After the New York Episode aired I Proposed this Option on Tumblr, Where Jesse Never Left New York, After Rachel Chose Finn Over Him (again) He Left The Theatre and Wandered the Streets for a While, When He Bumped Into an Old Friend and Mentor.

I Thought I Might Elaborate on that a Little. But Only a Little. This is a One Shot After All.

Disclaimer: I'm Purely Manipulating Ryan Murphy's Characters for My Own Selfish Reasons and Therefore Own Nothing.

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Jesse was incredibly upset about the fact that everyone thought he was crazy for telling the New Directions that Finn and Rachel's kiss was going to lose them the first round of nationals. None of them believed him, and he honestly didn't care about most of them but the fact that Rachel was too blinded by Finn's boyish charm to see how unprofessional the whole thing was upset him the most.

Sure enough when the results came the New Directions name was no where to be seen on the results board just as Jesse had predicted. Now all of a sudden everyone was on Jesse's side and Finn was telling Jesse it was all his fault, something about how he should never have come back and honestly Jesse didn't feel like listening. Yes he had booked the same flight back as the New Directions, no he no longer planned to take that flight. He rolled his eyes at the whole ordeal, told Rachel one last time that she was flawless and deserved better than Finn, and then he left. He had no idea where he was going but he knew that the theatre the team was in was not the place to be.

He walked and walked, he had lost count of how many blocks it was exactly that he had walked but he didn't care, he had lost Rachel, the team he was helping coach lost nationals, he no longer belonged to UCLA, he didn't even know why he was here in New York City, he should be on his way to the airport, he should be going back to Lima because at this point he felt like he was as much of Lima loser as Finn was. He was so focused on getting as far from the theatre as possible and torn between turning back or just getting lost in the streets of New York that he almost didn't hear someone calling his name.

Once he realized someone was calling him, he recognized the voice immediately. He turned around to see Shelby Corcoran walking up to him, she was pushing a stroller and inside was an adorable baby girl with short blonde curls and bright blue eyes that instantly reminded Jesse of the girls birth mother, what was her name again? Oh right Quinn. Quinn Fabray, between her and Hummel they could be vice presidents to Finn's Jesse club. Which he was convinced actually existed, and if it didn't it certainly would when the Lima losers got home.

Shelby smiled at him and he offered a small smile back. She instantly knew something was up when he didn't offer her his show face smile, and she motioned for him to follow her as she walked, she was on her way back to her place anyway and she figured maybe she could figure out what was bothering him.

"So Jesse what brings you to New York?" Shelby asked genuinely curious.

"Show choir nationals." he stated matter-of-factly "Why else would I be here?"

"Now I know I may be out of the loop a bit but shouldn't you be at UCLA studying for finals, not here, in New York, at the High School show choir nationals?"

Jesse laughed, it wasn't a humorous laugh though.

"I wouldn't know, though I would assume that most colleges would be taking their finals right now. I was so focused on being perfect for all of my routines that I fell behind in almost all of my classes, one by one the professors suggested I drop their class if I wasn't taking it seriously. I don't know what was different, I kept up with all of my classes at Carmel and took home four consecutive national championships without a problem." Jesse sighed as he finished speaking.

Shelby was shocked that Jesse had flunked out of college he had always been a straight A student at Carmel, no matter how long her rehearsals ran for, his grades never slipped once.

"Well, I think we definitely need to discuss all of that but I'm still curious as to why you were at Nationals this year." at this point they had reached her front door, and she fumbled with her keys in her bag before unlocking the door and pushing Beth over the thresh hold, she motioned for Jesse to follow. He followed and as he did he began explaining everything that had happened over the last few weeks, from making amends with Rachel, he didn't miss Shelby's change in demeanor when her daughter was mentioned, to prom, to helping Schuster out with coaching the glee club. By the time he was done explaining, Beth was in her playpen, Shelby was sitting on the coffee table directly in front of him, and he was on the couch almost in tears about his life falling apart.

Shelby reached out and loosely took Jesse's hands in her own, in order get his attention and make him look at her, she could see the tears he was fighting, and from what she'd gathered from his story was that the tears a mix of rage, heartbreak, and failure. She couldn't bare to see him like this, it was literally hurting her.

"I just cannot figure out what was different last year from this year… other than you." he added on a moment later. Realization dawning on him. The one and only significant change between Carmel and UCLA, was Shelby. He didn't have her there, pushing him to be his best making sure all his work was done, pressuring him to keep his social status up, along with his grades. Without Shelby around he had no reason to put his all into everything because when she wasn't there, there was no one else around who cared what happened to him, yeah sure his parents were there but they were never around. He wasn't even sure if they knew he had dropped out of school.

"That's got to be it." he said

"Me? I'm the reason you flunked out of college?" she asked, eyebrow raised.

He shook his head quickly and explained the conclusion he had come to. He had also realized, quite a while ago actually that he wasn't so sure of his ability to achieve his dreams and goals in life and he explained that as well. Shelby stopped him right there.

"Don't you ever say you don't have what it takes to make it on Broadway, because if that's the case then I'm the one to blame. The four years you were in Vocal Adrenaline I pushed you guys so hard so that you knew that if you could survive 6 to 8 hour rehearsals you could make it in whatever you chose. I know that most of you guys hated me and thought I was crazy but all I ever wanted was for you guys to get what you wanted in life."

"I never hated you Shelby. You were one of the few people in my life I could rely on, in fact I think it's why I sort of developed a small school boy crush on you around my sophomore year." he told her using air quotes around "school boy crush"

She laughed "Oh I knew all about that, I figured that was why you always pushed to be the best. Honestly I was pretty sure it was the only reason you agreed to go after Rachel for me."

"I agreed to go after Rachel because I could see how much it hurt you not to know her, it had nothing to do with a silly crush."

Shelby didn't know why she felt saddened when he said that it was just a silly crush. Its not like she had ever reciprocated those feelings. Sure when Jesse was on stage she could get lost in his voice, maybe the fourth time he won her regional's she hugged him just a little too tight, but she was always just caught up in the moment.

"Oh so now the crush was silly?" Shelby asked teasing him

"what- oh no- I just-" he stumbled over his words. He assumed it had something to do with the fact that being around Shelby was making him rememeber exactly why he had developed that crush in the first place.

Shelby just laughed when he stumbled over his words, thinking it was adorable and trying her best to ignore the butterfly feeling that was growing substantially more noticeable in her stomach. Jesse looked up at her and she flashed him another smile like she had earlier in the day.

Seeing her smile together with the fact that when she looked up at him she blushed slightly, was what made up his mind. Shelby was still holding his hands loosely though there really was no longer a reason to, and when she flashed him yet another dazzling smile this time he smiled back.

Then he leaned in a kissed her. He kissed her like he'd always imagined doing, and to his surprise she responded instantly. He took no time in deepening the kiss and their tongues fought for dominance.

When Shelby pulled away, she was smiling again she squeezed his hands before pulling hers from his grasp and getting up. She ran a hand through her hair and looked back towards him.

"Well I guess we really do have a lot to talk about now, how about I cook us up something?"

"That sounds like a great idea" Jesse said quickly, crossing over to where Shelby was standing in a matter of seconds and reclaiming her lips once again.

-Fini-

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-Stephhhy