An authors note...I have to say that hearing how much you, the readers, are enjoying this story gives me the greatest feeling ever. My hope is to never disappoint you, yet the reality is, I can't please everyone. But I do promise to try:) Feedback and suggestions are always welcome and greatly appreciated, Thanks!
Disclaimer-Glee is the property of FOX, the creators and the writers.
Beauty and the Geek
By the time Friday rolled around the Abrams household as well as the entire student body at McKinley High School had football fever. Privileged with a new coach, a coach who had been in charge of teams that had actually won games, as well as talented new blood...one Andy Abrams to be exact...this was destined to be the greatest season the Titans would ever see.
"Um, hey...Puck?" Artie greeted, then immediately threw a questioning glance his mothers way. She just smiled sweetly and continued whisking the eggs she was preparing to scramble. "What are you doing in my kitchen at...," he glanced at the clock, "...7:03 am on a Friday morning."
"Game day Dude," he grunted excitedly before his expression returned to it's ever present smirk. "You're Mom invited me over last night when I dropped off the little bro and girlfriend..."
Artie's mind drifted back to the text he had received from Quinn somewhere around 5pm yesterday afternoon, telling him not to bother waiting for them any longer, she wasn't getting out of practice anytime soon. They ended up not getting home until after nine.
"...but you weren't around."
Artie blushed. No, he was busy getting ready for bed at that time, and it wasn't like his nightly routine was a process he could rush.
"...plus I have something to give Caroline," he heard Puck say, then ask, "Hey Mrs. A...am I doing this right?"
"I'm sure you're doing just fine Noah," Alicia assured him from the other side of the room.
Artie looked up, grimaced, and made it over to Puck's side in under five seconds. "That would probably be more effective if you actually got the food into her mouth, instead of all over her face."
"I'm trying genius, but she wont open up for me," Noah snapped back, trying futilely to coax the infant cereal coated spoon into his daughters tightly pursed lips.
"Just get her to laugh."
Puck narrowed his eyes at the casualness of Artie's tone. "Easier said than done," he mumbled under his breath.
Artie bit back a chuckle as he moved himself closer to the table. "Here, if you could just put her down on that chair, I'll show you," he insisted, motioning between the bowl and the baby. Puck let out an indignant snort, but followed the smaller boys directions and carefully balanced Caroline's activity seat on the kitchen chair closest to Artie.
As soon as Caroline's gaze landed on her Godfather, she let out a great big squeal of delight, complete with waving arms, kicking feet and a wide gummy smile. Artie took the opportunity to easily slip the spoon into her unsuspecting mouth.
"What the fu...hell Man," Puck bellowed, correcting himself before he let any vulgarity slip in front of Mrs. Abrams, "you didn't even do anything."
"What can I say?," Artie countered smugly, "I'm the Master."
Letting out a huff of exasperation, though not very convincingly, Noah shook his head. "That or she just thinks your dorky nerd face is hysterical."
Artie could almost feel the glare his mother was giving Puck, even though it was obvious their banter was all in good fun. He flashed her a quick glance over his shoulder and grinned mischievously, before turning back to Noah. "She thinks I'm endearing, just like her mother does," he retorted wittily.
If that did hit a nerve that Artie wasn't aiming for, Puck wasn't showing it. "Well excuse me," he returned in mock defense, gesturing wildly with his hands. "I don't live with her so I haven't had to do this whole baby...food...feeding...thing, yet."
"Okay, let me show you how it's done then," Artie volunteered with a teasing chuckle. "So, you fill the spoon...not too much though...making sure to scrape the bottom of it along the rim of the bowl so it doesn't drip on her." He continued to demonstrate as he instructed. "Then you bring the spoon to her lips and wait for her to open her mouth." As it tuned out, Caroline had been smiling at Artie the entire time, which made the feeding part of the presentation, a piece of cake. "See?"
Puck smirked as he motioned to the runny white substance dribbling down Caroline's chin. "Ah Dude."
But that didn't seem to phase Artie at all. "She's still getting used to swallowing texture, so some of it's bound to come back out. When that happens, you just gently run the spoon under the excess..."
"No way Dude, " Noah gasped incredulously, "she spit that out...and you're...you're recycling it?"
Artie let out an unexpected burst of laughter. "Relax Puck...it's not like I spit it out of my mouth and gave it to her. It was already hers." He watched as the big, tough jock wrinkled his face in disgust. "Besides, if you didn't do it that way, she'd end up wearing most of it instead of ingesting it."
"...still freakin' gross if you ask me," he murmured under his breath.
"Well I didn't," Artie chided playfully, as he passed the bowl back to Noah. "Now you give it a try."
Wordlessly, Puck moved Caroline back up to the table, where she was again at the appropriate height for him. He followed Artie's instructions to the letter, but when it came time for Caroline to do her part, she clamped her jaw shut. "She won't do it for me," Noah whined, causing Artie to bite back a chuckle.
"Try again," the smaller boy offered, thoroughly amused. Puck did, and this time Caroline looked up at him, pursed her lips together and began blowing raspberries...a trick her father was starting to regret teaching her.
With a glare over his shoulder at a snickering Artie, Noah was met with an encouraging smile, which succeeded in lessening his building anxiety...but only until the third attempt was foiled by the commotion coming from the other end of the house. Just as the spoon neared her partially open mouth, Caroline twisted her entire body to side as much as she could against the safety restraints of her seat, and Puck ended up feeding her ear.
Noah was about ready to throw in the towel when he was handed one, and quickly got to work cleaning off the side of his daughters face. Just in time too. For mere seconds after he'd eliminated any evidence he was having issues getting Caroline to eat for him, the noises peaked and Quinn walked into the kitchen with an excited Abbey bounding in after her.
"Morning." She came up behind Artie and gave him a peck on the cheek before continuing on towards Caroline. "And hello to you too baby girl."
Even before the baby's eyes widened with delight at seeing her mother, Artie knew what was about to happen. "Now," he instructed Noah, and as soon as her lips parted even slightly, Puck was right there with the spoon.
Success.
Artie was smiling at Quinn, who was smiling at Caroline, when Abbey jumped in front of him. "How do I look?" she asked her bother.
He carefully studied her outfit...red t-shirt with Cheerios logo, pleated denim skirt, white ankle socks and tennis shoes. If it wasn't for the different material of the skirt, pigtails instead of a pony, and blue eyes instead of hazel, she would have..."You look just like Quinn."
Abbey's grin was impossibly wide as she clapped her hands together and bounced up and down on her toes. That was obviously the look she was going for. "She said I can keep it," the little girl squealed, fingering the material of the slightly too big shirt.
"It's a fitted tee and a size extra small," Quinn explained while making a slightly self-conscious gesture down at her naturally enhanced post baby bust and rolled her eyes, "I'll never fit into it again."
"And she said she can get me some pompoms for the game," Abbey quickly added.
Quinn giggled at Abbey's enthusiasm. "Coach Sylvester buys new ones every year, and so we have all these extra ones packed away in the storage room..."
"That reminds me," Noah cut in hastily, just a little too eager to push feeding Caroline back over to Artie. He handed off the bowl and practically sprinted over to where he'd dropped his backpack. "I know she's a girl, and well, little...," his words trailed off, but a smirk soon spread across his lips once he'd found what he was looking for. "Coach sent me and Finn to pick up the new equipment the other day and I saw they make customized jerseys...so I had one made for her," Puck continued cautiously. I was hard to predict how Quinn would react to something like this...somethings she's fine with, others she's not...
"Oh my God...that has to be the cutest thing I've ever seen," she gasped excitedly.
A good reaction.
Quinn held up the tiny garment up between her fingers, turning it back to front. It was and exact replica of her fathers, complete with the white number twenty and the miniature blocked letters of his last name. "Isn't this adorable?" she turned to ask Artie.
"Yeah," he replied, still distracted by the task of trying to figure out how he was supposed to finish feeding Caroline now that she was back on the table and out of his reach. He was surprised that when Quinn noticed his predicament, she simply took the bowl from his hand and began feeding Caroline herself, instead of lowering the baby to his level...and a little disappointed.
Puck reclaimed the discarded jersey from the table and held it up again. He was just about to say something else when Art and Andy walked in the room. "Daddy, look what Noah got for Caroline," Abbey chirped playfully.
"Nice," Art smiled approvingly. "I think we should get something like that too...," he suggested in place of those generic WMHS athletics, parent sweatshirts he and Alica had purchased at registration, "...Abrams number 17."
"That's okay," Andy muttered dismissively under his breath.
"Now we all have something to wear to the game tonight," Abbey pointed out, but then paused and turned around. "What are you going to wear Artie?"
He looked down at his gray sweater vest and frowned. "Well I was planning on..."
"You look just fine," Quinn assured him as she ran her hand across his shoulder. "And you can totally show support by bringing your letter-man jacket and throwing it over the back of your chair."
"I don't have one," he replied, slightly thrown off guard by that statement.
That would explain when she'd never seen him in it, but still, Quinn was sure..."But you're in band..."
"Jazz Band," Artie returned simply. "Only the marching band gets the jackets."
"And they don't give them out to dork or geek club members," Andy shot out teasingly, which quickly earned him a warning glare from not one, but both of his parents.
Ignoring his brothers comments, Artie was glad to turn away from the apologetic expression Quinn was wearing, or the almost rueful look on Puck's face. "Hey Dad, shouldn't you be on your way to work?" he asked his father instead.
"I'm laying low today," Art joked playfully. "Just heading in for a midday meeting and lunch with some clients. I want to make sure I'm home for all the excitement."
"And to help me out when the grandparents arrive," Alicia supplied pointedly.
"Grandma and Grandpa are coming?" Andy asked incredulously.
"Both sets," Art added with a widening grin, "and a bunch of the extended family."
Artie tried not to look too surprised, but his fathers parents hardly ever came up; birthdays, holidays and special occasions were really the only times they visited. He supposed this would be classified as a special occasion...like Andy's baseball tournaments or Abbey's dance recitals were...
"...everybody wants to see the new starting linebacker in his high school debut."
And that just confirmed it. Artie caught his mother looking at him and he flashed her a wide smile. "That reminds me Honey," she called out to him, hoping to mask some of her concern with casualness. "If you're taking the van today, would you mind swinging back home after school to pick some of us up?"
Artie was just about to accept when Puck suggested an alternative. "That's stupid Mrs. A, I can give them a lift. That way we could have a little jock/Cheerio bondage on the way there."
"Yeah, sure," Andy agreed immediately.
"I think you mean bonding," Quinn corrected with an indignant chuckle, and she would have been next to agree if it wasn't for the fact that the four of them could not all safely fit in the cab of his truck, not to mention the chore it would be just to get her boyfriend up into said cab. She half expected Puck to suggest they tie Artie and his wheelchair to the back of the truck bed, and that thought alone made her shutter. "But that's okay, I don't mind driving," she interjected. "That way the van can stay here and..."
But apparently Artie had a knack for reading minds, or maybe it was just expressions. "Dad can take me on his way in to the office," he offered in conjunction with a hopeful glance in his fathers direction. "Right?" And when Art nodded, Artie smiled.
There was a bunch of special little things going on throughout the day for the football players and the Cheerios, and Artie didn't want Quinn to miss any of it, especially because of him, but he could see the reluctance in her eyes. "You guys go bond," he whispered insistently and reached for her hands. "I'll see you at school."
...
Unfortunately though, Artie did not get to see Quinn at school. Sue had principal Figgins excuse the Cheerios from their morning classes due to mandatory rehearsals. They were able to eat lunch, but only in the locker room and only from a specially designed menu that was catered from a local health market. So it shouldn't have been surprising when more than half the glee club didn't show up for rehearsal after school...but it didn't make it any less disappointing.
Sitting in the stands in the designated handicapped section, away from his family, but kept company by a yo-yo-ing Abbey and company, a giant foam finger she made their father buy him and a half eaten tray of cold cheese covered nachos, Artie couldn't be happier. His brothers junior varsity team had just won the first game of the season, and against one of the toughest teams in their division. His girlfriend was about to make her own debut as the head cheerleader of the varsity squad, and he was there to cheer her and his fellow glee club members to victory.
"Your brother wants to go out to celebrate tonight," Alicia informed her eldest. "We can wait for..."
"It's okay," he cut in casually, then remembered..."Wait, what about you?"
Alicia cupped his cheek in her hand and smiled. He was always such a sweetheart. "We can just go out again tomorrow."
"But today's your birthday," he returned pointedly, a hint of disappointment evident in his tone.
"And I refuse to celebrate it without all of my children there," she countered just as emphatically. "It can wait. Tonight's Andy's night."
"So this has nothing to do with you trying to pretend that your birthday doesn't exist?," Artie teased playfully.
"Not a thing," Alicia smirked innocently.
"Like we'd ever let her forget it," Colleen snickered conspiratorially at Artie as she passed.
Alicia let out a small chuckle and rolled her eyes at her baby sisters comment before turning back to her son and asking in a frank but subtle way, "Do you have everything you need?"
Artie scanned the area around him...diaper bag, car seat, baby...and nodded.
"Are you sure he'll be able to handle her all by himself Alicia?"
Artie knew his grandmother Abrams meant well, thought she didn't always go about it tactfully...or quietly for that matter. "We'll be fine," he declared, speaking for both himself and the content baby sitting on his lap.
Alicia had no doubt...if the beam that spread across his lips, once he spotted Quinn jogging across the field, was any indication.
...
ANx2+small edit+bigger edit on 2/10/11...Not completely thrilled with the ending, but this is meant to be a filler chapter, so...
Just happy to get it done.