SBHNH: HEY! I'm falling in love with my Fours a Family series! This is the third one now!
So, the song in this one is called 'Set the fire to the Third Bar' and is my new addiction song, hence this fic *Smiles*
Oh and I apologise if I seem to suddenly switch to first POV, and please point it out to me if I do, I just struggle with 3rd, which is why I'm writing this in 3rd, to try and gain some experience.
Oh, you need to have read 'Something Up' which is the first in the series, to understand some of this story.
Un-BETA'd. All mistakes are my own, feel free to point them out.
Title: Set the Fire To The Third Bar
Rating: T
Summary: Three of the four go away on a college trip and Rachel is left behind.
~March 2014~
Rachel sat on the bed, phone clutched in her hand, praying for it to ring. She didn't like the fact that all her girls had gone away with their dance troupe, without her. She couldn't have gone, mainly because she didn't have the money, and partially because she couldn't get out of work, since it was half term.
So here she was now, clutching her cell, waiting for her girls to call her. She wouldn't lie and say she wasn't jealous, because she was. Her girls were all together, and she was left on her own in New York, in a cold, King-Sized bed, all on her own.
I think I'll try, Defying Gravity!
Her phone sang out before she clicked the answer button and put it on speaker.
"Hey Princess." Quinn sang through the phone. Rachel giggled slightly as she placed the phone by her head as she lay down.
"Hey Mama Bear. Are San and Brit there?" She asked.
"No. Couldn't get us all in the same room, not allowed. I'm gonna patch them in now." Rachel smiled, feeling slightly cynical as she realised that they weren't all snuggled together at night, that they were all as lonely as she was. There was two clicks, and she knew that Santana and Brittanny were patched in within their own rooms.
"Hey Ray Bear." Called Brittany, though Rachel could tell she was trying to be quiet, since it was now about eleven O'clock at night.
"Hey Baby Girl." Santana said, and she could hear her yawning. After the divas breakdown yesterday, where she had called Quinn, crying, because she had missed them all so much and had hated sleeping alone, they had decided that they would call each other just before they went to sleep, so that they didn't feel so alone. So now they were all patched in to the same phone call, just listening to each others breathing. It was helping, Rachel thought as she felt her eyelids grow heavy, feeling that her girls were closer than they actually were.
~Three days later~
"Yeah, Okay. I'll meet you at the airport." Rachel said before hanging up. Her girls were back today, but unfortunately she wouldn't be able to get off her shift to go and collect them, especially not since she had a special guest coming to sing with her, who she now had to head out to collect. But first, she needed to ring Santana and tell her that she wouldn't be able to pick them up from the airport, and that they should go to where she worked, rather than home, because she wanted to see them straight away. Rachel clicked the number three and then the dial button. Santana answered after two rings.
"Hey Baby Girl. We're just ready to get on the plane now. We should be home in about two hours." Rachel smiled, hearing the familiar hidden excitement in Santana's voice.
"Hey San... look, my boss is being an arsehole and I can't get off of work to come and collect you..." She trailed off, almost seeing the look of disappointment in the latina's face.
"What do you mean?" Quinn asked, obviously snatching the phone out of Santana's hand. Rachel sighed, trying very hard not to let her bottom lip quiver. She hated hurting her girls, in any way.
"I mean, I can't get off my shift. I'm sorry Mama Bear, I tried, honest, it's just Nick needs me in tonight, apparently there's some kind of competition in town and a performing group has booked a table, so I'm needed there."
"How long is your shift?" Now she was talking to Brittany, this one was the hardest.
"I don't know Brit. Look, just come to the restaurant when you get off the flight. I'm sure Nick will let me go once he see's you all. You know he has a soft spot for us." It was true, Nick had taken a shine to the four the second he had met them. He gave Rachel and Brittany jobs performing there on a regular basis, Rachel singing and Brit dancing, and had offered both Santana and Quinn bartending positions, but they had turned him down, since they already had jobs.
"Okay Ray Bear. Love you." Rachel could hear the disappointment in Brittany's voice and it stung, she wasn't used to disappointing her girls, and it hurt her that she had.
"I love you to Brit, tell Mama Bear and San that I love them too." Then Brittany hung up. Rachel sighed and grabbed her coat, locking the door behind her.
~2 hours and 15 minutes later~
"They're here!" Nick hissed to Rachel as she stood, shaking, back-stage. She nodded to him and pulled back the curtain and stepped on to the make-shift stage, holding the material aside for the special guest, who sat on the stool and rested his guitar on his knee. Rachel stepped up to the mike, trying not to make eye contact with the three girls who had just walked in.
"Hello to you, the New Directions of Ohio. As you may or may not know, I am an ex member of New Directions, as is my guitarist, Noah Puckerman, and the song we are about to sing, is dedicated to three other ex members, who have been away for nearly two weeks" Rachel smiled before motioning to Noah, who then started to strum, only then did Rachel allow herself to look at her girlfriends, who looked shocked, but slightly pleased as Mr Schuester motioned them over to sit with him.
"I find the map and draw a straight line
Over rivers, farms, and state lines
The distance from 'A' to where you'd be
It's only finger-lengths that I see
I touch the place where I'd find your face
My fingers in creases of distant dark places"
Quinn smiled at Rachel, Brittany's head gently resting on her shoulder. Rachels eyes worriedly flicked to Santana, who's face seemed like it was carved from a block of marble.
"I hang my coat up in the first bar
There is no peace that I've found so far
The laughter penetrates my silence
As drunken men find flaws in science
Their words mostly noises
Ghosts with just voices
Your words in my memory
Are like music to me
"
San had leant over and was whispering something to Quinn, who suddenly stiffened and said something to Brittany, who instantly sat up and shot a worried look at the stage.
"And miles from where you are,
I lay down on the cold ground
I, I pray that something picks me up
And sets me down in your warm arms
After I have travelled so far
We'd set the fire to the third bar
We'd share each other like an island
Until exhausted, close our eyelids
And dreaming, pick up from
The last place we left off
Your soft skin is weeping
A joy you can't keep in
"
Puck and Rachel glanced at each other and Rachel shrugged, letting Puck know that she had no idea what was going on either.
"And miles from where you are,
I lay down on the cold ground
And I, I pray that something picks me up
and sets me down in your warm arms
And miles from where you are,
I lay down on the cold ground
and I, I pray that something picks me up
and sets me down in your warm arms
"
Rachel bowed and Puck stood and did the same, before they both walked off the stage, back behind the curtain. Santana, Quinn and Brittany were there within two seconds, the two blonde's holding the Latina back.
"You!" Santana growled, straining to try and get to Puck. Rachel looked very confused as she watched her girlfriend trying to kill one of her friends.
"Me?" Puck asked, pointing to himself.
"Did you know?" Santana said, no longer straining but glaring menacingly at Puck. Puck looked at Rachel, who just shrugged again, she was as confused as he was.
"Did I know what?" He asked, looking mildly gormless.
"About Finn!" Rachel's eyes widened as did Pucks. Rachel shrank back slightly, her thumb going to her mouth as the nibbling the tip of her thumb nail.
"Yeah, I did know. But..." Puck didn't get to finish his sentence because Santana launched herself forward, punching him straight in the mouth. Puck stumbled backwards and Rachel rushed to his side, checking, noting that none of his teeth were missing and his gums weren't bleeding.
"San, don't." Rachel said, moving in front of Puck, shielding as much of him as she could, with her petite frame.
"I told him. I needed someone to go with me to..." She sobbed slightly, curling her hands into fists.
"To the police interviews and he promised to look after me around school..." Rachel trailed off, sobbing, still stood in front of Puck.
"Why didn't you tell us? We would help you..." Quinn asked, looking hurt, but Rachel was too far gone into crying to really notice.
"She didn't tell you because she didn't want you to worry about her and she didn't want you to get in trouble for her, especially you Santana since we both knew that you would go out to try and kill that... anyway and then she began to feel like she couldn't tell you because she had kept it a secret for so long." Puck filled in, stepping to the side of Rachel and resting a hand on her shoulder, before bending down and whispering into Rachel's ear.
"I'm going to go back to my hotel. Call me if you need anything." Rachel nodded, and swiped at her eyes. Santana moved forward, wrapping her arms around Rachel.
"I'm sorry." Rachel just shook her head.
"No. I'm sorry for not telling you."
"You were well within your rights not to tell us." Quinn said, also moving forward, Brittany not far behind.
"Now come on. I think we owe someone a good nights sleep."
SBHNH: So? Tell me what you think! Love it? Hate it? Tell me! I need reviews to live! Do you want me to die?