A/N: sorry for the delay, work was a bit hectic, and the muse inspired when I couldn't write a thing down... enjoy.
Chapter 3
Twenty minutes later, Rachel walks back in the living room, wearing a simple black and white sundress. "Hey, sorry it took so long. Ready to go?" Rachel asks, offering her hand to Fleur.
"Yes, I am, and it wasn't long at all" Fleur answers, flipping the TV off and reaching for Rachel's hand.
"So, uhm, I have a really small car, so, if you need to get a lot of stuff, I might have to borrow my Daddy's car. What, uh, did you have in mind for breakfast?" Rachel asks shyly.
"Well, unless you know of a place that will deliver a fridge on the same day, I think your small car should be fine. As for breakfast, I was hoping you could suggest something, since you know this town better than I. My original idea was going to the local Starbucks for a Chai latte, and perhaps a bagel." Fleur says smiling widely.
"That actually sounds like a great idea. Let's go." Rachel says, smiling herself.
"We need to stop by my house really quick first. I need to grab my purse, and make sure I have all the measurements with me. I don't want to get furniture that won't fit." Fleur asks quickly.
"Of course, and that makes perfect sense. You'd be surprised at how many people would just improvise and then spend hours trying to move everything around." Rachel says as they quickly make their way to Fleur's house.
The day is spent hopping around furniture stores, appliance stores and electronic stores. Rachel is pleasantly surprised at how Fleur asks for her opinion and actually listens to it. She was afraid at first that she was just going to play chauffeur to the enigmatic blonde.
"What do you feel like for lunch, Rachel?" Fleur asks after they exit the local Lowes where she finally found a refrigerator she liked and fit in her kitchen.
"How does Italian sound? I know this little place just outside of town that serves fantastic food." Rachel suggest, still somewhat shy around Fleur.
"Perfect. Lead the way, Mademoiselle Berry." Fleur says with flourish, extending her hand to Rachel, another smile in her face.
Rachel takes the proffered hand giggling. "This way, Miss Delacour. Your chariot awaits." Rachel replies formally, doing a little bow, a huge smile on her face.
By the end of the day, both girls are exhausted, but happy to have made a new friend. With Rachel along, Fleur manages to arrange next day delivery for all her appliances, and her new car ready for pick up in a couple of days.
"You have to come to my place for dinner. I know that you're going to end up doing take out again, this way you get to meet my dads. I also can make sure you will ice your foot because you really abused it with all the walking we did. I noticed how you have been limping a little bit more. Besides, I already texted my dads and they know you're coming." Rachel says as they pull out of the local Volkswagen dealership.
"I'd love that. Thank you Rachel. I was dreading another night of take out." Fleur answers honestly.
"Dad, Daddy! I'm home." Rachel calls out as they both walk in the house. "Here Fleur, go and sit while I go and grab the ice pack." Rachel guides the part Veela into the living room once again.
"Hi Pumpkin, how was your day?" Michael asks his daughter as he is adding the finishing touches to their dinner.
"It was very eventful. I'll fill you in during dinner." Rachel answers as she grabs the ice pack from the freezer.
"Hey Rach. What's with the ice pack? Did you hurt yourself during your morning run?" Daniel asks as he steps into the kitchen to help his husband.
"Not me, it's Fleur, our dinner guest. I sort of ran into her this morning and when she fell, she sprained her ankle. I'm just making sure it doesn't swell too bad because she spent the day shopping. Long story, but you'll get details during dinner." Rachel says as she grabs another clean tea towel and heads back out.
"I better go and make sure everything is ok." Daniel says with a smile, following his daughter.
"Hey. Sorry it took so long. Here, put your foot on the cushion again, we need to keep your ankle elevated." Rachel says as she guides Fleur's foot to rest on the cushion she has on her lap. She gently removes the tensor bandage and as gentle as she can, she prods the ankle a bit, not liking the fact that it's a bit more swollen than what it was earlier in the morning. She notices she slight whimper of pain as she applies a gentle massage to improve circulation. "I'm sorry. I know it hurts, but we need to get the blood flowing again." Rachel apologises softly.
"It's ok, I understand." Fleur says grimacing just a little as Rachel continues with the massage.
Daniel looks on by the kitchen entrance, surprised by the gentleness of Rachel's ministrations on a complete stranger, and he wonders if his daughter would ever consider career in medicine, or if the lights of Broadway have captured her heart permanently. Rachel eventually finishes the massage and then softly places the towel wrapped ice pack on Fleur's ankle, supporting it in place with her hands.
"Dad, come to see if I'm doing a good job?" Rachel asks playfully. "Dad, this is Fleur Delacour, she just moved from France. Fleur, this is my dad Daniel Berry." Rachel says introducing them.
"Please don't get up Fleur. It's a pleasure to meet you." Daniel says offering her his right hand once he notices that Fleur is making an attempt to pull her foot down and get up, while Rachel is still firmly holding on to said foot.
"The pleasure is all mine. Thank you so much for your hospitality." Fleur says shaking Daniel's hand firmly.
"Good evening, I'm Michael Berry, Rachel's other father, and Daniel's husband." Michael introduces himself with a smile.
"Fleur Delacour. It's a pleasure to meet you, sir." Fleur answers offering her hand.
"The pleasure is all mine, and it's Michael and Daniel." Michael replies shaking her hand with a smile. "Dinner will be ready in about five minutes." Michael informs them before quickly disappearing into the kitchen again.
"Perfect. I'm going to help Michael while you two finish here." Daniel says.
"How is your foot?" Rachel asks quietly.
"Thanks to you, a lot better." Fleur answers, blue eyes locked on to chocolate brown.
"Why didn't you say anything if your foot was hurting you?" Rachel asks, unable to pull her eyes away.
"It wasn't that bad, really. I have had worse injuries." Fleur says sadly, trying to push bad memories away.
"Dinner is ready girls." Daniel says, breaking the moment.
"Thanks Dad." Rachel calls back. "I uh should bandage your foot again." Rachel says quietly, reaching for the tensor bandage again.
They make it to the dining room and just when they sit down, Fleur's phone rings. "Please excuse me. I don't mean to be rude, but it is my family calling." Fleur apologises as she fishes out her phone, connecting the call.
"Bon soir, mama. I can't talk for long." Fleur says into the phone.
"Fleur, daughter, it's late here. We haven't heard from you all day so we got worried." Apoline says with a sigh.
"Yes, I know it's late where you are, but I am having dinner with some neighbours and it would be rude to talk for long sitting at the table." Fleur answers quickly.
"Why don't you just excuse yourself so you can speak to your family?" Apoline asks, wondering why her eldest hasn't done so already.
"I'd love to do that, but I uh sprained my ankle earlier, and…" But before she can continue, she is interrupted.
"Are you all right, dear? Why haven't you used magic to mend it?" Apoline asks her daughter, clearly worried now.
"Mama, could we please speak another time? I don't want to be rude to my new friends. They have been very gracious to me. Send my love to everyone and I will call you tomorrow." Fleur says, quickly disconnecting the phone and setting her phone to 'silent' as she puts it away. "Please accept my apologies. Sometimes it is hard for my family to understand that though I may be young, I am still capable to living on my own." Fleur says with a smile.
"No problem at all. You could have talked to them longer if you wished. It must be hard to be so far away from those you love." Daniel says with understanding. They all notice the look of sadness that crosses Fleur's eyes as the word family is mentioned.
"I hope baked chicken with roasted vegetables and wild rice is all right for dinner." Daniel says changing the subject to a safer topic.
"That is more than all right, I really hospitality Mr. Berry." Fleur says sincerely, understanding why her thrall isn't affecting them, and happy she doesn't have to deal with that.
"Please, it's Michael and Daniel, no need to such formalities. So tell me, how did you two meet?" Michael asks, while he serves dinner, curious about the whole story.
"Thank you Michael. I was taking a stroll through the neighbourhood, trying to get myself acquainted with it, and I wasn't really paying a lot of attention, and accidentally collided with Rachel." Fleur says with a smile, remembering the events of the morning.
"I wasn't expecting anyone out so early, so I was a bit distracted by the songs on my iPod because I think they'd be great for Glee once school starts. And yeah, I kinda ran into Fleur and knocked her down, where she sprained her ankle." Rachel says sheepishly.
"Rachel was kind enough to offer me assistance, and insisted on bringing me here, where she promptly took care of my injury." Fleur says without missing a beat.
"I knew that Fleur needed to do a lot of stuff for her house so I volunteered to drive her around to make sure she didn't aggravate her injury, and because she doesn't have a fridge yet, I insisted she come over so she wouldn't have to deal with take out and to ice her foot one more time." Rachel finishes quickly.
The rest of dinner is spent talking about their respective days, what their plans for the next day included (waiting for deliveries for Fleur, nothing on Rachel's end and work for Michael and Daniel).
"I don't mean to be rude, but I should call it a night. I'm still used to a different time, and my body thinks it's about 2 am still." Fleur says with a small yawn.
"Don't, if anything we should apologise for keeping you here so long." Michael says with understanding.
"I'll drive you home." Rachel offers immediately.
"It's ok; it's only a short walk." Fleur starts to protest, but is quickly interrupted.
"I know, but you're injured and I want to make sure you don't overdo it more than you already have." Rachel counters.
"Thank you." Fleur gives in, knowing it's almost useless to argue with Rachel.
"Ah, wise move on your part Fleur, because once Rachel gets her mind set on something, she'll talk you to death until you give in." Daniel says laughing at the look on his daughter's face.
"Dad! Please." Rachel squeaks indignant.
"Sorry pumpkin, I just couldn't resist." He says looking contrite. "It was a pleasure meeting you Fleur. We must do this again, once you have settled in." Daniel offers Fleur a quick hug.
"Of course and the pleasure was all mine. I shall invite you to a home cooked French dinner once I get things settled." Fleur says returning the hug.
"Have a great night, Fleur. Sleep well." Michael says, giving her a quick hug as well.
"Thank you Michael. Good night and thank you for your hospitality." Fleur says sincerely.
"It was our pleasure. After all, it was the least we could do after our Rachel knocked you down the way she did." Michael jokes at his daughter's expense.
"Way to go with easing my guilt, Daddy." Rachel says sticking out her tongue at him.
"Anytime honey." Michael says laughing.
"Come Fleur, before these two put me in therapy or something like that." Rachel says laughing herself.
Fleur smiles and follows Rachel to the car, wondering if she'll ever be able to have that kind of relaxed fun with her family. Once again, Rachel insists on helping Fleur in and out of the car, and she is pleasantly surprised when she sees Rachel following her to her front door.
"I'm sorry about my dads being such jokers during dinner. They usually take longer to warm up to people, so I'm not complaining, just surprised. I just hope you don't think we're a family of weirdos." Rachel says as they reach Fleur's door.
"Don't be, I think it's refreshing to see such a loving family so at ease and able to play around each other like that." Fleur says sincerely, opening the front door. "I would offer to invite you in, but my house is pretty much empty until at least tomorrow." Fleur says smiling shyly, not really wanting the day to end just yet.
"Hey, don't worry about it. I know what it's like to move and having to get furniture and stuff like that. I am so impressed that you are doing this alone. I uh, don't want to be too forward, but please let me at least make sure you make it up the stairs safely." Rachel says embarrassed, wanting to stretch the time with this enigmatic blonde as much as possible.
"Thank you very much Rachel." Fleur says offering her hand, and guiding Rachel in her house first.
"Good evening Mistress Fleur. Welcome home. How can Trixie help?" An house elf asks, appearing from nowhere.
Rachel turns around at the sound of the voice and nearly faints at the sight of her. What looks like a naked Chihuahua with giant bat-like ears wearing a toga just spoke in French. "Fleur, please tell me I'm not hallucinating and that you can see that toga wearing Chihuahua as well?" Rachel says, freaking out.
"Merde! I am going to kill them. Trixie stay put and do nothing" She quickly tells the house elf. "No Rachel, you're not hallucinating. I can explain everything." Fleur says as calmly as she can. "This will take some time, so if it is all right with your fathers, you could stay here and I promise that I will tell you everything." Fleur asks, nearly begging.
Rachel nods, still staring at the house elf. She pinches herself a couple of times just to make sure she isn't dreaming, and when she is sure of it, she pulls her phone out of her pocket and quickly comes up with an excuse why she can't go home and puts the phone away. She knows she should just run away screaming, never to return, but the curiosity is killing her. There just has to be a logical explanation for this, and then she wonders if there is any history of mental illness in her family.
"Come with me please. I don't have any place to sit but my bed. This will take a while, and I'd like for both of us to be as comfortable as possible." Fleur says, slowly guiding Rachel towards the stairs and to her bedroom.
Once again, Rachel nods and follows Fleur. "Will you be ok going up the stairs?" Rachel can't help but ask, still aware that the woman in front of her is injured.
"I shall be all right. I know I am asking a lot, but please trust me." Fleur says, touched by the fact that even though Rachel is shocked, she still remembers she is injured.
TBC