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Shelby kept her arms around the teenager, pausing only for a moment to call the number she had memorized so well in the last year. The number she had been so tempted to call so many times, to ask if she could possibly speak to her daughter.
"Will? I found her. She went home". Pushing her mobile phone aside, she took Rachel in her arms once more, mumbling soothing words of comfort that usually worked on Beth.
Seeing the other kids' reactions at the disappearance of Rachel, Will decided that he needed to let them know where she was. So upon sending around a mass text message ('Rachel went home. Ms Corcoran is with her'), he and Emma drove as quickly as possible to the Berry house.
Where he found the remaining glee kids.
"Mr Schue, what's going to happen to Rachel?"
"Mr Schue, is she going to be okay?"
"Mr Schue, what's Ms Corcoran going to do?"
"Is Rachel going to live with Ms Corcoran now?"
"Guys!" Will held up his hands. "I don't know, okay?"
"She can stay with us", Finn volunteered. "She can stay with me and Kurt".
"That's very sweet, Finn, but that's something that's going to have to be sorted out legally", Emma told the teenager, as Will disappeared into the house.
He found Rachel sobbing into Shelby's arms, and found himself a little overwhelmed by the scene in front of him. He had seen Rachel cry before- they had all seen Rachel cry before- but they were crocodile tears, a diva act. The tears running down the brunette's face were real and full of emotion, and the sight made the lump in his throat grow even bigger.
"Shh", Shelby murmured, rubbing Rachel's back.
Eventually, her sobs began to subside, and Shelby did her best to turn to face Will.
"Rachel?" he said gently, and the teenager suddenly became aware of the other person in the room.
"Mr Schuester", she choked out, "I am very sorry about running out on you this afternoon; I needed time to process the news". She let out a hiccup. "I don't want it to be true! I want it to be a horrible dream!"
"I'm so sorry, Rachel", Will repeated.
She lifted herself off the lounge, heading into the kitchen, taking down a glass from the cupboard. Turning on the tap, she held the glass underneath it, filling it before taking a long sip.
Shelby recognised the glass immediately- it was the one she had given her before their parting words. She had a matching one at home- and Shelby knew that Hiram and Leroy had brought their daughter a glass of water whenever she was sad. It had gotten, Rachel had mentioned, to the point where she was unsure whether she was sad or thirsty.
Setting the glass down on the counter, Rachel glanced around. "Ms Corcoran, what's going to happen now?"
"You'll come home with me for the night. We'll work everything out in the morning", Shelby told her, and Rachel's eyes filled with tears once more. Will put his arms around her, and Rachel sniffled, resting her head on his shoulder.
"I don't want to go home with you!" she cried. "I want to stay here! I want my dads!"
It was late by the time they got to Shelby's house in Carmel, Shelby having called to tell Beth's babysitter that she was going to be very, very late. Caitlin, the nineteen year old working her way through college, hadn't minded- she claimed that Beth was her favourite charge.
But the nineteen year old got the shock of her life when a second brunette climbed out of the car.
"Hi Shelby", she said in confusion.
"Caitlin, this is my daughter Rachel", Shelby said quickly. "How was Beth today?"
"She was fine- daughter?"
"Don't ask". Shelby shook her head.
And she didn't. "Beth's asleep; she's been out for an hour. I suppose she will want a bottle soon, though. Do you still want me to come tomorrow?"
"Not tomorrow, Caitlin". Shelby shook her head. "I'll call you tomorrow and let you know what's going on, okay? And I'll pay you".
"No rush", the teenager said easily, picking her car keys off the counter of Shelby's kitchen. "I'm going to head home".
"Drive safely", Shelby warned her, a choking sob emitting the lips of her older daughter.
She had been quiet the entire drive to Carmel, staring out the window, the tears on her face matching the rain. And Shelby was no help- she really had no idea what to say. She had seen her fair share of dramatic teenagers- four years of coaching Vocal Adrenaline provided her with that- but theirs was all show drama. Nothing compared to what her daughter was showing at that moment in time.
Rachel had slumped onto the lounge, her head leaning on a cushion, her eyes fluttering open and closed. Her crying had totally drained her- much as it did to Beth, Shelby noted. Her two daughters had a lot more in common than they thought.
"Rachel, honey, would you like to have a shower and hop into bed?" Shelby suggested. "I can find some clothes and a towel, there's a bed made up".
The brunette shrugged, her eyes glossy. Since her outburst in the house she had shared with her fathers, she had been almost speechless, seeming to follow Shelby and Will around in a trance. She had completely blanked out when her fellow New Directions had peppered her with questions, and glanced at Emma helplessly.
Furrowing through a drawer, Shelby pulled out a large Wicked shirt she had acquired the last time she had been in New York- it was too big for her, so it would definitely be too big for her daughter. Rachel was tiny, in every sense of the word. Pulling a bright yellow towel out of another cupboard, she presented them to Rachel and the sixteen year old wordlessly headed to the room Shelby had pointed out as the bathroom.
Shelby had no idea what to do, or what to say. Having her daughter at her house for the night was something she had dreamed of, ever since she had given her up sixteen- almost seventeen- years earlier. The bond between a mother and a child was unbreakable, and Shelby had done everything to prevent that bond from forming.
As a mother, there was every chance that Rachel would end up permanently in her care, upon the death of her fathers. In a way, it was something she had dreamed of- but not under the circumstances. She wanted Rachel to be there willingly, not after the death of the two people she loved the most in the world.
Rachel slid her bare legs under the blankets of the big double bed, looking even smaller than she was, in the too-big Wicked shirt. It was a nice room, she supposed, but nothing like the one she had at her house. Reaching for her phone, she decided to check the messages she knew she had received.
Rachel where are you?
You're worrying us Berry where the hell did you go?
I hope you're ok
Mr Schue told us where did you go?
Rachel where are you?
You need to let us know where you are!
Whatever you do don't do anything stupid
Tossing it aside, she didn't even bother replying, as she put her head on the pillow. They had all gathered outside the house she had shared with her fathers, in the pouring rain (even Kurt, although she knew that he would need to spend at least an hour and a half on his hair that night). Even though she thought Mr Schuester squawked on about the group being a 'family' too often, it had been proved that day.
Her head was spinning at the day's events. There were too many sudden announcements in her life. The arrival of her estranged mother and the daughter Quinn and Puck had given up, the death of her fathers… it was too much to handle at once.
A single tear rolled down her cheek, soaking into the pale blue pillowcase. Sniffling a little, she batted away the tear that threatened to follow.
"Rachel?" Shelby said gently, knocking on the door. "Oh, honey…"
The teenager allowed herself to be pulled into her mother's lap, resting her head on the latter's chest like she was a mere five years old again. Rachel had always wished that she had been able to grasp at her mother's comfort as a child, but when she received it, she found she didn't want it. She'd much rather be in the arms of one of her fathers, but that wasn't the case. Shelby was the only one able to offer her comfort at that point, and if Shelby was going to offer it, she'd be a fool not to take it.
"I dreamed a dream of 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…"
It took Rachel a moment to recognise the song, but hearing Shelby's strong, sweet voice was enough to bring on more tears. She had sung that song on the tape. Shelby had never stopped thinking about her.