Rachel Berry was in his room. On his bed. Talking about a dress. It wasn't the whole her being in his room thing that was weird. Or even on his bed thing. No. It was the talking about the dress thing that was kind of making him uncomfortable. Probably because she was describing, in a painfully detailed manner, the dress she was going to wear to his mom's wedding. Yeah. You heard that right. His mom's WEDDING.

It wasn't like he didn't see it coming. His mom and Burt and practically everyone else had been dropping anvil-sized hints on his head long before it was official. And in a way, he was kind of glad that the whole calling Kurt's things faggy thing and getting kicked out of the house thing hadn't led to their parents breaking up. Because his mom was happy. Like really, really happy in a way that Finn had never seen her before. She was singing all the freaking time now. Even in the shower. His mom was so not the kind of person who sang like, anywhere.

And Burt was totally cool. It had been weird for a while after the whole Kurt-debacle (That's what Rachel calls it. Debacle. Like it was some sort of major disaster or something. Which it kind of was.). But they were dudes. All they needed was a mutual hatred for the blind referee at the Sox game and everything was a-okay. And maybe some awkward apologies here and there. But they were cool.

But see, the thing was, it had always just been the two of them. That was just the way it was. Just Carole and Finn Hudson. He had known that since he was four. The two of them, they didn't always get to catch a break. In fact, it was probably the other way around.

When he was five, his mom had dated this dude who worked for Mr Bradley (this other dude she used to work for), Matt or Mitch or something. He remembered cause Matt/Mitch had a car and for maybe a month, Finn never had to wait for his mom's bus after school. But then after a month, he had woken up one Saturday morning because somebody was screaming bloody murder and scared him half to death. Of course the first thing he thought about was his mom, so he scrambled out of bed yelling for her at the top of his lungs. He found her in front of their doorway, eyes wide as some woman practically poked her eye out, shrieking things like "homewrecker" and "easy whore". He didn't kow what those words meant, but he knew it wasn't good because his mom was five seconds away from crying. He had stepped closer to her, and held on to her pajama bottom and when that woman saw him, well it wasn't pretty.

"Your mother is whore boy, and-" He didn't get to know and what because that was when his mom slammed the door in the woman's face. Finn wanted to ask his mom what a whore was, but he figured it wasn't such a good idea because his mom had grabbed his shoulders painfully and her eyes were kind of crazy, which scared him a little.

"It's just the two of us Finn," she said quietly, her voice quivering. "Just the two of us." A tear fell from her left eye then, and Finn had wiped it away because that was what she always did when he scraped his knees and cried like a girl. That was when his mom lost it.

She had to look for another job. He never saw Matt/Mitch again after that.

An then there was Darren (He was a total loser now that Finn thought about it). When he was eleven, Darren was the coolest guy on earth. Darren knew how to play the drums, and he gave Finn really, really cool music like Journey and the Grateful Dead and he was just wicked awesome. Finn never had a dad. His bestfriend Puck had one, but Finn never saw him so it was kind of like he didn't either. But he thought Darren would probably be a cool dad, maybe. He seemed to make his mom happy too. That was good. But then one day he drove by their house with the lady from Pick 'N' Save and his mom threw the milk they just bought at his car and Finn knew he was never going to see Darren again.

After Darren, his mom never brought any other guy home. She never even dated anyone. She used to, before Darren. Finn was secretly glad. He didn't like it when she went on dates cause he had to stay home alone, with his neigbour occasionally sticking her head through the window to look out for him. And she always came back smelling funny when she kissed his cheek and tucked him in.

So five years later when his mom suddenly told him she was seeing Kurt's dad of all people, Finn had a mini freak-out. He was just so used to it being just the two of them. Plus, it was Kurt's dad and Kurt was totally freaking him out with all his talk about moving in and marriage and stuff. He just found out his mom was dating, and suddenly it was serious? Her selling all their furniture didn't help much. It was like she was trying to make over her life or something. And that scared him a little. Because he liked her old life. It was his life too.

He got over it. He had to, because he could see that Burt really loves his mom and well, what kind of a douchebag son would he be if he didn't? And having Burt around was cool, if a little weird. He never had a grown up dude to talk about all his sports stuff with. And Burt took him to games and let him come over to watch them on his big television and he really knew what he was talking about. He even took Finn to his workshop and let him mess around with all the tools and stuff. It was awesome.

He knew the moment his mom took that blindfold off him and he saw Burt standing there with the nervous smile on his face and Kurt's creepy beam, that it was never going to be just the two of them anymore. And that really sucked. And it made him miss his dad. Which was funny, since he never knew the man. But it was okay to miss him before cause she missed him too and they could just miss him together. And when they moved in with the Hummels, he figured he was probably going to miss his dad alone from then on. And that-

Rachel was totally tugging on his arm like crazy. Finn looked up at her from where he was lying on his bed and she looked back at him, eyes full of concern. His head was on her lap. Rachel Berry's lap was a very comfortable place to rest your head. At least he thought so anyway.

"Where are you Finn?" she asked softly, one hand grazing his cheek. "You've been distant lately."

"I'm right here," he answered, trying to muster up a smile as he grabbed a hold of her hand. Something in the way she was looking at him made him turn away. He turned into her stomach instead, staring at the shapes of the argyle pattern on her sweater. Finn heard her sigh.

"No you're not. You're here but your mind is miles away. You've been like this for almost two weeks now. Was it something I did?" The small way her voice sounded at her last sentence made him sit up straight and turn to face her.

"No," he answered quickly, taking her hand. "Rach it has nothing to do with you. You're awesome." She smiled at him and leaned over to kiss his cheek.

"So what does it pertain to then?" she asked. He couldn't help thinking that she just tricked him into something.

"Nothing," he answered, looking away. She sighed.

"Finn. You know you can tell me anything. Anything at all. I don't like it when you're upset and you obviously are. I'm a horrible girlfriend if I can't even make the person I love feel better."

"You're not a horrible girlfriend," he answered, a lopsided smile on his face. "You're totally cool."

"Apparently not cool enough," she answered coolly. He knew she was trying to trick him again. Finn was slow most of the time, but catching on to Rachel Berry and her tricks were one of the things he was good at.

"Can we just not talk about this?" He saw her lips pursed in dissatisfaction, both hands on her hips.

"Fine." He breathed a sigh of relief. "But am I allowed to make a deductive guess?"

"A what?"

"I'll ask you a question and you have to be honest. And then if I'm right I'll know what's wrong because you need to talk about it Finn, whatever it is. But you obviously don't want to. This way you won't have to. I'll just guess." What was this? Twenty questions? Finn sighed wearily, knowing there was no chance in hell she was going to let up. Well, he might as well make himself comfortable.

"Fine," he answered as he tugged on her hand and pulled her towards him. Rachel lost her balance and almost fell on his lap, which was the general idea. But she caught herself on time and with a mocking glare at him, sat primly on his crossed legs. He put his arms around her waist and pulled her in closer, taking in a whiff of her shampoo. He loved the smell. It had a calming effect on him.

"So," she began as she leaned back against his shoulder.

"So" he reciprocated mockingly.

"You're upset, yes?"

"Uh-huh."

"And it's not with me."

"Yep."

"Is it Glee?"

"Nope."

"Are those unfortunate souls from the football team giving you a hard time?"

"Nope."

"Is it- Finn stop trying to distract me."

"I'm not distracting you." He really wasn't. He just felt like kissing her neck. It wasn't his fault she couldn't pay attention.

"Does it have anything to do with that C+ you received for Biology?" He snorted at that. "Of course. What was I thinking?" she answered sarcastically. He swept all of her hair over one shoulder and kissed the base where her skull met her ear. He could feel her squirm and bit back a smile.

"You're doing that on purpose," she whispered, annoyed.

"Nuh-uh."

"Finn?"

"Yeah?"

"Is this about your mom?" He knew she could feel him freeze. Finn said nothing as he laid his forehead against her shoulder. "It is, isn't it?" she asked softly, her hands squeezing his arm. He shrugged. "Is it about the wedding?"

He tightened his arm around her waist and burrowed his head further into her shoulder. She said nothing after that. Rachel's hands met at his at the base of her stomach and took both of them in hers as she squeezed them tightly. They stayed in that position in silence for maybe five minutes.

"She's going to be Carole Hummel now," he muttered into her shoulder. "That's weird. It's like my mom doesn't have the same last name as me anymore. I'm Finn Hudson and she's Carole Hummel. And if people didn't know us, they wouldn't know she was my mom. Or that I'm her son." Rachel didn't say a word. She just squeezed his hands tighter.

"It was just the two of us, you know? And now it won't be. I don't know Rach. It's just- it's just weird, you know?"

"You don't want the wedding to happen?" she asked quietly, turning her body around to face him. He thought about it. She was playing with the hair at the nape of his neck. It was a little distracting.

"It's not that," he finally answered, surprised that it was the truth. "I just miss the way things used to be. I liked my life, you know? I loved my house too, even my ugly ass cowboy wallpaper. And I'm never going to see those things again."

"And you miss your mom?" she asked quietly, her gaze boring into his.

"You make me sound like such a girl," he mumbled, his face warm and beet red. Rachel laughed softly and pinched his cheek. "Ow!"

"You're cute, you know that?" she asked affectionately. He grinned.

"I've heard rumors, yes."

"Your mom is still your mom Finn. I've seen the way she looks at you. It's like," She stopped talking, her face scrunched up in concentration as she tried to find the right words. He grinned. She was cute when she did that. Her face brightened and she opened her eyes to look at him. "It's like you're the brightest thing in her world. I don't think that's going to change because she's getting married. Or because she's changing her last name. It's still the two of you, you know. Only now sometimes there's going to be four. But in a good way." she smiled brightly at him, satisfied with her answer. Finn grinned and kissed the corner of her mouth affectionately.

"Thank you doctor," he teased. She rolled her eyes.

"I'm serious!"

"So am I," he answered quietly. She looked him in the eyes and smiled softly. It was ridiculous how beautiful she was when she smiles. Rachel circled her arms around his neck and pulled her towards him, resting her head on his shoulder.

"I love you Finn," she mumbled, squeezing the life out of him.

"I love you too, Therapist. C'mon. Your session totally made me hungry."

XXX

She called him at approximately ten p.m.. Just as he was about to hit the bed. The wedding was the next day and everyone was ordered to hit the haystacks early. Everyone actually in the wedding anyway. The wedding planner was kind of a dictator. She was scary.

"Hey babe," he answered easily as he sat on the edge of his bed.

"Can you come out?" was her answer.

"Now?" he frowned.

"Yes. Is that possible? Please?" Like she even needed to beg. Rachel Berry trumps going to sleep any day of the week.

"Gimme ten minutes. I need to get past Rebecca. That woman is crazy."

"Wear something warm okay? It's cold outside." He smiled. Finn changed into his jeans and customary stripes, throwing on his jean jacket for good measure. He sneaked out the back door because Rebecca, the wedding planner, was totally standing on guard in the living room. He found her car parked two houses down and grinned as he made his way towards her. Rachel was singing something, at the top of her lungs, judging by the dramatic expressions on her face. He knocked on the window and heard her surprised shriek. Struggling not to laugh, he opened the passenger door and got in.

"Fun song?"

"Just a little Celine Dion," she answered as she leaned over to kiss him.

"So, what are we doing?" Rachel was rummaging through her bag, looking for something. She took out a piece of cloth triumphantly.

"Turn around."

"Why?" he asked dubiously.

"Just do as I say," she replied stubbornly. "Turn around." Finn did as he was told.

"Uh you're not driving me out into the woods to chop me up, are you?" he joked nervously as she gently grabbed a hold of his head.

"Maybe," was her short answer.

"Seriously, what are you doing?"

"We're going somewhere."

"Where?"

"It's a surprise."

"I don't like being surprised when I'm blindfolded." he grumbled as she settled the sheet over his eyes. The last time that happened, he found himself in a new home. Suffice it to say being blindfolded had never been a good experience for him.

"You'll like this one," she answered confidently. He felt the car start to move. The darkness made him sleepy. Rachel was still singing. But he guessed she changed the CD or something. She was singing the soundtrack to West Side Story. He fell asleep listening to her crooning 'Tonight'.

She shook him awake and he panicked a little when he couldn't see anything. Until he remembered that she had blindfolded him. Rachel held his arm firmly as she guided him to wherever it was they were going to. He heard her turn a lock and guessed it was probably a building.

"We're not breaking in to school are we?" he asked.

"No Finn we are not. Why would I bring you to school?" He could hear the confusion in her voice and shrugged. It wouldn't be any weirder than wherever it was they were. The steps they were taking felt familiar to him for some reason. He almost tripped when they were walking up the stairs. Rachel had surprising strength. She hissed at him worriedly to be careful. He heard the creak of a door opening and Rachel gently pushed him.

"We're here," she said softly. "Close your eyes." He did as he was told. He felt her small hands untying the knot at the back of his head, her hands brushing over his hair gently. "Okay," she said with thinly veiled excitement in her voice. "Open!"

He did.

And was greeted with cowboy wallpaper.

Cowboys all over the wall. Finn squinted in confusion, his eyes adjusting to the sudden brightness. They were in his old room. The light came from a few candles scattered on the floor and there was a large blanket and what looked like a sleeping bag next to it. He turned to look at her. Rachel's face was expectant, nervousness etched over her features.

"What? How?" He was baffled. "How did you- The keys are with the realtor," he finally said. She smiled at him brightly.

"I may have bribed him with my famous sugar cookies." He gave her a doubtful look. "Okay, also a hundred dollars," she admitted. He grinned at her.

"Why are we here, exactly?" he asked curiously. She walked slowly over to him and took his hands.

"Well," she began almost bashfully. "You told me you missed your room. And tomorrow your life is going to change. It's going to be different right?" He nodded. Why was she acting so shy? Rachel looked down, letting her hair fall over her face to hide it. "I figured we could bridge that gap. Bring something new into the old, in preparation for something newer, as it were."

"What do you mean?" he asked, tucking her hair behind her ears and forcing her to look up. Rachel's face was like a tomato. A really red tomato.

"You know," she began slowly. "We never talked about... it"

"It?"

"You know... it."

"What-" His eyes widened considerably. Finn felt like it might roll out of his sockets at any moment. "It it?" She nodded her head in embarrassment. Wait. He was still confused.

"We're talking about sex, right?" Rachel rolled her eyes, momentarily annoyed before she started to blush again.

"Yes Finn, we are," she mumbled. You could have knocked him over with a feather. The bizarreness of the situation competely boggled him. The last time they almost did it was almost three months ago, and he had screwed it up by mentioning his dirty deed with Santana Lopez. She forgave him, but hell would have frozen over before she even mentioned the word sex after that. He didn't really mind. Well, of course he did, but he had spent months waiting for Quinn and the one time he did actually have sex, he felt like shit. He figured waiting for Rachel would be about the most worthwhile thing he could ever do.

"You-" He had yet to find where his speech ability went. Rachel was looking at him, red in the face. But her eyes were defiant. "You want to do it? Here?" She nodded her head firmly.

"Can we please stop calling it it?" she asked, embarrassed.

"You want to get down and dirty here?"

"Finn!" she yelled, attempting to slap his arm. He laughed as he grabbed her hand to stop her. She struggled before realizing that it was futile and allowed him to embrace her, sighing witheringly.

"Are you sure?" he asked quietly. He felt her nod against his chest. Finn knew she could hear his heart beating about a bajillion times faster than any normal human being's. It was like the organ was trying its best to break out of his chest and run screaming or something.

"I'm ready. Really. And you don't have to worry," she said, her voice taking on her customary brisk, Rachel-Berry-is-in-charge tone. "I came prepared." She paused in hesitation. "I was too embarrassed to say anything and you never talk about it-"

"I was waiting for you."

"You were?" she asked hesitantly.

"Duh Rachel," he answered affectionately, ruffling her hair. She looked up at him and beamed.

"Anyway, I felt like this was the perfect moment. This could be the last memory you have in your old room. Something new. A happy change."

"Everything has to be some big metaphor for you, doesn't it?" he asked fondly, grinning down at her.

"Of course. Metaphors are-"

"Important." She giggled, rubbing her face into his shirt.

"Precisely."

"So," he began, the back of his neck feeling warm all of a sudden. Finn let go of her to tug at the collar of his shirt. It was hot in his old room. He held out his hand for her to take. They stared at each other in silence, their eyes filled with anticipation. Her face broke out into a brilliant smile as she took his hand.

XXX

He woke up with a start to find sunlight streaming in through the window. He groaned as he felt the creak in his neck and tried to move his arm to block the blinding light. He couldn't. Finn looked down in confusion and found a head resting quietly, connected to a pair of arms tightly circled around his own. He looked down and all at once the memory of the night before came skidding into his brain. He just had sex. Sex. Screw that. He just had sex with Rachel Berry. He grinned crazily as he took a deep breath and the smell of her shampoo filled his lungs.

He held up his head just a little to look at her. Rachel Berry was naked and in his arms. It was hands down, the best thing he had ever woken up to in all his almost seventeen years of life. She stirred in her sleep. He wanted her to wake up so she could see how amazing this morning was too. Finn poked a finger in her ear. She growled in her sleep and slapped his finger away. He struggled not to laugh as he poked her neck, tickling it just a little. Rachel Berry moaned and turned in his arm to face him. Their positions were seriously, seriously dangerous. Finn blew into her face and pinched her nose. Her eyes flew open in panic as she slapped his hand for the second time. Her eyes cleared up as she stared at him.

"Finn!"

"Good morning," he said, raising an eyebrow at her playfully. She sat up in a flash, unfortunately remembering to take the blanket with her. Her hair was all over the place. He caught sight of the bruise at the back of her neck as she turned and felt a burst of pride puffing up his chest. He did it with Rachel Berry.

"Did we?" she asked timidly as she avoided his gaze, still trying to find her bearings.

"We did."

"Oh." she squeaked. Swiftly, she laid back down next to him, effectively hiding her face into his chest. "This is awkward," she mumbled.

"I think it's pretty awesome," he said, his grin not letting up. She held up her head to look at him.

"Really?"

"Are you kidding me? That was like, the best thing ever." She smiled then, propping her head up by her elbows. They kind of dug into his ribs a little, but Finn hardly felt the pain. He was too busy being aware that Rachel was practically lying on top of him. Naked.

"It was kind of amazing."

"It was mind-blowing." They grinned stupidly at each other. He felt like he could run down the street buck naked and yell at everyone who would listen that he just had sex! And yes, it was with Rachel Berry!

"What is it?" he asked when she suddenly frowned.

"What time is it?" He looked at the watch on his wrist.

"Eight. Why-" He scrambled to sit up and she fell to the side, squealing in surprise. "Oh shit! Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!" His mom was getting married in three hours. Rebecca was going to freak. Finn stood up quickly, hopping around the room as he struggled to put on his clothes.

"Rach you gotta hurry I'm going to be late. Mom is going to kill me-" He stopped mid ramble to look at his grilfriend who was staring at him, her face red. That was when he realized that he had just popped out of that sleeping bag, totally stark naked. There was no time to be embarrassed. He was so screwed! "Rach!" She snapped out of her trance.

"Right. I apologize. Don't worry."

"How can I not be worried? I'm late-"

"You suit's in the closet." He stopped hopping around the room like a bunny on crack.

"My suit's what?"

"In the closet," she repeated simply.

"When did you get that thing out of my room?" he asked, momentarily stunned at her ninja skills.

"Oh please, You were so obsessed with those cookies I baked, I could have stolen your Xbox and you wouldn't have noticed." He grinned and leaned down to kiss her.

"You're such a stalker. I love you."

"I prefer the term stealthy, thank you very much." He shot her another grin and straightened up. "Erm Finn," she began slowly.

"What?" He was already shrugging off his jacket.

"Could you erm, change somewhere else please? I need to get into my dress."

"Oh. Right right," he answered stupidly. She giggled when he walked into the closet door. "I'll be back in half an hour. Okay?"

"Okay," she smiled.

Half an hour later, he walked into his room to find her cross-legged on the floor, the material of her dress swimming around her. She was attempting to scrape off his wallpaper.

"Rachel Berry are you vandalising private property?" She turned around in surprise and stared at him guiltily. The guilt changed into determination as she scrapped some more and squealed in satisfaction five seconds later. She stood up and walked over towards him, her smile wide.

"It's your property. This is your wallpaper. I thought you'd like something to remember it by. A sentimental token of sorts," she said as she opened his palm and placed a piece of his wallpaper in his hand. There was a lone cowboy riding on a horse. He looked up from his palm to meet her loving gaze and smiled.

"You're the best girlfriend ever you know that?"

"Even if I'm a juvenile delinquent now?"

"Especially because you're a juvenile delinquent," he grinned, grabbing her waist to pull her in closer. He kissed her and tried to put in all the passion and just plain gratefulness that he could muster into it. She was gripping the lapels of his tux like her life depended on it when he pulled away.

"Your dress is really hot," he whispered, his breath fanning across her eyelashes.

"I told you it was going to be."

"I wasn't listening."

"I know."

"C'mon princess. You gotta get me to that wedding."

XXX

He walked down the aisle nervously, his mom's arm firmly linked around his. Everybody had turned to stare at them, the two-person unit that was about to turn into four. He had arrived at the Hummels with an hour to spare and Rachel had made a beeline for the bathroom, claiming that she needed to fix her hair and get her make up done. He hadn't seen her since. Everybody had been frantically looking for him by that time and he had a hard time explaining to them that he had gone for a morning run. It was just about the lamest excuse he ever told anyone but everyone was just too busy to actually care.

"You look beautiful mom," he had said when he slipped into her room. She had turned around to look at him, a smile radiating her face and he knew with certainty that he was giving her away into good hands. She had kissed his cheeks and ruined her lipstick, which annoyed the make-up person. It was a good thing her eyeliner was waterproof or something cause tears were running down her cheeks like a river. Finn wiped them away with his handkerchief and she laughed, pulling him in for a bone-crushing hug once again. Grinning his lopsided grin at her, Finn had taken her hand and swiftly led her out of the room. Burt was waiting.

He looked around at the guests before him, trying to find those familiar brown eyes as he stood proudly behind his mom at the altar. He found her, two rows back, her eyes already on him. She beamed at him proudly, infecting his face with an equally bright smile. He was stepping into new territory. It was scary.

But sometimes, change was good.