Quick note. My daughter made it through AVM surgery where she coded for 9 minutes and 29 seconds. I'm not sure how, but I could sense the moment it happened. I interrupted my daughter's doctors when they told us. My girls handled much more than they should have when they went back to school. I also live my life in a way I know my twin's father would have, making memories with my twins that I feel they need to make with me alone and not my husband or our two youngest. Everleigh's surgery saved her life, something I'll always be grateful for. Her twin Blakeley has always gone out of her way to stand up for the two of them, something we are very proud of her for. Thanks!

"What the hell did you just say?" the feisty brunette fired back.

"Santana, don't."

"Yeah, listen to your freak of a sister," the hockey player said, high fiving his friend.

"I'm going to enjoy this," Puck said, letting Santana off the hook. Puck wasted no time punching the kid in the face.

Nearly everyone was so excited today was the twin's first day back, and the ones who weren't were being dealt with. Rumors started circulating back when the two teachers along with twins had called in sick the third day in a row and continued for weeks. A lot of people asked the twins closest group of friends, and after Puck and Quinn cleared it with Shelby, told them a lighter version of what happened. Then rumors regarding Rachel's surgery circulated for another few weeks, and because some idiots prefer to make up their own shit, those rumors spread too confusing a lot of people.

The reason Puck's fist was connecting with this hockey players face was because he went right up to Rachel and made a 'joke' about the cheer team being better when she 'stayed dead' and proceeded to call her a freak. Even though nobody but their closest friends knew Rachel actually did die in surgery, Santana lost it on the kid because that's not okay to say to anyone, especially her sister.

She doesn't understand how a group of kids get off thinking they can talk about her sister to begin with seeing as the cheer and football teams have always run the school, and Rachel is the head cheerleader. All she does know is they need to find a way to get them out of the school because this was unacceptable. Santana doesn't even care how it happens, she just wants them out.

"Come on," Santana said to her sister, taking her hand and leading her in the opposite direction of the fight still going on.

"Hi ba—oh my gosh, what happened?" Shelby asked, seeing Rachel crying and Santana seething. She stood up and walked over to the tiny brunette, pulling the girl into her arms after giving her a once over to make sure she was in one piece.

"You need to get this list of idiots out of the damn school for good," Santana said, slamming a piece of paper down on her mom's desk.

Shelby looked from Santana over to the blondes who had come into her classroom with the twins, hoping to find an answer in their faces that were unreadable. Actually, Quinn's face showed a bit of anger as well when Shelby looked at her a second time.

"What happened?" she asked again. Shelby could feel Rachel's tears staining her shirt along with her body shaking, causing her to change courses. "Okay, take some breaths babe."

Shelby comforted Rachel and looked over the list Santana put on her desk. A few names were expected, others she was a bit surprised by. One thing that didn't shock the mother was Puck running into her classroom a few minutes later with bruised knuckles.

When the bell rang, Shelby sent the kids to class and headed to Figgins to have an incredibly important conversation.

By the end of the girls first week back things were going much better, and a group of bullies had been expelled. Figgins was an easy man to manipulate however, Shelby didn't have to tell him anything but the truth. The five members of the hockey teams were involved in multiple fights, bullying, and even tried to use their hockey sticks as weapons which was plenty of reasons for Figgins to do his worst.

School had caused Rachel to feel even more self-conscious about her scar though, no matter how many times her sister called her badass or all their friends chimed in with their thoughts of how beautiful and strong she was.

"Mom?" Rachel said, walking down the last few steps to find her mother reading.

Shelby pulled the blanket back and let Rachel snuggle in then pulled it over them both. "What are you doing awake, babe?"

"Do you think my scar will ever fade?"

Shelby gently pushed Rachel's hair back to reveal more of her daughter's scar, her feelings much different about it than the first few weeks the tiny brunette was home from the hospital. She kissed it the same way Juan did and held her daughter close, "I'm not sure, baby. I love it though."

"What?" Rachel said, whipping her head around to look into her mothers' eyes.

"Come with me," Shelby said, pulling Rachel up and unlocking the back door.

"Mom, no! It's pouring outside."

Shelby didn't say anything, just opened the door and dragged her daughter outside. Rachel shrieked when she started getting wet from the rain and demanded to know the reason her mom had brought her out here to begin with. And then Shelby started singing…

I am unwritten. Can't read my mind, I'm undefined.

I'm just beginning. The pens in my hand, ending unplanned.

Staring at the blank page before you, open up the dirty window

Let the sun illuminate the words that you cannot find

Reaching for something in the distance, so close you can almost taste it

Release your inhibition, feel the rain on your skin

Shelby looked at Rachel expectantly, waiting for her daughter to join in. When she did, they danced around the backyard together and sang at the top of their lungs as the rain continued to pour.

Live your life with arms wide open. Today is where your book begins, the rest is still unwritten.

I break tradition. Sometimes my tries, are outside the lines.

We've been conditioned to not make mistakes, but I can't live that way.

Shelby smiled listening to her daughter sing certain lines. She knew how hard it was for Rachel to find herself since surgery—it was easier when she was around just family, even with her friends but Shelby knew this week at school crushed all the progress her daughter had made at feeling 'normal' again.

Then she thought about Juan, and how he'd celebrate it. How he would drag Shelby out in the rain often because one of his favorite memories was when it started pouring while walking home on their first date together. If singing and dancing in the rain while in your pajamas, at almost 1am, didn't help, Shelby wasn't sure what would.

When the song came to an end, Shelby pulled Rachel into her arms and started her thought once again, but in a different way. "This scar saved your life, baby girl."

"Dr. Othot saved my life, mom."

"Dr. Othot performed your surgery, babe. This scar," Shelby said, tracing it with her finger. "Gave him access to stop the bleeding your brain was doing, which provided blood and oxygen to continue to travel throughout your body to keep you breathing and keep you here with me to live your life to the fullest. I will always be beyond thankful for this beautiful scar."

"I love you, mommy."

"And I love you, baby. Now come on, let's go get you in a warm shower and back to bed."

Rachel doesn't ever think she'll be able to love her scar the way her mom does, but she did feel much better about it thanks to her. Only her mom would take them outside in the dark when it was pouring so they could sing and dance together.

"What if we go out to dinner tonight?" Will asked his wife.

Due to Rachel's surgery and the fact the twins had missed almost three months of school, cheer went on without them—which meant, the blondes weren't here almost every weekend like they normally were. Glee was different because thanks to Will using the setlist Shelby picked out for him, they were headed to Nationals again.

Cheer though, wasn't something the girls could come back into for this competition due to not knowing the routine. The twins would be heading to Nationals for cheer too though, something Shelby was hoping Dr. Stratton wouldn't be signing off for yet, but, he did. He was very pleased with Rachel's recovery and said there was no reason she should sit out of something she loved no matter how much Shelby prefer she wait.

"Sure honey, any particular restaurant in mind?"

"Italian?"

"Sounds good. Why don't you go tell the girls so they can change out of their sweatpants."

Shelby smiled to herself when Will walked away because she heard him say, "We don't need to change you out of sweatpants silly girl, you aren't wearing pants."

Beth was in a long sleeve dress with leggings, something Will didn't realize were pants—he thought leggings were tights, something the twins made crystal clear to their dad: tights weren't a form of pants. One day Will came downstairs with Beth who he had dressed in a pair of tights with a shirt, and the twins lost it telling him how that was never okay because she was practically naked. So now, Will believes tights and leggings are the same thing: underwear. Oh, men.

"Hey girls," Will smiled, lightly knocking on the open door of Rachel's bedroom where they were.

"What are you making for dinner, dad? I'm starving," Santana said before her father could speak.

"I just came up here to tell you we're going out for dinner tonight."

The girls cheered and Will took the time to look at what they were wearing knowing he wouldn't get a word in until they went down the list of their favorite restaurants and 'decided' where they were going. Will heard Italian thrown in the mix which was good because that's where they were headed. Besides Spanish food, Italian is the girls favorite, and his own.

"The faster you two put on real clothes, the faster we can go."

And with that, Will walked back downstairs because his work up there was done—the girls wasted no time changing into 'real clothes' and ran down the stairs once they were ready. Santana had fixed her sister's hair to hide her scar the best she could, something Rachel is still a bit uneasy about, and they threw on jeans and long sleeve shirts calling it a day.

Shelby was quick to tell them to grab some type of jacket because even though it was April, it was still a bit chilly when the sun went down. Because they didn't want to go back upstairs, the twins rummaged through the downstairs coat closet and found their cheerios jackets and threw them on. It made Rachel feel a little sad for missing the competition today, but their parents made sure today was special for them in their own way.

"Why don't you make sure they have a table for us before we get Beth out of her car seat," Will suggested.

Shelby thought it was cute how tentative her husband still was with the baby. When you're a single parent with two babies, you get really good at taking the baby's out of the car in minutes and going about your business—Will though, it was still cute to Shelby how long it took him to do anything surrounding the baby.

"We wanna come too, mom," Santana said, opening her door. Rachel was right behind her because they were so hungry and weren't going to be happy if there wasn't a booth for them.

Shelby opened the door to the restaurant and stopped in her tracks before making it up to the front desk when she locked eyes with a familiar set of green eyes, causing the twins to bump into their mother.

"Wow. What a damn small wo—" the woman started to say.

"What the heck, mom!" the twins said in unison.

"Mom?" the woman questioned, then saw the girls appear on either side of Shelby.

The twins looked at the woman then back at their mom trying to figure out what the heck was going on with her and why she looked like she had seen a ghost. They had a silent conversation with one another to guess who the woman was because they had never seen her before.

"No," Shelby said to the girls. She knew what they were doing and didn't want to hear it, then looked back at the women and asked, "What are you doing here?"

"Appeasing my boss," the woman answered.

"Is she good?" Shelby snarked.

The twins had never seen their mom like this. Yeah, she was a total badass that even their friends feared in school, but she was never rude. Even though they didn't know who this woman was, their mom clearly wasn't a fan of her.

"You never were one to hold back," she said with a laugh. "I'm not sleeping with her."

"Yet."

"Mom, who is this…this, uhh why can't I think of anything mean to say," Santana said, clearly upset with herself. The woman was beautiful, something that caused the feisty brunette off her game.

"Bitch." Rachel continued for her sister, not liking how upset her mom was seeing whoever the heck this was.

"Rachel!" Shelby said, snapping back from all the memories coming back to her. She watched her girls high five and mentally smiled because her quiet, timid little one was never one to be reprimanded in public unlike her twin.

"I like this one," the woman said about Rachel. "Last I heard you were marrying that doctor you met on Broadway. Clearly this one is his, I don't know about her though…she just looks like you."

"Listen lady, 'her' is my twin. Who the hell are you?"

And she's back folks. Santana mentally applauded herself for getting her fire back. Shelby wrapped her arms around the twins feeling stronger with them snuggled against her to take on the woman who caused her so much pain way back when.

"Santana, Rachel, this is Cassandra July."

"Wait a damn minute, this was your blonde?"

"Your blonde?" Cassie questioned with an amused look on her face.

Shelby rolled her eyes and was now beating herself up for not telling the twins why she and Cassie broke up all those years ago. "Why don't you two go see if they have a table for us and then go tell daddy so he can bring your sister in."

"There's another kid?"

"Table, now, go," Shelby said, giving the twins a push towards the front desk.

"Damn, you and your man were busy all these years. Three kids? Who knew you'd give up your dreams so easily to become a mother."

"You know nothing about my life, Cassandra."

"No nickname? Come on sexy," Cassie flirted.

Before the twins could go out and get Will, he walked into the restaurant because they had taken so long. He didn't realize it was because his wife had bumped into someone she knew, he just assumed he'd save them the trouble of coming back outside.

"Who's this, honey?" Will asked, handing Beth over to Shelby when the baby made grabby hands at her mother.

"Wait a minute," Cassie started to say, obviously expecting to see Juan, not Will—especially not after meeting his younger female twin in Santana.

"She was just leaving," Shelby announced, walking past Cassie to follow the twins who were being led to the table.

Will was a bit confused but followed his wife anyways. Cassie watched the sway of Shelby's ass with a smirk, "Still looks damn good," she whispered to herself. Cassie couldn't believe she popped three kids out and still looked like she did in college. She wrote her number on a napkin and asked one of the waiters to give it to her, then left the restaurant.

"Mom, I—"

"No." Shelby would answer any and all questions when they got home, not now.

During dinner, Shelby couldn't help but think about Cassie. Thankfully her husband brought up Nationals which got the girls excited to be on stage again, and they started giving their mom ideas of songs they'd like to sing. Shelby absolutely loved Cassie, until she broke her heart that is. She remembers their time together like it was yesterday, then again, it felt as if it was in another lifetime.

After she got Beth to sleep that night, Shelby went into the twin's room and braced herself for the rapid fire of questions coming her way. She spent so much of the girl's lives showing and telling them what real love looked like—a lot of the reason was to make sure they knew about the love Juan had for herself and their babies because a little girl's first true love is their father.

Luckily for the twins, Will was everything and more to them and became just that, their first love. The other reason Shelby was so determined to show them what real love looked like was because of her experience with Cassie. Shelby didn't want them to experience the pain she did—not because she wanted them to only like men, she didn't care about the who, just the love.

The line of questions started the minute she closed Santana's door and went on for what felt like forever. She wanted to start with a few of the questions they said in the beginning of their continued conversation rant in hopes of clearing things up.

"Why did you get so upset seeing Cassie?"

"Weren't you with her for like, basically four years?"

"I'd say more like three years," Shelby said. She told Cassie about the feelings she was having halfway through freshman year, and by the end of it, they were 'official'. "We haven't spoken since the summer after graduation for a reason girls."

"Did you meet daddy and dump her ass?"

"No. Before graduation I was in an off-Broadway musical—"

"Rent!" the twins said in unison.

"Yes, Rent. When I got the part, I thought after doing the show for a few months I may be able to get Cassie a role as well. We knew it was a long shot, but when you're just starting out, you'll do anything to help your friends make it too because—"

"So, she broke up with you because you couldn't get her a part?"

Shelby gave a signature glare, and the twins zipped their lips, promising her not to interrupt anymore…most likely.

"Cassie landed a role in another musical after graduation meaning it was no longer necessary for me to stick my neck out for her. One day after my rehearsal, I showed up at hers and found her kissing someone else."

"What a bitch!"

Shelby thought the same thing, but she wasn't going to agree with the twins because it was rude and did not want to reward them for calling anyone names. "Was the chick even hot? I bet she was ugly compared to you because, duh!"

"It was a man actually."

"No freakin' way. Wow, what a total—"

"Santana!" Once the mother knew her daughter wouldn't finish her sentence, she continued. "You girls do realize I'm bisexual too, right? I wasn't upset because she also liked men, I was upset because she cheated on me."

The twins only then seemed to remember they had two fathers, not another mother. Shelby laughed the moment she saw them realize the obvious, and then watched them get angry again because someone cheated on their mom. "When we got home after walking home from the dance studio, we sat down and what she told me next really broke my heart."

"More than seeing her kissing some random dude?"

"Yeah, more than that. Remember when I told you how I went to Uncle Shawn when I realized my feelings for Cassie? I did a lot of soul searching regarding how I felt for another girl, fully accepting that the world may not take too kindly to seeing us together—that they wouldn't be happy for me the way my family was. It was a different time back then, nobody cared how open and accepting other people were with one another."

"But why? What's the big deal?"

"It's not a big deal, babe. Love is love, but some people just love to hate. I had all the conversations that made me uncomfortable, even though I had nothing to worry about, it was still scary though, and it was still work. And, come to find out, I did it for nothing because I was Cassie's 'college fun'—nothing more."

"What the heck does that mean?"

"In other words, Cassie wasn't looking to have a relationship with me outside of college."

"And you made us leave tonight without telling her off?" Santana said, extremely upset she didn't get to stand up for her mom.

"Believe me, babe. She heard an earful years ago, from more than just me too."

"Good, I hope nana laid into her!"

"Actually, your grandfather was the one who did the talking."

"You mean yelling."

"No, I mean talking. We don't yell, babe."

This was the second time in a matter of minutes that Shelby reminded the girls of something they were very familiar with, and she couldn't help but laugh again. Sometimes she wonders why the heck her girls, Santana especially, turn to yelling when they are upset because she barely, rarely raises her voice.

Shelby's parents never did when she was a little girl either, and it was something she decided to continue when she became pregnant with the twins. There's no reason to raise your voice to get your point across, not when your face can say it all.

"Gosh, I hate her!" Rachel said.

She didn't like that the woman had hurt her mom, it wasn't okay. She's done literally everything for them growing up and was the last person who deserved to be hurt. Then she thought about her dads and started to feel a bit better, kind of. Her mom got to experience the type of love she deserved, then her father died…but then she got to love again, so that part was good. At least she knows her dad could never do better because her mom is the best.

"It's all in the past, babe."

"Not really, she's like, here. Where we live."

"She won't be for long. Soon enough she'll be back in New York, and we'll never have to see her again."

"Wait, is she still on Broadway?"

Shelby laughed and shook her head. Everyone knew about the rise and fall of Cassandra July. Shelby would like to believe Cassie got what was coming to her; karma really is a bitch.

"DAD!" Santana screamed.

"Oh my gosh, where are you dad?" Rachel continued.

Today was Thursday and their mom was still at school doing gosh knows what, all the girls did know is their dad brought them home from school because they didn't want to wait for her. The twins had been searching the house, and couldn't find their father anywhere. They were in charge of Beth, and had been since they picked her up from their grandmothers' house, but that wasn't the problem seeing as they loved their little sister. The problem was something much more demanding.

"Where the heck is he? This is ridiculous, we've looked like, everywhere!"

"Maybe the garage?" Rachel suggested.

"DAD!" Santana screamed again, opening the door off the mudroom that led into the garage.

"Hi honey," Will said, popping up from behind the trunk of his car.

"What are you doing?"

"Fixing Beth's stroller," he said, holding up one of the little wheels. "I was going to take her for a walk and then I realized your mom has the stroller in her trunk. I figured I could try and fix this one so—"

"That's the least of your problems," Santana said, suddenly remembering the reason they had been searching for him in the first place.

"Why, what happened?"

"The bathroom sink is spraying water everywhere, that's what!" Rachel said, and Beth giggled.

"It's not funny, Beth," Santana shot back, turning towards the baby who started giggling right away as her sisters tried to get the water to shut off.

"It's what? Why didn't you come get me sooner?" Will asked, running into the house.

"We tried! We've been looking everywhere for you. How did this become our fault?" Santana questioned, looking at her sister, their dad long gone up the stairs.

"OH MY GOD!" They heard him scream and decided to stay downstairs instead. "At least they thought to put towels down," he said to himself. "Santana, can you bring my tools up here please!"

While Santana ran the tool bag up to Will, Shelby walked in the door to find two of her babies soaking wet. "It's much too cold to play in the sprinkler, what did I tell you girls the other day?"

"Wha—mom! We haven't even been outside."

"Then why are you two all wet?" she asked. The other day it was ridiculously nice out and the twins had asked if they could set up the sprinkler for Beth because she was now at an age where it would be fun for her, but Shelby had said no because although warm, it wasn't that warm.

"We were trying to see if Beth's hair was long enough for us to braid, so me and Tana brought her into the bathroom to wet it because her curls would have gotten tangled, but then the sink started tweaking and sprayed us with water."

Rachel watched her mom run up the stairs and looked down at Beth who was still in her arms and said, "I guess it's up to me to get you in some dry clothes then."

Beth poked Rachel in the face and giggled causing the brunette to tickle her until the baby was squealing. "That's what you get for poking me, silly."

"Dad, I don't know how you expect me to find anything in this bag, it's a mess!"

"I need, I need, oh just give me the bag, I'll find it myself. Can you go get some more towels please? And the pool towels this time, Santana!"

"What's the difference? A towel is a towel," Santana said to herself as she opened the linen closest.

"How's it going in there?" Shelby called out, scaring Santana half to death. She didn't see her mom because the closet door was blocking her mom from her view of the steps.

"Jeez, mom! I could have had a heart attack!"

"Should I call my dad, honey?" Shelby asked, kissing the top of Santana's head before squeezing by.

"I've got it," Will assured, tightening the screws under the sink. "Just a little more, and…done."

Shelby gasped when she saw the bathroom. There were towels all over the place and water everywhere. She didn't understand how the sink could have caused something so drastic to happen, it looked like the girls took the shower head off hook and sprayed it around.

"If dad wasn't hiding out in the garage and responded when we screamed the first time, there wouldn't be water everywhere."

Shelby looked at Will expectantly—she knew her husband wasn't the type of guy who had endless projects he liked to work on in the garage. "I was out there trying to fix Beth's stroller," he supplied.

"I see," Shelby responded, now understanding why the bathroom looked the way it did. She tested the sink again, wanting to see for herself that it was fixed. Her dad had helped with a lot over the years when it came to home renovations; she trusted Will to do most things, but there were some he just didn't know how to do.

"Beth come back here!" Rachel screamed.

Santana burst out laughing seeing her sister run past in just her diaper and Shelby quickly chased the baby until she saw the gate locked at the top of the stairs. "Come here, monkey."

Beth squealed and tried to make it past everyone again but Shelby scooped her up and peppered kisses all over her exposed belly; they all smiled hearing the baby's breathless giggles. "Why don't we go on a walk together."

"Can we scooter?" the twins asked.

Shelby said yes and the girls ran into their rooms to change leaving the mother to get Beth dressed. She and Will also changed, Shelby out of her work clothes and Will into dry clothes like the girls. They have gone on family walks since, forever really. Shelby and Juan used to take walks with the girls in carriers against their chests because in New York strollers weren't super convenient, then Shelby walked them in the double stroller when she moved back to Ohio, which continued when she and Will got married. Then the girls would ride their bikes as the parents walked, which turned into scootering around as Beth was pushed in her stroller.

It was a nice family tradition that helped wear the girls out from their endless energy, something the girls have had extra of recently because their days used to be filled with cheer. This past week it was, but they haven't cheered or participated in glee until last week due to Rachel's surgery and recovery.

It felt so nice to just be with the family, spending time together, smiling, laughing, and having clean bills of health across the board.