A/N: Thank you for reading my story and sending reviews!

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee and its characters.

Chapter 4 – February 2012

"Oooooohhh, I'm so stoked!" Artie rubbed his hands together, pumping himself up, before he twisted his body to the right in order to give a fist bump to Jake, who also trembled with excitement.

"Yeah, right." Mercedes snorted, rolling her eyes. "We can't publish those photos, just so you know."

"Besides, I heard that police have been making many more arrests than usual with the recent excessive behavior of tourists crack down." Kitty assisted.

"Guys, the prototype finally has been delivered!" Holding a carbon box with Ryder's assistance, Rachel gleefully called out to four of the staff, Blaine and Finn in tow, who were discussing the photo shoot, which the team in the afternoon of the day had at the factory that you could see the behind-the-scenes of Mardi Gras.

Rachel opened the carbon box and verified the contents—instant film camera, which one of the Japanese imaging and photography companies sent for product testing to expand the market in the US from next year. She handed out one by one to each staff respectively.

"Cool!" Artie took it from Rachel and started studying it. It was as if you had strayed into 50's; the body was offered in black and silver chrome.

"It has some manual settings!" Ryder declared happily. "Double exposure is one of them."

"I'm not following." Kitty frowned. "What the heck dose double exposure mean?" She gazed upon the camera in her hands with much curiosity.

"Have you ever used any kind of photo APP for iPhone? Like Instant Blender or Dobble or Iris Photo Suite?" Artie asked, losing no time in connecting camera strap with both sides of the camera.

Finn helpfully interrupted as he saw the young blonde and Mercedes exchange a quizzical glance and shrug. "You can superimpose an image over another image previously you released a shutter."

After Jake and Ryder explained a little bit more detail as to how to use the functions for Kitty and Mercedes, Rachel cleared her throat to get their attention.

"I know you guys get excited, especially Artie and Jake," she turned her head towards two of them making a straight face, "you're looking forward to throwing strings of beads to get a treat from women. But don't forget why we came here and what we will use this instant camera for."

Then she started handing out two boxes of instant film to each member of the staff. "You have only 20 sheets of instant film per each and not only Travel Team'll use them for their pages, but also Web Team will."

"And the pictures you take with your cell phone or digital camera," Mercedes followed Rachel's remark, "should be sent to Will first."

"Don't send Travel Team or Web Team the pictures directly only to entertain them!" Knowing she couldn't stop the boys from doing it, as the person in charge, Rachel warned nonetheless.

"Show your tits! Show your tits!"

Rachel, Mercedes and Kitty heard the symphonic dimension out of the balconies at the Bourbon Street as they emerged from the café where they had had King Cake (for the record, none of them had gotten a King Cake baby).

"Three, two, one–"

Loud wolf-whistles howled over the street and from the balcony as two girls lifted their shirts up after the people on the balcony threw the strings of purple, green and gold (and some of them added red or blue or white) beads at the girls.

"I didn't know Blaine was interested in women's body. Look." Kitty nodded in the direction where not only Blaine but Finn was chatting with a tall blonde girl across the street.

Blaine handed out one of the 'throws' from his hand to the blonde girl, trying for negotiation, as Kitty approached them, Mercedes in tow. Rachel reluctantly followed them. "Hey, Blaine. Hey, Finn" Kitty called out.

After taking a picture of the blonde girl hanging the string of beads around her neck with his cell phone, Blaine faced the three of his colleagues, grinning. "Hey, ladies."

"When did you get interested in girls, Blaine?" Kitty bluntly asked.

"Can't I admire female's breasts just because I play for the other team?" Blaine shrugged. "Besides, they put out more easily when I tell them I'm a gay." He faced to the taller guy beside him. "Right, Finn?"

"Um, yeah." Finn rubbed the back of his neck with an empty hand, a few throws in the other.

"I guess I've gotten more pictures of them than Artie, Ryder or Jake have because of the very reason." Blaine announced triumphantly. "But Finn had more girls who were ready to show their bare breasts even if he wouldn't ask." He patted the photographer on the shoulder.

"Show me!" Kitty cried excitedly, snatching Blaine's cell phone out of his hand to look through the pictures before turning her face towards the photographer. "You have to show me the pictures, too, Finn!" She demanded, pointing to his Leica.

"Um, I–" Finn stole a glance at Rachel, shifting at the place uncomfortably "don't have many."

"You have enough." Blaine nudged Finn's arm lightly, winking at him with a smirk around his lips. "Artie, Jake, Ryder and us made a bet on who could get the most."

"Men never grow up." Mercedes snorted, rolling her eyes, however, she looked at the pictures on his cell phone nonetheless.

"I prefer to be said that boys will be boys forever." Blaine retorted.

"Wow, you've got twelve!" Kitty cried out. "I'm impressed. How about you, Finn?" She grabbed his camera, which was hanging from his shoulder, to peek into the screen on the back of it.

Finn hesitantly circled the jog dial on the back of his camera to show the editorial assistant the pictures that he had taken.

"He's got nine so far." Blaine informed as Kitty counted the number of pictures. "Why don't you guys help him win the bet?" Blaine joked. "He could catch up on if you would."

"Hell no!" Mercedes huffed.

"I would be happy to show my boobies if I had yours." Kitty let out a giggle at Mercedes. "But, I don't mind helping him." She held her hand out to Finn. "Give me that string, the big one, and I'll show you my boobs!" She offered, smirking.

Mercedes hung her mouth open with a horrified look. "Kitty! All the guy at the company definitely will see your breasts!"

"Finn's a professional, Mer. I could be naked if he wanted." Kitty shrugged. "Haven't you thought of keeping your best time in memory?" She turned her head to Finn. "What do you say?"

Rachel hung her head to look down at her lack of the rack unconsciously. Feeling uncomfortable, she looked into a viewfinder of the instant film camera, pretending as if she was going to take pictures of people in the street, and stepped backward a little without being noticed by four of the staff.

She didn't care how many girls eagerly showed their boobs to Finn. It was just a reveling. Finn's taking nude photographs of her colleagues, however, especially girls like Kitty, who had a sneaky hot body with blonde, was not what she ever wanted to picture in her head. Not that she had feelings for him, like at all! That was just… gross, you know.

Finn sheepishly smiled at the youngest woman in front of him. "I'd like to but I'll pass, sorry." He ducked his head apologetically, seeing Rachel slowly turn around and walk away from them out of the corner of his eyes.

Kitty pouted. "Well, in that case, I'm going to take on the side of Artie, Jake or Ryder!" She turned on her heel and began to walk away from them to look for the other guys.

Realizing that Rachel was not beside her and Finn's gaze followed Rachel, Mercedes yanked the shorter guy's arm before whispering in his ear. "We've got to go, too." She slightly nodded to Finn then Rachel.

Blaine just nodded in agreement, and they chased after Kitty, leaving Finn at the place.

As a small person as she was, it was wrong for her to walk away from them. As the night went on, the crowd of revelers got bigger, which made difficult for her to maneuver herself out of the street. In addition to that, if she wanted to take pictures of the atmosphere, she had to climb a tree or something.

Rachel looked around the street to find some building that she would be allowed to wedge herself in the people on the balcony. She managed to make her way through the revelers over to one of the hotels at the Bourbon Street, and got out of the crowd to reach for the entrance of a hotel.

Unaware of someone's calling her name from across the street, she walked into the hotel to look for a concierge or someone who could get her a green light to be on the balcony.

Although the concierge generously allowed her to go up onto the balcony of the second floor, she keenly felt how difficult her vertically-challenged figure made her life once she stepped out into the balcony. There were already tons of people out there, on top of that, standing two or three deep along the guard railing.

Now you knew why elbowing people aside was her signature move. It was very important for small people to establish their own method of letting others know that they also existed!

When Rachel managed to cut into the rearmost row, someone from behind gave her a dig in the shoulder. No, she was definitely not going to offer the spot she finally managed to have! She brushed it off without looking back at the person who was going to steal her spot. The person, however, didn't seem to give up.

Annoyed. How coward he or she was, taking aim at the smallest person on the balcony! Fine! She turned her head around as she made her mind to confront this bully-the-weaker. "I'm not g–"

Widened her eyes, Rachel stopped herself in mid-sentence as she realized the person who she had thought he was going to steal her spot was Finn (for your information, he was chuckling!).

Chewing the inside of her cheeks to try to hide her embarrassment which she believed appeared on her face with a color of tomato, she straightened up at the place, narrowing her eyes. "What, are you stalking me?"

"Did you just elbow the people in the back row?" Ignoring her remark, Finn asked.

"If I did, then what?" Rachel tucked a pile of her hair, annoyed with his still chuckling.

Finn raised his eyebrow at her defiant demeanor, but brushed it off. "Do you want me to give a shoulder ride?" He offered.

"I'm not a kid, Finn, even though my height is as same as my 12 years old self was." Rachel huffed. "Besides, it's perilous. So, thank you, but no thank you."

"Piggyback ride?" Finn insisted.

Rachel let out a sigh. "No, I'm fine."

"C'mon, Rachel! You want to take pictures from here, right?" Finn gently pulled her arm for her to get out of the line. Then he turned around and knelt down on his knee, waiting for her to climb on his back. He, however, didn't feel anything on his back. Turning his head to see what she was doing, he saw her eyes roving around the balcony.

"Nobody cares, Rachel. Every one of the people here focuses on girls down there. Now, come on!" Finn encouraged.

Rachel took a deep breath, giving in to resist. She slowly climbed on his back and managed to let out the words 'Thank you' in a low voice.

Finn slightly turned his head to her and gave her a lopsided smile. "Anytime."

Too drained by the coverage in New Orleans, Rachel decided to stay lying on the bed in her New York apartment on Sunday afternoon, just staring at the ceiling, occupied with her thoughts of Finn.

"Okay, I'm done here." She announced, but Finn didn't put her down and got out of the balcony holding her legs around his torso with his tight grip. "Finn, put me down. I've finished taking the pictures!" She repeated.

He, however, stayed in stony silence and kept carrying her on his back.

"Finn!" Rachel punched his shoulder with her fist repeatedly, tightening her grip of the left arm around his neck. "Put me down!"

"I didn't know you were violent." Finn mumbled, scrunching his nose with the pain on his shoulder. "Rachel." He let out a sigh. "You didn't let me finish the other day, so I'm not going to put you down until you let me finish tonight," he took a pause before continuing, "though I wanted to tell you this face to face."

Rachel shut her eyes and let out a shaky breath. She hadn't prepared herself for this yet.

"I'm sorry, Rachel. I really–"

"About what?" Rachel interrupted, saying angrily, trying to shake her legs loose from his grip.

"About–" Finn choked a little before clearing his throat, "about what I didn't show up at your apartment." He finally gave in to her tenacity of getting out of his back and turned to face her.

Rachel smoothed her skirt and looked up at him. "If that was a one night stand for you or some kind of joke, you don't need to apologize, do you?"

"It was not either a joke or a one night stand, you know that, Rachel!" Finn protested.

"Then you could've called me, Finn, to tell me you changed your mind! I waited and waited for you to knock on my door all day!" Noticing some of the people in the hotel stared at them, she whisper-shouted, trying her hardest not to let her tears fall on her cheeks.

"I tried to reach for you over and over, but you just chose to ignore it. And, and–" Her voice gradually got to be raised. "When I brought myself to come to your apartment, leaving my ego at the door," she laughed at herself sarcastically before throwing a sharp voice at him, "you were already gone!"

Annoyed with his casting down his eye in silence, Rachel continued to speak. "You wouldn't have seen me again if Kurt didn't take a job offer at our company, would you?"

"I wanted to call or write you, but I couldn't." Finn mumbled.

"You couldn't?" Rachel didn't understand, frowning. "Why?"

"Because," Finn paused, "because I was lost." He looked up at her face, which was telling that she had no idea what he was talking about, and continuing. "After you left my apartment, my girlfriend came–"

"Wait, wait, hold on," Rachel cut in. "W-what, your girlfriend?" She choked.

"No!" Finn cried out. "I mean, ex-girlfriend–"

"Stop, stop right there!" Rachel held her hand up to stop him as she shook her head. "I don't think I want to hear you out tonight anymore." She stepped back from him. "I-I got to go." With that, she left Finn behind at the hotel, ignoring his calling her name.

Rachel let out a deep breath and glanced at the clock on the night table, remembering she was going to purchase some ligit digital camera. She slowly got herself up from her bed and headed to the bathroom to take a shower for going out.

About an hour later, she was standing at the door of the store JAI Camera that was a purveyor of many professional photographers. Praying that the creepy sales clerk would have a day off, Rachel took a deep breath, closing her eyes, before she pushed the entrance to walk in.

Letting out a relieved sigh as there was no sign of the guy with a big reddish brown Afro hair in the store, she walked over towards the customer service counter.

She had a few film cameras—two single-lens reflex, one rangefinder, and one compact, but didn't digital cameras other than a compact one which she had bought a few years before out of necessity. She lagged way behind in knowing the world of digital photography. If the company completely shifted to using digital stills for The Musicraker, she needed to learn and catch up on it, even though she was not a photographer. She would not be satisfied unless she could be the one who was savvy the most amongst editors.

Mentally noted that she needed to buy some photograph collections of famous digital photographers, Rachel approached the counter where some sales clerks were. "Excuse me," she called out to the back of a man behind the counter.

The man whirled around to face her with a reverential smile. "Yes, ma'am. What can I help for you?"

"Um, I'd like to know which model I could use the lenses that I possess." Rachel asked. "I have some Zuiko, Destagon, and Planar."

"I'll get someone who knows it better. Would you please wait here a moment?" With that, he disappeared into the back room.

While waiting, she picked up a brochure on the counter and flipped through it.

"Rachel! Long time no see!"

Rachel groaned as she heard the high-pitched voice from the direction where the top of her head pointed to. She slowly lifted her face up to look at the guy who she hadn't expected to see again. "Hello, Jacob." She greeted bluntly.

"I'm really glad that you came to see me again! What can I help for you today? I'll do anything for you, you know that right?" The Jewfro winked and blew a kiss at her.

Trying her hardest of the hardest not to throw up, she managed to wear a feigned smile on her face, before telling him the film cameras and lenses that she possessed and explaining as to what she wanted to know.

"You could use your Zuiko with PEN series if installing a specialized adapter. But considering you have Distagon too, I recommend Canon EOS 5D Mark II since you could use your Zuiko and Distagon both with mount adapter." Jacob fished a copy of its brochure out of the shelf behind him before adding. "I think you have to want to have some purpose-built lenses though."

"I can't afford to buy them right now." Knowing how expensive camera lenses were, compared to a camera body, Rachel shook her head.

"You can borrow my lenses," the Jewfro wagged his eyebrows in a meaningful way, "for free." He tried to grab her hand.

Rachel pulled her hand from the counter quickly before Jacob could touch. "Thanks, but no thanks."

"You are so aloof, Rachel." Jacob pouted.

Rachel shuddered, but managed to compose herself. "Alright, thank you, Jacob. I've got to go. Bye." With that, she lighted out to the section where she could get the camera Jacob had recommended.

Thinking pros and cons for a while, Rachel decided to buy EOS 5D Mark II as Jacob recommended, and headed for Dashwood Books that was a photography bookstore in the East Village and the people who were into photography loved.

Holding the paper bag in her arms as if it was her baby, Rachel walked into the bookstore and made her way over to the Digital Photography section as she saw the familiar frame standing, flipping through a book in his hands.

Yup, she should've known that there were possibilities she would bump into him here since they had come here together a couple of times. Well, she brought him to this bookstore to begin with.

She thought that she'd better turn back at first, but against it. She let out an empty laugh. Looked like the universe played with them. She cleared her throat to get his attention.

"Hello, Finn."

Finn perked up his head and turned to see her. He widened his eyes and got tensed for a moment, but he managed to smile at her.

"Hey, Rachel."

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