A/N: I'm pretty sure that this is my favorite chapter that I have ever written for anything. So please, even if you have never reviewed a story before in your life, or if you never do again, please review this chapter! I really want feedback!

The bold italicized is one memory and the just italicized is a different memory.

I don't own glee.

Hiram quickly finished his shower and it was my turn. I ran upstairs leaving father and daughter to talk. As I stepped into the shower the strong scent of Hiram's shampoo made my head swim with desire as the memories of the many showers we took back played in a slide show through my brain, stopping at a particular time when I was seven months pregnant…..

There was a knock on the bathroom door alerting the showerer. "What?" she sniffled trying to steady her voice.

"Can I come in?" came Hiram's warm and steadying voice.

"No." the door opened and Shelby could see his shadow on the other side of the curtain.

"We need to talk."

"While I'm in the shower?" she asked incredulously, immediately regretting the harsh tone her voice had taken without her permission.

"Yes, it's important." There was a pause.

"Well?"

"Why have you been distancing yourself from me?"

"I HAVE NOT!" she shouted.

"Shell…"

There was a sniffle from behind the curtain. "I'm fat and ugly."

Hiram tried to suppress a chuckle as he quickly undressed himself and climbed into the shower. She looked like a frightened deer as she tried futilely to cover her body. "Shell," he stated grabbing her wrists and pulling her to rest against his chest. "You are not fat, and neither are you ugly."

"You're such a liar!" she stated as she pushed him away from her. "I mean look at me. I can't even wash my own body because my stomach just gets in the way." She hung her head and Hiram noted how much it had taken for her to admit this defeat to him.

"Shell," he whispered grabbing her face and forcing her to look at him. "I think that you are the most beautiful thing in the world, let alone the most beautiful woman." He brushed his lips against hers. "And if you needed help bathing why didn't you just ask me?"

"Because," she whispered, "I didn't want you to think I was weak."

"Weak?! You think that I think that you're weak? Oh, baby," he sighed pulling her into his chest and cradling her head against it with his hand. "That is as far from the truth as you could possibly be. I think you are the strongest woman out there. And child bearing? That is like the ultimate bravest thing that any woman can ever do, in my book."

"Really?"

"Yes, really," he mocked as he poured her lavender-scented soap onto a wash cloth.

"Really, Hiram, you don't have to do that."

"I want to," he mumbled against her lips before pulling away and running the cloth across her shoulder. He began washing every inch of her body, eliciting soft whimpers when he would hit a sensitive spot. He chuckled at every noise that she made, often rewarding each encouragement with a kiss. When she felt like her legs had turned to jelly, he pushed her into the spray of the water and ran his hands over her body to get the soap off. When all of the soap was gone, she threw her arms around his neck and tried to kiss him, the passion welling up inside her too much for her to bear. "No," he whispered after a brief kiss and laughed at her frown. He leaned out of the curtain and grabbed a towel drying himself off and wrapping it around his waist then he got another and did the same to her, only wrapping it around her chest. He quickly picked her up bridal style and carried her into her bedroom, locking the door. He could care less if Leroy were to hear them when he got home, but he didn't want him interrupting. "You're so beautiful," he stated as he laid her on her bed that they had deemed theirs. She hurummphed and he continued, "I'm going to prove it to you." he stated before-

"MOM!" Rachel shouted banging on the door and effectively waking me from my daydream and leaving me slightly frustrated.

"Yes, honey?"

"I have to meet Finn to go over a project that we have to turn in on Monday."

"Uh-huh sure," I smiled.

"No really!" she shouted.

"Whatever," I chuckled knowingly.

"Anyway….. I'm going to meet you guys at six for dinner. Daddy said it was fine as long as you thought so."

"Yeah, that's fine baby, what time is it now?"

"Eleven."

"Ok, have fun. Love you."

"Love you too mom."

"Be careful!" I shouted but Rachel was too far from the door for me to hear her reply.

I then decided that showering faster would be my best bet so that Hiram and I could spend some time together before tonight.

"I'm through accepting limits cause someone say there so

Some things I cannot change but till I try I'll never know

Too long I've been afraid of losing love I guess I've lost

Well if that's love it comes at much too high a cost"

I sang as I finished bathing. I then stepped out and into my towel, securely wrapping it around my lithe frame.

"Holy s-! HIRAM!" I screamed as I stepped out of the bathroom and into my bedroom to find him sitting on my bed. I glowered at his chuckle. He looked so at ease sitting in the middle of my bed.

"What took you so long?" he asked nonchalantly.

"What?" I tried to sound innocent but the blush gave me away.

"You do know that you were in the shower for forty five minutes before Rachel came up to say she was leaving right?"

I mentally cursed my new water heater which made my supply of hot water inexhaustible. I had loved it when Vocal Adrenaline's boosters had given it to me but it only made it harder for me to tell how long I had been in the shower.

"Really? I was just thinking." He was now close to me and brushing my wet hair behind my ear.

"About what?" he all but breathed into my ear making my legs turn to jelly and my eyes flutter closed.

I whimpered softly, "That shower when I was seven months p-p-p-pregnant," I sighed the last word as he took my ear lobe between his teeth.

"How far did you make it? As far as I remember that is a really long memory."

"To when you w-were telling m-me h-how,"

"Beautiful you are," he finished.

"Were," I stated and he quickly lay me down on my bed just as he had that one day and hovered above me before untucking the towel's end and unwrapping it from around me. I gasped as his hungered gaze fell onto my body. He slowly leaned forward and brushed his lips against mine.

"You're still beautiful," he murmured.

"Thank you," I sighed as his palm came in contact with the bare skin of my hip and history began to repeat itself.

"I love your ears," he whispered kissing each one, "because you listen to me and everything that I have to say."

"I love your eyes because they are the window to your soul," he kissed each of my closed lids, "I love your nose, because it makes you….. you."

"I love your throat," she let out a breathy moan as his lips trailed down her neck, "because your laugh, and your voice is music to my ears."

"I love your shoulders," he placed a hot open mouthed kiss to each. "You seem to hold the weight of the world on them, though and I wish you would let me help you carry it." Tears began welling in my eyes as I watched and listened as he worshiped my body just as he had all of those years ago.

"I love your arms and how they wrap around me when we kiss," he kissed each and grabbed her hands kissing each fingertip and palm. "I love your hands, the way they fit in mine perfectly and well for other obvious reasons." She blushed and laughed.

He placed a kiss to my chest, "I love your heart and how you still love me after all I did to you. I love how you love our daughter with all of it and yet somehow find room for me too.

He moved down to her feet, rubbing each one in between his hands before kissing them. "I love how your feet are always cold, and how you always slip them in between my legs when we get to just sleep together."

"I love your legs," he stated as he drug his lips up one and down the other of my legs making me writhe in pleasure, "and the way they carry you so gracefully."

Finally he drug his lips across her stomach letting his hands cradle it. "And you are not fat. You are more beautiful than ever because you are carrying our baby." He stared at her stomach for a few moments marveling at how his and Shelby's baby was growing, hidden from the world, inside of her. Shelby let a few tears slide down her cheek as she realized that he wasn't talking about their baby, but his and Hiram's, that she just happened to be the incubator of.

"And I love," his lips slid over my flat stomach and he placed a long lingering kiss to the scar from the cesarean section that had saved both mine and Rachel's life, "how strong you were in that operating room. You yelled at those doctors-"

"Don't you dare hurt my baby!" she screamed as the doctors discussed the imminent c-section. "Just let me have her! It'll be safer for her!"

"We can't do that, Shelby, you could die," one of the doctors stated.

"Like hell you can't! I'm the patient you'll do what I say!"

"You are the living patient. We have to do what's best for you."

"Oh! So because she's still in my uterus, she's not LIVING!" she screamed as another contraction hit, the pain making her see black.

"The c-section will not hurt the baby," the doctor knew about the arrangement and tried not to humor her cries for her baby.

"I've heard stoRIES!" the next contraction hit and she tried to catch her breath after the pain subsided. "Of doctors accidentally cutting the baby!"

"That won't happen I assure you. Besides this is what the fathers want."

"Let me see them. No actually, just let me see HIRAM!" she tucked her head between her knees as the new contraction stayed for a moment before she flopped back onto the bed. Hiram ran into the room and up to his lover's bedside, brushing away her sweaty hair from her forehead and kissing her head softly. "Tell them," she cried, tears running down her face. She screamed in agony, writhing in immense pain, as another contraction hit and the doctors became hurriedly talking. Hiram's face crumpled watching the woman he loved in so much pain.

"Tell them what, Shell?"

"Tell them to let me have her."

"But you could die, Shell." He sighed and she barely registered his tears through her pain.

"I don't give a damn! If it's safer for Rachel, then tell them to let me do it! At least I can do one motherly thing for her!"

"No, Shell, I can't let you die!"

"Please," she begged in a whisper before screaming again as tears ran down her face at the pain. The nurse quickly put the gas mask on her face and he had to hold her hands down to stop her from taking it off before it could knock her out. "I love you," she whispered as she slipped out of consciousness fully believing that she was dying.

Tears fell down Hiram's face and he kissed her forehead. "I love you too."

The doctors surrounded her and lifted up her gown. Hiram had to look away as they cut through her stomach and into the uterus. Her face was even harder to watch, though, as she winced, even through the gas. She was definitely braver than he had ever imagined. She was willing to give up her life for their baby. Tears streamed down his face as he kissed every inch of her head that was not covered by the mask. "Thank you so much. I love you, baby. I love you so much. I'm so sorry. I'm so very very sorry. Please know that I love you with all of my heart. No matter what. I love you." he traced his fingers over her brow. He then hera smack and a shrill cry looking up, he saw their baby. Suddenly, Shelby's eyes opened and she made eye contact with the baby before smiling and sinking back into the medication induced sleep.

"She looks like me," she mumbled incoherently.

The tears were falling freely down my cheeks as I remembered every minute of that day. "You," he paused and laid his head against my stomach trying to compose his voice, but I could feel his hot tears against my belly. He placed one last kiss to my belly before climbing up to where his face was hovering above mine, his tears falling and mixing with mine on my face. "You were so brave. So brave. And I was so cruel to you. After watching all of that, I was so cruel to you." he leaned his forehead onto my chest and I ran my fingers through his hair.

"Hey, it's ok. I know why you did it. You were only trying to protect me from further heartbreak." I pulled his face up to meet my eyes, "which you did. I still love you, with all of my heart." I grabbed his lips in mine and we kissed each other senseless. Before either of us knew it he was naked too and hovering above me as if asking permission. "As if you even have to ask," I mumbled against his lips, and we made love for the first time in sixteen years, but it was just as amazing and mind blowing as the first time, all of those years ago.

A/N: So like I said I really liked this chapter so even if you have never reviewed a chapter or if you never review again, please please please review this chapter! It would mean the world to me so please do it! For me? please?

Love,

Lizzy

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