Thank you so much for all your kind reviews! Made my week! Please continue to tell me what you think :D! My exams are now over, and after a celebratory weekend, I should now be able to update more. This chapter should explain Finn, Rachel and Matt's situations. Enjoy :)

and how was i to know, that a year ago, i'd need to read between the lines, and every lie...

Bright lights. Low voices. People moving around him. Sharp pains in his chest. He tried to open his eyes, but the light was too damned bright for him to keep them open, so he snapped them shut again. Was he dead? Pain. No, Finn was sure you didn't feel pain when you were dead. He needed to move, but all of a sudden his body felt like a metal block. He couldn't even twitch his torso. Helplessness. If he could just move something so he could regain the sense of being alive he loved so much. Concentrate Finn. With all the power he had, he moved his finger, a little twitch. He breathed a heavy sigh of relief, and a sharp pain ran through his chest. He breathed in sharply and wrenched his eyes open and suddenly there were people and more movement and something grasping his hand.

"Finn?" He heard his name being called by the woman holding his hand. It sounded distorted and oh so far away.

"Finn?" The woman repeated, her voice a little more frantic.

He blinked and focussed his view more.

"Mom!" He whispered, his voice hoarse and sore. He pointed to his voice, frantically and like most moms, she understood what he needed and grabbed him a glass of water. He gulped it frantically, relieved when the cool drink seemed to sooth his throat. His brain began to focus more, and images flashed through his brain. Red hot flames, Matt and Rachel, black, choking smoke, his hand melting on the door handle, finding Rachel, the door collapsing, holding Rachel...

"Better baby?" Carole said after he'd finished his drink.

A doctor appeared at the door then, smiling at Finn coming round.

"Hello Finn! Glad to see you're awake! You've been through a lot buddy, so I advise you get some sleep right now. It's about 11pm, so in the morning you'll be undertaking some tests. I just need to check your heart rates, then you can go back to sleep!" The cheery doctor grabbed the heart rate monitor and strapped it to his wrist. After a minute, he read the monitor, grinned again and gathered his equipment.

"Looks like you're going to be fine, Finn! I'll see you in the morning, then we can talk about the next steps and treatments. One more thing, don't leave your bed tonight. Your burns are pretty bad, even if you are going to recover!" He left the room.

Finn looked at his mom, then spoke.

"Where's Rachel and Matt?" It wasn't a question, it was a statement.

His mom's face scrunched. Carole had always prided herself on being one hundred percent honest with her boy. After her husband died in the war, the only thing she had left was her son. He was the only reminder she had of her perfect husband. So she decided Finn Hudson would always know the god honest truth. That Finn needed to know what his dad had done for the world. And nothing changed, not even in situations like this: Carole would be honest now like the past sixteen years.

"Rachel's ill... very ill. In hospital. Matt's... not been accounted for yet," Carole faltered telling Finn the truth about Matt. She tried to convince herself it was good, she was doing the right thing for her son, but she couldn't bear to be honest about his death yet. Finn would take it really hard, and Carole couldn't bear to tell him the truth when he was already so ill.

"Accounted for? Mom, what does that mean?" Carole couldn't help but smile at Finn's weak voice. At least it meant Finn was still there.

"It means he's not been registered dead or alive," Her smile fell off her face.

Finn tried to jump out of the bed, but pain struck him hard and he began to cough hard. For the first time he noticed dressings on his hands and legs.

"Finn! Stop being silly and sit down!" His mother scolded, like he was a little boy again.

"I need to see Rachel, Mom!" He argued back, his weak voice growing stronger.

Carole's heart broke a little bit more then. She knew that Finn was in love with Rachel. She had known since Finn rushed home one day, the biggest grin on his face saying he'd met the most amazing yet crazy girl with beautiful brown hair. Her name was Rachel. She also knew how it felt to lose the one you love the most in the world. How it felt to not know how they were, to be unsure if your reason for living was okay. But Carole knew that right now, seeing Rachel might break his heart and cause him to relapse. And again, being selfish, Carole just couldn't do that.

"You can't Finn. You're really ill yourself!" She told the boy, and his face dropped.

"Mom I don't care... I didn't care in the fire, and I sure as hell don't care now! I need to see her so I can breathe again. I love her! Mom, is that what love is? When you want to see them and be with them all day, because they make you smile? When not knowing if they're okay kills you inside and you can't breathe and it hurts so bad! Because Mom, I can't sit here like this not knowing if she's okay!" He told her, a single tear falling from his eyes.

"Finn... you do realise, Rachel won't know you're there? She's in a coma, the smoke on her chest got her oxygen levels so low. Her burns are bad... she was in the fire a lot longer then you. She..." Carole broke off there, a sob rising in her chest, "Finn, it looks like she's going to die!"

Finn looked away from his mother for the first time since waking up. Huge, racking sobs were filling up his body, and if he looked at his mom, he knew they'd come pouring out. He kept looking away, gathering himself together before he slowly turned back to his mom.

"Mom?" His voice was low and weak again.

"Yeah sweetie?" She had also gathered herself together before speaking to her son again.

"Could you maybe go get a coffee or something? I'm really sleepy, I guess I've been through a lot..." He asked, faking a yawn as he spoke.

"Sure, baby. I'll go home and change and be back in an hour. I love you," The woman, tired and downcast, left the room.

Finn watched his mom leaving, following her footsteps with his eyes all the way down the corridor. Then, he sobbed, loud racking sobs that filled the silent room. Eventually, he cried himself to sleep, where fitful dreams of Rachel would follow him.

Hope you enjoyed! Please review? :)