A/N: I've had this idea for a while and I thought it'd be interesting to write a fic where one of the two loses their memory and the other is left putting the broken pieces together.
A/N 2: Flashbacks / Memories are in Italics
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters that belong to Glee and Fox.
Warnings: None
Summary: It takes a moment to erase the memories built together and to get you back to the start, when everything was different : your supposed girlfriend used to be your tormentor and a competition for someone else's heart. Amnesia!Rachel
Hope you like!
CHAPTER 1
"Hiram! Honey, come here!" A familiar voice said from her right. It hurt. Her head hurt and her eyes felt heavy, almost too much to get them open.
"Is she awake?" Someone said from her left side, this time. Rachel furrowed her brows and tried harder, finally opening her eyes. "Rachel...Rachel, can you hear us?" A warm palm brushed against her cheek, caressing it with tenderness.
"Daddy?" Her throat ached as well and her mouth felt dry. It almost felt like she had swallowed sand for days. Where was she? What happened?
"God, you're awake." His lips pressed against her forehead softly. More kisses were left on her skin before another pair of lips kissed the side of her face. It was her Dad.
"You scared us to death, young lady." Leroy kissed her hair and reached on the nightstand to grab an ice-cube. She felt the cold edges brush against her lips and then her tongue, relieving her - albeit partially - of the uncomfortable dryness.
"What happened?" She closed her eyes again.
"You were in an accident, honey. You lost control of your car and when they found you, you were brought here with a code red. You've been in an induced coma for a week, to reduce the risk of swelling." Leroy took a chair and sat beside her, dropping the used icecube into the bin by the bed.
"Did I injure anyone else?" Rachel released a soft sigh and shut her eyes closed, when another headache hit her.
"No, you went off-road but no one else was involved." Hiram looked over at his husband. "We were so scared when they called us. We thought we had lost you."
"MMmm…" Rachel nodded softly. "Sorry." She felt herself drift slowly into unconsciousness, still fatigued by the pain and the meds.
"You should get some more rest, baby girl. We'll be here when you wake up." Leroy kissed her forehead and tucked her back under the covers.
"We should let her in, don't you think?" Hiram whispered to his husband, who nodded softly and stroked the back of his daughter's cheek, once again.
"I'll call her, Rachel wouldn't be alive hadn't it been for her." Leroy wiped a lone tear with his jacket sleeve and rounded the bed to get to the door.
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Quinn had just plopped down in her aisle seat with a book and her iPod when someone tapped her shoulder, drawing her attention. Looking up, she didn't expect to see Rachel Berry standing there with her pink suitcase behind her and a look that could only be described as a "puppy dog eyes".
"Is that seat taken?" Rachel looked down at her feet and anywhere but at the blonde, probably expecting to receive another rejection.
"I thought you and Finn were sitting together, to talk about whatever is going on between you two." She knew she was being snappy. But after what happened on stage, that caused them the Nationals competition, she had every right to. Once again, she was on the sidelines to watch the Finchel show.
"We...I asked him some time to think." Rachel looked ahead and saw Finn chatting away with Noah, as if nothing had even happened.
"Alright then, what about Kurt or Mercedes?" She raised an eyebrow and went back to her book. Of all the people, why her? The one who always got hurt in this stupid triangle they had started since last year.
"They're sitting together. I can always go sit with some stranger." She took the hint and went to move down the aisle, to find the first available seat when someone took the suitcase from her, effectively stopping her.
"You're fine with the window seat?" Quinn opened the storage above their heads and lifted the suitcase over her head with ease, showing off her strength acquired during her years under Coach Sylvester.
"Yes, thank you." She took her coat off and slipped in the seat by the window, buckling herself up and then folding it neatly in her lap.
"I'd really like to finish this book by the time we land in Cincinnati. Ok?" Quinn took her seat beside her and nodded to the book.
"I'll just listen to music and…" She furrowed her brows.
"What?" Quinn sighed and leaned her head into the seat, already mentally kicking herself for having let the brunette sit with her.
"My iPod is in my bag, that is in my suitcase." She looked above their heads.
"Here, you can borrow mine." She handed the brunette her own iPod. "I'm not sure you'll find many Broadway tunes in there, but there should be enough pretty decent songs to keep you entertained for the whole flight."
"Are there any podcasts?" She switched it on and browsed through it.
"I got a few from the Harry Potter saga." Looking away, Quinn coughed to mask her embarrassment. She was a secret fan of the Harry Potter world but it was something she hadn't shared with anyone, really.
"I love Harry Potter." Rachel smiled softly. "I hate flying, music or podcasts will distract me."
"The flight isn't that long, you should try and relax and maybe even get some sleep, if you can." Quinn's look softened, seeing how nervous the brunette really was. Her fingers were tapping against the armrest and her legs bouncing up and down.
"Yeah, but I can't help myself. How can airplanes fly? It's not natural. We're trapped in these deadly cages and if something ever went wrong, we're just doomed to die." She looked out of the window, but it wasn't helping.
"You know, I read an article a couple of months ago. The odds of dying in a plane crash are 1 in 9,821." Quinn reached tentatively for her hand and laced their fingers together, against the armrest. "But if you feel you can't relax, you can just hold my hand tightly. Ok?"
"Why are you doing this? Why are you helping me?" Rachel looked over at her and squeezed her hand.
"Because I really want to finish my book and if you're squirming beside me, I won't be able to concentrate." Quinn smirked softly, hoping her intentions were more subtle than she wanted to admit, also to herself.
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"How does she feel?" Quinn took a seat in the chair Leroy had vacated.
"Tired, I think." Hiram looked down at her daughter who was sleeping in the hospital bed. "The vitals are stable and her arm is going to heal in a month or so."
"That's good. That's very good." The blonde nodded and reached for the brunette's hand, her not injured one, and brought her knuckles to her lips. "Did you talk to her doctor yet?"
"Not yet. I think Leroy is having a word with him right now, maybe I should go as well. Do you mind watching over her?" Hiram stood up and ran a hand through his messy hair. He must've looked like a mess.
"Yes, of course. I'll call you if something happens." Quinn kept her lips against her hand and looked at the brunette. She had prayed so hard that she had no other words left to say to God. She could only pray for the brunette to be fine and to come back to her.
"Thank you, dear." Hiram kissed her forehead and walked out of the room, leaving the two girls to have some deserved time alone.
"When I found you there, on the side of the road, I think I was going to have a heart attack." Quinn whispered softly against her hand. She felt her eyes moisten and her breath catch in her throat. She didn't want to think about the worst scenario. Rachel was with her. Rachel was alive and with her.
"Mmmm…" Rachel stirred slowly and squeezed her fingers around Quinn's. "Hurts." She muttered and groaned at the same time.
"What? What hurts Rach?" Quinn jumped to her feet and looked around the room for any emergency button.
"Throat." Rachel dropped their hands and brought her hand to her throat, massaging it slowly.
"Here. Suck on this." Quinn grabbed an ice chip and gently dabbed her lips with it, before dropping it in her mouth. "Don't swallow it, just let it melt."
"Quinn?" Rachel furrowed her brows, when her brain concentrated on that familiar voice.
"Yes, it's me." Quinn leaned in to drop a soft kiss against her forehead.
"What...what are you doing here?" Rachel was confused. She opened her eyes slowly and peered up at her, with a confused look.
"Why wouldn't I be here? You've just woken up from a coma and Hiram let me in." Quinn reached with her hand to caress her cheek, but stopped when the brunette visibly tensed. "Rach?"
"Rach?" She looked at her. "I thought I was Man Hands, Treasure Trail or-"
"What are you talking about? I've stopped calling you like that since…" Quinn tried to think about the last time she had addressed Rachel like that. Was it the beginning of Junior Year? Was it earlier? "Rachel, do you know who I am?"
"Of course. You're Quinn Fabray." Rachel looked away from her and closed her eyes, feeling her head throb in pain. "The girl who told me I'd never get it right with Finn, didn't you?"
"Rachel, that was time ago. Don't you remember anything else?" Quinn was at loss of words.
"Oh yes, I remember that Finn chose me over you, again. He kissed me on stage to prove it." Rachel looked at her with a proud smile. "Who is getting it right, now?"
"No that's not possible. You must remember something else, after that. You have to." Quinn shook her head and backed away. Where had all those months between that stupid kiss and the accident gone?
"Where's Finn? Can you let him in?" Rachel's eyes lit up at his mention. They lit up enough to make Quinn's heart break in small pieces.
"Rachel, look at me...you really don't remember?" Quinn tried to hold her hand, but the brunette pulled it back and held it away.
"What should I remember, Quinn?" Rachel looked away. "I think you should go, now. I feel tired."
"Yeah." Quinn nodded and wiped the lone tear escaping from her eye. "You should get some more rest." She straightened her pose and walked towards the door. Stopping by it, she threw one last glance at the brunette who stared after her with a hard and challenging look. Gone was the girl she had missed for the past week. Gone was the girl she had spent the last months with.
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"So, was it Finn the guy dancing like an idiot with that freshman cheerio?" Quinn slipped behind her and whispered in her ear, startling her.
"Quinn, geez you scared me." Turning around, she slapped her arm a couple of times. "Don't you know you're not supposed to sneak on people?"
"Oh yeah, why's that?" Quinn raised an eyebrow in her usual way and handed her a new plastic cup, filled with soda.
"Because they might be angry." She took the offered cup and took a sip. "Thank God, it's not that cheap vodka Noah offered me all night."
"Steer away from the wine coolers as well and you should be avoiding unwanted pregnancies at least." Quinn nodded with a longing look in her eyes. "So, what's Finn doing with that girl? Besides embarrassing himself."
"Just dealing with our breakup in his own way?" Rachel looked away from the dance floor. She really didn't want to witness them kissing or doing something more explicit.
"So, you're not getting back together?" Quinn nodded to the backdoor and walked towards it, so they could talk without having to yell to be heard over the loud music.
"That music was horrible for my ears, are they bleeding?" She rubbed the skin under them and looked at Quinn, who just chuckled at her antics.
"You're so dramatic, Berry." Quinn brought her cup to her mouth and finished it.
"They're sensitive, Quinn, and they are crucial for my future." Rachel finished her own cup and looked over at the blonde, who was staring up at the sky.
"That's why you're not giving your relationship another try? For your future in New York?" She kept staring at the sky, almost in awe.
"Finn would never follow me there and I can't stay here, Quinn. I don't want to stay here." Rachel looked down at her feet, ashamed. "We could have this year together, but what's the point when we are on borrowed time? Why should we preclude ourselves the chances to be happy, even if apart?"
"That's a very mature way to see things." Quinn nodded softly. "I believe you're going to have that future, Rachel." She said softly. "In a bunch of years, you will shine brightly like those stars up there. You will be so extraordinarily bright that you'll illuminate the path for those coming after you. You'll shine so hard that people will want to reach out, with their hands, to touch you and feel what it means to be bathed in your light, even for a moment."
"Do you really think that?" She stood beside the blonde and looked up at the dark sky.
"Yes, I do." Quinn kept her eyes casted upwards.
"Which is the North Pole star?" Rachel stood closer and looked at the blonde, who scanned the sky with her eyes and raised her hand to point at it.
"It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken." She turned her head to speak those words directly against her ear, causing her to close her eyes and just let her voice guide her imagination.
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"Temporary memory loss is a frequent symptom, she's going to remember soon." Hiram rubbed Quinn's back, comforting her.
"Yeah, I shouldn't feel so bad but…" Shaking her head, she held her head between her hands.
"It's normal to feel bad, Quinn." Hiram drew the blonde into his arms. "You've been together for the past six months and my daughter was happy. You made her happy, Quinn."
"Then, why can't she remember that? Why does she remember our pointless fights over a boy that is not worth it? Why can't she remember all the memories we built together? The promises we made to each other?" She buried her face into his chest, clinging to him. "Why can't she remember our love?"
"She will remember, Quinn." He rubbed soft soothing circles against her back. "Sometimes a person's memory is just triggered by words or facts, we could try that?"
"I don't want to cause her further stress. She will have to go through therapy without needing me to force her memory to cooperate." She wiped her face and pulled back.
"It will be part of her recovery, I will speak to her doctor." Hiram nodded and kissed her forehead softly.
"Hey, is Rachel in the room?" Finn rounded the corner and spotted her. He had a simple rose in his hand.
"Mr. Hudson, what brings you here?" Hiram stood full height, clearly intimidating the young teen.
"Lero-"
"I'm Hiram. But it will be Mr. Berry to you." He said back, with his arms crossed.
"Rachel texted me? Can I go see her?" He looked between Hiram and Quinn.
"What did she text you?" Quinn wiped her face and stood as well, between Hiram and Finn.
"That's between us. None of your business." He went to move past her, but she stopped him with a hand against his chest.
"It's my business because Rachel is my girlfriend and you're taking advantage of this situation." She pushed him back. "What did she say?"
"That she wants to talk about us. About the kiss at Nationals." He smiled proudly, having gotten a second chance. Or was it the third one?
"That happened 7 months ago, you're barely on speaking terms nowadays." She shook her head.
"Well, she doesn't know that or she doesn't care." He nodded. "She wants me, Quinn."
"Only because she can't remember anything else after that!" She shouted at him.
"Wrong, she can't remember you, Quinn." He smirked. "Actually, she remembers you for who you really are. Wonder how memory works." Moving past her, he walked inside the room and shut the door behind him.
"She'll come around, Quinn." He pulled her back in his arms and held her against his chest.
"I just want her back." Nodding, she buried her face against the fabric of his shirt.
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"Quinn?" Rachel was surprised to find her in the music store, roaming the jazz section. They hadn't seen each other since the party and that night in the backyard, that had left her with so many questions and doubts. Stargazing was something but having someone quote Shakespeare in your ear? That was something else.
"Rachel, hey." Quinn lowered the headphones around her neck and looked at her, with a soft smile. "What's up?"
"Just getting some new music sheets and checking the Broadway section. I didn't know you were into Jazz music." She checked the album the blonde was listening to.
"I like it from time to time and it's perfect to listen to, when I am in the mood for writing." Quinn selected a specific song and handed the headphones to the brunette, who held them over her ears.
"I know this song." She kept on listening to, following along the music and the lyrics.
"It's pretty famous." She smiled.
"Who sings?" Rachel handed the headphones back and the blonde simply hung it back in their places on the shelf.
"It's Chet Baker." Quinn grabbed the album and placed it in her own cart. "The song is "My Funny Valentine" and I think it's probably one of my favorite songs of all time." She grabbed a couple of music books and walked ahead of the brunette to pay for her things.
"What are you working on, at the moment?" She sided up with her and paid for her own things.
"What do you mean?" She thanked the guy behind the counter, grabbing her shopping bag.
"You said you like listening to jazz as you write. What are you working on?" Rachel followed her out of the music store.
"Oh." Quinn furrowed her brows and looked away from her curious eyes. "It's a short story. Nothing biggie."
"I'm sure it's good." Rachel smiled genuinely. "Your English papers are always so well written and accurate, no wonder you get the highest grades in our class."
"One thing is homework or tests, writing is another thing." Quinn rubbed the back of her head. "But I need to write more than just a story, if I want to apply for some good college next year."
"Have you set your eyes on anything in particular? You know everything about my dreams involving New York but I know nothing about your plans." She looked down at her feet. "Unless you still plan to become a real estate agent, even if there's nothing wrong about it."
"No. I don't want that. Why would I want to marry someone who is clearly not interested in me? Who doesn't love me?" How did they even go from talking about music to Finn? The mere idea of wasting her future on someone like him made her blood boil.
"Where do you want to go, then?" Rachel looked up at her.
"My family...well, my family expects me to follow in my sister's steps. She got into Harvard and-"
"I didn't ask about your family. What about your wishes?" She reached for her free hand and brushed her fingers against the back of her knuckles, feeling her grip slacken into a more relaxed pose.
"I want to become a writer or a journalist. I set my eyes on Brown, Cornell, Columbia and Yale. Maybe the latter just to spite my dad's side of the family." She chuckled softly.
"I'm sure you'll make the best choice when time comes." Rachel squeezed her hand softly.
"You know all this talking made me thirsty." She looked at the Starbucks on their right. "Do you want to get something to drink or are you in a rush?"
"No. I can stay." She nodded softly and followed the blonde into the coffee place.
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"What the fuck is going on?" Santana slammed her hand against the locker beside Quinn, who didn't even startle at the loud sound.
"What do you think? Can't you see it yourself?" Quinn stared at the picture in her locker. The picture had been taken on Christmas day, when Rachel had gotten her into one of those ugly sweaters to pose for the family picture, in front of the Berry tree. She held it in her hand and traced the brunette's face with her fingers.
"Why didn't you call me?" Santana softened when she caught the glimpse of the pic. She had taken the picture herself and everyone could really tell how happy those two were, even from a mile distance.
"I didn't want to burden you with my shit." She put the picture back and took the books from the locker, before slamming it a little too hard when she caught the small brunette talking with Finn, in a too friendly way.
"As much as your love fest with the dwarf makes me want to throw up candies, I really can't stand the sight of that giant being all lovey dovey with her. He's being a fucking asshole, if you want my opinion." She stood behind the blonde, who just watched him take the books from Rachel and drape one of his arms over her shoulders. "You should march there and kick him in the balls."
"It'd be satisfying but then? She'd get mad at me and run to his rescue, making her hate me more than she already does." Shaking her head, she looked away when Rachel hugged his arm to her, leaning against Finn as she walked. It was supposed to be her own arm. It was supposed to be them.
"How can she not remember? Did they tell you anything else?" Santana steered the blonde away from that sickening scene.
"It might be temporary. It might last a day, a week, a month or more. They don't know how to fix it because it's all on Rachel." She walked into English class and took her usual seat, beside Santana.
"That sucks." Santana huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. "But...will it go away at some point? I mean they didn't say when, but it will."
"I really don't know, Santana. It may take her months to get her memory back and what am I supposed to do until then? Watch Finn take my place in her life? He had his chance with her and it's my turn. It's not fair." She followed Rachel as she took her own seat, front row.
"If you care about her, you should fight for her." Santana nodded towards the brunette, who caught them talking, obviously about her. "Show her what she's missing out on. You made her fall for you once, you can do it again. Right?" Santana looked over at her best friend, who nodded softly and kept staring at the back of Rachel's head.
comments? reviews? you like or hate it? any constructive feedback is more than welcome