Good evening, everyone! Happy almost Friday!

Thanks for the lovely welcome back. I love my readers.

So, I'm straying from the format (again). I hope you don't mind. I really liked this chapter though. Look for another one Sunday!

The chapter title lyric is taken from Adele's "Rolling in the Deep", if you download an album in the near future, her new album "21" should be that album. While you're at it, download "19". She's brilliant and her voice is like heaven.


Misfit Toy Hero Squad

Chapter 52 – "We Could Have Had It All, Rolling in the Glee"


One of the little remembered, yet particularly annoying iron-clad laws of the Universe is that when times are tough, a day will last forever. When times are good, a day, a week, a month will fly out of your hands quicker than the fastest bird, plane or teenager who can fly.

When you look back on the good times, you can only catch snippets. The big moments. A few tiny moments. Try to recall your childhood, which when compared with the rest of your life is literally heaven on Earth. Ten years of your life just fly by and you can only remember four or five different events. Days blend, memories coagulate and days and months and years become a large block of time with a few snapshots pasted onto the front.

Here are 42 days of our intrepid Misfit Toy Hero Squad through a few snapshots.


Day One

"Brittany?" Rachel turned slightly away from a seriously unwound Noah Puckerman. He had plonked himself down in the middle of the hallway and was sitting with his knees pulled up to his chest while berating himself for screwing up and ruining Rachel's life and babies and condoms.

The rest of the Gleek's watched in astonishment, only three people truly understanding what was going on. Quinn knew of course. She and Puck would have permanent scars on their hearts after Baby Gate 2009-2010. One look at Beth had caused her to fall down a huge shame spiral that had practically left her a comatose shell of used and spent feelings. Santana and Blaine understood Puck's dramatic response as well, but they held a kinship the other Gleek's didn't have. It helped that they were all essentially the same person in different packaging.

Brittany felt her bottom lip trembling as the usually unflappable Puck was most definitely, certainly flapped. She thought he would be happier about little Jonah Puckerman being in the works. She looked to Rachel hesitantly, wondering if this had dampened Rachel's happiness. She sighed with relief when Rachel blipped info into her brain. She was still happy, but obviously concerned about Puck. Brittany waved as Rachel got to her knees and enveloped Puck in a hug before she transported them out of the facility with a gentle rush of wind.

"What the hell just happened?" Mercedes whispered, not willing to believe what she just saw. "Puck totally lost it."

"Rachel went to go make him feel better. She asked me to answer all of your questions about Jonah," Brittany explained.

"Who is Jonah?" Finn wondered curiously.

Artie, Mercedes and Blaine all rolled their eyes, but Sam actually furrowed his brow as he had trouble accessing the memory of the future, an image of a small ten year old boy with a Mohawk eventually swam into his brain and he sighed in relief. He wasn't ready to lose those memories of the future just yet.

"Rachel's pregnant," Santana sighed, accompanied by an exaggerated roll of her eyes. "Puck's freaking because of the whole Beth thing."

"Also he's freaking because of the whole living La Vida Could Die Any Minuto," Blaine explained further. "Everything he stood to lose before just DOUBLED. I would have fled the country by now."

"How could someone like Rachel let Puck knock her up? I mean, Rachel's smart about kind of a lot," Tina wondered in amazement. Mike elbowed her in the ribs and Tina had the good sense to turn an apologetic smile to Quinn, "Sorry, Q. No offense. You're smart too."

"She was happy," Quinn whispered, ignoring Tina's inadvertent jibe and accompanying apology. "Brittany, did Rachel plan this?"

"Yup," Brittany nodded. She felt Artie tugging her hand gently, which meant that her teammates with smaller brains (i.e., all of them), needed more explanations. "We figured it out back in Ohio. We knew that Rachel would only get stronger the closer Puckleberry got. And then we realized that even though she's pretty powerful on her own, if she got pregnant, she'd kind of be unstoppable."

"How on Earth does that make sense?" Kurt breathed in astonishment. "Aren't people that are with child supposed to take it easy?"

"Rachel's different," Brittany shrugged.

"So she planned it," Mike shook his head in disbelief.

"And didn't tell Puck about the planning," Quinn winced.

Blaine and Santana shared a look and Blaine gave a slight shrug, allowing Santana to give her opinion as she had known him longer. She smirked and said,

"He'll be fine. Rachel just has to remind him that she'll have bigger boobs and will be horny for like, seven months now."


"Noah?" Rachel whispered. "We're alone now."

Puck nodded as he had felt when they had blipped back into the physical realm. They hadn't gone far. Just the room in the underground complex that had been in Ohio less than an hour ago. He took deep measured breaths to calm himself, his hand reaching out and gripping Rachel's wrist tightly. His thumb began to slowly trace circles on the inside of her wrist as she cuddled close to him, her head resting on his shoulder, her voice low and warm as she hummed a simple melody that sounded suspiciously like "Sweet Caroline". Minutes passed quickly and finally Puck spoke,

"Why?"

"I saw him, you know. In the snow globe," Rachel said softly. "I saw you holding him right after he was born. Just a small little glimpse. And I felt so happy because you looked so happy. And then I saw him again when I was going over Artie's visions. Just a small simple moment, where you were sleeping in this bed and he was cuddled up against you. My two boys with their matching silly hair. I knew it would be soon. I knew it would change everything. I'm sorry, but I was hesitant to tell you because I thought you would get a little spooked."

Puck swallowed thickly, his desperation and fear disappearing into the stratosphere and replaced with a heavier blanket of warmth and love as the images Rachel had seen were beamed directly into his head. He felt the tears standing in his eyes and couldn't help it when one leaked out of the corner of his eye. He didn't even have the machismo in him at that moment to wipe it away. He simply let it fall down his cheek and make its slow trek away.

"Say something, Noah," Rachel begged quietly.

"How do you know it's a boy?" Puck wondered, ignoring the way his voice cracked in the middle of the question.

"Silly goose, I saw him," Rachel laughed. "And when Brittany and the other time travelers got back from the future, I saw it again times five. It would have been six, but the future immediately was forgotten by Finn."

"Everyone's good? In the future?" Puck furrowed his brow.

"Picture perfect," Rachel nodded.

"So we make it? This deal with the government…we're okay. No dying, no dismembering, we're okay, Sparky?" Puck demanded.

"Better than okay," Rachel nodded. She grinned at him and said, "Are you okay now?"

Puck threw his arms around her shoulders, gently tackling her to the bed. He kissed her lips with bruising force before moving and drifting down her neck, her collarbone, her chest. His thumbs pushed up her shirt and a kiss landed on her navel before he finally kissed her lower abdomen gently.

"Whaddup tiny little baby?" He smirked at Rachel's irrepressible giggle. "I'm really happy you're here little man. Really really fucking happy."


Day Fifteen

"We aren't training with you anymore, DEVIL WOMAN!"

Twelve teenagers grinned at Noah Puckerman's explosive declaration with nods of agreement. Sue Sylvester glared at them all, spending a few seconds trying to scare the life out of them with her expression alone. She felt a completely new emotion that she had never felt up until that moment in her life when all thirteen of them simultaneously rolled their eyes at her, save for Blaine, who chose to crinkle his eyebrows at her as if she were an escapee from a local mental institution. This was what failure felt like. She felt a shred of sympathy for the still locked up William Schuester, which quickly shriveled and died.

"I'll remind every single one of you miserable excuses of trainees that if it weren't for me and my brilliant and patented training techniques, you wouldn't have over 97% of the mediocre and average at best skills that you currently have!" Sue barked.

"You tried to blow us up," Mercedes reminded her evenly.

"And you nearly killed me!" Mike accused with very real indignation.

"You're still ALIVE aren't you?" Sue yelled back.

"Coach Sylvester, while you make very insane semi-valid points, my condition can't possibly allow me or the group enter into your incredibly exhausting and difficult training scenarios," Rachel explained gently, her words gracefully floating through the air in a soothing and surprisingly motherly gesture. "However, I think that if you would draw up a view proposals and bring them to Coach Bieste and Mr. Hummel, they can try to dilute the intensity of your plans and we can attempt them."

"FINE," Sue muttered angrily before stalking away from the dinner table the group had been lingering and chatting at.

"That was damn near brilliant, Rae," Tina high fived the girl.

"I think next time you should try to look wilting and weak and powerless," Kurt suggested evilly.

"Yeah, look like you're going to spew chunks or faint or something," Blaine nodded in agreement.

"Excellent use of the future Pucklebaby," Quinn nodded her agreement. "We get to keep Sylvester off of our backs for the next nine months."

"As long as she never finds out that Rachel is like, one thousand times more powerful knocked up," Sam agreed. He looked at Quinn thoughtfully. This morning had been the very first morning when he couldn't see the faces of Isabelle and Myra, the beautiful little girls that were his in the future. He still felt that euphoric happiness that Finn was still feeling, but he couldn't remember why and he couldn't remember how. He grinned at Quinn and wondered, "You think all the girls will get stronger?"

"Speaking from experience, I mostly felt just ragey anger," Quinn muttered dryly. She poked at Sam's midsection playfully and whispered in his ear. "I think it'll be different the next time with you though."

Sam's grin grew even wider, although he couldn't exactly say why or how, he just got a jolt of super amazing happiness into his system. He gripped Quinn's hand and said, "Now that we got rid of Sylvester, can we do this date thing?"

"Disneyworld, right?" Mike clapped enthusiastically.

Rachel laughed and nodded. They had done three missions for General Kate Benson in the last two weeks and had used the rest of the time working on school work that Figgins had been sending to them daily. It was Saturday, and they were all bound and determined to have a work-free, school-free day. And since they could literally go anywhere in the world in zero time, they had decided on a group date at Disney.

"Wait, Jesse's coming too!" Brittany announced.

"WHAT?" Santana yelled, she glared at Brittany, but couldn't maintain the angry expression as Brittany looked at her with a wealth of innocent hopefulness. She rolled her eyes and said, "Your meddling is going to get you in trouble someday, Britt-britt."

"No, I'm too smart to get in trouble."


Day Thirty-Three

Rachel and Puck had waited as long as conceivably possible before telling their various parental units of their impending bundle of joy. Rachel was experiencing morning sickness and the delightful addition of uncontrollable laser eyes and even more wildly uncontrollable swear words. She had sneezed the other day and the red laser beams had singed Sue Sylvester's tracksuit collar.

The group was backing her and Puck up and they had gathered in the underground facility's conference room. Mrs. Puckerman had promptly fainted. The larger black Mr. Berry had burst into happy AND sad tears and the little white Mr. Berry had tried to climb over the conference room table to strangle the life force out of Puck. Finn had helpfully picked him up off the table and had inadvertently dangled him in the air by the collar of his shirt as he kicked and screamed, looking very much like Rachel.

"That's where you get it from," Shelby couldn't help but smirk. "I've never been quite that dramatic."

Rachel and Shelby sat alone at the conference table as the rest of the "meeting" had congregated towards the lunch that the kitchen had brought down. Puck was trying to stay away from the littler Mr. Berry AND his own mother who kept fainting whenever she looked at Rachel. Seriously, the woman hadn't ever been happier with him than she was at that moment, not even when he brought home his only A ever in the fourth grade. Burt Hummel was lecturing anyone who would listen that there were literally tons of condoms everywhere. And Santana was currently torturing Jesse about being a complete failure at trying to be the fire.

Just an average, everyday meeting for their crew of merry misfits. Shelby smiled at Rachel and was unsurprised that the usually (lately) euphoric girl only timidly smiled back. They had hit a road block in terms of their relationship. Rachel was incredibly hesitant to exchange more than pleasantries with her birth mother. Even though she had easily accepted the unconditional love that her teammates poured her way, the idea of Shelby even caring about her a fraction of what the other Gleek's cared for her was completely foreign and implausible.

"I'm very proud of you, Rachel," Shelby offered softly.

"Thank you," Rachel said politely. She smiled up at Puck, who grinned back at her before using Blaine as a human shield from the smaller Mr. Berry. "I'm proud of all of us. We've come a long way as a group and a team."

Shelby could only smile at her, although her eyes filled with a certain sadness. There seemed to be too much to talk through when it came to them. And Shelby could only hope that they have the chance before Rachel became a mother herself.

"YOU DEFILED MY BABY GIRL YOU INSUFFERABLE PIG BOY!"

Rachel's eyes widened and she cursed under her breath, "Shit." Before she felt Jonah's power taking over and lasers shouting the refreshment table's way, shattering a whole bottle of pop.

"Rach, I was going to drink that!" Finn called out in annoyance.

"Daddy, step away from Noah!" Rachel screeched as Noah tried to avoid death by strangulation.


Day Forty-Two

One by one, the Gleeks who had traveled to the future forgot. Immediately Finn. Later Sam. Mercedes forgot two days ago, she had been confused when she had a heart written in her diary with the name Elijah in it and upon showing it to Finn, she hadn't understood why he had grinned with tears in his eyes and he hadn't either. Blaine forgot that next morning, and Artie had only felt marginally superior.

But his memory was fading fast. He looked to Brittany as he worked on Calculus and she drew incredibly complicated diagrams of "future inventions she needed to upgrade Stubbs again". She had already taken the GED test and passed with flying colors, even if she had forgotten to put her name on the test. Rachel had passed as well, and Brittany loved her too much to accuse her of cheating and using the super brain power the two easily shared now. Brittany was currently working on courses to attain her bachelor's degree in engineering and Burt had proudly told her that she should have it completed in less than a year.

She of course had told him it would be three months, ten days and eleven hours to be more accurate.

"Britt-britt, baby?" Artie whispered.

"Hmmm?" Brittany smiled at him warmly, her lips turning up in an entirely contented fashion.

"I'm forgetting," Artie whispered.

"Forgetting what?" Brittany furrowed her brow. She saw the complete devastation in his eyes and she pouted as she realized what he was talking about. "No, Artie, don't forget…no one else remembers. I'll be all alone."

"Rachel remembers," Artie smiled sadly, unable to keep the tears from welling in his eyes.

"But I want you to remember," Brittany said sadly. "You're so happy when you know that you'll be able to walk and that we're happy and someday we get to have a baby…just remember."

"I can't, I tried to remember as long as possible," Artie promised. "I'm really, really looking forward to it all."

"Me too," Brittany nodded slowly.

"Will you do me a favor?" Artie asked softly.

"Uh huh," Brittany nodded again.

"Will you remind me?" Artie wondered. "You've read the information that General Benson gave us. It's going to be so difficult getting my legs to work again. It's going to be painful and terrifying and I just want to know that it's going to work. Just remind me."

"Okay," Brittany agreed. She leaned forward and kissed his lips sweetly, pulling away and smiling at his face. "Hey Artie?"

"Umhmm?" he wondered dreamily.

"One day, you're going to walk again," Brittany said confidently.

Artie furrowed his brow, clearly not remembering, the lovely thoughts of the future completely gone now. He shrugged and said, "That sounds great, baby."

Brittany smiled sadly before nodding emphatically. "It really does sound great."


Thoughts? Theories? Questions?

Thanks again for stopping by and reading. I hope you enjoyed this because I really liked writing this chapter. Next chapter, maybe Schue will finally consent to being released from his confinement?

Chapter 53 – "Stop In The Name of Schue"