I do not own glee.
Rachel's soaking wet by the time she makes it to the hotel lobby. She walks to the front desk and realises that she has no way of finding the room because Santana hasn't given her a room or a name. The attendant behind the desk looks thoroughly bored as she paints her nails. The blonde doesn't even notice Rachel standing there. Rachel taps the desk impatiently and the blonde still doesn't look up from her nails.
"Excuse me," she says, narrowing her eyes to read the name tag pinned to her shirt. "...Lucy?" The blonde looks up from her nails and sighs dramatically.
"What?" she snaps. Rachel narrows her eyes at the rude attendant. Rolling her eyes, Lucy starts again. "Welcome to The Manhattan Lodger. How may I help you?"
"I'm supposed to meet someone here tonight," Rachel tells Lucy.
"Name?"
"I... don't know,"
"Room?"
"I don't know,"
"Well, I really can't help you then. I'm going to have to ask you to leave..."
"Hold on a moment! No one asks Rachel Berry to leave anywhere!"
"Miss, if you have no information then –"
"Lucy Q! Quit it and take a bloody break," a small Asian women calls from across the lobby. She walks over and stands in front of Lucy. "Now." There's an atmosphere of authority surrounding the woman that Rachel can't help but admire.
"But I just got on, Tina."
"Now." Tina repeats. Lucy Q huffs loudly and turns on her heels and waddles away. Tina turns back to Rachel and gives her a warm smile. "I'm so sorry. Lucy's still in training. What can I do for you today, miss?"
"I'm supposed to be meeting someone tonight," Rachel says. Tina frowns and looks through the computer. Her frown deepens when she's shown a list of several names.
"What did you say your name is?"
"Rachel Berry,"
"Well Rachel Berry, I know just which room you need to go to." She smiles and Rachel thanks her. Tina then turns to a blonde woman standing in the corner facing the wall. "Brittany, for goodness sakes, would you please please turn around and take Miss Berry here to room 303? God, please?"
"I forget where that is, Tin Tin," the woman calls back. Tina rolls her eyes and shouts to someone else walking across the lobby that is presumably another blonde employee. "Sam!" The blonde turns towards Tina and smiles.
"Yeah?" he asks, walking over.
"Take Rachel Berry to room 303, please? And get someone to help with Brittany please? She's stuck in that bloody corner again." Sam nods and leads Rachel away. They walk in silence to the lift. When they reach the lift they're joined by the first employee Rachel's seen that isn't blonde – apart from Tina of course. Sam snatches up her hand and leans down for a kiss which the chocolate woman hungrily accepts.
"Hey babe," Sam says. The chocolate woman smiles and seemingly notices Rachel for the first time.
"Sam!" She slaps the trouty mouthed boy on the arm. "That was so rude. We're with a customer." Sam shrugs and the woman leans around Sam and offers her hand. "I'm Mercedes."
"Rachel Berry," Rachel shakes her hand before returning her gaze back to the wall of the lift.
"You're pretty young. What're you doing here by yourself? You're what? Seventeen?"
"Eighteen actually. You're not much older than me." Rachel retorts. Mercedes looks taken aback at that.
"You're right," Sam says, making eye contact with Rachel for the first time that night. "She's not much older than you. Nineteen. And I'm twenty-one,"
"That's wonderful," Rachel replies sarcastically. Sam ignores the comment and keeps talking.
"Actually, all the staff on tonight are barely out of high school. Britt's nineteen, Tina's twenty-two, Mike's twenty-two, Blaine's twenty-one, Kurt's twenty, Rory's nineteen, Sugar's nineteen, Artie's twenty. The only people over the age of twenty-five are Emma and Will Schuester – they own the place – and Sue Sylvester. She kind of hates us all. Did I miss anyone babe?"
"Quinn, baby," Mercedes replies. Rachel's head snaps up at the mention of the name Quinn. She wonders if it is the same Quinn that hurt Finn when they were in high school.
"Right. Lucy Quinn Fabray. Also known as Lucy Q and Quinn. She's twenty-three. The only one of us who moved out here from a different state. Lima, Ohio. She's kind of a bitch."
"Right." Rachel says. By this time Sam and Mercedes have walked Rachel to the door of 303. They bid their goodbyes and Rachel shakes the door with her pounding knocks. She doesn't even bother to check her appearance and she still has her trench coat wrapped tightly around her body to conceal her skimpy little outfit underneath. The door swings open and without looking at the person in the doorway Rachel pushes past them and dumps the coat.
"Alright," she says, turning around, "let's get this over – Finn."
"Surprise," he says in way of lightening the mood. Rachel scowls and tries to push past him but Finn steps in her way, blocking the door.
"Move!" she commands but Finn stays where he is.
"No. You're not leaving here until we've sorted this out." Finn says. Rachel wants to hurt him. She wants to hurt him like he hurt her. She wants him to suffer some more. If he thinks he can just walk back in her life and all will be forgiven than he's got another thing coming. She's hurting from the way he burned her the last time they met. She thinks he wouldn't hold her back if he knew.
"I don't think you'd want to be up here 'sorting this out' when I know for a fact that Quinn Fabray is down in the lobby of this hotel, baby. Now's your chance to tell the bitch exactly how she hurt you, baby." Rachel says. She knows it was kind of low to say that to him but she doesn't want to be in the same room as him. She just wants out.
"What?" Finn asks, jaw dropped.
"You heard me, baby. That skank of an ex is working in this very building."
"No." Finn's grabbed his stuff and is out the door in a flash. Rachel follows him down the stairs, pulling her coat on as she goes. She stops when she sees Finn's broken face at the desk of the lobby. She wonders how he can still be hung up on her but then realises that he's not. He's just still so upset from when she burned him. It never occurred to Rachel that telling Finn about Quinn Fabray could damage him more than he already is but she sees. He looks from Quinn to Rachel back to Quinn.
"Finn..." Quinn whispers. Clearly she's never quite gotten over the fact that she'd burned this poor guy so bad. Quinn extends her hand to Finn's shaking body but he steps away from her. Rachel walks over to Finn and places her hand firmly in his. He looks down at the entwined fingers and almost pulls away but he doesn't. He doesn't even care that Rachel told him because she wanted him to hurt. He's glad that she's there.
Finn tugs on Rachel's hand and pulls her away. "Come on," he says. They can hear Quinn shouting to him in the background but they're not listening. He's dragging her to his car and they're climbing in and they're driving. He hasn't cried yet but Rachel can see his eyes glistening. Soon they're in his apartment and he's fumbling with his keys and Rachel takes the keys from his hands.
"Let me." He nods and she unlocks the door.
Soon he's pulling her to his bedroom. She thinks he's going to want sex. It's her automatic reaction these days when she sees a bedroom that isn't her own or Noah's. She's wrong. He throws a shirt at her and then pulls her trench coat off her shoulders from behind her. His hands trail down the smooth skin of her arms and her heart skips a beat. He takes the shirt from her hands and slides it over her head and her arms and now she doesn't feel so exposed. She turns around and pushes him down onto the bed and sits next to him. And she lets him cry. She lets him cry until they're both too tired to keep their eyes open and they fall asleep entwined in each other's arms.
Sweet ending to this chapter, (: Keep reviewing!