Previously: Rachel struggling with all her emotions led the gang back to the rest of the New Directions who were in the Auditorium where she let go of everything she was struggling with, and some of the others did the same, as they sang 'My Heart Will Go On' and Rachel sang 'Cry' all by herself.
And now the continuation:
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PART 21: A NEW DAY AND NEWS ON FINN
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It is Day 2 after Finn has died, and everyone who had been at the McKinley Auditorium late last night, had left to spend time with their family. They were all due back there this morning, especially the New Directions Alumni.
It is 7 a.m. at the Hummel's and once again the phone rings. Carole wakes up.
"Is this a dream?" asked Carole "Please don't be a repeat day."
Burt reaches over and grabs the phone.
"Congressman Burt Hummel here,"
"Congressman it's Chief of Police Kevin Martin," came Kevin's voice "I'm sorry to wake you early."
Burt had a bad feeling about this call. He sat up.
"What can I do for you Chief?"
"We've been working overnight on your son's case, making it top priority."
"Appreciate that," replied Burt "Why do I get the feeling you've got bad news of us getting Finn back?"
"What's that?" said Carole sitting up "They won't let us have Finn back?"
Burt held up his hand to ask her to wait.
"Like I said Congressman, we've been working over night on your son's case, and the coroner has too. It's just that we're delaying sending your son to the Funeral Home for an hour or so."
"Why?" asked Burt
"We would like to organize a get together for Family and immediate friends if you need them to be by your side, especially Finn's Friends."
"I'll ask again," Burt asked getting frustrated "Why?"
"Because we would like to explain how he died, and I don't want to do it over the phone, it'll help with the healing process. We need you and your wife, your other son, Kurt is it, and a couple of Finn's friends, Rachel Berry I understand was very close to him?"
"She was, yes. What time are we having this meeting."
"9 a.m. which is why we're delaying sending Finn to the Funeral Home, because you guys won't be there. So if you can get the word out, that would be helpful."
"And then we can have Finn?"
"Yes Mr Congressman I promise you can have Finn back."
"We'll see you at 9," said Burt pulling the blankets off of him, and getting out of bed.
Burt put the phone down, and went to the door.
"What's happening at 9?" asked Carole
Burt opened the door "Kurt, Kurt wake up, I need to see you, Kurt."
"What's happening at 9?" asked Carole
"We're getting answers on Finn my dear, and then we're getting him back."
Kurt ran into the room looking half asleep.
"Are you okay Dad? Is Carole okay?" he asked in a blinding panic
"We are," replied Burt "I've just received a phone call from the Chief of Police, he wants to meet with us at 9 a.m, invite Rachel and her Dad's, and also Will Schuester, and maybe one or two others. Then tell Schuester to let the Glee Club know to hold off on going to the Funeral Home until later in the morning. Not sure when but we're getting Finn back."
"Okay," said Kurt trying to remember what his father was saying "Yay to getting Finn back. Wait a minute, what do you mean about getting him back."
"They'll be releasing his body to us, after the meeting."
"Okay," replied Kurt "That's good then."
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Kurt sent texts out to Rachel, Will, Blaine, and Quinn. He figured he get a no back from Santana, after her rough day yesterday barely keeping it together. So he invited Quinn instead. He didn't think Puck would be up for it either. He then sent a text to everyone in the Glee Club saying to hold back from heading to the funeral home until further notice. Hopefully it wouldn't be too long.
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It was 9 a.m. at the Lima Police Department Headquarters, and Burt, Carole, Kurt, Rachel, Hiriam, Le-Roy (Rachel's Dads), Blaine, Quinn and Will were all shown into a room. They sat down at a large table. Burt, Carole, Kurt, and Blaine on one side, Rachel, Quinn, and Will on the other side. Hiriam, and Le-Roy pulled up chairs to sit behind Rachel.
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Rachel had had a bad night after coming back from the Auditorium, where she cried her emotions out. She hadn't slept. And it showed.
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"Carole," said Rachel to break the silence "If it's okay with you I'd like to help out with the Funeral Arrangements."
Carole smiled "I'd loved you to, dear... Finn would have loved that..."
"Yes he would," said Rachel looking down at the table
"William," said Carole looking over at Will "We would love the New Directions to sing at the funeral too, and we would love it if you could do a eulogy, if you're up to it of course."
Will nodded. He needed to do one for Finn's sake "Sure Carole, anything you want. The New Directions would love to, oh and we request that we would like to do a guard of honor for when Finn gets taken into the Funeral Home, if that's okay with you guys?"
Carole looked at Kurt, and then at Burt. She nodded to Burt.
"Sure Shue, that would be awesome," said Burt "That would actually be great."
Carole looked back at Rachel "We would love you to do a solo at the funeral too Rachel, if you're up for it."
Rachel nodded, feeling tears swelling up in her eyes again "Anything for you Carole, and Burt, and Kurt."
Kurt smiled back across the table, holding out his hand, and Rachel leaned over and gave him hers.
"It's going to be okay,"
Carole looked across at Quinn.
"How are you Quinny?"
Quinn looked back across at Carole, then at Kurt, and then back at Carole. She did not want to be here, but Kurt explained the reasoning behind it. She had been Finn's girlfriend in the sophomore year at High School, and Santana had, had too much yesterday, so the next best would to have her here. She'd rather not be though.
"Um, I'm fine thanks Mrs Hudson-Hummel."
"Call me Carole,"
"Okay Carole."
Will gave Quinn, a pat on the shoulder.
Just then the doors opened, and in walked the Chief of Police, Kevin J Martin. He looked very tired. He walked to the front of the table, and looked at everyone.
"Thank you all for coming, I know how hard this must be for everyone."
"We hear that you have news about my son, Finn?" asked Carole quietly trying to prevent tears from getting out
The Chief of Police looked at Carole "Yes I have Mrs Hudson-Hummel. But I must warn you all, what I am about to say, there's some good news, and there might be hard news for you all to take."
"I'm sure we can handle it," said Burt "After all we have each other."
The Chief of Police sat down "The moment we got the call about Finn and finding out who he was the moment every other case went on the back burner. A step-son of a Congressman is a pretty big deal so we needed to do everything in our power to get the results."
"On behalf of everyone, I guess," said Burt "We appreciate that."
"More than appreciate," replied Carole
The Chief of Police looked around at everyone "I just want you all to know that we had to open a file on Finn, and we had to do some digging. We had to go through everyone he had come across and get back ground on. So I know for you Kurt to be here, he is your step-brother."
"I consider him a brother," said Kurt
"Of course you do," said the Chief looking across at Rachel "And you Miss Rachel Berry, you were his on again off again girlfriend."
"That's not fair," said Carole "They are teenagers, they're trying to find their own way in the world, and if that meant strain on their relationship, that was always going to be the case. We all know they would have ended up together eventually."
"Sorry Miss Berry, Sorry Mrs Hudson-Hummel," apologized the chief "I wasn't trying to stick my nose in, but that's just how it looked. But yes, our research did show that."
Rachel looked across at Carole, and mouthed 'Thank you,'
"So continuing on... We know her fathers Hiriam, and Le-Roy Berry had to be here to support their daughter, I would do the same if the shoe was on my foot. Then there's William Schuester, the director of the Glee Club that Finn participated in and then helped close. You two were very close until that situation where we won't get into last year happened. But that's beside the point. Then there's Blaine Anderson, the partner of Kurt, he needed to be here, and so too Miss Quinn Fabray, who was Finn's girlfriend in their sophomore year before breaking up, and getting back together a year later and then breaking up again."
"Now look here," said Burt thumping his fist on the table "This isn't what we came here today for, what we came here today was for was news on Finn. I would, no, we would all appreciate it if you stay out of private lives."
Quinn wanted to get up, and smack the Chief of Police right there and then, Will knowing that put his hand on her shoulder, to keep her calm.
"Once again I apologize," said the chief looking back at Burt "But these are the back ground checks that we came up in trying to figure out what went wrong with Finn."
"Tell us then," said Kurt frustrated "What did go wrong with Finn?"
"Okay, yesterday morning, early morning we know that Finn was seen with Noah Puckerman heading towards a frat party. But for some reason Finn decided to leave early."
"Trust Puck to be on the radar," said Quinn to herself although Will and Rachel could hear her.
"My men were out all of yesterday morning, and again last night while you guys were with Finn. We needed this sorted fast. So here's the tough news. Finn was next seen standing on the side of a bridge looking down at the water below. He was seen by eyewitnesses who happened to be passing by at the time. He was there for a couple of minutes."
"Which bridge is that?" asked Rachel without even knowing it came out
"I can't tell you that Miss Berry, it's not relevant."
"Why not?"
"Because we don't want you to over memorialize it."
"That's bullshit," said Kurt
"That's what teenagers do," replied the Captain "From my experience."
"Okay," said Burt "Moving on."
"The eye witnesses were concerned that Finn was looking out over a Bridge at that time of the morning, that they hung around, but they saw him walk away, which they too walked away."
"Okay," said Kurt then what
"Then about two minutes later there was a fight between two older kids and a younger teenager on the bridge. We have spoken to the two groups separately and we can confirm this. Finn must have heard the commotion and he came back to investigate. He saw the two boys accosting the younger kid, and he decided to intervene. He thought he had run the offenders off.
"That's Finn for you," said Quinn "Always making sure other people are okay, and trying to keep people out of trouble."
"I can vouch for that," replied Kurt thinking of the time when Kurofsky and Enzimio were picking on him, Finn had intervened.
"And then what happened?" asked Carole
"This is where the next bit gets hard to talk about. This is where it's going to get tough."
"Just say it," said Burt clearly getting agitated
The Chief took a deep breath "The kid who Finn had saved, was in the middle of thanking Finn, when the offenders returned. They sensed that Finn had his guard down, his back was to them. The Ring Leader then King Hit Finn in the back of his head with a large stone."
Rachel pulled her hands to her face, Hiriam put his hands on her shoulders. Quinn looked shocked too. And Carole started sobbing.
"This action forced Finn to stumble forwards into the guard railing of the bridge..."
"No," said Rachel shocked
"... He tried to regain his balance, but by this stage, he was losing consciousness, and his body had no where else to go."
"Dear god," said Blaine out loud
"So with his body going limp from the shock, hit the rail, and he fell over the other side. The fall was quite high and fast. Finn hit the water hard, his head did first, and it was straight after the blow from the stone, and then the blow of hitting him, and then hitting the water hard, the impact killed him instantly. His brain couldn't survive two shocks in succession."
"No, Finn." said Rachel starting to cry harder and harder
Carole was instantly bawling her eyes out, as was Quinn, Will was trying to comfort her, and then Kurt started, Blaine gave him a hug.
"I'm very sorry," replied the Chief "We had to confirm all of this, and we worked over night to do it. We found the offenders, and the other kid who Finn had saved, and they told us the same story."
"I demand to know have you charged them yet," said Burt getting up and looking ready to explode
"Dad," sobbed Kurt "Remember your heart."
"Yes we have," replied the Chief "With Assault, and Manslaughter."
"What the fuck..." shouted Burt "Why Manslaughter, and not Murder?"
"Dad your heart," yelled Kurt
"They didn't actually push him over the bridge."
"They didn't try to save him either," roared Burt "They hit him and he fell over the bridge, and they get Manslaughter? Manslaughter? Manfuckingslaughter?"
"I'm sorry Mr Congressman, but that's the law."
Burt was raging by now, he was looking like he was about to take a swing at the Chief of Police. Kurt got up quickly, and grabbed his father.
"Dad... I've already lost Mum... I nearly lost you... I've lost Finn... I don't want to lose you now."
Burt turned to look at his son, tears were pouring down his face, and all Burt could do was stand there, but the anger was going away, then he pulled Kurt into him, and hugged him.
"I'm not going anywhere."
"Then calm down," sobbed Kurt
"When will Finn be released?" asked Carole
"The time now is..." said the Chief "9.15, he'll be released at 9.45, I'll have a few of men escort him over to the Funeral Home to take him in there, so you guys don't have to, for today."
Everyone except for Will, Burt, Blaine, Hiriam and Le-Roy were crying and uncontrollably. Will was almost near tears but he was comforting Quinn, Hiriam, and Le-Roy were trying to comfort Rachel, Blaine was comforting Carole, and Burt was trying to comfort Kurt. The scene was heartbreaking.
This wasn't what the Chief was trying to get to, he was hoping that they're take it calmly, but Burt's anger, pushed the emotions even higher.
"Is there anything else?" asked Burt still hugging Kurt looking down at Chief.
"I think I've said enough," replied the Chief "And I think the situation with what happened to your Son, the circumstances behind him being on the bridge, can possibly wait until tomorrow. You need to tend to your son, and get everything in motion."
"Why?" asked Burt confused "Is there more?"
"Not to do with his death, but to do with his condition of being at the Bridge at that time of the morning."
"Do you have something to tell us?"
"I would prefer not to at this time, please, I want to respect your feelings. We can set up another meeting for tomorrow and I'll be happy to explain it to you then."
Burt looked around at everyone else in the room. He wanted to push it, but Rachel couldn't handle it at the moment, Carole wouldn't be able to handle it at the moment either, nor could Kurt. He was at the brink of being inconsolable. Will had his hands full with Quinn, and well Blaine looked like he was so worried for Kurt. Burt then had to back down.
"Very well Chief. This isn't over. We concede for now."
"Thank you Congressman,"
"Don't thank me?" said Burt shaking his head "Just do what you have to do. Now if you can excuse us, I have to deal with our family."
The Chief nodded, sighed, and got up, and quickly left the room, leaving the men in the room to clean up the mess he left behind.
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NOTE: I was going to add in old faces appearing with the New Directions at the auditorium, but this chapter got longer and emotional and I needed to end it where it ended. But I promise you the next chapter we will see old faces returning, plus a very special guard of honor for Finn.