A/N: Very, VERY AU Finchel.
"I can't believe you would do this to me!" Her eyes are wild as she stares at him, angry tears falling rapidly down her face as she slowly stumbles backwards. His eyes flits to the wide, broken window behind her for a second before it zeros back in on hers.
"Rachel," he says evenly. "Calm down." He takes a small step towards her, she takes another step back.
"No!" she yells, hands going to her hair as if she's about to tear them out. "Tell me Finn, how did she feel? Was she amazing, huh? Best sex of your life? Was she better than me?"
"Rachel, you need to calm down," he says soothingly. Their conversation runs like a well oiled machine as he takes his place as the reasonable one, the enabler to her dramatics. He knows his script.
She lets out a piercing scream that almost alarms him, until he realizes where they are, the top floor of an abandoned three story mansion miles and miles away from the closest civilization. She starts to laugh, a long, manic sound that comes out of her trembling body as she takes one more step back, one more step closer to the edge.
"Rachel, baby-"
"I can't do this Finn," she whispers, voice wreaking with anguish. She looks up at him, and in the glow of the moonlight the truth in her words are reflected in her eyes. His heart twists in agony, and for a small, heart-stopping second, he feels fear leaping up onto his shoulders.
"Don't," he pleads. He always does. "Please don't."
"Goodbye Finn," she whispers.
"Rachel!" he cries, desperate to stop her though his feet stays rooted to the ground. "Rachel no-"
She jumps.
The night is eerily quiet, completely silent, safe for the gust of wind that blows through the broken window that framed her body for the split second before she fell.
He is numb, frozen as he always is for an indefinite amount of time before his feet finally moves, shuffles slowly to the window. He looks down.
She lies still on the gravelly ground, her long, dark locks splayed around her like a halo, her eyes closed.
He waits and counts the seconds, breathing evenly with every number.
Five. Four. Three. Two.
One.
He runs, sprints down three flights of stairs, stumbles on the last step and pops back up in an instant and he runs for the door, throwing it open behind him as he jumps the last few steps of the stoop, jumping straight towards where she lays.
He kneels next to her, eyes trained intently on her chest and the way that it's not moving.
He waits, tense.
He always is.
She giggles first, and as her chest moves, his eyes finally travel upwards to her face. She looks down at him, her gaze affectionate as she smiles.
"How was that?" she asks him. "Better, right?"
"You were amazing," he tells her, trying to belie the way his heart had beat furiously in his chest, still beats angrily, again and again against his ribcage.
"The best actress of her generation?" she asks, raising an eyebrow like she's kidding, but he knows better.
"The best actress in any generation," he answers truthfully, pulling her up by her shoulders, pulling her onto his lap. His hands find their way to her neck, to the spot above her chest where her heart lays, feeling gratefully for the strong beating against his hand.
"Of course," she answers, almost jokingly. "Rachel Berry never does things halfway. She goes full method. And you. Who knew you had it in you? That moment right before I jumped, you almost had me convinced that you were terrified."
He doesn't say a word, just pulls her closer to him, wrapping his arms around her, feeling for as much as her as he can as he buries his nose against her neck to breathe in her scent.
"I hate it when you do that," he mumbles against her skin. He feels her stiffen. She pushes him away.
"When I do what?" she asks quietly, not looking at him.
"This. When you jump off buildings, when you take those pills, when you-"
"When I what, Finn?" she snaps, pulling away from him, sliding off his lap to sit on the ground, wrapping her arms around herself like a child. "When I put myself in danger?"
Her words drip with sarcasm as she stares at him, and he doesn't say another word.
"We're invincible, remember?"
There's a tone in her voice, that sounds almost amused, like this is a joke shared between the two of them.
But it's stopped being funny years ago.
He remembers the look on her face, the resignation in her eyes for those two seconds before she jumped, the anguish that told him that for all of their games, there's a part of her that meant it, that hoped for the end.
There's a part of him that sometimes wishes that he could give it to her.
"Rachel," he whispers, her name strangled in his throat out of fear and sadness and desperation and- and love, the all-consuming love that will never die. "Rachel."
Her eyes soften when she finally looks at him, and he's at a loss for words. He doesn't know what to say, can't find a single word in all the words in all the languages that will make this moment right.
She sidles up to him, one soft finger grazing just underneath his eye to wipe away the tear he didn't even know was there. It runs down his nose, traces the outline of his lips before both soft, warm palms grip the sides of his face.
"I'm sorry," she whispers. "I didn't mean it."
She's lying. He knows she's lying.
But he'll let this slide.
He always does.
"Okay," he whispers back, his arms going around her waist to hold her tight against him.
He won't let go. He's never letting go.
"Come on Finn. Say goodbye to this ugly place."
"Where do you wanna go?"
She smiles, looking up as if she's thinking about it, before she looks back at him.
"How about Italy?"
He smiles, leaning forward to kiss her.
"Sounds great Rach."
He rises slowly, pulling her up by her hand, pulling her close as they walk to the stolen car just outside the driveway.
He'll follow her anywhere.
He'll follow her forever.
He just never though forever would feel this long.
Yeah. I know. This has been the result of way too much Vampire Diaries fanfic, which is funny since I don't even watch the show. Anyway, review = love
