AN: Sorry it's been so long. Between college work and more work everything has been put on the back burner. Hopefully by November things will have quieted down enough that I can update more. I do plan, as in I'm not sure if I will, to update again this month, but next week is hell and midterms are closing fast for me.

Anyway, on to the story. Lots of thought process going on here and the continuing confrontation from last chapter. Onward my friends, to victory and glory, or maybe just four girls and some singing (eventually).

Oh. PS, because I keep forgetting. If you have not heard Everything is Alright by Motion City Soundtrack, that song was the inspiration for the title and at least part of the story.

Chapter 7:

Rachel stared at three disbelieving faces, her shirt forgotten in her hand.

"What are you doing Rachel?" Santana asked, breaking the tableau the girls had been trapped in.

"Nothing," Rachel replied quickly as she pulled on her shirt and pushed past the cheerleaders to enter her bedroom.

"Nothing, huh?" Santana muttered angrily as she bent down and picked the bloody razor out of the trash.

Santana turned and stormed out of the bathroom, leaving Quinn and Brittany stunned momentarily before they followed her.

Rachel was at her laptop, trying to find a song, when Santana slammed the screen down, almost catching Rachel's hand. The Latina held the bloody razor in front of Rachel's face, making the diva pale.

"Tell me this," Santana growled, shaking the razor, "is nothing!"

Rachel shook her head and tried to open her laptop, but was stopped by Santana's hand, which was still keeping the laptop shut.

As Santana growled and opened her mouth, Quinn spun her around and into Brittany's arms, knowing that Santana needed to calm down. Quinn then turned to Rachel and pulled the diva over to her bed.

Rachel allowed Quinn to pull her over to the bed, feeling no malice from the blonde, only concern.

Quinn pulled up Rachel's sleeve and fingered the bandage as she asked,

"How many?"

Rachel looked confused for a second before answering.

"Cuts today? Eight. Cuts total? Over one hundred, but less than a thousand."

Quinn did not react except to nod in acceptance.

"May I?" Quinn asked, tapping the bandage.

Rachel took a shaky breath as she nodded.

Brittany handed Quinn a pair of scissors, keeping an arm around Santana the entire time.

Quinn cut away the bandage and bit her lip.

Angry red lines were still weeping on Rachel's upper arm.

The brunette refused to look at any of the cheerleaders, especially Quinn, as silent tears tracked down Rachel's cheek and she waited for the rejection she knew was coming.

Instead, Rachel felt Quinn run fingers through her hair before placing a kiss on her shoulder, cupping her face and placing a kiss on her forehead.

Rachel sat, shocked and unmoving, as Quinn stood up and gathered several items before returning to the bed. The blonde proceeded to clean the cuts lovingly and carefully.

Midway through, Rachel broke down.

#RQSB#

Santana and Brittany watched as Rachel went from staring a hole in the floor and trying to hold back tears to sobbing into Quinn's shoulder

Quinn wrapped her arms around Rachel, pulling the small brunette into a hug as soon as the singer sagged into her. Rachel fought the embrace on instinct, but her attempts were half-hearted and lacked any real strength. Quinn refused to let go, trying to surround Rachel with acceptance and love. She whispered quiet and calming anecdotes and compliments into Rachel's ear as she traced soothing patterns into the brunette's back, never releasing her tight hold.

It seemed like forever to the occupants of the room, but only fifteen minutes had passed before Rachel tamped down on her emotions and stopped crying. She managed to straighten up a little while trying to stop her sniffles and hiccups. Still wrapped in Quinn's embrace because the blonde refused to let her go.

A smile flitted across Rachel's face as for the first time in a long time a hug did not feel like a prison.

Rachel knew that she could break the hug at any time, something she did once she had managed to swallow the last of her hiccups, because the embrace was supporting not confining.

Quinn was sad and slightly surprised when Rachel broke the embrace. She smiled when Rachel burrowed closer, laying her cheek on Quinn's chest and hugging the blonde tightly. Quinn draped her arms around Rachel and gently squeezed the girl once before loosening the embrace.

#RQSB#

Santana had been furious when she had walked in on Rachel and anger clouded her brain as she found the razor and confronted Rachel. She was angry, not at Rachel, but at whoever or whatever had made Rachel do this.

When Quinn spun her into Brittany, she knew that she needed to calm down but inside, Santana was seething and in pain. Santana was thinking something along the lines of 'Why did such a beautiful creature feel the need to hurt herself?'

Santana did not realize that Quinn and Brittany had thought the same thing when they found out about her. She allowed Brittany to hug her and try to calm her down.

By the time Quinn had taken off Rachel's bandage, Santana was fairly calm, and getting more so as Brittany played with her hair.

Noticing that there was no more than a dozen lines on Rachel's arm Santana frowned. The girl wasn't a novice. Thinking back, Santana realized that this was probably why Brittany had been so concerned about Rachel during the beginning of the year. Which meant this was a habit. But cuts took at least a week to heal, if they did not leave a scar, so Rachel had not cut in a week. That probably meant she had stopped for at least a week or two, maybe longer, and something today had set her off.

Santana growled as she thought about whoever had hurt Rachel. The growl turned into a purr as Brittany massaged her scalp for a minute.

She watched as Rachel cried and snuggled further into Brittany as she divided her time between developing ways to help Rachel, and torture/kill techniques to use on whoever had done this to the tiny singer.

#RQSB#

Brittany had caught Santana after Quinn spun her around, knowing that Santana was not mad at Rachel, she was mad at whoever had caused this, and at herself for not noticing.

The blonde hugged Santana to her as the Latina tried to escape before slowly calming down as they made it over to the bed and curled up at the foot of it. Brittany kept one arm around Santana until she felt the tall brunette was calm enough before playing with Santana's hair.

This calmed them both down as all Brittany really wanted to do was take all the people who had ever hurt Rachel and shove them off a very big cliff.

She'd heard that Dover was nice, or maybe the Grand Canyon would be better.

Brittany mused over cliff options as she continued to play with Santana's hair and with her calm exterior in place

#RQSB#

Rachel had known she was screwed the second the three Cheerios had walked into her bathroom, but she still tried to put off the inevitable and just ignore the problem for a little while longer. When Rachel was sobbing into Quinn's shoulder and they still had not left, she started to get it.

These three actually cared.

As Rachel snuggled into Quinn and allowed the blonde to comfort her, two little voices argued in her head.

Should she let them in? Or was that suicidal?

##RQSB##