Series of "missing scenes" from the first 13 episodes. The story comes about because there seemed to be a lot of holes in Finn/Rachel's story especially during the second half of season 1 and a lot of season 2. I plan on tackling the back 9 and the first half of season 2 as well and probably future parts of the series. Each segment is pretty standalone but stays canon with the show and canon with itself if… that makes sense. Like there's continuity or something…
Between the Lines
"I'm Rachel Berry."
That's how it all begins.
He can't remember ever seeing this girl before and wonders if she's new or something. Nobody else in the club seems to like her and he can sort of understand why. She's kind of… intense. Just the way she's looking at him makes him consider taking out a restraining order. There's something about her that's kind of cool though. She's really peppy and motivated and she's kind of cute. In fact he's pretty sure if she was a few inches taller she could totally be a Cheerio.
"You haven't introduced yourself," she says, which he thinks is kind of weird because he's like the quarterback.
"Oh. Right, I'm Finn."
She begins talking then… and doesn't stop. She asks him if he has a MySpace and he laughs. Yeah. When I was 5. He wants to say but instead he shrugs it off and tells her he's never heard of it. She scribbles something on a piece of paper and explains that it's the best resource for raw talent to be discovered and some other stuff that he tunes out because he's too busy trying to figure out how to escape the auditorium without any of the other popular kids seeing him.
"Cool," he says because he's pretty sure that's the best way to get rid of her.
He jams the scrap of paper in his pocket and doesn't even think about it till five days later, after the club has performed Don't Stop Believing, when his mom comes up from the basement reminding him to empty his pockets before putting his clothes in the wash. She hands him the note and when he unfolds it he realizes that it's a gold star Post It with her MySpace URL scrawled across it.
He spends the rest of the night on her page watching her videos and reading her info.
Relationship Status: Single. Cool.
They rehearse until almost 9PM. She's called her dads 3 times now, each time pushing her departure time back another hour. Finally they master that mix of sexy and cool they're looking to achieve for Friday's assembly and they're actually having fun doing it.
As she's packing up her CD collection she overhears Kurt talking with the rest of the glee kids. "I don't care if it's a school night. We're all watching Dirty Dancing at my house tonight to get into proper character."
She thinks it's nice that the rest of the glee kids have gotten so close but as a leader she knows it's important for her and Finn to isolate themselves from them in order to maintain the proper balance of power. At least that's what she tells herself. In reality she knows that Finn has his popular friends while she has no one.
"Are you going?" She hears Finn ask and when she looks up she realizes that he's talking to her.
She shrugs shyly. "I don't really think I'm invited."
"Why not?" Finn flashes her one of his patented sideways grins and she thinks she might die. He's not particularly smart and she finds those he chooses to associate with as friends to be absolute cretins, but there's something so genuine in the way he looks at her that has her tricked into believing he likes her.
"I'm in."
The entire choir room falls silent and everyone is left staring at Finn.
"You want to come?" Kurt asks incredulously.
"Well, yeah. We're like a team… right? On the football team we do stuff together all the time. Although usually it involves beer and girls and stuff and not some movie I've never heard of."
Kurt shrugs. "With Artie's wheelchair I don't have room for everyone."
"That's cool. I've got my car, I can take Rachel."
Rachel gasps. Audibly. He's going to kill, she just knows it.
His car is a piece of junk and she's sure her fathers would scold her for stepping into it, especially since she's fairly certain the passenger seatbelt is only there for decoration. He's mumbling something about driving so slow because he only has his permit and they just got the windshield replaced but all Rachel can focus on is the Classic Rock song he's tapping his finger to that she's never heard before. She reminds herself to download more of the genre so that they'll have something to talk about at glee rehearsal.
"I think it's really cool. What you're doing for the club," Finn says after a while. He turns and smiles at her and in most cases she'd demand he return his attention to the road before they die in fiery crash, but at this moment it'd totally be worth it.
He spots Rachel in the last row. She's with the rest of the glee club, well except for the popular ones, but she's the first one he spots because she's laughing and smiling and she looks totally awesome when she's that happy.
And he thinks that it's really cool that even though they were mad at each other before and that he was totally right and she was totally wrong that she's here supporting him. If it were Quinn that he had told off she wouldn't have talked to him for a week, at least, even after he'd apologized. But Rachel like respects his opinion or something and it makes him feel like he's not a total idiot sometimes.
The club is waiting for him in the parking lot afterwards and they tease him for his tuxedo and his dancing. Well mainly his dancing… they tease him a lot for his dancing and he's starting to feel really bad about himself until Rachel smiles and tells him that he had some moves that would make Dakota Stanley regret losing his talents. He's not sure if she's making fun of him too, but the way she grins makes him feel better.
They all change their focus to mocking Mr. Schue, but as their parents trickle out of the meeting, it's eventually only him and Rachel left in the parking lot.
"Did you need a ride home?" He offers.
She shrugs. "No I'm just waiting for my dads to come out. They have lots of ideas for this year's school budget."
"Cool. I can wait with you if you want."
They sit on the steps in front of the school and talk about what songs they should sing to showcase Mr. Schue's R&B dance talents and talk about Mr. Ryerson 's love for Josh Groban and when she hears that Josh Groban was there she nearly dies. She asks a million questions about him and Finn answers all of them with a shrug. They fall silent for a moment until Finn asks.
"So… who's Josh Groban?"
She thinks they're going to break up. In fact she's convinced. They're fighting more than usual and sometimes in the girl's room she can hear Quinn crying in one of the stalls. It's not that she's happy that Quinn is suffering (well maybe she finds a little happiness in the fact that the girl who has tortured her since the third grade is miserable) she just think it's for the best if they're not together anymore.
One afternoon after glee rehearsal he asks her for help on his English paper. "Definitely!" She answers in an embarrassingly loud voice.
She helps him use a thesaurus so that his essay includes a few more four syllable words because she thinks it will add some pizzazz. Eventually she's helping him review important dates for his history exam, making flashcards of articles of clothing for Spanish class, and explaining to him what a cosine is.
She thinks it's really great that he feels compelled to improve his grades but she can't help but notice how sad he seems.
"Thanks for all the help," he says one afternoon. "You make everything seem so easy without making me feel like an idiot for not understanding it."
"I'm happy to help," she says floating on air.
"It's just there's a lot of junk I'm going through right now and between football and girls and glee and being popular, it's hard to keep up."
She knows she should feel a little offended but she can't help it, he's just so dreamy. "We're friends," she says. "I'll always be there for you."
She decides not to quit glee even though Mr. Schue's trying to ruin her career. She's almost positive that Finn is building up his confidence in glee club and academics, enough so to break away from his leech of a girlfriend. They're going to break up, she just knows it.
On Friday night she tags along with Mercedes, Tina, and Artie to support Kurt in his first game. She's excited to see Finn in action and knows in a few weeks when they're inevitably dating that she'll have to have some understanding of the game. They win and she waves excitedly hoping that he'll see her cheering for him. That he'll know she came for him. Instead he hurries over to Quinn on the sidelines and they smile and they kiss and they're happy.
She quits glee on Monday.
He doesn't know how to feel right now. She kissed him and he let her and now they're sitting in his car and she won't stop smiling or staring at him. In the back of his mind he thinks of Quinn and the baby and how he needs to be there for them but instead he's sitting in his car in front of Rachel's house listening to her babble on about darts and pool and ping pong and all the other games they could play on future dates.
"It's getting too cold for outdoor games, but that means we can do winter things like ice skating and snowball fights!"
He smiles because that sounds totally fun. He would kick Rachel's butt in a snowball fight and she'd look really cute in a knit cap and mittens. But then he remembers he's supposed to be thinking about Quinn and the baby. She'll be bigger in the winter and will probably want him to sit around the house bringing her pickles or whatever pregnant people eat.
"Maybe you can show me how to throw a football next time. I've never played before."
"Yeah," he nods.
She looks at him with those huge brown eyes of hers and he feels his chest tighten.
"I had a really good time tonight."
He thinks that maybe they could be together. She's really cute and they always have a great time together and she thinks he's totally awesome, which makes him feel really good about himself. Everyone is so down on him all the time. Quinn, his mom, his teachers, the football team… the only time he ever feels like he's a good person is when he's with her. Maybe they could be together. Like he would take care of the baby but Quinn wouldn't be his girlfriend anymore. Rachel would. She'd be a cool stepmom. She'd bake the baby cookies and sing songs to it when it wouldn't sleep. Quinn would probably just yell at the baby all the time but Rachel would be understanding.
So he kisses her. He leans over the driver's console and kisses her. Not like before when he was caught off guard and using her. This time he means it.
The next day at school she slaps him in the face. He realizes then she's better off without him. He'd only ever bring her down.
She sees him sleeping on one of the couches in the library. It's fourth period and she knows he's missing Spanish class right now but since Mr. Schue knows about his situation, is more forgiving towards his absence.
Rachel turns her attention back to her sheet music she has spread across a table. She has her iPod in hand and places it on shuffle hoping that when one song starts playing in her ear another song will pop off the sheet music in perfect harmony.
After an exhausting 30 minutes of this exercise she reaches for the thermos of espresso that's packed in her backpack. Across the room Finn is still napping. Fourth period is about to end and it doesn't look like he'll be awake for fifth. She looks back at her thermos and sighs.
Finn stirs and elicits a series of sighs and groans that she can't help but find incredibly adorable. "Here," she says pushing a steaming cup of espresso into his hand. "You need this more than I do."
He blinks a few times, startled into wake. "What?"
"I know you're currently the enemy, but if you don't wake up in the next 10 minutes you're going to miss a very important math lecture. I sat through it during second period and if you miss the first derivation you'll be lost for the rest of the semester."
He smirks. "Thanks. School makes me really tired."
"Have the whole thing," she insists. "I don't need it. I'm still high off endorphins from my morning workout."
"Cool." She catches his eyes scan up and down her body and his smile spreads. She presses her lips together. She knows she should be offended that he's so obviously objectifying her, but it also makes her heart race. Like she's walking on sunshine.
Jackpot.
After Spanish class he sees the scrap of paper left where she was sitting. She's left it and she doesn't even care. She doesn't care about him at all.
He shows the scrap of paper to Rachel after glee rehearsal. Part of him feels guilty for doing it because of what Quinn said about cheating on her. It's not like he wants to cheat on Quinn. He just doesn't have anyone else to talk to and Rachel's the only person who seems to care about how he's feeling.
"Maybe Quinn's right." Rachel says. That's not what he wanted to hear. "Maybe it's best if you don't get too attached."
"I feel so helpless though. I feel l can't give her anything. Like I can't give her a home or a family or a good life, but at least I can give her a name, you know?"
She takes his hand into hers and it feels so nice. There's this intimacy they share that he's never felt with Quinn. He's starting to feel guilty again.
"I think your intentions are good, but I think the name's just too unique. Not to say it's a bad name, I just think it will be a burden to her. With your talents and Quinn's gorgeous looks, she'll stand out too much. If she has an incredible name like Drizzle her peers would probably resent her. I mean look at me. Imagine if my name were Goldie Star Berry. Nobody would ever have the courage to talk to me."
He laughs because she wishes her name were Golden Star. She's cocky enough because she's sort of named after Barbra Streisand but she calls that her "hidden talent." He squeezes her hand because she's made him feel so much better. "You really think I'm that talented? That it'll get like passed down through you know," he gestures towards his junk.
Her cheeks turn red because now she's looking at it and she quickly shakes her head. "I think your talent will propagate through generations."
It makes him happy that he can give his daughter something. Maybe she'll be super tall like him and will be a model or something. Not a Victoria's Secret model or anything, that would be wrong. One that only models parkas and other unrevealing clothes. But then he wonders what him and Rachel would name their baby because there isn't an ordinary enough name to hide how awesome Rachel's kids would be.
"So you were like… dating Puck?" He asks her the day he rejoins glee. Rehearsal has been cut short because Mr. Schuester realizes that it's likely he'll get hypothermia if he doesn't change out of the clothes from his mass slushie-ing. Everyone else takes the opportunity to have an afternoon off from rehearsal but Rachel understands the fact that Sectionals is only a few weeks away and they haven't ironed out their set list yet.
"Kind of, I guess." She says.
"Oh," is all he can respond with.
She's sitting at the piano spreading sheet music across the keys when he sits next to her. Like "no personal space" close to her.
"It's not like it was serious," she continues without looking up from her sheet music. "We just found we had more in common than we initially thought."
Finn flips through some pages and picks out a few song titles. "What kinds of things?"
We're both sitting vigil waiting for you and Quinn to break up…
"Our Jewish heritage is a strong connection."
It's silent for a moment and then Finn says, "But anybody could be Jewish if they wanted to, right? Like I could be one too if I took some tests and had one of those mitzvah things."
Her heart stops for a moment, like he's thought about it before. "I guess," she shrugs like it's no big deal.
"So why'd you break up?"
Because you weren't jealous… at all.
"He lacked the leadership I crave in a partner," she explains. She finally looks at him. "Look Finn, I know I was disappointed in your choice of popularity over glee club. But in a weird way, you did the right thing. I mean it's not right to have to give up on something you love just because someone tells you its wrong."
Even though Finn can be a bit slow, he seems to understand what she's saying and that makes her very nervous.
"Yeah," he agrees. He pulls out a piece of sheet music and smiles. "We should sing this one at Sectionals; you'd be really good on it."
It takes everything she has not to cry. She wants to go to Puck at this moment, slap him on the face and tell him that nothing is impossible. She and Finn will be together, she knows it.
She gets stuck in the doorway and he can't stop laughing. She keeps pushing but the wheel doesn't move and neither does she.
"Get out of your chair, I'll fix it," Finn says after a good solid minute of watching her fail.
"I can't," she says. "I've only been in the chair for 56 minutes today and if I get up now, I'll fall short of the requirement."
He thinks it's pretty awesome how motivated she is about these types of things. "So you're going to sit in the doorway till the final bell?" He asks.
"Guess I'll have to," she shrugs.
"And miss both Economics and History class today?"
"It's for the team."
He tips her out of her chair. "That's just crazy," he reasons, carrying the chair back into the choir room.
She crosses her arms over her chest with a huff. "Fine," she says. He thinks she's really cute when she's angry.
He tries to get her wheel loose but it won't budge so he begins to hit it. Sometimes he gets really frustrated with Quinn and the baby and the way Puck is suddenly around all the time and how Puck is saying he's not doing good enough taking care of his family. Now he's kicking the wheel and about ready to toss the chair across the room.
"Hey, calm down," Rachel says, breaking him from his moment of rage.
"Sorry," he says uneasily. "I'm just kind of angry all the time now."
"Is it the baby," she asks. Her voice is so soft and gentle and for the first time it doesn't feel like he's being attacked.
Finally he gets the wheel free. "Quinn and me are just fighting a lot because we owe money for her medical bills and I can't afford it." He looks the wheel over. "And now Puck's on my ass about not doing good enough like it's any of his business."
"Maybe he likes her," Rachel says out of nowhere.
"What?"
Suddenly she can't look at him. "Nothing," she says. But the seed has been planted.
"You're always there for me when I need you," she then says. "So I guess you can do some things right."
He grins. At least somebody appreciates him.
"So I guess the ballad assignment is over," Finn says after rehearsal has ended. "But did we ever figure out who was singing for Sectionals?"
Rachel giggles as she pulls her backpack over her shoulder. "I'm not sure."
"I guess the assignment did some good. I mean my mom knows about the baby now, Quinn got kicked out of her house, and I'm pretty sure at any moment her father may pop out of nowhere like in a horror movie and brutally kill me, but it's nice not to have so many secrets anymore."
She frowns. So much has happened to him this week and she feels guilty because she was too focused on her crush on Mr. Schue. She feels so selfish. "I'm sorry I wasn't there."
"It's okay. This was something I had to do on my own… or with Kurt, I guess."
They fall into step as they exit the choir room and she can't help but feel jealous that Kurt was the one to be there for Finn this week. If she were there she'd give him much better advice for facing Quinn's father, or at least pick out a better song that that Paul Anka monstrosity.
"I really missed you this week," he says.
Her heart stops. "Really?"
"Yeah," he shrugs. "When I was telling the Fabray's the truth I couldn't stop but think how awesome you would have been telling Mr. Fabray off for kicking Quinn out of the house."
"I can be sort of abrasive sometimes," she frowns.
"I think it's cool though. That you have your beliefs and you stick to them no matter what. Sure you're a little loud about it sometimes, but at least it comes from a good place."
"You really think that?" She asks.
"Yeah."
Maybe Mr. Schuester was right. Maybe there was a guy out there for her.
He can't stop picturing Rachel in a bikini. He thought that after the whole Grease thing that he had seen the light. That Quinn was who he wanted to be with. She was carrying his baby and she was true to herself and she'd actually been kind of nice to him ever since she moved in. But when Rachel looks at him, while they're all singing on stage, he can't fight that feeling in his chest.
And now that he's seen so much of Rachel's boobs he can't stop thinking about them. Sure she wears super skimpy skirts but her sweaters are always up to her chin and she's the only person on earth who wears every button in place. Now when he looks at her he sees her boobs up at her chin and he imagines what it'd be like to touch them… licking them would be kind of cool too.
He realizes it then. When the last time he's even thought about getting into Quinn's pants? She's pregnant with his kid and he's never even seen her naked. She's barely showing and people have sex till right before the baby is born sometimes, which he thinks is kind of gross, but the baby is barely there at this point, they could totally do it if they wanted to. But he never even thinks of that.
He wonders when he stopped wanting to have sex with Quinn Fabray and only want to be a friend to her. He also wonders if Rachel has something to do with it because he's pretty sure it happened before there was a baby involved.
After Mr. Schuester is forced to step down she feels defeated. She can't help but blame herself for the whole debacle, but she really thought the commercial would help unify the club. Also she needed something to put on her resume. This only makes her feel guilty again because she's essentially ruined the club's chances of winning Sectionals. Glee club is over. Her high school career is over. Her friendship with Finn is over.
He shows up Saturday morning, after Mr. Schuester has stepped down from the show director chair. He says something about being a team leader and making it up to her for the yearbook photo before he holds up some poster board and art supplies with an idea to raise glee morale.
"So first we have to win Sectionals," Finn says slowly trying to work through the math. "And if we win that we get to go to Regionals."
Rachel puts the final touches on her Sectionals Support sign with a gold star.
Finn sits on her bed trying to get the cap off her red and silver glitter pen and she cringes at the thought of him breaking it open all over her new comforter. She promised herself several weeks ago that she would never deny Finn access to her bed and she refuses to break this promise. Not even for glitter emergencies.
"Correct," she says still cringing until he safely removes the cap. "And the top two teams of each of the five regions moves on to Nationals."
"That's easy," he says confidently. "We can totally do that."
"Yeah," she agrees. "I think we can."
"I'm not even sure it's true… it's only a theory."
His first instinct is to be relieved. How awful is that? He finds out that his pregnant girlfriend cheated on him and the baby isn't his and he feels relieved. Like, "Oh, hey, cool. I wanted to break up with you anyway." But they had bonded. Even though they weren't epically in love or anything, things had changed between them after the whole baby thing started. They depended on each other. They were finally friends.
"The only way you'd know for sure is from a test."
Next he feels stupid… like really stupid. Four whole months and he couldn't put the pieces together. Couldn't think to ask someone… anyone, hey where do babies come from? The hot tub? His mom is going to be giving him awkwardly detailed sex lectures for a week because of this, he just knows it. He wonders how many weeks he can avoid the locker room because he'll never hear the end of it from the guys.
"You're just too trusting," she says. "I should know. I too suffer from believing in people too much. Where are you going?"
Then he feels angry. He throws his books across the hall, he punches his locker, he finds Puck and punches his face, and then he kicks chairs over. It doesn't make him feel any better.
Finally he just feels sad. His daughter, the little girl he had spent months loving more than anything was never there. They weren't going to keep her anyway, he reminds himself. It doesn't help.
He goes home. He throws all her stuff down the hall. Closes the door behind him and cries. He doesn't stop crying till Saturday.
After they've won Sectionals, he kisses Rachel. He sees Quinn watching him sadly and he remembers how much she hates Rachel and he feels selfish and sad and angry so he kisses Rachel.
He doesn't think it'll be a big deal. They've kissed before, a couple times actually. If anything she'll be disappointed in him for using her like that, but he'll apologize, she'll understand, and they'll be friends again. She's the only friend he has now, she'll understand.
He doesn't realize what he's getting himself into.