AN: Public Service Announcement: Below is the result of being trapped in my house for the last 24ish hours as the city that I live in is literally frozen. While that doesn't bother most of the country ... it ain't no good for us Houstonians. We don't do well with ice. So I typed this out quickly at some point last night after going a little crazy from the feeling of being trapped in my house. Then I crashed hard ... hibernated really, and just woke up. I'm gonna post it but fair warning there isn't a follow up. It's a one off in my favorite universe. Anyway, now I'm gonna have pancakes and go back to bed for a while.

Beca caught the door with her hand and pushed it back open just before it slammed in her face. She sighed as she entered the house with her son right behind her. The sound of a slamming door echoed down from the second story of their Malibu home.

"Are you hungry Bud?" Beca asked as she turned towards her 8 year old son.

He nodded as he slung his backpack on top of the kitchen table.

Beca opened the cabinet looking for some sort of snack. She stood in front of the pantry thinking about Finley and what she was going to say to her once she got Sebastian settled with his homework and his snack. Chloe was always better at this. At the talking part and the thought of waiting for her wife, who was stuck in traffic, to get home before speaking to their oldest child sounded like a reasonable option but she was the adult. She could do it. Beca looked down as she felt Bash brush past her leg and reach for a small bag of chips that sat on a low shelf.

"I got it." Bash said as he retreated back to the table snack in hand.

"Sorry." Beca mumbled as she watched him climb into the chair and carefully pull the bag of chips open at the ends the way she'd taught him after several instances of chips flying everywhere. She closed the pantry door and rested her forehead against it as the afternoon past through her mind. Everything happened so quickly. One minute she was working in the studio at 20/20 and the next she's on the phone with a panicked Chloe.

FLASHBACK

"Chloe. Take a breath" Beca said loudly interrupting her wife who was talking so loud and so fast she couldn't keep up with redhead but Chloe didn't stop. After a few more seconds Beca heard Aubrey in the background and then she heard some rustling on the phone, then silence, then Aubrey's voice.

"Beca?" Aubrey questioned.

"Bree. What the fuck is going on?" Beca asked loudly.

Beca heard Aubrey take a long breath and she could hear Chloe crying in the background. "While we were in a production meeting, Chloe got a call from Janice Reynolds."

"Hayley's mom?" Beca questioned.

"Yes." Aubrey confirmed. "She told Chloe she found some letter's in Hayley's room."

"Letters?" Beca said to herself as Aubrey continued,

"They were from Bruce Richards"

The name immediately sent shockwaves through Beca's body and her ears were ringing loudly.

"Are you sure" Beca heard Aubrey say and then the shuffling sound again and then Chloe's voice, "Beca?" Chloe asked sadly.

It took Beca a couple of seconds but she was able to softly reply. "Yeah."

"The letters were addressed to Finley." Chloe began to explain. "Janice said she didn't know who Bruce Richards was but she read the letters and they …" Chloe's voice broke, "he wants to meet her. He wants to meet his grand-daughter."

"How?" Beca chocked out.

"I don't know. Janice didn't read me the letters but I'm guessing he's" Chloe started but Beca interrupted.

"No. How did he find her?" Beca asked, her mind spinning.

"I don't know" Chloe breathed. "Where are you?" Chloe asked.

"20/20" Beca answered quickly as she looked around at her sound board. With a few quick clicks her work was saved and her keys were in her hand as she strode through the room towards the door.

"Can you go get her? From school?" Chloe asked. "I'm heading back but we are already stuck in traffic. I just want our babies home."

"I'm already on my way." Beca confirmed as she glanced over to Kelce as she left the building. "I'll meet you at home." Beca said as she hung up the phone before she could hear Chloe speak again.

PRESENT

"You okay Bash?" Beca asked turning towards her son who was doing his homework quietly at the table while snacking on chips. She watched him nod his head affirmatively. "I'll be upstairs with your sister. Mom's on her way home okay?"

"Kay" the small voice replied to her.

Beca paused at the table and bent down to place a soft kiss on top of the boy's hair. "You know how much your mom and I love you and your sister right?" Beca asked. At one point on the ride back from school, after she'd stopped at Janice Reynolds house to collect the letters, she'd glanced back to Sebastian who sat in the back seat of their SUV next to his sister. He sat with wide eyes and a confused look on his face. He'd been abruptly pulled out of school and then his mama and his sister were arguing with each other.

"I know." He said without looking up from his paper.

"I'm sorry I yelled." Beca apologized. "In the car. I shouldn't have lost my temper and yelled at your sister."

"I know mom but I think you should be apologizing to Fin." The boy said softly looking up at her with Chloe's blue eyes before returning them to his school work.

"I know." Beca acknowledged, "And I'm going but I just wanted to make sure that you know, that I love you."

He didn't answer. He just nodded.

"And you can tell me anything." Beca added. She'd gone through a range of emotions in the last couple hours since Chloe called. She was pissed off at Bruce Richards for contacting Finley. She was scared of what might be in the letters. She was angry at herself. Angry that she had no idea Quinn's father had somehow contacted Finley. And she felt guilty. She wasn't sure why but for whatever reason, Finley didn't feel like she could tell her or apparently her wife.

"I know mom." Sebastian answered.

Beca stood up tall. She knew that voice. He had more to say. "Whatever it is that you want to say right now Bash … you can tell me." She encouraged.

She watched the young boy shrug. "I just think it's hard for Fin sometimes."

"How do you mean?" Beca asked.

Sebastian looked up at Beca. His bright blue eyes filled with tears that were threatening to spill over and run down his cheeks.

"It's okay baby." Beca said softly as she reached for his face with her hands.

Sebastian blinked and the liquid fell quickly. "She told me" he said through tears, "she told me that she doesn't know how but she misses her moms."

Beca cocked her head to one side.

"Her real moms." He whispered as he tried to lower his head in the shame of giving his sister's secret away but Beca held his head up and gently placed her lips to his forehead as she worked to compose herself so she would cry the tears she felt building. He hiccupped, "she doesn't know why she feels like that. But she said she feels sad sometimes."

"It's okay Bash." Beca said trying to comfort the boy.

"She's going to be mad I told you. I promised I wouldn't." He cried.

"I won't tell her okay." Beca pulled her lips from his head and looked at him straight in the eyes. "I promise I won't okay? Then she won't be mad at you. It will just be our litter secret." She promised.

He nodded gently.

Minutes later she was standing outside Finley's bedroom door. Beca took a deep breath before reaching for the door handle. She pushed it down and slowly pushed the door open. The eleven year old was curled up on her bed with a set of Beats headphones on. Beca left the door open and crossed the room quickly. She sat on the bed and reached for her daughter's foot.

Finley steadied herself. She felt the bed dip and then her mom gently shaking her leg. At least she's not yelling at me she thought as she rolled over to her back and pushed the headphones down off her ears.

"What's going on Fin?" Beca asked surprising herself at how calm her voice sounded.

Finley shrugged quickly.

Beca reached around to her back pocket and pulled out the letter's addressed to Finley. The letters she'd retrieved from Janice Reynolds house. The letters that were hidden in Hayley's room. Letter's that Finley had trusted her best friend to hide for her. Beca placed the letters down on Finley's bed and watched as the dark haired girl pushed herself up to sit up against the headboard.

"Can you explain this to me?" Beca questioned. It wasn't as calm as before and she internally winced at the sound of her own voice.

Finley shrugged her shoulder's quickly again.

"I swear to God Finley if you do that one more time" Beca said quickly but stopped just as quickly. "Why can't you just tell me?"

"Why?" Finley spat loudly. "So you can yell at me some more? So you can ground me or whatever? If you're going to do it just do it." Finley challenged.

Beca was working hard to control her emotions. "How did he find you?" Beca questioned.

"I found him."

Beca's blood ran cold at the revelation. She felt as if she was punched in the gut. She thought for a second she could see remorse on Finley's face but it stilled instantly and the 11 year olds scowl was back immediately. Beca could barely produce enough saliva to speak. "Why?"

"Because he's my family." Finley answered.

Beca pushed herself up from her daughter's bed. As if she couldn't be that close to her at the moment. The child's words were hurting her too much. She needed the distance.

Finley didn't know why she kept hurting her mom. She knew she was in trouble. She knew from the moment she wrote Bruce Richards a letter explaining who she was that she was in trouble. The day she stole a stamp from her mom's purse, she stuffed the letter in her backpack. It took her two more weeks to work up the courage to drop it in the outgoing mailbox at school. She knew as soon as her finger's let the envelope slide down into the mail shoot she was in big trouble. Almost a week later when Hayley ran up to her at school and shoved a letter in her face, the one that she asked Mr. Richards to mail to her best friend's house because it was Hayley's job to check the mail at their house daily, she knew she was in big trouble. But she continued to correspond with the man. She knew if either of her mother's ever found out that she'd be in the most trouble she'd ever been in but she also knew that it would hurt them. She never wanted to do that so she kept it a secret. Just her and Hayley knew. And Hayley was hiding the letters in her room. She was safe … at least she thought she was.

"He's not your family." Beca whispered. "You don't even know him."

"Whose fault is that?" Finley screamed. She thought that if she just kept on the offensive that she could buy herself some time. Some time to figure out how to explain this. Some time to figure out how to apologize to her mothers.

"We made a decision." Beca whimpered. She had no idea why she was being attacked by her daughter. Her daughter who had pent up anger. "He was never in Quinn's … your mom's" Beca swallowed hard and felt as small as she'd ever felt in her life, "life. We just thought it was best to leave it that way for you too." Beca said quickly.

"You should have asked me" Finley said as she stood off her bed quickly. "I should have been the one to decide."

"You're a child Finley." Beca scolded, finally finding her voice. "You have no idea what you're trying to decide. You have no idea what kind of a man he actually is. You have no idea what you're doing." Beca voice was raised.

"No!" Finley shouted. "You have no idea."

Chloe entered the house quickly. She made her way through the entry and paused when she saw Sebastian sitting at the table. She was on her way to greet him when loud voices and shouts carried down the stairs. She dropped her keys and purse on the counter and took the steps two at a time.

"You have no idea what it's like to be me" Finley screamed at the top of her lungs.

"What are you even talking about Finley?" Beca questioned shaking her head.

"I'm not like you alright!" Tears were falling freely from the dark brown eyes. "I need to know who I am and you can't help me. Only they can help me but they aren't here. They're dead!" Finley cried loudly.

"So what do you want me to do?" Beca yelled back. She felt completely helpless.

"Don't you get it?" Finley yelled. "I don't want you to do anything."

"Then what?" Beca asked. "What is all this for?"

"I want to go live with Aunt Kate." Finley knew she didn't want that. She didn't want to leave her mom's. She loved them. She loved them more than anything in the world and she loved her brother but she was trying to protect herself from the punishment she knew was seconds away. At least at the moment she was prolonging the inevitable. It was self-preservation at its worst.

"No fucking way" Beca scoffed. It was raw and unfiltered but she meant it. "There is no fucking way you're doing that."

"You're not my mom. You can't tell me what to do!" Finley screamed as she ran out of the room past her redheaded mother who stood shocked in the doorway of the room.

Beca flinched when she heard the bathroom door down the hall slam. Her left hand flew to her mouth as she tried to hold in the sob that was trying desperately to come out of her body. She felt arms wrap around her tightly.

"It's okay" Chloe cooed in her ear. "She didn't mean that and you know it."

Beca wanted to believe that. She wanted to believe that a kid couldn't destroy her. Wanted to believe that her kid couldn't destroy her. But the look in Finley's eyes when those words came out of her mouth were hard to disbelieve. She felt Chloe's hands grab her by the arms and turn her around before pulling her into her. Red Curls covered her face as she cried.

"What's going on?" Chloe whispered.

Beca took a deep breath trying to steady herself. "She … she contacted him."

"What?" Chloe pushed Beca away by the arms to look into her broken face.

Beca shrugged and then had to fight the laughter away at the realization. It was the same gesture that Finley had given to her. She same one that had driven her crazy. "I don't know Chloe." Beca mumbled.

"Okay" Chloe stilled herself. "I'm going to go talk to her and bring her back in here and we are going to talk about this as a family. Okay?"

Beca nodded.

Chloe left Beca sitting on the Finley's bed. She looked down and straightened out her shirt before clearing her throat to compose herself and knock on the bathroom door.

"Go away" came from a much smaller, less confident voice on the other side of the door.

"Open the door baby." Chloe said gently. She took a step back and waited patiently.

The door slowly opened and Chloe immediately stepped forward and pulled the young girl into her body as Finley cried so hard that her body shook.

"I'm sorry" Finley mumbled into her mama's stomach. She grasped for something to hold onto as her mother held her tight. She finally settled on grabbing a bunch of Chloe's shirt, balled up in her small hands as she clung to her mama.

"I know baby" Chloe said softly. "I know."

"Mom hates me." Chloe's heart broke as the words poured out of Finley's mouth.

"No" Chloe said as she stooped down to Finley's height, which wasn't actually much shorter than her and Beca's. "She does not. Don't you ever for one second … ever … think that." Chloe looked directly into the dark brown eyes.

"But I was so mean" Finley replied quickly as tears continued to coat her face. Her eyes enlarged and she pulled back even more as her small head shook from side to side, "I didn't mean it. I' didn't mean it."

Chloe pulled the girl back into her and held her tight. "I know baby. I know. Mom knows too." She said trying to comfort her daughter.

Chloe held the 11 year old until her breathing calmed. She pulled away from Finley, who was still crying but much more controlled, "We need to go and talk to mom."

Finley nodded. She grabbed on to Chloe's hand. Something she couldn't remember doing for a while. She was eleven now. She didn't need to hold her mom's hand, she wasn't a baby, she wasn't Sebastian she thought as she walked through the hallway and back to her room.

Chloe cleared her throat and Beca's head immediately rose.

"We should all talk." Chloe said as she led Finley into the room.

Beca stood from the bed and wiped her hands on her jeans. "Yes but" Beca said looking away from Chloe and towards Finley, "I'm sorry that I raised my voice and that I didn't listen to you in the car." Beca apologized first. "I'm sorry that I yelled at you. I shouldn't have."

Before Finley could say anything back Chloe interrupted her. She was happy that Beca apologized and took responsibility for losing her cool as the adult and parent but whatever Finley was doing and whatever she was hiding was wrong and the little girl wasn't going to get off scott-free. And the words that Chloe did hear coming from her daughter, towards her wife, were something she would make sure that Finley apologized for. "You shouldn't have" Chloe said gently in her wife's direction, "but I can imagine that you're scared to death. Just like I am" Chloe admitted as she gently squeezed Finley's hand. She walked the little girl over to her desk and pulled out the chair, which Finley sat in across from her parents who settled on the edge of her bed.

Chloe turned her attention away from Beca and to Finley. "What's going on bug?" She asked as she reached for the papers that laid next to her on the bed. They were obviously the letters Janice Reynolds called her about.

It was time to come clean. Finley took a deep breath, "I've been feeling weird lately." Finley's eyes dropped to her lap. "Different." She looked up at her parents expecting them to speak but they sat quietly on her bed, hand in hand, waiting for her to continue. "So I've been looking up stuff about mom … Quinn" she corrected herself, "lately. And not just her but I've been talking to Aunt Kate about Emma too. But I found his name online and eventually found his address. So I wrote him a letter."

"Why?" Beca whispered. She wanted to understand.

"I don't know how to explain it." Finley said quickly.

"It's okay baby. Just try." Chloe encouraged.

"I just miss them." Tears formed again in Finley's eyes. "And I don't know …" She said through her cry, "But when I look in the mirror I wonder if this is what Quinn looked like when she was little. Did she have this weird nose and these huge brown eyes?"

Chloe's heart broke into pieces as her daughter spoke. She felt Beca release her hand and move quickly to their daughter. She watched as Beca scooped the little girl out of the chair and held her tightly to her chest. Comforting her. "You're absolutely perfect." She heard Beca whisper to Finley. "You're so beautiful."

Beca carried Finley back over to the bed and sat her in between her and Chloe.

Chloe pulled Finley's brown hair back from her shoulders and dropped her head down pressing her cheek to the girls as she wrapped her arms around her tightly. "Why did you try to find him?" Chloe questioned.

"I thought he could tell me about her when she was my age." Finley answered.

"He can't baby." Beca said soothingly.

"That's what he said. He said he didn't know her very well and that her mother kept him from her." Finley said looking up at Beca for confirmation.

"Quinn's mom" Beca said sharing a look with Chloe who nodded gently. "She had a lot of problems honey. I think she tried her best but she and Mr. Richards never really had a relationship." Beca tried to explain.

Finley looked down as she tried to reconcile the information.

"He said that we could be friends." Finley said softly.

Chloe let go of her daughter and reached back to pick up the stack of papers that sat on the bed. She cringed at the sight of the grown man's handwriting. The idea of secret correspondence between her daughter and a stranger sent horrible chills through her body. Whether he was her birth grandfather or not, it was inappropriate.

"Do you want to be friends with him?" Beca asked softly. She saw Chloe's head pop up out of her peripheral.

Finley shrugged again, but this time the action held much less venom. "Not really. I just wanted to know more about her."

"Why didn't you ask us?" Beca questioned. "I know we didn't know your mom when she was your age but we can help you find out."

"I know you don't mean to and you try to hide it but you always get so sad when I ask about them" Finley said softly. Her brown eyes pleading for forgiveness.

Beca shook her head at herself. "I'm so sorry baby."

Finley lunged forward and wrapped her arms around Beca. Her small arms holding her mom tightly. "I didn't mean it." Finley cried. "I don't want to leave. I love you and I'm so sorry." She cried.

"I know baby" Beca's eyes met Chloe's as she pleaded for help before she totally lost it and cried all over their daughter.

Chloe took a steading breath as she shuffled through the papers in her hand. "Fin." She said sternly. "You can't do this kind of stuff baby. It's dangerous." Chloe warned as Beca and Finley pulled out of their embrace. "We don't know Mr. Richards. All we know is what Quinn told us and she didn't want him in her life." Chloe said with a sad face, "and she didn't want him in yours."

Finley nodded slowly.

"And you're going to have to accept that." Chloe said in her best parent voice. "This can never happen again young lady."

"Yes ma'am." Finley said as she dropped her head.

"Your mom and I" Beca said interjecting and looking between Chloe and Finley, "will talk about your punishment."

Chloe nodded softly.

"You can't hide things from us Finley and you deliberately went behind our backs. I know you know that is wrong." Beca said looking down at her daughter.

"I know." Finley said sadly. "And I'm sorry. I knew it was wrong but I did it anyway."

"Okay." Beca whispered. "Go get cleaned up and then bring your homework downstairs." Beca instructed.

"Okay" Finley nodded as she stood from the bed and left the room again, heading for the bathroom to wash her face.

Once the girl was out of the room, Chloe turned back towards Beca with fear in her eyes. "What are we going to do about this?" She said holding up the papers.

"I'll take care of him" Beca said as she pulled the letters out of Chloe's hand.

"And with Fin?" Chloe asked.

Beca's eyes widened. "I have no fucking clue." She admitted. "I feel like complete shit for missing this. How could we not know she was struggling?"

"She's 11 baby. And she's a mature 11. She knows how to hide things from us." Chloe said as she scooted towards Beca to rest her head on Beca's shoulder. "Just wait till she's a teenager."

"Oh my God. No." Beca said quickly. "I won't be able to handle it."

"You have no choice honey." Chloe replied quickly.

"Fuck me" Beca whined.

AN 2: Review/Comment if you want...