A/N – I'm so sorry, guys. I tried so hard to get this update out before this, but real life kept getting in the way. My trip took its toll and my job has been very stressful recently. I really do hope I'm back in the swing of things now. But I do apologize and am so grateful to you guys for being patient and sticking with me. I can't thank you enough for all of your reviews and for reading each update. Thank you.
I do want to bring up one thing though. Renata, you left me a review that said, "It is important to the parents remember that Shelby was only called back into Rachel's life because of the bullying she was suffering." Yes, Rachel is bullied, but that's not at all why she and Shelby met in this story. Rachel's life at school had nothing to do with it. Rachel discovered the truth and sought Shelby out while on a trip to New York City with her fathers. Shelby wasn't called back into her life at all; Rachel found her. I enjoy your reviews so much and am always excited to see them, but this one confused me. I'm not sure if you have an account here, but if you have any questions please feel free to send me a message or just post them in a review. I'll do my best to answer it.
Disclaimer – I don't own Glee.
Rachel took great satisfaction in the loud slam of her bedroom door and she huffed in anger and hurt as she stood in her room and clenched her fists. Leave it to Quinn and Santana to ruin everything. Why should they be getting all of her mom's attention? Why should Shelby want to spend more time with them than with her? She should want to spend all of her time with Rachel. That's how this was supposed to go. It was her mom and her weekend. Damn that stupid history class and the stupid project. They should be done by now, but instead her mom was down there hanging out with the girls who despised her. Well whatever, they could just do it all without her then.
Rachel opened her closet door and walked into the generous space. One of the things she loved best about her room was that she had a nice sized walk-in closet. She knew that in order to be fashionable you had to have the space to let your wardrobe grow. She'd been in awe of the size of her mother's closet at the apartment in New York. Not that her fathers didn't also have a lot of space too.
She moved a small storage container to the side and maneuvered behind it so she could sit against the wall. She slid down and got herself comfortable and crossed her arms in a mighty pout. She was going to make them all come to her.
LeRoy cast one more glance at his husband and Kurt and noticed the concerned look on Hiram's face as the boy talked to him. He didn't know what was going on with Shelby in the other room with Quinn and Santana so he turned on the stairs and headed up to Rachel's room. He wanted to get to the bottom of why she had stormed out of the room.
He knocked lightly and entered the room, but didn't see any sign of her.
"Rachel?" LeRoy asked.
Rachel rolled her eyes from her spot in the closet. That didn't take very long. She didn't say anything in return.
LeRoy saw that her closet door was open and he shook his head knowingly. Rachel had always hidden in her closet when she wasn't getting her way. If she was upset or had been scolded, she would slide into her spot and pout or cry. It had been about seven or eight months since the last time she'd hidden there. But the routine was always the same. She would hide out for as long as she wanted and the men would let her have her space. Sometimes she also liked to wait until someone came to get her because that seemed to serve her dramatic nature well. But, depending on the reasons, the fathers would refuse to give in to her demands for attention because she was throwing a fit. When she was younger it was not an uncommon occurrence for Hiram or LeRoy to have to pick a sleeping Rachel up from the closet floor and put her to bed.
"Rachel?" LeRoy asked again as he went to stand at the open closet door.
If staying out of sight was her main goal, Rachel never really achieved it because she had always refused to close the closet door. She was scared of the dark when she was little and ever though there was a light in the closet, as a small child, Rachel never wanted to risk it so the door remained open.
Leroy smiled sympathetically at her as he took her in demeanor. Her arms were crossed and she was definitely pouting, but he couldn't think of any way that this was his doing, so he was ready to figure out what was wrong.
"Sweetheart, what's the matter?" LeRoy asked.
"Nothing," Rachel replied grumpily.
Leroy nodded. Sure there was nothing wrong.
"Are you finished with your project?" he asked, trying a different approach.
"No," Rachel said.
"Well why aren't you downstairs helping with it?"
"They don't need my help," Rachel said. Her arms were still crossed and her brow was knitted with annoyance and anger.
"I doubt that's true," Leroy said. "It's a group project and you need to be down there working on it with everyone else."
"I'm sure Mom and Quinn and Santana have got it covered," Rachel bratted out.
"Rachel, you need to get up and go downstairs and get back to work," LeRoy said.
"No. I'm not going back down there to watch them having a great time. We could be done with that stupid project by now if Mom didn't insist on talking so much," Rachel told him.
LeRoy took a deep breath and put his hands on his hips and looked down at his defiant child. Like most parents, LeRoy did like being told no. But, like most parents, he knew how to pick his battles.
"Why don't you tell me what's wrong and see if I can help you instead of sitting in here and pouting," LeRoy suggested.
"Nothing is wrong," Rachel maintained. She never shifted her angry gaze away from the wall in front of her.
LeRoy shook his head and turned away from the closet and headed out of the room. God, she was stubborn!
While LeRoy had been trying to reason with Rachel upstairs, Shelby was down in the dining room talking to Quinn and Santana. Both girls were quietly sitting at the table and were reluctant to meet the angry woman's stare.
"Does it really give you that much enjoyment to treat her badly? Or to laugh at her?" Shelby asked. She certainly remembered the way both girls had laughed at Rachel the day she'd seen her daughter get slushied.
"We weren't laughing at her," Santana said.
"Not today," Shelby said. "But you used her and the project to get into her house. Trust me ladies, I'm not that interesting."
"We were working as a team for the project before we knew that you would be here," Quinn said. "We had to work at someone's house, so why not here?"
"Because the only reason you're here is so you can get to hang out with me," Shelby said. "You don't care about her or her feelings. Instead you disrespected her and her fathers and me."
"We weren't trying to be disrespectful," Santana said. "We asked her and Kurt to be in our group for the project."
"Would you have come to work over here if I wasn't going to be in town?" Shelby asked.
"Maybe," Quinn shrugged. "We had to go somewhere."
"Why not at your house?" Shelby pointed to Santana. "Or yours?" She turned her attention to Quinn.
Quinn looked down and suddenly found her hands very interesting as she wrung them together. Santana looked over at Quinn and sighed sympathetically before glaring back up at Shelby.
"We also could have gone to Kurt's house. We get it, ok?" Santana was defiant.
"I don't think you do," Shelby retorted. "This whole thing has been very hard on Rachel and she gets picked on enough, no thanks to you two. She shouldn't have to worry about any of that coming into her house."
"This has been hard on her?" Quinn asked sarcastically as she looked back up at Shelby. "She has two loving fathers that she brags about all the damn time, by the way, and then she finds out she's got a rich movie star mother who clearly loves her. Yeah, that's gotta be really hard. And just so you know, we couldn't have worked at my house because my parents kicked me out when I told them I was pregnant."
Santana stared at Shelby as the woman's face registered what she'd just heard. She was silent as she took a moment to gather her thoughts. Shelby pulled out the chair she'd occupied earlier and sat down. Her tone was softer than before when she started to speak.
"Quinn, I'm very sorry that happened to you," Shelby started. "And I understand all of you were partners for the project before you knew I'd be in town, but it doesn't excuse the fact that you are using Rachel to be here and get to me. What do you two want? Autographs? Pictures? We can do all of that. Did you just want to hang out and talk? We've done that. And whether or not you believe it, this situation has been hard on Rachel. I like you two. You were both interesting and fun to talk to, but I want you to listen closely to me. Using my daughter will stop. Right now. I am going to be around a lot because I'm going to visit Rachel all the time. I will be there at the glee club performances so we will get to see each other. But if I hear of this type of behavior again, I will not want to be around you at all."
"So you're saying that we've got to be friends with Rachel or you will ignore us?" Santana accused.
"No," Shelby said. "You can't force friendships. But the three of you may surprise yourselves and find that you want to be friends. But that takes real effort and not using her. Come on, you guys are teammates."
"You know, your daughter has a lot she could learn about being a good teammate too," Santana said.
"I'm sure she does," Shelby said. "And I will talk to her about all of this as well. But maybe that's something you two could help her with instead of just making fun or her or laughing at her or using her. How do you think that makes her feel? How do you think that makes me feel? I'm the one you guys want to get close to and it just makes me want to have nothing to do with you."
"Ok," Santana finally relented. "We'll try. But you better talk to her and get her to try as well."
"I will," Shelby promised.
Hiram wore a concerned expression as he looked up from his conversation with Kurt and saw his husband coming down the stairs. He got up and met LeRoy at the foot of the stairs to find out if he'd spoken with Rachel. Kurt looked from where the two men were talking over to the dining room and saw that Shelby was still in there with the other girls. He sighed and sat back and got comfortable. It looked like he might be here for a while.
"That child is so stubborn," LeRoy said when Hiram walked up to him. "I know something's up, but she wouldn't tell me anything. She's in her closet."
"I'll go and talk to her," Hiram said.
"You know what's going on, don't you?" LeRoy asked.
"Yeah, mostly," Hiram told him. "Go and talk to Kurt. He can fill you in."
The men headed in opposite directions and Hiram soon found himself at his daughter's door and knocked as he entered. They always knocked first. He went straight to the open door of the closet and, unlike LeRoy, didn't stop at the entryway. Hiram walked right in and sat down on the floor next to his daughter. Rachel's anger and jealously was being manifested in the tears that were now on her cheeks. She swiped at the tears angrily to wipe them away and wouldn't look up at her father.
"Oh pumpkin," Hiram said as he put his arms around Rachel and pulled her close.
Rachel let her tears really come now as she rested her head against his shoulder. He rubbed her back and cooed sympathies at her. Hiram, like Rachel, had a dramatic side and often times understood her over-the-top ways more than LeRoy. They were peas in a pod sometimes and LeRoy had spent a great deal of time shaking his head at them as he dealt with their antics over the years.
"I hate those stupid girls and that stupid project," Rachel said. "They're ruining everything!"
"They're not ruining everything," Hiram said gently. "They just don't get it."
"Yes they do," Rachel argued adamantly. "They get whatever they want. But I don't care anymore!"
Hiram wanted to roll his eyes. Yeah, sitting on the floor in your closet crying was a good way to prove how much you don't care.
"Sweetheart, I think you're overreacting a bit," Hiram said gently. "You're jealous for no reas-"
"I'm not jealous!" Rachel yelled and slammed her fist down on the carpeted floor. "Besides, what's there to be jealous of?" she asked sarcastically. "They hang all over my mom but won't say two nice words to me ever. My mom comes all the way from New York to spend the weekend with me but she'd rather talk to them all day long. Fine. It's whatever. I don't care. But they didn't have to get in the way of doing that damn project because on top of everything else that still has to be finished."
"Rachel," Hiram scolded. Damn wasn't exactly a horrible word on the grand scale of things, but they did not allow their little girl to swear at all. They realized, of course, that she was not immune from hearing those words, but they wanted to keep them out of her mouth as long as possible.
"Dad," Rachel's eyes went wide when she realized what she'd said. "I'm sorry."
"It's time to get up now," Hiram said. "Come on."
"No, Dad. I'm sorry," Rachel said.
"Hush now," Hiram said.
He got to his feet and then held a hand out and Rachel reluctantly took it and let him help her up. Hiram led them out of the closet and closed the door and had Rachel stand in front of him.
"I know you are upset, but you're also missing information," Hiram explained. "I want you to go down there and talk to your mother so we can get this all settled."
"What information am I missing?" Rachel said as her tears started again. "That she likes them better than me? That she wouldn't leave us alone to just work so we could be finished and we could have our day? She didn't want that."
Hiram sighed and pulled the girl to him and she rested her head against his chest. Part of him wanted to pick her up and hold her like when she was younger and that could solve all of her problems.
"Rach, none of that is true," Hiram said. "And deep down, I think you know that. You have been worked up about this whole project all day and you let it get to you and you're up here crying instead of down there involved with your mom and classmates."
"I don't want to be around them if I'm just going to be ignored," Rachel cried.
"Were you being ignored or have you been pouting all day?" Hiram asked. "Have you made the effort today that you're demanding your mom and Quinn and Santana make?"
Hiram knew the answer to that was no. He could tell that just by glances every so often into the dining room where they were working. He knew of Quinn and Santana, of course, and though he didn't know everything they'd said or done to Rachel, he understood the girl's displeasure at having to share her mother with them, even if that notion of sharing was all in her head. But if they hoped for a change from those girls in how they treated Rachel, that would not be achieved through anger or tantrums; it would be achieved through communication and common ground. He had not heard the conversations all day long, but Quinn and Santana had seemed polite, even overly so. Though he knew now that was because they wanted to be so close to Shelby. It was a dumb move, but one he understood. If Rachel had a friend who knew Barbra Streisand, she'd probably move in with that friend if Barbra was in town.
"It's my house," Rachel mumbled with a deep pout. "And my mom."
"And right now you are up here when you could be down there with your mom," Hiram said. "She wants to spend time with you. I know she was excited to get to work with you on your homework."
"That's stupid," Rachel said as she pulled back from the hug and wiped her eyes.
"I'm sorry you think so," Hiram said. "But in spite of you feeling that way, you do need to go back downstairs and help with this project so it can be completed. So why don't you go wash your face and head back down."
"Why don't they just finish it without me?" Rachel sassed. Her attitude was making a return now that the pouting seemed to be done.
"Rachel," Hiram warned. "Wash your face and go back downstairs to finish your schoolwork. You can be upset and angry, but you are going to be polite."
"Is Mom still talking with them privately?" Rachel pushed just a bit farther. "I can wait until they're done with that."
"Rachel," Hiram warned again in a darker tone. He may have excelled at playing the good cop, but he was just as much a disciplinarian as LeRoy was and Rachel knew it. "You will probably find that their conversation is very different from what you think it was." Kurt had told him that Shelby seemed angry and wanted to talk to the girls, but he wasn't going to give Rachel specifics on a conversation he hadn't heard firsthand. The last thing they needed right now was for Rachel to think something was said when it really wasn't.
"I doubt it. It was probably about how awesome they think each other are. No thanks, I don't need to hear that," Rachel sassed.
Hiram crossed his arms and stared Rachel down. "Do we need to have a conversation about your language and your attitude before you go back downstairs?"
"No, sir," Rachel said quickly as she realized she'd taken one step too many over the line.
"Then go," Hiram instructed.
Rachel scooted past him and into her bathroom to wash her face like she was told to do. She cleaned the tears from her cheeks and brushed through her hair and came up with a different tactic. She'd go down there and do all of the work herself if it meant getting everyone out of the house as quickly as possible. She wouldn't be happy about it though. Polite and happy were two different things and her father had only instructed her to be polite. She could be polite and get them out of the house and go back to hiding in her room. She didn't care what her mother did.
LeRoy finished talking with Kurt and waited until he saw Shelby come out of the dining room to approach her.
"I really don't think I was involved in this much drama when I was a kid," Shelby said. She was pulling a bottle of water from the refrigerator.
"You were a teenage girl; of course you were involved in this much drama," LeRoy told her. "You guys carry drama around with you and pull it out whenever it suits you."
Shelby rolled her eyes at him and took a sip from her drink. "Where did Rachel disappear to? I haven't seen her since before I learned those girls were just here to get to me."
"She's up in her room sulking," LeRoy answered.
"What? Why?" Shelby asked. "I know she's been moody all day, but what happened now? Did she know that's what the girls were doing?"
"No," LeRoy answered. "She wouldn't tell me what was going on, but from what I gather she's angry at them and you."
"Me? What did I do?" Shelby asked.
LeRoy shrugged. "She wouldn't tell me what was bothering her. Hiram is up talking to her right now."
"She's jealous," Hiram said as he entered the room and heard them talking about Rachel.
"Why?" Shelby asked.
"Of the girls hanging out with you," Hiram said. "And she thinks you're having too much fun spending time with them and not her and that's why it's taking so long to do the project. All she wants is for the project to be finished so everyone will leave so she can have you back. Though, LeRoy's right. She's mad at you now."
"None of that even makes any sense," Shelby said. "Why would I want to spend more time with Quinn and Santana than with her? And they're making good progress on the project. They're actually pretty close to being done."
"Good," Hiram said. "She should be back down here soon to help."
"I don't know why she feels that way," Shelby said apologetically. "Of course I want to spend time with her."
"Don't worry about, Shelby," Hiram said. "We know that. She's been upset about this all day. You guys can talk after everyone leaves."
"In fact, I was thinking of taking my gorgeous husband out to dinner," LeRoy said. "You and Rach can have the house all to yourself."
"Ooh, I like the sound of that," Hiram said.
"Maybe I should take her out too," Shelby said. "Just the two of us so I can make up for-"
"Stop right there," Hiram said. "You have nothing to make up for. She is jumping to all sorts of conclusions that aren't true. You can help her clear those up, but you are not doing anything wrong."
"He's right," LeRoy said. "Stay in and you don't have the worry of being interrupted of or recognized."
"Plus, if her attitude stays the way it is, you've always got a room to send her to," Hiram added. "You won't have that if you go out."
"I wouldn't have to do that," Shelby said with a light chuckle.
LeRoy was about to respond, but kept quiet when they saw Rachel coming down the stairs. She went to Kurt who was still sitting in the living room and sat down with him. She purposely didn't look over at her parents.
"There you are," Kurt said.
"Yeah, I just needed a minute or two," Rachel told him. "Come on, let's finish this stupid project."
"Your mom talked to Santana and Quinn about how they were acting," Kurt said as they got up.
"I'm sure she did," Rachel replied. She didn't believe it.
"Rachel, can I talk to you for a second, please?" Shelby asked when the kids came her way.
"We need to work on our project," Rachel answered without looking at her. She and Kurt brushed past the adults and went into the dining room.
Shelby stared sadly after her daughter, but Hiram and LeRoy were shaking their heads at the brush off.
"She really is mad at me," Shelby said forlornly as she looked back at the men. This was a Rachel she hadn't really seen before. Even when they'd muddled through the incident in New York, Rachel had never given her the cold shoulder.
"Stop that," LeRoy said. "You haven't done anything wrong. She's being a brat and if her classmates weren't here, it would stop right now. Let them finish their project and then we will talk to her."
"I can't believe she thinks I don't want to spend any time with her." Shelby's eyes watered as she looked back into the dining room and watched Rachel and Kurt find their seats at the table.
"I promise you that this will be ok," Hiram said as he took Shelby's hand and moved her away from the dining room. "She's a mess of jumbled emotions right now and we will sort it out later. Let's let them finish the project so we can get on with the day."
Shelby nodded and followed the men out of the kitchen and left the kids to work.
The kids worked silently for a few minutes until Kurt awkwardly broke the ice so that the entire thing could actually get accomplished. They were finishing up when the girls finally got around to saying something to Rachel. Santana and Quinn weren't oblivious and they saw how Rachel had been acting since they'd been there. And it's not like they hadn't seen their fair share of Rachel Berry storm outs before. But, believe it or not, Shelby's words were resonating with them. They'd seen Rachel bullied constantly and still be able to hold her head higher than it was earlier. Yeah, the girl was pissed, but it's not like they couldn't recognize her hurt as well.
Rachel was working on a bibliography when Quinn spoke up.
"You know, we really didn't know your mom would be here when we became partners."
Santana rolled her eyes and Rachel only nodded without bothering to look up from her paper.
"Yeah. And who knows, we may have ended up working at your house anyway," Santana added.
"So," Rachel said. She still wouldn't look up.
"But we did chose to come here because you said your mom would be here," Quinn finished for Santana.
Rachel's head shot up and she looked at Quinn and Santana incredulously. "You used me and this stupid project to get to hang out with my mom?"
That was the one element Rachel hadn't actually put together. She just thought that Quinn and Santana were being overly polite once they got there. And her mother didn't help at all by wanting to hang out with them the whole day. If there was ever a moment Kurt wanted to do a face palm, this was it.
"Are you serious right now?" Santana asked.
"I thought you came over to work on the project, not drool at the feet of my mother!" Rachel said. Her voice was starting to rise.
"We did come to work on the project," Quinn said. "It was just an added bonus that your mom was here."
"A bonus? How wonderful for you," Rachel's tone was laced with sarcasm and anger. "And for her, as it turned out. She loved getting to hang out with you too. I suppose it's too much to ask for anyone ever want to do something because of me."
"I'd like to punch you in the face. Does that count?" Santana asked. Here they were trying to apologize and the dwarf was mouthing off.
Quinn elbowed Santana in the ribs. "We did ask you and Kurt to be on our team before we knew anything about this.
"Guys, can we stop this now?" Kurt cut in. "We're pretty much done. We should call it a day."
"That's a great idea, Kurt," Rachel said. She stood up and turned to look back at the girls, "Don't forget to say goodbye to my mother on the way out. I'm sure she'd be upset if you left without saying goodbye."
The parents could hear that voices were raised in the other room, but they couldn't make out what was being said.
"Should we go in there?" Shelby asked.
Hiram shook his head as LeRoy answered.
"Let them work it out," LeRoy said. A few raised voices would probably solve much more than a storm out would.
Quinn rolled her eyes and looked at Rachel. "Will you stop?"
"Yeah, just can it for a second," Santana said. "We talked with your mom and worked it out and all that crap."
"Worked what out?" Rachel asked sarcastically. "When you can come over and see her again?"
Kurt started to gather up the papers and books that had been laid out so he could put them away. Not long after the kids had first arrived, they appointed Kurt the keeper of the project and as such he would be taking everything home with him. He moved some drinks, Rachel's barely touched glass of orange juice, two waters, and a Sprite, out of the way so he could slide everything past the yelling girls. He had a feeling things were going to get worse before they got better.
"It's bad enough you're a bitch all day long to me in school," Rachel continued, "but do you seriously have to come to my house and do it too?"
"Shut up, you troll!" Santana yelled back. "If you could learn to not be self-centered for even just a second you would know that were trying to apologize, but you can kiss my ass on that now. I'm not sorry I got to meet your mom and got to talk to her. It's actually kind of amazing that you're her spawn since you're nothing alike. It must suck for her to have to fly back to this stupid town all the time to see you. I'm sure she'd rather stay in New York."
Santana's words were spoken in anger without much thought and she couldn't help the satisfied smirk that played on her lips when Rachel's face registered with shock and hurt. Santana had cut right to the heart of Rachel's insecurities, especially that day. She reacted quickly and before any of them knew what was happening, Rachel had picked up her full glass of orange juice and thrown its contents on Santana in the same way slushies were always thrown on her.
Santana gasped when the cool, sticky liquid hit her face and soaked her shirt. The juice dripped down her and onto the chair and floor. Rachel was too shocked with what she had done to even put the cup back down.
"It sucks, doesn't it?" Rachel mocked when Santana opened her eyes and looked at her.
Quinn and Kurt's eyes were wide and they were speechless at what had just happened. It only took a couple seconds for the anger to explode from Santana.
"I'm going to kill you!" she screamed as she got up so fast she knocked her chair over.
Santana could be heard loud and clear throughout the house and all three parents were on their feet in an instant.
Santana grabbed the front of Rachel's shirt and pushed her back into the wall. She balled her fist and it made contact with Rachel's face a second later and it was only then that the girl dropped the empty cup in her hand.
"Stop!" Kurt yelled as he jumped to his feet to try and help.
Quinn got up and backed out of the way and unconsciously put a protective hand over her belly.
Santana reached back for a second hit, but felt herself being pulled away and she realized that one of Rachel's fathers was holding her back.
"Stop it this instant!" LeRoy's voiced boomed through the room and everything stopped.
Rachel was doing her very best not to cry despite her split lip and the metallic taste of blood in her mouth. The tears were in her eyes, but she just couldn't cry right now. She wouldn't. She clenched her fists in anger and stared at Santana who was staring right back at her. Hiram was holding Santana even though she had stopped trying to break his grasp. Shelby was standing by Rachel and wore an expression of concern and disbelief.
"I want an explanation and I want it now," LeRoy said seriously.
Both girls narrowed their eyes at the other and pointed before sharing the same sentiment.
"She started it!"
A/N – That's all for this chapter. Again, I'm so very sorry about the delay. I really did try to get this chapter posted sooner than this. I hope you guys like this one. If you can, please leave me a review and let me know. Thanks!
