Good News: Yay a new chapter! Bad News: Next one won't be coming until my Spring Break which starts March 12. I have waaaaaay too much work to get done and I really can't see myself with time to work on this until then. Maybe I will but as of right now you guys are gonna have to wait sorry. Oh and I have decided on a couple name for Kurt/Nate if they ever do get together (I refuse to tell you yes/no on them XD) so their couple name will be Kute. XD Yes. I went there. Anyway thanks for all the hits, reviews, favs, and story alerts It's just amazing how many of you guys like my story! Enjoy!

The night was uneventful for the most part. Every hour, Rachel woke up to her own alarm she had set before waking up Noah and asking him what his name was to make sure he was still thinking clearly. His answers got more and more annoyed finally culminating with his 6am answer of 'I'm George W. Freaking Bush. Jesus Rach I'm fine! Go back to sleep and stop waking me up!' Of course this just relieved her that he was, in fact, fine.

As they walked up to school, Rachel looked to him.

"Noah I want you to promise me something." He cursed silently knowing exactly what she was going to ask him to do.

"You want me to promise not to go after Finn," he said. She nodded.

"Will you do that for me please?" she asked, taking his hand. He sighed and nodded.

"I promise. But only if he stays away from you." Rachel nodded.

"I don't think he wants any part of us anymore." The minute they entered the door, Kurt approached them.

"Everything okay honey?" he asked.

"We're fine Kurt," assured Rachel. "But thank you for worrying." Kurt sighed.

"Good. Quinn was as good as could be expected last night so I was worried things weren't going good on your end."

"She only woke me up every hour," muttered Noah. Kurt laughed.

"Why is that?"

"I wanted to make sure he didn't have a concussion. And he doesn't," replied Rachel. Kurt just smiled.

"Oh and don't worry about Sectionals. Nate's already told us he'll be our 12th member." Rachel gasped.

"I had completely forgot about that! We'll have to rearrange our songs and figure out who will be the male soloist and-"

"Honey calm down," said Kurt. "We've got this figured out. I figured Puck could be the soloist on 'Don't Stop Believing' and then for 'Proud Mary' we're already set with Mercedes and Artie. All we have to do is teach Nate the choreography." Rachel smiled and hugged Kurt.

"Thank you." Kurt just smiled and hugged back.

"No worries. I figured you two would have your hands full and when Nate told me he would go in Finn's place I started thinking about everything else."

"You want me to sing the solo?" asked Noah surprised.

"Well of course Noah," replied Rachel. "We did it before that one time when we performed for Nate. And who else would be the male soloist?" Noah just shrugged.

"Well I'll see you two at Glee later," said Kurt before leaving.

"I should talk to Quinn," said Rachel. "I'll see you later and don't worry about the solo. You'll be fine okay?" Noah nodded and she turned and walked off. He sighed and headed off to class.

Meanwhile Rachel found Quinn at her locker.

"How are you doing?" Rachel asked her.

"I should be asking you that," replied Quinn.

"I'm fine," replied Rachel. "Noah does not have a concussion and Kurt has informed me about the plans we have for Sectionals. But how are you? Where did you go last night?"

"Brittany's," replied Quinn. "And I'm okay. I had hoped that Finn would have… but I should have known better. And I think I always really knew he would…" Rachel hugged her.

"Well I have something to tell you that should help calm you down a little." Quinn just looked confused.

"You're going to live with me at my house. Noah had wanted to have you move in with him but his mom is stressed enough as it is and my dads already know about you and are supportive so… What do you think?" Quinn began to cry.

"I don't understand how you can me so nice to me after everything I've said and done to you. And that your boyfriend…" Rachel just smiled and hugged Quinn again.

"I'm your friend Quinn. It's what friends do."

"Thank you Rachel," whispered Quinn.

As Rachel was walking through the hallways later that day, someone reached out and grabbed her, pulling her into an empty classroom.

"Noah, what?..." she said before realizing it wasn't her boyfriend that had pulled her in the room. It was Finn. Her eyes went cold and she turned to leave but he moved quickly to stand in front of her.

"Look Rachel I'm sorry for yesterday," he said. "I was so angry I was just trying to make you see what he really is. I didn't mean to shake you and I know I scared you and I'm sorry."

"Let me out Finn," she said.

"Why didn't you tell me? I thought you liked me."

"It wasn't my secret to tell," she replied crossing her arms. "If you don't let me out of here I'm texting Noah."

"Why are you defending him? When you know it's his baby?" he demanded his voice getting angry.

"Because he told me the truth and because I care a lot about him." She didn't say love on purpose. She did love Noah but she refused to say it to anyone else before she told him. He scoffed.

"But you don't love him and you never will." Her jaw dropped, shock preventing her from saying anything.

"And if you think you're in love, you're just in love with him saving you but that's not Puck. He just proved it by sleeping with Quinn. My girlfriend. You can't tell me when he told you that you weren't hurt. I warned you. And he'll hurt you again if you don't leave him." Rachel took a deep shuddering breath to calm herself, ready to snap some choice words at Finn but he spoke before she could.

"I know you still like me," he said. "You were in love with me and that's still there. We can have that now." The words that a few months ago would have made her jump with joy only turned her stomach now.

"You just broke up with Quinn. And I never loved you. I had a crush that I convinced myself was love." Finn shook his head.

"You're just saying that because you're with Puck." Rachel finally had enough and went to leave the classroom. He reached for her and she flinched, backing away. When she finally looked up she saw him looking in disbelief at her before looking to his hand and dropping it.

"Rachel… I… You know I never meant to hurt you. I would never… You're scared of me?" he asked still in disbelief.

"Yes," she whispered. He flinched, taking a step back. A disbelieving but pleading look was on his face but it quickly turned one of self-revulsion. He took another step back.

"I'm sorry," he said as he fled from the room. Rachel took a few steps after him but stopped in the doorway of the room and just watched him move down the hallway. At the end, he ran into Puck and Rachel's eyes widened, thinking that they were going to fight, but Finn just turned and went down another hall. Noah frowned before looking where he had come from and saw Rachel. She saw the panic flit across his face as he ran towards her.

"Babe what happened?" he asked as he reached her. "Did he do anything? I'll kill him. I swear I'll-"

"Noah," interrupted Rachel. "He didn't do anything. He apologized."

"Oh well that makes it all right," he said sarcastically before frowning looking at her a little more closely.

"No," he said finally. "He did something. Tell me the truth."

"When I went to leave he reached for me and it scared me," admitted Rachel. "BUT!" she said grabbing hold of his arm as he turned to go after Finn.

"He asked me if he had scared me and when I said yes… you should have seen his face. He hates himself. He apologized again and left."

"Are you feeling bad for him?" asked Noah in disbelief.

"He made a mistake Noah. Just like you did. He hates himself for it and apologized. Just like you did. Isn't that enough of a punishment?" A ghost of a smile ran across Noah's face.

"It is for you. So that means it is for me too."

"You're still angry at him…"

"Well yeah!" replied Noah. "But I know if I do anything else to him, I'll be upsetting you. And there's no point in that." Rachel smiled and hugged Noah.

"Thank you." He hugged back, though his face fell into a more serious one. It wasn't as easy as it had appeared to Rachel for him to not run after Finn and punch his face in. Twice he had scared Rachel. He didn't care if Finn knew what he had done was wrong, Rachel had still been scared. And what really pissed him off was that the only reason she would be scared like that was because she still hadn't completely gotten over what the hockey team had done. And who could blame her? But it still pissed him off to absolutely no end that it still had that kind of effect on her. And to be honest, he still hated himself for it. Rachel didn't blame him, no one did, and he knew that and he didn't know what he would do if that wasn't the case but there had been so many different ways he could have prevented that from happening. And he knew he would never forgive himself for that. But as for Finn… He didn't know if he'd ever be able to forgive him for scaring Rachel. For shaking her like that. Though he supposed that if Finn could ever forgive him for sleeping with Quinn, he could forgive him for hurting Rachel. But neither of those things were going to happen any time soon.

Before everyone knew it, it was time to go to Sectionals. It was a somber feeling as Artie was lifted into the bus by the wheelchair lift as they all looked out the windows at Mr. Schue and Miss Pillsbury.

"So the competition starts at 11," said Mr. Schue to Miss Pillsbury.

"Right," she replied.

"I'll have my cell phone on."

"I know," nodded Miss Pillsbury. "You already told me… Three times. And you wrote it down." Mr. Schue turned to look at Nate who was already in the bus.

"I can't thank you enough Nate."

"I'm practically already part of the Glee club," he replied. "Why wouldn't I?" Mr. Schue smiled before looking back to Emma and using a hand to rub his temples in a gesture of stress.

"So, um… Still no word from Finn?" the guidance counselor asked.

"No," replied Mr. Schue before pausing. "I can't thank you enough."

"Okay," she said before getting on the bus. Mr. Schue closed the door to the wheelchair lift and patted the bus before it pulled away. He turned and walked away, unable to watch them leave without him.

Short chapter but I really want to separate Sectionals into it's own section/chapter. Hope you guys liked it!