Author's Note: So, I lied. I did not post within a week. But hey! You get a whole new chapter pulled right outta my ass. Because seriously, I did not expect the story to go this way, but am pleasantly surprised that it did. Look at my brain all coming up with ideas without me. Your sexy reviews are sexy by the way, and I love you all. Because you're my readers. And my readers are sexy. Yay, sexy people!

YOU THINK I'M HEADED FOR DISASTER
You think I'm going up in flames
You wanna break my fall
You wanna stop them all

In the dimly lit living room, Shelby Corcoran is lying face-down across her couch. Her legs are lounged over the armrest and half her torso is hanging off the side. She has one arm tucked under a pillow and the other falling forward towards the carpet rolling something across the fleece. On the floor is a child's toy, a plastic mesh ball that turns inside out, changing colour when thrown in the air. Absentmindedly, she's been toying with it for half an hour.

When there's a knock at the door, she turns her head ever so slightly, grimaces, then returns to her mindless task. At the second persistent knock, she grunts and pushes herself upward. Now, she's sitting straight. Before she has the time to stand up, the knocking continues more fervently than before.

Peering through the side window, taking a gander at the visitor to knock on her front door, Shelby sighs. She was ninety percent sure of who it was, after all, no one else ever actually visited. And of course, as her eyes catch a small form fidgeting with her purse waiting for an answer, she was proven right. Making a face, she undoes the chain and then plasters an overcompensated smile along her features in its place.

"How many times are we going to have to do this?" she asks tiredly, not even bothering with the pleasantries of a greeting. "I figured you'd finally gotten the hint, but clearly I was wr-." Barely able to get the words out of her mouth, Rachel storms in past her, immediately rushing to the side closet and pulling out a coat.

"Put this on, quick!"

The teenager has a look of utter panic in her voice, and she shakes the dark coat in her hands, forcing it into her mother's grip. Shelby though, stands there, mouth agape as she gingerly takes the coat from the girl's hands, with no intention of actually wearing it. Rachel has a habit of being a bit odd and way outside Shelby's limit of understanding, but this time, she gets no where past clueless.

"What are you waiting for? Put it on! I'm going to get some stuff," she informs, making her way into the next room. "And then we'll take your car," she continues, though the older woman doesn't move from her spot. "We'll have to figure out a way to get a different one later, but that's not the immediate concern. I guess the spare cash you keep in the kitchen vase will have to do for now..."

Shelby opens her mouth, about to ask how exactly she knew where her emergency money was stored, but decides it's a pointless question. It was quite obvious just how curious Rachel could be; certainly not a trait she'd inherited from her mother.

Appearing back at the front door carrying the small wad money in a plastic bag, along with an assortment of food and Shelby's car keys, Rachel looks at the woman with irritation. "Why haven't you put on your coat?"

"I just don't really feel like going outside right now," Shelby makes a face, waving her hands around as though humouring her. "It's kind of cold, you see, and it's warm in here. So, thank you for the visit, but I think I'm just going to..." she reaches out and takes the bag of cash from her daughter's grip, "stay here." With the biggest of fake smiles, she nods, pats Rachel on the shoulder in a way that could not have been more condescending and begins to make her way back to her kitchen.

For a few seconds, Rachel has an agitated look on her face. She doesn't say anything, but then takes a deep breath. "I have Beth in the car!" she blurts out.

Blinking, Shelby turns in her spot. "What?"

"I went to Quinn's and well... I don't really know what I was thinking. I wasn't thinking! I just- you've just been so depressed! And I realized that Beth belongs with you, and so I've brought her back for you! We have to leave before they decide to take her back again!"

Disbelief upon her face, Shelby sputters, not really forming coherent words. "... Is this some kind of joke? Because I'm really not finding it funny."

"It's not a joke. I'm serious and we need to go! Now!" This time, Rachel doesn't wait for a response, and instead rushes out the door towards Shelby's car. Carelessly, she throws the items and her purse into the back seat then makes her way to the driving wheel and puts the keys into ignition. The engine turns over, soft vibrations across the leather lining.

Shelby watches her daughter from the porch as the girl then runs to her car, carrying a small, sleeping figure from the back seat and into the big black Range Rover. Against her better judgement, perhaps out of some long-shot idea that the girl was in fact not insane, or maybe the naive hope that they could get away with this free of consequence, Shelby puts on her coat, closes the door behind her and rushes to the car.

"It's a good thing you didn't uninstall the car seat yet," she says, looking at her mother over the hood of the car. "Let's go!" Rachel insists, opening the passenger side door for her gesturing for the woman to get in. Her hand waves wildly, she's clearly agitated like nothing Shelby has ever seen before.

But the older woman doesn't respond, moving to grab the girl's arm instead. A moment of fear and lucidity overcomes her. "This is crazy!"

"Maybe. But get in anyway!" Rachel exclaims, nudging her inside desperately. Stunned, Shelby concedes and sits down, the door closing after her. Her daughter gets in the car right after, shifting the car into reverse and pulling out of the driveway.

"So if I were to make the crazy assumption that we were going to the Fabray's to bring the baby right on back, I would be incorrect, right?" Shelby knows the answer, she even asks it in a tone of humour. Everything feels like it's happening so fast and beyond her control that she needs to ground herself.

"We're leaving town." There's a false calm in Rachel's voice. She's focused on the yellow lines of the road right now. Where Shelby uses sarcasm to centre herself, to make the situation less stressful, her daughter focuses her mind on one thing and one thing only. "I don't know exactly where at the moment, but once we get on the highway, we'll be fine."

"No," her voice is grave, deep; and her bitten nails dig into the armrest as she stares straight ahead. Through the windshield, she suddenly feels like everyone is watching them. It's paranoia, she realizes as she takes a gander at the individual faces strolling along the sidewalk. "No, no, no, no, no, I should not have gotten in the car. Mistake number one. Go back. We're going back."

"It's too late now! We'll get in trouble."

"Correction, you'll get in trouble. For being insane! Rachel, why would you even think of doing this?" Shelby runs her hands through her hair, swallowing thickly. Her eyes are bloodshot, but she hasn't felt so alive in weeks. Whether that's actually a good thing or not, she doesn't know.

"I'm doing this because of you! I was sitting in my car, or well, my dads' car, thinking, and all I knew was that if you managed to kill yourself and I didn't do everything I possibly could to save you, I would regret it forever."

There's an empty beat. Sudden silence falls over them, the smaller noises drowned out by the sound of the engine. Shelby stares at the girl who is literally willing to do anything for her, and feels something get stuck in her throat. "This was the wrong thing to do, honey," she reaches to place a hand on her daughter's thigh, calming the shakiness running through the both of them. "I didn't fight for custody of Beth because I didn't want her to go through conflict. I didn't want her to end up in the middle of something bigger than herself, it's not fair to her."

"Not fair to her? And what about you? What'll happen to you? This entire thing is destroying you."

She's silent for a moment as her eyes rake over her daughter. She can't seem to remember a time when someone had stopped to think about her well-being. "Well, this is hardly much better," Shelby starts off, scoffing slightly. Her hand falls away. "At this point, I'll probably go to prison, you realize?" Rachel seems to be thinking those words over, and Shelby catches the look. "Oh my God... I'm going to prison. Prison. I'm too pretty for prison! Somebody's probably going to try to make me their bitch. I can't do that!" she exclaims, pointing to herself incredulously. "Life on the inside is hard. And I've tried out the whole lesbian thing; it really doesn't work for me. So let's turn around, just as a courtesy to the lovely prison inmates who I am positive do not want to be subjected my constant late night singing."

"Is that really what you're worried about?" Rachel asks incredulously.

"No! When I'm stressed, I use inappropriate sarcastic humour, it's a coping mechanism!" Shelby lets out a very deep breath, her rant having drawn out her entire air supply. "Just get off at this exit, and we'll turn around. No harm, no foul. We can't do this to Beth."

"And what about me?" Rachel asks, taking her eyes off the road momentarily to meet her mother's stare. "You want to protect Beth, but I'm in this now too. And if we go back, who knows what will happen to me. And Quinn... she's always had it out for me. So, you have to look out for me as well. I'm your daughter, and if you do love me, which I sometimes doubt, then you'll protect me too."

Rachel's gaze returns to the road and Shelby swallows, not able to come up with a viable answer. "Please, God, let me awaken from this really bad LSD trip. I swear I will never again be tempted by sin. Or tempted by the smell of bacon. Or watch sleazy daytime dramas," Shelby says, looking up towards the roof of the car as though in true prayer.

"Will you take this seriously for a moment?"

"Rachel, if I take this seriously, my head might just explode into a million tiny pieces and I will cease to exist."

"Stop being so melodramatic," Rachel sighs, checking the street signs that just passed overhead.

"Says the girl who just kidnapped a baby."

"We're not going back. I'm not going to loll around and watch you destroy yourself."

"No, you're doing that for me just fine on your own."

"Why don't you comprehend that I'm trying to help you?" Rachel cries out, her face contorting in frustration.

"I have no doubt of your good intentions. But honey, this is not going to help either of us, with anything. We pass that border, we're fugitives."

"It's going to be okay."

"How?"

"I don't know. Not yet."

Author's Note: All will be revealed (or at least, go back and be revealed) and explained... if you review. Mwahahaha.