AN: I kept wondering why my story wasn't getting any reviews because the traffic was pretty high. Then I went back and re-read the chapter and saw that the writing was atrocious. I promise, I'm usually much better when it comes to writing, and this chapter is much better.

Chapter Two: I'm Not the One Who's Leaving, I'm Just the One with the Courage to Say Good-bye

Finn stared intently at the back of the seat in front of him, trying not to freak out. He had never been on a plane before, and being about to embark on a nine hour flight was not exactly calming. His mind kept reverting back to the beginning of Final Destination. He was nervous enough about driving, but flying? Forget it.

He kept reading and re-reading the safety instructions, making sure he knew how to operate the flotation device, how to put on the oxygen masks, where the emergency exits were. It would be just his luck that he'd die hours prior to when he would finally be able to have sex with Rachel.

After all, the situation was a little too good to be true. Going to Paris for free, with money Mr. Hummel gave him, with his girlfriend, with her Dads fully on-board and accepting of the fact that the two of them would probably have sex. Sure, Rachel's parents were pretty left-wing, but even the most easy-going of Dads would take issue with this. Sure, it had taken a lot of begging from Rachel, and they did put her in an adjoining room, given the two of them huge lectures and had promised Finn that if he broke her heart they'd personally send the Gay Mafia to cut off his balls. Finn wasn't sure if they were serious about that last bit. Whoever heard of a gay Mafia? But he wasn't going to take any chances. Even if there wasn't a gay mafia, both of Rachel's Dads were pretty built, and one of them was a cop, and Finn knew not to fuck with cops.

Also, Rachel had made him get tested, and was being totally insane about birth control. Not only did she get a Diaphragm and put herself on the Pill, she had bought every type of condom CVS and Eckerd sold and had analyzed and researched them all until she found the ones she felt most comfortable with.

Finn could sort of understand where Rachel was coming from. After all, she had been faced teen pregnancy up close. Sure, Quinn hadn't become a drug-addicted trailer-park victim, but she had lost her social status, her place on the Cheerios, been kicked out of her home for a while, and witnessed the break-up of her parents. That was enough awful stuff to make any girl petrified of getting pregnant. Finn was just glad she hadn't been there when Quinn had given birth or there was no way she'd be up for this. And yeah, he could understand why she was worried about STD's. Sure, Finn had only had sex with one girl, but that girl was still Santana, who had done it with Puck, who had literally done it with everyone and their Mom. Looking back on it now, Finn was actually somewhat relieved Quinn had never let him get into her pants, considering she had done it with Puck as well. He just thanked the Lord that Rachel hadn't let Puck get past first base when they were dating.

He guessed he should appreciate it. Sure, Puck said that sex wasn't as good with a condom as it was without, but he'd rather 98% sensation for fifteen minutes and no baby than 100% sensation for fifteen minutes and a baby. He had already dealt with that sort of pressure for months for a baby that wasn't even his. He really didn't want to do that again. Sure, it would be great to see his and Rachel's kids would look like, but only if that took place at least ten years into the future. And the fact was, Rachel definitely knew about this stuff. She already revealed she knew more about this than him months ago at Celibacy Club. She knew, like, statistics and stuff. And the fact that she was doing all this really proved how much she cared.

Oh God, what if Rachel died?

She was the one girl who's crazy he could deal with, and the only girl who didn't make him feel like an idiot all the time. It would just be sick if she died. He wasn't sure how he'd recover if she died. After all the crap he'd been through this year, all that time it took for him to finally be happy, to have it all ruined.

Oh please God, if you have to make this plane crash, let Rachel and I survive, or if that's asking too much, let Rachel live at least and don't let her become all traumatized by it for the rest of her life so she never gets to be the lead in Evita on Broadway and becomes like that April chick or another Lima loser. And if we survive, don't let it be like Final Destination where death comes for us and we all end up dying in freak accidents soon after anyway. If you have to kill someone, have it be Ms. Sylvester or Jesse or Uwe Boll, please. Just, please, please let us make it to Paris and back and let us live full lives. If we make it back safely I'll start going to the synagogue with Rachel and her Dads like she keeps asking me to and I'll never use the word "fag" or any version of it ever again. I promise. Amen.

He looked at Rachel. "Have you read the safety instructions?"

"I read them when we first got on, why?"

"Read them again, please?" He asked her. She looked at him strangely.

"Finn, are you afraid of flying?" She asked.

"No. Yes. No. I'm afraid crashes and explosions killing us. So yes. Sort of. No. Yes."

She patted his shoulder comfortingly. "Did you watch Final Destination again last night?"

"Maybe." He would admit nothing.

She sighed. "Finn, I told you not to watch that! You might as well watch United 93 while you're at it. Why did you do that?"

"I don't know!" Finn said. "Mike and Matt were over and we were watching movies and Matt suggested it and the guys wanted to watch it!"

She sighed. "You didn't realize they put it on to mess with you?"

Finn groaned. "They would have called me a pussy and told everyone. You don't understand, you're a girl."

"Why didn't you make up some excuse, like you already watched earlier that day or something?"

"Because I don't think that way. Besides, they might have called me out on it."

She shook her head. "Finn, those sorts of things only happen on like .00001% of flights. They do all sorts of inspections on these planes to make sure they're in perfect shape before taking off. That's one of the reasons there are so many delays. The pilots and flight attendants are specially trained to deal with any situation and keep us safe. Every seat has numerous safety devices. They don't take any chances, I promise. You're more likely to get in a car accident than die in a plane crash. Flying is one of the safest modes transportation. Listen, we're going to be on this plane for nine hours. This isn't going to be pleasant, but you're going to make it into utter torture if you keep worrying like this. Just trust me, alright? I've flown a lot, I know what I'm talking about."

He looked at her, and she gave him that look that always had a calming effect on him. It was similar to the one his mom sometimes gave him. Rachel did sometimes remind him of his mom, but in a good way, not a creepy way. He never got that from Quinn, but she wasn't all that nice. Sometimes he saw Tina calming down Artie just by looking at him. Ms. Pillsbury used to be able to calm Mr. Schu down too. He sometimes wondered if that look was some sort of talent that all nice women were born with.

It was then that Rachel's Dads showed up.

"You two alright?" Neil said. He was a tall man with short brown hair and a winning smile. He was, of course, Rachel's biological father, but everyone pretended not to know that for some reason.

"Yeah Pops," Rachel said. She called Neil "Pops" and Mark "Dad." "Finn just has some flight jitters."

"The best thing to do, Finn, is to chew a lot of gum and take some Tylenol PM," Mark informed him. "The only way to deal with a flight like this is to sleep through it. Don't worry, this plane is totally safe. We wouldn't let our only daughter anywhere close to a dangerous situation."

"If it makes you feel any better, Finn," Neil said, "I was second in my class at the Air Force Academy and was a Captain before they kicked me out. If anything happens to the pilots, I can fly this thing."

"Thanks, Mr. Berry," Finn replied, "That does make me feel a little better."

"Good," Mark said, "Now, you two are sure you have everything, right?"

"Yeah, Dad, I double-checked." Rachel answered.

"Good. We'll be in first class if you need us." Neil replied. "We love you, Sweetie."

Neil and Mark both kissed their daughter on the cheek before leaving.

"Why was your Dad kicked out of the Air Force?" Finn asked his girlfriend.

"Because he was gay." Rachel replied.

"Oh, right."

Rachel pulled out a package of gum. She pulled out four pieces and handed Finn two. "Start chewing."

"Why?"

"When planes lift off and land, you get a lot of pressure on your ears and they feel weird because they're adjusting to the elevation. It can start to hurt and if you fly too much in one day, it can really hurt like Hell. But chewing gum releases the pressure and eases the feeling in your ears," she explained. "It won't numb them completely, but it won't hurt."

Finn put the gum in his mouth.

Just then, two people about their age peered over the backs of their seats in front of them, a guy and girl with dark hair who looked a lot alike.

"Hey, if you don't mind us asking, do you have any more gum?" The girl asked. "We forgot to buy some."

"Sure," Rachel said, handing them some pieces. The guy peered at Finn's McKinley Football sweatshirt.

"Hey, you two wouldn't happen to go to McKinley High School in Lima Ohio, would you?" The guy asked.

"Yeah, why?" Finn replied.

"We're going there next year. We're transferring from Carmel High." The girl said. Rachel and Finn's eyes widened.

"Really? Wow, what a coincidence." Rachel said. "Why are you transferring?"

"Because the Hitler Youth showered us in ketchup and locked us in a dumpster because we wouldn't compose their mash-up for them," replied the girl.

"The Hitler Youth?" Rachel asked.

"It's what us normal non-uber popular kids at School call Vocal Adrenaline," said the guy. "I'm Sam Levy, and this is my twin sister Gypsy."

"Sounds like something they would do." Finn said.

"Yeah, they do things like that all the time," said Gypsy. "And up until Nationals, they got away with it because of all the money and attention they brought to the school. Pretty much all the kids hate them, but they're afraid of them. We decided to leave."

"Wow, that's…. pretty bad. But, you know, we have mean popular kids at our school too." Rachel said. "Some of the football players, and the cheerleading squad."

"Yeah, but there's no way they're nearly as bad as Jesse St. James, Andrea Cohen and their hoard of soulless automatons." Sam said. "They've actually put sleeping pills in the drinks of smart kids who refuse to do their work for them so that the smart kids fail. They doused this one girl with hair-removal lotion and it made her hair fall out and they steal kids' ipods, remove their songs and replace them with Michael Bolton, Good Charlotte and Evanescence."

Finn grimaced. "That's…. that's bad."

"And they don't stop after one attack, either, they remind you of it every day. They like making people miserable almost as much as they like winning awards and singing Queen songs." Gypsy said. "We'd rather get a few slushies in the face than deal with them."

"Why does none of this surprise me?" Rachel said. "Well, at least they've got some justice dealt to them at Nationals."

"Yeah, but that ended up totally messing with our escape," said Sam.

"What do you mean?" Rachel asked.

"You mean you don't know?" Gypsy said. The twins' eyes flashed and they sprouted identical evil grins.

!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!

Andrea Cohen banged on the door as hard as she could and rang the doorbell several times, not caring at all for courtesy. Mrs. St. James came to the door, looking bewildered.

"Andrea, Hello, is something wrong?" She asked.

"I need to see Jesse. Right now." Andrea said.

"Jesse's not here right now."

"Yeah, I stopped believing that the fifteenth time you gave that excuse," Andrea said. She pushed past Jesse's mom and ran upstairs to Jesse's room, where she found him kneeling amongst a mountain of boxes. She looked at him, aghast.

"So it's true then," She said, horrified. "I didn't believe it when I heard it, but I guess I can't argue with what's in front of me, can I?"

Jesse looked up, groaned, and shook his head. "Andrea, please. You're not going to talk me out of it, so why don't you spare us both the aggravation?"

"You think I'm going to just sit back and stay silent while you ruin everything the two of us have worked for since the seventh grade?" Andrea said. "Well, I'm not."

Jesse sighed. "No, I guess if you did, you wouldn't be my best friend." He stood up and looked at her. "Alright, have at it."

"First I've got to hear it from your lips." Andrea said. "Why are you packing?"

"Andrea, you already know why…"

"Yes, but I want you to tell me."

Jesse sighed. "I'm moving in with my Uncle and transferring to McKinley High."

Andrea felt like she had been slapped in the face. "Why?" She asked. "Why are you doing that?"

"Because it wasn't right what they did to Ms. Corcoran." Jesse said. "They're exploiting us and turning her into a scapegoat when it wasn't even her fault. They threw her to the wolves after everything she did for them and it was wrong."

"Fuck Ms. Corcoran!" Andrea said. "Like she's some sort of angel? Jesse, she used you to reunite with her daughter in the most underhanded way possible. She even had you switch schools! All so she could legally break her contract with that chick's Dads. And then, after everything she had you do, she does a complete 180 on her "bond with her daughter" plan and doesn't even build a real relationship with her. She endangered your career for nothing! If you ask me, that should be enough to get a person fired."

"Oh, please, that's not why they fired her and you know it!" Jesse said. "They needed someone to blame and took what happened out on her when it was not her fault at all. It was ours, but they can't plausibly make us the scapegoats, so they fucked with her. They couldn't give two shits about my career or what she does in her personal life, all they ever cared about was the money we got the school. Now that they're embarrassed, they're throwing the three of us under a bus and pretending to be merciful. They would have expelled us, but they know Vocal Adrenaline doesn't have a chance if we go as well, that's why they're failing us. Well, I'm not going to let them get away with it."

"So what, then, Jesse, you're just going to throw away everything we've ever worked for?" Andrea said. "Don't you remember the pact we made with each other in the seventh grade?"

Jesse looked down guiltily. "I haven't forgotten."

"Oh, really? Is that why you're going to break it in every sense of the word?"

"Andrea… It's been five years and we did all we could to fulfill that promise, and look where it got us."

"Jesse, we can overcome this. All we have to do is show those snot-nosed losers at school who's boss and we could rule again. This is just a minor setback! Why are you abandoning everything we've worked for?"

In elementary and middle school, Jesse and Andrea were teased mercilessly about their love of musical theater. They had always been able to deal with it because they had each other. In seventh grade, there was a talent show and their guidance counselor had encouraged the two of them to do a number to prove that they weren't ashamed of what they loved. She thought it would help their confidence. So the two of them spent weeks on their number, a rendition of "You're the One That I Want" from Grease. They spent all the allowance money they had saved up to buy Mountain bikes on their costumes, cardboard sets, and a sound system. The night came and they did the number to jeering and booing. They were literally pelted with food and the next day beaten up. Sitting in the nurse's office, they made a multi-parted pact that 1) They would never be the school losers again and become the top dogs 2) They would become cool through musical theater and make everyone envious of their talent 3) They would make their dreams come true and 4) They would do it together and always be together no matter what.

"Jesse, we were the most popular kids in school and we became popular through musical theater, just like we said! We ruled Carmel so strongly, it shouldn't be that hard for us to regain what we had if we tried! You can't let this hold you back from doing what we said we would do!" Andrea said, "You'll ruin everything by doing this!"

"Andrea, don't you get it?" Jesse said angrily, "We already did ruin everything! Don't you get it? People hate us, Andrea. And I'm not just talking about since Nationals. People have hated us the whole time, ever since we joined Vocal Adrenaline. They've been calling us the Hitler Youth behind our backs for years! There's actually a Live Journal Community devoted to fan fiction which depicts us meeting gruesome deaths! There was a party celebrating what happened at Nationals! The only reason no one ever messed with us was because if they harmed one of us, the school would come down on them for threatening their precious cash cow."

"Oh, I get it." Andrea said. "You're scared. You're trying to run away from the teasing."

"Andrea, do you honestly think they're going to treat me any better at McKinley. If I was doing this to avoid being picked on, I wouldn't have picked the school who's chorus room I T-Ped and who's Glee Club I messed with. You know Rachel Berry, Shelby's daughter that I dated briefly to connect them and who we pelted with eggs? She's dating the quarterback of the football team now. The guys in the Glee Club wanted to bash my skull in after we egged Rachel and save for the kid in the wheelchair, all of them are football players, one of whom, Puck, used to spend his free time up-ending porta-johns on nerds and throwing people in dumpsters. I was in the weight room with some of the guys once. Puck, Matt, and Rachel's boyfriend Finn can all bench over 350. Also, the school's cheerleading squad, which is to McKinley what we used to be to Carmel? Three of them, including the Captain, are in Glee Club and all of the kids in the club reserve the right to humiliate each other. Even if they're not friends, they do not take kindly to people from other schools messing with their teammates. Also, I'm not a football player or a cheerleader, and if you're neither of those and in Glee Club, your social status is abysmal. It's also going to get around that I lip-synched at a National Event, and if you think they're going to leave me alone on that one, you'd be wrong. Trust me, the kids there are going to make me their bitch, and I've alienated one of the few teachers who could help me by terrorizing one of his favorite students. At least here I'd still be given the solos in Vocal Adrenaline. Do you really think I'll be given the same privilege when I'm at McKinley? No, not after pissing them off so badly. Trust me, my name is worse than mud there."

"Then why are you doing this? And don't give me that Ms. Corcoran bullshit. Throughout your high school career you've only cared about two people: yourself and me." Andrea said, "There's no reason for you to start caring now. Do you really think you'll have a chance at gaining back your Scholarship to UCLA if you go to McKinley? Their Glee Club's greatest achievement is that they beat a reform school and a school for the deaf. They won't be impressed at all."

"A reform school and school for the deaf which stole their set list right before Sectionals. That meant they won with numbers they came up with on the spot." Jesse pointed out. "They're not bad, Andrea, I know, I've sung with them. They're rough around the edges and suffer from a much lower budget, but they got a lot of talent, and I'm not just talking about Rachel, who makes Mariah Carey look like Ke$ha. They came up with a number where they used wheelchairs, and Mercedes, Kurt, Finn, Puck and Artie? They can sing extremely well. You know why they came in third at Regionals? Because Olivia Newton-John thought they were too sappy, that their costumes were poor quality and said that brunettes had no place in show business. Also one of the judges happened to be McKinley's cheerleading Coach who has been trying to destroy them since the beginning of the year. I know because Ms Corcoran bribed Rob Remmington to record everything that went on in the judges' room. They didn't lose because of lack of talent, because they were definitely better than Aural Intensity."

"Oh, so let me guess, you plan to lead them to victory and UCLA will be so impressed that you managed to turn this rag-tag team of misfits into champions that they will forget all about the incident and give you your scholarship back."

"That would be nice, but that's not the reason I'm going. I told you my reasons the first time. You can choose to believe what you want."

"So you're just leaving me, then?" Andrea asked, "You're leaving me to face the wolves and carry the team alone?"

Jesse walked up to her and took her hand in his. "It doesn't have to be that way, Andrea. You could come with me too. You could transfer as well. We could help each other, just like we did before high school."

She looked at him, horrified. "As if! Are you nuts? I am not going to uproot myself because you and Ms. Corcoran are being idiots."

Jesse's jaw tensed, but he kept his voice even. "We can still be there for each other, even if we're not going to be at the same school. We can be each other's shoulder to cry on. I'll probably need you more than you need me. You're the stronger of us. You always were. I'd never abandon you, Andrea, I promise. But I can't allow myself to be exploited anymore. I'm too good for that. You are too."

She backed away from him. "Yeah, and when you're not crying on my shoulder, who will be consoling you? Rachel?"

"What are you talking about?" Jesse asked.

"Admit it, in the midst of your 'acting exercise', you developed a hard-on for Miss Big Nose and now that you've found someone who can keep up with you vocally, you have no use for me and you've decided to trade in for the better model. You only ever needed me to be your vocal partner and shoulder to cry on. But now you've found a girl who can sing as well as you, who can relate to what you went through, and who you want. I only filled two of those qualifications."

Jesse had no idea where that came from. "Andy," he said, using his private name for her, "You're being silly. I lured Rachel into an ambush, crushed an egg to her face, played around with her emotions, broke her heart and humiliated her in a hundred different ways. Even if I was into her, which I'm not, there's no chance of us ever getting together anyway, and I know that."

"You loved her!" Andrea said, "Don't tell me you didn't, because you did! You said so, right before you crushed the egg into her face. I heard you! We all heard you!"

"Emphasis on the past tense, Andy," Jesse said hastily, "I'm not interested in her anymore, really."

"Bullshit! You loved her and you still love her! The way you never loved me!" She was in tears now, thoroughly humiliated.

Jesse's jaw dropped. "Andy… Is that what this is really about? I—I had no idea."

"Well, I hid it from you because I figured you'd either realize you loved me or come out of the closet. I was willing to be patient," Andrea said, her voice choked, "I loved you that much. But then Ms. Corcoran had you track down Rachel and… I was there that day you two were practicing in McKinley's auditorium after you transferred, Ms Corcoran had sent me to check on you and you two were doing the Elephant Love Medley from Moulin Rouge! And you sang to her… I had never heard you sing that way before. You had this… aura, this, feeling to it. I could see it. And I knew. I knew you never loved me because you had never sung to me that way. I was willing to accept that we'd never be if it had turned out you were gay but… You're not. And instead of falling for me, the girl who has been there for you since kindergarten, who showed you your first musical, who has been waiting for you to wake up and see that we're meant for each other! But you never saw me that way. I might as well have been another guy. You never loved me. All that time, the only person you really ever loved was yourself. And I've been wasting my time for so long."

She looked down, shook her head dejectedly, wiped her eyes, than looked up at him angrily. "Well, I'm done, Jesse. You can forget about it. I can't take it anymore. We're finished until you wake up and return to sanity. Until then, I don't want to see you anymore."

"Andy, please," Jesse begged, "Don't do this. We can work this out, really. You're my best friend."

"We can work this out," Andrea agreed, "But not until you figure out the error of your ways. It's up to you. I've supported you for years, through thick and thin. But I'm not going to do it if you're going to reject everything we built our relationship on. I'm not the one who's leaving. I'm just the one with the courage to say good-bye."

Andrea turned and left the room. Jesse stared back at her, completely at a loss.