Thanks for the response so far, it's really great, thanks for reviewing to: Krism8932, Omni-Obiter, Monichanz, ShadowCub, ToastedMarshmellow08, BonesFABERRY, Guest, NZgleek91, djsmith10186, Jaelle90, MovieNerd, General Mac, redsystemmusiclover, VickiiMadd and nightcuddler

Posted: 28/10/12

Welcome Back

Rachel walked into the kitchen, her school back pack hugged to her front as she joined her fathers at the kitchen table. She wordlessly took a seat, and laid the back pack down in front of her.

"Honey, you're here?" Leroy said surprised "Are you going out?" he asked gesturing to the bag. Hiram just watched, hoping Rachel would answer and not just keep to herself like normal.

"I was going to go back to school" she shrugged, as she fiddled with the adjustable shoulder strap in front of her

"Are you sure?" Leroy jumped in to ask the next question again before his husband could

"Yes Daddy" she sighed

"But we haven't talked about this" the taller father reminded unnecessarily

"Do we need to talk about it?" She asked dryly. She didn't want to talk she just wanted to get on with things. She no longer had a therapist to talk to, who would then tell her parents anything they needed to know (yeah that guy was really professional). 'Dr' whatever his name was had been the first thing to go when she woke... well actually the second, Finn had been the first.

"Well this is a big decision Rachel" Hiram tried to calmly negotiate

"I'm already leaving the house often" she argued back, keeping a clam tone too.

Leroy was itching in his seat though, and this wasn't average dad worry for a secretive daughter that he thought he could trust, this had another level, and he had his reasons. "You never tell us where you're going though"

She'd had a major breakthrough on her project the night before and a breakthrough in her fears. Now, before the progress of actually testing her armour, she wanted to get back to the outside world and make progress there. She was afraid she'd get too comfortable behind her armour and start going backwards; afraid to go outside without her alter ego.

"Daddy, please" Rachel sighed "I'm not doing anything illegal" 'Well not yet' "I've just got some hobbies, it's no big deal" she tried a dismissive approach

"No, it is a big deal when you're sneaking off in the middle of the night" the father sitting opposite her argued "And bringing home ridiculous amounts of metal and god know what else" he exclaimed "I mean what on earth could you be doing with that stuff"

"Metal sculptures" Hiram suggested, from the head of the table, getting a smile for Rachel and a glare from his husband.

"Don't encourage her" the shorter man snapped at his husband

"Leroy" Hiram said firmly "we trust Rachel, don't we?"

"Yes" he sighed

"Daddy" Rachel broke in softly to address the man opposite her "you don't need to worry. I'm fixing things" why did everything have to sound like it was in code?

"I do worry though Rachel, this isn't you"

"Well is it okay with you and dad if I return to school today?"

Leroy looked to Hiram, who was giving him a stern look. The shorter man just sighed; they hadn't discussed anything lately in great detail, like they normally would, but she was still asking for his approval, which was the least he could ask for

"Okay, but you come straight home after"

That was her intention already "Yes Daddy" she said obediently to sweeten the deal. With that short discussion over with the men returned their attention to their breakfast.

Rachel pulled the backpack off the table to put more appropriately on the chair next to her. Leroy was the first to see it, as he was sitting opposite; it was kind of hard to miss though.

"Oh dear god" Leroy gasped dropping his spoon back to the bowl with a attention grabbing clank

The taller father looked up and nearly choked on his cereal "Rach" Hiram asked cautiously, his voice strained from the coughing and choking "What have you done?"

"Oh" she realised what they meant as she looked down at the device emitting light from over her heart. The one the doctors had put in her hadn't done that, this one had to light up though; that was the power source within it "I guess I should wear something thicker. I've got a sweater I was going to wear over this anyway" she explained. But the fathers awkwardly stared at the circle of light beaming through her black t-shirt.

Its placement was unfortunate so they averted their eyes after a moment.

"I'll just go get my sweater, I get that it's a little off putting" she pushed her chair back to leave when Leroy stopped her

"I think you're missing the point Rachel: what is it?"

"Oh, it's just like the doctors put in, but a little more reliable, stronger" she chose her words carefully and didn't use more scientific names for it; she didn't want to do too much explaining. She also didn't want to say 'powerful' that could only lead to questions

"Where did you get it?" Leroy asked suddenly. Inside he was worrying; he'd seen one of those before, a lot of people had, but not his protected Rachel, he'd made sure of it, or so he'd thought

"I made it" she answered very convincingly

"You made it?" he didn't mean to scoff; he just assumed she was lying. It was too similar to the one he'd read and heard about, the one that had been all over the news a couple of years ago. He thought it was a technology kept secret though by its original creators. How had Rachel got it?

"You really made that honey?" Hiram asked softly, not wanting to upset his little girl who he still saw as fragile

"Yes, it's merely an upgrade on what I already had, perhaps I shouldn't have made it light up" she chuckled, trying to rid the room of the tension she was getting from the man sitting opposite her.

"So it's better at keeping your heart beating?" Leroy quizzed

"Well, it's more reliable, it's less likely to... die, for lack of a better word, on me" she shrugged "I'm going to go get that sweater" she tried to escape again, getting out of her seat

"And you made it all by yourself?"

"Yes" she slowly pushed her chair back under the table; her escape had quickly become a slow one

"You didn't find it on a website or something?"

It was her turn to scoff, "No" this was her technology, she'd designed it herself. She could understand how that was hard to believe, she'd hidden her geeky side even from her parents, afraid they'd encourage that too; then what hope did she have in the halls of McKinley High.

"Is it safe?" Hiram asked a different type of question, a caring one.

"Of course dad" Rachel replied quickly "Its just like it was before, but it can keep up with my busy lifestyle"

"You're going back to glee too then? And your other extracurricular, the singing and dancing lessons?" the taller father asked again while his husband searched his mind for a reasonable explanation for how Rachel had that thing.

"Glee club yes, I don't know about the other things. For now I just want to get back to a routine" she partially lied. "I'm going to get that sweater and go, I don't want to be late for my first day back" she used her classic cheeriness to finally escape the room

Once she was out of the room and ear shot Hiram asked his husband cautiously "I know it was through her shirt, but don't you think that looked a bit familiar"

"Yeah... it did" well it wasn't often you saw a light source beaming from someone's chest.

...

5 seconds, that had to be a new record. She'd been walking to her locker and it felt like only 5 seconds since she'd stepped into the building that she'd got a chilling reminder of why she hated it here so much.

The blue slushy had been a slap of reality as it splatted across her face and sweater.

She knew an animal sweater was a bad idea but the stupid owl on the front layered it thick enough to cover her device. She'd have to find another way, for now the duct tape she'd taken from the maintenance guy's closet would cover it, she just hoped it wouldn't over heat or something.

Right now she was questioning why she'd made it so visible at all, is she was only going to have to hide it anyway.

First lesson had already started, luckily she knew she had a free thanks to her personal time table that was mailed home weeks ago.

So that's why she found herself in one of the various girls bathrooms that she was familiar with throughout the school. She didn't expect anyone else to come in, but just in case she'd already covered it with the tape and slipped her black t-shirt back on just in case. The t-shirt had been saved by the owl sweater which had taken the full attack of the slushy.

She stood in front of the sink and mirror furthest from the door as she brushed her rinsed hair. She left her ruined sweater, abandoned on the floor next to her bag. This really was something she hadn't missed. At least she'd prepared. She had a coat in her car if she needed it, she'd have to go get it after this.

She flinched as the bathroom door was shoved open and someone stormed in. Rachel didn't spare the intruder a glance she was too busy calming herself down. Loud unexpected noises still affected her more than they did before.

The other girl dropped her own bag on top of the sink she stood at, the opposite end of the row of sinks. Rachel didn't look away from her own reflection, studying the tiny scars across her face and the mess her hair was in. She heard the other girl in the room huffing and sighing as she rooted through her bag. Rachel then heard her roughly grab at a few paper towels out of the dispenser and the bag dropped to the floor, the tap was turned on shortly before it was shut off again.

She head a paper towel wipe against fabric, then a pause.

"Rachel?" her eyes shot to the owner of the very recognisable voice "You're back" the surprise in this girls voice matched the surprise Rachel was seeing right now.

"Quinn?" she asked "I didn't recognise you" she'd expected the blonde girl to be back in a Cheerios uniform with her hair in a high' pony tail. Not still in the dresses with a cardigan that she held in front of her. She must have been cleaning something off of it, Rachel assumed

"I didn't recognise you either" a small smile flickered onto her lips before it was gone again "H-how are you?" did Quinn Fabray just stutter?

"Um, fine" Rachel mumbled "How was your summer?" the summer had been long over but it couldn't hurt to try some light conversation with her former tormentor

"Busy" she exhaled, as if trying to disperse the stress she was feeling

"How's Beth?" Rachel asked cautiously. She realised she didn't even know if Quinn still had her, she assumed she did, especially the state she was in right now; she looked like a stereotypical tired single mom. She still kept some grace and most of her beauty though, something anyone else in her position would be very envious of.

"Good, she's good" Quinn looked away, glancing at herself in the mirror, she still wasn't used to seeing that reflection staring back

"Everything okay, you don't look so great" Rachel said carefully, knowing she could step over a line at any moment and normal Quinn could come back.

"Yeah" she nodded again looking back at the brunette "I'm fine... It's just everything's been so hectic lately and don't get me wrong, I love Beth but it's been so difficult and-" she cut herself off as she gasped "I'm so sorry" she realised "How are you, you know, after everything?"

"Fine... I'm back" she shrugged

"I was going to visit you in hospital but..." she trailed off; trying to find the right excuse "well I didn't get a chance- I mean I didn't-"

"Don't worry about it" Rachel waved off "why would you have visited me... we're not exactly friends" she pointed out

"No" Quinn ducked her head for a second "But we're... um, team mates so I should have-"

"Really Quinn, don't worry about it. Finn was the only one who did visit and only the once because I broke up with him" She sounded bitter, remembering the lack of hospital visitors. She wasn't really surprised though, she hardly called nay of the glee club members friends anyway.

"Oh yeah, he's been sulking since that" Quinn muttered so Rachel only just heard her.

"Really? I'm surprised he didn't say he'd been the one to break up with me" Rachel chuckled lowly

"Yeah... but how are you Rachel, after your injuries. I read about it in the news paper and it was on the TV"

Rachel's head shot to Quinn "It was?" she asked surprised

"Yeah" Quinn furrowed her brow, why didn't Rachel know this "they said it was a miracle you didn't have any broken bones but you were in a coma" she explained, still standing a fair distance from Rachel

"Oh, it was a medically induced coma" Rachel thought she'd explain, she felt that never sounded as serious when you put 'medically induced' in front of it "I had swelling-" she stopped herself, not wanting to bore or gross the other girl out. "You know, all the boring details"

"It's fine. They didn't really say much on the news, but it was still a big story" Quinn actually found it refreshing that anyone was talking to her, she'd alienated any chance of a normal friendship when she became head cheerio and now lost her fake friends because of the pregnancy. They didn't mean she regretted keeping her daughter though. "I'm surprised your dads didn't tell you, I'm sure they were harassed by reports"

"Yeah, daddy doesn't like me reading or watching the news" Rachel explained like it was normal

"What? Why not?"

"Daddy said he's protecting me from ugly truths amongst other things" she shrugged "He even locked anything to do with news sites on my laptop" although she was sure she could hack anything he locked, she'd just never thought to try.

"You could just use another computer though... like one here at the school"

"I guess" she shrugged again. This care free attitude from the short brunette was a little unnerving "I want to hold onto respect and trust from them though"

Quinn just nodded, she could understand that; Rachel still had some sort of bond with her parents, Quinn had none with hers, just a check she'd received a couple of months ago. Guilt money, that she'd used to help pay for a small apartment for her and Beth

"What are you doing in here anyway?" Rachel's question bought Quinn back to reality.

Quinn immediately grimaced "It's gross, but I was late on my way to glee and realised I had baby spit up on my cardigan"

Rachel matched her grimace immediately "Nice" she commented sarcastically

Quinn chuckled tiredly "Yeah I just love all those little surprises" she then realised how that might have sounded "Don't get me wrong, I love her... and as stupid as it sounds" she sighed "She really is the light in my life... I'm just so tired"

"How do you cope?" Rachel asked with genuine interest

"Who says I'm coping?" she huffed humourlessly

"Well you're still at school and you still have her, and I'm sure you could look worse" she chuckled so Quinn knew it was a light hearted comment

"Really?" she looked back at herself in the mirror, she only saw a broken mess staring back at her "I guess with two jobs, school and an apartment and baby to pay for, I don't think I can feel much worse"

"Quinn, that's a lot, even for you"

"What do you mean by that Berry?" she eyed her curiously, but with a light heartedness to it

"Oh come on Fabray, you were captain of the Sue Sylvester National champions Cheerios in your sophomore year. That's got to count for something, although you're a lot more than that too" she added as an after though "If you ever need anything I'm here-"

"Don't Rachel" Quinn cut her off "I've been horrible to you, so don't be nice to me, it's not fair"

"I mean it though Quinn, if you need anything. I could even watch Beth for you if you want" she suggested. Although she wasn't sure what was compelling her to volunteer like this; maybe it was the shock of seeing Quinn like this.

"Thank you" Quinn sighed, giving in. She doubted she'd want Rachel's help though. She didn't have anything against her, just that she had recently been in a severe accident and the blonde couldn't be sure she was actually mentally stable. She too looked like she'd had better days.

It was then that Quinn noticed the slushied sweater on the floor, and the fact that Rachel's hair was still wet. It was then that it occurred to her why Rachel was in here "Karofsky and Azimio are jerks"

Rachel just smiled in approval as she turned back to the sink and mirror

...

Once they were ready they headed to glee together, Rachel didn't even know that they had glee that morning, during her free lesson.

The rest of the glee club weren't sure what to be more shocked at; the fact Rachel was back or that she was walking into a glee club meeting with Quinn Fabray. They'd got over how run down the blonde looked all the time, so that wasn't a shock; her choosing Rachel berry's company sure was though.

"Rachel" Mr Schue perked up mid rant about some boring god knows what about music they didn't want to know about "You're back" did she detect disappointment, had the club worked better without her? "How are you?"

"Better" answering with one word was another shock to the club. She saw Kurt and Mercedes shuffle in their seats and not make eye contact with her. She assumed they'd be on the defensive, but she wasn't here to take a crown back, just to get a little piece of her life back

"Um, good" the teacher noted, awkwardly, wouldn't she normally still be rambling on about her absence and recovery.

She just looked round at her other peers. Most looked confused, Santana looked as confused as Brittany at the different Berry standing in front of them. Finn was sulking as Quinn had said. Quinn was taking a seat in the back lonely corner when Rachel noticed a new face; a blonde boy sitting in the front row next to Finn

Schue noticed "Oh Rachel, this is Sam, our new member. Sam this is-"

"The Rachel I've heard about" he guessed "Finn's told me about you" that wasn't a surprise; well who else would bother talk about her. The silence coming from the room, mostly caused by the absence of her own voice, was evident that no one was interested to know how she really was.

She'd got a better reception from her former tormentor in one of the girls' bathrooms

So that's where she went, to the back "Can I sit here" she asked the blonde girl, as she nodded to the seat next to her

"Sure" Quinn shrugged with a small smile.

It was far from a great start to a late start for a new school year, but somehow Rachel thought it could have been worse.

.

The rest of her day was fairly quiet too; probably because she wasn't talking. If she wasn't opening her mouth all the time she wasn't having people yell back at her to drop her opinions.

She got many muttered 'welcome back'-s from teachers and even from a few fellow students. She also got stared at; a lot. It was fairly unnerving.

She also felt like she was being followed. On all three occasions that day when she'd stopped by her locker she'd noticed Finn not far behind. She just rolled her eyes and tried to get on with the day.

In the only class she shared with him that day he had gazed at her longingly with that puppy dog pout. She knew it was all her own fault, she spent so long trying to get him and hurting others in the process, including him, just to get him, to only throw him away.

His pouting really was disturbing though, why couldn't he just get over it like every other guy would. Okay so she knew she was being stereotypical by thinking this but still it was Finn. Surely for the sake of his reputation he'd at least pretend to be over it. If he didn't stop the watching and stalking soon he'd be as bad as Jewfro.

...

Finally, her fathers were asleep, at least she assumed they were, they'd gone to bed and she really didn't want to think of them doing anything else.

But finally, the time had come for her first test run of her suit. She hadn't names it yet, she felt she would in time. She wasn't even sure if it was going to work yet.

It wasn't easy to get into. She'd designed it so it was in 6 pieces; the legs, arms, torso, and helmet were separate and would magnetically then mechanically clip together once she put them on. Each piece was supported by a stationary stand; clamped at an appropriate height for her to climb into.

The hydraulic robotic system used to move the robotic skin with her own movement inside, wouldn't actually come to life until each piece was in connection with the helmet. She hadn't made this easy for herself, but she didn't have time to create the necessary robots that could 'dress' her. She did however already have the designs for such robots in case she found time later.

She picked up the helmet first. It wasn't too heavy considering it was made for steel, although she believed a gold titanium alloy would work best. That wasn't a material she could easily come by, obviously.

As soon as she slid the helmet on, keeping the face panel open, she found she had one problem. She went to her computer and logged into the helmet from there. She activated the voice recording programme.

It had only been 7 weeks, maybe just less, since she'd started building this so it was still primitive. The mechanics to make the suit move with her had been the hardest to make.

"First note: make room for ears" how could she have missed that before. How could she fight crime and avenge the attack on her own life if it was pinching her ears. Yes she realised it sounded petty, but it was her invention she could change what she wanted.

The next part to climb into was the torso section. It was currently it two pieces, lined up ready to close around her. She stepped between. She'd organised for a winch to be set up, so she could turn it and the two pieces would be slowly bought together round her. Once that was secure she felt round her neck the helmet connecting with the torso.

Next the legs: the tops of the legs she was able to pull on with her hands, they too wrapped round her leg, they were hinged on one side so she was able to wrap them round each thigh.

The bottom half of the leg was easier to put on. Each boot style piece of the hectic puzzle stood up ready to be stepped into. The bottom stood flat on the floor, the two sides of the calf part opened up. Once her foot hit the plate on the sole it triggered the rest of the boot to clamp round her leg. So far it was actually surprisingly comfortable.

She had the arms ready to slip on like very long gloves. She thought they would be easy; it wasn't.

"Second note: split up arms into fewer pieces, and third note:" she panted "Build those robotic systems to help me get in and out of this thing". She then triggered the face panel of the helmet to close.

This was it, she was completely locked inside. It was tight but it had to be, the middle of the chest plate was attached to her arc reactor, so she didn't want it moving, it might rip it out of her chest and she needed it to keep her heart beating.

She managed to look at herself in a mirror. She was glad the arc reactor lit up, so brightly, merely because she thought it looked good in her silver armour.

"Forth note: give computer a voice" she was hating the distracting messages that were showing up right in front of her eyes. She did like the robotic noise it made as she walked across the room, and how light it felt once it was all together. It had been heavy until she had the boots on to carry the weight of the machine. Otherwise so far it had gone well.

She studied the machine in the mirror and inside the helmet on the translucent screen in front of her. Pride swelled in her chest; she had built this; and yes, it would need work but so far so good.

She still needed to install weapons; that's where some illegal stuff would come into it. She also needed to add the thrusters, this thing would fly, it had to she wouldn't get anywhere walking in this thing. But it was a start.

Now just to get out of this damn thing.

Let me know what you think; not a lot of progress I know, I just don't want to rush it.