fourteen, 2/2 (glee - rachel/jesse)
Title: Fourteen (part 2)
Fandom: Glee
Characters/Pairings: Rachel/Jesse, with appearances by New Directions.
Rating: PG-13.
Summary: Fourteen years spanning Rachel and Jesse. Future!fic.
Notes: ~3800 words total. Spoilers for all of season 1. OMGroff, I feel so accomplished.
PART ONE.
-
eight.
Jesse spends the early hours of New Years with Melanie.
For a moment, through a light-headed haze, he considers getting back with her, just so they’re not alone for the night. But she doesn’t deserve that, he knows, so he doesn’t. They get a little drunk, and laugh at the fireworks burning flowery images into their retinas, eventually just resorting to lying on the roof of his apartment block with a blanket in tow; they talk about everything (Broadway, girls, Rachel, her fears for her future career) and nothing (hair, his dress sense, I Never, the quality of the alcohol they’re consuming) until the first rays of daybreak dawn.
In those hours, Melanie persuades him to go and audition for the lead role in an upcoming musical, since he’s getting lazy, and she needs him to look good while shopping with her. When he asks her when he’s turned gay, she pushes him and almost causes him to slide right off the roof.
He agrees, though. All this doing nothing has made him restless.
-
The next day, he finds out that Rachel is leaving Oklahoma!
There’s no news of what she’s planning on doing next (he knows, because he searches her name in Google, and stays on it long enough to confirm it, before he closes the window with a dramatic flourish. He feels more than creepy looking it up like that). He hopes maybe they'll find each other on the stage.
He doubts it.
-
The next week, he finds himself at an impromptu audition with a director he’s worked with in the past. The two chat away like old friends, waiting for his leading lady, when she shows up. He hasn’t seen her in a month (not even outside his window), and it’s almost like a smack in the face to see her here. He manages to collect himself quickly, and sneaks her a slightly confused look when she apologises about her lateness like they’ve never even met before.
Then they’re singing together.
He feels eighteen again, young and naive and a bit clueless about love, and her voice is perfect; they’re singing together and it feels right. Unconsciously, he throws more of himself into that song (he fears that maybe he won’t get that part back, after).
The director is a little surprised, and tells them, while they’re still breathing heavily and staring at each other, that he’ll call them later.
-
They find a deserted hallway before they act on it.
Their first kiss in years is full of frustration and leftover anger and regret, and it faintly tastes of this is wrong and this feels right.
After, they realise they still need to talk about it.
So they walk to the nearly-empty park across the road, and he talks through everything.
Everything:
When the lies started (the beginning), when he realised they were irrelevant (the Run Joey Run video). That what they had was real. That he did love her. And that he did hate her, for a second;
“I was supposed to just go back to Carmel when it was all said and done, to go back to how things were before I met you. I… was scared that you could make me regret going back. For what happened that day, and for everything, I’m sorry.”
What he regrets (everything) and what he doesn’t (them), what stopped him from coming back (he always knew she was strong enough).
She interjects with how he’s changed, and - finally, after a bit - that she forgives him. After eight years.
“New beginnings, right?”
A wry smile. “Hi. I’m Jesse.”
“I know who you are.”
-
So they start again, there.
He takes her out on a date (7 o’clock, flowers, a crisp button-down shirt and flirting over the meal).
He gets cast in that musical with her. They’re not playing star-crossed lovers (not quite), but they’re okay with that. The critics rave about her voice, about the quality she brings to the character that has been played by so many other great musical theatre actresses before, about his acting chops and his underused vocal ability, and briefly, about their chemistry in that duet they sing together.
This time, it’s simple. They have no hidden agendas, no jealous ex-boyfriends in the vicinity. It’s simple, but it’s not easy. Together, they learn to love again, and love each other.
Their life isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty close.
-
fourteen.
“Hey, Finn.”
“Hi, Rachel.”
“Oh God, remember this photo?” interrupts a voice loudly, from somewhere vaguely behind them. The two turn around, seeing the small crowd stumbling over themselves to get a good look at something a happy-looking Asian woman was holding in the middle of the chaos.
“Geek Club, 2009,” reads Matt, peering over her shoulder with a grin.
“What the hell did they draw on me?” asks a tall Latino beauty, seemingly horrified, as she cranes her neck to get a closer look.
“Oh my gosh, look at your beard, Quinn!”
“All that hard work, just to have my face scribbled out,” says Rachel with a smile.
“You kind of suit the afro look, Matt,” says Quinn. Matt nudges her playfully, like they are carefree adolescents again.
“Hey, why doesn’t Mike or Brittany have any graffiti on them?” Finn speaks up, to loud agreements.
“Yeah!”
“Maybe they were the ones vandalising it!”
Rachel holds a hand to her heart, dramatically; “Mike, Britt, you betrayed us! How could you?”
“Hey, don’t look at me,” says Mike, holding up his hands in mock-surrender.
“Hang on,” shouts a high-pitched male voice. Everyone turns to stare at Kurt, who’s pointing at the yearbook photo in disgust. “Did they draw breasts and a skirt on me?”
There’s a silence as they all look at the photo then each other, and burst into laughter.
“Oh Kurt, I think you look sexy.”
“Thanks, Mercedes. I’d say you look stunning too… but, well, I can’t take that picture seriously with that permanent marker all over your face.”
Suddenly, a flash brightens the room. Brittany grins at her camera, happy with the resulting photo. Everyone looks at her, and she gives her blank stare back, with a tinge of laughter. “What? You guys looked cute.”
“We love you too, Brittany,” says Santana, who is clearly amused, and links their pinkies before pulling her friend into a spontaneous hug. Puck then decides to attack-hug the two of them, to which they squeal in surprise. Other (ex-)members of the club join in, and soon the whole room is condensed into one huge, giant hug (well, most of the room. Significant others which had also traversed to Lima, OH for the twelfth-year reunion stood off to the side, looking at each other awkwardly).
Rachel detaches herself as the group breaks apart, laughing, and she takes Jesse’s hand with a smile. He looks down at their intwined fingers, her ring flashing in the light; he smiles in content.
“That is never going to stop being weird,” remarks Kurt, gesturing at their hands.
Tina nods in compliance. “I mean, thirteen - fourteen years ago…”
“Has it really been that long?” wonders Kurt.
The four look reminiscent, and Rachel just looks up at Jesse with a smile.
“A lot can happen in fourteen years.”
fin.
If you want, you can read my companion to this fic: Closure.
It's an expansion of the scene in the park, after his audition.
Fandom: Glee
Characters/Pairings: Rachel/Jesse, with appearances by New Directions.
Rating: PG-13.
Summary: Fourteen years spanning Rachel and Jesse. Future!fic.
Notes: ~3800 words total. Spoilers for all of season 1. OMGroff, I feel so accomplished.
PART ONE.
-
eight.
Jesse spends the early hours of New Years with Melanie.
For a moment, through a light-headed haze, he considers getting back with her, just so they’re not alone for the night. But she doesn’t deserve that, he knows, so he doesn’t. They get a little drunk, and laugh at the fireworks burning flowery images into their retinas, eventually just resorting to lying on the roof of his apartment block with a blanket in tow; they talk about everything (Broadway, girls, Rachel, her fears for her future career) and nothing (hair, his dress sense, I Never, the quality of the alcohol they’re consuming) until the first rays of daybreak dawn.
In those hours, Melanie persuades him to go and audition for the lead role in an upcoming musical, since he’s getting lazy, and she needs him to look good while shopping with her. When he asks her when he’s turned gay, she pushes him and almost causes him to slide right off the roof.
He agrees, though. All this doing nothing has made him restless.
-
The next day, he finds out that Rachel is leaving Oklahoma!
There’s no news of what she’s planning on doing next (he knows, because he searches her name in Google, and stays on it long enough to confirm it, before he closes the window with a dramatic flourish. He feels more than creepy looking it up like that). He hopes maybe they'll find each other on the stage.
He doubts it.
-
The next week, he finds himself at an impromptu audition with a director he’s worked with in the past. The two chat away like old friends, waiting for his leading lady, when she shows up. He hasn’t seen her in a month (not even outside his window), and it’s almost like a smack in the face to see her here. He manages to collect himself quickly, and sneaks her a slightly confused look when she apologises about her lateness like they’ve never even met before.
Then they’re singing together.
He feels eighteen again, young and naive and a bit clueless about love, and her voice is perfect; they’re singing together and it feels right. Unconsciously, he throws more of himself into that song (he fears that maybe he won’t get that part back, after).
The director is a little surprised, and tells them, while they’re still breathing heavily and staring at each other, that he’ll call them later.
-
They find a deserted hallway before they act on it.
Their first kiss in years is full of frustration and leftover anger and regret, and it faintly tastes of this is wrong and this feels right.
After, they realise they still need to talk about it.
So they walk to the nearly-empty park across the road, and he talks through everything.
Everything:
When the lies started (the beginning), when he realised they were irrelevant (the Run Joey Run video). That what they had was real. That he did love her. And that he did hate her, for a second;
“I was supposed to just go back to Carmel when it was all said and done, to go back to how things were before I met you. I… was scared that you could make me regret going back. For what happened that day, and for everything, I’m sorry.”
What he regrets (everything) and what he doesn’t (them), what stopped him from coming back (he always knew she was strong enough).
She interjects with how he’s changed, and - finally, after a bit - that she forgives him. After eight years.
“New beginnings, right?”
A wry smile. “Hi. I’m Jesse.”
“I know who you are.”
-
So they start again, there.
He takes her out on a date (7 o’clock, flowers, a crisp button-down shirt and flirting over the meal).
He gets cast in that musical with her. They’re not playing star-crossed lovers (not quite), but they’re okay with that. The critics rave about her voice, about the quality she brings to the character that has been played by so many other great musical theatre actresses before, about his acting chops and his underused vocal ability, and briefly, about their chemistry in that duet they sing together.
This time, it’s simple. They have no hidden agendas, no jealous ex-boyfriends in the vicinity. It’s simple, but it’s not easy. Together, they learn to love again, and love each other.
Their life isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty close.
-
fourteen.
“Hey, Finn.”
“Hi, Rachel.”
“Oh God, remember this photo?” interrupts a voice loudly, from somewhere vaguely behind them. The two turn around, seeing the small crowd stumbling over themselves to get a good look at something a happy-looking Asian woman was holding in the middle of the chaos.
“Geek Club, 2009,” reads Matt, peering over her shoulder with a grin.
“What the hell did they draw on me?” asks a tall Latino beauty, seemingly horrified, as she cranes her neck to get a closer look.
“Oh my gosh, look at your beard, Quinn!”
“All that hard work, just to have my face scribbled out,” says Rachel with a smile.
“You kind of suit the afro look, Matt,” says Quinn. Matt nudges her playfully, like they are carefree adolescents again.
“Hey, why doesn’t Mike or Brittany have any graffiti on them?” Finn speaks up, to loud agreements.
“Yeah!”
“Maybe they were the ones vandalising it!”
Rachel holds a hand to her heart, dramatically; “Mike, Britt, you betrayed us! How could you?”
“Hey, don’t look at me,” says Mike, holding up his hands in mock-surrender.
“Hang on,” shouts a high-pitched male voice. Everyone turns to stare at Kurt, who’s pointing at the yearbook photo in disgust. “Did they draw breasts and a skirt on me?”
There’s a silence as they all look at the photo then each other, and burst into laughter.
“Oh Kurt, I think you look sexy.”
“Thanks, Mercedes. I’d say you look stunning too… but, well, I can’t take that picture seriously with that permanent marker all over your face.”
Suddenly, a flash brightens the room. Brittany grins at her camera, happy with the resulting photo. Everyone looks at her, and she gives her blank stare back, with a tinge of laughter. “What? You guys looked cute.”
“We love you too, Brittany,” says Santana, who is clearly amused, and links their pinkies before pulling her friend into a spontaneous hug. Puck then decides to attack-hug the two of them, to which they squeal in surprise. Other (ex-)members of the club join in, and soon the whole room is condensed into one huge, giant hug (well, most of the room. Significant others which had also traversed to Lima, OH for the twelfth-year reunion stood off to the side, looking at each other awkwardly).
Rachel detaches herself as the group breaks apart, laughing, and she takes Jesse’s hand with a smile. He looks down at their intwined fingers, her ring flashing in the light; he smiles in content.
“That is never going to stop being weird,” remarks Kurt, gesturing at their hands.
Tina nods in compliance. “I mean, thirteen - fourteen years ago…”
“Has it really been that long?” wonders Kurt.
The four look reminiscent, and Rachel just looks up at Jesse with a smile.
“A lot can happen in fourteen years.”
fin.
If you want, you can read my companion to this fic: Closure.
It's an expansion of the scene in the park, after his audition.