Second Chances

Chapter 13

AN: things kind of take a huge and crazy turn in this chapter. Remember this story is an AU and here things start to get super AU. Please don't hate me!

Quinn reread her notes over and over again. She'd been in the hospital working since 8:30 in the morning, and it was almost 5:00 in the afternoon. She couldn't focus, even though she only had to review and fill out her paperwork. Her brain just wasn't functioning. As much as she loved her internship, it drained her physically and emotionally. But after the next two weeks were done, she would be one step closer to becoming a nurse.
"It's Quinn right?" One of the older doctors asked, and flipped through the paperwork on his clipboard.
She nodded, a little annoyed that after two months they barely knew her name.
"Do you happen to have a daughter named Beth Fabray?" He asked.
She nodded again, more anxiously this time. "Yeah why?"
"Come with me," He said and gestured for her to follow.
He lead her down the hallway and to one of the elevators. They got off on the sixth floor, which was confusing because that was where they did  MRI's, and it was also where they held the ICU. Surely the doctor was wrong, he'd just found another kid named Beth Fabray. It wasn't her Beth, Beth was healthy. He lead her into a private room. As soon as the door opened, Quinn saw Rachel turn away from the little girl in the bed and walk over to her. The girl wasn't Beth, it couldn't be. But it was.
Her face was pale and her eyes were pink and puffy. Her lips were chapped and cracked and she was wearing a hospital gown with a identification bracelet. This girl had tear stains on her face and looked absolutely terrified. She looked nothing like the Beth Quinn knew.
"Quinn, under the circumstances I'm going to let you take the rest of the day off," said the older doctor and left.
Quinn just stood there dumbfounded. "What happened?" She managed to choke out.
Rachel looked from Beth to Quinn nervously. "I'm not sure really. I decided not to take Beth to daycare today so that we could spend some extra time together. So I took her to work with me, at the diner. She was fine all day. Then during my lunch break I took her out to lunch and..." She stopped.
Quinn walked over to Beth and ran her fingers over the little girls forehead, she was burning up. 
Rachel took a deep breath. "We were running around in the park, then Beth wanted to stop. She stated complaining about her stomach hurting and I thought it was because she was hungry. But she wouldn't eat. So I told her that she had to eat because it would make her feel better, then she started crying because her stomach hurt even more. I thought she was just being over dramatic, but then she threw up and said she couldn't breath. And her face started getting so pale, I didn't know what to do. So I called an ambulance and they've been running tests on her. They stopped before you came in," Rachel explained with a shaky voice.
Quinn sat down on Beth's bed and held her hand. She only then noticed the IV poking out of Beth's arm.
    "Mommy," Beth said weakly.
    Quinn nodded with tears in her eyes. "Yeah, I'm right here baby. It's going to be okay," She reassured her.
    "I wanna go home," Beth said, her voice was raspy from crying.
    Before Quinn could reply, one of the other doctors, Dr. Rolland walked in. He smiled at Beth, who just stared at him blankly.
    "Miss Fabray, may I speak to you for a moment," He asked, and gestured for her to come outside with him.
    Once they were in the hall outside Beth's room, Quinn spoke. "What's wrong with her?" She asked bluntly.
    Dr. Rolland avoided the question. "When was the last time Beth got sick?" He asked.
    Quinn shrugged. "Last fall, I think she had the flu, but what does that have to do with anything?"
    "Did you take her to a doctor?" He asked.
    Quinn shook her head. "I couldn't afford it," She admitted shamefully.
    Dr. Rolland nodded and looked at his clipboard. "Has Beth been acting differently lately?" he asked.
    Of course not! Beth was the same energetic kid she'd always been, Quinn wanted to say. But now all the little things had been adding up. Beth had no longer been putting up a fight when it was time for her to go to bed. She was quiet. When she fell and skinned her knee, she cried as if she'd broken her leg, even though she'd fallen worse in the past and hardly said anything
    "We want to give her an MRI, but we think she may have a tumor in her lower abdomen," Dr. Rolland explained.
    Quinn nodded and acted as though she was listening. But really she couldn't hear a word he was saying. Her daughter was sick. None of this was a mistake. They didn't have the wrong Beth. They had her daughter, and her daughter was sick. Then her thoughts went to who she could blame for this. Because it would be so much easier for her to just blame someone for all of it. But she couldn't. She could only blame herself. If she had noticed Beth acting strangely she could of prevented this. Deep down she knew that this couldn't of been prevented. That nothing she could of done would of stopped it.
    Quinn didn't even realize how hard she was crying until she opened her eyes and saw Rachels arms wrapped around her. She gripped onto Rachel tightly, because if she let go she was scared she would disappear.
    Get it together. Stop crying. You need to be strong for Beth. Quinn thought to herself. Slowly, she backed away from Rachel and tried to even out her breathing. She took a few deep breaths then wiped her eyes.
    "I assure you, there most likely is nothing to worry about, if there is a tumor, we've detected it early. Best case scenario, there is no tumor. And if there is, we will probably be able to surgically remove it," Dr. Rolland explained once Quinn had calmed down.
    "And what if you can't remove it?" She asked, and her voice broke.
    Dr. Rolland sighed. "If we can't remove it, she would go through chemo and we would try to kill it that way."
    "But chemo is... it's for cancer," Quinn said, more as a question then a statement.
    Dr. Rolland nodded. "That's worst case scenario, it is highly unlikely."

After two MRIs and a CAT scan, Quinn and Rachel took Beth home, where they would wait for the results. When they got back to the apartment, Quinn helped Beth change into her pajamas, then held her when she fell asleep in her arms. As soon as she knew Beth as asleep, Quinn turned off the TV and stroked Beth's blonde hair. In Quinn's eyes, Beth was everything. Quinn had always been told she was beautiful, and that was it. Nobody seemed to look past her hazel eyes and flawless face. She'd grown up thinking that all she'd ever be was pretty, and for a while she was content with that. But then Beth was born. And Quinn realized everything a girl could be.
Sure Beth had been an adorable baby, she still was adorable. But to Quinn she was so much more, she was her everything. And now there was a possibility that a tumor was eating away at her perfect daughter, who had so much potential to do so many amazing things in life. Of course they couldn't be sure yet if there was a tumor, but Quinns mind always went to the worst place. And after how sick Beth had gotten at the park, it wouldn't surprise her if there was a tumor.
"Quinn," Rachel said quietly and tapped her on the shoulder.
Quinn looked up from Beth, who was still asleep on her chest.
"The doctors on the phone," She said quietly as not to wake Beth.
Quinn took the phone from Rachels hand and held it to her ear. "Hello?"
There was a pause. Quinn almost didn't want to hear what Dr. Rolland had to say to her.
"We suspected Beth had a small tumor on the left side of her lower abdomen. After looking at both MRIs and the CAT scan we can sadly confirm that there is in fact a tumor, it is just below her left kidney." He explained.
Quinn looked down at Beth and felt tears run down her face. Her little girl really was sick.
"Can you take it out?" Quinn asked quietly.
Another pause. "Because the tumor is so close to her kidney, it wouldn't be possible to surgically remove it without a very large and potentially dangerous operation. For now, we can put her on medication and possible start chemotherapy, if necessary, to kill the tumor. If you can, bring her in tomorrow so we can do some testing," he explained.
Quinn closed her eyes tightly. Beth really was sick. "Okay." she managed to choke out.
"And Quinn, due to this situation, I talked to your boss and she said it's okay if you take the rest of the summer off. Don't worry, you'll still get the credits, and we'll take care of Beth," he reassured her.
"Thank you," she said and swallowed the lump in her throat as she hung up the phone.