Title: Act II
Summary: Rachel Berry finally comes into her own.
Rating: G
Words: 1,947
A/N: Oh I wish this had been longer.
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Rachel Berry was an individual. She was extraordinary. She was talented. She was a one of a kind star, shining bright even in the dank bowels of New York City. She was also still fully human. At twenty five she was still without a single animal trait to her name. At first it was a blessing. She was the only student in NYADA fit to play the young human roles. Anyone else would have to hide their traits with clever costumes or make up. It gave her an edge. It made her memorable. It made her an outcast.
Kurt was sympathetic but they didn't see much of each other anymore. He was busy living the domestic life with Blaine. And in her time at NYADA she hadn't made any friends like she'd made at McKinley. No matter how friendly she tried to be there was always still an edge of uneasiness around her. She unsettled people. The fact was that people without animal traits in their twenties were a rarity. She was starting to think she'd never get her traits. It was very disheartening. And she was moving out of song material territory into 'depressed eternal spinster' territory. Having a child wasn't helping. She adored Aubrey, there was no doubt there. But after all this time Rachel could finally understand Quinn's disdain and frustration. Having Aubrey made her life more difficult. Her acting career was touch and go, a constant tug and pull between her unique appearance and her unforgiving schedule. More than once she found herself wishing she had never had a baby at all.
Being pregnant at a preforming arts school had put her at a serious disadvantage. Moreso than her appearance. She'd had to take a break from the physically demanding classes, shoving them all into her last year. It had nearly broken her body and her spirit. Her exuberant pace had slowed more and more until she wasn't ahead of the herd anymore, but lopping awkwardly behind just barely able to keep up. She'd graduated. But not with honors. No glowing recommendations. No Broadway scouts knocking on her door. Just one smiling baby in the hands of her father. It had been bittersweet, knowing her dream had to suffer to see her daughter prosper.
Rachel was nothing if not resilient though. She held her head high every day. Even when the rest of the world shied away from her. Even when Brody left her. Even when she went back to her tiny apartment and saw nothing but a human in every mirror. Currently she worked at a dinner theater. It was mediocre at best and a little soul crushing. But her boss was nice and she got to take home a lot of leftover food. At this point in her life she was content. Not truly happy in the way she wanted to be, but content. That was the best you could ask for really. How many people were well and truly happy with their lives? Almost no one. And that didn't stop them from living fulfilling lives. So she didn't have Broadway. She had a plastic one person stage and a little girl who liked to sing on it.
Aubrey was the reason Rachel was where she was at right now. Under normal circumstances Rachel would rather chew her own leg off rather than drop her little girl off at the neighbors. But today was no ordinary day. For the past week her whole body had ached. If she were still in high school she'd think she was finally coming into her traits. Now she just felt like she was at the beginning of a vicious flu. It had been going around work and she'd done her best to avoid it but germs travel. She didn't want Aubrey getting sick so to Ms. Punik's place they went. She was a bizarre older woman who had perhaps too many cats. Odder still considering she was a pigeon. But she'd never failed to take in Aubrey when Rachel asked.
Aubrey also never failed to whine about the smell. She was working on it. Rachel gathered up some toys and snacks. She still had a few little outfits at Ms. Punik's and if she somehow managed to dirty all of those they could just come over and pick up some more. When she bent down to pick up her daughter the skin between her shoulders seemed to pull tight and a stinging pain laced through the muscles there. With a wince she straightened up and held her still wriggling toddler to her chest. "Come on Aubrey, just down the hall. Who's going to have a fun time with Ms. Punik? Who's going to have a fun time with Ms. Punik?" She cooed and nuzzled her nose against Aubrey's. "You are. You are." Aubrey did not seem impressed at all. More and more she was finding bits of her friends in the face of her baby. Today was shaping up to be a Kurt day. Rachel sighed and headed out of her apartment with Aubrey.
Just as she expected Ms. Punik was all too happy to take Aubrey off her hands. She was a little less willing to just let her go and rest. She wanted to know how Rachel was doing at work and what she had for dinner last night and if she saw the ad in the paper about the adorable little china dolls. It was the conversation that just wouldn't end. Finally Rachel turned away, just a little, enough to show through body language that she really did need to leave. It was a horrible mistake. The fraction of an inch that she turned to the left allowed the sunlight from Ms. Punik's back window to go straight into her eyes. She doubled over with a groan. It was like a thousand little needles were stabbing through her eyes and straight into her brain.
She waved off Ms. Punik's worried hands and straightened up long enough to wave goodbye to Aubrey. With a pained smile, that was more of a grimace, she hobbled back to her apartment with her hand pressed firmly over her eyes. She walked blindly through her apartment, her legs bumping into furniture and stumbling over scatted toys. When she finally made it to her bed she collapsed onto it with little more than a groan before she fell asleep. Her rest was fitful. The whole night she tossed and turned, furiously striking out across her sheets until they were a crumpled heap tangled around her sweating body.
Rachel slept through five phone calls, a drunken party in the hallway, and the fall from her bed to the floor. When she woke up her face was pressed between the hardwood of her floor and a balled up section of her sheets. Her whole back felt heavy, like she was dosed with medication. She groaned and rolled her shoulders. For a moment she had to rest her weight on her forehead before she pushed herself up and stumbled into the bathroom. She blindly felt along the wall for the light switch and flicked it on. Immediately she regretted it. Even with her eyes closed she could feel the light stinging through her lids. "Must be a migraine. This just keeps getting better and better." She flicked the light back off and felt along the counter to the toilet. Rachel didn't bother looking at herself in the mirror as she left. She knew she was a wreck. Illness never suited her.
Never one to do things by halves, Rachel groaned and fell into her bed with a great amount of fanfare. The landing had her bouncing, the motion oddly soothing to her sore muscles. With her face pressed into the cool mattress and her shoulder blades stretching this way and that she felt the best she had in the past few days. "Ooh, yes." She smiled lazily into her pillow and curled herself into a tight ball, wriggling her toes and rolling her shoulders. It felt amazing. Just amazing. Her whole body just felt right somehow. For a while she just laid there, content to bask in the moment of piece. Who knew how long it would last. It could just be a lull created by wonderful synthetic drugs.
The sound of overly loud rock music woke her about two hours later. Her neighbors on the other side were in their early twenties, all college students. It was finals week probably. They were always complaining about something. After having to drop out of NYADA she tended to avoid anything having to do with college. Rachel raised herself up and stretched her back like a cat before sliding out of bed and wandering to the bathroom. Since Aubrey was with Ms. Punik there was no reason to complain about the noise. She knew all too well the therapy of loud music. As she passed through the living room she picked up her discarded pink robe and pulled it half way up her arms. She let it sag at her elbows, pooling with her giant night shirt.
She danced lightly and hummed to herself on the way to the bathroom. Her shoulders and back felt amazing, like the muscles there were so relaxed they were heavy. It was almost like the feeling you got after a very intense workout or dance session. If she was lucky she could grab Aubrey in the morning and they could share breakfast at the little vegan diner down the street. She loved their buckwheat pancakes with jam. "It's a plan my sweet little angel." She clapped her hands together and entered the bathroom with a smile. She flipped up her arms to fix her bathrobe but it slid back down straight away. "Oh come on." Rachel tutted and looked into her bathroom mirror. The smile slid from her face.
There in front of her, surrounded by star stickers and expo marker messages was a hybrid. Rachel dropped her arms to her side. Her robe slid away to the floor, unnoticed. Her nose was black and bulbous, the skin tinged dark all the way up the bridge and around her eyes and forehead. Peeking out from her disheveled hair she could see one black leathery ear. She knew without checking that the other was the same. Most of her face was gone. Her beautiful Barbra-esque look was gone, buried under a mass of pitch black skin. She whimpered and made a move to reach out towards the mirror. She stopped short when she felt a pull on her back. Her shoulders and back had felt different. It wasn't medication. It wasn't the flu. Something on her back had changed.
Slowly and cautiously Rachel pulled her night shirt up and dropped it on the floor. It puddled over her feet, fighting the cold from the tile. She could see the change. Just barely. It was just a peek with her arms down. Quietly she lifted her arms, holding them out straight and level with her shoulders. Stretched there between her upper arm and the skin along the sides of her back were two thin strips of black skin. It was stretched taught, like the webbing between some people's toes. They were halfhearted bat wings. She was a bat. She waited for years and years through ridicule and self doubt, through a pregnancy and a life of crushing loneliness to become a bat. A bat!
Rachel sank to the floor, her arms folding next to her legs and her new wings cloaking her thighs. A good cry, she thought, would be the perfect way to transition to the next act.
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So Rachel is a fruit bat. And a mildly successful play actress. Pre-transformation she got pregnant and sang at bars and coffee joints. Then she met and agent, got a bit part, and started working off-Broadway. She does okay. Post-transformation she's going to hit a little bump. After all she was making a name for herself as an entirely human actress. Now she's going to have to change her angle. But I think I may give her Elphaba. Maybe. She's suffered enough on here I think.