It's a Metaphor, right?
- Chapter 2 -
Rachel thinks about the past year, specifically the egging incident. She comes to the conclusion that it was not an act of hate or a funk-ified prank, but a metaphor. And metaphors are important. Rachel-centric/Finn/Jesse/Shelby
Driving at 7 pm during the summer in Lima, Ohio, Rachel notices three things. The first being the small group of college students that just finished their freshman year that are walking along the sidewalk toward a house that already has the music turned up to the max. A very astute, observant person, which Rachel Berry can honestly say that she is, can see that the windows of the house are just slightly shaking from all of the dancing movement going on inside. Not really caring what the older kids are doing, Rachel moves her eyes from the side of the road to focus on getting out of her neighborhood and onto the main road in the direction of Akron. She needs to talk to Jesse. What she believes is his egging metaphor continues to circle around her brain. As she starts to doubt her discovery, Rachel quickly shakes her head to clear her thoughts.
The second thing she notices occurs at the stoplight two miles or so before the intersection for Jesse's neighborhood. Having only been to Jesse's house once before, Rachel watches for the obvious landmarks to know that she is going the right way. She knows that Jesse lives fairly close to Carmel High School so when she sees the large school on her right, Rachel smiles. Since the sun is not set to go down for another hour or so, Rachel clearly sees the few cars that are in the parking lot and a lone, dark-haired woman walking from what looks like a large town park area next to the school. She does not look too old from what Rachel can gather for she has a…
"Is that a baby carriage?" Rachel asks herself aloud, leaning forward to get an even better look.
It is a baby carriage that the woman is pushing, and Rachel notices a third thing. Focusing on the characteristics of the woman from her current position, Rachel gasps, dropping her bottom lip slightly as she recognizes the person at once.
"Mom?" she asks quietly to her empty car. She hasn't seen her mother since she confronted her at Regional's and asked her to help coach the McKinley glee club. What is she doing in Carmel High's parking lot after she said she quit… with a baby no less? The last confrontation she had with her mom, Rachel walked out heartbroken that she had wanted a family, a dog, a garden, but not her. Wasn't she family? Why wasn't she good enough? Did she know that she was already broken from Jesse's betrayal and this was the icing on top of the despair that was comparable to Barbra in The Way We Were?
The light changes from red to green and Rachel makes a quick decision. She may never get this chance for a while so she drives the short distance to the Carmel High parking lot entrance and turns. Recognizing the black Range Rover close to the entrance as Shelby's, Rachel parks her car close by, leaving one parking space between them.
She gets out and walks to the back of her car. Leaning against the trunk of the car, Rachel crosses her arms under her chest and tries to keep a neutral expression on her face. It is hard not letting any tears fall from her eyes. She cannot help but want to cry at the sight of seeing her mother that she had found after 16 years, but now cannot have. She wants, no, she needs a mom and she will use every ounce of her ability to get Shelby to see it too. Jesse can wait.
As Shelby approaches the trunk of her car, Rachel sees her look at the new car that appeared with a confused expression, but as soon as she was looking over, she turns back to own car and pops the trunk, not noticing Rachel standing there. Rachel watches as she gently cradles the small baby out of the carriage and holds her on her hip. She deduces it's a girl because of the dress she is wearing. She smiles at the pattern of gold stars stitched on the hem and reminisces about the gold-starred cup she received only a month ago and her own affiliation with the symbol – the metaphor.
She views her mother taking extra care to hold on to the baby girl while expertly, as if she had been doing it all her life, collapsing the stroller and placing it inside the trunk of the car with her free hand.
As if she doesn't know how to take care of a child! Exhibit A! Why is being a mom to me any different than to that baby? On the plus side, it will not require as much physical work like a baby does. It will be much more friend-like – best friend like – with the occasional lecture, of course. Rachel thinks this to herself as she watches the mother-daughter interaction with sadness, anger, and regrettably a bit annoyance.
Shelby closes the trunk of the car and finally faces toward Rachel since the driver's side is in the same direction. However, she does not notice her when she lifts the baby girl up with two hands and holds her in front of her face. She walks to the back seat door on the driver's side and stops before opening it.
"Did you enjoy our walk, Beth? You liked that butterfly that flew on your nose, didn't you? Yes you did," Shelby asks her baby while slightly tickling her sides with her thumbs. Beth giggles at the touch before Shelby shifts her to one arm again to open the door and place her securely in her car seat. After getting Beth settled in with a blanket and seatbelt, she shuts the door and jumps back in surprise as she turns around and sees the girl with her own dark hair, nose, and mouth standing in front of her.
"Hi, Mom," Rachel says trying her best to be nonchalant, "About time you noticed I was here… but then again, with that new baby who has time to notice their own, flesh-and-blood, 16-year-old daughter." Rachel bites down on her tongue to prevent the tears from falling from her eyes.
Her mother places a hand on her fast-beating heart and finally addresses Rachel.
"Rachel," she lets out taking in a breath of air before continuing, "you scared me. It's not that I'm not happy to see you, baby, but what are you doing here?"
"I was coming to see Je- I was just in the neighborhood," Rachel says avoiding her real reasons.
Rachel moves her eyes down toward to her shoes, but she catches a glimpse of her mother raising her eyebrow in a questioning manner. She does not know how to explain what is going on to her mother. She doesn't know if she even cares. Will she want to listen to her theory on Jesse's broken egg incident? Does she even know that her students egged her before regionals? She can really use a mom's help right now. She needs her. If she can show her how she feels about this, maybe it will be enough to prove that her mother needs to be in her life. Too long has she gone without a mother's love. Her dad's are great, fantastic even, but they can only do so much. She knows she can't turn back time, but she would like a mom for all future events that will occur in her life.
"I really need a mom right now," Rachel says softly, unlike the terse tone she took on first.
She sees Shelby's face drop, her eyes showing only concern and worry about what might have happened. The first time that Rachel came to her mom asking for help, she noticed that Shelby had a similar expression that only relaxed when she revealed it was only her dress she needed help with.
"Oh, honey, what's wrong?" Shelby takes a step forward and lifts her arms as if to give a hug, but pauses and brings them back in again. It's awkward. She can see that Shelby wants to hug her, but obviously feels weird about their relationship after all that had happened.
Rachel looks up slowly. Her eyes glisten. She takes a step forward so she's closer to the older woman. She figures it will be easier to overcome the awkward tension if she breaks it now, She breathes deeply before speaking to control her voice, choosing her words carefully.
"Did you know that Jesse and Vocal Adrenaline egged me in the parking lot before Regionals?" Rachel asks calmly, yet very emotional.
"They did what?" Shelby asks incredulously, eyes hardening in anger for her formal team. "When did this happen? Were you –– are you okay? Did you tell anyone about it?"
Rachel smiles as she lets out a giggle, "And you thought you wouldn't be able to be a good mom? You already have the worrying part down."
"Rachel…" Shelby stares pointedly at her. Rachel stops her giggle as she fades her smile into a slight frown.
"I'm… fine enough now. I have only told Mr. Shue and the glee club what happened, " Rachel responds, "My dads don't know."
She doesn't know why she added that last part. May be to further prove that a mother is needed in her life did she mention that she had not gone to her dads for this issue. She doesn't know. What she does know is that her mom is currently looking at her like she wants to hug and hold on and never let go to protect her from all dangers. It's not exactly the best situation to put a parent, but she likes it. Rachel feels… loved and that's exactly what she needs right now. She's not even all that convinced that Finn loves her. His declaration was blurted out so quickly she had not had time to process it before performing, probably misinterpreting his meaning in haste. If his lack of communication so far this summer is anything to go by, he is obviously not that infatuated with her.
"I hope they helped you. If I had known, I would have reprimanded the people who were part of it. No one should get away with deliberately hurting anyone. Are you ever going to tell your dads? Would you like to talk about it with me?" Shelby chooses her words carefully not wanting to push Rachel into sharing anything, but still wanting her trust.
She cannot believe that her kids would do this. She understands about their funkification of the competing show choirs. That is all in good, competitive fun that has become more of a tradition in Vocal Adrenaline that occurs every year. Shelby thought that they succeeded in their annual funkification with Another One Bites the Dust and the toilet-papered choir room. Those are harmless pranks that they had confirmed with her before acting. She had thought it was fine since no one was getting hurt and they did work exceptionally hard on perfecting another Queen piece in addition to Bohemian Rhapsody. If she had known that they egged another student, especially one whom they were aware of her vegan ideals, she would have made it painfully obvious that they pushed their funk too far. She supposes that they didn't tell her because they were afraid she would not let the participators compete… and they would be right. Maybe not take them out of the entire production, – she believes they worked too hard all year for that – but she would have definitely given out a punishment that would have made them wish they had never done anything. They're lucky she's not heading their team anymore, very lucky.
"Yes, everyone was remarkably protective. Noah was the first one jump up and head toward the door to go to Carmel High to get even and the other boys, even Kurt – he's more of a girl which is why that's significant, – but Mr. Shue quickly stopped them before they made it out of the room. We funkified them instead," Rachel says smiling proudly, remembering how she felt when the glee club showed they actually cared about her and how much fun she had performing that Funk number.
"Do you want to talk about anything else, Rachel?" Shelby asks after a moment of comfortable silence hung in the air.
Rachel bites her lip for second before answering. This is her chance to really get to know her mom and receive her help in anything. She can show her that she needs her in her life that they cannot be "grateful for each other from afar" any longer.
"There is something else about the egging incident. I have a theory about why Jesse did it and that's why I was coming over here, to talk to him," Rachel finally reveals, "I am starting to doubt my thoughts though so I can really use a second opinion on what I should do. Can we go somewhere to sort it out, please?
"Of course, baby," her mom responds reassuringly, "We can go back to my house. I need to put Beth down for a nap, she's probably getting restless if she's not asleep already." She lets out a giggle as she turns her head slightly to the back seat window of her car.
"Wait, Beth? As in Quinn's baby, Beth?" Rachel asks incredulously as she runs through everything he mother just told her in her head.
"Yes," Shelby says smiling proudly as she thinks of her new baby, "I adopted her when I went back to the hospital after Regionals. She's just the most perfect little thing." She gushes like only new parents can do, but stops as quickly as she had started as soon as Rachel's response leaves her mouth.
"So this is why you didn't want to have a relationship with me? I wasn't good enough to be your daughter so you had to get a newer, better one? God, even my own mother prefers Quinn Fabray to me! Why does everyone love her so much?" Rachel exclaims throwing her hands in the air dramatically. She calms down significantly after a moment and looks down at her feet, uncharacteristically shy.
"Is she… that much better and prettier than me?" she asks blatantly.
In the short time that she knows her daughter, Shelby Corcoran has never seen Rachel with this much uncertainty about herself. Sure, when she came for help with her Gaga costume she looked a bit nervous to ask the woman she barely knew for help, but that was nothing compared to now.
"Sweetie, no, that's not it at all. You're gorgeous, and I'm not just saying that because you look like me," Shelby says comfortingly, finally wrapping her arm around the younger girl, who starts to lean into her touch and smile appreciatively. "Why don't you get in your car and follow me back to my house. We'll have a nice, long chat with a glass of water and everything can come out in the open, alright?"
Rachel nods mutely, grateful for her mother's words. After one last squeeze from her mother's arm, she turns to go the driver's door of car, sending one last look at the older woman before settling in seat. She feels good about this meeting as she feels things will only get better from here.
TBC
AN: This chapter sort of took on a life of it's own. I originally thought to have Shelby come into the story after Rachel talked to Jesse, but this seemed to flow much better. Now Rachel can have her mother's input on what she should do about her theory about Jesse's egg metaphor and she can reestablish a better relationship from where the show left off. You'll just have to wait a little longer to find out the conclusion that she came to about Jesse. It shouldn't be too long before it's revealed. :D
I tried to keep Rachel and Shelby in character as best I could. I think I did a pretty decent job at doing so. What are your thoughts on this chapter? Anything you would like me to consider for the remainder of the story? I think there will be at least 2 more chapters, maybe 3. We'll see how it goes! :)
Remember, reviews are like applause, Rachel needs them to live! :D
Smartypink291
