Rachel talked to the police the next day, leaning on Finn the entire time. She only cried once, and for that she was grateful. After she was finished, they let her go home. Her dad's insisted on driving her and since Finn didn't want to leave her, he rode in the back seat to their house. Instead of letting her walk to her room, he picked her up and carried her.

"Finn, I'm not an invalid," she admonished him.

"Maybe I just like to hold you," he told her. Smiling, she rested her head on his chest and let him carry her.

"Yell if you need anything darling," her dad told her, and she nodded.

Finn laid her gently on the bed, then pulled her shoes off. Rachel laughed softly. "What?" he said, pulling the blanket up her legs.

Rachel took his hand and pulled him up to where he was lying on his side beside her. "I'm okay, Finn, really."

Finn sighed. "You keep saying that, but I'm having a hard time believing it."

"Why is that?" she asked him, watching his face.

Finn shrugged, holding her hair with one hand and putting his other arm under her head. "How can you be fine when I'm still such a wreck?" he finally asked her, looking into her eyes.

Rachel's face softened and her hand came up to caress his cheek. "I know you're hurting too, Finn."

"It sounds stupid," he said, catching her hand with his and kissing it. "If you're able to get past it, shouldn't I be able to? I'm not even the one who was attacked."

"But you were," Rachel told him. "Maybe you weren't hit or kicked, but seeing someone you love being abused is a form of an attack."

Finn watched her for a moment. "I hadn't thought about it like that," he admitted.

Rachel kissed his nose. "Are you okay?" she asked him.

Finn rolled over to his back. "I don't know," he told her honestly. "I go from being insanely angry to insanely sad."

"Sad?"

He shook his head. "I don't know how else to describe it. Just upset."

Rachel put her hand on his chest. "You've got to let it go, love," she told him.

Finn nodded, turning his head to look at her. "I know."

"I know you're exhausted," she told him. "Why don't you take a nap?"

"Are you going anywhere?"

"No, I'll take one too."

Rolling back over on his side, he smiled at her. "That's the best idea I've heard all day." He closed his eyes as Rachel hummed something softly, quickly falling asleep.

He woke up when she screamed.

"Rachel!" he cried, turning over to find her thrashing around in her sleep. "Rachel!" He touched her arm but she jerked it away, still screaming.

"What's going on?" Leroy asked, running into the room.

"I don't know, she just started screaming," Finn told him, standing up.

"Baby," Leroy said, moving closer to the bed as Hiram came into the room. "Rachel, baby, wake up."

"Stop!" she screamed, crying. "Don't touch me! Finn! Finn, help me!"

Finn leaned over the bed. "Rachel, I'm here. Wake up, Rach," he said, taking her hands.

Rachel opened her eyes, her chest heaving. "Finn?"

"I'm here, Rachel," he told her softly, sitting down on the bed and pulling her up, wrapping his arms around her. "I've got you."

Rachel sobbed into his chest, putting her arms around him. Finn looked over to see Leroy holding Hiram, who was crying as well. "We'll come back up in a few minutes," Leroy told him.

Finn nodded. After they left, he pulled back from Rachel and looked at her. "What happened?"

Rachel shook her head. "It was just a bad dream," she told him. "It's over."

"Rachel, stop it," Finn told her.

"What?"

"Stop acting like you're fine," he told her. "It's okay to not be fine. It's okay to be messed up over this."

"But I don't want to be messed up over this," she admitted.

Finn smiled at her slightly. "I know, babe. But if you keep acting like you're fine when you're not, you're going to explode."

Rachel laid her head back against his chest. "When did you get to be so smart?"

"Not sure," he said.

"I was joking," Rachel told him.

Finn shrugged. "I'm not."

They sat in silence for a moment. "Your heartbeat is so strong," she told him eventually.

"You're listening to my heart?"

She nodded. "I like to. It makes me feel safe."

"It's yours," he told her.

Rachel looked up into his eyes. "Forever?"

Finn nodded. "Forever," he told her seriously.

Rachel smiled at him. "I really do love you," she told him.

"I know," he said.

Rachel's smile turned into a frown. "He was chasing me, in my dream," she said quietly. "I was at school but it was dark. He was running after me and I was trying to find you but I couldn't. All of the hallways led to other hallways and none of the doors would open. And he kept saying terrible, awful things." She took a deep breath. "He caught my arm and started pulling me towards the bathroom door but I kept fighting him and screaming for you."

Finn pulled her head back down to his chest. "I'm sorry, babe," he told her.

Her fathers came back into the room. "Berry Bear, are you okay?" Hiram asked her.

"I'm sorry, daddy," she told him. "I just had a bad dream."

"We've been talking, Rachel," Leroy said, joining his husband. "We think that you should see a counselor." When Rachel opened her mouth to say something he held up his hand. "You don't have to keep seeing her if you don't want to," he said. "But we think that you should see her at least once."

Rachel thought about it for a moment. "Who is it?"

"Ms. Pillsbury and Mr. Schue came by this evening while you were napping," Hiram told her. "Ms. Pillsbury gave me the card of a woman she said she's worked with personally."

"She says the doctor is very good," Leroy added.

Rachel looked at Finn, then back at her fathers. "I think that sounds like a good idea," she told him.

Both men let out a sigh of relief. "Your first appointment will be tomorrow," Leroy said.

"Didn't waste any time," Rachel mumbled.

Hiram smiled. "Dinner will be ready in a few minutes. Finn, I fixed you and Leroy a pot roast," he told them. "Does your mother care for you staying?"

Finn shook his head. "No, but I think I'll call her," Finn said.

"Go ahead," Leroy told him.

Finn kissed Rachel's forehead and went into the next bedroom to call his mother. After shutting the door he slid down it, putting his face in his hands and breathing deeply. Instead of calling Carol, he called Burt's cell phone. "Hello?" Burt said. Finn tried to talk but no sound would come out. "Finn? Are you okay?"

"No," Finn whispered.

"Where are you? Do you need help?"

Finn took a deep breath. "She just woke up screaming," he told Burt. "She had a nightmare and she couldn't find me. I wasn't there." He laid his head back against the door. "I wasn't there and I should have been."

"Finn," Burt said, "it's okay."

"No it's not," Finn told him. What did Burt know? He shouldn't have called him. "Look, just tell mom-"

"Listen to me for a minute," Burt said, cutting him off. "You know Kurt's mom died from cancer."
"Yeah," Finn said.

"She was sick for a long time. I sat by her bedside for weeks; I didn't sleep, I didn't eat…Kurt was practically raising himself." Burt paused for a moment and Finn heard him clear his throat. "She finally talked me into taking Kurt to school one morning. She said that she'd be fine and that it would do both Kurt and I some good to spend some time alone together. So I took him." Finn could tell that the other man was on the verge of tears. "She died while I was gone."

"Damn," Finn said.

"Yeah," Burt agreed. "I wasn't there for her last moments. I wasn't holding her hand as she left this world. It almost killed me."

Finn nodded, though the other man couldn't see him. "I know what you're talking about," Finn told him. "That's how I feel."

"After a while, Finn, you realize that things happen the way they do for a reason. I still get upset when I realize she was alone when she passed…but I know that she sent me to be with Kurt for a reason. She was telling me that her time was gone, but Kurt was still there and he was still important. She was reminding me that I had a son to take care of, and she wanted me to do a good job of it." Finn could hear Kurt in the background singing, and he smiled. "And that's what I've done. I've spent the years since making sure that my son is happy and taken care of." Kurt's singing got softer and Finn could tell Burt was walking away from the boy. "Rachel getting hurt is bad, any way you look at it. But if everything happens for a reason, and I believe it does, then there's something to be learned from it. Do you know what I'm saying?"

Finn was silent for a moment, thinking. "Yeah. Yeah, I think I do."

Burt made a noise of agreement. "You let me know when you need to come home. Your mom and I picked up your truck from the hospital earlier."

"Thanks," Finn told him. "Really, Burt, thanks." He wasn't talking about picking up his truck.

"No problem," Burt said, understanding the boy. "I'm here any time."

Finn stared at the wall for a moment, then stood up. "Hey," he said, smiling at Rachel when he walked back into her room. She was sitting up in her bed, reading.

"Hey," she told him, smiling softly. "You talk to your mom?"

"Burt," Finn told her, sitting down on the edge of her bed. "How are you feeling?"

"Better," she told him. "I'm really sorry about that, Finn."

He shook his head. "Don't be sorry," he told her. He watched her for a minute.

"What?" she said, putting a piece of hair behind her ear.

"I was just thinking," he told her.

"About?"

"About how much has changed in such a short time."

"Oh yeah?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

Rachel laughed slightly. "Like?" she said, drawing it out.

Finn smiled at her. "Like the fact that I now realize that I don't want to ever be without you." She looked at him. "I know that you're going to New York after we graduate." She nodded. "We haven't really talked about it, but I know that we were both thinking that I'd be going to Ohio State or somewhere close."

Rachel frowned. "We've still got a year," she told him.

"A year isn't enough," he told her. "I don't want you to go to New York and me to stay here. I don't want to be away from you like that."

"I don't want to be away from you either," Rachel admitted.

"I'm going to go to New York too."

Rachel stared at him. "But what if you can't get into a school there?"

Finn shrugged. "There are a lot of schools there. I can get into one of them."

"But what if you get a football scholarship somewhere else?"

He smiled at her. "I'm probably not going to get one," he told her honestly. "And even if I did, I'd probably be the back up."

"Still, your school would be paid for."

"We can talk about this another day," Finn told her, leaning close to kiss her lips. "But know that I'm coming with you to New York."

Rachel's hand moved to his neck as she pulled him close for another soft kiss. "Okay," she said, smiling.

"I love you," he told her sincerely, his gaze firm.

"And I love you," she told him, wrapping her arms around him.