"I don't know how anyone affords to live here," Quinn commented. "Rachel told me how much she pays pay per month, and it blew my mind. And that's with about a bunch people sharing this place."

As they got on the empty elevator, a voice called, Hey, hold the elevator!" Artie stayed in the the doorway as the owner of the voice came running up, stopping abruptly at the sight of the wheels sticking out into the hall. "Artie?"

As Mike Chang stepped inside, he beamed at all three of them. "Tina and Quinn!" he exclaimed, leaning in for hugs. Tina couldn't help but feel a little dismayed that she was just part of Tina and Quinn to him now. But that was nothing compared to the way her stomach dropped when a slender, attractive Asian girl followed Mike into the elevator.

"This is Noelle," Mike said, as Artie worked his way into the elevator and pressed the button, since he was nearest to it. Artie's eyes caught Tina's for a fraction of a second, but Tina quickly looked away, not wanting to accidentally react, since she never could control her face.

"Hi, Noelle," Tina said, being the first one to greet her and forcing something that hopefully resembled a pleasant smile on her face. "I'm Tina."

As Quinn and Artie introduced themselves, Noelle gave no indication that she'd heard any of their names before, particularly Tina's. Tina could feel Mike's eyes on her, but she would not give him the satisfaction of seeing that she was crushed. If he even cared about that now.

As the elevator opened and they piled out, the very next thing Mike said was "Oh, my gosh, Tina, what happened to your foot?"

"She slipped on some ice," Artie spoke up, before she even had to, sparing her the task of explaining it yet again.

"That sucks," Mike commented. Noelle had slipped her hand in his, answering any final questions Tina might have had. She was glad she didn't have to say anything else, though, because they'd found the apartment already, which was close by the elevator.

Kurt answered the door again, and in the background, Tina saw that Blaine, Mercedes, and Sam were already there. Thankfully, at least they already knew about Tina's unfortunate accident, since she stayed in contact with all of them often, and wouldn't have to ask her any questions about the boot. As Tina settled in, she noticed right away that Rachel wasn't present.

"Where's Rachel?" Tina wanted to know. "Please tell me she isn't avoiding me because of what happened last time, I promise I'll behave..."

"Tina, don't be silly," Rachel said, entering with a cup of tea in her hand, looking much more mellow than she had on opening night. "My nerves have worn off by now. I don't even worry so much about vocal rest. A nice cup of tea does the trick. How are you? What happened to—"

"Ice," said Quinn, Tina, Artie all at once.

"Oh, I see," said Rachel, wincing. "That's too bad. I hope you weren't majoring in dance."

Tina knew Rachel didn't mean to make almost everything she said sound as demeaning as it did, so she forgave her. Besides, if she stirred up any trouble before the show, she might get banished again. So she forced a smile on her face.

"No, actually I'm majoring in biomedical engineering," she said, glad that it at least sounded highly important and interesting. "So, I don't really need my foot to sit in a lab all day."

This would have been where Artie, with his usual quick wit and self-depricating humor, might have piped up to say neither do I. But he was surprisingly quiet, obviously not going to open that particular can of worms again. Quinn was already deep in a quiet conversation with Mercedes, off to the side, and hadn't been paying attention.

"Rachel, do you have time to go grab coffee with us before the show?" Blaine asked. "We were thinking of grabbing something near 42nd Street. Then we could kill some time down there until the show."

"I can't," she said. "I'm supposed to meet with the understudies before the show." She cringed. "There are a few show conflicts coming up for me, so we're going to work out a schedule." She grabbed a duffle bag and tossed it over her shoulder. Then she noticed Noelle. "Oh, sorry, I'm being rude. Hi, I'm Rachel Berry."

"Noelle Tran," she said, shaking Rachel's hand, and Tina couldn't help but think that this girl probably didn't need anyone to introduce her to dim sum. "It's an honor to meet you. I can't wait to see the show."

"Noelle and I met at the Joffrey," Mike added, as she locked eyes with his and smiled coyly. "She's my dance partner. One thing led to another, and we hit it off. When I told her I had an extra ticket to Funny Girl, compliments of my good friend Rachel Berry, well, she was thrilled to come see you."

"I'm a big fan!" Noelle gushed, blushing. "I didn't want to say anything, but yes, Funny Girl is my all-time favorite. I've watched all the clips of you online, and I think you were born for the role."

Well, if that isn't a buffet of love and validation, I don't know what is, thought Tina, bitterly. Also, Funny Girl was okay, but there were definitely better and more iconic shows on Broadway. Being that this Noelle went to a dance school in Chicago, shouldn't Chicago have been her favorite?

Rachel hurried off because her personal town car was coming to pick her up. ("No more subway?" Artie had asked. Rachel had looked strangely guilty.)

Even though Tina would have preferred elevating her tired foot and hanging around the loft with them, everyone else seemed to want to go out.

Artie saved the day, however, by saying, "Tina and I are a little worn out from traveling," to Blaine. "Do you mind if we hang out here for awhile first?"

No one was going to argue with that, so they did spend a couple of hours just hanging out and talking at the loft, having an early dinner of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before heading out for coffee and the show. Tina was treated to the story of how Mike and Noelle had met at the Joffrey and how they'd been partnered together ("probably because we're both Asian," she had joked) for their first showcase. There was another one coming up in May, and Mike invited anyone who wanted to make a trip to Chicago to come. Out of the corner of her eye, Tina spied Artie watching her the whole time.

"Have you guys gotten your second wind?" Kurt asked, after an hour or so. "If we want to have enough time for coffee and getting our seats, we should head out now."

"Yeah, we're good," said Artie, who had never gotten out of his chair, unlocking the breaks to go. He glanced up at Tina, quizzically, and she nodded. He gestured at his lap, but she shook her head. She wouldn't make him do the work of pushing them both, and besides, her ankle was mostly healed by now. It was just still a little weak.

The coffee shop that Blaine and Kurt liked was just a couple blocks away from the theater, on 42nd street. They had to take the subway to get there, something Tina knew Artie didn't like much about New York, although he'd insisted it was fine in big groups. Tina didn't personally love all of New York. She avoided Time Square, if she could help it, when she visited. But there was something magical about 42nd street.

"It's this way," Sam said, leading the way for the group. At one point, Tina noticed Mike was pushing Artie's chair, something Artie had specifically asked her to quit doing, so she thought she'd speak up on his behalf.

"Oh, um, Artie doesn't want us to do that anymore," she said, to which Artie's response had been to glare at her.

She shrugged and mouthed what? It hit her that, until now, she had barely even spoken to Mike, after accepting his hug in the elevator. All she had done was introduce herself to the new girlfriend. And now she was correcting him on chair etiquette.

"Oh, you don't?" Mike checked in with Artie, immediately taking his hands off the handles on the back of the chair.

"Not... not really," Artie admitted, but he was still giving Tina that look, as they entered the coffee shop together, Sam holding the door for everyone.

"Duly noted," Mike said. "So, Artie, how's film school?" he asked, as they got in line to order.

Before Artie could answer for himself, though, Quinn spoke up. "Oh, he's not in film school anymore," she said. "He left and now he's at Brown with Tina."

"Oh, wow, congrats, you guys," Mike said, clearly surprised to be the last to hear about this. "I always thought you'd be great together."

Oh, really, Mike? Tina thought. You always thought that? You can't erase us, just because of your little girlfriend.

"Oh, they're not together," Quinn supplied the answer, when neither Tina nor Artie knew what to say to that. "They're... together all the time, but not together." She looked down at Artie. "Did I get that right?"

"Quinn and Puck are engaged," Tina said, quickly, eager to get the focus off she and Artie. As the rest congratulated Quinn and began talking to her, Tina ordered her coffee and got Artie's too. She already knew what he'd want.

"So, do you always buy coffee for guys you're not dating?" Artie couldn't resist teasing her. He didn't look too upset about all the assumptions others were making about them.

Tina, on the other hand, had never wanted to not be single more than she did in that moment. She supposed Artie was right, though, that you couldn't just force yourself to be in a relationship to avoid it.

"I owed you, for this morning when you bought ours at the airport," was all she said.

When they had their coffees and had found a table, Noelle looked at everyone and gushed, "This is so neat, that you guys were friends in high school glee club and you still all get together. And you all band together to support Rachel."

"Well, the tickets were free," Artie joked, earning a nudge and a smirk from Kurt on his right. "No, I'm just joking. We... I don't know... we're a family now," he said. "We support each other. And speaking of which, Mike, I would love to come see you and Noelle dance in May."

You would? If Artie went, it would look really bad now, if Tina didn't. It would make her look sad and jealous, not that she wasn't a little bit sad and jealous, but she didn't want to advertise the fact.

"Great, Mike said, with a grin. "The tickets are free."

Later, they were all in their seats, waiting for the show to begin, and Tina had the end of the row, next to the accessible space for Artie's chair. Now that she had a moment to say something to him, in private, she took advantage.

"What was that about?" she hissed. "You just signed us up to go see Mike dance in May?"

"I said I wanted to go," Artie whispered back. "And I do want to go. I didn't say anything about you. You don't have to go, if you don't want to."

"Artie, don't be ridiculous," she shot back. "If you're going, I'm going. It's gonna look weird if I don't."

He shrugged. "Whatever you say."

Tina glared at him. "Do you realize how hard it is, for me to see him with this dancer, with her perfect dancer body?" There was no use mincing her words. She figured she may as well lay it all out, since he insisted on being clueless about her feelings.

"More than you know," he mumbled. When he saw Tina struggling to hold back tears, however, he changed his tune. "Hey, I'm sorry, really I am. I didn't mean to make it worse for you."

Tina cast a long look down at the other end of the row, where Noelle was cuddled up to Mike. "For what it's worth," she said, turning back to Artie. "If I ever put you through this, I'm sorry, too."

The lights dimmed and she felt his hand grab hers, just to give it a quick squeeze, letting her know he was there and that he understood. She smiled a little, as a single tear traced her cheek.

She was back at Mercedes' place again that night, this time by choice, because Mike and Noelle were staying at the loft, and in the same room, no less. Quinn had come along. She and Mercedes had always shared a special bond, after Quinn had lived with Mercedes when she was pregnant. Artie was staying with them, too, simply because there were less people, he claimed. And Mercedes had gone to the trouble to borrow a shower chair for him from her elderly neighbor.

"It's not like I want Mike back or anything," Tina sighed, staring at the glass of rosé that Mercedes had just poured for her. "It's just that he's the only guy I've ever been intimate with. I knew I wasn't his first. And clearly, they're already... she's just so much prettier than me. And she's Asian. More Asian than me."

"What do you mean by more Asian?" Quinn wanted to know. Mercedes didn't have to ask, since she already knew. But Tina hadn't shared her heritage with everyone in glee club.

"Tina's adopted." Artie added, coming in with the whole bottle of rosé propped between his knees. "Her parents are white."

"Thank you, Artie," Mercedes said, through gritted teeth, as Artie recoiled slightly. She jerked the bottle of wine away. "Listen, this is girl talk. If you want to stay here, that's fine. But you have my room tonight and we have the living room. So, unless you need something..."

"Uh, sorry, I do need something," he said, looking uncomfortable about having interrupted girl talk. "You said you had borrowed a shower chair from your neighbor but it's not in there."

She jumped up. "Oh, sorry, Artie! It's in my kitchen. I was cleaning it off for you. Be right back." As she hurried off to get it, Artie looked at Tina.

"Listen," he said. "I know it's not my place, and I'm probably the last person you want to hear it from," he said. "But just be patient. I feel like if this were glee club, Mercedes and I could just burst right into song right now. Something like..."

"Ohh, you can't hurry love, no you just have to wait," sang Mercedes, as she walked in with the shower chair. She plopped the chair down next to Artie and posed on it, as he laughed and joined her in the next line, with Quinn joining in from the couch. "She said love don't come easy, it's a game of give and take..."

Tina dissolved into giggles as they serenaded her. She couldn't help but meet Artie's eyes as he sang to her. It had been so long, she realized, since she'd heard that gorgeous singing voice of his.

Though the status of their relationship was unclear, one thing was certain. She didn't know what she'd do without Artie Abrams in her life.