Chapter 9

Maybe our relationship isn't as crazy as it seems
Maybe that's what happens when a tornado meets a volcano
All I know is I love you too much to walk away though
Come inside, pick up your bags off the sidewalk
Don't you hear sincerity in my voice when I talk
Told you this is my fault
Look me in the eyeball

Artie watched as Rachel laughed and straddled Puck on the old bed. She was leaning down over him and kissing him, sweet and fiery at the same time, his hands skimming up her legs to her hips before Puck gave a jolt and sat upright, wrapping Rachel in his arms, his mouth slanting over hers, demanding and passionate.

"Cut," He hated to do it, they were good, great even, but he needed a better angle. "Don't move guys, I just need to deal with getting some more height."

"You need a chair on casters that someone could push in a circle around the bed," Rachel said thoughtfully as she looked over at him. "There's a computer chair, if we got Amita to push you?"

"Artie's light enough that she could," Puck said thoughtfully and hollered for his sister.

"Geez, loud much, I was only in the kitchen," Amita came down the stairs and screwed up her face when she saw her brother and Rachel. "Eww...I don't want to be involved in your freaky sex games Noah."

"We're making a music video," Rachel looked over her shoulder. "I asked if Noah and Artie would help. Artie's the director but he's also the camera man. We need some help."

"We'll put you in as assistant cameraman in the credits if you help out," Artie offered.

"And I'm paying in chinese food tonight," Rachel added an incentive.

"What do you need me to do," Amita moved closer to Artie curiously. Standing she was around the same height as he was sitting in his chair.

"I'm going to get on that chair, and get it higher than my wheelchair. Then I need you to push me and the camera in a circle around the bed so I can get some good shots of these two," Artie told her. "I'm not heavy so it won't be hard or anything I just can't do it myself."

"And I get my name in the credits and free chicken fried rice?" Amita was grinning and Artie grinned back. With dark curly hair and hazel eyes like her brother her grin was just as infectious as Puck's was.

"Yeah, but you'd have to stick around in case we need more help," He qualified the offer. "We wanna finish up tonight. Tomorrow we lay down the tracks for the video. Then we'll start editing all our footage together and we'll do any pickup scenes we need to finish it off."

"So I could help this weekend too?" Amita was eyeing the camera equipment like it was gold, "Like officially help?"

"Yeah if your mom says its all right," Artie looked at Puck who was wisely keeping his mouth shut at this point and Rachel who was smiling affectionately at the tween.

"She won't care, so long as I don't get in trouble," The twelve year old shrugged off that concern. "So what's the video about?"

"We'll tell you at dinner while the batteries recharge," Puck forestalled that explanation. "Right now, Artie you want help gettin' in the chair or are you good?"

"Probably need some help," Artie admitted with a grimace. "Mobile things aren't exactly stable enough for me to leverage myself onto them."

"It's cool," Puck patted Rachel's thigh and she slid off him so he could help.

Artie shook his head wonderingly, those two were really a little amazing. You'd think Rachel would be flinching at every touch but she had offered to strip down to her underwear and use body make up if it would help. She'd trusted both he and Puck that much. He'd taken Puck's glare as a 'no she won't and thanked Rachel but said that there was no need for her to wear fewer clothes than Megan Fox had.

"So you're gonna hold the camera high up or just on your shoulder," Amita asked him. "And maybe we should practice this once or twice before we turn on the camera?"

"Good idea," Artie nodded, "Lets make sure we got a clear path first and then we'll practice."

It had worked pretty well, Amita had gotten him rolling in a smooth circle by the fourth try and they'd been ready to turn on the camera. The result had been awesome even if Artie did say so himself and then the light had faded out of the windows. He'd gotten one last slant of sunlight dappling Rachel's shoulders as she lay across Puck's body and that had been gorgeous.

Plugging the camera in and charging the batteries had been a relief, and the food had been so welcome. Artie hadn't realized how hungry he was until Rachel had handed him a carton of moo shoo and he'd begun to devour it faster than Puck had gone after the beef and peapods.

"So what is the video about," Amita asked as she stuck a peapod in her mouth and chewed.

"You know that Eminem song with Rihanna," Puck asked her. When Amita nodded Puck shrugged, "We're doin' that song. So we're makin' our own version of that video."

"Why?" Amita shook her head, "I mean it's a great song an' all, just don't get why."

"Because," Rachel pulled up her sweater and showed Amita the greenish yellow and blue bruise fading on her stomach. "My ex-boyfriend beat me. And I want to make sure it doesn't happen to you or anyone else."

Amita's eyes had gone wide and Artie knew his face was a little bug eyed himself as he stared at that ugly mark on Rachel's perfect skin. "Yeah, so she asked me at the end of last week," He explained. "I asked your brother if he'd be the guy in the video and we're both gonna rap. Rachel's gonna sing the Rihanna part."

"Can I listen?" Amita looked at Rachel and her brother and Artie grinned, supposedly he was in charge of this video but he wasn't the one she was asking for permission.

"I don't mind," He offered looking at the other two. Rachel wouldn't mind, it was Puck who was the dark horse. Amita's brother just shrugged and Rachel grinned, "I guess you can listen then." He forked more moo shoo into his mouth and shrugged.

"I can? Sweet," Amita gave a triumphant fist pump before she began to plow through her chicken fried rice.

Artie laughed and looked at his two stars, "So I'm thinking after dinner we switch out your clothes... put you two under the sheets."

"Put Noah on top of me," Rachel suggested, "I can get down to my underwear, push the bra straps down, it'll look like I'm naked." She slanted a teasing glance at Puck, "If you can handle that."

"I'll let you know if I need ice water thrown on me," Puck drawled the words out with a smirk. "There's a reason we ain't doing this in my room."

"Yeah, it isn't big enough," Artie chuckled. "So I was also thinking we use lighting to make it obvious that its night, to make it look like you two are actually living together."

"Well we got a lot of the footage of us storming through halls and slamming doors," Rachel mused, "About the only thing we haven't done is make out at school or fight on the football field."

"Lets get our scenes for tonight done, we can go over the footage we have on Sunday after we get the tracks laid down," Artie shook his head. "If we need more footage we'll film it next week."

"I can help then right?" Amita looked at him this time and Artie grinned.

"I'll make you my official director and cameraman assistant," He told her as he finished his moo shoo and broke open a fortune cookie.

Puck grinned and looked at Rachel, "You ready baby?"

"As I'll ever be," She shrugged. "It's nothing you haven't seen before."

"Yeah well," Puck was actually blushing a bit and Artie stared, he couldn't help it.

"What the hell man?" Artie threw half of his fortune cookie at the bigger guy. "What have you been doing?"

"Nothing wrong," Rachel defended her friend. "Noah hasn't done anything but tell me the truth. I made him look. I wanted to know..." She took a deep breath and stared right at Artie. "I wanted to know if he'd ever think I was beautiful again, if he saw me all black and blue."

"Well he'd better have told you fuck yes," Artie snapped. "As if you could ever be anything but, even with St. James' fists turning you colors."

"Pretty much what I told her," Puck threw the cookie back at him and stood. "C'mon baby, lets get changed into something makes us look nekkid," He leered teasingly. "Give Rachel five minutes and I'll come up and help you get down the steps Artie," Puck tossed the words over his shoulder as he followed Rachel down to the basement.

"Why does he need to be down there with her?" Amita was busy finishing her rice and eating her fortune cookie. "I mean if he's just going to come back up..."

"Most likely he wants to make sure she's all right," Artie explained quietly. "Your brother's... he's... its hard to explain. Rachel's important. I've never seen him like this with anyone else."

"Yeah duh," Amita rolled her eyes. "He's gah gah over her." She wrinkled her nose a bit, "That girl Santana, he used to send her down for soda when she was half naked. And he called her Satan sometimes, or babe."

"But he'd never do that with Rachel," Artie nodded. "And he'd never take the chance of me seeing her naked. I think he might legitimately kill me if I made a move in that direction."

"Damn right I would," Puck said as he entered the kitchen again. "Amita shove all this stuff in the fridge an' by the time you get downstairs you won't have to look at me bare-assed."

Amita made the required 'eww' face but began to put the leftovers away while Puck helped Artie down the stairs.

Rachel was lying on the bed with the sheet tucked up under her arms, for all appearances she looked as if she were nude under the sheet. Artie took a moment to enjoy the contrast between the white sheet and Rachel's olive skin. A colored sheet wouldn't have looked nearly as good. Puck growled and Artie jerked his eyes away, "Sorry man, it's a good visual, camera wise I mean."

"Yeah I know how fuckin' good she looks," Puck growled as he jerked off his clothes and tossed them on the table on top of Rachel's. He grabbed the camera and checked the batteries. Artie watched as Rachel shifted over some and made room for Puck who was turning on the lamp near the door. "All right baby, comin' in," He slid into the bed and propped himself up on one elbow looking down at her with a grin.

Artie grabbed the camera and turned it on, not bothering to unplug it, filming the muscular boy with the mohawk smiling down at the tiny dark haired girl. "That's an awesome shot right there," He praised. "Dude, touch her shoulder or something, just something a little sweet, the calm before the storm."

"Gotcha," Puck bent his head down to Rachel's shoulder and kissed it, his hand on her waist over the sheet, drawing the fabric tight against her body. Artie watched as Rachel's hand drew up behind Puck and came into the camera's view on the back of his neck, her eyes drooping with pleasure. "So beautiful baby," Puck murmured. "Want you so bad."

"That's good," Artie murmured. "You two are giving off sparks practically," He glanced over his shoulder as Amita came down. "Okay cut for a second," Artie looked at Amita, "Can you push my chair slowly towards the bed, and turn it so we get them from the side?"

"I'll do my best," Amita nodded.

Artie grinned and unplugged the camera, turning it back on, "Okay guys, action, Puck you're going to slowly come over Rachel, cheating your profiles towards the camera a bit but I want the two of you in a hot and heavy clinch." After a week of intensive work Rachel and Puck knew each other disturbingly well, and their chemistry was amazing. Puck knew exactly what to do, he rolled over onto Rachel slowly, one of her arms coming up around him, while his arm closest to the camera slid up under her shoulder. The two of them had learned how to keep extraneous limbs out of the camera shot while giving the right impression. As Artie filmed and Amita pushed him closer to the bed Puck and Rachel embraced, kissing passionately, bodies slowly shifting against each other, as if they were going to have sex.

Artie noticed though, the muscles in Puck's arms and back were bulging with tension and knew the football player was keeping his weight off Rachel's bruised ribs, "Cut," He said as his chair halted beside them. "Puck if you can't put your body weight on Rachel it's going to show in the shot eventually," He told the boy. "Seriously, see if she can handle it. If it hurts too much we'll try an overhead shot. I can get up on a table to get the right angle. That might actually work for the rest of this... the two of you side by side, legs obviously tangled up, kissing and touching a bit."

"Noah, go ahead," Rachel nodded. "I've told you my ribs aren't that bad. See how I do."

Puck eased his hips down to hers first and when she nodded began to lower his torso stopping when she hissed in dismay, "Yeah this ain't gonna work baby." He shook his head. "Stay here and let's get Artie situated up high." He pressed a kiss to her lips, seemingly forgetting that Artie and Amita were watching and pushed himself out of the bed, carefully making sure Rachel stayed covered.

Artie chuckled as Amita hid her eyes, "Amita if you could plug the camera back in I'd appreciate it." She scurried to do it as Puck began to figure a way to get Artie and the camera up high enough for the shot he wanted.

Author's Note: So Artie POV because I wanted a slightly objective look at our duo. I don't know a lot about filming but I do know that lighting and camera angles are important. Otherwise everything starts looking stale and static.

Thanks so much for all the reviews and support. We're going to ease away from pure reality in the next chapter I think simply because I am condensing this and I don't want it to go on for a timeline of years in the story. Plus...there are times we do things that aren't strictly healthy in an attempt to get better. And just because we want them so badly. And that's the only hint ya'll are going to get.