-Authors Notes-
Ok guys we have only two chapters left and you're about to read one of them. Yep it's penultimate chapter time. It's Finn-abulous.
Anyway yeah I'm kinda getting sad that we're getting to the end now. I was thinking about a epilogue but not 100%. Unless people like desperately want one. I'm also thinking of maybe doing a one shot (rated M) from this story of Finn and Rachel's night in the hotel. I don't know though. No promises there it's just something I may play around with and if I think it works I'll post it. I don't know how well it'll go with the comedy side of this story.
Onwards and upwards. I also have a few ideas for a few other glee fics in the future so hopefully we'll meet upon another fanfic.
Finally, and I will say this again next chapter, but a huge shoutout to my faithfull reviewers. You guys rock and keep me wanting to write the next chapter. In fact that goes for all of you reading this story who have it on alerts or favorties. Thanks for sticking with me and coming back to read it. And to anyone reading this in the future once it's complete (ooo spooky I'm talking to the future readers now) thanks for making it this far.
Much love, as ever. Finchel for the ages!
-X-
Finn had no idea what was going on.
He'd been staring at his phone for, like, four hours now.
He'd feigned writing emails on his laptop and it still sat there, open, with a half written sentence on the screen.
He couldn't take his eyes off of his stupid phone.
As if to finally put him out of his misery it buzzed.
It almost slipped out of his hands in his rush to grab it, but his happiness was short lived when he saw a text message from Puck.
He couldn't work out why he hadn't heard anything from her. Quinn had ambushed Rachel hours ago, there was no way they were still eating lunch.
With a lot less enthusiasm he opened the text message.
"Did you tap that last night?"
Finn stared at the letters on the screen not knowing if he was horrified or embarrassed. Or both.
His thumbs flew over the screen to reply as noncommittally as he could, "I don't know what you're talking about".
He threw the phone back down and began pacing the basement, that was now a guest room in his Mothers and Burt's home. He was desperately trying to decide his next move. Should he call her?
Minutes later a reply came through, "You're too dumb to play dumb. My wifey told me and by the look on Rachel's face, it's a yes".
Finn thought his head might explode as he text back, "Is she still there? And whatever dude, not that it's any of your business but yes me and Rachel did the dirty last night, you happy now?"
"Alright my boy! You know your business is my business Finny D, I gots to look out for you. And no she's not here. Left about an hour or two ago".
As Finn hit reply his phone buzzed again to alert him of a second message. Quickly exiting the reply screen the name he had been waited for flashed up.
"Finn I was hoping you're free tonight to spend the evening together? We have a lot to discuss and I was hoping we could have our first real date before I have to fly back to New York tomorrow. I will be there to pick you up in half an hour unless you can't make it? -Rachel x"
Now he was pretty sure he was having a panic attack. Finn read the message again five times before it all sunk in.
She was flying home tomorrow?
She wanted to have a date tonight?
Half an hour?
Coming to his senses he replied with a quick, "sounds great, see you then", before throwing open his suitcase and reaching in for something suitable to wear.
After throwing on some clothes he deemed 'smart casual' he wandered upstairs to wait for her.
She wasn't due to be there for 15 minutes.
It's not like he was being over eager or anything.
"Are you going out?"
Finn looked for the source of the voice and saw his mom walk over to him, where he was sitting in the living room.
"Yeah mom".
"Where?", she asked sitting beside him.
He wasn't quite sure that he wanted to tell her but then again, why not tell her? She's only been bugging him for years to settle down.
Not that he was settling down or anything, but it had been a long time since Finn had dated.
Unless one night stands counted as dating. And he was pretty sure they didn't count.
"I've got a date", he said slowly, waiting for her reaction.
Her eyes lit up in a instant and she turned to look at him properly, "you have a date? with who?"
"Rachel Berry".
Suddenly his mother had her arms wrapped around him in a bear hug. "Finally! I'm so happy that you two finally sorted things out".
Finn felt like an idiot. Was everyone waiting for the ticking time bomb that was Rachel and Finn to get together?
He heard a knock at the door and was suddenly very thankful Rachel was always early.
"Mom that's her. I've got to go, ok?", he said peeling his mother off of him.
She nodded to herself, "Of course, have a great time. I know you're a grown man now and you don't need your mother kissing you goodbye like it's prom or anything but..."
She trailed off as she leapt up and planted a motherly kiss on his cheek before shooing herself away into the kitchen.
"Mom!", Finn felt like a child as he began rubbing his cheek with his sleeve.
He smiled though as he opened the door, "Rach!"
She giggled, "were you expecting someone else?"
"No, no. I just... I'm just glad you're here. I'm glad you made it out of chez Puckerman alive and wow, you look great by the way".
She blushed as he admired the fitted dress wrapped around her body.
He looked out for her car but saw only empty road, "Rach how did you get here?"
"I got a cab. I thought that since it's our first date I didn't want to deprive you of the privilege of driving. I didn't want to undermine your manhood or anything barbaric".
"Right... It would help if I knew where we were going", he said opening the door to his truck for her.
"Finn. We're in Lima, Ohio. We're obviously going to Breadsticks".
"Obviously", he agreed with a grin as he slid into the drivers seat and started the engine.
Finn lasted about five minutes into the ride to Breadsticks before he blurted out what had been playing on his mind since she text him.
"So you're flying back to New York tomorrow?"
She sighed, looking at the road as she answered, "I have to. The album is out a little while after but my first single is released in 3 weeks. I've got all the promotional appearances, interviews and a few performances. I would however love it if you would take me to the airport tomorrow?"
"Of course. But this is our first date?", he asked, emphasizing first.
"I want to make this work Finn, I really do but we have to accept that we live two different lives. Lima was never big enough for either of us and now we live miles apart. That is what I wanted us to talk about tonight".
Finn almost took his eyes off of the road as he figured out where it sounded like she was heading with this, "are you breaking up with me?"
He felt like a fool the moment he said it.
Breaking up from what? Their one night together last night and a dinner at Breadsticks?
However Rachel answered quickly, "No! I mean, no I'm not breaking up with you. I'm simply saying we both live in different worlds. I have my career and you have yours, which by the way I did some research on and your achievements are very impressive".
He almost laughed at her summing up his achievements as very impressive. She even made football sound formal.
And she didn't want to break, whatever they had, up.
He wasn't that much of a doofus then.
He pulled the truck into a free parking space and took his keys out of the ignition.
"Shall we?", she asked reaching for the handle.
His hand stopped her.
"I want to finish this first, so what does that mean for us? Our different lives?"
"It's something we need to discuss tonight. Ultimately we need to answer the question of, can we make this work long distance? It won't be forever but it might be for a while".
Finn could tell she was nervous as she waited for him to speak and he could tell it was one of those moments that could make or break the rest of his life.
He chose his words carefully, a rarity for him.
"I'll do whatever I need to do to make this work. I meant everything I said this morning".
She leaned over and kissed him softly on the lips before getting out of the car.
-X-
The morning had come all too early for Finn.
He thought, with a smile, the same might be true for Rachel.
After all she had drank four glasses of wine last night and considering she's really tiny, he was surprised she could stand after.
It was the only excuse he could think of for her being late. She had asked him to pick her up at 9am, sharp, and he had now been waiting ten minutes.
He was about to pick up his phone and call her again when he saw her trundle out of the hotel.
She looked like the walking dead, with a pink suitcase.
Finn rushed out of the truck to grab her luggage off of her, "good morning Rach".
"I would appreciate you telling me what is so good about this particular morning?"
"Hungover huh?", he asked as he lifted her suitcase in the truck.
What the hell did she have in that thing? It weighed, like, the weight of a linebacker.
"I blame you Finn. If you hadn't of ordered me that last glass".
"It's always the last glass", he mumbled getting in next to her.
The ride to the airport was considerably quiet. Rachel, in the hopes of recovery, was drinking unnatural amounts of water, refusing to take her sunglasses off and requesting not even the radio be on because she "only just banished the most hideous headache in the history of time and any sound is liable to bring it back".
The silence didn't help Finn.
He spent the journey, first, arguing with himself over which Rachel was more adorable, drunk or hungover?
Obviously drunk Rachel.
Following that he then realized she would be gone in a few hours and not only did the thought of her going leave a bad taste in his mouth but he also began to panic that he didn't have some great speech planned for their goodbye.
He knew she'd love some romantic speech with declarations of love and sorrow as they say goodbye.
Unfortunately Finn was not that guy. Or at least he didn't think he was.
The fact was that all he could think to say when they would part was, "I love you Rach".
Even that took a fair chunk of the car journey to get right in his head. It just showed that he wasn't great with words and if she wanted a romantic goodbye speech she'd have to write it herself.
And she looked in no mood to be doing that.
Once they arrived Rachel seemed better than she had, the main improvement being she'd stopped downing water like it was the end of the world.
"Ready?, Finn asked offering her his hand.
He hated that she still had the glasses on though, it was so much harder to see what was going on inside her head. All he got was a smile and her clutching his hand like a lifeline.
Checking in and milling around the airport went too quickly. In what seemed like the blink of an eye they stood at the line for security scanners, once she went through to departures he wouldn't be able to follow.
"So", he said looking down at her.
She swept her sunglasses onto the top of her head and smiled up at him, "so".
"Look Rach, I'm not great with words or anything so I'm just gonna say that... I love you and I'm gonna miss you".
She wrapped her arms around his middle, "I can't believe it took all this time, all these wasted years. I know I am one for dramatics at the best of times Finn but all those years I loved you and was too blind and stubborn to realize. I finally get a chance to say it to you and now we are tragically torn apart. It's not fair. However I realize I played a part in our long and unfortunate years of solitude so for that I am truly sorry. My only wish is that I could change just one of my past decisions, maybe just one and we wouldn't have wasted so long but..."
Finn did the only thing that he was sure would shut her up.
He kissed her.
She moaned softly against his lips as cupped her face with his hands.
As they eventually broke apart she panted for air and stepped back to steady herself.
He couldn't help but smile at his effect on her.
Finn didn't want to hear anything else about the past. He didn't want any more apologies, no more relentlessly discussing why things happened the way they did.
"Sometimes things just happen Rach and we can't do anything except live through it. I don't care about who said what in the past anymore, I just want to focus on the future".
Rachel grinned, "our future".
He kissed her one more time and whispered a final goodbye in her ear, to which she replied, "for now".
Finn stood there and watched her walk away, he watched her mingle in to the crowds on the other side of security and he watched the crowds for just a little while after that. Not being able to see her but knowing she was there.
Maybe he was the guy for romantic airports goodbyes.
Eventually he heaved himself back through the airport thinking to their forthcoming long distance relationship. She was in New York for at least the next 4 weeks. If not longer.
The only place she would be other than New York was the occasional promotional trip to LA.
He was in Iowa until school let out for summer.
She had made sure his laptop had a webcam, that's how they'd get by apparently. That and phone calls. And as she said, he would be able to see her on TV.
But it didn't sit right with Finn.
Just seeing her on TV or over a computer screen.
He groaned at the thought of not holding her. Not being able to kiss her. In the last 36 hours or so he had become heavily dependent on her.
He figured all that time fighting his feelings, bottling them up? They were coming back to bite him in the ass now.
Goddamn Hudson get a hold of yourself.
His phone buzzed, "I'm boarding now so I'll have to turn my phone off. I miss you already xxx".
It was going to be a long few months.