It's a little tougher fitting Shelby into my version of events, but here's my attempt - Rachel finds out about Shelby being her biological mother, but Jesse/any deceit is not involved. That's all you need to know.
Also, His Girl Friday is a movie from 1940, so that's a little nod to Rachel and Shelby's love for old movies. (I'm going to call that inherited taste!)
perspective (shelby corcoran)
She's always been amused that she knows Jesse better than she knows Rachel. It isn't intentional, but even after Rachel went to her school to confront her, their relationship as a mother and daughter, for the most part, doesn't change. Rachel has her parents, and Shelby continues to not want kids. The few times they meet each other, Rachel is cheery and tries hard to appease her, something that they stick to even when their nerves are frayed. They know each other by name, maybe a little bit by biology, a lot by taste (and not just musically - two days before Rachel leaves for London, she drops by Shelby's with an old VHS tape of His Girl Friday) - but they aren't really family. They meet each other more by coincidence than design, and every couple of years Rachel tells her about a new production she's in, saying she's reserved a couple of tickets for her in her name.
On the other hand, she coaches Jesse for close to four years. She prods him forward, makes him practice a little bit more, and so she knows the way he looks when he's afraid of disappointing someone, the way he looks when he's tired or hungry, the way he looks when he's frustrated or angry and needs to take it out on someone, the way he looks when he yells - things a mother would know about her child, she thinks. She encourages him to go to UCLA, and he sends her cards every Christmas. When he decides to move from LA to New York, he comes by Ohio first, and they have coffee as they discuss career moves and glee club routines.
Rachel invites her to the musical in New York and she's there on its second weekend, mostly because she knows her dads would be at opening weekend and she'd rather have Rachel's undivided attention. She'd been told Jesse was in the production, too, but she's momentarily surprised to see him as her daughter's love interest. Then she sees them sing together, and she gets it.
It doesn't escape her notice that neither of them let go of the other's hands when they come out for curtain call.
She lingers around the stage door and she can't help but feel proud that the star with the greatest number of people around her is Rachel, until she realises that she knows most of those faces - vaguely, yes, but she remembers them all.
Jesse spots her before Rachel does and walks over to her quickly. "Shelby!" he exclaims, looking pleased.
When he hesitates politely, she smiles at him and reaches for a quick hug. "Long time no see."
"I didn't know you'd be here tonight."
"I would've come last week, but her dads - "
Jesse nods understandingly, and she feels a sudden rush of warmth for this man, whom she'd watched grow, having known him as a boy. "You were fantastic, Jesse," she says, warmly, honestly.
"Thank you," he tells her, and she knows his gratitude is sincere. They smile at each other, and look away, tracing the same woman in the crowd.
"Her old friends from came by," he says, knowing she knows who they're talking about.
"Oh. Finn, too?" she asks, offhandedly.
"I guess so." He doesn't give her the reaction she's looking for, she notices, disappointed - no jealousy, no possession; she feels like she's miscalculated. "Do you want me to get her to come here?"
"I don't - "
"They're in the city for the next few days. I think she'd like to talk to you first."
Jesse slips off and squeezes Rachel's shoulder, whispers in her ear. Rachel looks up right at her and her smile brightens. She says something to her friends and comes over to Shelby with Jesse.
Shelby reaches for her daughter and hugs her tightly as she greets her. When she pulls away, Rachel is looking at her hopefully.
"You were amazing, sweetheart," she says (and she's glad that she doesn't have to lie).
Rachel beams. Shelby is used to smiles, but seeing this one makes something in her settle, and she feels comfortable, happy. Jesse has gone off to talk to someone near the stage door, leaving them on their own.
Their conversation is put on hold when she remembers the time. "Shall we have dinner?" Shelby asks, glancing quickly at Rachel's old glee club. They let out a huge burst of laughter that she can hear even from this distance, but Rachel is quick to wave them away.
"Yes, of course," Rachel says earnestly. "I'm meeting them for brunch on Monday when the understudies take over." She takes her mother's hand into hers. "Any requests?"
Shelby smiles at her softly. "Anything's fine. Italian?" Rachel nods, and Shelby grins at her. "Do you want any special guests?"
Rachel flushes, looking at her questioningly. Shelby nods, and Rachel smiles, turns away to bring Jesse back to the two of them.
When he looks ready to argue Shelby says, firmly, "Please."
She knows now she hasn't miscalculated. When Rachel leaves for the toilet she leaps at the chance to get confirmation. "So. You told her yet?" Shelby asks casually.
Jesse freezes for a split-second, his eyes widening slightly in fear. When he continues to pour the drink in his glass, he looks a little unsettled, and she tries to hide her smile. Talented, but terrible at covering truths about his heart. Just as he used to be. (He's ridiculously transparent - he's always touching her, on the arm, pushing hair out of her eyes; he stares at her when she's talking like she's speaking his truths - he's smitten.)
"I don't - " Jesse starts, and coughs to take the edge off his voice. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Oh, please," Shelby sighs. "At least tell me you've done it already, if you're not going to tell her you love her yet."
"Done - it?" The red in his cheeks rises so quickly Shelby nearly chokes on her water.
"Se - " she tries to elaborate, and Jesse wheezes in interruption. Shelby rolls her eyes. "I'm not going to kill you."
She's never seen him this flustered, and it pleases her; clearly this means something to him. She takes pity on him, though.
"I can see you make her happy," she says, patting his arm (and she's relieved she doesn't have to lie about this, either - her daughter looks at him like she would stop performing if Jesse asked her to - although the main reason she would do it, the main reason she loves him, is because she knows Jesse would never ask that of her.).
Jesse smiles slightly, relieved and enormously, tangibly happy. "Do you think so?" he asks, hopeful.
She laughs as she spots Rachel walking back to their table. "I'm her mother, Jesse," she says, conspiratorially, "I know so."
She gets a taxi right outside the restaurant, to her relief. "I'll see you two around."
"Thank you for coming, Mom," Rachel says, hugging her. "When's your train leaving?"
"Tomorrow at noon." She hugs Jesse briefly.
"We'll see you off," he promises, and she smiles at him as his arm returns to where it had been, resting loosely on Rachel's hip. She smirks when she notices his thumb slipping between her shirt and jeans, rubbing the skin there in circles. Definitely doing it, then.
"I am so proud of you," she says, deliberately looking at both of them in the eye, and when they grin brightly in response, she has to try hard to blink back tears. To have two people to whom her opinion means so much (especially when they get critics and directors' rave reviews, too) is more than she ever expected when she left New York without achieving her dreams, and she's touched. She quickly turns into the taxi and gives the driver the address to her hotel.
Rachel taps on the driver's window. "I'm going to ask my mother what route you took when she gets back," Rachel says, her voice low and dangerous (Shelby is impressed), "and if she tells me you took any longer than twenty minutes - "
"Got it, ma'am," the driver cuts in hastily. Rachel bites back a smile as she glances her mother, who grins at her, pleased. "Talk to you later, honey," she says with a wink.
As the car pulls out of the curb (but stops, unfortunately, at a traffic light - Shelby notes the driver's sudden panic with amusement), Shelby turns around to watch them. Rachel and Jesse are standing just out of the golden glow of the restaurant lighting, her arms around his shoulders and his hands on her waist. As they lean in to kiss they have none of the frenzy or force they had on-stage, but the love bleeds through in the way they linger, content to breathe in each other's air.
They look like they've stepped right out of her favourite old movies, monochrome and easy-in-love.
Shelby turns away, feeling like she's invading their privacy, and just a little bit lonely.