At long last, a new chapter of Sexiled! I'm sorry it's taken this long, but... (long list of excuses edited out here). I have gotten it to the stage where I can bring out the next few chapters quickly, which I wanted to make sure of before I posted this.

Much thanks to all of you for reading and reviewing. It really helped me continue.

Over the next few days Finn kept trying to talk to Rachel, without any luck. He'd see her in the hall, or having breakfast in the cafeteria, but whenever he caught her eye she would go pale and act all flustered, sometimes rush off. Once he could excuse, twice maybe, but three times...? Whatever had gone wrong was still wrong, he was sure of it.

Finn thought it over, worried that he was being too aggressive. He could be making her even more scared. So he did his best to clamp down on his eagerness to fix the situation, and settled for a smile and a wave when he saw her in the quad the next day. And after a moment she waved back, looking shy, nothing big but enough to give him a glimmer of hope.

Things were starting to thaw.

The next morning he spotted her waiting for the elevator on their floor. He eased up to her, staying a few feet away to give her space. "Hey."

"Oh. Hi." She flashed him a warm smile, which seemed promising.

"How are you doing?"

"Okay." She nodded, then looked away, biting her lip a little. She glanced up again. "You?"

"Fine, I guess. Homecoming week's kind of crazy." He paused, but she didn't say anything. "I miss talking to you," he offered.

"Me too," she answered after a moment. "I mean, I miss us talking too."

"Maybe –"

"Maybe –" They spoke together, both stopping when they heard the other. Finn gestured to Rachel to go ahead, but she shook her head, her mouth fixed in a line. He sighed internally. "Maybe next week?" he asked.

"Maybe." She paused. "How's your back?"

He liked that she asked, that hopefully she was okay with how she'd took care of his back, and didn't think he'd taken advantage of what she'd thought of him (it's not like he'd known). "It's okay for now. You –" he bit back his next thought, his instinct going naturally to thank her again for her help and maybe even angle for some more TLC. Too far. "I just have to be careful, keep taking care of it."

"Hmm."

Finn resisted the urge to beat his head against the wall. 'Hmm' means what? This is so frustrating. He took a deep breath and grabbed for a change of subject. At least the elevator was slow in coming. "How's your preparation going? For your audition. Your callback."

She smiled. "It's good. I think I'm going to nail it."

"You don't need any more help rehearsing? I have some time –" He didn't really, but he'd make time if it meant fixing things with Rachel.

"No, no, I'm fine," she answered quickly. "I've got it. The other girl doesn't stand a chance."

"Never thought she would. Not against you."

The elevator arrived then, and Finn followed Rachel in, not wanting to break this one chance he had to talk to her. She moved away from him.

"Don't you need your books?"

"Oh. Yeah." He had just been coming back from the washroom, after all. He stepped out. "Guess I'll get the next one."

"See you," she chirped as he got out, the door quickly closing between them.

"See you soon," he muttered as the elevator left. He felt confused again, happy to have talked to her but dissatisfied at how it had seemed to go. Nothing he could put his finger on, but things felt... off.

Huh. Not sure what that was. But at least we're talking again.

Homecoming events and preparing for the big game were keeping Finn very busy, so the next time he saw Rachel was Saturday morning. He was heading out for his run, a bit later than usual since he needed his energy for later – for sitting around watching Colly play later – and saw her folding her quilt up in the lounge.

"Another night in sexile, huh?" he asked softly before he got too close.

She frowned, but not seemingly at him. "Yes."

"You okay?"

She nodded, but her smile was forced. "I will be. Soon." She met his eyes fully, finally not looking away. "I'll be able to take care of it this afternoon, when everyone else is at the game."

"Like – have a nap?"

"Yes. It'll be quiet, and Santana can't kick me out while she's cheerleading." She sighed. "Even when she doesn't kick me out it's hard to sleep, wondering if she will. I've been getting so tense."

Finn's fingers twitched. He saw the set of her shoulders, tense like she said, and ached to ease her muscles, returning the favour. He snorted. They'd be quite the pair if they didn't get their tensions eased soon, and he didn't just mean the physical ones.

"Do you want some coffee? I'll only be half an hour, gotta save something for later in case there's a disaster and they need me."

"I'm sure it doesn't take a disaster for them to need you," she answered, but shook her head. "No coffee for me today, though thank you for the offer. It would be unfortunate if the place emptied out and I still couldn't sleep."

"Oh. Right." He could get her something else, anything – she knew he would, surely. But he didn't want to push, not with their rapport only slowly coming back. He could tell she felt vulnerable, out in the lounge. Besides, he could wait. It was going to happen again the next night, Santana wouldn't not pick someone up at the dance.

The homecoming dance. Finn frowned as he took the elevator down. He did wish he'd been able to get her to go with him. Now she wouldn't be going at all, but he'd have to go by himself and think about her all night. Maybe he wouldn't have to stay long; even hanging out with Mike wasn't going to be easy because Tina was coming. He sighed. No, he was going to have to stay for a while so that Mike could take off early with Tina, Mike had booked a hotel and everything.

Wait a minute.

Finn thought rapidly. Rachel would be in need of somewhere to sleep when Santana dragged her latest conquest back to the dorms... and Mike was going to be out all night with Tina, leaving the other bed in Finn's room empty.

Knight in shining armor time. He could come to Rachel's rescue, give her somewhere to sleep. Somewhere safe and clean, so she could rest easily before her callback. Mike wouldn't mind, he'd even tidy up.

So I'll do that, Finn thought. I'll show her she can trust me, that she's safe with me, the real straight me. And in the morning I'll make sure she knows that it's because I can control myself, not that I don't want her. That she can trust me to be with her, if that's what she wants. And he fervently hoped that would be what Rachel wanted. He was sure she was interested, he just had to get them past the current uncomfortableness.

He visualized it, like he'd been trained to do for successful football plays. Not that this was a play, but still, walking through it in his head should help him not screw it up when the time came. He would offer her Mike's bed, have it all fresh and clean, and he'd keep everything just-friends that night. No pressure on her, show her she could trust him to respect her and her boundaries. All well. Then in the morning, she'd be well-rested but still sleepy, and he'd get up and change his shirt before going out for his run, give her something to look at, see how she'd react. And she'd blush that pretty way she did, and he would make some comment about how she could look if she wanted to, or more than look, let her know that the only reason he'd stayed on his side of the room was because he respected her and knew she needed her sleep. Lean close and tell her to go back to sleep, softly, kind of romantic like he wanted to try something (which he so did). Faces close, eye contact... maybe she'd lean into him and finish the move, maybe not. After his run he'd bring her back something nice from the coffee shop, like a scone they could split, then make his move if she hadn't made one before. Not a big move, but enough. And definitely give her a kiss for good luck for her audition. 'We'll talk after, okay?' Yes, that's the right thing to do. It's really important to her. And she's going to nail it, and she'll be all excited, and I'll take her out to celebrate.

Nice and slow, nothing that would scare her off, be honest and open, so she'd know he was a stand-up guy that she could trust. And that he was crazy about her. That he would be so good to her if she'd let him.

Finn didn't mean to spend all that long at the dance, but he realized that his plan would only work after Rachel was sexiled into the lounge. So he hung around with his teammates while keeping track of Santana.

It was a long night. Santana was partying harder than ever, dressed in a tight dark green minidress that left absolutely nothing left to the imagination. Not that he'd had any problem when Rachel had been less than fully dressed, but well that was Rachel, and his imagination had been fully engaged in wondering about what he couldn't see of her.

Finn himself stayed sober, talking with Mike and Tina until they left. Then he stood around with a few of his other teammates, vaguely listening to brags and ignoring the attempts to set him up with some of the girls at the dance. He was so not interested, and did his best to not make eye contact with any of the ones being pointed out. Eventually they left him alone, deciding to pick up girls without him. Finn wandered around by himself, trying to look inconspicuous.

"You've been burning me with those eyes of yours half the night," Santana slurred as she came up to him suddenly. "Finally realized it's time to get a piece of this?" She stroked a hand down her body.

Finn did his best to evade her. "Not my type."

"Hot girls are everyone's type. I get everybody. Even the gay guys give me a try. And the girls, oh the girls." She tilted her head back, letting her hair fall away from her exposed neck. "Come on, Bigfoot. You've gotta see what you're missing here."

"Nope, I – uh –" Finn cast around for something to distract Santana with. She was too drunk already for him to suggest she hit the bar again, and though she wasn't falling down yet she might be soon with any further encouragement. Time she called it a night, if she wasn't going to need rescuing and ruin Finn's plans entirely. The last thing he needed, ever, was for him to have to take Santana back to the dorms; Rachel would get completely the wrong idea, especially after Santana's previous insinuations, and then she'd have to take care of her drunk roommate too. Screwing up both Finn's plan to rescue Rachel and Rachel's prep for her audition. He rapidly scanned the room, finding a familiar-looking senior staring at him with a scowl. He'd seen the dude around Santana earlier, buying her drinks... the guy probably thought Finn was cutting in on his planned good time. No chance. "Uh... aren't you missing something?"

"What?"

"That dude you were talking to earlier. Senior, uh, business major?"

"Oh yeah. Kept talking about his big start-up plans. We had a different kinda thing starting up." She looked over Finn's shoulder. "Where'd he go?"

Finn turned her around to face the right way. "Over there."

As Santana sashayed back to the man, Finn breathed a sigh of relief. It was mixed with guilt, though; Santana's sleeping around was legendary, and this wasn't any different than what she would get up to on her own, but even so he felt dirty having encouraged it for his own purposes. He hoped she'd be okay.

He kept track of the pair for a little while longer, and was relieved to see that the dude didn't buy any more drinks, probably wanting to close the deal before she wandered off again. They left ten minutes later, so Finn made his excuses to his nearest teammates, pleading his back as a reason for leaving early, and headed back to the dorms himself.

Finn waited downstairs a little while longer, pacing around a little as he let the time pass. He had to let Santana get a head start; he'd thought about waiting ten minutes, or fifteen, but his impatience got the better of him and it wasn't like he wanted Rachel to be uncomfortable. She would need her sleep anyway, and to not be stressed. So when he'd been hanging around there for five minutes, he called the elevator and went up to their dorm floor.

The lounge was empty, which puzzled Finn. Maybe he hadn't waited long enough. He didn't think the dude lived in their dorms, Santana would have been bringing him back here but... maybe Rachel was still packing her things up. Unable to wait, he walked quietly into the girls' hall, along to the door of Rachel and Santana's room. And there was the signal, the sock on the doorknob to show there was something going on.

Finn did his best to ignore the sounds he heard from behind the door. Santana and her loser-of-the-night seemed to have started going at it as soon as they got there. Excellent, he told himself. Now to find Rachel. But she wasn't in the lounge, where is she?

He hoped she hadn't gone home for the weekend or something – but no, her callback was the next day, and he'd seen her from a distance just before he'd gone to make his appearance at the dance. So he headed to wait outside the only other place she could be, the girls' washroom.

A few minutes later the door was pushed open, hard. But it wasn't Rachel – and Finn stared. It was Santana. A very angry Santana.

"What – what are you doing out here?" Finn stammered, Santana fixing him with a glare.

"Locked out," the Latina answered, sparks flying from her eyes. Her anger appeared to have sobered her up significantly. "The little bitch has dared to sexile me. Me!"

No. Finn looked back down the dorm hall, staring at the sock on Rachel's door. No. Santana kept ranting, but he didn't hear any of it, he was too much in shock from the revelation. That the girl he wanted – that he'd been falling in love with, to be honest – was at that moment giving it up for some other guy. And from what she'd said... as her first.

He felt sick.

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