Author's Note: In this chapter, I wrote: "First came the voice. Over and above the great technical ability, it had a satiny sheen that couldn't be taught and gave a glowing cover to the intensity of the passion underneath." To see what I mean, search YouTube for "GLEE Music Box Theatre - Maybe This Time Part 6" and "GLEE Music Box Theatre - Funny Girl Part 5"

...

Wearing his youngest looking clothes - jeans, tight dark blue tee and sneakers - Will got into his 170,000 mile subcompact and drove to Groman's, with Rachel Berry much more on his mind than usual. What if she is there, what would he do, what would he say? Although he'd known her for almost nine months, and sometimes worked very closely with her in preparing glee numbers, he felt there was some mystery about her, that what he observed of her didn't quite add up to a coherent whole.

The sex dream had clearly rattled him a little. He was in no position to argue that it wasn't a fair representation of his subconscious, but he didn't want it intruding on reality. Infatuation with his 16-year old student wasn't healthy, if only because it distracted from forming a serious relationship with a mature, intelligent, sane and available woman, a type absent from his current life and, when he came to think about it, from all of his past as well. Then there were the minor issues of possible jail time and the end of his teaching career.

To be considered an "available" woman, however, requires mutual interest, and although at least half the straight female faculty at McKinley and tons of women who glanced his way at the supermarket and elsewhere would have slept with him in a heartbeat, he either didn't know them or had no good reason to want to. Rachel was another matter, and therein lay the problem.

First came the voice. Over and above the great technical ability, it had a satiny sheen that couldn't be taught and gave a glowing cover to the intensity of the passion underneath. The soft heat of her sound could chill his spine and had nearly brought him to tears on more than one occasion. She wasn't pretty enough ever to be a romantic lead on TV or in the movies, but a leading role in a major Broadway musical was certainly within reach. She was that good.

Second came the smarts. Her creativity, vocabulary, extensive literary and musical knowledge were what one might expect from a sophomore at Julliard or Yale Drama, not at McKinley High. A few times when they were alone and had drifted off onto non-glee topics, Will became uncomfortable with his own feelings and ultimately broke off the conversation on some pretext or other. It's at this point when he thought about her that he became confused, for he couldn't reconcile this musical and intellectual prodigy with the anime schoolgirl outfits, the liaisons with the academically retarded Finn, the emotionally and psychologically retarded Puck, the prancing prick Jesse, along with the propensity for tearful outbursts and other immature drama queen behavior, and the slumming in glee. Yes, "slumming," for what other term ought to be used when even a relatively small and backward burg such as Lima had many far superior outlets for her to develop her talents. Unless, of course, there was something special about McKinley's show choir that had attracted her. Will wasn't proud of the conceit implicit in his even having that thought.

Her other faults, and there were many, did not represent fundamental contradictions. Was she ambitious, egotistical, self-centered, demanding, annoying, pushy and a whole long list of pejoratives one could find in a good thesaurus? Oh yes she was, but at least those characteristics would stand her in good stead if she wanted a successful career in showbiz. But when all was said and done and Rachel's assets and liabilities were weighed on Will's scales of human value, on this day, given a choice among all the people he knew with whom to spend eight hours walking in the park, it would be Rachel, and there was no close second. He parked his jalopy around 11;15, checked out his handsome sleek self in the reflection of the store's window, and prowled through the door like a cheetah, looking for and hoping like hell to see Rachel Berry.