A Threat to Rachel Berry
Chapter 4

At first, when Rachel had told him to drive to Carmel High School, he feared that she was suspicious of his motives. He wondered if she discovered that he was using her now. He drove toward the school anyway, holding onto the small hope that maybe, just maybe she wanted to escape from McKinley High, and the only way to do so would be by transferring. He glanced over his shoulder to stare at her while they stopped at a red light. She was visibly worried about what had just happened at the parking lot. He sighed. Stupid Finn Hudson.

"I can drive you back… if you want," he offered. She turned back to him and he noticed the flicker of consideration of that offer in her eyes. The flicker disappeared as quickly as it came. No, it didn't disappear, she tried to hide it away from him. His expression hardened at this. "You're upset. I'll turn around," he reached for the handle bars, moving as if to switch lanes. A hand shot out from behind and grabbed his wrist. This surprised him and he turned around and opened up the cover on his helmet. "Rachel…?"

Rachel's face was shaded by her hair as she tilted her head down. Her hand shook, but her fingers were still enclosed around his rather large hands. She stroked them slightly. "I…" she stopped mid-sentence, unsure of how to finish it."Please?" she looked up at him finally. She had been staring at her hand the whole time. Finally when her glistening eyes met his, it was then that he believed that he…

He was really starting to fall in love with her.

He blushed and the honking horns behind them brought his attention back to the fact that they were still stopping at a red light. He turned back to the handle-bars and he moved forward, replacing the cover on his helmet. He secretly glanced behind his shoulder though. He then noticed her tighten her grip on him slightly. He turned his body slightly to see what happened. She had her eyes closed and she was resting her head against his back, with a small smile. She sighed. "Finn…"

He accidentally released the clutch too much and he shot forward. He quickly regained control though, and stopped at yet another red light. That's right. She was still in the post-break-up phase with Finn. … Damn him. He pulled up near the school. He nudged her slightly to wake her from whatever dream she was having of Finn. She didn't wake up, but she shifted slightly, and she must have mistaken him for a pillow, or whoever she was dreaming about, because she hugged herself closer to his back. Now she sighed a different name. "Jesse…"

That brought back his ego. He murmured to himself, "Well, I guess I can let her dream a little bit—"

"No, don't hurt… Finn…" A low whisper from Rachel.

… Damn you, Finn Hudson.

He hadn't induced her awakening; instead she woke up on her own. She stretched slightly and rubbed sleep out of her eyes. She yawned. "Hmm? When did we get here?" she asked with another yawn and more stretching of her stiff muscles.

"Just now," he lied with a bit of venom. They had actually arrived 20 minutes earlier, but he wanted to wait for her to redeem herself by saying his name once without it involving Finn, unless she was cheering him on to beat the stupid kid to a pulp. He was still bitter about that, and his ego had suffered a blow every time she said Finn's name in her sleep, which was a total of 13 blows to his ego. He slid off of his bike then offered his hand to her, still trying to be a gentleman, though he was peeved.

She accepted the hand graciously, oblivious that his anger was directed at her, or rather, Finn Hudson. She simply smiled happily as she interlaced her fingers with his. That treated a few of the blows to his ego.

Now, she noticed that his pompous attitude, that she had started to like, had deflated. She squeezed his hand, "Is something wrong?"

"Not really," he said simply, his other 10 wounds still open. He avoided her scrutinizing gaze.

She decided against asking for his honesty because the last time she asked for honesty early in a relationship, that name which will not be spoken, had ended it with her, rather painfully. Instead, she followed the advice that Santana had given Brittany, which she had overheard. If he's down, just show him some love, that'll get him happy. (Although, the love she was referring to may be completely different from what Rachel had in mind.)

She bit her lip, now the previous staring was switched. She was looking away, indecisive as he stared at her expectantly. She stepped closer and rested her hands on his face. He could do nothing but stare down at her, watching as she stood on her toes, pulling him down to her height. She moved closer, and closer, and they were only a breath's distance away. She stopped at that position. He closed the distance quickly, wrapping his previously stagnant arms around her waist, pulling her closer. Okay, I'll forgive you for saying that kid's name while you were unconscious. This will only work once though. Next time you have to kiss me on your own. He tried to convey that message to her.

She slowly moved her arms to his neck and they remained that way for a while as if challenging each other's lungs to last the longest. The two show choir's lead singers weren't planning on losing this battle though. They both pulled apart at the same time, winded. She cleared her throat. "L-Let's go to the auditorium," she suggested.

"Yeah," he entwined his fingers with hers and led her to the stage that was bought especially by the school for Vocal Adrenaline. He cleared his throat, "I forgot to ask," he lied again. He'd been dying to ask why they were coming to his school, "but what are we coming here for?"

She blushed in embarrassment. She had selfishly told him to take her to his school and she hadn't bothered to tell him why. "Well, I…" she trailed off. She snapped her eyes shut, "I-was-hoping-you-could-be-my-practice-partner!" She said in the motor-mouth way that she was so good at.

He blinked. He hadn't considered that. He smirked down at her. "Are you sure? I'm your competition. I might leak your song to the others, or maybe I'll tape you singing, or steal your dance moves, or maybe—"

"I trust you," she cut in, looking deeply into his eyes. He wondered if she was staring at him like that because she was suspicious and she was trying to look for a hint of suspicious-looking expressions on his face. He looked away.

Hey, hey, you're supposed to be deceiving her! A Shelby Corcoran appeared on his shoulder, dressed up in the "Highway to Hell" costume.

But, you love me! Just tell me the truth! I'll understand! This time it was Rachel who appeared on his other shoulder, dressed in her "Halo/Walking on Sunshine" costume (even though he had never seen her wearing that. [He didn't go on the New Directions website to look at pictures of her. He didn't… and even if he did, he only did it to learn more about his enemy. Seriously.])

He looked between the two on his shoulders, and then followed the words of Vocal Adrenaline's director. He put on his "I'm-gonna-deceive-you-now-but-I'm-not-enjoying-it" face. "Okay, then. Let's go, babe." He kissed her on the cheek, removing his hand from hers, and draped it across her shoulder now.

She walked alongside him, their steps perfectly in sync. They reached the auditorium quickly with their very brisk steps and long strides. Rachel liked to say that she walked with authority and Jesse simply agreed. They arrived in a short amount of time and he held the door open for her, welcoming her to the Vocal Adrenaline's specially built auditorium. He turned on the spotlight once they reached the stage. She blocked the bright light with her hand at this. He chuckled a little, the light having no effect on him as he passed her some sunscreen. She applied it to her arms, legs, and face, anything that was exposed to the excessive amount of fluorescent light.

Jesse rubbed some of the sunscreen that was not fully absorbed by her pores. "What song are we singing?" he asked her. She reached into her bag and materialized 3 pages of music. He skimmed through it. "'Hello, Goodbye' by the Beatles, huh?" In one quick look over the music, he had it memorized it in his head. He disappeared inside the room and brought back a CD. He placed it inside the CD player and set the volume as loud as the small music player could handle. He grinned at her as he sang the first lines.

Somehow, he hadn't needed to learn the dance at all. He simply had to follow Rachel's lead and they moved in perfect synchronization. She smiled with what he discovered wasn't a "show-face." It was an "I'm-going-to-be-a-star-someday!" smile and she poured her heart out into the song.

They were slowly approaching the end of the song when Rachel tripped over a cable. His eyes widened and he moved quickly to catch her. He held onto her before she hurt herself. He smirked at her. "How are you going to be a star if you trip over things like cables while performing?" He laughed as if welcoming her to laugh with him.

She did and they both laughed together. He found some loose strands that had strayed away from their domain and pushed them back behind her ear. She truly danced with emotion. He held his hand there as he leaned in for another kiss. He felt as though he could hear her heartbeat quicken as she closed her eyes, waiting. His slowly drew to a close as well and then…

"RACHEL!"

Finn Hudson, if you don't go to hell, I'm pushing you.

The loud disturbance had somehow not reached Rachel's ears as her eyes were still closed, her lips puckered just slightly, still expecting him. He glanced over at Finn Hudson then smirked because even the great "Finn Hudson," was unable to snap her out of her daze as he tried to steal one last…

"RACHEL, STOP!"

Jesse rolled his eyes then moved away from Rachel, nudging her to finally wake her up from the daze she was in. She opened her eyes and looked at Jesse, confused. He pointed with his head toward Finn and all time seemed to stop for her, "F-Finn?"

"Rachel, what are you doing here?" He stalked toward the stage, pushing Jesse away from her and holding onto her shoulders. "Especially with… him? He's our competition, Rachel! Did you forget that!? You're not supposed to practice one of the songs of our set list with the competition! Don't you know how pissed, Mr. Schue would be if he knew?"

"I'm sorry, this campus is off-limits to trespassers and seeing as you don't have a visitor's pass, I could call securi—"

"Stay out of this, pretty boy," he whirled on Jesse and pushed him away before he turned his full attention back to Rachel. Jesse looked away, jutting out his jaw in an incredulous way. He pushed me! Finn Hudson just pushed me, Jesse St. James, his superior! And…! Pretty boy, he says? I'll show him pretty boy! He tapped Finn on the shoulder and when he turned, Finn was met with Jesse's fist. Finn's face turned at the force of the punch before he registered what just happened and punched Jesse as well. Jesse was knocked down to the floor. He spit, and then punched Finn again.

Rachel looked on in horror as the two fought it out. Jesse had caused Finn to stagger and he swept him under his feet with his leg. Finn was on his back, in pain. Jesse glared down at him and he knelt down, grabbing a fistful of Finn's shirt, raising his other hand, ready to punch him. Rachel hurled herself between them and his fist stopped an inch before it hit her face. She had her hand on Jesse's arm that was holding onto Finn's shirt. She was crying again. "Jesse, please, don't hurt Finn."

He released Finn's shirt and Finn quickly grabbed Rachel's shoulders, pulling her up and leading her to the door. She kept her eyes locked with Jesse's even as the door shut. Jesse's teeth clenched in anger and he raised his fist again, this time punching into the wooden floor, making a hole in the stage. He brought his hand back from the hole and saw his blood flowing from small cuts. He was still on his knees as he brought his elbows to the floor as well, pounding his fist on the ground in anger. He yelled out in anger, and he took deep breaths through his nose.

He looked outside from the window and saw Rachel get into Finn's car, her eyes not directly meeting his and still staring at the auditorium. He looked away and walked out the door, gathering his things. He mounted his motorcycle and drove home, trying to calm down. His phone buzzed in his pocket as soon as his destination was reached and he recognized the ringtone to be Rachel's. He flipped it open to find a text sent by her.

Jesse, I'm sorry about what happened with Finn. I understand if you don't want to see me anymore.

He sighed. He texted back a response, closed his phone then opened the front door of his home.

I still want to see you again. But, I doubt that Finn Hudson is going to keep his mouth shut. We'll have to be more furtive. I'll see you on Friday.

Ahhh, me and my inconsistent writing. One moment, the plot's moving too slow, and the next it's moving too fast. There's never really a balance…

Fangirl moment: OMG, JESSE IS KINDA A GOOD GUY, BUT HE'S STILL KINDA SUSPICIOUS, BUT HE'S IN NEW DIRECTIONS AND WITH RACHEL AND SQUEALLLLLLLLLLLLL. Not much singing from him though… sigh.

Jonathan Groff should stay as a regular on Glee, even if he is a bad guy.

Please excuse any mistakes? :)