Author's note: This took forever to write, and I apologize.
Music suggestions: "One hand, one heart" by Glee Cast, "Rumor has it/Someone like you" by Glee Cast, "Constant Craving" by Glee Cast.
Disclaimer: Don't own Glee.
A West Side Story Weekend
Leading her forward with his hands over her eyes, Puck finally drew them to a stop at the open sliding doors between the family room and the dining room.
"You can open your eyes now." Puck stated softly, removing his hands from her eyes. Stepping up beside her, he angled himself so that he could see her face.
When Rachel opened her eyes, the view before her had her eyes widening and raising her hand to her mouth to cover her shock and surprise.
"Noah, this is simply lovely, I don't know what to say." Rachel said, once the shock wore off.
"I just wanted to do something special for you, for all of the hard work you've been putting into everything going on this year." Puck explained, gesturing to the table, decked out with a white table cloth, and a full three course vegan dinner spread out upon the surface. As well as a steak on his side of the table. He had his limits.
Taking her hand, he guided her around the table to her usual placement. Releasing her hand, he pulled back her chair, and took her hand again to guide her into her seat.
Grinning broadly, Rachel squeezed the hand clasped in hers, expressing her gratitude after she was seated.
Taking a seat at the head of the table, so they could hold hands more easily, and have plenty of opportunity for deep-level eye contact, Puck smiled and shrugged self-consciously as Rachel continued to beam over at him.
"I know we've had some hard times lately, and we've only just started getting back into our usual groove, but I'm not blind. Whether or not all the decisions made recently were good ones, you've still been working your ass off almost non-stop for NYADA, and for the glee club. You've got so much going on, and I really can't even begin to keep up with it all. I wanted to give you an opportunity to just hop inside this little bubble of normal time before the big grand finale, to maybe help get all of the final details ironed out before you make it over this colossal first hump in our senior year." Puck explained. "Plus, I just wanted to spend a few minutes with you, not your time-crazed, micromanaging alter ego and all of her extracurriculars."
Leaning across the short space, Rachel alighted a small peck on Puck's cheek.
"Thank you, Noah." Rachel imparted affectionately, with a meaningful expression in her eyes.
ooozooo*oooeoooo*
Friday afternoon found the New Directions seated in the audience of the auditorium, as they watched the Troubletones perform.
"I had no idea." Puck uttered in an awestruck tone after Mack started singing, taking center stage as she belted out her part of the song. "I knew she could play...but...damn."
"I knew." Rachel grumbled from her seat beside him, pursing her lips sourly. "It's why I advised against our artist choice."
"No offense, Berry, but no other artist can compare with Adele." Santana commented in a blithe tone. She then turned and looked at Matt with narrowed eyes. "Why did you have to come back?" Santana asked accusingly at Matt, glaring at him and swatting at his shoulder. "If you hadn't, Britt and I would have joined the Troubletones, and we would have been singing Adele on that stage right now. Do you realize how awesome my voice would have sounded singing that part? Instead, that reformed skank is up there singing my part. She's singing the shrimp cocktail out of it, but that's beside the point."
"Sorry?" Matt offered in a confused tone, shrugging helplessly.
"It's alright. I forgive you. This time." Santana decided, crossing her arms over her chest and turning her full-watt glare towards the stage.
"We're so gonna lose." Tina lamented from the row in front of Rachel and Puck.
"What kind of attitude is that?" Mr. Schuester asked in a mildly chastising tone.
"The right one." Artie answered from behind Mr. Schuester and Shelby.
Everyone else but Finn nodded in agreement.
oooocoooo*ooooeooo*
"Do we have the flowers?" Rachel asked, flitting around backstage as the final preparations were made before the curtain rose on the opening act.
"Relax, Berry. I've got them." Santana quipped from her vanity, patting the bouquet of yellow roses that lay on the table before her.
"I think her head's going to spin off, like Exorcist like." Brittany commented, directing the comment into Puck's ear, as Rachel pulled Tina aside. Wildly gesticulating on Tina's speech for Artie, and how they were going to present the bouquet, Rachel almost decked one of the freshmen set coordinators when she passed too closely by Rachel.
"I've got this." Puck said calmly, crossing the space between them, after the poor girl squawked with surprise and scurried away.
"You know you's don't have time for the "calming down" that she really needs." Santana tossed out saucily as he passed her.
Reaching out, Puck "accidentally" tugged at one of Santana's hair pins, causing the coiffed up mass to come tumbling down on one side.
"So help me, Puck...one of these days..." Santana threatened, switching to Spanish halfway through the threat.
Ignoring the rest of what she said, believing that Santana's threats were like chain emails, in that, if you didn't read them, you didn't have to worry about its threat, Puck caught up to Rachel.
Reaching out, he folded his hand around one of hers, keeping her from chasing after Tina when she made a pithy remark about Rachel's "useful tips" and walked off.
"Babe, one of these days, I think you might be able to get through a backstage pre-performance without pissing someone off." Puck commented in a teasing tone.
Huffing out a breath, Rachel frowned up at him.
"Making this a surprise for Artie means that he's not here to make sure everything falls into place. I'm the only logical choice for handling this type of situation, in his stead." Rachel said defensively, allowing Puck to continue holding her hand, the gesture grounding her for the first time that evening. "I may not agree with all of the choices he's made, but for the most part, I'm willing to concede that he has put together a wonderful show. He deserves a token of appreciation from all of us. I just want everything to be perfect, that's all."
Bringing their clasped hands up, Puck lightly pressed a kiss to the inside of her wrist.
"I know, Caroline. He's gonna love it." Puck agreed in an affectionate tone. "We should probably get going. Ms. Pillsbury's getting him in the proper position."
"I hope he likes the flowers." Rachel murmured quietly as everyone began to gather up.
"He will." Puck replied reassuringly.
oooooowoooo*oooomoooo*
Standing just offstage, waiting beside Blaine for the next scene, Rachel watched on in rapt fascination as Noah and the rest of the Sharks performed "America".
She was so proud of how much he'd grown over the past two years. He was no longer tossing people into dumpsters, or hurling slushies into her face. Now, he was a B-minus student, attending all of his courses, developing a formative relationship with Beth and Shelby, and perhaps most important of all, he'd become the voice of reason when she became too ambitious for her own good.
She wasn't quite sure when it had happened, when he'd become so responsible. All she knew was that while he'd changed so vastly over the duration of their relationship, she had mostly stayed exactly the same.
Sure, her sense of fashion always tended to improve drastically when they were together, but her personality always seemed to revert back to its default "be the best, no matter what" setting, almost always without conscious thought. It was something she struggled with daily, and it frustrated her to no end.
Of course, the only reason she tried to appear normal was for Noah. He accepted her for who she was, perhaps more so than anyone else, aside from her dads, and always looked out for her. But she was eccentric, and abrasive, more than she was gentle and down-to-earth, and that had to be hard to accept and look out for on a never-ending basis.
So she made the attempt, because she loved him, and wanted to protect him just as much as he wanted to protect her. Because he believed in her...believed that she could be better, could be more.
And maybe one day, she actually would be.
oooooorooo*ooooeoooo*
"I'm glad that Quinn's mother offered to babysit for Beth tonight, allowing you some time for yourself to come out and have dinner with all of us." Rachel stated towards Shelby, glancing over at Puck and Quinn as well.
"We've met a few times now, over the past couple of weeks, and she seems like a wonderful, generous person. I'm glad Quinn suggested that I bring Beth over for all of us to meet, and I'm even happier that I may have found a new friend in Lima, someone that isn't under the age of twenty." Shelby offered in response, smiling around the table to take the sting out of her closing quip.
"I wanted a chance for my mom to see Beth again, and I also hoped that you two might become friends." Quinn explained, after taking a sip of her lemon water. "Since divorcing my dad, she doesn't get out much. Most of her friends were the wives of my dad's friends, and when she kicked him out, they abandoned her. I think she made the right choice, but she has too much time on her hands to think about all the reasons to regret her decision. She needs a friend, just as much as you might need one, too."
"I've finished with your letter, Rachel." Shelby commented after a few minutes of lighthearted small talk.
"Really?" Rachel asked in a reserved tone, patting her lips with her napkin before pushing her finished entree away.
Shelby nodded, her lips quirking.
"And if you don't mind, I have a couple of friends in New York who wouldn't mind doing me a favor and writing another letter of recommendation...if you still need one, of course." Shelby added delicately.
"I don't know what to say." Rachel said after a moment, in a stupefied tone.
"It was just a thought." Shelby said in a backtracking tone, misinterpreting Rachel's expression. "Puck mentioned that you hadn't yet heard from your other intended option."
"I'm just surprised, that's all." Rachel finally croaked out, finding her voice.
"I think everyone should mark the occasion on their calendars." Puck teased, nudging Rachel with his shoulder.
His comment earned a smile from Rachel, as well as mild chuckles from around the table.
"That would be wonderful, Shelby. Thank you." Rachel accepted gratefully.
"I've got to look out for my baby girl." Shelby said in a light tone, her eyes shining with pride. "Especially when you've worked so hard for something that already comes so easily."
Ducking her head demurely at everyone's quick, nodding agreements, Rachel picked at the paper wrapping that had held her silverware together.
Covering her hand with his own, Puck quelled Rachel's minute display of nervous energy.
"You were brilliant tonight, you know that, right?" Puck asked in a private tone as Shelby and Quinn picked up their own private conversation about dinner plans at the Fabray's house the following weekend.
"I could say the same about you." Rachel countered affectionately, rolling her hand over to lace her fingers through his. "You held everyone captivated with your portrayal of Pepe in the climatic fight scene."
"I was just background noise, Caroline." Puck said in a humble, forthright tone, shuffling across the booth seat until his body was flush against hers.
"I still thought you were brilliant." Rachel affirmed, her hand squeezing his in emphasis. "You've come a long way from that mattress commercial."
"That is true." Puck acknowledged without remorse, bumping against her playfully.
Rachel smothered a shriek as he almost pushed her over the edge of the seat, leaning into him and sticking her foot out in the aisle to keep from teetering over the edge, not realizing how close she'd been sitting to said edge.
"I almost fell out of my seat!" Rachel griped in a furtive, whispered tone, laughter warring with reproach in her eyes. "Do you have any idea how that would make me look?"
"Like you needed a breathalyzer test?" Puck supplied around suppressed laughter.
Pursing her lips, Rachel shook her head.
"You are incorrigible!" Rachel huffed furtively, smiling genteelly when Shelby and Quinn glanced over at them.
"Still don't know what that means." Puck admitted. "But someone needs to keep you grounded and balanced."
"Quinn, if you wouldn't mind..." Rachel prompted, tapping Quinn's foot while ticking her head in Puck's direction.
"I'd love to." Quinn replied eagerly, catching the hint.
"Ow!" Puck squawked, after Quinn swiftly kicked him in the shin.
"You mean like how someone always needs to remind you that actions have consequences?" Rachel asked sweetly, her smile wolfish.
"Touche." Puck grumbled good-humorously.
ooooxoooo*oooouoooo*
Well, there we go! Until next year, everybody! And hopefully lots of fresh Puckelberry ideas.
