A/N: Thank you for reading my story and for the responses! I believe that most of you guys have watched the movie 'The Way We Were,' but in case there are some who never have, I have to apologize beforehand that I'm going to spoil some scene of the movie in this chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee and its characters, and any resemblance to real persons or organizations is purely coincidental.

Saturday, November 28, 2015

As she and Finn were getting back to their apartment building from the dog park in the morning, Rachel saw Puck about to leave for work.

"Noah, wait," Rachel called out across the street to stop Puck from walking away from the building. She looked both ways to traverse before approaching the Mohawk, her hand in Finn's, the other hand gripping the leash of Rusty. "I forgot to mention one more matter last night," she said as she climbed the curb.

"Of course you did," Puck murmured petulantly as he turned around to face the couple.

"I don't appreciate your tone, but I'm ignoring it," Rachel huffed. "Anyway," she cleared her throat, "could you have someone tail the creepy girl named Penelope Owen? It seems more highly that she's stalking my Finny." Then she quickly briefed what the school nurse had caused Finn trouble so far.

"I'm not your personal servant or Huddy's, Berry," Puck crossed his arm in front of his chest. "Put things in the proper procedure," with that, he was going to walk away from the couple and the dog.

"You don't get it," Rachel yelled, yanking the arm of Puck, "it would be more hazardous if we leave the situation as it is," she whipped her head toward her boyfriend, "right, Finny?" She turned her head to the Mohawk, smiling triumphantly, seeing Finn nodded furiously. "See? Why don't you send someone to the 57th store to ask this sales assistant?" She said, pulling a business card out of her skirt pocket. "Someone'd better be cute, you know, sexy kind of way, like–" she tapped her lips with her forefinger, thinking. "Oh, like your half brother? Jake? Is he a police officer too, isn't he?"

"Whoa," Finn whipped his head, looking down at his girlfriend dumbfoundedly. "You think Jake is sexy?"

"Of course he is. He is my own flesh and blood," Puck smirked before Rachel could open her mouth.

"Yeah, right," Rachel rolled her eyes. "Sans that stupid Mohawk, possibly," she snorted before adding. "But I doubt it."

"Sans clothes, I'm a fucking stud," Puck thrust his hip forward, ignoring Rachel's last comment (and gagging).

"You think Jake is cute?" Finn repeated in disbelief.

Rachel turned to look up at her boyfriend. "I didn't mean that, Finny. He's kind of a womanizer. That's what I meant. I just thought that the sales assistant could get on well with Jake, that's it," she said, zipping his quilted down coat up, adjusting the collar. "I'm most certainly not a fan of his. You know that you're the hottest guy in this planet and the best thing that ever happened to me," she caressed his cheek before she cupped his neck with a hand, pulling his face down to her, pressing her lips on his, oblivious to the presence of the Mohawk.

As Finn was going to deepen the kiss, Puck (of course) interrupted them. "Oh man, keep it PG, bro," he shook his head, scrunching his nose. "I can see another leash around Huddy's neck. I expected you to end up on a leash by someone bossy like her though."

"Says the guy who got kicked out by his wife twice in a span of a few weeks," Finn nudged his best friend's shoulder.

"Boys, focus," Rachel snapped her fingers to get their attention before turning to face Puck, her hand on her hip. "So? Send him or what?" She bossed. "You know, the shop assistant seemed like easy. I think Jake would love to meet her," she smiled smugly.

"Fine, I'll talk to him," Puck complied with a sigh, fully aware that Rachel was going to keep nagging him, before snatching the business card of the shop girl from Rachel's hand.

"Don't think you hit on her before Jake," Rachel warned seriously, "or you'll ever regret it."

"I'm not that dumb," Puck retorted before mumbling, "mind your business though."

"You aren't coming to the alley today, by the way?" Finn chimed in, remembering that he had once said he would come.

"I have some shit to take care of this morning," Puck rubbed his Mohawk tiredly. "But I can make it, I suppose," he said over his shoulder, walking away from them (finally).

"Alright, then see you there at 1," Finn yelled at the back of his best friend.

"Please tell Jake what I said!" Rachel pressed.

But All Rachel got from Puck was a middle finger.

Emerging out of the bedroom for go out, Finn had to witness his girlfriend and his stepbrother so engrossed in the TV screen where pregnant Katie was telling Hubbell in the preview room that she knew what happened between him and his collage girlfriend/his best friend's ex-wife Carol. He wouldn't ever understand; why did chicks (and his stepbrother) want to watch heartbroken movies of their own accord when they got brokenhearted in their real life?

He had learned a lesson from the last time he had happened to have to watch Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind instead of The Hangover. He had sworn to himself, he never ever was going to watch a sad ending shit when he got heartbroken or depressed (and he also had sworn to never insert DVD disks into the player without verifying the titles on them).

"I gotta go," Finn called out, passing by them sitting side by side on the sofa, tissue boxes (yes, plural) prepared on the coffee table. He saw both of them turning their heads toward him at once (of course after pressing the pausing button of the clicker). Their eyes already got misty and the expressions on their faces were as if they were going to be abandoned by him.

Finn felt uncalled-for guilt, scratching the back of his head, approaching the sofa, undecided to kiss his girlfriend or not since he didn't want to showcase their relationship on Kurt's face. "Um–," he got tongue tied.

"Do you know what time you're coming home?" Rachel opened her mouth, noticing that Finn might hesitate to kiss her in front of his heartbroken brother. "Will you be eating at home tonight?"

"We haven't decided yet," Finn rubbed his chin, "We might be going to Sam's bar though."

"Why don't you guys come to join us at Callbacks?" Kurt suggested.

"What time are you two getting to there?" Finn asked in response.

"Around 8, I suppose," Kurt replied, glancing at Rachel to seek her approval.

"Yeah," Rachel nodded, "we may be going there after dinner here."

One arm across his chest, the other hand underneath his chin, Finn took his time to think for a moment.

Usually, he didn't tag along with them to Callbacks. Sure, he used to sing in front of people in high school because of the glee club. And he loved to sing still. He was a music teacher after all.

But Karaoke was a different story. Especially, Callbacks. It was specifically a piano bar (but installed Karaoke system too), in which there were a bunch of people who were grads from prestigious art and fashion schools in New York City (like Rachel and Kurt) and most of them became successful and professional (again, like Rachel and Kurt). And some of them were insufferable, intimidating and judgemental.

Don't get him wrong.

He was proud of himself as an elementary school music teacher. Rachel always said that teachers were very very honorable (but underrated) profession. Being a young Broadway actress' boyfriend as he was, he had the opportunities to meet theater people (most of them were actually down-to-earth, and meet-and-chatting with them was the best way for him to learn music) more often than not.

And his stepfather was a Congressman, so that there were times that he accompanied him and his mother to some fundraising events or charities. That was to say, he got used to meet people living in the cream of society. Yet, sometimes, he felt uncomfortable when he met the people from fashion industry related to his stepbrother since fashion and him didn't mix. Not that he did mix with upper class people. Over a long period of time, he had been grown up fatherless and his mother as a nurse had kept her nose to the grindstone for him.

Finn sighed. "Is there anyone else coming with you guys?" he asked, although he had already made up his mind; he was Kurt's brother. Families and friends should be there for their loved ones to cheer up.

"Mercedes," Rachel replied. "Santana and Brit are still on vacay in Hawaii. Quinn didn't make it because she couldn't find any babysitter for tonight. And Tina is, you know, heavily pregnant. So, only three of us," she explained, omitting that she had secretly invited Elliott Gilbert, who currently was on The Devil's Carnival, to fix up with Kurt. Not that she was going to play a matchmaker because she knew that it was too soon for Kurt to move on. Yet, meeting new people didn't hurt. Besides, she had been wanting to sing with him for once; he was one voice of the century!

"Okay, I'm going to ask Puck, Sam and Artie then," Finn decided. "I don't think Mike wants to come though."

Rachel nodded, understanding. "So, see you there then?"

"Yep," Finn bent down to kiss her forehead.

"Aren't you going there in that, are you?" Kurt pointed to Finn's plaid flannel shirt.

Finn expected that his brother would say like that. "What's wrong with this?" He whined, looking down at his own clothes.

"I'm working as a buyer from the most reputable multi brand store in the world, Finn. I'm not gonna ever forgive myself that my own brother appears at Callbacks in those tacky clothes. Tons of people who know my name very well are regulars there. I can't believe that you're born and raised in the City."

When Finn began to regret feeling sorry for his stepbrother, Rachel chimed in.

"Kurt! Nothing's wrong with his shirt to go to Callbacks. He can wear whatever he wants." Rachel turned to Finn. "You look cute in that shirt, Finn," she said, smiled at him adoringly.

"Thanks, Rach," Finn threw a lopsided grin back at his girlfriend.

Kurt rolled his eyes. "Says the girl who still keeps animal sweaters in her closet," he murmured. "I cannot simply pass that, Finn. I'll lay out proper clothes on your bed, so change to them before coming to Callbacks. And you," he turned to look at Rachel. "I'm not getting you off the hook, either, Rachel. You need new clothes. We're going shopping before going there."

Hearing Rachel groan, Finn sensed that they would be starting to bicker over clothes and fashion. He needed to run away from it.

"I'm out."

With that, Finn trotted into the doorway, hastily grabbing his quilted down coat, then exiting the apartment.

Callbacks was already packed. It was on Saturday night, of course it was packed. Mercedes waved to Rachel and Kurt from the table by the red brick wall nearby the piano once she noticed them walking into the bar.

"Hi, Mer." Rachel and Kurt waved back at her.

"I ordered red wine for you guys," Mercedes said pointing the two glasses of wine on the table as they sitting across from her.

"Thanks, Mer," Kurt hugged Mercedes.

"Damn, girl. Look at you!" Mercedes cried as she saw Rachel slipping out of her coat, revealing her new attire which Kurt had deliberately chosen for her; a pair of very short black culotte shorts, sleeveless black and white houndstooth check blouse with a low cut neckline, a bow hanging loosely, and 6-inch black high heels. "And, did you change your hair too?"

"I was forced to be ferried around at Bergdorf and beauty salon," Rachel rolled her eyes before brushing her newly styled hair; straight, bangs hanging above her eyebrows.

"You'll be thanking me later. I bet my brother is gonna drool all over you," Kurt puffed out his chest proudly at Mercedes.

Mercedes chuckled at Kurt's enthusiasm over Hudson-Berry's makeover.

"Did you make up with Sam, by the way?" Rachel changed the subject, turning to the African American woman.

"More or less," Mercedes answered. "Can you believe that he gave her a promise ring?" She shook her head before sipping her Spritzer.

"He, what?" Kurt dropped his jaw open, surprised.

"If he was so serious about his relationship with her, he should've told you sooner," Rachel made a face.

"Actually, he was not, I assume. Considering from what he told me," Mercedes continued. "He gave the ring to her after only one date," she rolled her eyes.

"Oh, I get it," Kurt chuckled, "then Quinn took to her heels, right?"

"Yep," Mercedes gave him a big nod. "I'd run for the hill too."

"Oh boy," Kurt shook his head. "Can human beings with penis be any good? Except for me, of course."

When Kurt and Mercedes started griping over helplessness of guys, Rachel chose the moment to look over the bar.

"Oh, that's Elliott!" Rachel cried as she saw the guy who was dressed all in black, a pair of fitted black jeans tucked into the boots, fingerless glove in one hand, the top of his hair going sky-high (but very carefully coiffed).

"Who?" Kurt turned his head toward Rachel.

"Elliott Gilbert, he's an actor too. His stage name is Starchild though," Rachel informed.

"Starchild?" Mercedes snorted at the cocky name.

"But he's good, real good," Rachel punctuated. "Why don't we ask him to come join us? You know, he's currently playing the Scorpion from The Devil's Carnival," she turned to face Kurt. "Didn't you say that you wanted to see the show, did you?"

Kurt arched his eyebrow. Rachel was right. He was going to see the show with her next month. Yet, he hesitated. He might be arrogant as the stage name sounded.

Before Kurt and Mercedes could give Rachel a final answer, Rachel called out in the direction where Elliott was standing. "Elliot!" She beckoned him to join them at the table.

"Hi, Rachel. What's up?" Elliot said, approaching them, Purple Hand beer in his hand.

Rachel beamed at him, then introduced him to her friends. "Elliott, this is Kurt, Mercedes." She waited for them to shake hands before patting the top of an empty high chair between her and Mercedes. "Why don't you have a seat here?"

"Sure," Elliott took the seat, looking over the three of them.

Awkwardness hung in the air between the four for a moment.

Rachel cleared her throat. "Kurt and I were going to see your show next month," she started. "Right, Kurt?"

"Uh, yeah," Kurt bit his tongue, not knowing what to talk about with the stranger. He wondered if Rachel was going to fix him up with this guy or not.

"Ah, my turn," Mercedes got out of her chair as her name was called before rushing to the stage.

"You are?" Elliott asked with a smile at Kurt. "In that case, I'm gonna put your name on the list for tickets. All you have to do is just mention your name. You'll be guaranteed good seats. Of course, as my guests."

Kurt's eyes lit up as he heard that he could see the show as his guest.

By the time the music of 'I Will Survive' started, Kurt got to be relaxed and the conversation between the two gay men became animated over the rumor that there would be the revival of Hedwig and the Angry Inch in the near future.

Rachel smiled at Kurt's mood lifting up, hoping that new friendship (not relationship) would bloom.

Mercedes' another rendition 'Bust Your Window,' Rachel's 'Gives You Hell,' and Mercedes and Kurt duet 'Hate on Me' later, Rachel left the other three at the table, walking over to the bar counter to get some water.

While awaiting her water, she leaned forward on the counter, gently tapping her forefinger on the wooden surface along with the drum beats of 'Like a Pill,' which currently was being sung by Elliott.

And when the bartender handed a bottle of water to her, a masculine voice along with a low whistle came from behind.

"Hello, gorgeous," the voice huskily said, stepping forward to stand next to her, his gaze swimming from north (their ridiculous height difference allowed him enough to see her cleavage) to south (her toned legs went for miles!) of her body, and south to north.

Rachel tilted her head to glance at the tall guy. He wore a nice leather jacket over a smooth dark charcoal gray cashmere sweater, a pair of midnight blue pants tucked into dark brown leather boots.

"Can I buy you a drink?" he asked, but without waiting for her to answer, he beckoned the bartender, knocking on the counter, to get his order already. "Jack Rose for this beautiful lady, and Westmalle Triple for me."

Rachel arched her eyebrow. "How did you know my favorite?" she said, turned to face him, her elbow on the counter.

He just shrugged and mimicked her posture, fully facing her.

When the bartender brought a bottle of beer and a glass of cocktail and placed them in front of the two, the guy pulled his wallet from his back pocket and peeked into it to pay for the drinks. "Oh man," he gasped, "somebody stole my money," he turned to look at her, "for a hotel room and cheeky panty," he deadpanned. "Will you lend me some money?"

"Finn!" Rachel slapped his arm. "You broke the rule! And I didn't steal your money!"

Rachel and Finn had gotten to live together from a very early stage of their relationship, so they met up at some bars more often than not when they went out on a date. And they decided that one to arrive late had to make a pass at another, pretending to be strangers. This time was not a date, but Rachel thought that he had been playing their game as usual.

Finn held up his hands in the air defensively before fishing some bills from the wallet to give them to the bartender. Then he faced Rachel again with a smile. "You look amazing, babe," he leaned down to kiss her, threading his fingers through her shiny silky hair. "And I like your new hair."

"You don't look half bad yourself," Rachel said, caressing his cheek fondly.

Finn picked her up to deposit her onto a high stool, positioning himself between her legs, his hands placing around her waist. Then he leaned down again to whisper in her ear. "God, Rach. I really want to fuck you right now."

Rachel blushed, biting her bottom lip, her arms around his neck.

In her head, two sides of Rachel started debating the pros and cons; the rational Rachel furiously shook her head. The bathroom of the bar had a lot of germs. Besides, she was wearing shorts. Where the hell was she supposed to put them in a cubicle? On the contrary, the adventurous Rachel frantically nodded at her. She got turned on, seeing her boyfriend looking so freaking hot in those clothes. She felt her vagina being on this side already.

"Holy fuck!"

Of course, of course, Noah Puckerman the intruder ruined their moment.

Finn and Rachel groaned in unison.

"I bet Finessa is going to eat his girl's sexy kitten tonight," Puck chuckled, looking at Rachel's legs as if they were a piece of meat.

"Dude," Finn let out a frustrated sigh, "don't ever look at my girlfriend like that!" He reluctantly pulled himself away from Rachel, stepping closer to his mohawked friend, nudging his shoulder roughly.

However, Puck just smirked at the couple, making no apologies for his demeanor before walking away from them to the table where Sam and Artie had already joined in the table that Sam's fiancée, Kurt and Elliott were sitting at.

Rachel huffed, blowing her bangs in frustration, deciding that she was going to use the Mohawk as her private servant until the end of the world.

"How was I?" Rachel excitedly skipped to Finn after finishing the duet 'Barracuda' with Elliott. "Was I good?"

"Of course," Finn gave her a chaste kiss on her cheek. "You blew me away," he said before adding, "as always."

Rachel clapped her hands happily before perching herself on Finn's lap, leaning her head against his shoulder with contentment.

"Yo, Rachel!" Artie, returning from the bathroom, called from behind as he held his cell phone up in the air to show his former co-star. "Check this out!"

The gang turned their heads around at once to see the guy in an argyle sweater with a pair of suspenders.

"What's that?" Sam asked, popping his chin up at Artie's cell phone.

"She debuted on a celebrity gossip site! Look!" Artie sat on the stool and placed his cell phone on the table for them to see the screen.

"What?" Rachel peered in the screen.

She widened her eyes as she saw the title of the article 'Jesse St. James and Rachel Berry reunited?' along with a lead-in sentence 'Ghostsinger lead role Jesse St. James and Broadway actress and his former co-star Rachel Berry, who currently is playing Elphaba from Wicked, were seen together at Park Hyatt New York,' and a candid photo in which Rachel and Jesse were having breakfast in the diner of the hotel.

"What the fuck?!" Finn hissed as he banged on the table with his fist, which startled all of the gang and practically made them jump on their stools.

"Finn, it's not like that!" Rachel cried and was about to cradle his face with her both hands.

Finn flinched away from her hands and glared at her. "What? Are you saying that you forgot to tell me the most important part of your encounter with this Jackass?"

"Nothing's important, Finn!" Rachel retorted. "We just had breakfast together and most of the time Jesse talked my ear off about himself and his show! Do you really want to know about the details of what he talked about?"

"What I meant was the fact that you didn't tell me that you'd had breakfast together!" Finn spat out in disbelief.

"I knew what was coming if I did tell you. It was just that two friends had breakfast together, that's it. He's one of my friends, whether or not you like it," Rachel countered. "No romantic feelings for him, you know that."

Finn shut his eyes closed and breathed heavily, trying to suppress his anger at the douche (and the fact that his girlfriend hadn't been willing to mention it). "I don't ever understand that you can still be his friend after all this time."

"Hold on," Kurt chimed in while the other friends got fidgeted at the couple's argument (except for Puck who seemed to be entertained). "Rachel, take a closer look at this photo," he swiped the screen of the phone to magnify the picture. "This girl on the left side of the picture looks familiar, don't you think?"

Rachel grabbed the phone to take a look at the candid, in which the Sugar girl was about to leave the diner, her sunglasses in her hand. She slowly looked at Kurt then at Puck. "I was going to follow her that morning, Noah. I knew that she was Sugar McIntosh. Look," she handed the phone out to the police officer.

Sure enough, the picture captured the girl's face which really looked like the dead body's one that Puck had seen at the autopsy room. Now he began thinking that he should have to investigate the two Sugars and Biffs as Rachel had been demanding.

"Alright, Berry, Kurt, I'm gonna make an inquiry into their financial positions," Puck said, rubbing his Mohawk.

"And you need to locate Biff McIntosh's whereabouts too," Rachel reminded him.

Puck nodded, returning the phone to Artie.

"I'm going home," still bothered by the article and the argument with his girlfriend, Finn moved her from his lap before getting out of his stool, ignoring a frown marring on Rachel's face.

"Yeah, we should call it a night," Sam nodded as he stood up from the stool too before holding his hand out to his fiancée to help her standing up.

"What was that about? Who is Sugar McIntosh?" Elliott whispered to Kurt.

"It's a long story. I'll tell you the whole story the next time," Kurt slowly moved his butt from the stool.

"Next time?" Elliott arched his eyebrow.

"Uh-huh," Kurt smiled at him. His first impression on the Broadway actor had been completely overturned over the course of the night. "I don't want to dispose you to have the wrong idea because I've just broken up with my boyfriend. But I had a good time with you tonight. So, it would be grateful if we sometimes hang out, you know, as friends."

"Sure," Elliott nodded.

Meanwhile, Rachel got out of the bar, slipping into her coat, chasing after Finn at a good clip. "Finn, wait!"

Finn stopped by her call, sighing, his hands thrusting into the pockets of his jacket.

"Finn, I'm sorry that I didn't tell you about having breakfast with him," Rachel stretched out her arm to slide her hand into one of the back pockets of his pants, the other hand clasping his sleeve. "Finn?" she pressed her face onto his arm, looking up at him. "I really want you to know that you're the one for me. I love you, Finn, more than anything," she said with pleading eyes.

"I know, I love you too," Finn pressed his lips to her hair, but his voice sounded depressed.

"You know you can use my credit card if you want to," Rachel suggested with a straight face.

After a moment, Finn burst into laughter. "Yeah, definitely I will."

Relieved, Rachel smiled at him. However, Finn seemed to be bothered from something to her.

Rachel wondered if he was still going to take her out the next day or not.

A/N: For those who have not read 'The Boy Next Door,' Finn ended up watching Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind instead of The Hangover in the chapter 16.

Please review :)