I think it's safe to say after reading this chapter you will all hate Robert Corcoran's guts...I hope you guys like it. I don't know why I was nervous to put it up lol. This is the first of many flashbacks and snippets of their lives in NY. Thank you sooo much again for the reviews! Is it normal to love every single one of you who has reviewed?

Rachel slid her back against the cool wall, landing softly with a thud on the schools floor. She let out a shaky breath and curled her knees up into her chest.

Not only did Will want her to sing, but he wanted her to sing that song!

That dam song...

It brought back so many memories. So many feelings...her mind went hurling back into the past.

New York City - 2002

Five year old Rachel Corcoran had just finished up her Broadway for Kids class. She had begged her parents to put her in because she wanted to be just like her Mommy one day and perform on stage. Rachel waved to her little friends goodbye, hugged the teacher and sprinted into the warm opening arms of her nanny, Grace Diaz.

"Gracie Gracie! I learned a new song today! It's the one Mommy sings in her play! I learned it and I can sing it all by myself!" Rachel's mouth split into a wide grin. She was bouncing excitedly.

"You did!" The older woman bent down and wrapped a wool scarf around the little girl's neck, smiling at the youngest Corcoran child. She had been working for the Corcorans for the past three years, ever since Mrs. Corcoran went back to work in the theater. She adored all three children dearly, but Rachel was her special love. The little girl was always so happy and buzzed around like a tiny ball of energy.

"Gracie today's Wednesday! Can we go to Daddy's office now so I can sing for him? Please. Pleaaase!" Rachel clasped her hands together and Grace laughed.

"Well of course we can Rachel! We're going there right now." Grace zipped up Rachels coat and stood up, grabbing the little girl's hand.

The two stepped out into the chilly air. It was the month of November and the city was already decorated for the Holidays. The streets were extra crowded with window shoppers and plagued by camera-clad tourists that stuck out like a sore thumb. Like every other Wednesday before, the pair headed over to the Upper East Side where Robert Corcoran had his office. They hailed a cab and decided to get off a block away from the building, not wanting to wait in the traffic.

Rachel was happily skipping along the sidewalk singing the song outloud. "I'm practicing Gracie!" She looked up at her Nanny and couldn't wait to show her dad what she had worked so hard on.

They reached the building on Park Ave with the gold plaque outside that read 'Robert D. Corcoran M.D. Aesthetic and Reconstructive Plastic Surgery'

Rachel pushed open the heavy door with Grace's help and ran right past the receptionist of the luxurious waiting room. The little girl was so short, the receptionist didn't even see her go by, she only glanced and noticed the Doctor's Nanny standing at the front door.

"Hello Mrs. Diaz, Dr. Corcoran is in a meeting. He should be done soon. Where's little Rachel?" The receptionist leaned over the desk to look for the cute faced brunette and frowned when she didn't see her. Out of the corner of her eye, the receptionist saw the main door swing close and a flash of soft brown curls whip by.

Rachel walked past the many different rooms and headed straight for her daddy's office. She loved Wednesdays. Not only did she have her singing class, but she also met up with her daddy for their special day. Noah had his special day on Friday. Santana had her special day on Monday and Rachel had her's on Wednesday. Her daddy would always surprise her with something different. Last week he took her to FAO Schwartz and they both danced on the giant piano. He even let her pick out any toy she wanted. She couldn't wait to see what special outing her dad had in store for today.

Rachel rounded the corner and ran towards the closed door, her tiny hand was barely on the knob when she belted out in her highest voice, "Daddy look what I'm going to sing for you!"She hollered using her healthy set of lungs as she pushed the door open.

The five year old suddenly gasped in shock as she saw her father, kissing this strange woman she had never seen before. She took a step back when she saw her Dad had his hands in places that people weren't supposed to be touching.

"Rachel!" Robert Corcoran tore away from the blonde lady, hastily zipping up his pants and wiping at his mouth.

Grace gasped and let out a shrill cry as she came up behind the little girl. She bend down quickly, covering the five year olds eyes and apologized profusely. She scooped up Rachel, tucking her safely into her chest and ran out of the building.

Grace Diaz spent the entire way back to the Corcoran residence consoling the crying little girl. They finally reached the empty apartment and Gracie carried Rachel over to the couch and sat her down. She bent down and ran her hands soothingly over the little girls soft hair.

"Rachel baby.." Grace was about to say something to the sniffling little girl when she heard the front door open with a bang. Heavy footsteps sounded throughout the apartment and Grace stood up as her eyes fell on Mr. Corcoran.

"Grace a word." Robert's strangely calm voice sent a chill down the hispanic woman's spine.

Rachel watched as the two walked out of earshot and she could hear snippets of the conversation coming from the kitchen. Her daddy sounded real angry. The two reappeared within minutes, Grace's face was as white as chalk.

"Grace I need to have a very important conversation with my daughter." Robert barked. "Leave."

Grace didn't budge, she was too afraid to leave the little girl.

"NOW" Robert roared and Rachel jumped. Grace ran out of the living room and disappeared into the kitchen.

Robert turned his attention on his daughter. "Rachel. Sweetheart." Robert paced back and forth, running shaking hands through his hair.

"Can you repeat to Daddy what you saw today..In the office."

Rachel refused to meet her fathers eyes, but he brought his hand under her chin and turned her head slowly, until her eyes looked up and and locked onto the man she was so excited to see only moments before.

"Go ahead. What did you see?"

"I-I-... Why were kissing that lady Daddy? " Rachel nearly whispered, recalling what had frightened her earlier that day.

Robert swore under his breath.

"You said you kiss people you love. And you kiss mommy because you love her so much" Her lower lip quivered, " That wasn't mommy" She whispered, casting her eyes down.

"Rachel. Honey. Listen to Daddy. This is going to be our little secret. Do you understand?"

Rachel looked up with puzzling eyes.

"But-"

"NO! We will not tell mommy. This is a secret. Remember when we surprised Mommy with her necklace? It's kind of like that. We can't tell mommy or we will ruin the surprise."

Robert was satisfied with his answer and he ran a shaking hand through his hair. "Now what did you want to show me."

Rachel paused for a moment, her innocent mind mulling over her fathers words.

"You were going to sing right?."

Rachel nodded.

"Okay good sing for Daddy."

Rachel looked down at her hands.

"But mommy-"

"NO!" Robert yelled, causing the little girl to jump. He suddenly felt as if he couldn't breathe. He had perfected keeping his worlds separate, for years now he had successfully kept all of his affairs hidden away from his wife and his children. He was always in control. That is until today. Today. His world was crashing down around him. This wasn't happening.

"RACHEL YOU WILL FORGET WHAT YOU SAW TODAY AND YOU WILL NOT TELL YOU MOTHER." He had never felt so angry before. It came out of nowhere.

"DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?"

"But Daddy why were you kissing that lady? I don't understand what were you doing with her?"

Robert suddenly felt as if his throat were constricting. It was getting harder for him to breath. He picked up a vase and threw it against the floor as hard as he could, breaking it with a loud crash. He felt blood rush up to his face and in a blind state of rage he placed both of his hands on either side Rachel's head and shook it slightly, "YOU WILL KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT RACHEL"

"DO YOU HEAR ME!" Rachel began to cry and her little legs began kicking in protest. She tried to pull her fathers hands off.

"Stop crying" He applied pressure. "STOP CRYING" And that's when he hit her.

Rachel instantly stopped. Her body going limp. Grace ran in.

"Mr. Corcoran! Please!"

Robert stood up and gave the woman a death glare, reminding her of the threat he made earlier.

"Go to your room Rachel." he growled.

"NOW!" The little girl sprinted off the couch.

That's when it all began

...

"Rach?"

Rachel was pulled out of her dark memory and she looked up at the voice. Santana was standing over her and crouched down beside her.

The cheerleader looked anxiously at her sister.

"You okay?"

Rachel let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding in and rested her chin on her knees. She nodded, "I told you I didn't want to be there."

Santana sighed and fell back into the wall, "I didn't think he was going to pick that song."

"Yeah well. He did." Rachel picked at the buckle on her flats.

The two sisters sat in silence for a moment before the older brunette spoke up, "You know Rach...maybe... it would be good... for you to sing."

Rachel turned her head to get a better view of her sister and rested her cheek on her knee.

"You should give it a try. You love to sing." Santana picked at her own shoe, " I know you do, don't tell me you don't. And you have such an amazing voice." Santana looked over and studied her sister's face, "No one in there has to know."

Rachel sighed. She understood what Santana was trying to say. Rachel had always loved to sing and once upon a time it was even her dream to make a career out of singing. But somewhere along the way, she stopped. She stopped dreaming. She stopped singing because it hurt too much. Her mom was always trying to get her to sing again. And every once in a while, when she was alone she would let her guard down and just pour everything out into a song and she would remember again why she loved it so much in the first place.

Rachel thought of what her mom would say... she could practically hear Shelby's voice, 'There's no reason for you to be afraid anymore baby.' She brought her eyes up to Santana's and barely whispered an answer, "Okay."

The choir room was buzzing with noise. Artie had his hands laced in between Tina's and the two were giggling in each other's ear. Brittany was showing Mike and Matt a new dance move. Kurt had pulled up a chair by Finn and was talking about something which was making the older boy squirm in his seat. Mr. Schuester was talking with Mercedes about her singing, a goofy smile spread on his face. Puck was leaning back in his chair, smirking at Quinn who was telling him a story about her summer. He kept stealing side glances at the door and nearly fell over in his chair when he saw his sisters through the window.

Rachel and Santana walked in and all of the conversations stopped, everyone looked over at the two girls.

"Will... I mean Mr. Schuester." Rachel was playing with her fingers and felt her cheeks get warm. "I'm sorry for running off like that."

Will smiled warmly, "That's okay"

"If you don't mind, I'd like to sing now." Rachel tugged on her bottom lip.

"Of course." Mr. Schue walked over and took a seat by the piano as everyone else settled down around him.

Rachel stood in the middle of the room and caught Santana's eye. The cheerleader smiled and dipped her head once in assurance. Rachel glanced over at her brother and Puck winked back.

"When you're ready Rachel." Mr. Schue said.

Rachel took a deep breath and nodded at the piano player.

He brought his hands down and started the familiar tune.

Rachel opened her mouth and sang the first words softly, her voice laced with shyness.

"There was a time when men were kind
When their voices were soft
And their words inviting
There was a time when love was blind
And the world was a song
And the song was exciting
There was a time
Then it all went wrong"

She closed her eyes and thought of everything. Feeling the words for the first time. She let herself get lost in the song.

I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When hope was high
And life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving
Then I was young and unafraid
And dreams were made and used and wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung, no wine untasted

But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hope apart
As they turn your dream to shame

He slept a summer by my side
He filled my days with endless wonder
He took my childhood in his stride
But he was gone when autumn came

And still I dream he'll come to me
That we will live the years together
But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are storms we cannot weather

I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I'm living
So different now from what it seemed
Now life has killed the dream I dreamed.

Rachel was breathing hard, her chest rapidly rising and falling. There was only a very brief moment of silence and then her ears were met with an explosion of sound. She slowly opened her eyes and saw the smiling faces of the glee club in front of her.

Kurt leapt from his seat and began clapping and shouting ,"That's my best friend!" Pretending to wipe false tears out of his eye, he sniffed, "Bravo! Bravo!"

Puck clapped really hard and wore a look that only a proud brother could wear. Santana couldn't help herself and sprang from her seat. She engulfed Rachel in a tight hug, unaware of the gasps and strange looks she recieved from the people around the room.

It wasn't everyday they saw Santana soft's side.

Santana's eyes were misted and she smiled happily, "I told you." She said in her sisters ear and Rachel nodded smiling as well.

She felt as if this giant weight had been lifted off her shoulder. Singing that song finally after all of those years felt...strangely gratifying.

Mr. Schuester couldn't contain himself. He swore that was the best voice he had ever heard on any of his students. The girl had such raw talent. They had Nationals in the bag.

The rest of the glee club couldn't understand why the little Corcoran was afraid to sing in the first place.

"If I had your voice Rachel, I'd sing all day every day and rub it right in people's faces!" Mercedes laughed.

"You have an amazing voice little S!" Britt hugged Rachel.

"That was so awesome Rach." Quinn hugged her best friend's little sister too.

Rachel was beaming and her eyes landed on Finn who was standing awkwardly tall beside her.

She looked up and she felt her cheeks get warm again.

"That was...like woah...that was awesome Rach." Finn stuffed his hands in pocket and bounced on the balls of his feet.

Rachel grinned, "Thanks Finn."

Finn smiled back, his cute dimples framing his mouth and he noticed how pretty Rachel's smile was. Suddenly he panicked.

What are you doing? Snap out of it dude This is Puck's little sister.

She has really nice legs though

mailmanmailmanmailman

Finn let out a strangled laugh," Um way cool little dude" He ruffled the top of Rachel's hair and quickly walked away.

Rachel blinked back suddenly confused and frowned as she smoothed out her hair.

Little dude?

"Well guys. Let's call that a wrap!" Mr. Schuester clapped his hand as he looked out at the promising group before him.

Later that night, the Corcorans were all spread out throughout the house. Santana was in her room, listening to music and video chatting with Brittany. Puck was in his room, shirtless, staring at his flexed reflection in the mirror. He kissed his rock hard biceps, never noticing his mother lingering in the door.

Shelby rolled her eyes and headed down the hall towards Rachel's room.

She stopped in the open door and knocked signaling her arrival. Rachel looked up from her spot on the bed and put down the book she was reading. She smiled as her mom made her way over towards her.

Shelby pulled back the covers and slipped beside Rachel, snuggling the younger girl closer. She propped herself up on one elbow and looked down at her daughter.

"Today was quite a day huh?" Shelby ran her fingers lazily through Rachel's hair.

Rachel nodded, "You can say that."

"First the whole slushee fiasco." Shelby frowned as she remembered having to drive over to McKinley earlier that afternoon.

"What am I going to do with your brother and sister?" Shelby asked, " You know when I was in McKinkey I used to get slushied all the time." Shelby's eyes dazed over.

Rachel gasped at this little revelation. "You?"

Shelby nodded, " Yep. You see in highschool, I was so very different from the way I am now. I was, um, how can I say this, a very driven young girl. I knew what I wanted and I didn't really care what other people thought about me. I knew I was destined to leave this town and I threw myself into singing and acting. I guess you can say I was a little over the top. Ask Will, I'm sure he would love to bring that up." Shelby chuckled.

"What happened?" Rachel asked mesmerized.

" People used to call me mean names, like manhands and they would make fun of my nose all of the time. But I didn't care. Not really. Yeah it hurt but I just knew I was going to leave Lima and go to New York. And then I did. And I made it all the way. You know the rest of the story. I met your father when I was just a struggling actress waitressing to help pay the bills. And then Noah came along.."

Rachel was listening intently, "Do you regret anything mom?"

Shelby stopped and stared closely at her daughter, "Never. No regrets. I realized that I had been chasing this dream and when I finally got there I thought that that was it. There could never be anything better, I could never feel happier. And then that all changed when I had you three. You guys are my everything. I love you more than I love life itself."

Shelby reached down and gently kissed the top of her daughter's forehead, she traced her fingers through her hair, silently thinking it would be best not to bring up her father's phone call. Speaking of phone calls.

"Will called."

Rachel turned to face her mother.

"He couldn't believe I never told him you had a voice like that. And then he told me he was going to beat me at Nationals."

Rachel's lip curved in a smile.

"I told him It doesn't count though. He's only winning this year because all three of my kids are on his team." Shelby winked and poked Rachel's nose.

"I'm proud of you baby girl. For singing today."

The tiny teenager sighed and nodded her head stifling a yawn.

Shelby kissed her daughter one more time before she crawled out from under the covers.

"Good. Your tired. You can fall asleep early." She tucked the cover's under Rachel's body.

"Night mom." Rachel extended her arms out for a hug. Shelby bend down and hugged her daughter, "Sweet dreams Rach"

She walked over to the light switch and flicked it off. She stood in the doorway for a moment as she watched Rachel find a comfortable sleeping position, then she slowly pulled the door.

"Love you mom." Rachel mumbled.

Shelby smiled, "Love you too Rach." and closed the door.

A/N Ill post the next chapter asap.

NinjaGleek21- Glad you liked it! haha and what did you think about the song and their dad lol
banjojd- Thanks! Hope you liked the fluff between Rachel and Shelby..there will be more of course ;)
CurlyHairedGirl- Thanks for the awesome review! Haha I loled :D
I-taylorlautner- You are awesome! Thank youu!
bforethesunsets- Ahh Thanks! And for now Shelby and Will are just close friends...for now ;)
EmZ711-I Dreamed a Dream from Les Mis :) lol
FinchelGleek95- Thanks for the review! Hope you liked the Shelby/Rach moment.