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No more new Glee until September. I'm sad L If you're sad too then I hope this cheers you up a teensy bit.

Chapter 12: Non Dates and Near Disasters

"He's late for your date." Noah commented and Rachel frowned at him, smoothing out invisible creases on the sleeves of her sweater.

"How many times do I have to explain this to you, Noah? Finn and I are not going on a date." Rachel very much wished that they were but she wasn't willing to push Finn just yet; she'd wait a couple of weeks for him to get his act together and then she'd ask him to define the nature of their relationship.

"Two people who want to fuck each other, spending time together in public. Sounds like a date to me." Noah shrugged, keeping his gaze on a repeat of some basketball game playing on the television in the lounge, Evie resting in his lap and a bag of chips at his side.

"And anyway, Finn isn't technically late." Rachel said, ignoring his comment (she often found this was the best way to cope with his barbaric language). "We decided he'd pick me up around eleven thirty. Around, Noah. Eleven thirty-seven is still close to eleven thirty."

"So at what time is he late then? You know, just so I can tell you."

Rachel turned to glare at him but he couldn't see her because he was still watching the game.

"Are you actually going to do anything apart from laze around on the sofa and eat your bodyweight in junk food today, Noah?" She queried, coming to stand in front of the television. "I know that you're looking after Evie but today is your day off. You should make the most of it – it's a lovely day outside."

"Berry, you just said it yourself; it's my day off. I've either been doing school shit or working at the garage for the last six days. Today, I plan on doing fuck all. Now move your tiny ass out of the way of the game."

Rachel raised her chin slightly and gave him an expectant look. Noah stared at her blankly. "Manners cost nothing, Noah," she chimed and he rolled his eyes.

"Fine. Please get the fuck out the way of the screen."

Rachel knew that wasn't perfect, but it was a start and she started to walk away. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Noah struggling to open the chips with one hand while he supported Evie so she moved forward to take the baby girl from him.

"Thanks," he muttered as she cradled the girl carefully in her arms and Rachel smiled at his voluntary use of polite manners.

Rachel had found her fears of holding a young baby dissipate the more she'd had to take care of Evie. Now, she had absolutely no qualms in looking after her; whether that be feeding, changing, bathing, getting her to sleep or other areas of care.

The experience of taking care of a newborn baby was extremely tiring and it wasn't helped by the nerves she felt every afternoon when the members of the glee club took turns in babysitting Evie.

The first week of Operation Babywatch had gone pretty smoothly. They'd only had one sticky moment where Evie had woken up as they'd pushed her through the corridor (concealed in the trolley). She and Noah had been forced to duck into an empty classroom and gently soothe the little girl back to sleep with some gentle singing of 'All I have to do is dream' by the Everly Brothers (Noah said that he hates the song but Rachel's pretty sure he's lying).

Noah only had four weeks left of his part time paternity leave left and Rachel hoped that he would have enough money to pay for child care after that. Her fathers had helped him to fill in some government forms in order to claim money to help him support Evie but that would also take a couple of weeks to come through.

However, it wasn't as though Noah and Evie were living like paupers at the moment. Her fathers had rejected any talk about him paying any rent and they'd point blank refused his money when he tried to help pay for the groceries. Rachel knew that Noah was uncomfortable with relying on others to help him with Evie but he was a lot more relaxed about it than he had been a couple of weeks ago.

Rachel turned at the sound of a car engine coming to a rest outside the house. She walked quickly to the window and saw that yes, it was Finn.

"Is it Hudson?" Noah asked as she walked back towards him

"Yes," she replied, unsure what to do with herself.

"'Bout fucking time," Noah mumbled and reached up to take Evie from her.

"Noah, do I…do I look alright?" Rachel queried, motioning to her person.

His eyes raked over her body and she was sure his gaze lingered on her chest more than any other part of her and she blushed.

"Yeah, you look fine." He answered, shrugging. Rachel tried not to frown at his unenthusiastic response. "Relax, Berry, Finn'll still like you even if you wear a sumo-wrestling outfit."

Rachel wrinkled her nose. "Thank you, Noah…I think."

There was a knock on the door and Rachel walked towards it slowly so it didn't seem like she had been looking out for Finn for the last half an hour.

"Hi," Finn greeted as she opened the door.

"Hi," she replied, a happy smile on her face. "Would you like to come in for a few minutes?"

"Sure," he shrugged before taking a step inside and toeing off his shoes. "Hey, man," he called out to Noah, noticing him sat on the couch.

Noah raised a hand in greeting and said, "S'up, dude," but didn't take his eyes off of the screen. Rachel shook her head at his rudeness.

"Would you like a drink?" she asked Finn and he requested a soda.

"I want one too," Noah yelled after her as she walked towards the kitchen. "With ice."

She turned and glared at the back of his head. "Would you like ice too, Finn?" she asked sweetly.

"Yeah, please." He replied and she smiled at his use of good manners.

"See, Noah, Finn doesn't have to be told to say please." She declared.

Finn sat down on the couch next to Noah and Rachel was sure she heard Noah mutter, "Pussy," at him.

She sighed but retrieved two sodas with ice in them from the kitchen nonetheless.

She handed Noah his glass and he muttered a, "Cheers, B," and she wondered why he didn't find it difficult to thank her, but often forgot to say please.

Finn was holding Evie so Rachel placed his soda on the coffee table (on a coaster, of course) and he thanked her but kept his attention on the television too.

Rachel frowned. Was a magical spell cast over teenaged boys that made them ignore anybody else in the room once a sports programme appeared on the television?

"Have you had a pleasant weekend, Finn?" she asked, trying to get his attention away from the basketball game.

"Yeah, it's been okay." He replied, sparing her a glance before returning his gaze to the TV. "I can't believe his misses this shot," Finn muttered to Noah and the other boy nodded solemnly.

Rachel crossed her arms and sank into a nearby armchair. Yes, she wanted Finn to pay attention to her but she knew that he and Noah's friendship had only recently become tangible once more and she didn't want to disrupt that.

However, once five minutes had passed and the only conversation had been in regards to the game, Rachel decided that enough was enough. She'd waited months to go on an outing (not a date) with Finn and she wasn't going to let basketball stand in her way.

The only problem was that she didn't want to be a buzz-kill and pull Finn away from something that he was obviously enjoying. She'd read somewhere that if you stared at someone long enough then they'd become aware of it. (This obviously didn't work on Finn because she'd been staring at him for the last five minutes and he hadn't looked her way once.) So she turned her gaze to Noah and waited. About fifteen seconds later she was pleasantly surprised that he looked in her direction.

He raised an eyebrow at her staring and she raised both her eyebrows and jerked her head towards Finn in response. He frowned and shrugged but she made her expression more severe, causing him to roll his eyes.

Finn was completely unaware of their silent exchange.

"Dude, why the fuck are you sitting here?" Noah asked Finn in his own, polite way. "Don't you and Berry have plans?"

Finn finally took his eyes off the television and glanced at Noah and then Rachel.

"There's no real rush, Finn." Rachel said, sweetly. "But if we want to check out what times the movie's showing we should probably leave soon to see if we can catch an afternoon viewing." She could see Noah rolling his eyes again but she ignored him.

"Oh, yeah, that's true," Finn agreed.

Rachel smiled. And people said she couldn't be subtle.

Finn carefully handed Evie back over to Noah before standing up. "See you later, man."

"Later." Noah replied.

Finn walked towards the front door and Rachel told him she'd be there in a minute.

"Bye, sweetheart," Rachel said, coming forwards to kiss Evie on the head.

"Berry, I know we're friends now but don't you think 'sweetheart' is a bit much?" Noah asked, smirking slightly as Rachel playfully hit him on the arm.

"You're ridiculous," she muttered, trying to ignore the blush she could feel on her cheeks as she pecked Evie's head. She wrinkled her nose. "And you need to take a shower."

"Whatever, Berry, this is the scent of pure man." He scoffed.

"Well, it stinks. But, um, thank you for helping me with…Finn."

"S'alright Berry. Dude's a bit clueless sometimes."

Rachel chuckled. As fond as she was of Finn, she knew that Noah's assessment was somewhat true.

"Goodbye, Noah."

"Bye, Berry. Have fun on your date."

Rachel sighed as she walked over to the front door too. That boy was incorrigible.

Once he'd been removed from the lure of the television, Finn was a lot more talkative and he and Rachel spent the journey to the town centre discussing their weekends so far. Rachel told him about a new piece of music her piano teacher had given her to learn and the difficult choreography she'd had to master in her dance class. Finn told her how many people he'd shot on Halo and what his mom made him for dinner.

Upon arriving at the Multiplex they decided that they would see the 2pm showing of 'How to Train Your Dragon'. But since there were a couple of hours before the film was due to start they crossed over to the mall.

Rachel suggested that they visit the music store to see if there was any sheet music of suitable duets that she and Finn could prepare for the glee club next year. There were seven that she thought were appropriate and Finn added another two of his own choice. Rachel also purchased a book of lullabies and other songs that were suitable for babies.

Next, Finn convinced Rachel to manufacture a toy bear with him (although she was only pretending to be reluctant. Who wouldn't want to Build a Bear?). Finn suggested that she make one for herself but Rachel decided that if anyone needed a bear then it was surely Evie.

They picked out one with honey-coloured fur and then proceeded to the next area.

"What sound do you think we should put in?" Finn asked, looking through the different selections. "An, 'I love you'?" He pressed the corresponding button and they both wrinkled their noses at the sickly sweet voice.

"No, I don't think so." She replied. "Oh, look! You can record your own message."

"You wanna do that then?"

She nodded.

"Okay, but, what are we going to say?" he wondered.

Rachel thought for a moment and then beamed at him. "We can sing something for her!"

They spent the next few minutes debating what they could sing that would only be ten seconds long (because that's how much would fit on the recording device) and be something that Evie would like.

"Right, are you sure you know what you're doing?" Rachel asked Finn and he nodded.

She pressed the record button and together they sang, "Love, love, love, love is all you need."

They listened back to themselves and Rachel grinned at him. "I think The Beatles was a very good suggestion, Finn."

They proceeded to the next stage to get their bear stuffed and Rachel picked out a small satin heart to be placed inside the bear. She'd made a wish with the heart (just as the store assistant had instructed her to) but she wouldn't tell Finn what she'd wished for because then it wouldn't come true, would it?

Their bear was stitched up but they decided to forego the dressing area as Rachel didn't think the bear needed any clothes.

And finally, it was time for them to decide on a name for the bear. This was a difficult decision because Rachel didn't want to pick something personal to herself; this was a bear for Evie. They came up with quite a few names but none of them felt right.

"How about Drizzle?" Finn asked and Rachel laughed.

"You're not going to let that name go, are you?"

"I think it's pretty," Finn said, shrugging.

She looked at the bear she was holding in her arms. A bear called Drizzle? It was an absurd suggestion but…she kind of liked it.

"Okay," she sighed. "You can call him Drizzle."

"Wait? Him? Drizzle's a girl's name." Finn reminded her.

"Drizzle is nobody's name, Finn. You made it up and you never said the name was gender specific."

"Yeah, but it was created with a girl in mind."

"But we've already decided that this is a boy bear. Finn, do you want the name 'Drizzle' to be a part of Evie's life or not? You know that Noah's never going to let you call her that." Rachel pointed out.

Finn sighed. "Fine, boy bear Drizzle it is." He relented.

With Drizzle bought for and safely enclosed in his box, Finn and Rachel decided that it was time for some lunch. They had just reached the food court when through hustle and bustle of a crowded area, Rachel could hear 'Defying Gravity' emanating from her cell phone. She sent an apologetic look to Finn and pulled the phone out of her purse.

"Hello?" she said.

"Berry?"

"Oh, hello, Noah. What's the matter?"

"Look, I don't want to get in the way of your date but Evie keeps throwing up and she's like seriously fucking hot and won't stop crying and I don't know what the hell to do." She heard the worry in his voice and it made concern creep through her bones.

"Okay, Noah, I'll be back as soon as I can but don't panic; apparently babies get sick all the time." She said in an as reassuring a voice as possible.

"Thanks, Berry. And I'm sorry that this is fucking up your date."

"It's fine, Noah, honestly. I'll see you soon."

"Bye, Berry." She snapped the phone shut and turned to Finn with an apologetic look on her face.

"You have to go?" Finn asked, looking disappointed. She felt the same way that he did. She'd been having a lot of fun spending time with Finn; he made her laugh, took an interest in the things she liked and said sweet things that made her blush.

"I'm afraid so. Evie's unwell and Noah sounds quite panicky. It's probably nothing serious but…" She trailed off. "I hope you don't mind."

"No, no it's okay, I understand." Finn replied. "Come on, let's go." He reached out and took her hand and she smiled at him, lacing their fingers together.

Puck let out a sigh of relief as he and Berry successfully entered the choir room without Evie being discovered in the trolley. They were on day nine of Operation Babywatch (Seriously, that name didn't sound any less stupid the more you said it) and there were sixteen days to go after this. Puck was relieved that they were nearly half way through 'cause this stealth thing was really getting on his nerves.

"There's still fifteen minutes until afternoon classes are due to start. You should go and see Mr Maguire about your paper on The Catcher in the Rye." Berry suggested. "I've told you I can't help you with that seeing as I've never read the novel."

He sighed. "Do I have to?"

"Well, if you want your GPA to improve then I would certainly recommend it, Noah. It won't take you long." She reached down and took Evie's car seat out from behind the cloth, his little girl was thankfully still asleep inside. "I don't mind waiting for Kurt to arrive."

Puck knew when he was fighting a losing battle and this? Was one of those times.

"Whatever, I suppose I'll see you later then."

Berry nodded. "Have a pleasant afternoon and evening at work, Noah."

He hefted his bag onto his shoulder and walked out of the room.

If he had any choice (and with Berry around he really didn't) he'd spend these minutes before lessons started relaxing, because having a newborn daughter was fucking stressful.

Luckily, Evie hadn't been seriously ill on Sunday. Berry had phoned her dads on the way back to the house and they'd suggested that it might be some trapped wind and they'd told she and Finn to pick up some gripe water (whatever the fuck that was). But whatever was in that stuff worked though because Evie was much better after that.

He hated that feeling he'd had of not knowing what to do. Berry's Dads had reassured him that night that this is stuff he'd learn about over time – no one became an excellent parent over night and it was when you thought you did know everything that life would come and bite you in the ass and show you that you didn't.

Once Evie had settled down and wasn't trying to scream everyone's ears off, Berry'd made a big show of presenting her with a bear that she and Finn had made (Finn had left by this point. Puck thinks the wailing, puking baby freaked him out a little). A bear called Drizzle. Seriously, his friends were fucking morons.

Her dad's thought it was adorable though, especially when they pressed its tummy and it started singing 'All you need is love' at them. Puck was going to have to have a word with Finn about how to act like a fucking man.

"So, you had fun on your date with Hudson today then?" he'd quietly asked her later that evening when they were all watching the film 'Hancock' together (She likes it for the romance, he digs it for the awesome fight scenes and because this dude is a total badass (at the beginning of the film anyway)).

She was sat next to him, a bowl of popcorn between them, and she sent him a small smile. "Yes."

"What? That's it? Berry, I don't think you've ever answered a question with one word before. This deserves some sort of a celebration!"

She rolled her eyes at him and took a handful of the popcorn. "I don't wish to discuss my love life with you." She whispered so that her Dads wouldn't hear.

"A-ha! 'Your love life', eh, Berry? So it was a date."

She bit her lip and he could still make out the flush on her cheeks despite the darkness in the room. He couldn't help noticing how sexy she was like that and he immediately tried to think of something else. He hadn't had sex in such a fucking long time (for him, anyway) and his thoughts were making him increasingly...uncomfortable sometimes and he really didn't want to be thinking about her that way anyway 'cause that might make things kinda weird.

"He asked me to be his girlfriend," she said so quietly that he almost didn't hear her.

"What?" he asked loudly and she immediately shushed him which he thought was a fucking stupid thing to do because it only got her Dads' attention even more.

"Everything alright?" Mr Berry number one (the one with glasses) asked.

"Yes, of course Dad," Rachel answered sweetly and her Dads turned their attention back to the screen.

There are a couple of minutes of silence before he asks, "You say yes?"

"Well...yes." she replies, popping a piece of popcorn in her mouth.

"Oh, cool. Well, good for you." He doesn't sound too sincere but he's pleased for them. He is. He's not fucking ecstatic about it or anything but they're his two closest friends and he supposes he wants them to be happy (she's done a lot for him recently and he'd kinda fucked up Finn's life with the Quinn thing) and if being together makes them happy, then he's happy, sort of – you know, as long as he doesn't have to see it. He has a feeling they'll be nauseating together.

He was nearly at Mr Maguire's office when his cell rang. He grabbed it out of his jacket and saw Berry's number on the caller ID. "What the hell, Berry, I spoke to you like two minutes ago."

"Noah," her voice is panicked and it instantly sets him on edge. "You have to find Jacob Ben Israel immediately."

He whirls around and quickly scans the corridor he's in. "Why?" he asks urgently. He can tell by the tone of her voice that this is important.

"He saw me with Evie in the choir room, Noah."

"Fuck!" he cursed and started moving quickly down the corridor, trying to keep an eye out for that Jewfro.

"Noah! What if he tells Principal Figgins or Coach Sylvester?" Her voice trembled and he could tell she was about to break down into tears.

"I'll find him, Berry, don't freak out. Just sit in Evie's room and turn the lights off. No one will know you're there." He instructed her as he rushed through the school. "I'll call you when I've found him."

"Okay," she said shakily and hung up the phone.

Shit, this was fucking bad. If that freak did manage to tell an adult about what he'd seen then Puck knew that he and Berry would be in a whole load of shit. He had to find Jacob first.

A couple of panicked minutes later Puck saw the back of him and raced forward. He grabbed Jewfro's shoulder and swung him round to push him against the lockers.

Jacob yelped in shock as Puck fisted his t-shirt and held him in place. "I don't know what the fuck you think you just saw," Puck growled in his most threatening voice, "but if you don't want your face to be anymore disfigured that it already is then I suggest you keep your mouth fucking shut."

Jacob blinked rapidly behind his glasses and swallowed nervously. "Your terms are perfectly reasonable and I would accept them if it weren't for the fact that...I've already told someone."

Fucking, shitting hell.

Puck was just about to haul his fist back to punch it in the little sneak's face when he felt a tap at his shoulder and a familiar voice said, "Puck?" With a feeling of dread, Puck turned around to face Mr. Schuester. The Spanish teacher didn't look pleased. "Can I have a word?"

Ten minutes later, both Puck and Berry were sat in Mr Schue's office. The fact that there was no sign of Evie made him both worried and relieved (if that's even possible).

"So, where's Evie?" Mr Schue asked casually, taking a seat at his desk.

"She's with her babysitter," Berry explained. "We know it's against the rules, Mr Schue, but due to time restraints, the only feasible way that the babysitter can collect Evie is for them to get her from us at school. Noah brings Evie in at lunchtime and the babysitter takes her from then until I collect her after school."

"So, you just sit with Evie in the choir room until her babysitter comes to collect her?" Mr Schue asked doubtfully.

Puck had to admire Berry's ability to twist the truth to a teacher like that. Strictly speaking, nothing she'd said was a lie and the way she'd told it didn't make it sound quite as bad as it really was (that students were secretly babysitting Evie in a large cupboard with 'borrowed' school property.).

"Well, yes. That's why Evie's no longer with me. You didn't think I'd leave a three week old baby on her own somewhere, did you?" Berry asked, horrified.

"No, of course not." Mr Schue sighed, although Puck thinks he must've thought that a little bit. Where else did he think Evie was?

Puck assumed that Jacob had only seen Berry and Evie together in the choir room and not discovered Evie's secret room because otherwise it'd be a whole lot more obvious what they were really doing. And he really fucking hoped that Kurt turned up in time to take Evie because if he hadn't...then where the hell was his daughter?

"Look, Mr Schue. We know it looks dodgy," Puck said. He thought it was time he inputted something into this conversation and didn't let Berry do all the work (and, so you know, he didn't look guilty) "But this whole baby thing came out of the blue; I've got fuck all money right now," (he ignored the frown Schue shot his way for swearing), "I'm working my ass off to get my grades up and get some money to take care of my kid. This was the only day care I can afford with the money I've got and at such short notice. And it's not like what we're doing is hurting anyone."

He was pretty proud of himself for that speech. Again, pretty much everything he said was true; he has no money (yet) which means that the only babysitting he can afford right now comes free. And nobody is getting hurt through this. He hoped that Mr Schue could cut them some slack.

Mr Schuester looked at them both carefully. Puck was sure that their glee director knew that there was more to this than they were letting on but Puck reasoned that it was Mr Schue's fault for not interviewing them separately. Puck's pretty sure that if he had then the whole truth would've come out. Puck had completely taken the lead from Berry on this one.

Mr Schue sighed and rubbed his forehead with his hand. "You're going through a tough time. Both of you. I can't really understand what it's like for you to try and raise a baby whilst worrying about money and school work and jobs and you're not even out of high school yet!" He chuckled slightly and Puck wondered whether that was a good sign or not.

"It is hard," Berry agreed. "But we want to do it. For Evie." She said earnestly and Mr Schue's expression turned very sombre.

"There's no other way you can get someone to watch over Evie?" he asked.

"Not at the moment." Berry admitted. "Noah has part time paternity leave until three weeks on Monday and then he has to attend school full time. Hopefully, by that point he should have been paid by Mr Hummel and he can employ someone to watch over Evie for the whole day. But until then, this is our only option if Noah still wants to attend school."

"Just three more weeks?" Mr Schue asked. Puck and Berry nodded. Mr Schue sighed again and then nodded, reluctantly. "Jacob must have been mistaken then. Perhaps he needs to go to the optician to have his prescription checked."

Berry beamed at him. "Thank you, Mr Schuester. You have no idea how grateful we are."

"Yeah, cheers Mr Schue." Puck agreed. "We'll make it up to you somehow."

Mr Schuester shook his head. "There's no need. Just...promise me you'll be careful."

Berry nodded eagerly. "Of course we will be and even if someone else discovers this then we won't tell anyone that you were aware. We don't want to get you into trouble for helping us."

"Well, hopefully it won't come to that." Mr Schuester said and Puck agreed with him a hundred fucking percent.

"Um, if that's all, Mr Schuester, could we please get back to class?" Berry asked.

"Yes, of course." The Spanish teacher agreed and both Puck and Berry quickly got out of his office.

Puck noticed that Berry was shaking as they moved towards their classrooms.

"Where's Evie?" Puck asked the second he thought they were far enough away from Schue.

"Kurt has her." She explained. "He arrived just after I talked to you and I thought it would be best if I was discovered without a baby."

He nodded.

"Oh, Noah, that was so close," Berry breathed. "I honestly thought we were going to be expelled!"

"We were fucking lucky that Jewfro ratted on us to Schue." Puck admitted. "Anyone else would've kicked us straight out of this school."

Berry let out a strangled noise and Puck saw that despite her calmness in Schue's office, it looked like she was about to freak out.

"Hey," he said, putting his arm around her, so she didn't start like, hysterically sobbing in the middle of the corridor. "It's all right. Nothing happened. We got through that shit without a scratch."

He heard her chuckle and take a deep breath as they continued to walk down the corridor.

"Are we still going to do this for sixteen more days, Noah?" she asked and she sounded fucking exhausted.

"I think it's like you said. Unless I'm going to drop out of school –"

"-Which you're not."

"Which I'm not." He conceded. "Then I don't think we've got a choice."

"Okay then," she sighed. "Do you think we should tell the others what happened?"

"Did you tell Kurt?"

"No. But he could probably sense that something was wrong."

"I think it's better if they don't know." Puck said. "It'll make them nervous."

"I don't want to lie to them," she told him.

"It'll only be one of those omissy lies." He argued.

"A lie of omission? That's still a lie." She pointed out.

"Yeah, but what they don't know, won't hurt them." He reasoned.

"Fine," she sighed. "But I can't wait for this to be over."

"Sixteen days, Berry. Just sixteen days."

A/N Thank you for reading!

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. It shouldn't take quite as long for the next one to come up.

I think I've discovered that I can't write Finchel very well. It took me forever to write about their little non-date but the rest of this was easy! Weird. Luckily, Finchel won't be sticking around in this story for that much longer!

Oh, and I've never actually been to Build-a-bear so if any of that was inaccurate then I'm sorry! My sister's been a couple of times though (she made bears that look like Snape and Harry Potter, they're weird).

Anyho, let me know your feelings on this!

Lots of love,

Lil Drop of Magic

xXx