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

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee and its characters.


Chapter 8 – September 2013

Rachel had been like on cloud nine. Since the kiss she and Brody shared. That kiss. She had not been kissed like that by anyone else, ever. She repeatedly touched her lips in an unconscious manner, grinning from ear to ear. She didn't care that Tina or Santana said constantly that it caused them to feel nauseous. Because she didn't care.

It however was short lived. Brody seemed to have been busy since their first kiss. He went out every morning past seven, casually dressed but weirdly having on a tie (okay, she admitted she kept peeping). Was that something involved Save the Children fund? Somehow he always seemed not to want to talk about his job when she asked about it. She frowned.

What bothered her the most rather than that kind of thing was that he didn't reply to her text – How about watching Sweeney Todd in my apartment next Saturday? – yet. The cast and crew would get rare day off next Saturday since they would do the press preview the previous day. She read her own text over and over again. She didn't think that it was too eager. Or was it?

Rachel was generally accepted to be far from an expert when it came to relationship.

Her first love was Jonas Friedmann. Well, she was not sure it was 'love' or just 'crush' (probably the latter). He was a star quarterback in her high school. There was no way that every girl ignored his attractiveness. He was tall, good looking with beautiful green eyes and soft brown hair. Jonas was in the different social circle from Rachel's. He was the most popular guy in high school. She was in the bottom. She was nobody.

One day, oddly enough he smiled at her. Her heart skipped a beat. He did notice her presence! He helped her pick up her stuff scattering on the floor in the hall way when the other jocks pushed her into her locker!

She fell for him naturally. He started talking to her and eventually he asked her out. To say that she was surprised was understatement of the year when he first asked her out since she thought he was dating with a head cheerio who had a perfect figure, like big boobs, blue eyes and shiny blonde hair, even her height matched his perfectly. But he said that she was a bitch and wanted to spend time with her. She believed him.

She made out with him a lot in her house (she had never been to his place since he said her house was closer to school). Thinking back now, he was complacent when they made out. He never kissed her or held her in his arms in school. She thought that was normal for a teenage boy. What she thought something was wrong with their make out sessions was that she was the one to be wrong. She thought she had to improve her skills. She read some tips for making out (and sex just in case) in magazines and on internet for him. Of course, she researched.

She was too blind to detect his real intention. She thought he was different from the others.

He was not.

It was a game for him and his friends (jocks and cheerios).

One night at the junior prom, he dragged her into an empty class room. He pushed her down on a desk and started hovering over her. Though she had been thinking that eventually she would give her virginity to him, never thought she wanted to lose it in a public space. His kissing and sucking her neck made her head fog, ignoring the thought as to why he wanted to go all the way here and this day. She couldn't completely resist.

When she almost complied with his forcible manner but finally managed to stop him from going forward, she heard some laughter outside of the class room. She looked at the direction where the laughter came from over his shoulder. What she found was his friends' evil grin peeked out of the door glass (and she could see some of them handing dollar bills to the others).

She pushed him as hard as she could. She tidied her dress and demanded for him to explain what was going on. He somehow seemed angry with her not his friends. Then he said, 'You're always prancing around in those microscopic skirts like begging me to fuck. But you are a prude way more than I imagined.' With that he gestured for his friends to dismiss with his two fingers up in the air and left the class room draping his arm over his real girlfriend's shoulder.

To say that her senior year had been like living hell was understatement. She however kept holding her head high, enduring the bullying and humiliation, determined to prove to them in near future that she was not a loser but they were. And she swore herself she never ever threw herself at anyone until she completely trusted them.

In her senior year, she got to get along with one of her teammate in glee club named Gabriel Abraham. He was in a wheel chair and one of the victims who had suffered from bullying like Rachel. They helped each other and hung out a lot after school. You could say he was her boyfriend at that time. But other than kissing (just pecking), genuinely platonic. He understood why she didn't want their relationship to be more intimate. She really appreciated it. He still was a good friend after graduation, though he lived in LA now (he went to UCLA to be a director of films).

After entering NYADA, she dated with a few guys here and there. But she was too busy with school work to spare time for devoting herself to one guy. Until she met Jesse.

The rest was history.

Rachel took a deep breath and started thinking of Brody. She knew she fell for him already, not that she would admit to him (and her friends) since she wasn't sure he felt the same way as she did. But he kissed her like he really meant it. Just one kiss but she felt it. Unlike with Jonas (always demanding), unlike with Jesse (always narcissistic) either.

"Rachel?" Tina called out, breaking her thought she was being deep in. "Why don't you invite him to the party after press performance? We can find out what he really thinks then."

"I don't know…" Rachel hesitated. "He even didn't bother to reply to my text." She sighed. "Do you think there's a possibility that he's not single? I never asked him about it."

Tina frowned. "How did you say such a thing? He walks his aunt dog every morning and night, he asked you out, and he kissed you, right?" She put her hand on her shoulder.

"But, like I said before, he could have anyone." Rachel looked down at her hands on her laps. "The more I get to know him, the more I realize he really could have anyone. I don't see why he's single. I don't see why he wants to hung out with me." She said in a low voice.

Tina sighed. "Rachel, what have you done to our diva? Where is your confidence? You're an independent, attractive woman inside and out. Of course he wants to be with you." She squeezed her shoulder before pulling her to give a hug. "Just ask him."

"Thanks, Tina." Rachel hugged back with teary eyes. "Okay, I'm going to text him about the party." She wiped her eyes with her thumb before they could have threatened on her cheeks.

Tina turned her head towards the corner of the stage where Santana with concerned look on her face was standing, mouthing 'falling in love.'


It was not like he had avoided Rachel. It was not, really. He really wanted to spend more time with her, let alone kiss her. That kiss. He'd never felt like that before, with anyone else, ever. He thought he could kiss her, hold her in his arms forever. If he could, he would carry her in his pocket to everywhere.

She was different from any other girls who he had hooked up with. Her smile, her sound of laughter, her cuteness, every little thing of her made his life colorful. She was the first person who he thought of when he woke up. She was the last person who he thought of when he went to bed. He knew he already fell for her, not that he could admit because he had to pretend to be Brody.

That was why he was terrified now. If he was with her, he couldn't stop himself. He wanted more. But he couldn't. Kurt warned over and over he should tell her the truth. Easier said than done. Maybe if he'd never lied to her about it in the first place. Maybe if right from the first moment he met her he'd say like this; Listen, I am not Brody Weston. Brody couldn't make it. He feels really bad about what happened to his aunt, so he sent me in his place. But he didn't. He blew it from the very beginning. Now it was too late to tell her the truth because anything else he ever tried to tell her, she would think he was lying about that too. Maybe she wouldn't admit it, but in the back of her mind, it would always be there; Maybe he's lying about this too.

Besides, Brody was bugging (threatening) him constantly.

And, to be honest, a tiny piece of the reasons why he didn't make up his mind to tell her the truth was because of his last name. He didn't change his name when her mother remarried Burt Hummel. But when girls got to know he was one of the Hudson-Hummel clans, their attitude got colored completely.

Though it was true that his grandfather was a wealthy man and left him money in his will as trust fund, nobody noticed he was James Hudson Senior's only grandchild unless he volunteered the information. But after joining the Hummel clans, that was the different story. He had experienced it so many times. They didn't see who he really was, what he was like. They saw just his name in him.

He knew Rachel was not going to change even if she knew his real name. He believed she was not that girl. That was not an issue. He just felt comfortable with the way she saw what he was like without prejudice (of course aside from his fake name).

Jenny Landstrom was one of them. She was just the beginning of what he would suffer from. He met Jenny in the field of his school. He was a sophomore and the second string quarterback. She was a freshman and a cheerleader of one of the rival schools in Brooklyn. She was tiny (okay, he admitted tiny girls were his weakness) but seemed full of confidence with shiny blonde hair and rosy cheeks.

That beautiful girl somehow walked over to him to say 'hi.' She said that he would soon shine with his team as a star quarterback. When he asked how she did think of that, she leaned down and whispered in his ear, putting her hand on his arm, 'I don't think. I know it. You have really great arms.'

The sixteen-year-naïve-boy's heart soared. He didn't know why she was so sure, but he thought that she somehow believed in him. He plunked up the courage to ask her out despite Kurt was repeatedly warning (Finn didn't like Kurt was always right). Actually, as she predicted, he was promoted to the first string quarterback a year later.

Thinking back now, she was self-indulgent. One day she was really affectionate, the other day she was not in the mood. Back in his mind, he knew she was driving him nuts. But he ignored the second part of her since she could be really sweet when she wanted to be. When she was sweet, her smile made his heart skip a beat.

The things between them started changing when he joined the glee club. Shortly before he joined the glee club, their relationship got more intimate. She was sexually bold unlike him. It didn't matter to him whether she was a virgin or not. She was beautiful with a great figure. It was no wonder that she'd had boyfriends before him.

The problem was that he wasn't much confident about his own figure and he was a virgin (he was not sure Jenny knew those things, he was too shy to confide them). Also he had been more cautious about having sex since one of his best friends – Randy Cornwell, a son of a big pharmaceutical company's CEO and star wide receiver of the team (Puck was the second string) – knocked up his girl.

He didn't know why she was so upset, either when he said his had joined the glee club, when he said he wanted to wait for the right time to have sex, or when he said he wanted to be a teacher. She got to be more and more in a bad mood. He tried to bring her good side back so hard.

They finally slept together at the night of his junior prom (of course he used a protection). About three weeks later, she made a phone call in the middle of the night to ask him to come over saying she wanted to talk to him in person. He was so worried about her because her voice was trembling like she was sobbing. Sure it was, she was crying hard when he rushed to her parents' house in Brooklyn (he climbed a tree to enter her room).

Then she dropped the bomb.

She was pregnant.

Although the light went out of his eyes, he cared about her. He thought he loved her. He soothed her for a while saying he would do anything for her and go to the doctor with her. She however weirdly turned down his proposal and kept him away from her doctor appointments.

One day, he was in the hospital on the lurk to confront her as to what was going on. When he pressed her for an answer, she finally confessed the baby was not his, but Randy of all people. As it turned out, she was double-dipping, ironically as was Randy (What a prick! He impregnated girls twice!).

To say he was shocked was understatement. To make matters worse, she launched a counterattack when he censured her for her (and his best friend's) betrayal; You're not smart enough to be a congressman like your step father! You're not good enough to be picked in the draft! You're such a coward to have sex! What's worse, you're terrible in bed!

That definitely traumatized him about girls.

Finn ran a hand through his hair in frustration, recalling his most horrible memory. He looked down at his cell phone in his hand and scrolled the screen. Should he answer her texts? Yes he should. He didn't want her to think he was playing her. But he was terrified what would happen when she found out the truth. She would probably hate him and never see him again.

When he finally stood up from the sofa and entered the guest room, he found one of the cats – he assumed it was Ms. Bonaparte – lying on the floor. He tilted his head to one side, wondering something was wrong with her. Ms. Bonaparte was the more active and animated of Mrs. Weston's two cats. He wrinkled his nose with a bad smell as he approached her. Then he saw something underneath the bed. He gasped. She had puked for some reason.

"Oh, shit!"


Being hasty, Finn banged on Rachel's door, completely oblivious that it was almost midnight. Rachel, who was drifting off, practically jumped out of the bed with the loud knocks. She rushed to the front door, feeling her heart rate go up, thinking something horrible would happen to her parents or somebody she was close to.

Surprised, she saw Brody standing with a worried look as she opened the door. He was the last person she thought to visit her since he didn't reply her texts. "W-what's wrong?" She managed to ask, folding her arms across her chest (not because she was angry at him but she just didn't wear a bra in her sleep).

"I-I'm sorry, t-to bother you so late." He stammered with reddened cheeks since he realized she was sleeping (he saw her perky nipples through her tank top before she hid them with her arms). "Um, it's Ms. Bonaparte. Something's the matter with her." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Would you mind coming to take a look?"

Rachel nodded and rushed to Mrs. Weston's guest room. She ran up to her as she saw her lying limply. Ms. Bonaparte however didn't seem to want anybody touching her. When Rachel tried she just growled.

Then Rachel noticed some dark brown particles scattering nearby the vomit underneath the bed. She reached for them and picked them up. They were chocolate covered raisens. "Oh my God." She gasped. "We've got to get this cat to the hospital right away!" She walked over to Mrs. Weston's linen closet and got the cat carrier down from it before saying to fidgeted Finn who followed her. "Wrap her in a towel."

Finn got a towel and managed to bundle her up (poor Finn, he got several evil-looking scratches before accomplished it). Then they took Ms. Bonaparte to the veterinary where Rachel knew Mrs. Weston used to take her pets when she needed to.

The minute they walked in, Rachel gave the information for the VTs to need to know. She let out a sharp breath as the VTs took Ms. Bonaparte and rushed her off to the treating room. She plumped down on a chair in the waiting room, oblivious of Brody's presence because she came unglued.

"So, raisens or chocolate were the cause of…" Finn opened his mouth, scratching his head, standing in front of her.

Rachel shot up her head. "Oh, um, I think so. I'm sorry I didn't mean to put myself forward." She said apologetically.

Finn chuckled. "No, it's okay. I couldn't explain as well as you did." He sat next to her. "And I should've been more careful."

"It's not your fault." Rachel put her hand on his knee. "I hadn't known which food you shouldn't feed cats until Mr. Bonaparte died. Even Mrs. Weston didn't know at that time." She gave a smile at him. "Besides, I'm sure you didn't feed her, she feed herself like Mr. Bonaparte."

"Mr. Bonaparte?" Finn asked.

Rachel nodded. "Ms. Bonaparte's brother." She giggled before covering her mouth with her hand. "Oh, it's inappropriate for me to laugh."

Finn chuckled again. "What happened to Mr. Bonaparte? He died eating chocolate covered raisens?"

"Unfortunately."

Then Rachel told him Mr. Bonaparte's fatal encounter with chocolate covered raisens. "When Mrs. Weston held the funeral, she asked the neighbors to come and send a donation in lieu of flowers after Mr. Bonaparte's demise." She didn't bother to hide her giggles this time. "But some of them refused the donation and Mrs. Weston got furious about it." She remembered Mrs. Weston persisted how helpful her cat had been for rodent control for weeks to her neighbors. Rachel knew the truth was that Mrs. Weston wanted some distraction from a grief, not a donation.

Finn arched his eyebrow before saying. "Wow, she's quite a woman, isn't she?"

Rachel couldn't decide that his remark about his aunt was from their discord or there were some other reasons. "I don't mean to take sides, but Mrs. Weston had been really lonely since her husband passed away and her dog and cats had consoled her." She wanted Brody and his aunt to come around when Mrs. Weston woke up out of her coma. "I think she was happy to hear your voice, you know, when we visited her."

"I hope so." Was all Finn could say. He felt a mix feeling, guilty about pretending to be her nephew, anger at her real nephew and admiration for Rachel.

"Rachel…" When Finn began to speak, he heard someone call out for him 'Hey, Finn, what are you doing here?' He shot up his head to look for a guy who called him his real name. "Oh, Sam, Nga, Kaltxì." He punctuated and put a very hard stress on the last two words which were only ones in Na'vi he remembered. Sam forced every friend of his to learn the weird language on a daily basis in college. He couldn't believe himself he actually remembered and used them. He almost rolled his eyes at himself.

Sam was taken aback and threw a weird look at him.

At the very moment, the veterinarian's coming out and calling 'Mr. Weston?' which saved Finn. He jumped out of his chair. "That's me." He rushed up to the vet. Rachel followed him.

The vet told them Ms. Bonaparte suffered from acute renal failure and dialysis and a few overnight stays would be necessary or the cat would definitely die. The vet also said that the cat would need to be infused every other day after discharging.

And finally they were told the bill.

$1,700? $1,700 for a cat? Rachel dropped her jaw open.

Finn just nodded, reached for his wallet and pulled out his credit card before realizing he couldn't use it and put it away quickly. "Um, I forgot all my cards are maxed out." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I'll just go to the bank machine and get cash."

Dumbfounded, Rachel put her hand on his arm before managing to suggest. "You can't get that much cash from a bank machine in a single day. Let me put it on my card and you can pay me back later."

"Absolutely not." Finn refused before turning his head to ask the vet to wait before going over the cashier to arrange a payment plan.

Rachel was left in the hospital… with the guy named Sam who held a dog with a bandaged paw. The awkward silence floated between them. She felt the blonde guy staring at her. As she was about to open her mouth in order to break the awkward silence with some courage, the deputy owner of Ms. Bonaparte returned.

After the payment had been paid and the blonde guy had left, Rachel ventured to ask as they walked back to their apartment. "Why did the guy call you Finn?"

"Um…" Finn nervously rubbed the back of his neck. "Acturally, all the people who are very close and important to me call me Finn."

Rachel blinked and looked at him quizzically.

Finn continued. "My grandfather insisted on choosing his own name for me when I was born despite my parents already picked up a name 'Finn'. There was a feud between Granpa and my dad, and my parents got to call me Finn nonetheless."

It was not a total lie. His grandfather didn't like every little thing his dad Christopher did and his dad did things that rubbed his father up the wrong way too. Even though his parents managed to name him Finn (of course Finn didn't tell Rachel this part), the crucial damage soon came to them when his dad joined the army. Sadly they never met halfway.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Rachel took his hand in her and squeezed it.

Finn stared at her hand for a while before looked into her warm eyes. "I want you to call me Finn too." Oh God, what I am doing? "I don't like my name Brody."

"You really want me to call you Finn?" Rachel asked to make sure. He wanted her to be one of them? The important people to him? She chewed the inside of her cheeks. "Okay. I'll do that, Finn."

Finn pulled her into his arms. "I'm sorry I didn't answer your texts. I've been busy, so…" He said in her hair.

Rachel wrapped her arms around his torso, smiling in his chest. "It's okay." She sighed contently. "I've missed talking to you, Finn."

Finn tightened his arms around her. "I've miss you too, Rach." For now, just for now, he wanted to feel her warmness, putting the whole Brody thing aside.

Even though he knew karma was a bitch.


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