Title: Pieces
Pairing: Rachel/Santana, Shelby
Length:52,788
Spoilers: Up to season 3
Summary: Rachel never expected to find out she's a werewolf, and once the reality of it sinks in, she feels like a monster. Surprisingly enough there's someone unexpected who helps her keep onto the humanity inside her.
Note: This is written for the
Glee Big Bang.
Rachel had gone straight to her room and slammed the door on her way in again. Luckily, her dads weren’t home yet, so she could slam doors all she wanted without having them ask questions. Why did Santana act like she cared so much? Never before, aside from a few moments between them, she never showed she cared or even liked Rachel. So why now, when Rachel was trying to push everyone away, did she try to shove herself in Rachel’s life?
She walked to her desk and pulled out one of the werewolf books she had checked out and opened it. Trying to understand Santana was pointless and Rachel had a better time trying to understand her wolf.
She spent the rest of the day reading and taking notes until she heard a knock on the door. She jumped and shoved the book in a drawer and opened up a textbook she had nearby.
“Rachel?” Leroy was heard on the other side of the door.
“Yeah, come in.” Rachel said and Leroy opened the door and came in, smiling at her. Rachel smiled back, trying to look as normal as she could.
“Hey, sweetie,” Leroy said. “Are you coming down? You’ve been up here all day again.” Rachel looked at the digital clock on her desk and was surprised at how late it was.
“Oh, um, well I’ve been busy with schoolwork.” Rachel said and Leroy looked at her book.
“Physics?” Rachel nodded. Leroy sighed and sat on Rachel’s bed.
“Rachel, I’ve been worried about you,” Rachel frowned and looked confused. “You’ve hardly left your room lately.”
“I-I’ve just been busy with schoolwork lately,” Rachel said quickly. “It’s my senior year, after all.” Leroy smiled.
“Right, of course,” Leroy said. “Are you sure you don’t have anything to tell me?” Rachel had so much to tell him and Hiram, to tell everyone, but she couldn’t possibly tell them. They would think she was crazy.
“I’m sure.” So she lied, again. It seemed lying was all she was doing lately.
“Well, then,” Leroy stood up and walked over to her. “Night.” He said, kissing her forehead.
“Night.” She called back as he walked to the door. Leroy have her a smile and he closed the door. Once the door was closed, Rachel sighed and opened her drawer, looking at the book. She closed her eyes, realizing how tired she was, and slammed the drawer closed. She got up and walked to her bed, collapsing on it and falling asleep immediately.
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The next day she forced herself to go to school, to face Finn. She wondered if maybe he was less mad, but she was proved wrong by all the glares he sent her way. Sighing, she went to her locker, where Puck was waiting again.
“Hello Noah, what brings you here?” Puck shrugged as Rachel opened her locker.
“Nothing, just seeing how you were doing.” Puck said, looking over to where Finn was. Rachel followed his gaze and groaned.
“How did you find out?” Rachel asked, knowing Puck already knew of their breakup. She wondered if Santana had gone and told everyone in the school, and really, Rachel wouldn’t put that past her.
“Finn told the football team.” Rachel wasn’t expecting that. She had hoped Finn would be decent about the whole thing, but apparently that was too much to ask for.
“What?” Rachel asked, a little louder than she meant and some of the students were looking her way. Rachel turned to her locker and shoved her books inside. “How could he do that?” Rachel asked softly.
“He was pretty upset.” Puck said and Rachel looked up at him.
“Do you hate me too?” A part of Rachel hoped he said yes, then she could easily shove Puck away before he got hurt too.
“Finn said you just did it randomly,” Rachel sighed and looked down. “Why did you, though.”
“Noah, I wish I could tell you,” She really did. It would be such a relief to tell the truth, but she knew she couldn’t. “But it’s a really personal… thing I’m going through.” For a moment Puck was silent before speaking up again.
“Hey, I get it,” Puck said, making Rachel look up at him in surprise. “Kind of. We all got shit going on in our life, and you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” Puck gave Rachel a grin that Rachel couldn’t help but give back. Suddenly the bell rand and Puck lightly slapped her on the back. “I’ll walk you to class.” Rachel wanted to say no, but it seemed like Puck wouldn’t take no for an answer, so she nodded and let him walk her to class.
By the time it was lunch, Rachel was sure the entire school knew of her break up with Finn. After Finn broadcasted it to the football team, well, then any chance she had of keeping it a secret was gone. The football team wasn’t exactly best for keeping secrets. Not to mention the fact that Shane was on the team and probably told Mercedes, who then told Kurt, and Rachel didn’t want to think about what that led to.
Not wanting to face all the questions she knew everyone from glee club would ask, she hid in the auditorium again. She walked up to the stage and laid down in the center of it. She curled herself up into a ball and closed her eyes, trying to concentrate on nothing. She was awarded with silence, but that ended when she heard a door opening and closing, followed by footsteps and the voice of Shelby.
“What are you doing?” Rachel groaned and curled into a ball more.
“This is my spot, go away,” Shelby sighed and when Rachel heard Shelby sitting in one of the chairs right in front of the stage, she groaned again. “Don’t you have somewhere to be?”
“I have lunch this period, what about you?” Shelby asked, watching Rachel on the stage.
“I have lunch too.” Rachel said, hoping that was going to be the end of the discussion.
“Did you eat?” Apparently not.
“I’m not hungry.” Rachel said. She could have lied again and said she did eat, but she had a feeling Shelby would see right through it.
“Have you been eating lunch at all lately?” Shelby asked softly and it took Rachel a while to answer. Truth was, Rachel wasn’t eating lunch, or dinner, that much lately. She either hid somewhere in the school, away from everyone, or she stayed up in her room and skipped out on dinner.
“I’ve eaten a bit.” Rachel said.
“You look like you lost some weight,” Shelby said softly and Rachel frowned. Had she? She really hadn’t noticed except when she looked in the mirror in Shelby’s bathroom that weekend, and she thought she looked better but she guessed she was wrong. “Here, have some of mine.”
“No, it’s fine.” Rachel argued, or tried to, but it was clear Shelby was having none of it.
“Rachel, eat.” There was a finality to Shelby’s voice that Rachel hadn’t heard before, and it scared Rachel a little. Maybe before she might have been able to ignore Shelby, but now it was like she had to listen or she would have hell to pay.
So Rachel found herself uncurling herself up from the safety of being in a ball and stood up. She quickly walked over to Shelby and stood in front of her. Shelby smiled and handed her the plate of food and motioned her to sit down next to her.
Rachel did and looked at the tray uncertainly. Luckily, there was a salad that she could eat, so she picked up the fork and started eating it. Shelby watched her with a smile and ran her hand through Rachel’s hair.
“That’s my pup.” Shelby said softly and normally Rachel would complain at being called a puppy, but she was too busy eating. She had realized she was that hungry and she finished the salad rather quickly.
“Sorry for eating it all.” Rachel said, looking down at the try and Shelby chuckled as she took the tray back.
“Don’t worry, I still have my sandwich,” Rachel nodded and handed the tray back to Shelby. As Shelby ate she looked at Rachel, who was looking at the ground. “So,” Shelby said. “What were you doing up there?” Shelby asked, remembering how Rachel was curled into a ball when she walked in. Rachel looked up at the stage and shrugged.
“I do that when things get too much,” Rachel explained. “I make myself as small as possible and close my eyes and hide from everyone.” Shelby frowned and looked over at Rachel sadly.
“You can come to me, you know.” Shelby said and Rachel nodded, but Shelby was sure Rachel didn’t fully believe that yet. Would there relationship ever be as good as it could have been? Shelby looked at the time and sighed. “I have to go; I’ll see you sometime later.” Shelby gave Rachel’s shoulder a squeeze before walking out.
Rachel watched Shelby go and let out a sigh once she was gone. She leaned back in her seat and stared at the ceiling as she thought about what Shelby said. As she did, Rachel figured maybe she was wrong all along. After all, she had already had her first transformation, and Shelby haven’t walked out of her life yet. Maybe she could trust Shelby more.
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Glee club was more than awkward for Rachel. Her and Finn were sitting on opposite ends of the room, and everyone else was in the middle in silence. Will walked in eventually and looked at the two confused before shaking his head and going on with the lesson.
“Um, Rachel, want to start us off?” He asked when he realized Rachel wasn’t saying anything.
“No.” Rachel said and she could feel everyone’s shocked looks on her. At the moment, she didn’t care about Glee. All she wanted was to hide from everyone, including Finn and his staring.
“Oh,” Will said, a little confused. “Are you sure? You always have something to contribute.” Rachel sighed, he couldn’t seem to wrap his head around the one word she said.
“Yes, I’m sure.” Rachel said and Will finally nodded.
“Well, what about anyone else?” Everyone stayed in their seats and eventually Blaine got up.
“Um, if you don’t mind, I got something.” Blaine said and Will nodded.
“Sure, Blaine.” He sat down as Blaine walked to the middle of the room and faced everyone.
"Maybe this will help everyone, you know, get into the spirit.” Before Blaine could actually start singing, Finn spoke up.
“Everyone’s in good enough spirit.” Finn snapped and Blaine sighed.
“Finn, I’m just trying to help.”
“And I’m sure your way of helping was great in the Warblers, but here we do things differently.” As Finn spoke he had gotten up and walked closer to Blaine. Rachel sighed. She never understood why Finn didn’t like Blaine so much. More words were said between the two, but she honestly didn’t care or pay attention. It wasn’t until everyone started getting up that she realized glee was dismissed. She quickly got up and was about to head out until Will called out to her.
“Rachel, could you stay a moment?” Rachel sighed and slowly walked to him at the piano.
“Yes, Mr. Schuester?” Rachel asked as he put away all his papers.
“Rachel, are you feeling okay?” He asked.
“What do you mean?” Rachel almost wanted to laugh at his question. Did it really take him this long to figure out something was going on with her?
“You always participate, but today you were completely out of it.” Rachel felt her hands ball into fists. Of course he would only care when she didn’t help his precious glee club. It was so typical of him and Rachel wondered why she never really thought about it before.
“I’m fine,” Rachel said tightly. “I’ll be sure to do my best from now on.” Will didn’t notice the harshness of her tone, and he smiled at her words.
“Alright, well,” He gave her a nod. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” With that he left, leaving Rachel in the coir room. She slammed her fist onto the piano in frustration and tried to calm her emotions. After a few minutes she took a deep breath and walked out of the room calmly. She headed for the auditorium and when she walked in she realized she was the last one again. She quickly put her stuff down and took out her script.
“Late two days in a row? Damn, Berry.” Rachel turned around to see Santana sitting in the chair again, waiting for her with the script in her hands.
“Yes, well, I’ve had a hard week.” Santana looked at her thoughtfully as she nodded.
“I know,” Santana said softly and Rachel bit her lip. Santana shrugged and got up. “Whatever, let’s start.” Rachel nodded and the two practiced their lines again. It went well, and when it was time to go, Rachel realized her and Santana were the last ones again. Now that Rachel thought about it, she realized they were always the last ones to go.
Suddenly, she remembered Santana hearing her and Finn’s breakup and how she wondered if Santana had told anyone. Just as Santana was about to go, Rachel reached out and grabbed her arm.
“Wait,” Rachel said and Santana looked down at Rachel’s hand on her arm with a raised eyebrow. Rachel blushed and quickly withdrew her hand. “Santana, um, I was wondering if you had told anyone about my breakup with Finn.”
“The whole school knowing was on Finncompetence, and the two biggest gossips. Not me,” Santana said. “So no, I haven’t told anyone.” Santana grabbed her backpack and books and started heading out.
“Santana,” Rachel said softly and Santana paused in her steps. “Thank you.” Santana lips quirked up in a small smile.
“No problem, Berry.” Then Santana left. Rachel smiled and grabbed her backpack and headed out too. She walked outside and started walking home until she was stopped by a voice.
“Rachel!” She looked over to see Brittany waving at her from Santana’s car. Santana, though, didn’t look as happy as she tried to lower Brittany’s arm. It was too late though, Rachel already saw them and Santana gave up. Brittany ran over to Rachel, and she felt herself get pulled into a bone-crushing hug. Brittany let her go and smiled at her.
“Hello, Brittany.” Rachel said.
“Hey, Rachel, are you feeling better? You’re not mad at Mercedes anymore too, right?”
“Of course not,” Rachel said, smiling at her. “Well, I’m going now.” She started walking away but Brittany held her back.
“I’ll have Santana drive you,” Brittany said brightly and Rachel shook her head.
“No, that’s fine.” Brittany frowned and tilted her head as she looked at Rachel.
“But you’re sad and I don’t want to have you walk alone.” Rachel looked at Brittany, confused.
“Sad? Brittany, what are you talking about?”
“You’re different,” Brittany said softly and Rachel’s eyes widened. “Something’s different about you and I can tell you’re sad,” Brittany continued and Rachel began panicking. Brittany couldn’t figure out what Rachel really was, and what she already knew was too much. “So let us drive you home.” Brittany said cheerfully and Rachel quickly pulled her arm out of Brittany’s grip with surprising strength.
“No I-I have to go.” Rachel ran away from Brittany, who was trying to call her back, and to the safety of her room. Did anyone else notice anything? Rachel hoped they didn’t, because having the entire school find out you’re a monster wasn’t on her list of things.
Eventually she reached her house and she rushed inside. She ignored her dad calling her and she ran up to her room. She slammed the door again and she slid down the door. She brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.
This couldn’t be happening. Rachel couldn’t let Brittany figure out anything more. She couldn’t let Brittany see the monster in her. Or anyone else, for that matter.