Blaine walked through the lobby of the theater where sectionals was being held and over to his friend. "Hey, Kurt," said Blaine. "We're up second, better get ready."
"Kay, thanks," said Kurt. "Do I have time to go wish my friends luck?"
"Well…no," said Blaine awkwardly. "You really aren't supposed to wish the competition luck."
Kurt sighed. "Right."
"There you are!"
Kurt turned and saw Rachel. "Hey, you made it!" he leaned over and gave her a hug.
Blaine eyed Rachel suspiciously. "Isn't she part of New Directions?"
"No, she's on Vocal Adrenaline," said Kurt. "Not competing with us today."
Rachel smiled. "You might see us at Regionals, though."
"Right, I heard you won your sectionals," said Blaine. "Congrats."
"Thanks," said Rachel. "Good luck out there!" Then she dashed off to go sit in the audience.
Back in the green room, Santana was warming up, and so were Artie and Tina.
"Are you nervous?" said Tina.
"A little," said Artie. "But we've got this."
"That's some song Mr. Schu picked for us to sing," Tina remarked. "Rehearsing it with you has been really…really something." She glanced over at Mike standing in the corner going over dance moves with Brittany and wondered if this was the time to tell Artie that she and Mike had broken up because they'd both gotten too jealous over the amount of time they'd each spent rehearsing with the other person. But she bit her tongue. There was still Brittany to consider, and with everyone nervous about being about to go up there was enough tension in the room as it was.
In another corner of the room, Quinn was tying Finn's tie. "Are you sure your mom doesn't mind watching Lily for a while on a Saturday?" asked Finn.
"No, of course not," said Quinn. "They came to watch us sing, in fact. Sorry your mom couldn't make it."
"I understand her having to work overtime, though," said Finn. "Especially after having to buy a house big enough for all six of us plus pay Kurt's tuition for Dalton."
"Speaking of which, I think The Warblers are up now," said Sam.
"Awesome," said Finn. He walked over to where he could see his brother performing. Quinn stayed behind to fix her makeup. Santana came up beside her and started fixing her own hair. "Hey, Quinn," said Santana. "Haven't talked to you in a while. How does it feel to be a Lima Loser?"
Quinn froze. "Excuse me?"
"Face it," said Santana. "I'm the new you! Head cheerleader, dating the quarterback, a young Sue Sylvester without her bone structure, all the guys want me but only one gets me…in theory. You, on the other hand, are washed up. The highest status that you could reach anymore is…MILF." Then she walked away to go warm up some more.
"Shouldn't you be out looking for someone else to knock up?" remarked Lauren sarcastically to Puck in another corner of the room.
"Look, the other day when I said that I thought it was cool, I lied," said Puck. "I thought that would impress you."
"Well, it didn't," said Lauren. "It wouldn't impress any girl."
"I got the impression that you weren't like other girls," said Puck.
"Not in some ways," said Lauren. "But in a lot of ways I am." Puck just starred at her for a moment, not knowing quite what to say. "You know what would impress most girls? Honesty."
Puck sighed and lowered his voice. "The truth is…I hate it. He gets all the sympathy and the girl."
Lauren raised her eyebrows. "Quinn?"
"No," said Puck. "Lily. I never even got a chance to hold her or be in the room when she was born or…anything."
"Did you try?" said Lauren.
"I did," said Puck. "The only people who Quinn would let in the delivery room were Finn, Mercedes, Ms. Hudson, and her mom. When I asked to go in, of course, everybody just looked at me like I was insane. Even Mercedes, who knows, just looked at me and yelled, "Puck, don't be an idiot", meaning don't be stupid enough to tell everyone the truth at the last second. Finn even thought I was being some sort of pervert wanting to see his girlfriend lying on a hospital table screaming with her legs spread apart. Like there's anything even remotely sexy about that."
"If you'd really wanted to be in there, you would've just told them the truth," said Lauren unsympathetically.
"Like anyone would've believed me," said Puck. "Quinn's planning on taking the secret to her grave, and, like I said, every single one of the other Glee club members is going along with her."
"Okay guys, we're up!" said Sunshine.
Puck and Lauren walked quietly to the side of the stage and stood with the others, watching as Artie wheeled out of the back door slowly and down the aisle singing:
"Best thing 'bout tonight's that we're not fighting.
Could it be that we have been this way before?"
Then Tina stepped out from a different door and began to sing:
"I know you don't think that I am trying
I know you're wearing thin down to the core
But hold your breath-"
The two began to move closer to each other and Artie resumed singing the song himself as they circled each other slowly in the center of the audience.
"Because tonight will be the night
That I will fall for you
Over again
Don't make me change my mind
Or I won't live to see another day
I swear it's true
Because a girl like you is impossible to find
You're impossible to find"
While the short instrumental part of the music started, Artie and Tina continued circling each other for a split second. Then he grabbed her hand and kissed it, she playfully pulled away and they headed in opposite directions towards opposite sides of the theater. Tina was suddenly beginning to feel like this was much more than just a duet.
"This is not, what I expected," sang Artie
"I always swore to you I'd never fall apart," sang Tina.
"You always thought that I was stronger," sang Artie.
Then in unison, they sang:
"I may have failed but I have loved you from the start"
That was when, glancing out from behind stage, Brittney finally began to wonder if she had something to worry about as Artie and Tina both made their way up the ramps on either side of the stage. Then they immediately both began to belt out the last part of the song.
"Oh, but hold your breath…
Because tonight will be the night
That I will fall for you
Over again
Don't make me change my mind
Or I won't live to see another day
I swear it's true"
They both stopped for a moment to catch their breath and somehow ended up starring into each other's eyes. In that moment, the audience and the rest of the world ceased to exist.
"Because a girl like you is impossible to find..." sang Artie.
"You're impossible to find," sang Tina. And then, without even thinking about it, she leaned down and kissed Artie on the lips as hard as humanly possible. Neither one of them was thinking about the audience until they heard the explosive cheers.
"Mr. Schu?" asked Brittany quietly. "Was that in the choreography?"
"Not that I know of," said Mr. Schu.
Brittany blinked back a few tears as she shook her head. "Now I don't even care that I lost his stupid magic comb."
Mr. Schu looked up in confusion for a moment as Brittany left to go grab Mike to go out on stage together.
As the whole Glee club came out and performed Valerie, Rachel couldn't help but think, "Damn, they've gotten almost as good as Vocal Adrenaline now." She tried to squash the wave of pride she felt at that realization. She really wasn't supposed to be proud of her competition. Or even think about the individual people who she was competing against. "Eyes on the prize," as Jesse always said. He was giving her enough of a hard time about the fact that she was coming out to support Kurt as it was; although fortunately he wasn't telling the rest of Vocal Adrenaline about it and labeling her a traitor.
As all the teams convened on the stage waiting for their results, it suddenly occurred to Tina to freak out about the fact that she had kissed someone else's boyfriend in front of such a large audience. "Oh my god," she whispered. "Artie, I'm so sorry. I forgot you were dating someone else."
Artie looked up at her and smiled. "Mr. Schu didn't pick that song for us to sing. I did." Then he took her hand and held it as they waited for results.
Rachel kept looking from Kurt to all her old teammates and secretly wanted them both to win, not caring that what she should be hoping for was that the other team would win so that they would have easy competition in case they saw them at Regionals. Rachel got her wish when the judges came out and announced that it was a tie. At the risk of looking like a traitor, she jumped up and cheered.
After the performance, all of New Directions went backstage slapping hi-fives and cheering. Artie and Tina in particular got congratulations from everyone they knew but Brittany, Santana, and Mike. Finn quickly made his way to the Warblers' green room to congratulate Kurt before they had to leave and go back to their own schools. It took him a minute to find his brother in the mix of identically-clad male singers. Finally he spotted him standing in a corner and started walking over when out of nowhere, Rachel pounced into view. Finn froze.
"You did it!" squealed Rachel.
"Yes we did!" said Kurt, grabbing Rachel and hugging her so hard that he was almost squeezing her. "Was I smiling?"
"Hell yeah," said Rachel. "During the second half you looked happier than I've ever seen you in my life."
"I was!" said Kurt. Then he turned and looked up and saw Finn standing there. "Oh, hi!" He began to suddenly get worried when Rachel let go of him and turned around. Crap. These two hadn't seen each other in months.
"Um…" said Finn finally. "Congratulations, Kurt. I guess we'll see you guys at Regionals."
"Yeah," said Kurt. "Tell Mercedes I said hi."
"Will do," said Finn. Then, not wanting to ignore Rachel completely he nodded at her and smiled. Then he walked away quickly.
As soon as Finn was out of earshot, Rachel sighed. "You still love him, don't you?" said Kurt sympathetically.
"You need to understand," said Rachel. "I love Jesse, I really do. But not in any of the same ways." She shut her eyes tight to conceal the tears welling up. "I should've known to give up when you told me they were having a baby in the first place."
"Me too," said Kurt. Then he whispered, "Not to make you jealous or anything but…I've kind of moved on."
Rachel's eyebrows shot up. "Oh?"
"Shh!" said Kurt, who then looked very meaningfully in the direction of the lead singer, Blaine Anderson.
Rachel's jaw dropped as she starred at Blaine for a few seconds. Then she leaned over and whispered in Kurt's ear. "Go for it."
"I plan to," he whispered back
Finn tried to forget what had just happened as he made his way back to where the rest of New Directions was waiting. It was stupid that he couldn't look at Rachel like a normal person after all this time. Did he still have feelings for her? Probably. But it didn't matter. He and Quinn had a family now. He was reminded of that when he went back and saw that Mrs. Fabray had already returned Lily. "Hey Finn," said Quinn. "Tell me I'm not washed up, will you?"
He starred at her and blinked. How could she even think that? She was sixteen! And she was beautiful. "Of course not," he said. "Where'd that come from?"
"Santana made some dumb comment about how she's taken over my life, you know, head cheerleader dating the quarterback, most popular girl in school?" said Quinn.
"Come here," said Finn, taking Lily out of Quinn's arms and lifting the baby up so that she could kiss her mother on the cheek. "Would you really give this up to be the girl with the boob job and razor blades hidden in her hair?"
Quinn smiled and shook her head. "No."
From a few feet away, Rachel watched as Finn kissed his girlfriend on the forehead and snuggled the baby girl that she knew wasn't really his to his chest. "Guess you have no reason to care who Finn dates anymore now," she said to Kurt. "Does our agreement still stand?"
Kurt smiled. "For the sake of everyone else involved, including you, I'm afraid I've got to hold you to it."
Rachel sighed, knowing he was right.