I'm sorry to say that I don't own Glee but enjoy my story! R&R! Thanks!

5 Years Old…

Finn's mom was dragging him over to have dinner at the Berry's house. The Berry's were old friends of his mom and dad and they just moved right next door to Finn. Finn thought it was kinda weird when his mom told him that it was two men who were married to each other but his mom also told him that they had a kid Finn's age and he was really excited to meet him. He was thinking that the boy and him could be best friends and Finn would be able to have someone to play War or Pirates with him.

They walked up to the Berry's front porch, cookies in hand, and rang the doorbell. Two men, who Finn assumed to be Leroy and Hiram, answered the door. "Welcome to our humble abode!" they shouted, ushering him and his mom inside. "You must be Finn! My my, you sure are a spitting image of your father." One of the men said but Finn still wasn't sure who was Leroy and who was Hiram.

Finn stuck out his hand and said "Hello, nice to meet you" just like his mom had said to.

"Oh and polite too! Carole you sure have one heck of a little man on your hands." Finn's mom smiled while the man reached out his own hand to shake Finn's and said, "Hi, I'm Hiram and this is Leroy" pointing to the man standing beside him.

Finn was wondering where the Berry's son was and was about to ask when his mom spoke. "Where's Rachel?" 'Rachel?' Finn thought. That's not a boy's name. Finn's mom always watched this show where a lady taught you how to cook and her name was Rachel Ray so he knew that Rachel was a name for girls.

"Oh I think she's coming down now. Rachel?" Leroy called out. "Yes daddy?" a voice chirped as a little girl with pigtails and a yellow dress skipped into the room.

"Say hello to Carole and her son Finn." Hiram answered and the little girl turned to smile brightly at the two guests. "Hello! My name is Rachel Barbra Berry and I am going to grow up to be a star! It's so nice to meet you." Finn's mom laughed a little and hugged the girl. "Nice to meet you Sweetheart," Carole greeted. Finn thought this girl was a little odd and her words were a lot like an adult's even though she had a young, girly voice. Rachel turned to him and smiled "You're a girl," he said cause he was still confused that the Berry's had a daughter and not a son. "Well of course silly!" She answered and laughed. Rachel stuck out her hand and Finn stuck out his own to shake hers. The adult's smiled at the sight of the two small children shaking hands.

"Hey Darling, why don't you and Finn go upstairs and you can play with him in your room?" Leroy proposed and Rachel once again smiled brightly. "Ok!" she answered and took Finn's hand and started pulling him up the stairs.

They ran into Rachel's room and Finn honestly thought he had ever seen so much PINK in his entire life. "You're not going to give me cooties are you?" He asked wearily. "My friend Puck said that if you play with girls, they give you cooties."

"I promise I won't give you cooties if you don't give me any." Rachel answered.

"Ok I promise. Pinky swear?" He held out his pinky finger while she did the same and the locked their small fingers together. "I Rachel Berry swear I won't give you, Finn Hudson, any cooties." She declared and they both smiled.

She hopped onto her bed and asked, "Do you wanna play Pirates?"

Finn thought that maybe Rachel wasn't that bad, even if she was a girl.

Xxx

7 Years Old…

Finn sat down at the kitchen counter on a Saturday morning, quickly starting to devourer the small stack of pancakes his mom laid in front of him.

He swallowed down the last bite and looked at his mother. "Mom, do you think Rachel's pretty?"

His mom turned around from her position at the refrigerator and looked at him questionably. "Of course sweetie. I think that Rachel's a beautiful girl."

Finn smiled, "Yeah I do too."

"Why'd you ask? Is something bothering you?" His mother came over and sat down on the adjacent stool.

Finn turned and looked at his mom sadly. "I don't think the people at school think so. All the girls in our class pull her hair and laugh at her clothes and the boys call her ugly and make fun of her nose. Everyone is always being so mean to her and I don't know why."

His mom looked at him sympathetically. "Well Finn, I hate to say this but at some point in your life you are going to learn that sometimes life isn't fair. Rachel's different and that is probably why people are mean to her. Especially in a small town like Lima, people don't like it when someone is different. Rachel has two dads, she's very talented, has a huge personality and big dreams and goals for herself and the other kids don't like that."

"But I like Rachel. I think she's nice and cool" Finn said confused.

"That's because you're a good boy Finn and you understand what makes people good. You can see that Rachel is a very special person even if no one else in your class does." His mother smiled at him.

"But how can I make the other kids like Rachel?" Finn asked his mom.

Carole looked at her innocent son sadly. "That's a hard thing to do Finn. You can't make people change the way they think. If people don't like Rachel you can't force them to think differently. They will always be naive. What you can do Finn, is be there for Rachel. Make sure she always has you as a friend so she can have someone to trust and lean on. Make sure you're good to her Finn, ok?"

Finn smiled, "I will always take care of Rachel."

Xxx

9 Years Old…

Sometimes Rachel really annoyed Finn. Like right now for instance when he just asked her to have a play date with him and she just pursed her lips, stamped her foot and walked away. She was always getting mad at him without him knowing. Last time it was because he used her whole gold sharpie to color in his math folder but this time he didn't know what he did to make her mad.

Later that day he called her house.

"Hello?"

"Hi it's Finn. Can talk to Rachel?"

"Oh yes hello Finn. I'm sure Rachel would love to speak with you she seems a little down today."

"Ok, thank you Hiram." Finn left out the part about how HE was the reason Rachel was sad.

Finn ears perked up when he heard the sound of Rachel's voice. "Hello?" She sounded annoyed.

'Hi Rachel, it's me. Can you come outside?"

"Fine"

"Ok I'll meet you outside in two minutes." Finn hung up and walked out to his front porch. He heard the sound of Rachel's screen door shutting and He walked over to her porch and sat down on her porch swing. He patted the seat next to him and she sat down and crossed her arm over her chest.

"Why are you mad at me?" He asked turning to look at her.

She refused to make eye contact and murmured, "I'm not mad."

"Yes you are."

"No I'm not."

"Yes you are."

"NO IM NOT!"

"Rachel I don't like it when you're angry. Please tell me what I did." Finn begged.

Rachel finally turned to meet her eyes with his questioning ones. "You had a play date with Quinn yesterday."

Finn looked at Rachel confused "So? You never care when I have a play date with Puck or Mike."

"That because they're boys. Quinn is a girl."

"Why does it matter? You're a girl and I'm friends with you."

She looked down at her feet and spoke softly. "Yeah, but I like being your only girlfriend. I felt special."

"You are special Rachel. You are not only my best girlfriend but you're my best friend in the whole world out of the boys and girls."

She looked up at him with her gleaming smile. "Really?"

"Definitely." Finn smiled. "How about we promise to always be best friends no matter what for forever?"

"Finn and Rachel, forever." They both smiled brightly at each other and sealed the deal by twisting their pinkies together.

Xxx

13 Years Old…

Finn and Rachel were in her backyard, laying down under the willow tree, Rachel's head resting upon Finn's spacious stomach. Last year Finn had a huge growth spurt and now he was almost 6 feet tall. The two found it relaxing to just lay like that at the park, either talking or enjoying the silence. It was their peaceful little place in this town full of people who didn't understand them.

Finn heard Rachel let out a huge sigh and she broke the silence they were maintaining. "Finn, do you think Noah's a nice guy?"

Finn was a little confused at the randomness of her question. "Noah as in Puck? Umm well I guess, he's a great friend."

"So you would be ok if I went out with him?" Rachel asked quietly.

"Wait, what? Puck likes you?" He didn't know why but Finn's heart was pounding with some unknown emotion. An emotion where he wanted to cry, punch Puck, and kiss Rachel at the same time, to feel the reassurance of her soft, plump lips moving against his own. Wait did he just think about kissing Rachel? No, they were friends. Rachel was his best friend and that's it.

"Well he said he came to the realization that I was a Hot Jew." She laughed and he felt the vibrations of it against his stomach. She continued, "and then he asked me to go with him to see a movie Saturday night."

"Do you like him?" Finn asked nervously, wanting her to spit out the answer already and not wanting her to answer at the same time.

"I don't know, I think that he's cute and he seemed pretty genuine but I think I like someone else." She stated, her voice shaking nervously.

'Oh god now she likes two guys?' Finn thought to himself. He didn't know why all of a sudden he was feeling all this jealousy and wanting to kiss Rachel. He sat up and looked at her, "Go for it." He told her and forced a smile. "Go out with Puck."

She smiled slightly but he thought that he might have seen a hint of disappointment in her eyes. He ignored it and laid back down while she took back her position on his stomach. Both of their faces, etched in rejection.

Xxx

16 Years Old…

Finn was sitting down on Rachel's bed, his head buried into the soft cotton- clad shoulder of his best friend, crying his eyes out.

"Shh, it's ok. I'm here Finn. It'll be ok." She continuously ran her fingers through his hair and he didn't even care that he was breaking down in Rachel's arms or that her cardigan was getting soaked with his own tears. He just needed to feel her close to him.

"I-I'm so s-stupid." He stuttered "I s-should've known the b-baby was P-Puck's." He felt Rachel's arms tighten around his body and a new batch of sobs ripped through his body.

"There was no way you could've known Finn. They both lied and it's a shame because you were a great boyfriend to Quinn and a great friend to Noah. I just know that you would've been an amazing father Finn, and I know that one day when you marry and your ready you will be the best dad in the world. But not now, you still have your life ahead of you."

"Do you remember when we were sitting in your backyard in eighth grade and you were saying Puck asked you out but you liked another guy?" he asked and lifted up his head to look into her eyes.

"I remember." She stated and he could tell she was confused.

"Well while you dated Puck for that short time, if that other guy made a move would you have cheated on Puck?" He asked.

"No. But I would've broken up with him the second the other guy made the smallest advance." She stated honestly and Finn wasn't sure if he was satisfied with her answer or not.

"Who was the other guy?" He asked, wondering.

"You." She stated simply staring right at him. He surprised himself by laughing and he could see the confused utterly hurt expression on her face. She looked like she was going to cry and she said in a small voice, "I know. It was a stupid crush."

"No, no that's not it!" he practically shouted and she looked up again. "I was just so jealous that day when you said that Puck liked you and then said you liked another guy too." He laughed at his own stupidity again.

"You were jealous?" She says, a hint of smile starting to appear on her face. He nodded and they both started cracking up and it felt really good considering the events that took place earlier. When they stopped and caught their breath she looked at him timidly, "you can kiss me if you want to."

In that moment he realized that he wanted nothing more than to kiss his best friend of eleven years. "I want to." He leaned down and pressed his lips to hers and all the hurt and disappointment that Finn had ever felt in his life, slipped out of his mind as his lips started to mold and move with Rachel's. It felt like fireworks and music and warmth and home. Once they pulled away for breath they both displayed matching, face-splitting, blinding smiles and he thought about how much he had missed these years, he always thought that his love for Rachel was a friendship love when it was so much more.

Rachel was his home.

Xxx

27 Years Old…

He never thought that he would be this lucky, that he would be standing at the end of an aisle, his bride coming to meet him with a dad on each arm. Never would he have expected when he met her at age 5 that she would be his life, his other half, his Rachel.

Tell him at age 14 that he would be the type of groom that had silent tears rolling down his face as he first kisses his new wife and he would've laughed in their face. Rachel was his, his home, his family, his life and he knew he couldn't possibly be any happier than he is now.

"Finn and Rachel, forever."