AN: More and more this fic could easily end up being my headcanon for what happens after graduation. I mean sure some of the details don't fit with canon Glee, but that aside this fic really could work. I'm not sure how to feel about that. It's kind of scary actually.

Also, if you haven't noticed, I've started to name chapters with songs. They don't fit perfectly, but…

Life After You

Rachel woke up with a start, her phone blaring beside her. She opened her eyes and quickly closed them again. Squinting through the blinding sunlight, she fumbled for the tiny device. Once she found it she brought it up to her ear with a drowsy, "Hello?"

"Hey Rachel, are we still on for today?" The voice from the other line was familiar, but Rachel was far too sleepy to recognize it. She again tried to open her eyes to look at the caller ID. And once again she closed them due to the overbearing light. Rachel groaned in frustration. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine." Rachel responded, still not sure who she was talking too.

"Okay, so are we still on for today?" the girl on the other line asked again. "It's already past noon, and-"

"What?" Rachel jumped out of her bed. She couldn't have slept in, could she? She snapped her head towards her clock. It was in fact true. The time read 12:24. She buried her face in her hands. Through the phone she heard the other person once again asking if she was okay. "Yes, yes. I'm going to have to call you back okay?" she asked and then hung up before receiving an answer.

The brunette fell back onto her bed, letting out a sigh. She checked her phone for recent calls. Tina. Hm? Tina, Tina, Tina. What kind of plans did she have with Tina? She grunted and pushed herself to her feet. Someone was off, and that something was Rachel. Tiredly, her feet dragged her to the bathroom. The diva took a glance into her mirror. She was still wearing her clothes from the previous night out with Noah, and well she looked kind of awful.

She decided to take a shower, or better yet a soothing bath, as she tried to remember what she had planned with Tina. Rachel went over to prepare her tub and began discarding her clothing. Leg by leg, she dipped herself in. She mewled contently once her body was fully submerged. Laying there seemed to just wash away all her troubles and worries. And even if that would only last for the remainder of the bath it was a nice break. So instead of thinking the diva just allowed her body to relax.

Half an hour later she finished. She wrapped both her body and her hair in a towel and went to her calendar. She scolded herself internally for not having checked that first. Her fingers ran through it, finding the day's date. And it was then that it all came back to her. Despite having been inseparable from Quinn since graduation, Rachel had been having practice sessions with Tina once a week. Quinn would get very upset with these sessions, although she would attend each one.

Tina would be the next female lead, and it kind of freaked her out. Needless to say Rachel was kind of mad at herself right now. She went for her phone and quickly called Tina. Two rings and her call was answered. "Tina, I'm so sorry. I've just been really stressed, but I can still come over if you want."

"Oh, well if you're stressed we can just cancel. Maybe we could just hang out instead," Tina suggested.

"Um… Yeah, sure. That would be great actually." Rachel went over to her closet, almost forgetting that she was still wearing a towel. "So I'll pick you up in about half an hour, okay?"

"See you in half an hour then. Bye."

"Bye." Rachel properly dried herself off then proceeded to get dressed. She would typically take some time to choose her clothes, but felt bad enough as it was for making Tina wait. It was a nice looking day and so she settled on a black skirt with knee highs and flats, and to top it off an 'I Heart New York' shirt. Just because she was depressed about not being in the big apple right now didn't mean she couldn't represent the city she was born for.

She escaped the confines of her room and made her way to Tina's house. Over the course of the summer Tina had proved to be far more talented than Rachel had given her credit for. Rachel would attribute that to the fact that Tina was hardly ever allowed to sing, but at the same time she could help but feel bad about never acknowledging the girl's talent.

With a few minutes to spare Rachel parked her car outside Tina's house. She got out and went over to Tina's front porch, giving the door a knock. The Asian girl soon exited and the pair went back to Rachel's car. "Any ideas of what you want to do?" she asked once her house was out of view.

"I don't know." Rachel shook her head. "I just need to clear my head."

"How about we grab some soft serve at that ice cream place that opened a few months ago? They've got vegan options." Rachel bobbed her head left and right, as though she was actually thinking about it. "Please."

"Sure, you've really made me curious about this place." This wasn't the first time Tina's mentioned said ice cream shop, but had always been too preoccupied with one thing or another to visit the place. She continued to drive as Tina gave her directions. Rachel quirked an eyebrow and turned towards her.

"What? I know my way to this place." She gave a small shrug. "Mike and I stopped by almost every weekend since it opened." She smiled at the fond memories. "We must have tried out every flavor they have."

"How is Mike?"

"He's good." She reaches out to turn on the radio. "It's just hard with him being so far away. You know?"

"Not really, no. But I can imagine."

"Yeah, you and Finn have never been too far apart, have you?" Rachel nodded even when she knew Tina didn't really need a response. "He was even going to go with you to New York, wasn't he?" Another small nod. "You're lucky."

"You are too," she responds, not really believing her words. It's not that she doesn't think Tina is lucky, but that she doesn't think that she's very lucky herself. If she were then she'd be in New York right now. Not to mention that she'd normally account her success to talent as opposed to luck. Though to think like that right now would have one concluded that Rachel Barbra Berry wasn't talented enough to get to NYADA, wasn't talented enough to get to Broadway. But of course that wasn't true.

The pair made it to the ice cream and made their orders. Rachel took coffee flavored while Tina chose an interesting concoction with an assortment of bright colors. One glance at the multi-colored desert had Rachel looking at Tina bewilderedly. "What?" She tossed her hands up defensively. "Contrary to popular belief I love rainbows." Rachel quirked an eyebrow but left the answer as is.

Slowly eating their ice cream, the pair walked out of the store to a nearby park. It was another locale that Tina had burned to memory after having spent so much time in this neighborhood with Mike. A cool breeze hit their faces, as the heat of summer warmed them from above. Perfect weather, and aside from a few issues Rachel would say that it was a perfect day. Nice, quiet, peaceful. The stress just washed off of her.

Further down the path they were on there was a small pond. She looked over at Tina, and tilted her head in the direction of the pond. The other girl gave a smile and nodded her head in agreement. They walked off the gravelly path and onto the grass. As they sat down, crossed legged, Rachel wished that she had worn jeans instead of the short skirt she had on. They slowly finished their soft serve as they looked out at the scenery.

Ducks of different sizes and colors swam by before their eyes, and on the other end there even looked to be a swan or two. Although neither girl knew enough to name any of these animals, they could see the distinctive patterns or marks that each species had. They each kept to their own, swimming closely to their parents. The two girls could see that this small pool of water was home to a large number of creatures despite its size. It was so full of life that you wouldn't, or couldn't believe, until you saw it.

"Feeling better?" Fully entranced in the beauty of nature before them Rachel barely comprehended the words being said to her. "Rachel?" the other girl questioned, snapping the brunette out of her thoughts. She snapped her head towards Tina and nodded it. "Good." She leaned back, lying down on the grass. Rachel soon followed, letting out a content sigh. "I always come here when I need to relax," Tina explained.

"I can see why." They continued to just lie there, soaking in the warmth of the sun. Over time Rachel's eyelids dropped. She began humming a familiar tune, as she drifted close to sleep. Her body was unusually worn out.

"Rachel?"

"Yeah," the brunette answered keeping her eyes closed.

"I'm glad you're still around." Rachel opened her eyes and propped herself up by her elbows. "That sounded selfish didn't it?" She shook her head. "I mean I am sorry your NYADA audition didn't work out, but I just like that not all the girls are gone," she took another pause. "I guess there's still Sugar, but she's… Sugar." They both let out a laugh.

"I get it." She let out a yawn.

"Tired?" Instead of a proper response she got another yawn. "Didn't you sleep in 'til noon?" she teased, earning a glare from the shorter girl. "Come on let's go. Don't want you getting us in a crash because you fell asleep behind the wheel," she said as she got up, not noticing how Rachel flinched at the word 'crash.' They brushed off the stray pieces of grass that were stuck to them and then went back to the beaten path.

She drove Tina back home. They spend the drive discussing the possibilities for the upcoming year. There were a few problems that they'd need to settle. One being that the size of the club had been effectively cut in half after graduation, and then there was the other important choice of who would be the new male lead. Rachel frowned at the thought that she might have to contribute to the choice between the two of them.

Tina reassured her that Mr. Schue would probably still be making most of the big decisions. Rachel wasn't convinced, nor was she sure she very much liked the idea of that. Mr. Schue had been against the female duet that, Rachel thought, had won them Nationals.

It was her first and only Nationals win.

And her duet partner had been Quinn. Not only that, but it was the blonde who had suggested it in the first place. It was Quinn who had them blatantly disregard Mr. Schue's directions and perform the routine they had wanted.

Rachel thought back to the letter as uneasy feeling filled her stomach. She had to reply to her. She owed Quinn that much. The brunette dropped Tina off, uttered a quick "goodbye" and then sped off home. Well she kind of sped home. It's not really easy to speed home if you're driving under the speed limit.

She got home, and entered her room. Something about it felt off, but she'd worry about that later. She approached her nightstand, the last place she remembered putting the piece of stationary. It wasn't there. Rachel dropped to the floor, scanning the nearby area.

Nothing.

Beside the nightstand, beneath it, beneath the bed, and still nothing.

She got up and went to her closet. Maybe it had found its way there when she got dressed earlier. She shifted through the dresses, and sweaters, and such, throwing some of them out to clear some room. Finding nothing she went on to the rest of her room, systematically tearing it apart corner by corner.

Rachel tossed things across the room, occasionally causing a loud bang. She was shuffling through her drawers when she heard her name being called. She turned towards the source of the disturbance to find Sam peeking his head into her room. "You okay in here, Rach?" he asked as he scanned the room. "What are you doing? Your dads' just cleaned up your room."

"They cleaned my room?"

"Yeah, that's what I just said," Sam stepped inside, carefully trying to avoid stepping on Rachel's belongings that were scattered on the floor. "Your room's been a mess for a while, and they thought they'd take care of it for you."

"Oh."

"Why, what's wrong? Did you lose something?"

"Um, yeah. Kinda. It's nothing though." Sam's eyes drifted around the room once more. With the state of her room, there was no way he'd believe her. He didn't say anything, but just looked at her suspiciously. "Really Sam, it's no big deal. I'm sure it's around here somewhere."

"Okay," he said with a sigh. "If you say so." He left her room and closed the door. Once it was fully shut, Rachel sank down on the spot. She started to pick her things up, placing them here or there. She was sick of all of this already. She wanted it to be done.

AN: I'm not really sure how many chapters I'll have until Rachel goes to New Haven. I really want to have their lives develop while each is on their own, but I'd appreciate some input here. Do you want to see their respective lives alone, or do you want to see how they interact after the time apart?