Shelby paced on the front stoop as the door bell echoed throughout the house. Why was she so nervous? It wasn't as if she was the one to start this whole palaver, but she was going to be the one to end it.
The door swung open to reveal Jesse. "Big Sis" he greeted her with a smile. "Missing me already?"
The past two weeks at work hadn't been as awkward as Shelby had anticipated. There had been no witty barbs about her personal life from Jesse, in fact it had been quite the opposite, Jesse had been very protective of her. Some might say over protective, when one of the younger members of VA had talked back to her, Jesse had taken the kid aside and nearly ripped him to pieces.
Whether the rest of VA had noticed a change or not, the faculty had, with Bob Wiseman making a joke about Jesse having a puppy crush on Shelby. Shelby decided she needed to have a word with Jesse about it, before anyone thought they were having an affair, but she would leave that until later. Now was the time to see Maria.
"Of course" Shelby joked, before turning serious, "Is Maria here?"
Jesse's smile faded "Yes, she's been waiting to speak to you ever since we had dinner. MOM!" he yelled "Shelby is here to see you."
Maria appeared in an instant.
"Shelby-"
"Can we not do this in the hall?" Shelby said,
"Of course" Maria replied, leading Shelby into the front room.
"I'll keep this brief" Shelby said, taking a seat "As I am going on vacation tomorrow and I need to pack" she emphasised, making sure Maria knew where she currently stood in her list of priorities.
"What do you want from me?"
"I'm sorry?" Maria asked
"I said, what do you want from me? You openly tell me that you had no desire to be my mother, and you still don't. You then proceed to track me down, I understand that, if I had given Rachel up for adoption I would be curious to see how she had turned out, but then, even though you have no desire to be my mother, you still decide to insert yourself in my life, ready for an inevitable fall out. So I ask again, what do you want?"
"I-" Maria pauses to measure her words. " I want to be your friend. I have no right to be your mother, I am not very good at being a mother. I just want to be your friend, I like your company, if we weren't related I would still like your company."
"fine" Shelby says. " We can be friends, eventually. You still need to resign, I won't have you in my work place, I mean it. And we will start from the beginning, slowly, and on my terms, I need to learn to trust you as a friend again."
"Thank you -" Maria began
"Make no mistake," Shelby said " I am not doing this for you. I am doing this for my parents, who will no longer have to worry about you popping up again out of the blue unexpectedly. I am doing this for my daughter, so that there be no more secrets and mysteries in the family, and so that she can get to know an uncle who I have a feeling will have a lot in common with her, and I am doing this for Jesse, because he is my little brother, and we deserve to get to know each other without it being awkward for him."
Maria nodded, but didn't press it any further.
"I've got to go, I'm on the 7am flight tomorrow" Shelby said, "Tell Jesse I said goodbye"
Out in the car, Shelby felt an enormous sense of relief, as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. For the first time in her life, she was in control of a situation.
She drove home quickly, entering Casa Berry to find Leroy on hand to give her a hug and a cup of tea.
"Thank you Daddy" she mumbled into his chest.
"Are you sure you are ok?" Leroy asked concerned
"Yes" Shelby said, lifting her head. "I feel much better now I have talked to her."
Leroy nodded. From above the strains of Think Twice could be heard, as Rachel belted along with the music.
"She's having a Celine Dion-a-thon' Leroy explained " to celebrate her freedom from house arrest."
Shelby smiled.
"I've done online check-in" Leroy continued "Dad and I drew straws, and you've got Rachel"
Shelby groaned. She loved Rachel. Worshipped the ground she walked on, but even Shelby couldn't handle Rachel on a plane. Rachel, when on a plane to either New York or Miami, was over excitable to the extreme. It involved hours of rapid fire talking, squealing, seat dancing, extreme gesturing. As a result, Shelby and her fathers began drawing straws to see who would be her seatmate.
"I know" Leroy patted Shelby on the back. "Shame she's too old to sedate now"
"Wait-what?" Shelby asked "You used to sedate my baby?"
"Yes" Leroy replied. "And you too when you were very young. It was only calpol, didn't do either of you any harm.."
"Daddy!" Shelby exclaimed. "oh never mind. I need to go finish packing."
As Shelby made her way upstairs, she heard the Celine Dion stop, and the raised voices of Rachel and Hiram arguing. Passing Rachel's door she heard "well Mom said I could"
Deciding she'd better see what she was being involved in, Shelby stuck her head through the door she found her father and Rachel, stood across from each other. Hiram was holding a piece of red cloth.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"Dad is intervening in my packing" Rachel fumed.
"Rachel is claiming this" Hiram gestured to the garment in his hand "is a dress. At first I thought it was a beach cover-up, but apparently it is day wear"
"And I told Dad that it is day wear, its not too short, and you were with me when I bought it, which means you gave your approval before he gave his disapproval."
Shelby had no recollection of ever seeing the dress before, but was too tired to argue.
"Dad, it's fine. Let her pack the dress. Step away from the suitcase."
Rachel smirked
Hiram looked defeated. "Fine. Did it go ok with Maria pumpkin?"
"Yes." Shelby said, moving to wrap her arms around Rachel. "It's all sorted. Let the vacation begin!"
As the plane began its descent into Miami, Shelby's stomach began to turning itself into knots. The closer they had got to Miami, the more worried she became about facing her grandparents.
Though she was closer to Nanny, Hiram's mother, Shelby had exalted status in the eyes of Leroy's parents, Pearl and Leroy Snr, or Granny and Pop Pop as the girls called them. Shelby held the coveted title of first grandchild and (until Rachel's birth) only granddaughter, something to be celebrated after generation upon generation of males in Leroys family. In Granny and Pop pops eyes, she could do no wrong and had been lavished with attention every time she visited.
However, that was before they knew the truth about Rachel. Leroy had come clean to his parents a couple of months ago, but Shelby had yet to speak to them. Would they think any thing different of her now they knew she was a teen mother?
The fluttering intensified as they walked out into the arrivals hall, and she spotted Pop pop in his gaudy Hawaiian shirt, Granny waving at his side.
As soon as Shelby was within arms reach, Pop pop reached out and pulled her into a bear hug, Granny doing the same with Rachel, while Hiram and Leroy looked on and smiled. "Look at you" he said "It's been so long I'd forgotten what you looked like!"
"Pop pop" Shelby smiled, as her grandfather released her, and 'swapped' with her grandmother.
"How's my favourite Granddaughter" Granny said as she hugged Shelby.
"Granny!" Rachel exclaimed indignantly, her head raising up from its resting place on Pop pop's chest. "I'm stood right here, I can hear you."
"It's true" Granny said "Shelby is my favourite granddaughter. Apparently, you my dear, " she gestured an arm toward Rachel "are my favourite great-granddaughter" she gave a pointed glance toward her son and his husband.
"Well" Rachel said "that's ok then"
The group laughed, as Hiram and Leroy stepped forward for their hugs before the group got into the car for the half hour drive to Leroys childhood home.
The next morning, the entire clan could be found heading out for a day at the beach. After suffering through a long winter in Ohio, the Berrys decided that the first thing on their list was to get some sun on their backs. The grandparents, eager to spend time with their son and his family, volunteered to come with them.
By 10am, they were setting up camp for the day. Rachel made quick work of stripping down to her bikini, putting her sunglasses on, she lay back on her towel, closed her eyes, and breathed in the smell of the ocean contentedly.
"Have you put sun screen on?" Shelby's voice interrupted Rachel's reverie
"You saw me put in on earlier" Rachel said, her eyes still closed.
"I saw you put it on your face" Shelby said, referencing the room they were sharing. "Not on the rest of you."
"In a minute" Rachel mumbled, if she could just have 5 minutes to take some of the edge off her winter pale skin…
"Arrrrrrrrgh" Rachel screeched, as she suddenly felt the sensation of something cold and wet hitting her stomach "eeek" she flinched as the same sensation hit her chest.
She opened her eyes to see Shelby stood over her with a bottle of sunscreen in her hand.
Before she could respond, Rachel felt her leg being lifted in the air, and Shelby set about rubbing in sun screen.
"That's cold!" Rachel exclaimed
"Of course it's cold, it's been in the refrigerator" Shelby said.
"What factor is this?" Rachel tried to wriggle her leg out of Shelbys grasp, but was unsuccessful.
"50." Shelby said setting to work on her other leg "I don't want you to burn. Rub the rest of it into your stomach"
"I'm not going to burn" Rachel grumbled as the rest of the party laughed at her. "Daddies, it is not funny" she admonished.
Rachel's phone beeped. She attempted to reach for it, but Shelby, having finished with her legs, grabbed her arm instead.
"Mom!" Rachel exclaimed
Shelby smirked, but handed Rachel her phone.
"Message from Finn?" Shelby asked.
"No Brett. He's just leaving his hotel."
That wiped the smile from Shelbys face. She finished up Rachel's arm and busied herself arranging her belongings on her towel.
Rachel, fully sun screened up thanks to her mother, settled back and began reading her magazine.
Twenty minutes later, Rachel looked up to find a nervous looking Brett approaching the group.
"Hi" he said, sounding much more confident than he felt.
There was always something about your ex-girlfriends father that scared you, even if you were 32, and her father was currently wearing florescent pink Hawaiian shorts and flip flops. Especially when said ex-girlfriend had two fathers, and you were the one responsible for knocking her up at 16.
He received a chorus of hellos from the fathers Berry and Rachel.
"Who's he?" Pop pop stage whispered to Granny as Brett bent down to give Rachel a hug.
"He's Shelby's high school boyfriend" Granny replied.
"Do I need to give him a talking to?" Pop pop asked.
"No, Dad" Leroy replied.
"Hello Shelby" Brett said, when a salutation was not forth coming.
Shelby removed her sun glasses "Oh hello" Shelby said, in what she hoped was a nonchalant tone, " I didn't see you there" she continued, which didn't fool anyone.
Deciding to leave Shelby be, Brett laid his towel out, positioning himself between Rachel and Hiram.
He spent a pleasant half an hour or so chatting to Rachel. He was just in the middle of having an awkward chat with Hiram about business when his attention was suddenly drawn by Shelby clearing her throat.
She was standing up "Does any one want a refreshment?" she asked, gesturing to the drinks stand in the distance. Before anyone could reply, Shelby slowly, ( and deliberately, in Rachel's opinon) removed her beach cover up to reveal a very skimpy, low slung, and black bikini.
Brett was glad for his sunglasses, which hid the way his eyes bugged out when he saw Shelby.
"No thanks" he stuttered
"No, we're good thank you" Leroy said, poking Hiram in the side before he could throw a large t-shirt at Shelby.
"Just me then" Shelby said. Rachel watched as Shelby turned round and sashayed her way across the sand.
Rachel was at a loss – what did one do when ones mother is deliberately trying to be provocative in front of her ex-boyfriend and father of her child, with whom she is currently angry for reasons unknown to said child?
What she did know, is that she still needed to get Shelby back for this morning. She was pondering this as she decided to pay a quick trip to the rest rooms. On her way back, she suddenly got an idea.
In the meanwhile, Shelby had returned with her drink and was now stretching herself out on her towel. It felt nice to have the sun on her skin. So what if she had put on a pound or 2 lately, or the fact her hair frizzed slightly in the sun, or she was pretty sure there was a teeny tiny patch of cellulite on her butt, she still had It. The look on Brett's face told her that. She could fight fire with fire, that would teach him to-
"aaaaaargh" Shelby screamed as something cold and wet hit her stomach. She looked up to find Rachel had dumped a pile of sea weed on her.
"You little-" Shelby began, as Rachel scampered away from her
"Run, Rachel Run" Hiram called jokingly. Shelby was on her feet in a flash, and racing down the beach after her wayward child. Shelby may have been older, but she was faster, and soon caught up her the daughter, grabbing her around the waist from behind. "Gotcha!"
"Mom!" Rachel screamed, as Shelby attempted to life her off the ground "Stop it-"
Rachel kicked her feet out, only to feel a firm grip around her ankles. Brett stood their grinning. "I've got her feet" he told Shelby , as he gripped the bottom of Rachel's legs, casting a glance toward the shore line.
"I've got her arms" Shelby said with a sly smile, she moved her hands up Rachel's torso to grip her daughter under her arms.
"What are you doing?" Rachel shrieked as her parents began carrying her down the beach toward the water.
Still carrying their daughter, Shelby and Brett waded out until they were up to their knees.
"One" Shelby said, they began to swing Rachel back and forth
"Two" Brett continued
"Mom-" Rachel shouted
"Three" Shelby finished, as they launched Rachel into the water with a splash.
Rachel popped up out of the water, shaking her head like a cat. Shelby and Brett burst in to laughter, and swam out to greet her.
"Aw, did you like your dip baby?" Shelby asked, treading water at Rachel's side, while Rachel removed sea weed from her hair, and turned to put it on Shelbys head.
"That wasn't funny" Rachel gave her mother an exaggerated pout. Making use of the buoyancy of the water, Rachel put her arms around Shelby, allowing her mother to hold her on her hip like she would have done a toddler.
"It was hilarious" Brett said coming over to join them, and pulling the seaweed from Shelby.
"I hope you learned a valuable lesson" Shelby told her.
"And what would that be?" Rachel asked.
"Never mess with your mother."
a/n: please let me know what you think - I'd really appreciate it.
I have a new one shot called 'Sola', take a look if you've got the time. *ends self pimpage*