Glee 1. Chapter 1

"Good morning, Papa." Rachel skipped into the kitchen as she's done for as long as she could walk and talk. She kissed his cheek before settling beside him and the kitchen table, glancing at the newspaper in his hands. "Is there anything worthwhile in the paper today?" She questioned before pouring the soy mild into her cereal. She smoothed out her plaid skirt and sweater before picking up her spoon to take a small bit.

"It's always the same things. A boy who tried to steal a soda from the corner store. A girl who wants to change the world one walk at a time. The business that is doing the next fundraiser. The local officials spewing off whatever the public wants to hear rather than doing what is good for the public. Yadda yadda yadda," LeRoy rolled his eyes before settle the paper down to focus on his daughter. "So your birthday is coming up next month, what would you like to do?"

Rachel thought for a moment before answering. What did she want to do? She couldn't have a party and invite a few friends over because, well, she didn't have any. "How about we go to the restaurant down the street and spend the rest of the night in?" it was what they have done for the last three years, but Rachel loved it. Her fathers were frequently away on short business trips, so any spare moment she had, she tried to spend it with them.

"Are you sure that's what you want to do? Why don't you invite some friends over and we will make ourselves scarce for the night." It was the same thing every year. Rachel couldn't exactly tell them that she was the resident loser at her high school. She couldn't break their hearts that they raised such a loser.

"You know I love spending time with you." She told them with a show smile plastered on her face. "Maybe next year, but this year, I'm going to be selfish and I just want a day with you two with no interruptions. Please?" She begged. She didn't want them to question it anymore.

"If that's what you want, sweetie, who are we to deny that. After all, it is going to be your special day." Hiram waltzed through the door way greeting his two favorite people with a kiss on the cheek. "Enough with this talk of my baby girl getting another year older, what's for breakfast?" Hiram grinned cheekily at his husband before turning to look at the now mushy cereal on his placemat.

"Hey, you told me you were right behind me. How was I supposed to know that you were going to wait nearly half an hour before gracing us with your glorious presence?" LeRoy playfully bantered with him.

Rachel loved the mornings when both of her fathers were there. She loved hearing the playful tones that were only present when they were alone or just with her. She longed for a love like that in her future, but with the track record of boyfriends so far in her sophomore year, could anyone blame her for thinking that it was nearly impossible to obtain. The only person fighting for her heart was Jacob Ben Israel, and well no one could really blame her for trying to steer clear of him at all cost.

"Where did you just go to, baby girl?" Hiram questioned. She had her usual distant look when she was concentrating on something.

"Just thinking about what this week's lesson in glee would be." She smiled to him. They both knew how much the girl loved to sing and quite frankly, it broke their hearts that they had not been able to make it to her first competition. "I'm hoping to try something outside of my normal range this week so hopefully Mr. Schue will give us a lesson that I can easily do that."

"I'm so proud of you." LeRoy said honestly. It wasn't a lie either. Both of the parents were extremely proud of the girl Rachel turned out to be. It wasn't every day that a girl her age knew exactly what she wanted to do with the rest of her life. She honestly had known that her future would always be Broadway for as long as she could remember. She smiled and gathered her bowl and spoon and headed to the sink to deposit them.

"I love you both so much. I'm going to miss you while you are gone." She told them honestly before gathering them in her arms as tightly as she could. They were leaving in the afternoon for a two day business trip to Wisconsin. "Have fun and don't forget to call when you get there." She told them sternly, looking in both of their eyes.

"Yes, mom," Hiram rolled his eyes jokingly. "Sometimes I don't remember who the parent is, you or me. Are you sure you don't want to go with us? It's not too late for us to make the arrangements and you know we would love to have you there with us." It was the same question he asked every time before they left. They had offered to get her a private tutor so she could constantly travel with them, but she adamantly refused, always saying she needed to have different human interaction to help with her acting. When she shook her head, he kissed her head before giving her a light shove towards the door. "Well then off to school with you. I love you, baby girl." She waved one last time before blowing a kiss and running out the door to hopefully arrive at school early so she could make use of the choir room.

She arrived at school nearly an hour before her first class began and she honestly couldn't be happier. Arriving early allowed her to gather all of her things that she would need for the day and avoid the major of the hallways which cut down her chances of being slushied for the say. Yes, Rachel Berry was the number one target for the daily slushie. She was lucky if she could make it a day with only two slushies.

She padded quietly down the hallway to her locker to dispose of her backpack and get her books before going down the stairs to the choir room. Getting there early also meant she had to dodge the teachers on duty. If there was no pass present, the teachers would not hesitate to send her outside with the masses.

"Thank God," Rachel silently praised when she arrived to the quiet, dark room that was often her salvation. She turned on the back lights to allow the room to be slightly lit before sitting down at the piano. Playing the piano was her guilty pleasure that no one really knew about. Well then again, no one really asked about her talents, so she usually kept that one to herself. She ran her fingers lightly over the keys, careful as to not accident press one down. She hated when people would random stroke the keys and played nonsense. The piano was a calming instrument and it was able to play the most beautiful sounds that she didn't understand why people would try to coax seemingly harmful noises out of it.

She began to flutter her fingers over the keys for a song she had perfected only last night. She softly began to sing Christina Perri's _Human_, closing her eyes as she let the lyrics wash over her senses and speak her mind.

She sighed as the bell rang. She hated this part. She hated having to go and pretend that nothing ever said was taken to heart. She hated having to pretend that she was okay with the names and taunts. She pulled her books as close to her chest as humanly possible before she adverted her eyes to the floor for fear of looking at someone the wrong way.

"What's up, Man Hands?" She heard the familiar voice of Quinn Fabray. Rachel cursed herself for thinking that she would make it through the morning without having to change her clothes. She rolled her eyes, slightly annoyed that she seemingly couldn't do anything right before moving her eyes from the floor to face one of her many enemies.

"May I help you?" She asked with a slight bit. Rachel knew that she shouldn't have done that, but she figured it couldn't make it much worse and she was not about to admit to defeat. She was not one to simply back down. She may be little but she had a way with words that could thoroughly confuse even the brightest of students. "I'd really like to be on my way so if you have a frozen beverage behind your back, let's just get on with the inevitable banter that we will have prior to you holding me down and pouring that god awful freezing drink over my head, shall we?" She smiled sickeningly sweet.

"Don't you ever just shut up? It's really no wonder why you have no friends. You don't know your place yet, but don't you worry that little head of yours, I'll show you." Quinn stated before chucking the ice cold drink onto the smaller girl. She sighed before wiping the drink from her already stinging eyes. She shook her head angrily and headed down the hallway to her locker for her first set of spare clothes.

"Can't one day go my way? Just one day?" Rachel asked herself as she walked to the third floor bathroom which was undoubtedly the cleanest of them all. She quickly cleaned herself and headed to her first class of the day.

"I'm sorry I'm late." Rachel told the teacher who just gave her a sympathetic look before told her to find her seat and started to go over the lesson plan for the day. Rachel rolled her eyes as she walked to her seat. Of course no teacher would help her.

The rest of the day seemed to drag on forever for Rachel. She was currently on her third and final change of clothes by the time the bell rang signaling the end of the day. She smiled to herself and raced down to the choir room to be the first on in for glee. Her smile quickly fell when she saw the note plastered to the door announcing that the glee club practice that was schedule was cancelled due to Mr. Schue getting sick and leaving half way through the day. She looked around, biting her lip as she tried to think of her easiest escape route. She hadn't had to leave with the rest of the student body in so long. She had joined nearly every club she could so she could be sure that she never had to.

Rachel had decided that taking the back corridor would be the safest way as long as she waited at least thirty minutes to allow the students to race to their cars and out of the parking lot. She decided to start on her homework for the next week to make the time pass quickly. By the time she finished three out of her five assignments, she got up off the floor, brushing the dirt from the back of her skirt and headed out to her car.

She walked slowly without sudden movements in case someone was still wondering the hallways. She kept her head down so that her hair cascaded down across her face so she could remain as invisible as possible.

"Well, well, well, what do we have her?" Rachel heard someone say off to her right but she continued to walk as though she heard nothing. She didn't want to have to walk home with a freezing liquid coating her body.

"Hey, I'm talking to you." The voice tried again. Rachel could feel her heart start to race. She picked up the pace when she noticed the door was only a few strides ahead of her. She let out a squeak when she felt a hand clamp down on her upper arm. "You know I love a little cat chase."

Rachel struggled as much as she could for someone her stature. She tried to slap the person that was dragging her down the hallway further into the school when she received a slap to the face. "Listen here, you little slut, you think you can walk these halls wearing a short skirt and not think that anything is going to happen to you? You think you don't deserve to be punished for being a loser. You deserve a lot more than what I am going to do to you." The guy sneered into her ear while punching her in the stomach with each sentence. She felt herself double over in pain and coughing when he knocked the air out of her.

"Please leave me alone. What do you want? Do you want money? My car? What?" She begged and pleaded. She didn't know for sure what was going to happen to her but she was terrified for her life.

He laughed in her face when she started to question his intentions. "I want something more than just money. I want something from you that you'll never be able to get back. I want you to know where your place is in the world. I want you to know that the only thing you are good for is just sex. I want you to know what everyone thinks of you." He sneered in her ear before pressing something sharp into her stomach. "Now, right now, I want you to be a good little girl and be quiet and maybe I'll go easy on you." He smirked and pressed a little harder into her stomach.

"Good girl," he praised her before shoving the door closed to the empty classroom and locking it. She gulped when he came back to her welding the knife. "I'm going to ruin your dream of Broadway so you can always remember the fun we had her. You are nothing on Broadway if your perfect body is ruined beyond recognition." He began to run the knife over her arms creating cuts deep enough to bleed but not deep enough to catch any arteries.

She whimpered when she felt him move the knife to her neck. She tried to push her neck back so that she could try to get away from the blade. Her eyes widened when he brought his hand to the hem of the sweater before ripping it off of her to reveal her purple bra. "What's this? Were you expecting this?" He smirked when he say the semi-sexy bra that pushed her cleavage up. She moved her eyes as the tears started to flow heavily down her cheeks. She knew what was coming. She had read books. She had seen movies. She knew exactly what was going to happen to her.

She choked out a sob when she felt him grind his pelvis into her core. She felt the knife go deeper into her stomach when he roughly bit her left breast. He smiled at her while he watched the blood seep out of the bite mark around her nipple before creating the same mark on the right.

She felt herself go tense when she felt hands on her panties. She began to hyperventilate, pleading with him, pleading with any god that would listen. "As much fun as this is, I'm growing slightly bored with you, so let's get this over with." He grabbed her core roughly with one hand while he unbuckled his pants and pulled out his erect penis. "Do you see what you do to me?" He asked. "Do you see how hard your struggling made me?" He asked her while he pushed roughly into her vagina. She screamed out when he entered her. She felt as though someone took a saw and started to tear apart her lower half.

"I've always wanted to try playing with heat to get off. Let's see if it's actually a turn on, shall we?" He asked with a gleam in his eyes. She felt her eyes widen when he pulled out a lighter and flicked it on. She screamed and struggled as he brought it to her stomach and started to run the flame over her tender flesh. She couldn't take the pain. She could feel her world start to go black as she prayed to every god out there to take her from her misery. She just wanted it all to end.

**So, should I continue this or not? It's just something that kind of flowed together. Let me know if I should continue. There will be a pairing in the story but I don't know who exactly yet.**


	2. Chapter 2

Floating. That's what Rachel felt like she was doing. She couldn't feel anything around her. She couldn't see anything except a black abyss. Rachel knew that there was something seriously wrong with her body but she couldn't force her eyes open. She was stuck.

Pain. That's all Rachel felt. She couldn't even figure out where the source of excruciating pain was. She tried to pull her hand to her face to feel the damage. She struggled to move her feet off of the firm surface beneath her.

"Whoa, calm down there princess." She heard a voice say. She could vaguely recall the voice, but without opening her eyes, she couldn't be sure. "Are you awake?" The voice asked her. Was she awake? Did she want to open her eyes and see what had happened to make her body hurt so much?

She slowly peeked one eye open to stare at the tired, tear stained faces of her fathers. "What happened?" She asked still unaware of her surrounds. She slowly shifted her eyes around the strange room she was in, taking in the white walls and the light tones of color here and there. She immediate could pick out the hospital that her father worked at. Her father! Wasn't he supposed to be on a business trip today? Why isn't he there? Why aren't I in my room? She began to question herself. She tried to remember what exactly what had happened to her to make her in pain in the hospital.

"No!" She screamed as everything came rushing back to her. "No, no, no," She begged when she remembered the way he grabbed her arm. She remembered everything. She could feel his burning presence everywhere on her body. She could still smell the body spray that he coated onto his body to try and cover up the cigarette smoke.

"Baby girl, I need you to try and calm down. You aren't doing anything good to help your body heal if you keep moving like that." LeRoy tried to reason with her. He tried to gently press on her shoulder to force her back to her previous position on the bed. She looked at him with panic stricken eyes before launching herself in the once protected arms of her father. She didn't want to go through this. This only happens to people in bigger cities. It only happened to the ones that went to parties. How could it happen to her?

"Daddy," She whispered as the dam broke. She sobbed and muttered phrases of "he wouldn't stop" and "I tried so hard" and "why me". He waited until her breathing had slightly calmed down before the started whispering his own words of comfort into her ears.

"It's alright, I've got you. I'm not going to let anyone hurt you." He rocked her gently back and forth on the bed, mindful of the wounds that littered her once clean body. He couldn't believe something like this happened to his baby girl. He couldn't understand why the world was suddenly so against his family.

Hiram looked in at the exchange. He couldn't think of anything to help the situation. Sure, being a doctor meant that he dealt with similar cases in the past, but with it happening to his only daughter, he couldn't think of the right words to calm her down. "Sweetheart," He tried to collect his thoughts. Rachel planted her ear to LeRoy's chest, listening to the soft, calming beats of his heart before looking up to her other father. "I'm so sorry." He whispered. How could he call himself a father when he couldn't even protect his only daughter? That was really his first job.

Rachel couldn't stop crying. She felt as though she drained her entire body of fluids, but she couldn't stop the tears. Could it really be true? Why couldn't it just have been one of those awful nightmares that she could wake up from and move on with her life?

Rachel flinched noticeably when the door creaked open to reveal a female doctor in her early forties. She had her hair pinned back out of her face to show the wear and tear of the job in her features. Her hazel eyes had nothing by sympathy and pity for the poor teenager that sat hopelessly on the hospital issued cot in her father's arms.

"Good morning, Rachel. My name is Dr. Molly Wright. You can call me however you feel comfortable. How are you feeling today?" The doctor introduced herself. She hated the fact that she was almost forced to ask such a generic question. She knew that the victim of such attack couldn't possibly be fine.

Rachel whimpered in pain and fear as the doctor walked slowly toward her bed with both hands slightly up and out in front so she could show Rachel that she wasn't there to hurt her. She was only there to help. Rachel couldn't answer that question. Not for the sake of pretending, but because she really didn't know how she was. The only thing she knew for certain was that she was terrified. She was so scared of everything that she couldn't exactly put into words that she could get the adults in the room to understand.

"Let me rephrase that question." The doctor began when she noticed Rachel struggling to come up with an answer. "How is your pain today?" She tried again as she looked down at the girl's chart. She glanced over at the machine that was hooked on Rachel and began to scribble down her vitals. "On a scale of one to ten, how bad is it?"

"An eleven," Rachel whimpered as her father tightened his hold on her shoulders. She couldn't find a part of her body that didn't feel as though it was burning. Rachel gasped when she remembered what the monster did with the lighter. She looked down at her issued hospital gown before placing a hand gently over her stomach.

"Be careful, sweetie," The doctor warned her when she pressed slightly on her stomach. "You've suffered third degree burns on your abdomen. We have already cleaned the area and we are just waiting to see if a skin graft is necessary." The doctor slowly explained the extent of her burns. "Would you like to know about all the other injuries?" Rachel contemplated her answer. She did want to know what all she had, but at the same time she didn't want to relive everything she had endured the previous night. She didn't want it to be real and not knowing everything meant that she could pretend for a little while longer that it was okay. On the same note, Rachel hated not knowing what her body was going through. She hated not know what she was going to have to do to keep herself healthy if she could at all.

"Well, you have sustained minor cuts on both of your arms and one in the middle of your stomach, which is why we are waiting on the skin graph. You have a broken right tibia," She paused to look at her chart to see the rest of the injuries while Rachel took the time to examine her arms and her casted leg. "You have sustained serious injuries to your vaginal canal and pelvis area. You had reconstruction surgery last night to repair the extensive damage to the walls of your vagina." Rachel's head began to swim. What did all of this mean? Why couldn't she just go home and be in her bed? "I'm going to suggest some psychologists that specialize in sexual assault in minors." The doctor continued to speak but Rachel just tuned her out. She couldn't talk about this with someone that didn't understand exactly what she was going through. She needed to be home and she needed to move on.

"When can I go home?" she asked suddenly.

"Rachel, your injuries aren't minor. They could become life threatening very quickly again if we don't treat them cautiously." Hiram tried to reason with her. Being the doctor, he could understand the hesitation with releasing her from the care. He certain didn't want to have to be the one to find her if something went wrong in his care. He couldn't have that on his conscious along with everything else. "Honey, you need to stay here until at least your skin graph is over with and then we can talk about the possibility of being released to go home."

"But what is going to happen about school?" Rachel was honestly concerned about not being able to attend her studies. She gasped when she thought about not being there with the glee club for regionals. She needed an anchor in her life. She needed some sort of normalcy if she ever wanted to move on from it. She needed to bump her head and get amnesia. She needed to forget everything that happened within the last 24 hours.

**What do you think so far? I know it's kind of slow right now but I'm trying not to rush anything. Let me know who you would like to see paired with Rachel in the future!**


	3. Chapter 3

Rachel couldn't tell anyone what day it was. She couldn't even tell you what time of the day it was anymore. Her days all morphed together in pain and agony. She was so exhausted in every sense of the word. She just wanted to go home and sleep in her own bed. Or at least, she wanted to attempt to sleep in her own bed. She didn't feel safe enough to sleep and when she did decide to close her eyes, she was plagued with the nightmares from that day. She could remember the huskiness of his voice. She could remember the scent of his breath that cascaded over her when he spoke to her. She could remember the god awful over use of his body spray. She could remember the gold tooth on the right side of his mouth. She could remember the random Chinese lettering on his left arm as her held the knife to her stomach. Power, that's what the tattoo had meant. She needed to look it up as soon as she could figure out the tattoo enough to sketch it. She had to know what it meant.

He certainly took away her power. She didn't even have control over her body as it jumped whenever someone spoke too loudly. She couldn't control her trembling figure as the doctors and nurses came in to check her wounds and vitals. She couldn't help but flinch when she felt the unexpected touch of her fathers. She couldn't control the way she was breaking every inch of her father's hearts. She lost more than just her innocence that day. She lost her entire life.

She was glad when the days passed and no one from school had come to visit her. She knew that almost all of her life she wanted nothing more than to be wanted and to have friends, but now, she wanted nothing more than to disappear from the rest of the world. She just wanted to blend in and not allow the world to know what was happening in the life of Rachel Barbra Berry.

"Honey, are you ready?" Hiram asked softly as he packed the rest of her things from the stay. She nodded before turning back to stare at the world below the sixth floor of the hospital. She knew that she looked utterly terrible, but she couldn't bring herself to care. After begging her father for her to return to school, he thought it would be a brilliant idea to hire a male tutor to keep her up to date with her studies. Of course, that just led her to freak out and not accomplish anything that was school related. He enrolled her in a homeschooling program that allowed her to keep up with everything, even though he wanted her to just rest and focus on recovering. Her body was still so weak, but he had promised her that she would be able to go home after her needed skin graft.

"What day is it?" She was honestly curious. She hadn't slept a full night since she got admitted to the hospital. Once she learned that sleep was not in her agenda for most nights, she began obsessing with her school program. She had completely the rest of her sophomore year and already began the first semester of her junior year.

"December 17," He whispered. He knew that her birthday was the next day, but he didn't know how she would take the news.

"I've been in here for a month and a half." It was more of a statement than a question. She felt as though it happened only yesterday but yet at the same time, it felt as though she had been going through this for an eternity. She sighed before swinging her uninjured leg off the side of the bed. She eyed the wheel chair warily, as if deciding the easiest way to get from the bed to it without causing too much pain to her. "Can you help me?" Rachel looked so small and vulnerable.

"Of course, baby girl." Hiram told her before passing her bags to LeRoy. "Are you excited to come home?" He asked her while lifting her petite body from the bed to the wheel chair. She hadn't been eating much during her stay due to the surgeries that she had to endure and the recovery process that her body needed. Her pain medication made her ill and her already restricted diet was becoming more and more restricted.

"I'm happy not to be here anymore." She told him honestly. Was she happy to be going home? She didn't know. She was just happy to be able to take the first step to trying to get her life back on track.

"At least you answered all the questions the police needed before you got home. I hate to see you so scared, but I'd rather you have the bad memories here than to have them plague you at home." LeRoy tried to give her some sort of encouragement. She grimaced at the thought of having to answer the invading questions the police had asked her. She hated the fact that she was a minor because that meant her parents had to hear every excruciating detail of the attack. She had to list all the ways the monster defiled her in the empty classroom of a place that was supposed to protect her as her family was to protect her.

"Does the town know?" She knew that it was nearly inevitable for the town to find out. She knew that the town was bound to find out. She just wanted them not to find out it was her. She wanted to be able to forget and she couldn't do that with the stares that she was going to receive. She watched as her fathers looked guilty between each other before looking back at her. "Do they know it was me?" She tried again. She could handle the town knowing some poor girl was…she couldn't even think the word.

"No, with you being a minor, no names were presented to the press." LeRoy told her as he stroked her hair back away from her face. "We told the school board to only tell the teachers that you were helping out in Arizona with your elderly grandmother. We didn't want your worthless teachers to have it slip to anyone of the student. We didn't want your business out there and we didn't want to produce a mass hysteria." He gritted his teeth on the word worthless. LeRoy absolutely hated the teacher of McKinley. He had heard the town talk constantly of the favoritism and the willingness to do anything for money.

"Thank you," Rachel told them honestly before gripping both of their hands. "I'm ready," She told them as she pulled back her hands to rest in her lap. She glued her eyes to the floor as her dads escorted her off the hospital grounds. She knew that she would have to go back for check-ups and other things, but she honestly couldn't be more excited to go back to some sort of her old life.

"What is the first thing you want to do when we get home?" Hiram asked her when he finally pulled out of the parking spot. He decided not to plan anything for the next week to let her decide what she was ready for and what she wasn't.

"Can I just lie down?" She wanted nothing more to go to sleep and never wake up, but she knew that it wasn't a possibility. She knew that they would be bringing her soup and her array of medications, ranging from antibiotics to high dosages of pain medications to help dull the ache.

"Sure, bug," Rachel felt a ghost of a smile flutter across her face when her father used her old nickname. She used to hate the nickname when she was younger. They always told her that she was like a ladybug because she was beautiful but yet she always seemed to be where she wasn't supposed to be.

She rested her forehead on the cold window. She allowed her eyes to close for a second when she jolted them back open when she saw his face in her mind. She could feel her heart start to beat faster as she tried to convince herself that it was all just a hallucination.

She allowed her father to carry her into the house with her face buried in his chest. She breathed in the familiar scent of her father that never failed to relax her even if it was the tiniest. "Lie down here on the couch while I make you some soup before I take you up to your room." Hiram told her before walking into the kitchen.

"What are we going to do?" Hiram met LeRoy's pained eyes. How were they going to make it okay for their baby girl? How were they going to pick up the shattered, jagged pieces of their daughter's entire being? How were they going to be okay with seeing the scars that would always be littered across her skin as a reminded that they weren't able to save her? Not when she needed them the most.

"I don't know." Hiram answered honestly. He was a clueless as the day they brought her home. Although then, he knew that he would be okay with being a parent to a newborn baby girl. Now, he had no idea how he was going to take away her pain. He didn't know how to make her whole again.


	4. Chapter 4

"Rachel, sweetie, here is your soup." LeRoy poked his head in her doorway. He was glad that she didn't shut her door. He didn't want to have to knock and worry about scaring her. He watched her deflated form lying on the bed facing the window.

"Thank you," came the monotone response. Rachel couldn't stand to see the look on her father's face. She knew what exactly she was doing but yet she couldn't exactly help but break her father's heart. It was funny how her entire life she had tried to have all the attention on her no matter the cost, but now she couldn't help but try to make herself invisible. She suddenly knew that her dreams of Broadway were silly dreams and nothing more. She couldn't see herself putting herself on a stage every night to show off her body and expose herself. She just couldn't seem to care about her future.

"Dad," She trailed off right before her dad left the room. "Do you mind if I not go to school for the rest of the week?" LeRoy looked at her slightly confused. She had only just got home from an early discharge from the hospital. She wouldn't be going to school for another four weeks minimum. Her body wouldn't be able to take the added stress of being on her feet every day, nor could it take the slushies that were inevitably going to happen. He didn't want her stomach to get infected and he didn't have control over what could happen at school. He couldn't let her out of his sight again.

"Honey, don't worry about school. You aren't going back until at least your stitched come out. After that, we can talk about it." LeRoy tried to reassure the young, broken girl.

"Thank you," She told him with a little more emotion. It was the most that he had used since the accident. "Before I forget, here is your phone." He told her. He didn't want to pressure her with the phone, but it had gone off the entire time that she was in the hospital. They had charged it just in case she would ask for it, but so far, she has disconnected herself with the world. To her, the world around her didn't seem to notice or care that her world had stopped. The world didn't care about the one Miss Rachel Berry.

"It hasn't stopped ringing." He tried to cheer her up. He was honestly curious as to what was on her phone, but it was password protected and he didn't know the passcode. He handed her the phone before shifting from foot to foot. "Do you mind if I sit?" He asked and gestured to the bed. When she nodded, he took a seat on the bed as far away from her that he could get. He didn't want to accidently touch and scare her.

She shifted around on the bed before getting comfortable with her back up against the headrest. She allowed her eyes to adjust to the brightness of her phone before she read the amount of messages and phone calls. _104 text messages 78 missed calls 56 voicemails._ She couldn't help but gasp at the amount of messages. She didn't even know that she had one friend that would be concerned about her, let alone multiple people. She didn't even know that there were multiple people that had her number.

She sighed before clicking through the messages. She noticed that the first one was from November 13th, three days after the accident. It really took three days for someone to realize that she wasn't there? Especially when she hadn't missed a day since kindergarten when she had a serious case of the chicken pox.

_Mr. Schue – Emergency glee club meeting tomorrow for the set list for Regionals._

Of course, she rolled her eyes; the first message would be about the glee club. The club used to be her entire life and now, now she simply couldn't care less that there was a possibility it would be shut down. She noticed that it was a group message and everyone had responded back, which blew up her messages.

_Mr. Schue – The only person I have not heard back from is Rachel, could someone else try to get in contact with her and let me know._

_Kurt – Hey diva, where have you been? You've been MIA since the 10__th__ and I'm starting to get a little worried about you._

_Finn – Rachel? Is this all because of our break-up?_

Of course, Finn would think that she was doing all of this because of the break-up. She continued to scroll through the messages until she got a surprising text message from Santana and an equally surprising one from Noah.

_Santana – Rachel, I swear to God, if you do not pick up your damn phone, I will fucking find you and I don't think you want that._

_Noah – Jewish babe, where are you? I'm getting really worried. Please just come to temple or something._

She couldn't believe that Santana had called her by her first name.

_Santana – Rachel, seriously, this isn't funny anymore. You aren't home. Your fathers aren't home. Where are you?!_

Santana had come to see her? "Dad, no one came to visit me in the hospital, right? No one knows, right?" Rachel had abandoned her phone and stared at her dad.

"There were two of your classmates that came to the house every day that we came home for a something." He said. "Noah Puckerman and there was another girl with him, but she didn't tell us her name." She knew Santana wouldn't tell her fathers who she was. Rachel had told them all about her and about the slushies.

"What did she look like?" Rachel pressed. She had to know if it was true. She couldn't exactly pinpoint why it was so important to her, but she felt herself feel a little lighter knowing that someone cared about her enough to see what was wrong.

"She looked to be of a Latin descent. Long brown hair. She wore a cheerio's uniform. She was a little spit fire that was for sure." LeRoy chuckled as he remembered the girl after he told her that the singer was not home and he was unable to inform her of Rachel's whereabouts.

"Did you tell them?" Rachel was almost scared of the answer. A part of her wished that one of her fathers had spilled the beans about everything so that she wouldn't have to and then a part of her wished that he didn't because she wasn't exactly sure if she wanted anyone to know.

"No, I didn't tell anyone. The school board knows that you had to take a medical leave of absence, but I informed them not to allow any of the teachers to know because I wasn't sure if you wanted anyone knowing or in case someone would have let it slip out." LeRoy told her slowly. He had tried to read her face but he was met with hesitation and he didn't really know how she was going to react to that knowledge.

"I just don't want the looks of pity when I go back," Rachel said looking down. She was ashamed by this, but yet she couldn't help but fine relief in the fact that this was her secret to do what she wished with. She looked up at her dad, just barely meeting his eyes before she flinched slightly at the sound of the doorbell ringing. LeRoy took note of this and held his arms open and waited for her to make the next move. He didn't want to force her into a comfort hug if she didn't want to. He smiled gratefully at the ceiling when he felt her body curl into his as far as it would go. He rested his head on hers after she buried it into his chest.

"Listen, I know she's here. You two have not been home for this long since she left. So now what is going to happen is that I'm going to make my way up stairs to see her whether you like it or not." Rachel could hear Santana's voice traveling up the staircase and through her doorway.

"Daddy, please," She begged. She didn't want anyone to see her like this. She didn't want to see anyone until she could put on a brave face and face the world with a carefully thought out lie. "I don't want to see her. I don't want to see anyone." Rachel had just gotten out before her bedroom door was opened. She whimpered harshly before her breathe started to become jagged.

"Miss, I need you to leave right now." Hiram said when he saw the state his daughter was in. He didn't want this to be hard on Rachel, but he knew that if he didn't get the Latina out of the house, or even just out of the doorway for now, Rachel would be thrown into a panic attack.

"Rachel?" Santana asked carefully as she ignored the requests and walked carefully to the obviously hurt girl. "Sweetie, are you okay? What happened?" She had noticed that when she raised her voice above a whisper, Rachel would flinch and whimper. "Rachel, please you are scaring me." Suddenly Santana wasn't the popular terror of McKinley high school. She was the little girl who tried to protect everyone in her life.

Rachel took the chance of taking her head out of her father's chest to be able to breathe better and was met with the tear streaked face of one of her biggest tormentors.

**So what do you think? Still worth me continuing?**


	5. Chapter 5

Santana was confused. She had heard a bunch of rumors at school about what had happen to cause the diva to go MIA but she could tell that everything had been wrong. The rumors ranged from Rachel getting drafted into the army because they thought she was a male to her joining the circus after her nose job had gone terribly wrong.

"Rachel?" she tried again. A part of her was terrified to get an excuse, but she needed to know. Sure, she was the leader of the group that called her man hands and midget and every other name in book, but she also didn't wish for anything to happen to her. Santana knew that it was contradicting, her thoughts, but yet she couldn't help but explain them that way. She had to keep up her appearance and public humiliate and terrorize kids, mainly Rachel, but deep down she had always had a small soft spot for the girl.

"I think it is best you leave." LeRoy told Santana with a glare after he noticed Rachel's breath began to become unsteady again. In that moment of time, he only knew that his baby girl was scared beyond belief of either this girl herself or her loud actions when she first entered the room.

"Please," Santana begged Rachel this time completely ignoring her father's request. She took another step closer as Rachel began to have a full-fledged panic attack. Santana could tell that the man holding Rachel was very unsuccessful at getting her to calm down and the other man still at the door way couldn't even look her way without breaking into tears. "Come here, sweetheart," Santana told her as she sat on the bed. She took note of the flinch that she caused when she gently pried Rachel's hand off of her father's shirt. "Follow my breaths," Santana began to breathe in and out exaggerating every movement. "You're okay, I promise. I won't let anyone hurt you. You are safe right here with us." Santana kept reassuring the smaller brunette.

"Thank you," LeRoy told the girl that blatantly refused him requests to leave. He honestly hadn't thought of that to get Rachel to calm down. He looked down in amazement to see his daughter with her hand still on the middle of the other girl's chest. He could feel the soft movements of her chest.

"You're welcome," Santana told him with a small smile. She knew from experience with her older sister who suffered from severe panic attacks that the best way to get the breathing under control was to reassure the person and to have something easy to focus on. "Can someone please tell me what is going on? What happened? Why is she like this? What can I do to help?" Santana was back to her fiery self, asking question after question. She watched slightly as Rachel's hand start to grip her shirt and her breath began to slightly shallow.

"Santana, maybe we should talk about this in another room." Hiram suggested. He knew it was only a matter of time before the town caught a glimpse of Rachel's battered state and began to start spreading rumors and the truth around like a wildfire. He could see the hesitation in her eyes to leave the broken girl and couldn't help but feel grateful that someone besides LeRoy and him cared about the girl who had been through way too much at sixteen. "You can come right back after I tell you." He told her before beckoning her through the doorway. She looked between Hiram and Rachel one more time before squeezing the hand still on her chest and walking out the door with her father.

"Something happened at school last month." Hiram didn't exactly know how he was going to say all this. It was the first time a verbal recount had happened on his end and he honestly didn't know if he could make it through the entire story without breaking down. "The day glee club was cancelled, it was November 10th. She waited until she knew that the halls were almost cleared out before heading out the back way to avoid everyone. She didn't make it very far when someone dragged her into a classroom." Hiram had tears silently streaming down his face. The next part was the hardest. He didn't want to say the word out loud. It was almost as if it was one of the naughty words every parent smacked his child's mouth for when it was used. He felt dirty and disgusting every time he had to even think the world. "She was-she was assault." He managed to choke out. "She was raped and left for dead." He finally said. He looked up at the teenager for the first time since he started talking about it. He noticed that she was only a few seconds away from breaking down before he scooped her up in his arms and gently swayed them back and forth.

Santana thought that time had stood still while she listened to the older man. She didn't process where he was going until he was already there and she could literally feel her entire resolve breaking. It was the worst case scenario that had happened and she couldn't help but physically ache. She replayed the words over and over in her mind and she couldn't help but think that she was partly to blame for this happening. If she hadn't egged everyone on and tormented Rachel for years, none of this would have happened. She wouldn't have had to take the back stairs and she could have avoided this mess. Because of her, a girl's life was now in ruins. Because of her, someone could have died.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Santana started to repeat. She couldn't help but blame herself and she honestly didn't know if she could live with that.

"Sweetheart, you didn't do anything. You weren't there to physically stop him. You weren't the one who beat her. You weren't the one who raped her." Santana felt nauseous. She knew the Berrys were very forgiving people but she couldn't take this. She was partly to blame. She had practically led Rachel to her rape. She might as well have been the one to rape her.

"If it wasn't for what I put her through every day, she wouldn't have been there." Santana sobbed into the older man's chest. She clutched onto his back, afraid that he would push her away and kick her out. She was surprised when she felt his grip tighten and his head resting softly on the top of her head.

"Honey, you couldn't have known this was going to happen. Am I disappointed in what you have done? Yes. Do I wish you could have helped her and not humiliated her? Of course. Do I blame you for what has happened? Not one bit. There was no way you could have known what was happening. You have been the only one here to visit besides Noah and I am going to always be grateful for you caring. I have no doubt in my mind that had you known or saw what was happening; you would have stopped it immediately. You care about her." Hiram told her before squeezing her for just a fraction of a second before releasing her fully and wiping away the tears that were slowly falling from her eyes. "From here, you have two options. Either you go in here with our heads high and you help her, or you leave right now and you don't bother her again because she can't take something that could cause her anymore hurt than she is already feeling right now. She isn't strong enough for that." Hiram said sternly before nudging her shoulder back towards the door.

Santana took a deep breath to calm her before she headed back to the room. She took in the sight again, now from a different perspective. She now knew what had happened. She now knew that this girl in front of her was broken immensely and she really didn't know how to help fix her. For the first time in her short life, Santana was unable to do what she wanted most in life at the moment.

**So I have decided to either make this Puckleberry or Pezberry. Leave a comment or message me to cast your vote and then keep reading to find out! I appreciate the reviews! Thank you for reading!**


	6. Chapter 6

"Baby girl," Santana had softly said to Rachel when she entered the room. She had walked slowly towards the bed with both of her hands where Rachel could see them. She didn't want to scare the other girl again but approaching her too quickly or making an unpredicted movement with her hands. "I'm so sorry," she apologized for what felt like the millionth time today.

"Do you mind if I could have some time alone right now? Just for a little while until you have to help me with the bandages?" Rachel looked at her fathers, purposely not looking towards Santana. She couldn't deal with her on top of everything else. She didn't know what to make of this and her head was spinning around.

"Sure, baby girl. I'm going to leave the door open if you don't mind. I want to be able to hear you if you need something." LeRoy reasoned with her. He wanted to be able get to her as soon as possible if she needed even a drink of water. She was still too weak to be on her feet at all, so LeRoy needed to know that she could reach one of the two without leaving her bed.

"Thank you." She whispered before slowly guiding herself down on the bed. "Thank you, Santana for coming to check on me." Rachel told her before rolling carefully onto her side to face away from everyone. She could hear the three retreating down the stairs as she began to allow the tears to roll down her face.

LeRoy, Hiram, and Santana walked silently down the stairs and into the kitchen. None of the three could think about eating or even wrap their minds about what to do next. "Santana, will you be staying for dinner?" Hiram asked politely. He honestly had no desire to ever eat again, but it was part of his job to keep his family healthy and he intended on trying to keep that promise. When she grimaced at the mention of food, his fatherly instincts kicked in. "You need to eat. I can't have two girls to worry about. That's hardly fair, don't you think?" He raised his eyebrow. He knew it was low to play the guilt card, but he didn't feel like he had another choice. He didn't want to be the cause of another girl's sickness.

"Do you think she will want to see me?" Santana decided to ignore the question which earned her a pointed glance. She couldn't think about food. She couldn't eat when she knew that Rachel probably wasn't going to eat solid foods either. She didn't want to sleep when she knew that Rachel probably was going to wake up multiple times tonight alone. She didn't want to do anything that Rachel couldn't do. She didn't think it was honestly right for her to even be in the house when it was obvious Rachel didn't want her there. "Do you think she can forgive me?" Her voice was small and vulnerable but she couldn't bring herself to care at the moment. She felt like the small child that just wanted to wake up from this terrible nightmare.

"She will. She just got home today. She needs to just readjust to everything. She is in pain right now, no matter how much she tries to deny it. We just have to be here for her and if you are willing to wait for her here with us, then we would love to have you." Hiram took her hand in his and guided her to the table. She smiled softly to him and nodded her head. The second she was told about what had happened, she promised herself she wouldn't leave the girl's side.

"I would like that." Santana finally said. She wanted nothing more than to be able to do everything she can to help the girl. She would stay here every day if she needed to.

"What all happened? What are her injuries?" Did Santana really want to know what all the monster had done to Rachel? Probably not, but she owed it to her to help out with everything to make it easier on Rachel. She needed to know what all was okay for Rachel to do for herself and what all was an absolute no.

"She's had some reconstruction surgery of her vaginal canal from the tearing…she has minor lacerations on both of her arms…she has a broken leg in on place…and she has third degree burns on her abdomen and a stab wound in the center of her stomach." Hiram stuttered out. He knew the extent of all of her injuries. He also knew that there was a high chance that she wouldn't have even made it passed the shock if it wasn't for the anonymous caller for an ambulance. When the paramedics had arrived on scene, the caller was nowhere in sight. He wished that he could thank the mysterious person for saving his baby girl's life. "She had to have a skin graft to help heal the burns, so they have to stay completely sterile and covered until it is completely healed."

"So what can I do?" Santana didn't want to hear about her now mangled body. She didn't want her to always be remembered about this just by looking at her body. Rachel had dreams. She was going to be on Broadway. She was going to get out of this black hole town. She was going to be someone.

"You can start by letting her know that you aren't going anywhere. She will either push us away or she will latch on. Can you handle either way? If she is pushing people away, she will use everything against you. She will hurt you. If she's clingy, you have to understand that she will want to never leave your side. She will beg and plead and cry if she cannot see you." LeRoy tried to explain what was going to happen with this. Rachel only reacted to situations two different ways and unlike before, he couldn't pinpoint which way she was going to act. While she had asked for some alone time, she had clung to him like her life depended on it when she was scared. "You can't change your mind halfway through this. If you don't think you can do this, please leave now." It wasn't harsh. He was genuinely concerned for his daughter and Santana could see that.

"Yes," she said suddenly strong. She would not break anymore promises. She wouldn't walk away from this. "I promise I will be here for as long as she will have me." Her voice was strong. She knew what she wanted to do and that was to help her.

"Thank you. Now what would you like to eat? And I don't want to hear that you aren't hungry. So tell me your favorite meal and get out of my kitchen." He told her playfully. She giggled for the first time today and did what she was told.

Santana sat on the couch in the Berry home and tried to collect all of her thoughts. She had no idea how everything was going to work, but she knew she was in it for the long run. She wondered if the Berry men were going to make her leave tomorrow when it came time for school, or even if they were going to let her stay the night. She knew that her mother wouldn't mind since she had told her mother daily about the extreme worry she had and the uneasy feeling in her gut about the situation.

"Santana, the food is ready," and just like that she was brought out of her thoughts. She smiled sheepishly when he raised an eyebrow as if he knew that she was contemplating skipping school. She knew that if Rachel were well, she would force the Latina to school. But yet, if she were well, would they even be friends? She was ashamed slightly when that thought had crossed her mind, but she couldn't deny it. She couldn't say that the diva would be on her the top of her friends list. The only thing that she was certain was now that she had the girl in her circle; she was never allowed out of it.

Dinner was a quiet event. The trio sat and thought about all the ways that the next step could go. They thought about when Rachel would be ready to talk. But most of all, they thought about why it had to be her. Why did it really have to be anyone, but her especially?

"Do you need help with the dishes?" Santana had manners that she prided herself on when she showed them. She knew when to be polite and when to offer her assistance and even when to allow herself to be scarce.

"No, you are our guest. Why don't you go and watch some TV? Rachel should be ready to change her bandages soon, so maybe after that, you can talk to her?" Hiram was trying to be an optimist for her sake. He knew there was a high chance that Rachel wanted the rest of the day to herself, but he didn't want to let Santana feel as though she wasn't welcome there.

"Actually, do you mind if I call Puck, well Noah? He's been driving himself nuts with worry and I just want to let him know that she isn't missing anymore? I won't let him know anything if you don't want him to know. He just has been calling me every hour to see if there has been an update. He would have been here with me now had his mom not had to go to work for a double leaving him with his sister." Santana rambled on. She had no idea why she felt the need to justify his actions. After all, the Berry men knew nothing of the life of Puck at school. They didn't even know him by the name of Puck.

She pulled out her phone when she received a nod from one of the men in front of her and began to search for the number she needed. She held her breath while the phone rang.


	7. Chapter 7

"Santana, please tell me you know something." Was the first thing she heard from the other line. She didn't want to tell him that everything was fine, because in reality, everything was far from fine. She heard his breath hitch when she finally let out a loud shaky breath. She could do this.

"She's alive." Santana finally settled on. It was the only thing that would keep his worries about her left in a ditch somewhere. It allowed him to know that not only did she know where Rachel was, but that she also knew that she was still breathing.

"Where are you? I'm on my way." Santana heard him pick up a set of keys and she listened to the door slam before she came back to her senses. She knew that Puck only lived a street down from the Berrys so he would drive passed and see her car in the driveway. She knew he would stop and pound on the door until someone came to open it. And she knew he would race up the stairs like a bat at of hell before anyone could stop him.

"Wait!" She screamed into the phone. She needed to calm him down and try to convince him to come over when she finally could talk to Rachel. She needed to know what she wanted to do about her being there. She wanted to see if she was still welcomed in the home. "Things are bad, Puck. It's worse than we thought." She winced as she took a breath. That wasn't exactly the best way to calm down, but by the sudden silence on the other side, she knew that she had his attention.

"What do you mean?" His voice was strange to even himself. He knew that he sounded vulnerable for probably the first time since the Mohawk phase, but he couldn't help it. What was worse than thinking Rachel was dead on the side of the road somewhere? What was worse than thinking she was shivering out in the cold?

"I can't tell you yet. I need her to okay it. It isn't my secret to tell you and I'm sorry." Santana knew that she was rambling again, but she couldn't bring herself to care. She knew that right now he wasn't making a move to come over yet so she was still okay. She could feel her stomach churning when she started to replay every word Rachel's fathers had said to her. "Let me talk to her first and make sure she is okay with you knowing. Give me a little time, please." Santana begged one last time. She knew that this was the last argument she had, but she couldn't help but use it. "Rachel might not be able to handle you right now." She whispered. It was a low blow, she'd admit it, but there was no way that she could let him see Rachel like that. She couldn't risk Puck not being able to control himself and be the person Rachel knew. Santana couldn't risk Puck being anyone but Noah when he was around her.

"Is she hurt?" He whispered deflated. He had a pretty good idea as to what had happened, but he couldn't be one hundred percent sure. He needed to hear the words out loud to believe them, but he honestly was terrified of what could have happened.

"Yes," Santana knew better than to lie to him. She knew that if he found out the truth, his trust in Santana would plummet down and he would never fully believe her again.

"Will you call me later tonight?" He knew that this was a losing battle for him. He could hear the hurt and worry in Santana's voice to know that she wouldn't make this up. Puck needed to know that he would still be in contact with someone about Rachel's wellbeing.

"I will. I promise. Try and get some sleep." Santana knew that the past month had taken a large toll on Puck. His mom had been working extra shifts to try and save up some extra money for Hanukkah. Unfortunately, that meant he had to watch his sister more and with the worrying about Rachel, he hadn't been sleeping well at all. Santana could tell that he was exhausted just by the slight strain in his voice.

"I'll try," he promised before bidding a goodbye and hanging up the phone. Puck knew that it was pointless to try and sleep. He knew that there was something very wrong with Rachel and his stomach and chest ached with worry. He couldn't sleep knowing that she was hurt. He didn't know if the worst part was that he didn't know how she was hurt or the fact that he didn't know she was hurt. Then there was the fact that he had no idea how long she had been hurt. Had she tried to reach out to anyone? Was she kidnapped? Was she held in a torture chamber? Was she missing from home for days before someone found her? Questions began to swarm his mind as he thought about the different possibilities about what happened. His head pounded with the different scenarios that were now on repeat flashing through his mind. His stomach lurched at the images his mind was providing.

Finally giving up on sleep, Puck decided to relieve some frustration on his punching bag. He decided against wrapping his hands. He wanted to feel everything. He needed to hurt. He saw nothing but red when he released punch after punch to the bag. He could see the black bag start to become slick and shiny with his blood, but at that moment, he didn't care. He didn't care about anything expect Rachel. His fellow Jew. The leader of the glee club he was a part of. The girl he had once been best friends with. The only person to be brave enough to call him Noah. His Rachel.

Puck didn't hear the door creep open. He didn't hear the footsteps approaching him. He didn't notice the person trying to wrap her arms around his waist until he was jerked back gently. He felt his body sag in defeat when he smelled his mother's perfume.

"Noah, baby, look at your hands." For the first time since he released his anger out on the bag, he looked at his hands. He winced as he tried to close and open his fists. He knew that there was a high chance something was broken, but he didn't care.

"There is something wrong with Rachel, Ma. There is something wrong and I don't know what it is or how to help." He face was completely void of any emotion, but Adina knew better. She knew that when her son was hurting, he shut down. She knew that if she didn't get him to talk soon, he would bottle it away and use some sort of violence to compensate.

"Why don't you go over and see her?" Adina said as though it was the obvious answer. She couldn't see why her son was so upset when he hadn't even seen her in a month. She knew that he had been trying to reach her for a couple of weeks, but she knew that if he was seriously concerned, he would come to her.

"Ma, something really bad happened. Santana is with her now. She said she didn't think Rachel could handle seeing me. She said Rachel is hurt. She's over there hurting and I'm right here and not with her." he was begging his mother to understand. He needed her help, but he couldn't exactly explain everything to her when he didn't even know himself. He needed her to tell him this was all a bad dream and he had just left Rachel at school earlier that day.

"I don't understand." To say that Adina was confused was an understatement. She had no idea what in the world was happening with Rachel, but from the way her son was talking, she could only fear the worse.

"Me neither." Puck finally felt the weight of the world crashing down on his shoulders. He didn't know what was happening and yet he knew exactly what was happening. The only thing he could do right now was to sit and wait for Santana to call.

"Let's get you to the hospital. Let's get your hands looked at." Adina told him sternly before kissing his temple. She knew that she was going to have to get to the bottom of whatever her son was distressing about. She knew she was going to have to call over to the Berry household.


	8. Chapter 8

**Good evening, readers! For everyone who is curious about the pairing in this, it will be Puckleberry with a Pezberry friendship! I'm sorry for anyone who wanted it to be the other way around. If anyone wants me to write a Pezberry fic, just let me know! But please continue reading this (: **

**Anyway back to the story! **

Santana could hear low whimpers coming from Rachel's room. She listened for a moment to be sure before getting up from the couch and walking down the hallway. After her phone call with Puck, Santana decided to go upstairs to the guest bedroom to think for a bit. She didn't want to look around in the Berry household at the various pictures of Rachel throughout her life. She could tell that the older men just downstairs really cared about the girl.

"Rachel?" She questioned as she got closer to the door. She spoke just above a whisper as to not fright her. Santana knew to move slowly when she could see the door way that led into Rachel's room. She moved into the threshold she could see the way Rachel's shoulders shook with every sob. She could see the way she shook with every whimper. Santana could feel her heart breaking into two.

"Rachel, may I come in?" Santana asked softly. She watched as Rachel slowly turned around on the bed. Rachel nodded her head and sobbed a little bit harder. She couldn't get her mind straight. Santana took the ten steps it took to get to Rachel's side and kneeled down beside her bed. Rachel whimpered before throwing her body into the other girl's arms.

Santana had never been more grateful in her entire life. She finally could feel the shudders of the other girl as she continued to sob. "Sweetie, I need you to follow my breaths. I need you to calm down and tell me what happened. What's wrong, Rach?" Santana had tried to console the girl. She ran her hands lightly up her arms before grimacing when she could feel every mark that was still healing.

Rachel started to regulate her breathing back to normal before settling further into her chest. She had never felt so exhausted in her life. She couldn't stand to fight everything much longer. She had wanted to give up so many times but she couldn't do that. She couldn't do that to her fathers and if she was honest with herself, she couldn't do that to herself.

Rachel couldn't get the sounds out of her head. She hated the silence almost as much as she hated the dark. She could hear every word. She could hear every grunt. She could still hear her screams and pleas for anyone to help her. Rachel began humming to herself to try to block out the noise. She couldn't close her eyes because every time she did, she could still see his face.

"I have you. I'm here." Santana kept whispering in her ear. She knew she had to get Rachel calmed down before she started to make herself sick. When she felt Rachel start to sag into her, she knew that she was starting to come back to. Santana felt herself tighten her arms around Rachel as she situated them on the bed. She continued to whisper in her ear and rock her slightly until she felt Rachel go completely relaxed.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Santana repeated to Rachel much like she did to the girl's father earlier that day. Rachel honestly didn't know what she was apologizing for. There was a whole list of thing engraved in Rachel's mind that Santana should be apologizing for, but Rachel didn't think that was for any of those. Sure, she might have been apologizing for everything collectively, but the almost hysteria in Santana's voice was confusing Rachel. "It's all my fault. I'm so sorry." It was Santana's turn to cry this time. She grasped the girl tightly as she tried to console herself. She immediately released her grip when she heard a whimper of pain from Rachel. It was never her intentions to cause her pain from the apology but she had misjudged her own strength as she calmed herself.

"Santana?" Rachel questioned. "What are you talking about?" Rachel had a pretty god idea what all was being said, but she also didn't want to just take a guess about it. No matter what the girl had done to her in the past, she was not to blame for what had happened. Rachel could only blame one person truly and against her better judgment, she couldn't blame herself. She didn't ask for this. She wasn't the one who couldn't control her urges. She wasn't the one who ruined a stranger's life for her own thrill.

"It's my fault. If I hadn't tormented you for so long, you wouldn't have been in that back hallway. If I hadn't thrown slushies at you since the first day, you wouldn't have been afraid to walk through the front doors. You wouldn't have hidden and you wouldn't have had this happen to you. I might as well have been the one who did this to you personally. It was my fault." Santana rambled and if Rachel hadn't been in a great deal of pain just from talking, she would have chuckled at her looking completely unlike her.

"Santana, were you there in the classroom?" Rachel waited for her to shake her head before continuing. "Did he tell you beforehand what was going to happen?" again, Rachel waited for a response from Santana. "You didn't cause this." Rachel had spoken with the most conviction that she had since the incident. Rachel hated the fact that Santana was beating herself over it. She didn't want anyone to have guilt over this, because really, she didn't blame them. She didn't blame any of them. Sure, the torture she endured for the past year and a half was what caused her to be back in the back of the hallway, but that didn't mean that it wouldn't have happened anywhere else. Rachel didn't know why he did it and that was probably the hardest thing about it. She couldn't tell a single soul if she was just a random or if she was actually a carefully placed pawn on a game board.

Rachel watched as Santana's eyes misted over with tears again. She hated this. Not only did the monster take away her future, life, and security, but he also took away the life and security of the people around her. It was a carefully timed bomb. She was destroying the lives around her slowly but she needed them to be around. While she couldn't handle many people, she needed the ones that were there for her at this moment in time. "Sing to me?" Rachel knew it was a strange request, but she needed Santana to know that she didn't blame her for anything that had happened. Rachel needed Santana to get rid of the thoughts she was being smothered by. Rachel needed to get rid of the silence that was following this talk.

"Sing?" Santana questioned to make sure she heard right. "What would you like me to sing?" Santana blew out a breath of air as she tried to steady herself.

"I want you to sing _Fighter_ by Christina Aguilera." Rachel told her firmly before sitting up slightly.

Santana looked at her like she was a little crazy but complied with the request. Santana knew that Rachel was concentrating on the sound of her voice more so than the lyrics or the pitch. She decided to test out the theory a little bit by changing the lyrics every now and then and purposely going out of pitch. When Rachel didn't even blink an eye at the changes, Santana knew that she would do anything to help this girl. Santana couldn't believe she spent her short high school career constantly telling Rachel that no one cared about her and to shut up. Santana would give anything to have that girl back.

"Thank you," Rachel said before sighing. She knew that eventually she would have to talk to her about it, but she couldn't help but wish it was later. She wanted to soak up the time with the thought of having a friend before she started to talk about it and have Santana think she was disgusting. She knew she was disgusting because of everything that happened, but she could still pretend nothing happened and she was just coming off her high from the win at sectionals.

"Do you want me here?" Santana didn't want to assume she was wanted nor did she want to pressure the girl into agreeing to have her. She felt a little lighter when she felt Rachel nodded from her place once again in her chest. "I'm not going to leave your side." Santana told her honestly. Sure, she would have to say something or another to Brittany, but she firmly believed her girlfriend would be okay with this. She was the one who wanted to befriend the singer in the first place.

Rachel was just about to break the hug when her body went rigid at the sound of a chime. Santana hurriedly grabbed her phone to shut off the sound. She sighed heavily as she looked at the picture that popped up on the screen. She looked at Rachel before and chewed on her bottom lip before telling her who was calling.

"It's Puck."

**How will Rachel take this news? Do you think she will react well? Let me know what you think will happen! Have a good morning, afternoon, day, evening, or night!**


	9. Chapter 9

Noah Puckerman was a Class A badass in his own mind. He was clearly the best man for anything at school and he didn't really care about anyone. He never let his one night stands or three day flings get too attached. However, things were different with Rachel. Sure there was that brief fling for almost a week with her but that was only because they were the only decent Jews in the school. When Rachel didn't come to school the day after glee was cancelled, he assumed she was simply sulking away in her room. He didn't think twice about it and moved on with his day. He didn't really think twice about it for the next day either. He had convinced himself that she was on some sort of business trip with her fathers. It wasn't until the third day that he got a nervous feeling in his stomach. He noticed that she wasn't in homeroom again and he decided to question everyone that had contact with her. He had interrogated everyone in glee about her whereabouts, but no one knew anything other than the hottest sale of the week.

Mr. Schue had decided to send out a mass text that day about glee club. He had thought that no matter where Rachel was, she would answer about the club. He had told the students to be discrete about it and he would find a way to let them know when it was okay to start questioning her. When he had received the organized responses from the rest of the club, Mr. Schue began to worry and promptly sent out a text asking to find out about Rachel. He took it upon himself to call her fathers on her emergency contact sheet, but there was no answer, nor a place to leave a message. He went to Figgins about his concern the next day but was received with the news that Rachel had taken a leave of absence. William Schuester eyed him unconvincingly before he left the office.

By the time glee rolled around, he had convinced himself completely that she was just simply away living her dream. He had told the students about his findings and was pleasantly surprised when they all simply moved on from the matter.

Noah and Santana didn't believe this news. They couldn't see how Rachel would leave in the middle of the competition season. She wasn't the type of person to do that. They shared a glance and in the silence, nodded to each other. They knew that they were going to find out what happened.

Noah and Santana went to the Berry home every day since then. They knew that sooner or later, someone would slip up and say something. They knocked on the doors of their neighbors only to be shot down without any information. On the final house on the street, they were finally greeting with a tad bit of information. The old lady with the numerous amounts of cats could recall seeing the two Berry men rushing in and out of the house earlier that day but it had been without the small diva in question.

Noah and Santana couldn't have been more relieved that there was at least a sighting of the two men, but it had meant that there was still the question about Rachel's whereabouts. She surely wouldn't have taken off without letting anyone know and with her dads being in town, there was no excuse for her to be out of town.

After knowing that the Berry men were still in Lima, Noah and Santana decided to camp out on their front porch in hopes to get a glimpse of one man. They came up with nothing for nearly a week before they saw the shiny black Honda CR-V speeding its way down the town street. As soon as they spotted the car that held the men with the answers, the two teens bounded their way down the walk to the driveway of the house. They jumped back onto the curb when the car raced toward the garage without slowing down until the last possible second. As soon as the men fled the car and rushed to the doors, Noah and Santana felt their stomachs drop. They could see the tear stained faces of the men and the hunched shoulders of sorrow. They could see the bags under their eyes from the obvious sleepless nights. They could see the way they were rushing towards the door, oblivious to the two teens still encased in thoughts. Noah was the first to break out of the thoughts that plagues him and began to run to the door before the Berry men could close it. He just managed to catch a glimpse of back of the head of one man that was racing up the stairs. Noah decided it was now or never so he took the stairs two at a time and followed him into Rachel's room.

When Noah started flinging questions, Hiram Berry stopped rummaging through Rachel's drawer and turned to him. He knew that Rachel didn't exactly have any friends in school, let alone that she was friends with the delinquent of the temple. Hiram tried to hide his surprise and anger at the boy who was wasting his time when he clearly needed to get back to his daughter. He didn't know what this boy wanted, but if it had anything to do with the reason Rachel was attacked or the reason behind her many stained sweaters, he was not going to be rational about it at all. He didn't know why all of a sudden this boy wished to be in his home, invading his privacy.

Noah was surprised when the man quickly dismissed him before he turned back to rummaging. Noah followed the man back down the steps and out to door to the car before he had a door slammed in his face and watched the car lurch backwards and down the road once more. He quickly cursed himself when he realized that not only had he not gotten the answers he wanted, but he lost Santana somewhere in the madness.

Noah's days were similar the entirety of Rachel's absence. He would constantly question the Berry men, but no one would give him a straight answer. Noah had tried multiple times to follow the car but it was too fast and it frequently weaved in and out through traffic. He was at a loss.

Noah began to become more closed off as he began to worry more and more about the little diva. He honestly missed her presence nagging on him about the song selections for the glee club or wanting him to shave his Mohawk to look more presentable to the public. When his mom starting taking extra shifts and force him to watch his sister afterschool, he began to walk holes in the floor of his bed room. He hated not being out looking for her or asking in case something had happened.

Noah was making his umpteenth trip across his room when his phone rang. He dove quickly onto his bed to retrieve it, not bothering to look at the id. When he heard Santana's voice flutter through the speakers, he didn't know if he should take a breath of relief or hold his breath in fear of something. He knew that she was only supposed to call when she had news about the diva, so when she started to tell him that she was at least alive, he immediately threw his jacket on and grabbed his shoes. He didn't even remember that he was supposed to be watching his little sister; the only thing on his mind was the little diva that he thought for sure was lying in a ditch somewhere. He had made it to grab his keys before he heard Santana tell him to stop. He felt his heart clench when she told him that it was worse than they thought considering he feared the worse. He quickly told her to call him as soon as she knew more before she was forced to get off the phone and he was forced to wallow in his thoughts. He didn't know what happened. He didn't know why there were no answers to his questions. He didn't even know if Rachel was alive on her own or if she was breathing by a machine.

**I wanted you to know how they had reacted to Rachel disappearing from school. I'm sorry I haven't updated in a little while. I really have no excuse other than a terrible attention span. Happy Reading! Let me know what you think!**


	10. Chapter 10

Rachel could feel the air leave her lungs when she heard the phone chime. She couldn't stand to hear unexpected noise from the quiet. She didn't really understand why her body began to react thing way to the noise. When she heard Santana say the identity of the caller, Rachel didn't know whether to be relieved or not.

"Rachel, I need you to breathe with me. I need you to calm down before you pass out." Santana could feel Rachel's breathing shallow. She could feel the way her heart started to pound at a rate of alarming concern. She didn't know whether or not she should just answer the phone call from Puck or if she should try calming Rachel down first. She knew that Puck would consistently call her phone if she didn't pick it up, or worse, he would just head straight over to the house and demand to see Rachel, much like Santana did herself. But on the other hand, Santana knew that Rachel was very fragile right now. She knew that ignoring Rachel could make things ten times worse. In the end, she chose to turn her phone on silent before going to calm Rachel down. She would deal with puck when he arrived.

"That's it, just like that." Santana coaxed Rachel down from the near panic attack. She sighed out in relief when Rachel began to breathe normally again. She honestly was scared to death when Rachel was thrown into another panic attack. She wasn't an expert, but she knew that it wasn't good to go in and out of them multiple times. "Rachel, I need you to tell me what to do with him. This is your call. Do you want him to come over here? Do you want me to tell him to fuck off? Or do you want me to tell him something in between those two options?" If it were any other time, she would have immediately chastised Santana for her vulgar word choice, but she didn't really care about what was coming out of her mouth.

Santana could see Rachel slowly shake her head as her eyelid drooped slowly. She knew Rachel was extremely exhausted, but she feared that the little diva would not be getting much sleep for a while. She didn't want to think about the vulnerable girl in front of her when it came to the nightmares that would plague her for probably the rest of her life. "I need you to use your words, Rach. I need you to tell me what you want me to do." Santana didn't really understand what all Rachel wanted other people to know. She had literally forced her way up into the bedroom, finding out because of prying rather than waiting for someone to tell her, so she didn't know what was far game for the world to know.

"I don't want him to know." Rachel whispered out so softly that Santana had to strain to hear her answer. She didn't want anyone to know about how damaged she was. She didn't want to think about what had happened; much less spread it around school, the same school that had brought her nothing but pain. Rachel watched intently as Santana slowly nodded before she pointed to her cell phone that was lit up with a picture of Puck and her from one of the glee rehearsals. Rachel nodded her consent for Santana to answer the phone.

"Hey," Santana said slowly. She didn't know what excuse to use other than the truth. She didn't want to have to lie to Puck, but she couldn't go against Rachel's wishes either. She needed the smaller girl to trust her if there was in possibility to help. "Hold on a minute, Puck," Santana knew this conversation would go a lot better if she wasn't staring at the hurt girl. She honestly didn't understand how someone could sustain that kind of torture and still be breathing and conscious. She didn't know how she was holding everything in at the moment and she didn't want to risk a breakdown in front of Rachel. She silently asked Rachel if it were okay if she stepped out of the room to finish the phone call before she was met with panic stricken eyes.

"Please don't leave." Rachel didn't necessarily want to be alone. Sure, she didn't want to be touched or anything, but being alone meant that she didn't have someone there with her. it meant that she didn't have anyone who was going to protect her in case the man decided that he hadn't destroyed enough of her life and body. She began to hyperventilate again as she thought about the day that changed her forever.

"Rachel, come on now. Breathe, I'm not going anywhere, I promise." Santana soothed, completely forgetting the fact that she was on the phone with a scared shitless Puck. She honestly couldn't be bothered with the shouts coming from the phone speaker as she tried to soothe Rachel. She didn't hear the sound of the car keys jingling or the motor starting.

"Please don't leave. What if he comes back? What if he decides that he made a big mistake with leaving me alive? What if he figures out that the police were called and he wants to finish what he started?" At that point in time, Rachel began to sob gut wrenching sounds. She didn't know if she was safe or not and right now, she certainly didn't feel safe. She began to claw at her arms, ignoring the scars that were ripping from underneath her nails. She couldn't stop the screams that erupted from her throat as she was thrown into complete and told hysteria. She couldn't stop the trembling that had taken over her body as her mind took her back to the attack.

"Rachel!" LeRoy came barreling to the side of the bed where his baby girl was. He didn't even bother to hide his own fears and tears that cascaded down his face when he saw the state his daughter was in. He paid no attention to his husband yanking the other girl out of the room. The only thing that mattered to him at that moment was the fact that his daughter was hurting and he had no idea how to help her.

Santana felt a rough hand clasp on her upper arm and rip her from the room. She couldn't help the yelp that fluttered out of her mouth as she was pulled.

"What happened?" She turned her head from the room that she was just in to the very angry man that still had an iron grip on her arm. Santana shrugged her shoulders helplessly because, really, she had no idea what happened. One second she was complying with the request to not tell Puck what happened, and the next she was watching Rachel's mental status deteriorate with every breath. Puck! She realized only then that she was still connected on the phone with him. Or so she thought she was, but when she looked down, she realized that there was no one on the phone which she didn't know if it was a good or bad thing.

"I wish I knew what happened, Sir." Santana was so unsure of herself. She didn't know whether or not she should go into detail with what happened or if she should spare him the details and just tell him the main points. When she realized that it wasn't her place to keep the facts hidden especially when she wasn't asked specifically to keep everything to herself, she recapped the entire conversation with her and Rachel. She felt a bit better when she had gotten everything off of her chest, but she couldn't stop the tears streaming from her eyes. She didn't know why she felt so guilty about the incident, because really, with the fragile state Rachel was in, she didn't want to think about the many things that could send her over the edge. She was just about to relax into the arms of the man in front of her when she felt her blood run cold at the sound of the heavy knock at the door.

"It's probably Puck." She whispered and silently begged for everything to go according to plan, which was to get rid of him quickly.


End file.
