A/N: Got this in just in time for JGroff's birthday! This is a re-post, but I have seriously revamped the story. Lots of rewrites. Lots of edits. Hope you enjoy!

Bringing Up Baby

He called during Funny Girl. Usually she wouldn't have answered the phone, particularly during a movie as iconic as Funny Girl, but he called during the scene where Fanny first meets Nick Arnstein, which made her feel remarkably nostalgic, so she hit the call button and said, "This better be good, Jesse. You're interrupting Barbra."

"I need your help," he said immediately.

Well, this was unexpected. Some lame-ass apology-that she would have expected. Or a snarky, inappropriate-albeit-charming remark. Instead, he was sending out an alarmingly genuine call for assistance. The only proper conclusion that could be drawn was that he was making fun of her in some way. Sincerity was out of the question. "Jesse, whatever type of joke this is, it really isn't funny."

"Rachel, please, this isn't a joke. I got myself into a very bad situation and I need your help."

She felt a shiver go through her body as she imagined just what sort of very bad situation Jesse had gotten himself into. She imagined bloody knuckles and rumbles set to the melodramatic tune of West Side Story's Quintet. "I-I don't know what to say.

"Rachel, look, I stupidly told Shelby I would babysit Beth tonight without realizing that I don't know the first thing about babies. She won't stop crying and I'm pretty sure there's a rash or something. I cannot have Shelby come home to a crying, rash-infested child."

"And why would I know anything about babies?" Rachel asked. She really did not want to go help babysit the child Shelby replaced her with. And she really did not want to do it with Jesse.

"You're a girl," he said. She waited for further explanation, while all Jesse served up was an extended bout of silence. She frowned and told him, "You need some work on that argument."

"Look, girls are hardwired for this type of thing."

"And you potential fathers?"

"Along for the ride."

She smirked, thinking to herself that perhaps it was a good thing she would not go on to have Jesse St Jame's children. "Look Jesse, I would like to help you but I really know nothing about children. And besides, I'm in the middle of a movie."

"Bring it with. You know You Are Woman is one of my top ten songs."

"Jesse-"

"Look, you know I wouldn't have called if it wasn't serious." She thought to herself that this was incorrect. She did think he would call for non-serious matters. He had done so on several occasions, his voice usually thick with intoxication. "Rach, I don't want to kill the thing."

"The thing?" Rachel repeated, imagining the poor small child squirming uncomfortably as Jesse's inexperienced hands attempted to change a diaper. Not that hers were anymore experienced but she had to admit she thought she had a better grasp than him. Beth really was the unassuming accomplice in her severed familial bond. It wasn't her fault Shelby chose her. Or that she came out of Quinn Fabray. Or drove Finn away.

The marks against this child were really growing.

Still, she was only a baby. One that was in the tenuous care of Jesse St James, a boy who referred to the child as thing.

"I'll be there in twenty minutes."

Rachel stood in front of Shelby's doorway, thinking that it was ironic that she was there not to see her mother but to take care of her daughter. And with her ex-boyfriend whom she swore she would never see or talk to again.

It was turning into a rather odd night.

She knocked on the door and not even two seconds passed before the door swung open. Jesse stood there with Beth in his arms, a dribble of spit up staining his black t-shirt. He looked absolutely awful, wincing each time Beth let out a shrill yell. His eyes were wide with something between fear and terror as he held out the squirming baby toward Rachel and breathed out, "Please help me."

Rachel closed the door behind her and took Beth from him. She looked down at Puck and Quinn's baby, trying to see either of them in the little bundle. She couldn't find a trace of the two in the baby but she did find something oddly similar about Quinn's hormonal eruptions and Beth's ceaseless tears. She rocked her hip a bit like she had seen in the movies. The babies usually liked it in all the movies. Beth did not.

"I tried that," Jesse said, his voice strained. His hands were on his waist, body hunched over in exhaustion as he stared helplessly at the shrieking bundle. "I have tried everything and she will not stop crying."

"Is she hungry?"

Jesse ran a shaky hand through his curls. "I don't know-I mean-I don't think so. I just want her to stop crying. I've been here for over an hour and all she does is cry."

"Well, she's a baby, Jesse," Rachel reasoned, shifting Beth onto her hip more. For a small child, she was surprisingly heavy.

"Babies aren't supposed to cry this much."

"Maybe she's hungry. Get me some of her food from the kitchen?" He nodded quickly and walked off to the kitchen. She meandered into the living room, looking around as Beth wailed in her arms. This was not how she thought she would see Shelby's home for the first time. The ludicrous nature of what she had walked into solidified as Jesse called out from the kitchen, "Peas or carrots?"

Rachel looked down at Beth and murmured, "Peas, Beth?"

The baby continued to sob.

"How about some carrots?"

Beth tipped her head back as she let out a hair-raising shriek. Exhaling sharply Rachel murmured, "Alright, peas it is."

She walked over to the kitchen and saw Jesse staring down at the baby food, his eyebrows scrunched and lips screwed into a frown. She cleared her throat and he looked up. "Why would anyone eat this stuff?"

"Because they don't have teeth."

"Peas or carrots?"

"Peas," she said resolutely. "I don't think Beth likes carrots." Almost on cue Beth let out another piercing scream and Jesse said, "Noted. Alright, I'll be right out with it."

She walked back to the living room and sat down on a chocolate colored leather couch. Beth continued to wail in her arms, a bit of dribble dripping from her chin. Rachel grabbed a napkin from the table and carefully dabbed at her chin. She felt the couch sink beside her and then Jesse said, "This better work."

He leaned over her and carefully nudged the small spoon into Beth's mouth. Rachel held her breath, both from his proximity and in anticipation of what would happen next. Beth kept the food in her mouth for precisely five seconds before spitting it up onto Rachel's cream sweater.

"Oh," Jesse breathed out, his eyes trained on the pale green spot. Rachel was frozen, despairingly looking at her now-ruined sweater, too wrapped up in her own horror to notice Jesse's body hunch over in laughter. After a moment he looked over at him and irritably slapped his arm, declaring, "This is not funny, Jesse!"

"It kind of is," he said as he caught his breath. "Admit it, Rachel, just a little."

She wanted to glare at him, call him names that would make Beth blush, but the guy had a point. With mashed peas staining her sweater and an increasingly disgruntled baby squirming in her arms, the situation was pretty comical. Still, for the sake of consistency she pressed her lips into straight line and said, "I don't find it funny at all." Beth rammed her head against Rachel as she let out another wail. "Stop crying!" Rachel snapped, her ruined sweater and the fact that her and Jesse almost shared a moment pushing her over the edge. "For the love of God, Beth, be quiet!"

"Hold on," Jesse said suddenly, turning toward her. "I have an idea. Did you bring the movie with you?"

Rachel thought of how she had tossed Funny Girl into her purse at the last minute and told him, "It's in my purse."

Jesse went to her purse and fished the movie out. He popped it into the DVD player and skipped to I'm The Biggest Star. He sat beside Rachel and pointed at the screen as he told Beth, "See that, Beth? That is Barbra Streisand."

Almost as if by magic, the baby stopped crying. She leaned forward in Rachel's arms, her eyes trained on the television screen. Rachel looked down at the baby who was properly mesmerized by Barbra and breathed out, "This is unbelievable."

"I can't believe I didn't think of it sooner," Jesse said, leaning back in the couch and closing his eyes. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Rachel asked.

"Silence. No crying. No choking-"

"There was choking?" Rachel asked quickly, alarmed now that Jesse had been alone with the baby at all.

"Crying related choking," he clarified. "But now there is none. Only silence. And Barbra." He looked over at her. "See, Rachel, I told you that you'd get to watch it"

She smiled, looking down at Beth and gently jostling her on her knee. She dropped her mouth to the baby's ear and murmured, "You like Barbra, Beth?"

The baby only cooed in response and Rachel told her, "You have impeccable taste."

Jesse shushed her with a grin and told her, "You're missing pivotal parts, Rachel."

"Unbelievable," Jesse murmured, glancing at Beth who had fallen fast asleep in Rachel's arms. "And during this song?" People played softly in the background. "It's iconic."

"She's just a baby," Rachel reminded him.

"No excuse."

She shrugged, offering him a slight smile before returning her attention to the television. She could feel him looking at her, his gaze as steadily on her face as hers was on the screen. Finally he spoke and said, "Thanks for doing this for me. I really appreciate it."

"I didn't do it for you," she answered. "It was for Beth's well-being."

"Right," he said, his tone telling her that she wasn't fooling anyone. "This isn't too bad though, right? Being together again."

"We are not together," she clarified. "We are completing a task. Said task is babysitting Beth. Once Shelby is back I will go home and everything will go back to normal."

"I'm sorry," he said after a moment, this time his eyes on the screen. She didn't understand why he wouldn't look at her when he delivered this tepid apology, but when she noticed the slight tremble of his hands she realized it was because he was too afraid to look at her. Jesse St James was actually afraid of something. Never in a million years would she have guessed it was her. "I never meant to hurt you."

"Well, you did a pretty good job anyway," she answered.

He finally looked at her and the green of his eyes made her stomach twist into knots. She hated how her body was responding without her permission. She hated him for letting her lose control so easily. "Rachel-"

"Look, I get that you needed me tonight. You needed a girl so I came, but don't go and twist this all into some apology. Because I'm not buying it."

"Rachel, I know it's no excuse but Vocal Adrenaline was the only family that I'd known. It might have been a dysfunctional one, but it was all I had."

"You had me," Rachel snapped. Beth moved a bit in her lap and she tried to keep her voice level as she said, "You had me and the team. Yes, they weren't all the biggest fans of you but they knew that I cared about you. That was enough." She waited for him to speak and when he didn't she said, "Remember when you introduced me to Jesse St James, the one who was crazy about me?"

He nodded.

"That's who I wanted." She paused for a moment, unsure of how much to reveal, and then finally admitted, "It was the one that I fell in love with. But you're not that person anymore."

"But I can be."

"No, you can't!" The baby let out a throaty cry in her arms, looking up at Rachel and then Jesse. Both were silent as they waited to see if the endless crying would restart. To both of their reliefs, Beth lost interest in what was happening above her head and returned her attention to the television. In a hushed voice Rachel told him, "It's over Jesse. Whatever we had, it is over."

"I don't believe that." His hand brushed over her knee. "I know you still have feelings for me. Your heart rate still quickens when I'm near. I can see it in your eyes. I can hear it in your breathing."

"Stop," she breathed out, not liking how he was making her feel, particularly in light of the fact that she had Beth on her lap.

"I was in the wrong," he told her. "Rachel, regardless of my motives, I was an idiot. You mean more to me than any of them, you know."

"I think you've chosen your side."

"No, I'm choosing it now. I've left Vocal Adrenaline."

She rolled her eyes, feeling foolish for believing even a bit of his apology. And she had, word-by-word she had been warming to him, warming to them. "Jesse, you're a senior."

"I mean I've left the people, the friendships." He paused for a moment and his eyes darkened. "I don't even think you can call what we shared friendships. There were always schemes to undermine, to sabotage. And no friends would have let me do what I did to you, not when it was clear that I was still in love with you."

Again with that word. It had been jarring as he stared down at her, egg heavy in his hand. Now, it was even worse. She hadn't really believed him in that parking lot. With his team surrounding her and his eyes hard, the words rang false. Now, though, seated so close that she could feel the heat of his body, there were no more questions or uncertainty.

"I haven't been able to stop thinking about you," he told her. "And I want a chance to make this right."

"I don't know…," she trailed off, unsure of what she wanted. Her heart had made its own decision without her consent, but her head was still waiting.

"Think of it this way, Rachel. If you still hate me I will be off to Los Angeles in a month. You'll be rid of me, anyway."

Immediately she answered, "That's no comfort, Jesse."

She saw a smirk form slowly on his lips and the snarky Jesse returned as he asked, "I take it that I will be missed?"

She narrowed her eyes. "Hardly."

"Is that so?"

He moved closer and she admitted, "Well, maybe a bit."

He reached toward her and she felt her entire body tense. She didn't know what he was going to do, his eyes had this odd gleam to them and she closed her eyes suddenly, surprised to feel him not touch her but take Beth from her arms. Her eyes snapped open and she watched Jesse carefully carry Beth to her bedroom. He came down moments later and sat beside her. He was much closer than before and he took her hands without asking and murmured, "I have not been able to stop thinking about you."

"Jesse, stop."

"Every minute of every day, it's only you. I can't get you out of my mind."

She looked at him, really looked at him, and tried to call his bluff. She tried to see the insincerity but every word every facial expression appeared genuine. She reminded herself that Jesse was the consummate actor but she also knew that she alone could see past his charades. Softly she murmured, "I want to believe you."

"Then believe me," he answered, his voice as soft as hers. "I won't hurt you again."

His hand went to her waist and she murmured, "Don't say that."

He grinned slightly. "I'll let you be the heartbreaker next time."

"I don't want there to be any heartbreaking." He realized at this comment that he might have convinced her and he leaned in just far enough to rest his forehead against hers. She closed her eyes, intoxicated by her nearness. After a while she laid her small palm on the side of his face and murmured, "If you hurt me, I will send Finn and Puck after you."

His response was silenced by her lips meeting his, and he wrapped his arms around her as he deepened the kiss. He had dreamt so long of getting her back that he could hardly believe they were there making out on the couch. He then remembered that it was Shelby's couch and she was bound to be home soon. The thought of his former coach finding him tangled with her daughter on the couch was not exactly pleasant and he pulled away, smiling at Rachel's slightly swollen lips.

"Shelby will be back soon."

"Don't want Mom to catch us," Rachel joked lightly. He reached forward and stroked her cheek, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. He saw that she was slightly flustered, her cheeks flushed a deep crimson. She folded her hands firmly on her lap and asked, "So, you want to finish the movie?"

He grinned and draped his arm around her shoulders. "Of course."

Rachel fell asleep in his arms. He was amused to find that she snored lightly, her breathing lightly halted with each disruption. She also drooled slightly which for some reason he found remarkably enchanting. He heard commotion behind him and turned to see Shelby standing there, looking at the two of them with knowing eyes.

"I figured it would come to this eventually," she said softly, not wanting to wake Rachel. "I take it she forgave you?"

"As much as she will."

Shelby nodded. "Well, don't hurt her again or you'll have me to report to."

"Another threat," Jesse quipped.

"She threatened you?" He nodded and she grinned wide. "That's my girl."

Rachel shifted in his arms and he looked down to just catch her eyes opening. She looked up at him blearily and he could tell the exact moment that she realized where she was, that it wasn't all some dream. She smiled softly and mumbled, "Hello."

"Hello."

Rachel felt another presence in the room and straightened up to find Shelby behind the couch. She jumped from Jesse's touch and stammered, "Hi Shelby."

Her mother smiled uncomfortably and said, "Hello, Rachel."

"Jesse needed help babysitting," Rachel explained hurriedly. "And I didn't want him to kill Beth or anything. So, here I am."

Shelby chuckled and told her, "Well, I'm glad you decided to come, then. I guess I know not to let Jesse babysit again."

"Well, Rachel and I should probably head home," Jesse said, casually patting Rachel's knee as he stood. "Beth is asleep upstairs."

"Alright, thank you both for your help."

"Don't mention it," Jesse said as Rachel mumbled something akin to "thank you". They stood up and Jesse took her hand, giving it a quick squeeze before dropping it again. Shelby followed them and opened the door. Jesse stood to the side for Rachel to leave first, and as she walked out she hesitated for a moment and looked over her shoulder. Behind her was her mother, standing alone with the same disappointment in her eyes. Rachel understood now what Shelby had meant by her missing the pivotal moments of Rachel's childhood. She had been too entranced by the idea of a mother to see it before, but now with all fantasies stripped, she saw the space between her and Shelby. She saw the gap, the void that could never be filled, no matter how hard both tried.

Surprisingly, such a discovery brought a sense of relief. It was freeing almost to finally realize that she could never have the relationship that she wanted with her mother, and that it was truly no one's fault. It wasn't there, and of no fault to her, Shelby, or Beth. It was just one of those unfortunate truths of life. Rachel was already envisioning how well this would all channel in song and had no doubt her wayward mother would be proud of her way of coping. Shelby was about to speak but Rachel turned before she could say a word. She moved forward, not turning until she heard the door close and Jesse grabbed her hand.

"Hey, you okay?"

"I'm fine," she told him. His expression told her that he wasn't convinced and she squeezed his hand as she assured him, "Really, I'm fine. There's just been a lot of change tonight. Good change, though."

"Okay."

"Well, um, the bus is that way," she said, tilting her head in the direction of the bus shelter. "I'll see you later?"

"You're not taking the bus," he told her. "Come on, I'll give you a lift."

"You don't have to-"

"Rachel, just get in the car."

She grinned softly and let him open the door for her. She slid in and felt her stomach tighten with nerves as he got in beside her. She realized as they drove home, pleasant conversation drifting in and out, that she wanted to forgive him. She wanted him to come crawling back (which he did) and she wanted everything to go back to how it was. Because even though at times she still felt the pull toward Finn and Puck looked like something straight from the hand of God, Jesse knew her and understood her better than anyone else.

They pulled up to her house and he killed the engine, getting out of the car and opening her door before she could even unbuckle her seat belt. She smiled at him and remarked, "That was quick."

"I want to do it right this time," he told her.

"By opening my door?"

His tone was serious as he said, "Yes, and by treating you the way that you deserve to be treated. I am not going to take you for granted again."

She felt the telltale prick at the back of her eyes and took his hand as he helped her out of the car. Their hands stayed clasped and dropped into the space between them as they walked to her front door.

"So," he began, standing with her on the porch. "I believe part of all of this is a kiss goodnight."

"Yes," she answered with a slight grin. "I believe you are correct."

He grinned and leaned forward, his lips brushing hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer. Her eyes fluttered open as she turned her head to the side, burying her head in the crook of her neck. His scent enveloped her and she sighed contently as she felt his fingers brush her skin at the gap between her shirt and skirt. She was home. Finally.

A/N: Ahh, I love St Berry fluffballs. They are such a joy to write. Hope you enjoyed this! Please review-for JGroff's bday! You know he would love all the St Berry love :D