It all happened so fast. One moment, The Troubletones were on stage performing their mashup, and the next, Santana was in front of him, yelling at him, and finally, slapping him as hard as she could. He didn't even notice her coming towards him because he was so involved in what he was telling Rachel, and honestly, he was kind of distracted by the smell of Rachel and just generally being close to her. Before he knew it though, Santana was in front of him, and for a split second, he thought it was just going to be her normal round of insults shot at his girlfriend and himself, and he wasn't gonna have any of it. But no, this time she was focused solely on him, and that was better. Better than her insulting his girlfriend for the millionth time, better than her saying hurtful things to Rachel that weren't true, but that he knew hurt Rachel more than she let on.
All of what Santana was saying this time was directed at him. She went on and on about how everything that happened was his fault, about how everyone knew because of him. He wasn't sure if the conversation in the hallway really let people on to Santana's secret; he was pretty sure the whole school knew she was in to girls before he had said anything. She was acting like everything had changed for her or something, like people at school were talking about her or making fun of her, and he hadn't seen anything like that. He tried to talk her down, but she refused to listen. He tried to assure her that nothing she was saying was true, that no one was judging her for her sexuality, but she wouldn't hear any of it, and finally, she just hit him.
And then everything was silent.
Santana stood in front of him for a few moments after, but finally stormed out of the auditorium, Brittany running after her a few seconds later, the rest of the Troubletones following slowly after. Mr. Schuester and Ms. Corcoran were having some sort of private conversation, and the rest of the students from New Directions gathered together, whispering about what had just happened. Finn stared straight ahead, with a hand to his cheek - it stung like hell. Rachel moved her hand to cover his other one, and looked as if she was about to speak, but Mr. Schuester spoke first, his voiced raised so everyone in the auditorium could hear him.
"Guys...I know what just happened is kind of a shock, and I understand the urge to discuss it, but it's best if you all disperse. Just, head out of the auditorium. Glee rehearsal is over".
After the rest of the students walked out, Mr. Schuester and Ms. Corcoran came to stand in front of Finn and Rachel.
"Rachel, we really need to talk to Finn by himself right now." Finn didn't want her to leave, and only gripped her hand tighter. She looked at him, smiling only for him.
"No," she said firmly, as she stared back at the two teachers.
"Rachel...", Mr. Schuester says.
"I'm not leaving Finn's side. He's just been physically assaulted by one of your students, Ms. Corcoran, and you think I'm just going to walk out of here? He's my boyfriend, I'm not leaving him."
"I understand that you're upset Rachel, but we need to get Finn to the office so we can talk to him about the situation, and hopefully Santana as well," Ms. Corcoran replied.
"Wait, Santana? You think I'm going to let Santana near him right now?" Finn could barely register what was going on, but he knew Rachel, he could hear it in her voice, and she wasn't going to back down about this.
"Rachel, this doesn't concern you. What happened in here has to do with Santana and Finn, notyou. This is an issue we have to take up with the two of them, as well as the principal, please don't make this situation more complicated."
In response to Mr. Schuester, Rachel took a deep breath, then stood up, pulling Finn up with her.
"Finn, do you feel ready to talk about what just happened?" she asked in a calm voice.
He looked at her, but he was still so distracted by everything that had just happened, and all he was able to get out was, "What?"
"See? He can't even respond properly to me. What makes you think he's anywhere near ready to talk about the situation with anyone else? It looked to me like Santana stormed out, and who knows where she is now. Tomorrow might be a better time to address the situation, but for now, I'm going to take Finn home."
Shelby stared at Mr. Schuester, then nodded to him, and that was enough of a response for Rachel. She pulled Finn by the hand again, leading him out of the auditorium. They finally stopped when they were at his locker.
"Do you have everything? All your books for school?" Rachel asked, as she opened up his locker; she had memorized his locker combination months ago.
"Yeah, I got everything before rehearsal."
"Good, then we can go to my house", she said.
As they walked down the hall, she took his hand again, intertwining their fingers. As they walked past the empty choir room, Finn was reminded of what had just happened in the auditorium, and he felt the sting in his face again.
He was silent for most of the drive to her house, but he finally said something when she pulled up in front. "What was that all about, in the auditorium? Why didn't you let them take me to see Principal Figgins?"
Rachel watches him as they climb out of the car, and make their way in to her house, dropping their stuff off by the stairs.
"Because, I know you aren't okay. I know you aren't ready to talk to Mr. Schuester or Shelby about it, let alone Santana. And I don't want her near you right now, I just want you to myself, so I can figure out what happened and what led to this. And I want to take care of you, okay?"
"So you bailed me out?" he says with a smirk on his face, pulling her backwards. He falls on the couch first, and she falls on top of him. He holds her close, and kisses her cheeks, her neck - any bare skin he sees.
"Finn," she says, laughing, and sliding off the couch. "Come on, don't distract me! I want to make sure everything's okay with you. There will be time for kisses later, I promise. But first, let's go to the kitchen to get an ice pack. I remember how much getting slapped hurts, you need to feel something cold on your skin or it's going to sting for even longer. Come on, come with me." She smiles at him, and then walks away.
For a few seconds, he just watches as she makes her way in to the kitchen, wondering how he ever deserved such an amazing girlfriend like her. Finally, he makes his way over to her, sitting on one of the stools while she goes through the freezer. She finally finds the ice pack, then comes to stand by him, and holds it to his cheek. He places a hand over hers, and for a few seconds they simply stare at each other.
"Are you ready to talk about it? I understand if you don't want to, I'm still kind of in shock about it myself."
"I dunno. I just don't know how the situation blew up like this", he says sighing while he breaks eye contact with her and instead stares at the table.
"What do you mean?," Rachel says as she scoots closer.
"I mean, I don't know everything that Santana was talking about in there, but that doesn't really matter, does it? I'm one of the leaders of our club, Rach, and I just made everything worse. I tried sohard to keep our club together, and when that didn't work, I at least tried to be a decent leader to the club we still had, but now I just feel like a failure, like I let everyone down or something."
"Stop it Finn". He turns towards her, and then she gets up and comes to stand right in front of him, holding the ice pack to his cheek yet again.
"You are not a failure. This club would have fallen apart time completely by now if it wasn't for you. You're more than a decent leader, you're the best leader to the club that anyone could have asked for. What happened with Santana doesn't have anything to do with your leadership abilities. Something happened between you two, and that's why she's so upset, right?"
Rachel makes no move to go back to her stool. She stands in place in front of him, willing him to tell her everything.
"It was about this conversation we had before we did our mash up. She like...exploded with all these insults, about Rory, about me, and when she started talking about you and our future I just couldn't take it anymore. It all just came out of me, and I just decided to tell her the truth, that I know why she's so angry and why she insists on tearing everyone else down..."
"What exactly did you say?" Rachel says, calmly.
"I told her she should come out of the closet. I told her that I know she's in love with Brittany, and that it must hurt that she doesn't know if Brittany feels the same way about her. And I called her a coward for the way she treats people."
Finn can see Rachel going over everything she's telling him, like she thinks there must be something missing. Her face scrunches up, which he knows she does when she's trying to concentrate really hard. He realizes her arm must be numb, since she's been holding it up to his cheek in the same position for a while now, so he gently moves her hand from his face. She lets him take control of the icepack, and then starts pacing around the kitchen.
"Wait, where did you two talk about all of this?" she says, coming to a stop to face him from the other side of the counter.
"The hallway at school...why?"
"Well, from what she was saying, it sounds like a lot more people found out about this than you originally thought. Maybe someone overheard and somehow informed more than just the students at McKinley of what you said."
The pieces start falling in to place then, and Finn suddenly feels sick with guilt. The icepack drops to the floor, but Finn doesn't even hear it hit the ground. He just notices when Rachel comes back over to him, picking it up off the floor and placing it on the table.
"Finn, look at me." He doesn't budge, so she turns his head with her hands to make him face her.
"I don't know what I was thinking. Santana was right, I am an idiot." he says, remembering she called him that seconds before she hit him.
"You are not an idiot, okay? You were fed up with her; we all were. It was only a matter of time before one of us snapped, and I know you, you weren't being malicious towards her, you were just calling her out. Whatever happened after that was not your fault. If someone overheard, if that's really what happened today, then that is not on you, okay?"
He lets her words sink in, and he tries to believe that what happened isn't his fault. He can hear in her voice that she believes everything is going to turn out okay for both clubs, and he tries his best to believe that too. But still, the guilt is eating away at him. Rachel holds his face in her hands, and stares at him, willing him to believe her. He loses himself in her dark, chocolate brown eyes, and god, he wants nothing more than to kiss her right now.
It's like she can read his mind, and she closes the space between them, capturing his mouth with hers. She pulls away, moves her hands to his shoulders, squeezing them, doing her best to comfort him in any way she can.
"It's all going to be okay Finn, you know that, right?"
"If I really did out her, then she's probably gonna hate me forever. And really, who can blame her?"
"She's not gonna hate you forever. You're too sweet for anyone to dislike. Chances are she'll be angry for a while, but we'll figure something out to get her to understand what happened and to let her know you're sorry."
"You don't have to help me with this, you know. Whatever happened is on me, I don't want to drag you in to this."
"Finn," Rachel says, "it's not just you. It's youandme, remember? It's been that way for a while. Whatever happens, we're in this together."
He's the one to pull her close and kiss her this time, but again, shehe breaks the kiss, pulling away so she can rest the ice pack back on his cheek.
"I know I said we could kiss later, and we will, but your cheek still looks red, and I hate the thought of you in pain. Please, just keep it on for a little while longer, okay?"
"Ice pack now, kisses later?" he says, taking one of her hands with his, and bringing it to his mouth to kiss.
"That's the deal. I promise you'll thank me later."
He knows the ice pack is gonna help his face from stinging, but he doesn't even really care about that anymore. All he really wants to do is kiss his girlfriend. His awesome girlfriend. Rachel Berry, the best girlfriend in the entire world.