Just a boy who loves you :

by cab4five

Orphan Rachel Berry moves from New York to Lima Ohio to live with her cousin's family. Will she find happiness at her new school and move on, finding new friends or does her life continue to be sad and lonely?

3. Epilogue

Epilogue-Just a boy who loves you!

A/N: Thanks so very much to every single one of you wonderful people out there, for the fantastic reviews, views, follows and favorites on part 2, as promised here is the proper epilogue.

Please read but more importantly enjoy and review if you have a minute; I honestly appreciate every single one.

Also just in case anyone is interested in reading it, I have posted the second chapter of my original story (The Key) on fiction press (same pen name). I'd love it if you could take a look, and let me know what you think of it.

As always I own nothings except the plot and OC characters, all mistakes are mine.

Happy Australia Day to my fellow Australian's.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

2024- 10 years after High School Graduation:

All over America the ex McKinley High School Graduating class of 2014, were opening their mail to find an invitation to their 10 year reunion. For some it had been a while since they had caught up with their peers, others still kept in close contact even though they were separated by the vast expanse of the United States, and some just didn't care enough to even consider attending and threw the red and white card in the trash.

Jacob Ben-Israel, who was now a well respected and in-depth reporter for the Akron Age newspaper was asked by his editor in chief, once he saw the invite on Jacob's desk and whom he knew would be heading back to Lima for the festivities. To put together a 'Where are they now' type story about his old school friends, Wes asked if he could possibly get an autograph from Ms Berry as she was one of his wife's favorite Broadway stars, as it was a well known fact the tiny brunette beauty, with the voice of an angel was from Lima. Jacob was excited to a certain extent because, he always had from his first day of junior year an unrequited, bordering on creepy infatuation with Miss Rachel Berry (other people's words not his, he had always felt his attraction to the petite Jewish goddess was perfectly normal, but he was always slightly afraid of her boyfriend, the giant quarterback). In the years since high school he had thankfully lost his desires for unobtainable women, exchanged his fro and 1970's safari suits for modern trendy styles, and through his job had met a very nice lady called Tilda who was not disgusted or put off, one little bit by his 'special book', in fact she was more than happy to 'read' it with him, a couple of times a week. Though if anyone really cared to inquire about said book, they would find he had replaced it with a professional printed copy of the 'karma sutra'. He and Tilda arrived in Lima about lunch time on the Saturday of the reunion and after settling into their room at the Easy rest motel on Green Street, Jacob took his lady love for a drive around the bustling metropolis that is Lima Ohio.

Tilda was for some reason watching through the car window with a look of awe on her face, at the quaint town buildings and open spaces with public parks filled with many families out enjoying the weekend sunshine. She told Jacob that it was a lovely place and as she had grown up in the busy, crowded cities of London before moving to Hong Kong, it was a wonderful relaxing place just perfect for raising a family. They went to visit his Parents and as normal his mother fussed over him and again brought out all the baby photo albums, Tilda thought is was cute but when she saw the one from Jacobs's senior prom she burst out laughing, because it was the first time she had seen it in the 5 years she had been with him. His mom had put it in she said, "just in case he wanted to take it to the reunion to show all his friends."

The Hudson's and Hummel- Anderson's arrived at Dayton Airport, the afternoon of the reunion, thankful to be off the plane as keeping an energetic, excited toddler and three and a half year old twins, amused on the nearly four hour flight, was challenging to say the least. But thankfully the children still had naps in the afternoon and slept most of the way. Their parents are not sure who is more excited the children or their grandparents. Because the minute the kids see Burt and Carole at the airport the whole place is full of excited squeals and giddy laughter. Even though Kurt and Blaine didn't graduate from McKinley they wanted to come back for a mini holiday so their parents could spend much needed time with their granddaughters'.

"My goodness how much you've all grown, it's a good thing Nana and Poppy have been taking their vitamins, now we can keep up with you all." Carole cuddles Nic to her chest pressing noisy kisses all over his face, his parents smiling widely at the interaction between their 14 month old and his Nana. Rachel couldn't get the camera out of her giant hand bag quick enough, and just as she takes the shot little Nic has squirmed out of Carole's arms and attached himself to Burt's leg tugging on his pants demanding to be picked up, Burt looks down into a nearly carbon copy of Finn's dimpled face but with Rachel's big dark eyes, and smiles at the determined "Poppy me up pwease."

Never being able to deny his grandson's pleading puppy dog eyes he scoops him up and pretends to throw Nic over his shoulder, the little boy's giggles matching with his loud chuckles. Carol on the other hand is trying to listen to both her granddaughters' speedily dispensed news, each girl jumping in, whenever her sister took a breath to tell their Nana all the news from play group and dance class and t-ball practice. So by the time the family arrives back in Lima an hour or so later, everyone is ready for a nap. All the working New York adults had taken an extra couple of leave days so they could spend the last week of the school term with their parents at home.

Arriving at the McKinley High Gym, later that night brought back all sorts of memories; the hardest one to believe was that they couldn't understand where the last 10 years had gone. As Finn and Rachel walked through the archway leading into the gym, tastefully decorated in red and white, and slightly reminiscent of their senior prom, they were stopped every few minutes by Finn's old team mates and others who had never really had much to do with Rachel but obviously heard of her Broadway success. Halfway across the room Finn spots Sam and Mercedes sitting at a table talking to Mr and Mrs Schuester.

"Babe look it Mr and Mrs Schue and Sam and Cedes" Finn says leaning down to press a kiss on Rachel's smiling lips, he then moves his hand from around her waist to lace their fingers and leads his wife over to their friends. Time spent catching up and swapping photos of their respective offspring, until the shrill squeal of the PA breaks through the loud chatter and laughter.

"Welcome, welcome all of you who were obviously able to attend tonight it is wonderful to see so many of you, and can I say we are privileged to have some well known identities in our midst this evening, but I'm sure you can all figure out who they are for yourselves. As I'm sure you all remember I am Principal Figgins, , but enough about me please enjoy yourselves and if anyone would like to purchase commemorative photo's or souvenirs, or maybe a special edition 10th anniversary Thunder Clap please see Ms Sylvester to obtain an order form, Thankyou I hope to catch up and speak to you all at some point during this evenings festivities."

A loud round of applause followed Mr Figgins whose name they finally found out was Lesley, off the stage.

The rest of the evening went perfectly, catching up and finding out quite a lot of gossip about who was married to who and what jobs they were doing and when Jacob got to the table where Finn Hudson and Sam Evans were sitting he couldn't see anyone else with them and thought starting his interviews with a couple of the game winning sports jocks and nationals winning glee club members, would be perfect. He was pleased to see that the tall quarterback was not about to thump him, he did stop breathing for a moment though when Hudson lent back in his chair and Jacob's vision was suddenly filled with the star of his indecent school boy's fantasy's. The one and only Rachel Berry (though he supposed she was Hudson now) he could only stand there with his mouth open looking like a giant glasses wearing fish out of water, marvelling at how good the last 10 years had been to her. He tugged Tilda closer to his side and pressed a deep kiss on her mouth before introducing her still slightly stunned to his old class mates.

The rest of the night was spent being interviewed by Jacob for his paper and most people went along with the fun of the event and happily told the reporter what they were doing with their adult lives and those people who divulged their life post high school all asked for a copy of the article. After numerous rounds of goodbyes' Jacob left with a long list of e-mail addresses and not one but two famous singer's autographs, Rachel Berry and Mercedes Jones, his editor was going to love him.

By the time Finn and Rachel returned home about midnight and checked on Nic, they had wide happy, but tired smiles on their faces when they saw him snuggled up in his porta-cot, one thumb stuck in his mouth and his other pudgy hand wrapped around a piece of blue blanket that at one time had belonged to his daddy. Finn had always called it his gee-ge; it was the only thing he had to remember his own father by. As a little boy he used to cry without it, and he remembers taking it everywhere.

XXXXXXXXX

A week after The Anderson-Hummel's and the Hudson's returned to New York, Rachel was sitting at her computer, after Nic had gone down for his afternoon nap, checking up on missed e-mails and such when she opened one from ' jewfro yrmale'. Rachel realised it was the article Jacob Ben-Israel had written after the reunion, she immediately printed out a copy, and glancing at the clock, knew she had a little while before baby Nic would wake and Finn was due home. She goes to the kitchen and makes a cup of her long time favorite ginger tea and then makes herself comfy on the sofa and reads the rather long article that had been published in the Akron Age.

Hello my dear readers Jacob Ben-Israel here, my editor asked me to write an article about post high school life, but before I begin, I would like to ask you all a question, how many of you remember your high school years? Do you still have fond memories even 10 years after you left the study hall and cafeteria? I don't mean the proms or homecoming football games/dances, or how many times you got thrown in the dumpster's, a face full of frozen slush or even a patriotic wedgie. I'm talking about that one love of your life that got away; I have to admit readers that, was what my high school life consisted of. Well I have just returned from my 10 year high school reunion. Now I can't say my four years at McKinley High School in Lima Ohio was all bad, I mean I do admit I was perhaps a bit over zealous with my affections for one particular girl, but readers she was and still is… though it is now as a second place getter besides my beautiful long term girlfriend, the most stunning girl I'd ever known and the fact she is Jewish and somewhat of a loner like me, I took it to mean we were destined for a life of romance and crazy sex all over the place, but alas Ms Rachel Berry didn't like me in that way, her attentions were instead focused since junior year, on the school quarterback and glee club male lead, who quite frankly readers used to scare the 'shit' out of me. After graduation my hearts' desire and her quarterback, Finn Hudson, moved to the 'Big Apple' for college and well you know what they say readers, the rest is history…

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit home last weekend, and the following is a little 'where are they now type of story, I won't bore you all with the 'before stories', but thought you might be interested in where some of my classmates from 2014 are now. I have condensed the recounts as told to me for this article to more like diary entries, as the constraints of newspaper space, limit me somewhat, but I think you find the excerpts of the many conversations interesting. I have also added some information as told to me about previous McKinley alumni that I knew of, that are either related to or have a history with the main characters in my little tale but did not graduate from McKinley.

Jacob Ben-Israel senior reporter, writing for the Akron Age,

XXXXX

Finn Hudson, is a detective working with the NYPD in the Special Victims Unit, that deals with hate crimes, he didn't divulge much information about his job, suffice to say he is enjoying bringing to justice, the perpetrators' of the gutless and brutal attacks on members of the GLBT community, as he wants to make it a safer world for the many people out there who just want to live their lives with the one they love. Also of course he is very happy living there in New York with his wife Rachel and their beautiful son.

Rachel Hudson(nee Berry), was a Broadway star after being cast when she was a junior in college in the revival of Funny Girl where she played the lead character Fanny Brice, the play had a very successful run for 7 years. Before discovering 2 years ago, just after she began rehearsals for her new play as the lead Maureen in 'Rent', she was pregnant. Rachel decided to step down from the play to focus on their baby. During her pregnancy Rachel decided to go back to school to gain a teaching degree. As the theatre takes her away from her family and she now wants to give back to the community by fostering a love of music and singing in the next generation of 'Broadway bound babies'. Because once their baby arrives she wants to dedicate all her time to being a wife and mother not traipsing all over the country with the theatre. Like she has spent the last couple of years doing it was bad enough to be away from her husband but with a baby it would just kill her and she didn't want Finn to miss out on being with his child either. So she would study until it was time for their little one to go to kindergarten and once qualified she could work. At least until the next baby comes along. Rachel is currently a stay at home mom, and has only a couple of years left of college.

Santana Lopez and Brittany Pierce got married in the summer of their Junior year of college and both have very successful jobs as a current affairs reporter for BNT in Columbus (Brittany) and the head of a security firm called 'Snix's Bully Whips' which despite it's odd name, deals mainly with the protection and qualified professional counselling for the younger members of the gay community particularly in high schools (Santana). After a few years Santana took time away to focus on finding a suitable surrogate so she could become pregnant. Which surprised her friends and family as they had all assumed it would be Brittany that would be the maternal one, but after helping a young man from her home town of Lima deal with his parents and peers lack of understanding. She found her maternal self and wanted nothing more than to become a mother, the boy she helped Wade, went on to be a popular TV star using the stage name of Unique. Santana then returned to the company part time after her's and Brittany's twins, a son Adam and daughter Krista were born 6 years ago.

Kurt Hummel (Finn Hudson's brother) and Blaine Anderson were married after college and after a few set backs and interference from Blaine's unsupportive and uninterested family, 3 years ago were able to have via surrogate twin girls, Holly and Tiffany, who strangely enough looked just like each of their fathers. Apparently (Named after Kurt's favorite Audrey Hepburn movie 'Breakfast at Tiffany's), Kurt's career as a fashion and makeup stylist took off after he had filled in for his sister in law's stylists at the theatre. Whilst poor Roger was on sick leave terribly ill, with an infected appendix and had to spend nearly a month in hospital , Kurt got talking with the head designer and a couple of weeks later received a phone call from the CEO of one of New York's famous fashion magazines 'Behind the Glamour' and was invited to come for an interview, which led to his current position as head stylist and part time fashion designer, Rachel had worn quite a few of his original designs for her various award shows and had received rave reviews for not only her talent but her beautiful gowns. Blaine had chosen to be the stay at home dad, but was still able to continue his job as a book editor / reviewer for a well known publishing company.

Mercedes Evans (nee Jones) and Sam Evans stayed in California after college. Sam after a couple of years playing semi professional football became a high school football coach and Mercedes a soul music recording artist, following in the footsteps of the great Aretha Franklin and had numerous gold records and songs that stayed in the top 100 for months on end. They were married in a beautiful sunset ceremony in Hawaii 18 months after their son Mathew was born 4 years ago, followed two years later by another son Tayler.

Melanie Pierce and Luke Thornton, stayed in New directions till their senior year in 2017, taking the club to another 2 national wins and even though they broke up as a couple the summer before college they stayed close friends, Melanie went on to become a teacher and was lucky enough to get a position at McKinley teaching Glee and home Economics and found her eventual husband in a pet shop of all places when she was looking for a bigger cat basket for Britt's lord Tubbington the 3rd's birthday, because the current LT, like his predecessors was somewhat larger than your normal cat, Bailey was looking for a book on how to train his iguana to walk on a leash.

Mr Schuester, the history and glee teacher, although obviously not a student, is still worth a mention as he played a big part in his students lives, as both a friend and mentor. Will was offered a position for the new school year of 2018 with the education board, as the arts administrator for high schools in Ohio. Emma Schuester (nee Pillsbury) was still the guidance councillor at McKinley, and when the Schuester triplets started high school, Nathan, Kady and Lizabeth had no interest or talent; in music they were much more interested in academic pursuits like science, math and history. But they all inherited Emma's wide bambie eyes and the famous Schuester chin dimple and wavy hair, and when Sue Sylvester saw them together for the first time it took her a few minutes to come up with anything to say, in the end she just shook her head and walked off mumbling about calling the Smithsonian institute regarding escaped clones and something about the depletion of the worlds hair gel supply.

I asked the McKinley Alumni, about other students that they had started their high school years with and the name Quinn Fabray was brought in the conversation, Finn and Rachel Hudson didn't have much to say about the blonde ex cheerleader and tried to steer my conversation in another direction, because after the way she behaved towards not only the other kids at school for years but also themselves she wasn't considered a friend by any stretch of the imagination. Though Rachel did say that she hoped Quinn had managed to turn her life around after all this time and has dealt with whatever problems she had and was able to finally be happy with herself.

Santana Pierce-Lopez mentioned that during her work in Columbus and Lima she had seen Quinn Fabray a few times at the local hospitals, and was very surprised that the blonde even acknowledged her but the women got talking, and after Santana could see that the other was different now, agreed to have coffee. Quinn opened up and explained that the change in her was brought about because the woman that adopted her baby (given up for adoption after her birth in Quinn's junior year) had died in an accident, when the little girl was 4 years old , and as she left no provision in her will for a guardian for Beth , the birth mother can sometimes be given the opportunity to care for said child or the child goes into care.

Quinn also said that after spending time in court ordered anger management therapy after attacking Rachel Berry in 2014, she found that her behaviour stemmed from the way she had just been handed everything her whole life and never had to really work for anything then after becoming pregnant in high school, and her parents basically disowning her, her fantasies of always being the 'chosen one' and catching the eye of the most popular boy in school, evaporated. She had an emotional breakdown and wrongly blamed everyone else for the mess she had made of her life.

But the words the tiny brunette, Rachel Berry said to her many years before finally sank in, and Quinn was determined to turn her life around, so by volunteering at the local hospital with the young people who had been victims of abuse and bullying , and realising that what she herself had gone through at the hands of bully's when she was overweight and had braces in middle school made her feel absolutely terrible for doing the same thing to others, because she couldn't get her way all the time. Quinn returned to school gaining qualifications in counselling for pregnant teenagers and troubled youth. But the real motivation for her change was the little girl with dark blonde hair and hazel eyes that needed a mother.

Ms Fabray had admitted to Santana Lopez that after really thinking about it there was no legitimate reason why she hated Rachel Berry except the fact that the boy Quinn had thought she wanted and who should have wanted her because she was the head cheerleader and he was the quarterback and football captain and the most popular boy in school , and who could help get her to and stay on top of the popularity tree at school had chosen her over Quinn. She said she had even sent a letter to the Hudson's apologising for her behaviour and understood if they couldn't forgive her. She is now fully embracing the motherhood role and both mother and daughter are doing well.

Well readers there you have it a rundown on what the McKinley High School Alumni of 2014 are up to in 2024, so with that I will sign off and wish you all good health and happy trails.

JBI August 2024

The End

A/N: So much for a short final chapter , I sincerely hope it made sense and was enjoyable for you guys to read, please review and let me know what you thought. Just to claify I know nothing as to the the correct procedures regarding the adoption process or what happens after the the passing of an adoptive parent with no will, but for this story my facts worked .

Thanks so much for reading, so until next time take care.

Cab4five