"A bend in the road is not the end of the road... unless you fail to make the turn."

~ Unknown

Rachel wakes up to a steady beeping and carefully tries to open her eyes, but even the single movement of her eyelids seems to be too hard for her to manage.

Where am I? What happened? She wants to ask, but there seems to be no sound coming from her mouth.

"She's moving. Oh God she,s moving!" A voice mixes into the beeping, and Rachel concentrates really hard to identify it, but she can´t quite make it out due to the fact that it sounds like a thick wall is blocking most of it out.

"Rachel Darling, open your eyes, please!" The voice continues and Rachel tries to move her arms, but fails due to a sudden jolt of pain that shoots up her right arm.

Rachel hisses, and for a moment her mind threatens to slip back into the darkness she had just surfaced from. And though it seems easy, something inside her tells Rachel to fight it, to fight the urge to settle back into the comfortable, pain free silence.

"A nurse, a doctor, someone please!" Rachel hears another voice, much clearer now, and she puts all strength she can manage into opening her eyes.

She squints through her eyelashes and is greeted by the sight of a blurry, white painted wall. Before she can even orientate herself, a face comes into her focus. Rachel recognizes the features, and she squints once more to chase away the blur.

"Leroy, get a doctor! And where did Finn go? Oh Rachel, my baby!"

Dad. Rachel mouths as she recognizes her father and she wants to move, but she can´t.

"Shhh it´s fine." She hears her father say, even though Rachel notices that he´s crying.

Suddenly the door flies open and Rachel can see several people enter the room, people she doesn't recognize, before her eyes drift close and she slips back into the comfortable, silent darkness.

Rachel wakes up several hours later. It's easier to open her eyes this time, the opposite wall isn´t as blurry and as bright as before, it´s actually quite dark.

It must be night. She thinks and manages turn her head a little, just to find her two Dads asleep in their chairs on the right side of her bed. She turns her head back and to the other side, her gaze falling on a sleeping figure in the bed next to hers.

"Finn." She manages and jumps a little at the sound of her own voice. It sounds like somebody else's. Even though the sound has been barely audible, Finn begins to stir.
"Rachel?" he asks and blinks, as if he can´t believe that she had spoken to him.

Rachel nods, still not trusting her own voice.

"Oh thank God!" Finn stumbles out of bed and almost trips, but somehow manages to stay upright.

"We were all so worried!" he fiddles with his hands for a moment, not quite sure where to put them. He settles for Rachel´s arm and she flinches in advance, expecting the same jolt of pain she has felt earlier, but nothing happens.

"Why…why am I here? What happened?" Rachel whispers, still trying to get used to the sound of her own voice.

"We…we don´t know." Finn says, looking over at Rachel´s Dads. "We were supposed to get married after Regionals, but then you and Quinn got into a car accident."

Rachel stares up at Finn and within seconds her chest feels too tight to breathe.

Quinn. What happened to Quinn?

The other girl´s face appears in front of her eyes and suddenly a loud, crashing noise rings in Rachel´s ears and she grabs Finn´s hand, clawing her fingernails into his skin.

"Rachel, hey, it´s ok!" he tries to calm her down and then her Dad´s are awake too, fussing over her and calling for a doctor. Rachel feels like everything´s a blur again, people are calling her name, but it seems like she's forgotten how to respond.

"Rachel Darling, stay with us, please!" she hears her Dad´s voice from far away, but she´s already drifting back into the darkness.

The next time Rachel wakes up it´s day again, though she has no idea which day exactly.

She´s not feeling any kind of pain anywhere in her body right now and so Rachel looks around. The room is empty and she momentarily wonders where everyone has gone, until she hears a knock on the door.

"Come in." she´s surprised at how strong her voice sounds and thinks back to the first time she had woken up without being able to move or even whisper so much as a word.

Rachel then hears someone fiddle with the door knob and she turns her attention back to the door, which opens a little while later.

"Quinn." Rachel breathes out as she recognizes the girl with the blonde hair and her heart skips a beat.

I´m so happy you´re ok. She wants to say, but then her eyes drift lower and she notices that something isn´t right. Quinn is not standing up.

"You´re…you´re in a wheel chair." Rachel whispers, her voice suddenly sounding weak again.

"I´m ok." Quinn says, a smile curling up at the corner of her lips. "I´m just glad you´re ok. How are you handling it? At first they wouldn't let me leave the bed and then they wouldn't let me in, only close family and your boyfriend." Quinn stops talking when she notices Rachel´s confused look.

"Oh, they didn´t…" Quinn fiddles with her hands, finally resting them in her lap.

"I just…I just woke up." Rachel says, sounding as confused as she looks. She wants to ask Quinn what´s going on, but suddenly the door swings open and her Dad´s enter the room, Finn following them just after.

"Oh, Quinn you´re…" Leroy starts until a squeal of his husband draws his attention somewhere else.

"Rachel!" they both say in union and rush over to her bed, taking one of her hands into theirs. "We´re so glad you´re awake!" They both have tears in their eyes and so does Finn, who is standing at the end of her bed, looking down at her fondly.

But right now Rachel doesn´t really care about any of those things, her eyes are fixed on Quinn, who suddenly looks very uncomfortable.

"Dad." She says, her voice sounding a little broken.

"Yes Darling?"

"What´s wrong with me?" she feels her own voice quiver and looks up at her Dads, who suddenly seem to go stiff.

"I don´t know what you´re talking about." Leroy says but his eyes dart away for a second and Rachel follows his gaze. What she sees makes her stomach drop to her knees. There´s an empty wheel chair standing in the corner of her room.

Rachel panics and instantly tries to move her legs, but nothing happens.

"No. No. No." she utters and tries again, only to fail a second time. She frees her hands from her Dad´s, who can only stare at their daughter, the emotional pain they're feeling clearly visible on their faces.

"Out." Rachel hears herself say as her vision goes blurry from the tears forming in her eyes.

"But Darling," Hiram starts.

"No. Out." Rachel cuts him off and flinches away when he tries to touch her.

"I don´t think it would be good to leave you alone." Finn joins in, but he seems unsure of what to do.

"Quinn…Quinn can stay." Rachel presses out without even thinking about what she´s saying. She just wants to be alone, but if that isn´t possible she has to be with someone that at least understands what she is going through.

Everyone´s staring at Rachel, but nobody is moving and Rachel just wants to cry and yell at them, but she knows that she can´t. She can feel the lump that had formed in her throat and she wishes more than anything that she´s just dreaming.

"You guys should leave, just for a little while." She then hears Quinn´s voice and holds her breath just for a moment. "We´ll be ok."

Rachel blinks, trying to see through her tears and feels a hand stroking lightly over her head.

"We´ll be right outside," her father says and then everyone, except for Quinn, is gone.

Rachel looks over at the other girl and opens her mouth to say Thank you but all that comes out is a broken sob. And then the tears start falling and Rachel wants to curl up on herself but she can´t move her legs and maybe she never will be able to do that again.

The realization hits her even harder and she starts sobbing uncontrollably, until she feels a hand on her arm.

"Breathe."

Rachel can hear Quinn´s voice and she grabs the other girl´s hand, clutching it so tight it must hurt, but Quinn doesnt complain. She just covers Rachel´s hand with her own, her thumb stroking lightly over it.

It calms her down, but not enough to stop the sobbing, even though Rachel keeps telling herself that she needs to, because she is sure that she´s making a fool out of herself.

She tries to take a deep breath and suddenly hears Quinn´s voice, very quiet, as if it is just for her to hear.

I know it's me that's got to change the moment
Life goes on, I guess I think I've always known it

Quinn´s voice is soft and Rachel concentrates on it without even wanting to.

Might not be tonight, tomorrow or the next day
But everything is gonna be OK

Rachel feels her breath even out and her grip on Quinn´s hand softens.

It´s gonna be OK
It´s gonna be OK

After Quinn has finished, Rachel takes another deep breath and opens her eyes, just to find the other girl smiling at her fondly.

"We´re gonna be ok," She whispers before taking Rachel´s hand in hers and pressing a soft kiss to her knuckles. "We´re going to be ok."

So much for the first chapter, the next one is going to be longer, but meanwhile just leave me a review and tell me what you think! =)

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