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: Welcome to the final chapter before the epilogue! Hope you enjoyed the angsty ride!

Chapter Fourteen: Love Heals

She was blinded by tears as she haphazardly stumbled through the hospital; the corridors passed by her in a blur as she quickly made her way out of the therapy wing and right towards the closest exit. Tossing the lunch that Finn had bought her into the trash, all she could think of was the look of panic on Finn's face when he'd been caught, and the look of love that emanated from Quinn's eyes towards her boyfriend while she was standing to the side like a third wheel.

It was almost too much for Rachel to take. She thought that things between her and Finn were serious, but she was very wrong. Finn had been borderline obsessed with Quinn when they'd met; of course he would choose her now that Quinn was the one fawning over him. She should have suspected it all along.

She was so preoccupied in her thoughts that she didn't even see Santana when she slammed right into her. Rachel moaned in pain as she rubbed her elbow, but she didn't even respond to Santana's curses and screams as she walked right past her.

"Shit, Berry, what's up your ass today?" Rachel ignored her as she continued on her blind path towards escape. It was only after she made it outside when she realized that she didn't even have a car to get home. She always carpooled with Kurt, but he had over half of his shift left and she needed to get as far away from the hospital as possible. Luckily for her, Santana had followed her outside, still angry over their hallway collision and finally finished with her shift.

"I don't know who you think you're dealing with, Princess, but in Lima Heights you could get shot for what you just did to me, so I would watch it if I were you."

Ignoring her anger, Rachel fought against another onslaught of tears as she hugged herself in the cold winter wind. "Santana, can you drive me home?" She stared at Rachel, incredulous.

"Do I look like your damn chauffeur? I just worked a 10 hour shift!" She roared angrily.

"Did Finn visit Quinn again this morning?" The words were barely a whisper on her lips as Santana's anger visibly shifted into a quiet kind of resentment. "Please, Santana, I have to know. You're the only one who's in early enough to know the truth."

She looked away from Rachel's eyes as she nodded her head, and her heart clenched painfully in her chest as Santana confirmed her worst fears. "I'm sorry, Rachel. He made me promise not to tell you."

That little fact hurt her more than Santana's confession as she slowly nodded her head. "I see." Rachel was quiet and Santana struggled with something to say.

"Do you still need that ride?"

"Sure," she said sadly, resolved to the fact that she had lost the only man she'd ever truly loved to another girl. A girl who was prettier, smarter, and had more money than Rachel ever would. A small tear fell from her eye as she followed Santana back to her car and she sat in the passengers seat in silence while the town of Lima passed her by.

It was uncomfortably quiet in the car, but Rachel didn't feel like speaking to anyone at the moment, let alone Santana and her snarky attitude. She thought Santana had been her friend, but she had just been kidding herself. Everyone she knew in Lima would always be loyal to Finn, even Kurt who was his step-brother. She had no place in Lima, just like Cleveland and Toledo and everywhere else she'd ever lived.

She just didn't belong anywhere. She never had and she never will.

When they arrived at Kurt's apartment Santana looked like she wanted to say something, but Rachel beat her to it. "Thanks for the ride, Santana. I appreciate it," she went to make a quick getaway but Santana held her in place with a firm grip on her wrist.

"Look Berry, I'm sorry. . ." Rachel cut her off rudely as she pulled her hand away.

"You don't have to patronize me, Santana, you were right about Finn, and men in general." She shook her head as she came to grips with the truth in front of her. "I should have never trusted my heart to anyone after Jesse. I thought Finn was different and I was wrong. I learned my lesson, though, so I'll see you around." She got out of the car without another word and slammed the door behind her without looking back. Once she entered the empty apartment she finally allowed the tears to fall freely, collapsing onto the couch and holding her head in her hands as the heartache became too much for her to handle.

She didn't know how long she had stayed there, crying on the couch, but when she finally emerged from her sorrow, she had come to a decision about Finn and her life in Lima.

There was just no place for her here. All of her friends, everyone who she knew in Lima, would always be more loyal to Finn than to her. She would never have her own place in their lives; she would forever be known as Kurt's roommate or Finn's ex. It had happened in Cleveland, what made her think a small town like Lima would be any different? She was just repeating the same old patterns all over again. The heartache, the loss of friends. . .all she had to do was lose her job and then history would really repeat itself.

No. She couldn't allow that to happen. She got over one heartache before, so she could definitely get over Finn now. She just needed a plan, an escape route.

Running into her bedroom, she pulled out the envelope filled with the money she had made from selling her old clothes and accessories. There was over $3,000 dollars available to her and while it wasn't much, it was a pretty decent place to start. All she had to do was find another hospital to transfer to and she could start fresh again. Maybe Dr. Schuester would be able to write her a letter of recommendation or something?

Rachel was packing her bags when the apartment door opened, and Kurt's questioning voice echoed throughout the apartment, calling her name. "Rachel? Are you here? Everyone is going crazy looking for you!" She ignored his voice and kept throwing her belongings into her luggage haphazardly as he entered her bedroom, looking shocked as he noticed the mess.

"Rachel, what the hell is going on? You left work without telling anyone; the other therapists are furious and Santana called me sounding uncharacteristically upset."

"To hell with the other therapists," she sneered, her anger radiating off of her in waves. "And Santana, too." Kurt stared at her as she quickly maneuvered herself around her bedroom.

"Can you please stop what you're doing for a second and talk to me?" He asked as she slammed her suitcase closed. "You're starting to scare me."

"Not really, no," she said shortly, grabbing her phone and noticing the lack of calls or texts from Finn. He was probably too preoccupied with Quinn to care. "If I start talking I might just lose the last person I can trust in my life and I don't want to put you in the middle of this. You mean too much to me."

"Rachel, you're not making any sense!"

"He chose her, Kurt!" She exploded, turning on her best friend with unshed tears in her eyes. "He went to go see Quinn for the past two nights. He even told Santana not to tell me anything." She felt ashamed as two hot, fat tears slid down her cheeks, proving her weakness. "It's happening all over again, Kurt. I can't stay in Lima anymore."

"Rachel," Kurt breathed, exasperated. "There has to be a reason behind Finn's behavior. He's my brother, I know him better than anyone and he would never do that to you."

"You didn't see the look in his eyes when Quinn said that he had come to visit her this morning," she said, shaking her head sadly. "He knew he had been caught. I saw it there," she sobbed. "You didn't see the way she was fawning all over him. I did. He was so in love with her when we met last spring, and I was a fool for thinking that he'd moved on."

Kurt shook his head, at a loss for words. "What are you going to do?"

"Take my money and run. I'll go on vacation and clear my head and start sending out resumes. I had to move across the state to get rid of Jesse, I might have to leave Ohio altogether to get away from Finn," she cried miserably as Kurt came up and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. She took the offered comfort greedily, leaning against the one person she could still call her friend. "I just don't want to mess up our friendship because I couldn't make it work with your brother."

"That's ridiculous, Rachel. You know how much I care about you. You'll always have a friend in me, no matter where you decide to go." He frowned as Rachel continued to sniffle. "I do think you should talk to him, though. Maybe it was all a misunderstanding?"

"Kurt, I left the hospital hours ago. His shift has already started. If he wanted to talk to me he would have called, but now it's too late. He's made his choice." She was practically nauseous as she continued to cry into Kurt's shoulder, and he was patient and kind towards her as she cried out the rest of her frustrations into her best friend's embrace. At least she still had some kind of support.

"You don't have to leave Lima, Rachel. We all love you here."

"No, it's better this way, I think. I'll pack the rest of my things in the morning, I think I want to get some rest." Patting her on the back, Kurt frowned as he slowly backed out of her room.

"Alright, call me if you need any help."

"Help with what?" Looking behind Kurt's lithe frame she could see the outlines of Finn's tall one, and he looked at Rachel's messy room with confusion in his eyes. "Rachel, what's going on here?"

"I'll just be going now. . ." Kurt maneuvered his way around Finn's body and left the room, shooting Rachel a panicked look as he left the two lovers alone. Rachel felt almost naked under Finn's pressing stare and was frozen in place as he entered the room.

"What are you doing here, Finn?" She asked coldly, ignoring his previous question. "You're supposed to be at work."

"I called out sick," he said simply, shrugging his shoulders. "Rory is covering for me."

"So why are you here? Shouldn't you be at the hospital with Quinn?" She sneered.

"No, Rachel. I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be right now." He tried to walk towards her but she took a step back, keeping some distance between them. "We need to talk."

"I don't have anything to say to you," she said, trying to keep her emotions in check. All she wanted to do was run forward and throw herself into his arms, but that would be counterproductive to her current plan.

"Well there's plenty that I have to say to you," his voice was calm, too calm for the heartbreak she was currently feeling. "Please come sit and talk to me."

She stubbornly crossed her arms over her chest but complied anyway, wanting to both be close to him and run away screaming at the same time. The desire to be near him overpowered her anger as she relented and sat next to him on the bed. They were quiet for a long time before anyone spoke at all.

"If you came here just to torture me with your presence, then it's working. I don't know why you insist on talking to me when you've already chosen another but it's bringing me more heartache than I can stand, so say something already so we can just break up and move on."

He looked at her for a moment and the expression on his face was unreadable. After a tense moment he suddenly slid off of the bed and dropped in front of her on one knee.

"Marry me, Rachel," he said passionately, staring up into her eyes.

Um, what did he just say?

"Um, what did you just say?" Was her initial reaction to his abrupt and sloppy proposal as he noticed the look of pure shock on her face. Even while on his knee they were still at eye level, and he looked into her red and puffy eyes, waiting for the answer he wanted to hear. Her bedroom was in shambles and he ached to know why it looked like a tornado had torn through it.

"I want you to marry me, Rachel," he repeated. "I got a ring for you and everything." He pulled the velvet box out of his pocket and the little weight felt heavy in his hands. After he had left the hospital he had made up his mind to propose to her, and even though Jesse's warnings had been ringing in his head all day, he ignored them and proceeded to spend the afternoon buying a ring. Her eyes doubled in size when he opened the case and showed her the simple diamond solitaire set into a white gold band.

"Finn," she said, shaking her head, her expression unreadable. "I don't know what to say."

"Say yes, Rach," he begged her as his hands began to shake from anxiety. She didn't look as happy as he'd pictured it in his head and he was worried that he'd messed things up too badly to be able to fix it.

"I can't, Finn," she replied, confirming all of his worst fears as more tears slid down her cheeks. "I can't do this all over again."

"Rachel, I am so sorry I hurt you. I know I promised that I wouldn't but I did, and I hate myself for making you doubt my feelings for you. But you have to know how much I love you. You have to realize that Quinn means nothing to me."

"And how am I supposed to do that?" She questioned. "I trusted you. I gave you my heart, even after Jesse had shattered it into a million pieces," she scoffed, the sound bitter in Finn's ears as her voice dripped in cynicism. "I should have stayed bitter and disillusioned and saved myself the heartache."

"What are you saying?" He said, clutching the ring in his hands as an empty sense of hopelessness filled him.

"That maybe we should have just stayed friends," she whispered brokenly as her face crumpled in tears. Her words were like stab wounds, piercing right into his heart. "Love is nothing but torture."

"No," he said suddenly, his voice sounding much more powerful than he felt at the moment. "You're wrong."

"Am I?" she questioned. "Because I sure as hell feel miserable right now and you don't look much better."

He stared at her like she was a stranger. "How can you say that to me after everything we've been through? That we should have stayed friends?"

"Because we love each other but we're still hurting, Finn. When is it going to stop?"

"It won't Rachel. It never will." He said emphatically, shaking his head. "It's not supposed to, but the goal is to have someone to share that pain with, right?" She nodded her head feebly but he knew that he had to make her understand. "Do you remember the day we met? When you moved to Lima?" He asked, the velvet box crushed in his fists as he stared into her gorgeous, tear-filed eyes.

"Yeah," she said, "I was just as miserable as I feel now."

"No," he replied. "You were much, much worse."

Her face tightened in anger. "Well thanks! Now we're finally being honest with one another."

He shook his head furiously. "Just listen to me. You were miserable, and I was miserable, but it was worse because we were just so damn lost. Quinn and Jesse had wrecked us; they had ruined our lives and we were really messed up for a while, but we found one another. We helped each other get better."

"Yeah, and what do we have now?" She pouted miserably.

"Our future," he said, the words pouring out of him as he held onto his last chance for happiness. "And we still have each other." Rachel was his everything and he couldn't just let her walk out of his life. There was a huge suitcase sitting on the floor next to the bed and it was making him nervous. "I'm sorry about what happened with Quinn, but spending that time with her really made me realize how important you are to me." He placed the box on her fluffy comforter and took her hands in his. "She broke my heart, Rachel, but it was so much more than that. She broke my spirit. She made me feel like shit. I changed everything in my life because I thought it would make me better, more worthy." He sighed deeply as he thought about the way he felt last year, and how different his life was now. "But you were the one who supported me. Who told me not to give up. You were the only person to ever tell me that I was special, or smart, or capable of doing something bigger than myself." The tears were pouring down her face but he couldn't stop his confession, he had to let her know the truth about his love for her. "Quinn might have hurt me but you healed me with your love, Rachel. I'm a better person because of everything we've been through, and we could never have stayed friends because from the moment I met you I knew that you were special. How could you want to give that up?"

"I don't Finn, I really don't," she sobbed.

"So why is there a seriously heavy suitcase leaning against my back?"

Her head dipped low as she looked anywhere but his face. "Because I couldn't stand to stay here when I knew I couldn't be with you. If you want to be with Quinn I understand, but I don't need the reminders of my failures to be rubbed in my face constantly." Her eyes landed on the ring next to her on the bed and he could see the longing in her eyes. "I wouldn't be able to stand it."

"Rachel, I told Quinn that I wasn't coming back to see her anymore."

Her head shot up instantly and he caught a glimmer of hope in her gaze. "Really?"

"Yeah, really," he said, finally cracking a smile. "She took the news pretty well."

"But why?" She asked, surprised.

"Because I'm in love with you, Rachel. I don't want to do anything to mess that up. In fact, I want to take our relationship to the next level." He picked up the ring once more and offered it up to her. "So let's try this again. Rachel Berry, will you marry me?" He was expecting to hear a yes this time but was shocked to see her shake her head once more.

"Finn, I don't know what to say."

"Well, in the best case scenario you would say 'yes'. . .," he urged.

Her voice was barely above a whisper. "I don't know if I can." Her response felt like a kick straight to the chest as he struggled to remain in control of his emotions.

"But why?" He asked as her face crumpled in tears once more. "I thought we loved each other. I thought you wanted to have a future with me."

"I do!" She gasped, and there was no lie in her determined gaze. "That's all I've ever wanted."

"So why can't you say yes?" She stared at him like a deer caught in headlights as she struggled to come up with an excuse.

"We don't even live together yet," she said in a rush.

"That's okay, I'll just have to move in then. I bought this ring with my rent money anyway," he said it with more nonchalance than he felt but she didn't have to know that.

"We haven't even been dating for a year!"

"I couldn't care less," he said, deflecting all of her weak excuses.

"You're still working night shifts," she added.

"I'll quit," was his immediate response, and he was never more serious about anything in his life.

Her face was red and tight with emotion as she shook her head in desperation. "I ruined my last engagement, Finn. I never thought I would get engaged ever again."

"You didn't ruin anything, Rachel. I want to be with you and I know that you want to be with me too. Just say yes."

"Are you really choosing me over Quinn?" She asked in awe, staring at the ring that he was still offering her like she couldn't believe this was happening.

"There was never any choice, Rachel," he breathed from his spot on the floor. "Do I seriously have to ask you for a fouth time or can you just say 'yes' now?"

"Yes," she said, falling forward off the bed and into his arms as he tightened them around her frame. "Yes, Finn, I'll marry you. I'm sorry I doubted you, I was just so scared to lose you." Her body was soft and warm against his and his heart was bursting with love at the fact that she'd accepted his proposal and forgiven him for his stupidity.

Rachel was now his fiancée. They were going to get married someday.

As he held her in his arms and slipped the sparkling diamond ring on her finger, he knew in his heart that this was exactly where he was supposed to be. They still had a lot to plan and figure out about their relationship, but the important part was that they were together, and in love, and nothing was ever going to change that.

"Finn?" Rachel asked from her position in his arms. "Did you really spend your rent money on this ring?"

"Yeah," he admitted with a light blush. "I kinda did."

"So you were serious about moving in?"

"Were you serious about moving out?" Was his response as he looked at the mess around him.

"Not really, I just didn't think I could handle staying in Lima without you." She tangled her fingers in his hair and her grip on him was solid as she nuzzled her forehead into his chest.

"Well that won't ever be a problem, Rachel. I just hope that Kurt agrees with our decision."

"I do!" Came his loud and unexpected reply from the living room. "No worries!" Finn and Rachel looked over at the source of the noise and they realized that the door had been open the whole time. Kurt had heard every single word of their conversation.

Oh well, he better get used to the lack of privacy now.

"Good to know!" He called back for his brother's benefit before looking down into Rachel's loving gaze.

"So you're really going to move in?" She asked again.

"Of course," he said with a smile.

"What about your job?"

"We can figure that out soon. Right now all I care about is us." Reaching down, he placed his lips on hers in a passionate kiss that he never wanted to end. The past year had been filled with nothing but drama and insecurities and pain and Finn just wanted to forget about it and move on.

There was just one more thing that he needed to know.

"So, tell me about the red wine incident at Jesse's apartment," he said as the blood slowly started to drain from her face in horror. "I need to know if I should buy plastic covers for the furniture every time we fight. You didn't swing by my apartment on the way home, did you?" He cackled like a madman as she buried her head in his chest and refused to admit a thing.

He was going to have so much fun torturing her about this for the rest of their lives.

Merci mille fois, mes amis!

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