Jasper stepped off his plane as soon as it landed in Los Angeles. He had no idea if he could even see his uncle today or not, but he had to do something. There was no way he was going to be staying in McKinley with absolutely no idea about what was going on. He had seen the news exploding with the story about Charles and Ronald being captured, Jasper knew it was only a matter of time before they got caught anyway. While a very powerful man, Charles still wasn't the brightest crayon on in the box, he got too careless and tended to think he was above the law most of the time. I guess now he knew that money really couldn't fix everything because if it could he would already be out of jail. Hailing a cab outside of the airport, Jasper decided that he would go check into his hotel and then go about seeing if there was a way that he could visit his uncle. Maybe he would get lucky.
"Do you think Quinn has talked to Rachel?" Shelby Corcoran paced around the front living room of the house that she shared with her wife Cassandra July.
Cassie looked up from the box of small paintings that she was unpacking. "It's possible she has told her, she is like her manager or something now isn't she?"
"Manager, best friend, all of the above. Why did we agree to do this?" Shelby flopped down on the couch, covering her eyes with her right arm.
Cassie sighed as she brushed her hands down her jeans as she stood up to sit down next to Shelby. "Because it's a damn good paying job and you want a relationship with your daughter. Plus, we get to teach together, double the amount of children we can make cry." Shelby snorted, Cassandra July always the optimist. Cassie softened her tone as she took hold of Shelby's hand bringing it down off her eyes. "We're not getting any younger Shelby, it's time to make amends and work on this relationship. Being here is the only way to do that from past experience."
"I know, but what if she hates me now?" Shelby's eyes swam with unshed tears.
"I doubt she hates you. But I am not going to sugar coat it for you. It's going to take some time for her to come around and when she does there will be resentment and trust issues. Those are things you two are going to have to work on together. You're going to have to prove that you're not going to leave again."
"I'll do whatever it takes to prove myself to her. I'm just scared." Shelby leaned her head against Cassie's shoulder and began to play with the blonde woman's fingers.
"It's okay to be scared. We're going to fix this though." Cassie turned her head to play a kiss on Shelby's forehead. She hoped they could fix this, Shelby deserved to have her daughter back and Rachel deserved to have her mother.
Rachel stared blankly at Santana. What did she mean she knew who had messed with her ladder? Had Jasper done this? Was he more dangerous than they initially thought?
"Rachel. Hello? Rachel are you listening to me?" Santana scooted down to the edge of the roof so that she could get a better view of what Rachel was doing. The woman was just standing there staring up at her. "Rachel!"
Rachel looked around confused for a moment. She was supposed to be doing something, oh yeah. Call Duncan to get him to come help get Santana off the roof. Today was just full of ridiculous surprises, so many things were going wrong and Rachel was tired. "Uhm, hang on. I am calling him." Rachel turned in a circle looking for her purse. Did she even grab it out of the car? Nope, of course not! She ran to her car and fumbled around in the passenger seat looking for her phone when her eyes caught site of the leather book she had bought to turn into a picture album. She needed to hide that so Santana wouldn't see it.
After finally locating her phone and calling Duncan, Rachel walked back over to the side of the house. "He's on his way. Don't move."
"Where am I going to move to? Other than walking around on the roof of course." Santana rolled her eyes even though Rachel couldn't see it.
"Do not walk around on that roof Santana! Why are you even there without a harness anyway? You could have slipped and fell." The longer Rachel stood in the yard looking up the tenser her neck became.
"It was a quick job and I have never used a harness up here before. I know what I am doing. How was I supposed to know that the ladder was jacked up?"
"You didn't check it before you climbed up it?" Rachel stood with her hands on her hips.
"I did! It was locked and sturdy. The movement from climbing must have popped the locks since they are filed down. I'm glad you're here though, I don't know how long I would have been stuck up here since Duncan didn't seem to notice me up here."
"He can't notice you, the security system is down for an update at the moment. You're just lucky I came home early."
Santana pondered Rachel's words a moment. "Why are you home early? I thought you were finishing Joe's song today."
Rachel looked down at the ground. Santana knew all about Shelby and everything that had happened in the past. She would not be happy that she was back. At least if she told her about Shelby now she wouldn't be able to do anything considering that she was still stuck on the roof. "Shelby's back. Her and Cassie are the new teachers at St. Lawrence Private."
"What!?" Santana screeched as she slid forward a bit, momentarily letting her guard down.
"Santana!"
"I'm okay!" Santana slid back on the roof so that she wasn't so close to the edge. "Has Shelby tried to contact you yet?" Santana asked after she had gained her composure.
"No, she has talked to Quinn at Beth's orientation thing though. I don't know if I want to talk to her or not."
"That's your decision babe. I will support you either way, I can't promise that I won't saying anything if I see her though." Santana shrugged her shoulders and grinned sheepishly.
Rachel shook her head with a small smile. She expected nothing less from the one and only Santana Lopez. She had heart and she had fire and she wasn't afraid to use either in certain situations. Before Rachel could ask Santana about her ladder again, Duncan pulled up on his golf cart, slamming on his brakes when he noticed Santana sitting on the roof.
"What are you doing up there?" Duncan asked as he came to stand beside Rachel. The only thing he knew was that Santana was stuck on the roof and they needed his help with the other ladder.
"Enjoying the view." Santana responded sarcastically.
Duncan rolled his eyes and decided not to reply. He knew he was going to get a sarcastic answer as soon as he said anything. He just never learned. "Where's the other ladder?"
"It's hung up on the back wall in the barn. Just make sure you check it to make sure it locks. I don't want to take any chances even though I know no one has been in there except us."
"Alright, will do. Now don't go anywhere." Duncan said casually as he turned to walk towards the barn. Santana grumbled under breath. If she had something to throw she would totally peg him in the back of the head.
It took twenty minutes before Duncan set the ladder up so that Santana could climb down. To hear her tell it though it took hours upon hours. Once she was on safe ground she heaved a sigh of relief. Except, Rachel didn't really look too happy with her at the moment, maybe she should have stayed on the roof a while longer.
"No more climbing on the roof unless someone else is home and you have on a harness." Rachel stated with authority leaving no room for Santana to argue. Really she didn't feel like arguing at the moment, she would gladly stay on the ground until she had to go back up there.
Both of the women waved bye to Duncan as he made his way back down to his post at the gate. The tech guy that was coming should be here any minute now and Santana really wanted to talk to Rachel about everything that was going on. First they had to deal with Jasper and now Shelby and Cassandra.
"Earlier you mentioned that you knew who had messed with your ladder. Do you think it was Jasper?" Rachel asked as she wrapped her arm around Santana's waist. They were now making their way back into the cabin to just sit down and rest a moment before the day got away from them anymore.
"I loaned that ladder to Puck who then took it to the studio. Who else in the world would have done something like that?" Santana said as she sat down at the kitchen island. She wasn't going to mention it but she needed to sit down and take a breather. Rachel hadn't noticed it, but she had been shaking since she had came down off the roof. Yeah, she had been scared shitless when she almost fell.
Rachel walked over to the fridge to grab two bottles of water. "Its just...if he done it, who did he actually intend to hurt? You know. How would he have known that ladder was yours and not Pucks? Was his intentions for Puck to climb on it and get hurt or did he want someone else that was working there to get hurt? There's no indication that that ladder belongs to anyone."
"I don't know, but I am going to work with you in the morning so that I can talk to Puck." Santana took a drink of water from the bottle that Rachel had opened and sat down in front of her. "Now about Shelby being back. What all did Quinn say?"
Rachel shrugged her right shoulder as she picked at the label on her water bottle. "Nothing really, just that Shelby and Cassandra were the new teachers at the school and that Shelby had asked about me. Apparently they went and seen my movie before they came back. She asked about you too, said she had seen the engagement announcement."
Santana stretched out her arm across the island and laid her head down. She was going to have a major headache soon, she could feel it coming on. "Did she have a number that you could reach Shelby at if you wanted to?"
Rachel shook her head, she hadn't even thought to ask Quinn about a number. She assumed she had some way of contacting the woman since she would be one of her daughters teachers. "I think...I think I might ask if she has Shelby's number. I don't think I want to go see her yet or anything, but what would calling hurt? Yeah..I think I would maybe like to talk to her just to test the waters."
Santana stretched her hand out to grab Rachel's and give it a squeeze. "I will be here with you every step of the way."
Rachel smiled as she turned Santana's hand over so that they were palm to palm. "Thank you."