A/N: Thank you for reading my story and the response!
Disclaimer: I do not own Glee and its characters.
Rachel and Kurt were anxious to wait for fund raisers at the entrance of the Lima Convention Center.
Thanks to Kurt and Warblers, some of their parents willingly supported the event. Her dads too called for their colleagues' participation. David promised to give a free performance since this fund raising event was supposed to be a charity one.
Rachel glanced at the inside of the hall, where was decorated with Vivienne Westwoodish fabrics and pictures from the punk rock era in London (Kurt insisted the event theme should be reflected his musical).
She saw Artie holding his video camera in his hand moving around. Warblers were standing by the stage. Coach Beiste, Burt, her dads, the Equality Ohio, Lima branch members were chatting at their tables.
"Are you okay?" Kurt asked with concerned eyes, noticing something was wrong with Rachel.
The truth was, she was not fine. She had felt nauseous and had migraine recently. She was relieved that SAT and subject tests finished. But it was short lived. The glee club had been in dispute over the song selections for Sectionals. Girls except for Rachel made a suggestion strongly to do an Adele mash up (and implied that Mercedes or Santana should do a solo), boys on the other hand were eager to sing and dance with a Michael Jackson medley.
Mercedes.
Rachel's new cause of headaches.
Rachel secretly admitted that sometimes Mercedes power house singing voice intimidated her. Since Mercedes started dating one of the jocks in McKinley High, her confidence had been boosted. Her vocal skill had gotten refined.
But that was certainly not why Rachel didn't ask her to audition for the musical like she did Tina (besides, Rachel put on the audition flyers on the bulletin boards in the hallway so Mercedes was free to do that, right?).
Mercedes threatened to leave New Directions if Mr. Schue gave Rachel a free ticket to sing a solo.
Rachel sighed. "Yeah, I'm fine." Rachel dismissed Kurt off with a wave of her hand.
Much to her unease, so much more people joined the event than Rachel expected. Kurt pointed out that Sue Sylvester's anti-art speech on Sue's Corner defeated its own end and publicized their event.
When Warblers' welcoming acapella 'London Calling' was emerging out of the stage, Rachel felt a hand putting on her shoulder. Rachel whirled around before finding who the hand was belonged to. "You made it!" She hugged Jason.
"Kurt's changing costume, I wouldn't miss it for the world." Jason grinned.
After Warblers finished singing welcoming acapella, Kurt approached to Rachel and Jason to greet. "Jason!" He circled around Jason, who wore a fit slim black punk suit and a tie. "Hmm, my efforts have been rewarded. I approved. You look very handsome tonight. You can officially be called young Michael Fassbender."
Rachel frowned as Jason chuckled. "Kurt, what are you talking about?"
"Kurt kept texting and calling me what to wear and how to style my hair." Jason explained, rolling his eyes before adding. "You look beautiful, by the way."
"Thank you, you're not bad yourself either. I can't…"
"Thanks to me!" Kurt cut in, clapping his hands before Rachel, who was wearing a champagne colored stretch satin bustier dress, her hair in a loose bun, could continue to speak. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to change my attire." He pointed to his Dalton's uniform and made his way towards an anteroom.
"I can't breathe in this dress though." Rachel pouted. "Well, Wanna join my table? I want you to meet my dads and Burt." She beamed and held her hand to Jason to take.
The fund raising event went off without a hitch despite Rachel felt dizziness.
Now the event came closer to the end. After Rachel introduced the band, Woody Four appeared on the stage. She, with a sweating brow, went down the stage and was about walk over to the table where her dads, Kurt, his dad and Jason were sitting.
Artie was startled as Rachel practically bumped into his wheelchair. "Rachel, are you alright?" He called out, still his camera in his hand towards the stage.
"I don't know…" Rachel wiped her sweat out of her forehead with a back of her hand, feeling a sharp pain in her stomach. "Can you tell them I go to the bathroom?"
"Sure." Artie followed her walking off to the restroom with his eyes before rolling his wheelchair towards the table Rachel directed.
His eyes were glued on the stage. He couldn't believe what (or who, to be precise) he saw on the stage. It's been about six years since he saw David. He didn't dislike him. He couldn't. What had happened between his sister and David was not his business. Besides, his sister never said bad things about David. She kept telling him that it was her decision, not David's.
His sister too said that she was selfish since she never granted David's claims (he was suspicious that was more like David hadn't known what to do or what to say, but if he were in David's shoes, he couldn't say he would've done something better).
After his sister moved to LA, there was no reason to visit Lima for him. He knew which college David went. Although he had the phone number of David, he never tried to call him. Not that he was upset. It was just… awkward. His friendship (or brotherhood like relationship) with David had been built through his sister. After the thing happened, how could he keep his friendship with him?
He, however, had missed talking to David, about playing piano, about Bach, about school, about girls, about… Rachel.
Rachel.
Jason snapped out of his thoughts. Where had she been? Woody Four was playing their last song 'Because the Night'. It had been a while since Rachel disappeared.
He looked over the venue. Kurt was making his way towards the stage to give a speech for drawing the curtain. Her dads had already moved to another table to greet some people from the Equality Ohio. Burt and Coach Beiste got excited over talking about football without paying attention to the band performance. He frowned.
Jason stood up and made his way to the bathroom with a fully intention to look for her.
He knocked on the bathroom door.
No answer.
He tried to knock harder with his fist.
Nothing came.
Jason pushed the door and peered inside the bathroom before finding Rachel collapsed on the corner. His eyes widened, feeling his heart stopped.
He rushed to her and held her body in his arms.
"Rachel. Rachel!"
'Doesn't Make It Alright', which Woody Four was playing right now, repeated over and over again in her head. She had to return to the inside of the venue. She had to say a word of thanks to the band. She had to get out of the bathroom.
Rachel slowly opened her eyes. Why did she lie on the bed? When did she come home?
"Oh, Rachel."
"Thank God, Rachela."
She assumed that those were her dads. She blinked twice or three times before looking down herself. A needle stuck into her forearm. From the end of the needle, a feeding tube extended. She lifted her head to see the other end of the tube. Oh, IV fluids.
"Why am I here? What did I miss? The event!" She sprung up and cried out.
Hiram touched her arm gently with tears in his eyes. "Don't worry. It was a great success. You and Kurt raised $5,865."
"You've diagnosed acute gastroenteritis, Sweetpea." Leroy cut in. "I should've brought you to the doctor when I first noticed you were losing your weight." He sighed.
Rachel suddenly felt exhausted. She sank down herself on the bed, closing her eyes.
"We both know you've made desperate efforts for your school work and college application, but you have to learn to breathe, Rachel." Leroy warned.
Rachel took a deep breath. "I'm sorry." She looked up at her dads. "How long will I have to be here? Can I go home tomorrow?"
Hiram and Leroy looked at each other before Hiram opened his mouth. "Rachela, you'll have to be here for a week or two. It depends on how much your symptoms will be alleviated."
"Two weeks?" Rachel widened her eyes in horror. "Sectionals'll be in three weeks! And the audition, the musical! I can't be here for two weeks!"
"Rachel." Leroy held her hand in his. "We're responsible to take care of you, but you should've taken care of yourself too. If you don't pay attention to your own health, you'll suffer the consequences. You need your health for whatever you do." He said with a stony face.
"But-"
"No buts." Leroy reprimanded. "You better rest before resuming whatever you forced yourself to leave."
Hiram clapped his hand to break the tension between his daughter and significant other. "Rachel? You want to see the boy from Cincinnati? He found you lying in the bathroom."
"He's here?" Rachel was surprised as she glanced at the clock on the wall. It was almost midnight.
"He insisted that he be staying. He said he wouldn't head home until he could see you awake." Hiram winked at his daughter. "We'll bring him here. Leroy." He cleared his throat knowingly.
Leroy stood up from the chair beside the bed before muttering. "Visiting hours already passed, so make it…"
Hiram cut in and dragged his husband out of the room. "We'll be in the cafeteria downstairs. If you need us, just call, okay?" He said over his shoulder.
"Thank you, Daddy, Dad."
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