AN: So I know this is a little late BUT I've been busy. My sister's high school graduation is coming up on Friday (June 7) and her Baccaulaureate was this past Sunday (June 2). So we've been doing all the graduation stuff; senior awards day, shopping for graduation gifts, attending the events(baccaulaureate and senior awards day so far), etc.. One of my friends got married a week after graduation (June 15) and I was one of her bridesmaid so the week after graduation was spent helping her set up for the wedding and then the actual wedding. Also the Monday after the wedding (June 17) I had knee surgery so I've been out of sorts with that for a while. I'll be out of commission for the next 5 weeks or so because of the knee surgery. So with all that I've been really busy the month of June but with all the time I'll have these next 5 weeks or so I'll try to update this and my other two stories TBGTBATHBIC and WTF as often as possible.
After their meeting with Mr. Schue Rachel and Noah picked up some pizza, a small vegetable for Rachel since she quit being vegan while she was pregnant; and a large pepperoni, ham, sausage, green pepper, red pepper, and onion for Noah, Arin, and Rachel's dads plus a personal cheese pizza for Manny. After getting the pizza they rushed to Miss Bakers house, per Rachel's request, to pick up Manny and Arin who were fine despite Rachel's worries of Manny being confused and upset. After picking up Manny and Arin Rachel and Noah drove back to Rachel's house where Arin and Rachel did their homework, well mostly it was Rachel helping Arin with her homework, while Noah and Manny played racecars until Rachel's dad's got home at 6pm.
"Hey Star. Daddy and I are home. I saw Noah's truck in the driveway are he and Arin staying for dinner?" Rachel's dad called as he entered the house from the garage. "Hey Dad. Daddy. Yes Noah and Arin are staying for dinner. We picked up some pizza on the way home from school. I just started heating it up in the oven. It'll be ready in about 15 minutes since we put it in the fridge when we got home. So if you want to clean up and change from work it should be ready when you guys are done." Rachel called back. After kissing both of her dad's hello and they left to change from work Rachel asked Arin to clean up her homework and go wash her hands before tracking down Noah and Manny in the den.
When Rachel walked into the den she saw Manny running around "the racetrack" in what he told her was " 'tory lap momma. Like the 'ASCAR guys do." Rachel laughed at the silliness of her son and boyfriend before responding "good for you little man but the pizza's almost ready so how about you and Noah go clean up and meet me, Arin, grand poppa, and granddad in the kitchen in about 5 minutes?" Rachel asked her son and tickled his belly before turning him over to Noah and turning to head back into the kitchen to remove the pizza from the oven and set the table.
Just as Rachel was done setting the table and had gotten herself and Manny drinks Noah, Manny and Arin reappeared in the kitchen. As Noah and Arin were getting drinks for themselves Rachel picked up Manny and was about to put him into his booster seat when the door bell rang. Rachel carried Manny to the door and set him down before opening the door to find Matt, Mike and Sam. "Oh hello boys. I didn't expect to see you all here. It certainly is a surprise to say the least." Rachel said trying to hide her nervousness at them being at her house unannounced. "Oh we just wanted to see if you were ok. You seemed pretty upset about what Kurt and Mercedes said and you seemed weirdly in a hurry to get home after that phone call this afternoon." Sam replied. "Oh that. Yeah I was pretty upset by they said but it was more that how they acted towards me caused me to have some flashbacks of an extremely rough time in my life and well that was a hard pill to swallow, so to speak. And that phone call just sort of freaked me out because what I was told was surprising but unavoidable." Rachel responded with a hesitant smile to reassure the boys. Before any of them could respond though Manny tugged on Rachel's pants leg saying, "Momma, how you know them?" while he hid behind her leg still and only peeked around her with one eye. "Umm Rach... whose the kid and why'd he call you Momma?" Matt asked what all three guys were thinking. Before answering him Rachel ushered Manny around to stand beside her, where he latched onto her legs, and bent down to talk to him. "Hey buddy. You don't have to be scared. These are some of mine and Noah's friends from school. They just wanted to make sure I was ok after the phone call from Amelia today, I freaked out a little bit because I didn't know how you would handle having to stay with someone you didn't know very well. But you were a big boy and handled it very well so I had no reason to worry any way, right big man?" Rachel told him and then picked him up after he nodded in response. "Guys this is my son Emmanuel Amos Berry, but we call him Manny unless he's in trouble. Manny this is Matt, Mike, and Sam." Rachel introduced the four pointing to each boy in turn. "He's adorable Rach but since when do you have a kid. He looks no older than 2 or 3 but no one at school, well apparently other that Puck, knows about this. I just don't see how you hid this for so long." Mike says. "Look guys I can't do this here and now, not with Manny listening because it's a hard story to tell and I don't want him to have to hear that." Rachel responded. "Ok Rach. But I feel like we deserve to know." Sam said. "Thanks for understanding you guys. And, please come in. We're having pizza and there should be enough and if not we could always call more in. We got a large pepperoni, ham, sausage, green pepper, red pepper, and onion for my dads, Noah and Arin along with a medium vegetable pizza for me. Although Noah, Daddy, and I could share mine if we have to, as there's normally enough left for at least 1 or 2 people and I'm not real hungry tonight. Then Dad, Arin, and you guys can share the large. We also other food I can fix real quick if you want." Rachel invited the boys. "Sounds good. Thanks Rach." Matt said while Mike and Sam nodded along with him.
After that conversation Rachel allowed the three boys to enter the house before closing the door and leading them into the kitchen where Noah, Arin, and her dads were just sitting down, surprisingly enough. She walked in first saying, "Looks like we'll have a few more joining us tonight. Matthew, Michael, and Samuel came by to make sure I was alright after a rough afternoon in Glee. It's really rather sweet of them, even if Manny was a surprise to them." To which Noah wrapped his arm around her shoulders and gave them a squeeze while her daddy said "Welcome boys. The more the merrier. And thank you boys for caring so much about our star. Things haven't been exactly easy on her at McKinley even with Noah looking out for and after her." Matt was the first to respond saying, "It's no big deal. We think of Rach as a sister so of course we wanted to make sure she was alright. And thank you for inviting us Rach. And thank you Mr. Berry and Mr. Berry for the pizza." Mike and Sam again nodded along with him and said a thanks of their own.
With the edition of Matt, Mike, and Sam there weren't enough chairs at the kitchen table to Rachel suggested that they move into the dining room. At the agreement of the others, excluding Manny who didn't really know what she meant, they moved into the dining room. After that was decided Rachel grabbed Manny's pizza which she put on his plate and his sippy cup before settling him into a seat in the dinning room then returning to the kitchen to retrieve some pizza for her and her drink. Noah balanced his plate on top of his drink and then wrapped his free arm around her shoulders and gently guided her into the dinning room where she sat down putting Manny on her lap and Noah sat beside her. Her dad and daddy sat at opposite ends of the table, as the heads of the table, while Arin was beside Noah and the other three guys sat on the opposite side of the table from Arin, Noah and Rachel. While they were eating their pizza there was light conversation about what Arin's school day and how the football team was expected to do this year. After finishing all the pizza Rachel and Arin cleared, washed and dried all the dishes. Once that was done Rachel allowed Arin to make some brownies, with Noah's supervision of course since she was only 11 years old after all, while she bathed Manny and got him ready for bed. After reading Manny a bed time story and tucking him in she went back down stairs with the baby monitor, to make sure he didn't wake up and need her. Once downstairs Rachel checked on the brownies, which Arin had in the oven before returning to the den where Noah, Arin, her dads, Matt, Mike, and Sam were. "Arin why don't you go in the kitchen to finish your homework and keep an eye on the brownies. Call me or Noah if you need help and when the brownies are done and we'll help you get them out of the oven." Rachel said because she didn't want Arin to hear what she knew Matt, Mike, and Sam wanted to know. "Ok but I don't see why I can't do my homework in here, it's not like you didn't just check on them and it's not like you can't here the oven timer in here." Arin pouted. "Well we have some stuff to talk about that's more along the lines of grown-up conversation and I don't think it's a good idea for you to hear." Rachel responded trying to be as truthful and tactful as possible. "Rachel's right squirt. Just go in the kitchen. We'll probably have this conversation with you at some point in years to come anyway." Noah told Arin when she started pouting at what Rachel told her. "Ok. Fine but I don't like it. " Arin replied before grabbing her book bag and dragging it behind her into the kitchen.
Once sure that Arin was in the kitchen Rachel sat down as close to Noah as possible, grabbed his hand and took a deep breathe before starting. "Ok so obviously you know I have a son and you probably noticed that I introduced him as having my last name. That plus the fact that Noah and I didn't start dating until Manny was already 6 months old means that Manny isn't his. So your probably wondering whose Manny's dad and why I was pregnant my freshman year of high school." Rachel started out. "Yeah. I was wondering why he had your last name and not Puck's. I thought that because I admit that I thought he was Puck's." Matt said. "Not biologically. I mean Noah thinks of him as his son but biologically he has a different dad. April of my 8th grade year I was at this coffee shop in Columbus, we were visiting my Bubbe and Zadie for Passover, just studying while I waiting on Dad and Daddy to finish their shopping in the mall across the street, when this guy walked up to me. His name was Joseph McIntire, I later found out, and he was a freshman at Carmel. Anyway he seemed really sweet and we talked for a while and seemed to really hit things off but then I decided to go get a few more things last minute and that's when things went down hill. I tried to get rid of him but he wouldn't let me leave. I tried to trick him into leaving me but that didn't work either so I was stuck until my dads came and got me. But even when I realized that there was no way for me to get rid of this guy I never really thought he could do something to hurt me. Well he sort of dragged me out behind the coffee shop and he-he-he r-ra-raped me. After he was done Joseph just walked away like he hadn't just committed a crime. I called my dads crying and they found me laying on the ground sobbing and nearly on the verge of a panic attack with my clothes ripped and blood running down my inner thighs. They didn't ask any questions, just wrapped me in a blanket that Daddy insists on keeping in the car and rushed me to the ER in Mount Carmel East Hospital, it normally takes 12 minutes but with Dad driving it only took us half that. When we got there my nurse was Noah's mom, she took care of me and even later on I kept on going back to Mount Carmel East Hospital for all the physical care that came with being raped. I found out the day of 8th grade graduation that I was p-pr-preg-pregnant with Manny. I spent most of summer crying and depressed and my dads made me start going to see my therapist because I refused to have an abortion. See back then I was vegan and couldn't stand the thought of killing a poor innocent animal just to eat it so how could I possibly kill something that was part me, no matter how it was conceived? I couldn't do it because as much as I was hurting emotionally from how he was conceived it would've hurt worse to essentially kill a part of me. I don't care what the doctors say I consider abortion to be a form of killing and I couldn't in good conscious do that. I may be liberal in most of my political views but abortion is one thing I have a very conservative view on. Anyway when I found out I was pregnant I was already 2 months pregnant so when school started back in August I was almost 5 months pregnant. Anyway Manny was born early, on December 27th, but he wasn't due until January 5th. The only people I had with me in the birthing room were Daddy, the doctor, Noah's mom and my nurses; see I wanted Noah's mom to be one of my nurses but she was off for a few days vacation at the time I went into labor in the middle of night on December 26th but I called her anyway and she came to be with me while I gave birth. Dad wasn't in the room because he get queasy about stuff like blood and bodily fluids so he just waited in the waiting room. Anyway Noah didn't have any idea about Manny because his mom never told him because of a confidentiality thing between patients and medical personnel." Rachel started explaining.
"I know I told you Joseph's name but at the time he raped me I didn't know his name. I saw on his jacket, I think he was a member of Vocal Adrenaline and he was wearing their warm-up jacket, that his last name was McIntire but I didn't know his first name until later on. When Manny was 8 days old we were back in Columbus for his brit milah, or bris, which is the ceremony in which Jewish baby boys are circumsized. Anyway after the ceremony my dads' took Manny back to my Zadie and Bubbe's while I went to the music store to check out some sheet music and stuff and I meet Jesse St. James there. We shared an impromptu duet and that's all I intended for it to be but since we were in the middle of exams which I had already finished mine and semester break was coming up we stayed in Columbus for a the next week and half meaning I kept running into Jesses around town. Anyway he was so charismatic and charming that by the time Manny was about 2 weeks old he'd convinced me to give us a chance so we started dating. Jesse never knew about Manny because we only dated for maybe a month and I spent most of that time here while Jesse spent most of it in Columbus but we did go on a few dates. But that's not the point it was during one of our dates that Jesse inadvertently revealed that he knew my rapist and he even mentioned him by name. I broke up with him immediately after he revealed that piece of information and then had my dad's change and unlist our home number effective immediately, and change my cell phone number. Seeing as Jesse only ever contacted me on my cell phone and the few dates we did go on were in Columbus and I would take a train there and Jesse would pick me up from the train station he didn't know where we lived but I didn't want to take any chances. When I say we only dated for a few weeks that's really how few dates we went on but really we were together until Manny When I say we only dated for a few weeks that's really how few dates we went on but really we were together until Manny was about 3 months old." Rachel continued on.
"Noah and I started dating about 3 months after I dumped Jesse on his ass. At first he didn't know about Manny either. But then as sophomore year started we'd been dating about 2 months when he found out by accident. I mean I never intended for Manny to be like some sort of dirty secret or anything BUT I did want to be sure that any guy I did date would be around for a while before introducing him to Manny because I couldn't have my relationship-s affecting my baby boy; he needed someone who would be a dad like figure for him but he also needed that person in life steadily and not here one minute and gone the next and then a few months or years later someone new fulfilling that role. Anyway I was home because Manny was sick and my both of my dads' had to work and his normal baby sitter had the day off since it was a Saturday. Anyway Noah and I had had plans to hang out but with Manny being sick I told him that I had too many things to do at home to hang out. Well Noah decided he would surprise me but since he had to watch Arin he brought her over as well. My dad's mom, my Savta, was visiting and helping me out but she had to leave when Noah got there and she knew who he was from me showing her pictures and such so she let him not knowing that he didn't know about Manny. Anyway when Noah couldn't find me downstairs he headed upstairs to find me. I was just turning around to put Manny on the changing table when Noah walked in on me and Arin was right behind him. Needless to say they were pretty surprised. I quickly explained to Arin that something very bad happened and that because of that very bad thing Manny is my son. Of course I gave Noah the whole story but without Arin listening in. Of course he was upset that I'd been keeping something so important from him but at the same time he understood and of course he promised he'd be there for me and Manny or he wouldn't be sitting here still today after a year and a half of dating. So until you three showed up at my door earlier the only people who knew were my dads'(well my entire family), Noah, Arin, and their mom." Rachel finished up as a few stray tears fell silently down her face.
"Oh Rachel. I had no idea. How could you have not told us this before? How did you deal that essentially by yourself during freshman year? And how come no one noticed you were pregnant?" Matt asked. "No one at school had any idea until Noah found out. I didn't want anyone to treat me any different, like I was made of porcelain or something. It was hard but with the help of my dads' and my therapist I made it through somehow and then once Noah and I started dating it got a lot easier. I didn't get very big so I mostly hid it with baggy clothes and I tried to stay invisible as much as possible." Rachel responded. "Rach you should know that me, Matt, and Sam wouldn't treat you any different. At least not treat you like porcelain. We would've, and do, admire-d how much strength you have to go through something like that. And I'm sure almost everyone else in Glee would be the same, there's no accounting for how Mercedes and Kurt would react but the rest of us are your friends." Mike said.
After that they invited Arin back into the den and ate some brownies while watching a James Bond movie, one of the ones with Pierce Brosnan because those were the only ones that both Rachel and Noah would watch. Anyway once the movie was over Sam, Mike, and Matt left. Then Arin and Noah left about 15 minutes after the three guys leaving just Rachel, her dads', and a sleeping Manny.
Before heading to bed herself Rachel explained to her dads' what Amelia called her about earlier that day. Her daddy was a doctor at Lima General and had the next day off, he just had to be ready to go in if he was called, so he promised to watch Manny for Rachel since he hardly ever got called in on his days off. So with that conversation behind them Rachel checked on Manny one last time before taking a quick shower and then getting in bed since the little homework she had was done before they ate.
AN 2: So I know this is like WAY later than I planned to update but I had a lot happening and didn't have time to write until this last week or so. Hope you guys enjoy. Please leave a review and I hope that this chapter will answer any questions you may have had from chapter 1. I plan on having the rest of the glee club find out in the next chapter.
AN 3: The plan is to update this within the next 2 or 3 weeks depending on how fast I can update my other 2 stories 'Whose the Father' and 'The Broadway Geek, The Badass, and The HBIC'. So please check those 2 out after you get done here and please also leave me a review there.