Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. If I did Jesse and Rachel would always be a big part of each other's lives. Sadly, until Ryan Murphy comes around to my way of thinking I'll have to settle for creating my own version of their world.

A/N: So the way Shelby reacted towards Rachel in Theatricality really bothered me and I just had to write this. I didn't want Jesse to seem stalkerish by hanging following Shelby to the McKinley auditorium so Rachel and Shelby are actually at Carmel. This will probably end up being just a few chapters and they're pretty much finished. Anyways, enjoy!

Jesse sat silently in the shadows of the upper level of the Carmel High auditorium as he watched Shelby and Rachel talk. As he listened to their conversation, he remembered the day that Rachel had snuck in to watch their rehearsals and heard Shelby singing only to make the connection that Shelby was her mother and how Rachel had confronted him afterwards.

*Flashback*

"You knew," Rachel said, catching up to Jesse in the Carmel High parking lot.

"Knew what?" he asked, continuing to walk towards his car while she followed closely on his heels.

Grabbing his arm, she pulled him to a stop. "Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about," she said, moving around to stand in front of him. He looked at her expectantly, still not wanting to answer her. "You knew Shelby was my mom the whole time."

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said, looking past her to his car just a few yards away. "Look, I have to get home and eat and be back here in an hour to rehearse some more. I don't have time to -"

"I know you planted that tape, Jesse," she explained. "And the strange thing is, I'm not mad that you were probably lying to me from the start. I know why you did it. You were helping me and Shelby find each other."

"Rachel, I didn't have some altruistic reason for dating you and transferring to McKinley. I know this will be hard to believe, but it is just a coincidence that it was Shelby who turned out to be your mother."

"I – I don't believe you." She didn't understand why he was lying to her. The only reason she had even been at Carmel High in the first place was to see Jesse, to hear his voice. If not for that, she may have never heard Shelby sing in the first place and figured out that she was her mom. "Why are you lying to me?" a hint of desperation creeping into her voice.

"I'm not the guy that you want me to be, Rachel. Vocal Adrenaline and my future are the most important things to me. I'm sorry," he had told her, then walked away, leaving Rachel stunned.

*End Flashback*

Now as he watched Rachel and Shelby, he regretted lying to her. He thought that he'd been doing the right thing. He thought that it would be better for both of them if Rachel hated him for lying and tricking her. He couldn't believe what Shelby was saying to Rachel. Watching her give Rachel the cup with the gold star on it as some sort of consolation prize in the place of an actual relationship with her mom, it made him feel sick.

He was in awe as they sang "Poker Face" together. Shelby and Rachel's voices sounded amazing as they harmonized. He saw the connection between them as they sang, that just moments before Shelby had claimed she just didn't feel. Anger boiled up inside him as Rachel said good-bye to Shelby and left the auditorium.

He stood up and went down the stairs towards the stage. "You're a coward," he said loudly as he approached the stage that Shelby was standing on all by herself.

She looked surprised to see him. "Excuse me?"

"What was it all for, Miss Corcoran? I thought you wanted to know Rachel, know your daughter," he said, stepping onto the stage.

"I did," she responded, sighing. "You're just a kid, Jesse. You wouldn't understand."

"Oh, I understand alright. I broke her heart," he spat. And mine, he thought. "All just so you could stomp on it all over again. Couldn't you have figured out that maybe you weren't ready to be a mom before you had me plant that tape for her to find?"

"I didn't know until I met her. I thought we'd have this amazing connection, a bond, something," Shelby explained as she looked at the pattern she was tracing with her fingers on the piano.

"That's not a good enough reason. I was serious when I told you that I have feelings for her and I didn't want her to get hurt," he responded, standing on the opposite side of the piano from her. "Did you honestly believe that you'd have an instant connection with a teenager? At least she wanted to know you and be a part of your life. You were her dream, Miss Corcoran."

"Jesse, I really don't want to talk about this right now. Thank you for everything you did and I'm sorry for any pain that I caused you as well, but now just isn't the time for Rachel and me."

"How would you know? You didn't even give her a chance. You rejected her before you even got to know her. Let me tell you something about your daughter, Miss Corcoran. She's amazing. Not just an amazing singer but she has a heart of gold even if she is a little misguided at times," he smiled as he remembered the 'Run Joey Run' fiasco. "Rachel would never intentionally hurt anyone. And she's so trusting and honest which is why people like you and me can crush her so completely."

Shelby looked at Jesse and realized that this boy was in love with her daughter. He obviously more than 'kind of liked her', as he had told her a couple weeks earlier.

"It's a shame that you'll never know those things for yourself. I hope that one day when you decide that you want to really know her, she'll let you in," he said, looking her in the eyes. He lifted his chin with a defiant look in his eyes before continuing. "The only reason I'm still here, Miss Corcoran, is because I think Vocal Adrenaline is my best shot at winning Regionals and Nationals."

"I'm sorry. For you and for her. If I could take it back, I would."

He had nothing more to say to her. The only things he wanted to say to her in the future would have to do with their routine for Regionals and then Nationals. Other than that, he didn't want anything more to do with his glee coach. He had trusted her with Rachel and she'd done more damage to Rachel than he could ever have dreamed of doing. "I'll see you at practice, Miss Corcoran."

Rachel couldn't believe everything that she had just heard as she stood there in the shadows of the backstage of Carmel's auditorium. She had almost left the auditorium when she had remembered that her purse was sitting on a table backstage and as she had picked it up, she'd heard Jesse's voice talking to her mom, calling Shelby a coward.

She stood there in shock as Jesse and Shelby's conversation unfolded. She couldn't believe some of the things that were said, especially by Jesse. She knew she'd been right about him. He had been protecting her mom, thinking it was the right thing to do. Tears began to pool in her eyes as he told Shelby about the Rachel he knew and how wonderful he thought she was. If she didn't know better, it almost sounded like Jesse's past-tense 'I loved you' was actually more of a present-tense.

As she saw him walking towards the side of the stage where she was concealed, she knew she had to get out of there before he saw her. Witnessing what she just had, it changed a lot of things especially how she thought of Jesse St. James but she wasn't prepared to have that conversation right now. Running out the side door and to her car, she stopped as she opened her car door and turned around to see Jesse coming out of the auditorium and stop in his tracks as he saw her standing there.

They locked eyes for a brief moment. Rachel gave him a small smile before getting into her car making his heart skip a beat. For the first time since that disastrous day in the parking lot of McKinley High, he felt a small glimmer of hope for him and Rachel.