Lima Heights was not a place that Quinn frequented. Everyone at McKinley knew it was basically the shitty dangerous part of Lima. That didn't exactly mean anything to Quinn, she was a level 5 AI, and if push came to shove and she needed to defend herself, she could just pretend to be Charlie for a few hours and flash Charlie's provisional hero license, she doubted that anyone could tell the difference. Sometimes having a crazy twin who was dead set on becoming a hero worked out in her benefit.
Still, she was relatively nervous; she'd never picked up a girl before, and there was a good chance that she'd meet Marley's parents this early. Quinn takes a deep breath as she looks at the text that Marley had sent her and immediately heads to the door. She pauses for a moment, wondering if she should have brought flowers, but that seemed cliche, and when Charlie was dating she had never once bought her girlfriends anything.
Quinn blinks and stops for long enough to create a simple rose out of ice, it wasn't her best work but it was just the first date, hopefully there would be many more. After finishing she heads to the lobby of Marley's building and pushes the numbers that Marley had given her. There's a pause before the sound of a buzzer and she quickly heads up. She stops in front of the door and takes another breath, before raising her hand to knock.
The door swings open and Quinn blinks as Marley flashes her a huge smile, causing Quinn's heart to skip a beat. "Hey!" Quinn says, it's the only greeting that comes to mind.
"Hi Quinn, we should probably make our escape before—"
"Marley invite her in!"
Marley's cheeks flame up immediately, and she shoots an apologetic look at Quinn.
Quinn flashes a small smile, "You've met my identical twin sister, and I think it's a parents job to thoroughly embarrass their offspring. Wait till you meet the rest of my crazy family."
Marley let out a laugh, "Crazier than Charlie?"
"No, no one is crazier than my twin," Quinn informs Marley with a shake of her head as she follows Marley into the small apartment. She glances around and spots a rather large woman sitting on a rather torn up couch, who is smiling at them. "You must be Marley's mother," Quinn said as she extends her hand, swallowing, hoping to make a good impression.
"Millie Rose, you go to that AI school don't you?"
"Mom!"
Quinn nodded, unsure of where this was going. "I am, but I'm not the one on television, or competing for McKinley, that's my identical twin. I don't want to be a hero. I'm an artist," Quinn informs Millie showing her the rose that she had made for Marley. "I didn't actually know your last name was Rose, this now seems terribly cliche," she flushes.
"You made that?" Marley said looking at the rose that Quinn had made in absolute fascination, adjusting her glasses. It looked like a crystal, she reaches to touch one of the petals only to find it was very cool to the touch. "With your abilities?"
"Yeah, it's not really impressive. But I thought you might like it," Quinn admits. "I can make you another flower if you want. I mean it would help if I could see a picture of it, I can only really do roses very well. I think I might be able to manage a tulip."
"I love it." Marley says scooping the flower from Quinn's hand, "But won't it melt?"
"No. Not unless you take a blow torch to it, most of my constructs are pretty solid. It takes some intense heat to break the bonds, so they'll last quite a long time for as long as I want most of the time," Quinn informed her.
"That is so cool, I was thinking of making a super refrigeration unit, that would keep it in the perfect but I guess I won't have to now."
"A refrigeration unit?" Quinn prompts slightly confused.
"I was working on it at school, it's nothing fancy, but I thought it would be a cool thing. Something that doesn't take nearly as much energy as a fridge," Marley shook her head, "Sorry you probably don't want to hear about me trying to create gadgets."
"I think I do, is that why you want a forge?" Quinn pressed.
"Yeah, I can't keep taking things apart and scrounging for parts. Being able to make my own parts would really help. But Lima High, doesn't really support the support club, so our principal won't invest in a forge."
Quinn bit her lip, Charlie had mentioned not attempting to fix everyone's problems. "That really sucks."
Marley nods starting to get riled up, "And the art studio isn't interested, because it may be a fire hazard and it's expensive. I honestly just think that Mr. Berry doesn't think he can make money off it."
Quinn blinked, "Mr. Berry? You don't mean Hiram Berry right?"
"Yeah, you know him?" Marley blinked.
"He's friends with my mom, his daughter Rachel was Charlie's very brief ex-girlfriend. The relationship lasted like 2 minutes," Quinn says hesitating, nothing she said had been a lie. But she wasn't sure what the protocol was for this sort of thing. She wasn't going to admit that she had a thing for Rachel, especially since nothing had come of it.
"Oh." Marley flushed. "I didn't mean to imply he's stingy—"
"He probably is," Quinn said with a shrug. "But don't worry I'm not going to tell him what you think. I think he's secretly terrified of me and my twin."
"I can understand maybe being afraid of Charlie but you?"
"Clearly you didn't watch the televised testing, where I lost control of my powers," Quinn mutters. She immediately realizes what she said in front of Marley's mom no less and flushes.
"I mean Rod Remington does seem like an annoying ass," Marley points out with a shrug. "And did you really lose control of your powers? I mean, after what happened at the Inter-high, they had to hire a bunch of structural engineers to reinforce the entire arena. No one is a hundred percent sure that it would meet safety regulations."
"He really was super irritating, and his powers and mine were not a good match up, still I shouldn't have lost my cool," Quinn says glancing at Millie.
"Anyway," Marley said quickly before her mom can say anything as she grabs Quinn's arm, "Let's go grab that coffee."
"Yeah," Quinn agrees, and smiles at Millie, "It was a pleasure to meet you, I hope to see you again," Quinn says as Marley begins to tug her out. She waits till they're in the elevator before looking at Marley. "Your mom seems nice, and she didn't embarrass you. My mom would probably crack out the baby photos, and regale you of stories of my misspent youth."
"Really?" Marley laughs. "Well I definitely have to meet her then."
Quinn made a face, "Just remember my mom is old, and I have an identical twin so it was probably—no it was most likely Charlie."
Marley snorts, "It must be great having a twin who you can blame everything on."
Quinn gasped, "I would never! Charlie doesn't need me to blame her, I promise you that she gets into trouble with my mom plenty without me stirring the pot."
Marley laughed, not sure she quite believed Quinn, but she was curious to find out.
~ O ~Santana grimaced as she slid to a stop, her back slamming against the Fabray's back deck, and she hisses in pain. She opens an eye and glances up at Lawrence wondering how the old man was still so freakishly strong, he had practically thrown her rather effortlessly.
"Gramps is all fired up today," Charlie mused, as she watched Rachel's rather paltry attempts at trying to land a blow on her grandfather. She flinches when Rachel gets caught and gets tossed towards Santana.
Santana grimaces and manages to throw herself out of the way as Rachel slams into the deck where she'd just been. Santana immediately checks on Rachel who lets out a low groan. She glances at Lawrence for a moment before looking back at Charlie who was eating a sandwich. "A bit of help?" Santana snaps at Charlie.
Charlie takes another bite of her breakfast sandwich and looks at Santana, "Don't lose to the seventy something old man?" Charlie said rather unhelpfully, her lips quirking upward when Santana shoots her a very annoyed glare. "I'm not going to fight my grandfather for you Santana. He's my gramps, and he's an old man, I'm not a monster." Charlie lectured Santana.
Rachel grimaces and holds her ribs as she sits up, "How do we beat him then?"
Charlie takes another bite of her sandwich and chews slowly looking at her grandfather. He wasn't really holding back, "I have no idea why you aren't using your abilities, or working together. My grandfather might not be using his abilities, but he doesn't need to. His body is a weapon. He's been fighting since he was a child. This is a fight, this isn't some sparring session, so fight him. Do anything you need to survive."
Santana frowned, fire was inherently dangerous, but for whatever reason Charlie was practically encouraging her to get serious with her grandfather. She didn't want to hurt Lawrence. "Have you lost your—" Santana scowls as Charlie hops to her feet, clearly losing interest in watching them get their ass kicked. It takes her a moment to realize that a portal has opened on the back deck.
Charlie stuffs the rest of her sandwich in her mouth, a curious look on her face as she turns her complete attention to the portal. She doesn't have to wait a second before her aunt Cassandra steps out, her arms wrapped around the waist of a familiar face that Charlie couldn't place. Charlie studies them for a moment before deciding that she really didn't care what her aunt was up to and immediately retakes her seat. "I'm not saying roast him, but use your abilities as a distraction. Set his pants on fire then kick him in the face."
"What is she doing here?" Santana said getting up and pointing at Shelby Corcoran.
"You know her?" Charlie asks looking at the woman again, slightly surprised when Rachel also got up and moved to stand beside Santana. At least the two of them were working together.
"Shelby Corcoran, she's the coach of Vocal Adrenaline—you're really bad with names, Charlie," Rachel says, shaking her head. She narrowed her eyes, as she flicked her eyes over at Cassandra both Quinn and Charlie agreed that she was the most dangerous person in the family.
Charlie raised a brow, "I don't remember the faces of inconsequential people, and that's exactly what Vocal Adrenaline is to me. Inconsequential." Santana snorts, and flashes Charlie an amused smile.
The amused smile on Cassandra's face freezes, as she glares at her niece. "You arrogant little shit," she says as she untangles herself from Shelby, and a golden aura wrapping around her arms.
Santana's body tenses immediately, as her heart rate picks up. She could still remember every hit, every mocking tone that Cassandra had thrown her way. She reflexively takes a step back when Cassandra takes a step forward only to feel a reassuring hand on her lower back. She doesn't need to turn to know that Charlie has gotten up. It was a very small, almost imperceptible gesture, and she glances up at Charlie who just looked bored.
"It's not arrogance if you can back it up, you taught me that. And we both know I can back it up," Charlie reminded her aunt. Charlie waved her hand dismissively, as she pulled Santana back so she could step forward, standing between her aunt and Santana and Rachel. She personally wasn't in the mood to deal with Cassandra's sadism today. Still she rotates her arm, loosening her muscles. "Seriously aunt Cass, are we really about to do this? I don't think you want me to embarass you in front of your latest bed warmer. Or is this your master plan? To show the coach of Vocal Adrenaline what I can do so she can attempt to create a plan to stop me at sectionals?"
Cassandra doesn't hesitate to get in Charlie's face, grabbing her by the front of her shirt and yanking her forward so they were face to face. "You think this has anything to do with you?"
Charlie rolled her eyes, as Santana, Rachel and Shelby all scrambled back, she could see her grandfather busting his ass to come and break them up from the corner of her eye, but it didn't stop her from gripping Cassandra's arm, as arcs of lightning appeared around her own hand, the lights in the house start flickering as her annoyance grows. She pulls her aunt off her shirt, which was now ruined. "I'm not the dumb one aunt Cassie, obviously she's not here for me, but if she can see something that she can use she'll use it. She's here for Rachel. Is that what you promised her to get in her pants? Does no one in this family know the art of seduction? I should write a book. Also kind of gross you sold out a fifteen year old to get laid. I really should write a how-to manual."
"Cassandra what are you doing?" Lawrence snaps at his daughter as he immediately puts his body in between his granddaughter and daughter.
Cassandra's eyes flash in annoyance, as she spots Charlie smirking at her, pleased with herself. "She started it by being rude to my guest, and my girlfriend."
"Seriously?" Lawrence snaps as the deck door opens, and both Judy and Artemis come to check what the noise is all about. "She's a sixteen year old, you seriously can't handle it without violence?" Before Cassandra can retort he spins around to see the pleased smile on Charlie's face and immediately smacks her hard on the top of her head. "And you—"
"Lawrence." Artemis stated firmly and nodded towards Shelby causing Lawrence to finally stop and look over. Without hesitating she moves to her granddaughter and rubs her back. "Firefly what happened?"
Charlie glanced at her aunt and then Shelby again as she rubbed her head, "Aunt Cassie, showed up through one of Frannie's portals, with her latest fu—" Charlie flicks her eyes at her mother who puts her hands on her hips and makes a face, "squeeze, and I didn't recognize her. Rachel informed me who she was, and Santana reminded me she was the coach of Vocal Adrenaline. A comment about my memory was made, and I pointed out that I don't remember unimportant people, which set Aunt Cassie off." Charlie summarized with a shrug of her shoulders.
Artemis pauses for a moment and turns to look at her daughter and Shelby, "Perhaps it's best if the adults had a discussion, and we called Rachel's parents."
Rachel hesitated, she had known that Vocal Adrenaline had been attempting to recruit her, but she couldn't for the life of her figure out why. "I don't understand why my parents have to be called? You didn't call Santana's parents when she nearly killed Santana."
"Rachel, they're calling your dads because Shelby is probably your birth mom," Charlie said looking at her. "And this—" Charlie gestures at Shelby who immediately looks away. She can't help but roll her eyes, and pulls out her phone, still shaking her head as she "— wasn't supposed to happen until you turned eighteen."
~ O ~
"Shouldn't you check your phone?" Marley asked, glancing at the device, "It's been buzzing non-stop for like the past five minutes. Maybe it's an emergency?"
"It's not an emergency, it's probably Charlie trying to be helpful by bombarding me with unsolicited advice. I think my twin truly believes she's god's gift to women everywhere." Quinn said as she picked up her phone and looked at messages on the screen. She had been correct they were all from Charlie, and she silences her phone and looks across the table, so she can focus on Marley.
"Is she?" Marley asks as she stirs
"Is she?" Quinn repeats.
"God's gift to women?"
Quinn actually snorted at this, "Hardly. Menace is probably the more appropriate and accurate word. But she's still my favorite sibling."
"There are more of you?" Marley asked. "It's just me and my mom, it's been that way forever. Dad abandoned us." Marley makes a face, "I've always wondered what it would be like to have another sibling."
Without thinking Quinn reaches for Marley's hand, "The reason we left LA is because my dad cheated on my mom. He's been doing it for years, but mom finally just had enough after she found out that he was with a stripper with tattoos. Frannie and Brittany, my two older sisters, are over eighteen so this doesn't really bother them. I decided that I'd rather be with my mom than stay in LA with him. Charlie decided to tag along because dad can't cook."
"It will stop hurting you know," Marley said, giving Quinn's hand a gentle squeeze. "I love my mom, she's an amazing person and she works so hard to support me, she's been doing it for years. That's why when I'm older I want to be able to support her and let her experience life, you know? Go on vacation, meet someone who treats her nice, buy her a nice car."
"And the easiest way to do that—"
"Is to get a full scholarship into a support program," Marley finishes for Quinn. "It's a pipe dream, I mean this is Lima, most people who are born here—well they never leave. That's why I'm hoping that the Titans make it to Nationals, it will mean more eyes will be on Lima."
Quinn nodded, "I understand heroes, and sidekicks, but what exactly does support do? I thought it was just like a step down from being a sidekick."
"Many heroes can't do what they do without us. We're just as vital as sidekicks, we basically create things for heroes, and sidekicks to use. In other words we're basically engineers. You've heard of Edna Mode?"
Quinn thinks for a moment before nodding, "She designs costumes for some of the top heros. I think she made a costume for my aunt at some point before she flamed out."
"Yeah, her costume designs are support items. Clothes that can stretch with you, if that's your AI ability, she's an absolute genius. She's and the rest of her company have exclusive contracts with some of the top heroes. She's made some iconic costumes before. Everyone wants to sign with her and get a costume personally designed by her, but she personally works with the top heroes." Marley said in an excited tone. "That's just one example. There are some AI abilities that need external accessories to help make their abilities more efficient, Luthor Corp, S.T.A.R Labs, Queen Consolidated, there are massive firms that work on tech that while it may help a hero has civilian applications as well. Getting a job at one of those massive firms, well it would be life changing."
"So you want to work at one of those firms?" Quinn asked, interested in finding out more.
"I mean, that would be ideal at least for a little while, until I make enough capital to strike out on my own," Marley explains. "But if I could work in-house for a hero firm, that would be amazing as well, maybe I can be the next Edna Mode, but for accessories and the like." Marley flushes, she'd just spent the last few minutes talking passionately about her dreams. "What about you. Are you—"
"I'm not hero material," Quinn explains with a shrug, as she creates a small block of ice on the table, she begins to sculpt, dragging her finger across the ice, picturing what she wanted to sculpt in her mind. "I'm not quite sure what I want to do, but I do know that I don't want to be a hero." Quinn bites her lip focusing, things shift and she knows she has Marley's full attention as she continues to sculpt. It takes a few moments but Quinn finishes rather quickly and turns the sculpture around so Marley can see it.
A delighted look flashes across Marley's face as she reaches to touch the wings of the bird that Quinn had created. She immediately pulls her hand back when the wings of the bird begin to move and she looks up at Quinn, "That is the coolest thing I've ever seen!"
Quinn flushed. She was tempted to show off more, but she didn't want to risk her control slipping away. The ice bird freezing in place. "Thanks all it can do is flap its wings, it's not that impressive. It's really the best I can do when it comes to constructs. Maybe you can figure out a support item that makes it easier for me to control them."
"That would make an awesome project, it could be robotics—" Marley immediately dives into a tangent, smiling that Quinn doesn't seem bored.
~ O ~
"Move," Santana snaps at Rachel, who for some strange reason had stopped moving and attempting to defend herself. Instead Rachel seemed to be focused on the Fabray home, as if she was expecting to hear what the adults were discussing. There had been some shouting, once Rachel's fathers had arrived, but the house had been quiet since then.
Rachel blinks, suddenly pulled out of her thoughts, and looks up just in time to see Charlie's leg which is aimed at her head, and lets out a scream before she falls hard on her ass. She closes her eyes, expecting a blow regardless of her clumsiness. Charlie was relentless with Santana, and she'd seen Charlie attacking even when Santana was down. But when there is no pain, Rachel opens an eye, only to find Charlie squatting down in front of her, staring at her. "I—"
Charlie flicked Rachel's forehead, "Rachel, you need to focus. She might be your biological mother, but for now you need to know she's also not on your side." Charlie stands back up, "You're out by the way. I would feel bad throwing you into the lake. You've got a lot on your plate." Charlie pats Rachel on her head.
"Seriously. You're being nice to her?"
Charlie sighs and turns to look at Santana who looked annoyed at her. "We used to date Santana, I'm not a monster."
"Seriously? You seem to have no problem throwing me into that pond. Why does she get special treatment?" Santana scowled, they had slept together. Recently, Charlie seemed to have no problem throwing her into the pond. If anything she seemed to take pleasure in torturing her.
"We used to date Santana, and Rachel's clearly going through something. I don't see the point in going all out when Rachel's heart isn't into it." Charlie shook her head. "Besides aren't you interested in figuring out what's going on?"
"Your aunt is a psychotic bitch? I thought we knew this already," Santana snaps back even as she looks at the house.
"Jesse said she had my abilities, what if she could teach me?" Rachel asked, she wasn't quite sure why she wasn't being completely honest. But she wasn't exactly sure what she felt, she had wanted to meet the woman who had birthed her, but they were enemies and she couldn't just betray her team. "She must have been a hero, she might have even gotten into Summit." Rachel frowned when both Charlie and Santana share a look. It's not one that she can read easily. "It's a terrible idea isn't it?"
"Yes."
"No."
Santana blinked, she thought that she and Charlie were on the same page about this. They couldn't just trust Shelby, she was the coach of Vocal Adrenaline, a team that had managed to drag itself to Sectionals. And even if they had managed to knock over Vocal Adrenaline, there was the fact that Charlie's psychotic aunt had a hand in this and she didn't really understand what she was getting out of it. "Seriously?"
"Shelby is at least a high level 3, level 4, and the entire team needs to get better if we want to make it to Nationals. No one in my family apart from Quinn is musically inclined, that's assuming I'm correct in my assumption of the basis of Rachel's powers. Shelby doesn't care about the rest of you, she cares about stopping me. Even if she could come up with a plan to stop me, there is no one in Vocal Adrenaline who is a threat to me."
"You will not be doing that, her two friends are the biggest gossip in the school Charlie. You might not think you have a weakness, but why are you tempting fate? So Rachel isn't going to sell you out, just so she can have a conversation with her mother," Santana snapped at Charlie, how could she possibly think that it was a good idea.
Rachel immediately tunes them out, as they begin to bicker. She hadn't believed that the two of them were sleeping together, but watching them together—they were like an old married couple, and even she couldn't deny the chemistry between them. But she didn't care about what Charlie and Santana got up to, she had never expected to see her mother. She had never really thought about it that hard, and now she was just a door away. She had so many questions, she wasn't even sure where to begin.
~ O ~
"The adoption was sealed! She shouldn't be here, and the fact that she's attempted to get in touch with our daughter—do we have any legal recourse?"
Judy winced, this was a disaster. And she wasn't even thinking about all the hard work that she had done to prepare for Cassandra's girlfriend. She should have asked more questions, but she'd been happy to host, she'd been happy that Cassandra was letting the family in. "Hiram, I know it's not my place, but the cat is out of the bag."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Hiram demanded.
"It means that Rachel shouldn't see us, attacking the woman who gave birth to her," Leroy grumbled, rubbing his temples.
Hiram frowned, "You're not actually suggesting what I think you're suggesting."
"Then give me an alternative that doesn't make us the enemy Hiram, I'm willing to listen to suggestions. Unless someone in this room can time travel, or can wipe memories—" Leroy looks up at the Fabrays.
"No," Artemis informed him slowly, she was sure that both Brittany and Charlie could do something along the lines of making Rachel forget, but as far as she knew neither of them had practice in the art, and she doubted that Leroy actually wanted someone to violate his daughter's mind. She turns to look at Shelby, who had been glancing out the window every now and again, she doubted that Shelby was paying attention. "What exactly did you plan to accomplish by doing this? Cassandra's motives are easily understandable, but I don't quite know what you hoped by doing this. You may have given birth to her, but you are not her mother."
"You would know something about that, wouldn't you," Cassandra muttered bitterly. She doesn't flinch when her mother looks at her, instead meeting her gaze with a steely one of her own.
"Cassandra," Judy snapped in a reproachful tone. "Did you even stop to think how this would affect Rachel—" Judy trailed off and shook her head. "Of course you didn't," she answers her own question.
Cassandra shrugged, "What was there to think about? Rachel is an AI, and her abilities are basically a carbon copy of Shelby's. She's being raised by two nils who have no idea how to help her, and even if they want to be supportive they're holding her back. Rachel wants to be a hero, Shelby can help in ways that these two can't. Shelby graduated from K2, she was a hero. I just solved everyone's problems and yet the only thing you've done is bitch at me. You should all be thanking me."
"Thanking you?" Hiram snaps not caring that Cassandra is quite possibly the most powerful person in the room. "For what exactly? You ambushed us, and now Rachel is probably confused as to what she wants, if Shelby wanted to meet Rachel, she should have come to us first. Maybe we could have worked something, but you forced us into this situation and legally, we have every right to protect our daughter and demand a restraining order."
"But we won't," Leroy said quickly. He could only imagine how damaging that would be to Rachel. Perhaps they needed to reinvest in therapy. Someone who could help Rachel process her emotions in a positive way. When Hiram looks at him, "We can't. Rachel would never forgive us, and we certainly don't want her attempting to seek her out."
Hiram glared at his husband, as if he was a traitor and turned to look at Judy. If Leroy wasn't going to be helpful, he would need to find an alternative. "Judy, I know you're trying a different approach with Charlie, but you wouldn't mind if I paid Charlie to protect my daughter."
"Charlie and Rachel are friends, and Charlie has it in her mind that she and Rachel dated, however briefly that was. You don't need to pay Charlie to protect Rachel, Charlie will protect Rachel because that's who she is," Artemis says before Judy can speak up.
"You're not going to encourage a sixteen-year-old to fight a grown woman for us, Hiram," Leroy snapped at his husband before pointing at Shelby. As far as he was concerned they only had a couple of options available to them. "If Rachel wants a relationship with you, and that's a big if, then we can work out some supervised visits. You are not to contact our daughter, you are not to simply show up, I understand because Carmel and McKinley are competing currently, that there will be times where you will meet without our supervision but I hope that you can manage to keep things professional at those times."
"You can't be serious," Hiram snaps.
Leroy looked at his husband with a helpless look on his face, "Hiram, you know how stubborn Rachel can be. If we tell her no, she's still going to seek her out, and we won't have any control in the situation. If we make this a legal matter, it might have a negative impact on Rachel. She's tied her hands, and we can't just pretend that Rachel isn't aware of the fact that Shelby is more than likely her birth mother. We can't pretend that their powers aren't similar and Rachel won't seek her out so she can get more powerful, all we can do is control the environment."
Hiram frowned and threw his hands up in the air, "I think this is a terrible idea."
"It's the only idea that we have now," Leroy pointed out. "We need to be civil to each other, especially in front of Rachel Hiram, so unless you can handle it—"
"I can." Hiram interrupts glaring at Shelby.
Shelby finally tears her eyes away from the window, "Can I meet my daughter now? I've been searching for her for fourteen years"
Hiram visibly bristled and before he could launch into a tirade, Leroy stepped forward. "She isn't your daughter, Miss Corcoran. She's ours, as long as you remember that and remember that our rules are the only ones that matter then I can go out and ask Rachel if she wants to meet you, and we'll decide on an appropriate place that isn't the Fabray's dining room."
"I really don't mind Leroy," Judy offers.
Shelby hesitated for a moment before she nodded her head. She could work with that, she reaches for Cassandra's hand and squeezes it, gratefully. She was finally going to meet her daughter.