"It figures they would use that picture of her," Quinn said chuckling as she looked at the picture of a beaming Rachel Berry. The picture was framed with auburn wood with soft gold trim.
"I always thought she had a big nose," said Brittany as she stood to the left of Quinn. Quinn turned and half glared, half looked quite confused at the girl who merely shrugged in response. A sobbing turned their attention to Quinn's right, where of course, Santana stood.
"Santana, are you actually crying?" Quinn asked, a little confused. Santana shook her head.
"No!" she yelled, turning away and walking to a row of seats within the temple, still crying. Both sighed and Brittany went off to sit next to the Latin girl, comforting her. Quinn turned herself back to the oak coffin, lowering her head. A pair of strong arms wound around her torso, taking her attention away, finding Sam next to her. He kissed her cheek, finding a tear slowly crawling its way down her porcelain skin.
"Don't cry baby," he whispered.
"Come on, let's go sit. The Rabbi said he'd be starting soon." Quinn nodded in response and walked away with her boyfriend to an empty row of seats and sat quietly, flattening out her simple black dress.
Rabbi Eli Goldberg walked up to the platform and looked out to the congregation that had gathered. It was mostly teenagers who sat in the vast temple with a few adults scattered around. No more than twenty people had gathered for the funeral of Rachel Berry, and his heart ached at knowing that.
He could not say anything however, he had a job to do, not people to harass. Rabbi Goldberg went on with the ceremony and when he finished he did something that no one expected him to say.
"According to Richard and Louis, Rachel had a living will of what she wanted to happen at her funeral. She had all but two requests. One of them could only be fulfilled if those from her Glee club had attended. If you belonged to her Glee club, please rise." He watched eleven individuals rise, and a single hand belonging to a handicapped boy rise as well.
"Rachel understands that this might be a large request to ask of you all, but she believed that you all cared about her enough to oblige her last wish. She requested that everyone in the Glee club come to the front of the temple and sing My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion, to show that life does not end just because one has been snuffed out." It took a while for anyone to move or say anything once the Rabbi stopped. Emotions were running high and no one was quite sure what to do. Finally the one person that almost no one expected to step out first among the crowd did. Quinn Fabray pressed her black chiffon skirt back into place and stood in front of the group of people who had momentarily become motionless in their seats from shock.
It took a few moments but other members of New Directions joined the blonde until the entire group was standing before the closed coffin. The entire group stared out at the people who had come to pay their respects to the young girl and had simultaneously tensed at the same time. They each had spotted the single person whom they all despised with a single great passion.
Jesse St. James.
Without a seconds wait, all the females in the group put their hands onto the chests of the men in the group, making sure they didn't ruin the moment and Rachel's funeral. Every male had the same snarling look and had been standing in place, except for Artie who had been making small attempts at moving forward.
"Guys," Sam piped up quietly, being the only person who was a member of the Glee club who had not been in the Glee club the previous year and therefore did not know the entire story that came with the former Glee clubber, he did not want to see the other people in his group do something that they would later regret.
"Come on, let's do this for her. I don't think she'd want us beating up another guy, okay?"
"I don't care if I'm still on parole, I'll kill him with my bare hands for what he did to her. I swear to G—"
"Come on, Puck, stop," Finn said barely looking over at him. Slowly he calmed down and went back to place.
"We'll get him later, don't worry," Finn whispered into his best friends ear. A smirk pulled onto the infamous Jewish boy's lips and he nodded, agreeing to the terms.
Placing her hands on her hips, Quinn nodded to the Rabbi who pressed the play button on a small boom box and the ballad soon filled the room.
Every night in my dreams
I see you, I feel you
That is how I know you go on
Far across the distance
And spaces between us
You have come to show you go on
Near, far, wherever you are
I believe that the heart does go on
Once more you open the door
And you're here in my heart
And my heart will go on and on
Love can touch us one time
And last for a lifetime
And never let go till we're gone
Love was when I loved you
One true time I hold to
In my life we'll always go on
Near, far, wherever you are
I believe that the heart does go on
Once more you open the door
And you're here in my heart
And my heart will go on and on
You're here, there's nothing I fear
And I know that my heart will go on
We'll stay forever this way
You are safe in my heart
And my heart will go on and on
By the end of the song, each individual had tears in their eyes and a few members were unable to finish the song entirely because they had been sobbing so much. The twelve teenagers returned to their seats, watching every other person in the temple wiping away tears of their own.
"Thank you, New Directions. That was truly beautiful," the Rabbi complimented. He pulled a pair of spectacles from his inside jacket pocket and pushed it onto his face, and unfolded a piece of purple paper.
"Rachel's second request was that a letter she wrote would be read to all of those she cared about." Several murmurs sprawled out around the group. They were each wondering why Rachel would write a letter when she was so young.
"They didn't know?" Louis Berry asked his husband, to which Richard simply shrugged.
"I suppose not. She probably didn't want the pity."
"Or she didn't trust them."
Within the group of people Brittany Pierce could be seen leaning over to her boyfriend, Artie and whispered something in his ear.
"How could she write a letter after she died?" Artie didn't want to answer his girlfriend and instead just held her hand, rubbing it softly with care. This seemed to pacify her.
"She knew she was going to die?" Kurt Hummel asked as a generality to those around him only to be silenced when everyone caught sight of the Rabbi holding up his hand to silence everyone.
"Hello everyone. I'm happy that you were able to attend my funeral and was able to say goodbye to me. I would like to say that I'm sorry that I never told any of you the truth. Honestly, I didn't know how to tell you all the truth. At the beginning of my sophomore year I was diagnosed with a severe case of throat cancer. Obviously, singing as much as I did didn't help matters, but I wanted to be famous so badly before I died that I was willing to sacrifice even my health to be famous. I knew I was going to die. I found it hard to tell anyone. I hope everyone can forgive me. And to everyone in my life that made the last two years the best of my life, thank you. I love you all, and even though I've done things that could have been considered insane or overly dramatic, please believe that I really did do it all for you. Okay, some of it was to help me out too, but it also helped you guys too. I'm going to miss you guys, so much. And don't worry, when I get to heaven I'll make sure to put in a good word for all of you. Love always, Rachel Berry."
Once the letter had been read, Puck, Finn, Sam, Mike, Matt, and Artie all walked up to the coffin, lifted it onto their shoulders and began to walk out towards the hearse that was waiting patiently outside. As soon as the black marble coffin was placed properly inside the car and the door was closed, the whole of New Directions turned and started to move closer to Jesse in a very threatening manner, all except Sam who stood close by but was very confused.
"You've got a hell of a lot of balls showing up here St. James. Don't you have any sense?" Puck asked, already cracking his knuckles.
"Rachel wouldn't have wanted you here," Artie interjected.
"I just find it a shame that we all don't have eggs to throw at you," Santana spoke up harshly. Jesse took safe steps backward but didn't seem frightened by the large group of kids around him.
"You're wrong, Artie," he said which caused everyone to stop walking. "She did want me here."
"That's a load of crap," Finn said.
"It's true. She trusted me all more than any of you. I knew she had cancer and she told me that no matter what happened, she wanted me at the funeral."
"Like we're really going to believe you, traitor," Quinn responded, her normally large brown eyes narrowing into deadly slits.
"Think about it. I was the only one who ever truly and completely understood Rachel. And why was that? Because I was exactly like her. Believe me, I had my reservations about coming here—"
"You should have listened to them," Tina cut in. Jesse continued on as if he had never been stopped.
"But Louis and Richard showed me a note that Rachel had written before her death, saying that she still wanted me there."
"Prove it," Mike Chang piped up, his nostrils flaring. Jesse didn't waste any time. Calmly, he pulled out a piece of purple notebook paper and unfolded it for everyone. No one could deny Rachel's handwriting, or her trademark gold star next to the name.
No one could say anything after that. They simply dispersed and moved to their cars, loading into them in silence. As each group followed the hearse and each thought their own thoughts of the late Rachel Berry.
None of the children knew it but at the same time, they thought the exact same words.
I'm going to miss you Rachel. I already do.
A/N: omgggggg guys. so, i'm not a crier, but i was seriously ready to bawl by the end of this. obviously, i don't own any of the characters. i kind of wish i did. then everyone would be sleeping with everybody and every shipper would be extremely happy. but i don't. ~le sigh. anyway, leave reviews? i love them! :D