First of all, this is not a happy fic. This is a segway from Tina In the Sky With Diamonds into The Quarterback. It picks up from where Rachel finds out that she's Fanny Brice. Personally, I wish that this storyline never had to be, but it does, and writing this helped a great deal with the emotional firestorm that I've been experiencing ever since I saw the promo for next week's episode. If the story feels a little rushed, it's because I wrote this in one sitting. I hope you do enjoy the fic though, and if you do, please don't hesitate to review. :)
Disclaimer: I think it's safe to say that I don't own Glee.
He was the first person she'd called.
Normally, she'd call her dads and tell them the good news; she, Rachel Barbara Berry, was going to be Fanny Brice. After all, this was life changing news, and they had been the two to actually give her life, in a sense.
Moments after celebrating with Kurt, Santana and Dani, and being over gracious towards the director, she'd decided to take her break and call Finn.
Finn, after all, was the reason she was here. If he hadn't put her on that train nearly a year before, she'd never have ended up where she was now. He'd made the ultimate sacrifice, and it was paying off. He deserved to know.
So, yes, she called him before she called anyone else.
The signal in the diner was hardly reliable enough to carry on more than a one minute conversation, so she took the streets to make the call. After walking a few blocks she found a quiet doorstep to sit at while she dialed Finn's number.
The phone rang twice and then went to voice mail.
"Hi, you've reached Finn Hudson's phone. If you would like to leave a message, you may do so after the beep."
It wasn't unusual for Finn to not answer his phone. After all, it was a Saturday morning. He'd probably just put the phone on silent so he could sleep in without interruption.
She left a brief message and hung up the phone. She wondered if she should call her dads since Finn hadn't answered, but it felt wrong to tell anyone else before she told him.
She remembered then that Finn was roommates with Noah, so she decided to call him instead. Maybe she'd get lucky and he'd answer his phone.
Noah picked up after three rings.
"You better be in fucking trouble or something, Berry. Because I can't think of any other reason you'd have to call me at six o'clock in the fucking morning."
Typical Puckerman charm; Rachel smiled despite his rude words.
"Sorry to wake you Noah. I'm just looking for Finn and I remembered that you two are living together now. He didn't answer his phone, and I figured he just had the thing on silent so no one could wake him up." She was rambling; she tended to do that when she was excited. Take a breath she continued, "Is he there?"
"Honestly, Berry I only got about half of whatever the hell you just said." Noah groaned. She could hear him sit up in bed. "Sorry, Princess, Finn's not here. Guess he didn't come home last night."
This wasn't going as planned. Finn was supposed to be around to answer his phone. Instead he was nowhere to be found, and her break was almost over.
"Well, thanks anyway Noah. I'll let you go back to sleep."
"Damn straight. I'll have Finny call you when he gets back."
Then, without a proper goodbye, Noah hung up the phone.
Checking the time on her phone, Rachel realized she didn't have time to call anyone else before her break was over. Sighing dejectedly, she set her phone on vibrate and slipped it back inside her apron. Hopefully she'd know if Finn called her back during her shift.
Back at the diner she didn't have much time to think about Finn or Fanny as the morning crowd came through. She'd talked to Kurt, who'd promised to call Carol and see if Finn had slept there the night before. So far though, he hadn't been able to get a chance to make any phone calls.
It wasn't until around ten o'clock that the diner finally calmed down enough for the trio to finally get a few moments to themselves. Kurt excused himself to call Carol, leaving Rachel and Santana alone to refill their sugar caddies.
"So Finn was the first person you wanted to call?" Santana asked, jabbing Rachel sharply in the ribs with her elbow.
Rachel didn't say anything in response, rubbing her sore side as she shrugged her shoulders.
"Don't act like this isn't a big deal. Brittany made me watch One Tree Hill with her during high school, and it's like that one episode where they win the state championship and what his face finally realizes he's in love with that other chick." Santana said, moving on from her sugar caddies, filling up the salt and pepper shakers.
"I never watched that show."
"It's just he realized that when all his dreams came true, that he realized he wanted her by his side." Santana clarified. "And when all your dreams came true this morning, you realized that Finn was the one you wanted by your side."
Rachel wasn't quite sure what to say, because everything that Santana had just said was true. Finn was the one she wanted by her side when all of her dreams came true, but was in Lima.
"I can't believe you're quoting One Tree Hill to me." Rachel laughed, trying to change the subject.
"Whatever, Brittany was in love with the show." Santana rolled her eyes. "Anyways, you know I'm right."
"Maybe you are." Rachel said as she turned to walk to the back to get a broom, so she could sweep her section before they went home. "Of course, I've always known that I wanted Finn to be there when all my dreams came true."
Once she was in the back, she made her way over to the dishwashing area to grab a broom. She took a moment to pull her phone out of her apron and check to see if she had any missed calls.
Six Missed Calls
She had three missed calls from her dads, but that wasn't anything new, since they usually called her at least twice a day. Normally though, they would leave her a voice mail, yet this time they hadn't.
Then there was a missed call from Noah, probably just calling to complain about not being able to fall back asleep after she'd called him earlier.
It wasn't until she saw that she had two missed calls from Mr. Shue that she even started to think that something was wrong. Of course, she knew better than to let her mind go there before she'd heard anything from anyone. So, pushing the bad thoughts from her mind, she shoved her phone back into her apron, grabbed a broom and dustpan, and made her way back to the front of the diner.
It wasn't until she saw the looks on Kurt's and Santana's faces that everything finally fell into place.
Finn didn't answer his phone.
"Guess he didn't come home last night."
Three missed calls from her dad, one missed call from Noah, and two missed call from Mr. Shue.
Finn didn't answer his phone...
"No..." She said, her voice shaking and small. This couldn't be happening, Finn was supposed to be by her side when all of her dreams came true.
He was the first person she'd called. fin.