You Still Have Me – Chapter 4

(I do not own Glee or any of the characters.)

The sun was shining between lingering clouds on that Sunday morning following the worst tornado to hit Lima, Ohio in history. Rachel scoured what was left of the high school parking lot looking for Hiram and Leroy, but they weren't there. One by one all of the reunited families wandered off in the direction of what used to be their homes to pick up the pieces and find shelter.

Finn wrapped his arm around the devastated Rachel and held her close to him. "We'll find them. I'm sure that they left Lima before the tornado ever got here, and they're out there trying to get back into town now."

After a head count the students left with their parents. Principal Figgins, Mr. Schue, and Ms. Pillsbury stayed behind to give a statement to the police before they all walked home.

"Rachel," Shelby called after her daughter, "Jesse says that his car is parked near the edge of town and my house was out of the tornado's path. Will you come and stay with the three of us until your dads are located?"

"No, but thank you. I'm going to wait at our house until they return," Rachel thanked her mother.

"Rachel you can't stay there by yourself. We don't even know what kind of shape your house is in yet. You can stay with us at the old Hummel house. Can't she Mom?" Finn asked his mother.

"Of course she can," Carole agreed. "We don't have any electricity, water, or furniture but at least we have a leaky roof over our heads. That's more than most of our neighbors."

"Thank you Carole but no, I can't stay there either. Finn, would you mind going with me to what's left of my house? I want to see if my dads could be there," Rachel said pulling Finn anxiously in the direction of her house.

"Of course," Finn agreed. "Mom, we're going over to Rachel's house first. We're anxious to see if her dads might be there. We'll check things out there and be by to see you later. I'm not leaving her alone until we find Hiram and Leroy."

"I understand. You take care of Rachel and then come by the old Hummel house later," Carole said waving goodbye.

Rachel was almost pulling Finn as they made their way through the wreckage to her house.

"What if they're not there Finn? What if they were killed in the storm?" Rachel asked Finn.

"Rachel we left your house at eight AM and the storm didn't hit Lima until almost eleven. If your dads left your house right after we did, they should have been in Columbus before the storm ever reached Lima. They haven't called because the cell phone network and the land lines are down. The roads from here to Columbus have got to be blocked. Your dads are probably there in a hotel right now," Finn said trying to reassure her.

"I hope that they got out of the storm's path in time. If not they would have been driving south right into the storm before it ever reached Lima," Rachel said almost to herself.

Finn hadn't mentioned it to Rachel, but he had realized the same awful truth. The line of storms had traveled up the same highway that Hiram and Leroy would have used to go south to Columbus. If Hiram and Leroy had gotten a late start they would have been driving straight into the tornado's path before it reached Lima.

Finn and Rachel made their way through what used to be her neighborhood. Trees were down everywhere; houses were either gone or badly damaged.

The streets were full of mangled cars, trees, and debris. Picking their way through the carnage, they finally found Rachel's house. The large oak in the front yard had crushed the garage. Inside Rachel's Prius and Leroy's Lexus were flattened. The spot where Hiram's BMW usually sat was empty.

"See," Finn said to Rachel as they surveyed the damaged garage. "Your dads left town in Hiram's BMW before the storm got here. It'll just be a matter of time before they come home."

"I really hope you're right. I can't imagine my life without them, Rachel sobbed as she pushed the door open.

Inside Rachel's house most of the windows were broken and the wind had tossed things around. Rachel opened Hiram and Leroy's bedroom door to find that their bed was made and their overnight bags were gone. On the floor in the kitchen she found a memo board where her dads had left her a message. "Good luck on the SAT Baby, but you don't need luck. Be back late tonight. We love you, Dad and Daddy."

"But I do need luck, luck that they're out there somewhere alive and trying to get home," Rachel cried into Finn's chest.

"Rachel, luck has been with us from the first tornado warning siren. If we hadn't gone into the school basement when we did, we would've been swept away with the building. Crouching in the hallways was no protection from a F5. Your dads are going to be found I know it," Finn said softly to her as he rubbed her back.

Rachel worked inside her house for awhile sweeping up glass while Finn tried to find something to cover the broken windows. Inside they found bottled water, canned food, and a can opener. They ate their first meal in 24 hours straight out of the cans.

After their meal Finn said that he needed to go and check on his family over at the old Hummel house. Rachel was reluctant to go, but didn't want to stay at her house alone. She left her dads a note just in case they came back while they were gone.

Picking their way down the street they passed Quinn and her mother picking up what they could find at their house. They were packing what little they found into her sister's car. Quinn scribbled down her sister's phone number on a scrap of paper and handed it to them.

"Call me when the phones are working again, and let me know what's going on here," Quinn said before she turned to leave.

At the old Hummel house things were cramped, but at least they had shelter. All of their furniture had been lost with the new house. Blaine's house was gone too, and Carole and Burt had invited his family to stay with them until they could get to their relatives.

"Rachel, was there any sign of your dads at your house?" Carole asked hopefully.

"No, Dad's car was gone along with their luggage. They did leave a message for me that I found," Rachel replied.

"Burt and I want you to stay here with us until your dads come home. We don't want you over there alone," Carole said trying to reassure Rachel.

"I can't, I have to be there when they come home," Rachel declined the offer.

"Then can Kurt, Blaine, and I stay with you?" Finn asked Rachel. There's a lot of work to be done over there, and I'm not leaving you alone until Leroy and Hiram come home. The four of us have spent one night in a dungeon; a little more togetherness won't hurt us."

"If it's okay with your parents, I really don't want to be by myself," Rachel conceded.

-/-/-/-

Near the hospital the Red Cross had set up a shelter. Puck was getting settled in with his mother and his sister. At the sign-in table he spotted Lauren coming in with her parents. After a few awkward minutes he walked over to Lauren and said hello.

"Is your house gone too?" Puck asked Lauren trying to make conversation.

"Yes, there isn't much left there and I guess that there isn't much left for me here either," Lauren groaned while putting her meager belongings down on a cot.

"What are you talking about?" Puck asked.

"I can tell by the way that you look at Quinn that you still love her and you probably always will. Where is she? Did her house make it?" Lauren asked.

"No her house is gone too, but she and her mother are going to stay with her sister for awhile. Lauren you're right. I care about you, but I realized yesterday that a piece of me will always belong to Quinn. We had a baby together. She loves Finn, but part of me still has to hope."

"I understand," Lauren said looking Puck in the eye. "Like I told you before, I'm not desperate, but it has been fun."

"It has been," Puck smiled while Lauren gave his Mohawk a playful last tug.

-/-/-/-

Rachel, Finn, Kurt, and Blaine the left the original Hummel house and headed over to Rachel's. They four had ridden out a tornado together; they would stay with Rachel while she waited. There was more room there and for the most part the house was intact. All afternoon they worked on patching the windows and cleaning up.

When nightfall came, they made a meal out of some of the canned goods in the Berry pantry. With no electricity Blaine and Kurt found beds and retired for the night. Rachel and Finn were content to sit on the living room couch for a while watching two candles burn as they held on to hope that Leroy and Hiram were alive some where between Lima and Columbus.

"I can't sleep knowing that they're out there." Rachel whispered to Finn in the candle light.

"I know Finn whispered back. It's hard to sit here in this house without them, but let's not give up hope," Finn whispered as he kissed the side of her head.

The following morning was Monday. It had been the longest forty eight hours of their lives. Hiram and Leroy hadn't come home, but Rachel was up early in a cleaning frenzy. She wanted the house to be ready for her dads when they came home.

Electric line crews from every corner of the country began pouring into the state along with as many tree service crews. Chain saws were roaring all over town cutting up the downed trees and cleaning up the streets. The line of tornadoes had cut a path through Ohio right up from the south all the way into Michigan.

Around three in the afternoon, Carole came by the Berry house looking for Rachel. A National Guardsmen had driven her from the hospital, and Rachel was surprised to find that Shelby was with Carole.

"Rachel, we need you to come with us over to the hospital. A helicopter crew spotted a black car thrown about a mile from highway south of Lima."

"Is it my dads?" Rachel asked in a panic.

"We don't know, but car and the occupants match the description," Carole said softly. "I asked Shelby to come as 'next of kin' in case you don't want to do the identification. They're bringing the bodies to the hospital and have asked us to meet them there."

Rachel immediately went numb and limp. Finn helped her out to the waiting National Guard Hummer.

At the hospital the search and rescue crew had already arrived with two bodies and had them waiting for identification.

"I can't, Shelby would you go first?" Rachel whispered as they reached the door to the morgue.

Shelby nodded.

"Are you a family member?" the coroner asked before he let Shelby enter.

"If it is Mr. and Mr. Berry, then I am the mother of their daughter," Shelby said evenly to the coroner.

Rachel sat down on a bench to wait with Finn on one side and Carole on the other. She prayed that the two unfortunate souls in the morgue weren't her dads. In a few minutes Shelby returned and nodded her head yes.

"I want to make sure for myself," Rachel said hoping Shelby was wrong.

Shelby led Finn, Rachel, and Carole back into where the coroner was waiting with two bodies covered in sheets. When Rachel nodded that she was ready the corner pulled the sheets back.

"They look like they're asleep," Rachel said gazing down in shock at the two men who had raised her.

"At least they where together which is what they would have wanted," Finn said as silently tears fell.

"I'm all alone now," Rachel cried softly.

"No, you're not alone, you have me," Shelby said to Rachel as she rubbed her daughter's back.

Finn turned Rachel around and lifted her head up to look at him. "And you'll always have me for as long as you want me," Finn said before he wrapped a sobbing Rachel in his arms.

The same afternoon a farmer was out trying to round up his herd of cattle that had stampeded during the tornado. In the brush he found a woman's body in a bright red track suit about a mile from where McKinley High School had once stood. The farmer told the coroner that she must have enjoyed the ride because when he found the body, she had a smile on her face.

Later in the week Hiram and Leroy Berry were buried side by side in the Jewish cemetery near their temple, and Sue Sylvester was buried beside her sister Jean.

Rachel went through the next several days in a haze of grief. Finn and his family stayed with her repairing the Berry house.

Twelve days after the tornado hit the schools reopened. Having no building of their own the high school students were distributed between five different neighboring high schools. Rachel returned to school because she believed that was what her fathers would have wanted. Finn requested to be assigned with Rachel to the same high school. She was too fragile for him to leave her.

Over the course of the next few months Rachel, Kurt, and Blaine applied to and were accepted at universities in New York City. The friends planned on sharing an apartment when they left Ohio for New York the following year.

When spring came a ground breaking ceremony was held for a new high school around the remaining quad. All thirty five survivors were present. The football field was rededicated and was named the Sue Sylvester Field.

Graduation was held in May on the football field of McKinley. Construction crews had worked over time getting the field ready for the graduation even though the buildings were a long way from being completed.

"Finn, we made it." Rachel said to Finn as she clutched her diploma. "I just wish that my dads could have been here to see me accept my diploma."

"Rachel, they're here. I can feel them everywhere that you are," Finn tired to smile back. "They have never left you."

Rachel's house was eventually restored, but she decided to sell it to Blaine's family. They lost their home and had helped to rebuild hers. Dad and Daddy were gone, and she saw no point in keeping the house. She had planned on moving to New York and never coming back.

That fall Rachel, Kurt, and Blaine were packing to leave for college in New York City and Finn was going with them. Finn had surprised Rachel earlier with his acceptance letter from the Borough of Manhattan Community College. He had decided that he wanted to be a paramedic and possibly join the FDNY one day. The paramedics and firemen had risked their lives in the early hours after the tornado searching for them and the other survivors.

In all the F5 had taken eighteen lives, injured hundreds more, and caused millions of dollars in damage in the Lima area. The year before the tornado hit Rachel had decided that she was going to New York without Finn. Her career was waiting, and he would be a fish out of water in the big city. Now they had discovered that even a F5 tornado couldn't rip them apart. They were inseparable.

The End

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