Hey everyone, here's the next chapter!

"Hello Quinn, I didn't know you'd be back already," Ryan smiled at her as she entered the choir room, where he was standing at the piano sorting out some of his music. It was the Monday after Regionals, and it was back to school as usual. Mr. Schue had told them that Figgins said they had to vacate the choir room by tomorrow. It was going to be just enough time for them to practice one more song. "I thought you might take a few days from school."

"I'm fine," Quinn answered, returning his smile. "The doctors said it was fine."

Ryan studied the blonde. She did look fine. He wasn't used to seeing her not pregnant anymore, and she looked a little strange without the baby bump she had sported for the last few months, but she did look fine. Physically anyways. He could see the tiredness in her eyes, and he sensed that she was a bit off somehow. "Are you sure? You know you can talk to me if you need to."

Quinn's smile turned sad. "Talking seems to have become our thing. We need to find a new line," she quipped. "I'm fine. Just…tired." She was quiet for a moment. "Puck and I decided on a family yesterday."

Ryan looked up from the papers he was sorting, his hand going up to his hair. "Oh. I see," he said, unsure of what to say.

Quinn came over to lean on the piano opposite him. She picked up some of the papers, fiddling with them as she continued to talk. "Simon and Julia Waterson. They're from Dayton." She paused, and both of them stood in silence for a moment. "They gave me their number. They said if we wanted, they were willing to let me and Puck see her from time to time. Or they said they could send pictures."

Ryan looked back at her. "What did they name her?" he asked curiously.

Quinn smiled softly. "Beth. Puck told them what he wanted to name her, and they agreed."

"Well, at least it wasn't Drizzle," Ryan said lightly, smiling when Quinn chuckled. "Are you taking them up on their visitation offer?"

"I'm…not sure yet," Quinn said slowly. "Maybe someday. It's too soon right now."

Ryan nodded absently. He still wasn't sure what to say. So he decided to change topic. "Well, I was thinking, we have one more session in here. I thought we could get together one last time, sing one more song to Mr. Schue. he put a lot of work into glee club, and now it's just…over." Even if Ryan and Mr. Schue hadn't always gotten along, Ryan recognized that Mr. Schue had tried his best to inspire them and guide them. He'd helped them a lot this past year, and it seemed right that he should have their last song.

"I think that's a good idea."

A couple of days later, Ryan was fixing up another car back in Burt's auto shop. He hadn't been able to spend much time here in the days leading up to Regionals. It was relaxing to be back.

They had ended up singing To Sir, With Love to Mr. Schue in the auditorium. Carefully attaching a new brake pad to the car he was working on, Ryan thought about his conversation with Quinn. He was truly happy for her. True, she'd seemed tired and sad, but she had also seemed peaceful now that she thought about. More relaxed. She had been understandably stressed over the past nine months, and it looked like she was genuinely happy with her decision to give her baby up for adoption.

And he was glad that she'd found Beth a family that had offered to let her meet her child. He couldn't help but wonder how different his life would be if his own fathers hadn't set up that contract. Logically he knew it was for their protection, that they were afraid Shelby might back out on them. But then he remembered all the times he'd been teased for not having a mom, and his resentment returned in full force. If they weren't going to pay attention to him, they could have at least given him the option of meeting his mom.

Ryan hadn't seen Shelby since the night after Regionals when they'd had dinner, but they had texted here and there. And it had only been a few days. He didn't want to seem too clingy. The dinner had been nice, but both of them had been a bit on edge, Ryan because he was still upset about losing, and Shelby because she was scared that Ryan might change his mind and get angry with her and VA for winning.

But that had actually turned out all right. By some miracle, New Directions had been granted one more year of funding. He actually liked how his life was right now. He'd found his mom, who seemed to care about him. She always seemed to make time for him, even if it was just for a quick text message. And he had a friend in Quinn, which was much more than he'd had at the start of the year. He even had a sort-of-date with her to look forward to. And the glee club had been granted a stay of execution. It was almost hard to believe how well everything was going.

That same afternoon, Shelby was in her office grading quiz papers. She had called off Vocal Adrenaline's rehearsals for the past few days to give the students – and herself – a bit of a break before they started preparing for Nationals, which were in about a month. She was already starting to brainstorm song selections, but she wanted her students' input before she decided on anything.

She had also met her new assistant director for Vocal Adrenaline, Justin Goolsby, yesterday. Or was it Dustin? Never mind. He'd been selected by Carmel High's principal and the Vocal Adrenaline booster club in preparation for her stepping down as coach at the end of the year. She hadn't seen him teach yet, but her first impression of the man wasn't that great.

**Flashback**

"Everyone, read the last three chapters by tomorrow. There will be a quiz," Shelby announced to her English class. The collective groan that arose was masked by the bell marking the end of the class. Shelby quickly gathered up her things and exited the room. It was her last class of the day and she just wanted to leave. Students may not realize it but the teachers love the end-of-class bell as much as they do.

"Hey Coach." She was greeted by a man with black hair, wearing a black leather jacket and chewing some gum. "I'm Dustin Goolsby, I'm going to be taking over Vocal Adrenaline when you retire next month." He stuck out his hand.

Shelby shook his hand stiffly. So this was the next coach of VA. "Nice to meet you." She stepped past him, walking to her office.

"Great to meet you too," he said breezily, falling into step with her. "I've got loads of great ideas for the team. When are you holding rehearsals?"

"Actually, I called off rehearsals for the past few days. We've just won Regionals, and the students could use a break."

Dustin nodded. "Of course, of course. I was watching, excellent performance by the way. Although, a few more tweaks could make it better."

"Well, I would be happy to hear your suggestions next week at rehearsals," Shelby said diplomatically. Might as well try to work with him. "The next one is on tomorrow at 3 in the auditorium. We'll be working on our set list for Nationals." She stopped at her office door. "I'll see you then," she ended in a clear dismissal, entering her office.

"All right, I'm looking forward to it."

**End Flashback**

Shelby was still reserving judgement; for all she knew, Dustin would be an excellent coach. She was planning to let him run one of the practices by himself, see what he had to offer and how he was with the students. But the man was sort of obnoxious, and she had the sense that he'd be willing to use any underhanded tactics to win. She knew they needed a new coach, but Vocal Adrenaline was her team and she didn't want to leave it in the hands of someone who wouldn't be able to keep up the record she had made.

She had just finished grading the last paper when she heard her mobile ring from inside her briefcase. Digging it out, she saw that it was her mom. "Hi mom."

"Hi Shelly, are you coming here this weekend? Your dad and I thought we could celebrate your win at Regionals."

Shelby sighed in amusement. "You do know it was my students who won and not me, right?"

"Psh. Semantics. The coach is part of the team isn't she?"

"Sure, I'll come up if you want."

"Good, good. Now, do you think there's a chance you can bring Ryan up with you?"

She knew it. Her mom had been pestering her to try to bring Ryan to Akron to meet them for a while now. Actually, she'd been doing it ever since Shelby had told her that she and Ryan were trying for some kind of relationship. "Mom, you know it's not that easy…"

Shelby could almost hear her mom roll her eyes at the other end of the line. "I know it's not that easy, but maybe you could talk to him, see how he feels about it," Sarah wheedled.

"I know, but it's not just Ryan I'd have to ask, I'd have to ask Hiram and Leroy too, and we're not exactly the best of friends at the moment."

"Just try, okay? I want to meet my first, and so far only, grandson."

Shelby sighed. "We'll see, okay mom?"

"Okay honey, but I wish you'd hurry up and bring him already. Otherwise we'll be forced to come up there. Love you."

"Love you too." Shelby ended the call and leaned back in her chair.

She hadn't talked with the Berry men since that meeting at the coffee shop where they'd warned her against telling Ryan who she was. She wasn't scared of them anymore, the contract was pretty much void since Ryan had found her by himself. But they were still his parents, and she knew she needed to respect that. They had been the ones to raise him and care for him since he was born after all, which was why she needed to talk to them first about taking to Ryan to Akron.

A few days later

"Did you get slushied again?" Quinn said as she spotted the Ryan exiting the boys' bathroom with wet hair.

Ryan sighed. "Cherry. My least favorite, since it's really hard to get out of clothes." He stuffed his wet clothes into his bag. "Anyways, I wanted to ask. Are you busy on Friday? I thought maybe we could catch that movie." He gave her a hopeful grin. "If not, it's fine though, we can go some other time," he started to ramble.

"Okay, calm down. Yes, I'm free on Friday." Quinn used to find it annoying when he rambled, but after actually talking to him she'd noticed that he only did it when he was nervous. She'd started to notice a lot of things about him in the past couple of months. Like how he ran his hand through his hair when he didn't know what to say, and how his whole face would light up when he was really happy, which wasn't that often. She doubted anyone else in the glee club noticed. Sadly, they didn't really seem to pay attention to anything about him other than his voice.

A grin appeared on his face, and Quinn watched as his eyes brightened. "Great! You can pick the movie, I'm not really sure what's in the cinema right now. Maybe we can meet somewhere for dinner, before the movie?"

Quinn gave him a teasing smile. "Aren't you going to pick me up?"

Ryan's smile faltered a bit. "I would, but I don't have a driver's license yet," he laughed nervously. "I just turned 15, remember?"

Quinn frowned slightly. "I actually forgot that. How did we end up in the same grade anyways?"

"My dads entered me into preschool a year early," Ryan explained.

Just then Santana and Brittney came up to them. "That's probably because they couldn't stand you anymore," Santana said offhandedly. "Hey Quinn, Midget."

Brittney gave them a wave. "Hi guys."

Ryan sighed. "Hi Britt. Again, Santana, you can't call me Midget anymore, I'm at least an inch taller than you." He didn't give any sign that he was affected by what Santana had said, but Quinn noticed him wince slightly when Santana had spoken.

"Whatever," Santana sassed.

Ryan nodded at Quinn. "Well, I need to get to class. See you later." He walked off.

As soon as he was gone Quinn whirled on Santana. "That was really rude."

"What?" Santana stared at Quinn. "If you haven't noticed, I'm rude to everybody. Seriously though, what did I do now?"

"You can't just tell people their parents can't stand them!"

"Hey, it was a joke," Santana said defensively. "Besides, he knows I didn't mean it. You know how things just pop out of my mouth sometimes."

Quinn roller her eyes. "Just because you don't mean it doesn't give you automatic rights to say whatever you want," she said irritably. She turned around walked off in the direction of her next class.

Santana looked at Brittney, who said absently, "Yeah, sometimes you're really bitchy. But that's okay. I like it."

Later that day, Quinn found Ryan at the lockers just before they headed to their common class. "Hey. Are you okay?"

Ryan looked at her. "I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"

"I thought maybe you got upset at what Santana said this morning. You know it's not true. She just says stupid things sometimes."

Ryan sighed. "No, it's fine. It doesn't matter." He paused. "Just having a fight with my dads. It's nothing."

Quinn glanced at him. "Is it about Shelby?"

"Partly. I don't know. I haven't talked to them properly in a while." Try in years. He cleared his throat. "We'll fix it." Eventually. Probably not.

She looked at him speculatively for a moment before entering. "Well, if you're sure," she said dubiously. "Anyways, I was thinking maybe we could meet at Breadstix before the movie on Friday. Then we can watch the movie." She was actually looking forward to this date.

Ryan smiled. "Sure."

After classes, Shelby looked up from the papers she was grading when she heard a knock on her door. Thank God, she was just about ready to start shredding some of these essays her students thought were fit to pass as homework. "It's open!"

She was surprised when Ryan walked in. "Hi Ryan, what are you doing here?"

He stood in the doorway. "I can come back later if you're busy," he said shyly. "The garage is closed today and no one's home at my house."

"Well, come in," Shelby said, waving her arm at him. "I'm glad you're here, I was about to stab my eyes out with my red pen. There are just no words to describe the absolute horror that is grading English papers."

Ryan had to chuckle at his mother's dramatics as he entered the office and sat down. "They can't be that bad."

"Wanna bet?" Shelby put her pen down. "So, I doubt you came here to commiserate with me on my students' lack of writing skills. What's up with you?"

Ryan smiled. "I'm going to a movie with Quinn on Saturday," he said happily.

Shelby gave him a smirk. "Ah, so you've cashed in your rain check?"

"Yes, I have." Ryan was determined not to blush this time around. "We're having dinner then we're going to watch… well, something. I'm not really sure what's playing now."

"Sounds like a date to me," Shelby teased. "Is it your first?"

Ryan rolled his eyes at her. "Fine, maybe it's a date. I'm not sure if she thinks it's a date." He paused. "I don't suppose you can give me any tips?" he asked hopefully.

Shelby blinked at him, surprised. Why was he asking her for dating advice? He'd probably be better off asking one of his dads about that. "I'm not exactly the best person to ask," she said dryly. She hadn't dated in…a while. She'd had flings here and there, but nothing serious. "You should probably ask your dads about that."

She almost missed the quick frown that crossed Ryan's face when she mentioned his fathers. "Something wrong?" She'd spoken with Hiram a couple of days ago, and he hadn't given any indication that there was anything wrong with Ryan.

"No, we're fine." Ryan didn't really want to get into it right now, he'd had pretty much his fill of talking about his dads with Santana and Quinn for today. For the rest of the week, actually. "So, tips?"

Shelby looked at him closely before deciding to let it pass. It probably wasn't that serious anyways. "Hmmm. Well, just pay for dinner, pay for the movie, don't spill anything on her dress. And wear a nice shirt I guess," she added as an afterthought, after glancing at the knitted sweater he was currently wearing. "Let me ask you something. Do you really like those sweaters that you're wearing?" Shelby didn't have anything against her son's clothes, she was just curious.

Ryan looked surprised. "I don't know, I guess not." He hesitated. "I don't really have much of a fashion sense," he admitted. He pondered for a moment. "I think my dads used to get me these sweaters years ago, and I suppose I just stuck with them because I didn't really know how to shop for myself." Plus it didn't matter if they got ruined by slushies since he didn't particularly like them.

"They don't go shopping with you?" Who in their right mind let a teenage boy shop for himself? Shelby wondered. Everyone knew most of that species had absolutely no clue what to do in a clothes store. They ended up buying the stupidest, gaudiest clothes available, or they bought nothing at all and wore the same clothes for years until they were outgrown or worn out. It seemed her son was of the latter variety.

Ryan shook his head. The last time he'd gone out with either of his fathers was several months ago, and it hadn't been for shopping.

Shelby stood up. "Well, come on, we're going shopping."

"What?"

"I'm taking you shopping. If you don't like those sweaters there's no reason to be wearing them. I'll help you pick something out for your date too." Shelby started putting away her things.

Ryan fidgeted. "Yeah, I don't really have any money on me right now…"

"My treat," Shelby assured him.

"You don't have to –"

Shelby leveled a fake glare at him. "I want to." Her face softened. "When I was pregnant with you I always wanted to dress you up as a baby, even if I knew I wouldn't get to keep you. Of course, I didn't know if you were a boy or a girl so I sort of imagined stuffing you into little dresses," she teased him.

Ryan huffed at her before asking, "You didn't find out my gender in advance? Weren't you curious?"

"Oh, we found out. But you wouldn't cooperate until about seven and a half months into the pregnancy. By then we'd actually gotten used to the idea that we were just going to be surprised." She checked her files. "I just need to go get something in the choir room. Stay here." She exited the room, leaving Ryan alone in the office.

Ryan stood up and glanced around the office. His mom wouldn't be too mad if he looked around, right? He took in the numerous trophies that lined the wall. Not as many as the ones that decorated Sue Sylvester's office, but there was still a respectable number. Above each of the three National level trophies in the room there was a picture of the Vocal Adrenaline members who had won it, with Shelby in the center holding the enormous trophy.

Then he shifted his attention to the desk. It was relatively neat, not Ms. Pillsbury's OCD neat, but pretty organized nonetheless. There were two framed pictures on the desk. He picked one up, noting with surprise that it was of himself. After studying the picture for a moment, he decided that it must have been taken at Sectionals a few months ago. That was the black shirt and red tie that had comprised their costume, and it looked like he was in the middle of his solo.

"I got that at your Sectionals competition."

Ryan turned around and saw Shelby watching him affectionately from the doorway. "Did you take this?"

Shelby shook her head, walking over to him and taking the picture. "There was a photographer taking pictures of all the competitors. He takes professional shots of Vocal Adrenaline, so I asked him if he had any copies of the New Directions' lead singer. He sent me this." She looked down at the picture. "This is actually my first picture of you. Besides the sonograms," she amended, her voice turning a bit distant.

Ryan didn't really know what to say to that, so instead he looked at the other picture on Shelby's desk, which showed Shelby and three other people. "Who's that?"

Shelby glanced at the picture and smiled. "That's my family," she explained. "That's my mom, Sarah, my dad Tom, and my younger brother Josh."

Ryan picked up the picture, looking intently at it. "Do they know about me?" He looked up at her.

Shelby nodded. "Yes, they do. They actually really want to meet you soon, they've been nagging at me to take you to Akron to meet them," she said wryly, remembering her mother's constant hints.

"Oh." Ryan ran his hand through his hair. He looked back at the picture. He hadn't really thought of the possibility that Shelby had a family. Of course he knew she'd have a family, he just hadn't considered them as real people. They were more of an abstract idea. But now he knew he had grandparents, and an uncle.

Shelby watched him, unsure of his reaction. What did 'oh' mean? Deciding not to get into it right now, she turned back to the task at hand. "Well, put down the picture and let's get to the mall. We're going shopping."

Thanks for all the comments, guys! I'm glad you're still enjoying this story, hope you liked this chapter too. Next chapter will hopefully be up sometime this week, barring real-life problems.