"Technicolor Wishes & Hi-Def Dreams"
21. And Stepping Out Again
She was still in his arms when he opened his eyes after the jump, and he let out a breath. "You're bleeding," he tried to see her side.
"I-It's not a lot," she shook her head, lifting up the hem of her shirt so she could see, too. "There was another guy down there," she revealed. "I… I shot him," her voice showed her fear. "Not dead, just… The girl was there, and he was going to…"
"It's okay, you did the right thing."
"But he had a gun, too, and I sort of ducked in front of the girl," she went on.
"I think it's just a graze or something," he assessed. "We should still find a way to bandage you up," he looked back up to her. "You're okay, right?" He didn't like the fear in his own voice, but he couldn't help it; the thought of there being something wrong with her did that to him. Rachel had a sort of far off look. "Hey, you're not going to pass out, are you?"
"Bandages, right?" she asked him. "They have those in the nurse's office…"
"Yeah, but…" She had a tearful sort of smile on her face, and that was when he saw it.
They were sitting on the ground, in the halls of McKinley High.
"We're back?" he turned to her, and she nodded. "We're back…" he moved to hug her, then thought better of it when he remembered her injury. "Sorry, I… Okay, come on, let's go get patched up. I know how to do this part," he stood and pulled her up and into his arms.
"I can walk, you're hurt, too," she insisted.
"Tell that to your side, now quit arguing, we're getting you fixed up."
He had carried her to the nurse's office, not protesting even though he was quietly bearing the pain in his back and his ankle. As light as she was, the strain was not helping. But they reached the office, and he got the door to open. Rachel was let down to sit on one of the beds while he got to finding what he needed. She looked at the wall and breathed.
"Five minutes."
"What?" he asked, distracted.
"That's how long we've been gone," she pointed to the wall.
"No way," he blinked. "Doesn't feel that way."
"I know. I think it's all starting to catch up to me," she rubbed at her tired eyes as best she could.
"You need to stay awake for now," he told her, coming up with disinfectant and bandages and the lot.
"What if I have to go to the hospital? Does it look like anything other than what it is? They can't ask questions, we'll get put under psych evaluation or something."
"We'll cross that bridge if or when we get to it," he promised. "Just lean back a second." She did, and he got to work. She winced as he worked, but she was quiet. She still just couldn't believe that they were home, finally, after all of it. "There," he finally said. "How's that?" he asked, and she touched the bandage.
"If it wasn't for this, I might have thought it was all some kind of weird, shared dream," she breathed, pulling her shirt down. "Thanks. How's your ankle? Give it to me, I'll wrap it up or tape it up or something."
"It's fine, I'll just…"
"Hey, you fixed me, now it's your turn, so just shut up and let me do it," she cut in, and he smirked.
"Fine, if you're going to put it like that," he relented. She still hurt, but she could deal with it if she was careful. He presented her his ankle and she gasped when she pulled his shoe and sock off.
"How have you been walking on that all this time?"
"The best I could? What else was I supposed to do?" She did what she could for his ankle before going behind him and pulling his shirt up to see his back. "Woah, hey…" he hadn't expected it, but then her hand was on his back and he froze.
"Looks a little bruised, but maybe I'm just seeing it that way. How bad is it?"
"Nothing a good bath, and sleep won't help. Maybe a pill or two off my mom."
"No, you're coming over to my house tonight," she shook her head.
"I am?"
"I'm not letting you out of my sight, not like this."
"You haven't had enough of me?" he joked. "With everything we did today it's like two days we've been together or something."
"I don't think I can be alone," she admitted, and the joke went away.
"Right, sure, I'll be there," he touched her arm and she let out a breath. "That actually happened, didn't it?" he had to say it.
"It did, we've got the marks to show it," she looked down at her side. "What do you think happened?"
"I have no clue. Maybe we'll never know."
"What if it happens again?"
"It won't. And if it does, well… we'll get through it," he vowed. "Maybe it's telling us to watch more TV. That's new," he squinted, and she chuckled.
"And what about… well…"
"Us?" he guessed, and she looked like she was about to blush.
"We did do quite a bit of kissing in the end. Not that I'm complaining," she assured him.
"Well… what if it kept happening?" he started cautiously. "Not the TV jumping, I mean, what if the kissing kept happening? You and me… I know we tried it before and it didn't work, but it was a long time ago, we were different people."
"We were a lot of different people today, too," was all she could say yet.
"But now we're ourselves again, and if I'm me, and you're you, then I would like to be with you… kind of a lot."
"You would?" she stared up at him.
"I already knew you were kind of leagues above awesome, but everything we did today, everything you did…"
"I was scared out of my mind half the time," she shook her head.
"With good reason," he defended her to herself. "But what about everything else? You were bordering on heroic a couple of times. And you saved me, too," he nodded, and she smiled. "We can give it a try, can't we?" She took a breath, staring at him. He hadn't seen this coming, him opening to her this way. They'd been running around non-stop for so long, his head was only just settling.
"I think we owe it to ourselves to do more than try," she finally beamed, and he was smiling, too. Standing before her, he laid his hands on either side of her face, leaning in to kiss her. "Puck?"
"Yeah?"
"We're still in here, you do remember the part where we broke in, right?" He pulled back to look at her.
"Oh… right. We better go."
THE END