Shelby Corcoran was hard.
Shelby had learned from a young age that people sucked. They would use you for what they needed and then leave. Because of this, Shelby didn't let people in. She trusted no one, and cared for no one but herself. She was hard on her glee kids, because she wanted them to succeed, unlike her. She didn't want them to end up like her, sad and alone.
She was hard.
Except when it came to her daughter.
The first time Shelby heard the heartbeat of the baby she was carrying, she felt something shift in her heart. After that appointment, she suddenly was very aware of the life growing inside of her. She found herself rubbing her belly lovingly, and having to constantly remind herself that the baby wouldn't be coming home with her when it was born. When Shelby found out that the baby was a girl, she found herself researching if there was anyway to get out of the contract.
But there wasn't. So the dreaded day came, and Shelby watched as her beautiful baby girl was handed to the Berry men, and she didn't see her again, not for another sixteen years, anyways.
When Shelby saw her at sectionals, she knew the second she saw her it was her baby. She was her spitting image. Everything about her was Shelby. Shelby felt her hard exterior fade as she watched her baby blow the audience away.
But Shelby should have never sent Jesse to get to Rachel. Rachel didn't need her. She had gone through the potty training and the training wheels, boyfriends, she didn't need anymore guidance. She didn't need a mom. So Shelby let her go again.
Shelby Corcoran liked to think she was hard, but she was anything but hard when she saw Rachel standing on her porch like that.
And that's how she found herself in the waiting room of the hospital at four in the morning, pacing back and forth, waiting for some sort of update on Rachel. She was in the middle of wondering if she should somehow try and find a way to contact LeRoy or Hiram when Rachel's name was called out.
"Rachel Berry."
She anxiously walked up to the nurse holding Rachel's clipboard. "Yes, how is she, how's Rachel?"
"Why don't you come back with me to see her and I can explain everything once we get in her room."
Shelby just nodded and followed the nurse back to Rachel's room.
For the second time that night, Shelby was not prepared for the sight that greeted her. Rachel was sleeping, or possibly medicated to the point of sleep, she wasn't sure. Her skin was pale, but she had bruises scattered across her face and arms. There were two stitches in her bottom lip and a cast on her left arm.
"Miss. Berry, I'm very sorry to have to tell you this, but your daughter was raped. She has extensive wounds in her vagina canal. On top of that she also has a broken rib, a sprained wrist, and we had to stitch up a cut on her bottom lip. We performed a rape kit and gave her medication to prevent pregnancy, we also tested her for STD's. There will be two officers here in a few hours to take her statement." The nurse paused giving Shelby a chance to process. "Miss. Berry is there anyone I can call for you? Her father?" Shelby didn't bother correcting her on her last name and just numbly shook her head no and waited for the nurse to leave the room.
"Okay, I'll let you know when the officers arrive. If you need anything just press the nurses button. She should be waking up soon."
Shelby didn't answer. She sat down on the chair next to Rachel's bed slowly. She reached out to brush some hair out of Rachel's face but dropped her hand at the last second. She wasn't sure what to do. Her baby had been hurt in the worst possible way, and she didn't know what to do. She should call her father's, they should be the ones who were here when she woke up, not her. She had no right to be here.
As she stood up to grab her phone, Rachel moaned out in pain.
Shelby quickly sat back down and tentatively grabbed Rachel's tiny hand.
"Where am I?" She asked, her voice raspy.
"You're in the hospital, do you remember what happened?"
Rachel's head snapped at the sound of Shelby's voice. "Shelby?"
Shelby gave her a tight smile, "You don't remember knocking on my door this morning?"
Rachel's eyes went wide and her eyes suddenly filled with tears. "I was, I was at a party, and I went outside because I needed air, and then, I, oh my god. I was raped." Rachel's breathing became erratic as she remembered what put her in the hospital.
Shelby quickly grabbed her hand and stroked the hair out of her face "Hey Rachel, calm down. It's okay. You're okay. Just breathe, okay?"
Shelby grimaced at her own words. Of course Rachel wasn't okay. But she wasn't sure what else to say or do in this situation. She's never dealt with someone being raped before, and she most definitely has never dealt with her own teenage daughter before.
Shelby remembered the story Rachel told her the day they had first met and quickly got up to fill up a glass of water. She walked it over to Rachel and tentatively handed it to her. Rachel drank it up in seconds and started to calm down.
Before Shelby could say anything else, two uniformed men walked into the room and she saw Rachel immediately tense up.
"Ms. Berry, we're so sorry to bother you, but we need to get a statement from you if you're feeling up to it?"
Rachel glanced at Shelby, who gave her an encouraging nod.
"Okay." Rachel quietly whispered, before launching into the story of what happened to her that night.
Halfway through the story Shelby felt her stomach start to roll. Her daughter was brutally beaten and raped by some drunken teenager, and none of her friends even noticed she was missing. She could feel herself starting to break and knew she had to get out of the room fast before she did. She couldn't be seen like this.
She mumbled something about needing the bathroom and quickly got up and left the room. Throwing herself into the nearest bathroom she could find.
She clutched the sink and felt the tears coming. Why would somebody do this to Rachel. Why wasn't there anything she could do to take the pain away. Why couldn't she stop being such a fuck up and learn how to comfort her own damn child.
Shelby froze when she heard a bathroom stall open and, much like her daughter had done earlier that night, quickly wiped the tears away from her face.
"What the hell are you doing back here? I told you my answer"
Shelby stiffened at the voice, immediately recognizing it as Quinn Fabray's.
"I'm not here for Beth, Quinn. I'm here with Rachel." Shelby said coldly. Not even bothering to look up at the young girl.
"Puck told her, you know. Told her how you came rushing here after regionals to try and adopt her, but I told you no. But you know what she said? She told Puck that we should reconsider. Because she thinks you could be a great mom." This made Shelby look up at the girl. "But that's the thing about Rachel. She sees the good in everyone, even the people who don't deserve it. But if you were really a good mom, you wouldn't have abandoned your daughter when she needed you the most."
Quinn looked her up and down before scoffing and walking past her, out the bathroom door.
Quinn's words were like ice to Shelby. Not because she called her a bad mother, but because it finally all made sense. The cops had asked Rachel why she suddenly decided to step outside, and Rachel had quickly thrown a glance at Shelby before saying she just needed some air. She must have heard that Shelby had tried adopting Beth. So she went outside to calm down, where she was then raped. It was all Shelby's fault.
Shelby walked back into the room ten minutes later, hoping her eyes were no longer noticeably red. Rachel looked up at her when she walked in.
"Uhm, the officers said they would call if they need anything else, and the nurses are getting my discharge papers now." She said, breaking eye contact multiple times.
"Oh, okay. Is there someone you need me to call for you or somewhere you'd like me to take you?"
Shelby regretted her words as soon as she said them, she saw Rachel's eyes flash with pain before she quickly looked down. Why was she so bad at this?
"You can just drop me off at home." Rachel mumbled quietly.
Shelby scrunched her eyebrows together in confusion, "Rachel you said last night that your dads weren't home?"
"They're not. But they will be in a few days. It's fine I'm usually by myself anyways."
Shelby felt something tug at her heart, the same feeling she got the first time she heard her heartbeat. Her baby was hurting and she wasn't about to let her spend the next few days alone. No way in hell.
"How about you come stay with me until your dad's gets home? I usually take the first couple days after regionals off anyways, and you can stay home with me?" That was a lie. Shelby never missed work. But Rachel didn't need to know that.
"I don't want to bother you." Rachel said.
Shelby carefully walked over to the bed and sat down tentatively. "Sweetie. I'm not going to let you go home to an empty house. Stay with me for at least tonight and you can call your dad's. I'm sure they'll come home as soon as you tell them what happened."
Rachel looked at her as if she was trying to figure out if Shelby was genuine or not before slowly nodding her head in agreement.
"Okay."
Shelby sighed into her cup of coffee. They had just got back from the hospital, and it was near seven in the morning. Rachel was upstairs showering and Shelby was lost in her thoughts. The doctor had given her a list of common things a person can experience after a rape and Shelby was panicking. She had no idea what she was doing. She wasn't a comforting person to begin with. And she didn't know how to take care of a teenager, let alone a hurting one.
She also couldn't stop thinking about what Quinn had said to her. She was right. She was a terrible mom to Rachel. But that also wasn't entirely her fault. She missed out on sixteen years of her life. You can't exactly jump right in to mothering after sixteen years. That's why she had wanted Beth so desperately. But Shelby was clearly destined to be alone.
She glanced up at the clock and noticed that Rachel had been in the shower for forty five minutes. The water had to have been getting cold by now.
She got up and dumped her untouched coffee in the sink, making her way up to the guest bathroom.
She listened at the door and heard muffled sobs and felt her heart ache. "Rachel, are you okay?" Shelby asked through the door. But she got no response. She hesitated before slowly opening up the bathroom door. "Rachel, honey, I just want to make sure you're okay."
Shelby got a loud sob in response. So she carefully pulled back the shower curtain, and saw her teenage daughter, sitting on the shower floor, sobbing.
"Oh, Rachel."
Shelby made quick work of turning off the shower and pulling her daughter up and wrapping her in an oversized towel, trying to ignore the bruises that littered her frail body.
"I can't get clean. I keep scrubbing and scrubbing but I'm still not clean" Rachel cried.
Shelby didn't say anything, simply guiding her towards the guest bedroom, only to realize that Rachel had nothing here. No clothes, toiletries, nothing. So she quickly redirected towards her room and sat Rachel on the bed.
"Wait here, okay?" Shelby said gently, before walking towards her dresser and pulling out a pair of plain cotton underwear, a large T-shirt and some sweatpants.
"They might be a little big, but it's all I have right now." She said, while handing the items to Rachel.
Shelby watched as Rachel slowly got up and walked towards her bathroom to change and let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. She felt like she was doing everything wrong.
Rachel walked back out and stopped in the doorway. She was dressed now, and was looking at Shelby expectantly.
"I thought we could both take a nap since we've been up all night. And when we wake up we can call your dads, unless you want to do that now? And then maybe go grab a few things from your house if you want to stay here a little longer?"
Rachel stared at her blankly before responding "I think a nap is good." She ignored all of the other questions, but Shelby was just happy she was speaking.
Rachel went to walk out the door towards the guest bedroom. But Shelby watched her stop and hesitate. Looking between the guest bedroom and back at Shelby.
"Would you like to lay with me?" Shelby asked her.
Rachel didn't answer, choosing to simply walk over to Shelby's bed, pull back the covers and climb in. Shelby waited until she was comfy before laying down next to her. She watched her for five minutes debating in her head what to do, before finally telling herself to shut up and reached her arms out, doing what she's longed to do for the last sixteen years. She pulled her baby into her and held her.
"I am so sorry, Rachel." She hoped Rachel knew she wasn't just talking about tonight, but the past sixteen years that she wasn't there. And all the fuck ups in between. She stroked her daughter's hair while she cried into her shoulder.
Shelby Corcoran was hard.
But tonight, with her daughter, she was gentle.
Hi! Just a little authors note! I haven't done a story in a very long time so please bare with me! I just wanted to address someone's review. I'm in no way trying to vilianize Rachel's fathers! I just noticed that they never seem to be around. I'm not saying they are abusive or unloving. I also am not going to marry Shelby off to a guy so Rachel has a "straight" set of parents. I'm actually gay, so no homophobia here.
I also apologize for not putting a trigger warning in. Like I said. It has been awhile!!
Love hearing from you guys. I've had this idea for awhile and I'm excited to see where it goes!