Chapter 12

The day was Thursday, November 24th. It was early in the morning and all of the leaves were turned brown from the previous fall season. It was particularly cold on that day, but not too cold to bare. The sky was it's bluest shade ever seen, the sun was as shiny as a million diamonds, and there wasn't a cloud in sight. There was also a lot of peace. The only things that could be heard we're the birds chirping in the trees, and the many cars pulling up and parking themselves in Finn and Rachel's driveway. The ironic thing about was that Finn and Rachel weren't even present.

Once everyone got inside, they went around the house making small talk with friends they haven't seen or family members that they wanted to catch up with. The guests in the house were a small number of Rachel and Finn's family and friends. There were Quinn and Sam, with their son, Mason, Tina and Mike, Artie, Brittany, Puck, Mercedes, Mr. Schue and Ms. Pillsbury, Burt and Carol, Blaine, Amy, her husband Jeremy, and their daughter Callie, Haley, Nathan, Jamie, Brooke, Julian, and their sons Jude and Davis, Peyton and Lucas, with their daughter Sawyer, and last but not least, the mastermind behind this whole entire gathering, Kurt. He had called everyone a few weeks before this day, to get an estimated date that they could meet, and invited everyone over to give Rachel and Finn a surprise welcome home party.

They were all asked to arrive at around 8:00 am when Kurt got the news that morning. Kurt and Blaine rushed over to the empty house to get ready to decorate before anyone got there. When all of the guest started to arrive, Kurt told them that they had to be quiet in case of suspicious neighbors. Someone was also hired to drive. All of their cars to the public parking lot on their street, so that when Finn and Rachel got home they wouldn't know something was up with a million cars in their driveway.

It took about 3 and a half hours before it was 11:33 am and someone notified everyone else that their car had just pulled into their driveway. Panicking, Kurt turned off the lights and told everyone to hide. When the front door was unlocked, Finn was the first to walk into the door, and place his keys onto the table by the door. Turning on the light in the house, Finn was a bit confused with the decorations. About to turn and go help Rachel, Kurt jumped up and exclaimed "Surprise!" Before being followed by everyone else. Seeing them jump up, Finn almost had a heart attack.

"Hey guys! What are y'all doing here?" He asked pleasantly surprised.

"Never mind that. Where is... It?" Kurt asked looking behind Finn.

"It?" Finn asked looking at Kurt with a funny face.

"You know what I mean." Kurt replied with his arms crossed.

Turning to outside of the door, Finn started speaking. "Hey, Rach! We have guests."

"Okay, we're coming!" she called back from outside.

Closing the door to the car, Rachel held the small frame in her arms and slowly made her way to the front door where Finn was waiting for her. When she walked into the house, she was kind of taken aback by how many people there were in her house, but she placed a smile on her face as they all gasped and whispered many things when they saw her and what was in her arms.

"Omg, Omg! Rach, I knew it! Blaine, you owe me 50 bucks!" Kurt whispered, as he was so excited.

"You bet money on our baby?" Rachel asked Kurt.

"Maybe..." He said backing up.

Turning to Finn, Rachel began to speak, "The things we come home to.."

"I'm just so glad! I don't know what I would've done if you two came home with a boy. Now that it's a girl, I can take her shopping with me all of the time! This is going to be so great!" Kurt said.

"Rach, she looks so cute." Quinn said walking over to her and the baby.

"Thanks." She smiled as Quinn gave her a quick hug and took a few minutes to look at the small sleeping baby.

"Look at our little sis, Ames. She now has her own baby." Haley smiled as they both walked up to them.

"She's so small, Rach!" Amy smiled as she played with the tiny hand sticking out of the pink blanket from the hospital.

"5 pounds and 8 ounces to be exact." Finn smiled, looking down at his daughter. " How about we get you a seat on the couch Rach? You gave birth yesterday and you look exhausted." Finn said, directing Rachel over to the couch, next to Carol, with Haley, Amy, Tina, Quinn, and Mercedes sitting across from her.

"She's gorgeous, Rachel." Carol said, looking at the small baby. "She looks like you."

"I would have to disagree on that." Rachel chuckled. "She's an exact replica of Finn." She said, smiling down at her sleeping child.

"She has your nose." Finn said, leaning against the back of the couch, where Rachel was sitting.

"Yeah." Rachel smiled, "I feel bad for her."

"Are you kidding? That's my favorite part about her." Finn replied.

"What's her name?" Asked Mercedes.

"That's the question I've been waiting for." Rachel grinned. "Her name is Shelby Grace Hudson." Rachel smiled as she rubbed her hand against the side of her sleeping daughter.

"You named her after mom?" Haley asked wiping away a few tears.

"Yeah. Is that okay?" She asked, looking worried as Haley was crying.

"No. It's perfect!" She smiled.

As the day went on, Rachel allowed many people to carefully hold Shelby for a short amount of time. By the end of it, Rachel went upstairs and placed her baby in her crib and went back downstairs to socialize with all of her friends and family. She got into the kitchen and her eyes began to light up. Since she was still feeling the affects of the cravings from her pregnancy, Rachel got so happy at any food she saw. Which, in this case she was delighted when she saw all of the food in her kitchen. Grabbing a plate, Rachel started fixing it, when she was accompanied by Brooke, who had a sincere look on her face.

"Hey, Brooke!" Rachel smiled.

"Hey, Rachel. Do you think we can talk?" She asked, with a sad look on her face.

"Sure." She smiled, pointing to the table.

"Okay." Brooke replied and followed Rachel to the table.

"What's up?" She asked looking at Brooke.

"I just really want to apologize for what I said to you that day at school and for calling you stupid. If I would've known that what I said would've caused you to do what you did, I wouldn't of said it. I'm just so sorry, Rachel." She explained.

"You don't have to be sorry, Brooke. You were just trying to help me by saying those things. You were right, I shouldn't have yelled at Jamie like that. And Brooke, don't think that you caused my situation. I was just in a really bad place with myself at the time. You don't have to apologize. If anyone has to apologize, it's me."

"So, are we good?" She asked looking at Rachel with a small smile.

"Better than good B. Davis. Come here." She smiled as she pulled her in for a hug.

"Thanks, Rach. By the way, I really admire how you chose to honor your mother through your daughter. Also, if that little girl isn't the cutest little girl in the whole entire world, then I don't know who is." Brooke laughed as Rachel joined her."

"Thanks. Am I the only one who think she looks exactly like Finn?" She asked out of curiosity.

"definitely not. She's his spitting image. She looks like the girl version of him. Well with your nose, of course." Brooke laughed.

"My baby's gonna be teased the rest of her life, isn't she?" She asked with a fake frown on her face.

"There's always the luxury of a nose job." Brooke replied.

"Never. Barbra will be her inspiration, like she is mine." Rachel told her.

"Okay, crazy momma. You need some rest." Brooke laughed again.

"It feels weird to hear that. Momma. It feels good. I'm a mom, Brooke!" Rachel smiled.

"let's see how good it'll feel tonight at 3:30 am. Good luck!" She exclaimed, before returning to the party.

Rachel dumped out her plate in the garbage and began to walk towards the living room, where everyone else. Smiling to herself, she really couldn't deny that she had the best group of family and friends. She was glad that Kurt had called them over to see her and her new baby. Rachel was glad that after all of these years, the whole entire glee club could still be a part of her family. Well, maybe not the whole entire needed to fix that.

By the time the clock had struck 2:00 in the afternoon, the whole party seemed to clear out, leaving Finn and Rachel alone in their house, with a sleeping baby girl upstairs and a big mess to clean up from their previous guests.

"You know, Kurt goes out of his way to throw these big surprise parties. Would it kill him to go out of his way to clean up the result of his parties?" Rachel asked, laughing.

"What can we do? He's a busy guy. He's probably already planning a shopping date with our newborn daughter." Finn replied, laughing as well.

"Look how far we've come." Rachel smiled, putting down the garbage bag and walking over to Finn to give him a hug.

"I know." He smiled

"I couldn't have done any of this without you." She said, looking up at him.

"That's not true. I don't know if you know this or not, but you're one of the strongest people I know, Rach. We're not her right now because of me. We're here, happy and in love, just as much as we were in high school because of your strength and courage." He smiled, then bent down and kissed her.

Before she could really kiss him back, the baby monitor on the coffee table started to played their daughter's crying through the room, causing the both of them to go upstairs. Getting into her room, Finn picked Shelby up out of her crib and took a seat in the rocker. Motioning towards the bottles, Rachel knew that Finn was telling her that Shelby needed a bottle, and by the smell of things, a diaper change as well.

Coming up from the kitchen, Rachel placed the bottle in Finn's hands as he was finishing with the baby's diaper change. Sitting on the rocker again, Finn placed the bottle in Shelby's mouth, and began rocking back and forth. Looking at Rachel, he noticed how fascinated she looked while watching.

"There's a notebook downstairs if you want to take notes." Finn joked.

"I'm sorry. It's just that you're so good with her. How do you know so much about babies?" She asked sitting down next to him, on the small couch they also placed in the room.

The room was actually quite pretty to Rachel. She was proud at the outcome of the design. At the beginning of her pregnancy, Finn and Rachel vowed that they wouldn't tell anyone the sex of the baby until she was born. When they found out, Rachel was quite surprised when Finn looked happy. She had thought that Finn would want a boy, like Jamie, to hang out with and play sports with. When she asked him how he felt about having a girl, he replied with some guys can't even get one girl, I now get two. Ever since that moment, Finn would always happily tag along as they shopped for baby girl things, such as clothes, blankets, bottles, etc.

During her pregnancy, Rachel became impatient with the secret of what her baby was. When people would ask her, she would always reply "We want it to be a surprise" no matter how much they insisted for more information. The only thing that kept her sane was the decoration of her daughter's room. Rachel was one of those parents who liked everything to be sorted out early in the pregnancy, so once she found out it was a girl, she headed straight to the local department store, and bought the paint. Rachel felt that pink was too normal for a girl's room. She wanted her daughter to be different and unique, so she bought lavender paint for her daughter's room.

Once the room was painted, her and Finn spent time trying to trace little pink and blue butterflies along the wall, which surrounded a huge print that they placed on the wall. It was a quote that Rachel had used when she was teenager. "Being a part of something special makes you special" love mommy and daddy.

Once she was finished with the walls, and they were all dry, she began to place the furniture around the room. She had a diaper changing section, at the top of it, it said change the stinky to clean and squeaky. Then on the other side of the room, Rachel placed her daughter's crib along the wall. On top of her crib, it said close your eyes and sleep tight, open them to the sunlight.

On the other side of the room, in one of the corners, Rachel and Finn had set up a small play area for when she got older, but other than that, there was a rocking chair and a small living room area at the other corner of the room, where they could sit or sleep or rock her to sleep. Last but not least, Rachel had her favorite quote painted on the white door, "hello, gorgeous" which was from Barbra Streisand. At the end of it all, Rachel was very impressed with how good her daughter's room turned out.

When she asked her question, Finn kind of looked embarrassed. He then replied.

"Well, you know when the whole thing with Quinn went down in high school, I thought I was gonna be a dad, so I wanted to prepare as best as I could.." He stopped looking down, he didn't want to tell her.

"What is it?" She asked, looking at him in a concerned way.

Sighing, he replied. "I went to Walmart and bought a baby doll and some diapers, and a bottle to practice at home." He quietly said.

Without saying anything else, Finn nervously looked at Rachel to see her expression. Her face was straight for a second before she burst end into laughter, which was what Finn didn't want.

"I'm sorry, it's just that... You bought a baby doll?!" She continued laughing.

"I was inexperienced." He replied.

"You could've asked your mom." She smiled.

"That would've been really weird. I don't know why you're laughing, I bet you played with baby dolls too." He said with a serious face.

"Yes, Finn, I did. But I wasn't a teenage boy, I was a young girl. Omg did they have little girls in the aisle when you bought it? What did the cashier say? Omg I wish I would've been there." She laughed.

"For your information, I used the self check out, and no, it was during the primary school's hours, so no little kids were there." He replied.

"You still bought a baby doll though. Do you still have it?" She asked, laughing.

"No, I threw it away the minute I found out about her and Puck." Finn said.

With that, Rachel's face went straight as she saw the pain in his eyes. Getting on her knees next to him, she looked up at him and began to speak.

"Hey, look, I know I've been making fun of the fact that you bought the baby doll, but I'm so sorry with what you had to go through with, how hurt you were. But, hey, look at us now, if you would've never found out, you wouldn't be here right now, holding our beautiful Shelby Grace, who looks exactly like her handsome father, with her mother's huge beak right in the middle." She chuckled.

"I love her nose, and yours. It's what makes you both beautiful. And you're right. If you wouldn't have told me about them, I would be stuck with Quinn, caring for someone else's child. I also wouldn't be able to be living the amazing life that we've built together. I love you more than anything, Rach."

"I know, because I love you even more." She smiled, resting her head on his shoulder as they watched their daughter look up at them.

"She's not going back to sleep, is she?" Rachel asked, as she took the small hand in hers and gently waved in around.

"Not anytime soon." He laughed.

"Do you think you'll be okay for her for a while?"

"Yeah, why?" He asked, as she got up.

"I have to go fix things with someone." She smiled. "I'll tell you all about it when I get home, I promise."

"Okay, be careful." He said as she nodded her head, and walked out of the room.

Getting in her car, she thanked Mercedes for telling her exactly where this person would be, because she really wouldn't travel all the way to New York.

Pulling up at the town's only recording studio, Rachel took a deep breath, got out of her car, and walked towards the entrance. Once she got in, she saw exactly who she wanted to see. Watching, the girl was singing some song that was unfamiliar to Rachel, but she sounded good. Once the song was finished, Rachel walked up to the glass box, and clapped, getting the girl's attention.

Putting the headphones on the stand, the girl walked out of the glass box, and walked past Rachel, rolling her eyes.

"Santana, wait!" She Called, running after her, she didn't stop. "Could you maybe slow down, I had a baby yesterday, and I'm not really in shape at the moment." Rachel called out to Santana who stopped and turned around to face her.

"What do you want Berry? I got people to see, and places to be. It's not like you would know anything about that!" She said before she rolled her eyes again, and turned to walk away.

"Wait!" She called again, causing her to turn around again. "I want to apologize to you."

"Apologize? For what? You didn't slap me hard enough or something?" She asked crossing her arms over her chest.

"I shouldn't have slapped you at all, or yelled at you." She let out.

"Whatever. Just leave them in the studio, cause it doesn't mean anything to me." She said before turning to walk away again.

"Fine. At least I tried, right?" She called out, and began to walk away, before Santana stopped her.

"Fine, tell me what you have to tell me, just, not here. Follow me." She said as she walked towards a set of stairs, with Rachel following.

Once they got to the roof top, Santana sat at a bench, and looked at Rachel who looked around in amazement.

"Hey, dwarf, we don't have all night. Speak." She said with an unamused face, and her arms still crossed.

"Okay, look, I shouldn't said those things to you that night at Burt and Carol's. My mother had just died and I was on edge, anything could've set me off, even Kurt's happy mood. For some reason it was you. I guess I was just holding some resentment from high school. I never really understood why you made it your life's mission to make my life the worst it could be, Santana. I understood that you were popular and on top of the high school social pyramid, but none of the mattered to me. All I wanted in high school was to be your friend. I even sometimes envy you, you know." She said looking at Santana.

"How could you possibly envy me? You're the one who has Finn." She asked, looking at Rachel.

"Finn? That's what this is all about?" She asked looking at Santana.

"I don't know, Rachel. In middle school I honestly didn't like you because you didn't have the pressure on you like I had on me. You're parents weren't pushing you to try out for every sport at the school, or to make the highest grades in the class, which were made by you, and you weren't pushed to keep your reputation at it's highest. And yes, I envy you because of Finn. From the time I took his virginity in sophomore year, I guess I liked the way he made me feel. Did you know when we did it, he offered to buy me a cheeseburger?" She said.

"Okay, I didn't need to know that, but, Santana, you're way better than that. You could've asked me for help instead of making me cry everyday." She replied.

"I know. Can I tell you a secret, Rachel?" She asked.

"Anything." Rachel answered back.

"I was never in love with Finn." She said.

"But you just said.." Rachel didn't finish before Santana spoke again.

"I lied. From the time I was in the sixth grade, I knew I liked girls.. I mean, I did use Finn for my beard in the seventh grade, but there's only one person that I've been in love with all of this time. Brittany Pierce." She said, looking out at the street lights of Lima at night.

"Why don't you tell her how you feel?" Rachel asked, as she saw the tears roll down her eyes.

"I guess I'm just too scared. I mean, what if I tell her and she tells everyone that I'm lesbian, or worse, what if she doesn't feel the same way?" She asked, as she cried.

"You'll never know until you try, Santana. Even if she doesn't feel the same way, I'm sure there's some girl out there who'll love you for exactly who you are." Rachel said, placing her hand on Santana's shoulder as she cried.

"I'm so sorry, Rachel. I shouldn't have picked on you all of those years. You would've made an amazing friend." Santana sobbed looking at Rachel.

"You can't fix the things from the past, Santana, but there's nothing stopping you from making a bright future. I forgive you. How about we start being friends now and make up for all of that lost time?" She asked, smiling at Santana.

"That would be nice." Santana smiled as she hugged Rachel. "So, this kid that you had yesterday, you have any pictures of it yet?" Santana asked, wiping away her tears.

"Oh, yeah. Here." She chuckled while finding the picture on her iPhone.

Looking at the picture, Santana put her hand to her heart and then spoke.

"She's so cute. Are you sure that's not Finn in there? She looks exactly like him." Santana smiled. "Oh,look, she even has your shnoz!"

"Yeah." Rachel replied.

"What's her name?" She asked, smiling at the picture of the sleeping baby.

"Shelby Grace Hudson." Rachel answered her, proud to say her name.

"Shelby. I like it. It's not all those long and weird names that people are using with their kids these days. Where'd you get it from?" She asked curiously.

"It was my mother's name." Rachel smiled, and then looked up.

"It's beautiful. Rachel, about that. I just wanted to say that I was sorry about those things I said at the dinner table that night. I knew that she had died, I was just playing my old games in which I really shouldn't have. I'm sorry that I made you say those things about your mom, I wish I could take it back." Santana said, looking at Rachel with sad eyes.

"It's okay, Santana. It's long gone in the past. Let's start fresh. Hi, my name is Rachel berry Hudson." She smiled, holding her hand out for Santana to shake.

Smiling, Santana smiled and took it, while speaking. "Hi, I'm Santana Lopez, and even though my name isn't as long as yours, it's one hell of a name." She said, while they both laughed.

"Santana Lopez, this is going to sound totally preschool, but would you like to be my friend?" She asked with a grin.

"I would love to, Rachel Berry Hudson." She laughed.

The spent almost, three more hours on that roof top talking, crying, laughing, and catching up on the friendship that they missed out on all of those years. By the time they left that rooftop, Santana had Rachel number in her phone, as did Rachel. When they both got into their cars and left, Rachel could say that Santana Lopez was now one of her best friends. She was glad that she had talked to Santana, because Rachel honestly needed a friend like her in her life.

When Rachel walked into the front door it was 10 o'clock. Walking into the living room, she found Finn sitting on the couch, watching a football game with Shelby fast asleep in his arms.

"You're training her already?" Rachel asked, placing her purse on the coffee table, and taking a seat on the couch next to Finn.

"Babe, she has to know her sports.." Finn smiled, kissing Rachel. "So, where've you been? Give me the detail, just as you promised." He laughed.

"I made a new friend.." She smiled to herself.

"Who?" He asked, curiously.

Taking out her phone, she pulled up the selfie that Santana and her had taken a few hours earlier. "Santana." She smiled, looking at Finn.

"I'm glad you two made up." Finn replied.

"Yeah, me too." She chuckled. "Okay, shel shel, i think it's time you make it to your bed for your very first night home." She smiled, as she slowly and gently placed Shelby in her arms and headed for up the stairs, as Finn turned off all of the lights and locked all of the windows and doors, and turned on the alarm system, before following Rachel up the stairs.

Placing Shelby in her crib, Rachel closed her eyes, and began to sing her a lullaby, just like her mother used to. But this time, she wanted to sing a new song for Shelby. She thought about when she was dancing around with Jamie in the pool, the Cinderella song she sang. She knew that would be the most perfect song to sing every night for her baby girl.

Right before she could start, Finn walked in, sat on the couch, and looked at her. "Sing it, momma." He said, smiling, waiting for her to continue.

A dream is a wish your heart makes

when your fast asleep

in dreams you will lose your heartache

whatever you wish for, you keep

have faith in your dreams and someday

your rainbow will come smiling through

no matter how your heart is grieving

if you keep on believing

a dream that you wish will come true

a dream is a wish your heart makes

when you're feeling small

alone in the night you whisper

thinking no one can hear you at all

you wake with the morning sunlight

to find fortune that is smiling on you

don't let your heart be filled with sorrow

for all you know tomorrow

a dream that you wish will come true

"Goodnight, baby girl." She smiled.

After Finn and Rachel left her room, they got ready for bed, and just lied in bed for a few more minutes before speaking to one another.

"Finn are you awake?" She asked the air, wondering if her would answer or not.

"No." He replied sarcastically, turning to face her.

"Real funny.." She rolled her eyes.

"I know, I should become a comedian huh?" He laughed.

"Can we talk?" She asked.

"Yeah. What's wrong, Rach?" He asked, looking at her serious face.

"I just wanted to apologize for the way I was the few know that I could never take your love for granted right? Because, I don't know what I would do If you thought that I could. When I look back on that girl, it gives me unpleasant shivers down my spine. Like, I'm not proud of who I was or what I did back then. The only good thing is that I didn't lose you, when I easily could've. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me and I love you to the moon and back times 1000. You're the love of my life Finn Hudson, and that's who you'll be for the rest of my life, because when I look into my future, I see us on the porch, watching our grandchildren run on the front lawn, like that dream you had." "You're my life."

"You don't have to apologize, angel. I know that you could never take me for granted, just as much as I could never take you for granted. I know how you feel, because honey, I feel for you twice as much. Before you came into my life I was this Lima loser jock who had no future. The only thing I had was my girlfriend and my football team. I always knew deep down in my heart that that wasn't enough to get by with. But, when stepped into that auditorium with a crazy short brunette who was pulling me back and forth at our first glee rehearsal, I knew that I had found my future. Even if Quinn was still by my side, I knew that I had found the love of my life, even if she made me check under the bed to see if she was under there. My high school life will always be my favorite time in my life. Not because I was popular, or because I was the captain of the football team, but because I met the love of my life, and because I was a part of an amazing club, which was considered my family, and because I actually graduated high school, which at the beginning of senior year, I didn't think that was possible. I also didn't think by the end of our senior year I would be at our wedding sight, saying vows to the woman that I know will be with for the rest of my life. Rachel, you're my life. I would not be where I am today, if I hadn't of me you. You've gave and are are continuing to give me the best life that any guy could ask for. You gave me this marriage, when you said yes, you gave me this house, when we signed the lease, and you gave me our beautiful daughter, when you sacrificed yourself through all of that pain, just so she could get here. I can't wait to live my dream with you, because baby you're the love of my life. Forever and always, Rachel Berry Hudson."

"Is there a way you could repeat that, so I can listen to it everyday?" She asked smiling bright, holding him, with her head against his chest.

"I might need a sip of water first." He joked, causing them both to laugh.

"You know I could never hate you right? I have no idea why I said it. I never meant it though. There isn't a day that I've ever spent in my whole entire life that I've spent hating you, and there never will be." She smiled.

"I know. I love you." He smiled, kissing the top of Rachel's head.

"I love you more." She smiled back.

"If you say so." He replied.

"Finn Hudson, your my life, and those few months taught me something." She told him.

"What did they teach you?" He asked looking down at her.

"You're my rock."

So, here's my final chapter for this story. I really want to thank you all for reading my story, I really appreciate all of the reviews. There isn't one that I haven't already read. My next story, sadly, is not going to be based on the Glee fanfic world, but on the Vampire Diaries. So, if you're a fan of the Vampire Diaries, check it out. I may write some other glee fanfic later, but for now, I wanna focus on the Vampire Diaries one. The pairing is going to be Delena, so if you like them, read it. Thanks, guys! Hope you enjoyed the story! :)