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 60th cycle. Now cycle 61!

This is a shift day. There are two updates today.

"Nocturnal Sun"
Puck, Quinn, Nora (AU!Beth), Rachel - Puck/Rachel, Finn/Quinn
Sunshine Girls series
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

He could judge his mother's recovery by how much she rejected being looked after. One day he had been forced to come to the conclusion that she had made as full of a recovery as she could make, and that gave him a thought to do something he wouldn't have thought to do just days ago.

At this point they didn't even need to ask if Rachel would come over. She came, she helped, she left. On that day, he knew she would be coming eventually, as she didn't know his mother had 'declared' healthy. He would have to tell her, so she didn't keep coming for no reason, and he didn't know what to make of that. When the doorbell rang, he felt like he'd been one second away from tripping over his feet to go.

It wasn't Rachel, but he still had plenty reason to smile. "Hey, what are you doing here?" he picked Nora up out of Quinn's arms.

"I'm sorry to drop in like this unannounced, can you take her this week?"

"Sure, of course. Something wrong?" he asked her, all the while making a face at his daughter that got her laughing.

"My mother's sick. Not like yours, just a cold, but Nora doesn't have it and I'd like to keep it that way," she explained, touching the small blonde's back.

"No problem, and thank you for that," he absently touched her forehead, to make sure she wasn't warm. "You want to come in?" he stepped back and they went up to his room so he could put Nora down. Quinn had her things in a bag, which she left there by the crib.

"How's your mom?"

"All better," he nodded.

"Is Rachel still coming?" she asked, and he wondered if he looked anxious and gave himself away.

"Yeah, she should," he shrugged, holding his hand out to Nora who was reaching out to him.

"Does she know your mother's better?"

"She will."

"You know you could just call and tell her, save her the trip." She was right on that, he'd thought about it himself, but every time he reached for the phone he could hear his little sister's voice in his head going 'idiot, idiot, idiot!' and his hand retracted.

As the silence hung, he turned back to look at Quinn, frowned at the smirk on her face.

"Stop that," he looked back to Nora.

"You don't want her to stop coming over, do you?"

"You know, if your mother has a cold, you could have it on you, the longer you stick around…"

"Noah Puckerman, would you just admit you want her back already?"

"She broke up with me, remember?" he defended himself.

"One, never known that to stop you. Two, I think we all know that situation's changed."

"Three, let me do it on my own," he cut her off

"Fair enough," Quinn relented. "I should probably go anyway, have to make a stop to pick up some things for my mother. Call me if you need anything… for Nora," she added when he gave her a look.

After Quinn had left, Puck picked Nora up again, sitting with her on his bed, playing a rousing game of peek-a-boo. There were definitely conveniences to sharing custody of her, although when he didn't have her around he still missed her so much.

When the doorbell rang for the second time, he picked up Nora and went down to answer. Rachel's face lit up at the unexpected presence of the baby girl, and Puck handed her over. Nora loved being held by Rachel and it showed. Puck explained why she was here, and noticing how she felt her forehead the same as he'd done, he was taken to smile.

"What about your mom?" she asked after he'd closed the door.

"Actually she's all better," he revealed. "I was going to call, but… well you were going to come anyway," he explained. "And I thought that way I could say thanks in person, for everything."

"Sure," she smiled, while Nora was trying to shove her tiny hand at her lips. Rachel counteracted by kissing her small fingers and the girl laughed.

"Maybe she's complimenting you as a singer," Puck suggested, and she laughed.

"Well if that's it then thank you," she looked to Nora. "I'm honored."

"Rachel?" he found his courage all at once. He couldn't let it get away, not now.

"Yeah?" she turned to him.

"I think we should go out." There, he'd said it.

She had not seen it coming; neither had he. Her face showed the surprise, as she slowly processed what he was asking her.

"Go o… Like a date?" she slowly asked.

"Not like a date, just… a date," he confirmed. Rachel looked down to the girl in her arms, who was staring back at her almost as expectantly as her father. "If you need to think about it…"

"I kind of do," she admitted.

"That's alright," he promised. "I know it's sudden, but I wanted to put it out there so you know… if ever you want to try again, I'm… I want to." She turned back to him, wordless. "Whatever time you need, if you want to say yes or no, I'll wait, really."

"Just… I'll think about it," she told him. "Maybe I should go, until I've got this… figured out," she returned Nora to him and the girl began to cry as soon as she'd left her arms. "Oh, sweetie, it's alright," she touched her head, kissing her reassuringly. "I'll be back later, I promise," she told her.

After she'd left, Puck let out a breath. No matter what happened, he had been honest, with her and with himself. Now the ball was in her court.

THE END/TO BE CONTINUED (NEXT INSTALLMENT)

A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!