It was a typical evening for Shelby Corcoran. She tidied up her living room that was strewn with pacifiers and stuffed animals, mentally scolding herself for allowing the room to get that messy in the first place, and placed the items in labeled bins that held her daughter's toys.
It had been exactly three months since Shelby had adopted Beth and things couldn't have been going better. The maternal instinct that Shelby hadn't been aware of in the past had awakened and she found herself growing more comfortable and confident with being a mother.
A lot of that was due to the new free time she had on her hands to get acquainted with Beth.
She had promptly quit coaching Vocal Adrenaline just a few days after their win at Nationals, much to the dissatisfaction of her students. Needless to say, they weren't too happy. Jesse had even tried to bribe her into staying. I'll come back from UCLA as much as I can and I'll help if that's what you want, please, the club needs you Ms. Corcoran! She chuckled fondly at that memory. He was convincing, but her mind had already been made up.
Shelby truly loved her Glee club, and knew that she would miss it sometimes, but she was tired. Bored was a more accurate word, actually.
The trophies that Vocal Adrenaline had won all seemed to mold together meaninglessly and the thrill of achieving first place wore away. It didn't mean anything to her anymore, and that wasn't fair.
It wasn't fair to her Glee team, who dedicated everything to their victories. It wasn't fair to her for having to spend so much time and energy on something that she didn't enjoy anymore. And it especially wasn't fair to other Glee clubs who wanted a triumph more than she did. After seeing the reactions of the members of New Directions, she acknowledged what she had known for a while: she had lost her passion, her drive. Shelby was positive that if Vocal Adrenaline had, in fact, lost at Regionals, she wouldn't have had such an emotional reaction to defeat as Will Schuster's club had.
And this sparked her much needed wake up call.
She resigned as coach and began to search for a bigger house for her and Beth. Her family. Just saying that word made Shelby's heart flutter and the smirk on her face transform into a full blown smile. Family.
Shelby finished her nightly routine and flicked the lights off in the living room once she was satisfied with its state and she made her way to her kitchen.
She hadn't fully gotten used to having a larger home quite yet. Her old apartment had been a manageable few rooms that she rarely spent time in. With Vocal Adrenaline rehearsals running progressively longer as the school year ran on, she ended up spending most of her time in the Carmel High auditorium.
She would always arrive much earlier than her students in the morning and would stay at school until the late hours of the night working on choreography, costumes, song melodies, and ungraded papers. It used to seem like that auditorium was more of a home than her dinky apartment had been. But that had changed pretty quickly.
Her new house was much more of a home than her previous residence had been. It was a three floor, lovely brick home with an appropriate white picket fence lining her generously sized backyard. The trees in Shelby's yard had started to turn red with the coming fall and Shelby grew excited with the thoughts of Beth's first autumn.
She spent as little extra time as possible at Carmel High now and most of the time, she was at home with Beth and Shelby couldn't be happier.
Her relocation hadn't affected her job as a teacher at Carmel High, much to her pleasure. Although she rarely depicted it, teaching was one of her favorite things to do and her job granted her the pleasure of impacting the lives of her students in a positive way.
Shelby had just begun to wash the kitchen countertops when she heard a soft knock at her front door. "That's odd," she thought to herself, "It's almost eleven o'clock at night!"
She quietly threw her cleaning rag aside and walked down the hallway towards the door with mixed feelings of both apprehension and curiosity.
The door was promptly unlocked and Shelby swung it open and met the expression of an almost equally surprised and clearly upset Rachel Berry.
"Rachel, what are you-" Shelby began to say, before Rachel caught her off guard by flinging herself at her mother with a wave tears spewing down her face.
Shelby's face deepened in confusion and concern for Rachel. She held onto Rachel as she led her inside of her home and sat her on the couch. She knelt down to eye level with Rachel and attempted to find out what exactly was going on.
"Baby, what's wrong, are you hurt?" she asked.
Rachel just shook her head as her body trembled with sobs.
Maybe it was Shelby's newfound motherly instincts or maybe it was something that was planted within her long ago, but Shelby pulled Rachel towards her in a hug and began to comfort her effortlessly.
"Shh, it'll be alright Rachel, whatever it is it will be alright," Shelby soothed as she rubbed circles on Rachel's back.
Rachel simply shook her head as she nuzzled deeper into Shelby's embrace and clung to Shelby's arm as if her life depended on it.
"T-t-they, t-they're..." Rachel started to articulate before breaking out into another fit of sobs.
"Who, sweetheart, who? What's going on?" Shelby asked softly, hoping to get a straight answer.
"Th-they're dead. M-m-my dads are d-dead."
Hello! My name's Ceil and I'm new to the whole Glee fanfic scene, but I'd love to continue if I get a postive (or mostly positive) reaction to this. It's my second fanfiction story ever! =) I feel like the Shelby/Rachel relationship wasn't really "resolved" and the finale seemed like more of a copout than a culmination to me, so I figured I'd add my own spin on things and see how you all take it. Reviews are greatly appreciated!