ORIGINAL SONG

[The scene we WANTED but never got. Picks up the day after S2 regionals.]

"You sounded amazing last night. But I have to ask... Was that about me, Rach? About us?"

She just looked at him for a moment before her gaze cast downward.

"Well... maybe in part. Mostly, it's... it's about me. It's just how I've been feeling. You said I needed to reach down deep and write about the pain, from where the music comes from. So..."

He bows his head, unable to look at her as the memory of that conversation flooded his mind...

"It still feels like you're just playing scared. You're only dealing with the easy pain. You got to get to the hard stuff. That's what's relatable to everybody."

"I'm perfectly capable of accessing my pain. I cry every time I sing a solo."

"Exactly. When you sing, I can feel it. I guess you just got to go inside yourself to wherever the singing comes from, and write from there."

And then she ended up writing Get It Right. She thought she'd failed him.

How could she have gotten it so backwards?

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

Then his amber eyes found her big chocolate ones. He could see the damage the past few months have caused her still fresh in them, even though they shone with a brightness attempting to mask it (but not quite succeeding). He guessed it was her superior acting skills at work.

"For everything. For... for the hallway. For the tree lot. For lying about me and Santana. The kissing booth. Not talking enough. Not listening enough. Letting you down, over and over... Quinn."

"Finn, you don't need to apologize to me. Not for any of that, especially not for the last one." She forced a small smile hoping it would hide her pain. "You-you were free to see whomever you chose – both times, right? It's not like you owe me anything." She swallowed thickly, fighting tears. "I'm the one who ruined us, wasn't I?

"Rachel..."

"No, Finn just don't, okay? It's alright. It was just a song, so don't feel obligated to explain or–"

"No it wasn't." He gripped both her upper arms gently and looked her in the eye. "We both know it wasn't 'just a song', Rachel... You need to know something though. I forgive you. I forgave you, long ago, actually. I should've said so sooner, but then I just... I dunno. I thought maybe I was too late. I didn't think we'd work out again. But it's not because I don't love you."

Her hard eyes bore into his, looking for the truth. "Are you- are you saying that you love me now, Finn?"

He sighed quietly, his hands sliding down her arms and gently squeezed her little balled up fists. "Still. I'm saying I love you still and never stopped."

"Then what's the issue? After all this time... You stand here claiming to forgive me, to love me, and yet..."

"And yet I don't deserve you, Rach. You deserve better than me. You always have. You ARE gonna be a big star – no, you're already a star, as yesterday proved once again – and you can write songs like THAT one, and I'm just... me. Going nowhere fast, except to Lima Loserville."

He released her hands and looked away. and her lips pressed into a thin frustrated line.

"Oh. Okay. So I suppose you'll be content to settle down here in Lima then, marry Quinn? Raise your family together while you manage the tire shop and she makes enough commission from her realtor sales to buy your starter home together? Is that how you see things working out for you?"

"What?! NO! No, of course that's not what I want, not any of that... Where the hell did that even come from?"

Rachel rolled her eyes and turned her back toward him. "Maybe you should ask your girlfriend."

"That'd be kinda hard to do," he shrugged, even though she couldn't see him do it.

She looked over her shoulder and asked quietly, "Why? Afraid she'd just lie to you some more? Or maybe you're afraid she'd talk you into that white picket fence and 2.5 blonde-haired perfect children."

"No. I can't ask 'my girlfriend' anything since I don't currently have one."

She spun around in surprise to fully face him again.

"What?"

"We broke up."

"What are you talking about Finn? When did you even have a chance to–"

"Last night, right after sectionals. Soon as we got off the bus when we got back. I drove her home and told her in her driveway before she got out of the truck that it was over, I was done. We were never meant to be together and it was a mistake for me to have gone back to her in the first place. I'm really not sure why I did it to begin with...either time, really."

"I'm sorry, Finn. Is... is she okay? She must be so hurt. Why would you do that?"

He smiled sadly at her concern. Of course she would worry how QUINN felt. That's just her big heart that only he knows best showing again, he supposed.

"Don't be sorry, and don't worry about Quinn. She's fine. She knew why. She knew it's because I don't love her, not anymore than she ever loved me, which honestly? I think we all know wasn't that much. We would have never lasted anyway. And she knows it's true, because... because she's not you."

"Finn, I don't even... I don't know what that means... I-I don't know what to say."

"Rachel Berry, speechless? That might just be a first," he chuckled softly as he took her hand in his again, shaking her arm a little as he spoke. "Now seriously, where did you get this totally wacko idea of me marrying Quinn and stuff? I mean, I know I don't particularly have any real direction in my life right now, but in a million years I could never see a future with her in it."

Her big brown eyes looked up at him, wide and confused. "Nothing, it's just... um. Something I thought you'd want," she murmured.

"Not at all," he said as he stepped closer and brushed the backs of his knuckles softly over her cheek.

"Then what DO you see in your future?"

He looked up as if thinking for a moment, then smiled down at her, losing himself in her bottomless ebony eyes. "Not entirely sure yet. I can't see that far ahead in time... Well, I DO have a little bit of an idea, but it kinda depends on a few things."

"Like?"

"Like what happens after I do this," he whispered as he closed the space between them and pressed his lips to hers.

As she reciprocated, he got lost in everything that is Rachel Berry. Her smell, her warmth, her soft moans and sweet breath on his face.

Their kiss was the softest most delicious sensation he'd experienced in months, since the last time he'd felt it back in November at his mom's wedding. That was the night he and Rachel nearly made love for the first time (and likely would have, had Kurt and Blaine not come home early and interrupted them). As he cradled her cheeks in his hands, deepening the kiss, memories of how she'd tasted that night came rushing back; a hint of champagne and coconut wedding cake still on her lips. How pliant she'd been in his arms, how gorgeous she was in the moonlight streaming into his room, the feeling of her heated skin against his... and right now all those vivid memories were shining in technicolor.

"Finn?" she exhaled as she broke the kiss. "Finn, why did you do that?"

"How can I not? I've wanted to do that for months... Rachel I've missed you SO much. I've missed us, more than you know. I know I'm not any real prize and I don't deserve yet another chance, but I do love you. I swear to god I love you more than anything in this world. And I want to make things up to you, because you... YOU didn't get it wrong, Rach. I did. And... maybe, if you're willing to help me a little, I could be the guy that deserves you. The one I should've been in the first place, not the douche you remember from the past year or two."

He combed his fingers through her long wavy locks, silky as it slid between his fingers, and waited for her to say something. But she was oddly silent.

"Rach? I... I'm getting a little worried here. Is that a no... or, can you say something please?"

When she finally turned her face up to look at him, he saw the tears starting to spill from the corners of her eyes and brushed his thumbs across her cheeks to catch them.

"Are... are you saying you want us to get back together?"

He presented his half smile, unsure what she was thinking at that moment, but figuring the dimples couldn't hurt. "If you'll have me, if you think you can forgive me for being such an ass and breaking your heart so bad, then yeah."

She thought for a beat and finally exhaled, squaring her shoulders. His hands dropped to his sides, bracing himself for the blow he was sure she was gonna deliver. She had that overconfident, slightly stubborn look on her face that he'd only ever seen when she was angry or disappointed or gearing up to lecture him about something he'd screwed up.

"It depends."

"On what?" His eyebrow quirked up in hopeful anticipation.

"Your answer... What do you see in your future now, Finn?"

He didn't hesitate. "You. New York and you."

As her million-dollar pearly smile grew wide, she nodded approvingly.

"That's a good place to start."

. . . . .

~❤️~