Hi again! So I had this chapter written before I published this story and before I considered to make it more than a one-shot. So after this chapter I'll be going back to telling what happened between the two chapters. Not sure yet if it will be linear or more like "Daddy". I hope you like it and I'll update my other stories soon as well.
It's been a year since he's seen her. After Kurt brought him back to Ohio, his mom, Burt and Mr. Schue have made sure he doesn't make any contact with her. The only contact was a letter with some song lyrics that he received from her a few weeks or so after his visit. A song that he needed Mr. Schue and the Spanish teacher to help him translate.
"Mr. Schue?" he calls out as he walls into his former teacher's office.
"Yes Finn?" Will answers, looking up from his work.
"I uh got a letter from Rachel," he begins to explain. "It says that this song best explains what she feels but I think it's in Spanish and I can't translate it."
"Well as we both know, I wasn't that good at Spanish either so maybe we can go ask Mr. Martinez if he can help us out," Will suggests. He quickly nods but Will stops him before he can go. "Are you sure you want to know what the song says, Finn? You may not like it," he warns the young man.
"Yeah, I want to know."
Over this year, he's thought about Santana's words and refuses to believe them, even after the letter. Rachel always has and always will love him, he's sure of it. He just needs to remind her of that, away from St. Jackass and all their friends. This week will be the perfect opportunity to do so.
It's the first time after all the New Directions members graduated that all gleeks are coming back to McKinley.
He knows she's going to be there as he makes his way to the choir room. He's not sure if her "boyfriend" is going to be there but he doesn't care as long as he's able to see her and talk to her. The first thing he hears is her laugh of joy, followed by greetings and small talk with whom he assumes is Mercedes. The fact that he doesn't hear St. James' voice causes him to smile.
"So where is he?" Mercedes asks rather eagerly.
"Jesse's parking the car, he's become very overprotective and told me to come ahead while he sets everything up," he hears her explain.
He silently curses the fact that her "boyfriend" is here but pushes that aside and tries to listen in.
"So how are you going to pull off Funny Girl? Are you still keeping the role?" he hears Mercedes asks.
"Thankfully yes. I talked to my producers and director and explained the situation to them when it first came up, saying that it wasn't planned but it was what it was. Luckily they understood and after talking, figuring out schedules and working out the details I will still be Fanny," Rachel explains to her.
"That's amazing, Rachel," he hears Mercedes
"I know. I have everything I could want Mercedes," he hears Rachel answer happily.
They talk a bit longer about Mercedes' life in Los Angeles before Mercedes ends the conversation.
"Hey I'm going to go look for Sam, will you be okay by yourself?" Mercedes asks.
"Yeah, Jesse should be here soon so I'll be fine," Rachel assures.
He can't believe his luck; this is the opportunity he was looking for. He waits as Mercedes leaves the choir room, takes a deep breath and walks in. She's looking down at some sheets inside of a binder on the piano. She's just as beautiful as he remembers, with some changes that he can't really place. He wants to push away the fact that she looks happy, maybe even happier than she was before and even touches the song lyrics inside his pocket before finally speaking out.
"Rachel," he says softly, trying not to startle her.
She looks up and instead of seeing joy or love like he expected he just sees indifference.
"Finn," she acknowledges him and then returns her attention to her binder.
"Um, it's good to see you," he says trying to talk with her.
"Look Finn, I know you probably want to talk to me and are going to try to win me back but it's not going to work," she immediately says.
"Why not? Why shouldn't I fight for the girl that I love?" he asks.
"There wouldn't have been a need to fight if you wouldn't have disappeared for almost a year without contacting me," she points out.
"You don't get it. I went through a lot during that time I didn't want you or anyone to see me as a loser a failure," he admits.
"I wouldn't have cared Finn. I loved you. I would have accepted you no matter what. But like always you didn't give me a choice in the matter," she accuses.
"What are you talking about?" he asks confused as to where she's going.
"You took all my choices away from me. I didn't get to choose to go to New York. I didn't get to choose to end my relationship, my engagement!" she exclaims .
"I did all those things for you!" he yells back.
"I don't care if you did that for me!" she shouts, before taking a deep breath and calming down. "I am a grown woman Finn and I can make my own decisions with what to do with my life," she says more calm.
"Fine so I let you make your own decisions, what else can I do to get you back?" he asks.
"Nothing Finn. You can't do anything at this point. I waited for you for four months and had you come back I would have accepted you with open arms. But I found the love of my life, Finn. I finally gave him the opportunity he deserved, that we both deserved, and I've never been happier," she tells him.
"Wow, so what we had…" he starts, looking down at his feet.
"What we had you ended. And I need you to understand that what we had is nothing like what Jesse and I have right now. I love him, Finn and I thought that the song I sent you made that clear," she says.
"Yes but I… I guess I still wanted to believe that it wasn't true, that you still loved me," he admits , looking up at her.
It's then that he notices it. Her left hand moves and the light makes the large stone shimmer. He feels like he's been punched in the gut and can't help but stare agog at it.
"W…what… wh?" he tries to speak. But before he can form a coherent sentence he hears footsteps coming towards the choir room followed by the arrival of the man who seems to have taken everything away from him. However seeing what the man is pushing in with him makes him want to find the nearest bridge and jump off of it.
"Hey," his rival says in probably the softest tone he has ever heard from him.
He quickly watches as his former fiancé's face changes dramatically and the love he expected to see upon seeing him shows through when her eyes meet those of her current boyfriend.
"What took you so long?" she asks walking towards him and placing a soft kiss on his lips. A smile forming on his rival's face.
"Well we decided to wake up as soon as the car stopped and throw a little baby fit, didn't we buddy," he coos to the baby in the stroller.
"Aww, did Mommy's little boy give Daddy a hard time?" Rachel coos as she reaches into the stroller and pulls out a little baby boy, placing many kisses on him.
"Not really, he just wanted to demonstrate his powerful little lungs," Jesse explains jokingly, placing a kiss on top of the little boy's dark curls.
Neither parent seems to remember the other young man in the choir room, having been seemingly transported to their own little world. Finn however can't take his eyes off the sight.
He can't compete with this.
St. James had given Rachel something that would bind them forever, an embodiment of the feelings they both claim to have for each other.
Nothing would ever break that bond.
Even if for some reason Rachel decided to be with him, that baby would still tie St. James with her. This was the final blow that ended the war between him and St. James for Rachel. He may have won some of the battles but his idiotic mistakes and now this baby made him lose the war.
"Oh my god he's so adorable!" he hears Mercedes exclaim, having come into the room at some point, he's not sure when.
He watches as his former teammate rushes over to the couple that have turned his world upside down.
"I told you so Mercedes," his brother says following her in to the room.
"Facebook did not do him justice, Rachel," Mercedes says, "I mean look at those curls and eyes."
"He got those from his Daddy," Rachel says happily, smile never leaving her features.
"He really did. You two make very beautiful babies," Mercedes admits.
"Thank you, Mercedes. I might be a little bias but he is the cutest baby I've ever seen," Jesse responds.
He must have not noticed himself walking away because the loud clatter he makes when he knocks a music stand over surprises him and everyone in the room.
"Finn? When did you get in here?" Kurt asks him, making the others realize that he was in the room.
"I… I," he stutters and before he can answer the rest of their teammates begin to make their way into the choir room.
