A/N – This is just a little something that has been floating around my head for about a week so I decided to write it up. It takes place after Journey but in my story Shelby and Rachel have agreed to get to know one another and Shelby did not quit Vocal Adrenaline. Also, Shelby did not adopt Beth. It is only meant to be a two-part story.
Shelby parked her car on the street out front of the Berry home and killed the engine. She was there to drop off some sheet music for Rachel this Friday evening. They had been getting to know one another since after Regionals ended and Rachel had asked her mother to take a position at William McKinley High so that they could be together. Shelby had refused, of course, as her place was with Vocal Adrenaline, but she had taken Rachel's cue and asked her if she would like if they got to know each other. Rachel had accepted, suddenly shy, but glad. Shelby wanted a family and Rachel was there staring her in the face.
That had been late May and now it was the middle of September. The summer had consisted of lunches and dinners spent together talking and sharing as they became more and more comfortable with each other. For a while Rachel shifted back and forth between calling Shelby 'mom' or by her name before finally 'mom' became the norm and 'Shelby' had slipped away. The first time Rachel had spent the night at Shelby's had been a Saturday night in early July when Rachel had fallen asleep on the couch watching a movie. Shelby woke the girl telling her it was time to get her home and Rachel had sleepily called her house asking her father if she could stay over. Shelby had been shocked and had taken the phone from her daughter who closed her eyes again, lulled off by the sound of the TV in the background and spoke to the person Rachel had left on the other end.
"Mr. Berry?" Shelby questioned, not knowing if it was Tim or Gordon Rachel had spoken with. "I'm sorry about that. She fell asleep during the movie and I didn't know she was going to call and ask to stay. I'll get her up and get her home," Shelby told the man. "What?" Shelby asked after listening for a moment. "Of course, it's no problem. I'll drop her off tomorrow." Shelby was shocked, but happy as she listened to the man tell her Rachel could stay and assured Shelby it was fine.
This was not something Shelby had anticipated. When Rachel and Shelby had started to get to know one another, the Berrys had been less than pleased. They had only softened up after taking in Rachel's pleading demeanor and look of hope. Rachel had tried to explain to them her need to know her mother as gently as she could. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt her fathers' feelings, but she couldn't bear the thought of losing this opportunity. The men had acquiesced but made some rules concerning the whole situation. They made it very clear to Shelby and Rachel that they were her parents. Shelby had cut them off then told them that she did not want to step on their toes and she knew she could not come close to taking their place. She told them and Rachel that she just wanted to get to know Rachel, not parent her. She did not want to make decisions concerning Rachel, such as permission or disciplinary decisions. The men agreed, happy that they were all on the same page.
Rachel, however, had mulled over her mother's word for weeks. Shelby didn't want to parent her. She only wanted a friendship. Rachel debated with herself about how she felt about that and the feelings never would quite settle. She understood each side. She had parents. She didn't need one more. She would take from Shelby what she could get and if friendship was it, then so be it. But on the other hand, Rachel wanted her mom to be a parent. And more importantly, she wanted Shelby to want to be a parent. It was a notion Rachel thought about often when the two of them were together, but tried to keep it in the back of her mind for fear of rocking the boat.
It was something Shelby thought about all the time too. She did want to be a parent to Rachel, but she refused to contradict the two loving men who had raised Rachel. She had no right to. If friendship with the girl was all she could have then she was going to take it.
Rachel had finally been granted permission to spend an entire weekend with Shelby by early August. Shelby and Rachel had been thrilled and her fathers couldn't help but smile at the way Rachel's face lit up when they told her yes. The effect of getting to know her mother had been a positive one on Rachel and they had come to realize that it had not taken away from their role in her life as they had once been afraid that it might.
Rachel had spent two weekends in August with Shelby. One had even granted the men a small vacation when Tim had to attend at a conference in Dayton and Gordon had accompanied him and made a weekend out of it.
Back in the present Shelby glanced at the clock on the console in her car and saw that it was already 10pm. She knew she shouldn't be here this late, but she had called a couple hours earlier and the Berry men had assured her she was fine to come over. It was Friday and Rachel would be home by 9:00. Shelby knew this was a point of contention for Rachel. The girl felt that 9:00 was simply too early of a curfew on a Friday night. She was 15, after all. Her fathers had not backed down, however, and Rachel knew to be home by 9. It had never really been a problem in the past but now that Rachel and Finn were together and Rachel wanted to be able to stay out longer. This was precisely why they wanted her home early, her fathers thought, but they understood the teenager and more often than not gave permission for Rachel to stay out later as long as she asked.
Shelby rang the doorbell and waited. She expected to see Rachel when the door swung open but was instead greeted by Gordon. The man looked distracted and worried as he welcomed Shelby into the home.
"Have you seen Rachel?" He asked. "Or talked to her?"
"No," Shelby said, glancing at the wall clock. 10:04. "I expected her to be here."
"Me too," Gordon said.
Tim explained to Shelby that as far as they knew Rachel had nothing going on tonight and would be home by curfew. She had not asked to stay out longer and now she wasn't answering her phone. Shelby tried calling Rachel but she also was sent to Rachel's voicemail after five rings. A level or worry she didn't know was possible started to creep over her even as she tried to tell the worried men that Rachel probably simply lost track of time. It wasn't like she was habitually late or didn't always seek their permission when she wanted to stay out.
"That's true," Gordon reasoned. "But I don't want this to become a habit. I'm going to put my foot down, Tim," he said to his husband who was seated across from him. Tim nodded in agreement.
Shelby wasn't sure what she should do. Part of her wanted to stay and make sure Rachel made it home safely and part of her felt that it wasn't her place to wait, especially to witness the scene that was sure to follow when Rachel came home.
"I guess I'll just-"Shelby started, meaning to leave the music for Rachel and leave, but she was cut off by Tim.
"This reminds me, Shelby. We've been meaning to talk to you about something and this is the perfect time."
"Oh?" Shelby said, curious.
"How would you like to take a more active role in Rachel's life?" Gordon asked her.
"Excuse me?" Shelby questioned. "More active? What do you mean?"
"Oh you know, taking on more responsibilities as a parent," Tim answered. "Rachel loves spending time with you. She comes home talking about your time together and we get the feeling that she wants more out of your time together. You're her mom. And if she's spending time at your house, you should be able to set rules for her. This is the perfect example. If she wants to go out on a weekend and we say no but she's at your house, it's not fair for you to enforce our rules on her. It's not fair to her either, for that matter. So if you wanted to set her curfew for 9:30 on Friday nights-"
"Although we'd really love it if you kept it at 9," Gordon interjected and Shelby laughed.
"Then that's your choice," Tim continued. "And if she misses her curfew or breaks some other rule at your house or when she's out with you, you shouldn't have to call us up in order to punish her. You can handle that."
"Little things though," Gordon said. "We'd still like to know about anything major like if she knocks over a music store." All three adults laughed at the joke.
"We're just saying," Tim said, "is that we understand Rachel's and probably your need to keep some of the things just between the two of you. And that includes decisions and rules and punishments at your house, if need be. As well as whatever else you guys share," Tim added. "We're not only talking bad things here. It's just on our minds since she's late."
Shelby was touched and honored that she had earned Tim and Gordon's trust. "I would love that," she said. "I would love to get to step up more as a parent. In all the good ways," she added. "I've never really seen her break a rule before tonight, so I doubt I'd have to do much if anything in the way of punishments. How much trouble could Rachel be anyways?" Shelby asked and then her eyes widened and she laughed at the expressions on Tim and Gordon's faces.
"You'd be surprised," Tim said. "That sweet, motivated, self-sufficient little girl could be quite the handful growing up."
"Once, when she was six," Gordon started one of his favorite stories. "We were planning on doing some renovations for the house and had asked Rachel what kinds of things she would like. Paint colors and stuff like that. She said immediately that purple and gold were her favorite colors and that they would make the perfect colors for our walls. Purple because it was like royalty and gold like the stars," Gordon had said the last sentence as an impersonation of a six-year-old Rachel.
Shelby listened intently, soaking up any information about Rachel as a young kid.
Tim jumped in to continue the story. "We laughed at that and told her we would have to just wait and see on the purple and gold. We weren't quite sure they went with the rest of our decorating ideas. Two weekends later we had to go out of town and left Rachel with a sitter. She convinced the lady to take her to the store and, using her birthday money, she bought two gallons of paint. One purple and one gold."
"She waited until the babysitter was asleep upstairs that night and proceeded to paint our living room in splotches of purple and gold," Gordon said.
"I'll never forgive the makers of paint with screw cap tops," Tim added.
"We got home about 5:00 that Monday morning and there was Rachel in the living covered in paint. As were parts of the walls and the furniture and the carpet and the TV and pictures."
"The banister up the stairs," Tim continued. "There were Rachel size footprints everywhere in the house. All in the hideous combination of purple and gold."
Shelby's eyes were wide and she opened her mouth in shock. Her smile grew as the men continued with the story.
"I banished the babysitter who was just waking up as we got home," Tim said.
"Which left me to deliver a spanking to Rachel," Gordon said. "I was covered in paint myself when it was all over. We've got the cutest picture of Rachel sitting on the floor covered in paint and sulking."
"That was after she tried to give us both hugs because she was sorry and Gordon hugged her, but I wouldn't let her because I was the only clean one left in the house," Tim said. "Once she sat down and started to pout I had to grab a picture."
Shelby laughed and then pouted for Rachel's sake. "Poor Rachel."
"Poor Rachel nothing," Gordon said. "Do you know how much money that clean-up added to our renovation costs?"
"But you are right, Shelby, she's barely any trouble now," Tim said. "It's been over two years since she was last grounded and even longer than that since one of us had to spank her."
The room fell silent as each adult again checked their watches, each thinking about Rachel. Tim and Gordon exchanged a glance and wondered why Rachel was choosing now to break the rules. She was rarely admonished and these days she normally got off with a warning word or two because it was all that was warranted. Neither of the men wanted to admit that Rachel had more often than not been able to talk her way out of most things. They were almost glad for it because whenever they punished her, Rachel always felt terribly guilty afterwards. They knew she was worried because she hated upsetting them enough to cause them to punish her, making her feel guilty about the whole thing. Her dramatic nature had never helped much either. But they had never had a problem dealing with any big issues.
Shelby rose to leave, the talk with Tim and Gordon over. Another check of her watch told her it was 10:47. She thought about trying to call Rachel again and she was pulling her phone out to do that when the front door swung open to reveal a sheepish looking Rachel. The girl dropped her bag by the door and spared a glance at Shelby, unsure of why the woman was there, as she made her way to where her fathers were waiting, anger and worry etched on their faces. Rachel took a breath and Shelby recognized a show face when she saw one.
"Daddy," Rachel said, addressing them both. She normally just called them both 'dad'. Shelby smirked, suddenly realizing what an advantage it would be to get to be Daddy's little girl to both parents. "I'm so sorry I'm late. We received new songs at glee practice after school today and then we all went out to get some dinner and then some of us hung around for a while to practice." Rachel left out that when she said "all" and "some" she meant Finn. The part about practicing new songs was true, even if there had been some kissing involved. But her dads didn't need to know that.
"Rachel, it's almost 11. You're almost two hours late," Gordon said and Rachel hung her head slightly, feeling chastened. She cast an embarrassed look at Shelby, who looked away from the scene in an attempt to spare Rachel's feelings. Shelby had always hated getting reprimanded in front of others when she was a kid too.
"Yes, sir, I know," Rachel said, more contrite this time. She felt the familiar pangs of guilt and fear in that always made an appearance when she was in trouble.
"I'm afraid we're going to have to ground you for this weekend," Tim finished.
Rachel's head shot up. She expected a lecture, but certainly not a real punishment. "What? No. I've already made plans for this weekend, Dad. I'm sorry. We all lost track of the time, honestly. I've never done this before," Rachel added, and it was true. She was very good about making sure she asked to stay out later than her assigned curfew. "It won't happen again."
Shelby looked from Rachel to her fathers and she could see that the men were faltering. Rachel was winning this one. Shelby wanted to believe that she could be stronger, but she wasn't so sure anymore.
Tim and Gordon exchanged a glance and then looked back at Rachel before relenting. "Ok, but this is a warning, Rachel. Don't be late again," Gordon said, his foot not quite as far down as he said it would be when Shelby had first arrived.
"I won't be, I promise," Rachel proclaimed.
"Good. Now why don't you go on upstairs and get ready for bed," Tim said.
Rachel grinned and kissed by her fathers goodnight. She turned to Shelby and her smile faded a bit. "Hi, Mom," she said. "What are you doing here?"
"I brought you the sheet music you wanted," Shelby told her, handing over the binder to Rachel. She kissed the girl's forehead and said, "You'd better go on up to bed."
"Thanks," Rachel replied, taking the binder. She looked from her mom and back to her dads before climbing up the stairs and to her room.
Gordon let out a sigh and Tim smiled despite himself. "See? Easy," Gordon said to Shelby and she couldn't help but smile.
"I see where Rachel gets her gentle nature from," Shelby said. "Her dads are a couple of softies," she grinned, wondering just when it was she got comfortable enough to make this joke.
"Let's see you do any better," Gordon told her, smiling. "Besides, it wasn't anything major and she really never has come home late like this before. A warning should be good enough."
Shelby agreed and took her leave of the Berry household. What was supposed to be a short trip had turned into a longer stay, but an important one. She had been given the one thing she wanted most, a chance to step up and be a parent. Not to overtake and not to interfere, but just the chance to be included.
-A/N – I would love some comments if you have any.