CHAPTER 34
That night, Finn and Quinn stood in Kurt's office and Finn was preparing himself to admit to breaking out Jessie. He took a deep breath and started talking.
"I'd like to start by saying, um… Quinn had nothing to do with this." Finn said. Quinn laughed.
"This guy!" She chuckled. "Un-freaking-believable. You hear this?"
"Just cut it out, Q, okay?" He growled, glaring at her.
"Why? So you could take the credit?" Quinn remarked. Kurt looked at them, perplexed at what was going on. Quinn looked extremely happy but Finn looked extremely angry and almost… resigned and defeated.
"Wait, so… so we have Jessie?" Kurt asked, excitedly. "That's fantastic!"
"No. No. I had Gideon…" Finn started but he was once again cut off by Quinn.
"I had, I! It's always 'I' with this guy. He's the 'I' guy!" Quinn exclaimed. "There's no 'I' in team. We were supposed to do this together."
"What do you mean? I had him and you…"
They started arguing over one another, leaving Kurt even more confused than before.
"Guys!" He shouted, shutting them up. "Do we have Jessie? Do you do something awful? I can handle it, I just need to know what it is. What happened?"
"Okay, here's what happened." Quinn said. "We tracked Jessie to a cartel safe house and when we got there, he was gone."
Kurt looked at them and raised an eyebrow.
"Wait, so you didn't blow anything up or cause a ten-car pileup or jump off a building?"
"That is correct." Quinn stated, confidently.
"He just… got away?" Kurt asked. Quinn nodded. "That I can handle. I'm not pleased but given the buildup, I thought my career was over."
"Nope. Nobody's career is over today." Quinn said, looking right at Finn. "Right?"
They left the office moments later and as soon as they did, Finn ran over to Quinn.
"Quinn. You didn't have to do that." He said.
"I know." She replied.
"Thanks." Finn said, quietly. Quinn simply nodded at him. Finn walked out of the precinct moments later and once he was gone, Quinn turned around and walked back into Kurt's office.
"There's something you're not telling me." Kurt stated. "What's going on, Quinn?"
Quinn took a deep breath and sighed.
"Uh… I'm gonna need a new partner."
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That night, Finn cleaned up his trailer and put away the Rachel Berry-Hudson file. He now knew that Jessie was indeed involved in her death but what was killing him was that he never got the justice that Rachel and all of the other people who he killed deserved by throwing Jessie in jail. It was all his fault, and what's more was that Finn could sense that Jessie was still alive. Nobody would believe him but he knew it for certain. Suddenly, Finn accidentally dropped his coffee mug on the ground and his eyes widened. He was dragged back into another flashback.
"Hey Hiram. Hiram, Hiram, hey, everything's gonna be fine. We're about to have a nice breakfast. Your daughter is about to make me her special blueberry pancakes. Wait, actually, by the look I just received, I'll be making her famous blueberry pancakes. But, either way, we're all good. Yes, we love you. We're gonna go. But hey, have a great day. Your daughter loves you, I love you. Bye. Bye. See ya." Finn hung up the phone. Rachel beamed at him and kissed him.
"Thank you." She murmured against his lips.
"Come on, I can handle your dad." He replied.
"No, thank you for my blueberry pancakes." She laughed. Finn smiled and walked into the kitchen. He would do absolutely anything for that girl. He would make her a million blueberry pancakes for her. He would open a vein in his arm if he could bleed out gold for her. He was hopefully, irretrievably in love with her and every day, he thanked his lucky stars that he had met her that night on Christmas Eve. Finn poured the pancake mix and blueberries into a bowl and started mixing them. Then, when he put the bowl on the table, his hand slipped and the bowl went crashing to the ground, spilling everywhere.
They hadn't eaten blueberry pancakes! Jessie wasn't watching them, he was listening! Finn dived into his car and sped towards Quinn's house. He pounded on the door.
"Quinn! Quinn! Quinn!" He shouted as Quinn walked over to the door. She eventually opened it and Finn walked inside.
"Q, there were no blueberry pancakes that morning!" He jabbered like a mental patient. "Jessie said we were eating blueberry pancakes the morning that she died, but I dropped the mix!"
"Were-were you drinking, Finn?" She asked, quietly.
"A… a little bit. Look, Quinn, it doesn't matter. Jessie lied. Why would he lie?"
"Maybe he misspoke because you were torturing him!" Quinn snapped.
"No, I was questioning him." Finn corrected her.
"You told me you broke a couple of his fingers!" She exclaimed.
"Sprained, partially, like, fractured. Look, Q, he was fine when I was questioning him."
Quinn put her head in her hands.
"Finn, Finn, I-I can't…"
"No, you can do this! We are gonna fly under the radar, we're gonna go down to Texas, we're gonna find out what they know."
"I'm getting a new partner!" Quinn shouted, interrupting him. Finn's face dropped.
"What?" He asked, quietly. Tears ran down Quinn's cheeks.
"Kurt's reassigning us tomorrow."
Finn took a deep breath and nodded.
"Well, that… that must've been a difficult decision for you." Finn murmured.
"It was." She nodded. "You know, you told me once that you would not kill yourself because she would be ashamed of you. But that's exactly what you're doing! You're drowning! Okay? And you got to figure out, once and for all, do you want to live? Cause if you do, Finn, you got to let her go, man."
"Yeah, I know. I know." Finn whispered, chuckling. "I can't."
He then turned and walked towards the door, banging his head against it, frustratedly.
"Finn!" Santana exclaimed, walking into the room. Finn slowly turned around to face her. Santana was probably the only person who could get through to Finn. "We are your family. You know that. You are part of this family. We love you."
"You're a patient woman, Q. I'm surprised you lasted this long." Finn said, thickly. "You guys have a good night."
Finn then swung open the door and walked out, ignoring Santana calling him back. Once he was gone, Quinn put her head in her hands and walked out of the room.
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Quinn walked into the precinct the next morning, already dressed in the extremely fancy and expensive pantsuit she was going to wear to Luke's graduation later that day. She couldn't believe that her baby was graduating! Suddenly, she almost bumped into Tina, who was holding a mug of coffee in her hand.
"Hey, hey. Tina, woah! You know how hard it is to get a coffee stain out of virgin silk?" She exclaimed.
"That is a hell of a suit, Quinn. Who died?"
"Hey, it's my son's graduation tonight. And what if someone had died? I mean, we're cops. That's a risky joke."
"I'm sorry, I just wanted to tell you that you clean up good." Tina replied.
"I know. I got mirrors." Quinn laughed. "So what are you working on? What are these?" She asked, pointing to the various files on Tina's desk.
"Finn's arrest files from El Paso. Told me to flag any connections to the cartel."
"When? When did he tell you that?"
"Yesterday. Early evening. Why?" Tina asked, confused.
"You know what, Tina? You need to shut this down."
"Okay. But do you at least want to know what I found?" She asked. Quinn shook her head.
"No. Because there's nothing to find."
Tina looked down and Quinn's eyes widened.
"Is there? Is there something to find?"
"Well, it's hard to say for sure, but I was able…"
"Okay, you know what?" Quinn interrupted. "I'm not going down this road. I told Finn it's a dead end. It's a dead end." She decided. "Is it a dead end?"
Tina sighed.
"Do you want me to tell you or not?"
"I don't even want… I don't even want to know." She stated. Tina rolled her eyes and moments later, Quinn was back and she took the file from Tina's hands. "What'd you find?"
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"So, what can I do for you, Finn?" Hiram Berry asked. Finn had driven to his house as he believed that he owed the man an explanation about his recent findings. After all, Hiram Berry was not only the city attorney but he was also Rachel's father.
"I believe I'm responsible for Rachel's death, Hiram."
"Finn…" Hiram sighed and put a comforting hand on Finn's shoulder. "Finn, it was an accident. You need to let it go."
"Hiram, don't ask me how… but I know it was a hit."
"A hit? On my daughter?" Hiram chuckled, disbelievingly. "For what?"
"If I back off the cartel in Texas." Finn replied.
"Because you busted a couple of low-level guys? Stop it! You need to move on."
"That's what I'm trying to do here, Hiram. I'm just trying to come clean so I can make sense of everything."
"By telling me this nonsense?!" Hiram snapped. "By getting me to fall into this abyss with you? I won't do it."
"Poppy?" A small voice suddenly said from the doorway. Finn and Hiram turned to see a young girl named Rosie - one of Rachel's siblings' children and one of Hiram's grandchildren. "You said we were going to the park." She said.
"We are, sweetie. In just a minute." Hiram replied. "You remember Uncle Finn."
"Hi, Finn." He smiled. "Last time I saw you, you were that big!" He exclaimed, making a gesture the size of four inches.
"I was never that big." She giggled.
"I'll meet you outside in a second, sweetie." Hiram said. Rosie nodded and left the room. Once she was gone, Finn stood up and faced Hiram. Hiram put an arm around him.
"I know it hurts. I feel it every day. But you have to let go. It's what she'd want." Hiram said. Finn sighed.
"I know. I know. And I'm trying, Hiram. I really am." Finn said, as he walked out of the room.
"Yeah. Forget that nonsense about Jessie!" Hiram responded. Finn stopped walking and slowly turned around.
"How did you know it was Jessie?" Finn growled. Hiram's eyebrows furrowed in confusion but deep down, he was scared. Finn had just discovered his deepest, darkest secret.
"What?" Hiram asked.
"I never said his name." Finn spat. Hiram scoffed.
"That's who you had in custody. I-I just assumed."
That's when everything clicked together. Hiram being extremely nervous that day, more so than even Finn or Rachel were. Him calling them and Finn telling him that they were having blueberry pancakes. Him not knowing that Finn dropped the bowl on the ground and them eating cereal instead.
"You were so nervous that morning." Finn remembered.
"What morning?" Hiram asked.
"When she was killed." Finn murmured. Hiram sighed.
"I thought we just got past this." Hiram scoffed. Finn shook his head. Everything was rushing back to him and he was piecing things together to form an extremely horrific puzzle.
"Rachel was 9 month pregnant and you wanted her to get out of town. Why?" Finn spat.
"It-it wasn't logical. Uh… I was nervous." Hiram stammered.
"Or maybe you were afraid." Finn muttered. "I told you about the pancakes."
"What?" Hiram spat.
"The cartel wasn't watching us. Why would they be watching us? They were listening."
"Okay, I think you should leave." Hiram snapped. Finn didn't though. He continued…
"But why would they be listening to me? Because I was just chasing low-level cartel guys, right? You said so yourself. They were listening to you…"
