Disclaimer: I am just borrowing them for the fun of writing, BUT I do own the plot, ideas and original characters.
A/N: I edited this chapter, so all mistakes are mine.
A/N2: This story is mostly AU after Mash-up (1x08), but with some of the topics discussed in the later episodes and music used, I may sneak in a conversation, cover the same topic, or use the same song, but I will put my own twist on it and may use some of the music.
...
Rachel, Jessica, Kurt, Mercedes and Tina had choir the last period of the day, next to the Glee room, so after dropping his bag off at his locker, Puck headed down to the room to find them and a few new faces already there.
"Hey babe," he greeted.
Rachel jumped up and walked over to him, "hello Noah, how was your class?" She asked standing up on her tip toes to kiss him.
Puck smiled into their kiss as he hugged her and when their lips parted, he shrugged. "It was cool. Kind of the same as last year, but just more stuff," he told her, seeing a guy in a Letterman's jacket walk in, "you lost, Ryan?" He asked with a laugh, seeing the soccer player walk in.
The kid he was talking to stopped and laughed, "nope. I don't think so. This is where the Glee Club meets, right?" Ryan asked walking over to him.
Puck looked at him in shock, "yeah, are you joining?"
"Yes," Ryan nodded, "was thinking about joining last year, but I didn't know if you guys would want new members in the middle of the year," he admitted, "I've played guitar and piano since I was a kid and I sing once and a while."
"Welcome to the club," Rachel said holding out her hand, "I take it you two know each other?"
As Ryan and Rachel shook hands, Puck explained, "we had a few classes together last year."
"You're the guy with the accent that everyone talks about," Tina commented.
Ryan blushed a little, "yes, I am," he nodded, "my parents moved to London after I was born in New York and then we moved back a few years ago, but they got divorced so mum and I moved here to be closer to her family," he explained.
"Were you here all last year?" Mercedes asked. "Where did you get that jacket?"
"I was here all last year and I lettered in football during Spring sports, oh, I mean, soccer," he replied.
Ryan and Puck sat down and talked about their classes and Rachel continued her conversation with Jessica and Tina as others began to arrive; former members and new ones until everyone was there except their directors.
"...oh quit being a baby Benjamin Nathaniel. There is more to enjoy in this life besides football. You'll like it and have fun. Remember you need to lower your blood pressure?"
"I'm a football coach, not a choir director."
"But you know how to play the piano. You'll enjoy it."
"Come on, Ethan, help me out here. Don't make me do this," Ben begged.
"Whoa, hold up, I'm not getting into that discussion. I don't want to sleep on the couch tonight," Ethan commented walking into the classroom with a grin on his face, still dressed in his uniform.
"What's going on, dad?" Puck asked.
Ethan took a seat at the piano, "I believe we have another co-director," he laughed, "even if he doesn't want to be."
"Mom and Aunt Deborah are on dad because he needs to learn how to relax more. Music helps, so I suggested he come around Glee and they agreed. I mean, he's here anyway, so why not? Though I am surprised that he didn't go hide after school so she couldn't find him. That's why I figured I'd go home with you guys, but," she laughed, "apparently he didn't hide well enough," she finished as Deborah and Ben walked inside, "hey dad," she grinned.
Ben glared at her and plopped down in a seat, "hi."
"Oh, come on, dad, it'll be fun. Think of it as father-daughter time," Jessica added.
For a moment, Ben was still pissed about being there, but slowly he relaxed, "you have a point," he agreed.
With Ben finding a reason to be there, everyone settled down to wait and Rachel glanced at the clock, seeing it was just after three-thirty and was surprised Will wasn't there yet, "where is Mr. Schuester?"
"Making copies of some music in the office," Ethan replied, "saw him on my way in. He should be here anytime."
As if on cue, Will walked in with a stack of papers, "hey everyone, sorry I'm late," he held up the music, "I found a song I think would be great to start out the new year with," he said looking around, "wow, welcome everyone, returning members and new ones. I honestly didn't know how many new members we'd have," he admitted setting the papers down. "Have we done any introductions yet?" He asked the adults in the room.
"No, we were waiting for you," Deborah replied.
"Fair enough," Will looked around, counting heads for a moment, "twenty-three of you. Who would have thought that last year we started out with five," he smiled, "instead of introducing everyone right this moment, I was going to tell the new members the history of how we got to this moment and at the end I'd like our new members to come up and say a few words," he said. With no complaints from anyone, he smiled and started, "I'm William Schuester. I teach Spanish here at McKinley and am also a former student, class of 1994. I was in the Glee Club when I was here and these two over here, Deborah Puckerman and Ethan Ballard-Puckerman were two years ahead of me at McKinley, but also were members of Glee at a point during their high school years," Will said glancing at them. Ethan and Deborah waved and he continued, "in their Senior year, Deborah got pregnant with Puck and they became parents just after they graduated. Life happened, a few years go by and unfortunately, as with many couples they split up. Ethan moved to Detroit where he became a cop and Deborah remained here and became an RN. Fast-forward to last September. The former director of the Glee Club was fired and I took over, starting out with new ideas and a name, New Directions. Rachel, Tina, Artie, Kurt and Mercedes started out the new club," the five raised their hands as Will said their names, "we needed another guy, so I went to the football team and after a not so warm welcome to the idea, I thought the club was over, until I heard Finn singing in the shower when I went to get the sign-up sheet from the boy's locker room. I talked to him the next day and he agreed to join the club, so then there were six. I found out my wife, Terri, and the time was 'pregnant'," he used air quotes, "and was trying to get me to quit to find a better job, but realizing that I loved being a part of Glee, I couldn't leave, so I chugged along. It came to my attention by the former Cheerio's coach that to compete we needed to have twelve members, but I had a hard time getting another person to join to make it three guys and three girls, I had no clue how I was going to get six more, so I scheduled a performance of the club in front of the school. Someone in here changed the song and they came up with a very inappropriate song and dance number without my knowing about it, but when the green monster of jealously roared from the head Cheerio, Quinn, girlfriend of Finn, she and her two friends Santana and Brittany joined the club," Quinn and Brittany raised their hands, "but we were still missing some guys. Stressed out and being told I didn't have the best dance moves, I stepped back and formed a little male acapella group that didn't work out so well, but I worked through the problems and we came back as a group and started up again," he paused, taking a breath. "When Kurt had a misunderstanding with his dad, he joined the football team as their kicker and though he was out of his element, he was scoring field goals and it seemed as though the football team was too uptight and they needed to relax, so between Kurt and I we taught the team to dance. This is also the same time Finn, Puck and I find out that Quinn was pregnant, which we were told was Finn's. Kurt and I teach the team to dance to 'Single Ladies' by Beyoncé and they pull it off, shocking their opponents by dancing to it on the field, and ended up winning their first game of the season-"
Loud laughter erupted from the side of the room and Ben couldn't control himself when he heard that, "you guys... That wasn't... Oh that's hilarious! I wish I could see that!"
"Dad! Shut up," Jessica snapped at him.
He tried to calm down, but continued to shake his shoulders and laugh lightly to himself and even Ethan got a kick out of that story; some of this he didn't know.
"I'm sorry, I don't mean to laugh at you guys, but I heard about it and I thought it was a joke. I didn't think they were serious," Ben said honestly.
Will smiled, "as I was saying, by the guys winning the game, a few of them, Puck, Mike and Matt decided to join and we finally had twelve members, but the next few months were not easy. One of the girls left briefly because she wanted to star in the musical the drama department was putting on, so I stupidly brought back a former student from my years at McKinley who hadn't graduated, got her registered and gave her the lead in the club, because well, her voice is amazing."
"She could sing, but it was nothing special. You just had the hugest crush on her," Ethan retorted, "ha! Twenty years later and I can still tease you about April, awesome!" He grinned.
Deborah turned to him and punched him in the shoulder, "watch it or you will be sleeping on the couch."
"Can we continue on, please?" Puck begged not wanting to hear this conversation; his stomach was already in knots at the idea that his parents knew her.
Will nodded, "while April was here, she wasn't the best person to have around, and she ended up leaving, but the night of our Invitational, Rachel came back and the twelve club members were able to perform together for the first time, and a great path was laid for us to Sectionals, but we had a lot of bumps in the road... Terri, my wife, came to school to be the school nurse, even though she had no training in the field; she just wanted to keep an eye on me, because she didn't trust me. She gave the students some drugs she said were vitamins, but they were uppers and when Figgins caught her, not only was she fired, but I got in trouble because I didn't realize it was happening, and the former Cheerio's coach, Sue Sylvester, was given the position as co-director. She didn't like the fact that we could complete and possibly take some spotlight from her winning cheer team, so she did anything she could to split us up, at one point trying to say I was prejudice, which I'm not. Up until now, Puck, Finn and I knew Quinn was pregnant, and slowly the club learned of it and then the entire school found out, so there was no hiding anymore. Puck and Rachel got together not long after that and personally I think that's when everything changed here," Will went on to explain the ultimatum from Tanaka, Puck's accident, how everyone found out Puck was the father of the baby Quinn was pregnant with, how Will found out his wife wasn't pregnant, everything that happened up to Sectionals, where they took second, and then the holidays when Ethan came back into Puck's life. He mentioned Deborah became the school nurse and Cheerios' coach in the new year and told them about the second place finish at Regionals in Detroit and a few of the things that happened there, like meeting Ethan, and how he and Deborah got engaged and he was starting the process to move back to Lima. Will added that his divorced was finalized after Regionals and they all realized that Quinn wouldn't be able to go to Nationals, so that's when Mandy and Travis joined. "While Deborah, Puck's mom, and Kurt's dad, Burt, came along as parent chaperones with Ms. Pillsbury and I, we went to Seattle for Nationals over part of Spring Break and Quinn remained in Lima and Ethan came down to spend time with his and Deborah's daughter, Puck's sister. In Seattle, the top five schools from the three regions, Eastern, Central and Western competed and we took second at Nationals," he smiled, "but just before we found out the results, we learned something happened back home," Will turned to Ethan, "could you, um..."
Ethan shrugged, "alright, um, how much do you want me to explain?"
"Anything you want. It sucks, but the truth is the best," Will replied.
"Okay," Ethan sat forward a little bit on the piano bench, "as Will said, Terri, his ex-wife had been hiding being pregnant, and before Quinn gave her blessing to Puck and Rachel to keep the baby, she was going to give the baby to Terri. Terri planned to pretend that the baby was her and Will's. Also, the former football coach, Ken Tanaka, had been trying to date Ms. Pillsbury, but when Will and Terri divorced, Will and Emma started seeing each other officially, so Ken didn't have his chance to date Emma. Terri still wanted the baby, thinking if she got her, she'd be able to get back with Will, so she talked to Ken and while the club was in Seattle, Terri and Ken abducted me and Quinn, with the plan to hold us until Quinn had the baby and Terri could get what she thought was hers in the first place. Luckily I caught on and was able to leave a coded message for my team in Detroit and thankfully by the time the club got home, we were found and Quinn, the baby and I were safe and now Ken and Terri are in jail for a long while," he paused, "Um, no one in the school knows this; only those who were on the trip with them at the time, and while it's no 'secret', we don't want the entire school knowing what happened."
The students nodded, agreeing they would keep it quiet and Will thanked Ethan before continuing to explain how they picked the club's office members, Rachel and Puck being president and vice president, Artie being the treasurer and Tina being secretary. He told them that Quinn had the baby and they started arranging a concert for the middle schools and the high school to invite new members to join, how Ethan and Deborah agreed to be co-directors, and that they got married over the summer. Will explained how Ben's family moved up from Dayton, Jessica decided to join, how Ben is now a director of sorts, even though he's not really looking forward to it and finally how Santana left abruptly, bringing them up to the moment they were at right now; welcoming and getting to knew their new members. "Alright, so now that we know how we got here, I'd like to have the new members introduce themselves and then after the returning members could do the same, but first, I'd like to know many of each grade we have in here, so, how many of you are Seniors?" He asked, picking up a clipboard with some papers on it.
Puck, Finn, Quinn, Mike, Matt and Ryan raised their hands, Ryan being the only new one to raise his hand. "Alright," Will wrote the number down and then looked around, "how about Juniors?"
Rachel, Tina, Mercedes, Brittany, Jessica, Mandy, Artie, Kurt, Travis and two new ones raised their hands. He then asked for Sophomores, where there were two and there were four Freshmen, bringing the total of members to twenty-three.
"Ryan, since you're the new Senior, do you mind starting?" Will requested, taking a seat near Ben.
"No, Mr. Schue," Ryan shook his head and stood up, moving to where Will had been standing, "um, hey, I'm Ryan James. This is the start of my second year here at McKinley. In the Spring, I played football; er, soccer. Yes, I have an accent. I was born in New York, but just after, my parents moved to London to live and I was raised there. We moved back to New York a few years ago, but my parents divorced and my mum and I moved here to be closer to her family. I've played piano, guitar and sang since I was younger, but I'm new to the dancing, but I'm looking forward to it. I guess the biggest thing about me is that I'm gay. I don't hide it, I'm comfortable with who I am, but I do inform people I deal with a lot that I am," he added, "um, that's about it."
"Welcome to New Directions, Ryan," Will said and the room clapped for him as he sat down.
"Okay, Juniors? Jessica, you want to go now or wait?" Will asked.
"Now's fine," she stood up, taking the spot in the front, "I'm Jessica Puckerman, Coach Puckerman's daughter and Puck's cousin, but I get to call him something different," she smirked, "um, I've never really had any formal training in singing, other than a few choir classes in middle school and my Freshman year. I like to dance, but again, no real training, so I'm looking forward to this year," she shrugged, "that's about it."
"Thanks, Jessica," Will smiled, "welcome to the club," he told her. She nodded her thanks and took her seat next to Rachel. "Any other Junior want go?" Will looked around.
"I'll go, Mr. Schue," one of the new guys said.
"Alright, TJ, go for it," Will nodded.
The spiky brunette haired boy with green eyes, standing about five-feet-ten-inches tall walked up to the front. He was dressed in a gray and blue striped polo shirt, blue jeans and Vans tennis shoes; he looked a lot like Puck, but just not as muscular. "Hey everyone, I'm TJ Miller. I go by TJ because my first and middle name is Toren John, so it's not the coolest in the world-"
"But it's a nice Jewish name. Are you Jewish?" Rachel asked.
He smirked, "yeah, I am. It's cool to know I'm not the only Jew here," he admitted.
"I know your mom, TJ," Deborah said.
TJ turned a little, "I thought you might. I recognized you, but I don't go to Temple, like ever, so I wasn't sure," he added.
"That sounds quite familiar," Deborah laughed lightly, turning to look at Puck.
"What? Don't look at me. I admit I'm a Jew, but it doesn't mean I have to go to Temple every week to prove it," Puck retorted.
"Dude, that's what I told my mom the last time she griped about me not going," TJ replied with a grin.
Puck leaned forward and held out his fist, "smart kid," he told him.
TJ bumped his fist with Puck's and laughed lightly, "I'm born and raised here in Lima, nothing special. I play guitar and have been singing in choir for years, so I look forward to adding dancing to the list," he said.
...
Once TJ was welcomed to the club, the other new members went on to do the same thing. They met the other Junior, Sara Yoshida, a Japanese student that loved to dance, and so did her Freshman brother, Colby, who was also joining. There were two Sophomores, Dale Preston, a dancer who liked to sing for fun and Kristen 'Kris' Hansen, a blond haired, blue eyed Norwegian girl who loved to sing and play guitar, but was interested in putting dance to music, and her Freshman sister, Andrea 'Andi', who looked a lot like her sister, was also joining for the same reasons as Kris, but she didn't play any instruments. The final two new members were Adam Meyers, a drummer since he was a kid, but was tired of sitting, so he wanted to join Glee to be a part of the singing and dancing for once, and Melissa 'Mel' Young, the oldest of three kids, who grew up singing, and wanted to dance with music, too.
The original members also introduced themselves and Artie saved himself for last, because he had a reason to. "Hey, I'm Artie Abrams and I'm the treasurer. I realized something when we went to Nationals and I've talked to Mr. Schuester and he says it's up to me and I've decided that I'm going to be playing guitar from here on out..."
"What?" "Artie!" "Artie, we made it work before, we can again," Tina said in shock.
Artie laughed, "I know, and I appreciate it, and this doesn't mean I'm leaving the club, I'm just not going to perform the numbers. I'll still play guitar or bass and hang out, but I knew once we got some new members there was a chance we'd have an uneven amount, or more guys than girls, and as it sits right now, if I play guitar, there are eleven pairs to dance, and it would be much easier to choreograph a number without me wheeling around, especially now that there are more of us, besides," he smirked, "don't tell me it didn't annoy you when I'd bump into you or almost run over your feet."
Kurt sighed, "he does have a point," Kurt admitted, looking at him, "no offense, but I think our feet would be a lot safer if you did play guitar; I mean, at one point I thought I was going to have to start wearing my dad's steel-toed work boots to Glee, and they just don't match any of my outfits. And speaking of outfits..."
Ethan looked at Deborah, "wait for it..."
"Ethan, seriously? Did you not have time to change? We've had this discussion about your uniforms before. You can't be wearing them out in public; they are tacky," Kurt commented with arms crossed.
Deborah snickered, and the new member's eyes widened at Kurt's 'attack' on Ethan's uniform, while everyone else laughed.
"I'm sorry Kurt. I was out protecting the people of Lima. Next time I have to come to Glee, I'll make sure I don't arrest the next drunk driver five minutes before I'm supposed to get off, so he can hit someone, just so I have extra time to change into street clothes, so I don't go out in public with my uniform on," Ethan retorted, biting back a laugh.
The room was silent for a long moment before Kurt and Ethan both started laughing; that seemed to be their typical banter. Ever since Kurt first commented on Ethan's uniform on the bus in Detroit for Regionals, Kurt always makes sure he commented on Ethan's uniform.
"Now that we've started the year off insulting my uniform, I think Artie was talking," Ethan commented, motioning to him.
Artie laughed, "I was done, but thanks Ethan," he said.
"Are you sure you want to do this, Artie?" Rachel asked.
Artie nodded, "yes, I am. I'll still be here, I'm just not going to 'dance' with you all, that's all," he explained rolling back to his spot next to Tina.
The others were stunned, but did understand his point, and he was an awesome guitar player, so it was a benefit to have him on the guitar.
Getting up, Will walked to the front of the room and held up the clipboard, "there are some things on here I want the new members to fill out; mostly your name, locker number and contact information. We're all on Facebook and have exchanged numbers between everyone, so that is something we'd like to do soon. Rachel, Puck, do you guys have anything you want to say before we move on?" Will asked.
"Nope," Puck shook his head.
Rachel was silent for a moment, "no. I can't think of anything at the moment. If I do think of something, I'll bring it up next time," she told them.
Puck looked at his girlfriend, "really?"
"Really," she nodded, "to be honest I've had other things on my mind and I kind of forgot to think about Glee," she admitted.
"No hurry. We're all just starting out a new year," Will said moving to pick up the papers from the piano he copied earlier. "As I said earlier, last year we did an Invitational and I have one scheduled on the first Saturday of October, the second, and I have a song I think we should sing then, and maybe use for competition, because it's very metaphorical for all of us," he explained. "It's a big year coming up," he admitted, "and there are six Seniors who won't be here next year, so this year will be our final one as this group," he explained.
Kurt grinned, Mercedes gasped and Rachel sat up straighter, "it's 'Season of Love' from Rent, right?" Rachel asked, "Mercedes' voice would be perfect for the female solos," she added.
Will smiled, "yes, it is 'Seasons of Love'," he agreed handing out the sheet music to everyone.
...
After talking about the song a little, Will let them go; giving them some time to look over the music before they started practicing it and wanted them to come next time with suggestions for other songs to use.
Deborah and Ethan both had their cars, and Deborah and Ben still had to get their stuff, so Jessica went home with Puck and Rachel, and Ethan followed them to Susan and Ben's place to pick up Arin and Abby. Getting out of their cars, Jessica led them up the front steps and pushed the front door open, "mom! I'm home, Noah, Rachel and Uncle Ethan are here."
"We're in the kitchen," Susan called out.
Jessica set her bag by the door and the four of them moved into the kitchen to find Abby's car seat sitting on the table with her in it and Arin and Hannah sitting at the table with a card game out. Ethan walked over to Arin and greeted her and told her to finish up so they could go home and Susan walked towards them, "hey guys, how was your day?"
"Great! I already like McKinley better than Dayton," Jessica said.
"Really?" Puck raised a curious eyebrow at her.
"They layout and all. It's better than Dayton. Dayton was huge and there were more students," Jessica explained.
"Oh, well, we are smaller," he agreed, watching Rachel get Abby out of her seat and snuggle her, "thanks for watching her," Puck told his aunt.
"No problem. After she got over being in someplace new this morning, she was great," Susan smiled. "Did Ben join you guys in Glee?"
Ethan laughed, "oh yeah."
"He quit pouting when I said it'd be great to have some father-daughter time," Jessica laughed.
Susan nodded, "good. He needs some of that and to relax. Glee is a good way to do that," she said.
Arin walked over to her dad and hugged him, "we're done."
"Okay, kiddo, we'll go home in a few," he replied kissing her forehead.
"Guess we should get home, too," Puck admitted, kissing Abby on the forehead.
They stayed for a few minutes longer, but Ben arrived home, so Ethan, Arin, Puck, Rachel and Abby went to their homes, so they could have some family time.
After dinner, Puck was kicked back on the couch with Abby on his chest, watching TV while Rachel was on the phone with her dads; she hadn't talked to them since the night before and wanted to tell them about her day. Sometimes Puck wondered if she missed living with them, and hoped she was just close with them and that's why she always tried to talk to them on the phone. Hearing her say 'goodbye', he watched her come into the living room and sit down at the end of the couch near his feet, "there's room up here if you want to join us," Puck smiled patting a small spot between him and the couch.
Rachel grinned and set her phone down, carefully settling down next to him, her hand rubbing against Abby's back gently, "it's been a long day," she told him.
"Yeah, it has been," he nodded, "but I think it went great. Abby did okay with Aunt Susan, we got new members for Glee and no one got slushied," he smirked.
"There is that," she laughed lightly, "I'm surprised we didn't get it," she told him.
He shrugged, "I don't know. I haven't heard much about them, so maybe the guys gave up or something," he replied his hand rubbing her back, "so I was thinking I want to take you out."
She looked at him, "out? What do you mean?"
"Like out on a date, to dinner," he smirked.
"Oh," she blushed and kissed him, "it's been a while since we have been out on a date," she admitted. "When?"
"Wednesday after I get home from football practice," he said simply.
Her eyes widened, "but Wednesday is a school night, and you're not home until five-thirty or later and-"
"And it's your birthday, and I know you don't want anything and don't want to celebrate it, because you and your dads did your normal birthday thing in New York, but your last birthday we weren't together and I want to celebrate your birthday. Come on, let me take you out to dinner."
She took a deep breath and pressed a kiss to his lips, "I would love that," she told him, "but no presents. I have all that I want right here," she wrapped her arm around his chest and covered Abby gently as she curled against him.
...
Note: When first posted this, TJ's name meant Toren James, but after I looked up some other names, I found the name I wanted to use was also Hebrew, so TJ now stands for Toren John, also known as Teyla's son's name in Stargate: Atlantis. Didn't know either were Hebrew until looking up names. I don't own that name, but it won't come up again; I will just be using TJ.
...
A/N3: Though this chapter got started on 8/19/2010, I picked out names a few weeks prior... Did you know that 'Ken' is a Japanese name, and Tanaka one of the top 10 most popular Japanese last names? I didn't until I went looking for names... Now we have our new members: Ryan James, TJ Miller, Sara and Colby Yoshida, Kris and Andi Hansen, Dale Preston, Adam Meyers and Mel Young. While there are new members, some will play a larger part than most of them. To keep this fic about Puck/Rachel and their close friends and family, most of the new members won't play a large part in the fic, but will still be around.
A/N4: Let me know what you think... Up next: Puck takes Rachel out to dinner for her birthday, the first football game of the season and Rachel's surprise party.
A/N5: Remember when Rachel and her dads went to New York and they visited Ground Zero? Well, I got a rare opportunity today, August 22. Kitsap County, my county here in Washington State, is one of the first counties in the US to get a piece of the World Trade Center. On August 10, two 5,000-pound steel garters were loaded onto a flatbed semi-truck, covered with an American flag and left New York, bound for us. It arrived today, a little after four-pm with over 900 motorcycles as escorts, along with police, fire and other vehicles, that picked it up on the way. I was able to touch the flag and the rusty metal; and it was an honor to be there to witness that piece of history. On the 9th anniversary, which is coming up in a few weeks, the county will announce where it will be displayed as a memorial to the towers and those who lost their lives that day, and on it's 10th anniversary in 2011, the memorial will be complete. I can't wait to see it!
Please read this A/N6: On August 15, I got an idea for a one-shot for my fic table that I couldn't shake for any reason, so I started writing it out. I'm giving away the premise, but basically, Rachel's in New York and is about a month into her 2nd year of college, when she finds out her boyfriend back home, Puck, has been hiding a brain tumor from her for six months, and she only finds out because her dad feels she deserves to be there or not for the surgery he is going in for in a few days to remove it... This leads up to my real life situation... I'm an only child and my dad is disabled; he doesn't walk real well from some back and leg issues, and my mom is pretty much his caregiver. Still writing the fic, mentioned above, on August 19, I got the biggest shock of my life... My mom's gynecologist, found a mass in her cervix that they are pretty sure is cervical cancer, but until we get all the results from the biopsies and blood tests on Monday, August 23, we won't know for sure, and by Tuesday or Wednesday, we will be in Seattle (over an hour away) for possibly surgery to remove it. If she has surgery, she will be laid up for several weeks, which means I will be caring for her and my dad. I'm preparing them at work for me to take a leave of absence, if it comes down to it... I'm telling you this because when my mom woke me up at 9:30am on the 19th to tell me all this (her appointment had been earlier than that) the first thing that popped into my head aside from 'holy fucking shit' and 'I can't lose my mom' was 'now I know where I got the idea for my one-shot; it was a premonition to this news'. We won't know more until Monday. We're hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst... I'm sure I'll have a lot of time to write coming up soon, and will try and post as often as I can, at least once a week, but I wanted to let you know that in case you don't see updates from me for a while, you'll know why. This is being posted on Sunday, August 22, and I will try and get something written within the next week to post, even if it's just a few short scenes to keep the fic going. I always wondered when this day would come and now I'm faced with it. I truly appreciate all of your reviews and kind words, and aside from a few close friends here, you guys are my support, so please keep the reviews coming, I could really use them right now.
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