I was challenged by Precious- passenger to write a fic with main pairing being Carole with either Emma, one of Rachel's dads or Mr. Schue… so this is the first chapter of the result and I believe there are going to be two chapters more.

So since it's kind of a Christmas fic I decided to put it on today. I hope you enjoy this, merry Christmas and happy new year.

Portrayers for OC's

Claire- Kia Pegg
Livie- Mia Talerico
Ellen- Emma Watson as in the first Harry Potter movie
Casey- Jake Short
Ibs- Mr. Marr here on fanfiction

And oh yeah! English is not my first language!

I sighed and continued hurrying through the main street downtown while I tried holding onto the bags with the future Christmas gifts and stuff at the same time as I was pulling up my phone to call up my son and make sure that he went by the store and bought dinner for him and his sister so they didn't starve before I came home.

Looking down on my phone to find Finn's number in the contact list I wasn't looking out where I was going. I didn't notice the shopping bags that stood in the middle of the road until I tripped over them and fell without being able to catch myself while the phone was thrown towards the street while a curly- haired man I hadn't met before came and kneeled by me.

"I am so, so sorry. I didn't realize I had put the bags in the middle of the street. Are you okay?" I tried to get a picture of where I had myself and all of the bags before I pushed myself up to sit and bobbed my head up and down. "Good, oh I am so sorry." He took a step to the side and reached for my phone that he handed to me.

"Thanks." I took it and let him help me up. "But really, I'm perfectly fine and it's my fault, I wasn't looking where I was going. Carole by the way…" I reached out my hand and he took it and introduced himself as Will. "Listen I… I'd love to stand here and chat with you but… but there's some place I've got to be and things I need to do before that so… I'm sorry for this. I've got to go."

"Yes, yes of course." Will bent down and picked up a bag. "You dropped this. I guess I'll… I'll see you some time. Or not. I'm sorry for all of… this!" He looked into my eyes and suddenly stuttered for a bit. "Oh… hrm. Well, sorry." He let hear a short laugh and I turned around and walked away to my car and stood packing in the bags in the baggage when I felt someone looking at me and turned around to see Will standing there quite nervously passing his bags from one hand to the other.

"Hey I… I was wondering if there are things that you need to fix some things before you go somewhere else… I also need to fix something before I go somewhere else and one of the things I had to fix is I kind of have to eat dinner and then I was wondering if one of the things that you'd need to fix is dinner because maybe if you do then you'd like to have dinner with me and as a sorry for putting my bags in the middle of the road I'll pay?"

"Really sir." I laughed kind of nervously, trying to ignore the butterflies that were dancing in my stomach. "It wasn't your fault, I wasn't looking where I was going like I should have and… and I've got somewhere to be in not too long so I really…" I didn't know how to finish the sentence when I realized I had read my watch wrong- it was another hour, almost two until I needed to be at William McKinley.

"Well then…" Will laid his head to the side a bit. "I can't leave town before my children come from McDonald's." He made a grimace to express what he thought about McDonald's and then let hear a short laugh. "But I'll need to eat dinner, and I'd rather not do it alone. So… do you want to join me?"

For a moment I wasn't sure about what to answer, yes, no, yes, no, yes no? God help me! Will seemed confused about why I suddenly was so silent when I went through what he had just said in my head- Children?

For a moment a picture flashed by in my head, a picture of a man I had fallen head over heels for- and what had been happening when I wasn't around. He had always seemed to be so sweet- a bit like Will seemed now, and I couldn't do else than recognize this feeling. Although I hadn't been able to do else than let all the feelings fade- which wasn't hard to do when my daughter then four years old sat in front of me, cried her eyes out and showed me bruises he had caused her.

Feeling my heart beating whenever I looked into those eyes or heard his voice I couldn't help but to feel about that time. What if this was all the same? I couldn't! I couldn't let myself fall for one who would treat my children like things without feelings or senses whenever I wasn't around. But if he had his own children…

If he had his own children then maybe he could understand the way I felt about mine. If he had his own children then maybe he would understand why they would always come before him- or anyone else. And… if he…

I shook my head and shook the thoughts off- God, this wasn't about falling in love was it? It was about a dinner about making something right- that actually hadn't been wrong in the first place and then at last I decided that whatever it was or would be- it could just as well be worth a try- and hey! With my budget a free dinner wasn't too bad!

"I'd love to" I answered at last and pushed my hands down in my pockets while I and Will walked down the street and I could only guess that Will- like me what brainstorming and wondering about what to say and where to go.

"Oh…" What felt like suddenly, but at the same time at least a year later, I and Will found ourselves standing at the end of the main road and realized that wherever we were thinking about going we had walked too far. "Ehrm…" Will bit his lip and scratched his neck. "Hot dogs?" He pointed to a wagon right nearby and I thought for a moment… well... why not?

"So…" Will began when we sat down on a stone bench on the street after buying those hot dogs. "..Well…" He sighed as if he was wondering about what to say next. "Well… Oh and then this with starting a conversation…" We both laughed kind of nervously. "No but… tell me something about yourself… Oh I'm so bad at this… name, job family? I'm so bad at this!"

I couldn't help but laugh again. "Sorry… ehrm… Carole Kye… Hudson! Damn it I never get used to Hudson!"

"So you're married?" I sighed. Well yeahno!

"Widow." I said callously.

"Oh, I am so, so sorry! I'm sorry I didn't." I held up a hand to silent him.

"It's okay… it's a long time ago and… the most important part of my life are my children… Claire who's eleven- My beautiful little ray of sunshine and then F…" I didn't get any further until three children came running up to us.

"Dad, dad, dad." The smallest one ran up to Will straight away. "Can I have a bite please?" She showed her biggest smile and climbed up by her dad while two other children- older than her came walking. "Please daddy?" Will looked down at the girl with the long, blonde hair and smiled.

"Didn't you just eat Livie?" He took a bite himself to tease her and smiled mischievously. "I'm just kidding. Here you can have the last couple of bites!" I smiled at "Livie´s" excited screech when she got what was left of the hot dog and happily turned around and then sat leaning back against her dad, silently looking to me, eying me up and down while she chewed.

"Hiya dad" What seemed to be the oldest of the children- the only boy sat down by Livie and lifted her up on his lap while the middle one- a girl who might be the same age as my Claire sat down on the other side of Will on the edge of the bench, and I felt weirdly nervous when I could both feel and see them eying me up and down.

"Who are you?" Livie asked after several seconds of silence. "Are you a new friend of my dad's?" I hesitated, and looked from her up at Will who breathed in while he seemed to wonder about what to say and how to say it in the best way.

"Well, kids. This is my new friend yes Livie. Carole! Carole these are my children. Casey, thirteen, Ellen, eleven and Olivia who is six."

"My name is Livie, or Liv- not Olivia!" Livie grimaced to show what she thought about that name. "And Carole's not a nice name either!" I shook my head and tried to cover that I was laughing. Children were cute weren't they?

"OLIVIA!" Will scolded. "That is not a nice thing to say Olivia Joanne! Now say you're sorry." I tried to show him it didn't matter- just waved it off- I knew it was kind of old- fashioned and therefore not popular with todays' children. And children said what they thought- it really wasn't that much of a big deal!

"I'm sorry…. Do you have any children?" Olivia asked while I pulled my thin coat tighter around me, it didn't help me but I was starting to shiver so whatever could help against the cold spreading under my skin would do it.

"Gosh you must be freezing!" Will stood up and started fingering with the zipper on his own coat before I had the time to protest. "Here, take my coat." He pulled it off and held it up so I could just pull it on. "Not a word! I'll keep warm. Gosh your hands…" My fingers were so cold they had gone all red and I couldn't move them freely enough to close the zipper so Will helped me closing it.

"Do you have any children?" Livie asked, a bit annoyed and I realized it was because she had asked before but not gotten an answer and I nodded while I had to keep quiet until my chin had stopped shivering. "Have you got one who is six years old?" I shook my head. "Oh…"

"But I've got a daughter… her name is Claire, she's eleven like you." I looked to Ellen. "I'm sure she'd like to be friends with you, and she's really nice. And then I have a son…" Without really thinking about it I checked my watch. "…And there is a parents' meeting on his school and I've really got to run, I can't miss it, it's for the parents of the Freshmen's. Thank you for the hot dog. I've got to run. See you!"

I stood up and ran down the road so I was all out of breath when I finally came up to my car and not until I sat and searched through the jacket pockets for my car keys and instead pulled up a photo of the pocket I used to have it in I realized I was still wearing Will's jacket- and that the photo I had pulled up was of a very happy family.

The photo showed Will holding his hand on a woman's shoulder-the woman I didn't recognize, but she was obviously the mother of the children- Will's wife, and Will had his other hand on Casey's shoulder, Casey stood in front of him and Casey had his arm around Ellen's shoulders, Ellen stood by him and in front of their mum, and Olivia stood in front of Ellen and Casey with Casey's other hand on her shoulder.

I sat there for God knows how long and just stared down at the photo. The whole family were wearing smiles and shirts in different shades of brown with blue jeans. Only from looking at the picture I could tell that they all loved each other very much and there was nothing that were to tear them apart- just like any family would be.

And I couldn't help but notice around both one of Will's fingers lying on the woman's shoulder, and the woman's finger lying on Ellen's shoulder- rings!

Yep-I had officially fallen in love with a married man! Well done Carole!

I looked up again and loosened the seat belt, stepping out of the car without really think about what I was doing. I felt tears burn behind my eyes and had to fight down the lump in my throat not to break down crying walking through the main street to walk back to where we had been sitting before to give Will his jacket by.

This whole fall and what had been of winter yet everything had seemed to go wrong, Finn couldn't keep his grades up, Claire couldn't keep her grades up, Finn got in trouble, Claire got in trouble, I had always had depts up to my ears and as of now we were on our way to lose our home. If I couldn't pay it in a week or two people would come and take everything we had and I knew for a fact what would be left was just as three- living in the car doing our best to even keep warm in the cold winter- and I couldn't even let the children know-it was three weeks to Christmas and I just couldn't destroy their happiness before I absolutely had to.

The only thing that would be left was for me to fall in love with a guy that was either a jerk or married- good job to do both. Everything Will had done, everything he had said and the way he had just seemed to be looking at me made butterflies dance in my stomach and… Even if I might have tried to keep it all away I couldn't deny what he made me feel.

But it had barely even been for an hour, two hours ago I hadn't even known the guy so why did it feel so hard? Why did it feel so hard that he would never look at me the way I looked at him and that from my side was just me seeing thing I wished were there. It was nothing but my fault, and yet I hated him for letting me believe everything I had believed.

I walked around the corner in the end of the street and found the benches empty, a young, in love couple were on their way up to the bench and there was nothing left for me to do then to turn around, I almost just wanted to throw the jacket in a bin telling myself I'd never meet Will ever again, but I just had the strangest feeling I would and threw it in the back seat of the car before I just had to drive away towards William McKinley high school not to miss the parents' meeting.

"Sorry I'm… late" I ran into the classroom a good while later, and a good while too late. Then stopped abruptly and silent for a split moment when I recognized Will's curls and knitted west where he sat by the teacher's desk. "I'm Carole Hudson- Finn's mum." Will nodded and handed me some papers and I walked into the back of the classroom where I sat down and did my best to concentrate on what Will was saying and fighting back the tears that were coming back when I saw Will.

"Ibs" Will turned to a skinny, Asian guy standing by the bookshelf and… Ibs… nodded. "I do believe it's time for a break. There'll be coffee or tea in the cafeteria so… will you show these parents there?" The younger man- perhaps in his late teens nodded and walked out so everyone followed him. "Mrs. Hudson, can you wait here for a minute and I'll go through what we talked about before you came."

I had a good feeling it was actually to get his jacket back and that he was using that excuse not to show anyone he already knew me- whatever that might be for. And as discreetly as I could I pulled backwards when he sat down on the other side of the desk from me, and I could just barely see Ibs sit and glance away towards us.

"I'd like to have my jacket back if that is possible!" Will smiled and I nodded. I was going to answer that I had it in the car but couldn't speak just yet, he would just hear my voice being thick- damn it! He wasn't worth this why did I keep on crying? "In your car?" I nodded at his question. "Shall we go and get it, I was going to get something in my car as well anyway."

It was all silent between us two for a long while from that, all until Will pulled up my photo of his pocket walking from the cars back up towards the school. "You dropped this." He handed it back to me. "Finn… Finn he always talks about his sister, Claire this and Claire that… he really loves her you know!" I nodded. "And he really loves you, I never see him as proud as he looks talking about you"

I couldn't help but smile- if Finn was proud of me… well it wouldn't be much compared to how proud I was of him. The little boy he had been had gotten to grow up fast when his dad died and I- without even having went through the funeral yet- found out I was pregnant again. But oh… I wouldn't change a thing if I was given the world for it.

"I found a photo…" I tried my voice to sound steady and discreetly. "… You look like a real happy family. Your wife is beautiful." Will nodded, but suddenly looked kind of distant and when he spoke again his voice sounded callous.

"She's not my wife anymore. A year ago she came in, left the rings at the table, handed me the divorce papers. Said five words- I will not come back- and out the door she went." Will sighed. "I could have lived with never seeing her again- but I just still can't believe she did it to the children. Can you imagine trying to tell a small child that one of her parents won't be back anymore?"

"Yes" It was an unusually short and strong- toned answer from me- almost rude! But I hadn't mean to only… I knew what it felt like! I had been there myself.

"Oh sorry… I forgot!" Will sounded ashamed and I tried smiling at him… well. It was easily happened! "Well… Here we are again, I need to do some paper work here so… the cafeteria is over there, or you can stay with me and I'll have someone to chat with during doing the very interesting paper work" He was talking in a tone that made it very clear that paper work wasn't at all too interesting and he'd rather chat doing it so I walked after him into the room where Ibs was back sitting in a corner with a book and some papers.

"So…" Will walked away from the teacher's desk and came and sat down by the desk I sat on. "Well… Spanish test needs correcting… hallelujah!" He coughed seeming kind of nervous. "So do you speak Spanish?" I gestured- not so much! "Any other language then?" I shook my head. "Well… since the whole world mostly speaks English by now I guess that's okay…"

"Mr. Schuester!" Ibs suddenly spoke up. "I can see what you want to say, and with all that small talk you're making a fool out of the both of you. So either you ask her that now, or I'm going to ask her for you!"

I felt those butterflies starting to dance- worse than ever! What was it that Ibs thought Will should ask me? Could it be? Could it really be? I forced those thoughts away- I couldn't let myself think like that and then be disappointed.

"Ask her what?" Ibs glared at Will meaning, and then looked to me.

"Mrs. Hudson, do you want to join Mr. Schuester over a coffee or for dinner some day? And yes, it's a date!" Will blushed and bit his lip nervously looking to me and reached out his hand and took mine. "Aw, you're so sweet!"

"Ibs…" Will looked back to the younger man. "…Out" He pointed to the door and Ibs started collecting his books and papers. "You don't need those you'll be coming back… out!" Ibs nodded and then half ran out of the room. And just as he came to the door a bald man in flannel shirt came in but Ibs gently pushed him backwards so that I and Will would be alone in the room.

"So well… I would ask but I think Ibs already said it all!" Mr. Schue scratched the back of his head. "Carole, do you want to join me for dinner or a coffee some day?"

I hesitated, it wasn't that I didn't want to! It was just that… well as a first thing, this was Finn's teacher! And I wasn't so sure what he would say about me going out with his teacher! And… even if Finn might be okay with it, would Claire be okay with me seeing someone after what happened to her the last time? Because I knew for a fact that if she wasn't she wouldn't let it show and I couldn't let that happen to her once more!

And even if both Finn and Claire accepted! Then how would Will feel about me when I had to tell him… because if we got to know each other more I would have to tell him that I was on the verge of losing my house, that I worked day and night to earn as much as I possibly could and still made so little with all depts my earlier husband had gotten us and everything, I didn't have enough money to pay for my own coffee?

If he liked me as I liked him right now- how would I feel about him if I saw that he tried to act like he didn't feel bad about the fact that I was a poor workaholic whom worried way too much and couldn't keep still?

Because would he still like me then?

At last I sighed, I had always been both somewhat of a pessimist, but even more of an optimist even if that was getting harder and harder. I would think one negative thought after the other to at last get on the… right or wrong track and think "Why not give it a try?" So at last I sighed slightly and squeezed his hand somewhat in mine.

"Sorry it's taking me so long to answer. It was just a bit of a chock… and…. I'd love to! I'd really love to join you for a coffee! But… I must be realistic too so… let's keep this from my children for a bit yeah? Yours already know me but… I'm not so sure what Finn would think about this and he's quite protective… and if Claire would know then there's not a chance that she could keep it from Finn!"

"Yeah… if you want to wait and see if it will get into a serious relationship then… whatever you want!" Will smiled. "And if that's what you think then yeah- I was going to suggest that too that we hold up a moment with telling Finn." Will looked to his watch and then let go off my hand. "Sorry, now I've got to have this meeting going again. Time for the boring part about classes, the cafeteria and then merry Christmas."

Sneak peek for chapter two

..."Is it a good thing if..." I had to take a deep breath to be able to go on. "If nothing could possibly get worse than what it is right now?"...

So everybody, Once again I hope you liked this first chapter of a new story and from me to all of you. A very merry Christmas and a happy new year.