A/N – Guys, I am so sorry for such a long delay in getting another chapter of this story (or anything) posted. I've had a terrible case of writer's block that has been really hard to shake. The weather has finally been beautiful and I travel a lot and sometimes there really isn't the time. I really do hope you guys understand and are willing to cut me some slack. I will certainly try and do better and update more frequently. That is always my goal.
I know I had said that I was going to end this soon, but I've had a hard time doing that because there is more I want to do with it. So please bear with me. I promise I'm trying.
Thank you to everyone who has reviewed and read and enjoyed this story. I appreciate you all so much. And thanks to those that send me messages. I know I have some more to answer and I will get to them tomorrow. Thanks!
Disclaimer – I don't own Glee.
"Are you my grandfather?"
The man's eyes went wide at the question and he focused on Rachel more intently, like he was actually seeing her for the first time. He studied her face and Rachel could see his eyes get even softer as he started to put it together. There was no question she looked like her mother and he was really taking in this moment of seeing his granddaughter for the first time.
"Are you Rachel?" he asked even though he knew the answer.
"I'm Rachel Berry," Rachel answered. "Shelby Corcoran is my mother."
"I'm Charlie," he told her. "And yes, I'm your grandfather."
There was a long silence and Rachel wasn't exactly sure what to do next. She didn't know if he would be like his wife and become angry or if he might even want to talk to her. She had seen him and she was glad to have that. She liked knowing what he looked like.
As the silence grew Rachel became more uncomfortable and decided that she should probably go. Maybe she should never have come in the first place.
"Okay," Rachel said. "I, umm, I should probably go then."
"Would you like to come in?" Charlie asked quickly, almost as if he was afraid she might actually leave so quickly.
"Oh, umm, okay," Rachel said. She slipped past him when he moved aside so she could enter the house. "Thanks."
Charlie shut the door and turned to look at Rachel and they stood awkwardly together once again.
"Is your mother in town too?" Charlie asked and Rachel nodded. "I haven't seen her in a while."
Rachel wanted to say it was because her mother hated it here, but she kept her mouth shut. She didn't understand because Charlie seemed upset by the fact he hadn't seen his daughter in years, but Rachel had only ever heard how unhappy Shelby was with her parents. And Evelyn had made it very clear to them in New York that she and Charlie were very unhappy with Shelby.
"We're visiting Marie and Elizabeth," Rachel told him.
"Of course," Charlie nodded.
"Charlie, who was at the door?" Evelyn asked. She rounded a corner and stopped short when she saw Rachel standing there.
"It's Rachel Berry," Charlie told his wife.
"I can see that," Evelyn said as she cast a hard glance at Rachel. "What are you doing here? Where is your mother?"
"She's out with her friend Elizabeth," Rachel answered defiantly. "We're in town visiting with Mimi and Elizabeth."
"You call her that ridiculous name too," Evelyn said more to herself than to Rachel.
"It's not ridiculous," Rachel shot back.
"Can we get you a drink or something?" Charlie stepped in and asked as a way to try and break the tension.
"No thank you," Rachel said.
"Why did you come over here?" Evelyn asked. "Your mother made it quite clear where we stand the last time I saw her."
"I was curious about my grandfather," Rachel said. A small smile appeared on Charlie's lips. "It's not my fault you showed up in New York and hurt Mom."
"I see your manners haven't improved any," Evelyn said.
"Neither have yours," Rachel snapped in return.
"I will not be spoken to like this by a child in my own home," Evelyn said. "Let alone my own grandchild. Your mother clearly has no idea what she's doing with you and those men raised you to-"
"To what?" Rachel cut in. She was standing her ground despite the way the woman towered over her. "Don't you dare say one word about my fathers. It's bad enough you talk about your own daughter that way. You're the one who has no idea when it comes to anything concerning your daughter."
"Get out of my house," Evelyn demanded. She had been told ever since Shelby was a child that she didn't know how to handle her and she would be damned if those girl was going to show and up and tell her the same thing.
"Enough!" Charlie said in a booming voice. Evelyn and Rachel immediately became silent and looked over at him. "You are not kicking her out because I would like the chance to talk to my granddaughter. And you," he pointed at Rachel, "are going to stop yelling back." It felt like he was dealing with a teenage Shelby all over again.
"Fine, have your time with her, but don't expect me to join in," Evelyn said. "I told you how she acted in New York and it's clear nothing has changed."
"Did she tell you how she acted in New York?" Rachel asked Charlie.
"That's enough," Charlie scolded.
"I will be in the back room," Evelyn said. "Young lady, despite what you may think you know, you don't know everything. And I will not put up with your behavior here. Unless you can be civil I do not want to see you again before you leave."
"Don't worry," Rachel said. "You won't have to. You won't have to see Mom either because she's not in town to visit you. She doesn't even know I'm over here."
Evelyn didn't say another word as she disappeared down a hallway and Rachel wore a smug, satisfied smirk as she watched her go.
"Come with me," Charlie said. "We will sit down and have a talk."
Rachel followed her grandfather into a den and sat on the couch while he sat in a chair across from her.
"So Rachel," Charlie said. "Tell me about yourself. And why did you really come over here?"
"I came because I was curious about you," Rachel answered honestly. "Mom doesn't really talk about you guys and the only glimpse I'd ever had at her side of the family was her mom and as you know that didn't go very well. I wanted to see what you were like, what you looked like and sounded like. Mom looks like you. She has your eyes."
"Why didn't you just ask your mother all these questions?" Charlie asked.
"I don't want to upset her," Rachel said. "She's really happy most of the time and, to be honest, you guys never come up."
"I'm glad she's happy," Charlie said.
"You're not what I expected," Rachel told him.
"Why is that?" he asked with a furrowed brow.
"I expected you to be like your wife," Rachel answered.
"And how is that?"
"Mean," Rachel said.
In the back sitting room of the house, Evelyn sat down and pulled out her phone. If Rachel wanted to be that way, she would just force Shelby into action. She pulled up her contacts list and found her daughter's name.
Across the neighborhood, Shelby was just pulling up back to Marie's house and smiled at the woman who was tending to her flowers in the front yard.
"Hey," Marie said. "You're home earlier than I expected."
"We finished up early and I came home to see if you and Rachel wanted to go out to lunch," Shelby said.
"That sounds great," Marie told her as she stood up and wiped some of the dirt from her pants. "Except we'll have to wait for Rachel to get home. She wanted to take a bike ride and see the neighborhood."
"How long has she been gone?" Shelby asked.
"About an hour now," Marie said. "She should be home any time now."
Shelby's phone chimed at that moment and she hoped the message was from Rachel so she could tell her to get home. She was starving. Her eyes narrowed though when she saw that it was a text message from her mother. She read it and then shut her eyes and shook her head. "Rachel…"
"What is it?" Marie asked.
"It's from my mother," Shelby said.
"What? What does she want?"
"Apparently Rachel decided to pay them a visit and is over there right now," Shelby replied. "Mom said she was rude and mouthy. I'm going to go get her."
"That girl," Marie said.
"You have no idea," Shelby told her as she headed back to her car.
At the Corcoran household, Charlie had taken Rachel upstairs to show her the rest of the house.
"This was your mother's room," he told Rachel. "We turned it into an office about seven years ago."
"What happened to all of Mom's stuff?" Rachel asked.
"We threw a lot of it away," Charlie answered. "But some of it is in boxes in the garage."
"What's left?"
"Some clothes, I think," Charlie said. "Some of her tapes and stuff like that. You can have it if you want. It's just collecting dust down there."
"How come you didn't just give it all to her?" Rachel questioned.
"Well she wasn't exactly around all that much," Charlie said. "I doubt she would have wanted it anyway."
"You could have taken it to her in New York," Rachel pointed out.
"We try to avoid New York at all costs," Charlie said with what sounded like a bitter chuckle.
Rachel just rolled her eyes and stepped out of the room and back into the hallway. "When I'm on Broadway, I know my parents will want to come and see me and visit me whenever they can."
"Oh so you're going to be on Broadway too?" Charlie said. "How long did it take your mother to push that dream on you?"
"She didn't push anything on me," Rachel retorted. "I've wanted that for as long as I can remember. I sing and I practice and I work very hard. But luckily I've got the support of my parents to go along with it."
"Not that I have to explain myself to you, but we chose not to let Shelby grow up in a fairy tale where crazy dreams work out," Charlie said. "We gave her a stable childhood and she defied us at every turn."
"But don't you see?" Rachel said as she turned to look at him. "For mom it wasn't a fairy tale or a crazy dream. She did it. She's on Broadway. She succeeded. She worked hard and rose straight to the top. The only thing you denied her was the chance to have loving parents by her side while she did it."
"We love your mother," Charlie said forcefully. "Don't ever let her and Marie or anyone else tell you we don't. And trust me, I know she succeeded. I made sure we saw her in every show she's been in. We own all of her movies and your grandmother has bought every magazine she ever appeared in. She didn't really want anything to do with us after a while."
"Can you blame her?" Rachel asked. "You could have shared in her success, but instead you chose to declare that you were right and she was wrong and that's just how it is."
"We love your mother," Charlie said. "But it was probably better for everyone involved that we have each kept our distance."
"Better for her or for you guys? Would you love her more if she'd given in to you and stayed here and been miserable her whole life?" Rachel asked.
"I'm not going to discuss this with you any longer," Charlie said. "You are a child who doesn't have any idea what it takes to raise another human being. We tried to protect her and she ran as far away as she could and has barely ever looked back."
"Maybe instead of her having to look back, you should have learned to look forward," Rachel said.
Charlie seemed caught off guard and was trying to gather his words when the doorbell rang and interrupted his thoughts. He and Rachel descended the stairs to find Evelyn opening the door.
"Hello, Shelby," Evelyn greeted with a hard grin and a glance at Rachel.
Rachel glared at the woman who had obviously told on her and waited for her mother to come into the house.
"Hello," Shelby greeted as she stepped into the foyer and looked around at each of the people standing there. One look at Rachel made Shelby shake her head. "Are you alright?"
"Oh she's fine," Evelyn said. "She's the one who barged her way in here."
"I didn't barge," Rachel said.
"We're going to go now," Shelby said to everyone and reached her hand out for Rachel to take.
"Can you stay for a second?" Charlie asked. "I showed Rachel your old room and I promised her she could have the stuff we saved when we cleaned it out. It's just a couple of boxes."
Shelby softened a bit as she looked at her father. For as much as she disagreed with him about everything, he'd often times tried to play peacemaker when she and her mother were fighting. And she knew it was he who had initiated the few trips her parents had taken to New York to see her on stage.
"If she wants them," Shelby agreed. Rachel nodded and Shelby turned back to her father. "Okay. I've got a car outside we can put them in."
"We can go out to the garage and get them," Charlie said.
"Okay," Shelby agreed. She looked over at her mother and wasn't really sure what to say. She finally settled on a simple, "Goodbye," and left it at that.
Shelby took Rachel's hand and started to follow after her dad. Rachel looked back over her shoulder and said to Evelyn, "Don't worry about me ever bothering you again. I've got plenty of grandparents so I certainly don't need one as hateful as you."
Shelby didn't look back, but she jerked Rachel's arm and pulled the girl along after her. The smirk Evelyn had been sporting since Shelby arrived fell when she was the only one left in the room. This was not how things were supposed to be. They would never be how they were supposed to be.
"That's a nice car," Charlie said when he opened the garage door and saw Shelby's Highlander on the street out front.
"It's a hybrid," Rachel boasted.
"Thanks," Shelby acknowledged the compliment.
They made quick work of loading the two boxes and the bike Rachel was borrowing into the back of Shelby's SUV and then they all shared an awkward moment standing together silently.
"Um, thank you for coming over to see me, Rachel," Charlie finally said. "It was nice to meet you."
"It was nice to meet you too," Rachel responded politely. "And thank you for letting me have the rest of Mom's stuff. And for showing me around."
"Anytime," Charlie said.
Rachel stepped away then and went and got in the passenger side of the car to wait for her mother.
"It's good to see you, Shelby," Charlie told her.
"You too, Dad. I'm sorry; I didn't know Rachel was going to just show up over here," Shelby said.
"She's a little spitfire," Charlie said with a small laugh. "Just like you were."
"She certainly can be," Shelby agreed with a smile.
"She said it's her dream to be on Broadway too," Charlie said.
"It is. She's really great. I think she's got a real chance at it," Shelby replied.
Charlie nodded and it took a few moments to find his voice again. "I'm glad she's got people who understand her. Parents who understand her and can help her."
Shelby had never seen her father so emotional and she was shocked to see the lump in his throat as he fought back his feelings. "I'm glad too. She works very hard and she deserves the chance to make it happen."
"Everyone deserves that chance," Charlie said.
Shelby's eyes filled with tears after her father acknowledged what she'd wanted her parents to understand all through her life. All she had ever wanted was for them to acknowledge her talent and support her while she took her chance.
"Thank you, Daddy," Shelby said and she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly.
Charlie returned the hug and whispered, "I love you. Please know that. Your mother and I love you."
Shelby pulled away and wiped at her eyes while she nodded. "I know. Thank you."
"Okay, get back to your kid," Charlie said with a nod towards the car.
"Yeah," Shelby agreed. She took a couple steps towards the car and then turned back. "Dad, maybe you can text me once in a while. We can talk. You do know how to text, don't you?"
Charlie fixed her with a stare and pointed at the Highlander. "Go."
Shelby let out a melodic laugh and said, "Bye, Dad," before getting in the driver's seat.
They drove a couple blocks in silence before Shelby looked over at Rachel and saw her daughter not so casually picking at her fingernails.
"Mimi said you wanted to go for a ride around the neighborhood," Shelby said.
"I did," Rachel agreed.
"It's amazing that you would just happen to end up at my parents' house," Shelby commented.
Rachel sighed and looked over at her mom. "Mimi had a phone book in the recycling bin in the basement and I looked up the address so I could try and find the house."
"Why?"
"I don't know," Rachel said. "I just wanted to see it. And to see your dad. I was curious."
"You've never mentioned that you were curious," Shelby said. She pulled her SUV over to the side of the road and parked along the curb in front of a house. "What's going on?"
"Nothing," Rachel said. "Honestly. I was just curious. You never mention your parents and I didn't want to bring it up because I saw how bad it was when your mom was in New York. I just wanted to ride by the house and see it. But I also wanted to see your dad and before I knew it I was knocking on the door and he answered."
"Honey, just because I never bring a subject up doesn't mean you're not allowed to ask me about it," Shelby said. "If you have questions or are curious, you can talk to me about it. I would have brought you here if you wanted to meet my dad."
"I didn't want to take anything away from the trip here to see Mimi and Elizabeth," Rachel said. "I just wanted to see him; to see what he looks like. You guys have the same eyes."
Shelby gave Rachel a small smile and reached her hand over and tucked some hair behind Rachel's ear. "It's perfectly okay for you to be curious and to have questions. But in the future please talk to me before you simply go off and do something on your own. One day you might find that you're in way over your head."
"Okay," Rachel nodded.
"Good girl," Shelby said with a smile. "Now let's go get Mimi and go have some lunch."
Shelby pulled up in front of Mimi's house and Rachel got out of the car only to be confronted by Mimi standing there with her hands on her hips.
"And just where have you been, young lady?" Marie asked. "Never mind, I already know."
"I didn't expect to be gone so long," Rachel said.
"You didn't expect to be found out is what," Mimi said.
"Go easy on her, Mimi," Shelby said with a light laugh. "She didn't know my dear mother would rat her out. Plus, it may not have been that bad after all. My dad and I actually sort of talked," Shelby added when Marie gave her a questioning look.
Shelby could tell that Marie wanted to ask more questions, but she wasn't up for talking it out right then. She was hungry and wanted to enjoy a lunch without the drama of her parents being dragged into it.
"Rachel, get the bike out and put it away and then come back out and we'll go to lunch," Shelby instructed. "We're going to one of my favorite places from when I was a girl."
"Awesome," Rachel said and she hurriedly slid past Mimi to do as she was told.
Later that evening after Rachel had been sent up to bed, Shelby and Marie sat at the kitchen table and nursed mugs of hot tea. They were discussing the events of the day and like many times in the past, Shelby was getting advice from her Mimi.
"I just don't even really know what to think," Shelby said. "I mean, I'm glad he's finally understanding, even just a little bit, after all these years, but at the same time, it's so confusing."
"I think you should just focus on the positive of it all," Mimi said. "You already know how much negativity the past holds and you're never going to be able to get that time back. You don't have to forget in order to move forward, but I don't think it would hurt to give him a chance."
"Yeah," Shelby sighed. "I'm not delusional; it's not like I think I'm going to be visiting their house all the time, but if he wants to text, I'd be happy to talk that way. I can't help but want to stay guarded and protect myself and Rachel. Who knows what my mom said to him once he went back inside."
"That's a good point," Marie said. "Keep your expectations down and take it slow. But don't ever lose the ability to let people surprise you."
"I love you, Mimi," Shelby said as she looked at the woman adoringly. "I can't believe the week is almost over and Rachel and I will be heading back to Ohio soon."
"I know," Mimi agreed. "But you're always close by."
"Maybe even closer soon," Shelby said. "I'm thinking about buying a house in Lima to be near Rachel."
"Really?" Mimi asked.
"Yeah."
"What about Brian?" Mimi asked. "And work?"
"Brian and I have talked about it," Shelby said. "He's taking a sabbatical next year to research a book he's going to write. He'll be travelling a lot. And I've got to go to California soon to take some meetings about a movie I'm interested in. So nothing is set in stone. I just want to have a steady home base in Ohio for me and Rachel."
"I think it sounds wonderful," Marie said. Shelby had always been a bit impulsive and so she worried, but she should know by now that she has a good head on her shoulders.
Shelby got up to pour them each some more water for tea and then sat back at the table.
"When are you going to California?" Marie asked as she removed the tea bag and set it off to the side.
"Before the school year starts," Shelby answered. "I'm taking Rachel with me. I've got a few surprises for her out there."
"How do her dads feel about all of this?" Marie asked. "They're used to having all summer with her and now you're planning another trip to take her on."
"They haven't said anything to me about not agreeing that she can go," Shelby said. "And we haven't been gone that long this summer. We spent a week in London and now a week here and it'll be ten days in L.A. And I've been in New York without her. I don't think they think I'm monopolizing all their time with her."
"I was just curious," Marie said. "It's a huge change for them, especially since they're used to seeing her all summer long."
"If they have a problem with it they haven't told me," Shelby shrugged. "I can only go by what they say."
"I'm so glad it's all working out," Marie told her.
"Me too," Shelby said. "This has been the most amazing year of my life."
"I know," Mimi said. "You simply glow when you talk about that girl."
Shelby smiled widely and stood up and kissed Mimi on the head. "I love you. I'm headed to bed."
"I love you too," Marie said. She shook her head with a smile as she watched Shelby float out of the room.
Shelby stopped at the first guest room and peeked in on Rachel and found her sleeping soundly. She moved into the room and pulled the blankets tight and lightly kissed Rachel on the head.
"I love you, my little troublemaker," Shelby whispered before turning to leave the room.
As she crawled into bed she thought about their upcoming trip to California. She was going to take Rachel to a movie premiere as well as having a few other things up her sleeve for the girl. She just hoped the trip went as smoothly as their London trip did. Trouble or not, when Rachel was involved, an adventure was always right around the corner.
A/N – That's the end of this chapter. I hope you all liked it. I promise I will do my best to update more often. Please leave me a review and let me know what you all thought. Your reviews help me so much.
I'm working on the next chapter of Where is Love, I promise. I hope to have that one posted soon. Thanks, everyone! You're all awesome!
