AHH! I love every single person that read, reviewed, alerted, favorited (after only ONE chapter)! You guys are amazing! I tried to respond to a few reviews but for those I didn't get around to THANK YOU! Thank you Sarah for giving your feedback! It's so greatly appreciated!
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When it came to entertaining Alana, Rachel found it to be incredibly easy. She was just a toddler and was fascinated by the simplest things. Tommy however, was a completely different situation. He was older, with more complex needs, and Rachel knew that. That was why by the time Puck came over the next day, just after lunch, Rachel had a list of activities for them to choose from.
"You have a list?" Puck said standing with Rachel in her kitchen.
"Yes Noah, I have a list. Are you honestly shocked? Since Alana obviously will go along smiling with just about any idea we could come up with we cannot keep doing the same activities with Tommy. He'll get bored and hate us."
"Don't you think that's a little extreme Rachel?"
"No. We want happy children. Therefore, I have taken the liberty to print out several coloring book pages from the internet. Our other options include making homemade kites, decorating my drive way with sidewalk chalk or building forts."
"Don't you get sick of planning everything?"
"I am not planning. I'm simply supplying options as to not get bored."
"Being bored is an awesome part of being a kid in the summer. But forts sound pretty cool."
"The choice is not yours Noah, its Tommy's." Rachel said looking at Tommy and Alana who were playing with the toy cars.
Puck groaned, "Fine."
Rachel rolled her eyes at the teenage child standing next to her and then focused her attention back on the sandy haired boy in front of her. Rachel had yet to get Tommy to speak. He never asked for anything and she and her fathers had learned that the only way to know what he wanted was to ask the boy only yes or no questions.
"Tommy," Rachel said squatting down next to the blanket, "Would you like to go play with the sidewalk chalk?"
Tommy shook his head and returned to playing with the cars. Rachel looked up at Puck nervously.
"Tommy," Puck said getting the boys attention, "how about you, Rachel and Alana go outside and play with the sidewalk chalk that Rachel's Dads bought while I set up the most awesome fort ever?"
Wide eyed from excitement Tommy nodded, then stood up quickly pulling at Rachel's hand causing laughter from Rachel.
"Tommy why don't get go get the chalk from the closet and I'll get Alana ready." Rachel said as Tommy scampered to find the chalk, "What are you doing Noah?"
"Helping with the happy children part. Just give me twenty minutes and direct me to the location of extra blankets and pillows."
"Noah, you're going to make a mess."
"Rachel, before your family started taking care of kids during the summer, what did you do?"
"The same thing I do now. Dance classes and vocal lessons."
"Then you don't know how to have fun. Trust me. I'll even clean the whole thing up myself."
"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?"
"Because I'm beginning to think you have a bad feeling about fun."
"Noah that's ridiculous."
"I know Rach, that's why we have to correct the problem. Now take Tommy and Alana outside and draw flowers or whatever it is on the ground and I will work my magic in here and then afterwards we can do whatever lame activities you've been planning."
Rachel sighed in defeat, "Fine. Extra blankets and pillows are in the hall closet upstairs. But you're cleaning up whatever mess you make."
"Yes mother," Puck responded as he caught the rolling of Rachel's eyes before she bent down to pick up Alana.
After making sure Alana was properly dressed and her diaper changed, Rachel applied a little sunscreen to both children and took them outside. Setting Alana down at the bottom of the porch steps the three walked to the end of the driveway and situated themselves with the bucket of multi colored chalk. While watching to make sure Alana didn't put any of the chalk in her mouth, Rachel wondered what exactly Puck was doing inside her house. She trusted that he wasn't going to do any irreversible damage, but she wouldn't put it past him if he made a complete mess of everything and then left her to clean it up herself before her dads got home. When Alana came and sat down on Rachel's lap, she put the chalk down and held the girl close. As she had told Puck the night before, these were the youngest children that had ever stayed at the Berry house. They were the most difficult only because Tommy had yet to say a single word and it was becoming hard to get him to do things. It wasn't that Tommy was a bad child, just incredibly shy. But Rachel could tell that Tommy was forming some kind of connection with Puck. While Rachel was unable to convince him to come outside, one word from Puck sent him practically running for the door. She was thankful for that, but she knew that Puck wasn't going to be able to be there every day and every second, she was going to have to work on becoming as trusted to Tommy as Puck was. Rachel smiled as Alana blabbed about something in a language that she couldn't understand. In a way, Rachel knew that Alana was going to be the one to come out of this the best. She was never going to remember this part of her life, not really at least. She hoped that all of this, the insecurity and the fear, would be nothing more than a distant memory for Tommy as he moved on. She hoped more than anything that they found a home where they could be raised together, and loved unconditionally.
Rachel reached into the pocket of her shorts when she felt her phone vibrate. She looked and found she had a text message from Puck.
The greatest fort of all time has been built. Come inside when ur done.
Rachel watched as Tommy continued drawing random shapes and scribbles on the sidewalk in front of her house.
"Hey Tommy?" Rachel said as the little boy stopped drawing and looked up at her, his adorable brown eyes looking straight into hers, "Noah said the forts ready, you want to clean up and go see?"
Tommy nodded before he and Rachel (with a little help from Alana) began to put the scattered pieces of chalk back in the bucket and carried it towards the house. Rachel opened her front door letting Tommy and Alana come through before her. When she looked at what had become of her living room she would have screamed if she had not given the permission for it to happen. In the middle of the room was a fort. Puck had used all of the cushions from the couch, and from the looks of it every sheet, blanket and spare pillow from the linen closet. It was a truly stunning structure (for what it was).
"What do you think?" Puck said from his position behind the configuration.
"It looks amazing Noah. Do you like it Tommy?"
Tommy nodded staring in awe at the fort that Puck had created in front of him.
"I think we should get inside before the evil space monsters find us!" Puck shouted running around the front of the fort to push the sheet aside to reveal the entrance. Tommy hesitated for a moment before running inside. Puck looked at Rachel, "You two coming?"
"There isn't possibly enough room in there for all four of us."
"Yes there is. I made sure of it. Come on Rach, live a little. If not you're going to taken by the evil space monsters and you're going to regret it," Puck said laughing.
Rachel rolled her eyes and laughed, "Fine. Come on Alana."
Rachel grabbed Alana's hand and the two walked through the entrance that Puck was still holding open. Once Puck climbed in with them, Rachel felt ridiculous. She was almost seventeen years old, sitting inside a fort made of pillows and sheets with another teenage boy and two small children. But Rachel was going to take Puck's advice; she was going to try to 'live a little'.
Inside the fort were all the coloring pages that Rachel had printed up earlier that morning, the box of crayons she had out on the table, along with some toy guns that were definitely not something she had around the house.
"Noah! You brought guns into my house?"
"Chill out Rachel. They're fake," Puck said picking one up, "Look it just makes an annoying noise," Puck directed the gun at Rachel then pulled the trigger that prompted the gun to make an obnoxious ringing noise.
Tommy picked up the other gun up to do the same.
"Noah, teaching children that it is fun or cool to play with guns is what leads to several deaths of children when they find their parents guns and accidentally shoot their friends."
"Do the Daddies Berry have a gun in the house?"
"Don't call them that. But no we don't."
"Then there is nothing to worry about."
"So now what?"
"Well, I have it under good authority that if Space Ranger Tommy here colors three of those pictures he will vanquish the evil space monsters and save earth. Tommy do you think you can do that?" Puck said and when Tommy nodded he continued, "There, it's been settled."
"And what are the rest of us supposed to do Noah?"
"I saw the Disney Princesses in there. You and Alana can color those and Tommy and me are going to take the awesome boy coloring pages. And the storybooks you had on the counter are in here too. Wait," Puck said stopping suddenly, "Do you hear that? It sounds like the evil space monsters are getting closer; we should get to work
Rachel nodded and then pulled Alana onto her lap and picked up one of the coloring pages that Noah had deemed 'female' and placed it in front of Alana. Handing the little girl a blue crayon, Rachel demonstrated to the little girl how to go about coloring the page and soon enough Cinderella was covered in blue scribbles.
Twenty minutes later Ariel, Pocahontas, Snow White, and Cinderella were all covered in multiple, multi-colored, nonsensical swirls, but on the other side of the fort the boys had finished not three but five different pages varying from Toy Story, Cars, and G.I. Joe. After each one Tommy finished, he handed it to Puck who told him how awesome it looked before Tommy would immediately go to work on a new page. When Tommy handed Puck the last page Puck froze.
"Tommy listen! I think I hear them retreating! You saved the world! Good work Buddy!" Puck said lifting his hand in the air, Puck called for a high five, which Tommy delivered with great force.
"Great job Tommy," Rachel said with Alana half-asleep in her arms, "Now that you've saved the world, I think its time for a nap."
Tommy shook his head and looked at Puck.
"Buddy, I think that's a good idea. We can play some more when you wake up. Even space rangers need to take naps," Puck said moving so that he was at the opening in the fort again, he disappeared back into the living room before holding the sheet back so Tommy and Rachel who was still holding Alana could get out, "Do you need help?"
"No, I've got them. Come on Tommy," Rachel said extending her hand, happy when Tommy accepted it.
Rachel led Tommy upstairs still holding Alana who had already fallen asleep on her shoulder. When she walked into the guest room, Rachel placed Alana down in her crib and tucked her in tightly. When she turned around Tommy had already pulled back the comforter and had climbed in beneath it. Rachel sat herself down next to Tommy and covered him with the comforter.
"Did you have fun?" Rachel asked.
Tommy nodded.
"You really like Noah don't you?"
Tommy nodded.
"He really is a good guy. He's so good with you and Alana that it even surprises me a little bit. And I've always thought the best of Noah. I'm sure you don't even want to hear this. Sleep well Tommy," Rachel said standing from the bed. She then leaned down to kiss him out the forehead before heading out of the room.
Descending the stairs she noticed that Puck had already began destroying the fort.
"That was a good idea," Rachel said reaching the landing.
"It was lame. It could have been totally awesome if we had more kids. Finn and I used to do it all the time with Mike and Matt. It's much cooler when you can actually have teams and have the good guys and the bad guys."
"But Tommy loved it and that's all that matters," Rachel said grabbing one of the sheets from the heap.
"What are you doing?" Puck asked her.
"Helping clean up this mess," Rachel said folding the sheet.
"I thought I was given strict instructions to clean this all up myself."
"You were but I've changed my mind. So really forts can be fun?"
"Did you not have a childhood Rachel?"
"Of course I did. But I spent a lot of time at dance classes, voice lessons, acting classes. I've been working at becoming a star since I was born Noah."
"So, all this stuff you're doing for Tommy and Alana is the first time you're doing it?"
"Not all of it. I mean I've colored before. But I hadn't had many playmates when I was younger so I chose to concentrate on advancing and perfecting my talents."
"So if you hadn't done any of this before, how did you know what to do?"
"Luckily modern technology was able to assist me with some research."
"I've known you for two years now and still have no idea what you just said."
"The internet Noah. I googled it."
"Oh."
Rachel and Puck finished folding all the sheets and organizing all the cushions and pillows so that Rachel's parents wouldn't know that they destroyed their living room. When Rachel was certain that everything was in order once again she threw herself against the cushions of the couch. Puck taking a seat next to her.
"So, how long are they going to sleep?"
"An hour, maybe more."
"So what do we do now?"
"Wait for them to wake up."
"Then what?"
"Well I thought we could have a snack and then I went out and bought the materials to make homemade kites. I've honestly run out of ideas other than that."
"What google didn't have any other answers?"
"No need to tease me Noah. I'm sure I can look up more activities if those don't suit you."
"No it's cool," Puck said leaning forward to grab the remote control off of the coffee table, "But we are totally watching some Sports Center while we're waiting."
Rachel watched as Puck turned on her television and immediately found ESPN and began to concentrate on it. When the commercial break came on Puck looked over at Rachel who had surprised him by not complaining once about him watching television, especially sports, but he found Rachel curled up against the corner of the couch, asleep. Poor girl couldn't handle being a child any better than the actual children could. Puck turned back to the television when the commercial break ended, turning the volume down just a bit as he did.
Eventually everything on ESPN became a repeat of the thing they'd said ten minutes prior and Puck found himself drifting off to sleep. Well he didn't even realize he had fallen asleep until he felt something tugging on his t-shirt. Pulling himself out of his slumber and opening his eyes, he saw Tommy standing in front of him. He looked over at Rachel who was still asleep.
"Hey Buddy," Puck said his voice laced with sleep still.
Tommy didn't say anything but in the distance Puck heard Alana crying in her crib. Immediately he got up and taking hold of Tommy's hand and made his way up to the guest room. Inside Alana was practically screaming in the crib. Puck immediately went over and picked her up, cradling against himself he tried to calm the girl. With her head resting at the crook of Puck's neck, Alana stopped crying moments after Puck situated her in his arms. Rubbing her back, Puck shushed her when she started whimpering. Realizing that Alana needed her diaper changed Puck panicked. While it had been forever since he'd held a baby, it had been even longer since he changed a diaper. Laying Alana down on Tommy's bed Puck searched the room for a diaper. He could easily go downstairs, wake Rachel up and have her handle this situation, but he wanted to do this; He could do this. But when Alana started screaming on the bed, Puck wasn't as sure as he was before. Puck looked around the room quickly looking for a clean diaper. When Tommy showed up next to him with a clean diaper and a box of baby wipes Puck was sure that despite the fact that Tommy had yet to say a word, he was the coolest kid ever. Trying to shush Alana, Puck was thankful that Rachel had dressed her in a tiny purple dress that day. He simply pushed the dress up to expose the diaper and taking a deep breath changed the first diaper in nearly ten years.
Once Alana was changed and had finally stopped crying Puck cradled her in his arms, then the three softly went down the stairs to find Rachel still asleep. Puck put his finger to his lips to silence the small children as he led them into the kitchen. Remembering that Rachel had planned to feed them Puck sat Alana down in her highchair and helped Tommy climb onto a chair. Looking into the fridge Puck was absolutely not shocked to see, sitting on the top shelf, a jar of peanut butter, a bag of celery and a bag of raisins. Leave it to Rachel Berry to plan everything in the day, including what foods were too be eaten.
Taking out all of the supplies, he walked over to the table and set them down. Looking around for plates (and not finding any) Puck reached for a couple paper towels. After managing to quietly grab a knife out of the drawer, Puck prepared the Ants on a Log that Rachel had been planning. He knew that Tommy wasn't going to care about why it was called Ants on a Log or what he was doing so he bypassed all the nonsense that Rachel would have done and just set two pieces in front of the boy. Realizing that Alana probably shouldn't eat the same thing he looked around the kitchen and grabbed a banana off the rack sitting on the counter, pealed it, and sliced it and put it in front of Alana. Sitting down at the table with the children, Puck snacked on some celery.
When the kids finished Puck made sure to eliminate all evidence of a mess, including changing Alana into a new dress (this one red) because she had gotten banana all over herself. Puck was bringing the kids back downstairs so he could figure out what to do with them next when he spotted Rachel awake and sitting up on the couch.
"Are they just waking up?" Rachel said as she wiped the remaining sleep from her eyes.
"Nope. They've been up for a while."
"Why didn't you wake me? Honestly Noah I hadn't meant to sleep so long."
"Don't worry about it. I took care of everything."
"Alana wasn't wearing that dress earlier."
"We had a banana accident."
"You fed them?"
"I told you Rachel, I took care of everything."
"Thank you Noah."
"Don't sweat it. Now where are those kites you were talking about earlier?"
Creating homemade kites was much more difficult than Rachel had imagined. With the glue, the paper, and the string, they were only able to create one kite that looked like it would actually be able to fly through the air. So when Puck and Rachel had deemed it ready to go the group moved to Rachel's backyard. Rachel had wanted to bring the kids to the park, but her father's would be home soon and she couldn't keep them out long. Handing the spool of string to Tommy, Puck instructed the boy how to get the kite going. Alana ran along side Tommy as he scurried across the yard getting the kite into the air. Once Tommy and Alana stopped running on the other end of the yard, Puck and Rachel joined them and watched as the paper kite dance in the air. It wasn't until Benjamin got home from work that they came back inside.
While Benjamin situated the children down in front of the television (though Rachel protested it was not an appropriate activity), Puck announced that he should probably head home. Puck grabbed his things from in front of the door and Rachel walked with him onto the front porch.
"If you thank me once I'm going to have to hurt you and I've always said that I wouldn't hurt a midget."
"I am not a midget."
"Whatever you're small," Puck said and when Rachel huffed at him he laughed, "I had fun today."
"Today was rather enjoyable. Too bad I'm out of ideas."
"You'll have to google some more crazy activities for next time I come over."
"You're coming back?"
"Hell yeah! I mean, if that's alright with you."
"Yes, that would be wonderful. I think Tommy really likes you and you do so well with Alana. I was planning on bringing them to the park tomorrow since we didn't get to go today."
"I have to work tomorrow and I have this thing for my sister the day after. How about Monday?"
"We will see you Monday Noah." Rachel said giving into the urge she had to hug him by wrapping her arms around him. It was her way of thanking him without actually saying the words. She hadn't been in this position since that week they dated their sophomore year and Rachel worried that it wouldn't be received well. But when Rachel felt Puck's arms wrap around her, Rachel relaxed, even though Puck was the first to pull away.
"Bye Rach, see you Monday," Puck said before turning and heading across the lawn as Sheldon Berry pulled into the driveway.
As Puck's truck pulled away from the curb, Sheldon reached the front porch and greeted his daughter with a hug and a kiss on the forehead.
"Noah came over again today?" Sheldon asked.
"Yes. We actually had a very fun day."
Sheldon turned to look back at the sidewalk and driveway covered in colored chalk, "I can see that."
"Tommy seems to like him and trust him, which is good."
"Is he coming over again?"
"Monday."
"That'll be good. He seems like a good kid. He's a good friend for helping out."
Rachel didn't bother to correct her father about the true status of her relationship with Puck. Instead, she replied, "He is Dad."
Sheldon nodded as he went inside to greet his husband and their foster children, Rachel tagging close behind. Taking a seat with Alana and Tommy as they watched some show directed towards preschoolers, Rachel thought about the last two days she had spent with Puck. In her head, Rachel knew that Puck was only coming over because of the kids. They had been in glee together for two years and yet they had still been unable to form any kind of real relationship after the week that they dated. She found it strange that he would even want to spend as much time at her house as he had, and would, but chose not to question it and risk the chance of it begins awkward. Because even if he was just coming by for the children, she hoped that she and Puck would be able to become friends in the process.