Hello everyone! This is a Finchel A/U inspired by the movie Just Like Heaven (But you don't have to see the movie for this fan fiction to make sense. It just follows the same main story line as the film, but there are plenty of differences!) Rachel Berry is living in New York City, starring in an off-Broadway show, living the dream with her best friend, Kurt Hummel. Her life seems perfect, but she's under a lot of stress until she recieves the best news of her life! Finn Hudson has decided to move to a new apartment to start fresh after a painful break-up when he runs into a girl (Rachel )- but not in the way he would have expected to.

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or any of the characters. I also do not own Just Like Heaven or Spring Awakening (which is mentioned). This is just for fun:)

Chapter 1

"Rachel, you're amazing!"

"Right over here, Rachel! The camera loves you!"

"She has the most fantastic voice!"

The spotlight was shining bright on Rachel Berry as she bowed during her curtain call for the huge crowd in front of her. She beamed with joy as the adoring theatre-goers showered her with praise after her amazing performance. She couldn't help but bask in all the compliments she was getting for her flawless portrayal of Wendla in the Broadway revival of Spring Awakening – she didn't receive compliments all that often from anyone else, so having a huge theatre full of people spouting them out at her was pretty much a dream come true.

"I love you, Rachel Berry!" one person in the front row yelled toward the stunning young ingénue. It was clear the room adored her.

"And I love you!" She called back, the message intended for everyone in the room. She had finally hit it big on Broadway! She never wanted this amazing feeling to end! The crowd grew wild and chanted her name over and over again. Could it get any better than this?

"Rachel! Rachel! Rachel! Rachel!"

"Rachel! Rachel!" Rachel's eyes snapped open as her best friend, Kurt Hummel, shook her awake. She groggily looked around her to take in her surroundings.

Her dressing room had grown darker as grey clouds rolled into the sky, blocking the sun from shining through the window as it usually did. The room was a complete mess – various clothing articles were on the floor and draped over the backs of chairs, many pages of a script were splayed across the already cluttered carpet, and a collection of hair and makeup products were spilled on the vanity table. And what was worse: she wasn't even on Broadway – yet.

Rachel let out a long drawn sigh at the appearance of her room, but Kurt's eyes went wide as he saw the disorderly space, not to mention Rachel's disheveled appearance.

"God, Rachel! This place is a mess!" He shrieked while setting down his shoulder bag on the arm rest of the chair Rachel was laying on. He began to meander around the room, trying to avoid stepping on anything. "Hey, this is mine! You cannot just leave this all crumpled here!" He paused and quickly grabbed a navy blue jacket that was in a corner behind a standing lamp. "This is Marc Jacob's new collection!"

Kurt threw his arms up in exasperation, but Rachel wasn't able to stifle her giggles at her friend's outburst. "You think this is funny?" Kurt eyed her with an angry glare, but she couldn't help herself. She just threw her hands in front of her face and laughed even louder. Eventually Kurt lost it as well and they were both in a fit of giggles.

"I'm sorry, Kurt," She choked out as the laughing died down. "I've just been so busy going over these lines; I haven't really had time to straighten things up. The delivery of every single line has to be perfect." She stood up, straightening out the hem of her light blue dress. "I guess I just fell asleep in the process."

Kurt brushed the branches of her smooth brown hair down and placed his palms on her shoulders.

"Rachel. You already earned the part of Wendla – you don't need to be so stressed trying to make your performance better. Honestly, I don't think you could make it any better, it's flawless."

There was no arguing with that – she knew her performance was flawless. Well, she was Rachel Berry, the talented singer and actress who had made her way from having her many talents suppressed in a small town Ohio glee club to being the star in an off-Broadway show in New York City. She was still hoping that Spring Awakening would get put back on Broadway again – she dreamed about it almost every day as she just had before Kurt had stirred her awake.

But it wasn't her performance that was bothering her. It was her understudy.

Sunshine Corazon had seemed like a nice girl when Rachel met her at the Spring Awakening theatre six months ago, but things had changed once the show started to really pick up. Sunshine seemed to always be right on Rachel's heels in one way or another, and she never failed to make Rachel feel as if her performances were flawed, which they never were. No one else seemed to believe it, but Rachel was convinced that Sunshine was trying to overthrow her and take her lead role as Wendla.

"No, it's Sunshine, Kurt!" She exclaimed. Kurt rolled her eyes, but Rachel didn't miss a beat in her rambling. "I swear she is trying to get rid of me! You know, she's offered three times to go over my lines with me. Three times! You know, I think she's trying to sabotage me by trying to get me to change the delivery of my lines so that I perform terribly and she'll be able to take my spot!" She was pacing now across the cluttered floor, speaking quickly and not noticing or caring what she trampled upon.

"Or maybe, she's noticed how stressed out you seem and is just trying to lend a helping hand. Rachel, the girl is not out to get you." Kurt responded. Rachel finally stopped pacing and plopped back down on her sofa chair. "Even if she was trying to sabotage you, it wouldn't work. You're too brilliant to fall for anything like that."

Rachel couldn't help but smile in response to his kind words. It seemed that Kurt always knew what to say to her to make her feel better. They met in high school, and hadn't always been close since they often would try to compete for solos in glee club, but eventually they became very close-knit best friends, though she still considered him to be more of a brother to her.

"Thanks, Kurt." He pulled her into a tight embrace.

"Oh, you know I love you, Rachel." He backed away suddenly from the hug. "But if we hug for any longer, you'll wrinkle my jacket. It's Armani." His tone was very serious, but she couldn't help but be thrown into a fit of giggles once again.

"Well, we can't have that, can we?" She laughed once more and backed away from her best friend. "I really need to straighten this place up." She began picking up various items from the floor and holding them in her arms.

"Rachel!" Kurt tugged on her arm. "If you don't come with me now, we are going to be late for our dinner date with Blaine!" Rachel hadn't forgotten about the plans Kurt had made for her and his boyfriend that night, but she didn't want to be a third wheel again.

"You mean your dinner date with Blaine. You know you two will be the ones talking the entire time about things I don't understand like the top ten best Vogue covers or the hottest new trends in Men's fashion." Rachel shook her head at him as he gave her a sad and disappointed look. "Kurt, I love you and Blaine to death, but I always feel like I'm intruding on your all's dates or that you invited me out of pity or something."

Kurt checked his watch quickly before continuing and gave Rachel a frustrated look.

"That is not true! We only sometimes invite you out of pity." Rachel scoffed at this but still smiled as her friend rambled on. "Besides, tonight you wouldn't be intruding. Because I set up a double date."

Rachel's expression changed from amused to upset very quickly at Kurt's news, but he pressed on. "Come on, Rachel! I think you'll really like this guy. He's tall, handsome, and from what I hear he has a pretty good singing voice. This could be the star-potential in a guy you need!" Kurt threw his arms up as if to say "What's not to love?" but Rachel was not having it.

"I'm not going out with someone I've never met or that you've never even met. That usually doesn't end well." Rachel protested.

"Ah, but I do know him! Well, sort of. He's a friend of a friend." Kurt winced as Rachel glared at him. "But I hear he's fantastic!"

"No, Kurt. I'm just going to finish straightening up here, okay? I am absolutely fine with being alone tonight." Rachel continued to pick up items strewn across the floor and tried to shoo Kurt away.

"Fine! I'll go without you. But trust me, there will come a time when you will not be okay with being alone every night, and you'll be wishing you went on this date I so graciously set up for you." He grabbed his shoulder bag and buttoned up his designer jacket.

"Get out of my dressing room, Kurt!" She playfully shouted as she pushed him toward the door and he threw up his arms in surrender.

"I'm leaving, I'm leaving! Just promise me you will get some sleep so you don't snooze out on us in the middle of the show tomorrow night." He poked her nose with his index finger and she nodded, giving him a slight smile. "Good. Now I'll just have to break the news to this guy that you won't be showing up. It's too bad you know, he was pretty darn cute."

"Leave!"

"Alright! Bye, Rachel!" he pecked her cheek quickly before he exited the dressing room and went down the hall to leave the theatre. Rachel shut the door to her room behind him as he left, and continued to tidy up.

But all the while, she couldn't help but think Kurt was right. Because he was. He always was. Yes, she was lonely. She'd only ever had a few boyfriends, none of which she had been in a serious relationship with – she ended it with every one of them. It wasn't that she had commitment issues. She wanted to fall in love and settle down with a guy some day, but she hadn't quite found that guy yet. And lately, she was wondering if she ever would.

It didn't help that almost all of her fellow cast-mates, who had grown to be her best friends in the past months, had boyfriends and girlfriends that they hung out with every night or who even came to many of the shows. It made her feel out of the loop with her friends when it came to their relationships.

Why couldn't she find a guy that she loved? She had plenty of suitors, but she never seemed to fall for any of them. She told Kurt that she didn't let the relationships she had last because the guys she dated lacked the "star-potential and talent" that she had. But really, she just never felt like she could be herself with any of them. She never felt safe or at home with any of them. And from what she'd seen in movies and read in romance novels, those were the things you were supposed to feel when you were in love.

She had considered dating one boy, Jesse St. James, who just happened to play opposite her as Melchior in Spring Awakening. He had clearly shown interest in her, and he was a very nice and talented guy, but she couldn't help but feeling that he was an even bigger drama queen than her – and that was saying something. She also didn't want to ruin their show if they would ever break up since they were playing teens that were madly in love. Besides, it was against the theatre company's rule to be romantically involved with your co-stars. So, Jesse was definitely out of the question.

However, she was still young, only 22 and just out of college. She knew she had time to meet the right guy, and she'd stumble upon him someday, she just knew it.

It had only taken about a half hour for Rachel to clean her entire dressing room to the pristine arrangement it was usually in. Satisfied with its appearance, she decided it would be best to get home before the rain that fell outside got any worse. Just as she was gathering her things, she heard a knock on her dressing room door.

It had been three hours since their sound check rehearsal had ended. Who would still be there that long after?

The person knocking on the door let themselves in, poking their head inside and fully stepping in when they saw Rachel was still there.

"Ah, here you are! I'm glad I caught you before you left." Will Schuester, the director of Spring Awakening, hardly ever came into the cast's dressing rooms to talk to them. Most of the time, he addressed them as a group or pulled one of them off to the side during a rehearsal, but he hardly ever confronted them alone.

Something had to be wrong.

No! What if Sunshine had gotten away with her evil plan and Rachel was being demoted to understudy? What if Will had thought she and Jesse were together because of her amazing acting leading him to believe that they had actual chemistry?

Will must have sensed that Rachel was worried so he began to reassure her. "You're not in trouble, Rachel. I actually came here to deliver some excellent news." Rachel let out a soft sigh of relief and stared expectantly at her director.

"News? News about what?" Rachel inclined. Will's smile grew larger until it seemed that he wasn't able to contain himself.

"Well, I was going to wait until everyone was together before the matinee tomorrow to tell anyone, but I saw that your dressing room light was on and I just had to tell you." His tone was growing more excited with each word he spoke.

"What is it? No one knows, not Mercedes, or Tina, or Jesse, or Kurt?" The anticipation was starting to kill her. Usually she was the last to know everything, so she was intrigued to hear that she could possibly be the first to hear of this news.

"Rachel Berry, you, along with the rest of the cast, will be starring in the Broadway revival of Spring Awakening!" Will announced. Rachel's face lit up, her eyes going wide and a beaming smile spreading across her face.

"What? Really?" Rachel simply could not contain herself! This was her one dream that was finally coming true!

"Yes, really! I was just informed of it tonight! Because the public has taken so well to your and Jesse's performances, the show has been promoted to Broadway in the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, where it was performed originally!" Will was almost as excited as Rachel it seemed, both of their faces bright with joy.

"I just – I can't believe it!" Rachel started laughing and smiling in awe.

"Well, believe it! Because you made this happen! You and the rest of the cast. The people just love you, Rachel." He pulled her into a massive hug as she squealed for joy. They both laughed and were still jittery, the news having yet to wear off.

"Thank you so much, Will! We couldn't have done it without you." She smiled at him but he shook his head.

"No, Rachel. We couldn't have done it without you." He turned to head out the door after he said goodbye, but stopped before he left completely. "Oh, be careful getting home! It is pouring out there. I honestly don't know how these New Yorkers are still out on the streets!" With that he was gone and out the door.

As Rachel left the theatre, she was greeted with buckets of rain coming down at her. She couldn't imagine how upset Kurt must have been considering there was no way he could avoid getting his designer shoes wet in this kind of weather. But no amount of rain would be able to put her in a foul mood. She just learned that she was going to be a star on Broadway!

She was on cloud nine.

She didn't even mind that she had to drive through the rain and the traffic that seemed to last through all hours of the night in New York City. She was just too excited to get home and let her Dads and other friends know. But first, she had to tell Kurt.

She pulled her car out of the parking garage near the theatre and made her way down the slick streets of New York. Kurt answered his phone on the first ring as he always did when Rachel called.

"Rachel, what's up? Decided to join us after all? Well, I already canceled with –"

"No! Kurt, listen! I've just gotten the most amazing news from Will about the show! Now, you'll hear this tomorrow from Will anyways, but I just had to tell you now." Rachel was speaking very quickly, hardly allowing herself any time to breathe.

"Okay, slow down Rachel. You've gotten my attention, as well as Blaine's. What's the news?" She could hear him trying to shush Blaine in the background and she let out a soft giggle. Rachel steadied her grip on her phone while the other was on the steering wheel.

"Okay. Kurt Hummel, I am pleased – no! I am ecstatic to inform you that you will be reprising the role of Ernst in the Broadway revival of Spring Awakening!" The other line was dead silent for a few seconds.

"Shut up. Shut up! You aren't serious!" Kurt squealed over the phone.

"I'm very serious! And I'll tell you all about it when I get home, but I have to go now because talking on a cell phone in New York traffic while it's pouring is not the easiest task." She giggled, but Kurt seemed to be too busy relaying the information to Blaine to hear her that well.

"What – oh! Okay, Rachel! Call me as soon as you get home! Love you!"

"Love you, Kurt! Bye!" She hung up and continued driving to her apartment through Manhattan.

Suddenly, as if to match her mood, one of her favorite songs came on the radio. Could this night be any better? She reached down to turn up the volume and started singing along at the top of her lungs. There was only one way to describe this feeling. It was pure bliss.

But when she looked back up to the road, everything seemed to fall into slow motion. She could no longer hear the radio blasting around her, or the rain pounding on the roof of the car. Everything went silent as the two bright lights raced toward her. The truck that was in the wrong lane was far too close for her to even try to react. The lights were moving closer to her, closing the distance until the bright yellow was the only thing in her vision. She couldn't even hear herself scream.

Then everything went black.

What happened to Rachel? Where's Finn? Stay tuned for the next chapter to find out!

Next chapter we'll see what Finn has been up to, and how Rachel comes into his life.

Read & Review!

-Goldstarrach