Bring Me Home

Disclaimer: characters are the property of Fox

A/N: It has been brought to my attention that I suck for not updating sooner, lol. I really wanted to get this chapter right because it kind of sets the tone for the rest of the story. I've read and re-written this chapter so many times, mainly whenever a random line would pop into my head and I need to post it so that I can move on to my other fics. Luckily inspiration struck me today and I managed to piece this thing together, hopefully you guys are still interested.

Chapter 9: Trippin On A Hole In A Paper Heart

You've got a new girlfriend

But I still love you

I can't stand the thought of her

Having a piece of you

What she got that I don't?

What she do that I won't?

You must be blind

Take a good look at her

She's not your kind

After all we've been through

I'm devoted to you

I'm Jealous, I'm jealous

I'm jealous out of my mind

'This is seriously fucked!', Quinn thinks to herself. Sitting in the smoky lounge of Lima's only bowling ally listening to Brittany pour her heart and soul into that old Divinyls song. Quinn rolls her eyes at her friends Tina and Mercedes, who are stupidly cheering the blond on, clueless to the real reasons behind the latest Brittany/Santana split. This one is definitely the worst yet, easily overriding the breakup back in senior year and their first real fight after Santana lost her virginity to Puck.

This time there will be no reconciliations a week later with both girls linking their pinkies together as they walk down the halls a half step behind Quinn, sharing secret smiles. This time feels…permanent, and the worst part is that it didn't seem unfixable until Quinn received that doofus Finn Hudson's helpful little mass emailed picture of Santana and Rachel at that party the previous night.

And it hurts, it hurts right here

In my heart, is a bloody tear

I thought that you were so sincere

You got what you wanted

Then you got outta here!

You got a new girlfriend

"Sing it, girl!" Mercedes shouts, saluting her illegally obtained fruity cocktail towards the stage in a misguided show of solidarity.

'Why in God's name did I agree to come out with these morons tonight?', Quinn questions herself again but one glance at the completely broken look on Brittany's face as she drunkenly dances through the guitar solo is all the explanation she needs. There was absolutely no way Quinn could, in good conscience, leave an emotionally wounded Brittany in Tina and Mercedes' hands. There's no telling what those two would have talked the blonde into doing in a desperate attempt to seek revenge on Santana.

Even after three hours of assuring Brittany that the photo of Rachel, Santana and a random celebutaunt who was practically giving the Latina a lap dance during a party held at the Essence Hotel, there was nothing more going on. But Brittany wasn't fooled, or Quinn wasn't very convincing, either way Brittany was still crushed to know that Santana was being very open about her sexuality in New York, while still refusing to do the same in Lima.

I'm jealous, out of my mind

Brittany ends the song with an abundance of applause and catcalls from the smoky lounge and as she slinks off of the stage and back to their table, Quinn quickly stands to intercept her reach for her Corona.

"Hey!"

"It's getting late Britt, I'll drive you home okay?" It's not really a question, Quinn puts on her best 'mom-face' and even through her beer haze Brittany knows she should be cut off.

"It's only like, 11:30." Mercedes protests

"'S fine, I got stuff to do tomorrow." Brittany pouts the entire time Quinn helps her into her jacket. "It was fun jamming with you guys though."

"Night." Tina and Mercedes calls over their shoulders as they turn back to the stage, ready to start making fun of the next performer.

Making it to her car without incident, Quinn checks Brittany to gauge what level of drunkness she's reached. The sour look on the other blonde's face is beginning to make her nervous.

"You're not gonna puke are you?" Quinn asks warily.

"When I went with my mom to the doctor's the other day, this really cute guy asked me out." Brittany quietly confesses. "He's one of those…what do you call them? Doctor's in training?"

"Interns?"

"Yeah, one of those. He was nice, tried to take my mind off of the kazillion tests they were putting my mom through. I almost said yes but then I thought about…I thought about Her and I just couldn't mess around with someone so soon. It just still feels raw, you know?"

"Britt." Quinn begins but the other blond shakes her head furiously, silently begging her not to give another pitiful, 'It'll all work out in the end' speech.

"She made her choice Q. We both did and now I just have to make the best of it." sighing morosely, Brittany slouches down in her seat, letting the soothing motion of the car drift her off to sleep.

"Seven, Bitches!" Puck exclaims as the two red dice come to a clattering halt, proclaiming the fireman the winner. He obnoxiously snatches his winnings out of the other boys hands and begins to count. "I'll be sure to have Soph write you all a thank you note for financing her vacation."

"Speaking of which," Artie grumbles, "don't you have packing to do or something that doesn't involve hustling your friends?"

"Yeah, I'm starting to think that you're like cheating or something." Finn pipes in. He looks down to his hand where he has only $13 left out of the $60 he walked into Artie's game room with.

"Finnessa, the day you actually start thinking is the day I become a celibate priest. That shit don't even sound right."

"Shut up, and roll." Finn snaps, elbowing Puck in the side to get the game back on track. "So…what are you and Quinn planning to do while you're in New York?"

"Same thing I usually do when I hit the city." Puck shrugs as he blows on the dice, cranking them in his palm and letting them fly across the floor. " 'cept less drinking cause my kid is with us but Rachel's nana is dying to babysit so we'll probably have time to hit all of those celebrity parties and shit that Rach gets invited to."

"But aren't they like…gay bars and stuff? You know, now that that's what she's into?" Scratching his head in confusion Finn is still unsure how Rachel Berry who was totally in love/obsession with him, is now dating girls or more specifically a woman.

"Even though Broadway is like 40% gay, not all of the functions she's gotta do are gay," Puck explains to his dimwitted friend with an eye roll. "like that party she was at last night for that reality show chick. Besides, the Puckzilla walks into a room and everybody's throwing their underwear at him!"

"Pause." Artie shouts, laughing the bespectacled boy high fives Mike, who's desperately trying not to shoot beer out of his nose from laughing so hard.

"Sit and spin, wheels!" Puck counters.

"So you've met Rachel's girlfriend?" Finn tries to inconspicuously ask but Puck and everyone else sees right through him.

"Don't man, just don't even think about going there." Puck warns, huffing in aggravation as he rolls an eight and Mike greedily snatches up the dice.

"Wha?..I didn't say anything, I was just asking…"

"I know what you were about to ask so let me just lay it down for you now. Leave. Berry. Alone. She's doing good, she's happy and she doesn't deserve to be dragged back into all of your bullshit man."

"My bullshit, oh so now you're forgetting shoving your tongue down MY girlfriend's throat like two seconds after we broke up!"

"Actually it was more like five seconds, you must be thinking about how you dumped Rach then tried to hook up with both Brittany and Santana? Or maybe how you dumped Rachel yet again and then tried to break up Quinn and her latest Ken doll?"

"Don't try and act all innocent and stuff, Puck!" Finn yells, effectively ending the good natured game and pulling every eye in the room towards him. "We've been bro's for how long? I know all about the girls you've slept with and never looked at twice!"

"Yeah and every girl I slept with knew it was a one time thing, I didn't string any chick along for months, making promises I wouldn't keep and then shake them off whenever my popularity was in jeopardy. And I sure as fuck didn't send the girl I supposedly loved some jacked up email about what a selfish cunt she was for bailing on a stupid singing competition!"

Both boys are standing face to face by now, Puck's chest heaving with pent up anger while Finn stares wide eyed, his mouth opening and closing but unable to come up with anything relevant to defend himself.

"Yeah, Lopez told me about the email you sent Rachel, you soulless prick."

"I…I didn't mean it…I was just…but she was the one…" the taller boy stammers but Puck just snorts in disgust.

"All Rachel asked of you was a little bit of loyalty, for you to back her up in public. But nooo, you were too busy pole-riding Schuester who was so jealous of her talent and the fact that she would make it outta here, to act like an adult. Great fuckin role model Finn, no wonder you're doing so well now!"

Finn's jaw suddenly snaps shut, his face turns tomato red and he's grinding his teeth together so hard that Puck can practically picture sparks igniting between his molars. For a second Puck thinks he might have crossed the line. It's one thing to think someone is a Lima loser because they're still living in their small town aimlessly working a job that just barely allows them to scrap by. But it's a whole other ballgame to actually say it to that person's face, especially when said person confidentially told you that he failed the test to become a mechanic so his stepfather is letting him work without a license until he can take the exam again.

Puck swallows hard at the flicker of hurt embarrassment that flashes in his friend's eyes but then he remembers how Finn blew Rachel off every single time she tried to get him to study and seriously contemplate his future. But winning one championship game inflated Finn's ego to the point where he figured every college he applied for would fall at his feet to sign him. It was quite a rude awakening for the over confident teen when the most he was offered was a third string position at a Division 2 school.

Puck knew he couldn't really afford to attend college full time while trying to raise a child. Becoming a Fireman was the most logical solutions to his career dilemma and when he told Rachel that it wasn't simply because he'd get to work with fire and swing an ax, the tyrannical diva set up a grueling training schedule to get him in shape for the difficult exam.

"You got something you wanna say then say it Puck." Finn growls

"Uh guys, just chill alright." Artie tries to wheel himself between the two taller boys, hoping to diffuse the situation before either throws a punch,

"Nah Artie, Finn wants to talk about what a douche he is and I've been dying to get up in his ass for a while now."

"Pause." both Mike and Artie interject. Puck spares them a sneer before focusing back onto the boy in front of him.

"You know what? Screw this, I'm tired of trying to talk some sense into your dumbass head. I'll see you guys when I get back, later." He throws a nod towards Mike and Artie and doesn't even bother looking in Finn's direction as he gathers his winnings, heading for the stairs.

"That was fun." Artie drawls

Finn just stands there, gaping at the empty doorway his ex-best friend just passed through. It takes a minute for it to really sink in, all he did was ask about Rachel and then Puck's shouting at him and bringing up that stupid email he and Kurt sent to Rachel last year.

Truth be told he's not even sure exactly what the email contained. Finn had been excruciatingly drunk when his stepbrother brought up the topic of Rachel leaving them in the lurch so that she could run off to chase her dreams. A few well placed jabs and pokes at his insecurities and the next thing Finn knew he was sitting at Kurt's antique baroque desk, typing the hateful words that Kurt poured into his ear.

Man, he really was an idiot.

In the past, whenever Rachel would spot a couple heavily making out in public she would have rolled her eyes and not so subtlety hinted that that type of behavior was completely unnecessary. Not that she has anything against people showing affection for one another, it's simply a matter of propriety and publicly sucking face without regards to who may be watching, didn't seem like something good girls did.

But it's official, Rachel is a total hypocrite, or at the very least she has revised her standing point on public displays of affection. Staggering backwards out of the doors of the quaint little pub 'The Dirty Robber', and into the oppressive heat of a summer night in the city, Rachel nearly trips in her rarely worn five inch heels but Jane's steady arms catches her as she tumbles backward. They share a little chuckle before Jane crashes her lips to Rachel and successfully steers them through the doorway and out onto the street.

"Rachel?"

The sound of her name being called pulls Rachel out of the intoxicating trance of Jane's kisses. She turns to her left, her eyes taking a moment to focus, then widens in surprised discomfiture when they land on Shelby Corcoran.

"Shelby um, hi." Rachel squeaks

"Hello, I saw you from across the street. I almost didn't recognize you." The older brunette says coolly. Her dark brown eyes scans over her daughter's companion, she looks pointedly between the pair, lifting her strong jaw in question, awaiting an introduction.

Introducing her slightly tipsy pseudo girlfriend to her mother was definitely not the way Rachel envisioned telling Shelby she's gay. Come to think of it, Rachel hadn't planned to tell Shelby she was gay, straight or anything else. When Shelby abruptly cut off all contact so soon after moving mountains just to meet her, Rachel resigned herself to never having the chance to get to know her birth mother. Honestly, she doesn't owe Shelby a goddamn thing, let alone an introduction to the woman she's been sleeping with on a regular basis. But of course the universe has other plans and would select the exact moment when Jane's hand surreptitiously slid up her thigh, for Rachel to run into Shelby and her fiancé.

"This is Jane Rizzoli," Rachel awkwardly motions to the woman still embracing her. "Jane, Shelby Corcoran and Robert Manning."

"Nice to meet you." Jane congenially offers, extending her hand towards the other woman. Shelby glances down at the hand, the look on her face clearly stating she saw where that hand had just been. Jane quickly retracts the offending limb, because 'duh this woman was totally not going to shake the appendage that was formerly caressing Rachel's ass'. She nods politely instead and clears her throat, desperate to stave off the blush that wants to conquer her olive complexion.

"Awkward." Rachel mumbles to herself. She licks her lips, the faint taste of strawberry lip gloss and Jane leaves her slightly enthralled for a moment. Long enough for an uncomfortable blanket of silence to settle upon the group.

"So, are you an actress as well Shelby?" Jane's question brings Shelby's eyes back onto her and the gaze penetrates her skull like a heat seeking missile.

Jane tries hard not to fidget, she's a badass detective for crying out loud. She's the one who makes perp's wet themselves, she doesn't get intimidated but there's something about the look this woman is giving her that makes Jane want to confess to some wrongdoing.

"Once upon a time." Shelby calmly answers, "but no, I'm Shelby Corcoran," she reiterates. "I'm Rachel's mother."

"Oh, I um didn't know you had a mother. I mean obviously, you had to have had a mother, it's just…" Jane stumbles over her words, completely mortified that she had just been caught making out with Rachel by her mother. That hasn't happened to her since high school and even then she had come up with a clever system to sneak around her overbearing mom.

"It's fine, I've never mentioned Shelby because she's not really my mother, she was the surrogate my dads hired to give birth to their embryo."

The clinical explanation of the 19 hours Shelby spent in excruciating pain to give life to the girl standing before her feels like a slap in the face. Never mind that it's kinda warranted what with the way she treated her daughter but still…ouch!

"Sweetie, I know that I didn't handle our reunion well. I suppose in my mind you were always this precious little baby that I carried for nine months and the only contact we ever had was you kicking excessively in my womb. I didn't mean to treat you like…""A set of old worn out tires that needed to be replaced with a brand new shiny pair?"

"Rachel!" Shelby practically shouts completely scandalized that her actions seemed so callous. "That is a horrible and totally untrue analogy."

"You're right, that was awful. Plenty of people stick with threadbare tires for months even though they are aware of the safety hazard. You barely knew me for a week before you decided I needed to be replaced." She lifts her hands to tuck her hair behind her ears but is enraged when she sees Shelby attempting the very same nervous gesture.

Years ago she would have celebrated their shared mannerisms but now all Rachel feels is sick to her stomach when she notes their similarities. Shelby told her once that she saw herself in Rachel, did Shelby really dislike who she'd become so much so that the only way to change was to get rid of her living, breathing reminder.

"Rachel, I'll be the first to admit that I was ill equipped to be a mother to you. Even though I sought you out, I only had this abstract notion of us being a family. I failed to see the whole picture and when you were standing in front of me asking for advice that any real mother would easily give, I realized…Rachel you had it wrong. I wasn't good enough for you."

"And you couldn't have come to this epiphany before you sicced your lapdog on me?" Snorting derisively, Rachel turns on her heel, Jane's arm wrapped protectively around her waist is the only thing keeping her upright.

"Rachel, sweetie please don't walk away like this." Shelby's plea only serves to further raise the younger brunette's ire.

"Just consider this yet another ability my mother passed along to me, genetics really are remarkable."

If she wasn't so enraged by her bio-mother's confusing behavior, Rachel would have counted that as one of her 'Top 10 Diva Storm-off's'.

"I suppose you think that I was too harsh?" Rachel questions, they have been walking in silence for nearly five minutes and she was beginning to wonder if Jane thought her behavior towards Shelby was a bit over the top.

"Hey, no judgments." the taller brunette gives Rachel's hip a comforting squeeze, while flashing a crooked smile. "After all you've met my mom, I know how crazy family can make otherwise sane people go bonkers."

"Technically Shelby isn't my family" Rachel still feels the need to clarify that distinction. Though whether she's trying to convince Jane or herself of the difference she's still not sure. "My dads hired her to serve as a surrogate, once she completed her end of the agreement there wasn't suppose to be any further contact. Shelby was the one who violated the contract, she sought me out and did a very piss-poor job of trying to unobtrusively infiltrate my life."

"Well, you know what's a great cure for dysfunctional family drama?"

Jane leads her into a darken alley, pressing Rachel up against the scratchy surface of the brick wall as her lips descend and her hands slowly make their way up under the singer's sinfully short skirt.

"This ally is highly unsanitary and anyone looking through their window can see us." Rachel weakly protests as Jane's long fingers inch inside of her panties.

"That's part of the appeal of semi-public sex." the husky voice whispers into her ear, punctuated by a moist tongue licking the shell of her ear and biting down on the lobe.

"Very well officer, shall I assume the position?"