Leroy stood frozen in the kitchen with Sue and Emma when Hiram stormed into the house. He glanced at the clock, wondering why Hiram was home so early and sighed to himself. When Hiram threw his stuff down on the couch and came stomping into the kitchen, tie already halfway undone, Leroy swallowed whatever was left of his cheesecake, though it felt more like a mouthful of lead as it traveled down his throat. There was a mutual, unspoken agreement between Sue and Emma that caused them to move as one, both placing their desserts on the island.
"I think Emma and I will take our leave," Sue said to Leroy. "It's getting late, and we have an early day tomorrow."
"But we haven't even finished our-
"I think that's a wonderful idea," Hiram cut in. "I'll walk you out."
"O-oh, well, t-thank you?" Emma stammered, not sure how to respond.
"Trust me, the pleasure is mine."
As Hiram led Sue and Emma out to their car, Leroy pushed off the counter and made his way upstairs. LJ and Tori were out, having run to the grocery store to get more ice cream, but he guessed he wouldn't need it anymore. Coming to a stop outside of Rachel's room, Leroy steeled himself and knocked on the door, hoping he wasn't going to put too much of a damper on his daughter's evening.
The knock at the door paused whatever conversation they were getting ready to have, and Rachel frowned as she opened it.
"Dad? What-
"Your father is home," he said quietly. "And I imagine he won't take too kindly to you having guests in your bedroom this late."
Though Leroy was speaking softly, Santana heard every word, and she shared a look with Quinn when Rachel's face blanked and she nodded.
"Of course," she said with no emotion.
"Rach, I'm-
"Dad, it's alright."
Santana could most definitely see whatever was happening was the opposite of alright, but she kept her mouth closed when Rachel sat down on the edge of the bed with a forced smile.
"As fun as this has been, you guys should probably get ready to go," she said quietly.
Quinn squeezed Santana's arm to keep her from responding. "We understand. We'll see ourselves out," she said.
"Thanks. I need to start getting ready for bed."
"Right, we get it," Santana said reluctantly. There were a million questions on the tip of Santana's tongue, but she swallowed them down when she heard heavy footsteps coming up the stairs.
Leroy and Rachel both avoided showing any emotion when Hiram stopped by the room. His eyes narrowed on Santana and Quinn.
"Why are you two in my daughter's room?"
"We were here for dinner, Mr. Berry," Quinn said quickly. "My name is Q-
"I know who you two are," he interrupted hotly. "You two are the ones who used to torture my daughter her freshman year. I know all about the ice and the name-calling."
Quinn's face paled, and she stuttered, "Mr. B-Berry, that was a long time ago. We've ch-
"Not likely. People like you don't change. Once a bully, always a bully," he scowled. He took a threatening step forward, one that didn't go unnoticed by Rachel, and he added, "I want you two out, and if I see you two around here again, I'm calling the cops and having you arrested for trespassing and harassment."
The spoken warning caused Leroy to speak up, and he said, "Hiram, honey, they were only here to-
"I don't care why they were here. You shouldn't have let them in this house in the first place! I don't want MY daughter's former bullies in MY home!"
Leroy flinched back but said nothing. Santana saw Quinn's eyes glaze over, and she knew there were too many parallels in the Berry household that mimicked the Fabray estate.
"Mister Leroy, we're going to go ahead and get out of here," Santana said. "Thank you for dinner."
Leroy nodded and cleared his throat, "Of course, let me walk you two out, okay? It's dark, and I don't know who all is out there."
"Nothing different from what's in here," she replied coolly.
The jibe went over Hiram's head, but not Rachel's. The quirk of her lips was the only thing Santana needed to see before she grabbed Quinn's hand and led her out of the room. It took more willpower than either of them had not to react to the look on Rachel's face as they left, and even more not to respond to the defeated look on Leroy's face as they passed. As they got to the bottom of the stairs, Tori and LJ were sitting on the couch with a bowl of ice cream between them. LJ glanced over his shoulder with a sad smile on his face, and he stood up. Tori did the same shortly after.
"We would offer you some ice cream, but we get the impression the party's over," LJ said.
"Yeah, it got shut down before it even got started," Santana muttered.
"Look," Tori paused when a door slammed upstairs, and she sighed before she continued, "look, tomorrow you're going to have to give Rachel a wide berth for the most part. We've learned in the short amount of time we've been here, that her interactions with Hiram leave her a little-
"Cold," LJ finished bluntly. "I would advise you not to take anything she says or does tomorrow seriously."
"We won't. Plus, we're not done with her," Santana said seriously. "We barely touched the surface of what we wanted to talk about up there."
"We're just giving you a heads-up," Tori said, shrugging. "That short-fuse temper of hers wasn't a one-time fluke. Rachel has a mean streak buried beneath all the mellow, free-spirited bullshit she spouts."
"What do you mean?" Quinn asked warily.
"You'll see," LJ said.
"That doesn't make me feel any better."
"We're not trying to make you feel better," Tori said. "We're trying to tell you that if you're serious about our sister, then you have to put up with the good, the bad, and the crazy. Sometimes the lines get blurred, and she's a little bit of all three."
"I don't know what that means," Quinn said slowly.
"Like LJ said, you'll see," Tori snorted. "And you'll find that whatever conception you have of this 'new' Rachel is still nowhere near close to the truth."
Kurt caught up with Rachel as she walked in, alone, and forced himself not to grin like a loon at the idea of getting her alone.
"What do you want, Kurt?" Rachel sighed, not bothering to look at him as she said it.
"Just to say hi, catch up, and maybe get to know each other again? We didn't get the chance yesterday."
"Maybe because you ambushed me with a song and questions about why I won't come back to the Glee Club," she said dryly.
Kurt waved her off and stopped beside her once they got to her locker. "Old news," he said dismissively. "So how are you? What's it like being back?"
"The same. Same streets, same stores, same parks, and the same annoying classmates I thought would grow up at some point," she drawled, glancing meaningfully at Kurt. "You're not fooling me, Hummel. I will only ask this you once. What do you want?"
"What makes you think I want anything from you?" he asked.
"Because you have that glint in your eye that lets me know I'm either going to punch you after you finish speaking or feed you to Santana for lunch."
Kurt blinked and said, "That was oddly specific."
"Kurt," she hissed. "What. Do. You. Want?"
He stepped back at the venom in her voice and said, "I was genuinely only over here to say hi."
"If that were true, then Finn and Brittany wouldn't be so interested in this conversation, and Mercedes wouldn't be trying to ease her way over here to eavesdrop," Rachel snapped.
Kurt frowned and started to respond, but Rachel walked off before he could say anything. He watched her go, noting that she walked right past Santana and Quinn, ignored Puck, and barely greeted her siblings.
"What the hell was that all about?" Mercedes asked, coming up beside him.
"I don't know, but did you see that? She ignored all of them like they didn't even exist," he said.
"Yeah, so?"
"So?" he repeated. "So, we may have our in. If she's ignoring them, then they did something wrong, and if we play our hand right, we can step in and manipulate this in our favor. Go tell Mike to sit by Rachel in class. If there's anyone who can get Rachel to talk, it's him."
"Mike? Really?"
"You know what they say about the silent ones, Cedes. Never underestimate them."
"No one says that but you."
Kurt ignored Mercedes and stared at Rachel as she continued down the hall. He noticed Santana and Quinn look his way, and he gave them a finger wave, grinning at the annoyed frowns on their faces.
"Why do you antagonize them?" Mercedes muttered.
"Because they don't scare me anymore. I've seen things way scarier than them."
Mercedes scoffed and said something under her breath, but once again, Kurt ignored her. He had no intentions of going back and forth with Mercedes over it. He was too busy working out a plan to get into Rachel's good graces.
Quinn came into the classroom and found Mike sitting in the spot next to Rachel, and the two were laughing and having what seemed to be an animated conversation. She frowned and saw LJ seated at an empty table with a seat next to him, and an expectant look on his face as they made eye contact. She walked through the room and tried not to stare at the hand on Rachel's lower back as Mike leaned in close. Unfortunately, in her trying not to stare, she ran right into the edge of the desk and hissed as the corner made contact with her hip.
"Dammit," she cursed, hunching over at the pain.
"Whoa, are you okay?" LJ asked, rushing over to her.
"Yup! Not the worst injury I've suffered, but it still hurts like a bitch," she grumbled.
"Here, sit down and let me see if can run to the nurse's office and grab you some-
"No, I promise it's not that big of a deal," she quickly said. "Plus, the nurse won't let you get ice unless she sees the injury and I don't want the drama."
LJ gave her a look and said warily, "If you're sure…"
"I am."
LJ nodded and hovered behind her as she gingerly lowered herself into her seat, and that's when she noticed the entire class was staring at her. She scowled and flipped them off before slamming her books down on the table.
"Uh, I would ask what that was about, but I guess you see Rachel's new seatmate?"
"Why the fuck is he touching her like that?" Quinn growled. "He shouldn't be touching what doesn't belong to him."
"Possessive much?"
"What?"
"Nothing. Stop staring before Rachel gives you something to stare at," he instructed.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"If she knows she's getting a reaction out of you, she'll give you something to react over. It's simple."
"To who?"
"Obviously not you because you're still staring," LJ deadpanned.
Quinn huffed and tore her eyes away from the duo. She looked up when Santana walked into the room and groaned, completely forgetting they all had a class together.
"Oh, no," she whined. "This is going to go South really bad."
"For who? Mike or Rachel?"
Quinn didn't get a chance to answer before Santana weaved her way through the tables and came to a stop in front of Mike. She bent over, whispered something in Mike's ear, and the dancer quickly stood up and practically ran to the furthest seat away from Rachel. Santana plopped down in the chair next to Rachel and said something to the tiny brunette.
"Rachel looks amused," Quinn pointed out.
"Probably because she's about to embarrass Santana," LJ said distractedly, flipping through his notebook.
"Huh?"
LJ merely gestured in that general direction, and Quinn's eyes widened when Rachel put her hand on Santana's hip. She leaned over, pretty much copying what Santana did to Mike, but when she finished, Santana was trembling in her seat. The Latina stood up, brushed down the skirt she had on, and picked up her things.
"Scoot over, LJ," Quinn sighed.
"I already did," he responded.
Quinn absentmindedly rubbed at her hip as Santana sat down in the seat between them, her face red, and her knuckles white as she clutched her books. She then grunted as she looked at Quinn. "What happened to you?" she asked hoarsely.
"Ran into the desk glaring at Mike touching Rachel, banged my hip on the corner," she murmured. "You?"
"Let's just say from now on, Rachel is in charge of this relationship."
"I wasn't aware she'd stopped," Quinn said wryly.
Santana simply groaned and dropped her head to the table, Quinn automatically going to rub her back while LJ snickered.
"You guys are so screwed," he whispered.