Thursday afternoon found Rachel in the kitchen, alone, looking for something to make for her lunch. To be honest, she was kind of bored, as Santana and Brittany had gone out together for the day, Noah and Mike were upstairs playing video games (presumably with Finn, although Rachel had to admit that she didn't particularly care for him), and even Quinn had left that morning—for the job Rachel hadn't even known she had.

"Where are you going?" she'd asked, sleepily confused as Quinn slid away from her. She'd glanced at the clock to see it was almost nine-thirty.

Quinn had raised an eyebrow. "My job," she'd replied as if Rachel should have known.

Rachel had sat up in bed with her own eyebrows furrowed. "You have a job?"

Quinn rolled her eyes with a small smile as she had pulled her shirt on over her head. "Yes, Rach. I have a job." She'd pulled on a pair of shorts—which Rachel was happy to note didn't belong to the blonde—before crawling back onto the bed. "We made up a fake person as the owner of this house. 'She' paid off this house a long time ago, so we don't have to worry about that. But so that we can still, you know, eat, we each have a job that only requires we go in once or twice a week. You can ask them what they all do, because I honestly can't remember all of them."

Rachel was wide awake by that point, leaning on one elbow as she listened. "Well, what's your job?"

Quinn had blushed a bit and looked down at her fidgeting hands. "It's a, uh, support group I run through this organization. I spend the morning on paperwork some of them need and setting up, and the meeting starts at twelve."

Rachel bit her lip just thinking about the blonde's tone of voice. She'd been so scared of telling her. "A support group for whom?" Rachel had asked, anyway.

Quinn had taken a shaky breath before shaking her head. "I—one day I'll tell you, Rach, but… not now." Then she'd looked up with startled-wide, worried eyes. "Is that okay? I know you like honesty and everything, I just—"

"Honey," she'd interrupted with a smile, "you don't have to tell me anything you're not comfortable with. I'm sorry I pushed you."

Quinn had smiled gratefully and pressed her shaky lips to Rachel's own, but the singer still felt the twinge of curiosity running through her chest as she made herself a BLT without the B. What about her support group could Quinn be so afraid for her to know?

She had just sat down at the island to begin eating when, of all people, Finn walked through the doorway.

"Hey, Rach," he said with a grin, and much too easily for Rachel's liking.

"Hello, Finn Hudson," the singer replied coldly. She took a bite out of her sandwich in the hopes that the boy would get the hint—she really did not want to talk to him.

But Quinn hadn't been kidding when she'd said Finn was "pretty stupid," because he only grinned wider and walked over to hover beside Rachel. "So how are you liking the house without Quinn around to boss you around? Pretty nice, huh?"

Rachel nearly choked. "Excuse me?" she said, incredulously turning to look at the now-wide-eyed man. "Quinn does not quote-unquote 'boss me around,' for your information, and to insinuate that I would take joy in the fact that she's not currently here is just—"

"Whoa, Rachel, calm down." Finn was waving his long arms around as if he were surrendering, but Rachel was just worried that he would knock something over. "It was just a joke!" he said with a shrug.

Rachel huffed. "Somehow, Finn, I doubt that you were merely joking." She turned back to her sandwich, but the tall man stepped even closer.

"Okay, so maybe I don't really understand why someone like you would go for someone like Quinn." Rachel immediately bristled, but he took no notice. "You know, you're really beautiful. I mean, so is she, but that's not the point. And, like, I've heard you singing, and you're way too talented for her. Have you even heard her sing? She's not that good. But I am." He grinned cockily, and Rachel had to take deep breaths just to keep from slapping it right off his face. He stepped even closer. "Like, you and I, we could do a pretty sweet duet." He brushed his hand down her arm. "You know what I mean?"

Rachel closed her eyes and inhaled through her nose. She had almost gotten to 5 in her Count to Ten solution when Finn unwisely spoke again.

"Oh yeah," he chuckled, raising his hand to run through her hair, "you definitely know what I mean."

Rachel shot up, sending the stool she'd been sitting on screeching backwards, and turned to glare up at the taller man. "You listen to me, Finn Hudson," she spat. "I am with Quinn. We may not be completely official as of yet, but I am with her. I have no intentions of being with anyone else, especially not a pompous," she poked him in the chest with each word, "ignorant, sexist, creepy jerk like you!"

Finn had reared back more with each stab until he nearly fell backwards. As soon as he gained his footing, however, his expression darkened and he stepped forward again. "What does she even see in you? You're just a bitchy drama queen," he growled out, moving until Rachel was forced to step back, "who can do nothing to help this team!" Another step. "You shouldn't even be here!" Another. "You're useless, and you don't belong here with us. You don't belong with her!" Another step, and Rachel's back was to the wall now.

"Finn," she said, trying for a warning tone but ending up just sounding scared, "stop it. Just leave me alone."

Finn shook his head. "You're a waste of space, here. That's all you are."

"Finn, stop it," Rachel pleaded again.

"I'd listen to her, Finn," a voice said from the kitchen entryway.

They both turned to look at Rachel's savior, and the singer couldn't help but be surprised to see that it was Mike standing there. "This isn't any of your business, dude," Finn replied through clenched teeth.

"Rachel's one of us now, so yeah, it is my business," the Asian said coolly.

Finn shook his head. "She stole your girl, man! Just back off!"

Mike shrugged. "Rachel, plug your ears… hard."

She immediately did as told, and Finn's eyes widened. "Dude, no."

"Then back off."

Finn did back off of Rachel, only to stalk over to Mike. Rachel unplugged her ears so she could hear the conversation. "What is your problem? We're friends! We are! Not her!"

Mike pursed his lips and shook his head at the taller man. "Finn, you haven't been a real friend to any of us for a long time."

"Yeah, man, you've been kind of an ass," another voice joined in. Puck walked in to stand beside Mike and crossed his arms threateningly. "Like this. What the hell are you doing, messing with a girl like this?"

Finn's face went red as he stammered, "I'm not—I'm not messing with her, God, I was just—playing around, guys."

Puck shook his head while Mike just rolled his eyes and looked away. "You'd better hope that Quinn doesn't find out about this, or she'll go ballistic—"

Everyone stiffened as the front door opened. They all looked at the clock to see that it was after one-thirty; Quinn was home. Puck cursed, while Mike just said, "Good luck with that."

Out in the foyer, Quinn froze as she caught sight of the kitchen through the wall. "What's going on?" she called out warily, nervous since Puck and Mike never stood against Finn unless the oaf had done something really stupid. Add in the fact that Rachel was in there with them, and Quinn's heart was immediately racing. She started hurriedly walking over to the kitchen.

She felt sick.

When she saw the frightened look Rachel still had on her face, Puck and Mike had to create a wall to keep her from going over to Finn. "What the hell did you do?" Finn, wisely for once, stepped back with wide eyes, away from the raging blonde as she tried to fight her way through the two other men. "I swear to God, if you put even one of your grimy fingers on her—"

"Nothing happened, Quinn," the singer called out softly from the other end of the room. "Mike came down before he could do anything."

"What was he trying to do?" Quinn growled out. Rachel winced as she realized she shouldn't have said what she did. Quinn's teeth were clenched and making this little vein pulse in her jaw, and Rachel would think it was sexy if she weren't afraid the kitchen would soon be a murder scene.

"Quinn, calm down," Rachel softly pleaded at the same time Puck said, "Dude, I think it's time for you to leave."

Finn spluttered. "This is my house, too! I helped pay for it!"

"Not forever, man, just to let things cool down a bit," Puck rolled his eyes. "And hopefully you'll man up and apologize when you get back."

The taller man gaped. "Apologize?" He pointed at Quinn. "She stole my girl!"

Quinn growled, so Puck and Mike stepped closer together. "She was never yours to steal, dude," Mike chimed in.

"And I resent being treated as property," Rachel huffed quietly. Quinn couldn't help but to smile a little bit and forced herself to look away from Finn.

A moment of silence passed before Finn stomped his way out of the kitchen, kicking the stool over before he left. Puck pulled Quinn out of his way so he could get by, but he couldn't stop her from sticking out her foot to make him stumble. They glared at each other until Finn slammed the front door behind him.

The remaining boys immediately relaxed. Puck let go of Quinn, and Rachel started walking over to her. Mike nodded his head toward the stairs. "Come on, let's get back online before he comes back to ruin our scores."

Puck immediately ran off, but Quinn caught Mike by the hand before he could leave. She opened her mouth to speak—she wanted to thank him, hug him, anything to show how grateful she was that he'd been there for Rachel, but nothing would happen.

He understood though. He always did. So he smiled, nodded, and squeezed her hand before leaving her alone with Rachel.

Rachel.

The tiny woman walked up to Quinn, and the blonde immediately wrapped her arms around her. She pulled Rachel tightly to her body and buried her face into strawberry-scented hair. She took a deep breath before pulling back slightly to speak. "You promise he didn't hurt you?" Her voice shook. She brushed Rachel's hair away before simply holding her face in her hands. When Rachel nodded with a smile, Quinn continued. "Then what? Did he say something?"

Rachel's eyes flashed, and Quinn's heart ached. "What did he say to you?" She tried to keep speaking calmly instead of getting angry again, but it was taking a lot of effort.

Rachel, meanwhile, was reveling in the way Quinn was fawning over her safety. She almost couldn't believe this was the same girl she'd been robbed by merely six days ago.

But thinking of the robbery only made her remember the things that Finn had said that much more clearly. She knew that Finn was only angry she had rejected him and was trying to hurt her, but could there have been some truth to what he'd said? She wasn't like the rest of them, she knew. Would she ever be able to bring herself to actively participate in a heist instead of just merely going along with the plan? Or would she just be an added security risk for the rest of her life? What if she even ended up being the reason they got caught, one day?

"Rach? What did he say?" Quinn pressed, bringing Rachel out of her thoughts. The blonde was rubbing her thumbs back and forth over her cheeks, and her eyes were full of concern. There's no way she thinks of me like that, Rachel told herself. Finn was just… being Finn.

So she pushed Finn's speech to the back of her mind, shook her head, and told Quinn, "Nothing of importance," before kissing her.

It wasn't too long before Santana and Brittany returned from their trip out. Rachel and Quinn were still in the kitchen, even, so when the other couple walked through the front door, they walked out to join them. "Britt, can you call up to Puck and Mike and tell them to come down?" Quinn asked kindly. "Family meeting."

Santana raised an eyebrow, and Rachel got the feeling that "family meetings" meant something serious was about to happen.

Brittany pushed the request up to the boys, and they were all together in the foyer within thirty seconds. Quinn took a deep breath and squeezed Rachel's hand before speaking.

"Guys," she said, "we have to do something about Finn."

Rachel's heart jumped up into her throat as she looked around at the team's collective nods.

"It's about fucking time," Santana hissed with a smile.

And Rachel had no clue of what was going to happen.

Thank y'all for being so patient with me. I'm almost a week late, but classes started yesterday and I already had homework xP None for tomorrow, though, so I had some free time to dig up a chapter for y'all :) hope you enjoyed!

Please review and tell me what you think!