Puck's POV
I stand in front of the mirror and try and figure out the right way my tie is supposed to set on my dress shirt. I can hear Quinn's footsteps coming up from behind me, I know it's her without even turning around. I look up and see her standing behind me in the mirror, she has Beth bouncing on her hip and I turn around to face them. "Do you think my tie looks okay?" she laughs, earning a giggle from Beth and I watch as she turns and sets her down on the bed and walks over to me.
"Let me help you" she comes over and starts to fix my tie.
"Why do I have to wear this anyway?"
"Because we have to look presentable, we need the court, and the judge needs to see how serious we are about adopting Beth. They need to see how fit as parents for her"
"How are we unfit? We are her parents for god's sake, I watched her come out of you" she tightens my tie and laughs
"Oh, don't remind me. I still have the stretch marks to prove it"
"Stretch marks? Really?"
"Yeah, what did you expect? That's what happens when you carry around a child for nine months" her tone sounds defensive, I quickly try and pull the conversation back into good territory. I don't want her to be offended.
"I just meant that your body definitely does not look like you were ever pregnant" I give her my best smile and I can see the blush creeping across her cheeks.
"Thank you" we both look down and notice how close we are standing to each other. She drops her hands down and takes a step back, she looks like she is about to say something when she turns around at the sound of Beth clapping. She turns around to look at Beth, I can see her sitting on the bed clapping her hands together as an sign that she wants to be held. "Okay baby, I'll pick you up. We have to fix your hair anyway" she goes over and picks her up, I look at the mess of curls that is Beth's hair and watch them as Quinn and Beth walk out of the room. I follow them to the bathroom where I can see Beth sitting on the counter and Quinn is going through her hair with a brush, Beth is playing with the button's on Quinn's sweater.
"Hey there sweetie" Beth smiles at me and I sit on the edge of the bathtub to be closer to her as her hair gets fixed.
"I really hope you were talking to the baby" I laugh at her comment
"Of course I was"
"Just double checking, remember what our social worker said"
"Oh yeah, that we're not allowed to have sex" she hits me with the brush and I can't help but fall apart with laughter.
"Don't say that around her"
"Like she can actually understand us"
"She is going to speak soon, trust me. I can sense it"
"How do we know that she can't already talk?" a sudden realization hits me hard, we might have missed out on a lot of important moments for her.
"She hasn't said anything yet, and I don't think she walks yet either" Quinn picks her up from the counter and hands her to me.
"Are you both ready to go?" Quinn takes one last look at herself in the mirror before deciding what to say in response.
"Yes" I stand up and Beth holds onto me tightly, she grabs the car keys off of the counter and turns to face me. "Are you going to drive, or am I?"
"I'll drive if you want"
"Yeah, okay" she walks out of the door and I follow, I lock the door behind me and hand Beth to Quinn so she can put her into her car seat. I get into the drivers seat and I turn on the car, Quinn quickly puts her into the car seat and then comes into the passengers side. It's a quick drive to the courthouse and I think both of us can feel the sense of nervousness as we get closer and closer, when we get there we all walk in together, like a family. We both sit on a bench as we wait for the lawyer to get here, Quinn is entertaining Beth with some toy that we brought from home as we wait. Soon Beth get's a little fussy and Quinn has to pull out some goldfish, we are trying to get her to eat the snack when I can see our lawyer approaching us. He walks up to us with briefcase in hand and I stand up to greet him.
"When is our hearing?"
"It starts in a couple of minutes, we should be making our way in there now" Quinn packs away the snack and picks Beth up and we all walk into the courtroom together. We file in and get to witness the last few minutes of the trial that is currently going on, I look around and remember how it felt to be here during my own trial. Until now I had totally forgotten that I had gone to juvi, I hope that my record won't hurt our chances of getting Beth, I mean they let criminals see their kids all the time right? I'm not a criminal anymore, that was my past, Beth is my future.
"Now the case of Beth Corcoran" our lawyer stands up and whispers to me
"That's us" we stand up and make our way to the front of the room, we stand behind a table and we all sit down, Quinn get's out the snacks again when Beth starts to get fussy. She sets the little bowl that is full of goldfish down on the table and we wait as the judge looks over at our case file.
"All rise" we both stand up in a hurry and somehow Beth has managed to spill the goldfish, they all tumble to the floor and we both frantically look down, embarrassed.
"Shit" I mumble under my breath as Quinn hands Beth over to me as she tries to pick up the spilled crackers. She is trying her best to pick up every single one and everyone watches intently, our lawyer, the judge. "Quinn just leave them, they are waiting for us" she stands up and her cheeks are reddened with embarrassment.
"Sorry"
"Are we ready now?"
"Yes your honor" our lawyer answers for us.
"Well Ms. Fabray, and Mr. Puckerman, after reviewing your file I can tell that you are more than fit to be her guardians, and later her parents. It helps that you are both her birth parents, giving you legal rights so in the case of Beth Corcoran I hereby grant legal custody to both of you, we are dismissed" It was really that easy? We are being ushered out of the room and all I can think about how easy that was, do they just give kids out now?
"Was it really that easy? What if we were drug dealers and pimps?" I must have been talking loudly because Quinn hits me, pretty hard. The judge is still siting at her bench and her voice scares me.
"What was that Mr Puckerman?"
"He didn't say anything" Quinn is trying to juggle holding Beth and now trying to fix this, and insure that I haven't just screwed this all up for us.
"I heard what you said, so are you? Are you two drug dealers and pimps?"
"No, no ma'mam"
"Good, then my ruling is just the same" Quinn thanks our lawyer and then waits for him to leave so she can hit me again.
"What the hell was that? 'What if we are drug dealers and pimps?'" she mimics my voice in a lame attempt to do an impression of me, it was so bad that I couldn't help but start laughing. This resulted in being hit yet again by her, that just made her crack a smile. I take a step closer to her and put my hands on her face gently.
"I can see you smiling" she looks up at me and smiles, I am about to lean in when Beth causes me to take a step back, we were starting to squish her and she didn't like that too much. I laugh and she smiles up at me again. She takes my hand in hers
"Come on, let's go out to eat, we can celebrate"
"I like that idea" she doesn't let go of my hand once as we walk out of the courtroom and to the car. Looking the part of a real family that we seem to be now.
