Chapter Four: Foolish Lover's Game
Author's Note: Thank you to all of the readers how have taken time to review and favorite/follow my story. It makes me feel great as a writer. And I also changed Sue's position as a resident to an attending because it made more sense with the coming chapters. I'll try to go back and edit that in the story later on. As always, I don't own Glee or any of the Glee characters (however, Megan is my own character). The chapter title comes from Take My Breath Away by Dianna Agron and Naya Rivera (or if you want to consider it from the original version, it's by Berlin).
I've decided to go ahead and post new chapters whenever they're ready to be posted, so keep checking back to see if anything gets posted. Since it's summer, I tend to have a lot more time on my hands.
Rachel could barely stand to look at Finn. And whenever she actually did, she had a feeling she had this pained expression on her face. At least, that's what Kurt and Quinn always told her would happen.
"Today you all are assisting on another attending's surgery." Sylvester said when her group of interns gathered around her. "This is Dr. Santana Lopez, she's one of the best orthopedic surgeons in the country. Now you can't cross her or make her mad because she will very possibly kick you out of the O.R., and you'll have nothing else to do for the day."
"But, Dr. Sylvester, on the board it says you have a surgery today. Couldn't we come in and assist you on that?" Puck asked, taking a sip of his coffee.
"No. The surgery I have planned for today is way too complicated for any interns to be in on. You all are on Lopez's service for today."
Rachel inwardly groaned. At least with Sylvester, she had heard rumors swirling about Finn and Rachel. But Rachel didn't know anything about Santana Lopez, except for that she was a self proclaimed bitch and she was a damn good ortho surgeon.
"Well, welcome to my service. As Sue said, I'm Santana Lopez. And if you mess this surgery up in any way, shape or form, you will be off my case, not only today, but forever. I will make sure there is no place for you on ortho rotation. Do a good job, and there's a chance that the first round of drinks are on me tonight at Rolling Greens. So let's go meet the patient.
"Good job in there, Berry." Lopez said in the scrub room. "You ever consider doing ortho?"
"No, I always I was going to do general."
Santana frowned at her. "You can do so much better than general." She started to walk out the door, then turned around. "There's a spot open for you on ortho after your internship is over."
Rachel smiled as she took off the gloves. "Well, thank you, Dr. Lopez."
"No problem. I compliment good talent when I see it. I'll see you at Rolling Greens tonight, right?"
"Oh, I can't go tonight. I have something else I have to do."
"Your loss. I'll see you around, I guess." Santana left and Rachel stood around for a little longer. Finally, she figured she should leave before the next surgery was arriving to the O.R.
"Everything okay, Dr. Berry?" a voice called out as she left the scrub room. Rachel turned around and saw Dr. Schuester, the Chief of Surgery.
"Just fine, Dr. Schuester. Just on my way home for the night."
"Oh, okay. You just looked a little distracted. Do the surgery not go well?"
"No, the surgery went well. Dr. Lopez is a wonderful doctor."
"Ah, yes, that's very true. Well, I won't keep you much longer. Next time you see your fathers, tell them I said hello."
"Will do, Chief." Rachel gave him a small nod and a smile and proceeded to the locker rooms for the rest of the interns.
"Rachel, you coming to the bar tonight? First round is on Lopez!" Puck said.
"No, I had a long night. I'm just going to head home and try to get some sleep. God knows I didn't get any of that last night." She looked at Finn and glared at him. If he noticed the glare, he did a good job of pretending like he hadn't seen it.
Once Rachel got back to the house, she set her bag down on the front table, kicked her shoes off into the hall closet, made her way to the couch, sunk down onto it, and curled into a little ball and started crying. She hated Finn Hudson for doing this to her, absolutely hated him.
But she loved him more than she hated him. And she couldn't understand why this was happening to her.
"Hey, I just came by to see if you were okay?" Blaine said, coming into the house. "But by the looks of you curled up on the couch and crying, I'd say you aren't. Hold on, I have something to help with this." Blaine went to the kitchen, pulled out a gallon of ice cream, two spoons, and walked back into the living room. "Isn't ice cream supposed to make everything better?"
Rachel smiled at him, digging her spoon into the chocolate goodness. "Ice cream makes everything better. Everybody knows that."
There was silence for a few minutes as Rachel started eating the ice cream. Blaine took a few spoonfuls, but he kept staring at Rachel.
"What? You're supposed to be making faces like that to Kurt. Although I ask that if you hook up here in the house, you at least try to keep it down because I don't need a repeat performance of Finn and whatever that bitch's name was. God, they were so damn loud." Rachel realized what she was saying. "But it's not like I care, or anything like that. Finn and I are just friends, nothing more than that."
"That there is a lie. Because it is so obvious to everyone, both here and at the hospital, that the two of you are in love with each other. Before I left the hospital, Sylvester wanted me to check up on the patient with appendicitis from last night. And she asked me if you and Finn were together. Do you want to know what she said when I said no."
"Not particularly."
"She said the two of you were being stupid and needed to break up with whoever you were dating because she said your chemistry was completely undeniable."
"Well, Blaine, I'm glad a patient thinks that a fellow intern is perfect for me. But I don't think I'm meant to be with Finn."
"You can't give up like this. I knew Rachel Berry back in high school, and if she wanted something, she'd go after it."
"Well, Blaine, I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but I don't think Finn and I are going to be together for a while. But you and Kurt on the other hand. When are you just going to just admit to that?"
"Last night. We're going out after work tomorrow." Blaine said with a smile.
"Well, good for you. Just don't hope for the same thing to happen to me and Finn. Because it probably won't. And besides, I don't love him. He's just a really good friend.
"Mhmm, sure. But if you don't love him, why are you eating so much of the ice cream?"
"Because it's been awhile since I've had ice cream and it's the greatest treat in the entire world." Rachel looked down at her spoon and frowned. "And it's a way to drown my sorrows without getting drunk and saying something I'd probably regret in the morning."
Blaine gave Rachel a hug. "I think you and Finn are meant to be together, and I think you need to have some time apart to be able to see that. Just don't take forever on the time apart, because I met Megan this morning and I can't see him being with her for much longer."
"You really think so?"
"I know so. Now, I'm going to head off to bed because I was up all night having to listen to Megan and Finn. And from the looks of things at the bar, it looks like it's going to happen again tonight."
"Great. I can't take another night of having to listen to that." Rachel got up from the couch and stretched. "I'll see you in the morning. Night, Blaine."
"Goodnight, Rachel. And for both of our sakes, I hope that Finn leaves Megan behind at the bar."
Rachel nodded as Blaine started up the stairs for his room. She waited a few minutes, then walked to the back door, unlocked it and opened it. She stepped out and let the cool autumn air welcome her. She climbed up onto one of the ledges and let her legs hand over the side.
She looked up at the dark sky and tried not to cry. She'd felt like that was all she'd been doing the last twenty-four hours, and she needed a break from the tears.
If this was a movie, this would be the time when some fairy godmother would come and talk to Rachel about her life, and Rachel would realize she wanted to be with Finn more than anything in the world, and the fairy godmother would wave her magic wand, and Megan would disappear, and she could be with Finn.
But this is reality, and the only fairy godmother that Rachel has is her old stuffed dog, named Barbra, left over from the days when her daddies would play nothing but Barbra Streisand around the house (Rachel suspected that they loved Barbra before she was even born and that's why they gave her the middle name of Barbra). But even stuffed puppy dog Barbra was starting to lose some of her superpowers.
"I guess there's no more magic left in my life." Rachel said, a tear drop sliding down her cheek.
She heard the front door open and Finn walked in, thankfully without Megan tonight. He saw her sitting outside and walked out the back door to join her.
"It feels really good out tonight." Finn said, leaning against one of the posts on the deck.
Rachel nodded. She knew that if she opened her mouth, she'd start crying or say something she'd regret. And she didn't want to have that happen.
"So, I'm sorry about last night. I probably was a douche, wasn't I?" he asked. Rachel shrugged her shoulders. "You aren't going to talk to me, are you?"
"What am I supposed to say? We didn't end things on a good note. I want to be your friend, but I'm not sure if I want anything more than that. And you seemed to enjoy your time with Megan last night. And I'm not one to stand in the way of love."
"Rach, hold on—"
"No, Finn. I'm sorry, but I just can't deal with a relationship right now. And besides, I just got out of a really bad one. Give me some time to sort out my feelings for you and Jesse. Because if you and I are really meant for each other, I want to make sure you aren't going to be a rebound." Rachel hopped off from her spot on the deck post. "I'll see you in the morning, Finn." She patted him on the shoulder and walked back in the house.
Finn kept standing on the deck and stared incredulously into the house. Had she just admitted she had some sort of feelings for him? Feelings that were more than platonic?
"I'm going to fight like crazy for you, Rachel Berry." Finn said, clenching his fist. "I'll be the best friend you've ever had, and when you're ready to date me, I'll be right here for you." Smiling to himself, he walked back into the house, grabbed his phone off the small table in the kitchen, and dialed Megan's number.
"I was wondering when you were going to call. Although I expected you to take me home with you from the bar." Megan said when she picked up on the first ring.
"Look, Megan, I feel like I need to be straight with you. The way I acted last night…that's not the real me. I just…I would never act like that."
There was silence on the other line. "There's somebody else, isn't there?"
"Yes. There most definitely is. It's just…incredibly complicated."
"Well, I'll try to complicate things. Consider us, whatever last night was, a onetime thing. Just, call me if you ever want it to be more than a onetime thing."
"I highly doubt that I'll need anything more than a onetime thing. Have a good night, Megan."
"Fuck you, Finn." The line went dead.
Now the only thing left to do was to win Rachel over.