Finn took an extra shift at the tire shop the next day, helping finish off the backlog of cars in need of new tires due to the sudden snowfall. Mid-afternoon the phone in his pocket chirped, and he took a quick break as soon as he could to take a look at it, since he'd taken off all notifications except for his family and Rachel. What he saw made him suddenly much happier:

text: Got to Chicago. No problems, smooth ride :-) I love you. :-X Will call later. R*

Rachel was safe, she loved him, she'd call. And her dad had loosened up enough to have told her about Finn's efforts on the car. He grinned, texted her a quick "love you, miss you", and went back to work on the red Honda.

That evening he got together with Puck and Artie for a little band practice, figuring out some numbers to play at Brittany's party and throwing around some ideas for a few more. Finn reluctantly vetoed the AC/DC number Puck really wanted - yeah the guitar intro was kickass, and he liked to drum to it, but it also reminded him a lot of his night with Rachel, which for Finn meant private listening only. The last thing he wanted to do was piss her off by performing a song that might make her think he was publicly bragging. Rachel was very passionate - oh god, just how passionate she was - and didn't shrink from public displays of affection, but he knew if he started acting like she was a sexual conquest the way she touched him would change from mindblowingly erotic to mindblowingly painful. Or nonexistent. And that was fine, he'd rather keep how amazing she was to himself too (one of a kind she's just mine all mine) and not risk cheapening what they had. Besides, Puck was probably just trying to wind him up by pushing for the song.

Soon they had the bulk of the set list worked out. The biggest problem they had was spreading around the vocals; while they all liked to sing, they also all liked to play, and sustaining both for a full number was too much, especially since they all wanted to enjoy the party afterwards instead of collapse from exhaustion. Finn also wanted to show off a little since Rachel would be back, and he was hopeful that her dads wouldn't change their mind about her going entirely. As Finn looked over a number and started splitting off lines and verses, he started to understand some of the work that Mr. Schue had to put into planning their group numbers. He frowned at one song – they all really wanted to play it, but none of them had quite the right voice for it and they were all busy playing most of the time.

"We need someone else on this," he told the others. "Most of it anyway."

"Try Sam," Puck shrugged.

"He might not make it, he's coming back that day and the weather's a problem."

"How about Kurt or Blaine?" Artie suggested. "It's Kurt's range. Pretty perfect for him actually."

"If he'd do it..." Finn mused. Kurt was kind of picky about music. Both he and Rachel loved Broadway numbers best, but Rachel was open to singing just about anything while Kurt wasn't. "Maybe Kurt and Blaine, get them both."

"You mean get Blaine to talk Kurt into it," Puck commented.

"Well, yeah," Finn admitted. "I'll talk to Blaine about it, if I can get him then I can get Kurt." Finn knew that he himself would sing practically anything if it meant he could sing with Rachel and feel her voice working with his, like some deeper form of communication or something. Kurt should be the same way with Blaine, or if not he should try it because it ruled.

With work and band practice Finn was pretty much exhausted when he got home, so he had a snack and then went straight to bed. He took his phone out and looked at it, wanting nothing more than to talk to Rachel; but she said she'd call him, and he didn't want to screw things up with her dads any further by calling at a time that might be an interruption. He sighed and put it down next to his bed, only to grin a moment later when he heard his ringtone for Rachel, currently the drum-heavy intro to The Doors' 'Touch Me'.

"Hey," he answered it, hoping it was really Rachel, alone.

"It's so good to hear your voice," he heard her say, and he relaxed.

"Yours too. And I was just thinking about you, it's like you can read my mind. In a good way."

"Wish I could." She sounded wistful.

"Everything okay?" he asked. "How are things with your dads?"

"I miss you," she answered. "And I'm so sorry about everything yesterday morning – well not how it started, I'm not sorry about that, but about everything that happened once my dads showed up. I know they were hard on you and it's not your fault they didn't know what was going on with us."

"It's okay, Rach." He swallowed. "Kurt said you were pissed."

"At them, at myself – I just couldn't see how to tell them we'd gotten more serious, and I really didn't want to talk about it anyway. They took it out on you and I'm so sorry."

"Hey, it's all right. I was kinda terrified, I can see where you get your intensity from, but I'll live." He paused. "But you didn't want to tell them?"

"Did you tell your mom?"

"Not exactly." Weaseling... "Okay, not at all. She just figured it out because she sees how we are together."

"Well my dads don't, they're away so much these days. I wasn't about to say 'by the way, dad, daddy, while you were away on your very important business trip and missing my musical debut, guess what else I did?'" Rachel groaned. "They'd probably just have thought I was acting out because they couldn't go to the show, and it wasn't like that at all. And yesterday they wanted to know details."

"Um, what?" Finn blurted out. He took a deep breath, calming himself back down. "So what did you tell them?"

"'None of your business', basically. Their business, I mean, of course it's yours. They were all after 'when, where, how' though, and I wasn't about to cheapen our time together by trying to describe it. Also, just no, it's private." She sighed. "But I also don't want them to blame you or think that anything's wrong, that I need them to intervene, so I did tell them that it was beautiful and perfect and that you're a wonderful man who was completely considerate of my feelings."

"Wow," Finn breathed, elated at her description of their first time together and what she'd thought of him.

"Is that okay? I couldn't lie to them."

"Are you kidding? I've got the world's biggest grin right now, Rach."

"I'd say you're entitled." She giggled a little. "I love you."

"I love you too."

"And at least they're not snooping on my phone any more," Rachel said. "It was so hard not being able to call you yesterday."

"They wouldn't let you?"

"No. So glad you got Kurt to call, but that was really all I was allowed until we left. They're still in shock, I think, they're having a hard time accepting that I'm growing up and having a grown-up relationship. I've tried to tell them how important you are to me, but right now they just want to focus on our visit here. It's our regular holiday visit to my uncle's and they don't want it overshadowed, and that's understandable, but I can't just let them ignore my feelings. So I'm being rather passive-aggressive right now."

"What do you mean?" Finn knew Rachel was normally direct when she didn't like something. "You're usually more, I don't know, ordinary aggressive."

Rachel laughed. "I suppose so. But they don't want to listen to me talk about you at the moment so I'm wearing your shirt," she explained. "They haven't said anything but I know they know it's yours. And all my movie musical suggestions are ones with devoted young lovers and meddling family. West Side Story, the Fantasticks... I'll try Fiddler on the Roof tomorrow and sing along to key parts, they should get the point eventually."

Finn smiled at her talk of her efforts. Even her passive-aggressiveness was pretty determined. "Which shirt?"

"The flannel one. It's comfy to sleep in and feels a bit like you."

"You said you'd show me sometime," he teased, feeling himself get turned on by the thought of his shirt next to her skin.

"So I did. Hold on, I'll call you back in a minute."

The call hung up, and Finn looked at his phone for a few moments, then smiled when he got Rachel's MMS. She did look really cute in his shirt. Of course it was done up, with only enough throat showing to reveal his name in gold around her neck, but given the trouble he'd heard some other teenage couples had gotten into for 'sexting', especially with phones they took to school, that was just as well. Any 'private' pictures wouldn't stay private long, especially with some of the nosy friends they had. His shirt hung loosely on her, and its blue check really brought out the deep glow in her brown hair, but the best part was her smile, which took his breath away. He quickly saved the picture, planning to change her phone book picture to it later. A moment later she called him again. "Hey," Finn said. "You're right, you look wonderful."

"Thank you. It feels so good to wear it. A bit like you're here with me," she confided.

"Wish I was," he said. "Of course you always look wonderful."

"Thank you. A girl can never get too many compliments from her man," Rachel responded.

"Challenge accepted."

Rachel giggled.

"But if your dads don't come around... do we have to, um, stop?"

"Stop... being together?" Rachel was puzzled. "Finn, the amount of say that my dads have in what I do and do not do with my body is precisely zero."

"I know that. I just mean that... if they're going to cause too many problems."

"Well I don't want to encourage them to cause problems by going along with anything like that," Rachel replied. "Is... Finn, what are you saying? Do you want to stop?" She sounded hurt.

"No! God, no. Being with you, they'd have to drag me away, though, y'know, I hope they don't. Just – I could wait again, if I had to. If you needed me to." Finn swallowed. "You're worth it, Rach."

"Finn, that's..." Rachel's voice choked up.

"You okay?"

"Yes, oh yes, I just –" She paused and cleared her throat. "That's so sweet, Finn, that you'd offer that. But we won't wait again. It's my life, not theirs, and there's no such thing as 'too many problems' for me to be with you. You're worth it too."

Finn grinned. "I was hoping you'd say something like that."

"Good. Because I wouldn't want being with me to be something that was that easy to give up."

"Not in a million years."

"I couldn't give you up either. And I won't. My dads aren't going to get in my way, they always come around if I stick to what I want."

"This is different."

"Yes, it's much more important than anything else I've wanted. You're much more important. And you were right, earlier."

"About what?"

"Passive-aggressive is just not my style. So my dads and I are going to have a little chat tomorrow."

Finn chuckled. "If you were saying that about me – I think I'd just give you what you wanted."

"That's the idea. And they're very good at giving me what I want."

"I'm not so good at that," Finn said ruefully.

"You do better that that," Rachel said, sighing.

"Rachel?"

"You give me things I don't even know I want until you show them to me," Rachel murmured, her attitude softened. "That's the best of all."

"Oh yeah?" Finn's voice was husky.

"Oh yes," Rachel whispered. "Finding you was the best thing of all."

Finn exhaled. He wished so much he could hold her. For a start. "It really sucks that you're in Chicago right now."

"Yes. So I'll just have to imagine you wrapping me up in those long strong arms of yours and holding me tightly."

"And me kissing you. Slow... the kind of kiss that..."

"...makes me burn deep inside... until nothing exists but you..."

"Yeah." They breathed together for a few moments. "Sweet dreams, Rach." Finn pressed 'end call', then slowly laid his phone by his bed and went to sleep.