A Beautiful Brain

chapter 6

“Rachel? Is that you?”, Finn asked again, staring at the beautiful brunette across the room. He couldn’t believe his eyes. Was that really Rachel? His Rachel? It couldn’t be; his Rachel was in a coma. After several months, the doctors told him the chances of her waking up were practically zero. But he couldn’t deny what he saw, and what he saw was her. 

Oh great, Rachel thought. Of all the law firms in the world, he had to work here. That is just great. And the day was going so well. “Finn ”, she said with a cold tone in her voice. Rachel decided not to say anything more to him and introduced herself to the other two lawyers. “Hi, I’m Rachel Berry”, she said with a warm smile. 

“God, I’m actually smiling”, she thought, “I should get an Oscar for this” 

“Kyle Richardson”, one of the other lawyers said, introducing himself. 

“Jesse st. James”, the other lawyer said. “So.. you and Finn already know each other?”, he asked immediately after that. 

“A long time ago”, Rachel said to him with a cold tone in her voice, not bothering to give Finn a second look. She then turned towards Sam. “I’m gonna go home Sam. See you tomorrow”, she said, trying to sound as normal as possible. And then she left. 

“That was weird”, Jesse said. “Who is she, Finn?” 

“I don’t wanna talk about it Jesse ”, Finn said as he made his way out of the room to follow Rachel. He was too late; the elevator doors closed in front of him. When he ran the ten floors down, he was just in time to see her drive away. 

When Finn arrived at his apartment, he put his briefcase down near the door and sat down on the large couch in front of the TV. He didn’t bother putting on the TV. He had enough on his mind already. All he did at the time was sit and stare at the blank screen. 

His thoughts were with Rachel, as they always were. When he left his old life two years ago, he wanted to start over completely. That meant moving out of town and having no more thoughts of Rachel, there would be no more crying at her bed, no more days of hoping she’d wake up and no more days when he came home and wanted to kill himself. 

That was the plan. Great plan that turned out to be. Who was he kidding? He could have ran away to the other side of the world and it wouldn’t have made the slightest difference. There wasn’t a day that had gone by when he didn’t think about her. Sure it had gotten a little easier over the years but the feelings were still there. 

And now she was back and he was mad at everyone, especially himself. 

“Why the hell didn’t someone call me?”, he thought 

“Because you cut yourself off, you moron!”, he answered his own question. 

He had been so afraid that she would someday pass away and he didn’t want to be put through the whole thing again then, so he decided not to tell anyone where he went. He remembered he suddenly got a call from Santana a few months after she left. She had hired a PI who managed to track down a cell phone registered to his name. He didn’t even let her finish her first sentence. He had flatly said he didn’t wanna know and hung up. After that, he got rid of his cell phone and got a new one. 

Finn just sat there staring in front of him. Santana had wanted him to know Rachel had woken up… and he hung up on her. At the time, Finn was afraid Rachel had died. He didn’t want to know. He thought it would kill him if he knew. So he hung up. Damn, he felt like such an jerk. Oh, who was he kidding… he was the king of jerks. He could talk about it any way he wanted, bottom line is he left his soul mate with absolutely nothing. Soul mate… a tear trickled down his cheek. He remembered he hadn’t cried since the day he saw Rachel the last time. 

“Oh for crying out loud, I have to do something. I have to talk to her”, he thought. Maybe he should wait until tomorrow, when she’d be back for work… if she came back at all. God, he even continued to ruin her life even now. Now he was sure, he had to talk to her. 

But the problem was, he didn’t have her number. He considered calling Santana… but she’d probably kill him right through the phone. He considered it for a minute. What choice did he have? He picked up the phone and called Santana's phone number. “Let’s hope she didn’t move”, Finn thought as he pressed dial on his phone. 

“Yeah, this is Puck”, a voice sounded on the other end of the line. 

“This is Finn Hudson ”, Finn said, trying to sound as calm as possible, but Puck still heard he was shaken up. 

“As in Rachel's ex-husband Finn Hudson?”, Puck inquired. 

“Yeah” 

“As in, the sadistic bastard who dumped her when she was in a coma?”, Puck asked, his tone getting more forceful. 

Finn could feel his eyes start to well up again. “Yes”, he said softly. 

“What do you want?”, Puck said with a cold, unfriendly tone. He remembered that tone. It was the same tone Rachel used on him back in the office. 

“I want her phone number. I know you have it”, Finn said. 

“Sorry Finn, but I can’t help you… or more precisely, I don’t want to help you. You have no idea what she went through.”, Puck said. 

“Look, I wish things were different, but…”, Finn said before Puck cut him off. 

“Yeah, and I wish you’d drown in your own barf… I guess we’re both disappointed.”, Puck spat out 

“Look, I know you think I don’t deserve it, but I really really need to talk to her”, Finn pleaded. 

“Oh well, if you really really have to speak her, then it’s okay”, Puck said in a sarcastic voice. 

“Look, I’m sorry. I just have to talk to her” 

“I don’t want your apologies Finn, and neither does Rachel. Don’t call again Finn.” 

“Wait, wait, don’t hang up”, Finn said but before he even finished, he heard the dial tone. Puck had hung up. He couldn’t really blame him, especially after the way he treated Santana last time she called. He guessed he had no choice but to wait until tomorrow.