Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Rating: Same as before.

"Right! Children! It seems we have head-lice!" Maggie said.

The teenagers groaned as they all thought 'not again!'

"Teens!" she said, throwing a bottle of head lice treatment to every two people.

"This stuff? Ugh it smells so bad!" Rachel moaned.

"Yeah...it attracts elves too." Brittany said, as Santana took the bottle away from her.

"Do you want head lice?..." Maggie said.

"Come on then guys." Mercedes said. "Let's just get it over with."

"Good children!" Maggie smiled. "Now! Ickle people...your turn!"

The kids all sighed in unison. Maggie blinked.

"You know sometimes you lot can be scary..."

Half an hour later Rachel had put the head lice treatment on her and Quinn's hair and now Quinn was doing homework she had forgotten to do earlier. Her hair smelt bad and she had an hour before she could take it off so she decided to wander downstairs to see how Maggie was doing with the kids. She opened the living room door to see all six kids sitting in a line in front of the care worker. It looked like only two of them had been treated and Maggie looked stressed.

"Hey Maggie, need some help?" she smiled.

Maggie looked up from 9 year old Lucas's head.

"Rachel! Yes! Jesus, you know you would think they would make these bottles easier to open wouldn't you?" she said.

Rachel laughed and took a seat on the couch next to her. She summoned the next child in line and began to apply the treatment.

As Maggie finished with Lucas and started on the next in line she looked sideways at Rachel.

"You're awfully quite darling." she said. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I'm fine." Rachel muttered.

"Rachel I've known you since you were little, I know when something is wrong, so tell me." she said.

Rachel sighed.

"What would you do if your friend was in trouble?" she asked the older woman.

"Well." Maggie said. "It depends in what sort of trouble it was."

"Big trouble..." Rachel muttered.

"Is this somebody from school?" Maggie asked.

Rachel bit her lip.

"Yes..."

"Can you help them?"

"I can try."

"And you will try, I know that much Rachel."

Rachel smiled. Maggie always knew what to do. Quinn really had to tell her about the pregnancy. She looked down for the next child only to realise they had all been done.

"Well, that took less time than I thought it would!" Maggie smiled. "Now to check on the teenagers..."

Rachel laughed.

"Are you okay?" Maggie asked her.

"Yes. Thanks Mags."

"No problem." She stood up. "Right, I'll see you in an hour for a mass hair wash!"

Rachel laughed and Maggie left the room. She would do all she could for Quinn and if that meant keeping quiet for the time being that's what she would do.

xxxxxxx

Later that night, after all the kids in the home had been washed and dried and sorted for the morning, everyone gathered in the living room. The boys, including, surprisingly, Kurt, were playing poker with care worker Jamie. Puck was winning, of course, and there was nearly no noise coming from their little corner as they all huddled over their cards in concentration.

The girls had the tv switched onto some soap opera. It wasn't very interesting, but there was nothing else on and it did seem to be captivating the kids. Quinn, Brittany and Santana sat together on the floor eating dry cereal from a bowl. They were multi-tasking, one eye on the television and the other on each other as they talked.

Mercedes and Tina were sat combing Lottie and Bebe's hairs with a head lice comb. They were all transfixed with the tv. Rachel sat on her own on the far end of the couch. She had done all her homework earlier so she now had nothing to do. In front of her on the low coffee table was a head lice comb so she picked it up and started dragging it through her thick dark hair. Ever since she was a little girl she had always loved getting her hair brushed. She used to wish for a mother that would sit and brush her hair for her and plait it. She smiled at her little childhood dream. She knew it would never happen now, nobody adopted a 16 year old girl. And soon she'd be 18 and moving on, she'd be an adult. She would move on...forever an orphan. Well...she wasn't an orphan. She did have a mom...somewhere. When she was little she had had two dads. They had loved her very much, that she knew. But they had died in a fire and from the age of 3 she had had nobody. She wasn't sure her mother knew she was in a children's home. She sighed, thinking of her dads always made her feel lonely.

"Hey Rach, you wanna shove up."

She broke out of her trance and looked up to see Kurt standing over her.

"Sure." she said, allowing him on the couch with her.

He sat down and looked at her, frowning.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Oh...yes. Yes. I was just thinking." she told him.

"Oh yeah?"

"I was just thinking about my dads."

"Oh..."

"Yeah...sorry."

"Sorry?" Kurt laughed slightly. "Sorry about what?"

"I must be bumming you out."

Kurt sat up straighter and took the nit comb off her.

"You can't be happy all the time Rach, it's not possible, even for you!" he said, gently, starting to comb her hair.

Rachel smiled.

"What about you? How are you coping these days?" she asked him.

Kurt had been in the home since he was seven years old. His mom died and his father couldn't cope looking after him on his own. Their father-son relationship was strained but they still saw each other. Most weekends Burt Hummel would come and visit his son and take him out somewhere. Kurt had gotten used to the situation over the years but that didn't mean it didn't hurt when his dad left him at the end of the day.

"To be honest I haven't got time to think of my dad these days. The amount of times I'm getting slushied a day." he said.

"Oh yeah. At least yesterday was berry flavour, it goes with my name!"

Kurt laughed.

"Do you think we should tell Maggie about the slushies?" he asked her.

Rachel sighed.

"It's all a part of school." she said.

"But it's Puck and Quinn that's doing it." he reminded her.

"I know, I know. But what can she do. They are only doing it to keep up their

reputation." she told him.

"I don't really care about their reputations. I mean, Quinn used to be your best friend." he said.

She nodded.

"You know they don't mean it." she muttered.

Kurt stopped combing.

"You're actually defending them?"

"No, no."

"Then what Rachel? We don't deserve to be treated like this."

Rachel turned to face him.

"I know."

Kurt frowned.

"Rachel are okay?" he asked.

She nodded, shook her head, then shrugged.

"I just wish my dads were still here." she whispered.

"Oh Rachel."

He held out his arms and she snuggled into him. She really needed a best friend right know and Kurt was ready there for her. Just like he always was. Even though they had trouble getting on, they both had each others backs.

Quinn looked over at Rachel and Kurt snuggled up together on the couch. She felt a pang of concern and also jealously. Kurt was Rachel's best friend now and Quinn couldn't help hating that fact.