Rachel didn't answer Blaine right away. The of course I want you was right there, at the tip of her tongue, begging to be let out. But then the hurt she felt from being abandoned flashed through her mind, and she became hesitant-something she never felt around him before.

"I just need some time," she eventually said, and Blaine merely nodded in response. "I am glad to see you," she told him quietly, and a small smile formed on his face, his hand reaching out to cup her own.

"I'm glad to see you too," he told her.

It took them a few moments to realize they had an entire weekend, at least, before their parents would arrive back, before Finn would demand answers, and Rachel quickly offered to show him around her town-her new town. Their first stop was the school where Rachel had been shipped to only a couple months after Blaine first disappeared, and while she felt slightly guilty about explaining everything that happened, she figured he needed to know. If she was going to let him in again, he needed to know everything.

"So you single-handedly brought a failing glee club to it's feet and managed to win a couple competitions?" Blaine asked, and while his voice wasn't impressed, it was proud. "Only you could do that."

"We still haven't won Nationals yet, we're hoping to this year, though I've been distracted with the school musical," she admitted, leading him towards the empty auditorium.

"What was the musical?" he asked, and when she answered with a small 'West Side Story', she saw his face flinch slightly. "I missed you as Maria?" She nodded in response, squeezing his hand in comfort-the longer they spent together, the more reasons she remembered why she had fallen in love with him in the first place, despite all the trouble it cost her.

"You'll see me as Maria one day," she promised. "On a real stage."

"Still," he said quietly, his eyes focused on the stage in front of them, surely picturing her singing Tonight with a boy he couldn't even picture-she knew his first thought wouldn't be Noah, a boy he'd never have even heard of. "It was your first performance as Maria."

"You did what you had to do Blaine," she whispered, her voice quiet as she came to the acceptance that had taken her years to even admit aloud, a weight being lifted off her shoulders as she let it sink in. She didn't like what had been done, would have done anything to have him in her life when he had disappeared, but she knew their parents wouldn't have allowed it. They still didn't speak of Blaine, she didn't even hear them muttering about him under their breath anymore. He turned to her, a smile playing on his lips, and she leaned up to kiss his cheek. "I told you, I just needed some time to come to terms with things," she whispered, and he nodded as his hand left hers and settled on her back, leading her out of the room.

"Where to next?" he asked, walking them out to her car.

"Are you hungry?" she asked, and he grinned.

"Starving."

Breadstix was just as jammed as she had expected it to be, and while she felt slightly nervous for being somewhere so public-especially on her birthday, when everyone would have expected her with Finn and not some strange boy they've never seen before-it was one of the few places in Lima to eat.

They got themselves a booth, and she could feel the stares from Kurt and Sam across the room, Brittany and Santana a couple tables over. Blaine flipped through his menu, Rachel scanning the room to see how many other familiar faces were there. Finn knew Blaine was with her, she wasn't too worried about anyone telling him something about that-but when Blaine put his menu down, his hand reaching across the table to hold hers, she could feel a blush crawling over her skin.

"We probably shouldn't do that," she said quietly, and when he raised an eyebrow, she nodded her head towards the other patrons in the restaurant, most of whom were under the age of 18.

"Oh," he said, just as quietly, but he retracted his hand. "I forgot, the, uh, boyfriend."

"Yeah," she said, glad for the waitresses timely arrival as they placed their orders.

"So, tell me about him," Blaine said after the girl had left, and Rachel just kind of blankly stared. "The boyfriend."

"Blaine-" she said, her voice a warning, because she didn't want to talk about Finn any more than she was sure he wanted to hear about Finn.

"No, I mean, I have to see who my competition is," he said, his face breaking into an easy grin as he relaxed back in his booth. "Come on, tell me. How'd you meet, how talented is he, what kind of entertainment does he want to go into."

She let out a small laugh, relaxing a bit herself as he seemed less tense. "He's good-not a good dancer, mind you, I think he has too much limbs to really know how to move them properly-but he's a good singer. I met him when I joined New Directions, he was kind of floundering as captain until I came along and stole the title from him. But he doesn't actually want to go into the talent sector."

"He doesn't?" Blaine asked, raising an eyebrow as he took a breadstick from the basket in-between them.

"No. He prefers football, and he got a football scholarship to Ohio State. As soon as August hits, he'll be off there and I'll be off to New York," she told Blaine, her voice a little quieter than normal. The end of her and Finn was something they both knew was coming, and while she had grown to love Finn, she had a feeling if Blaine was around their demise wouldn't be nearly as heartbreaking as she had thought it would be merely 12 hours ago.

"A football player, huh?" Blaine asked, fiddling with his knife. "Pretty hard to compete with that."

She scoffed, taking his hand despite her earlier warnings. "We both know there's no real competition," she promised, focusing her eyes on his, hoping to ignore the warning signals going off in her head that this would backfire, drowning them out completely as he smiled at her.

"I could play football," he finally said after a moment, and she fought off a giggle from the mental image alone. "I could!" he argued, and as their food arrived, she merely nodded.

"Of course you could," she assured him.

They drove around the town some more after dinner, Blaine's fingers laced with Rachel's as she pointed out different sites-her dance studio, the park she'd go to sometimes with Finn, the Lima Bean. It wasn't until they pulled up in front of Rachel's house-the house her parents had bought specifically because there was only 2 bedrooms, no room for Blaine to ever come back to their lives-that she realized she hadn't even heard anything about his life, about where he had gone, how he was surviving, where he was staying.

"Do you want to-" she gulped, suddenly nervous as she fumbled her keys in the doorway, Blaine right behind her. "I mean, I don't know where you're staying, but if you want to stay the night with me-"

"I'd love that," he said quietly, his hand gripping her hip as they walked inside, silent as she dropped her bag on the floor, turning and capturing his mouth in a kiss this time, initiating the contact she had so been longing for all night. "Finn," he finally said when they parted, and she just shook her head, not wanting to think about Finn, not wanting to think about anything besides her and Blaine, how her Blaine was there, finally, after so long of wishing and hoping.

"I don't care," she told him, grabbing his hand and leading him up the stairs. "I want you."

Blaine didn't put up a fight.

When Rachel woke up the next morning, she was sure the whole thing had been a dream-a very vivid dream, but a dream nonetheless. When she reached around on her bed for Blaine, hoping against hope that he'd be there, she couldn't help the disappointment that she felt at feeling an empty bed.

She didn't dare open her eyes, knowing as soon as she saw the sight of her empty bed, she'd start crying. She felt like her lapse in judgment had just managed to bring down the wall she had worked so hard to build back up, crumbling completely just because he had promised to come back.

"Morning sunshine," a voice called out, and she shot up in bed, her eyes popping open as a smile grew on her face, her hands reaching out for him.

"You're actually here," she breathed as he let her pull him towards her, practically collapsing on top of her as she pulled him closer and closer.

He let out a small laugh, kissing her temple as he whispered an "Of course I'm here. Where would I have gone?"

"I thought it was all a dream," she answered honestly, burrowing her face in his chest as his arms held her tightly against him.

"If it was, it's one we're both having," he chuckled, and she grinned, placing a chaste kiss on his skin. She pulled the blankets back around them, trying to be as comfortable as possible, knowing shortly this would have to end, knowing they only had another day together before he'd disappear again, their parents coming back home and Finn demanding her attention.

"Let's just make the most of these next couple days," she whispered, and he nodded, his lips trailing across her hairline, not bothering to respond with words-they only had so much time, and even she felt talking was unnecessary.

"When am I going to see you again?" she asked the next afternoon, wearing Blaine's sweatshirt he had brought explicitly for her.

"Sooner than you'd think," he promised, leaning over to place one last kiss on her lips, his hands holding her by her waist closer to him. "We're not doing this three year thing again," he told her. "I don't think either of us can take it."

She frowned as she nodded in agreement, chewing on her lip as she gazed up at him. "I'll miss you," she whispered, and he just smiled in response.

"Soon," he told her, leaning over to kiss her forehead as a car beeped in the driveway, both of them looking towards the noise.

She watched him get into the car, vaguely recognizing his old best friend Mike as the driver, watched as they both waved and turned out of the driveway, driving further and further away from her, her heart breaking all over again as she realized she was, once more, left without her Blaine.