A/N: Thank you for reading my story and the responses!

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee and its characters.

Chapter 12 – June/July 2012

Truth to be told, Rachel was getting her body down rather than seething with anger. Her heart didn't pound the slightest. Looking around in the office, it was as if she was watching TV on mute. Some of the coworkers were busy with coping with a constant steam of phone calls. Some with still talking about her relationships as if it had been on the page six.

But she didn't hear anything. Like the smooth water that she got to ironically—actually she got into hot water. And her friends/colleagues with getting more upset about Jesse than she was, which, oddly enough, made her rather be the one to comfort them.

Well, it was not totally odd. Because, judging by what she had heard, The Musicraker might discontinue at the end of the year, which was not only because of Jesse's incident, Rachel assumed, although Sue used the cause as a pretext to firing her and Schuester. The high appraisal of the magazine had not led to sales, and Sue seemed to be proceeding with preparation for discontinuance of the publication of The Musicraker behind the back of the staff.

Long story short, Jesse provided a wonderful opportunity for Sue to fire Will and Rachel, who were one of the people who had gotten the highest pay. And they were not the only ones who got fired. As did The manager and some staff of the Proofreading Department too.

Which meant that the other staff working at The Musicraker now was in danger of losing their job also.

Rachel shook her head and slowly shifted her gaze to her desk from the editorial office floor before resuming picking up her personal stuff in order to put in a file box.

"So, what are you gonna do now?" Kitty cautiously asked, Artie and Mercedes standing behind her, the senior editor sporting a knowing look on her face.

"I honestly don't know. Start all over, maybe?" Rachel answered nonchalantly, not bothering to look up at her friends.

"But you've gotten a few offers from some magazines, right?" Kitty continued. "I've heard Schuester would teach at NYU, and I thought you were going to–"

"I don't know if I take it." Rachel cut in before Kitty could finish.

"What? Why?" Surprise, Artie asked.

Rachel finally lifted her head up to see her colleagues. She took a pause and then just shrugged with an unreadable expression on her face.

It was true that some magazines had offered a job for her to write reviews about photography books or music as a columnist, or some had offered her a senior editor post. She appreciated that they had showed their interest to her. She really did. But too exhausted mentally and emotionally right after having sent every material for the Olympics Issue to press, knowing that was her last issue at The Musicraker, let alone having finished writing the article at the same time the (another) bomb had been dropped, she couldn't bring herself to keep going. Which was unusual for her; she had always hung in there whatever bad things had happened to her.

On top of that, how was she supposed to break the news that she had heard about The Musicraker to her friends?

"Well, I think it's a good thing for her to take a break." Mercedes spoke for Rachel, as if she could read her. "Okay, let's get drunk. I'm sure Puck can't wait for us to squander." She patted Rachel on the back and encouraged her and her colleagues to get out of the office.

At Figgins' bar, once they settled on the high chairs at the table, Rachel opened her mouth.

"Thank you guys, for your concern. But," Rachel took a pause, "uh, I'm more worried about you guys, to be honest." She bit her bottom lip, her eyes casting down, her fingers idly playing with the rim of her glass of red wine.

"What?" Kitty frowned as she stopped herself from drinking her beer. "What is it? Why are you worried about us?"

Rachel let out a sigh before lifting her head to look over her friends, Mercedes, Artie, Kitty… and she saw Tina approaching them, Blaine and Kurt in tow. "This is not confirmed, but, uh, I think Sue is going to focus on Survêtement and Athlester."

"What do you mean?" Artie leaned forward with a frown between his eyebrows.

Rachel squeezed her eyes shut before letting out a sigh. Then she slowly opened her eyes and began telling what she had heard after Tina, Kurt and Blaine had joined them. And all of them gasped as she finished.

"So," Tina started, "technically you and Will were laid off before–"

"—We will get laid off at the end of the year." Kitty finished.

"B-but, are you sure?" Stammered Artie, who was clearly starting to panic, Kitty rubbing the back of him lightly.

"I hope not." Rachel replied sadly before gulping her red wine.

"Becky kind of let the secret slip when–"

"—She went on a date with me." Puck cut Mercedes off, finishing the sentence behind them, as he put the enough beer bottles for each of them on the table.

All of them at the table, except for Rachel and Mercedes, turned their heads to see the Mohawk with a surprised expression on their faces.

"You went on a date with Becky?" Kurt arched her eyebrow.

"I was forced, don't ask." Puck mumbled before clearing his throat. "You'd better thank me that I'm the wise one, you know, I've kept the last date and used it at the right time." He smirked at his cousin as he pointed to his head with a forefinger.

"Yeah, right." Mercedes scoffed. "Having kept the last one led her to tattle on Rachel." She mumbled.

"Same difference." Puck nudged Mercedes in the arm. "Anyway, I've got this." He rubbed his hands in front of his chest before announcing. "I was told that Sue's schemed to oust Schuester and dissolve The Musicraker for years, and caught the target in his right hand-man, which means this dwarf." He ruffled Rachel's hair.

Rachel shrugged his hand off in annoyance. She huffed, combing her hair with a hand.

"Puck!" Mercedes admonished as she slapped the back of his head.

"The fuck, Aretha?" Puck winced, rubbing the back of his head.

Mercedes glared at the Mohawk. "Go on."

"Right." Puck put himself together before resuming telling the story, which was that Sue had gotten Becky and a third party to keep eyes on Rachel and Will (and dig deep into their personal lives), and her eyes had lightened up as if Christmas had come early once the devil in Tracksuits had been informed about Jesse's drinking problem. That was the same time when Will approved of Rachel's choice that the writer for the Olympics Issue would be Jesse.

"So, you're saying that Sue knew that Jesse had a drinking problem, but encouraged Will to use him as a writer for the issue?" Tina gasped.

"That's a trick." Puck took a deep breath. "According to what Becky told me, Sue did just say 'are you sure of him?' or something like that when she consented the budget, because, you know, she had to dodge her responsibility." He rubbed his Mohawk nervously.

"What about his plagiarism?" Blaine asked. "Is that true?"

Puck shook his head. "I don't know, man." He gulped his beer.

"I don't think the Jackass would show up to clean his tarnished image even if he didn't plagiarize," Artie cut in, snorting, "since he's already done a lot of other things."

"What are we gonna do?" Kitty frowned, nervously playing the label of her beer.

"I did put in a word for you guys when I got some offers." Rachel patted Kitty on the shoulder. "All you have to do is send your resume to them." She pulled some business cards out of her purse. "Here." She handed them to the young blonde.

"You don't need these?" Kitty asked as she took the cards from the brunette to take a look at, still plastering a frown on her face.

"No." Rachel shook her head. "As Mer said, I'm gonna take a break for a while."

"That's why Ryder's quit and officially become Finn's assistant today, isn't it?" Artie mumbled before turning his head to face Rachel. "You did put in a word for him to Santana too, didn't you?"

Rachel shrugged before sipping her beer. "Is this on the house, Noah?"

"Hell no." Puck snorted. "My business would be in the dumps."

"You brought these. We didn't order." Mercedes slapped the back of Puck's head again. "Which means these are on the house. Got it?" She demanded.

"The fuck, Mer!" Puck rubbed the back of his head before mumbling. "Yeah, on the house."

Rachel raised her eyebrow as she watched the interaction of the two of them before a small smile crept around her lips.

Having received texts from Rachel and a few people from The Musicraker and Survêtement, Finn's heart pounded loudly. After finally, finally the plane had landed at the JFK and emerged out of it, he shouldered his way through the crowd at the JFK, ignoring the people's jeering at him, not caring that Marissa called his name from behind.

Rachel's text was a short and simple. It said that she left The Musicraker and would take a break for a while. She didn't write either why she left or where she would go (or live, because she hadn't had a place to live before he headed for Buenos Aires). But his stepbrother, Artie and Blaine told more details; she and Mr. Schuester had been forced to resign to take responsibility for Jesse's plagiarism.

After the immigration check, he impatiently tapped his foot on the floor while waiting at the baggage claim before picking up his bags from the carousel. When he was about to rush into the exit, his rep, Marissa, who had tried to catch up with him, called out to him.

"What?" Finn didn't mean to take it out on her, but he couldn't suppress his anger at the douche.

Taken aback, Marissa bit her tongue as she looked down at the floor uncomfortably.

"I'm sorry." Finn sighed. "What was you going to say?"

"Uh," Marissa forced herself to smile at him, "Santana asked me to bring you to the office."

"Now?" Finn asked in annoyance despite himself.

"Yeah," Marrissa answered apologetically. "An ad agency wants to meet you."

Finn groaned. "But it's almost eight." He glanced at the watch on his wrist.

Marissa did say nothing but shrug.

Finn plumped down his shoulders and sighed in defeat. "Alright. Let's go."

While he was happy that his works were going on very smoothly, thanks to Santana's and Marissa's great competence, he was slightly annoyed that he couldn't see Rachel tonight. It was almost 11 pm when the dinner meeting with the ad agency, Santana and Marissa finished. So Finn decided to call up Kurt to Figgins' instead of Rachel.

And he was surprised as he was told that Ryder had quit The Musicraker and become his assistant (to be precise, Santana hired Ryder as his assistant without consultation—not that he was complaining since he liked working with Ryder so far).

When Finn settled on a stool at the bar counter and gestured for a bartender to get him a bottle of La Chimay Bleue, the petulant voice called his name from behind. He span around on the high chair, only to see his stepbrother huffing, his arm crossing in front of his chest. "Hey, Kurt." Ignoring the annoyed expression on his brother's face, Finn greeted, lifting his bottle of beer up in the air, before noticing the guy who Kurt had started officially dating with waved a hand for him behind his brother. "Oh, hey, Blaine."

"What do you want?" Kurt demanded, sitting on a stool next to Finn. "Did you realize that you ruined our date night?" He spat petulantly.

"Did I?" Finn raised his eyebrow. "You didn't mention that on the phone."

"That's because you hung up on me!" Kurt straightened up on the stool, carefully pushing his bang aside.

"Kurt, we can go out whenever you want to." Blaine rubbed the back of Kurt up and down to reassure, which made a pout on Kurt's lips immediately melt into a small smile.

Finn rolled his eyes as his stepbrother's demeanor changed thanks to his crush. "What do you want to have? I'll take care of it." He pulled his wallet out of his back pocket.

Kurt tilted his head to one side, his forefinger putting on his lips. "Hmm, I feel like Pinot Noir." He turned his head to face Blaine. "What would you like?"

Finn saw Blaine point to the bottle in his hand. He knocked on the wooden counter to get the bartender's attention to order a glass of Pinot Noir and another two bottles of La Chimay Bleue.

"So?" Kurt began once he took his glass from the bartender.

"So." Finn let out a sigh. "You texted me that Mr. Schuester and Rachel got fired because of the Jackass, right? And I've heard today that Ryder quit Sylvester Publishing and Santana hired him as my assistant. What the hell is going on with The Musicraker?"

Kurt exchanged glances with Blaine before announcing. "Uh, The Musicraker is likely to going to discontinue at the end of the year."

"W-what?" Dumbfounded, Finn choked. "Because of the douche?"

"I don't think so." Blaine chimed in before filling him in what Sue had aimed. "I think Schuester and Rachel are secretly arranging for the staff to get another job outside the company, and that's why Santana hired Ryder as your assistant I guess."

"Who's gonna be the editor in chief?" Finn frowned.

"I've heard a guy named Ken Tanaka or something will take in charge at The Musicraker." Kurt chimed in. "But I think that appointing him to the post is just going to make things worse, which I could tell is Sue's real purpose, since Tina told me that the guy was working as a janitor at the company building and doesn't know anything about music." He held his glass up in the air for the bartender to bring another one.

"What about you guys? I mean, it's not like Survêtement is discontinued, right? But, what're you gonna do, Blaine?" Finn turned his head to face the guy with a bow tie.

"Oh, I have some job interviews next week." Blaine assured. "Or I may be freelancing."

"And I might have had a job interview at Vogue dot com last week." Kurt added nonchalantly as he took another glass of Pinot Noir from the bartender.

Surprised, Blaine made a face at the senior editor of Survêtement. "When? You don't need to job hunt. Why didn't you tell me?"

"It's not set in stone, but, uh, Isabelle is going to leave Survêtement to be the editor in chief at Vogue dot com." Kurt shrugged. "You know, she's my idol. I'll follow her wherever she goes."

Blaine arched his eyebrow. "Does Tina know that?"

"I'm going to tell her when it's all set." Kurt replied. "Besides, she'll stay at Survêtement no matter what."

"What about them?" Finn cautiously asked. "What are Mr. Schuester and Rachel gonna do?"

"Will is going to teach at NYU and Rachel… I don't know. She said that she would take a break for a while." Blaine informed.

"That's what I was told. But, where is she going to stay?" Finn frowned. "I don't think she has found a place to live in the City yet."

"She'll be staying at her parent's house for a while." Puck answered for Blaine behind the bar counter as he put another bottle of La Chimay Bleue in front of Finn. "But she's not gonna want to see you right now." He added despite Finn didn't ask.

Finn turned his head to see the Mohawk with a frown. "Why?"

"She needs time to pull herself together right now." Puck rubbed his Mohawk as he let out a sigh. "She's… she used to be one to never get anybody or anything in her way." He opened the bottle of beer for himself before starting.

"When she was fourteen, she undid laryngitis surgery, which forced her to give up her dream to be a singer. Yes, she was depressed. But only for two days. After a lot of tears, she picked herself up and declared that she was going to launch neglected artists into the world as an editor, holding a bunch of magazines in her arms with a megawatt smile."

The image of teenage Rachel getting excited holding magazines in her arms in front of her chest brought a smile to Finn's lips.

Puck rolled his eyes as he saw the tall photographer wearing a goofy grin on his face. "And when you left her without a word," he cleared his throat, "don't get me wrong, I don't mean to beat you up, well, I was going to beat you up literally at that time," he made a straight face at Finn, "anyway, when you left, yeah, she got depressed for a while."

Finn shifted uncomfortably on the stool as Kurt and Blaine exchanged knowing looks.

"But, she eventually managed to pull herself together because she had The Musicraker." Puck continued. "She never lost her spark in her eyes, whatever happened to her." He took a deep breath. "But this? All that happened this time hit her really hard." He gulped his beer before finishing. "So, she needs time for herself. If you really care about her, wait for her to come around."

Finn let out a sigh and nodded. "But, could you tell me where her parent's house is?"

"I don't think so." Puck was about to leave.

"Please." Finn insisted, grabbing the Mohawk's hand.

Puck winced at Finn's tight grip on his wrist. He let out a sigh. "Fine." He shrugged the photographer's hand off and pulled his notepad out of his pocket as he took his pen from his ear before writing down Rachel's parent's address. "But don't get your hopes up, at least right now." He warned, handing the piece of paper out to Finn.

Finn folded the paper carefully and put it into his pocket. "Thanks."

"Morning, Princess." Yawning, Hiram deposited himself on the sofa next to his daughter. "When did you get interested in tennis?" He put his mug down on the coffee table.

"Morning, Daddy." She greeted before answering her father's question. "From Day 1, I think?" Said nonchalantly Rachel, who had gotten fired on the day when Wimbledon Championships had started. Although she decided to take a break for a while, she realized how bored she could get without working once she (temporarily) was settled in her childhood house in New Jersey. That was why she had been watching Wimbledon Championships, and now the Gentlemen's singles final was on TV.

"Whom are you rooting for?" Hiram casually asked as he stood up from the sofa to grab some snacks for himself and his daughter in the kitchen. "Have you had breakfast? Wanna Kale chips?" He called out from the kitchen.

"Yeah, thank you." Rachel's eyes were glued to the TV screen, sipping her tea from her old mug. "Murray."

"Because I'm a huge fan of Roger's?" Hiram continued asking as he poured Kale chips into a bowl before returning to the living room.

"I just like rooting for underdogs." Rachel shrugged as she took the bowl from her father. "Besides, Federer's already got six titles here, Daddy." She munched some chips from the bowl in her hands. "Andy's not won a title of Grand Slam yet, let alone Wimbledon's, even though he's very very talented." She punctuated.

Hiram arched his eyebrow. "If I knew you were into tennis this much, we could have been to London to watch actual matches instead." He snatched the bowl from her hands.

"Daddy, the tickets for Wimbledon are balloted in previous years, although I know we could get last minute tickets if we stood in line. You know that more than I do." Rachel retorted as she snatched the bowl back from his father's hands.

"Oh, so you researched." Hiram stretched his arm to steal some chips. "You know, Leroy always rooted for underdogs like you."

"Yeah." Rachel kept delivering the chips into her mouth as her eyes were on the match between the Swiss and the Scot. "Do you," she cleared her throat, "do you think he would be disappointed in me? And are you?"

"Why would he?" Hiram frowned. "And I'm never disappointed in you, you know that." He gently patted his daughter on her head. "You did nothing wrong, Princess."

Rachel let out a sigh. "But I should've noticed his lies." She turned her head to see her father. "Was I being blinded that much while we were together?"

Hiram put his hand on hers. "I don't think so, Rachela. He's just a big bloody liar." He squeezed her hand gently. "And you should know, I will find him and kill him." He announced seriously.

"I don't want you to end up in jail, Daddy." Rachel deadpanned. "And I don't want to be alone." She added in a low voice.

"Oh, I won't get my own hands dirty." Hiram winked at Rachel. "Of course, I'll hire someone to take care of him, and we'll live together happily ever after." He nudged her in her arm playfully. "Smile, Princess, or that worry line between your eyebrows is getting deep." He touched her line between her eyebrows with a forefinger. "And you won't be alone, you know that. You will find the one someday." He hugged her tight and placed his lips on her head.

"Thank you, Daddy." She let his dad hug for a while, her face still towards the TV screen. And they kept watching the match between Federer and Murray.

When the match resumed after the rain suspended early in the third set, the doorbell rang.

"I get it." Hiram sat up from the sofa before answering the door. He opened it as he found the tall guy standing there.

"Um," Finn didn't expect Rachel's father (he assumed) to answer the door, but he should've known since this was his house. Or he should have called her first (he kept himself from reaching for her almost two weeks as Puck had told him). "I-I'm, uh, I came to see Rachel. I'm Finn, Finn Hudson." He stammered, wiping his hand on his jeans.

Hiram arched his eyebrow as he heard his name. "We're watching Wimbledon Men's Final. Wanna join us?" He stepped aside to encourage Finn to enter.

"Uh, sure." Finn stepped into the house, rubbing the back of his neck.

"I'm Hiram, Rachel's father, by the way." Hiram held his hand for him to shake.

Finn took it before clearing his throat. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Berry."

"You too, Finn. And call me Hiram." Hiram replied. "Rachel! Finn's here!" He yelled towards the living room before turning his head to face the same height guy as he was. "What would you like to have? Coffee? Tea? Beer?"

"Water's fine." Finn let out a laugh nervously. "Thank you."

"I'm going to grab a bottle of water for you. Go ahead, make yourself." Hiram nodded in the direction of the living room before walking into the kitchen.

Finn made his way to the living room as Rachel turned her head to see the unexpected visitor. "Hello, Finn." She greeted, smiling sheepishly.

"H-hi, Rachel." Finn stopped behind the sofa and shifted on the floor.

Rachel patted the empty space on the sofa as she saw him get fidgeted a little at the place to try figuring where he should move to. "Come sit."

Finn just nodded before circling the sofa and perching himself on the sofa next to Rachel. "I didn't know you're interested in any sports."

Rachel let out a laugh. "Me neither."

When Finn was about to open his mouth, Hiram returned to the living room, a bottle of water in his hand. So, he absent-mindedly watched the tennis match with the Berry family (he loved sports, but he never got into individual sports).

Finally the match having ended (Rachel seemed displeased since Federer won the title), Hiram stretched out his upper body and spoke. "Why don't you guys take a walk?" He suggested. "Or, you could stay here or Rachel's room to talk? I'm going into the den to work for a while." With that, he got out of the sofa and left the young couple in the living room.

"You wanna go upstairs?" Rachel asked after her father had left.

Finn nervously rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah."

Rachel stood up from the sofa to make her way to the upstairs. Finn followed her. He looked around as he entered Rachel's childhood room. He saw multiple photographs on the wall. "Who's this?" Finn pointed to one of the black and white photographs.

"It's Samuel Beckett." Rachel answered as she approached him. "He was an Irish writer, you know, 'Waiting for Godot.'"

"I can't say that I've read that." Finn shook his head. "Who did take this photo? I think I've seen this before somewhere, but I don't remember."

"John Minihan. He's also an Irish." Rachel informed. "Minihan's Beckett photographs are very famous, being called as the photography of the twentieth century, so I'm sure you've seen them before."

Finn glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, only to find her eyes expressionless. "Did he take this photo with Rolieiflex?" Finn asked, his eyes on the photograph, not on Rachel.

"I think he did, yeah." Rachel replied. "This photograph used to be hung on the wall at my late father's office, since he loved Beckett's works." She added in a low voice before whirling around and perching herself on the bed.

Finn slowly turned around to face Rachel. "Um," he cleared his throat, rubbing the back of his neck, "how have you been?"

Rachel shrugged. "I'm okay." She looked down at her laps, idly playing with the hem of her flower printed sun dress. She let out a sigh and looked up at Finn. "Finn, you don't need to do this."

Confused, Finn frowned. "Do what?"

"You don't need to check up on me." Rachel shook her head. "You don't have to feel guilty about having disappeared before, I really appreciate that you've been worried about me though."

Taken aback at her remark, Finn blinked. "Rachel–"

"You know, I already accepted your apology." Rachel cut him off. "So, I don't have any hard feelings about that." She took a deep breath.

"Rachel." Finn knelt down in front of her to study her eyes on his eye level, putting his hands on hers. He saw her eyes lost her spark. He let out a sigh. "Rachel." He said again. "I'm worried about you because I care about you, Rach. Not because I feel guilty about that." He exhaled before continuing. "I want you to know that the last night in London meant to me." He squeezed her hands with his. "You maybe think that I didn't remember that night because I was drunk, but I do. And not only in London, but on New Year's Eve, that meant to me, too. You mean to me, Rachel."

Rachel stared at Finn for a moment, still her face lack of expression.

"Rachel?" Finn called out, caressing her cheek with a hand. "Are you alright?"

"I feel tired. I want to go lay down a little." Rachel whispered, her eyes casting down. "Could you, um," she hesitated, "could you stay with me for a while?"

"Sure." Finn let her lead him to lay down with her on the bed.

"Thank you, Finn." Rachel said in a low voice before closing her eyes.

"Anytime, Rach." Finn wrapped his arm around her from behind, staring at the ceiling, wondering how he could restore her eyes to her spark.

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