A/N: I absolutely adored that finale. After a somewhat disappointing season, I was glad to see that they ended it well. The flashbacks. The ending. It was perfect. It also opened up the perfect opportunity for us St. Berry fans to dream up how our power couple reunites. I'm sure I'm not the first person to do this synopsis, but I hope my version stands out. Enjoy.

Chapter One

Rachel lost a lot when she came to New York. She lost her friends. She lost her fiancé. She lost a life that she was content with – happy even. In the wake of all that loss, though, she found something even better. She found the passion and drive that had admittedly flagged during her time with the New Directions. All that time spent trying to fit in and give everyone an equal shot had worn her ambition down until it was a miracle that it was ever found again. Standing beneath those skyscrapers in her bright red coat, Rachel Berry felt like her true self had returned. The star was reborn, and she was ready to take the city by storm.

Naturally, the new found gusto diminished rather quickly when her parents kissed her good bye and she was left alone and friendless in the dorm. Never one adept at making friends, she found herself alone in her bedroom with her phone glued to her ear.

"You're going to be great," Kurt assured her. "You're where you belong, Rachel."

"I wish you were here with me," she admitted. "You should be with me."

There was silence on the other end, and she knew how much hearing that must hurt him. She chastised herself silently for once again rubbing in his face how she was in New York and he was stuck in Lima.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"It's okay. NYADA wasn't the right path for me. I see that now. I have to find my own way."

"And you will," she said resolutely. "So, how-how's Finn?"

"He's good," Kurt said, voice betraying nothing.

"Has he enlisted yet?"

"No," Kurt said. "But he's planning on going later this week."

Rachel's eyes burned with all too familiar tears, and she wiped at them with the back of her hand.

"I can't call him," Rachel said. "I can't talk to him. I'd just cry."

"I know."

"But tell him I love him," she said. "Tell him…"

"I will," Kurt said gently. "I'll tell him."

"Good."

"You should go talk with people. Go claim your life, Berry."

"I don't know how," she admitted. "I have no idea how to be in this life. How to be this person."

"Just be yourself," he said. "It's what got you there."

She sniffled, tears dripping down her cheeks. Somehow, with a few clichéd phrases he had managed to calm her down.

"You know, Kurt Hummel, I sort of love you."

He chucked on the other end of the line. "You too, Berry. Now go. If you don't hang up, I will."

"Okay okay," she said, wiping at her nose with the heel of her hand. "Good night, Kurt."

"'Night Rachel."

She clicked off the call, her chest constricting at the sudden silence. She pulled her knees into her chest, wiggling her toes into the pink comforter. She was in a dorm full of students, and yet had no one to talk to. She was in a hallway lined with people like her but she had no idea what to do with them, no clue as to how to bridge the gap between them all. And then she heard it. Outside, the dulcet tones of Judy Garland sounded, just as welcome as water in a drought or food in a famine. She rose from her bed and padded to the doorway, opening the door just enough to peek her head outside. In the common area a group of girls were seated, Meet Me In St. Louis playing on one of their laptops. She went to close the door but then hesitated, Kurt's words ringing in her ears.

Go claim your life, Berry.

She took a deep breath and then opened the door, walking out into the common area where the girls were seated. One looked at her with a pleasant enough smile. Another deep breath and Rachel took the plunge.

"Mind if I join you?"

In the week following the start of classes, Rachel Berry had succeeded in socializing herself. After her first foray into dorm relations - the fated Meet Me In St. Louis screening on whom she learned was soprano Megan's Macbook – Rachel had found herself with a rather impressive group of new friends. Megan's roommate Sissy was a budding character actor, with a contraband Crockpot kept under her bed for any pressing fondue needs. Farther down the hall was soprano Paige with the pageboy haircut, dramatist River with the penchant for Victorian garb and the diminutive alto Carla. There were others that Rachel met throughout the week, but it was these five girls with whom Rachel had forged that initial bond.

The first day of class was not without its nerves, and even the ever-confident River seemed on edge. She pulled at the lace sprouting at the end of her sleeves as they all walked to the building together. A musical theater orientation was the first meeting of the day. There the curriculum and expectations would be discussed with the students, as well as information on the shows that would be cast.

The orientation was held in the auditorium, and Rachel filed in with her other musical theater chums. They were ten minutes early and already the first eight or nine rows had filled.

"Maybe we should have left earlier," River said, settling down into a seat. "I wanted to be in the fifth row. It's my lucky row."

"This one's fine," Rachel said, her eyes scanning the rows of people in front of them. "We're already in. We don't need lucky rows."

"Look at all these people," River said slowly, face draining of color. "Everyone as talented as you. As driven and focused as you, too. All of us with that same thirst for the stage. For the spotlight. It's going to be an absolute bloodbath at audition time."

"See, this is why you're the dramatist," their friend Megan said, settling on Rachel's other side. "Why are you even in this orientation?"

"I'm a double major," River said. "Playwriting and vocal performance."

"Double edged sword," Megan noted. "You can write and perform the lines. I would keep that quiet. Could be your secret weapon in the so-called blood bath."

Rachel listened to their convivial bickering, the back and forth not too far from what she had witnessed with the New Directions members. She let her eyes scan over the group of students again, and felt something twist uncomfortably in her stomach when she recognized the back of a particular head at the side of the auditorium. He was sitting in the third row, four seats from the end. He wasn't talking to anyone, face pointing straight ahead so that she could only see the back of his head and a bit of his shoulders. Even with that little, though, she recognized him immediately. She craned her neck, trying to get a better look. All she could see was his hair, though, until the person beside him said something and he turned to reveal his profile. Although she had known it was him, she still gasped.

"Are you okay?" Megan asked, looking at her strangely.

"What?" Rachel pulled her attention from him, flushing slightly at being caught. "Did you say something?"

"You're acting strange," Megan said slowly. "Well, as strange as you can seem to someone who's only known you for a week."

"I, uh, saw someone I used to know," Rachel said, glancing back at where he sat. "Well, I guess it's someone I know, present tense. I never really stopped knowing him."

River narrowed her eyes. "Are we talking biblical knowing here?"

"No!" Rachel said immediately. "I mean, almost, but that is completely beside the point and unnecessary. He went to my high school for a while. That's all I mean."

"Were you guys friends?" River asked. Before Rachel could answer, Megan interjected, "Probably more, considering the whole almost biblically knowing him thing."

"We dated," Rachel said. "Briefly. It's all very complicated."

"Sure sounds like it," Megan said. She grinned wide. "I definitely want an introduction."

Rachel went to say something when the director of the program stepped in front of the podium and tapped on the microphone. Everyone's attention went toward the stage, eyes glued to the woman in the poorly tailored suit as if she were Louis B. Mayer himself.

"Ladies and gentleman, my name is Hilary Primpton and I am the director of the musical theater program here at the New York Academy of the Dramatic Arts. It is not an easy task to get here and I'd like to congratulate you all for making it this far. I will tell you right now, some of you will not make it any farther. Our program is grueling. We do not coddle. Criticism is quick and often. It is our job as teachers to push and challenge you to be the absolute best performer that you can be. If you can manage the four years, you will leave with the knowledge that you received the absolute best training available. If you don't, well, I hear retail offers adequate health benefits. Even an occasional paid vacation. If you work hard there is no reason you should not succeed here. We hand picked you, after all. We took only the best and we expect nothing less from you. So, today your journey begins."

Rachel listened with bated breath as the curriculum was described in detail. She was moderately sure she would be dry heaving into wastebaskets from stress, but she would be damned if she wasn't excited. This was her future. This was where she belonged. As the orientation came to a close, she found her eyes returning to where he sat. She debated whether or not she should try to approach him. Their last meeting had been cordial, after all. Talking in Chicago, it had almost been like they were friends. She decided that she would go after him. She would say hello, if nothing else.

When they were dismissed, she moved down the aisle, mumbling a quick excuse to Megan and River, and made her way against the flow of students toward where he had been seated. She received a few disgruntled asides as she pushed through the crowd, but Rachel was skilled at pointedly not hearing what others said. Years of walking the halls of McKinley High had trained her well in that. Despite her adept navigation through the crowd, his seat was empty when she finally reached his aisle. She frowned, pausing for a moment before turning around and following the crowd out of the auditorium.