Disclaimer: I don't own Glee
Well Halloween is coming up, figured I'd finish this one. I've had this stuck in my head for almost a year. Got a little stuck but I know exactly where this is going to go, I'm really excited about this one guys! There will be a lot of flashbacks like in this chapter, just some may not be as long. Let me know what you guys think!
All mistakes are mine!
"So I've been thinking lately..." Kurt comes in to Hudmels family room carrying a water for both himself and Rachel. "I've been thinking we should start a garden, you know like those ones you see in all the movies. Flowers and everything, it'll be something you and I could do this summer. Plus when you eventually go back to New York, Carole and I will be here to take care of it."
"Ooo, with roses and all that good stuff." Rachel nods taking the glass. "I love the idea, very cute. It'll give me something to do outside of the house, it'll feel so good getting out of there. Finn and I have been working non-stop trying to get this house together."
"It's only been a week since it's been painted." Rachel gives him a knowing look, if it were him he'd be the same way. "So I need to go shopping later for some curtains for the living room, you're going with me right? I'd ask Finn but he and Burt are working on moving the furniture into the house today with some others."
"No need to ask, shopping is my forte. You know this, and my credit card sure as hell does too. Who knows maybe I'll find some charming young male looking for some bed sheets that I'll be able to assist him with."
Rachel laughs pushing Kurt in the arm, for his ridiculous comment.
"You're horrible."
"No I'm desperate, Sheets and Things has basically been my go to place anymore. Lima Bean has turned into a high school reunion, twenty four seven and I do not need those flashbacks."
"Me either." Rachel shudders just thinking about how most of her high school experience was in fact a joke. Having no real friends except for Kurt and a few others Rachel never had she expected to marry Finn Hudson the school's quarterback. Really, to this day she knew fate at it's hand in making her and Finn's first post-high school meeting happen. New Years Eve, her sophomore year of NYADA when she came back to Lima for winter break.
XX..X...X
"Come on you've got to go out, it's your first year no longer being a teen." Tina pushes Rachel into going out to a bar, live up the New Year a little instead of being a hermit at home. With her fathers on a trip to Cabo, that would leave Rachel all by herself.
"I don't want to go and get drunk, and plus you'll have Mike so I'll be like the third wheel." Rachel whines hiding her head behind the pillow. Kurt drags her by her feet and she's barely got time to hang onto the bed.
"Get up, get dressed because we're leaving in an hour." Disappearing into her closet Rachel can hear him digging through her clothes. Knowing this was not an argument she was going to win, Rachel switches on her straightener. With Kurt there was no negotiating anything.
Clothes were being thrown out of her closet onto her bedroom floor, not really knowing what the purpose of that Rachel was a bit scared. She knew her best friend capabilities though, so it was only just a waiting game now.
Tina's standing next to her doing her own makeup in the mirror as Rachel gets started on her hair and it's not until she's finished, when Kurt comes out. With two outfits behind his back Kurt looks to the girls with a smirk on his face.
"Behind my back I have two amazing outfits, one for you and one for you." Pulling the first one out it's for Tina, a grey sweater to go with a pair of black skinny jeans and black pumps. Going into Rachel's bathroom, Rachel can only imagine what Kurt's got for her to wear.
Not even wanting to anywhere for the night Rachel takes her time doing her makeup until Kurt rushes her, telling her that he'd put her outfit in the bathroom. Rolling her eyes as she puts on some light lip gloss, Rachel gets off the chair.
"I'm going to kick your ass if I'm able to see my ass." Rachel comments going into the bathroom but Kurt just ignores the stab and sits on her bed.
"I have classy taste." He calls to her while she changes, coming out in a black lace strapped sweetheart peplum shirt, white skinny jeans tight to her body with black wedge booties covering the bottom of her pants.
"I look ridiculous." Rachel crosses her arms uncomfortably over her chest, unknowingly making her boobs come press together.
"You look twenty." Kurt praises his taste from the bed as she rolls her eyes taking a second look at her hair to make sure all was straightened. "Now are we ready so we can do this before it gets too crowded at the bar and stop taking people in."
"What makes you even think we'll be able to get in, they probably won't even take us in because we aren't twenty one." Rachel sighs collecting everything she'd need for the night in her purse.
"It's New Years Eve Rachel, they don't care. Plus we look old enough, we'll be fine. It's almost nine and if we're going to have any chance get up!"
"It'll be fun." Tina laughs pulling Rachel towards the door, the both of them laughing when Rachel snatches her wallet throwing that in the purse too. They all run down the stairs, locking up the house as they make it to Kurt's Prius. Teens were running the streets as they make their way to the bar, it's all surreal on how much things change. Just a few short years ago that was Rachel and her friends and now she's an adult who's visiting home from college.
"This is so awesome." Rachel turns up the music blasting it going through their childhood neighborhood until reaching the local bar. Her fathers would have a field day if they knew where they were trying to get into there, but what they didn't know surely didn't hurt them.
Tina and Rachel link arms as they get out of the car, trying to maintain a steady heartbeat following Kurts lead. They don't even stop at the door instead just let in even with a nod at Kurt. Rachel's on high alert as she looks to Tina who has a smile on her face along with Kurt and it's not until they get inside that Kurt turns around and starts laughing.
"What was that all about?" Rachel demands to know pointing to the guy letting people in.
"Burt and his girlfriend rented the place out tonight." Kurt shrugs sitting down at the bar pointing to two empty seats next to him. "I mean I'm sure we would have gotten in here either way, but it also helps that my dad's got the place rented for the night."
"And here I thought we were special or something." Rachel shakes her head jumping up onto the stool. "So does this mean free drinks?"
Kurt smirks calling over the bartender, liking this Rachel Berry tonight. "Free drinks, all night long."
"Well in that case..." Rachel smiles leaning over the counter to the very nice, very handsome bartender "I'll have a Sangria."
"Coming right up doll." Rachel turns around to the party. "This might not be so bad after all."
Two drinks later and Rachel finds herself at a table with a few of her old friends who were off doing their own things. Mercedes Jones, in Massachusetts studying at Berklee. Mike, Tina's boyfriend, was in Chicago at a dance academy while Artie still continued living in Lima going to a community college working on his minor in film.
All were in different directions going after their dreams and Rachel knew it was a rare time they could all get together like they were now.
"Oh, my god remember that one time..." Mercedes pauses trying to get ahold of her self as the others chuckle into their drinks, still laughing about the past memory brought up. "Remember when we were in the mall goofing around and..."
"No!" Tina shouts as the rest of the table starts laughing, she sits back in her seat crossing her arms across her chest trying not to smile. "You all are so mean!"
"She fell in the fountain!" Mercedes yells over the music beating her hand on the table from laughing so hard.
"The security guards rushed out to make she was okay." Rachel holds onto Kurt because she's laughing so hard.
"Yeah well what about that one time in choir when you had to sing the solo at the football game and that bitch Cheerio threw the football at you?" Tina smirks and the tables quiet for a minute before they all look at Rachel and start laughing.
Rachel takes over the salty look and sneers at Tina. "Yeah like I could forget, all of McKinley High laughed and called me Pigskin the rest of high school."
Kurt snorts waving his hands down. "Alright, alright that's enough of memory lane even though we have some great stories."
They all try to catch their breaths, Rachel taking long sips of her lemon water. "I'm looking past that though and when I receive my Tony's later on in life that name will be over looked. Plus everyone whose ever made fun of me will have nice large Tony shoved in their faces via myself."
"Bathroom break, be right back. Don't win too many of those Tony's before I come back." Kurt winks running off from the table laughing when he see's Rachel's finger up just for him.
"Mike come dance with me." Tina leans her head on Mike's shoulder kissing his cheek, trying to convince him to go out there with the rest of everyone else.
Rachel rolls her eyes playfully at Mercedes, playing with the straw of her drink. The both of them don't even want to know where Tina's hand landed when going when Rachel saw it travel beneath the table. But when they leave Mercedes laughs in Rachels shoulder making kissing noises at her. Stopping, holding Mercedes looks at Rachel with large eyes.
"I have to go pee now." Mercedes stumbles up from the table through the crowd. Rachel's all of a sudden is alone, for Artie had literally rolled out of the conversation when he saw his old friend Drew from his weight training classes. Standing she know her table will be safe with all their jackets hanging off the booth and chairs as walks to the bar. Ordering a club soda she sits there going through her phone, seeing a few messages from a couple people back home.
She wasn't but a little tipsy, perfectly able to hold her weight in alcohol. Though she wasn't much of a partier, when her upperclassmen friends threw a little party amongst friends Rachel was able to hold her own.
Waiting to see Kurt come back she ducks her head when a familiar blonde comes to view with her regular followers next to her. Sipping on her soda as it's handed to her Rachel keeps low, the blonde stalling near her.
"Yale literally makes me want to stab my eyes out." Quinn Fabray, the dark to Rachel's nightmares in high school is right there making her want to run for the hills. Keeping her face down low as the girls order drinks, Rachel's never even heard of they soon go away. Rachel can still hear them talking about Quinn's miracle acceptance and Rachel can see the bar a little more crowded than before.
"She's gotten even more fucking annoying since the last time we saw her." Rachel hears the boys from her right talking, drinking their beer. "I mean can you seriously explain to me how we possibly put up with her for all that time?"
"We were football players and they were Cheerios." Rachel immediately recognizes both of them as the quarterback and offense from her class of 2012. One Finn Hudson and the other Noah Puckerman, never even hearing about them since the end of graduation. In fact Rachel hadn't heard about anybody, but then again she didn't particularly care about what happened to any of her classmates besides her friends. They could grow up to be gas pumpers for all she cared, especially Quinn Fabray.
"This is why I'm glad we got away man." Rachel watches Puck slap Finn on the back before taking out his phone. "I'll be right back, I got to take this it's Lawren."
He stands up maneuvering around the growing crowd and Rachel watches through her fingertips at Finn who is cradling a beer between hands. Rachel takes notice to his leaner figure, he was a muscular guy in high school but two years has done a great deal to his frame. Also his hair's a little shorter, not so mussed like she remembers it being though. He even has a little scruff, which she finds to be extremely manly. Only two years since graduation and he looks fantastic.
Weren't popular people supposed to get fat and bald after graduation?
Rachel blinked twice as she caught staring at him. Moving her hands down, she starts picking at some peanuts on the bar counter and really tries not to look there again.
Rachel could feel his stares, it wasn't like she could really ignore them either. Her foot taps on the barstool really trying not to look over but when she does he's staring right at her. Quickly looking away, reading the bottle names were suddenly something more interesting.
"Do I know you?" Rachel's heart races hoping that he's not talking to her, but chances are he probably was. Looking over just a little she's caught by his damn autumn eyes as he's waiting for an answer.
"I went to high school here at McKinley almost three years back." She says loud enough for him to hear and he nods, still staring. "We were in a couple classes together, that's probably where you saw me."
"I don't know if this is going to come off completely rude on my part, but I don't even remember you but you look familiar."
"Yeah..." Rachel laughs hanging her head down "I wasn't exactly that sociable with your type of crowd, and I'm pretty sure you threw a slushy at me once."
"Eh..." Finn shakes his head playing with the top of his Heineken bottle "Well that was the high school me."
"Which you only graduated from two years ago! I mean you can't honestly sit here and tell me that you've changed in just two short years." Rachel almost immediately regrets what she's said, knowing how much she's changed in two years. No longer being that girl who holds back from what she deserves, and says what she needs to say.
Finn nods drinking at long sip and Rachel feels really stupid for even saying that.
"I know where I know you from now!" Finn comes closer, realization in his eyes as he sits down next to her. "You were Pigskin!"
"Oh god, yeah okay I'm leaving." Rachel jumps down off the stool but Finn grabs her arm keeping her there.
"That was stupid." He stutters and Rachel tries to find her friends to help her out of this. "I shouldn't have brought that up, that and you should have never had a football thrown at you."
"Nothing you can do about it now." Rachel gives him a small smile trying to walk about but Finn's not having that.
"Here let me buy you a drink." He offers to make it up to her
"The drinks are free." She gets away from him but before Rachel was even a three feet away he steps in front of her.
"Look that was a dick move and I didn't mean to bring that up. I was just trying to start a conversation with you." Holding out a hand Finn smiles at her. "Let's start over, I'm Finn Hudson."
Looking down at his hand she tries to think of a million reasons she should or shouldn't talk to him. Finn didn't even talk to her in high school and now all of a sudden he wants to? Something just didn't add up here but at the same time Rachel was a little curious.
Holding out her hand slowly Rachel's timid but she was only in town for a few weeks. So it wouldn't hurt to talk to him for the night, hell she might even get a little drunk and have someone to kiss at midnight. No shame in that, she'd be in New York soon again.
"Rachel Berry, not Pigskin"
"Well Rachel Berry, let's sit down."
XX..XX
Kurt snaps a finger in front of Rachel bringing her back to the present.
"You ready to get going? We have like a couple hours left before the stores close." Kurt pulls her up from the couch
"Kurt they close at nine!"
"Yeah, so?"
"It's two in the afternoon!" Rachel laughs shoving her sandals on her feet.
"Exactly we're losing precious time by the minute!" Grabbing the keys, Rachel's used to this by now.
They're in Sheets and Things picking out some new objects for the house with Rachel having to get approval from Kurt each time she picks something out. They just finished trying to decide which rugs would go better with what curtains, bath towels and wash rags they got for the master bathroom.
"So how's Finn been?"
"Better." Rachel sighs leaning on the cart as the walk through an aisle they don't particularly need anything from. "Much better actually, he's hasn't been so on the edge lately. Personally, I don't blame him if those were my grandparents I'd be the same way."
Pointing at a cute pair of oven mitts, Kurt shakes his head.
"Too green." They end up walking past them, turning into another aisle. "I can't blame the guy eith but I'm glad to see he's getting his spunk back."
"Agreed! I miss my Finny, but he's been working with the college and the army people to get his teaching degree underway. He says that by the end of the summer he'll be good to go. Which is good because I know he's been itching to get into a classroom since he been released from duty last year, plus it'll do him some good. Moving and everything else has been distracting him, especially me with the baby he's been wanting to do this for a while. He loved serving in the army but I'm glad to have him home with me. We're both in a good place."
"Don't forget my little niece or nephew." Kurt rubs her stomach.
"Just two more months and the little one will be here." Rachel talks down to her stomach, which practically looks like a soccer ball already.
"Seven weeks." Kurt throws the beige oven mitts in the cart just as quickly as Rachel takes them out throwing in the one's she saw on the end of the aisle, hoping he doesn't notice.
00..00..000
"Finn is that you?" Rachel calls out hearing Finns keys unlock the door as she checks on the spaghetti boiling in the pot. Arms wrap around her waist bringing her in tight to his chest. Rachel giggles when his lips drop to her shoulder, kissing up her neck. "Stop, I'm fixing dinner."
"Screw dinner." Finn smiles distracting his wife with his lips over her smooth skin.
"Hmm... okay" Rachel hums turning around in his arms sliding her own around his neck. Helping her up onto the counter she opens her legs to let Finn step between them, wrapping them around his waist. She giggles when he runs his tongue across her pulse line.
All too soon forgetting about dinner Rachel let's him unbutton her blouse, running her own fingers up his chest until a loud muffled cough was heard. Holding onto Finn's neck to cover herself, they both look over his shoulder to see a smirking Kurt standing at the kitchen door frame holding a package over his eyes.
"What do you want?" Finn grumbles fixing himself as Rachel jumps off the counter fixing her own blouse.
"I invited him over for dinner." Rachel flushes seeing the disappointed look on Finn's face.
"What, are you serious?" Finn stands shocked in his new kitchen, not one night had they been able to have a night to themselves since moving in.
"I'm sorry." Rachel mouths going over to the Kurt pushing the package away from his eyes. Really, if she had known Finn was going to be in the mood tonight she'd never had invited Kurt over.
"Look who has a shirt on now." Kurt tightly smiles commenting Rachel's lack of clothes just a minute ago.
"Well maybe you should go home if you feel that way." Finn goes to the fridge grabbing a water bottle
"Oh but where's the fun in that?" Kurt teases throwing the package onto the counter next to where Rachel had gone back to tending the spaghetti. "Here this was sitting outside your house, thought you two might want it so it's not sitting outside all night."
"What is it?" Finn asks sitting down at the island in the middle of the kitchen.
"I don't know." Kurt shrugs picking it back up and throwing it to Finn. "Not my mail."
"This wasn't out there when I came in." Finn stated curiously, carefully opening the tape with his finger. Peeling back the tape he bends the top of the cardboard off staring inside the box.
"What is it?" Rachel asks turning around, excited for what is may be. "Did someone from back home send a housewarming gift. Oh! I wonder if it's a spice rack, we could use one of those."
"You know, I didn't see one when we went shopping yesterday." Kurt mentions but Rachel notices something not right with Finn as he's glaring inside the box, his face pale.
"Honey, what's wrong?" Finn stands rushing for the house phone, leaving Rachel feeling a little uneasy. Kurt and her look at each other before going over to the box, looking down to see a knitted baby blanket.
Rachel gasps, dropping the ladle in her hands as she notices the black lightning mark painted across the top of it. Rachel looks up at Finn who's watching her, face as pale as a ghost, until the other line clicks over.
"Yeah I need to speak with Detective Morris, we have a problem."
Authors Note On Top!
