Hi everyone! Thanks as always for all your support of the story. I have most of the season planned out by now, and while it's mostly Finchel, most past and present ND members will appear at some point or another, as well as other characters seen on Glee. I really appreciate all the support! Enjoy this chapter and review if you want me to continue.
Chapter 26: After The Trial
"Your blood pressure is normal now," the doctor said to Finn. "You'll just need to sign some papers and then you can go home."
"You're sure he's okay?" Carole asked the doctor. "He fainted..."
"From the tests we did on him, we think it was caused by stress, not health issues," the doctor told Carole. "He doesn't live alone, so he'll have his girlfriend and his brother and his friends if anything happens."
"But what if something happens when they're all at school and work?" Carole asked, sounding panicky.
Finn tried to put up a convincing front for his mom. "Mom, I'll be okay."
"That's what you kept saying, Finn, and you fainted," Carole said.
"His physical health is fine," the doctor assured Carole. "I'm sure he'd like to go home."
"I really would," Finn said.
"Knowing what Kurt was like after my heart attack, I don't think you need to worry about Finn," Burt told Carole.
"Okay," Carole said.
"Yeah, I want to go home," Finn said.
x
Finn was surprised when he saw his parents with a champagne bottle, and even more surprised when they poured a glass for each of the college kids. "This is a special occasion," Burt said, handing out the glasses. "You guys can have champagne."
"Yes!" Puck cheered.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Finn asked.
"Finn, you just did something I never could have done," Rachel said. "You were so brave. It's been a hard few months for you. I think you can treat yourself to a glass of champagne."
"Okay," Finn said, taking a sip. "I just want everything to go back to normal."
"It's not going to be back to normal quite yet, honey," Carole said. "I wish it could. It's going to take time. But you have lots of people who love you."
"That reminds me," Mr. Schue said, reaching into his bag. "This is from the glee club." He handed Finn a card that the current New Directions members had written encouraging messages on.
"Wow," Finn said.
"Yeah," Mr. Schue said.
"It's really great to know I'm still remembered," Finn said.
"Of course you are," Mr. Schue told Finn. "You worked with them last year, and you and Rachel helped out at the beginning of the year."
"And the Finchel duets and Finchel led group numbers are legendary," Tina added.
Everyone laughed at that. "Yeah they are!" Rachel said. "Since everyone's here, I want to order some dinner for you guys."
"Finn should choose where to get it from," Sam said.
"I agree," Blaine said.
"Okay," Finn said. "Well, I want everyone to get some real New York City pizza."
"The best kind of pizza there is!" Kurt declared.
As some of their friends went to pick up the pizza, Rachel led Finn into his room. "Glad to be home?"
"Yeah," Finn said.
"Are you okay?" Rachel asked.
"Rach, you don't need to keep asking," Finn said. "It's like you and everyone else says, I'm not okay yet, but I will be."
"I just feel horrible about everything that happened," Rachel said. "I don't like seeing anyone suffer, let alone you."
"You didn't have any control over anything," Finn reminded Rachel.
"I know," Rachel said. She pulled Finn into a tight hug as Finn returned the hug. "I love you so much."
"I'll love you forever," Finn said.
After a few minutes of sitting in the room together, Finn and Rachel heard a knock on the door. Finn went to the door and saw Kurt and Blaine. "The pizza's here!" Blaine said.
"Let's go have some," Finn said, taking Rachel's hand.
x
"Are you sure you're ready to go back to school tomorrow?" Burt asked Finn. It was a few days after the trial, and Finn was standing at the JFK airport with Burt and Carole. He'd taken a few days off school after the trial and had his professors send him the lectures, but he couldn't keep doing things this way. He knew that this had been in the papers and that there was only one Finn Hudson at Columbia, but he would have to go back to school sooner or later. His friends in New York had already returned to school, Puck and Quinn had returned to Connecticut and Mr. and Mrs. Schuester and Rachel's dads had returned to Ohio.
"I'm sure," Finn said.
"Honey, if you ever feel like you need to be home, you can just show up, you don't even need to call," Carole said. "And if you need us at any point, just call us and we'll be on the first plane to New York."
"I know," Finn said. "Thanks for being here for me this week."
"Of course we were," Burt said.
"We love you, Finn," Carole said. "Don't ever forget that."
"Thanks, Mom," Carole said. "I love you too, and you too, Dad."
Burt and Carole each gave Finn a hug before Finn watched his parents walk down the terminal. Finn went to the train station and then realized when he got back to the apartment - this was the furthest distance he'd traveled on his own, from the airport to the apartment, without a friend or family member since everything with Lucy happened. And he hadn't even realized that until he got home.
He did feel proud of himself. That was progress from the days when he was afraid to leave the apartment.
x
Rachel, Kurt and Blaine sat in the student lounge at NYADA when Jean Baptiste came over to their table. "Hey."
Rachel looked up at the boy who was her understudy counterpart, the guy she'd perform with if both leads couldn't. "Hi."
"How's Finn?" Jean asked. "One of the show choir blogs said that the former lead of New Directions..."
Rachel didn't know what to say. "Show some respect!" Kurt snapped. "Finn was traumatized and..."
"I'm not here to make fun of Finn, Kurt," Jean said. "Rachel's my co-star, and I'm going to be the lead eventually, so she and I should be on the same page. Is Finn okay?"
Rachel still wasn't sure if Jean should be trusted or not, but she decided to take her chances. "Yeah, he's fine."
"That's good," Jean said. "He seemed like a great guy when I was spying on New Directions at Nationals last year."
"He is a great guy," Blaine said.
"We probably would have lost to you guys if Finn and Rachel had still been the leads," Jean admitted.
"Well, the people who were still there were good," Rachel said. "And this year they'll win again!"
"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Jean shot back. "You do kind of have to say that though. It was your high school."
Rachel was becoming more unsure as to whether her fellow understudy was someone who could be trusted or not. It was nice of him to ask how Finn was doing. But he was saying some things about New Directions that weren't particularly nice. Still, Rachel thought she might as well keep an open mind.
Then Rachel's phone vibrated, and she saw that it was a text from Shelby. "Do you think you could come over after classes today? I'd really like to talk to you."
Rachel had a feeling that this would have something to do with everything that happened with Finn. If there was a way for Jean to know, there was probably a way for Shelby to know. But she thought she might as well go. "Sure."
x
Finn's first class back at school after the trial involved taking a test, so that wasn't as difficult as he would have expected. He did see some people looking at him, but since the story had been in the papers about one of the lawyers from one of the top law firms in the city of New York being sued for sexually assaulting a front desk clerk.
After an hour of studying in the library, it was time for Finn's second class of the day, Introduction to College Life. Finn didn't think he needed to take this class since he'd taken a similar one at University of Lima, but Columbia required all students to take it.
As Finn arrived in class, he saw three of the guys in his class talking and looking at him.
"What's going on, guys?" the professor asked, noticing what the boys were doing.
"Finn, why'd you get so upset about that?" one of the boys asked.
"Yeah, that girl was hot," another one added.
Finn groaned. It was like when Ryder had confessed his past to the glee club all over again. "I didn't want to be touched by her. I'm with someone, and I had no interest in her, and it was pretty disgusting."
"Stop it," the professor said. "You two are being completely inappropriate, and Finn probably doesn't want to talk about this."
The same students smirked and laughed. "I mean it," the professor said. "This is an Ivy League college, we only take the best of the best. And you two aren't acting like the best of the best, you're acting like you're in high school. Apologize to Finn."
"Sorry Finn," the boys mumbled.
"Thank you," Finn said.
"Now, let's get started," the professor said.
Finn wasn't able to focus on class though. He knew the other students had only apologized because the professor told them to. And now, he understood how Ryder had felt when Sam and Artie had made those comments last year.
He'd been so proud of himself yesterday, going all the way from the airport to the apartment by himself, and now here he was feeling horrible again. He regretted giving the law firm permission to use his name in the articles (though thanks to court records, there probably would have been a way for people to find out anyway.) Was this going to affect him for the rest of his life? Would things ever be completely back to normal? His therapist had told him that everyone was different and everyone took a different amount of time to recover, but Finn wished there was a timeline he could count on.
At the end of class, as Finn started to leave the classroom, the boy who sat next to him stopped him. "Hey Finn, wait up."
Finn hoped he wouldn't say anything either. "Hey."
"You might not remember who I am," the boy said. "But I went to Dalton, and I was in the Warblers until I quit after Hunter tried to give us performance enhancers. I'm Nick."
Now Finn realized why this guy looked familiar. "I thought I recognized you."
"I wanted to say I'm really sorry about what they said," Nick said. "They're in my dorm and I don't really like them. They're always drinking and partying and being loud at night."
"Sounds like they're pretty unpleasant to share a dorm with," Finn said. "You know, Blaine's here in New York, too."
"Yeah, I heard he's at NYADA," Nick said. "Jeff from the Warblers is here too, at NYU. We'd like to see Blaine sometime."
"Well, we love having visitors at our apartment," Finn said. "Anyway, thanks for the support."
"It's no problem," Nick said. "I guess I'll see you around campus."
"Yeah," Finn said, feeling somewhat relieved. People had been rude, but at least there were people who were on his side.
x
Rachel knocked on Shelby's door, wondering what was going on. Since today had been Finn's first day back at school, she sort of wanted to be home with Finn, but he was working now, so Rachel could go to Shelby's.
Shelby came to the door and opened it. "Hi Rachel."
"Hi Shelby. You wanted to have me over?" Rachel asked.
"Yes," Shelby said, opening the door. "Come on in."
Rachel followed Shelby in. She wondered why Shelby had asked her to come over at this specific time.
Rachel sat down on the couch. "Rachel, I'm so sorry for how I treated you and Kylie," Shelby said. "I love both of you. I always have and I always will. There's no excuse for how I treated you. All I can say is that I hope one day you two will be able to have me in your life."
Rachel nodded, but she wasn't sure.
"Rachel, I asked you to come over because there's something I need to tell you, and I wanted to tell you face to face," Shelby said. "Beth's with one of my friends and I need to tell you what I'm about to tell you."
Rachel already didn't like the sound of this. "What's going on?"
"I have ovarian cancer," Shelby told Rachel.
Rachel felt her stomach drop. Yes, Shelby had hurt her before, but she'd given Rachel life. Rachel didn't want to see bad things happen to her. "I'm so sorry," Rachel managed to say.
"It's stage 3," Shelby said. "It has spread a little, and I am going to be starting chemo soon."
Rachel didn't know what to say. Shelby hadn't been the most supportive person to her throughout her life, but what if her mother didn't make it? Despite everything, she always had wanted a mother in her life? "I feel horrible for you, Shelby. What about Beth?"
"I told Beth that I was sick and that other people might need to help me take care of her over the next few months," Shelby said. "She's too young to understand the complexities of cancer, of course, but I told her that I'm sick and I won't be able to do the things I used to do. I asked her who she wanted to watch her when I can't, and she wants you and Kylie to be with her."
Rachel knew that ever since Beth had met her and Kylie, Beth had been asking about them. "If something happens to me, you two are going to be all she has left," Shelby said.
"As horrible as I feel, I don't know what Kylie's parents would think of her coming to New York now and then to see you and Beth," Rachel said. "She lives in Ohio and has school there."
"I know," Shelby said. "She probably wouldn't be able to come very often. Maybe you should tell her and her parents."
"I'll tell her," Rachel said, feeling more torn than ever. She hadn't always had the best relationship with Shelby, but she only was going to get one mother, and she didn't want to lose her mother. She wanted that relationship that Finn and Carole had, or Santana and her mom, but now she just wanted her mother to still be here. She wanted to have her mother with her on her Broadway debut night (if that night ever came) and at her wedding.
"Rachel?" Shelby asked.
"I just... I feel horrible," Rachel admitted. "We may not have what other mothers and daughters have, but..."
"I just want you in my life, while I have that chance," Shelby said. "I've always loved all three of my daughters."
"I will talk to Kylie," Rachel said. "I'll try to convince her.. Mr. and Mrs. Nichols to let her come visit you and help out with Beth occasionally."
"You mean her parents," Shelby said. "That's why it was harder for me with her than with you. You grew up with two dads, so I was still who you saw as your mom. Meredith Nichols is Kylie's mom in every way but birth."
Rachel didn't know what to say. "I get what you're saying. You know, Puck and Quinn are in New Haven. They could probably help out with Beth, too. They really want to have her in their lives."
"I'll think about that," Shelby said. "How's Finn?"
"Finn's fine, why wouldn't he be?" Rachel asked, even though she knew why Shelby was asking.
"Rachel, I know about what happened to Finn," Shelby said. "One of my friends works at that law firm. I do read the local section of the paper. Is Finn okay?"
"He will be," Rachel said. "He's not at the law firm anymore, he's working at the diner with me now. He has school to take his mind off things and he's going to therapy. His parents and Mr. Schue were just in town, and he has me and Kurt, Blaine and Santana at the apartment for him, and Tina, Artie and Sam are in New York, too. He's in therapy, too."
"Rachel, I know things have been uncomfortable for us, but I do know what's good for you, and Finn's good for you, and you're good for him," Shelby told Rachel.
"Thank you," Rachel said. "I love Finn." For the first time, she was worried to leave Shelby's apartment. She knew things wouldn't be back to normal after what happened to Finn quite yet, but she wasn't expecting this.
"I'm sorry, Rachel," Shelby said. "Maybe I shouldn't have told you."
"No, thank you for telling me," Rachel said. "If you need me for anything, give me a call. I can watch Beth anytime."
"Thank you, Rachel," Shelby said.
"I'm going to help you however I can," Rachel said. She sat down, asking herself questions. She'd had bitter feelings and resentment toward Shelby for most of her life, but now, all she wanted was for her mother to be okay. She was also wondering why bad things kept happening to people she cared about.
Chapter 27 preview: Struggling with receiving the news, Rachel tells Puck, Quinn and Kylie about Shelby, but doesn't tell Finn because she thinks he has enough on his plate. But will Finn find out? Will Shelby let Puck and Quinn help with Beth? Will Kylie's parents let her see Shelby? Some familiar faces come to visit NYADA and a New Directions member visits New York.
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