Finn and Rachel met with Rachel's dads on Sunday afternoon at Breadstix, Rachel filling out a job application first. Finn frowned at this, not really happy that her needing to work was a consequence of their marriage, but it couldn't be helped. And Rachel assured him that it would be valuable experience for her, aspiring actors often had jobs like that while they were auditioning, and besides, he was working to save money for them too.

Carole had called Burt in DC and filled him in on the wedding and that Rachel was moving in with them for the summer. Apparently he'd eventually grumbled something about "didn't mean to start running a hostel but she's pretty small and I guess we have the space if she doesn't bring too much stuff and helps out around the house." So he, at least, was accepting the new reality. Rachel's dads were likely to be a different matter entirely.

Hiram and LeRoy arrived five minutes early and sat down facing Rachel and Finn in their booth. Tense didn't even come halfway to describing it; for the first few minutes they all just sat there. Rachel and Finn held hands on top of the table, holding on to each other for support.

Finally Rachel spoke. "I love you," she said, looking from one man to the other. "I always have and I always will. And I've been very lucky to have been your daughter."

"Then why?" LeRoy asked, his voice and demeanor pained.

"Because I love Finn too," she replied. "I love him and I want to spend my life with him, and you were making me choose. So I did." She started to say something more, but stopped. She couldn't beg them to forgive her, because she wasn't the least bit sorry about what she'd done, just about how they were taking it.

"We wanted to stop you from making a mistake," Hiram said. "Maybe – maybe we didn't go about it the right way, but that was all we were trying to do."

"Loving Finn, being with Finn, that isn't a mistake," Rachel replied. "We're still going to New York, I'm still going to NYADA, Finn's still going to college too. We're just going to do all of that while being together, because that's what we want to do."

LeRoy frowned at Finn, who had been silent since the men arrived. "So what do you have to say for yourself, Finn? Marrying our daughter without our knowledge?"

"You did know we wanted to," Finn said. "And neither of us is exactly from a traditional family. Rachel wants to be with me and that's her decision, I love her and I'm not going to push her away just because you're not comfortable with it."

"Hmph," LeRoy grunted in reply.

"Other than that I stand by what I said on the phone yesterday. All of it."

"Look, we know it's not going to be easy," Rachel stated. "It never has been before, but we love each other and we want to be together so we've worked through our problems, and we're going to continue to do that. Just – please don't make it any harder for us. Even if you think we've made a mistake, we're married now, it's up to you how you want to react to that but you're not going to change it."

Monday afternoon was the last Glee meeting of the year, a last goodbye to each other in the official school setting. Finn asked Mr. Schue if he could speak to the group, and their teacher nodded.

"National Champions. Looks great," Finn said, standing at the front, looking at the towering trophy with pride. It was almost as tall as he was. "And though it's quite a standard to live up to, I know that those of you who are staying are up to the challenge. Vocal Adrenaline will be gunning for you next year more than ever, so watch out."

"Bring it," Artie called out, and everyone laughed.

Finn smiled. "But this is only the third best thing I got from this club. It's funny that the best things that have happened to me all started from a little blackmail." He glanced over at Mr. Schue, whose jaw dropped open in shock.

"You know?" The teacher gasped.

"I've known for over two years, don't worry about it, I'm not mad anymore," Finn replied, waving off the reaction. "I figured it out. As I've been told, I'm not quite as dumb as I look." More laughter. "Anyway, the second best thing I got out of Glee was all of you, yes, that includes you Mr. Schue. We haven't always all gotten along, and we've done our share of making each others' lives miserable, but I'm with Rachel in saying that we want to stay friends with all of you, you're all really great people. Which brings me to my number one, a little smaller than the trophy but something, make that someone, that I get to take with me, as long as I treat her right. Rachel?"

Finn finally pulled his left hand from his pocket, his ring evident, and held it out to her. She gave him a beaming smile and rose to join him.

"Finn and I were married on Saturday," Rachel stated. There were general gasps from their friends, but she hushed them down. "We're sorry that we had to elope, running off without all of you, it's not what we would have preferred, but we needed to avoid the problems that we had back in March."

"Hey, not cool," Puck said.

"We know," Finn said. "But nobody got told, even the people we did bring along didn't get to find out until we got there, and we didn't think we'd be able to kidnap you." He laughed. "Ask Kurt for the story, I'm sure he'd tell it better than we could. Some of it may even be true."

"Anyway," Rachel continued, projecting her voice over the chatter, "we appreciate that you've all been a lot of help to us over the last few years, and especially in the last few weeks. So we would like to sing something for you." General groans. "I know we've sung a lot of heartfelt songs to each other that the rest of you haven't always appreciated," she went on, looking pointedly at Santana, "but this one isn't for us, it's for you, all of us."

"Nothing deep, just have some fun, but it does say something about why we decided to go ahead." Finn said, settling himself behind the drums. He nodded to Brad at the piano, counted in, then started drumming and singing.

A very good friend of mine
Told me something the other day

Rachel joined in:

I'd like to pass it on to you
'Cause I believe what he said to be true

He said

The others joined in, Puck and Sam first, grabbing their guitars, then gradually the others, getting up to dance around and sing.

We're here for a good time
Not a long time
So have a good time
The sun can't shine every day

Puck nodded to Finn and took over the next verse:

And the sun is shining
In this rainy city
And the sun is shining, oooh, isn't it a pity
That every year has its share of tears
Every now and then it's gotta rain

Finn drummed away, smiling over at Rachel, who blew a kiss at him.

And they all sang it out together:

We're here for a good time
Not a long time
So have a good time
The sun can't shine every day *

END

* "We're Here For a Good Time (Not a Long Time)", by Trooper, written by Brian Smith and Ramon McGuire.