A/N: Thank you guys for your comments :) Excited as always to read them. Enjoy the next chapter!

"So, how is life treating you Rach?" Sam asked. He was popping open a can of beer and sat down on Rachel's very comfortable sofa. He took a curious look around the living room, scanning over interior, decoration and personal belongings. This living room looked so unlike Rachel, it was missing her golden stars, her wall of pictures (in fact a total lack of pictures, except a picture of Jesse and Rachel from their wedding), it was missing her driven Broadway dream pursuit. The only thing this living room resembled Rachel was her Tony in the trophy case (well hers and Jesses, as he darkly remembered Blaine telling him that both of them were Tony winners).

Rachel was in the next door kitchen, grabbing plates, napkins and a pizza cutter. She joined Sam on the sofa and placed the plates in front of them. She handed him a napkin and started to cut the pizza in pieces.

"Well," she started, accepting the glass of wine Sam poured for her, "life is okay. Jane Austen Sing's ended and I am taking a short break from Broadway. I am going to teach a class at NYADA this summer. Just yesterday I finalized the paperwork with Carmen Tibideaux." She offered Sam a slice of pizza and settled down into a comfortable position on the sofa.

"That's good news, isn't it?" Sam asked, taking a bite of his pizza.

"Absolutely. I am quite excited!" She replied happily. She really was happy, about her upcoming teaching course. She loved NYADA and she appreciated the chance she received. In fact while she loved Broadway with all her heart, she remembered how much she had enjoyed teaching Glee Club back in Lima. So the course at NYADA felt like a little revival of that teaching experience and who didn't love revivals?

"So you are going to be a teacher and I am going to do a teaching course, funny coincidence, don't you think?" Sam said, taking a sip of his beer.

"Teaching course? What kind of teaching course? In fact, I just realized we haven't had a chance to even talk about what you are doing in New York and how long you are going to stay." Rachel said, realizing that they actually didn't talk much at all. It was so odd meeting Sam yesterday. He had rescued her from being harassed, he had brought her home and that was that.

"Oh yes, Will arranged for me to get my teaching degree. It's a one year study at NYU. I just moved back here last week. So sorry I didn't get in touch before, but Blaine told me he was on vacation." Sam said, smiling nervously. He had wanted to call Rachel, but he didn't know if she would ignore him again. Like, after their tête-a-tête three years ago. He had to admit he really had been afraid of not being able to see her, of things being more than just awkward between them and now he was in her living room. He felt a little bit relieved and it was really just a little bit. The evening before she had been tipsy and she was in an unfortunate situation. When they had hugged, he wasn't sure if it was just her being so terrified of what had happened, that she needed human comfort or that she had really missed him. Now he was here struggling to find a good conversation topic. Let's face it whenever you meet someone from your past, people just ask how life is treating one. Those conversations are superficial and quickly become awkward. That really wasn't what he wanted. He wanted to get to know Rachel again, to be her friend again and maybe even more than that.

"One year?" Rachel's face suddenly fell. She had been excited to see Sam again, but now the little voice in her head became louder. In fact she could have sworn, it had just said "Told you so." Not very helpful - at all. If Sam would stay for a year, he was bound to meet Dalton. He was bound to realize he had a son and then her life would be thrown over, even more as it was now. Kurt.. oh god what would she do about Kurt? He would hate her. Kurt would hate Blaine, because he knew. She would be the reason her best friends would get divorced. She would destroy her son's life, who would become the center of a custody law suit. Maybe Sam would want to have custody and he would ice all of them out.

A moment of panic took over Rachel. She felt cold sweat running down her back, her breathing becoming short gasps and she must have looked white as a ghost, because Sam looked at her worried, placing his hand on her shoulder.

"Rach, are you alright?" He seemed worried. He wasn't a bad person, right? He was Sam, he wouldn't keep a grudge against her. He would be able to forgive, right? Rachel closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She tried to calm herself and grabbed her glass of wine. She finished the glass with one very big gulp and felt a little better.

"I am okay..." she tried to convince Sam, but she wasn't even able to convince herself. Inviting Sam didn't seem like a good idea anymore, but asking him to leave wouldn't change a thing now. Maybe it would be better to become closer with Sam and that could lead to him being more understanding, couldn't it? Rachel wasn't sure, as she felt thousands of thoughts flooding her brain.

"Are you sure? You don't look okay. Talk to me Rachel, we are friends, remember?" Sam said, trying to sound soothing. Were they friends? This situation was surreal, but why couldn't it be the way it was back in high school? Why couldn't they just be okay and leave all that awkwardness behind?

Rachel gave Sam a weak smile.

"It's just..." She closed her eyes again, trying to think quickly about the situation. She couldn't tell him the real reason, could she now? "It's Jesse. We split. He moved to Chicago." She finally said. It wasn't a lie, they did split and he did move, but she wasn't really upset about it. Sam however bought it.

"Wow. I am sorry Rachel. Do you want to talk about it?" Sam asked, stroking her back.

"There is nothing really to talk about", she replied in a quiet voice, slightly shaking her head.

"It wasn't great between us in a long time. He wanted to move to Chicago and start again, but I couldn't leave here. He didn't want me together with my family anymore..."

"Your family? You mean your dads?"

"No, Kurt and Blaine and Dalton."

"Right." Sam sighed. He put an arm around Rachel and pulled her into his side. She put her head onto his chest, inhaling his scent. It felt good to be with him, even though she knew she was doing a mistake.

"Rachel, can I ask you something?" Sam asked, giving her a serious look.

"Sure. Go ahead."

"Did you consider Jesse family?"

Rachel gave him a puzzled look. "Why would Jesse be my family?"

Sam felt bad for Jesse. He really did. He wasn't sure what was the deal with Rachel, but she must had hurt Jesse with those thoughts a lot. Maybe she hadn't done it intentionally, in fact he believed Rachel would never do something like that intentionally, still excluding ones husband of the term family, must not only hurt ones pride but also break ones heart.

"Rachel your husband is your family. The person you choose to be with you is part of your family Rachel. I know you surely didn't intend to hurt Jesse, but maybe he was hurt because you didn't see him as your family. Please don't take this the wrong way, but maybe it is better you guys split. I think you love Kurt and Blaine and Dalton so much, you didn't had enough love for Jesse. Maybe he was just not the right choice of partner, because you need someone who understands this family situation." Sam said. He wasn't sure if he was overstepping by telling Rachel this, but he did deeply care for her.

"Sam.. I.." Rachel said, feeling startled. She didn't know what to say about this. She felt slightly offended, but on the other hand Sam was right. Blaine was right, when he had asked her if she loved Jesse. Sam was right stating she really thought wrongly about her marriage. Of course she should have thought of Jesse as family, but she didn't. Blaine and Kurt had always been her family and when Dalton came along, that was that. She was utterly in love with her family and Jesse just didn't fit in. He didn't make an attempt to fit in and Rachel was okay with it, because she wasn't in love with Jesse and she was happy with Blaine and Kurt. Sam was absolutely right. How was he able to understand her so well? Even after all those years?

"I am sorry, if I overstepped any boundaries." He apologized.

"Don't. You are right... you are absolutely right Sam. Thank you for being honest with me. I think I have to apologize to Jesse." She said. She got up from the sofa and looked for her mobile phone.

"Sam, I am so sorry. This evening really didn't go the way it was supposed to."

"Don't be Rachel. I am glad we talked and we can be honest with each other." Sam said smiling at her. Honesty.. Rachel had to force herself not to laugh from the irony. Sam was being honest and he was being sweet and nice and she didn't deserve that, because she was not honest. She was far from being honest. She had a terrible secret and she was afraid of it.

"Thank you Sam." Rachel was playing with the thought of calling Jesse, as she felt the need to speak to him. After a moment struggling with herself, she decided against it.

"How about we watch a movie? Let's stop with all the serious talk and start having a good time." She finally said. When Sam nodded, Rachel popped in a DVD and sat next to Sam on the couch. She put a bit more distance between them, but after a while they fell into a comfortable seating arrangement. Shoulders touching, knees grazing, shared laughter.

Even though Rachel had felt rather hangover this morning, she had finished almost the entire bottle of wine during the course of the evening. Sam had opened his last can of beer and was nibbling on some liquorish. His arm had moved around Rachel's shoulders during the second half of Interception and was playing with a streak of her hair. She was resting her head on his shoulders, inhaling his familiar scent. She felt safe.

They had fallen asleep on the sofa. Rachel wasn't sure how it happened, but somehow she ended up being spooned by Sam on her couch. She couldn't deny that she had slept really well and Sam's strong arms around her waist and shoulder were really nice. She could feel his chest rising evenly; his nose was nuzzling the back of her head. Their legs were entangled with each other and Rachel just couldn't help herself, but to feel safe and good.

She was enjoying the quiet comfort for a moment longer, until she carefully untangled herself from Sam without waking him up. When she successfully managed to do so, she took a blanket and placed it over Sam, who was still sleeping blissfully.

She went up to the master bathroom and freshened herself up. She felt a lot better, after she had brushed her teethed and splashed some ice cold water into her face.

After a quick change of clothes she quietly went downstairs to the kitchen and started to brew a strong coffee.

Rachel had to smile, last night turned out to be a lot nicer than she had thought. After the initial weird conversation, they had enjoyed each other's companies while watching some Christopher Nolan movies. She hadn't felt that good within a man's company in a while and sleeping with Sam (sleeping as in really just sleeping) had felt good.

She was humming a happy melody, while preparing breakfast, when she heard shuffling noises from the living room. Sam must have woken up.

"Morning.." he mumbled, when he stumbled into the kitchen, following the wonderful smell of coffee. He was yawning and stretching, while he was taking a seat close to the kitchen table.

"Good morning sunshine!" Rachel said, flashing Sam a smile. She poured a cup of coffee and placed it in front of Sam. "Still taking four pieces of sugar?" She asked handing him the sugar pot, with brown sugar cubes she had stored close to the coffee machine.

Sam nodded, smiling. He was surprised that she still knew how he was drinking his coffee.

"Thanks Rach!"

Rachel placed some freshly cut tomatoes and avocados on the table.

"I hope you don't mind a vegetarian breakfast. I don't have any eggs, sorry." She said, adding some cut cucumbers and some fresh fruits on the table.

"That's fine. No need to do anything special Rachel." He said. "Thanks for letting me sleep on your couch."

They enjoyed a quiet breakfast and each other's company. Only a few words were exchanged, since Rachel remembered, that Sam really had never been a morning person.

Sam was drinking his second cup of coffee and he and Rachel were engaged into a very intense discussion about old times. His fingers were touching hers softly and they were both having dorky grins plastered over their faces. They were in their own little world, enjoying each other, like they used to when they used to date. In fact Sam felt that they had never stopped. Whenever they used to drink coffee back in Lima, they were sitting closely to each other, fingers slightly touching, knees grazing and sharing smiles. Sam had loved the mornings after, when Rachel had stayed over at his place. They had spent hours looking at each other, sharing little touches, kissing each other. Well the last part was certainly missing now, but Sam felt blissful.

With Jesse gone, maybe he still had a shot with Rachel. The way they were now, him being here, certainly gave him hope.

He was about take her hand, when the door bell rang.

"Stay seated Rach, I'll get it!" Sam said, jumping off his chair and walking towards the front door. When he opened it, he was greeted with a very familiar sight.

"Blaine? Kurt? Hey you guys! Rachel said you weren't expected back until next week!"

Sam said greeting his friends and was about to pull Blaine into a hug, when he heard a little voice.

"Where's mommy?"