TITLE: 3 Weeks, 5 Days, 4 Hours and 22 Minutes

SUMMARY: What are you supposed to do after you've said "I love you" to the girl of your dreams? ... Especially when she didn't say it back?

SPOILERS: All of Season One

DISCLAIMER: Glee - and all its associates, affiliates, conglomerates, and federates - is not mine. (I'm workin' on it, though!)

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry for the long wait, everybody! I should have known better than to start a new fic right before the beginning of the school year. Hope you like it! As usual, reviews are love. :-)

Promise

(T minus 3w, 2d, 8h, 26m)

The car glides silently to a stop in front of a modern, split-level house. It's a clear, starlit night, and a soft breeze rustles the leaves of the large willow tree that dominates the front lawn. Slowly, carefully, the driver's side door of the car opens, and a tall (almost freakishly so), lanky figure emerges. Dressed head to toe in dark denim, it would be reasonable to assume that this person had delinquent intentions. But then, as he turns toward the house, his face is illuminated by a streetlight. The mixture of hope, nervousness and slight embarrassment on the young man's face indicates that his intentions are nowhere near delinquent. He looks as though he is going to meet his girlfriend's parents for the very first time. Given, however, that the house is completely dark, save for a dim light in one of the second-floor windows, one wonders if perhaps he has shown up on the wrong day. (Which, to be honest, isn't entirely outside the realm of possibility.) Hurrying up the front walk in a gait that could be describe as nimble if it didn't look so awkward, the young man reaches the mailbox beside the mahogany door, slips a bright pink envelope inside, and hurries back to his car. He drives off as slowly as he arrived, as though he is afraid of running over an animal or a child. (Or a mailman.)

As soon as Finn reaches the bottom of the stairs to their bedroom, Kurt practically attacks him, frog-marching him into the centre of the room.

"Did you do it? Did you do it? Did you do it? Did you? Tell me you did it!"

Laughing, Finn disentangles himself from Kurt. "Yeah, man. I did it. Rach is gonna be so excited when she gets her first secret love letter tomorrow. That was such a great idea, Kurt. You're brilliant."

"Yes. I really am."

"And thanks for helping me with the spelling and stuff, too. If there were too many mistakes, Rach would know it was me, and then - "

"And then all of our plans would go to waste, which would be such a shame. So, it's a good thing, too, that no one saw you leave the note. Right?"

"Right."

In the late afternoon sun, the modern, split-level house doesn't look nearly as imposing as it does at night. The willow tree in the yard and the rhododendron bushes that line the front walk soften the sharp lines of the building, making it look like a real home, as opposed to an example of architectural excellence. A cobalt blue Mercedes sedan pulls into the drive, and an impossibly good-looking African-American man gets out. He walks up the driveway, pulling his keys out of his pocket. At the door, he uses one hand to insert the key into the lock, and the other hand to clear all the bills, flyers, and other detritus from the mailbox. As he does so, a bright pink envelope catches his eye. Stepping into the house, he rests his keys and the other mail on the hall table, and tears open the envelope excitedly. As he reads, his expression changes from shock, to confusion, and then to barely-contained mirth. Looking up the spiral staircase in the foyer to the next level of the house, he calls "Honey! Are you home? There's something that you absolutely need to see."

An older, slightly balding man steps out from one of the rooms. He looks exactly like the stereotypical Jewish lawyer his mother had always wanted him to be. (She never quite got over the fact that he chose landscape design instead.) "Yes, David? What is it?"

"No, no... I can't tell you. You must come down here immediately and see for yourself. Trust me, Joshua. This is something that needs to be witnessed up close and personal."

Making his way down the stairs, Joshua smiles inwardly at David's dramatics. They may not know for sure who Rachel's biological father is, but he's pretty sure that it's not him. Taking the piece of pink paper from David's outstretched hand, he begins to read aloud:

"Dear Rachel,

You are the most beautiful girl I have ever known. Your eyes are like huge plates of melted dark chocolate, drizzled with hot, sticky caramel. Your teeth are so pearly and white, I bet you've never had to use those whitening strips they advertise on TV all the time. And your hair is a river of dark brown silk that ripples gently like the McKinley flag does when it's kind of windy outside. And your lips... they're the best thing about you, even when you're talking too much. They're full, and soft, and pink, and look just like berries, which is cool since your last name is Berry, too. I wish I could kiss your lips, and play with your hair, and look into your eyes and tell you how much I love you. I wish I could see your smile when you tell me that you love me back. Maybe if I write you enough of these notes, it will happen some day.

Love,

Your Secret Admirer"

"Well", says Joshua. "Um... That's... Um..."

"I know! Our sweet baby girl is receiving love letters! From a secret admirer! Isn't that just so wonderfully romantic you could die?"

"Well, I guess so. But, I can't say that I'm all that impressed by his writing. 'Huge plates of melted dark chocolate'? That's not really something to gush over."

"Oh, honey", sighs David. "You don't have a single romantic bone in your body, do you. Believe me: this is teenage puppy love at its finest, and I'm so happy that it's finally happening for our little Rachel! And speaking of... should we tell her? You know she won't be back from Columbus until Friday. I simply don't understand why your mother insists that Rachel needs an entirely new wardrobe before she leaves for camp. I just bought her an entire catalogue of new clothes last month!"

"Relax, David. You know how much both sets of grandparents love to spoil their youngest grandchild. It's their God-given duty... or so your mother says. Anyway, no. I don't think we should tell Rachel yet. I want to make sure that this boy's intentions are honourable. There's no point getting her hopes up, in case this turns out to be a fluke. Or worse, a prank. You know how hard it is for Rachel at school. I don't want to risk her getting hurt again. So, let's see if this boy leaves another note. If he does, it means he's serious about Rachel, and we can go from there."

"Well, alright. But you know she's going to murder us when she finds out that we kept this important, life-changing news from her."

"Maybe. But she can't kill us when she's 150 miles away at camp, now can she?"

"Oooohh, I love it when you're evil! It's so sexy!"

Finn leaves love letters for Rachel three more times that week. Each time he does, his excitement grows at the thought of her reaction as she reads them. Does she like it when he tells her that her "skin glows like you're being attacked by a thousand fireflies"? Or that he "wishes I could feel your long legs moving between mine as we dance under the lights of the football stadium"? Or that her "voice makes my heart hurt in a really good way, like when you get a brain freeze from drinking a Slushie too fast"?

Finn also imagines what she's going to say to him when he finally comes clean. He imagines her throwing her arms around him and kissing him until he sees stars. He imagines her bursting into tears because she's so happy that they're finally together. He imagines picking her up by her tiny waist and swinging her around and around and around, until they're both dizzy with laughter, joy, and love.

The only thing Finn doesn't imagine is getting caught by Rachel's fathers.

Which happens on the night he leaves his last note for her. As he opens the lid of the mailbox, all of the porch lights come on, and so do the floodlights on the lawn (who the heck has floodlights on their lawn?). To make things even worse, the front door swings open and both of Rachel's dads are standing there. The black one looks like he wants to reach out and smother him in a hug. Which is good, because the white one looks like he wants to reach out and snap his neck. Finn finally knows what "Caught like a deer in headlights" means, which is good because he never really understood that expression. Like, how could a deer possibly fit inside a headlight? Deers are, like, a million times bigger than even the biggest headlight, so how could you catch one with it? Anyway...

"Well, hello there, young man", Rachel's black dad says. "I'm so glad to finally meet the boy who loves Rachel almost as much as we do."

"Uh, hello, Mr. Berry", Finn stammers.

"Oh, you can call me 'David'. We're practically like family now!"

Finn offers his hand to David, who grabs it immediately and pulls Finn into a gigantic, bone-crushing bear hug. Releasing him, David turns to Joshua and says, "And this is Rachel's other dad, Joshua."

"You can call me Mr. Berry", Joshua says, barely shaking Finn's hand.

"Um... is Rachel home?", Finn asks. He figures that having her there will make things a little less awkward, especially if she tells her dads how much the love letters have meant to her.

"No, I'm afraid she's in Columbus until Friday", Joshua says.

"You mean she hasn't been getting my letters?", Finn blurts. Seeing the look on Joshua's face, he adds, "Please, Mr. Berry, sir?"

"No, honey. We have", David replies gently.

Mortified, Finn stares at the ground, desperately hoping that it will open up and swallow him whole. This is, with out a doubt, the worst night of his life, and if he died in the next thirty seconds, he'd actually be relieved.

"Yes. We've read every note you've sent to Rachel, Mr. Hudson."

At this, Finn's head snaps up. "How'd you know my last name?", repeating "Please, Mr. Berry, sir?" for good measure.

"Rachel used to talk about you a lot. About how good looking you were, about how talented you were, about how happy she was to finally have a leading man in her life. And about how you broke her heart. Twice."

The blush that had been creeping up Finn's neck as Joshua spoke fades almost instantly.

"Which is why, Mr. Hudson, we would like to know just what, exactly, your intentions are. Do you really love Rachel? Or are you just using her again?"

Before Finn can respond, David cuts in with, "Oh, Joshua. Stop it already! You're going to give the poor boy a heart attack! You know as well as I do that those notes were real. Finn loves our baby girl, and he would never do anything to hurt her. Isn't that right?"

"Oh yes, sir, Mr. Berry - uh, Mr. Berrys sirs. I love Rachel more than anything I've ever loved in my life. I used to be so confused about what I wanted, and I know I hurt her because of it, even though I didn't mean to, I swear! I promise that I won't hurt Rachel again. I know that I have to earn back her trust and love, which is why I'm doing all this stuff. I guess you could say I'm... I'm courting her." If there was ever a time that Finn was glad to be living with Kurt, that time was now. At his words, David started to cry, and Joshua's face softened. (Just a little.)

"Alright. If you are as serious about Rachel as you say you are, then we need to do this properly." Looking Finn right in the eye, Joshua continues. "As you know, Rachel will be back in Lima on Friday. On Saturday, you are coming over for dinner, and the four of us will get to know each other a little better. Understand?"

"Oh, yes, sir. Absolutely, Mr. Berry."

"Good. Until Saturday, then. 7:00. Don't be late."

With that, they close the door and turn off the lights, leaving Finn to hurry back to his car and drive off as fast as he can. (Mailmen be damned.)

As soon as Finn enters the room, he collapses on his bed and moans, "My. Life. Is. Over."

"What happened?", Kurt asks.

"Rachel hasn't been getting my notes."

"She hasn't? Who has?'

"Her fathers."

Kurt gasps so sharply, he staggers backwards and tumbles onto the fainting couch behind him, purchased last year in the case of emergency. And, if this isn't an emergency, he doesn't know what is.

"Oh my god what are you going to do?"

"Well, I can't kill myself, because I have to go back over there for dinner on Saturday, once Rachel gets back into town."

"Oh. Well. You're definitely going to have to bring your A-game, then. You simply cannot screw this up." At Finn's pathetic moan, Kurt replies, "Leave it to me, brother. I know just what to do."

Under different circumstances, Finn would (gently) point out that he was not Kurt's brother. But, he's so drained by the night's events, he doesn't have the energy.

Plus, he kind of likes the way Kurt says "brother". It sounds... nice.