Author's Note: Since this story follows my fic, Baby, It's Cold Outside, I did include some background information from the first story in case you did not read it or need your memory refreshed. However, the stories may be enjoyed separately or read out of order. Also, since Baby, It's Cold Outside was from Rachel's point of view and now we are seeing Finn's, you will see some of what he was thinking during the events of the last story. There will be much more dialogue in future chapters. This is for elimaru, who provided me with this prompt. Thanks again, to alifab for reading and offering feedback. Speaking of feedback, reviews keep me motivated. Yes, I am shameless. Thanks for reading!

Worth the Effort

Finn Hudson was a dead man. If he didn't figure something out and quickly, his girlfriend would kill surely him. Taking a steadying breath, he told himself that he was just overreacting. How hard could coming up with the perfect gift be, anyway? The perfect gift for Rachel...the most demanding, complicated girl on the planet.

Well, he'd lived a pretty good life, so maybe he should just accept the fact that he'd never see his seventeenth birthday.

He glanced to his right and saw Rachel's hand gliding across the page of her notebook as their teacher droned on. And on. Sensing his gaze, Rachel turned to give him a quick smile and one of thoselooks. Finn still couldn't understand how Rachel could be so innocent and so smokin' hot at the same time.

"Finn," she hissed in warning when she saw that his page was completely blank. Finn shrugged and let his gaze wander down to her thighs, partially exposed by her tiny plaid skirt. His eyes met hers, his message clear: it's all your fault that I can't focus. Now you'll have to deal with the consequences. She huffed in irritation, but he could swear that her legs spread, just a bit. Finn blinked. His mind must be playing tricks on him now. God, he was such a perv. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat as he imagined what color underwear she was wearing, hoping that he'd find out later. Well, at least he was a happy perv.

Things had been going well, very well, in the two months since they'd started dating. He'd known from the beginning that being with Rachel was a gamble. They were so different: he was easy-going and she was high-strung. He was popular and she was, well, wasn't. She was incredibly smart and he, well, wasn't.

Even with all their differences, Rachel had pulled him in from the start. Okay, so maybe he'd started looking over his shoulder to make sure that she wasn't following him, but only for the first week after joining glee club. Two weeks, tops. Somehow, though, things had shifted from Finn worrying that Rachel was obsessed with him to being afraid he might be thisclose to stalking her. He hadn't hidden behind trees outside her house or anything, but he just couldn't get Rachel out of his head. Was mental stalking even a thing? During those last months with Quinn, Rachel had been the one starring in his dreams. While he hadn't always been able to remember the details, Finn was pretty sure that his sudden fascination with Rachel's knee socks had been a result.

While he'd tried to fight the changes that had suddenly taken over his life, glee club made it impossible. Back when he'd been completely freaked-out by his feelings for Rachel and constantly fighting with his pregnant girlfriend, the music had helped him to forget. Singing with Rachel had become completely addictive, like overloading on Doritos and Red Bull. Finn knew he'd feel crappy in the morning, but it was always totally worth it. It was like a string had been tied around his heart with Rachel grasping the other end. Slowly, she had pulled him closer and closer, until every inch had been wrapped tightly around her little finger. He'd been able to forget everything--and everyone--except for the girl holding his heart on a string.

After his break-up with Quinn, he'd avoided Rachel. Finn had been unable to face her knowing that every time he'd hurt her, every time he'd walked away, had all been because of a lie. Once the bitterness had started to fade, Finn realized that by pushing Rachel away, he'd just hurt them both even more. Since she had all but stopped speaking to him by then, he'd come up with a plan to win Rachel's forgiveness. After he'd arranged the picnic for them on the auditorium stage, she'd given him a second chance. Rachel later told him that recreating the moment of their first kiss had been "the most romantic thing she could have imagined."

So, yeah. He didn't have too much to live up to now. How could he have known that he'd be forced to up his game for every birthday or holiday afterward? Besides, he'd copied the picnic idea from her in the first place! He couldn't just steal another of Rachel's ideas for her own Valentine's gift. Could he?

"Finn Hudson? Have you slipped into a coma or has my lecture simply bored you into a semi-conscious state?"

Blinking rapidly, he focused on the clearly annoyed teacher standing right in front of him. "Um..." Think, Hudson.

"I'd like to apologize on Finn's behalf, Mrs. Harris. We had a late glee club rehearsal last night in order to prepare for Regionals," Rachel shot Finn a look from the corner of her eye, silently encouraging him to play along. He pasted a pitiful puppy dog log upon his face and nodded. "Poor Finn had to come to rehearsal straight from basketball practice. He's the captain of both teams, you know."

"Glee Co-captain," he added automatically.

Rachel flashed him a grin before rushing back to his defense. "Well, after such a long day at school, Finn first had to start his homework. Well...I am sure that I do not need to explain to you that teenagers today have very rigorous schedules that make it nearly impossible to live up to the expectations set by society. Not to mention those of our parents and teachers."

Mrs. Harris's brow crinkled, clearly trying to figure out whether or not she'd just been insulted. He knew the feeling.

"Of course," Rachel continued, her voice turning firm. "I make no excuses for such unacceptable classroom decorum. I just wanted you to understand the pressures that contributed to such a momentary lapse."

Mrs. Harris opened her mouth to respond before pausing, probably afraid that Rachel would interrupt if she tried to get a word in. She cleared her throat. "Finn? Anything you'd like to add?"

"Pretty much what she said," he answered, adding a lopsided smile. Mrs. Harris moved her gaze from him to Rachel and back again. Then, rolling her eyes, she marched back to the front of the classroom. He sent Rachel a look of thanks. She shook her head at him, but her twitching lips let him know that she wasn't really annoyed.

As he stared at the notes on white board, his mind was drawn back to the girl beside him. He still found it kind of amazing how...easy...it had been to move from being friends with Rachel to something more. When he'd mentioned this to her, Rachel had reminded him that they'd always been something more. Still, he'd expected their relationship to be hard work; he'd gotten used to trying to be what everyone else expected. Finn had spent weeks trying to be the perfect boyfriend, searching for any sign from Rachel that he'd screwed up. Finally, Rachel had told him that that all she wanted was Finn Hudson, just as he was. So, things were surprisingly simple.

Okay, it still bugged Finn when the other jocks harassed him for dating that "Glee Freak with the Tiny Skirt and the Big Mouth," but he could deal with that. It was watching the pain on Rachel's face before she masked it that killed him. Seeing his struggle, she had told Finn to just ignore them; bullies only picked on people when it clearly bothered them. Knowing that Rachel was usually right and had more experience in this area, Finn had ignored them.

Until last Thursday.

After glee rehearsal, he and Rachel had walked hand-in-hand to his locker. Taped inside, he'd found a picture of Rachel that had clearly been photoshopped. Her grinning face had been stuck onto the body of a magazine ad of some naked, pregnant lady, with her arms wrapped around herself, covering her private parts. Underneath the picture, hastily scribbled words had been written: "Watch it, Choir Boy. You're not man enough, so one of us will do the job for you. Again." The team had gathered together in the hallway, waiting for his reaction.

Finn had felt Rachel tugging on his arm, whispering that it was not worth a fight. He'd glanced down, meeting her eyes. Seeing the tears she'd tried to hold back, everything surrounding Finn immediately ground to a halt. He had no longer been able to hear laughter of his teammates or see their smirks. They'd made Rachel cry. Every thought, every shred of control had been drowned out, replaced by an unstoppable instinct to make that bastard bleed. Finn had launched himself straight at Azimio, the 275-pound offensive tackle called "The Wall."

He'd learned the hard way that ten against one were poor odds.

Swinging into action, Rachel had pulled the fire alarm. Once everyone had fled, she took him to her house. Holding a bag of frozen peas against his throbbing eye and another on his swollen, skinned fist, Rachel had stroked his cheek (the unbruised one) and lectured him on "the cycle of unnecessary violence." Frustrated, he'd asked: "How can you be so calm when people treat you like that?"

"It's not easy and it hurts," she'd admitted. He'd stared at her with his one good eye until she'd sighed. "Okay, it hurts a lot." Then she'd gotten this wicked look in her eyes. "I remind myself that the best revenge will come later. I'll be performing for sold-out crowds all over the world, and they'll still be living with their parents and pumping gas in Lima."

While his former friends still tried to get a rise out of him, Finn just clenched his jaw and clung to Rachel's words. And her hand. She may not know it yet, but her plan for the future had become his. He had no idea what he wanted to do to pay the bills, but Finn knew that his job would have to give him plenty of time to travel. There was no way he was going to miss seeing her kick some international ass!

Still, the future seemed so far into, well, the future. Most of the time, Finn was happy with his life right now. He sighed, glancing at the clock, counting down the minutes until the bell. He'd be much, much happier with his life in about seven minutes. Then, there would be hours of freedom, and he could finally be alone with Rachel. Having class together didn't count; he wasn't even allowed to look at her, anymore. She'd told him that she couldn't concentrate knowing he was thinking about "more private matters." But who could blame him if his eyes wandered over in her direction? Finn was sure that no one would rather stare at Mrs. Harris over Rachel, not even Mr. Harris. Their teacher was nice enough, but side-burns didn't do it for him.

Finn sighed when Rachel kicked him under the table, his eyes immediately returning to the front of the classroom. He was too distracted to concentrate, knowing that in seven--no, six minutes--he'd be dragging Rachel through the hallway and out the door as quickly as her short legs would carry her. It was Wednesday; the one day a week he didn't have practice or glee rehearsal. Luckily, their parents all worked so, until six o'clock, they had Rachel's house to themselves. His mom worked the night shift at the diner, so after six, they'd usually leave Rachel's house and go to his. Finn still couldn't believe that no one had caught onto this scam yet. Their parents actually seemed to believe that they had six hours of homework every night. He and Rachel hadn't actually doneit yet, but Finn had never gotten this much action in his life. He felt his lips curve, thinking about how she'd jumped him yesterday before he even shut his bedroom door. Sometimes he thought that she might even want to do it more than he did. Then he realized that it was impossible for anyone to want sex more than a teenage guy. It was, like, science.

Finn bit back a groan. Clearly, he couldn't focus on anything other than getting Rachel out of her sweater. Come on, Hudson! Rachel was always talking about the importance of priorities. Finding his girlfriend the perfect gift for their first Valentine's Day together was his number one priority. Time alone with Rachel would just have to wait.

The bell sounded, pulling Finn from his thoughts. He turned to see Rachel arching a brow at him. "Finn, you really must take your education more seriously. There is a time for work and a time for play," she clicked her tongue. Rachel rose and leaned forward, her lips nearly grazing his ear. "Ready for playtime?"

Priorities were totally over-rated.

Coming Soon: Chapter Two: Getting a Clue