He comes home from the army to surprise his girlfriend only to find her cheating with Jesse St. James. Sure he should be a little more furious maybe even devastated but this is now giving him the freedom he wanted and he just feels relieved. During his training or combat there was always one thing that let him sleep at night and that was looking at Quinn's Lucy Caboosey photo. Not a picture of his girlfriend, or now ex-girlfriend's broadway photos that she sends him every week or the letters she sends along with it. No, he just stares at Lucy because that's what calms him down, that's what gets him through the night while he fights for the country.
He should of broken up with Rachel a long time ago, he should of begged Quinn to take him back after they all had graduated from high school. Rachel kept bugging him that going to the army will put a strain on their relationship. Rachel never understood him, and while his friends threw him a Bon Voyage party, Finn sees Quinn sitting on the deck outside by herself and she told him to come back alive. Just to come home, no she doesn't scold, she just always understood. His father, grandfather, uncle, and every man in his family fought for this country; why would he be any different. She always understood and Finn just held her hand and the two sat in silence until Kurt called for Finn to come inside.
"bye honey, please be safe, I'll send you a package every month" Finn listens as his mom cries and gives him a hug. Burt is next to her and he just gives Finn a strong handshake, "I expect to see you for our five year anniversary son," Finn just nods as he gives Kurt a hug, Rachel decided it was best to say goodbye from Finn's house. He was glad she did anyway, it would have been way too dramatic if she came along and all he wanted was a short goodbye. His family bid him farewell and as he was about to walk away he sees a blond haired girl.
"hey, I didn't expect to see you here, are you picking someone up?" He mentally kicks himself in the head because that was pretty dumb of him to ask as he walks up to her.
She meets him half way, a little shy as she spoke "I just wanted to see you before you left and give you this," it was her grandfather's dog tag from WW2.
"I can't take this Q, this is special to you, I know how much your grandpa means to you" Finn just stares at it.
"Just come home Finn" That's all she says as she softly kisses his cheeks, takes the dog tag and tiptoes her way up to put it around his neck and leaves Finn at the airport watching her walk away realizing how much he loves her.
He should have realized it a while ago that he was in love with her, or that he still is. But now he's on a flight back to Lima to just come home, his mom is waiting for him and cries as she runs up to him. Everyone is glad your home.
"Mike and Tina got married, did Rachel tell you?" you hear as Carol tries to update you about your friends.
"Yeah, I heard." You keep quiet about the break up.
"okay, and Puck left to go to school in Michigan something about having a really good business school there and not being to far from Lima. And Artie…" You already heard all of this though, the only person Rachel never talked about was Quinn, and so you cut your mom off. "How's Quinn?"
Your mom, Kurt, Blaine, and Burt just give each other a look before you hear Kurt say, "she's getting married today in five hours at her family church."
The rest of the car ride was silent. Honestly, you don't know what to do; you've been gone for 3 years and had no contact with her, she is beautiful and you're the guy who let her walk away. It was bound to happen someone would appreciate her the way you did but wouldn't have treated her poorly. But as she was there for him on his big day, he decided to be there for her.
Finn puts on his service uniform because it's the only decent clothes he has and sits in the last pew of the church. He sees his old friends closer to the front, Mercedes is the maid of honor and the rest follow suit. They spot him and Artie waves, so do Mike and Tina. Everyone is there, even Puckerman and Mr. Schue, they all had the same thought as Finn did. It should be him up there.
The Wedding March plays and everyone stands up, you look at the lucky bastard marrying her, he's handsome, he's shorter than you though and you can't help but feel like killing the guy but you only blame yourself for being the idiot who let her walk away. She walks up, she's gorgeous and she looks happy, and you think this was a bad idea so before anything can start you get up before she can see you. Before you can ruin her happiness. You let her get married.
You're sitting on the deck in the backyard drinking a beer. You listen as cars drive by in the front before you notice her walk up from behind you. She sits next to you and you're silent. You look at her before you say anything, she's looks pretty in a white summer dress. "congrats by the way, on getting married." She just looks at you, the twinkle in her eyes are still there, and she just smiles.
"I didn't get married" that's all she says and it goes quiet again. And she looks at you, your back wearing shorts a t-shirt but you have her grandfather's dog tag on. She touches it, "you wore it."
"all the time, never took it off. Why didn't you get married?" He asks a little relieved that she isn't tied down to anyone.
"It's probably the same reason you wore the dog tag." Finn looks at her amazed and hopeful.
"can we be in love again?" he quotes her back in high school. You look at her and she nods, and you pull out your own dog tag and give it to her. "I'll always come home for you" you say to her because you never got a chance to at the airport and you hold her hand as the two of you sit in silence again.