AN: Because the Prologue was very plot-less and because chapter one is rather short I decided to post the two together. Now please don't get me wrong after this chappie: I love Finn to bits. He's just… a little to easy to be lead astray by the promise of popularity and whatnot. So sorry to all the Finn fans. It hurt me to write it too.

Reviews will be adored =]

One person singing.

Two or more people singing

-Another person coming into the song

Disclaimer: Glee and all its characters are sadly not mine. I do own Jonah, though.


Chapter One: Catalyst

The usual pre-glee chatter filled the small choir room, the sound rising and falling with the different pitched voices. Rachel sat on the seats closest to the door, the furthest possible spot from a certain somebody she was refusing to even look at. Her back was turned to him as she engaged in a light conversation with Tina and Mike. She had been slightly surprised when the two had started talking to her, but she hadn't hesitated in returning the hesitant warmth. The Asian couple had never really had any problems with her and the only time they'd ever really gone head-to-head was during the whole Sunshine and Crackhouse debacle. It was very comforting to know she had at least two people who wouldn't mind talking to her.

Tina excused herself from the conversation, crumpling up a piece of old homework she had just discovered in her bag. She was in the process of throwing it in the bin when Mr Schuester bounded into the room, all smiles and energy.

"Recycling!" he yelled happily.

Tina froze, her arm hanging over the bin as she turned to her teacher, unsure if he'd been reprimanding her. The rest of the club looked at the grinning man blankly, unable to connect his enthusiastic outburst to anything showchoir-related.

"It's your assignment for this week," he explained, and the room relaxed in understanding.

Tina deftly dropped her paper in the bin before returning to her seat. Mr Schue scribbled the word "Recycling" across the whiteboard in his messy handwriting before turning back to them and clapping his hands.

"Okay, guys, so here's how it's gonna work. We're going to work some more on teamwork this week so we can really start gearing for Regionals. And so everybody is going to sing a song that we have already covered. Now if the song is a solo the person singing it has to be different. But if it's a duet one of the two people can stay the same as the first time. Any questions?"

Sam raised his hand slowly. "Uh… I have no clue which songs…"

"Don't worry about it. I'm sure all of the guys will be happy to give you a quick run-down of the songs. Yeah, Artie?" He raised his eyebrow at the next raised hand.

"What are we going to do about the fact that we're now a member short again?"

"Don't worry about it. That'll sort itself out in time. Just focus on your songs for this week, okay?"

The chatter instantly rose again as everybody began discussing which song they'd do. Mercedes found herself with an idea almost instantly, but for unknown reasons she felt like she needed to ask permission. It was utterly ludicrous- the song did not belong to anybody in the club. But the holidays had opened a new door to friendship, and she had to grudgingly admit that she didn't want to lose it.

So, taking a deep breath, she called the girl in question. "Rachel?" The brunette turned to her in surprise, her eyes cautiously questioning. "I was uhm… wondering. If I could do Take A Bow as my song?"

A smile crossed the other girl's face. It was small and tentative, but Mercedes could see the same desire to keep the friendship alive reflected in her eyes. "Of course. You'll do great on it." A long moment of hesitation. "If… If you want I could sing backup for you?"

The words tasted slightly disgusting as they came out of her mouth, but Rachel was determined not to take them back. Mercedes, Mike and Tina all gaped at her in shock, causing a blush to begin to rise on her cheeks. She knew she fought hard for solos but surely she wasn't that bad. Mercedes was the first to recover.

"Thank you. That'll be nice."

Another tentative yet warm smile was shared between the two girls before Tina hesitantly asked if Rachel had anything in mind for her and Mike to sing together.

"We don't want anything too big. But we'd still like to do a duet."

Rachel's face puckered thoughtfully. "Well… We did a fair amount of duets last year so there definitely will be something for you two to do… Hmmm…"

"Which song are you gonna sing?" Mike asked, curious.

Rachel opened her mouth top reply, but a voice from behind them beat her to it. "Obviously some love-sick show tune to try and get Finn back. She's just that pathetically predictable," Santana sneered.

Rachel's face turned bright red and she lowered her eyes to the ground. The three around her shot each other looks and although they all seemed upset not one of them said a word. A row above them, Sam frowned at the scene, losing track of whatever Quinn was telling him. His brow pulled together in a frown as he tried to puzzle it out but he was bumped back to the present by his girlfriend.

"Hello? Are you even here any more?" She was slightly irritated, her eyebrows raised in a way that told him he better have a good excuse.

"Sorry I… I was just wondering…" He hesitated then, wondering if he should voice his question out loud.

"What?"

"What did Rachel do?" he blurted, turning to look at her.

Quinn's face turned blank. "What?" she said again.

"I mean… I know she's annoying. And slightly scary at times. And selfish, I guess. But… I wanna know what she did that makes everybody be so harsh with her. I mean, everybody stands up for everybody in this club. Even she does, when it's not her that's doing the berating. But even Mr Schue is harder on her than anybody else. And nobody- not even Finn when he was her boyfriend- stands up for her when she gets verbally attacked. And being the new guy I don't know why that is." He looked her in the eyes. "What did she do?"

For the longest of moments, Quinn could only look at him. There was a feeling stirring in her gut under the initial shock of Sam's words. It took her a while to realize the feeling was guilt fringed with shame. Sam was still looking at her, his face innocently curious. Finally, she had to shake her head.

"I don't know," she whispered truthfully.

-x-x-x-

"Oh for the love of…" Mercedes stopped dead, her hands crossing across her chest angrily. "The glee club booked the auditorium for this afternoon!"

The five behind her stopped and listened curiously to the muted sounds coming from behind the closed doors. The sound was too quiet for them to make out the song, but it was unmistakable that there were people inside.

"It's probably some of our guys practicing so long," Tina soothed.

"And if it isn't, we'll just kindly and calmly ask them to leave," Rachel said primly, walking forwards and yanking open the doors.

The second she did so, music washed over her. And with the arrival of the sound came the disappearance of her insides and the feeling that her chest was being constricted. She blinked wildly, not understanding her body's reaction to the sounds. Her confused eyes snapped to the stage to find Finn and Santana standing facing each other, obviously very into the song they were singing. But the feeling of the world ending that was gripping her right then was still unexplained. She'd seen Finn and Santana sing together before so she really didn't…

Then they added their voices to the music spilling from the various instruments, and her brain caught up with her reaction.

"Oh boy, you stand by me

I'm forever yours

Faithfully."

They were singing Faithfully. Finn was singing their song with her. Suddenly the world seemed to hold no air at all, and everything blurred and spun before her eyes. Something painful was clawing at her very heart, and she was sure she was breaking as she stood there.

"I…" Somehow she got words out of her mouth. "I forgot a book. Very important. Have to…"

She stumbled backwards, tripping on her own feet and almost crashing into the people who stood, frozen, behind her. The further away she got, the faster her legs seemed to work. She didn't care what she looked like, what gibberish she was stuttering. All she knew was that she had to get away. As she ran she thought she heard somebody call her name. She didn't stop. Fleeing towards the closest girl's bathroom, she rounded a corner and spotted Jonah. Choking back her coming sobs she marched up to him and tapped him on the shoulder.

"I'm in," she said at once. "I'm auditioning for Satine."

He grinned at her. "Brilliant! That's… Are you okay?"

"Just fine." Her voice came out distant. "I have to go."

She almost barrelled her way into an empty cubicle. She was still bolting the door when she dissolved into body-wrenching sobs.