This chapter is a little longer than usual- there was a lot to put in! Thanks again for the awesome reviews, you guys make writing even more fun! :) :) Hope you all enjoy the new chapter!

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Glee or any of the characters in it.
Rachel paced in the hall near Will's office, desperately wanting to run back home. She had to break his heart or Jesse would send him to jail. She took a deep breath. This would save him. She had to do this. She heard a snicker and whipped around to see Jesse standing behind her.

"Don't you ever go to Carmel?" she snapped.

He ignored the question. "So, I take it you're here to do what I asked?"

She blinked back tears. "Yes."

Jesse smiled wider. "Good. And I'll be listening so don't try anything funny."

Rachel stepped into the small office, shutting the door behind her.

"Will, we need to talk."

His beaming smile faded when he saw the expression on her face. It was hard to describe. Will could see a million emotions in her deep brown eyes. Sadness. Determination. Hopelessness. Anger. Pain.

"About what? Did I do something?" he asked anxiously.

The tears filling her eyes started overflowing.

"No, Will. You didn't do anything." Rachel sniffled. "I did."

Will waited, confusion flickering in his eyes. There was silence as she tried to find the right words.

"I-I should never have dated you!" she blurted out. "This can never work! I'm a student, you're a teacher. I'm sixteen and you're thirty!"

He winced at her words. He had always known their relationship was wrong but somehow Rachel had always made it seem okay.

"I can't be with someone there's no future with. I care about you so much, Will, and I want you to be happy. And I don't think I can make you happy, especially with you risking going to jail and losing your job over me." Her words rang with conviction but her heart ached to take it all back. "Look where it's gotten us. I was raped. This just isn't working."

She looked at the floor- Will's expression of shock and pain was unbearable.

"I didn't realize you felt that way," he said quietly.

She nodded, not trusting her voice. Tears streaming down her face, a sob caught in her throat, Rachel turned to leave.

"Goodbye, Will." She whispered.

As Will stared at her back going through the doorway he knew it wasn't just to go to class. Rachel walking out the door meant she was gone, forever. He would only be her teacher, nothing more. And after her senior year, she would move away. Something inside him snapped. Her hand was on the doorknob and Will suddenly yanked her arm back and slammed the door.

"Wait, wait," he pleaded desperately. "You're not just some girl to me! You do make me happy, every day!" He put his hand on her cheek. "When you smile and laugh, when you sing, even when you just talk to me. I love you, Rachel, so much. And I know I can get in trouble from this but you are worth it!" Tears were falling from Will's eyes now, too. He dropped his face so it was level to hers. "Please don't leave me." He whispered.

Rachel was crying even harder as she violently shook her head. He was making it so hard to do this, worse than it was before.

"I can't," she choked out.

He gripped her shoulders. "You can, we can do this! I swear I'll find a way to make Jesse stop; I won't let him hurt you again! Why do you think you can't?"

She knew there was only one thing she could say to make him let her go. She had been avoiding it, hoping she wouldn't have to use it. She took a deep breath, and broke her own heart.

"I just don't love you anymore."

Will's hands slipped off of her. Rachel forced herself to look in his eyes, to not give away the lie. He looked broken. More tear s welling in his eyes, the inevitable pain in his features.

"What about last night?" he asked roughly.

"I was just trying to see if I could still feel the same way," How many lies was that? Had one word of truth slipped off her tongue?

Will nodded. "I'll just-just," his voice cracked. "let you go now."

Rachel looked down to hide the anguish in her expression and walked unsteadily out the door.

"I'm sorry." She whispered, her voice thick.

She ran past a smug Jesse, desperate to just get out of here as soon as possible when she ran smack into Finn.

"Hey, Rach, what's wrong?" he asked with concern.

She tried to speak and failed, shaking with sobs. He hugged her tightly until she was quiet.

"I'm sorry, Finn," Rachel whispered.

"What happened?" he pressed.

She shook her head. "I don't want to talk about it,"

He frowned. "Alright,"

Finn was still a close friend, but it wasn't like she could tell him about Will. He wouldn't understand. Quinn saw Rachel and Finn from down the hall and she was walking towards them fast. She knew Jesse must've done something- Rachel had disappeared yesterday and now she was bawling her eyes out. She reached them.

"Rachel, want me to drive you home?" Quinn asked softly.

Finn looked back and forth at them, confused. He thought they hated each other.

"Don't we have three more periods?" he asked instead.

Quinn nodded. "Well, I don't think Rachel is feeling up to it today."

Finn was wary but he agreed. "Um, okay, Rach, call me if you need anything."

Rachel attempted a smile. "Thanks, Finn."

Quinn walked her out of the school towards the car. They both sat down, but she didn't start it.

"What did he do?"

She looked up at Quinn. "He made me tell Will I didn't love him anymore."

Rachel was so devastated she didn't even care she had said Will's name.

Quinn's eyes filled with sympathy. "Oh, Rach…come here."

Rachel rested her head on Quinn's shoulder, her eyes finally dry. "I think I ran out of tears," they laughed half heartedly.

Quinn walked her to her car and drove toward Rachel's house. "Are you're dads home?"

She shook her head. "They're at work until 4."

Once they arrived Rachel headed straight to her bedroom and collapsed on the bed. Quinn sat next to her and rubbed her back in a comforting manner. "It's gonna be okay,"

Rachel looked at her incredulously. "How the hell is it gonna be okay? I just told the love of my life that I don't want him anymore, Jesse could still blackmail me anyway, and I feel like absolute shit! How is that okay?"

Quinn sighed. "I know. I'm just trying to make you feel better."

"I know, I'm sorry," she mumbled into a pillow. "But I don't think that's going to happen."

They sat in silence for a moment until Quinn spoke up again. "I don't understand what you and Will did that was so terrible. I mean, Jesse has told you to do awful things and you just do them! Is Will like an axe-murderer or something?"

Rachel rolled onto her back and looked at her. "I just can't tell you."

"But why?" she argued. "Rachel, you know I'd never tell anyone or hurt you with it, I'm just trying to understand!"

"Well, stop!" she snapped at Quinn. "Will is a good man and he doesn't deserve to lose everything over me."

Quinn blinked. "Lose everything? Why would he lose everything for dating you? Wait…How old is he?"

Rachel didn't respond, just stared stubbornly at the ceiling as tears began streaming down her cheeks again.

"Rach…You know a relationship like that could never work."

Rachel let out a sob. "I know, okay! But I just loved him so much…I thought it could be different for us." She closed her eyes. "I've never felt so strongly for someone, Quinn. He put everything on the line just so he could be with me. I will do anything to make sure he stays safe. Even if it means breaking my own heart."

Quinn had started crying with her. She wrapped her arms around Rachel and they cried in each other's shoulders, shaking with sobs.

WxR

Will stared at the wall from his spot on the bed. He had skipped the end of school, unable to face anyone. Figgins would probably dock his pay or something. Who cared? He didn't, not anymore. Rachel's sudden announcement had drove him to a final conclusion: love sucked. He had loved Terri and what happened? She turned into a complete bitch and lied about their child. Then he loved Rachel even more and she had left him. What had she said? I want you to be happy. He wondered where she had heard dumping someone on their ass makes them happy. The worst part was he wasn't even angry at her! He was trying to figure out what he had done. Will went over it in his head. He had been there for her when Jesse hurt her, he'd always tried to make her happy, he'd loved her…What went wrong? What made her not love him anymore? His gut twisted when he thought about the last question. Maybe she realized the whole blackmail thing was his fault and she'd grown to hate him. But Rachel wasn't the sort to hide her feelings. Hide…She had been hiding something yesterday! She wouldn't tell him what had happened. He forgot when they were making love but he remembered so clearly now. Her face had been pale, full of anger and pain. Something happened yesterday that changed everything. That made her not love him. She didn't love him. Another tear slid down Will's cheek and he wiped it away quickly. He had cried more today than he ever had before. Only Rachel could make him so vulnerable. He glanced over at the small satin box on the nightstand, the one that had taken months of saving (plus some more from his bank account) to afford. He opened it up and practically fell apart when he saw the little sparkling diamond on top of a solid gold band. It hadn't been an engagement ring- she was too young to even consider marriage, especially with him. It had been a promise ring, to show her that Will loved her and was serious about their relationship. That he wasn't going to go anywhere; he knew Rachel used to worry he'd leave her. The sobs burst out uncontrollably and he buried his face in his pillow, trembling.

WxR

Quinn and Rachel spent the rest of the afternoon talking about anything but Jesse or Will. They talked about school, Glee, family, their lives before they had become friends.

"I haven't had many close friends." Quinn said at one point.

"That's not true!" Rachel protested. "You have a million friends."

Quinn smiled sadly. "No. I had a million people who hung around me because I was popular. Now that I'm not, I can see who my true friends are."

At 4:15 pm the front door clicked open and her dads clumped up the stairs.

"Rach?"

"I'm in my room!" she called.

They stepped in and looked at Quinn, surprised.

"Who is this?" Leroy asked.

"This is my friend, Quinn Fabray." Rachel answered calmly and Leroy and Hiram exchanged a look.

Quinn and Rachel could see memories of Rachel's many accounts of her flashing through their minds.

They both never less politely greeted her than spoke. "Sweetheart, can we please talk to you for a minute in the hallway?"

She nodded. "Excuse us, Quinn."

Quinn stood up and glanced around Rachel's room. It was pink and girly; a little much for her taste but it suited Rachel's personality perfectly. There were a few pictures of her and her family and a few of Barbara Streisand. She stepped forward to examine a photograph when her foot hit a small shoebox. She picked it up curiously, noticing "WILL" written on the top. She opened it and picked through the box, extremely interested. There was a dried rose, sheet music for a song called You Belong To Me, an old Spanish quiz (What?), tickets to some Broadway show, and a small piece of paper with his name and a phone number. She hesitantly glanced at the door before dialing the number. It had barely rung twice when he answered.

"Rachel?"

Quinn froze, her lips parting in surprise. She's heard that voice a hundred times; it was unmistakable. Suddenly, it all made sense. The blackmailing, the secrecy, the Spanish quiz. Rachel's Will was… Will Shuester.

WxR

Will had eventually stopped crying and resumed staring at the blank wall. The phone rang and he groaned. The last thing he wanted right now was to talk to someone. Regardless he checked the Caller ID. It was Rachel's house. He practically dove for the phone.

"Rachel?"

"Um…uh, it's Quinn actually."

His shoulders slumped in disappointment. "Oh. Wait, you're at Rachel's? How's she doing?"

He probably should've made an excuse as to why he was so excited to hear from Rachel but he didn't care at the moment.

"Oh, she's…okay."

What did okay after a long pause mean? Upset? Angry? With a new boyfriend? Will struggled not to ask any of these questions instead asking another inquisition that had him wondering.

"Why are you calling me, Quinn?"

She took a sharp intake of breath. "Um…I…It was a…wrong number?"

Her voice rose at the end as if she was asking.

He rolled his eyes in frustration. "I don't appreciate being lied to."

"I know I'm sorry Mr. Shue. I can't really explain."

He crinkled his eyebrows in confusion. "What do you mean you-"

"I have to go." She interrupted suddenly and hung up.

Will sat there, listening to a dial tone in complete shock. What was that about? And Quinn was suddenly hanging out at Rachel's? He frowned, disliking his sudden lack of knowledge into Rachel's world.

It was only a matter of time before some boy swooped in and stole her heart. He would make Rachel fall in love with him with flowers and candy and serenades. Ugh. A strange thought abruptly popped into his head. What if I could get her to love me again? He had done it once before, it couldn't be that difficult to do it again. Hope began building inside his chest even though he knew it was a pretty long shot. Will smiled for the first time since she had broken up with him. Tomorrow would be a big day…

PLEASE REVIEW! And if you haven't, check out the prequel to this story You Belong To Me. Thanks for reading!

-Leesh