"You're gonna love her - I promise," she hears Shelby say to her new half-sister, Kelsey.
Rachel finally rounds the corner to find Shelby squatting in front of the young girl, fixing her scarf.
"Hi," she greets them and both pairs of eyes look up at her. It's kind of adorable, how they move at the same time, so she smiles. "You must be Kelsey," she turns toward the young girl.
Kelsey smiles up at her new sister and her jaw opens in awe. "You're so pretty!" is the first thing that bursts out of her mouth. "You look like a princess!"
Rachel chuckles, yet surprisingly doesn't exactly hate the compliment. She says, "if I'm a princess, you're the Queen, Kelsey."
At this moment, Shelby places a hand on her shoulder, getting Rachel to stand. "Hi, Rachel," her mother says and pulls her in for a hug. She feels the gratefulness wrap her and squeeze her tight, so she just lets her.
"Hello, Shelby, how have you been?"
"Since that night at the concert? Only doing better, thanks to you girls." With her free hand she caresses Kelsey's soft cheek as she says, "I'm glad I agreed to let you take her out." Then she whispers, "it's all she's talked about since I mentioned it."
"Well, it's my pleasure," Rachel reassures Shelby. She looks at Kelsey, who's grinning, and asks, "are you ready? Because I have such a fun day planned for us that you just have to be ready!"
Kelsey bounces on the balls of her feet, "I am SO ready! Let's go!" Inhibition aside, she grabs Rachel's hand as if she's known her forever and starts to walk away.
"Woah, hold up, Sport," Rachel says with an excited smile. "Say goodbye to your mom," she directs her toward Shelby and waits for Kelsey to give her a kiss.
Shelby looks proud of the moment, but also like she's worrying about whether they'll be okay alone. "Take care of her, Rachel, please," she fidgets.
"Don't worry - I'll bring her back safe and sound." With a quick hug, she says goodbye to Shelby and lets Kelsey pull her in the other direction.
Shelby wasn't immediately okay with Rachel's idea of spending alone time with Kelsey, but after discussing it and after hearing Quinn's input on how great Rachel is with children (Rachel called Quinn after the concert just to establish her point), Shelby relented.
The problem, Rachel thinks, that Shelby had was that even though Shelby is Rachel's biological mother, they're practically strangers. It's not like she could be sure Rachel was normal.
Rachel managed to convince Shelby with help from her girlfriend and finally here they are. She was very excited about spending the day with Kelsey actually.
It's a Saturday - the first rehearsal-free Saturday she's had in months and she didn't want to waste it.
"So Kelsey," Rachel starts, "I hear you're really into soccer."
Kelsey's face lights up and that's really the only thing Rachel says for the next twenty minutes on their walk to central park. Kelsey talks the entire time about the sport and her teammates and how she scored the winning goal last game.
Rachel doesn't mind listening. In fact, it's nice to hang out with a child who actually speaks English. Still, she misses Beth's babbling and hopes to hear it soon.
They stop near a fountain where Kelsey throws a quarter she had in her pocket. "I wished to hang out with you a lot."
It melts Rachel's heart, how honest children are. It's nice to know her sister likes her already, and they haven't even done much yet.
