After School Special

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or anything associated with the show.

Chapter 6B: Light at the End

FEBRUARY 2011

When Rachel got home the first thing she did when she got to her room besides taking a shower; was changed into a pair of sweatpants and one of Quinn's old Cheerio National's shirts. She went into the bathroom to take and washed her face without looking in the mirror; for fear of seeing him instead of her own reflection. She stayed in the bathroom for about fifteen minutes afterwards, and then decided to go back to her room before Brittany, Santana, and Quinn came in to check on her. When she got into her room Brittany and Santana were sitting on her window seat talking quietly and Quinn was pacing the length of her room occasionally throwing in her two cents. Rachel watched the girls for a few seconds before she walked over to Quinn, stopped her, pulled her into a tight hug, and inhaled the scent that was uniquely Quinn. She cried silently for five minutes clinging to Quinn before she wiped her eyes and proceeded to hug the other to girls praising her thanks to Brittany for the millionth time.

"Is there anything you wanna do Ray. Do you wanna watch a movie, all the parents are down stairs they are gonna order food, so is there anything you want to do till then," Brittany questioned

"Um, no not really Britt, but maybe we can watch some movies or something after dinner. I don't really want to eat, but I know I have to and that no one will let me not eat. Anyway I just want to relax until dinner gets here," Rachel answered, sitting on her bed. She took her Brave-Heart Lion Care Bear from Jesse and held on to Quinn's hoping that someone would start a conversation to keep her mind off the situation at hand. When she came into the room Santana was telling Brittany and Quinn that her parents along with Quinn's mom had just arrived to start planning out what to do on the legal side of the issue. With Santana's mother being a detective and Rachel's daddy Jackson, being a judge no stone was going too left unturned.

"So, Ray, do you want me and B, to go to a video store and make tonight like a sleepover, I know you don't want to think about everything, so the only thing I can think of is too keep your mind occupied. Santana asked

"Thanks, San. That would actually be really sweet, make sure to get some Barbra Streisand and some comedies, nothing too serious or romantic or scary. I just want simple even if it is those stupid mindless comedies. Also get really good junk food."

When Brittany and Santana left, Quinn was finally able to talk to Rachel by herself.

"So honestly, how are you doing?"

"I'm doing okay; it is easier that you guys are here. It keeps my mind off of it a little bit. I know the tonight is going to be really bad, so I was hoping that you would stay in bed with me, just in case." Rachel asked quietly.

"I wouldn't dare be anywhere bedsides where you need me right now," Quinn answered.

They two girls continued to talk about everything that had happened. Rachel told Quinn everything from when Wilde asked her to stay after class to when Sue threw him across the classroom. Quinn held onto Rachel throughout the whole story, and she would softly run her back when she started to cry during her description. By the time Santana and Brittany got back with the movies and junk food the dinner had also arrived, and Jackson came up to tell Rachel and Quinn that the food had arrived. While they were going down the stairs, Rachel took the time to snuggle with Jackson for a little bit, to show him that she wasn't scared of him and also to let him know that she would be better eventually. That simple action made Jackson, but at the same, it also made him want to kill Christopher Wilde for making his daughter feel that she needed to show him that she was not afraid of him.

While the girls were upstairs talking with Rachel, the adults were downstairs in Jackson's office trying to figure out what legal actions to take, and what they would need to do to ensure that Rachel felt safe at all times. Jackson was a nervous wreck because as a judge he knew how all of this was going to play out and how Wilde's lawyers were going to do to make Rachel look like this was all her fault. The fact that it was illegal because of the age of consent would be something that the defense team would glide over.

"Well..." Anna Lopez started, "they are bringing in Special Victim Detectives in from Columbus to investigate and take over the case. I have a friend on the team; he will be able to keep me updated on certain parts on the case. So at least we will know what is going on from that side. Jackson is obviously not going to find anything out at work because they will not let him anywhere near the case."

"As for keeping Rachel safe, we will just have to make sure she is never alone. At school the girls, Will and I can watch her," Sue stated. "When she is at home or just out we will always make sure someone is with her. If she wants to be left alone, we can give her some privacy, but we will not go too far in case she needs us. Obviously leaving her alone right now would not be the smartest thing to do, but we don't want to over crowd her and make her feel like she can't get any privacy, because that might blow- up in our faces," Sue finished.

As the adults sat in the Berry's living room, they were all concerned with how to approach this. This was the first time that something like this happened to any of them and they were completely clueless as to how to deal with it. Granted Jackson was a judge and Anna was a detective; they both have dealt with cases like this, but it never hit so close to home. It was especially hard on the two of them because they couldn't be involved with anything involving the case. In addition, they both knew how cases like this worked on both sides. No matter what is was going to be a dirty fight and no one to see Rachel dragged through that. The parents continued to talk about how to proceed with everything including how to prepare Rachel for what she was going to have to face in the trial.

Rachel was a very sensitive girl. With everything that had just happened earlier in the day, all the adults were concerned with how she would be able to deal with the investigation, the trial, how she would react to being in the same room as Christopher Wilde. However, what scared them the most was what they would do if the jury and the judge did not find Wilde guilty; that was something that they were not prepared to deal with, they prayed to the powers that be that the court would see things Rachel's way. Before they could figure out a plan for how to deal with everything, the dinner that was ordered had arrived and the girls began to come downstairs from Rachel's room. It was quickly decided by a series of looks the adults shared, that they would include all the girls in the discussion about what to do if the trial did not work out in their favor; after all that would be best for Rachel.

Dinner that night was a quiet event. Oddly enough, it wasn't uncomfortable, just quiet. Everyone was happy to see that Rachel ate; granted she only ate about a tenth of what everyone else did, but she still ate and that was good enough to them. The Berry men knew that Rachel would want Quinn to spend the night; they already talked to Judy about letting Quinn spend the night and told the Lopez's and Sue that they could come back the next morning along with Will. As soon as everyone was done with dinner, Judy, Mr., and Mrs. Lopez cleaned up the table and put the dishes in the sink to soak in hot water.

When everyone was settled in the living room, Jackson began talking about what to do with how they were going to proceed.

"So we are going to press charges obviously," Jackson said to his daughter. "I am not going to be allowed to do anything with the case, but I am going to prepare you and everybody else as best I can. The defense team is going to try and blow holes in all the evidence and make it look like he did nothing wrong. The prosecution will probably want to use Sue and Brittany as witnesses and possibly Will. This made Sue think of something that happened in the classroom.

"The defense may try and use Will as a witness." As soon as the sentence came out of her mouth, everyone in the room was looking at Sue. "Well, when I came into the room and saw what Wilde was doing, I started to fight him, but when Brittany called Will into the classroom he stopped me before I could do anything serious; you know like kill him," Sue finished.

"Wait… you stopped her. What were you thinking? He tried to attack my daughter and you stopped her from hurting him," Shelby yelled at Will.

"What was I suppose to do. If she hurt him she could have lost custody of Brittany, lost her job, or gone to jail," Will said to defend himself.

"Oh, please its Sue Sylvester, nothing would have happened to her, people fear her like the plague," She finished.

"They do William, people fear women with power." Sue said, somewhat smugly.

"Okay, the three of you can discuss this later, right now we need to figure out what to do if the defense calls Will as a witness," Elias said, ending the fight before anything to serious could happen; between Shelby and Sue Will didn't stand a chance and Eli wanted to avoid all yelling in case it scared Rachel.

By the time, they had finished talking about the trial and what they were going to do to help Rachel, it was nearing midnight. Rachel was already sleeping curled up between Sue and Quinn.

"I think it's about time that everyone starts' heading home, the Little One is already knocked out," Elias said motioning towards Rachel. "Quinn, Rachel told us she wanted you to spend the night at dinner. We will set up the extra bed in her room. I know you will want to share the bed, but we will have the extra bed in there just in case, Elias told Quinn.

Quinn asked her mom if it was alright for her to spend the night. At first, Judy really was not keen on the idea, after all the stress today; she wanted her daughter home with her. Judy was about to say no when she remembered that Eli said Rachel wanted Quinn to stay, it made her think that maybe the small girl who she began to view as a second daughter needed Quinn more than she did, so she allowed Quinn to stay. Quinn was so happy that her mother allowed her to stay that she jumped into her mother's arms and hugged her tightly.

"Thank you so much," she whispered to her mother.

After everyone said goodbye and goodnight, Jackson and Elias told them to come back in the morning, and they would do something for breakfast. With everyone gone, it just left Jackson, Elias, Shelby, Quinn, and Rachel in the Berry's living room.

"I'm gonna take Rachel up to her room and get her settled into bed before I set up the extra bed for Quinn," Jackson said and then picked up Rachel.

Rachel who suddenly relied she was no longer on the couch got really nervous and started to push a way and squirm a way from whoever was holding her, "No, Mr. Wilde leave me alone," she said in her sleep.

"Sweetie, relax it's just Daddy. You are safe in our house. I am taking up to your room so you can go to bed, and Quinn is going to come up and spend the night with you," Jackson whispered to his daughter.

Once Jackson was upstairs with Rachel, Eli made sure Shelby was settled in her own room and that Quinn had everything she would need for night. One everything was situated Jackson came back downstairs and said the Rachel was sleeping. Shelby mentioned that she called Jesse and he promised to call Rachel in the morning to see how she was doing. As everyone got ready for bed, Quinn said goodnight to Jackson, Eli, and Shelby and thanked them once again for letting her stay the night. She went upstairs to Rachel's room, climbed into the extra bed, and began to play with her hair before she finally fell asleep.

It was nearing four in the morning when Rachel woke up from her first nightmare. Quinn tried to calm her down as much as she could but Rachel was still really upset; she got out of the bed, turned the light on, and left the room to get Jackson, Eli, and Shelby. Jackson and Eli were able to get Rachel relax enough to the point where she was ready to go back to sleep. Before going back to bed, they brought a glass of water in for Rachel and placed it on her nightstand. Rachel was getting comfortable in her bed again when she meekly asked Shelby to sing to her. Quinn smiled when she knew Rachel was feeling safe enough to back to sleep, she began to make her way back to the extra bed, when Rachel stopped her and motioned for her to sleep in the bed with her. Once Quinn was situated and Rachel cuddled up her; Shelby began to sing "Imagine."

When morning came, and the guests from the previous night arrived, with breakfast in hand, everyone was up and ready to begin the next day. The teens and adults separated once again in order to give everyone their own privacy. When everyone got back together, it was decided that Rachel would take a week off from school and that her fathers would hire a tutor to keep Rachel up to date with schoolwork and also to keep her mind occupied, without having to put her in a crowed school environment. They also made Sue and Santana promise they wouldn't do anything towards Christopher Wilde, which pissed both of them off immensely.

Everyone spent the Saturday together, without bringing up the situation at hand. They had a good time together and everyone as happy to see Rachel smile slightly throughout the day. They knew that the next few weeks and months would not be easy for the young girl, they just hoped that her friends, Quinn, family were able to support her as much as she would need it.