Rehearsals

xxx

His hand wrapped around her waist, as the other one slid down the back of her thigh; pulling it up so it neatly wrapped around him. Their bodies wrapped together as he removed her shirt, then his pants, and then her pants. Soon he was thrusting, hard, in and out of her, making her feel in places she didn't no existed. This man knew how to work her body. She momentarily broke away from their kiss, to look her man in the eyes. But an unexpected pair of eyes greeted her. They were pucks, before she could move or say anything, his mouth was on hers again and he continued to thrust. She let out a muffled scream and woke up.

It had been a dream. No, not a dream, it had been a nightmare. Her eyes, now wide opened looked around the room; making sure was indeed not in bed with Puck. Turning to her side she found Will's body next to her, fast asleep. He looked so peaceful when he was asleep; like a happy, newborn baby. It was killing her to keep what had happened with Puck a secret from him. If she had have told him ages ago, they could have long past it. But it was too late now. Rachel nestled into Will's side placing her hand and head across his body. She wrapped her legs amongst his, willing herself to not dream of Puck again.

Will woke not long after; lavishing her with kisses and smiles as he usually did.

'Want some breakfast?" Will asked after he had finally managed to tear his lips away from her body.

"Yes! I'm definitely up for a feed after last nights workout." She told him lustfully giggling.

"Well get used to it! There's a lot more where that came from!" He told her as he planted a kiss on her forehead and jumped out of bed to prepare breakfast.

As they ate breakfast together on Will's kitchen table, the couple shared happy smiles and knowing glances between bites of food.

"It feels a little like we're grown ups now doesn't it? Enjoying our bacon and eggs and reading the newspaper. I think I kind of like it." Rachel said once she'd eaten enough.

"That would be fun wouldn't it? Being happy when we're 'old'." Will replied, continuing the joke.

"Yes. It would." she said still smiling.

"Yes." Will laughed

"And I would say something like, what's on for your day today dear?"

"Yes, and I would answer with a smart reply like, marking papers, disciplining children. And you my dear?"

"Oh you know! Girly things, organising my friends wedding and such…"

"I love you" Will told her.

It was funny how it just came out like that. It had been fun pretending to be grown ups, even though they knew that's kind of what they were. When Rachel didn't reply straight away, Will had already begun to think of an exit strategy. He could tell her that it was part of the role playing. But Rachel had stopped him before the need. They had said they loved each other before but never with as much depth that Will had just used.

"I love you too" She told him, before continuing to eat her breakfast; even though she wasn't hungry anymore. She hadn't lied; she really did love him. But it meant that what was happening between her and Will was as serious as she'd begun to speculate, and she had a million things weighing down her. She needed to be open with Will before it got any further. Before anyone's heart was broken. But it was possibly too late for that already

"Okay so I'll see you tonight at the rehearsal dinner" she told him as she was getting ready to leave. She had a million things to today, getting ready for Quinn and Finn's wedding rehearsal dinner tonight. She'd put her hand up for the job of finalising arrangements, so she would have to do them.

"Yep, see you there hun." He told her giving her soft kiss on the lips before she departed.

As Rachel got into her car, and readied herself for the day ahead, she prayed for god to give her strength to survive the day. Once this crazy day was over, she could sit down with Will and have a rational discussion. Until then she would be busy.

xxx

The first item on her checklist was to checkout the venue for the party and make sure everything was in order. The places she'd booked was Perrins. The place she'd gone on her date with Will, and the place she bumped into Puck. It was ironic that it would now be that place for Quinn's rehearsal dinner but it wasn't really because it was one of the only trendy places in Lima. When she arrived at the restaurant things seemed to be in a mess. The stuff was rushing around and was certainly not acting in the manner that a function would be happening here in mere hours.

"Um excuse me?" Rachel asked to no one, her presence having been ignored as she stood there for the past few minutes. Finally a member of staff managed to notice her, and paid her attention.

"Hi, can I help you?" The waitress asked, clearly ruffled.

"Hi, I'm Rachel Berry, I'm here to just finalise all the arrangement for a function I've arranged here tonight. It's the rehearsal dinner for my friends wedding."

"Oh yes, Quinn Fabray and Finn Hudsons correct?" The waitress said perking up.

"Yes, that's it" Rachel answered relieved that she seemed to be getting somewhere.

"Ah well…" the waitress nervously began, "The thing is…there's been a slight mishap?"

"Define slight mishap" Rachel said feeling the rage build up inside of her.

"Look it's not my fault, it's my first day I had nothing to do with please don't be mad at me." The girl was young. She probably never worked before and had gotten the job straight out of high school.

"…You've been double booked and the caterers have cancelled on us,"

"You have got to be KIDDING ME!" Rachel shouted.

"You promised you wouldn't be angry with me."

"I did no such thing!" Rachel replied infuriated.

"Oh God." The girl said in despair. Feeling worried that she'd taken her anger out on the wrong person; Rachel tried to half console whilst still working out how the situation could be salvaged.

"Look… are we able to fix this? This is my friend's wedding rehearsal dinner, it's a very important night…you have no idea how long everyone has been waiting for this. Everything has to go just right. Is there another caterer in town we could call?"

"Everywhere respectable has told us they don't have enough time to prepare what is needed."

"Well how bad are the places that are not 'respectable'?"

"Terrible."

"What if we changed into just finger food? That would be much easier to handle wouldn't it?"

The girl thought for a second, but didn't seem to come up with the right answer. "Are you able to wait here for a bit? I'll make a few calls, I'll do what I can for you." She said.

"Yes, please do what ever you can!"

As Rachel nervously waited for what she hoped would be positive outcome she prayed that she would not have to call Quinn with bad news. At the moment she went to get her phone from her purse it began to ring. It was Olivier.

The last thing she needed now was to talk to Oliver. Somehow, he managed to wind her up into a wreck every time he said or did anything these days. She immediately declined the call, but as soon as she put her phone away it began to ring again. And again. Fed up, she finally switched off her phone; not wanting to even see is name on her phone.

Rachel was so flustered that when the girl returned she had not even noticed her. The girl was out of breath but smiling.

"Great news!" she said

"Yes?" Rachel asked full of hope.

"Yep, the catering company who double booked you, is associated with another catering company just out of town. They're prepared to bring them in for the night at no extra cost to you. Apparently their even classier!"

"What's the catch?" Rachel asked,

"Well there isn't a catch really. It was the company's stuff up so you shouldn't have to pay for it. The menu will be a little different but will have the same basics."

"Ok, it'll have to do, thank you for sorting it out." She said still worried.

xxx

"Hi Dad" She said giving him a kiss on the cheek.

"Hello Bumblebee" he replied happy to see her.

"Can you stay for lunch?" Her other father asked entering the room. "I've been cooking! Those cooking classes you bought us last Christmas have really paid off! Look at this, I've made risotto." He said full of pride.

"Yes, I can stay. That looks great" She said giving him a hug.

"Alright, well you go freshen up, and I'll set the table!"

"Sounds great!" She said running off to the bathroom. It was so nice to come home and have lunch with her fathers. She was so lucky to have parents that still cared; most of her own friend's parents weren't much apart of their lives. In fact hers hadn't really been either, but that was mostly her fault.

"Yum, this is great!" she exclaimed, after her first taste.

"Thanks sweet pea!" Hiram said.

"Hey, by the way, I'm sorry I haven't been spending more time with you while I've been back home. I've been kind of selfish actually." She said a little sad, it wasn't that the realisation had just hit her, but sitting here having an enjoyable meal with her family made her realise just how little of these moments had been had since she'd come back.

"What! Selfish?"

"Oh honey no!" The other one finished.

"You don't owe us anything. Just having you here in our home has been enough! We love you sweetie, we expect you to have fun with your friends. And of course we'd love to spend as much time as possible with you, but you've given us plenty!"

"You guys are amazing" she said smiling.

"But now we're on the topic of you being home. What are your plans for the near future? "

"Are you staying around after the wedding?"

"When do you need to be back in New York?"

"Well, actually I was about to tell you about that. I have to go back almost straight after the wedding for rehearsals."

No one said anything after that.

"Well, we will miss you, but New York's where you belong little bee, we just hope it won't be as long until you come visit us again."

"Don't worry it definitely won't be. I've been enjoying my time here so much, I can't believe it had been so long since I'd been here."

"What are you going do about William?"

"Hiram! We discussed discretion…"

"No it's okay. I um…I actually don't know."

"Whatever you decide to do honey, do it for yourself, we know you'll do the right thing."

"Thank daddy, thanks dad."

"Okay now finish your meal, you're far too thin!"

xxx

Rachel had told Elsie, she could pick her up and take her to the rehearsal dinner, but she hadn't accounted how much extra time she would need to take. By the time she'd raced to the drycleaners, picked up her outfit, and gotten changed she drove over to Elsie's she was already really late. She rushed up to Elsie door and knocked a couple times but the door never opened. Worried, she went to check her phone and realised that it was still turned off from this morning. Opening her phone she was bombarded with notifications of missed calls and missed messages. Elsie had sent her one earlier that day letting her know she was going to arrive with Matt and they she wouldn't need to be picked up. She'd had more missed calls from Oliver but she also had 20 missed calls from Will. This worried her a little, but she'd be able to find out what was going on when she saw him at the party so didn't bother returning any of his calls.

When Rachel finally arrived the party was in full swing. She was stressed because she was supposed to be here to make sure everything ran smoothly, and she hadn't even managed to arrive on time. She looked around the room full of people, to find Quinn or Annabelle; she needed to finalise when they were all going to do their speeches.

"You look like you need a drink sweetie." Elsie said from behind her.

Turning around slightly startled Rachel gave a kiss on the cheek. "You're probably right but I need to find Quinn." She said with exhaustion.

"What's wrong babe? You're a little pale?" Elsie asked with concern.

"Just a really long day and a million things on my mind, but this is a party and I am going to enjoy myself!" she said pulling herself together.

"So lets go get that drink", Elsie said leading her towards the bar.

"Can I just get a glass of white wine?" Rachel asked

"Is the house wine fine?" the bartender asked her

"Yeah sure, whatever." Rachel answered carelessly.

"What's with you? You were so rude to that poor guy. And he was super cute! If I wasn't here with Matt who knows what I'd do to him!" Elsie told her winking.

"I don't know, I'm not really feeling like myself I guess." As soon as she said it she realised how much tension she had been keeping in.

"Rachel Hi!" a very happy Tina shouted as she ran up to Rachel and gave her a hug.

Rachel chatted briefly with Tina and Elsie but her mind was still set on looking for Quinn, and talking to Will.

"Guys, I'll be back in a second, I have to touch base with Quinn I really need to call Will and find out where he is." Rachel told them

"You're not going to be able to hear anything from your phone in hear." Elsie told her

"Yeah, that's alright I'm just going to drop into the storeroom out the back. See you in a sec." she said leaving straight away.

As she moved to walk towards the storeroom she caught eyes with Puck from across the room. He'd kept his boundaries like she'd asked the other day, but his eyes still beckoned her. Angrily she looked away and continued to walk towards the backroom.

She eventually found the backroom where she could find some silence to call Will. As she struggled to pull her phone out of her purse she immediately felt something shove her into the Wall. Rachel stumbled letting her hands steady her body into the wall. Regaining her composure she turned around, bewildered and confused as to what had occurred. She turned around to come face to face with a snarling Joanne.

"What the fuck!" Rachel shouted.

"What the fuck?" Joanne laughed back at her, mocking Rachel with her tone.

As Rachel stared confused Joanne continued, "I know what you've done you little whore!" she yelled at her.

"What are you talking about?" Rachel almost shouted back with annoyance.

"You now exactly…" she angrily laughed, "…sleeping with a married man! How fucking classy!" she yelled becoming hysterical.

"Joanne you don't understand…" Rachel pleaded, having no idea what she was saying, or how she was going to work her way out of this one.

"Does your new man no about this? Perhaps I should go tell him!" she said moving to leave.

In a moment of terror Rachel moved to grab Joanne to stop her, but Joanne resisted too strongly, causing Rachel to struggle and slip, pulling them to the ground. Joanne retaliated by slapping Rachel right across the face, causing Rachel to yelp in pain.

"He's going to love hearing all about how much of a slut his girlfriend is isn't he." Joanne threatened as she held Rachel's face against the ground

"No!" Rachel shouted, "You can't tell him!" she screamed out almost crying. As Joanne stood up to leave, Rachel followed but in the rush of things didn't look where she was going and bumped directly into the stiff wall of a person's body. Looking up to see whom it was she found Will's hurt face looking back at her. Slowly she stepped back, trying to assess how much Will had seen.

"Will, I…" Rachel began, but Will cut her off straight away.

"Is…it…true?" he slowly but sternly asked her unable to move is eyes from their fixated location on the floor.

She looked over at Joanne, who was almost crying her self in all her anger. She looked back at Will unsure how to begin to explain to him what she'd done.

"IS IT TRUE!?" he now shouted at her, his eyes now boring a whole through her heart.

But she couldn't answer. All she could do was let her tears flow like a stream down her face, and feel her heart crumble in on itself as she watched Will walk out of the storm room, and out of her life.

xxx

"Rachel I think you need to get out of bed and do something." Her father told her.

Her fathers didn't know the full story of what had happened but they had found her in complete wreck after Elsie had delivered her home from Quinn and Finn's rehearsal dinner a week ago. It took the whole tonight to get any sort of word out of her that wasn't captured in a bevy of cries. Since then she'd only really left the bed for bathroom stops and when her fathers had forced her to eat something.

"I can't" Rachel said miserably, before pulling her duvet over her head and waited to hear her fathers closing her door behind them.

It wasn't long before they tried again.

"Rachel, Elsie is here to see you. Don't you want to see her?"

"I don't want her to see me."

"Well too bad sweet cheeks." Elsie said marching in. She had made numerous attempts to check in on Rachel, but Rachel had been set on locking herself away. She'd had enough and finally needed to just come over and sort things out. She was however, not going to hold anything against Rachel for seeking seclusion.

Moving into her room, Elsie came to sit next to Rachel on her bed and gently gave her a stroke on the cheek. Pulling Rachel's hair out of her face as she laid their, Elsie began to relate to Rachel that everything would eventually work out the way they were supposed to. But Rachel was hard to convince.

"I've fucked everything up." Rachel said exasperated, finally sitting up.

"No you haven't" Elsie said trying to console her. "At least not permanently."

"How do you know that Els? I might have ruined my only chance at something good, forever." Rachel said still concerned.

"From experience."

"What do you mean?"

"Something has happened…"Elsie said smiling.

"What is it?"

"I feel horrible telling you this now, after everything that's happened."

"Elsie just say it."

"Matt proposed" She said nervously anticipating Rachel's reaction.

"You guys barely know each other though."

"When it's right you just know. I think about all the time umming and ahhing about my future and as it turned out that would have been the completely wrong thing for me and with Matt I just knew straight away. It's not like we're in any rush to get married but it's a commitment. He's going to look for work in New York, obviously New York is where I need to be for my career and he's committed to go there for me. Everything is just right this time Ray."

"I happy for you Els. Really, I am. I wish you all the best." She said pulling Elsie into a hug. She felt the tears running down her face and tried to sniffle them away. She was happy for her best friend, but her feeling of woe had not yet disappeared.

The next week flew by with final preparations for the wedding. Rachel hadn't heard from Will once, and she'd been too nervous to attempt contacting him; she had no idea where she would even begin. She would have to make up and apologise for everything she'd done only to tell him she was leaving for New York the day after the wedding; basically leaving no opportunity for them to have a future. She was sure he wouldn't want to hear from her anyway.

Before Rachel new it the wedding day had arrived and she would be saying goodbye to everyone in Lima,

The wedding was beautiful. The floral arrangement included orchards, Quinn's favourite flower, white roses and lilies. Quinn was classic and elegant in her white dress, but the most beautiful part of all was the glow that beamed from her face when she looked at Finn. And when Finn looked at her. Their day had finally arrived after all these years, and everyone they loved was there for them. Not even Rachel's troubles could stop everything from going perfectly.

At the reception Finn and Quinn danced to endless love. Rachel could have cried. She'd sung that to Will once, so many years ago. As the night went on, Rachel took moments to glance over to where Will was standing. He didn't look angry, although she was sure he was, but he looked sad. Watching how happy everyone around them seemed was hard for both of them.

She couldn't remember how it happened, but somehow she'd been roped into dancing with Ben Israel. Time hadn't improved his looks much, but it had improved his personality. She didn't even know he was invited, but he was, and dancing with him wasn't even that bad. That was, until he decided he was going to push her directly into the arms of Will and make her dance with him. Apparently Ben Israel was just as scheming as ever…Not baring to look at her Will turned to walk away immediately.

"Will" she said desperately from behind him. He didn't answer, or even look at her; he was too hurt.

"I'm going back to New York tomorrow, and I won't be coming back." At hearing her words he turned around. He was angry with her, but he hadn't lost hope that in the future they could talk about everything. He just wasn't ready to yet.

Rachel stood speechless for a moment as a tear slid down will's face.

"I wanted to tell you" Rachel said, "I was going to tell you last week…but-"

"But you never tell me anything, right? He shouted cutting her off.

"No, I…"

"Just go. Obviously you were never planning on seeing things through here so you don't need to explain anything to me. Just go." He said with distaste before leaving her alone on the dance floor.