Title: One Hand, One Heart
Rating: T
Warning- indirect mention of rape.
Summary: Rachel Berry never saw it coming. But then it happened. Now, alone and frightened she tries to continue with normal life. Then she meets a certain, curly haired boy. And everything changes.
Disclaimer: Obviously I do not own Glee, if I did Jesse would still be there and St. Berry would be alive and kicking. But he isn't. From this we can conclude that I don't own Glee.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The observant amongst you will have noticed my change of pen name. Indeed, I am now DreamsofRay, instead of candyflossgirl, do not be confused :)
xxx
Jesse pulled open Rachel's door, holding out a hand to help her out as she clambered from the car. Pulling her bag from the car, he carried it in one hand, taking her hand and rubbing soothing circles on her palm. She was grateful. Pulling open the door, he let her in first and she went to the kitchen, perching on the kitchen table to watch him move smoothly through the room, starting on dinner.
They sat in comfortable silence until Rachel grew restless, her mind able to wander and worry through the silence. Hoping from the table, she went to join him at the kitchen counter asking. "Anything I can help with?"
He turned and smiled at her, gesturing to the kitchen table, "set the table?" He asked and she did as he said, relaxing as the soothing and familiar motions set her at ease. Stepping back to admire her work, she jumped when the bell rang, shrill and angry, through the otherwise quiet house.
Jesse placed a lid on the pan, leaving the sauce to simmer, and took her hand again, leading her towards the door.
"That'll be our guests."
Pulling open the door, he smiled as he came to face with the two people before him. Rachel stood a little behind him, watching as the two men embraced quickly and nibbled her lip nervously. She was normally very confident when it came to meeting new people, but these were Jesse's friend. They thought a lot of Jesse and Jesse thought a lot of them, it was important that she make a good impression. Next to Johnny, she spotted a tall, fair girl, who's grey/blue eyes were watching the two boys with a strange mixture of amusement and exasperation. Her long, pin straight mousy hair hung about her slim shoulders and she was a little taller than Rachel.
Noticing Rachel, she smiled and Rachel offered a tentative smile in return.
"Rachel!" Looking up, she saw Johnny striding towards her, and she smiled at him.
"Hi Johnny, it's nice to see you again. Thank you so much, for everything."
"No problem, you guys had winner kick their asses!" Johnny laughed loudly.
"That's the plan," Rachel replied, smiling at him.
"Oh, Rachel," Lauren had appeared beside Johnny and Johnny placed his arm around her as he said. "This is my girlfriend, Lauren."
"Hi," Rachel smiled warmly. "It's nice to meet you, I've heard a lot about you."
"Same," Lauren smiled in return. "Johnny says that Jesse never shuts up about you."
"Oi!" Jesse cried, "careful what you say Lauren, I'm supposed to be feeding you, remember?"
She laughed gaily, shrugging. "You would never let me starve Jesse."
"You wanna test that?" He joked, pulling them through to the kitchen.
Xxx
The next day Jesse suggested they split up for the morning. He and Johnny needed to catch up and have a 'man to man', something that made both of the girls snigger, and Lauren needed to get to a mall and buy some birthday presents. Despite shopping not being her favourite activity, Rachel agreed to accompany the dancer, hoping to bond with her.
When they finally stopped for lunch and were sat with their sandwiches in front of them, they started talking.
"I hear you dance?" Rachel started and Lauren nodded.
"Yes, ballet is my forte, I dance with a group and we do tours. Johnny told me you want to be on stage."
"Uh… yeah." Rachel nodded, taking a small bite from her sandwich and chewing slowly. "I hope to but…"
"But it might not be possible in your situation?" Lauren asked and Rachel looked up, frowning. "Johnny told me, I hope you don't mind. He and Jesse share everything and Johnny just told me one night."
"Oh, okay." Rachel let her hand slip down to her stomach before looking up and frowning a little. "I don't know… it's all so confusing."
"I can imagine, I'm really sorry." Lauren finished her sandwich swiftly. But you can do anything you want you know? This won't stop you."
"I'm hoping not." Rachel sighed, sipping her water.
"You worry about it," Lauren stated.
"I worry about everything… when am I going to tell everyone?"
"No one knows yet?" Lauren's eyebrows shot up.
"I cant work up the courage." Rachel admitted, colouring a little. "I worry about what I'm going to do once the baby's born. What will Jesse do?"
"Jesse will stick by you." Lauren replied, confidently.
"You think so?"
"I know so, I've never seen a man so infatuated in all of my life." Lauren laughed and Rachel joined in slowly, feeling a slight weight lift itself from her shoulders.
Back at the house, Jesse was finally conceding victory.
"Fine, you win."
Johnny laughed loudly and sprang up from the sofa, dancing manically. "Woo! I knew I could beat you! In your face St James!" He crowed happily.
Jesse rolled his eyes, throwing his remote down and sighing a little. "It's only Guitar Hero Johnny."
"That's not what you were saying when you won that first game!" Johnny retorted, his victory dance slowing.
Jesse shook his head again, but decided not to answer, saying instead. "Whatever, want some food?"
Johnny nodded, swaggering behind him into the kitchen as he replied. "Hell yes, I need something to keep me hyped… ready to whip your ass yet again."
Jesse didn't reply, only rolling his eyes again and chucking the boy a bag in crisps. "Here, eat that before you make me deaf."
Johnny laughed and tore into the packet, eating hungrily. "So, how're things going with Rachel then?"
"Good," Jesse nodded, biting into his apple. "But… I found something interesting out the other day."
"Oh?" Johnny looked up, his eyes sparking with interest.
"Yeah… you remember I told you about Shelby?"
"She went all creepy stalker on you guys," He confirmed. "Sure I remember."
"Well, I confronted her." Jesse sighed, aiming carefully and throwing the apple core straight in the bin. "And, long story short, she ended up telling me that… she's Rachel's birth mother."
Watching Johnny carefully Jesse suppressed an amused smirk as Johnny's mouth dropped open and thanked God that he had not been chewing at the time. It was nice to be able to tell someone, over the last few days, he had felt like he had been carrying around a huge weight over the past few days. Telling Johnny was just the relief he needed.
"What did she want you to do about it?" Johnny finally asked, once he had levered his mouth shut.
"She wanted me to reunite them, I think. Then she wants us to join V.A, you can't blame her," He added as an afterthought. "With us as the leads they would be unstoppable."
"Are you going to?" Johnny asked, screwing the empty packet up in his fist.
"No," Jesse replied immediately. "At least, I don't think I am. Not right now anyway. I mean, her dads haven't told her until now and there must be a reason for that. Plus, Shelby isn't the nicest person, what would she do once she found out about the baby?"
"Fair enough man, but doesn't Rachel have the right to know?"
"I suppose she does… I don't know, I'm going to give it a while, think it over."
"What's Rache decided to do about the baby?" Johnny asked, jumping off the counter and starting back in to the living room.
"I'm not sure about that either." Jesse shrugged, following. "It's her decision, it's her baby. I'm not the child's father."
"Yeah, but come on man, you might as well be, you're the boyfriend." Johnny grabbed up the remote, completely missing Jesse's shocked expression.
"But… I'm not the father." Jesse finally managed to reply. "It's her choice." He repeated.
"I suppose not… But she values your opinion doesn't she? She'll want your input. What do you want her to do with the baby?"
"I don't know… I haven't really thought about what I want her to do… more what she'll do."
"Well, you should think about it, now get yourself ready for me to beat you again."
"You wish," Jesse scoffed, settling down with his remote and grinning, trying to push the worried from his mind.
Xxx
Jesse's rehearsals with Kurt became more frequent as they approached the date they were to perform. On Thursday Rachel performed with Brittany and that evening she breathed a sigh of relief as she and Jesse curled up together on the couch, his arm slung around her shoulders.
"I'm glad that's over," She groaned. "If I ever have to go with Brittany again I may just take a week off school until it's over."
He laughed a little and pulled her closer, rubbing her arm comfortingly. "It can't have been that bad."
"It was!" She cried, throwing her hands in the air in disgust. "There's no way we'll win, you and Kurt will probably hammer it, after all, Mr Schue's pushed your slot back to next Monday, you have to whole of this weekend to practice." She glanced up at him, her eyes narrowing. "I should warn you, if you spend all weekend with Kurt, I'll be cross."
He chuckled a little. "I know you will."
"Not that you'd want to spend the whole weekend with Kurt anyway." She grumbled, settling into the crook of his arms.
"He's not that bad," His hands ran gently through her hair, being torn away when she looked at him, her expression stunned indignation.
"What?" She snapped, glaring at him.
"Yeah, I mean, I know you and he have your differences but honestly I don't think he's that bad, he's always very nice to me." Jesse shrugged, his brows creasing when he saw the slight change in her expression. "Rache, what's wrong?"
She took a breath to shout at him, to scream with horrified fury, before snapping her mouth shut and shaking her a little. "Nothing" she muttered, "there's nothing wrong."
"Okay…" He frowned at her a little. "I'm going to go home and do a little homework, want to come?"
"No…" She shook her head, avoiding his gaze. "No, I'll see you tomorrow okay?"
"Okay." He agreed, still frowning, but deciding not to push it. She walked him to the door and he bent to give her a swift kiss before leaving, hoping that by the morning she would be back to normal.
Xxx
The worry Rachel felt from the strange Kurt/Jesse relationship was pushed aside when, Friday morning, her daddy entered the room, his hand shaking a little and his eyes glazed over.
"Daddy?" She noticed him first, looking at him over her breakfast. The scraping of her chair made her papa look up, turning to glance at the other man.
"Leroy?" He asked blankly, taking a step towards him.
"She's coming," He told them, completely expressionless.
There was complete silence until finally Rachel said, a little breathless.
"Aunt Veronica?"
The only answer was a nod.
"What?" Hiram finally breathed. "Why? When…?"
"Tonight, she's staying all weekend." Leroy spluttered out and Rachel quickly pulled out a chair for her father to slump into.
"Why now?" Hiram asked, sitting heavily in the chair opposite Leroy.
Leroy shrugged, dejectedly. "Who knows why that woman does anything?"
Rachel moved around the table to lean against her papa's chair, her face considerably whiter.
"What…" She broke off, swallowing as her parents looked up at her. "What are we going to do about…?" Her hands fell her cup her stomach and she watched as Leroy's jaw tightened.
"We can't tell her." He said, flatly and the other two nodded in agreement. A knock on the door broke the silence and Rachel started, glancing as she spoke, her voice dazed and slow.
"That'll be Jesse, I didn't realise how late it was… I'd better go," She stopped half way towards the door. "Will she be here when I get back?"
Leroy shook his head and she breathed a silent sigh of relief, leaving the room as Hiram called, faintly.
"Have a good day at school."
Opening the door she found herself confronted with Jesse, whose features were softened with gentle concern.
"Everything okay?" He asked, quietly, sensing the sombre atmosphere.
"I'll explain in the car," She muttered, pulling the door shut behind her and clambering into Jesse's car.
Sitting beside her, he started the engine and drove silent, purposefully not pressing her and waiting for her to speak first.
Finally she did. "My Aunt's coming to visit."
"Isn't that a good thing?" He asked softly. "I thought you loved your aunt."
"Only my papa's sister." She replied, quietly. "On my daddy's side," She shivered involuntarily.
He caught the movement and frowned, reaching over to squeeze her hand gently. "She cant be that bad."
"She disapproves of everything. Me, my dads, my home, my grades, my singing. Especially my singing."
"How can she disapprove of your singing?" Jesse cried, his frown deepening. "You're brilliant."
"She doesn't think Broadway is a suitable careers choice," Rachel confessed as they pulled into the school parking lot, smiling a little when he scoffed. "She doesn't approve of me living with two men, so she likes to come around twice a year and check everything's okay."
Pushing open the door, Rachel got gently out and met him on the other side of the car, picking up the thread of their conversation easily as she reached out and held his hand. "She is horrible to me, horrible to my dad, horrible to anyone we know." She shuddered again. "She's vile."
"How long is she coming for?" Jesse asked, as they stopped by her locker.
"All weekend," Rachel groaned, pulling it open and shoving her books inside. She glanced up at Jesse and he was alarmed to see tears in her eyes. "You know what the worst part is?" She asked, so low he could barely hear her, even as he pulled her close. "I really want this woman to like me. But no matter what I do, she will always hate me."
"How can people hate you!" He cried, hugging her closer. "You just ignore her, okay. You know you're better than her and you don't need some old biddy's approval!"
She nodded and then sighed. "I don't know if you'll have to meet her." She confessed, softly.
Jesse squared his shoulders. "You keep me up to date Rache and I swear I'll be available to do anything you need."
Exchanging a hurried kiss they parted ways and Jesse walked alone down the crowded corridors towards his music class.
"Hey Jesse." Turning, he slowed when he spotted the smaller boy, in a strange red pant suit and red hat with a large feather, appear beside him.
"Hi Kurt," He smiled pleasantly.
"We really need to practice over the weekend, okay?" Kurt smiled winningly.
"Sure," Jesse shrugged.
"Saturday night, my place?"
He frowned, "I'm not sure Kurt, I think I might be doing something with Rachel…"
"Oh come on Jesse, one night away from her wont kill either of you. And we really need to practice, especially if we want to win." Kurt whined a little.
Jesse sighed and frowned, still hesitant.
"Come on Jesse, we can't let them beat us!" Kurt wheedled and Jesse nodded.
"Okay, I'll be there." He responded, his tone resigned.
Kurt beamed at him. "Great, I will have everything ready, don't you worry!"
Jesse sighed again as he watched the boy scamper away. Running a hand through his hair he narrowed his eyes, now he just had to find a way to explain this to Rachel.
Xxx
Sorry it took me so long guys! I had my birthday and a ton of tests and all sorts of random stuff so I kept procrastinating. Oops :( But it's here now, and that's what counts.
Shout out to BestofLuckJo, who replied to me on twitter when I tweeted about this story just hitting 100,000 words- I said I'd post and here I am ;)
IMPORTANT NOTE: (for me at least) I did mention at the beginning, but I'll say it again, I have changed my screen name to DreamsofRay- please don't be confused! The story behind this? Well, simply put, candyflossgirl was developed when I was MUCH younger and felt juvenile. I've been playing around with the idea of changing for a while, but suddenly I want to, so I have ;) Also, it made sense to me to have the same pen name for YouTube, FictionPress and FanFiction (shameless plug there).
I'm kind of lamenting the slight lack of reviews for the last chapter, what happened guys? :(
Thank you to those of you who did review: StBerry Lover24, LNCrow, Likewow5556, northstar61, MissRe (many times, thank you so much ;) ), TVHollywoodDiva, nanuvamp, Klainebrittanalove, AlexisLovesGlee, auhaes55 and tomfeltonlover1991.
If you review before I update next, I will PM you a line from the next chapter, because I am just that lovely ;)
Ten reviews before I update please, because you know you want to ;)
Love
Ray
PS: Anyone seen the new Harry Potter? Yeah, me too… three times. I cried. A lot.
PPS: Who is psyched for the Glee movie? I AM! Me and my only Gleek friend are meeting up to go see it, we're ridiculously excited and if people don't sing along, we shall be disappointed. .