Summary: The Carmel High Auditorium wasn't the first place Rachel and Shelby met.

Spoilers: For episodes after Dream On.

Characters: Shelby, Rachel, Hiram and Leroy Berry.

Pairings: None

She stood in the middle of the supermarket, trying to juggle the juice and vegetables, cursing herself for not getting the trolley. The short shopping trip she'd planned turned out to be not so short as every aisle she entered reminded her of something or another that she had run out off. The basket she'd picked up was already weighing a tonne, and two or three things had fallen out a few times.

She glanced towards the front of the market, wondering if she should try to just finish up or leave this stuff here and just go and get the damn trolley. But what if someone nicked half the stuff from the basket while she was gone? People had a tendency of taking things from abandoned baskets even when they could have found the same thing in about five minutes.

Before she could decide, however, there was a tap on her shoulder.

"Excuse me, but I couldn't help but notice that you seem to be having some difficulty with your groceries. Here, take this," said a girl, maybe fifteen or sixteen years old. She was proffering an empty cart to Shelby, who took a moment to respond.

"Thanks honey." There was something about this girl, a certain sparkle in her eyes, and Shelby immediately felt as if she'd seen her before.

"Your welcome. My dads always insist on helping people in tight spots." And with that the girl trod off at a brisk pace, not giving Shelby time to get a word in.

'Dads', she wondered. How many people in this place would have gay parents? And a girl of that age. Was it possible that maybe...? Her heart skipped a beat before she even dared to complete the sentence, and she looked towards where the girl had gone. But the chirpy brunette was nowhere to be seen.

"You're being stupid," Shelby told herself. "Maybe she said Dad and you misheard. And since when have you kept a track of every gay couple in town? Maybe she's just visiting, for all you know." And with that she resumed her shopping at a more leisurely pace now that she didn't have to lug everything around.

After about half an hour, in which Shelby lingered in the market, looking for the girl out of the corner of her eye even as she told herself to forget about it, Shelby really had plausible excuse to fool herself into staying any longer. She'd been through every aisle twice, and had probably picked up ten things she didn't need. Time to go home.

Anyways, it was probably better this way. She remembered the multiple contracts she'd signed as if it were yesterday. Even if that girl was her daughter, even if this was some big neon sign from fate telling her to take another shot at this whole parenting thing, even then. There was no point in trying to go near her, because she was legally forbidden to do so. Knowing who her child was, how she looked and spoke, where she lived and still not being to go near her would be torture, and it was one of the reasons she hadn't looked up the Berry family when she returned to Ohio.

Shelby didn't have any big, noble reason for becoming a surrogate. She hadn't wanted to help the two men in question. It had been about the money from the start, and the fact that they were obviously very invested and interested in having a child was a good way to ease her conscience. At least she had a guarantee that she was doing this for people who really were desperate to start a family, and would as a result lavish the world's care on their daughter.

The logic had worked surprisingly well, but she would still lay awake sometimes in the dead of night, not being able to stop thinking about how old she'd be, how her voice would sound, whether she had the same passion for the arts as her mother? There were some lingering feeling and attachments that she hadn't managed to shrug away even after all this time, and they were the ones prompting her to go and find that girl.

And then she saw her, standing in the stationary corner with two men who's faces she'd never cared to remember, but hadn't been able to forget either.

Leroy's hair was almost white now, no doubt due to the continuous tantrums that girl- No, her daughter had been subjecting him to. He was looking at her indulgently as she held out different sheets of gold stickers that made Shelby's breathe catch. Gold stars were her thing, weren't they? But apparently they were her baby's thing too.

She soaked in the scene in front of her, watching as Hiram, who didn't look a day older, shake his head sternly. But that seemed to have no effect on his daughter, who just brightened the smile a little more and stood on her toes, her hands clasped tightly behind her back. She was saying something that Shelby couldn't make out, but it was pretty obvious that she was trying to buy the market's entire stock of gold star stickers.

She had her fingers crossed behind her back now, even as she continued to charm her father. Another thing that came and hit Shelby like a brick. That was her. That body language, the constant badgering to have her own way, the gold stars ... Just everything. It was so completely her, and to see all those traits in another person was unnerving. So engrossed was Shelby in the scene in front of her, that she didn't notice the tears that had started to make their way down her face.

But it wasn't too long before Hiram noticed someone watching his family. He looked up before Shelby could avert her gaze, and she had to watch as his face lost all it's liveliness. He looked like he'd seen a ghost, and as much as he wanted to alert his husband, he didn't for fear of Rachel noticing. But Leroy noticed all the same, and the moment he saw what Hiram was looking at, he sent Rachel to find the rest of the stock, promising they would buy it.

They stood together, looking uncertainly at Shelby as she just stood there. For all the pretense of legal barriers, they both knew they'd be helpless if she approached Rachel right now. What could they say to stop her? And even if they could, neither of them had any intention of taking her to court, since it was more than obvious she hadn't planned this.

Shelby finally composed herself, snapping out of the haze she'd been in. She couldn't possibly go up to them, so she chose instead to give them a little nod and walk towards the check-out counter, making it clear that she wasn't going to jeopardize their family.

But even as the two of them heaved a sigh of relief and turned to return to their everyday lives, Shelby walked out with conflicting emotions. She knew she shouldn't, and the look on their faces would wrack her with guilt for many nights to come, but now that she'd seen her daughter, had actually spoken to her, the old craving to talk to her as she should to her child had returned. There was no way that she would be able to hold herself back from finding her again now. The only question was how.

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Also, un-betaed. Point out errors:)