Chapter 2!

I just love writing the Pezberry scenes, they're fun and kind of cute. I love their friendship and wish there was more of it on the show.

Jesse Returns :D Him singing is in bold and Rachel singing is in italic, both is bolditalic.

I'm very tempted to add Brody in as a friend – nothing more – for Rachel and Jeff and the others. Would anyone be against this idea?

Glee is not mine

Read and Review, please!

While the majority of the house sat calmly in the living room, either watching the tv, or in Kurt and Brittany's case (the girl also had Lord Tubbington curled in her lap and was lazily stroking his soft fur), listening to music, the two dark haired girls were wreaking havoc in the back half of the house, wrestling over the small bear Santana had clasped in her hands. She was threatening - her words harsh and cold as she whispered in Rachel's ear yet her eyes betrayed her with their glint of playful comradery - to reveal the secrets the bear had to the rest of the apartment, presenting them with one of her deepest secrets that Santana had only found out because she was persistent enough to investigate the problem troubling the small diva.

Never once had Rachel told the rest of her roommates what that tattered little bear meant to her, one of the few possessions to make it out of Lima with her, and why she insisted on sleeping with it every night.

It was only by accident that Santana found out, about two months ago when she'd found the bear sitting on top of her pillow, while a note was sticking out from underneath Rachel's pillow. Of course, Santana was ever the curious type, and picked up the note; it was dated back to their junior year, just after the time of the prom fiascos, and Jesse's second departure. The creases from where it had obviously been scrunched up made the note a little harder to read, but nevertheless what she read changed her opinion about the relationship in which he note alluded back to.

Rachel,

Every day I wake up knowing what I did and nothing in the world can make it go away. I'm sorry for leaving the second time and I'm regretting that decision. When we met each other at the music store and I saw your face, your eyes glistened with the same spark that I had when I saw you; I felt driven. And that feeling has never left and will never leave. But I was nervous, those pesky things only ever came out around you. Did you notice that I repeated UCLA was in Los Angeles twice?

I remember waking up to next to you, on the nights your Dads' let me sleep over, or when we'd sneak over to my Uncle's place, watching you sleep, the way you walk to get to your car and immediately turn on the radio in case you'd miss a song, the way you answer the phone with a hopeful voice, the way your lips curl when I tell you that I love you, how happy you got when I'd appear at your locker and you'd hand me a readymade coffee – just the way I like it, the feeling you gave me when we hugged and kissed, when we walked around where ever we ended up hand in hand, the one weekend in Columbus at the hotel, the way you blew in my face when I took your breath away, and most importantly, the way you showed me how to love you. Those are only a few things I miss and I would give anything in the world to have all that again. But, my mistake cost me happiness and love I'll never find again. It hurts me day in and day out. And what hurts the worst is knowing that I hurt someone who was in love with me.

I should never let Shelby get between us, between what we had. I let her trivial threats get the better of me and allowed myself to be manipulated by her. I never would have let her get near you if I had known she would do what she did, it was wrong. I wish I could take everything back, but I can't and now I have to live with those decisions. I was scared... not of you or Shelby, but I was waiting for you to leave me. I could see the looks Hudson was giving you and believed it was only a matter of time before you realised that it was him you wanted and I wasn't worth your time.

I am so much in love with you but you've moved on to the quarterback. My leaving; left me with a lot of pain, the kind of pain that I wouldn't wish on anyone. I'm not good at writing letters as you know but this is how I feel. Rach, I love you so much. I cry every night, thinking about you.

~ J

She was shocked to read everything that the familiar chicken scratch expressed through the letter, and not once in her life did Santana believe that Jesse had any capabilities to be romantic whatsoever. Every now and then bits and pieces were crossed out, or notes had been added by Rachel – her loopy scrawl was unmistakable, carefully inserted around the tear stains streaking the paper. The most of said added notes were in the second last paragraph where Rachel had written things like. "I was never going to leave," and "He meant nothing to me," and "It wasn't your fault." These small annotations were a window inside what Rachel had felt, and frankly being her best friend, changed Santana's view on the boy. Back in high school she was manipulative, sure, but she also wasn't very trusting. She never actually decided to look into the relationship between Jesse and Rachel; she only saw what she wanted to see – and that was someone who had nothing but club destruction in mind. And in reality Shelby and Vocal Adrenaline weren't the only ones to blame for their break up. Finn caused major obvious problems, but the rest of the club, too, played a role; had they accepted Jesse and moved past his past in Vocal Adrenaline then maybe he wouldn't have felt swayed to jump ship again and egg Rachel. Even the second time, they weren't much better, and it was quite obvious that during both of the times Jesse St James roamed the halls of McKinely High Rachel was much happier.

Rachel was scratching at Santana's arms, and the Spanish girl was pretty sure Rachel's teeth were sinking into her flesh. The midget bitch had sharp teeth. "Just give him back, Santana!" Rachel howled, squirming in the headlock Santana had her in. "Give me James and no one will get hurt."

Santana smirked and shook her head fondly. "What sane person names a..." she paused in her teasing to pretend to examine the pink and yellow bear, slightly faded over the few years, "...care-bear, James?"

Rachel huffed and unclamped her teeth from the Latina's arm, narrowing her eyes in a harsh glare that Santana herself had taught her, blowing in Santana's face. "I got him on my first date with Jesse, now give him back." Her voice dipped to a whisper at the mention of her ex, eyes misting slightly at the prospect of her secrets being revealed. No one was supposed to know where her care bear came from.

"As in Jesse St James?" Santana pushed, she figured it out as soon as the name came out of Rachel's mouth, putting two and two together, but she needed Rachel to say it. If she had to she would chase for St James, drag him to their apartment and then lock him in their room just so that she could see Rachel happy.

Rachel's eyes flickered for a moment and she looked nervous, gulping she gave a weak nod and shut her eyes, waiting for some kind of backlash. "Yes," she whispered in a tiny voice, struggling in Santana's arms again.

Santana's grip loosened, and Rachel scrambled free in the process of successfully reclaiming her bear, hiding it from view. "Chica," she said, "It's alright to miss him, you know. No one here will judge you."

Rachel looked up, surprised. "That's not true, you all hate Jesse St James."

"That was true," Santana admitted and Rachel sighed in defeat, so the Latina continued, "But if you saw something good inside him – you probably still do, then he must have been something and I trust you enough to believe that I was selfish in my reasons and never saw what you did."

Tears were almost streaming down the small girl's face, buried into the soft fur of her care bear, shaking slightly. "Who cares now anyway...?" She whispered into the bear, "It's not like I'm ever going to see him again, he's probably disappeared and living a happy life with some beautiful actress in LA."

"Impossible things can happen Rachie, look at us for example."

"Our friendship was bound to happen anyway, we're too alike."

"So are you and Jesse, you're perfect for each other."

"That's not what you said last time I saw him." Rachel mumbled, looking away. Santana felt the hurt from the girl and remembered the protests she had tried to interject when the glee club were accusing him of things that he never really committed.

Santana hummed in response sadly, "I'm sorry about that Rachel. I was a judgemental, egotistical bitch back then who didn't care for anyone but herself."

In response, Rachel only giggled. Much to Santana's confusion. "Did you really just say that," Rachel giggled, "I should have recorded it! Santana Lopez just admitted that she was and is an egotistical bitch!"

And with that, the serious mood was broken. "Oh you'll get it now Chica."

Suddenly Rachel was off again, running from the wrath of Santana, giggling all the way into their bed room.

The group was once again settled on the couch, laying in a big clump of limbs that could barely be distinguished to certain individuals, watching the first of the Chronicles of Narnia in relative peace. The disk was worn from repeated use, a favourite among all of them, letting them forget whatever they were supposed to be doing and imagine that they might just be in the magic world.

It was custom for them to dress up in clothes closely resembling the movie, handmade by Kurt, Nick and the girls, along with blunt, vaguely metallic swords that the boys liked to use in their mock battles. The three girls, on the other hand, liked to twirl their wooden bows and arrows - complete with red feathers.

The peace was shattered, however, by loud bangs coming from one of the lower floors as something heavy made contact with the hall way. Vaguely they could hear gruff voices of a moving company as a new tenant joined them in the building.

All of the house mates shrugged it off as either some new hopeful ready to make their dreams come true in the Big Apple or someone in their later years wanting somewhere in the middle of the city to live. It wasn't all that uncommon for 'newbies' to enter the building and they would meet each other soon enough at the mixer the bar throws for any new tenant tomorrow evening.

Rachel was idly commenting on the film too Sebastian and Noah when she felt a vibration in her pocket. Figuring it was one of her classmates asking after the latest assignment she fished her phone out and scrolled through the messages. What she did see, however, was not one of her classmates, but a text that made her blood run cold.

Blocked: Hey Rach, can't wait to see you at the reunion. And I am sorry for how we left off last year. Maybe I can make it up to you when I'm in the city xx

The boys saw her back stiffen, the hairs on her neck stood up and a look of pure anguish crossed her face. They shared a look and Sebastian expectedly snatched the device out of her curled grasp, quickly reading the text before passing it off to Noah and subsequently the rest of the housemates.

Once the phone had circulated and made its way back to Rachel the movie was paused and much shouting was being passed back and forth.

"What kind of idiot does he think he is?!" Kurt hissed, ranting angrily to the two calmest residents – Blaine and Brittany, who only nodded sympathetically and attempted to quell some of the chaos going on in the living room.

Santana nodded firmly at Kurt, looking at Rachel, "He's not getting anywhere near her, or so help me..." She trailed off to spew an angry string of Spanish under her breath, stomping around the room.

The three Warblers, though were never there during the big blow up, had been informed of everything from sophomore year to senior year. They were tense and looked between each other and the group, informing the others that the promise they made as soon as they heard about Finn would come true - that as soon as they saw him next he would be beaten until he couldn't reproduce.

Mike, Sam and Noah, on the other hand, were angry, but more concerned with Rachel to be pacing and muttering, formed a protective barrier around her, keeping her safe, and away from the lamp that Santana hurled across the room, smashing into tiny pieces as soon as it connected to the wall.

"I need to go get some air," a pale Rachel breathed, pushing the three protective boys off of her lap. She didn't bother putting other clothes on, throwing one of Sebastian's (or at least she thought it as Sebastian's) NYU hoodies over the top of her 'Narnian' attire. Before any of the others could stop her, she was out the front door and running down the corridor.

Her feet slapped hard against the hallway, from behind closed doors she could hear grumbling from other residences, but she didn't care. She didn't know where she was going, or if she was even going to leave the building... the floor, but she just had to be away from that room because she felt like she was suffocating in there. HE was coming to New York. HE was going to be invading her safe space. HE was going to break her again. She didn't want to bring back all of that, the issues she'd developed after her two or three relationships with him.

It was suffocating her mind, and she collapsed against the wall down the other end of the hallway, breathing heavily and shaking violently. So, Rachel started to do the one thing that could calm her down… Sing.

Boy it's been all this time
And I can't get you off my mind
And nobody knows it but me

I stare at your photograph
Still sleep in the shirt you left
And nobody knows it but me

Everyday I wipe my tears away
So many nights I've prayed for you to say

Tears ran down her cheeks uncontrollably. From the distance she could still hear the commotion going on behind her apartment door way, the angry Spanish Santana was still yelling. She was thankful that she hadn't yet hear the sound of more furniture smashing; because despite their combined pulls they didn't really have enough money to constantly replace all of the damaged furniture.

I should've been chasing you
I should've been trying to prove
That you were all that mattered to me
I should've said all the things that I kept inside of me
And maybe I could've made you believe
That what we had was all we'd ever need

My friends think I'm moving on
But the truth is I'm not that strong
And nobody knows it but me

A male voice; clear, strong and unmistakable picked up the verse, his figure hidden in the shadows of the hallway, blue eyes locked onto Rachel's shocked brown ones. What was he doing here? Here! In her building! It was impossible.

Rachel whirled around immediately to see the one person she had always hoped would find her again slowly stepping towards her, picking up his cues perfectly, as per usual.

And I've kept all the words you said
In a box underneath my bed
And nobody knows it but me

But if you're happy I'll get through somehow
But the truth is that I've been screaming out

I should've been chasing you
You should've been trying to prove
That you were all that mattered to me
Oh you should've said all the things that I kept inside of me
And maybe you could've made me believe
That what we had girl
Oh that what we had, what we had
It was all we'd ever need
It was all we'd ever need

They finished the song together. Rachel rising from her seat on the floor, eyes locked onto the blue of his in utter disbelief.

"Jesse?" She squeaked.

"Hello Rachel."