The sun shined through the kitchen window, glistening on the long icicles hanging from the window sill. Carole opened the curtain a little more to let some of the light in as she emptied the dishwasher, her favorite winter sweater on. Burt sat at the wooden, round table, drinking his coffee out of a holiday mug and reading the paper silently. They enjoyed this early silence; that quietness the couple hardly seemed to have anymore because someone always seemed to be interrupting them and breaking their peacefulness. Putting the last plate away, Carole closed the dishwasher and joined the Burt at the table, picking up the latest novel she was reading. She was trying to stay calm and relax, she truly was, but her son would be here any minute now and he would be bringing that woman he had been talking about for the last year or so. And from the way he talked about her, Carole knew that this girl was something special.
"Hey Carole, have you been borrowing my moisturizer again?" Came a voice from down the hall, and footsteps followed the voice as Carole's silence was broken with the entrance of Kurt. Both Carole and Burt looked up at Kurt, who was still wrapped in his robe, his hands on his hips.
"Did you forget it in LA?" Carole asked, and Kurt's eyes widened a little, trying to remember if he had remembered to pack it. Well of course he had remembered; Kurt didn't go anywhere without his proper skin care materials. They were on his standard checklist for traveling.
"Are you sure you didn't borrow it and forget to put it back?" He asked again, sure that it wasn't his fault he couldn't find the moisturizer. Carole rolled her eyes as Kurt stared at her expectedly, and she checked her watch to see what time it was; Finn should be here soon.
"Yes, Kurt, I'm sure. Now go get dressed; Finn will be here any minute!" she said, and Kurt turned to walk back upstairs mumbling to himself that he knew Finn was going to be here soon and he needed to find his moisturizer so he could cover all of the practically nonexistent pimples on his face.
Thirty minutes later, Finn still wasn't there yet, and Burt still sat at the table, his coffee in his right hand and the newspaper in his left. Carole's eyes shifted to the clock on the wall, to Burt, and back to her breakfast sitting in front of her over and over again.
"He should be here by now. What if something had happened?" She asked Burt, who just shrugged, and Carole sighed heavily as Kurt reentered the kitchen in skinny jeans and long sleeves shirt with a red tie. He walked over to the kitchen counter, pouring himself a cup of coffee.
"When is Finn getting here? What's this girl supposed to be like?" Kurt asked with his eyes on the coffee machine.
"I don't know; he should have been here already. By the sound of her, the girl seems very nice. Oh, what's her name again Burt?" Carole asked, turning to Burt, as the husband didn't even bother to look away from the newspaper when he answered.
"Rachel." He said gruffly, and Carole nodded her head quickly, turning back to Kurt with a smile on her face as if she had been the one who had remembered Rachel's name.
"Yes; that's her name, Rachel. From what I hear from Finn, she's a journalist and an excellent singer. According to him, it's always been a big dream of hers to go into Broadway, but she came to realize later in high school that acting wasn't a stable career and went into journalism instead." Carole explained, and Kurt raised an eyebrow, slightly interested. Well, if Rachel was a Broadway babe, maybe he would like her after all. God knows she can't be any worse than Finn's last girlfriend.
"Well either way, you know we're going to like her better than Finn's last girlfriend. I can't remember her name now, but she was a real bitch." Burt said, and Kurt smiled to himself, remembering how that relationship had worked out. He took a sip of his coffee before answering.
"Her name was Santana, Dad. Didn't she turn out to be a lesbian?" Kurt asked with a smirk, and then Blaine appeared in the doorway, fully dressed and walking towards the fridge. Burt smiled in memory of when he found out from Finn that Santana was a lesbian; he thought it was really funny, but couldn't laugh about it in front of Finn because he didn't want to hurt the kid's feelings.
"That's my favorite part of the Santana story. She was a lesbian; who knew?" Blaine said, opening the fridge and taking out a bag of grapes. Kurt giggled as Blaine kissed his forehead good morning, both from the kiss and from the memory. Carole sighed loudly, hoping that at least the time, Finn knew of Rachel's true sexuality. She didn't want another episode of the "My girlfriend doesn't play for my team" debacle.
"I think I hear a car." Burt said quietly, his eyes going from the paper to the kitchen window where they had a good view of the driveway. Simultaneously, all four of them ran to the small window, all trying to get a peek at Finn's car pulling up in the driveway. Thanks to Finn's tinted windows, they couldn't even see this Rachel girl as Finn got out of the driver's seat, closed the door, and quickly walked over to the other side of the car to open the passenger's seat.
"Oh no, he's pulling a gentlemen move. That's so Finn." Kurt said, and Blaine nodded in agreement. They watched closely as Finn opened the door, and noticed when a wide grin appeared on Finn's face when he laid eyes on the woman inside. Kurt didn't like that grin on his step-brother's face; that meant that whoever this girl was, Finn was in love with her, a lot. And that meant that she was sticking around, even if Kurt didn't like her.
"Dear God, what is she wearing?" Blaine said in a shocked tone, and Kurt was surprised that it got out of his mouth before it could get out of his own. Blaine was right; this Rachel woman was wearing a butt ugly long, brown skirt with a big red coat where Kurt could slightly see that she had a matching sweater on under it. Kurt was sure that wherever Finn had picked up this girl, it had definitely not had been at Barney's.
"Well if the only problem we have with this Rachel is that she has a bad fashion sense, I guess we got off lucky." Carole mumbled more to herself then the others as Finn opened the door to the back seat and started pulling suitcases out, handing some to Rachel. Once they had taken all the bags out, the pair still oblivious to the four eyes in the window, Finn dropped the suitcase he was holding and leaned down to kiss Rachel, his hand on her cheek. Rachel dropped the two bags she was holding to wrap her arms around Finn, kissing him just as deeply back. All four of them watching through the window shifted uncomfortably.
"Are they ever going to stop or are we going to have to watch them kiss for the rest of the day?" Burt asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence. Carole cleared her throat, and Kurt bravely knocked on the window as loudly as possible, hoping it would get Finn's attention. Luckily, Finn jerked away from Rachel, having heard the tapping from the window, and quickly glanced up at where the sound had come from, saw his family staring at him, and went deep red in the face. Kurt only guessed that Rachel was confused as of why Finn had pulled away, but when she saw him waving to someone at the window, she turned around to see who was there, turning just as red as Finn was. She waved too with a smile, and Blaine noted that she had a pretty smile.
"And here we go." Said Carole, and she left the three of them by the window, rushing to the front door to welcome Finn and his girlfriend. The other three followed her, standing behind Carole as she opened the door, Finn and Rachel walking up the driveway and to the front steps, suitcases in both hands and a smile on their faces, Finn's more sure then Rachel's.
"Oh Finn; it's so good to see you! Come give your mother a kiss!" Carole shouted in jubilation, and she ran out to meet Finn, her hands on both sides of Finn's face as she gave him a big kiss on each cheek, Finn's hands still on the suitcases as Rachel watched the scene with a shy smile. After telling Finn how much older Finn looked and how she hoped the drive up to Canada wasn't too bad because she knew how long it took them to drive all the way up here, Carole pulled away from Finn, giving Rachel her full attention.
"And you must be Rachel! It's so nice to meet you Rachel! Oh, this is going to be such a lovely Christmas, I can tell already!" Carole said in a high voice, laughing insanely. Rachel giggled, telling Carole that it was nice to meet her too as Carole took her face in her hands, kissing both cheeks. Finn smirked amusingly, wondering what had gotten into his mother as she pulled away from Rachel and took a suitcase from her.
"Burt, Kurt, Blaine; come see Finn and Rachel! She's so nice and pretty Kurt; you were worried for no reason at all!" Carole shouted towards the front door where Burt, Kurt, and Blaine still stood, watching Finn and Rachel closely. Kurt didn't feel like mentioning to Carole that Rachel had hardly even said anything yet, so Carole didn't actually know if Rachel was nice. Finn and Rachel followed Carole up the front steps, and stepped into the front hall, Burt shuffling around to make room for all of them to fit in the small hall, Finn closing the door after Rachel.
"Burt, Kurt, Blaine." Finn said as he hugged each of them, a grin on his face. Rachel still had that shy smile on her face, as Finn pulled away from Blaine to put his arm around Rachel, pulling her into his side. "Guys, this is Rachel, my girlfriend."
"It's so nice to meet you Rachel, Finn has told us lots about you." Burt said, the first person to open his mouth, putting his hand out awkwardly, and Rachel took it, shaking it for a moment before letting go.
"All good things I hope." Rachel said with a nervous giggle, and Kurt couldn't help but roll his eyes.
"Of course it was all good things; you're Finn's girlfriend; why would he have bad things to say about his significant other?" Kurt said, and Rachel shifted her gaze to the floor, embarrassed as both Finn and Blaine glared at Kurt.
"I could think of a few bad things to say about you right now." Blaine told Kurt darkly, and Kurt gave him a quick slap on the arm for the comment as Finn watched the two of them with a smirk. He knew Kurt wasn't going to easily taken a liking to Rachel; it took Kurt a while to warm up to people, but Blaine was a very welcoming person to just about anyone he met.
"Err, that's Kurt, and his boyfriend Blaine." Finn said after an awkward silent moment where Kurt and Blaine glared at each other. At hearing their introductions, Kurt and Blaine turned their attention back to Rachel, smiling politely at her.
"Hi Rachel, I'm Blaine. It's good to meet you." Blaine said, not letting Rachel think about it as he took her into a big hug. Struck by this warm greeting, Rachel could only awkwardly hug back, patting Blaine's back a couple of times. Finally, Blaine pulled away, smiling at her.
"And this is my mom, Carole, and her husband and my stepdad, Burt, Kurt's dad." Finn introduced, gesturing to Carole and Burt, Carole welcoming Rachel with another hug while Burt smiled down at her. Finn brought the conversation back to Kurt and Blaine, a piece of information popping into his head.
"Kurt and Blaine have been together since high school." Finn told Rachel, even though she already knew this. Kurt grinned up at Blaine, his sullen look from before now gone and replaced by an adoring one.
"In July Kurt and I will be going down to New York to get married." Blaine informed Rachel and Finn, and Finn's eyebrows rose in surprise while Carole and Burt beamed with pride.
"Congratulations! Since when was this decided?" Finn asked, while Rachel laughed from his surprise. Before Kurt or Blaine could say something in answer, Burt was so excited that he spoke.
"Yesterday when Kurt and Blaine got here they told us. It's exciting news, don't you think Rachel?" Asked Burt as he turned to Rachel, who only grinned in response because she was happy for Kurt and Blaine. Maybe that could be her and Finn one day; planning their wedding, telling the family of their engagement, getting married. And then Rachel remembered the ring Finn had bought her, and she filled up with excitement at the thought that it wouldn't be long until she could tell people that her and Finn were planning their wedding.
"Absolutely; gay rights have come so far from where they started! My dads recently officially got married in New York. They were so happy; they kept it very small, but it was very sweet." Rachel explained, and Blaine smiled at this news, glad to know that Rachel came from a gay rights family. When they had first met Santana, she liked to spend a lot of her time making fun of Kurt and Blaine's sexuality, which Finn seemed to like to ignore, and Kurt thought Santana was just a homophobe, but it turned out she was gay herself. Kurt had just a tad bit more respect for Santana after he found out her reasons for acting the way she did.
"That's wonderful to hear Rachel. Well, what are we doing all stuck in this small hall? Finn, do you want to take Rachel and your bags upstairs? Kurt and Blaine are taking one room and you two can take the other. I see no reason as to why you two should sleep in separate rooms; you aren't teenagers anymore." Carole said, and Finn nodded with a smile, glad that his mother had just given into the idea of his girlfriend sleeping in the same room with him. When they had first met Blaine, it was years until he could sleep in the same room with Kurt with Burt and Carole's permission.
"Oh, well, okay then." Rachel said uncomfortably, not expecting Carole to be so fine with her son sleeping in the same room with his girlfriend. Finn smiled at his family again, his mom patting his back as he picked up his bags as Rachel did the same, and went up the stairs, Rachel following. Things were quiet as Rachel followed him up the stairs and onto the second floor.
"Do you think they're still down stairs, watching us like hawks?" Rachel asked Finn jokingly, and Finn laughed lightly at her joke as he opened the door to the bedroom he stayed in while at the cottage. Finn had made the room more comfortable and personal as the years went by; a Bobcats Football team poster on the right wall, a full size bed in the middle of the room with a cowboy comforter, a set of drums to practice for his band when he was away in the corner of the room, and a basketball and basketball net hanging on the wall next to the bed. Rachel set her bags down, looking around the room and taking in an unfamiliar smell; it smelled like Finn, but mixed with a strange scent that Rachel could only identify as camping.
"So what do you think? My mom kind of designed it; I haven't had cowboy anything since high school." Finn said with his hands in his pockets and standing by his bed awkwardly. Rachel smiled to herself tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as she looked around the room again, taking everything in. It might not have been what Finn's apartment looked like in New York, but it still had that Finn feel to it, and Rachel had a feeling that this was more like Finn back when he was a teenager. And she knew she would love teenager Finn just as much as she loves adult Finn.
"I love it." She said honestly, and Finn grinned at her, moving forward to hold her against him for a kiss.
"I'll be home for Christmas; you can count on me."
Carole had put more thought into tonight's dinner than usual; after all, this was a special occasion. It was always so rare that she got to eat dinner with her entire family nowadays since everyone lived so far away from each other, and this was the first dinner she was having with Finn's girlfriend, Rachel, who still looked as nervous as ever. The woman poked at her food, taking small bites nervously as Kurt talked away, letting no one else talk as he went on about the fashion company he was running.
"When did you know you wanted to be a fashion designer, Kurt?" Rachel suddenly asked, and Kurt turned to her, not knowing how to answer that. He had gotten so used to these dinners being about him talking while everyone else pretended to listen that he wasn't expecting someone to ask a question.
"Oh, well, I've always been very into fashion since I was a teenager. I made my own clothes and had been complimented many times on my fashion taste. It was one of the many talents I had, and it was the one I chose to act on. I'm also a very good singer and performer; my performances of Les Mis are outstanding." Kurt said, not really looking at Rachel but finding his food much more interesting.
"Rachel, I hope the vegan burger is okay. Finn mentioned that you've been a vegan since sophomore year of high school, so I went out and bought a cookbook for vegans. I have an entire menu of food I'll be making this week that you can eat." Carole explained, and Rachel looked down at the food she was eating, assuring Carole that it was delicious.
"So how did you two meet exactly? Finn's never went into exact detail of that story." Burt asked, and Finn and Rachel turned to each other, smiling. Rachel especially loved telling this story, she loved that they had bonded over a sick dog.
"Rachel, do you want to tell the story? I know you love to." Finn said with a smile, and Rachel giggled, looking at Burt and Carole, who wore identical expecting faces.
"No Finn, I think I want you to tell it this time." She said, and Finn smiled at her again before turning his attention back to his family, Burt, Carole, and Blaine all eager to hear the story while Kurt just kept picking at his food.
"Alright, well, I was driving to band rehearsal with Pillar in the seat next to me when he started acting really weird. After a couple of minutes of him acting weird he seemed to, like, pass out or something and just laid there with his eyes closed. I was freaking out so much that I didn't even think to park my car, and called the vet, when this woman started tapping on my window. She was pissed at me because she had to get to work and I was blocking the way, but when I explained what had happened to Pillar she felt bad and came with me to the vet. Fortunately, Pillar was okay and I learned that the woman's name was Rachel, and because she helped me with Pillar, I felt the need to take her out for dinner." Finn said with his eyes on Rachel the whole entire time, his hand on hers over the table. Rachel smiled gently back, remembering the day she had met Finn and feeling lucky that she had. Where would she be if she didn't? Rachel didn't want to think about it. Carole beamed at Finn and Rachel, feeling very happy that this time around, it had looked like Finn had met someone worth keeping around. It was about time too.
"Blaine, where are you going?" Finn suddenly snapped, his eyes going from Rachel to Blaine, who stood up from the dinner table. Blaine looked from the kitchen to Finn, his eyes wide like a puppy dog.
"I just wanted to get some more eggnog." He explained, and Finn just waved his hand down.
"No, sit down! I'm not done telling the story!" Finn said harshly, and Blaine sat back down, picking up his empty cup and looking into its empty contents miserably. He looked at Kurt's full cup of eggnog, slowly as for Kurt not to notice who was too busy eating his dinner, taking a sip of it.
"So as I was saying before Blaine interrupted me, I took Rachel out to dinner, which led to another dinner which led to another dinner, and things kind of went from there. I'm not even going to get into details on what we did on the fourth date." Finn said with a laugh, and Rachel laughed nervously too, slapping Finn lightly on the arm. Did he really have to bring up that to his family? They didn't look really comfortable with it as they laughed uncomfortably. Blaine thought Finn had finally finished his story, so he quietly stood up to get more eggnog.
"Speaking of Pillar, where is he? I thought you were bringing him along?" Burt asked, looking around the dining room as if expecting Pillar to just pop out of nowhere. Rachel frowned at remembering where Pillar was while Finn just shook his head.
"The vet said he's getting too old for traveling long distances, so I left him at a dog hotel for Christmas. It's a shame really; he loves the openness and snow so much, and the snow in New York just looks like total crap." Finn said with a frown, and Rachel had to close her eyes tightly for a moment as to not to cry. She actually let out a couple of tears when they dropped Pillar off at the dog hotel; poor dog; he was so sweet and he couldn't even spend Christmas with them.
"Well that's too bad. I'm sure he'll be okay though." Carole assured Finn, knowing how much Pillar meant to him. Rachel shook her head; trying to forget about Pillar at the moment and focus on the dinner she was having right now with Finn's family.
"So if you don't mind me asking, why did you buy a cottage in Canada? It seems a little random of a place to buy a cottage when you live in Ohio." Rachel asked, picking her fork back up. Carole smiled sweetly at Rachel as Blaine rejoined them at the table, Finn only giving Blaine a short glare.
"Thank you for asking Rachel; it was a long discussion we had a couple of years ago, a year after we had been married, to buy a cottage for the holidays or not. We had always wanted a place to go to with a beautiful view of nature, which is why we chose a cottage in a very unpopulated area full of forests, and a place that'll be warm and homely during the cold months. When Burt was younger, his grandparents owned a home in Canada, and he loved it there, so we thought we would buy a cottage here. It's been wonderful since." Carole said, and Rachel nodded her head in understanding while Burt smiled at memories when he was a child.
"It's good to get away for a while, even if we don't get to come up here too often. It's still nice to have it." Burt added, and it was quiet for a few moments as everyone kept eating, until Carole announced that she was going to get desert. When the pound cake and vanilla ice cream had been set on the dinner table, and given out, Blaine spoke.
"I hope your family wasn't too upset about not spending Christmas with you. Kurt and I switch off every year." Blaine said, and Rachel thought about what her dads were doing right now, probably at home, watching TV, not one decoration hanging up.
"Oh, I've never celebrated Christmas before; I'm Jewish." Rachel explained, and Kurt dropped his fork, looking up at Rachel slowly as Carole and Burt looked a little uncomfortable at this realization.
"You're Jewish? I guess that was something Finn forgot to mention." Kurt said quietly, and Rachel glanced at Finn quickly who smiled nervously back at her.
"I didn't think that was important." Finn said, and after a moment where Carole and Burt exchanged looks, Carole turned and smiled widely at Rachel.
"Of course it's not important sweetheart. I think it's better this way anyway; that way we're your first real Christmas experience. The way Rachel views Christmas depends all on us." Carole said, and Burt held up his fork with pound cake on it as in a toast, putting it in his mouth with a smile. Rachel glanced at Kurt, and gave him a small smile hoping he would return it but to her dismay, Kurt only grumbled something and looked down at his ice cream.
"Then let's hope that this Christmas is a good one!" Burt said, and Carole laughed at that, hoping the exact same thing.