A/N: Work has been so killer that this chapter came together very slowly, so I'm sorry for that. It's fluffy and it's moving some stuff forward. I may have left some clues as to who the stalker is in this chapter but nothing too obvious. Thank you for reading!
Chapter Ten
Puck checked in regularly with Aubrey, who reassured him that the forensics team was working to find something that it would some time for all the results to be in. Aubrey on the other hand, was on her way to Ohio to aid in the investigation and would call with news. Despite the latest game of cat and mouse and the constant threat of another encounter, Rachel put on another pretty dress and posed for the cameras at the London premiere of Batman.
If anyone knew something was wrong in Rachel's life, then they were psychic because from the huge smile on her face and the red satin Marchesa cocktail dress that she put to shame, Rachel looked like the happiest girl in the world and she made sure that she presented it that way in her red carpet interviews. Her biggest hassle was the red eye that the group was taking to Paris that night and the full day of press she had the next day, which made her interviewers chuckle with laughter.
His girl (fuck yeah, his girl) was the talk of the town and the crowd was shouting her name, which he knew made her feel amazing in all the darkness that the stalker piled on. It didn't hurt that Puck had been able to pull her under a dark staircase for a minute and kiss her senseless. He was certainly an opportunist.
Little did he know that the anonymity of their new relationship was about to be blown wide open.
The full day of press was tough on Quinn, Rachel and Mike who had all gone to the L'Hôtel, where the conference room had turned into junket central for the movie's actors and never ending rotation of reporters, photographers and bloggers streamed in throughout the day.
After pouring herself into bed late the night before, Quinn had only got a few hours of sleep before incessant knocking on their hotel room door in Paris the next morning woke her up. She was ready to kick ass, despite it being 11 am that morning. But upon seeing Adam and Chace through the peephole, she lost all fight and opened up to let them in. Chace looked super thrilled to be awake – leaning against the doorjamb with his eyes closed and very little other physical movement.
"Aw, someone needs coffee," she said and went into the small kitchen that the room offered and began to brew the liquid gold.
"Give me coffee and I might have to steal you away from him," Chace mumbled sleepily, "He woke me up too early."
"Just try it pretty boy," Adam jested pulling Quinn towards him. "I'm not losing this one without a fight."
Quinn giggled softly before taking Chace's side on the matter, because she would have loved to get a few more hours as well.
"You're lucky you're cute," she told Adam giving him a quick kiss. "I usually don't tolerate wake up calls that I didn't schedule."
"Maybe this will put me back in the plus column," he said with a smirk and handed her a plain brown paper bag.
"What's this?" she asked, eyebrow quirked
"Us Weekly. Rachel's on the bottom right cover. Figured it was worth the conversion rate in case you needed to kick some ass."
Quinn ripped the magazine out of the bag and immediately started to read upon finding the article. He didn't lie as there was a glossy two page spread of Rachel titled, "Hollywood's Hottest Summer Newcomer," the background a photo from the L.A. premiere with her in Elie Saab and another medium sized photo of her walking with Mike and Puck in New York.
Rachel Berry is the latest Hollywood darling to make us fall in love with the movies this summer. Starring as Beckett Warner in the latest Batman installment, it seems like her job is pretty easy in having to kiss Gossip Girl hottie Chace Crawford. Not so much – a set insider tells us that Berry did all her own singing and stunts. You can find her appearing on the movie's soundtrack singing full version of the songs that heard in the movie, including Peggy Lee's hit Fever.
So who is Rachel Berry? Not in the Hollywood game long, this girl is a converted Broadway babe joining the ranks of Kristin Chenoweth and Taye Diggs who have found fame off the Great White Way. The 24-year-old starlet is from Lima, Ohio where she was raised by her two fathers. From an early age, she was immersed in dance classes and vocal training, which led to her being the female lead for William McKinley High School's glee club New Directions as well as participating in many of the school's other extracurricular activities.
Since getting discovered on the stage by wife of Batman director Christopher Nolan for her role in this summer's hottest blockbuster, Berry had also had a small role in the romantic comedy 'Lexington Avenue' with Jennifer Garner and Patrick Dempsey. Contracted through at least the next installment in the Batman franchise (which will also have Crawford and Quinto reprising their roles), audiences should expect 'to see a big change in Beckett' adds our set insider. Filming for the next installment is set to start shooting next year. Until then, our industry spies tells us that Ms. Berry is rumored to join with Mad Men hunk Jon Hamm on a project and that Rob Reiner has his sights on her for a his upcoming romantic comedy with her in the lead role. Not too shabby for this darling newcomer. And personally, we can't wait to see where this girl goes.
"Oh thank God," Quinn said, letting go of a breath that she didn't even know that she had been holding. The main article didn't say anything that needed a fire extinguisher so she went to the sidebar that had pictures of her, Mike, Matt, Kurt and Puck. Mike and Matt's blurbs simply stated how they knew Rachel and what they had been doing before they had been pulled onto security duty.
Quinn Fabray is the mama bear of the group and manages Rachel's career with a combined iron fist and feather light touch. Fiercely protective of the star, good luck getting a comment from Fabray or the actress herself. We called four times and got no comment.
"That's because you're a tabloid," she yelled at the magazine, which caused Chace to raise his eyebrows. "Sorry," she muttered. Adam handed her a cup of coffee and she continued to read what else the magazine had printed about her and the others.
A graduate of NYU, Fabray started at a large PR firm where she was a small fish in a big pond. Berry handpicked Fabray to represent her after her first manager was no longer able to represent her. It's recently been confirmed that the blonde beauty (who apparently has a set of pipes of her own) found romance with Adam Shipley, Chace Crawford's manager.
Quinn nodded, satisfied that overall they had painted a fair picture of her.
Kurt Hummel is Berry's on the rise stylist who has an eye for the extreme but pulls it all together for what we've seen on Berry in her outings. A fashion design major from the Art Institute of Philadelphia, he started out at Barneys in sales before Berry brought into her small professional circle. Now, the stylist is also one of Berry's closest confidants. We wonder what scandalous things that boy has been privy to.
"Scandalous, pfft," Quinn muttered knowing that the most scandalous thing about Rachel was that she liked to put moisturizer on her hands and slip on gloves before she went to bed at night. Quinn knew that Kurt was going to both appreciate and bemoan his section in the sidebar – they didn't out him, which meant that any unwarranted prejudice was still avoidable but at the same time Ricky Martin would not be calling him to be his date to next year's Latin Grammy Awards.
Noah Puckerman is Berry's reformed bad boy turned head of security. The former exotic car mechanic has quite a history from our research (a juvenile detention record, school suspensions and even relations with the female member of the Berry entourage previously mentioned in this sidebar). Seemingly now on the right path, Puckerman is proof that they grow them especially well in the Midwest. But here's this for a bombshell – at press time, we heard that this head of security has taken bodyguard literally. He and Rachel were caught locking lips behind a staircase at the London premiere of the movie. Check out the cute couple out and about in NYC in Hot Pics at the front of the issue.
"Oh shit," Quinn cursed loudly and she very nearly threw her mug of hot coffee onto the coffee table, which caused Adam and Chace to both stop in their tracks. "Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!" she repeated, bolting from her spot on the couch and into the boy's room. "Puckerman!" she yelled and all she got were groans to be quiet in response. Rolling the magazine, she smacked him with it.
"What devil spawn?" he groaned
"Better call your mother and tell her about Rachel or else you'll be castrated. Us Weekly just blew the lid off the two of you."
This woke him up. Even at 25, Sarah Puckerman was no one to screw with. He had no idea what Quinn was talking about but he didn't want to chance shit.
"What?" he asked needing further clarification. She opened the article and shoved the magazine under his nose, pointing to the sidebar. "Oh fuck."
"Yeah, you got the worst of it." His mouth opened and closed a few times but no words came out. Handing him her Blackberry, he accepted it and stood. "It's international and I have a feeling this is going to be a long phone call."
"Thanks," he said and started to dial.
"Hey, don't let her ground you until after we get back to New York okay?" she teased with a snicker.
"Har, har," he replied flipping her off.
& ! & ! &! & ! &
"How did your mother take the news?" Rachel asked Puck as they sat in the back of the black Suburban.
Puck had a surprise for her and she was trying to keep her giddiness in check by focusing on a topic of another nature. They hadn't been dating long enough for him to warrant surprises but she was over the moon that he had taken such initiative.
"I lost part of my hearing and then I think I heard her do handsprings," he replied wryly.
Telling his mother that he and Rachel were dating had been an interesting encounter. Thankfully, it was from across an ocean. Sarah Puckerman had screamed and then got entirely too nosy.
"Oh Noah, I'm so excited! I told you that you two were meant for each other."
"Ma… Christ, chill. We've been together less than a week. Stop planning the goddamn wedding."
Although he was glad to have that all out of the way, he would have liked to wait until they were a little more established to have told his mother. Stupid fucking tabloid now had his mother on his case about Rachel. If he ended up in therapy, he was totally sending them the fucking bill.
"So where are you taking me?" she asked, her big brown eyes questioning. Even with the small amount of the light that flashed into the car from city lights, her eyes sparkled.
"Nice try babe," he said kissing her cheek. "It's a surprise. But I did promise your dad that I would do this."
"Is that a hint?" she asked
"Take it as you wish," Puck answered with a chuckle, which made her pout like a five year old.
Alain, their driver, smirked into the rearview and followed Puck's instructions to take as many backstreets as possible. Rachel rested her head on Puck's shoulder and he ran his hands through her hair gently, causing her to close her eyes. This was really the first time they had been all alone since they started seeing each other and she could truly admit to herself that it was extremely calming.
"Thank you for taking me out. I hope Quinn didn't' give you too much trouble," she said quietly and he knew instantaneously that the fast paced nature of her life, especially on this premiere schedule was starting to wear her down. He hoped that the little surprise that they were about to stumble upon would put a smile on her face.
"Quinn's currently in the Puckerone corner, so it wasn't too hard to swing some alone time."
The car slowed to a stop and Alain turned to face him.
"Monsieur, is this close enough?"
Rachel quickly sat up and looked out the window of the car. She saw the base of the Eiffel Tower, not five hundred feet away which caused her to gasp. Rachel looked back at Puck, who grinned.
"Figured you don't get to sight see much and your dads thought you would love to see the Eiffel Tower at night." The brunette beauty cupped his cheek and gently kissed him. "I'll take that as a yes," he said teasingly before she squealed happily and moved to get out of the car.
& ! & ! &! & ! &
Aubrey shifted a duffle bag onto her shoulder as she pushed open the glass door into the Lima Police Department. With the potential for this case to become very high profile considering that Rachel Berry was a rising star, her superiors wanted this handled immediately. So they put her on the first plane to Ohio must to her enjoyment. She didn't go to the hotel upon arrival, first wanting to meet Detective Roy Hayden of the Lima PD and was crossing her fingers that he had some new piece of information for her.
Aubrey stopped one of the plain-clothes officers milling about and asked for Detective Hayden, who was pointed out to be the officer in the corner, seemingly finishing up a phone call.
"I'll be right there, good work," Detective Hayden finished enthusiastically before hanging up the receiver. Aubrey approached the desk and dropped her duffle to the ground, flashing her own badge on her hip and handing him her business card.
"Aubrey Isaacs, Threat Unit, LAPD. We spoke on the phone about me coming out here to get this sick fuck off the streets."
"Yes, of course. I appreciate the help. Thomas Berry is a good friend and it turns my stomach that someone is dicking around with Rachel."
"I'd like to see everything that you collected at the crime scene as soon as possible," Aubrey said as she threw her long blonde hair up into a ponytail.
"That's gonna have to wait," Hayden told her as he threw on his jacket. "We just got a call from the lab. They picked up clean footprints from the scene."
"And?" Aubrey questioned impatiently. She had been hoping for DNA and this hit did not seem promising. Going to the lab seemed like a waste of time unless Hayden was about to say that Rachel's stalker stepped on a rusty nail or something.
"According to the lab, the asshole wore limited edition Ferragamo loafers."
"How many were made total?" she immediately asked, the foot print discovery suddenly looking up.
"500. Worldwide."
Thank God she had gotten a few hours of sleep on the plane because she knew that she was be existing on Red Bull and coffee until they started to break down the owners in the United States.
They might have actually taken a step in the right direction.