AN: This is a story a long time in the making. It has somewhere around 27 parts. Some are sad, and some are over-whelmingly happy. All are told from Finn's point of view as he and Rachel navigate their adult live together. This starts the summer before senior year and disregard season three. Enjoy :).

i. Rachel Grandmother

This summer they've been pretty much inseparable, and that's not an exaggeration. The longest he has gone without seeing her was the week she went on vacation, and even then the longest amount of time they'd had with no communication was the three days he had spent in the sticks camping.

Which is why this stint of silence is particularly worrying. He knows that the Berrys are home because every time he tries to call the line is busy. Rachel hasn't been responding to his text messages, and she's also not been answering her cellphone. He knows that something is wrong, but he can't make it to her house until two days after the silence has started because of the stupid hours at his stupid summer job.

He shows up to her house at three PM on July 17th and is shocked at the image presented by the girl who opens the door. Rachel's eyes are red, red, red, and puffy and her lip is quivering as she throws herself into his arms. He silently vows that whoever made her like this, whatever did this to her, is going to pay.

"Finn, Finn, Finn, Finn, Finn," she keeps repeating his name like a prayer as he gently sets her back on the ground.

"Rach, what's going on?" So maybe he's easily confused under normal circumstances but this is beyond confusing.

"My grandma died… two days ago, and I haven't had the chance to tell anyone because all of my family is starting to show up for the funeral in two days and when I'm not making food or calling people I'm crying, and I just really wanted to call you, but I didn't want to bother you, and now you're here and—" he puts a finger to her lips to stall what may be the longest run-on sentence ever (yes, Rachel had been tutoring him over the summer and yes, he now knows what a run-on sentence is).

"Babe, I'm here now. What do you need?" He remembers what it was like when his grandma died, and he was only eleven, and they still expected so much of him at age eleven so he's not sure how Rachel is doing with all of this pressure at sixteen.

"I need a break." So he takes her out for vegan fro-yo in the next town over, and they talk about her Nonna. He realizes that this is the first big thing in their relationship—the first test that he has to pass with her entire family—because there is no way he's making her go to the viewing and funeral alone (and yeah he gets that she wouldn't be alone, but still, he wants to be there for her).

He spends the two days leading up to the burial at Rachel's side, offering a comfortable shoulder and as much emotional support as she can handle. Rachel Berry's Nonna is buried on July 19th 2011 at age 84. He stands beside Rachel throughout the entire service and has a hard time understanding most of it because parts are in Hebrew and the rest is some priest dude ("Rabbi," Rachel tells him later when they're talking about the service). She digs her fingers into his arm when they lower her Nonna's body into the ground, and he takes her hand, willing some of her pain onto him, so that this is easier for her.

The funeral of Edna Berry starts both his education on Judaism and Rachel's family. She has eight cousins, four aunts, five uncles, a Great-Grandma Hollis(Leroy's mother's mother), a Nana (Leroy's mother), and one Pap (Leroy's father). He meets all of them within fifteen minutes directly after the funeral, and it is shocking to say the least.

A week later when she has stopped crying so often, she looks at him with those doe eyes and smiles. "Finn Hudson, I love you." And he realizes that is her way of saying thank you to him.

AN: Reviews are love ;).