By the time Jesse's friend left, Rachel was fuming, with a burning sensation in her chest and feeling a scary amount of hostility towards Ms. Touchy-hands. And thank God she left, it was in Jesse's friend best interest that she wasn't in Rachel's line of vision, with her usual flair for the dramatic and pregnancy hormones she didn't know what she was capable of. Sending Sunshine to that crack house would look like child's play compared to what she was capable of doing right now.

And what baffled Rachel even more was Jesse's nauseatingly sweet gaze and soft demeanor. Rachel always assumed that she was the only recipient of his gentlest and softest side.

In all these months since they reconnected, he never disclosed any current relationship he might have had with another person. That's why she always assumed he was single, and that notion was reinforced by the fact that he spent most days by her side, whether when they were rehearsing for the play or now living together.

There was no way Jesse had a girlfriend, he didn't have the time.

Between that and the way he acted around Rachel, always so caring and tender. Only for her. Left no room for any doubt that he didn't have someone else.

Even if that girl turned out to be just a friend, Rachel didn't like the idea of Jesse being soft and caring with anybody else aside from her.

Rachel knew she was being childish, but she was pregnant and pumped up in hormones, so she would feel whatever the hell she wanted to feel.

There was never a time that she felt more like a damn penguin than right now as she waddled as hastily as her bump allowed her, to break hell loose on Jesse's butt for being sweet and hugging another woman.

When she reached Jesse's floor while panting a bit, Rachel opened the door in a swift motion, almost throwing brusquely the door aside.

"Hey Rach" greeted Jesse from his spot on his couch while fumbling with his tablet.

"Don't 'Hey Rach' me, you man whore" fumed Rachel with a ragged breath from climbing the set of stairs since the elevator would demand to sit still for a while, and with Rachel's pent-up energy and aggrieved state, that just wasn't possible.

"I'm sorry?" asked Jesse, taken a back.

"You heard me… you…you are a man whore!" she spat at him with her eyes turned to slits, "Care to explain who was that girl that you were comfortably embracing downstairs"

"Uh…you mean Cara?" he asked, a bit concerned for himself by her disgruntled demeanor, he had witnessed Rachel in full pregnant diva mode a few times before, and it made him break in a cold sweat.

"Oh, Cara it is" Rachel retorted disdainfully, almost spitting Jesse's friend name. "Explain yourself mister, why so cozy with Cara"

Due to the nature of Jesse's previous conversation with …precisely Cara… he felt angered by Rachel's display of jealousy. She had no right; they weren't anything, and he had every right to "comfortably embrace" whoever he wanted. After offering his selfless and undivided attention and support to Rachel, this was in poor taste from her.

Jesse glared at Rachel, crossed his arms, and mustered strength to continue with what he felt could be a conversation that marked the beginning of the end for their unusual friendship. But if this was how it needed to end, then so may it be. He loved her, but he couldn't continue sacrificing pieces of his heart just to atone his sins.

"Rachel, it's none of your business who I 'embrace'" he answered her crisply.

Rachel felt as if she had been slapped, and she felt her eyes begin to prickle with shame and hurt. He was right, they were not a couple, but it didn't hurt any less watching him cradle so lovingly another girl.

(Narrators clarification: There was nothing loving about his previous affection with Cara, it was Rachel's crazed hormones that amplified everything in her eyes)

"Rachel, Cara's just a friend offering advice and support after going through some shitty days, something that not even you caught up because you aren't able to look past your own problems, which I know… they are huge; but you don't have the monopoly for shitty days, you know?" he said still hotly unable to control the words that left his mouth.

Rachel felt as if someone had vacuumed all the air in her lungs, it was true that she hadn't noticed Jesse going through a rough patch. Since taking her leave of absence from school, she had been crankier and more intense than usual, wallowing in her self-pity from all the cards that had been dealt to her this year. Perhaps a bit too much, apparently.

"If you want to use me as your emotional support pet, be my guest, I have no problem, Rachel. But I deserve to have a life too, a life apart from you." said Jesse still unable to contain his frustration from this past these days, he knew lashing out wasn't something kind to do, but he had to draw the line. If his destiny was to remain in the sidelines as a friend watching Rachel moving on with her life and the baby he wanted to love, then so be it; but he deserved to move on too, in spite of his undying love for Rachel Berry.

"I… I know" she muttered, ashamed of her childish tantrum, she had never considered the possibility of Jesse being in love with someone else, and it hurt, but he had been such an amazing friend that not standing in his way was the least she could do. "You…you are right"

As she managed to whisper those words through the lump in her throat, she hanged her head in defeat, and the tears that she had been holding back cascaded down her face. Jesse deflated and panicked at looking at her so crushed by everything that came out in the open between them, and he wondered with a sliver of hope about what had set her off about watching him and Cara.

He walked slowly towards her and with his hand, he softly lifted her chin, and he felt the breath he had been holding being suckered punch out of him at looking her teary eyes and pouted lips. He dabbed her eyes with his handkerchief that he always kept with him for cases like this.

"Rach" he sighed, this was IT, he had to be honest with her and come clean "I'm serious, I have every right to entangle myself with whomever I want, and you have no say in that… but there's a reason why I haven't been seriously involved with anyone since high school" he paused to add a bit of a dramatic effect and to gain all the courage available within him for what would come next. "I'm in love with the most conceited, self-absorbed and pig-headed girl that I had the luck to meet when I was in my senior year in high school and is currently crashing in my bed"

Rachel lifted her gaze from the floor, so rapidly one could swear she had been electrocuted, and looked at him straight into his eyes, and she found nothing but pure love and adoration, and it was directed at her.

"I love you so much Rachel, it hurts, and it's what has been keeping me up at night these past weeks, but you were perfectly clear about not getting my hopes up because you weren't going to be able to return any feelings I might harbor towards you, and I understand that. But the fair thing to do then, is to let me move on with my life too and let some poor girl who will never compare with you, be the recipient for a part of my love since you'll have most of it forever." he elaborated further without any ounce of doubt or hesitation.

Rachel felt her hands itch, and her mouth go dry from Jesse's heartbreaking confession; she had been a terrible friend to him. Everyone had noticed his feelings for her except for herself, and she had been putting him in impossible positions that only threw buckets of salt on his wound and made everything more difficult for him.

Which made Rachel be in more awe of him; doing the things that he did for her, being her shoulder to cry on about Finn, taking care of her; all while being in love with her wasn't an easy task, something that not even she could fathom to do. And that in itself was a declaration of love. A calm, secretive and painful declaration of his love for her. She never knew someone so selfless, and she knew that the correct thing to do was to honor that.

But God forgive her, she was going to be selfish one more time.

She grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him towards her, so his face was only inches from hers, feeling his scent ever so intoxicating, and the warmth that emanated from him that she learned to love and draw strength and comfort from.

"No" she declared.

"No?" he said appalled, the weight on his heart deepened and a part of him could help but feel disappointed for Rachel as a friend.

"No" she repeated. "I know I'm being selfish for saying this, but I can't let you do that, Jesse. I know we talked about not having expectations some time ago… you can have them now" she stated mirroring his adoring gaze from before launching to his lips.

Jesse just looked at her with his eyes so big, not able to let himself loose in the kiss from the shock of what was happening. But then his body acted on its own, he closed his eyes and his arms draped around her back, pulling her flush against him. One of his hands moved upwards to her neck pulling her even closer, as if that was possible, not wanting her to change her mind and let go. He latched onto her mouth as if it was oxygen, delighted at feeling Rachel's plump and soft lips against his, moving so caring and in sync after many years.

It felt like sun, summer breeze and home-made ginger cookies all at once. A first for both of them, no fireworks and no wild storm neither, just like pure light and coming back home.

Rachel then pulled back a bit with a bright smile and tears from happiness flowing through her cheeks, and saw Jesse with a mix of shock and hesitation, searching in her expression any sign of regret frantically. Rachel's heart broke for him.

After her conversation with Mr. Sater, Rachel had all these feelings for Jesse that were eager to come out, and if she kept them hidden any second more, she felt like she would explode. She didn't know how Jesse managed to cope all these past months, feeling like this and not shouting how he felt through the roofs.

If she was feeling like she could explode from the intensity of her feelings, then him having to hide them to be respectful of her grieving couldn't have been easy for him.

Jesse was the sunlight in her life, Mr. Sater was right, he made her feel alive again. And all this time, her reactions, and responses to him, like feeling calm and secure only when he was around, or elated whenever he looked and smiled at her, made her realize that she had been in love with him for quite some time without her being aware of that.

"I'm still not ready for a relationship right now, but when I feel ready, you'll be the first to know because I'm in love with you too, Jesse St. James" she said caressing his cheeks still flush against his chest.

A feeling of pure ecstasy cursed through Jesse's body after hearing those long-awaited words, he never would have imagined that this could be the outcome of what felt as a break-up fight.

"Rachel I would wait for you 20 years if at the end I get to love you" he said lost in her eyes. "And I'm not saying this lightly, I truly mean it"

Even if she knew that her and Jesse communicated in hyperbole, she knew he meant it. And that made her heart clench so hard she could help but give him a light and short peck on the lips. But her ankles were screaming at her, so she led him to the couch, sat on his lap and hugged him tightly.

"I can't believe my luck then" she muttered as she felt Jesse's arms embrace her and kept her tight against him, minding her bump like always.

"I'm the lucky one, I was ready for you to go back to your place and cut communication with me to be honest after my declaration" he said finally feeling like he could breathe normally now that he could give free rein to his feelings and be honest for a change.

Rachel extricated herself from his embrace enough to look him dead in the eyes with a bewildered expression.

"Why on earth would I do that?" she looked at him puzzled.

"I didn't expect you to return my feelings for you, Rachel" he said with a soft smile with sadness reaching his eyes; expressions from someone who knew what resignation felt like.

"Jess" she exhaled his name almost reverently. "I have been in love with you for some time now, I just didn't have the courage to admit it, I was afraid of betraying Finn by how strongly I felt for you"

"Hey" now it was his turn to hold her face between his two hands while caressing her to gain her complete attention, "Loving you means loving all of you, and I know that Finn will forever have a piece of your heart, I don't mind that. I would never want you to forget him just because you are with me. He is part of you, whether it is here" he pointed her heart "or here" and then he pointed her baby bump to which he then began to stroke lightly.

"You really mean it?" she asked between tears of joy, "You'll love me… and him?" she asked as she placed her hand over the one that was caressing her belly.

Jesse couldn't look into her eyes for what he was about to say, so he hid his face in her neck.

"I know last time you said we could do the co-parenting thing to get a rise out of Carole and your glee club, but Rach…would it be wrong of me to want just that?" he whispered as if he was saying the most hidden secret in the world. "I… I know I'll never replace Finn, and I would make sure that this baby always knows who his real father is… but whenever I picture him spending Father's Day alone or watching his friends with their fathers I feel this ache inside of me, especially when I'm around and when I already love him so much".

Rachel couldn't believe what she was hearing, that had rendered her speechless. She wasn't just lucky enough for Jesse to love her and take care of her without disclosing what he felt so she could do her mourning peacefully and without any confusions, he also loved her baby enough to take care of him too.

Jesse misinterpreted her silence as denial of his proposition and was about to try to salvage the situation, when Rachel understood that her lack of words was sending him in the wrong direction. In an effort to convey all of her feelings through actions, she placed her hands in the back of his neck and pulled him into a searing kiss.

It took Jesse a while to register what was happening again, but when he did, he followed her lead and poured himself into the kiss, moving his lips and gently skimming with his fingers the sides of her jaw.

When he pulled back, he finally saw the tears and look of pure adoration that Rachel directed at him, and he smiled through his own tears. He would do anything to make her keep looking at him like that.

"Jesse I couldn't be more honored, there is no one I would want more to do this with, but you know this is a big commitment right?"

"Rach, I wouldn't say I would wait for you 20 years if I didn't think you are the one for me" he assured her now moving his hands into a more comfortable place in her waist "But I need you to be sure too, I love you so much it hurts, I don't want to be your rebound, I couldn't survive that again, this time I wouldn't lose only you but this little guy here"

A pang of guilt surged in her chest; she really had pulled quite a number on him last time.

"Jesse, when I'm ready, it will be the three of us, for good, ok? It can only be you for me" she said and gave him one last kiss.

Her soft lips on his felt like heaven, but this one was a quick one. He would respect her desire to feel ready, and he would welcome her with open arms whenever she felt like it now that there was a promise that she would eventually be his.

That night, Jesse slept profoundly after nights full of anguish and dejection, with the love of his life in his arms, knowing that in a future his biggest dream would come true.