Rachel was determined to have a good time at the party, with or without Finn. She spent some time talking to the producers of Rent, who seemed interested in her, and she even danced with one of them. Every once in a while she would catch a glimpse of Jesse, who happened to be looking at her each and every time, right before averting his gaze elsewhere.

Mercedes and Puck were hoarding the karaoke that had started earlier, and both were so drunk that they were bellowing rather than singing. After a while, she and Quinn persuaded them to stop singing, so they both took to the dance floor. Rachel danced with Puck, who was putting up quite a display with his drunken dance moves. Rachel didn't know if she should laugh or cry, she had never before been so embarrassed by her friends.

But then she heard the most beautiful voice purr out of the speakers: Jesse St James was singing "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" by Elton John in the piano, and everyone was enthralled listening to him. For a moment she forgot the weird arrogant ass he was: he was truly, superbly talented, and by the end of the song she was so moved that she could feel tears threatening to escape her eyes. He ended the song with a simple 'thank you' after everyone applauded, after which the karaoke resumed.

Jesse didn't talk to Rachel after they danced, he could see that she was quite busy tending to her drunken flatmates, and he was busy himself talking to all his cast members. But when he saw that she and her dads and a semi conscious Mercedes were gathering their things to leave, he once again went to where she was, looking tired and spent but as beautiful as ever. She smiled at him as he made his way to them.

"Thank you so much for inviting us, the party was wonderful."

He gave her a warm smile, while shaking her dads' hands.

"Thank you for coming, it has been my pleasure. Do you need a cab or someone to take you home?"

"No thank you, don't worry, we'll walk to Rachel's place and hail a cab there, we could use some walking after eating and drinking so much!"

Rachel lived within walking distance of him? That was a nice piece of intel that he was grateful to know. He could not deny it any longer: he was falling for her, and there was nothing he could do about it.


Finn was furious. He had been awakened by a hotel maid prodding him with the back end of a feather duster, afraid that he was dead. At first he was disoriented about his whereabouts and the time, but soon enough his iPhone brought him back to reality: he'd been sleeping for at least 16 hours, and had missed the big event. The last thing he remembered was taking two pills that Santana had given him.

Fucking stupid bitch… Who knew what she had given him. Santana wasn't one of his favorite people at the moment, even though she had been a great lay. Still, what he really wanted was to get into Rachel Berry's pants, he was so close…

He was sure to give Santana a piece of his mind- maybe he would get lucky again- before he left for New York on that same day.


Rachel was growing more and more nervous as the opening night approached. Even though she nailed all her lines and dance moves, she wanted to make sure everything was perfect. She spent most of her waking time in the theater, and the only breaks she took were to catch a breath of fresh air outside. Every time she opened the stage door, she hoped to see Finn there waiting for her, but she knew that he had left to New York the day after the party. She never found out the extent of his relationship with Santana: if he wasn't interested enough to call her, she wanted nothing to do with him, even though she really liked him.

Whenever she went for some air outside the theater, Rachel would close her eyes and raise her face to the sun. Feeling the warm light in her face somehow replenished her energy, so she stayed like that for a few minutes, breathing deeply and stretching her arms over her head.

She was startled when she heard his voice.

"Stocking up on some Vitamin D?"

She lowered her head and opened her eyes to see the ever handsome Jesse St James, wearing a leather jacket over a black t-shirt and jeans.

"Hello Jesse. How are you doing?"

He removed his sunglasses and smiled at her, noticing that her eyes looked even prettier in the sunlight. Rachel noticed that his hand was swollen.

"I'm good, and you?"

"I'm very anxious about opening night."

She offered him a little smile. "I like to get some sun and fresh air, the stage lights can be too much after a while. What happened to your hand?"

"This? It's nothing, hmmm… just a freak accident with a case of wine the day after the party. But it's really nothing, it's just a bruise." He immediately changed the subject. "I know what you mean about the stage lights, when I first started, I would even see them in my dreams!"

Rachel laughed, feeling comfortable talking to him for the first time.

"I thought you were also going home."

"I was, but I decided to stay. Sam didn't want to miss your opening night, and to be frank, neither did I. As a matter of fact, we're invited to the final dress rehearsal on Thursday."

"Great! We'll see you then! Listen, I have to get back…"

"Sure, I understand, go ahead I'm waiting for Sam."

That was odd- Rachel could not make out the real Jesse St James, sometimes he was very nice, and others quite the opposite. She didn't give him much thought as soon as she got back to the stage, but she saw him again the next day. He was more serious, like wanting to say something but not being able to do so.

He just kept staring at her, barely talking, looking somehow conflicted.

"Jesse, are you okay?"

"Yes, I think I am…" and with that he left her by the stage door, wondering what was really wrong with him.


Finn Hudson managed to get invited to a big movie premiere, and even though lesser Broadway gods were considered part of the B-List, Finn always managed to get some publicity since he made sure to always mingle with the A-Listers, after all, he had connections everywhere. He caused quite a stir when he arrived with a black eye. As a whirl of reporters and paparazzi took his picture, he just gave them his signature lopsided smile and after being asked many questions, he explained to them how he got it.

"You see, when you have been with a cast and crew for so long, you cannot help but become a tight knit family. And as families go, sometimes there are disagreements over stuff. Let's just say this was brothers' quarrel, a little reminder of London…"

He laughed deeply after that remark, and was immediately showered with whys, whos, and wheres, but he demurely declined to comment, saying:

"As I said, it was a brothers' quarrel, and it has been taken care of. I don't want to harm my brother in any way."

Finn and his black eye made the cover of the gossip section of a major London newspaper, and he was the fodder of all watercooler gossiping.

Brother's Quarrel or Stage Envy?

There was a small picture of Jesse on the right hand corner of the article – "Brother" or Foe.


Rachel found out soon enough that everyone at rehearsals that day had their own version of the fight, but most of them pointed to a jealous Jesse as the perpetrator.

She could not find Quinn during the break, but had a chance to talk to Mercedes, whom she knew had become good friends with Tina Cohen. It was the day of the dress rehearsal and everyone was in a frenzy over everything, so it was not an easy task to pull her aside and get her to talk.

"Do you know anything about the fight? Is it true that Jesse was jealous? Of what? Talent? A girl? Oh my gosh, were they fighting over Santana?"

"Whoa girl, slow down, you're making me dizzy! I heard something but it's probably not true, and it's not worth repeating it."

Now Rachel was curious.

"What? Please Mercedes, you have to tell me! What did Tina tell you?"

"Tina didn't tell me anything, just that it wasn't Jesse's fault."

"So, it was Jesse that punched him in the face?"

Rachel suddenly recollected seeing Jesse's battered hand.

"I saw his swollen hand, but he said it was some kind of freak accident with a case of wine! What happened?"

"Well, as I told you I'm not sure, but the other day that bitch Santana told me something about it…" Mercedes was hesitating too much, and Rachel couldn't wait to find out.

"Oh come on Mercedes, just say it!"

"I'm sorry Rachel, it's just that it has to do with you, and I don't want you getting hurt. Regardless, I guess now you need to know. Santana said something about Finn going over to their place to say goodbye before he left. Apparently Jesse said something about you and Finn snapped and punched him first…"

Rachel was dumbfounded by the revelation.

"What? They fought over me? But what did Jesse say? What did Tina say?"

"I told you Rachel, the only thing Tina said was that it wasn't Jesse's fault. Santana was the one that said it was over you, over how he was going to seduce you now that Finn was out of the picture, and something about you being easy prey. But Rachel I don't believe her, I believe Tina, and besides, Jesse is such a good person…"

Rachel's face was crimson red before she spat-

"Good person my ass, he's an arrogant son of a bitch, who does he think he is?"

Not only was her friend cursing, something she rarely did, she was also crying. Mercedes pulled her into a tight comforting hug.

"That's why I didn't want to tell you! Don't worry, we'll get to the bottom of this and see what really happened."

Rachel broke the hug and looked at Mercedes with tear filled eyes.

"There's nothing to find out, I already know what Jesse St James is capable of. Forget it, just forget it. To hell with him!" She cried before running to her dressing room.

Mercedes didn't go after her, she knew well enough to give her some time alone to calm down, or else she would turn into a full-fledged drama queen.


The dress rehearsal was a success, and since the director believed in taking a full free day before the opening, everyone was having drinks at the pub. Rachel was still shaken by Mercedes' story, and even though she wanted to confront Quinn about it, she couldn't find the proper time to do so, since they were sorrounded by people. The minute she was finally able to talk to her alone, Sam and Jesse appeared out of nowhere and interrupted them. Just the sight of Jesse's face infuriated her.

"I need some air" was all she could muster before going outside by herself, Jesse St James was the last person she wanted to see right then.

"Rachel, are you okay?"

Talk about shitty timing… She didn't turn to face him, he was probably going to butter her up telling her how good she had been in dress rehearsal, and she wasn't up to it: she didn't want to make a scene there.

"Rachel please, I need to talk to you." He now touched her arm, and she turned around.

"What Jesse? What could you possibly say to me?"

He stood closer to her and looked deeply into her eyes, completely oblivious to the rage behind them.

"Rachel… it's just that... I just…"

"What Jesse, you just what?" she exclaimed, already exasperated after a few seconds of silence.

Jesse finally spoke again.

"I love you."

Rachel felt as if she had been struck by lightning. She crossed her arms and looked at him as if he was a complete lunatic.

"What?"

She flinched as he stepped even closer and put his hands in her elbows.

"I love you Rachel. I'm in love with you…"


I did have fun writing this one! I hate to complain about reviews, but I was bummed that I almost didn't get any for the last chapter, especially since I always take the time to review if I like a story, even if I'm reading it from my phone! I was afraid that I was butchering the story, it's just harder to adapt to modern times than I thought!

Anyway, thanks a lot to Original Groffete for beta-ing this story, I'm having a blast beta-ing hers, you're in for a treat with "Sucker Love"!

And don"t forget to drop a line if you liked this one!