This is my attempt at a post-S4 Finchel fic, picking up right after (and slightly during) the season finale. Other characters will appear as the story warrants; there's also a lot of parallel development going on in the show that is hard to ignore entirely.

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or any of its characters that I am using here.

I'm the one who wants to love you more (*)

Rachel poured everything she had into the song, all she was and all she hoped to be. Something I'm truly passionate about that defines me, she thought, remembering Finn's perfect advice, wondering if he knew that this led her straight back to him. She dreamed of being Fanny, yes, and having Broadway success, but tapping into her heart meant singing about love, about Finn.

She'd been blocked on this for so long, that dark winter. But her emotions were flowing freely now, carrying everything else with them.

She finished, a few last tears coming, and then waited as the producers thanked her politely. Now that she could look out at them again she saw that they seemed moved, impressed; she hoped that was enough. She must have impressed them significantly already just to have gotten this far, through all the rounds of auditions.

There were a few more still to see, she was told, for different roles; they hoped to have a decision for her late that afternoon. So she thanked them for their consideration, did her best to conduct herself as the professional she hoped to be, and left.

The loft was quiet, empty. She hated that, hated waiting alone, but was learning to steel herself against that loneliness now she'd seen how badly she could mess things up with her need for company and attention. Still, she now felt echoes of last fall; she was wiser now, but still she was in New York and everyone else was in Lima. Back in Lima, admittedly. But it wasn't either of her absent roommates that she missed, Kurt with his excitement and sympathy or Santana with her barbs and challenging affection. Rachel's heart was still in her song, still fixed on Finn.

She looked at the clock. Eleven. She would hear by four at the earliest, probably later, even tomorrow. And everyone was in Lima, busy, New Directions at Regionals, most of the others supporting them, and Finn had some makeup test that she could tell he hadn't wanted to talk about. She'd accepted his evasions despite her sinking feeling at having him hiding things from her again; it wasn't time to push, but she did her best to open up with him in the hopes that he'd do the same with her. He'd certainly been sorry he wouldn't be able to go to Regionals, and she had said that made them the same because she couldn't either, and they'd shared a chuckle. She was going to call him as soon as she heard, of course, but great as talking to him again was, she always felt the need for more, wanting to see him, feel him, be with him.

Five hours to wait. And the flight from Newark to Dayton was only two.

Rachel quickly looked into last-minute flights, threw a few things into her largest shoulder bag, and called a taxi to take her to the airport.

Luck was with Rachel, in the form of a vacant seat on the next flight to Dayton and a shuttle bus that stopped at the University of Lima campus en route to the local hotels. A few doubts surfaced en-route, she didn't know what Finn was up to other than school and New Directions, or whether he would really welcome her coming out-of-the-blue. But she shunted those thoughts aside, still energized by her solo and full of the same determination to go after what she needed.

Once she arrived on campus she quickly found the cluster of residence buildings. The information Finn had given her about where he was staying was pretty sketchy, but he had mentioned the building name once in passing, and despite poor signage she found it on her second try. She went inside and did her best to look as though she belonged, at least as if she was an invited visitor rather than someone wandering the halls. She made it up to the third floor before being stopped by a student, a dirty blond guy of medium height who looked slightly older.

"If you're looking for a party it's at Jones tonight," he said, giving her a small but noticeable once-over. "Haven't seen you at ours though, why not?"

"Ah..." Rachel stalled a little. "I'm from out-of-town," she excused herself. He didn't look like he was about to object to her wandering around, after all. And she did feel like she was from out-of-town, Lima would always be a part of her but a lot of that was due to Finn. New York was her home, now.

"Oh, that explains it." He looked at her again, not leering exactly or crowding her, but a more intimate gaze and a step closer than would be normal. She suppressed the urge to move back. "I'm the RA here, I keep an eye on everyone that comes through. I know I'd've remembered you."

Rachel decided that she might as well use this to her advantage, and gave him a friendly but still cool smile. "Then perhaps you can help me," she said. "I'm looking for Finn Hudson."

He cooled his own look down to 'friendly' at this. "Hudson? Sure, he's on this floor, room at the end. He's out, though."

"I know, he's writing a test today, but he shouldn't be long." Her acting had improved greatly at NYADA, and her knowledge and assured air should finish the job, convince this guy that she was expected.

The RA looked skeptical. "I saw him leave just half an hour ago, he won't be back for at least another hour if he's got a test."

"Oh." Rachel squelched her disappointment at having been just a little too late, it really was better for her not to have distracted Finn before his test. But she couldn't just hang out there for an hour, or could she? She didn't want to wander around, she didn't know the campus at all – it hadn't been of any interest to her, not having much of a fine arts program – and she might miss him. "I suppose I did make very good time. I don't suppose I could stay here and wait for him?"

"You his sister or something?" the RA asked, looking a little hopeful again, though his suggestion was highly implausible. "I could let you into his room, I have access."

"I'm his girlfriend," she replied, almost by reflex. She flinched a little as she heard herself say the lie, but – Finn had told her that, after all, that no matter what happened she was his, and she knew he was right about that. He'd told her she was his girlfriend, and she was coming to believe it too. She hoped that he hadn't changed away from it.

"Hudson has a girlfriend?" The guy sounded surprised. "Didn't know he went in for that."

Girls, or just girlfriends? Rachel wondered, but neither really mattered much. It's not as if she had anything to protest about, though if he was sleeping around then maybe he was getting as lost as she had been, or just filling the void. She knew much more about that than she'd like. "Really?" she asked, trying to sound noncommittal.

"I don't know. I mean he sure seems interested in girls, but sure as sh– uh, shooting – if there's a couple of girls at a party hanging off him and Puck, by the end it's Puckerman 2 Hudson 0." He snorted. "It's the law of conservation of girls."

"That's because Finn has his own," Rachel declared, hoping that this was true. She flashed a bright confident smile. And she did feel confident, it certainly sounded like Finn wasn't trying to get over her, he was waiting for her, and here she was.

"Well I guess I can let you in," the guy shrugged. "Hudson's a big boy, if he doesn't want you there he can take care of it himself."

Rachel relaxed and followed the RA down the corridor to the room at the end, and yes the sign on the noticeboard said Finn & Puck. She giggled a little to see that the sign was in three pieces and showed signs of having been rearranged repeatedly, presumably in a dispute over whose name should go first. Finn was listed first now, so he must have been in last.

"No idea where Puckerman is, as usual," the man commented as he unlocked the door. "Better that way since he's not supposed to be here at all. But he does keep the place fun."

"Noah always does," she replied, remembering that of course security wasn't that big a deal since Puck was living in a place where he wasn't even a student. "Thank you."

"Sure, no problem." He let her enter, then turned to go. "And if there is a problem, you never met me."

"Understood." Then the door closed behind her, and she was alone in Finn's room.

Rachel looked around, finding one dorm room to look a lot like any other, at least from what she remembered of her brief stay in the NYADA dorms. This one had bunks, but otherwise: uncomfortable single beds, check; desks, check; bulletin board, check; sexually hyperactive roommate, check...

The drum sitting by the corner of the couch, that was rarer, and she liked that sign, making this room special because this was Finn's. Next to the drum was the end of the bunks; Finn would have the lower one, she knew, he liked to sit on the side of his bed. She quietly sat there now, still looking around the room, waiting.

She noted the clock showing ten minutes to four, still forty-five minutes to go before when Finn would likely be back.

Rachel lay back into the bunk, enjoying the scent that lingered. Yes it meant he probably didn't wash his sheets as much as he should, but it was Finn. Then she looked up, and her breath caught.

Above her, taped to the bottom of the top bunk, deep in the corner where they would be private, were pictures. Photographs, three of them, all of her. One of her solo at Nationals; one a candid he'd taken on his phone of her sitting in the choir room, he'd called her name and she'd looked up with one of the smiles that was his alone; and one of the two of them together at prom, her face leaning on his chest and his against her hair. She reached out to that one, lightly touching Finn's cheek in the picture, sure now that she was doing the right thing in coming to him.

She idly checked the time again, finding it just before four o'clock. But it had been a long day for her already. She'd called heavily on adrenaline, for her callback certainly and then the trip and her search for Finn, and that energy was ebbing rapidly. Soothed by the familiar impressions of Finn around her, Rachel dozed.

She came suddenly back to full wakefulness when her phone rang, giving the ringtone that she'd chosen for the Funny Girl producers. She sat up rapidly; this was it, the news, so soon. They had made up their minds quickly. She wondered whether this was a good or bad sign, if this meant their minds had largely been made up before hearing her sing that morning, but either way she needed to know. So she answered, and listened, nodding and saying the right words, agreeing to what was being said.

She hung up and took a deep breath, schooling her hectic thoughts. Then the door opened. And Rachel looked up at the man standing staring at her, and gave him her warmest and brightest smile.

* "To Love You More", as sung by Lea Michele as Rachel, written by David Foster and Junior Miles.

Yes this was a bit of a conceit, to open my story under the same constraints the show had (though I took much longer to write it). I hope you like what I did with it.

Please review!