Finn woke with a start at the sound of someone, someone that sounded strangely like Rachel, yelling.
"Why would Rachel be at my house yelling at someone who's not me?" He wondered before rolling over on the mattress that Mr. Shuester still had in his office. Had he not been drugged, he would have realized that he was not at home in his bed, but as he was still under the influence of the Chronic Lady, and the yelling had subsided, he quickly fell asleep again. Just as the bag of Cheetos in his dream started to sing "Defying Gravity" to a cupcake, the yelling woke him again, this time with banging. This time, it kept going for a while, so he decided to investigate. It wasn't until he sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the mattress that he realized that the bed he was in was significantly shorter than the one in his room at home.
Although he was extremely groggy, he did manage to survey the room and decide that he was in Mr. Shuester's office. The fact that Rachel was yelling, and it definitely was Rachel, made a lot more sense to him now. Still, he decided that he should find out what was going on if something was happening with the glee club. When he opened the office door, he was surprised to find only Rachel sitting next to the door to the hallway
"Finn?" Rachel asked when she saw him looking at her with a confounded look in his eyes.
"Hi, Rachel. Was that you I just heard yelling?"
"Yes. I'm locked in. Or we're locked in, I suppose."
"Oh. Can you tell me how I ended up passed out in Mr. Shue's office?" At this, Rachel burst into laughter.
"I think the rest of the glee club is conspiring to get us back together." She explained when she managed to catch her breath.
"Oh." Finn said lamely. "Did it work?"
"I think that depends on whether or not you can forgive me." Rachel said.
"Oh." Finn said again, taken aback by the direction that this conversation seemed to be taking. "I think I need to sit down." he said when he realized that he was feeling dizzy.
"Good idea. We might be stuck here for a while. I don't know how long the others are going to keep us locked up." Rachel agreed, joining him at the cluster of chairs in the center of the room.
"So you did just say that we'll be back together if I can forgive you, right?" Finn asked, still feeling a bit out of it, which normally would have concerned him, but he was too busy thinking about Rachel to notice.
"Yes, I did."
"Am I hallucinating? I feel kinda funny. I think there was something in my Gatorade at practice today."
"No, you're not hallucinating."
"Or dreaming? Pinch me." Rachel reluctantly obliged.
"Ouch! I guess I'm not dreaming. So why are we here?"
"The others locked us in here, presumably to get back together. Or kill each other. And since they like you and tolerate me for the most part, I'd be more inclined to believe they want us to get back together." Rachel explained to the best of her knowledge.
"Oh."
"So if you can somehow manage to forgive me for everything, I think they'll release us."
"Wait, what am I supposed to be forgiving you for? I thought you were the one who was mad at me?"
"I was, but then I realized that I'm the one to blame for our current predicament." Rachel explained.
"Huh." Finn said thoughtfully.
"What was that for?"
"Just thinking. What did you do that I'm supposed to be forgiving you for?" he asked, still confused.
"For being stubborn and not listening to you or giving you a chance to fix things."
"Oh. Well, you were mad."
"You drove all the way to New York City and I just left you there."
"It was stupid for me to go there and expect you to want to talk to me. You were busy and had to spend your last night with your new friends."
"But when you got back, I listened to you knocking on my door every day and wouldn't answer it."
"Yeah, that got kinda annoying." Finn admitted.
"So can you forgive me? I'm so sorry for overreacting the way I did."
"I expected a little overreaction, Rach. But I also expected you to listen to me at some point. Did you even hear my speech in the dressing room? If anything I've ever said could count as a speech, that would be it."
"I heard some of it, but I was just so mad at you for showing up and ruining my performance that-"
"Ruining your performance? You were amazing."
"Thank you, but you're biased and I could have done better."
"You're going to think that no matter how well you do."
"Of course I am, that's what separates the stars from the good performers. But that's not the point. Can you forgive me for letting our fight get so out of control?"
"Can you promise to never break up with me without giving me a chance to fix things first?"
"Yes. As long as you promise to never do anything to make me want to break up with you."
"I don't think I can really promise that. I'm really good at doing exactly what I know I shouldn't do. But know I'll never do anything to hurt you on purpose."
"Good." Rachel said, beaming.
"Does this mean that you forgive me for the Santana thing and for lying about it?"
"Oh, I wish you hadn't asked about that. I can't say that I've completely forgiven you for it, especially for lying about it, but I'm willing to try to get past it. Together. And I don't expect you to get over what I've done to you immediately either. I know I was harsh and I have to learn to have discussions without automatically jumping to a breakup."
"Why are you being so nice to me? We had almost two months of fighting and not talking. And now you're saying all I have to do is forgive you for the fighting and we're good? It can't be this easy." Finn said, astonished.
"I wouldn't say this is easy. I'm just acknowledging the fact that, had I listened to you before, we would have gotten past this issue a long time ago."
"Rach, I'm really happy about all this, but why now?" Finn asked.
"Somebody made me realize that I care about you too much to let Santana get in our way." She explained.
"Who?"
"Santana." Rachel admitted. "But I suspect that she was forced into it by the rest of the glee club considering the fact that they are the ones that locked us in here together."
"Who is this Santa person you speak of?" Finn grinned.
"Oh." Rachel scoffed, whacking Finn in the chest.
"Hey! No hitting!" Finn protested, tickling her. Despite her demands that he stop, he continued until she ended up on the floor in a failed attempt to get away from him.
"Oh, are you okay?" he asked, concerned as he kneeled next to her.
"Mhmm." Rachel nodded as she pulled Finn's head down to meet her for a gentle kiss.
….
"They're being awfully quiet in there." Kurt observed.
"Yeah, it's been a couple of minutes since either one of them said anything." Artie added.
"Oh, ew. I think I just heard a slurp." Santana said, disgusted.
"Okay, time to break up the lovefest." Mercedes said, unlocking the door.
"About damn time!" Puck exclaimed as they all clamored into the room. "By the way, you guys owe me twenty bucks for the special brownies."
"Special brownies? What are you talking about?" Rachel asked, confused, as she rose from the floor.
"Dude! You asshole! That's what's got me feeling all tired and hungry? You put pot in my brownies?" Finn exclaimed jumping up and shoving Puck.
"Yes, I did. And now you owe me twenty bucks."
"Like hell I do. I didn't ask for that crap."
"It got you and Rachel back together, didn't it?"
"Wait, so Finn is currently under the influence of psychotropic drugs?" Rachel asked.
"I'm not sure what psychotropic means, but probably, yes." Puck confirmed.
"Finn, we have to break up again."
"Wha? Why?" Finn asked as the rest of the club groaned.
"Because you are under the influence of a mind-altering drug. There's no way for us to know if everything you just said was really you or if it was just the drugs talking." Rachel explained.
"I promise, it wasn't the drug." Finn said, trying to pull Rachel in for a kiss, which was promptly rejected.
"No, you're not thinking clearly. We'll talk tomorrow and see if you still feel the same." Rachel said before marching off. Finn just stood there and watched her bemusedly until Quinn gave him a push in the same direction.
"Go after her. We don't want to have to do this again."
"Oh, right. Moving my feet might help with that." Finn said before breaking into a run, then grabbing Rachel, throwing her over his shoulder, and continuing the walk toward the parking lot.
"Put me down!" she protested halfheartedly.
"Not until you agree to be my girlfriend again." This request was met with a scoff.
"I mean it, I'm not putting you down until we're together again." He repeated.
"But you're not thinking clearly."
"Yes I am."
"Fine. I'll be your girlfriend again. Now put me down." She ordered.
"In a minute." Finn said, repositioning his girlfriend's body so that her legs were wrapped around his waist and she was at eye-level with him. "Hi."
"Hi." She replied with a grin before leaning into a kiss. When they pulled apart, she asked, "Can you please put me down?"
"If you insist. Want to come over to my house? My mom's making her homemade mac and cheese tonight." He suggested as he dug his keys out of his pocket.
"Sure. But I'm driving. You're in no condition to operate a motor vehicle." Rachel said, reaching for the keys.
"Do you even know how to drive a stick?" Finn asked, holding the keys out of her reach.
"No. But how hard can it be? I'm sure I can handle it if you tell me what to do."
"So I'm not allowed to drive my own truck in this condition, but I am allowed to teach you how to drive it?" Finn asked with a laugh.
"Well, I'm not impaired at the moment, so I'm more able to maintain control of the vehicle."
"Not if you don't know how to work the clutch." Rachel glared at him, admitting defeat.
"Fine. But I was just trying to keep you safe."
"And I love you for that, but I promise I'm fine."
A/N: So that's it for this story. Let me know what you think! BTW, I'm working on another story, hopefully I can come up with a better title than I did for this one. Does anybody else hate the title "A Necessary Trial" as much as I do?