A/N: This is a sequel of sorts to my fic 'Scenes from the Cutting Room Floor'. Basically just a fill-in-the gaps of what might have happened if Rachel and Shelby had been allowed to have a relationship. It will vaguely follow the episodes of the new season.

Audition

First week of the summer holidays

"Which one is it in?" Rachel asks, looking at the book case full of binders and folders that covers the back wall of her mothers study.

She was attempting to find the sheet music for Papa Can you Hear Me, which Shelby had filed away somewhere.

"The black one on the middle shelf" her mothers voice carried up the stairs, ahead of her.

Rachel pulled the black folder and opened it, her brow furrowing. This wasn't sheet music. It was page after page of newspaper clippings, either relating to just Shelby herself, or Vocal Adrenaline.

"Did you find it?" Shelby asks as she enters.

"No" Rachel replies, holding up the folder, "What is this?"

"Its my press clippings binder" Shelby, as if it were perfectly normal to have a press clippings binder. "Don't you have one?"

In fact, yes, Rachel did have one. Only hers was not quite as overflowing as Shelbys, but hopefully all that would change one day.

Rachel glanced down at the clip in front of her. It was dated October 2006, a photo of Shelby and Vocal Adrenaline after their invitational.

"You had bangs?" she exclaims, anything to distract herself from the image of a fresh faced Jesse St James stood next to Shelby.

"Yes, for a while. See your old mother can be quite trendy when she wants to be." Shelby joked, extracting the correct folder from the shelf.

"hmmm…it suits us" Rachel muttered.

"Here" Shelby handed her the music. "How about we take this for a spin."

Last week of the summer holidays

Rachel turned off the hot water tap and surveyed her handy work. She'd had back to back dance classes all day, and every bone in her body was aching. Her dads were out, Finn was playing X-Box with Artie, so she'd run herself a relaxing bath complete with bubble bath and scented candles.

She sank down in the bubbles, feeling the hot water sooth her limbs. It was always nice to take time out of her busy schedule to relax and….'I love it when you call, I love it when you call, I love it when you call, but you never call at all'

Her phones ring tone shattered the tranquillity of the bathroom. Rachel sighed, the phone was resting on the toilet seat. She really didn't want to get out of her nice warm cocoon. Surely whoever it was could wait for 20 minutes

I love it when you call but you never call at all, whoaHe loves it when you call, he loves it when you call, ah!

They weren't going away. Rachel rose to her knees, and stretched her hand out over the bath side of the bath. Just a little further…. grasping for the phone she attempted to reach it without leaving the confines of the hot soapy water…almost there…success!

Rachel grabbed the handset, and sat back on her knees, grinning, which is when she realised the smell. The burning smell. The one that seemed to be coming from her hair. In her quest to grab her phone, she had leaned over a tad too far, catching her hair one of the candles, which was now busy singeing the ends.

Squealing she dipped the ends of her hair in the water, and then stood up to survey the damage in the mirror over the bath. This wasn't going to look good.

"Well the good news" her hairdresser told her first thing the following morning, when Rachel arrived for an emergency appointment, "is that its just the front part of your hair. Obviously we are going to have to cut it all off."

"Off! No!" Rachel squealed.

"It's okay, not all of it, we can work with this, have you ever considered bangs?"

The second week of Autumn Term.

"Shelby" Dakota Stanley stuck his head around her office door. " I 've found someone for you."

Shelby sighed and forced a smile. Its not that she didn't like Dakota. The guy was talented, and driven, and somewhat underhand, so more or less, a male version of her, and that is exactly why she had hired the man.

Principal O'Hare had been nagging at her for years to get an assistant to help her out with Vocal Adrenaline. She had always refused, but now, with Rachel back in her life, she had decided that she wanted some more free time to spend with her daughter, and had taken up his offer.

There problem was that Shelby had control issues. She liked to be in control, delegating any of that power was hard. A fact made more difficult, by Dakota seemingly labouring under the impression that they were co-directors, when in fact Shelby had been very specific that she was the director and he was the assistant director. She made a note to have a talk with him about that again.

Anyway, when he had asked her what he was to do, this first week of term, she had simply, and somewhat condescendingly, said " find me a star". With Jesse , Andrea and Carrie, all having graduated, Vocal Adrenaline were down 3 of their best singers. Unfortunately after nearly a week of extensive and exhaustive auditions, they were no closer to finding replacements.

"Come in" Shelby motioned, as Dakota pushed the door open and took a seat, uninvited.

"She is good, very very very good, a real power house voice, coming out of this tiny bit of a girl.."

"She?" Shelby asked "Where did you find this 'she'? I thought we had auditioned every single person in Carmel who could carry a tune, and some who couldn't."

"Ah" Dakota looked smug. "That's the beauty of it. She doesn't go to Carmel. Well, she didn't at the beginning of the week, but she will come Monday. She went to McKinley and.."

"McKinley?" Shelby parroted. " She was at McKinley…?" now Shelby's interest was piqued. She knew all of the McKinley high glee clubbers and Rachel had never mentioned a new one. She also knew her daughters ruthless determination to succeed, and that they would never willingly let a talented member leave.

"Yeah, she was a new foreign exchange student, just started, so I offered her and a mother a new condo and a green card to come here"

Damn, Shelby was impressed by his work. That was a scheme of such complex legal scenarios even she couldn't even hope to pull off. "How did you manage the green card?"

"My uncle is state senator, he pulled some strings. Oh, can you sign this form, it's to release the booster club funds to pay for the condo."

"Sure." Shelby signed the form " So had she already joined New Directions?"

"Yes, but she was happy to leave, apparently their female lead sent her to a crack house, and Sunshine, that's her name by the way, realised that this Rachel chick would probably make her life hell anyway, so.."

Dakota, paused, realising that Shelby was staring at him in shock. 'What? What did I say?"

"Nothing" Shelby told him. "That's great news. Go file this girls forms."

Dakota left, with Shelby still sat at her desk. Rachel had sent someone to a crack house? That couldn't be correct? Could it?

Shelby and Rachel generally had dinner together on a Wednesday evening. It was the night when VA and ND didn't practice. As Carmel finished 20 minutes later than McKinley, Rachel had Finn drop her off at Carmel, and she went and waited in her mothers office for her to finish.

She was re-watching a Streisand performance on youtube when her mother entered not long after the final bell.

"Hey Mom, how was your day?" she asked, her eyes never leaving the screen as Shelby settled in to a chair on the other side of her desk.

"It was good thank you, sweetie. We got a new lead singer"

"uh-huh"

"Apparently you know her."

"Do I?" Rachel says non-chantly, and Shelby can tell she's lying.

"Yes, I hear you sent her to a crack house."

Rachel blushed bright red, and looked up at her mother, who was staring at her sternly.

"Did you?"

"See everyone keeps focusing on the 'crack house' part, but as I told Mr Schue it wasn't an active crack house."

"Rachel, how do you even know where a crack house is? Let alone whether its active or inactive?"

"I overheard Bryan Ryan talking to Mr Schue about his days in the West Lima crack district."

"Do you know how dangerous that was, not to mention illegal?"

"It wasn't 'active'. Can we focus on that part? Besides, its illegal to run a crack house, illegal to deal cocaine, illegal to buy it, and illegal to be caught using it, but technically, technically it is not illegal to simply turn up to a crack house, and you're a fine one to talk about illegal, you just offered her a green card!"

"We are helping someone live the American dream! And it was all legal, thank you very much." Shelby say, what she hopes is convincingly.

"Rach," she says sincerely "Why did you do it?"

"Have you heard her sing?"

"No, not yet."

"She's good, better than good. I just….she was a threat. A threat to my solos, and me being the star of Glee club. The only reason a lot of people tolerate me is because they know I'm good, and with her there, they would have no reason to tolerate me. Not to mention the talent scouts.."

"Rach, getting a lead role, is not always about talent. Its about self-confidence, of which you have plenty. You have a strong, versatile voice, I should know, I gave it to you. Which means that out in the real world, you will stand a much better chance of success than someone who can belt out a Whitney Houston song and nothing else. Talent Scouts will know that too."

"I know, she just threw me, I've never met anyone who had the potential to be more talented than me before."

"Well unfortunately you will meet many more in the future. And when that happens you can't keep sending them to crack dens, are we clear on that one?"

"Yes, I hereby swear never to send anyone to a crack den whether active or inactive, again."

"Good. Now, I made reservations for us at The King and Thai. Their tofu stir fry is to die for."

Smiling, Shelby and Rachel exited the office, and walked down the now empty halls of Carmel.

Coming in the other direction was Dakota, with a hello kitty bag, slung over his shoulder, and a small girl, even smaller than Rachel at his side, who Shelby guesses must be Sunshine.

The four come to a stop in the middle of the corridor.

"Shelby, this is Sunshine, Sunshine, this is Ms Corcoran, who I was telling you about."

"Nice to meet you Sunshine" Shelby extends a hand and gives her a smile.

"You too Ms Corcoran" Sunshine says, her smile freezing, as she notices who is stood next to Shelby. "Rachel isn't joining too is she?"

"No, she isn't" Shelby replies.

"What, this is Rachel?" Dakota Stanley takes in the girl who Shelby is holding hands with. He spots the obvious similarity. "Wait, is she like your niece or something?"

Rachel and Shelby smile, "No I'm her daughter" Rachel explains.

"Daughter?" Dakota puzzles, " How is that possible, you're only like 31?"

"Thirty-one?..more like Thirty-ei..." Rachel chokes out, trying not to laugh, as Shelby hits her on the back, before she can say anything else.

"I was very young" Shelby says demurely. "Come along Rachel, lets go get some dinner. I'll see you at Rehearsals Sunshine."

As Rachel and Shelby walk off down to the corridor, Dakota Stanley just stares after them. He had heard rumours about Shelby, about how she will stop and nothing to make Vocal Adrenaline a success. But getting her daughter to bully this Sunshine so she would leave New Directions and come join Vocal Adrenaline? - that was ruthless. At which point Dakota made a note to try not to cross Shelby Corcoran, or who knew what else she would do.