Disclaimer: I do not own the Glee world

Hi everyone! Thanks for the reviews and such! A special mention to Stephlorhaze who made a point about Evie's name that I totally stole and put in the story!

Hope you enjoy this slightly longer chapter!

Chapter 7: Glee Club Unity Card

Puck opened the front door to the Berry's household using the spare key that she had given him. He glanced at the lounge but couldn't see Berry or Evie. Evie. It still felt weird to call his daughter by an actual name. He really liked the name though; it was kinda cute. Normally, Puck pretended that the word cute didn't exist (it was not a word for a badass to use) but there were a different set of rules for where his daughter was concerned.

He also hoped that his mom would like that he'd sort of named Evie after his Gran. Maybe his mom could bond with her over it. Not only that but he also liked what Berry had said about Eve being the first woman because, after a bit of thinking, Puck realised that Evie was (and always would be) the first girl in his life. He obviously didn't share this thought with anyone else because dude, he was a fucking stud and studs didn't have airy-fairy thoughts like that.

His ears detected the faint sound of someone singing upstairs and he supposed he shouldn't be so surprised. This was Rachel Berry's house after all. He climbed the stairs and knocked on the door to her room. The music and singing was quite loud here and he guessed she couldn't hear him as she didn't reply. He knocked again but she still didn't say anything, so he just opened the door.

She's in love!
She's in love!
Pounding heart! Ringing bells!
Look, I think she's even wearing brand new shells!

Rachel Berry was singing at the top of her voice with her back to him, facing Evie, who was lying in her bouncer. The little girl was awake (how could she not be with Berry being that loud) but she wasn't crying. Berry was doing stupid actions like pretending to ring a bell but then she indicated straight at her boobs and he raised his eyebrows. What the hell was this girl doing?


She's in love!
She's in love!
Glory be!
Lord above!
Gotta be she's in love!

"Er, Berry?" he said when there was a pause in her singing and the girl jumped and screamed in shock.

"Noah! You scared me," she scolded him. "Why didn't you knock first? I could've been naked!"

He blinked. A dozen images of her prancing around and singing in the nude flashed through his mind. Come on, he was a hot-blooded young stud and she was a hot Jew. What did you expect?

"Do you normally sing and dance naked?" he leered at her and she blushed furiously.

"Noah, I –"

"Whatever, Berry, I was only messing." He wasn't. But he didn't have the time for things to be weirder between them than they already were. "And I did knock. Twice. But you were too busy crooning about being in love to hear. What is this crap, anyway?" he asked pointing to the IPod that was still blaring out the cheesy song.

"It is not," she mouthed the word 'crap' and he rolled his eyes. "It's a song featured in the Broadway version of Disney's The Little Mermaid. It's part of a playlist of Broadway songs, past and present, that Quinn and I used to sing along to. I thought Evie would like to hear it seeing as she must have heard a lot of the songs whilst in the womb. This song is actually one of Quinn's favourites but I didn't really favour it too highly because it's an ensemble piece performed by Ariel's sisters and if I were to ever take part in a production of The Little Mermaid then I would expect to be playing the lead."

He suspected that she was babbling to cover her embarrassment of the 'naked singing' comment. But it was hard to tell with her; sometimes she just acted crazy with no clear motive.

"Evie isn't even three days old and you've already subjected her to a load of show tunes. Isn't that some form of child abuse?" He was only half kidding. He didn't want his daughter to grow up to be a clone of Rachel Berry. He didn't think he could put up with that shit.

"Actually, I was thinking of placing her in the media room and forcing her to watch my entire musical collection." She had that silly grin on her face that showed she was trying to make a joke. Emphasis on trying.

"Very funny, Berry." He dead panned. "But I think I'm going to remove my daughter from your presence just in case." He bent down, carefully removed Evie from the bouncer and started to make his way back downstairs.

"Wait!" she called as she followed him down the staircase. "How did your meeting with Principal Figgins go?"

"Figgins was only willing to grant me limited paternity leave."

"What? Why?" she asked.

He bit his lip and prepared himself for the lecture he knew he was bound to get. "I'm kinda failing."

"What?!" Berry yelled and he winced. "How is that possible? If your GPA is too low then you're not supposed to be able to participate in extra-curriculars."

"Berry, come on. You know that rule doesn't work in our school; Brittany and Finn are still part of glee and they're dumb as shit."

"Noah, that's no excuse. Your studies are vitally important to your future. I can't believe you've been neglecting them in this way."

"Look, Mom, I've just had stuff on my mind. I'll do a bit of work, notch my GPA up a couple of points and it'll be fine."

"And you're going to somehow fit that around taking care of your daughter and earning money for her upkeep are you? Oh, Noah." She sounded so disappointed and it really bugged him. She wasn't his mother so why should she get to judge him. And it's not as though he really cared what she thought of him. He was just worried she'd call Quinn.

"I'll work it out, Berry, don't sweat it. Figgins gave me one full week and four part time weeks of paternity. Then it's only a few weeks til Finals."

"You should've let me come with you." Berry said. "I can be very persuasive and threatening if the situation calls for it."

"I don't need you to fight my battles for me," he snapped. He walked into the lounge and sunk onto the sofa, Evie still safe in his arms. He went to put his foot up on the coffee table because he knew it'd annoy Berry but the table was covered in a mixture of snacks. He glanced around the room and saw there were a number of extra chairs in the room too.

"Berry, what's going on?" he asked over his shoulder. "Are you expecting company?"

She came into view, twisting her fingers nervously. "Yes, actually. I invited the rest of our glee club over. They still don't know that Quinn's left and I thought they had a right to know before school starts on Monday. I thought you could also introduce them to Evie. I'm sure they'd like to meet her."

He scowled at her. "And when were you planning on telling me this?"

"Um, right about now." She muttered to her shoes but then looked up at him and her eyes were big and round. "I didn't want to tell you too far in advance because you'd probably tell me not to. The people in glee are your friends and I'm sure they'd be willing to help you in any way that they can. You shouldn't push people away, Noah."

He shrugged. He supposed he didn't mind introducing his daughter to the others too much (he'd probably been a bit hasty in his earlier decision to not let any of them near his child. They weren't that bad.) He was just annoyed that Berry hadn't asked him about it first. Evie was his daughter after all.

"Whatever, Berry. You can do the talking though."

She beamed at him and started chattering away about how shocked and upset she thought they would be about Quinn's departure. A few minutes later the doorbell went and Puck told her he'd wait in the kitchen while she told everyone about Quinn and the baby. He didn't want to sit through that.

Rachel opened the door to see Santana and Brittany standing there. Out of everyone who could've arrived first, she wished it had been anyone but those two. Things between them weren't as bad as they were at the beginning of the year thanks to their participation in glee and Rachel's tentative friendship with Quinn, but Rachel knew that Santana at least, didn't really like her. She wasn't so sure about Brittany because it was hard to know what the girl was thinking…ever.

"Hi Santana, hi Brittany, come on in." She stepped back to let the cheerleaders through.

"Where's Quinn?" Santana asked as they followed her into the lounge. "I've texted her a couple of times but she hasn't replied."

"Um, I will inform you of Quinn's whereabouts once everyone else has arrived." Rachel said as the other two girls took seats. "Would either of you like a drink?" They both declined and all three girls sat in awkward silence for a moment before they were saved by the doorbell. Rachel sprang up to answer it, relieved to be out of their presence.

Over the next few minutes the rest of glee club arrived at her house and her lounge was suddenly full of people eating and chatting.

Rachel made her way to the centre of the room and cleared her throat, attracting their attention. "I know some of you have been wondering where Quinn is and well, there's no easy way to say this but…she's gone guys, she's left Lima."

There was a moment of silence as this sunk in.

"Like, on vacation?" Brittany asked and Rachel shook her head sadly.

"Her parents came to see her just after she'd given birth and they offered Quinn her old life back but, somewhere else of course. I think she said something about another State but I'm not sure."

There was more silence.

"She's not coming back?" Artie asked.

"I don't think so." Rachel replied. "I'm sorry guys. I probably should have told you sooner but things happened so quickly…" she trailed off and fidgeted with the edge of her blouse.

"I can't believe she just left without saying goodbye." Mercedes said, shaking her head. "I thought we were her friends."

"She wasn't in an emotionally healthy state of mind," Rachel explained. "She felt awful about giving up the baby and just wanted to forget about everything that happened here." She glanced over at Finn, who was sitting with his head in his hands. Rachel's heart wrenched for him. She knew that Finn still harboured feelings for Quinn, just like she herself had for him. This news was probably worse for him to take than any of the others.

"Well, if that's all you wanted to say then I'll be going." Santana said as she climbed to her feet. "Come on Brittany."

"No, wait," Rachel said, motioning for Santana to sit back down. "There's something else. But, I think it might be easier if I showed you. Hang on." She darted quickly from the room and headed off to the kitchen. Puck was sitting on a stool, speaking to the child in his arms.

"What are you telling her?" Rachel asked.

"All of the things that are annoying about you." He replied without missing a beat. "Did you tell them everything?"

"Yes," she lied. She didn't know if he was joking about the 'annoying' thing or not but either way she decided to get her own back. "They're waiting for you."

"Let's get this over with then," he sighed and she followed him back to the lounge.

As they entered the room there were gasps and shocked expressions all round.

"Oh, my Gucci," Kurt breathed, holding a hand against his chest.

"Can everyone else see a tiny baby in Puck's arms or am I just hallucinating again?" asked Mike.

Puck glared at Rachel. "You told me you'd told them."

"Oops, my mistake." She grinned at him. "You can add that to your list of annoying things about me."

Puck was about to respond when a figure got up and walked towards him It was Finn. Rachel saw Puck take a step backwards – he and Finn were barely on speaking terms since babygate a few months ago.

"Is that…her?" Finn asked hoarsely, pointing at the baby. "Is that Drizzle?"

Puck nodded, frowning in distaste at Finn's pet-name for his daughter.

"Her name's Evie." Puck told him tersely. Finn just stared at the little girl.

"Do you want to hold her, Finn?" Rachel asked and both boys looked at her.

"Oh, I don't think –" Finn began to back away.

"No, dude, it's ok." Puck said and walked towards him, holding his arms out slightly. "Take her."

Finn took a deep breath and nodded. Puck carefully transferred his daughter over and Rachel didn't think she'd seen anything so touching in her life. Her eyes were tearing up and everything.

"Hi, Evie," Finn said softly. "I'm Finn. You know, you're so much more normal looking than I thought you'd be. You're like a real person."

Finn looked up at Puck, who was nervously scratching at the back of his neck. "She's cuter than I thought she would be too, you know, considering you're her father."

There were a few chuckles in the room and everyone seemed to relax slightly.

"Dude, not cool," Puck said, but he was grinning.

"So what does this mean exactly?" asked Artie. "Are you just looking after her until the adoption is finalised?"

"No, I'm keeping her." Puck said. "At least I will if somebody lets me." He shot an annoyed look at Rachel but she stood her ground.

"What do you mean?" Matt asked.

"Out of concern for the both Noah and Evie I decided to keep the option of adoption open for a little bit longer." Rachel explained but the others just looked back at her blankly.

"And that means…?" Kurt questioned.

"She's going to try and take Evie away from me if she thinks I'm not doing a good enough job of bringing her up." Puck said.

Everybody's faces turned towards Rachel in shock. "How would that even be possible?" asked Tina.

"Girl, that's not even the issue here." Mercedes said, sparing Tina a glance before focusing on Rachel again. "Honey, what makes you think it's any of your business who brings up that baby?"

"My actions resulted in Quinn leaving; if I hadn't phoned her parents and asked them to come visit her, she would never have left and Evie would be with her adoptive parents now."

"But…you're not Evie's mom," Brittany stated, but in such a confused tone that it came out as more of a question.

"Well, no." Rachel conceded.

"And Puck is Evie's Dad." Brittany continued, sounding slightly surer of herself. "So shouldn't the decision be up to him?"

Rachel opened her mouth to respond but closed it again, unsure what to say when everyone was staring at her so disapprovingly.

"When Brittany out-smartens you in terms of logic, you know you're fighting a loosing battle, Berry." Santana sniped and Rachel crossed her arms defensively.

Over the next few minutes Rachel tried hard not to sulk as the others took turns to hold Evie. She thought it was really quite rude of them to disagree with her after she'd invited them into her home. Rachel supposed she shouldn't be too surprised that they couldn't see that her intentions were good; they were always so quick to assume the worst of her.

"So, who's going to be looking after her when you're at school?" Artie asked Puck.

"That's a good question." Puck grumbled, running his hand through his 'hawk. "I don't exactly have the funds for day care – I don't even have a job until the temperature starts to heat up a bit."

"That blows," Mike said, clapping a hand on Puck's shoulder.

"Yeah, I know. Figgins has given me a bit of paternity leave but unless I can find someone to watch Evie then I'm not even going to be able to get a part time job to get some extra cash."

"Y'know," Kurt began, "my Dad's been asking me if I want to help out in the garage recently and, of course, I turn him down every time because my skin would not respond well to that sort of exposure. I could always ask him if he'd be willing to take you on."

"Well, that'd be great but I still need to find someone to watch over Evie; I can't exactly take her to work with me, can I?" Puck pointed out.

"As long as you work outside of school hours then one of us can look after her." Rachel said, immersing herself into the conversation once more. "She's not that hard to look after."

A couple of people exchanged nervous glances and Kurt wrinkled his nose. "I don't know, Rachel. Babies aren't exactly the 'in' accessory of the moment." He said.

Puck frowned at him. "Are you comparing my daughter to a purse?"

"No," Kurt said, drawing out the word. "A designer purse."

Puck glared and Rachel sensed Kurt might need a bit of an incentive to agree.

"How about you get to decide what Evie wears each day?" Rachel dangled the offer in front of him and Kurt considered for a moment.

"Fine," he relented. "But unless you've got some more fashionable outfits for her tucked away somewhere, I'm going to have to do some serious shopping."

"She's 2 days old," Puck pointed out.

"That doesn't mean she can't look fabulous!" Kurt turned to Mercedes. "Want to help me storyboard some outfits?" Mercedes agreed and they immediately started talking about what colours would suit Evie's eyes best.

"I don't mind watching her one afternoon," Brittany volunteered. "I like children."

Rachel raised her eyebrows. She wasn't sure that Brittany babysitting a newborn was a particularly safe idea.

"I'll watch with her," Santana offered. "But only because she's Quinn's baby too."

"Um, thanks," Puck said, uncertainly.

The others all agreed to offer their services and Rachel beamed at them, glad that the club had all banded together to help one of their own.

"What will you do if you can't afford day care when you're at school part time?" Rachel asked. "Figgins only gave you one whole week off."

"Shit, I dunno." Puck frowned. "Sneak her into classes?" The others laughed but something suddenly occurred to Rachel.

"When exactly do you have to be in lessons?" she asked Puck.

"In the afternoon." He replied. "I get the mornings off but have to be in for my afternoon classes. Why?"

Rachel did some quick calculations in her head and realised it could definitely work.

"We can take care of Evie." She said simply and the others stared at her.

"Why do I get the feeling I'm not going to like whatever crazy scheme you've got in your head?" asked Santana.

"Look, between the ten of us we can absolutely cover for Noah in the afternoons thanks to our free periods." She explained "Throughout the week there isn't one time when we're all in classes in the afternoon."

"How do you know our schedules?" Matt asked a little unnerved.

"As captain of glee club I felt it was my duty to be aware of where you each ought to be at any given moment during school time in case I had to contact you."

"Well that sounds a little stalkerish for my taste." Kurt commented, a delicate eyebrow raised.

"That's not going to work, Berry – you know we can't be off site during free periods." Puck pointed out.

"We won't be off site." Rachel responded as the plan cemented in her head.

"I really don't think I'm going to like this," Santana sighed.

"We can use one of the side rooms in the choir room. No one ever uses them – and they're sound proof, so nobody will hear Evie crying. If we just keep some essentials stored there we should easily be able to look after her while Noah is in class."

"That sounds a little crazy, Rachel," Finn remarked.

"No, it makes perfect sense. Nobody will suspect anything because it'll just look like we're doing a bit of personal glee practice. As long as nobody sees Evie enter or leave then we should be fine. Plus, there's already baby stuff in the school that we can use."

"How d'you know that?" Artie asked.

"Noah and I already borrowed some." The others exchanged shocked glances and she hurriedly explained. "It's only until he has enough money to buy his own; nobody was using them."

"So you want us to use stolen equipment to secretly babysit a newborn baby in our free periods?" Mike asked in amazement.

"It's not stolen." Rachel insisted. "It's not even leaving the school grounds!"

"I don't think Principal Figgins is quite going to see it that way if we get caught," Tina pointed out.

"I don't mind doing the after school babysitting but this does seem to be pushing it, Rachel." Mercedes said. "Sorry, Puck."

"No, it's cool," Puck assured her before turning to look at Rachel. "It does seem a little extreme, Berry, even for you."

Rachel crossed her arms in a huff and was very close to stamping her foot. "I thought we were all supposed to help each other. All those songs we sang about being there for each other?"

"They were just songs, Berry," Santana stated.

"No they weren't," Rachel maintained. "When I sang those words I really meant them; you can all count on me to support you."

"Like about Puck bringing up Evie?" Mercedes asked, attitude in full flow.

Rachel bit her lip and glanced at Puck. He was watching her closely and she felt herself blush. "I'll completely drop all claims of responsibility I hold to Evie's upbringing if you guys agree to help out for a few weeks. It might not even take that long – Noah just needs to scrape together enough money to pay for child care. Each of you will only have to watch the baby two times a week at most. She sleeps a lot of the time too so it shouldn't detract from your studying time. And, I promise, that in the highly unlikely event that our secret babysitting is discovered, I will take complete and utter responsibility for the whole situation to save you all from punishment."

She watched them take in her words and fiddled nervously with the hem of her shirt.

"One of these days your psychotic schemes are going to go too far." Kurt said. "But you've played your 'glee club unity card' for the last time this year. I demand to see the rest of the girl's wardrobe immediately if we are going ahead with this."

Rachel smiled at him and nodded.

"I don't really do anything in my free periods so it won't hurt to watch over her." Mike contributed, shrugging his shoulders.

"Yeah, I suppose I don't mind either," Matt agreed.

One by one they all relented until there was only Finn left.

"Only if you make her middle name Drizzle," Finn said with that goofy grin on his face.

"Fuck, no." Puck responded, smiling too.

"Ah well, it was worth a try." Finn shrugged. "I don't see why nobody likes that name."

Rachel felt so elated she wouldn't have been surprised if she'd started to float.

"Guys, this is pretty good of you." Puck said, not one to really show his emotion.

"Yeah, well, you're in our debt for the rest of your life now," Santana pointed out.

Puck groaned. "Fan–fucking–tastic."

"Er, guys, we might have a bit of a problem," Artie stated as Evie started to bawl in his lap.

"Maybe she needs a change." Tina suggested.

"Oh! Maybe it's her first defecation!" Rachel exclaimed.

"That is so not something to be excited about," Kurt said, appalled.

"What are you talking about?" asked Finn.

"She might've had her first shit, Hudson," Puck explained, as he retrieved his daughter from Artie.

"Gross." Said Brittany.

"You should change her down here," Rachel suggested, "so they can see how to correctly change a diaper."

"That's a bit weird, isn't it?" asked Puck above his daughter's cries.

"Not at all. Some people learn best by seeing other people carry out the task. I'll just get the stuff." And with that she raced off to get the baby changing supplies.

"Ok," she said when she returned with the required items. "Those of you who have no experience in changing diapers, pay close attention."

Against their will the rest of the glee club watched Puck place the little girl on the changing mat.

"You know," Rachel started conversationally, "shortly after conception foetuses develop white fluffy hair all over their body. Then, during the last few weeks of pregnancy the baby sheds this hair and eats it. The hair - along with mucus, amniotic fluid, cells shed from the skin and intestine and bile - forms the babies' first poop after birth."

Puck paused in his movements and everyone stared at Rachel in horror.

"I am disturbed for life," Kurt cried, hiding his face in his hands.

"Why would you think it's ok for you to tell us that?" Artie asked, looking nauseous.

"Seriously, Berry. You're fucking messed up." Puck said as he continued to change his daughter.

"Ew, is it supposed to look like that?" Mike asked as Puck exposed Evie's soiled diaper. The substance was black and tar-like.

"I dunno." Puck stated. "Berry?"

"That's normal for the first bowel movement." Rachel assured him. "They'll turn orange, yellow, brown or green soon enough."

"How do you know all this?" Finn asked in awe.

"I just did some research when Quinn was pregnant." Rachel explained as she crouched down next to Puck.

"She's definitely not a flour baby, huh?" Puck said to her and Rachel grinned.

A/N Ok, a couple of things I need to point out; firstly that hairy-baby thing was totally taken from a British TV show called QI. As far as I know it's completely true! Gross, I know. Another thing is that according to research I did for this chapter some babies will have their first bowel movement a lot earlier than Evie did – it's different for each baby. And, if you wanna know what a babies first poo looks like you can see pictures on Wikipedia. How lovely!

Other things- the song Rachel sings at the beginning of the chapter is 'She's in Love' from the Broadway adaption of The Little Mermaid. Don't read anything into the choice of song – it's just that my sister really likes that song.

Kudos need to go to BluEyedGrl105 for pointing out to me that Puck would be entitled to some sort of paternity leave. If she hadn't told me that then he would've got none!

Anyway, slightly bad news in that I'm not likely to be able to update for a couple of weeks because I actually have a TON of work to do that I've been putting off to write Glee fanfiction! I wish I could write this all day but I can't if I want to pass my degree and get a job!

We were kinda down on reviews last time so I hope you can make an extra effort this chapter. Who knows, we might break the big 100 mark!

Hopefully, talk to you soon!

Love,

Lil Drop of Magic

xXxXx