A Beautiful Brain

chapter 2

Santana and Rachel were driving to Santana's house from the hospital. Rachel had insisted that she would drive, but Santana didn’t let her. She understood that Rachel wanted to show that she was not incapable of such things but with Rachel just out of the hospital, Santana just didn’t wanna take the chance. Besides, if any of the dreaded subjects she had in mind came up, it’d probably be best if she was drving and not Rachel.. 

“So… have you heard anything from him?”, Rachel asked, finally bringing Finn up. 

“There you go, dreaded subject number one.”, Santana thought. 

“Sorry, I haven’t seen him since the day before he left… which would be two days ago. I tried calling him but apparently, he already left. I’m sorry Rachel, but he didn’t leave any forwarding address.”, Santana said. She decided that since the subject had come up, she might as well be completely honest about everything and that meant telling her everything, no matter how painfull it was. She knew this was going to get ugly so she parked her car on the side of the road. 

“Rachel, there’s something else I gotta tell you. He… he’s not your husband anymore Rachel ”, Santana said softly. 

“What?” 

“I sorry Rachel, but he filed for divorce about a week ago and… it was granted” 

Rachel wanted to die. She wanted the ground under her to open up and just swallow her. What did she ever do to deserve this? But she couldn’t speak. Couldn’t say a word. 

“I’m sorry Rachel, but it’ll be okay. You don’t need him. You deserve someone who won’t just pack up and leave when the going gets tough” 

“What are you talking about?!”, Rachel said with a little anger in her voice “He was everything for me, and now I lost him. And if that’s not enough, I also lost my home and I can very well kiss my dream to become a Broadway star goodbye. How can things possibly be okay?!”, shouted with tears flowing from her eyes. 

“It has to be okay Rachel, because you’re not someone who just hides in a corner for the rest of your life. You’ll find a way to be happy again… and until you do, I’ll be right here. No matter what” 

Although it wasn’t exactly something she said but more the way she said it, she got the feeling there was something more going on. “Santana … what are you not telling me?”, Rachel asked softly, dreading the answer. 

“What do you mean?”, Santana replied in an innocent voice. 

“You always were a terrible liar Santana. What are you not telling me?”, Rachel asked again. 

“God Rachel, don’t you think you’ve been through enough for one day?” 

“Did something happen to my dads?”, Rachel asked with tears in her eyes. 

Santana couldn’t help but cry and stare at Rachel. She wanted to tell Rachel that her parents were fine. That this was something she didn’t have to worry about. But that would be a lie. “They went to the Carribeans on a vacation to get away from all of this… they never made it. Their plane exploded mid-air.”. Santana felt sick telling her best friend all this but she couldn’t very well lie about it. That would only make things worse. 

At the same time, all Rachel could do was concentrate on her breathing, which was out of control. After a few seconds, everything went black as she lost conciousness. 

When she woke up, a handsome man was checking her pulse and took her temperature.  She looked around to see that she was inside someone’s bedroom instead of the hospital. “Hey, you’re awake”, he said. 

She then saw Santana standing right next to him with a worrying look on her face that seemed to relax a little when Rachel kept her eyes open. “Hey Rachel ”, Santana said. “This is Puck”.

“Hi”, the guy said. His voice was warm and soothing and in that instant Rachel could tell he was a good guy. A kind of guy you could depend on. The kind of guy she thought Finn was. Finn? The events of the day shot through her brain, causing a tear to run down her cheek. She was happy for a few seconds again, but now everything was messed up again. She sat down, not wanting to cry but being unable to stop it. He hugged her and Santana was somewhat surprised that Rachel let him. 

After awhile, Puck let go of Rachel. “Rachel, you really need to get some rest”, he said. Rachel wanted to tell him that she’d just been asleep for six months and that the last thing she needed was rest, but something about the tone of his voice made her push away those thoughts and she silently nodded as he showed her to the guest bedroom. 

When he came back a few minutes later, Puck had another woman to comfort as Santana was sitting on the couch, tears streaming down her face. When she saw Puck approach, she turned her head away from him a little. “Sorry… I’m sure the last thing you want is two weeping girls”. 

Puck sat down next to her and wrapped his arm around Santana's body. “Don’t ever worry about that. She has every right to cry and so do you. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you cry”. 

Santana sniffed and looked back at Puck. “You’re never gonna leave me like that, are you?”, she asked Puck in a trembling voice. 

“No”, Puck said in a caring voice. 

“What are we gonna do now? You don’t mind her staying here, do you?”, Santana asked in a begging voice. She had bragged about Rachel that she would kick his ass if he dared object, but now all she wanted was for him to say he was okay with it. 

In the next room, Rachel was lying in bed, listening carefully to Santana and Puck. Her room was exactly above where they sat and the walls were ridiculously thin here. 

“She can stay as long as she wants”, Puck said to Santana, looking her in the eyes to tell her he meant every word. “I understand why she’s your best friend. She seems really nice, and everything that’s happening is not…”, he said when he suddenly stopped. Santana turned towards him to see he was shivering. She had never seen Puck like this. He had always been the strong, caring guy but never was he the kind of guy who would suddenly break down in tears. And if Santana was not mistaken, he was about to. 

Puck managed to fight back the overwhelming feelings that came over him. Why was he feeling this way? It was not like he was Rachel's best friend. He cautiously looked at Santana who was looking at him with amazement. 

“Sorry”, Puck said, “I don’t know what came over me” 

“You like her, don’t you?”, Santana asked. The tone of her voice was not a jealous one; if anything, it was a loving tone. 

“I don’t know exactly why but yes, I like her a lot… I mean… not like her, like her”, he explained. He didn’t have to explain though. Santana could see it in his eyes. This was more than Santana had hoped for. She had hoped that Puck wouldn’t object against the whole moving in thing and that he would be civil to Rachel, but to think he would actually care about Rachel. She looked at Puck and kissed him, silently thanking god that she had found a man like this. 

Upstairs in her room, Rachel had stopped crying and was sleeping peacefully.