Disclaimer: I don't own Glee

Hey guys! I'm slowly getting my grove back for writing, this is so exciting. Check on 'When Lightning Strikes' I am so excited for that one as well!

Huge thanks to joyofrediscoveringyou for editing this and for everything else you've done! You're awesome!

"What are you trying to tell me?"

Rachel grips her seat, really not wanting to show herself in a police office, but when they gave her a sullen look she wanted to go over and swipe it off their faces. Walking through these doors may have been the biggest mistake she could have ever made.

"Look Miss. Berry you were caught in a heist of one of the mobs in New York City, we have been trying to catch these fools for three years now! You are our key witness out of the twenty or so places they've hit up. You are the break we've been waiting for Rachel."

"I don't want to be some mouse in this chase!" She points her eyes at them "You must be sorely mistaken if you think I'm going to risk my own future to help you catch these criminals. I have my own life I have to live, I start my dreams in a couple weeks!"

"Miss Berry I don't think you understand the severity of the situation you are in. You said you left your belongings in with them, we had our team go to check and they were gone. Rachel they have your purse, they have your ID, they have everything of yours that they need to make sure you're taken care of." His coffee stained teeth in front of her face as two other detectives are staring down at her, chomping on their gum. The lights low as they all sit in the chief's office for what seemed like hours.

"Taken care of?" Her fathers voice squeaks just thinking of all the possible conclusions to that one statement.

"Taken care of." The one in the back with the greasy hair pops his gum before frantically chewing on it nods. Rachel's stomach twists in knots, picturing herself being hunted down by one of New York's own mobs.

"What does this mean for us?" Leroy Berry questions standing up from one of the chairs next to his daughter. "We obviously can't stay here in New York if they have our information."

"That is correct." The seemed to be useless man who gave them a smirk, popped his gum as Rachel tightened her grip on the chair.

"Look can you please just explain to me what is going to happen. Am I going to have to have people following me around when I go to school? Will we have to go stay at a hotel until they're caught? I just don't understand how we're going to stay away from them unless I'm under protection everyday all day. I can't just have people hanging around me in school..."

"We have it all under control. For the safety of your fathers, yourself and those around you we've had to bring in the officials."

"You are the officials!" Rachel huffed running her hands over her face. "Can you please just spit it out, I didn't ask for any of this. I don't want to be involved in any of this."

"If this didn't threaten your safety you would be able to leave this station with your testament but your life is at danger Rachel. They are coming after you with a vengeance. They know you know what they look like and what they did." Chief De Luca sits on the edge of the desk looking down on Rachel. "You have no other choice than to join the Witness Protection Program, all three of you together. It must happen today, immediately after this conversation is finished. If you want want any chance of living your life fully than you need to take our help. Without it you'll be prey to one of New York's most dangerous gangs."

"If you have my description and you know who the hell is terrorizing this city then you need to do something about it!" Rachel yells scooting to the edge of her seat. "I don't understand why you can't catch them and place them behind bars. I have two weeks before school begins, I can go into hiding and you can do your damn job to get them caught!"

"Rachel!" Hiram gasped turning to her "You watch your language this instant!"

"This is so frustrating!" She stood pacing the floor "They are expecting me to place my dreams on hold because they aren't able to catch a criminal. Maybe if they would have been doing their job, since they've known about this gang for years, I wouldn't have had a gun pointed to my face! I wouldn't be in this predicament now, would I?"

"We aren't telling you that you'll never be able to return." One of the men in the back comments "We just need to be able to do our job without anyone else getting hurt, you included."

"We need to stay away until we're cleared to come back. Having our names and being out in public as ourselves with a gang after us isn't what we want." Leroy tried making sense of everything by saying it aloud. "Angel, NYADA will be there tomorrow, we might not if we stay here."

"You have to understand that they will come after you. They will kill you when they have you cornered. The protection program is your only chance to come back when this is all over with." The chief tries reasoning with Rachel one last time to stress how important this is.

"It's taken you three years to get your witness since they've started their sprees. What if it takes another five years to catch them? How am I supposed to be reassured that you'll get this done so I can get back to my life here in New York?" Rachel stands behind her father staring at the police. Her eyebrows raise, testing them. "I want to make sure my life will go back to normal, that these people will get off the streets and rotting in jail where they deserve to be. "

"We will Miss Berry we just need to know that you'll cooperate and stay in our program. Without you, we have no witnesses to make our case stronger."

Looking down at her fathers who she didn't want to put in danger, but this was their only opportunity at the time. To survive they needed to be somewhere safe. For a short time things just needed to go a different way, somewhere out of her own control.

"This better not be for too long." She mumbles, giving in.

"You won't regret this."

XXXXX.

Finding out that your home had been raided wasn't the cherry to the topping of her week at all. As all three of them were promised, the agents had gone to their home in hopes of grabbing some clothes and belongings to take with them while under protection but not to the agents surprise, the apartment had already been searched.

Rachel didn't understand that if the possibility to a raid was likely, why they didn't stake out the place and catch those damn fools. Instead, their apartment was trashed and a nice message left from them claiming they'd get what they were seeking. Rachel wasn't a rocket scientist but to figure out that what they wanted was no witnesses and out for blood, was a no brainer. So being transported completely out of the state and into Pennsylvania was a little relieving.

Laying in the hotel bed a few night later Rachel watches her father in their own reading over the many of folders they were given just the day before. They were hiding away in a hotel room guarded with security until their private plane left the next morning.

Laying there she rolls over with her hands behind her head watching them read over each new thing for their new identity.

"I don't look like a Frank." Leroy announces scrunching his nose as his glasses bunched up. "I just don't see the name Frank fitting for me. Frank reminds me of some jock back in high school who played baseball. I am not a Frank, I'm a Leroy a black man who sang theater."

"Yeah well tell me how stereotypical it is for my name to be Adam as if my nose didn't scream Jewish enough."

Rachel hated having to put her fathers through this all because the NYPD couldn't do their job in catching fugitives that have been doing crime spree after crime spree, throughout most of greater New York City. They had a life here as well, friends and now they were going to have to leave what they've been comfortable around for most of their lives to go into hiding under a new identity. It just wasn't fair. She lays in bed and thinks of how she could have been preparing to move into her new dorm room rather than moving to a whole new state, one she still didn't know and without the knowledge of where she would be living.

Just her luck as of right now, they'd probably send them to Wisconsin.

Sighing, Rachel reaches over and turns to night light off signaling to her fathers she was going to try to catch some sleep.

"It's not the end of the world pumpkin. Sure this is a major inconvenience but think of it as a script you have to memorize, a character biography if you must." Hiram smiled over her glasses peering at his daughter. "We are just thankful you are alive and we have to opportunity to protect ourselves. Once this is all over with we will be back to our normal lives in New York. Until then let's put our best skills forward and play this as a new play you're auditioning for."

"Yes daddy." Rachel tried to smile and think positively based on what he said but it's kind of hard not to think about auditioning for real at NYADA.

Authors Note On Top!