Hello Friends! This is a new story that has been stuck in my head for the last few weeks and I'm really, really excited about it. I still have my other story that I assure you I am still working on and I'm hoping that by finally posting this I'll be able to focus on that one again. But anyways, please enjoy this.
Disclaimer: Do not own any of the characters from Glee, this is simply for fun!
Beep...beep...beep.
The first thing Rachel registers is the sound of something beeping not too far from where she's at. Scratch that, the first thing she fully registers is the awful headache she has on one side of her head. It hurts so much she doesn't even want to bother trying to get out of bed today. Unfortunately, she has school to attend and being Rachel Berry she knows she has to suck it up.
As she moves to stretch she notices that she felt incredibly stiff. Almost like she hasn't moved for a while. It could have been from that intense workout yesterday, she thinks offhandedly. She moans lightly as she tries to move her arms again, slowly opening her eyes at the same time. What she sees causes her to be wide awake with surprise and confusion.
Instead of seeing the yellow walls of her room and her light pink bedspread she's looking at white colored walls and very pale blue sheets. On the wall across from her bed was a TV set with some baseball game on though she didn't see why because she absolutely hates baseball.
Looking down at her arm she finds that she's hooked up to some wires that are connected to a machine. A heart monitor, the source of the now irritating beeping noise that was making her head hurt even more.
A heart monitor, she comprehends after another second. It's not her alarm clock because she's not in her room. She's in the hospital it seems. Except she doesn't know how she got there. She immediately starts to panic.
It only heightens when movement next to her catches her attention. There's a guy sitting in the chair by her bed fiddling with the television remote as he watches the baseball game. He's clearly oblivious to her being awake at the moment and she gives an involuntarily squeak in surprise when his hand comes up to rest against hers on the bed.
The man who sits in the chair by her bed looks over in shock almost like he didn't believe what he just heard. His amber eyes immediately meet her brown ones and in less than a second his attention is focused solely on her.
"Rachel," the man says in a hushed voice disbelievingly. He blinks a few times and rubs a hand over his obviously tired face before he fully looks at her again. His eyes light up immensely when he realizes she truly is awake.
He seems kinda familiar, like she's seen him before, but she can't think of how she would know him. She eyes him warily as he calls out to a doctor and the nurses to come quickly. She doesn't know what to do but his yelling causes her head to ache even more. She moans as she puts a hand on her temple and he quickly takes notice.
"Oh sorry Rach. I didn't mean to yell. But babe you're finally awake," he says happily as he moves to touch her cheek. She flinches away from him, looking at him with wide eyes.
"Rachel?" He asks concerned reaching out to her again. She just moves further away from him, at least she moves as much as the bed will allow, and she sees the hurt and worry that flashes across his face. "Hey it's alright. Everything's okay you don't need to-". But he doesn't get to finish.
"Who are you?" She asks cutting him off. Her voice is hoarse from disuse and it's still thick with sleep but she manages to whisper the words out.
"Who am I?" He asks stunned pointing to himself. "Rach you can't be serious. You know me."
"No I don't," she insists searching his face trying to figure out where she might have seen him before. He's much older than her that much is obvious since he has some slight stubble on his face. He clearly hasn't shaved for a few days. "You seem familiar but I don't know who you are. Why are you in my room? What's going on? Where are my dads?"
She's getting hysterical now with worry. Why is this total stranger with her and not her dads? Tears start to pool in her eyes and her head still hurts a lot but she tries not to notice as she's too busy trying to make sense of what's happening.
The strange guy looks at her with a broken face and he swallows thickly before he says, "Rachel you've been in a car accident. You're in the hospital in Manhattan, New York. Your dads are trying to get here as fast as they can but its snowing so much that a lot of flights are grounded or cancelled, and the roads are blocked." He pauses for a moment, to collect himself before he says, "You've been unconscious for the last five days."
"What?" She asks not understanding a word that's coming from his mouth. "New York?!"
He's just about to answer when the doctor and nurses come in quickly, immediately pushing him out of the way as they start to check up on her. They ask how she feels and she tells them her head hurts so much.
She eyes the man standing by the television set with an anxious expression on his face as he watches her. He's talking to the doctor as the nurses check her vitals and other necessary things. She can hear him voicing his concern to the doctor about how she can't remember him and the doctor gives a nod before he comes over to her. His name tag reads Dr. Johnson.
"Hello Rachel," Dr. Johnson greets her with a smile. She tries to return it with a small one of her own but she's sure it comes out more as a wince. "Welcome back. Do you mind if we run some tests? Ask some questions?"
"I don't mind," she complies, knowing that if anyone can give her answers it'd be the doctor.
And so the testing commences. She passes all the tests just fine. Her health seemingly perfect. It's when the questioning starts that she starts to worry. Dr. Johnson asks her some basic questions like what her name is, when her birthday is, her parents names, etc. As far as Rachel knows she's doing incredibly fine until he asks what year it is and how old she is.
"It's 2009 and I'm only sixteen," she responds with an exasperated sigh. "Which is why I don't understand why I'm in New York without my parents."
The doctor exchanges a concerned glance with the man standing in the room once again. The guy is staring in confusion at her and worry starts to seep in.
"It is 2009 right?" She asks worriedly. She's sure it is. She knows it is.
"Rachel," Dr. Johnson says carefully. "It's 2013."
She looks blankly at him as he tells her this. 2013? That's insane. "No," she says defiantly.
"Yes it is. And you're eighteen years old, going to be nineteen later this year," he says calmly. He grabs the calendar off the wall of the room. She hadn't noticed it before but now that it's placed in front of her, she can clearly read it. It's November 2013.
She starts to cry and shake her head. It's impossible. It can't be right. She looks at the doctor and he gives her a sympathetic look. She knows he's right but she can't wrap her head around the idea.
"Rach, it's okay," the man from before says quietly, coming from his position by the tv to stand by her bedside.
"No don't tell me it's okay!" She shouts at him. She's crying even harder now and he winces at her harsh words. "And who are you? Why are you here?"
His face crumples even further as he looks at her with sad eyes. "My name's Finn," he chokes out. "Finn Hudson."
Finn Hudson? She's heard the name before she knows it. But where? She looks away to try and remember, trying her hardest to figure out why she knows that name.
"Wait a second," she says thinking back, looking at his face fully now. She sees the hope start to rise on his face before its quickly gone as her next words come out. "You're the guy who throws eggs at people aren't you?"
"Well," he starts only to pause, looking down at the bed sheet ashamed.
"Yeah that's where I know you from," she says pointing accusingly at him with hard eyes. "You and your Neanderthal football friends egg me sometimes as I walk home!"
Finn winces at the accusation but otherwise doesn't say anything about it. "Rachel that was a long time ago."
"No it wasn't," she insists harshly.
Oh yeah, she remembers him now. She remembers walking home from the first day of school sophomore year in her favorite blue kitten sweater and black skirt. She'd been humming a song to herself when out of nowhere a car full of football players drove past her and threw eggs. It had gotten all over her and they had laughed as they drove off.
She remembers seeing him in the back seat window, looking at her and watching her as they drove off. She couldn't read the expression on his face at the time because all she could do was cry over her ruined sweater and feel absolutely humiliated while continuing her trek home.
"Rachel that was years ago," he tries again and he looks intently at her. "A lot has changed since then... Especially between us."
She doesn't understand what that's supposed to mean. Between them? He's looking at her with pleading eyes like he's willing her to remember. But what could she possibly even want to remember about him? Sure he was cute, she could admit that much. It's not like they were ever friends though. And there was no way that they could have possibly been...
As she thinks it over she remembers how he had called her 'babe' and so casually went to grab her hand, almost like on instinct. Sudden realization washes over and she gasps.
Oh no. No, no, no. She knows where this is going. It can't possibly be true though. No, not in a million years would it ever happen. No way.
"Rach," Finn says looking at her directly in the eye. The intense emotion she sees in his eyes making her feel very vulnerable. "I'm your boyfriend. We moved out to New York together last year."
She's sputtering for some kind of response but all she can do is hide her face in her hands. No way. No way this would have ever happened. Rachel Berry wasn't the kind of girl who interacted with a guy like Finn Hudson. And yet there he was standing there looking at her in complete sadness and she had no recollection of them.
Them? Rachel Berry and Finn Hudson. Two people on total opposites of the social ladder at McKinley High. Gosh, what could have possibly happened that would even make them a possibility? She had no clue.
Rachel leaned back onto the pillow of the hospital bed with her hands still covering her face and groaned. It didn't make any sense! How could she have lost about four years of her memory and this turned out to be her life? Finn Hudson as a boyfriend? Who knew what else she had done then in high school. For all she knew she could have befriended someone like... like.. ugh, Santana Lopez. She shuddered at the idea.
"This is crazy," she sighed mostly to herself. She peeked through her fingers to see that Finn was still watching her carefully and sadly. Pulling her hands away she looked pointedly at Dr. Johnson. "There's nothing that can be done about this... this..."
"Amnesia?" He supplied for which she was grateful. She can't say the word aloud. He shook his head slowly giving her a pitiful look. She really hated it. "I'm sorry Ms. Berry but there's not much that is known to work for these kinds of cases."
She closed her eyes disappointedly. "Absolutely nothing?" She asked hoping against hope there was something he could do or recommend.
"I'm sorry," he apologized looking over more papers he had. "You can try to see if you can maybe talk to a therapist but nothing is guaranteed to work. Head injuries that affect the brain are very difficult to overcome."
His words were like a punch to the stomach. Nothing. That's what she remembered of the last four years and nothing could be done to bring it back. Tears started to form once again but she tried not to let them spill over.
"It could be a lot worse Ms. Berry," Dr. Johnson pointed out seriously. "You're very lucky considering everything."
She can't help it when the tears start to fall again. She knows it could be a lot worse. But she's so upset with everything at the moment because its all overwhelming.
"He's right Rach," Finn pipes in softly putting his hand on her shoulder and giving it a squeeze. She looks up at him with blank eyes not sure how to respond. "I don't know what I would have done if..."
"Please," she whispers pinching her eyes shut and turning her face down away from his view. "Please. Just stop. I can't hear this right now."
She doesn't see the look of hurt that flashes across his face at her words, though not as rude as before are still very harsh. So unlike his Rachel. The Rachel that he's used to.
"I'm sorry," he tells her honestly. She waits for further comment and she glances at him to see the torn expression on his face. He wants to say more she can tell but she just gives a shake of her head.
"Thank you," she responds earnestly, laying her aching head back down. All she wants to do is sleep it all off and pretend this is all a crazy dream. Like in Wizard of Oz.
She doesn't even realize that Finn and Dr. Johnson are now discussing things about her once again as she drifts off to sleep. She really does need the rest.
It's about ten thirty in the morning the next day when she wakes up again. She hears soft voices once again but doesn't otherwise acknowledge them, thinking they belonged to Finn or Dr. Johnson. One who she seemed to have some sort of history with and the other one who just seemed to bring bad news with him. She didn't want to deal with them.
"She's right in here sir," Rachel heard Finn say to someone outside the room. "She's been sleeping for a while now. It was rough yesterday."
"So what's the doctor say then Finn?" A voice she recognizes in a second asks. It's her daddy. Immediately her eyes open to see that the two are still standing outside the door.
"Um well to be honest," Finn starts shakily. There's a pause before she hears him give a sigh and sees him run a hand through his already messy brown hair. "Not good Mr. Berry. I mean, Rach is perfectly healthy overall. The doctor was actually surprised about that considering the damage done to the car."
"That's good. I don't want our baby in any sort of pain," her daddy comments obviously relieved. "But what's the bad news?"
"The bad news is that she can't remember the last four years sir," Finn says dejectedly. "She thinks its back at the beginning of sophomore year. She has no idea about anything that has happened since then. And, um, she doesn't really remember me either."
"Oh Finn," she hears her daddy say and that's all he gets out before she can't take it anymore. She doesn't want to hear a conversation like that at all.
"Dad?" Rachel calls out, letting the two men know she's awake now. Not a second later her daddy comes walking in with tears in his eyes followed directly by Finn who closes the door behind himself. He doesn't come close to her but just watches from where he's at by the door standing awkwardly.
"Oh honey," her daddy LeRoy cries. He grabs her face between his hands and gives her a kiss on the head. "I am so sorry me and your father weren't here sooner. The weather has been just awful. Nothing was available on such short notice."
"It's okay," Rachel tells him honestly giving him a smile. The first real smile she thinks she's had since she got the news. She chances a glance at the boy by the door again. "Actually it seems Finn over there has been looking out for me the last few days. I don't know him, or remember him much." He winces at that. "But it was chivalrous nonetheless."
"Incredibly chivalrous," her dad agrees with a nod of his head giving Finn a small grateful smile. "Thank you son."
"No problem," he responded instantly to her dad before looking at her again.
She has no idea why she was suddenly paying Finn Hudson a compliment. She sort of did it without thinking. But the way Finn gives her a hopeful half smile makes her heart thud a little faster and she has to look away. What is with her?
"Anyways," Rachel says looking at her dad, "where's Papa at?"
"He was on the phone with the insurance company sweetheart," he informed her with a shrug of his shoulders. "He'll be in here in just a few. He wanted to get some things straightened out and make sure everything would be covered."
She smiled at that. Of course her Papa would be the one dealing with that stuff. Her daddy had no patience for it but Papa sure did. Some things just don't change.
She catches up with her dad a while longer and they're soon being joined by her other dad. They don't discuss much about her or her memory, but instead her dads tell her about the things that they've been up to. Like their recent visit to San Diego for a business trip or the upcoming cruise they are going on. She's grateful that they don't say anything about her memory because as it is she doesn't know much about it and she's not sure she wants to.
For goodness sake, who knew why Finn Hudson was even there. He stayed in the room most of the time as she caught up with her fathers. He didn't say much, he was watching a football game that was on tv, but every so often he'd ask her dad a question or make a comment to them. He never said anything directly to her though.
"So how much longer did Dr. Johnson say you had to be in here pumpkin?" Her dad asked looking around the room.
Rachel tried to think if the doctor had ever said but she couldn't remember being told that. She shook her, "I don't think he said."
"Finn do you know?" Her papa asked looking over his shoulder at the tall, young man currently lounging in one of the chairs.
The man in question nodded his head. "Yeah they said that they wanted to keep Rachel here for a few days just to keep an eye on her and run some more tests."
So she was right before. He had been talking about her with Dr. Johnson. She doesn't know why that irritates her but it does. It's probably the fact that she feels so useless and out of control. Rachel tries to keep the annoyed expression off her face but she's not sure it works out too great.
She's so caught up in her annoyance that she doesn't even realize that the conversation has gone on without her and the men are currently discussing her again. It's sort of annoying being talked about like she's not even there.
When she tunes back in, Rachel's eyes go wide with shock when she hears her father ask, "so what are the plans for living then? Is Rachel going to still stay with you Finn?"
"Excuse me?" She gasps out sharply. "I'm staying with him?!"
Rachel looks at Finn who suddenly looks like he wants the ground to open up underneath him and swallow him whole. She gives him a glare before she fixes it on her dads.
"Are you kidding me right now?" Rachel shouts incredulously.
"Honey we were just wondering what to do after you're dismissed from the hospital," Hiram tries to tell her but Rachel is having none of it.
Forehead creased in confusion and disbelief she says, "wouldn't I just live with you and daddy?"
She can't believe her dads would even suggest that she should live with Finn. She's only nineteen, although she feels much younger since she doesn't remember her forgotten years. But still. Nineteen? Isn't that a little young to live with some stranger, no less a boy?
"Honey," LeRoy says calmly trying to reassure her, "You've been living with Finn for about a year now. It'll be okay to stay with him."
"No it won't," she responds looking at her fathers like they both have grown another head. "I don't know him. Why can't I live with you?"
"Look I don't want Rachel to feel uncomfortable about this," Finn cuts in cautiously. "This is a lot for her to take in at once and I would hate to make it any worse."
"We understand both of your points," her dad said looking between the pair. "But the thing is we don't live in New York, you both do."
"So?" Rachel asked stubbornly after a beat of silence.
"Pumpkin, your life is here in New York right now. We aren't. We're still in Ohio."
"Why is that a problem though?" She asks again. She isn't getting what the big deal is. "Can't I just move back to Ohio?"
"And leave New York?" Her papa asked disbelievingly. "This is where you've always wanted to be though honey."
"Yes, but I don't remember getting here!" She shrieks frustratedly.
They're all taken aback a little by her outburst. Her dads are clearly stunned that their daughter even spoke to them like that but they were being highly unreasonable, in her opinion.
"Don't you get that I don't remember leaving?" She says to them. "New York to me right now isn't my home. My home is in Lima, Ohio. The small town, which I'm so grateful I learned that I got out of, but it's the place I belong. That I'm familiar with."
Her daddy sighs as he shares a look with her papa. They know she's right, she can see the light bulb finally go off in their heads.
What they say next though throws her off. "Rachel, sweetheart, we don't stay much in Lima though."
Upon her flabbergasted expression her dad explains. "Your father and I travel a lot more frequently than we use to Rachel. We aren't home very often for a length of time."
"We travel for business a lot honey, and it wasn't a problem now because you weren't at home. When you were still there we didn't want to leave you by yourself. But you moved to New York a year ago and there was really no reason for us to stay home as often anymore." Her papa added in.
"So what you're saying is it's better if I stay here?" She asks not comprehending a word being said.
"Only because we are rarely home anymore sweet pea," her dad replies.
Home. The one thing that had been constant in her life was that house in the middle of the little town in Ohio known as Lima. She had lived there ever since she was born and very little about it had ever changed. Now though, it was gone. Like everything else that she had once known.
"Please don't cry angel," her dad says as he envelopes her in a hug. She didn't realize she had started crying again but honestly she's just so frustrated by it all.
"I am so sorry honey," her other dad says as he combs his hand through her hair. He grabs a glass of water on the table in the room and hands it to her.
She takes a few sips from the glass and let's a few more tears fall as she tries to calm down. But it's hard when everything that use to be her life has changed. It's especially hard too when it seems she knows she's going to have to rely on a boy from high school.
When Rachel looks up from her glass of water again she's a little surprised to see that Finn isn't in the room anymore. He must have snuck out though when she started to cry again, leaving her with her dads. She kind of appreciates that.
It isn't till much later when she's in her room by herself with her eyes closed that she hears the door open and someone come in. Rachel isn't asleep due to her mind not shutting up and the headache that constantly come and goes, but she doesn't make that known to the person in the room with her.
Her dads left ages ago. They discussed everything with her more thoroughly and apologized profusely for all the things changing in her life at once. She tried to assure them that it would be fine after the initial shock wore off but she thinks they knew she was lying.
Her living situation was the same dreadful thing that it was before though no matter how hard she tried to change it. For some frustrating reason her dads would be leaving her with Finn to live with in New York.
They don't "live in Lima very often anymore" her dads had said earlier. She loved her dads, she truly did, but didn't they understand that she needed them and Lima at a time like this. Everything was so confusing as it was! And now she's supposed to pick up her life in New York?
Rachel let out an angry sigh as she tried to adjust herself in bed once again, moving onto her side, although it was proving difficult with all the wires that were connected to her.
A hand came up to rest on her arm and ran soothingly up and down it. There wasn't much pressure put on her arm but the hand ran delicately along the side of it, fingers leaving a tingling trail as they went. It actually felt really nice and Rachel let the person go on doing it a little longer as she felt herself slowly relax under their touch. When the person's hand went away and she could no longer feel it Rachel opened her eyes, not at all surprised by who it was.
"You do realize that this doesn't change anything," Rachel states quietly as she looks up at the tall man by her bedside. "I'm not happy about these circumstances at all."
"I know," Finn replies with a nod of his head as he sits down in the chair by the bed and sighs deeply. "Were you having trouble sleeping?"
"Wasn't it kind of obvious?" She asks in return. Rachel sits up just a little bit but keeps the blanket wrapped tightly around her because for some reason in the hospital rooms it feels like a freezer.
"Yeah," he says with a small smile before he looks at her apologetically. "Sorry if I bothered you. I didn't mean to but I figured that might help you relax a little bit."
Rachel gives a shrug as she looks away from him and toys with the blanket a little bit. "Was that something that normally relaxed me?" She asks offhandedly.
"Yes," he answers truthfully. "Whenever you're restless like that you usually toss and turn. I figured out one day that you seem to relax a little more when your arm is rubbed so... yeah."
"You must know a lot about me then huh?" Rachel asks a little louder than before.
He gave a small chuckle before she fixed him with a hard stare. "You shared a lot with me over the years," Finn replies after a moment. "And I shared a lot about me with you too."
Rachel sighs as she looks at Finn, really taking him in for the first time since she woke up. He definitely looks a lot older than she remembers. His brown hair still looks messily styled and he is still quite tall, but she can tell that there's a little more muscle on him now than she remembers before, and his face looks like it became more defined, losing some of the baby fat as he grew older.
She wonders for a second what she looks like because she hasn't even taken notice yet, too busy worrying about everything else.
"Is there a mirror in here somewhere?" Rachel asks, suddenly wanting to know what she looked like now.
"Huh?" Asked a confused Finn though he was already moving closer by her as he took his phone out his pocket.
"Is there a mirror?" She repeats again a little impatiently. Finn hands her his phone after he presses a few buttons and places it in her palm. "What's this?"
"It's an iPhone," he says, pointing to the cell phone in her hand. "It has a camera feature on it you can use to see yourself if you hold it up."
Sure enough when Rachel holds it up towards her face she's met with her reflection. Although it is one that is different than she last remembered.
"Oh my gosh," she gasps as she looks at herself. Gone was the long dark brown hair she had sported all those years ago and in its place was shorter brown hair that had a hint of highlights to it, not to mention the bangs she now had. Her face had seemed to slim down a little too. She looked quite tan though apparently it was the middle of fall and around her neck hanging loosely was simple gold star necklace.
"Different than what you remember?" Finn asks tentatively from beside her.
She tears her gaze away from the phone as she hands it back to him with a shake of her head. "Very different," she responds, "why did I change my hair?"
The question makes Finn laugh softly once again before he answers her. "I'm not sure. It was in the summer before junior year you got your bangs, and just a few weeks ago you got those highlights done," he responded with a shrug. "I think you said you liked to change it up every now and then."
"It's so weird," she muses as she combs through her hair now fully noticing how its shorter.
"You actually got mad at me when I didn't notice right away that you got your highlights done," he comments amusedly as he thinks back to the weeks before. "I was too busy watching a game on tv or something so I didn't look. And then you unplugged the television set."
She giggles softly at that just for a second before she sobers up. She lets the small smile stay on her face though as she watches him.
"I guess I could see myself doing something like that," she replies.
"It sucked ass," he says. "It took me forever to try and figure out how to get it to work again."
She laughs again a little louder at that. Rachel doesn't notice how Finn gazes at her softly as he smiles at her giggling form.
"I'm sorry," she finally says after a minute though the amused grin on her face would say otherwise.
"Don't worry about it," he says amused, happy that he is finally talking to the same Rachel as before she lost her memory of him. One that didn't seem to hate his guts.
The pair sits in a comfortable silence for a few moments, both caught up in their own thoughts. Rachel reaches up to her neck and holds the small gold star between her fingers as she looks at it.
"Where did this come from?" Rachel asks quietly, mostly to herself though she knows Finn will answer.
Sure enough he does. "I gave it to you actually," he says softly, his own eyes drifting to the small piece of jewelry around her neck.
She had kind of figured. Jewelry. Something a boyfriend gives a girlfriend. An uneasy feeling twists in her stomach when she thinks of them as a couple and she knows they need to talk about that more than anything. It's a matter if she has the courage to or not though.
"Look Finn I-" she starts to say before she's cut off by him, his hand coming up to hers and squeezing slightly before he pulls back.
"I think I know what you're going to say," he says calmly as he looks at anywhere but her face. "I realize that you don't remember me or us but its okay. We'll be okay."
She doesn't know whether he's telling her that or more like trying to convince himself of that but it doesn't matter.
"I don't like you like that," she blurts out quickly. She's a little stunned by her words, not sure where they came from, but she knew she couldn't take them back. "I don't get us, and I don't know you."
Finn's silent and his body is tense when he looks her straight in the eyes. She watches him, sees him looking for something in her and she notices his face start to look incredibly sad when he obviously can't find what he's looking for in her.
"Please don't say that Rach," he whispers brokenly. The hurt expression on his face really bothers something in her and she doesn't like that she was the one to put it there but she doesn't let that deter her.
"It's the truth Finn," she says more confidently than she feels. "You know me, but I don't know you, and I'm really sorry that I can't be what you need."
"You're already-". But she cuts him off.
"I need you to understand that you're basically a stranger to me," she says harsher than she intended, though she knows she has to get her point across. "In my memory when I think of Finn Hudson I think of the McKinley High School quarterback who egged me on my first day of school with all of his other friends. You made me feel awful."
"I'm sorry Rachel," he says ashamed and he seems to actually mean it. She decides its enough for now and will take pity on him. Besides, apparently it was years ago.
"I guess I have to forgive you for now, seeing as how I'll have to live with you in a few days," she concedes with a shake of her head. "But I'm sorry Finn, I can't be with someone I don't know."
When Finn looks at her again Rachel sees the smallest hint of tears in his eyes and he sniffles, wiping the back of his hand under his nose. He's trying not to let the tears fall, and his sadness sort of overwhelms her that she almost takes back every word she had said. However she knows she has to be strong. It's what's best for her.
A few tears slip down his cheek despite his best effort to keep them at bay and before she knows what she's doing Rachel leans forward. She cups his face with both her hands and wipes the tears away with her small fingers, giving him an apologetic look. Finn grabs one of her wrists delicately and, though she should object, she watches as he turns his face towards the palm of her hand and kisses it softly. The action sort of breaks her heart and makes it beat a little faster at the same time.
"It's okay," he whispers, giving her a small sad smile.
She watches as he gets up out of the chair rubbing a hand over his face and through his disheveled hair. She didn't mean to hurt him and she can't decipher the feeling she gets as she watches him move towards the door, leaving her by herself.
Just as he's about to go out the door though Finn stops in his tracks and looks back at her. Rachel wants to look away from his intense gaze but she can't as his eyes observe her once again. Instead she just stares back.
"I know you said that you don't want to be in a relationship right now Rachel," Finn says as he looks at her, " and I respect that. It's just-" he hesitates and she sees a look of determination cross his face when he continues on. "Don't expect me to just be okay with it."
"I know," she agrees, toying with her necklace nervously. The intensity of Finn's gaze doesn't waver and his confidence seems to grow with her response.
"Good," he says with nod of his head. "Because I'm not giving up on you and I'm not giving up on us so easily."
Rachel has no response to that as she watches him walk out the door and down the hallway. Her heart beats a little harder as she mulls over his last words again and again.
That was not the kind of response she was expecting. And she can't figure out if its a good thing or a bad thing.
A/N: This was originally supposed to be two parts, but I realized the first part was just way too short. So it turned into this. Hope you all liked the start of it and we'll see how this goes.
Please Don't forget to comment! I appreciate all feedback and suggestions. Its kind of encouraging.