DISCLAIMER: I wish I was Ryan Murphy. I wish I was awesome enough to be able to stroll onto the set of GLEE and be all 'what up?' Alas that is not me.

Ch4…

3FINCHEL3

The five girls sat awkwardly in the car the back seat stuffed with pillows, blankets and food; the ice cream dangerously close to dripping all over the floor.

"Did anyone think to check if Rachel would be home?" Tina asked holding onto her stuffed penguin Atreyu.

"It's Rachel, I just figured she'd be here." Mercedes answered guiltily. "And I'm just realizing that that is the sort of thinking that got us here in the first place. Where could she be?"

"The music store?" Tina suggested. "That's where she met Jesse right?"

Quinn snorted. "I doubt she'd want to risk running into him, I always go shopping when I'm depressed, maybe she's at the mall."

"Or maybe she's just ignoring us." Santana opined. "Did anybody check if the door was even locked?"

The others all looked at each other and shook their heads, the current head cheerio rolled her eyes and jumped out of the car. The house was nice, of course given her two gay dads were lawyers and well gay you would expect nothing less. Santana tried the door but it held, unfortunately for the Berry's they weren't too careful about home security. They kept a spare key 'hidden' in the fuse box next to the door.

"I'm not going in here alone, I've seen Carrie!" She yelled back at the car of girls who exited quickly leaving everything in the car except the ice cream.

"Woah." Mercedes whistled looking around the front entrance. "This place is nice."

"Rachel?" Tina called out softly. "Her room's probably upstairs."

"Ice cream is in the freezer." Quinn reported returning from the kitchen. "Along with like a hundred frozen dinners, I think the kitchen is just for show. Although it did smell like cookies in there."

"This place is too quiet." Mercedes shivered looking around, everything was neat and in its place not so much as a cushion was out of place. "Where are her dads?"

The phone rang shattering the silence, the girls let out loud screams and jumped on each other.

"Hey sweetie, we just wanted to remind you don't forget to pick up the mail, Mrs. Kane is coming by on Wednesday to clean the carpets so leave the money on the counter, you know where the safe is. I have to go, your father bought tickets to Siegfried and Roy! We love you!"

Santana squeezed herself out of the tight group the girls had pressed themselves into and headed for the stairs.

"Wow Kurt was right." Mercedes mumbled. "It's so pink."

Tina pointed to the paint chips stuck to the walls. "Looks like she's thinking of redecorating."

"This looks like my little sister's room." Brittany said at the same time.

"Well she's obviously not here." Quinn huffed dropping onto the bed while the rest snooped around.

"A bunch of her clothes are missing." Tina noticed pointing to the space in her closet. "You don't think she ran away do you?"

"Well she does like to storm off." Santana called from the bathroom rummaging through the drawers.

"Call Finn." Brittany suggested smacking her lips and smiling at the sparkly pink gloss she'd just applied. "He was acting weird this afternoon, he probably knows where she is."

"I'll text Kurt." Mercedes offered already tapping on her iPhone. "They're having dinner with their parents, keep it on the DL but his dad is proposing to Finn's mum tonight!"

"And you think you can keep a secret." Santana smirked at Mercedes who glowered back.

"I can keep a secret, I didn't tell everyone that Puck was looking at-" Mercedes abruptly cut herself off slapping a hand across her own mouth. "Nothing at all."

"Talk." Quinn demanded, Mercedes shook her head frantically.

"Hell no. I can keep a secret, I can keep this secret. He doesn't even know that I know."

"Look Mercedes, I'm six months pregnant, my feet are bloated and my pregnancy hormones are making me crazier than Suzy Pepper. Tell me what you know."

"Okay but you didn't hear it from me!" Mercedes warned swinging around so that all of the girls understood. " It was on the weekend, Kurt and I were at the mall looking for some new furniture for his room when he had to go to the bathroom. I saw Puck come in and buy a whole bunch of baby stuff, like a white bassinet and a rocking chair."

"What kind of rocking chair?" Quinn asked softly.

"It was wooden with wide arms and carved backings." She answered confused. "What does it matter? I thought you were giving up the kid?"

"He remembered." Quinn whispered stroking her stomach. "It was forever ago, I said that I always wanted a rocking chair in the nursery."

"Are you really surprised? That boy has been begging you to keep the baby." Tina said playing with her hands. "Are you thinking about it?"

"Maybe a little." She confessed. "I just want what's best for her but then I think of giving her away and I just don't think I can."

The girls crowded around Quinn hugging her, well most of the girls.

"Can we save this female bonding crap for the slumber party, if I have to sit through this twice I may vomit."

Brittany frowned at her best friend and shook her head, Santana huffed and stomped her foot. Best friend telepathic talking was weird.

"Ooh." Mercedes giggled pulling her phone out. "Kurt said Rachel's at the restaurant with them, apparently she's staying with them until her dad gets back. Looks like we have to move the slumber party over there."

"But there'll be boys there." Brittany said slowly. "You can't have boys at a slumber party."

"We'll just have to figure that out when we get there. Don't worry I have a key. Let's go."

Quinn followed last grabbing the stuffed cat from the desk, "Don't forget the ice cream!"

3FINCHEL3

She had never met parents before, had never had the chance. Jesse's were away and her fleeting relationships with Puck and Finn had never progressed to the meet the parent's stage. She hoped that everyone felt this nervous and she wasn't just the exception. She breathed in and out yogi style and calmed instantly.

"Rach, we've been sitting in the car park for ten minutes." Finn broke into the silence looking nervously at the restaurant; he could spy his mother sitting at a table with Bart and Kurt.

"I know." She replied tightly. "I've never met someone's parents before. I want them to like me."

Finn tried to swallow the laughter bubbling but failed it coming out as a cross between a hack and a snort.

"You have nothing to worry about." He assured her rubbing her arm. "My mum already loves you, and Burt likes everyone. Come on." Finn opened the door and quickly ran around the car and opened hers helping her out of the car. "Oh and don't eat the breadsticks they suck."

"I'll try to remember that." She mumbled rubbing out imaginary wrinkles in her skirt.

The restaurant was warm although the tinge of red in her cheeks was probably more due to Finn's hands placed on the small of her back and at her elbow guiding her to the table.

"Hey mum." Finn greeted kissing her cheek before leaning over the table to shake Burt's hand. "Hey Burt."

"Finn and Rachel what a surprise." Kurt replied smiling in a slightly maniacal fashion. It really did nothing to calm her nerves.

"Hi Mrs. Hudson, I'm Rachel Berry. It's so nice to meet you." Rachel smiled holding out her hand to Finn's mum.

"Oh honey please call me Carole after all I've heard about you I feel as though I know you already." Carole dismissed grabbing Rachel in a hug, which she returned with only a little hesitance.

"I'm a hand shaker." Burt said up front when Rachel turned to him unsure how to proceed.

"Thank you so much for letting me stay with you." Her manners as always perfect.

"Don't even worry about it." Carole told her patting Rachel's hand. "It's our pleasure. Beside with the way Finn snores you might be rethinking staying alone."

The two girls shared a laugh at Finn his ears turning a bright shade of red. Kurt looked over at his father alarmed.

"Snore? You can't be thinking of letting Rachel stay in our room?" He asked shocked. "She's a girl."

"Kurt." Burt warned smiling apologetically at Rachel. "Rachel is our guest and we're not going to break her back by making her sleep on that lumpy couch. She can stay on the fold out in your room. We trust you."

"But." Kurt protested interrupted by his phone's buzzing. Huffing his thumbs flew across the screen as he answered the text.

"Don't mind him, he's probably worried about you seeing him while he's got goop on his face." Burt excused his son. Rachel just smiled back not wanting to say anything rude, obviously Burt had no idea of the less than pleasant relationship between the two.

"So where are your folks Rachel?" Burt asked playing with the breadsticks in the middle of the table.

"Oh my dads are in Vegas, they had a conference on Wednesday for human rights lawyers and since it's their twentieth anniversary they decided to stay for the weekend." She explained. "Last year they went to the Grand Canyon."

"That's nice." Burt answered coughing from the water he had choked on.

"Finn's been practicing like crazy for Regionals you must be so excited." Carole said changing the subject while Burt tried to regain his composure; Kurt was still thumbing away on his phone muttering to himself.

"We still haven't finalized our set list but I'm sure we'll come up with something, we always do." Rachel smiled at Finn holding his hand under the table, her nerves were threatening to open the gate on her babbling. "Mr. Schuester wants us to come up with an anthem for the team so we might be up late working on that."

"That's nice, have you picked any songs out?"

"Not really." Finn replied for the both of them drumming his fingers across the table. "Are we going to order soon or what, I'm starving."

Rachel sat back and watched while Finn interacted with his new family adding to the conversation when she wanted, it was nice. Maybe this day wouldn't turn out to be so bad after all. Of course she probably jinxed herself with that thought. The three of them descended the stairs into Finn and Kurt's basement room, Finn lugging Rachel's bags, she was tired and wanted nothing more than to slip into a nightgown and listen to some songs with Finn. Fate of course had other plans for her.

3FINCHEL3

"SURPRISE!"

Finn grasped her shoulders as Rachel stumbled back into him, Mercedes, Tina, Quinn, Brittany and Santana were spread around the floor of the room with sleeping bags, popcorn, make up and movies.

"What's going on?" Rachel asked eying the group wearily.

"It's a slumber party." Tina answered pulling her from Finn. "We've got ice cream upstairs and-"

"No I know what a slumber party is." She interrupted waving Tina off. "I meant what are you doing here? Is this some kind of pity party because you were all feeling guilty after Mr. Schuester yelled at you today?"

"Rachel." Mercedes began pulling on her sleep shirt. "We've been terrible friends, we should have called you yesterday but we didn't and we wanted to make it up to you."

"By having a slumber party?" She asked sceptically.

"Everyone loves a slumber party." Brittany replied hugging her teddy bear, which was very shaggy and looked like it was glaring at you.

"We brought your stuffed cat." Quinn spoke up holding it out to Rachel like a peace offering. "Please Rachel can't we all just start over?"

Rachel accepted the cat; named Cat like in Breakfast at Tiffanys, hugging it to her chest.

"Just like that? Poof every mean comment, every rumour and joke at my expense forgotten?"

"Well not poof exactly!" Quinn said slowly. "First there's a lot of ice cream and girl talk and after we're all sick of that we watch Dirty Dancing."

"Finn and I have an assignment for Glee to work on." She protested weakly, she was still really angry.

"He can stay." Tina decided. "Kurt too."

"Well du'h." Kurt rolled his eyes exiting the en suite in silk pyjamas. Rachel looked over at Finn chewing on her lip, he nodded slightly. He knew first hand that holding onto your anger just screwed everything up.

"Fine." She agreed. "But this doesn't mean I've forgiven you."

Grabbing her suitcase she went into the en suite to change, Finn using his side of the room hiding behind the divider to change as well.

"Maybe not yet." Mercedes whispered to the other girls. "But she will soon enough." She nodded towards Finn. "This may be easier than we thought."

When he re entered the room to where the girls were spread out they were giggling and he got that feeling that they were talking about him, he glanced nervously at Santana but she was preoccupied on her phone. He still hadn't come clean to Rachel about that night in the motel; somehow he doubted his forgiveness could be granted with girl talk and a dumb dancing movie.

3FINCHEL3

So glad you guys are all enjoying this. I adore GLEE and can't believe how long I have to go without. A steady diet of RENT, the Wicked Soundtrack and rewatching season 1 can only help so much!