Chapter 7

Rachel sighed as she rested her head back against the seat. Here she was again, sat on a plane just as she had at the beginning of summer. However, now things were much different. When she and Kurt had headed off to New York a month ago, she had been absolutely distraught at how things had ended with Finn. She was lonely, upset and all she had for comfort was Kurt. So many things had changed over summer that now she had a much better outlook going into her senior year at McKinley.

Things didn't look as though they had changed. Her eyes were a little puffy and red from the crying at the airport. She was still upset, but it was for a good, happy reason now. She had left a guy she cared about deeply in tears, but this time it was because they were being separated for a week. She had a new boyfriend now, and she knew that she and James could make it work. She was heading back to Ohio with a clear look at how she would spend the next year. Spending the time at NYADA and Julliard had only reaffirmed how much she was in love with Broadway and how much she wanted to become a star. That would be her focus this next year, ensuring that she achieves her dreams of going to New York next summer with Kurt. She hoped James would get into Julliard, and that they could see each other and be in close proximity. The time she spent away from him would be hard, but she knew that her visits to him would keep their relationship going.

She was more confident in herself now, not that she hadn't been incredibly confident before, due to the praise she had received from the tutors at the summer programme. Performing with such famous and talented people had given her a new lease on life; she was more confident than ever that she would make it to new York next summer. NYADA was going to happen.

Rachel, Kurt and her dads had woken early on Saturday morning, heading to the hotel restaurant for breakfast for the final time that summer. Afterwards they loaded their bags and headed to the airport, waiting around for a couple of hours to catch their flight to Ohio. She and Kurt had wandered around the airport for a while as her Dads sat at a coffee shop. Rachel felt rotten, her goodbye with James still fresh in the mid, but Kurt to his credit was doing his best to cheer her up. They were coming out of a book store laughing when her phone rang, defying gravity ringing clearly from her hand as she lifted it out of her pocket. As she gazed down at her phone, a grin spread across her face as she saw the picture of her and James appear. He was stood behind her pressing a kiss to her cheek, his arms wrapped around her waist, as she smiled happily.

"Hey" Rachel said louder than a normal person would have, shooting Kurt a dirty look as he laughed at her. "I'm so glad you called, I miss you so much already"

"Hey Beautiful" James voice says softly down the phone, her smile widening as she hears his voice. "I would have called earlier, but my mom wanted to go shopping first"

"Its fine" Rachel replied, "I didn't think you'd call until later tonight"

James laughed, and she felt her heart beat faster. "Yeah, as if that was going to happen. Are you okay?"

"Yeah" Rachel said softly, feeling a tear in her eye. "I just miss you. This is the longest we've gone without seeing each other"

She hears him laugh, but when he speaks again she can tell that he is fighting back tears. "I know"

There's a period of silence between them, and Rachel just enjoys listening to him breathe down the phone. After a minute she hears a voice in the background.

"Who is that?" She asks

"Oh its Lucy, I'm with her and Matt grabbing some lunch" James says, and she can tell he is smiling. "Matt misses you as well, he says that everyone seems so much smaller now they don't have you to make them look like giants"

Rachel laughs, and then pouts. "Tell Matt he sucks, but I miss him too"

"I will" James replies, and then he sighs. "When's your flight?"

Turning to Kurt, she asks him and he looks at the clock on the wall of the airport and tells her. She feeds it back to James. "We're boarding in about 40minutes"

"Okay" James replies softly. "I should let you go"

"Wait...whens yours?" Rachel asked, eager to talk to him for as long as possible.

"Tomorrow afternoon" James replied

"Are you spending time with Matt and Lucy until then?" Rachel asked concerned. She knew that if he was feeling as awful about them leaving one another then he shouldn't be alone. "I don't want you to be alone..."

"It's alright baby" James replied, "I think we're going to a movie. I'm pretty sure they're trying to keep my spirits up."

"Alright" Rachel says, sniffing. "Call me tonight?"

"Yeah" James says, and Rachel smiles, her lip quivering. "Have a safe flight baby"

"I will" Rachel says, silence between them again for a few seconds before she hangs up the phone. Slipping it back into her pocket, she turns around and tears fall down her cheeks. Kurt embraces her and whispers soothingly into her ear.

…...

They touch down in Ohio several hours later. As they walk through the terminal, Kurt squeals loudly in happiness as he sees Blaine stood holding a sign with their names on, it was covered with gold stars all over it. Rachel and her dads laugh as he runs over to him and hugs him tightly, before they follow over slowly.

As they get closer, they see that Finn is stood there smiling at them sheepishly. Rachel feels her stomach drop as she sees him, and as he turns from looking at Kurt and Blaine, who are now talking softly to one another, he gives her his trademark half-smile and she gulps. In the past when she saw him smile at her like that, she would go weak at the knees and her heart would be beat twice as fast. This time was different, she looked at him and felt none of that; in fact she felt uncomfortable having him here. Why had he come? She broke up with him nearly two months ago now, he didn't have a reason to come and meet her at the airport; especially not after she had come back from spending the best week of her life with James.

"Hey Rach" Finn said softly as they approached, LeRoy gave him a handshake before he and Hiram walked off saying something about getting their car for the journey home.

"Hi Finn" Rachel said, smiling as she tried to sound happy to see him. "I didn't know you were coming?"

"Well…" Finn replies, rubbing the back of his neck. "Blaine was coming to surprise Kurt…and his cars not big enough for all his luggage. I thought my truck would be better"

"That's nice of you" Rachel said smiling, glad that he hadn't given her another reason; one with more romantic reasoning for her.

"I wanted to see you as well…"Finn said and took a step closer to her. "I missed you this summer"

Rachel smiled half-heartedly before he reached down and pulled her into an embrace, his arms reaching around her waist as she returned it politely, placing her arms on his. He lingered a bit longer than she thought appropriate considering that they were nothing more than friends, but luckily he pulled away when Kurt spoke.

"So, what am I? Invisible here?" Kurt says as Finn grinned before giving him a huge bear hug. As he pulled away, Kurt was out of breath.

"I missed you two, little brother" Finn said smiling. They stood around talking for around ten minutes before her dads came back and told them they should go. Blaine and Kurt walked arm in arm, as her Dads walked in front leaving her walking awkwardly next to Finn. Him being the gentlemen she knew, had taken some of her luggage and was leaving her with only a few smaller bags.

As they walked, she couldn't but smile. She was back home in Ohio, and she would see her friends soon enough. There was just the overriding sensation that something was missing, and that particular something was a young man with incredibly cute fluffy black hair. Rachel found herself wishing that he was walking next to her, instead of Finn. She bit her lip as she glanced at him, unsure of how to bring up the topic of James with him. She hoped that he didn't have any idea of trying to win her back because that would make the conversation much worse than it had to be. He must have sensed something was wrong because he touched her shoulder softly.

"Are you okay?" Finn asks, a concerned look on his face. She tried her best to smile at him as they paused outside the airport.

"Yeah, just tired from the flight" Rachel said and smiled at him

"Not too tired, I hope" Blaine says grinning. She and Kurt look at him confusedly as Finn joins him with a smirk.

"What do you mean?" Kurt asks

"Well, the glee club is all meeting up tonight at Puck's" Finn replies, and Rachel finds herself girnning. She couldn't wait to see Tina and Mercedes again. Noah was someone she had found herself missing as well as the weeks had gone by. Jake was similar in many regards to him, but there was nothing quite like the original.

"I've missed him so much, all of the glee kids" Rachel says happily.

"Yeah he wanted to come, but his pool cleaning business has really taken off this summer" Finn responds, as they load their bags into the two cars. "We're meeting around six"

Rachel nods as they all hug one more time, before she climbs into the back of her dads car. Finn, waves at her as they drive off. When they pull out of the airport carpack, she lets out a heavy sigh. That had been harder than she thought it would be, thanks to Finns surprise appearance. She didn't think he would come, and as she thought about how she was going to tell him about James, her phone buzzed with a message from Kurt.

Sorry! Didn't know Finn was coming. I know that was awkward for you

Rachel smiled as she read the text, before sending a quick reply telling him that it was okay. She knows that Kurt would never have kept something like that from her if he had known. He had been surprisingly supportive of her decision to breakup with his step-brother, agreeing with the reasoning behind it. She sighed as her dads asked her a question.

"It was nice of Finn to come meet you at the airport" Hiram said tentatively, looking back at her in the backseat. She smiled at him slightly.

"I didn't know he was…but it was nice" Rachel said softly, biting her lip.

"Does he…" LeRoy asked, pausing for a few moments. "Does Finn know about what has happened in New York…between you and James?"

"No…" Rachel sighed out, leaning her head back against the car seat.

"You need to tell him sweetie" LeRoy added gently, and Rachel nodded still not looking at him.

She knew that she had too, her dads weren't helping in that regard. This was a difficult matter, how could she tell the guy that she had been in love with for so long that she had met someone else over the summer. She didn't know if Finn had accepted her decision and moved on, but she knew that he still had feelings for her; if he loved her as much as he told her a few months ago then she had a feeling that it wouldn't have vanished just because she hadn't been around for a few weeks.

Her thoughts drifted off to this summer as she smiled. Her thoughts were lingering on James as they pulled into her driveway. She hopped out of the car, helping her dads to unload the bags. Thirty minutes later, Rachel was sat on her bed looking around her room. She smiled, she hadn't been in this room for a month but nothing had changed. She didn't really know what she had expected would be the case; no one had been in her room so nothing would have changed or been moved about. Rachel sighed, she just felt like even though she was glad to be home; there was something not quite right about it. Her eyes lingered on a picture that was sat on her dressing table. It was a picture of her and Finn from the summer before. They were by the lake at were clearly happily in love with one another. Finding herself standing in front of it, she reached out and picked it up. Smiling sadly, Rachel opened the top drawer and placed it face down inside, putting the memories to the back of her mind as she walked into the bathroom to get ready for the glee club party.

….

A few hours later, and Rachel was walking arm in arm with Kurt and Blaine on either side of her. they had come to hers half an hour earlier before they all headed to Puck's together. Blaine had been charming and complimented her on the look. Kurt had simply stood there with a smug on his face; nodding slowly before saying something about his work was almost complete with her. She was wearing a red poker dot dress, with white high heels on her. She hadn't done anything special with her hair, just pulled it back in a loose bun at the top of her head with her bangs framing her face. Along the way, Rachel had told Blaine about her summer in New York; he was eager to get her point of view after hearing Kurt's. He didn't mention anything, but Rachel had a feeling that Kurt had filled him on James. Blaine asked about the friends she had made as they walked up Puck's street.

"And Kurt tells me some of them are from Oregon?" Blaine asks with a smile that Rachel sees is secretly sly as he glances at Kurt who is wearing a smirk on his face.

"Yeah" Rachel nodded, smiling softly. If he was going to try and play around with her, she wasn't going to let up so easily. She felt a slight amount of anger at Kurt for telling Blaine, she wanted to keep her relationship with James secret for now; at least until she could find a way to tell Finn. She couldn't blame Kurt though, he was happy for her and she couldn't expect him to lie to Blaine on her behalf. She knew what it was like for someone you love to lie to you. "A few of them. A couple are from California and the others are from Carmel"

"That's nice, tell me about these ones from Oregon though" Blaine said and Rachel rolled her eyes.

"Okay, well Matt is really sweet. A bit of jerk at times but he's really great" Rachel replied; smiling "Lucy is his girlfriend, and she's a bit like Quinn. Blonde, very pretty but a lot nicer"

Rachel paused for a moment, as they walked in silence for a few moments. She felt her chest tighten as she thought about him. "And then there's James…he's…."

"Your boyfriend?" Blaine added, raising an eyebrow as Kurt giggled next to him. Rachel smiled at them before she punched them both on the shoulder.

"Kurt…." Rachel moaned, exasperated. "You told him"

"I'm sorry, but I just had to" Kurt said apologetically although he knew that she was fine with it.

"I'm really happy for you Rachel" Blaine said as they walked up the path to Puck's house. "You deserve to be with someone who treats you correctly, especially after all that happened last year"

Rachel grinned and pulled him into a hug as they knocked on Puck's front door. She bit her lip as they stood there, before she spoke "Thank you, and I really like him. He's so amazing. Not to mention hot, and cute and stop me when I get too carried away"

"Oh don't worry about it. He sounds great and I can't wait to meet him" Blaine said, Rachel grinned and before she could respond someone interrupted them.

"Meet who?" Came a voice as they turned to see the door open to reveal Finn. He was stood wearing a blue shirt, and his half smile as he gazed at her. Rachel stood there awkwardly for a moment before Blaine came to her rescue.

"Some guy that Kurt met while they were in New York" Blaine said smiling, patting Finn's shoulder as they walked into the house. Finn hung back and hugged her before they walked into the house heading towards the lounge. As soon as she walked into the room, Rachel quickly headed towards Puck who pulled her into a gigantic bear hug; when he put her down she kissed his cheek as he rubbed her shoulders.

"I missed you my hot little jewish princess" Puck smirked, as he released her. She hugged him gently once again.

"I missed you two Noah" Rachel replied before heading to get reacquainted with the other glee clubs members.

She had spent the first half an hour being passed around the glee club as each of them hugged and welcomed her home. Rachel was a little surprised at the fact that even Santana had greeted her warmly. When she had left Ohio for the New York, Santana had still been furious about the fact her and Finn ruined nationals for the club. She pondered the strangeness of hugging Santana before Noah called her attention and she spent a quarter of an hour telling him brief bits of her time in New York while Finn stood near listeneing.

An hour and a half later, Rachel was sat with Blaine, Mercedes, Tina and Kurt. They had been discussing how excited they were to go back to McKinley in a couple of weeks; sharing ideas that they had for new songs that could help them win Sectionals. Rachel was so happy to be in Ohio. She had fun with the guys in New York, but there was something perfect about being around the people she had spent the last two years of her life with.

"You haven't told us much about New York" Tina asked, as there was a lull in the conversation. Rachel took a drink as she smiled.

"There's a lot to tell I guess. We were there for a month" Rachel replied. "I met a ton of people. The classes were amazing, I feel like I have a whole new respect for myself. Spending the summer with people are as talented as me made me realize how hard I need to work to achieve what I want"

"They were all as good as you?" Artie asked, a look of shock in his face. Rachel nodded.

Kurt sat with a knowing look on his face. "Some were even better"

"That's really scary...dozens of Rachel's and Kurt's" Mercedes replied giggling.

They were laughing loudly, and Rachel gazed around the room. Puck, Finn and Mike were stood drinking and talking; she couldn't but smile. He looked happy, and she was glad that he hadn't been caught up on her all summer, from what she had heard he had been working at Burt's to try and get some money saved up for college. He glanced over as she was watching him. She gulped under his gaze, and he gave her a smile. She felt the heat rise in her cheeks, as he caught her gaze; she quickly looked away to see that Mercedes and Tina were watching her.

"He missed you this summer" Tina said said simply. That snapped Rachel's attention fully back from her daydream.

"Who?" She asked softly, trying to play ignorant. She didn't want to get into this conversation.

"Who do you think? Finn of course" Mercedes replied. Rachel smiled slightly.

"Did he bring it up with you yet?" Artie asked, she glanced at Kurt with worried eyes.

"Bring what up?" Kurt intercepted the question

"You two getting back together?" Mercedes replied. Rachel closed her eyes. If they were right and Finn wanted to get back together then that was going to make her conversation really awkward for both of them.

"No...and I don't want him to either" Rachel said softly, noticing the raised eyebrows and confused expressions on their faces. Eager to finish this conversation. She hadn't thought of how to tell Finn and certainly didn't want to discuss it with these guys first. "Can we just...drop it please? I don't want to talk about this"

"Wait...you're not going to get back together with him?" Tina asked, a surprised tone in her voice. "I know that you two broke up...but I didn't think that was it. What happened?"

"Nothing I've just realised that I don't want to be in a relationship with him any more" Rachel replied, feeling a tear welling in her eye.

"Wow...we always thought that you two would be endgame. That'd you would always be the one for each other..."

"Things changed" Rachel said as a tear leaked from her eye. Tina opened her mouth to question further when Kurt interupted.

"Just leave it alone" He said firmly, Rachel nodded and stood up and went into Noah's kitchen to calm herself down.

When she walked into the kitchen, she leant against the counter and wiped her eyes. Staring at her feet she took several deep breaths to calm herself. She wasn't really mad at the fact that they were questioning her; she knew where they were coming from. Her and Finn always seemed to have the inevitability to being together; something she herself had always believed in. It took meeting James to change her mind on that and of course the glee kids couldn't understand that when they didn't even know about him.

"Hey Rachel...is everything okay?" Rachel heard Finn's voice. Gulping she raised her head and looked at him as he stared at her with concerned eyes. Frustrated she nodded and tried to walk past him, but he gripped her arm gently and she spun to face him.

"Get off me" She said a little more viciously than she intended.

"Woah" He replied releasing her arm quickly. "I'm sorry, I just wanted to make sure that you're okay"

"I'm fine Finn. Really" She replied, wiping the tear from her cheek. She just wanted to get out of the room.

"Okay" He said sceptically. "Listen, its really great to have you back. I was wondering if you wanted to hang out sometime next week? You know as friends...get reacquainted"

"Fine, that sounds nice" She said, smiling and started to walk out the room.

"Monday?"

Rachel turned and she nodded at him, a blank expression on her face. She then headed back into the lounge and saw Kurt and Blaine stood talking to Mercedes. Kurt waved her over. As she reached them Mercedes pulled her into a hug that Rachel returned before looking at her with a strange expression as they pulled apart.

"What was that for?" Rachel asked confused, Kurt looked at her apologetically

"I told her about James" Kurt admitted and Rachel looked at him with a hurt expression.

"What? Why-"

"I shouldn't have pressured you about Finn" Mercedes interrupted. "I was worried about you and he told me. I'm happy for you"

"Thanks..." Rachel replied smiling softy. "I promise I'll tell you about him next week...I just wanted to get through tonight and figure out how I'm going to tell Finn"

"I understand" Mercedes says smiling at Rachel. "Now come on, tell me about New York"

Rachel giggled, before launching into an animated explanation about her time this summer. She was the happiest she'd been today, talking about all the classes she'd attended at NYADA and Julliard. She couldn't help but grin as she talked about the people she and Kurt had met. She explained a brief amount about James and how she had met him; Mercedes knew not to push it too much with who was about and Rachel kept it simple.

"Well, he sounds really great" Mercedes smiled, and Rachel blushed bowing her head shyly.

"Yeah he is" Rachel replied softly. "He's actually coming to visit next week"

Mercedes eyebrows raised as Rachel giggled at her reaction. "Really?"

"Mhmm" Rachel nodded, "I'm going to show him around, and introduce him to everyone. I should have spoken to Finn by then"

"Any ideas about how you're going to do that" Blaine asked as he chewed on a breadstick.

Kurt and her shared a glance and he smiled at her. A lot of what had happened in the past about between them had been down to lack of honesty. In this case, she knew that being frank and honest with him about what was going to happen between them was the best.

"Honesty" Rachel said smiling sadly. Mercedes nodded, and Blaine squeezed her hand gently.

The party went on for another couple of hours, as the glee kids enjoyed welcoming back Rachel and Kurt from New York. It didn't take long before some karaoke took place. Always eager to perform, Rachel sung with Kurt; as well as with Puck and some of the others. Eventually the party died down as people started to leave. Rachel again shared an embrace with Finn as her, Blaine and Kurt left; as she reassured him that they would meet up and talk during the next few days. Blaine and Kurt walked her home, bidding her farewell as well as saying goodnight to her Dads.

Rachel talked with them for a little while as they watched a talent show as they did every night on a Saturday. Rachel giggled as the judges criticized a particularly bad contestant who was auditioning. Her thoughts drifted off to James, remembering how he had told her about how he loved these types of programmes and she smiled at the thought. Leroy had just come into the room and handed her a mug of hot chocolate when her phone rang. Hiram was sat nearest the coffee table where it had been placed when she came in the door, and as he picked it up a smile grew on his lips. Handing it to her he winked, and as she took it; the picture of her and James was visible causing her to smile widely. Jumping off the sofa she went into the kitchen, eager to talk to him alone.

"Oh my god, I'm so happy you called" Rachel practically yelled as she answered the phone; giggling when she heard the laughter on the other end.

"Wow, someone misses me" James teased, and Rachel couldn't help but bite her lip.

"I do…don't you miss me?" Rachel asks, and she hears him sigh out.

"Of course I do" He responds quietly. "I missed the sound of your voice…are you oaky?"

"I'm better now you called me" Rachel replied, feeling her eyes beginning to start to well with tears. She really did feel better talking to him. She'd just had to sit through a party in the presence of the guy she didn't want to be close to while James was so far away. Sniffing, she tried to stop herself from tearing up. "How was your day?"

"It was good. We went to watch a couple of really bad comedy films…then my mom cooked us dinner" James replied and she could hear that he was trying to sound happy for her; but he wasn't truly, the same way she wasn't. "What about you? Break in to any spontaneous song and dance with Kurt?"

Rachel laughed, and her heart fluttered at the sound of him laughing with down the phone. Even when he was down and upset; James was trying to do the best to cheer her up. "Maybe one or two."

"Did you get to see your friends again?"

"Yeah, the glee club had a party at Noah's house" Rachel said still smiling. James remained silent and she realised that he may not remember exactly who she was talking about. "I called him Puck when I told you about him. He's the one that Jake reminded me off"

"Oh right" He replied, and she giggled as he continued "The douche who is in love with himself…at least that's Jake"

"Something like that" Rachel said smiling happily to herself. "But it was fun to see them again. It's been a month since I last did, and it just feels so strange. I kept looking around half expecting you or Matt to be there"

"I wish I was…" He said softly, and she felt her heart flutter again at how gentle his voice was. He didn't respond for a few seconds and she smiled relieved when he muttered out a response. "I'm glad you had a good time babe."

"Me too" Rachel replied smiling, "It'll be even better when you're here next week. I'm going to start on a formal plan tomorrow for us."

As he laughed down the phone, and she joined in, Rachel knew that she had cheered him up; just as he had her. When he spoke again he his voice sounded more upbeat and warm as they talked for a further hour, during which time her Dads came in and told her they were going to bed. Eventually she found herself lying on her back on her bed staring up at the ceiling as she listened to James telling him about the was past midnight by the time they stopped talking.

"Well…I should go; let you get to your moisturising routine before its too late" He said, and Rachel laughed.

"Thank you, and you need to get to sleep for your flight tomorrow" Rachel said

"I'll call you in the morning when we get to the airport…going to have some spare time to pass before our flight" James said, as she heard a door close; he had obviously just headed into his room.

"Okay" Rachel replied and she bit her lip as she thought through calling him Baby. He had called it her, and she felt as though she wanted to say it to him; almost as a right of passage in their relationship that she was comfortable with him as he was with her. "Sleep tight baby"

He paused for a moment, and Rachel smiled as she swore she could hear him grin through the phone. He finally responded in the gentle, soft voice that made her heart flutter. "Goodnight Rachel"

Hanging up the phone, Rachel sighed happily; glad that she been able to talk to him tonight. The party at Noah's had left her a little disconcerted about being back home. But thanks to James being that amazing guy, simply hearing his voice and listening to him talk had calmed her and she felt relaxed about being back home.

….