Author's Note: You guys are so awesome, and I can't thank you enough for all the support you've given this story. :) The flashback is in italics, and it takes place during the cookout mentioned at the end of chapter one. This chapter titles comes from "Better Days" by the Goo Goo Dolls.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Shelby smiled when she saw her ex-husband come into the kitchen. She put down the rubber spatula she had been using to ice a cake and reached over to hug him in greeting.
"Hello, Hiram!" she greeted cheerfully. "How are you?"
"I'm doing well!" He set aside the pasta dish that he and Leroy had brought and peered out the back window, where he could see the guests from the cookout mingling. He smiled when he caught sight of his daughter on the deck. His smile widened even further when he saw who she was standing with. Hiram chuckled a little when he saw how Rachel was blushing, but he also took note of how Finn was responding to her. Hiram had a sneaking suspicion that the attraction was not one-sided.
"I can't believe how grown up she is," Shelby said wistfully. "Do you remember when she was just a baby? She was so little!" Shelby held her hands up to demonstrate, cradling them together. "Now she's in college."
"I know," Hiram said. "She's become the woman that we always wanted her to be." It was true. Rachel was growing up and going after her dreams, but she was still the sweet, wonderful girl that Shelby, Russell, Hiram, and Leroy had raised her to be. Both sets of parents couldn't be more proud of her.
Hiram looked through the window and saw Rachel giggle at something Finn said. Shelby followed his gaze and watched the young man interacting with her daughter. She couldn't keep the smile off her face when she saw the knowing look on Hiram's.
"So you've noticed that Rachel has a little bit of a crush on Finn, did you?" Shelby asked.
Hiram chuckled. "Oh, I knew the moment I saw her with him. And if I'm not mistaken, I think that Finn may have a thing for our daughter, as well."
Shelby tilted her head. "You think so?" she said carefully. Honestly, she could see the sparks between Finn and Rachel, but she didn't want to say anything. Quinn was still dating him, and Shelby didn't want to cause any unnecessary drama be revealing that she knew about the crush.
"I really do," Hiram said. "And I'm calling it now. I think that one day, we'll find Finn and Rachel together." Part of him was joking a little bit, but he really was serious. He wasn't sure when and how it was going to happen, but Hiram knew that Finn and Rachel would end up together.
Shelby nodded her head slowly. Truthfully, she agreed with her ex-husband. After another moment, they saw Kurt join Finn and Rachel. With one last smile at Rachel, Finn turned away to go back into the house. Rachel's eyes followed him until Kurt caught her attention. Both Shelby and Hiram couldn't help but laugh at the way Kurt seemed to be playfully teasing Rachel. It appeared that they weren't the only ones to know about her crush.
Just then, Leroy entered the kitchen. "What are we talking about?" he asked. It didn't take long for him to notice that Shelby and Hiram were watching Rachel. Connecting the dots, he figured out what the topic of discussion was. "We're talking about how our little Rachela is in love with Finn, aren't we?"
"In love?" Shelby repeated while Hiram chuckled (he totally agreed with his husband, but he wasn't about to tell Shelby that). "She's infatuated with him, obviously, but…"
Leroy just waved his hand, mostly to placate Shelby. "I'm just making a small prediction, that's all."
"You do realize if you had just told us about your relationship, we all could have sat here like this three months ago."
Finn rolled his eyes while Rachel sighed heavily. "Kurt, let it go," Finn said. "We get it. You're mad that Rachel and I didn't tell you that we were seeing each other. But now you know, so stop complaining."
For the past week, Kurt hadn't stopped trying to make Finn and Rachel feeling guilty for keeping their relationship a secret. While he was happy for his brother and friend, he really wished that he could have known (never mind the fact that Kurt had the biggest mouth and probably wouldn't have been able to keep it a secret).
"Kurt, it's your fault that you didn't notice it sooner. The rest of us figured it out without a problem," Santana pointed out. "If I hear you whine about it one more time, I'm going to stuff a sock in your mouth."
Kurt looked over his shoulder to level a glare at Santana before he turned back to face the movie. Finn, Rachel, Kurt, and Santana were having a movie night with Blaine, Brittany, Tina and her boyfriend Mike Chang. They were actually waiting for Puck and Quinn to arrive, as well. The newlyweds had returned from their honeymoon two days ago and had wanted to meet up with everyone.
Thinking about it caused Rachel to snuggle further into Finn's side. He immediately picked up on how tense she was and rubbed her arm in comforting strokes. She tilted her face up to smile at him, and he leaned down to softly kiss her lips.
"Rachel, you have to relax," Tina said when she noticed the exchange between the couple. "Everything is going to be just fine."
"And you're not really helping your case if you're going to sit there and look extremely guilty," Santana added.
"That makes it really obvious," Kurt agreed.
Finn's arm tightened around Rachel. "Would you all give it a rest?"
Rachel put a hand on Finn's chest before he could berate their friends any more. "It's fine," she said. She figured the more she told herself that, the more she would believe it. "Everything will be just fine."
With a resolute nod of her head, Rachel stood up. It was about time that she actually tried to start believing it when everyone said that it was going to be alright. As she tried to keep herself busy in the kitchen, she thought about everything that everyone—Finn, Santana, Tina, Kurt, her fathers, Carole—had said to her over the past three months.
Sure, Quinn might not be exactly thrilled when she first found out. But Rachel had a feeling that, once everything was explained, Quinn would realize how happy she and Finn were together and wouldn't hold it against them. She took a deep breath and caught Finn's eye, her lips parting into a smile just as the door opened.
Puck stepped in first, holding several bags. Quinn followed after him, shouting a greeting to everyone in the room as she entered. Puck unceremoniously dropped the bags on the floor and stood up, turning towards his new wife.
"Okay, I brought all the shit you got for everyone up. Hand it out so it can be out of my sight."
Finn chuckled. "Man, why are you in such a bad mood?"
Puck pointed accusingly at the bags as Quinn began to hand out little gifts for everyone. "I lost a solid four hours of sex because Q insisted on going out shopping. Those things seriously put a cramp in my schedule."
Rachel made a face as she went to sit back down in her original spot, between Finn and Blaine. There were so many people crammed onto the couch that Rachel had to sit with her side pressed against Finn's, but they didn't wrap their arms around each other as they had before.
"No one wants to hear about the details of your honeymoon, Noah," Rachel said. "That's my big sister you're talking about."
"Don't listen to Puck," Quinn said pleasantly. "We were there for a whole week. He has nothing to complain about." She sat on the other couch and tugged on Puck's hand until he sat down next to her. "So what have you all been up to this past week?"
Then the worst thing possible happened: everyone suddenly grew quiet and looked at each other.
Even Puck looked at everyone, waiting for them to say something. Quinn's brow furrowed in confusion as she looked at all of the occupants of the room. Still, no one said anything.
"Guys… What's going on?" Quinn asked.
Rachel looked at Finn, her eyes wide. This was it. This was the moment when they were finally going to come clean. Finn reached over and took Rachel's hand, squeezing it tightly and rubbing his thumb across her knuckles.
"We have something to tell you, Quinn," Rachel said. Only when she spoke did she realize how ominous her words sounded. She hadn't meant for it to sound that way.
Quinn's face was immediately full of concern. She hadn't yet noticed that Finn was holding Rachel's hand. "Oh my God, Rachel! Is everything okay? You're not sick, or anything, are you?"
"Oh, Quinn, I'm sorry," Rachel immediately said. "I didn't mean to make you worry. It's nothing bad, I promise."
"Alright…" Quinn walked over to Rachel and sat on the coffee table across from her. "You know that you can tell me anything, right?" As the words were leaving Quinn's mouth, she caught sight of Rachel's hand in Finn's. Her brow furrowed in confusion and she looked up from their joined hands to Rachel's face, and then to Finn's. Finn squeezed Rachel's hand once again, and the movement didn't go unnoticed by Quinn.
Rachel could see that her sister was slowly beginning to figure things out. "Anything?" she asked quietly.
"Rachel… What's going on?" Quinn's eyes moved between Rachel and Finn once again. Her face was carefully blank, so Rachel had no idea what she was thinking. "Finn?"
"I think you might know what this is," Finn said.
Quinn's head began to shake slowly, and she was wearing a strange look on her face. "No, I don't think I know what this is," she said. "Because this isn't something that I thought I would ever know. It looks like my little sister went behind my back and started a fling with my ex-boyfriend, but it couldn't be that, could it?"
All pretense of calm was gone as soon as the word "fling" left Quinn's mouth. Rachel's face instantly hardened and she shot to her feet, still holding on to Finn's hand. "It's not a fling, Quinn!"
Quinn jumped up as well, while their friends looked on in shock. They couldn't believe how quickly things had escalated. "So you did go behind my back!"
"We didn't!" Now Rachel let go of Finn's hand, totally ready to face off against Quinn. The last time she and her sister had fought like this, Rachel had been sixteen and Quinn had been eighteen. And that time, they had been arguing over who got the car first. Of course, they had arguments since, but it had never been as bad as this. "Quinn, don't try to turn this into something that it's not!"
"No, I think it's very accurate to say that you went behind my back," Quinn accused. "Obviously, you felt as if you were doing something wrong since you decided to keep this fling from me!"
"It's not a fling!" Rachel repeated, her voice jumping up an octave. "I may not have told you when it first happened, but I'm telling you now. Finn and I are in a relationship. Finn is my boyfriend, and I'm his girlfriend, and I love him. This is the furthest thing from a fling. Is that what you wanted to hear?"
Even though Finn knew that she was more than capable of handling herself, he didn't want her to have to do this alone. Finn stood up as well and wrapped his arm around Rachel, pulling her close. "I love her," he said, looking into Rachel's eyes as he spoke.
Rachel beamed up at him. Finn's words gave her even more confidence, and she felt better having his arm around her. She turned back to Quinn, who was now glaring at the couple.
"No one asked you, Finn!" Quinn snapped.
"Hey, now." Puck stood up and went to stand next to his wife, waiting until she looked at him. "Why don't we just tone it down a little bit?"
Quinn whipped around to face her husband. "Did you know about this?" she demanded. Puck sighed before he nodded his head, and Quinn shook her head. "I can't believe you! I can't believe that you knew about this and didn't tell me!"
"Rachel's right, Quinn," Puck said. "Don't make this into something it's not. You don't have anything to be angry about."
"I don't? My little sister is dating my ex-boyfriend!"
"And why should that matter? You're not dating Finn. You haven't for three years! And, uh, if you remember correctly, we went behind Finn's back for years. So…"
"That's not the point, Puck! It's a matter of trust! It's the fact that she betrayed me—"
"Wait a second!" Rachel inserted herself back into the argument. She hadn't meant for Puck to get caught up in the fight, because it wasn't his place. "Betrayal? In what way have I betrayed you, Quinn?"
"Puck is right," Finn added. "Quinn, we haven't been together in over three years. And we were never happy together to begin with. I don't understand why this is such a big deal to you."
Quinn leveled them all with a glare. "Because I knew that Rachel was in love with Finn from the very beginning!"
Everyone in the room froze. Rachel stared at her sister with wide eyes, and Finn's grip tightened around her. Quinn just nodded her head with a smug look on her face.
"Oh yes. From the moment you met Finn, I knew that you had developed a little crush on him. Don't think that I didn't see the longing looks you always gave him. And of course, I noticed how you always tried to flirt with him."
Rachel's cheeks flushed. "I wasn't trying to flirt with him." At least, she hadn't been intentionally. "I wouldn't have done that to you!"
"And yet you did anyway." Quinn threw another accusing look Rachel's way.
"Would you stop, Quinn?" Finn snapped. "Rachel wasn't the only one, okay? I didn't realize it at the time, but it wasn't entirely one-sided. And you're one to talk, you know. Considering that you were cheating on me the entire time with your best friend. Can we both just admit that we were wrong?"
From the look on Quinn's face, it didn't look as if she was going to be agreeing with Finn any time soon (even though he was right). She whipped back around to face Rachel, pointing a finger at her.
"I can't believe that you would do this to me," she said.
Rachel lifted her chin. "I didn't do anything wrong, Quinn. Finn and I are happy with each other. I love him. Can't you just be happy for us, too?" It felt so good to be able to say that she loved Finn out loud for everyone to hear. She pretty much wanted to run outside and shout it for everyone to hear.
"Not when you go behind my back and betray me like that." And with that, Quinn picked up her purse and left the apartment, slamming the door behind her.
Rachel stared after her sister before she sank down onto the couch, burying her face in her hands. Tears came to her eyes and she let them spill over. She couldn't believe that that had just happened.
Finn sat down next to Rachel and pulled her into his arms, rubbing a comforting hand over her back. She buried her face in his chest, clutching his shirt tightly while their friends looked on in worry. Every outcome they had imagined had never prepared them for this.
"I love you, Rachel," Finn murmured into her ear as he held her tightly. "I love you."
Rachel just held onto Finn tighter.
After everything that had happened, Finn and Rachel had had decided to retreat back to Finn's apartment. Rachel had changed into one of Finn's shirts and wrapped herself up in his bed, burrowing under the covers.
Finn walked into his room and watched Rachel for a moment. His heart ached for her, because she didn't deserve this. None of this should have happened, and he couldn't believe how quickly it had all spiraled out of control. He just wanted to help her feel better.
After another moment, Finn climbed into bed next to Rachel. She immediately turned to face him, curling herself into his arms. He kissed her forehead and pulled the blankets up around them so that they were both covered.
"I love you, Finn," Rachel whispered. She just wanted him to know that.
As always, he seemed to know what she was thinking. Rachel lifted her head up for a kiss, and Finn's lips landed on hers in a tender caress. "I know. I love you, too," he muttered when they pulled apart. "Everything will be alright, Rach."
Those were the last words that Rachel heard before she fell asleep. Despite how upset she was, Rachel had a peaceful sleep wrapped up in Finn's arms. It was early in the morning when she woke up, Finn's beeper for work cutting through the silence.
Rachel opened her eyes to see the first light of dawn streaming through the windows. Finn's absence from the bed had roused her and she saw that he was already up and getting dressed. He turned back towards Rachel and his lips lifted into a half smile when he saw that she was awake.
"Go back to sleep, baby," Finn said. He leaned over and pushed her hair behind her ear. "I'm just getting called into work."
Rachel yawned and could already feel her eyes growing heavy once again. "Is everything okay?"
"Everything is fine. It shouldn't take me very long. I'll see you in the morning."
"Alright." She pulled the blankets up tighter around herself, trying to make up the warmth from Finn's absence in the bed. "See you in the morning."
Finn smiled again and leaned over to kiss her softly. "I love you, Rachel."
That was the last thing she heard before she fell asleep once again.
Author's Note: Quinn finally knows now, and now everyone has to deal with the fallout. We still have a few chapters to go! Thanks for reading!