"Daddy!"
He looks over to see his beautiful baby girl running over to him then stands up to catch her, tossing the remote onto the couch.
"How's my Ella doing?"
"I'm good. I learned how to write my name today."
"Really? You want to write it out for me while I make us dinner?"
Puck laughs when she nods her head enthusiastically then leads her into the kitchen in their apartment. He stares into the fridge when she begins to talk about her day and how nice her teacher was, especially since she walked around and helped each student out with their name.
"So did she show you how to write your last name?"
"That's for tomorrow, daddy!" She squeals out with a giggle.
He shakes his head and starts to get everything ready for spaghetti, looking over every now and then to see her make progress on her name.
They talk for a bit while he gets everything ready then sits at the table while the pasta finishes boiling. "Do you have any homework that you need to finish tonight?"
"Mm, I think I may have some spelling! Oh and I have a note for you from my teacher."
"A note?" he asks while raising his eyebrow. Ella jumps down from her chair and runs into the living room. Puck hears a zipper, so he stands up to move over to the stove and checks on the pasta before he hears a little hand slap against the table.
Moving over to it, he picks up the note and all that's written is that she would like to meet with him tomorrow.
"Did she say what this was all about, El?"
"Nope," she replies, popping the 'p' then goes back to writing.
Puck just shrugs it off and decides that it can't be anything too bad or else he would've gotten a call about it tonight. And rather than stressing out about it, he decides that having a quiet night with his daughter is a much better use of his time.
The next morning, Puck is sitting in his office reading a medical magazine during his lunch break when his ringtone starts to blare in the quiet room. He picks it up with a formal 'hello' then sinks back against his chair when he realizes it's his daughter's school on the other line.
"Why is the parent-teacher conference three hours early?"
He listens as the secretary on the other side starts to explain that nothing is wrong, but Ella's teacher would like to meet with him in the next hour if he's available. And unfortunately, he is, but it's for his daughter so he figures it's really important either way.
About thirty minutes later, Puck is grumbling to himself as he sticks the 'visitor' pass onto his dress shirt, thinking it's a little ridiculous that he has to wear one even though he just checked in with the school. But now he's mumbling out a room number to himself, searching around the school like a creeper trying to find his daughter's classroom.
After searching for at least ten minutes, he finally finds it and steps inside. All he sees are a bunch of children but not a teacher in sight.
"Daddy!"
Puck looks around and sees his daughter sitting at a table with a crayon in her hand.
"Hey baby girl." He squats down and opens up his arms, smiling widely as she runs over to him and hugs him tightly.
"What are you doing here?"
"Your teacher wanted to meet with me earlier. Where is she?" Puck looks around again, but still doesn't see any type of authority figure in here.
"Miss Brittany is watching over us. She could probably show you where she is!"
Ella points to a blonde woman who is sitting on the floor next to a table, coloring on a piece of paper as she talks to a student. He nods at his daughter and watches as she goes back to her seat then walks over to the blonde.
"Hey, I'm Noah Puckerman. I have a meeting with Ella's teacher today."
"Oh hi! Rachel mentioned something about that. Let me show you to her office before I watch over these guys again."
He follows her out the door, waving to his daughter, before they're moving towards a room across the hallway. Her curls bounce while she walks and for some reason, all he can think about is Cindy Lou Who from that one Dr. Seuss movie.
"Just knock and then you'll be able to go inside. Nice to meet you Mr. Puckerman!"
She excitedly waves goodbye to him and he gives her a short one back, wondering how someone can be so perky while working around kids. With a shake of his head, he knocks on the door and hears someone say 'come in.'
Pushing the door open, he looks up at the teacher and his jaw drops a little bit. "Rachel?"
The brunette looks up and he can tell that she's in just as much shock as he is. "Noah. What are you doing here?"
"Parent teacher conference?" It ends up being a question because he is beyond confused as to what's going on right now.
"It didn't even occur to me that you could be the same person." Rachel shakes her head slightly the stands up. "How rude of me. Welcome to my office," she says then reaches over the desk to shake his hand.
Puck chuckles and shakes her hand even though they weren't even close to being formal in bed. As if she just remembered what transpired the other night and at his own office, Rachel starts to blush as she sits down.
"So you're Ella's father. I wouldn't have even guessed that you had a child when we met."
He clears his throat and relaxes into the seat, bringing his hand up to run over his short hair while he thinks of a response. "I generally don't tell women that I have a daughter. It can be kind of a turn off." Part of him hates that he just said that out loud because this woman is the one who has to teach his daughter five days out of the week.
"For some women it can actually be a turn on."
After her words process through his mind, he blinks a little owlishly at her before adjusting his body in his seat. "Um, right. So, what did you want to meet with me about? I'm sure I would've heard before now if Ella was doing bad in school or anything."
"Oh, she's doing wonderfully! That's why I wanted to meet with you. She's doing such an amazing job and she's the top student in our class."
"That's a good thing, right? I'm just a little confused why you brought me up here."
They end up talking for a few minutes about all the progress his daughter has made and he honestly hasn't felt more proud than he is right now. Rachel has taught her so much and he honestly never imagined that she'd learn so much at her age.
Puck stands up and reaches over to shake Rachel's hand, though it's a little too formal for his taste. "Thank you for calling this conference. I didn't think she was doing so much at school."
"She has great work ethic. Something she probably learned from her father."
He smirks at her then nods. "Yeah, I guess. See you later."
Just as he turns around, he hears her say a quiet 'wait' which causes him to turn around and look at the petite brunette in front of him.
"You do realize that we've seen each other a lot since we met at the bar, right?"
"So?"
Rachel stands there and tucks some of her hair behind her ear then walks around her desk until she's standing right in front of him. "That doesn't seem strange to you?"
"It seems like a string of coincidences."
"But what if it's not?"
He stares down at her and wonders if she's being serious right now. "Sorry, Rachel, but I don't really believe in that kind of shi-crap." Puck's glad that he caught himself because the little glare she's giving him right now isn't a sexy one.
"Noah, would you like to grab dinner with me sometime? I really feel like we've met for a reason."
They may have had a really fucking awesome night and sure he was a little nice when she came into his office and had to get blood work done, but did that really qualify as some sort of meeting of fate? He had to hand it to her though, she was fucking stunning. And his daughter obviously approved of her in some way and the woman in front of him was the sole reason why she was doing so well in school.
After a few seconds of contemplation, he nods. "Yeah, sure. But since you asked me out, you get to iron out all the details."
The way she gets all excited and claps a little shouldn't be as cute to him as it is. Puck moves towards her and wraps his arm around her waist then dips his head down to kiss her slowly.
"I'll call you?"
He nods and pushes a strand of hair from her face. "I'd say it's creepy you have my number but I'll let it slide. See you later." Puck winks at her then walks out of Rachel's office.