A Tempo

Chapter Four: Unsolicited Advice

"Rachel," Maura Kutner said, delicately patting at her mouth with a silk napkin, "there are a few things I would like to discuss with you."

Rachel groaned inwardly. She had agreed to meet her in-laws for brunch in order to pick up the boys, and while the meal had started out pleasantly enough, she had a feeling that it was about to take a negative turn.

"Do we really have to do this now, Maura?" Benjamin asked, not bothering to look up from his newspaper.

Maura ignored her husband and looked at Rachel archly. "The boys informed me that you chose to take them out celebrating on the anniversary of David's…" She cast a glance over at the boys to make sure that they weren't listening before leaning over to whisper, "…death."

Rachel set down her fork, her appetite for the fruit salad in front of her now gone. "Maura, I can assure you that I did nothing of the sort."

"Well, what would you call gallivanting around Central Park as if you didn't have a care in the world? If you wanted to observe the day, there were a number of other suitable activities that you and the boys could have participated in. I know for a fact that Rabbi Dweck would have been more than happy to sit down with you in order to think of some other options."

"I'm sorry, Maura, but I just don't think you understand what my intentions were. I wanted to do something that we liked to do together as a family. I didn't mean any disrespect."

"Oh?" she said. "Then how do you justify spending the day with another man?"

"Ex-excuse me?" Rachel gasped. She looked over at Michael and he met her gaze with a steady one of his own before turning back to his new coloring book. That little turd.

"They told me all about it, how you met up with this Flynn fellow –"

"It's Finn."

"– and how you spent the afternoon with him."

"It wasn't like that at all!" Rachel protested. She absolutely hated how Maura could make her feel like a child. "He's just an old friend that we ran into at the park."

"I really don't think it is appropriate for you to be bringing strange men around the boys so soon after David's passing."

"Maura, not that it's any of your business and I cannot believe that I am stooping so low as to defend myself against these unfounded accusations, but I can assure that I am not seeing Finn in a romantic capacity. Like I said before, he is just an old friend who was very, very nice to me and the boys on a day when we really needed it. And, not that it matters, I doubt we'll be seeing very much of him in the future."

She paused to take a deep breath before quickly adding, "And even if I was seeing Finn that way, I would say that a year of mourning would satisfy even the most stringent of social decorum."

"Darling," Maura sighed, "I'm not saying that you can't have friends. I'm just suggesting that you should be a little more discerning about who you bring around my grandchildren. We don't even know who this man is."

"But I know who he is. And they are my children."

"Children you can hardly take care of on your own, Rachel. Do you think it's good for them to be living in that tiny apartment while you work as a waitress?"

"I wouldn't have to work as a waitress if you would just let me sell the house."

"No," Maura said stubbornly. "We've had this discussion. That house was David's legacy and the boys have every right to do with it as they wish. Besides, it was Benjamin's mother's home and it would just break my heart to see it leave the family."

"You hated my mother," Benjamin replied from behind the paper. "And the deed is in Rachel's name now."

"I did not," Maura hurried to say, actually looking a little frazzled. "Anyway, Rachel, I'm just asking you to consider what I'm saying. I understand that you want to live your own life; it's just obviously overwhelming for you and Benjamin and I are only here to help."

"Well, I truly thank you for the unsolicited advice, Maura," Rachel said wryly. "I'll let you know if we need anything."

"There is one more thing I wanted to discuss with you."

"Yes?"

"We've rented a house in Nantucket for the week of the 26th and we would like to take the boys with us. We would pick them up as usual the Friday before and have them to you the following Sunday. What do you think?"

"I don't know. You know how Andy gets when he's been away from me for too long."

"He's been much better lately. Why, he didn't give me any problems this weekend. And there will be other children there for the boys to play with. Benjamin's sisters are joining us with their children and grandchildren."

"Oh, that's nice," Rachel lied. She hated David's cousins and their kids were just as horrible.

"I really want to go, Mama," Michael said.

"Me too," Andrew chimed in.

"Think about it. It will be good for you; you can have a little time for yourself to relax and not worry about the boys."

Oh yes, a week of pulling double shifts and coming home to an empty apartment just sounded delightful.

"It's not as if you are able to take the boys on a vacation right now anyway; they deserve to have a little fun over their summer break," Maura said, digging the metaphorical knife in a little more and twisting it for good measure.

Rachel didn't want to admit that Maura was right, but it was for the boys. And she was pretty sure that spending so much time at Mrs. Nedry's was giving Andrew allergies. "Sure," she finally allowed. "I don't see why not. It sounds like they'll have lots of fun."

Maura gave a satisfied smile and took a sip of her water. "See, aren't things so much nicer when we all get along?"

"Aren't things so much nicer when we all get along?" Rachel mimicked quietly as she stirred the sauce for their dinner that night. What was it about Maura Kutner that made her feel like an incompetent child? She just hated how she continually used Michael and Andrew to manipulate her. What infuriated her even more, though, was that try as she might, Rachel had no idea how to end it.

"Andrew, stop it!" she heard Michael snap from the living room.

"Hey!" she called. "What's the problem?"

"Andrew's coloring too hard with our new crayons and he keeps snapping them!"

"Well then I'll buy you a new box. It's no big deal."

Michael made a face. "But you always buy us the small boxes. This one has 96 colors in it!"

"Michael," she said in exasperation, "what is up with this little attitude you've had lately?"

"What attitude?"

"That attitude," Rachel pointed out. "You never used to be so rude with me and I really don't appreciate it. I have enough to worry about with work and making sure that you and your brother don't kill each other to put up with your disrespectful manners. I don't have the time or the energy. So knock it off or say goodbye to Nantucket. Do you understand me?"

"That's no fair!" he protested.

"And the way you're treating me is fair? I'm sorry Michael, but if things don't change around here, you'll have to stay with Mrs. Nedry all week while Andy goes with Bubbe and Granddad."

"I'm sorry," he grumbled into his coloring book.

"Look, baby," she said, setting the sauce on simmer, "I know things are tough right now, but we've got to stick together. I need you just as much as you need me, and our family doesn't work if we're not getting along, okay?"

Michael nodded but didn't meet her eye.

"And one other thing," she added. "I don't think you need to report everything we do back to Bubbe."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, what we do here with our own time, that's our business. She doesn't have to know every single thing we do every single day that we don't see her. Just like how we don't know what she and Granddad do all the time. Or what Grandpa and Pops do out in Ohio," Rachel explained.

"So what am I supposed to do if she asks?"

"Well, I don't want you to lie." She paused to think of a good example. "Okay, let's just say that we go out to dinner three times in one week and Bubbe asks what we did. So, we just say we went out to dinner. And if she asks where, we tell her one of the places we went. And if she asks with whom, we say it was just the three of us. See! It's easy."

Michael looked unsure and was about to respond when Rachel's cell phone began ringing on the coffee table. "I got it!" Andrew cried.

"Andy, just leave it," Rachel said, heading back to the kitchen. She was checking on the pasta when she heard Andrew's chipper voice.

"Hello? …no, it's Andrew! Who's this?"

"Andrew," she hissed. "I told you not to answer!"

"Hiya, Finn!" Andrew giggled, causing Rachel's heart to skip a beat.

"Why is he calling here?" Michael asked.

"Andy, give Mama the phone," she ordered as she reached for it, but he ducked out of her reach. She almost tripped over Michael, who was right on her heels.

"How did he get our number?" he demanded.

"Michael, what is your problem? Seriously, you liked him the other day," she commented, trying to corner Andrew who was having a rip roaring good time with Finn on the phone. Who knew what Finn was saying to him, but he was laughing hysterically at whatever it was.

"Ha!" Rachel laughed triumphantly when she grabbed the little boy around his waist. "Gotcha!" It took her a moment to wrestle the phone out of his hands.

"Hello?" she gasped upon finally freeing the phone from Andrew.

Finn was chuckling on the line and it took him a moment to answer. "Hey, Rach. What's going on?"

"Oh you know, cooking dinner, tackling three year olds to the floor. The usual."

"Mom," Michael shouted. "Mom, mom!"

"What is it, baby?"

"You didn't answer my question! Why is he calling?"

"Hang on just a second, Finn," she said, placing her hand over the mouthpiece. "Michael, I am on the phone. Now will you settle down and watch your brother for a minute?"

She walked to her bedroom, Michael still right behind her. "Is this one of those things I'm not supposed to tell Bubbe?" he asked as she shut the door in his face.

"I'm sorry; it's just a little crazy around here at the moment."

"I can tell," he replied. "You can call me back later if you need to."

"Oh no, I have a minute! What's up?"

She heard Finn clear his throat. "Well, you never called me about your schedule," he said seriously.

"What's that?"

"So we can figure out when I can take you and the boys to dinner," he reminded her.

"Oh, that…" she trailed off. She was hoping he had forgotten about that. Although it did sound delightful, even with Michael acting like such a brat all of a sudden. "Well, I'm working double shifts on Monday and Tuesday and those really wear me out –"

"Rachel," Finn interrupted, "stop trying to blow me off. I don't know what happened on Friday to scare you, but I want to take you, Michael, and Andrew out and I won't stop bugging you until you agree. Now when's your next night off?"

Rachel felt her temper flair up slightly. Just who did he think he was? But instead of telling him what's what, she sighed and shuffled around in her purse for her weekly schedule. "I'm working the early shift on Wednesday," she said, "and I'm off on Thursday and Sunday."

"Great! I know this great Italian place and then maybe we can take the guys to see a movie or something. There's a new Disney movie with singing anteaters."

"They're aardvarks, actually," she laughed.

"So are you in?" he asked hopefully.

She bit her lip and tried to think of a good excuse but Michael chose that moment to begin banging on her door. "Mom! Where's dinner? I'm hungry!"

Screw it, she thought.

"You know what, Finn? That sounds like fun."

Finn took a big bite of his ice cream cone before it could melt down his hand and grinned widely at Rachel. He hadn't had this much fun without drinking in probably… well, he couldn't remember. He had actually looked forward to tonight all week and his workday seemed to drag on and on. Usually he was one of the last to leave, but he managed to sneak out at four thirty so he could rush over to his apartment and straighten up before Rachel and the boys showed up. He even managed to squeeze in a quick walk for Tank.

He had taken them to this Italian restaurant where the waiters and cooks did all sorts of tricks and stuff with the dough and pasta like in that movie Big. He had found it a few months back but hadn't actually gone because he didn't want to seem like a creeper, but Michael and Andrew gave him the perfect excuse to finally go.

Rachel really seemed to be enjoying herself too, which was a great relief. He honestly had no idea what caused her to freak out the last time they met, but he wasn't going to let her get away with one of her fits and leave him in the dust for no good reason. He tried to replay the encounter in his head in order to pinpoint exactly when she started acting weird.

Maybe it was when she saw that picture of him and Audra in the Bahamas. Not that it really should have been a big deal, he and Rachel had been broken up for a long time before he even started dating Audra and it wasn't as if they were still seeing each other. In fact, he was pretty sure Audra was getting married to someone else, which didn't bug him in the least. But he did try and take a step back and see things from Rachel's point of view. He was pretty sure he wouldn't feel too hot if he saw pictures of her and David.

Andrew was skipping ahead of them giving them a play-by-play on everything that had happened that evening, his face covered in vanilla ice cream. "And then, did you see it when he caught all that dough in his mouth?"

"We were all there," Michael groused.

"Michael!" Rachel snapped for probably the zillionth time that evening and gave him a pretty dangerous look that made Finn cringe.

"Sorry about that," she said, looking back up at him. "He's been a real nightmare since he's been back from his grandparents."

"It's cool." Finn didn't know what was up with Michael; he had hardly cracked a smile all evening and kept making all sorts of sarcastic comments. He had to wonder what the kid's problem was, the restaurant that he had taken them to was awesome, he had bought them ice cream, and now they were going to see a movie; none of the guys his mom went out with did things like that for him. Well, except for Burt.

Not that he and Rachel were dating – wait a minute, that was it! Michael thought he was trying to move in on his mom! He would be lying to himself if he said he didn't scare off any of the more douchey of his mom's boyfriends. He got that.

Of course, this made him stop and think about what exactly he was doing with Rachel. He doubted she was looking for anything serious, but it was like there was this string pulling him to her and he had this strong need to be there for her. He wasn't going to take anymore than she had to give, and if that meant they were just friends, then that was it. And if it turned into something else, then they would cross the bridge when they got there.

He gave himself a mental pat on the back for that one; that was some pretty insightful stuff. He loved it when he surprised himself.

Rachel giggled and tilted her head, the straw to her smoothie at the corner of her mouth. Damn if she didn't look cute!

"What'd I do?" he asked, wondering if he had ice cream on his face or something.

"I was just thinking that every time I've seen you, you're either eating or thinking about eating."

"Oh," he laughed awkwardly. "Well, you know me, I'm always hungry."

"It's nice to know that some things don't change," she said a little sadly.

"You okay, Rach?"

"It just scares me a little. That we can get together like this and it's like we're in high school again, then I suddenly remember that it's really been seven years and you have this whole other life that I don't know about." She looked down at her feet. "I-I should have kept in touch."

"Aw, you didn't miss much," he said, trying to make the sad look on her face go away, "just a few frat parties and the Windy City. Which sucked by the way… Chicago, not the frat parties. Those were actually kind of fun."

She laughed, thank goodness. "So you wouldn't recommend moving to Chicago?"

"Not at all. If you think winter in Lima was tough, I dare you to see if you could survive a Chicago winter," he said with a shudder.

She smiled around her straw as she took a sip of her smoothie. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Really though, I wouldn't worry about it Rach. It's not like I'm going anywhere; we have all the time in the world to catch up."

Rachel nodded, considering what he had said. "Yeah, I suppose we do."

"Hey, Finn!" Andrew shouted, catching him around the legs.

He polished off his ice cream cone before leaning down to hoist Andrew onto his shoulders. "What's up, bud?"

"Have you ever been to Nah-tucket?" he asked.

"To where?" Finn asked, turning to Rachel in confusion. Big mistake. She was looking up at Andrew with a small smile playing at her lips, looking so perfect and happy in that one moment, that his heart nearly stopped right there in his chest.

"It's Nantucket, sweetie," she corrected softly.

Finn struggled a moment to find his voice before croaking hoarsely, "Nope, I've never been there."

"They're going with their grandparents in a couple of weeks," Rachel explained.

"My dad's parents," Michael chimed in. Yeah, this kid totally had it out for him.

"You're not going?" he said to Rachel, ignoring Michael's little jibe.

"No… I have work and it's mostly David's family anyway."

"So? You can't get any time off? And they're your family too, right?"

Rachel cleared her throat uncomfortably and focused on the cup in her hands. "Well… I wasn't really… invited."

"What?" Finn scoffed. They were in sight of the theater now, so he put Andrew back down and let him run ahead with Michael. "But they're your kids."

"I know," Rachel groaned. "It's just that… well… I don't want to burden you with my problems, Finn."

"Knock it off, Rach," he said, shoving his hands in his pockets. "You're not being a burden or irritating me or anything like that. If you were, I'd let you know. So just talk to me."

"You would not."

"Oh yeah? Well, you're annoying me right now by not telling me what's bugging you," he griped. "How was that?"

Rachel rolled her eyes, but he could tell she was more amused than irritated. "It's just another way that my mother-in-law uses the boys in order manipulate me. She wants us to move in with her so that she can control our lives."

"Why?"

"I don't know. She's been like this since day one and I just don't know how to put an end to it."

"You could tell her no," Finn suggested lightly.

She sighed. "I know I could, but she's David's mother and in the long run it would be Michael and Andrew who would suffer if I got on her bad side."

"You have to do what's best for them," he murmured more to himself than her. It was hard to reconcile the fact that Rachel really wasn't her own person anymore. Michael and Andrew were truly, one hundred and ten percent, her number one priority, no questions asked.

"Oh! Hang on a second," she called to the boys as her phone went off in her purse. She pulled it out and raised an eyebrow upon seeing the caller ID. "It's my sitter," she said. "Do you mind watching them for a second?"

"Sure," he said, taking her smoothie from her. He stood off to the side with the boys and waited as she took the call. He looked down at them and almost had to laugh when they both looked up at him with matching expressions. Sometimes little kids reminded him of Tank.

He looked at Rachel's smoothie in his hands, and his curiosity getting the best of him, he took a quick sip.

"Ew!" Michael cried. "You just drank out of my mom's cup."

"It's good," he commented, causing Andrew to giggle. At least one of them found him funny.

"Shoot!" he heard Rachel exclaim and he turned to look at her.

"Shoot, shoot, shoot," she said again, stamping her little foot as she did so.

"What's wrong?"

"That was Mrs. Nedry, the woman who watches the boys for me while I'm at work," she said. "She's going to Boston to see her daughter this weekend. I'm off on Sunday, so that's no big deal, but I'm pulling a double shift on Saturday. Crap! Now I'm going to have to call my mother-in-law…"

"Hey!" Finn said and put his hand on her phone to keep her from dialing. "I can watch them."

Rachel looked up at him uncertainly. "You?"

"Well… yeah. I'm good with kids. We get along, right guys?"

"Yup!" Andrew said. Michael didn't respond, but he didn't object either, so Finn took that as some sort of improvement.

"I can take them out to do something and then take them back to your place. It's no big deal," he insisted. "Really."

"Are you sure? They can be a handful. Believe it or not, this is probably their best behavior."

"Sure I'm sure," he laughed. Then an idea dawned on him. "Oh! I know what we can do! Have you guys ever been to a baseball game?"

"No," Rachel said for them. "David never got a chance to take them."

"Well, that's settled then! The Yankees are playing the Mariners on Saturday and I can always get good tickets."

"Isn't that exciting guys?" Rachel said, her smile actually reaching her eyes.

Andrew seemed happy enough but Michael just looked Finn dead in the eye and said, "We're Mets fans."

Thankfully Rachel didn't seem to hear him, so Finn plastered a big smile on his face and took a moment to bask in her happy gaze. "Yup, this is going to be great."

Author's Note: I'm sorry that the last chapter was such a downer! I hope that this one makes up for it! I promise that I'm a sucker for happy endings; the characters just have to earn them first. :-)

Disclaimer: Glee is the property of Ryan Murphy and FOX. I'm just manipulating it for my own nefarious (and strictly nonprofit) purposes.