His name was about to be all over New York City again. The day after the draft she had promptly enforced a ban on ESPN or any sports related media outlet on any television in the apartment. But it was days after the draft before every time she looked at a newspaper or turned on the news she had to hear it. Rachel Berry had months to get used to the idea that Finn Hudson's name was going to be one she heard often from the months of August to at least January for the next several years, but that didn't mean she'd actually gotten used to or ever full prepared herself for the idea. Now those months had passed and train camp was due to start soon. His name and face was about to be all over New York City again and there was nothing she was going to be able to do to stop it, or even avoid it. Rachel Berry was never unprepared, unless it came to Finn Hudson and when it came to Finn Hudson she was always unprepared, he was the only person who had ever been able to make her come completely undone.

All she wanted to do was stay locked in her room watching old movies and forgetting there was even such a thing as football, and today that was exactly what she had planned. Until there was a light knock on her bedroom that abruptly removed Rachel's attention from her movie and drew her attention to the door, "Come in?"

"Rachel," her friend and roommate Tina Cohen-Chang pushed the door open and shook her head as she saw Rachel lying in the middle of her bed watching Breakfast at Tiffany's for what must have been the fifth time that week. "Mike is coming over and wants to know if there's still a ban on ESPN in the apartment or if he can watch the baseball game?"

Rachel shot Tina a look and sat up in her bed, "Tell Mike yes there is a standing ban on ESPN or any sports related television in this house for at least the next six years, possible longer." She snapped and then let out a sigh, "Training camp starts next week, rookies report in five days, I only know this because I overheard one of the producers at my audition yesterday talking about it."

Tina tilted her, "You overheard a producer talking about it? At your audition? I know how you get with auditions, if it's not related to the part you're not paying attention." She had known Rachel since high school and the two of them had been roommates for almost a year, she knew Rachel as well as anyone and she knew there was no way that Rachel had overheard anything. In fact she knew as well as anyone that the day after she found out the Jets had drafted Finn, Rachel had started looking up the dates for training camp and rookie workouts and anything else that might bring Finn to New York. She still wasn't completely sure if Rachel wanted to completely avoid him or hoped to run into him. But one thing she knew for sure is that had known long before her audition when Finn was going to have to report to the team.

Rachel let out an another deep sigh and then shook her head, "His picture was on the paper again, small picture in the top left hand corner. That same damn picture they've been running of him at Radio City holding up that damn Jets jersey. I didn't buy the paper this time, so that's progress." She said in a sarcastic manner as she closed her eyes and rung her hands together. "That damn picture was plastered all over everything for days after the draft; it was huge and front page the next day. But why did it have to be New York and why does he have to look so damn happy." she said in an exasperated voice as she shook her head and straightened up her posture. "It's not that I don't want him happy it's just…"

Now Tina knew the answer to her question, Rachel wasn't really trying to completely avoid Finn, she wanted to run into him, she wanted to see him; even though she knew Rachel wasn't about to ever admit it."That you were supposed to be in New York together and happy here together," Tina said both as a finishing thought to her sentence and a question.

"Yes we were," she let out a deep breath. "I guess I should be glad it's a big city and the chances we'll run into each other are slim to none, especially with him being the big shot Quarterback, he's probably already got some celebrity super model girlfriend here waiting on him."

Tina shook her head, the way Rachel's voice fluxed with the statement she just made confused Tina's earlier assumption about Rachel's concern over her ex boyfriend. She was defiantly hoping to run into him, but she was just as much as she was hoping to avoid him. It was a double edged sword that Rachel was going to have to walk and figure out for herself. But Tina refused to give into the self deprecating statement Rachel had just made and leaned against the doorframe giving a laugh instead of biting on Rachel's bait, "Finn could never date a super model, he needs someone smarter than him around. Could you even imagine him dating a model, they'd end up getting lost and mugged in the South Bronx looking at apartments because Finn thought the name was cool."

Rachel cracked her first smile over the situation and even let out a small laugh, "My god I hope he's got someone who's been living here a while to show him around." She paused and let out another soft defeated sigh. She wished she could be the one to show him around, she knew somewhere inside her that it probably would have been as easy as a phone call to his mother and she'd have a phone number for him but when she thought about actually doing that she had no clue what she would say to Carol, or to Finn. Rachel knew he was happy, she could tell by his smile in the picture that stared her in the face over and over, and she wasn't going to intrude on his happiness just to satisfy her own need to find out what had gone on in his life and establish areas and places in New York for him to avoid as where they would not have to run into each other. She wanted him to be happy; it was just that a part of her wanted him still to be happy with her. As she looked up for her reminiscent thoughts of what should have been she met her roommates concern eyes and pressed a smile, "Tina," her voice was meek and timid, "Tell Mike the ESPN ban is off, and he can watch sports here again." If his name was going to be plastered all over New York City, then she might as well start dealing with it.

xxxx xxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx x

The dust flew everywhere as Finn Hudson gave a sharp blow onto the picture frame that sat upon his desk at his mother and step father's house. He wasn't sure how long it'd been since anyone but him had bothered to look at the picture. Months, years, maybe, but the lines his finger traced along the glass could clearly be seen in through the remnants of dust that remained. Over two years since he'd spent any significant time in his old room, and his mom was a stickler for the sentiment of leaving things exactly the way he'd left them. At least that was his explanation for why so much dust had collected. He did want to admit that he was the one who truly left it untouched, he didn't want to admit that he was the one who had left that picture as a fixture where it would greet him every time he walked into the room. The bedazzled frame glared back at him at he finished removing the dust and stared at it. It was one of the happiest moments of his life. Back when he was a teenager, naïve and innocent to the world around him. Back when he had dreams and knew what they were, back when she was his everything. Back when if there was anything in the world he knew it was that he loved her.

A half smile cracked his face as he stared at the picture, he remembered the day he took it, it was one of the last pictures they'd taken together. There wasn't any special about the day, it was in the spring of their freshman year of college. It was a Saturday that she had come back home from Cincinnati, they had spent most of the day hanging at his house enjoying each other's company, watching movies and laying around in his bed. They had been laughing at nothing in particular, just the giddiness of being together, she was giggling and peppering his face in playful kisses and when she planted her lips firmly against his cheek he had reached into the air and snapped the picture. Her eyes were pressed tightly closed and though her lips were tightly puckers against his cheek, a laughing smile could be made out in the corners of her pucker. The look on his face was goofy and filled with joy, his eyes crinkled at their corners as his mouth hung open in a laugh. Everything about that picture emoted happiness, a happiness he hadn't felt in a long time. As he stared at the picture he got lost in the memory losing himself back in the moment.

"Your room is not going to pack itself," Kurt's voice called from the doorway pulling Finn out of his memory and shattering the look of melancholy happiness on his face.

Finn shook his head and blinked at the picture a few times before he snapped out of his daze, "Yea," he stuttered and sighed, "I'm getting there, it's just going through all this old stuff, I'm not sure what to pack and what to leave. What do you put in your own place you know?" He shrugged and put the picture back down on his desk.

Kurt raised an eyebrow and walked deeper into Finn's room, making his way over to the desk and picking the picture up. He studied it for a moment, looking back and forth from the picture to Finn for a moment, "Have you dealt with the fact that the Jets are in New York, where," Kurt paused and nodded down to the picture, "Where the one that got away is?"

Finn's half smile curled up in a scoffed manner as he shook his head, "I'm twenty two, isn't it a little bit early to be calling girls, 'the one who got away?' Besides," he paused and looked down at the ground contemplating where or not he should reveal the next piece of information to Kurt. As a sharp sigh left his lungs he took a seat on the edge of his bed and looked up to Kurt, "Besides she's not in New York anyway." His voice sounding almost sad and defeated.

Kurt put a hand on his hip and cocked his head to one side in a questioning manner, "Finn…" He drug out Finn's name as question as it left his lips.

"When I was in New York for the draft," Finn rubbed his hands together and cracked his knuckles. He was never sure what to do with his hands during awkward moments, and having to admit these actions to his step brother was certainly an awkward moment. "When I was in New York for the draft, after it was over and I knew I was going to the Jets, which is pretty much where I knew I was going anyway, it's where I was hoping to go. But while I was there after the interviews were over and everything had died down I asked Jimmy to use his connections to look her up. Get me an address or a phone number or anything."

"And how exactly did you explain creepy stalker like behavior to your agent?"

His eyes looked up from their fixed point on the ground and met Kurt's as he gave a bittersweet half shrug. "I didn't tell him who she was. Said she was an old friend from high school and I was pretty sure she was in New York. But she's not. He said there was no listing of any kind for a Rachel Berry anywhere in the metro area. He said he even checked into New Jersey for me." Sometime while Finn was talking Kurt had pulled the chair out from the desk and sat down so they were now eye level and urged him to continue on. "I knew she had to be in New York, there's no way she didn't make it there by now, or at least that's what I thought. I just wanted to… I don't know see how she was doing; find out what she had been up too. It's not like I want to get back with her or anything. It's been a long time and we're different people than we were, but…"

"If Rachel Berry is not in New York then there is no way she is still the same Rachel Berry you fell in love with," Kurt said shaking his head in shock. Finn was right, there was no way she hadn't made it to New York by now, not the Rachel they'd known, it was all she'd ever wanted. Well New York and Finn. Kurt wondered for a moment what would have stopped her from going, or if she went and didn't make it. Another thought he knew was completely off the target, there's no way Rachel Berry wouldn't have made it in New York, and even if she hadn't made it yet, there was no way she'd have ever stopped trying once she got there.

Finn noticed the look of bewilderment on Kurt's face and the thoughts running through his head that reflected out from his eyes. He nodded at Kurt in agreement, "Yea I can't even imagine Rachel not in New York." He gave another half shrug.

"Well at least you don't run any chance of running into her now, I mean New York's a huge city and there was really slim to none chance you were going to just bump into her on the street anyway but if that's something you were worried about that should ease your mind." He watched as Finn's face dropped slightly at his words, he was never going to verbally admit it but Finn's eyes said it all, he was actually disappointed by the idea that he ran no chance of running into her. A part of Kurt wondered if Rachel hadn't been a part of the reason that Finn had lobbied himself so hard to the Jets. "Things happen for a reason Finn. Even though you may think you're in control of your life, you're not. The choice we make the places we end up, who we end up with, it's all part of this big plan, this big collision course called fate. What's suppose to happen with happen, and we're just along for the ride. And eventually we get where it wants us to be with the place and the right person and the right time and we just… collide."

A/N: Thanks to those following, reviewing, and adding this to their favorites, it's very encouraging. I still have no beta, so anyone interested message me and it's extremely late here so please forgive any mistake but I've finally got this story rolling in my head so chapters will hopefully becoming fairly quick.