Title: Anthem Of The Angels

Pairing: Quinn/Rachel

Rating: PG-13. Has a death theme, but no character death.

Spoilers: Takes place after EP22 'Journey'. May contain spoilers

Timeline: On the day of Regionals.

Disclaimer: I don't own Glee, the songs, or even the characters.

Author's Note:Un-beta-ed so feel free to point out errors. Happy Reading and please R&R. Reviews are my lifeline.

Mike was going to open his own dance academy.

Santana was going to be a lawyer.

Brittany was going to be with Santana.

Puck was going to get his act together... eventually.

Finn was going to make him mom proud of him, even though he wasn't exactly sure how.

Tina was going to be a children's counselor.

Kurt was going to become the Editor-In-Chief of Vogue.

Mercedes was going to be a bigger sensation than Beyoncé.

Quinn was going to leave Ohio behind forever.

Rachel was going to win Nationals every year of her school life, and then she was going to move on to Broadway.

Life was going to derail their plans.

As Quinn was being wheeled into the delivery ward of Lima Memorial in a near-hysterical, kicking and screaming state, seven other people were being admitted to the trauma wing on the opposite side of the same hospital - one was was looking like a lost cause the moment he came in and his companion, an African male, seemed to be in a comparatively better state, not that that was a very good thing. Apparently the other five, none over the age of 25, were heading towards a club to party the night away and were already high on a mixture of party drugs, which was what caused a head on collision with the other car.

It soon became evident that none of the kids would sustain nothing more than superficial injuries, and maybe psychological trauma, mainly because their luck was exceptionally good and some of them had managed to use their brains. It would be found in later investigations that neither of the men had been wearing a seatbelt, a precaution that the drunk kids had taken, and that, amongst other thing, was the reason for their radically different conditions.

Across town, in the waiting room of the Midwest Regional Show Choir Championship, Rachel was half listening to Vocal Adrenaline and half wondering where the hell her dads were. It wasn't as if they attended every performance she'd ever gave - they needed to be jobless and useless to do that - but they'd promised they'd make it for this one. They knew how important this was for her, with Jesse and Shelby involved, and she'd even heard them on the phone, cancelling meetings in this time slot. Somehow, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was not quite right.

She paced anxiously, peering out into the crowd once or twice, and eventually just gave up on them and decided to track down Shelby instead. She left and headed towards the store room, where she knew her mother was sitting. One last try. She'd try just once more to try to make Shelby realize that Rachel did need her and if it didn't work then she'd accept the fact that Shelby just didn't want anything to do with her in any capacity.

"Hello. Yeah, it went really well." said Mr. Schue, mouthing, "Principle Figgins," to all the others in the hospital. "No, we're at Lima Memorial. Quinn went into labour... Going smoothly right now. She's still in the OT...No, Rachel stayed behind to see the other performance. Why, is everything okay?" At this, the Glee clubbers all turned to Mr. Schue, waiting for another one of their Principle's crazy declarations. They watched his smile drop and his face turn ashen in an instant. Finn walked up to him, afraid that he might collapse, and waited as Will listened to whatever was going on at the other end.

"Y-Yeah. I'm going there now. Immediately, of course. Please don't call her. Let me get there. Bye." He put the phone back in his pocket and ran his hand through his hair, staring at the hospital floor dazedly. Will sat down on the couch, pinching the bridge of his nose, and trying to understand what he was supposed to do now.

"Mr. Shue. You okay?" Finn's concerned voice snapped him out of his daze and he looked up, startling all of them with a thin film of tears clearly visible in his eyes.

"No. I need to get back to the competition. All of you just stay here."

"Why? What happened? Are you alright?"

"Guys, just calm down. I need to get back there and I just don't have time to explain. I'll talk to all of you later, but I need to go now. Just... Just don't go anywhere. Ms. Pillsbury and Coach Sylvester are coming over." With that, he walked off towards the exit, leaving all the Glee kids staring at each other worriedly. They broke off into little groups, quietly whispering about what could have happened, and were only interrupted once when Puck came out to get some air.

Will drove back to the competition carefully and parked his car in it's place before going off to find Rachel, his calm and collected actions disguising his inner he got to the correct room, Will stood outside the door of the waiting room, his hand on the door knob, trying to steel himself before going in. He cared about this over-dramatic, fragile girl more than most people realized, more than even he realized at times. How was he supposed to do this to her? How was he supposed to tell her that her entire family had essentially been ripped apart?

"Shelby?" He watched the Vocal Adrenaline director make her way up the corridor, wondering if God was trying to make this a little easier for all of them, if that was possible. Will knew he couldn't do this alone and although Shelby wasn't the most ideal person for talking to Rachel right now, given what he had heard about the disaster their attempt at bonding had been, she was still an adult whom Rachel was emotionally attached to. That was the best he could do for now.

"Will, we can discuss this later. Please, not now." Shelby automatically assumed that he wanted to berate her for the incident with Rachel not too long ago, and she really couldn't hear that now. Shelby was well aware of her shortcomings and her failure at a relationship with Rachel, but hearing it from someone else would make it too concrete to handle. She would process and deal with it in her own way, and just wanted to be able to pretend that everything was fine for now.

"No, wait.. It's- it's not whatever you think it is. I need you to come with me to tell.. Oh God," he said, not being able to force the words out of his mouth at first, "to tell Rachel that her fathers.. they've had an accident."

"They've had a what?"

"An accident. Please. Even if you don't care, just please come."

"Of course, of course I will... Are they..." She let her sentence hang in the air, knowing he would understand the unspoken question.

"Not yet," he said, the look in his eyes telling her that the 'not yet' had a very big chance of turning into a 'yes' sometime in the near future. Not wanting - no, not daring to get any more details, she only nodded and followed him as he went into the room to find Rachel.

"Rachel?" Will watched her turn around at the sound of his voice, and the faint glimmer of hope in her eyes when she saw Shelby almost made him break down. But he walked up to her, and gently took her hands in his, which was when she felt them trembling. "There's something I need to tell you."

"What? What is it?.. The results haven't come early, have they?" she asked, her eyes flitting from Will to Shelby, wondering why they'd be standing here in front of her together, tonight of all nights. Was it possible that Shelby had maybe reconsidered her decision?

"No, no... it's um, it's got nothing to do with the competition. Why don't you come and sit down first?" Will tried to steer Rachel towards the couch as he spoke, but she pulled away from him, his behaviour making her feel uneasy.

"Mr. Schuester, can you please just tell me what's going on? You're making me nervous."

"Rachel... I got a call from Principle Figgins. He said that your fathers were involved in a car accident."

"They... were in an accident. And they're alright now... They're alright now, right Mr. Schuester?" She looked up at Shelby when Will didn't answer, trying to find some assurance, something, anything, that she hadn't seen in his eyes. "Say something."

But she knew, even as she poke, why they weren't answering. They weren't alright, or the first words out of Will's mouth would have been "They're both absolutely fine."

"We don't know. I'm so sorry, but we just don't know what their exact condition is yet." She leaned against the first thing her hand touched, barely registering what he said as she processed the information she'd been given fast enough to make her head spin. No words would come out of her mouth, but the adrenaline rush that went through her body was involuntary, making her focus on her surroundings in a surreal, detached way. Shelby walked up to her, but she turned her back to the older woman and walked up to Will.

"Take me to them, please."

Rachel walked into the hospital just minutes after Quinn's baby had made her way into the world. As Quinn lay exhausted somewhere in that building, relief coursing through her veins, the heaviness in Rachel's chest increased with every step she took inside the gleaming, sterile walls. Will was close behind her, ignoring the odd looks people were throwing at Rachel's outfit and just watching Shelby steer Rachel towards the ICU as the girl blankly followed her.

The only thing Rachel could focus on was getting there, on seeing her fathers and confirming that it was all just a mistake. That was all she needed to do, except she knew, in the rational part of her mind, that she couldn't because there was no mistake.

There was no mistake because that man lying on the other side of the glass doors, looking frail and mangled, was her daddy. That wasn't any mistake, nor was the fact that her dad was nowhere in sight. It wasn't right, the lack of his presence, but it wasn't a mistake or a misunderstanding that could help her, that could get her away from this reality that she didn't know how to accept. They'd only taken her to see one parent; there was only one person for her to see who was still receiving medical attention, and if the other person wasn't standing next to her, then she was smart enough to understand what had happened to him.

The young man who approached her, sobbing furiously and apologizing over and over again was what forced her into action. Looking at his face - his untouched, uninjured face - Rachel felt such an acute, immense hatred towards another human being that the intensity of it would have scared her had she been in her senses. As it was, the only thing she could make herself do was turn away from his pitiful form and walk away, not knowing where she was going, just that she couldn't stand being so close to everything a second longer.

Will would have gone after Rachel, but Shelby stopped him. Whatever their history may have been, Rachel needed someone today, someone who was more than her high school teacher. Shelby knew that today she was supposed to be adopting a little baby girl like the one she had given away so many years ago, but if she didn't go after Rachel, if she didn't respect the relationship she had abandoned so many years ago and that had come back to haunt her, she'd never forgive herself. She didn't think there was any chance for the two of them but this wasn't about them, it was about Rachel so just this once, Shelby put that above herself and followed the girl.

Rachel was leaning on the railing of the hospital terrace, the sharp cold wind whistling around her serving as a wonderful distraction. All she needed to focus on was the way it stung her face and lips, how cold it was, how difficult to breathe in. Her forced, pained breathing was interrupted for a moment by someone encircling her from behind. It wasn't until she heard Shelby whisper nonsensical reassurances to her that she relaxed, exhaling hard as she allowed herself to lean into the offered comfort. Even then, she didn't allow the tears prickling at the corners of her eyes to escape - there would be no tears while her daddy was in here. He always came through for her. Always.

Author's Note : I'm hiding in some corner, and I refuse to come out until prodded by reviews.

I've never even thought of tackling dark subjects till now, and have no idea if this is utter rubbish. Please, please tell me if I should continue, or if I just can't write stuff like this. Constructive criticism is eagerly awaited.

If this does go on, will be Q/R, and a lot faster than my other story. Also, I'll try to keep most of the characters as they are on the show, but Rachel, Shelby and to some extent Quinn will have different traits.

Don't know how often updates will come. Weekly, maybe...