He can't help but feel as if he's dreaming as he looks upon his lover's face in the early morning sun. She's too blurry for him to make out any details, but still, it's so much better than not being able to see her at all, did say that his sight would come back gradually, and it thrills him to know that her image will become sharper and clearer over time. And he imagines being able to look into her eyes while she gives him the most mind blowing sex he's ever experienced again and again and the thought makes everything that much more amazing.

"I can't believe this," he says excitedly. "I'm finally starting to see again, and just when I was starting to think it was hopeless."

"That's so great Finn," she replies, and in all of his excitement he pays no mind to the hint of sadness in Rachel's voice.

"I have to tell Kurt, we have to see Dr. Sylvester." at that he kisses her, not having to use his hands to find her lips this time but as he leaps out of bed, throwing on his boxers and starting toward the door she grabs his wrist, stopping him.

"Finn, wait," she says frantically, and at her ominous tone he knits his brow and stops in his tracks, sitting back down beside her.

"What's wrong babe?" he says, running a hand over her hair.

"There's something I have to tell you," she says, her voice breaking, and he wishes he knew why her voice were breaking, this is the happiest he's been in weeks, but she seems completely miserable. "Something I should have told you right off the bat but I just didn't know how. And I know this is the worst possible time to do this to you but at this point to not tell you would only be delaying the inevitable."

"Okay Rach you're starting to scare me, what happened, did I do something wrong?"

"No, not at all Finn, you've been perfect, you are perfect," she assures him. "It's about me, I took advantage of your injury for my own personal gain and I feel terrible about it."

"What do you mean?" he says, his voice hard.

"I think it would be better just to show you," and she takes his hand in hers then, bringing it up to her face, the scarred area around her eye that she's slyly tried to keep him from touching for the past month, and at the feel of the damaged, welted skin his face becomes even more confused.

"What is this?" he says, perplexed.

"It's me," she says simply, shrugging. "my face was disfigured in an accident three years ago... I didn't tell you because, I just... You were so wonderful and I was so afraid that you wouldn't accept me if you knew that I wasn't the beautiful girl that you thought I was, so I kept this from you and I'm so so sorry, and I'm even more sorry about ruining what should be an amazing moment for you, I just had to tell you, I can't lie anymore."

There's only silence then as he drops his hand, deep in thought, after everything that had happened, this is the last thing he was expecting to hear. He had such a clear picture in his head about what Rachel would look like, and he knew upon seeing her for the first time that it wouldn't be totally accurate, still, he can't believe what he's hearing.

"Please say something," she says quietly.

"Are you okay?" he says softly. "I mean is it..."

"The damage was mostly cosmetic, everything else healed a long time ago," she assures him.

"So you just lied, all this time?" he says, knitting his brow a bit angrily. "After everything?"

"Finn it wasn't like that, I didn't lie."

"But you didn't tell me the truth either," he shoots back, and he gets out of bed again then, and so does she, throwing on her clothes as fast as she can as he does the same.

"I wanted to I just...

"You just what? Hoped that you would never have to right?" he spits.

"No that's not it," she cries. "It's just for once in my life I wanted someone to see past this, to love me for me."

"That's not fair Rachel," he shoots back. "To love you for you means to love all of you, even the parts you aren't so proud of. The fact is you didn't trust me to see past the way you look. You think of me as every other bastard who's only after a piece of ass."

"Some of the greatest guys in the whole world still want a pretty girl Finn, it's just the way it is, Jesse claimed to love me too but the second he knew that I would never be beautiful again he left."

"Jesse is an asshole," Finn fumes. "I'm not like that, and maybe if you would have been honest with me you would have realized that."

"I do," she says pleadingly, meeting him on the other side of the bed. "I know you're not Jesse I just-"

She can't finish her thought, but he has an idea of what she's trying to say.

"No, you don't know that," Finn says. "You didn't even give me a chance to prove that I'm not."

"Finn please-

"I have to go," he says coldly, and without another word he darts out, seeing enough to not need the cane anymore.

"Finn what's going on? I heard you two fighting in there," Kurt says as he makes his way to the front door.

"I'm going to Dr. Sylvester's, you coming or what?" and Frantically, clearly moved by whatever he's angry about, Kurt follows.

"Finn, what happened?" Kurt says, trying to keep up with Finn's long strides. "Is your sight back?"

"A little, yeah," Finn says coldly, not slowing down.

"That's great Finn, see I knew it was just a matter of time," Kurt says, still clearly perplexed by Finn's behavior.

"Oh yeah," Finn says, turning to face his step-brother. "What else did you know that you didn't tell me," he says angrily.

Finn doesn't have to explain any further for Kurt to know what he means.

"I wanted to tell you, she asked me not to." Finn simply nods in understanding. "Is she okay?"

"I don't know, I kind of bailed."

"Finn how could you do that, you're just confirming everything she's been worrying about since she met you," Kurt says angrily.

"It's not like that," Finn explains. "I'm not upset because of her face, I mean I still don't even really know what she looks like. I'm upset that she lied."

"She only lied because she really likes you Finn," Kurt explains.

"If she likes me so much then why didn't she trust me?" Finn says. "I would have understood, I mean, I love Rachel I don't care-

"Wait a minute, back up," Kurt says frantically. "Did you just say you love her?"

At Kurt's words he thinks about the last month, about getting to know Rachel, spending time with her, singing with her, laughing with her, kissing her, making love to her, and his lips turn up a little in a smile.

"Of course I do," Finn says warmly "I just wish she wouldn't have lied to me, it seems like all women ever do these days is lie to me."

"Well in Rachel's defense it's men in general she doesn't trust, not you, looks like you have more in common than you thought," Kurt says, nudging him a little.

"That Jesse douche must have really messed her up huh?" Finn deduces.

"That's putting it mildly," Kurt says. "At least Santana turned out to be somewhat human."

When he thinks about someone as wonderful and kind and adorable as Rachel Berry being rejected so harshly by someone who claimed to love her, he can begin to imagine how painful that must have been for her. Maybe there really was more to it than Rachel not trusting him.

"I don't know," Finn says, sighing. "I mean Rachel's the greatest girl ever, when we were together last night-

"Oh my god, you guys did it last night?" Kurt says teasingly. And although the blush that reaches his face at the question is probably enough of an answer, he nods and smiles, confirming it.

"We totally did," Finn says gleefully.

"And you woke up this morning with your vision partially restored, she must have really been good," Kurt jokes.

"Well I'm pretty sure that part was a coincidence, but yeah, she really was," Finn says with a sly grin.

He has to talk to Rachel. But he thinks he'll let her suffer a little longer first.

The Doctor doesn't know if or when his vision will be completely restored, or if he'll ever be able to see colors again, but for now it's sharp enough to be considerably improved with a pair of glasses, they warn him not to wear them all the time, lest his eyes become too dependent on them and not improve on their own, but when he puts them on it feels like a whole new world, everything is still a little fuzzy and gray, like an old silent movie, but it's a vast improvement, and as they return home, he can't help but feel a bit apprehensive about seeing Rachel, between Dr. Sylvester and the optometrist it's been hours, and things didn't exactly go over well the last time he and Rachel were together, and he figures she hasn't called because she's been afraid to, but he's cooled down now, and ready to talk, really talk about why she lied and whether they can get past it.

He figures she's shut herself in her room, because the living room is empty and quiet when him and Kurt return.

"I'll be in my room if you need anything," Kurt says, patting his brother on the back comfortingly before he disappears into his room, and Finn hesitantly goes to Rachel's bedroom and even more hesitantly knocks.

"Rachel," he says, his voice soft.

"Go away," she replies, her voice muffled.

"Rachel come on, open up, you owe me that much," he continues, and after a few agonizing moments she finally appears behind the door, opening it reluctantly, as if trying to protect herself from his rejection.

The first thing he notices besides how ridiculously tiny she is, is the big, gorgeous eye that he can see poking out from behind her curtain of thick dark hair, long and flowing, and his eyes trail down to her lips, plump and full as he imagined them to be when he kissed her for the first time, and all he can think about when he sees her is how beautiful she is, but he knows that he isn't seeing all of her, that she's still not letting him.

"Oh my god," she says, deflating. "Those glasses just make you look sexier," she continues, as if disappointed. "Can you see?"

He doesn't speak as he reaches for her hair, pressing on even as she cowers a bit, and as he gently pushes it to the side, tucking it behind her ear, he takes in the sight of her scarred face. It's not as striking as it probably would be if he could see properly, but it's still clearly there, the long scar starting at her forehead and ending at her cheek, rendering one eye a bit smaller than the other, and branching out in smaller scars along the side of her face. His jaw tightens and he swallows hard, and he can tell that she's waiting for him to speak and by the way her head is down he can tell that she's afraid of what he has to say.

"Yeah," he finally replies. "I can see."

Noticing the double meaning in his words she nods softly and forces a weak smile.

"I'm so happy," she says, her voice breaking. "I really am, I just knew that you were going to be okay Finn."

"Rach I-

"And I know it doesn't mean much now but I really am so sorry I lied to you, that wasn't right and you deserve better, I was just so afraid of losing you that I couldn't do it, and that's my fault, please don't blame Kurt."

"Rachel-

"You need to know Finn that it's not that I didn't trust you to accept me, I just couldn't accept myself, and I'm trying really hard to because I'm so tired of hiding from the world, and I especially don't want to hide from you because I love you so much, and I know that I completely blew it with you, but I just hope that...

He realizes then that the only way to stop her rambling is to attack her lips with his, so he does, silencing her rant. He kisses her until all of the tension falls out of her body and she melts against him, running her fingers through his hair the way she always does, and he holds her close to him as they kiss in her doorway, and he really hopes the action gets across the way he feels about her better than his attempts at words can.

"You kissed me?" she says breathlessly as their lips part.

"I did," he says with a smile in his voice, stroking her hair gently and looking into her eyes the way he's wanted to do for what feels like a lifetime.

"But I thought you didn't want me anymore, I thought you were mad at me."

"I am mad at you," he says. "But that doesn't mean I don't want you."

"Even, after seeing this?" she says, putting her head down and pointing toward her face.

"Would you stop?" he says, tilting her chin up to make her look at him. "You're beautiful."

He can just make out the tears beading in her eyes at his words.

"You really think so?" she says quietly, and he nods earnestly.

"I just wished you believed it too," he replies, and as she breaks down in tears even more he takes her shaking body into his arms, rubbing her back and whispering soothing words to her.

"It's okay Rachel," he whispers softly into her ear. "I'm not Jesse, and I'm not going anywhere, I promise."

As she wraps her arms around his waist, returning the embrace, he thinks she believes him.

One chapter before the epilogue, stay tuned folks!