PREVIOUSLY - In her grief to get away from the scenes at the loft, Santana just ran, and ran. Until she stopped to call Puck to find out what he knew and to let him know. Puck didn't know very much, and didn't even know about Finn, now he does. After her call, she still couldn't face going back to the loft, and she tried running some more, until she hit the wall, and while trying to recover, she had a flashback of Finn, when he was trying to help her out of the closet. He said he cared for her, and didn't want anything to happen to her. This hit Santana like a tonne of bricks, and she knew then that something had happened to Finn and she wasn't one of the ones around to help him. She had to make it right, she had to get back to the loft, and help Rachel, and Kurt through this tough time.
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And now the continuation.
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PART 9- MERCEDES, QUINN AND MIKE ALL FIND OUT
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It's now 10.30 a.m. back in Ohio, and in the choir room, Sam walked over to the corner of the room, and sat down. He stared at the drums that Finn use to play. Tears started to form in his eyes. The choir room was now almost empty as Artie was over the other side, and Tina was still sitting where she was still crying.
Sam cleared his throat, and pulled out his phone. He looked for Mercedes number.
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It is 7.30 a.m. in Los Angeles, and in her room, Mercedes is already awake, as she has been having trouble sleeping, because she is stressing out on what is happening with her and her album 'Hell to the No', she's got songs recorded for her, but no one to produce them. Her manager is trying to get her to do a photo opportunity, which would greatly help her chances of finding a record deal, and producer. Suddenly her cell phone goes off on her side board. She turns over, and grabs it. She reads the caller display. 'Sam Evans'.
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He'd been calling her at least once or twice a week since she got to Los Angeles, and she keeps telling him, nothing much has happened. She didn't want to have another conversation with him, and lying wasn't part of her vocab. She shook her head, and waited for the calling to stop, which it did so. She took a deep breath, and laid back down.
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Her phone rings almost instantly again, and this time she has to answer it. She pushes the button.
"Look Sam, it's 7.30, I'm trying to face the day, there's not much more difference to the situation that I told you about a couple of days ago..."
"I'm not calling about your situation," came Sam's voice, which was not his usual chipper self "We have another situation going on."
Mercedes sat up in bed.
"What's the situation?"
"You need to get back to Ohio."
"Why? I was back there a few weeks ago don't forget. I can't keep using what little money I have to get back there all the time."
"It's Finn," Sam blurted out "You need to get back here."
"What about Finn?"
"Mercedes I... we... need you back here."
"What's wrong with Finn, Sam?"
Mercedes could hear Sam choking up "He's gone Mercedes, he's gone."
"What do you mean gone?" asked Mercedes trying to figure out what Sam was on about "Where's he gone too?"
Some sniffles alerted Mercedes that there was something more to it, than Finn going somewhere.
"Finn's dead."
Those words hit Mercedes like a stack of books.
"How?"
"We don't know, Mr Schue made the confirmation earlier. He's devastated, Rachel's devastated, Kurt's devastated, Mercedes... I'm devastated."
Sam wasn't making sense but she had to get to Ohio.
"I'll call you back in a minute Sam," replied Mercedes "I need to get up and get changed..."
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While Sam was on the phone to Mercedes, Artie had wheeled himself over to the opposite side of the room, and he pulled out his phone and found Quinn's number. She had given it to him when she had been hit by a car in their senior year on the way to Rachel and Finn's wedding, and she had been in a wheel chair for a little bit of time. She use to phone him to talk about her situation, hoping that she could walk again, which eventually she could. Artie looked at his watch. 10.30. Maybe he can catch her between classes at Yale. He made the call.
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At Yale, University, in New Hampshire, Connecticut, Quinn was heading from one lecture to another. Her previous lecture had run 10 minutes overtime, and now she was late to her next one, and she hated that. Quinn turned a corner of the university, and her phone rang. She took it out of her pocket, and looked at the caller display. 'Artie'. The last time she heard from Artie was a few weeks ago, when she went home, but the last time he ever phoned her was almost 2 years ago, in their Senior year. She was bewildered by the incoming call. She stopped. And answered it.
"Artie?"
"It's me Quinn," came Artie's voice
"I'm running late Artie, my last lecture ran overtime and now I'm late to my next one, can it wait?"
"No it can't."
"Why?"
There was silence on the other end of the phone. She tried to make out what seemed like crying in the background. Was it Tina crying again? What for this time?
"Look Artie, it's good to hear from you, but like I said I'm late."
"It's Finn, Quinn," came Artie's response
Those words sounded ominous.
"What about Finn, Artie?"
"You need to get back to Ohio, Quinn," replied Artie
"Why Artie, what's wrong with Finn? Can't Rachel take care of whatever it is?"
"He's been found dead this morning, Quinn, Mr Schue confirmed it minutes ago, and everyone's trying to get a hold of everyone outta town to come back here."
"What the hell do you mean by he's been found dead?" yelled Quinn "Is this another silly joke? Is this part of a play?"
"No Quinn it's not..." stammered Artie "You just need to get back here,"
Quinn looked up, confused on what to do.
"Quinn?"
"Are you sure it's Finn?"
"Like I said Mr. Schue made the identification."
That would have been hard on Mr Schuester, Quinn thought. "Okay I'm on my way. I'll try and get the next available flight. What's the time now?"
"Just after 10.30?"
"I'll try and get back early afternoon, I'll text you when I've got a flight, you can text me back who's picking me up at the airport."
"Sure," said Artie
Quinn hung up. Finn had been her boyfriend around 4 years ago before Rachel came on the scene, she had to get back to him, and at the back of her mind, for Rachel and Kurt.
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Tina was still sitting where she heard the news from Will, and had been crying. She looked around, both Sam, and Artie had managed to make their calls, she had to pull herself together, and make the call to Mike. He was in Chicago at the Joffrey Ballet school. Chicago time was an hour behind Ohio, she looked at her watch, it was 10.35. So it was 9.35. Hopefully she could catch Mike between classes. She grabbed her phone from her pocket, and dialed Mike's number.
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Today of all days Mike Chang had afternoon classes, and instead of studying in his dorm room, he had decided to go out to breakfast with a girl he liked. Her name was Raven. And she was a fellow dancer in his classes. They had hit it off, and he decided to take the best approach and ask her out for breakfast, and to his relief, she had said yes.
They had just sat down and ordered breakfast, when his phone rang. His phone was off to the side. He quickly looked at the caller display 'Tina', and wished, of all days, that Tina wasn't calling.
"Are you going to get that?" asked Raven
"No, it's not important."
The phone went to voice mail, and Mike was relieved. Suddenly it rang again.
"It doesn't sound not important," replied Raven
The phone went to voice mail again.
"They'll get the hint," smiled Mike knowing that usually if Tina called and Mike let it go to voice mail that after two attempts she would stop and try again later.
Suddenly the phone went a third time.
"I think you better get that," replied Raven "It's okay I don't mind."
"But I do," replied Mike "But I guess I have to."
He grabbed his phone, and answered it.
"Tina not now."
"This is important," came Tina's voice which didn't sound like Tina
"Fill me in later."
"This can't wait."
Mike looked at Raven, and mouthed 'sorry', Raven smiled back.
"What? Hurry up?"
"Finn's dead, you need to get back to Ohio, now."
Just like that, now that was the true Tina, blurting out the most important thing, but inappropriately.
The words hit Mike hard.
"What do you mean?"
"Like I said, Finn's dead."
"How?"
"I don't know how," replied Tina tearing up again "Mr Schue made the final confirmation a little bit ago, and he's just told us. Whoever you are with is not important than Finn. Not now anyway."
Mike dropped his phone.
"Mikey?" came Raven's shock response "What's wrong?"
Mike blinked "A friend, a good friend of mine, has just died."
"No way,"
Mike remembered his phone, and picked it up.
"Tina?"
"Whoever that floozy is isn't worth it Mike."
"Are you sure about Finn?"
"It's confirmed Mike."
"I'll get the next flight out. It's about 45 minutes. Can you meet me at the airport?"
"I'll get someone else to."
The line went dead. Tina was mad, but that didn't matter, what mattered was the awful news that Finn Hudson had died. He had to get home and quick.
He looked over at Raven.
"I'm sorry Raves but I need to get back to Ohio."
"I understand."
"I have to drop you off at your dorm, and get to the airport."
"Okay, let's go."
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So now, almost everyone knows, apart from Brittany. But she gets the call next, and everyone is on their way home. Back to Finn. Stay tuned for more heartbreak.
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NOTE: I do not want to write the reason behind Finn's death, if people are going to be up in arms about it. So if anyone doesn't want me to write that bit, please let me know, and if people want me to write that, please send me suggestions of what could have happened to him. The most suggestive one will get written into the story. I'll leave it open for a week before I write it into the story, if I do. So if there is a negative response to me writing it I won't write it, if there's none, and there's a lot of suggestions I will write it.
