Sillystarshine: Maybe a little cousin could stay with them and they can just either be thick as thieves or Rachel could be jealous or think the little cousin is taking all of her mothers' attention from her.

A bit of a longer chapter, thank you so much for the prompt.

I'm working on like ten at a time; the ones that get posted are obviously just the ones I finished first xD

I have a couple of people to answer:

first to the guest who accidentally redid prompts: it's totally fine, I was just making sure everyone knew that they didn't have to. xD It's all good.

Next, to answer a question: Yes, I do watch The Fosters (and am IN LOVE with it) but can only watch what they have on Netflix, because I don't get the channel. So no spoilers, please! xD

Finally, to address another point: Yes, I had considered turning Welcome to NYADA into a different story, but I've already posted 2 chapters in this one, and it's part of this AU and I really think making it another story would just make things more difficult and confusing than they need to be so as long as it's alright with everyone, I'm going to keep it a mini series in this and just break it off into many many parts. That sound okay?

Hope you like this chatper!

Oh and I don't own Cinderella or Snow White or Funny Girl or The Little Mermaid, blah blah blah.

With love always, Hayley

Center of Attention

"Shelby! Where am I supposed to put this?" Cassandra held up a box full of her books and Shelby sighed. Since when did Cassie ever actually take the time to read a novel anyways? They were probably all dance or theatre books. It wasn't as if Shelby didn't have enough of those.

"We'll have to make room for them on the big bookshelf, sweetheart, give me a minute okay?"

It was going to be a very busy and stress-filled week for everyone. Not only was it the week that Cassie was actually moving in with Shelby and Rachel (she had moved out of her loft in Soho that day and all of her boxes were finally at Shelby's. Which was now also hers. It was going to be a long and confusing process), but it was also the week that Cassie and Shelby had agreed to watch Rachel's cousin (on Shelby's side, of course) Ashleigh. Her parents would be gone on business for the week, and had absolutely no one else to watch her.

Thank god it was NYADA's middle-of-the-year break right now; which had coincidentally been why Cassie chose that week to move in, because she knew she'd have the time to unpack things.

Shelby was in Rachel's room, dragging out a spare twin bed and pushing it up against the opposite wall of Rachel's bed. The spare twin bed had come from the fact that Rachel's bed was actually a bunk bed, and they had taken the top off years ago because Rachel only wanted to sleep on the bottom anyways.

"Why do I have to share my room?" Rachel complained. "We HAVE a guest room!"

The five year old did not like sharing things, she didn't know her cousin Ashleigh very well-they had only met a few times when the girls were younger, and wouldn't even really be meeting now if her parents' business trip wasn't so important. Shelby didn't really get along with most people in her family, but she had a soft spot in her heart for her older sister, Caitlyn. She was the only person Shelby had when she was younger, and was the only family member she had that she could actually stand to be around. They just never got to see each other because both families were usually so busy.

"Because, Rachel. Ashleigh is your age, too, and you need to get to know each other better and be NICE to each other. You're going to be spending a lot of time together this week, so you'd better put on a nicer face and a better attitude. She's never been away from her parents for such a long time, and she's probably very scared."

Rachel crossed her arms over her chest and Shelby sighed. "Rachel Corcoran, I mean it. Maybe the two of you will even become friends over the week."

"Doubt it." Rachel muttered. She probably doesn't even like Broadway.

This whole concept concerned Cassie and Shelby slightly. Rachel had never had to share her mothers' attention, and they really weren't sure how she'd deal with it.

With a sigh, Shelby finished making Ashleigh's temporary bed. I suppose we'll just have to find out.

She stood, kissed Rachel's forehead, and walked out of the room to find Cassie, lying on the couch, half-asleep. Her lover had been so exhausted the past couple of days. She'd done a lot of stress dancing and she knew it was exhausting to pack all of these boxes. On top of this, Cassie wasn't a kid person and Shelby wasn't sure how her lover would be able to handle 2 little girls. She did well with Santana, but she had known San since she was really little. She'd never met Ashleigh. Besides that, she also had all of these boxes to unpack.

Slowly, Shelby climbed on top of Cassie until she was in between the couch and Cassie, wrapped around her tightly. She placed a soft kiss on Cassie's ear and Cassie hummed out an, "Mmm."

"Are you sure you're okay with all of this?" Shelby whispered to her.

Cass fluttered one eye open and glimpsed over at Shelby behind her. "I am perfectly okay with this position that we are currently in."

She felt Shelby laugh against her back then melt into her. "You know that's not what I meant. Kids aren't your thing."

"I do fine with Rachel—"

"You do great with Rachel, and Santana. But I know little people make you uncomfortable."

"Little people," Cass laughed lightly. "I'm okay with this, Shelby, I promise, I would've told you if I wasn't."

"Okay," Shelby just held her for a minute and let her lips rest on Cassie's cheek. "I love you," she mumbled against Cassie's skin.

"I love you too, crazy," Cass laughed. "Can I sleep now?"

"Mmm. You don't have much time to."

"Then shhhhhh," Cassie chuckled deeply and softly and eventually her breathing relaxed as did her muscles and she was asleep in Shelby's arms.

Rachel stayed in her room, Shelby hoped not getting into trouble. She couldn't move or speak now or she would wake Cassie.

(Rachel hadn't been getting into trouble—she was just cleaning her room the rest of the way and listening to The Phantom of the Opera music).

After about 45 minutes had gone by, the doorbell rang. Rachel yelled from her room, "MOMMY! DOORBELL!"

Cassie jumped, startled, and Shelby held on to her so she wouldn't fall off of the couch (it was a miracle they both fit on it in this position anyways—it was not a very big couch). Shelby let out an amused little laugh before kissing Cassie's cheek. "Morning, sleeping beauty."

"Have you just been lying here with me this whole time?" Cassie asked so innocently and groggily. Shelby loved her innocent "I just woke up" state.

"Am I not allowed to just lie with you?" Shelby whispered.

The doorbell rang again and Cassie moved so Shelby could get up and answer it.

"Hey, Cait," Shelby hugged her sister tightly after swinging the door open. "It's been way too long."

"I know, we just get so busy…" Caitlyn hugged her little sister. "I've missed you so much Shelby. You have no idea how much this means to me, thank you. We'll catch up soon, okay? I promise."

Ashleigh stood behind her mother, her hands folded in front of her, somewhat shyly.

"Hi, Ashleigh," Shelby said kindly.

"Hi," Ashleigh gave her aunt a small smile. Cassie, after fixing her hair (Shelby had played with it while she was sleeping, apparently), walked up behind her girlfriend with a small smile.

"Hey," she said kindly to Shelby's family members. Shelby wrapped her arm around Cassie's waist.

"This is my partner, Cassandra," Shelby introduced her to her sister and niece. She was often very careful about the way she and Cassie did things around her family—most of her family was not so approving, and her sister really had no idea about any of it due to the severe lack of contact between them.

Caitlyn raised her eyebrows, clearly quite shocked, before giving a soft smile. "Hello, Cassandra," she held her hand out and Cass shook it. "I trust you're good to my sister?"

"The best," Shelby answered for her. Cass gave her a small smile and Caitlyn smiled back.

"Good." Before turning to her daughter and giving her a big hug and a kiss. "I love you, Ashleigh. Be good for Aunt Shelby and Aunt Cassandra, okay?"

Cassie's insides exploded. Aunt Cassandra. A part of Shelby's family was actually acknowledging her existence? In a good way? Holy hell. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

"Okay," Ashleigh said. Shelby took Ashleigh's suitcase for her and Cass took her pillow and blanket. "I love you too, Mom," she looked up at her mom and smiled. Caitlyn placed a kiss on her daughter's forehead before thanking Shelby and Cass again and walking back out the door. Shelby and Cass gave Ashleigh a smile and walked towards Rachel's room.

"You'll be staying in our daughter Rachel's room," Shelby said as they walked.

Ashleigh paused slightly at the word "our" but just let it go. When Shelby had called Cassandra her partner, she didn't really understand that it meant they were together. She just figured Cass was another one of Shelby's sisters or something that she'd never met. Even though they didn't really look alike. Maybe they were sisters like her mom and her aunt Steph—they weren't REALLY sisters, but they were best friends, so she considered Steph her aunt Steph.

She walked into Rachel's bedroom, following her aunts as they put her stuff on the spare bed. Rachel looked up from what she was doing on her bed—she had had her earphones in, and was still in fact listening to The Phantom of the Opera. She pulled her headphones down and they rested on her neck as she stared at her cousin.

Ashleigh was clearly related to Shelby—she had the long brown hair, and green eyes—but that was really the only resemblance. She looked a lot more like her dad. She had a rounder face and freckles and a different bone structure.

Shelby looked at the two girls and smiled. "You can talk to each other, you know." She laughed lightly. "Get to know each other, you'll be living with each other for about a week."

With that, Shelby and Cassandra left the room. Rachel looked at Ashleigh some more before saying,

"Hi, I'm Rachel."

"I'm Ashleigh," Ashleigh smiled at her softly, shyly.

"Do you sing?" Rachel wondered.

Ashleigh shook her head. "But I play violin!" she pointed over to her violin case.

Rachel raised an impressed eyebrow. Fancy. Maybe she could like this girl.

The two got to talking and it wasn't long before Shelby called them out of the bedroom for dinner. Cass got everyone water as the girls sat up at the food counter/island thing. Shelby put their plates out in front of them and turned to set hers and Cassie's down too. Cass got her some water and she smiled at her, pecking her lips softly in a silent thanks.

Ashleigh's eyes widened. Her mom and her Aunt Steph never did that.

She whispered to Rachel, "Why did they just kiss?"

Rachel shrugged. "Because that's what mommies do." She said it in a "duh" way and Ashleigh was still very confused but didn't continue to talk about it.

They ate dinner and afterwards Shelby asked the girls if they wanted to watch a movie. They let Ashleigh pick, since she was the guest. She decided on The Little Mermaid, which was fine by Rachel—at least it had music in it. The girls sat cross legged on the floor (even though there were chairs available) and Shelby and Cassie cuddled on the couch—Cass had her legs wrapped around Shelby, Shelby's back pressed to her chest. Ashleigh didn't notice this until she got up to get her water. Then she froze and looked at them. Cassie laughed softly,

"Hey, Ashleigh. Can we help you?" she wondered.

"You two kiss AND hold each other and stuff?" she was so lost. She had never seen 2 girls together, or 2 boys for that matter. She just didn't understand.

"Don't your parents?" Rachel got immediately defensive, because it was something she was used to having to do.

Cass gave Rachel a fleeting condescending look. "Rach, you don't have to get so defensive, she just doesn't understand Mommy's relationship with me."

Shelby answered Ashleigh's question, "Cassandra and I are together, Ashleigh. You know how your Mommy and Daddy are together? That's how Cassandra and I are."

"…but you're both girls. So…which one of you would be the daddy?"

Cassie actually let out a laugh. She and Shelby had never really thought about that. They were both pretty girly, so they had never actually considered one of them being the "daddy". "Um, I guess I would," Cass said. This made Shelby laugh now.

"We're both the mommy, sweetheart," she tried to explain. "I know it's sort of confusing, but that's just how we are."

"Well okay." Ashleigh shrugged and went out to the kitchen to finally get her drink of water, then went and sat back down next to Rachel, cross legged, like the conversation hadn't happened.

Shelby and Cass exchanged an amused look and continued to watch the movie.

"Well that happened," Cass whispered into Shelby's ear. Shelby smiled and Cass pulled her closer and Ariel and Rachel sang,

"Someday I'll be, part of your world."

"You sing really pretty, Rachel," Ashleigh said when the movie was over.

"Thanks!" Rachel got excited because they were talking about music. "I bet you play violin really good, too!"

"You play violin?" Shelby wondered, impressed.

"Yeah," Ashleigh smiled shyly again. "I'm not perfect at it yet, but there's a song I've been working on with my teacher."

"Nobody's perfect," Shelby said kindly.

"Will you play it for us?!" Rachel beamed, getting on her knees all excitedly.

With a nod, Ashleigh went to Rachel's room to get her violin out.

After getting things ready, she put it up to her chin. Cass held tight to Shelby and kissed her cheek. Both women were absolutely taken aback by the excellence of music that came pouring out of the violin in Ashleigh's arms. They had not expected the five year old to be so amazing with such a complex instrument.

When she was done, Shelby nearly had tears in her eyes.

"Oh my god," Cassie stated, clapping her hands together.

Shelby clapped too, "That was BEAUTIFUL."

Rachel had her mouth gaping open. "Woah." She was instantly jealous. Now she wanted to learn how to play the violin too!

After which Shelby asked Ashleigh if she wanted to do that professionally when she grew up and Ashleigh just shrugged. Violin was effortless to her-more like a hobby than a passion, really, and she hadn't given it thought. Being five, she still had plenty of time to consider.

Rachel wasn't sure what to think of her musically inclined cousin. She was jealous, really, that the music came so easy to Ashleigh. Rachel spent every second of every day working hard and rehearsing what she had to do and Ashleigh just shrugged it off like it was so casual. It bothered her, admittedly, just a little bit.

. . .

It was 11:30 and Shelby and Cassie were lying in bed, talking and cuddling with each other. Shelby had Cass in her embrace, their hands linked together as Cassie's back was facing Shelby's chest. Shelby had her head resting partly on Cassie's shoulder as they talked.

"Maybe we shouldn't be so...touchy in front of Ashleigh," Cass mentioned, softly. "I'm not sure she's so into the idea."

"I think she was just confused, Cassie. You know how my family is, and my sister seemed very surprised. I doubt if Ashleigh's ever met anyone who's gay before now..." Shelby answered in thought.

"Great," Cassie sighed and pulled Shelby's hand up to her lips to place light kisses on Shelby's fingers. "She can go home and tell her disapproving mother the wonderful tales of her lesbian aunts' adventures. I'm sure that'll start some talk in your family."

She felt Shelby laugh against her. "Perhaps," she agreed. "I think Caitlyn's a little more accepting, though."

Her "observation" was greeted with a disbelieving silence so she continued. "Maybe she doesn't agree with it, but she respects me enough to love me no matter what, which is slightly more than my parents did, so I'm going to try to convince myself that she's slightly more accepting than they are."

"She did call me Aunt Cassandra," Cassie practically beamed. She adored the fact that Caitlyn had made her feel like a part of the family-like an equal. Not many people (in either Shelby or Cassie's family) ever did that much anymore.

"You ARE Aunt Cassandra," Shelby readjusted her position, tangling her legs with Cassie's. Cass let out a pleasure-filled sigh.

"Yeah, I guess I am, huh?" there was a moment of silence between them before she continued, asking, "Do you think they'll get along?"

Shelby thought about it. "I think Rachel's jealous of her violin playing."

"Hmm. Should we be worried about jealousy fights?" Cass questioned.

She yawned and her eyes scanned the clock. They had been talking for 2 hours.

"We'll just keep an eye out," Shelby said.

"Kay," Cass mumbled and her muscles and breathing relaxed as sleep took hold of her first once more.

. . .

By the time day 2 had rolled around, Rachel and Ashleigh were fighting like cats and dogs, Cassie had virtually nothing unpacked, and Shelby was losing all control.

"Broadway is stupid!" Ashleigh yelled. "All they do is sing and dance! Anyone can sing and dance!"

"Nuh uh! Just because you play violin doesn't mean you're perfect at everything!" Rachel shot back. The two girls stormed through the house. Cass had her head in her hands, and was leaning against the front of the couch, sitting on the floor, never wanting to see another box ever again.

Shelby was sitting next to her.

"Girls! Can you please stop fighting?" she begged.

"Ashleigh won't let me practice Funny Girl because she wants to practice her stupid violin." Rachel pouted, crossing her arms over her chest.

"My mom is gonna kill me if I don't practice my violin!" Ashleigh insisted. Shelby sighed. She knew that Ashleigh might be exaggerating but only a little bit-her family members were sort of hardcore about the whole perfection thing.

"Rachel, let Ashleigh practice for a little bit, okay?"

Rachel stomped her foot. "UGH! Why do you love her more?!" and ran off to her room, slamming the door shut behind her.

Ashleigh ran after her. "RACHEL, I NEED MY VIOLIN!"

Rachel opened the door, set the violin case outside of it, and slammed it shut again.

Cass rubbed her temples and Shelby kissed her forehead. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

"We need to go talk to Rachel," was Cassie's response.

With a nod, Shelby said, "But she needs to cool down first."

Cass reached into the box she had been working on, pulled out a handful of movies, and tossed them to the side. "Does that count as unpacked?" she asked, looking over at Shelby hopefully. Shelby smirked and Cass continued, "Why would Rach think we love Ashleigh more?"

This made Shelby shrug, for she was just as perplexed about the whole thing as Cassandra was. "I don't know, she's used to getting all of our attention and now she only gets half of it?" she guessed.

"Please tell me that this isn't going to be happening all week." Cass sighed.

"You still fine with the little people?" Shelby asked condescendingly. Cassandra rolled her eyes, stood up, and put her movies on the movie shelf.

The two women noticed that the violin music had stopped, and felt that the silence could not be a good thing. They stood and practically ran to Rachel's room where Rachel had started yelling and Ashleigh had started yelling back.

"She BROKE my Ariel doll!" Rachel yelled.

"I didn't MEAN to break her," Ashleigh yelled back. "I was just LOOKING! If you hadn't tried to RIP her out of my hands-"

"If you were LOOKING, why was she in your HANDS?!"

Cass double blinked. These were some very advanced 5 year olds. These kids were intense. "Enough!" she yelled louder than both of them and they both fell silent. She thought maybe Shelby should continue, because she didn't want to say something or yell something she would later on regret. But Shelby was all silence and waited for Cassandra to keep going. She took a deep breath and crouched down to the kids' level. She took the Ariel doll.

"Rachel, Ariel's head can be put back on, calm down about the doll. From what I've heard it was an accident."

Rachel sniffed. "Why are you always taking her side?" she asked.

"We'll talk about this in a minute." she said. "Privately. But right now I need to talk to both of you."

The girls nodded.

"The two of you, whether you like it or not, are family, and you need to start acting like it. Family is a really important thing, you guys. It's about love and acceptance and friendship. Family shouldn't be about fighting and screaming and hitting. All right? You two have the whole rest of the week to be a real family, and then you won't see each other for a long time. So you need to start to get along, okay? Find a common ground."

Shelby had her arms crossed over her chest, impressed at her lover, but also sad for her. She knew that that speech had come from somewhere-it didn't just pop out of thin air. That speech meant something serious to Cassandra.

"Now, Rachel, your mom and I are going to talk to you alone, okay? Ashleigh can you go find something to do for a little bit?" Ashleigh nodded her head and walked out the door. Shelby kissed the top of her head on the way out.

They sat Rachel on the bed and sat on either side of her as they talked.

"Rachel," Cass started. "I'm sorry it seems like we're picking sides,"

"And we're sorry it seems like it's always Ashleigh's side," Shelby added.

"But we're just trying to get the two of you to get along. We know one of the biggest reasons that you two are arguing is because you don't have our complete attention like you're used to, and we're sorry about that. But not everything can always be about you, okay?"

Rachel sniffed again. "Okay."

"We understand the two of you don't have a lot in common, but it's only been 2 days," Shelby added. "So go find something you can have fun talking about or doing okay? No more hating each other."

"Okay."

Shelby kissed Rachel's cheek and Cass kissed the other. "We love you, Rachel."

"I love you, too." and she ran off to go find Ashleigh. Cass leaned back on Rachel's bed and let out a groan once she had left. Shelby fell back next to her.

"You did a pretty good job with that, for not being a kid person," Shelby nudged her side.

"Family shouldn't fight," Cassandra said, sitting up and holding Shelby's hand before kissing it and leaving the room.

Shelby watched her leave, aware of why she was saying that, and feeling sorry that Cassandra's childhood had been so rough-particularly when it came to family.

. . .

Finally, on day 4, it had gotten to the point where Cass was unpacking things in the bedroom. Clothes, perfumes, shoes, etc.

Shelby sat on their bed and watched as Cass hung up some of her clothes. She would have been helping her, if Cass hadn't told her not to. "Just like you, I have to put my things away my way," she had explained. Shelby had just thrown her hands up in that official "I'm innocent" gesture and let Cassie do whatever it was Cassie was doing.

The little girls had come up with some sort of peace treaty, and hadn't fought since the day of the talk and the Ariel doll. Ashleigh had even been learning the instrumental part to Funny Girl on her violin so Rachel could sing it while she played. They discovered that they both liked art-just simply drawing and making crafts and things-and they both really liked to read, so they bonded over that.

Right now they were in Rachel's room, coloring in Rachel's princess coloring books and listening to music. Peacefully. Thank god.

Cass pulled a black, lacy slip out of a box and Shelby's eyes lit up. "Mmm, why have I never seen you in this?" Shelby demanded, sitting up on her knees and crawling over towards Cassandra. Cass laughed.

"Um, because it's a slip. You wear it UNDER things."

"You wear bras and panties under things, but I've seen all of those," Shelby pointed out.

"Not all," Cass raised her eyebrow and instantly made Shelby suspicious.

"Hmm, well maybe you'll have to do a sort of fashion show for me later?" her tone was much more hopeful than it was suggestive. Suggestiveness was Cassie's area of expertise.

"Mmm. Perhaps." was the only response Shelby got. Shelby dry swallowed and Cassandra laughed at her obvious disappointment. "How about not when we have 2 tiny children who could possibly be scarred for life running around the house, okay?"

Shelby pouted slightly, but knew Cassandra was right. "Okay," she rolled her eyes and Cass kissed her forehead and whispered, "Or I can wear it to bed tonight,"

Shelby nodded.

. . .

"So your favorite princess is Ariel?" Ashleigh was coloring a picture of Belle and Rachel was coloring a second picture of the little mermaid.

"Mmhmm," Rachel nodded, putting down the red crayon and picking up the purple one. "She's a dreamer."

"So is Cinderella, and Belle, and Jasmine-"

"Yeah, but Ariel's different from the others," Rachel said in a "duh" sort of way. "She's a mermaid. She's special. Why, who's your favorite?"

"I like them all," Ashleigh responded. "No favorites."

"Hmm," Rachel looked at her cousin suspiciously for a second. "Well...okay."

"You're not bad, Rachel," Ashleigh said with a smile.

Rachel smiled back. "You either." she answered.

Maybe having her cousin around wasn't such a bad thing after all. She loved Santana and Kurt but she knew almost everything about them. It was nice to get to know someone new.

. . .

That night after dinner, Ashleigh and Rachel decided they wanted to watch Cinderella. Shelby and Cassie were cleaning up in the kitchen, and, once the dishes were finished and a song was playing on the movie, Cass extended her hand to Shelby. "Can I have this dance?" she asked.

Shelby smiled softly and took Cassie's hand as Cassie led her in a sort of waltz and the song played,

"A dream is a wish your heart makes, when you're fast asleep..."

They waltzed around the kitchen before making their way out to the living room. Rachel and Ashleigh giggled at them before they got up and started dancing around, too.

Now this, Cassie thought to herself with a huge smile and a warming of her heart. This is what a family should look like.

. . .

By day six, all of Cassandra's things were officially unpacked. Shelby and Cassie were quite surprised by the cute little friendship that had formed between young little cousins, and they were also surprised by how brave Ashleigh was about not seeing her mommy or daddy.

There were one or two nights when she got upset that they didn't get to tell her goodnight, but Shelby and Cassie kissed her and hugged her and told her goodnight and she slept in Rachel's bed with Rachel so she wouldn't feel so alone.

They decided to take the girls to the park for the day, and while they were there, they watched as the two young girls played princesses for a solid hour and a half.

They were the only people at the park, so the girls were happy to have free range and open imagination.

"I'm Princess Snow White," Ashleigh said, "Fairest of them all and I will find my Prince Charming,"

"And I'm Princess Ariel," Rachel said. "Ruler of the sea and I will find my Prince Eric," she thought about it and added, "Or Princess Erica."

Cass laughed into Shelby shoulder and Shelby grinned from ear to ear. This moment was so priceless-so special. They watched the two little girls run around together. Occasionally hearing what they were saying.

"Quick! We have to get my kingdom's trident before the Evil Queen and Ursula come together to try to kill us!" Rachel yelled.

"Why, oh why, did I have to be fairest of them all?" Ashleigh shivered in place.

"And why did Ursula have to be so jealous of my beautiful singing voice?" Rachel exclaimed.

Shelby shook her head and smiled and Cass laughed, her heart content.

. . .

"Ashleigh, your mom's here," Shelby called out to her niece.

"Mommy!" Ashleigh ran out of Rachel's room and into her mother's arms. "I missed you!" she exclaimed.

"I missed you too, pumpkin," Caitlyn hugged her daughter tightly, peppering her cheeks with kisses. "Were you good for your Aunts?"

Shelby nodded. "She was great, once she and Rachel started to get to know each other."

Caitlyn eyed Shelby. "She didn't give you any trouble?" she worried.

Cassandra shook her head. "She was a perfect little princess," Cass assured her. "There was one day we weren't sure she and Rachel would ever become friends but that quickly changed. And she's a very talented violinist."

"Thank you," Caitlyn smiled. "She practices all the time. I'm glad she was good for you." she set Ashleigh down and Ashleigh ran to Rachel's room to get her things. "I wish I could stay and talk to you, Shelby, but we have too much to do today,"

"I understand," Shelby said with a soft smile. "I know how busy you are."

"But I promise someday soon we'll all go out for lunch or something. Does that sound okay?"

Shelby nodded. "Sure, whatever works."

Cass raised an eyebrow. She had never seen Shelby so easy going, let alone letting someone else call the shots. Besides maybe her parents.

"Great," Caitlyn hugged Shelby tightly. "Thank you for watching her for the week. It meant the world to me, and from what I can see, she and Rachel became pretty good friends."

Shelby nodded as Ashleigh and Rachel walked towards them and then buried each other in a tight hug.

"If anything, you'll have to come over so they can play for a little while," Shelby suggested. Caitlyn nodded.

"Definitely. Well we'd better go, pumpkin, daddy's waiting in the cab."

"Okay," Ashleigh said, happy to go home and see her parents but sad that she had to leave Rachel and Cassandra and Shelby. She hadn't had so much fun in a long time, and with them it actually felt like a family. Her parents, though she loved them, were always busy. She was actually jealous of Rachel-her mommies always made time for her. "Bye Rachel," she hugged Rachel tightly once more. "I'll miss you!"

"Ashleigh has an email address," Caitlyn said. "Does Rachel? Maybe they can write to each other."

Cass and Shelby looked at each other. "I think maybe that could be arranged," Shelby said slowly. "We'll talk about it,"

Caitlyn gave them Ashleigh's address and Ashleigh jumped up into Shelby's arms. "Bye, Aunt Shelby," she hugged her tightly. "Thank you."

"Of course, Ashleigh. I love you."

"Love you too." then she jumped up into Cassie's arms and the same words were exchanged. Cass hugged the little girl tightly. Maybe she could be a kid kind of person.

Once they left, Rachel retreated back to her room and Shelby and Cassandra sat on the couch, cuddled up against each other. She knew she was about to tread on thin ice, but Cassandra couldn't help but whisper, "That didn't look like family to me."

Shelby's wall went up, even though it was only Cassie. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Please don't do this," Cass intertwined her fingers in Shelby's and wrapped her legs around her as well. "You can talk to me, Shelby, you know that."

"There's nothing to talk about," Shelby replied lamely. "Caitlyn's always busy, we never talk."

"You're just her baby sitter, not her sister. You never talk-that's not family."

"I don't know what you want me to do about it, Cass." Shelby said softly.

"Nothing, sweetheart," Cass kissed her cheek softly. "There's nothing you can do. All I'm saying is, her little daughter shouldn't have to be sad about going home, because her parents are too busy for her."

"I know." Shelby's voice nearly broke and Cass held her tighter as she whispered,

"That was you, wasn't it?"

A single tear slipped down Shelby's cheek and Cass kissed it away. "Yes." she responded.

"Oh, Shelby," Cass held her lover so tenderly, so warmly. "You have a family now, okay?"

"Okay," she whispered.

"We'll never be too busy for you."

"Okay,"

"We love you so much."

"I love you too."

And thankfully, Cassandra was telling the truth. Shelby was never neglected by her. Cass would always have time for her.

Something her blood family never did.

But what Shelby and Cassandra both came to realize was that sometimes family didn't mean blood related. Sometimes, family just meant love.

And Rachel learned that sometimes sharing the spotlight could actually be fun.