Second Chances

Chapter 17

The summer had ended. It was as simple as that. It was time for Quinn and Beth to go back to New Haven and leave Rachel in New York. Rachel had tried to take Quinn out as often as she could on the nights where Beth wasn't to sick and could be babysat by Brittany and Santana. Kurt hadn't reclaimed his room, he had decided to move in with Blaine. So Rachel turned his room into a guest room. And used the closet to store toys, books, games and blankets for Beth when she visited. Quinn had packed up all of her belongings and had gotten Beth wait listed at St Jude's Children's Hospital. In the meantime, she took would take Beth to the off campus cancer center at Yale. Rachel and Quinn said their goodbyes, as had Santana, Brittany, Kurt and Blaine. Quinn promised she would keep in contact this time, and Rachel promised she would visit this time. Although Puck had never come to New York to get tested for Von Hippel-Lindau, Quinn was okay with not knowing. As long as she didn't have to see him again.
So once they were all ready to go, Quinn helped Beth into the car and began the long drive back to New Haven.
"When are we going to see Rachel again?" Beth asked, not even ten minutes into the trip.
"Beth you were just with her."
Beth shrugged. "I miss her. And it was happy again when we were with Rachel. And when I got to stay with Aunty Tana. I wanna see her again too," she trailed off.
Quinn nodded and continued to drive. She genuinely hoped she would get to see all of her friends and Rachel again. She wouldn't bring herself to admit it, but she knew it would be a hard transition for her and Beth as they arrived back in New Haven.
    "Beth after we get home we're gonna go see grandma, what do think about that?" Quinn said and forced a smile. She didn't miss seeing her mother everyday. Or her constant lectures on how she needed to start becoming a responsible adult.
    "Yay!" Beth squealed.
    At least she was happy. "Then we have to go to the doctor, you remember, the one we talked about, it's near my school," Quinn prompted.
    Beth nodded.
   
    When they finally arrived in New Haven, Quinn dropped Beth off at her mom's house then went back to her apartment to pack up. However, she didn't get much done, as she was distracted by her laptop that sat on her desk unopened. She'd seen Rachel this morning. Really she didn't need to facetime her. Self control Quinn. You don't want to overwhelm her. She thought to herself. She rummaged around through her stuff and wanted to do anything but unpack. So she decided to do her laundry. Quinn was half naked, wearing nothing but a black bralette and grey sweatpants when Rachel decided it would be a good idea to facetime her. Forgetting that she was almost completely undressed, Quinn lunged at her computer and answered Rachels facetime with a dopey grin.
    "Hey Quinn, did you forget your shirt?" Rachel laughed.
    Quinn sat down in her desk chair and looked down at herself. She shrugged nonchalantly. "Listen, Beth isn't here today, I can wear whatever the hell I want. So you are going to have to come all the way over to New Haven if you want me to put a shirt on," Quinn said and spun around in her chair.
    "Well, I'm not complaining," Rachel said and smirked.
    She didn't want to bring it up, but after what Quinn had told her about Puck, Rachel was glad that Quinn felt safe and confident enough to show her body like this.
    Quinn rolled her eyes. "I'm not gonna have sex with you over facetime, maybe that's cool with Brittany and Santana, but I have standards." She said and folded her arms over her chest.
    "Okay, I'm not even going to ask about Brittany and Santana. But, I did want to ask you, next weekend, are you free?" Rachel asked.
    "It depends what's going on with Beth, but most likely, yeah, why?"
    Rachel shrugged. "I was thinking maybe I could drive up to New Haven, take you out on another date. I mean, I am your girlfriend after all," she said flirtatiously.
Quinn smirked. "Sure, but this time I'm going to be the one taking you on the date."
Rachel nodded and blushed. "Well if you want to take me on a date I'm certainly not going to complain."
Quinn giggled and Rachel felt her smile grow even larger. She loved everything about Quinn. Sure, she loved Quinns perfect abs and how she looked with just her bralette on. But she truly admired how confident Quinn was in her own skin. Of course, Quinn had her moments, and many of them, where she absolutely hated the way she looked. But Rachel loved how she always seemed to pick herself back up. In her eyes, Quinn was perfect.
"Rachel you're staring," Quinn blushed and grinned.
Rachel ignored her. "You're so beautiful."
Quinn blushed even harder. "Thank you," She said shyly and smiled at Rachel. It hadn't even been a day, but she already missed her presence. God one summer in New York and she'd turned into such a sap.

The rest of the week seemed to drag on. It was finally Thursday, which meant Rachel was finally coming in just a day. After two years, Rachel was finally using her metro pass and coming to see Quinn in New Haven. Nothing could mess this up. It almost seemed to good to be true.
But of course it was too good to be true.

"Mommy," a voice shrieked.
Quinn shot up in bed and ran out of her room and over to Beths bedside. Her heart broke at what she saw. Beth curled up in a ball crying out in pain. Quinn picked her up, and pulled her into her lap but Beth just cried harder.
"Beth, honey what's wrong?" She asked shakily and rocked Beth back and forth.
Beth gasped for air. "It hurts so much," she wailed.
She looked at the pink clock next to Beth's bed, it was two in the morning.
"What hurts? You have to tell me what's wrong," Quinn said, hoping and praying that Beth would be okay.
Beth didn't respond. Quinn stood up and ran her out to the car. She drove them to the Yale Cancer Center and practically sprinted inside. Her mind was blank, she gave the receptionist at the front desk information rapidly and could feel her heart racing inside her chest. Before she knew it, two male doctors had come over with a stretcher and were wheeling Beth into the ICU. Quinn tried to follow, but they didn't allow her to come.
"We've run some tests and are going to eventually need to perform a Radical Nephrectomy," he explained.
She couldn't be sure if it was because it was so early in the morning, or because she was so freaked out, but Quinn felt like she was going to lose her mind. And it didn't help that she had know idea what the doctor was talking about. 
"Well what the hell is that?" She snapped unintentionally.
The doctor sighed. He tried to be as sympathetic as he could. "This is where the kidney, adrenal gland, blood vessels and surrounding fat and connective tissues are removed. The tumor is in the lower part of her kidney, so we will however be able to save her adrenal gland. Unfortunately, this will result in the loss of one functioning kidney. Her other kidney is healthy though, so it can work for both," he said.
Quinn nodded and tried to process her information.
"Of course, we need your consent before any of this. However, if you are willing to, in a few weeks, Beth could have a kidney transplant if we are able to find a donor. If we can't find one in time, we would have to do the procedure and leave her with one good kidney," he continued.
"And if I want her to get a kidney transplant, what do we do in the meantime?" Quinn asked.
"We try to get her put on the waitlist for a new kidney, unless you can find a donor. And before that, she would need blood tests, diagnostic tests and a psychological and social evaluation." He said.
This information worried Quinn. Beth would be waitlisted. And even then there was no guarantee. This alone was putting aside the cost of a new kidney. They were supposed to just wait and continue to run more and more tests, when they couldn't even be certain Beth would get a transplant. Sure, Beth could survive with only one kidney. But that meant she would have to be unreasonably safe for the rest of her life. Anything could harm her. And Quinn didn't want Beth to live that kind of life.
"I want her to get a transplant, I want my daughter to be safe." She stated, with a sudden burst of confidence.
The doctor nodded. "Right now the most we can do is give her a renal ultrasound, so we can keep an eye on the tumor and see if it's spreading."
Quinn bit her lip. Her daughter was being examined and she wasn't there to hold her hand throughout the whole process. But there was nothing she could do now. She just had to wait.