House of Cards

by Iana

"There was no golden star next to her name. While he shook like a leaf in the wind, paper rustling madly in his hands, all Finn could think about was how plain her name looked without the golden star next to it."

2. Chapter 2

House of cards

By Iana

Disclaimer: Glee is owned by Fox. I don't own anything and I have no money, so…

Spoilers: Everything up to "Original Song"

A.N: As usual, you guys are amazing and I love every single review! Thanks for the feedback!

A.N 2: I love the idea of Rachel's father, the dark-skinned one that looks dangerous, giving the kids at school a piece of his mind! So I took some creative license to mold the character to my liking. =) Hope you like it!

GLEE

"Don't say anything, just let it all like this. I don't mind if we're not exactly right. Everything is real, my lies and so it doesn't hurt. Night and day complete each other, our eternal love and hate; I imagine you, I fix you and I make the scene I want, I take my clothes off for you. My great fiction love; I recreated you just for my pleasure."

GLEE

Chapter 2

Hiram got home the day after, yelling bloody murder about lawsuits, Amber Alert and killing Finn in the nastiest way possible. It took Leroy hours to calm him down enough so they could go to the school and talk to the principal without him fearing for someone's life.

Raising Rachel had been easy. They'd always had a trust and talk method and Rachel was such a sweet little girl she hardly gave them any trouble. But right now it felt she'd been saving up for that particular moment. Between the two of them they were kind of lost because they now realized they didn't know everything about Rachel's school life.

Leroy knew they were both busy and they often left Rachel to fend for herself but he also knew they loved her deeply and they thought she had friends to be there for her when they weren't around. But a talk with Kurt the previous night at the Hummel's house had changed that misguided perception.

"Mr. Berry, you have to understand I can't do what you are asking! I know Rachel was bullied sometimes but I have too many kids here, I try but I can't …"

Hiram raised a hand to interrupt.

"Mr, Figgins, I don't really care if you have the entire population of the United States of America on your school. I just came here to inform you we want to talk to Mr. Shue and that Glee Club of his; and that this school should expect a lawsuit soon if you don't manage to forward us notes of Rachel's classes and her homework. She needs time to recover and because it's the school's fault she left at the first place, you will make this easy for us. She will be back in time to take her tests and if she doesn't pass then we'll see. But I won't have my little girl behind on her studies because you allowed those kids to alienate her. Her teacher knew she was sad, her so called friends knew, hell, even that counselor of yours that has an obsessive compulsive disorder knew about it and you just sat on your hands and looked the other way. So PLEASE, Mr. Figgins, tell me again how I should understand what you are going through with those kids."

By the end of the speech Hiram was almost foaming at the mouth and Figgins was trapped by his own incompetence. So he nodded with a sigh and promised he would talk to all of Rachel's teachers to have some material drawn up for her to study while away.

"Now, we want to talk to the Glee Club."

Glad to have an excuse to be away from the scary looking dark-skinned man and the stern little one with glasses, Figgins hastily pointed them on the right direction to Glee room and with a tension headache, started calling Rachel's teachers to talk to them.

So, Leroy and Hiram stomped (more Hiram, Leroy just held his hand and soothed hoping his husband wouldn't die of a heart attack) towards Glee practice and when they arrived there, found all the kids talking, waiting for practice to start. Mr. Shue was shuffling some papers next to the piano man.

Hiram cleared his throat and like a movie scene everyone stopped talking to look at him. Finn winced. Crap! The scary Dad was back… He had been sleep-walking towards school for the whole day. Leroy had asked him and Kurt not to mention anything to anyone until they could talk to Mr. Figgins so Rachel wouldn't get in trouble with the school. He felt terrible. He wanted to yell and scream and pull at his hair out of frustration. He wanted to bang his head against the wall and curse the world for being such an idiot.

More than anything, he wanted to talk to someone about those thousand weird feeling inside his chest. But he just kept his mouth shut and stared at both Rachel's dad.

"Yes?" Mr. Shue went to both men with a smile on his face. Leroy gave a tiny one back because he didn't want to be rude; Hiram just scowled.

"We're Leroy and Hiram Berry, Rachel's dads."

Mr. Shue stuck out his hand but Hiram didn't take it.

"Is there a problem, Mr. Berry? Rachel didn't come to class today."

Embarrassed, he placed his hand back in his pocket.

Hiram walked past the confused teacher and went to stand next to the piano while Leroy talked in whispers with Mr. Shue. The kids by now had realized something was going on and were watching the weird interaction with rapid fascination. Hiram looked at each and every one of them and frowned. Those kids alienated his little girl and made her run to another state. He felt such an unspeakable rage it was difficult to even force the words around the lump in his throat.

"So, you're Rachel's friends."

"Friends with man-hands? More like slight acquaintances." Santana whispered with a smirk, looking down at her nails.

"Oh, I see. You must be Santana."

His tone was dangerous enough to cause her to look up and loose the smirk.

"We'll talk later. I take it you're Quinn then?" He looked at Brittany who shook her head and pointed to the seat next to Finn where Quinn was seated.

"Aw, that's sweet isn't it, Leroy? Our dearest Finn and his girlfriend." He sent a brief look over his shoulder towards his husband who was shaking his head in disappointment while staring at Finn. He really liked the boy and knew what it was like to be 17 and confused. Sadly, he had hurt his little girl and her feelings came first. "You must be very happy to have him back, aren't you sweetie? After all, it's not every man who accepts a woman who cheats on him AND gets pregnant with his best friend's baby. He must love you very much; after all, he forgave YOU, didn't he?"

It was implied that he hadn't forgiven Rachel for something much smaller than that and Finn blushed.

"EXCUSE me? Who are you and what business is it of yours?" Quinn got up, blonde curls flying in indignation.

Hiram pointed a finger. Quinn plopped back down on the chair, not used to people talking like that to her.

"Sit back down! I'm not done and if your parents haven't taught you some respect then I will. It is way past time you and I talked, Ms. Fabray and you Ms. Lopez; also you, Mr. Hudson. So you will sit and listen to what I have to say to you, or so help me god."

"Mr. Berry, you can't talk to my kids that way."

Mr. Shue hurried to the front of the class to try to get control of the situation. Hiram whirled on his with an ironic laugh.

"Oh, Will, believe me when I say I CAN. You are one step away from having me report you to the school board so shut up while I have my say."

William stared in open-mouthed disbelief. Leroy smiled. Hiram was so HOT when he got ruffled up like that.

"First of all, let me say you won't win Nationals this year. Again."

The room exploded. All kids got up at once (except for Artie, of course and Finn, who could only cower in deep embarrassment) and shouted questions in barely covered indignation, complaining to Mr. Shue. Hiram slammed his door on the piano twice, effectively shutting everyone up.

"For God's sake, I know your parents at least TRIED, so pretend you are educated, well-behaved children!"

They all sat down again, arms crossed, pouting. Hiram scowled. Good GOD, Rachel was much easier to talk to. Hell, psychopaths in court were easier to talk to.

"Rachel has left Ohio. We don't know where she is, we don't know when she'll be back and since Nationals is only a month away, we doubt she'll be back in time."

"That's great! The diva just left us to fend for ourselves again." Santana threw her hands in the air and huffed-puffed. Hiram's eyes narrowed.

"The DIVA as you put it, Ms. Lopez, is heartbroken and depressed. I take you know how it is since your little blonde friend here refuses to leave her boyfriend to be with you?" Santana and the whole room gasped. Brittany just looked at the other girl with a sad look on her face.

"Look, I don't know what your problem is. For all I gathered from what Rachel told us and what I'm seeing here, you're all outcasts. And I don't want to know why you were all so mean to Rachel because I know you're all jealous of her. What I want to tell all of you is that I'll be coming to each and every one of your houses and I'll talk to your parents. And if that doesn't work, lawsuits will be filled and I'll make damn sure all of you are expelled and unable to graduate next year."

"You can't do that! We didn't do anything to that damn troll! She's annoying and selfish and she just gets on everybody's nerves! I don't have to be friends with her if I don't want to and you can't blame us for Rachel being a diva!"

"Quinn! Shut up!" Finn whispered harshly.

"No, Finn! We're not to blame for Rachel leaving. We're in love!"

Hiram laughed loudly.

"In LOVE, young lady? Oh, grow up! You're not in love with Mr. Hudson and if he hasn't realized that by now then he's more naïve than I already thought he was. You just want a crown Ms. Fabray. You want to be popular. If Rachel is annoying, you're frivolous. If she's selfish, what does that say about you? And just so you know, last year, when that charming man you call a father threw you out on your pregnant bottom? Rachel came to us and asked if you could live with us but before we could say yes, you moved in with Mercedes. You are a sorry young girl with misconceptions that your life is going to be perfect and pretty when in reality; the world out there will eat you up and spit you out."

Quinn stared open-mouthed.

"And you, Finn. I've never thought you were good enough for my little girl. But she loves you and at least I thought you were a nice boy who'd be kind to her if things between you didn't work out. Guess that's too much to ask of you, isn't it boy? But in reality, what I want to say to you kids is that you and that teacher of yours are hypocrites. You sing a song like "Loser like me" at Regionals when in reality you do the exact same things to each other those bullies out there are doing to you. And if you don't grow up and realize you're graduating next year and that people out there won't care if you were popular in school or not, you are going to be run over like you're garbage, you're the ones who are going to be washing Rachel's car in the future."

He turned to Will.

"And you, Mr. Shue. Just because your star doesn't shine like it used to on your glory days of high school, don't try to smother Rachel's. Let's go, Leroy."

GLEE

Rachel stared at the view from the top of the Empire State Building. Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr had portrayed the most beautiful love story of all times and it was nice to be here and imagine what it was like almost 60 years before when the movie was filmed.

Truth was Rachel had always been a romantic. All the old movies and Broadway plays she had watched as a little girl had made her believe in true love and that once she found it; it would be perfect and forever. Except it wasn't. Finn didn't love her even if she loved him, she was miserable and they hadn't found their happy ever after like Cary and Deborah in the end. Happy endings just didn't happen for her, it seemed.

So she sipped her mocha frappuchino, despite the cold, and let her mind wonder home. Sure enough both her Dads already knew she was gone and she wondered if they had respected her wishes. She figured they had since the police hadn't come knocking on her door. She wondered if the Glee Club was happy or sad she'd left.

Today was the last day of freedom. Her week off had ended and now was the day she'd have to turn her cell phone on and log into her e-mail and Facebook accounts to show her fathers she was alive and that they could still trust her to keep her promises, even if she had disappointed them by leaving.

So, because the view soothed her somehow, she pulled her Iphone from her pocket and turned it on. It was a recent purchase she had made two days after stepping foot in New York. After going to the Post Office to grab her apartment keys from one of the boxes and leaving her bags at her new place, she went to the Apple store and invested on a new phone. One that wasn't bedazzled or filled with stickers and that didn't tell the whole world she was gullible young girl.

She wanted to grown up; she would start by changing her appearance on the outside in order to get taken seriously. Who would hire a singer that looked like a Japanese hentai?

Rachel was taking a sip of the iced coffee and pondering that when her cellphone beeped and buzzed several times. Looking down at it, she saw that she had several text and voice messages. With a grimace and a sigh, she touched the screen to begin reading the SMS.

Several from Kurt, a handful from Mercedes and Artie, even a few from Brittany. She deleted those without replying and begun with the voice messages; her dads, Kurt again and incredibly or not, Santana.

The Latina girl wasn't snippy or mean. She told Rachel she'd been selfish but she would do it too if she could and that she hoped the other girl figured everything out in the end. Rachel would've gawked in disbelief if in the end she hadn't finished it with a "That doesn't mean we're friends, dwarf."

She didn't know if she was happy or sad that Finn hadn't called her once.

"Are you ok?"

Rachel raised her eyes and stared at a good-looking, sun tanned boy looking at her with eyes the color of chocolate syrup.

"Um… Yeah, I'm fine."

She was a little confused about the question until she realized she was crying. Wiping her eyes furiously with the back of the hand that was holding her Iphone, she smiled a little at him, blushing to the roots of her hair.

"I'm fine, thank you. I'm just… adjusting." She whispered and placed the phone on her back pocket.

"I know how that is. I'm sorry to disturb you; it's just that you looked really sad for a moment. By the way, I'm Igor."

The way he said the name made Rachel giggle. He had a cute accent.

"I'm Rachel. Rachel Berry. Where did you get that tan?"

She slapped a hand on her mouth in embarrassment but the boy just flashed pearly white teeth at her and winked. He was tall, almost as tall as Finn, good looking and muscular. His skin was sun kissed and his hair was raven black. He had a strong bone structure and a nose piercing.

"I just got back from a visit with my Grandma. I spent almost three months in Rio for Christmas, New Years and Carnaval and since her apartment window faces the beach, you can guess I spent all my free time there."

They spend hours talking. When the chill from the wind got too much, they left the Empire State Building and stopped at a café for a cup of hot chocolate and some tarts.

Rachel found out that Igor was the son of a successful businessman who had moved to New York when he was 15 years old to study and never left. His mother was American but had Indian blood, that's why she thought he'd look natural in panache and a banana tree leaf covering his boy parts.

Igor was born in Brazil because he came two months earlier than planned, when his parents were there to visit with his grandma for the last time before he was born. Rachel learned a lot about him that day and also told him a lot about her as well.

She cried and talked like she hadn't done with anyone else ever before and it felt good. It also felt foreign and in the end she felt like after that, he was never going to want to see her again.

But he was delighted by her. He loved the fact she was so petite she barely reached his sternum and he didn't mind that she talked a lot because he always had been an amazing listener. And he was a sucker for petite girls in pain.

"So I decided to leave Ohio and come to New York. Meet new people, do all those things I want to do here but never had the time; just think about my life and make some changes."

Igor gave her that beautiful smile again and covered her hand with his.

"Well, Rachel. I think that's just about perfect. And I'm glad you came to New York to meet me."

He squeezed her fingers once with a playful smirk and took his hand away to grab a chocolate tart. Rachel blushed, but smiled back. For once in almost 4 months, she took a breath and her lungs expanded, unobstructed by her hurting heart.

GLEE