For some reason I was thinking about what I would have liked to have happened between Finn and Rachel after learning about Quinn, so I wrote this. First one-shot.

Rachel Berry was terrified.

Everyone hates her. Again.

Why couldn't she ever do anything right? Why did she have to screw up everything? She meant well, she did. When she told Finn…she didn't know what she was thinking. He was her friend, and hearing him hurt like that, she just couldn't bear it. How could she just stand by and listen to his pain.

She wasn't completely innocent. She had romantic ulterior motives, and her decision was selfish. But if she didn't say it, Quinn never would. Finn didn't deserve to be lied to like that.

She heard him sobbing on the stage. She had never heard him make a sound like that before. It pained her. She tentatively walked down the aisles of the auditorium towards him.

Now she was standing directly in front of where he was sitting on the stage. His raised position made shorter despite the fact that he was sitting.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered. "I shouldn't have told you."

Finn lifted his head. Tears stained his cheeks and his eyes were a sore-looking red color. "No. You should have. I'm glad you did."

Rachel walked up the steps and sat beside him. They were close, but there was no tension. For once, their attractions to one another were irrelevant. Their friendship was all that mattered right now.

"It's just…" Finn seemed to choke on his own tears. His hurt was reflected into Rachel, her own love for him making seeing his tears agonize her. "It's just that she was so shameless." He spat the word. "Always yelling at me. Screaming at me that I need to get a job because I did that to her and it was all my fault. It killed me, Rachel, to think that I was the cause of her pain. When really, it was all a lie. She was just using me. She never cared."

Rachel placed her hand on Finn's, lifting his head to look deep into his eyes. "That's not true. She really did care about you. That's why she lied to you. Because she wanted to keep you. You're a lot to lose."

Despair ripped through Rachel at her own words. Why was she encouraging him to forgive her? Quinn was wrong, what she did was terrible. Honesty is what really matters in a relationship. Trust. But she couldn't just use Finn like that. She was his friend, and she had to follow her own advice, and be honest. She's lived as a selfish, spoiled brat for all her life. Now was her time to prove that she's more than that, even if it's only to herself.

"Don't defend her," Finn whispered. "She's heartless. Cruel. There is no excuse for that."

"I'm not defending her. But I'm being honest. I really think she cared. Maybe not at first, maybe not all the time, but your relationship was real."

Rachel could no longer help the hot tears that sprung to her eyes. Her lips quivered as she spoke, bile rose in her throat.

Finn looked at her like he had never seen her before. "You know what makes me hate Quinn the most?"

Silence.

"She kept me from going after what I really wanted. When she was pregnant, I couldn't break up with her. What guy would? If I had known the truth, I wouldn't have been chained to her. Because the truth is, Rachel, I didn't care about her anymore. I wanted to break up with her. So that I could be happy.

The reason I hate Quinn the most, Rachel…is because she kept me from going after you."

The tears leaking out of Rachel's eyes seemed to freeze in place. Finn couldn't help but admire the way they thickened her beautiful eyelashes and made her golden skin stand out. Her brown-black hair was falling in beautiful princess curls. No, goddess curls. Her full lips were parted ever so slightly, and warm breath poured out of them. It was so silent Finn could hear every one of them.

"Oh."

It was just a short squeak of a sentence, but Rachel's throat seemed too tight to say anything else. She was dreaming. This wasn't real. It was all just a dream. Finn Hudson would never tell Rachel Berry that he wanted her over Quinn. That didn't happen. Finn was just a jock messing with her head, experimenting with the girl with exotic looks. He would get tired of her soon.

"Rachel," Finn pleaded. "Say something."

Rachel lifted her head to look into his eyes. Tears were still leaking out of them. His deep brown irises stood out against the bloody red color of the "whites" of his eyes. He didn't look like the teasing jock right now. He looked vulnerable. He looked like Rachel's best and only friend in the whole world.

"I'm nobody," she whispered involuntarily.

Finn's brow furrowed in confusion. "What do you mean?"

Rachel swallowed the lump in her throat. "You're King Finn Hudson. I'm Loser Rachel Berry."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

Rachel sat up a little straighter. "It means that we're on opposite sides of the totem pole. We can't-"

"We're two Glee losers. That's how I see it. Who says I can't be with the girl I want to be. After Quinn…I want to be with someone I really care about. I'm done with reputation."

He leaned in tentatively, letting his breath blow against her lips. When she didn't protest, he pressed his lips to hers softly, leaving them lingering for only a second before pulling back. Their faces remained close, only centimeters apart.

"Come back to Glee," she whispered. "I know that you're going through a lot right now. But the club needs you. I need you."

Finn pulled away, facing forward again. "I can't do that."

Rachel put a hand on his shoulder. He twitched, but didn't pull away from her. "I don't want to rush you into anything. But we can't win without you. Without Sectionals, there's no more Glee."

"Is that why you came to talk to me?"

The words stung Rachel. "No. I came to talk to you because you were hurting, and it was my fault, in a way. No ulterior motive."

There was silence.

"I believe you."

Those three words made Rachel's heart beat faster. "You do?"

Another tear fell down Finn's cheek. "Yeah. I always knew I could trust you. You may be kind of selfish, but you wouldn't use me like that when I'm like this."

Rachel took his hands in hers and leaned against his shoulder, nestling into the soft fabric.

They stayed like that for what could have been hours. Neither of them made an effort to move. Nobody tried to find them, nobody came to the auditorium. They were in their own bubble of time.

Eventually they had to leave the school. They left the auditorium, hand in hand, and walked to Finn's car.

"I don't want to leave Glee," he whispered. "But I just can't deal with it right now."

"I know," Rachel reassured him. "Take your time. This is about you."

And with that, Rachel headed off to her car, feeling more emotionally drained and confused than she ever had been before.