Chapter 6

Carole gently knocked on the door as she peeked in to find her son still asleep. She walked over to the bed, placing the laundry basket she had in her arms down and sat on the edge. Brushing her hand gently over his cheek. How she missed coming in Saturday mornings and yelling at him to get up.

"Mom?" Finn's eyes flickered open a little, shutting tightly again as the sun shined brightly through the window.

"Morning, I didn't mean to wake you... Noah is here."

"Its okay, I'll be down in a minute." He turned over as he began to fall asleep again.

Carole stood up grabbing the laundry basket. As she reached the door, she turned back, a single tear rolling down her cheek, "Its gonna be okay son..."

...

Quinn opened the door to the extra bedroom urgently, and sighed with relief. She'd panicked when she walked in to Beth's room and found no Lexi. She tip toed over to the bed, and smiled when she saw Lexi curled up in a ball against Rachel's chest.

Just then her cell phone began to go off as she quickly jumped up fumbling with the buttons to turn it off.

Rachel twitched a little startled with the noise, "Finn?"

Quinn turned around to face her, "No its me. I'm sorry I didn't mean to wake you. I panicked when I couldn't find Lexi in bed, and so I came to tell you... but here she is. I'll let you get some rest."

She began to walk to the door as Rachel sat up a little carefully trying to wiggle her way from Lexi's arms without waking the little one.

"Is he gone still?" Her voice was hoarse and her eyes swollen.

"He went home. Carole called, Puck is there with him... Are you okay?" She slowly made her way back to the bed, carefully sitting down.

Rachel looked down at Lexi before answering the question. "I don't know Quinn. I'm broken, and I think there are to many pieces to put back together... My daughter thinks I hate her. I've driven away the only man I have ever loved. The only person who understands me. He's gone Quinn... He doesn't want me anymore."

Her voiced hitched as the words came out of her mouth, and she began to cry. Quinn stretched her arms out embracing her in a tight grip.

"He is not gone. He loves you more than you know. I know that for a fact. He's hurting Rachel, he reacted to the ache in his heart. He would never leave you... But you have to stop this.. Whatever this is. I don't know what to call it. I just know that for the sake of your sanity and the love you have for the two most important people in your life, you need to wake up, you need to understand that life goes on, and we have to go with it. We can't get stuck in the past. We'll be left, alone, and the longer we're there, the harder it will be to come back."

Rachel looked up at Quinn, regret filled her eyes, along with sadness and guilt, it was a harsh reality, and she needed to hear every word.

...

Finn dragged his feet as he rubbed his eyes making his way down stairs.

"Hey man." He looked up as Puck stood up and walked over to him, "You alright?"

He simply shook his head. He wasn't alright, he was breaking down, and with it his marriage. His family, his whole world.

Puck grabbed the keys, "Lets go for a drive."

Finn kissed his mom, a word unsaid, and followed puck out to the car. They drove in silence for a bit before Puck turned to his best friend, "What happened?"

Finn shrugged his shoulders, "I snapped. I could it feel it coming for a while now, and yesterday, I just couldn't hold it in."

"Man it happens, and its not always a bad thing, holding it all in, all the anger and stress, it messes a person up."

Finn looked out the window at the tree's passing him by, "I broke Rachel's heart. Rachel Berry. The girl I've been in love with since the first time I set eyes on her."

Puck stopped the car in the middle of the road, slamming roughly on the breaks.

"Whoa! Puck what are you doing?"

"That's your problem, you're stuck in the past as much as she is. You didn't break Rachel Berry's heart Finn. You argued with Rachel Hudson, your wife, the woman you plan to spend the rest of your life with. She's not the same, and neither are you... What happened to you guys. I can't even imagine... and so I wont tell you that I feel your pain, because I look at Beth everyday and thank God that she is healthy and well. And I wont tell you that its gonna be easy. You know it hasn't, but I will tell you, that you need to go home to your wife. And you need to work things out with each other like the married couple that you are. You guys aren't that young couple in High School anymore. You are mature adults who are a family. You need to remind her that shes not alone. You know I love that girl.. Rachel will always be one my greatest friends, and so I'm counting on you to bring her back to us."

There was a pause before Finn looked over at his friend..."I told her if she didn't fix herself soon, I was leaving."

"Did you mean it Finn?"

He through his head back against the head rest, "No... And yes. I don't want this life. I feel like I've done all I can do. Its her turn now."

Puck nodded, "Well, you wont know what she's gonna do, if you run away like you did last night."

...

Rachel ran to the door as the doorbell rang."Finn..?"

"Not quite!" A familiar voice peered from the other side of the door as Rachel opened and smiled when she saw Santana. She grabbed Rachel pulling her close, embracing her tightly. She pushed her away keeping arms length and observing Rachel from head to toe. "You have not changed since the last time I saw you. And to be honest I expected far worse than I'm seeing.. Progress!"

Rachel rolled her eyes a little as a smile crept on her face. Santana noticed and hugged her friend again. "I'm sorry I couldn't come sooner."

Quinn walked out of her bedroom and smiled when she saw the two girls, "You're back!"

They pulled away from each other as Santana made her way to Quinn and Rachel turned back to shut the door. "Yea, the case took longer than expected, so they had to extend the trip.. I am exhausted, but its done, and we won. So all is good."

"That's great San, Congratulations!"

Santana smiled as she turned back to see Rachel starring at her phone quietly in the corner. She whispered to Quinn, "Thanks... So how is she doing? She's up? That's good.. Its been how long now?"

"Well its definitely progress. But it didn't happen on its own. Finn left. They argued last night and he left. He went home, Carole called this morning, Puck is there now.."

"That bad?"

"It got ugly, they scared us both last night. I couldn't stop crying, I think I scared Puck more."

Santana's heart sunk a little, as much as she acted like she hated Rachel and Finn in High School, that was in the past, they were her friends now, and though she hadn't seen them in sometime. She always cared. "What are we gonna do? Is he coming back?"

Quinn simply shrugged her shoulders as Rachel made her way towards them and dropping herself onto the couch. Tears welled up in her eyes as she looked down at her phone and still nothing from Finn.

The two girls starred at their friend in pain, all they wanted was to whisk it away and make her feel better. The door to the bedroom creaked a bit as they all turned, Lexi came stumbling out as she rubbed her eyes.

Santana did a double take between Lexi and Quinn? "Is that? My god she's so big, its only been a few months right?"

Quinn smiled and nodded.

Lexi dragged her bear across the floor, "Mommy?"

Rachel wiped her face and composed herself. It'd been so long since she was a good mother to Lexi, but not anymore. She knew that this had to be the first step to everything. "I'm right here love."

Lexi looked up and smiled as she jumped onto her moms lap, "How are you feeling today? Are you still sad and sick?"

Rachel held back the tears, "No my angel, I'm a little better today. Thank you for asking."

Lexi smiled, as Rachel watched, it was the same as Finn's. "Where's daddy?"

Rachel took a deep breath as she looked up to Quinn for an answer, "Um.."

Quinn jumped up grabbing Lexi in her arms and pulling her over Rachel. "Young lady did you forget to say good morning to me. You know what that means... Tickle fight."

Quinn began to tickle Lexi as her giggles filled the room, "Aunt Quinn... Stop!" Quinn laughed as she put her down on her two feet, Lexi brushed her long hair out of her face when she saw Santana. "Aunt Santana!" She ran to her throwing herself in her arms.

"Lexi Quinn Hudson. What happened to you, you're so big now.." She stood her on her two feet and peeked her head around Lexi looking at Quinn and Rachel, "Well she's gorgeous. I still think her middle name should have been Santana. Just sayin'."

She looked back up at Lexi and winked. Lexi laughed a little as she wrapped her tiny arms around her neck. "I'm a big girl now."

"Yes you are... I missed you so much."

"I missed you too. But we live here now so you can come visit all the time."

She looked down at the beautiful little girl who looked exactly like Finn and Rachel, "Yes! And I am so excited."

...

Santana had taken Lexi for a girls day out as Rachel and Quinn went by the new house she and Finn had just bought.

"It's beautiful." Quinn walked around the empty house admiring all of the details. "When did they move your furniture in?"

Rachel looked around at the couches and tables sprawled out, "Finn called the storage place on our way home yesterday from our meeting."

"It's great Rach."

"I know, It's perfect."

Quinn grabbed Rachel, pulling her close "Stop it. He's coming home."

Rachel sighed as tears fell and she stared at their new house.

The phone began to ring as Quinn dug through her purse to find it.

"Hello...Hi, um yea, sure. Hold on..." "Hey Rachel, I have to get Beth from Shelby's do you mind? Or do you want me to take you home?"

Rachel turned to face Quinn, "Actually do you mind if I stay here? I wanna look around some more and the movers brought stuff I wanna see what boxes came."

"Sure, I'll swing by a little later for you okay?"

Rachel nodded as Quinn continued her conversation and headed out the door.

She walked towards what would be her new living room when she spotted the boxes. The first one she opened was their picture frames. She smiled at the first one. It was the three of them, the day Lexi was born. She placed the large frame on the mantel of the fireplace and sat down on the couch with the box to sift through the rest.

Puck pulled up to the house as Finn sighed, "Thanks man. I'll see you back at the house later."

"I swear Hudson, if your ass doesn't show up, I'll kick it."

With that he was out and getting in his car. He drove around a bit, not sure where to go. He just drove and found himself at unlikely place.

He walked in as he placed the keys down on one of the boxes and sighed. He walked around as he headed towards the living room and was stunned when he found a sleeping Rachel on the couch?

"Rachel?"

Her eyes flickered a bit as she heard her name. She jumped up a bit when she saw him, "Hi."

He made his way closer to her. He noticed her swollen puffy eyes, and felt awful knowing that that had been his fault. But something was different... "Hi."