A/N: Sorry for the delay, I had a RL deadline kicking my ass. The good news is this is a longer chapter and there will be at least one more before the epilogue.
Finn looked up at the billboards of Times Square and squeezed Mercedes' hand a little tighter. The noise and the amount of actual people in one place was a little overwhelming, but he could tell that everyone in their group was feeling the same way. Well, maybe not Kurt and Rachel who were actually holding both hands and jumping up and down while trying to point to the signs for different Broadway shows at the same time. It was a lot for him to take in, but at the same time he totally got how people might love being able to lose themselves in the crowd.
The past week had been so busy he'd hardly had time to think about actually being in New York. The entire club had been excited for him to go to Nationals but they knew better than to let him slack off. He had spent hours with Mike learning the choreography and almost as much time with Jesse working on his vocals. There was no way he was going to cost them their chance if he could help it. Outside of rehearsal his time with Mercedes had been limited to quick text messages.
They had some free time tomorrow afternoon after their performance and they had agreed to split the day as a group between shopping, the Museum of Natural History, and Central Park. It wasn't like Coach and his dad were going to let any of them out of their site for very long. Finn was pretty excited about the dinosaur stuff, but he was really hoping he could get a few minutes alone with Mercedes in the park.
By the time they had made it through Times Square and stopped at a few souvenir shops it was time to head back to the hotel and check in. They had arrived fairly early so the hotel was holding their luggage until their rooms were ready. Finn couldn't help but think about the pre-trip meeting they'd had during the last glee rehearsal.
"Okay, here's the deal," Coach Bieste said, her eyes on her clipboard, "the school has agreed to pay for four rooms. I will be paying for my own room and Mr. Hummel has agreed to as well. The handicapped accessible room only has two single beds, but I'm looking into a roll away for the other room."
Kurt raised his hand, "That won't be necessary, coach. I would prefer to share with my dad."
Crap. Finn realized that the room sharing issue was something they hadn't really dealt with since the disaster of Gaga week, but Finn thought that the guys and Kurt were past this. Hell, if that was a problem he could probably share with Rachel, Mercedes, and Tina. Their parents already let Kurt sleep over anyhow.
"Dude, you don't have to. You can crash with us. It's cool, right guys?" Finn asked, hoping that he was right about how the other guys felt. He was relieved when the other guys either nodded or shrugged.
"He only has eyes for preppy boy anyhow," Puck added.
Kurt smiled and Finn noticed the big swallow he took to get his voice under control before he spoke. He could tell Kurt didn't want to show how much that meant to him, "Thank you, really. But do you know me at all? There is no way I'm sharing the bathroom with more people than I actually have to."
Everyone laughed and the girls divided up easily, with Quinn, Brittany, and Santana in one room and Mercedes, Lauren, Tina, and Rachel in the other. Sam nudged his arm to get his attention, "Are you okay with sharing a bed? Nobody really wants to share with Jesse. We'd rather put him in the single with Artie."
Sam wanted to know if he was okay with sharing. Sometimes these easy little things nearly knocked him on his ass. When he'd told his friends the truth that day in his living room he'd figured most of the guys wouldn't want to be around him after that. He'd still felt so week and so scared. It hadn't happened that way, of course. Sam had stood up to Quinn, and stood by him when he came back to school. He and Puck were cool again, and it seemed like nothing ever bothered Mike. The idea really didn't bother him at all.
"Yeah, I'm okay with it if you are," he said. Sam rolled his eyes, "It's fine, bro. It's not like we're going to get that much sleep anyhow."
Once they had checked in, and the guys had apologized again to Artie for sticking him with Jesse, they all met downstairs in the lobby. The organizers of Nationals had arranged for an orientation meeting for all the teams in the auditorium where they would do their performances and then they would see a presentation from a Broadway music director. Finn couldn't help but be reluctantly grateful to Jesse that there would be no last minute scrambling for set lists at this competition.
The orientation meeting was pretty boring. It was mostly a reminder of the rules about time limits, set-ups, and professional behavior. Since Jesse and Rachel had drilled all these rules into New Directions over the last month nothing came as a surprise. Finn had never been really good at sitting for a long time and listening to people talk.
The only thing that was kept him awake was drawing shapes with his thumb on the back of Mercedes hand. Finally the head judge finished his presentation and it was time to introduce the competing groups. As each group was announced with their home town there was a round of polite applause. There were, however, two exceptions. When Vocal Adrenaline was announced the applause were almost non-existent except from the corner of the room where they were seated. Sunshine Corazon had given him a nervous wave earlier, but he could tell she didn't really want to be within 50 feet of Rachel. He couldn't blame her.
When the emcee finally announced "New Directions, McKinley High School, Lima, Ohio" there was some clapping but it didn't disguise the rush of whispers and the obvious rubber-necking to find out where they were sitting. He could see Burt's jaw tighten across the table. Mercedes just squeezed his hand and leaned close to his ear,"Remember they don't know anything. There is no way they even know it had anything to do with glee. Even if they did they wouldn't think you'd be strong enough to be here." Finn nodded and squeezed her hand back, it's not like they hadn't expected the reaction. Luckily it wasn't long before the next school was announced.
After what was actually hours, Finn had checked on his phone, they were finally allowed to go back to the hotel. As they waited a few minutes for everyone to gather in the lobby Finn saw a few guys he recognized from Vocal Adrenaline staring at them, whispering, and laughing. He could hear snippets of things that sounded like "Schuester", "Berry", and even "Warblers" so he knew they were talking about them. It was starting to get to him when Kurt came up beside him and gently turned his shoulders so he was facing away from the Carmel guys.
"Ignore them. They are just worried about having actual competition," his stepbrother said while giving Puck a look that made him step back as well. In the end it was Jesse who put a stop to it. He sauntered over to one of the guys, bent down and whispered something quietly in the guy's ear. Finn watched as the guy turned white and jerked his head at the other two before leaving as quickly as possible without actually running. Jesse just smirked and shook his head before rejoining their group and putting an arm around Rachel's waist, "They aren't as tough as they need to be, they'll be easy to keep under control." Finn almost asked what Jesse had told them, but thought better of it and put an arm around Mercedes instead.
They were lucky to draw the 9:30 performance slot because it gave them the whole day to enjoy New York without worrying about a show later. It was the best performance they'd ever done and they'd done it by themselves. Sure, they'd had a little help from Jesse but it was their voices and their talent out on the stage and they'd nailed it. Now they just had to wait.
They arrived at Central Park in the early afternoon and they'd headed directly for Strawberry Fields. The Imagine thing was really cool, Finn thought, especially since everyone in the group had been able to agree on it. Even their chaperones wanted to see it. They were allowed to look around the park for an hour or so before meeting to go to the museum. Coach said as long as nobody was alone and everyone kept their cell phones on they could have a little time apart. This was exactly what Finn had been waiting for, and he grabbed Mercedes' hand as they headed further into the park. After a little while they came to Bethesda Fountain, it was really cool and he knew he'd seen it in a bunch of movies and stuff.
"Wow, this is gorgeous. I can't believe they have something like this in the middle of the city. It's like all those crowds and taxis are miles away, " Mercedes said as she dragged him over to get a better look at the fountain.
"It's kind of peaceful, isn't it? Can we go over to the bench over there? We need to talk for a minute before we have to get back to everyone else," he said. She looked so pretty, out in the sunlight. He could tell she felt really good in the outfit Kurt had picked out for her. He was starting to pick up on little things like that, but he wasn't sure why she wasn't smiling anymore.
"Okay," she said, "I guess so." They were walking over to the bench when Finn spotted a man selling balloons.
"Sit here for a minute. I"ll be right back, " he said with a smile before loping off in the direction of the balloon man. He bought two orange and three pink ones because he knew they were some of Mercedes favorite colors. When he looked back at Mercedes he was surprised to see that she wasn't watching him or even taking in the view from the bench. Instead she was hunched over fiddling with her bracelet. Maybe she was worried about the competition. Oh well, hopefully he could cheer her up with the balloons.
When he got back to the bench, after narrowly avoiding letting go of the balloons when he tripped over a rock, he held them out to Mercedes. "Um, these are for you. I thought we should get the full Central Park experience."
She looked up at him then and gave him a small smile before taking the balloons and winding the strings around her wrist. "You said we needed to talk?" she said and she sounded sad.
"Are you okay?" He shifted a little on the bench so his knee bumped hers and his side bumped her shoulder.
"Just say whatever you have to say Finn, " she said, not really looking at him.
"Um, okay. I just wanted to tell you how much fun I've had over the last couple weeks with you. I was in a pretty bad place and all of a sudden you were there like this angel that I was too blind to see before. You don't treat me like I'm going to break, and you don't treat me like I'm stupid. You're smart and beautiful and you're so sure of who you are. I know we're supposed to be taking things slow but I thought this was a pretty cool place to ask you to be my girlfriend," he said and then looked back up and her, "so will you?"
She was just looking at him, and he was starting to think that he had made a big mistake. He was rushing things, or maybe she'd been rethinking whether she wanted to be stuck with him at all.
"Oh Finn," she said, shaking her head. "Baby, of course I would love to be your girlfriend. But sweetheart, you should never tell a girl you "need to talk" unless you are going to dump her."
"What? No Way. Is that why you looked so sad?" He asked, the pieces starting to come together in his head.
"Oh geez. I can't believe I messed this up! I brought you here to tell you I think I'm falling in love with you and you thought I was going to dump you? Sometimes I am kind of dumb. Mercedes, I'm so sorry. " He kind of wanted to go bang his head against a tree or something. He had planned out where to go and what he was going to say and he had upset her anyhow.
"Finn, hold up. Did you just say you're falling in love with me? " Her eyes were wide, but at least she didn't look sad anymore.
"Yeah, I did. And I am, but I messed this all up and.." He stopped when her hand came up and covered her mouth.
"Finn, sweetie, relax. I'm not mad at you, it's okay. I was only upset because I feel the same way and I wasn't ready to lose you," she said and moved her hand over to his cheek.
"Cool," he said, before deciding that talking was probably only going to lead to him saying something else he shouldn't so he kissed her instead. She obviously thought he made the right decision because she slid her arms around his neck and pulled him closer. They stayed like that for a few minutes just enjoying the simple kisses in the spring sunshine until they heard a throat being cleared and some giggling and clapping. Finn pulled back and tilted his head to look over Mercedes' shoulder only to find Coach Bieste, Kurt, Sam, Tina, and Mike smiling at them.
"Sorry to interrupt, but we had to find you," Kurt said, "Jesse just texted me, we made the top ten!"