CHAPTER 17

A week later, Finn had successfully gone under the knife and had cervical plates inserted in the lower lumbar section of his spine. It was a relatively straightforward surgery and there was minimal risk to it. The problem was after the surgery: the rehab after the surgery would possibly take up to two months. Finn was also kept in the hospital for 3 days after his surgery to make sure that there were no complications from the surgery. Luckily, Finn was given the all clear to go home, and he would be starting his rehab the next day.

Finn walked into the physical rehab center nervous yet determined. He was going to push himself as much as he possibly could, without going too far and making his recovery worse. The facility was the most elite facility in the State - being the only rich person in his family, his dad had prepaid for it all of course. Walking into the clinic, Finn went to the reception desk where an elderly lady smiled kindly at him.

"Hello sir. Can I help you with something?" She asked.

"Um… yeah actually. I'm Finn Hudson. I'm here for…"

"Physical rehab?" The receptionist finished. Finn nodded. "You're right on time, Mr. Hudson. You have currently been written as a two month program, but that's subject to change. You could take half that time, you could take double that time. It all depends on how long it takes for your body to heal. So the way your rehab works is that you will have one session a week with a personal trainer and you have access to all the facilities between sessions. Sounds good?" She asked.

"Sounds great." Finn replied. The lady smiled and stood up.

"Cool. Follow me. Your rehab room is just down the hall." She said as she led him down the corridor in the clinic. "Oh… one more thing. I hope it's okay but you're not going to be doing a 1 on 1 session. There's one more person with you, just out of surgery after a car accident. I'm sure you can relate, huh?"

Finn laughed and nodded.

"Yeah, sure. No problem. What's his name?" Finn asked. The receptionist shook her head.

"HER name is Emily. Here we are." She said, pointing to a door. "Well, I wish you good luck in your rehab, Mr. Hudson."

Finn smiled.

"Thanks. And thanks for all your help." He said, before entering the room. The room looked a lot like a gym, containing all the equipment a fully-equipped gym had. In the corner of the room, Finn noticed a girl sitting on the benches. He walked over to her. When he was closer, he realised that she was by far the most gorgeous girl he had ever seen. She had caramel hair that fell loosely down past her shoulders. Her eyes were hazel, with flecks of gold streaking through them. She smiled at him as he walked over and he noticed how radiant her smile was. It was contagious too: Finn couldn't help but smile back.

"Hey, how's it going?" Finn said, shaking her hand. "I'm Finn."

"Emily." She replied. "It's really nice to meet you."

"Yeah, likewise. So how long have you been here for?" Finn asked.

"First day today, actually. I had surgery a couple of days ago. Some issues with my spine in my neck from severe whiplash."

Finn nodded.

"I'm so sorry. If you don't mind my asking, what happened?" Finn asked, politely. Emily sighed and looked down.

"A week ago, I was driving home from school when some jackass t-boned my car." She murmured. Finn gasped.

"I'm so sorry!" He exclaimed. She shrugged and smiled.

"It's fine. I'm alive, aren't I?" She pointed out. Finn nodded.

"Damn right, you are." Finn responded.

"What about you? What brought you here?" She asked. Finn sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"Car accident, too. Although mine wasn't anyone's fault. It was during an F3 racing competition a year ago, so I knew the risk going in."

"You were a race car driver?" She asked, astonished. Finn nodded and smiled.

"Yeah, and not to brag or anything but I was a pretty decent one. I was on track to be in Formula 1 right after high school. Until I crashed last year."

"With all due respect, but why did it take so long for you to get surgery and start rehab?"

Finn sighed.

"Not enough money for it. I'm from a broken family and my dad, after a year of no contact, ended up paying for my surgery and rehab in full. Christmas/high school graduation gift I guess."

"Oh, you graduated high school last year?" She asked. Finn shook his head.

"Nah, I'm graduating this year."

"Oh, no way! I'm graduating this year, too! What school?" She asked.

"McKinley. What about you?"

"Crawford County Day in Westerville." She replied. Before they could say anything else, their trainer walked into the room and Finn began his first rehab session. The long road to recovery had begun…

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A week later…

"8! 9! 10!"

Finn collapsed on the ground after just 10 pull ups. His lower back had started to hurt so he immediately stopped.

"I can't do this anymore. I give up." Finn murmured as he practically collapsed on the ground. Emily held out a hand to help him up but he slapped the hand away and groaned.

"No! Leave me! Let me die here." Finn muttered. Emily giggled.

"Sissy." She remarked, jokingly. Finn raised an eyebrow.

"Excuse me? Did you just call me a sissy?!"

"Did I stutter?" Emily responded, jokingly. Finn jumped up to his feet.

"Oh, hell no! I'm not having that!" Finn exclaimed, grabbing the pull up bar and jumping onto it once more. After one more pull up, the pain started once again and he fell back down.

"Never mind. I'm done! I feel like I'm going to die!" Finn murmured. Emily laughed.

"Told you! Sissy!" She laughed. Finn raised an eyebrow.

"Oh yeah? Let's see you do better!" He demanded. Emily shook her head.

"I can't! I'm too short! I can't reach the bar!" She pouted. Finn chuckled. Emily was around 5'5 so was almost a foot shorter than Finn.

"I'm not accepting that as an excuse! I'll give you a leg up." Finn offered. Emily beamed.

"Thanks." she replied. Finn linked his fingers together and held them outwards. Emily put her right foot in Finn's hands and he boosted her up.

"1!" He called as she did the first pull up.

"2!"

"3!"

"4!"

"I'm not going to make it!" Emily cried.

"Come on, Em! You've got this!" Finn encouraged.

"No, you don't get it! I'm seriously not going to make it!" She shouted before dropping off the bar. She ended up colliding with Finn as she landed, causing them both to topple over and into a compromising position with Emily on top of Finn. Moments later, they realised what it looked like and Emily quickly rolled off of him. They spent the next half hour laughing hysterically, partly because what had just happened was hilarious, but also to help themselves avoid the fact that when they were briefly on top of each other, they both felt sparks.

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One Month Later…

"98!"

"99!"

"100!"

Finn stood up after having done 100 sit ups, not even having broken a sweat. He had made incredible progress over the past month - he had spent pretty much the whole three weeks of his Christmas break in the physical therapy center, as well as the first week of Term 2 of school off as he was spending up to 10 hours a day in the facility.

He was doing literally everything him and Emily's trainer was telling them to do: doing the exercises and stretches he told them to do; sleeping in the correct positions, no matter how uncomfortable they were; refraining from any activities the doctor deemed bad for him. A bonus of all the time spent in the clinic, as well as getting healed of course, was that him and Emily had gotten extremely close. They were spending the majority of their time together, so naturally they became close friends. Finn learnt so much about Emily - she was originally from New York but moved to Westerville when she was 7, she loved singing and music in general, she had a massive phobia of spiders and snakes. But most importantly, she was probably the kindest and funniest person Finn had ever met. In addition, with the amount that Finn talked about her at home, Neve and Sarah were convinced that he had a crush on her. Finn had a hard time denying that. After all, who wasn't attracted to a sweet, caring, funny, hot girl?

Unfortunately, Emily wasn't present that day. She had just finished her physical assessments the day before and was officially done with her rehab as well.

"Well done, Finn! I think you've done all I can help you with." The personal trainer said. "The next step is finally getting back in that race car and becoming a racing beast again."

Finn smiled and nodded at his trainer.

"Thanks. You know, I might actually miss this place. After all, I did spend like a whole month of my life here! I even missed a week of school to be here! Thank you so much for everything you've done for me. For pushing me when I felt like giving up. For teaching me everything I needed to know. For not retiring after 3 days of me being here!"

The trainer, a middle-aged gay man named Marco Rodrigeuz, grinned at him.

"It was my pleasure, buddy. You're going to do great things in this world. Your persistence and determination told me that much. But to be honest, it's your girlfriend you have to thank, not me. I feel like you wouldn't come half as much if it wasn't for her."

Finn raised an eyebrow.

"Um… I don't have a girlfriend." Finn replied. Marco looked at him strangely.

"Wait… what? You and Emily aren't…"

Finn laughed.

"No, no, no, no, no! Em's like one of my closest friends, and that's all she is." Finn said, unconvincingly. Marco laughed.

"Oh, come on buddy! I've seen you guys practically every day during the past month! The flirting, the laughing, the unsubtle glances at each other while the other is working out. It's clear you two are more than just friends."

Finn looked down and took a deep breath.

"You know, I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought about that. Quite frankly, I have. A LOT. But at the end of the day, I'm never going to act on it. I'm not going to risk losing my best friend in the world for a romance that's probably not going to work out."

"But what if it does, Finn? What if this is the start of your happily ever after story? Look, can I give you some advice, as the person who has guided you and seen the two of you over the past month?"

"Please." Finn replied.

"I think you should go for it. I've seen that look in your eye when you see her. It's a look I'm pretty familiar with. It's the look I used to give a guy that I liked in high school. Now I was openly gay, which was hard enough as it was, but during my senior year, I had a huge crush on this guy… David Blauman. David and I were friends and although I genuinely thought David was gay, I didn't act on my crush because I didn't want to be that kid who asked out a straight guy and then got casted out by the rest of the group. So I kept my mouth shut and moved on with my life. Then, a month ago, I got a post notification on David's facebook page. It was a post of him, his husband and their new-born adopted child. I looked at the picture and I thought that if I had just plucked up the courage to ask him out, maybe, just maybe, it could have been me in that picture. He was the one who got away and I'll always regret it. Don't make the same mistake I made, Finn."

Finn nodded slowly.

"Thanks, Marco. I'll think about it, I guess."

"Good. And for what it's worth, you two would make an amazing couple…"