DISCLAIMER: I neither own Glee nor the characters. They are the property of Ryan Murphy and FOX. This is purely for fun. Enjoy! :)

A/N: I'm glad you all enjoyed the nail biting tension, get ready for the explosion. . .

**WARNING: DARK THEMES AHEAD**

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Sex, Lies, and Glee

Chapter Eleven: Set Me Free

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Fear. She had always been afraid of something or another in her young life. When she was a young girl, she'd been afraid of the dark; so much that she'd had night-lights in every electrical socket of her room, and her dad's had had to do official closet and under-the-bed checks in order for her to get to sleep at night. When she was a little bit older than that, she'd found out that she was afraid of heights, something she'd learned on her first flight to New York for her 10th birthday present. She'd clung to her dad's the entire time, fearing the plane would fall out of the sky.

But now, sitting on the floor, watching Jesse St. James stand over her menacingly while she was trapped away from the world, she'd never known a fear quite like this.

She was terrified. Absolutely, bone chillingly, terrified.

"Whatcha reading?" He grinned at her nastily, and she picked herself up off the floor, trying to straighten herself out as much as she could. She clutched the last letter she'd read to her chest, trying to pull strength from the letter that was written to her from her one true love.

"You bastard." Her voice was pure venom. "You hid these letters from me."

He smirked and shrugged his shoulders, walking towards her slowly. She backed up from him until she was up against her bedpost. "How did you find out about them?"

She held her head high, looking him straight in the eye. "I saw Finn today. He told me about them. He's coming back here to save me and get me out of this hell!"

His face contorted into a mask of anger as he ripped the letter out of her hands. "Oh really? You really think he's going to come save you? The girl who fucked him and betrayed him the day after?" His words still stung, but she was done with being manipulated by Jesse St. James. She saw through everything he said now.

"Shut up! Your words are poison! You tell nothing but lies! I want the truth, Jesse. I want to know why you went through all of this to keep me here!"

He scoffed at her, and came back over to her, grabbing her by the upper arms, and making her heart pound like a rabbit's. "I don't get it, Rachel. I just don't understand you. At first, you were just another girl. Another mission. Do you know how many girls I've stolen from other teams? I would meet these girls and blink at them, and they would take off their panties in a heartbeat for me." He laughed bitterly, while she found nothing humorous about it at all. "Then I met you. I thought it would be the most simple mission yet, but you'd refused me every single time. No matter how many times I tried, you wouldn't have me. Me, Jesse St. James. It's ludicrous!" His laugh bubbled up again, surprising her with it's bitterness and sending chills of fear down her spine. He started to shake her by the shoulders. "Do you know who I am? People would kill to be with me, but for you, it was never enough. And then, to know that I came second fiddle to Finn Hudson? Finn Hudson?" The look in his eyes was almost crazy, she'd never seen someone act like this before. His grip on her arms tightened, ans she could feel the tears welling in her eyes. He was hurting her, and she was terrified.

"Jesse, you're hurting me."

"I love you, Rachel." The words shocked her, seeing as he was currently holding her against her will and squeezing her by the arms. But his eyes had softened, and his grip on her arms relaxed a bit. "I do. So I turned you against Finn. I wanted you to forget about him and be with me, but I wasn't enough for you. I was trying to break you, so that you would come to me and find comfort in my arms, but you never did. Why wasn't I ever enough? What is so special about Finn Hudson that makes him better than me?" He started to get angry again, and she was panicking like a trapped animal. "I don't get it! He's as dumb as dirt, he dances like an amputee, and he can barely carry a tune. How is he better than me, huh? Why can't you love me?"

She shook her head, not knowing the answer. On paper, she and Jesse should have been a perfect match. But she knew in her heart that she could never love Jesse, no matter how hard he forced her to.

"You can't force someone to love them, Jesse. I love Finn and I always have. I always will." Her eyes shrunk into slits, and she sneered at him, "Besides, Finn is a real, chivalrous man, who would never do what you've done to me. You're nothing but a lying, manipulating, control freak!"

His blue eyes could have been ice cubes with the coldness in his stare, and she could feel his grip tighten even more on her arms. Adrenaline coursed through her veins as he frowned deeply at her, not liking her answer. "Control freak? You're damn right I'm a control freak. Do you know what my life is like? Sex, lies, and glee club. That's my life, Rachel. That's what I do for the club, so we can be winners. It's all about the competition. And I'm finally going to win the game that Finn and I started. I'll have you no matter what!"

She screamed as she felt him throw her onto her bed, her head hitting the headboard with a loud bang. She felt disoriented, and her vision went momentarily blurry as she felt him crawl onto her bed. She thought she would have a heart attack. He grabbed her body and pulled it towards him as she struggled to regain her focus. She felt dizzy, and barely noticed when his hands started to roam on her body. She tried to push him away, but his grip on her tightened. His hands trailed up her waist, and grabbed her breasts. She screamed "No!" as he tore her shirt open, the tiny buttons of her blouse flying across her sheets with a "pop". She felt exposed to the world as his hands grabbed her chest roughly, and she feared the very worse.

Oh God, he's going to rape me.

She tried to fight back, she really did. She tried to kick and bite and scratch but no matter what she did, she couldn't get him off of her. She could feel his hands grabbing her all over her body, in places that she'd only ever allowed Finn to touch. She could feel him clawing at her skirt, trying to get underneath it to her panties, and she clamped her legs together as tightly as she could. Tears were pouring from her face, and she tried desperately to escape him.

But he was too strong. She was too weak to fight him anymore. She screamed one final time and could feel the dizziness grow thicker and thicker in her head. She was sure the adrenaline pumping through her veins was the only thing keeping her conscious as she gave up all hope of salvation and succumbed to his grasp.

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A disturbing sense of deja vu swept over Finn as he looked down the long, dark stretch of highway in front of him and saw the same sign for Carmel for the second time that day. Only 20 more miles and he would be able to get to Rachel; he needed to know what was so bad about Carmel that would make her want to leave. That would warrant him having to "save" her. What did she need saving from? A thought struck his mind and he gripped the steering wheel in suppressed rage. Was it Jesse? Had Jesse done something to her? Was he treating her badly? Panic and fear consumed him, and his foot pressed down harder on the accelerator as he prayed that no cops pulled him over. He needed to get to Carmel.

He had a bad feeling about this.

Something was wrong. Rachel should have been happy in Carmel. It made sense. She'd always wanted to be on a winning team, and she'd had the perfect opportunity to do so here. So what went wrong?

He saw the exit ramp for Carmel, and pulled off the highway, driving into town and pulling into a gas station. He wasn't familiar with the town, and even though he knew the address, he had no clue where to go. After asking the gas attendant for directions, he peeled off into the night, searching through the suburban streets to find the St. James' property.

Finally, he saw the street, turning and coming across a huge property with tall tress lining the estate. He pulled into the driveway, marveling at the bastard's luck. He was talented, charming, and rich? Not fair.

He got out of the car and went to the front doors, not really knowing what to do next. He couldn't just barge into someones house uninvited, could he? He was about to awkwardly knock on the door when a noise captured his attention.

It sounded like a girl, screaming.

It sounded like Rachel, screaming.

Immediately, he forgot all common rules of courtesy and threw himself into the house, flying through the giant wood doors and entering the largest house he'd ever been in. He looked around, and no one was there, he was all alone in the giant foyer. He heard a loud thud, but couldn't figure out where it was coming from. He didn't even know where to start looking, he knew this was a two-story house, and she could be anywhere. But another scream, this time a loud "No!", coming from the back of the house on the ground floor, had him running in right direction.

He came across a long hallway, leading to a wing of the house that was separate from the main part. He heard a blood-curdling scream that made his hackles rise, as he ran down the hallway towards the sound of Rachel's voice. Finally, he ran to the door at the far end of the corridor, and burst in without preamble.

What he saw filled him with pure, unadulterated rage.

In front of him, on a large, pink ruffled bed, Jesse had Rachel pinned down, and there were signs of a struggle. Her shirt was ripped open, exposing her bra. He held her body down under him while his hands were reaching under her skirt. He could see tears streaming down her face, and her eyes were closed. A blinding rage, like nothing he'd ever felt before, flowed through him and filled him with a thirst for blood and revenge.

He ran to the bed, grabbing onto Jesse's shirt and pulling his body off of Rachel's. He threw him towards the closet, where he hit the door with a loud thud. Jesse looked up and locked eyes with Finn, a nasty smile forming on his lips. "Well, you actually came."

"You're damn right I came. What the hell did you think you were doing?" He looked over at Rachel on the bed and she was barely aware that she was free from Jesse's grasp. Her eyes were unfocused, and she looked like she was going to pass out. "What have you done to her!" He picked Jesse off of the floor by his collar, dragging his limp body until he could look into his eyes. He shook the bastard until his head flopped around. "Tell me!"

"She hit her head. She's a frisky one." Finn pulled back his fist and landed a hard punch to Jesse's gut, grinning as he watched him bend over in pain and gasp for air. He quickly dodged a punch aiming for his face, as Jesse tried to both gasp for air and fight back.

"You bastard! You were trying to rape her!" Jesse came forward to land a punch, but Finn used his momentum to fling him into Rachel's dressers. Jesse fell to the floor, completely unprotected. He moved forward and started to kick him in the stomach until he curled into the fetal position, protecting his vitals. All he wanted to do was kick and punch and hit until he saw red; this asshole had tried to hurt Rachel! He would have raped her if he hadn't been there! He continued to kick Jesse until he was a shaking mass on the floor, when he felt a small weight on his arm.

He turned around sharply, so full of adrenaline and rage that he was ready to strike out at whomever had interrupted his vengeance. But he came back to his senses as he looked down into the wide, scared, eyes of Rachel. His beautiful, singing angel. She was holding her body tightly, her arms wrapped around her chest trying to hide her body from view. Her shirt was ripped to shreds, and he could see small purple bruises on her upper arms. Her face was beat red and streaked with tears. She was sobbing, and shaking. He stopped kicking Jesse and pulled her away from him. Jesse made no move to get off of the floor.

"Stop, Finn. Please, just get me out of here." He looked over at Jesse, wanting to go back over to him and punish him further for everything he'd done to Rachel, but he paused when he saw the look of pure anguish on her face. "I want to go home."

He nodded, putting up his hands and walking away from Jesse. He waited patiently as Rachel packed up her things. He stood over Jesse, watching him, waiting for him to make a move so he would have an excuse to kick his ass even more. But he stayed on the floor, breathing heavily. He thought he could hear crying.

After Rachel changed her clothes and packed, she stood in front of him with her bags and held out a hand for him to take. When their fingers intertwined, he could feel the anger slowly dissipating from his mind. He felt calmer, and more level headed. A lot less blood thirsty.

As the anger slowly melted away, he could see Jesse try and stand up from the corner of the room. He pushed Rachel behind him, ready to fight him again if necessary, but Jesse just slumped over in defeat. He looked up at Rachel with tears in his eyes.

"Rachel, I'm so sorry. I never meant to hurt you. . ."

Finn interrupted him with a booming roar, "Don't you dare talk to her! If I ever see your face outside of a competition again, I will kill you. What you did to Rachel was unforgivable, and I hope you live forever knowing how much of a scumbag you are. You're lucky we don't get a lawyer." He could feel Rachel clutching onto Finn's shirt as he led her out of the house that had kept her a prisoner for so long.

The second they exited the house, she collapsed onto his arms in wailing sobs. She cried as they pulled out of the driveway and onto the street. She cried as they traveled through town and headed towards the highway. But before they'd entered the on-ramp, she forced him to turn around.

"Rachel, are you insane? We are getting out of this town as fast as we can."

"No we have to stop by the school. There's someone else we need to save tonight."

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She was so tired. So overwhelmingly exhausted she was surprised she was even still awake. It had to be past two in the morning, but their extra long trip had been worth it. She couldn't leave Carmel knowing that another girl was suffering just as much as she'd been. They'd found Julie Summers at the high school, and drove her to the bus stop, giving her enough money to get back to Columbus and her family. No one should ever have to suffer how Julie and Rachel had suffered, and Rachel planned on writing a long and detailed letter to the Ohio Show Choir Board of Directors on Carmel's competitive tactics. They were a bunch of lying, manipulating cheaters, who'd probably never deserved a single award.

She curled into Finn's chest, breathing in the scent of him, surrounded by his body and his love. She shuddered to think of what would have happened if Finn hadn't come to save her, and she owed him her life. If Jesse had actually succeeded, she would never have been the same. She owed her very essence to Finn.

She'd refused to go home. She didn't want to have to go through with the whole interrogation that she was sure would follow after her long absence, so she'd asked to stay at Finn's. She looked up at his face and couldn't tell if he was sleeping in the dark. She should be sleeping too, but every time she closed her eyes she saw Jesse's malicious blue ones, staring at her and making her feel uncomfortable. She shuddered again, and she felt Finn's arms wrap around her tightly.

"Rachel?" His voice was thick with fatigue and worry. "Are you okay?"

She shook her head. "No." the tears started to flow again. How could she be okay? She'd been lied to, manipulated, controlled, almost raped. She buried her head in his chest and cried until she thought her tears would run dry. "He almost. . ."

His voice was firm and steady. "But he didn't."

Her voice raised an octave in hysteria. "But he could have. . ."

"I know, but I was there to stop him."

"But what if you hadn't been there, Finn?"

She felt him lean over and press his lips against her forehead, calming her down slightly. "I know. I've been thinking the same thing, non-stop since we left Carmel. But there's no use in thinking about what could have been. All that matters is that I made it in time."

"Finn, I love you so much. I'm so sorry for being manipulated into leaving you. I'm sorry about everything."

"Rachel, you don't have to apologize. None of this was your fault." He held her close to him and stroked her hair tenderly. "I love you, too." His head tilted down until their lips pressed together in the softest of kisses. She felt a certain peace wash over her in that moment. She'd been through quite the ordeal, but in Finn's arms, in the shadow of his love, she knew she would be alright. As long as she had Finn, things would get better.

As long as she had Finn, she was free.

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Salut mes amis!

I know things got a bit dark, but Finn to the rescue!

**Final chapter** up next time! Until then. . .*sings* Don't Stop. . .Reviewing!

Merci Mille Fois

The Minsk