Chapter 3:

Rachel lies in her bed. Her room hasn't changed at all. It's still yellow with tons of Broadway posters. Her fathers have missed her deeply. They weren't happy with Rachel's decision but it's different now. LeRoy and Hiram Berry saw the success Rachel had throughout her career. They're still grandfathers to Ella and love her dearly. The Berry's aren't much in Ella's life as they would like to be.

She thinks about how the break will be good for her. That it will be good just to be back to her family and see her old former New Direction friends. And she hopes the break will bring her closer to Ella and Finn.

She sits up when LeRoy and Hiram enters the room. "Hey." They smile. They sit on the edge of Rachel's bed.

"You miss it here?" LeRoy asked.

"A bit. I'm so used to New York, where people never sleep, and it's so loud! I'm getting used to it." She laughs.

"We've missed you. It's good to have you home these last few days." Hiram admits. He really missed Rachel, his only daughter.

"You can always come home." LeRoy says. He strokes Rachel's arm.

"I missed you daddies. I know the things I said to you were not what you expected me to hear. I regret it. I didn't mean to hurt you..You're my dads. You've done so much for me." Rachel said hugging the pillow close to her. "I love you guys."

LeRoy and Hiram hug Rachel. Rachel is now in the middle of them. "You're here now, okay?" Hiram says kissing Rachel on the cheek. "You're not a bad person. You're our daughter. We love you so much."

Rachel nods and holds back tears. "It's a start. Finn isn't going to forgive me so easily but he's always loved me and thought about me. Ella, she...doesn't really want to be around me. I guess she's used to being her and Daddy." Rachel shrugs her shoulders.

"Hey...she's three and she's young. She's just slowly understanding what a mom is. She'll come around." Hiram says with his arms wrapped around Rachel.

"Thank you dad and daddy." Rachel thanks her fathers. "I can't get over how precious she is. I can agree with Finn that she looks a lot like me." Rachel laughs. "She's shy...so it's going to be hard."

The Berry men nod their heads as they understand the situation. "She and Finn are so close. They have a great father/daughter bonding. Finn's amazing with her. I wish I can be amazing with her as well." Rachel says. She's not sure how confident she is about her relationship with Ella, but she'll try.

She'll try to be the mother Ella needs. She'll be there for her when she graduates pre-k, enters Kindergarten, has a first boy crush, gets her first period, prom, high school graduation, and college. She's made a promise, she's not going to miss more of Ella's life.

"You will be, pumpkin." Hiram says smiling. Rachel loves theses talks with her dad. She hopes Ella will love having talks with her when she comes around.

Finn worked at Burt's car shop for two years but left to become a teacher at McKinley High. He's an English teacher. What he wants is to also t each the Glee Club New Directions but he has Ella to take care of. He figured maybe when she's older, he can start teaching..maybe.

He's in front of his sophomore class writing down the lesson when the principal of the school comes by the door. "Mr. Hudson? Finn?" Principal Grande says knocking on the door. "Can I talk to you outside?" He asked. Finn nods and apologies to his students. He quickly steps outside.

"What's going on?" Finn asked concerned.

"I got a call from Principal Boyd. She has Ella in her office with Mrs. Honey. You see, Ella got herself in some sort of trouble..." Principal Grande says. Finn's in shock. His Ella is in trouble? She's never in trouble..

"Are you sure it's my Ella?" Finn asked.

"Positive. I'll have someone take over your class." Principal Grande confirms Finn. Finn nods and goes back to his class and lets them know what is happening.

He just can't believe he'll have to punish his sweet precious little girl.

Ella sat in Principal Boyd's office with her teacher Mrs. Honey. She's crying, and she's upset. She doesn't understand why she's the one in trouble when the boy in her class started it all.

She's also upset that her daddy will find out. She promised her daddy one time that she'll always be a good girl. Sitting in the principal office isn't what a good girl should do. She starts crying harder when Finn entered the room. "Mr. Hudson, hello." Principal Boyd greets Finn calmly.

"Hello." Finn says. He sits next to Ella.

"I can see your confused. We are as well." Principal Boyd began. "Ella is in trouble. Mrs. Honey witnessed she pushed a boy in the class and he hurt his elbow." She told the whole story. Ella shook her head. That isn't the whole story!

"I asked Ella why she pushed Michael, the boy in our class. She won't give me an answer." Mrs. Honey spoke up. "Ella is a very good girl. We're just in shock with all of this."

Finn tried to figure out what is going on in his little girl's mind. Ella's cries have become whimpers. She's calming down but he realizes she won't speak. "I know Ella is a good girl. I raised her. Are you sure it isn't-" Finn was cut off.

"Michael told me she started it." Mrs. Honey said.

The three adults were even in more shock when Ella spoke up in tears. "No! I not did it! Michael says mommies are better than daddies. I protect you daddy." Ella cried. She's now in Finn's arms. And the reason why she's here is because she's confused about the whole mommy and daddy situation.

"I'm truly sorry for this incident. It's just-Ella's mommy came back and she's a little confused I guess. Please, forgive me..This isn't Ella's fault or Michael's." Principal Boyd and Mrs. Honey nod their head. "I'll have a long talk to Ella about what she did wrong."

"Okay Mr. Hudson." Principal Boyd says. "That's fair enough."

"Bye Ella." Mrs. Honey waves goodbye at them. Mrs. Honey and Principal Boyd are aware of their family story. They're not going to punish Ella, as long as she understands what she did wrong.
_

Back at home Finn and Ella talked. Ella apologized numerous times and she won't ever push or lay a hand on someone again. She pleaded not to have a time-out. Finn didn't want to spoil Ella this time but the pout won. Ella cuddled with Finn instead of sitting in a corner for three minutes.

"Daddy I make you mad?" Ella asked. Her big brown eyes staring into Finn. Finn isn't mad, he's just upset. "No baby." He said stroking Ella's curls.

"No one talk bad about my daddy. I love you." Ella says hugging Finn.

"Aaw Princess, I love you too." Finn says kissing Ella's forehead. "But we do not hit or hurt people. Remember that next time.."

"Okay daddy. I pinky promise." Ella holds her pinky and she makes a pinky promise with Finn. "This is also about mommy." They haven't really spoken about Rachel much lately. Finn decides to bring Rachel up. "It's good to have a mommy. And it's good for mommy to have a daughter."

"Like it's good for you to have me?" Ella asked Finn.

"Yes." Finn responds smiling.

"I..okay daddy. Can I see mommy again?" Ella asked concerned.

"Of course you can." Finn says hugging Ella. "We'll spend a day with mommy, and maybe you and her can have a day together?"

Ella's eyes light up. "Really? What we do?"

"Whatever you want to do." Finn responds. "Or whatever you girls do." He laughs.

"Wear make-up like nana?" Ella remembers when she saw her Nana put make up on for a Holiday dinner.

The make-up made Nana look so pretty that she wanted to put it on her face. Nana said no because her daddy will not like it. "Absolutely not. You are not wearing make up until you're married."

Ella blinks her eyes several times. "When I get married?"

"Hopefully not until you're forty." Finn says protectively. Ella shrugs her shoulders.

Maybe it won't be so bad to have a mommy. Her best friend Samantha Bakers has a

mommy and they do a lot of cool things. She wonders if she can do the cool things with Rachel. She'll have a mommy and a daddy.