A/N: I cannot wait for the Groff to come back. The end.
Last Call
Jesse St. James never expected a call from Kurt. He didn't even know the kid had his phone number, but then his cell rang and when he clicked the phone on and said hello a familiar voice said, "St. James, we need to talk."
"Who is this?"
"Kurt Hummel, self-appointed best friend of Rachel Berry. And we need to talk."
"Yeah, you established that before. What's going on?"
"Her and Finn are getting married. I need you to talk her out of it."
Jesse clenched his jaw in irritation. The last time he had seen Rachel, she had been making out with that giant on the Nationals stage. Now they were engaged? "What makes you think I could talk her out of it?"
"Because whether she will admit it or not, you two have a connection. Maybe you'll be able to talk some sense into her."
"I thought you'd be happy for your self-appointed best friend, Kurt. This is what she wants after all, isn't it?"
"I like Finn," Kurt said. "And this is by no means a ploy to get you two back together. I still hate you. But they're too young to get married. I already talked to her parents and they were actually happy for her. You were my last resort."
Jesse paused for a moment and then asked, "You really think I could talk her out of it?"
"I don't know. But at this point, I'll try anything. She's supposed to go to New York. She's supposed to become a star."
"And she can't do that with, Hudson?"
"He'll take over her dreams. You know that. He won't mean to, but she'll end up putting him first."
"She won't listen to me," Jesse said.
"Yeah, but it's worth a try."
It took him three days to call.
"You better have a good reason for calling," she said as greeting. He smirked a bit at that, glad his girl still had her fire.
"I hear congratulations are in order."
"Who told you?" she said after a beat.
"It doesn't really matter. So, marriage, huh? That's a pretty big step." He stood up from his bed and began to pace. He had a feeling the pacing would help him digest whatever line of bol shit she was about to feed him.
"Finn and I love each other," she said haughtily. "And we will be very happy together."
"Oh, I know," Jesse said. "You two are made for each other. I mean, you with all of your ambition and him with…well, whatever it is he has."
"He has a wonderful heart," Rachel said. "Among other things."
"Is he following you to New York, then?"
"Yes, that's the plan."
"And you think he'll be content with that. Biding his time while you're at school. Biding even more time once you book shows."
"What are you hedging at, Jesse?"
"I'm hedging at nothing. I'm just trying to paint a nice vivid picture of yours and Hudson's future."
"Well, please stop."
"What, not liking what you see?"
"You know what, you shouldn't have called. I don't care what you say. I never will care what you say."
Jesse sighed, dropping heavily onto his bed. "Listen Rachel, I know that you love him. You guys have some fairytale romance and all that. Whatever. I'm done trying to show you how wrong you are. You win. He wins." She was silent and he took the opportunity. "But you are throwing away your future if you marry him now. You're the most driven person I know, outside of myself, but a marriage will slow you down. I'm not saying don't marry him. I have no right. But don't marry him now."
She was silent for so long that he almost thought she hung up. But then she cleared her throat and carefully said, "I respect your opinion, Jesse, but you're wrong."
"So, you aren't questioning it? You're not looking at the ring right now, wondering if you're making the biggest mistake of your life?" She refuted this quickly and Jesse knew he had called her out appropriately. "If you're going to do this, Rachel, you have to be sure."
"I'm hanging up now," she said.
The line went dead.
He recognized the number this time when Hummel called. He picked up after a few rings and said, "Don't blame me if it didn't work."
"It did," Kurt said. Jesse felt such immense relief that he couldn't speak for a moment. "I don't think it was entirely you, though. Rachel told me that her parents ended up sitting her down and giving her a major talk. Turns out they were just playing it cool on the phone."
"Oh, well good."
"They're still together, though," Kurt clarified. "So, don't think you can just come up here or anything. They're just not getting married."
"Believe it or not, Kurt, I didn't help out with this for my own gain. I just want what's best for Rachel. That's all I've really wanted since I came back."
"Good." There was a long stretch of silence and then he tacked on, "And thanks. For helping and everything."
"No problem. I'm just happy this particular crisis was averted. So, does she know you're the one who called me?"
"Yeah," Kurt said. "She's being needlessly dramatic and refusing to talk to me."
"That's my girl," Jesse said fondly. "Glad to hear some things don't change."
"Yeah, well, I'm not thanking you for that. It's going to take a lot of graveling to get her to come around. A lot of Funny Girl viewings."
"You're calling Barbra a punishment?"
"When Rachel's singing along to all the songs, yes."
Jesse chuckled. "Good luck with that. So, um, nice covertly talking to you."
"Back at you," Kurt said. "Bye, Jesse."
"Bye."
Jesse hung up, shaking his head slightly. Seemed him and Kurt had struck an unlikely truce. That would be useful when he returned. Because he would. Regardless of what he told Rachel, he didn't believe her and Finn were a fairytale romance and all that shit. She deserved someone better. Epic romance. And so, he would bide his time and then make things right again.
It was only a matter of time.