Will The Real Rachel Berry Please Stand Up?

16

"So, Rachel, what would you say was the one quality that we have stressed repeatedly during your childhood as the one we most value?" asked Leroy leaning forward over the kitchen table in order to look Rachel in the eye. Leroy and Hiram were seated one side of the table, Quinn and Rachel the other.

"Honesty." Rachel responded focussing on her hands. Her answer was left to hang in the air so the implications could sink in.

"When you were younger and decided to decorate your bedroom walls with crayons, when you set your grandad's shed on fire and the time you tried your hairdressing skills on the cat, do you know why you weren't punished?" Leroy asked. Quinn was trying to adjust to the idea of Rachel, the arsonist and cat coiffeuse in her head without laughing.

"Because I owned up?" said Rachel quietly. It was hardly as if there was a plethora of suitable suspects each time.

"Because you were honest. Your Dad and I have tried hard to create an open and honest home environment. We wanted you to grow up feeling you could tell us anything without fear of punishment or judgement." Hiram added.

"I know Dad and I do feel that," Rachel replied as Leroy sighed.

"How long have you and Quinn been a couple?" asked Hiram, glancing briefly at Quinn, an unreadable expression on his face.

Rachel took a deep breath and turning to each man in turn said," Dad, Daddy. Quinn and I are not a couple.."

"Oh please Rachel. Credit us with a modicum of intelligence," scoffed Leroy

"Blatant lying is marginally worse in my book than lying by omission," added a stony faced Hiram,"We just want to know how long you've been hiding this from us."

Quinn decided to step in at this point and launched into a long explanation of how they hadn't defined their relationship because of her upbringing. She side-tracked into a description of her home life under her father with his apoplectic rages at the mere mention of homosexuality and how that had impacted on her. It started as an attempt to deflect attention away from Rachel but changed into a confession of the difficulty of reconciling her homosexuality with the church teachings and her fathers concluded with her experiences made her reluctant to be involved in a same sex relationship. Rachel's Dads were sympathetic and understanding so Quinn felt like it was a job well done; everything she'd said had been true and she hadn't confirmed or denied anything about the alleged relationship.

"So you're saying Quinn that as you haven't explicitly stated your relationship status then technically Rachel didn't have anything to tell us?" Hiram asked. Quinn nodded, maybe this would soon be resolved.

"That doesn't quite explain why, only this Wednesday, a mere three days ago, Rachel was declaring she was single and determined to stay that way until she heads off to New York," added Hiram,"A statement she volunteered, without any prompting, and, on reflection, one designed to deliberately mislead us."

"I said I wanted to be an astronaut when I was five, are you going to hold me to that too?" Sassed Rachel.

"Now is not the time for your cheek," asserted Hiram. They glared at each other.

" When you were briefly interested in Finn," Leroy started noting how Quinn stiffened in her chair at the mention of his name, "you shared with us your doubts, your weighing up having the social status of a boyfriend versus the disappointment of someone not your intellectual equal and why you were trying to end it."

Quinn smirked at the assessment of Finn's intelligence.

"But you've not shared anything recently and that is despite us asking you directly about what was going on for you both academically and emotionally. Repeatedly you've reassured us that everything was great, that your marks were high and your although your lovelife was non-existent, you were happy. Non-existent? It's been apparent to both of us that something had happened as you were..well.. different but you forcefully denied everything. It all makes sense now." Hiram explained softly.