Title: So Far Gone

A/N: This is the same as before...thank you thank you if you are bearing with me and welcome if you're new...

Glee!

Lima, Ohio. Summer of 2001…

Seven year old Rachel Berry sat at her friend Brittany's kitchen table, eating her apple slices and peanut butter and trying her hardest to listen to the story that Brittany was telling. It was so hard though because Rachel didn't want to listen to a story about how Brittany's fat little kitten, Lord Tubbington, was secretly a unicorn, sent to grant her wishes. Rachel wanted to think about when she was a grown up and she was singing her favourite songs on the place her Dads called Broadway.

"Rachel? Did you hear my story?" Brittany asked, her pale face scrunched in a frown.

"Of course Brittany," Rachel replied dutifully. She caught sight of Kate Pierce, Brittany's mom, laughing silently over Brittany's shoulder.

"That's ok. I thought you were daydreaming again," Brittany's smile faded as she added "It's rude to daydream when someone's talking to you Rachel," in her best scolding voice.

"Brittany?" Rachel said, frowning.

"Yes Rachel?" Brittany asked.

"How did you get the peanut butter on your eyelid?" Rachel asked curiously.

"The snack fairies put it there for later…I think," Brittany replied, rolling her eyes up and moving her head around, trying to see the outside of her own eyelid. Rachel shook her head at the girl's behaviour; she was such a baby sometimes. Rachel prided herself on being a big girl, on doing big girl things, and acting like a grown up. But Brittany seemed to prefer acting like she was younger than her seven years. She still got food everywhere when she ate; she talked about unicorns, fairies and angels all of the time and she slept with a nightlight, a blankie and a stuffed toy Elephant that Rachel's dads had picked out for her for her fourth birthday. She had named it Willy that day, giggling wildly as she explained to Rachel that it was because that's what she thought his trunk looked like. Rachel hadn't found that funny at all, because she was a big girl and a serious performer, and big girls and serious performers didn't find rude words funny. Rachel frowned again when she noticed that Brittany had now grabbed hold of her tongue with her sticky fingers and was trying in vain to stretch it up to her eye so that she could lick off the peanut butter.

"Stop being silly Brittany," Rachel scolded with a sigh. She grabbed a wet wipe out of the packet that Kate had set on the table for when they had finished their snack and used it to gently wipe the peanut butter from the little blonde girl's eyelid. She caught Kate smiling again at the gesture but she wasn't sure why. Rachel put the wipe down next to Brittany, knowing she would need it again later, and then went back to eating the last few of her apple slices, while Brittany began chattering about Lord Tubbington promising to quit smoking since Brittany's Daddy was quitting too.

A little while later Rachel was slowly walking home, her little pink backpack securely on her back. She had been so thrilled when her Dad and Daddy had finally agreed to let her walk the few hundred metres between the Pierces' house and their own. She had been asking for a long time and once she turned seven her Dads had told her that in the summer she could walk home from Brittany's by herself after Kate Pierce picked her and Brittany up from dance practice on Mondays and Thursdays. She couldn't walk by herself in the winter though, because dance practice was later and it was too dark too early. It wasn't far to walk; just around the corner and 6 houses down, she didn't even have to cross the road, and since their street curved a little her Daddy could see her come around the corner and keep an eye on her as she walked down the street (and Kate and Brittany always played in the yard until Rachel rounded the corner to keep an eye on her). Rachel always dawdled, she loved the walk and liked to make it last as long as possible. When she rounded the corner today though, something caught her attention and made her quicken her pace; there was a moving truck parked on the street. Rachel stared at the huge truck for a few moments before making her way toward it, curious. When she got closer she could see that the men were moving furniture and boxes into number 8. Two houses before hers. She continued to make her way toward the truck, slowly now, still watching the movers. When she got to the driveway she paused, watching them as they carried things into the large house through the open garage.

A man in nice clothes seemed to be telling the movers where to put the different things they were carrying in. The man had dark skin, not as dark as her Daddy's but darker than her own, with shiny black hair. He smiled when he noticed Rachel watching, revealing perfect white teeth. Rachel smiled back and gave a little wave. As she started to walk again she noticed three more people in the yard, sitting on the grass and watching the movers too. There was a lady, a boy who looked like he could be in high school and, Rachel's heart fluttered in excitement, a little girl who looked to be about her age, with a beautiful pink ribbon in her glossy black hair. They all had tan skin and black hair like the man. The little girl looked up and spotted Rachel, she frowned at her before turning back to watch the movers. She looked sad, Rachel noticed as she started walking again. She guessed the little girl had left her friends behind and was feeling a bit lonely in her new place.

Rachel waved to Mrs Wilson as she walked past her driveway then ran the last few metres to her house finding her Daddy waiting with open arms on the porch.

"Daddy!" she shrieked, throwing herself at him and laughing hysterically as he lifted her high above his head and spun her around a couple of times before setting her down on her feet again, giddy and breathless from the excitement. "Daddy there's new people moving into the Grey's house," she told him. "I saw a man and a lady and a boy and a little girl who might be seven too!"

"Wow that's exciting!" Leroy told his daughter, taking her hand and leading her inside.

"Maybe she can be my friend!" Rachel said excitedly. She skipped off up the stairs to put her bag away and so she didn't see the sad look on Leroy's face. Not a lot of the families in Parkes Estate, the small gated community in Lima, Ohio, wanted their children to play with little Rachel Berry, daughter of those abhorrent homosexual men. God forbid they or their children might 'catch gay' just from playing with their little girl. Leroy felt the anger rise up and took a few deep breaths to push it away. 'It's their problem not mine,' he chanted over and over in his head until the anger dissipated. Just in time too, as Rachel came bounding back down the stairs. "Do you think she might be my friend Daddy?" she asked with a frown, picking up where she left off.

"Maybe baby," Leroy said lightly, causing Rachel to giggle at the rhyme.

"I hope she will be. I hope her Mommy and Daddy will let her play with me," Rachel said before skipping over to the piano to practice, leaving a surprised Leroy in her wake. He had thought that he and Hiram had hidden that pretty well from their daughter, but apparently not.

Glee

On Thursday after ballet, Rachel walked quickly toward number 8, hoping to catch a glimpse of the little girl again. She slowed right down as she walked past the driveway. She looked around the backyard and saw nothing. She saw the lady from the other day in a window, watching her as she walked past. Rachel smiled and waved, thrilled when the lady smiled and waved back. She hoped that meant that the lady would let her play with her daughter, but in her heart she knew it probably meant that she didn't know who she was and that she had two Dads yet. Rachel had often asked her Dads why people wouldn't let their children play with her and they had always distracted her and never really answered her properly, so one day she had asked Kate. Kate had explained gently that people were afraid of her because her Daddies were a little different to other parents; she said that some people aren't very accepting of things that are different, but that they're the ones who are wrong. Not Rachel and not her Daddies. Then Kate had looked upset and said she wasn't sure if Rachel's Daddies had wanted her to tell Rachel all of that. Rachel had made a promise in her head that she wouldn't tell. She loved Kate and didn't want to see her in trouble. Rachel shook herself out of her thoughts, realising that she had been standing there for quite a while, and started walking again. When she got to the border of the property where the new peoples' fence met the Wilson's she heard something. A sniffle.

"Hello?" she called out, moving closer to the fence. Another sniffle met her ears. Rachel saw a knothole in the fence and got down on her hands and knees, peering through. Someone was sitting in the corner; all she could see was their arms wrapped around their small, knobbly, scabbed knees. It had to be the little girl, Rachel thought. The arm she could see had a bruise on it and she figured that must be why the girl was crying. "Um are you sad?" Rachel asked, pushing her eye closer to the knothole. Suddenly a very dark brown, almost black, eye was peering back at her through the hole. The eye was red and slightly puffy wet and it was rimmed with the longest, darkest, thickest eyelashes Rachel had ever seen.

"Go away," a little voice called back, hoarse from crying.

"Ok. Bye bye," Rachel stood and backed away from the knothole. She could still see the dark eye peering at her and so she waved before skipping off down the street, waving at Mrs Wilson as always before running into her Daddy's waiting arms, eager to tell him that she had talked to the new girl and to remind him that she really, really hoped they could be friends.

Glee