Again, I'm including the ending of the previous chapter so that you remember where we're at!

"Okay, this is what I know: Karl decided to stay in London while the theater's wiring was fixed, but his wife and Mandy went to visit her family at the last minute in New York. Apparently Mandy fell very ill while there and was immediately hospitalized, she was put in intensive care with septicemia and fell into a coma."

Everyone gasped. Mandy was the director's only daughter, she loved to hang around the set and everyone loved her since she was very sweet.

"But is she alright?" Puckerman asked the voice at the other end.

"Yes, she's still hospitalized but she is better now. Apparently she had a clandestine abortion here in London right before leaving for New York, and even though she had been feeling ill she didn't tell her mom anything because she was terrified. Before falling into the coma she confessed who had fathered her child. She said he wanted nothing to do with her, gave her five hundred dollars and left. She could not find him, and the money he gave her wasn't nearly enough for her to get a legal abortion, and she didn't want to tell anyone, so she went to an underground clinic. Karl was about to board a flight to New York when his wife told what his daughter had said. He made a few calls to find out his whereabouts and found out he was back in London, so he left the airport and went to confront him and is now detained for attempted murder..."

The collective gasp of his listeners was louder now.

"But who is it? Who is the bastard who did this to poor Mandy?" enquired an already incensed Puck.

"It's one of the guys from RENT over at the Wyndham, Finn Hudson..."

The group's reaction to the news was immediate.

"What? Finn? I can't believe he could do something like this!" Quinn cried while her friend Rachel was too stunned to speak, the tears pouring down her face.

"What a mean asshole! He seemed so nice, who could've thought he'd turn out to be a hypocrite bastard..." Mercedes added with an attitude.

"Finn? Finn Hudson did this to Mandy? The bastard is lucky Karl didn't kill him, if it was up to me his body would be floating in the Thames by now!" grunted Puck while punching his right fist in the air, visibly irate now.

Sam turned to watch his best friend Jesse, whose face was flushed red with his jaw clenched tightly. Jesse could not believe what was happening, that Finn did something like that again. It was his fault, he should have exposed Finn a long time ago for what he truly was, but he thought that even Finn would have a something resembling a soul. Now he knew that he didn't, and that he needed to act immediately to try and diminish somehow the harm that Finn had done. That thoughtless bastard, always thinking only of himself…

Now silence reigned as everyone took in the dreadful news.

"Guys... Guys, are you there?" asked their producer Andrew on the speakerphone still in Puck's hand.

Jesse answered him first, causing everyone else to remain quiet.

"Hi Andrew, this is Jesse St James. Are you sure it was Finn Hudson who did this?"

"Jesse?" asked Andrew, probably confused as to why they were all together but too tired to even care, after all, Finn was Jesse's castmate. "Yeah, we're sure it was him. Finn's in the hospital right now, Karl beat him up pretty badly. But guys, just get here to London if you can and we'll meet in the morning to discuss this in depth, maybe there still something we can do..."

"There is nothing to be done." Rachel finally said. "There's nothing we can do that could solve this situation, it's too critical at this point to do anything..."

"We'll be there, Andrew, see you in a while." interrupted Puck while ending the call. "Let's concentrate right now on packing our stuff and getting ready to leave. If we leave in around two hours, we should be able to get back to London by eight."

"Is there anything we can do to help?" asked Sam.

"Do you know how to make coffee? It's a long drive back!" joked Puck half heartedly as he passed him and patted his shoulder, with Mercedes following him.

Sam nodded, and went to Quinn. He put an arm over her shoulders, walked her to her room and gently kissed her. "I'll see what I can do about that coffee..."

Jesse and Rachel were left alone once more in the hallway. Rachel forced a little smile through her tears and Jesse went over to her and held her tightly. She buried her head in his chest while he tenderly kissed the top of her head. For a moment Rachel felt she was exactly where she needed to be, but then reality hit her like a ton of bricks when they were once more interrupted, this time by the voice of her mother calling out to her from their room.

She pulled back from his embrace, even if doing so proved more difficult than she ever imagined, maybe because she sensed that it could be the last time she would be in his arms like that.

"I have to go..." She said, again trying to fake a smile that looked anything but.

"I know" he answered. He wanted to lean and kiss her once more, he wanted to be her knight in shining armor and protect her anyway he could, never letting her go, but there was little he could do right then, so he just kissed the top of her head once more.

"Bye Rachel..." was all he could say. He could not comfort her in any other way now, especially since he felt responsible for what had happened.

"I'm coming, Mom" Rachel answered her mom as she walked away from him, turning just once before entering her room to wave him goodbye, but he was already gone.

Rachel let her mom drive, and they drove for hours in silence, only occasionally interrupted by Shelby telling her everything would be okay. Usually Rachel couldn't be in a car without music, but right then she didn't feel like listening to anything, it felt like she was attending a funeral: her own. All of her hopes and dreams of being a star shattered, all the confidence she felt gone in the blink of an eye. She would go back home to audition, and she would be nothing more than a simple fangirl to him again. She had discovered what she knew all along, that he was the sun, and she merely a common moth, burning before long in his flames, their story ending abruptly before it could even begin. Tears of resignation escaped her eyes then and she cried silently. "I'll never see him again..."

The next couple of weeks went by in a haze. The Wyndham Theater, which as luck would have it was ready after a complete electrical rewiring, was ground zero. They would meet there every day to discuss recent developments and sometimes some of the cast would stay and rehearse their parts.

Rachel did not rehearse at all, she was too heartbroken to even get on the stage. She cried every day, mourning not only the imminent loss of her dreams but also losing Jesse. She had realized too late that she was in love with him, but she hadn't heard from him after that day in which he simply told her "Bye Rachel", his words burning through her memories every second, torturing her. The worst part was that she had to suffer in silence, there was no one she could talk to about what was going on with Jesse. Everyone thought she was sad because of the show, no one suspected she was also heartbroken. Her best friend Quinn was also very sad, and she did not want to make her feel uncomfortable since she was already in a serious relationship with Sam, Jesse's best friend. Rachel wanted to tell her mom, but she knew that the second she tapped into those feelings she would be in trouble, so she kept everything to herself: the best and the worst things that had ever happened to her.

The executive director of the London production of Chicago was in prison, Finn Hudson was still in the hospital, and it wasn't long before the press got a hold on the juicy news and the entire story became tabloid fodder, each sensationalizing the events their own way. Some even compared the mishaps of the production to the Spiderman Musical, others said it was doomed from the start.

The cast and crew had been without pay for two weeks, and they only had three days before opening the show or leaving the theater for good: only a miracle could save them from their predicament. And a miracle was about to walk through the stage door.

Thanks again to Original Groffette for being the best beta ever! Did I mention how lucky I am to have her as my beta and as my friend?

Hoped you liked it! Leave me a review if you did!