DISCLAIMER: I neither own Glee nor the characters. They are the property of Ryan Murphy and FOX. This is purely for fun. Enjoy!

A/N: Sorry about my little ff vacation, but I'm here to bring you the epilogue you've been waiting for. Thank you for your patience!

Epilogue

Blood. There was blood everywhere; dripping down the walls, in puddles on the floor; no matter where she turned there was blood covering everything in sight. She walked down the crimson red corridors, shaking from fear, and blood was the only thing she could see. Not a speck of blue from the sky, or a splash of green from the grass. There was only blood.

There was even blood on her own hands.

"Get it off of me," she whispered to herself in the solemn silence of her blood soaked nightmare. She tried to rub it off of her hands, onto her clothes, but nothing she did could get the color off of her skin. The blood started to travel up her wrists, then her arms, until it started spreading all over her body. "Get it off of me!" She screamed, hysterical, until she could feel it creeping up her neck, over her face.

"Get it off of me!" Shrieking, out of control, she wanted to run, wanted to escape this horror, but she couldn't move her legs, couldn't get away. "Someone please help me, please. . .," she whimpered while her vision went red, then black as the night.

"Rachel," a soft voice was whispering her name and when she opened her eyes she was no longer drowning in a sea of crimson. She had to blink furiously to adjust to the bright lights that surrounded her, but when her vision came back into focus, she realized that she had simply been trapped in a nightmare, and her saviors now surrounded her bed with varying looks of shock and sympathy on their faces.

"Where am I?" She asked groggily, her voice still hoarse from lack of use. Her head was pounding, and she looked around at all of her gleeks in the room and let out a sigh of relief that none of them had been injured in the fray. A nurse came in to check her vitals and she finally realized that she was in a hospital. Her left side ached more than any pain she'd ever felt, and she was quite incapable of moving her left leg above the knee. This was going to make dancing for glee club very difficult next year.

"You're at the hospital, Rachel. You and Finn lost a lot of blood." Kurt and Mercedes stepped forward, one friend on each side of the bed, and Mercedes grabbed her hand, stroking it softly.

"You gave us quite a scare, drama queen. You're not supposed to be competing for Best Death Scene for another few years, at least until you make it to Broadway." She squeezed Mercedes' hand in thanks for all that she had done for her. If Mercedes hadn't hidden her away, Sunshine would have gotten to her ages ago. "You had two stab wounds, Rachel, and the one in your side barely missed your kidneys. The nurses said your leg pain will be persistent, and you're going to need physical therapy, but after a few months you should be fine. We'll have to find somewhere to put you during group numbers until you heal. I think we should stick you in the back with Finn. Hide the bad dancers." She added with a wink.

Rachel tried to chuckle, but the simple act made her side hurt so much she thought her stitches might pull. The mention of Finn put her on high alert and she needed to know where he was. She turned to Kurt and she couldn't help but notice how tired he looked. In fact, they all looked exhausted.

"What happened to Finn, Kurt? Where is he?" The color drained from his face and his grip on her hand went slack while he tried to formulate a response. To Rachel it just looked like his jaw was hanging open and she started to panic. "Kurt, where is he?" He sighed dramatically and finally met Rachel's gaze once more. His voice was soft when he spoke to her. Too soft, too gentle, too unlike Kurt.

"Rachel, he's still in the ICU. He lost more blood than you did and to be honest, he hasn't been doing well. The both of you have been asleep for three days and Finn hasn't been showing the same progress as you've been."

"Three days?" No wonder her friends looked tired. They all nodded their heads in exhaustion. This was too much information to take in. She needed to see Finn. He had to be okay; she knew deep down that he was one of the strongest guys she'd ever met. He could handle a stab wound, right?

"I want to see him." She said suddenly, and her friends exchanged worried glances. She tried to sit up and the pain that spread through her was so intense she thought she might scream.

"I don't think that's a good idea, Rachel. You need your rest, you just woke up and you're bound to be sore." Artie added from the group.

"I don't care about resting, I care about Finn. I want to see him now!" Why couldn't they just help her steal a wheelchair or something? The nurse took this opportunity to enter the room and she could tell instantly that Rachel was in a state of duress. She started to shoo her friends out of the room, and added a new bag to her IV. It was small, and as her friends were saying goodbye to her the room started to go dark, and she fell into a restless sleep where the only color she saw was red.

A few more days passed and Rachel was confined in bed for the entire time. It was driving her crazy; her boyfriend was somewhere in this hospital, hanging onto his life and she wasn't even allowed to go and see him. Where was the justice?

It would help her cause if she were able to move from her bed, but as of now the stitches were still raw, and they had to monitor her internal functions in addition to her vitals. There had been a lot of internal bleeding, which was Finn's problem as well, and Rachel was starting to panic over his health from the privacy of her own hospital bed. No matter how many times she begged her father's to help her see Finn, they refused to try and sneak her out of the wing. Instead they promised to go check on him themselves, and they always came back with the same answer: "He's hanging on."

It was as if Sunshine were still here, stabbing her in the heart instead of in the side.

Finally, after five whole days in the hospital where she had put on a musical revue for every doctor, nurse and orderly in the entire building, Burt and Carole came in to see her with a sort of quiet excitement bubbling under the surface. When she noticed Burt pushing a wheelchair, she almost burst out of her skin.

"They've moved Finn out of the ICU Rachel, he's awake now. He won't stop asking for you." The tears were already swimming on her face by the time they got her into the wheelchair. Burt held her tenderly while placing her into the seat, and Carole walked next to her, pushing her IV along with them as they went to go see Finn.

When she rolled into the room, Finn's smiling face was all she could see. Consequently, It was the only thing that mattered.

"Hey baby." His voice was weak and strained, but his smile was there, which filled her with more joy than she ever thought possible.

"Hey," was all she could say through the river of tears on her face. He looked thin and so tired, but she had never seen a more brilliant image in her life. It gave her hope. It showed her that no matter what had happened to her, they had survived; their wounds would heal.

"What happened to Sunshine?" A mental image of the Filipina's face flashed before her and she could still see the blood gurgling out of her mouth. It was an image that would stick with her forever, she was sure of it.

"Sunshine is gone. She won't be hurting anyone else that I love." She reached over to grab his hand and he barely had the strength to squeeze it. She knew, though, that Finn would be alright. They weren't leaving the hospital any time soon, but at least they would be together. "You saved me, Finn. You saved my life."

"I had to Rachel. I couldn't just let her kill you. I love you."

"I love you too, Finn. I love you so much." She wanted nothing more than to lean over and kiss him, but neither of them had the strength to do so. She settled with kissing the skin on his knuckles, and brushing his hand over her cheek in a tender motion.

"You know what this means though, Rachel?" He said with a hint of amusement in his tone, and she looked up at him.

"What?"

"It means that you better be nice to all the new kids that join glee club this year," he said with a small wink. "You never know; they could all have psychopathic tendencies and you don't want to wake anymore sleeping dragons."

"Yes, Finn, I understand. I can't be a diva anymore." She sighed. "But what if they're better than me?"

Finn glared at her from his spot on the bed. "Rachel. . .," he said with warning in his tone.

"All right, all right. I get it. I'll be good."

The rest of the summer passed by in a blur of physical therapy and group trauma sessions with the glee club. They had all decided to do the group therapy together, since there was always a lot of drama in the group anyway, they hoped that therapy could help them solve their issues with one another and work better as a group. The stress of the serial killer had weighed heavily on everyone's mind, not only Finn and Rachel's, so it was good to air out everyone's feelings so there were no regrets when they started school. In Rachel's opinion, the group had never worked better together. Finn just never wanted to see Puck cry like that again.

When school started in September, things were still really tough. Rachel was still on crutches because of her leg, and Finn was put on second string for football because Coach Beiste didn't want to take any chances with his internal injuries. He was bummed out, but at least he would still be in uniform for most of the season and he might be able to play again soon, depending on his progress.

It was hard for Rachel to walk past Principal Figgin's office during the day, knowing that it was her fault that he'd been killed. Her nightmares hadn't yet ceased and she doubted they'd ever will; at least she'd stopped dreaming about hallways filled with blood. Now she just saw images, flashes of fear that awoke the dormant terror that still lived in her heart. She knew that all wounds needed time to heal, but some took longer than others.

Using her crutches all the time was hard, but Rachel finally made it to the first glee club rehearsal of the year, trailing in behind the others. Mr. Schue pulled her in for a big hug with his good arm, and she couldn't keep her eyes off of the sling he wore over his damaged shoulder, the one that Dustin had turned into hamburger meat. It was just another reminder of how badly she'd messed things up, and she vowed to keep her promise to Finn and welcome the newbies instead of chasing them away.

Right before their meeting was over, a young girl, probably a freshman, walked into the choir room with a small tap on the door. She looked painfully shy as she twirled her blonde hair in her hands and addressed Mr. Schue without making eye contact with the rest of the club.

"Hello, my name is Anna and I wanted to know if I could audition for glee club?" Before Mr. Schue could answer her, Rachel shot out of her seat with her crutches in hand and immediately approached the younger girl who stared at her with eyes as wide as saucers.

"Of course you may audition, young one! My name is Rachel Berry, the captain and female lead of this club and I welcome you with open arms. Well, if I could open my arms I would but these crutches are in the way you see. . ."

"So I can try out?" She asked meekly while Rachel beamed.

"Absolutely. May I ask you one question though?"

The young freshman shrugged her shoulders. "Sure."

"Have you ever possessed any murderous tendencies or experienced a mental breakdown that could possibly endanger the lives of the other members of this club?" She could see the other gleeks, including Mr. Schue, sigh and facepalm dramatically while the blonde stared at Rachel like she was nuts.

"Um, no."

"Then welcome to New Directions!" She said exuberantly, nudging the girl forward to join the group. She smiled brightly and the rest of the glee clubbers moved forward to introduce themselves. Mr. Schue gave Rachel a thumbs up while Finn pulled her in for a deep kiss, lingering there for a moment and making her feel like the world was floating away.

"Good job," he whispered in her ear, nuzzling her softly. She inhaled the scent of him and relaxed into his embrace, knowing that the only safe place for her in this world was right here in Finn's arms. They stood like that for a while and could hear the new girl, Anna, mingling with the other members and talking about solos. They watched her, amused, as Tina and Mike explained to her about competitions and their track record.

"You mean I could actually be a lead one day? I would kill to sing my own solo!" The entire room froze deadly still, glaring at Anna while her face turned red from embarrassment. Finn and Rachel exchanged a knowing look while the girl in question squirmed under the unwanted attention. It was going to be a long rehearsal, as the girl in question kept playing with her hair, completely oblivious.

"Was it something I said?"

THE END

Until next time, sings, Don't Stop Reviewing!

Merci mille fois, mes amis!