A/N: This is a short transitional chapter. Some more background into who Finn and Rachel are now. Don't worry we will get to some Finchel but I think it's important to my character development to really see how the last 10 years has shaped them. Not just Finn and Rachel, but Kurt and Puck as well. And it's leading into the plot more too. Let me know what you guys think so far!
May 2022
Rachel was jolted form her slumber by the feeling of someone standing over her. Her eyes opened and Kurt's form adjusted in her sight. She had been back in the states for a month, crashing in Kurt's guest bedroom and not doing much else. And she had been quite for Rachel Berry standards. She wouldn't talk about London, at least the last year. She just layed around moping. When she could sense shew as getting on their nerves Rachel would walk the streets of the city she had once dreamed would be her home. She often found herself walking the streets of the theater district looking at the marquees and play boxes and wondering what her life would have been like to have been a star on these stages. She was 27 years old and had no idea what she was doing with her life. She had no idea where to go from here. Rachel had thought she knew exactly what she was going to do with her life but now she was beginning to doubt her choices.
"Rachel" Kurt said a little to loudly and she sat up to give him her full attention.
"What?" she questioned
"You need to pack a bag" he said
Rachel began to panic, was he kicking her out? This was it, the moment she had feared. Where would she go? What would she do? She should not have wasted the last month doing nothing, she should have been beating the pavement, she should have been getting her life together.
"Why" her voice was barely above a whisper, she held her breath, waiting for it.
"Because we are leaving soon" he told her standing.
He pulled her duffel bag from the closet that held more of his clothing than hers. A perfect reminder that she had nothing of value right now. She had left so much behind in London when she left but those were all material things. The important stuff, she was beginning to realize, she had left behind years ago. She had left behind in Lima.
"Where are we going" Rachel was still rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
She looked at the clock, it was 7am, she had not been up this early in god knows how long.
"Lima"
"What? Why?" she screeched.
"Because my dear Rachel, our 10th reunion is this weekend and we are far to successful to miss it. It's time to show that cow town who Kurt Hummell and Rachel Berry have become"
Rachel felt the bile rise in their throat, this was the last thing in the world she wanted to do. Lima, Ohio… a town full of losers. And she was headed back just as she had left it, a nobody.
"Daddy NO" Jack shrieked as Finn tried to pry the child from his thighs.
Finn was not sure when this clingy behavior had began but he was more than ready to put a stop to it. It was Friday night and he had stupidly let Puck talk him into going to the reunion. He wasn't even sure how or why he had agreed to this but here he was getting ready to face high school once again.
"Jackson" he started squatting down in front of his son "Daddy has to go out for a while with Uncle Puck. Grandma and Grandpa are going to spend some time with you"
"No Daddy" he squawked
Finn looked up at his mother and Burt with a sympathetic gaze. He felt really awful leaving his screaming child with his parents for the night. He was actually considering calling Puck and canceling the whole thing when his mothers voice got his attention. He could barely hear her over Jackson's screaming.
"Go Finn" she began "He will calm down trust me"
"I feel awful leaving you with a cranky kid" he said.
"Finn you never take time for yourself. Your 28 years old and I have more of a social life than you" Burt laughed "Son… go"
Finn smiled a thanks in his parents direction and kissed his sons head before rising to his feet.
"Oh and Finn" Burt began "When that son of mine makes an appearance tell him he better dome see his old man before he jets back to his fabulous life in the Big City"
"Will do and thanks again Dad" Finn said as he walked out the door to the sound of his son screaming in the background.
Finn had not seen Kurt in a number of years but the two were still close. Kurt had tried fruitlessly to get Finn to come visit him in New York but Finn had no desire to do so. The streets of NY were like his own personal boulevard of broken dreams. New York was supposed to be the answer to all of their dreams, they were going to rise up out of their Midwestern roots and become stars, together. New York should have been an amazing journey but instead it was a mess. The streets of the city were haunted by her ghost and the short time he lived there he had realized it had been her city. The stories she had told him did not measure up to his own vision of what he saw. As the years past Finn thought that her memory would fade but she never did. Rachel Berry had always had him, even when they broke up in HS he grip on his heart had never lessened. In the haze of alcohol, in the arms of his wife, in the music in his heart, she was always there. He thought about her more often then he was sure it was healthy to. What was she doing? Where she was and if she was happy. For Finn Hudson it never got easier, she would always be the one who got away. His mom said it was because he had no closure but he knew the truth. It was because Rachel Berry always had and always would have a piece of his heart, one that he would never be able to get back.
"Why are we staying in a hotel?" she asked Kurt as he handed her the room key
"It's just easier not to burden anyone"
"I don't think my Dads would think I was a burden" she said a bit exacerbated.
"Kurt has no plans to make this a social visit" Nathan replied.
"What?" Rachel asked
"In for the night, out in the morning. Its not fair to grace your parents with such a short visit" Nate said as if this was something she should have known.
"Your not going to stop and see your Dad and Carole?" her name flooded Rachel with memories. She had loved Finn's mom as her own mother.
"I see them Rach" Kurt sat on the bed "they come to New York at least twice a year."
"You never come home?"
"This is not my home Rachel, it's just where I grew up. And no, I haven't been in Lima in a couple years. The Kurt Hummell who lived here is not who I am now. Why should I come back?"
Rachel looked at Kurt like he was insane. Why did he have such an adversity to spending a little time in Lima.
"Don't look at me like that Rachel Berry, When was the last time you graced Lima, Ohio with your presence"
"That's different Kurt, I was in London, my schedule didn't allow for such travel"
"Excuses Rachel. We are not that different. We are all running, from something, to something. Look if you want to visit your Dads then do so but don't judge my choices"
Rachel watched them leave her mind lost in thought. Kurt was right, who was she to judge his decisions. She had ran away 10 years ago and had been running ever since.
"Remind me again why we are doing this" Finn asked Puck as they drove towards the Lima Club
"Who doesn't want to go back to high school"
"Me, once was good enough. Seriously Puck, why so adamant?"
"Maybe high school was it for me man" Puck began "for us."
"Are you saying we peaked in high school?"
"Maybe"
This was unlike Puck, the dude could be seriously egotistical at times. This was a different side of Puck, a more nostalgic side. It was as if he really thought that going back to this reunion would take them back to their glory days. Finn could see the certain innocence to it. They had not been jaded by life yet, they had a whole future ahead of them, decisions to make and choices. Finn thought of this stuff often but it was usually Puck who was reminding him that life is a journey and you just have to hold on tight and ride it out at times. Finn looked over at Puck who was staring pensively out the window and it was in that moment, by the light of the streetlights that he saw Puck for who he really was for the first time in years. He was damaged, just like the rest of them.
