When Finn realized that the news coverage had gone national sometime on Friday it honestly didn't matter that much to him. After all, almost everyone he knew lived in Allen County and most of them lived within the Lima city limits. He was forced to consider a few exceptions when Mike Chang showed up to Hummel Tire and Lube that evening while Finn was helping out with oil changes and answering the phone.
"Hey Mike, something wrong with the Accord?" Finn asked. Mike always told the guys how much he hated driving his mom's old car, it wasn't exactly cool.
"The junk heap is fine. Actually I need to talk to you for a few minutes, um, about the news and your allergic reaction," Mike said, looking like he'd rather be anywhere else.
Finn sighed, it seemed like he was required to have a heart to heart with everyone in glee club. "I'd really rather not, but I'm sure you can see Dr. McKenna on Monday if you want. I know it's messed up for you guys too."
Mike shook his head, "Not like that, I wouldn't come here to drop something like that on you. It's just that Matt called me, he saw Schue's mug shot on CNN. Damn vultures just eat this stuff up."
Damn, he really hadn't kept in touch with Matt since his dad took that job in Texas last summer. "Oh, shit, I didn't think of that. I should have told him before he saw it on the news."
"Finn, it's not on you to make this easier on anyone else. Maybe I should've called him, but I didn't think he'd ever hear about it. He's freaked and worried about us and he wants the whole story but I told him I needed to get permission to tell him."
Finn reached up and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. It seemed like every day there was someone else who had to know. He kept wondering how long it would be before the truth got out. He trusted Matt, of course he did. Hell, Matt and the others had chosen Glee over football even when Finn hadn't. "Okay, you can tell him. Thank you. I mean for asking."
"Yeah, nobody wants to make this harder on you. You know we've got your back, but are you sure you don't want to go to Nationals with us?"
"I can't believe you were the first one, dude. Seriously, even Rachel hasn't tried yet. I've got to get back to work, " Finn said, and headed for an old Chevy in the far bay that needed some basic work done. He'd learned enough over the last couple months to actually help around the shop and working in the garage paid a hell of a lot better than Sheets N Things.
And wow, he did not need to start thinking about Sheets N Things, because now he was thinking about Mrs. Schue who is probably really glad she went back to her old name. Puck said he heard from one of the girls at the store that he used to hook up with that she had quit the day the news broke and left town for her parent's place down in Florida. At least somebody could run away from this. He couldn't help but wonder if she'd ever been afraid of her husband or if she was just as shocked and confused as everyone else.
Finn shook his head, this wasn't helping. He tried to clear his head and talk himself through the steps Burt had taught him for this repair. He was determined to only let his mind drift to what movie Kurt and Mercedes were going to pick for tonight.
**L**
Now that she was single Rachel Berry had turned her attention back to her destiny. Friday nights that had once been reserved for dates were now reserved for extra ballet rehearsal. She had just finished executing her latest routine to her own satisfaction when she noticed he light on her phone flashing. A serious performer always rehearsed with as few distractions as possible and for Rachel that included silencing her cell phone.
She retrieved her water bottle from the top of the piano and sat on the bench, scrolling to see who the voicemail had come from. Technically she was breaking her own rules about phone use during practice, but she told herself that if Finn needed her during this difficult time it was her duty to be available. Except it wasn't Finn's number on the caller id, instead it was a number she hadn't seen in nearly a year.
She considered deleting the message without even listening, certainly she had every right to do so. Still, she knew why he was calling. Even if her daddy hadn't taken her aside before she left and told her the story had been on CNN it was only a matter of time before a former teammate called him to revel in the destruction of New Directions. She figured that even if he was callous enough to call to gloat she could use it to motivate her fellow glee clubbers against Vocal Adrenaline. She pressed the speed dial for her voicemail and bit her lip while it cycled through the standard opening, it wasn't until his voice came through that she realized this was a very different call then she'd expected.
"Oh God. Rachel please call and let me know you're okay. I just got out of rehearsal. I've been cast as Billy Flynn, of course, and someone had the news on in the lounge and it was Schuester and they said sexual assault of a student and oh my God Rachel. I know you don't want to hear from me but I need to know it wasn't you. I'll kill him. I will. What kind of sicko... Please, just call me."
She shook off her shock long enough to press the correct buttons to save the message and end the call before deciding she had definitely rehearsed enough for the evening and started to gather her things. She'd never heard Jesse sound like that before. He sounded lost and angry and worried all at the same time. He hadn't called to gloat, he'd called because he was worried about her.
Rachel chose not to kid herself into thinking his deception last year had left her any wiser in matters of the heart, her dalliances with Noah and Blaine were glaring examples of her lack of judgement on these matters. Still, it wasn't like he was asking for forgiveness, and he hadn't even mentioned Nationals, which may have shocked her more than anything else had his voice not sounded so raw. She picked up her phone from where she had set it on the bench next to her and scrolled through her contacts until she came to his number. It was late now, but it was earlier in Los Angeles, and she didn't think he'd mind either way. He picked up in the middle of the first ring, as if he'd been sitting waiting for his phone to ring.
"Rachel? I wasn't sure you would call, thank you. Are you okay?" he said, and she felt a little flicker of heartbreak again at the sound of his voice.
"I wasn't going to, but you sounded so...different, " she said, pulling at the material of the sweatshirt she had slipped on over her leotard.
"Rachel, please. Just tell me." Right, he was worried and she was drawing it out. She should just tell him and they could get back to their lives.
"It wasn't me, Jesse. It wasn't me, but it's really awful. All of it." She hates the idea of crying in front of him now, of showing him any weakness. She can't really help it though, she's been trying not to do this too much for Finn's sake, but it's just her in the empty studio with her phone and she can let go if she wants.
"It was one of you." It's not a question, and she doesn't feel the need to answer. He's not done. "That son of a bitch raped one of you. I knew he had issues, the touching and the inappropriate interest in your personal lives. I thought he was just an idiot trying to relive his own high school days. Fuck."
"I can't tell you who, nobody can know." She knows that she has to clear it with Finn first and that he's not going to be happy.
"Yeah, okay." He surprises her again with his attitude. "If the person is okay with it I'd like to know what happened. I'd also like to help."
"Help? How can you help? Why would any of us trust you?" She can hear a thud in the background on his end, like he's thrown something at the wall.
"I get it. Look Rachel, I know you. I know you are taking all the responsibility for the club and trying to deal with this. You'll find a faculty member willing to take the club to New York, you know you will, but none of you know the first thing about Nationals."
"Why would you help us compete against Vocal Adrenaline?" She's mocking him, just a bit. She's proud of herself for it too.
"The first thing you learn when you get to college is that nobody gives a shit about who you were in high school. You get over it pretty quickly. I'm not Jesse St. James from Carmel anymore, I'm a nobody from UCLA and I want to do the right thing for once. My semester ends next week and I'll be home soon. You can call me anytime, for that or if you just need to talk to someone."
"I need to think about this, and I need to talk to some of my teammates. Even if I decide to trust you they are not going to be easily convinced. We as a group are rather reticent to place our trust in anyone right now as you might imagine." She can't fathom what she could possibly say to the club about this. She's not sure how she feels about it yet herself.
"That's fair. I have some other things that I would like to say to you, but I need to do that in person so they'll have to wait. You know how to reach me, I hope you'll call. Goodnight Rachel."
He hangs up before she can respond and she rolls her eyes. She packs all of her things into her dance bag and takes a swig of her water. She won't get much sleep tonight, and in the morning she needs to call Kurt.
**L**
Finn spent most of Saturday morning catching up on his homework. Normally it was the last thing he wanted to do, but it was turning out to be a pretty good distraction. If he kept this up he may actually get good enough grades to go somewhere other than the local community college.
Every so often he was aware that Kurt had spent most of the morning on the phone. Little snippets of conversation would float between their rooms while Finn tried to guess who his stepbrother was on the phone with. He could tell when Blaine called because despite Kurt closing the door to his room he was pretty sure he could hear his stepbrother giggling every so often. Finn decided to play some music for a while, he wasn't really trying to eavesdrop, he'd just wanted to make sure Kurt was doing okay.
Finn couldn't help but feel guilty that Kurt was coming back to McKinley. Kurt had told him more than once that he had lots of reasons for coming back, but Finn still felt responsible. It had been kind of cool these last couple weeks to see Kurt so happy, and he figured it would probably suck to be at a different school so far away from someone you were dating.
The next couple calls were harder for Finn to figure out. He could hear Kurt talking to someone and it sounded like they were either playing a video game or doing history homework. The little bits of conversation he could hear involved "strategic locations" and a lot of talk about "Distraction Plan W". Whatever the second one was must have been a big deal because it seemed like Kurt was talking to several different people about it.
When Finn heard the first few bars of "Anything You Can Do" from that movie about the chick with the gun that Rachel made him watch last year he knows that it's her calling. He's also pretty sure that she has no idea that's Kurt's ring tone for her. There must be something going on because Kurt's voice is not only getting louder but has gone up in pitch. Over the last two years he's been able to pinpoint that as a warning bell for trouble and drama.
It's easier to hear what Kurt is saying now, and he thinks he can make out the words "St. Douche" and "eggs" and "he offered to what?"
Now Finn has pretty much heard all the cute little "fries short of a happy meal", "not the sharpest crayon in the box", and "the lights are on but nobody's home" phrases where he's not supposed to figure out people are calling him dumb, but even he can figure out that Rachel has somehow heard from Jesse. He and Puck had come up with the St. Douche thing themselves after all. It doesn't take much to put this together with Mike's visit yesterday and figure out that St. James is looking for dirt. Finn got up and moved down the hall, closer to Kurt's room. Yeah, Kurt will be pissed, but they are talking about him after all. Well, sort of.
He hears Kurt ask "So what did you tell him?" and listen to her answer before saying "Okay, that's good." Rachel must have said something else because Kurt is saying "I guess it wasn't that hard to figure that part out." and "No, we aren't even going ask him until we figure out if Jesse is for real." Finn relaxed a little bit, it was one thing for his friends to know, but telling a guy that was basically his worst enemy was something else. He focused again just in time to hear Kurt tell Rachel to "give him ten minutes to grovel and then kick his pompous ass to the curb." Finn really wasn't sure what that word meant, but he didn't think Blaine would like Kurt describing other guys asses . He'd keep that part to himself.
The conversation must have switched gears because Kurt was talking about that "Distraction Plan W" again. His stepbrother seemed to be getting frustrated with Rachel and he thought he heard Kurt snort before saying "Not a chance in hell, Berry. Your choices are Wes or David, nobody else." Wait? Was he setting Rachel up with somebody from Dalton? Whoa, Kurt really was the best stepbrother ever. Yeah, it had taken Finn some time to come to terms with Kurt's first attempts at matchmaking, but you couldn't argue with the results. Before Kurt could catch him listening he slipped back down the hall and into his own room.
**L**
Finn had been trying not to think too much about movie night with Kurt and Mercedes. So what if he'd started to see Mercedes a little differently since she stood up for him. It was true that he thought she was easy to talk to, especially for a girl. It didn't mean much of anything, she probably just felt sorry for him. Still, if he happened to look good when she was over it was no big deal, right?
An hour before she was supposed to come over he jumped in the shower and even took a few extra minutes brushing his hair, which made like three minutes total. No big deal. He pulled on a clean pair of jeans and grabbed two different polo shirts before heading downstairs. He wanted to ask his mom whether the the blue one or the green one looked better. He didn't expect to find Mercedes sitting on the couch talking to his parents about the obvious problems the club members were having raising money for Nationals.
Everyone turned to look at him and he could feel his face burning, he felt like he was on display. Just because Puck, Mike, and Sam seemed ready and willing to whip off their shirts on a weekly basis didn't mean he was at all cool with it, especially now. It was too much, to be exposed this much again with the bruises still there for everyone to see. It's not like he'd ever been that comfortable with showing off his body in the first place, Rocky Horror aside. Whoa, and now that he thinks about all that there really were some creepy Schue related things going on.
"Uh, never mind. I'll just, uh, go up to my room." He knows he must sound weird, but he just turns around and jogs up the stairs. When he gets to his room he drops the polo shirts on his desk and pulls on the over-sized hoodie he'd been wearing around the house. He avoids the mirror on the way to his bed and sits against the headboard with his legs pulled up to his chest. A minute or so goes by before there is a knock on his door and his mom peeks into the room, "Okay if I come in for a minute honey?"
"Sure, mom." He's not sure whether she's going to be worried, or if she's mad at him for being rude or what. She doesn't seem mad though.
"Finn, you seemed kind of upset sweetie. Something about that bothered you didn't it? It wasn't just because Mercedes was there, Kurt said she's one of your biggest supporters." His mouth turns up a a little at that, and his mom gives him a small smile before prying one of his hands off his knees and holding it between her own. "Can you tell me what upset you?"
"I was just looking for you, because I couldn't decide what shirt to wear. Then all of a sudden I felt like it was really public and it creeped me out." He felt like he was just on the edge of what the real problem was but he couldn't get it. Sometimes the serious stuff kind of just sneaks up on him, like it did when he was talking to Rachel. He thinks this might be another one of those times so he just pauses a minute trying to concentrate on what exactly he's feeling like Dr. McKenna suggested. It wasn't really embarrassment, it was fear. Fear and understanding. Oh. He looks up at his mom, "I think it freaked me out because it was when he took our shirts off that I understood what was really happening."
"Oh, honey. I wish I could make this easier on you, but I'm so proud of how you've been facing all of this," his mom said, pulling him closer to kiss him on the top of the head. "So, why are you worried about your shirt? I thought you were just watching a movie with Kurt and Mercedes tonight?"
Yeah, now he was a little embarrassed, he could feel himself blushing. "I am. Mom, don't make a big deal about this. She's just turning out to be a good friend."
He hears a little chuckle as she gets up and goes over to the desk looking at the shirts he had picked out earlier. "A good friend, hmm? I remember hearing that around this house quite a bit a few months ago, and not from you. We both know how that turned out. Wear the blue one, it brings out your eyes. And Finn," she said, still looking like she knew far too much, "take your time. She's not going anywhere."