7/7

Disclaimer-No, I do not own glee.

AN-Big thanks to everyone who reviewed it is much appreciated. Big thanks as well to those that read but didn't review 'cos that's cool too:)

Rachel strode purposefully through the entrance of the hospital, a smile on her face and a song in her heart. She'd just had her first nights uninterrupted sleep since the news of Finn's accident had broken. She was feeling strangely upbeat. Well, not so strangely in light of the good news they'd received yesterday. But still, she didn't want to get her hopes up too much. After all Finn was still unconscious, and although the prognosis had him waking up in days rather than weeks, there were still no guarantees. No guarantee also that he would awaken completely recovered with no residual brain damage. Berating herself for swinging from overly optimistic to gloomily pessimistic Rachel regathered herself, put on a smile for Mrs Hudson, and entered Finn's room.

Only to met with no Mrs Hudson.

Instead the sounds of Barbra Streisand belting out 'Don't Rain On My Parade' greeted her from Finn's ipod, the volume rather louder than they usually had it. She hurried over, and was leaning down to lower the volume, when she was startled by a voice.

"You know. I think I still prefer your version."

Rachel could have sworn her heart actually stopped for a couple of seconds, before she spun around to face the source of the comment. There he was. Finn. Finn awake. Alert. And grinning like a fool at her. Forgetting about his broken ribs, sprained ankle, broken arm, and bandaged head Rachel gasped and launched herself at him. Attaching herself firmly to his side.

Finn winced as he felt the pain of his busted ribs but figured it was a small price to pay for being able to hold Rachel like this. He tried to comfort the soon sobbing girl.

"Hey now Rach. Can't get rid of me that easily. We've got regionals ahead. Not gonna let you get all the glory." He joked.

Rachel just cried even harder. Her fears that Finn might have suffered permanent brain injury appeared unfounded. He was joking with her and could clearly remember all about her, and glee.

Finally in between sobs she managed to speak.

"Finn I was so worried. We all were I mean. Mr Schue and Kurt and Brittany. All the glee club. Loads of people at school asked about you and sent their best wishes. And your mom..oh your mom!" She exclaimed. "Does she know you're awake? We've got to find her. She's hardly left your side Finn. She loves you so much." Rachel rattled through her words at a mile a minute.

Finn used his good arm to rub soothing circles on Rachel's back and decided to take a small risk and planted a kiss on top of her head for good measure figuring he may just get away with it.

"Rach slow down. My mom knows I'm awake. I woke up in the middle of the night. Got a full check up. Got the all clear scan to come later this morning but the doctor isn't concerned at all." Finn explained.

"Why didn't you call me?" Rachel asked, leaning back, in order it seemed to conduct her own visual examination of Finn.

"Don't blame mom. She said that she promised to call you. I wanted you to get a good nights sleep. Mom said you've been putting in long hours in between school and here and coma research." He said with a grin. "Besides I thought it would be cool to surprise you."

This earned Finn a bony elbow in the ribs which caused him to groan and in turn led to Rachel apologizing for the next few minutes. Once Finn had assured her he was alright Rachel returned to complaining about not being informed straight away about his 'miraculous' (her word) recovery. Finn racked his brain to come up with something to get him back in her good books.

"How about I let you break the news to glee club today. You've got practice first thing yeah?" Finn offered.

Rachel pulled away from his side beaming, his suggestion obviously appealing to her.

"Oh Finn that would be great! Can I?" She asked eagerly.

"Sure" Finn laughed. "Um.. could you come back here after school though. You could let the others know that if they want to stop by later that would be cool. But to leave it till early evening if that's okay. I'd um ..like to speak to you alone before the others start dropping by if that's cool with you."

Rachel was intrigued as well as nervous. Finn was being uncharacteristically mysterious. Why did he want her alone? Rachel hated surprises but could see that Finn was reluctant to give her any more information at this time.

Finn, knowing only to well Rachel's view on surprises, decided to change the subject before her curiosity got the better of her.

"Rach do you think you could pass a couple of messages on for me at school?" He asked.

"Sure." She replied. "What are they?"

More by accident than design Rachel timed her entrance into the choir room perfectly. A quick scan of the room showed everyone was present and correct. Mr Schue was standing by the piano about to start things off, with the rest of glee club seated opposite him.

"Rachel." He greeted her. "I wasn't sure if you were coming in this morning."

"He's awake!!" She announced, practically vibrating in place with a wide smile on her face.

There was a seconds silence followed by uproar.

Kurt was hugging Mercedes. Brittany was jumping up and down on the spot causing Santana to roll her eyes at her before she joined in with her bouncing friend. Matt and Mike exchanged knuckle bumps. Tina's attempt to hug Artie had ended up with her sitting in his lap. Neither of them appeared to be complaining. Mr Schue was stood stock still turned slightly away from the group trying to avoid them seeing him letting loose a few tears. He was unsuccessful.

Puck and Quinn meanwhile rushed across to Rachel.

"He's awake?" Puck sought to confirm.

"He's awake!" Rachel beamed.

"And everything's okay? With his head I mean." Quinn clarified.

"Yup all fine. He's having another scan today but it's just a formality. He can talk just fine and he still knows his times tables...well as much as he did before." Rachel laughed.

Puck and Quinn shared a relieved chuckle.

"He also wanted me to pass on a message to you both."

Puck and Quinn's cheerful expressions changed into fearful ones. Rachel quickly sought to allay their fears.

"He told me to tell you thanks for coming to see him."

"You told him?" Puck questioned. Rachel shook her head no.

"You mean he could..he heard?" Quinn asked in wonder.

"Apparently so." Rachel answered. "He wanted both of you to do him a favor if you could."

"Anything." Puck said.

"Well, Puck, he's going to be out of action because of his arm, ankle and ribs for a while but when he does try to start getting back into things he wondered whether you'd be willing to help him with his rehab. He said you're the man as far as workouts go. He wanted to know if he could count on you." Rachel emphasized the last sentence making sure there could be no misunderstanding of the subtext of Finn's words.

An obviously choked up and emotional Puck could only manage a grateful nod of acquiescence.

Rachel next turned to Quinn.

"Quinn. Finn said that he doesn't know what you've finally decided to do about the baby. But whatever decision you end up making he hopes you can be happy and that your daughter is healthy. He doesn't hate you, and if you give him a little time he hopes you can be friends one day."

Rachel had been more than a little surprised when Finn had entrusted these tasks to her. He had explained that he knew that Rachel would say things better than him. That even though he really did mean the things he had her say, he was still a bit fearful that when he actually saw them some residual anger might lead to him saying things he didn't truly mean. He didn't want to punish them anymore. He just wanted everything to be over with. Seeing the reactions his words had provoked made her certain that he had done the right thing. In fact she wasn't sure if she had ever been prouder of him.

Leaving a tearful Quinn to be comforted by Puck, Rachel sought out Kurt, managing to remove him from Mercedes' side for a quiet talk.

"Hey Kurt. Finn said to let you know that he understands if you can't make it out to the hospital to see him. He said it's cool and he'd catch you when he's out."

Kurt looked thoughtful.

"You know what?" He said. "That's okay. I think it would be good to go to the hospital for something happy. Get a least one good memory to go along with all the bad."

Rachel decided to take what for her was a rare opportunity and gave Kurt her very best hug much to his apparent amusement.

"Finn said he'd be ready to receive visitors around 6pm so if you wouldn't mind organizing something with the others that would be great." Rachel suggested.

"Aye aye captain." Kurt saluted sarcastically but the twinkle in his eyes let Rachel know he was only kidding around with her.

Looking over her shoulder Rachel shouted.

"Hey Mr Schue I don't know about everyone else, but I'm in the mood for singing!"

Thus began one of the most joyous practices in the history of glee.

In between glee practice and being stopped by half the student body wanting the latest update on Finn, Rachel had managed to keep from thinking about what Finn had in store for her later that afternoon. Later that afternoon had rapidly become now however, and with a last deep breath Rachel again entered Finn's hospital room.

Finn was again alone, like last time. This time though he was wide awake and appeared to be stroking an imaginary pet.

"Ah Ms Berry I've been expecting you." He declared in some strange accent.

Rachel was confused, not to say worried. Had there been brain damage after all? Finn sensed her confusion.

"James Bond? Don't tell me you've never seen a Bond movie Rachel. Ah man you're killing me here. And to think you're the one who thinks I'm missing out on a cultural education." Finn exclaimed, clearly affronted with this gap in Rachel's knowledge.

"You can't equate Bond with..with..with..Billy Elliot!" She declared triumphantly.

"Why not?" Finn argued.

"You just.... can't." Rachel decided.

"Well, I think that you should continue my lessons on all things Broadway, and I can introduce you to less musical entertainments. Be thankful I'm not starting you with sports." He added.

Rachel huffed but couldn't help laughing.

"Do you even remember what I've taught you so far? I mean you have a pretty good excuse seeing as you were unconscious at the time." She teased.

"Hey! I remember everything. For instance I remember that even though I was lying, near death, in a hospital bed." Finn decided to exaggerate. "Despite that, you still thought it was okay to totally dis my dancing. That was cold Rachel." He frowned, pretending to be hurt.

Rachel reacted by covering his mouth with her hand lest he mortify her with any other revelations. Thank god she hadn't given in to temptation and declared her undying love.

"You heard that?" She squeaked.

Finn could only nod his head up and down. Rachel uncovered his mouth.

"I heard everything." He confirmed. "For instance you really really don't like Jacob Ben Israel." He shook his head pretending to be shocked.

"Can you blame me?" Rachel countered. Finn merely shrugged.

"Don't tell me you like the creep?" Rachel exclaimed outraged.

"Hey, he may be a creep." Finn smiled. "But you've got to hand it to him."

"What?" Rachel asked baffled.

"The guy has excellent taste." Finn's smile had transformed into what could only be described as a smirk.

Rachel felt the blush flush her whole body. It had been a while since Finn had said anything remotely like that to her. She was sure her reaction to his words was clear to see. As she attempted to collect herself Finn continued.

"Jacob obviously recognizes the most beautiful girl in school when he see her. The most beautiful and the most talented." Finn said to her astonishment. "What he doesn't realize is that despite the fact that she's got this enormous talent it still seems small when you place it next to her heart. 'Cos as beautiful as she is, and believe me she is beautiful, and as talented as she is, and believe me she is talented, it's nothing compared to what a good person she is. What a loyal caring friend she is. She's the best person I've ever known and I'm so lucky that she's in my life. I've made a lot of mistakes with her, and let her down way too many times, but still she's always been there for me. And for my mom. I think she's amazing and I'm gonna make sure she knows it. That's for sure." Finn finished, grateful he'd managed to get through it all in one go.

Rachel concentrated hard on the wall to the right of Finn's head. Unable to look at him for the moment. Afraid that if she did she would start crying. Afraid that that if she looked at him he would be asleep or unconscious and that this all would have been nothing more than a wonderful wonderful dream. Slowly, ever so slowly, she turned her head to look at Finn. To look at an awake alert Finn who had an incredibly earnest, yet fearful, expression on his face.

"You mean that?" Rachel whispered.

"Every word." He solemnly vowed.

Rachel began to feel slightly more confident that this was a wonderful reality rather than a wonderful dream.

"Been practicing that for a while?" She asked knowingly.

"'Bout 2 months." Finn answered seriously.

"Those mistakes you mentioned?" Rachel queried.

"Yeah."

"You're not making them now." She said quietly.

"'Bout time." Finn said.

Rachel leaned closer to Finn almost joining him on the bed.

"What happens next?" She breathed.

Realizing that things were going better than he had even dreamed Finn decided to go for broke.

"Well if it's okay with you we could go on a date. How about tomorrow?"

Rachel giggled.

"Tomorrow!? Finn you're in the hospital!" She grumbled.

"So?"

"So? So? So maybe I shouldn't even be agreeing to this. I mean aren't I supposed to be playing hard to get or something. I'm doing it all wrong. I've liked you for ages and now that you've suddenly decided that you want me I just fall at your feet. It's ridiculous!" She moaned.

"I've always wanted you Rachel. Always. I've lied to myself about a lot of things these past months but I've never lied to myself about that. It's always been you Rach. I swear. And you know what? I'm pretty sure it's always gonna be you. You're it Rachel Berry. So you can play hard to get if you want. I deserve it. But I'm not gonna give up. And just for the record, if anyone's going to be falling at anyone else's feet, it's gonna be me falling at yours." Finn promised.

Rachel was silent for the longest time. She just looked Finn straight in the eye for what seemed like an age as if all the answers to her many questions could be found there. Finn stood unwavering before her gaze. Finally she seemed to find the answers she sought.

"Fine. Tomorrow it is. I'll bring my laptop, we can continue your education. I'll bring 'Funny Girl' and you can learn that while I am flattered by your praise, I am not yet Barbra Streisand." She declared.

"I don't see why you're in such a rush for our first date anyway. These are hardly ideal circumstances." Rachel complained.

"I've waited long enough. I know you'd call it a cliché but life's too short. I'm gonna do what makes me happy. Besides," Finn smiled, "the sooner we're dating the sooner we're kissing."

"Oh really?" Rachel arched her eyebrow.

"Well, hopefully." Finn said.

"Just what were you hoping for Mr Hudson?" Rachel asked playfully.

Finn's pouted and pushed out his bottom lip slightly trying to gain some sympathy.

"Well I'm pretty beaten up. In fact I'm pretty much one gigantic bruise. About the only part of me that isn't bruised are these," He said pointing to his lips, "they're feeling really left out and I was wondering if maybe you'd like to take care of bruising them for me."

Rachel couldn't help automatically licking her own lips as she considered his words. God what was he doing to her?

"Well we are in a hospital so treatment is close at hand should the bruising become severe. I guess for your welfare this would be the best place to embark on...on....that." She said haltingly.

"Embark away." Finn replied.

As Rachel leaned in to capture his lips in a kiss Finn couldn't help but reflect, that in his opinion, comas were entirely underrated.

The End.