Aw, I have received some seriously kind and wonderful reviews since I started writing for this story again! You guys are honestly great, and are the main reason that this story is going to get finished. Thank you so much!

Also, I love hearing how many people have started watching One Tree Hill because of this fic. It's a great show! Season 3 happens to be one of my favorite seasons, which is what we're in right now with this fic.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. This chapter title comes from the song "Champagne for My Real Friends, Real Pain for My Sham Friends" by Fall Out Boy.

"Alright, I seriously cannot take this anymore."

Finn made a face at Quinn as she sat down next to him. It was after the third game of the season, and the Lima Titans had won their third game in a row. The team was better than ever this year, especially because Puck and Finn were truly getting along and leading the team together. The cheerleading squad preformed as well as they ever did, and Quinn was convinced that they would win the Classic this year.

Puck and Quinn were still spending time together, doing that whole dating-but-not-really thing that they had started over the summer. Santana was having a good time egging them along, still incredibly happy that she was no longer a part of their "pain in the ass love triangle." She wasn't talking to Brittney as much as she had in the beginning of the school year, but that didn't bother Santana either. She claimed that she was focused on herself more than anyone else this year.

This year was going really well, actually. The only thing that was wrong was that Finn and Rachel hadn't reconciled yet. Given the fact that Rachel had thrown the idea of an annulment around, they all wondered how long it was going to be before a reconciliation was even possible, let alone if it was going to happen. Puck suggested staging an intervention. Santana thought they should lock Finn and Rachel in a closet and not let them out until they killed each other or had sex and made up. Quinn told them both to chill out, and instead declared that Finn and Rachel just needed a little more time to work things out themselves.

Finn sighed and tugged his letterman jacket on. There had been so many times that Finn and Quinn had met in the locker room over past football seasons—for fights, mostly, but they had shared some nicer moments. Now, Finn was able to smile fondly at Quinn, and was glad to think about how they were good friends.

"What can't you take, Quinn?" Finn asked as he turned toward her on the bench.

"This whole thing with you and Rachel. You're not seriously considering agreeing to annulment, are you?"

"I'm not the one who wants the annulment, remember?" There was a reason Finn had spent the past two weeks refusing to talk about his conversation with Rachel with anyone, not even Puck or Kurt. It made him jump to anger immediately—anger at Rachel, sure, but mostly anger at himself. He was half the reason they were in this situation, after all.

Quinn gave him a pointed look. "I don't think Rachel wants an annulment, either, you know. She's just suggested that it's something that might need to be considered. There's a difference between that and actually wanting it."

Finn thought about that for a long moment, and there was a part of him that knew it was true. He was scared, though, and that fear was enough to hold himself at a distance from Rachel. He needed to think about this, needed to think about what his next step was going to be.

"What am I supposed to do here, Quinn? I don't know what she wants me to do. I don't… I don't know how to gain her trust back."

"You know…" Quinn leaned forward, ducking her head down so that she could catch Finn's eye. "You were a crappy boyfriend, Finn Hudson."

Finn snorted. "Wow, way to kick me when I'm down, Quinn."

She smiled slightly at his response, but continued on like he hadn't spoken. "To me, anyway. But you're a great husband. And you're a genuinely good guy, and you're not afraid to show it now. This is the guy that I always knew you could be, and Rachel helped you get there. Rachel is good for you… she's good for all of us. When you went and fell in love with her, you made all of our lives better."

Finn stared at Quinn with wide eyes, touched by what she told him. He had no idea that Quinn could be so sentimental—he supposed it was because he had never exactly brought out the best in Quinn. Finn had to agree with her, in that it was nice to see what kind of person she had become, now that they had opened their hearts and allowed themselves not to be so miserable.

"You're such a softie," he teased, instead of voicing any of those thoughts.

Quinn rolled her eyes at him and nudged his shoulder with her own. "Look, all I'm saying is that no matter what happens, I'm not giving either of you up. I plan on keeping both of you in my lives, so you and Rachel need to figure this whole mess out."

"Sure, Quinn. I'll fix my marriage just to make things easier for you." They both laughed at that, but Finn's smile faded quickly. He dragged his hand through his hair, making it stick up in a million different directions. "I just need everyone to stop asking me about an annulment. Like, I get it. In order to try and fix our marriage, we need to acknowledge all outcomes. But I have, and I know what outcome I don't want. So let's just move on from it, okay?"

Quinn held her hands up, but she was grinning the entire time. This was the fight that she had been looking for in Finn. The last few weeks that they had just been mooning at each other from across the football field had been frustrating for everyone. Quinn had a feeling that they were finally going to be making some sort of progress, and it was going to be the good kind.

"I think we can make that happen. I'll tell Santana to spread the word. Everyone will know in the next five minutes."

"You might as well tell Puck too. Or haven't you noticed that he's been meddling in just about everyone's business lately?"

"Oh, I've noticed. He's pretty great, isn't he?" Quinn got a look on her face that Finn could only describe as starry-eyed. He couldn't help grinning at her, and when Quinn noticed, she narrowed her eyes at him. "What?"

Glad to have something else to focus on other than his troubled marriage with Rachel, Finn jumped at the chance to tease Quinn. "Oh, you're so in love with Puck."

Quinn opened her mouth to immediately deny it—she had done it so many times last year, it was practically a reflex for her now. The look on Finn's face was a little to knowing, and even slightly sympathetic. He and Quinn had dated each other for two years and known each other the entire time they had been in school before that, after all. He knew her well, and sometimes, Quinn forgot how much.

She snapped her mouth shut and settled for glaring at Finn as he started laughing. He couldn't wait to tease Puck next, since he had a feeling that Puck was just as in love with Quinn. After the mess of last year, Finn wanted Puck and Quinn to be happy. If he could provide some help in bringing them together, Finn would happily jump at the chance. He knew that Puck and Quinn were half the reason Rachel was even talking to him at all.

"Did you think we'd ever get here?" Quinn finally asked. "We get along more as friends then we ever did as a couple. It's kind of crazy, actually."

"Provoking Puck into the joining the football team may be the smartest thing I've ever done," Finn said sagely, and Quinn rolled her eyes again, but she was smiling. They both knew that he was right.

They both stood and Finn shouldered his duffle bag. Puck was his brother, practically his best friend now, and of course he talked to him and sought out his advice. Still, he appreciated Quinn coming to him and talking to him as well. It reminded him that, even though Finn felt alone, he still had his friends supporting him—and Rachel—through all of this.

As they left the locker room, Quinn said, "Let's see what we can do about getting you and your wife back together." She smiled mischievously. "Maybe we should try Santana's idea and lock the two of you into a closet until you come to your senses."

"Ha ha, funny. I'd rather Rachel come to me on her own, thanks." He hoped for that, more than anything. He knew that she was still hurt and angry, and that was blocking anything past the few painful conversations they'd had recently. Finn knew that he had the same problem as well. The first step would be for them to have a conversation that wasn't about their marriage.

Quinn shrugged her shoulders, but she smiled at the look of determination on Finn's face. "It was just a suggestion."

Rachel regretted every single time she had ever made fun of the Cheerios.

They actually did quite a bit of work, starting with the fact that they cheered for the football, basketball, and soccer teams. They ran pep rallies and fund raisers, and decorated for each. They even got assigned a player depending on what season they were in. The Cheerios basically sponsored the players by decorating their lockers on game days and representing them at pep rallies and Homecoming.

Of course, Rachel had been paired with Finn. Santana had insisted on pairing Quinn with Puck, and Santana had assigned herself Matt Rutherford, who had tried out for the football team and made varsity as a running back this year. She stated that Matt was quiet but a good guy, and insinuated that she may have other sorts of fun with him as well—Santana told them that she was still into guys just as much as she was into girls.

Rachel laughed quietly to herself as she thought back to that conversation. It had been during one of their sleepovers, which now appeared to be occurring weekly. Santana was still annoyed that Quinn and Rachel got to live together, and told them that they needed someone who knew how to have fun with all of that independence. So far, their sleepovers had consisted of movie marathons, popcorn, and milkshakes, but Santana had made sure to include a few margarita nights as well.

"What's so funny?"

Rachel jumped and turned to find Finn standing behind her, wearing a cautiously hopeful smile. She had been hoping to have the decoration of his locker completed before he came by for more textbooks, but she had gotten too distracted. Taking a deep breath, she stepped back and held her hands out, presenting his locker to him.

"So, what do you think?"

They both studied the locker together. Rachel had decorated it with music notes, drum popouts and drumsticks, and miniature pictures of the album covers of his favorite 80s bands. It looked good, and fit Finn perfectly. It was actually pretty thoughtful, the way Rachel had gone all out for Finn's locker decoration.

"It's perfect, Rach," Finn told her sincerely. "I mean, really. You did an awesome job."

"Well, I am quite crafty," Rachel allowed as she smiled at him. "We have to make sure that we find Matt's locker at some point. Apparently, Santana went overboard."
Finn snorted. "I bet she did. Quinn was a lot nicer for Puck. She decorated it in his football number and went all out with the school colors and football-type… things."

"I would expect nothing less from the queen of school spirit." They both stood there for a long moment, keeping their eyes mostly on the locker, but still trying to sneak glances at one another when they thought the other wasn't looking. "So," Rachel finally said. "The football season seems to be going well for you."

Finn arched an eyebrow in surprise at the abrupt change in topic. It wasn't like Rachel was exactly an expert on football. But it seemed like she was trying to carry an actual conversation with him, and the effort she was showing made Finn more hopeful than even the night her show premiered the past July. He figured at this point, it was best to take her lead.

"We have a really good team this year. I think we might be able to win it all. I'm… having Puck on the football team has really made a difference."

Now it was Rachel's turn to stare at Finn with wide, surprised eyes. She knew that they got along now, that they now treated one another as the brothers they were always meant to be, but this was the first time she was sure that Finn actually said it out loud. She smiled, warmly and sweetly, and couldn't resist laying her hand on Finn's arm and squeezing.

Even if everything didn't work out, the fact that Finn and Puck were brothers now was a better outcome than she could have ever hoped for. She stepped closer to Finn, briefly putting her head on his shoulder, and felt good what was happening for the first time in a long time.

Finn put his other hand over Rachel's and did his best not to give in to his first instinct, which was to sweep her into his arms and kiss her senseless. He knew that that wouldn't go over well, and besides, he didn't want to first time he kissed his wife again to be in the middle of their high school hallway.

So he settled for squeezing her hand return, but he couldn't resist adding: "You look good in the uniform, you know."

Rachel looked down at herself, having momentarily forgotten that Quinn wanted the whole squad to dress in their cheerleading uniforms on spirit and game days. It was a change for Rachel, to be sure, but she didn't mind that much. The red and white uniform wasn't too bad.

She felt her cheeks flushing at Finn's compliment. "Thank you," she murmured, looking down at their connected hands.

For a moment, she felt that old spark of attraction between them, and it wasn't weighed down by hurt and betrayal. It was light and freeing and it felt like… it felt like the first step of rebuilding their relationship.

The bell for the next period rang then, and Finn and Rachel jumped apart at the sound. Rachel pointed to her own locker—situated next to Finn's thanks to their same last name—and quickly moved towards it to get out the textbooks and notebooks she needed for her math class. She shut her locker and turned to walk down the hall, but thought better of it and spun on her heel to smile at Finn once again.

"Bye, Finn," Rachel said. It was the first time in months that she hadn't run away from a conversation with him, and Finn couldn't stop the grin from forming on his face. He was pretty sure he'd be wearing it for the rest of the day.

He waved his fingers at her, not caring that Rachel would be able to see all the hope and happiness written clearly on his face. "Bye, Rach."

Finn watched as Rachel turned and walked down the hallway, and he didn't care that he was going to be late for his own class. He stood there, watching her, until he felt someone come up next to him. Without looking, he knew that it was Puck.

"You look like a real lovesick dope watching after Berry like that. You know that, right?" Puck said pleasantly.

Finn nudged his brother—hard—with an elbow to the ribs. He smiled in satisfaction as Puck grunted, and then went to his own class. He laughed as Puck cursed and followed him the entire way.

So Bethany Joy Lenz, Sophia Bush, and Hilarie Burton Morgan have started an awesome podcast called Drama Queens, where they re-watch each episode and then discuss it, giving their opinions on storylines and some behind the scenes info. It's a fun podcast and if you're enjoying the show, I highly recommend listening to it! It definitely helps shape the direction I go in with this fic—they spend a lot of time talking about how they're all playing teenagers in the show, and teenagers, as we all know (because most of us have been there) are dumb. But they learn, and they grow, and there's good character development, which is what I'm attempting to show here. :)

Thanks for reading!