Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
This is inspired by the fact that I've had to sit through FOUR NOR'EASTERS in Pennsylvania. I'm so over winter, it isn't even funny.
#1
"Finn Hudson! What in the world are you doing?"
Finn tried his very best not to look guilty from where he was standing at the seven-inch drift of snow with a year old Evan propped up safely in it. The little guy was bundled up so tightly that he couldn't even move, but Finn couldn't hold him and shovel at the same time.
"Aw, come on, Rach!" Finn said cheerfully. "Evan loves the snow! He doesn't mind being stuck up in it!"
Finn was supposed to be shoveling out a path around their house, but it was nine inches of heavy snow and all the kids were outside with him. Scott, at ten years old, was the only one who could really help him, but Finn didn't want his oldest son lifting the heavy, wet snow until he got towards the end of his shoveling.
Rachel was busy cooking up some stew for them to have for dinner, so it wasn't like she could come out and help, either. Finn had no problem with that, but he had to admit that it was difficult to keep an eye on his four children and shovel at the same time. At least with Evan stuck in the snow drift, he knew where one of them was.
Besides, it was too cold for Evan and four-year old Ellie to be outside for long. Scott and Abby could last a little longer than their siblings, but Finn knew that he would be outside, shoveling, much longer than his children were playing.
"Give me some credit, Rach," Finn continued. "I just wanted a place to stick the little guy so I could clear the stairs off the back porch and make a path. Then I was going to bring him and Ellie inside."
Rachel grinned at him and let the door shut behind her, keeping the warm air trapped inside. She appeared a few moments later with snow boots shoved on her feet and a jacket thrown haphazardly over her shoulders as she began to take pictures of their children.
Scott and Abby were building a snowman. Ellie was doing her best to help, but it was hard for her little hands to form a snowball. Scott was helping her as much as he could, but he soon directed her to find branches for the snowman's arms. Evan was still planted in the snowdrift that Finn had stuck him in earlier. He seemed perfectly content there, picking up pieces of white snow to gnaw on every now and then. Evan had always been the most relaxed of the Hudson children, after all.
Rachel took what probably amounted to two hundred pictures of her kids playing in the snow, before she snapped one of Finn watching them play together. Scott, Abby, and Ellie had planted the snowman they were constructing right next to where Evan was planted in the snowdrift, and the result was a hilarious picture that they would keep for years to come.
#2
"Hey, Rach."
Rachel could feel someone shaking her shoulder slightly, but she chose to ignore the movement and instead decided to roll over onto her stomach. She pulled the pillow under her head and clutched, hoping that whoever was trying to wake her up would go away.
Instead of being left to sleep peacefully, Rachel felt a familiar hand stroke down her side and tickle that spot under her ribs. Rachel pulled back and made a noise in the back of her throat as she pressed her face further into the pillow under her head.
She heard a warm chuckle sound from somewhere to the right of where she lay in her comfortable bed, with the blankets tucked around her. That same hand, with the calloused fingers, slipped under the long-sleeved top she had worn to bed. It was still the middle of winter, after all, and they had already been through one nor'easter. Rachel had known that there was a second one coming their way, and she had planned to stay in bed late in the morning because of it.
"Come on, Rach. Wake up for a second."
Rachel slowly registered the fact that it was her husband talking to her. "What?" she groaned as she turned over on to her back to face him. She forced her eyes open, and she saw Finn looking down at her with the same endearing half-smile she had been seeing since she was eighteen years old. Eighteen years later, it still had the same effect on her.
"Ellie and Evan's daycare left an email. I got it a few minutes ago," Finn murmured. "They're closed for the day, as well."
Rachel looked towards the alarm clock by the side of their bed. It read 6:04 in blaring red numbers, and it was obvious that Finn had turned the alarm off, since it would have gone off around five-thirty in the morning if it had been any normal day.
"They must have just made the decision," Rachel murmured as she tossed an arm over her eyes. "Because that daycare opens at six AM on the dot, every weekday. They must have been insane if they thought any parent was bringing their child in today."
Finn's nose nuzzled against her cheek. His skin was warm against her own, not that Rachel was surprised; Finn was always like a human furnace. "Now we have another snow day with the kids. So I was thinking that we could make some cinnamon rolls."
Rachel pulled her arm from over her eyes and peered at Finn with hopeful eyes. "And have mimosas?" she asked.
Finn grinned down at her. "Of course. I got a few bottles of champagne and some orange juice over the weekend, in preparation for this snowstorm."
Of course, Rachel immediately took notice of the fact that Finn's hand had slipped underneath the blanket and was stroking up and down her side. He would pause every now and then to cup her breast, and then his lips ghosted over the corner of her mouth. Smiling, Rachel caught Finn's face between both of her hands and pulled him down so that she could kiss him properly.
"You know, you should stop teasing me," Rachel murmured once they broke apart. "You have some cinnamon rolls to make, mister."
Finn managed to successfully roll under the blankets that Rachel had tucked around her body. "I let Scott and Abby go back to bed after we found out that their school was cancelled for the day," Finn revealed. "And you know Ellie. She can sleep through anything, so I didn't even have to wake her up. Evan is still sleeping, too. So that means we have time to…" Finn's voice trailed off as he pressed his mouth to her neck and tucked his hand between her legs.
Rachel moaned and let him have his way with her. After all, it was a snow day, and they had a whole twenty-four hours to spend however they wanted.
#3
They had already predicted that nor'easter number three was going to put out upwards of eighteen inches. Rachel was less than pleased with the prediction; she had thought that she liked snow and winter as much as anyone else. After this winter—and the third nor'easter to hit their region, however—it was safe to say that she felt differently.
She hated winter.
Completely.
At least rehearsals for the show that she was currently the lead in (Phantom of the Opera) were cancelled. Rachel could take comfort in the fact that she didn't have to go anywhere, and neither did Finn. Since he owned the music store, he could decide when it was open or closed. He had let his customers know days ago that they would be closed due to the weather.
Once again, Scott and Abby's school had decided the night before that they would be closed due to the amount of snow—eighteen inches—that they were predicted to get. At five o'clock in the morning, they had received another email from the daycare that Ellie and Evan attended, announcing that they would be closed, as well.
How was it possible that they had to suffer through three nor'easters? The wind was too much on its own; compared with the snow and rain and ice, it was almost impossible to believe that their house hadn't lost power yet. They had been extremely lucky, and Rachel was thankful for that fact.
Standing in front of the window looking out onto the street their house sat on, Rachel turned towards Finn. She wrapped her arms around her body and rubbed her hands up and down, as if she could transfer additional warmth to her freezing form.
"I can't believe the snow is falling down this hard," Rachel stated. The flakes were big and white and unlike anything she had seen in recent memory. Rachel's fathers had told her that similar snowstorms had occurred when she was a baby, and Rachel was glad that she didn't remember any of those.
Finn pressed a kiss to Rachel's temple. "At least we don't have to go anywhere in this weather," he reasoned, and Rachel had to agree with him. They had no need to venture out in the treacherous conditions, and Rachel could only pray for the people that did. She was thankful that both she and Finn had jobs that they could take time off of if needed.
"We should watch a movie with the kids today," Rachel finally said. "We could make some pizza and popcorn and show them some of the movies that we loved when we were kids."
Holding Rachel tighter in his arms, Finn grinned. "You mean, you want to show them all of those Disney DVDs you have stocked away."
"Of course," Rachel agreed. "Ellie is old enough to understand The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. She's four years old, after all. And Evan would love the music as soon as he heard it."
"That is true," Finn said. He turned Rachel in his arms and pressed a tender, sweet kiss to her lips. "I'll start the pizza if you get the movies all set up?"
Smiling, Rachel kissed him again. "Of course."
#4
They hadn't planned on it, but somehow, their entire family had ended up at their house before the fourth nor'easter.
Puck and Quinn had arrived for dinner the night before with their children. The snow had started before they had even served the food, and Finn and Rachel had decided that conditions were too dangerous for them to travel home.
Kurt and Blaine had shown up an hour into dinner with their two year old son, Derek. Of course, they had been invited to dinner, but they had declined due to a previous invitation that had been accepted. With the arrival of the two-part fourth nor'easter of the winter, the dinner had been cancelled, so Kurt and Blaine had brought their son over to Rachel and Finn's house for dinner.
Finn and Rachel had no problem with the eight extra people they had for dinner, and they didn't mind that they would be stuck at their house for at least the next twenty-four hours. This fourth nor'easter was predicting at least thirteen inches of snow, so of course Finn and Rachel were planning yet another day inside—complete with cinnamon rolls, bacon, and mimosas.
"I can't believe this is supposed to be the second day of spring," Quinn complained as she ate a piece of bacon. She had her youngest, Todd, tucked against her breast as he ate his breakfast. Todd was only nine months old, and he was still breastfed.
"It is ridiculous," Rachel agreed as she sipped at her mimosa. "I mean, spring started yesterday. Yet here we are, getting thirteen inches of snow."
It was only five o'clock in the evening, so approximately nine inches of snow had fallen. Snow was still coming down from the skies, however, in big, fat flakes that were easy to catch on the tongue. The snow was supposed to continue falling until well after midnight, so it looked as if their guests would be there for at least forty-eight hours.
"We need to start shoveling," Blaine pointed out. "Especially since this snow is so heavy. Nine inches of heavy snow is much easier to lift than thirteen."
Blaine had a fair point. "Let me get all my winter stuff on," Finn said as he passed Evan to Rachel and stood up. "I'll be ready to go outside in about five minutes."
"What about the rest of us?" Puck complained, as he always did. "We're going to have snow covering all of our houses, and we don't have a trapped house full of people to help dig us out."
Finn rolled his eyes and hauled Puck out of the chair he was sitting in. "Quit your bitching and come help us shovel. We'll be at your house tomorrow and help you dig yourselves out. You know we'll do the same at Kurt and Blaine's."
Finn was a little under two years away from turning forty—he was just about done with shoveling heavy snow. No matter what Rachel said, he was buying a snow blower. That would make winter a hell of a lot easier, in his opinion.
"Whatever," Puck grumbled. Still, he stood up, kissed Todd's little baby forehead, and then pressed a kiss to Quinn's lips before he started pulling his winter gear on.
An hour later, Finn, Puck, and Blaine had the majority of the front yard and a path to the backyard of the Hudson house cleared. Rachel, Quinn, and Kurt were taking care of dinner, hot chocolate for the kids, and hot toddies for the adults.
In fact, it was only ten minutes ago that the kids had been allowed out to play in the snow. As he had done before, Finn stuck little Evan in a snow drift. Blaine had down the same with Derek, as the little guy was only two years old and he didn't trust him to wander the snow on his own. Puck, of course, had baby Todd stuck to his side; given that he was only nine months old, he was too young to be stuck in the snow to stay still. Of course, they wanted him to enjoy the winter wonderland that had developed before them, so Puck held on to the little guy and stopped shoveling the snow.
In fact, Finn and Blaine had stopped shoveling, as well. Their kids were out playing, building snowmen and making snow angels, much as they had when the first nor'easter hit. As annoying as the snow could be, they didn't mind it when their kids were having this much fun.
I swear, sometimes I wish that I was still a kid so I didn't have to deal with commuting in the winter and stuff like that. Thanks for reading, and please let me know what you thought!
Also, I had to ask my mom what it was like when there was the winter storm of '94 and my dad stuck me in the snow so he could shovel the snow. So that helped inspire this chapter. :)