It was Friday morning in the Puckerman-Berry household. Everybody in the Upper East Side penthouse was awake, preparing themselves for the day to come. The five kids were getting ready for school while their mother prepared breakfast for them. Even thought their dad wasn't on tour, he had to wake up early to take the youngest of the siblings, eight-year-old Aaron, to school.
"Ma! Did Ana wash my red blouse?", Asked Emily, entering in the big kitchen where her mother was making breakfast. The kitchen was an important place for the family. They would eat breakfast together every morning, and while mom prepared the dinner (before going to the theater) they would make homework or maybe play a game of PlayStation.
"Yes honey, go search in the pile of clothes to iron" Answered Rachel while making pancakes. Her daughter went to the laundry room and came back, putting the blouse over her black tank top.
"Em, your father is not gonna let you go out like that…"
"But why? They are perfectly normal…"
Just like that, her beloved father made an appearance in the kitchen.
"Wow, Rach… that smells delicious, are those…? EMILY PUCKERMAN! PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!" He ordered, outraged at his daughter's choice of clothes (or lack there of).
"But dad…"
"Maybe you should put some pants on…"
"But I love this skirt! It was moms! How is it okay for her to wear them but is wrong if I wear them?"
"Listen sunshine, I really don't know what got in your grandpas heads when they allowed their daughter to go to school with a headband in her bottom half, but personally I never had a problem with that. But you're MY daughter and I'm telling you to freakin' wear clothes!"
Emily groaned at her father's demands, turned around and went to her room to put some jeans on. In the hallway she crossed path with her older brother, Nate.
"Good morning sunshine!" He said, but she simply ignored him and walked past him, her happy mood ruined. "Hey Em!", she turned around to look at him. "Put some clothes on, sister."
She scowled at him and marched to her room, slamming the door shut.
Upon entering the kitchen, he saw his dad sitting on the table reading the paper.
"Dad, Ma." He kissed his mother cheek while hugging her from behind. "I just had a lovely encounter with Em, who was in a terrific mood by the way, and I ordered her to put some clothes on."
"See, Rach? I told you I wasn't exaggerating!" Said his father while his mother putted a plate of pancakes in front of them and rolled her eyes.
"Between you and your father, you are going to make her feel like if she lived in a convent"
"It wouldn't be such a bad idea to send her there, mom."
"We're Jewish, Nate!"
"Damn, there must be other ways to keep her away from boys."
"Good thing I have you here to help me with this son, what I'm gonna do next year when you go to college?"
"Dad, I'm going to Tish, it's not like if I'm leaving the city, I can still help you to keep a track on Em".
"You haven't been accepted to Tish yet" Declared Amelia upon entering the kitchen with Aaron holding her hand. The boy quickly ran to his mother to hug her, she took him in her arms and then helped him put a napkin on before serving him breakfast.
"Amelia, your brother is going to NYU, he got the letter yesterday."
"Really?" She asked surprised, "Well sorry for making fun of you, that's just me. Come're so I can give you a hug!"
While her sister was giving him a hug, Emily entered the kitchen and sat in silence, refusing to talk to anybody, pissed that they had forced her to wear jeans. The thought went out the window when she noticed her sister was wearing shorts and a plaid shirt. "Why can Amy wear shorts and I can't wear a skirt?"
No one bothered to answer her question.
"It's okay sis, one day Lizzie will grow up and they'll worry much more about her than you" murmured her sister on her ear when she sat next to her.
The family sat to eat, each talking about what they had to do for the day. Nate and Amelia went to LaGuardia High School. When each one had reached eighth grade, they had asked their parents to send them to the high school that would help them pursue a career in arts.
Nathaniel was a senior, with a beautiful girlfriend, with the luck of have been the first kid to be born in this world within his parents circle of friends, thereby the entire ex-Glee club gang had spoiled the little boy to no ends. The fact that the entire twelve original members lived in New York City made it possible for his parents to keep up with their careers while they were married with children while still in college. Without the help of all his uncles and aunts, his parents couldn't have been able to make their dreams come true.
In her second year of Juilliard and while working in an Off- Broadway show as an understudy, Rachel had gotten pregnant by her boyfriend of four years, Noah Puckerman. She was scared, but he had gotten down in one knee and promised he'd be there for her, forever.
They got married, had a baby and settled down in a little apartment in Brooklyn. When they both graduated, they had their big break in their careers. He, Artie and Finn had been working on stage, singing their band songs in all the bars and clubs that would let them do so, and finally a manager had offered them a contract and everything they was looking for. They quickly started to work on an EP and everything else.
Meanwhile, Rachel worked hard in an off-Broadway musical that, after been on stage for a year and a half, had finally been upgraded to Broadway. After much so much work, it was obvious a Tony nomination was coming; she didn't felt disappointed for not winning, because she never thought she would.
Everything was great, they were going up in their careers and their friend helped them whenever they needed help with little Nate. And then Rachel got pregnant again.
When he and the band were offered a tour alongside King of Leon for six months, Rachel insisted that he had to go and that she'd be fine, that she had the girls, Kurt, Mike and Matt to help her. But in reality they were very hard months, but not lonely ones (Quinn moved in with her, since she also felt lonely and she could help her with Nate).
The night she left her show (she received lots of flowers and an standing ovation) to take her maternity leave, she called him crying, telling him how much she missed him, he managed to soothe her and sing her to sleep. After that, he promised himself to never again leave his wife alone during her pregnancy.
He came back home to a huge wife and a much bigger Nate. Those few months before Amelia's birth were pure bliss. Rachel was happy and less tired than before, and since he had a few months before he had to hit the studios again, he could spent a lot of time with his wife and his kid.
When Amelia was a bay, she cried less than other babies and was much less demanding than Nate, she ate and slept at normal and comfortable hours (as far babies can do), unconsciously making her parents life easier (this would become a big part of her personality).
Even thought it made both Noah and Rachel feel incredibly sad, they decided to send both kids to day care. Amelia worried them the most, because at least Nate was able to spend his first years solely with his closest family, but Amelia would get used to strangers. Terrified with the idea that her baby would prefer other people over her, Rachel decided to postpone her career a year until her baby was a little over a year old before sending her to daycare.
Their band, S.F.M., manages to record an album and they become a worldwide hit. People recognize them on the street and guys even older than them think they're awesome. Two years, a Grammy, a VMA, more awards, and a tour later, they come back home and decide to take a good year of rest before recording anything else.
After a year off the stage, Rachel decided to audition for a remake of West Side Story. Se was cast as Maria and the reception to her performance was excellent. The show sold out every single one of the nights. She felt like if her dreams had come true, and when she finally snatched that desired Tony Award, she couldn't be happier.
The show came to an end and soon, Wicked came. She was Elpheba and she couldn't be happier. But something happened in the first weeks of rehearsal, one day she fell and she felt an unbearable pain in her stomach, followed by lots of bleeding.
When Puck received a phone call from the hospital while he recorded, he couldn't believe what he was listening, the words miscarriage being too much for him to bare. He found Rachel in tears, crying for the unborn baby she didn't even knew she had growing inside.
After a few weeks of mourning her child (with the help of her husband and her wonderful children) she went back to the theater. It was difficult to smile and sing like if everything was perfect, but she tried her hardest. She prepared for half a year for the role, but two months and a half before the opening night she discovered that she was pregnant, again.
Emily represented a lot of sacrifice from her parents; Rachel decided to leave the production of Wicked and Puck confessed to the guys that he wanted to stay with Rachel for this pregnancy; they understood and ended up without a tour for their second album. (Quinn had actually given birth to her second child, a little girl called Jane, and Finn was happy to stay with her.)
Time passed and other opportunities came for Rachel. Evita, Guys & Dolls, a movie with Meryl Streep and Aaron Tveit , in which she played his troubled girlfriend, which earned her an Academy Award for best supporting actress.
The band's second album received great reviews from the critic, but didn't have a lot of repercussions among the public. The third album was a huge success and earned them a tour (of their own) through North America and Europe.
He comes back from the tour to knock her up with another boy. Aaron is born and their parents decide that they're making and saving too much money and it's time to spend it on a bigger house. (The first time Noah Puckerman felt like a grown up man was when he bought, along with his wife, a two-store penthouse on the Upper East Side.)
And that's how they got here.
When they had finished breakfast, they all head to different directions. Nate drove himself and his sister Amy to LaGuardia, Rachel had to take Em to middle school, while Noah had to wake up four-year-old Lizzie, so he could take Aaron to primary school.
Lizzie was the youngest of the family and was, thereby, everyone's favorite. All of their children have, in some different degrees, their father's cocky, witty and crafty attitude. Except for the little girl, who is all her mother. She's always being nice and offering to help in what she can, she's incredibly adorable, full of sweetness and innocence. She was daddy's little girl and loved to be woken up by her father caressing her forehead, helping her to put some clothes on and tennis shoes before taking her in his arms and exiting the apartment with the rest of the family.
The family chatted in the elevator, slowly waking up Lizzie who stretched in her father's arms, rubbed her eyes and kissed all of her family member's cheeks goodbye.
After dropping off their children on school, Noah and Rachel went back to the penthouse. Their most romantic moments where when he was back on tour and she wasn't rehearsing but performing, because it meant they could spent mornings together (except the days she had some vocal lesson and her twice-a –week workout or when he had to go to the studio). Lizzie sat in the floor with her back against the bad, while she watched the Backyardigans and singed along.
Rachel took a cushion from the head of the bead, threw at the right side and spread herself across the bed to watch her little girl sing and dance. Puck positioned himself behind her, putting his left arm across her waist and kissed her neck, smelling her hair and smiling against her skin. Even after nearly twenty years of marriage he was still very much in love with his wife.
Suddenly she started to giggle uncontrollably.
"What's so funny, babe?"
"You, saying that I wore 'headbands' to school" she chuckled, as a response he groaned.
"Please, stop giving your old skirts to my little girls. Keeping guys away from them is already hard enough without my little girls showing all the good locks they took from you"
"Noah, Amelia has a boyfriend, you failed, face it, and get over it."
"Yeah, but she met Dan when they were five, I know that the guy will take care of her and respect her. Besides, I know they haven't … that they haven't… I know they haven't." He said smugly.
"Oh really?"
"He would've told me".
"You're right; you're the closest thing he has to a father figure. Besides, Amy would've told me."
"Mommy, Daddy?"
"Yes, sunshine?"
"How did Amy met Dan?" asked the little girl.
"Well, it's a long story". Answered Rachel, remembering the beautiful love story between her daughter and the young man who owned her heart. Lizzie jumped on the bed and started to pout.
"Please tell me the story, pretty please?" She begged while pouting at her father, being perfectly aware that her father would please her. Unable to resist her, he began the tell her.
When Amy was five, Rachel was playing Evita. Nate was already in first grade and Em was in the daycare. Thereby, Amy felt very lonely in preschool, but decided to not worry her parents with the fact that girls didn't liked to play with her and left her out of their games. However, the teacher informed them about her problems and Rachel decided to take her to work. After explaining to Amy that she had to stay quiet and try to 'please not bother mommy unless it's necessary', the little girl started to go to rehearsals with her mother. The little girl stayed quiet, watching how the director shouted orders and people did as he told, so that everything stayed perfect. (For her sixth birthday, she asked a Handycam. She didn't get it, but next year they bought a 'family one' that became her property anyways).
A cast mate of Rachel, Taylor Thompson, was a single mum (jackass left her when she was pregnant) had a son who also had problems in preschool and instead went to his mother's work. That's how he and Amy met.
They formed an unbreakable friendship, sharing their deepest secrets and all their discoveries. They went to primary and middle school together. Dan considered Puck a surrogate father, who had been there whenever he had a problem that he couldn't talk with his mother.
Puck always knew that this kid would protect his daughter from anything, but that didn't make him feel any less angry when he found out that they had kissed (in her room, in his house, damn it!) or when he realized that they cuddled when they watched a movie or they held hands when they went out t the park.
Finally, the summer before high school, when Amy asked to go to LaGuardia so that she could pursue a career in filmmaking or theater, Dan decided that he needed a way to keep boys away from Amy. He decided to ask Puck permission to date his daughter. At first he wasn't too happy with the idea, but when he realized that the kid was as whipped as he was, he let him 'make it official' with his daughter.
Even thought Amy felt like an 18th-century bride who needed the permission of her father (which let to an annoying rant about feminism) she gladly accepted being Dan's girlfriend.
Now the cute couple was inseparable and the even had a plan for the future: She was going to NYU Film School to be the next Scorsese, he was going to Columbia to med school, and they'd get married and have as many children as life gave them.
"I want a Dan too!"
"You're too young, we'll talk when you're thirty" growled Puck, while Rachel just laughed,
"Don't worry Lizzie, you'll get your own Prince when you're older" said her mother, but at Puck's stare she added, "Way older."
"But I want one now! You said Amy was just a bit older than me… I should find someone!"
"Lizzie, don't worry…" chuckled Rachel, amused of her daughter dramatic reaction to her lack of a prince
"Can Daddy be my prince?"
"Of course baby, you will always be my princess!"
That was beautiful day and after leaving dinner ready, Rachel went to the theater. Puck offered to take her, but she refused. Even thought she had enough money to hire a chauffeur, she liked to use the subway or take a cab and get to see the city that she loved so much.
The family (minus Rachel) had dinner, each talking about what they were doing for the week end. Nate was going to pick up his girlfriend and then he headed to a party in the Bronx ("don't tell your mother I let you go, if she asks I had no idea that you were going to Bronx"), Em was going to central park with her girl friends tomorrow ("Be careful kid", "Whatever dad, I'm always careful", "Yeah well, be more careful then… and no skirts!"), Lizzie and Aaron made their father promise to take them to the zoo and Amy said that she and Dan were probably going to watch a movie the next day.
When Rachel arrived she found her husband watching some baseball game in their huge TV with Lizzie asleep in his lap, after kissing him he went to check out on her other children. Aaron was sleeping, Em was reading some novel, Nate was gone ("to some party with Angela", said Puck) and Amy was in her bed staring at the ceiling.
"Hi honey" greeted Rachel, entering the full-of-posters room of her daughter.
"Hey mom" answered her daughter, moving so her mom could lie next to her.
"What's going through that head of yours?"
"Can I ask you something?"
"Of course"
"Was daddy your first?", asked the girl a little nervous.
"My first?", repeated Rachel shocked at the question.
"Was daddy the first guy you had sex with?"
"Why are you asking me this' Are you and Dan…"
"No! No, but… It's just that some of our friends had. And well, we're older now and…"
"Did he tell you that he wanted to?"
"We talked about it, he said that he didn't want to push me, and that he'd respect me and not do anything that I don't want to, but that he wanted to…"
"Oh honey…"
"I'm not sure I want to, but I'm scared he'll get mad at me for saying no…"
"He won't, he loves you."
"Mom, does it hurt? How was yours? Was it with dad?"
"Okay, okay. Your dad wasn't my first; remember I told you used to date Uncle Finn?"
"You had sex with Nate's godfather? Ew…"
"Honey, let me get to the important part. I was sixteen, going on seventeen, a little older than you."
"How was it?"
"It was amazing. See, it was special because I did it with someone special for me at the moment. Even when he didn't end up being the love of my life, we were in love and it was magical."
"Really?"
"I'm not gonna lie to you, it hurt a little and it was a bit awkward. But the… moment itself was amazing, because he cared about me so he was sweet and gentle and I felt like we belonged together."
"And dad?"
"Your father and I started dating near the end of Junior year, and he knew that sex was a big deal for me so he waited until I was ready."
"How did you know you were ready?"
"At the moment? I didn't know for sure… I think you don't know until you've done it, and by then it's no getting back. Look I was in love with my boyfriend, and to this day I have no regrets about that moment, even when we didn't end up together until the end of our lives."
"You think I'm ready?"
"That's something you'll have to decide. But no matter what you choose I'll be here, you can tell me everything."
"Thanks mom" she said, hugging Rachel tightly.
"And if you choose that it's time, let me know so I can take you to a doctor so you can start with birth control and so I can help you prepare a lovely night for you and Dan" she said, giving a kiss in her daughter's forehead and walking out of the room.
"Mom?"
"Yes honey?" asked Rachel turning around. Her daughter smiled at her.
"I love you"
"I love you too".