Shannon Bieste was almost starting to feel at home in Lima, Ohio. It hadn't been easy to pick up everything and take over a football team that hardly ever won a game, but heck, she needed a change of scenery and it paid well. The first few months had almost wiped her out between trying to get her players to focus on the game and trying to avoid that lunatic cheerleading coach.
Finally though she had the respect of her students and she was making friends. She was supervising the weight training class she had instituted when Evans ran in five minutes late. She was going to get some discipline in these boys if it killed her. "Evans! You're late. Do you want laps?"
"Coach, it's Finn. He's freaking out, and he can't breathe!" Evans said.
"Show me where he is," she said. This day was turning into one hell of a crapfest. First Will doesn't show up for work, doesn't even call in, and now her quarterback is losing his shit.
She follows Evans into the equipment room to find Hudson on his knees, hyperventilating and looking like he didn't even know he was in the damn locker room. Thankful for once that Puckerman and Chang couldn't be bothered to mind their own business she gives all three boys instructions and gets on the floor with Hudson. She'll worry about getting back up with her bad knees later.
She tries to calm the boy down with a hand on his back, but she can tell right away that it makes whatever has him spooked worse. She pulls back right away, but reels a bit when she sees the fear in his eyes. Dammit, no kid should be that scared of anything. She tries to calm him down, but she's sure as shootin' happy to see those paramedics rush in.
Shannon backs up to give them room to work and then remembers her other students. She pulls her car keys out of her fanny pack and tosses them to Evans, no way in hell is she giving them to Puckerman. "Evans, I'm going to ride in the ambulance. My truck is the black Dodge in the faculty lot, get it to St. Rita's in one piece or you'll regret it.
"Yes coach," Sam says," Coach, make sure someone looks at his arms. Those bruises didn't get there on accident."
She nods and then looks at the other two boys, "You two stay here. Your job is to keep the entire glee club from invading the hospital. That's the last thing Hudson needs. Do I make myself clear?" Their chorus of "Yes, Coach" was enough and she followed the stretcher to the parking lot, only half listening as the paramedic explained he had given Hudson something to calm him down.
She glares at the paramedic who tries to offer her a helping hand into the back of the ambulance, she's not that damn old. She takes a spot at Hudson's side and watches as the heart rate decreases and his breathing slows. She doubts it's trouble at home. Surely if that was the case there would have been signs before this. Hudson seems to find himself in a big ball of crazy romantically, but she's used to teenage boys and that doesn't seem all that unusual. She knows the kid's stepbrother had trouble with bullies. She would have benched their asses too, if anyone had bothered to mention it to her.
There are only a few things that can freak a normal kid like Finn Hudson out like this and none of them are good.
The kid is feeling the drugs now, his eyes are glassy. He's not all the way out though, his body is twitching a little, like he's fighting against relaxing, and she can see his lips moving. She tries to hear what he's saying, maybe she can figure out what is going on. He's muttering now, "no", and "not again". A cold spike of ice is forming in her gut, but when she hears "Please, don't" and "No, Mr. Schue" in the same sentence it take everything she's got not to be sick right there.
She looks up at the paramedic, the hands at her sides balled into fists, "Can't you give him something else, he's scared." She doesn't really notice the response; she's a little scared too.
Her first impulse is to pretend she didn't hear it. Will is her friend, and he's a good guy. He really cares about his students. Hudson is drugged, maybe not thinking straight. She tries to keep these thoughts up for a few minutes, but she's always been a fan of cutting through the crap. The kid is barely conscious; he couldn't make things up right now even if he wanted to. Something happened to this kid, something bad and she'd already figured it had to do with school. She remembers the bruises and the look in his eyes when she put a hand on his back.
She recognizes Hudson's parents from the football banquet as soon as they get to the hospital. She doesn't know what to tell them, so she fills them in on the facts of the attack and the bruises and exchanges cell phone numbers with Carole Hudson so she can get an update later.
She tells both of them she isn't sure what had happened, she honestly isn't, or at least she hopes she's wrong. They try to thank her, but that's the last thing she wants, if it's true, if she couldn't see that her friend is capable of something like this. So, she ignores their thanks, and tells them how important it is that he talks. She knows they already know that. Shannon takes her keys back from Evans and heads to the parking lot. She knows where she needs to go next. She's got a feeling she's not going to like the answers, but somebody sure as hell better start asking the questions.