A/N: Thank you for reading my story and the response!
Disclaimer: I do not own Glee and its characters.
"I have bad news." Mr. Schue announced as he entered the choir room. "I assume some of you already know, Rachel was admitted to the hospital."
"What?" Surprised, Puck asked. "What happened? When did it happen?"
"On Saturday, she was found unconscious in the bathroom in the midst of her fund raising event." Mr. Schue answered. "She was diagnosed acute gastroenteritis."
Santana blew out a low whistle before looking at Mercedes in a meaning manner. Mercedes nodded with a beatific smile. "So, it's settled. I'll do a solo."
"Are you taking pleasure in the misfortune of others?" Finn spat, looking at them in disgust. "Why don't you worry about her before worrying about your singing a solo?"
Artie, who had witnessed Rachel having gotten taken away in an ambulance from the Lima Convention Center on Saturday, nodded in agreement. "Yeah. Besides, nothing's set in stone for Sec…"
"She had it coming." Santana snorted, interrupting before Artie finished his statement, folding her arms across her chest.
Finn snapped, jumping out of the chair. "Enough, Santana!" He raised his voice, both hands clenched fist, completely oblivious of his promise to Rachel. "Did you know she was kind enough to stop me from saying you're making other people's life miserable because that's the only way to break off your own dilemma of that you can't come out of the closet? Despite you're constantly tormenting her? And unlike Rachel, you've never helped Sugar improve her vocal ability. How dare you say such a thing?"
Puck yanked Finn's arm down to get him sit, but it was too late. What was worse, the doors of the choir room were open, some students who happened to be passing by the choir room stopped walking and peered inside the room with surprised faces. Now everyone in the choir room dropped mouth open at Finn's sudden exposure and shifted their eyes to Santana.
Santana, her face turned red with anger, approached Finn before slapping his face hard. Dumbfounded, everyone gasped with widened eyes. Their jaw dropped down further. She gathered her stuff and stormed out of the choir room. Mercedes glared at Finn before chasing after Santana with Brittany.
Mr. Schue, having been taken aback for a moment, composed himself getting his thoughts straight from what just had happened for a span of a minute, and cleared his throat. "Okay, guys, clam down." He sighed, thinking he would have to talk to Santana later. "Rachel will have to be in the hospital for two weeks at the longest. I don't know she'll make it to recover by Sectionals." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, massaging his temple with his finger. "So we need to recruit new members as soon as possible."
Little did he know that Santana, Mercedes and Brittany were holding consultations to leave New Directions and start up their own glee club.
After a short visit, Jason, who promised he would visit her on next weekend, went home in the early morning on Sunday. Kurt, Blaine, Artie, Finn, and Coach Beiste visited her one after another on Sunday afternoon. On Monday, New Directions (minus Mercedes, Santana and Brittany), Mr. Schue and Ms. Pillsbury came to see how she was doing.
Finn, who stayed after the other left the hospital, broached the incident in the choir room. "I lost it. I outed Santana."
Rachel sighed. "Finn…"
"I know what I did was wrong. But I couldn't help it." Finn defended. "She said you'd had this coming."
"As much I appreciate your defending my honor, she had a point." Rachel put her arm on her forehead in defeated.
"Seriously?" Surprised, Finn widened his eyes. "She and Mercedes didn't worry about your health but singing a solo!"
Rachel peered at Finn under her arm before putting down her arm on her stomach. "It's true that I forced myself to be in this situation. I got Hail Columbia from my dad." She giggled as she saw Finn's confused expression. "I mean, I got a good scolding from my dad."
Rachel tried to sit up on the bed before she shook her head in refusal at Finn who was about to help her. "You know who I am, Finn. Self-absorbed, that's who people think I am. That's who you and I both know I am." She looked down, playing the hem of the duvet. "After transferring, Kurt once asked me how come I'd been never nice to him when he'd been my teammate." She took a deep breath. "We became friends was because he was no longer my competition."
"But you've never insulted anyone like Santana. You care about the glee club." Finn protested.
"I care about the glee club is because it's the only place I can feel I belong to in high school." Rachel paused, recalling her memories. "Do you remember when we went bowling together for the first time?" She slightly laughed at herself, wondering that was a good memory or bad one. "When you tried to bring me back to the glee club, I said I didn't see the point in wasting my energies on someplace that I was not appreciated?"
Finn nodded as he sifted on the chair with a mixed feeling.
"Well, it's not like I don't appreciate the others' talent. But you know me, I don't like sharing the spotlight." Rachel admitted. "Kurt told me the other day I should try hard to show my appreciation to the other talented people, especially the people who are as much talented as I am." She continued. "He also said 'talent wins games, but teamwork…"
"…and intelligence wins championships'." Finn finished the sentence, grinning at her. "He stole it from me!" He pretended complaining.
"And you stole it from Michael Jordan." Rachel poked his hand, which was on the edge of her bed, with her forefinger playfully.
"He really is a good guy." Finn said, remembering the morning after the prom night, before adding. "And he really cares about you."
"He is and he does." Rachel nodded smiling. "He makes me want to be his boyfriend." She beamed at Finn before they shared a laugh.
"Anyway, I'm sorry to trouble you guys. I don't know I'll make it to Sectionals. So, what are you guys going to do, I mean, recruiting new members?" Rachel asked.
"I don't know… Santana, Brittany and Mercedes might leave New Directions." Finn ran his hand through his hair in frustration. "Which means we'll be four members short." He blew out a breath, dropping his shoulders.
"I would apologize to Santana first and make every endeavor to minimize the damage which she'd possibly suffer." Rachel suggested.
"Yeah." Finn nodded, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. "And I'll try to recruit new members. If I can't find anyone to join the glee club, I'm going to ask the Jazz Band to sway in the background." He started to get ready to leave.
"Oh, and Finn?" Rachel stopped him from standing up. "Did you know Noah might stay in the same classes for another year?"
Finn nodded. "I heard it from Mr. Schue." He saw her concerned look on her face. "Don't worry, Rach, I'll take care about it, too. Just focus on getting better, okay?" He squeezed her hand in his, resisting his urge to kiss her.
"Thank you, Finn." A smile reached to her face.
A genuine one.
She followed his leaving with her eyes, thinking maybe she could finally leave their past behind.
Rachel was getting bored. Sure, she had her homework to do, which Finn insisted bringing her after school every day. Other than doing her homework, however, she was almost at a loose end in the hospital.
For the first two days since having been admitted to the hospital, she tried to warm up her voice for the audition, but soon a nurse stormed into her room and threatened that her recovery would definitely be delayed unless she stayed absolute bed rest (and said that it was an annoyance to the other patients) since her symptoms were stress-induced. She reluctantly complied, or you could say she had no choice (because she still suffered from a stomachache and diarrhea. And she admitted that she felt dizziness and had a headache when she tried to sing at the top of her lungs).
Nonetheless, Rachel couldn't be bored. She just couldn't. Her life had never been boring. She was a planner. And she always adhered to her plan. If she couldn't go to school, keep up her voice for Sectionals and the audition, or go to dance lessons, she'd better use this time to make her next move for college applications and such.
Now, there were plenty books and binders on the bed, her computer on her laps. The first thing she set was reevaluating her way of living. She took an oath to herself that she would never ever lead herself to dismal consequences like this. What if she would get sick on the day of an audition for a musical after becoming a professional performer (what was worse, on the day of the audition for getting in NYADA)? Or, after getting a big lead part in a musical? She shuddered at the very thoughts.
After an hour, Rachel managed to reschedule her every day timetable, included a much stricter diet. "There." Satisfied, she nodded to herself, looking at the screen of her laptop.
Next, she sent a mass e-mail to all the members of New Directions and Mr. Schue with her apology and her idea for Sectionals. She didn't give up making it to Sectionals.
Third, she began to proceed to work her essay for college applications. At first, she was going to write about something similar when she had applied to NYADA summer school program. But it was too ordinary.
Rachel put her laptop aside and lay down on the bed, with closed eyes thinking how she ended up lying on the bed in the hospital to begin with despite she was determined to be a star on Broadway more than ever.
The last Christmas.
Finn officially broke up with her.
That was the dawn.
She once slipped down to the lowest point since then and she'd had ups and downs, but her world had begun to rebuild through new people and new experiences she met. She still had an issue with Mercedes and Santana, but she was learning and trying to resolve.
Rachel sprung up on the bed with lightened eyes. Music had strung an every inch of me and led myself to get stronger and fresher. She saw it in a new light.
She grabbed her laptop and began punching the keyboards frantically.
And she was ready. Ready to talk to Jason. About everything of her relationship with Finn.
A/N: I love Rachel having said to Kurt "you make me want to be your boyfriend" in 3x01 'The Purple Piano Project'.
Any thoughts?