Title: One Hand, One Heart

Rating: T

Warning- indirect mention of rape.

Summary: Rachel Berry never saw it coming. But then it happened. Now, alone and frightened she tries to continue with normal life. Then she meets a certain, curly haired boy. And everything changes.

Disclaimer: Obviously I do not own Glee, if I did Jesse would still be there and St. Berry would be alive and kicking. But he isn't. From this we can conclude that I don't own Glee.

This is a big chapter to make up for my lack of updates :)

xxx

Later Quinn stopped Rachel as she made her way towards her car, hooking her arm and pulling her towards her.

"Quinn?" Rachel asked, frowning a little.

"I've had an idea." Quinn told her. "You need proof that Eliza is effectively a bitch right?"

"Yeah?"

"So, do you still know that kid from the AV club? Lauren Zizes?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well," Quinn smiled deviously. "How do you feel about a little bugging session?"

Rachel's eyes widened as she realised what her friend was suggesting. "Genius," She breathed, smiling a little.

"I know," Quinn laughed and turned to go.

Still smiling Rachel went to join Jesse, who cocked an eyebrow at her obvious happiness, but otherwise didn't comment.

The next day, Rachel stopped Eliza in the hallway. "Eliza?"

The girl in question just raised her eyebrows, waiting.

"Meet me in the auditorium at lunch okay?"

Shrugging Eliza nodded and pushed past her and Rachel watched her go, a smirk playing on her lips.

It was strange to trick people like this, even if it was someone as awful as Eliza. Having such a careful structured plan was almost odd and she couldn't help but revel in the thrill that ran through her at such actions. She deliberated to herself that this must be what Quinn felt like all the time and she realised why the head cheerleader was always pulling stunts like this.

It felt good to have the upper hand on someone.

Pulling out her phone she hesitated for a moment, a little scared by this unexpected reaction within her.

Steeling herself she dialled the number and waited as it rang.

"Hey Lauren Zizes? It's Rachel Berry."

Xxx

She ran a nervous hand through her hair, smoothing down her skirt as she waited. The stage was dimly lit, but it felt like a spotlight was trained on the piano which she leant against, underneath which was the bugging device Lauren Zizes had installed in return for ten dollars and seven snicker bars.

Her eyes kept on glancing down to it and she balled her fists, forcing herself to look away and up at the door, which had just opened to reveal Eliza. The girl stalked up to the stage, crossed her arms and gave Rachel a hard look.

"Well, what do you want?"

"I want to know what your problem is with me." Rachel replied, shifting from foot to foot.

Eliza's eyes lit up and she smiled nastily, laughing a little. "I don't think we have that much time, but I'll start anyway."

She stepped a little closer to Rachel.

"First, you're a sleazy tramp who can't keep her hands off her boyfriend and is pregnant because of it."

Rachel gritted her teeth together.

"Second, you like to think you're talented, but seriously, hearing you sing is like hearing a cat drowning."

Her hands balled up tighter.

"Thirdly, you're so naive."

A flush crept up her neck.

"You're trying to steal my man."

It made its way up to her cheeks, colouring them crimson with anger.

"And finally, you're going to be such a bad mother, it's going to be a joke."

She laughed snidely and before Rachel knew it her hand had snapped away from her side and was colliding hard with the older girl's cheek. The slap echoed through the auditorium and Eliza staggered backwards, her face flaring red.

"You little bitch." She murmured, her voice dripping with rage and sprung at Rachel, pushing her down to the stage floor and slapping her hard as Rachel cried out, clawing at the other girl's grip.

"I can't believe you just did that." Eliza growled, slapping her again and Rachel gasped as her eyes began to water, the force of the slap making her head spin for a second.

"Eliza!" His voice was like a gun shot, both girls looking up to see Jesse's figure striding quickly down the aisle towards the stage.

Eliza jumped away immediately, eyes wide as she looked over at Jesse.

The boy in question ascended the stairs quickly, bending to help Rachel up, his warm hand enveloping hers as he pulled her close, hugging her tightly for a moment before loosening his hold to gently cup her chin, raising her face to look at him and running his hand gently over her sore cheeks.

"Are you okay?" He murmured, his eyes gentle.

She nodded mutely and he caught the single tear the cascaded down her face between his fingers, his expression twisting in anguish before clouding with anger as he turned to Eliza, tucking Rachel under his arm.

"What are you doing here Jesse?" Eliza's voice seemed to have become higher than normal, cracking over his name.

"I'd left some sheet music in here from the last glee rehearsal, I came to retrieve it." His voice was steady, but there was an undercurrent of anger that made Rachel immediately wary.

Eliza must have heard it too, because she pointed a finger towards Rachel. "Your girlfriend just attacked me!"

"I was at the door the whole time Eliza."

Eliza's jaw dropped.

"Get the hell out of here Eliza, if I ever see you near me or my girlfriend again I will not hesitate to hurt you." The ice in his voice made even Rachel flinch a little.

"Fine," Eliza spat, "I'm transferring back to Carmel anyway. Have fun with your whore of a girlfriend."

Turning on her heel she stalked out and the pair watched silently until they heard the ferocious slam of a door.

Turning to her, Jesse pulled Rachel into another hug, tighter this time and sighed heavily as they parted slowly.

"I'm sorry," He said simply. "I should have listened."

"It's okay." Rachel replied.

His hand brushed her cheeks gently again and she flinched a little from his touch on the sore skin.

"I'm sorry she hurt you." He added, sighing again.

"It's okay," She repeated and then smiled teasingly. "I can use it to draw upon for more realistic performances."

He laughed unwillingly. "Fair enough. Although really I'd rather you would just act, I hate that she did that to you and I wasn't there to stop it. In fact I was there, I just stared at you like a goldfish or something!"

"Hey, shh," She placed a reassuring hand on his cheek. "Look, I don't blame you for this okay? I mean, okay she was a bitch and okay she scratched down to my very soul. But that's not your fault. It was just one big misunderstanding."

"I knew there was a reason I love you." He smiled, pulling her into a close embrace.

Xxx

A few evenings later, Jesse walked into the Berry household to find the sitting room surprisingly empty. He had made plans with Rachel to go and see a movie and normally she would be in the sitting room by now, waiting for him as she flicked through a magazine or read a book. But it was completely bare.

Frowning he poked his head around the kitchen door to see Leroy sat, reading a paper and sipping coffee.

"Hi, Mr Berry-"

"Leroy, Jesse," He corrected smiling.

"Oh yeah, sorry, Leroy. Do you know where Rachel is?"

His brow furrowed and when he answered he seemed hesitant. "Well yeah, she's upstairs, but I wouldn't go up there… I think she's a little… rattled."

Jesse's frown deepened. "I'll go and see what the problem is." He responded and, ignoring Leroy's warnings, started up the stairs, the sounds of bangs and crashed becoming louder the closer he got.

"Rache?" He knocked on her door, opening it slowly, only to be attacked by a purple t-shirt.

"What the..?" He caught the shirt in one hand and stared around the room, taking in the mess of clothes strewn upon every surface available.

Picking his way through two pairs of flats, several t-shirts, three skirts and a burgundy pair of cotton trousers, he arrived at his girlfriend's side, peering over her shoulder into the now almost empty wardrobe.

"Rache?" He asked again and then ducked as she grabbed a grey and pink striped dress and threw it out of the wardrobe, narrowly missing his head.

"Rachel!" He cried as she reached out for the green sweater, one of the last remaining items in her wardrobe, and grabbed hold of her hands, spinning her around. "What's wrong?"

"None of it fits!" She cried back, glaring accusingly at the clothes scattered around the room.

"What?" He asked blankly.

Huffing in annoyance she pulled her hands from his grasp and he released her immediately, watching her stalk towards her bed through the sea of clothes and, with a sweeping hand gesture, push the clothes off the comforter, sitting heavily down.

Slowly, he made his way towards her and sat beside her, asking hesitantly.

"What's wrong?"

"None of it fits," She told him, angrily. "Not one thing, all of it, it's all too small!"

She glanced down at her stomach, cupping it in her hands and sighing heavily.

"Well," He started, slowly, worried about angering her again. "That's to be expected right, I mean, you are pregnant."

"You really think I didn't know that?" She asked wryly and then sighed, closing her eyes a moment, before opening them again. To his relief her expression had softened and she sighed again, this time more softly and said gently. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have snapped at you."

"It's fine," He answered automatically, taking her hand in his. "So none of it fits any more."

"Not without showing," She replied.

"You're getting bigger." He noticed, running a hand over her stomach.

"I know," She groaned. "People are starting to notice, I've had to quick ballet because those leotards are too showing and yesterday Santana asked me if I was actually aware of the fact that I was turning into a 'short fat' person."

He rolled his eyes. "You are quite large now though. I was wondering maybe, if it's time for us to maybe say something?"

She took a shaky breath and nodded hesitantly, "I've been thinking about that too. But what would I say?"

Jesse frowned a little, "I suppose we could say it's mine, but people would soon do the maths and realise you cheated on Finn. You're not thinking of saying it's Finn's right?"

"No!" She wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"Okay, so we could maybe not mention the father…? But that would never work."

They sat in silence for a while, thinking.

"I suppose we're just going to have to tell them." Rachel said finally, her voice low.

Jesse looked at her quickly. "Are you sure I mean… that's big."

"No, no it's easier that way."

"When?"

"Tomorrow. Tomorrow we'll tell them."

xxx

The next morning seemed to come faster than usual, as it always does when you're waiting for something bad to happen.

Jesse was unsurprised when he met with Rachel at lunch time and found that she was shaking gently.

"Shh," He hushed her gently, pulling her closer and resting his chin on the top of her head, running a soothing hand through her hair.

"I'm okay, I'm okay," She said finally, pushing him away slightly and taking a deep breath. "I'm good."

He rose a sceptical eyebrow and grabbed hold of her hand, leading her into the choir room. The club had convened as usual and Rachel almost hesitated as Jesse walked to the front. Steeling herself, she followed him. Quinn watched them and offered a comforting smile to Rachel, who had told her of her idea the night before.

"Excuse me," Jesse called out and slowly the group of kids quietened. "Rachel and I would like to talk to you."

"Not again," Mercedes groaned, rolling her eyes as Kurt shushed her.

"It will only take a moment. We just thought that you should be the first to know that Rachel's pregnant."

A moment of silence passed.

Then all hell broke loose.

"What!" Mercedes cried, her sentiments echoed by both Kurt and Mike.

"H-How?" Tina stuttered.

"You're telling people?" Finn spluttered.

"How could I not know this!" Santana shouted, throwing her hands in the air.

"What is going on?" Mr Shue's voice split through the outcry and Santana answered for them all.

"RuPaul is knocked up."

"What?" Mr Shue frowned.

"Rachel's pregnant," Quinn translated for him and Mr Shue nodded.

"Oh, yes, I knew about that."

"You what?"

A new series of voices rose through the room.

"I was told a few months ago, in case anything were to happen."Mr Shue explained.

"I cannot believe this, Finn's sperm actually work." Santana laughed and Finn cried out in annoyance.

"What? I'm not the father!"

"So you Jesse?" Mercedes turned to him. "It's gotta be you right?"

Exchanging a quick glance with Rachel, Jesse slowly shook his head.

"What?" Santana cried. "Then who?"

"Santana-" Mr Shue started, frowning.

"Who Rachel?" Kurt cut in, peering at the girl as if trying to read it in her eyes.

Rachel, who normally craved attention, found herself shying away into Jesse's chest, her cheeks pressed against the soft cashmere.

"I don't know." Rachel murmured, barely audible.

"You don't know!" Santana crowed, laughing gleefully. "I cannot believe it, Rachel Berry playing fast and loose with guys, wait until I tell people!"

Finally Rachel cried, turning inside Jesse's embrace.

"I was raped!"

There was a long, shocked silence and Rachel buried herself deep in Jesse's embrace, his arms tight around her.

"When?" Tina asked softly.

"Before Christmas," Jesse responded for Rachel, pulling her closer, so that her body was flushed with his.

"What happened?" Artie's eyes were wide.

Jesse shrugged and Rachel explained, her voice muffled.

"I was out walking in the street. It was night time… they… they cornered me… I couldn't… couldn't stop them…"

Her voice trailed off into sobs again.

"They knocked her out. She can't remember anything. I was the one who found her and took her to a hospital." Jesse explained, clutching Rachel even tighter as he felt her start to shake.

"They knocked her out?" Quinn asked, gently. "Do you know who it was?"

"Not yet, the police are still looking." Jesse replied.

"I hope they find those bastards," Puck growled, cracking his knuckles one by one.

"How far along are you?" Santana's voice was unusually soft.

"Twenty weeks." Rachel's voice was muted by Jesse's chest.

There was a stiff silence that filled the air with tension until Mr Shue finally said, his voice unusually stern.

"I want you guys to promise me that you won't spread this okay?"

There was a general murmur of agreement and he continued, nodding with satisfaction. "Okay, I think we'll break up early today. Go enjoy your lunch okay?"

The sounds a chairs grating noisily against the floor was the only thing to break the silence as the strangely quiet glee clubbers left the room in dribs and drabs. Once it was empty, but for their teacher and the couple, Mr Shue started towards them, resting a hand on Jesse's shoulder to catch his attention.

"She okay?"

Rachel was crying softly into Jesse's chest.

He nodded slowly and pulled her closer. "I'll look after her."

Nodding solemnly Mr Shue left, stopping only to pick up his bag.

After a few moments, Rachel pulled away from Jesse and gave him a small smile.

"Thanks," She sniffed, her eyes red and her make up smeared. "I think I'm gonna go and sort myself out okay?"

"Sure, are you going to be okay?"

She nodded, sniffing again. "Yeah I will, see you later."

Leaning up on her toes she pressed a quick kiss to his lips, smiling a little as her lips melded with his and deepening it. Her hand circled his neck and his in turn went to run through her silky hair. Pressing her body against his she finally pulled away, her smile widening as he groaned, his head falling forward dramatically to rest on her shoulder.

"Later," She murmured and kiss his cheek before extracting herself from his grip and walking from the room.

Smiling lazily at what had just occurred he ran a finger over his lips, remembering all too well the feel of her lips on his.

"Jesse?"

His eyes shot open and he turned to see Kurt stood in the doorway.

"Hey," He greeted, smiling. "Sorry we never had a chance to perform, what with me being in hospital and all."

Kurt shook his head, "No problem. So…" He stepped closer and Jesse bent to retrieve his bag. "I'm sorry about Rachel."

"Thanks, I guess," Jesse answered, frowning a little and starting to dig through his bag for his water.

"I understand you know." Kurt was leaning back against the piano and, when Jesse glanced up, tossed him a sympathetic smile.

Jesse's frown deepened and he suddenly remembered, in a flash, what Rachel had said to him a few nights ago.

"Kurt, do you know that Kurt fancies you?"

He looked up for a moment studying the boy carefully before asking, his voice slightly stilted.

"What do you mean?"

"I get it Jesse, you feel like you have to be with Rachel. Because she's pregnant."

Jesse's jaw dropped and he could do nothing more than gape at the boy.

"You're gay." Kurt stated, confidently.

"No!" Jesse spluttered, finally able to respond.

Kurt's face fell for a second, before being over come by that irritating understanding expression. "I understand it's hard to come to terms with Jesse, but you are gay."

"I am not," Jesse said, more gently this time, his voice softening when he saw Kurt's expression faltering. "I'm sorry Kurt, but I'm not gay. I like you, as a friend, but nothing more than that. I love Rachel very very much."

Kurt blinked at him. "But… but you like singing… and musical theatre… and you style your hair!"

"I do not!" Jesse frowned, his hand going up to his hair. Then his expression softened once again. "I'm sorry Kurt, but I am completely and utterly straight. You are my friend. Nothing more."

"But…" Kurt seemed unable to form a sentence, his face fading from white to red.

"Kurt, listen to me." Jesse said, quickly. "There's a huge world away from Ohio. Millions of gay men are out there. I'm friends with one or two over in California and there are tons over there. There is someone out there who will love you, because seriously Kurt, you deserve to be loved."

Kurt could only gape at him, but his eyes had become gentler.

Jesse gathered his bag again and started for the door, turning back to say.

"Hey, and Kurt, if my straight status ever changes, you'll be the first to know." He cast him a wink and started out of the door.

He had only taken a few steps down the corridor when he bumped into Quinn.

"Oh, sorry Quinn."

"No, it's fine," The blonde swung her locker shut, "you going this way?"

"Sure am," Jesse smiled and then joined her in his walk towards his history classroom.

"So, I'm seriously glad Eliza's gone. No offence, I know she's your ex and everything," She added quickly.

"No," Jesse shook his head and sighed sadly. "It's a shame she turned to horrible, she used to be nice."

"Mmm," Quinn seemed unconvinced. "She was always on her phone, I caught her talking about you once actually." She laughed a little.

"Oh?" Jesse's curiosity peaked.

"Yeah, talking about breaking you and Rachel up and getting you to go back somewhere. She was talking to some woman named Shelby, who was obviously giving her a hard time over Rachel." Quinn laughed again. "Weird."

Jesse hardly heard. He stopped suddenly in the middle of the corridor, his hand balling into fists as the fury reigned inside him.

"Jesse?" Quinn's voice seemed to come from very far away.

"Yeah?" He snapped back to attention, his ears still buzzing indignantly.

"Erm, this is your classroom." Quinn gestured to a nearby door and when Jesse laughed, it seemed strained.

"Oh yes…" He replied, attempting nonchalance and failing. "Well, I guess I'll see you later then."

"Guess so," But Jesse barely heard her, walking slowly into his classroom and sitting heavily down.

When he got his hands on Shelby Corcoran she would wish she'd never met Eliza Brown.

Xxx

Seems that Shelby's in trouble. Nasty Eliza is gone- yay! And things have been straightened out with Kurt- that's good isn't it? Hopefully we'll get a nicer Kurt from now onwards.

So, how is everyone, I'm sorry for my rather long absence, all I can say is that school started again and I have had unseemly amounts of work. Also, I might be starting a volunteering thing over my weekends, so that'll suck up more of my time, but I haven't decided yet. Anyway, so sorry for the delay.

So, I do have a bit of an announcement, I've been working on something for you guys. I have finally joined the ranks of people on tumblr! Yay! I have set up a page on my tumblr called 'One Hand One Heart'… no prizes for guessing what it's for :)

Anyway, I'll be posting outtakes, sneak peaks and random things to do with this story if anyone is interested enough- I'd like at least five or six people or I might just leave it. So a lot of that stuff would be exclusive to tumblr and I'll respond to any queries you have :)

onemilliongoldstars dot tumblr dot com

You guys know the drill, add in the dots, take out the spaces, all that jazz.

Follow me and I'll happily follow back.

Also, I'm DreamsofRay at Youtube, Blogger and Twitter, come give me a shout over there!

Next point- a few of you wanted more character development for Eliza… it was about a 50/50 split of people who wanted development and people who wanted her gone asap. I stuck with the original storyline and kept it like it is, but I wouldn't mind doing an outtake, with more character development for Eliza, although I may pick on a few people to bounce ideas off, if that's okay? So give a shout and tell me if you're still interested in the outtake and I'll get on writing.

By the way, who else is pretty sad now that Campus Visit is over? Me too, I loved that story. Ah well, we still have Someone To Love You and all of the other amazing fics on here :)

Onto the thank yous: Gleek123xx (why thank you), BeccieT (I know, silly Jesse), AlexisLovesGlee (she really is, and see the AN above and give me your thoughts), BestofLuckJo (welcome back ;) ), Likewow5556 (not many people do, beats me why ;) ), northstar61 (a bit of Faberry friendship), xXSerendipitous SpontaneityXx (I love a good bit of Jealous!St Berry), loveisalifetimeproject (I love your penname, have I ever mentioned that?), Broadwayfreak5357 (stupid computers, they're a pain aren't they?), (haha, I love all of those little plots, they're amazing!), auhaes55 (read and you shall know :) ), twilight2892 (here it is :) ), artfuldodger-28 (thank you so much!), seacat03 (your wish is my command!), Afternoon on a hill (Welcome back, I'm very glad.), theyhadadate (not at all, I feel like that every time a Finchel scene comes on my TV), notyourghost (haha nice try!), tomfeltonlover1991 (Thank you. Most people do. Here it is. :) ).

Have I ever mentioned just how much my computer hates it when I do that? I throw grammar out of the window and that does not make Word a happy bunny.

Also, two shout outs today, one to xXSerendipitous SpontaneityXx for coming up with the pairing name of Essie for Eliza and Jesse, it made me chuckle. Cookies for you, you lovely lady :)

And second shout out goes to stgroffleberry, from tumblr who totally fangirled on me the other day. She has this amazing blog, go and check her out on tumblr. But I messaged her about something saying I was new to tumblr and that I love her blog and all these things and then I mentioned that I was on fanfiction and she said that she read this story and she loved it and then she started following me. That literally made my day, so thank you so much!

Anyway!

After that ridiculously long A.N, maybe nine reviews till a chapter?

Love you all!

Ray

xxx

PS: Who's excited for the new glee season? Some are, some wish it wasn't happening, give me your thoughts!