Well hello! Did you miss me? Welcome to my new story! Thanks for deciding to take another journey with me! I promise it's going to be a good one...heartbreaking, but now as heartbreaking as Just Give Me A Reason...and well, if you haven't read that...what are you waiting for?

Anywho, the synopsis for this one doesn't even begin to do it justice so I hope you'll hang with me!

As always, I don't own anyone who appears/appeared on glee. I do however own any and all original characters. And the plot. All mistakes are mine (You'll see why in a few). On with the show!


Chapter One
Somewhere in New York, May 2022
The red envelope was sitting in her mailbox, perched on top of the stack of bills that resided in the small metal square. She blew out a breath as she grabbed for the stack of envelopes in a hurry, slamming the door closed and wiggling her key out in two swift moves. She shoved the stack into her open bag and headed for the stairs of the small walk up apartment building where she resided. She hustled up the one flight it took her to reach her small two bedroom apartment and shoved her key into the deadbolt, effectively opening the heavy front door with a grunt.

She dropped her bag just inside the door before she leaned against the solid wood for a moment, her eyes closing. It had been a long day at the office, the phone lines she manned had seemingly rang endlessly, and her temple pulsed with a headache that was reaching epic proportions. Of course it had been the day that she had forgotten her trusty bottle of Advil at home in her haste to leave the apartment. She ran her hands through her hair, walking more into the apartment towards the living room where the sounds of the TV were coming from.

"Hey" She said softly, coming into the room. She found her 2 year old son, Camden cuddled on the couch beside his nanny Jenna, clutching his stuffed elephant in his hands as the sounds of Elmo entertained him on the television.

"Hey Rachel." The younger woman smiled. Rachel walked over to the couch and sat down on the other side of Camden. He immediately crawled up to her side and Rachel wrapped her arms around him as she brought him into her lap. He laid his head on her chest before sticking two of his fingers in his mouth.

"How was he after I left?" She asked softly, running her hand through her sons messy mop of hair. She bent her head to kiss the crown of his head, just as he moved to lazily blink up at her.

"He calmed down once we pulled out the fire engine book." Jenna smiled, patting Camden's back. "His fever has gone down in the last little while, hopefully he'll sleep off whatever it is he's fighting"

Rachel nodded her head "I hope so too. Last thing he needs is another doctors visit." She murmured softly. Jenna silently agreed.

The two women talked for a few more minutes about Camden's day before Jenna left for the evening. She was a God send. Jenna was Camden's fulltime nanny. Rachel had really lucked out when she'd found her, fresh out school with an early childhood degree. Camden adored her, and to Rachel that's all that mattered. It took a lot for her toddler to become attached to anyone, and the fact that on the good days he always welcomed Jenna with a smile was a bonus.

She sighed as the little boy curled into her, grasping her shirt in his chubby fist.
"Mamamamamama" He babbled against her as he gazed up at her, his eyes glazed and showing the fact that he was fighting off an upcoming illness.

"Mama's here Camden." She smiled as she looked down at him. She ran her hand over his forehead, feeling the heat coming from his skin. She ran her fingers through his bangs that were getting a little long in the front.

"Mama 'ome?" He asked, looking up at her with wide eyes.

"Mama's home. Would Camden like some dinner?" She asked softly, rubbing his back a little bit. His eyes met hers as she looked down at him and he nodded, rubbing his warm cheek against her dress shirt. "Would you like some soup? With goldfish?" A nod again. Chicken noodle soup (minus the noodles) with plain goldfish crackers was Camden's favourite meal, sick or not. He made the sign language sign for please, as she attempted to slide him off her lap and onto the couch. He whined a little as his head rested on the arm of the couch, but calmed when she started the DVR and chose an episode of Elmo's World for him to watch while she made dinner. She made a quick escape to her bedroom, throwing off her stuffy work clothes and changing into a short pair of yoga pants and a t-shirt before heading back out to the living room. She checked in on Camden who had curled up on the couch and seemed to be thrown into what she called his Elmo trance. She headed for the kitchen when she was sure he was alright for a few minutes to get started on dinner. Luckily, they'd had the chicken soup for dinner last night as well, so all Rachel really had to do was heat it up and throw in the crackers. She made a salad for herself, choosing not to have the soup for the second night in a row. Normally she wouldn't allow the same for Camden, but he was sick and she wasn't up for the fight.

They had dinner together at their small table, just Rachel and Camden, him in his highchair. It was quiet, save for the sloppy slurps he was making with his spoon as he ate his favourite dish. She smiled as she watched him, half the liquid on his spoon dripping down his chin and onto the bib that she had thoughtfully tied around his neck.

"Is it good Cam?" She asked softly as she finished off her salad. She took a sip of water from her cup before looking at her little boy. He smiled softly at her before attempting to shovel a mass of mushed cracker into his mouth. He immediately whined when Rachel attempted to assist him.

When he was finished, she cleaned his face and he cuddled up to her on the couch, dragging his favourite book with him, the fire engine book. Rachel turned off the TV and let her little guy snuggle up to her as she read his favourite book. She loved nights like this the best, where they just got to sit at home, cuddled up with a good book. Camden had always been a cuddler, from the moment he was born he'd been her little cuddle bug, and she wouldn't change that for the world. He was hers, and hers alone.

After reading the fire engine book a second time, Rachel gave Camden a bath before taking his temperature again. It was still a little on the high side, so as a precaution she gave him another dose of children's Tylenol before putting him to bed. She stood over the side of his crib, reaching in and rubbing his back as the sound machine played behind them. When she was sure he was sleeping, she slipped out of the room before heading to the kitchen to wash up the dinner dishes, not without placing another kiss on his head.

She set about her household chores before finally collapsing on the couch, the stack of mail from earlier dropped beside her, a cold glass of ice tea in her hand. She leaned her head back on the plush head of her couch, closed her eyes and breathed in deeply for a few moments. She'd be lying if she said this life was easy. Being a single mother was not the way she had envisioned her life going, wasn't really in the cards. None of this really was. But the moment she laid eyes on Camden in the delivery room, she knew it would all be worth it. She'd welcomed him, embraced him and most of all loved him. Every single bit of him. But there were days that were hard, like today when she had to leave him with his sitter this morning because she had to be at work. But there were days that were easier, happier, like when he'd reached a particular milestone and managed to use a word instead of a sign or just simply smiled at her. He was her life. And she wouldn't change that for the world.

She opened her eyes again, took a sip of her iced tea before placing it on the table beside her and going for the stack of mail on the couch. Most of them were bills, none of them out of the ordinary thank God. She didn't need any more stress in her life.

And then she came to the red envelope. She held it in her hands for a moment, just looking at it and mulling over the possibilities of what it could be. She didn't have many friends, and the ones she did have were neither planning weddings or baby showers, so it couldn't be that. There wasn't even a return address on either the front corner or the back. She chewed her lip as curiosity got the best of her and she tore open the envelope. What was in the envelope took her as much by surprise.

Class of 2012
It's Hard to Believe it's Been 10 Years!

Join Us July 8th - 10th 2022 in Lima, Ohio
for a weekend filled with great friends, great food and plenty of memories! Itinerary to follow!
Please RSVP no later than June 15th via Facebook or contact Kurt Hummel.

Rachel felt her blood freeze. Had it really been ten years since high school? She ran her fingers through her dark brown hair as she held the white invitation in her hand. She went over the words printed in black script again, to make sure she had read it right. Her ten year high school reunion.
It couldn't be that time already, could it? She let the invitation drop to her lap as she stared straight ahead at the television for a moment, the evening news playing at a low volume. Memories of high school rushed forward, many she had locked away in that part of her brain she'd rarely visited in over three years time. She remembered the good times, sure. The feeling of belonging she had found in glee club even if she'd scared a lot of her teammates at first. She remembered how it felt to be winners, accepting trophies and eventually the acceptance of her peers.

She also remembered being in love. Her eyes closed as she thought about him. She tried really hard in the last few years to put him out of her mind. Finn Hudson had been the man that she had thought she was going to spend the rest of her life with. She'd thought he was the love of her life. But she'd been a stupid high school girl, and everyone knows that high school romances never lasted.

And theirs was just another one to add to the long list of romances that failed before theirs. They'd broken it off two weeks after she'd move to New York to start her first semester at NYU. He'd been accepted at UCLA to study teaching and the distance was just way, way too much to bear. So they'd amicably decided to just part before things turned ugly, to use his words. She had wanted to believe back then that they would have been strong enough but he knew her just as well as she knew him. Back then she had had a penchant for dramatics and it probably wouldn't have served them well while being so far apart.

And she'd been trying ever since that fateful day in September to forget him. Forget everything about him, everything she'd loved about him. She'd thrown herself in school, studying music with a minor in English while auditioning in every spare minute she had. She'd also gotten a job at a local coffee house right near campus to support her own insane caffeine habit and keep her mind off everything she had left behind.

Truth was, the auditions had failed her. There was always someone with more experience, more talent, a less ethnic nose and bigger boobs. She was a dime a dozen here in NYC and as time had crawled on, she realized that maybe she wasn't ever going to get her big break. And by the time she had graduated NYU with her degree in music and minor in English, she felt even more lost. So she kept auditioning, kept working at the coffee shop and just trucked on. She tried not to let her spirit break. She was Rachel Berry and she would be a star. Even if it killed her.

And then she had met him. He'd come into her life one day at the coffee house, and had dazzled her with his blue eyes and witty charm. He was a junior attorney at a prestigious law firm in the city and had said all of the right words. For the first time since she'd moved to NYC, she'd fallen in love. She had dated a few men here and there, to keep up with the pretense that she was moving on with her life and growing up. But no one had made her happy, made her laugh. Until Nathan Collins. She'd loved him. She became that moon-eyed girl all over again at 22 years old. He'd taken care of her, swept her off her feet and allowed her for the first time in over five years to throw caution to the wind and really just live.

The best part? Her father's loved him. She'd taken him home for the holidays the first year they had dated, and he'd charmed them just like he'd charmed her. She wasn't surprised when the phone calls that followed the holidays came, they always asked about Nathan and how they were doing.

He'd even gotten her a job at the law office he was working at, as a secretary. It was a step up from the coffee house, and while it wasn't her dream she did enjoy it. It meant she saw Nathan all the time, it meant a more comfortable lifestyle and eventually it just became something she enjoyed. As much as someone could enjoy answering phones and arguing lawyers.

She'd found out she was pregnant in early June, 2 years after she had started dating Nathan. At first, she was terrified. All of her old insecurities of being alone and rejection came rushing back, but when she'd finally gotten the courage to tell him the news he reacted just as she had hoped. He had been ecstatic, embracing her tightly and kissing her everywhere. His reaction led to her own tears, and some of the most gentle lovemaking she had ever experienced. Her life, for the first time in a very long time was perfect.

She snapped herself out of her daydream just as a whine came over the baby monitor she still used. She got off the couch, allowing the invitation to flutter to the ground as she quickly walked to Camden's bedroom. He had twisted himself around in his blankets and his stuffed elephant that he loved to snuggle with had fallen off the bed but other than that, he appeared content. The whine may have just been a reflux or an answer to a dream. She kissed his head softly after she was sure he was alright, before going back out to the living room.

She picked the invitation up off of the floor and placed it on top of the entertainment unit before turning off the television and heading to the bathroom to start her nightly routine.

She couldn't go to the reunion, she thought as she snapped open the bottle of her makeup remover. It was as simple as that. She couldn't go because there really wasn't any reason to. She hadn't made it to Broadway, she had no real career success to begin with. She was still a secretary, albeit at a different law firm then Nathan's now but nonetheless. She couldn't go back to Lima, she hadn't been home since the weekend they had broken it to her father's that she was pregnant. It had been easier in the last few years for her fathers to visit her, as Camden didn't travel well and it was just...it was just easier. She didn't keep in contact with anyone from high school. Sure, she had talked to Kurt, Blaine and Mercedes for the first few months but like herself they'd found new friends and new lives and things had just dropped off. No one back home knew about Camden, she was sure. Her parents had a small group of friends, maybe they knew. But no one who had at one point been important in her life knew about his existence. It just wasn't something she was shouting from the rooftops. She'd deleted facebook years ago, ironically at the insistence of Nathan. She washed her face before getting out her cleanser and toner as the thoughts continued to turn over in her mind.

If she really thought about it, she was worried about what people would think. New York was very diverse and accepting, with resources and supports galore for parents of children with Down Syndrome. But she remembered Lima and how small it was, how people talked. She had her fair share of it as she was growing up, being the child of two gay fathers. People were judgemental, and while she had nothing to hide so to speak about her son she knew that others had differing opinions.

And she'd been through enough, Camden had been through enough in his short little life. She couldn't put Camden or herself through that. She wasn't going to go to the reunion. The past was the past for a reason and it really should stay that way.


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