Okay so I have to give credit for this idea to xoBrucas4life86ox for this idea! So thank you dearly! Our PMs make me smile! Alright, here we go!
Disclaimer: I do not own Glee!
It had been two months since the regionals competition, and although Mr. Shuester had told the glee clubbers to take the summer off and relax, Rachel found herself at a table in the music section of the library thumbing through different arrangements of sheet music from her favorite plays. Some people at school would swear that Rachel Berry needed extensive therapy, but what they didn't know was that Rachel's true solace was the free feeling she got when she sang. It seemed so simple to an outsider, you simply sing the lyrics and hit the notes, but to the performer it was so much more than that. The feeling Rachel got when she poured her heart into a piece of music that she believed in was what cleansed her soul more than spending an hour talking with a stranger ever would.
Back when she had gotten laryngitis, Rachel had sworn that she needed applause to live. Slowly, though, she seemed to be learning that maybe her addiction to singing had nothing to do with the thrill of being famous, but was more about the absolute freeness you experience when you get to spend a few minutes baring your soul.
As Rachel looked over a book of songs performed by Barbara Streisand, she heard someone begin to play the piano on the other side of the bookcase. This was another reason Rachel loved the music section. You never knew if someone was going to choose this moment to let themselves show what is going on in their heart. Rachel gently placed the book back where she had gotten it from and walked to the other side of the section to see who had chosen to play the piano.
When Rachel glanced at the person playing the piano, she suddenly wished that she would have taken Mercedes and Kurt up on their offer to take her shopping this afternoon. There at the piano sat the guy who she had not seen since his rendition of "Bohemian Rhapsody." Rachel cursed her heart for even trying to speed up its pace when she noticed the concentrated look he was giving to the music set in front of him. She watched as he squinted his eyes at the book and then seemed to mumble lyrics as he played. She told herself to turn around and walk out the door, but she found that her legs and her head had a very different idea because she seemed to be rooted to where she was standing.
He was wearing his signature dark color pallet and his hair was in its usual curly array. Rachel had always thought that if she ever saw him again he would seem different to her. But, as she watched him continue with what he was playing, she noticed that he was still the same person who had told her that he would never hurt her and then gone off and rejoined his old group while abandoning her. She looked around at the other people who had stopped to listen to the intricate notes that were coming from the piano and noticed how they all seemed mesmerized by what he was doing. Rachel shook her head. Was that what she had looked like the first time he played for her in this very spot? She found that the people around her were simply enchanted by the way Jesse looked and the way he held his posture at the piano. Rachel suddenly had a realization as to why the people at school had the idea that she was so high maintenance and why people usually steered clear of her. Rachel always made sure she carried herself in a way that showed that she was someone worthy of respect, but perhaps the way that her nose was always slightly upturned and the way that her outfits were always intricately placed together gave off the impression to others that she thought she was too good for her surroundings. Given, Rachel knew that she was destined for something bigger than this town, but still maybe when she returned to McKinely in the fall, she could try and bring herself to a more relatable level.
She was so caught up in her new revelation that she didn't notice the music come to an end and the small crowd that had gathered dissipate. She stood there, unmoving, until she heard someone say her name.
"Rachel," Jesse sighed.
"Jesse," Rachel replied as she tried to keep herself from looking him in the eye.
"Um," Jesse found himself at a loss for words. What was he supposed to say to a girl that he had used as an egg target only a few weeks after telling her that he was crazy about her?
"Congratulations," Rachel decided to say. While, at the moment, she didn't necessarily respect him right now, she still held respect for his talent.
"Thank you," Jesse replied and tried not to appear as surprised as he felt. Honestly, when he had decided to come down here to take the piano for a spin, he hadn't even considered her being here. And even if he had factored in the idea of running into her, he never thought that she would be complementing him.
"So I guess your senior year really was a victory lap for you," Rachel mused as she finally got the guts to look at his face instead of his shoes.
"Not completely," Jesse disagreed. "I always thought that victory laps were effortless. Automatic. You're supposed to be so caught up in what you've accomplished that you don't become attached to anything going on in the present."
Rachel remained silent for a moment, Attached? He couldn't be talking about me.
"Well," Rachel remarked. "I suppose it doesn't really matter. In the end you're right where you planned to be. Vocal Adrenaline is on its way to Nationals. Isn't that what you wanted all along?"
This time, Jesse remained silent. His brows furrowed and he looked at Rachel carefully. He was trying to figure out exactly what she was trying to say. Reading people was something he had always prided himself on, but Rachel seemed to as good as an actor as he was. She was shockingly unreadable as she stood there waiting for him to say something.
"I've got to get going," Rachel finally said when she decided that he wasn't going to say anything. "Goodbye Jesse." Rachel turned and walked to the library doors. She had forgotten, of course, that she was only fifteen and unable to drive. Not to mention that she had told her fathers that she would be done around five and it was only four thirty. She had also, oh so conveniently, left her phone on the charger in her room, so calling a glee member with an SOS was also out. Sighing agitatedly, she took a seat on one of the benches in front of the library. Suddenly she found herself aggravated. What right did he have to cause her to leave the library? She had been there first! He wasn't supposed to just show up in her life after she had spent the last two weeks telling herself that she didn't need to know why he had done what he had done! It was as if he had come knowing that she would be there simply to torture her!
When she heard the door to the library open, she automatically turned to see who it was. She frowned when she saw that it was him. She should have known. What fun would this be if she was just able to leave?
"You're still here," Jesse commented when he saw her sitting on the bench.
"I am," Rachel answered shortly. Maybe if she didn't put much effort into her answers he would leave.
"Can I ask why?" Jesse inquired as he quirked up one of his eyebrows.
"I'm not old enough to drive, I told my dads I wouldn't be done until five, and I left my phone at home."
"This day keeps getting more and more like a movie," Jesse remarked.
"My thoughts exactly," Rachel frowned.
"I can give you a ride," Jesse offered. "If you want?"
"There's an elephant standing behind you."
"Point taken," Jesse sighed and he took a seat on the opposite side of the bench she was on.
"You're sitting," Rachel commented.
"I am."
"Why?"
"Because," Jesse explained, "as you just pointed out, there happens to be an elephant in the room. I know somethings went unsaid between us, so we might as well get them out now."
"Fine," Rachel agreed. "Talk."
"I know that the last thing you want is to hear me out, but do you think that maybe you could let me explain before you jump on me?"
"No promises."
"I'll take that. I know that I let you down, and I know that I wasn't completely honest about my intentions."
"Obviously," Rachel scoffed.
"I deserve that," Jesse accepted. "The day that I met you here was completely unscripted. I swear. But, somehow, Shelby found out about us dating and she asked to see me in her office. She told me you were her daughter, and then she asked me if I would 'befriend' you. Which, admittedly, was a little stupid of her to say considering I had already asked you out. I agreed because she seemed so upset about never getting to know you, and really who could blame her? You're fathers and her had an agreement that she wouldn't be allowed to contact you until you were eighteen unless you were to want to find her. My parents don't really care about what I'm doing, so to hear that Shelby wanted to be a part of your life made me really want to do this for her. So, I planted the tape in one of the boxes you brought up from the basement."
"So you did know," Rachel frowned. "You couldn't just tell me? You had to go and turn it into some sick game?"
"It wasn't a game! She wanted to meet you so badly and I knew that if I just told you that she was your mother you would assume that that was the only reason I was dating you."
"It was!" Rachel exclaimed.
"I told you," Jesse argued, "that us singing 'Hello' and me asking you out that day wasn't part of any of this! I asked you out genuinely because I thought you were interesting and beautiful and talented!"
"Call me crazy, but I have a hard time believing you."
"I suppose I deserve that too."
"Okay," Rachel said. "Let's say I do believe everything that you're saying right now. I trust that your intentions were good all along and that you had genuine feelings for me. That still doesn't match up to you leaving New Directions! It doesn't match up with you showing up at McKinely with some speech about how we didn't appreciate you and humiliating me in front of all of my friends by making me into some sort of omelet!"
"You're right," Jesse sighed. "It was out of line and not something I'm proud of. I'd love to write it off as simple payback for the humiliation of that 'Run, Joey, Run' video, but I guess there's more to it than that."
"I would hope so."
"It did begin why I did it though," Jesse continued. "I'm not stupid, and I knew I was the rebound guy. You were still in love with Finn, and that video only solidified the idea that you could have been using me. What better way to get a guy to realize he wants to be with you than to start dating someone who's the exact opposite of him?"
"I wasn't-"
"And then I hear from Santana and Brittany that he sang you 'Jessie's Girl' while I was on Spring Break. You didn't tell me! It was like it was some sort of secret, like you didn't want to tell me because secretly you liked it! I had come back from that trip determined to make things work between us. I was so ready to tell you the truth, and just let you decide whether or not you wanted to be with me. I shouldn't have thought it was going to be that easy, leave it to Santana and Brittany to shove that story in my ears before they would tell me where you were."
"It wasn't-"
"So I decided to stay with the original plan. I planted the tape and tried not to think twice about it. Once I had convinced myself that you were still in love with Finn, I figured I had nothing to lose. The rest of your club didn't like me anyways, at least at Carmel I had friends. I had done what I had been sent out to do, and I told myself there was no reason to stay. The egging wasn't my idea. Shelby hadn't told the rest of Vocal Adrenaline that you were her daughter. As far as they knew I had left to date you, which wasn't completely untrue, and they wanted me to prove my loyalty. I thought that the performance of 'Another One Bites The Dust' would be enough, but they were looking for something a little more personal."
"You said that you loved me."
"Again, not one of my proudest moments. I suppose that is about as low as I've ever gotten. I just had this picture in my head of you running straight back to Finn. It made me mad, and I thought that if I said that you would think twice about rushing into another relationship so fast."
"I don't know what to say," Rachel concluded.
"I know it's probably not what you wanted to hear, but it is the truth. I owed you that much," Jesse added. "I planned on trying to tell you all of this after Regionals, but after I watched you perform I just couldn't bring myself to do it. You looked so completely enamored with Finn while you were singing 'Faithfully.' If you were still able to look at him like that after everything I did to break you, I didn't want to mess with that."
"Thank you for being honest," Rachel offered him a small smile. She noticed her father's car pull up on the curb and she stood to leave.
"So I guess this is goodbye," Jesse frowned as he also stood.
"I guess so," Rachel agreed.
"For now," Jesse added as an after thought. "I wasn't lying when I said that you becoming famous was an inevitability. You're going places Rachel, and in the end, I'm hoping they'll be the same places I'm going. I'll see you on 42nd Street."
Rachel simply smiled and gave him a quick hug. She took a deep breath and walked to get into the car. She had gotten what she had wanted, closure. For now.
Wow... that was way longer than I thought it was going to be!
Thoughts?