The Other Hummel

Light

The unthinkable. People are so fragile; one moment here and the next they are gone. Finn was gone.

Louisa's shoulders raised and fell as she took in a deep breath. Brody watched it and took her hand. She squeezed his hand in hers, looked at him and tried to smile. It was pain all over again, she was used to pain. However, Rachel was not. That was why they were here. Brody slid the doors open and a sobbing Rachel ran to his arms. Louisa was there to pat her back.

"How do I live from now on?"

Lou sighed:

"You learn to live with the pain. It goes dull with time. You honor him somehow; being an artist makes it all easier to do it. But most of all you relish in the pain because it means you had him in your life and it means so much."

Brody freed one hand from embracing Rachel to caress Lou's cheek:

"How do you know all that?"

Her eyes were gleaming with unshed tears:

"I've lost so many people, I lost count of. That's how my anxiety first triggered."

Rachel turned to her:

"Does that make Finn just another one? Does it make him any less special?"

"Oh no, Rachel. The pain is just as sharp."

The two girls hugged while Brody watched and fought his own tears. Louisa broke the embrace to look Rachel deep in her eyes:

"Never doubt that what you two had was true love. I never meant a thing to Finn."

"That's not true; he liked you very much."

"I know that. We became friends, family. But he loved you, Rachel. No one else."

Brody spoke out of his stupor:

"This feels so strange, doesn't it? It feels like the most surreal thing being here with the two of you, talking about Finn. And man! We've had so much petty this last year. And over what? Nothing! What does it mean who dates who when Finn is no longer here with us?"

Rachel's tears intensified again:

"It means I should have valued more the moments I had with him."

Louisa shook her head:

"Come on, it does no good to dwell in regrets. You two prized your moments together. You lived each moment to its fullest. Let's go to the practical side of things: have you eaten?"

Rachel snorted:

"Like I have an appetite..."

Louisa grabbed her hand and started dragging her to the kitchen:

"I know how it feels not wanting to do anything, wanting to give up and disappear. That's not the way, Rach. We're here to help you like I've been helped so many times. That means keeping you healthy. Times will teach you a way out of it."

xXxXx

Burt and Carole crossed the airport gate to see Kurt and Blaine waiting for them. Kurt and Carole went for a hug that needed no words and yet said it all. Burt grabbed his son's shoulders:

"You mean so much to me, buddy."

Kurt answered still from his stepmother's embrace: