Chapter 3

Andrew raced through downtown Vancouver, desperately hoping that Rachel's intuition had been wrong. He'd known Finn for years and they shared a very special relationship, more like father-son than teacher-student, especially given Finn's broken relationship with his own father. When they had first met, Finn had been cynical about the idea of being paid to act — he said it all seemed too easy — but it had been easy to convince him to at least give it a try, especially since the other alternatives involved uninspiring manual labour or finding a million different ways to say the phrase "Welcome to Walmart". Finn was clearly a man who needed to be kept busy for the sake of his own sanity, so Andrew had spent a lot of extra time with him, working on his cold-reading abilities to help him get through auditions.

He had been so incredibly proud watching this once lost young man find his place in the world, discover success with Glee and become a perfect boyfriend to Rachel. He remembered the day Finn had come to meet him after the last acting class of the day and told him that he'd got the part in the Fox pilot he'd been auditioning for, but he seemed more nervous than excited. When he pressed Finn on the subject, the young man strode over to the computer in the corner of Andrew's office and did a quick YouTube search, bringing up a video of a fresh-faced, dark-haired girl on a Broadway stage. Finn stared at her, transfixed, as he remarked to Andrew "she's my character's love interest in the show. Listen to this."

The pair of them watched in silent appreciation of this very talented singer and as her song came to an end, Finn looked up and said, in a hushed tone, "what the hell are they doing casting me opposite her? She's in a whole other league. Come to think of it I don't even think I'm playing the same sport."

Andrew took Finn by the shoulders and turned him round to face him. "Finn, you've got to trust the casting team on this one. You've put a lot of hard work in and you're going to do great. Sure, she's a fabulous performer, but she's probably been on Broadway since she was five..."

"Eight, actually," Finn corrected. "She got a part by accident when she went to an audition with her friend," he continued, immediately blushing when he realised that knowing so much about her kind of gave away the fact that he'd spent four hours the previous night finding out everything he could about this Rachel Barbara Berry. When Andrew raised an eyebrow, Finn added "What? I was doing my research, okay?"

Andrew nodded with a knowing smile on his lips, patting his protege on the back. Who knew that five years later, that young Broadway starlet would be the one looking at Finn like he'd hung the moon?

As he approached a red stop light, his mind wandered back to the conversation he'd had with Rachel just a few minutes ago and his thoughts turned to the job in hand. She'd said that the hotel wouldn't put her through to his room because she didn't know his decoy name. He didn't either and this was going to be a problem. If they wouldn't let someone talk to him on the phone, how was he supposed to persuade them to let him go to Finn's room? Even if he could just sneak into the lift behind a guest, he didn't know Finn's room number. He pondered the problem as the light turned green and he turned on to West Waterfront, just a couple of blocks from the hotel.

As Andrew's about to get out of his car, he grabs a prop from his glove box, silently grateful for the fact that they'd let him keep it after his last TV show.

Crossing the lobby, he confidently approached the reception desk, assuming an air of superiority.

"Could you tell me which room Mr Hudson is in, please?"

The blonde-haired receptionist, named Heather, according to her name badge, looked up from her computer screen. "I'm sorry sir, we don't have anyone of that name staying here."

Damn. He'd really hoped he'd be able to get what he needed without having to do this, but the receptionist was leaving him with no other option. Andrew reached in his pocket and pulled the prop police badge out of his jacket pocket, showing it to the girl long enough that she'd identify it but not so long that she'd spot it was fake.

"Inspector Jake Harrison, Vancouver PD."

"Oh," Heather replied, surprised. "Is he in trouble?"

"No, not at all. Mr Hudson reported a crime and I need to take a witness statement."

"Of course, Inspector, it's room 815, eighth floor. Here's a key card for the elevator," she said, pressing a few keys on the computer and swiping a plastic card through the machine on her desk.

"Thank you," Andrew said curtly, striding away toward the elevator quickly before she caught on, tucking the prop back in his pocket.

As soon as the elevator doors were safely closed, he started to think about the next step of his mission. This was going to require handling with kid gloves. Finn could be feisty and the last thing he needed if he was relapsing was to be antagonised.

The elevator doors opened and Andrew followed the signage to room 815, knocking softly on the door.

"Finn, it's Andrew." No answer. He tried knocking harder.

"Finn, let me in!"

Nothing. Clearly, Rachel was right to worry. He banged on the door again, desperately trying the door handle in vain.

"Finn! Just open the door. Come on dude, Rachel's freaking out! She's really worried about you."

Almost immediately, he heard movement in the room and a second later the door unlocked. On instinct, Andrew stuck his foot against the door frame just in case Finn changed his mind.

"What's up, man?" Finn said, rubbing his eyes sleepily then running his hand through his bed-head hair. "You're early, I thought we said 10:30?"

"We did."

Andrew looked around, suddenly aware that they were in full view of anyone in the hotel corridor and he really didn't want to have this conversation here. He pushed past a very confused Finn into the room and took a seat on the small couch looking out over the water.

"I had a call from Rachel," Andrew began. "She's been trying to call you but she couldn't get through. She was worried you'd relapsed again."

"No, I'm fine, honestly… I just…" Finn looked around the room as if searching for something, then smoothed back the bed sheets until he found his phone, pressing the top button.

"Battery's dead," he said, plugging it into the charger. "I'm sorry she dragged you out of bed for nothing."

"No, it's fine. At least you're okay. That's all that matters," Andrew said, his eyes briefly looking around the room for any sign of drugs. His gaze settled on the two empty champagne bottles and collection of glasses on the table beside the couch.

"Good night?"

"Yeah, just caught up with some of the guys from the cake shop and they came back here for a while. None of those were mine, in case you're wondering."

"It's okay, Finn, I'm not your Mom." Andrew retrieved his phone from his pocket and dialled Rachel's number. It barely had a chance to ring before she answered and he knew she'd been poised by the phone, willing it to ring.

"Hey Rachel. Yeah, I'm with him. He's fine. You want to talk to him?"

Andrew held out his phone and Finn somewhat reluctantly took it from his friend. "Rachel?"

"Finn?"

"Yeah, it's me babe."

Rachel released a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. 59 years she'd waited to hear that beautiful voice again and in that moment, it was worth every second of the wait. She couldn't quite believe this was happening and it wouldn't feel real until she was back in his arms again. Her heart skipped a beat when he called her 'babe'. He was alive and that was the very best she could have hoped for.

"Oh thank God!" she sobbed. "Are you okay, baby?" Tears streamed down Rachel's face as she tried to restrain all the years of heartbreak she'd suffered.

"I'm fine. Why are you so upset?" He hated hearing her cry and not being there to do something about it, but she was a crier and there had been many phone calls over the years where he'd just sat and listened to her sobbing, whispering comforting words until she calmed down but this was different — she was borderline hysterical.

"I…" Again, how the hell was she supposed to explain this? "I just got this feeling…" she started, gasping for air through her tears. "It was horrible… I thought you were…" she tried to continue but the words stuck in her throat like she was choking and all that came out was another sob.

"Sweetheart, please don't cry. I'm so sorry I scared you babe, my battery ran out and I forgot to put it on charge before I went to bed. I'm such an idiot."

"No," she sniffed, "no, you're not an idiot… you're perfect."

"Hardly," Finn remarked, thinking back to all the crap he'd put her through this year. Before he had time to mentally berate himself for being a shitty boyfriend, she spoke up again.

Suddenly, hearing his voice wasn't enough. She had to see him and she couldn't wait until he got back to LA. "I miss you, Finn, I'm coming up to see you."

"What? No baby, that's insane! I'll be back in LA in a couple of days. Why don't I just see you at your place?"

"Because I need to be with you… now." He knew from her tone that she meant business and any argument he put up now would just serve to make her more determined.

"Okay, fine. I'll see you later. Give me a call when you get to the airport — I'll come pick you up, okay? And please stop worrying about me, I'm doing alright. I love you."

"Love you more," she smiled, knowing what was coming next. It had started with a silly bit of pillow talk early in their relationship. He said he loved her more than there were fish in the ocean, more than the number of leaves on the trees, more than the number of times Barbara Streisand had sung "The Way We Were" and so on, and she'd follow everything with 'Love you more'. Finally, he'd given up trying to think of ever more ridiculous things to say, so he'd simply ended the conversation with a deep, passionate kiss and…

"If you say so."

It had become their signature goodbye, the last words of every phone call, in fact the last words they ever spoke to each other and it felt so damn good to hear him say it again after all this time.

Thanks for all the reviews so far — keep 'em coming!

I feel like this chapter could have done with more polishing, but I didn't want to keep anyone waiting too long and I was inspired to make up a story behind a certain person's new tattoo.

Next chapter may bring more angst, but only because adversity will make them stronger.