So he left. And she stayed. And the world continued spinning, classes kept going, rehearsals, dance, vocal lessons…everything went on. Rachel went on, too. She met with her friends for coffee, she went shopping with Kurt, she re-watched all of her old Barbara Streisand movies…it was amazingly normal.

Finn had said that it would be different this time, and he was right. They talked on the phone every chance they could, and every now and then she'd get a letter from him. Every night she wrote down a few things she'd forgotten to tell him when they'd talked and once a week she'd send the letter off. He was gone, but they were still together. And if it was possible, they were more in love than they'd ever been.

There were other ways it was different this time, though. Rachel worried about him constantly. Before, she hadn't known where he was or what he was doing. Her worry for his person had been a vague feeling in her heart from time to time. Now she knew exactly where he was and what he was doing, and her worry kept her up most nights. She prayed several times throughout the day for him, and watched the news every time it came on. She was driving herself and everyone around her crazy, but she couldn't help it.

There was another huge difference this time…Rachel was pretty sure she was pregnant. She'd put off the thought for as long as she could, but it was time to face it; she was carrying Finn's baby. The idea both terrified and excited her. She wasn't ready to have a baby. She couldn't bear the thought of not having the baby. Worry for Finn was only pushed aside when she started freaking out about her own life. She was basically in a constant state of panic.

She hadn't told anyone about the baby; not even Kurt. If she really was pregnant, she wanted Finn to be the first person to know. She wasn't sure how he'd take it, though, and that was an entirely different set of problems. Would he be mad? Would he want the baby or tell her to give it up? What if he wanted her to have an abortion? While she didn't think that was likely, it was something that she thought about at 3 am while staring at the ceiling. And what if, God forbid, he wanted to name the baby?

Her mind was a steady stream of question after question. Could she stay in school after having a child? Would she have to move back to Lima and live with her dads? Did this mean she would have to give up her dreams? She's only 19. That's way too early to have a baby. Or was it? Lots of people had a baby when they were young. Look at Quinn. Rachel shuddered…no, don't look at Quinn.

She stared worriedly at the phone, having decided to call Finn and tell him. She held the fifth positive pregnancy test in her hand, unable to let it go for some reason. She had to call him. She had to. That was all there was to it. Or she could put it off a little longer…no, it was time to tell him.

Hitting the button, she put the phone up to her ear and held her breath. "Hello?" a woman answered.

Rachel pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at it for a minute. "Is this Finn's phone?" she finally asked, certain she'd somehow dialed the wrong number.

"Yeah," the woman told her. "He's in the shower. Want me to go get him?"

Rachel dropped the pregnancy test. "No, thanks," she mumbled, hanging up.

Putting her face in her hands, she was aware of a faint buzzing in her ears. She took several deep breaths, trying to force the bile back down her throat. She wasn't going to be sick, she told herself. She wasn't going to panic. There was a simple explanation for a woman answering Finn's phone while he was in the shower and offering to go get him. While he was naked. In the shower. She was his long lost sister. He'd gotten a splinter and she was a nurse. She was housekeeping. Did the Army have housekeeping? WHY HADN'T SHE EVER ASKED FINN IF THE ARMY HAD HOUSEKEEPING?

Picking her phone back up, Rachel dialed Puck's number. "Hey Rach," Puck answered, the smile evident in his voice. "How's my Jewish American Princess?'

Even though she felt like she was going to throw up, Rachel couldn't help but smile. "Hey Noah," she said. "How are you?" Small talk. Small talk was the key to not falling apart. Small talk and Finn not cheating on her.

"Good for now," he told her. "It's nasty out today, though. I've got sand everywhere. And I mean everywhere."

Rachel laughed a little. "I can imagine. Do you, uh, know where Finn is?" He's getting sand removed from his nostrils. He wet the bed and housekeeping is changing the sheets. He is NOT getting ready to walk out of the shower and into a room with a woman that isn't her. That's exactly what he is not doing.

"He went to get cleaned up, said he was going to stay in tonight, get some rest," Puck told her. "Did you try to call him?" Rachel opened her mouth, but no words would come out. Finn had made plans to stay in…with another woman. "Rachel?"

Rachel shook her head. "Oh, yeah," she told him. "He must have been in the shower." He had been in the shower, she thought sadly.

"If I see him, I'll make sure he calls you," Puck told her. "Everything okay? You sound a little funny."

"No, I'm fine," Rachel told him, her heart pounding. "Hey Noah, I have to go. Be safe, okay?"

"Will do," he told her. "Love you, Berry."

"I love you too," she said softly, hanging up. She didn't have any more excuses for him. She couldn't imagine what a good reason for Finn to be showering while a woman waited in his room would be, and she was already exhausted from the last two minutes of trying to come up with answers.

There was no stopping it this time; Rachel fell apart.