PREVIOUSLY: The race to save Rory Flanagan was on, and in the end, it was the New Directions who saved him and possibly themselves from being expelled from the competition thanks to Artie's insistence of having Rory find out what KHAOS was like as a group.

.

And now the continuation:

.

.

CHAPTER 55 - THE FOCUS TURNS TO REGIONALS

.

Everyone was relieved to finally be able to get back to normal, and back together and away from the threat of being found out.

Rory was welcomed back into the group, but just as a helper. He needed to lay low and the best place for that was the New Directions Training Center.

As for Artie, as soon as he, Finn, Blaine, and Santana returned, Michael and Will had a meeting with him and laid down the law in no uncertain terms to not do that kind of thing again, as he put everyone's future in danger.

Artie had to give Michael's 2 I.C. all the information Rory had uploaded to his email address, but he did managed to get Michael to agree on having a small viewing that allowed Rory, Will, Michael, himself, Dan, Finn and Rachel.

Rory explained all the important information to everyone as they went along.

He showed them clips of the women being strong although it did seem that Holly Holliday and April Rhodes were just going through the motions. To Rachel, Cassandra July looked strong and confident and free of the booze, that had held her back when they were at NYADA.

They also saw footage of the behavior of the Males, they looked like certain groups had divided them, and were actually forcing them to look bad.

They did view a little bit of KHAOS'S Sectionals performance before Will and Michael both agreed that they shouldn't see any more.

.

Michael and Will brought everyone back together bar Mercedes, Tina, Puck, and Quinn who were still away and due back on Sunday.

"We thought we would sit you all down and ease your fears," said Will standing in front of the New Directions "Yes by the looks of it they are quite strong, together, but in certain groups they don't quite do so well, in fact they struggle. That's going to be a big issue moving forwards, but I believe that we are much stronger and much more supportive, and we treat everyone as a family. So I feel we have a greater chance of beating them."

"As do I," started Michael from where Will left off. "We don't need to worry about them any more until we get to the Worlds. Let them worry about us. Let them make their mistakes. So you guys have a few days left of your time off. Take it easy, relax as next week will be full on."

Everyone left the room, and went back to their last few days off.

.

.

Saturday came and Mercedes returned. Sam, Mike and Rory were in the cafeteria when Mercedes walked in. Sam saw her straight away.

"Mercedes," yelled Sam

Sam got up and ran over to Mercedes. They hugged before kissing.

"Hi," smiled Mercedes when they parted

"Hey you're voice if back fully," smiled Sam

"Yes it is,"

"Do you feel much better?"

"Very, I couldn't wait to get back to here again to see you. I missed you."

"I missed you heaps," laughed Sam

They had another hug, and kiss. Mercedes then looked back to where Mike was sitting and did a double take at who was sitting beside him.

"That's not who I think it is, is it?" asked Mercedes

"It is," smiled Sam

"Rory Flanagan?"

"The very one," replied Sam

"What's he doing here?"

"That's a very long story," laughed Sam "We should get Artie to tell you."

"Mercedes," came a voice behind her

Mercedes turned around to see Rachel.

"Hey Rach,"

Rachel ran up to Mercedes and gave her a hug.

"I've only been gone a week, Rach," laughed Mercedes

"It's been a very long week," replied Rachel

They finished their hug, as Finn walked up smiling that goofy smile of his.

"Hey Mercedes,"

"Hi Finn. Has the long week got something to do with Rory being back here?"

"Yes," replied Rachel

Finn, Rachel, Sam, and Mercedes walked over to the table. Rory got up and gave Mercedes a hug.

Everyone sat down before telling Mercedes the big story. Mercedes sat there and couldn't believe what she was hearing. The story soon came to an end. Mercedes had waited until the story was finished before expressing her opinion.

"I cannot believe you risked your lives and our future on doing something very dangerous! Don't get me wrong I'm glad you are safe Rory, but Artie never should of put you into that situation in the first place."

"It was my decision in the end," said Rory "I chose to go."

"Well then you were very stupid," replied Mercedes "You were lucky that your friends came to your rescue when they did. Promise me you won't do that again!"

"Oh I promise," replied Rory quickly.

.

.

The next day Sunday, Puck, Quinn, and Tina returned to the Training Center where they were told very quickly of what happened by Blaine, and Kurt. They then caught up with Rory.

"It's good to see you Man," smiled Puck high fiving Rory when they caught up to him

"It's good to see you too Puckerman," replied Rory

"Hey Rory," said both Quinn and Tina together

"Hey Fabray, hey Cohen-Chang."

"You know you put yourself into a very bad position law wise?" asked Quinn

Rory looked at Puck who was standing behind Quinn, while she was giving him a hug.

"She's been a very smart lawyer during the past ten years," smiled Puck

"That explains it then," replied Rory but then he received a small punch in the arm from Quinn "Sorry I mean that in a good way Fabray. Don't worry I've learned my lesson, I won't be doing that again."

"That's good to know," smiled Quinn "If you had gotten caught then we would all be having serious legalities issues,"

"He wasn't caught Quinn," said Puck "I for one would have loved to be involved."

Quinn shot Puck a look so severe that both Rory and Tina tried to keep a straight face.

"Then again I'm glad that was spending time with my son, to be involved in something dangerous like that,"

Quinn turned away. Puck shook his head quickly to disagree with his comment. Rory started sniggering quietly.

"So are you joining or watching?" asked Tina

"It's too late to join," replied Rory "I'll be helping mostly doing anything that needs to be done."

"Sounds like fun," said Puck

"I'll find out tomorrow."

All of the New Directions had returned and were now all back together.

.

.

Monday morning came and everyone crowded into the Choir Room. Michael, Dan, were there too, seated on the other side of the room. Rory was seated just nearby and Will had just arrived and was making sure the band was ready to go.

"So here we are," started Will "I hope everyone enjoyed their week long break, because these next 9 weeks are going to be hard, tough, and long. We need to win Regionals, and the only way we are going to do that is by practice, practice, practice. One of our opponents from what I've heard is Vocal Adrenaline. We all know what they were like in the past, so in order to beat them this time around, is by putting in the time.

"But then again how much is too too much practice? Mercedes because you won the part to do a solo at Sectionals, but you got sick, would you like to do the solo at Regionals?"

Everyone looked at Mercedes, Mercedes gave a small smile.

"Only if I'm not stepping on anyone's toes,"

"No you're not," said Rachel "It's yours, you deserve to do this."

"I'd like to try for a solo," said Kurt "But Rach is right, you deserve to do this at Regionals."

"Then it's decided," said Will "Mercedes you will be doing the solo at Regionals, but to avoid what happened at Sectionals, you, Rachel and Quinn will only practice a few hours a day, and that's it. You will take it easy for the rest of the day."

"Wait, why me?" asked Rachel

"And me?" asked Quinn

"You, both, are pregnant, and I don't want to risk anything in regards to very long days of training," said Will

"I'm okay with that," said Finn

"As am I," said Puck

"You would be," said Quinn looking around at Puck

Rachel turned to Finn "But I've only got my singing voice back."

"And you will still sing each day, babe," said Finn looking down at Rachel "But just for a few hours. We don't want to take any risks to hurt our baby girl."

Rachel smiled and looked back up at Finn "Okay,"

Finn hugged Rachel.

Mercedes looked at Sam "Aren't you going to say anything?"

Sam shook his head "You are your own person, Mercedes, no one tells you what to do do. I'm not going to be the first person to tell you what to do. You do it yourself."

Mercedes smiled "Fair enough."

Michael stood up, and walked from the back, and walked up beside Will.

"Mr Schuester and I made the decision together. Mrs Hudson, you're 18 weeks pregnant, Miss Fabray, you're 6 weeks. Even though that's no sign to put in a bubble bag so to speak, we don't want any pressures to be the cause just in case something happens. And as for you Miss Jones, we WANT you to perform at Regionals, but we don't want to take any chances of what happened last time. That's why every 2 weekends you will be taken back to your Health Retreat to freshen up. We don't want to take any more risks.

"I will be going back to Texas today leaving you in Mr Schuester's hands. I won't be back until the time we find out who our opponents are, and then you guys will have another television interview, and performance. So everyone, practice hard, and I can't wait to see what you've come up with when I get back."

.

.

So into practice they went. Which was why they were there in the first place, and it was indeed hard and intense and focused. Mercedes, Rachel and Quinn were grateful after a week or two to get the time outs, when they got them. As for everyone else at first they struggled but they got back into the routine, and after a while, they were fine.

.

.

Coming up next, they will find out who their opponents are for Regionals, and also they will do a performance each at the Television station that they used for Sectionals.

Stay tuned.