Hey there.
So... I'm still not sure about the fate of this story, though I am currently planning to continue it when and if I can, in some form. I had originally planned to finish this chapter up and post it July 14, so it was mostly done, and it does at least resolve things I left hanging previously. Otherwise, we'll see.
Your appreciation and understanding means a lot to me. Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing, and your kind words of support.

For my readers, and for Cory – this is for you.

Noah Puckerman, Puck to most of the world, was congratulating himself on a day well spent. He'd been over at McKinley to watch Jake compete at Show Choir Regionals, and he was happy to see that his little brother was looking good and living up to the Puckerman name.

The performing Puckerman name. The performing on stage Puckerman name. The other kind of performing was best left to the original, at least if Jake wasn't going to ruin things with his chick. Not everyone could properly pull off being a sex shark, even with Puckerman DNA.

Anyway, once he saw his little bro and his friends keep up the Regionals winning streak for New Directions, Puck had headed out, opting to skip the celebration backstage. Sure, he'd helped out a little, with Jake there and all, but he wasn't going to get sucked back in semi-permanently, no way. He wasn't about to hang out on the UoL campus either, though, so he cruised around for a while, checking on his old hangouts, driving past the houses of the pools (and women) he maintained in summer. Thinking about his screenplay, of course.

But it was Saturday night, time to let loose and pick up some girls. Jones House had been talking up their party all week, all he needed to do was swing by the dorm and pick up the Finnster. Way too early to go to the party of course, got to wait to make an entrance and give the girls time to get loosened up first, but they could make some grilled cheese or maybe even get some pizza. The dude had been working hard, studying up for his test and all, he deserved some fun. Maybe Finn could even get busy with a chick – if he could stop mooning over the one that got away for once – and if he could find one that didn't want a piece of the Puckasaurus at the end of the night instead.

So Puck swaggered down the rez hall to the room he shared with Finn. He stopped for a moment at the dorm room door to rearrange the name sign, paying no attention to the rest of the board. Then he opened the door... and froze dead at the sight in front of him.

"Hey!"

The shout from the lower bunk startled Puck, well that and the sight of his friend's long pale naked back on it, as Finn grabbed his blanket and scrambled to cover over both himself and whoever it was beneath him. Puck didn't want to see this anyway, though he was curious who the chick was. "Sorry, dude, I – "

"You came up with the fucking signal, read it!"

"Yeah, I – " Puck was uncharacteristically at a loss for words. Yeah, the signal had been there, he just hadn't really noticed it, it's not like he thought Finn would be using it. It was also really new being the dude walking in instead of the one in the sack. "I figured Berry still had a tight hold on your balls, I guess. Sorry." Though if he was right about that, Finn was going to hate himself later for what he was doing now, though Puck privately thought it was the sort of thing to do him good if he'd just get into it. Clothes were scattered on the floor by the bunks, so whatever this was had been sudden and heated. Maybe he shouldn't have mentioned Rachel at a time like this, especially – but any mild fear that he'd screwed up whatever was going on vanished when he heard a groan rip from Finn's throat, followed by a giggle.

A very familiar giggle.

"Well not tight," he heard her whisper, and yeah his buddy was the man if he'd managed to pull the girl he wanted back to him and straight into his bed. And loosened her up enough to talk like that. Still, Puck stood there with his jaw open, 'cause this was certainly a surprise.

"Leave, Noah," Rachel ordered. "You're interrupting." Finn snorted, clearly amused.

"Yeah, uh... catch you two later."

"Much later." At her last command, Puck backed out quietly and closed the door behind him, adjusting the signal so it was more in the way. And then got the hell out of there.

With Puck gone, Rachel gave Finn a heated look, trying to get things back to where they left off. But the mood was broken, so she settled for giving him a lingering kiss, then nestling her head against his bare shoulder. She relaxed into him as she felt him stroke her hair, his other arm wrapping around her hips.

She liked feeling his hands on her again, even though she hadn't meant for them to hit the sheets so quickly. She had most certainly stopped trying to use sex to cover loneliness. But this was different, this was Finn, the contact she had truly missed. And he had stared at her agape, walked slowly over to her as she rose to meet him, then tenderly cradled her face in his hands, looking mesmerized into her eyes as if he couldn't believe she was real. On impulse she had kissed his thumb, then lightly sucked it, and at that trigger they had been all over each other.

It hadn't taken long before they were peaking together, their cries of bliss mingling. They had been fondling each other again to start a second round when they had been so rudely interrupted.

Now, relaxing with him, Rachel gave a happy sigh, enjoying the feel of his body against hers, inhaling the intoxicating scent of their combined arousal. "I'm so glad I'm here," she murmured. "So very glad."

"Me too." Finn looked down at her, a curious smile on his face. "But what are you doing here? I never asked." He rolled his eyes as she gestured at him in response, implying that what she was doing was clearly him. They hadn't said much of anything at all. "Why you came here, why now. Especially with all your stuff with Funny Girl going on, I thought your callback was this morning."

"It was."

"And...?" He shifted his body, angling away from her to watch her face. "How did it go? What did you end up picking to sing?"

"It went really well, they seemed very impressed. I chose Celine, 'To Love You More' – I meant the role when I picked it but I kept thinking about you."

"Yeah?" He was trying to stay serious, she could tell, but the corner of his mouth betrayed him by twitching into his characteristic smirk.

"Yeah." She bit her lip, looking at him.

"So you, what, walked out of the audition and straight onto a plane here?"

"Basically. It wasn't the song, I just knew where I wanted to be when I got the news."

"You wanted to be home."

"Mm-hmm." She brought a hand between them, placing it gently on his chest, over his heart. "Home."

A shadow briefly crossed his face, sadness and pain and disbelief, and his arms tightened, pulling her into him.

"It's not real without you," she said softly, nestling close again. "Everything else that's been happening, even things I've been doing, it doesn't feel like it's actually me unless I can share it with you somehow." It was the closest she could manage to excuse what she'd done with Brody; she hadn't felt like herself without Finn, untethered since the morning she had woken up to find him gone, and in hiding from the pain she had lost herself in the part of a New Yorker and clutched at anyone she could find to fill the void. Lacking Finn to ground her, she had drifted; but even in all that, it hadn't felt entirely real.

And she had to regretfully admit to herself that she had acted not only out of pain but also partly out of spite, to show him that he couldn't just run out on her and keep shutting her out. But the greater spite had been to herself. That realization had been part of her decision to come to see him now.

Finn held her gently, his hand splayed over her bare lower back, fingers tracing lower still. His tension had eased at her words, at the feeling of her with him again. The sex was great, sure, but unlike Valentine's Day there was a feeling of reunion, of togetherness. That she had wanted to be with him, and put it into action so forthrightly – he felt for the first time in a very long time that maybe she really did need him, and certainly that he was truly wanted. And he had missed her so much. That she had called him her home again, and wanted to be with him when she got that all-important news... he sighed and gave her another caress.

"It's a good thing they didn't call while we were, uh..." he offered tentatively.

"Actually they called just before you got back," she answered, adjusting herself a little beneath his hand. "So no fear."

"Really?" He pulled back to look searchingly into her face, trying to find a hint of the result. "And...? Was this congratulations sex or commiseration sex?" Was he being used, in a way? And if he was, did he mind? He wasn't sure, just glad that she was there, that the person she'd wanted above all was himself.

"Neither. It was 'I'm alone in a room with Finn Hudson' sex." She blushed, and Finn couldn't help but grin. "I wanted to see you, the rest just... felt natural."

"Yeah," he breathed. They lay there for a moment, both silent.

"So...?" Finn prompted.

"...what?" she answered teasingly, and they shared a laugh.

"What did they say? The call from the producers."

"It was an offer. To be the understudy."

Finn groaned. "I'm so, so sorry Rach," he consoled her, rubbing her back. "That sucks."

"Actually... it doesn't."

"What?"

"Well okay it does suck, I really had my hopes up but – I still get to be part of a real Broadway production of Funny Girl, playing Fanny. I'll rehearse all of it, working with the top people, and I should get to go on at some point even if it's just a matinee. It's such an opportunity, really. And I'm going to take that opportunity as much as I can, and I'm going to shine in the role I've prepared to play since I was a little girl."

Finn smiled, happy to see her dealing with this setback well. She would have thought through the possibilities before, he figured, and he liked seeing her determination bounce back so quickly. This was the Rachel he had always loved. "And you'll be a star, I know it. They'll see what I see."

She giggled. "Well not everything you see."

He chuckled in return, his eyes lingering on her bare breasts. "Okay, I guess it's not that kind of show. But they'll see how amazing you are. How brightly you shine."

"Some of that's for you too," she admitted softly, her face a little shy. She brightened. "So you'd better come," she insisted.

"Of course I will." Finn held her more tightly. "I'm really proud of you," he said quietly, and he meant it both for how far she had come and how she was taking the news that she'd fallen a little short.

She nodded, acknowledging it. "I'm really proud of you too," she answered. "Now, with what you're doing, and before."

"Before?"

"I wouldn't have this opportunity if I'd stayed here, even for a year. This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make my dream come true, I wouldn't have had it without your sacrifice. What you did, all that you've done, your advice and inspiration, you." She put her head next to his. "Thank you," she whispered, and he felt the truth of it, felt that she had forgiven him for how much he'd hurt her, for leaving her.

He kissed her temple, and they held each other close.

"By the way..." she murmured after a few minutes.

"Yeah?"

"I'm still alone in a room with Finn Hudson." She ran her hands down his chest, looking at him from under her eyelashes, a flirtatious smile on her lips.

Finn smirked and helped her shift to straddle him. "So you are."

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