Finn slammed on his brakes, stopping in the middle of the road. Throwing his truck into reverse, he put his arm behind Rachel and backed up. "What happened?" Rachel said, turning around to look behind them.
"Mercedes just went off the road," Finn said grimly.
"Oh no," Rachel said, unbuckling her seat belt.
As Finn got closer to Mercedes SUV, he saw a truck behind it. People surrounded the SUV, but when Finn stopped the people from the other truck scrambled to get back in their vehicle. Finn jumped out of his truck and grabbed his own tire iron, running towards them. The truck revved its engine as it started up, people still climbing in the back. Once they were in the driver hit the gas, spinning gravel. Rachel hopped out of Finn's truck and ran to Mercedes' SUV to check on their friends. Finn watched the truck take off and realized that it was heading straight for her. "Rachel!" he yelled, dropping the tire iron and running towards her.
Reaching her, he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her out of the path of the truck. They landed on the ground hard, knocking the breath out of both of them. Dazed, they laid there as the truck sped off. Shaking his head to clear it, Finn rose, running his hands down the length of her body, searching for signs of broken bones or other wounds. Rachel grabbed both hands and held them to her face, forcing him to look at her. "I'm okay," she told him. "I'm okay."
Finn nodded, looking up at Mercedes' SUV. Getting up, he held his hand out for Rachel and helped her up as well. "Mercedes?" she said, moving to the driver's door. Mercedes opened the door, visibly trembling as she got out of the vehicle. Sam got out of the passenger side, shutting the door and leaning against it.
"What happened?" Finn asked Mercedes as Rachel ran to Sam to make sure his stitches hadn't broken open.
Mercedes shook her head. "They came up behind me," she said, her voice trembling. "I noticed that they were moving fast and I slowed down so they could pass me."
"They just rammed us," Sam said, his voice shaking.
Mercedes nodded. "I tried to keep it on the road, but they just kept ramming into the back of us."
"You did good," Sam told her. "There wasn't anything else you could have done."
Rachel looked at the vehicle. "What happened to the sides of it?" she asked, noticing for the first time the cracked windows and dented doors.
"They started beating on the doors and windows with bats," Mercedes said, staring off into the woods on the other side of the road. "Baseball bats. Can you believe that? They wouldn't stop…"
Finn caught her as she fell to the ground, dazed. Rachel ran back to his truck and got her cell phone, calling 911. "You're okay, Mercedes," Finn told his friend, nodding at Sam when the other boy bent down to talk to her.
"We're both okay," Sam told her. "You did a good job."
Mercedes shook her head, breathing hard. "They want to kill us," she said, tears flowing down her face. "I've never done anything to them and they want to kill me."
Sam didn't know what to say, so he sat down beside her and put his arm around her. Finn looked up at Rachel. "What did the police say?" he asked.
"They're on their way," Rachel said, joining them. Finn stood up and hugged her to him.
"You saw that, right? You saw that they were going to hit you." He knew that his voice was as shaky as Sam's had been but he couldn't steady it. His knees were still weak with leftover fear.
Rachel nodded, her face buried in his chest. "I saw."
Finn held her, looking down the road in the direction the two trucks had gone. "Who was it, did anyone get a look?"
Sam nodded. "It was some of those hockey guys."
Mercedes wiped her face. "And a couple of girls from the Cheerios," Mercedes said. "They looked crazy." She leaned her head back against her SUV and looked at Sam. "Didn't they look crazy? They were screaming at us, cursing us." Another tear ran down her face but she didn't wipe it off. "I was friends with some of those girls, remember?" Sam squeezed her shoulder. "Why are they trying to hurt us?"
Sam shook his head, looking at Finn. "I saw them aim for Rachel and I didn't think you were going to get to her in time."
"I didn't either," Finn said lowly.
Mercedes closed her eyes. "I thought you guys were going to get hit," she said. "And then they were going to get out again and kill us." She looked at her friends. "This ain't right, y'all. There's no reason for any of this to be happening."
"You're right," Rachel said. "It's like a horror movie."
"The good guy always wins in the end of horror movies, right?" Sam asked, trying to lighten the mood.
Mercedes looked at him. "After all of his friends are dead."
They didn't speak again until the police showed up.
Rachel didn't call her fathers, planning on just telling them about the incident when they got to Finn's house. Mercedes parents had to come pick her up and Mercedes had texted the other Glee Clubbers that were waiting for her at her house to let them know what was going on.
Sam and Mercedes gave the police the names of the kids they recognized and Finn gave them a description of the truck they were in. When the police had finished with them and they could finally leave, Rachel hugged Mercedes. "I love you," Mercedes told Rachel. "You and that man of yours. You guys be careful, okay?"
Rachel nodded, unable to speak for fear she'd start crying again. Finn helped her back into his truck and they followed a police car to his house. The officer insisted on checking out the house, so Finn took him through all of the rooms. Rachel got in the shower while Finn showed him out, leaning her head against the tile and crying.
"Rach?" Finn asked softly, stepping into the bathroom and leaning against the door.
"Yeah?" Rachel said wobbly, scrubbing her face.
"Are you okay?"
Rachel shook her head "no" but said, "Yeah, I'm good. Did you hear from my dads?"
Finn sighed. "Yeah, they're still at the hospital with Burt and Carol; the guard for Puck hasn't shown up yet." He played with his cell phone. "The officer that was just here said that he's been told to stay here to keep a lookout on the house in case something happens."
"That's good," Rachel said, biting her bottom lip. "Any word on Noah?"
"No change," Finn said, grimacing. "I told our parents about Mercedes. The idea of everyone just getting out of town until these guys are stopped keeps looking better and better." Rachel was silent and he sighed. "I'll be out here if you need me," he told her, turning away.
"I need you," she said, so softly he almost didn't hear her.
"What?" he asked.
Rachel pushed the shower curtain open a little. "I need you."
Finn saw the pain in her eyes. He knew the same pain was in his. He nodded, pulling his shirt off and taking off his pants. Naked, he joined her in the shower, wrapping his arms around her as she did the same. The warm water poured over them as they stood there, holding each other. Finn kissed her shoulders, his thumbs rubbing her back. She was so beautiful, inside and out. The constant and realistic worry of something happening to her was driving him crazy.
"I'm afraid to let you leave the house," Finn told her quietly. "I'm so scared, Rachel. What if they finally get you?"
Rachel shook her head. "You were almost hit too, Finn," she told him.
"Only because I put myself in their path," he told her. "It was you, Rach. They're after you."
"I know," she said in a small voice. "I'm scared," she admitted.
"Me too."
After they'd washed, they stepped out of the shower. "I just can't believe what's happening," Rachel said as they dried off. She watched him pull on jeans, leaving the top button undone and not bothering with a shirt. Automatically thinking about how hot her boyfriend is probably meant that she was a terrible person. Now was really not the time to be thinking about these things.
Finn put his hands on the sink with his head down. "What's wrong?" she asked him, standing behind him and wrapping her arms around his waist. They stood like that for a moment, each just happy to have the other one close.
"I need to talk to you about something," he told her.
Rachel felt a tug of anxiety in her stomach. "What?" she asked, pulling away from him.
"Let's go downstairs," he told her.
Rachel followed him. "What is it?" she asked as she sat on his bed.
Finn sat beside her, absently rubbing her arm. "When I was talking to the police today, they told me that they'd like to set a trap to catch the guys doing this."
"That sounds like a good idea," Rachel told him.
Finn shook his head. "They wanted to use you as bait, Rach."
"Oh," Rachel said, shocked. She looked at him. "Wouldn't that work?"
"It might," he admitted. "Or it might just get you hurt. I'm not letting them use you as bait, Rachel." She started to say something and he shook his head. "Your dads would never go for it either."
"I'm sure that if the police are involved, it would be safe," she told him.
"I don't want to risk it," he told her.
Rachel crossed her arms over her chest. "Shouldn't it be my decision?"
"No," Finn said simply.
"Finn," Rachel said lowly, angry. "My friends are being hurt. If there's something I can do to stop it, I should do it."
"They're not being hurt because of you, Rachel!" he told her, frustrated. "They're being hurt because of me! This is all my fault." He jumped up, breathing hard. "I'll be damned if I let the police put you in danger, again, because of something I've done."
Rachel rose on her knees and pointed her finger at him. "Don't you give me that crap, Finn Hudson! Don't you dare! None of this is your fault, do you hear me?"
"Why do they want you so badly, Rach?" Finn asked forcefully. "Why are they after any of us?"
"Because they're insane!" she yelled at him. "Do any of these actions remind you of something a sane person would do?"
"You're right," he told her. "They are insane. Which is exactly why you're not doing it!"
"You're not my dad, Finn!"
"You want to know who I am?" he asked, grabbing her arms and staring into her eyes. "I am the man that would give my own life to save yours. I'm the man that can't stand to think about anything happening to you. I'm the man that almost killed someone for hurting you. And I'm the man that would do it again. I'm the man that loves you, Rachel, and I'm not letting you do it."
Rachel felt tears well up in her eyes. She opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by clapping.
"This is the most romantic thing I've ever seen," Kurt said from the bottom of the stairs. He looked at Blaine. "Couldn't you just die?"
Blaine looked embarrassed. "Sorry," he told Rachel and Finn. "We heard you yelling and didn't know what was going on."
Rachel wiped the tears away from her face and wrapped her arms around Finn. "I'm sorry," she told him.
Finn sighed, pulling her back so he could put his forehead against her. "Don't ask me to be okay with the idea of you being in danger, Rachel," he told her softly. "I can't be."
Rachel nodded. "I know," she told him. She did understand; she'd feel the exact same way if it was him. But this needed to stop. Things were getting ridiculous, and their friends were getting hurt. She looked over at Blaine and Kurt. "Have you guys talked to Mercedes?"
Kurt nodded. "She's still really shaken. The others are at her house and safe. They have a cop sitting outside, too."
"What about Mike and Tina?" Rachel asked Finn.
"They were working on it," Finn told her. "They're spread pretty thin."
"I talked to them," Kurt said. "They said they're fine." He shrugged. "Let's just pray that it's true."
"How are you guys?" Finn asked them, still holding Rachel.
Blaine shrugged. "Terrified?"
Kurt nodded. "That about sums it up."
"Us too," Rachel told them.
"Well goody, we can all be terrified together," Kurt said, smiling at them.
"I'd rather not be terrified at all, thanks," Finn told him, making a face.
"Well, what are you going to do?" Kurt asked rhetorically.
Rachel let go of Finn and walked over to see the movies Blaine had brought from his house. Finn watched her but was thinking…What was he going to do?