A/N: Not much to say for this chapter and as always, thanks for reading and reviewing.

Hangovers were something that Rachel was well acquainted with. This meant that she was well aware of how to deal with them and what would soothe her pounding head the best, usually a handful of aspirin and a gallon of coffee. What she was quickly discovering was that Finn hammering away at some car part was definitely not soothing at all. The rhythmic pounding in her head had quickly matched the rhythmic pounding of Finn's hammer, wrench, or whatever, amplifying the throbbing headache. Not even the symphony of sounds that was New York City had ever caused her as much pain as Finn was currently causing.

Finn, the bastard he was, seemed to be suffering from no after effects from the previous night's drinking. Granted, she had gotten carried away with the drinks as the night wore on and Finn was careful not to drink too much as he was driving, but it was still annoying that he wasn't suffering at all. He had also seen her current condition when she came stumbling down the stairs this morning and taken pity on her, allowing her to sit and rest at a workbench. Not that it was doing anything close to being helpful at the moment.

Finally, Finn stopped hammering and Rachel let out a sigh of relief as the pounding in her head lessened to a mere throbbing. She leaned over in her seat to pick up her purse from where she pulled out two bottles, one of water and the other containing painkillers. A small handful of pills were swallowed along with three quarters of the water. Her head tilted back as she let the soothing coolness of the water wash through her. Her relief lasted for barely a minute as Finn restarted his hammering causing her to slump over in her seat and dropping her head onto her arms.

The hammering turned into the constant grinding of a drill and she let out a groan while trying to burrow her head deeper into her arms.

After what was quite possibly the longest day of her life, Rachel collapsed face first onto the living room sofa and let out one last groan for the day. Through the sheer passage of time, she stopped suffering from her hangover just before lunch but she didn't let Finn know that when she started needling him after lunch about leaving work early. While he didn't fall for it, he did let her sit around doing nothing for the rest of the day. Eventually, this led to her being bored to death which meant she spent most of the afternoon staring at him while he worked because aside from pecking away at her phone, there wasn't much to look at or do at the shop.

She turned her head to look at the stairs to the second floor, estimating the distance and effort needed to get up the stairs and to a bath she was craving. After a few seconds of contemplation, she found the effort required to be much too large and closed her eyes while trying to settle deeper into the sofa. Her left eye cracked open when she heard the basement door open and close, from which Finn had emerged carrying a basket of toiletries with a towel draped across his shoulders.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Upstairs to take a bath," Finn said as he came to a stop.

"Is something wrong with the shower downstairs?"

"Nope, just feel like taking a bath after a long day of work."

She propped herself up on her elbows. "I'm wanna take one first."

"You can't call dibbs on the bathroom."

"Who says I can't?"

"I just did."

"But, I'm tired and want to take a bath!"

"Tired from what?" He threw his arms up in the air. "You did nothing today."

"Tired from yesterday!"

"You had the entire day to recover. Not that you needed it after lunch."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You and I both know you didn't have a hangover after lunch," Finn said as he began to shuffle sideways towards the stairs.

Rachel swung herself into a sitting position and glared at him. "Don't even think about it."

"Don't worry," He said as he started up the stairs. "I'm not."

"I hate you!" she shouted after him as he disappeared up the stairs. When a response didn't come, she sighed and settled back onto the sofa with her eyes closed, hoping he wouldn't take too long.

The sofa shifted beside her and she found Carole looking at her when she opened her eyes.

"I see you and Finn are enjoying each other's' company."

"Your son can be extremely difficult sometimes."

Carole laughed, nodded, and then began staring at her.

"Um, is there a reason you're looking at me?" Rachel asked after she could no longer stand the stare.

"Sorry, I just…" Carole trailed off then smiled softly at Rachel. "Wait here. I want to show you something."

Without waiting for a response, Carole stood up, walked to a set of shelves in the living room, and began running her finger along the spines of the books. She pulled out and replaced two books before she found the one she was looking for and returned to the sofa, sitting next to Rachel. The book, which turned out to be a photo album, was set down on their legs and opened.

Carole flipped through a few of the first pages and said, "Recognize anyone?"

Rachel looked down at the photos and her jaw dropped. "Oh. My. God. That's Leroy." Her finger found jabbed at a photo with someone who looked just like her dad, only decades younger, standing next to a younger version of Carole and a man she didn't recognize. "Is that a mustache?"

"That would be a mustache."

Her finger jabbed at another photo, containing her daddy, Carole, and that same man. "Where's Hiram's mustache?"

Carole chuckled. "Lost a bet to Christopher."

"Christopher?"

Carole leaned over and pointed at the unknown man in the photo with Leroy. "That's Christopher, Finn's biological father."

"Where is he now?"

"The four of us were good friends, did almost everything together," Carole said, ignoring Rachel's question as if it was never asked.

Carole turned the pages and there were dozens and dozens of vacation pictures all over the pages, taken from all sorts of places. Every photo contained the same four, smiling persons: Hiram, Leroy, Carole, and Christopher. Most of the photos were composed group shots with some scenic viewpoint or point of interest in the background, but a few were candid shots showing the group goofing off, which was usually only Carole and Hiram while Christopher and Leroy laughed away nearby.

"Aw, is that Finn?" Rachel asked when the page was turned and she saw both pages filled with a baby in a hospital crib with a blue cap on.

"Yep, that's my Finn."

"He's so cute."

The page was turned again and, even though she should have known it was coming, Rachel gasped out of surprise. There she was as a baby being held by Hiram while Carole sat next to him with Finn, in a house she didn't recognize. Her fingers settled on her daddy's happy face which was beaming at her baby-self, happier than she had ever seen him.

"That's me," Rachel whispered to no one, as she began to unconsciously stroke the photo while she stared at it. Losing herself in the photo, Rachel didn't notice when Carole tucked a few strands of the younger girl's loose hair behind her ear and gently stroked her cheek a few times.

This was the first photo she had seen of herself as a baby in a long time, since her childhood photographs around her parents' home were steadily replaced with the trophies, ribbons, and awards won from countless talent competitions. She had never really understood her parents' love of photographing every second of her childhood, nor had she understood why they weren't pleased when she wanted to start replacing them. Of course, a temper tantrum quickly fixed that. Now though, looking at the pure joy that was on her daddy's face, she could see why her parents might want a photographic record of her childhood around their home and not just a collection of inanimate objects declaring her the best at one thing or another.

She turned the page and there were still more photographs of Finn as an infant with a few that also contained her. "I'm surprised at the number of photos that also contain me."

"Well," Carole said after she laughed. "All four of us were first-time parents living next to each other so we spent a lot of time in each other's homes." She reached up and stroked Rachel's hair. "It was almost like we all had two babies."

"I— I don't remember any of this."

"It's okay. I didn't expect you to remember." Carole laughed again. "You were so young and once you got the idea of Broadway in your head, it was the only thing you had on your mind. You were so focused on it; your parents pretty much had to move to New York."

"Well, I suppose I should thank you for everything you did for me."

"You don't need to thank me," Carole said as she flipped the page, revealing slightly older versions of Finn and Rachel. "We helped each other because you were basically a second child to us. Plus, Hiram and Leroy helped us out even more, especially through all of Christopher's deployments."

"Oh, Christopher served in the armed forces?" Rachel looked up, saw that Carole had nodded with pursed lips, and paused for a moment to figure out how to ask her next question. "Is that why you two are no longer together? I've heard that service makes it extremely difficult to maintain a relationship."

"No," Carole said as she shook her head. "That's not why we're no longer together. I was proud that my husband chose to serve his country and he was proud to serve by doing his job well."

Rachel watched nervously as Carole closed the photo album, set it on the table, and walked over to the shelf again. The older woman looked through the albums again, pulled one out, and returned to the sofa. The album was set on their legs and before she opened it Carole gave Rachel a small smile. Rachel looked down at the photos and gasped.

This album was filled with candid photos of what was obviously a funeral. There were people Rachel didn't recognize in black suits and dresses, almost all of them wore somber looks on their bowed heads as they made their way through a cemetery. The next page caused her to look up at Carole who only smiled back. She looked back down at the photos of a flag covered casket being carried by a horse drawn hearse towards the grave site. An honor guard carried the casket to its final resting places in the set of photographs and Rachel could see Carole crying in a first row seat with Finn sitting calmly in the chair beside her.

A lone figure in white sitting in the first row caught her eye so she leaned down and squinted before shooting back up when she realized that the figure in white was her in a white dress. She was sitting between a devastated looking Hiram and an empty chair. "Where's Leroy?"

"Your father insisted on taking pictures."

"I'm surprised you would want to have photos of this day."

"Yea," Carole said as she looked down at the album and chuckled. "I didn't want photos and neither did Hiram but Leroy kept insisting on it until Hiram blew up at him and told him to do whatever he wanted. I couldn't even look at this album for years, but it's nice having some sort of record of that day — I don't really remember much of it — even if I'm not jumping to look through the album very often."

A group of eight men dressed in crisp military uniforms. A military chaplain presiding over the service. A single man in uniform giving Carole a folded flag. A group of seven of those soldiers lined up, firing their rifles into the air. These were the next set of photographs Rachel saw before Carole closed the album.

"I think," Carole said as she pulled the album away. "We should go back to the happier album, don't you?"

Rachel did want to see if she was in any other photographs at the funeral but she wasn't going to ask Carole to relive that day for her own selfish reasons. So, she nodded, picked up the other album from the table, and turned to a random page, where she saw a set of photos of a young Finn playing catch with Christopher using a small, foam football.

They went through a few more pages of Finn's birthdays, holidays, and sporting events when he came down, stopped at the bottom of the stairs, and asked, "What're you looking at?"

"You in a cute little football jersey," Carole said.

"Mom!" Finn said with face that was quickly turning red.

"Oh Finn," Rachel said. "No need to be embarrassed. You were quite cute when you were young."

"Uh," Finn said as he scratched his head. "Thanks? Wait, what'd you mean 'were'?"

"Yes." Rachel nodded with a somber face. "You were cute. Now, not so much."

"Whatever." Finn said as he headed towards the basement with Carole laughing beside Rachel. "Bath is all yours."

"So," Finn said as he handed Rachel the last wet plate. "Do you have plans later?"

"You know I don't have plans," Rachel said as she took the plate. "You know we almost never have plans during the work week since I've arrived. Unless, of course, you consider sitting on the sofa or visiting the bar Noah runs actual plans."

"Hey, those are plans," Finn said as he grabbed the dishtowel from Rachel to dry his hands. "I mean it's not like we have a lot of options here."

Rachel rolled her eyes. "So, what exactly would the plan be for tonight then?"

"Puck's bar."

Rachel groaned then said, "Of course."

"Come on, it's not like you have anything better to do."

"Fine," she said as they walked to the living room. "What time do we have to be there?"

Finn checked his phone. "We should probably leave soon."

After a quick makeup check — No reason not to look good, even if they were going to some dive bar — they got in Finn's truck and headed to the bar. The small sign out front written in chalk caused Rachel's heart to beat a bit faster.

"Oh my god. I love karaoke!"

"Thought you might," Finn said as he held the door open for her but after hearing the sounds coming from the bar she wished that he had kept the door closed.

"I hope that's not what passes for singing in this town."

Finn grimaced. "Yea, well, not everyone can be Adele." He waved her into the bar. "Plus, people do get better when you get a few drinks in you."

"Yes," Rachel said after she laughed. "Beer goggles for your ears and you'll never regret the morning after."

"Well, almost never."

"Why Finn Hudson," Rachel said as she stepped through the door and spun around. "I never figured you to be one for one night stands."

"What? No! That's not what I meant."

"Why whatever did you mean then? How many times have you walked the walk of shame?"

"Zero," Finn said and poked Rachel in the forehead. "I was talking about videos of certain people singing while drunk."

Rachel batted away Finn's finger. "Of you?"

"What?" Finn put his hands on her shoulders, spun her around, and guided her inside the bar. "You think I suck that much at singing?"

Rachel looked back over her shoulder and said, "Yes." To which Finn replied with a shove, drawing an indignant shriek and glare from her.

They looked around for a moment before they spotted Sam and Brittany waving that them from a set of tables the group had commandeered to the side of the makeshift stage. As they approached the tables they could hear Santana jeering at the current singer whom they had heard when coming into the bar. There were only two seats left; Rachel took the one opposite from Quinn and the one next to it, which Finn took.

"You sound like a cat crawled down your throat, took a crap, and died!"

Finn covered his face and said, "Santana, do you really have to do that?"

"You have your traditions, I have mine. Plus," Santana said as she waved over a waitress. "It's not like these people don't know about me." She waved her other hand at the person on stage. "And this bitch is even more awful than the people who usually go up there."

"She has a point," Rachel said after she gave her drink order to the waitress. "This is an awful rendition of 'My Heart Will Go On' and would make Celine throw up in her mouth if she was here."

"Ugh." Santana made a face. "Don't even get me started on the song. This isn't what you sing at karaoke."

"But do you have to heckle her?" Finn batted away a napkin Santana threw at him. "Would you like it if you got heckled up there?"

"Oh please," Santana said as she wadded up another napkin and threw it at Finn. "Like I would ever get heckled. The people in this bar know better. Plus my voice is hot."

Rachel looked over at Santana. "You sing?"

"Finn didn't tell you about our glorious days in show choir?" Quinn asked.

"No, he did not. Well, he only said that he was in choir." Rachel looked over at Finn and poked him in the arm. "He didn't mention the rest of you."

"Good," Santana said. "Because we sucked ass."

"Hey!" Artie said. "We weren't that bad."

"Yea. Yea, we were," Quinn said before she finished off her drink.

The entire group winced as the current singer tried, and failed miserably, to hit the final high note of the song just as the waitress put down their round of drinks.

Rachel pulled the waitress over. "We're going to need shots."

"Tequila," Santana added over the wailing. "And one of us needs to go up there to wash out that sound from my ears."

"Why don't you go?" Sam asked.

Santana glared back. "Because, Trouty Mouth, I just got me a drink and I gots a shot coming."

Rachel's hand shot up. "I'll go!"

"Winner winner, chicken dinner," Sam said as he handed Rachel the book of songs while everyone else booed his corny line.

While Rachel began flipping through the book, Santana continued her boos, this time she directed them at the young woman who was walking off the stage while a few people in the crowd politely clapped. The boos kept coming until the woman sat back down and Santana shouted, "Don't you dare get back up there! And stop crying! You were terrible!"

Rachel and Finn turned around and saw the woman bawling into her hands while her friends tried to comfort her. They turned back around and Finn said, "Shouldn't you tone it down? She's like really crying over there."

"Nah, she deserved it." Santana turned towards Rachel and kicked her under the table. "Now get up there before some other god awful singer does."

A glare was shot at a grinning Santana before Rachel quickly drained her rum and coke and started to walk towards the stage with a slight limp.

"And you better pick a good song!" Santana shouted after her as she reached the stage.

She looked down, fiddled with the machine to enter the song she chose, and lowered the microphone stand. Her finger tapped the microphone a few times, testing it to see if it was on, while she waited for her song to begin. A grin spread across her face as the crowd erupted when they heard the talk box intro to "Livin' on a Prayer." Her grin spread even further as she sang the first line and the crowd got even louder, thankful for a good vocalist after the nightmare that was the previous performer.

Of all the things that Rachel missed about being in New York, it was being on stage almost every night that she missed the most. There was nothing like the thrill of baring your heart and soul to thousands of people on a Broadway stage, and while doing karaoke in front of a few dozen people in a bar didn't come anywhere close to replicating the stage, Rachel would take what she could get. She didn't even mind the people who cheered and sang along even though it drove her crazy if a single person made any kind of noise during one of her solos on stage.

There was no harm in working the crowd here, so Rachel removed the microphone from the stand and began strutting around on stage while she sang, much to the crowd's delight. The cheers in the crowd slowly died as they listened to her perform until she pointed the microphone at them during the final bridge into the chorus and they erupted. She brought the microphone back to her mouth and gestured for the crowd to sing louder. As the crowd sang louder and louder with her during the final choruses, she put more and more into her performance until she was belting out every note as if both sides were in a competition to see who could sing the loudest.

She finished the song with the crowd which then burst into applause and cheers for her performance. After an exaggerated bow, she almost ran back to her seat thanks to the adrenaline that was now coursing through her veins and quickly downed her shot of tequila right after she sat down.

Quinn and Santana looked at each other and bobbed their heads side to side for a few moments before the blonde said, "Not bad."

"That's it? I had the entire room going crazy and singing with me!"

"And?" Santana said. "Do you want a cookie or something?"

"And I would like it if my talents were more appreciated."

Santana and Quinn rolled their eyes in unison just as their waitress put down another rum and coke in front of Rachel.

"I didn't order this."

"It's from that guy over there," the waitress said as she winked and pointed at handsome young man sitting at a table across the room, who raised his own drink in a salute when he saw Rachel looking over.

Rachel grinned and waved back by wiggling her fingers before turning back to the table and saying, "Now he appreciates my talent."

"Oh, I bet he'd like to appreciate your talent all night long," Santana said as she winked at disgusted looking Rachel. "If you know what I—"

"I thought you sounded great," Finn said as he nudged her with an elbow.

"Oh— I—" Rachel looked over at Finn, tucked some hair behind her ear, and then looked back down at her empty shot glass. "Uh— Thanks." She looked back up. "Why is no one going up there?"

"Uh, probably because they would sound terrible after you?" Sam said.

"Yea," Artie said. "We need someone to go up there and break the ice and I think Finn would be perfect for that."

"What?" Finn's confusion over Rachel's awkward acknowledgement vanished. "No way."

"Dude," Artie said as he slid over a piece of paper. "Sam and I picked out the perfect song for you."

Finn picked it up and looked at it. "This just has the code written on it. What's the song?"

"Dude," Sam said. "Don't worry about it."

"There's no way I'm singing some song I don't know," Finn said before he held out his hand. "Hand over the book."

"You mean this book?" Santana said before she sat on the song book.

"Um, you do know that those things just sit around in this bar right?" Finn said.

A look of disgust passed over Santana's face before she recovered and said, "That's what dry cleaning is for."

Finn groaned, looked around the table, and found no help until he felt a hand on his arm. Rachel's hand.

"You'll be fine," Rachel said as she gently squeezed his arm. "Your voice is wonderful and I'm sure your friends wouldn't select a bad song for you to sing."

"That's because you don't know them like I do."

"Quit stalling and get up there," Santana said as she kicked Finn under the table.

Finn felt Rachel squeeze his arm again and when he looked over she smiled up at him. Resigned to his fate, he got up and made his way to the stage. He stared at words on the screen after he plugged in the song code and groaned at the song Artie and Sam chose for him. Figuring that he didn't need to be the only one who had to suffer through this, he tapped a button on the machine to pause it then picked up a microphone and said, "I think I'm gonna need two volunteers to help me."

After a moment or two a few hands went up, then a few more went up, but he noticed that Rachel's hand immediately shot up and it looked as though she was straining herself to stay seated. He also saw that Sam and Artie were hunched over, trying their best to hide themselves from his view.

"Okay," Finn said as he pretended to look around the room before he pointed. "Artie aaaaaaaand E-Pain. Yes, that means you Evans."

Rachel sat back in her seat, deflated from not being chosen, as she watched Artie and Sam make their way to the stage.

"Wow. Over-competitive much?" Santana asked.

"Well, I always seem to be more engaged when I'm competing with someone," Rachel said to Santana who quickly became bored and started making out with Brittany, much to Rachel's annoyance.

"Hmm," Quinn said. "I figured you would've sung a different song."

"What did you think I was going to sing?"

"Oh," Quinn said. "I don't know, maybe some Aretha or Beyoncé."

"Why did you think I would sing one of their songs?"

"I just pictured you singing something from a diva, not a rock song."

Rachel's eyes narrowed. "Why do you think I would sing a song by a diva?"

"Oh," Quinn said with a smirk on her face. "No reason. You just didn't seem to be the type who enjoyed Bon Jovi."

"I'll have you know that I enjoy all types of music, including classic rock."

"If you say so," Quinn said with a small shrug of her shoulders.

Just as Rachel was about to respond, she was cut off by a rapid drum beat and Sam singing, "Shawty," which was followed by Finn yelling, "Aww, shit. Get your towels ready, it's about to go down."

As Finn continued the spoken intro, Quinn and Rachel began laughing while Santana pulled away from Brittany and looked up at the stage. "No way. Those idiots are not doing that song."

"It's not a bad choice," Quinn said after she stopped laughing.

"No, it isn't," Rachel said as Santana gaped at Quinn, then Rachel. "It would be extremely hard to follow up on my wonderful performance, so it was a wise to choose a more light-hearted song." On stage, Artie began to rap causing the four women to laugh again, in-between which Rachel said, "And this is extremely light-hearted."

They only laughed harder when Finn took over rapping duties from Artie.

It was simple physics really.

The cue stick hit the cue ball. The cue ball bounced off a rail and hit the 8 ball. The 8 ball dropped into a corner pocket and the team of Finn and Artie lost yet another game of eight-ball to Santana and Brittany, mostly due to Brittany's aptitude at the game, but Santana's skill at distracting her opponents didn't hurt either.

"You two wanna try?" Finn asked Rachel and Quinn who were seated to the side.

"No thanks," Rachel said.

"You sure?" Finn asked with a smile on his face.

"You two seem to be doing a fine job," Rachel said.

"Fine job?" Artie said. "They've been crushing us all night!"

"What can I say?" Santana said with a smirk. "Me and B are pretty good at playing with sticks and balls."

Quinn rolled her eyes. "Go see if Mike and Sam wanna play."

"Nah," Finn said as he looked over his shoulder. "They're too busy flirting over there."

"Well then," Santana said as she smacked Finn on the arm with her cue stick. "I guess you better rack 'em up again."

"How many more times are we gonna have to play you?"

"As many times as it takes to satisfy me and B," Santana said as she licked her lips and ran her hand up and down her cue stick. "And we can go all night long."

"Stop with the awful innuendo and go play," Quinn said as she rolled her eyes.

"Fine. You guys can kick our asses again," Finn said as he rubbed his face then followed Santana back to the pool table.

Rachel and Quinn watched as Finn re-racked the balls and Santana generously allowed the other team to break. The two guys looked at each other before Finn shrugged and Artie rolled up behind the cue ball. He carefully lined up the shot, took a deep breath, slowly exhaled as he thrust the cue stick forward in a smooth motion, and promptly sent the cue ball into the corner pocket in the far right side after it grazed the first ball of the rack, thanks to Santana bending over at the waist from across the table just as he was starting his shot.

"Stop cheating!" Finn said as he pointed at Santana.

"Who's cheating? I was just picking up the chalk I dropped," Santana said as she held up a piece of chalk between two fingers and set it down on the pool table. "What'd I miss? Did Artie scratch?"

"You did that on purpose!"

"I guess that means we win again," Santana said as she shrugged. "Tell you what, you can break after you re-rack."

Finn looked over at Rachel and Quinn and let out an exaggerated sigh before he smiled and went off to re-rack the balls.

"It's been nice to see Finn smiling and having a bit of fun," Quinn said as they watched Finn successfully pocket a stripped ball on his break.

"What'd you mean?"

Quinn put down her drink, pursed her lips, and stared at Rachel with her piercing gaze for a long moment before she said, "How much do you know about Finn's recovery?"

"I…," Rachel trailed off as she thought about the blonde's question. "I don't know anything about his recovery, aside from the fact that he tried to return to football."

Quinn pursed her lips and stared at Rachel again. "Finn and I broke up a few months after we started college."

"Why are you—" Rachel started before Quinn glared at her and held up a finger.

"I was the one who ended it," Quinn said before she sipped at her drink. "After four years of being with him, I wanted to see if the grass was really greener on the other side."

"Was it?"

"Some of it was and some of it wasn't," Quinn said as she shrugged.

"It's awful you would give up on that long of a relationship for practically nothing."

"Um, excuse me," Quinn said as she glared at her. "But Finn had no problems with going out with the first piece of hot ass he saw on campus." The blonde closed her eyes for a second and exhaled. "That's a lie, we were both pretty upset about it, but it didn't take us that long to get over it." She looked back at the pool table, her eyes following Finn. "Which makes sense, since I don't think either of us were truly happy in that relationship."

"Then why did you stay together for that long?"

"Because we were content and we probably would've been content if we stayed together, got married, and had children."

"So why didn't you?"

Quinn returned her gaze to Rachel. "Because we deserved to find people who would truly make us happy."

"Oh."

"And for a while." Quinn glanced at the pool table and Finn again before she said, "I think Finn found that happiness with Lisa."

"I assume Lisa was his college sweetheart?"

"Yea, they started going out a few weeks after we broke up and they were really happy together and I was happy for him." Quinn sipped at her drink again before she said, "Then came his injury, his surgery, and his recovery and I guess she couldn't handle being with him through all of that, so she broke up with him while he was in rehab."

"That's awful. How could she be so cruel?"

Quinn sighed and said, "I know it seems that way but it was a tough time for everyone. Finn obviously had it the worst but he wasn't exactly the most pleasant person to be around at the time." Quinn glanced at Rachel and noticed her look of disbelief. "Look, I'm not excusing or defending what Lisa did. I'm just saying that I understand some people aren't strong enough to deal with something like that."

Rachel looked down for a second and said, "You were."

"I care about Finn," Quinn said as she looked at Finn. "He was my first… everything and I never want to see him as hurt as he was when Lisa dumped him ever again."

"I'm sure he was devastated. Of course you wouldn't want to see him like that again."

"Well then," Quinn said as she fixed her gaze on Rachel again. "I'm glad we see eye to eye on that."

Finn and Artie's shouts of joy brought their attention back to the pool table where they saw them gloating at an angry looking Santana. The Latina glared back at the guys then hit Finn with her cue stick multiple times until he stopped gloating. With a self-satisfied smirk, she marched over to Quinn and Rachel with Brittany happily trailing behind her.

"That's it, me and B are done for the night," Santana said as she held out the cue stick.

"And here I thought you could go all night long," Quinn said with a smirk.

"Whatever Q. Just take the damn stick."

"Fine," Quinn said after she let out an over exaggerated sigh, grabbed the cue stick from Santana, and then turned to Rachel. "Come on. Might as well play some pool while we're here."

"Do we have to?"

"Stop being a chicken!" Artie shouted.

Rachel's eyes narrowed and grabbed Brittany's cue stick. "Let's go show those boys how to play."

"Last call everyone!" Puck yelled as he banged his hand on the bar before sliding over to where the group was sitting. "You guys want anything?"

The group declined anything alcoholic but a few asked for glasses of water.

"So," Finn said as he nudged Rachel. "You're really terrible at pool."

"I don't see why you have to rub it in."

"Who's rubbing it in?"

"You are."

"Hmm," Finn said as he rubbed his chin. "I guess I might be."

Rachel let out a hmph and turned away from him until she felt hard poking her in the side.

"Wanna sing one last song?" Finn asked as he poked her in the side with the songbook.

Rachel reached for the songbook but Finn pulled it out of her reach and she glared at him.

"I already picked a song."

"You want to sing with me?"

"Nah," Finn said as he shook his head. "Not just you, everyone."

"Oh hell no," Santana said from Finn's other side. "I am not getting up on stage."

"Come on, it'll be just like old times," Finn said.

"No way in hell Hudson."

"Yea San, let's go sing!" Brittany said.

"Stop denying it. You know you loved Glee Club," Quinn said.

"Fine," Santana said as she glared at the blonde. "One song and that's it."

From the small smile on Santana's face, Rachel was pretty sure that the other woman wasn't that upset at having to get on stage and sing with her friends. When Brittany grabbed Santana's hand and they ran up on stage laughing, Rachel knew Santana was happy to be up there.

Once on stage, Finn entered the code on the machine and watched as Santana rolled her eyes at his song choice.

"Couldn't you have picked something more recent?"

"This song is awesome," Finn said as he picked up a microphone. "How can you not like it?"

"Whatever Frankenteen," Santana said. "Take the lead since you love it so much."

Finn shrugged, stepped forward, and waited for the song to load. When it did, what was left of the bar crowd cheered as they heard the rhythmic piano intro.

"Just a small town girl, living in a lonely world," Finn sang and as he finished the first half of the verse, he pointed at Rachel who took his cue, stepped forward, and pointed right back at him as she began to sing with the rest of the group backing them up.

"Just a city boy, born and raised in south Detroit…"

A/N 2: What's this? My Spidey-Sense is telling me there was some vague plot movement in this chapter! Amazing!

Oh yes, I have a new Glee themed tumblr. Check my profile page for a link.