A tall man in a black blazer and navy blue slacks stood before the marquee and took in the sight before him. A hollow feeling in the pit of his stomach stirred when he took in the sight of the young lady pictured on the current advertisement.
He'd known for some time that she'd made a name for herself. Seeing it firsthand, though, brought a brand new layer of reality to it. The ticket he'd purchased began burning a hole in his breast pocket.
She looked almost the same. Her chin still came to a subtle point. Her lips still smiled the same way, and her nose still had a gentle curve downward. Her brown eyes still shone with the same confidence and self-possession she had always exuded. Her hair was still the same rich chocolate color with lighter brown highlights. She was still perfect; at least to him.
He checked his watch and realized that the show was soon to start. He strode purposefully into the foyer of the theater and out of the slight fall chill. He offered his ticket to the usher and smiled politely as the older gentleman made mention of his seat location.
"Front row, center, eh? The best seat in the house! Follow me, please."
As he took his seat, he checked his uniform one last time, making sure the light blue fabric around his right shoulder was laying correctly. He absentmindedly brushed his hand over the two pointed stripes on the outside of his coat. Finally, he removed his hat to be polite to the people behind him, and ran a hand through his close-cropped brown hair. As he finished settling into his seat, the lights in the auditorium dimmed, signaling the start of the show.
A sight he hadn't seen in eight years walked onto the stage. The hollow nervousness in his stomach turned into a sharp ache of nostalgia and longing. She looked just like her picture outside and was wearing a floor length black gown that hugged and highlighted her curves perfectly. She was every bit the woman he remembered falling in love with so many years ago; his Rachel.
She parted her lips and teased a note from her vocal cords, thus beginning the show. He sat in rapt attention, barely moving a muscle as the music of her voice washed over him for the next two hours.
Her mind sometimes wandered when she sang, usually dredging up memories that aided her in adding the appropriate emotion to the song. Sometimes she simply thought of how lucky she was. Her dads and her manager constantly reminded her that while many people chased their dreams, so very few ever caught them.
The sense of permanence and stability her fathers provided for her had helped her remain a very grounded and humble person. Still, she allowed herself a few moments of self-indulgence on stage. As she finished the last notes of the last song before her encore she let the applause wash over her.
She took several graceful steps backward into the darkness of the stage as the spotlight was extinguished. A soft glow barely lit up the auditorium, silhouetting her against the backdrop.
The piano and the drums played the first several notes of her last song and faded out, filling the room with a hushed silence. She smiled softly, breathed in and…
"There were nights when the wind was so cold…"
The spotlight suddenly shown back down upon her, the soft lighting the room was drowned out by the brightness and she knew she was the only thing anyone in the room could see.
"That my body froze in bed if I just listened to it right outside the window…"
She took a tentative step forward.
"There were days that the sun was so cruel…
She put her hand up as if shielding her eyes from the spotlight.
That all the tears were turned to dust and I just knew my eyes were drying up forever…"
She took everal confident steps forward and threw her arm down to her side.
"I finished crying in the instant that you left...
"And I can't remember when or where or how…
"And I banished every memory you and I had ever made…"
Her hands languidly made their way up to her bare upper arms.
"But when you touch me like this…
"And you hold me like that…
"I just have to admit that it's all coming back to me…"
One arm reached out to her unseen lover.
"When I touch you like this…
"And I hold you like that…
"It's so hard to believe but it's all coming back to me…"
Her body began swaying in time with the rhythm. Her mind went to the same place it went every time she sang this song. She was always a senior at McKinley. She was always singing this song to the crowd. She would always remember the way he'd looked at her just before she'd gone on stage. The thought of him. Always him. Her voice, now choked with emotion, went on.
"There were moments of gold and there were flashes of light…
"There were things I'd never do again, but then they'd always seem right…
"There were nights of endless pleasure, it was more than any laws allow…
"Baby, baby…"
She thought back to the first time she'd seen him as a freshman; how she was instantly and completely in love with him.
"If I kiss you like this…
"And if you whisper like that…
"It was lost long ago but it's all coming back to me…"
She thought of her first time with him; when she'd told him that she was just a girl who wanted to be with the boy she loved.
"If you want me like this…
"And you need me like that…
"It was dead long ago but it's all coming back to me…
"It's so hard to resist and it's all coming back to me…
"I can barely recall but it's all coming back to me now…
"But it's all coming back…"
She thought to the last day she'd seen him. She remembered the way she felt when she realized he was breaking up with her.
"But you were history with the slamming of the door...
"And I made myself so strong again somehow…
"And I never wasted any of my time on you since then…"
She remembered the first time they'd kissed. It was only for a moment during rehearsal. And he'd immediately apologized and nearly run away.
"But if I touch you like this…
"And if you kiss me like that…
"It was so long ago but it's all coming back to me…
"If you touch me like this…
"And if I kiss you like that…
"It was gone with the wind but it's all coming back to me…
She thought back to when they'd kissed on stage in front of everyone. She thought of how the entire world melted away and it was just the two of them.
"There were moments of gold and there were flashes of light…
"There were things I'd never do again but then they'd always seem right…
"There were nights of endless pleasure, it was more than all your laws allow…
"Baby, baby, baby…"
She thought back to when he'd asked her to marry him and she hadn't known what to say.
"When you touch me like this…
"And when you hold me like that…
"It was gone with the wind but it's all coming back to me…
She thought back to when they had been crowned king and queen at prom and he had reassured her that it was how he always saw her.
"When you see me like this…
"And when I see you like that…
"Then we see what we want to see; all coming back to me…
"The flesh and the fantasies all coming back to me…"
The stage lights rose slowly as she continued into her next line, building the emotional crescendo of the song to a fever pitch.
"I can barely recall, but it's all coming back to me now…"
The instruments and her voice faded out in unison, leaving a deafening silence. She opened her eyes and looked down. The stage lights had come up, washing out some of the glare of the spotlight and she could see her audience.
And then time stopped.
Her breath was nearly ripped out of her chest and her eyes were instantly full of tears. He was gazing raptly back up at her, with a familiar lopsided grin on his face; her Finn.
He looked almost the same. She saw his normally slightly disheveled hair was now much shorter and neatly combed, and parted down the right side. She saw that some of the roundness in his cheeks was gone, which only served to highlight his strong jaw. She could see that the military had removed all traces of baby fat from his already athletic frame.
And, most importantly to her, she could see the familiar playful glint in his eye. In that moment, she knew he was still the same Finn Hudson she'd fallen in love with so many years ago.
As he realized he'd been seen, the other side of this lopsided grin filled in and a hint of teeth appeared as he smiled up at her.
She remembered the last time she'd seen him; her hand on the window of the train, tears streaming down her face, watching him run to keep her in sight just a little longer. She remembered how much it had hurt to say goodbye.
Then she remembered how right he'd been. She remembered how hard she'd had to work and how little time she'd had for anything but school. A feeling of relief and gratitude swept over her.
And most importantly to him, she smiled back at him as she began to sing again.
"If you forgive me all this…
"If I forgive you all that…
"We forgive and forget and it's all coming back to me…
"When you see me like this…
"And when I see you like that…
"We see just what we want to see; all coming back to me…
"I can barely recall, but it's all coming back to me now…
"And if we…"
The house lights came up as the audience began applauding. Finn slowly clapped as he beamed up at his dream girl. Rachel gracefully bowed as the applause washed over her. She stood back up and looked back down at Finn. Her eyes flicked once to her left, signaling for him to meet her back stage. He nodded once and she waved to the audience before making her way offstage.
Twenty minutes later, a visibly nervous Finn Hudson stood outside a door with a star on it and knocked twice.