A/N: Thank you for reading my story and the responses! There's no interactions between Finn and Rachel in this chapter either, but it might be the calm before the storm. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee and its characters.

Chapter 8 – April 2012

Just having returned from the location hunt in London, Rachel sank heavily on a bar stool at Figgins' and placed her face on the wooden counter.

Thanks to the Survêtement team, The Musicraker got the cooperation of Paul Smith and Vivian Westwood—they consented readily to use their atelier for photo shootings; especially the rooftop of Paul Smith's former atelier was a perfect place for shootings, you could look over the chimney houses of London suburban. And Finn seemed to know everywhere, not only in London, but in Glasgow and Dublin. She hoped that the things would go on smoothly in London next month too.

"Pêche Lambic." She made her order in a muffled voice.

She, however, was feeling overloaded more than she had thought she would. Other than preparing the Olympics Issue, she would be in charge of not only the Christmas Issue already (she had to prepare herself for brainstorm content ideas to publish), but also recurring regular features in the pages; for which she had to pick up upcoming artists who just signed on with a record company, ever since she joined The Musicraker. Which were good, for not only young editors, but also talented but obscure photographers, and musicians or singers for that matter (the editor in chief usually gave young and inexperienced photographers those small pages as a start).

As for those small pages, Rachel had been supposed to make way for new blood, like Kitty or Hormony or Sunshine, only if she had gotten promoted to a senior editor about a year ago. The devil in Tracksuits, however, didn't nod Will's agreement for her to hand over those pages to future junior editors even after Rachel had finally gotten promoted to a senior editor, saying 'let's see how she would be handling her mission which she's given.'

She knew that Sue Sylvester loved to test her workers. The devil sadistically loved to see how far their limits could be pushed and how much they were capable. Determined as she was, Rachel had welcomed the company owner's challenge. She should rather be happy with the fact that she hadn't gotten demoted at that time.

Having said that, she had to travel around the country in a short period of time once or twice bimonthly. The magazine used local radio stations around the US in order as to promoting the musicians (which in a way was a façade, since that was their record companies' business, that was, the substantial reason was to advertise the magazine).

Sometimes, she had an overwhelming desire to scream by being distressed. Excluding making an issue after an issue happen (lots of meetings included), going to see live acts, listening parties for new albums, photo exhibition parties, and sometimes movies premieres too; networking, being always on the lookout for things related to her job, and developing a clear sense of perspective, she scarcely had time to breathe.

"Seriously, Rachel, you've seldom scattered your money on me."

Rachel tilted her face up to see her cousin. She had no spirit to laugh or retort.

Puck opened the bottle of Pêche Lambic and placed it in front of her. "Where have you been?"

Rachel took a deep breath. It had been about a month since she last came to Figgins's bar. Right before the location hunt in London, she had been to Portland and Eugene, Seattle and Vancouver for a week.

"Eugene, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver and London, in case you don't know, London in the United Kingdom." Rachel grabbed her beer and sipped it. "I'm sure you didn't miss me 'cause this must've attracted a large number of females." She lifted her beer bottle to the Mohawk.

"Damn. Is that all you've got? You're losing all sense of humor thanks to the devil." Puck retorted at the former of her remark. "And as you guessed, yes, chicks love these kinds of beer."

"Thanks to me." Rachel gulped Pêche Lambic and gestured for her cousin to get her another bottle. "One or two bottles have to be on the house."

"It's Finn, actually." Puck amended. "And I already gave him a reward." Smirking, he put another bottle of Pêche Lambic in front of her and snatched bills out of Rachel's hand.

"That's not fair!" Rachel huffed. "I suggested that you have them in!"

"Then watch your mouth before talking to me." Puck said nonchalantly. "Besides, you know nothing about beer. And how many times do I have to tell you not to wear those kinds of sweater in my bar." With that, Puck disappeared into the back room.

Rachel took a puff towards her bang before gulping her beer as Mercedes called out to her from behind.

"Sorry, I'm late."

"No." Tina, in tow by Mercedes, cried as she saw Rachel's sweater, which a big black poodle was on the front body. "You've been wearing, like, what, ten years? Fifteen years? And how old are you?" She plumped down on a bar stool beside Rachel and shook her head. "I really don't understand. Your taste in music and photography is really good, but–"

"Eight years, actually." Rachel cut in. "I can't help. It's very comfortable." She pouted.

"You're prone to hang on to stuff." Tina mumbled.

"Anyway," Mercedes cut in, "since we don't have to work tomorrow, why don't we have a little fun like we used to when we were interns?" She gestured for a bartender to bring them three glasses of red wine before turning her head towards Rachel. "You need to get rid of your stress."

"I'm not stressed out." Rachel made a face, but earned Mercedes' I-don't-believe-you look. "Okay, maybe a little." She bit her bottom lip.

"You know," Tina took one of the glasses from the bartender, "I've heard that old undergarments should be replaced by new ones regularly, and so should old sweaters, I mean, clinging tenaciously to old stuff doesn't make you happy."

"I buy new underwear regularly!" Rachel huffed. "And I'm happy even though I'm wearing old sweaters."

"Okayyyyy," Mercedes chimed in, sensing that Tina was going to bring up Jesse and Finn, so she tried to distract Tina from going for it, "do you know Artie and Kitty are hooking up?"

"What?" Rachel cried out. " How? Since when? Oh, the coverage in New Orleans?"

"Artie got more in return for the string of beads." Mercedes informed, nodding.

"Oh, I've got more." Tina smirked. "Gossip is my thing." She clapped her hands happily. "Kurt has a crush on Blaine, but Sebastian–" She stopped in mid-sentence as she saw Mercedes tilted her head to one side with furrowed eyebrows, "our art director, Mer, he was accompanying with us on the location hunting in London, too." She rolled her eyes.

"Ah." Mercedes nodded, finally putting his face to the name.

"Yep, that guy is Sebastian." Tina shifted on the stool to get more comfortable. "And he has a crush on Blaine, too."

"Woooo." Rachel understood what Tina was going to tell since she had heard from the senior editor of Survêtement how much Kurt didn't like their art director.

"Kurt and Sebastian are constantly at each other's throats." Tina nodded to Rachel. "You have no idea how hard the trip to London was for me!" She shook her head.

And Tina started telling as to how the two gay men had bickered over everything and nothing once they had gone separate ways from The Musicraker team in London, and as to how she had been stuck between a rock and a hard place.

"Poor Tina." Rachel patted Tina on the shoulder. "But at least you have Lauren, right?" She mentioned the name of the head of the digital team.

"Oh, no. She's totally on Kurt's side." Tina sighed before turning her head towards her two best friends. "Can we borrow Artie? You can have Sebastian instead." She pleaded seriously. "You can have Sugar, too, if you like?" She deadpanned as she added the name, of whom was a secretary of the editor in chief, who annoyed every one of the staff and her boss constantly.

"Uh-uh. No way." Mercedes declined immediately, already not liking the art director of Survêtement after she had heard the story of Kurt and Sebastian (and truth be told, she was everybody who was annoyed with Ms. Isabelle Wright's secretary).

"I was just kidding." Tina shrugged. When she opened her mouth to continue speaking, her cell phone went off. "Oh, it's Mike." She announced as she saw the screen on the phone. A few minutes later, she hung up before letting out a sigh. "I have to go. His parents are visiting tomorrow morning." She said apologetically. "I'll make it up to you." With that, she jumped out of the stool and rushed into the street.

"See you on Monday." Rachel and Mercedes responded in unison.

"It sounded like a lot of bother to her." Mercedes nodded towards the unoccupied table.

"Yeah." Rachel agreed as she stood up to change their seats. "But Mike would be happy to listen to her singing the blues." She let out a sigh. "Did you know Sugar and the other secretaries called us a spinster?"

"What?" Mercedes frowned as they made their way over to the table.

"I happened to overhear them when I was in a toilet cubicle." She placed her glass on the table before sitting on a chair. "I don't give a damn what they call me, but sometimes I wonder if I would stay single when I'm older."

"I feel you." Mercedes took a deep breath as she took a seat across her friend.

"Have you ever thought what if you didn't break up with Sam and chose to try a long-distance relationship instead?" Rachel cautiously asked.

"Honestly? I'd be lying if I said I hadn't." Mercedes answered sincerely. "But what's done is done. Besides, a little bird told me a few months ago, that he had a new girlfriend of a model in LA." She shrugged.

"Oh, Mer." Rachel put her hand on Mercedes' and squeezed it. "I'm sorry."

"It's alright." Mercedes squeezed the brunette's hand back, smiling weakly.

"You know," Rachel began, "every guy whom I have dated, which are not many, always left me." She cast down her eyes and idly traced the rim of her glass. "And I always was telling myself where I went wrong." She let out a sigh. "I know I'm not perfect and I have issues–"

"You did nothing wrong, Rachel." Mercedes interrupted. "You've… we just have not met the right one yet, that's all." She recalled Brody, who Rachel had said she had dated with in college, played her false to take her virginity, and Jesse, who she had dated with for two years, used her to make his name. "Alright, let's not talk about this kind of stuff." She patted Rachel on the hand. "How about going to Karaoke?"

Rachel affirmatively nodded. "Sounds good."

"Let's get going, then."

Finn sighed with disappointment as he walked into Figgin's bar to find that Rachel was nowhere. Aside from the fact that he had been to London with her and the other staff, he barely talked to her. Since the New Orleans Issue was published, she hadn't seemed to have time (did she have a day off?). While in London, unlike the other staff who had enjoyed the city of London in their spare time, she had always attached to her cell phone (he had no idea as to why she worked so hard).

As for himself, he had a lot of time on his hands, even though he decided to sign a contract with Snixx. Or you could say that that was the reason he had lots of time, since his agent, Martin Fong, self-proclaimed 'Photography Junkie,' handled everything on behalf of him. Yet no offers, but heard something positive.

He really wanted to talk to Rachel, about anything (of course, his past included), let alone about cameras and stuff (what she had mentioned at Dashwood Books two months before was very fascinating to him—she might know some artisan who could handcraft mount camera adapters which any models of old lenses for film cameras would be installed in any models of digital cameras).

"You two always seem like being a mix-up."

Finn whirled around towards the male voice behind the bar counter as he found Rachel's cousin with a Mohwak. "Come again?"

"Berry and you. Always mix-up." Puck placed La Chimay Bleue in front of Finn before he could ask. "She's just left a few minutes before."

"Oh." Finn rubbed the back of his neck before pulling his wallet out of his back pocket.

"You have to be patient." Puck took a 10 dollar bill from Finn's hand (and of course, he didn't give the change back to the photographer). "Sue is the one who has kept her occupied, I assume, you know, since she didn't get promoted last year."

Confused, Finn didn't quite understand. "Uh, I heard that she'd gotten promoted last year?"

"I didn't mean last October, but April." Puck informed. "Anyway, I guess she tries to prove a point right now that she's the right person for the position. You should know, how intense she can be."

"Uh, okay." Finn nodded, even though he was not following what the Mohawk tried to say, before he noticed that his stepbrother was chatting at the table with Lauren Zizes, who who was a member of the digital team. "I've got to go." He stood up from the bar stool and made his way over towards the two.

"Hey." Finn called out. "You two seem to be having a blast." Smiling, Finn slid himself onto a bar stool beside Kurt before nodding to Lauren as a greeting.

Since returning from New Orleans, Finn had frequented the 7th floor, where the digital photography staff worked, and got used to being around the so-called big mama, although he still was a bit intimidated by her nobody-asked-your-opinion attitude. Rachel might be the only one who could give her a run for the money when it came to refusing to yield to the way of photo retouching. He decided.

"A blast?" Kurt furrowed as he turned his head towards his brother. "Oh, yeah, I would blast him if I'm allowed." He snorted.

"Who are you talking about?" Finn asked as he lightly knocked on the bar counter for a bartender to get his order.

"Sebastian Smythe, of course!" Kurt announced as if the Nation knew that, brushing invisible lint off from one of his sleeves.

"Oh." There was no way of knowing for Finn that his brother of a senior editor of the fashion magazine was griping at her as to how their art director had been mean to him.

"What? Where are you going?" Kurt perked his head up and cried as he saw Lauren jump out of her bar stool.

"I've heard enough. Now bonding time for brothers." Lauren approached the taller guy before patting him on the back. "Good luck with him. I'm off." With that, she heroically walked away from Hudson-Hummel brothers.

Kurt sighed. "I thought she was on my side." He mumbled.

"Why did she have to be on your side to begin with?" Finn asked, taking a bottle of Guinness from the bartender.

"Sebastian rubs it in what he did this and that with Blaine, I–" Kurt stopped himself from continuing, blushing furiously, as he realized what he was going to reveal to his stepbrother.

Finn raised his eyebrow before smirking. Nothing did he say, he turned his head away from his brother and sipped his beer, still around his lips with a smirk.

Annoyed with his brother's demeanor, Kurt straightened up on the stool, clearing his throat. "Alright, It's not that my love life is the state secrets. I like Blaine." He confided.

"Are they a couple?" Finn asked, recalling that Blaine and he were the only ones who had not said anything about their dating life when the boys had discussed women's boobs in New Orleans.

"I don't know." Kurt mumbled. "But they have apparently gone on a date a couple of times, judging from what That Bitchlet's remark."

Finn raised his eyebrow at his brother's word. "What did he do?"

"Let's say that he asked Blaine out after he got to know that I had a crush on him." Kurt informed. "Lauren said that Sebastian had never been interested in Blaine before I got a job at Survêtement." He huffed, shifting on the stool. "For two, he throws cold water on me whenever I open my mouth."

"Maybe he likes you, not Blaine." Finn pointed out. "Like kids usually do mischief to the others who they like. I've been there too." He gulped his beer before ordering another bottle. "He could possibly play the game."

Kurt scrunched his nose, shuddering. "No way. Uh-uh. Besides, what, are we seven years old or something? We're 28, Finn! Who does such juvenile?" He shook his head. "And since when did you get to be an expert on 'playing the game'?" He air-quoted, but he immediately regretted as he saw his brother's face fell. "Sorry, I didn't mean that." He sighed. "How is it going with Rachel?"

"Nothing changes." Finn shrugged. "I think she's been busy for the Olympics Issue and stuff. And she, I don't know, seems busy in her spare time too."

"Is that because of her ex?" Kurt cautiously asked.

"I hope not." Finn answered seriously. "Mercedes said that she's studying digital photography, like, for her dear life."

"Why? She's not one to take pictures." Kurt furrowed. "Or an art director, either."

"You know how much The Musicraker lays weight on photography." Finn said between sipping his second beer. "I don't think she likes to do her job half-assed."

"She doesn't look like happy unless she comes in first." Kurt didn't mean to be mean to the brunette, but, he couldn't help. Because, other than she was one of Tina's best friends, he didn't know what she was like except that Lauren had called her a pain in the ass since the brunette was so demanding on photo retouching.

Finn frowned at his brother's tone. "You don't know her."

"You're right. I don't know her." Kurt admitted, saying apologetically. "So, that means that you couldn't sit there and talk with her about, you know, that, until the Olympics Issue is published, doesn't it?"

"I guess so." Finn stared at the space.

"And you're going to wait for the time coming?" Kurt pushed his cocktail glass aside and leaned forwards his brother. "Aren't you going to be dating with someone else? You know, Carole's worried about you."

Finn groaned. "Not dating with anyone else right now doesn't mean I won't get married in the future." He massaged his temple with a forefinger. He was not going to date with anyone else. He wanted Rachel. He could wait until she would get to be disposed to listen to him. "What about you? What are you going to do about Blaine? I'm going to watch a ball game with him at my place next week. You can join us if you want." He suggested, not sure that his brother was interested since he was not interested in any sports.

"Hmmm." Kurt tilted his head to one side, his fist resting on his chin, before finally deciding. "Alright, I'm in. I'm going to surprise you two with my homemade dishes."

"No tofu, less vegetables. Or I'm not going to allow you to come in." Finn said seriously.

"Fine." Kurt reluctantly affirmed. "You need to ask him what his favorite is instead."

"I'll try." Finn nodded. "Now, another round?" He gestured to Kurt's empty glass before beckoning the bar staff to get their orders.

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