Here's the next chapter, I know a lot of you have been dying to read this one. Hopefully it will live up to expectations :)

Thanks again to all my lovely reviewers. I love you all and I'm sending you imaginary cupcakes now, along with this chapter, as a thank you.

Rachel was frozen in shock. If Shelby wasn't so terrified of her reaction the expression on her face would've been hilarious.

The older woman inwardly cursed at herself for her stupid Freudian slip. She knew, subconsciously, that she'd started referring to Rachel as her daughter in her head but she hadn't meant for it to come out like that.

"What did you just say?" Her daughter said, so quietly she could barely hear her.

"Would you believe me if I said 'nothing'?" Shelby answered with a nervous giggle.

"Is it true?"

"Yes, sweetie, it is. Is that a bad thing?"

"I don't know." Rachel replied honestly. "Were you going to tell me?"

"Of course I would have, I just didn't want to shock you too much and scare you away before I had a chance to get to know you. I'm sorry, I really am. I didn't want to lie to you but I was afraid that if I told you, you'd hate me. If you want me to leave I will. You never have to see me again if you don't want to." Shelby was aware that she was ranting. She was just so scared that she'd messed everything up. "Do you want me to go right now? I'll call a cab and leave, just say the word. Shall I phone your dads? Tell them to come back now and look after you?"

Rachel moved an inch closer and placed her hand gently on the Shelby's arm. This shut her up immediately. She watched as a single tear fell from her eye and pulled her the older woman into a hug.

"You don't hate me?" Shelby asked tentatively, once they had let each other go.

"No. Is that why you're here?"

"Part of the reason." Rachel looked at her, silently telling her to continue. "Your dads phoned me after they found out about the hard times you've been having at school."

Rachel's face fell. 'So that's what this is all about' she thought.

"Why had you never come to see us before?"

"I wasn't allowed." She said simply, even though the thought pained her she tried not to show it.

"Why not?"

"When your fathers picked me to be their surrogate, they were so worried that I would back out at the last minute and want to keep you that they drew up a contract stating that I couldn't try and make contact with you until you were eighteen. I soon realised that that was a lot harder than it sounded on paper though." Shelby explained.

Rachel reached for her phone.

"What are you doing? Are you telling that boy from your school? Are you phoning the police? Oh please don't phone the police. I promise I'm telling the truth."

"Relax." Rachel smiled, the first time she'd done so since she found out. "I'm just texting my dads. I think we need a bit more time alone."

"Hi dad. Shelby told me. Can you give us a bit longer please? xxxx"

The reply was almost instant.

"Of course, sweetheart. Call me when you want us to come back. We're at Mark and Laura's. We love you xxxxxxxx"

"They're at a friend's." Rachel said after reading the message. "Do you want anything to eat? I'm just going to make myself some toast."

"I'll have a couple of slices please, if it's not too much trouble."

She returned a couple of minutes later with a tray with her plate of toast on and a variety of spreads and jams for her to choose from. Rachel left again and came back with her own plate of toast. Shelby thanked her and the pair ate in silence for a minute, giving them both some time to process what had just happened.

"How are you feeling, baby?" She asked once they had finished eating. She saw Rachel's body tense slightly when she said the word 'baby'. Had she gone too far too soon? "Sorry, do you want me to stick to calling you Rachel?"

"No it's fine, I'm just still in a bit of a shock I think." Her daughter replied, before getting up and leaving the room. She returned seconds later with a glass of water and two bars of chocolate that she'd bought earlier on her way home from school. Offering one to Shelby, she began to unwrap the other and break off a bit. "Can I have a couple of minutes to think about this?" She asked.

"Of course, take as long as you need. Do you want me to go somewhere else while you do?"

Rachel shook her head, before eating the first square of her chocolate. She was sat at the opposite end of the sofa to Shelby, even though all she really wanted to do was cuddle up to her mother and cry. It really had been an emotional couple of days for her.

Shelby Corcoran was her mother? Her mum was on Broadway? Her mum played Elphaba in Wicked? Rachel couldn't believe it. Just meeting her would have been a dream come true but this? It was almost too much, too good to be true. But was it? She'd come here because her dads had asked her to, did she really want to come or was she just being nice? Rachel knew she was annoying, did Shelby think she was too? It wouldn't surprise her, she did seem to get constant reminders of the fact at school. She'd always thought she was pretty much the most talented person in her school but even now she felt so inadequate next to Shelby. Would she love her? What if she didn't?

At the opposite end of the sofa, Shelby was also lost in her own thoughts and feelings of inadequacy. She so desperately wanted Rachel to like her, and to feel comfortable around her. What if she never was? She'd sprung too many surprises on her today she didn't know how well she would handle it. She wasn't talking. Why hadn't she said anything? It had been ages. She caught Rachel's eye and gave her a weak smile, it wasn't much but it was the best she could muster feeling this level of fear. She noticed they'd both finished their chocolate bars. Shelby always had chocolate when she was upset. It was her way of making herself feel better. It seemed she may have passed this trait on to her daughter. Leroy had also told her about the water situation. They would get Rachel a glass of water every time she became upset and over time the line between being upset and thirsty seemed to blur. As much as she loved hearing about details and events from Rachel's childhood, it also made her more upset about the fact that she hadn't been there to witness them.

She noticed Rachel moving out of the corner of her eye. Slowly, the teenager got up and moved across the sofa to sit next to her mum. Shelby put her arm around the young girl and gave her a little squeeze to let her know she was ready to talk when Rachel was.

"Where do we go from here?" Rachel asked quietly. "What does all this mean?"

"It can mean whatever you want it to."

"I don't know yet."

"Okay. Do you want to forget this ever happened?" Rachel shook her head. "Do you still want to see me?" This time she nodded, indicating a 'yes'. "Can I stay here tonight? Or do you want me to get a hotel?"

"You can stay here." She answered, receiving a smile from Shelby. "Do I call you 'mum' now?"

"Do you want me to be your mum?"

Rachel considered this for a bit. "I'm not sure yet." She decided.

"That's okay. Whatever you decide I'll be fine with. I just want to make this as comfortable as it can be for you." She said. She knew that could be difficult but she would do anything for her daughter's happiness, including flying to see her with less than a day's notice, evidently. "Shall we stick to you calling me 'Shelby' for now? When the time feels right you can call me mum, but only if you want to."

"That sounds like a good idea. I don't think I'm going to tell anyone else about this yet."

"I think it's for the best." Shelby replied. She didn't want the media finding out about this, they'd have a field day. It would change Rachel's life forever. They were enough to handle for Shelby, a fully grown, confident woman who had been dealing with them for years. She could only imagine the stress it would cause her teenage daughter, especially when she was feeling so fragile anyway.

"What's it like? Broadway?" Rachel asked.

"What do you want to know?"

"Anything." She smiled. "Anything and everything."

"You don't ask for much do you?" Shelby teased. She looked at her watch. "It's getting late. How about you get washed and ready for bed and I'll meet you upstairs in about 10 minutes?"

"Okay."

"While you're there I'll phone your dads and let them know everything's fine and they can come back." She paused and the younger girl got up to leave the room. "Rachel?" She called out.

"Yeah?"

"If it's alright with your dads, do you want to come and stay with me over your spring break?"

Rachel couldn't believe it. "I'd love to!" She replied.

Shelby beamed. 'Maybe this would be okay after all.' She thought.

It only took seconds after getting into her bed for Rachel to realise how tired she was. It had been a difficult day and she wasn't really sure how much of what had happened had truly sunk in yet. Shelby came up minutes later and Rachel was already struggling to keep her eyes open. Shelby just sat at the foot of her bed and told stories of the glamour of Broadway and the atmosphere and emotion both on and off stage when she was performing. She talked about winning her first Tony award and how she was so overwhelmed that she was practically crying when she went up to accept it. She remembered how she was competing with a co-star for the award and giving her a quick kiss before she went up onto the stage. They both looked over the moon that she had won.

Shelby wasn't exactly sure when her daughter had managed to drift off but she could tell she was fast asleep when Hiram poked his head around the door.

She followed him downstairs to the kitchen where he offered her a glass of wine which she willingly accepted.

The pair walked through to the living room again where Leroy was already sat.

"How did she take it?" He asked.

"I don't think she's really processed it properly yet. She was in shock, to say the least. She's agreed to come and stay with me over spring break, as long as you're okay with that."

"I think it would be good for the pair of you to get to know each other better." Hiram smiled. "She didn't bother you too much with too many questions about Broadway did she?"

"No she was lovely. She did ask about it and I was telling her stories upstairs before she fell asleep."

"Are you happy you told her?"

"Well it didn't really go exactly as I'd planned, but I think it worked out alright. She doesn't hate me, which is a start." Shelby answered.

"Did you ever think she would? Everyone loves you! You even made the Wicked Witch of the West likable." Leroy exclaimed.

"How did it happen?" His partner asked.

"We were talking about her telling her friend that I was here and I said something along the lines of wanting to 'spend a bit of 'alone time' with my daughter'. Stupid Freud." She giggled.

"But she was okay eventually?" Shelby nodded. "That's alright then. I've got a funny story about Freudian slips" Hiram said, hoping the anecdote would make Shelby feel less awkward about her mistake.

"Oh, the teacher story?" Leroy asked with a smile.

"Yeah." He turned to face Shelby. "My psychology teacher in high school told me about a teacher she had worked with at an all girl's school. He was quite young and attractive and all the students loved him. Anyway, he was teaching one of the older classes and wanted them to open their books so that he could start the lesson. Instead, he said 'I want you all to open your legs to page 12'." He laughed.

This made Shelby relax a bit more, knowing that things could have been worse. She was just happy that Rachel had accepted her and didn't hate her. She didn't know how she could have lived if her daughter hated her.

Hiram and Leroy started talking about funny high school and college memories but Shelby was too busy lost in her own thoughts to join in the conversation.

She'd suffered from depression in the years after Rachel's birth. Even doing what she loved and performing on Broadway couldn't bring her out of it some nights. After a lot of therapy and courses of antidepressants she was able to get herself back on track and start enjoying her life. Besides, she could see Rachel when she turned 18 and vowed to make her daughter proud of her. She hoped that she had done that now and soon they'd be close and able to enjoy each other's company without feeling awkward of feeling terrified of saying the wrong thing. Shelby knew it would be unrealistic for her daughter to accept her as her mother straight away but she would settle for the 'older sister' or 'cool auntie' role for now, as long as she was part of Rachel's life. She vowed to be there whenever she needed her from now on.

A/N: The story about the teacher really happened. I just thought I'd put it in here to give you guys a giggle :) xx