Chapter Eleven: With You Is Where I Want To Be

Author's Note: Thanks again for all the reviews! I know the last few chapters were kind of short, but this one will make up for it. The speech that Rachel makes was inspired by the speech that Lexie Grey makes to Mark Sloan in the 8x22 episode of Grey's Anatomy, and while I was writing this chapter, I had the scene playing on repeat. As always, I don't own Glee. The chapter title comes from Long Distance by Bruno Mars.

"Who wants to help me perform a surgery to save a guy's life?" Sylvester asked when the interns were gathered around in the morning.

Immediately all of their hands shoot up in the air.

"That's what I thought. I want all of my interns to come with me. Last night, there was a massive accident on a barge and Columbia is currently at capacity, so now they are coming to us. I have seven surgeries that I have to perform today, and each of you will help me with the surgeries. "Berry, you up for the first surgery?"

"Absolutely, Dr. Sylvester. What kind of surgery is it?"

"A spleen was partially ruptured. The guy is being prepped for surgery right now. Got any questions before we go in?"

"Is there any patient history of any other surgeries? A past surgery could mess with this one." Rachel said, basically having to run in order to keep up with Sylvester.

"Good question, Berry. As far as I know, there hasn't been other surgeries. But this patient is allergic to a specific type of suture, so we have to make sure we use a different kind."

"Will that affect the way you have to do the sutures?"

"Not at all. Where's the rest of the interns?"

"I think they're trying to catch up. You're going awfully fast."

"Well, Berry, when you have seven surgeries you have to do in one day, you tend to hurry. They'll have to catch up later; we need to scrub in."

Once Rachel was in the hospital room, ready to assist Sylvester with whatever she needed, she looked up and saw Finn staring at her. He caught her eye, winked, and gave her a thumbs up. She mouthed a thank you and turned to Sylvester.

"Where would you like me, Dr. Sylvester?"

"On the other side of the patient."

Rachel nodded and stepped to the other side of the patient. She was getting a front row seat to watch one of the best doctors in the United States repair a guy's spleen.

She felt like she was walking on sunshine.

About halfway through the surgery, the heart monitor started beeping like crazy and the doctors started doing everything they could to save the guy's life.

"Dr. Sylvester, there's a small line of blood coming out from the heart. Is there a way to page cardio?"

"No time, Berry. You're going to help me stop the bleeding."

Seconds later, the bleeding in the heart and the machines weren't beeping as crazily as they were before.

"Nice find, Berry. Now let's not have something like that happen again. Let's finish this man up." Sylvester said.

"That was completely exhilarating!" Rachel said that day at lunch. "I can't wait to hear what Finn thinks about his surgery because mine was absolutely amazing. I helped save a guy's life. I can't believe I did that!"

"Berry needs to stop talking or I'm going to throw up." Puck said, barely touching any of the food on his plate.

"Noah, I'm sure that you are going to be just fine." Rachel said, taking a bite from her salad.

He muttered something under his breath then heard his pager go off. The blood drained from his face. "Shit, it's my turn. Is it a good thing or a bad thing that Finn's surgery is done already?"

"Could be either." Kurt said, taking a sip of water. "Good luck, Puck, we will be thinking the best thoughts for you."

Quinn chuckled as the rest of the table watched Puck grumble as he left the table. A few minutes after he left, Finn took his spot.

"That was the best feeling in the entire world. I've never experienced anything like that!" Finn said, taking one of Puck's fries.

"I know, right!" Rachel said.

"Oh God, there she goes again." Kurt said, pushing his chair back. "I'm going to watch Puck perform surgery from the gallery. If anyone wants to join me and not hear the should-be lovebirds talk about performing surgery like they've never done it, come join me."

Finn and Rachel frowned as they watched the rest of the table push their chairs back and follow Kurt out of the cafeteria.

"They just can't handle that we were the first two who got to help Sylvester with her surgeries." Rachel said, tucking a piece of hair that was falling out of her ponytail behind her ear.

"They're jealous because they know their surgeries won't go as flawlessly as ours did." Finn said, giving Rachel a high five.

"Well, mine wasn't flawless, but the guy is going to make a full recovery." Rachel said. "Well, my lunch is done. I guess I should go around and do post-ops. I'll see you later, okay?"

"Yeah, see you later." Finn said, smiling at his best friend as she left the cafeteria.

"Hey, Finn." Rachel said to Finn as she left the hospital that night. "What's going on?"

He shrugged. "Not much. Just waiting around and getting some fresh air. What about you?"

She started digging through her bag for her keys. "Not much. I thought about heading over to Rolling Greens for a little bit. I needed to celebrate the successful surgery today. You wanna come with me?"

"No, I was going to meet Liz here and we were going to go out for a bite to eat and walk around town for a little bit. Oh, I left my house key in a different pair of pants, so try not to lock the doors until I get home tonight, okay?"

Rachel smiled and nodded. "I love you."

Finn's eyes widened. "What?"

Rachel's hand flew up to her mouth. "Oh my God, I just said that out loud. Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. Um, let's just forget I said anything. It was a total slip of the tongue. What do they call it in psychology? A Freudian slip? Yeah, that's what it is. So, let's forget about that, like I just said."

"Rachel—"

"I love you so much. I can't keep it in anymore. I've tried to move on, but things didn't work out with me and Zach, and I don't care that he comes from a great medical family and I come from a great medical family, and people think that we're supposed to be together. It's just not working out because of how much I love you. And hanging out with you for these last few months has been great, but it keeps making me fall even more in love with you and I feel like this is going to destroy our friendship so I need to know if you still love me the way I love you." Rachel started to cry and started stuttering. "Everything I do somehow makes me think of you. Every time I go to the pizza place down the street, I think of our outing as friends when I tried to tell myself that we really were just friends and right now, where I'm standing I can smell your cologne and it smells really good and you put just the right amount on and it's not overwhelming, and I'm sure I'm overwhelming you right now, but I love you." Rachel paused to wipe away some of her tears. "I love you so much that I don't even know if I can just be friends with you because it really hurts to see you with other people and I feel so sick all the time. And every time you bring Megan home, I can hear the two of you having sex, and it makes me cry every time because that should be me in there and I made a horrible mistake, I know I did, and I regret it every day. I love you, Finn Hudson. I love you more than you could ever imagine. And the fact that I'm standing here, basically sobbing in front of you is really embarrassing to me, and I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry and I love you. So, I thought saying this to you would make me feel better, since you know, I'm finally getting it off my chest, but I feel worse because this situation is so awkward. So, there we go. It's all out in the open. I love you, Finn Hudson, and I don't think I can ever stop loving you." Rachel said, finishing her speech as she wiped away more of the tears that were falling down her face. "Finn…"

"Finn, there you are!" a female voice rang out. Rachel tried to pull herself before Finn's girlfriend could see that she was a fucking hot mess. "I thought we were going to meet in the front lobby, but I've been waiting there for five minutes." Liz's eyes landed on Rachel. "Oh, Rachel, I didn't see you there. I hope you don't have a ball to throw at my nose to break it. She turned her attention back to Finn. "Ready to go to dinner?"

Finn looked back at Rachel. She was visibly struggling to hold herself together. He didn't want to leave her, he couldn't leave her.

"We can talk later tonight, Finn." Rachel said. Finn was amazed at how she managed to sound so put together when he could take one look at her and say that she wasn't doing well. "Enjoy your night together. And I'll make sure to leave the door unlocked until you get home." Rachel smiled and Finn could see that her eyes were still slightly wet.

"You sure?" Finn asked, reaching out to take Rachel's hand.

Rachel backed away slowly. "Yeah, I'm sure. I'll see you later."

"So, what is really going on between you and Rachel?" Liz asked later that night as she walked down the street to get the house with Finn.

"Liz, I've told you a million times. We're just friends—"

"The scene at the hospital didn't look like just friends. If you really love her, you can tell me. I'm a big girl and can handle anything you tell me." She turned to face him.

"She told me she loves me."

Liz nodded. "And how do you feel about her?"

Finn took a deep breath. "I love her too."

She nodded again. "And you don't love me."

"I'm sorry, Liz."

She shook her head. "Well, I'm not one to stand in the way of true love. Go be with her, Finn. And when the two of you get married, you'll thank me for that." She gave Finn a serious look and started walking down the opposite end of the street.

Finn watched her walk off, then turned and started running towards the house.

"Rach and I are finally going to be together." He picked up a few stones from the front garden and started tossing them at Rachel's window. He waited until he saw the curtains move before throwing the second stone.

"Finn Hudson, I think you're going crazy." Rachel whispered, peeking her head out from her window.

"Well, I've heard being in love does crazy things to people. And there's this girl that I'm in love with, and she does all of these crazy things to my mind. And I just need you to know that I love her. I'm in love with Rachel Berry."

Her eyes lit up. "Give me a second. I'll be right down." Rachel shut her window, pulled her curtains back to where they were, flipped off the lights in her room, and seconds later was running full speed towards Finn. She jumped into his arms and her lips crashed into his.

"I love you, Finn Hudson."

"I love you, too, Rachel Berry." He looked up at the sky and saw a shooting star go across the sky. "What a cliché." Finn said, a smile forming on his face.

"But it's a sweet cliché." Rachel said, laying down on the front lawn. "Come on, there might be more."

Finn rolled his eyes but nonetheless got down and laid down next to Rachel. "I could spend the rest of my life like this."

Rachel raised an eyebrow, propped herself up on her elbows and turned so she could face Finn. "You want to spend your life camped out on the itchy grass?"

"Definitely not. I just meant I wanted to spend the rest of my life camped out next to you. And a little further down the line, we'll have some kids of our own to join us."

"And Penelope. We can't forget about her."

"Of course. She's our first baby." Finn said, pulling Rachel closer to him.

"Our first baby." Rachel repeated, smiling to herself.

Nothing was going to mess her and Finn up this time.

The first thing Finn saw were the headlights. That's when he first woke up and saw Rachel was still sleeping next to him.

The next thing Finn saw was that the car kept swerving. He frowned but didn't think anything of it. The house was down the street from Rolling Greens, and it was likely Pat didn't get a chance to collect everyone's keys. It had happened before, after all.

The third thing Finn saw was the car went off the street and up into the yard. He tried to move to protect Rachel, or even better, get her out of the way.

The fourth thing Finn saw was the car step on the gas and hit Rachel.

The fifth thing Finn saw was blackness.

Author's Note: So the speech that Rachel made marks the first time I have ever cried while writing. I guess that shows how much I love Finn and Rachel with a little help from Mark and Lexie from Grey's. And I promise that since Finchel is finally together, they are together for good this time.