AN: There is a crossover with General Hospital in this chapter as I introduce a character of that show as a love interest for a canon character close to Rachel.
Rachel walked through her childhood bedroom, packing up all of her memories to be put in several boxes that were located around the room. While some were to be taken down to the basement others were to be sent with Kurt and Puck in the former's SUV. Finn and Rachel would be following them in his truck with a tarp tied down with a rope over the bed, also packed as full as possible with boxes, where they would make the nine to ten hour drive into New York City. Despite how long the GPS said the trip would be, they were adding an extra three hours for any bathroom breaks or stopping for gas and snacks as a precaution.
It had been a busy two weeks for the both of them and their friends with Mercedes leaving for Los Angeles two days after they got home to get started on recording her album before she started at UCLA. After Bonnie and Walter had talked to her parents, it was agreed that Mercedes would be staying with Adam and Alyssa in Malibu to make sure she was in a safe place for her first time away from home before moving into the dorms in the fall.
Mike had left for Chicago the next day to get moved into his new apartment, although in the process he and Tina had broken up, each knowing they were going to be leading separate lives now. The younger girl had spent most of the slumber party at Kurt's house, crying on her friends shoulders over the situation.
After some thinking, Rachel had decided not to file charges against Quinn. She was determined to put everything that had happened in high school behind her, hopefully Quinn would find happiness. The other girl had left for Yale the day before to get everything set up in her own apartment that her father, in an effort to make up for being absent from her life since her pregnancy in tenth grade, was paying for. It seemed Judy and Russell had thought that getting Quinn out of Lima might be in her best interest to prevent her from wrecking her chance at an Ivy League education.
Santana was spending the rest of the summer with Brittany before she went to Louisville in the fall. Rachel could tell that Santana wasn't as enthusiastic about going as she should be and that she still had her mother's money. She and Finn had told her that there was room for her in their apartment if she decided that Louisville wasn't right for her but that there would be rules about respect for her housemates and snooping in other people's bedrooms.
Rachel had her reservations about allowing her to move in, having a strange feeling that becoming closer to Santana would come back to bite her in the ass but her Finn, who saw the good in everybody, convinced her to give her former bully a chance and he would kick her out if she did anything to hurt Rachel.
Rachel was pulled out of her thoughts by the sound of laughter coming from the pool and she walked over to the window to see Hannah and Mark or Officer Hot, down there swimming and sharing kisses. She didn't know whether to be happy for her aunt for finally finding a single man that was more in her age range or to wish they would go somewhere more private than the family swimming pool. She grinned at the memory of her dad's reaction to his baby sister walking into his house with her neck covered in hickeys, even though she was forty years old and running her own multibillion dollar corporation. Her dads and the Morgan brothers all gave Mark trouble for daring to touch their little sister until Hannah went off on all of them.
The sight of Finn's truck pulling into the driveway led Rachel to rush out of her room and out of the house. She ran to her husband and felt him lift her off of the ground and placing a passionate kiss on her lips. Every moment with him since their wedding had been wonderful but deep down she knew the honeymoon phase would end eventually.
"How's your mom doing?"
"She keeps trying to talk me into waiting until you start school in the fall to move to New York. I had to explain to her that I promised your grandfather that I would start next week and that I can't go back on my promise to him; that she had taught me that. She was crying when I left and Burt was comforting her. He was telling her that she raised me to be a man that kept his word, just like he did with Kurt and that they had to let us go to find our own way in the world."
"My dads were doing the same thing but grandma set them straight before she and grandpa left for the airport."
"I'm glad that Puck will be helping me with the repairs because after looking at the list your grandpa sent over, that building needs a lot of work."
"It will give him some direction in his life and an income, besides there is another bonus to Puck being in New York and Quinn being in New Haven."
"What's that?"
"I talked to Shelby on the phone and she has moved to New York and is opening her own business. She wouldn't tell me what it was but she sounded happy. So Beth will be in the city and maybe when she gets older, Puck and Quinn, if she chooses to, can have some sort of relationship with their daughter."
Finn smirked at her words and Rachel knew instantly what he was thinking. He was thinking about the one thing that had never been discussed after Shelby had left McKinley last November, the fact that Puck had slept with her biological mother.
"Finn Hudson, unless you want to spend your last night in Lima sleeping on the couch, you better stop thinking what I know you are thinking," Rachel scolded. "Besides, Shelby is dating someone who is actually her own age and he adores Beth."
"Rach, Puck will flip if he finds out. He doesn't want another man being the one she calls Daddy," Finn commented bitterly. "Although if you hadn't of told me the truth, he would have been watching Beth say that to me. Given how he was quick to claim her afterwards, I always wondered why he didn't say something to me before you did."
Rachel kept her mouth shut because she knew why and that it would make Finn even angrier at Quinn then he already was. If he had known that Quinn would have passed Beth off as his even if she had looked like Puck because she knew he was falling for Rachel and that without the baby, he would have already broken up with her.
They held hands while walking into the house and up the stairs to her bedroom. Finn's eyes widened at the sight of all of his wife's things scattered around the room, waiting to be put into boxes.
"Rach, you know we might come back to visit. You don't have to pack everything."
"My dads are leaving the furniture in here but I am going to put all of the things that I don't need in our new home down in the basement. This room will be here for us to stay in when we come to visit or we could even stay at your parents' house but those places are no longer our home. It is just a place to visit now."
"So who is this guy that Shelby has been seeing," Finn asked, deciding to change the subject.
"His name is AJ Quartermain and he is from a small town in upstate New York called Port Charles. He has spent the past seven years in Europe and met Shelby when she took Beth to London. They fell in love and he came back to New York City with her. She says he did some really bad things that he regrets and everybody he knows, except his mom, thinks he is dead but he is waiting for the right time to go home and make things right. She said he adores Beth because it feels like a second chance that he didn't get with his son, Michael."
"That sounds like a storyline on one of those soap operas my Mom used to watch all of the time."
Rachel smiled at him before walking over to place more things in the boxes that would go into the basement.
"Finn, are you sure about offering Santana a place to stay if Louisville doesn't work out. I really have a bad feeling about this."
Finn sat down on the bed and pulled her onto his lap, wrapping his arm around her waist.
"Babe, if she does one thing to wear out her welcome or betray our trust, I will personally throw her out and you know your grandparents will back me up," he said soothingly. "Where is this coming from, Rach?"
"I had a strange dream last night where I had won the role of Fanny Brice in a revival of Funny Girl. The director of the play, who looked like the guy that played Carlisle in the Twilight movies, and I were auditioning actresses to be my understudy when here comes Santana singing Don't Rain On My Parade but sounding like a pop song and all of the notes taken out that made it great. I confronted her and she said she was better than me and awful just like I was in high school. I slapped the fire out of her and then when I tried to kick her out of our apartment, you, Kurt and Puck took her side and I was the one who left. Although I admit that I did scream some awful things at her in my dream."
Finn had his face in his hands, knowing deep down that Santana would do something like that in a heartbeat just to be famous. She was still the bully that had made not only Rachel and his lives but a lot of their classmates too, all for the quest of popularity. She had also never once apologized for the crap she had pulled.
"We have already made an offer for her to stay but I promise you, if it comes down to it, you and I are the owners of the apartment, not Kurt, Puck or Santana. If a conflict happens, one of them will have to move out, not us. Both Kurt and Puck are already planning on saving their money to find them their own places to live and Santana will have to do the same thing. Besides, we don't even know if Santana will end up moving to New York anyway. So let's not worry about it until when or if your dream actually happens."
Before Rachel could respond, Finn kissed her passionately in an effort to take her mind off her dream. She responded eagerly before having to pull away to catch her breath. When he pulled her back to him again, she hesitated.
"Finn, we are supposed to be packing my room so I can leave in the morning."
"We have time, Rachel. I want to make love to my wife in this bed one last time while your dads aren't here. I know you haven't been comfortable with sleeping here since we got back."
"Since you put it that way," she smirked before pushing him back on the bed and kissing him, losing herself in the man she loved and letting her doubts and fears about her nightmare drift away in a haze of passion.
Hannah and Mark, who had been walking down the hall in front of Rachel's to change out of their swimsuits so she could go to the airport and catch a plane to New York while he went on duty, had stopped to listen to the conversation between Finn and Rachel. Now that they could hear the sounds of the newlyweds making love, they quickly walked away and into the guest bedroom to give them some privacy and talk about what they had just overheard.
"Would this Santana girl ever do something like that to someone," Mark inquired.
"Hell yes she would. I think I know what director Rachel is talking about. People say that Peter Facinelli and Rupert Campion could be twins and that is who I think was in Rachel's dream. I had heard rumors of them reviving Funny Girl and was going to encourage Rachel to audition once they got everything developed but it seems like I might have to get involved earlier than I had planned. I won't try to influence who is cast but if Santana does anything like Rachel dreamed she would, I will be there to stop it. Being in Funny Girl and playing Fanny Brice has been Rachel's dream since she was a toddler and I won't let a fame whore take it from her."
"Hannah, maybe you need to let Rachel and Finn deal with this by themselves. You will not always be there to help them."
"Fine, besides none of this might not happen. We are basing this on a dream, one that could very well happen but still a dream but I still think I am going to invest in that play just to be on the safe side."
Mark shook his head and grinned before taking her into his arms and letting her lay her head on his chest.
"I love how protective you are of your family, Hannah but I hope that dream of Rachel's never happens. If it does, I have a feeling Santana Lopez will find out just how protective you are of your niece."
The next morning, Carole, Burt, Hiram and Leroy were standing with Finn, Rachel, Kurt and Puck, who had said goodbye to his mom and sister before he had left his house. Carole was in tears and clinging to Finn, who also looked to be ready to cry himself. The three males with her weren't much better.
"Can't the two of you wait another month before you go to New York?"
Carole's tearful question broke her son's heart to hear it but Finn knew he had to stay strong.
"Mom, I made a promise to Mr. Berry to start work in two days and I can't go back on my word, you taught me better than that."
"I know and I am very proud of the man you have become but I'm not ready to let go of my baby yet," Carole said, tears falling down her face.
While Finn was calming his mother, the same scenario was happening with Rachel and her dads, especially Hiram, who was sobbing worse than Carole.
Puck watched all of them and wished his relationship with his mom was as strong as what Finn, Rachel and Kurt had with their parents. While his mom had cried a bit at him leaving home, she hadn't clung to him the way Carole was with Finn, begging him to stay for a bit longer.
"We better go if we want to get to get to Pennsylvania by lunchtime," Finn said, reluctantly pulling away from his mom.
He hugged Burt and shook hands with Hiram and Leroy before getting into his truck. He watched Rachel tearfully hug her dads' goodbye before she was hugged by Carole, who tearfully whispered something into her ear.
Puck and Kurt got into the SUV while Rachel climbed into the truck beside Finn and both vehicles started pulling away from the curb and driving down the road. All four parents watched as their children drove away to start their own lives, tears falling down their faces as they realized their lives would never be the same. The years of taking care of their needs were now over and they would be only there for advice and comfort.
Camilla was talking on the phone as she walked around a luxurious penthouse apartment, watching and observing as her housekeeper and the maids that worked under her, cleaned and made sure every surface gleamed. She wanted everything to be perfect for Finn, Rachel and their friends when they arrived.
"Hannah, you said it yourself. It was only a dream. I agree that you should keep an eye on the production just in case but this might not even happen," she said gently but firmly. "Besides as much as I love my granddaughter and know how talented she is, the odds of her being cast as Fanny Brice for her first role are slim to none. A lot of things have to happen for the events of her dream to even have a chance of coming true."
Camilla finished her conversation with Hannah, hung up her phone and walked over to talk to a short woman in her mid-thirties. She had long blond hair, pulled into a bun on the back of her neck and an average figure.
"Mrs. Berry, the men with the security company wanted me to let you know that the door to the master suite is ready for the pin to be put in when your granddaughter and her husband arrive."
"Thank you, Mavis," she said. "I also want to thank you for agreeing to be the housekeeper for four high school graduates. Mrs. Barnes has told me that she thinks you are ready for this but it had to be your choice."
"You're welcome," Mavis said quietly.
Camilla and Mavis continued to talk as they walked around the apartment, making sure that each room on both floors was to their standards
Later that night, Kurt's SUV and Finn's truck pulled into the parking garage of a very fancy New York apartment building. Finn stopped at the security station located at the entrance so he and Rachel could talk to the security guard and show them the security pass that Rachel's grandparents had given them. Kurt and Puck would have to do the same thing before they would be showed their parking spaces set aside for the residents of the two penthouse apartments in this building.
Finn showed the guard at the booth their parking passes and waited for the gate to lift up before driving into the garage. He waited for Kurt to come through the gate before following the directions that Mr. and Mrs. Berry had given them to get to their parking spaces.
After parking and getting out of their vehicles, the four of them walk to the elevator that will take them to their new home and begin their post high school lives.
AN: I decided to write the canon stuff with Santana and Rachel that is taking place this season as a nightmare because of the new direction that I have taken with canon. I have a general idea of where this story is going but I am still coming up with the individual stories while I am writing. Finn will not die in this story and once we get to the events of season five, his presence will change things.
I am still considering bringing in the loft but as a place for Kurt and Puck to live and actually seen them experiencing real life adult issues. Same goes for Finn and Rachel because her inheritance from Hannah will cause problems between them too.