Hey everyone! So, the end of the Season finale inspired me to do a fanfic of Finchel during the summer and that school year. The prologue basically takes you into Rachel's head during the train ride to New York and the scene before. This chapter is pretty angsty, but I promise it will get happier. We'll also see other Glee club members throughout the story. Finchel will talk in Chapter 1, which should be up in a few days Please review if you want me to continue this!

DISCLAIMER: The dialogue at the beginning is from the episode.

Prologue

"Hi!" Rachel said, getting in Finn's car. Today was it. They were going to get married.

"Hi," Finn whispered.

Rachel smiled. It was the day she'd been waiting for. "Hey, so, you have my dress and my shoes, and I have my make-up and my epic love for you."

He gave her a smile, but she could tell something wasn't right.

"Let's get married," Rachel said.

"Okay…" Finn said. They drove down, but this drive was taking longer than Rachel thought. She realized they were approaching a train station in Toledo. What were they doing here? Was their wedding somewhere else? She looked around the parking lot and saw some other familiar cars. Maybe the wedding was out of town.

Rachel looked at Finn to ask him what was happening, but he spoke first. "You're on the 4:25 to New York. Your dads are gonna meet you there and they're gonna help you look at dorms at the new school. You're gonna spend four years of your life there and you've never even set foot in the place."

"But I have all year to go and look at it," Rachel protested. She wanted to get married now.

Finn looked ready to cry. "You're gonna go there in the fall. All right? You're not deferring. We're not getting married."

Rachel's heart shattered. "You don't want to marry me?"

"I want to marry you so badly I can't go through with it," Finn said. "The thought of you being stuck here for another year because of me, that makes me sick."

Rachel began to cry. "Then come with me! OkayWe can get married in New York and live in a little shoe box apartment together. It'll be romantic!"

"Do you love me?" Finn asked.

Rachel couldn't believe what Finn had just said. "Of course I do."

"Then tell me the truth and not just something you think I want to hear. Are you 100% sure you want to marry me?" Finn asked.

Of course she did. But he didn't seem to want her to say so. "No one is 100% sure of anything."

"I am," Finn said. "I am that sure you're something special. That this is just the beginning for you. That you're going to do amazing things. But to get there, you gotta have these experiences on your own."

"Wait a minute!" Rachel gasped. Was Finn breaking up with her? That was what it sounded like.

Finn ignored Rachel. "Listen to me, you gotta have these experiences on your own."

"Wait a minute!" Rachel protested again.

Again, Finn ignored Rachel. "I can't have to be there with you."

"Wait a minute! Are you breaking up with me?"

"I'm setting you free."

Rachel felt like she'd been punched in the stomach. "Oh my god!" She didn't want this to happen. All year she'd been having nightmares this would happen.

"Do you know how hard this is for me? How many times I've cried about this?" Finn asked.

"No! I'm not going. I'm not going, not without you," Rachel pouted.

"You don't have a choice. I can't come with you," Finn said.

"Well then I'll stay here or I'll go wherever it is that you're going!" Rachel sobbed.

"Fort Benning, Georgia?" Finn asked. "I need a chance to try to redeem my father."

Rachel couldn't believe what Finn was saying. "Oh my god! Wait a minute. You're joining the Army? Are you insane? I can't believe that this is happening right now!"

Finn looked at Rachel. "It's one of the places I knew you couldn't follow me. Look, you're gonna get on that train. Okay? And you're gonna go to New York. And you're gonna be a star. Without me. That's how much I love you. You know what we're gonna do? Surrender. I know how hard that is for you because of how hard you hold on to stuff … but we're just gonna sit here and we're just gonna let go. And let the universe do its thing and if we're meant to be together, then we're gonna be together. Whether it's in a little shoe box apartment in New York or on the other side of the world. Okay? Will you do that for me? Will you surrender?"

Rachel could tell that there was no use in trying to argue with Finn. Maybe she was wrong all along. Maybe this was just temporary. It was time to move on. "I love you so much."

"I love you," Finn whispered.

They walked out of the car and toward the train. Rachel saw practically the entire Glee club waiting for her on the train deck. Finn gave her a small smile. She made her way through the group, silently hugging her friends goodbye with tears in her eyes. When she was done with her friends, she looked up at Finn and gave him one last kiss. She loved him so much. He said he was letting her go because he loved her - but she didn't want to go. It felt like she wasn't left with any other choices. She got on the train and took a deep breath. She was on her way - away from home, away from the boy she loved.

Rachel stared out the window of the train. Tears filled her eyes as she watched Finn chase after the train. She wished more than anything that she hadn't boarded. She was crying hard enough already, but it made her cry even harder to see the love of her life running after her like that.

She knew Finn had meant well. But this wasn't what she wanted anymore. She didn't want to go to New York alone. She wanted to go with Finn and Kurt. But Finn hadn't gotten into Pace, and Kurt hadn't gotten into NYADA. Kurt MIGHT be able to join her in another year, but there was no way he'd be able to get into another school in New York in three short months. And Finn was going to join the army. She couldn't believe it. What if he didn't come back, or if he got hurt? She didn't want to argue with him, but she didn't want him to do this. She could lose him.

All her friends had come to the train station to say goodbye. This may be the last time they were all together. Mercedes would be in LA to work for the recording contract she wanted so badly. Puck would be cleaning pools in LA. Mike would be at dance school in Chicago. Blaine, Sam, Tina, Artie, Brittany, Rory, Sugar and Joe would still be at McKinley and in the Glee club. Kurt would be who knew where. Finn would be in Georgia. She did have the train pass to visit Quinn in New Haven, but there was only so much time she could go there.

Past Rachel would have been counting down the moments to this train ride. But Present Rachel didn't like it. There was more to Present Rachel than Broadway and New York. She wanted love, she wanted friends. She had wanted that place in NYADA. She'd fought for it. If she'd known getting that place would mean leaving everything she loved behind, she wouldn't have fought so hard for it. She would have accepted that she'd choked at the audition and that she wasn't perfect.

The ten hour train ride to New York was long and difficult. She stopped crying about an hour into it, but she was still crying on the inside. She fell asleep after about a half hour later, hoping she'd wake up in her own bed and that this was all just a bad dream. But when she woke up, the cruel reality confronted her. Finn was back in Lima. Her friends were all over the place. Everything she'd loved for the past three years was now part of her past.

She looked down at her finger. The ring was still there. She didn't know if he'd want to talk anymore. She couldn't bear to take it off. And she never would take it off. She knew there would be lots of boys at NYADA who were everything Past Rachel would have loved - talented, ambitious, driven, ruthlessly dedicated to making it to Broadway. In the past, she would have scanned the boys she hadn't even met yet and pick out which ones she wanted to be her co-stars in which musicals. That wasn't who she was anymore.

What had been the point of the past year if she and Finn were just going back to where they were a year ago? Back to square one. It was as if everything had never happened. Now it pained her to think about him calling her the best girlfriend ever, encouraging her in her audition for the lead in the school musical, the dinner at his house when they almost did it, the flowers he sent her opening night, their first time, exchanging gifts at Christmas, the proposal, their romantic duet, dinner and cuddling in her bed on Valentine's day, the look they'd shared during her solo at Regionals, the fun they'd had on senior ditch day, him calling her his hero, him taping her singing in Glee club, their prep for her audition, how he held her after as she cried she choked, their dances at prom, winning prom king and queen, leading a song at Nationals, kissing after New Directions won, the glass he bought for their wedding, singing to the underclass the week before graduation and kissing on the stage after they got their diplomas.

And that's when she really began to cry. Even harder than before. She'd been wrong after her NYADA audition. THIS was what it meant to REALLY cry.

"What's wrong, dear?" she heard the woman across the aisle from her say.

Rachel looked up to see the woman and her daughter, who looked about five. "It's just... I'm not ready to move to New York alone."

"Alone?" the woman asked.

"Yeah, I just graduated from high school," Rachel said. "My best friend and my boyfriend were going to come with me - but they didn't get into schools there." She sighed and looked out the window. The train was reaching its first stop since she boarded in Toledo, but she couldn't get off.

She couldn't get off the train in Cleveland, or Pittsburgh, or Hershey, or Philadelphia, or Rochester. There would be no way for her to get back home. But really, Finn had made it clear he didn't want her anymore. He thought she was destined for things bigger than him and Lima.

So many things would never be the same - drums, auditoriums, bowling, wheelchairs, catsuits, cats, calendars with animals, breadsticks, the doctor's office, laryngitis, eggs, pizza, football games, grilled cheese, Rocky Horror, weddings, Christmas tree shopping, alcohol, headbands, confetti, stakeouts, tethers, the library, tire shops, meat, fireplaces, bars, pigs, stars, diamond earrings, stuffed animals, amusement parks, flowers, Chicago... all those things now had a special connection to Finn. And there were the things in New York that would remind her of Finn... Sardi's, Central Park, Patti LuPone, the hotel they'd stayed at last year... And the songs that would remind her of Finn... Don't Stop Believing, Push It, Take A Bow, Somebody To Love, No Air, Keep Holding On, Imagine, True Colors, Smile, You Can't Always Get What You Want, My Life Would Suck Without You, Hello I Love You, Hello Goodbye, Borderline, Open Your Heart, Run Joey Run, Total Eclipse Of The Heart, Jesse's Girl, One, Faithfully, Any Way You Want It, Loving Touching Squeezing, The Only Exception, Don't Go Breaking My Heart, With You I'm Born Again, Marry You, Just The Way You Are, Last Christmas, Firework, Get It Right, Loser Like Me, Go Your Own Way, Jar Of Hearts, My Man, Pretending, You Can't Stop The Beat, Fix You, I Can't Go For That, You Make My Dreams Come True, We are Young, Do They Know It's Christmas, Without You, I Just Can't Stop Loving You, Ben, Stereo Hearts, Fly, I Believe I Can Fly, Here's To Us, How Deep Is Your Love, More Than a Woman, So Emotional, Cry, Take My Breath Away, It's All Coming Back To Me Now, Paradise By The Dashboard Light, You Get What You Give, Not The End, Glory Days, Roots Before Branches... really, any emotional song would make her think of Finn, not just one with ties to Finchel.

There was no use of thinking about it though. Finchel was over. She was on her own now.

She sighed as she picked up her phone. No missed calls, no texts. Not even a text from Finn saying he was sorry. He said he was doing this because he loved her, but didn't he see how upset she was? That she didn't want to go?

What was the point of crying or being sad? It wouldn't change what had happened. She was sure her dads had brought the last of her things to New York. She told Finn a year ago that after graduation she was going to New York and never coming back.

How badly she wished she'd been wrong. If she had to pick between New York and love, she'd pick love for sure. But now New York was all she had.

He wanted her in New York. He thought their time was up. Maybe it was up. If a year of nothing but love other than a few small conflicts wasn't enough to prove to them that this was working, maybe nothing could prove it. They'd had a great year together and she thought there were many more. She was devasted. It felt like her heart had been ripped out of her stomach and crushed into a million pieces.

She felt herself beginning to cry again. But what could anyone on the train do? None of them even knew Finn. They couldn't get her back home. If she went home she'd probably just be forced on to another train. Seeing all her friends at the train station told her that they knew about Finn's plan. Clearly, none of them had done anything to stop this from happening. If he'd already talked to her dads, they clearly weren't going to do anything. Who did that leave?

As she cried, she felt a tap on her leg. It was the little girl from across the aisle. "What's your name?" the girl asked.

Rachel forced a smile at the little girl. "Rachel. What's your name?"

"Natalie," the little girl said. "Why are you so sad?"

Rachel sighed. The girl's mother had clearly sent her daughter over to help cheer Rachel up. "You see, I had to leave my friends and the person I love so I could go to school in another city, and I really don't want to."

"Then why are you leaving?" Natalie asked. "Can't you go to school with your friends?"

"They're going to lots of different schools," Rachel sighed. "But I don't want to be alone."

"What could make you feel better?" Natalie asked.

"I want my boyfriend," Rachel sobbed. "I want him to hold me and hug me and tell me how much he loves me."

Natalie reached out and gave Rachel a hug. Rachel thought about what it was like to be little. Having such an innocent view of the world. When she was little, she would be devastated over losing a solo.

Now, she was devastated over losing the love of her life.

The train pulled into New York. The sight of the buildings didn't please her. A year ago when she stepped into New York, she was overjoyed. Today, she was let down.

Nervoulsy, she paced around the streets. She got a text from her dads saying to meet them in Times Square. This chapter of her life had begun.

Chapter 1 preview: Finchel talk on the phone. Finn thinks more about his future. Rachel settles in in New York.