Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner, but sadly you are anonymous! Dos Equis is Mexican beer and means Two X but the double meaning I was searching for was the reference to the fact that XX are the sex chromosomes for females. Rachel's anonymous carnation was from a female and the chapter was mostly about the glee girls party. See what I did there? So as promised, anonymous winner, you get five Rachel Berry gold stars! http : / i51. tiny pic. com/ 2 whgy 86. jpg You just have to take the spaces out of the url. It wouldn't save connected.
As for this chapter, to quote Agnes from Despicable Me, "IT'S SO FLUFFY!"
It was Mother's Day and Finn was in his living room watching his mother weep over the gift he had given her. At first he genuinely thought she was crying because it sucked. It wasn't fancy or sparkly like the small intertwined diamond hearts necklace Burt had given her and it wasn't even a spa gift certificate like Kurt had got for her. No, Finn's gift had been handmade and heartfelt at Rachel's suggestion.
It was five days before Mother's Day and Finn, Rachel, Kurt, Mercedes and Marie were at the Lima Bean getting coffee afterschool when Kurt mentioned the holiday.
"So I've been thinking about my Mother's Day gift for Carole. She's been so stressed over work lately I thought a ladies spa day would be just the relaxing thing she could use. What were you going to get her Finn?" Kurt asked as he sipped on his drink.
Finn stared wide eyed at his brother. "Mother's Day is coming up?"
Kurt looked at him blankly. "Yes Finn. It's this upcoming Sunday. Carole has only been hinting at it all week. Have you really not been paying any attention?" Kurt asked but Finn wasn't paying attention. Finn was wracking his brain trying to think of something to get his mother. He was coming up with nothing. "Finn?"
"I have no idea what to get her. I can't even remember what I got her last year. I'm a horrible son."
Rachel rubbed Finn's back. "You're not a horrible son. You're just panicking. We just need to think of her likes and interests," Rachel tried comforting her boyfriend.
"You could always get her some flowers and some jewelry or something?" Marie suggested as a question. Finn shook his head.
"That could work," he replied thinking about whether to get her a necklace or bracelet.
Rachel disagreed however. "That's so generic though. Most mothers will probably be getting jewelry. You need something that really comes from the heart and truly expresses how much you love your mom and how much everything she has done and continues to do for you means to you. Finn, you should make something for her."
"Oh definitely! I make my mom something every year. This year, I went to Color Me Mine and made a vase for the flowers I'm going to get her. My mom loves homemade gifts from me and my brother, even though sometimes they suck," Mercedes supplied.
Finn looked contemplative. "You think I should make her a birdhouse or something?" He looked from Mercedes to Rachel.
"Well, while I'm sure she would love it if you made a birdhouse for her I was thinking something a little more personal. I mean, she can't really use a birdhouse. Those are for birds. I was thinking maybe a photo scrapbook. I noticed boxes full of photos just sitting in your basement when we were helping Burt move stuff around down there last week. Maybe you could sift through those and pick out some happy memories to put on display for her." Rachel smiled as Finn smiled at her. He kissed her hard on the mouth and hugged her in appreciation.
"You are a genius." Finn turned to the rest of the table. "Seriously, my girlfriend is a genius. I gotta go." He stood up nearly knocking the table over in his excitement.
"Where are you going?" Rachel called after him as he walked away.
Finn turned around and walked back toward the table. "Do you know where I could get stuff to make this?" Rachel stood up and grabbed her bag.
"Come on, I'll help you. We can stop at Jo-Ann Fabric before we look through the pictures." Rachel said goodbye to the table and grabbed Finn's outstretched hand.
Over the next five days, Finn, with as little help from Rachel as possible, worked on the scrapbook for his mother. Once Rachel put the idea in his head, he couldn't get it out. When he looked through all the pictures he picked out ones that he felt would have the most meaning to his mom. This scrapbook was going to be all about her life and the happy moments in it. There had been so many sad and hard times he just wanted to remind her of all the good ones.
That was why when she began crying after opening it and looking through it Finn felt like he had failed. But then Carole looked at him and smiled; those weren't sad tears, they were happy tears. She liked his gift.
"Finn, this is the best gift anyone has ever given me. No offense Burt, Kurt. Your gifts were lovely too," Carole said as she gripped their hands. Burt and Kurt were both so proud of Finn that they didn't really mind that neither of their gifts had made Carole so happy she cried.
"You really like it?" Finn asked, skeptical still. Carole stood up from the couch and moved to hug Finn on the chair. Finn stood up and met her.
Carole looked up at her baby boy who really wasn't her baby boy anymore. He was a man now and he was going to be leaving her soon. As much as she liked Rachel and would be proud to call her daughter-in-law someday if she and Finn lasted, she couldn't help but feel a stab of jealousy. For so long Carole had been the only and most important woman in Finn's life, but now she had to share that spot with someone else. That was part of why Carole was so emotional over her gift. Finn had put so much thought into it to show her how much she still meant to him; that no matter what, she'd always be important.
Finn kissed his mom on the cheek and wrapped his arms around her. "I love you, Mom. Happy Mother's Day." It had been a very long time since Finn was Carole's 'little' boy but in that moment as he hugged her, he couldn't help but feel that way. Memories of her hugging him when he was sad or happy or just needed some human contact flooded his brain and he smiled.
Kurt and Burt stood off to the side watching the exchange and when Finn noticed Kurt getting all emotional he pulled him into the hug and Burt joined as well. Carole cried even harder happy tears as the three most important men in her life assaulted her with love. The group hug ended and everyone was slightly emotional and tearing up.
Carole sat on the couch again and Kurt and Burt went into the kitchen to work on Mother's Day brunch when the doorbell rang. "I'll get it," Finn said; he had a feeling he knew who it was.
"Hey Rachel!" he said brightly when he opened the door. Rachel walked into the house and kissed Finn hello.
"Did you give her your gift yet?" she asked impatiently.
"Yeah, just a few minutes ago. It made her cry," Finn said a little proudly. They walked into the living room.
Carole looked up from her scrapbook. "Oh, hello Rachel. I wasn't expecting you."
"I'm sorry to drop by without invitation. I won't be staying though; I don't want to intrude on your day with your boys. I just had a little something I wanted to drop off for you." Rachel handed a medium sized box to Carole.
"Oh sweetie, you didn't need to get me anything," Carole said, reluctantly taking the box from Rachel.
"Yes, I did. As you know, I have two gay dads. I've never known what it's like to have a mom to go to when I needed womanly advice or just someone to talk to. My experience with my own mother was rather disappointing, but you have always treated me like a daughter and made me feel welcome and I really appreciate that. And you've raised a great son and I love you for that too," Rachel explained. She looked at Finn and he smiled lopsidedly at her.
Carole's heart swelled at Rachel's words as she tore open the flowery wrapping paper. "Oh, a webcam!" Carole exclaimed. She was kind of confused. Carole wasn't one for internet chatting.
"I know it's kind of an odd gift for Mother's Day but I thought it would come in handy with Finn moving to New York. Once it's set up and you learn how to use it, you can see Finn whenever you want then. Maybe you two could plan weekly Skype chats or something," Rachel said looking between Finn and Carole. She thought her gift had been a great idea to keep mother and son connected.
Carole stood up and hugged Rachel tightly. "Thank you. That was so thoughtful of you. I love it."
"You're so welcome, Carole. Well, I should probably go. I'm sure I've infringed upon your family time enough for today," Rachel said as she pulled out of the hug.
"Don't be silly Rachel. If you aren't busy today you are more than welcome to spend the day here. You're just as much a part of this family now as Finn or Kurt is. You're the daughter I never had." Rachel started tearing up at Carole's words. "Did you see the scrapbook Finn made me?" Carole asked as she moved back over to the couch.
Rachel and Finn followed her and sat on either side of Carole. "I've seen a few pages that I helped Finn with but otherwise he was insistent upon doing it himself and keeping the finished product a secret."
Carole flipped open the scrapbook and the first page had some older photos of Carole with her parents as a kid. She and her father were playing in the backyard in one and in another she and her mom were baking a cake. The next page had a few more snapshots of her childhood and one full page was dedicated to her senior prom and graduation pictures. "My first boyfriend, Andrew; he was the nicest guy. If he hadn't of moved to California for college, we probably would have lasted much longer than just junior and senior year of high school. But then I wouldn't have met your father," Carole said as she looked over at Finn.
The next few pages showed Carole as a young adult with friends and the early days of her relationship with Finn's dad. The page after that had Carole and Christopher's wedding photos on it. "I like that one," Rachel said with laughter in her voice. It was a picture of Carole and Christopher shoving cake in each other's faces and laughing. They looked so happy.
After that came pictures of Carole and Finn. There was one of her holding a little newborn baby Finn in the hospital. She looked exhausted but happy but also somewhat sad. Finn's dad wasn't in the photo. Carole looked at Rachel. "Christopher had been called up before Finn was born. He didn't even get to see him until he was over a year old when he was on leave."
There were pictures of a surprisingly blonde baby Finn. Rachel thought he had the most adorable chubby cheeks and there was one photo in particular of him wandering down the hallway naked carrying a teddy bear that Rachel found absolutely precious. "Aw, baby got back!" Rachel squealed jokingly as she pointed the picture out.
"Didn't he just have the cutest little tush?" Carole exclaimed. "Finn hated wearing diapers around the house. He'd always pull them off and wander around naked." Finn's face felt very hot. He wondered to himself why he had chosen to include that particular picture.
Feeling uncomfortable having his mother and girlfriend discussing his butt in front of him, even if it was just his butt as a baby, Finn flipped to the next page. "Okay, moving on," Finn said quickly. Carole rolled her eyes at her son. The next page had a copy of the only picture of Finn and his dad together.
"You look so much like your dad, Finn," Rachel commented. "You're both very handsome."
"Christopher was very handsome. This picture doesn't even do him justice. Plus he was a charmer and the things he did to me…" Carole trailed off, realizing she was heading into creepy mom territory. Finn knew where babies came from and she had told him about being conceived on a pinball machine but he didn't need more detail than that.
The next few pages were of Carole and Finn over his childhood years. "Oh look, there I am!" Rachel said pointing herself out in their Class of 2008 middle school graduation photo. There were two middle schools in the district and Finn and Rachel had gone to the same one without Finn even realizing it.
"That's you?" Finn said in awe. How had Finn not even noticed her in the picture? He'd had to have looked at it a few dozen times at least. "You look so different now."
"My middle school years were very awkward. That's probably why you never noticed me. I was even shorter than I am now and had braces and an unfortunate haircut. You were Mr. Popular and I was the little freak, just like high school only middle school version. If you can believe it though I was actually taller than you until you had your growth spurt in 7th grade."
Finn had always been at extremes when it came to his height. Before he was so big he sometimes had to duck to enter rooms he had been the smallest guy in their class. When he tried out for the middle school football team in 6th grade the coaches were actually worried that he'd get crushed because he was so small. By 8th grade they were worried that he would be doing the crushing so they deemed he was too big to play for the middle school and suggested he try out for the JV team at the high school instead. He was second string JV quarterback in 8th grade then first string for JV freshman year then was moved to Varsity sophomore year.
"I can actually see that. It sucked being short enough to see up people's noses when I had to talk to them," Finn reminisced. Rachel was not amused.
"At least you grew. I'm still stuck down under the clouds."
Carole laughed and flipped the page again. These were pictures of Finn in high school. There were some of him that Carole had taken at his football games and a copy of the first glee club picture they had taken and other pictures from their performances. The next page was all Burt and Carole. Three whole pages were dedicated to their wedding as Kurt had insisted on photographing everything. Finn was glad he had insisted though. There were so many good pictures he had a hard time choosing which ones to include.
When he had gone through the wedding photos he had found one of him and Rachel dancing that made his heart ache in a good way. They both looked so happy and peaceful in the picture. Rachel's head rested on Finn's chest and his cheek was on her head, both of them wearing content little smiles. Their hands were clasped together over Finn's heart. As he stared at the picture he hoped that someday they could be photographed like that again at their own wedding. Then he found an empty frame in the box of photos and put the picture in it. It now sat on his bed side table, the first thing he saw when he woke up and last before he fell asleep.
The last few pages contained a few photos from over the past year and after that were some blank pages so Carole could add to it if she wished. Rachel was very impressed with how much effort Finn had put into the scrapbook. "Finn, this scrapbook is lovely."
"Thanks. I put blood, sweat and tears into it, literally. The scissors slipped a little when I was cutting a shape out and I nicked my thumb. It hurt a lot."
"Well, I appreciate all your pain Finn." Carole laughed and Kurt entered the living room.
"Hello Rachel, I thought I heard your voice. I set a place for you. Brunch is ready." Kurt waved everyone toward the dining room.
As they ate their brunch Finn thought about how important his mom was to him. He was going to miss her so much when he moved but he knew she was so proud of him for being accepted to college in New York City. Finn was going off to make something of himself and he couldn't think of a better way to prove that all her sacrifice had been worth it.