Summary: Set during 'Funk'. Rachel was confronted by Jesse and Vocal Adrenaline. But how did she get to the choir room? Who found her? And how did she get cleaned up?

Solace

As Jesse squashed the final egg onto Rachel's forehead, she felt the oncoming tears prick at her eyes like acid. She could feel her stomach churn, and bile began to rise from her stomach, creeping slowly up her esophagus.

The first tear slid with speed down her cheek as all four Vocal Adrenaline SUVs pulled away from William McKinley High's parking lot. Their laughter, carried by the wind, flowed swiftly out of the windows, and Jesse's laughing face was the last thing she saw as they rounded the corner.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a car come around the same corner and bent her head as a slushy came flying her way, splattering a fresh mess over her already soiled blouse. Large, wet tears began to fall with incredible speed down her slim cheeks as even more laughter reached her ears. Her hands rose quickly to shield herself from the students now emerging from the school.

"Oh no, not here you don't," the familiar, and slightly high voice of Kurt burst into the bubble of shame she had created for herself, and she wasn't sure if she was happy or sad that he was there to see her like this.

Her mind was made up as Kurt snatched at her hand and pulled her form the crowd of gawking teenagers. As they entered the school, the wave of tears burst forth through her eyelids and Rachel let out a sob of agony.

It was as though she had just been told her puppy had gotten poisoned, ran over by a car, and then chewed to pieces by crocodiles, thought Kurt sadly. He rushed them through the halls of the high school, searching desperately for a washroom. And even though he visited the bathroom more than any guy – and more than many of the girls he knew – he couldn't seem to remember where any of them were in his haze of desperation.

Sobs continued to wrack her petite and fragile body. Finally spotting one of the many washrooms located inside of the school, he ushered Rachel inside, ignoring the gasps and shocked yells of the girls occupying the small room.

Kurt pulled out his phone and flipped through his contacts until his eyes came to rest on the first Glee Club member of the alphabet who he knew was available to help.

Fabray, Quinn.

Quinn giggled loudly as Mike performed his, as he called it, 'sexy-on-the-downlow' dance move for the few members of Glee Club who showed up early to their after school rehearsal.

As Santana grabbed her hand and began to dance foolishly to Puck's cheesy guitar playing when she felt the vibrating of her phone in her pocket. She pulled away from Santana, who shrieked gleefully, "Eww! Quinn's vibrating!" She then flipped her phone read the text message awaiting her wide green eyes.

To Fabray, Quinn:

In washroom w/ R. Big trouble. Help.

From Hummell, Kurt

Her body felt as though she had been dunked into cold water, swimming with ferocious sharks. Her phone clattered to the cold, lifeless floor and she began to scramble through chairs upon chairs to reach the door. The others occupying the room (who included Santana, Puck, Mercedes, and Mike) noticed the look on Quinn's face and immediately knew something was dreadfully wrong. They quickly followed, right behind her, to the door where she quite literally ran into Finn.

Finn had just finished his math test and was now prepared to spend all of that Thursday afternoon – and possibly well into the evening – singing with Rachel. As he walked through the doors of the choir room, he knew that something was most definitely wrong. He noticed the pale face of the girl he was forced to steady as he came ran right into her.

"Hey guys, what's up? Where's the fire?"

"Finn," breathed Quinn.

It was then that Finn realized the absence of the human who made his heart stop, but beat to a deadly rhythm at the same time. She made his mouth go dry, and caused his stomach to twist uncomfortably whenever he got a whiff of her sweet vanilla body lotion that had been rubbed onto her sun-kissed skin.

Oh, how he wished he could rub the cream onto her skin himself.

He realized Quinn hadn't liked Rachel before, but it seemed like after they had won sectionals – and especially after the whole Lady Gaga/I'm your mother fiasco, that she really had a change of heart. He dreaded the next words to come out of her mouth.

"It's Rachel."

The bathroom door flew open and almost rattled off its hinges as Mercedes, Quinn, and Santana rushed into the bathroom. Finn would have been at Rachel's side in a second, had it not been for Puck and Mike pulling at his arms and hissing at him that it was the girl's room.

Santana came out only a second after she had entered, pointing at Puck. "Go to Rachel's locker and grab the extra outfit hanging there." She scribbled, barely legible, Rachel's locker combination of his palm and then gave him a push in the right direction. He began to jog down the hallway and she re-entered the washroom. As the door swung open, Finn caught a glimpse of Rachel's tear-stained face. As her eyes connected with his in the brief second it took for the door to close, more tears spilled. She took a single step toward him, only to have Mercedes pull her back, away from the only place she wanted to be.

The door now acted as a barricade between them again and Finn slid down the wall, groaning at the thought of Rachel in so much pain. He could hear her muffled sniffles through the door as the girls, plus Kurt, tried to comfort her from whatever was causing her so much heartache.

Puck jogged around the corner of the hallway and Finn immediately rapped on the door. "Clothes are here." This time Kurt opened the door and grabbed the clothes, pulling the door shut behind him, right into Finn's grieving face.

Inside the bathroom, the girls were washing out everything that had been tainted with egg and slushy. They ran her clothes under the taps of the many sinks as Rachel got changed in one of six stalls located in the room. She walked out of the stall and Quinn pulled at her arm, situating her in front of the mirror, and began to tug at her thick brown locks, removing the sticky slushy and the bits of egg tangled within. Rachel eventually calmed her down enough to allow them to remove the running mascara from her eyelashes and cheeks, reapplying a single coat once they finished. Finally, pleased with their few minutes of work, they turned Rachel towards the door and marched out with her by their side.

Finn had been pacing in front of the door for the past twenty minutes.

"Yo dude, you're giving me a headache. We're all concerned, but you don't have to create a hole in the floor."

Finn turned to Puck, setting all the worry, concern, and anger on his friend. In an almost animalistic fashion, he lunged towards Puck, and had it not been for the soft creaking of the bathroom door being opened and the whisper of his name, Finn would have done some serious damage to Puck's face.

"Rachel," Finn softly said the holly word as he took a step away from Puck and towards the petite girl now standing just five feet from him – no barricades at all.

Although he didn't know of anything that had happened to her in the past hour, he wrapped his arms tightly around her waist and pulled her close while her fingers clutched at his shoulders and her face buried itself into the hollow of this throat.

Quinn smiled gently at the two. She had loved Finn at a time, yes; but not nearly as much as Rachel, she realized. The way Rachel clung to Quinn's ex-boyfriend surprisingly didn't bother her at all, and it didn't bother her that Finn held her close with just as much need. As the group walked back to the choir room (Finn and Rachel staying extremely close all the way) to explain fully what had happened, she realized that this was how it was supposed to be.

Author's Note: In my opinion, I think something should have happened between them before Journey occurred. Did you see the way they were sitting on Mr. Schue's couch ... they had been awkward around each other for the past couple of episodes, and all of a sudden they were close..? It just seemed as though some comforting should have gone down in this episode to make that possible – but that's just my opinion...

Loved it? Hated it? Let me know what you think! Lottsa love, and until next time ... farewell.