Disclaimer: yada yada yada I don't own Glee or much else in this world besides this computer and my guitar
So when I finished "Finn, the Gentleman", I half-jokingly (and I was only half-joking—I really wanted someone to respond!) asked for suggestions for more stories I could write—and DramaIsMe ever-so-kindly obliged. This story is based on that suggestion.
I know that people have very divergent views on Jesse St. James. I tend to take a more sympathetic approach to him—I sincerely believe that, at least by the time "The Power of Madonna" rolled around, he had developed some genuine feelings for Rachel. But don't let my words trouble you, Finchel fans—this is NOT a St. Berry fic. I just thought I'd warn anyone who was virulently disgusted by Jesse that I am not treating him like he is Satan here.
Anyways, this is my take on what would have happened if...duh, duh, DUUUHHH...Jesse had been present in the choir room when Finn sang his wonderful rendition of Rick Springfield's "Jessie's Girl".
"Mr. Schue? I have something for the Glee assignment that I've been working on."
"Sure, Finn. Let's hear it," Mr. Schuester replied, appearing interested.
As Jesse sat observing Finn approach the front of the choir room, he had to admit to himself that he too had been curious about the song Finn would choose. It seemed like everyone in New Directions thought of Finn as Jesse's rival—for the best solos, the title of male lead of the group, not to mention for the girl sitting next to him. To be honest, Jesse truly had difficulty seeing Finn that way—as a real adversary. He had a much more honed and versatile voice than Finn's. And, almost as importantly, Rachel was utterly smitten with him, the boy who had come to the rescue when Finn had left her out in the cold.
This was actually the first time since the "Run Joey Run" debacle a week previous that he decided to sit by Rachel in Glee practice. Why had they sat apart? Well, it was a metaphor. And Jesse, like Rachel, believed metaphors to be important. He and Rachel sitting apart was a metaphor for them being apart.
Despite the fact that his pride had been hurt by her actions, and that, although he would never admit it, his heart had been, too, he had finally caved to her apologies and got back together with her. After all, his mission was still not completed. Rachel hadn't even seen, much less listened to the tape with which Shelby had entrusted him. Besides, he would have to be a heartless individual indeed to leave Rachel alone in her current state of voicelessness. He too had suffered from laryngitis once—and it had been a horrifying experience for a performer such as himself.
And another thing he wouldn't admit to anyone, most of all himself...he wasn't ready to leave Rachel behind yet. He would, when the time came. That had been the plan from the beginning. He had always known about that part. But he couldn't do it yet.
The power chords signalling the beginning of Finn's number broke through Jesse's thoughts. It took only seconds for Jesse to recognize the tune, and only a split second after that to recognize the implications of Finn's choice of song—"Jessie's Girl".
His eyes narrowed as he followed Finn's intense gaze to the girl sitting beside him. For reasons Jesse couldn't completely understand, he suddenly put his arm around Rachel.
Jesse knew exactly what was coming.
"Jessie is a friend, yeah, I know he's been a good friend of mine..."
Jesse raised an eyebrow. A good friend? That was a stretch.
"But lately something's changed; it ain't hard to define: Jessie's got himself a girl, and I want to make her mine!"
Was this supposed to be subtle? I mean, not everyone had Jesse's skill at achieving the perfect balance between subtlety and clarity, but between the rather convenient use of his name in the song and the unnervingly passionate stare Finn was throwing at Rachel, Jesse knew it was obvious to everyone in the room that Finn wasn't singing this song because he liked the tune.
So much for Finn's promise only weeks ago to do his best to stay away from Jesse's girl. While this wasn't exactly like Finn had run up to Rachel and kissed her in front of him, it was tantamount to it. After all, to people like Jesse and Rachel, music was just as powerful as any physical display of affection.
"You know, I wish that I had Jessie's girl, I wish that I had Jessie's girl! Where can I find a woman like that?"
Jesse chanced to look at Rachel out of the corner of his eye, hoping she wouldn't notice the way his head slightly tilted in her direction (he didn't want to give any impression that Finn's choice of music was affecting him in any way—he was the consummate actor, and he only let people know what he was really feeling when he wanted them to).
He was amazed to see that, instead of being pridefully indifferent to Finn's display, as Jesse would have been to a person who had broken his heart and now so obviously wanted him back, she had an expression of intense discomfort. And she was looking directly back at Finn, not coolly off into the distance as Jesse expected. Why would she care at all about what that idiot thought? He had been a total jerk to her; in fact, he was why Jesse had been able to swoop in so easily and win Rachel's heart.
"You know, I feel so dirty when they start talking cute, I wanna tell her that I love her, but the point is probably moot..." Finn continued. Jesse couldn't help but smirk a little at the line. Although he wasn't usually into public displays of affection, he had figured that doing so with Rachel at school would make their relationship seem more genuine, both to her and her teammates. He had been surprised at how much he had begun to enjoy it.
"'Cause she's watching him with those eyes..." With another quick sideways glance, Jesse was disturbed to see that Rachel wasn't watching him, Jesse, with her deep brown eyes. They were stilled glued to the boy belting it out at the front of the choir room.
And her face wasn't so much uncomfortable anymore as it was...sad, regretful.
Inexplicably, at least to Jesse's conscious mind, panic began to form in the pit of his stomach, rising slowly upwards.
"And she's lovin' him with that body, I just know it! And he's holding her in his arms late, late at night..."
Jesse's instinctively tightened his grasp of Rachel's shoulders—probably accidentally a little too much, but even that didn't break her eye contact with Finn as he moved into the chorus.
"And I'm lookin' in the mirror all the time, wondering what she don't see in me. I've been funny, I've been cool with the lines; ain't that the way love's supposed to be?"
Jesse didn't doubt that he had all that a girl like Rachel was looking for in a boyfriend—looks, extreme talent, a proper sense of drama, and great chemistry, whether performing or just alone together.
So why on earth would she be looking at Finn that way?
Finn was just some dumb jock who would likely never leave Lima, much less Ohio. Sure, he may have had good looks, too, but he didn't get Rachel like Jesse did. And he certainly wasn't nearly as polished a performer as Jesse. Yet the performer inside Jesse had to acknowledge that Finn was really hitting this song out of the park, so to speak.
But the boyfriend inside Jesse wasn't quite so charitable. For the first time in his life, Jesse thought in a non-hypothetical way about how nice it would feel to hit someone in the face with his fist.
The panic Jesse was feeling continued to rise until it was in danger of affecting what he thought was his utterly composed facial expression. So many thoughts were rushing through his mind—should he go up to Finn now and indulge his wish to punch him in the face? Should he wait until after the song—after all, Finn was singing quite well, even if his dance moves left something to be desired—or until after practice? Or was there a better way to deal with things? For the life of him, he couldn't remember any of constructive dispute resolution processes he'd had to take part in over his years in Vocal Adrenaline.
Finn had chosen this moment during a short instrumental section to approach where Jesse and Rachel sat. He crouched down so that he was about a foot away from Rachel, at eye level, looking straight at her, and it was in that position that he began the final chorus.
"Tell me! Where can I find a woman like that, like Jessie's girl—"
Finally, Jesse couldn't take it anymore. He took his arm from around Rachel and abruptly stood up. This had the effect of throwing Finn a little of balance, as he was so close, and Finn faltered in his singing for a moment.
"All right, I think that's quite enough!" Jesse interrupted, his arms crossed. The band stopped playing, and Finn didn't restart singing; however, Finn did stand up to his full height, which was taller than Jesse.
Although Jesse was mentally kicking himself for allowing his displeasure to be so evident and his weakness to show though, he couldn't simply watch his girlfriend be serenaded anymore—even if it was nothing but a rock song (how more unromantic could someone be than to use an upbeat rock song to try and win over a girl? Jesse strongly felt that a good, romantic Broadway standard or a nice, slow ballad were truly the only ways to go).
"What are you trying to do, Hudson?" Although Jesse knew he needed to act the jealous boyfriend, he was surprised at how easy it was to convey an impression of anger. That had always been his most difficult emotion to act. "And don't tell me you sang that song because you've had a life-long admiration for Rick Springfield."
Finn was surprisingly calm after his soul-bearing confessional of a performance. "Mr. Schue told us to pick a song that represented where we are in our lives right now. This is where I am."
Jesse could practically feel the steam coming out of his ears. "Well, I'll tell you where you can go. Give you a hint—it's really warm and the road to it is paved with good intentions." He stepped towards Finn so that they were only a couple of inches apart. "And so much for promising me you'd stay away from Rachel! You were practically salivating that entire song!"
"Jesse—" Rachel tried to interject.
Finn glared down at Jesse. "You know, I don't know if you're a spy or not. But what I do know is that you don't deserve her."
"Finn—" Rachel attempted again.
"Oh, and you do? Mr. 'Inner Rock Star'?" Jesse actually pushed Finn in the chest. It was strange—it was like he couldn't even control himself right now—it was like he was seeing red...
Finn did what any self-respecting teenage boy would do. He pushed Jesse back.
Jesse hardly noticed either Rachel's continued protests or Mr. Schue getting up off the stool he'd been sitting on and rushing up to where the two conflicting boys were.
Jesse did, however, notice how his arm reared back and his fist came forward like a slingshot, connecting with Finn's face just below his left eye.
Despite the fact that it felt good in a psychological, just-released-some-pent-up-anger sort of way, Jesse hadn't been expecting the rather unpleasant pain in the region of his fist. It never seemed to hurt in those kung-fu movies Jesse had seen.
While Jesse was meditating momentarily on the throbbing of his knuckles, Finn appeared to have recovered from the blow he had dealt him. Suddenly, Finn had tackled Jesse to the ground.
"Nice, Hudson, looks like you learned a little from all those times you got sacked last football season!" Jesse couldn't resist any opportunity to perform, even if it involved a going through a comedy routine on the ground while trying to win a fight with his rival.
"Yeah, but that's not where I learned this!" Finn growled as he aimed a punch at Jesse's face. He missed due to Jesse moving his head to the side in the nick of time.
This was getting out of hand, Jesse thought. He couldn't really afford any injuries to his face. But, then again... He grabbed the top of Finn's head and endeavoured to pound another couple of hits into his adversary's skull. Unfortunately, Finn was able to duck in time and got his own shot in on Jesse's face. This time, Finn was on target.
It was almost like, in a way, the punch woke Jesse up. Suddenly he heard Mr. Schue's authoritative, "Guys, break it up!" and noticed Matt, Mike and Puck getting ready to attempt to help pull the two scrapping teenagers apart. But what were most noticeable—surprisingly, as her voice had been much quieter ever since she had contracted laryngitis—were Rachel's frantic, yet hoarse, cries of "Jesse! Finn! Cease this immediately!"
This had all happened in a matter of about twenty seconds, though it seemed much longer to Jesse. Finn, sensing that Jesse had stopped fighting, forgot about pinning down the latter's arms, and slowly rolled onto his back, then sat up, panting heavily.
Jesse also sat up, out of breath. Taking a good look around, he saw everyone staring at he and Finn, open-mouthed and shocked. Well, everyone except for...
"Are you two finished?" Rachel hissed irritably, her arms folded in a very Rachel-like manner. "You've completely ruined rehearsal, not to mention given each other black eyes—we'll be extremely lucky if they are totally healed by the time Regionals rolls around. The last thing we need right now are a couple of Rocky Balboas trying to get out their male urges to kill each other during practice!"
Of course, Jesse thought, it would be Regionals she would care about, not the blood he could feel running warmly out of his nose and trickling down his face—he had kind of hoped she would rush to his aid and take care of him a little. But he was impressed that she knew who Rocky was. Didn't seem like her kind of movie.
Beside him, Finn mumbled, "Sorry for fighting, Rach."
Not to be outdone, Jesse echoed Finn's apology, albeit in slightly more flowery terms. "I am truly sorry for our display of violence, Rachel."
Looking back at her, Jesse saw her livid expression soften as she looked back and forth at the two of them. He was more than a little hurt, however, when her gaze lingered on Finn and she moved slightly as if to go to him. On the other hand, Jesse may have only imagined it, as she was soon coming towards him with a handkerchief—yes, Rachel carried everywhere a handkerchief, embroidered with her initials—and wiping some of the blood off of Jesse's face with it.
Although he liked the way her hands felt on his face as she gently cleaned him off, he didn't like the way she was concentrating on the task, as if only trying to distract her from the gaze coming from her right side, where Finn was sitting. His stare was as intense as ever, as if he was willing her to look at him, to say that she reciprocated his feelings.
And while, to Jesse, the thought was absolutely ridiculous, he couldn't help but wonder if Rachel did reciprocate those feelings after all. What if she really had hesitated between the two of them, as he had thought he'd seen her do? What if, by deciding to help clean Jesse off, she had only been acting the part of the dutiful girlfriend?
What if he didn't have Rachel hook, line and sinker like he thought he did?
What if, somehow, that clumsy oaf Finn still had some small piece of her heart?
Jesse had a feeling that he needed to hurry up and get Rachel to listen to that tape.
Okay, so I'm not going to lie—when I started writing this I definitely didn't think it was going to end up with Jesse taking a swing at Finn. I really tried to let the story flow, driven by how I thought the real characters would react, and although I never pictured Jesse as much of a fighter, I guess when the right motivation comes along he just might go for it!
As always, I hope you enjoyed and please review!