AN: Okay I know I should be working on Once More and Dancing Across Time, but this idea hit me during class and it won't leave me. So I had to write it out. I'm even going as far to abandon my homework to write this. =) I hope you enjoy it and please leave a review telling me what you think.

Rachel Berry peered at the Victorian house across the street from inside her car. She glanced at her cell phone to see it was one in the morning. It was now or never and her father's life depended on it. She needed to sneak inside the house to find the painted portrait of her now deceased surrogate mother, Shelby Corcoran, who was a famous Broadway star before her untimely death and continued to be well known and loved even after her passing away. If she were able to find the portrait, Rachel would be able to pay all her family's debt and her father's medical bills as well by selling it.

There were only three problems. The first being that she had only heard of the portrait from her dads and had never seen it before, but her father, Leroy, told her that the moment she sees the portrait, she would know it's the one. The second being that she hadn't stepped foot in that house for twenty years, the last time had been was when she was eight and they had been evicted from there. Her father, Hiram, had lost his clients for an unknown reason and then shortly after had to file for bankruptcy. Her dads never talked to her about what happened and hid the situation from her until the day they had been forced to move away. Her father Hiram fell into depression and was never able to pick his business back up to what it used to be. Ten years later, Hiram Berry died in a car accident leaving behind an eighteen-year-old Rachel Berry and a widowed Leroy Berry. Nine years later, Leroy Berry was diagnosed with cancer and, at the moment was being hospitalized for treatment. All the while, Rachel was struggling with paying her father's medical bills, her rent and other bills that are necessities. No matter how much she worked, it was never enough; Rachel felt like she was drowning in debt. She had to get that portrait no matter what—which led to the third problem. Someone had recently bought the house and moved in.

Rachel would never contemplate breaking into another person's house, but desperate times called for desperate measures. She needed the money and couldn't risk her dad not receiving the treatment. He was all the family she had left. Then there was the fact that the portrait might no longer be in the house. Her dads couldn't find it when they moved away; whoever purchased the house after them could have gotten the portrait, but if the portrait had been found and sold it would have made headlines. So with that manner of thinking, Rachel put on her black beanie and glanced around the neighborhood to see it was empty and the lights from all the houses where off except for the streetlights.

Rachel opened her car door and closed it as quietly as possible before risking one more glance around. When she saw the coast was clear she ran across the street. Instead of trying to pick the lock in the front door she moved to the side of the house and picked one of the windows. Rachel sighed in relief when she was able to open the window without complications and slipped inside. She took out a flashlight from her pack and turned it on. The light was able to illuminate the room a bit and allowed Rachel to see that she was in the living room. She began to tiptoe and would stop every once in a while when the floor creaked under her foot, praying that the owner of the household did not hear. She walked out the living room to the hallway not really knowing where she was going. "Please let me find it." Rachel stopped in front of the door at the end of the hallway and opened it to see it was a library room. She walked inside and closed the door behind her. Rachel moved the flashlight to shine light on the portraits that hung on the wall. Maybe if she were lucky it would be in the room, but, then again, that would make no sense, but still hoped. She walked further into the room—taking in the various portraits of scenery.

In the silence, in the house during the night, it was by luck that Rachel turned around to see light spilling from under the crack of the door that led to the hallway. She heard footsteps approaching and looked around frantically for a hiding spot. Rachel turned off the flashlight as she quickly turned around to hide behind one of the bookshelves, only for her foot to slip on the rug—causing her body to fall forward. In her shock, the door to the room swung open and her forehead slammed against the edge of the bookshelf as the lights turned on. Black dots overwhelmed her vision as pain clouded her mind, and was not able to catch her fall, causing her to hit her head again when she fell on the hardwood floor. She heard a curse over the sound of her frantic heartbeat and blood coursing through her veins as everything around her went in circles. She closed her eyes and tried to will the pain away.

Warm hands burned through the haze of pain that surrounded her and gently turned her over. Rachel opened her eyes slowly when she felt her body being cradled only for the pain to hit her far worse than before. The last thing she saw before her eyes closed were cold emerald eyes peering down at her and a flash of blond hair. The last thing she felt were warm arms picking her up gently before she surrendered herself to the numbing darkness where pain could no longer hold her prisoner.

AN: I hope you liked the beginning. I bet you all know who it was that Rachel saw and the next chapter will be through his point of view. Everything will make sense as the fic unfolds hopefully you will join me in this fic. Please don't forget to review telling me what you think. (^_^)

AN 2: Before I forget to mention. In this fic the setting will be in a fictional small town called Shadow Falls in which everyone knows everyone and secrets are bled into the families that reside there. No one speaks and no one tells. The past is the past and should remain that way until one Rachel Berry returns.

AN 3 (2/20/12) : The entire fic is being reedited by my beta read MissBreePhoenix613. So I would like to give her a big thank you for taking the time to look through all the chapters. =D So if by chance you decide to read this fic again I hope it's a lot cleaner.