A/N: Hope you like this. I am currently snowed in and we recently received a joyous gift of the Puckleberry duet preview. Anyway, the snow outside and the constant listening to that song has inspired a new fic. As always, I don't own Glee (cause if I did, you don't even want to know). This is rated T for now (trust me, this may not seem bad, but mine always head that way, and eventually I may have to slap on an M rating.) Also, I do not have a beta, all mistakes are mine.
Anywayyyy…. Here we go!
Chapter 1:
Rachel curled up on her couch, a cup of hot chocolate on the table next to her and a brand new copy of "The Time Travelers Wife" in her hand. It was cold, school was cancelled and she planned to catch up on her reading list. Like almost any other day, her dads were gone. This time in a conference in Seattle, next week it would be a convention in Tucson, then three days at home before vacationing in Toronto. Rachel missed her dads, but it was how she grew up, she learned to deal, and this was nothing new.
They had a record-breaking 17 inches of snow in Lima, Ohio and it was still coming down. School was out and the town was shut down. Rachel didn't plan on leaving the house at all, it was too miserable outside to even consider such a thing. Snow was definitely not her thing; she had absolutely no intentions of wondering out in the blizzard.
Just as she was reaching for her hot chocolate the telephone started to ring. She placed her book down and wrapped the blanket around herself to trek across the living room. "Berry residence" she answered the phone. "Hi, may I speak to Hiram?" a woman's voice said on the other line. "I apologize, but he is not home right now, may I take a message?" Rachel said reaching for a piece of paper. "Rachel?" the woman questioned. "Yes?" She replied hesitantly.
"This is Sarah, from temple… Sarah Puckerman. You know my son, he attends school with you." Rachel was surprised, her dads and her rarely attended temple. But the last name automatically rang a bell, and it was not something she wanted to hear.
"Okay, yes Ms. Puckerman. This is Rachel. What can I do for you?" Rachel was still hesitant, but tried to be as polite as possible.
"Due to this great weather outside, we lost power at the house. I have to make it to the hospital soon for work, but feel terrible about leaving Noah and Hannah in a cold house with no power. Is there anyway that they could stay with you for the day? I hate to ask, but you are the closest person to us, and you know Noah."
Rachel stiffened. She had no interest in talking to Noah. After her recent messy breakup with Finn, and Noahs co-starring roll in the situation, she was avoiding anymore "boy-troubles."
"I-I guess there isn't a problem with that Ms. Puckerman." Rachel finally replied, she couldn't just leave them in the cold, especially Noahs younger sister, that would just be cruel of her.
"Fantastic! Thank you so much Rachel, would it be okay if I drop them off in about a half hour?" Sarah sounded overjoyed on the phone, obviously this had been stressing her out a bit, and now Rachel was glad to help.
"That is fine. I will see you then." Rachel said. "Thank you again Rachel, you are a life-saver. I will see you in a little bit."
Rachel set the phone down on the base before running across the room to put down her blanket and head upstairs.
Twenty minutes later, Rachel had changed into a pair of warm leggings, a pink plaid skirt, black cardigan and black winter boots, she needed to look presentable for her guests.
She sat back down on the sofa, intent on reading a few more pages of her novel before Noah had a chance to interrupt her plans for the day. About 10 minutes later the doorbell rang and she got up to great her guests.
Noah and Hannah were at the door. "Hello!" Rachel greeted with a fake enthusiasm.
"My mom was running late, so she ditched us here and drove off." Rachel was staring at Noah in awe, his outfit was almost comedic. He wore a puffy jacket, in a disgustingly bright shade of orange, typically found on hunters and a camouflage trapper hat. He had on snow boots and gloves and a navy blue scarf. She was on the verge of laughing when Noahs voice interrupted her train of thought.
"Yo, Berry, there's a blizzard out here, you gonna let us in?" Noah said sarcastically.
"My apologies, feel free to come in, you can place your coats and such on the bench." Rachel stepped aside and let them come in.
"Hannah?" Rachel said to get Noah's sisters attention. "I'm Rachel, I don't believe I have met you before. I am glad to have you over, feel free to make yourself at home, there are beverages and snacks in the kitchen."
"Thanks Rachel." Hannah replied nervously before glancing around the space and heading over to the couch.
"She's intimidated by you." Noah said from behind Rachel.
"What do you mean by that?" Rachel said, suddenly becoming defensive.
"She wants to be a singer, been to all our shows. She thinks you are the best, will never be as good as you. She got all nervous when mom told us where we were going today. She doesn't know what to say." Noah said, with one of the most genuine tones Rachel had ever heard from him.
"That's sweet, but she has nothing to worry about. Maybe I can talk to her a little bit later about singing once she is less nervous." Rachel said. Her first fan, she couldn't believe it.
"Yea, cool, whatever. So do you got an Xbox? Or something to do here?" Noah said looking around the room and noticing that Sarah had already found the couch, big screen tv and remote.
"I do not have an Xbox, or any video game system for that matter. We do have a television and extensive movie collection if you would like to watch something. We also have a stock pile of board games for family game nights with my fathers." Rachel pointed to the living area where Noah was already heading to sit.
"Nah, its cool. I'll watch TV with the brat." He sat on the couch next to Hannah and snatched the remote. Sarah tried to wrestle it back, only to be tickled by Noah and collapse into a fit of laughter as Noah fell back into the couch to watch TV.
Rachel headed over to the living room, opting to sit in the reclining chair instead of the couch and watched the television as Noah flipped through the channels, ever so often glimpsing at the brother-sister pair who obviously had great respect for each other. Hannahs head was resting on Noahs arm, and every once in a while would reach across for another attempt to steal the remote, however her hand was always swatted down.
This continued for about 20 minutes, and Noah had gone through all the stations about twice. Some had fuzzy reception (probably due to the storm) and others showed annoying daytime soap operas since it was noon on a Wednesday.
"Well Berry there is nothing on TV, where is this DVD collection you were talking about?" Noah turned to Rachel and asked. Sarah looked up at her too, however avoided eye contact.
"Its on the shelf to the left of the television, I don't know if there is anything you would like, but Hannah you may want to check it out." Rachel smiled sweetly at the girl sitting next to him.
"Nope, not gonna happen, no chick flicks or cartoons today. How about those board games?" Noah almost immediately replied. "But Noahhhh!" Hannah finally spoke up, "I like cartoons! Especially Disney, does she have any Disney?" "I don't know brat, ask her yourself."
Noah smiled, he knew she would be too shy to ask Rachel, so the girl just stared up at her big brother. "Yes, Hannah there is Disney in there, go check it out, pick one you like." Rachel said, smiling at the girl again. Hannah got up and headed over to the shelf, and began reading over all the titles of the movies.
"So Berry, why you sitting all the way over there. It's kinda cold in here, you could use the body heat from over here." Noah patted the seat next to him and had his famous "come hither" grin sneaking onto his face. She had no intentions of accepting his request.
"Noah you are extremely inappropriate." Rachel snarled at him and turned back to the television while Hannah still scoped her DVD collection.
"Chill out Berry, you need to loosen up. I mean no harm, sitting by me isn't dangerous. Unless you want it to be…" Noah raised his eyebrow. Rachel snapped her head towards him with her signature pissed-off look and threw the throw pillow that she was holding at him.
First chapter done! Hope you like it. More to come soon!