GLEE

Saying Goodbye [Pt. 3]

(September 19th, 2005)

I've been in and out of foster systems for a year now, a total of three so far. This just goes to show how much of a problem child I am, or that the other kids make me out to be. I don't get why the kids don't like me, and I know that I try really hard, really, really, really hard! It's not fair.

It's especially not fair that I get to watch Delaney go to a new home. Delaney was seven year old, and still new to the whole system. She was like the little sister I always wanted, and now she's leaving me. She waved goodbye to me as her parents helped her into the SUV, and they drove off to their beautiful home.

The rest of the kids filed back into the house, but I just continued to stand there, trying not to let tears trickle down my face. I had lost so many people in my life, and there goes another one...

"I know it's hard Reese, but have faith. Someone will adopt you soon enough, and you'll have a wonderful life." Roseanne said. She was the care-taker for foster home number 3, she was nice enough, she just decided to have us sit in a corner for three hours when we did something wrong.

"You better be right." I replied, not bothering to look at her. She knew I was upset, so she went back inside, giving me time to think for myself...

-

(April 5th, 2014)

"Reese! Mail!" Sebastian shouted from the other room. Mail? Who the hell is sending me mail? Hasn't anybody ever heard of email?

"Mail? I thought email put the postal service out of business." I said as I came in.

"You can't send everything by email. For you." there were four letters, packed full, and a package.

"Let me see that." I took the mail from him, reading the sending address carefully. I wanted to throw up after I did.

"This is not mail, this is junk." I told him.

"Four letters and cardboard package is junk? You don't even know what's in it." he replied.

"Read the sending label." I told him, handing him one of the letters.

"...Iron Gates Prison-oh I get now. It's from your dad." he said.

"Correction, it's from my dad's warden. It's most likely his will, along with some crumby apology letters and old junk he collected while in prison." I replied.

"Reese, you should open these, there might be more than just a will and junk in there." he said.

"I'm not gonna open it. I don't want to." I said.

"What're you afraid of?" he asked me.

"Why do you think I'm afraid of something?" I asked.

"You're bouncing on the spot, you're playing with your hair, and you got that little frozen look on your mouth. Aren't you glad I know you so well?" I hate it when he's right.

"So i'm dependable, doesn't mean I'm afraid." I replied.

"Reese, we're just trying to help. You don't have to close yourself up because your dad died." he said.

"He's not my dad!" I snapped. "My dad is back in Ohio...well Wisconsin at the moment. But he's the man who fed me, who put clothes on my back, a roof over my head, and he sent me to a great school. Robert Habbrock couldn't do that from behind bars. I'm not closing up, I just don't want to talk about it. I'm sorry if you can't understand that."

"Okay, I'm going to step back because you're a rotating plane propellor and I don't want to get hit." he said.

"I don't understand." I said.

"Reese, all you need to understand that if you need it...we're here for you. I'm here for you." he replied.

"Thank you. I appreciate that." I said. He nodded before leaning down and planting a kiss on my cheek.

"Don't bottle yourself up, let us help."

-

Later that day, I was in the kitchen, making grilled cheese. When the Laveks first adopted me, Charlotte taught me everything she knew about cooking. This is why I'm the head cook in the loft and apparently, people starve when I'm not around.

"Don't burn the garlic." Charlotte said from the table. She had her glasses perched on the bridge of her nose while going through lots, and I mean lots of paperwork.

"I'm not gonna burn the garlic." I replied, if there's one thing I hate more than chopping onions, it's chopping garlic. And leaves a horrible smell on your hands like you've been playing eggs.

"I don't want your friends coming home to burnt garlic." she said.

"I never burn the garlic, I do it just like you taught me." I replied.

"I don't think so." she sang.

"Look, it's simmering. See?" I asked, pointing to the frying pan with my knife.

"Sorry, I guess I just miss bossing you around."she said.

"You're going to take off tomorrow?" I asked her.

"Yup, I gotta send these to the VA and then I'm back to reality." she replied.

"What're all those papers for?" I asked.

"Oh you know, probate forms, insurance claims, pension documents, social security forms. You have to sing these." she replied.

"Me? Why? I haven't seen him in ten years." I asked.

"Well, you're next of kin." she replied.

"So are you, so is my mom." I said.

"You're mother is in the looney bin, she's not quite ready to be entitled to all this." she replied. "But your father made you sole executor and beneficiary."

"Oh? Beneficiary? Is that right? Having him around for a father wasn't exactly a benefit Charlotte." I said.

"Reese..." she sighed.

"Look, he wasn't around. You raised me. You and Ryan are my immediate family. Don't defend him to me." I told her.

"I wasn't. I was just trying to remind you that he was still your father, and believe it or not, he did love you." she said. "I'm a little disappointed in you. Yes, he had his problems, but so did you. And he's still your father."

"I'm sorry Charlotte." I said as I sat down.

"You don't think I know what it was like? You don't think I don't feel an ounce of sympathy? What about your poor mother? Who probably has no idea any of this is going on. And what your friends? What about Rachel? Or Sebastian? Or any of them. You've been pushing them away while they've been working their asses off trying to help you. How do you think that makes them feel?" she asked.

"You're right. Anything for you Charlotte, anything." I grabbed a pen and started scribbling my signature on the papers, while and empty and somewhat guilty feeling started corresponding through my system.