Author's Note: You guys are awesome, as always! Thanks for the reviews! This chapter title comes from "Everything" by Lifehouse.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Rachel lay back on the couch and threw her arm over her eyes. She yawned but couldn't keep the smile off of her lips as she thought about the past couple of days. Even though it had been crazy, she absolutely loved it. Rehearsing gave her such a thrill, and she couldn't wait for her opening night.

"Hello, my darling Diva!" Kurt greeted as he entered the living room from his bedroom. He patted Rachel's head before he went into the kitchen. "You look tired. Are you beat from rehearsal?"

"I'm exhausted," Rachel told him. Then she sat up and beamed at him. "I love it!"

And it was true. Rachel had spent the past three days preparing for her debut as Maria, and Lydia had been helping her get ready for everything before she left. She had been having such a wonderful time with the rest of the cast. The rush she was getting from all of the work was absolutely amazing. Her fathers and most of her friends had already bought tickets for her opening night, which happened to be the next night. And she had managed to spend another night in Finn's apartment, as well. Things had been absolutely amazing as of late.

"We're all very excited for tomorrow," Kurt said. He nudged Rachel until she sat up and then sat next to her. "My father and Carole are coming down to see your show. And my brother is even going out to see it, and he never wants to see any type of show on Broadway!"

Rachel could feel her cheeks begin to heat up and she stood up, trying to hide the fact by going into the kitchen. As soon as Finn had heard about Rachel taking over the role for two weeks, he had immediately bought a ticket for opening night. They had been lucky that Burt and Carole had wanted to see Rachel in the show, as well, since it gave Finn an actual plausible excuse to go. He had been as excited to see Rachel on stage as she was to perform.

"Oh. Speaking of my brother, his birthday in in two days." Of course, Rachel knew that already. She had the perfect present all planned out for him. "Anyway, he's turning twenty-five, so I'm throwing him a fabulous party at a club. You and Santana are definitely invited, because I'm going to need someone to hang out with."

She had already heard Finn complaining about the fact that the party was going to be held in a club. Finn insisted that it wasn't really scene, but Kurt was relentless and wouldn't let it go until Finn agreed. Rachel was definitely planning on going to the party (and Finn had begged her to go), but she didn't want to seem too eager. "What day will the party be on?" she asked instead.

Kurt checked his phone before he answered her. "It will be on his actual birthday. Are you going to come?"

"Sure," Rachel said. "It sounds like fun!" She then proceeded to tune Kurt out as he began to talk about the plans he had for the rest of the party. Instead, she thought about the birthday night that she was planning for Finn as well.

Suddenly, something that Kurt said caused Rachel's attention to roar back to the conversation. "And it's my goal of the night to set Finn up with a girl."

"What?" Rachel blurted before she could stop herself. And then she tried to recover. "It seems like Finn is very happy right now. Why ruin it? And I thought you promised your stepmother that you would stop trying to bother him about it!"

Kurt gave her an incredulous look and ignored her statement about his stepmother. "Rachel, I am excellent at setting people up. Every couple that I've set up has worked out!"

Rachel shook her head. "No they haven't."

"Yes they have."

"Need I remind you of the fiasco of our junior year?"

"Oh." Kurt's cheeks turned bright red as he remembered the incident Rachel was talking about. "No, you don't. Fine. Your point is made." Then Kurt's face turned back to its normal complexion and he smirked. "And even though I promised Carole that I would stop meddling, I just can't let Finn be alone on his birthday. It will be in addition to the fabulous shirt that I got him for a present."

Rachel sighed and shook her head. Despite the fact that she desperately wanted to say something, she knew that it was best to just keep her mouth shut. She would inform Finn of Kurt's plan, and then she would probably have to stop him from maiming his younger brother.

"Anyway." Kurt clapped his hands. "I'm going to prepare us a wonderful dinner so that you can be well-rested for your big debut tomorrow."

Rachel closed her eyes as she lay back on the couch once again. This time, she was tired for an entirely different reason.

"No."

"Berry."

"No."

Santana pointed to the door of the dressing room. "Get in that dressing room and get ready for your show!" she commanded. "Stop freaking out, Rachel. You are you going to change into your costume, and then you're going to go on that stage and be fucking awesome."

"Okay." Rachel took a deep breath and nodded her head. "Okay. I'll see you after the show." Her minor panic attack now over (for the most part), Rachel disappeared into her dressing room. Santana sighed as she made her way back to the seats that had been reserved for all of Rachel's friends and family.

As soon as Kurt saw her, he immediately started to accost her with questions. "How is she? Is she okay? Is she almost ready?"

"Berry is getting ready right now," Santana said as she settled in her seat next to Brittany. "But she's kind of freaking out. She just needs to do those breathing exercise things that she always does."

It was then that Finn checked out of the conversation. If Rachel was freaking out, Finn wanted to go and make sure that she was okay. He knew that Rachel could handle herself, but he just wanted to see her before she went on stage. So he told everyone that he was just running to the bathroom, and then he talked to the security guy that Rachel told him about and managed to get backstage. He knocked on Rachel's door and opened it when he didn't get a response.

"Rach? Baby, are you okay?" It didn't take Finn very long to find Rachel huddled in a chair in front of her dressing room mirror. She was already in her costume, and she was chewing vehemently on her bottom lip as she stared at herself in the mirror.

"Finn!" Rachel turned around and gave him a look of surprise. "What are you doing in here?"

Finn shut the door behind him. He set aside the bouquet of pink tulips he had been hiding since coming into the theater so that Rachel couldn't see them. "Santana said that you were freaking out, so I thought that I'd come check on you."

Rachel's voice was suddenly higher than it normally was. "Freaking out? I'm not freaking out. I'm just a little bit worried right now. That's all."

"Worried?" Finn walked towards Rachel and stood behind her chair, resting his hands on her shoulders. "What are you worried about?"

"I'm just a little bit nervous. Everything is fine." Another few moments passed before Rachel said, "What if… What if I can't…"

"Stop." Finn kneeled down in front of Rachel and took her hands in his. "Stop it right now. In all the years that I've known you and all the stories that I've heard, you've never been afraid to get on stage. Don't let the fact that this time you'll be performing on a Broadway stage scare you. You're going to be amazing."

Rachel stared into Finn's eyes and felt herself becoming calmer. Despite her minor freak out, she knew that she was Rachel Barbara Berry. She was born to do this. It was just pre-preforming jitters, that's all. Finn's reassuring words, combined with the time she had to relax allowed Rachel to realize that she was going to be fantastic up on that stage.

Finn brought her hands up to his mouth, his amber eyes warm as he gazed it her. He kissed her fingers and then gave her that adorable half smile. "I love you."

Rachel's lips parted in surprise. But Finn just continued to smile at her. Rachel's own face broke out into a beaming grin and she tightened her fingers around Finn's hands. Sliding off the chair, she kneeled in front of him.

"I love you too, Finn," she whispered. Then she surged up to kiss him deeply, curling her fingers into his suit jacket. Finn held her close and when the kiss broke, he trailed kisses down from her temple and to her jaw. He reached behind him and pulled the flowers forward, holding them out for Rachel to see.

"These are for you," Finn said.

Rachel couldn't stop beaming as she accepted the flowers from him. She held them to her face and inhaled the sweet scent before she kissed Finn's cheek. "Pink tulips are my favorite."

Finn cupped her cheek and smiled when she leaned into his hand. "I know." He stood and then offered his hand to help Rachel stand as well. He watched as she arranged the flowers in a vase before he tugged her forward and kissed her forehead. "I'll see you after the show. You're going to be amazing, baby."

Just as Finn was walking out of the dressing room, Rachel called after him, "I love you, Finn!"

Finn grinned at her. "Love you too, Rach." He made his way back to their seats and sat down between his mother and Kurt. As soon as he sat down, Puck started in on him.

"Hudson, where the hell were you?" he demanded. "You were gone forever."

Finn shrugged his shoulders. "There was a line."

All the lights in the theater darkened then, so it kept Puck from asking anymore questions. But it wasn't long before Finn's phone was buzzing in his pocket. At the risk of incurring the wrath of his mother and brother, Finn tried to secretly check his phone.

Unsurprisingly, it was a text from Puck. Finn looked over at him, but he was talking to Quinn as if he hadn't sent a text. With a sigh, Finn opened the text message and then promptly choked on the air he was breathing.

"Dude, you are so obvious."

"Finny, are you okay?" Carole asked. She patted her son on the back as he coughed. This time, when he looked over at Puck, he saw that he was smirking. Finn narrowed his eyes at his friend as he recovered, but Puck simply turned towards the stage as the show started.

Finn quickly forgot Puck's comments as Rachel came onto the stage. He was instantly mesmerized by her and her beautiful voice. She truly was a shining star up on that stage, and Finn couldn't take his eyes off of her.

Eventually, intermission rolled around. Finn was actually trying to figure out how he could get backstage to see Rachel again when Puck hit him on the back of the head. Finn turned to glare at him, but then Puck jutted his head towards the entrance. Finn sighed as he stood up and followed Puck out. He supposed that there would be no avoiding this discussion.

"Dude," Puck said as soon as they were far enough away from everyone else. "Seriously. I can't even handle how obvious you are."

Finn sighed again. At this point, there was really no use in denying anything. It seemed as if Puck had known that Finn and Rachel had feelings for each other all along. His suspicions were confirmed when Puck smirked at him and nodded his head.

"Don't even try to deny it," Puck continued. "As soon as I saw the two of you at the lunch with Quinn and her other bridesmaids, I knew that you finally grew some balls and owned up to your feelings for Berry."

Now it was Finn's turn to smirk. "Yeah? My feelings?"

Puck glared at him and shoved his shoulder. "Fuck you, man. You know what I mean. My point is, you and Berry couldn't be more obvious if you tried."

"Kurt doesn't know," Finn pointed out.

"That's because Lady Petunia lives on his own planet."

"Santana doesn't know."

Puck snorted. "Hudson, if Santana doesn't know already, she's very close to finding out. You're not very bright if you think that she's not going to hold it over you."

Well, as far as Finn knew, Santana hadn't said anything. And if she hadn't said anything, then Finn was going to assume that Santana was none the wiser to his and Rachel's relationship. It was just easier that way. "Quinn doesn't know."

"That's because she's caught up in planning the wedding."

Puck did have a point with that. Finally, Finn ran a hand through his hair. "Look, man. Rachel and I were planning on telling everyone after the wedding."

Puck held his hands up. "I won't say anything. I just wanted to point out that you two are really fucking unsubtle. You might want to work on that."

Finn rolled his eyes before he looked back at Puck. "How did you know, anyway?"

Finally, Puck cracked a real smile. "This is the first time that I've seen either you or Berry really, truly happy. And it happened at the same time. I knew that you always had a thing for her, and she always had a secret crush on you, so it didn't take much for me to put two and two together. And…" He shrugged his shoulders. "We used to be best friends, once."

Finn studied Puck for a long moment before he reached over and clapped him on the shoulder. Their friendship may not have been what it used to be, but Finn could see that when it really mattered, he could always count on Puck. And they were both with people they truly loved and were happy with their lives.

The intermission was over, and Puck and Finn returned to their seats. Rachel came back onto the stage, and Finn spent the rest of the show marveling over how amazing his girlfriend was. When the show was over, Rachel got a standing ovation. And Finn was clapping and cheering harder than anyone.

Author's Note: So Puck officially knows now (I guess it was more of Puck telling Finn that he knew, as opposed to Puck finding out). The guesses on who would be the next to find out was pretty evenly split between Kurt, Santana, and Puck. And Finn and Rachel love each other! Yay! :)