The next week Puck met with Artie, Blaine and Tina at the Lima Bean, one afternoon once the other three had finished school for the day. He'd had little luck coming up with some music to help Finn remember, as most of the numbers he remembered Finn singing were either solos or duets with Rachel, or too complicated to use. There was just so much music, too much to remember, and some of it had been pretty strange.

"I just don't know what we can get him to do naturally," he said flatly, shaking his head. "'Beth' might have been the only one that would work."

"We did some other guy numbers," Artie said. "It was a fall thing, guys against girls."

"Mash-ups," Puck stated. "They'd be a good test I guess, if he could actually do it, but the music's been messed with so much that I don't know how we'd get it going. And he'd catch on once we start getting weird."

"Pity," Tina commented with a sigh. "He sang some of the 'Stop in the Name of Love' mash-up directly to Rachel, even if he didn't remember he might at least start feeling it."

"Madonna week?" Artie asked.

"As soon as you figure out how we explain to him that we want him to sing 'What it Feels Like for a Girl' with us," Puck said sarcastically. "And if it brings back how he felt then, he might get the urge to go have bad sex with Santana."

"At which point she decks him and we get to see if that solves things or makes them worse," Blaine said lightly. "I know, bad idea."

Puck exhaled. "I don't know what we can do," he said. "It's not really enough just to get him tapped into the related stuff, when I talked to him last week he just put it together with his life now instead of remembering anything. And from what he's said he's been told by the shrink, that could be worse since he's joining stuff together."

"Maybe a competition number," Blaine offered. "We do those more, over and over the week before at least, and Finn really comes alive when he's performing."

"Yes, that sounds much better, if anything works it'd be that," Tina agreed.

"You're right about Finn performing, he's really himself then." Puck rubbed his hand over his Mohawk, still trying to think. "But what? Almost all of our old stuff had Rachel," he objected.

"She'd come back in a heartbeat to help Finn," Artie said. "If she knew about this she'd be here already."

"And then what? He'd know we were up to something, either before or after, if it doesn't work." Puck still frowned.

"And so would she," Blaine said slowly, his face worried.

"How is Rachel doing?" Tina asked him.

Blaine frowned, then tried to smile. "She's doing brilliantly at NYADA," he said. "They're falling over themselves to work with her, and she's completely throwing herself into it." He sighed. "Kurt says he's never seen her more driven."

Artie stared. "That's scary."

Blaine nodded, grimacing. "Yes it is. She's been working on her dancing a lot, it's her weakness and she's determined to fix that, but Kurt thinks she's also trying to tire herself out so she falls asleep from exhaustion. He has a hard time helping her to hold herself together, sometimes." He exhaled. "At least since she's so busy it doesn't mess with his own studies, not really. But I thought we were going to have it tough, being apart this year, it's a walk in the park compared to what she's going through."

"So if we get her hopes up, and it doesn't work..." Puck muttered.

"Can't know for sure, but she's barely staying together now," Blaine replied.

"Okay, so no Rachel," Artie agreed. He smiled, an idea occurring to him. "Just like Sectionals last year." They exchanged looks around the table, starting to smile along with Artie as they realized he was right.

Blaine snapped his fingers. "'Man in the Mirror'," he exclaimed, leaning forward. "There's practically no choreo, even by Finn's standards, and it's an old song, so it'll just be about whether he remembers how to perform it. And if he walks through it just like we did it, same context and everything, that whole memory might connect with him more."

"Yes, that's it!" Tina cheered. They all looked at Puck, though, who was less enthused.

"What? We should be able to get Sam to come up, he'd make time for Finn, and I'm sure Mr. Schue can get the auditorium for us and arrange for the band," Artie said. "We can even get some of the new members to help out, it'd be good experience for them."

"And if we do it the Columbus Day weekend, Mike's going to be back," Tina added. "We can do it just like before. If anything's going to work, it would be that."

"So what's the problem?" Artie asked Puck, who still frowned.

"Finn starts it, dude. He's not going to be just into it." The others groaned. "Look, I want to do this," Puck said. "But we gotta get it right or he'll stiffen up and make everything worse." They all looked at each other, acknowledging Puck's point but hoping for an answer.

"So... we start with 'Control'," Blaine said tentatively. "That's mostly myself and Artie, and Tina can pick up Quinn's intro. Finn's only in the background, so he can sing along and do the choreo if he can. He put a lot of time into the moves at booty camp, at least some of that has to have become innate."

"And then?" Puck asked.

"We hope for the best," Blaine answered. "Look, I had some computer trouble last year, and once I got it fixed and had everything set up again, I'd lost this really great playlist that I'd put together. I was annoyed, it was a favorite. But then I was listening to one of the songs I'd had in it, and as it ended I just knew what came next. Eventually I rebuilt the whole thing that way." He paused. "And that might already be working for Finn. Something might have happened one night before Rachel left, she sang an old solo of hers and then some stuff happened that Kurt said reminded him of when she'd sung it before. Including Finn singing along to the song that came next in that set list. We don't know for sure what happened, but according to Burt Finn was the one who suggested playing that band. Almost like he knew what came next, somehow."

"I guess that sounds like a plan," Puck said, his tension easing. "But we don't tell Finn what we expect him to do, okay? He steps forward and starts his line, great. He doesn't, and we end it at 'Control', the band can play the intro out. If he knows, even afterwards, he'll just get stressed out about it, and as soon as he tightens up the chance is gone."

"Right," Artie said. "And don't tell him about Sam, who he is I mean. He's just a nameless guy who's part of the number until Finn says otherwise."

"Okay," Puck agreed.

Puck called Sam that night and told him what was going on; Sam was enthusiastic at being able to do anything to help Finn out, he'd heard what had happened and been frustrated that he couldn't help before. He arranged to come up Friday night of the upcoming long weekend, when Mike would be back too.

While plans were falling into place for their run-through, there was still another karaoke night the next Tuesday. Puck kept it to just the five of them, not wanting someone like Sugar to come and possibly screw things up by saying the wrong thing (girl was a genius at saying the wrong thing, and honestly Rory wasn't that much better when you could understand him; he had no idea how the two of them had stayed together so far).

It was a good night, relaxed, all of them having fun despite being a bit on edge. They'd agreed to just go with the flow, take opportunities to get Finn to do something that should be familiar but not push it on him. They all got hopeful, though, when Finn got up to sing and he'd left the song list open to the J artists.

"Think he's going to do some Journey?" Artie asked Puck with an excited grin. Puck smiled back, but tightly, not wanting to distract Finn. The intro sure sounded like Journey, but not one he remembered them doing in Glee. Finn knew a lot of Journey songs.

Puck realized which one it was just as Finn started to sing, working through some of his angst again: (*)

Winter is here again oh Lord,
Haven't been home in a year or more
I hope she holds on a little longer
Sent a letter on a long summer day
Made of silver, not of clay
I've been runnin' down this dusty road

Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin'
I don't know where I'll be tomorrow
Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin'

Artie groaned. "Can't we at least encourage him to sing 'Don't Stop'?" he asked Puck. "It's like our anthem."

Puck shrugged. "Could give it a shot, I guess. I swear I'm this close to punching in the damn numbers for him next time to see what we can get him to sing instead." He concentrated on at least trying to seem to enjoy the number; Finn sounded great, actually, if Puck could ignore how much his friend was using the song to express his frustration. Dude's been fighting his own head and it's killing him that it's not working, Puck thought. That damn plan has to work, at least do something.

I've been trying to make it home
Got to make it before too long
I can't take this very much longer
I'm stranded in the sleet and rain
Don't think I'm ever gonna make it home again
The mornin' sun is risin'
It's kissing the day

Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin'
I don't know where I'll be tomorrow
Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin'

They all applauded loudly for Finn as he finished, Blaine calling out "Encore! Encore!" Finn gave a sheepish smile and started to come back to the table.

"Actually I could use hearing a bit more Journey, if you're up for it," Artie said encouragingly. "It's kind of a club thing, Mr. Schue went into it in a big way at one point."

"Ah, okay," Finn said, still smiling, turning back to the machine. "I know their stuff cold, have since I was a kid, just give me a code. Something more upbeat, I think I've vented enough for now."

Puck tried to not look too eager as he grabbed the book and looked up the code for "Don't Stop Believin'". "Three eight nine zero," he called out, and once Finn punched in the numbers they heard the familiar opening music and saw Finn grin as he recognized it. Now let's see what happens, Puck thought. Finn started to sing, a small smile on his face: (**)

Just a small town girl
Livin' in a lonely world
She took the midnight train
Goin' anywhere

They all watched Finn intently, smiling at him to cover their interest. And as the next phrase was due to start, they saw him look to his right, and pause... and then stumble back into singing, late and a little faint, apparently rattled at missing the cue.

Just a city boy
Born and raised in South Detroit
He took the midnight train
Goin' anywhere

Finn settled back down into the song and kept going, showing no impact of his brief lag.

"It needs Rachel," Tina whispered. "He was waiting for Rachel, even if he didn't know it."

"Yeah," Puck breathed. Finn seemed to be over it now, though, continuing on.

A singer in a smokey room
A smell of wine and cheap perfume
For a smile they can share the night
It goes on and on and on and on

Strangers waiting
Up and down the boulevard
Their shadows searching
In the night
Streetlight people
Livin' just to find emotion
Hidin', somewhere in the night

Finn was really getting into the song, moving around and getting his body into it, though of course he'd known it since he was a kid, he was the one to get them to sing it in the first place. And as a drummer, Finn always moved to the beat. But at the held note on "night" he stretched his hand out to the sky.

"That's the choreography," Artie whispered. "Rachel came up with that the first time we did it."

At this point all they could do was try to enjoy the rest of Finn's performance and wonder. He was obviously having a good time.

They cheered loudly when he finished, and he grinned and came quickly back to the table. "Haven't sung that for a long time but I still love it," he said, sitting down. "Sorry about that stumble, I don't know, I just didn't think about coming in. Must've gotten too much into the music and didn't remember to sing at first."

Tina quickly excused herself to go to the washroom, hiding her tears. Puck strangled the groan he wanted to give. That's why he can't know, he told himself. It's frustrating enough for us to know that it's not quite working, he'd be a wreck.

Finn was definitely enjoying singing with them, so it wasn't hard for Blaine to convince him to come to the "little run-through for old and new members" that they had planned. He wasn't too excited about the dancing, but was reassured that he'd be in the back, and anyway this was something he used to do so he did want to get back into it. Puck walked him through it a few times, since most of the time they mirrored each other, and Finn seemed reasonably comfortable.

As the Columbus Day weekend approached, everything looked to be in order. Mr. Schue was enthusiastically on board, the Jazz Band was available and properly instructed on what to do, Sam and Mike were both coming back. It all looked good for the run-through on Saturday. But early Wednesday afternoon Puck got a text from Blaine: Bad news. School won't let us have the auditorium.

He didn't see how they'd get Finn sucked into it as a rehearsal if they had to do it outside the school, and after what had happened on "Don't Stop" Puck was increasingly sure that they had to imitate the original as much as possible for their best chance.

Shit.

* "Wheel in the Sky", as performed by Journey, written by Robert Fleischman, Neal Schon and Diane Valory.
** "Don't Stop Believin'", as performed by Journey, written by Jonathan Cain, Steve Perry and Neal Schon.