Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 16th cycle. Now cycle 17!

"For You, For Her, For Us"
Puck/Quinn

He did not care for cleaning the Dunn family pool. Their kids would always be running around, getting in his way. He spent so much time making sure none of them fell in the water and drowned, he took twice as long to finish. To make it worse, he wasn't getting paid for this time their kids had made him waste.

"Kenny, I swear if you go to the edge again I'm going to dunk you," he got in his face. The boy ran off, and Puck got back to work. That had amused him, he wasn't going to lie.

With his ear buds back in, he got back to his filters. He had a habit of getting into his bubble, even if it had to be a little thinner where the Dunn kids were involved. So he didn't hear his name called, didn't become aware he wasn't alone until someone tapped him on the shoulder. He startled and looked back… promptly toppling into the pool when he saw who it was and it made him even more surprised. He resurfaced to find her looking back at him.

"Are you okay?" Quinn asked as she watched him scramble out and run to the house. "Where are you going?" she moved to follow. She realized he was pulling things from his pockets, holding them to the air.

"Sorry, Mrs Dunn, need your bathroom," he called out as he passed the woman – Quinn went by her as well, quietly waving. She stopped at the door, watching Puck take a blow drier to the objects laid on the bathroom floor. He looked at her.

"Sorry about that," Quinn cringed.

"It's fine," he shrugged, continuing to wave the blow drier around. After a beat, he turned it off and looked at her. "What are you doing here? How'd you even know?"

"Lo-jack?" she played innocently, then with a shrug, "I called your house; your sister said you were here on a pool job," she explained. She reached out, taking the blow drier from him and replacing him on drying duty.

"So what's the emergency?" She looked up. "I mean if it was important enough that you had to come here… Is it the baby, is she okay?" he looked at her stomach. "Should you be using that?" he indicated the blow drier.

"Afraid I'll pop?" she teased, though for once his fussing made her smile. "I… well, I wanted to ask if…"

"Yes," he put in his answer, no question asked. She breathed out.

"I need to move out of Finn's, and… I don't want you to get any ideas about what this is, I…"

"You'll move in with me then… I mean, move in with us… me, my sister, my mom…"

"Yeah, that's the other thing. Your mother, she doesn't know about the baby, does she? That it's yours?"

"She doesn't, but I'll tell her, and everything will be fine," he insisted. She shut off the drier, putting it down.

"I've already been through this, you know? With Finn's mother, I… I don't want this to end up causing damage, with your family…" she shook her head. He took a couple steps toward her.

"I said I wanted to take care of both of you, and I mean it. Please, just let me do this," he pleaded.

Once Puck was done drying his things, he'd gone and finished with the Dunn pool. He'd left with Quinn, driven back home. The car stopped, he looked at her. "I think maybe you should talk to her alone first, tell her what's going on. Wouldn't want to just drop a bombshell on her like that."

"Yeah, right, that's probably a good idea," he nodded. Seeing a flash of concern on her face, he shook his head. "It's going to be fine, you'll see," he offered his hand. It took her a moment, but finally she put her hand in his; she was in. "Okay, I'll be back. I've got some magazines in the back, uh… Seat pocket," he specified, and she could only imagine why that was. She watched him disappear into the house and then… she waited.

It was absolutely silent, except for the hint of outdoor noises, though they felt more suggested than anything, like she saw a tree so she could hear the leaves rustling…

It had taken her a lot of thinking before she'd gone off to seek him out. It had taken a painfully short time for her to realize that, as much as she didn't want to, she really needed him, if she was going to get through the next few months and deliver a healthy baby girl.

After a few minutes, she was startled by her phone's message tone, breaking through the silence. It was a text from Puck – 'it's going to take a while.' She sighed… of course. So she reached into the seat pocket, pulled out a couple magazines and waited… however long it'd take. She didn't want to think that Mrs. Puckerman might refuse…

Flipping through the last pages of her second magazine, she saw something in the corner of her eye. There was Puck, coming back to the car; her heart was actually pounding, full of anxious thoughts… He opened the car door and looked in at her. After a moment, he offered her his hand for the second time that day. "Welcome home," he gave a smirk. She smiled, relieved and apprehensive at once. She gave her hand, let him help her up.

"What'd she say? Is she okay with…"

"She might give you the eye for a couple days, just ignore it." She gave a look as though to say 'yeah, right.' "Just at first, then she'll adjust. Come on," he led her to the house. "My sister's made her mind up; she's excited."

"Yeah?" Quinn chuckled.

"She asked if she was an aunt and she made this weird high-pitched sound when I said yes." Quinn laughed… She'd be okay.

THE END

[A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, story alert won't get you anything! ;)]