Remember! These characters are NOT the ones you remember from the show.

RCV

"Have I missed an anniversary or something? What's with all the food?"

Leroy passed Rachel a carrot to chop and took a deep breath before he faced his husband. "Sue and Emma are coming over for dinner. I haven't seen them in a few weeks, and I thought this would be a great time to have a nice little get together," he said.

"You invited people over for dinner and didn't tell me?"

"I texted you and left you a voicemail," Leroy said. "It's not my fault that you don't check your phone."

"Don't try and twist this on me. You should consult with me before things like this. How can we have a family dinner if I go into work tonight?" Hiram asked.

Leroy blinked and turned back around to face the stove. "I thought you said you were off for the next few days," he said.

"Well, there was an emergency at the office. I offered my services."

"Right because there aren't ten other lawyers who work in that one office on that one floor of that law firm," Leroy muttered.

"What was that?"

"Nothing." Leroy turned down the heat and sighed. He twisted so that he was half-facing Hiram and half-stirring the pot. "Look, you have to go to work, then go, but I'm not canceling. They're my friends-

"And I am your husband!" Hiram hissed.

There was a sharp silence that followed.

"I know you are," Leroy said softly. "But I will not cancel on them."

Hiram turned an even uglier shade of red and slammed his palm on the table. "I'm staying at the office tonight," he spat. "Maybe when I return, you'll have a better understanding of how things work around here."

"Maybe."

Hiram left the kitchen. The tension in the room became so suffocating that when Rachel's phone went off, it was like a blaring alarm that shocked people into action. LJ moved to the wine cabinet to grab the wine his father asked for, and Tori continued to set the table. Rachel pulled her phone from her pocket, ignoring the tears bristling at the corner of her father's eyes as he went back to preparing the sauce. The door slammed just as she answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Uh, hey. It's, uh, me?"

"Me, who?" Rachel asked, knowing full and well who was on the other end.

There was a huff, a shuffle, and a muffled curse before the person said, "Seriously? You know who this is."

"I know. What's up, Quinn?"

"Look, Santana and I got into a bit of an argument, and she stormed out of here about twenty minutes ago. Normally, I give her ten, and she comes back, but she hasn't, and I was wondering if you heard from her? I'm driving around now, but I'm hoping she texted you or something."

"No, I haven't. What was the argument about?" Rachel asked without thinking.

"Oh. Um. Well, that's a bit complicated. I don't-

"Shit, sorry, Quinn," Rachel interrupted. "That was too personal for me to ask. It's none of my business."

"No! No, it's not that. It's just we were arguing about, um, well, you, and it got out of hand."

"Me?" she said. "Why were you arguing about me?"

There was a pause.

"Never mind. I found her. Thanks, Rachel. Bye!"

Quinn hung up so fast that it took a moment for Rachel to recognize the silence on the other end wasn't because Quinn had simply stopped talking. She put the phone back in her pocket and stared off into space for a moment, the tattoos on her hips burning just like when she first got them. A hand landed on her shoulder, and she jumped, spinning to face her sister.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Oh, yeah. I'm fine. Santana stormed out of the-," Rachel paused and frowned, "well, I'm not sure where they were, but Quinn found her. So, I guess everything is okay."

"Why is Quinn Fabray calling you?" Leroy asked. "I thought you two weren't friends."

"Um. We kind of have all of our classes together. We worked it out," Rachel said hesitantly.

"Worked it out how?"

Rachel ignored the probing eyes boring into the side of her skull and cleared her throat. "So, what time did Sue and Emma say there were coming over?" she asked.

No sooner than she'd asked, the doorbell rang, and Rachel slumped against the counter in relief. Leroy gave her one last searching look before he ran off to open the door.

"What didn't you say when he was in the room?" LJ asked.

Rachel grimaced. "She wanted to ask if I had spoken to Santana. Apparently, they'd had an argument," she murmured.

"Over what?"

"I don't know," she lied.

LJ scoffed and said, "Then why did you ask if they were having an argument about you?"

"Well, if you knew then why did you-

"I just wanted to see if you would have the balls to stand there and lie to me to my face."

Rachel rolled her eyes and started busying herself with wiping down the counter. "I don't see why it matters. She didn't tell me why they were arguing over me."

"But, you-

"LJ, stop," Tori interrupted. "This one you're not going to win. It's not our business."

"How is it not our business?" LJ exclaimed. "Don't you think we have a right to make sure-

"Not. Another. Word," Tori said to her brother. "Drop it."

LJ huffed and folded his arms, mumbling under his breath. Rachel shot Tori a thankful smile before she wiped her hands on a towel. There was laughter filtering in from the main room, and Rachel plastered the best smile she could as her father, Sue, and Emma walked into the kitchen.

At least, she thought that was Emma.

"Didn't you have red hair?" Tori drawled. "Like three hours ago?"

Emma laughed. "Oh, yes. After school, my girlfriend convinced me to change things up a bit. So, instead of strawberry red, I decided to go with a honey blonde. Does it look okay?" she asked.

Rachel filed away the girlfriend comment to bring up later, but her sister beat her to comment about the hair.

"Makes you look less cabbage patch, so, a definite upgrade in my book," Tori said, shrugging.

Rachel elbowed her sister and said, "Behave."

"It's fine. I'm not offended."

"That's not why I was telling her to behave," Rachel said wryly. "I was trying to save her from being grounded."

Emma smiled at the disgruntled huff that left Tori's lips when Leroy voiced his agreement. The group stood in the middle of the kitchen for a few more minutes, laughing and making introductions, but when the timer went off on the stove, Leroy clapped his hands and gestured towards the table.

"Please, take a seat wherever you like while I get the roast from the oven," he said, bowing at the waist.

"He only acts like this around his company. Normally, I have to fend for myself," Rachel teased.

"You're being dramatic again, dear," he sing-songed.

"Turning into the old Rachel Berry from the before time," LJ quipped.

"Speaking of the old Rachel Berry," Sue began, "how was your first day back as the 'new' Rachel Berry?" she asked.

"It went about as well as you said it would. Once the rumors started to fly, people noticed me and made comments here and there. It was like freshman year all over again. Least I didn't get a slushy."

"Yeah, it was fine and dandy until the fucking serenade she got after school," LJ grumbled.

He received a smack to the back of his head for the profanity and muttered a quick apology to his father before Rachel leaned forward on the table.

"Yeah, that was-

"Horrible."

"Tragic."

"Waste of time."

"Atrocious."

Rachel cleared her throat loudly to stop the volleying between her siblings and said, "It was embarrassing and annoying. I told them that I wasn't interested in coming back. I loved Glee once upon a time, and I loved the people in it, but things come to an end and that, unfortunately, was one of the things that I put an end to. Plus, it seems like there's some in-fighting going on anyway, and I don't want to be a part of that."

Sue and Emma shared a look over the roast that Leroy placed on the table. Everyone caught it, but Tori was the only one indifferent enough to call them out on it.

"What do you know about what happened while Rae was in Seattle?"

Sue sighed and scooped some vegetables onto her plate while Emma gratefully took a spoonful of potatoes and splatted them on the plate in front of her.

"Things happened with all of them, so who do you want to know about first?" Sue eventually answered.

"Blaine and Kurt. I noticed they weren't all over each other throughout the day. In fact, it looked as if Blaine was purposely going out of his way to avoid Kurt. When they were singing, Blaine stood as far away from Kurt as possible. Normally, they're attached at the hip and lips," Rachel said, taking a bite out of her roast.

Sue inclined her head to Emma, who swallowed her food and said, "That is a very interesting story. You see, Kurt's changed over the last few months. I don't know what happened or who he got involved with, but he's pretty much turned into this petty, entitled prick. His relationship with Blaine, well," Emma paused and shifted in her seat, "Blaine came to school one day with a black eye and refused to answer questions about it. I filed it away mentally and waited to see if I needed to contact anyone. Well, that wasn't necessary as Blaine came to me about three days later and told me Kurt hit him after they broke up. It was only once, and Kurt immediately apologized afterward, but Blaine said it was enough for him to know he made the right decision."

"Wow," Rachel said. "I would have never pegged Kurt for an abuser."

"Neither did I. I tried talking to him, but he never came to the office. I keep my eye on him though, but nothing more than that."

"Right," LJ said. "Well, that explains those two. What about the blonde one?"

"Which one?" Sue, Emma, and Rachel asked at once.

"Not Quinn," he said.

"Oh boy. That would be Brittany," Sue said, rubbing her temples. "I still don't know all the details to that one."

"I don't either," Emma admitted. "I only saw the aftermath."

"Okay, well, tell us what you do know," Rachel sighed.

"It was the week into the school year, and Brittany and Santana were still a couple…"