Disclaimer: If I had owned Glee, its characters or the used songs I wouldn't be still living in the Netherlands and Glee wouldn't have ended.
Summary: After a horrible tragedy Rachel and her family are forced into Witness Protection for their safety. Will they be able to be kept safe or will they be found before the perpetrators have been stopped?
The idea for this story comes from a story named 'Of Poker Faces and Dreaming Dreams'. I've tried to contact the writer to adopt the story since it hasn't been updated in six years with no luck. I was already planning to go a whole different direction with it so here it is with my own twist.
Special thanks to all of you who are still following this story for your patience.
English still isn't my native language. For that and to kick my ass every once in a while to get it into gear and update I have jenmer61977 as my amazing beta.
This story is AU where they all joined Glee freshman year. Everything happened as it did on the show only a year earlier and except for Shelby walking away and being single. She's been in Rachel's life since the girl was born and is married to a woman. And she never was the loud, annoying know it all like in everything she does she is on the show.
A.N.: I'm changing things up a bit to make it fit better for what I have in mind later on in the story.
Previously on Into the Fire:
"San stop, it's no use. I have enough to deal with at the moment." She looks sadly around. "If they don't trust me there's nothing you can say to change that and I don't have the time to be around people that don't trust me or ridicule me for everything I have to say or when I only want to help this team become better and win something for once." She turns to their 'teacher/director'. "Good luck winning without me. I quit." Then she picks up her crutches and stands up.
"Me too," Santana, Brittany and Noah say at the same time, also standing up to leave.
Almost at the door Rachel turns to Mr. Shue, smirking evilly. "Don't bother coming to us when you need your asses saved because we'll be busy with the setlists for our own glee club." With that being said the four of them exit the room.
"What time are your moms' coming home?" Noah asks her when they arrive at her house. Santana and Brittany had Cheerios practice.
"Usually not before six or seven. I was really looking forward to soaking my sore muscles in a hot bath," She grins seductively, running her finger over his arm. "Care to join me?"
"Hmm I don't know. What's in it for me?" Noah fake hesitates.
"Me," her voice sounds hoarse while she licks her way up to his ear where she whispers, "naked and wet."
"Oh, well I'd be a fool if I said no to that wouldn't I?" He smiles at her. "But I have a better idea. How about we take a nice hot shower and I massage your shoulders after." He lifts her up to carry her bridal style up the stairs and into the bathroom.
"Oh, I think I like your idea better," she purrs. She absolutely loves the massages he has always given her when she fell off a horse, her bike or when she's had a grueling dance class from one of her moms'.
"Now I understand why you didn't want to take a bath," she breathes heavily after he'd gone down on her and made her come once on his tongue and once buried deep inside of her filling the condom.
After he gently dries her off, he carries her to her attached bedroom where he lays her on the bed. "Turn to your stomach Rae." He orders. She does what's been told, and he sits on the small of her back with his knees on either side of her hips. "I could feel you writhing beneath me every time I gave you a massage, so I bought some naughty oil online." He whispers in her ear as he begins to knead her shoulders and makes his way all the way down to her ankles. Giving the places he knows that make her crazy with need extra attention until she begs him to take her from behind, making her scream harder every time she climaxes until he can't hold his own any longer.
"Rachel Barbra Berry-Corcoran and Noah Elijah Puckerman, kitchen now," they're rudely woken up from their nap by Shelby barking from the bottom of the stairs. Before she makes her way back in the kitchen she adds, "dressed!"
"Oh shit," Noah curses.
"Relax, we didn't do anything wrong," Rachel comforts him.
"What did I tell you about Noah coming over when your mama and I aren't home?" Shelby asks her daughter when she and her boyfriend enter the kitchen.
"Uhm, nothing," she looks confused from her mom to her mama and back. "You only told me to keep my door open when he is here, and I did."
Shelby looks flabbergasted at her wife who shrugs. "She's right. You only instated an open-door policy when Noah came over Shell. If she did, she didn't break your rule. I wouldn't know if she did 'cause the minute I stepped out of my car and heard her scream, outside, I turned around and walked towards the gate far enough to be out of earshot."
"Well, I should have and I'm going to now," before she can continue, she's stopped by Sue.
"No you're not and I'm a little disgusted by what I'm gonna say but…" she looks at the two teenagers. "They are teenagers with hormones raging through their bodies. They will find a way and I'd rather walk in on them myself at home than having them get caught at school by Shuester of all people and get suspended or worse. I only got the end of it all where our four musketeers quit his sad excuse for a show choir and because of that he'll be waiting for them to step out of line and blackmail them back."
Shelby thinks about this for a minute and then nods. "You're right. The sounds coming from the janitor's closet at Carmel sometimes…" she shivers and then looks at her daughter and her boyfriend. "Just make sure you use protection. I might love the idea of having your babies to spoil rotten one day but I'm too young to be a grandmother just yet. I'll call your doctor tomorrow to set up an appointment so we can get you on birth control. Now I know Deb is working until ten so why don't you two go pick up Becks from her friend's house and come back here for dinner."
"Did that just happen?" Noah points over his shoulder as they leave to pick up his sister.
She smiles at him. "You know my parents have always been very liberal in their upbringing. My dads' have always been very open about sex, drugs and alcohol. They even let us smoke pot in the house for crying out loud. Over the last two years or so, whenever I was stressed about a riding, shooting or glee competition or just hysterical about something they told me I needed to get laid and when I reminded them I didn't have a boyfriend and didn't want to have meaningless sex they rolled me a joint or poured me a glass of wine." She smiles sadly at the memory of her dads'.
"Oh yeah," Noah too smiles at the memory. "How did your mom react to that?"
"At first she was furious with them. But then dad explained to her he'd rather have me smoke a joint or have a glass of wine at home every once in a while then let me go to a party and get drunk with all the consequences."
"I even offered myself to get you laid, remember? I still can see your daddy almost tripping on the stairs trying to get us some condoms. He was heavily disappointed when you stopped him by saying you didn't want to jeopardize our friendship by starting to have sex. So was I by the way."
She grabs his hand with tears in her eyes. "I know, but look at us now. They would be so happy we finally gave in to those feelings we've had for years." The rest of the ride was spent in silence, both lost in their memories about her fathers.
After dinner Noah, Rachel and Rebeccah do their homework while Shelby and Sue clean up. When they are done with their homework, Noah and Rebeccah are sent home with some leftovers for their mother to heat up when she comes home.
0Standing at her locker the next morning getting her books for the first few classes she is cornered by Mercedes, Kurt, Finn and Quinn.
"Good morning, can I help you with something?" She asks them politely.
"Yes you can as a matter of fact," Mercedes places her hands on her hips. "You need to stop being the selfish bitch that you are and come back to Glee."
Rachel bursts out laughing. Seeing that she is the only one laughing, her eyes widen. "Oh, you're serious? And why would I do that?"
"Because we need the numbers to compete." "I hate to say it, but we need you to win and raise money to increase our budget." Kurt and Quinn say at the same time while Quinn looks like she's going to throw up just by saying it.
"So let me get this right so there are no misunderstandings. Yesterday you didn't trust me and wanted me to step down as co-captain because of who my mothers' are. My fathers' just got killed for being gay and you have the nerve to tell me to stop being a selfish bitch?" she looks pointy at Kurt who has the audacity to look guilty, "and come back because you need me to win and raise money? What the hell is wrong with you?" She looks at them disgusted before walking off to class.
At the same time Rachel is cornered by her former teammates, William storms into Sue's office, interrupting a conversation she's having with Shelby and Emily about a new threat that Emily picked out of the women's mailbox that morning, to confront her.
"You two finally managed to talk Rachel into quitting the New Directions to join Vocal Adrenaline?" he spats at them.
"Excuse me," Emily glares at him. "We are having a private conversation here. Have you ever heard of knocking and wait for permission to enter?"
"And who might you be?" He looks Emily up and down.
"Special Agent Prentiss, FBI." She shows him her badge. "Don't you remember me Crater Face? Those potholes healed nicely over the years."
"no, not really." He replies. "What is the FBI doing here?"
"Not that it is any off your business but besides the fact that Agent Prentiss is family, she's leading the investigation into Leroy and Hiram's murder and the fire that caused their deaths." Shelby answers.
"That's right," Emily confirms. "And I could have you arrested for interfering in a Federal investigation by barging in like you did. Then again, that's what you do best isn't it, sticking your nose where it has absolutely no business in being?"
"So, our little Hummingbird finally decided she had enough of your little club of losers huh?" Sue smirks, even though she already knew their four musketeers did, changing the subject before he really sticks his nose where it doesn't belong.
"Yes," he growls. "And with the rudeness she did it with, could only have come from you."
The three women look at each other, then at Will. "Our daughter, rude? Are you sure you're talking about Rachel and not Noah or Santana?" Shelby narrows her eyes at Will trying to determine if he is lying, quickly coming to the conclusion that he was indeed lying.
"No, I'm talking about Rachel," he answers firmly.
"And how exactly was she rude?" Sue wants to know. She already saw the footage of the altercation in the choir room after Rachel told them what happened and knows he's lying through his teeth.
"I thought it would cheer her up if we did a musical to increase our budget a bit and gave her the lead. First of all she cursed when I said we were doing Grease this coming weekend," He begins to sum up Rachel's 'rudeness'. 'Ah, there is the first reason she refused, their daughter would never put her name to a poorly prepared production for a paying audience.' Shelby thinks to herself. "Then she flat out refused to participate even though I gave her the lead, and said she quit Glee before she stormed out." He ends his summary.
"Did she give you a reason as to why she didn't want to participate?" Emily asks, stunned knowing for sure her niece did give a reason as she watched the footage together with Sue yesterday. Even if she hadn't watched the footage, being an FBI agent in the Behavioral Analysis Unit she knows exactly when somebody is lying and this man? Is definitely lying.
"Nope," Will lies, shaking his head.
"Are you sure about that?" Shelby asks suspiciously, having already caught the man on one lie.
"Positive," he declares firmly. "My guess is now that she's dating Puck, he didn't want Finn as her counterpart." What's a little white lie if it means he'll get his star back right?
'And there is the second reason,' Shelby can understand her daughter's reasons why she doesn't want to do the musical.
"Did she yell?" Shelby asks. He shakes his head
"Did she threaten you?" Sue chips in.
"Uhm, no," Will is starting to feel uneasy with the turn their questioning is taking.
"So she was disrespectful at most instead of rude?" Shelby concludes.
"I guess so," his reaction makes Emily quirk her eyebrow. 'Is this guy for real?' she mouths to Shelby who sadly nods. "But she did curse, using the F word." He tries to save himself.
"Okay, let's hear Rachel's side of the story," Sue picks up the phone to call the classroom the girl is in right now.
"Ms. Berry, you're needed in Coach Sylvester's office," the teacher addresses Rachel after hanging up the phone. "Now Ms. Berry," she adds when Rachel doesn't make a move. The girl nods and starts to get up. "And please take your stuff with you, I don't want you to interrupt my class anymore than you already did." She dismisses the girl for the rest of the class.
Rachel makes her way to Sue's office then knocks and enters when she hears her mama tell her to come in.
"And that, Mr. Shuester is how you enter an occupied room," Emily reprimands the teacher as Rachel enters.
"Mom, Aunt Emily what are you guys doing here," Rachel is surprised to see her mother and aunt in her mama's office. Normally at this time her mom would be at work in Columbus and her aunt would be busy with the investigation. "Is there a development in the case?"
"You could say that," Emily looks meaningful at her niece.
Her eyes widen and she whispers "No."
"I'm afraid so baby girl," Sue says softly, surprising Will with a side he'd never seen from her.
"But that's not why we called you in here," Shelby changes the subject before Will gets it in his head to start asking questions they don't want to answer. "Before we get to anything Mr. Shuester just told us, what is the punishment for lying, being rude and/or disrespectful and cursing in our household and what does it entail?"
"The punishment for the things you mentioned is being grounded which means no studio time, no electronics, bed time at eight instead of ten or ten thirty, no friends over or going over to see friends, cleaning the house from top to bottom including the stables and barns and last but not least a grueling 6 a.m. training with mama at the running track here at school. If I bring myself and/or somebody else in danger in any way by doing so, I receive all the above mentioned punishments along with a spanking." Rachel answers glaring at Mr. Shuester for getting her into trouble.
"Mr. Shuester has brought it to our attention that you, in an, according to him, very rude way, refused to participate in a musical he gave you the lead for and quit Glee yesterday. Is that right?" Shelby asks her daughter.
"That's right," Rachel confirms. "I might have unintentionally used the F-word. When I realized I said it out loud I immediately apologized but I wasn't rude or disrespectful in any way. I swear mom." She looks terrified of being grounded for supposedly being rude and disrespectful towards her teacher when she doesn't feel that she was.
"Can you explain what made you refuse to do the musical and quit glee all together?" her mom asks.
She holds out her leg and crutches. "I think one reason is obvious. Besides the fact that I'm not allowed to put any pressure on my leg for two weeks, Mr. Shuester thinks we can put together a respectable performance of a musical for a paying audience in only four days. But instead of explaining what exactly happened yesterday and to prove to you that I wasn't rude or disrespectful I think it would be better if you watch it for yourself. Log on to the footage from the choir room yesterday."
While Sue logs on to the footage, Rachel looks at her mom. "I'd like you to take into advisement that I was tired, my leg hurt, and I was sore all over from the fall I took the day before and walking on crutches all day." Having found the footage Sue turns on the TV she has installed at the wall, it shows them the inside of the choir room. As the video progresses Mr. Shue swallows and gets a little paler with every minute the footage progresses.
"Where did you get that?" Knowing he's been caught lying Will angrily points at the tv when the video's finished trying to divert the attention from him.
"You mean you never noticed the surveillance cameras that are placed in every classroom?" When he shakes his head, Rachel rolls her eyes at his ignorance and continues. "After what happened yesterday, I had a feeling he would come running to you and blame you and mom for me quitting Glee. So after Noah left last night I logged into the school network with your name to look at the footage of the choir room. I didn't expect him to lie though."
"You know you're not allowed to log into the school network with my user data," Sue scolds her.
"I know but I only use it to copy the footage of our performances in Glee, I swear." The girl defends herself. "I never went into the section where you register our grades. You can check the history of my computer or my grades if you don't believe me. There's not one grade added or altered with your name attached except for PE which you are my teacher for."
She turns to face her mom. "As to why I quit Glee. That," she points at the TV, "was the proverbial straw. Except for Santana and Noah, they never listen whenever I have something to say, even when I only want to help them improve. Instead of making set lists and perfecting them we get stupid assignments until a week before the competition. Then they know where to find me and expect me to save their butts. When we lost Regionals last year simply because we were unprepared, they blamed me because every time Finn tried to take my hand during the performance I pulled away." She takes a deep breath. "And now that it has come to light that not only is the former coach of our rivaling team my mother, she is married to the teacher in our school who, according to them, does everything she can to destroy Glee. They wanted me to step down as co-captain because they think I'll leak our set list to mom, despite the fact that I told them she isn't their coach anymore and there is nothing to leak until at least a week before any competition. I just can't act like we're a team when in reality we obviously are far from being a team anymore if we ever were one to begin with."
"You are way too smart to need to alter your grades. We believe you honey but we will be talking about using my logins without my knowledge or consent. If you would have just asked me, I would have downloaded the footage for you myself. We'll talk about that when we get home." Sue assures her while making it known that she is not happy about her using her school access.
Rachel sighs with a nod looking down. "Yes ma'am."
Sue then turns to Will, "and you. Where do you come off barging into my office and bold face lying about what happened? I should report you to the school board for this you useless piece of human flesh."
Will held up a hand. "Now wait a minu…"
Shelby moved in next to Sue. "No you wait a minute. I am tired of your accusations and your treatment of our daughter because believe me she told us about everything from your favoritism towards some students and everything you have turned a blind eye to. Thankfully I now know that we have proof of everything that happened in that room and your Spanish class. Like Sue just said, we should report you to the school board and have your job."
Will pales and Sue steps toward him. "I suggest you leave this office. She has quit your sad excuse of a club and won't be coming back and she isn't in your Spanish class. So we don't want you to speak to our kid if it doesn't contain anything regarding the things given out in homeroom like general information and attendance, before we do go to the school board with the footage of all your interactions with her and have you fired and sue you for all you are worth. Now get the hell out of my office."
He opens his mouth to say something, but Sue just grabs him by the shoulders and turns him towards the door. "GET OUT!" She yells as she kicks Mr. Shuester out of her office.
After they all take a moment to calm down Emily breaks the silence. "OK, now that we have Rachel here, we might as well discuss the new developments."
"There are new threats aren't there?" Rachel asks.
"Yes," Emily sighs.
The singer closes her eyes while she lets herself fall against the back of the couch she's sitting on, then asks after a few moments, "Do we have to wait to leave until they make a move?"
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