Mistakes are mine.
No cliffhangers this time :-)
Rachel was having the worst day. It wasn't the slushies that bothered her, nor was it the teasing. She was used to it. It was the fact that Santana and Quinn weren't the ones behind it. It was the fact that the Glee Club had all but abandoned her again. It was the fact that Finn refused to leave her alone and Brittany kept shooting her angry glares. It was the fact that Hiram took her off his bank account leaving her with only ten fucking dollars to her name until she 'manned up' and 'got a job' like everyone else her age. It was the fact that after already being up earlier than normal, Rachel had to scrape her Daddy off the living room floor and pump him full of water while trying to ignore the half-healed scars along his shoulders. Her night was emotional, her morning was emotional, and now it seemed like everyone at McKinley was trying to push her right over the edge.
When the final bell rang, Rachel was the first one out of the room. She stuffed every textbook and notebook inside of her locker and took nothing home with her. LJ and Tori approached her hesitantly, and Rachel cut off whatever they were about to say.
"Don't. Let's just go," she said.
LJ and Tori nodded. The three of them, one in a pair of McKinley shorts and tank top while the other two resorted to squishing around in their shoes, made their way down the hall. They made it to the front door before Tori mentioned their History test. Rachel groaned and turned around.
"Where are you going?" Tori asked.
"To get my book. I completely forgot about that test."
"We'll come with you-
"No, just stay there. I won't be long," Rachel said, walking away.
Rachel pulled out her phone as she contemplated texting Santana and Quinn. She'd missed them, but she didn't know how to say that without sounding desperate. She came up to her locker and was too distracted to see Brittany coming up the hall.
"Rachel!"
Rachel's head snapped up, and she frowned. "Hey," she said.
Brittany came close and smiled. "What are you still doing here? The way you ran out of class I assumed you'd be gone by now," she said.
"Book," Rachel said shortly. "And I won't be here long."
"What's the rush?"
Rachel sighed and turned to face Brittany. "What do you want? The last time we had a conversation, you pushed me to the ground. Remember?" she asked.
Brittany's smile dropped. "You starting the fight is what I remember," she said.
Rachel rolled her eyes and said, "We both know that's not what happened."
"Sure. But have you told Santana how you punched me in the face repeatedly like the psychopath you are?" she asked. "You're lucky I didn't call the police."
"And you're lucky Puck stopped the fight when he did," Rachel snapped.
Brittany stepped forward and lowered her voice as she said, "You took her from me."
"No, you were stupid enough to let her go."
"You have no idea what you did by coming back," she growled.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"No, I guess not," Brittany sighed, her face blanking as she stared at her. "Why would you?"
Rachel smiled thinly and pointed to her locker. "Can I get my stuff now or are you going to wait around for me to finish in some lame attempt to blame me for yet another thing?" she asked tiredly.
Just as she went to open her locker, Brittany placed her hand on it, keeping Rachel from opening it.
"Santana is not the person you think she is."
Rachel saw that coming a mile away and refrained from rolling her eyes. "Oh?" she asked, slightly failing at keeping the annoyance out of her voice. "Well, I don't think she's anything other than Santana, but I doubt you're in the position to make that comment."
"Look, you weren't here. You don't know the whole story."
"I don't need to know the whole story," Rachel snapped. "I don't want to know your reasons for doing what you did or how you felt after you got caught. It doesn't matter to me."
Brittany chuckled and backed away. "You're not the only one who's changed this past year. Things happen, Rachel. People have to make decisions after they're dealt a specific hand. You of all people should know that," she said.
Brittany walked away. Rachel glared at the back of her head as she continued down the hall, and no matter how much she wanted to, she couldn't let herself relax. There was something about Brittany that was rubbing Rachel the wrong way, and it had nothing to do with her feelings for Santana. Her phone dinged, and Rachel looked down at the notification. It was from Puck, telling her that he was heading back to Sue's house to check on Quinn and that he would see her later that evening. Rachel didn't bother responding, knowing he was driving and wouldn't look at it until he stopped. She looked up again, noticing the hallway had gotten empty fast, and Rachel quickly opened her locker. She searched through the books and found her History book caught between her Science and Math book, the two biggest books in the school. She tried to put her phone in her back pocket, but missed completely. It fell to the floor, face down, and she grimaced as she heard it crack. Before she could lean down and pick it up, another hand beat her to it.
"Here."
Rachel inwardly groaned at the sight of Finn. He was with her, alone, and she was not interested in another 'you don't know the whole story' speech from the Glee Club.
"Look, my siblings are waiting for me. Can we not do this?"
"You should have stayed away from Lima," Finn said in a low voice, looking around. "You need to get out of here while you still can."
"Is that a threat?"
"Rachel, please," Finn begged. "I don't want anything to happen to you."
"What the fuck are you talking about?"
Finn looked around before he grabbed her by the waist. He picked her up and ran down the hall.
"FINN!" she screamed. "PUT ME DOWN!"
"I will, just hold on," he grunted.
Finn carried her down the stairs and into a dusty, old storage closet. When he put her down, she tripped over a bucket, but Finn caught her before she hit the floor, unfortunately ripping her shirt in the process.
"What the hell are you doing!" she screamed, coughing at the dust floating in the air. "Why did you grab me like that!"
"You wouldn't have come with me if I asked," he said, taking two steps away from her.
"Had you asked me, you would've taken a better risk than kidnapping me, dumbass," she said sharply.
Finn wrung his hands together and said, "Look, I got into something super shady, okay? I fucked up that day when I got caught with Brittany. We were supposed to tell Santana and Quinn, but things got out of hand. I mean, I hate what Santana did to me, but I can't blame her for it. I honestly just want everything to go back to the way it was, but it can't. Things are going on that I can't tell you about, but Rachel, you seriously have to get out of Lima."
"Is that what Brittany was going on about at my locker?"
"What? When did she-" Finn shook his head and said quickly, "Never mind. Brittany's changed. She's not the girl I, you know, and it's hard for me to keep up the act. I need you to listen to me. I wasn't trying to hurt you or scare you, but you are being watched, even when you don't think there's anyone around. We all are. I couldn't tell you all of this up there at the risk of someone finding out. Later, ask Quinn about Mr. Miller's house. She'll know what I'm talking about. Please, Rachel. I really, really screwed up by getting in bed with these guys, but I don't want them to hurt you. Or Quinn or Santana."
Rachel glared at Finn. She took a step forward, but she slipped on a towel that had fallen out of the bucket. Naturally, this left them in an unusual position when the door opened. Rachel saw her siblings, Sue, and Santana, but her shock turned into terror when Santana yanked Finn out of the closet. She cursed and scrambled to feet.
LJ grabbed her, intent on pulling her in the opposite direction, but Rachel fought him off. "Quit it! I'm trying to help you!" he exclaimed.
"No, I have to stop her. It isn't what you think," she said.
"What?"
Rachel rolled her eyes at her brother and grit her teeth as she tackled Santana off Finn and to the ground. The two of them rolled around for a bit, her momentum sending them further than she expected, but she managed to straddle Santana long enough to pin her to the floor.
"Get off me!"
"Can't do that, not until you calm down," Rachel grunted.
"Why should I calm down?!"
"Because it isn't what it looks like!"
"Oh? So, he didn't drag you down into the basement, push you in a storage closet, and rip your shirt?"
Rachel winced and said, "Okay, when you put it that way, yes, but it was an accident. Sort of."
Santana glared at her and was in the process of bucking Rachel to the floor when Rachel, in her frustration, grabbed Santana's wrists and slammed her arms to the concrete.
"If you let me explain, I will let you go, but for fuck's sake, baby! You have got to calm down!"
The term of endearment slipped, and Santana's eyes snapped to hers, wide and crazed. Rachel felt heat rush to her face, but she ignored it for the time being. Finn was on the ground, nursing a broken nose, and Tori was standing over him with her foot on his chest.
"Rachel, you better have a damn good reason for stopping her. As a teacher, I don't condone violence, but as your pseudo-godmother, I have no problems letting Santana have her way with him. Again," Sue said seriously.
"I will tell you, all of you, but you have to let him leave," she said.
"What?!"
"Hell no!"
"No fucking way!"
"I'm with them on this one. We can't just let him-
"Enough!" Rachel barked, cutting off Sue's protests. "I will gladly keep us all down here in the basement until the morning, but we all know that's a bad idea. Let Finn go, and I will tell you everything that happened."
Tori, with her foot still on Finn's chest, kicked him in the side before she backed away. Finn groaned and made his way to his feet slowly, holding his stomach with one hand and his nose with the other. Rachel glared at him, still not happy with how he handled the situation and jerked her head towards the stairs.
"Go, and I swear if you ever try this shit again, Santana will be the least of your worries."
Finn, after a slight hesitation, stumbled down the hallway and up the stairs. Rachel waited until she was sure he was a reasonable distance away before she relaxed and released her grip on Santana's arms.
"Not that I don't enjoy having you on top of me like this, but you wanna tell me why the hell you let him walk out of here after what he did?" Santana snapped.
"It looked way worse than what actually happened," she sighed, carefully sliding off Santana's lap but not getting off the floor. "He did take me down here. When he put me down, I tripped over a bucket and he caught me, but he ripped my shirt in the process. After we talked and he apologized, I slipped on a towel that fell out of the bucket. He was only trying to help me up, which is why it looked the way that it did when you opened the door. He was just trying to help me get back to my feet."
There was a brief pause. Santana got to her feet and bent down in front of her, looking her in the eyes, causing Rachel to lean back from the intense stare.
"What did he say?" she asked slowly.
"Oh, mm, well, he was just telling me about how I'm being watched, how we're all being watched, and that something shady is going on in Lima," she said. "No biggie."
Santana scowled. "No biggie?" she repeated. "How is any of that a no biggie situation?"
"Because I can't tell if he was telling the truth or not."
"Had it not been for Tori and LJ, we would've never known you were down here. He could've seriously hurt you," Santana said.
"But he-
"There is not a reason good enough in this fucking universe to keep me from burying him alive if he tries this shit again. If he even looks at you again, I'll snap his neck."
Rachel opened and closed her mouth, nodding quickly. Santana took a deep breath and shook her head, scooping Rachel off the floor bridal style. Rachel pouted at being treated like a child, but one look from Santana had her second-guessing saying anything about it.
"Can we skip over this weird, sexual tension and focus on what Finn said while you two were down here in No Man's Land?" Tori huffed.
"Yeah," LJ said. "Why did he bring you down here and not like, in the locker rooms or something?"
Rachel remembered what Finn said about people always watching, always listening, and though she wasn't completely sold on the idea there was some conspiracy against her, she didn't want to take that chance.
"Can we talk about this somewhere else?" she asked. "Please?"
There was reluctance all around, but once Santana started carrying her away from the group, Rachel sighed in relief. She knew there would be more problems once she got to the house, once the rest of the group found out about what Finn did, but she would rather be in the comfort of Emma's home rather than the bowels of her school. With Santana being so far ahead of the group, Rachel was the only one who heard what she said as they walked up the stairs.
"You shouldn't have stopped me."
Rachel whispered, "As much as I love how you're willing to go to prison for me, you didn't know the whole story. I wasn't going to let you get in trouble over a misunderstanding."
Santana looked down at her and beneath the simmering fury that rested in her gaze lay something more passionate, something that stole Rachel's breath away. "That's what you don't understand. You and Quinn mean more to me than I let on, and I guess you can blame my poor presentation of love on my parents, but I will gladly go to prison for you and her. You say I didn't know the whole story, and you're right. Well, I say I don't need the whole story. All I need is a reason."
"I have to confess something to you and Quinn," she said softly.
Whatever response Santana had was lost as the rest of the group caught up with them, and if they noticed the way Santana had Rachel tucked into her chest or the way Rachel was hiding her face in the crook of Santana's neck, they didn't say anything.