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.
...
A/N3: Christmas preparations and parties will be covered in this chapter and the next one. I had intended on just skipping over it, because they're Jewish, but I've made it clear in this fic their families celebrate both. I know a lot of Jewish people may not like that I bring Christmas up and I totally understand why (especially because Glee didn't even mention Puck and Rachel being Jewish in season 2's Christmas episode, and I'm sure they won't in season 3 either.), but since I focused on it last 'year' in the fic, I don't want to completely pass it over this time around, since it's Abby's first holiday season. I hope you enjoy how I feature it.
...
After meeting Abby and seeing how happy she was with her parents, Judy felt confident that Quinn had done the right thing. She didn't show it, but she was relieved that Quinn didn't keep her, knowing the kind of responsibility raising a child was; she hated to think negatively about a human being her daughter helped create, but she just didn't feel that Quinn needed that in her life anytime soon.
In talking to everyone, Judy found out that Puck had enlisted in the Navy and would be leaving just after graduation in June. She was shocked he'd chosen a path that would take him away from his daughter, but after hearing his reasons and his and Rachel's plans, Judy understood; college wasn't for everyone and if he didn't want to go, he shouldn't be forced to. Rachel and Puck also told her they knew it would definitely put a strain on their relationship and family, but they would make it work and it would only be for a few years and then he'd be home and they'd have the rest of their lives together.
Though Quinn let them explain, she added in another threat to Judy, wanting to make sure she didn't decide to change her mind because of the new information she'd been told and Judy assured everyone she would not be changing her mind. She told them Abby was Puck and Rachel's daughter and if they felt that him joining the military would be a good step for their family, then it was their decision and she would not step in; she knew it would be a strain, but could see how in love Puck and Rachel were and was confident they'd make things work.
...
Staying for a little longer, Judy decided to leave a little after four, since it was starting to get dark, knowing she had a drive back to Columbus and it was still pretty cold out. Saying 'goodbye' to everyone, Quinn walked her to the door and gave her a hug, promising sometime over the break they'd get together.
Once the woman was gone, Quinn retook her seat and looked at Rachel, "so, I honestly didn't think you'd want her to meet Abby," she told her.
Rachel blushed a little, "well, I hadn't planned it, but I guess after hearing what she said, I got more comfortable with her," she explained.
"I'm proud of you," Puck smiled, currently entertaining Abby with one of her plush toys, "I was going to mention we could offer to introduce them, but I didn't know how you'd take it, so I didn't say anything," he admitted.
"If you had, I would have said 'no'; I needed to make the decision on my own," she told him, "and I'm still not totally sold on it, but I think I do believe that she means what she says."
"That's a start," Quinn smiled, "and I know I probably didn't have to mention anything about you joining the Navy, but I wasn't taking any chances," she added, looking at Puck.
Puck smirked and nodded, "yeah, I know. Thanks. Remind me never to get on your bad side, 'cause you can be nasty."
Finn laughed lightly, "you think that's bad? You ought to see her when she's..."
"Dude, I wouldn't finish that sentence if I were you," Puck warned him, then laughed.
Realizing the words had started to come out before he'd been able to stop them, he blushed and nodded, "thanks, man," he mumbled, ducking his head to avoid the glares from the women in the room.
"How do you feel after all of this?" Rachel asked Quinn after a few moments.
"I'm alright," she admitted, taking a deep breath, "I'm far from great, but she seems to genuinely feel bad about what she did and wants to rebuild our relationship. I won't be moving in with her or anything like that, but I definitely want to see how things go," Quinn explained.
"That's a good place to start. She doesn't seem like she's expecting you to move back home and pick up where things left off like nothing happened, so she seems open to following your lead," Rachel replied.
Quinn nodded, "yeah, I got that from her, too, because if she started trying to force me to do something or tell me what to do, I'd be changing my mind about wanting to get involved with her," she told them.
"Well, coming from experience, I think things will work out enough that you two can have a relationship again," Puck said honestly, "if that's what you want."
"I do want to have a relationship with her," Quinn admitted, "I'm just going to need time."
"Exactly. You guys made great progress today; that's more than a lot of people start with, so you're moving in the right direction," David assured her.
"Thanks," she smiled, "and thank you all for being here. It would not have been this easy if you guys hadn't been here."
Just as Quinn said that, Abby crawled onto Rachel's lap and snuggled against her, as if she wanted to sleep in her arms and Rachel smiled, "that's what family is for," she commented, holding Abby and pressing a kiss to her forehead, "and with that, I think we should get someone home for a nap," she added.
"Yeah, I could use one," Puck commented seriously, but he was doing it to make a joke, hoping it'd lighten up the room.
"Noah, I meant Abby," Rachel laughed lightly.
Puck smirked, "I know, babe, but it made everyone laugh; that was the point."
...
Sticking around for a short time to help clean up, soon everyone began to leave the Hudson's, knowing the weather still wasn't the greatest and the Puckerman's and Berry's headed back to Puck and Rachel's house. Once they got Abby down for her nap and Kona had a chance to go outside for a few minutes, they all settled in the living room.
"You know, I just realized something," Rachel commented, taking a seat next to her boyfriend on the couch, "we haven't even really talked about what we're doing for Christmas. We don't have a tree up yet, and I know we're Jewish, but we do celebrate both holidays," she explained.
"Well, we've had other things going on and with the snow storm a few days ago, it kind of threw everything off," Puck told her, "but what do you want to do?"
"I don't know. I know dad and daddy are having their party this Thursday, so we have to go over there and decorate and all, but what about here? I mean... You guys never did the outside decorations and you spent most of the Christmas break at our house last year and what are you guys doing?" She looked at Deborah and Ethan.
"We were going to talk to you tonight, actually. We were kind of hoping you all would like to celebrate Christmas at our house this year," Deborah admitted, "we picked up a new artificial tree and are going to set it up tomorrow. We'd like you guys all to join us. I figured with Abby now crawling it probably wouldn't be a good idea for her to be around one, unless you're really careful and I don't know if Kona would mess with it. And David and Alan were amazing last year, letting us celebrate with them, so we'd like to return the favor," Deborah explained with a smile, "and it's the first Christmas since we got back together."
"You don't have to repay us, but I do like the idea of spending it together," David smiled.
"What he said," Alan motioned to David.
Rachel glanced at her boyfriend and nodded in agreement, "I think that sounds like a great idea! I mean, the holiday season is about being with family right?"
"It definitely is," Puck nodded, wrapping his arms around his girlfriend and hugging her.
...
Since the families had a late lunch, they chose to have a light dinner around six and talked about when to be over at Ethan and Deborah's place the next day. Making plans to come over by one to decorate and have dinner, the family finished their meal and continued to talk for a little while.
Abby didn't get put down for her nap until almost five, so she was asleep most of the evening and after dinner, though the young couple didn't expect everyone to leave, their parents and Arin returned to their homes, leaving Rachel and Puck so they could have some time to themselves.
"It's not that often we get an evening alone," Puck admitted, pulling his girlfriend into his arms as they sat on the couch.
Rachel nodded in agreement and settled into his arms, "no it isn't often. Though Abby will be up until late though," she added.
"Yeah, but that's just because she didn't get her nap until later today, so her sleep schedule is off a little. She'll be back to her usual routine in a few days," he assured her.
"True," she agreed, "and I guess it doesn't really matter; it's not like we've got school for a few weeks, so she could off a little."
"Exactly," Puck grinned, "I'm surprised you seem okay with that," he added.
"Well, I will miss school, but I'm looking forward to all the family time we'll get together," she said honestly, shifting to straddle his hips, "because we've only got six months together and then it could be a lot of missed time. I'm definitely supporting your choice, but I'm still going to miss you like crazy," she admitted softly.
Puck slid his arms around her, gently pulling her against his chest, "I'm going to miss you, too, baby, so much. Just remember I'm always coming home to you and Abby and I'll do anything I can to get time off so we can see each other," he promised.
"I know," Rachel nodded, pressing a kiss to his lips, "I know you'll always come home to us. I never doubted that," she assured him.
He smiled, "good," he reached up and brushed a hand along her cheek, "talking about this today brought things up, huh?" He asked softly, knowing she hadn't talked much about him leaving, until it was brought up with Judy.
Biting her lip, she nodded, "yeah. I just realized that the last few months have gone by pretty quickly and these next ones will be going by just as fast. Pretty soon Abby will be a year old, your brother or sister will be born, you'll be graduating from high school and then going to boot camp... Things that seemed so far away over the summer don't seem that far off now," she explained.
"Yeah, I know what you mean," he pressed a kiss to her lips and hugged her, rubbing her back gently, "I'm glad I'll get to meet my brother or sister before I go, and be at Abby's first birthday party, but the time apart is going to be horrible. It's so hard to explain my reasons for wanting to do this," he admitted.
Rachel took a deep breath and nodded, kissing him gently, "I know, Noah. You don't have to explain. We've talked about it and I'm pretty sure I get it. I also know that you can't change your mind now, because you've already been sworn in."
"That too," he nodded, "and like it was said today. We'll make it through."
"We will," Rachel nodded in agreement and kissed him, relaxing against his chest.
...
Letting their conversation settle, Puck and Rachel snuggled on the couch for a little longer and Abby woke up around the time she normally went to bed, so after feeding and changing her, the family sat down on the floor and enjoyed the time together.
As eleven-pm rolled around, Puck and Rachel were getting tired and though they knew Abby had slept later in the evening, they gave her a bath and got her ready for bed, finally laying her down about midnight, hoping she'd fall asleep and not stay awake too much longer, because they didn't want her to be too off her schedule.
Getting to bed themselves, just a little after Abby, Puck and Rachel both fell asleep quickly and hoped to sleep in for a few hours in the morning.
Having set their alarm for nine in the morning, neither expected to be able to sleep until it went off, but as it began to beep right at nine, Puck woke up and was surprised, but that quickly changed to worry because Abby hadn't woken them up. Getting up as calmly as he could so he didn't disturb Rachel, he quickly moved into the nursery to find Abby perfectly fine and just snuggling with one of her stuffed animals. Relieved, Puck picked her up and greeted her, moving her over to the changing table to check her diaper. Changing her, and then redressing her, he took her into their room, laying her right between him and Rachel.
When her boyfriend and their daughter entered the room, Rachel smiled and shifted a little, greeting Abby with a kiss when Puck laid her down next to her, "good morning, sweetheart. Did daddy wake you up?" She wondered.
"No, actually she was already awake. I thought it was odd that she hadn't cried to wake us up and I went to check on her. She was hanging out with one of her stuffed animals," he explained, sliding back under the covers.
Rachel nodded, her hand gently resting on Abby's stomach and tickling her a little, getting a giggle from her, "I see. Well, we appreciate the extra sleep time, sweetie," she told her.
Puck nodded in agreement and leaned over, pressing a kiss to Rachel's lips, "I totally agree," he smiled and settled in.
With the footsteps upstairs, Kona, who had gotten used to sleeping downstairs on her dog bed, wandered up and joined her family, laying at the side of the bed, as if knowing that Abby was there and she was protecting her.
The family relaxed in bed, but just a little bit after Kona had joined them, she heard something and started barking loudly, scaring Abby, who started crying. "Oh, it's okay, sweetie," Rachel picked Abby up and snuggled her, trying to calm her down, "what did Kona hear?"
"I don't know," Puck admitted, shifting from bed, "but she won't stop so something is going on," he explained, slipping some warmer clothes and shoes on, "I'll go check," he told her.
Rachel nodded, "be careful," she said, still calming Abby down.
"I will, but I'm sure she just heard a bird or something outside," Puck shrugged, "I'll be back."
"We'll be here," she replied.
"Okay," Puck nodded and after leaning over to kiss Rachel and Abby quickly, he left their room and headed downstairs, finding Kona at the back door, barking and growling. Pulling back the curtain, he glanced around, seeing the snow kind of melted in some areas and the grass of the backyard was slowly showing through, "dude, dog, what the hell? Did you scare the crap out of Abby for nothing?" Puck asked the dog, still growling and barking at something. As he said that, his eyes landed on the small door going into the garage and saw it ajar, "is that what you're barking about? The door?" He glanced at the dog to see she was looking in that direction, "I'll take that as a yes," he smirked, then pulled his phone out of his pocket, glancing for new messages. Seeing one from his dad, he read it and nudged Kona, "stop it, it's just dad," he told her, opening the sliding door a little to slip out, but he couldn't get the door shut fast enough and Kona lunged out, running towards the garage.
With a sigh, Puck followed her, heading towards the garage and pushed the door open, "morning dad, what are you doing?" Puck asked as soon as he was inside and saw Ethan's head over some boxes.
"Morning," Ethan greeted him, moving some things around, "I'm looking for the tree decorations," he replied, "sorry. Hope I didn't wake you."
"No, we were awake, but Kona heard you and started barking, so that startled Abby. Want some help?" He asked.
"Yeah, that'd be great. You at least know what we're looking for. Your mom said it was in a box, but she couldn't remember what color," he smirked, "and with all my stuff in here from the move, which I know I need to go through, it's a lot harder to move around in here," he explained.
"Okay, give me like ten minutes to go let Rachel know and I'll be back," Puck replied.
"I'll be here," Ethan laughed, nodding.
...
Heading upstairs to let Rachel know what was going on, Puck changed into jeans and a hoodie, then rejoined Ethan in the garage. Kona hadn't left the garage since she'd first gone in there, but had stopped barking, now that she knew it was Ethan.
The garage was a mess with boxes and things piled all over. It hadn't always been like that, but when they needed the nursery, what they stored in that room was moved into the garage, along with everything else that had been in there already, like Puck's weights. Not only that, but when Ethan moved back, all of his stuff from Detroit was stored in there. He had planned to clean things out over the summer, but after spending the time fixing up the house across the street, purchasing almost everything new, so Rachel and Puck could keep the things in the house and because he'd returned to work, time had run out for cleaning and it was put off until later. Now with all the extra things in the garage, they had to move stuff around to get to what they were looking for.
Rachel and a warmly dressed Abby joined them a little later, not really getting into anything, but curious what they were doing and when the guys finally reached the boxes they were looking for, Puck, since he knew what ones they needed, handed off the boxes and Ethan piled them by the door.
Peeking inside the largest box, Rachel found an artificial Christmas tree, "you know, we still may be able to put up a tree. I think it'd be kind of neat if we did; it's the first holiday season we've had a chance to have our own tree," Rachel admitted.
With the last box in his hands, Puck came to stand next to Rachel, "if you want to put this one up, we can, babe," he told her.
Glancing at Abby in her arms, she bit her lip, "I kind of feel torn. I mean, you always see the 'Baby's First Christmas' ornaments and outfits and yes, we are Jewish and she's already had her first Hanukkah and we made it special, but I also want her to experience Christmas, too, but I feel," she blushed, "to quote you, 'like a bad Jew'."
Puck smirked, "good one, Rach," he pressed a kiss to her lips, "we can celebrate both, just like we always have. You and your dads and my family and I always did, so there's nothing wrong with us doing the same thing. When we were talking last night and mom mentioned they'd gotten a new tree, and wanted all of us to celebrate together, I thought we could put this one up anyway. We could decorate it with ornaments that we always had on our trees, to make it ours," he explained.
Rachel smiled, "I love that idea," she nodded, "we can still celebrate with the family, but we'd have our own tree. I don't think Kona will mess with it and Abby does have her crib that we can put her in and she doesn't crawl around on the floor unless we're with her, so we'll keep her from it," she said.
"Yeah," Puck nodded, "sounds like a plan. Sometime this week before the holiday we'll decorate it," he told her.
"A lot of families wait until Christmas Eve day to decorate their tree," Ethan commented, trying not to intrude on their conversation, but felt he could add to it, "or before, it all depends on traditions and I think this is the perfect time for for you guys to start your own."
"I think that's a great idea. We could do it Christmas Eve morning. I still have shopping I want to finish and we can pick up some new ornaments and stuff to add to it, too," Rachel grinned, bouncing Abby on her hip a little causing Abby to giggle, "this is going to be fun!"
"It will be," Puck agreed, "you guys should head inside and dad and I are going to take this stuff over to their house, then I'll come back over and get showered and stuff."
...
To save a step, Puck and Ethan took the pieces of the artificial tree into the house and set it up in the living room, planning to take care of arranging things later. While Rachel, Abby and Kona stayed inside, Puck and Ethan made a few trips over to the other house, dropping off the boxes they'd dug out and Puck returned home to shower and get ready for the day.
As Puck came downstairs, he paused at the sight in the living room. They had set the tree up in the middle, and Rachel was standing next to the tree with Abby, who was reaching out and touching the fake branches, "this is a Christmas tree. We are Jewish and celebrate Hanukkah, but we also celebrate Christmas, because daddy and I did with our families and I think you should experience both. Some Jewish people might not agree, but my dad and your dad's dad were not Jewish growing up, so to that's why our families always did both," Rachel explained simply. "As grandpa said earlier, it's time for us to make our own traditions so sometime this week we're going to decorate it and have our first Christmas tree as a family. We'll still celebrate with our families, but it'll be nice to have our own tree, too."
Puck smiled, watching them and listening to Rachel talk to Abby and as she finished her speech, he walked into the living room and slid his arms around Rachel and Abby, "nice speech," he murmured, pressing a kiss to Rachel's lips and then Abby's forehead.
"Thanks," Rachel smiled, "it's true. I want us to have both because we both did and I'm excited. We never decorated for Hanukkah; it was always for Christmas and I love decorating."
"I know," Puck nodded, "and I'm totally cool with it, but let's not go too far," he smirked, "remember the fiasco from last year?" He asked curiously.
Rachel blushed, nodding, "yes, I remember. I promise it won't be that much. Just the tree and a few lights. I know we don't have a lot of money to be putting into this and we don't have to. I'm sure that between the ornaments and a few decorations I'll get from my dads and then what we can get from your parents, we'll have plenty."
"Yep, that's what I'm thinking. You wanna go over there now or wait a while?" He asked curiously, motioning across the street.
"Anytime, actually. Dad and daddy will be on their way over in a little bit," she replied.
"Alright, then let's head over. I can help you get Abby dressed if you want me to and then I'll walk Kona over, if you're okay carrying Abby," he suggested.
"Okay, sounds good," Rachel nodded.
...
The day itself wasn't completely unusual for them; they were together a lot during the weekends, but this time they were also working on Christmas themed things. They spent the first little while setting up the tree, sorting out lights and putting them on the tree, organizing decorations and figured after dinner they'd get to the ornaments.
Puck and Rachel mentioned they'd decided to still put up a tree, to have their first one as a family, and though the adults were concerned because of Abby and Kona, the teens assured them they'd be careful. Understanding and agreeing that Rachel and Puck were both responsible and would take care of them, Puck began claiming things from the decoration boxes he wanted either on the tree or in the house and Deborah and Ethan didn't mind on some of the things, because they had gotten some new decorations, lights and ornaments to add to what they had, having thought the teens might want to do a tree that year, or in the future and it wouldn't hurt to have extra.
Abby slept in her car seat for a portion of the afternoon because she hadn't had her nap yet, but as soon as she woke up, she was crawling around on the floor near where Rachel was sitting, checking things out. Keeping an eye on her, Rachel saw Abby take a seat right in the middle of a pile of red, silver and green garlands and ribbons she'd been untangling on the floor. She couldn't help laugh lightly at what she was doing, picking up and shaking the strands and once Rachel was sure Abby couldn't get hurt on anything, she got up quickly to get her camera, taking a few pictures of her before she lost interest in the new items.
Puck was across the room and when he saw Abby and Rachel he smirked, "I'm not really sure, but I don't think you're supposed to wrap those around the kid," Puck commented.
"I'm not; she sat down in the middle of them all on her own and she seems to like them," she explained, motioning to how she was still shaking it, getting it to rustle a little.
Moving over to sit down next to them, Puck looked at Abby, "are you helping mommy decorate?" Abby, unable to really respond, kept going with what she was doing, smiling and giggling at the rustling sound she was making. Puck smiled and glanced at Rachel, "I guess she does like them," he agreed.
"See, I told you," Rachel replied with a grin, nudging him playfully in the shoulder.
Puck smirked and turned a little to wrap his arms around her, kissing her lips, "you did."
Rachel melted into his arms and smiled, "this reminds me that we never scheduled a time to get family pictures for the holiday season at all. Not for Hanukkah or Christmas. We really should," she commented.
"Why do we need to go have pictures taken when you can do it? You're the photographer in the family," he told her, "and maybe you should do it for New Year's Day. Abby will be eight months old that day," he suggested.
"But they won't be professional and they should be," she replied.
Taking a deep breath, Puck looked at her, "remember the conversation we had at your birthday dinner about you being a photographer?"
Thinking for a moment, Rachel nodded, "yeah, I do."
"Well, there's no better time. I mean, you already have a nice photo printer, a digital camera and you use some of those photo editing programs to fix pictures and stuff anyway, so you've got almost everything you need. If you're worried you don't have a 'studio' then that's as simple as putting up a sheet on a wall," he explained. "If you started taking pictures, and maybe talked our friends into letting you do their pictures and family photos, you could start making some money and before you're even a Senior in high school could have a good little photography business going."
Rachel smiled brightly, "I never thought about that, but I could! That's a great idea!" She kissed him, "I won't say I'm an expert, but you are right. I do have and use Photoshop and it would definitely save a lot of time having to make appointments and working around our schedules," she admitted. "Now we just have to find a place in the house with an open wall," she added.
"I'm sure we can find one," Puck replied, "if not, we can rearrange things."
"I have an idea," Ethan commented.
The teens glanced up at him, "what is it?" Rachel asked curiously.
"Well, is this something you're serious about? I mean I know it's news to us, but it sounds like you guys have talked about it before," he started.
"We talked about it a few months ago; Noah mentioned I was really good at photography and if I was choosing not to go for Broadway and all that, I didn't have to go for a degree in it. He suggested I could turn my hobby into something more and study photography and have a business in it," Rachel explained.
All the adults nodded in agreement, "you have always enjoyed taking pictures," Alan noted.
"And I think that's a great idea; if it's something you want to do," David added.
"It is. I haven't thought too much on it recently, but Noah's right. Now is a great time to get into it," Rachel replied.
"What's your idea, dad?" Puck asked Ethan.
"Turning part of your garage into a studio. It's got to get cleaned out and it doesn't seem like you guys use it for anything other than storage, so maybe it's time to just make it a storage room on one side and a studio on the other," he suggested, glancing at the teens and then his wife, Alan and David.
"And what about a place for my weights? I will eventually wanna use them at home again," Puck added.
Ethan smirked, "well, we could arrange things to give you space, too. You know I know about remodeling and if I can't, then my brother can figure it out," he explained, "it's all open for you guys and if it's something you're serious about, we can arrange it," he said looking at Rachel.
Rachel smiled brightly, "I'm definitely serious about it," she nodded, her mind filling with tons of ideas, "part of the garage being a studio is an amazing idea! I really liked Noah's suggestion when he first brought it up, because I hadn't even thought of it, and though we've had other things going on, now that he brings it up again, I've got a bunch of ideas. I would love to able to have a real studio one day, like the one we went to when we had our family pictures taken," she admitted, "but right now it would be perfect to have a home studio and if it's in the garage, then we wouldn't have to worry about taking up a part of our living space."
"Exactly," Ethan nodded, "and if it does pick up and you start doing photography for others, people you may not know, you wouldn't have to worry about strangers in your house."
"Very true," she nodded in agreement.
"Then I guess cleaning out the garage is a project for our Winter Break; at least to start it," Deborah commented, "it'll give us something to do during the day," she motioned to Rachel, Puck and Arin, "I'll need your help so I'm not moving heavy things."
"You've got it," Puck nodded, "as far as I'm concerned you can sit and point, then we'll do the rest," he told her honestly.
Deborah smiled, "thanks."
"You guys can just move my stuff to one side and I'll go through it nights after work," Ethan added, "I know I've got to clean it out sometime."
"No hurry, I mean, yes I'm excited for this, but it's not something we can really do much of until the weather gets nicer, right?" Rachel asked, "it's pretty cold out."
"Possibly. It depends on exactly what we decide to do. If we're just going to remodel the inside, the sooner it's cleaned out, we can get to work, but if you guys wanted to make it bigger to still keep part of it as a garage, then that will have to wait until Spring," Ethan explained, "and I guess I could move all of my stuff into our garage and that will help empty it out."
"Well, we have a place to start. There's no need to sit down tonight and figure out every detail. We've got all break to talk about it and come up with ideas; at least we know we have to clean it out and we can start that soon," Puck commented.
...
Everyone agreed with Puck's suggestion and seeing what time it was, they settled back into what they were doing and Deborah went to start making dinner. Rachel and Arin joined her and Puck knew Rachel liked helping his mom in the kitchen, because she wanted to continue learning to cook and he thought it was a great way for his mom, sister and girlfriend to have some time to bond.
When dinner was ready, they all sat around the dinning room table eating and the guys helped do the dishes afterward, before they returned to the living room to start putting ornaments up on the tree.
"Where'd mom go?" Puck asked, noticing she'd disappeared.
"I'm right here," Deborah replied, returning from her bedroom with a two boxes in her hand, "I had to get something out of the bedroom."
"What's all that?" Arin asked.
Deborah took a seat on the couch next to her husband and handed him the boxes; one was small and had a single ornament in it, but the other one was a plastic storage container, "I thought we could add these ornaments to the tree this year," she explained.
Ethan picked up the smaller box and smiled, seeing the bride and groom and the words 'Our 1st Christmas 2010' printed on it, "this is definitely going on the tree," he agreed, pressing a kiss to her lips. Pulling back, he popped the lid on the storage container and inside was some crinkled up newspaper as packing for whatever was in side, so he pushed it aside and landed on more ornaments, "you still have these?" He gasped, picking up the first one, a hockey player with '20' as his number.
"These were on our tree the year Noah was born and the following Christmases before you left... I just couldn't part with them," she admitted.
Digging through it finding several other ornaments geared towards things from their past relationship, including another first Christmas one, for 1993; the year they had been married before, "I honestly didn't think you'd keep these, but I'm glad you did," he said, wrapping his arms around her.
"Me too," she agreed, "and I know we've got a new start together, but I just thought we should put these on the tree, too."
"They should be on there," he nodded in agreement, "it's a great idea," he replied, standing up and taking her hand, "so let's put them on the tree."
...
Starting out with putting those older ornaments on the tree, the others began sorting through the rest they had in boxes, old and new. Puck claimed some of his from previous years to put on his, Rachel and Abby's tree and put them aside in a storage box of things they were taking back to their house and then helped going through the rest.
Aside from the personal ones that had meaning, they'd gotten a lot of new ones, just colored balls and snowflakes, so all of the ones that didn't go on the tree, went into the box for Puck and Rachel's house and slowly the night wore on.
With the final touches on the tree, they finished around nine and everyone was happy to see the end result. Since it was so late, Puck and Rachel needed to get home to get Abby ready for bed, so they all decided to call it a night. After saying 'goodnight' to Deborah, Ethan and Arin, David and Alan helped the teens take Abby, Kona and all of their things home, so they didn't have to make a second trip. Once they were home safe, the two men headed home, since they had to work the next day.
After getting Abby bathed, ready for bed and laid down in her crib, Puck and Rachel kicked back in the living room, "there's a tree blocking the TV," Puck commented with a smirk.
"Well, yes, that's where you and dad put it. You could move it... If you don't tonight, you'll have to tomorrow morning because we have to find room for everyone to sit in the living room for the Glee meeting," she explained.
"Oh, yeah, I forgot about that," he admitted, sighing dramatically, "fine, I'll move it."
Rachel giggled lightly and watched him get up, moving the tree a little more out of the way, but had to move Abby's playpen, so Rachel got up and helped him. "Maybe we should move the TV stand over a little more and put the tree in the corner. Well," Rachel paused, looking around, "we should put one of the love seats in front of the fireplace, since we don't use it and then rearrange the rest of the furniture so it fits, because Abby's playpen shouldn't be by the fireplace and I also don't want it in the middle of the living room."
While she was talking, Puck had moved the tree in front of the fireplace, where they'd always put it and now that it wasn't blocking the TV, he retook his seat on the couch, grabbed the remote and turned it on. "I'm gonna watch TV while you figure out how you're going to arrange it. Let me know when you decide," he smirked.
"Noah, you could help. I don't remember how you guys had your living room set up with the tree last year," she commented.
"Exactly this way, the only difference is last year we didn't have a playpen in the living room, too," he replied.
"Oh," she looked around, "I suppose this would be okay... I just don't want the playpen to be in the middle of the floor, but should be near the couch so we can still see her."
Puck got up and nudged the recliner near the couch a little bit, then slid the playpen in between the couch he'd been sitting on and the recliner; a perfect fit and spot. There was nothing she could reach for that she could get hurt with, there was no tables or electrical outlets near it where anything was dangerous and it was close to everything, but still out of the way, so no one tripped over it. "How's that?" He asked curiously.
Rachel smiled, "that's great, Noah. It's a perfect spot. I didn't even think about it," she admitted.
Walking over to her, he wrapped his arms around her body and pressed a kiss to her lips, "it's okay, babe. You're not used to this living room. We still have it set up the way we did when it was just me, mom and Arin, so I'm more familiar with it," he told her.
"Very true," she agreed, snuggling into his arms, "today was fun."
"Yeah it was," he nodded, guiding her back to the couch. "Abby was adorable."
"She was," she grinned, "she loved that garland. I didn't expect that. I guess because it was shiny and something she'd never seen before."
Puck nodded, "yeah, it probably caught her attention," he said, taking a seat and getting her to settle into his arms again.
Relaxing for a moment, Rachel took a deep breath and tried to let all her thoughts and ideas from the day slow down in her mind. "We should probably go to bed soon," she said softly.
"It wouldn't hurt," he shrugged, "how much earlier are you going to be up because of everyone coming over?" He asked with a grin.
Rachel blushed, "um, seven... Mom and Arin are going to the store and getting drinks and snacks, so we may have to cook some things. I know we're also ordering pizza, but we still need to make sure we have room for everyone, get some paper out and that kind of stuff. I also don't want laundry and toys all over the place," she admitted, motioning to some of the baby toys around on the couches or the floor.
"Good point, but they should also understand we have a baby. No one is going to expect it to be spotless," he commented.
"I know, but I just want everyone to see that even though we are teen parents, we can still manage things, you know? I don't want someone to see a mess and think we can't handle our situation; some of them will be here for the first time and I want to make a good impression," she explained.
Looking at her, Puck nodded, "yeah, I get that, but I really don't think anyone is going to care. The original members are our friends and they know we can handle it. With the new ones, I doubt many will show up, but those who do, they'll see a normal house, I promise," he assured her.
Taking a deep breath, she nodded, trying to relax even more, "that's what I want them to see; a normal house... Even though it's not 'normal' to be a teen parent."
"True, but I think we're doing a damn good job at parenting a baby as teenagers," he commented honestly.
"We are," she agreed, "but we're also lucky to have amazing support from our families and friends. Unfortunately not all teens who end up as parents get that."
Puck shrugged, "yeah, I know, but I don't think about them or try to compare us to anyone else; we're a family and doing a great job. That is what matters."
Rachel smiled, taking in what he said, "you're right. We are definitely doing a great job and I'm so happy with our lives."
Nodding in agreement, Puck pressed a kiss her lips, "I definitely am, too."
...
A/N4: Hope you guys enjoyed! Review and let me know! I didn't intend for it to be almost 2 months since my last update. After updating this, and then my other 3 WIPs, I expected to return to this one, but I got an idea for one of my non-posted WIPs (will be posted soon, though) and I wanted to work on it for a while. The next thing I know most of November had past. Then I began planning out the next few chapters of 'Starlight', because it had research I needed to do and on Thanksgiving, I found out 'Starlight' had been stolen and someone was rewriting it and posting it under a new name: See 'Starlight - Chapter 41' for the whole story, but the person was reported and the fic was taken down. It pissed me off! Wanting to let my readers know what happened, I chose to update that one next, so as soon as I got it posted, I got right into working on this one and here's the update. I am working as fast as I can, but with the holiday season here, I have other things gong on, too. I hope you all understand and thank you all for sticking with me. I love all of my readers and I promise I am not giving up on my fics or writing, it's just a slow process right now.
A/N5: Kind of a warning: After chapter '81', I will be summarizing A LOT to get the fic further along. There will be bits and pieces here and there, but I really am ready to get closer to graduation and their future. Though some of the future of this fic is definitely fictional or not quite possible the way I have it planned, you guys will love it, I promise! Please stick with me! I know a lot of you may not like the Navy part of the fic or that Rachel is staying in Lima, but it's always been the plan and direction: Puck would join the Navy and Rachel and Abby would stay in Lima. So many things have been done and said in the past 80 chapters to set up the future of this fic and I can't just ignore them to change it's direction now and I don't want to. This is my first fic and I'm going with my original plan. I know Rachel staying in Lima is an issue, but at the time I made that plan, I had my reasons and I'm sticking with them; you guys won't be disappointed in this fic, I promise! I really appreciate all of you who have stuck with me and I hope you continue on.
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