Author's Note: AU (sort of) from 'Mash-Up'.

I apologize greatly for the delay in this update. I won't repeat what happened to me in the last few months; most of you, I believe, read To Be a Father, and I think you've already read the author's note for the latest chapter. However, I am not sure where to take this. I haven't watched season 1 in quite some time, so I have to refresh my memory. I'll probably work a few storylines of it in this (such as the Hummelberry sing-off, which will be next chapter).

Not a lot of Puckleberry interaction in this chapter. However, Finn/Quinn is a major part of this, so I hope you guys enjoy and stick with me.

Disclaimer: Not mine. It belongs to RIB and Fox. The song belongs to Avril Lavigne.

Never Gonna Be Alone

Four: Bringin' On The Heartbreak

Rachel

Slowly, she manages to start making progress with Quinn. The pregnant blonde begins to warm to her approaches, more often than not accepting Rachel's invitations. After that first, successful sleepover, Quinn becomes a fixture at the Berry residence, needing time away from her own, suffocating household. The secret she's keeping from her parents weighs down at her, making her feel uncomfortable at her own home, and she realizes being at Rachel's house, where everyone knows her secret and doesn't look at her with judgment in her eyes, is her safe haven.

More often than not, Noah is with them, unable, it seems, to be away from his girlfriend. Rachel notices that his own relationship with Quinn is also improving, a result, she knows, of Quinn seeing just who the real Noah is beneath the bravado and the badassness, as Noah likes to say, of Puck. Because Rachel knows she and Nina see the real Noah Puckerman, a sweet, loyal, fiercely protective young man who is capable of doing everything within his reach to those he loves.

However, as pleased as Rachel is with the progresses her and Noah's relationships with Quinn are going through, she's equally distressed and upset with the wall they've hit when it comes to Finn. Ever since the true paternity of Quinn's baby girl came out, Finn has quit Glee and stayed mostly to himself. Whenever he sees Quinn, Noah or even Rachel at the halls, he turns and walks the other way. Rachel has been trying to reach to him, to talk to him, but he refuses firmly. She even went to her house one day, anxious to fix their friendship, but she was sent away by a very embarrassed and uncomfortable Mrs. Hudson, who told her Finn refused to talk to her.

Honestly, for Rachel this is the worst part of all this mess. Even though she no longer sees Finn as a romantic match for herself (she has Noah now, who is much more adequate to a high-maintenance ingenue like yours truly), he still was the first person she could call a friend, Noah not counting. She doesn't want to lose that friendship, she can understand his anger, but why can't he see that Noah, as her boyfriend, is entitled her loyalty more than Finn does, as her friend? Plus, it was not her secret to tell, and Rachel Berry may be several things, but she's not a blabbermouth.

Noah isn't doing so well with his broken friendship with Finn, she knows. She has heard, from Santana and Brittany (who tell her when Quinn isn't present), that Finn has been beyond aggressive with Noah on their football practice, teasing him, mocking him, trying to goad Noah into a fistfight with him. Thankfully, Noah sees right through those attempts, recognizing them for the bait they are.

Rachel has tried to be there for Noah, being supportive of him and his pain (it's a longtime friendship he has with Finn, after all – now shattered apparently beyond repair, all because of a mistake), but she also has other pressing matters in her mind. An issue that, in her opinion, comes second in her list of priorities.

New Directions is one member short now, without Finn, and sectionals are looming closer and closer with each day.

(How surprising it is to realize that New Directions has taken a backseat to other concerns).

She considers approaching Mr. Schue with this issue, but she then drops it. After all, after the truth came out, tensions had erupted not only between Finn and the three people who knew the truth and kept it (out of fear, guilt, loyalty), but between Mr. Schue and Quinn and Noah, too. Mr. Schue had never hid well his favoritism of Finn over the other gleeks, and this favoritism has made extremely uncomfortable for Quinn and Noah to stay with New Directions. More often than not, they want to quit, but Rachel always manages to talk them out of it. They can find a thirteenth member. But three members to add to their group, that's considerably... impossible.

She's still musing over those broken bonds, Finn and Noah, Finn and Quinn, Finn and herself, Finn and New Directions, when she walks at the auditorium. Noah has practice, and Quinn's watching the Cheerios practice, her sharp eyes picking up on details she doesn't let slip and immediately bark at her former subordinates to see .them fixed and/or improved, and they have another sleepover today, this time at Noah's house, so she can't go home just yet.

What she finds in the auditorium shocks her, breaks her heart and fills her with hope, all at the same time.

Finn is sitting at the edge of the stage, his long legs dangling. He has his head down, hidden from her view, but she notices the hunch on his shoulders, the way his body nearly curls in itself. His whole body screams of loneliness and pain. Rachel aches to reach out to him, to offer him her help through this mess, the same way she did with Noah, did with Quinn. But she knows Finn won't accept it, he may want to, even desperately, but his teenage boy pride won't let him.

She's at a loss on what to do, when Finn opens up his mouth and sings.

Let's talk this over – it's not like we're dead

Was it something I did? Was it something you said?

Don't leave me hanging in this city so dead

Held up so high on such a breakable tread

You were all the things I thought I knew

And I thought we could be

He takes a deep breath and looks up. Rachel gasps quietly. There are tears running down his cheeks, his face twisted in a look of agony, the light bouncing off the wetness on his face. Rachel's own eyes bubble with tears as she watches him, heart aching for the raw pain she's witnessing.

You were everything, everything that I wanted

We were meant to be, supposed to be, but we lost it

All of my memories so close to me just fade away

All this time you were pretending

So much for my happy ending

So much for my happy ending

Noah

Finn has ditched practice, again, and Tanaka blows a gasket. He lets all of them go early, dismisses them as he mumbles about how he's gonna kick Finn's ass so bad Finn won't be able to tell which side is down and which is up. Coach Sylvester has dismissed the Cheerios for the day, and Quinn is nowhere to be seen – probably at the auditorium with Rachel. After he has a quick shower and puts some clean clothes on, he packs his stuff up, shouts a goodbye to Chang and Rutherford and goes find his girlfriend and his baby mama.

The newfound friendship between Rachel and Quinn never ceases to amaze him. Rachel's a fucking miracle worker, in his opinion – Quinn has opened up to him, slightly, when it comes to decisions concerning the baby. They have tentatively started discussing what to do with their child, but more often than not it's a discussion Rachel's forced to make them shelve. Both he and Quinn have volatile tempers (there's fire burning under Quinn's ice princess facade, who knew?), and they usually end up screaming themselves hoarse because apparently, according to Rachel, they talk, but they don't listen (whatever the hell that means). Rachel's the only person who's brave (crazy) enough to jump between them when they're going at it and get both of them relatively calm.

Honest to God, he'd be insane it it wasn't for that chick. No wonder he's fucking crazy about her.

He finds Rachel standing by the door of the auditorium, a look of shocked heartbreak in her face. Concerned, he puts a hand on her shoulder, making her practically jump out of her skin and turn in her heel to scold him, panting breathlessly, but the sound of Quinn's voice bouncing off the walls stuns the two of them into silence. Rachel claps her hand over his mouth to keep him shut, and turns back to the stage where Finn's sitting, his back suddenly stiffly straight.

You've got your dumb friends; I know what they say

They tell you I'm difficult, but, so are they

But they don't know me – do they even know you?

All the things you hide from me, all the shit that you do

You were all the things I thought I knew

And I thought we could be

Quinn's a fucking mess, he can tell even from the distance. She's irradiating anger and frustration, but also a bone-deep pain. So yeah, she fucked up, big time, but hey, Finn's no angel either. He was the one to give up on their relationship first, chasing after Rachel's skirt and drooling after Rachel (he can't be too harsh on Finn, however: his girl is hot and she has the most fucking awesome voice ever). So, yeah, Quinn made a stupid mistake. But she wouldn't have if she hadn't felt Finn wasn't putting the effort into being together.

(When he later tells Rachel that, she smiles all big and proud at him and tells him she's so "pleased that you're growing up and maturing, Noah". So, you know, bonus).

You were everything, everything, that I wanted

We were meant to be, supposed to be, but we lost it

All of my memories, so close to me, just fade away

All this time you were pretending

So much for my happy ending

Rachel

As she watches Finn and Quinn sing, she feels the urge to cry. They're both so obviously heartbroken over what happened, angry, hurt, disappointed, upset and lost. Sometimes it's hard to remember that they're all teenagers, all bound to make mistakes and bad decisions and even worse choices. There are no victims in this situation, all four of them (Noah, Quinn, Finn and herself) are a little to blame on this. The only innocent party is the little girl growing inside Quinn; Rachel knows she shouldn't have gone after Finn, not after knowing he was already in a relationship. However, she always wants everything too much, and having a healthy, loving relationship with someone is one of these things.

Finn jumps up, anger twisting his face, pain rolling off his body in waves. He stalks towards Quinn, and Rachel fears for a moment that he'll do something to hurt the blonde, but Quinn herself doesn't seem to share the same worries. She stands, tall, fierce and desperate, her eyes watching Finn as he moves towards her. Behind Rachel, Noah is also watching, transfixed, eyes narrowed as he tenses in preparation to jump in if he needs to.

It's nice to know that you were there

Thanks for acting like you care, and making me feel like I was the only one

Finn scoffs at Quinn and her words, but Rachel agrees that the blonde has a point. Even before the truth came out, since Finn joined glee, he wasn't strong enough to turn down Rachel's advances, accepting them and stringing the brunette along as he made promises and said things to Quinn that made her believe she was the one he loved. And, deep down, Rachel believes Quinn is the one Finn loves – however, since she wasn't supportive of his choice to join New Directions and constantly criticized him for said choice, Finn went searching for support, help and praises in someone else.

That was what attracted Finn to herself, Rachel knows that now: the fact that she didn't look down at him for joining the school's glee club, in fact, she supported him and helped him and praised him. It wasn't love, infatuation or even lust what tied Finn to her, but a desperate need to feel like he hasn't made the wrong call by following the side of him who loves music ever since he was a child.

It's nice to know we had it all

Thanks for watching as I fall and letting me know we were done

Finn storms out of the auditorium, leaving behind a visibly exhausted and devastated Quinn. Noah makes a move to go after him, but Rachel, a pleading look on her face, puts a hand on his chest and keeps him from leaving. "Let me", she asks, and, after a moment's hesitation, he nods, pressing a sweet kiss to her forehead before quickly and noisily making his way towards where Quinn is, crumpled in the middle of the stage, all anger having left her, her body wrecked with silent sobs.

Rachel takes a deep breath and turns towards where Finn has just gone to. "God help me", she whispers as she follows Finn to the parking lot.