"We aren't trying to be difficult," Quinn said.
"We barely understand it ourselves," Santana added.
"Then tell us the rough draft version," Tori said. "And we'll go from there."
"Why do you care so much?"
"Because it affects my sister, and when it affects her, it affects LJ and I as well as our father. Considering you were two of the main people who used to cause her to call us crying every weekend, it matters. I'm not going to let you get near her if you're only going to hurt her."
"Plus, how do we know you're not trying to get close to her again so you can embarrass her later on down the line?" LJ asked.
Santana put her hands on her hips and lifted her head to the ceiling. Quinn slid her arms around Santana's waist and kissed her cheek.
"You know they're right," she whispered.
"I know. It's just I was hoping to have this conversation after we could have it by ourselves."
"I tried talking to you about it, and you ran off, remember?" Quinn said.
"You ambushed me while I was in the shower."
"We don't care about the specifics," LJ interrupted. "All we want is the truth."
"Fine. I have feelings for Rachel," Santana said. "I have since freshman year."
"And I have feelings for Rachel," Quinn said. "I have since sophomore year."
"We knew this already," Tori said.
"They didn't," Santana said, pointing at Emma and Sue.
"Actually, we did," Sue said.
Emma nodded in agreement.
"You did?" Quinn exclaimed. "How?"
"I'm paid to notice things like that. Santana's behavior towards Rachel was similar to that of a bully in primary school. Pulling pigtails and name-calling because she was incapable of understanding her feelings. Quinn, during sophomore year, was the same way. It became clear that they both had feelings for her and each other," Emma said.
"It's also obvious because for the entire day, after the misstep from the morning, you two have been latched onto her the entire day. You never let her out of your sight. You stood up for her, protected her, and made her feel safe even after the bullshit you guys pulled on her before she left. And you're here, at her house, at nine o'clock at night after you had an argument about her," LJ said.
"But-
"Accept the fact that people picked up on it," Sue said. "I recognized it long before Rachel left that your obsession with her went deeper than hate. The way you two watched her was borderline creepy, and a little more than someone in my position should have witnessed. I overheard you complaining about her clothes and the way she dressed and the short skirts. I was about to hit you both over the head with a dose of reality, but Rachel left, and you two started hanging out more."
Santana and Quinn were both shocked and completely caught off guard, but the knife twisted in deeper when Leroy, who had been hiding on the stairs, made himself known.
"I think you two need to go upstairs," he said. "And I think the rest of us should go and finish this nice dinner I made."
"They still haven't told us why there were arguing about her," Tori said.
"That is none of our business."
"Isn't it though?"
Leroy ignored Tori and looked at Santana and Quinn. He folded his arms and leaned against the wall. "One, I left the door open so she wouldn't feel closed in. She heard everything. Two, she is waiting for you, and she isn't the type to wait long," he said.
Quinn turned white, and Santana's hunched over on her knees. Quinn absentmindedly rubbed her back while Leroy laughed.
"Payback is a bitch, isn't it girls?" he teased.
"Y-wait, you were joking?" Quinn screeched.
"Oh, no, she really did hear every word, but I'm sure I'll get a strongly worded text message for my delivery," he said matter-of-factly.
There were simultaneous groans, and Leroy turned to face the others.
"Come on, let's go finish this dinner while those two find the strength to climb the stairs."
"Fine," Tori said. "I'm not happy about this."
"You'll get over it," Leroy deadpanned.
"We're going to leave them alone with her?" LJ fake whispered. "What if they do something inappropriate?"
"Rachel isn't ready for that, and neither are they. They have much to discuss, or they will once they GO UPSTAIRS!"
Leroy's shout roused them out of their stupor and Santana protested loudly as Quinn dragged her up the stairs.
Once they were gone, Leroy grinned in triumph. He got an elbow to the stomach by Sue and Emma had the 'momma is mad at you' look on her face that he was quite accustomed too.
"She didn't hear a word they said, did she?" Emma huffed.
"No, the door was closed, but I did. Funny how I forgot to mention that Rachel is in love with them too and is freaking out upstairs because she thinks they think she's a psychopath."
"She is," LJ muttered under his breath.
"You know this could blow up in your face, right?" Sue asked, ignoring LJ.
"I know, but it could also go right, and Rachel will finally have that last piece of her life fall into place."
"What do you mean?"
Leroy jerked his head towards the kitchen. The group sat down at the table and he sighed before he confessed, "The night before we took Rachel to the airport, Hiram was at work, and she broke down while sitting in her bedroom. I had no idea what to do. I'd seen her cry, sure, but she seemed utterly broken. I remember her crying about how her life was falling apart, how she hated school and how the girls she had a crush on treated her like shit."
"You didn't have a problem with her liking two girls at once?" Emma asked.
"I've always been an advocate for people loving who they want, and loving how they want. There are limits, of course, but polyamory is one of those things I can't find a fault with, as long as she's safe and happy. But that night, she also confessed she was tired of being Rachel Berry. She wanted to run away and never come back. Naturally, that's when I jumped into action and I held her the entire time until she fell asleep."
"It sounds like our resident, former Diva was crushing hard on our resident bitches and vice versa," Sue said.
"And now you've sent the bitches up there with the Diva to try and work out whatever it is brewing between them in hopes that it would help Rachel when it could easily go wrong and we can ruin the relationship before it even begins?" Tori asked.
Leroy blinked at his eldest and said, "When you put it like that-
"Ignore the pessimist," LJ grunted. "She's the last person you ask for advice on things like that. She stabbed her last boyfriend with a fork."
"Consent, LJ. Consent," Tori said. "He didn't ask to hug me."
"Honestly, it's not a surprise you're still single."
"Says the guy who slut-shamed his boyfriend after he sent dick pics to your ex-best friend."
"He was cheating on me," LJ said defensively.
"And how does that make what you did okay?"
"Children," Leroy said dryly.
"He started it."
"She started it."
"Enough," Leroy sighed.
"It's amazing," Sue mused.
"What is?" Leroy, LJ, and Tori asked at once.
"How different you two are from Rachel."
Leroy snorted and took a sip of his wine. "As Hiram loves to remind me, Hiram comes from a different cloth. These two idiots come from something else, and they act like it."
"Ouch, Dad," Tori said. "LJ is your son; you shouldn't insult him so openly in front of his face. You should do it behind his back like Mom does."
"I'm not the one who gives her headaches every time she opens her mouth!"
"No, but you give everyone else headaches every time you open your mouth."
Leroy gestured at the two while keeping eye contact with Sue and Emma, "See? They're loud, rude, and quite possibly the most terrifyingly brilliant children I know. Rachel is smart as well, but she's quiet and she's witty. These two are like blunt force, Rachel's like a paper cut to the carotid artery. She scares me more than these two."
"I take it Hiram had something to do with that? Because you're more like blunt force rather than a paper cut," Emma said.
"You can say that. Hiram was the cause, not the source. Like when she lived in Seattle, she sent letter and emails. With me, she was more open and we started to connect on a deeper level. With Hiram, I noticed her letters were short and to the point."
"Just like their relationship," LJ snorted.
"More like he and Dad's," Tori said.
"Tori," Leroy warned.
"Sorry," she sighed.
"My point is," Leroy continued, "that Rachel might not act like these two, but she is like them more than she shows. It adds credence to the argument of nature versus nurture. Her nature is stuffy, conservative, and vengeful while nurture clearly points to her being free, open, and in tune with who she is as a person."
"I've never heard you talk about her like this before," Emma said softly.
"Once you lose something, you never appreciate it until it's not there anymore. Even if it was only temporary," he sighed, playing with the rim of his glass. "Rachel's absence brought a lot of things to light that I wasn't prepared to accept, and now that she's back, she's inadvertently helping me find my way in life."
"You're fifty, shouldn't you already be there?" Tori asked.
Leroy blinked and flicked his daughter on the ear. "I am not fifty, and it's never too late to start over," he said.
"It is when you're dead," LJ quipped.
"Or worse, living in Lima, Ohio at the ripe age of forty-three with only your children and a couple of lesbians to keep you company," Tori said.
"Are you certified?" Sue asked.
"You're the second person to ask her that today," LJ said.
"Was it Santana?"
"Yeah, how'd you know?"
Sue snickered. "Because Santana is certified, and she recognizes people like her," she said.
"I still don't know what that means."
"For fuck's sake, LJ. Santana and I are both insane," Tori said.
"Oh. Duh."
"Now it's duh? You're such a fucking idiot."
Leroy rolled his eyes as his children started arguing. Part of him was worried about what was happening upstairs, but he trusted his daughter, and in some weird way, trusted Quinn and Santana. Their arguments about telling Rachel early struck a chord with him. They were worried about her and concerned about her feelings. That little bit of information was enough for him to hope that they worked things out.
Quinn and Santana stood outside of Rachel's closed door, simultaneously annoyed Leroy played a joke on them and also nervous because they were kind of prepared to tell Rachel the truth. Her behavior throughout the day, the flirting and the teasing meant that she was either into the idea of being with them or playing a game. Both options made their stomachs flip for different reasons. Santana looked at Quinn, and the blonde kissed Santana on the cheek before she smiled.
"It'll be okay," she whispered.
"What if she doesn't want us?" Santana whispered back.
"Then we will love her from a distance. We can't force it."
Santana sighed and nodded, grabbing the doorknob and pushing the door open.
Rachel had stripped out of her shirt and pants, walking around in a tank top and some underwear. She couldn't remember where she'd put her pajamas from the night before and was bent over at the waist while she dug through her still unpacked suitcases when her door opened.
"Hey, Dad, do you have some shorts I can borrow? I can't find my pajamas and..."
Rachel trailed off as she turned around. Her face drained of color, seeing who was standing in her room. Santana pocketed her phone while Quinn was covering her smile with her hand. A weird squeal-squeak combination left her throat and Rachel scrambled to wrap her cover around the bottom half of her body.
"Never took you for a Slytherin. A Ravenclaw, but not a Slytherin," Santana said.
"Says the Hufflepuff," Quinn said.
"You promised you wouldn't mention that to anyone," Santana whined.
"I- you- what are you doing in here?" Rachel hissed.
"Your Dad told us you were waiting for us up here, but we've recently discovered he was playing a really, really good joke on us," Quinn said.
"I can't lie. I kind of love this joke. What about you, Quinn?"
"Oh, I definitely love this joke."
"Why. Are. You. In. My. Room?" Rachel gritted out. "And delete that picture, Santana."
"What picture?"
"The one you took of me!"
"What makes you think I took a picture of you?"
"I saw you with your phone!"
"Oooh, no, that was a video. For, ya know, reasons."
"That better not end up online somewhere, or I swear to-
"Chill out, Rachel," Santana interrupted. "I'm kidding. I didn't take a picture or a video. I was letting my Dad know I wasn't home."
Rachel nodded shortly, still not quite believing her, and Santana pulled her phone out of her pocket. She unlocked it, crossed the room, and handed it to Rachel.
"Go on, look. I have no folders, no hidden albums, and all you see is all there is. Though I would be careful scrolling too far back. I have some pictures of-
"Whoa," Rachel whispered.
Santana snatched her phone back, continuing as she said, "Of Quinn that you probably didn't want to see."
"Please tell me you didn't save those pictures of me," Quinn said.
"Like you didn't save mine."
Quinn turned red but said nothing. Rachel watched them go back and forth and smiled a little, though her heart ached slightly. She ignored it and cleared her throat.
"Can you two, um, ya know, turn around?"
"Sure, but we don't want you putting on clothes for us. If you want to walk around like that, please do," Santana said as she and Quinn faced the wall.
"Why? So, you two can make fun of me?"
"No, so we can admire you."
Rachel slammed her knee into the bed frame at Santana's response and said, "You're kidding, right?"
Santana sighed and twisted around slightly as she said, "No. I'm not. That's why we came up here."
"To ogle me half-naked?"
"No, tell you why we've been acting so weird around you, and to tell you that we did play a part in the Glee club breaking up."
Rachel slid on a pair of jeans and stared at them. She chewed on her cheek before she sighed and said, "Fine."