Disclaimer: Though I wish at 11:11 every day and night, I still don't own glee. =(

They wake up at midnight to her phone going ballistic on the side table. He thinks its cute how she mumbles under her breath about the levels of inconsideration people have for other's sleeping habits. He finds it even cuter when she picks up the phone and repeats said speech without even checking the caller id. A simple fuck off would have sufficed but what can he say girls a dictionary. He knows who it is the minute she takes a breath and finally lets the other person speak. She's staring at him like this little deer in headlights not knowing whether to run or not. He gets out of bed to give her some privacy and he doesn't know if the sigh is of gratitude or irritation. Either way he isn't going to stick around to hear whatever it is she plans on saying to Finn.

Rachel watches him leave and honestly she would have followed him if she hadn't been sure that his car keys were still on her bathroom sink. She hears Finn's voice in the background and resigns herself to actually paying attention to what he's saying. The words at your door don't make any sense until she hears the door bell and Noah's footsteps heading down stairs. She's out of bed and manages to block him off before he can open the door. "It's Finn." He doesn't respond right away but when she places her hand on his arm he flinches away, "I'll be upstairs". Not for the first time she really wonders when her life got so complicated.

Finn rings the door bell again, he's really starting to get worried. Puck's car is parked in the driveway and Rachel is taking forever to answer the door. God if that douche had gone after another one of his girls he was going to lose it. He completely ignores the fact that he's aware hands down Puck could take him on a bad day. When she finally opens the door she looks flushed and upset and he's almost at the stares before gets in front of him and blocks his way. "What'd he do to you? Actually Rachel why is he even here?" He doesn't like the way she looks at the ground before she answers him. He really doesn't like what she has to say. He didn't care how much Puck needed someone right now, he had Quinn and he and Rachel weren't even friends. Why out of all the people they knew did puck always go to his girlfriends?

Her stomach drops when he calls her his girlfriend and not in the good way. The first thought in her head is that she really hopes that Noah isn't in ear shot but the crash she heard coming from upstairs seems to prove the opposite. Finn's just looking at her, waiting for her to say something like she really has an answer to that question. Why her… she has no idea she just knows that it is her and she's going to be there for Noah until he doesn't want her anymore… maybe even after that. Finn's had the last six months to be with Rachel. The only question she thought really mattered was "Why now Finn?"

Finn cant help but stare at her. What does that even mean, why now what? He's always wanted to be with her. He just couldn't be, before it's cuz he was with Quinn and he loved her. Then it was cuz Quinn was pregnant. Then he was too screwed up to be anyone's boyfriend. Then the only thing he really had left was his popularity and he wasn't ready to give up everything. Then she was with Jesse and he slept with Santana. Now there wasn't anything in they're way. They could be together now like they'd always wanted to be but she's asking all these questions and Puck's here and things aren't going the way he thought they would.

He really is like an open book. She doesn't even need to listen to him stumble through an explanation to know that he doesn't really understand everything he's saying. First she wasn't worth leaving Quinn, then she wasn't worth his popularity, then she wasn't worth being celibate but now that Quinn's done with him and he's a loser just like her and Santana's bored of him, now that he doesn't have any of those things… she's better than nothing. She's too shocked to do anything when he pulls her into his arms. She's crying, she has no idea why because she's furious but there she is at the base of her stairs in the wrong pair of arms bawling her eyes out.

"Dude, get the fuck out" He stayed upstairs as long as he could stand to. God only knew how he and Finn had been friends for so long, guy was clueless. Knowing him he probably thinks Rachel's overcome by happy tears now that he finally wants to be with her. He'd get Finn to leave and then clean up his mess, just like he always did.

" Fuck off dude, I don't know why you're here but Rachel's my girlfriend now so you need to go home"

"Get the fuck out!"

He doesn't know whose more shocked, him or Finn but damn even looking as broken as she does now girl is sexy when she swears.

Somehow she finds the strength to pull herself away from Finn, thanking god that Noah was so close because she doesn't really know how far her feet could have carried her. She just wants to go back to bed. Just wants to curl up and cry until she can't cry anymore. She had spent so much of her time being in love with Finn Hudson just for it to end like this. Just for him to make her feel worthless and cheap and dirty. She just wanted him gone, she wanted to take a bath, she wanted to die.

He's just standing there. Staring at her, then glaring at him like he can't make up his mind whose at fault here. If Noah didn't have a crying midget in his arms he would take pleasure in showing Finn just how much this was his fault but he's got more important people to take care off. He would handle the douche later. "You heard her man, get out before I make you leave", he lets the venom he feels spill into the word so Finn knows exactly how Puck would force him out of the house. He feels kind of bad though because it scared Rachel and the last thing he wants her doing in his arms is flinching. Finn takes one last look at Rachel, a look that lasts much too long for his liking, before turning around and leaving.

She leans against the wall while he locks the door and turns the alarm back on. She tries to tell him that she can walk but he insists on carrying her. She really wishes she could stop crying but she doesn't know how. So she just breathes and lets the tears fall. She listens to him sing every song he knows that she likes and she wills her heart to beat in time with his.

He falls in love with her that night. It happens sometime between three and five in the morning, when he can feel her falling asleep and places a kiss on her forehead. It happens because she curls into him and makes him promise to stay with her while she sleeps. It happens because he promises himself and her that he will never let anyone hurt her like that again.

"I know you won't." He falls in love because she believes him.