A/N – Sorry about the delay in getting this one out. I had it written and saved on a server that crashed and I had to wait for it to be fixed to get to it. But here it is. Thank you all so much for all of the reviews and for continuing to read. I appreciate it so much. You guys are awesome.

Disclaimer – I don't own Glee.

Rachel put the finishing touches on her outfit before she stepped out of her bedroom Friday morning. She'd already been up for an hour so she could go through her elliptical routine and shower and now it was time to go and get some breakfast. She heard that people were up downstairs and she knew that both her dads were probably waiting on her to have breakfast. Was her mother down there too? Rachel looked at the closed door of the guest bedroom and thought maybe she should have a look just to be sure. She didn't want her mother to miss breakfast, after all.

Shelby didn't even stir when her bedroom door was opened ever so slightly. Rachel peeked in and sighed when she saw that the woman was still asleep. Maybe she just didn't know what time breakfast was. She opened the door a little wider hovered in the entryway.

"Mom," Rachel whispered. "Hey, Mom."

Shelby didn't move.

"Mom," Rachel was a little louder this time.

"Rachel!" Hiram said as he walked up behind her.

"Ahhh!" Rachel screamed as she spun around and put her hand to her heart.

Shelby jumped at the sound of Rachel's yell and sat up in bed and looked around wildly as she tried to figure out what was happening.

"You scared me!" Rachel said.

"What are you doing?" Hiram said. "Let your mom sleep."

"She'll miss breakfast," Rachel argued. Neither of them noticed that Shelby was sitting up and looking at them.

"She didn't go to sleep until late," Hiram said. "Now come downstairs; your dad and I need to talk to you."

"Guys," Shelby got their attention as she rubbed her face in an effort to wake up.

"Mom," Rachel said brightly when she turned back around to look at Shelby. "Good morning."

"Morning," Shelby mumbled.

"Come on, Rachel. Downstairs," Hiram instructed. He gave the woman a sheepish smile as he leaned in to shut the door. "Go back to sleep, Shelby. We'll talk to her."

"No," Shelby said. "I'll be right down."

"Ok," Hiram said. "I'll get a plate ready for you." He left the room as she was nodding at him.

Shelby groaned as she looked over at the clock and saw that it was just before seven in the morning. It was so early. Being on Broadway helped facilitate her night owl preference. But LeRoy and Hiram had been up just as late as she was and they were both up and dressed and ready for the day, though of course they were used to getting up every morning with their child and Shelby certainly was not. She had showed them the press release that Meredith emailed her last night to get their approval and they said they would talk to Rachel about it this morning. Meredith wasn't going to release it until eleven that morning. They did that so that Rachel would already be in school. They knew that wouldn't stop the news from spreading to phones and Facebook, but maybe the school would give her some sort of shelter. They also planned on going into the school early and talking with Principal Figgins and a school board representative to warn them in case the press decided they wanted to show up. Shelby felt guilty about still being in bed and leaving all of that to Rachel's dads so she quickly got up and pulled on some sweats and disappeared into the guest bathroom.

Rachel was busy eating her oatmeal when Shelby arrived in the kitchen a few minutes later. She had taken the time to wash her face and brush her teeth and her hair was thrown up in a sloppy pony tail. She smiled at the sight because Rachel hadn't ever really seen Shelby as anything but put together. By the time she woke up when she was staying at her mom's place in New York City, Shelby was already up and dressed. She guessed she just never really pictured Shelby in sweats with no make-up and messy hair.

"Good morning," Shelby yawned took a coffee cup from LeRoy and reached for the pot.

"Morning," LeRoy said.

"Mom, what are we doing this afternoon?" Rachel asked. "You're coming to see me in glee again, right? You told everyone you would sing. Kurt will be so upset if he doesn't get to see you sing."

"I'll be there," Shelby said. She put a gentle hand on Rachel's head as she sat down next to her at the table. "What should I sing?"

"Maybe something from your show," Rachel said. "Kurt would love that. Or maybe you could do something really classic like something from Barbra. Or you could go for something modern and upbeat. I can help you look for stuff."

"We'll let Shelby figure that out," Hiram said as he joined them at the table. "You don't have time this morning to go and search for songs."

"I've got like twenty minutes before I'm supposed to leave," Rachel said.

"I know," Hiram told her. "And we want to talk to you before you leave."

"Oh," Rachel said as she glanced back and forth between her parents. She started to get a little nervous, but her mind didn't wander to what happened yesterday; she was more concerned that maybe Shelby was here for a different reason. Maybe they had decided that this whole thing wasn't going to work out as well as they thought. But she tried to keep her features neutral. "What is it?"

"Sweetheart," LeRoy started, "a lot of your peers in school took an interest in Shelby when she came to see you yesterday."

"I know," Rachel said. "There was a big crowd around when she told announced to Mr. Schue that she was my mother…" She trailed off and then thought for a second. "You're telling the news, aren't you?"

"Yes," Shelby said. "It's already kind of out there. People were taking pictures and videos with their phones."

"Did they put them up anywhere?" Rachel asked.

"Yeah, they have," Shelby answered. "I talked to my publicist Meredith last night and she said she was already starting to get questions."

"But I was covered in slushie!" Rachel said. She looked so despondent that the first look the world ever got of her was right after she'd been bullied.

"I know," Hiram said. They all gave her sympathetic looks. "I'm sorry, sweetheart."

"Meredith sent me a copy of the statement she is going to put out later," Shelby said, "and you can read it if you want. We're also going to include a picture of you so that the slushie image isn't the only one people see."

"What picture?" Rachel asked.

"We were going to use your school picture from earlier this year, but you can pick out another one if you want," LeRoy said.

"That one's fine," Rachel sighed. "What happens after the statement is released?"

"I'll eventually give some interviews," Shelby said. "Once I'm back in New York. A couple of magazines might want to do a story or some news programs. They'll want to meet all of you."

"I'm going to be in a magazine?" Rachel asked. Her eyes were shining at the thought of it. "Which one?" Hiram chuckled and LeRoy rolled his eyes.

"I'm not sure about any of that yet," Shelby said. "We'll take it one step at a time and see how it goes. You just need to go to school today and don't let anyone bother you."

"And don't talk to any reporters," Hiram added. "In case any of them show up at the school. We'll be in this morning to talk to Figgins and then Shelby will be there to sit in on glee this afternoon."

"Ok," Rachel said.

"Do you have any other questions?" Shelby asked.

Rachel was quiet for a second as she thought it over and then asked, "If we're in a magazine do I get to pick out what I wear? Will they give us clothes to wear?"

Shelby looked stunned, but she could tell that Rachel was serious and considered this to be important information. Hiram started to laugh and soon a smile played on Shelby's lips as well.

"Ok, Rach, time for school," LeRoy said. He took her arm and stood her up from the table.

"But I need to know," Rachel said. "I'm going to need to go shopping."

"We're leaving in five minutes," LeRoy said as Hiram and Shelby's amusement grew. "Go brush your teeth." He ushered her towards the stairs and then returned to the table and sat with the other two adults.

Hiram pointed at LeRoy and LeRoy pointed at Hiram. "That is your daughter." They seemed to think for a second and then turned to look at Shelby and pointed at her accusingly.

"No, that is your daughter," LeRoy said. Shelby smiled widely.

Rachel appeared after a couple minutes carrying three blouses and four skirts. "Which do you think is the best color combination to make the pictures really pop in a magazine?"

"Rachel," LeRoy warned and Shelby had to look away in an effort to hide her laughter.

"Daddy," Rachel whined. "This is important."

"You've got two minutes, young lady," Hiram said. "And all of those clothes better be hung back up properly.

"Fine," Rachel mumbled and she turned and trudged back up the stairs. She'd talk to Kurt about it; he'd be more helpful anyway.

Rachel and Kurt stood by the boy's locker after their second period class. She could tell that people were staring at her, but so far no one had approached her or wanted to talk.

"I can't believe you get to be in a magazine," Kurt said. "You have to let me know as soon as you find out which one because we have to plan your outfit. And you can't wear anything you own."

Rachel huffed and shot Kurt a glare. "What's wrong with my clothes?"

"We don't have time in between classes for me to explain that," Kurt told her.

Rachel rolled her eyes as she leaned against the lockers and waited for Kurt to be finished making sure his hair was right. A movement down the hall caught Rachel's attention and she stood up straighter so she could get a better look. Two men were pushing something on a hand truck.

"What is it?" Kurt asked.

"I think it's the slushie machine," Rachel said. She knew her parents had been here during first period and talked with Principal Figgins.

"I heard through the grapevine that Coach Tanaka wasn't very happy that Figgins suspended Karofsky and Azimio for throwing the slushies at you," Kurt said. "They can't any practices during the time they're suspended."

Rachel just shrugged. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't pleased by that turn of events. There wasn't anyone happier to see the slushie machine disappear than she was. It served those two jerks right.

"So when's the statement supposed to come out?" Kurt asked.

"Sometime later this morning," Rachel said. "Do you think it'll be weird?"

"I don't know," Kurt answered. "I think word has pretty much spread by now."

"But I heard some people talking about it and they thought it was still just a rumor," Rachel said. "The statement is going to confirm it."

"Yeah," Kurt said.

"Now that she's here and everyone is about to know, I wish we could have at least gotten our weekend together first," Rachel said. "I want to be able to go out and do things with her."

"But she would get recognized regardless," Kurt shrugged.

"That's true," Rachel conceded.

"Maybe we'll both get our pictures taken by the paparazzi," Kurt said with more than a hint of excitement. He hoped Shelby didn't forget about offering to go out to dinner with the two of them.

Rachel couldn't help but smile too as Kurt went back to looking in the mirror in his locker to make sure he was presentable. There was nothing he could do about Rachel's outfit right now, but he was going to make sure he looked fabulous.

Santana, Quinn, and Brittany sat together in the lunch room and all three of them were reading on their phones. It was official; Rachel Berry was Shelby Corcoran's daughter. How was that even fair? A quick look around the cafeteria and the girls could see that a lot of the other kids were glued to their phones as well. The only person missing was Rachel, but it had been a while since she ate in the cafeteria. Somehow or another she always ended up with food on her.

"We need to keep Rachel," Quinn blurted out suddenly.

"What?" Santana asked. "What does that even mean?"

"I don't think I can. My parents won't even let me have a plant," Brittany added.

"I would bet anything that people are all of a sudden going to want to be her friend because she's got a famous mother," Quinn explained. "But we're in glee club and so Rachel is ours. We need to befriend her or at least pretend like we care so we can stay in the loop. Don't you want to be one of the people that gets to hang out with Shelby Corcoran? We can't let any of these people use her like that. She's our teammate after all." She even said it with a straight face.

Santana let a tiny devilish grin play on her lips. "You're right. Come on, let's see if we can go and find her."

The trio of girls saw Rachel and Kurt coming out of the choir room where they had eaten lunch just as the bell to indicate the class change rang. Students started to pile into the halls and many of them noticed Rachel right away. The crowd started to linger and Rachel just glanced at Kurt to see if he had any ideas about what to do.

"Hey, Rachel," Quinn said when she and the others approached the girl.

"Hey," Rachel said. She looked between Quinn and Santana to try and see what the catch was.

"We wanted to come and make sure you got to your next class ok," Santana said.

"Why?" Rachel asked.

"Look at all these people," Quinn said. "They all want a piece of you now. And we're your teammates and we don't want to see you get hurt."

"You don't?" Rachel asked. Kurt was watching with a suspicious glare.

"Rachel, remember when you came to me and told me that I was going to need to have my friends around because of my situation?" Quinn asked. "I now understand how right you were. So I'm going to say the same thing to you. This is huge and you need to have your friends and teammates around. Isn't that right, Kurt?"

"Yeah," Kurt said. Was Quinn being nice-ish to them? Publically? The popular girls were fine in rehearsals and stuff when they let their guards down, but the ice exteriors always came back up, especially on Quinn. He still didn't think he trusted this though.

"Now come on," Santana said. "Let's get to class."

Quinn and Santana linked arms with Rachel and walked confidently down the hallway with her between them. Rachel glanced over her shoulder and made eye contact with Kurt. It was a silent 'you better be following me to make sure this isn't a trick' command and he quickly caught up.

They hadn't gotten very far when they were stopped by the ever annoying blogger Jacob Ben Israel. He seemed to jump out of nowhere and startled Rachel.

"Rachel, why didn't you ever tell anyone who your mother was?" Jacob started to rattle off questions. "Where is she now? Was the slushie yesterday a set up for the news? Where is she now?"

"Back off, loser!" Santana said forcefully when she saw Rachel duck her head to try and avoid him.

Quinn brushed him aside and the small band of glee club members continued down the hall.

"See," Quinn said. "You need us." She and Santana shared a look. They were in there.

Shelby, LeRoy, and Hiram were sitting at the table in the dining room after just finishing lunch. The men were telling her about some of Rachel's more memorable, and embarrassing, dance recitals as a little kid. They promised her they had videos of each and every one of them and she couldn't wait to see them. They all agreed, however, that it would be so much more fun to watch them with Rachel present.

The ringing of Shelby's phone interrupted their laughter and they all got silent as she looked at it to see who was calling. They had been inundated with phone calls ever since the statement from Shelby was released to the pressed a couple of hours ago. Shelby was the lucky one because her number was unlisted and all calls for a statement from her were going to Meredith. It hadn't taken long for the press to find Hiram and LeRoy's number though and their phones had been ringing off the hook. They thought about silencing them or turning them off, but decided not to in case Rachel tried to call. They hoped their girl was doing ok today. Maybe it had been a mistake to send her to school today.

Both Hiram and LeRoy had sent emails to their families that morning to let them know what was going on so that they were surprised by it if they saw it on the news. The replies and calls they received from family had been cautiously supportive, but questioning. LeRoy's mother hadn't spent much time on Shelby at all, but she demanded to know what Rachel had been covered in in that video she saw on YouTube. It had taken LeRoy over thirty minutes to explain all of that to his angry mother. How dare they throw drinks at her granddaughter? Hiram's parents wanted to meet Shelby. They were not so secretly fans of hers. But even they had been a bit skeptical of why this was all happening now. Wasn't Rachel supposed to be 18? With many apologies to Shelby, the men organized a family get together that Sunday afternoon. The grandparents were coming to town.

Shelby looked at her phone and saw that it was Brian calling her and she closed her eyes and scolded herself. Everything had happened so fast that she hadn't even thought to call her boyfr- friend, whatever he was, and tell him that she had a 15-year-old daughter.

"I need to take this," Shelby said.

"Go ahead," Hiram said. He and LeRoy started to gather up their lunch plates as Shelby slipped out the back door and onto the porch.

"Hello," Shelby answered. "Brian?"

"Shelby, what the hell is going on?" Brian demanded to know.

"Brian, calm down," Shelby said. "Let me explain it to you."

"Shelby, this is crazy," Brian said. "You have a daughter? How did you not know that you have a daughter?"

"Brian, I always knew I had a daughter," Shelby said. "Let me explain."

"But I don't-"

"Brian!" Shelby cut him off. "Will you be quiet for a second and let me explain?"

There was a silence. "Yeah," he said.

Shelby took him through the story from the beginning and she started to relax when she could tell that he was beginning to understand. "I didn't hide her from you, Brian," she told him. "No one was more shocked than I was when she showed up. But I have always wanted to be her mother and be in her life and I won't turn my back on her."

"Of course you wouldn't," Brian said. "I didn't mean to yell, I'm just surprised."

"I know. And I wish I had been able to tell you before everything came out, but I just reacted when I saw her being bullied in school and once the ball was rolling there was no stopping it," Shelby said.

"She looks like you," Brian said.

"Yeah," Shelby smiled.

"So where does that leave us?" Brian asked after pause.

"In the same place we've been in," Shelby said and they both sighed. They each wanted so much more and were too afraid to rock the boat. They'd been doing this dance for a long time, ever since they first met ten years ago. They'd get serious and something would go wrong and they'd break up only to drift back to each other and declare themselves just friends before it escalated again. Either Shelby wasn't ready or he couldn't commit yet. Brian would be deliriously happy at the same time she was trying to pull away and hide inside of herself. Shelby would be ready to throw caution to the wind and jump in feet first and he would be too afraid to take the next step. Back and forth, up and down, but never in the same place at the same time. It felt like they were getting there now, but this situation was an entire box of wrenches that neither of them saw coming.

"Ok," Brian said. "We're still doing dinner at my place Monday night when you get home, right?"

"Of course," Shelby said. "I love you Brian."

"I love you too, Shelby," he said sincerely. There was another pause. "I'm glad you found her."

"Thank you," Shelby's voice wavered.

"Don't cry, silly," Brian said and he smiled when he heard her laugh. "I'll see you soon."

Shelby went back into the house after the call ended and she sat back down at the table and leaned back in her chair.

"Everything ok?" LeRoy asked.

"Yeah," Shelby said. "That was my – Brian. I kind of sort of forgot to call and let him know before the news came out."

"Your Brian, huh?" Hiram said. "How well do we like Brian?" He joined them at the table and settled in the story.

Shelby rolled her eyes. "We love Brian."

"So why is he just your Brian?" LeRoy asked.

"It's complicated," Shelby said.

"Why?" Hiram asked.

"Because it is," Shelby answered.

"Like we have to tell Rachel, that's not an answer," LeRoy said.

"We've known each other for ten years," Shelby said. "We date and break up and are friends and date and so on."

"Is he another actor?" Hiram asked.

"No. He's an American History professor at NYU," Shelby smiled. "It always seems like no matter what happens, we can never let each other go. I need him to always be there in my life, even if we're just friends. Right now it's a little more than that, but that label of boyfriend gets stuck on my tongue. He's my Brian."

LeRoy and Hiram smiled at the faraway look in Shelby's eye and the way he mouth twitched upwards when she talked about Brian. Yep, her Brian seemed like the perfect description.

Shelby arrived at the school that afternoon to attend glee club practice as promised and found news crews out front. There looked to be teams from each of the local stations as well as a few photographers. She hoped she could find another entrance. She had seen the local news at noon and they were already at the school reporting from there. To their credit, it wasn't all about Shelby and Rachel, but they had asked Figgins and the head of the school board about the bullying.

Shelby found a place to park and made a quick call to Meredith.

"Hey, how's everything going?" Shelby asked.

"Fine," Meredith said. "Everyone wants an interview and everyone wants to see pictures of you and Rachel together. Three different magazines have called and asked to be able to do an exclusive story. You're going to have to make some decisions. But it can all wait until you get home. But I would advise that you say something else or give a quick interview before you start the show again on Tuesday. The stage door will be unbearable if you don't. And I don't think you should stop going to the stage door because then it just looks like you're hiding."

"I'm not flying in until early Monday afternoon," Shelby said. "Why can't we just give another little statement? I want to try and protect her privacy as much as possible."

"But her picture's already out there," Meredith said. "From the hallway and the one you already released. One of you two together would-"

"Yeah," Shelby sighed. "I'll get one."

"And I'll see what I can set up," Meredith said. "This won't be the big story forever."

"I know," Shelby said. "Thanks."

Shelby slipped out of her car and thankfully went unnoticed as she went in a side entrance away from the cameras that were waiting by the front door. The last class of the day was still in session and Shelby was grateful because that let her make her way through empty halls to get to the choir room.

Shelby heard the piano before she entered the choir room and found Brad sitting alone and playing a beautiful song. She stood back and listened to it so she wouldn't disturb him. She had placed the tune and wanted to hum along, but decided against it so she wouldn't draw attention to herself. She wanted to hear it and not have him stop.

"That was wonderful," Shelby said when he was finished. He turned and smiled at her. "I hope I can talk you into playing for me later when I sing."

Brad smiled and opened his mouth to introduce himself, but was cut off when Will walked into the room.

"Ms. Corcoran, hi!" Will greeted. "You came back! I mean, you told Rachel you'd be here and so I just assumed you would, but I know you must be really busy."

Shelby looked down at Brad and they shared a look of matching mild annoyance before she looked back at Will and nodded, "Yep, I'm here."

"Great! The kids should be here in the next five or ten minutes," Will said. "Please, make yourself at home and comfortable. Do you need anything?"

"No, I'm fine," Shelby said. He smiled dumbly at her. "Is there anything you need to do before your rehearsal?"

"Oh yeah! I've got to get some new music," Will said. "I mean, I have it. I've just got to get it out of my office. So I'll be right back."

"Ok," Shelby said. She and Brad shook their heads as she took a seat and waited for Rachel to get there.

Ten minutes later Rachel walked into the room flanked by Quinn and Santana with Kurt right behind. Shelby was surprised to see the girls looking so friendly with each other because these were the girls that just yesterday were laughing while Rachel was humiliated.

Rachel smiled widely when she saw her mom and broke away from the girls to go and greet her.

"Hi, Mom," Rachel said as she sat down next to Shelby.

"Hi, sweetheart," Shelby said. "Have you had a good day? Is everything ok?"

"It's been a little weird, but fine," Rachel said. "People were staring all day."

"I'm sorry," Shelby cooed softly. "It won't last forever. Did you get any phone calls?"

"I don't know," Rachel shrugged. "My phone is on silent and I haven't checked it all day."

"Oh," Shelby said. "Can I see it?"

"Ummm, sure," Rachel said. "One sec. Are we still going out with Kurt?"

"I was thinking of doing that tomorrow," Shelby said. "I thought about taking you guys to Columbus to go shopping. How does that sound?"

"Great!" Kurt jumped in. "That would be awesome."

"Ok, perfect," Shelby said as Rachel finally pulled her phone from her bag and handed it to her mom.

"Hey, Rachel?" Quinn got her attention as Shelby looked through the multiple missed calls Rachel had. She would go through them with her later to make sure she didn't have anything important.

"Yeah?" Rachel turned and looked at Quinn.

"Is your mom still going to sing for us today?" Quinn asked.

"Yeah," Rachel smiled. "Aren't you, Mom?"

"Sure am," Shelby said without looking up from Rachel's phone.

Rachel beamed and looked back at Quinn.

"That's awesome," Quinn said. "And I heard you've got plans for tomorrow, but I was thinking that maybe you could hang out with Britt and Santana and me on Sunday."

Rachel's mouth fell open in shock as she stared at Quinn. Even Kurt stopped staring at Shelby long enough to turn around and gaze at Quinn in wonderment. Shelby pursed her lips but didn't turn around. What were those girls playing at?

"I, um. With you?" Rachel stumbled over her words. "Really? But my mom is in town."

"I know," Quinn said. "Think about it, ok?"

"I don't know if she'll be able to," Shelby said, finally looking up from the phone and turning around the face the girls. "She already has plans."

"I do?" Rachel asked.

"Yep," Shelby said. "Another time, perhaps."

"Definitely," Quinn said and Santana nodded.

Shelby impressed everyone with her singing and no one batted an eye when Kurt shed a few tears. The glee club agreed to have her back whenever she could be there and Rachel couldn't have been happier with how everyone took to her. Her mom was awesome.

"Mom, I forgot something in my locker," Rachel said when rehearsal was over. "I've got to run and get it."

"Ok," Shelby said. "I'll just wait here for you."

"I'll be right back." Rachel was off in a flash and Kurt went with her.

This was Shelby's chance to talk to the girls.

"Ladies," Shelby said as she approached their little gathering and sat down. They were gathering up their bags.

"Hi, Ms. Corcoran," Santana said.

"You were really great," added Quinn. She wasn't being sarcastic; they all agreed Shelby had been wonderful.

"Thanks," Shelby said. "Can I talk to you three for a second?"

"Sure."

"I'm brand new at this parent thing," Shelby said. "And it's been a while since I was a teenage girl, but I remember what it was like. I didn't like the way you laughed at Rachel the other day when those boys threw those drinks at her. You guys are on a team. You're supposed to be there for each other and protect each other."

"Rachel's not exactly what you'd call popular," Quinn said. "There's a hierarchy."

"I know you think popularity is all that matters right now, but it doesn't mean anything once you get out of high school," Shelby said.

"That's easy for you to say," Santana said. "You're extremely popular."

"I guess I am now," Shelby said. "But I wasn't in high school. I wasn't even close to being popular. I was awkward and I thought I was ugly and I was picked on a lot. And I had parents who didn't understand me or even really try to." Quinn ducked her head. "Do you guys know what it feels like to be laughed at?"

Santana and Brittany turned and looked at Quinn as the girl nodded. Brittany nodded as well and finally Santana gave up the act and joined them.

"Then stop doing it to other people, especially my daughter," Shelby said. "You got that?"

"Yeah," Quinn said. "We're friends now anyway."

"So I've noticed," Shelby said. "This wouldn't be some scheme to get closer to me, would it?" She smirked at their shocked looks. "I wasn't born yesterday, ladies. You want to know the hardest part about being in the business I'm in? It's figuring out who is your friend because they like you as a person and who is just using you because they like you as a star."

"You know, Kurt hasn't always been her friend either," Santana said. "They've only become close recently."

"She's told me about Kurt," Shelby said. "Listen, I'm not saying you guys need to be her best friends or anything like that. But if you stop picking on her and look past all of the superficial crap you think is important, you might find a friend. A true friend. And if not, you'll at least know her and know that every time you laugh at her and put her down, it affects her. So please, knock it off."

"Ok," Quinn said. "I understand."

"I'll be back in town and I hope to make it to the Regionals performance," Shelby said. "I don't want to hear about you using Rachel or anything like that when I get back here."

"Oh!" Quinn said suddenly.

"What's wrong?" Santana asked.

"It moved," Quinn said. "I felt it. That was so weird."

"It?" Shelby asked.

"Her baby," Brittany said.

"Her baby?" Shelby questioned. Her eyes moved down and looked at Quinn's hands that were resting on her stomach. Her baby. Oh!

"Mom, are you ready?" Rachel said when she and Kurt got back to the room.

"What? Oh. Yeah," Shelby said as she turned around to look at them. "I'll see you guys later."

"By, Ms. Corcoran," Quinn said.

"Bye," Santana said.

"What were you guys talking about?" Rachel asked when they got into the hallway.

"Nothing much," Shelby said. "Quinn is pregnant?"

"Yeah," Rachel sighed. "It's a long story."

"Oh?" Shelby asked and she looked at Kurt for clarification.

"It's a classic story," Kurt said. "Girl sleeps with boyfriend's best friend and gets pregnant. Girl lies to boyfriend and says the baby is his even though she's never actually slept with boyfriend. He's a little dense. Best friend is jealous and tells everyone accept boyfriends and boyfriend's not to secret admirer," he pointed to Rachel, "that he's the father. Girl is kicked out of her house by her conservative alcoholic parents. Not so secret admirer tells boyfriend that best friend's the father and boyfriend kicks chairs and storms off. Girl ends up sleeping in best friend's basement. We're not really sure how it ends yet."

Shelby just blinked at him. God, she didn't miss high school.

Shelby dropped Kurt off at his house and then drove back to the Berry's.

"We're home," Rachel said as she went into the living room to greet her fathers. "Mom's taking me and Kurt to Columbus tomorrow to go shopping."

"Wonderful," Hiram said. "Burt said that was ok?"

"Who's Burt?" Shelby asked.

"Kurt's father," LeRoy said. "You did ask him if you could take his son out of town, right?"

"Kurt said it was ok," Rachel shrugged.

"I didn't think to," Shelby said as a blush made its way up her cheeks. She had so much to learn about being a parent.

"I'll call him," Hiram said.

"Did you tell her what we're doing Sunday?" LeRoy asked.

"Not yet," Shelby said.

"She said I have a family thing," Rachel said. "What are we doing?"

"Your grandparents are coming to town to meet Shelby," LeRoy said.

"Oh," Rachel said. "Which ones?"

"All four of them?" LeRoy said.

Rachel's eyes went wide. "All of them?" She cast a sympathetic look at her mother.

Shelby looked back and forth between the two as she tried to read their faces. "What is that look for?"

"Nothing," LeRoy and Rachel said together.

"What did you parents say?" Rachel asked Shelby.

"I, uhh, haven't actually talked to them yet," Shelby said. "I'll call them later." She didn't talk to them very often and she could already hear her mother's berating voice in her ear. Yeah, she would call them later. If she had to.

"Burt said it's ok," Hiram said as he returned to the room. "Kurt will be ready in the morning."

"We were just telling Rachel about how all of her grandparents would be here on Sunday," LeRoy said.

"That's going to be so much fun," Hiram said sarcastically. They loved all of their parents, but the four were hardly together at the same time. The word crazy wouldn't quite go far enough to describe what it's like.

"Don't worry, Mom," Rachel said. "Dad usually buys a lot of wine before they all come to town."

Good, Shelby nodded. She now had a feeling that she was going to need it.

A/N – That's it for this chapter. I hope you all enjoyed it. Please be so kind and leave me a review if you can. Thanks guys!