Dudley Road. I've never actually been on this road before. Mercedes' parents live close by but not on Dudley Road. I took a deep breath as I exited my rental car and approached the front door. The winter air was cold and it stung my face but I was willing to wait. Today was the day that I would get Finn back. I extended my gloved hand and rang the door bell.

"Merry Christmas." Judy Fabray slurred as she drunkenly pulled the door open.

"Merry Christmas, Mrs. Fabray." I said with a warm smile as I crossed the threshold into the warm house.

"Did you bring any wine?" she asked as she pushed the door shut.

"Uh no, but I did bring a traditional fruit cake." I said handing her the cellophane covered food.

"Oh. Pity. Well, I'll use it to prop the basement door open when I go down to get more wine." she said with a wide smile. "The rest of Quinnie's friends are in the living room." she said pointing with her wine filled glass, sloshing some on the hardwood floor. "Oops. Don't worry about it, Rachelle. Carlotta will get it." she smiled again and stumbled away before I could tell her my name was actually Rachel.

"Hey Rachel." Craig said from the sofa beside Kurt and Blaine who just waved as I entered into the loud living room.

"Hey guys." I said, looking around at the room's occupants. Dr. and Mrs. Chang stood over by the fireplace talking to Dr. and Mrs. Jones and Mr. and Mrs. Evans. My dads were seated on a leather loveseat chatting with Shelby and Mr. Schue. Mrs. Schuester was talking to Burt and Carol over by the Christmas tree. Puck and Quinn were swapping photos of Beth, who is now twenty years old. Beth was in deep conversation with Artie while Sugar sat in his lap and text. Sam, Mercedes, Brittany, Santana and Lauren were all just talking and enjoying a glass of wine. I handed my coat to the little maid that had followed me into the room.

"Hey Rachel." Tina said as she and Mike approached me holding the hands of a pretty little girl.

"Hey guys." I smiled. "Who's this?"

"This is Brenda." Mike said.

"Hi Brenda." I said kneeling down to her. "I'm Rachel."

"Hi." she said quietly.

"You're very pretty."

"Thank you." she said her tiny cheeks slightly blushing. "I'm five."

"No you're not!" I said. She's five years old. I had no idea that they had had another child. "Well you're a big girl, huh? Are you in school?"

"First grade. I'm gifted." she said sheepishly.

"Kids at her school tease her for being so smart." Tina said.

"Well that's because they don't know that being gifted is being apart of something special. And being apart of something special, makes you special" I said trying to hide the sadness in my voice. "I wanna give you something, ok?" she nodded her head and watched me as I dug around in my purse. "This is a gold star." I said pulling a gold star brooch out. "As long as you have a gold star everyone else will know your special." I said pinning it on her.

"Thank you Rachel." she said releasing her parents hands and wrapping her tiny arms around my neck.

"You're very welcome." I hugged her back and smiled up at Mike and Tina. They mouthed thank yous to me before taking Brenda back to her older brother Michael, who was now thirteen.

"Rachel, what are you doing here?" Kurt asked as he watched me pour myself a glass of wine.

"What?"

"Haven't you talked to Finn?" he asked his eyes wide.

"No, not for like a week. Why?" I said taking a sip.

"It's not mine to tell." Kurt said.

"Ok Kurt. So is that Delia?" I asked pointing to a chubby girl with long brown locks like Mercedes, beautiful cappuccino colored skin and piercing green eyes.

"Yeah. Annoying, isn't it?"

"What?"

"That a nine year old looks better than we do." Kurt joked.

"You're so bad." I laughed.

"She's my new spokespeople for my new KHummel kids line." he said smiling. "She looks amazing doesn't she?"

"Yeah. She does." I said half smiling. My mind was going a mile a minute. Had I really been this detached from my friends? Delia is nine, Will and Emma are thirteen, Christina Schuester is fourteen and apparently Santana and Brittany finally decided to go through with the artificial insemination by way Brittany was rubbing Santana's stomach. How did I miss so much?

X X X X

I woke up on Christmas in the guestroom. Evianna had been really serious about me sleeping on my own. Everyday since I had been home, we had conversations about why I had run out on Thanksgiving and why I had stayed in New York.

"I really am sorry about everything, Evi." I said as I joined her on the couch in the living room. "But you know my past and since Rachel and I kissed I figured Karma was just catching up to me."

"The kiss is whatever. You told me about it so I'm over it. I just don't get why you ran away without talking to me." Evianna said.

"I heard about you on the phone with a guy." I said quietly.

"What guy?"

"Some guy named Ricky."

"My brother's name is Ricky, remember?" she said rolling her eyes. "Who told you I was talking to him?"

"Does it matter?"

"Was it Rachel?"

"She was just looking out for me. She said that you were going to tell me that you were cheating on me on Christmas. She said that you called me dumb."

"Wow."

"She was just looking out for me." I said defensively.

"Bullshit Finn. If she was "looking out for you", she would have confronted me about the phone call she was eavesdropping on, instead of taking that as an opportunity to run to you and make up a story." Evi shouted.

"I don't know that she made it up and with the way you're acting I'm starting to believe her more and more." I shouted back.

"I was talking to my brother Finn." she said annoyed. "It was supposed to be a surprise but since that bitch ruined it; I might as well tell you."

"Tell me what?"

"Ricky, my brother, is going to be here any minute to surprise you for Christmas. I was telling him to leave his new boy toy Miguel at home because he's dumber than rocks." she said rising from the couch. "I love you Finn. More than anything but if you can honestly sit there and believe her over me then maybe you should be with her." I was shocked. I couldn't believe that she was saying that. I love my wife and I want to be with her.

"Evi." I said standing up in front of her. "I do believe you. A lot of things happened to me on Black Friday and now it's all making sense."

"Listen, if you want to be friends with Rachel, I can't stop you but If you choose her over me again, we're done." she said as he wrapped his arms around her. "I am no one's second choice."

"Never again baby."

"So what now?"

"Now I give her the chance to tell me the truth. That she didn't know what your conversation was about and she used that fact to try and break us apart."

"Do you honestly think you're going to get the truth out of her?" Evi questioned. "Tana and Mercy said she would die before admitting that she lied."

"Maybe to them, but it's different with me." I answered. "I'll handle it tomorrow at Mrs. Fabray's."

"I love you Finn." Evianna said her arms wrapped tightly around his waist. He smiled down at her before he leaned down and kissed her passionately.

X X X X

"Rachel?" Finn's voice said breaking me out of my head.

"Oh hey Finn." I said smiling up at him. "How have you been?"

"Great actually. Are you ok?" he said touching my shoulder.

"Uh, not really but you know what they say." I said blinking away tears.

"What?"

"The show must go on." I said with a laugh.

"Oh right, right." he smiled. "I'm here to talk if you want."

"I'm ok." I said. "So where's Drizzy?"

"She's coming. She got water on her new dress from Kurt and her and Evi ran up to the bathroom to dry it off." he answered waving to people around the room.

"Oh, Evianna's here." I said quietly.

"Yeah. She was invited." he answered as he poured two glasses of wine. "Are you sure you're ok?"

"Yeah I was just looking around at all things that I've missed. Kids and new pregnancies and God knows what else, I mean Finn have I really been that cut off from everything?" I said looking him in the eye.

"It's complicated Rachel." he said softly. "I mean, if you really want to know why you haven't met Brenda or DQ before today or why you didn't know Santana was pregnant, you should just ask."

"What's the point?" I said quickly wiping away an escaped tear. "I know it's because they hate me. They always have. It was you they loved. You were the only reason I was involved in their lives."

"That's not true Rachel."

"Then what's the truth?"

"Find out for yourself."

"No thank you." I said turning away from him.

"Speaking of the truth, when are you going to tell me the truth?" Finn questioned loudly.

"What?" I asked looking at him.

"Forget it." he said as he walked away from me and over to Puck.