a/n: This chapter is very short but my next one will probably be quite long. I hope you like it! Please review.

Rachel scrambled into the passenger seat of Finn's truck, shoving her seatbelt into its buckle as Finn locked the doors. She gasped as her female classmates rushed towards the car and thudded their fists against the windows.

"Hold tight!" Finn ordered, kicking into gear and backing up the truck, with girls clutching at his door handles and slamming their hands against the rusting metal.

He lurched forward and the girls in front of the car shrieked and parted out of his way, leaving him room to accelerate out of the parking lot and speed down the street.

"Finn, what is going on?!" Rachel demanded, her hands firmly clutching the sides of the leather upholstery.

"I did something really bad," he said, nervously clutching the steering wheel as a mob of angry women disappeared in the rear view mirror.

"I can see that," Rachel huffed, "Why is every girl in school now obsessed with you?"

Finn sighed. "I put a spell on them."

"He sure did."

Finn and Rachel screamed and the car swerved as Piper Saberhagen sat up in the backseat, a lovestruck smile plastered on her face.

"Piper?! How did you get in here?!" Finn yelled.

"It was open," Piper shrugged, "How could I resist? It smells like... peppermints and rose petals."

"That's my mom's perfume!"

"Finn, what do you mean, you put a spell on them?" asked Rachel.

"I didn't mean to," Finn sighed, "I only meant to put the spell on you. That's why I asked for your necklace back, but now I'm thinking that the necklace was what protected you from the spell."

Rachel glared at him, her mouth wide open. "Just when I think you couldn't get any lower-"

"I'm sorry, and I will apologize a million times when all of this is over, but for right now, we need to hide."

Finn speedily turned the car into Rachel's neighborhood and slammed the brakes as he drove into her front yard, crushing a ceramic gnome. The teenagers rushed out, leaving Piper behind as they ran into Rachel's house and slammed the front door closed, turning every lock.

"I cannot believe this is happening," Rachel sighed irritably as Piper knocked incessantly at the door, calling for Finn.

"Rachel? What's going on?" Hiram came into the hall in a blue argyle sweater, his glasses perched low on his nose, "What is Finn doing here?"

"It's complicated," Rachel sighed, looking between Finn and her father, "Finn needs my help."

"Are you two back together?" Hiram asked skeptically, "LeRoy! Rachel and Finn are back together!"

"What?!" Rachel's dad called from upstairs in the craft room.

"We're not back together, Papa, Finn just needs my help," Rachel explains, just before a rock went flying through the glass square high on the door and Piper reached her pale hand in, grasping with her fingers and trying to feel for something.

"What is going on?" LeRoy asked as he came downstairs.

"Barricade the door!" said Finn, shoving an armoire towards it.

"What? Why? What is going on, Rachel?" asked Hiram as his daughter began to run around the house, turning out lights and closing curtains, "Is this a gang again? Is there still a problem with PCP in this town? Is Finn some sort of drug dealer?"

"Dad, no!" Rachel groaned, "This is... something else."

"I told you!" LeRoy said to Hiram, wide-eyed, "Vampires! Melissa was right-"

"It's not vampires," Rachel shook her head, "It's... well, it's girls."

"Why are girls attacking our house?" asked Hiram, raising his hands to his hips.

"They want to attack Finn," Rachel frowned, "Just, please, it's hard to explain. Come upstairs!"

As night fell, the four of them remained in Rachel's pink and yellow room. It wasn't nearly as vibrant as it usually was with all of the lights turned out. Rachel's portable television gave off a dim light and a muffled noise as they all quietly watched My Fair Lady, their heads swivelling to the door and window every few minutes.

"I think this might be an overreaction," Hiram sighed at the edge of Rachel's bed, "It doesn't sound like anyone is out there. Only that blond girl outside knows that Finn is here, and she hasn't left the porch in hours."

Finn stood up and opened the curtains to see the darkening blue of the early night sky. He cracked open the window and stuck his head out.

"I don't see anyone..."

He gasped as hands grabbed at his shoulders and pulled him through the window, onto the narrow side-roof. Rachel screamed from inside as Finn struggled against the hands of his captor and turned to see Santana grinning down at him.

"Don't worry, baby. Mommy's home," she smiled devilishly.

Finn whimpered as another figure appeared at his other side, dressed all in black.

"His face is like a poem," the dark-haired woman said in her cockney accent, "I can read it..."

"How do you feel about eternal life, sweet cheeks?" asked Santana.

"Eternal life with me."

"We can share, Dru."

Drusilla smiled eagerly, as if she liked that idea. The vampires, with their hands all over Finn, turned at the sound of hostile shouts. Girls ran forward in the street, their eyes set on Rachel's house.

"There he is!" Quinn shouted as she rushed near, leading the mob of women.

"Get him!"

"He's mine!"

As the vampires heads were turned, Rachel and her dads pulled Finn back to safety and shut the windows, drawing the curtains and retreating into the dark, still hearing the angered shouts.

"Finn, what are we going to do?!" Rachel asked, frightened.

"Mr. Schue will figure something out," Finn said uncertainly.

xxx

Mr. Schuester leaned over Terri's spellbook. The building had been completely emptied before school was even over thanks to Finn and the only people left were Will, accompanied by a distracted Terri and Emma. He shook his head at the text, frustrated.

"You must have botched the ritual so that Rachel's necklace protected her from the spell. I think it should be reversible."

"Why did you send Finn away?" asked Emma, standing by the door with a hardened look on her face, "He needs me."

"That's a laugh," Terri rolled her eyes, sitting opposite Will's desk.

"He loves me. We can look into each other's souls."

"No-one can love two people at once. What we have is real."

"Instead of making me sick, do you think you two could lend a hand?" asked Will, annoyed.

"You don't understand what I'm going through!" Terri snapped.

"I know it's not love," said Will, leaning over the desk and staring intensely at Terri, "It's obsession. Selfish, banal obsession. Finn is in danger and if you really cared about him you'd help me save him. Now, let's get to work."

xxx

Rachel and Finn struggled to shove every piece of heavy furniture into the hallway to barricade the front door, as Rachel's dads did the same to the door to the garage at the back of the house. Rachel and Finn tried to pull a bookcase out of its place in the living room when flames erupted from the hall. Smoke rose as Quinn rushed in, fire smoldering in her hands.

"Quinn!" Rachel gasped.

"I should have known I'd find you with her!" Quinn glared at Finn as other girls crowded behind her.

"Quinn, come on, you don't want to hurt me," Finn shook his head.

"Why not? You hurt me. I loved you. And now I'd rather see you dead than with that bitch."

Quinn rose her fiery hands but was knocked over by some cheerleaders behind her who were grasping for Finn. Rachel's clutched Finn's arm and ran with him to the back of the house.

"Run!" she yelled to her fathers as the girls voices were loudly approaching behind them.

They escaped to a door to the Berry's carpeted, renovated basement, locking the door behind them. Rachel ran to stand on top of the couch to reach a small, square window near the ceiling.

"Finn?" a voice called from behind the basement door, "Finn? It's okay, it's me. Ms. Pillsbury. Finn, open the door."

"Maybe I can crawl through and find help," said Rachel, opening the tiny window.

"Rachel, don't, it's dangerous out there," said LeRoy.

"It's dangerous in here!" she argued, and when she turned back to the window, Snix was kneeling on the grass outside with an evil smile.

"Listen to your daddy, Jew Nose."

Rachel shrieked and slammed the window closed again. "Finn Hudson, if we die in here, I'm going to kill you!"

Finn took panicky breaths. "None of this would have happened if you would've just talked to me."

"Excuse me? I'm not the one who embraced the black arts just to get a girl to go out with me!"

A knife ripped through the thin wood of the basement door and Rachel screamed, she, Finn and her fathers moving away towards a dark corner. An arm punched through the glass of the small window and starting grasping at the air. A burst of fiery light came from the door and the women started to pour in. Finn desperately picked up a lamp as a weapon.

"Oh, God," Rachel whimpered at the sight of the furious women and her fathers protectively moved in front of her.

The girls rushed toward Finn and pushed him down, their hands grabbing at him as they tried to shove each other out of the way. Suddenly, there was silence and everyone stopped, their hands paused and their eyes widened. They started to reel back, looking confused and slightly horrified. Finn looked up, cautiously opening one eye, realizing that it must have worked. Mr. Schue must have reversed the spell.

The women looked at each other, bewildered and disturbed. "What...?" Buffy started to say, "What did we...?"

"Boy! That was the best scavenger hunt ever!" Rachel exclaimed, smiling enthusiastically at the confused crowd of women.

xxx

"Scavenger hunt?"

Rachel smiled sheepishly and filled her locker with last period's textbooks. "Buffy's mom seemed to buy it."

"So she says. She's probably repressing some terrifying memories of being attracted to the Taco King," Quinn grinned, "I know I am."

"Well, at least he's back to being only mildly popular."

"There's that," Quinn smirked, "Well, speak of the devil."

Rachel turned to see Finn shuffling towards them, frowning guiltily like a dog who got caught eating out of the cookie jar.

"Uh, Rachel... Can I talk to you?" he asked softly.

"Don't you think you've done enough?" asked Quinn.

"No, it's okay, Quinn," said Rachel, "Could you give us a second?"

Quinn looked disappointed, but nodded quietly. "I'll be in the choir room."

"'Kay," said Rachel and watched Quinn walk off before she turned to Finn, "So..."

"I am so sorry," he sighed.

Rachel shrugged. "At least I wasn't affected. I think every other girl in town is madder at you than I am. I mean, they should be."

"I know, I know. I have a year's worth of grovelling to do, for all of womankind. My mom is the only one who isn't pissed at me. I don't think she even knows what happened. She keeps saying she's been in love with me since the day I was born so..."

Rachel smiled. "Your mom is a sweetheart."

"Yeah... I feel really terrible, Rachel. I shouldn't have ever tried to control you like that, I was just so... angry."

Rachel shook her head. "I never did anything to you, Finn."

"No, I know! I wasn't mad at you, I was just angry because... it's not fair. This stuff never seems to work out for anyone the way they want it to. Love stuff. It's always complicated. People do stupid things and change their minds... I just wanted to love you and you love me back. Simple."

"It's never that simple," Rachel said with a faraway look, "But I accept your apology."

"Thanks," Finn sighed, and removed two gold necklaces from the pocket of his McKinley jacket, "I want you to have these back, if you want them. I get why you wouldn't want the one that says Finn, but you should have the star one. Not 'cause it's from me, but 'cause... it's just really you, you know?"

Rachel smiled sweetly and took the small star attached to a gold chain. "Thank you, Finn."

"Alright, well, I gotta go to football practise. We probably won't talk to each other for a while. I know that's how you want it. I think that's how I want it too, now."

Rachel nodded. "It's for the best."

Finn nodded and turned around, walking towards the gymnasium and avoiding the glares of many female classmates. Rachel looked at the small star in the palm of her hand and grasped it tight. She put it into her locker and slung her backpack over her shoulder, heading for the choir room.

Inside, Quinn was reading a Victoria Andrews novel, but she quickly closed it and shoved it into her leather satchel when she saw Rachel enter the room.

"So, what did the knuckle dragger have to say?" she asked snarkily.

"He apologized. Gave me back my necklace and said he'd leave me alone," said Rachel, taking a seat next to the blonde.

"Sounds like a ruse to make himself seem sensitive," Quinn rolled her eyes.

"I think he was sincere. He learned a lesson."

"Well, a mob of murderous girls will do that to you."

"So, you remember everything that happened?"

Quinn paused, her face flushing. She looked earnestly at Rachel. "Yeah. I do."

Rachel sighed calmly. "Quinn... I had no idea you felt that way."

"I think I did a pretty good job of hiding it."

"Why? Why wouldn't you just tell me?"

"I didn't want to make things weird. We were just starting to become real friends. I didn't want to ruin that and I didn't want to pressure you into... reciprocating."

Rachel looked sadly down at the linoleum floor. "I really wish you would have told me."

"Why? What would be the point?" Quinn sighed.

"Quinn... You've been the queen bee since freshman year. I used to hate you. But the second you started to change, I dropped all of our past baggage and got on board with being your friend."

"Yeah... I always thought it was because you're crazy."

Rachel smirked. "Perhaps. But more so because... Quinn, I have had a crush on you for as long as I can remember."

Quinn looked at Rachel's genuine expression, surprised. "You have?"

"Yes!" Rachel smiled, "Everything about you, I admired in a way I've never felt for anyone else. Your voice, your eyes, your smile... I wanted to be your best friend just to be close to you, and never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that someone like you would have feelings for someone like me."

"Rachel..." Quinn started to say, but her face flushed red and she couldn't get the words out.

"But," Rachel sighed, "With everything that has happened with Finn, I haven't had any time to get over him. And now that he's agreed to back off, I finally have the time I need to mourn for our relationship and finally get him out of my mind, in positive and negative ways. And purging myself of Finn Hudson is not something I can do while dating someone else. It wouldn't be fair to either of us."

Quinn nodded and inhaled deeply. She'd expected to be disappointed by this news, but she wasn't. Just the fact that Rachel liked her back was more than she'd ever anticipated.

"I had no idea."

"Neither of us did," Rachel smiled, "But... Quinn, I really like you. I always have. I don't want to wait too long and lose the chance to be with you."

Quinn looked down at her lap, nodding and smiling. "I can wait."

Rachel raised an eyebrow. "You can?"

"Rachel... I don't need a big commitment or a grand gesture. It's enough for me just to know that you and I are possible. And I don't want to rush you. Whenever you're ready, so am I."

Rachel smiled sweetly at Quinn, leaned over and gave the girl a gentle peck on the cheek. "Thank you."

Up next: A game of cat and mouse and a crime of passion...