TESSA THE PILLOW AND BLANKET RESCUER!

TESSA COULD ALREADY TELL THAT NATIONALS WAS GOING TO BE STRESSFUL. With Mercedes sick after a bad burrito, she had found herself running back and forth around the hotel getting everything from paper towels to extra sheet music for Mr Schue.

Toppling a tower of towels on top of each other, Tessa was just able to peek over the top of them as she ran down the hall. Turning a corner, she swore loudly as she bumped right into someone, peering over the towels and grateful to see that it was Sam that she'd just ran into, "crap, sorry babe." She sighed, loudly.

Seeing her hurry, Sam widened his eyes slightly and held her by her shoulders to slow her down and looked right at her worriedly, "you're okay, what's going on? Why are you running around hotels? Finn said he saw you run past at least twice and he thought he was going crazy so I came out to check that you're okay and that Finn hasn't lost his sanity."

"I'm fine." Tessa assured him through a weak smile, "just running round sorting everything for everyone. They need stuff, with Mercedes being sick and all. Just know, Finn lost his sanity years ago, tell him I said that."

"I will darling." Sam chuckled, pleased to see a less stressed smile coming back to Tessa's face as her shoulders relaxed slightly, "are you okay? You seem a bit flustered."

Letting out a deep breath, Tessa smiled back at him, "I'm alright. I just have a lot to do, back and forth sorting out this and that for Mr Schue whilst they try to work out what's wrong with Mercedes, I promised Puck I'd let him borrow my geography notes and I still haven't gone over the choreography and put in the finishing touches with Mike and rearrange Edge of Glory to fit me, Tina and Quinn."

Noticing her beginning to worry once again, Sam reached out and rubbed his hands gently over her shoulders, and looked down to get her eyes to meet his, "hey, calm down, okay? I'll help you out. Give me some of those towels I'll come up with you and I'll bring back your geography notes for Puck, that's one less trip for you."

"Thank you." Tessa smiled softly, handing over a few of the towels, making it a lot easier for her to see where she was going. Shaking her head, she let out a shaky laugh, "I don't know what's wrong with me, I never usually get this nervous."

"You're gonna do great, you always do." Sam said through a genuine smile, "have you had enough to eat today?"

Looking up at him, Tessa couldn't help but smile, no one cared for her the way that he did, "yeah. I want to Chipotle with the girls, we got burritos, but that kinda backfired with Mercedes getting sick and all." She laughed breathlessly, shaking her head, "how about you? How are you feeling?"

"I'm a bit nervous too, we all just wanna win it for the guys who're graduating i guess." Sam admitted, his smile growing into a cheeky grin, "but I'm all the better for seeing you."

Nudging into his side slightly, Tessa was quick to tease him, "you're sappy."

"You know you love it." He shot back through a smirk.

"I do love it." Tessa remarked, wiggling her eyebrows up and down and bursting into light laughter as they continued to tease each other down the hallway, knowing that however hard Nationals was going to be, they had each other to lean on.

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REHEARSALS WAS ALREADY A DISASTER. Puck studying for his European geography test had been the last straw for Sam and he'd found himself struggling against the arms of Mike and Joe to try and throw a punch his way and quite frankly all hell had broken loose.

Eventually, Coach Beiste had returned with Mr Schue, rushing straight through the door and standing in the middle of the fight to keep the two boys apart as they attempted to get towards one another.

"He's studying for geography while we're trying to rehearse and it's bogus!" Sam defended himself loudly, pointing an accusing finger Puck's way.

"Well maybe it'd be easier for me to rehearse if your girlfriend would stop adding stuff to the dance! I already knew it! You dance like you've got your feet stuck in bear traps and you're trying to gnaw them off." Puck shouted in return, only making Sam angrier.

Shoving harder against Mike's grip on him, Sam felt himself becoming protective especially as he caught sight of Tessa biting onto her lip guiltily, "don't you dare blame my girl for any of this!" He yelled, taking yet another attempt to swing at Puck.

Over the chaos and screaming of the rehearsals, Kurt was more shocked by something he'd found out on his phone, deciding to shout it out to the rest of the group, "Mr Schue, are you aware that whilst we're arguing about jazz squares, Unique is being handed the key to the city by Rahm Emmanuel?"

"And plus my pillow and blanket fell in the pool, disaster!" Brittany pitched in, her expression growing worried as she peered out to watch her pillow and blanket floating around in the pool.

Wheeling in to try and keep the peace, Artie spoke calmly to try and get everyone to see reason, "look, I think everyone is just a little tired. We've been rehearsing for three straight hours."

"Yeah, and we'll rehearse all night if we have too." Finn spoke over him firmly, "we can rest when we've won."

"Just because we lost Mercedes doesn't mean that we can be anything less than perfect! Perfect!" Rachel continued on, then again starting off the yelling in the room all over again.

Listening to everyone yelling at one another for no apparent reason and with Sam shoving anyone around him just for the sake of it, Santana had finally snapped and took control, "okay you know what? Hey! I don't want to hear any of this 'we can't do it without her' because guess what? We don't have a choice. So be warned, if you're not giving this everything you've got, I will go all Lima Heights on your sorry asses." She shouted, making sure to get all up in everyone's faces to get the message across properly.

"Listen to yourselves." Mr Schue said, taking his chance to take control once again.

"I know, I'm sorry I always go to the yelling place, I have rage." Santana defended herself through a pout, holding her hands up in surrender.

"No, it's a great thing. There is so much passion in this room. Even with all your arguing it's about the work." Mr Schue said proudly, before being persuaded by the group to let them continue rehearsing and assigning them to their duties to allow the group to feel as ready as they possibly could for the death slot.

Her eyes flickering up to meet Sam's, Tessa caught onto his irritated expression and as much as she knew he wasn't mad with her, she couldn't help but feel guilty. Seeing her stood on her own, Mike mumbled the beginning of the choreography over to the guys and weaved his way through the Edge of Glory rehearsals to grab her attention, "you wanna help me out on this one, Tess?" He asked her softly.

Breaking out of her thoughts, Tessa looked up to greet him with a forced smile, "I think I'll go and rescue Britt's pillow and blanket from the pool."

"My hero." Brittany smiled, wrapping her arms around Tessa from behind and giving her a reassuring squeeze.

"I'll cover for you." Mike whispered, wrapping his arms around the two girls before they let Tessa escape and sneak out towards the door.

After calming himself down, Sam had looked over to try and find Tessa and watched as she discreetly slipped out the door away from anyone's notice. Feeling guilty, he ran his hands through his hair and turned back to the choreography, where Mike gave him a thump on the back and a small smile.

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IT WAS ALMOST TIME FOR THE NEW DIRECTIONS TO GO ON STAGE AND EVERYONE WAS NERVOUS. Narrowing her eyes into the mirror, Tessa was trying to put on her lipstick as carefully as possible whilst the anticipatory murmurs echoed around the room.

After his fight with Puck in the rehearsals, Sam hadn't managed to say anything to Tessa so once he'd psyched himself up with a deep breath, he made his way over and pulled up a chair next to her, "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for starting that fight with Puck in rehearsals."

Turning to him with a gentle smile, Tessa shook her head, "you don't need to apologize to me. You're pretty much perfect in my books. You've done nothing wrong." She assured him.

"What Puck said though was so wrong. You worked so hard on that choreography, both you and Mike and I know how proud you are of it. You deserve to be given credit for how hard you worked." Sam explained, clenching his jaw slightly as he spoke.

Noticing him begin to tense up, Tessa scooted over in her seat and pulled his hand into hers, "I'm okay. But thank you, it means a lot that you care." Tilting her head to the side, she let out a soft sigh, "what did I ever do to deserve you?"

Smiling into his lap, Sam pulled her hand to his lips and placed a kiss against it, "you're pretty cool. Kinda makes me wanna fall in love with you all over again."

"Stop. I'd kiss you but I have lipstick on and I don't wanna ruin it for once." Tessa told him through a laugh, standing up from her seat as she caught sight of Mr Schue coming into the room and expecting a pep talk was on their way.

Taking both her hands as Tessa offered them out to pull him up when Mr Schue called show circle, Sam was quick to kiss her on the cheek instead, keeping her hand firmly in his as they stood besides Tina and Mike ready for the pep talk.

Interrupting Mr Schue before he could really begin the pep talk, Finn had gained the attention and taken over, "Mr Schue, you've given us plenty of pep talks over the years but remember, you said that a teachers job is done when his students don't need him anymore. Last night, we all sat around in a circle after you went to bed and we told stories. But then we went around the room and everyone said what they wanted to win this thing for and we all said the same thing, we want to win this for you. And I know that every year at school, Principal Figgins gives away the teacher of the year award but i don't think any of us have to wait to see how we feel about that. You're like our teacher of a lifetime."

Hearing the agreement from the group, Mr Schue had found himself feeling emotional as he looked at the group that would soon be very different, "thank you, Finn, all of you. I love you guys so much."

Hearing the PA system call their names and with Mercedes bursting through the door last minute feeling completely better, things were looking up for the New Directions and their nerves were quickly replaced with a feeling of excitement for going out there and smashing it on the Nationals stage.

[EDGE OF GLORY — SUNG BY THE TROUBLETONES]

[IT'S ALL COMING BACK TO ME NOW — SUNG BY RACHEL BERRY]

[PARADISE BY THE DASHBOARD LIGHT — SUNG BY THE NEW DIRECTIONS]

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WINNING NATIONALS HAD BEEN THE GREATEST FEELING. Coming back to Mckinley, the only thing the New Directions had to worry about was the reaction from the rest of the school so it came as a surprise when they were all stood waiting for their arrival in the hallways.

Catching sight of slushy cups in some of their hands, Tessa had looked towards Blaine with a deep sigh, the two of them making a silent agreement to help one another clean up after being slushied once again after a huge achievement.

Seeing two of the hockey players strut forwards, they expected the worst, squeezing their eyes shut and waiting for the red, chilling slushy to be thrown right into their faces, but instead, they were met with red and white confetti swirling down around them. Tentatively opening their eyes to the cheering, the group couldn't help but smile as they felt appreciated by a school who'd always seemed to overlook them.

Laughing loudly as the confetti rained down on them, Tessa squeezed onto both Blaine and Sam's hands bouncing up and down out of excitement whilst the the group paraded through the hallways with their Nationals trophy, getting high fives of congratulations from everyone who passed, even Ryan, who Tessa watched with a smile as he pulled Sam into a hug and gave her a grin himself.

Finally arriving in the choir room, Brittany jumped right up into Tessa's back, almost knocking her straight to the floor whilst they both burst into fits of laughter. With Brittany still on her back, it made it much harder for the two of them to escape Mike and his sparkling cider bottle until eventually Santana came to defend her girls by throwing a cupcake at him.

With both Brittany and Santana's arms around her, it hit Tessa that there was only a short amount of time she'd have left with them in school and on the Cheerios. They were her best friends, something freshman year Tessa thought she'd never be able to say. Feeling herself getting a bit emotional, she squeezed her eyes tight shut and pulled both of them closer to her wanting to enjoy the moments they'd have left as the three of them.

Celebrations high in the choir room, Tessa had found the time to party with each person whilst they all just enjoyed feeling like winners with their massive nationals trophy ready for proud display. Spinning her around into his arms, Sam grinned as Tessa wasted no time in pulling him down by his collar to lock lips, seen as everyone else had seemed to throughout the celebrations.

Sighing out happily, she felt in that moment as though her smile might never wash away. Knowing that people she truly loved were with her now, she knew she had to savour their last moments together as a group before they had to say goodbye.