Finn's mornings usually panned out in the same way. He'd wake at about eleven thirty to the sound of some of Kurt's music, he'd try to block it out by pressing his pillow over his head, and after a lot of grumbling and cursing, he'd pull himself out of bed at nearly twelve o'clock, looking just as tired and shitty as he felt. Course, if he was meeting Rachel for a jog in the park (which had seemed a good idea at the time 'cause he did need to stay fit while they were on vacation), that meant he had to be awake and dressed for nine, and in turn, that meant that he had to sleep in until one the next day to make up for it.

Was his body magic, though? See, the night before he'd been drinking, he'd gotten home late, and yet at seven o'clock he was somehow awake, glancing around the room in disorientation and exhaustion. He was about to groan and fall back into more well needed sleep when he remembered who'd been waiting for him the night before, and who'd shared his bed. He smiled at the thought of waking up next to Rachel, but then it dawned on him that she wasn't snuggled up against him, and she wasn't scrunched up at the other side of the bed, and she wasn't anywhere.

"Rach?" he croaked, rubbing his eyes as he looked at his clock. Seven o'clock; he hadn't seen that time in a while. "Rachel?" Dragging himself out of bed (after checking that he was still wearing pants), Finn looked under his bed, peered into all the drawers of his dresser, glanced out of the window, and after understanding that Rachel wasn't there anymore, he cried.

Okay, he cried for like, thirty seconds, so it wasn't a huge deal, but he didn't really remember what had happened the night before, and fucking hell, what if he'd tried to have sex with her or something? What if she'd said no, and what if he'd tried to pressure her into it? What if they had done it, and what if she'd been disappointed? Maybe she was embarrassed because he was lousy in the sack, and maybe she'd decided to ditch him in favour of Puck, who knew his way around the sex stuff.

"Oh God, Rachel's gonna dump me because I raped her and she knows she can get it from Puck and she'll be satisfied because I'm such a douche."

"It sounds like you had an interesting dream."

Finn's head snapped up as he looked at Rachel, who was standing in the doorway of his room, looking slightly amused, yet at the same time hesitant. "Rach?"

"Can I come in?" she asked quietly, wringing her hands a little as she glanced at her feet. "I left, but I couldn't actually leave, so I've been sitting in your kitchen, hoping it was okay and-"

"Sure, of course, come in." He smoothed out his duvet so it looked more welcoming, 'cause while he'd been searching for her under his old clothes and stuff, he'd managed to mess up his room pretty badly. He patted the bed, trying to give her his biggest smile, though he was pretty sure that it just came off as condescending (yeah, Rachel could take credit for that word but at least he was using it right... right?).

She took a deep breath and took small, slightly cautious steps towards him, perching on the edge of the bed, though she avoided making any kind of physical contact.

Finn didn't know how to deal with this. What was the nicest way to ask if he'd forced her to have sex with him? And then like, what if she said he had? 'Cause he didn't remember much of the night before, and if he had forced himself onto her... was he really that person?

"We didn't do it, if that's what you're worried about," Rachel said calmly, her eyes focused on his face. "Even if you'd been drinking, Finn, do you really think that little of yourself?" She had to gulp a few times to steady her breathing as she watched the confusion and relief drift across his features because there was something so vulnerable about him that made her want to wrap him in a hug.

"I... I don't know," he admitted, furrowing his brow as he returned her gaze. "I woke up and you weren't there, and I've heard the guys on the football team talk about getting so wasted until they don't know what they're doing, and..." He shrugged, looking defeated. "Why should I be any different? I screwed up by storming out, I screwed up by sleeping with Santana, I screwed up by hurting you so many times." Finn shrugged again, to which Rachel sighed.

"Stop this."

"What?"

She folded her arms across her chest, and with her jaw clenched, she glared at him. "Stop feeling sorry for yourself." She ignored the expression on his face that said 'don't even go there', and said curtly, "Instead of throwing yourself a pity party, you should be explaining to me what possessed you to leave the house without your cell phone, and what possessed you to go drinking when you're underage, and what possessed you to not even call to let me know that you were alive!" She snorted, her cheeks flaring with colour. "So, I'm going to give you two minutes to compose your thoughts, and if you can't give me a decent explanation..." She bit her lip, her weakness showing for a second before she huffed, "then I guess that's the time when you can feel sorry for yourself."

Finn just stared at her like she was some crazy yet beautiful girl who had just saved his life and was now asking if it was okay to slap him. That kind of attitude always amazed him, actually (and yeah, maybe it turned him on too). Rachel had the ability to be the most supportive person in the world, and yet at the flick of a switch, she was able to tear you down without a second thought. Thing was though, it was a good type of tearing down. Like, when he'd dated Quinn (he didn't try to dwell on that too much 'cause that was the past, and not exactly an enjoyable part of it), she used to tear Finn down constantly, but not for his own benefit, you see? She'd call him stupid and she'd call him a moron and she'd call him all these not cool insults, and it was never to help him improve; it was just to make him feel bad. With Rachel? She knew exactly what to say to really get to him, but only for his own benefit.

Take the Lady Gaga thing for example. After 'the incident' with Kurt, Finn had talked to Rachel 'cause he didn't have anyone else to turn to, and after he'd spilled his guts about that awful word he'd used, she'd told him, reminded him more like, that he'd been in the wrong, even if Kurt had overstepped his boundaries. In that moment, Finn had felt even worse because he'd been half hoping that Rachel would understand, and that she would hug him and tell him that it would all be okay. Nope; instead she'd just enforced the fact that Kurt would be really hurt by Finn's comments, and that he had to make things better. But see, that's how she did it. She'd point out the error or mistake that Finn had made, and then she'd help him make things right, and that was one of the things he loved about her.

This was the same thing. He already knew that he'd been an idiot by running out of the house like that, and he already knew he had some apologising to do, but after hearing it from her lips, it was like it had finally sunk in what he'd done, and how he had to fix things.

"Did you talk to my mom?" he finally asked. It felt like an eternity had passed since the 'two minutes or I'm leaving' ultimatum thing, and his voice was all croaky and not so confident.

Rachel nodded. "She explained what had happened between you and Mr Hummel, and she offered me some insight into why you left the way you did."

Finn cocked his head, because if she knew the story already, then what was there to tell? "And?"

"And I don't believe it."

"I uh... wait, what?"

"I don't believe it, Finn." She shook her head, her eyes shiny and big and brown. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not questioning the events that your mother divulged, but I am questioning your motives for leaving like that." Suddenly, the mock hostility that had been present in her voice, face, and general body language melted away, and all Finn could see was a vulnerable little girl who was having a hard time keeping it together. "You could have called me, and we could have stayed up all night talking about how we're going to overcome the obstacles to remain a couple after high school." Her voice turned to a whisper. "You could have come round to my house, and I could have proven how much I really do love you."

"Rachel, I-"

"But instead," she said, her words tinged with disgust, "you chose to abandon your family, causing them to worry for your safety, and you chose to go drinking, and you chose to abandon me." She wiped angrily at her eyes where a few tears had escaped, though she didn't allow herself to cry. "Why?"

And you know what? Finn didn't have an answer to that. He'd done it without thinking, had run away because he was hurting, and only now was he realising that he'd made a bigger mistake than he'd thought because he'd never meant to make Rachel doubt herself, doubt them.

"Because I'm an idiot," he admitted, to which Rachel rolled her eyes.

"No you're not!" she barked, throwing her hands in the air. "That is never the case because you're one of the smartest people I know."

"Please, you've gotta be-"

"You're smart in a less obvious way, Finn, and just because you're not so great at math, or just because you have difficulty finding Ohio on a map doesn't mean that you're an idiot." She softened her voice in an attempt to will him to listen, and it worked, though only because Finn wanted to see what crap she could come up with on the spur of the moment. "You're intelligent when it comes to people. You see the good in everyone, even if it's buried below anger and hostility, and you have the ability to believe in people when they sometimes don't even believe in themselves." She didn't elaborate, hoping he could understand on his own. "There's book smart, and then there's people smart, and they're just as important as each other, okay?" Her eyes clouded over as she remembered what they were talking about, and she huffed again for good measure. "So no, you're not an idiot, and if that's the only explanation you have then maybe I should leave."

"Wait." Finn wrapped his fingers around Rachel's wrist as he gently tugged on her, not allowing her to go. "I know why, and it's kind of only just hit me after all the stuff you've been saying." He relaxed his grip, though brushed his hand up and down her arm as he tried to word his thoughts properly. "I was scared, and I'm still scared, but then when I tell you why you'll tell me I'm being ridiculous or something, but I'm not, Rachel."

Rachel's face softened. "You can tell me." She reached a hand out to stroke Finn's cheek, and with a sigh he nodded.

"I'm scared that you're gonna realise how wrong we are for each other." He pressed a finger to her plump lips before she could protest because he really needed to explain himself, before she tried to get him to hear otherwise. "Right now we're great. I mean, not right now, but before all this stuff, and that's nice, awesome even..." He sighed, running a hand through his hair, and shrugged. "But just look at it from someone else's perspective, Rach. Like, take Burt for example." He literally winced; that was another bridge he was gonna have to cross, or mend, or whatever the hell that saying was. "He's been married before and he's in love with my mom, and he's probably had other girlfriends along the way, and so he must know more about love then us, right? 'Cause he thinks we're not gonna last after high school, and fuck, what do we know?" He didn't care that he'd cursed in front of her (and usually she'd playfully slap him on the wrist and tell him to watch his language), and Rachel didn't seem to care either, only watching him as he vented. "I thought I was in love with my first girlfriend, and then she cheated on me and lied to me about a baby that was never mine. Then you and me started dating, and I was so blind that I couldn't even see that you were the best thing to ever happen to me, so then I ended it and-"

"But don't you see?" Rachel grabbed Finn's hands, brushing her thumbs over his knuckles. "Don't you see that you've just proven it yourself? You thought you were in love with Quinn, and then you broke up with me because you thought it was for the best, but you're missing out the most important part of the story."

Finn cocked his head, raising his eyebrows. "I don't get it."

"Tell me what happens next," she insisted, pressing her lips to the palm of his hand. "What happens after you ended it?"

He frowned; had she forgotten or something? "I realised that I needed you, and I realised what real love is and... oh, okay, I think I get it."

"But do you?" Rachel asked excitedly. "Because no matter how old Mr Hummel is, and no matter how much experience he has of falling in love, he isn't you, isn't us, so what does he know?" She smiled this huge, proud smile that made Finn's head feel dizzy since she'd been practically yelling at him not even five minutes ago, but at least they were making progress (erm, weren't they? He was kind of confused). "I don't know how he met Kurt's mom, and for all we know it was a typical boy meets girl kind of encounter where he swept her off her feet and married her the next week." She wrinkled her nose a little. "Not that that's a bad thing, but what I'm trying to say, Finn, is that I'm almost one hundred percent sure that he wasn't the quarterback who was dating the head cheerleader, and that he wasn't the boy that was bribed into joining glee club where he fell for the talented, slightly overbearing lead singer, and that he wasn't the boy who was confused for a while because his Spanish teacher gave him some, frankly, ill advised advice about finding his inner rock star." She stopped to take a breath, during which time a smile crept onto Finn's face. "I'm also certain that he wasn't made jealous by the arrival of a new love interest to the female star, and that he wasn't the boy who performed a powerful, goose bump worthy rendition of Jessie's Girl , and then declared his love for Mrs Hummel before their Regional competition."

"And that means..."

Rachel sighed slightly and rolled her eyes, though she couldn't stop herself from grinning. "Which means that although Mr Hummel is happy and head over heels in love with your mother, he only knows his own definition of love, and will never truly understand what it means when we say that we'll be forever in Finchel love."

Finn spluttered with a laugh, 'cause he'd been expecting her to say something, else, not- "Finchel?"

Rachel shrugged innocently. "It's our couple name. Whenever anyone in the glee club gets together, they're given a name, and ours is Finchel."

"Huh." Finn threaded his fingers between hers, grinning as he thought it over. "I like the sound of that, like we're some kind of pastry or something, all delicious and stuff." He looked away for a second, trying to compose his thoughts. "I see what you're saying, babe, I do, but-"

"No buts Finn Hudson." Her eyes narrowed, and crap, he didn't mean to set her off again, but before he knew how to right the situation, she was pushing him down onto the bed, straddling his waist as she peppered his face in small, steamy kisses. "I love you, you love me, we're a happy family."

Finn groaned as he laughed; there was no way his girlfriend was serenading him with the Barney song. "Okay, okay, enough with the dinosaur, I love you t-" He didn't get the chance to finish his declaration because Rachel's lips found their way to his, and even if he still felt a small sliver of fear in his stomach, he knew that she was never gonna let him go.

Glee!

"I really have to leave," Rachel whined, breaking away from their kiss. "My dads weren't too happy with me staying the night, and I promised I'd be home before lunch."

"Ssssh," Finn murmured, latching his mouth to her neck as he grazed his teeth over her warm, slightly perfumey skin. "It's not even twelve yet so I'm sure they won't mind." His hands ran under her shirt and up her back, and Rachel was having a hard time thinking straight.

"No, Finn, I really have to go." Reluctantly, she pulled herself from his grasp, though not before pressing a sloppy kiss to his forehead. "I have to go for dinner tonight to make it up to them, but I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" She hated the way his face fell, but she really did have to leave.

"Fine, I have to sort things out with Burt anyway." He smiled as a way of letting her know it was okay, and fifteen minutes later, after he was sure that the taste of his girlfriend was never gonna leave his tongue (it was awesome), he waved her off, unable to rid himself of the goofy grin on his lips.

"Someone got lucky last night," drawled Kurt, who had apparently appeared beside Finn. "I should be grateful though because I thankfully couldn't hear the two of you fornicating, so yes, thank you for being considerate by keeping the noise of your love making to a minimum."

Finn just gawped at him before he snorted and spluttered at the same time. "We didn't have sex, if that's what you're talking about; we just sorted some stuff out and did a lot of making out." He smirked at the memory of Rachel's sore, puffy lips, not noticing the look of disdain on Kurt's face.

"Okay Romeo, I don't need to know the specifics. But you're okay now, after your little vanishing act?"

The smirk disappeared as Finn rubbed the back of his neck with embarrassment. "Yeah, we are. Um, is your dad around?"

"He's watching TV, though I wouldn't interrupt if I were you since- Fine, just ignore me why don't you!" Kurt sighed dramatically as Finn made his way into the living room where his mom and Burt were seated, chatting quietly while some show played in the background.

"Hi honey, has Rachel left yet?"

"Yeah," he said meekly to his mom, watching Burt out of the corner of his eye. "Her dads didn't want her to stay for long 'cause of... Yeah." Finn shuffled his feet awkwardly, sticking his hands into the pockets of his jeans to keep them occupied. "Erm, can I talk to you guys about something?"

"Actually, I need to talk to you too," said Burt, who stood up to meet Finn's gaze. "And to you Kurt, I know you're lurking behind the door."

Finn turned to look over at the boy in question, and rolled his eyes with a smirk; trust Kurt to be listening in to their conversation. He walked in and stood beside Finn, and then all eyes were on Burt, who seemed nervous about something.

"I'm sorry that I overreacted yesterday." Burt motioned for Finn and Kurt to sit down with Carole, and while Kurt looked intrigued, Finn looked downright confused; he needed to apologise, not Burt. "When my late wife was still alive, she always made sure that the three of us ate dinner together, even if I had an emergency tyre to replace, and even if Kurt had 'soccer practice'."

"It was ballet," Kurt whispered, and Finn's lip twitched with a smile.

"Then she passed away, and I tried my best to keep it going but course, I couldn't cook to save my life, so Kurt made me dinner and left it in the oven for when I got home from work." Burt looked fondly at Carole, and so fondly in fact that Finn felt the need to look away and gag; was that the way he stared at Rachel?

He stared at her a lot, actually. In glee club, he'd shamelessly watched her all the time; when they were dating the first time, and he'd been trying to figure out what he wanted; after they broke up he realised what he really did want and had admire her from afar and had pined for her when Jesse was around; now he just stared because she was hot/beautiful, and he wanted to be a good boyfriend (even if it meant watching and drooling over her boobs).

"And then I met Carole, who I love with all of my heart, and I wanted us to fall into the same routine. Not because I want to replace my wife," he insisted, switching his now solemn gaze to Kurt. "By eating together, it makes us come together as a family. We talk about glee club and football and cars and flowers and cats and taxes and we talk."

Finn shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He hadn't missed mealtimes on purpose, of course he hadn't, but it made him feel incredibly guilty all the same, especially when Burt made a real effort with all of them.

"I'm sorry that I got angry Finn," Burt continued quietly, and all Finn could do was nod and stare. "I know it's no excuse, but yesterday... Yesterday was the anniversary of when I first met-"

And then he started to cry, and then Carole started to cry as she comforted him, and Finn was so out of his depth because crying people weren't really his forte. He looked to Kurt for some guidance, an uncomfortable smile or a grimace of despair or something, but crap, even he had started to tear up, and Finn just wanted to crawl up in a hole until it was all over.

"Group hug, c'mon," Burt suddenly announced, and oh, okay, they were all hugging and crying while Finn couldn't wait to get away to talk to Rachel. "She's a keeper, your gal," Burt said as he tightened his grip on his family. "Forget all that stuff I said yesterday Finn; if you're in love then good for you buddy, and just make sure you take real good care of her."

"Yes sir." Finn already had that one covered.

Glee!

"Tell me again what it's supposed to be?"

Sam sighed dramatically as he rolled his eyes, managing a small grin. "Na'vi."

"Which is...?"

"Come on Quinn, seriously? It's from Avatar!"

Quinn wrinkled her nose in slight distaste, returning her gaze to the magazine in her lap. "Of course it is, how could I forget?"

"Awesome, I'm glad you remember, Avatar is so awesome."

Quinn sighed; Sam evidently didn't grasp the concept of sarcasm.

"Sure," she said under her breath while flicking through Cosmo with a slight air of fatigue. "Have you made any new friends yet?"

Sam shook his head, and Quinn watched as his perfect blonde hair swayed from side to side. "Church isn't exactly a great place to bag chicks. I mean uh, not that I was trying to bag anyone in the first place, and I'm really glad that you're my friend, Quinn." He trailed off, gazing forlornly out of her bedroom window. "I just wish I had some dude friends too."

While Sam somehow started comparing his life to Sandy's from Grease, Quinn's fingers fluttered over the keys on her cell phone.

To: Kurt; Puck; Finn; Artie; Mike; Matt.

I have a new friend who is really lonely and just wants someone to play with. I'll love you forever if you could give him a chance. Q x

Unsurprisingly, Puck was the first to reply, though considering he was supposed to be in the dog house, he sounded bitter; it was still a yes though.

When everyone replied, eager to meet Sammy Evans, Quinn lightly patted his arm and told him that they were going out for a while.

"Where to? I'm not so great with crowds..."

"Pandora, now come on." Sure, Quinn had seen the movie, it wasn't a big deal.

"Will you marry me?"

A/N: And here begins Rachael's attempt to update regularly once more (The Rest of our Lives will be updated asap).

Just as a heads up, the review system on FF has changed, and unless you have personal messages enabled, I can't reply to the amazing reviews you leave :( Therefore, if you haven't received a reply from me when you've left feedback, I'm afraid that's the reason.

Thanks for all the wonderful comments as usual, and I hope you all enjoyed the finale of Glee as much as I did! Rachael x