Author's Note: I do not own Glee or songs used. This chapter contains borrowed dialogue from "The Rhodes Not Taken" for the purpose of adding context/commentary. No copyright infringement intended.

Chapter 4: First Treatment

Since Shelby would not be present at school at all on Friday, Thursday would be her last day at Glee rehearsal for the week.

"The treatment will take most of the afternoon, so why even bother coming?" she explained to them.

"All afternoon?" asked Artie. "Why does it take so long?"

"They inject the chemo gradually over the course of an hour or so, and I'm receiving four different drugs on my regimen, so I'll be there for about four hours. Give or take." She answered.

"What do you during all that time?" Finn asked.

"I'll probably watch a movie – they have a TV in each room – or bring a book to read." She said simply.

"Well, good luck tomorrow," said Mercedes. The others agreed and offered their well-wishes too. Just then Mr. Schuester walked in.

"Hey guys, let's get started," he prompted. They were making good progress on "Don't Stop Believin'" and this rehearsal was no exception until Quinn suddenly ran from the room, looking rather green in the face.

"I think she just had a bad breakfast burrito," guessed Finn. Shelby didn't doubt the poor quality of the breakfast burritos. Those nasty packaged goods from the cafeteria probably carried the plague. But judging by Finn's quick reaction, that was not what was making Quinn sick.

"Can we please talk about the elephant in the room?" asked Kurt. No way. Has he figured it out too? wondered Shelby.

"Your sexuality?" teased Santana. Kurt ignored her.

"Rachel," he supplied. "We can't do it without her." Oh, that. For a second, she thought he had been referring to the one currently growing in Quinn's abdomen.

"That's not true," argued Mr. Schuester. "We may have to layer Santana and Mercedes over Quinn's solo, but we'll be fine."

"Maybe for the invitationals but not for the sectionals and certainly not the regionals," said Artie.

"Wheelchair Kid's right," agreed Puck, Finn's best friend who had joined the glee club recently after being a hit in Mr. Schuester's short-lived a capella group. Two other guys from the football team had also followed Puck, Mike Chang and some other guy whose name currently escaped her memory. "That chick makes me wanna light myself on fire, but she can sing." Blunt, but true, Shelby thought and had to agree with them. Rachel may be self-entitled and insecure, but she was extremely talented and pushed everyone else to be their best along with her. The club needed her. Hopefully they could convince her to come back. Unfortunately, Shelby wouldn't have the time while recovering from her treatment this weekend, but Finn had approached her with a plan. He had taken a liking to Rachel that most of the group hadn't yet, and thought he could convince her to come back. If anyone could, it was probably Finn. He had a way of seeing the best in people, even people like Rachel who thought she knew what was best for her. Shelby told him to go for it. Even if he couldn't convince Rachel to come back, he could at least plant the idea that the club missed her and really did appreciate her talents.

Shelby was not incredibly fond of the girl, but she had her moments. The two of them had shared a nice heartfelt conversation that morning in the girls' room when Shelby had received her second slushie facial. All it had taken was one senior jock to slushie her the first time to let all the others know she was now fair game. Rachel had walked in on her washing off the corn syrup filled concoction and offered some soft tissues to use instead of the scratchy paper towels. Shelby appreciated the gesture and thought they had a nice bonding moment over it. But then Rachel left the glee club to join the school play, thinking it would somehow advance her career. Shelby was a bit hurt that Rachel didn't think more of the glee club whose members had tried their best to be her friend, despite the fact that they found her irritating most of the time. This could be one of the reasons why Shelby did not allow other people to get close to her: she was afraid of getting hurt.

On Friday, Shelby's mother came with her to the hospital to stay with her during the treatment process. It was good to actually spend time with her mother as she was usually busy with her three younger brothers, who were all under the age of nine, and escorting them to all of their various activities. Today, she had dropped everything for Shelby. With her, she brought a large tote filled with knitting supplies. The woman had many hobbies but little time to actually do them. Shelby brought Mulan, which was her favorite Disney movie, to watch. Whether they would share a lot of conversation didn't matter, it was simply good for both of them for a mother and daughter to share each other's company.

Let's get down to business

To defeat

The Huns! (hoo-wah!)

Shelby found herself singing along to the movie, as usual. Her mother was plenty used to this by now as it was something she had passed on to her younger brothers. They usually put in Tarzan at least once a week just to sing "Trashin' the Camp" and make a complete mess of the living room. Suddenly, a small voice came from the doorway.

"I LOVE that song!" said a young boy excitedly.

"Who are you?" asked Shelby.

"I'm Randy," said the boy. "I like singing. Do you like singing too?"

"Hi, Randy. I'm Shelby. I do like singing. Do you want to sing along with me?" Shelby invited.

"Yeah!" exclaimed the boy, and he climbed right up onto the bed with her. They heard But you can bet before we're through, and came in together on the next line.

Mister, I'll make a man out of you!

Tranquil as a forest,

But on fire within.

Once you find your center,

you are sure to win.

You're a spineless, pale,

pathetic lot.

And you haven't got a clue.

Somehow I'll make a man

out of you!

Randy struggled with the words a little, but overall he knew the song very well. He wasn't half bad as a singer for his age either.

I'm never gonna catch my breath.

Say good-bye to those who knew me.

Boy, was I a fool in school for cutting gym.

This guy's got 'em scared to death.

Hope he doesn't see right through me.

Now I really wish that I knew how to swim!

Shelby could tell Randy loved the chorus, as he jumped down from the bed and started making manly poses and flexing his muscles every time the lyrics said "Be a man."

(Be a man!)

We must be swift as the coursing river,

(Be a man!)

With all the force of a great typhoon,

(Be a man!)

With all the strength of a raging fire,

Mysterious as the dark side of the moon.

Even Shelby's mother was enjoying the show the boy was putting on. Shelby herself laughed through the final verse. This time at the chorus, she indulged his showmanship by adding her own choreography. Really, it was more of interpretative dance, but it more fun that way.

(Be a man!)

We must be swift as the coursing river,

(Be a man!)

With all the force of a great typhoon,

(Be a man!)

With all the strength of a raging fire,

Mysterious as the dark side of the mooooooon! (hoo-wah!)

Shelby was laughing quite hard at the end of the song, and so was her mother. Just then, the machine distributing her chemo beeping, signaling that it was ready to be changed to the next drug in the regimen. The nurse came in with the supplies ready, and turned off the annoying signal. Then she noticed the boy in the room.

"Randy! What are you doing in here? Does your mother know where you are?" she asked. Her voice was concerned, but it also had some amusement to it. Clearly, the boy was notorious for wandering off.

"Oh yeah!" he exclaimed, suddenly remembering why he had left his room. "I had to go to the bathroom. There was somebody else in there, so I had to wait. Then I heard my favorite song! So I had to sing it!"

"Alright, let's take you to the bathroom and get you back to your mother," she sighed. "I'll be back in a minute."

"Not a problem, Linda," Shelby responded. She liked kids. They were fun. Randy reminded her a lot of her younger brothers. They had practically begged their mother to let them skip school to hang out with Shelby at the hospital and watch Disney movies, but she insisted that they had to go school. Shelby promised they could come another time if they didn't have school.

"Bye, Shelby! That was fun!" he said as Linda led him out the door. "You sing good!"

Shelby just smiled. "I'm glad we picked the Children's Hospital," she said to her mother. They had considered many places to go for treatment, but since Children's would take anyone under 21, they decided that would be a good option for her while she was still in school.

"Not just for the kids, though," her mother responded, although she was still smiling.

"Of course not," she agreed, but added, "It was for the Optimus Prime band-aids." Her mother just laughed in response. Then Linda returned.

"Well, I see you met Randy already," she said matter-of-factly. "His brother is getting treatment here, and he often gets bored and wanders the halls. It doesn't help that he has the shortest attention span I've ever seen, but he is only five so maybe he can't help it."

"He's something else, that's for sure," Shelby said.

"If you're here at the same time again, I expect this won't be only time you see him," said the nurse. Shelby was unable to tell if it was a warning or a suggestion. Either way, if all of her appointments went this well, maybe this wouldn't so bad after all.

The rest of the weekend made her rethink that a little. As long as she took her anti-nausea medication, she felt pretty decent. But she could definitely tell when it was time to take another, because she started to feel awfully sick to her stomach. Sometimes, she watched the clock fixatedly, waiting until it was okay to take another. The bottle said one every six hours, but the doctor said she would be fine with every four. She went by what the doctor said, and she needed it. Until around Sunday afternoon, she was taking them every four, maybe five hours. She took one last pill before going to bed Sunday night, just to be safe, but she doubted she would needed another in the morning.

She decided against going to school on Monday, since she felt exceedingly tired despite having gotten a good night's sleep. This must have been the fatigue the doctor had warned her about. She did not want to sleep, but she lacked energy to do anything. Her brain also felt quite heavy, and her thoughts were much slower than normal. Being in a fog was the best way to describe it. Or perhaps trying to turn on her family's gas stove. She could hear the flint clicking, trying to light, but it took a few tries to get the flame burning.

Over half of the glee club had looked up her number in the phone book or on the internet and called to see how she was doing. Her mother noticed the phone ringing so frequently and muttered something about getting a cell phone. Shelby assured her concerned friends that she was tired, but otherwise fine and would be back at school tomorrow. They also informed her of the latest gossip, which would be Quinn being pregnant. This was no surprise to Shelby, but what she did not know was the Finn was the suspected father. They were dating, yes, but Finn did not seem like the type of guy that would get a girl pregnant at such a young age. There had to be more to the story than that, but Shelby didn't say anything to anyone else. Maybe the condom had just broken.

The other news of the week was that Mr. Schuester had taken a former student of his who had made some morally questionable life choices under his wing. Her name was April Rhodes, and she had been giving everyone in glee club "advice."

"You did what!" had been her response when Kurt told her that he actually taken the ridiculous advice April had given him. "Rubbing alcohol is specifically designed to that people won't drink it, Kurt!"

"I realize that now, and trust me, I won't be doing that again." He sounded annoyed with himself.

"You'd better not," Shelby warned. She was trying to think of a convincing threat that involved one of his new designer jackets, but then he confessed to extending his abstinence to all alcoholic beverages, not just household cleaning supplies were not meant to be drunk in the first place. She had to commend him for that, since she had been contemplating the same thing since her diagnosis. Now, she really did not plan to start drinking, even when she became of legal age.

The next day, the glee club was giving a performance with April Rhodes on lead in place of Rachel. Shelby had picked up the choreography easily during the last-minute rehearsal beforehand, but she was still feeling the fatigue from her treatment on Friday. It made it more difficult for her to keep up to tempo and it hindered her concentration, but she was capable of participating nonetheless. This gave her the confidence she needed to overcome her physical limitations of the day. If she could push through today, then she could prove to herself that cancer would not stop her from being in New Directions.

The country song was up first, and Shelby had to admit that April Rhodes was pretty talented. Shelby was not a huge fan of country music, but she had been known to flip on the local country radio station every once in a while. She could also admit to voting for Carrie Underwood to win American Idol. The glee club didn't do country music very often, it was a tricky genre for most of its members, but today it was fun. Cowboy hats and blue jeans actually made a nice change some of the more stereotypical show choir type stuff they wore a lot, like what they were wearing for "Somebody to Love."

As they were getting ready, Mr. Schuester had come to realize that the New Directions were better off without April. They didn't need her to be great. It was about them, the kids, and Mr. Schuester, despite his good intentions, had brought her back for himself, not for them. However, they still needed a female lead to sing the second act. Mr. Schuester was about to cut the program short when Rachel stepped into the room. She was surprisingly willing to call herself an understudy, raising some suspicions in the group.

She answered, completely honestly, with "I realized that being a star didn't make me feel as special as being your friend. If I let you down when you needed me the most, I'd never forgive myself." There was still some animosity in the room. Shelby however, took this as a sign that Rachel had begun to realize what was really important in her life. She was about to say something, but it was Finn spoke first.

"Then we're going to have to give her a lot of help out there," he said, giving her a warm smile. She tried to return it, but hers was still quite small. She knew she had made a mistake.

"Go get in your costume," Mr. Schuester told her, making that the defining moment of her rejoining the New Directions. It was then that her smile increased and bore her immaculately kept teeth. Rachel left to go change, and there was still a bit of tension floating in the air. They weren't all friends yet, but there was a chance they could be. Shelby would try her best to make that happen. If the quiet girl could make friends with everyone, then surely they could make friends among themselves too.