A/N: Well here it is. I can't even say it's long-awaited because I can't leave this story alone. It's already been influenced by a hybrid of songs and people. To all of you who have helped me and supported me, I say thank you. I hope you enjoy this ride. I have some plans. Also, if for some reason you haven't read Lest You Forget before this, I think you'll be okay, but if you have an extra year on your hands and nothing better to do, I recommend giving it a read through for maximum effect. Otherwise, this whole set of events is AU after the season 2 episode Original Song. Special thanks to Jen (wants2beawriter) for her betaing. TEN DAYS. And also, go read her stuff if you haven't because she's awesome. I'm just sayin'.
Disclaimers: I don't own Glee. I also don't own the song I'll Be Your Breeze by Andrew Belle (which is where I hijacked the title from) or the song Uncertainly Certain by Green River Ordinance (which is where I hijacked the chapter title from). Both these songs will figure into this story at some point, but if you're interested I suggest checking them out because they're just so great. Oh, also... I know nothing about the Tony's other than what Wikipedia and a few other media outlets have told me. So go easy on me, mmkay? If anyone is interested, here's Rachel's dress: www (dot) dressesforus (dot) com (backslash) princess-gold-one-shoulder-dress-with-layers (dot) html
Chapter One: Just Here For the Ride
Finn had never really thought about it before. Sure, Rachel had been talking about the Tony's—specifically about winning them and what she would say when she did—for as long as he'd known her and obviously way before that. And he'd thought about being there with her, naturally. He was pretty sure he'd pictured every possible way and place they would be together. Okay, and honestly, maybe even a few places they wouldn't be together.
Like that weird dream from last week about them having sex in a cave when the whole world was destroyed and they were the only two people left and they like, had to have a baby to save the species. (He'd spent a little too much time YouTubing old television shows and clips on his laptop while Rachel was at work. The dream hadn't exactly come from nowhere, okay?)
Anyway, so he hadn't thought about it until they were in a limousine and Cooper and Charlie were getting in with them, and then the door opened and they were walking on a really real red carpet. She was wearing these super-tall high heels that put her face at his shoulder and as she whispered to him to put his hands in his jacket pockets, she wrapped her arm around him and it was right 'cause it was her but wrong 'cause she was just taller than normal and that was weird. He'd never really thought about what they would look like or what it would feel like to walk down an actual red carpet.
He never thought about what it would feel like to have an actual award nominee on his arm, which meant he also hadn't considered the fact she'd be smiling at flashes and talking to the press for-fucking-ever. He'd kind of realized he'd be able to just watch her forever, though. She was so happy to talk about the role she was nominated for, and preview her upcoming play (she actually once invited people to come to London to see it and he thought maybe she should try selling stuff if the Broadway thing didn't work out for her)…and him. Jesus, he'd never imagined reporters would be interested in him.
Then he realized if the band took off, he would be more than just the arm candy in this scenario and he wondered if there was some way Rachel could teach him how to deal with the press idiots because she was a pro and he was not good at talking to people the way she was. She worked in a by-line about his band, by the way, and he still wasn't sure how she'd managed to attach that to "…while we're on the subject."
They hadn't been on the subject. She had brought it up. She was amazing.
And now? Well, now she was gripping his hand tightly because the presenters had just taken the stage to announce Best Featured Actress in a Musical.
He brought her hand to his lips and kissed the back of it, looking at her out of the corner of his eye as he did. The motion seemed to snap her out of her intense trance and she actually breathed. She was just watching him out of the corner of her eye as well, but she smiled. He stuck his tongue out and licked the back of her hand and she yanked her hand out of his grasp, but she was laughing softly and saying how gross he was sometimes.
He was going to go ahead and put licking the back of her hand in the win column.
Finn had never really thought about how he would end up on national television if she won. But as soon as they said her name, he could feel all the eyes in the room shift over to them. He vaguely wondered why she had insisted he take the aisle seat. Because it meant this was his third time out of his chair now; once when she had gone to prepare for her performance (her awesome performance, by the way, even if there were three other people on stage with her and she wasn't the lead), once when she had come back—and of course when she was getting up to accept her award.
He got up and stepped out to the side, then put his arm out toward her like that would be the reason she walked. She looked up at him as she stepped past and he wasn't sure he'd ever seen that exact look in her eyes. He didn't want to be gross about it, he knew she didn't want him to be gross about it, so he just returned her smile and squeezed her hand hard. He was so proud of her; he knew she could feel it. She had worked hard for the moment. They could celebrate later and he could not hear about how inappropriate public displays of affection were; he was reasonably sure once champagne was involved at the after-party they were going to, she'd change her mind.
Besides, they had a few different reasons to celebrate.
She lifted the skirt of her dress up (she looked amazing, by the way) as she climbed the stairs and he caught a glimpse of the spiky heels on her feet that he told her looked like they belonged in an Austin Powers movie and she'd given him some shut-up eyes when he said it. But honestly, they were like 6-inches tall and gold and glittery and…well, now he thought they looked like they just belonged on the ends of her legs and she kept telling him they were actually comfortable. He thought she might be lying.
She exchanged those stupid little French kisses on the cheek with the presenters and grasped her award tightly before she turned to the podium for her speech; he knew she'd been waiting for this moment for her entire life, even if it wasn't a win for Best Actress. Besides, she was working toward that and she deserved this recognition, too, and he knew she knew it. What he hadn't known until he saw her lean toward the microphone was that he'd been waiting a big portion of his life to hear her give the speech. And he wondered almost absently if and where he would be mentioned. Honestly, he didn't think he should be mentioned because he hadn't been around when she was doing the play—other than the one time he had gone to see it. But that didn't meant he didn't want to be mentioned or whatever.
"Well…I've always thought when this happened, I would have a huge list of people to thank and I'd get to the red light before I'd begun. But really, the list is pretty simple. I have to thank my husband, Finn, for his years of tireless support, regardless of where his own life was at. I knew he believed in me. He's probably my staunchest supporter, in addition to my fathers, Leroy and Hiram, as well as my sometimes-better but always fabulous other half, Kurt. I owe a lot to the full cast and crew of the show, obviously, who will hopefully get their own turns to shine tonight. To my equity rep, Elaine, for her dedication and constant advocacy on my behalf to get me amazing roles and opportunities in the first place. To those who decide who's nominated and who wins. To those have watched my shows, critiqued my performances in any way, and those who have approached me personally to offer insight—my most heartfelt thanks. And I hope to see you all again very soon."
She stepped off the stage during their applause (he may have wolf-whistled; he didn't get to use that skill often, especially outside of an elementary school gym class) and accepted the direction of people telling her where to go before something—he thought maybe it was a balled-up page from the program—hit him in the side of the head. He turned toward the seat behind him and to his right where it had come from, and saw Cooper looking almost mad. He scowled and heard Cooper hiss "What the fuck, dude?"
Charlie punched Cooper in the arm and he looked over at her only long enough to say 'ow' before he was leaning forward and trying to talk to Finn.
"What's your problem?"
"Husband?"
"Talk about it with Rachel later."
"I'm asking you now."
"Dude, we're whispering over like eight people. Shut up and look alive, I think your category is up." He turned in his seat and ignored the fact the show was paused for a commercial break, knowing Rachel would be back shortly and not wanting to be in the middle of that conversation when she arrived. But he wondered how they hadn't really thought about the fallout of eloping.
It was kind of going to be less than awesome. He was really, really glad he had left (she made him) his cell phone back at the hotel. Thankfully, so had she. Hers was because she claimed she didn't want to spend 'her' night responding to messages; his was because he wanted to pay attention to her. He hadn't really thought about all they'd be blocking out and leaving for tomorrow.
He had never been so glad it was today.
As soon as they had finished the walk back down the red carpet and he'd successfully helped her and her dress into the car, they sat waiting for Cooper and Charlie. The pair had been right behind them initially, but someone had stopped Cooper to talk about his new show and the rest, as they say, was history.
Rachel looked at Finn with a brilliant (she was getting the hang of being British) smile even though she was beyond exhausted already. Between the performance, her win, the leading man's win, and then one nod for the director and one to the entire production, she had been on stage several times. Then, of course, was what had happened before they ever made it to Radio City Music Hall.
It was busy day—to put it mildly.
She leaned her head into him gratefully when he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. He played with the warm, bare skin on her shoulder and his free hand crossed his body to toy with the amber-hued jewels on her dress. The golden chiffon overlay had fallen awkwardly when she sat, leaving the bejeweled white satin skirt exposed.
"I really like your dress," he said. He leaned his head on top of hers. "You're amazing, you know that?"
"I think you're obligated to say such things about your wife," she said, still soaking in the praise from him anyway.
She couldn't see his grin come out, but it did. "Yeah, well…you're not amazing because you're my wife. You're my wife because you're amazing and I'd be an idiot not to marry you as fast I could."
"Mmm," she said contentedly as she snuggled against him.
Charlie and Cooper arrived, with Charlie getting in first because Cooper occasionally avoided acting like he'd been raised in a barn (which he hadn't.)
"Rachel, I had two reporters ask me about your dress. Pretty sure you're going to be on all the fashion blogs before bedtime."
Rachel, for her part, didn't even lift her head up from Finn's shoulder. "I doubt the theater world is that buzzworthy." She let out a huge yawn that surprised even Finn—maybe more than the way she dismissed what Charlie had said.
"Should we skip the party? Maybe I should take you home and put you to bed." He tightened his grip on her and turned his head to drop a kiss on her hair. She hadn't done anything too over-the-top for her hair style, just swept it up into a low bun with small braids woven in, so it still smelled normal to him. He closed his eyes and breathed her in.
Cooper, for his part just laughed—a lot. Charlie hit his shoulder again.
"What—ow! Stop that!" He protested.
"You stop that," Charlie barked. "Or you won't get taken home and put to bed."
"Well, I'm not legally obligated to get laid, I just want to."
His comment made Rachel sit up. "What are you talking about?"
"Well, if you're married, you have to have sex afterward for it to count."
Finn frowned. "That doesn't make sense," he argued. "She's wearing a ring. All the paperwork is signed. It counts."
Cooper held up a finger. "Not true, my friend. She could go to lawyer daddy number one tomorrow, say you hadn't fucked, and then she could erase your marriage."
Rachel shook her head before she settled back in to Finn.
"Wait…you guys are married? Like…actually?" Charlie asked. "When did that happen?"
Finn buried his nose in Rachel's hair again as she answered. "About three o'clock this afternoon."
"Are you…are you serious?" She stammered a little, leaning right into Cooper's lap to look at Rachel. "You…isn't it Sunday?"
"Lawyer daddy number one has an old and previously indebted law school friend who is a judge practicing here in the city. Since our flight leaves first thing tomorrow morning and we wanted to do this as close to home as possible, he set it up for us and it had to be this afternoon." She eyed Cooper a little contemptuously as she openly used his own words against him.
"So when you thanked your husband, it was legit; I thought you were just one of those couples that calls each other that," Charlie replied. "Would I be the first to say congratulations?"
Rachel shifted uncomfortably and Finn laughed a little. "Would you settle for third?" He asked. "There were a couple reporters who probably beat you to it when she changed her name…like…on the carpet."
"Ah, Rachel Berry...um…." Cooper scowled and scratched at the back of his head. "Well, this is awkward. What's your last name, Finn?"
The entire car laughed, but Cooper was correct. What do you say when you don't even know the last name of the guy your friend just married?
"Our last name is Hudson," Rachel said. She was trying to be stern but she was too happy and too exhausted.
"Hudson," Cooper said easily. He sat back in his seat, his arm draped around the seat where Charlie sat. "So…what does that actually do to your stage name? I can't really say it ever occurred to me."
Rachel looked up at Finn and he looked down at her, but really all the angle meant was she saw the bottom of his chin and he saw her nose.
"Well… it's not like I have to show identification to have my name engraved on my award. And I told them to use Hudson, so…"
"You did?" Finn asked. He kissed her suddenly and insistently. She wrapped her fingers into the lapels on his jacket to give her a little more leverage as she turned into him.
She pulled away just enough he could answer. "Yeah, I think you're kind of stuck with me."
He nodded. "Well…that's good."
"So what does this do to your job?" Cooper asked the air. After their date at the bar, he was used to them just answering in the middle of their making out.
Finn gave a shrug and dragged his eyes away. "Nothin' really. I mean, I quit my job at Montrose and we're trying to get our band off the ground. We're doing a contest thing in Ohio but all we really have is a phone interview with a radio station next week…"
Rachel was watching him curiously but listening intently; it was safe to say in the last week since he'd shown up on her doorstep in London, they hadn't actually talked about…well…much. They'd made major progress on Tangled, but even that had been done in her—their—bed. Hearing about his actual plans was a needed conversation, as much as she didn't want reality to pierce the bubble they were living in (especially now.)
"So I guess it just means I'll spend more on airfare," Finn concluded.
"Oh, you're going to London?"
Rachel smiled. She and Finn opened their mouths at the same time, but she was the one who spoke first. "He already lives there with me."
Cooper shook his head and his eyes were wide. "You're setting an impossible standard for the rest of us, dude."
Rachel laughed and didn't even fight the urge to be that stupid, cheesy girl she sometimes wanted to actually kick in the shins. "Why do you think I wanted his last name?"
"Well, then let's get out the champagne and pre-game," Charlie said, reaching for the bar. "After all, we've got one Tony winner on board and three parts of a Tony winning ensemble in this very car plus a couple of sickening newlyweds. We have reasons, all right?"
She handed the bottle of champagne over to Cooper; he looked at her questioningly before he passed the bottle to Rachel; she was the pro at opening champagne without popping the cork and spraying champagne everywhere. It was one more thing Finn was kind of amused to learn about his new wife.
The other thing he learned was how much fun it actually was to go to that kind of party with her. She had worked the red carpet like a PR machine, and the after-party (which was only not lame because of the food. Like, seriously. The buffets? They were themed. It kind of blew his mind as he stood in the middle of the Cupcake Pavilion. He reached for his phone no less than six times, wanting to text a picture to various people. Then he realized it was going to be on E! or whatever and…the mind-blowing kept going on like that; it was a cycle) was no different. She smiled, she shook hands, and she kept him close. She always remembered to introduce him, never failed to remind people she had a new last name.
At some point, he stood with Charlie while Rachel and Cooper had their pictures taken together by some random reporter who had stopped by their table. Charlie had been in the ensemble of the play, and although she was cast as Rachel's understudy, she'd never actually played the part. And because Rachel had won, she and her co-supporting star were sort of in demand. It wasn't the first time Finn and Charlie had stood off to the side, watching Cooper and Rachel goof around.
Charlie lowered the glass of champagne that had been pressed to her lips and tilted it toward Rachel. "She's always…just…full of life. But I don't know if I've ever seen her this happy."
"She just won a Tony," he said. He smiled. "She's worked for it her whole life."
"Maybe, but I think it's just the icing. Not the cake," Charlie said. She linked her hand around Finn's arm where it was tucked into his jacket pocket. She was a little taller than Rachel (like basically everyone else) and kissed his cheek easily. "Hurt her and I'll kill you."
He looked over at the girl suddenly and he was pretty sure she wasn't kidding.
"You two are beautiful," squealed some random woman. She motioned to a photographer. "What are your names?"
"We're actually waiting for our dates," Charlie said smoothly. "But I'm Charlotte Black." She pointed to where Cooper and Rachel were still talking to the other reporter. "I'm here with Cooper Reynolds."
The reporter said something else but Finn had caught Rachel's eye and motioned her over with a twitch of his head, so he missed whatever it was. Turned out the reporter had already talked to Rachel and Cooper so she excused herself and Finn turned to Rachel and kissed her forehead before she looked back up at him.
"What was that?"
He shrugged it off. "I'm only pretty sure there won't be a picture of Charlie kissing my cheek and threatening my life."
"So in other words…" Rachel said, redirecting her tired gaze to her unapologetic friend (who was giggling as Cooper said something in her ear). "It's basically just another night out for her."
"That's right!" Charlie said. "I told him I'd meet him in a dark alley if he ever hurts you."
Rachel just shook her head tiredly and motioned to their table a few feet away. "Can we sit down for a bit?"
"Goldmember shoes aren't so comfortable after all?" He said as he reached down to tug her chair out from the table.
She shook her head and dropped into the chair he held out. "They're fine," she said. He knew she'd never admit to him she was miserable. Her little sigh as she sat back did that for him.
"Wasn't there supposed to be dinner at this thing?" Cooper said as he settled into his own chair. It wasn't awkward at all that a waiter overheard him and then rushed to bring food out for all four of them with an impatience that made the guys laugh. Rachel and Charlie excused themselves to go to the bathroom and returned with beer for the guys and champagne for themselves.
Finn knew she and Charlie had maybe had something else at the bar because she set their drinks down and then leaned over to talk in his ear (it was really loud, even if it was mostly just the low hum of voices talking everywhere around them), but she stumbled and rested her hand on his shoulder. He put his hands on her elbow and waist to steady her.
"People keep asking me why we're not having a private party," she said. His grin cracked open a little and she kept talking. "I don't know what to tell them. I think they're right."
He knew it made him a total dork, but he muttered a line he'd always wanted to say to a girl. "Then let's get outta here."
Her hand slid up the side of his neck and she pulled back enough to cup his face in both her hands before she kissed him; turned out he was right about the combination of after-party and champagne changing her feelings on PDA. She dropped into his lap and pressed her tongue into his mouth. He kinda loved when she relaxed like that. He could get used to coming to stuff like this if it ended up with her in his lap.
He tried really hard to keep his hands from wandering too much, though. He didn't want to embarrass her, like, the next day. And there were at least a dozen photographers around all the time. He played with the jewels on her dress, inching up the one strap that looped over her shoulder, then trailing his fingers up her neck before he finally pulled away.
"Are you hungry at all? The server is tripping over himself to get us some food."
She shook her head and her lips were still actually on his as she spoke. "I'm not hungry. I'm something else."
"Yeah, you are," he agreed, grinning again. "I'm pretty sure our hotel has room service."
"I'm pretty sure I like the way you think," she said. "Let's go."
He pulled back and couldn't really hide his surprise, honestly. Rachel Berry was ditching out on her first Tony Awards after-party—after she won an award, no less—to go back to their (admittedly pretty cool) hotel and fool around with him?
She wasn't Rachel Berry anymore. She was Rachel Berry Hudson. Things had changed. And he was pretty sure he was going to love being married to her.