Sorry in advance for the grammatical errors lol. Enjoy this chapter and hope you like!

Once when Rachel was eight years old she fell off the monkey bars in a playground. She had been trying to keep up with Santana who was swinging away ahead of her like a lunatic, howling with laughter and moving swiftly from bar to bar. Rachel had glanced down for only a moment and when she realized how high up she was from the ground, her small hands slipped and she fell, plummeting towards the floor landing flat on her back. The force of the blow completely knocked the wind out of her. She couldn't breathe and the world seemed to slow down around her as the ringing filled her ears.

That's kind of how she felt at this exact moment.

"Rachel?"

Rachel stood rooted to the floor, her mind fuzzing over, her eyes bulging, her lungs not taking in enough oxygen and her words suddenly not working.

"Who is it?" Santana calmly sighed lounging against the chair with her ice packs pressed into her sore muscles. "Hello! Earth to Midget" She cracked an eye open and took in her sisters face. Santana raised an eyebrow.

"I-" Rachel didn't know what to say. Her brain had suddenly cut off all connections with her mouth. Santana sucked her teeth and held out her hand, demanding for the phone.

Rachel's feet moved on their own accord and she found herself standing over her older sister, her bottom lip pulled in between her teeth.

"Who is this!" The older brunnette snapped into the phone as she pulled her legs off the chair, sitting up straighter and fully prepared to embarrass the hell out of whichever girl she thought was calling for her idiot brother.

Rachel fell onto the seat across Santana and watched as her sister's face morphed into a look of clear annoyance, to complete shock and then total anger. On second thought, anger wasn't even the right word to describe it.

"Santana" The voice on the other end rang loud and clear through the phone, penetrating her ear. "Mariposa?"

The older girl felt her breath hitch a bit, she felt a tug on her heart but only for the briefest of moments before the icy shield she had so carefully built over the years fell back securely in it's place. "You don't get to call me that anymore." She hissed, feeling her body fill with adrenaline and she snapped. Her tongue lashed out as her mouth suddenly moved extremely fast with words she had been itching to tell her father ever since last week when she found out he suddenly wanted to see them.

"In fact you don't have any right to be calling at all. What do you want Robert. Huh? What the HELL could you possibly want? After all of these years TELL ME! What is it that you want. Are you calling to 'bond'? Are you calling to 'mend' our relationship! Cuz let me tell you something...There is NOTHING to fix or mend or or bond because as far as I know you fucked that all up a long time ago. So stay in your little world, keep screwing half the goddam city and beating on whichever person you can get your pathetic hands on but you leave us the hell alone. " Her voice was heavy with anger, her tone cold and fierce and her breath began emanating in spurts from her flared nostrils as her lips drew together so tightly, they were turning white.

"Santana I-"

"Rot in hell." She jammed her finger into the off button ripped the phone away from her ear and slammed it onto the table.

Rachel flinched.

Santana felt her blood pumping angrily through her veins. She stood up fast pushing the chair back, forgetting all about her sore muscles and quickly regretted it as white hot pain shot through her legs.

"OW, ow, ow ow." She winced and slowly sank back into the chair, massaging her hand into her thigh, kneading the tender muscles. "Screw him." She grit through her teeth as she felt her anger bubbling up and out of her body, "I HATE HIM! I SWEAR! I FUCKING HATE HIM" Santana slammed her fist onto the wooden table.

Rachel jumped and flinched when the sound echoed through the ktichen and it was then that Santana took a calming breath. The older brunette unclenched her fist and brought her eyes up to meet her younger sister and when she saw the terrified look on Rachels face, her icy shield that had wrapped itself protectively around her heart instantly began to thaw away.

It had been years since Puck had heard his father's voice. He couldn't believe he was calling.

Now.

After all of this time.

He stormed out of the house and made his way down the driveway. He stalked right past the neighbor Mrs. Ferguson, the desperate housewife, who was shamelessly trying to get his attention. He marched right through the sprinklers going off in front of the Jones' yard, not even caring as the spray of water hit his right side. He wasn't registering anything around him as his feet pounded against the pavement and his legs continued to carry him down the block.

Puck's mind was racing and he had the sudden urge to punch something. When they left New York they made it clear that their father was to never contact them and in the beginning it had been ugly but after a while, the threats and the lawyers and the phone calls stopped. Rob became a bad memory, a bitter taste in their mouths and they had moved on, starting a new life, a more "normal" life in small town Ohio. But yet here he was ,years later, the man decides to drop a call out of the blue.

What the hell does he want? Man I hate him. Let him try and pull something. I'm bigger than him now. I'm not afraid of that son of a bi-

"Corcoran...don't think too hard or you'll hurt yourself"

Puck was quickly drawn out of his thoughts and he raised his head, darting his eyes around the street looking for the source of the voice until he spotted the girl sitting on the front steps of her house, idly watching him. He had apparently walked around the entire gated community of Lima Heights Adjacent without even realizing and found himself near the entrance right in front of the Fabray Residence.

He nodded in Quinn's direction and walked over so he was standing at the foot of her carefully manicured front lawn, the faintest trace of a smile playing on his face and his ever so cocky demeanor appearing as he eyed the blonde before him.

"The only thing I heard coming out of your mouth just now Fabray was something about me and being hard" His lip curled into a devilish grin.

"Get your mind out of the gutter Noah" The cheerleader snapped and angrily rose an eyebrow as she folded her arms across her chest.

Puck placed his hand over his heart and winced, acting as if her words physically hurt him and he wagged his finger in her direction. "Touche Lucy. Touche"

Quinn's eyes narrowed to slits, that boy always had a comeback for everything. "You. Are. So. Annoying."

Puck's grin grew wider.

Quinn shook her head as she leaned back onto the front steps resting her elbows on the cement, "I thought you guys were like on house arrest or something." The blonde brought her hand up to her hair and twirled a golden strand between her fingers.

"We are." Puck unzipped his hoodie and couldn't help but smirk when he saw the cheerleaders eyes fall to his perfectly sculpted abs. "Like what you see?" He wagged his brow and Quinn quickly tore her eyes away and glanced back up at her best friends arrogant brother, "As if Corcoran."

She sat up and rolled her white t-shirt up to just below her chest, showing off the toned abdomen she had earned over the years from cheering. "Besides I was just comparing. Mine are better." She smirked and rolled her shirt back down, resting back onto the step.

Puck let out a low whistle and leaned forward. "You want me. Admit it."

Quinn shook her head, "Grow up Puck." and she smiled, a genuine smile. One that Puck had only ever seen a few times. He knew those smiles were a rarity and he could remember every time he ever saw one, from the very first day his sister dragged the blonde home and announced they were 'bfs's' or whatever it is they say and the handful of times after that. He was suddenly drinking in this smile and storing it in his memory, adding it with the rest of his collection of Quinn Fabray's sm-

Wait. What the hell are you doing. Stop being such a pussy

Puck stood up straighter and cleared his throat shaking away any lingering thoughts from his head.

"So what brings you here anyway?" Quinn leaned over and plucked a petal off a flower that was growing in the rose bush beside her.

The tall football player shrugged his shoulders and took in a deep breath, exhaling dramatically and gazing up at the flaming sky "Just needed some fresh air. Wanted to show off these babies around the neighborhood." He flexed his muscles.

Quinn crossed one leg over the other and brought the petal up to her face, pressing the soft velvet lightly across her cheek. Her eyes roamed over Puck's face, searching. She knew their was another reason entirely as to why the jock had been wandering around the neighborhood, so deep in his thoughts and looking hopelessly lost.

There was a sudden burst of noise and the loud shouts and sounds of a couple arguing came from inside the house behind her.

Puck glanced over at the house and looked back at the cheerleader. He watched as Quinn's eyes glazed over a bit and the lazy playful demeanor she had slipped away. Her stone face reappearing and taking it's place, the one she wore so well around school.

He could hear a lady angrily yelling and her eye caught his.

"I needed some fresh air too" Quinn shrugged her shoulders. Puck nodded and their eyes locked onto each other as the two came to a silent agreement.

Their contact broke when the sudden sound of a car horn beeped twice. Puck turned around and saw a familiar silver Range Rover parked out on the street in front of him.

His mother's voice rang out of the car as she lowered the window, "Hi Quinn!" Shelby waved over at the girl who spent so much time over the house already.

"Hey Mrs. C" Quinn waved.

"Shelby sweetheart. How many times do I have to remind you." She smiled warmly at the blonde cheerleader who blushed slightly.

"Say goodbye Noah." Shelby spoke in that tone as she pushed up her oversized sunglasses. Puck saw the no-nonsense look on her face and he turned around and zipped up his hoodie.

"Goodbye Noah," Puck nodded in her direction, "C'ya around Fabray."

"Bye...Noah.." Quinn quirked an eyebrow as the tall football player stopped mid stride and slowly turned around, narrowing his eyes at her.

There it was again, that smile. Puck curved his lip up in a grin. He turned back and headed for the front seat of his mother's car.

"Bye Shelby" Quinn waved over as Puck closed the door shut and shrank into the front seat, tugging on the strings of his hoodie.

"Bye Sweetie! Say hello to your parents for me."

"I will" Quinn forced a smile and as his mother eased the car forward, Puck kept his eyes trained on the cheerleader, watching her through the mirror.

She grew smaller in the distance as they drove down the street. Shelby put her signal and the last thing Puck saw before they turned onto another street was her dark silhouette, sitting idly on the front steps of her house, gazing up at the flaming sky alight with deep purples and pinks and blood orange.

Shelby kept stealing side glances at her son and she narrowed her eyes at him.

"So why were you over by the Fabray's house? You know the rules Noah, it's school and then straight home. That's it." She turned down another street and waved as she passed a neighbor.

Puck tugged on the string of his hoodie and his knee started bouncing, he slumped his shoulders into the seat and stared out of the window at the houses that were becoming larger as they continued driving towards their block, "Because..."

Shelby glanced again and Puck knew what he was about to say would have an affect on her and sure enough Shelby inhaled sharply and gripped the wheel as Puck muttered the words, "Dad called."

"Noah."

The girls had been watching tv and quickly glanced at each other as they heard their mother's voice and stood up from their spot on the couch, Santana doing so a lot slower than Rachel.

"NOAH!" They heard the jingling of their mother's keys and their brother's footsteps storm into the house, stomp down the hall and pound up the stairs. Seconds later they heard the slamming of his bedroom door and the obnoxious sound of the bass from a rock song thumping from his room.

Shelby dropped her keys against the small table in the foyer. She turned around and saw her girls standing in the hallway staring at her.

"Hi babies" Shelby walked over and placed a kiss on either of her girls heads. "Rach honey can you please take this to the kitchen. One of my new students parents own a restaurant and he brought us food." Shelby handed Rachel a large brown paper bag, "Total suck up." Shelby spoke with her hands, " But It worked by the way" She said as she headed for the stairs, her hand gripping the railing as she turned back around towards her girls, "Family meeting in five. I'll be down in just a sec."

The two girls glanced at each other, knowing full well what was about to happen. They heard a sudden rush of noise as the music grew louder, signifying their mother walking into Puck's bedroom. Then they heard Shelby yelling something about being disrespectful and the consequences of slamming doors. They heard the quick stride of heels crossing the floor and the snap of an ipod being forced out of the dock, the loud bass coming to a sudden silence.

Rachel and Santana shared a look and decided to head to the dining room table, the place where all of their family meetings took place. Rachel took her usual seat and Santana slowly eased her way into the chair across from her. The girls heard their mother yelling quickly followed by the sudden pounding of footsteps that were making their way down the stairs. The footsteps grew louder and soon enough Puck sulked into the dining room, a scowl etched into his face as he walked over and yanked a chair, scraping it across the floor and throwing himself down onto it.

Their mother's footsteps clacked against the wooden floor and she appeared shortly after, ipod in hand, looking calm and collected as she walked to the head of the table and elegantly sat down.

She cleared her throat, tucked the ipod into the pocket of her black blazer and folded her hands out in front of her as she looked into the eyes of her three children, "I'm sure you all know why I called this family meeting." She cleared her throat, "Your father called me last week," and cautiously looked at her kids.

Puck was drumming his fingers onto the table, Santana had a snarl on her face and Rachel was nervously playing with her thumbs.

"He told me he wants to see you guys." Shelby held her breath and just as she suspected her eldest both exploded.

Puck and Santana began yelling at once, talking over the other as Rachel just sat back and stared, eyes wide.

Shelby held up her hands, "I TOLD HIM..."She spoke over her kids and when they quieted down she spoke again, " I told him of course that was out of the question. I don't want you kids to ever have to see him again."

"No shit." Santana folded her arms across her shoulders. Puck nodded in agreement and Shelby's eyes snapped towards her oldest daughter. She narrowed them but pressed forward.

"I had a lengthy conversation with him over the phone. I thought I had made myself clear, but obviously the man has other agenda's." Shelby let out a nervous laugh.

"He called today." Rachel mumbled and all eyes fell on the tiny girl. "Twice."

"He called again?" Puck sat straighter and leaned against the table.

"Yeah he did and I gave him a piece of my mind." Santana scowled.

Shelby glanced over at her oldest daughter, already imagining what Santana, the daughter who seemed to have inherited her similar temper could have possibly said. Before she could ask however, her son did for her, eagerly leaning on his elbows, "What did you tell him! What did he want? I hung up on him earlier."

"I basically told him he can go fuck himself and to leave us the hell alone."

"Santana"

"What! The man has serious problems if he thinks he can all of sudden want to form a relationship with us again. He can go crawl in a hole and die for all I care."

Shelby closed her eyes, shook her head and pressed her hand into her temple.

"Listen. As your mother all I want is what's best for you kids. I wish I can protect you guys from everything bad in this world. I never want to see you guys hurt." Shelby's eyes fell onto Rachel, her baby and she whispered, "ever again." She sighed and continued, "I realize that's almost impossible to protect you and keep you wrapped up in a little bubble away from harm. You guys are getting older, " She glanced at Noah, " And I know our life hasn't been exactly easy, "She glanced at Santana, " But we've been making it work. Together..us four.. " She squeezed Rachel's hand.

"Exactly we don't need him so I don't know why the fu-"

Shelby interrupted her daughter, " Santana Ava Corcan." causing the older brunette to clamp her mouth shut.

I hate when she goes all government name on me

"I know we don't need him. Thank God we don't need him. But this entire situation isn't easy...and at the end of the day...he is still...your father."

"Hell no he is not!" Santana slammed her hand on the table.

"Santana please" Shelby held her hand and looked pointedly over at her daughter. She glanced over at Noah who simply shook his head and she turned her gaze towards Rachel who just sat quietly looking down at her fingers.

"Rob told me he wanted to see you and I forbid him." Shelby spoke with a fierce tone as she held out her hand affirmatively. "But I realized it's not my decision to make. So I'm going to ask you...do you guys want to see him?" Shelby looked around the table and Santana immediately answered.

"No."

Shelby nodded and turned towards Noah, "Noah?"

Puck frowned as he bounced his leg and growled an answer, "No."

Shelby nodded and turned towards Rachel, "Sweetheart?"

Rachel shook her head and quietly spoke the word, "no."

"Okay then it's settled." She folded her arms across the table, " You don't have to see him. I'll call him tomorrow." Shelby stood up from the chair and pushed it back in it's place. She walked over and placed a kiss on top of each of her kids head. "You know I love you guys right. Very much."

Puck stood up and walked over, engulfing his mother in one of his famous bear hugs "We know mom. We love you too." Shelby loved his hugs.

"Good. Then let's go eat. I wanna hear all about your day at school today and I can tell you all about mine."

Santana and Puck headed for the kitchen and Shelby lingered in the dining room, watching as Rachel slowly stood up from her chair.

"You okay baby" She wrapped her arms around her youngest daughter and gently placed a kiss against Rachel's temple. She knew her daughter wasn't okay. She knew none of her kids were okay with the entire situation but she just wanted to take their minds off things. She hated seeing them this way. God she hated that man so much for what he was doing to them.

Rachel nodded and leaned into her mother's embrace, she knew her mom was still upset with everything, despite her smile. But that was just her mom, she always had a smile for everything regardless of the situation. Rachel didn't want her to worry so she kept her feelings to herself, hugged her back and carefully followed her into the kitchen.

Puck was already taking the food out of the brown paper bag and Santana was grabbing the plates.

"What is this stuff?" Puck asked with a mouth full of food as he bit into something that looked like a meatball.

"That's a falafel." Shelby walked over and grabbed it away from her son before he could eat the entire meal and leave them all with nothing.

"It's good" Puck sat down at the table and Santana rolled her eyes. She still felt bitter and angry but she was trying to keep up a face for Rachel's sake at least.

"Who sent you this food?" The older brunette asked as she served herself.

"A new student of mine, he just transferred in from a different school district. He gushed that I was the best vocal coach and he brought me food."

"Suck up." Puck spoke before he stuffed his face.

"He has a good voice though." Shelby took a swig out of her bottle of water. "And he's a cutie" Shelby nudged Santana's shoulders and the older girl dropped her fork with a loud clang and glared at her mother.

Shelby stifled a laugh "So how was school?" Trying ease the situation and get a light conversation flowing.

"Eh it was school." Puck shoveled another forkful into his mouth.

"Rach sweetie?" Shelby turned towards her youngest knowing that was the only thing she was getting out of her son.

"It was good mom. I got my math test back today and I got a hundred." A small grin formed on her face as she took a tiny bite of her food.

"That's my baby girl. What about you San?" Shelby kept up her smile as she went around the table.

"Sucked. Dearest William gave us a pop quiz in spanish and I almost killed this girl today at practice" Shelby shook her head and laughed, her daughter was something else. She glanced again around the table at each of her kids, she didn't know how she got so lucky. They were strong. They would get through all of this.
She just knew they would.

a/n: Sooo again hope you enjoyed this one. It was really hard to write lol. This one should have been out sooner because I had it written out already...but halfway through I decided to just scratch it and do it over. This story is beginning to write itself lol. I have an outline in my head of where I want it to go and I'm realizing that as the chapters keep coming it's pretty much unraveling itself. Does that make sense? Anyway that's enough rambling... Let me know what you guys think! And thank you soooo much every single one of you who reviewed. I totally 'gleek' out every time one of you fabulous readers review. Thanks again! xox

And since you guys take the time to write a review I decided to take my time and write you all responses
ajunebuga- hahaha glad you liked! thanks for the review!
marinka4- we will def be seeing mama bear shelby soon. And dear old Robert will be making an appearance soon ;) I hope you liked the chapter thanks for your review!
twilight2892- ahaha thanks glad you liked it...i was trying to come up with something funny Sue would say. thanks for reviewing!
Ninjagleek21-thanks for the cookie ;) lol and their a flashback is def in the works! thanks for your review!
Elphaba Tropp Menzel- thanks!
mistressamy- so funny you mention jesse ;) lol
keal- thank you! I was worried it was going a little slow. :)
bforethesunsets- ahaha cliffhangers r fun and they will be starting soon.;)
TheTBone- Yay I loved your review! Long ones are always the best and I'm glad your liking the story. Of course Shelby can take him down ;) Thanks again!
Emz711-hope you liked the chapter! thanks for your review!
broadwaybound2016-lmaoo thanks!
TMOLMRENT- thanks!
lovedevil82- thank you
beaner008- hope i didn't disappoint! thanks for your review!
curlyhairedgirl-lol the pace is definitely going to be picking up now!
i-taylorlautner- ahaha cliffhangers are fun. lol hope you liked this chapter!
Gleek1990- Thank you! hope you liked this chapter!
banjojd-Thanks for the amazing review! I'm working on the next flashback and it's going to pick up right where the last one left off ;)
beckg77-THANK YOU! :D
gleepotter- hahaha I always say that too! I'm a biggg finchel fan ;) and also a big fan of over protective brothers lol hope you liked the update!