Title: Shelby Corcoran Leads by One

Author: Alex Gold (Ryzlin)

Fandom: Glee

Pairings: Brittany/Santana, other canon pairings

Rating: Teen (swearing)

Disclaimer: I don't own Glee. I would like to though.

Spoilers: Season three mainly, but everything else is fair game to be drawn on.

Summery: Shelby may not have been at McKinley for a long time, but she still knew her students, and she would defend them with everything she had. Even when they did things they probably shouldn't. AU after IKAG.

Chapter One

The slap landed across Finn's face, and a second later Shelby was hurrying down to Santana and grasping the girl's wrists. She could see Will moving to stand up from where he had been sitting next to her.

"Santana." It wasn't disapproving, just a way for Shelby to get the girl's attention.

They stared at each other for a few seconds. Shelby took in the tears that threatened to spill down Santana's cheeks. Shelby gently wrapped her arm around Santana's shoulders and led her from the auditorium. She caught Brittany's attention and gestured for Brittany to follow them with a nod of her head. It didn't take Brittany long to jump down off the stage and run after them. She grabbed Santana's hand as they stepped out of the auditorium, and as soon as the door slammed shut, Brittany let out a quiet whimper. She brushed her free hand across Santana's tear-stained cheek.

Shelby led them to her office. Well, it wasn't really an office, just a (very) small classroom that had been renovated (with Shelby's own money of course). She led Santana and Brittany towards the couch in the corner and sat them down before dragging her desk chair to sit in front of them.

Santana was crying silently, her arms wrapped around Brittany, pulling Brittany as close to her as possible. Brittany sat practically on Santana's lap, her head tucked under Santana's chin. Shelby could only just hear the soft sobs Brittany was making. Shelby sat on her chair awkwardly. She wanted to help in someway. To hug both of the girls and tell them it would be alright. But she was pretty sure Santana wouldn't appreciate it (she never seemed to like anyone besides Brittany touching her) and Shelby was pretty clueless when it came to Brittany. Well, when it came to Brittany and anything other than Santana. Brittany with Santana was pretty obvious. But she was a mother, damn it, and seeing kids cry made her want to cry.

She had known something was off during the whole performance. Shelby hadn't missed the looks Santana and Brittany had given each other, and she certainly hadn't missed the look of pure misery on Brittany face when Santana had taken a moment's pause before singing her first solo line. Santana was never anything but professional when it came to actually performing, so it had shocked Shelby that something had obviously disturbed the girl enough for her to miss her queue. The band had covered up admirably, and so had the rest of the Troubletones. Santana's performance had been amazing, absolutely breath-taking. She had shown such raw emotion. It was probably one of Santana's best performances yet. It may not have been the best circumstances, but sue her; she was still a music teacher.

Brittany had stopped sobbing and was peering at Shelby, her face still half hidden by Santana's neck.

"Miss. C, could you maybe leave. It's weird having you watching us."

Shelby smiled sadly and somewhat awkwardly at her.

"Of course I can." She stood up and moved to her desk, pulling out a box of tissues and a block of chocolate. She placed them on the chair she had just vacated.

"I'll be outside; making sure no one comes in. Um, no sex in my office please."

Shelby shut the door quietly behind her and leaned against it. She let out a sigh. Teenagers were hard. She was not looking forward to the drama Beth would get into, and Shelby was almost certain there would be a lot of drama. She barely had a minute to collect her thoughts before Will came running down the hall.

"Shelby!"

"Will."

"Where's Santana?"

"In my office. I left her and Brittany in there with a box of tissues and some chocolate."

He frowned slightly. "Chocolate?"

"It does wonders for a person's emotional state. I always had some on me when I worked at Carmel. Show choir kids are always very emotional."

Will nodded. "Yeah, they are, aren't they?" He moved forward, as if to open her office door, but Shelby didn't move.

"Uh, Shelby?"

"What do you think you're doing Will?"

"I want to talk to Santana."

Shelby sighed and slowly shook her head. "I don't think now is a good time. She's wants to be alone with Brittany."

"Shelby, I need to talk to her."

"She's not ready to talk to anyone but Brittany."

"You don't even know what this is about." Will scoffed.

"I may not know, William, but I do know Santana. She thinks she's hard to read, but she's not. Right now she's traumatized, and I suspect it has something to do with her walls."

"Her walls?"

"Santana is a very guarded individual. She puts up walls to stop people getting to close. Anyone can see that, and anyone can see that those walls are crumbling right now."

Will sighed deeply. "Suspecting is not the same as knowing, and when it comes to knowing, I know these kids better than you do."

He was patronizing her. Shelby hated it when people patronized her.

"No you don't, Will. You've known them longer than me, but you don't know them better. They left you for a reason, and I bet you don't even know what it is. I talk to my girls, and I'm there for them if they need my help. That's more than you can say."

For the first time, Will looked slightly hurt. "My students talk to me."

"So why weren't you at their dodge ball game? I admit that I was only told about it afterwards, but they did tell me you weren't there."

"What dodge ball game?"

Shelby couldn't help it, she laughed at him. "The dodge ball game that Santana and Finn organized. New Directions against the Troubletones."

"Was anyone hurt?"

Shelby shrugged. "None of my girls were, but they didn't mention anyone from New Directions being hurt. The Troubletones won, just in case you were wondering." She managed not to look smug. Years of acting had paid off.

"This isn't important right now. I still need to talk to Santana."

"No. Not now. She's not ready."

"She needs to face the consequences of her actions sometime."

"What about Finn?"

"What?" Will looked confused, genuinely confused.

"What about Finn? It's not a hard question, Will. He obviously did something to upset Santana. She's been cutting back on the name calling and threats since Mercedes told her to."

"Santana doesn't listen to anyone but herself."

"That's not true."

"Yes it is. Who do you think she listens to?"

"She listens to Sue. She listens to Brittany. She's started listening to both Mercedes and I. If she doesn't listen to you, then I suspect it's because she doesn't respect you."

Shelby finished the comment in her head. 'And I don't blame her.'

"You can say whatever you want, Will, but I'm not letting you in my office. I care too much about Santana to let you in."

All Will could do was glare at her.

Shelby Corcoran - 1

William Schuester - 0