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.
...
"All of the decorations are at the Hudson's," Kurt commented after football practice Saturday, "what time is Rachel and her dads going out?"
Puck finished tying his shoe and looked up at Kurt from the bench, "they're picking her up at ten and I told everyone to be there by one-thirty and she and her dads will be back by two," he explained.
"Okay, as soon as she leaves, let me, Finn, Quinn and Jessica know so we can come over. We've got a lot of things to do in a short amount of time," Kurt said.
"I know," Puck nodded, "but we'll make it happen," he said, "my mom is hiding all the food and stuff at their place, so once Rachel leaves, we'll get things going."
"Good," Kurt nodded, "she has no idea what you're planning?"
"Nope, not at all. She just knows her and her dads are going to go out for a few hours, and I don't think she has put it together yet," Puck admitted.
Kurt grinned, "great!"
...
After football practice, Puck returned home to spend the rest of the day with his girlfriend and their daughter, doing homework and just soaking in the time they had together.
When Sunday arrived, Puck did his best to keep calm; he didn't want to drop any hints to Rachel as she was getting ready to go out with her dads that day.
"So what are you going to do while I'm gone?" Rachel asked brushing her hair.
Puck shrugged, "I don't know. Might try and catch a football game on TV with dad or something," he told her while he was kicked back on their bed with Abby against his chest.
"A little father-son bonding?" She smiled, turning to him after she'd finished her hair, "that's a great idea."
"Yeah, it is," he agreed, hoping she'd drop the subject soon because if not, he'd have to go into more details and he didn't want to.
Hearing a knock downstairs on the door and then her dad's voice, Puck relaxed, "saved by the in-laws," he thought.
"We're upstairs. We'll be right down," Rachel called out to her dads, "how do I look?" She asked him.
"You look great, babe," he assured her, sitting up and adjusting Abby so she didn't slip as he stood up, "I mean that," he added.
"Thank you," Rachel smiled and grabbed her purse, following him out of their room and downstairs where her dads were sitting in the living room.
"Morning you two," David greeted, standing up to hug Rachel.
"Hey daddy, hey dad," Rachel smiled, hugging David and then moving to Alan.
"Hey guys," Puck waved to them with his free hand.
"Are you ready to go, sweetheart?" Alan asked.
Rachel nodded, "yes, I am."
"Have fun," Puck grinned, "don't get arrested or anything or dad will have to come bail you out," he added.
"Noah, we're not going to get arrested," Rachel giggled wrapping her arms around him.
Puck slipped his free arm around her shoulders and kissed her, "I know, but I can tease, right?" He winked at her.
With a grin, she shook her head and then pressed a kiss to Abby's cheek, "see you in a few hours sweetheart, mommy loves you," she told her.
Abby grinned and cooed at her and Rachel smiled as she kissed her boyfriend one more time, "see you later."
"Yep, I'll be here," he nodded.
Rachel glanced at her dads as she headed for the door, and they followed right behind her, but David glanced at Puck, and Puck just grinned at him and mouthed 'two' and David nodded, following his family outside and closing the front door.
Once the Berrys were out of the house, Puck gave them about five minutes before he sent a text message to Jessica, Quinn, Finn, Kurt and his parents to let them know that Rachel had left the house.
Ten minutes after his message, Jessica, Finn and Quinn were there, carrying bags of decorations into the house and his parents and sister began bringing over the things they'd been hiding. Kurt and Mercedes arrived about ten minutes later, and while the girls and Kurt began decorating the downstairs, the others started on making the food and loading the fridge and cooler with drinks.
...
By one, most of the guests were there... Carole and Burt had picked up the cake and Mike, Artie, Tina and Matt got there, along with the rest of Jessica's family. Puck's cousins, Logan, Laura, Rich, Kelly and Kevin came down from Northern Ohio, along with Brian, Brianna, Kegan and Orla, and then Mandy, Travis and Brittany arrived at the same time as Will and Emma.
Puck had invited Rachel's two dance friends, Kelly and Angel, who were members of Vocal Adrenaline to come; he wasn't sure if they would, but they did show up. Even after the two clubs competed against each other, the two girls were welcomed to the large group of people without anything said about the competitive teams.
Most of the guys were huddled around the TV watching a football game and the girls were sitting in the living room or dinning room chatting, while the adults were in the kitchen or the backyard.
Puck in the recliner near the door with Abby in his lap, freshly changed and dressed in a cute dress for the party. Hearing a knock, Puck stood up and moved to the door, pulling it open and took one look at the girl standing on the other side and the conversation he had with Rachel during her birthday dinner came to mind, since the girl did look a lot like Rachel. He briefly thought it was Rachel, but then shook it off and smiled, "hey! You must be Anna," he said, seeing the same brown hair, same eyes, yet she did dress differently and had more makeup on than Rachel normally wore.
"Yes, and you must be Noah and Abigail," she replied, grinning, "it's great to finally meet you."
"You, too," he nodded, stepping aside, "please come inside everyone," he said, seeing a large group of people standing around.
"I'll introduce you once we're all inside," Anna said moving into the house to stand next to him.
Puck smiled at everyone and once they were all inside, he closed the door, "hi everyone. Welcome and thanks for coming on such short notice," he said.
"Everyone, this Noah and Abigail, Noah, this is," Anna paused a moment, wondering how the best way to introduce everyone, "this is David's brother, Jared and his wife Rebecca and their two kids Sarah and Michael. Then this is Sharon, she's David's sister, her husband Eli and their sons Aaron, Josh and Daniel. This is my sister Joan, my dad Jeremy and my mom Ilana, who is David's sister and lastly we have Jared, Sharon, Ilana and David's mom, Eden," Anna said motioning to everyone.
"Hey! It's nice to meet all of you," Puck waved to everyone, "I apologize right now if I forget your names, it's a lot to take in," he admitted.
"Totally understandable," Jared told him.
Eden, Rachel's grandma, stepped towards Puck and he could really tell she was David's mom because they looked a lot alike, "hi, Eden, right?" Puck asked.
"I think it's safe to call me grandma, if you'd like," she told him honestly, "I'm so glad I can finally meet you both. Rachel and David talk about you all the time. It shouldn't have taken this long to meet, but I'm glad we finally did."
"Me too," Puck agreed with a nod, shifting Abby a little, "would you like to hold your, um, great-granddaughter?" He asked nervously, realizing he didn't know just how supportive they were about Rachel's choice.
The woman smiled, and nodded, "I'd love to," she told him, her hand resting on his shoulder, "we were all shocked when David told us about what Rachel decided, but we support her decision," she told him, noticing his nervousness.
He relaxed and nodded, carefully handing Abby to Eden, "good to know. We call her Abby, but she answers to both." At first, Abby wasn't quite sure what was going on, because she didn't recognize the woman who was holding her, so she turned her head to look at her dad to start crying, "it's okay, sweetie, she's family," Puck assured her, rubbing her back gently. That was all the assurance Abby needed to relax in the woman's arms and Puck smiled, looking around, "Rachel, Alan and David should be here in about twenty minutes, so we're all just hanging out. I could go around and introduce you to everyone, if you'd like," he offered.
"Don't worry about it, Noah. I think we can manage," Ilana assured him.
"Okay," Puck nodded and slowly the group around the door moved into the rest of the house.
Eden passed Abby back to her dad so she wouldn't get startled when she left his sight and the adults moved outside with his parents and the other adults that were there, while some of Rachel's younger cousins went with them, and the older ones remained in the house. Aaron and Josh, Sharon's oldest two boys, found seats in the living room to watch the game, and Anna and her sister, Joan, went to join the girls, and the first thing everyone realized was how similar in looks Rachel and Anna were.
As the Berry family mingled with the others, Puck relaxed against the wall by the door, a smile on his face. He'd been worried that no one from Rachel's family would show up, and if they did, he then was concerned they wouldn't accept Abby as Rachel's daughter, even after David assured him they were okay with her choice. Hearing his phone beep in his pocket, he pulled it out and saw the message from David that he'd been waiting for; that they were leaving the restaurant they'd had lunch at and were about ten minutes away from the house.
Puck replied back, and then moved around the house, letting them know they were on their way, so everyone began piling into the living room and dinning room, knowing they couldn't all hide, so they knew the 'surprise' would be her walking into the house, decorated in her favorite colors and having them all there.
...
"What in the world is going on?" Rachel gasped, seeing the street lined with cars, some she recognized, some she didn't.
"I don't know, sweetheart," David replied, biting back a laugh as Alan pulled into their driveway, glad that it was still free.
"Yeah right," Rachel giggled, opening the door as soon as they stopped moving and reached for her shopping bag and purse before closing the door and heading towards the house.
Alan and David got out, and followed her up to the front door, finding Puck standing on the porch, blocking the door, with Abby in his arms, "hey babe," he grinned.
"Noah, what in the world is going on?" Rachel asked, trying to look around him to see inside.
"Well, you see, Abby wanted to do something for your birthday and how could I say 'no' to a face like this?" He asked, shifting Abby to look at Rachel, already seeing her mom and wanting her.
Rachel blushed and handed her bags to Alan, so she could take Abby from him. Kissing her forehead and cheek, Rachel hugged her, "somehow, I think daddy is trying to blame you so I won't be upset with him for throwing me a party," she told their daughter, then looked at him, "you threw me a party?" She asked him.
Puck reached behind him and pushed open the front door and stepped inside backwards and waited for her walk inside and as soon as she did everyone in the house yelled 'SURPRISE!'
"Oh my!" Rachel gasped, her hand flying to her mouth in shock as she looked at all their friends and family members around the room, with all the decorations in her favorite colors, "I..." She blinked her eyes, stunned at who all was there, "this is... Noah, you planned this?"
"It was my idea, but there was a lot of help from some friends and family," he admitted.
She stepped towards him, stood up on her tip toes and kissed him lovingly, blinking away the tears, "thank you. I love you, so much," she told him, brushing her hand along his cheek.
He reached up and wiped her eyes, "you deserved this. I love you, too," he rubbed Abby's back, "let me take her and you can go greet everyone," he added.
Handing Abby back to him, she nodded and turned to everyone, "thank you all for coming... I've... No one has ever thrown me a surprise party before," Rachel admitted with a blush.
"Because you hate surprises," Anna said, stepping forward to her, "happy birthday, Rachel."
Rachel wrapped her arms around her cousin and smiled, "thank you, Anna. I'm sorry it's been so long since I've seen you."
Anna shook her head, "don't worry about it. We've talked; you've had a lot going on. I get it. Let's just not make it another year, alright?" She requested.
"I promise," Rachel assured her.
"Good," Anna smiled and took Rachel's hand, leading her towards the group of people, "your public awaits."
...
Rachel tried not to start crying as she moved from friends to family members, giving hugs to them and thanking them for coming. When she finally made it back to her boyfriend and their daughter, she hugged him and kissed Abby's cheek, "thank you, Noah, this is amazing," she told him.
He smiled, wrapping his free arm around her, "babe, after everything you've done for me, you deserve this and so much more," he told her, kissing her forehead, "I'm the luckiest guy in the world to have you in my life and I'm gonna spend my life treating you right," he promised her.
Standing up on her tip toes, she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek, "you always have treated me right, and I know you always will, Noah. If anyone should be lucky, it's me. You gave me a beautiful daughter, you love me and have promised yourself to me. Under all the dreams, that's all any woman wants; a man who loves and cares for her, who she can love in return, to spend their lives together and have a family with the person they love," she told him, staring into his eyes.
Puck didn't expect her to say what she did, catching him off guard and tears came to his own eyes. Holding his free arm around her, while his other held Abby against him, he responded to her by leaning forward and kissing her passionately on the lips, his eyes falling closed as his tears fell onto their cheeks.
Rachel felt his tears and did her best to return his kiss with as much passion as he was giving, but they were both quickly reminded of their surroundings and realized that if they didn't stop, they'd have a lot of explaining to do. Abby was also beginning to fuss from being between them, so Rachel reluctantly pulled away, but didn't step completely away, instead she rested her hands against his cheeks and smiled, "to be continued," she promised.
"I'll hold you to that," he smiled at her, "go on. Visit with everyone. I'll take care of Abby."
She nodded, pressing a kiss to Abby's cheek before dashing off to find some of her family who she hadn't seen since just before she and Puck began their relationship.
...
The day was special, not only for Rachel's party, but also because her family was meeting Abby for the first time, so many pictures were taken of Abby with them. After a long batch of pictures, Puck could put Abby down for a nap because she'd been up most of the day without one and was showing signs of being tired. He took her upstairs and came downstairs to find everyone was taking pictures of Rachel with her cake; getting ready to cut it.
The cake was pretty big, since they didn't know how many people would be there and was covered in chocolate icing. Gold stars decorated the top with purple and red boarders and roses around it, matching the colors that decorated the house, with 'Happy 17th Birthday, Rachel' written in the center with seventeen candles sitting on top. "Carole, the cake is beautiful. What kind is it?" Rachel asked the woman she knew had done the cake.
"It's the same as Noah's was; orange with chocolate icing," she replied.
Rachel grinned, "awesome," she looked around and slipped her arm around her boyfriend's waist, "I think I know what we should have for our wedding cake," she said with a wink.
"Sounds like a plan to me," he nodded, "I'm all for it," he added pressing a kiss to her lips.
After some catcalls and comments were made, the moms in the room shushed the others and Deborah, standing across the table from Rachel with a camera, smiled, "should we light them and have you make your wish?" She asked, "or would you like to say something first?"
"I know I've already said this a lot today, but thank you all for coming. Dad, daddy and I have never made a big deal out of birthdays, and I kept telling everyone I didn't want to do anything special for mine, but this was amazing. I'm surprised you guys were able to hide it from me and I'm really glad you didn't listen to me," she turned to her boyfriend, "this time."
Puck blushed, but wrapped her up in a hug, "everyone needs to do something special for their birthday," he told her, pressing a kiss to her cheek as Ethan lit the candles with his lighter. "Alright, birthday girl, blow out your candles and make a wish," Puck added turning her towards the cake.
Taking a glance around, she pulled her hair back so it wouldn't fall in the frosting, took a deep breath and blew the flames out of the seventeen candles, then stood up and smiled, "let's have some cake," she called out as she hugged her dads while Carole and Deborah moved in to help cut the cake and pass it out.
...
Everyone loved the cake, just like Rachel had when she first tried it and slowly they all took seats around the living room to watch Rachel open her presents. She got a wide variety of gifts, from clothes and books to some movies and games, to a few things geared towards moms, or mom and baby. On top of the physical gifts, she also got a lot of gift cards, which had been stacked neatly in a pile on the TV stand, out of the way so they didn't get mixed up in the paper to throw away.
Since it was a school night, the ones from out of town needed to leave, so once gifts were opened, Puck's relatives reluctantly left, which started the chain reaction to others leaving. David's brother, Jared, his wife and their two kids, left next, having a long drive home and soon David's two sisters, their families and Eden, David's mom left, followed by Kelly and Angela, leaving the Lima residents at the house. Will, Emma and the non-family Glee members were the next to leave, the Hudsons, Hummels, Puckermans and Berrys remaining at the house.
Puck was sitting on the couch feeding Abby, who had woken up from her nap hungry, Rachel was sitting next to him, and Arin and Hannah were sitting in front of the TV watching a show on Disney, while Kurt, Quinn and Jessica began taking down decorations and the adults were cleaning up.
Rachel was flipping through the various colored envelopes full of cards and gift cards, opening up each one and rereading the card, and found a sealed white envelope with the words 'listen to this', printed in a basic font from a computer, on the front. "What is this?" She asked, showing it to her boyfriend.
"I don't know. I never saw anything like that earlier," he admitted.
Curious, she carefully opened the envelope and inside found a paper jacket holding a CD with four words on it, 'From Mother to Daughter'. "Oh my!" Rachel gasped.
"What?" Puck asked, shifting Abby to his shoulder to burp her, and as he looked towards her, he saw the same words, "is that... what?"
"I... I don't know," she said, standing up and moving into the kitchen where the other moms were, "Deborah, Susan, Carole, did any of you make this?" She asked holding it up so they could see it.
"No," Carole and Susan both said at the same time.
"I didn't. What is it?" Deborah asked.
"This was in a blank envelope with the words 'listen to me' printed from a computer on it, mixed in with all the cards from earlier. It wasn't there before and it was there now, sealed, so sometime between the time they were put on the TV and now, someone slipped it in there," Rachel explained.
"What does it say on the front?" David asked, not able to see it from where he was standing.
"It says 'From Mother to Daughter'," Rachel replied calmly.
David and Alan exchanged concerned looks, "have you listened to it yet?"
"No, but I'm going to," she moved back into the living room and pulled the CD from the envelope it was in. Staring at it curiously for a long moment, she realized that she did want to know what was on it, so she cleared her throat, "Arin, would you put this into the CD player and play it?" She requested.
"Sure," Arin got up, grabbed the CD and moved over to the stereo and in a few moments was setting the silver disc into the tray.
Rachel took a seat on the couch next to her boyfriend and the rest of the house gathered into the living room to find out what was going on.
Arin hit the play button and moments later, a woman's voice came from the speakers, "hi baby, it's your mom. I think this pretty much says it all..." Rachel gasped, her eyes flicking to her dads as soft piano music came out of the stereo and the woman on the CD started singing, "I dreamed a dream in time gone by when hope was high and life worth living. I dreamed that love would never die. I dreamed that God would be forgiving... Then, I was young and unafraid and dreams were made and used and wasted. There was no ransom to be paid. No song unsung, no wine untasted... But the tigers come at night with their voices soft as thunder, as they tear your hope apart, as they turn your dream to shame... And still I dream she'll come to me. That we will live the years together, but there are dreams that cannot be and there are storms we cannot weather... I had a dream my life would be, so different from this hell I'm living, so different now from what it seemed. Now life has killed the dream I dreamed..."
Shocked silence filled the room once the music ended and the only sound that could be heard was Rachel's sobs into her boyfriend's chest.
"Arin, take Abby, please," Puck begged his sister, because she was the closest.
Arin quickly took Abby from him and Puck pulled his girlfriend into his lap, holding her close and just let her cry, rubbing circles on her back to hopefully calm her down.
Carole and Burt felt like they were intruding on a family matter, so they quietly left with Finn, Quinn and Kurt, letting the others know they'd see them later.
"Why did I... I didn't... I shouldn't have... Why now? Who... When..." Rachel couldn't form a whole sentence, but everyone could fill in the blanks.
Puck looked over to her dads, David was sitting in the recliner, his head in his hands and Alan was leaning against the arm, rubbing his husband's back, looking pissed, "I'm assuming that's... Rachel's biological mother," Puck said calmly.
"Yes," Alan nodded, rubbing his own forehead with his other hand, "yes it is."
"How in the fuck did that end up here?" Puck snapped, trying to calm Rachel down enough to at least stop crying.
"I don't know. We never let her meet any of our family and she said she was moving to New York. The day Rachel was born, we had our daughter and we, um, paid the final portion of money that she'd agreed to and that was the last we saw of her," Alan explained, "I know that sounds like a business deal, but it wasn't... She was in it for the money and we were willing to pay anything to have a child."
"Surrogacy contracts can seem like that," Deborah said softly, "and it's okay. You guys got the better end of the deal," she smiled.
"We did," Alan agreed moving to kneel down next to Rachel, "Rachel, sweetie," he took her hand and squeezed it, "talk to us."
Rachel had relaxed slightly and turned to look at him, "I thought... I thought we couldn't look for each other," Rachel said softly.
"She can't contact you until your eighteen, but you can, if you want to. When you were younger and we explained it all to you, we didn't want to confuse you on the details, so we just left it at that," he explained, "you've never said anything about wanting information about her, so we never brought it up again. If you had mentioned it, we would have told you. We never wanted to hide it from you," he said.
Rachel took a deep breath and sighed, "I didn't think I'd ever be able to contact her, so I just pretended she was gone for good," she admitted softly, "if... If she can't contact me until I'm eighteen, isn't this a way of her doing that?" Rachel asked, motioning to the stereo.
"No," David said, getting up and moving to sit next to Puck on the couch, "this is her way of dropping the hint she wants to find you, but can't, so she's hoping you'll want to find her," he told her, "the last we knew, like dad said, she was moving to New York, so we have no clue how that ended up here, but that is her."
Rachel nodded, "I... What is her name?"
"Shelby Corcoran," Alan said, without skipping a beat.
David nodded, "but that's all we have. We gave her every opportunity to keep in touch with us. We offered to send pictures, but she didn't want that. She said it would be too hard on her and you, so the day you were born, she asked for the rest of the money and that was the last time we saw her," David admitted.
Rachel was silent for a moment, thinking about what they told her, "I... um, would like to at least meet her," she whispered, "as long as... I don't want either of you to be upset if I did," she told them, "you'll always be my dad and daddy, but I've... Up until now she was dead to me, but now... I want to know my mother... I have a mom," she looked over at Deborah, "you're my mom."
Deborah smiled and nodded, "and I always will be," she promised.
Turning back to her dads, Rachel continued, "if you... I'd like to try and find her, if you guys are okay with that."
Alan and David looked at each other and nodded, "we always wanted you to know who she was, so if you'd like to find her, we're okay with that," David said, resting his hand on Alan and Rachel's that were still held together.
Puck looked at his girlfriend, "babe, how you doing?" He asked softly.
Rachel took a deep breath and leaned against him, "I'm just... So shocked and nervous and so many other emotions right now I don't even know where to begin," she admitted. She looked at him, "are you... would you be... are you okay with me trying to find her?"
"Yeah, I am. It's your decision and I'll be there with you every step of the way, if you want me to be," Puck replied honestly; she'd been there for him when his dad came back into his life, now he could return the favor.
"I do," she nodded, closing her eyes, trying to relax as a million questions swirled in her mind.
Alan moved a little and picked up the envelope and grabbed the pen nearby and wrote her name on it, "this is her name," he showed it to her, "when you were born the internet wasn't around, but you might be able to find her on your own without help," he explained.
"How will I know if I find her?" Rachel asked, taking the envelope from him.
"Imagine you, but taller and older," David said softly, "you do look a lot like her."
Rachel nodded, "alright... Um, I'm awfully tired, so I'm going to go to bed," she admitted, looking at her boyfriend.
Puck kissed her, "it's okay. I'll take care of things down here and be up in a bit," he promised.
"Okay," she stood up and hugged her dads, "I love you, both, so much," she told them, before moving towards Ethan and Deborah.
"We're here if you need us," Deborah said, wrapping her up in a hug.
Rachel relaxed against Deborah for a moment as they hugged, feeling Ethan rubbing her shoulder and she pulled away slightly to smile at both of them, "thanks, mom, dad," she nodded lightly before stepping away.
"Goodnight, Rachel. I... I'm here if you wanna talk," Jessica told her.
Rachel smiled at Jessica, Susan, Ben and Hannah and nodded, "thanks. Goodnight," she told them before slowly heading for the stairs and going up to her and Puck's bedroom, leaving everyone downstairs.
"We're going to head out, but if any of you need anything, just call," Ben said honestly.
With nods from around the room, Ben, Susan, Jessica and Hannah left, leaving David, Alan, Deborah, Ethan, Arin, Abby and Puck still sitting in the living room, unsure what to say or do. Arin had been doing great with watching Abby, but it was getting late; now after eight at night, so she'd need a bath soon, "Noah, go upstairs with Rachel. We'll finish up things down here and get Abby bathed and put in bed for the night," Deborah offered.
"Are you sure?" Puck asked.
David nodded, "yeah, we'll take care of things. Just go be with Rachel. She shouldn't be alone right now," he admitted.
Puck stood up, "alright. Thanks everyone. Goodnight, love you all," he said before climbing the stairs and headed to their room, finding the door open and he stepped inside and closed it behind him, seeing her under the covers, the envelope Alan wrote her name on sitting on the nightstand next to her. He silently stripped down to his boxers and slid into bed, "they're taking care of Abby and downstairs," he whispered, pulling her into his arms, "so I can take care of you."
"Noah, I don't know how to feel right now, I'm scared, nervous, confused, so many emotions," she sobbed, turning to snuggle up to him.
"Remember when I first got that call from my dad, that started all of this?" He asked softly and at her nod, he continued, "remember what you told me that night when you came into my room at your house and we talked about him?"
"No, I don't," she admitted.
"You told me, 'we're going to get through this together; you're not going to be alone'. That holds true for now, too. I'm here, we're going to get through this together and you're not going to have to do this alone," he promised, holding her against him.
Rachel smiled, "I love you, and thank you, Noah," she whispered.
"I love you, too, and you don't have to thank me," he replied kissing her forehead, and then down to her lips, "it's what any good boyfriend would do," he added.
Rachel kissed him, "you're not just a good boyfriend, you're an amazing boyfriend," she corrected. "Can you... Would you hold me until I get to sleep? I'm afraid I won't sleep well tonight, but if you hold me... I might be able to."
"Of course," he tugged the blankets over them, "I've got you," he promised.
Closing her eyes, she settled against him and slowly tried to get to sleep.
Puck rubbed a hand against her back and kissed her forehead, already feeling her tense muscles relax as she drifted off to sleep, "sleep well, baby. I'm here if you need anything," he thought.
...
Underlined text from: 1x19 - Dream On
Lyrics: 'I Dreamed a Dream' as sung by Idina Menzel and Lea Michele on Glee, episode 1x19 - Dream On
Rachel really did say that to Puck, in chapter 21.
...
A/N3: Wow! I've been waiting sometime to bring this up. I always wanted to bring Shelby into 'Out of the Blue', but hadn't decided when, until I planned the surprise party. I had originally planned for Kelly and Angela (we met them at Regionals, friends of Rachel's on Vocal Adrenaline) to visit Rachel over the summer and leave it, but I had other plans for the summer, so I thought the party would be the perfect time. Yes, they are the ones who left it; we all know how it came about in the show, so I just changed who brought it to Rachel and in 'Dream On', Rachel and Jesse had been discussing her dream of finding her mom, so of course, she wasn't ready, but here she listened to it right away because she was curious what was on it and who made it.
A/N4: After a few more chapters I'm going to be skipping chunks of time and will be glazing over a lot of things I thoroughly discussed the previous school year to progress the story along.
A/N5: Up next: Rachel researches her mom, finds her and Puck, Rachel and Deborah pay a visit to Carmel High School.
A/N6: Tumblr users... I'm EJ8302 on there. Same as on Twitter. Check me out. I reblog mostly Mark Salling pictures, Lea, Puckleberry, and sometimes others, depending on what there is.
A/N7: I post my fic on FF and LJ, so in case any of my fic is deleted from FF without me knowing about it, all of it is posted at my LJ. One day I want to set up my own website. There is a 'bot' going around looking at 'M' rated fics to see if they are breaking the rules with 'MA' material, and also 'songfics' which break the terms of service on FF. I heard about it from a Yahoo! Group I'm in for another fandom and the information seems legit. Any authors out there who would like me to forward the email, PM me and we'll discuss how I can forward you the email.
Family note: Tuesday, September 14 is the day that my mom and I will be going to Seattle to see the specialist and find out what she has. Your thoughts and prayers mean so much to me and I truly appreciate them all! Love you guys!
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