An unfamiliar sound echoed of the faded walls of the foyer as Steve let himself into Finn's house. Steve knew as well as anyone that at 7:45am on a Monday morning Finn would be sitting upstairs in that ratty leather chair drinking coffee and watched his neighbors do their usual morning tasks, which to be honest if Steve were one of Finn's neighbors he'd find Finn's morning routine slightly creepy.
But on that morning Steve's ears were met with an unfamiliar sound, one so unfamiliar in that setting that it took him a moment to register what he was hearing. Laughter. It was the sound of Finn's laugh echoing from upstairs. And then after the laughter there were words, like Finn was talking to someone or possibly himself. Steve wasn't quite sure all he knew was it wasn't something he'd ever heard before walking into Finn's house, let alone at 7:45 on a Monday morning.

"Alright, well you go do your thing God knows if you're late he's going to freak out. And if he finds out I was what was keeping you he's going to freak out on me too." Finn spoke into the phone as let out a laugh as he finished his sentence. Steve stood quietly at the top of the stairs careful not to announce his arrival as he studied Finn's face. The smile Finn held on his face displayed wrinkles he'd never noticed, probably because he couldn't remember the last time he'd seen his best friend smile like that.

"Go!" Finn yelled in a playful manner. "I'll talk to you around lunchtime or whenever I'm kinda the boss." He joked and held his tongue out slightly dispute the person on the other end of the line not being able to see him. "Bye."

"Ahem," Steve cleared his throat as Finn ended his conversation.

Startled Finn jumped slightly from his chair. "Holy shit," his tone startled as he looked to Steve. "Doesn't anyone believe in knocking anymore?"

"Dude first off I have a key why would I knock? And second I haven't knocked once in the four years you've owned this house so why would I start now?" He shrugged as he flopped down onto the futon in the corner. "Who was that?" He pointed at the phone. "And don't say you're mom again I know better!"

Finn cuts his eyes at Steve and remained silent for a moment before he nodded his head around a bit and looked back at Steve. "That was Rachel."

Steve wiggled his eyebrows slightly, "Rachel from last weekend Rachel?" He asked with a knowing grin on his face. "That Rachel?" His hand flipped out to give a firm point to the picture that hung on Finn's wall. "Don't think just because I haven't brought I up I didn't notice. I knew the second I saw her that Rachel, who showed up from New York with fucking cookies for you, was Rachel the girl from high school who's picture was the first thing you ever put on these walls." He finished his statement by reaching behind his head and giving a pat to the wall.

"Yes that Rachel. If you knew then why ask if it was that Rachel?" Finn said flatly before he took a sip of his coffee.

"Because asking is the only way to get you talking anymore. So what's the deal? You tell me the girl at the wedding was no big deal, then she's showing up with cookies and now you're sneaking off for lunchtime conversation and texting. You don't text. You hate your cell phone because usually you just want everyone to leave you the hell alone."

"Like I wish you would do right now?" Finn responded with a look he hoped would shut his friend up.

"Exactly!" Steve stated before he completely ignored the look Finn was giving him and continued on. "I've never pushed you to talk about anything. Not when we met in college and you were all busted up over some girl, who by the way after sorting through numerous memories of vaguely recollected drunken nights when you would talk I've put two and two together and realized that was Rachel as well..." He paused and let out a sigh before he straightened up his posture to lean forward and look at Finn directly. "I've never forced you to talk about anything but what's up with here man."

Finn turned his eyes to look out the window and blew out a sigh. "I don't know. I hadn't seen Rachel in ten years and then at Kurt's wedding," he stopped looking for words that could explain what he felt to Steve, and to himself for that matter. "Rachel was the first person that ever made me feel like I could be something great. And when I first saw her you know the first thought that ran through my head was how much of a disappointment I'd be if she knew who I was now. Not like in like the professional sense just like who I was. And after the wedding I was sure that I was a disappointment and too damaged and I'd never hear from her again." Finn blew out a breath with a slightly half smile forming on his was as he turned his eyes over to Steve. "Then she showed up here and I realized that if anyone was going to understand it would be Rachel." With a tip of his head, his shoulders shrugged slightly. "I don't know what's going on. It's not like it's
something that has a name. All I know is I like talking to her, hearing her laugh that laugh that just makes me smile. I like having her back in my life."

Steve shifted to the edge of the futon and leaned forward towards Finn, "I probably know you better than anyone else," his tone was serious and the look in his eyes as they met Finn's said he meant business. "So if you don't ever listen to another word I say I want to listen to me right now. When that little voice in your head that keeps you locked away in this house gets through and starts talking again do not listen. Don't screw this up." Steve nodded as the words left his mouth and for a moment the two men sat in a silent understanding until Finn gave Steve a slight nod. "Now we got a business to run." Steve stood from the futon and clapped his hand against Finn's back.

Finn finished off his coffee and stood from his chair. "Yeah what's on the agenda this week other than inventory?" His tone slightly sarcastic.

"Business," Steve joked as he started down the stairs behind Finn. "The equipment manager for the Bengals will be by on Saturday and oh the coach from Princeton High says they got approved for all new practice equipment for the fall, he said he knows we're usually closed but he wants to meet Sunday. It's a huge contract so I told him it wouldn't be a problem."

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Rachel was late. Really late and she was never late. In fact punctuality was something she prided herself on but this morning she just hadn't been able to tear herself away from the phone. She couldn't explain it. It was Finn. That explanation was good enough for her.
The night she'd gotten out of his truck in Cincinnati with the promise of a next time, she had honestly wondered if there would be a next time. And things started off reasonably slow with text message good morning from her that lead to a half a night texting back and forth while she assured her dads she wasn't distracted and ignoring them. His insistence that she let him know she made it back to New York safely lead to their first phone call, a conversation meant only to be a few minutes long that ended up lasting into the wee hours of the night. Rachel was certain she'd made him late to work that day, despite his insistence that the boss couldn't be late. And now it was her turn to be late to something.

"Rachel Barbra Berry! Where the hell have you been?" Kurt screeched at her as he tapped his watch. "It is bad enough you've waited until the week of the Tonys to select a dress and now you're late? What the hell has gotten into you?"

Rachel tried not to laugh at Kurt's dramatics as she smoothed down her dress and walked to give him a hug. "I'm sorry I just got hung up with something this morning." She responded giving him a vague explanation for her tardiness.

"Hung up on something? Or someone?" Kurt raised an eyebrow and then rolled his eyes. "Please tell me you're not seeing Brett again? I mean despite his charm his terrible fashion sense should have been enough to scare you from even talking to him in the first place." Another eyes roll followed as he sat down on the sofa in the lounge and shook his head.

"No," Rachel quickly answered and took the seat next to him. "I'm not seeing Brett again that's been over for months you should know that," she continued as an alert from her phone gathered her attention. Rachel slid her finger over the screen to read the message, as she bit her lip to try and conceal her smile from Kurt.

"What was that," Kurt motioned his finger up and down over Rachel's body, then stopped his finger on her phone. "I swear to God if you're lying to me," he said and the reached to her hands wrestling the phone away from her. He fully expected to see a message from Brett, who would have been considered an excellent suitor by most's standard. But the standards for Rachel were higher than he held for most. Kurt's mouth dropped open as his eyes fell upon the name at the top of her screen. "Finn? Please tell me you randomly met some other Finn and this is not my brother!"

Rachel softly shook her head as she snatched her phone back away from him. "Why are you surprised? You're the one who gave me his business card after the wedding."

"Yes but I didn't expect you to use it!" He stated a bit too loudly then gave her an apologetic look as he started to calm down.

"Yes you did," she said softly and looked away for a moment. "You can't honestly tell me you expected me to just put that card in my purse and forget about it, otherwise you'd have never given it to me." Rachel looked back at her phone, opening it to return Finn's message before she turned her attention back to Kurt. "Look I'm not going tell you nothing's going on with Finn and I. That would be a lie. But when I went to see him I didn't know if there was going to be anything still there, at least on his end..."

"Wait!" Kurt cut her off before she had a chance to finish her spill. "You saw him? When?"

"Last Saturday when I went to Ohio," she quickly mumbled.

"You weren't supposed to go to Ohio until Sunday. Your Dads went on a spa trip and you knew that."

Rachel drew in a breath and tilted her head from side to side. "So I may have changed my flight and flew in Saturday. But Finn thinks I went to Ohio to surprise my Dads and got a rude awakening and I swear to God if you tell him otherwise," she harshly pointed her finger in Kurt's face as he held his hands up in a defensive manner. Rachel waited for Kurt to relax from her threat before she sighed and continued. "I can't explain it Kurt. After I saw him at the wedding and he told me he was divorced, it was like I couldn't make myself stop thinking about him. And I couldn't make myself stay away from him. The whole drive to Cincinnati I tried to tell myself that it had been years and he had a life that I really knew nothing about and..." She let out a frustrated breath as she searched for the words to continue on. When her voice finally came to her it was meek. "But I couldn't make myself turn around. I just needed to see him."

Kurt stared at Rachel for a moment absorbing her word before he let out a huffed breath. "Do you remember in high school when Ms Sylvester's sister died and she wrote that letter talking about being tethered to someone?" He watched as Rachel nodded. This wasn't a conversation he wanted to be having with her. It was more like one he knew was necessary, mainly because he was fully convinced that no matter what Rachel believed everything he was about to tell her was the truth. "That's you and Finn. You've always been tethered to each other. It only felt like it went away because he got married and you were both fully respectful of that marriage. But it never went away, it just stopped getting pulled on for a while. And now you're pulling on it again. And maybe he is too but Rachel," Kurt placed his hand on her arm to make sure he had her attention. "Rachel you have to be careful. This isn't high school and Finn, as much as I love him, is really damaged. If
you pull to hard it's just going to tear both of you apart."

Rachel watched as Kurt spoke. There was a truth and a reality in his words. This wasn't high school; they weren't starry eyed kids anymore. They were adult who for many years had been leading separate lives and she was fully aware of that. "I'll be careful I promise. Right now we're just friends and I just really like having him back in my life."

"You'd better be," Kurt warned as he pointed a finger at her again. "For both your sakes. I can't take you being curled up in a ball for weeks again and God only knows where downhill for him would be." He shook his finger one more time, and then quickly clapped his hands together in excitement. "Now dresses! We must find you the perfect attire for Sunday! I have it narrowed down to twelve dresses. And since you're going stag, which I might add I can't believe you're doing, I don't have to worry about a date wearing something atrocious that clashes. Now go start the Rachel Berry fashion show extravaganza!" His hand waved in the air as he started to push her towards dressing rooms.

Five hours and twenty eight dresses later, Rachel was finally walking back into her apartment with Kurt positive they had found both the perfect dress and accessories. Exhausted wasn't even the word to describe how she felt. And she was certainly glad she had at least another year before she had to endure that again. More than again thing she was hungry and upset she had missed her lunchtime 'meeting' with Finn. But it was Finn and he knew Kurt, so he would understand how particular he could be. Just the hour alone he spent ranting about how she wasn't taking a date was more than exhausting. He had gone on and on about how much better she would look for photographs if she had a piece of arm candy and how the perfect suit next to her would make her look flawless. And as she sat down at her laptop, she had to admit that in the smallest way possible it had gotten to her.
But all thoughts of Kurt were erased as she moved her mouse to click the button on her Skype that called Finn. Rachel bit her lip and waited to see if he was there as her speakers rang.

"Hey Rachel."

Her head cocked back slightly in surprise as she was met with Steve's face on her monitor instead of Finn's. "Hi, Steve. If Finn's busy I can try him again later." She smiled politely as she remembered it was after his usual lunch break and she was interrupting his work day.

"No, no, he's just counting some bats. Gimme just a sec, I'll go get him." Steve face disappeared from the screen and she was left with a shot of Finn's office chair as she listened to Steve call his name out. Other than a few text messages this was the first time she had bothered him in the middle of working and for a moment she wondered if she should just close the window and try him later. But then his face appeared and that thought quickly disappeared.

"Hey," Finn grinned as she watched him make himself comfortable in his chair. "Thought you'd forgotten about me." He joked.

"Never," Rachel whispered low enough to where she was sure he couldn't have heard her.

"I can only assume Kurt was more than pissed you were late and kept you long as punishment. Either that or whatever you were doing ran long." He stopped as his face twisted and his eyebrow rose. "I don't think I ever asked so what was it you two were doing?"

"Actually," Rachel took in a breath and bit her lip in an unsure manner. Kurt's warning flashed in her head for a moment but it didn't have to chance to block the words from coming out of her mouth. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about. What are you doing this weekend?"