A/N – Maybe Slight A/U and is Slight Future- Fic. They're all in Senior Year because I needed some established history in Finn & Rachel's relationship, and a slight increase in maturity for all the characters (there never seems to be any established character growth in the shows, I find, so I'm trying to fix that a little bit here). I've tried to keep to maintain the 'essence' of Glee with some humour, some drama, and tried to keep it as canon as possible, but with Glee you never know from one week to the next where 'canon' is going to go. Okay, hope you enjoy

Disclaimer - It's called fanfiction for a reason. I don't own nothin', I'm just borrowing from FOX TV and Ryan Murphy.

"We need to talk."

Rachel's eyes went wide as she looked up into her locker's mirror to see Santana standing behind her, hair pulled back in a tight ponytail (again) and her Cheerio's uniform looking clean and crisp as if just recently reacquired from a dry cleaner. Rachel and the abrasive Latino cheerleader weren't exactly chummy friends; she was pretty sure Santana took great delight in discovering new and inventive ways to torture her psychologically. She was also positive the cheerleader had been plotting with Coach Sylvester two years ago to try and destroy the Glee club, but she didn't have any proof to support that belief. What surprised Rachel this time, though, was that instead of the smug, superior look Santana usually carried, her eyes were filled with an expression Rachel wasn't used to seeing in them.

Fear.

Rachel took a deep breath and turned around to face the Cheerio. "Okay. What is it?"

Santana looked up and down the halls to make sure no one would overhear what she said. "Listen, I just want you to know that you don't have to come after me when the news hits, okay?"

"News?" Rachel querried, unsure what the cheerleader was talking about.

Santana sighed and started playing with the charm on her necklace with her one hand while the other clutched her books to her chest. Rachel was surprised at how out-of-sorts she seemed, especially in front of her. Never would she have thought the spunky athlete could look so nervous and...distraught?

"Yeah, there's news on Jacob's website that will be making the rounds quickly, I'm sure. I don't know how he did it, but apparently he's managed to interview or confirm just about every boy that's been involved in my high-school love life. It's going to be a shit-storm for me as it is regarding all the other girlfriends I'll have to face one way or another. I just wanted you to know that I understand Finn is your man, and you don't have to worry about me at all, 'kay? We cool?"

"Wait a minute." Rachel shook her head slightly, trying to understand. "Jacob put Finn on that list when you guys only had one real date two years ago? Isn't that stretching the whole 'love life' definition a bit thin?"

Santana rolled her eyes. "This is Jacob, we're talking about, Man-Hands. He doesn't exactly employ ethics when he publishes his blog. Honestly, did you see what he put up there about Quinn and Sam the other day?"

Rachel shook her head again. "I haven't been on his site in months. His idea of journalism makes the National Enquirer look reputable."

"I'm sure my weekend is going to be spent swinging a baseball bat to keep all the school fuglies away from me for my past liaisons." Santana sighed again and swallowed before facing Rachel again. "So, I just thought I'd at least apologize to those I'm closest too, let them know I won't be a threat. Okay?"

"O…kay, but we're not exactly close, Santana. The only times we ever talk to each other is in Glee."

"Trust me, compared to some of the other 'Beasts of Burden' I'll have to face in the next few days, that qualifies as close. So just accept my apology and move on, 'cause I've already spent too much time at your locker." Without waiting any further, Santana walked away quickly as if trying to make good an escape from a prison guard.

Rachel frowned as Santana walked away, turning over in her mind everything they'd just discussed. If Jacob had somehow managed to track down and confirm all of Santana's past dates and boyfriends, then that would indeed have been quite the journalistic feat; the Latino cheerleader's past list of 'accomplishments' in that regard was probably longer than she was tall. But it was only one date. Why would she be worried about me? Finn and I were only friends at the time. She thought to herself. And Finn told me that noth-" Rachel abruptly cut off her own line of thinking as a sudden, horrid thought occurred to her.

No. Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no, no, NO!

Rachel frantically grabbed her new IPad out of her locker and ran to the nearest girl's bathroom. Once inside a stall with the door locked, she sat down, muted the volume and quickly made her way to Jacob's Blog Site. Cringing at the picture of the self-proclaimed "McKinley High's Voice of Truth" she tapped onto the "Latest Blog Entry" tab with a slightly trembling finger. Please no. Please, please, please, no. After a moment of downloading, she was greeted with the blog update.

"2012/02/17" "It's come to my attention that there has been some infighting in the ranks of the Cheerio squad regarding who has the most 'conquests' throughout the throng of adoring young male adolescents gracing McKinley's prestigious halls. So after countless hours of research, dozens of interviews, and confirmation of each name by at least two different sources, I present to you the Reigning Champion of V-Card Accumulation, SANTANA LOPEZ. Listed are all the conquests for which I'm sure she's left a smiling, happy face.

1. Noah Puckerman

2. Lilam Smith

3. David Laural

4. Jeff Shombreyer

5. Walter McIntyre

6. Vincent Peters

7. X. Azimio

8. Alex Baull

9. Neil Cuttle

10. Eric Lincoln

11. Matt Rutherford

12. Finn Hudson

13. Dmitri Sokovsky

14. Kyle Martin

15. Steven Keal

16. Cody Fass

17. Alan Miguel

18. Trent O'Mally

19. Josh Gilbert

20. Randy Mann

Rachel felt the hot tears spring to her eyes immediately. Quickly looking upwards, she closed her eyes, inhaled sharply, if shakily, and prayed that it had been a mistake; that she had only been seeing things; that her unvoiced desire of being her boyfriend's first time hadn't just been completely shattered by some loose cheerleader and a freak with a bad haircut. Slowly, reluctantly, she forced herself to re-read the list again until she came to the one dreaded name.

12. Finn Hudson

This can't be true. Can't, can't, can't, CAN'T! But try as she might to convince herself that this website was indeed fictional, the equivalent of a bad tabloid magazine sold in the grocery stores , she couldn't force herself to believe in her lie. Jacob was creepy, disgusting and perverted, but she knew he was excellent at research; anyone who could scoop Coach Sylvester about her own Cheerio Captain's pregnancy was obviously quite capable in the field of reporting. Rachel never in a million years would have guessed that that reporting would also be the source of destruction for one of her biggest wishes.

Feeling broken, dejected and hopeless, Rachel merely shut off her IPad, dropped it on the floor and wept quietly into her hands, wishing the pain and torture to her very soul could be washed away with each batch of tears that unwillingly came forth.

XXXXX

"ONE LIKES TO BELIEVE IN THE FREEDOM OF MUSIC! BUT GLITTERING PRIZES AND ENDLESS COMPROMISES SHATTER THE ILLUSION OF INTEGRITY, YEAH!" Finn sung along happily to one of his favourite Rush tunes, drumming on the steering wheel while driving his Mom's car the 15 minutes needed to get to Rachel's house. He idly wondered if Mr. Schue would ever consider doing a song by Rush in glee club, but the only male vocalist they had who could pull off Geddy Lee's high voice was Kurt, and Kurt said listening to Rush was the audio equivalent of receiving a double-sized slushie facial (or something like that), so that pretty much cancelled his entire idea right there.

It was a rare Thursday night when he got to have a date with his girlfriend of almost two years. Two years! Finn thought with a smile. If someone had told him when he first sang a Grease song beside the crazy girl with the awesome voice in the auditorium all those months ago that she would become the most important person in his life (aside from his Mom, but duh, that's his Mom!) he would have laughed in their face and said 'No way. Nothing compared to Quinn.' He was right. Rachel was nothing compared to Quinn. Rachel was above and beyond even remote comparisons to Quinn. Not that Quinn wasn't a good girlfriend (when she wanted to be, and until 'Babygate') but Finn always knew who was number one in that relationship, and it wasn't him. With Rachel, everything felt equal. Yeah, she was still an incessant chatterer (her words, not his), and yeah, her vocabulary scared him to death sometimes, but she always asked his opinion, asked him about his dreams, went on dates planned by him with no complaints (well okay, with minor complaints, but Rachel at least endured it with a smile whereas Quinn usually demanded to be taken home right away), and made out with him with the same enthusiasm that he had, which totally rocked (though it did have him summoning the 'mailman' much more often, but he wasn't going to complain. He's not a complete idiot). But better than anything was how she made him feel about himself. She refused to believe him when he stated how stupid he was, she helped him identify his strengths and work on his weaknesses (she claimed he did that with her, too, but he wasn't always sure how he did so) and encouraged him to just try his best. Soon, his best had gotten better and better. His grades improved dramatically (from low C's to high B's), his football improved, but mostly of course, his voice improved. All of which, in turn, made him prouder of himself, and his Mom prouder too.

Yep, Rachel was definitely the best thing in his life. And tonight, he was going to go bowling with her. She liked bowling. She had definitely gotten better at the game with only half her balls now winding up in the gutter, and she even ate the pizza with him. And he totally caught her scarffing down the slice of pepperoni pizza they ordered last time, which made him suspect she made an exception to her vegan dietary rules when it came to the pizza there. Just another one of her little quirks. He thought with another smile.

He pulled into the driveway at the Berry house once he saw the familiar fencing around the lawn and shut the engine off. After getting out of the car and closing the door, he looked up at the house which had practically become a second home. The place was so large compared to his Mom's old place that the term 'house' didn't seem to do the building justice, with a large foyer, separate living and dining rooms, a kitchen his Mom would kill for (no, literally, she would kill for a kitchen like what they had) a sizable guest room (which he had crashed in a few times) and two master bedrooms. He had never seen a house with two master bedrooms before he had been upstairs in Rachel's house, and he figured she was the luckiest teenager in the world. He would have loved to have his own bathroom, a queen sized bed, and enough room for an elliptical trainer in his bedroom. He couldn't complain though. After Burt's marriage to his Mom, he had finally agreed that they really should move into the Hummel complex. It helped that he didn't have to share a room, Burt making good on his promise to renovate and add a second bedroom upstairs and down the hall from the master bedroom (and twice the size of his old bedroom). He had enough room in there for his new double bed, his desk, his dresser, and even a space arranged in the corner for his video games, complete with his Dad's old leather recliner and a snack fridge. Puck, Mike and Sam were always jealous of his 'man-space", but he was sure he was equally as jealous of Rachel's room.

Finn bounded up the driveway and sidewalk with a spring in his step, and then rang the doorbell. "Avon calling!" He jokingly said aloud, not that he expected Rachel or her Dad's to hear it. Humming the Rush song to himself, he waited patiently for the familiar dull, echo-like sound of Rachel running down the stairs to greet him.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

Hmm, maybe she's got the soundtrack to 'Wicked' cranked again. Finn thought to himself. He shrugged, rang the doorbell a second time, and continued to wait patiently.

And waited.

And waited some more. Yet again.

Is she in the shower? He pulled out his cell phone and was just about to speed dial her number when suddenly the large door opened, Rachel behind it, standing there with one hand on the door and a dull look on her face, her eyes cast downward. She was still wearing the same clothes she had gone to school in, which Finn thought was weird because she almost never wore the same clothes on dates as she did at school. In her free hand she clutched something that looked like a crumpled up piece of paper.

"Hey." Finn said by way of greeting. He was just about to step inside and scoop her into his arms for a hug and kiss when suddenly her eyes shot from the floor to his eyes. The steel and glare in those brown, beautiful big eyes stopped him cold from taking another step. He frowned slightly, wondering what could cause Rachel to get so upset so quickly. She had seemed fine when they went their separate ways at school, him explaining that he had to skip Glee just this once due to a routine doctor's appointment. What had happened between then and now?

"Babe?"

The corners of her mouth suddenly turned down and hard, cold eyes continued to bore through his. Finn was positive he was in some kind of trouble, at this point, but nothing was coming to mind. As quickly as he could, he mentally went over every single thing that had happened since their debate about college applications last week. It wasn't really an argument, per se, but it had been emotionally draining for both of them, and they didn't really apologize to each other so much vocally as they did with a completely hot make out session a couple hours later. He scanned all the times together since then: Studying? Nope, he was totally focused on the project in history they were doing together. He liked learning about the Second World War. She covered the politics, he covered the military battles and campaigns (it was an awful lot like football plays, so it came easily to him). Glee? Nope, they had rocked their duet assignment by singing 'Broken' from Seether and Amy Lee, and despite Rachel's initial discomfort with trying to sing like an opera trained rock star, she still killed it. Lunch? Nope, they may not have talked much to each other, but Rachel was discussing some new broadway show debuting this month with Kurt while he, Sam and Puck were all carrying on about how the new rookie quarterback for the Bengals might lead his team to the Super-Bowl in a year or two. They had smiled and held hands in-between the conversations, then laughed goofily once lunch was over realizing they had only said hello to each other, exchanged a kiss and went to their separate classes.

Nothing had happened!

"Rach?"

Her mouth had now curled into a much more dangerous shape. Finn couldn't believe what he was seeing. He had never seen her in such a complete and utter...rage? This was a look he was used to seeing on the football field when an opposing player was trying to sack him. It was not a look he enjoyed seeing on his beautiful girlfriend. If he didn't know better, he'd say she was...snarling at him.

"Hey, whatever it is, I'm sor-"

He never finished his apology. Without warning, and faster than he expected, her right arm shot out and threw the crumpled up piece of paper straight at him. Finn was so bewildered by the action that he made no move to block the projectile and it struck him straight between the eyes, the corner of the paper just nicking his nose.

"Ow!" His hand came up and wiped the area where he felt just a small pinch of pain. "What the heck is-"

The door slammed closed forcefully in front of his face.

"What'd I do?" Finn wondered aloud to himself. This was completely unexpected behaviour from his girlfriend, and when your girlfriend was Rachel Berry, applying words like 'unexpected behaviour' didn't occur very often. In fact, it hadn't happened since the whole crack-house incident with Sunshine a year and a half ago. He was completely confused as to why he should be treated this way. He stepped forward and knocked hard on the door. "Rach? Rach, come on, won't you at least talk to me?"

In seeming response to his question, the outside light by the door was turned off, leaving him on her front step bewildered, alone and in the dark.

Finn blew out a noisy breath, then backed up a few steps to see if Rachel was in her room on the upper level of the house. "Rach!" he called out loudly as he saw her quickly go into her room by her window. He waved his arms frantically in the air to get her attention. "Rach!" he yelled again.

She didn't even look at him as she grabbed the two curtains in front of her window and slammed them together, obstructing any view he had of her or her room.

"What the hell!" He almost yelled at her, but at the last moment kept his voice down since he wasn't sure if her Dads were home or not; it wouldn't look good to swear loudly enough for them to hear him, whether Rachel was mad at him or not. He sighed again and then looked back to the door, noticing the crumpled up piece of paper she had thrown at him sitting off to the side where it had landed after hitting him. He grabbed the piece of paper and quickly unfolded it from the ball in had been squished into, but with all of the creases and lack of light, he couldn't properly read what had been written on the page. Fishing the car keys out of his pocket, he took one last longing look at Rachel's window and then returned to his Mom's car. Slamming the door closed, he pushed the keys into the ignition and started the engine before thumbing the inside light on. He returned his attention to the paper, reading the contents.

Oh no! Finn thought as he scanned the list again, eyes wide with horror and the ominous feeling in his gut increasing. When he saw his name at number twelve, he closed his eyes and shook his head. Shit! Shit, shit, shit, SHIT!

Rachel had found out about his night with Santana; had found out he had lied two years ago and had never manned up to tell her the truth since then. Finn's stomach had dropped to his feet and his throat had gone completely dry. He slammed his head backwards into the head-rest on the driver's seat repeated. Nice work, Finn! He scolded himself. Best thing to happen in your life and you screwed her over because you couldn't just tell her the fucking truth to begin with. How Jacob had discovered this and posted on his blog, Finn wasn't sure, but at this point it didn't really matter. The damage was done, and now he'd have to try and make it up to her. If she doesn't break up with me because of this! Finn sourly thought.

Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be anything he could do about the situation tonight. Rachel had already made it clear that she was not going to talk to him, no matter how much he might try to discuss the subject. All he could do was try and call later. He slammed his head back into the seat rest again, wiped a tear threatening to leak down his face, then pulled his seatbelt around himself and drove away with unusual carelessness.

He might be alone tonight, but he was definitely going bowling to calm himself down.

Lyrics are from "The Spirit of Radio", written and performed by Rush.

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