believe that is what you said earlier when you snatched her from her favorite Uncle's arms." Kurt recanted, gaining another scowl from the Latina.
"Guys stop fighting, you are scaring Beth." Brittany demanded. "Why don't we just spray her with the hose?"
As tempting as that sounded, Kurt and Santana resisted taking the easy way out, knowing Rachel would fly into a fit of rage if she found out they had Beth out in the back yard in the middle of the night, spraying her with the ice cold water from the hose. Santana tried to focus, she was Santana Lopez, there was no way she was going to let a ten pound infant get the best of her. "Alright, I've got an idea." Santana ran downstairs to grab some discarded newspaper the Berry men had in the living, coming back upstairs and laying them out on the floor in the nursery. "Okay, Kurt, hold her over the newspaper."
Kurt did not approve. "Really Santana, really? This is how people take care of dogs. Dogs! You are going to treat Beth like a dog?"
Santana groaned, she was not pleased it was two in the morning and Kurt Hummel was arguing with her. "Would you rather be covered in shit, Hummel? You choose, hold the baby over the newspaper and we can delicately remove her clothes together or you can do it yourself and end up covered in shit."
Kurt sighed as he brought Beth over and dangled her over the newspaper, Beth instantly began screaming as Santana made attempts at removing the baby's clothes. "You broke her." Brittany mumbled as she watched Kurt and Santana struggle to keep the mess contained as Beth screamed and squirmed in Kurt's arms. Rachel picked the wrong time to call Brittany thought, as she grabbed Kurt's cell phone off of Beth's dresser. "Hi Rachel." She said a little too cheerfully for two in the morning.
"Brittany why are you answering Kurt's phone? What is going on? Why is Beth screaming like that?" Rachel stood out in the waiting area, her father's instructed her to eat something while they sat with Quinn, but she chose to make a quick call to Kurt instead, hoping to get back to Quinn as soon as possible.
"Kurt and Santana have her on newspaper, Kurt said its just like the way we would treat a dog, which is good because I think Santana likes dogs-"
Rachel's eyes widened. "Put Santana on the phone Brittany, now!"
Even Brittany could tell Rachel was not pleased. "She can't talk, there's poop everywhere."
Rachel knew letting Beth leave was a mistake, and if she was not so concerned about all the germs in the hospital, she would have kept Beth with her in Quinn's room. "Then put me on speakerphone Brittany."
Brittany did as she was told and the nursery quickly filled with Rachel Berry's voice, demanding to know what the situation was. Beth's cries quickly stopped as she looked around the room for the familiar voice. "Man-Berry! Keep talking!" Santana ignored Rachel's questions, taking the opportunity to finally finish getting Beth cleaned up. She handed Kurt a clean outfit for Beth and surveyed the mess, still ignoring Rachel's voice, nearly an entire box worth of wipes were strewn about and Beth probably could have used a bath but they figured they would let Rachel handle that one later. Santana was pretty damn proud of herself for getting the crisis under control.
"Are you all still there? Why are you ignoring me?" Rachel demanded once she realized no one was actually responding to her questions. "Is Beth alright? She's gotten quiet, what is going on? Why are you treating her like a dog?"
Santana sighed, forcing herself to be nice to Rachel, only because she knew that is what Quinn would want. "Beth had a blowout, I guess. We cleaned it up, it pissed her off, you called, she heard your voice and it settled her down. I don't know why, your voice instantly gives me a migraine."
Rachel beamed. "My voice settled her down?" She smiled for the first time since Quinn had left the house to go with her parents. Rachel turned when she felt a hand on her shoulder. "Daddy what is it? Is it Quinn?"
Brian nodded. "She's starting to wake up, I came to get you as soon as-" Brian did not get a chance to finish, Rachel took off running towards Quinn's room as soon as she heard Quinn was beginning to wake up. Rachel was far too relieved to have any disappointment about not being in the room when it actually happened. She stood cautiously outside the door as she watched doctors and nurses remove Quinn's breathing tube. Quinn let out a horrid coughing sound as the tube was extracted from her throat, Rachel cringed at how painful the cough sounded
Quinn's eyes darted around the room, she was confused, she was not quite sure where she was, she assumed she was in a hospital due to the white walls and drab décor; she stared up at doctor hovering over her, he was saying something to her and she wanted to laugh because he sounded exactly like the teacher on Charlie Brown, but she couldn't laugh, everything hurt too much. Her throat felt as if it was on fire and she noticed the pain in her side was caused by the strange looking tube sticking out of it. She struggled to figure out how she had gotten here, everything seemed so blurry. Then she remembered the look in his eyes and his tight grip, and she wished could have forgotten it forever. She blinked rapidly as her eyes adjusted to the bright lights, noticing for the first time the brunette standing in the doorway. "Rachel!" She had intended for it to come out as an excited yell, but she only managed a pitiful croak.
Rachel smiled, she feared Quinn would not remember her, as the doctors had explained earlier in the evening how patients with Quinn's injuries may experience amnesia. Rachel slowly walked over as the doctors and nurses began to leave Quinn's bedside. Rachel could not stop the tears that flooded her eyes as she was finally able to look into Quinn's eyes. "You're awake, Quinn."
"I'm aware." Quinn smiled, even though the action caused her busted lip to sting with pain. "Rachel, why are you crying?"
"Why am I crying? Quinn, you've been unconscious for twelve hours, I didn't think you would be coming back to me. Swollen or not, those big eyes of yours staring back at me is the most beautiful sigh I have ever seen."
Quinn frowned and felt genuinely sorry when she saw how scared Rachel had been. "Rachel I'm so sorry."
Rachel's mouth hung open. "You're sorry? Quinn I am the one who should be apologizing, I should have never let you take Beth and go with them, I should have known he was up to something."
"Oh my God, Beth!" Quinn sat up and frantically began making attempts to remove her various monitors and IVs. "Did he hurt her? Where is she, is she here at the hospital?" Quinn ignored the pain shooting through her body as she struggled against the medical equipment.
"Quinn! Stop it." Rachel scolded. "Beth is fine. She is at home with Santana, Kurt, and Brittany. They may not be the best babysitters, but they are trying. Last I heard they were wrapping her in newspaper or something. I don't know Brittany was explaining it, I'm certain she probably didn't even know what was going on, plus Beth was screaming at the top of her lungs and Santana and Kurt could be heard bickering in the background."
Quinn furrowed her brow. "Wrapping her in newspaper? She was screaming? Rachel maybe you should go be with her."
"As much as I could use a good Beth cuddle right now, I am not leaving your side, ever. Plus you should know that when I called them, my voice soothed Beth, almost instantly. I know my singing voice does that to her, but that is to be expected, I do have perfect pitch. This was different though, its almost as if she settled down because she trusts me or finds comfort in me or something." Rachel smiled at Quinn, who was smiling up at her.
"Well I can certainly understand the screaming, can you imagine being left with Santana, Kurt, and Brittany to take care of your every need? You'd be screaming too, Lord knows what they are doing to the child." Quinn laughed, but instantly regretted it when she felt a sharp pain in her rib area. "I also can't blame her for being comforted by you, you've been there for her since the moment she was born, I'm sure to her you are just as much her mother as I am. I am so glad she has you in her life Rachel."
Rachel resisted the urge she had to kiss Quinn, knowing doing so would probably hurt her, so she settled for taking her hand into hers. "Plus, you would not believe the fight I had to put up just to get to be with you. I scratched Santana and nearly got the ACLU involved."
"You scratched Santana, our Santana? Santana Lopez?" Quinn was flabbergasted, Rachel just nodded. "I am shocked you aren't in a hospital bed next to me."
Quinn almost began to laugh until Rachel held her hand up in protest. "Do not even think about laughing Quinn Fabray, you will only hurt yourself."
Quinn just nodded and absentmindedly began to play with Rachel's fingers, which were intertwined in hers. "I am so lucky to have you Rachel, not many people would scratch the might Santana Lopez just to be by my side. You are one brave Berry."
Rachel smiled at Quinn's silly remark, noting that it was probably the pain medication she had just received. Her face quickly turned serious as she stared down at Quinn. "Quinn, I told you something while you were unconscious and I made a promise to myself to tell you again the second you woke up. It's something I've been wanting to tell you for a while and I was scared I would never get to. So here it goes." She squeezed Quinn's hand a little tighter and looked into those hazel eyes she'd been longing for all night. "I love you, Quinn."
Quinn did not say anything, she just stared into Rachel's deep brown eyes. Rachel's heart raced, maybe she had made a mistake telling Quinn, maybe it was too soon. She began to pull her hand away, only to have Quinn squeeze it tighter, keeping it in place. "Say it again." Quinn said, never once breaking their eye contact.
Rachel was momentarily confused. "Did you not hear me?"
"No, I did. I just want you to say again."
"Well, Quinn, normally the person you are saying it to, reciprocates the phrase, the initiator does not say it twice." Rachel melted when Quinn poked her bottom lip out to make the most pitiful pouty face the brunette had ever seen. "Okay okay. I love you, Quinn Fabray."
Quinn smiled, not caring about her busted lip. "I love you too, Rachel Berry."
